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Digital Summit 06: "Application Of Voice/Data Command Will Change The Mobile Industry"
by S Karat on Tue 17 Jan 2006 06:32 PM IST | Permanent Link | Cosmos
Reports by Radhika in Mumbai
If anything that is going to be a breakthrough in mobile telephony, it is the application of voice/data command, according to Arvind Rao, CEO & Co-founder of Onmobile Asia Pacific Pvt Ltd.
He further says that if you want to know the latest score of Cricket, instead of sending message to 123, any Hutch user can just give a voice command after dialing the number and say “Cricket”. This would be applicable for other commands like booking tickets for different destinations or requesting some particular features on mobile phones.
“Using speech as the primary interface is to create the new trend in mobile technology,” Rao said. But the full-fledged introduction of this service would not be as easier as giving a voice command, says Rao. “There are lots of technical challenges. Each and every circle of every service provider across its service region would need installation of some technical equipments, which are high in the cost. Yet it would also give an edge to the service provider who comes first. The service has already been launched on pilot basis accepting voice commands in Hindi and English languages.
“We are also launching it in at least 8 different vernacular languages. There are about 50 per cent mobile users conversing in vernacular languages, 30 per cent in Hindi and 20 per cent in English. Hence, the biggest market lies in the vernacular language speaking mobile users’ community,” Rao said. The company tied up with Reliance about three weeks back for the same service but would take a few months to become completely operational.
Arun Gupta, COO, Mauj Telecom
While talking about usage of internet on mobile, Arun Gupta, COO, Mauj Telecom, said that out of 50 million handsets in India about 10-20 per cent are capable of internet browsing. “However, it still remains a question that how many users actually avail of these facilities? Sale of GPRS and JAVA enabled phones is increasing but still there is the bottleneck of its cumbersome format of usability for the common people," Gupta said.
Addressing the industry top honchos at the Digital Summit 06, he said that the industry would still have to work hard on making the technology user-friendly. He emphasized on the need of making consumers aware of upcoming technology’s advantages.
DD:In China, 111 million Net users counted.
by Reuters , CNET News.com | Published: 1/18/06
Survey reports 18 percent rise in country's users last year. That's still only 8.5 percent of China's population. News provided by:
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The number of Web users in China, the world's second-largest Internet market, grew by 18 percent in 2005 to 111 million, the Economic Daily reported Wednesday.
Some 8.5 percent of the country's 1.3 billion people now have access to the Internet, the newspaper reported, citing a survey released by the China Internet Network Information Center.
State media previously predicted that 120 million Chinese people would be surfing the Web by the end of 2005, as computers find their way into more homes and domestic telecommunications networks grow.
The 2005 gains were higher than those in 2004, when the number of Internet users grew 16 percent to 94 million.
More than half of China's Web population--or about 64 million people--accessed the Web via broadband connections, suggesting a 50 percent increase from 2004, as China strongly promotes the development of its broadband networks.
The Internet's explosive growth in China has come despite the government's stepped-up efforts to control the medium, in which occasional pockets of free speech have appeared in chat sites and blogs.
China has the world's No. 2 PC market, with nearly 16 million units shipped in 2004 and that number expected to have grown another 13 percent last year, according to data-tracking firm IDC.
PC makers such as industry leaders Lenovo Group and Dell shipped 5.2 million units in the third quarter of 2005, according to IDC.
The growth of the Internet has also spawned a growing number of local online players, including Yahoo-invested e-commerce firm Alibaba.com, Web portal Sina, online game firm Shanda Interactive Entertainment and online search firm Baidu.com.
Major mutlinationals attracted by the market's big growth potential have also set up shop in China, including online auctioneer eBay, online retailer Amazon.com. and online search leader Google.
DD:Google in a patent pickle?
by Eric J. Sinrod , CNET News.com | Published: 1/18/06
Category: Home | Audience: CIO & IT Management
Takeaway:
Attorney Eric Sinrod takes a closer look at claims by RTI on the search giant's use of Internet phone technology. News provided by:
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As technology companies become established and financially successful, it is not uncommon for smaller businesses and individuals to allege that those larger, established companies have infringed and trampled on intellectual property rights during the rise to the top.
Many of these allegations lack merit, and do not go past the demand-letter stage, or result in lawsuits that are dismissed before they have gained much traction.
Once in awhile, however, the allegations stick. Indeed, a small company called NTP obtained a substantial jury verdict against Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry. NTP had alleged that RIM's BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices and services infringed dozens of NTP's patent systems and methods. RIM has been fighting that jury verdict in subsequent legal proceedings ever since.
Apparently, there have been settlement discussions between the companies, which could yield a significant payout to NTP.
The key questions that are emerging center on just how bogged down Google might get in a legal morass, and how much of a distraction it might prove. Another small company, Rates Technology Inc., or RTI, now seeks a sizable recovery from the really, really big kid on the block--Google. RTI has filed suit against Google in federal court in New York, arguing that the search giant has infringed two of RTI's patents by way of the search giant's marketing and selling of Google Talk VoIP services and related products. The smaller company seeks damages caused by the alleged infringement, including a tripling of lost profits and royalties. RTI also requests a court injunction that would bar Google from further marketing and selling Google Talk services and products, which use VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol, technology to let people make phone connections via the Internet.
The two patents at issue were assigned to RTI by the inventors and bear patent numbers 5,425,085 and 5,519,769. The abstracts for the 085 patent describes it as follows:
"A device interconnects within the phone line coming from a first phone and routes telephone calls along a least cost route originating from the first telephone to a second telephone via the network. A housing forms an enclosure and has a first jack for interconnection to the phone side of the phone line and a second jack for interconnection to the network side of the phone line. The housing forms an enclosure which includes a switch for disconnecting the first phone from the network. The device generates a source of current through the switch to the first phone corresponding to the amount of current provided by the phone network. A database stores billing rate parameters for determining various communication paths of different carriers based on parameters such as the time and date of the call.
Google might argue that RTI is trying to hold it hostage to try to extract a major settlement. "Phone calls from the first phone are detected and stored. The database is addressed and a plurality of communication switch paths are identified as well as the cost rate of each path. The cost rates for each identified path are compared to determine a least cost route for the call. The device generates a number sequence corresponding to a desired carrier so that the dialed call is routed through the second jack and phone line to the selected communication path and carrier so as to establish a switched connection between the first and second phones."
Thick stuff, eh? These types of patent cases are complicated as a matter of technology and law.
RTI's president, Jerry Weinberger, put it more succinctly in a conversation with CNET News.com reporter Elinor Mills late last month: "When a VoIP call can be transferred to the regular PSTN (telephone network), the switching of that call infringes our patents."
As the companies square off for what could be a long battle, the key questions that are emerging center on just how bogged down Google might get in a legal morass, and how much of a distraction it might prove.
Google has already said it will "vigorously" contest RTI's patent infringement claim, and the search company undoubtedly will present various defenses. It might also try to paint RTI as a "patent trolling" entity--asserting that RTI has obtained numerous patents from others and uses them to litigate frequently, as has been reported. Google might argue that RTI is trying to hold it hostage to try to extract a major settlement.
Google isn't the only company that RTI is pursuing. Weinberger said his company has already received one-time technology usage fees from heavyweights including Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco Systems, has sued Vonage and Comcast, and is in discussions with Skype and America Online.
To the extent that RTI truly has valid patent rights and Google Talk VoIP services and products infringe those rights, it might be able to gather a head of legal steam, arguing that Google improperly seeks to grow even larger on the back of RTI's patents. RTI could make that argument whether or not it has obtained other patents and has initiated litigation against other parties over time.
It is quite possible that this case will proceed to the point where Google ascertains RTI's case could survive early efforts at a dismissal. At that point, serious settlement talks could ensue, or RTI, like NTP in the BlackBerry case, might want to take its chances at trial.
DD :Google Buys Radio Ad Firm; AdWords Headed To Radio Distribution
Wow. Google is to acquire dMarc Broadcasting, a company that puts ads into radio stations, paying up to $1.1 billion for it. Google plans to distribute AdWords via radio this way. Says Google VP of advertising sales Tim Armstrong in the press release (and here at Google):
"Google is committed to exploring new ways to extend targeted, measurable advertising to other forms of media," said Tim Armstrong, vice president of Advertising Sales, Google. "We anticipate that this acquisition will bring new ad dollars and accountability to radio by combining Google's expansive network of advertisers with dMarc's talented team and innovative radio advertising technology. We look forward to working together to continue to grow and improve the ecosystem of the radio industry."
Google is to pay $102 million up front as part of the deal, with a maximum amount of $1.136 billion possibly paid over the next three years. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2006.
Guess anyone still entertaining the notion of Google as a technology company versus a media company can put that to bed. Putting ads on radio isn't really a technology business. Nor is it central to that mission of organizing the world's information. Neither is putting ads into print or slapping them up all over the web, either
I wrote earlier that Google's philosophy page needed some changes to keep up with the times. In particular, that famous mission that currently reads:
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Really ought to say:
Google's mission is to fund and organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Because the ads to little to organize anything. At best, they can be argued to help fund information (along with a lot of crud -- I just saw an AdSense ad promising "AdSense Ready Content: Over 300 premade websites ready. Immediate download! 1000's of pages."
Postscript from Gary: Here are a few facts about dMarc that I've learned from perusing their web site:
Although I wouldn't doubt that Google goes out one of these days a purchases radio stations, dMarc doesn't own any radio stations they provide the advertising and programming software.
They also have their own advertising network that you can learn about their network here. This page explains how the dMarc tech can be used to target an audience.
dMarc has more than 4600 radio stations using it's "digital trafficking" (ad scheduling) and "studio automation" software.
dMarc used to be in the online ad business. From their web site, "In 1998, dMarc management launched an online advertising sales and media group, 2CAN Media, which became the 3rd largest ad network on the Internet, which represented marquee clients such as Better Homes and Gardens, MotorTrend, and Jacor Communications (later acquired by Clear Channel Communications). 2Can Media was later sold to CMGi, managed under Engage Media."
Learn more about dMarc software here.
Postscript 2 from Gary: In a report to clients, Benjamin A. Schachter from UBS Investment Research writes,
The key takeaway from this transaction is that it highlights GOOG's intention to export its advertising solutions across all forms of media. We think The Street too often looks at GOOG's product pipeline as a means to diversify revenue, when it is really a means to increase distribution of ads. Increasingly, these ads will be positioned on non-PC devices, through radio, video, mobile, etc...
DD:Online Ad Spending Surpasses Expectations
by Wendy Davis, Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006 6:00 AM EST
A MARKETING PUSH DURING THE holiday season propelled online ad spending to increase by a greater-than-anticipated 15 percent in the fourth quarter, according to a new study conducted by Deutsche Bank in conjunction with MediaPost.
Pricing also increased, although not as dramatically: the cost of premium inventory increased by an average of 6 percent from the third quarter to the fourth, while the price of run-of-network inventory increased by about 3 percent during that time, and pay-per-click prices went up by 5 percent.
For the report, 60 media executives were questioned earlier this month about their clients' experiences with Internet advertising in the fourth quarter, and expectations for this quarter. This survey, which was conducted online by InsightExpress using members of the MediaPost advisory panel, is the fifth in an ongoing series of quarterly studies of media professionals by MediaPost and Deutsche Bank.
Overall, the report was extremely optimistic. "A 15 percent improvement in spending would suggest that things are better than expected at this point," said Deutsche senior analyst Jeetil Patel. "It's quite bullish for the industry as a whole." Responses to the third-quarter survey had indicated that spending would only increase by around 10 percent.
About 72 percent of media executives responding to the current survey reported that their clients spent more on Internet advertising in the fourth quarter than the third, with 55 percent seeing increases of more than 10 percent. An additional 20 percent reported no change in spending, while 8 percent said spending declined.
The average cost per thousand impressions on premium sites came to $16.71--about twice as much as the $8.47 per thousand paid for run-of-network inventory in the fourth quarter. This survey marked the first time that respondents were asked for specific pricing information.
The study also showed that ad networks drew a larger share of dollars than in the past. Media executives reported that they spent about 16 percent of their clients' branded advertising budgets on ad networks like Advertising.com and ValueClick--up from 11 percent in the third quarter and 12 percent in the last quarter of 2004.
The large portals--AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!--garnered around 30 percent of budget, while niche sites like iVillage, Marketwatch, and CNET captured 33 percent.
When it came to paid search, 65 percent of media executives surveyed reported that paid search spending increased in the fourth quarter compared to the third, while 25 percent reported no change and 10 percent saw spending drop. Almost half of respondents--49 percent--said that spending was up between 1 and 10 percent; 16 percent of respondents saw a surge of more than 11 percent.
Where did that money go? Fifty-seven percent of search spending went to Google, while Yahoo! garnered 23 percent of spending, MSN accounted for 5 percent, and Miva and Ask Jeeves each garnered 1 percent.
Deutsche also looked at pricing, and calculated that the average price per click was 58 cents in the fourth quarter. That figure, however, comes with the caveat that gauging search pricing is extremely difficult, with millions of keywords continuously in play, and category, bid position, and seasonality all influencing prices.
