Giving users control over advertising

Says Antonio Vince Staybl, CEO of Gofresh, “Really relevant advertising is to ask and to listen to your customers. Let them choose their channels and let them take control. That's how spending ad-money and branding makes sense and builds trust.

“Requested advertising will push social networks from the midfield to the first place as regards reaching the right audience,” he adds.

The idea is to create a win-win situation for users and advertisers. One the one hand, users only get advertising which is really relevant to them and does not bother or bore them. This increases the time and attention they dedicate to these brands and products significantly. On the other hand, advertisers are able to target exactly those people who are really interested and not just fit in a specified target.

Booking for advertisers and media agencies is easy as the channels offered to the users are identical to those which can be booked in all mobile ad networks. The results of advertising, however, are reported to be higher. A first test with 20 000 users in UK and US showed that 82% of the users made their personal advertising choice and thus their own targeting. Around 40% changed these targets a few times in the first week to see which ads they would get. First Campaigns presented to these users showed average results of more than 3% CTR.

Mikko Saarelainen, head of itsmy.com, says, “The best user feedback so far - ‘I need six more ad-channels' and ‘Hey guys, could I please have more of the movie trailers!'”

http://mobile.itsmy.com's inventory is handled by Gofresh's Mobile Social Ad Network (www.gofresh-advertising.com). itsmy is a brand of Gofresh.