Multiple companies in the past have attempted to offer smart phone users the option to view ads on their phones in exchange for a lower monthly bill, and they have failed. Virgin Mobile, for example, offered this as an option quite some time ago, though it was not met with much adoption, so they canceled the service.
Unlockd, an Australian company, however, seems to have figured out the right way to make this successful. More than the right way, it is the right time according to some experts. The company has passed a half million active users with their agreements with a couple of mobile carriers.
Customers get money off their monthly bill by having an advertisement displayed on their unlock screen rather than a picture or whatever they want. This is a fairly unobtrusive ad, but it is almost certainly going to be looked at by the users regularly, which makes it an attractive option for marketers and brands looking to build brand recognition.
One big investor in the company, Sol Trujillo, the former CEO of Telstra Corp, said, “Consumers have been looking for ways to get what they want, sellers have been looking for ways to reach consumers, all enabled by wireless and bandwidth. The carriers have been looking for new revenue streams. There’s a great triangle here where they can generate new revenue off of services their customers choose to take or not.”
Getting advertisments in front of people on their mobile phones is a great opportunity for many marketers, especially if given the option for geo targeting, which should be quite simple on these devices. Another benefit to this is that the advertisers can target users based on a lot of information that can be gathered by the phone itself.
It really is a win-win situation for everyone involved, as long as customers continue to use this feature, it is something that will undoubtedly spread to many other mobile providers.