DD :Google teams up with Canada.com
Jan. 16, 2006. 06:40 PM
CANADIAN PRESS
Google Inc.(NASDAQ:GOO) and CanWest Global Communications Corp. subsidiary Canada.com announced Monday they were teaming up on an Internet search and advertising partnership.
The multiyear partnership will provide Canada.com (TSX: CGS.SV) users with content and search related advertising, while offering Google's advertisers access to Canada.com's extensive reach across the country, the companies said.
"With almost three million unique visitors a month, Canada.com provides an excellent media vehicle for our advertisers who are looking to penetrate the Canadian marketplace," stated Wendy Muller, head of Canada ad sales and operations for Google.
"This alliance will broaden our reach into this important market, and maintain Google's ongoing strategy of partnering with market leaders."
The companies didn't release financial details of the transaction, but said ad revenue generated from the partnership will be shared.
"Our goal is to partner with tier-one companies to deliver the most
innovative and effective offerings for both consumers and advertisers," said Arturo Duran, president of interactive and business integration for CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.
"Partnering with the world's best known search engine underscores this commitment, helping us to both grow our revenue base and maintain our position as Canada's leading online destination for news and information."
Canada.com has a network of sites which includes driving.ca, remembering.ca and working.com. It has almost three million visitors to its sites a month.
Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Google shares closed up $2.62 to $466.25 (U.S.) on the Nasdaq market before the announcement Monday, while CanWest stock was unchanged at $9.45 Cdn on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
DD:SEMs Welcome Shorter Yahoo! Ads
By Kevin Newcomb | January 17, 2006
This week, Yahoo! Search Marketing will begin truncating its sponsored search text ads after the first 70 characters. Many search marketers see the move as a positive one.
While some search marketers may miss Yahoo!'s longer text ads, most see the move to match Google's shorter listings as a positive sign of industry standardization.
The overwhelming response of search marketers polled by ClickZ News was that Yahoo!'s December decision to shorten the display of paid search ads on its site from 190 to 70 characters will be positive for users and advertisers. Several SEMs agreed that this kind of standardization is a good thing for the industry, allowing advertisers to manage their keyword buys more easily, to compare results across engines, and to create ads that are more in line with consumer behavior.
"The shift to a shortened description reflects a growing trend toward alignment with consumer expectations and current market conditions. We also believe that growing broadband penetration is forcing users to think and act more quickly, in line with how technology in general is changing," said Noah Elkin, director of industry relations at icrossing.
Yahoo! predicts that the move will improve the end-user experience, and increase an ad's clickthrough rate while maintaining conversion levels. Andrew Levasseur, senior search manager for Avenue A | Razorfish Search, said he has found that to hold true for his clients, when he's compared short-form ads like those used by Google with the longer-form ads of Yahoo!
"The short-form forces advertisers to be more concise, and to only include that important information that delivers results," Levasseur said. "We have had the opportunity with Google to test short-form ads, and based on this testing have a better understanding of what works. We can now apply that learning on Yahoo!"
Adjusting to the change isn't as simple as porting Google ads to Yahoo!, say many SEMs, noting that there are more differences between Google and Yahoo! than just the allowable size of their text ads. "People are not the same at every search engine," said Matt Naeger, VP at Impaqt. "You can't just move your Google ads to Yahoo! -- you're going to have to re-learn what ads work with Yahoo!'s audience."
By eliminating the variable of ad copy length, the move will make it easier for advertisers to compare the results of the same ads in Google and Yahoo!, said Ben Wills, director of search marketing at Fortune Interactive. "Both engines have different demographics and this move by Yahoo! could further highlight these differences. On an equal playing field, it will become more apparent to advertisers which search engine their target audience uses most frequently."
Many SEMs said they previously used longer ads to better qualify clicks, providing users with more information to decide if they really wanted to see more before having to click through. Many SEMs have been voicing concerns about how the change will affect this in industry forums, such as Search Engine Watch's.
"The Yahoo! ads allow for a bit more pre-qualification of the click by clarifying exactly what the marketer has to offer," said Kevin Lee, executive chairman and co-founder of Did-it.com. "However, only the Yahoo! pure bid system allows for pre-qualification anyway. If one tries to pre-qualify the click in Google, the click-through rate and quality score drops and position drops, requiring a higher cost per click to regain position."
Some Yahoo! syndication partners will continue to display longer text ads, leaving SEMs like Levasseur to consider optimizing the first 70 characters, and counting the remaining 120 characters as "bonus copy."
"There are situations where longer ad text really makes sense, but generally speaking shorter ads will tend to perform as well or better than long ones -- if they're well-constructed. I think this is because people tend not to read them closely, or completely in any case," said Ben Perry, director of paid search programs at iProspect. "Yahoo! doesn't offer IP-based geo-targeting, so it’s useful sometimes to mention that a product is available in eight states only and display the state abbreviations in the ad, for example."
Regardless of the number of allowable characters, SEMs insist that it's what's inside that counts. "Standardization of creative units allows us to focus more on the message and other key variables that drive ROI," said Dave Williams, chief strategist for 360i.
"In the long run, messaging is probably more important than the shape of the ad. That being said, Google ads tend to get about double the click rate of Yahoo! ads. Why? I’m sure Yahoo! is working on figuring that out -- which may be why Yahoo! is going to the shorter format as a requirement," said Dana Todd, EVP of SiteLab International.
One immediate benefit to Yahoo! will be the ability to get more ads on each page, leading to more potential revenue from advertisers, Perry said. "The engines are also always looking for more ad space to sell, particularly search ads. I think this benefit far outweighs any benefit that a sub-set of advertisers get from the longer ad specs."
Williams speculated that another reason Yahoo! made the move is to get more ads above the fold on partner sites, making the fledgling Yahoo! Publisher Network more appealing to publishers in its competition with Google AdSense. Another factor that may have driven Yahoo! to make the change is the need to make ads more readable in a mobile environment, suggested Elkin.
DD:What Video Search Means for Search
Jan. 17, 2006
By: Bill Wise
and Dave Pasternack
For about 2 bucks, you now can see a full episode of “CSI” on Google Video Search. Other pay-per-view options include “The Brady Bunch,” “MacGuyver” and “Survivor Guatemala.” It’s the dawning of a new era.
OK, in most ways it’s not the dawning of much of anything at all. Google Video Store, as the Google pay-per-view service is called, is the logical next step in a cultural evolution that’s already well under way -- started largely by TiVo. And whether you’re talking about Google Video, TiVo, iTunes video or any other video-on-demand platform, the market underpinnings are all the same: the masses are no longer willing to live at the beck and call of the information gatekeepers. Instead, they’re looking to get information on their own terms.
That attitudinal shift isn’t just about what people want to see, either. It’s changing how people think about what they refuse to see, too. Case in point: TiVo lets you see whatever you want, whenever you want to; it also lets you skip commercials. As people embrace active information, they’re ditching passive information along with it. Watching what you want, when you want to, is active. Sitting through a barrage of 30-second TV spots is passive.
Though all of this is common knowledge by now, it’s important to consider in light of the decline of the TV ad as it relates to the rise of search. Much of the marketing industry has already pointed out the basic upshot: eyeballs are moving away from TV ads and toward search; those migrations need to be reflected in ad spend. Many industry pundits also go one step deeper, pointing out, as we just have, that it’s the birth of the “information on your own terms” mantra that’s driving both migration trends at the same time. That mantra will only grow louder as search technology improves.
But here’s why Google Video Store does mark the dawning of something very big. It’s watershed in the position of the moving image within our culture.
The moving image is, arguably, the most culturally defining information format in the world. That is why, for example, the television -- the standard platform through which you watch the moving image -- is the piece of furniture around which most living room decoration is arranged. It’s also why the name for the room is called “the living room” and “the TV room” so interchangeably: on a level, TV is interchangeable with living. Which is to say that the standard moving-image platform is interchangeable with living.
And now the standard moving-image platform is shifting, from the television to the search box. And that move is beginning to be monetized by the brand more associated with search than any other. Which is a major push forward in the evolution that is under way; more importantly, it is also the search world’s way of putting its flag in the ground to finally claim that evolution as all its own.
When the transition we’re only now beginning is complete, we’ll have changed from a television culture that happens to use search, to a purely search culture. That is a revolution that is as big as the previous moving-image-platform shift, in the 1950s, from movie theaters to television. That change entirely altered the advertising landscape, in much the same way that search is altering the advertising landscape today. And, as the transition progresses, it will continue to change the landscape at a level none of us could have dreamed of five years ago.
What does this shift mean for your own search and offline campaigns? Stay tuned for the answers.
Bill Wise is CEO and David Pasternack is president and co-founder of Did-it.com, New York. Founded in 1996, Did-it delivers profits for advertising clients in search marketing through their SAT Search Methodology -- the unique union of strategy, analytics and technology in one SEM firm. For more information, e-mail them at bwise@did-it.com or visit www.did-it.com.
DD:Study: Google #1 in China
By Chris Sherman
Despite trailing Chinese traffic leader Baidu, Google is rated the best search engine in China, according to new research from Keynote Systems.
The study focused on the user experience of the four leading search engines in China: Alibaba/Yahoo!, Baidu, Google China and Sohu/Sogou. The study observed the searching habits of more than 1,200 adult users, with 70% residing in major mainland China cities and 30% located in diverse locations within the country.
In a moderately surprising finding, Google was ranked #1 over market share leader Baidu.
Keynote Customer Experience Rankings
Google
Baidu
Alibaba/Yahoo
Sohu/Sogou
Users were asked to complete a set of searches in their normal environment (home, office, internet cafe, etc.). In addition to monitoring the searches users completed for their own needs, each participant was asked to search for specific products, news, images and MP3s.
Keynote used its proprietary technology to track users' ability to complete these searches, capturing responses on more than 250 different metrics measured across each site. Data about the searches was captured, as well as thoughts, feelings and direct answers as users searched. The combination of behavioral, qualitative and quantitative data collected from the panelists gave Keynote the information to rank the engines according to how well they accomplish business goals.
These goals included activities such as acquiring new customers, retaining customers, building brand affinity, motivating customers to adopt online services, providing a positive customer experience, advertising metrics and several others.
Google outperformed its competitors in 11 of 13 factors measured. The finding "was quite a surprise given Baidu has such a strong market share," said Dr. Bonny Brown, Keynote Systems director of research.
The most important "impact drivers" for Chinese searchers were home page design and appeal, general search quality and image search quality.
Google got high marks with users, with 68% calling Google a "high quality" search engine. Baidu and Alibaba/Yahoo (rebranded as Yahoo Search China last November) also got relatively high marks, with 61% ranking them as high quality search engines.
Nonetheless, the study also found that Chinese searchers weren't as satisfied as North American users that Keynote has surveyed for the past four years.
"We saw a lot higher levels of frustration," said Brown, with between 35% and 50% reporting that they were frustrated with the search experience in China. This compares with dissatisfaction percentages of less than 20% observed in equivalent studies in North America. "There's a lot more room for improvement across the board," said Brown.
It's not clear whether perceived search quality or other factors caused this frustration, said Brown. Users did complain about duplication of results, search results not being ranked well and results being out of date.
The study also found that Google gets better ratings from people who don't consider it to be their primary search engine. In other words, when they tried Google during the period of the study, users were generally impressed with the experience. "Google looks like it's going to have an easier time getting people to switch than any of the other engines," said Brown.
Interested in placing your TEXT AD HERE? Click Here
According to a report (PDF file) by the China Internet Network Information Center last August, Baidu is China's clear traffic leader, at least in Beijing. The report offered these market share numbers:
Baidu: 51.5%
Google: 32.9%
Sohu: 4.6%
Sina: 4.0%
Yahoo: 3.7%
Others: 3.3%
That Google received higher ratings than Baidu is a good portent for Google's growth in China, according to Brown. "We think that's going to translate into increased market share."
One reason for Baidu's popularity is its music search function, which allows users to find downloadable music. Google's recently announced music search feature works on Google.cn, but it links to music stores rather than music files on the open web.
Baidu, by contrast, offers links to downloadable music files, many of which are presumably illegal copies—and this may pose a problem for Baidu if authorities in China continue to crack down on illegal music sites.
The Keynote study also looked at technical factors such as site availability, performance and other issues. "Baidu is technically the most responsive site," said Brown, but that doesn't translate into it being perceived as the most responsive site by users.
More information is available in today's press release announcing the findings and in a PDF data sheet on the Chinese search study that explains Keynote's methodology in more detail.
DD:Search Engines Move Far Beyond Maps
January 16, 2006 7:45AM
The most detailed images available from Microsoft's service are currently only for some U.S. cities, and there are some satellite images of international locations. Google offers images from all over the world, but the amount of detail varies greatly depending on the location.
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The images are so detailed you can tell whether a neighbor's hedge was recently trimmed or whether the car parked in front of a favorite local eatery might belong to a friend.
