MobVision Reconstructs Admoda Face and Features

MobVision just announced the inclusion of new functionalities to Admoda, its mobile ad serving and ad management platform, according to a recent press release. The additions make it possible for Admoda to serve more elaborate ads on a CPC or CPM basis.

Admoda is now able to serve bespoke graphical ads, hybrid animated banner or text ads, animated and static banners, text ads and landing pages.

Other tools add new features to the interface itself. Multiple content creation, handset/country targeting options and campaign date-and-time delivery options are now accessible to the discerning mobile advertiser. Ads can also be run out-of-network.

MobVision CEO Terry Jackson said the heart of the strategy was to build a more prominent call to action within the ads themselves.

Third Screen Adds Hovr to Mobile Ad Network

Mobile ad network Third Screen Media will provide ads to game publisher Hovr's free titles, reports ClickZ.

While Hovr will be hosting the ads, Third Screen will be responsible for selling and managing them. Hovr previously sold its own ads, which were inserted dynamically either before the game started or after it ended. The deal does not extend into Hovr's social networking offerings.

Hovr is the third game publisher to join Third Screen's network. The ad management and delivery company was recently acquired by AOL, and operations are being integrated into Advertising.com as the deal works its way toward approval.

Ad Sales to Mirror Stock Market in Near Future

A great deal of attention is being focused on projects aiming to make the ad buying and selling process similar to that of commodities, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft, Yahoo and Google are working on ways to compete with smaller players in becoming ad exchanges, marketplaces where ad inventory is offered and snapped up by buyers. These automated systems would be able to connect buyers with what otherwise would have been unsold inventory, a frequent headache for publishers unable to sell leftover spots.

Firms like Right Media, ContextWeb and others have created their own marketplaces by signing blog network partners and other deals. But a large-scale solution remains elusive. Many publishers, especially those tied to traditional media outlets, still rely on sales people and their contacts, a less efficient process that is nonetheless steeped in tradition and politics.

Cynics feel exchange marketplaces will only excel at selling scatter and non-premium inventory since big brands negotiate their own buys. Others contend that there is more than enough inventory to keep a robust ad market happy.

Japans Softbank looks to television

Softbank, the most advanced mobile operator in Japan wants to become a a TV broadcasting company when the the new digital tv licenses are launched Wall Street Journal reports.

The chief executive of Softbank, Masayoshi Son, said a service integrating Internet content and on-demand video with live terrestrial television programming could be a logical step after the company acquired Japan's third-largest mobile operator last year.

Softbank today offers mobile telephony, broadband, media, games, financial services and an existing limited number of tv channels. The offering is said to be too narrow for the tv market, which is why the founder wants and chief executive, Masayoshi Son wants his own tv license.

Wall Street Journal has the full story (subscription required).

The Time is Now for Mobile Technology

Mobile marketing is building momentum because the early adopters are increasingly working out what does and doesn't work in this sector, reports MediaWeek.

The functionality and scale of mobile marketing is coming in line with marketer expectations, resulting in a sudden and dramatic influx of dollars to the medium.

Users, too, are beginning to give mobile ads a second look. Devices have better functionality than they did some years ago, and display ads aren't quite as cumbersome to view, which previously held down acceptance rates. The spate of acquisitions and mergers has also created the sort of scale marketers need to make a significant buy.

Mobile remains a relatively small platform, with just $421 million spent there by marketers in 2006. That figure, however, is expected to reach $4.8 billion by 2011.

Vice Makes Mobile Media Debut

Mobile advertising network Adultmoda has agreed to drive its 18-and-up userbase to on-the-go gambling destinations on behalf of Probability, according to a recent press release.

Probability's Mobile Casino and Russell Grant Mobile Bingo will leverage the Adultmoda relationship to cast a wide net of ads for Java-based handheld users across the United Kingdom and other territories.

Adultmoda is currently one among just a handful of brands that cater specifically to the adult community on the mobile platform.

Cellphones to eclipse land lines

Globe and Mail reports that cellphones cellphones overtake landlines in Canada.

