That question seems to have been answered, now that Amazon has reported that the ad-supported version of the Kindle Reader is the best selling device on the site!

The ad-supported Kindle is called “Kindle with Special Offers”, and is priced $25 lower than the standard version. If a customer purchases this version, they will receive “special offers” and “sponsored screensavers”. According to Amazon, these display on the Kindle screensaver and on the bottom of the home screen—they don’t interrupt reading.

The Special Offers might be, for example, a $20 Amazon gift certificate for $10, or any Kindle book for just $1.

The sponsored homescreens and screensavers are from brand sponsors. When a user clicks on an ad, they receive an email from the advertising brand. Olay and Visa are already running ads on the Kindle.

In order to make the sponsored screen savers more acceptable to readers, Amazon has released a Kindle App called Amazon AdMash. This app lets users vote on the various sponsored screensavers, and according to Amazon, “It’s up to you and the rest of the community to pick your favorites.”

]]> http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=5008 Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:31:47 +0000 http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=5008 Mobile operator, 3, has announced that it has launched an ad-funded mobile TV service in Hong Kong.

The service called Planet TV will include 28 channels covering Children’s shows, entertainment, lifestyle, music, news, sport, technology and travel.

Planet TV involves a partnership with UK company Swanbay who will offer free mobile video content to 3’s Hong Kong customers. The content includes music videos and movies, plus sporting highlights such as the English Premier League and NBA Basketball.

The new ad-funded offering will sit alongside 3’s premium channel line-up, and is intended to attract more users to 3’s platform which until now has been a paid for service.

Raymond Ho, head of content management of 3 Hong Kong, said: “Some users prefer to pay for premium content, and some prefer watching an ad instead. Now we’re serving both types and Swanbay’s Planet TV service will further encourage our customers to enjoy infotainment service anytime anywhere.”

Paul Lyon, Managing Director of Swanbay Asia said, “We are pleased to collaborate with 3 Hong Kong, the mobile operation of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Limited, to launch the free content to their users. With their extensive clientele, we hope to bring our exciting infotainment to them.”

At MobiAD News, we usually look primarily at the business impact of mobile marketing and mobile services. But there is another trend, perhaps even more important, which is the critical role that mobile can play in reaching the billions of people in emerging regions that are not yet connected via internet.

This week Ferhan and Jim Cook had the pleasure of speaking with Kazi Islam, CEO of Grameenphone IT about the amazing projects they are working on in Bangladesh. In this interview, Kazi talks about his vision of how mobile can be used to address issues such as health and education in emerging nations, as well as the important role that mobile advertising will play.

Kazi will also be a keynote speaker at MLOVE, taking place June 23-25 in Berlin.

A Focus On Connection

Kazi Islam has perhaps the perfect background for working in the area of social entrepreneurship – he was born in Bangladesh then did most of his schooling in the US. This combination he says, “gives me an interesting view of both worlds – I can personally relate to the problems, and also personally relate to the solutions.”

For the past several years Kazi has been CEO of Grameenphone IT, the company that provides the communications and infrastructure for Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s innovative mobile operator. As such, he has been able to actively push the use of mobile to address some of the major challenges that are facing Bangladesh.

“In a country such as Bangladesh, there is no shortage of challenges and issues. And frankly there is no shortage of technologies that are relevant either. What is missing is the bridge – the connection – between these. And that bridge is often the relevant business model,” Kazi said. “The focus of Grameenphone and myself has been to connect the relevant technologies with the existing needs, through a relevant business model that works for the community in question.”

Grameenphone

Grameenphone was started in 1997 as a joint venture between Norwegian mobile operator Telenor and Grameen Bank, the internationally acclaimed micro-finance pioneer. Grameen Bank and its founder, Dr Muhammad Yunus, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, for their efforts their efforts to create economic and social development from below.

Grameenphone now has over 26 million subscribers, and is the largest mobile operator in Bangladesh.