Such views are available online for anyone to see from some of the biggest names on the Internet, including Amazon.com, Microsoft and Google.
The companies' newly evolving local search and mapping services, where the photographic images are typically rendered as search results, make it easier than ever to scout out everything from vacation destinations to a new hairdresser.
Never before have searchable databases of detailed pictures covering wide swaths of urban areas been readily available like this to the public.
And that has privacy advocates worried about the risks of such picture perfect exposure to vulnerable citizens such as women in domestic violence shelters.
"I think there are going to be privacy issues, no doubt about it -- somebody's going to feel uncomfortable with it," said Charlene Li of Forrester Research. "So the question becomes, `What are the tradeoffs? Is the value worth it?'"
Yes, according to research by Forrester.
Li said she's already seeing consumer interest, and she expects companies to continue to develop such tools because they see the potential for online advertising from local businesses who may not want to buy national online ads.
Microsoft, which late last year began offering detailed images of metropolitan areas taken from airplanes, said last week that it would team with Verizon Communications to distribute local business advertisements from Verizon's superpages.com on Microsoft's local search pages.
And Amazon, whose A9 subsidiary has since August offered street-level images taken from vans, says the main goal of its site is to help people find local businesses. The company's site currently lists images from two dozen U.S. cities.
The most detailed images available from Microsoft's service are currently only for some U.S. cities, and there are some satellite images of international locations. Google offers images from all over the world, but the amount of detail varies greatly depending on the location.
For example, users scouting out urban areas like Seattle or New York City can make out individual houses and buildings, while those living in Lander, Wyo., see a much less detailed view with Google and only get a graphic map with Microsoft's service.
Google's service mostly gets its images from satellites, and while they're not nearly as detailed as those of Amazon or Microsoft, they are nevertheless good enough to recognize one's home.
John Hanke, a product director at Google, says the technology is popular for figuring out whether a vacation spot is all it's cracked up to be -- Is that "beachfront" hotel really on the beach, or across the highway from the beach? -- and for househunting.
Daniel DeConinck, an engineer and entrepreuner living in Toronto, used Google's site to find an accountant close to his house, and has since used it to scout out nearby bicycle shops and computer retailers. He thinks it has the potential to one day replace the local yellow pages.
"Anyone who I've shown Google Maps to, their jaw just drops when they see that," he said.
For her part, Li is somewhat skeptical that mom-and-pop shops will quickly get on board and make photo-enriched local search a big money-maker.
"I think it's going to be really slow to take off, just knowing small businesses," she said. "You're talking about a fundamental change in how they do business."
For now, however, many people appear to be visiting the fledgling offerings simply to satisfy their curiosity.
Users who visit Microsoft's "Windows Live Local" often first type in a street address -- presumably their own house -- and then go searching for a landmark, like Seattle's Space Needle, said Justin Osmer, a Microsoft product manager.
A9's street-level views of some U.S. cities, meanwhile, include clear pictures of people and cars when they happen to be in the frame. The aim is to give people what A9 Vice President Barnaby Dorfman calls "a very human experience," similar to what you would see walking or driving down a street.
Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum says such images can potentially be used to track people who are vulnerable.
She said A9 removed images of shelters upon her request and now gives people the option to removing their personal information from its directories.
She's hoping that such policies will become widespread.
"I really think you should have the option to say, 'No. No, thanks,'" she said.
But the companies say that, so far, they have received few complaints.
Hanke argues that some images available on Google's site are already available through local and federal government data, such as from the U.S. Geological Survey. But the government-supplied images aren't as well organized or easily accessible as those available commercially.
He also said that someone could learn much more by just walking down a street than by looking at Google's images.
Some foreign governments have complained of security concerns raised by the Google images. Hanke said the company has fielded concerns raised by some governments, but has not altered any images.
Osmer said Microsoft has altered some of its images, such as those of the White House, to address security concerns. None, he said, is close enough that you can recognize faces.
Lt. Paul Vernon with the Los Angeles Police Department said he hasn't heard of any law enforcement officials expressing concern about such online images.
In fact Vernon said, some police officers in Los Angeles have even found the sites to be helpful for quickly mapping out a location or scouting out an area where a crime has been suspected.
Amazon, Google and Microsoft all say they are working to expand their offerings, and perhaps even add other image-based search tools.
Osmer said Microsoft wouldn't rule out showing live aerial images -- instead of the static ones, often months old, that currently populate the sites -- for things like the Super Bowl or traffic navigation.
He also said it's hard to say whether Microsoft would offer more detailed views later on.
"I don't think we'll get to the point where you can zoom in and see the shoelaces on someone's shoe, but maybe it would make sense to get a close view to read a sign or navigate a space," he said.
© 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
© 2006 NewsFactor Network. All rights reserved.
DD:Marketing Via The Mobile Channel Gains Worldwide Momentum
Posted on 2005/11/16 20:51:35
Marketing Via The Mobile Channel Gains Worldwide Momentum
Mobile Marketing Association Global Membership Grows over 70%
BELLEVUE, WA, November 17, 2005 — The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) (www.mmaglobal.com), a non-profit consortium focused on the advancements of the mobile marketing channel, today announced membership in the global association has grown over 70% in the last three months. With more than 200 member companies world-wide, the MMA further reinforces its leadership in leading the creation of a professional and sustainable mobile marketing industry.
The Mobile Marketing Association also announces the establishment of MMA country representation in Spain, led by Sixto Arias, CEO, Mobchanics and Austria, led by Roland Tauchner, Managing Director, DIMOCO - Direct Mobile Communications GmbH. Combined, Spain and Austria add an additional 27 members to the global association.
“The rapid growth of the MMA is indicative of the value that the mobile marketing channel provides carriers, content providers, brands and others that wish to reach a mass audience,” said Laura Marriott, executive director for the MMA. “As the association continues to grow, we are able to expand our initiatives to further define and build best practices within the global mobile marketing industry. The MMA is working together with our members who are all witnessing a significant adoption of the mobile channel for direct interaction between consumers and content publishers."
Recent MMA Global member additions include: 12snap (US), Inc., 3cInteractive, Aerodeon Turkey, America Online, Inc., Blue Frog Mobile, Cascada Mobile Corp., Dynetic Mobile Solutions, LLC, Emexus Group, Flycell, Flytxt USA, Fox Mobile Entertainment, g8wave, GoldPocket Wireless, Inc., Ki-Bi Mobile Technologies, Kikucall, Lagardere Active North America, LogicaCMG, MediaContacts, Mobile ESPN Publishing, MobileLime, Motricity, MX Telecom, Neven Vision, POP Solutions, LLC, Promo Interactive, Push Five, RMG Connect Worldwide, Reuters, Soapbox Mobile, Teleractive, Inc., Telephia, Inc., Teligence Communications Inc., The NPD Group, Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş., U.S. Cellular Corp., V-ENABLE, Vibes Media, Vidiator Technology (US) Inc. and WhitePages.com, Inc.
New MMA member additions in Spain include: Asociación Española de Comunicaciones Móviles (Aecomo), Arena Mobile, Buongiorno MyAlert, Grupo Consultores, Grupo iTouch Movilisto, Mobchanics, Mobile Dreams Factory, MoviDream, One2One Mobile Marketing, Telefónica Publicidad e Información (TPI), Universal McCann Interactive and Xperience Consulting.
New MMA member additions in Austria include: atms Telefon-und Marketing Services GmbH, Best Project, Creative Media Multimedia und Informations GmbH, Diamond Dogs Webconsulting GmbH, DIMOCO - Direct Mobile Communications GmbH, LOVO Lifestyle Service GmbH, Materna Information & Communications GmbH, mobileGate Telekommunikationsservice GmbH, MobileMarketing.at, mobilkom austria AG & Co KG, Nokia Austria GmbH, ONE GmbH, Styria Medien AG, T-Mobile Austria, and USECON – The Usability Consultants GmbH.
Recent member additions in France include: Apocope, emw:, GFK, Jap’Press and MEDIATOP.
Two new recent member additions in the UK are mkodo and Sponge.
For information on membership, please see www.mmaglobal.com
About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)
The Mobile Marketing Association is an action-oriented association designed to clear obstacles to market development, to establish standards and best practices for sustainable growth, and to evangelize the mobile channel for use by brands and third party content providers. MMA members include agencies, advertisers, hand held device manufacturers, wireless operators and service providers, retailers, software and services providers, as well as any company focused on the potential of marketing via the mobile channel. The Mobile Marketing Association’s global headquarters are located in the United States. For more information, please visit www.mmaglobal.com
DD:TEXT MESSAGING ON TARGET FOR RECORD 2005
November's figure of 2.8 billion text messages takes the annual total to a staggering 29 billion, according to figures released today by the Mobile Data Association (MDA). Person-to-person texts sent across the UK GSM network operators last month show an increase of over 23% on the total sent during the same period in 2004. November’s total presents an average of 93 million text messages being sent per day in the UK.
On 4th January 2006 the Mobile Data Association will be announcing the total number of text messages sent on New Year’s Day, 2005’s figure topped 133 million.
SOURCE: Mobile Data Association
DD:How Reebok combined SMS and IVR to increase in-store traffic and promote new merchandise
Published: Tue, 05-Oct-2004
Brand: Reebok
Company: Enpocket
Goals
Increase store traffic
Promote National Basketball Association exclusive merchandise
Build awareness of Finish Line retail stores
Solution
Together, Reebok and Enpocket created a unique SMS and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) mobile program that drove customers to Finish Line retail stores and pushed Reebok’s exclusive line of NBA merchandise.
A cross-carrier SMS message from NBA star Kenyon Martin, endorsed by Reebok, was sent out to opted-in male sport fans between the ages of 16 and 26.
The SMS message provided a freephone 800-phone number from which Martin informed callers of details on Reebok’s NBA merchandise.
When dialed, Martin’s voiceover promoted the NBA exclusive line and allowed the caller to receive the location of their nearest Finish Line retail store through a series of intuitive voice prompts.
Result
30,000 SMS messages were sent out across the US in urban areas including Atlanta, Memphis, Indianapolis and Los Angeles. Enpocket sent messages to a profiled demographic, which assisted greatly in the success of the program. Hitting the right target with the right information is one of the most important aspects of mobile marketing.
The success of this mobile program, apparent in consumers’ positive responses and an increase in store traffic and sales, has prompted Reebok to plan future relationship marketing campaigns via the mobile phone.
DD:Mobile – A channel not a strategy
By Troy Norcross, CEO Founder – Pocket Reach Solutions
http://www.pocketreach.com
In the recent article submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 13 Jul 2005 18:33, Big Brands Still Won’t Use Mobile it is discussed how many of the UK’s largest brands are unwilling to use mobile as a communication channel in spite of multiple case studies showing the true benefits. What differentiates those who are reluctant to try from those enjoying success in mobile marketing is a fundamental shift in their traditional marketing paradigm.
The answer is in the objection
The top three reasons given for not taking up mobile as a channel were:
· Lack of consumer trust
· Cost
· Good-sized database of mobile numbers
To put this another way, “We want to send a message to as many customers as possible but we’re afraid they won’t like it (might think it is SPAM), it costs too much per message and there aren’t very many opt-in lists of numbers to buy.”
Consumers don’t trust mobile because of they fear the problems of e-mail SPAM will be paralleled on their mobile. Some early players in the mobile space took advantage of consumers who didn’t read all the fine print and made some of those fears very real. Even now ICSTIS is investigating complaints about our friend the Crazy Frog.
For these reasons, consumers are cautious in giving out their valuable opt-in permission. This is especially true consumers give permission to hear from other trusted 3rd parties. This is how a database of numbers is created that is subsequently rented or sold. In short, it’s the lack of consumer trust that causes there to be, at present, no good database of mobile numbers.
Many businesses are focused on the mass communications marketing paradigm. i.e. get the message to the biggest number of people possible. Mass communications is the underlying strategy for most of today’s traditional marketing such as telemarketing, direct-mail, television, radio, print and out-of-home. A common element of these channels is that each consumer is automatically opt-in unless they take some action to opt-out such as listing themselves with one of the preference services at the DMA. Each of these mediums can stand alone and have an entire marketing program built around it.
In contrast, mobile marketing requires permission to be obtained prior to sending the first communication (in the UK and EU – not in the US). This one key difference applies to both mobile marketing and e-mail marketing and thus makes them poorly suited to standalone mass marketing campaigns. Fortunately, mobile marketing can be used for more than just mass marketing strategies.
Mobile as part of the communications strategy
While mobile marketing may not be suited for a stand alone mass communications strategy, its role does have significant value. As Ben King from WIN points out, “Businesses need to look beyond these barriers and really focus on how mobile can work as part of their overall communications strategy.”
Where mobile has been most successful it has been integrated as part of traditional marketing campaigns. Using traditional marketing, brands and marketers can communicate directly with the consumer and solicit opt-in permission to use mobile as a channel – and not just as an outbound channel.
