Vodafone planning summer mobile ad push

Vodafone is developing plans to allow companies to target advertising at mobile phone users from this summer.

From the middle of this year, the network is hoping to introduce advertising as part of its Mobile Plus strategy to grow revenue beyond traditional voice and text messaging.

While the operator has yet to make a final decision on which types of advertising will be launched in the UK, it has been trialling a number of different offerings.

In one such experiment advertising-sponsored Celebrity Big Brother clips were offered for free - which saw downloads soar by 50 per cent.

Vodafone has also tested games with ads displayed between levels. The games were offered at three difference prices - free, £1 and £3. A spokesman told silicon.com the cost of the game affected how consumers viewed the content.

He said: "The free stuff has less inherent value for customers - the free games received less repeated plays."

Vodafone is also considering including ads on its Vodafone Live! portal content as part of its advertising strategy while the company has previously announced an advertising partnership with Yahoo!. Analyst house Informa Telecoms & Media believe the mobile advertising market could be worth $11bn by 2011.

Vodafone is not the first operator in the UK to consider embracing advertising. Orange announced its intention to offer sponsored content and has partnered with new MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) Blyk which will give users free calls and texts in return for accepting ads.