The networks may need to get faster to catch that Vette …

With a $2 billion ad budget, General Motors is finally pushing some of that to interactive, according to this piece in Advertising Age.

And guess what? Some of that could be going to mobile advertising, the company says in the story. Great timing, considering that mobile Web surfing more than doubled n 2007. Still, only 1 percent of cell phone users say they use their devices to access the Web, according to the ComScore report.

But NBCU (the interactive branch of NBC TV networks) also is getting into the act, launching a car shopping network. And I know that NBCU is trying hard to get into mobile as well, having posted a position or two for the same effort.

But this also comes at a time when a lot of phones will start being able to handle Flash (the program that handles a lot of animation on the Web) as well as PDF (those pesky files that can load off Adobe Acrobat) - including Nokia, as well as Motorola and LG phones.

The trick is going to be making relevant and funny/poignant content tied to the auto industry’s product, or coming up with a cool way to get people to look at the message. A banner ad on a WAP deck ain’t going to cut it with car buyers.

A complicating issue with that, however, could be that the state of the American wireless networks as a whole aren’t quite ready for prime time. Some could handle the bandwidth of such applications, but for most, we’re at least 2-3 years away. But as alluded to in the Reuters link above to the Boston Globe about wireless Web usage, there’s only upside from here.

And it only makes sense that it would evolve this way. The auto industry spends more on ad dollars than any other in the U.S., but is closely followed by beer and - you guessed it - telecom (notably by wireless companies).

There is a bright side to all you ad haters out there - it could come to pass that the two industries (cars and cell phones) combine to make just one ad, cutting down on the noise and letting me get back to what’s up with Sayed on the boat in Lost.

But then again, that’s wishful thinking.

Yahoo! to go

Want to know why Microsoft is so hot to get into Yahoo!’s pants? Check out the new Yahoo! Go service.

Of all the non-device/non-network/non-service providers doing business with the wireless world, Yahoo! gets it the most.

Sure, I am a huge Windows Mobile fan, but the way that Yahoo! is linking the wired and wireless Web is two years ahead of everyone else.

Over the past month, the company also known as Google’s also-ran has been rolling out Yahoo! Go to different cell phone models (it’s a download into your phone that allows you to bookmark sites online and then take them with you - along with other virtual syncing services between your phone and your Yahoo! account).

It’s a client, sure, but it is closer to the Web based application model that works for the PC-based Internet for a cell phone than anything else out there.

As Google ramps up its mobile play with its new Android operating system for phones, and other venures, Microsoft is turning to Yahoo! to stay caught up.

Anyone agree/disagree? Any one besides me trying Yahoo! Go?

It might be too soon for “I told you so,” but …

I can’t believe I missed this in the shuffle last week, but here goes:

 Turns out that Nielsen has done another survey - this time on the efficacy of mobile advertisements.

According to the Reuters piece linked above, the number of cell phone users who saw an ad on their device rose 38 percent. A total of 58 million people saw ads (but it doesn’t say how many were distinctive users). Also no info on take rates or the like, but clearly, that is not a number to sneeze at.

But the story cites Nielsen as saying that a third of those with data services would be willing to get ads on their phones if it lowered their bills. Now couple that with cool content such as songs/ringtones/wallpapers/ringbacks - and you could have a content-for-ad swap dynamic.

In fact, the survey says that 13 percent of respondents would agree to ads if that improved the content on their phones.

To me, this is a clear indication that if the model is right, people won’t feel as if such ads are spam.

Speaking of content, link here to see about a cool new music service for the BlackBerry that is trying to rival the iPhone at the same time that Apple is trying to add more “businessman specials” to the iPhone’s application lineup with the beta release of its SDK earlier this week.

Cleanup on aisle 7! Watch out for all the silicon chips!

Supermarket of the future?

A couple of things led to this post: last week’s announcement/coverage of Akoo International of its new service that allows a consumer to use their cell phone to pick the songs/videos/movies playing at a retail outlet. All they have to do in return is be willing to submit to a little advertising on their phone.

Then earlier today I had coffee with Jack Finke, a specialist in digital signage advertising. We got to talking about how soon, the deli boards at your local Kroger will be controlled from one central location using the Internet.

And my take on it was that those signs would be able to pump coupons/ads/content to customers’ cell phones in an integrated environment. How about being able to have all that data Kroger collects on you using the Kroger Plus card put to use by shooting preferences or shopping lists or the day’s specials to your phone when you walk into the store.

Those days are coming - given the advances in location-based services, RFID tags, and intelligent networks.

And then you can swipe the phone to pay for your order. Akoo might even play with this space, as you could control what you see on different signs throughout the store or what music you can have streamed to your phone while shopping. Beats the in-store “Kroger Radio” that’s pretty lame.

Come to think of it, my wife just texted me the shopping list, so I gotta go.

Making wings for dinner tonight.

Thanks, but my wife already says I’m chained to my BlackBerry

LinkedIn is going mobile - sort of.

The business-oriented social networking site matched previous moves made by MySpace and Facebook by hooking into a wireless application.

You can now access your LinkedIn profile information, including contacts and the like, on an interface specially designed for the wireless Web (m.linkedin.com).

Tried it this weekend, and it wasn’t too bad. Very light on graphics, as is to be expected. You can send invites into the network pretty easily but it doesn’t have the send a message feature that is included on the full Web version.

If you are a big mobile user and a big LinkedIn networker, it will save some time in downloading, especially on a slower network. But if you are on a Wi-Fi connection or have access to a 3G wireless network and have a full browser on your BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device, go with the full version.

Well, duh!

