Mobile phones poised ‘to replace TV as most important advertising medium'
Mobile telephones and other wireless communication devices will soon become the most important medium for advertisers to reach technology-savvy consumers, one of the world's leading advertising executives said yesterday.
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The forecast by Andrew Robertson, chief executive of Omnicom's BBDO advertising agency, the world's third-biggest, underscores the uncertainties facing advertisers in developed markets as they shift from their traditional dependence on television.
The problem for advertisers is that technological developments such as the spread of digital video recorders are giving consumers the ability to avoid TV commercials.
Mr Robertson said he believed the way forward for advertisers would be to use wireless devices such as mobile phones, laptop computers and the BlackBerry e-mail devices favoured by travelling corporate executives on the go to reach consumers.
“We are rapidly getting to the point where the single most important medium that people have is their wireless device,” he said. “It's with them every single moment of the day. It's genuinely the convergence box that everyone has been talking about for so many years.”
Mr Robertson, a 44-year-old native of Zimbabwe with experience of the London advertising industry, was named chief executive of BBDO last year in what was seen as an attemptto shake up an agency knownfor its TV commercials.
While stressing the importance of reaching consumers on wireless devices, Mr Robertson was open about the difficulties this will create for advertising agencies.
Unlike television viewers, mobile phone users are unaccustomed to commercial interruptions. To reach them, agencies will have to develop content so engaging that mobile phone users will it seek out a tall order.
“You have no way to interrupt because they can choose what they can do,” Mr Robertson said. “The opportunity is if you can create some content that they want to engage with, they can do that all of the time from anywhere.”
Mr Robertson spoke as BBDO released a report that said consumers are now more willing to live without television than without mobile phones or home computers.
The agency asked nearly 3,000 typical consumers in 15 countries to choose the communications device they would most want to keep. Forty-five per cent said their home computers, 31 per cent their mobile phones and 12 per cent their televisions. In China, 61 per cent opted for mobile phones, compared with 30 per cent for home computers and 4 per cent for televisions.
The survey found that mobile phones users like to stay connected even while they are asleep. More than 60 per cent said they kept their phones on and within reach 21 to 24 hours a day, and 15 per cent said that figure was 16 to 20 hours a day.
手机将“取代电视成为最重要广告媒体”
一位全球著名的广告业高管昨天说，不久广告客户将把移动电话和其它无线通信设备作为最重要媒体，向“高科技迷”消费者投放广告。
该预测由奥姆尼康(Omnicom)旗下BBDO广告公司的首席执行官安德鲁?罗伯逊(Andrew Robertson)做出。这一预测突出表明，随着发达市场的广告客户从对电视的传统依赖转向其它媒体，这些广告客户面临变数。BBDO广告公司是世界第三大广告公司。
广告客户面临的问题是，科技的发展，如数码录像机的普及等，让消费者有能力回避电视广告。
罗伯逊先生表示，他相信今后广告客户的方向将是利用无线设备，如手机、笔记本电脑，以及经常旅行的企业经理青睐的黑莓(BlackBerry)电子邮件设备等，把广告传递到消费者那里。
“我们正快速接近这一时刻，那就是最重要的媒体平台将是人们的无线设备，”他说，“这些设备每时每刻都在他们身边。这才是所有人这么多年来一直在讨论的、集各种功能于一身的盒子。”
罗伯逊先生现年44岁，是津巴布韦本地人，有着伦敦广告业的工作经历。他去年被任命为BBDO的首席执行官，此举被认为是对以电视广告闻名的BBDO进行大重组的一项尝试。
在强调通过无线设备向消费者传递信息的重要性的同时，罗伯逊先生也坦率地承认，这将给广告公司造成一些困难。
与电视观众不同，移动电话用户不习惯商业广告的打扰。为了向他们投放广告，广告公司必须开发非常有吸引力的内容，以吸引移动电话用户。
“你没有办法打断，因为他们可以选择他们想要做的事情，”罗伯逊先生说，“机会在于，如果你能创造出一些他们感兴趣的东西，他们可以在任何地方任何时间收看广告。”
