Subscribe toGo to the
Subscribe to our
Android sales represented 17% market share during Q2.
An interesting article appeared last week in the Promotional Codes website (a leading vouchers website in the UK) about mobile coupons.
In order to show the overall development of mobile coupons in the US, they put together what they call an "Infographic" which explains various key trends, facts and techniques in a very simple, graphical way.
Bluetooth-based proximity marketing has occasionally been criticized as being intrusive, as Bluetooth "invitations" are sometimes sent without a consumers request.
However, recent figures from proximity marketing firm FuturLink demonstrate that Bluetooth marketing can lead to very successful customer interaction.
A recent survey by media buying software company STRATA has shown that the growing popularity of smartphones is leading to an increased interest in mobile advertising from Advertising Agencies.
According to the survey, nearly one-third of advertisers say that mobile advertising is the focus of their interactive spend, up 107% compared to the first quarter of 2010.
For a company whose roots are firmly in the fixed internet, Google has been consistently aggressive at supporting mobile based services.
In particular, they have spent a lot of energy working to make mobile search as relevant as possible to a consumer's mobile needs.
In line with this, Google just has released some very interesting location-based extensions to mobile AdWords.
Apple launched their iAd mobile advertising platform with much fanfare a couple of months ago, and has spent a lot of effort getting major brands to support it. Now, Apple has made the iAd platform available for app developers who wish to generate leads for their iPhone apps.
M-commerce is more and more being mentioned as the "next big thing" in mobile.
Now, Google has launched a new payment system that allows merchant to take payments from mobile phones without the merchant having to deal with credit or debit cards.
With the recent press surrounding the acquisitions of Admob and Quattro Wireless by Google and Apple, it is easy to forget that there are other very serious mobile ad networks in the industry.
Recent announcements from ad networks such as InMobi and Jumptap show that they are not scared of taking the fight to Apple & Google. Both of these ad networks have recently announced the creation of multimillion dollar funds in order to get application developers and publishers to sign up to their networks.
Media Services company, Zenith Optimedia has increased its global 2010 ad spend forecast from 2.2% to 3.5%. This is the third consecutive time that they have upgraded their forecast after six consecutive downgrades.
While the report focuses on global ad spend across all media, this is relevant to mobile as any increase in overall ad budgets is likely to mean an increase in funds available for mobile campaigns as well.
Having already sold 3 million units, the iPad has undoubtedly become the must have gadget of the year.
But who are the iPad users?
Yahoo has posted a number of articles on their blog looking into who is visiting Yahoo from an iPad, and it is not exactly who you might think.
With Apple launching its new iAd network last week, and the first few advertising campaigns using iAd popping up, it is time to have a look at whether these campaigns are delivering on the anticipation. 
While SMS advertising may not have the “wow” factor of Augmented Reality, Location Based advertising, or a mobile app, it is worth remembering that sometimes - depending on the brand objectives - SMS advertising might prove to be the alternative that produces the best ROI! 
Interested in improving your social life?
A new service that allows mobile subscribers to send their friends a coupon for a drink at local bars is showing early success in San Francisco.
The European Union’s new Digital Agenda is an initiative set up to facilitate access to technology within Europe.
As a result, Apple may face scrutiny on its policies on interoperability and the ban on third party development suites such as Adobe Flash.
AdMob has been very much in the news over the past few weeks - being acquired by Google, testing new geo-targeted ads, releasing a new SDK to support the iPad, and updating their AdWhirl optimizer.
Taking a look at all these latest activities gives some idea of where this mobile advertising pioneer company is heading.
Navteq has released the findings on two major location-based advertising trials that showed very positive results.
The trials took place in the US and Europe, and give good insight into the consumer reaction to this emerging new mobile advertising media.
A recent study published by the IAB-UK and PricewaterhouseCoopers has showed that during 2009, total spend in the UK mobile advertising market grew by 32% to a new high of £37.6 million.
Among the specific formats of mobile advertising, mobile search increased the fastest with a 41% growth.
