Mobile advertising. That’s like, ads on cell phones right?

Saw an article on Ad Age on mobile advertising that’s better than the typical: “Mobile advertising is going to be huge!” rants I hear. It’s a nice breakdown-slash-primer on all things mobile. Yeah, the buzzthought du jour of “It’s all about content” is there, (as it should with any media channel), but the focus moves beyond that to cover more specific uses for things like mobile apps.

From the stuff I’ve seen though, most mobile ‘advertising’ seems to be brands running the same messaging they run in other media. It’s one thing to create an app for a cell that will help you find (X) when you’re on the road. That’s something useful. But a lot of what passes for content is no better than what Hollywood did with regards to movie promotion: Put out yet another microsite or MySpace whenever a film comes out. Awesome. YouTube and brands? Not much better. How about a contest!

So a few months ago I noticed a poster on the train for the USA series In Plain Sight. It had one of those “Text IPS to 872898 for...” come-ons. Ever the rebel, I decided to give it a shot. (After all, they were offering trivia from the show, what would you do?)

$5.20 and 26 messages later, I had to put it out of my cell phone’s misery and opt out. It turned out to be a waste of time and money. Well, maybe not for USA, not when normal text rates apply. Cha-ching!

Okay, sure. Make money for clients, that’s always the goal. But annoying or boring viewers with the same old types of promotions shouldn’t be part of it. When you talk about ROI, how many clicks and views something got to justify the money spent, the negative needs to factor in as well. Maybe something had bad buzz, or the clip didn’t get many views because it was boring, etc.

Cool stuff can and will be done with mobile, no doubt, but trivia and wallpaper ain’t enough—it’s just not worth the cost to users. It took eight text messages alone to first join, then finally unjoin. Why? I don’t need a confirmation of what I just texted. That’s what a sent folder is for.

There’s more info here, but after trying it out, I really don’t need facts or trivia on my cell that I can get by watching the actual show. Other texts sent to me offered a chance at winning some show merch. Not good enough either. (Besides, I’m already a ‘winner’ thanks to my Tony Robbins’ DVDs!) The only text I want from the show is the one saying “Go to your front door—Mary McCormack is there wearing nothing but a robe.” (As long as it’s small, a USA logo on the front of the robe would be okay too.)

Yep. Mobile advertising is going to be huge!

Tags: In Plain Sight, Mobile advertising is going to be huge!