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How will the Comcast-NBC deal affect mobile?12-08-09

By Dan Butcher of Mobile Marketer

The $30 billion deal between General Electric and Comcast Corp. to bring NBC Universal under the cable operator’s control could have a significant effect on mobile content and media.

Assuming that the deal clears all regulatory hurdles, the Comcast-NBCU joint venture would create a veritable broadcast and digital-media behemoth. And that could be a very good thing for mobile content distribution—and for mobile marketers.

“Anybody that pays attention to the space knows that this does portend some significant changes in the TV and broadcast space, and while Comcast doesn’t have a mobile play currently, they haven’t become an MVNO, will they add a mobile component to their triple play?” said Mike McGuire, vice president of research and media industry advisory services at Gartner, San Jose, CA.

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“The increase in the adoption of smartphones, particularly the iPhone, has heated up the space, so it will be interesting how the combined entity views mobile,” he said.

One of the most fascinating questions in the wake of the Comcast-NBCU deal is what the joint venture’s monetization strategy will be for its branded mobile content.
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“Mobile content is probably not going to be for free—the combined entity is going to ask ‘Is there a way to extract payment in the mobile channel?’” Mr. McGuire said. “Certainly the mobile channel is going to be important to them, but now that this is a content company as well, they will probably have a very interesting take on free versus paid and trying to crack down on piracy

“Comcast will want to extract payment—they will probably not provide free access to content on the mobile channel,” he said.

Whatever monetization models the combined companies employ, there is no doubt that the mobile mobile channel will continue to increase in importance for the joint venture.
How will Comcast-NBC deal effect mobile?

GE relinquishes control of NBC Universal to Comcast

“I don’t think anyone there in biz-dev will ignore the mobile channel for long, whether they launch a specific mobile portal or mobile delivery content offering,” Mr. McGuire said. “The next question is ‘Who do they look to sidle up with?' Andriod? The iPhone?”

Mr. McGuire cited the MLB.com At Bat application for iPhone and iPod touch, which is $9.99 in the App Store, as a good example for Comcast-NBCU to follow (see story).

“The app features a significant amount of video, and it’s a full-on paid app,” Mr. McGuire said. “That’s going to be an example that they look at very closely.”

Details of the deal
Comcast and General Electric have signed a definitive agreement to form a joint venture that will be 51 percent owned by Comcast, 49 percent owned by GE and managed by Comcast

The joint venture will consist of the NBC Universal businesses and Comcast’s cable networks, regional sports networks and certain digital properties and certain unconsolidated investments.

The joint venture will support entertainment, news and sports content development across all platforms including film, television, online and mobile.

It will be anchored by a portfolio of cable networks and regional sports networks that will account for about 80 percent of its cash flow, including USA, Bravo, Syfy, E!, Versus, CNBC and MSNBC.

Under the terms of the transaction, GE will contribute to the joint venture NBCU’s businesses valued at $30 billion, including its cable networks, filmed entertainment, televised entertainment, theme parks and unconsolidated investments, subject to $9.1 billion in debt to third-party lenders.

Comcast will contribute its cable networks including E!, Versus and the Golf Channel, its 10 regional sports networks and certain digital media properties, collectively valued at $7.25 billion, and make a payment to GE of approximately $6.5 billion of cash subject to certain adjustments based on various events between signing and closing.

Quadruple play
Both Comcast and NBC Universal have launched mobile initiatives of one form or another.

Comcast ran a mobile ad campaign within the Newser iPhone application to get companies to sign up for its Business Class Internet, voice and cable television services (see story).

In July, Comcast launched a free mobile application for the iPhone and iPod touch provide mobile access to live TV listings, SmartZone email and voicemail, and video-on-demand movie trailers (see story).

Comcast.net, Comcast's broadband service, has partnered with Thumbplay to add a mobile entertainment library to the site (see story).

NBC Universal’s Universal Studios Home Entertainment has launched iPhone and iPod touch-enabled features to enhance the upcoming Blu-ray releases of various movies (see story).

NBC Local Integrated Media launched 10 applications for iPhone and iPod touch, each backed by an NBC Locals Only city-specific Web site (see story).

NBC’s “Heroes” extended its superpowers to mobile for a fourth year with exclusive content for wireless customers who are fans of the show (see story).

