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you're into future-think
Cell phone's promise as an ad-delivery vehicle
By David Everitt
We might still be trying to figure out what to do with the internet, but technology pundits are already pointing to the next media wave for us to contemplate.
For the most part, the term "wireless" doesn’t amount to much more right now than a buzzword that trade magazines like to sling around.
Still, once some of the medium’s privacy issues get settled, wireless might be ready to emerge as a serious new way to get your message out.
If nothing else, the medium’s gotten serious enough for bureaucrats to take an interest.
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission put together a panel to examine security matters that wireless consumers could face. These concerns could be even more significant than they are in the internet realm.
The reason is that wireless may provide even greater potential for marketers to target and track customers.
One of those attending the panel was Brett Haan, a former Federal Communications Commission official, now a senior manager specializing in m-commerce for KPMG Consulting. He reports that no definitive decisions were made at the conference. Basically, he says, the FTC "wants to alert the industry that it has an interest in this area and intends to take a proactive stance."
Now, it’s true that "intends to take a proactive stance" can translate into "we have no idea what the hell we’re going to do but we’re thinking about it." But Haan believes in this case the government intends to take a proactive stance on something that we should all be thinking about.
If it all develops as expected, wireless could be a commodity for all sorts of regular people, not just techno-dinks who feel naked if they leave the house without something that beeps that they can clip to their belt.
The electronic capability that’s at the center of the situation, both in terms of privacy nightmares and marketing dreams, is Location Base Technology.
This originally cropped up about a year-and-a-half ago, when a new law allowed cell phone operators to use the technology as a public service.
The idea was this: if you were stranded someplace and your cell phone couldn’t deliver any calls, the operator could use Location Base Technology to locate you and send help.
Once the new law let this genie out of the bottle, all sorts of commercial possibilities presented themselves.
"If you happen to be walking by a Starbucks, you could receive a special promotion or discount for that outlet," says Haan. "Or you could say, ‘I’m lost in Manhattan, where’s the nearest Hyatt Hotel?’ And then you receive directions."
Not limited to cell phones, this technology would also apply to Palm Pilots.
At first, these gadgets will allow you to make calls and exchange e-mail, but also, Haan says, they’ll include "an explosion of services" over the next few years.
And with services come more chances to promote business.
"The potential for advertising or any kind of business opportunity is extremely large and dynamic," Haan says.
Banner ads, predictably enough, figure into the first wave of advertising on palm pilots. This then leads to follow-up marketing based on knowledge of the consumer’s behavior. Coming soon, Haan predicts, are voice-over ads, delivered to cell-phone users while their call goes through.
The ability to follow consumers electronically and keep tabs on their behavior invokes all sorts of Big Brother visions. Haan concedes that the idea of essentially attaching a monitoring device to yourself might not appeal to everyone. He also says that others, not terribly concerned about Orwellian implications, still might not even be interested in this new array of services.
"But then again," he says, "there are others, like business travelers, for instance, who’ll say, ‘Good God, when can I get all that?’"
As for where this medium will end up, Haan doesn’t offer too many definite projections, but he believes we can draw a lesson from other recent developments.
"As we learned from the internet, the potential can be much larger than anyone has predicted."
For all the supposedly wide open possibilities, the status right now for wireless applications is still pretty tentative, so we’ll all have to wait and see. Haan sums up the current situation this way:
"The cell-phone operators have provided a path to the consumer. Right now they’re negotiating a relationship with potential business customers. Now they can get married – or at least go out together."
-David Everitt covers technology for Media Life, writing from Huntington, New York.
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