Ads Poised to Clutter Up Your Blackberry?Ads Poised to Clutter Up Your Blackberry?

Once a new productivity tool emerges, then it is only a matter of time before clever marketing types try to exploit its popularity. So it is not surprising that cell phones are poised to become the newest advertising medium.Around the globe, vendors are trying to identify new ways of advertising their wares via cell phones, and a growing number has been successful. A survey by Limbo, a US mobile social communities in the US, and GfK Technology, a leading market search agency, found that 85 percent of users in India, 51 percent in the UK, and 37 percent in the US have received advertisements on their mobile phones.

These users were reached in a variety of ways. Text messaging is most common mobile advertising format: 74 percent in India, 48 percent in the UK and 22 percent in the US. Mobile web advertising, which a growing number of vendors have begun to push, was most prevalent in the UK, with 16 percent of respondents recalling such advertising compared with 8 percent of those in the US and 4 percent of those in India. Radio is quite popular in India (40 percent) but not so much in the UK (9 percent) or US (3 percent).

Since this new medium is emerging, small and medium companies need to determine how it will impact their businesses. Management does not want their employees spending time thumbing through advertisements rather than completing their work. So this emerging area seems ripe for vendors who can provide companies with simple to use tools to help them stem the impending tide of mobile advertisements. Also implementing policies that restrict these advertisements would be helpful but will chew up administrative resources, a compromise that companies will be forced to make as mobile advertising becomes more common.

Have you received an ad on your cell phone? Does your company have a policy outlining how it will handle mobile phone advertising? Do you know of any tools to help small and medium businesses limit cell phone advertisements?