Monthly Archives: June 2010

Retail Industry: Mobile offers the opportunity to connect with Hispanics

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The mobile medium displays a good chance in connecting with the Hispanic shoppers, as recent report found that 29% of Hispanics settled into using their mobile phones in searching for an out-of-stock item at a competing retailer.

Hispanic mobile marketAccording to the report (Mobile User and Usage Report) conducted by eMarketer, reaching for mobile audience, which has become a challenge among new marketers using mobile, has provided a clearer picture as far as the Hispanic market is a concern. Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, said that Hispanics use the mobile medium and technology all the time to fortify their engagement not only for family but to their social world in general; hence, marketers who have just turned to mobile will find a market well ahead of them.

A full 78% of Hispanic mobile Internet users have some form of Internet access at home, report said; and according to Phillips, although they aren’t big online buyers, they are using their mobile phones in checking out products and deals.

In-store mobile marketing is the next big thing

Like most other consumers, Sterling Commerce report said that Hispanic shoppers are looking for good deals. They use mobile devices to check on prices, product information and inventory while shopping in a store.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Research and Markets: Tips, Tricks & Techniques for Mobile Advertising – What Marketing Executives Need to Know to Capitalize on Mobile Ads

In Tips, Tricks & Techniques for Mobile Advertising, ExecSense examines what marketing executives need to know to capitalize on mobile ads – everything from smartphone apps to interstitial advertising to traditional mobile direct marketing methods such as SMS or MMS messaging, as well as new opportunities such as the iPad.

Advertisers to find new ways to target consumers via mobile Internet

SINGAPORE : Advertisers need to find new and more interesting ways to reach out to regional consumers via mobile internet. In a survey, Internet search engine Yahoo said as much as half of the mobile users in emerging markets in Southeast Asia are surfing the web using their phones these days. More people in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam now have mobile phones to log onto the Internet. And they are using them to access the Internet because of factors like attractive tariffs, more 3G networks and affordable data plans. Mobile Internet penetration in Indonesia – the largest and fastest growing online market in Southeast Asia – jumped to 48 per cent from 22 per cent last year. In Vietnam, mobile Internet access nearly doubled to 19 per cent.

Samsung, Verizon Lead the US Mobile Subscriber Market

According to a new report from comScore, Inc., covering the three-month period ending April 2010, the leading mobile phone maker in the US market was Samsung, which accounted for 22.1 percent of the market. Moreover, the report, which was aimed at the mobile subscribers market, shows that Verizon Wireless was the leader in the carrier area, with market share of 31.1 percent.

Retail sales via mobile internet forecast to more than double in three years

Mobile phone users bought nearly £123million of goods in the UK in 2009 using their smartphones, according to a new report, and this figure looks set to more than double in the next three years. As total online retail spending in 2009 was £21.2bn – or a market share of 0.6 per cent – this means that by 2013, mobile internet sales could reach £275million, or the four per cent of the overall market, claim analysts Verdict and Ovum, who have released a joint study.

Smartphone Usage Set to Dominate Hong Kong Mobile Market

Hong Kong consumers are at the forefront of global smartphone usage. Almost half (48%) of respondents in Hong Kong own a smartphone, more than double the global rate of 23%. “Until fairly recently, smartphone or PDA phones were owned by a very specific group of consumers – mainly tech geeks and business ‘road warriors’”, says Marc de Lange, Director – Technology Sector. “But in the coming year, Hong Kong will reach an important milestone as more than half of all mobile phone owners start to carry a smartphone in their pockets.”

What politicians can learn from mobile marketers

The Obama campaign used SMS, mobile internet sites, apps, mobile video, mobile advertising and Interactive Voice response to get its message through to a previously disinterested, disaffected or disenfranchised electorate; clearly to great effect. It was thought that the Democrats’ use of mobile would change modern political campaigning forever, with political parties everywhere switching to copy them.

Mideast accounts for 5% of world mobile market

The Middle East accounted for five percent of the global mobile telecoms market last year, according to a report released on Wednesday. Last year, the mobile telecoms industry was worth $846bn, down slightly from $848bn in 2008, according to a report by market research firm Dataxis Intelligence. The Middle East accounted for five percent of the global market, or around $42.3bn.

Mideast to see fastest growth in mobile data

Mobile data traffic will be the strongest in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) followed by the Asia-Pacific and North America as revenue from voice gets saturated and operators focus on alternate sources of revenue. According to Cisco’s annual Visual Networking Index (VNI) forecast 2009-2014, the MEA will witness a growth at 133 per cent CAGR followed by the Asia-Pacific of 119 per cent and North America at 117 per cent. Global mobile data traffic will increase 39 times from 2009 to 2014, as per the latest figures from the networking major. By 2014, annual global mobile data traffic will reach 3.5 exabytes per month (or a run rate of more than 42 exabytes annually).

Email marketers ‘should step up to the mobile marketing plate’

Email marketing is undergoing an “exciting” series of changes which marketers need to keep abreast of, an expert has said. Writing for Media Post, Gretchen Scheiman said the changes were being influenced by mobile and social marketing. “While these channels are both far broader than email in many respects, there is a component of each that is simply ´messaging´. That´s where email marketers need to step up to the plate and take some ownership. Both are messaging opportunities that go to an inbox,” she explained.