Volkswagen has announced that it continues to see great consumer response to it's mobile games.
The latest game, called Volkswagen Touareg Challenge, has been downloaded over 1 million times in the first 10 days after its launch.
One of the biggest controversies surrounding the recent iPhone and iPad announcements has been the lack of support (actually the "prohibition") of Flash authored apps on the Apple platforms.
Now mobile ad network Greystripe has entered the fray, partnering with Adobe to help advertisers use Flash ads in the iPhone and iPad platforms.
MEF has announced the finalists for the 2010 MEFFY awards. In the Mobile Advertising category, 6 campaigns were selected as the best among the entries, including submissions from Orange, Admob, and RingRing Media.
See the complete list of all finalist entries here; the final awards will take place June 21st in London.
BuzzCity has announced the launch of a new tool which will allow the thousands of free mobile games available for download on the Djuzz mobile site to be syndicated and let partners to create there own branded games portals. 
Facebook has announced the launch of a new mobile site (0.facebook.com) that includes all the key features of Facebook but that is optimised for speed on mobile devices.
In addition, Facebook has made agreements with selected mobile operators so that the site will be available to browse for free in certain regions.
InMobi has announced the launch of its new AdROIt technology.
The purpose of AdROIT is to give advertisers the option of running automated, cost per acquisition tracking to improve ROI on their advertising campaigns.
Apple's ad platform subsidiary Quattro Wireless has recently been communicating with clients touting a new service that they have launched called Verification of iTunes Purchase (ViP). The service will provide special proprietary tracking information to app developers who use iPhone ads. 
Blyk, the youth focused mobile messaging service has announced that it has launched its service in the Netherlands. The service will run on the Vodafone network and the consumer offer will include 1,000 free SMS and 1,000 free Blyk-to-Blyk minutes per month. 
According to a study by MediaPost’s Center For Media Research and digital research firm Insight Express, 82% of brands and agencies have plans to boost their mobile ad budgets in the next year.
The planned increases are significant, with 3 in 10 planning to increase spending by 31% or more.
The iPhone OS 4 will be the biggest revision to the iPhone since it was launched, offering many innovative new features.
One of the most important of these is iAd, the mobile advertising ad platform intended to put Apple in control of in-app advertising.
In this article we’ll look at the special features of iPhone 4 and what they will bring to consumers, plus how iAd is likely to effect advertisers, publishers, consumers, as well as the overall mobile advertising and marketing industry.
The Britain's Got Talent iPhone app that was developed by talkbackTHAMES digital and Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) has reached the number 1 spot in the UK app store thanks to 200,000 downloads in four days. 
According to a recent report from Ground Truth, 60% of traffic on the mobile internet in the US is to Social Networking sites.
In addition, mobile specific social networks engage users more than online social networks.
OfferMobi has launched the first "pay-per-call" performance-marketing network in the US for the mobile market.
The service allows advertisers to generate, track and compensate for high quality leads received through phone calls.
The MMA has released its latest “Consumer Briefing” report into mobile donations in the UK, French and German markets.
The report shows that in some countries, mobile is already the most popular way for people to donate to a charity.
For developers, getting people to download their app is important, but equally important is seeing who actually uses the app after it is downloaded. GetJar has now launched a new tool that enables developers to measure the conversion rate of mobile downloads compared to users.
#1 - The launch of the iPad, the new tablet device that some think will revolutionize the way the world consumes media.
#2 - The announcement of iAd, Apple's new built-in mobile advertising system for serving ads in iPhone & iPad apps.
#3 - A preview of iPhone 4, the new operating system for the iPhone.
Now that the dust has settled a bit, we look at these products to separate the hype from the reality and see what the longer term implications are for mobile, media, and marketing.
Rap mogul Snoop Dogg has launched his latest album with a strong mobile component to engage fan interest.
Snoop Dogg partnered with mobile entertainment platform company Myxer to promote his latest release - called More Malice - by providing exclusive branded video content to Myxer's fan base.
