Financial Times reports mobile telephones and other wireless communication devices will soon become the most important medium for advertisers to reach technology-savvy consumers, according to a forecast by Andrew Robertson, BBDO CEO.

The problem for advertisers is that technological developments such as the spread of digital video recorders are giving consumers the ability to avoid TV commercials. Robertson said he believed the way forward for advertisers to reach consumers would be to use wireless devices such as mobile phones, laptop computers and the Blackberry e-mail devices favored by traveling corporate execs on the go.

"We are rapidly getting to the point where the single most important medium that people have is their wireless device," he said. "It's with them every single moment of the day. It's genuinely the convergence box that everyone has been talking about for so many years."

Robertson, a 44-year-old native of Zimbabwe with experience of the London advertising industry, was named CEO of BBDO last year in what was seen as an attempt to shake up an agency known for its TV commercials.

While stressing the importance of reaching consumers on wireless devices, Robertson was open about the difficulties this will create for advertising agencies.

Unlike television viewers, mobile phone users are unaccustomed to commercial interruptions. To reach them, agencies will have to develop content so engaging that mobile phone users will it seek out - a tall order.

"You have no way to interrupt because they can choose what they can do," Robertson said. "The opportunity is if you can create some content that they want to engage with, they can do that all of the time from anywhere."

Robertson spoke as BBDO released a report that said consumers are now more willing to live without television than without mobile phones or home computers.

The agency asked nearly 3,000 typical consumers in 15 countries to choose the communications device they would most want to keep. 45% said their home computers, 31% their mobile phones and 12% their televisions. In China, 61% opted for mobile phones, compared with 30% for home computers and 4% for televisions.

The survey found that mobile phones users like to stay connected even while they are asleep. More than 60% said they kept their phones on and within reach 21 to 24 hours a day, and 15% said that figure was 16 to 20 hours a day.