FT.com http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ecb254f8-b5d8-11dd-ab71-0000779fd18c.html
Mobile market is a moving target
By Ingrid Lunden
Published: November 19 2008 02:00 | Last updated: November 19 2008 02:00
Mobile technology has a clear role to play in areas such as advertising and in offering services any time, anywhere.
“The great thing about mobile is that it has the potential to work both in targeted campaigns and on a mass scale,” says John Delaney, an analyst at IDC. “With the mobile you know what people are doing and who they are.”
On the other hand, companies building businesses in the mobile world recognise that this power can be abused. “There is a risk of people switching off and feeling their personal space is being invaded,” says Mitch Lazar, managing director of Yahoo Europe’s Connected Life division.
Even brands that have been using mobile successfully admit the medium is a moving target. “Mobile has the highest potential but it’s very difficult to leverage,” says Prinz Pinakatt, European group interactive marketing manager at Coca Cola. “We always try to include it in our digital marketing, but certain target groups are not yet responding to mobile.”
The majority of those doing business over the mobile internet have been selling products designed for mobile consumption, such as chat services, ring tones, and music.
But the spread of internet enabled handsets, faster networks and cheaper data rates are attracting a growing number of other businesses.
Some are taking advantage of the technology to enhance their presence. Amazon.com, for example, has been offering a rudimentary form of mobile commerce since 2001. Now the online retailer is hoping to sell more over mobile by creating sites optimised for particular handsets, such as Apple’s iPhone.
But hurdles remain. Perhaps the biggest is low usage, compared with the fixed internet. Research by Capgemini found mobile internet penetration rates in Europe and the US were only 14 and 12 per cent respectively in 2007; and 40 per cent of European mobile consumers did not see value in using mobile internet services, citing prices and a lack of compelling content.
Blyk, the youth-focused, advertising-funded mobile service, says that in the 15 European markets where it conducts research, typically two-thirds of 16-24 year olds have not used the mobile internet, and only a fraction of 1 per cent has used their phone for a financial transaction, or “m-payment”.
“Some companies don’t want to move to mobile yet,” says Ray Anderson at Bango, which provides mobile content billing and analytics services. “Some say mobile will eventually be just another way of accessing the internet, so we don’t need to worry about it. Others believe mobile has lots of other advantages that need to be addressed.”
Dan Rosen, head of mobile for digital agency AKQA and vice-chairman in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), says: “The user experience is getting richer but the number of platforms to develop for is growing, too.”
This could mean higher costs for businesses wanting a mobile presence. “It has become more complex to advertise on mobile,” says Mr Pinakatt of Coca Cola. He says some of the most successful mobile campaigns his company runs are simple ones, built on SMS, in which customers send texts to numbers given on bottles, to enter prize draws. On average, these get a response rate of 4 per cent, equating to around 6m entries per campaign.
Velti, the mobile marketer is trying to meet the challenge of higher costs by offering a selection of 70 “templates” for businesses to use for mobile marketing campaigns. “We’re trying to save money and pass that down to our customers,” says Alex Moukas, Velti chief executive.
Advertising agencies say brands will become more interested in the mobile internet once usage data becomes more sophisticated.
“We can provide third party research around consumer response, we can measure ad delivery, but frankly there isn’t one standardised way of doing this. It’s a barrier to overcome to get mobile on to that next level,” admits Theo Theodorou, Emea sales manager for ScreenTonic, the mobile advertising company owned by Microsoft.
Industry organisations are trying to overcome this. The MMA announced, this month, a set of “ad currency definitions” that, if adopted, would help create more consistent metrics used by media buyers and measuring agencies.
A recent campaign for Renault Twingo cars underscores some of the problems. Yahoo and Vodafone, which developed a banner ad and microsite and ran them on the operator’s “Live!” portal, found the mobile campaign increased brand awareness by about 20 per cent.
But gains in positive brand view and purchase intentions “failed to meet statistical significance”, says Vodafone.
Gartner says $2.7bn will have been spent worldwide in 2008 on mobile advertising. This includes messaging, banner, and search-based ads. Figures provided by Yahoo are more modest: the leader in internet display advertising estimates that, in the UK, the mobile advertising market is worth no more than about $25m for display and $6m for search-based ads.
For businesses willing to spend, rewards can be higher than for other media, says Mr Theodorou. “Getting on to the mobile web is not as easy as getting on the internet on a PC, but that means users are really motivated.”
Mobile operators are also playing an increasing role. Vodafone and Visa recently completed a trial with travelling customers, in which they sent two messages to 150,000 users when the phone was first turned on abroad: a standard welcome message, and then a text about using Visa cards abroad for a chance to win tickets to the Beijing Olympics. About 74 per cent of users read the second message and approximately half said they would be open to future promotions if relevant to them.
