October 19, 2005
Phone operator 3 plans to sell advertising on mobiles
Mobile phone company 3 is planning to become the world's first operator to sell airtime on its own network to advertisers, opening up its 3.2 million British customers to targeted marketing and advertising campaigns, unveils The Guardian.
The company has already run two free downloadable ads on its network and is now looking for an advertising partner who can help it to further "monetise" its customer base with advertising services next year.
Other mobile phone companies, however, have so far shied away from bombarding their customers with ads. They believe 3 is seeking to persuade advertisers to subsidise content available on the service as customers themselves remain reticent about paying for it.
While 3 earns about a quarter of its revenues from non-voice services and refuses to define how much of this still comes from texting, leading some to fear that paid-for content downloads are still a small portion of its overall business.
But when it ran a free downloadable ad for Apple's iPod this year it received 160,000 downloads in a week. A similar test with a free trailer for the film, It's All Gone Pete Tong, received 100,000 downloads even though it was advertised on 3's mobile portal for just two hours a day.
Besides, the company is considering starting a mobile television channel, which could carry ads, while customers willing to receive communications that correspond with their interests could be targeted directly.
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