Cellphones have become so popular in Canada that they are about to eclipse the use of traditional wire lines for the first time as the wireless industry continues to grow in reach and profitability.

There were 18 million wireless subscribers at the end of 2006 — about the same number of fixed access lines. That doesn't include more than 740,000 subscribers who have transferred to cable telephony services.

The surge in cellphone use has been extremely lucrative for the mobile phone industry, whose operating profits — before taxes, interest and depreciation — increased by 67 per cent to $1 billion in the last quarter of 2006 from a year earlier, Statistics Canada said in a report issued Monday.

In the traditional phone industry, quarterly profits fell 24 per cent to $675 million as revenue declined 1.5 per cent to $5.6 billion, while wireless revenue grew by 16.2 per cent to $3.4 billion.

The higher margin wireless industry saw its operating profits grow by 41 per cent last year to $4 billion while wireline earnings declined 14 per cent to $3.5 billion despite recording $10 billion in additional revenues, the agency said.

The financial shift has been particularly challenging for Bell Canada, which has struggled to keep up with its wireless competitors as it hemorrhages wirelines customers.

Voice revenues per subscriber are declining even though revenues from data transfer is growing.

Disney, Sprint Ink Deal for Entertainment, Kids’, News Content

Sprint customers will be able access full episodes of news and entertainment programming from ABC Entertainment, ABC News and Disney Channel on their mobile phones, either on demand or via streaming channels, via a new deal announced today.

The Disney-ABC Television Group and Sprint deal will see the content being delivered on demand and via three mobile channels, streaming continuous scheduled programming throughout the day. The deal includes on-demand, full-length episodes of ABC’s Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Lost and Ugly Betty, as well as a linear channel with content from Disney Channel.

Sprint is also the first carrier to provide ABC Mobile, a newly created linear mobile channel. ABC Mobile features a variety of full-length and short-form news and entertainment content, including full-length episodes of Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Lost and Ugly Betty.

Video-on-demand shows will be available the day after their television premiere. In general, customers will be able to access the four most recently televised episodes of each series. Beginning this fall, selected entertainment and news on-demand content and linear programming will include advertising.

The content is available via Sprint TV on Sprint's Power Vision devices. All of the content will be included in the Sprint Power Vision TV Pack, which costs an additional $20 per month. Alternatively, content from Disney Channel only, including the on-demand programs and linear channel, will be available as part of the Power Vision Access Pack, which costs an additional $15 per month.

WorldScreen has more.

AOL Buys Third Screen Media, Adds Mobile

Mediapost reports today that AOL has agreed to acquire Third Screen Media for an undisclosed sum. The mobile ad firm will now operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL's third-party ad network Advertising.com.

Reports that AOL was after Third Screen for as much as $80 million have circulated since February. (Initial news of the talks came several months after discussions between Third Screen and Microsoft failed, according to published reports.)

The acquisition comes during a period of rapid growth for mobile advertising. U.S. mobile advertising is expected to grow from $421 million in 2006 to $4.7 billion by 2011, according to eMarketer. Worldwide, the market is expected to expand to $11.3 billion by the same year.

Acquisition rumors aside, Third Screen has remained a hot industry name thanks to ad deals with several large companies. Last December, Universal McCann tapped the firm to manage mobile media efforts for clients including Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson and Intel.

Additionally, Third Screen earlier this year struck a deal with MSNBC to sell ads and manage inventory on its mobile site, joining a roster of publishers including Fox News, USA Today, the Weather Channel, CBS SportsLine, and ESPN.

Third Screen Media connects advertisers, publishers and mobile phone carriers on a common platform, allowing ads to be managed and delivered through wireless application protocol, or WAP, downloadable applications, text-messaging, or SMS, multimedia messaging service, or MMS and mobile video.

Advertising.com, has been a major driver of growth for AOL. Analysts recently credited the ad network with helping to drive AOL's first-quarter ad sales up 40% this year compared to the first quarter of last year. And in April, Advertising.com won the privilege to provide display and video ad management services for the yet-unnamed video venture between NBC Universal and News Corp.

