So as I was thinking about how to justify the cost of an 8GB iPhone, I started thinking about the potential of selling an advertising spot on the device. Laser etching has become quite popular and the potential to have your logo etched on a device that is sure to gather lots of looks could be enticing to some companies. From there, I started thinking about developing a business around such a market and it has had me wondering whether there is enough potential there for this to work.
What if you started a company that sold certain high tech gadgets for well below what they cost in stores by offsetting the saving by placing laser etched advertisements on the device? You could start a sort of Google Adwords for high tech gadget company selling prime real estate on laptops, phones, and other lusted after gadgets. If you could get a MacBook Pro for under $1k and it had a couple of logo’s on it, would you? I think I might and many other out there would too but the savings would have to out weigh the cost of cluttering up that nice MacBook design.
Now is there an advertising market? I think there is. I’m willing to bet that there are plenty of companies out there willing to pay decent money for a prominent spot on a device that is sure to get a lot of looks and attention. How much attention do you think the iPhone will get when it first comes out? If you had a web site that could be accessed from the iPhone would it be worth while to have your logo on the device? Perhaps. What if this person saw your logo for the life of the phone (perhaps 2 years or more) and hundreds of other people saw it as well? There is just as much value in this then there is in placing an ad on a billboard. I think if you could gather certain demographics this would be a great advertising tool. For instance, soft drink companies could place ads on any device that would be used on a college campus.
Now for this to work, I think you need a tool that would allow a person to select what the device they want to buy, the number of ads, and the size. This way, you could place just two ads on your MacBook and save some money or place several ads and save a lot of money. Advertiser would need an interface to bid based on logo size, product type, and demographics. There’s a lot of potential here and it could be a great opportunity if done right.
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