While U.S. advertising spending is down in most sectors of the media, the predicted 40 percent rise in mobile marketing budgets for the year could be a big opportunity for radio, said a group of mobile marketing professionals on Monday at the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) conference. According to eMarketer, the mobile segment will attract $6.5 billion in ad revenues by 2012. And David Ross, chairman of mobile marketing firm 3C Interactive, told the audience that mobile marketing budgets are coming "fast and furious" and that listener databases are seen as "very valuable" by advertisers. Ross added that radio’s big potential is to stop selling only :30 or :60 spots and to begin creating a "conversation" between the station and/or deejay and the audience. Advertisers are looking for that kind of interaction, he said, which could be played out by a radio spot activating a text message component.

Katz360 President Brian Benedik said there are 145 million mobile media consumers in the U.S. today, defined as anyone who uses a cell phone for text messaging, downloading content or accessing the Internet. Hence, advertiser appetites for mobile are growing as the market grows. "Seventy-six percent of listeners use text messaging, and 66 percent want to text with your radio station," Benedik said, according to a Media Buyer Planner report.

However, KSTP/Minneapolis general sales manager Jeff Gonsales cautioned that one of the biggest challenges is making sure your sales department can talk intelligently about the mobile audience and manage the expectations of clients. While advertiser interest in mobile marketing is indeed growing, most of KSTP's mobile sales have been local direct, Gonsales added.

Last week, the Nielsen Company reported that advertising in the U.S. in 2008 was down 2.6 percent compared to 2007, and U.S. ad expenditures declined almost $3.7 billion to a total of $136.8 billion. Network Radio was down 3.3 percent and Spot Radio was down 4 percent.