The Billboard have eyes..

A Canadian academic has created technology enabling billboards to track and count the number of people who look at it, reports The Associated Press.

The portable device can recognize when eyeballs are actually turned toward signage, an improvement over previous, more expensive devices.

The Xuuk eyebox2 was developed by Roel Vertegaal and costs $999. Broad use and data resulting from the eyebox2 could affect rates charged for billboard ads over the long-term.

NYC Taxis to Install Touch Screens, Offer News

New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission is approving a plan to install touch-screen monitors in all 13,000 yellow cabs on the streets that will allow riders to check on news stories and find information about eateries and bars. Text messages can be sent directly to taxi drivers.

Gothamist has the full story.

Nokia add energy saving alerts to mobiles

Nokia has launched the first mobile phones to include alerts encouraging people to unplug the charger once the battery is full, a move that could save enough electricity to power 85,000 homes a year. Starting with the new Nokia 1200, Nokia 1208 and the Nokia 1650, the alerts will be rolled out across the Nokia product range.

Kirsi Sormunen, Vice-President of Environmental Affairs at Nokia said, "Around two-thirds of the energy used by a mobile phone is lost when it is unplugged after charging but the charger itself is left in a live socket. We want to reduce this waste and are working on reducing to an absolute minimum the amount of energy our chargers use. The new alerts also play an important role, encouraging people to help us in this goal by unplugging their chargers."

The alerts are one of a series of environmental initiatives that mobile manufacturers, led by Nokia, agreed to take action on this year. Nokia is the first of these manufacturers to implement the alerts into its products.

Nokia has decided to put the alerts into mass markets products first to help maximise the potential energy savings. The Nokia 1200, Nokia 1208, Nokia 1650 are targeting high volumes of sales in fast growing markets like India, China and Latin America.

The alerts are the latest in a series of energy saving initiatives from Nokia. Last year the company's newest range of chargers were awarded an Energy Star by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US. for their energy efficiency. The chargers, in use since 2005, far exceed the EPA standards by using 50- 70% less energy than the Energy Star requirement, and also meet the highest European Union standards.

The company has set ambitious goals to further reduce the energy consumption of its chargers. By 2010 it aims to have reduced by an additional 50% the amount of electricity a charger consumes whilst still plugged into the mains but not the phone.

Mobile RSS service available worldwide from Mobispine

Consumers can now find and access RSS-feeds from their cell phones in a cheaper and faster way with Mobispine. One simple mobile directory with thousands of feeds is available for consumers in order to make it simple to use.

Mobispine aggregates more than 20,000 RSS-feeds from all over the world to mobile users which are all free of charge. There is no need for typing in long URL’s in the cell phone anymore. Consumers simply search for the feed and add it to their cell phone.

Bloggers or website owners can easily add their own content in the RSS-format to Mobispine and make it available for the global audience at no cost at all. The service is free of charge for content owners and for consumers.

Mobile Ads Promote Mobile Sites

To boost visits to their sites, some mobile providers are advertising on other mobile webpages, reports AdAge.

According to Third Screen Media CMO Jeff Janer, mobile site publishers see mobile users as their natural audience. Third Screen increased its reported number of monthly impressions from 50 million at the end of 2006 to 225 million at present. The number of mobile campaigns the company manages has tripled from a year ago.

While numbers speak volumes, an Ogilvy & Mather partner calls targeting the deal-breaker for mobile, which is seen as a high-engagement medium.

Cost-per-thousand rates hovering in the $28-$30 range, with premium sites commanding up to $50. Better targeting could raise the overall all deal rate to $1 million or more.

Venture capital interest in the mobile sector is still growing, but not at the same clip as in the recent past. Only five new deals were signed in 2007, a significant decline from the 21 deals signed in 2006.

Microsoft Mobile Ads: Coming Soon

Microsoft may launch its own mobile ad service sooner rather than later, reports The Seattle Times

The accelerated time-table follows the catalyst acquisition of European mobile ad firm ScreenTonic. Microsoft first began testing mobile ad sales last year but the new skills necessary for the market were taking too long for the company to develop organically.

