Mobile network operators, ad agencies and media companies are expecting big things from mobile marketing, a segment of the new media world that should become mainstream "quickly," according to
Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the world's No.2 advertising company, WPP Group. Media companies like Tom Freston's Viacom are eyeing the mobilesphere as the next place to buy and sell video ads.
"There's no question advertisers are interested," Freston said at a Reuters media summit this week. Mobile providers certainly agree. Sprint Nextel Corp. says it plans to offer subsidized wireless
videos and local ads to cell phones. However, a key question media and mobile operating firms are faced with is how long such ads should be. Freston believes they should be short to be successful, and
that length should depend on what consumers are willing to allow in exchange for content on their phones. Meanwhile, Sprint says it's exploring the use of sending locally targeted information such as
discounts and other special offers to users in the vicinity of certain restaurants. All agree that mobile marketing will be successful primarily because it will absorb a good deal of the consumer cost
related to having enhanced mobile services. "It's a major opportunity," WPP's Sorrell said.
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