I used to quip that the only way to ensure there were no revenue losses in a telco was to provide the service for free. If you believe Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, we will all be getting free mobile phones in future – see here. The only assumption is that we will be so happy to get services for free, that we will not mind being bombarded with adverts. Hmmm… let me think about that…. nope, does not work for me. I think I will be paying any amount to the clever people who write software to block the adverts.
And if that was not enough, you can get a free cellphone in your Second Life too….
But of course, there would still be a need for assurance. The problem with all advertising is assuring that the adverts are value for money. The only way to do that would be to track who buys something after watching an advert. Which means adding to that big bucket of data they are compiling on all of us. Trust me, it is only a matter of time before businesses offer to sponsor our gravestones in return for our regular custom. “Here lies John Smith, who was a loving husband and father of two, and a loyal customer of Wal-Mart. During his life he consumed 4,271 packets of Cheetos, 19,365 cans of Budweiser….”