The purchase of ScreenTonic significantly cut down the time needed for Microsoft to roll a product out.

Presently, one JupiterResearch analyst says, there is no frontrunner in the mobile ad space. Microsoft cannot afford to be left behind as the industry matures.

Mobile TV: Advertisers Mostly Idling

MOBILE TV ENTERTAINMENT MAY BE the moving wave of the future, but right now advertisers, for the most part, are just idling at the traffic light according to Wayne Friedman.

Though many studios -- from Warner Bros. to Fox to MTV Networks -- have produced new series or different versions of series for cell phone users, advertising has been slow-moving.

Sure, there's been some business -- $421 million in 2006. But this is nothing like the explosive growth some have been predicting.

Measurement is a big issue. Though Nielsen has pledged to find and calculate TV viewers anywhere, anyhow, it's still far away from identifying specific details: What are the demographics? Are those viewers watching just part of the show? Will they watch later? And how does that count in total viewership?

Advertisers have been known to experiment -- but maybe with the rash of new entertainment technology, there is only limited R&D money to go around.

It's hard to even determine what mobile entertainment will look like.

One key observation comes from Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music and Logo Group, who told The New York Times he imagined a time when he could make a 90-minute movie -- in 30, 3-minute increments.

One assumes that's because the attention spans of phone users -- mostly young people -- don't last much longer than three minutes.

How can advertisers align themselves? Do they get a dreaded 15-second pre-roll commercial at the beginning of each piece of 3-minute content? Perhaps it might come in the middle -- with no fast-forwarding, of course.

Already many cell phone users believe any content is virtually pure marketing - and nothing more. How do advertisers factor that into their price? Is a two-inch screen one-sixteenth the price of a 32-inch plasma in your living room?

Maybe the market really is for sharper and younger eyeballs, after all. Maybe it isn't the broad-based entertainment medium everyone thinks.

As is usual with media entertainment technology, user trends never end predictably. With VCRs, we were all going to create our own network prime-time schedules (which may now be actually happening with the DVR).

Perhaps mobile phones will be a way to watch a 3-minute live video of the person we are talking to -- and nothing more. Perhaps someone will realize no one wants to hold his phone for three minutes to watch a TV show.

With this new media still in flux, advertisers aren't gunning their engines.

Mobile advertising hits wireless Web first

CNet reports, as mobile operators take the slow road toward adding advertising on cell phones, big media brands with mobile Web sites are fast-tracking plans to add advertising to those sites.

Fox News announced that it is partnering with Third Screen Media to help it inject advertising throughout its mobile properties. Initially, Third Screen Media will insert banner advertising on Fox News' mobile Web site. While no further plans have been announced, Fox News will likely add video advertising and other forms of advertising using Third Screen's technology at a later date.

Fox is joining other big media brands, such as ESPN, Weather.com, USA Today and The New York Times, that have all added advertising to their mobile Web sites, which are accessed directly through a mobile browser and not through a mobile operator's menu or "deck."

Even though cellular operators have touted mobile advertising's potential revenue-generating opportunity, so far they've moved cautiously for fear of annoying customers and sparking defections to competitors. In the U.S., Sprint Nextel is the only major operator to have announced a major initiative. Verizon Wireless and AT&T have said they are testing advertising plans and technology, but haven't yet announced details.

Operators in Europe, and in particular the U.K., seem to be moving more quickly. Last week, 3, an operator in the U.K., said it will launch an ad-funded video content service, giving users who visit its Planet 3 portal free video clips including news, comedy, gossip, animations and film. At least three other operators in the U.K are also rumored to be gearing up to include advertising on their portals, including O2, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile.

As an industry, mobile advertising is still in its infancy. Mobile advertising generated about $871 million in 2006, according to Informa Telcoms & Media. That compares with a worldwide advertising market across all mediums that was valued in the billions. But with nearly 3 billion cell phone users in the world, more than 200 million of whom are in the U.S., it's clear that mobile advertising represents a huge opportunity.

