On advertising: Searching for the right tone

By Eric Pfanner International Herald TribuneMONDAY, MAY 2, 2005

Jean-Paul Edwards, an advertising executive in London, was riding a ski lift in the French Alps a few years ago when his mobile phone beeped to signal an incoming text message. He thought it was from his wife, so he pulled the phone out of his pocket, and, fumbling around with his gloves, dropped it in the snow.

After half an hour of searching, Edwards found the phone, only to discover that the message was actually from his mobile network, advertising a promotion. In revenge, Edwards decided to drop the service provider.

"Mobile phones are a terrible advertising tool but a great communications tool," said Edwards, head of media futures at Manning Gottlieb OMD, a firm that plans ad strategies and buys media space and time.

What he meant was that traditional, in-your-face advertising doesn't work well on mobile phones, with which many users have remarkably intimate relationships. (A recent survey by the ad agency BBDO Europe showed that 22 percent of respondents in Italy and Spain admitted to answering their mobiles during sex.)

Instead of blatant SMS sales pitches, mobile users seem to prefer creative approaches that blur the boundaries between advertising, communications and entertainment.
Last summer, for instance, Gardena, a provider of gardening products, set up a giant billboard in Dortmund, Germany, with an interactive twist. By sending a text message to a number shown on the poster, which depicted a boy holding a garden hose, passers-by could activate the nozzle to squirt actual water.

Such promotions can raise brand awareness, even if they don't immediately generate sales. Because they fuel traffic on mobile networks, operators love them, too.
Still, cellphone advertising has been slow to take off. In Germany, the biggest mobile market in Europe, such advertisers spent about €40 million, or $51.7 million, last year, said Jupiter Research, less than one-tenth the amount spent on online advertising.

Yet as mobile phones become more technologically sophisticated, adding video and Internet content, advertising experts are optimistic about the prospects.
BBDO's recent survey showed that in some countries, consumers treasure their mobile phones more than their televisions. The agency, a unit of Omnicom Group, set up a new venture to explore the possibilities of mobile advertising, in partnership with an Omnicom direct-marketing unit called Proximity.

Experts say the best examples of marketing via the mobile phone, like the Gardena billboard, employ other media as well. That is not only because of consumer tastes but also because of evolving legal and regulatory restrictions on how phones can be used in advertising.
European Union rules governing privacy and e-commerce, for instance, generally require marketers to obtain the consent of phone users before sending them ads via text messages or other electronic means. But rules are sometimes implemented inconsistently at the national level.

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