Mobile Advertising, the Next Big Thing???

So 2007 was supposed to be the year of the video. I haven't necessarily made up my mind one way or the other on whether or not I agree with that, but 2008 is predicted to be the big year for Mobile Advertising. In my opinion, people are smart to jump on that bandwagon, but they have to be careful. Cell phones are the most private piece of technology many of us have. They are personal, portable and we always have them with us, right? What better way to target people than go through a device they literally already have in their hand.

Eventually (if not already) you will be walking to the store and a text message will pop up that "you are only 50 feet from a Starbucks, come in for a cup of coffee!" College campuses are already working with companies that are teaming up with local businesses to provide its students with deals, discounts and services via a double opt-in text message program. Everyone seems to have text messaging bucket plans today anyhow, so it doesn't cost the end-user anything extra. They can opt out at any time at the press of a button. The text message ad is already being upgraded to rich media and video ads and they will continue to get fancier and more interactive.

What people have to watch out for is not to become too intrusive. There is advertising saturation out there and packing too much into mobile will backfire fast. As I said, people will be more protective of their cell phone space than anything else. The mobile marketer needs to be sensitive to this fact to be successful, but if they are successful, then the behavioral targeting knowledge they would gain could be priceless.

Go Gators

For those of you who don't know me, I am a huge Gator fan.

I would just like to throw out my support for Tim Tebow to win the Heisman this year. Since we won't win any national championships, we could use this to keep the championships alive! Having the underdog win is always fun and age aint nothing but a number :)

Fighting for Digital Rights - who really hurts?

A friend of mine sadly came into my apartment last Thursday evening after realizing he wasn't going to be able to see the Cowboys/Packers game on TV (unless he travelled on over to a bar).
A bar, not being his normal Thursday night scene, was not much of an option for him so he sat at the computer, watching the box scores.

The NFL and cable companies have been fighting over the cost/stipulations to air the NFL Networks' Thursday night games. The NFL Network wants to keep the games free to the fans, but is charging the Cable companies and amount they are not willing to pay for, resulting in less than half the normal NFL audience having access to this game.

Apparently, the NFL is pushing online viewing as a viable alternative (which I don't necessarily disagree with) but I would rather use that as a supplement rather than an alternative option. Although it would be nice to skip the commercials, you can't quite have the same viewing experience on a small part of the computer screen as you would on the flat screen, HD TV (not that I have one, but I can wish right?) Plus, forget a viewing party, the computer would be for you and you alone. I think that they add quite a few great features to the online element, but would still rather it be an "extra" instead of an "only".

So my question is...who is this TV rights feud really hurting? My answer would be the fans, who just plain love the game.