NBC Universal’s cable television network Bravo has a robust mobile strategy for its programs to better engage consumers (see story).

NBC Sports launched the Notre Dame Central application, a signal that mobile television is on the up and up (see story).

NBC’s Today Show, MSNBC and Rachel Maddow tapped Zumobi to create iPhone applications, which they have promoted with banners ads within the Sporting News Pro Football application and other Zumobi applications (see story).

“Certainly NBC Universal has already had a play in mobile content, and Comcast has been building mobile capabilities, although Comcast is known for cable TV, broadband Internet and wireline telephone service for homes,” said Jeff Orr, Bend, OR-based senior analyst for mobile devices at ABI Research. “It’s not known for mobile, so NBCU brands will be leading the charge in the mobile space.

“Does this give Comcast better reach into this space? Possibly, but it depends on whether Comcast can introduce its brand into the areas currently branded as NBC Universal,” he said. “It might be able to fold in some of the Comcast services and applications to make them available on mobile devices.

“Does that get inserted into a social-media context, or just an on-demand or subscription service? I’m not sure if there is an immediate synergy for mobile, but maybe it can be built over time in the minds of the audience.”

With this deal with GE, Comcast is making it clear that it wants to cast as wide a net as possible. And mobile is definitely on its radar.

“Certainly with the breadth of channels and areas Comcast tries to cover, mobile will be a priority—it’s not just cable TV to your home, it’s a voice phone service and broadband Internet,” Mr. Orr said. “It has a partnership with Clearwire in the U.S. for mobile broadband services in WiMax markets, and there’s certainly the opportunity for more of a direct relationship relating to mobile.

“Because it’s an early agreement, there’s going to be a lot of speculation for what it will mean, but it will be business as usual for the time being,” he said. “There will not necessarily be huge changes, because NBCU has a lot of contracts and agreements are already in place that Comcast has to honor.

“I tend to think that the mobile side of the business is not necessarily high on their list, but it’s definitley part of the mix, and there will be no big shifts in strategy today, but maybe in 2010 there will be.”

Mobile Marketers Should Give Thanks for Black Friday11-18-09

by Michael of Mobile Marketing Watch

As retailers gear up for a Black Friday that will transpire as a fragile US economy begins showing signs of a promising rebound, mobile marketers are finding themselves with much to be thankful for, as a record number of holiday advertising campaigns are finding their way to a mobile outlet.

A new survey from Accenture shows that approximately 70% of shoppers anticipate completing the bulk of their holiday shopping by Dec. 7, an increase of 10% from 2008. Shoppers also plan to turn out in larger numbers this year for Black Friday – 52% vs. 42% last year.

Where mobile marketing truly proves itself a vital factor in a day predominantly thought of as an occasion where shoppers leave their computers to hit physical stores is that 86% of would-be holiday shoppers in the Accenture survey say they will only turn out for sales that offer at least a 20% discount on merchandise. Consequently, a flurry of mobile coupons will be pumped out to the masses between now and Black Friday to ensure that shoppers know they will get the deals they demand.

Historically, Cyber Monday has existed as a means to clean up after Black Friday’s shortcomings, but this year’s official post-Thanksgiving holiday-shopping kick-off could prove a hybrid shopping event that fuses the mobile and physical shopping experiences together like never before witnessed.

Although it isn’t yet clear how many shoppers will turn out for Black Friday, the deals will be there in force.

Google Purchases AdMob for $750M11-11-09

by Dan Butcher of Mobile Marketer

Google Inc. has signed a game-changing agreement to acquire mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million in stock in a move that validates mobile advertising as an effective marketing medium.

Google is hoping that this acquisition will enhance its existing expertise and technology in mobile advertising, while also giving advertisers and publishers more choice in this fast-growing area. The deal will help Google in its efforts to develop more effective tools for creating, serving and analyzing emerging mobile ads formats and expand beyond its traditional focus on search advertising.

“We’ve been talking about the awesome opportunity that mobile marketing brings to the world,” said Mike Wehrs, president/CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association, New York. “Some people understand that, and this deal shows that the largest and best-known advertising company—Google—understands the awesomeness of the opportunity, and they understand where this is going.
“If anything, it’s absolutely proof-positive of the value of the mobile channel and it encourages brands to take a very hard look at their priorities,” he said. “If they’re not already increasing their mobile spend, this is a wake-up call.

