Tag Archives: mobile marketing and advertising

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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The Opportunity for Minority Firms: Go Mobile

African-Americans and Hispanics Over Index; Where Are You? If the motto of your niche firm is to go where the people are, the first place African-American and Hispanic firms should be going: mobile devices. Nielsen recently did a study that analyzed 60,000 cellphone bills over the course of a year and tracked mobile usage for voice and text. According to Nielsen: African-Americans use the most voice minutes — on average more than 1,300 a month. Hispanics are the next most talkative group, chatting an average of 826 minutes a month. Even Asians/Pacific Islanders, with 692 average monthly minutes, talk more than Whites, who use roughly 647 voice minutes a month. . . . African-Americans and Hispanics also text the most.

Online, mobile advertising see 14 percent growth in 2011, says Borrell Associates

Overall ad spending next year is expected to see moderate growth, but online and mobile advertising should see a sizable increase, according to the latest forecast from Borrell Associates.

The projection, part of the company’s “2011 Online Ad Spend Forecast by DMA,” predicts advertisers will increase spending by less than 5 percent next year compared to 2010, boosting total U.S. ad spending to $238.6 billion.

U.S. Location-Based Ad Market: $1.8B in 2015

ABI Research published last week a new report which forecasts that the location-aware advertising market will reach $1.8 billion in 2015 in the United States. In comparison, the total mobile advertising market will be $5 billion, showing that a sizeable part of the mobile advertising market will use a geo-location component. ABI Research recognizes that today “It’s still early days and there’s no single ‘right’ approach to location-based advertising,” says practice director Neil Strother. “This remains a very fragmented market that is full of experimentation.”

More than 50% of mobile users want location-aware advertising

According to a survey conducted by mobile media company JiWire, over 50% of mobile users would gladly receive location-aware advertising. Approximately, 39% would enjoy a location-based coupon or two if it was sent to their handset and a modest 36% would look forward to ads from stores that are in their immediate vicinity. Surprisingly, these shopping-oriented location services ranked higher than reviews, check-ins, and status updating.

Kenya gets low-priced smartphone

The quest for control of Kenya’s rapidly growing mobile Internet market has intensified with the launch by Chinese technology firm Huawei of a competitively priced smartphone that runs on Google’s Android operating system. Retailing at just Sh8,000, the Huawei IDEOS is the cheapest smartphone in the Kenyan market and is expected to deepen the penetration of Internet among the estimated 20 million Kenyan consumers of mobile phone services. Internet access has become the new battleground for Kenya’s four telecoms operators following the recent plummeting in voice call tariffs and the resulting decline in its importance as a revenue driver.

Use mobile to break through the holiday marketing clutter: AT&T panelist

NEW YORK – This holiday season will be the first where mobile will play a key role in shaping shopping and buying decisions for today’s convenience-seeking, bargain-hunting consumer, per the consensus at the Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus 2010. More Web-enabled smartphones in the market will play a critical role in influencing how consumers interact with content, marketing and commerce over the holidays.

Delivering a branded experience across all mobile channels is key: panelists

NEW YORK – Media brands are leaving no stone unturned to offer advertisers a package comprising mobile sites, applications, SMS alerts and social media integration. Panelists addressed advertising growth on their publications during the “Are Publishers and Broadcasters Providing an Advertiser-Friendly Environment for the Holidays?” panel. The panelists agreed that it is important to deliver a branding experience across all channels.

Consider brand objective before setting mobile holiday strategy: Mobile Marketing Summit

NEW YORK – More consumers will engage with mobile advertisements, Web sites, applications and mobile search functionality this holiday season, according to panelists at the Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus conference. Today’s shoppers are being trained to have the same expectations on mobile as they do on the wired Web. The panelists discussed why ads, SMS, mobile-optimized sites and applications matter for brand and customer experiences.

Google warned on China plans

Google’s technological lead over Baidu has eroded, the company’s former China head has said, highlighting the increasing challenges western internet companies face in the world’s most populous internet market. In an interview with the Financial Times, Kai-fu Lee said western internet companies had no chance in China unless they build a more nimble and flexible local presence and retain a strong technological edge. “Multinational players [must] hire the right senior people and empower them to have the flexibility to win [in China],” said Mr Lee, who resigned as president of Google’s operations in China a year ago.

