The Mobile Marketing Blog

Budweiser brings live sports connectivity to fruition via mobile ad campaign

2010-11-29T11:33:00.004+01:00

Budweiser created a cross-platform in-application advertising program, pushing its Bar Finder campaign to sports enthusiasts in the United States and Canada.

The ads ran within Canadian sports publisher ScoreMobile’s smartphone applications for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry devices. The campaign launched in the midst of all of the South Africa 2010 Olympics excitement, positioning Bar Finder for ScoreMobile as the new, pocket-size, social coordinator for sports fans.

“Recognizing that Budweiser drinkers are sports fanatics, we wanted to provide them with the ability to seek out and enjoy the greatest sports bars across Canada where they can cheer on their home team while enjoying the king of beers,” said Ben Seaton, Toronto-based marketing manager for Canada at Budweiser.

“By teaming up with ScoreMobile, we're aligning ourselves with a truly credible sports content provider, delivering an innovative digital solution that resonates strongly with our increasingly connected drinker,” he said.

An extension of The Score’s leading free mobile sports application, Bar Finder for ScoreMobile is a category-first that pairs sports television listings with location-based information.

The experience gives users access to TV listings for live sporting events on all major networks, maps and distances to local bars across Canada where the games are available for viewing, highlighting bars participating in seasonal promotions.

All of these features are available by simply downloading the latest version of ScoreMobile on either iPhone, Android or BlackBerry smartphones.

With more than 50 million monthly page views and more than three and a half-million downloads to date, ScoreMobile provides Budweiser’s Bar Finder with reach.

For Budweiser, ScoreMobile developed a functionality to sit prominently within its mobile application, ScoreMobile.

The Bar Finder offers users a complete, up-to-date listing of licensees within a user’s current area and information on the games being carried that day.

Further, valuable information on specials and promotions is also easily available within the application.

All of these information sources working in tandem provide consumers with a resource for linking the two things they love: sports and socializing.

Budeweiser is targeting males who are legal drinking age in Canada, ages 19-29.

Budweiser ran 300x50 mobile leaderboards, created by Brandsell + Co.

When consumers clicked on the ad, they were taken to an app-within-an-app experience.

“One of the great opportunities that theScore’s Bar Finder affords is the ability to be very specific to each account, so the specials and promotions that were highlighted varied significantly based upon the partner’s preference, resulting in customized and relevant messaging, which is of significant value to our accounts and customers across Canada,” Mr. Seaton said

Digital Advertising is Driving Growth of Traditional Media

2010-11-24T17:01:00.006+01:00

Traditional advertising investments in television, print, radio and out-of-home are projected to grow only 1.8% but digital advertising investments in these media will grow by an estimated 28%, spurring total 3.6% growth in traditional media categories, according to Jack Myers Media Business Report's Media Vision 2020: Media, Advertising and Marketing Economic Health Report 2010-2020. The Report projects total 2010 U.S. marketing communications and advertising investments will grow 3.2% to $601.5 billion. The full report is available to Jack Myers subscribers. The newly recalibrated data includes 57 media and marketing categories and, for the first time in any advertising analysis, breaks down digital and traditional investments for 14 traditional media and marketing categories.

Consumer print magazine advertising is projected to increase 1.0%, but magazine publishers' digital advertising is estimated to increase 8.5% to nearly one billion dollars, driving magazine publishers' combined growth to 1.4%.

The new Myers Report includes detailed data on advertiser investments in Online Originated Display Advertising, Online Originated Video Content & Advertising, Mobile & Apps Advertising, Satellite/Internet Radio Advertising, Interactive/VOD/Addressable TV Advertising, Point-of-Influence/GPS Advertising, Videogame Advertising, Social Media/Word-of-Mouth/Conversational Marketing, Offline Public Relations, Branded Entertainment/Product Placement, Search Marketing (Online/Mobile), Experiential/Event Marketing, Cinema Advertising and Out-of-Home/Place-Based Advertising.

The report eliminates the traditional barriers between above and below-the-line marketing budgets. Marketers are integrating their budget allocations to reflect the increasing cross-over between their marketing and sales functions, which have historically been separated. This trend is especially apparent in social media, which is growing 50% to $1.2 billion in 2010. (Most Facebook advertising is accounted for within the new Online Originated Display Advertising category, is which increasing 9.2%.)

In early December, Jack Myers Media Business Report will release forecasts for 2011 and 2012, with long-term forecasts for both traditional and digital investments through 2020. While the data has been aggregated from multiple sources, the digital spending estimates for traditional media are based on primary research and input from industry experts. Since this is the first effort to develop such detailed insights, readers are encouraged to share insights and comments on the accuracy of this data.

Mobile Ad Revenue to Grow Tenfold to $24.1 Billion by 2015

2010-11-24T04:03:00.000+01:00

Mobile advertising revenue will rise tenfold to about $24.1 billion by 2015, with much of that growth coming from China and India, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.

Informa “believes that the global mobile-advertising market was worth $2.3 billion in 2009,” Shailendra Pandey, a senior analyst with London-based consultant Informa, said in an report today. The Asia Pacific Developing region will account for the largest share by 2015, at 30.9 percent, driven by “strong growth” from China and India, Pandey said. The Asia Pacific Developed region, including Japan and South Korea, will fall to 21.7 percent from about 43.6 percent this year.

Google Inc. and Apple Inc. have both bought mobile advertising businesses in the past year to take advantage of consumers’ increasing use of mobile devices to buy goods and services. Google bought Admob in May for $750 million and Apple paid more than $200 million for Quattro Wireless in January.

“Successful companies that have unique and attractive technology for mobile advertising,” will become takeover targets for companies such as Google, Apple, Nokia Oyj and Yahoo! Inc, Pandey said. Apple’s iAd network, which was started in July, “will force its rivals to speed up their own mobile advertising strategies, particularly Google, which has completed its acquisition of AdMob,” he said.

North America will account for 18 percent of the market in 2015, with Latin America at 6.4 percent and Western Europe 8.6 percent, according to the report.

“The mobile advertising industry has now moved beyond the trial and experimental phase and many advertisers and brands are now spending significant sums on running mobile campaigns each month,” Pandey said.

Amazon launches mobile price-comparison engine that threatens store retailers

2010-11-23T11:30:00.002+01:00

Amazon is letting consumers compare in-store prices with those from Amazon.com and other online merchants via an iPhone application that poses a threat to store retailers.

The Price Check application lets consumers search across different categories including toys and consumer electronics. Customers can scan a bar code, snap a picture or say or type a product name to receive instant prices for that particular item.

After scanning the bar code, the application displays prices sorted from lowest to highest.

In addition, consumers can take a picture of a product and match it to books, DVDs, CDs and video games.

Users who do not want to scan a bar code or take a picture can say the name of the product and get matches and pricing information or they can search the product and get the same results.

Right at your doorstep
After finding the product they need, consumers can buy it with one click and have it delivered directly to their doorstep.

Additionally, the application includes access to Amazon’s shopping features, including customer reviews, sharing items via Twitter, Facebook, SMS or email and immediate purchasing.

The Economist debuts iPad, iPhone app for subscribers

2010-11-22T11:53:00.001+01:00

The Economist is letting digital and print subscribers fully access its iPad and iPhone application as well as get a weekly sample of articles chosen specifically by the editor.

Users who do not have a subscription can purchase full issues of the publication via in-application purchases each week. Once a user downloads an issue, they can read the newspaper in full without an Internet connection.

“We want our readers to be able to read us wherever and however they want, and for an increasing number of people that means via a digital device,” said Oscar Grut, managing director of digital editions at The Economist, London.

“People who read their news and analysis on mobile digital devices will be attracted to the greater variety of ways to enjoy The Economist – on your iPad, on your iPhone, in audio, online, on Kindle and on Zinio – as well as in print, of course, where our circulation has grown every year for the last 30 years at least,” he said.

“Our goal with the iPad and iPhone apps is to deliver the same Economist content, in the same weekly package as print, through this new medium. We have redesigned the newspaper completely to make the most of the devices, while retaining that Economist feel – and like in print, it's free from distractions.”

AgaveApps built the iPhone application and TigerSpike built the iPad application for The Economist.

Each issue features a full audio edition, with all articles read by professional newscasters.

“We decided to integrate our popular audio edition into both apps, with all articles from the print edition read by professional newscasters, and synced to each article,” Mr. Grut said. “This lets readers switch easily between reading and listening to our articles.

“We did this because is struck us that audio is such a natural fit for portable digital devices, particularly the iPhone and iPod Touch,” he said.

The Economist is getting the word out about their new applications by putting promotional cover wraps on all issues, emailing news of the launch to subscribers and other contacts and its regional teams are also planning regional campaigns.

Mobile reading
Currently, users can read the publication in print, online, on iPhone, iPad, Kindle and Zinio.

The company is talking with other potential platform partners and looking at new platforms on launch on, including Android and BlackBerry.

“Our print circulation has continued to increase despite the turmoil in some parts of the print industry,” Mr. Grut said. “Our readers have, until now, generally preferred The Economist in print, but that is changing dramatically with tablets and smartphones, which are perfect for reading and listening to our kind of publication.

“This is one of the very exciting aspects of our apps,” he said. “We are obsessed, first and foremost, with creating elegant applications that deliver a wonderful, immersive reading experience to our customers,” he said. “I think we have succeeded in this mission.

“And by grabbing our readers' attention in this way, we offer a unique advertising opportunity to our clients to reach an engaged audience with beautiful full screen ads and rich media advertising.”

Mobile rich media achieves 2.5 times higher interaction than standard banners

2010-11-19T11:36:00.000+01:00

LOS ANGELES – Mobile rich media can be an incredibly immersive experience, but can also be considered intrusive by consumers if the ads are served at the wrong time, per panelists at the Mobile Marketing Association’s Mobile Marketing Forum.

By definition, mobile rich media consists of advertisements that often include interactive graphics, audio or video within an expandable ad or full-screen takeover. Unlike static or animated banner advertisements, rich media enables users to interact with the banner without leaving the page on which it appears.

“As a marketer, Microsoft looks at rich media as a broad way of saying immersive brand experience,” said Barbara Williams, global practice leader of mobile marketing at Microsoft, Redmond, WA.

“Rich media is anything within an ad experience that takes the advertisement beyond a static banner that lands on a mobile Web page,” she said.

“It’s a broad term but it comes down to immersive brand experiences.”

Pandora's mobile users have increased
Opportunities/challenges
When done correctly, rich media can be a valuable experience to consumers.

But, when not done right, it can bring a negative impact on the brand and can be considered very intrusive.

“There are good and bad examples of how users react to rich media,” said Stephanie Vautravers, director of mobile advertising at CNN, Atlanta. “So if you get a text alert for some breaking news and click to go and find out more, we won’t serve an ad because that could annoy the user that is trying to get this information now.

“They want to see that news item so we won’t interrupt that,” she said.

It is very important to think through users’ navigation. Where are they going? What are they doing at this particular destination (mobile site or app) and then decide when it would be best to serve up an ad.

Ms. Williams said that Microsoft is currently running a mobile rich-media campaign that leads to an HTML5 site.

“We are seeing a 5 percent click through on that rich media unit,” Ms. Williams said. “The is a huge impact and we are seeing that we can push campaign objectives within the ad unit.”

Rich media instead of Web?
CNN's Ms. Vautravers said that she is surprised about how many advertising clients do not have a mobile site.

Many think that because rich media is such an immersive experience, a mobile site is not needed.

A mobile site is important regardless.

Although rich media is an immersive experience, it is important to let consumers go deeper.

“Always let them go and explore broader options via a mobile Web site,” Ms. Williams said.

“Mobile Web and rich media go hand in hand,” she said. “They are complementary.”

User experience
Per Ms. Vautravers, it is the job of the publishers to educate brands and agencies on what is going to be a really terrible user experience.

In some cases, for a promotion that has an expiration date, a brand can use rich media.

In place of sending someone to a mobile site, a brand can use rich media. In that instance it can replace a mobile Web site temporarily.

Cheryl Lucanegro, senior vice president of ad sales at Pandora, Indianapolis, IN, said that what Pandora considers to be rich media is very different than other publishers.

“We are a personalized radio service and so rich media is anytime a user is interacting with an ad,” Ms. Lucanegro said. “We use audio messaging a lot because sometimes when you are listening to Pandora the phone is not in hand.

“We use a lot of expandables and ads that roll up like a window shade, but the music continues to play,” she said.

“Top Chef” ran a rich-media ad campaign via Pandora where consumers clicked to watch a video.

At the end of the video ad, consumers could add the show to their calendar.

“This is not only a creative rich-media ad, but it also takes advantage of the phone’s native functionality,” Ms. Lucanegro said.

Ms. Lucanegro also said that mobile rich media can achieve 2.5 times higher interaction than standard banners.

Future of rich media
Mobile commerce-enabled rich media ads are going to be big, per Ms. Vautravers.

Rich media is increasingly going to serve as a means of supporting a brand’s evergreen strategy.

Augmented reality and location are what excite Ms. Williams in rich media. Both will probably play exciting roles in the future.

Ms. Lucanegro expects more True Blood-like stunt ads in the future (see story).

“These are great if you are in the right environment,” Ms. Lucanegro said. “Those are going to be a lot of fun."

Digitas exec says more than 80pc of clients doing mobile

2010-11-19T02:11:00.001+01:00

LOS ANGELES – A Digitas executive discussed mobile’s role in today’s purchase and relationship funnel, including the art and science of constructing actionable customer journeys and how to get results at scale during a presentation at the Mobile Marketing Association’s Mobile Marketing Forum.

Chia Chen, senior vice president of marketing at Digitas, Boston, said that 80-plus percent of clients are doing something in mobile. That is not surprising, since based on the current rate of change and adoption, the mobile Web will be bigger than desktop Internet usage by 2012, according to Morgan Stanley.

“Brands matter more when they actively connect to people’s lives in the moment,” Mr. Chen said.

Talking to clients, Digitas finds that brands are eager to get into mobile.

Digitas provides the framework for how to think about mobile.

“What really matters is that mobile is personal,” Mr. Chen said. “Mobile is every addressable channel.

“Always on means always reachable,” he said.

It is important that a brand’s mobile initiatives be highly relevant to the person and to the moment. This means powerful creative ideas that span channels and deliver instant value.

CRM in mobile
Digitas’ heritage is around CRM and results-oriented marketing.

The agency has a huge amount of expertise in dealing with data and it segments customers based on their profiles and purchase history.

“But that gets trumped with the data of what they are doing in that specific moment,” Mr. Chen said.

“Creative must span channels and integrate among all the various channels that are activated with mobile,” he said. “You have to deliver instant value and you have to have a concept that really surrounds them.”

Tools to define the customer journey
A large part is really contingent on the art of planning in a way that is very specific.

It is about really getting into how people’s daily lives unfold and when they may actually need you to be active with them.

The first step is defining the connections profile. What do they like? How do they consume media and what are they looking for in terms of entertainment?

Do they research online before purchasing and what are their passions from a media perspective?

Based on this information, Mr. Chen says marketers can then decide what the best channels would be to reach them with.

“A lot of what we do in marketing is interruptive messaging,” Mr. Chen said. “We have to figure out the right moments and what they are interested in.”

The next step in defining the customer journey is organizing engagement. Think about how to raise awareness and associations about the brand.

Research and consideration is also key to defining the customer journey. It consists of developing opinions and a short list.

Think of ways to use mobile to influence the target at the moment of the purchase decision.

Loyalty and advocacy is the last part. Encourage repeat purchases and word of mouth.

Case study - Enfamil
Enfamil is a baby formula. This category is really interesting in terms of the customer journey.

Moms are pregnant and then the decision is made on what formula to use during infancy.

Enfamil needs to be there with the customer from pregnancy until the first few days after birth.

The brand needs to be part of the target’s journey into motherhood.

Pregnancy today is a connected social happening. Expectant moms are on their mobile devices right through delivery.

They are texting, emailing and searching for information and they get their info through the mobile device. Enfamil was absent there.

Digitas suggested a mobile Web and a paid search campaign and integrated mobile into the overall digital strategy.

“The mobile Web site has been very effective for them and has been embraced by moms,” Mr. Chen said.

Android ad impressions pull even with Apple’s iOS: Millennial Media

2010-11-18T11:28:00.002+01:00

For the first time, Google’s Android tied with Apple’s iOS as the largest smartphone OS on Millennial Media’s mobile ad network, with an 8 percent increase month-over-month and 37 percent impression share overall.

According to Millennial’s October 2010 Mobile Mix report, Apple, the leading device manufacturer on its network for the last 13 months, also accounted for a 37 percent share of impressions. Those numbers are another indication of how quickly Android’s market share is growing.

“Month to month, we have continued to see the rapid growth of the Android platform,” said Mack McKelvey, senior vice president of marketing at Millennial Media, Baltimore. “For the first time in October, we actually saw Android smartphone impressions on our network tie iOS smartphone impressions at number one, each capturing 37 percent share.

“Our clients’ savvy cross-platform buys have enabled them to reach their target audiences at scale, regardless of device or OS type,” she said.

