The battle between Microsoft, Google and Yahoo for the advertising market has made visible the way marketing will be done in the near future. Making a follow-up of my last post, I wanted to point out the main drivers of this Battle for Titans.
WiFi access: the idea is to offer free access to internet for all. Google has already fully covered the US city Mountain View and is pursuing San Francisco in a battle with Microsoft. Lots of companies like “The cloud”, Boingo, Earthlink, FON, among many others are creating huge WiFi networks, covering entire cities and making partnerships with these giants. But obviously there’s a business model behind, and is “Targeted advertising”. This kind of ads would provide relevant content and services, including weather, news, and local government services, as well as restaurant, nightlife, and movie listings. People has to accept advertisements instead of paying for the access, but this time, they know your location and they can offer to their business customers in this way a much efficient marketing campaigns.
Free cell phones: Recently in an interview, the Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, stated the idea that cell phones should be free for everyone. The devices should be paid fully, as well as internet access, by targeted advertising. This is exactly what I was talking about in my last post, they know your interests, your location, and so, they can make really sharp efficient ads that could result interesting to you. Let’s make an example; you’re going to the supermarket to buy the groceries. In an association with the supermarket and Google, they have the history of the things you buy and a way to reach you; so, you enter the supermarket and immediately after, you receive a message saying: “Your favorite Swiss chocolates are in offer today” or “The products a, b and c, that you normally buy have a 15% discount for you today”.
With these new marketing approaches, you just have to correlate information to get incredibly efficient services. Right now we can just see the top of the iceberg, but below, there are ideas that will appear before our eyes in a vertiginous speed.