Mobile web rises in popularity in the UK

LONDON: The mobile internet is rising in popularity among UK consumers, largely due to the increased penetration of smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry. According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), 30.1m adults access the web on a daily basis, an uptick from 16.5m in 2006. While penetration has now grown to 77%, or 38.3m individuals overall, there remain 9.2m Britons who have never been online. Approximately 17m adults stream TV content via this medium, with video-on-demand offerings operated by official broadcasters proving especially popular.

Email Dominates Mobile Web Usage

Site- and category-level data both show that email represents the largest share of US mobile internet activity, according to analysis from The Nielsen Company. Email Accounts for Roughly 40% of Mobile Web Use. Examining mobile internet usage at a granular level, Nielsen finds that in May 2010, email accounted for 38.5% of use at individual site level, and 41.5% of use at the broader category level (groupings of websites that offer similar types of content). The alternative site-level way of slicing the data still shows email to be, by far, the dominant sector in terms of mobile time, although this dominance shrinks by a few delta points to 38.5% from 41.6%.

Future of the Mobile Content Value Chain in Asia’s Emerging Markets

The mobile content and applications market is currently small, but it has significant potential to drive Asia’s emerging market operator non-voice revenues and ARPU. However, only some emerging market operators are yet to give this space the serious attention and resources it requires. So how will this market evolve? Ovum believes there are six key issues that will shape the future development of the market for mobile content and applications in such markets:

Analytics and Accountability: No more gap between measurement and marketing effectiveness

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In every marketing program, there lies the challenge among marketers – and that is to measure on marketing results. In fact, more marketers, nowadays, are on board as far as data statistics and analytics are concerned. Practically, the stuff is most likely needed especially when marketing executives are asked to substantiate their spending, or when possible budget increase occurs.

118141The latest survey of senior US marketing executives (by Forbes Insights and MarketShare Partners) as published by eMarketer found that seven of ten executives used analytics to measure marketing effectiveness.  Marketers with large budgets were significantly more likely to do so than those with spending of less than $1 million, but many in that group planned to adopt analytics in the future. Among those with budgets over $1 million, while 85% said they used analytics, 71% said they had a formalized way of doing so.

In terms of marketing measurement efforts, the study revealed more marketers using the internal data (86%), some rely on internal teams (74%), and some stick on internally developed tools (52%). In comparison, the study found 58% using the third-party data and only 35% employed outside professional services.

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.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Mobile Internet Content Coalition petitions FCC to promote open mobile Internet

The Mobile Internet Content Coalition, consisting of 4Info Inc., Myxer Inc. and mobileStorm Inc., is petitioning the Federal Communications Commission in support of opening up the mobile Internet. The MICC’s comments to the FCC, drafted by law firm Arent Fox LLP, take a stand in favor of providing “consumers access to the content of their choosing without improper interference by wireless providers.” The MICC also proposes that SMS and MMS also be considered under the umbrella of the mobile Internet.

How mobile is evolving the media business

The once-static media landscape is evolving with the advancement of mobile technology, giving advertisers more options. Whether it is through mobile sites, applications or the recent trend of 2D bar codes and image recognition, media brands are taking note and evolving with the ever-changing world of mobile. Publications such as Entertainment Weekly, W Magazine, Golf Magazine, GQ, Wired and Marie Claire have all integrated mobile in some aspect.

Are US carriers finally making mobile marketing a priority?

With their wireline business on the down slope and competition ramping up in the wireless space, U.S. carriers are seeking alternative revenue streams and engaging in mobile marketing like never before. However, carriers are still struggling to figure out which vendors to partner with, how much data to share, which policies to impose and which monetization models and ad units to use. In addition, the explosion of smartphone adoption has been a double-edged sword: increased data revenue but also overburdened networks and the migration of traffic from on-deck to off-deck.

Juniper forecasts retail mobile marketing to exceed $8 billion

Recent research by Juniper Research has found the mobile marketing and retail sector including mobile advertising, smart posters and coupons, will exceed $8 billion globally by 2012. The “Mobile Marketing and Retail Strategies” report found that retailers are already starting to woo consumers via the mobile channel using mobile ads and coupons, and the market for these two activities alone is expected to grow by half over the next couple of years.