“It sets to rest any questions as to whether mobile ad networks had a sustainable, profitable business model, and this will cause people to pay attention, wow, there is significant large-player interest, so it spells opportunity.”
Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google is a top Web property in all major global markets, albeit largely monetarily successful in its search advertising business. It has recently made mobile an increasing focus of its business.

AdMob, San Mateo, CA, is one of the leading mobile ad networks specializing in banner ads for brands such as adidas, MTV, Land Rover and Toshiba that run on publisher sites such as CBS, AccuWeather, Cellufun, MovieTickets.com, Lonely Planet and Stitcher. These ads run across iPhone sites and applications, as well as those based on Google's Android platform.

Founded in 2006, the 140-employee AdMob won $47 million in funding from investors such as venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners.

AdMob and Google share a common investor in Sequoia Capital, a well-known Silicon Valley eminence.

Google’s rationale
Mobile advertising is a rapidly growing and competitive space, and Google and AdMob are currently specializing in different areas.

Though Google offers many forms of mobile advertising, its focus to date has been on mobile search ads, while AdMob's focus has been mobile display ads and in-application ads.

Google dubbed AdMob the quintessential Silicon Valley startup and claims that it is generating impressive year-on-year revenue growth.

Both companies have approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions.

As this ecosystem continues to grow, the company expects these new marketing media to offer significant benefits.

Google believes that advertisers will be better able to engage mobile users with AdMob's ad formats. The deal will bring new innovation and competition to mobile advertising and will lead to more effective tools for creating, serving and analyzing emerging mobile ad formats, per Google.

The company claims that, by improving the performance of mobile advertising, publishers and developers will be able to monetize their content more effectively, which will hopefully have benefits for the wider mobile ecosystem.

Google also claims that users will see more relevant ads and ultimately get access to more free or low-cost ad-supported content and applications, improving their mobile experience.

The mobile advertising space will remain highly competitive, with more than a dozen mobile ad networks.

The deal is similar to mobile advertising acquisitions that AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have made in the past two years.
Analysts abuzz
Industry analysts are buzzing about the news of the acquisition, and many were eager to chime in with their thoughts about the potential impact of the deal.

“This definitely puts Google in a good position—it really helps them with display ads,” said Tole Hart, Philadelphia-based research director of consumer services at Gartner. “AdMob is definitely a large ad network, and this is taking a large competitor out of the market, but there are still enough ad networks out there to make it a fairly competitive market.

“There is less competition, but still some competition in the market, Yahoo in search, and other mobile ad networks such as Quattro Wireless, Millennial Media, Jumptap and a few others still in the market,” he said. “It’s still going to be competitive.”

Many analysts believe that mobile advertising has nowhere to go but up, so there will be plenty of room for multiple players in the space.

This definitely helps Google position itself well for strategic growth in the ecosystem.

“We think the mobile advertising market is going to grow a lot, and to me it seems like a pretty good deal,” Mr. Hart said. “If it’s going to help you in this market going forward, it’s money well spent—the current revenues aren’t going to add up, but if it gets you going and gives you some assurance that you’ll be a leader, it’s worth it.

“Five years from now, everyone will have a smartphone or a really good feature phone, so there will be a lot of eyeballs and a lot of revenue,” he said.

Gartner projects that the worldwide revenue for mobile advertising will be $13.5 billion in 2013, up from around $500 million in 2008. This includes mobile banner ads, SMS, text links, search and maps, ads in applications and games, ads in videos and TV shown on a mobile phone.

Up until now, Google has focused mainly on search advertising, but this deal signals that it has its sights set on other areas as well.

“This one move underscores Google’s ongoing insistence that their strategy is to look at mobile and be a big player there, and this gives them one more piece of that puzzle, one more tool to pursue that strategy,” said Neil Strother, analyst at Forrester Research, Kirkland, WA. “They do OK with AdSense for mobile already, and this gives them a platform to go into display more and play in the smartphone space, because AdMob has leveraged that pretty well.

“Mobile advertising is still a fairly small chunk of the interactive marketing spend, it’s still relatively early, but now Google can get in and marshal their resources, and they will become a major player,” he said. “It probably solidifies them as the leader in the mobile marketing ecosystem.

