For BigPond read Big Brother (Orwell's not Endemol's)

Stuart Corner
Monday, 16 June 2008 09:40

Opinion and Analysis

Our intelligent network knows you are about to walk past the local BMW dealership. Using our knowledge of your preferences and search history, our wireless broadband content, our network that knows where you are, and our billing relationships with the car dealer and with you, Telstra can send directly to your mobile phone a targeted advertisement for the car dealership. In fact, we can send you a barcode giving you a discount on the car. And we can measure exactly what you do when you receive that mobile ad."

According to Milne, the three screens - PC, mobile, TV - "are now created equal except that our screens are interactive and, unlike passive television audiences, the behaviour of our audience is directly measurable." Yes and the aim of measurement is to increase influence. But at what point does 'influence' become 'control'?

Sorry Telstra, but over my dead body will you get that kind of information on me. However I am clearly in a minority. Milne revealed some stats on mobile advertising. "In the past six months alone the number of [mobile] ads we serve has jumped 150 percent, and once at advertisers' sites, 30 to 50 percent of customers sent go on to engage in a 'call-to-action' – whether that is to buy, download, sign-up, etc. The market is clearly much more willing to consider mobile advertising than it was even six months ago, and it is still very much in the gestation phase."

I suppose a still-birth is too much to hope for.