Richard Saggers, head of mobile advertising at Vodafone, says the operator is taking on more of a consulting role. “We are being invited to work alongside agencies to help them understand the mobile channel,” he says. “Because of our footprint, we can help them understand the different dynamics and opportunities of different clients.” He says the Visa trial will “move into a commercial model” in future.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
NMA -Microsoft put people in place http://www.nma.co.uk/news/microsoft-puts-people-in-place-to-grab-share-of-mobile-ad-spend-in-emea/40087.article
Microsoft puts people in place to grab share of mobile ad spend in EMEA
23 October 2008 | By Alex Farber
Microsoft is set for a major push of its mobile advertising business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa following two appointments.Theo Theodorou, head of sales for Microsoft Screentonic, has been promoted to the new role of EMEA sales manager as the ad network looks to extend its reach globally.He will be responsible for Microsoft’s network of offices across EMEA and is tasked with educating its teams and helping to roll out mobile advertising across its country-specific …
http://www.nma.co.uk/opinion/gq-mobile-site-goes-beyond-content-to-be-genuinely-useful/38454.article
NMA – http://www.nma.co.uk/features/mobile-advertising/37922.article
GQ mobile site goes beyond content to be genuinely useful
19 June 2008
Agency Wapfly
Introduction
As a subscriber to GQ, I’ve recently noticed a number of house ads directing users to a new GQ mobile service. With established publishers including Bauer and Dennis launching mobile versions of their titles, I was keen to see how Condé Nast’s latest venture would stack up.
Access
There are two ways of accessing the GQ mobile site. The first is to text ‘GQ’ to 80808 to receive an SMS push to the site. This method is clearly promoted both in print and on the magazine’s website in a dedicated mobile section. Alternatively you can enter the URL directly into your phone, which is again promoted online.
I was really pleased to see clear data-charge warnings across the website, indicating that although GQ mobile is free to use your operator may charge for the data downloaded. This type of clear messaging to the consumer is a good example of best practice. For this review I’m using a Nokia 6500.
Presentation
The site is very clean looking with a straightforward layout. There’s plenty of free content to download, including videos and wallpapers, which are essentially cover girls from the magazine. There’s a section of reviews that are updated daily. At the time of writing this included the Indiana Jones film, grooming products and treatments.
The most useful element of the site is the Going Out guide. It comprises an aggregation of GQ rated and reviewed UK bars and restaurants, which should prove handy if you’re out and looking for a late-night mojito. There are also plenty of articles, divided into channels like grooming, jokes and gadgets. Finally there’s a competition to win £450 to spend at a Savile Row tailor.
Usability
The site has been well thought out. The article pages are short, snappy and to the point, and when you’ve finished reading you can either click on to the next article or choose from a list of additional reviews.
All downloads are completed within two clicks and are simple to acquire. To enter the competition just requires filling out a form and submitting your answer, name and mobile number. There’s a send-to-friend function that uses a similar data-capture form.
The Going Out section is split into Bars and London restaurants. You choose the town you want to drink in and then select from the list of establishments presented. As you’re restricted to London for restaurants, search is by occasion rather than location, such as ‘after hours’ or ‘romantic’. The reviews are great and the list extensive, but I’d have liked an option to search by postcode or have the service automatically locate my position and recommend venues nearby. It would also benefit from the addition of click-to-call functionality to easily get in contact with venues.
The bottom line
This site carries the GQ brand successfully to mobile. Its main purpose is as a content resource, but where GQ differentiates itself is through the addition of the bar and restaurant finder. It looks to be a genuinely useful tool that I will be using in future.
Theo Theodorou is head of sales at Microsoft Screentonic
Legal & General launches mobile campaign for savings products
20 March 2008 | By Alex Farber
Insurance firm Legal & General has begun its first mobile ad campaign as it becomes one of the first financial institutions to use mobile media as an ad channel
NMA – http://www.nma.co.uk/features/mobile-fresh-terrain/34638.article
Mobile: Fresh terrain
16 August 2007 | By Alex Farber
The growth of the mobile internet is starting to bring more business for mobile ad networks. But the platform requires different skills to online, finds Alex Farber
http://www.nma.co.uk/features/2008-round-up/40688.article
Our round-up of 2008 shows that Apple, Google and the rise of social networks have given the industry a much-needed boost
While 2008 was not the much-touted ‘year of mobile advertising’ there’s no doubt the market has matured massively over the past 12 months.
It’s been driven by both growing awareness from advertisers about the opportunity to reach consumers and the operators themselves bidding to position to take their share of a market which research house Informa predicts will grow to be worth £12bn by 2013.
