Social Networking driving larger ad spend

Social Networking is increasing become a target of advertisers around the world, as they understand the power of positive brand endorsement. The increase in the amount of Smartphones like the Apple iPhone, Storm, Nokia E90, Palm, HTC and the like, means that this spend is increasingly going to move to the mobile social networks.

A recent study in the US purports that this spend will top $2 billion for the 2008 year and exceed $12 billion for the 2009 year. Applications like Loopt and The Grid have or will be released in the near future. These services take your GPS enabled device and effectively turn them into mobile billboards. As you and your friends approach a vendor close to you, you will receive an advert or directions to the place.

You are then able to invite any of your other friends, that are close by, to join you for coffee or a movie. Once you are done, you are able to leave a note about your experience so that other people, not only your friends, can see how you rate the experience. This really is quite exciting, but……….and you knew this was going to come.

My question is, when does this advertising move from the realm of a traditional information service into a darn nuisance, clearly you would opt in, to receive these services, and while this would be good for the stuff you want, I would assume that once you have opted in you will receive all advertising. This means in more competition in terms of grabbing your attention.

I love the idea of being able to tag your event and let other know how you feel, this though is going to give advertisers a real headache as they are going to have someone to check the posts all of the time. Certainly brands that move into this space (the social network) environment and by default the public domain, will need to ensure that they participate and not leave their brands to the whims of Joe Public.

Below is a link to an article that gave rise to this post….

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20081009/ad-world-lookin-to-turn-iphones-into-21st-century-billboards