Building a case for mobile advertising
Many advertisers are in wait-and-see mode on mobile advertising. "At the moment, the level of transparency is not enough to drive significant budgets into this medium," acknowledges Henry Stevens, director of media and entertainment at the GSM Association, a trade group that represents wireless service providers.
Even as ads on cell phones become more common, advertisers are holding off on a full-blown embrace of the tiny screen as a marketing tool.
There's no denying cell-phone users are seeing more ads. A Mar. 4 study by Nielsen found that 58 million U.S. wireless subscribers had viewed an ad on their cell phones in the past month. The problem is that advertisers don't know what users are doing, if anything, when they see the ads. Until advertisers find out, they may hold off on committing more precious marketing dollars to the mobile medium. "Advertisers that are used to full accountability are left in the dark," says Farhad Divecha, director at London-based ad agency AccuraCast.
