It’s more than a rhetorical question. The future of the wireless industry arguably rests on the answer. Unless a workable and effective advertising model for m-commerce is developed, billions of dollars invested on spectrum licenses, network construction and the rest will be wasted. And an unprecedented opportunity to put the convergence of wireless and Internet technologies in consumers’ hands will have been lost. .
That’s what makes m-click so important.
Without doubt, spectrum and technical standards are crucial to laying the foundation for third-generation mobile systems. But there is more to it.
Without a solid advertising scheme for m-commerce, the high-speed wireless fat pipe-3G-will not achieve its full potential. M-advertising is a highly sophisticated challenge, one that so far has left wireless, Internet and Madison Avenue executives clueless.
It’s understandable that wireless firms are laser focussed on auctions, tower siting, privacy and 3G spectrum now occupied by military, broadband Internet, educational and religious users. It could be fatally short-sighted not to take the long view of 3G, though. 3G has the potential to make personal computers legacy technology. Some predict 3G will be the next generation of the Internet.
It’s true that online advertising has not lived up to expectations and that dot-coms are dropping like flies. Indeed, Nasdaq is littered with digital road kill. But it doesn’t mean e-commerce is dead or that m-commerce is a non-starter. Progress is being made, one failure at a time. It’s going to be a non-linear progression, with more failures than successes in the early going. But it’s going to happen. Interactive connectivity has intrinsic value. Mobile interactive connectivity is a diamond in the rough.
That online advertising has been problematic is just more evidence that technology is moving faster than digital marketing, not to mention digital policy. Of course strip ads are ugly, bothersome and ineffective. Big deal, try something new. Think of it as a blessing in disguise for m-commerce, a wireless wakeup call.
Advertising.com and others have heard the call. The Baltimore-based new media ad firm oversees the Wireless Advertising Marketing and Measurement Initiative, a comprehensive initiative seeking to identify, test and measure the most effective advertising methods for m-commerce.
Next month, in Dallas, Advertising.com will get WAMMI off the ground. WAMMI is reaching out to leading advertisers, manufacturers, wireless carriers, agencies, retailers and content syndicators. Internet geeks, wizards at writing software, cannot create m-commerce advertising (that works) on their own.
The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, for its part, has formed the Wireless Audience Measurement Council to develop a framework for m-commerce advertising.
Advertising is the American way. M-advertising is the wireless future.
