Avesair, the wireless advertising network, claims to have served 50m advertisements since launch.

The network comprises 60 content providers, including the New York Post, Boston.com and MSN Mobile. Avesair recently announced an agreement with MSN, whereby the portal would use the Avesair platform to deliver advertisements and would resell Avesair advertising space using the MSN media sales team. Advertisers can target consumers using a wide range of criteria, from demographic profile to the time at which advertisements are delivered. Clients such as Volvo and Mercedes can deliver advertisements in SMS, MMS, WAP or even interactive voice format. According to Avesair, companies have enjoyed response rates of up to 5%.

“The fact that we’ve served over 50 million paid messages across the network debunks the myth that successful mobile marketing has yet to take hold in North America,” said Sean Harrison, executive vice president of business development and marketing, Avesair. “By coupling the wireless internet with advanced SMS marketing and dialog capabilities, the network creates an exciting and interactive medium, allowing advertisers to truly engage their customers. We provide advertisers such as Mercedes and Volvo, and publishers such as Boston.com and the New York Post, with a powerful tool to increase sales, enhance brand recognition, and develop stronger customer relationships. We made it easy for them to integrate wireless advertising into their media mix.”

Insight

Wireless advertising networks such as Avesair frequently throw around figures such as ’50m advertisements delivered’. Avesair’s Harrison is using this latest metric to proclaim that mobile marketing is ‘taking hold’ in North America. The figures, however, are open to alternative interpretation. Even if all the advertising campaigns run by Avesair had enjoyed a 5% response rate, this would mean that only 0.9% of the US population has taken action following a wireless promotion. This also assumes that it was 2.5m different individuals which responded, something which is highly unlikely. Hardly a mass-market medium.

Wireless technology has an important role to play in advertising, but announcements like this are unhelpful in that they build unrealistic expectations. For the present, advertisements delivered to mobile devices are primarily limited to text creatives. These can be an effective guerilla marketing tool, particularly for brands which want to appear ‘edgy’, but should be used in the context of a wider campaign and supported by traditional media advertisements. The arrival of mobile multimedia will help drive adoption, but the most important development for advertisers will be the ability to sense users’ current ‘context’ and deliver relevant messages on this basis.