Advertising comes to WAP - but will consumers use it?

New Media Edge reports Vodafone Live! is in the pole position as advertising comes to WAP! -but I'm still not convinced.

Sure, WAP is seeing a tremendous growth right now as mobile devices provide a better user experience and mobile networks provide more responsible access to the internet via mobile devices. But just because it's there doesn't mean that consumers are going to use it.

The mobile phone is not a desktop

People use their mobile phone for completely different reasons and in a completely different way than they use their desktop systems. Consumers want access to information that is relevant to them based on where they are and what they are donig at the time - or to put it another way - based on their context.

Banner ads that are inserted into mobile content may offer simple brand extension but are unlikely to lead to click through by consumers. Either the consumer doesn't understand that they can click on mobile phone ads - or they simply aren't interested in doing so.

Mobile phone internet access is not FREE - and it's generally not part of an unlimited use package. This means that a consumer is actually paying to see advertising. When the average consumer figures this out the operators will have to change their pricing plan ( Big hint here! ) or they will have to drop the advertising.

In general there is a significant challenge to mobile network operators and mobile content providers in that consumers have come to think of the Internet as a place for free (or nearly free) access to content and the connectivity is just something that their parents pay for or is included as part of their cable or phone service. When it shows up as a line item on your bill every time you access the internet (assuming you are on contract and get a bill) then it is likely to have an impact on consumer usage patterns.

And what about prepay

Yes. What about those 70% of consumers that are prepay. Many operators blocked WAP access to prepay customers until very recently. Now operators see the mobile internet as a means to drive the ever important ARPU (Average Revenue Per User).

As a Cingular prepay user in the US I get a service update message every time I complete a transaction - every time I make a call, receive a call, send a text, receive a text - and every time I access a WAP site (Yes - as hard as it is to believe the operators in the US charge for both sending AND receiving text messages and making AND receiving voice calls! Outrageous! When will they wake up! Those Americans! Sheesh! wink wink...)

Practically Salivating

Operators, advertisers, brands - nearly everyone is practically salivating at the opportunity to access the consumer on the mobile -- with the exception of the consumer.

It's my feeling that WAP will continue to grow and mobile data and mobile content services will find ways to monetize access to their content through traditional pay channels like credit cards or direct billing through the operators or premium rate SMS - but that banner advertising on the mobile will never achieve the same level of impact as is currently running on the desktop. Mobile is a different platform and the mindset of the consumer when using the mobile internet is significantly different.

I anxiously await the day when marketing stop dreaming and run some consumer case studies to evaluate their theories before running around spending millions (or even billions) to offer new services that consumers don't really want or for which there are no workable business models.

But what is the consumer's preference

As a consumer, do you think banner ads on mobile are just more SPAM? What is your consumer preference?


P.S.

Have you thought about tracking cookies that will start appearing on your mobile phone and might be dynamically updated to reflect your presence to allow an advertiser to display banner ads that are targeted even more closely? Scary isn't it!?!