Nokia to enable contactless payments next year

2010-11-18T01:39:00.002+01:00

Nokia, the world’s leading handset manufacturer, has confirmed it will activate the contactless payment technology in its C7 handset in 2011.

The phone launched last month with the hardware built in, allowing customers to purchase items by swiping their phone across an electronic reader.

Nokia has confirmed a software upgrade early next year will activate the near-field communication (NFC) chip. NFC is a short-range wireless system that allows data to be transferred between devices, much like the system used by Transport for London’s Oyster.

Adoption of the technology is set to increase in 2011 as the mobile industry’s main players begin introducing it in their handsets and operating systems.

Nokia wouldn’t confirm which financial and retail brands it would be partnering with to enable use of the technology.

In 2008 it trialled the service with partners AEG, Barclaycard, O2, Transport for London, TranSys and Visa Europe, with participants able to purchase items in stores such as Eat, Krispy Kreme and Books Etc using a Nokia 6131 handset.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced this week that NFC software will be included in the next update of Google’s smartphone operating system, Android 2.3, although many current Android handsets won’t have the hardware to use the technology.

Mobile and retail brands have, until now, resisted NFC technology because of concerns over financial and data security if customers lose or have their handsets stolen, as well as the infrastructure costs of installing readers in retail outlets.

Barclaycard has partnered with Transport for London for its Oyster credit card, which uses NFC. The financial services company also announced a partnership with Orange this year. Retailer Boots trialled its contactless payment system last year in connection with MasterCard.

Following the launch of its O2 Money brand earlier in the year, the mobile operator is looking to expand its financial services team with a focus on developing NFC technology.

Vodafone is also expected to explore opportunities with mobile payments in the UK following the success of its M-PESA service overseas.

Disney merges offline, online with Google Goggles mobile campaign

2010-11-17T11:44:00.002+01:00

Google is working with five brands—Disney, Buick, Diageo, T-Mobile and Delta Airlines—to extend some of their offline marketing to the mobile Web via its image recognition application.

About a year ago, the search giant launched Google Goggles, an Android application that lets consumers search the Web for information by taking pictures of paintings, landmarks or products with their mobile devices. As part of a Google Goggles marketing experiment, the five participating brands have “Goggles-enabled” some of their print ads, movie posters and other media.

“This is something new and exciting we’re trying out for the first time—this is uncharted territory,” said Aaron Stein, New York-based spokesman for Google. “The goal was really to Goggles-enable ads that are not online and use Goggles to make it possible for consumers to interact with those brands online.

“Consumers can scan a Buick ad and learn more about the brand through this experiment,” he said. “I think it’s too early to speculate as to what this will turn into, but we’re really excited about this announcement and this is the just the tip of the iceberg.

“The purpose of Google Goggles is to expand the ways you can search from your mobile phone—you can get information in different ways with your phone, input text queries, voice search and with Google Goggles you can do an image search, and this is really just an extension of that.”

Five big brands tap Google Goggles for multichannel image recognition campaigns
Google eyes
Disney, Buick, Diageo, T-Mobile and Delta Airlines are partnering with Google as part of their efforts to make traditional media interactive and more trackable.

When consumers take pictures of these print ads, movie posters and other media with Google Goggles, they will be recognized by the application and users will have the option of clicking-through directly to a mobile destination from the brand.

Google said that it developed Goggles so that people could more easily explore the world around them with a mobile device.

Google Goggles enables mobile search by sight
In this experiment, Google is applying the same principles and the same technology by “Goggles-enabling” advertisements and other media, and offering to link consumers to the mobile sites from these brands.

“People have already been scanning products with Goggles, so we saw an existing demand for this,” Mr. Stein said. “We’re letting people learn more about those brands by enabling movie posters, print ads and other media with Goggles interactivity.”

Brands' use of Goggles
Walt Disney Pictures Goggles-enabled out-of-home posters for its upcoming film “Tron Legacy.”

When consumers take a picture of the poster, they are immediately redirected to the Tron Legacy microsite on the mobile Web.

Consumers are then encouraged to view the trailer for the film.

Diageo said that it wants to provide on-the-go consumers with product information, offers, recipes or other content wherever they may need it, and Google Goggles is one way to do so, connecting various touch points.

Mobile is the one common tool that everyone has with them at all times, per Diageo.

When consumers launch Goggles and take a picture of a print ad from Buick, they are redirected to the relevant content on Buick’s mobile site.

When consumers scan this "Goggles-enabled" Buick ad with Google Goggles, they can connect directly with Buick's mobile experience.

The Buick Lacrosse is one model that the automaker is promoting via the Goggles campaign.

Buick said that it is participating in the Google Goggles marketing experiment to create a richer, deeper brand experience for consumers that view its traditional advertising.

BMW Launches First User-Generated iAd

2010-11-17T02:04:00.002+01:00

BMW of North America is running the first user-generated iAD promoting the launch of the BMW X3. The focus of the ad plays off of BMW's built-to-order program for the new car. Essentially viewers - like actual customers - imagine their dream car and then build it. While the next step in this process for paying customers is to have their customized BMW delivered to their driveway, viewers get a virtual road test of their custom designed car. Each “dream car” in the ad was selected from real submissions on the BMW USA Facebook page.

The 'shake' feature on iPhone and iPod touch lets users to browse the dreams - all riffs on how the car will change a life - as well as the X3 color options. Viewers then submit their own dream, which can then be shared with the BMW community through the iAd. They have the X3's 70 million unique configurations on the iAd to play with starting with colors and wheels that can be changed, the vehicle's angle, interior options, and even the environment, which can move from a cityscape to mountains. Viewers then drive their cars by browsing video content and downloading images from a gallery of hi-res wallpapers.

Once they have had their fun with the iAd, the viewer taps the close button and returns to the app they were using.

Rocky Start

The first several months of iAd’s launch has been characterized by some great media play, and then quiet, behind-the-scenes disgruntlement on the part of some advertisers. Of the 17 ad partners that launched with the iAd in June, only two - Unilever and Nissan - had iAd campaigns running for much of July. These reasons have included the tight control Apple is keeping over the creative process which has added weeks to the process. Then there is the expense - $1 million a package - that has no doubt deterred more advertisers from signing up, at least until the results of these early adopters become clear. Apple has also worried some companies with its insistence of keeping control of the customer relationship and its stinginess with analytics information.

Compelled

Marketers, though, are forging ahead with the iAd, with BMW being the latest example. One namely, is that the click through rates and other engagement metrics are much higher than compared to other online ad formats. A Nissan spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that its iAd "has driven exceptional results to date" with the rate of users tapping on the banner five times the click-through-rate of the online campaign.

Google's new phone software supports mobile payment

2010-11-17T01:46:00.002+01:00

(Reuters) - Google Inc's next version of its Android smartphone software will support a technology that lets people use their handsets, instead of credit cards, to pay for goods at restaurants and stores.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt showed off a yet-to-be-released phone on Monday with a special chip that allows consumers to quickly pay for items by tapping the phone against a special terminal.

Schmidt said support for the technology, dubbed Near Field Communications, will be integrated into the next version of its Android software, "Gingerbread", which he said will be introduced in a few weeks.

"One way to think about it is, this could replace your credit card," Schmidt said, speaking at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

Google had no immediate plans to develop any of its own mobile applications to take advantage of such payment capabilities, but Schmidt expected other companies to do so.

"My guess is that there are going to be 500 new startups in the mobile payment space as these platforms emerge," Schmidt said. He added that Google would partner with traditional credit card industry players, like payment processors, rather than compete with them.

While NFC technology has been available for years, interoperability with Google's Android software should make the technology more widespread. Google's Android was the second most popular smartphone operating system in the third quarter, according to industry research firm Gartner, behind Nokia's Symbian and ahead of Apple Inc's iOS software, which is used on the iPhone.

In a roundtable briefing with reporters, Schmidt said Google's ability to marry its smartphone software with Internet-based services enabled features like turn-by-turn driving directions and real-time foreign language translation, which distinguished it from rivals' offerings.

"We would argue that our platform is better for applications that are network-resident and that need that kind of power," Schmidt said.

Google, which controls roughly two-thirds of the Internet search market, is increasingly competing with Apple and with social networking giant Facebook.

Earlier on Monday, Facebook unveiled a revamped version of its messaging system that could make it increasingly competitive with Web-based email systems like Google's Gmail and Yahoo Inc's mail service.

Asked about Facebook's potential effect on Gmail, Schmidt said that additional competition would be beneficial, and chided the press for focusing too much on the competition between Google and other technology companies.

"You all are focused on the competition, as opposed to the fact that the market's getting larger," Schmidt said. "And there's no question that more entrants into communications technologies, mobile technologies and so forth, bring more people in."

Starbucks is 2010 Mobile Marketer of the Year

2010-11-16T11:51:00.002+01:00

Starbucks Coffee Co. has been named 2010 Mobile Marketer of the Year, the highest accolade in mobile advertising, marketing and media.

Based on the nominations received from readers and submissions from this publication's editorial team, Mobile Marketer is convinced that Starbucks serves as a role model for marketers for its outstanding use of mobile as a marketing medium.

“Starbucks has proved that soigné marketing across all mobile channels is possible, tying customer branding, acquisition and retention initiatives into a strategic effort worth admiring from near and far,” said Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily, New York.

“The coffee giant is most commonly associated with a coupon to drive traffic in-store, but an analysis of its efforts will show that Starbucks taps mobile for the medium's strengths: location, timeliness and immediacy, convenience and measurability,” he said.

“Starbucks’ brilliant mobile marketing, from conception to execution and measurement in a multichannel context, makes it a no-brainer for 2010 Mobile Marketer of the Year.”

Starbucks is driving sales of its Via Ready Brew via location-based mobile marketing
The Mobile Marketer of the Year is the most prestigious honor for smart, strategic and creative mobile marketing. Team Obama won the honor in 2008 and Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. in 2009.

Starbucks shaped the mobile marketing industry this year, serving as an exemplar to other brands and encouraging agencies and service providers.

“Starbucks has clearly shown that it is a pioneer in the mobile space and a brand that has realized the importance of mobile," said Paul Gelb, director and mobile practice lead at Razorfish, New York. "It always distinguishes itself with the level of insight it has into its consumers and the way it is able to create an experience that attracts and maintains a loyal consumer base.

Starbucks ad in the Pandora iPad app
"Given the nature of its business and the length of time people spend in its locations, and how people use Starbucks for numerous types of computing, whether it be using a laptop or, often, a mobile phone, the brand has made its offering a beacon for that, leveraging a wide variety of mobile experiences," he said.

Here is a breakdown of Starbucks' work in the mobile space, and why it is mobile top dog.

Building lists of loyalists
Starbucks is highly focused on building a qualified database of respondents to mobile campaigns.

The opt-in list is gold, since the churn rate with mobile phone numbers is minimal compared with email or postal addresses.

In October, Starbucks was among the first brands on board for a six-month trial powered by Placecast that relies on consumers opting-in to receive relevant messages based on age, gender, interests and – for the first time – their location.

When opted-in, consumers that are found to be within a geofenced area owned by Starbucks receive a text message offering them money off Starbucks Via Ready Brew at a nearby branch.

One mobile coupon from Starbucks offers consumers money off of their Via purchase.

The brand believes that, by offering discounts for customers who are close to supermarkets and its coffee shops where Starbucks Via Ready Brew is sold, it will encourage brand loyalty and drive foot traffic.

This promotion allows Starbucks to save the list of loyalists and remarket to them in the future.

Well-performing efforts
Starbucks consistently achieves a high rate of response to campaigns, thus proving deft use of calls to action and targeted marketing.

For example, Starbucks-owned Seattle’s Best Coffee’s mobile advertising campaign to promote its new canned iced coffee drove 139,000 users to the brand’s mobile site.

The vast variety of mobile ad units succeeded in driving consumers to an interactive landing experience compatible with thousands of mobile devices.

The advertising creative was outstanding, as the ad imagery conveyed the brand attributes and engendered high click-throughs.

The campaign included executions such as standard banners, animated multi-panel banners, text links, in-application expandable banners and full-page interactive interstitials.

Comcast rolls out TV app for iPad

2010-11-16T02:21:00.003+01:00

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Comcast Corp. said Monday that it will unveil an application for Apple Inc.’s iPad that allows Comcast digital subscribers to watch movies and TV shows on the tablet device, starting next month.

The first version of the Xfinity TV app will be available on Apple’s iTunes Store this week.

Users will be able to use Xfinity TV to program their digital video recorders, browse content by keyword or title, create a watchlist of favorite shows, and share viewing choices with others via social networks.

Comcast's announcement comes at a time of slowing subscriber growth for cable, satellite and phone companies that provide video services.

Last week, The Diffusion Group, a research firm, issued a survey stating that broadband users who own or are likely to purchase an iPad in the next few months are “significantly more likely” than other broadband customers to cancel or downgrade their service over the next six months.

Xfinity TV is also an extension of the “TV Everywhere” strategy, championed by Time Warner Inc. and Comcast, which seeks to tie online viewership of shows to a paid subscription. There has been concern that people will cancel their cable subscriptions and use free video services such as Hulu to satisfy much of their entertainment needs.

10 Ways for E-mail Marketers to Survive Facebook Messages

2010-11-16T02:00:00.002+01:00

As expected, Facebook introduced Monday new communication channels for its users - including a @facebook.com.

Among the upgrades, users can tailor communication channels for each person in their network - that is, they can indicate a certain friend will receive an IM instead of an email because that is the platform she prefers. Once that information is inputted, the user simply chooses the name and types a message.

The biggest change, though, will likely be the @facebook.com - a project that Facebook has reportedly been working on for many months. Depending on how widely it is adopted it has the potential to cause significant upheaval among email marketers.

Or maybe not. A series of quick chats with people in the industry suggest this may prove to be more beneficial than disruptive. Facebook email is a boon for marketers who want to collect and measure data across multiple channels, says Tom Sather, director, Professional Services at Return Path.

He suggests:

1. Encouraging @facebook.com users to sign up via all channels. Facebook email will require permission from all marketers, so the typical rules of email deliverability are now gone.

2. Include SWYN (share with your network) and 'like' buttons in all of your emails, especially to your @facebook.com subscribers.

3. Using incentives to collect email data, encourage subscribers to sign up for emails. Offer exclusive deals for @facebook.com addresses and followers.

4. Start thinking about distinct strategies and content for both channels. “Sending the same content to both your Facebook fans and email list isn’t good enough anymore.

5. Integrating a shopping cart to @facebook.com emails - assuming the same functionality for Facebook pages is available to email.

6. Don’t cause too much upheaval as you implement these changes. That is Len Shneyder, senior product manager of Unica’s advice based on his premise that @facebook.com email itself is not likely to disrupt anything marketers are doing today. “It will be another domain and its importance will grow over time similarly to how Gmail grew over time. People are creatures of habit; I don't expect to see a huge migration to Facebook's email client, no tectonic shifts or anything like that. Quite the opposite, I think it'll be gradual and happen over time.”

Shneyder points out that when Gmail was launched there were the same concerns, that the world would change overnight. “The opposite was true, people migrated over time, and Gmail has grown in importance as a domain to be specifically addressed by marketers.”

7. Don’t think of it as email. That, in fact, is Facebook’s pitch for this product and one worth paying attention to, says Buddy Media CEO Mike Lazerow. "Facebook has the opportunity to make email, or more importantly personal communication, very relevant again by categorizing communication by closeness - family, company, networks, etc. and combining all forms of online messaging. By creating seamless integration across chat, IM and email and making it easier to have conversations within the Facebook eco-system, Facebook will grow the number of daily interactions among its users well beyond 4 billion.”

8. Watch for changes in the domain distribution of their email lists and how that might impact sending practices and deliverability, says Dave Lewis, Chief Marketing Officer of Message Systems. “Make no mistake, the combination of email, text and IM in a single, easily accessible inbox for Facebook’s nearly 550 million users takes channel convergence to a whole new level. Companies should monitor this development closely and be alert to how Facebook’s ‘social inbox’ prompts changes in customer communication behavior. Given the user’s ability to filter and segregate messages, clearly contextual relevance will become increasingly important to reaching those with a Facebook ‘social inbox.’

The big question is whether customers will view the Facebook inbox as their home for just social interactions or use it in lieu of the services of other mailbox providers for all their digital messaging.”

9. Email marketers should also be mindful of the priority or purpose that customers assign to different email addresses, Lewis says. “These points alone are important because they’ll require changes to data acquisition and management strategies as marketers seek to capture the ‘best’ addresses and link various addresses and other elements in their databases. But at a higher level, companies will need to also be attuned to the implications on cross-channel messaging to ensure the effectiveness of their ongoing customer communications.”

10. Don’t overestimate the bite it will take out of Google, says Thomas Harpointner, CEO of AIS Media. “Since the Facebook messaging system is modeled after chat, and designed to be less formal and personal, it's aimed at the social consumer and will not replace business class email. It will however take a bite out of AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.” But Gmail’s integration into Google Voice - a service Facebook can't match (for now).

