Boost Mobile brings opt-out ads to mobile site

March 19th, 2008, 10:03 am · Post a Comment · posted by Sonya Smith

Irvine’s Boost Mobile announced today the addition of ads to the web homepage customers see on their phones. This is the first step in Boost’s partnership with mobile advertising company, Amobee based in Redwood City, after the two firms joined together last summer.

One ad per page will appear on the BoostLIVE portal and Web home page. The first ads (example at left, larger ad example is shown at right), expected to appear starting today, are for Fox Searchlight Pictures’ April 11 release of “Street Kings.” Other slated ads are for Acura’s 2009 TSX. The ads don’t incur any additional charges and customers can opt out of receiving the ads by calling Boost customer service at 888-266-7848 (888-Boost-4u).

Boost’s Director of Emerging Products, Lowell Winer said that the main idea is to make mobile ads non-intrusive and to go after advertisers that fit in with Boost subscribers.

Winer said the ads will be interactive - meaning that a click on the ad will bring up more information about the product. In the future, he said Boost may include ads in text and multimedia messages and possibly in applications. Amobee’s site boasts that it can provide completely-ad-funded apps that customers can use or play for free.

“Mobile advertising is an excellent vehicle for reaching a growing segment of younger consumers who are drifting away from traditional mediums such as TV and print,” said Neil Lindsay, vice president of product development, Boost Mobile. And, according to data released March 4 by research firm Nielsen, 14 percent of people are “open to mobile advertising so long as it is relevant to their interests.”

That Nielsen study talked to cell users who used at least one non-voice mobile service during the fourth quarter of 2007. The study also found that:

58 million people recalled seeing a mobile ad during 4Q 2007 (up from 42 million during Q2 2007).
26 percent of those who saw an ad responded at least once via text message; 9 percent clicked to call a phone number on an ad.
13 percent of people said they are open to mobile ads if it improves the media content currently available.

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