“The potential is rather high to reach more mainstream users, because even mid-tier phones come with browsers and more people are signing up for data plans that come with Web browsing, so they can search and discover things that are entertaining and can have advertising in some way.”

Some analysts focused on the potential for integrating AdMob with AdSense to some degree, and the various synergies the AdMob acquisition could create for Google.

“First off, this is a big deal, both in deal size and what it could mean for Google,” said Michael Boland, San Francisco-based senior analyst and program director at BIA/Kelsey. “Google is clearly keen on replicating its online dominance to the mobile world as growing smartphone penetration drives the growth of the mobile Web.

“What it’s done so far has mostly been text advertising on Google searches and throughout its AdSense for mobile network mirroring its online strategy,” he said.

What AdMob brings is an extensive network of display ad inventory on 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications for iPhone and Android, according to Mr. Boland.

“It’s been the largest ad network for in-app ad inventory on the iPhone, which has important implications for demographic targeting and audience segmentation,” Mr. Boland said. “With AdMob, Google can now reach incremental mobile users and beef up its ability to serve mobile display advertising.

“This is a strong position if you combine it with the fact that Google has so many existing online advertisers,” he said. “It can transition many into mobile marketing with a one-stop-shop approach.

“This has implications for many more advertisers entering AdMob’s network—otherwise ad networks rely on a combination of direct sales and some self service, so in that respect, Google’s front door to advertisers gives AdMob an advantage over other ad networks.”

Self-service mobile advertising will grow in usage, which suggests Google’s approach will position it well, according to Mr. Boland.

“We could see more and more mobile distribution options integrate with its existing AdWords dashboard, again, a one-stop-shop approach,” Mr. Boland said. “If you think about it, this again mirrors Google’s online approach.

“Other mobile ad networks have meanwhile begun to ad self-service tools to reach more mid-market and SMB long-tail advertisers,” he said. “This will be a growing source of mobile ad revenue as mobile marketing reaches these segments of the market, just like they did online.”

Focusing on display, search and messaging-based advertising, eMarketer predicts that U.S. mobile advertising spending will grow from $320 million last year to $416 million this year to more than $1.5 billion by 2013.

“Google’s acquisition of AdMob obviously gives a lot of legitimacy to mobile marketing in general and mobile display advertising specifically,” said Noah Elkin, senior analyst at eMarketer, New York. “It signals, as on the desktop, that the combination of display and search are going to be what drives the advertising ecosystem, including mobile advertising.

“I’m sure that all of the mobile ad networks have been thinking about a combination like this, they’ve all received quite a bit of venture capital money over the past few years, and they’ve been contemplating something like this as a potential exit strategy,” he said. “This deal could help accelerate that timetable.

“Google putting a lot of money into the space speeds things up a bit.”

Mr. Elkin would not rule out the possibility that this deal could lead to an acquisition by Microsoft or another Google rival.

“Microsoft getting involved is certainly possible—AOL bought Third Screen Media and merged that into Platform-A,” Mr. Elkin said. “Microsoft has invested pretty heavily in voice search with the TellMe acquisition a couple of years ago, and I’m sure they’re looking pretty closely at mobile display as well.

“This is the beginning of a dance or musical chairs, with everyone looking for a partner,” he said. “It’s all leading mobile ad networks to cater to slightly different constituencies, there’s not a lot of overlapping reach, so they are viable acquisition targets—AdMob is very strong with iPhone users, while Quattro and Millennial have different user bases, so there are lots of ways into this market.

“We’ve pointed to display and search as the two main components driving the market, increasing smartphone adoption and the increase in mobile Web surfing and applications usage is driving that.”

Dos and Don'ts of Holiday Mobile Marketing11-09-09

by Giselle Tsirulnik of Mobile Marketer

Brands that have been stung by the economic slowdown will likely be using mobile as part of their multichannel efforts to drive sales this holiday season.

For many brands, it will be their first foray into mobile. Industry executives agree that the key to a successful mobile marketing campaign during this time of year is to keep the holiday shopper in mind.

