Juice Wireless' founder and chairman explains how mobile is creating new opportunities to integrate brand marketing messages that more closely correlate to viewers lives and true interests.

For this column, I've been charged with answering the question of how advertisers can benefit from user-generated content (UGC) on the mobile phone. Let's break that down into two parts: how advertisers can benefit from UGC in the first place, and how those benefits are compounded in the mobile environment.

The founding premise of all media-based advertising -- up until now a world in which there were few content creators and many consumers -- is that what a person watches tells us something about them, which in turn tells advertisers what products and services to market to that person. So, in the UGC world, in which we are all creators and consumers of content, an advertiser predicts what we want not only by what we watch, but also by what we post ourselves. This is not based on some "demographic study" but rather on our self-determined titles, tags, favorite content, et cetera.

But wait, there's more: the advertiser also gets to know when we watch and when we post and how often we watch and how often we post. As a reminder, because UGC exists in the IP-driven world and not the broadcast world, the entire UGC world is "on-demand."

Now, we no longer rely on the process of assuming that because I watch "Friends" on TV that I must be a 20-something city dweller and then guessing what other products, services or shows I would be interested in. It's knowing that I am posting videos about surfing at Redondo Beach, Calif., and that I do that twice a week and that I love pizza (because it's in many of my videos) and I watch videos that are funny, I watch late at night, and so on. 

So, the opportunity is to integrate brand marketing messages in a powerful way that much more closely correlates to my life and true interests. 

To contrast the two, I'll give a personally relevant example. I am a single, 36-year-old guy (you try running a company and having a life). I love food and often watch Food Network late at night. However, I have yet to see a product or service I would buy advertised on Food Network because they assume I am part of their target demographic, which consists primarily of upwardly-mobile moms with two kids. So, their "targeting" strategy is totally off base for me. 

But, if I now start watching videos on some UGC website about other single people and what they like to cook -- e.g., videos about great meals for one, easy recipes for when you have a date coming for dinner, et cetera -- and if I start posting videos about my own creations, then advertisers would know I am single, how often I watch, cook and so on.

Now, an advertiser can show me products I am more likely to buy, food related or otherwise. No more ads for "The Family Table;" instead, I'll see ads for great local eateries that deliver in the Redondo Beach area. 

So, let's bring in the mobile aspect of this. Mobile expands this potential in many ways because the mobile phone is always with me. I don't live my life in front of my computer, and barring airline tickets and the occasional DVD purchase, I don't shop in front of the computer, either. So, UGC, as it exists on my computer, is something I watch or do "before or after" the fact.

But, my phone (for this article, phone means cell phone, and I honestly ask the question: is there another kind?) is always with me. So, it's a part of my real life, not an adjunct in my online life, which is where UGC lives now.

The phone delivers the potential for immediacy, local relevance, actionability, optimal timing and so much more. 

Now to use my previous example, mobile has the potential to send me not just the ad for the Redondo Beach eatery that delivers, but for eatery near where I happen to be walking now, showing me a video on my phone about their pizza because (if you haven't guessed) I love pizza.  And, immediately after that I can be served a video, a click-to-call link and a click-to-get directions link, right on my cell phone.

That is local, targeted advertising delivering on the promise that has been so long in the waiting. It is what UGC on the phone can do for advertisers. And to be sure, this is not just about the local pizza place, or a local movie rental store or what have you. National retail chains and brand advertisers can all benefit.

Let's take a moment to answer the unasked question: is this a niche thing, relevant occasionally to a few advertisers? Or is it a transformative event in the marketers' ongoing attempt to influence the consumer?

It is the latter, and then some. The simultaneous revolutions of UGC (which enables nano-targeting, as described above) and mobile data (which enables the "right now, right to me" element) will fundamentally re-define the advertisers' relationship with the consumer.

A big statement, for sure, but very true because UGC is not an adjunct to "mainstream" content: both are one and the same. And mobile is not an adjunct to the PC or the TV.  Mobile encapsulates the power of both with its own added and unique benefits.

So, is it really that easy? Well, no. It's a revolution, and like all such revolutions, there will be mis-starts, chaos, mistakes, issues, unknown challenges and, most of all, the inertial forces against change that are often prevalent in major ad agencies. Trust me, I know. Juice ran a thriving mobile marketing business for two years, and in that time we often found Big Brand USA far more ready to try new things then their agencies. 

It will also require the re-defining of the "ad" itself. This isn't about taking your 30-second spot and slapping it as pre-roll in front of a UGC video. It's about the advertiser remembering that their goal isn't a 30-second spot, it's selling you their goods and services, and whatever does that best is what's important. 

So, just catching our breath over the internet revolution, remember today's de rigueur world of internet advertising was "will it ever work and is it for me?" only 24 months ago. We are in the midst of an even more powerful, global and paradigm-shifting revolution. 
Cool, eh? 

Nick Desai is the founder and chairman of Juice Wireless, Inc., which makes JuiceCaster, an award winning, mobile social media community. Read full bio.