• Business Week, Monday, March 27, 2006 11:45 AM

Marketers are discovering the benefits of mobile marketing--in which commercials are sent via text message to a consumer's cell phone--and experts say spending is expected to surge in the next few years. U.S. spending on marketing and advertising over wireless networks may surge to $602.3 million in 2009, from $104.4 million last year, according to one consultant. And that's one of the more conservative estimates. RBC Capital figures the market will reach $1.5 billion by 2010. "While [mobile marketing] used to be part of companies' online budget, now it's become a separate budget line," said Nihal Mehta, CEO of mobile marketing agency ipsh. "The market has arrived." John Stratton, CMO at Verizon Wireless, the leading U.S. wireless service provider after Cingular, said he believes mobile advertising will eventually grab 25 percent to 30 percent of the approximately $100 billion spent on branding in the U.S. each year. Considering that U.S. wireless operators generate about $100 billion in service revenue annually, the industry is eyeing one of its biggest revenue opportunities in decades.

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