“Consider the needs of the holiday shopper verses your normal, everyday shopper,” said Nikki Baird, managing partner at RSR Research, Miami. “For example, you might want to prioritize the mobile wish list or shopping list access, product locator, gift suggestions and etcetera.
“[Also], things that help consumers shop for their families rather than for themselves and things that help them get things done quickly,” she said. "Help them when they get stuck in the store and need ideas or can’t find what they’re looking for.”

Since it is going to be the first time that a lot of brands are getting on board the mobile bandwagon, it is important to know where to start from.
The goals of the campaign need to be spelled out first and foremost.

“Like all marketing channels, mobile should be viewed though a results-orientated lens,” said Charles Johnson, general manager of the mobile advertising business group at Microsoft, Redmond, WA.

“Marketers should be asking themselves what specific goals they are trying to accomplish through the mobile channel, and how mobile can extend and enhance their existing, more traditional promotional efforts,” he said.
However, unlike other, more traditional channels such as email, television, print and online – mobile can connect all other aspects of the marketing mix.

For example, adding a simple mobile call-to-action makes print, outdoor and in-store media work harder and makes it more trackable.

For mobile advertising it is important to consider whether the advertising strategy matches the goal of the campaign.

“For example, we’ve had retailers trying to drive store traffic and distribute coupons, and others looking to drive email captures,” said Marcus Startzel, senior vice president of sales at Millennial Media, Baltimore.

Mobile presents a unique opportunity to do all of these, but the media must support the goal, he said.

For example, if a retailer has a major one-day in-store sale, a one-day, day-parted shopping hours block will work better than a sustained campaign which drives email captures.

Mr. Johnson said that around the critical holiday period it is absolutely vital for marketers to do everything possible to maximize their ROI. Mobile is essential because it can make other forms of media work harder.
“Adding mobile Web makes your PC Web media work harder,” Mr. Johnson said. “Adding mobile search makes your PC Web search campaign work harder. Adding mobile couponing makes your CRM systems work harder.

“In effect, mobile can be a force-multiplier to the marketing mix at the most critical time of the year,” he said.

Vibhav Prasad, vice president of Web and mobile marketing at 1800Flowers, Carle Place, NY, said that mobile can really help retailers boost holiday sales.

With the slow economy, there’s no doubt that boosting sales is on every brand’s to-do list.

“Mobile offers retailers the opportunity for incremental sales, potential to reach a new audience, while at the same time providing added-value to existing customers,” Mr. Prasad said.

1800Flowers launched its downloadable application for iPhone last Thanksgiving, right in time for the 2008 holiday season, to ramp-up Christmas promotions and boost incremental holiday sales.

“Launching the app taught us about scheduling and planning,” Mr. Prasad said. “Allow for development time for your mobile campaigns and offer things that are unique to the channel, including submission turn-around times with Apple, BlackBerry, Android and etcetera."

Marketers need to make sure that their technology is bug-free before putting it out in front of customers, according to Paula Rosenblum, managing partner at RSR Research, Miami.

But with mobile, Ms. Rosenblum believes it is more important to make sure that it is consistent with the brand image in both look and feel.

“Make sure the information is consistent across all channels and make it fun,” she said. “We’ve found that consumers have a higher tolerance for small bugs as long as they can actually enjoy the technologies they’re using.”

Targeted promotions are key during the holiday season. Consumers are seeing so many different ads and the best way to make sure that a brand message is being seen is by being as relevant as possible.

For example, NearbyNow does in-mall offers to drive consumers to a specific store.

The company provides mobile alerts for when hard-to-find products are received in stores.

“Whatever you do, you have to pair the immediacy of local context with what you as a retailer or brand have to offer,” Ms. Baird said. “NRF has predicted that sales will be down 1 percent from last year, but my feel for the market is that this is too conservative.

“And, retailers have been buying conservatively as well,” she said. “If that turns out to be right, then there are going to be a lot of consumers chasing a lot of products.

“Anything you as a brand or retailer can do to help consumers find the gifts they’re looking for is going to be key.”

SMS promotions are going to be very popular this holiday season.

1800Flowers’ Mr. Prasad encouraged brands to use double opt-ins for SMS programs.

Brands should also keep promotions tailored to the small screen of the mobile device and always keep user experience in mind in terms of easily redeemable offers.