The year has seen a range of mobile ad campaigns from a wide variety of advertisers including BBC, Doritos, Guinness, Marks & Spencer, McDonald’s, Nike, Peperami, Pot Noodle, Shell and Smirnoff. Each has been keen to trial the format and the richer content opportunities becoming available as well as reach new demographics.
Cheryl Calverley, marketing manager at Unilever, underlines the fact that brands are starting to take the format more seriously. A mobile campaign for Peperami, with digital agency AKQA Mobile, reached 24,000 unique users in three weeks and proved that brands can use the new format to reach their target demographic. “Any youth brand should have mobile as part of its mix,” Calverley told nma (Unilever to grow mobile spend after Peperami success; nma 16 October) .
The majority of investment is still at a trial stage and it’s not yet clear if mobile advertising is to be stifled next year by a potential cut in brands’ budgets.
Jonathan Mew, head of mobile for IAB, expects to see continued investment. He believes brands will lose out on valuable experience if they don’t continue to test the medium. “As measurements and proof of effectiveness come into play and the audience increases I can only see things growing,” he says.
Brands have already proved the degree to which they value the medium by rolling out campaigns despite the barrage of legacy issues that continue to surround mobile. Fragmentation of devices and platforms is an issue the entire industry needs to battle with but the mobile ad industry suffers particularly from the lack of measurement tools available to help gauge the success of campaigns.
It’s an area the operators, led by trade bodies the GSM Association, MMA and IAB, are to collaborate on in a significant step. In a rare move they have formed a working group to create a measurement system for mobile advertising. The aim is to deliver cross-operator metrics to the ad industry to encourage investment.
Mew says the developments signal an important step for mobile advertising. “The past 12 months have seen mobile ads start to become more established and with that comes fresh challenges,” he says. “People expect better measurement and a better understanding of the effects mobile ads have on a brand.” The first set of results are expected next year, along with a separate mobile ad spend study by the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The operators have played a vital role in boosting the industry. 3, T-Mobile and O2 joined rivals Orange and Vodafone by kicking off mobile ad opportunities and signing deals with sales houses Yahoo and 4th Screen Advertising. The decision from all five big operators, as well as MVNOs Virgin and Tesco, to enter the ad space is vital to kick-start the industry.
The online industry’s sales powerhouses Platform-A, Microsoft and Yahoo have also moved to capitalise on the opportunity to drive sales by integrating mobile.
Theo Theodorou, head of EMEA sales for Microsoft Screentonic, says it’s vital to offer cross-platform opportunities. “The goal is to offer Microsoft Advertising clients reach across all media. There are many different touchpoints for consumers through the day and reaching them at all of these is the end goal,” says Theodorou.
Charles Sword, director of mobile monetisation for Yahoo, is confident its sales house has made mobile ads simple to buy following deals with all five operators. “All the UK operators now have a strong ad proposition on display and search.”
A growing number of rivals are also looking to muscle in on the sales action, with Sky the latest to announce its ambitions in the space (Cover story: Sky takes possession of mobile ad sales; nma 13 November). The potential size of the mobile market and increasing numbers of publishers and advertisers has also attracted a growing group of mobile ad sales houses, including AdMob, Unanimis, Nokia, Sky, Adinfuse and Admoda.
New platforms
Apple and Google both weighed heavily into mobile this year creating a huge amount of awareness for mobile content. It’s a rather damning indictment of the industry that two outsiders are responsible for shaking up the market.
In its first weekend following a July launch the iPhone App Store generated an eye-watering 10m downloads with a further 100m downloads and £15.8m in sales coming within three months. This success was achieved from a relatively tiny installed user base.
Apple and Google each raised the bar in terms of consumer expectation and functionality with their touchscreen phones. Anne-Sophie Lanier, EMEA director of mobile product management for Sony Pictures Television International, is confident the advances are likely to boost mobile video sales next year. “With better handsets, unlimited data plans and an acknowledgement we need to make content easier to find we will see better results next year,” she says.
The iPhone 3G launched exclusively with operator partner O2 on 11 July, following the original’s launch on 6 November 2007. It grabbed headlines, generated high sales and broke content and data records. Anthony Douglas, head of content at O2 UK, says it’s provided a shot in the arm for content and marketing services. “The iPhone has glamorised and revitalised applications. The Apple brand and customer experience has heightened interest in products and services that previously customers would have been less inclined to try,” says Douglas.
The much-touted rival mobile operating system from Google, which went on sale via T-Mobile on the HTC G1 phone last month, offers developers and consumers a choice. It’s supported by content store the Android Market. Christian Hernandez Gallardo, head of distribution partners for Google, said he plans to slowly build distribution before opening up ad opportunities. “We want to grow the overall opportunity, then look to monetise things.”
