Business watchdog BloggingStocks has taken a fresh look at advertising on cell phones. Writing for the service, Kevin Kelly noted that he, like almost all of us, is annoyed by trivial text ads showing up like spam on his phone offering him stuff he has no interest in. In fact, he goes so far as to call them "brutally annoying." However, a possibility for successfully advertising to cell phone users may exist in the form of services offered to same. An example is a business-finding service. A cell phone user could use a subscription to such a service to find a nearby restaurant or clothing store or whatever. This would in turn open up an opportunity to sell some phone advertising to restaurants and clothing stores that could accompany the requested information in a way that likely would not be seen as intrusive and as objectionable as a telemarketing call or even a text message. Apparently such services are doing well in Japan.
RBR observation: And if they’re doing well in Japan, it can only be a matter of time before we have them here as well. All we know is that we are charter members of the Do Not Call list, and as journalists covering the communications industry, we know exactly how to contact the FCC, and we will not hesitate to do so the very first time someone calls us on our cell phone to try to get us to sign up for a credit card or buy some life insurance.