Mobile ads four-to-five times more effective than online ads

2010-11-15T11:41:00.001+01:00

Mobile advertising is four-to-five times more effective than online advertising on average, according to an InsightExpress presentation at a Microsoft workshop.

When measuring a marketer’s mobile efforts, there are two pieces that are the most critical: campaign effectives and making sure that the Web sites and landing pages are mobile-optimized. Focusing on campaign effectiveness, InsightExpress measures unaided awareness, aided awareness, ad awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent, and mobile outperforms online across the board.

“Mobile versus online is not necessarily apples to apples, but it’s simply a basis of comparison, and we’ve found that mobile advertising is four-to-five times as effective as online,” said Joy Liuzzo, Washington-based senior director of mobile research at InsightExpress, said at the Microsoft mobile marketing workshop last week at the software giant's headquarters.

“That’s due to various factors, including lack of clutter in mobile, typically one ad per page, and the mobile pages themselves typically do not have a lot of stuff going on—they tend to be very clean," she said.

“Also, the proportion of the ad on a mobile screen is greater, so it gets more share of eyeballs. We found that folks doing activities on their smartphones are as positively engaged as when they are doing something on their computer, so it’s a perfect storm of why mobile advertising works so well right now.

Joy Liuzzo is senior director of marketing and mobile research at InsightExpress
“We've seen this increase in certain mobile ad campaigns, because they’re not just static banners anymore, they’re more engaging—engagement is the secret sauce of mobile.”

An InsightExpress study of a campaign from an automaker found that mobile increased feature awareness (the control group was 13 percent, those exposed to the ad were 23.7 percent and those who engaged with the ad were 44.9 percent) and purchase intent/consideration (control 14.1 percent, exposed 29 percent, engaged 34.7).

Hence, conversations are shifting.

While there are a lot of feature phones out there, a high percentage of people who are interacting with mobile marketing campaigns are smartphone users.

Looking at consumers ages 25-34, about 50 percent of them have smartphoens, so the reach is getting there.

Text messaging still has the most reach, because both smartphones and feature phones are SMS-enabled.

But when marketers look at the mobile Internet, applications, video and social networking, the large majority of traffic is coming from smartphone users, which is a different audience altogether.

Ms. Liuzzo said that mobile is not a one-trick pony and that everything works comparatively well across the board.

While applications are hot, mobile Web is the workhorse and mobile video is still nascent but already very impactful.

When marketers make the applications versus mobile Internet distinction, they should realize that consumers with smartphones use both. They cannot live by applications alone.

“When it comes down to consumers, they are flowing in between apps and the mobile Internet, not making a choice of one or the other,” Ms. Liuzzo said. “There are a couple of areas where the mobile Internet is leading the charge.”

For example, among merchants and retailers that have a mobile commerce presence, 50 percent have a mobile Internet site only, 12 percent have an application only and 39 percent have both a mobile Web site and an application.

Ms. Liuzzo offered another interesting insight: social pressure drives mobile adoption.

Consumers take note of what all or most of their family and friends are doing on mobile, and it tends to be monkey-see, monkey-do.

“The fact that we have so many folks doing these activities using their handsets, that will encourage more folks to do them as well, and it will keep going on and on and gathering momentum,” Ms. Liuzzo said.

For example, 82 percent of consumers have used their mobile phones in a store, 55 percent in a doctor’s office or hospital, 17 percent during a movie at the theater, 14 percent while flying on a plane and 7 percent during church service.

Around 17 percent of mobile users have shown a clerk in a store a picture of a product on their mobile phone, saying in effect “I want this please,” which is a new shopping behavior that is surprisingly being driven by men.

Thirty-four percent of men ages 25-34 and 29 percent of men ages 35-44 have done so.

Ms. Liuzzo calls men the forgotten shopper, and they overindex for mobile shopping behavior.

“When you start to look at who is driving the behaviors using their mobile devices in store, it is primarily men ages 25-34,” Ms. Liuzzo said. “Men are now showing these new behaviors—‘I’m in a store, and I’m going to use my mobile to find out what I need and get information.

“If their behaviors are out there, as a marketer or merchant you take advantage of them as much as possible.”

Kraft Foods supports no-mobile-left-behind strategy for brand push

2010-11-15T11:29:00.002+01:00

REDMOND, WA – During a presentation at a Microsoft workshop, an agency executive at Meredith Corp.’s The Hyperfactory revealed how Kraft Foods Inc. integrates mobile into its overall strategy to drive acquisition, engagement, brand support and product trial among high-value target consumers.

When formulating its multichannel strategy, Kraft’s planning and preparation is geared toward consumers’ shopping behavior and driving them in-store with its brand top of mind. Its mobile initiatives include a mobile Web site, 2D bar codes, SMS programs in English and Spanish, mobile coupons, applications for various smartphone platforms and Apple’s iPad, as well as mobile advertising and sponsorships.

“Kraft, a CPG mass-market client with a great history, touches all of our lives in many different ways, and it has looked at the mobile channel holistically and integrated it into everything it does,” said Geoffrey Handley, cofounder of The Hyperfactory, New York.

“The brand has covered everything from a technology perspective and from a business objective perspective and asked ‘How do we integrate mobile?’ he said.

“Kraft is incorporating mobile calls-to-action on packaging—whether it is an SMS keyword and short code or 2D bar codes—various apps—one for recipes, one for moms and one for kids. There’s a huge the amount of stuff that they’ve done in mobile, all based on the no-mobile-left-behind principle.

The Kraft Big Fork Little Fork iPad app went live in the App Store in June
“That’s at the top of everything we do with them—‘This is the consumers’ channel of communication, and we are not going to alienate someone because they have a different type of phone’—and they’ve seen fantastic returns on their mobile investment.”

Headquartered in Northfield, IL, Kraft Foods is the largest food and beverage marketer nationwide. It markets many brands in more than 155 countries.

Eleven of the Kraft brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Kraft, Cadbury, Oscar Mayer, Maxwell House, Nabisco, Oreo, Philadelphia Creme Cheese, Jacobs, Milka, LU and Trident.

Kraft is sponsoring the Better Homes and Garden mobile site

Start with idea, not tech
When helping Kraft formulate its objective lead strategy, Mr. Handley stressed that the idea should drive the marketing program, not the technology. It is important to be technology-agnostic to cast the widest net and reach the most consumers.

In addition, it is not just about the activation—always ask what about the engagement? What happens when consumers get to the experience?

When looking at how mobile fits in with all of a brand’s touchpoints, keep in mind the core CRM initiatives and how mobile can be used to attain scale and inspire loyalty.

Brands should look to support as many mobile platforms as possible to get that scale.

Mobile is becoming increasingly social and vice versa. Mr. Handley dubbed the trend “mo-cial.”

Key objectives for any marketer are driving purchase intent and influencing purchase decisions while consumers are in store. Mobile is a key medium marketers can use to reach those objectives.

Brands, especially those with the resources of Kraft, must not be too timid, but rather focus on innovation to stay ahead of competitors. Marketers can do so much more in the mobile space than just simple banners that drive to a landing page.

Seven pillars of Kraft's mobile strategy
Mr. Handley shared seven pillars of Kraft Foods' mobile strategy for this year and next:

No. 1: Leverage mobile to support the brand’s core CRM strategy in content creation and distribution across all channels.

No. 2: Integrate mobile into loyalty, scale and advocacy programs.

No. 3: Create a portfolio of compelling mobile content platforms ranging from the simple and inspirational to the deep and functional.

No. 4: Launch mobile-social tools and experiences to tie mobile and digital CRM.

No. 5: Achieve reach and scale—no mobile left behind.

No. 6: Own personalized mobile purchase cycle and in-store experience—from inspiration to purchase.

No. 7: Place clever innovation bets to be ahead of the game—next-generation technology platforms and creative campaigns.

“What you end up with Kraft is a completely different mobile experience based on who you are,” Mr. Handley said.

“The iFood Assistant iPhone app has gotten a ton of downloads and a lot of attention, but most people don’t realize that it is also available for BlackBerry, Symbian, Android and Windows Phone 7, as well as the mobile Web," he said.

“Kraft has mobile properties in English, French, Spanish, et cetera, with different content for those different audiences and those different target groups. The Spanish version of the mobile Web site is the most used version, but there is no Spanish language app.

“The stats dictated that the mobile Web was the way to go a year ago, but that’s already changed—we’re not going with an iPhone app, but we’re looking to support other platforms that Hispanics use more."

Apple’s iAd: First European Brands To Be Named This Week

2010-11-15T06:53:00.002+01:00

Six months after launch, some more international expansion for Apple’s iAd advertising platform. This week, Apple is reportedly set to announce its first European partners for iAd. The news follows on the heels of last week’s deal to take iAds to Japan, in partnership with Japanese agency Dentsu.

The European launch of iAd has not come without hiccups. The report notes that Apple had “twice delayed” the iAd launch in recent weeks. And it has been willing to bend on its $1 million minimum campaign spend rule in order to attract top brands to the platform. Two or three campaigns are likely to run in early December, but most will not go live until early next year, it says.

According to analysts at mobileSQUARED, the ‘big five’ European mobile markets of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK will together generate a combined €88 million ($120 million) in revenues from mobile advertising in 2010. That’s a league behind Japan, which is expected to have some $1 billion in mobile advertising revenues; and the U.S. market, which it says is around one-third the size of Japan’s (analysts at Smaato put the U.S. figure somewhat higher, at nearly $800 million).

Still, signing on some European brands would still be a significant move for Apple, not least to demonstrate that the iAd platform is continuing to gain momentum.

iAd, which went live nearly six months ago, has been the relative slow burner in Apple’s wireless business. After Apple boasted it had already booked some $60 million in iAd advertising at launch, it then went a little quiet, giving iAd only a passing mention in its last quarterly presentation.

That stands in contrast to the blazing success of Apple’s devices. Apple says the iPhone sold “well over three million” devices in its first three weeks of launch this past summer.

Mobile Browsers Do It In The Evening

2010-11-14T04:05:00.002+01:00

Adfonic, the European-based global mobile advertising marketplace, says that advertisers could be missing out on a growing mobile audience during the evening.

An analysis of Adfonic’s real-time hourly click patterns reveals that traffic starts to build from around 6pm and continues to rise throughout the evening, before peaking at midnight.

It also appears that the early morning offers potential for mobile advertisers, as an increasing number of people wake up and immediately spend time surfing the net on their smartphones. Both of these peaks in smartphone traffic coincide with dips in online traffic, traditionally seen as dead times for online advertising, revealing a clear opportunity for advertisers to reach incremental audiences through mobile.

“Analysis of our data shows that among iPhone, iPad and other smartphone traffic, there is a growth in ‘sofa’ and ‘bed’ surfing, as users switch from TV watching to mobile browsing in the commercial breaks or between programmes,” says Adfonic CMO, Paul Childs. “Many seem to prefer their smartphone, to engage with social media or to download apps for example, to a good book when they go to bed.”

Adfonic’s analysis also reveals that most smartphone users connect over wi-fi in the evenings rather than via their cellular data connection. This is reflected in a high level of app downloads. The same is not true during a smaller surfing peak through the morning commuter period, however, where app downloads are lower, due to the lack of a good connection.

“It appears that most brands are still missing a trick and are yet to tap into the full advertising potential of mobile,” says Childs. “As people switch off from TV advertising and spend less of the evening in front of a PC, the smartphone and tablet devices like the iPad are becoming the media of choice for spontaneous internet access. They also open up exciting new opportunities to cross-link TV and online campaigns with mobile devices and content, and the possibility to engage more effectively with consumers through richer mobile ad units.”

Adfonic’s real-time reporting and analytics is also able to map clicks across the UK, and reveals that contrary to popular opinion, iPhone, Android and iPad penetration is not confined to the London area. Adfonic’s figures show usage is now nationwide, with heavy concentrations around all major urban conurbations.

“What is clear from this research is that smartphone and tablet devices are changing the habits of the digital audience,” adds Childs. “As well as immediate and constant online access, they allow consumers to interact with brands in new ways that TV and laptops simply cannot compete with. The opportunity for advertisers to reach and engage with new audiences is huge and offers great potential for the mobile industry to leverage.”

Having launched just over a year ago, Adfonic now has over 2,000 publishers within its network, generating earnings from an average of 3,000 live ad campaigns per month, including major advertiser brands such as Yell.com, Peugeot and Sky. Adfonic says the number of ad impressions served through its network is set to reach 2bn per month over the next quarter.

Apple's iAd Helping Rivals

2010-11-13T03:45:00.004+01:00

Apple Inc.'s iAd interactive mobile ad service is having an unintended impact on rivals: It's largely helping their businesses by generating broader advertiser interest in mobile phones and gadgets.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled plans for the iAd service during a product event in April.

When Apple launched iAd last July, some industry executives worried that they would lose mobile advertising business to the Cupertino, Calif., company. Competitive concerns were sparked after the July rollout of iAd included commitments from top brands such as Unilever PLC and Nissan Co. to pay $1 million or more to have interactive ads placed inside iPhone and IPod touch apps.

But instead of losing business, ad executives say Apple's entry into the market is giving them a boost. That's because iAds has gotten big marketers to pay attention to mobile advertising in the first place

Apple has "brought sexiness to mobile ads," said Carnet Williams, chief executive of San Francisco-based Sprout Inc., which helps create and deliver interactive ads. Mr. Williams said it has gotten roughly four times as many calls from publishers and agencies since Apple turned the spotlight on iAds.

Until recently, the mobile advertising market was a small fraction of the $25.1 billion U.S. online advertising market, according to researcher eMarketer. Now that's changing as Apple has joined pre-existing providers of interactive mobile ads, such as Google Inc.'s AdMob unit, in offering ads that let consumers play a mini-game or interact with the ad without having to leave or the close the app they were using. Google said during its third quarter earnings call that mobile advertising is adding $1 billion annually in revenue.

Some ad executives say Apple's foray into mobile advertising particularly spurred marketers to boost their spending in the broader category. And not all those dollars are being allocated from digital budgets, with some coming from more traditional ad spending like TV or direct response, said Phuc Truong, managing director at Mobext, a mobile ad agency owned by French ad company Havas SA. Its clients include Sears Holdings Corp., regional McDonald's Corp. co-ops, and Exxon Mobil Corp.

Alexandre Mars, head of mobile for Publicis Groupe SA, adds Apple's cachet with big brands has helped legitimize the entire market. "The mobile marketing business is different now," said Mr. Mars, noting that none of the other mobile advertising companies could have attracted the interest that Apple has gotten from top brands.

Yet many ad agencies and brands find Apple's rates too high, giving competitors like Google, Medialets Inc., Crisp Wireless Inc. and 4INFO Inc. an opening to grow their businesses by offering cheaper rates to do similar things. People familiar with the matter have said Apple requires a minimum $1 million iAd commitment, but rival agencies said they can put together an ad campaign for as little as tens of thousands of dollars.

"A seven-figure mobile media spend historically has been few and far between, so if we're able to create a beautiful unit similar to the iAd but without the spending commitment, that's always a good alternative," said Mr. Truong.

Estee Lauder, Tiffany & Co., Macy’s ads prove iPad is canvas for engagement

2010-11-12T11:33:00.001+01:00

Top-notch brands such as Estee Lauder, Tiffany & Co., FedEx, Macy’s and Nestle are finding that the iPad is changing the print advertising landscape, allowing for more engaging and interactive experiences.

These brands are all print advertisers in the 20th anniversary issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine, which has launched an iPad version to commemorate the occasion. The brands have all added interactive elements to the digital versions of their ads, proving just how effective the iPad is at providing engaging experiences.

“The iPad represents a real opportunity for advertisers," said Gael Towey, chief creative and editorial director at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, New York. "They want to reach a new audience too, and in a more immersive way.

"Now they can, by using the same tools that are available to editors to create an entirely new and exciting experience for consumers," she said.

Created with Adobe’s digital publishing technology, Martha Stewart Living’s edition for the iPad re-imagines for the digital age one of the world’s most recognized mass-market consumer lifestyle titles.

Featuring all original content, the application brings together the inspiring ideas, practical how-to information and beautiful photography that distinguish the Martha Stewart Living brand.

Innovative functionality includes scrolling recipes, slide shows, videos, audio, animation and panoramas.

NAVTEQ Location-Based Marketing Campaign Sees 20% CTR, 40% Post-Click Engagement

2010-11-12T04:43:00.002+01:00

NAVTEQ announced today that a first-of-its-kind location-based marketing campaign for O2 in the U.K.netted impressive results across the board.

The campaign leveraged NAVTEQ’s newly launched “LocationPoint” LBS marketing platform to promote the chance to win free concert tickets to a local concert or special event. NAVTEQ, in conjunction with high-quality Ovi Maps, delivered location-aware ads to Nokia smartphone users as they approached one of more than a dozen O2 concert venues throughout the U.K.

