Monday, September 15, 2008 Smart to start mobile advertising next year
SMART Communications plans to bring its ad-funded mobile services mainstream, now that its mobile advertising platform is already in place nationwide.
This is also part of the company’s plan to address specific needs of its market for various services, said Danilo Mojica, wireless consumer division chief of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).
“We already have a platform for mobile advertising but the subscriber base is still small-scale at present,” said Mojica.
The ad-funded mobile services will be different from Smart’s current subscriber base and is under the company’s purely ad-funded brand—Umobile.
Mojica said Umobile will be in full swing late next year.
He said mobile advertising in the country is still at its “elementary stage,” considering that the medium used for mobile ads are currently short message services (SMS) and multimedia messaging services (MMS).
But with the proliferation of newer and higher mobile phone models, Mojica said the “real kick” in mobile ads will be evident with the use of moving pictures through 3G-enabled mobile phones.
Like TV
“This will happen in the next 12 to 18 months,” he said.
The mobile ads will be similar to television advertisements that last 15 to 30 seconds. But instead of a general broadcast, the ads will be sent to a specific target market of client-companies.
At present, Mojica said there are already three million 3G phones in the country while eight million are capable of general packet radio services (GPRS).
Mojica also said there are already a number of multi-national companies that are willing to put part of the companies’ budget into mobile advertising.
Among those that Mojica identified are Nestle Philippines, Procter and Gamble, Unilever and Pepsi.
With this development, Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of the boards of Smart and PLDT, also foresee the emergence of an industry that can supply the telecommunications company with content, not just for advertising but in various services like mobile sports and entertainment.
“There will be content suppliers, especially when there is no monopoly on content,” he told a news conference last week.
He also said this may also be an opportunity for the company to diversify its business or probably invest in media. (DME)
