Cellphone screen is today's hip billboard / Ads must be targeted, relevant, and even cool

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Sounds just like the .com days ideas on the use of mobile gargets.  
Wonder if there are existing patents or at least pubs?

Dave

Begin forwarded message:

From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
Date: February 21, 2007 9:03:39 PM EST
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Subject: Cellphone screen is today's hip billboard / Ads must be  
targeted, relevant, and even cool


Cellphone screen is today's hip billboard

Ads must be targeted, relevant, and even cool

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff  |  February 20, 2007

In an ad-saturated world, the cellphone screen is a nearly pristine  
canvas.

But a number of area companies are helping to transform the device
that 220 million people are loath to leave at home into a personal,
pocket-sized billboard, hawking everything from the latest ringtone
to Fabio-favored "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!"

"We're calling the phone 'the brand in your hand' -- you're never
more than a foot away from it, 24 hours a day," said Fareena Sultan ,
associate professor of marketing at Northeastern University's College
of Business Administration. The challenge, Sultan said, will be to
produce an advertisement for the phone "that excites the person
holding it."

Fueled by faster wireless networks, more capable phones, and
increasingly popular data services, the cellphone ad space is poised
to grow, according to industry watchers, and a cluster of Boston
start-ups have positioned themselves as the middlemen who bring
brands to the screen.

Boston-based Enpocket Inc. partnered with Sprint Nextel Corp. to
place banner ads on the carrier's mobile browser homepage last year.
Third Screen Media Inc. , also in Boston, builds cellphone-sized
banner ads for major brands such as Burger King Holdings Inc. , Bank
of America Corp. , and Toyota Motor Corp.

uLocate Communications Inc. in Framingham plans to unveil mobile
advertising that uses global positioning technology to send ads to
phone users in specific locations later this year. Lexington-based
Mobot Inc. used its mobile visual search -- in which users search and
browse the Web using pictures taken with a cellphone camera -- to
power a Starbucks Corp. visual scavenger hunt and Acura sweepstakes
this summer. VeriSign Inc. bought m-Qube Inc. , a Watertown company
that provided mobile marketing services, for $250 million last year.
MobileLime in Watertown turns the phone into a mobile membership card
that receives coupons and store alerts from grocery stores and
fast-food restaurants.

...

http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2007/02/20/ 
cellphone_screen_is_todays_hip_billboard/




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