ANTenna Blog -- Mobile

A new survey demonstrates the conflicting feelings consumers have for mobile marketing: A lot of them say they don't like it. But when they get ads on their cellphones, many of them respond. What does this mean for smaller businesses? It means they need to get ready to go mobile with their marketing.

The New York Times has a little piece almost buried in its Media & Advertising section that actually makes a big point about where marketing is headed. It discusses a recent survey conducted by Direct Marketing Association in which people were asked about their attitudes towards ads on their cellphones.

According to the survey, seven percent of cellphone users say they are interested in receiving ads on their cellphones -- a very small percentage. But get this: 24 percent of cellphone users say they responded to those ads.

They might not say they aren't interested but they are, they are!

NYT writer Alex Mindlin quotes Edward T. Manzitti, vice president for research of DMA who explains the opposition to mobile marketing on the fact that recipients usually have to pay for text-message ads. "If the carriers offered marketers a different type of pricing, where the marketer paid the cost rather than the consumer, you'd see a different type of response, he is quoted as saying.

That different type of pricing is here -- and it showed up in the survey. Users with AT&T and T-Mobile were more likely to have responded to mobile offers that Verizon users which can be attributed, writes Mindlin, "to the differences in the service plans' allowances for text messaging, or because of the surge in the number of AT&T customers who have iPhones with data plans."

The cellphone is no longer just a phone -- it's a ubiquitous device that has become the constant companion of practically everyone, or at least almost all your customers or clients. (Check out the Q&A I posted today with Alex Quilici of YouMail. You've got voicemails being e-mailed to cellphones. Need I say more?) It makes sense that this is the next marketing frontier. And it makes sense that smaller businesses should at least check out how they can jump on this bandwagon.