Mobile Ads Often Miss the Mark with Users

Despite the hoopla over mobile, many mobile ads fail to connect with users, argues Sam Grobart in a recent "Bloomberg Businessweek" article. Simply repurposing banner ads and interstitial ads (pop-ups) for mobile devices may not work because mobile users find them uninformative or disruptive, according to ad experts interviewed.  To quote Eric Picard, chief executive officer of Rare Crowds, an ad technology company: "Most mobile advertising is done as an afterthought. Immature designers have just sort of slapped banner ads in there." On pop-ups, the comment from Al Rotches, a Web ad designer who has worked on Internet campaigns for Barack Obama, Honda Motor, and Trojan Brand Condoms, is telling: "When I’m on my phone, this is my thing. I don’t want to be tracked; I don’t want to be interrupted." For more, including mobile ad trends for Google, Facebook and Twitter, see http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/mobile-ads-are-the-future-dot-theyre-also-lousy