Village Phone Lady

Early on, Grameenphone became quite famous for their Village Phone Program. Kazi explains that when Dr. Yunus was first starting up Grameenphone, he would tell people about mobile phones and they would often be very skeptical. They would ask him how – in a country whose population could often not even afford adequate food or clothing – how could he expect people to afford to purchase a handset and also pay the monthly subscription.

And then Dr. Yunus realized that in fact, most people do not need to buy phones, and perhaps a better idea would be to rent the phones to them. And so the Village Phone Program was born.

Under this program, Grameenphone would provide a mobile phone to a respected member of a village – usually a woman – on a rental basis. That person would then in turn rent the phone on a per minute basis to other people in the village. These by-the-minute rentals would cover her rental cost plus generate a small income. And the big benefit was that the entire town would gain access to a modern communications, and become linked to the rest of the country.

This program won the “GSM in the Community” award at 2000 global GSM Congress (now called Mobile World Congress), and was one of the reasons that Grameenphone grew so quickly. Kazi explained that the Village Phone was the dominant business model for Grameenphone up through 2003, and even today, with radically lower costs of handsets and services, there are still over 200,000 “village phone ladies” operating in Bangladesh.

Locally Relevant Economic Models

Now that mobile phones have become an integral part of Bangladesh life, Grameenphone is working to use the reach of mobile to address several other challenges that face the country – in areas such as education, health, and agriculture.

However, Kazi’s belief is that the focus cannot be only about technology. “The most important thing is that first we have to understand the local context, and understand the local economics of the project,” he says.

For example, in the area of medicine, Bangladesh has very limited resources for the size of the population, with one hospital per 2.5 million people. But the local context goes beyond this. “You also have to consider that in parts of the country people are very religious, and when they fall ill, they may believe it is actually a punishment from God.”

So it is important for Bangladesh to develop a better overall understanding of the current health situation in the country, as well as getting people accustomed to more modern approaches to medicine. Grameenphone has been working on a pilot project with the Mayo Clinic which uses mobile phones to collect medical data from across the country and link it directly to the Mayo Clinic website for analysis. At the same time, the system can be used to provide medical reminder messages to the people.

Education

According to Kazi, another key focus area is education. Increasing the level of education is clearly a very high priority for Bangladesh, but currently the drop out rate from 5th grade to 10th grade is over 80%.

Grameen innovates here as well: “Grameenphone is currently working with UNICEF on a trial service which supplies on-demand lessons over mobile. These lessons would include not only the complete subject content, but they would also provide access to an automatically generated test” says Kazi.

Although this type of lesson would fit very naturally on modern smartphones, because of the installed base of devices in Bangladesh, everything has to be made to work on much lower end “feature phones”.

Mobile Advertising & Marketing

Although not yet a major factor in the Bangladesh market, Kazi is a strong believer in the power of mobile advertising. “The mobile-based service industry will become the largest platform to deliver products and services, and mobile advertising will play a great role,” he says.

In fact, mobile advertising will be important in several ways:

First of all, it will be critical for raising awareness and promoting the various social programs that exist; there is really no other media channel with the ability to reach all segments of the population as well as mobile can.

Second, mobile can be used to actually sell the products and services. Being linked with Grameen bank, there is clearly a strong belief in bringing financial services to the rural population, and mobile can play a critical role.

Finally, there will be ad-funded services: “Mobile advertising will support an important part of the business model where revenue from the ad lowers the cost of service delivered to the end user, i.e. education and health awareness”, Kazi explained.

The Relevant Business Model Rules

In each of these projects, as well as many others that he is passionate to talk about, Kazi explains that Grameenphone focuses on satisfying three objectives:

In Kazi’s opinion, mobile is the right media to focus on: “There is certainly a convergence of technology happening around both the TV and the PC, but convergence around the mobile is happening with a much broader range of technologies and at a much faster pace.”
 
So in the longer term, Grameenphone and Kazi believe that mobile technology is destined to play an increasingly vital role in solving the unique issues facing countries such at Bangladesh. But always when coupled with an equally innovative business model.

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.

