What�s wrong with the billions and billions of ads served approach?

February 27, 2009

What did Mobile Ad Summit attendees think of the s

Paran Johar is chief marketing officer of JumpTap

With all the excitement around mobile advertising, I have been noticing a very disturbing trend in our industry: It seems that many ad networks in mobile have been creating a lot of hype around the billions and billions of impressions they serve.

While I think as an industry it was important early on to emphasize our massive global reach, I think we are missing the key unique selling proposition that mobile advertising provides compared to other mediums.

Reach and unique reach are the key table steaks to be in an advertiser's media consideration set. Yet we all know that reach and unique reach are distinctly different.

Reach means that you are able to host a party and have people show up. Unique reach means you can invite the hot girls who are on the exclusive party circuit. They will show up and you know they won't be anywhere else.

How does this relate to mobile advertising, you might ask?

Even unique reach only means you can get the girls to come to your party, but that doesn't mean they will talk to anyone.

So while reach and unique reach are incredibly important, they are the jumping-off point for the potential of mobile advertising and the end game.

Let's take a walk down memory lane.

The wired Internet's success was not based on its ability to reach millions and millions of people around the world. Its reach certainly contributed to its legitimacy as a medium, but it was not the key differentiating factor versus other media.

The secret sauce that made the wired Internet so special was its ability to interact with consumers and track those interactions.

Whether it was clicking on a banner, engaging with a social network, conducting a transaction or tracking post-click action, measurability and interactivity is what made the Internet so special.

At the heart of the wired Internet were engagement and interactivity, and allowing a consumer to have a conversation with a brand.

And that's what leads me to the mobile Internet.

By focusing on reach and the billions and billions of impressions served, we are taking a McDonald's-like approach.

Not that I don't enjoy a Big Mac every now and then, but I would argue that mobile Internet advertising offers something more. A menu that is more personal and customized.

Though there are billions of mobile phones around the world, it was never designed as a broadcast medium, but an evolution in communication.

Whether via voice, SMS or the mobile Internet, the mobile phone's destiny was as a personal communication device for one-to-one connecting.

This is an important distinction of the mobile Internet and is what we need to focus on in our development of the mobile advertising industry.

Instead of pushing irrelevant advertising messages down their throats like we have done for years in traditional media, we have a chance to do the right thing with mobile.

It may not happen immediately, but we certainly have the technology and data to build a new channel that doesn't yell at consumers, but rather invites them into a conversation based on their interests by providing relevant ad experiences. In doing this we can provide a value exchange as consumers engage with a brand.

With mobile Internet advertising, the communication line is two-way and portable with the potential to be geographically specific. The more relevant our messaging is, the more consumers will want to engage with us.

The problem with the billions and billions of ads served approach is its one-size-fits-all stance. A fundamental belief is that this approach as the model of advertising as we know it isn't effective anymore.

Push advertising, as we have done for hundreds of years, is losing its ability to influence consumer decisions. As this happens, more advertisers will be forced to find new ways to reach their consumers.

By understanding that consumers want to engage in content that is relevant to them, focus must be put on making a client's advertising resemble valuable content through building relevancy.

I am not going to say we don't all serve billions of impressions to consumers -- because we do.

But instead of lumping all those consumers into one, the goal should be to find a network that can talk to the individual. This is only possible by marrying search technology with demographic, geographic and behavioral data.

Sure, this is a hotly debated issue, but it can be resolved through transparency and consumer willingness.

The consumer is a moving target and the end game will make every impression count. Delivering content aimed at a consumer's interest at that very minute will drive consumer action.

After all, it is not the number impressions you serve, but rather the impressions you make.

Paran Johar is chief marketing officer of mobile ad network JumpTap, New York. Reach him at .