Research firm Gartner (News - Alert), has forecasted that the global mobile advertising market alone will be worth over $12 billion by 2011 and advises carriers to rise to some key challenges if they want to realize their advertising ambitions.

 

King-Yew Foong, research director at Gartner emphasized that first and foremost, telecom carriers should differentiate their approach to the advertising market especially because advertising money is being pursued by their immediate telecom competitors, consumer device manufacturers such as Nokia (News - Alert), and Internet-related companies like Google, Yahoo, MySpace and Microsoft.

Foong suggests telecom carriers leverage their access to multiple delivery channels, including Short Message Service (SMS) Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) e-mail, fixed and mobile Internet search activities, location-based services and broadband/Internet Protocol TV (IPTV (News - Alert)) portals.

 

In order to compete effectively for advertising revenue, telecom carriers must convince advertisers and marketers of the effectiveness and value of their approach as well as distinguish their value proposition from companies such as Google (News - Alert), Yahoo, Microsoft and traditional media such as television broadcasters and newspapers.

Gartner believes that carriers can fulfill their advertising ambitions by tapping their inherent strengths including their relationships with customers, knowledge of local markets, extensive customer databases, network control and multiple channel access.

Foong further explained that carriers can expect to become an integral part of consumers’ lifestyles when they can reliably deliver relevant advertisements to them. This can be acheived by closer cooperation and partnerships with other businesses, such as retailers, restaurants and cinemas.

The telecom carriers keen on seizing the opportunities presented by the growing online and mobile advertising sectors should be persistent in their efforts and take a long-term perspective.