Campaign results show an impressive initial click-through rate of 20%, while a further impressive 40% of consumers visited the attached mobile Website to register to win or clicked on a map showing the venue location. In addition, 16% requested an Ovi Map orienting or directing them to the venue. The campaign is another early win for NAVTEQ which is making huge strides in leveraging its navigation-centric network to deliver highly targeted location-based ads.

“NAVTEQ lets advertisers intelligently tap into the rich potential of mobile for branding and advertising,” said David Barker, NAVTEQ Director Ad Sales Europe and Africa. “NAVTEQ’s LocationPoint advertising services is the solution that allows big destinations like O2 to drive consumers in their doors—and do it in ways that can be measured to show proof of return on investment.”

Survey: 75% Of Mobile YouTube Users Say Mobile Is Their Primary Means Of Access

2010-11-12T04:38:00.002+01:00

Google today released the results of a new survey of mobile YouTube users that indicate an overwhelming preference for accessing mobile video content via mobile devices.

In response to a growing number of people accessing their videos through m.youtube.com, Google issued a survey on the mobile site which received over 16,000 responses. Of which, 75% say that their mobile is the number one device they use to watch YouTube videos. Furthermore, the survey shows 70% of respondents use the mobile YouTube site at least once per day.

Other findings indicate that 58% of users spend 20+ minutes per visit and that 38% are happy to say that their Online use of YouTube is being replaced by YouTube Mobile. Of course, the results of the survey are obviously self-serving to Google, as the results were posted on its “Google Mobile Ads Blog.” The post goes on to say “however, these results may not be as surprising when you learn that, according to Nielsen, YouTube Mobile is the #1 video viewing mobile website in the US, with more than 7.1MM monthly unique users.”

The search giant took the opportunity to promote its “daily roadblock” ads as well. ”Advertisers can now own 100% share-of-voice on YouTube Mobile by purchasing a daily roadblock and owning all available ad impressions for 24 hours. Ads run on the Search, Browse and Home pages of the mobile website.”

Playboy breaks location-based mobile initiative to engage trendsetters

2010-11-11T11:32:00.003+01:00

Hugh Hefner’s adult entertainment brand Playboy Enterprises Inc. has unveiled Playboy Scout, a nightlife application enhanced with location-triggered content delivery.

Using Xtify Inc.’s geo-location push notification technology, Playboy Scout is available on Android phones nationwide and will soon be launched on other smartphone platforms. The Scout application presents Playboy’s audience with exclusive nightlife-oriented offers and information about events, clubs, and bars which have been reviewed and recommended by Playboy’s editors, and delivers push notifications to users when they are in proximity of venues of interest.

“Playboy has always been an authority in the nightlife space, with entertainment content that is even more relevant when unleashed from the confines of a computer or magazine,” said Paul Lee, managing director of new digital venturesa at Playboy Enterprises, Chicago. “Playboy is leveraging its respected editorial content and expertise on new digital platforms to extend the Playboy brand in the nightlife arena.

“The mobile phone is the one device people have with them constantly, in their pocket or their purse,” he said. “Brands not thinking about reaching their customers via the mobile device are going to get left behind—that said, mobile applications have to be continually relevant to the consumer or they'll cease to be used.

“Xtify's technology allows us to reach the consumer at the time and place in which the message we're sending is most relevant, and to easily send location-triggered notifications even when the app is closed on the consumer's phone.”

Mobile App Development Grows Sharply

2010-11-11T04:45:00.004+01:00

The number of mobile applications developed by advertisers/marketers in 2010 increased significantly year-over-year, according to a new report from Millennial Media. When asked the number of mobile applications they developed in 2010 compared to 2009, advertisers participating stated growth in every area.

In particular, advertisers developing 20-50 apps stated an astounding jump 1,975% jump from four in 2009 to 83 in 2010. Conversely, the number of advertisers who did not develop a single application decreased 42% year-over-year (from 19 in 2009 to 11 in 2010).

IAB, MMA collaborate on industry standards for measuring mobile Web ad delivery

2010-11-10T16:25:00.002+01:00

To standardize key metrics for the mobile interactive industry, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Mobile Marketing Association have released “Mobile Web Advertising Measurement Guidelines” for public comment.

Developed with the assistance of the Media Rating Council, the guidelines will provide a framework to govern how ad impressions are counted on the mobile Web.

Please click here to view the guidelines

Mobile audience metrics from ABC Interactive

2010-11-10T15:28:00.002+01:00

The Audit Bureau of Circulations’ recent partnership with Spreed Inc. is yet another indication that audience metrics are helping publishers take mobile advertising to the next level.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations’ interactive unit, ABCi, is teaming with Toronto-based Spreed to provide independently audited mobile usage data generated from smart phones, ereaders and mobile browsers. The announcement follows ABCi’s recent review of Spreed’s mobile application platform, confirming it meets the necessary prerequisites as part of the ABCi audit process.

"As the mobile advertising market continues to grow in the U.S. and Canada, we are receiving more interest in verified mobile metrics from our members,” said Kammi Altig, manager of communications at ACBi, Arlington Heights, IL.

Advertising key to putting Internet in every cellphone

2007-11-17T13:23:00.000+01:00

BOSTON, United States (AFP) - The emergence of "smartphones" has put the Internet, music and videos in the palm of the consumer's hand, but the technology will need a flow of advertising cash to reach its full potential.
ADVERTISEMENT

Cellphone makers and service providers meeting at the Mobile Internet World conference here picture a world five years from now where the consumers will be able to pay bills, read the news and communicate with their mobile devices.

Few cellphone owners are currently using their devices to access the Internet -- nine percent, according to the Yankee Group, a technology consulting firm.

But the IDC research firm says that more than one in five cellphones sold in 2011 will be "smartphones," devices with Internet access that can also play videos and music.

Three billion cellphones circulate in the world, three times more than computers. While Internet connection over the cellphone is often slow, it is improving.

According to Kiyo Oishi, chief of the Japanese firm Access, one billion consumers will have access to high-speed Internet in 2013.

Consumers will need better services, including simpler websites and systems that are not limited to one operator or device.

But the market will need revenue.

"Advertising, commerce will be the economic engine that will drive everything," said Andrew Belt of the Monitor Group.

Currently operators make money through subscriptions to their services. For instance, some companies charge for email service, ringtone downloads or voting on television game shows.

But to get a slice of the mobile Internet age, companies will have to rely on advertising to get their products to consumers, analysts say.

"You have 110 billion dollars spent on TV (advertising). By 2008 you'll see big shifts, to mobile and social networks," said W2 Group chief executive Larry Weber.

According to the firm eMarketer, 16 billion dollars will be spent on advertising on cellphones in 2011, 10 times more than today.

"Most people would rather have free services with ads than paying subscriptions," said Andy Jedynak, co-chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) mobile committee.

Advertising will become the main source of revenue for mobile devices, but not before three to five years, he said.

IAB, which represents companies that sell interactive advertising, already wants to set standards for cellphone ads, including to limit their size to no more than a quarter the screen.

"All mass-media are financed by advertising," said Douglas Edwards, founder Handmark. "Advertising will inevitably" become the main source of revenue, he said.

M:Metrics Launches Mobile AdTracker

2007-11-15T10:18:00.000+01:00

Today M:Metrics debuts a new service tracks ad display on mobile sites, or on the devices themselves.

M:AdTracker will be deployed on 120 mobile portals and websites, including those from ESPN and other high-level publishers, as well as a few lower-tier ones.

The software measures ad display four times daily and returns raw numbers to M:Metrics, where data is analyzed and scrubbed by a team before conversion into client-ready reports.

Ads must link back to a webpage to be counted by the software.

Early reports show a number of Fortune 100 companies advertising on mobile platforms, breaking conventional wisdom that mobile advertising tends to be primarily for mobile products.

Nokia launches WidSets - a mobile dashboard

2007-11-13T12:09:00.000+01:00

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced that its innovative Internet service called WidSets, launched one year ago, has emerged from Beta to a new service platform. With the new platform WidSets will offer improved usability by localizing mobile clients and improving mobile widget library. WidSets will also bring advertising in as the primary business model. WidSets works on Java enabled handsets from a range of manufacturers and utilizes widgets, so users can have one-click access to real-time online content without needing to use a mobile browser.

"We've been delighted with the feedback we've had from the Beta trials of WidSets," said Jarmo Jokinen, Director of WidSets, Nokia Emerging Business Unit. "During that time, we've had more than 3 million users register for the WidSets service on more than 300 models of mobile device. We've valued the early feedback, which has enabled us to launch a more compelling service for users and content providers."

The new platform offers a dynamic search feature and an improved widget creation tool for quicker, simpler and more personalized options for creating widgets. And now it is really easy: enter the web address, click to select the feed and then you will have a personal widget! Around 90 percent of the current WidSets' content is already user generated, but the WidSets team has recently added many new widgets and made it easier for users to find local and also non-English-language content.

The new Explore feature for finding widgets offers an option to perform a live search, filter through recommended widgets, or go through tags or categories, and download them for use on mobile devices.

WidSets now offers a unique advertising model to commercial customers for providing two-way-interaction between the advertiser and their customers or prospects. A great example is a movie theater widget: the user chooses the city they are looking for and can then see what movies are on, in which theater, and whether there are seats available. A perfect match of benefits for movie going consumers, and the advertiser!

On the WidSets website people can review the widgets and see the latest, most popular or top rated widgets and share those with others. And now this can also be done from the mobile device. One of the latest widgets is for AccuWeather.com, which is expected to rapidly become one of the top ranked widgets in the WidSets library.

The WidSets mobile dashboard can also now be shared. This means that when creating a profile, users may share their own dashboard and widgets with the others, and see what the other "WidSeteers" are using as well as how they look like, thanks to the user images available in dashboards.

Nokia plans to pre-install WidSets in tens of millions of mobile phones during 2008, and enabling service support in tens of different languages. The recently unveiled Nokia 8800 Arte which will start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2007 will be the first handset to offer WidSets to its style-conscious consumers. In addition, users can already get started with WidSets via the Download! folder on all Nokia Nseries and Eseries devices.

WidSets works on a wide variety of mobile phone brands, and is already compatible with more than 300 mobile devices. Users can easily download WidSets from www.widsets.com or on their mobile from get.widsets.com.

Mobile Video Subscribers to Jump to 59M in 2010

2007-11-07T09:06:00.000+01:00

Despite concerns over the business plan and subscriber rates, mobile video phone sales are expected to climb from $58 billion in 2006 to $125 billion in 2010 worldwide, according to a report from Infonetics Research.

The bump is fueled by "increasingly powerful and efficient phones" and augmented spectrum availability.

There were a few million subscribers to video phone service in 2006, but the number is expected to climb to 58.6 million in 2010. Currently, about 77 percent of subscribers are found in the EMEA and Asia/Pacific regions.

Though the US trails behind in bringing video to mobile phones, it may get a hand after the government effectively switches off analog TV in 2009.

Google Plans Mobile-Phone Operating System to Expand Beyond Web

2007-11-05T09:15:00.000+01:00

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., seeking to expand beyond the Web, said it plans to create a mobile phone operating system for handsets sold by Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc.

Google, owner of the world's most popular Internet search engine, today announced the 34-member Open Handset Alliance, which includes Sprint, T-Mobile and phone makers Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

The agreement would boost Google's advertising revenue from mobile phones, which outsold personal computers by more than 4 to 1 last year. For phone companies, the accord may bolster sales of online services and give them an edge over larger rival AT&T Inc., the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

``While it might be some time before mobile-phone advertising revenue begins to be meaningful for Google, it certainly says that they have worked successfully to put the foundations for such growth in place,'' said David Garrity, director of research at Dinosaur Securities Inc. in New York, who advises buying Google's shares.

Spending on mobile-phone ads may jump to $11.4 billion worldwide by 2011 from $2.17 billion today, according to Informa Plc, a London-based research firm. Google, in Mountain View, California, gets 99 percent of its more than $10 billion in annual sales from advertising, mostly by selling text links next to search results on its own pages and partner sites.

Mobile Video Audience Expands Like Wildfire

2007-10-31T18:54:00.000+01:00

The audience for mobile video in the US, which totals 8 million in August viewing from a carrier deck or referred video content, is up 34 percent from January, according to M:Metrics.

That's just 3.7 percent of US mobile subscribers, but the growth rate is impressive.

Mobile Brand Advertising Takes Off, Direct Already on Its Way

2007-10-22T20:21:00.000+02:00

The pieces are in place for mobile brand advertising to start scaling up, says eMarketer's Mobile Brand Advertising report, which projects worldwide mobile brand advertising will increase to $3.6 billion in 2011 - nearly 30 times more than the mere $124 million in 2006

ESPN, Nielsen Make Foray into Cross-Media Measurement

2007-10-17T20:11:00.000+02:00

ESPN and Nielsen have joined to work on a measurement system that tracks audiences across platforms, reports Advertising Age.

The program builds a snapshot of how audiences move between media platforms, and how exposure to ads on one drive people to others.

How a call-to-action on TV drives traffic to the internet, how ads on mobile platforms push people to the internet, and other engagement factors, are all going to go under the microscope.

ESPN is Nielsen's test case in building the total-audience measurement offering.

The sports media brand has a vested interest in that sort of data since it has embraced the idea of offering its content in a variety of places, based on the multiplicity of media consumed by sports fans.

The program will also give advertisers a glimpse at unduplicated audience figures, providing a more accurate snapshot of how many people are being exposed to content and ads.

Global Brands May Accelerate Mobile Marketing Efforts

2007-10-11T19:56:00.000+02:00

28 percent of global brands surveyed have already launched live SMS (text) campaigns. 18 percent have launched live MMS (multimedia) campaigns, according to a mobile-marketing survey of 50 global brands by Vanson Bourne for Airwide Solutions.

The growing sophistication of mobile marketing campaigns is reflected in the number of brands considering implementing both SMS and MMS mobile marketing in the next 12 months: The proportion has doubled to 28 percent since a similar survey in 2006, Airwide said.

The survey also found that more brands expect to spend a greater proportion of their marketing budget on mobile campaigns in the near future: 71 percent project that they'll spend up to 10 percent of their budget on mobile marketing within two years.

Among other key findings of the study:

* Brands' experience with mobile marketing is increasingly positive, as more brands are getting higher response rates from their campaigns:
o The percentage of big brands who said up to 10 percent of recipients of mobile marketing campaigns requested more information as a result of receiving a mobile marketing message grew from 32 percent in 2006 to 58 percent in 2007.
o Regarding financial transactions, 73 percent of brands said up to 10 percent of recipients of campaigns undertook a financial action as a result of the campaign, compared with 28 percent of brands saying so in 2006.
o Every responding brand agreed that its most recent mobile marketing campaign was successful in increasing customer familiarity of the brand.

* Mobile phone users are expected to benefit from a range of incentives as part of the growth in mobile marketing:
o Almost 60 percent of brands intend to send special offers via the mobile phone.
o Over one-third (36 percent) intend to send discount vouchers.
o Other incentives will include digital loyalty cards, free gifts and preferential terms.

* The experience of brands using mobile marketing demonstrates that the actual campaign response rate is higher than the expectations of those who have not yet implemented mobile marketing:
o 57 percent of brands not yet using mobile marketing anticipate that customers will request more information, while 83 percent of brands that have already implemented campaigns said they received requests for more information.
o The numbers for financial transactions are higher, with 38 percent of inexperienced brands stating that they expect consumers to undertake consequent financial actions, whereas 82 percent of experienced brands say recipients completed a financial action as a result of receiving a mobile marketing message.

* As brands have learned about mobile marketing, the perception that SMS is a reliable and measurable medium has increased:
o Among brands not using SMS in campaigns, the percentage that find SMS too complicated for marketing has dropped significantly, from 24 percent in 2006 to 8 percent in 2007.
o More brands now know how to measure its effectiveness, with the uncertainty about how to do so dropping from 18 percent in 2006 to 11 percent in 2007.
o Still, among those not using SMS, some 7 of 10 now say it's not right for their audience.
* Despite considerable enthusiasm for mobile marketing, there are some barriers to even higher growth rates:
o More than half of brands have not yet employed either text messaging (58 percent) or multimedia messaging (60 percent) systems for marketing.
o The perception that MMS is difficult to use has grown from 14 percent in 2006 to 29 percent in 2007, and concerns about reliability have grown from 12 percent to 34 percent in the same period.
o Almost half of big brands (46 percent) are concerned that mobile marketing is too intrusive, with many feeling that customers will perceive messages as spam; and of these, 41 percent are unsure how to rectify the problem by targeting specific audiences.
o Over one-third of brands (36 percent) would require detailed information on how the user responded to the message - and one in five want proof that the message has been received by the user's handset.

About the study: Airwide Solutions commissioned Vanson Bourne in January 2006 and July 2007 to survey 50 of Europe's global brand names about their plans for mobile marketing.

IAB Issues Final Word On Rich Media Impressions

2007-10-11T12:42:00.000+02:00

IAB - THE INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING BUREAU ON Wednesday released final guidelines on the measurement of rich online media to better gauge the level at which ad impressions are counted in rich online application environments supported by AJAX and JSON technologies.