Research firm The Diffusion Group has spent a lot of money proving what everyone knows already - people don’t want to watch long-form entertainment on their phones.

Of course not. If I want to watch Lost, I’ll record it on my DVR and watch it in hi-def, thank you very much. But the media companies keep trying to push it, and even Apple has tried to use the idea of watching “Pirates of the Carribean” on your iPhone as a cool thing. 

No, people use their phones for minutes, not hours at a time (and don’t forget the eye strain). They don’t want to have to fumble with getting it set up, and the glitchiness that can come in the video quality is a big turnoff too.

This actually plays into two experiences I had recently regarding this topic.

Last week, someone asked me if screen sizes on cell phones would be getting bigger or was the iPhone as big as it got and here is my response:

“My first reaction to your question about screen size is not really, they won’t get much bigger, and here are three reasons why:

• The pocket factor. People want something they can stuff in the jeans and bolt out the door. A BlackBerry is about as big as you’re going to get. The dull thud of the failure of the ultra-compact PC (about the size of a paperback book)  is still echoing in my ears. In the end, it is still a phone for talking with people, or at least will be that for awhile. If anything, slim is in (see the Motorola Q, the Samsung BlackJack, etc.)
• Battery life. The bigger the screen, the more juice is needed. And while Moore’s Law has kept up with processers, not so much with batteries. Battery technology hasn’t quite kept up.
• Simplicity. People want something that is easy to use, and that’s why the iPhone was a hit while other smartphones and BlackBerries are seek for biz types or geeks like me. The bigger it gets, the more buttons it probably has, and the harder it is to use and that scares people away.”

And the second experience came at a conference that featured local advertising companies and agencies. I asked several of them what they thought the future of wireless advertising was, and all of them said that first and foremost, it would have to be opt-in, meaning that only if the consumer was willing to receive it would it show up on the phone.

And another said that it eventually will come down to creating relevant content, whether it be a hysterically funny ad or a coupon (see below) that pulls the consumer to the content, instead of pushing it out.

It’s a brand new medium, though folks, and agencies such as these are still working out how to paint on that canvas.

But paint they will, given the stakes.

That comes with a side order of weekend minutes …

So now you can get a break on hummus your using your cell phone.

The latest food chain to use with mobile couponing is Extreme Pita, joining the likes of Taco Bueno Hollywood Video, and Hardee’s. The service provider doing this is Cellfire, which uses an onboard program to map to UPC codes that are swipable at the restaurants. (By the way, anyone ever tried one of their pitas?)

This is only going to grow, as the industry careens toward as close to an operating system standard as it can get.

Service providers hooking into this system include Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Verizon Wireless and several more.

The list of compatible phones looks hard to get from trying the site, but I know the RAZR and any Windows Mobile device will work.

Now the next step is to marry this with location-based or GPS enabled phones so you get coupons (opting in of course) when you walk by a restaurant or store. And the networks are evolving to get that smart - the question is whether consumers will want it and opt in.

Well, do you?

Is that your phone buzzing, or are you happy to see me?

Yahoo! is jumping into territory already being mined professionally by Nielsen Online (which includes the remnants of ancestors BuzzMetrics and Planet Feedback).

Yahoo’s approach is a bit different in that it puts the control of actual users who decides what is buzzworthy. Nielsen, on the other hand, goes out and uses both automated and anectotal data to look at so-called “consumer generated media.”

But here’s my question - how does the wireless Web play into all this? I know that a page view on a WAP enabled phone is just like one on a PC, but what about the media generated by phone?

Seems to me that there needs to be a measurement standard of wireless media viewership soon - maybe not now, but the tipping point is coming (see the Washington Post story from Sunday: astounding that there is one active cell phone for every two people on the planet).

Sleep? I’d rather dream awake thanks!

A bit of a diversion today.

As a fan of fan-boy type stuff (see my post on Heroes, Terminator, etc.), I have gone back to revisit one of the classics - The Sandman series of comics (calling them graphic novels is like calling GI Joes and Star Wars toys action figures - they were dolls, we can all admit it).

My local library just opened up a new $11 million main branch, and it has become a hangout for me. And they just got all the updated copies of Neil Gaiman’s seminal work - all 9 volumes.

Gaiman has gone on to become one of my favorite novelists (check out American Gods and the short story collection Fragile Things).

But here is where he made a name for himself, in the world of comics.

It’s bold stuff, about Morpheus, the King of Dreams, and crosses all genres and realities, dealing with Batman as easily as Shakespeare (who has an important supporting role in the beginning and end). It has elements of horror, fantasy and religion, as Morpheus makes trips to Hell as well as dealing with demons of both the human and fantastical side.

Where would we be without dreams? Gaiman does a great job of asking that question, and then trying to answer it.

Love the smell of regret in the morning …

Ahh, my first mistake/correction. Just like old times.

This regards my previous post on Pandora - turns out I didn’t do my homework. Pandora does have such a service with Sprint and AT&T (look here for details). Thanks to David Rose at Bridge Worldwide.

But this gets to a larger issue that is actually in the news today regarding Net Neutrality and access to the Web.

Imagine if your ISP were to limit the content you could access, or at least make it very difficult to navigate away from the preloaded “exclusive” content. Or make it so you only had access to cool stuff via their portal? (AOL tried that and failed, remember)?

The service providers are doing everything they can to control the wireless Web, and they don’t need to. Why not create an open access model that allows users full control over the content and applications they want on their handsets?

Wouldn’t it be cool if everyone had access to Pandora on their phone (provided they had an advanced enough device)? And then let the ads pay for it? Wouldn’t the volume more than cover the loss of recurring service revenues?

Just a thought as I apologize …