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I’ve noticed that most mobile advertising discussions contain an unstated assumption that the media is not for the mainstream.  Conversations more often focus around two groups of consumers, financially affluent young urban tech sophisticates or traveling business people, as if these two groups were the only ones likely to use mobile data services.  Not true!

The New York Times reported recently on jurors using their cell phones to seek information outside of the courtroom, searching for information on the lawyers and the defendant, news about the case, and definitions on Wikipedia.  Judges and lawyers are becoming increasingly frustrated with the practice, as well as with jurors using their cell phones to post case updates on Twitter and Facebook.  In one case cited in Florida, the judge found not just one isolated juror, but eight other jurors doing the same thing.

Were these jurors elite Millennials or jet-setting executives?  No.  One was a 29 year-old manager of a one-hour photo booth at a Wal-Mart in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  Another was 35 years-old, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ironically planning to attend law school in the fall.

Do mobile searching jurors intentionally seek to overturn rules of evidence developed over hundreds of years of jurisprudence?  No.  It’s that consumers are used to their easy access to information anywhere, anytime from their mobile phone.  It has become something so natural to them that they didn’t think about the implications.

So the next time your customer reaches for their phone to search for information, will they find you?

Tags: Jorey Ramer, mobile advertising, Mobile Search, New York Times, search

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, 18 March 2009 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.