Juniper Research has predicted that the mobile retail market will be worth US$12 billion by 2015 in its “Mobile Marketing & Retail Strategies” report covering 2009-2014.
The report states that the mobile retail market is currently worth US$4.1 billion, but it predicts that it will grow by an amazing 24% a year on average over the next 5 years.
GyPSii, the Netherlands based location enabled social media platform, has announced the launch of a new application that integrates its location based technology with Twitter.
The application, named Tweetsii, enables users to geo-tag their Twitter tweets, add pictures/videos and recommend places to their contacts.
A recent study by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) has found that browsing the mobile web is more popular than reading newspapers or magazines.
The study found that on average 71 million Europeans use the internet on their mobile each week – for an average time of almost one hour every day.
Volkswagen has launched its fourth iPhone game called “Volkswagen Think Blue Challenge.”
In keeping with today's greater awareness of environmental impact, the game aims to promote the fuel-saving capabilities of VW’s Polo and Polo BlueMotion cars.
Since Apple bought Quattro Wireless at the end of last year there has been speculation that Apple might decide to enter the mobile ad business.
A recent job offering on the Apple website seems to confirm their intentions.
Juniper Research has released its latest report on the mobile ticketing industry, in which it predicts that by 2014 nearly 15 billion tickets will be delivered to consumer’s mobile devices. 
Trinity Mobile has announced a 1200% year-on-year growth in the delivery of mobile boarding passes to airline passengers in 2009. Last year, the company sent out over 600,000 mobile boarding passes via SMS compared with 50,000 in 2008. 
Placecast has launched a new location-based mobile marketing service, called ShopAlerts, that aims to enable retail outlets to drive potential customers into their stores. The service uses SMS, which means that it will be available to all phone users, and not only Smartphone owners. 
A recent study by MediaCom and Ribena has shown that brand awareness is 25% higher among people who have engaged with branded content. The research compared exposure to different types of Ribena display advertising. 
The Mobile Entertainment Forum’s annual Business Confidence Index has predicted growth of 24% for the year 2010. While this figure is a downward adjustment from the figure of 33% announced in Q3 2009, it still represents very healthy growth. 
The Guardian iPhone app, which was released in December 2009, managed to pass the 100,000 downloads mark within 10 weeks of its launch.
This number of downloaded apps should continue to grow as there are nearly half a million Guardian readers that access the Guardian mobile site each month via an iPhone or iPod touch. 
Music recognition company Shazam has teamed up with Dockers, the casual men's wear brand from Levi to pioneer an innovative new type of consumer engagement ad to air during the US Superbowl game.
Consumers can use Shazam to "tag" the music in the ad, and thereby gain access to a specially developed product mobile website!
Continuing their focus on becoming a leading mobile advertising company, Google has announced a new mobile search feature that let's consumers use their current location as part of the search query.
For consumers with iPhones and Android phones, Google can now add a location based filter to all mobile search results, helping consumers find more relevant search results.
Mobile operator Orange UK has launched a new advertising program called Orange Shots, which lets advertisers communicate directly with Orange subscribers using mobile messaging. This service is the first result of the partnership between Orange and Blyk.
The full service includes consulting and creative support, the use of the interactive marketing platform, plus a full suite of reporting and analysis tools.
Two years ago it was announced as a concept, but now it is going live.
The GSMA, in partnership with the top 5 UK mobile operators - O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3UK - has announced the official launch of Mobile Media Metrics (MMM), a census-level solution for mobile media reporting.
Lack of good mobile media metrics has often been cited as contributing to the slow growth of mobile advertising, but this program should go a long ways towards solving that problem.
The App Planet is shaping up to be one of the highlights of this year's GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Billed as an "event within an event", the App Planet is setup to let all MWC attendees learn more about this important and rapidly evolving mobile phenomenon.
There are special events for both the technical side of app development as well as the business aspects, so it promises to be a really interesting event.
CPA - Cost Per Action - is a relatively new type of ad pricing that is starting to make some headway in the mobile world. In CPA, there is no risk for the advertiser, as they only pay when a consumer completes an agreed transaction.