Stock Market Panic Brings Surge Of Traffic To Mobile Web

During one of the largest stock market plunges in American history, Online and mobile-based financial sites were brought to their knees yesterday under the weight of worrisome investors scrambling for information and answers. Portals like Yahoo and Google Finance went down hard after news broke that the stock market was losing equity fast for relatively unknown reasons, forcing people all of the world to take to their mobile devices and computers in search of additional information.

Mobile devices set to interact with TV: Analyst

As demand for connected devices expands, Internet-enabled televisions form a category poised for growth. According to new forecasts from ABI Research, the estimated 19 percent of flat-panel TVs shipping with Ethernet in 2010 will grow to 46 percent in 2013, and connectivity is expected to become a mainstream feature. “In terms of mobile devices and the primary screen I would say there are two primary motivations for connecting or linking the two devices,” said Michael Inouye, industry analyst of digital home at ABI Research, Oyster Bay, NY.

Why brands must have a 360-degree mobile Web strategy

A 360-degree mobile Web strategy spans far beyond just a mobile-optimized site and means that brands need to tie mobile to their traditional marketing. For example, email campaigns are generating a lot of conversion traffic for sites. Including a URL to a mobile site will factor in mobile email users and provide them with a better experience than just throwing them onto a wired Web site on their device.

How retailers can leverage SMS for inventory management

One of the most recent trends on the retail scene is the private sale for inventory management, and SMS can serve as a great tool to get customers in for one. Research shows that after 60 days, an item at a retail location has about a 15 percent chance of being sold. After 90 days this number drops to just 5 percent, and that is why retailers are relying on private sales to keep inventory moving.

HBO taps SMS to build database during Mayweather-Marquez fight

HBO used SMS to drive awareness and pay-per-view purchases of a recent Mayweather-Marquez boxing match and to generate opt-ins for its own mobile VIP club.

Mobile Handsets Grow 19% in Q1

Global shipments of mobile handsets grew 19% year-over-year during Q1 2010, according to ABI Research. In total, 303 million mobile handsets shipped worldwide during Q1 2010. This puts annual global mobile handset shipments on pace to reach about 1.3 billion in 2010. Strongest handset shipment growth was seen in the Middle East and Africa (20% year-over-year) followed by the Americas, particularly the US (11%). Europe, on the other hand, is languishing with single-digit growth. It is also notable that 3G handset shipments eclipsed 2G handset shipments globally.

Facebook, Twitter Post Strong March Growth

Facebook and Twitter clearly surpassed all other major social networks in US year-over-year growth during March 2010, according to data from The Nielsen Company. In March 2010, Facebook reported 117.1 million unique US users at home and work. This represented 69% year-over-year growth from 69.1 million unique US users in March 2009. While Twitter only reported 20.1 million unique US users in March 2010, this still represented strong 45% year-over-year growth from 13.8 million unique users in March 2009. It is also worth noting that Twitter had a negligible 520,000 unique users in March 2008.

Low Ad Recall but High Response for Location-Based Services

In 2009, digital advertising solutions provider Eyeblaster set out to go beyond the click and measure user engagement with online ads according to a broader set of actions dubbed “dwell.” Users dwell when they mouse over an ad, or interact with a rich media placement, for example. The company’s “Global Benchmark 2010” report analyzed dwell metrics for billions of rich media impressions served in 2009 and found that high dwell correlated with high engagement, brand-related searches and ultimately conversion.

Retail Business: Mobile web gained traction to US women, 93% active to promo offers sent through mobile phones

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The US market revealed that women are actively engaging to retail-driven mobile promotions, with 93% of them look out for promo offers sent via mobile phones, the Internet Retailing reported.  retailers

A study conducted by miBuys found that 93% of women are actively looking out for promo offers sent through their phones, or on mobile web. In a report published at Internet Retailing, the study uncovers the women’s attitudes and usage to mobile web, and m-commerce on mobile web in particular, with time spent mostly focused on fashion, clothing, and accessories. The meal category, which was dubbed as lion’s share in the distribution of mobile coupons in the region, went down at third only.

