Yesterday I posted on how people didn't really want to watch ads in exchange for free online video. Similar stories have been written about mobile devices and the slowness with which people have become comfortable with ads being delivered to them.

Next up are GPS devices. While the gadgets are beginning to become more popular, with 30 percent of U.S. households now having one or planning to buy one this year, their usefulness as an ad platform remains murky at best. 75 percent of respondents have voiced extreme displeasure at the thought of receiving unsolicited ads on their devices. That's likely because GPS systems are utilitarian in nature, serving to replace paper maps and make finding things easier because of the ability to search.

Less than half of respondents to the survey, 44 percent, even express a willingness to have directions to restaurants and attractions delivered without their asking for it. While the MediaPost story doesn't give explicit numbers on this, it's easy to assume based on the other responses that a good deal of GPS users would be open to ads being served to them if they were permission-based or were part of a profile the user had filled out signaling certain areas of interest.

Just about every major wireless phone network is planning on rolling out some form of "watch an ad in exchange for X" program in 2007. Some, like Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, are planning offering premium service or some form of content in exchange for the ads. Others are going more straightforward, offering reduced bills as an incentive to view ads.

Because of the ubiquitous nature of cellphones in today's culture there was little doubt that advertising would come to the platform sooner or later. What has held it up for this long is the technology for delivering the ads - at least ads that companies would be happy with delivering. Now, though, with more phones being equipped for not just voice and text capabilities but also video and music, the technology is at a point where multimedia ads can be efficiently delivered. Still, the cost of the service to the consumer has been holding up the mass adoption of those multimedia services.

Compared to other regions of the world, adoption of cellphones in the U.S. is relatively low still, meaning that the cost of features such as email has not come down at the same rate as voice service has. Even though the young people sought after by advertisers might be leading that adoption charge, some marketers don't see the mobile audience as big enough to pour significant money into.

Introductory Note: Rounding up all of the goodness that is the world of television cross-promotion.

Sprint will be delivering "24"-related content to its mobile phone users to promote the just-premiered sixth season of the show. That includes streaming video, games and more but unfortunately doesn't give users the ability to get a ringtone of Jack Bauer saying "Pick up the phone or millions of people will die" which I think is what we all want.

One good thing about the existing upfront system is that when advertisers pay a relatively cheap price for a show and then it winds up being a decent success, as in the case of "Ugly Betty", they wind up looking like geniuses. The show has become the biggest value on TV, with ads running about $1.85 for every 100 veiwers.

I have to believe that the biggest reason the creative team behind "Lost" have announced their intentions to set an end-date for the show is to lure back viewers. Some watchers had written off the show, signaling their frustration with unanswered questions, mysterious polar bears and mysteries that seem to go absolutely no where. By showing they are thinking of wrapping things up and actually answering those questions.

What's that huge, glossy screen on the newly announced Apple iPhone perfect for? That's right - advertisements. No longer will mobile advertisers feel hemmed in and constrained by the minimalist displays on mobile devices. Now they have a screen that can display their fabulous creative work in the sharp, full-color glory that it deserves. It even gives advertisers the beachhead they were looking for in order to deliver video ads to mobile users, providing yet another needed platform for the re-purposing of TV spots.

I will now go swallow my own tongue.

Oh, and to the guy who says the iPhone will need 5 million users a month to attract "serious" ad revenue? Who are you kidding? These are tech savvy early adopters with a bunch of disposable income. Get serious.

For some time now, we've been hearing rumors that "the new at&t" would be changing the name of its wireless carrier, which is currently Cingular, but contains part of the old debacle AT&T Wireless, to at&t. Whether or not they are going to make it lower case or not isn't the issue here, it's the fact that they're changing Cingular's name at all. The amount of money that was spent to not only build the infrastructure and the customer base that it currently has, and have it be a "new" company (I've been a customer almost a decade, from when it was Cellular One in New Jersey) rather than an old world one that just happens to have bought its way into the future has to be staggering, but they for some reason feel the need to, now that the megaconglomerate with a lot less employees than it had before the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the divestiture of Ma Bell has sort of reformed itself.

I'm not really sure what the point of it is, unless you really think that people are going to harken back to the olden days of yore (ten plus years ago) when good old AT&T was providing them with phone service at home, or maybe back to the 70s and 80s when you had a nice rotary phone that weighed a ton and you rented from the phone company. What, rented a phone? Wow, and we think that today's terms and conditions are out of control.

