As I sat around the living room this evening with family, my brother-in-law quizzed us with top ten lists that he read from a book he had received as a Christmas present.  It was very interesting.  I didn’t get very many right, but one I did get is the answer to the question “what actress has had the most Oscar nominations?”  And it is one of my favorites - Meryl Streep.  Although Karl went on to tell us that the actress that has won the most Oscars is not Meryl, but Katherine Hepburn.

A few minutes later I joined another conversation with another brother-in-law, Ron, and he was talking about the ability to receive video on our cell phones.  I shared some of the information that I had heard on a recent teleseminar on mobile marketing.  The experts on that call suggested that in the coming years we will be receiving a great deal of our entertainment, information and communication primarily on our cell phones.  Mobile marketing, as it is called, is a subject that I expect to be talking a lot about in 2008.

I anticipate that in the coming year there will be attorneys advertising on and sponsoring programming that is delivered to cell phones.   The mobile device is rapidly maturing.   Mobile 2007 is being compared to “Web 1995.”  To lend some credence to this evolving industry you may be interested to know that some of the big advertisers that have already signed on include:  Ford Motor Company, Starbucks, Financial Services, Gillette, Yahoo, Burger King, Best Buy, JC Penney, AT&T, Bank of America, and MTV.

So what is mobile advertising?  As it currently exists it is text link ads and graphical banner ads that appear on your cell phone.  These ads can be delivered exclusively to a zip code, media market, city, etc.  As of yet, global positioning (GPS) capability is not part of the mix.  In other words, the mobile industry cannot currently deliver a text ad with a 10% off coupon to cell phone users in a particular geographical area - close proximity to the business.  However, that will undoubtedly develop.

By 2009, millions/billions of the following media types will be accessed via mobile:

• mobile-designed web sites/pages
• advertisers/campaigns
• downloadables
• ringtones & music tracks
• images/wallpaper
• hours of video and television
• news stories
• mobile social networks
• mobile blogs
• mobile commerce transactions

So what kind of an opportunity exists?  Research by Medio offers the following analysis:

US TV Ad Market - has 280 million viewers and spending of $73 billion

US Internet Ad Market - has 203 million users and spending of $16 billion

US Mobile Ad Market - has 203 million subscribers and spending of $100 million

Informa projects mobile advertising at $11.35 billion by 2011! 

With that level of spending you and I both know that attorneys will be there.  And those that get there first will have the greatest opportunity to benefit from this new avenue of media exposure.

If you’d like to talk about how and when to allocate a portion of your budget to mobile, I’d be happy to discuss it with you.

I have to tell you that I am pretty excited about the article I read in the New York Times this morning.  Here is how it starts:

“Some companies pay millions to have their logos on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s racecar, but others prefer to pay Brian Katz $500 or more a month for space on his Ford Expedition.

Mr. Katz, 32, of Manhattan, is one of the tens of thousands of motorists who have signed up to have their cars and trucks wrapped in advertisements in exchange for a stipend up to $800 a month.

These offers are becoming so popular that car owners have been willing to limit where they shop and abide by a code of conduct while they are behind the wheel.”

Wow!  I think this concept holds some real promise to be developed in conjunction with the “Client Advisory Panels” that I’ve been helping my attorneys put in place.

If you’d like to talk about this, give me a call!

Cindy Speaker, 610-692-3217

In 2002 I went to see a Tom Cruise film called Minority Report.  It’s set in the year 2054 and portrays the writer’s vision for the future.  What I found most fascinating about this film was the portrayal of the hero being pitched personalized ads.  I thought to myself “is this what we can expect in the future.  Will I walk down a street and see ads that speak to me, Cindy Speaker?  And will those ads be targeted to my demographic and or psychographic information?”

 Well, imagine my surprise when I opened the New York Times the other day and read that the future I saw in Minority Report is apparently soon to become a reality?

According to David W. Kenny, chairman and chief executive of a company called Digitas, “the plan is to build a global digital ad network that uses offshort labor to create thousands of versions of ads.  Then, using data about consumers and computer algorithms, the network will decide which advertising message to show at which moment to every person who turns on a computer, cellphone or - eventually - a television.  More simply put, the goal is to transform advertising from mass messages and 30-second commercials that people chat about around the water cooler into personalized messages for each potential customer.”

Wow!  I can’t help but ponder how this development can best be utilized by our industry?  How can we deliver personalized ads to our clients, ads that reflect what we’ve learned about them? 

I don’t know the answer to that question but I do have a few recommendations:

1.  Tune in to mobile marketing.  I believe this strategy will be something that will serve our industry well.  We need to pay attention and learn so that when the time comes to embrace mobile marketing we are prepared and able to position our firms as first in the market to use this medium.
2.  Recognize every point of contact with your clients as an opportunity to learn something more about them. 
3.  Put more emphasis on your database.  Record every point of contact so that it becomes the foundation for your future more personalized advertising efforts.

Google’s view of the future is that the cost of voice calls and data connections to the Internet may soon be partly subsidized by advertisements brought to users by Google’s powerful online advertising machine.

Apparently Google intends to bid on getting a piece of the nation’s airways so that they can make this dream a reality.  And if anybody can do it, this media giant certainly can.

But let’s think about that and how it might play out for our industry.  I wonder if at some future time we might have “The Smith Firm Cellphone Plan” available to our community where we subsidize the cost of a cellphone and in return we include our advertising on the phone.

I recently subscribed to the New York Times online, my favorite newspaper,  I get the early edition delivered to my desktop each morning and as I scan the articles I am met with various advertising messages.  Most of the time I click on “skip this ad” but I do see the opening screen and get a feel for who advertises.  But you know what, I feel very favorable about this advertising because I am getting a very nice service in return.  I get valuable information that would normally cost me a buck a day.  And, more importantly I get convenience.  So, I am fine with having to regularly view various advertisements.  I just wonder if we, in the PI industry, might find a way to leverage the expected value of mobile marketing in a similar way?

Did you know that cellphone carriers are now mandated by the Federal Communication Commission to provide location information for 911 emergency use?  Many now have G.P.S. chips that can pinpoint the phone’s location to within a few feet.

This is really interesting and lends itself to further discussion.  If “we” have the ability to know where exactly a person is physically located and we combine that with “our” extensive databases that include demographic, psychographic and other data, doesn’t it follow that in the near future “our” ads could be targeted not only in the message but by location?

For instance, if we want to reach potential consumers that were travelling a particular  road during a certain time period when a serious accident occurred, this technology could be even more effective then sending direct mail to accident victims - because most likely it will be far more cost effective and it will be immediate.   

I encourage you to brainstorm the possibilities.  Because of the continuing advancements in technology, we are really only limited by our own imaginations!

We’ve talked a few times about mobile marketing which is the concept of advertising on cellphones and other mobile devices.  I think that, at least in our industry, this medium is meeting resistance because it’s unproven.  Well, Nielsen may be about to change all of that with their recent acquisition of Telephia, a private company based in San Francisco that has become one of the most respected sources of data about cellphone use.

This data includes an inside look at consumers’ phone calling, mobile Web surfing, video viewing and just about verything else.  Nielsen has been building mobile tracking products on its own, but Telephia will greatly advance its ability to track media consumption on every screen, Nielsen executives said.

There’s a famous saying that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”  Apparently we are well on our way to being able to measure cellphone activity including mobile marketing/advertising.  Once that happens, I believe it will be a potentially viable addition to our media mix in the PI industry.