A clear preference to mobile coupons related to retail goods and services went at 53% compared to dining at 16%. The mobile coupons relating to concerts and events became the second option at 21% – pronounced to be the most interesting area.

Meanwhile, Facebook and Yahoo Groups grabbed the top pick in the online community category with an approximate of 52% while 41% went to MySpace, and 23% to others.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Mobile can be used to keep content with consumers at all times: ad:tech

NEW YORK – New technology, such as mobile, is changing the way brands are rolling out product integration. A panel at ad:tech, New York titled The Branded Entertainment in the Digital Age explored how marketers are adapting to the changing media landscape to reach consumers with branded entertainment. However, some panelists disagreed on the power of the mobile platform.

Over half a billion people to use mobile money transfer services by 2014, according to Juniper Research

Juniper Research report reveals that mobile money transfer is a growth market opportunity despite near term issues. According to new analysis from Juniper Research, consumer demand for mobile money transfer services will see users exceed 500 million globally by 2014, principally in developing countries. Juniper Research’s new report – ‘Mobile Money Transfer & Remittances: Markets, Forecasts & Strategies 2009-2014’ -  also suggests…

Mobile Payment Options Evolve

Two online payment companies recently took steps to allow consumers to pay for goods using their cell phone numbers, but the charges don’t appear on consumers’ cell phone bills. Instead, Zong and Obopay are allowing users to pay with a credit or debit card and link to that payment card by entering their mobile number.

Are customers from different mobile channels worth the same?

That question should be legitimate to ask as more retailers such as fast food giants Pizza Hut and Papa John’s generate record sales from mobile customers. Among the key mobile channels to consider are Web site, SMS, application, display ads, search, email, carrier portal and brand-specific mobile devices such as Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

How mobile analytics can increase campaign ROI

With the extensive reach of mobile devices and more people using their mobile to browse the Web, mobile advertising has quickly become an essential way for online marketers to engage and ultimately generate more revenue from this audience. According to Juniper Research, global spending on mobile Internet advertising will be $500 Mobile advertising provides click-through rates ten times higher than traditional online advertising and the unique ability to effectively target a broad demographic of consumers.

Mobile marketers looking forward to ad:tech New York

As the digitization of media continues to redefine marketing, ad:tech New York is coming to town to provide brands, agencies and others in the industry a forum to exchange ideas, experiences, new practices, emerging models and expert opinion.  This year’s show will have its first-ever Mobile Mix track on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Mobile marketers are eager to sit through these sessions and learn from one another.

It’s Getting to Be an mBanking World

A recent report from IDC Financial Insights emphasized that banks need to prepare themselves for the coming wave of mobile adoption to avoid being left behind by competitors and advices to take a more strategic look at mobile banking rather than evaluating it simply as an extension of online banking and bill payment.

Are Consumers Clamoring for Green Phones?

New research suggests demand for environmentally-friendly devices will power sales of “green” phones in the coming years. A recent study by ABI Research found that nearly half of U.S. consumers would choose a green handset over a conventional phone if price, features and performance were the same.  ABI estimates the proportion of properly recycled handsets will grow from 8% in 2009 to 17% in 2014. A separate Juniper report predicts that even with an incremental shift in consumer attitudes, shipments of green phones will grow from 250,000 in 2009 to 105 million by 2014.

Mobile charitable fundraising to reach $2M in 2009, says expert

Mobile giving this year is expected to end with $2 million in pledges, an exponential increase from last year’s $350,000. In this Q&A, the Mobile Giving Foundation’s Jim Manis expounds on the state of mobile giving.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Retailers to Send up to 3 Billion ‘Mobile Coupons’ to Phone Users by 2011, According to Juniper Research

New figures from analyst firm Juniper Research estimate that almost 3 billion mobile coupons will be issued to Mobile Users by 2011, with just under $7 billion of discounts redeemed. The new Juniper study finds that mobile coupons are becoming an increasingly important tool for brand owners and retailers to provide a `push to purchase’ capability for mobile marketing and advertising campaigns. The key issues driving the move to mobile coupons include:

 

Will BlackBerry give Android, iPhone a run for their money?