Recently Greystripe ran a special CPA ad program for mobile app developers, where they charged $0.99 per download, regardless of how many impressions or clicks it took to get the download.
A new metrics report from ad optimization company Smaato highlights the difference in click-through rates seen on different phone operating systems.
The winner? Symbian, by a wide margin.
A new research report from Gartner predicts that by 2013, the mobile phones will have overtaken PC's as the most common way to access the internet. At that point, Gartner predicts a global installed base of 1.82 billion phones able to connect to the internet, compared with 1.78 billion PC's.
The key implication is that companies need to insure that their websites, portals, and web applications adequately support mobile devices.
The mobile advertising market continued to heat up recently, with Apple's acquisition of Quattro Wireless, a mobile ad platform and network company.
This move follows only weeks after global internet search company Google acquired rival ad networkAdMob.
Around the world, people have been touched by the devastation resulting from the earthquake in Haiti, and an outpouring of donations has resulted.
And in a growing trend, many relief organizations have setup very effective mobile donation systems to help reach a wider set of potential donors and make it easier to help the desperate people of Haiti.
As mobile applications become a larger part of the overall mobile marketing environment, it is important for publishers and brands to be able to understand consumer traffic and usage of apps.
comScore - a company that provides internet and mobile internet measurement services - has teamed up with app measurement company Flurry to do just that.
According to a new study, over 80% of UK marketing professionals do not believe that Social Media currently has any impact on their brands.
Further, almost 2/3 have no social media strategy for their company!
Shopping site eBay reported that the Christmas 2009 holiday season saw a huge growth in the level of mobile commerce activity, with customers using their mobiles to buy a wide range of products, including a $75,000 1966 Chevrolet Corvette. 
A recent poll released by Deloitte shows that the recession has had a strong impact on the media consumption habits of American consumers.
Deloitte's State of the Media Democracy Survey Fourth Edition revealed that television is again gaining in popularity, gaming is growing, and the mobile is being used for an increasing diverse set of activities.
In a move to link online content to real world locations, Google has launched a new QR-code based Favorite Places on Google program.
Google has identified the top 100,000 most searched stores in the US, and has sent them a window decal that includes a unique QR code. When consumers scan the code with their phone, they go directly to a Google mobile web Place Page about the business.
Juniper Research has released a new market forecast that looks at the area of augmented reality apps on mobile.
Their conclusion is everything is now in place so that mobile AR should enter a period of rapid growth over the next several years.
A new service called Google Goggles has been launched by Google labs. It is intended to let consumers use the camera on their phone as an input for search: simply point the phone's camera at an object, and then receive back information about that object.
This week the critical UN Climate Change Conference is being held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Leaders from around the world will work to set a plan to handle the climate change challenge.
Mobile advertising is being used to help spread this message and engage people around the world with this movement.
Orange, the worldwide mobile operator, has jumped into the mobile apps game by announcing their own on-device "Orange Application Shop", where millions of Orange customers will be able to download applications, games, ringtones and wallpapers.
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) today announced that global CEO and President Mike Wehrs will resign effective December 31, 2009.
Mike has led the association for the past year and will continue on as Special Advisor to the MMA board until June 30, 2010.
Japanese start up Tonchidot, the company behind the very popular Augmented Reality browser Sekai Camera, has announced a new round of financing totaling $4 million.
The funds were raised from DCM and existing investor ITOCHU Technology Ventures, and will be used to continue development of Tonchidot's AR products.
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) announced the winners of its Fifth Annual Global Mobile Marketing Awards during the Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony on November 17 at the Mobile Marketing Forum in Los Angeles.
These awards recognize companies and their campaigns for spearheading the adoption of the mobile channel for marketing purposes. Winning brands included PUMA, Pizza Hut, Zippo, Kraft, Pepsi, and others.
At the Blackberry Developers Conference, RIM announced a new services platform for developers that will enable them to build advanced applications for Blackberry smartphones.
