Image credit: Gruntzooki @ Flickr
The rise and rise of free stuff
You’d be hard-pressed to miss the rise of free media content. In general, we’re expecting more for less – reading more free news online, downloading more free music online, enjoying more texts, more call-time minutes, watching telly on the internet, and getting the latest news through our phones. There are so many ways we can get so much stuff — and we’re not really paying for any of it.
But what we are doing is watching, seeing, hearing and consuming a lot more advertising.
Medium as messenger
Like it or loathe it, the business model is as simple as it is ubiquitous. It’s a bit like a local newspaper – it’s free in the local area and it’s paid for by local businesses advertising their cars, flowers or legal services. It’s the way commercial radio and commercial television work. It’s also a model that’s powered the internet’s growth.
Recently, we’ve also seen the idea applied to Spotify’s basic accounts. It’s fine to listen to any music, just as long as you don’t mind the odd advert every few songs. And now, it’s something that looks set to expand into the telecommunications market.
Ringing in the changes
Ringback Tone Advertising reflects the rise, if nothing else, of its platform. In basic terms, it replaces the normal dial tone for their callers with an advert, so that if you call somebody, you’ll hear an advert for a big firm instead of a ring-ring. But even if that sounds a little distasteful, it’s not the whole story. Existing subscribers using Ringback Tone Advertising in Turkey (with Turkcell) receive benefits including free call time and text messages as incentives to subscribe to the service. This isn’t unique, either, as something similar’s going on in India, where OnMobile has monetised its subscriber base with Ad RingBack Tones, or AdRBT.
But the benefits for businesses can’t be ignored. For the companies doing the advertising, there’s no disruption – the adverts are direct and the caller’s almost certainly going to listen to them. What’s more, the possibilities for interactivity with other mediums are numerous.
It also creates revenue for carriers and firms alike – and it’s being seen as a new kind of income for Google, whose innovative approach to advertising has so far managed to sidestep criticism.
The bigger question: is it coming here?
Google has filed a patent under ‘Ringback Advertising’ in the US – which means it will be a new kind of income for the search giant, using the same methods it uses to monetise websites with Google Ads. So, while we can expect it will be integrated with Google Voice (a service that lets you communicate seamlessly across multiple devices, currently accessible by invitation only) when it’s released, what we don’t yet know is how it will work. Google Voice will be free – but will its users accept and tolerate the idea of ringtone adverts played at them when they’re calling their pals? And since Google already knows a lot about how we search online, will they also start tailoring these audio adverts to our calling habits, locations and age demographic?
So it’s back to us – the consumers. Consumers who really like free stuff, and who are increasingly picky about what, and how, we consume. If we end up paying for a service that still plays adverts to us, we probably won’t be impressed. And that’s before issues with advert length, and whether or not the advert stops when we’re connected. It also leads to questions about Google – and whether or not they’re in danger of losing fans with this one.