Mobile Platform Sees First Transcontinental Merger

2007-10-10T10:32:00.000+02:00

This October will not only be remembered for the Indian Summer; it will also witness one of the first major merges in the mobile marketing space.

European mobile marketing firm Mindmatics, and US mobile app service provider Air2Web, have stated intentions to merge.

The companies will operate under the Air2Web name, though a rebranding may occur by the end of the year.

Mindmatics put on major mobile marketing campaigns in Europe for clients like Unilever and P&G, and has set up major TV-based voting systems for shows like Deal or No Deal in the US and Eurovision Song Contest in Europe.

Stateside, Air2Web implements service and transaction abilities for brands like The Weather Channel, P&G, AT&T, and UPS.

With the deal, the two greatly expand their services while availing both sides of the pond to frontiering opportunities.

TeliaSonera launches mobile browser and ad channel

2007-10-09T18:29:00.000+02:00

TeliaSonera is to launch SurfOpen, an internet tool that simplifies mobile surfing and will act as a new advertising channel.

SurfOpen, expected to launch in the first quarter of 2008, is a window that stays in sight at the top of the mobile display in a similar way as web browsers' icons. It will enable mobile phone users to navigate the internet as they do on a PC. SurfOpen comprises tabs for favourites, search engine and ads.

As part of the initiative, a new interactive advertisement space has been created called value window. The window will appear when the phone is idle and not when the user needs the display to surf the internet or use any of the phone's other tools. The window will have space for display advertising and users can also collect their own favourite services on the phone's background to transfer to them in one click.

Kenneth Karlberg, President of TeliaSonera Mobility Services, said: “SurfOpen simplifies things for all our customers who surf on the Internet with their mobile phones. Current and new customers familiar with the Internet on the PC will find their way in the service, and they do not even have to learn things again when they change their phones."

IAB: First-Half Internet Ad Revenues Of $10B Up 27%

2007-10-05T15:32:00.000+02:00

IAB President/CEO Randall Rothenberg calls it the "Oh my God, it happened" year for major marketers as the shift of marketing budgets to online channels marches on. Search continued to account for the highest dollar spending, at 41% of the total. Still, Rothenberg says, more efficiency and simplicity are needed for spending to really take off.

Read the whole story...

Clear Channel Unveils Spectacolor HD Billboard — with Free WiFi, Ad Ops Galore

2007-10-04T20:13:00.000+02:00

CNN is joining the ranks of Reuters, breaking ground with a giant Times Square-based digital display.

This isn't just any billboard. CNN, now the content provider for Clear Channel's new Spectacolor HD billboard, will not only boast the highest quality of any digital billboard in the US; it's also packed with outdoor advertising options galore.

Going up on the corner of 47th and Broadway, the billboard will run multiple ad spots in conjunction with streaming news, weather forecasts and HD broadcasts from CNN.

Advertisers can buy Bluetooth downloads that allow visitors to bring "a piece of the billboard with them home," as well as interactive content via short code that will turn people's phones into a remote controls.

Finally, the board will serve as Time Square's first free public Wi-Fi spot.

Microsoft Plans to Become a Media Company

2007-10-03T21:53:00.001+02:00

Within the next four to 10 years, says Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer, as much as 25% of the software giant's revenues are likely to come from advertising. Microsoft can already deliver advertising to new platforms such as in-game promotions and mobile-phone campaigns.

Business Week has more.

Nokia signs video deals with CNN, Sony and others

2007-10-02T17:41:00.000+02:00

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world's top cellphone maker Nokia ( has signed partnership deals with seven companies including CNN and Sony Pictures to bring video content to its top-of-the-range multimedia phones.

"Consumer desire to watch Internet videos on mobile devices is growing all the time and we want to help users discover and access the best content in the simplest way possible," Harri Mannisto, director at Nokia's multimedia unit, said on Tuesday.

Nokia said it would also bring video content from India's IBN news channel and videos from Jamba, RooftopComedy, ROK and Versaly Entertainment to its N95 models.

It has previously signed similar deals with Google's YouTube and Reuters.

Nokia's Navteq Buy Is Giant Leap Into Services

2007-10-02T11:45:00.000+02:00

Still, there are challenges. It's no longer about serving up the ads. It's about using the intelligence in the IT network to ensure the correct ads appear on the mobile phone or navigation system when the consumer seems most receptive. "In theory it's easy, but really difficult to do," one analyst says. "You first have to identify people who are interested in the product, Tropicana orange juice, for example."

Read the whole story on Mediaweek.com

Nokia Spells Out Mobile Ad Plans

2007-10-01T20:42:00.000+02:00

Nokia has announced how the advertising on its content-sharing Mosh network will work, reports ClickZ.

Mosh will allow people to upload content to profiles that can be shared with friends via mobile devices. Content can be uploaded either directly from a mobile device, or through the web.

Banner advertising on mobile sites will, of course, be contextually relevant to the content they appear with. So if a group of movie fans is constantly uploading homemade reviews, the likelihood is high movie-related ads will populate that group.

Nokia will start off selling the ads in-house, but has not ruled out partnering with an ad network. These could include mobile firm Enpocket, which Nokia acquired just last month.

Mobile Broadcast TV to Reach Almost 120MM Users by 2012

2007-10-01T09:02:00.000+02:00

Nearly 120 million mobile users in more than 40 countries are expected to receive broadcast TV services by 2012, compared with less than 12 million in 2007, with DVB-H the dominant transmission standard, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

However, the report cautions that services face significant technological and regulatory hurdles, both prior to launch and as they bid to build a critical mass of subscribers.

Worldwide annual consumer spending on mobile broadcast TV services is expected to exceed $6.6 billion by 2012; combined end-user revenues from streamed and broadcast mobile TV services will rise from just under $1.4 billion in 2007 to nearly $12 billion in 2012, according to Juniper's forecast.

Google Buys Mobile Social Networking Startup

2007-10-01T08:57:00.000+02:00

Google plans to acquire a mobile social networking startup called Zingku, which lets users share photos, send invitations or conduct polls via mobile phone. It also provides a way for businesses to send "mobile flyers" to customers advertising products and services.

Mobile Marketing Association Debuts Rules, Advertisers Comply

2007-09-28T00:24:00.000+02:00

The Mobile Marketing Association has announced new guidelines for mobile advertising, and advertisers have fast expressed a willingness to follow them, reports ClickZ.

The guidelines were developed by the group as a way to try bringing uniform experiences to mobile users across the globe, as well as ease the creation of mobile campaigns.

Recommendations for banner ad sizing, appropriate file sizes and the amount of text are all covered in the new guidelines. Of note is express advice to explicitly label all ads as such, to ensure users are aware of the presence of sponsored placements.

These recommendations join those that the MMA issued just months ago, dealing specifically with advertising to children.

Companies including Yahoo, Enpocket and Admob announced they will gladly follow the MMA's new order. Yahoo said its mobile ads would be fully compliant by the year's end.

DoubleClick launches mobile advertising service

2007-09-25T19:32:00.000+02:00

New York—DoubleClick announced the launch of DoubleClick Mobile, a new service for mobile advertising.

DoubleClick Mobile integrates operational processes for scheduling, targeting, selecting and delivering ads on mobile Web pages with publishers’ existing digital channels.

Features of the new service include automatic ad selection, new mobile ad formats, third-party impression tracking, device preview and handset capability targeting.

DoubleClick Mobile is integrated with DoubleClick DART for Publishers to manage digital ad campaigns. It gives media companies the ability to sell and manage ad inventory across online display, rich media, video and mobile devices.

MySpace to Debut on Mobile Platform

2007-09-24T19:11:00.000+02:00

Fox Interactive is debuting a free mobile-friendly version of MySpace, reports The Boston Globe.

The introduction of complimentary, all-carrier access to MySpace is made possible through advertising support. Paid access was available before, but only through a handful of carriers. Paid "premium" access will still be available and will include more functionality, such as cell phone image uploading.

With the ad-supported version of MySpace mobile, users can make text-based updates to their profile pages, such as updating blogs and leaving comments.

Banner ads and sponsorships will make up the first ad efforts on the mobile version. Ad-targeting based on cellphone data and user location will be introduced later on.

Wi-Fi, Mobile Phones: A New Health Risk?

2007-09-24T18:59:00.000+02:00

While major cities around the world rush to offer free wireless Internet access, critics are questioning the long-term health impact from exposure to electromagnetic waves. Studies on mobile-phone users to be released next year will focus on people with brain and neck tumors.

IHT.com has the full story.

Audited Mobile Advertising Audience Composition Metrics Released

2007-09-22T13:20:00.000+02:00

Mobile advertising effectively reaches some of the most desirable, yet elusive, media consumers - if the responses from a survey of the AdMob publisher network by M:Metrics are an indication, writes MarketingCharts.

Some 65.5 percent of respondents were 18-34-year-olds, with broad demographic reach into various sub-segments, according to the third-quarter survey that covered more than 2,000 mobile.

Numerous sites that target African-Americans have audience compositions in excess of 50 percent of that elusive 18-34-year-old demographic, whereas the ethnic group comprises only 6.3 percent of the mobile population, according to M:Metrics.

Similar results were found for females (sites with audience composition over 60 percent females, versus 42 percent of mobile browser population) and Hispanics (sites with over 35 percent Hispanic composition, versus 18.5 percent mobile browser population), among other demographic profiles.

M:Metrics simultaneously announced a more broad launch of its M:Audit mobile advertising tool, which uses on-device survey technology to measure the audience composition of mobile web properties.

"Brand advertisers can now reach their target audience on mobile phones using sophisticated demographic targeting," said Omar Hamoui, CEO, AdMob.

The M:Audit service provides third-party audited composition metrics for mobile domain owners, ad networks and content providers.

Mobile Ad Spending Boom on the Horizon, says Myers

2007-09-18T17:58:00.000+02:00

Slow to catch on, mobile advertising is about to enter its heyday, according to the latest ad spending projection from The Jack Myers Media Business Report.

The forecaster believes advertisers are currently spending about $500 million annually on mobile advertising but will increase that amount by 120 percent next year and reach about $1.1 billion.

The spending won’t stop there, said report publisher Jack Myers. He estimates another 120 percent boost in mobile spending for 2009, meaning marketers will shell out about $2.4 billion to dangle their goods and services in front of mobile device users. According to his forecast, 2009 should be the year mobile advertising draws 1 percent of the $254 billion total ad spend.

“Mobile advertising, in 2005, was at virtually the same level as gaming advertising," said Myers in an interview. “It was growing at a fairly parallel rate with gaming.” However, if his projections prove correct, mobile ad spending will grow twice as fast as game ad spending in 2009.

While it will not come close to the growth rates of either mobile or game ad spending, general Internet advertising -- including search and video -- is still on the rise. Myers projects online spending to increase 20 percent, to $16.7 billion, this year. Similar growth rates should follow, according to Myers: Online/Internet should see 24 percent gains in 2008 and 28.5 percent growth in 2009.

He said video advertising will be the heavy hitter of the online advertising lineup. “Search growth is slowing, but everything to do with video is accelerating,” said Myers. While monetization of YouTube and other user-generated video is a hot topic these days, Myers said the big growth in online video ad spending will benefit large, commercial sites. “More the CBS, Disney professional type video,” he said.

While online advertising is growing, it still amounts to a small slice of overall marketing budgets. “In 2007, online represents 7.2 percent of total advertising and advertising represents 31 percent of total marketing,” said Myers. Noting that online represented only 5.3 percent of total advertising in 2005, Myers predicts it will have doubled to 10.5 percent by 2009.

Myers forecasts overall media advertising will increase 6.9 percent in 2008 and 3.1 percent in 2009, and his report notes categories untracked by some other forecasters, such as cinema, mobile, games, branded entertainment, satellite radio and custom publishing, are expected to collectively grow 20.3 percent this year, 18.4 percent in 2008 and 18.5 percent in 2009.

Meanwhile, Myers projects newspapers will sustain the largest declines in ad spending. He said the papers will lose 4.6 percent in ad revenues in 2007, 2.4 percent in 2008 and 4.5 percent in 2009.”

Mobile Phones 'More Relevant' Than TV for Ads

2007-09-17T21:40:00.000+02:00

Media and advertising companies are starting to latch on to people's mobile phones by beaming ads to them using Bluetooth technology. Such ads are expected to become commonplace. Industry observers say they allow for better targeting than mass media like television or radio.PARIS (Reuters) - Your cell phone may be one of the last spots around that's relatively free of advertising -- but not for long. Media and advertising companies have found a way of latching on to people's handsets by beaming ads to them via Bluetooth, the same technology used in some hands-free headsets.

Here's how it works: When you're standing less than 10 meters away from a Bluetooth interactive billboard, window display or concert hall booth, you'll be asked if you want to switch on your Bluetooth function and accept a file. That file could be a video, a song or an offer of rebate coupons.

As you are strolling down the Champs Elysees, for instance, don't be surprised if one day Lancome, using the technology, invites you to test its newest perfume in a nearby shop. You may also find yourself on the receiving end of ad clips from Coca-Cola or a Warner Bros. preview of its "Happy Feet" animated film.

"A mobile phone is the one electronic device most people carry with them at all times, so it is too good of an opportunity for media companies and advertisers to miss," says Nick Jones, wireless technology analyst at Gartner research house.

But cellular phone operators aren't showing much enthusiasm for Bluetooth marketing since it's free for the consumer and often does not generate extra revenues for them.

Instead, mobile operators such as Orange favor a rival technology to Bluetooth called Code 2D - or QR (quick response codes).

These bar codes, already used in Japan, are read by camera phones and send the user directly to a Web page. Accessing a Web site requires a subscription to a wireless Internet connection for which users usually have to pay.

"Bluetooth does not answer all our needs for mobile marketing," Jean-Noel Tronc, head of Orange Mobile in France, told Reuters in an interview. "For us, Code 2D is much better."

Orange, which also operates in the UK, Poland and Spain, has asked manufacturers -- starting in early 2008 -- to supply it with camera phones with Code 2D capabilities.

BYPASSING OPERATORS

But advertisers don't necessarily need the support of operators. After all, consumers can use Bluetooth to download files regardless of which operator they have chosen, or even without one.

So don't be surprised if Bluetooth ads become commonplace down the road. After all, they allow for better targeted and more relevant advertising than mass media like television or radio.

"Mobile marketing is a one-to-one relationship, while TV or radio marketing is one-to-many," says Gartner's Jones. "Mobile phones take this personalized form of marketing a step further."

Something else to take into account with such marketing is whether it will simply annoy consumers.

Fabien Beckers, CEO of Paris-based mobile marketing firm Kameleon, rejects the idea that such ads are just spam, since consumers receive them only on an opt-in basis.

Still, most agree that for Bluetooth marketing to work, consumers need to get something out of it. The picture of an insurance company's logo probably won't attract much interest.

"It (mobile marketing) has the potential to become a significant player in the marketing world as TV advertisers struggle to get people's eyeballs," says Jon Hudson, senior vice President of PC, automotive and consumer business units at CSR, "But it has to be more than 'your next McDonalds is 200 meters on the left'."

Some local authorities believe Bluetooth proximity communication has a future in the public services arena as well.

This month Paris City Hall has started offering maps and updated what's-on guides beamed from 20 of the city's self-hire bike stations, which have been all the rage since they were installed in July.

"We are trying to test the public's ability to use Bluetooth and their appetite for such 'take-away' information," says Jean-Philippe Clement, the Paris City Hall IT official who oversees the bike station Bluetooth project.

Nokia to acquire Enpocket to create a global mobile advertising leader

2007-09-17T10:42:00.000+02:00

Enpocket to provide Nokia with a platform to accelerate scaling of its mobile advertising businessEspoo, Finland - Nokia and Enpocket today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Nokia to acquire Enpocket (www.enpocket.com). Enpocket is a global leader in mobile advertising; providing technology and services that allow brands to plan, create, execute, measure and optimize mobile advertising campaigns around the world. By acquiring Enpocket, Nokia will accelerate the scaling of its mobile advertising business, leveraging Enpocket's platform and strong partnerships with advertisers, publishers and operators. In addition to key assets, through this transaction Nokia is gaining a team with strong expertise in global mobile advertising across disciplines.

"Nokia has already announced its intention to be a leading company in consumer Internet services and we believe that mobile advertising will be an important element in monetizing those services for our customers and partners. Enpocket's mature leading edge platform and people expertise are a strong fit with Nokia existing capabilities in the mobile advertising market," said Tero Ojanperä, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia. "This acquisition is a game changing move to bring the reach and depth of Nokia to organize the market across the world, and make it easier for an ecosystem to develop."

Enpocket is a privately-owned company, established in 2001 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The innovative technology that drives the Enpocket platform is a mobile advertising campaign management and delivery system distinguished by advanced consumer insight, targeting, and measurement. The platform can deliver mobile advertising across multiple formats including SMS, MMS, mobile Internet advertising, and video. Enpocket is powering mobile advertising for leading mobile operators and publishers across the globe and has an ad sales force that is working with large brands.

