CELLPHONE operator Vodacom said yesterday it would be the first local operator to set up a fully fledged business unit to offer mobile advertising services to reach its 25 million users.<\/p>\n
Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig said the mobile advertising industry would be worth R1,5bn, or 4% of the total ad-spend by 2011. He said the company was in a position to make mobile advertising work in the South African market.<\/p>\n
Though the company would not say how much money it would dedicate to the success of the business unit, which will be called On-The-Line, Knott-Craig said it would do whatever it took to ensure the model worked, because mobile advertising was \u201ctoo large a medium to ignore\u201d.<\/p>\n
Rick Joubert, who heads On-The-Line, said the company would focus on selling advertising on its mobile internet sites Vodafone live! and Vodacom4me, which draw a combined 1,4- million users each month.<\/p>\n
Joubert said Vodafone live! already received more hits each month than News24 \u2014 which, according to Nielsen Netresearch, is the country\u2019s most visited website.<\/p>\n
Joubert said another focus would be selling advertising space on Vodacom\u2019s free call-back service, Please Call Me. He said that up to 20-million of these messages were sent each day.<\/p>\n
He said consumers would also be targeted by direct marketing campaigns through messages and adverts delivered by SMS or MMS, but would have to choose to receive these ads.<\/p>\n
Vodacom commercial executive director Romeo Kumalo said: \u201cWe will use free minutes and SMSes to give incentive to people to opt in to receive these messages.\u201d<\/p>\n