54% of Japanese phone users consume ads at least weekly

Once it takes off, it REALLY takes off. Last time we saw the numbers at 44%. Now its already at 54%. Who says we can't consume ads on mobile phones? Its the seventh mass media - the most widely spread technology on the planet in the pockets of one third of the planet, and the only mass media we take physically to bed with us. OF COURSE there will be advertising on mobile phones.

But much more powerful than search words in Google, the most powerful advertising platform will appear on mobile phones in the near future as the capacities of the phones grow beyond the basic first editions of 3G phones. In South Korea and Japan today half of all phones are 3G phones with built-in megapixel cameras, built in video recording, MP3 players and full internet access.

So it is inevitable that advertising will apear on the seventh mass media. Yet the speed of adoption is surprising. Already today, according to latest data by infoplant, reported by Wireless Watch Japan tell us that 54% of Japanese mobile phone users consume advertising on a mobile phone - at least once per week.

What we need, as an industry, is to discover the killer content formats for the seventh mass media. Just like TV in then 1950s when it copied radio formats, but then started to invent new ideas that were not possible on the previous four mass media - like game shows, reality TV etc. And just like the internet (the sixth mass media), which first copied previous media formats, like the front page of the newspaper - but today is discovering its killer content formats, like search (cant' do a search on a print edition of the Wall Street Journal) or community sites like myspace (can't do YouTube in the cinema using the movie projection system and silver screen as our media) or massively multiplayer games (can't connect a million simultaneous users to my Playstation2). The new formats appear - and then with them come the revolutionary new advetising opportunities, like Google's ad words.

So for mobile as the seventh mass media, we need to invent the new content formats (don't try to copy TV clips and do football goal highlights, or copy internet web content and banner ads etc) and THEN build the fantastic new advertising ideas to those. The mobile is the MOST POWERFUL mass media ever. Just consider the huge impact of phones to TV. Just one reality TV format, Pop Idol/American Idol/Australian Idol etc has already generated 1.9 BILLION votes worldwide. At 30 cents per vote this is some mobile content any TV producer would kill for.. And thats not even capitalizing on the true power of mobile. Now in South Korea we are seeing true interactivity on digital broadcast direct to mobile. With over 2 million subscribers to broadcast TV to mobile, they are introducing concepts like interactive ads. If you like the blouse on the starlet in the soap opera, just point to it and you'll be linked to the website where you can buy that blouse for yourself !!  And no, of course you won't miss your soap. The phone is intelligent enough to pause the soap as you make your purchase.

THIS is the start of the kind of advertising we will see. Nicole Kidman loves the after shave of Brad Pitt? On the bottom of the screen - click here to buy the after shave.... Remember on the web it is not possible to click-to-buy. We need credit cards or paypal accounts to buy on the web. But on the phone click-to-buy is not science fiction, it is totally viable today, as the phone is the only mass media with a built-in payment mechanism.