"Effective interactive advertising on the mobile device can create tremendous value for the mobile industry while bringing new Internet services to people around the world," said Enpocket President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Baker. "Enpocket and Nokia are combining to provide the leadership needed to define, build and standardize globally the business of mobile advertising so that brands can easily and efficiently engage consumers on their personal devices."

The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Google Brings AdWords to Mobile Search

2007-09-15T00:03:00.000+02:00

After a year in beta, Google has opened AdWords to its Mobile Search product.

Keyword management will be integrated into the existing AdWords user interface. Ads will appear in the mobile platform unless advertisers actively decide not to participate, reports ClickZ.

Mobile Search listings will be free until November 18. After November 19, AdWords users must opt out, or they will be charged for mobile clicks.

However, Google notified AdWords users that only ads with mobile-adaptable landing pages will qualify for inclusion in Mobile Search.

Sprint Nextel to Debut Mobile Shopping

2007-09-14T23:42:00.000+02:00

Sprint Nextel has debuted a new service allowing shoppers to compare and buy products using mobile phones, reports The Associated Press.

The Mobile Shopper lets people use their phones to compare prices on products from a variety of retailers, both large and small. If they find the right product, customers can then buy the products right from their phones.

Sprint, which does not take a cut of the purchase, is using the service to attract and retain customers. The company is hoping that mobile shopping, once confined to ringtones and wallpapers, will resonate with customers just as online shopping did.

The process of making handheld purchases has seen some sophistication of late. PayForIt, which enables users to charge select services via mobile, recently debuted in the UK. Google has patented Gpay, dubbed a potential "PayPal of mobile," and Apple's browser- and wi-fi-ready iPod and iPhone enable users to purchase items directly from the internet and at Starbucks.

ESPN Taps AdMob to Serve Mobile Ads for Cricinfo

2007-09-12T19:57:00.000+02:00

Cricinfo.com, a major professional cricket content source, has just tapped AdMob to assist in monetizing mobile internet traffic.

AdMob boasts a large advertiser base in countries most crucial to professional cricket, including India, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa and the UK.

The liaison is marked as one of the first global and local mobile advertising partnerships, with AdMob committing to serve ads globally for Cricinfo in addition to permitting advertisers to target local markets.

UK-based Cricinfo was purchased by ESPN early this summer. It reaches about seven million cricket fans per month.

What Steve Did in the UK

2007-09-12T16:39:00.000+02:00

The Business published a very interesting article on the introduction of the iPhone in the UK

The article states; "Think of the possibilities, the Vodafone executives said. You’re walking down the high street and your iPhone – complete with tracking system to pin down your location and armed with a profile of your shopping preferences – alerts you to a special offer in the shop just ahead of you. It would be the ultimate in targeted advertising – or as critics would put it, the ultimate Big Brother intrusion."

The iPhone could debut in Britain as early as next month – on a Tuesday, the day favoured by Apple for its launches – with O2, owned by Spain’s Telefonica, likely to be the exclusive network provider (as AT&T is in America). It would sell for between £250 ($503, e370) and £399. An October launch would ensure the product is on sale in time for the crucial build-up to Christmas; some have suggested a November launch, which would be a blow to Apple.

Read the full article here

Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg: Mobile broadband is becoming a mass market

2007-09-11T13:06:00.000+02:00

With 128 commercial HSPA networks rolled out and more than 300 HSPA devices available around the world, mobile broadband is moving quickly toward becoming a mass market, Ericsson President and Chief Executive Officer Carl-Henric Svanberg said today at the company's Strategy and Technology Summit in London.

As evidence he gave several examples where, in commercially launched HSPA networks, data traffic has quadrupled over the past year and is accelerating. Ericsson has laid the foundation for this development with its technology, which connects more than one billion people around the world.

Svanberg said: "This is an exciting development in our industry. HSPA with speeds of 7.2 Mbps is now being launched, and we will see embedded modems in early 2008. This indicates that mobile broadband is already becoming part of our daily lives."

Svanberg also elaborated on the continued demand for telecommunications in developing markets in which GSM is built out for coverage and capacity and, in parallel, networks are upgraded to HSPA.

Svanberg continued: "We see clearly that the mobile phone will be essential in closing the digital divide. Mobility is a key contributor to productivity and quality of life in developing countries".

In mature markets, mobile broadband services are becoming more prominent in peoples' lives as networks become capable of delivering them. At the same time, there are major expansions in fixed broadband networks, in which intelligence is being moved toward the edge.

Other speakers from Ericsson at the Strategy and Technology Summit were Karl-Henrik Sundström, CFO, Joakim Westh, head of strategy and Håkan Eriksson, Chief Technology Officer. Featured were also speakers from Sony Ericsson; Miles Flint, CEO, Björn Ahlberg, head of Content & Service Development, and Howard Lewis, head of PBU Entry.

Ericsson and Endemol sign global partnership

2007-09-06T11:08:00.000+02:00

Ericsson and Endemol International B.V. today announced a global partnership agreement to develop interactive TV and user-generated content via Ericsson's 'Me-On-TV' solution.

The Ericsson 'Me-On-TV' solution was developed in partnership with Endemol, a global leader in TV and digital entertainment, and Dutch technology company Triple IT.

'Me-On-TV' is a network and device-independent technology, allowing consumers to upload, publish and share live or pre-recorded video content via any mobile device, from anywhere to any screen around the world. Consumers can transmit to websites, TV broadcasts, or stay in contact with friends in a community. It also allows broadcasters, internet sites, and mobile network operators to directly manage live and on demand content via state-of-the-are editorial management tools.

Jan Wäreby, Senior Vice President and Head of Ericsson's multimedia business, says: "This global partnership flags Ericsson's commitment to establish a leading position in multimedia. It shows our partnership approach with innovators in complementary fields to develop consumer solutions for multiple screens that can benefit media companies and operators alike."

William Linders, Executive Director of Digital Media at Endemol International, says: "We're delighted to be working with Ericsson on this exciting new technology. The market for digital content is rapidly evolving and 'Me-On-TV' could have a significant impact on the way consumers interact with TV and digital media."

'Me-On-TV' will be offered as a white-label service to content aggregators such as broadcasters, internet sites, and network operators. It will be delivered as an end-to-end service, fully integrated, hosted and managed by Ericsson.

Endemol will act as a distributor for 'Me-On-TV', licensing the technology as an integrated service in existing and newly developed TV and multimedia formats. 'Me-On-TV' is already being used by Endemol in the Netherlands. Last season's Big Brother TV series saw ex-housemates using the technology to communicate with the house, and this week Endemol in the Netherlands launched the "Ik op TV" format on TV and the internet, in which 'Me-On-TV' is used by citizens to broadcast live and recorded content from their mobile phones, as well as to broadcast live interviews to the program.

iPhone Tops SmartPhone Sales in June

2007-09-05T19:12:00.000+02:00

The iPhone has leaped past its competitors to become the best-selling smartphone on the market in July, its first full month of sale, according to Reuters.

The iPhone accounted for 1.8 percent of all US mobile handsets during the month. Those most likely to buy the iPhone were male, over 35, with a college degree, according to iSupply.

Further, a quarter who bought the iPhone switched to operator AT&T, which has an exclusive contract with the phone.

Apple's two models beat out Research in Motion's Blackberry series, the entire Palm offering, and any individual smartphone model by Nokia, Samsung, or Motorola.

What's more, it also tied the current top-selling "feature phone" — or phones with features like mp3 and camera capabilities — LG's Chocolate. An analyst from iSupply said the iPhone is historic in that it competes with both smart- and feature phones, making it a "crossover phone."

ISuppli estimates that the iPhone will sell 4.5 million iPhones this year, and 30 million by 2011.

Ericsson unveils innovative 'green' base station site concept with Scandinavian design

2007-09-05T11:10:00.000+02:00

Ericsson today unveils an innovative radio base station site concept that is not only better for the environment but more cost-efficient to adopt and run, and more attractive to look at.

The modern design, from renowned Scandinavian architect Thomas Sandell, is a completely new approach to site architecture - the 5m-diameter, 40m-high flexible concrete tower encapsulates all radio base station equipment, including the antennas.

The aesthetics of the site concept, named the Ericsson Tower Tube, have been further enhanced by the choice of construction materials. The flexible concrete tower can be colored and branded to the operator's specific needs to either blend in with its surroundings or become an attractive landmark for the local community.

And the concrete itself has a lower environmental impact than traditional steel, producing 30 percent less CO2 emissions during production and transportation.

Diverging from standard design, the radio base station is placed at the top of the tower cutting the distance between it and the antenna. This gives capacity and coverage benefits for the cellular network and can together with the fact that no active cooling is needed reduce energy consumption up to 40 percent.

Furthermore, as the new design occupies less land, 60-75 percent less than conventional sites, site acquisition is easier. Being a self-contained structure, operators can also avoid the need for security fences and the cost of maintaining and patrolling them.

Ulf Ewaldsson, Vice President and Head of Product Area Radio, Ericsson, says: "The appearance of radio base station sites has not really been considered before. They have essentially been a steel tower and a container surrounded by a chain-link fence.

"With this new approach, we not only create a more attractive look for this essential piece of community architecture, but we have also developed a design that is better for the environment and more cost-efficient to run."

Nokia Introduces Ovi

2007-08-29T13:03:00.000+02:00

London, UK - Nokia today introduced Ovi, the company's new Internet services brand name. With the introduction of Ovi, Nokia is expanding from a focus on mobile devices to offering a range of Internet services. Ovi, meaning 'door' in Finnish, enables consumers to easily access their existing social network, communities and content, as well as acting as a gateway to Nokia services.

As part of Ovi, Nokia announced the Nokia Music Store and N-Gage, two services that make it easy for people to discover, try and buy music and games from a blockbuster range of artists and publishers, including exclusive content only available through Nokia. Also under the Ovi umbrella is Nokia Maps, a navigation service that offers maps, city guides and more directly to compatible mobile devices. Nokia aims to bring more Internet based services to Ovi in the coming months.

Speaking at the Nokia Go Play event in London, Nokia President and Chief Executive Officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo presented Ovi and the new Nokia services for consumers, and spoke about the company's future plans as an Internet company: "The industry is converging towards Internet driven experiences and Ovi represents Nokia's vision in combining the Internet and mobility. Nokia is the number one mobile device company in the world. Looking into the future, we will deliver great devices, combined with compelling experiences and services, to make it easy for people to unlock the potential of the Internet."

"We started this journey with our navigation services earlier this year and we are now combining all our services into a single branded offering - Ovi by Nokia. Over the coming 12 months, you will see us integrate new user interface elements, service suites and web communities to Ovi," added Kallasvuo.

Ovi - one key opens every door.
Ovi (http://www.ovi.com) is the gateway to Nokia's Internet services, including the Nokia Music Store, Nokia Maps, and N-Gage games. It will also be an open door to web communities, enabling people to access their content, communities and contacts from a single place, either directly from a compatible Nokia device or from a PC. The first version of Ovi.com is scheduled to go live in English during the fourth quarter of 2007 and additional features and languages expected to go live during the first half of 2008.

Video-Enabled Portable Media Players to Outsell Audio-Only in '08

2007-08-29T10:36:00.000+02:00

Driven by increased broadband penetration, declining price points and a growing catalogue of online audio and video content, the market for MP3 players and portable media players (PMPs) will remain strong over the next five years, In-Stat forecasts.

Nevertheless, the main reason that consumers are purchasing portable MP3 players and video-capable PMPs today is the devices' audio playback capability, In-Stat said.

"Only 11 percent of survey respondents say they will purchase a PMP primarily for its video playback function," said Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. "Still, the cost of incorporating video into portable devices continues to decline. As a result, In-Stat expects shipment growth of video-enabled PMPs to outpace that of audio-only MP3 players by the end of 2008."

Among the findings of In-Stat's research, "Worldwide Demand Remains Strong for MP3 and Portable Media Players":

* Worldwide unit shipments for audio-only MP3 players and PMPs combined will reach 275 million units in 2011, up from 182 million in 2006.

* Of the 2,408 respondents to In-Stat's latest survey of US consumers, 52 percent own an MP3 player or other PMP.

In-Stat said it does not expect music-enabled cell phone shipments to soon displace dedicated PMP/MP3 player shipments, but it forecast an opportunity for cell phone manufacturers to capture consumers who are considering cheap, audio-only MP3 players.

E! Creates Online, Mobile Video Content for Breaking Celebrity News

2007-08-29T09:55:00.000+02:00

Popular entertainment news channel E! has launched a new series specifically for online and mobile distribution, reports Mediaweek.

E! News Now launched yesterday with 12 original video clips on breaking celebrity gossip and entertainment news. Viewers can stream the clips on E! Online or access them through a participating wireless carrier.

New videos will be posted whenever news breaks, 24 hours a day.

Mobile Phone Penetration 84 Percent, Wireless Revenue $155B by Year's End

2007-08-27T22:33:00.000+02:00

Some 84 percent of the US population will have mobile phones by the end of 2007, with that proportion surpassing 100 percent in 2013, SNL Kagan estimates.

Figures include consumer, business and double-mobile-phone users.

SNL Kagan also forecasts US cell phone subscriptions to grow at a rate of about 3 percent per year over the next decade - versus total population growth of 1 percent - despite decreasing net additions as 100 percent penetration is approached.

The projections anticipate increased data use, including text, web and video, which could be accelerated by new-player business models - e.g., multimedia services that get partially subsidized by advertising, similar to the approaches being tested by Google, YouTube and others.

SNL Kagan also projects total US wireless service revenue to increase at a 5 percent CAGR from 2007 to 2017, from $155 billion this year to $253.6 billion in 2017.

Yahoo Acquires Mobile Ad Firm Actionality

2007-08-23T17:35:00.000+02:00

Information Week reports today that Yahoo is buying Actionality, a German mobile advertising tech firm, for an undisclosed sum.

Actionality provides software technology that inserts ads in content for mobile devices.

The deal is "part of Yahoo's focus on becoming No. 1 in mobile advertising," says a Yahoo spokesperson.

Britain Abandons Old Media in 'Digital Boom'

2007-08-23T17:26:00.000+02:00

BBC reports today that the Internet, mobile phones and MP3 players are revolutionizing how British citizens spend their time, according to the new annual report from Ofcom, the regulator for U.K. media industries.

It reveals that older media such as TV, radio and even DVDs are being abandoned in favour of more modern technology.

It also shows that women, in some age groups, are the dominant web users and older web users spend more time online than any group.

Among children it showed that web and mobile phone use is growing at the expense of video games.

The 330-page report takes a comprehensive look at the way Britons use new and old media and reveals a nation in love with its media, gadgets and hi-tech gear.

The average Briton now spends 50 hours per week on the phone, using the net, watching TV or listening to the radio. However, the mix of how much time is spent on each one has changed radically over the last few years.

Daily mobile phone use is up 58% on 2002 and, over the same period, net use has grown 158%. By contrast Britons spend far less time watching TV, listening to the radio or chatting on a fixed line phone.

The report, the fourth annual survey from Ofcom, revealed big differences in the technologies that different sectors of the population prefer.

* Among Britons aged 25-34, women account for 55% of the time this group spends online

* 16% of Britons aged 65+ spend 42 hours per month online - more than any other age group

* More than 75% of 11 year olds have their own TV, games console and mobile phone

* 15% of 13-15 year olds and 7% of 10 year olds have their own webcam

Young people now spend as much time on their mobile phone as they do playing computer and console games. Proving more popular among younger people are mobile music players and using the net.

Declining among younger people was listening to the radio and playing video and computer games.

Ofcom's report echoed this observation and said Britons were getting increasingly sophisticated in their use of communications technologies.

Older men playing video games, BBC
Older people are keen consumers of modern technology

For instance, a teenager playing an online game might take a picture of a high score or achievement unlocked while they play then text or e-mail it to friends or add it to a website or Facebook page.

The report also revealed that patterns of use could change again as the latest technologies come into wider use.

It revealed that the UK now has about 450,000 subscribers to high-definition services. Of those questioned by Ofcom, 43% said they watched more TV since getting HD. A minority of that group, 36%, said they now watched six or more extra hours of TV every week.

Ownership of a Digital Video Recorder also seems to have a significant effect on viewing habits. Ofcom found that many prefer to watch programmes saved on their DVR rather than a DVD.

Mobile Social Networking Has 12.3 Million Friends in US and Western Europe

2007-08-22T00:56:00.000+02:00

12.3 million consumers in the US and Western Europe report accessing a social networking site with a mobile device in June, according to the first measurement by M:Metrix of mobile social networking, writes MarketingCharts (via CNET's Tech News Blog).

Some findings from the study:

* The US audience for mobile social networking sites is the largest, with 7.5 million, or 3.5 percent of mobile subscribers. Italy follows with 1.3 million, or 2.8 percent; then the UK with 1.1 million, or 2.5 percent; Spain with 751,000 (2.3 percent), Germany (1.9 percent) and France (1.7 percent).

* MySpace garnered the most mobile users in the United States and United Kingdom, whereas MSN was the forum of choice for mobile Web 2.0 users in the other geographies surveyed.