Blyk, who in a previous incarnation was an ad-funded MVNO, now focuses solely on the media part of the business model through partnerships with operators. They target young people between the ages of 16-29 through a subscription-based membership, which requires opting in, and giving profile information.

For more on the Blyk consumer propositin, read this MobiAD interview: Designing Blyk – The First Ad-Funded Mobile Operator.

“Together with Vodafone, we intend to build a game changing youth media in the Dutch market” says Eric Kip, Managing Director for Blyk Netherlands. “Our relationship will include a co-development of the consumer proposition for the Netherlands and audience management. Blyk will have responsibility for the brand, advertising sales and technology.”

At launch in the Netherlands Blyk’s advertising partners will include both local and global brands such as Nike, Beachmasters, Universal Pictures, McDonald’s, Pearle and Electronic Arts.

Sten van der Ham, Head of Consumer Marketing Prepaid, Vodafone Netherlands comments: “The Blyk brand and the whole concept behind it, is a proven success for young people in the UK. We are convinced this will be a successful partnership; where Vodafone stands for its high quality telecom services and Blyk stands for a unique mobile media experience for young people.”

To read the full press release please click HERE.

Also of interest:

NBC has worked with Greystripe over the past 18 months as a publisher and advertiser, so they have first-hand experience into the Greystripe proposition.

For example, Universal Pictures was the first advertiser for a new Greystripe iPhone ad format that could use the accelerometer to sense acceleration and tilt. The campaign for the film “Perfect Getaway” performed very well, with 8% of those who viewed the entire ad clicking through to the trailer.

More about Greystripe:

Telefonica’s Argentine subsidiary Movistar has been trialing the service in the city of Mar del Plata with about 5,000 users. Initial results are very impressive, with 82% of the users engaging with the new marketing service.

The LiveScreen platform is used to broadcast various content – including news, sports, business, entertainment and lifestyle directly to the idle-screen of a consumers handset. In essence, this provides an interactive media channel to the consumer. Users can be segmented and targeted according on location, handset type and areas of interest based on response to idle screen messages.

The channel also includes advertising messages, and the service generates revenue from advertising fees as well as content downloads and even subscriptions.

Marcelo Mitroga, Content and Mobile Marketing Manager from Movistar Argentina said, “The platform provides a great opportunity for advertisers as it allows segmentation based on age, sex, area of residence and content of interest combined with the interactivity feature which is unavailable in traditional media.”

Also of interest:

• Idle Screen Advertising Network Goes Global

• Celltick Secures Funding to Offer Managed Service

• 5 Predictions For Mobile Advertising

• Understanding The Mobile Consumer: Orange Mobile Media Research

Read the full press release.

With such a wealth and diversity of media assets, understanding how to monetize them in new channels such as mobile is very important. In this interview, we talk with Mauro Montanaro, CEO of Fox Mobile Group about branded content, mobile advertising, and how Fox is setup to take advantage of this emerging distribution channel.

The Fox Mobile Group

Fox Mobile Group (FMG) was formed from the combination of various Fox activities plus the operations of Jamba (also known as Jamster), the large, German based D2C supplier of mobile content that Fox acquired in late 2008.

Today, Fox Mobile Group consists of two divisions:

• Fox Mobile Studios is the production arm of FMG, with studios in LA and Berlin. The studios produce original content for mobile, as well as reformatting existing content to fit the mobile channel.
• Fox Mobile Distribution is the unit focused on global mobile content distribution, with Jamba still a key brand name. This is one of the largest mobile content distributors in the world, with direct to consumer operations in over 30 markets and over 120 operator billing agreements to handle payments. 20% of their distribution revenue comes from Fox content, the other 80% from content sourced outside of Fox.

(note: Fox Mobile Entertainment which is responsible for licensing Fox’s TV and film media assets to outside mobile companies is part of the Fox Filmed Entertainment group).

Mauro points out that FMG is really in a unique position.

“We are unique among mobile content competitors because we are part of a major media company. And we are unique among media companies, as we are the only one with extensive end-to-end mobile arm – the others do mostly licensing.”

