Another stand, another mobile advertising platform. The difference with this one, according to Airwide Chief Scientist Timo Ahomaki, is that its already deployed and operational. Yes, if youre young and trendy enough to be a Blyk customer, those ads youre getting every day in return for the free texts and talk time are being delivered by Airwides platform.
Ahomaki took us though the simple process of creating a campaign, showing how an advertiser can select the profile of the users they want to target and set frequency caps to prevent over-exposure.
Ahomaki says he expects operators deploying the solution would do so on an opt-in basis, most likely via a Blyk-style ad-funded network of their own, piggy-backing on their regular networks infrastructure.
Operators are very interested in the idea, says Ahomaki. They like the idea of being able to create a ongoing dialogue with the user, in the way that Blyk is already doing.
He says most interest is coming from Europe, Asia and the US. Ad-funded mobile networks may be a novelty now. But as we hinted in an earlier post today, they may not be for much longer.