Technology Helps Reinvent Cell Phone Ads

Exhibition visitors try out the latest mobile phone models during a communication and broadcast exhibition in Singapore Wednesday, June 20, 2007. Advertisers are finding new ways to put their sales pitches in the pockets of cell phone users _ through video and music pumped to your handsets. As mobile networks become faster and phones smarter, analysts say the time is ripe for advertising on mobile phones to finally take off. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) (Wong Maye-e - AP)

People need to feel, Brown said, that they had specifically invited the pitch or are engaging with the brand in a relevant and entertaining way.

Rebecca Ye, a 22-year-old Singaporean, said she wouldn't mind having ads sent to her phone as long as she had subscribed for them, like "a notification on upcoming sales."

"Let's say you're on the train and you get a message telling you something's going on somewhere you can just drop by," she said. "So it's very targeted and purposeful."

MobileOne, Singapore's second largest mobile communications provider, promises to cater only to the "willing customer."

Subscribers can choose to receive offers, free news headlines and advanced functions with an interactive ad-based text messaging service, but if a customer declines, "he continues to send and receive (text messages) the way he does today," Chief Executive Neil Montefiore said. "It is completely under the control of the customer."

Wireless carriers, meanwhile, are starting to loosen restrictions on third-party ads, which they had resisted for fear annoyed customers might defect to competitors. Until now, most mobile ads are found on content producers' own Web sites, which are accessed through a mobile browser rather than through the carrier's cell phone menu.

Yum Brands Inc.'s Pizza Hut and KFC are among the first to advertise through a free, ad-based e-mail service from Southeast Asia's largest operator, SingTel.

"Our customers are fully aware that they will be receiving the ads, and from our initial findings, they aren't disturbed by them at all," SingTel spokeswoman Tricia Lee said. "We also found that a relatively large segment of customers are willing to try mobile advertising provided they receive something in return."

Analysts say slowing revenue growth and saturation in developed markets have forced wireless carriers to reconsider _ good news for advertisers that want to target specific groups. After all, the carriers have the key to a treasure cove of customer demographics _ where they live, their age and what games they play on their phone.

"Carriers today are now focusing on targeted advertising and personalization capabilities," said King Yew Foong, research director of Gartner Singapore. "The crucial point is whether carriers understand their customers well enough to execute this flawlessly. They will have to develop better customer intimacy."

The risks are high if they don't do it right.

"Consumer aversion to such advertisements in the past is due to the fact that they were irrelevant to the recipients," King said.