With all of the buzz around marketing on the iPhone and Android-enabled devices, there seems to be a sleeping giant left behind in the dust. Research in Motion’s BlackBerry has quietly become the leader in smartphone market share in North America even though the first incarnation of its much-anticipated Storm was nothing to write home about. Will the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm 2 help RIM gain coveted smartphone marketshare and therefore woo marketers to the platform?

LinkedIn Surpasses 50 Million Users

As we reported yesterday, growth for some of the world’s biggest social networks — like Twitter and Facebook — appear to be flattening. One site bucking that trend though is LinkedIn, which saw a 5.68% growth in traffic for the month of September, according to Compete.

Good news for Android, from both Verizon and Gartner

Analysts from Gartner are predicting that the Android OS will be running on 14% of all smartphones globally by 2012, putting it ahead of iPhone, WinMo and Blackberry. The OS currently has around 2% of the smartphone share – but Gartner is confident that the openness of the OS will lead to a surge in the number of devices being manufactured, sold and used over the next 3 years.

Online retailers must look to mobile commerce

The ecommerce experience is all about taking the shopping environment to the consumer instead of the consumer physically going to the shop. Today, however, this scenario is changing rapidly. As the usage of next-generation handsets grows and mobile technology continues to advance, bringing the ecommerce experience to consumers will increasingly mean delivering it to their mobile devices.

Mobile advertising poised for substantial growth: CTIA keynote

A Yahoo Mobile executive said that mobile advertising has been growing despite the economy during a keynote address at CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2009: Mobile Business. Yahoo also unveiled the next phase in its efforts to deliver personally relevant Internet experiences to mobile users worldwide by showcasing the new Yahoo mobile homepage during the keynote address. The presentation covered the growth of mobile Web usage and Yahoo’s various ad-supported mobile properties, including search, applications and the mobile Web site.

Which Smartphones Fill Consumer Content Needs?

The iPhone continues to top all other smartphones in measures of consumer satisfaction. In May–June 2009, Crowd Science found it well ahead of the BlackBerry and other smartphones in measures of satisfaction and brand loyalty—and content usage too. August 2009 data from CFI Group agrees: Users are happier with the functions of their iPhones than with any other smartphone. Android and Palm Pre took second and third place, respectively.

Mobile Advertising Becoming Line Item In Brand Media Buys

When a mobile phone that spends 18 hours in someone’s pocket or purse makes a noise, they stop what they’re doing and service the device. “That’s a marketer’s dream,” Michael Wehrs, president and chief executive officer for the Mobile Marketing Association, tells Online Media Daily. People develop a personal attachment to the device, so they tend to trust it. Large companies, such as BMW, Lufthansa, Pepsi and Coca-Cola, have recognized the benefits of mobile advertising.

Report: Android to surpass iPhone market share by 2012

Research firm Gartner is forecasting that Google’s Android operating system will surpass Apple’s iPhone in global smartphone market share by 2012, Computer World reports. Gartner says that Nokia’s Symbian OS will own 37.4 percent of the smartphone market that year, putting Android in second place with a predicted 18 percent of the market. BlackBerry OS came in third in the report with a predicted 13.9 percent of the market, followed by the iPhone’s OS X with 13.6 percent of the market. Windows Mobile is expected to control 9 percent of the market share.

Entertainment top vertical in mobile ad spend: Millennial Media

The entertainment industry, an early innovator in mobile, remained the top vertical in terms of mobile advertising spend in the third quarter, according to Millennial Media’s U.S. Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART) report. The consumer packaged goods (CPG) vertical jumped from sixth in mobile marketing spend in the second quarter to the fourth spot in the third quarter. In addition, Apple drove Samsung out of the top spot for number of ad impressions among device manufacturers.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Mobile has better targeting than early Internet: digiday keynote

Mobile marketing has more momentum and better targeting than the early days of the Internet, according to a member of the digiday: Mobile keynote panel. The panel focused on the state of mobile marketing and featured analysts with data on mobile marketing usage. Panelists discussed response rates, campaign sizes, appropriate approaches to campaign measurement, top spenders now and in the future, SMS versus WAP banners, in-application advertising and emerging ad formats.

