Council to Develop Wireless Audience Metrics

  • by July 27, 2000
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), in conjunction with the Wireless Data Forum and NetRatings yesterday announced the formation of the Wireless Audience Measurement Council to develop a framework for the consideration of advertising on the wireless Internet.

Advertising revenues have been a significant source of support for the provision of content on the wired Internet, and there has been much speculation about the potential efficacy of advertising on the wireless Internet, especially given the value drivers of personalization, timeliness and locality provided by wireless access.

However, successful advertising on the wireless Internet poses a number of problems for advertisers, their agents, and for wireless customers. Multiple wireless network architectures, multiple wireless operating systems, multiple end-user devices, and even multiple service provider business models complicate rudimentary advertising decisions such as content format.

On the consumer side, issues of security, privacy, spamming, and the threat of having to pay airtime charges for unrequested and unwanted advertising makes market development problematic. Working in conjunction with, BPA International, and Target Wireless, CTIA will convene the first meeting of the WAM Council at Wireless IT, the exposition and trade show it co-sponsors with the Wireless Data Forum, on October 18 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Invited to participate will be CTIA and WDF member companies, along with other Internet and advertising companies and industry organizations, as well as academic and economic experts in the field.

Among the first jobs of the WAM Council will be to define a set of metrics that will provide advertisers and their agents with a way of quantifying the wireless Internet experience.

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