“As a company, we want to be right in the middle of the mobile and content industries, and to bring the two worlds together. We need to really understand the end-to-end dynamics of digital distribution to avoid the fate of, for example, the record companies.”

Working From The Inside

Although FMG sells much more then just Fox material, they have “priority access” to the creative work of the studios, and are starting to work from the inside to revolutionize the way content is created.

Mauro explains, “Our LA studio now works with almost every TV and movie production at Fox so that mobile aspect of content is embedded before the final output – we are part of the roadmap for content for movies. And we have people working both with creative and theatrical marketing, which is very important.”

As an example of the benefits of this approach, Mauro talked about a Fox film ‘Ice Age 3“.

The film is scheduled for release in July of 2009, and work on the mobile aspects started in August of 2008. As a result, the mobile assets were essentially all complete in early 2009.

“This is a big advantage because we can be marketing mobile content at same time as the major film marketing machine is working. It is so much better and more valuable compared to simply getting a license for the movie just before it comes out.”

Approaching Mobile Advertising Through Content

Regarding mobile advertising, Mauro believes that it will become big business one day, but feels it is still very small today. And due to the current economic crisis, its timing may have been pushed back 18 to 24 months.

He explains that the planning of a mobile production actually follows the TV approach – you need to decide if it will be ad-funded, or product placement funded, or if it will be sold to a special distribution network. And at the moment, Fox relies very little on mobile advertising revenue stream.

“We are not going to be adding banners to our sites. However, if we add the mobile advertising element to the content we sell, then I think we have an angle. So we are going to approach mobile advertising through content.”

There are two ad-based models that Fox are pursuing which are related to content, in-game advertising and sponsored made-for-mobile content.

In-Game Advertising

Later this year, Fox Mobile will be launching an in-game advertising business. It will be a selection of free games which will be ad supported.

Mauro elaborated on their strategy, “We are looking at all approaches: pre-roll, post-roll, in-game, etc. It will depend a lot on the advertiser.”

“The model I like the most is where the advertiser is also your distributor. For example, a McDonalds or a Coke has the retail volumes so that they can effectively advertise the game. This might be, for example, by putting a short code on their product. By doing this, they already become your marketing platform.”

Mauro believes that this business will be running on a break-even basis within 12 months of launch.

Sponsored Made-for-Mobile

Up until now, most mobile content produced from other media has involved primarily modifying the size and cutting the length of the asset to make it work well on mobile. There are not many cases where the script has been impacted as well, but Fox is planning on changing this.

“Many mobisodes have been primarily highlights or trailers. Fox Mobile wants to make true made for mobile TV shows,” says Mauro.

He continued, “In a studio like Fox you have blockbuster films and you have serialized TV shows. But you also have an enormous production of experimental movies, videos, shorts for web that we are also channeling into production.”

The idea is that because these are made specifically for mobile, sponsors can be identified early on to fund the production, and the sponsorship can be incorporated into the actual script.

A “Faux” Reality Show

Although he could not reveal too many details, as an example Mauro was willing to share some information about a made-for-mobile TV series that Fox will be launching soon.

It is a “faux reality show”, in other words, it looks like a reality show but its not. It will have ten 3-minute episodes, and will feature popular comedians from shows like Saturday Night Life and Comedy Central.

The series will be available to viewers free of charge, with Fox providing distribution through Jamba in 34 markets as well as through deals with other key players such as Nokia.

Mauro explained the funding for the series, “We planned on having one sponsor per episode, but actually we found one company that wanted to sponsor all of season one. And now we are actually negotiating their option on season 2, so we’ve been very pleasantly surprised by how this has gone.”

The sponsor’s product will be part of the show, in fact the show will sometimes make fun of the product. But, says Mauro, “viewers won’t really know if the brand is sponsoring the show, they won’t know if it is truly a reality show and if the show is really making fund of the product. This ambivalence appealed to the brand’s marketing department.”