Orange Kenya subscriber base hits 1.3 mln

Orange Kenya’s number of mobile subscribers has reached 1.38 million, and the mobile operator expects the number to increase to 2 million by the end of this year. CEO Mickael Ghossein said Telkom has a consolidated subscriber base for its various services of 1.8 million, including fixed lines. Ghossein said Orange Kenya, the country’s third-largest by subscriber base, spent KES 8 billion to expand its network in 2008 and expects to match that amount this year.

Mobile Marketing – Ready for Primetime

The mobile opportunity is tremenous. In Asia Pacific alone, mobile subscribers are forecast to reach three billion in the near future with penetration rates 20 times higher than Internet connectivity in many of these countries. As the penetration of mobile phones continues, brands who want to reach their audience in new and innovative ways are increasingly turning to mobile as a driver of their marketing campaigns.

Mobile: The 7th Mass Media

The mobile phone has emerged as the 7th mass media channel, but it has to be emphasized that it is as different from the internet [6th Mass Media] as TV [5th] is from radio [4th]. Trying to force concepts from the internet, TV, or other previous media would produce a disappointing audience experience on mobile, but understanding the unique power of mobile as the 7th mass media can deliver radical new concepts and new players and winners.

China Mobile half a billion subscribers

China Mobile has become the world’s first mobile operator to pass the half a billion subscriber milestone. In a brief customer data update on its website this morning, the Chinese market-leader said it had reached 503 million customers by the end of August. It said it added 5.3 million customers (net additions) in August to reach the half a billion milestone, which means that the operator has added 45.7 million customers (cumulative net additions) in the year to date.

Mobile’s future is in full media integration: Mobile Ad Summit panel

The future of mobile will consist of integrated media campaigns, augmented reality and rich media mobile Web sites, according to a panel at the Mobile Ad Summit. Representatives from HyperFactory and R/GA were on hand to discuss new mobile innovations such as using HTML to format mobile sites to look like applications and augmented reality promotions. These new trends have already been active in Europe and are poised to sweep the globe.

Smartphones driving growth of mobile advertising: Mobile Ad Summit panel

A trio of CEOs representing heavy-hitting ad agencies agreed that increased smartphone adoption is making mobile a more desirable platform for brand advertisers. These high-powered advertising executives weighed in on the state of the mobile industry during a panel at the Mobile Ad Summit during advertising week in New York. While the panelists admitted that the recession has taken its toll on marketing spend, they were bullish about the prospects for mobile going forward.

Demographics of Facebook growth

Facebook may have started as a site geared toward the college crowd, but as the most popular social network in the US, it has broadened its user base considerably. The Nielsen Company reported that in June 2009 Facebook had a unique US audience of more than 87 million people, compared with fewer than 63 million who visited MySpace that month.

Cost and ROI for mobile campaigns

eMarketer: What do mobile campaigns cost? “An eight-week campaign for mobile media…we’re probably talking about $250,000 to $300,000.” Patrick Moorhead: An eight-week campaign for mobile media—which could be a combination of mobile display and text messaging—we’re probably talking about $250,000 to $300,000.

SMBs More Likely to Use Digital than Traditional Media

Online ad penetration keeps climbing. As of August 2009, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the US are more likely to advertise online than via traditional media. Based on the “Local Commerce Monitor Wave XIII,” from The Kelsey Group and ConStat, 77% of US SMBs used online for advertising in August 2009, compared with just 69% that used traditional media. This is the first time penetration of online advertising surpassed traditional. In an earlier survey from August 2008, 73% advertised online while 74% used traditional media.

Online, Mobile Ad Revenues Set to Climb

Online advertising revenues will creep upward in 2009 only to drop in 2010 before recovering, predicts the Yankee Group in its “2009 Advertising Forecast: Getting the Consumer’s Attention.” The research firm pegs 2009 online ad revenues at $23.63 billion, a 1.8% year-over-year increase. In 2013 revenues will surpass $31 billion.