Consumer Response Channel
Mobile is an ideal medium for consumer response. In lieu of traditional post card or response mail, mobile allows a consumer to respond to the campaign instantly from wherever they happen to be. No more manual data entry. No more delays from postal mail. Higher response rates because it is immediate and simple to do. And with mobile users sending 86.7 Million messages /day and phone penetration rates exceeding 101% (more than 1 phone per person) in the UK it is practically ubiquitous.
With mobile as the response channel, brands can build a relationship with both new consumers and current customers. Mobile can capture the same types of data as from a post card, from e-mail addresses to post codes. And mobile can provide consumers instant feedback that their response has been received. If offering mobile content as an incentive, this can be delivered immediately. Mobile works as an excellent channel for consumer response.
Personalized dialogue
Developing a relationship with a customer is one of the most valuable – and challenging – tasks around. Running a television or print media campaign offers only one way communication, whereas mobile offers consumers a means of responding instantly. Mobile also offers consumers a new way to initiate communication for service, support, comment or other factors. Messages sent to consumers can be personalized on the fly and communications can easily be directed to either automated or live customer response agents. For consumers it’s better than waiting on hold and for service centres it is an easier way to manage call volumes.
The overarching theme is that mobile is a channel for personalized dialogue, not just one-way but two-way communication with a single unique consumer.
Timely, Relevant, Valuable and Requested (TRVR)
If a business is going to communicate with a consumer in a non-response way – unscheduled communication or communication not as a result from an inbound SMS from the consumer – there are three key elements to making this communication successful in the eyes of the consumer. Ensure the content is:
· Timely
· Relevant
· Valuable
· Requested
Timely
Make sure that the communication comes at a time when it is of most value to the consumer. If sending sport updates, they should be during the game. If sending out real estate information they should go out on Sunday afternoons as that is peak time for the property market.
Relevant
Make sure that the content is relevant to the consumer. This implies that the business knows more than just the phone number for the message. It is of little use to send a coupon for an oil change to a consumer who owns only a push bike.
Valuable
Content can be valuable in the literal sense such as a coupon or digital content that the consumer can use on their phone – or it can be inherent in the fact that it’s information that is already timely and relevant. Keeping up with your favourite sports team can have significant value.
Requested
It is vital that the campaign adheres to current legislation and regulation regarding opt-in and communications with consumers via their mobile phone. The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA-UK) has its own code of practice and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA-UK) has a current working group – Mobile Marketing Strategy committee working to outline best practices for mobile marketing.
The location factor
One further challenge in meeting the Timely, Relevant, Valuable and Requested model is the location factor. It is of no use to me to know that my tube line is closed for repairs if it is 2:00 AM and I’m in Seattle. Today, mobile technology will allow for broad based location information such as whether or not the consumer is roaming at the time of attempted delivery. And more detailed location information can be made available (also permission based) to the point that you could send offers that were unique to a given event, such as free ring tones for everyone attending a concert at Wembley stadium. Location is a key element to successful mobile marketing programs of the future.
Mobile is a channel, not a strategy
Italians raise €11M in Tsunami aid via SMS Scheme (684M UK Texts)
Live 8 generated 2.8 Million texts in the UK (28 Million globally)
The AA saves £30,000/month using text messaging to help reduce call centre load
Mobile marketing works…
When businesses change the focus from developing a strategy for mobile mass marketing to one of understanding how mobile can enhance existing marketing by adding a dynamic and interactive consumer response mechanism and then continuing the communication offering consumers a personalized dialogue – only then will the objections fall away and businesses start to reap the rewards of mobile marketing.
DD:1:1 Marketing Goes Mobile
As an influential thought-leader whose groundbreaking books include, Enterprise One-to-One: Tools for Competing in the Interactive Age, and Return on Customer: The Revolutionary New Way to Maximize the Value of Your Customers, Don Peppers advises a Who's Who of international marketers – AT&T, Ford and 3M, among others – who count on him for insight on using technology to build unbreakable customer loyalty.
But that proposition is about to become increasingly complex – and powerful – he says, as the convergence of wireless technologies and global positioning systems transform the notion of reaching customers where they live.
Author Rick Mathieson interviewed Peppers as part of a series of exclusive, Q&A-style interviews with some of today’s top marketing and business strategists for the book, BRANDING UNBOUND: The Future of Advertising, Sales, And The Brand Experience In The Wireless Age (AMACOM Books, July 2005). The following is an edited excerpt of that interview.
Rick Mathieson: How will mobility change our idea of what constitutes the “brand experience?”
Don Peppers: The most compelling aspect of mobility is the continuous management of evolving relationships with individual consumers. You can be continuously connected with a customer, not just when he's sitting in front of a computer. You can actually get feedback, and real transactions, on a real-time basis – it’s as if you're tethered to your customer's life. And that means there is tremendous opportunity in using mobility to increase the value of each customer, and your value to him or her.
Today, most of us can barely imagine life without a cell phone. Consumers are getting used to always-on communications, and those communications are gaining utility. As a result, companies that provide services and maintain relationships with customers are going to have to participate in this channel. And yet, companies are going to have to do it in a way that is non-intrusive, because nothing will give a customer a bigger red face with respect to a company than if that company begins to interrupt him or her in order to try to sell them stuff.
Our central mission becomes finding ways to increase short-term profits, while promoting behavior that increases the long-term value of that customer. It happens when we earn the customer’s trust, treat the customer the way they’d like to be treated, and actually act in their best interests in a way that’s mutually beneficial.
For instance, if I'm AmeriTrade, and I have a customer who trades three or four times a day when he's in his office, but he doesn't trade when he's traveling, I'd strongly consider giving him a Black Berry and a wireless trading account. It's win/win for both of us. The customer gets convenience, and the company gains potential new revenues.
RM: Many think mobility will enable further disintermediation of services. But you envision the rise of ‘Digital Aggregation Agents’ that enable companies to deliver 1:1 services based on my needs and location – as long as they play by my rules. What's the business model for these DAAs?
DP: Instead of giving out personal information to every vendor that I might deal with in the mobile medium – my news service, my broker, my concierge, my travel agent – I'm going to want one entity that remembers my preferences and needs, but that provides me anonymity.
One entity that knows my account numbers for all the different companies I deal with, across a lot of different platforms and different mobile media. And that entity is something we call the ‘Data Aggregation Agent.’
The DAA is going to simplify the consumer's life because it will save them a great deal of time and energy. I'm not going to want to fill in my speed dial numbers, my friends’ names and email addresses, my credit card numbers, my social security numbers, my everything, for everybody. The DAA will store all that information for me in one place, and then partition out data to companies as I see fit. It's just a hypothetical, science fiction possibility, of course. But I think it's a compelling new business model for the future, and could have a tremendous impact on the nature of competition in this medium.
RM: You’re talking about some pretty valuable information. Seems like a lot of companies would fight over playing the role of DAA.
DP: You bet they will. Already, there are a lot of infantile battles going on among businesses that all think that they can be Data Aggregation Agents.
But in the end, everybody can't win. The most compelling business model is one where the consumer gets the value. And the value I'm getting if I'm a consumer is convenience, relevance, and not having to fill out the same form or keep track of different account numbers. So there are a lot of reasons why the Data Aggregation Agent model is going to work. That role could be filled by a wireless carrier like Verizon. It could be filled by an airline. It could be AOL or Yahoo. Or it could be filled by completely new
players.
RM: As wireless moves into the in-store experience, what opportunities will there be to maximize the experience for customers?
DP: I think RFID technology, in particular, has a great deal of potential for that. The future of RFID is that I have my credit card in my wallet, I walk into the grocery store, I put a bunch of shopping products in my bags and I walk out the door and take them home, and I’m automatically billed for them. I don’t need to stop at the check out counter, and I don’t have to do anything but walk out with my products. I think that will be highly desirable for consumers. But there is a big-brother aspect to the technology that is awakening some of the Luddites in the business, who say, gee, I don’t know if I want companies tracking every movement that I make, and so forth. But I think on balance, consumer convenience is going to be the trump card. That said, whether it’s in-store, our out in the world via [RFID or] consumer cell phones, companies will have to be very careful about how they apply wireless technologies.
In this medium, you're playing with fire when it comes to privacy. It's impossible to architect the regulatory structure in such a way to ensure that you're not going to get hit with some kind of privacy problem.
The best defense is to adopt a holistic view of your business. In my conception, every business would visualize their service in terms of treating their customers the way you'd want to be treated. The golden rule of marketing, if you will. With that in mind, you simply can't go wrong.
RM: The same applies to 1:1 mobile marketing, no doubt.
DP: If you're driving down the street and an ad comes on because you're a block away from McDonald's, you're going to be extremely irritated.
But unlike a lot of folks, I don't think that means push is going to always be excluded from people's requirements – as long as it's pushed at the customer's initiation and doesn't trespass on the legitimate use of their time.
For instance, if I execute a trade on my cell phone, and you're my online brokerage, I don't mind you piggybacking an ad for an offer I might be interested in at the bottom of an order confirmation. Or if you're Amazon, you might recommend an additional book based on my profile. Or American Airlines might send an email about cheap tickets I can buy because they haven't sold enough seats to the locations on my preferred destination list.
I can see a lot of potential for that kind of push message – as long as the customer say's it's okay to send them. Because whether we're talking about an ad message, a service, or a transaction, it's all about using mobile technologies to add value to our customers' lives based on what they want, where – and when – they want it.
If you get it right, you win big. If you get it wrong, you're history.
For the complete Don Peppers interview, and other exclusive Q&As featuring Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing and All Marketers Are Liars; Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence and The Brand You 50; Christopher Locke, author of The ClueTrain Manifesto, and Gary Hamel, chairman of Strategos and author of Leading The Revolution – as well as the inside scoop on marketing’s new mobile age – pick up BRANDING UNBOUND today. Wherever books are sold. www.BrandingUnbound.com
“BRANDING UNBOUND is an indispensable guide to the emerging opportunities in wireless marketing. Rick Mathieson has given us a forward-looking perspective that succeeds in being both visionary and grounded in reality.”
– Ingrid Bernstein, Senior Vice President, Director of Creative and Strategy, iDeutsch, NY
“The road map to the right now. Provocative. Up to date, to the last nanosecond.”
– Steve Simpson, Partner & Creative Director, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, SF
Available wherever books are sold
www.BrandingUnbound.com
Purchase from Amazon.com here
Adapted from BRANDING UNBOUND: The Future of Advertising, Sales and the Brand Experience in the Wireless Age © 2005 Rick Mathieson, Published by AMACOM Books, a division of American Management Association, New York, NY. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
DD:Profile Specific Ads Make the Difference
By Bob Walczak, CEO of Mophap.com
The trend that is breaking out in the mobile advertising world is opt-in, non-intrusive advertising. The missing component in the current equation is “profile specific.”
The mobile marketplace has reached a magnitude that is demanding global attention in the advertising community. 1.5 billion subscribers have a small computer in their pocket capable of voice, text, image and internet communications. As an advertising vehicle, mobile devices have the potential to play a significant role in target marketing. Each phone is primarily used by one subscriber giving each device a unique profile for targeting demographics. Because a phone is linked to one person and not a general group, that person should no longer be subject to useless advertising messages. Age, sex, geography and key words will play into the distribution of every ad. The concept is to actually make advertising an enhancement to content distribution not an intrusion. What this equates to from an advertising prospective, if leveraged correctly, is that a message can be delivered to the exact profile that it was created to reach.
Keeping this in mind, Mophap has taken the next evolutionary step in mobile advertising and has produced a platform that will take this market segment to the next level. Our product integrates interstitial advertising with SMS, email and webpage content delivery vehicles. Through combining these advertising vehicles, we have created an advertising format that fits the constraints of the mobile device.
The image based ads appear through an interstitial format, delivered in an otherwise blank space during the connecting period between two pages. If an ad interests a subscriber, they can opt to click on it and be taken to a page that will request an email address, an SMS number or just serve them more content from the advertiser. If they are not interested in the ad, they do nothing and the requested content page will appear automatically. Through our proprietary ad delivery system, we have managed to ensure that the content arrives in the same amount of time as it would without our ad delivery system.
The product determines what ad to send to a specific user based on the phone subscriber’s profile (age, sex, main geography) and cross-references that information with its key word ad database to deliver the most useful and relevant ad possible. The concept is to deliver relevant information to the end user that will enhance their surfing experience and feel less like an intrusion of time and space.
By filling the space between WAP pages where a subscriber would otherwise be looking at a blank connecting screen, we have maximized the efficiency of the mobile web. By using an interstitial format, we can maximize the constraints of a small screen and deliver full-screen, color, and interactive ads. If the ad information is linked to the personal profile of the subscriber and the content being searched, its effectiveness and usefulness will increase exponentially.
Mophap has added the missing piece to the equation and the end result is an Opt-In, Non-Intrusive, Profile Specific advertising mechanism that enhances the effectiveness and usefulness of mobile communications.
