With today’s society becoming exponentially more mobile in regards to just about everything we do on a day-to-day basis, devices such as smartphones are only going to continue to improve, progress, and become increasingly more necessary. With this change in daily activity comes a plethora of industries looking to take advantage and come up with methods in which they can benefit. Most notably for a regular consumer, the advertising industry and the way they’re reaching their target is changing along with this mobility. The majority of people who use smartphones on a daily basis have likely already taken note of how much more exposure to ads they actually bear witness to. Whether it’s a click to download ad, or image and banner ads, advertisers now have access to people wherever they are, at any instant. You’re no longer “safe” playing that quick game of Candy Crush or scrolling through your Facebook feed, so what does this really mean for the Telecom industry, advertisers, and you—the consumer?
Mobile advertising isn’t necessarily something that’s brand new; though, it is evolving, and becoming highly valued due to its targeting capabilities and effectiveness. Mobile ads are typically purchased real-time on a bidding basis, and with recent trends in big data, advertisers are able to bid on spots that are specifically catered to you. They have access to what some may deem a privacy concern—your information including searches, behaviour, and other analytics, and are able to determine your interests and potential purchasing, downloading, or clicking behaviour. If you’re a gamer, you’re likely to come across ads for games on your Facebook streams, if you’ve recently been searching through travel websites, you’ll likely be exposed to hotel or flight advertisements.
This means that mobile advertising (for the consumer) can be a blessing and a curse. That is to say that—of course, nobody wants to be bombarded with advertisements and constantly be sold to; But, if you’re going to be sold to, it may as well be things you might actually want and be interested in. For the advertiser, this is only a blessing. They no longer need to spend millions on television spots that may or may not hit who they’re looking for, let alone garner any engagement or conversion. For the Telecom industry, the implications are still unclear, though it does provide ample opportunity for business information technology in data mining and big data.
There are currently four main types of mobile advertisements. Two mentioned previously were click-to-download ads which you’ll usually find in mobile applications like games, prompting you to try other applications by forwarding you to your app store; and image and banner ads, which typically direct you to a landing page. Less common are click-to-call, and push notifications. Push notifications are currently in a gray area of advertising, being a challenge to employ properly. Nobody wants their phone buzzing randomly thinking it could be an important message, with it turning out to be an advertisement—as much as advertisers could value this, this has the potential to harm brands.
With trends in mobility continuing to grow and advance, advertising methods will continue to develop alongside them. Aside from these main four, new methods will emerge—if you have an idea, pursue it! At the end of the day, advertising is rooted in creativity, and there will be no end in creative ways to reach you—the consumer. They’re constantly coming up with new and innovative ways to plant their services or products in your mind, and mobile technologies are the largest growing avenue. Being passionate about Telecom and technology, we can only hope it doesn’t take over and tarnish our beloved devices.