South Korea Approves Sale of iPhone

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s telecommunications regulator said Wednesday that Apple can sell its hit iPhone in the country — potentially shaking up a cell phone market controlled by domestic manufacturers. The development comes a month after Apple cleared the way to enter China’s massive cell phone market as well. As part of its deal with wireless carrier China Unicom Ltd., Apple is expected to begin selling the phone in China in the fourth quarter.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Mobile Coupon use up 119% according to Cellfire

Cellfire has updated its top ten market data for Smart Shoppers using mobile phones to get savings on goods. Cellfire says that its new metrics on coupon use see that the uptake of mobile coupon use is up 119% over the past six months with 94% of metro areas using mobile coupons. Top 10 Markets for Mobile Coupon Usage per Capita:

Magazines use mobile to turn consumers into buyers

“Runner’s World” and “Seventeen,” both leading magazines in their categories, are the first two titles to launch iPhone applications using the NearbyNow platform. The Runner’s World iPhone application “Runner’s World Shoe Shop,” which went live on Aug. 1, includes five different shoe guides, broken out for men and women. The “Seventeen Fashion Finder” by Seventeen Magazine includes numerous features designed to appeal to teenage girls, who outnumber male teenage mobile phone subscribers and who use their mobile phones more than their male counterparts.

FCC should make public Apple, AT&T and Google responses

Has Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice application in its Apple App Store triggered the beginnings of a government investigation that promises more regulation where market forces should endure? A simple reading of the Federal Communications Commission’s three letters to the Apple, AT&T and Google over this affair is enough evidence of official concern over anti-competitive practices.

Apple beginning to view Google as competition?

Apple removed Google Voice from the App Store today since Google is now one of its direct competitors. Mobile industry members argue that consumers should get access to the best possible content regardless of who makes it and it now seems as though Apple is building its very own walled garden. But Apple is now viewing Google as competition and if this continues the competitive landscape may drastically change, especially with the Yahoo /Microsoft deal.

2D or not 2D, that is the bar code question

I first saw 2D bar codes in Britain in 2002. I loved how simple the concept seemed and how seamlessly the process worked when demoed to me on a Sony Ericsson T68i mobile phone, with a camera attachment (remember those?). My fascination for 2D bar codes continued as I saw mass adoption in Japan and the creative ways that marketers and content owners were using them.

Marketers must understand target demographic behavior: Study

Multitasking parents and mobile millennials, or young adults, are the most active mobile Internet users, comprising two-thirds of the mobile Internet user population as a whole, according to a study by Novarra. In a study tracking mobile Internet usage, Novarra found that the best way to create a seamless user experience for the mobile Internet is to track behavior within the different segments of mobile users. Novarra divided up users based on lifestyle and age to understand how and why mobile Internet adoption is taking flight.

Juniper says mobile web 2.0 worth $22.4 billion in 2013

Rating: The role of the prosumer is apparently key. Everybody is talking about mobile web 2.0 but not only has market analyst, Juniper Research, put a figure on it ($5.5 billion), the company has also defined what it actually means by mobile web 2.0. In fact, Juniper is predicting that revenues for mobile web 2.0 will soar almost fourfold in just five years to $22.4 billion in 2013. What Juniper classifies as the mobile web 2.0 includes social networking plus User Generated Content (UGC), and MIM (Mobile Instant Messaging).

Press Release: Green Energy and Network Efficiencies Underpin Opportunity to Radically Reduce CO2 Emissions from Mobile Base Stations by 30% by 2014, says Juniper Research

A new study from Juniper Research claims that Mobile Operators have the opportunity to reduce base station CO2 emissions from 22 Mega tonnes (Mt) today to 15.6MT by 2014 if ‘transformational’ strategies are put in place to reduce both site inefficiencies and non-renewable energy sources. Transformational Strategies. The green mobile base stations report which utilised scenario-based models to derive estimates of base station power consumption…

Five reasons you should be testing email marketing campaigns

There’s an easy way to ascertain an email’s performance in terms of creative, frequency, content and even deliverability and that’s by testing. Yet, according to figures recently released by marketing services firm eROI, just over a third of email marketers neglect to do so. If you’re one of them, here are five reasons that might change your mind.

How to finance a green-tech revolution

If you’re looking to bankroll a green-business revolution, boring old banks and the government are looking just as effective as flashy venture capitalists.

Study: Mobile consumers want info now

When it comes to the Internet, it should come as no surprise to both marketers and publishers that consumers want information as quickly as possible. What is surprising is how much more quickly mobile consumers want news and information. A new report shows that mobile consumers are using handhelds up to 60% more often than they are using laptops.