DD:Location Based Services – a Marketer’s Dream
Location Based Services – a Marketer’s Dream
Written By: Lisa Fields, Director of Sales, go2 Directory Systems
Like the name implies, Location Based Services (LBS) are services that utilize location as a key ingredient of providing relevant information to users. In mobile marketing, LBS applications are advertising or marketing services that use specific location information for delivering the right message to the right person at the right place AND time.
It is because millions of consumers carry mobile phones everywhere that LBS applications can reach virtually anybody, at any time and anywhere, and today millions of these mobile consumers are already using LBS applications. Today, the most popular LBS applications are local Yellow Page directories and entertainment guides. Other types of LBS that exist, though less frequently used, include services that help to find a friend or send alerts when a friend is nearby. Here are some examples of how today’s LBS directory applications are used by consumers:
• a soccer mom finds the specific address and gets turn-by-turn directions to the closest pizza place to take her son’s team out after a road game win
• consumers obtain a list of nearby pharmacies that are open at midnight
• a college couple learns the show times of the movies playing at nearby theaters.
Another way of looking at LBS directory applications is to categorize them as mobile, real-world, local searches. LBS directory applications provide relevant local information in a manner similar to the way Google provides relevant online search results. The primary difference is that LBS directory applications typically provide real-world information and focus on actual business locations. Imagine using your cell phone to find a nearby hotel when you are stranded in Chicago on business, or to use your cell phone to call and order flowers from a florist shop located just a mile up the road when your best friend is in the hospital—and getting all of this information on your cell phone screen, without ever having to dial an information hotline.
LBS directory applications typically provide information related to a precise location – not just a city or even a zip code – but a street address or intersection. The critical element to LBS is adding specific location information so search results are more relevant. LBS can often be linked with automatic location information (ALI) applications, whereby various technologies automatically locate the cell phone (and thus its user) and then use that information to expand LBS application features. ALI is extremely helpful in making many LBS directory applications easier, but is not critical to the success of LBS. LBS directory searches can be generated by users who designate their precise current or future location in a variety of ways. The more robust LBS applications excel at making it easy for users to designate and select both their starting location and their destination.
go2 was the first LBS directory application in the U.S. when it launched in 1999 with Sprint, and then launched similar applications with AT&T, Alltel, Cingular, Nextel, and Verizon Wireless shortly thereafter. In May, 2002, go2 launched the first ALI-LBS directory application in the U.S. with AT&T, and go2 expects to launch similar ALI-LBS applications with other major wireless providers in the U.S. 2005. ALI technologies are still in their infant stages of deployment on most major wireless carriers, while LBS continue to boast millions of unique users every month. In 2004, go2’s LBS application (alone) delivered over 180 million page views during over 16 million unique mobile phone user sessions. The increased availability of ALI technologies in 2005 will put LBS services in a position to cross the chasm to mass market adoption ---- and provide a marketer’s dream in terms of providing both category and location targeted information, advertising and marketing messages.
DD:Prepared for the Global Mobile Marketing Association
Mobile phone use for services beyond voice is at the tipping point of exponential growth in the Unites States. Mobile subscribers in June of this year exchanged 7.25 billion text messages across US mobile networks, up from 2.5 billion in June of last year (CTIA 2005). IVR, multimedia, gaming, mobile micro-sites and related mobile services are also experiencing rapid growth. This significant growth in demand has not been missed by US commercial enterprises. With text messaging alone expected to generate $4.6 billion in revenue in 2006 (CTIA 2005), numerous large and small product, content, and services companies are turning to the mobile channel to engage their audience. Of the 193 million mobile subscribers in the United States, nearly 95% of active mobile phones support text messaging and 62% of subscribers use it (CTIA 2005). The advent of the era of mobile marketing in the US has arrived.
The Mobile Marketing Ecosystem is driven by a number of technical, regulatory, commercial, social and legal components. It is a complex network of different industries and companies, and to be successful in leveraging the mobile channel it is important for brands, content owners, marketing agencies, and other industry participants to be aware of how value is generated through this channel and within the system. This paper discusses the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem, sheds light on a strategic framework for evaluating it, and encourages industry players and scholars to be aware of its constantly changing landscape.
Michael Porter’s 1985 seminal work on value chain and value system frameworks provides us with strategic concepts for evaluating businesses and industries. Managers use Porter’s framework to identify the unique technological and economic activities of a business or industry, and the critical linkages between each activity. Once these activities are identified, managers can focus on their core competencies and solidify their position within the industry (Porter, 2005). Porter’s work, however, takes a two dimensional approach at both the business and industry level. With his value chain framework, a company uses primary and support groups to create products or services in order to add value. A company can collaborate with another company that will add value, this second company can perform another handoff, and this process continues through the industry value system until the customer consumes the product. Many have used Porter’s framework (Becker et al. 2004; Kaplan 2005) to develop a map of the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem, as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Traditional Approach to Viewing the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem
(Reproduced with permission from Becker, Sharpe, Silveria, Golden Gate University)
As early as 1993, however, scholars recognized that an industry’s value system is not limited to a simple linear two-dimensional view, rather it is made up of a constellation, or a strategic network, of companies that do not necessarily work in a serial fashion as in the traditional value chain models. A better way to understand the interrelationships between each network is through the lens of the dynamic multidimensional strategic network model (Moller et al. 2002; Normann & Ramirez 1993; Sutinen & Tirri 2005), where each network within the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem described below is labeled a sphere. It is not that Porter necessarily missed anything with his original work, but as the Internet and wireless networks emerged, standards solidified, globalization sped up, new processes, technology, economic models, and business practices formed, and the landscape of doing business altogether changed. This change does not mean that fundamental economics no longer apply. Everyone throughout the strategic network must receive at least marginal returns, otherwise they will not survive in the network, or the network will be unstable and lasting value will not be created. These changes are pervasive, dynamic, and encouraged by participants in the mobile ecosystem, including organizations like the Mobile Marketing Association, CTIA, Neustar, mobile operators, marketers, aggregators, application providers and other participants.
At their conception, mobile services with their unique capabilities and opportunities were exclusively “bundled” within the mobile operators’ technology network, a “walled garden” controlled by the mobile operators with limited access provided to others. Anderson and Williams have documented in detail the “unbundling” that is now occurring within the mobile operator’s value chain system (Anderson & Williams 2004), and it is this unbundling that has opened mobile marketing to brands and content owners, and created the fertile ground for existing and new industry players like mobile application providers, aggregators, and enablers. The discrete application providers and application solution providers (also known as “mobile ASPs”) are offering exciting and novel technology for a wide array of mobile initiatives and mobile management systems. The aggregators are providing single-point connectivity with all the different mobile operator networks. The enablers are providing foundation technology, processes, regulations and related support to the value activities within each sphere. With the controlled and managed opening of the mobile operator’s walled garden, traditional brands, content owners, and marketing agencies are now able to use mobile networks for direct customer engagement. Brands are not only distributing services and content through the channel, but are using it for brand awareness, prospecting, customer acquisition and customer retention purposes.
New mobile content, “experiential marketing” and interactive mobile services are also emerging. An excellent example is Counts Media and its Yellow Arrow program. The Yellow Arrow program invites anyone to create a mobile experience by placing Yellow Arrow stickers at locations or on objects around town that they think is of interest, cultural importance, or just fun, and they then “program” the arrow via SMS with a text story or information explaining its significance. The sticker has a unique keyword written on it that other people will see. People text message this keyword to a short code, which results in a reply text message containing the story. For example, someone could leave a Yellow Arrow at a warehouse door entrance, leaving a story that will explain either by text or voice the history of the location– “this is where Andy Warhol’s original Factory was located”. Leveraging multiple strategic partners throughout the ecosystem network, Counts Media created a new genre of service—the “mix reality entertainment experience”—by turning the world into a canvas and using the mobile phone as the brush. Counts Media’s VP of Business Development Karenne Rossi notes how the Yellow Arrow project creates “theatrical moments” to be shared with anyone that happens by and responds to the arrow’s call (Rossi 2005). Other emerging services are also prevalent. For example, the Coca-Cola Company has recently enabled the purchase of branded mobile content from its vending machines (Clark 2005). Disney is launching their own proprietary mobile network (MVNO), and is also developing new channels, including mobile, to deliver its content. Disney CEO Robert Iger believes that, “In the future, there will be a percentage of people who will only receive our content on devices other than television sets” (Wall Street Journal, 2005). Mobile application providers, content providers, aggregators and new interactive marketing agencies, among others, are joining forces within the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem’s strategic network to help these and other brands succeed.
None of this would have been possible just a few years ago if it were not for the changes that are taking place in the ecosystem. The figure below (Figure 2) illustrates the new and dynamic Mobile Marketing Ecosystem, a strategic network encompassing all industries, marketing disciplines, and economic and technical models. It is comprised of 4 interconnecting spheres–Product & Services (brands, content owners and marketing agencies), Applications (discrete application providers and mobile ASPs), Connection (aggregators and wireless operators), and Media and Retail (media properties, “brick ‘n’ mortar” and virtual retail stores). Various enablers provide the foundation for each particular sphere. Players within these spheres work in concert to deliver a rich experience to consumers. The Mobile Channel Value Chain is the path by which the actual mobile communication and interactivity takes place between the Product & Services Sphere and mobile subscribers (consumers), however, consumer demand must first be established. To create this demand, products, services, events, and content programs are promoted through the Media and Retail Sphere’s various traditional channels. By adding the mobile component, traditional media becomes “untethered” from its previous limitations and becomes a true interactive medium. Print media, for example, is a relatively static medium that is normally only passively viewed by the consumer, with limited access to respond promptly to a call to action. With a mobile component added, the consumer can execute a call to action anytime, anywhere it is viewed. Once a mobile relationship is established with the consumer through the Media & Retail Sphere, brands and content owners can then request permission to communicate directly with the consumer further through the mobile channel.
It is imperative that companies from the different spheres learn to coordinate their efforts and develop strategic relationships with players in the other spheres of the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem. While it is tempting for a company to try to be everything to everyone and attempt to horizontally integrate multiple functions across multiple spheres, they should take heed before doing so since each sphere comes with is own unique business models, regulations, technologies, relationships, norms and practices. It is vital that companies focus on their core competencies and work collaboratively with other players within the strategic network to best service the market. If major players attempt to control areas that are outside of their core competencies, the most likely result would be an inefficient industry plagued by high cost, slow reaction to market needs, consumer dissatisfaction, and the stunting of new technologies and creative ideas. This issue is critically important to mobile industry participants and business scholars as well. Scholars can help analyze, define, and empirically test the links between value creation activities within the ecosystem in order to provide managers with appropriate system models and decision-making data. In the coming months and years, the ecosystem will continue to mature and stabilize. The participants in the different spheres can create lasting value for the industry and its consumers by working together.
References
Anderson, J., & Williams, B. (2004, Fall). Unbundling the Mobile Value Chain. Business Strategy Review, 15(3), 51-57, 7p.
Becker, M., Sharpe, J., & Silveria, K. (2004, April). The Emergence and Integration of the Mobile Channel with Marketing Practices in the United States., Golden Gate University DBA, San Francisco.
Clark, N. (2005, 14/Sept.). Coca-Cola vending machines to offer mobile content. Retrieved 9/15/05, from Incentive Bulletin: http://www.brandrepublic.com/bulletins/incentive/article/516692/cocacola-vending-machines-offer-mobi....
CTIA. (2005, 27/Sept.). Mobile Marketing Association. In Marketing- The Mobile Channel. CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2005 San Francisco: Mobile Marketing Association & CTIA.
Kaplan, M. (2005, 27/Sept.). Mobile U. In Marketing- The Mobile Channel. CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2005 San Francisco: Mobile Marketing Association & CTIA.
Marr, M. (2005, 1/Oct). In Shakeup, Disney Rethinking How It Reaches Audiences. The Wall Street Journal (New York), Weekend 67 ed., p. 1.
Moller, K., Rajala, A., & Svahn, S. (2002, Sept.). Strategic business nets--their type and management. Journal of Business Research, 58.
Normann, R., & Ramirez, R. (1993, Jul-Aug). From Value Chain to Value Constellation. Harvard Business Review.
Rossi, Karenne. (2005, Oct). Interview.
Simmons, J. (Director, CTIA). (2005, 27/Sept.). Marketing - The Mobile Channel. In Marketing- The Mobile Channel. CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2005 San Francisco: Mobile Marketing Association & CTIA.
Sutinen, J., & Tirri, J. (2005, May). Mobile Advertising Strategic Net: A Study of Actors and Activities., FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, University Oulu, Finland.
DD:ITU Internet Reports 2005: The Internet of Things is the seventh in the series of "ITU Internet Reports" originally launched in 1997 by the International Telecommunication Union. For previous titles in the series see ITU Internet Reports 2004: The Portable Internet , ITU Internet Reports 2003: Birth of Broadband, and ITU Internet Reports 2002: Internet for a Mobile Generation.
Written by a team of analysts from the Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU) of the ITU, the report takes a look at the next step in "always on" communications, in which new technologies like RFID and smart computing promise a world of networked and interconnected devices that provide relevant content and information whatever the location of the user. Everything from tires to toothbrushes will be in communications range, heralding the dawn of a new era, one in which today’s Internet (of data and people) gives way to tomorrow’s Internet of Things.