On Wednesday, Engadget's Ryan Block mentioned that the company was looking to have the rebranding in place by the time that the Apple iPhone was released, so we're talking June-time here. Aside from the fact that a rebrand may leave Jeff Burton's #31 Chevrolet without a sponsor, potentially, why are they just flipping the switch over to a name that isn't relevant to the younger generation in this company, except for when they are reading about technology? Kids these days don't have at&t products, unless they're (now) Cingular customers or happen to have DSL at home that's brought together by them. The only reason that the next generation is going to "know" at&t is because they bought their way into their lives and changed the names (back and forth) from a ton of companies that they sort of owned in the first place, but willingly changed the names of when the companies split up. I understand the value of speaking in "one voice" to your customers, and maybe that works with bringing in new ones, but what about your existing ones who actually like what Cingular is about, think the jack is a cool logo, like the orange and black colors, and so on and so forth? If investments such as that are waste-able (which is what is going on here) then why bother being creative at all? Why don't we just go back and call everything what it originally was, just so we can make a connection with people who aren't going to be your core customers for the next two decades? I think if A&P will change it's name back to The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, I'd definitely shop there more often. Not. Bell Atlantic changing its name to Verizon (say what you want about the name) actually made sense because the company wasn't just Bell Atlantic anymore. Cingular changing its name "back" to at&t is pure vanity.

Jacks, anyone?

I mentioned last week that AT&T was looking to sell advertising across the platforms it sells; wireless phone, TV and internet. Well the company has just announced that Chase Card Services has signed up as the first three-screen ad partner. Chase is sponsoring Swampstock 2006, a music festival being held in Rayville, Louisiana. AT&T will have exclusive distribution rights to the video, music and imagery from the concet, which will be available via their on-demand site, the AT&T Blue Room. Chase will then get banner ad spots in the Blue Room, create PC wallpaper and more for download and have some of their TV spots inserted within the online video.

Despite recent stories that have said the public is generally annoyed with mobile advertising, the medium is becoming more popular than ever as an ad delivery platform. Access 360 Media has issued a press release that seems to take the position that they've discovered some sort of magic formula for getting young adults to partake in mobile marketing efforts. Instead, if you actually read the release, you see that they're simply doing what I've said forever mobile marketers need to do - incentivize it. People were able to get coupons and other deals through the ads, giving them a powerful motivation to accept them.

And speaking of the annoyance factor when it comes to mobile ads, Mark Glaser is asking for feedback. He points out (rightly) that if the ads are relevant to the recipient they're not going to honk as many people off but wants to know what the community thinks. Go on over and weigh in with your thoughts.

AT&T has seen the writing on the wall. Actually what they've seen is the dollars in their competitors Super Saver accounts. The company is going to begin selling advertising space on mobile devices as well as TV and internet services, following many of its direct competitors in doing so. It's largely the recent takeover of Cingular that is driving the mobile phone strategy since, you know, they can. The advertising revenue program will center around AT&T's "U-Verse" bundle of phone, TV and internet services and that's what a recently hired ad sales force has been focused on.

Verizon recently announced that it would begin selling banner ads that would appear to its mobile customers when they were surfing the web. While that announcement might sound like it might be the opening of the floodgates when it comes to companies diving into mobile marketing it might not be as big as it sounds. The mobile market is still going to be very much the realm of experimentation in 2007, with companies feeling their way through this unknown territory. Much of that is going to depend on how the mobile carriers move and how they create applications advertisers can utilize. Once that is in place, the marketers will need to figure out, largely through trial and error, what sorts of campaigns and promotions work best in the mobile space. What 2007 is more or less sure to bring is more committed dollars to mobile experimentation as opposed to the platform getting the budgetary equivalent of sloppy-seconds.

When Verizon Wireless users surf the web they're going to start seeing banner ads. Yay! The company wants to make a little extra money by inserting the ads, which they think will connect with people on a more personal level since people love their cellphones. Right now Verizon will restrict the places the ads will appear so that they don't wind up being ignored and lumped in with the rest of the ad clutter.

Palm is launching a $25 million dollar campaign that's scheduled to run for the next six months for its Treo 680 mobile device. The campaign will run in print, online, outdoor, mobile (natch) and "virally" (grrrrrr) with street teams demonstrating to passers-by how the device works. Displays including huge versions of the 680 in bus stops and other locations will show how people can get Web content on the units. Ads that have been co-branded with companies like Orbitz, Fandango and others will run in the print and online executions of the campaign.