Telefonica has revealed plans to give customers extra data in return for watching ads from sponsors or taking part in surveys.
The company’s global head of advertising, Daniel Rosen, revealed the scheme in an interview with Marketing magazine at Mobile World Congress.
Rosen says the company is about to pilot the idea of sponsored data but hasn’t revealed where it will test the concept. The carrier operates in the UK as O2 – but it’s in talks to sell that network – as well as other European markets, Latin America and China.
The idea is that a brand might, for example, sponsor an extra 1GB of data in exchange for you filling in a survey or spending time watching a video. Obviously the concept would make a lot of sense in countries where data is the most expensive but Rosen says the company will trial it in developed markets too.
The Telefonica exec compares the idea to ad-funded texts, where users receive targeted offers in exchange for free messages, and dismisses the idea that it will create a tiered-model for mobile data.
➤ O2 parent Telefonica trials brand-sponsored data plans [Marketing]
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