We are heading towards what can be termed a “ubiquitous network society”, one in which networks and networked devices are omnipresent. Early forms of ubiquitous information and communication networks are already visible in the widespread use of mobile phones today: there were over 1.8 billion mobile phones in circulation by the end of 2004, and the number is set to surpass 2 billion by the end of 2005. Mobile data applications such as SMS, i-mode and Vodafone Live! have brought Internet-like services to the pockets of many mobile phone users. But what if much more was connected to a network: a fridge, a car, a cup of tea?
At the dawn of the internet revolution, users were amazed at the possibility of contacting people and information across oceans and time zones, through a few clicks of their mouse. In order to do so, however, they typically had to sit in front of a computer device (PC) connected to a global network. Today, they can also use mobile phones and portable laptops. The next logical step in this technological revolution (connecting people anytime, anywhere) is to connect inanimate objects a communication network. This is the vision underlying the Internet of things. The use of electronic tags (e.g. RFID) and sensors will serve to extend the communication and monitoring potential of the network of networks, as will the introduction of computing power in everyday items such as razors, shoes and packaging. Advances in nanotechnology (i.e. manipulation of matter at the molecular level) will serve to further accelerate these developments.
The late Mark Weiser (at the time chief scientist at the XEROX Palo Alto Research Center) is quoted to have said: “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” This well-known citation refers to the increasing “availability” and decreasing “visibility” of processing power. In other words, computing through dedicated devices will slowly disappear, while information processing capabilities will emerge throughout our surrounding environment. With the benefit of integrated information processing capacity, industrial products will take on smart capabilities. They may also take on electronic identities that can be queried remotely, or be equipped with sensors for detecting physical changes around them. Such developments will make the merely static objects of today dynamic ones - embedding intelligence in our environment and stimulating the creation of innovative products and new business opportunities. The Internet of Things will enable forms of collaboration and communication between people and things, and between things themselves, hitherto unknown and unimagined.
It seems that we are standing on the brink of a new computing and communication era, one that will radically transform our corporate, community, and personal spheres. With continuing developments in miniaturization and declining costs, it is becoming not only technologically possible but also economically feasible to make everyday objects smarter, and to connect the world of people with the world of things. Building this new environment however, will pose a number of challenges. Technological standardization in most areas is still in its infancy, or remains fragmented. Not surprisingly, managing and fostering rapid technological innovation will be a challenge for governments and industry alike. But perhaps one of the most important challenges is convincing users to adopt emerging technologies like RFID. Concerns over privacy and data protection are widespread, particularly as sensors and smart tags can track a user’s movements, habits and preferences on a perpetual basis. Fears related to nanotechnology range from bio-medical hazards to robotic control. But whatever the concern, one thing remains clear: scientific and technological advances in these fields continue to move ahead at breakneck speed. It is only through awareness of such advances, and the challenges they present, that we can reap the future benefits of a fair, user-centric and global Internet of Things.
DD: Marketers are hearing the ring of success by way of cell phones
Posted on 2006/1/12 21:50:00
Consumer-product companies, retailers, rock bands and radio stations also are using codes and text messages to cement their relationships with customers. Marketers use codes to sell cell-phone content - ringtones, screen savers, wallpaper and text alerts - related to topics such as sports or name brands.
The cell phone industry began offering the codes two years ago as a way for marketers to interact with customers who use text messaging. In the first year, 150 companies licensed more than 450 five-digit codes. Last year, the number of codes issued grew by a factor of six, according to CTIA-the Wireless Association, which licenses short codes through a Web site, www.usshortcodes.com.
Customers who take the trouble to key in a code tend to be more interested in - and more likely to buy - products than people passively viewing a commercial or print ad, said John Styers, director of data communications services for Sprint.
"The most important allure (of short codes) is self-selection. They're driving a behavior for individuals who are wanting to know more about a brand or to interact with a program," he said. "It costs millions to do that with shotgun marketing."
Advertisers can get immediate feedback on a commercial or ad campaign by including a code. For example:
DaimlerChrysler sent a code and Web site address to owners of Dodge vehicles, offering ringtones based on the brand's advertising jingle as well as images they could use as wallpaper on their cell phone screens.
Dove soap used a short code in its "real beauty" ad campaign last year. Customers could dial a code and vote on whether an elderly woman on billboards was "wrinkled" or "wonderful."
The American Red Cross used the short code 2Help to seek donations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The campaign helped redirect traffic that was overwhelming the agency's toll-free number, allowing it to put workers in the field rather than on the phones.
Anheuser-Busch Cos. ran a Bud Light promotion at bars urging customers to use their phones to send messages to screens set up for the evening. A-B also offers cell phone screensavers and ringtones at Budweiser.com.
The campaign was designed to raise brand awareness among 21- to 28-year-olds in a way that was fun and social, said Rick Leininger, Bud Light brand director. More than 7,000 unique users sent 80,000 messages during the campaign's 28-city tour, he said.
"Internet and mobile are huge aspects of how we communicate to consumers," Leininger said. But they're usually integrated with traditional media campaigns.
Text-to-screen applications, such as the Bud Light promotion, also have been popular at rock concerts, where fans can send messages to an electronic board and, in some cases, win prizes.
"Everybody wants to see their name in lights," said Jack Philbin, president and founder of Vibes Media, a Chicago-based mobile marketing firm that designed the Bud Light campaign.
Customers used the message displays to flirt in bars, for example. At concerts, they've been used for marriage proposals and other messages.
Mobile marketing helps companies get more mileage out of their marketing dollars, Philbin said. "When people respond to a call to action - that's real engagement."
Hip and fun
The best mobile marketing campaigns keep customers engaged by giving them entertaining information centered on a brand, Philbin said. "There's an insatiable demand for interaction."
Philbin doesn't advocate sending unsolicited messages. Instead, he prefers to design campaigns that prompt customers to dial in, get an entertaining message or teaser, then dial back again and again for more. A well-designed campaign can draw dozens of responses from each potential customer, he said.
"Every single individual gets a customized experience," Philbin said. "It breaks through the clutter" of other advertising in a way that's "hip, cool, young and fun."
Mobile marketing allows companies to target consumers they want to reach anytime, anywhere, said Laura Marriott, executive director of the Mobile Marketing Association. Research shows that about 36 percent of consumers are interested in participating in mobile campaigns, she said.
Marketers tend to use mobile content as one element in a comprehensive media campaign, Marriott said. It's a small part of most campaigns now, but it's growing.
The use of text messaging on cell phones "is bigger than most people imagine but not as big as everybody would like," said Will Hodgman, chief executive of M:Metrics Inc. of Seattle. He formed the company in November 2004 to study the use of messaging, so advertisers could measure the potential impact of a mobile campaign.
In the United States, about 200 million people have cell phone service, according to CTIA-the Wireless Association. Most phones are capable of text-messaging even if their owners don't realize it.
About 58 million customers have used text messaging, 21 million have used the Internet on their phones and 17 million have purchased a ringtone, Hodgman said. In June, cell phone customers sent 7.2 billion messages using the text feature built into most phones.
"When advertisers see that kind of market penetration, they start drooling," said Tamara Gaffney, a mobile industry analyst for Telephia, a San Francisco market research firm.
Text-messaging is most popular with young users, making mobile marketing a good fit for companies trying to reach that demographic. But it's also gaining popularity with young adults and others who want quick access to specialized information, including sports, weather and stock quotes.
Advertisers must be careful to deliver value when they entice customers to dial a code, Gaffney said. Cell phone customers know they're paying for a message. Even if it costs a dime or less, they still want some value, whether it's a free game, ringtone, coupon or trivia quiz.
Mark Nagel, Cingular's director of entertainment services, said short codes have helped companies sell specialized content.
"Most of our sales (of ringtones, games and wallpaper) historically have come through people surfing the Internet on their phones," Nagel said.
But marketers can drive buyers directly to their content by publicizing a code in print ads or in other media. Some record labels are putting codes on CD cases to sell ringtones based on popular music.
The campaign can be tailored for a nontraditional audience, Nagel said. "We tend to gear services to a broader marketplace."
For example, Jamster, a company that sells ringtones based on a variety of music genres, tends to market on cable-TV channels such as MTV and BET, where Cingular advertises less frequently.
"Even when we offer the same content, (short codes give a marketer) the ability to reach new people," Nagel said.
Some marketers believe that short codes eventually will become as pervasive in advertising as Web site addresses are now, said Drew Hull, research director for NPD Group, a market research company in Port Washington, N.Y.
"You hear people say that short codes will be tomorrow's URL," Hull said.
Mobile marketing relies on common short codes
Common short codes are the glue that holds mobile marketing together.
The five-digit codes allow cell phone users to participate in polls or trivia games, retrieve coupons and download games and ringtones quickly, without taxing the brain.
CTIA-the Wireless Association manages the issuance of short codes. Companies register at www.usshortcodes.com, then they pay $500 a month for a random numeric code or $1,000 a month for a vanity code, such as one that spells a word.
Codes can be rented for three, six or 12 months. Renewals are high, especially for vanity codes associated with name brands.
The advantage of short codes versus calling a toll-free phone number are that messages go into a queue, rather than tying up an attendant answering phone calls. Return messages come back to a caller's phone as text, where they can be retrieved at the customer's convenience.
The codes have been popular with consumer brands, radio stations and services such as ESPN's sports alert service, said Jeff Simmons, director of technology programs for CTIA.
"The growth is tremendous," he said. "We are in the process now of considering adding other ranges of digits, specifically six-digit codes."
Short codes:
These 5-digit codes allow marketers to connect with customers who use text messaging. "American Idol" and other popular TV shows use these codes to decide what will happen next with a show or contestant.
Text-to-screen applications:
Web sites such as Epicurious.com allow users to download recipes, graphics and other items to their cell phones for later use. The Anheuser-Busch Cos. Web site allows text messaging to friends about concerts, songs or meeting times, as well as downloading ring tones and graphics.
Other:
The potential for cell phones in marketing is huge. Research shows that about 36 percent of consumers are interested in participating in mobile campaigns.
Phones are becoming electronic shopping lists
How many times have you gone grocery shopping and been unable to remember all the ingredients for a recipe you wanted to try?
New technology allows users of Epicurious.com to download recipes and ingredient lists to their mobile phones, which then function as electronic shopping lists.
The latest version of the technology will combine the ingredient lists from several recipes, so you know you need three sticks of butter to make three recipes, not a half stick for one, two sticks for another and a tablespoon for a third. You even can add toilet paper and dog food to the phone's shopping list.
The technology also enables advertisers to promote their brands with recipes that contain their products, either with a banner on a phone's Web screen or a button to click for more information, said David Herman, chief executive of Juice Wireless Inc. One of the first advertisers to use it was Turning Leaf wine, a Gallo product.
Herman said Juice Wireless, a mobile data company based in New York, came up with the idea of downloading recipes when working with Conde Nast, publisher of Bon Appetit, Gourmet and Parade magazines, and the owner of Epicurious.com. The application, Epi To Go, uses "tag and retrieve" technology to mark information that can be retrieved later by clicking a button in a phone's Web browser.
Juice Wireless delivered the technology to Epicurious last February. The company didn't promote it, but each recipe on the Web site has a "send to my phone" button at the top. Since then, nearly 30,000 users have registered to use the feature, and 20,000 are tagging at least one recipe a month, Herman said.
Starting Sunday, Juice Wireless will roll out updated technology that Epicurious and Conde Nast will promote with nine new features, including the ability to search for a recipe from the phone, not just on the Web site.
DD: Research Shows Growing Interest in Mobile Marketing
Posted on 2005/11/30 4:20:00
Research Shows Growing Interest in Mobile Marketing
Consumers most interested in mobile couponing
November 29, 2005 — The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Synovate today announced the release of the first phase of a mobile marketing effectiveness study which is being conducted for the Mobile Marketing Association membership.
The two phase study will establish a benchmark for the industry and enable brands and content providers to understand the value of the mobile channel. During the first phase, almost 1,400 consumers aged 13 to 65+ were surveyed regarding their attitudes and usage of mobile technology. Phase Two of the research will measure the effectiveness and perception around real world mobile marketing campaigns and is expected to be released in the first half of 2006.
“The initial research further reinforces the growing appeal and impact of mobile marketing with the 13-34 age group,” said Laura Marriott, executive director for the MMA. “Consumers are receptive to mobile value-added services as long as the consumer can define frequency of the marketing and the nature of the content via their mobile device. The MMA is committed to developing standards to ensure a quality consumer experience and the MMA Best Practices will continue to play a critical role as mobile marketing matures.”
The Attitude and Usage study specifically shows that most consumers are interested in applications that provide information on products and services. They are especially interested in applications for mobile couponing, personal account information and downloads. Being able to make these mobile offers “exclusive” may encourage opt-in behaviour and reduce the perceptions of spam.
