If only for a minute, everyone was thought their phones were safe from advertising. Unfortunately, our void is being filled. At the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show in Los Angeles our time ran out. With wireless carries, developers, and media mongrels converging the first stepping stones were set in which will become an estimated $11 billion revenue in just five years.

So what exactly is mobile advertising? No, its not putting stickers on the side of your car and shouting “Crazy Jimmy Johns Sandwich Shop!” Some examples include 10 second commercials, text messaging (delete), priority placement on your search results, banner ads, and more. Members at the convention believed that consumers would welcome advertisements on their phone. Sure, as long as we get something in return and as long as we can turn it off. So what will consumers get out of mobile advertising? InfoSpace’s Find It! application to search for restaurants, banks, movies, the Playboy Mansion, and more. Right now, Find It! costs Sprint Nextel users an wallet crunching $2.99 per month (sarcasm). InfoSpace’s Vice President Rod Diefendorf hopes to make the service free with ad support.

So what do I think? I think it’s way to early to estimate the possible success of mobile marketing. Think back to advertising on the internet. Click through rates on banner ads used to be 7% - 10%. It’s really hard to sustain that level and in direct marketing we must forever change the way we do things. Hopefully mobile marketing will give us that spark that we once had online. Read