“Ensure mobile merchandising also takes user-experience into account, rally around top-performers allowing for a slimmed down catalog that is easy to view and navigate,” Mr. Prasad said.

The industry experts all agreed that mobile is very beneficial to retailers if used strategically.

Microsoft’s Mr. Johnson said that mobile possesses two key qualities that render it uniquely valuable to retailers.

“It’s always on you and it knows where you are,” Mr. Johnson said. “In many ways mobile sits at the last mile of the marketing funnel – allowing marketers to drive consumers right into the store nearest them and then close the loop by extending purchase incentives – all on the device.”

From a targeting perspective, mobile allows marketers to really ratchet things up.

“Location targeting – whether through mobile search or display - efficiently targets mobile media to users who are literally closer to an actual in-store purchase,” he said. “Extending behavioral targeting to mobile allows marketers to reach consumers who have already demonstrated an interest in their products online, but in an out-of-home environment when they are far more likely to be ready to buy.”

The application craze is even crazier during the holidays.

Mobile applications and the devices they ride on have proven to be great productivity boosters for consumers.

“So, let’s say I’m sitting at an airport and I remember a particular gift I wanted to buy someone,” Ms. Rosenblum said. “If the retailer has a mobile-ready app, I can go ahead and order it right there.

“Or, if the brand has a mobile-ready app, I can do research on prices, products and features during that otherwise idle time,” she said. “You could even argue that I could do these things while waiting in line at a check-out stand in another store.

“Having a good mobile application is a win-win for the user and the retailer. The opportunity to recoup at-home time is a big one, and the opportunity to improve the brand image and also increase sales is also huge.”
Holiday mobile marketing best practices:

1.Consider that these purchases are primarily for other people, so make sure to orient mobile offerings to that context.
2.Because it’s holiday, if a brand doesn’t already have an established mobile market, it will need to do in-store tie-ins - “Can’t find that perfect gift? Text HELP to 123456 for a link to our holiday gift finder!”
3.Consumers during the holiday season are typically tight on both time and money, so anything that can be done to help them save in either department is a nearly always a winner.
4.Allocate placements to on-the-go, “time saving” categories such bite-sized news, information, entertainment or even communications channels like mobile IM or email – all categories that are endemic to mobile.
5.Use tactics like store locators, discounts or just key product information or tips made mobile – basically anything that can make the lives of consumers a little bit easier will always be a hit during the holidays.
6.Make sure if you are launching or have a mobile marketing application, it is compatible with the full range of devices out there (no flash).
7.Think of the least common denominator in screen size and browser capability and make it work. Remember, in aggregate, BlackBerry has a larger penetration than the iPhone and it doesn’t do flash at all.
8.Keep your mobile marketing application lightweight. Not every area has 3G coverage.
9.Make sure messaging is consistent with other channels and information is accurate.
10.Make it fun.
11.Start with reach. There are more than 64 million mobile Web users according to Nielsen. Your customers are carrying iPhones, flip phones, and gaming handsets. Don’t artificially restrict your success by choosing a specific device unless your product is unique to those users.
12.Target and then target again. Mobile targeting is easy. You know your consumers meet a specific profile, target that profile. One caveat: Sometimes the cost of the targeting outweighs the benefit, as broad targeting can usually produce a better ROI.
13.Get media in the market on shopping days. We know that timing media closer to the consumer purchase point works. Use the uniqueness of mobile to get people while they are out. Consider day parting by store hours, or sending traffic to an ecommerce or registration site while stores are closed.
Based on a study by Universal McCann, 81 percent of mobile Web surfers are browsing while they are shopping.

"Mobile presents a unique opportunity to have your ads impact a consumer while they are near your store," Millennial Media's Mr. Startzel said. "With a compelling offer and creative, you can use mobile to redirect the foot traffic into your store.

"Mobile users are already out and about, so it’s not about creating movement, it is about funneling the activity," he said.

Mobile Ads Three To Five Times More Effective Than Online11-09-09

by Dan Butcher of Mobile Marketer

Mobile advertising is three-to-five times more effective than online advertising, according to an ad:tech panelist.

Bruce Braun, CEO of Agent-M, moderated the “Measuring Mobile—Exploring the Metrics” panel. He asked the panelists questions such as “What are the tools and metrics used to justify brands expanding into mobile?”, “Can we apply the same tactics to our mobile campaigns that we’re using in our other digital marketing efforts?” and “How do you measure the unique value of mobile to engage your target in new ways and places?”