“Marketers that emphasize mobile marketing benefits will maximize mobile marketing success.” said Beth Ritchey, Vice President, Synovate Tech and Telecom. “Accentuating how opting-in to mobile marketing messages will give adopters an inside track to information, savings, downloads, special offers, etc. and creating offers that are unique and compelling will encourage participation."
The results of the study will be made available to all MMA members.
About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)
The Mobile Marketing Association is an action-oriented association designed to clear obstacles to market development, to establish standards and best practices for sustainable growth, and to evangelize the mobile channel for use by brands and third party content providers. MMA members include agencies, advertisers, hand held device manufacturers, wireless operators and service providers, retailers, software and services providers, as well as any company focused on the potential of marketing via the mobile channel. The Mobile Marketing Association’s global headquarters are located in the United States. For more information, please visit www.mmaglobal.com
About Synovate
Synovate, the market research arm of Aegis Group plc, generates consumer insights that drive competitive marketing solutions. The network provides clients with cohesive global support and a comprehensive suite of research solutions. Synovate employs over 4,000 staff across 46 countries. More information on Synovate can be found at www.synovate.com.
For more information:
Laura Marriott
Executive Director, Mobile Marketing Association
laura.marriott@mmaglobal.com, +1.303.881.9153
Jennifer Chhatlani
Vice President, Synovate Marketing & Communications
jennifer.chhatlani@synovate.com, 1.312.526.4359
DD: How To Make Money With Mobile Marketing?
Michael Becker, iLoop Mobile CTO
December 18, 2005
Since the launch of the first SMS in 1992 and its initial commercial use for marketing purposes on/around 1997 many marketers began asking the question, “So, how can one make money with mobile marketing?” This is a very good question with many general answers; for example, it is easy to come up with an off-the-cuff response like “money is made from the sales of mobile content (ringtones, logos, images, video), premium SMS subscription (joke of the day, horoscope, sports scores, etc.), or micro-payments for physical goods and services”; however, responses like these are not actually answering the question above, rather they are answering the question “how does one make money through the mobile channel”. The mobile channel (a child born of the digital age) is used not only for distribution and commerce transactions, but also for communications, entertainment, as well as marketing. Future articles can help illuminate the myriad ways of making money through the mobile channel, but this article will specifically focus on the topic of doing so through the lens of the marketing function.
In order to provide a precise answer to the question about making money with mobile marketing one must break the question down into its parts and define what is meant by “mobile marketing” and “make money.”
Marketing is the function that helps a company tell the market what it does and explain the company’s products and services, and in this role marketing directly helps a corporation make money. But again, this is a very simplistic answer to the question of how marketing makes money, marketers develop channels, educate customers, and stimulate customer response and mobile marketing is a very effective mode of marketing. As Kavassalis comments “SMS marketing [aka mobile marketing] has interesting properties: high-speed message delivery, interactivity, great customer reach, and a response rate five times higher than direct mail” (Kavassalis et al. 2003, p56). A campaign sponsor (Brand, Content Owner, Media, or Retail Property) will work with their Marketing Agency and Mobile Applications-Network partner to run Mobile or Mobile Enhanced Traditional Media marketing campaigns to stimulate a positive consumer response (see Figure 1). For instance, respondents just learning about the product or service may be encouraged to search for additional information by contacting the company through the mobile web, instant voice response (IVR), messaging, online, or at a bricks ‘n mortar store. Once the consumer responds to a mobile program and completes the information gathering step, if they are so inclined, the next step in the consumer lifecycle is to purchase. A mobile marketing campaign can directly influence a consumer to purchase a product or service via Mobile, Online, or Offline channels, or indirectly influence future purchases through any of these channels by engendering brand trust with the consumer, as shown by Nysveen and Merisavo (Nysveen et al. 2005, Merisavo et al. 2005).
Marketing on the Revenue Side
A consumer responding to a marketing campaign or purchasing a product based on that campaign does not necessarily guarantee that a corporation will make money. A company is “making money” when it generates profits. Simply put, profits occur when revenues exceed costs. Traditionally, marketing helps in-directly on the revenue generation side by effectively communicating the value of the corporation’s products or services, pricing them inline with market demand, and making various payment methods available to facilitate a purchase, such as Premium SMS, Credit Card, Pay Pal, Debit Card, etc. Marketers do not actually produce the goods or services or make the final sales. However, with mobile marketing, in some instance, the marketing campaign itself can generate revenue directly since the campaign can be an experience the users find valuable enough to pay for. Marketers can use Premium SMS, loyalty point programs, or other billing methods to charge the consumer for participating in the marketing program; they can also sell sponsorship and ad placement within the campaign experience. For example, TV viewers may be charged to vote, such as for the Big Brother in the UK, or the concert attendee may be charged to receive a ringtone and be entered to win a seat upgrade during the event. Also, marketers can sell and embed sponsorship or advertising directly into the campaign, including in the body of an SMS message, in an inline or interstitial ad on the mobile web or in an IVR based exchange, or by embedding messages within a mobile game for example. In fact, given certain situations, such as with sports related games, consumers are demanding these ad placements since it adds a more real-world experience to the game play.
Marketing on the Cost Side
Within the cost component of the profit formula, mobile marketing helps by creating cost efficient programs that establish brand awareness, generate leads, convert leads to customers, and enhance customer loyalty; mobile marketing can be very cost efficient. The ability to generate higher response rates than traditional standalone media is just one of the many unique characteristics of mobile marketing, and is an important piece to the marketing effectiveness puzzle. With increased response, total cost per lead decreases; moreover, mobile marketing respondents tend to be more qualified given that they are actively vs. passively initiating the interaction with the brand after seeing a call-to-action, thus making for a more effective program. Finally, the variable cost for standard rate non-premium mobile initiatives is miniscule compared to traditional methods. In the case of high volume SMS programs delivering a message to a prospect can be as little as $0.00 per interaction with certain aggregators and channels but on average it is around $0.02~$0.05/message for moderate volumes, with commercial email services the cost per transaction can be as low as $0.01, while IVR services the cost per minute is around $0.07 and often higher, and the costs are even higher with traditional direct mail. Even Pay Per Click ads on the web are significantly higher than the mobile interaction, without the added time and location independent benefits of mobile.
In addition to recurring message traffic fees and application maintenance fees, marketers looking to use mobile should consider a few one-time costs, such as application access fees/licensing and possible professional service fees if the mobile application partner selected does not have standard templated solutions or if the requested campaign requires tailored message flow. In the short-term there will be some additional systemic costs that marketers must consider, such as industry regulations oversight and consumer education on the use of mobile, but these will abate over time as the industry matures. The costs of mobile marketing, however, when compared to regional or nationwide traditional media campaigns are often inconsequential to the overall program budget.
A Phenomenally Valuable Channel
Mobile Marketing has one of the lowest variable cost per message, it is personal, and it affords the highest response rate. Moreover, we should not ignore the fact that mobile can turn any traditional channel into an interactive medium, thus enhancing the marketers ability to establish a long lasting and fruitful relationship with customers. This relationship, when properly managed, will increase customer revenue and value to the firm over time. The use of the mobile channel for marketing is just now coming to light in the U.S. and is maturing in other areas around the world. The benefits of mobile marketing have been recognized and not missed by leading brands. In fact, Pearse reports that according to Coca-Cola’s marketing Manager James Eadie "mobile marketing could be phenomenally important, when you look at the penetration of handsets and the passion the audience has for mobile…as a way of connection, it ought to be phenomenally powerful and more important than TV. So we should be spending 50% of our marketing budget within decades" (Pearse 2005).
The stage is set for marketers to significantly add value to their organization more so than at any time in history. Marketers use mobile marketing for enabling unique and engaging one-to-one relationships with their customers. To be successful with mobile, and to make money, marketers need to be creative, invest the time to learn and experiment with different mobile and traditional media mobile enhanced campaign configurations, and apply their creativity to this immensely powerful new medium.
References
Kavassalis, P., Spyropoulou, N., Drossos, D., Mitrokostas, E., Gikas, G., & Hatzistamatiou, A. (2003, Fall). Mobile Permission Marketing: Framing the Market Inquiry. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 8(1), 55~79.
Merisavo, M., Vesanen, J., Arponen, A., & Kajalo, S. (2005). The effectiveness of targeted mobile advertising in selling mobile services: An empirical study.
Nysveen, H., Pedersen, P., Thorbjornsen, H., & Berthon, P. (2005, February). Mobilizing the Brand. Journal of Service Research, 7(3).
Pearse, Justin. 2005 Coca-Cola Believes Mobile Ads Have Potential to Upstage TV. Electronic document. NWA. http://www.nma.co.uk/Document.aspx?did=da845be8-0ac0-49d9-8232-b5632ab552b4.
Rettie, Ruth, Ursula Grandcolas, and Bethan Deakins Text Message Advertising: Dramatic Effect on Purchase Intension. Kingston University & BT.
DD:President of Mobile Marketing Association:
About BigTalk
Mobile Marketing Strategies and Dilemmas
January 17, 2006 1:00PM ET
Hosted By: BigTalk / Wireless Week
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association
Laura Marriott joins BigTalk for a live discussion about Mobile Marketing Strategies and Dilemmas on Tuesday, January 17, at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT.
Marriott has more than fourteen years of experience in high-tech business development, product management and marketing. She served as Intrado's Director of International Mobility Marketing--responsible for the development and delivery of messaging solutions--and held leadership positions at Cyneta Networks and Cell-Loc.
Please note: BigTalk discussions are editorially moderated. Guests reserve the right to choose or decline specific questions.
BigTalk Discussions
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Good morning/afternoon! Happy New Year from the MMA! I am the Executive Director for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) – and am happy to take your questions on the MMA, mobile marketing and the industry in general. 2005 was an incredible year of growth for mobile marketing – both in terms of industry and association growth. 2006 will see the launch of mobile advertising, mobile search as well as a number of new mobile mediums. The MMA will continue to take a leadership position in protecting the consumer experience (privacy), establishing standards and best practices and evangelizing the use of the mobile channel worldwide. I look forward to your questions today and am happy to answer as many of them as I can during this session.
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Chuck, Vancouver, BC: Who and how many members does the MMA have? What is the main role of the MMA?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Chuck, The MMA currently has over 225 members worldwide. 125 of those are based in North America. The main role of the MMA is to evangelize the use of the mobile channel and to establish standards and best practices for mobile marketing.
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Tina, Seattle: How did the MMA come up with the code of ethics? Who sets the standards?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: The MMA has a number of committees and working groups, made up of MMA member companies (volunteers), who develop the policies, standards and initiatives that are published by the MMA. The MMA encourages a collaborative, action oriented environment for the establishment of these standards. The Code of Conduct was developed in 2003 by our Privacy Committee. All MMA constituent groups, carriers, aggregators, application providers, ad agencies and brands/content providers, are represented in establishing these standards.
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Roslyn, San Fran, CA: How can I become involved with the MMA?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Roslyn, Give me a call and I am happy to discuss. The MMA is open to individuals and companies who are active in the mobile marketing industry.
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Becky, Dallas, TX: How is the MMA run? Who is the Chairman? Do you have a Board of Directors?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Becky, The MMA is a membership driven association. We have a professional staff, a board of directors and an executive committee. The Global Chairman is currently Jim Manis of m-Qube, although this role will transition to Louis Gump, Weather Channel on January 31. The Board is elected by the MMA membership. The Board of Directors is listed on our homepage at www.mmaglobal.com
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Daniel, Los Angeles, CA: How can I keep informed of MMA happenings? Do you have a website or newsletter?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: The website, www.mmaglobal.com, is a great source of information. We have case studies, articles, newsletters - all the information needed to get educated and involved in mobile marketing.
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Jay, San Francisco, CA: The industry talks a lot about new mobile applications. Are consumers aware of this? Are they going to be interested in, for example, mobile TV?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Consumers are certainly becoming more educated on the options available to them through their mobile device. For example, we have seen significant growth in text messaging over the past year (according to CTIA, a 150% increase in traffic), we have also seen the launch of new handsets which provide greater capabilities and access to the consumer. The consumer is motivated by ease of use and ability to access what they want and when they want it. So yes, I see that consumers will be interested in the emerging technologies.
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Greg Williams, Glen Ridge, NJ: There is a lot of discussion about mobile messaginging, opt-in methodology and Spam. What is your opinion on the future of mobile messaging.
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Greg, Great question. The MMA has established Consumer Best Practices (CBP) which outline the 'guidelines' around mobile messaging. Per the CBP, the consumer will determine when they want to receive mobile messaging via opt-in, this will continue (to protect the consumer experience as well as the mobile channel). On the topic of spam, because the user will 'control' when they are marketed to, spam will not be a significant issue.
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Shah, San Francisco: Is Google a member of MMA yet?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Shah, Not at this time. Our website contains a complete list of member logos - www.mmaglobal.com
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Dom, Minneapolis, MN: Mobile Advertising is great! But will consumers get "opt-in" option rather than getting SPAMed?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Dom, Yes, consumer will opt-in first.
