The Worst Form of Advertising is Alive and Spreading!
With the advent of the social web and contextual advertising, marketing has not only become easier for the marketers and advertisers but has also become more palatable (because of reduced intrusiveness and increased relevancy) for the end-users. That said, it is surprising to see that not only do companies continue to use non-contextual methods such as banner ads and pop-up/pop-under ads but that their use is spreading to other formats.
As the mobile web matures, more and more companies are starting to look at it as a viable vehicle for marketing their products and services. However, these companies, including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL may not necessarily leverage their existing advertising platforms, and according to some reports are looking to deliver ads the wrong way - using pop-ups. While the prevailing method of delivering ads on mobile content is to use banner ads or text ads (so that you use minimal resources) while a user is browsing the web, pop-up advertisement would display ads even when the browser is not being used and essentially any time when the phone is idle.
While this form of advertising, offered by mobile advertising companies such as Mobile Posse and Acuity, may be a mouth-watering proposition for marketers, it promises to be even more annoying than the kind of pop-ups we know and have come to hate because it requires no activity on the part of the user. We can, however, rest easy for now because there is no way for this nuisance to be implemented without the user downloading and installing an application, or going through a carrier or a hardware manufacturer.
I don't see any users running to stores to have this 'service' enabled, but I would urge you to keep an eye out for such tricks the next time you walk into a cell phone or carrier store.
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Reader Comments (5)
- Matt J McDonald, August 10, 2007
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You think by now they would have figured it out. Instead of trying to find another way to trick you and force their way into your life, why don't they figure out a way to make themselves contextual and relevant like PPC?
- Zpirit, August 11, 2007
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Greetings from Russia. Great site! I found Your posts very informative.
- Amusis, August 11, 2007
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If an ad delivery mechanism is not acceptable to users, then by definition, it cannot be 'a mouth-watering proposition for marketers'. If no-one is looking at the ads, how does that benefit marketers?
- Hitesh Patel, August 13, 2007
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AMUSIS, I think the problem is that a lot of marketers do not understand what the consumer wants and how they should go about getting the attention of the right consumer groups.
- mobileman, August 22, 2007
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Today Google announced they are going to begin providing 10 to 15 second spots on youtube. I for one believe it is up to consumers to make these ads fail or succeed. As markets continue to develop it is us the consumers thorough person preference to set the standards of acceptance, I for one think contextual ads are complimentary material as they are relevant promotions on topic we have already expressed an interest.
