Vodafone Germany adds Mercedes Advertising to Vodafone live!

by: admin Friday, February 23rd, 2007

Rating: C-Class

Vodafone live! will promote the new Mercedes C-for yourself campaign.

Vodafone live! in Germany has been poor at developing a rich marketing and advertising experience so far. Now it is set to offer a free Mobile Client to all its customers to promote and showcase the new Mercedes C-Class.

Vodafone in Germany has partnerships with Opel, VW and Volvo for banner-style advertisements on Vodafone live! This new venture could be a hit with Mercedes or car fans.

Vodafone says that the client is free, but there is no mention of download costs nor any explanation of whether customers will be billed extra or whether Vodafone will bear the cost swallowed. Browsing is paid for in Germany, but many users have a Happy live! tariff which cost approximately EUR 5 per month and offers free content bundles and browsing.

We think that a downloadable client for a new car is a big step for Vodafone. There might be all sorts of issues that consumers are worried about – especially if they are new to the mobile portal. For example, where is the download stored? Can it be deleted? Do they have enough memory? Is it really free or are there hidden costs?

It’s too soon to tell if this will take off as a new media for mobile advertising.

Analysis of Vodafone live!’s mobile advertising is available here: http://www.bkimedia.com/MAMA