Around the Net
Coming to VoIP: In-Call Advertising
- Fortune, Tuesday, January 15, 2008 11:16 AM
The long-rumored day when marketers begin invading phone calls may soon be upon us. At the end of 2007, Internet telephony company Jangl started testing so-called "in-call" advertising, which
delivers a short audio message while consumers wait for their calls to be connected. Jangl hopes to attract advertisers for wireless products like games and ringtones.
Jajah,
another Internet telephone provider, has plans to incorporate in-call advertising later in the year, but their service will be opt-in and customers will receive phone bill credit for listening to
15-second clips. As Mehta points out, the ads really aren't that bad. They're not unlike like the marketing messages consumers hear while waiting on hold with a customer service agent at a big
firm-except there would be no hold, and no repetition.
The big draw for marketers is the targeting capability of in-call advertising. Because their services use Internet Protocol addresses, Jangl and Jajah can deliver personalized ads in a similar manner to the way Google and Yahoo tailor search ads based a user's search history. Privacy questions also abound: at some level consumers need to know that by using these services their information can be used for advertising.
