The LATimes.com has some hopeful figures for advertisers who worry about whether they can reach young consumers via text message: according to digital marketer Access 360 Media, only 4 percent of users who sign up for the texts ask to stop getting them. And Quattro Wireless, a mobile ad net provider, says between 2- and 4 percent of those who see or receive ads on mobile phones click on them to find out more information. On the Internet via computers, so-called click-through rates are generally closer to 0.01 percent. The LATimes identifies other marketers and media companies’ mobile ad experiments, which tend to be aimed at younger users.
That’s part of the concern expressed in filings by privacy advocates like the Center for Digital Democracy, which recently petitioned the Federal Trade Commission. The organization wants the agency to examine marketing practices aimed at teens as mobile advertising begins to emerge from its nascent stage.
But more worrisome to marketers than the threat of regulation is the risk of sparking a backlash among teen consumers. They say that they’re trying not to hammer users with mobile pitches akin to traditional ad messages. And so, advertisers are working with publishers like Hearst Magazines, which has developed nine different mobile sites across sites tied to pubs like Seventeen and Cosmo Girl. The magazine has created mobile features that provide quick tips and news that advertisers pin promotions on, with the hope that readers will pass the messages along.
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