A key point that Mauro stressed is that this series been written by a professional TV scriptwriter, so it’s not a homemade YouTube type of creation. On the other hand, it’s not as expensive as a full TV production like “24“. The intent is to occupy the space in between – professionally produced but not so expensive that it’s hard to make a return. This combination should make it attractive to viewers, but still keep it within the price range of sponsors.

Mauro is very enthusiastic about this form of sponsor funded mobile content, and he concluded, “This is only the first production, we have several more that we are working on now. Some are our original ideas, and some are from other parts of Fox. We are now working out how best to package these for sponsors.”

“Hopefully this will spur a new industry which is made for mobile TV shows.”

Last year they released the world’s first “Mobile Political Boxing Game” for the US presidential election campaign.

And now they are releasing what must be the world’s first Mobile Scam Simulation, called “Made Off” (as in “I made off with your money”).

The game lets a player setup an investment fund, establish a rate of interest, and then advertise to potential investors. Interest has to be paid to the investors at the advertised rate, but the money to pay the interest can only come from new investments. So the fund has to keep growing to survive – just like a real Ponzi scheme.

If your fund can’t cover interest payments, it goes bankrupt.

Other people can play as investors: they invest money in funds, earn interest, and try to take it out before the fund goes bankrupt.

The game is set to launch on May 11, so check it out on the Cellufun site: wap.cellufun.com.

Cellufun is one of the world’s largest mobile entertainment communities where people socialize, play games, and buy virtual goods for self expression, gifting, and for competitive advantage. The Cellufun platform on any mobile network, on any phone, and in more than ten languages.

With over 200 million monthly page views, Cellufun also partners with global brands to deliver branded entertainment and custom-designed mobile marketing solutions.

Related Stories:
    Mobile Political Boxing Game

Metro, which is owned by Associated Press, has the youngest demographic of any daily UK paper, with an average age of 36. Ads about the free games will run in the print, online, and mobile versions of the paper. Consumers just have to send an sms to get a link to download the game for free.

The games will be free for consumers thanks to advertising that will be wrapped before and after the gameplay. Each time the game is launched, new ads will be inserted to run before the game and after. The game itself plays just like the standard retail version.

As part of the agreement, ads for Metro and associated services will also run in other 123play.com ad inventory.

The games from 123play.com come from such well known publishers as RealArcade, Digital Chocolate, Hands-On Mobile, PlayerX, In-Fusio, Fishlabs, Indiagames and Progressive Media. Several major international and UK consumers brands such as eBay, Britvic, NME and Pot Noodle have taken part in ad-funded gaming advertising.

Mobile gaming has become an increasingly popular form of mobile advertising as it tends to have a better response than standard banner advertising.

For more information, read the full press release.

Greystripe’s vision is that mobile advertising should be available to be bought alongside online advertising – agencies should be able to simply “click to add the mobile channel”. This would make it easier for brands and agencies to fund mobile advertising from existing online budgets rather than having to set up special mobile budgets.

“In an economy where ad budgets are shrinking, mobile advertising campaigns will survive only by becoming part of the online ad budgets,” said Darren Kuhn, Director of eMarketing at LeapFrog, a Greystripe partner.

As an example, MobiAD recently reported on Greystripe’s rich media ad campaign with Unilever for their product Axe. This campaign came out of Axe’s online ad budget and saw a 15% brand lift. (Read the full MobiAD article: Unilever’s AXE Reveals Effectiveness Of iPhone “Flash” Ad).

One of the reasons that Greystripe is in a good position to do this is that they have developed a technology that can take a Flash based advertisement and convert it to a java format which will run on the iPhone. (iPhones are not able to display standard Flash content). Since Flash ads are very common in the online world, this is will be very useful for brands that want to extend online advertising to the mobile space.

The one question this clearly brings up is how will Greystripe enable brands to leverage the unique strengths of the mobile channel (eg location, personalization, targeting) if it is simply an extension of general online advertising? So it will be interesting to see the details of how they accomplish this.

The latest round of funding was led by existing investor, Incubic Venture Capital, with Steamboat Ventures and Monitor Ventures participating.

Also read the MobiAD interview with Michael Chang, CEO of Greystripe.