The debate about whether mobile ads will be different to online ads is pretty much over (yeah, they’re different), and there are some extra regulatory constraints which have to be taken into account which could impede progress or protect consumer rights, depending on your point of view. “The most critical problem for advertisers and carriers is that some types of mobile advertising—including those that may be most effective and therefore most lucrative—require express customer consent, either to receive the ads in the first place, or for use of the customer data in developing or targeting the ad. Yet the rules for obtaining such consent can be uncertain, and even when they are not, they may be difficult to meet in the context of a mobile device” writes Ad Age, writing about the US I think.

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SMS ads are seen as one of the most effective advertising methods but in countries where people pay to receive SMS, they’re going to get a little narky about it. Also, if they haven’t given permission then it’s likely the message would qualify as spam and therefore be illegal. The same applies to using a person’s location or general service usage to target ads—“The communications laws generally prohibit carriers from using or disclosing for marketing purposes information about their customers’ use of the service except with express, opt-in consent. And the laws impose a stricter standard of consent for the use of location information for anything other than emergency services.” That’s all fine and reasonable, but FCC rules require that notice of how and what information will be used must be given “proximate” to the consent, which requires advertisers to fit a meaningful notice onto a mobile screen. Personally, I’d like to see a T&S put down in 160 characters. These issues will eventually get sorted out, the tricky part will be doing so before bad practices alienate people and lawsuits start occuring.