The concept of exchanging voice minutes for obligatory ads pushed to handsets is a business model still very much in its infancy, but Blyk -- which currently has a live MVNO in the UK and plans to launch in the Netherlands later this year -- must be feeling good about its chances right now, because it has announced a planned expansion into the German, Belgian, and Spanish markets next year. Key to the service's success is recognition by advertisers that customers actually give a crap about the highly-targeted marketing material being pushed to them; Blyk claims that click-through rates are rockin', which is probably providing the impetus for the planned expansion. We're still not so sure we'd trade 217 text messages and 43 voice minutes a month for the privilege of being blasted with spam targeted promotions, but if they're somehow able to boost the allowance into the range of a typical plan and maintain profitability, they could be sitting on a gold mine.

[Via mocoNews]

Spotted on Wired, we're not quite sure what to make of this ad for Sprint's upcoming Samsung Instinct; we've never much cared for fruits or other fillings in our breakfast batters, but perhaps that's just us.

Marketing its wares straight to consumers is old hat for HTC in the Old World, but stateside? Not so much. That's not to say the HTC name is a total unknown in North America; there's been the odd Advantage here and Shift there, but by and large, we yanks know the Taiwanese firm better for its relatively anonymous efforts in the likes of the AT&T Tilt, Verizon XV6900, Sprint Touch, and countless other carrier-branded devices. That's about to change, though, with a full-court press of TV, print, outdoor, and online advertising targeted squarely at the US market launching this week. The company's first ad in the campaign is posted to YouTube -- no new products here, sadly, but it's an encouraging sign to see that one of the world's most prolific ODMs and smartphone manufacturers now thinks that the American market is mature enough to be dealt with directly. The announcement of the US-spec Touch Dual was a good start, and now, we look forward to seeing a whole heck of a lot more where that came from. Check the first commercial after the break.

Because the mobile industry isn't nearly monetized enough as it is (we jest, we jest), big players have come out of the woodwork at Mobile World Congress this year to announce some pretty heavy initiatives with the goal of revolutionizing the way we're hit up with advertising on our phones. Nokia has actually come forward with two mobile ad headliners: first, the Nokia Media Network is now official, bringing together ads on Nokia's own sites as well as 70-plus publishers' and carriers' properties under a single umbrella, all made possible by the company's 2007 acquisition of Enpocket; second, Nokia Siemens Networks has announced a turnkey solution for folks wishing to bite the targeted mobile ad bullet, spanning from consulting to infrastructure and ad delivery. Meanwhile, the big five carriers in the UK -- Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, O2, and 3 -- have announced that they're working with the GSM Association to develop a common standard for measuring mobile ad reach, a marked change in some of the carriers' typical policies of keeping customer metrics well out of reach of potential advertisers and therefore limiting interest. One of those carriers, O2, has separately revealed that it has launched its own mobile advertising service (take that, Nokia Media Network) following a 2007 trial that will allow advertisers to get really, really down and dirty with their target demos -- age, location, browsing behavior, and so on -- through a system that generated a 6 percent click-through rate in testing. As long as the average phone display stays QVGA or lower, we're pretty sure we're not down with teeny, tiny banner ads all up in our business, but it's the wave of the future, it seems.

[Via mocoNews]

Read - Nokia Media Network
Read - Nokia Siemens Networks
Read - UK mobile companies to develop advertising standards
Read - O2 sets sights on mobile advertising market

There's something not quite right about this ad for Nokia's N95 spotted on Yahoo! today. For what it's worth, clicking it takes you to Nokia USA's page for the North American N95 -- but first of all, the phone here doesn't look exactly like an N95. Yeah, it obviously is, but what's up with the weird edges? Secondly, there is no such thing as a North American N95 8GB (yet), calling into question the "8gb expandable memory" touted here. Third, if this is an N95 8GB, why isn't it black, and why is the memory called expandable when it's not? We figure Nokia's just trying to advertise the plain old N95-3 here, but golly, let's try to execute a slightly cleaner ad campaign next time, okay, guys?

Here's one that is sure to get the pro-privacy crowd all riled up, and rightfully so. Apparently, Verizon is sending out notices to customers that update them on all the fine print, but if you actually take a moment to peruse the documentation, you may notice something you're not exactly kosher with. The carrier is now planning on sharing its database of CPNI records -- which is defined as "data collected by telecommunications corporations about a consumer's telephone calls, including time, data, duration and destination" -- to outside sources unless you take the initiative to opt out. The notice claims that users will have to remove themselves from the process within 30 days of receiving the letter, or else it "will assume that you give the Verizon Companies the right to share your CPNI with the authorized companies as described above." We just can't see this going over well. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via mocoNews]

Sheesh, as if the whole Cingular / AT&T / BellSouth / etc. mishmash hasn't been confusing enough for the general populace, here comes yet another change sure to make folks scratch their noggins a bit more. As AT&T looks to launch a new ad campaign that gloats about "Your Seamless World," the carrier will reportedly paint the blue and white globe orange as a "respectful nod to Cingular." Meanwhile, sign changers are thrilled about all the business pouring in from AT&T recently...

