If you are looking for a new way to advertise a product check out www.splads.com They use a new technique where they work with mobile phone application developers and desktop software application developers to put your ad in a splash screen. The clever part is by doing that they allow the developers to give away full free versions of their software, not just lite versions. Anyway SPLADS stands for splash screen ads. Just passing it along...
I believe this year mobile advertising will be big and new forms of advertising on mobiles will appear such as this one. Ray
It will definitely will be big in 2010, big and annoying. Content already loads slow enough on my phone, if it starts getting even slowing having to go through pages of pop up ads in between content, I will likely just quit browsing sites that have it.
FYI I am not a spanner. I actually own a small limo company in the NYC area and came across the splad site by accident... I called them to see what the deal was and if it looks good I'll share it...I just thought it was cool to be able to advertise my company on a mobile device.
for anyone interested I did speak with them..and what they explained was that it was NOT a pop up for websites or anything like that, they have a "marketplace" of mobile application developers they maintain. So for my limousine company they would contact application developers who sell travel related applications (flight status, planning, expense managers etc..). the "Splads" people make a deal with the developer to pay them to give away FOR FREE X number of their PAID apps (ie 2500) for a fixed price. So my limo company (Not saying name to avoid "spam" title) would pay to purchase the apps and become a sponsor of that original "for pay" application so to speak. The developers place a SPLAD (Splash screen ad) on the application which would normally cost money but now mobile users get it for free (the NON lite version) the deal is to get the free FULL version you just see a Splash Ad - SPLAD instead of the "loading screen) and there is a link inside the application. Its novel and I'm waiting to hear back on pricing but thats all I will say about that!
i think the business model would work... application costs a lot and users would not mind seeing ads in exchange for a free application.. and splash screen tends to be large and hard to ignore..
Thanks for the comments. I'm an owner of Splads and I'm glad to see that the concept is generally well received. Any other feedback is welcome and appreciated. Stevestuff - the website is a work in progress. Any tools that you'd like to see?