Andrea Bauer

Don't worry, the customer experience comes first when it comes to adding advertising to mobile content, or so says Paul Reddick, vice president of business development and product innovation for Sprint Nextel, during a panel discussion at the fall CTIA show in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The show has been abuzz since yesterday when Reddick let it slip during a speech at a pre-CTIA event that Sprint plans to begin inserting advertising in its content starting this fall.

While some content providers, such as ESPN and The Weather Channel, have already added advertising to their WAP sites, the carriers have been reluctant to allow any advertising on content that is offered through their own collection of content. The concern has been that customers will be annoyed if they are bombarded with advertising on their phones. But Reddick said that Sprint will make sure the advertising is not intrusive and will add value to consumers.

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Just one year old and the mobile search market is already fighting off controversy and confusion.
Vodafone is replacing its white label search engine with a new Google paid search partnership. Rumours have it that the partnership is already in turmoil see (read).

If Vodafone is not reviewing its relationship it should be. Once again mobile operators are missing the plot with their wireless Internet strategies. Indeed, money needs to be made but pushing advertising via search is not the answer. Operators are trying to squeeze advertising revenues from the mobile Internet before the mobile Internet has peaked. Operators desperate for ROI are not giving the mobile Internet the time it needs to grow, produce and deliver.

Mobile operators need to push the search engine first and let technology ensure that consumers finally find what they are looking for. This will increase uptake. Once search engines deliver – then and only then – is it time to introduce paid advertising. Consumers at present are searching for services to find what “they” are looking for and NOT what advertisers “want” them to see.

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Posted by Mobile Innovation at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)