Cell Phone Usage and Advertising Acceptance Among College Students: A Four-Year Analysis
CELL PHONE USAGE AND ADVERTISING ACCEPTANCE AMONG COLLEGE
STUDENTS: A FOUR-YEAR ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
The mobile phone is rapidly becoming one of the most influential media for marketing
since the advent of the Internet. As Gerry Purdy, a leading mobile industry analyst, points out:
"probably the most important medium for advertising in the 21st century is going to be the cell
phone, not print media, not billboards…” (SMS Marketing, 2006). By leveraging the mobile
phone, the mobile phone network and the cast of players within the mobile marketing ecosystem,
brands, businesses and marketing agencies can intimately engage and interact with their target
audience in a fashion that has previously been unavailable to them. Young people, as early
adopters of new technology, have shown the highest incidence rates of cell phone usage and
mobile content adoption, according to M:Metrics (2005). Students with jobs consume more
mobile content than any other group, and are 42% more likely to use mobile email than the
average subscriber, and 23% more likely than typical full-time workers. Working students also
download mobile games and personalize content on their phones twice as often as other users
(M:Metrics, 2005).
ComScore Networks, who has labeled 18-24 year olds as the “Cellular
Generation,” says students see their cell phones as more than a means of voice communication;
they can provide entertainment, convey social status and help express one’s individuality
(ComScore, 2006).
The practice of mobile marketing, defined as marketing through the mobile channel and
via mobile enhanced traditional media (Becker 2005), can embody any number of different
marketing activities. One very common form of mobile marketing is mobile advertising.
Virtually unheard of just a few years ago, mobile advertising has drawn much attention recently.
Leading companies like Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, ESPN, Disney, Coca-Cola, Sony Pictures,
and McDonalds are embracing mobile advertising and including it within their marketing
budgets, often targeting teens and college students.
Since the first mobile text advertising was done in Scandinavia in 1997, mobile
advertising has grown consistently (Becker, 2005). It’s expected that by 2011 marketers will be
spending $11.3 billion annually on mobile advertising, up from $871 million in 2006 (O'Shea,
2
Convention