Recent studies are also showing that subscribers are willing to tolerate advertising if they are able to get something in return. Today roughly 75 percent of all mobile subscribers in the U.S. and Western Europe can access the mobile Internet from their mobile devices. And of those people with access, about one-third say they would watch advertising in exchange for free mobile content, according to a study called "Going Mobile" from the Online Publishers Association.

The huge potential of mobile advertising has created somewhat of a land rush, as everyone from marketers to big media companies to handset makers to Internet search companies to mobile operators hopes to get a piece of the action.

iPhone Likely to be Delayed Again

In a statement last week, Apple said that it has moved some of its personnel away from its newest version of Mac OS X, Leopard, to the team working on the June launch of the iPhone, reports Business Week.

Various iPhone suppliers have been told that the iPhone may not be available until the end of June, and Apple is stated as saying the iPhone "contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device," which hints at problems stemming from the complexity of the device.

Apple hopes customers will use iPhone for online purchases, so Apple must be sure the phone is not prone to hacker attacks. "They don't want it to be a version 1.0 of the iPhone, but version 4.9," Richard Doherty of Envisioneering Group said. "Apple wants to get it right the first time."

Another issue may come from the battery life. The phone will tout two batteries: one for the phone and the other for the music player. The phone battery would have to power a huge screen, Wi-Fi network connections, and many other power-hungry features.

Social Networking Goes Mobile

Social networking: coming to a mobile phone near you. Online services like Twitter, Radar and Jaiku are allowing people of all ages to update their lives in real-time by sending photos, text, and video straight to social networking profiles from their phones, according to The New York Times.

Based in San Francisco, Twitter lets people broadcast text messages from their phones to an audience of millions online. John Edwards uses Twitter to update people on his campaign whereabouts. Conversely, Radar broadcasts only to a user's personal network, not to everyone.

Another site, Kyte, invites people to send video from their phones to an online Kyte "channel," turning millions of cameraphone owners into would-be broadcasters. In some cases the video stream can be watched live, allowing users to peer into people's lives while it's happening.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said he believes social networking in general can be profitable. But, he adds, it is not yet entirely clear how, and how soon.

In the meantime, Tiny Pictures chief executive John Poisson noted, “Exhibitionism will exist as long as there is voyeurism.”

Tiny Pictures' Radar service lets users send camera phone images to the Web or onto other phones within an exclusive network of friends.

Sorrell: Mobile, New Media Driving Ad Spending

WPP Group chief Sir Martin Sorrell has advised ad buyers everywhere to begin experimenting with new media or risk falling behind the curve, writes ClickZ.
Sorrell said newspapers, followed by TV and radio, are most vulnerable to ad dollars' shifting to new media. Indeed halfof WPP-owned GroupM's spending is on outdoor and new media as well as market research and public relations, reports Sorrell.

That leaves only half for traditional media spending. But growth is going to happen only if clients doing the spending can see measurable returns.

A good deal of the mobile growth will come, according to Sorrell, as technology improves and costs go down.

Yahoo Launches 'Better' Campaign Touting Mobile, Answers

Yahoo has launched a new consumer-facing campaign that plays up its mobile search and Answers services, reports AdAge.

The push, which uses the copy point "Life is a little bit better with Yahoo," features online banner and skyscraper ads that interact or show complementary videos. There's also a microsite where people can mash-up the raw video used for the ads.

The site's focus on OneSearch and Answers points to two products about which Yahoo believes there is growth potential, both in terms of users and monetization. The pair also leads respective markets in user traffic.

Microsoft Buys ScreenTonic

Microsoft has purchased European mobile ad firm ScreenTonic, reports BrandWeek.

ScreenTonic lets advertisers plan, execute and manage mobile campaigns. Offerings will be integrated into Microsoft's Digital Advertising Solutions group. It is not clear what impact, if any, this will have on reported talks Microsoft is in to acquire Third Screen Media.

The price of the ScreenTonic purchase was not released.