Are Americas cell phone users becoming less resistant to mobile commerce and advertising?
Truong: The mindset in the U.S. has been all about free content and content being ad-supported, other than ringtones and wallpaper downloads. Within the last two years a lot has changed, though, and the iPhone has been a big catalyst for the industry. Carriers woke up and said, “Hey, we can partner with third parties on our network,” and Apple made hardware relevant again by coming up with a slick, user-friendly device. That’s lifted the whole market, and now price points are going down on smartphones as well. OMD: There seems to be a dichotomy in mobile advertising, with one camp focused on mobile Web and application-based advertising on smartphones and the other supporting more basic formats like text messaging. Your report indicates it’s not necessarily an “either-or” question. Truong: Correct. A savvy mobile marketer can successfully use both elements in a campaign. There is the mobile advertising side of the equation, where a lot of display, search and video tactics can be used (a
