August 22, 2005
Commercials by cell phone
Two U.K. advertisers are transmitting video ads to phone screens. The Wasll Street Journal reports (free access).
"Passengers waiting to board a Virgin Atlantic Airways flight at London Heathrow airport may get an unexpected invitation on their cellphone these days.
Under a new advertising program, transmitters are beaming out text messages to the phones of people walking by to ask them if they would like to watch a video-clip ad on their phone's screen. The commercial, aimed at passengers in Virgin's first-class lounge, touts a new SUV, the Range Rover Sport.
Two London companies are behind the new ad approach -- Maiden Group, which has handled billboard advertising for 80 years in the United Kingdom, and Filter UK Ltd., a small firm specializing in the transmitter technology.
Maiden is installing transmitters on its billboards at 30 U.K. train stations to send video clips related to the billboards' ads over the next 18 months, and says it plans to extend the service to large shopping malls. Filter is working at Heathrow.
The British effort takes the nascent field of cellphone advertising to a new level. Most cellphone ads to date consist of simple text messages, and most go out to a targeted audience of people who have signed up and willingly given over their phone number to marketers. Some U.S. television networks, for example, send text messages to alert fans about new shows.
Here's how it works: When the ad transmitter detects someone has a cellphone with the Bluetooth function turned on within a range of typically 100 yards, it sends out a message offering the promotional clip. The transmitters are about the size of a small car wheel and are installed inside the billboards.
During a recent two-week test, of 87,000 phones discovered by the transmitters at the railway stations, 13,000 people agreed to download clips. That 15% response rate is high by advertising-industry standards."
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