Eden Zoller
Vodafone to launch mobile advertising push in the UK - and beyond
Vodafone is planning to launch display-based mobile advertising in the UK this summer, with sales teams taking the propositions to brands over the coming weeks. It will drive display advertising in the UK through a partnership with Yahoo! But Vodafone is also planning to launch a mobile Internet proposition in the UK this summer, of which search advertising will form a part based on its global partnership with Google. Comment: Vodafone is very committed to mobile advertising - CEO Arun Sarin was particularly vocal on the subject at 3GSM in February, rallying the mobile industry to create standards for mobile advertising and get a move on or risk losing out on a promising new revenue opportunity. This could give the impression that Vodafone is charging into mobile advertising with all guns blazing, but it is not. Vodafone has done its homework. It has been planning the move for a long time, and has been carrying out extensive trials for mobile advertising In the UK Vodafone will focus on mobile display advertising on the Vodafone Live! services. It has not given too much detail but will be looking at a range of display inventory such as banners on the Live! portal and bumpers around video clips and in-game advertising. It is also looking to introduce advertising-subsidised content, where it claims great success with trials carried out around gaming and video. It has no plans to introduce mobile advertising based on voice or peer-to-peer SMS services, where the risk of advertising becoming intrusive is high. We believe this is the correct approach: users are accustomed to having ads appear alongside content in traditional media, and there is no reason why the same principle should not apply to mobile as a content medium. In person-to-person communications, however, operators should tread much more warily, since the risk of annoying and alienating their customers is much greater.Vodafone is not trying to do it all. For selling display advertising to media buyers, it is teaming with strong, respected local partners that have credibility with brands and agencies in their particular markets. Its strategy for mobile advertising is based on best of breed partners and a market by market approach. For display-based advertising it is partnering with Yahoo! in the UK, Gruner & Jahr in Germany and Dada in Italy (MMS only). Yahoo! will sell mobile advertising inventory for Vodafone and be responsible for campaign management. Yahoo! will hook its advertising sales platform with the Vodafone customer database (though customer data will only be made available to advertisers on an aggregated, anonymous basis and phone numbers will be encrypted, avoiding potential issues over privacy). Vodafone is one of the largest operators in the world with a powerful brand and strong presence in Europe, and we would expect it to offer opportunities for Pan-European campaigns going forward.
