Whether you love Microsoft or hate them, one thing is for certain: when the big “M” makes a move, the computer and high tech industry takes notice. With that in mind, Microsoft’s latest move is toward mobile cell phone advertising, an area that has been unable to find its feet so far, due to consumer resentment of being presented with ads on cell phones.
Microsoft’s new mobile advertising program is called Zumobi, and the company is sinking big money into this alternative advertising format. Investing heavily in the (yet to turn a profit) field of mobile advertising would be seen as a monumental risk for most companies. But Microsoft, being the mammoth software company they are, can easily afford to take a few risks, so Zumobi is not quite the “do or die” situation for them that it would be for most other high-tech companies.
Cell phone advertising is seen as risky for a few reasons. Chief among these is the perception by cell phone users that advertising is an intrusion of their mobile experience and privacy. Other companies have tried placing ads sporadically on cell phone networks with very little success. So what makes Microsoft think that Zumobi can succeed where so many others have failed?
The biggest difference between Zumobi and previous cell phone ads are that Zumobi ads do not look or function like conventional advertising. Zumobi uses a special interface design that presents “tiles” that users can choose to click on to access online stores such as Amazon.com.
Microsoft’s approach appears to be much less intrusive than previous attempts at cell phone advertising, and may have the greatest chance yet of succeeding. Another huge difference is that consumers will have the chance to choose which Zumobi “tile” applications they would like to have on their phone. This freedom of choice, and the intuitive, non-intrusive way that Zumobi works makes it feel less like advertising, and more like a free bonus extra to help consumers locate and find products online.
For example, Zumobi’s Amazon.com “tile” allows users to easily search for books, music or DVDs within the Amazon store from a convenient cell phone optimized interface. These types of applications have proven to be more “consumer friendly” than standard “in your face” advertising.
But with Microsoft dominating so much of our online life (nearly 90% of computers worldwide use Windows for example), do we really need the company dominating our cell phones as well? Many Microsoft critics think the company is too big already, and resent the excursion into cell phone ads.
But the real success or failure of Zumobi will be measured by its usefulness to consumers, and its ability to contribute to sales for advertisers. It will take a very clever interface to remain non-intrusive to cell phone users, and still be a worthwhile sales tool for advertisers. Can Microsoft pull this off? With Zumobi officially launching early in 2008, we will find out very soon.
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