[Via PhoneScoop]

Sprint must figure that if you need a phone whose name includes the phrase "World Edition," you're probably the jet-setting type. Like, the type that needs a private island, apparently. A tipster pointed us out to a pretty clever new ad campaign involving Sprint's BlackBerry 8830 World Edition that offers an enticing combo package: an 8830 for $200 (after contract and rebates, of course) and an "Exotic Island plus amenities" for a shade over ten mil. Total cost: $10.5 million. Of course, if you actually go through the process of trying to place an order, the site calls you out on it -- but here's where it gets interesting, they actually offer to take your information through an email and get you in touch with the appropriate brokers if you are, in fact, serious. Talk about customer service!

[Thanks, Jake]

Maybe it stems from Sprint's bellyaching and subsequent legal action, maybe it stems from the fact that the claim was of questionable accuracy to begin with -- but either way, AT&T is no longer spouting off that it has fewer dropped calls than any other national carrier. It's allegedly part of a larger ad shift to the more nebulous (and less legally binding) "more bars in more places" campaign, but really, we suspect there was just a little too much heat coming from various competitors, consumer advocacy groups, and individual subscribers to continue bothering to attempt to back up the statement. So, readers: if it's not AT&T with the fewest dropped calls, who is it? Thoughts?

[Via Wired]

Sure, we've seen a plethora of interactive billboards before, but Mark Ecko's (credit to Benjamin Busse) latest eye-catcher could seriously make you miss your ride. This brilliantly designed ad sports an LCD that can be painted up by your Bluetooth cellphone, as it allows passers to use their mobile as a spray can to decorate the screen as they please. No word on whether this thing accepts multiple connections or not, but a tagging duel would be mighty fine entertainment whilst waiting on the next bus.

[Via AdGoodness, thanks John]

Let's face it: the prototypical handset user isn't apt to favor advertising much at all, but a recent research study commissioned by mobile media publisher MoMac found that owners seemed to prefer the tried and true text-based flavor when all was said and done. More specifically, 56-percent of the 1,400 surveyed favored text-based ads, while picture / banner ads came in as the second most popular with a thumbs-up given by some 29-percent of respondents. Interestingly, a quarter of the males in the crowd preferred video advertising over all other methods, and the 16-to-24 age group was found to like video ads nearly twice as much as those 55 years or older. So, how's about you, dear readers? Do the less invasive text-based plugs gather your love more often than those oh-so-tempting videos?

[Image courtesy of TheRawFeed]

Although this certainly won't go down as the first attempt to integrate cellphones into discrete marketing, Japan's largest online shopping mall operator is apparently taking advantage of the country's oh-so-superior handsets and offering up tantalizing "promotional videos" for consumers who snap pictures of ads. Rakuten is reportedly set to hand out thousands of pilot issues of a magazine, Zero90, in hopes that mobile-wielding readers will snap photos of certain articles in exchange for a free commercial intellectually stimulating media clip. While this sounds an awful lot like QR codes, the actual technology used in the pages isn't mentioned, but we do know that Japan-based Clementec is behind it -- and you thought print media had too many plugs as is.

[Via Physorg]

It's no secret that cellphone manufacturers and carriers alike are getting quite crafty with their marketing approaches, but Symbian went straight for the low-blow with its Boo-Hoo campaign. Frankly, the site (and more specifically, the Boo-Hoo For You video) slams the Western smartphone for not being as "technically capable" as the Symbian phones overseas, but we're not quite sure we're following all the slighting. Aside from being a bit weirded out by a talking Pac-man lookalike and a hump-backed eraser, we're not so sure that Big Brother being right there on your cellphone at all times is actually a perk. Additionally, e-wallets and cellphone-based ticketing aren't exactly Symbian exclusives, and having the nerve to actually flaunt an "aroma phone" just about nixes any and all credibility this wacky cartoon had left. Nevertheless, we're sure this here promo was intended less for informative purposes and more for water-cooler jabbing, so click on through to see what the fuss is all about. [Warning: Psychedelic video could induce epilepsy]

[Via S60, thanks Stefan C.]

Hot on the heels of Nokia's own bus stop gimmick comes none other than Solo, which has erected a clever display on a number of waiting areas to allow perfect strangers to yap it up on giant mobiles. The interactive billboards each sport a larger-than-usual flip phone, which allows curious onlookers to mash an enlarged walkie talkie button and get on the horn with a faraway stranger. The active two-way radio setup was reportedly installed in transit shelters in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary, and the system supposedly connects users in the different cities to one another when a conversation is initiated. Unfortunately, Engadget HQ doesn't happen to reside in the land of the Canucks, so for our brethren in the north, why not stop on by and give a shout to a fellow Canadian, eh?

[Via Core77]

Where we come from, we were raised to believe that WAP-based content is intended to be simple, straight to the point, and free from distraction. After all, depending on the handset, you could be dealing with a bare minimum of screen real estate -- not to mention slow connections (in some areas, anyway) and impatient users. Be that as it may, Verizon Wireless is looking to imbue its walled garden of news, weather, and sports content with banner ads (can they really be called "banner" ads on screens that small?) starting early next year. To be fair, Verizon's fully aware of the revenue boon they could be looking at here, but its VP of marketing and digital media says "we likely will not - we want to take it carefully and methodically, and enable the right experience." Famous last words, Verizon; famous last words indeed. We'll be counting on you to set the right tone for industry moderation on this one.

[Thanks, srizah]