Is it Time to Rethink Mobile Marketing?

CNET’s Elinor Mills reports on a Nielsen//NetRatings and WebVisible study today that indicates that a whopping 92% felt that receiving local business ads on their cell phones would be “irritating.” This doesn’t bode well for mobile marketers, many of whom are hoping to bank on the hyper local third screen.

Other key (non-mobile-related) findings:

• 56% “only get ads they want or need” from the Internet; television, 53%.
• 80% researched a product online and bought it at a brick-and-mortar.
• 74% use search engines to find local businesses in retail and services (versus paper yellow pages, 65%; Internet yellow pages, 50%; newspapers, 44%; white pages, 33%; TV, 29%; and consumer review sites, 18%).

My favorite findings, however, were that almost 75% of the 2000 people surveyed felt they are overexposed to advertising already. And participants agreed that having ads sent to them is only slightly more preferable than using search engines to find businesses.

Um, what? The vast majority of people think we’re overexposed to ads, but the same people still prefer advertising to finding businesses and products themselves? Are we going to be eating our cake and having it, too, now?

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