Monday, December 10, 2012

Ads following users from one mobile device to another

I thought this article was timely and relevant given our discussion last week about mobile advertising.

This story is about a new start-up company, Drawbridge, that has figured out a way to help advertisers follow users from one mobile device to another. Essentially, the company's technology can determine if you visited a retail site on your home computer today and will send you a related advertisement on your mobile device tomorrow. Drawbridge's technology does this by looking at the cookies from your mobile or desktop device and use its "bridging" algorithm to assess the probability that the two cookies from the two different sources belong to the same person.

Drawbridge has attracted many investors including KPCB because they believe that privacy is being maintained while bridging a gap in the mobile channel. The article continues to discuss how 2011 mobile advertising spend was only 1% of total U.S. spending yet mobile browsing represented 10% of people's consumption time. Mobile still remains un-monetized. As such, investors speculate that this technology could increase ROI by 2-3x.

On the contrary, there are some people who are still skeptical about how anonymous this data collection really is and if user information/privacy is being protected. Additionally, they are concerned about the overall effectiveness of mobile ads and the ability to monetize them. I suppose only time will tell as marketers spend more on their mobile advertising strategy.

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