According to recent research released by Roy Morgan Research 37% of Australian smartphone users (around 5.5 million people) over the age of 14 agree they would be interested in receiving ads on their mobile phone if it reduced their bill.
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research explained that In October 2015, Lebara become the first local provider to offer such plans after making a deal with Unlockd, a Melbourne-based mobile platform developer that also recently announced expansion into the US and UK. After downloading the app, users receive ads every few times they unlock their phones—and get a discount or extra data in return.
“Dodo’s smartphone customers are the most likely to be interested in opening up their phones to ads in exchange for a discount but, like Lebara, this would equate to only a tiny overall reach for Unlockd and their future advertisers.” Levine commented “There are around 1.1 million smartphone customers at Vodafone and 1.3 million at Optus who could be interested in an ad-supported plan—that’s the sort of reach attained by the weeknight news on commercial television networks.

Levine explained that nearly half of Dodo’s smartphone customers agree they would be interested in an ad-supported quid pro quo (47%), followed by customers with Lebara’s own network operator Vodafone (44%), and those with Amaysim (43%), Optus (40%) or Boost (39%). Smartphone users with iiNet are the least likely to be interested (27%), with interest levels also below average among those with TPG (32%), Aldi (32%), Telstra (33%) and Virgin (36%).