Patrick Hagenaar, head of mobile for Ministry of Sound, says the new platforms offer a great opportunity for services to reach a mass market. “Apple and Google offer more sophisticated platforms for companies to market their products and content on. In addition, users who were previously unaware of the mobile internet, or had no trust in it, now have two trusted brands they can use,” he says.
Douglas anticipates a continued growth of products and services developed with touchscreen functionality in mind. “We know that many of our providers are gearing up for more touch-screen content apps,” he says.
Mobile social networking
Mobile social networking has experienced continued growth over the past 12 months as each of the major online players makes the platform a central focus.
Rather than adopting a ‘build it and see’ approach, the major social networks have each seen their services widely adopted.
The social networks are aware offering access to their services via mobile is an invaluable tool for members keen to keep in touch. Claire Valoti, media buyer for Mindshare, isn’t surprised to see the enormous take-up of social networking services on mobile. “Consumers use social networks and mobiles to communicate so they complement each other very well,” she says.
MySpace has been one of the most vocal advocates of the opportunity with its MD Travis Katz predicting half of the site’s traffic will come from mobile within five years (MySpace plans for half of traffic from mobile users; nma 7 February). It’s a bold prediction but one that MySpace has already moved to make a reality by launching the second version of its mobile site (MySpace plans global mobile site oberhaul to align with online offer; nma 17 July). It also claims to be the most used iPhone application and aims to reach 3m daily unique users by the end of 2008.
Bjorn Laurin, European director of mobile business development for MySpace, says the channel is a natural resource for members. “We want to increase traffic by continuing to make our product more personal, portable and collaborative. We expect applications to be developed that are more fluid-based and work across all platforms.”
He adds that a series of developments are planned to build on the existing proposition and continue to drive usage. “We’re currently developing video for mobile and expanding our mobile functionality with IM,” says Laurin.
Rival social network Bebo, like MySpace, is committed to mobile growth by working closely with operators globally to ensure maximum distribution. Sean Kane, head of mobile for Bebo, expects mobile to become as important as the PC to the social network. “We’ll extend mobile operator partnerships so that a common set of Bebo services is ubiquitous across operators.”
Interactive services
Interactive services have been steadily recovering throughout the year as broadcasters and service providers battle to restore consumer confidence.
Following record fines for the BBC and ITV, the broadcasters conducted audits and accepted more responsibility for interactive services, forming dedicated premium-rate services divisions respectively dubbed Interactive Technical Advice and Contracts Unit (ITACU) and Interactive Telephony (ITL).
Meanwhile Five became the first broadcaster to restore time-sensitive SMS competitions, which were scrapped due to concerns about paid-for votes not being counted.
As part of the wholesale changes put in place by the broadcasters, the rivals have been meeting regularly led by the Association for Interactive Media & Entertainment (AIME) to ensure they work together to present a consistent message to viewers.
PhonePayPlus has created a prior permission process that all service providers must pass before they can offer interactive services to the broadcast industry.
Emma Potter, marketing manager for MIG, which manages services for clients including ITV, Five and Fremantle, says consumer demand remained high but trust remained vital. “Over the past 12 months MIG has put several processes in place from both a product and internal structure point of view,” says Potter. “Consumer confidence is key.”
Toby Padgham, general secretary for AIME, expects the body to lobby to introduce wider constraints on all companies promoting interactive services not just broadcasters. “As it goes more mainstream there has to be a level of control at the service promoter end with those who have a point-of-sale relationship with the consumer,” he says.
MobiadNews http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=2004
Orange Launches Ad-Supported Content Trial
Orange has announced that it has launched an advertisement-supported content trial on Orange World, its mobile internet platform. The trial will give 800,000 of Orange’s 15.6 million mobile customers the option to download music to their mobile phone for free or at a discounted rate.
The ads will be managed and delivered by ScreenTonic who have already lined up deals with Paramount Pictures and Ford. The trial will last for three months.
Orange will give their customers the option of downloading full music tracks at full price, at half price, or for free, depending on the level of advertising. Presumably the trial is being run in this way to provide insight into the “elasticity of demand” for music, which will allow Orange and its partners to make more informed pricing decisions in the future.
Steve Ricketts, Head of Third Party Services, Orange UK said: “We believe this ad-funded content model will drive adoption and usage of services, and deliver better value content to our customers. Whilst the trial is initially set for music we are also intending to test this across other content areas, such as games. The mobile is an incredibly personal device and our ad-funded content offer gives advertisers a great opportunity to reach a new audience”.
Theo Theodorou, Head of Sales at ScreenTonic said: “The ad funded content trial will provide a route into the mobile experience for brands that have previously had little familiarity of the medium. It is an exciting reason for brands to get involved with mobile, as the media develops increasingly innovative solutions to allow advertisers to reach audiences”
See the full release here.
