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Facebook Mobile Advertising Question
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The newest
installment of Jacobs Media’s jacAPPS blog has a few harsh words for the
newly-public Facebook and their inability to monetize a vast network of mobile
users.
Company head Paul
Jacobs comments on a particular line from Facebook’s initial public
offering statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It reads:
“We do not directly
generate any meaningful revenue from mobile, and our ability to do so
successfully is unproven.”
Jacobs balks at the
statement, citing the social network’s estimated 425 million mobile users as a
huge cash cow which everyone has neglected to milk.
He goes on to cite
numerous successful — monetarily and otherwise — mobile advertising campaigns
put forth by radio stations using techniques such as “pre-roll advertising,
in-app streaming ads with graphics and display ads.”
A group of stations
in the Portland and Seattle markets entered into a multichannel mobile deal
with Papa John’s, enabling listeners to order pizza directly from their
smartphones, and a program in Atlanta struck a deal with Crown Royal, sending
listeners to a mobile site featuring weekly drink specials.
Jacobs also
highlighted an upcoming platform called Publink, a “combination of Groupon and
AroundMe” that uses geolocation and “social sharing” to enable local stations
to reach local businesses who are not normally accessible, due to a lack of interest,
money or both.
All in all, mobile
advertising is a journey just beginning, and Jacobs feels that with dedication,
hard work and an acceptance of change, radio can compete with any platform.
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