Targeted Ads Come of Age in Cannes as Handset Tracking Pinpoints Customers

Technology and advertising executives have been talking up the potential of ads on mobile handsets since before Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007. Now, they may finally be ready to use them.

At this week’s Cannes Lions media conference, Nike is featuring an application that uses the global positioning system to track a user’s run on iPhones and Facebook’s website. Friends send audible “cheers” by commenting on the runner’s page. Heineken is showing its ‘StarPlayer’ app that lets soccer fans interact in real time while watching the European Champions League matches. Functions to track consumers’ locations, social coupons such as those provided by Groupon, and the spread of large- screened smartphones may finally make mobile advertising a ubiquitous reality as early as this year. Wireless ad revenue worldwide will more than double in 2011 and increase by more than fivefold to $20.6 billion by 2015, according to a report by Gartner.