Posted: March 19, 2007

A recent Harris Interactive study on adult cell phone users and their willingness to receive advertising on their handsets revealed some interesting facts.

“Historically, U.S. mobile phone users have been resistant to receiving mobile phone advertisements, but, according to our research, cell phone users are more willing than ever to receive advertising,” said Judith Ricker, president of the Marketing Communications Research Practice at Harris Interactive. “To make their mobile campaigns more effective, advertisers should take note of how cell phone users are most interested in being contacted. Advertisements need to have a clear value proposition, be relevant and allow recipients to control how they are profiled.”

The study revealed that of those who are interested in receiving ads on their phones, the majority (56%) would prefer to receive them via text-messaging. This is great news for us considering text-messaging is the main conduit Cellit uses to deliver mobile ads. Furthermore, picture messages (40%) and videos (24%) were the next most-preferred methods of delivery, both of which Cellit has added to its portfolio of services.

More importantly, those surveyed were asked what could be done to make the mobile advertising experience as painless as possible. The top 4 responses were: the ability to opt out, choosing the types of ads to be received, choosing the number of ads to be received in a given time period, and providing a profile of desired areas of interest so only specific ads are sent.

Cellit realizes that the value of any campaign is only equal to the number of people who choose to participate, and that is why we have built several consumer protections into our marketing strategies. Not only can subscribers opt-out of receiving ads at any time, but our opt-in procedures are very specific and clear, letting each subscriber know exactly what they are signing up for, including who is sending the content, what form the content will take, a maximum number of ads to be sent per month, and clear and concise opt-out instructions. These safeguards make the consumer much more open to advertisers, thus making the campaigns significantly more effective. The Harris Interactive study confirms that mobile consumers value highly the types of content and features that have been part of Cellit products for years.

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