MMA Publishes Whitepaper On Opportunities Presented By Oversize Mobile Ad Units

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) today published a new Whitepaper aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of the opportunities presented by oversized mobile ad units measuring 320 pixels in width or larger. With the growing availability of larger-screened devices like smartphones and tablets- brands, agencies and other members of the mobile marketing ecosystem need to understand the potential of engaging an audience using larger, rich media ads that were once not available on the limited screen real-estate of feature phones and first-gen smartphones.

Mobile social networking growing in US

New figures have shown that social networking is the fast-growing category of mobile-based web use in the US. The statistics from comScore – which could be useful to those deploying mobile marketing campaigns – show 14.5 million users accessed a social networking app in April, up 240 per cent on the same month last year. Online news apps were the second fastest-growing type of mobile app content, followed by those dealing with sports information.

Mobile advertising, a revenue source for telcos

Advertising, in the operator’s share of revenue, is still a very small portion of the pie. In 2009, mobile advertising revenue worldwide was estimated to be US $2 billion. This is expected to increase over the next 4 fours. According to Madan, approximately US $1.3B came from the US and Japan itself. With regard to future projections, Madan said, “There are many estimates. They range varies from US $12 billion to $19 billion, by 2014. It is still nascent so estimates are widely fluctuating.” In the India, the market is expected to be roughly about Rs. 500-600 crores in the next 2-3 years, which means around 500-600 crores in the next 2-3 years.

Canadian Mobile Market: Mobile Subscriptions in Canada to Increase at 20%, report says

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canada mobile marketMobile penetration in the Canadian region is seen to rise steadily over the next several years, according to eMarketer’s estimates. The region’s number of mobile subscribers, as eMarketer forecasts, will increase from this year’s 24.5 million to nearly 30 million by 2014 – an increase of about 20%.

Marketers in the country are gearing up for increased usage. About one-half of those surveyed, according to Ipsos Reid, would be increasing their mobile spend this year, while another preferred to hold the spending the same as of last year.

Canada is reported as the fifth-largest source of mobile advertising requests in March 2010, with more than 554 million ads served by the network. That was up from 332.5 million mobile ads served to Canada in December 2009, a nearly 67% increase.

Mobile Internet surges in the Philippines at 5%

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Internet usage in the Philippine region has a dramatic surge from zero percent in 2009 to five percent this year. One very important factor seen to this notable growth is the attractive tariffs and demand for social networking, according to Neilsen Media Philippines’ Net Index study.

460_Map-PhilippinesIn a report published in Manila Times, the research firm said that affluent young Filipinos are expected to spend more time surfing on the Internet through mobile phones. Neilsen Media has seen this consistent trend given that the cost of mobile devices and Internet access in the region are going down.

The study has revealed as well the activities that drive to mobile Internet usage in the region with instant messaging on top of the list at 77%, followed by e-mail at 75%, and short messaging service (SMS) at 59%.

Meanwhile, the social networking sites (SNS) made it as the most popular social media activity at 53%, followed by user-generated content at 30%. Blogging and forums, on other hand, are considered the least popular activities in the region with 7% and 11%, respectively.

The Philippines has over 29.7 Internet users, and Manila is considered a home to the largest user-base Internet in the country. The study, in this effect, was able to provide a strategic picture of the country in terms of online activities, cross-media usage habits, lifestyles and psychographics to their brand preferences.

US Mobile Market: Samsung remains on top, Verizon leads mobile operators

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There is a reason for Samsung and Verizon to celebrate its heydays as both managed of staying on top against other industry players across the US mobile market.

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In a recent report by comScore published on MarketingCharts, Samsung retained its US mobile subscriber share among OEMs in April 2010 at 22.1% compared to tight competitor (LG) at 21.8% share. Motorola (which happened to be on top during the previous report) went down at third with 21.6% share, followed by RIM (8.4% share) and Nokia (8.1% share).

Meanwhile, the Verizon took its lead against other mobile operators in the US region carrying a percentage share of 31.1% of mobile subscribers. AT&T ranked second with 25.2% market share, followed by Sprint with 12% market share, T-Mobile (12%), and Tracfone with 0.3% share.

Report also revealed an impressive increase on mobile content usage of the US mobile subscribers with text messaging on its lead at 64.6%, browsers were used by 31.1% of US mobile subscribers, and downloaded applications comprised 29.8% of the mobile audience. The remaining percentage shares were represented by social networking sites and blogs via mobile, and listening to music.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Three steps for publishers to monetize mobile traffic

One of the most common questions that publishers ask these days is: How can I increase the monetization of my mobile traffic? Clearly the answer is very different for each publisher, but my goal is to lay out a rough guide to get you thinking about what might work for you. For the sake of discussion, let us say you are a U.S.-based publisher with a sales team that calls directly on advertisers and agencies. Also, let us assume most of your traffic is from the United States, and your international traffic is small, so you are not yet monetizing it.

