15/08/2008

The next big thing in advertising may be the use of mobile phones to sell products, according to an industry expert.

Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, was recently at Digital Hollywood's Building Blocks 2008 conference, and said he spent most of his time at sessions on mobile phone advertising.

Currently, the biggest spend is on television advertising (around £25 billion) - over twice as much as internet, and a lot more than the mobile market, he claims.

However, he said that 'given the transformation of viewing habits, it's clear that a sea change is in the works.

'[Smartphones] could represent the most important advertising platform we have ever known, and all types of companies in all types of industries are even now trying to figure out how to include mobile advertising in their overall campaigns.'

One way of mobile marketing he has thought of is the use of a phone's GPS system.

For instance, it would know where a person is and so could alert them if one of their favourite bands is playing there soon.

It would get all the necessary information from the GPS, the music folder and the calendar.