Phones and Internet advertising

Two things caught my eye this morning in the deluge of over-night e-mails.

The value of internet advertising in the UK will overtake that of TV adverts by 2009, says the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Now this organisation has a vested interest in talking-up the value of Internet advertising but if this is even close to be the truth it is an amazing shift in the way companies are spending their advertising bucks. The BBC is reporting the news item. Even more important that companies understand the way that older people respond to online advertising. Very, very few do.

The other thing is to do with mobile phones.

A company called Clarity (part of Plantronics) is launching a phone aimed at the hard of hearing and gadget-adverse older person. The trouble with these ‘simple’ phones is that they all look so horrible. Surely you can make a simple and attractive phone. Maybe not. Dick Stroud