| Opinion: Can 3G shed dirty mac image? By Lars Becker |
| Saturday, 31 May 2003 | |
|
Media Week, June 2003 - 3G, the acronym for third generation networks, promises to be the new superhighway for mobile data, transforming our black and white mobile world into a colourful, image and audio-enhanced experience. 3G is also frequently described as the acronym for Girls, Games and Gambling, the type of content likely to become most prevalent on 3G handsets.Is this assumption as contentious as it sounds? If it is not, how will the association of 3G with a “grubby man in rain coat” image impact the usage of 3G? The content that first kept almost any new medium afloat is adult content. It fuelled video recorders in the 1970s and DVD in the 1990s. This trend has even continued across the least visually rich medium: text messaging. A well-known industry statistic is that adult “chat” services account for 70% of revenues from even the black and white 160 characters of SMS. Combine this history with the fact that the mobile phone itself presents a perfect combination of ingredients for visual adult content to be successful. Take one immensely personal and private medium, utilise the already built-in billing platform, add more technology to enable the handset to receive visually rich images, and the end result is a perfectly baked device for chargeable, compelling and “private” content. These features will also provide limitless opportunities for brands to wirelessly communicate with consumers in a more compelling way than before. However, one effect of 3G’s association with adult content is that brands may think more than twice about running promotions and services via 3G networks.The inevitable prevalence of adult content over mobiles throws up some serious issues, such as the policing and regulation of adult content and a need to ensure mobile adult content doesn’t get into the wrong hands. Vodafone recently publicised its plans to launch adult content services on Vodafone Live! But there is yet to be any guarantee that children will be protected from receiving it. The limited segment of the population attracted to buying and using 3G handsets may also put off some brands from using the medium as a marketing and advertising tool. The only 3G operator in the UK – 3 – is targeting 18 to 35-year-old males. The brand’s positioning is already closely aligned to Channel Five’s old positioning of the infamous 3Fs, with its titillating and laddish style of advertising. While this segment is clearly lucrative, there is the other half of the population to consider, as well as older age groups, whose interests lie outside all this. 3’s focus on the third G is also only likely to get stronger. While they’ve done a good job at achieving awareness, they are reported to have spent tens of millions in getting there and only have 10,000 subscribers to show for it (including those getting the freebie on the Friends and Family scheme). Soon the need to start generating real revenues – and thus the pressure to sell out to adult content – will become stronger. Similarly for the other networks, the burden of debt from operators’ 3G licences will lead them to turn to this content. My hope is that the sight of lads fiddling with their mobile phones won’t put off the rest of the industry from using them. © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. Unauthorized use of any content constitutes a material breach. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|