* MySpace attracts 3.7 million US and 440,000 UK mobile users. In America, Facebook's mobile audience is about 2 million, and in Britain, about 307,000.

* Rounding out the top three is YouTube in the US, with 901,000 mobile visitors, and Bebo in the UK, with 288,000.

M:Metrics also tracks the availability of content across all operator portals and found that in June, the top three US mobile social networking sites had strong distribution, with MySpace appearing on the decks of Amp'd, AT&T, Helio and Nextel:

* Facebook was accessible on the Sprint, AT&T, Virgin and Amp'd decks and YouTube on the Verizon deck*.

* In the UK, MySpace has distribution on Vodafone, Bebo is on the 3 deck, but No. 2 MSN Live Spaces is offered nowhere on portal.
* Those under 25 are the most active users of mobile social networking sites across all geographies studied.
* In France, Germany, Italy and Spain, the age demographic with the largest percentage of use is 13-17-year-olds, whereas college-aged consumers (18-24) are the most avid users in the United States and the United Kingdom.

*YouTube is also on the iPhone deck, which was not under measurement at the time of the survey.

In Mobile Advertising, Users Expect Something in Return...

2007-08-21T21:52:00.000+02:00

Despite growing opportunities for mobile advertising, ads on mobile internet and TV services are deemed "irritating" by consumers, according to a new study by Universal McCann.

Recent reports also suggest the world's 2 billion mobile users are turned off by tactics simply imported onto their phones from the desktop and TV. The solution to this problem may lie in offering a different value proposition to users in exchange for perceived "intrusions."

The global study found users were more receptive when they got free content from advertisers, such as branded content and opt-in Bluetooth downloads. For example, Coca-Cola gave away free songs on iTunes.

The best forms of advertising on the mobile were opt-in Bluetooth formats, popular among 72 percent. Traditional ads, such as those on mobile internet pages and mobile TV ads, were rejected by 61 percent of the sample.

The study polled 9,500 people in 21 countries and found that mobile adoption with advanced media features is growing rapidly:

* two out of three owned a portable music or media player
* 45 percent had a laptop
* 28 percent had a portable gaming machine

Consumers in the developing world, such as Mexico, China and Thailand, were the most receptive to ads. The US, France and the UK were the least receptive.

The Mobile Marketing Association is putting stringent standards in place to deter intrusive practices like spam and other unwanted ads, forcing advertisers to be innovative, according to The Globe and Mail.

US marketers looking for inspiration can also look to the Land of the Rising Sun. In Japan, where the majority of its 98 million mobile users have web capabilities, the mobile ad market is expected to become a $1 billion industry by 2011, up from $328 million last year.

And Japanese advertisers do not experience problems associated with segmented carriers and divided services, meaning a campaign launched on the mobile platform can be more or less enjoyed by all or many.

Hearst Makes Mobile Fashionable

2007-08-21T17:41:00.000+02:00

With mobile devices becoming an indispensible part of our culture, mobile internet and advertising has become a swelling industry. Consumers can search for news or search products straight from their phones.

Hearst Magazines Digital Media has been dipping into online media with several acquisitions as of late and now, the company is reaching further into mobile with the launch of sites for Harper’s BAZAAR (M.bazaar.com) and Marie Claire (M.marieclaire.com). This brings the company’s mobile portfolio to nine sites.

Chuck Cordray, vice president and general manager of Hearst Magazines Digital Media said, “Through research we found that 25% of our readers now have mobile Web-enabled cell phones but have not yet found what they are looking for. Much like the Internet was ten years ago, today is a brand new world for all of us on the mobile front, and it’s one with clear potential, if the content and delivery are right.”

The sites offer many interactive features and fashion and beauty tips to the BAZAAR and Marie Claire readers. The sites will be free to users but Hearst plans to monetize on the mobile sites by selling wallpaper images.

MTV, AP Study: Internet Makes Young People Happy

2007-08-21T15:38:00.000+02:00

Cellphones, the Internet and other technologies are integrally woven into the lives of today's 13- to 24-year-olds, according to a study on happiness and young people by MTV and the Associated Press. Half of those young people polled say the Internet alone helps them feel happier.

PR Newswire has more details about this study.

Smooth: Nokia's sensuous new 3G device

2007-08-21T14:28:00.000+02:00

The new Nokia 6555 features a smooth-back fold design and original analog timepiece

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced a new 3G mobile phone that pairs original design and quality workmanship with outstanding features. The Nokia 6555 meets the desire for aesthetic appeal with an external analog clock echoing the timeless elegance of high-end luxury. The Nokia 6555 is the first WCDMA phone with a smooth-back fold design with recessed hinge creating a seamless line when open. The phone's gentle curve ensures a smooth and ergonomic user experience. The Nokia 6555 is an accessible option for discerning consumers. The Nokia 6555 will be available within the next month at an estimated retail price of approximately €200 before subsidies or taxes.

Adding to its attraction, the Nokia 6555 features a QVGA 16 million color internal display - twice as many colors as the human eye can see - for a brilliant, crisp resolution on a large 240x320 screen, making it perfect for viewing photos and videos. The camera featuring a 6x zoom gives even greater versatility and full screen portrait viewfinder so you can be sure you get the right picture every time. The self-portrait function on the camera and video sharing ability ensures that special moments are easily shared with family and friends.

"Mobile-savvy consumers expect superior quality and design. We understood that need, and so created the the Nokia 6555. The Nokia 6555 is a sophisticated accessory delivering the outstanding features that you expect from Nokia," said Markku Suomi, Product Group Director, Mobile Phones, Nokia.

From the thin, narrow form factor with smooth lines to the 30MB user memory (with capacity for microSD expandable memory) and Bluetooth wireless connectivity, the Nokia 6555 sets the standard in its class.

Key features:
- Original smooth-back design
- Elegant external analog timepiece display
- Brilliant 16 million color display
- Video sharing
- WCDMA and quadband GSM functionality

Harper Collins Goes Mobile With Book Excerpts

2007-08-17T10:47:00.000+02:00

Book publisher Harper Collins has created a mobile-friendly site for iPhone users, reports The Associated Press.

Mobile.harpercollins.com features excerpts from over a dozen of the publisher's newest releases. The excerpts were made possible because Harper Collins has spent time digitizing over 10,000 of its titles.

Facebook Goes Mobile on Apple iPhone

2007-08-17T10:32:00.000+02:00

Facebook is launching a mobile version that works on the Apple iPhone. The new mobile edition of the social-networking site will allow users to access and update profiles, track friends, and find maps and driving directions for events scheduled on Facebook.

Red Herring has published a more detailed story here.

IAB and Lead Generation Committee Release Best Practices for Lead Generation

2007-08-15T21:04:00.001+02:00

The Lead Generation Committee and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) have today released the Lead Generation Data Transfer Best Practices.

At the most practical level, the document will help standardize the transfer and reception of data between advertisers and lead generators.

Two major considerations served as guidelines for the final product:

* Security - lead generation data should be encrypted
* Common format and set up - the data must move in a common format through mainstream, secure internet technologies

"The committee encourages advertisers and publishers to implement these best practices and comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations to responsibly support the continued growth of this very important category," said SVP Gayle Guzzardo of Product Management at Q Interactive. She is also the Lead Generation Committee Chair.

Per the IAB/PwC 2006 Full Year Internet Advertising Revenue Report, lead generation revenue totaled $1.3 billion out of all 2006 advertising revenues ($16.9 billion), up from a (now seemingly paltry) $753 million in 2005.

Alltel to Bring MTV Content to Mobile Users

2007-08-14T11:16:00.000+02:00

Alltel's wireless users will soon be able to access content from MTVN as part of a new agreement between the two, reports CNN Money.

MTVN will make videos from its variety of cable networks available to Alltel customers. There will also be games and other features branded with the shows that users can play with or access.

Some of that content will be accessible through Celltop, Alltel's new product for delivering and organizing on mobile devices.

Gannett Launches Local Mobile Sites

2007-08-14T10:39:00.000+02:00

News company Gannett announced today that it is entering the mobile market and will make its breaking news, sports, weather and local information available to mobile phone users in 100 local markets, according to WebProNews.

The local mobile sites are tailored to appear on small screens and include content that is updated around the clock by local Gannett Information centers. Information centers provide news and information to a number of platforms, including the Web, newspapers, television and mobile devices.

The new mobile sites will carry local, regional and national display advertising. The mobile sites are free to users with mobile Internet browsing and data plans.

"Local news and information is more in demand than ever by consumers across the country. Making it easily available by mobile device takes Gannett's local information expertise and puts it in consumers' hands," said Jack Williams, president of Gannett Digital.

"Advertisers who appreciate the value of trusted brands, local content and audiences will be able to reach out to those consumers throughout the day."

Along with local community news and information, the mobile sites link to national news, money, sports and life information through the USA Today mobile site.

Discovery launches mobile offerings in the UK

2007-08-10T22:32:00.000+02:00

Media and Marketing Europe reports today that Discovery Networks UK has launched two of its most popular portfolio offerings, Discovery Turbo and Animal Planet, on mobile TV.

Vodafone and Orange customers will have access to exclusive made-for-mobile content, as well as optimized popular content, from the channels' flagship programs. Discovery Turbo will be packaged in 20 minute batches, available on-demand and updated every weekday. Animal Planet mobile content will be offered on-demand as a one hour weekly loop and will showcase snack-sized bites of programming including the award-winning Meerkat Manor and Crocodile Hunter Diaries.

“These new launches are part of a broader strategy to further integrate digital media services, building a stronger and more complementary relationship with our linear channels", commented Keith Underwood, VP commercial, Discovery Networks UK.

Turner Broadcasting Secures European Mobile Distribution Deal

2007-08-10T10:34:00.000+02:00

Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) has tapped wireless entertainment provider GlobalFun as the pan-European distributor for mobile games based on the Adult Swim series The Brak Show and the Cartoon Network series Johnny Bravo.

The deal follows a previous announcement that GlobalFun is currently developing and partly distributing the mobile version of The Brak Show.

GlobalFun will distribute the mobile game “Johnny Bee Good,” which is built around the eponymous main character from the half-hour series Johnny Bravo, who is a biceps-bulging, karate-chopping free spirit who believes he is a gift from God to women. The game is designed to appeal to both male and female mobile players. The company will also distribute a game based on The Brak Show, an animated sitcom focused on a space pirate named Brak who lives in outer space, in an American suburbia mid-1960s neighborhood. The game, which is scripted to follow a “mega” episode of the show, can be played either as Brak or his best friend Zorak, each with his own small storyline converging into a bigger one. The objective of the game is the same for both characters, which is to convince Brak’s father to stop an invasion of Alien Ants from Outer Space.

Casey Harwood, the senior VP of interactive, wireless and communication at TBS Europe, commented: “GlobalFun have proven themselves to be both a solid mobile games developer and distributor, and the extension of this deal is a reflection of that. We look forward to working with them on the distribution of these games for The Brak Show and Johnny Bravo.”

Mobile Insider: Mobile Branding Is Not For Old Farts

2007-08-09T23:22:00.000+02:00

Mobile Branding Is Not For Old Farts by Steve Smith

VIRTUAL SOCIAL NETWORKING IS ONE of those phenomena that makes me feel my age. My teen daughter had to teach me how a Xanga and MySpace page are made.

"You know HTML?" I wailed a couple of years ago. As if she had just dropped an innocent S&M reference, I said accusingly, "Who taught you HTML? I know I didn't."

Being behind the curve is part of the Dad game, of course. Even when I am in the know about something hip and new, I have to pretend ignorance just to keep the peace and maintain the clueless Dad myth. But I admit there is a real cultural/demographic disconnect when it comes to social networking. What the 20- and 30-somethings call being social online with public profiles still feels foreign and a bit exhibitionistic to me. Several years ago, when InterCasting's Rabble first launched on Verizon, I couldn't get past the initial rush of users compelled to post pictures of their penis. I am sure I extrapolated unfairly from the trauma of seeing so many penises in one place and decided that something was going on with social networking I was too narrow or old or poorly endowed to get. I always need an assist to understand this stuff, so recently I went to one of the new faces and brands in the mobile social space.

We have been focusing on mobile media brands in the last week and the question about building new brands wholly on mobile. It is fitting to end the week visiting one of the most successful examples of a social networking application that is dominating a category a Web entity, namely MySpace, should own. In the year since its main feature set was launched, MocoSpace is nearing 1 million subscribers and several hundred million monthly page views.

MySpace? Is that one of those oldie-but-goodie Web brands?

MocoSpace founder and CEO Justin Siegel says his personal profile and networking site has been a pure word-of-mouth play that demonstrates the power of social media to go viral. "We've done no marketing or PR, just some mobile acquisition via AdMob and Google Mobile to seed the community. But the vast majority is strictly organic."

Well, actually growing a brand on mobile is not that automatic. Siegel says in the very beginning he and the staff (now 15) went to sites with similar demographics and talked up the service and fueled that with limited mobile ad buys on AdMob. "And literally overnight, we woke up and had a couple dozen users."

In fact, having scale, a crowd, is among the most important aspects of getting further traction in the mobile community world. Many other companies have emerged in the last year with interesting technologies around mobile social worlds. "But the real interesting thing about a MySpace, a FaceBook or a MocoSpace is the community," he says. "It is not the technology but that you will find other people, that people are actually using it."

Arguably, people are the media here, in that just browsing profiles seems to be one of the most popular pursuits. Call it people-watching (or shopping) as a kind of entertainment snacking. Dating sites report a similar phenomenon of people using their mobile extension of the service to filter profiles and tag the ones they want to ping later. Crush or Flush, another recent mobile hit, works on a similar principle. The MocoSpace interface is actually quite polished and mature. It is an icon-driven, off-deck gateway into profiles, blogs, user-uploaded videos and chats. Siegel says that the audience skews ethnically to African-American and Hispanic members, who comprise more than half the population.

But I had to ask Siegel why MySpace doesn't just own his ass in this space? Why doesn't an overwhelming Web brand, where so many millions already have deep profiles and networks established, just walk over everyone else when they come into mobile? Isn't that the big brand plan?

I liked Siegel's response because it is not simple and straightforward so much as multi-faceted. First, he argues, the users in the social networking space have proven to be more flexible than some of us assume. Old farts like me may think that a MySpace has a natural advantage, because it already houses so much of a person's accumulated personal content. In fact, the user bases for many of these networks overlap considerably because core users have no trouble maintaining multiple profiles and often portray different parts of themselves or socialize with different groups in each virtual community. I hate when these new-media kids make me feel old.

More to the point, among the core demo for social networking the PC is becoming almost old-fashioned. (I am feeling old again). "Mobile is their main interface for the Internet," Siegel says. "Whether it is MySpace or Amazon, their mobile plays are contingent on the idea that you are a Web user who wants to access their Web stuff. Many of these online products have mobile extensions that are really sub-sets or satellites of the Web property. But there is a whole shift of young people who don't see the Internet as a PC-centric experience, and these satellite features are going to be less attractive."

But their business model won't be. The next stage for Siegel and his fellow mobile networks is to follow the example of a MySpace in supporting themselves with text links and banners for other mobile content. They need the kind of integrated programs that the Facebooks and others are starting to cultivate, sponsor profiles and widgets rather than typical network buys. We are starting to see these more custom placements in the form of sponsored and branded content at the likes of Zannel, Versaly's FastLane and MobiTV. For now, mobile social community looks like a volume race. Who can make it to scale fastest and attract the more sophisticated advertiser or attract the inevitable News Corp., FaceBook, Google or Yahoo acquisition offer? That is the real question.

I may be old, and a lot of things in technology and culture have shifted, and my daughter went and learned HTML without me, but some things about this business remain the same.

Internet Ad Spending Set to Overtake Newspapers

2007-08-07T17:29:00.000+02:00

Financial Times reports online advertising will overtake U.S. newspaper advertising in terms of size by 2011, according to a new forecast from Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Consumers are shifting to digital alternatives and migrating away from newspapers, broadcast television and other media.

CBS Plans to Sell Ads on Mobile Devices

2007-08-02T19:27:00.000+02:00

CBS plans to team up with mobile-advertising firms AdMob, Millennial Media, Rhythm NewMedia and Third Screen Media to sell ads on mobile devices for its programming. Marketers will be able to buy text and banner ads for mobile sites as well as video spots for devices.

Wall Street Journal has the full story here.

Mozes: Ad-Supported Mobile Texting on the Horizon

2007-08-01T12:49:00.000+02:00

Startup firm Mozes is hoping to become a hit with music fans through its free, ad-supported text messaging service, reports BusinessWeek.

The company provides mobile text-messaging by adding advertising to a site, where users register and build their preferences.

While anyone can theoretically use the service, Mozes is going after the music industry in particular. Bands are encouraged to provide text-alerts of concerts, and other such news, to fans.

Fans, in turn, can ping the service as part of text-to-win contests or other promotions.

Mozes is also selling advertisers on the notion of sending similar consumer alerts. Some fans getting band or artist alerts say they help create a personal connection.

As always, there remains the fear that companies will see the service as just another outlet for unsolicited and untargeted marketing messages.