The new services platform will offer advertising, payment, content push and new location services.
The big news of the week is that Google has acquired leading mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million.
AdMob says they will continue to operate the AdMob mobile advertising platform, but after the acquisition by Google they "will work together to accelerate the pace of innovation in this area."
New information released from global ad network InMobi shows that the Indonesian mobile market is growing fast and is very mobile internet-centric.
Plus, the iPhone is not at all the favorite smartphone in the market!
Cadillac, the high-end auto brand from General Motors, has taken their first step into the world of mobile advertising.
Pandora, the personalized internet music radio station, will launch a new Android app that will include Cadillac as the exclusive advertiser through all of 2009.
The IAB-UK (Internet Advertising Bureau) has released their second annual Snapshot of the UK mobile advertising market.
Based on information from over 100 experts working in agencies and advertisers, this new study shows that the UK market has made major progress over the past 12 months in areas such as development of expertise and fit with selected product categories, though it still represents a small part of the overall advertising industry.
Over the past year, mobile apps have become a vibrant force in the mobile marketing landscape, and having an effective strategy for apps is becoming more important for brands.
Advertising Age recently ran a seminar titled "Apps for Brands" in New York with presentations from some of the leading companies in this area, including Kraft, Benjamin Moore, AKQA, and Bank of America. Read about the key points raised during that conference.
Telefónica has chosen Bems of Spain to be its exclusive partner in developing their 2D barcode business in Latin America. Bems in turn has chosen US-based NeoMedia as the primary technology and platform provider for barcode reading and campaign management. 
Once you have built a mobile website, it's vitally important to keep track of how its being used, how many people are visiting, etc. This is the field of mobile analytics.
One of the most popular analytics packages for the web is Google Analytics, and now Google has announced a series of upgrades so that it works on mobile sites as well.
Smaato announced the winners of the 2009 Mobile Advertising Awards at the Mobile Web 2.0 event in San Francisco recently. The winners included Aloqa, Flirtomatic, SPB TV, and Waze. 
Reacting to the growing popularity and installed base of high end smartphones, Google has introduced some new features for their AdSense for Mobile product.
These new features take advantage of the full internet browsing capabilities of smartphones to enable advertisers to provide a richer advertising experience.
Market information company J.D. Power has released a new customer satisfaction survey that shows that satisfaction is increasing rapidly for users of smartphones, while users of traditional mobile phones are becoming less satisfied.
Based on reports from over 16,000 mobile phone users, the data also highlights that iPhone owners are the most satisfied of smartphone users, whereas LG phones rate highest among traditional mobile phones.
Every once in awhile you come across an application or service that really seems like magic. For me, Shazam's music discovery application is one of those magic services.
Shazam has been in the news recently, announcing some very impressive numbers, a new strategic investment, and an agreement with a major mobile ad network.
Volkswagen USA has launched a new mobile website, optimized for smartphone consumers.
The new site gives customers all of the important information about VW, but tailored in a way that works best for mobile. The result is a mobile service that takes advantage of new mobile capabilities to let customers find what they need, when they need it.
Research from GetJar, a major independent mobile apps store, indicates that two thirds of downloaders are in the 13 to 24 year old demographic group that is so highly sought after by marketers.
Further, one in three of users downloads at a rate of one new app per day!
Microsoft has announced the launch of their Mobile Behavioral Targeting Solution.
This means that the various behavioral targeting options that have previously been available only online are now available for Microsoft's mobile display ad inventory as well, and should enable advertisers to reduce advertising waste and increase campaign ROI.
Due to the rapid spread of new communication technologies, today's teenagers are facing unique challenges in determining what's acceptable in personal relationships and what's not.
Verizon has linked up with the Ad Council to bring a public service campaign to teens in the US. The campaign is called "That's Not Cool", and is aimed a helping teens recognize and deal with "digital dating abuse".
Navteq, the Nokia subsidiary that provides premium-quality digital map data and content, announced that it has acquired US-based Acuity Mobile.
