Starbucks is 2010 Mobile Marketer of the Year

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.
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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

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

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

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

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.