ESPN, MediaFLO USA, Verizon Align for New Mobile TV Channel

2007-07-30T13:52:00.001+02:00

SAN DIEGO/LOS ANGELES/BASKING RIDGE, July 26: ESPN, MediaFLO USA and Verizon Wireless have teamed up for the delivery of the first mobile TV channel dedicated to action sports, EXPN, on Verizon’s V CAST Mobile TV, complementing X Games coverage.

EXPN will carry exclusive mobile coverage of competitions, behind-the-scenes action and commentary from X Games 13. The new mobile TV channel will be available for the duration of X Games 13. The new dedicated channel will feature live coverage of events provided by ESPN for eight hours each day from August 2 through August 5, everything from practices to qualifying events to event finals, a daily "Best of the X Games" segment that will show viewers all of the extreme highlights, and an ESPN debut of a double box segment during the rally car races that will give fans the opportunity to see the race from each driver's viewpoint as they compete side-by-side. Highlights of previous years' X Games also will be shown on the EXPN from July 22 through August 1, and "Best of the X Games" and X Game 13 replays will air August 6 through August 7.

"X Games fans want to see the action as it happens,” stated John Zehr, the senior VP of digital media production at ESPN. “By teaming with MediaFLO USA to offer this channel through Verizon Wireless, ESPN is reaffirming our commitment to our fans by showing all the extreme action while expanding our multi-platform approach. Through this dedicated channel, X fans will see Travis Pastrana's practice runs or Shaun White grab big air during the skateboarding finals even if they aren't near a big-screen TV."

itsmy.com Hits Half-Million Mobile User Mark

2007-07-30T12:45:00.000+02:00

itsmy.com, a mobile 2.0 service that is completely financed by ads (it certainly shows), just drew its 500,000th registered mobile internet user, according to a release from the company.

With 14 months post-launch under its belt and near exclusive mobile viral growth in its respective community, the brand purports to be the leading US market leader in off-deck mobile social networking.

"The growth of itsmy.com has been quickest in the US and UK," Mikko Saarelainen, Chief Strategy Officer, points out. But that may not be saying much, per her mention that "only 6 percent of all cell phone owners have ever used mobile internet and only 2 percent of the entire subscriber base of mobile operators have ever tried to surf in 3G networks."

itsmy.com is owned by Gofresh GmbH, which boasts offices in Munich, New York, London and Madrid.

CEO Antonio Vince Staybl of Gofresh also highlighted a refusal to mix the "traditional" internet with the mobile only community. “We don’t have an online networking site and that’s the secret of our success," she said. "We have to think mobile. To feel mobile. And that does not work from the view of traditional online media.”

Nokia to buy Photo-Sharing Social Networking site Twango

2007-07-28T12:17:00.000+02:00

Reuters reports that Nokia, the world's top mobile phone maker, said on Tuesday it would buy U.S.-based photo-sharing social networking site Twango (http://www.twango.com/), but did not disclose the price.

Twango was founded in 2004 but U.S. traffic data from measurement firms Hitwise and Quantcast and global data from Alexa.com show it has found little audience so far compared to sites like YouTube, PhotoBucket or Flickr.

Nokia has increased its acquisitions under Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who took over in June 2006. He has said the firm is looking to acquire more companies to strengthen its multimedia and corporate offering.

"The Twango acquisition is a concrete step towards our Internet services vision of providing seamless access to information, entertainment, and social networks," Anssi Vanjoki, head of Nokia's multimedia unit said in a statement.

"We have the most complete suite of connected multimedia experiences including music, navigation, games, and - with the Twango acquisition - photos, videos, and a variety of document types," he said.

Analysts see Internet social networks as a key element in the future of the media business. News Corp.'s 2005 acquisition of MySpace has boosted the value of Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate as a whole.

(Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in San Francisco and Sakari Suoninen in Helsinki)

A&E Television Networks, MobiTV Launch Mobile Video Channels

2007-07-24T20:46:00.000+02:00

NEW YORK, July 23: A&E Television Networks (AETN) has reached a deal to launch two made-for-mobile channels, A&E Mobile and The History Channel Mobile, in the U.S. on mobile content provider MobiTV.

Available on the mobile channels will be acclaimed series such as Dogfights and Modern Marvels from The History Channel, and Dog the Bounty Hunter and Criss Angel Mindfreak from A&E Network.

The creation and distribution of A&E Mobile and The History Channel Mobile to wireless video subscribers in the U.S. is part of AETN's overall digital strategy to deliver its programs and services to viewers on multiple platforms. This announcement marks the second agreement between AETN and MobiTV for wireless distribution. In April 2006, the two companies partnered to deliver The History Channel en espanol as part of the line-up on MobiTV en Espanol, the first live Spanish-language mobile television service offered in the U.S. In addition, AETN is offering broadband channels via MobiTV Broadband Television for A&E, The History Channel, The Biography Channel, Crime & Investigation Network, Military History Channel and History International. Internationally, A&E and The History Channel Latin America offer mobile services with MobiTV throughout the Latin American region.

"The mobile platform is an increasingly important interactive screen that provides our consumers with access to our branded programming wherever and whenever they want it, and we are pleased to partner with MobiTV to offer A&E Mobile and The History Channel Mobile to viewers," said Paul Jelinek, the senior VP of digital media at AETN. "These mobile channels enable us to offer a new service to our existing audience, and through cross promotion, to bring new viewers back to our linear channels."

Ericsson and Texas Instruments to co-develop innovative 3G solutions for handset manufacturers

2007-07-24T16:30:00.000+02:00

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), the world's leading telecom supplier, and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:TXN), the global leader in silicon solutions for wireless communications, today announce that the companies will form a strategic technology engagement to develop custom solutions for new Open OS enabled 3G devices.

Solutions from the technology created by the two companies will combine small and power efficient 3G modems from Ericsson Mobile Platforms with high-performance OMAP(TM) applications processors from TI. Solutions from the joint engagement will include OMAP, custom basebands and connectivity technologies and will be capable of supporting the major Open OS, which offer easy access to a rich array of applications and services. The result of this joint effort will enable all device manufacturers to offer advanced Open OS handsets for both the high-end and the rapidly growing mid-range market.

The collaboration between Ericsson and TI will enable handset manufacturers to deliver the exciting mobile entertainment and multimedia experiences that consumers around the world are increasingly demanding. Ericsson's access technology leadership, current HSPA-enabled platforms, and future HSPA evolution and LTE technologies, combined with the cutting-edge multimedia performance enabled by TI's OMAP 2, OMAP 3 and future generations of OMAP processors, will continue to push the performance boundaries of mobile devices and mobile entertainment features.

By leveraging TI's OMAP platform with Open OS support for Windows® Mobile, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ and Linux®, these solutions will provide OEMs and operators with a robust and flexible architecture for applications and services deployment, enabling easier delivery and management of services and content. This enables handset manufacturers and mobile operators to differentiate their products through rich, easy-to-use and customizable user interfaces, and through a robust and flexible application architecture.

The result of the joint effort will bring to market an evolving portfolio of wireless technology platforms with Open OS support to reduce complexity, investment and time-to-market for device manufacturers. The solutions, which seamlessly integrate the modem and applications processor, will be presented in one pre-verified and tested platform reference design. This approach will drastically reduce development and verification efforts previously undertaken by device manufacturers, enabling customers to rapidly bring highly advanced yet competitively priced products to market.

The joint solutions will also benefit from the Ericsson Mobile Platforms IOT program, one of the industry's most extensive interoperability testing processes, guaranteeing full compliance with operator requirements, speeding up time to market and securing an easy roll-out of products.

Greg Delagi, senior vice president of TI's Wireless Terminals Business Unit, says: "It's a tribute to the long-standing collaborative relationship between EMP and TI that we can tap into and combine each company's unique wireless expertise in order to deliver the most timely, targeted solutions to the market. TI's broad, proven product portfolio and advanced manufacturing capabilities have continued to adjust to the demanding requirements of EMP's customer base. We believe that today's announcement will build on what TI can bring to EMP and what both companies together can bring to this vital, dynamic industry."

Robert Puskaric, head of Ericsson's mobile platforms' unit, says: "Ericsson is clear in its commitment to design and offer a portfolio of flexible, innovative mobile platforms that address the requirements of the rapidly evolving mobile device market. We are pleased to work closely with TI to combine the finest of each company's core wireless know-how - EMP's access technology and platform size leadership with TI's innovative OMAP application processors in order to provide the most capable Open OS platforms on the market today."

Handsets based on these solutions are expected to be available on the market in the second half of 2008.

Nokia Cuts Mobile GPS Orientation Time by Over Half

2007-07-24T13:47:00.000+02:00

Adding promise to the future of location-based online services, Nokia has launched a service that cuts the time a GPS-based mobile phone takes to pinpoint its geographical position.

ZDNet reports that the service, available for owners of its N95 smartphone, will cut start-up time from three minutes to one minute in most countries. GPS' current location orientation speed has dampened interest mobile-based navigation.

Most assisted-GPS technologies utilize mobile carrier cell sites to locate units faster, but Nokia's just-launched service bypasses operator networks entirely. Instead, data from a SIM card and a new softwarehelps the phone catch satellite signals.

The GPS chips in car navigation systems use satellites to determine a person's position.

Berg Insight forecasts that annual shipments of handset-based personal navigation devices in the US and Europe will reach 12 million units in 2009, up from 1 million in 2005.

Nokia's N95 currently retails for $965, or 700 euro, making it among the less accessible smartphones on the mobile market. In time, however, Nokia will stock all its GPS-ready devices with the new service.

Mobile AdSense a Reality, Google Invites Testers

2007-07-17T15:32:00.000+02:00

Google has extended invitations to mobile website publishers to test the display of AdSense ads on those sites, reports PC World.

The search/advertising giant is conducting a limited test of the system as it gathers feedback for use in developing a final product. Getting AdSense into the mobile world would be a major coup for Google, as more and more users fire up their wireless devices for web surfing purposes.

In order to participate, sites must be written in one of three mobile-friendly markup languages. The restrictions are due to Google's crawlers needing to be able to read the page in order to place appropriate ads.

Streaming Media Advertising to reach $1.4 Billion This Year

2007-07-16T13:55:00.000+02:00

Streaming media (audio and video) advertising is forecast to reach $1.37 billion in 2007, up 38 percent over 2006 revenue, according to "Streaming Media Advertising 2003 - 2008: Market Spend by Avail, Brand and Content Category," by AccuStream iMedia Research, MarketingCharts reports.

Among AccuStream's top-line report findings and analysis:

* Some 2.1-2.7 billion streams/progressive download views per month inside professional, ad-supported or free content areas are sold (excluding user-generated video) against inventory averaging 1.4-1.6 billion pre roll avails..
* The market size for both streaming audio and video advertising is estimated at $990.3 million in 2006, up 128 percent over $433 million billed in 2005 (see data graphic below)
* The market is forecast to grow by 40 percent in 2007 to $1.38 billion
* Internet radio gross ad billings are forecast to reach $66.4 million in 2007, up by 60 percent over 2006
* Pre roll is forecast to make up 26.7 percent of gross video ad spend in 2007 (not including pre roll or interstitial units sold against long form content), and 28.5 percent in 2008
* By contrast, embedded units make up an estimated 58.8 percent of gross billings in 2007, and forecast at 55.9 percent in 2008
* Gross pre-roll ad billings are estimated at approximately $36 - $43 million per month in 2007.

Talk of Cheaper iPhone Sets Apple Stock on Cloud 9

2007-07-13T15:00:00.000+02:00

Shortly after speculation from a JP Morgan analyst that Apple would go Nano with the iPhone, shares of Apple leaped 1.5 percent to $134.50 from its 52-week high of $133.34 from Friday, according to The Globe and Mail.

Apple's stock has already jumped 40 percent in the months between announcement of the iPhone and its June 29 release. Recently, a patent filing disclosed by the US Patent and Trademark Office lent fuel to rampant rumors that Apple would follow the hype-ridden, but costly, item with a smaller and less expensive "iPhone Nano."

The patent application was filed in November and describes a multifunctional, iPhone-like handheld device.

Other analysts at JP Morgan told investors last Tuesday that Nano iPhone speculation could not be confirmed.

Mobile Video Users are Diverse, Growing

2007-07-13T14:37:00.000+02:00

While overall mobile video is growing quickly, it's growing across a variety of platforms, reports MediaPost.

The findings come from a study by Knowledge Networks/SRI. Overall mobile video consumption by people using laptop computers is up 40 percent. Similar percentages of people watch videos on their iPods as those who watch on their cellphones: eight and six percent, respectively.

But the length of the videos varies greatly. iPod watchers view more long-form video, with 53 percent of sessions lasting over 30 minutes. The average length of time for cellphone viewers was less than five minutes. Full-length movie-watching on iPods jumped to 54 percent this year, up from just one percent last year.

The report's authors believe the difference may be caused, at least in part, by where the video is typically retrieved. iPods must be synced with a computer, so viewing behavior more closely resembles that done on the PC. Cell phone video, on the other hand, is downloaded or streamed straight to the device.

There's also the difference in the device's overall intent and purpose that likely plays a role in determining usage.

For advertisers, the study offers a mixed bag. Four out of five mobile video users are said to be open to watching ads in exchange for free content. But only 30 percent said the ads they've viewed are relevant to them personally.

The report's authors say advertisers need to do a better job of taking advantage of the micro-targeting capabilities mobile video offers in order to increase that percentage.

Nintendo Testing Fan Network for MLB Games

2007-07-12T12:22:00.000+02:00

Nintendo wants to bring interactive entertainment to baseball games through its DS Lite, according to The Associated Press.

The gaming company is testing what it's calling the Nintendo Fan Network at the home ballpark of the Seattle Mariners. By installing a bit of software on a DS Lite, fans can access a live TV feed of the game, along with features like trivia, player stats and more. The DS Lite has wireless connectivity, which is what allows for such usage. While in the early testing stages, Nintendo is selling $5 access for a single game. Fans can also purchase access to 10 games for $30. Kiosks in the ballpark allow attendees to grab the software.

The Mariners are promoting the network with in-ballpark ads, but not very many of them.

iPhone Users Gain Access to YouTube

2007-06-22T14:28:00.000+02:00

CUPERTINO, June 21: Users of Apple’s soon-to-be-launched iPhone will be able to access YouTube content directly on their handsets.

Set to be released June 29, the iPhone will feature YouTube content wirelessly streamed to the device, which features a 3.5-inch display. Over 10,000 videos will be available on June 29, and YouTube will be adding more each week until its full catalog of videos is available this fall.

In addition, Apple announced that YouTube is now live on Apple TV, which streams content directly from a computer’s iTunes library to a widescreen TV.

“iPhone delivers the best YouTube mobile experience by far,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now users can enjoy YouTube wherever they are—on their iPhone, on their Mac or on a widescreen TV in their living room with Apple TV.”

Europe Online Ad Spend Nearly $11B in 2006

2007-06-13T15:03:00.000+02:00

Online advertising spending in Europe reached 8 billion euros ($10.8 billion) in 2006, up from 4.6 billion euros in 2005, according to figures released Monday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (Europe), writes MarketingCharts.

The UK led the 13 countries covered by the IAB's report, accounting for 39 percent of total online ad spend with 3.1 billion euros. Germany (1.7 billion euros) is second with 22 percent; France (1.1 billion euros) is third with 15 percent; followed by the Netherlands with 7 percent.

Search accounted for 45 percent of all online ad spending in Europe, followed by display ads at 31 percent; classifieds, 22 percent; and email, 1.6 percent.

Online's share of total ad expenditures exceeded 10 percent in three European countries: the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Advertisers spent an average of 82.46 euros for each U.K. web user in 2006, compared with roughly 60 euros for U.S. web users - and more than double the 39 euro average for all 13 EU countries measured by the study.

Who's Watching Mobile Video? Comfy Middle-Aged Men

2007-06-08T03:20:00.000+02:00

Nielsen has compiled data on who in the US is watching video on their cellphones, according to NewTeeVee. The study unearthed a wealth of middle-aged men with high incomes.

Forty-six percent of the mobile video audience is 35 years old or older, and 54 percent of that population is male. More than 55 percent of users came from households making $75,000 or more.

8 million users aged 12 and older consumed video on mobile phones.

Mobile TV: 155.6 Million Subscribers by 2012

2007-06-05T02:51:00.000+02:00

The number of mobile TV subscribers is expected to hit 155.6 million by the end of 2012, reports Business Week.

The prediction comes from analysis firm Datamonitor. It suggests a significant jump over the current level of 4.4 million, growth of 66.2 percent year over year. The Asian Pacific region is expected to account for as much as 76. 3 million of those future users, with Europe a distant second at 42.7 million. North America is predicted to have just 35.6 million mobile TV users at the end of 2012.

The key to adoption is thought to be consumer education. That means changing the way people currently feel about consuming TV content on tiny screens, along with other hang-ups users might have. One analyst recommends increasing experiential marketing, where people can actually try something new and interesting, to increase usage numbers.

Monthly subscription models are expected to dominate Europe and North America.