A funny thing happened to mobile advertising as we entered this year. The cries of now-is-the-dawn-of-a-new-age took a step or two back. After years of ‘this is the year for mobile advertising’ we thought we would try something novel and actually ask customers who had just bought a smartphone (or were about to buy one) if they were open the concept. We even said it would cost no more and they would have to sign up in order to avoid junk messages - or at least some of it.