What’s Holding Mobile Marketing Back?

Over the past few months, we’ve heard it mentioned repeatedly that the mobile allows for more targeted promotions than any other medium; why then, isn’t it being adopted by advertisers? Some comments from a feature on mobile marketing in The Brand Reporter:

Arvind Rao, CEO, OnMobile, has an answer. “Advertisers want to bulk message the subscriber base of a telecom company, which amounts to spam. Telcos are very rightfully opposed to this..”
[…]
Naveen Chopra, chief marketing officer, Hutchison Essar, “No responsible telco will reveal details about their users. The telco will not be willing to participate until it has a business proposition and the necessary permission from the subscribers.”

I don’t get it – why would advertisers want to spam instead of sending more targeted messages with a greater probability of success? How high is the cost of sharing subscriber data? Arvind Rao of Onmobile had said that telcos and OnMobile have been collecting subscriber data on mobile usage…so are they trying to position themselves as some sort of a media planning agency for the mobile, and asking for a high premium/commission that advertisers are resisting? In the past, telcos have been open to spamming, so all this talk about requiring necessary permission from subscribers doesn’t hold much water with me. What do the advertisers say?

…if you were to use it for other things like communicating a brand’s emotional value, it would not work,” feels Viraj Tyagi, business head, credit cards, Standard Chartered

That might change with Mobile TV, and video ads on the mobile. Until then, it is likely that other media will be used for brand building, and the mobile, whether via SMS or Bluecasting, will be used for promotions.
Related:
OnMobile Eyes Mobile Advertising Space
ActiveMedia Brings Mobile Marketing Via Bluetooth To India

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