28% of US Mobile Web Users Go Online Daily

Twenty-eight percent of US mobile phone users access the mobile internet at least once a day, according to a recent consumer survey conducted by ABI Research. Overall Mobile Web Access Rises. Overall mobile internet access rose between December 2008, when the previous ABI Research mobile internet study was conducted, and February 2010, when the most recent study was conducted. The percentage of mobile phone users who have mobile internet access but don’t use it fell from about 30% to about 20%. In addition, the percentage who don’t have mobile internet access on their phone fell from about 28% to about 22%.

Why Retailers Need an In-Store Mobile Strategy

We tell retailers they don’t want to become Amazon’s off-balance-sheet showroom. Mobile can, to some extent, be the revenge of the physical retailers, because they have the investments in these stores, they have people coming into the stores and knowledge of those customers. They have some tremendous new ways of creating affinity with these folks. A lot of the retailers we’re talking with view in-store mobile as a significant differentiation opportunity.

AT&T decision to end unlimited data plans threatens mobile content consumption

If competing carriers follow AT&T’s lead and phase out unlimited data plans, the consumption of paid and ad-supported mobile content may be affected. AT&T spun its new wireless data plans as geared toward making it “more affordable for more people to enjoy the benefits of the mobile Internet,” but the move is clearly about reigning in the heaviest data users, and all-you-can-eat data plans are vital to spur the high levels of mobile content consumption on which publishers, marketers and advertisers thrive.

Mobile Social Networking Grows Dramatically

The number of US mobile phone users performing social networking grew dramatically between April 2009 and April 2010, according to comScore MobiLens data. Social Networking Fastest Growing Mobile App. While the total number of mobile phone users who accessed an application increased 28%, from 54.4 million to 69.6 million, between April 2009 and April 2010, the number of mobile phone users who accessed a social networking application more than tripled.

Mobile Shopping Doubles in 2010

Mobile commerce has been slow to catch on. According to Multichannel Merchant, four in five multichannel retailers have no m-commerce presence. But while consumer usage of mobile shopping is still relatively low, it is increasing, prompting firms such as Coda Research Consultancy to predict a doubling of m-commerce revenues in the US this year, to $2.4 billion.

How to increase mobile paid search campaign performance

By creating mobile-only search campaigns, advertisers benefit in several areas such as control, messaging, targeting and reporting. Advertisers have more control over their mobile budgets and CPCs by splitting their campaigns. They can adjust bids independently from desktop and better target their creative messaging by including a mobile specific call to action such as “call now” in their ad text.  “The same best practices that have been applied to desktop campaigns are also relevant for mobile: separate your campaigns to better manage mobile, theme your ad groups tightly, make creatives and keywords relevant to the landing page…

Carriers’ brand and position in value chain at risk

The mobile Internet is expanding exponentially with the rapid adoption of Internet-centric devices used to consume multimedia content and services.  According to a Forrester Research report released earlier this year, more than one- third of consumers in Western Europe will access the Internet from their mobile phones by 2014.

Twenty-two percent of consumers plan to make mobile purchase: PriceGrabber survey

The latest consumer behavior report from Experian’s PriceGrabber.com on smartphone shopping behavior reveals an increase in consumer mobile shopping activity and a trend toward buying digital content and consumer electronics from a mobile phone. The survey data reveals that 57 percent of consumers who make a purchase with their Web-enabled phones bought consumer electronics. Twenty-two percent of consumers plan to purchase from their mobile device in the next 12 months.

Canadian Mobile Advertising Revenue Continues Rising

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada today announced that Mobile Advertising Revenues in Canada exceeded budgeted expectations of $5.2 million, and grew by 347% over 2007 numbers, to just over $11.9 million for 2008. For 2009, Canadian Mobile Advertising Revenue is forecast to increase by more than 50% again, rising to an estimated $18.0 million. The top 10 Mobile Advertising earners in IAB Canada’s annual Survey accounted for 79% of Total Net Mobile Advertising revenues in 2008.

Advertisers in Africa allot more than 50% of interactive marketing budgets in Mobile

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Some of the biggest success stories in the mobile space came from Africa with advertisers in the region spent more than 50% of its interactive advertising budgets to mobile, Starcom’s Ravi Kiran said.

mobile-marketingThe African region became a hot topic among marketers during the Mobile Conversations 2010 conference in India as Starcom’s Ravi Kiran cited some of the biggest success stories in the mobile space, which actually happened in the region. In an Afaqs article, Mr. Kiran substantiated his points saying that more than 50% of interactive budget for the African region got routed to mobile marketing, compared to Asia (2.5%) and 1.3% to US and Europe regions.

Explaining to this inspiring occurrence, he said that one has to look at the unique mobile marketing services that are being offered in the region. The mobile is also the only pan-African social infrastructure in the region, and how it is connecting the African market nowadays has become a case study worldwide.

There were some other points raised during the conference, and Kiran ended up with an enticing tip saying that a “simplified language is required to convince marketers to invest in the medium”. Whilst mobile marketing is treated as another format of marketing, the principles of traditional marketing have to be applied as well.

He added, “We should tell marketers about how it can be used for marketing instead of talking or explaining the technology behind it. Also, we should encourage marketers to experiment with mobile marketing with scale.”