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Mike, NYC, NY: Could you please provide some examples of successful mobile marketing campaigns?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Mike, Case studies are published on our website and include some successful examples from companies such as CBS, Visa, Procter & Gamble, Dove, ... - which are supported by our member companies. The campaigns mentioned include a combination of SMS, Premium SMS and Interactive TV.
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James, Edison, NJ: What and when is the next industry trade show?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: James, The next industry show, focused on mobile marketing, is Marketing - The Mobile Channel, sponsored by the MMA and CTIA, in Las Vegas on April 3, 2006.
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Sunil, San Francisco: What does the MMA expect to see in terms of growth in 2006? What do you believe will be the challenge for the brands?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Sunil, Mobile is one part of the cross media marketing campaign - and we expect mobile to be taking on an increasing amount of spend in the overall marketing mix in 2006. The MMA is working on launching standards and best practices around the new mediums - mobile search, mobile advertising, video... all will come into play in 2006. Perhaps the largest issue facing brands today is becoming educated on the mobile space -- and how to best make the mobile channel work for them and their specific campaign. Education, for both brands and consumers, will be a key focus this year.
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Drew in Denver: How does the MMA define the boundaries for marketing initiatives which it endorses? Are these regionally driven rather than homogenously applied? What's fine in Los Angeles may not 'play in Peoria'.
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: The MMA is a global organization with code of conducts, best practices and standards in each of the geographic regions in which we operate. Each of these sets of 'rules' are adapted based on national concerns, while adhering to global policy.
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Joe, Texas: What is the MMA doing to expand its reach into Latin America?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Joe, We are working with a number of companies to expand into Latin America. We are also actively involved in the Latin American region through our MMA Spain chapter.
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Sarah - Irvine, CA: Mobile marketing seems to be an obvious plus for everyone from Starbucks to carriers, but consumers may not be on board. How do we change perception of mobile marketing from "spam" to something they may want?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Sarah, Because consumers opt-in to receive the campaign/program, the consumers are requesting when and where they want to receive or participate in the campaign. Although there is a lot of concern about spam, spam is not an issue due to this consumer opt-in requirement, In addition, due to tight controls that the carriers and aggregators have in place on their networks and in their agreements, each are also protecting the consumer from unwanted solicitations.
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Grant, Atlanta, Georgia: How are MMA committees contributing to mobile marketing? Is their primary role to establish useable guidelines?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Grant, MMA committees, made up of representatives of MMA members across the ecosystem, are establishing the definitions, guidelines and best practices around the emerging mobile mediums. For example, the mobile search working group is working on the definition for mobile search so that the industry has a common frame of reference, the ad standards group is working on the policies for mobile advertising so that consumer privacy and publisher integrity are ensured. Each committee has a mandate, which may or may not, involve the establishment of guidelines -- but each committee does work to advance the adoption of the use of the mobile channel via education, awareness or guideline/standard development.
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Jared, San Diego, CA: What are the pro's of mobile marketing vs. marketing via the internet?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Jared, Due to the personal nature of the mobile device (always on, always available), the mobile now provides anywhere, anytime marketing access to the consumer. When the consumer is accessing a program via their mobile, they are more than likely intersted or likely to make a purchase (not necessarily the case on the Internet).
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Jordan, Houston, TX: What is opt-in vs. double opt-in?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Jordan, Good question. Simply, opt-in refers to the first time that a consumer participates in a campaign (i.e. entering the short code). In premium campagins, premium subscribers must positively acknowledge the acceptance of a premium charge prior to the application of premium charges to their account -- in these cases, the user is sent a second text/SMS after the first opt-in, to confirm the acceptance of the charge (double opt in).
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Adam Zawel, Boston, MA: Hello Laura, Which application category is the most interesting for wireless advertising? We see it already with SMS -- MMS should be a direct extension of this. What about games, video? What are the members focused on?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Hi Adam! Yes, absolutely - SMS and MMS. Next will be interstitals, video - possibly gaming -- although exact timing for rollout is unknown. Members, through the ad standards committee, are involved in establishing the guidelines around each of these mediums. Video will add a very interesting element.
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Carter, Reno, NV: Is the MMA a suitable organization for a cross variety of industry types? Or is your focus designed on only those company's who directly work in mobile marketing?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Carter, Yes, the MMA is definitely an association which crosses a variety of industry types. Our constituents include: handset manufacturers, carriers, aggregators, technology providers, market research firms, application providers, brands, content providers and agencies. All members are currently active or will soon be active in using the mobile channel.
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Amit, Boston: How is the mobile marketing industry going to be able to eliminate spam? Also, what is the latest on short codes?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Amit, I think I have addressed the spam issue so on the topic of short codes... The Common Short Code Administration (CSCA) administers our short codes in the United States. They are looking at a number of enhancements to the current program which will be rolled out in 2006.
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Darcy, Greensboro, North Carolina: How about expanding the mobile marketing scope to a broader range of interests, age groups, gender, etc.? Does the MMA have plans to promote this?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Darcy, The MMA launched a market research study in November 2005 which does show that the demographic for mobile is predominantly in the 13 - 34 age group -- however, the number is skewing upwards and we are beginning to see larger participation from the older demographics based on the innovative new campaigns. Consumer education will help in driving overall adoption, and the MMA is taking an active role in this edication.
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James Edison NJ: What is a good resource for reseller/employment opportunities in this industry?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: James, We have recently launched a Member Job Posting area on our website -- please check it out -- www.mmaglobal.com
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Tom, Boston, MA: It appears the MMA has a broad scope of members and is not limited to one sector of the industry. How does the MMA bring everyone together in such a cooperative way?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Tom, All of our members actively and collaboratively participate in the MMA because they are helping to build a professional and sustainable industry. It is our common goal -- because of this, members work together to achieve results.
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Karen, Portland, OR: In terms of mobile marketing, what are consumers most interested in?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Karen, Today, we are seeing a large number of downloads - wallpapers, ring tones, etc. Our research also shows that consumers are interested in mobile couponing and obtaining product information.
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Jim Campbell, Livermore, CA: Hi Laura, and thanks for conducting this forum. I am new to the wireless industry. What would you recommend I do to get a better understanding of the industry, what people are doing from a marketing standpoint, and what guidelines exist for marketing/advertising within the mobile space. Thanks!
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Jim, A great place to start is the MMA website - www.mmaglobal.com. I would also encourage you to contact our member companies, if you are intersted in understanding or getting involved in a mobile marketing campaign.
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Guy, Sunnyvale, CA: Do you feel that the mobile application market is moving faster than the consumer can 'consume' and process all of the new technology being thrown at them?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Guy, I believe that the consumer will ultimately determine when and what they are willing to subscribe to. The consumer is in control of their mobile experience.
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Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Thank you for the wonderful questions and great dialogue. I am sorry we have not been able to address questions. I look forward to hearing from all of you throughout the year. Additional information on the MMA, our initiatives and charter can be found at www.mmaglobal.com
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Patricia, New York: What is the focus of the best practices work? What are current findings or recommendations in the area of content or application strategy?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Patricia, The Consumer Best Practices Committee is currently working on updating the guidelines around premium SMS to reflect changes and new applications in the market - chat, viral and affiliate marketing, etc. The MMA will continue to refine and publish the guidelines.
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Kathy, New York, NY: Mobile Marketing in the U.S. seems to be booming. Anything in particular to watch out for in 2006? Should Mobile Marketing be a part of my company budget?
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association: Kathy, Yes, if you are a brand, mobile should definitely be part of your budget and your spend. We encourage you to get involved -- and get involved now. There will be lots of new opportunities and innovations this year (as well as existing technologies). Work with your advertising agency to understand your options and opportunities.
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Symbol unveils rugged handhelds
By Reuters
Published: January 11, 2006, 3:24 PM PST
TalkBack E-mail Print TrackBack
Symbol Technologies, best known for its bar code scanning devices, on Wednesday unveiled several new heavy-duty wireless products aimed at expanding into new markets including health care.
The company sees the latest products, which have cellular links, attracting more users outside its traditional warehouse market and helping raise its total potential market by about 10 percent to 15 percent this year from an estimated $7 billion in 2005, executives said.
Symbol's 2005 revenue is expected to be about $1.76 billion, according to the average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.
The company, which put features like e-mail in its latest devices, introduced its first product for the Sprint Nextel iDen network, which is used mainly by business customers. Another new device will run on Cingular Wireless' network.
Its MC9097 handheld computer, which it says is waterproof and can work after falling six feet onto concrete or after being run over by a truck. It will run on the Sprint Nextel iDen network, which is often used to transport and construction workers.
The MC70 handheld computer will run on Cingular's network and can still work after being dropped four feet or being cleaned with alcohol, making it a practical choice for hygiene-conscious health-care workers, Symbol said.
"We're really looking to branch out into new markets with this technology," Alan Marcus, Symbol's chief marketing officer said.
In the third quarter, Symbol also plans to bring out a forklift-mounted wireless tag reader that uses an emerging technology known as radio frequency identification, or RFID, to read tags to double-check the right products are being moved.
Symbol's shares closed down 11 cents at $12.99 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Kgoodrich, We need his analysis.
Tried COKE in the GO Window site? Temporarily unavailable?
ifitlooks,
Excellent job. Makes it easy for the wonderful moderators of this board.
Actually the same thing happened to me also. I thought it may just be a temporary thing and that is why I posted it. Sorry!
"Social Machines" in MIT Tech review is very very interesting. I recommend it one more time. Maybe CF should contact them and they can do a small piece on NEOM.
Type Jeep!
JP,
Can we have a link on the board information which can show us all the words which work on the Go Window site?
Type Starbucks!
Type Newsweek!
DD-Very relevant to NEOM From MIT TECH REVIEW latest subscription. Well researched front page article with a lot of mention about cell phone connections with the internet, GPS systems on cell phones and search on cell phones. Unfortunately I do not know how to type fast or I would have typed in some excerpts.
Hi Zacked,
Can you forward the email to me? I am a die hard long who watches this board regularly and is very very thankful to all the amazing research done by the people here.
my email is dhhananjay@yahoo.com
Thank you in advance.
For fans of John Battelle
Blogger, Meet Marketer
June 09, 2005
By Fawn Fitter
John Battelle described his business model for connecting bloggers and marketers.
MediaPost Communications' premiere OMMA West conference -- focused on online media, marketing and advertising -- took place June 6 and 7 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Read coverage of Publicis Groupe Media's Rishad Tobaccowala's speech from Monday in which he outlined six issues that could collapse the interactive marketing industry if not addressed.
Tuesday, internet visionary and media guru John Battelle presented the afternoon keynote address. Battelle is taking on the challenge of monetizing the blogosphere as his next project. In his speech, Battelle announced the birth of his new company, Federated Media Publishing (FMP), and described it as an intermediary between bloggers who have a committed, active audience and marketers who want to reach those readers with focused, blog-appropriate messages.
FMP will work only with blogs that offer high-quality content, expertise and authority in the blogosphere -- a group Battelle numbered "in the tens" today and probably never more than a few hundred. The company will aggrega
te these chosen blogs into bundles of up to 20 based on theme or content, he said, and will serve as a "matchmaker" to suitable marketers.
FMP will provide metrics and analysis to both marketers and bloggers, allowing them to fine-tune their relationship over time, Battelle said. It will allow its member blogs to accept ads from other sources as well, he added, and members will be free to leave the FMP network without penalty at any time.
While Battelle said Tuesday's speech was his first announcement of FMP, the fledgling business has been a topic of rumor and speculation ever since he posted on Searchblog in late December that he intended to start a new business in media and technology. On March 31, Battelle started a new website at fmpub.net with a blog announcing "a publishing business focused on high quality content," partnering with site authors to provide them with revenue and back-end support.
Battelle, whose forthcoming book is called "The Search: Business and Culture in the Age of Google," revealed his latest venture in the last five minutes of a speech about how and where search and media intersect and collide. While mainstream media sees search as a brand killer, a trend that undermines its opportunities to sell advertising, search-savvy companies see it as a way to expand their audiences and create a measurable return on their marketing investment, Battelle said. Thanks to search, he said, "marketing is a sales channel."
In a post-search age where people are looking for specific content (i.e. business news) rather than a specific site (such as the Wall Street Journal's website), he explained, companies can build their businesses by harvesting user-generated content and using it to attract other customers. As an example, Battelle cited Amazon's reviews and "people who bought this book also bought these books" lists. In addition, he said, the more valuable specific content is, the higher it will appear in search engine rankings, giving the company further leverage in controlling the conversation about the subject, be it DVD players or rental cars.
How do blogs play into this? Looked at one way, they're simply another publication, one which creates content and fights to find an audience. But unlike mainstream media, Battelle pointed out, the best blogs have a direct, open, conversational relationship with their readers -- readers who have been trained by search to seek out content based on its relevance to their interests and intent. Marketing in the blogosphere means including commercial speech in the conversation, not as a one-way communication but as part of the discussion, he said. Aggregating blogs is, thus far, the best way to place appropriate marketing in a way that scales beyond the individual blog.