Navteq says that the acquisition is to strengthen its offering in the rapidly growing area of location based advertising.
NAVTEQ, the global provider of digital map and location data, has confirmed that McDonalds Europe will be taking advantage of Navteq's Direct Access program to connect with their customers by including their location information on Navteq maps. 
Campaign measurement firm Dynamic Logic has released the results of a new study to explore the impact In-Call Media, the insertion of audio ads directly into the call stream of a targeted consumer.
The study shows that both brand awareness and purchase intent can greatly increased through in-call advertising, with brand awareness rising almost 12% for some groups.
Turkcell, one of the world's leading operators in the area of mobile advertising, has announced the successful trial of a new advertising service. TiklaKazan shows rich media ads at the end of each phone call, and provides free airminutes and coupons to subscribers. 
Mobile advertising company Greystripe has announced that it has secured a further $2 million in funding from NBC Universal's Peacock Equity Fund. This brings Greystripe's round C investment to $7.5 million, following a $5.5 million investment from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, Incubic Venture Capital, and Monitor Ventures. 
In the past week there has been a lot of discussion on the internet about "Facebook Lite", the new version of Facebook that has recently been released for beta testing.
Facebook Lite is apparently intended for users who have slower internet connections, for example on mobile. This may open up new opportunities for mobile marketing.
Virtual Zippo Lighter, a free, branded application available in Apple's iTunes App Store has just passed a major milestone, with 5 million downloads since its launch about a year ago.
Zippo Manufacturing and mobile content company Moderati have said that they will soon be extending its reach with releases in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, plus a premium version of the virtual lighter.
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has opened a public review period for the next version of their Global Mobile Advertising Guidelines.
The review period is open to the public, and will run through 31 August, 2009. (the proposed guidelines are downloadable here).
AdMob, one of the pioneering companies in mobile advertising, passed a major milestone last week, serving its 100 billionth mobile ad.
Having launched just 3 years ago, this is a sign of the explosive growth that mobile advertising has undergone.
Citing rapid growth and the need to expand into international markets, ad network mKhoj has rebranded itself as InMobi. Traditionally focused on Asian and African markets, InMobi recently started operations in the UK with other European countries to follow. 
Global mobile advertising network mKhoj has released some new statistics about mobile activity in South Africa, indicating a very rapid growth in mobile internet usage.
South Africa is a very interesting market, with a mobile penetration reaching 100%, and the need to serve a very diverse customer base that speaks 11 official languages.
You would think ordering a pizza is pretty straightforward. But even this simple task now has a dedicated iPhone application!
Pizza Hut, one of the world's largest chain of pizza restaurants, has come out with a special iPhone app that let's you design your own pizza, order it from a nearby store, and then play a game while you wait.
The UK branch of furniture giant Habitat has received much criticism and has had to apologize for their inappropriate advertising use of social media site Twitter.
In an effort to increase the number of readers of their messages, the company had attached "hashtags" that were related to popular topics such as #iphone or popular events such as #iranelection (this happened just after the disputed election in Iran).
Recently Google has been moving beyond its traditional areas of activity into territory more related to telephony. The beta launch of Google Voice a few weeks ago was a big step in that direction.
The question of course is how will Google generate a profit from these activities. The recent publishing of a Google patent application titled "Ringback Advertising" may give a good indication.
Blyk, the youth-focused, ad-funded MVNO and media channel has announced expansion plans into the Dutch market through a partnership with Vodafone.
Blyk originally launched their own MVNO operations in several countries, but this announcement apparently marks the beginning of a new partnership focused strategic thrust for the company.
In a move intended to help protect mobile consumers from misleading advertising and commercial practices in the mobile environment, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has opened a special membership program targeted at mobile affiliate marketers. 
Quattro Wireless, a leading premium mobile ad network, has released a new SDK (software development kit) which will allow developers of Android applications to easily integrate advertising into their apps.
Quattro has also released some data indicating that Android owners are very heavy users of mobile applications.
|
|
|
|
Subscribe to MobiAD | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