“Everyone has a different mechanism for measuring the success of a campaign, but we have normative databases tracking what brands can expect from advertising campaigns on mobile,” said Ali Rana, vice president of digital strategy at Dynamic Logic, New York. “There is still a ways to go but we’re made making progress.
“Because of some of the challenges on mobile, it has allowed advertisers to keep messages fairly simple, with a single frame, and that tends to resonate well with the audience,” he said. “In fact, mobile advertising is 3X-to-5X more effective compared to online advertising.

“Mobile screen size is a challenge but also a huge benefit to advertisers, because there’s not a lot of clutter, and most successful campaigns we’ve measured the messaging is simple, the brand is integrated and for now a simple ad is all consumers need.”
The conversation ranged from the standardization of reporting and measurement of mobile campaigns to the ownership and sharing of data.

Panels discussed theh need for impartial third-party verification for accurate measurement, post-buy campaign audience profiles, post-buy ad-effectiveness data and advanced segmentation by attaching carrier subscriber data.

Some panelists seemed cautiously optimistic that over time carriers will share more consumer data with marketers.

Some stressed the need to acknowledge mobile’s uniqueness while at the same time looking at the channel as it related to a brand’s overall marketing strategy.

“When looking at mobile measurement, do you want to catch it up from other mediums or start from ground zero and aim for a better solution overall?” said Paul Kultgen, director of client services and mobile media practices in the online division of Nielsen, New York. “People are measuring mobile on this island and I’m not sure it’s fair to the medium.

“Focus on integration—how do you not look at mobile alone but as part of a broader set of communications objectives and media channels?” he said.

Will aligning mobile analytics with online and traditional media analytics generate larger spends for mobile? Do better analytics equal larger spends, and do larger spends generate better analytics?

It is a chicken-or-the-egg argument. Brands are afraid to ramp up their mobile spend because the metrics are not there yet, but the metrics cannot become more sophisticated unless brands make the necessary investment in the channel.

“For small and medium businesses, SMBs, simplicity and standardization are paramount,” said Steven Marshall, manager of research initiatives at the Kelsey Group, Princeton, NJ. “Mobile cannot have a unique set of metrics, and these various issues around infrastructure and metric development and accuracy have to be tapped into place a little more before you approach most small businesses, because they don’t have the bandwidth to handle it.

“The message has to be very simple, very easy to grasp,” he said. “There is a very high level of interest among small and medium businesses in social media, particularly the intersection of mobile and social media.

“When there’s more knowledge and data on this usage and monetization thereof, we’ll get small businesses thinking, do I want to invest in Twitter-linked and mobile marketing efforts or do I want to buy a banner on Yahoo?”

Closing the loop to track mobile-coupon redemption at the point of sale could be the ultimate metric for many brands.

“An ad format that will increasingly be distributed via mobile is coupons,” Mr. Marshall said. “There is very strong interest among consumers in getting coupons on their mobile devices, and there is very strong interest from small businesses for mobile coupons, which may shape this debate.”

One factor making measuring mobile campaigns more difficult is the fact that so many feature phones without an operating system remain in the market. Mobile advertising will exist in a different universe when everyone has a smartphone, leading to more usage and different use cases.

“Mobile is still evolving so dramatically, measuring is kind of a challenge—we should definitely not dumb-down the metrics, but not make them so esoteric no one’s going to buy,” said Ryan Neufeld, senior analyst of mobile at comScore Inc., Reston, VA. “There has to be some commonality for measurement to compare different channels.

“I would ask brands, ‘What are you trying to do, who are you trying to reach, what are you trying to tell them?” he said. “Good creative on a text message is not the same as good creative on a TV ad, and mobile advertising is probably hideously complicated, but rather than just take an ad and throw it on mobile, think who are you trying to reach and what devices are they using? What is your objective?

“Why do you want an app? The answer not always there. If I can get a better retention rate with an app than a piece of direct mail, then that’s great, because a lot of money is being spent on direct mail.”

As other traditional media and the PC Internet become more and more cluttered, mobile is a way for brands to cut through the noise.

“What is unique about mobile? The Internet used to be a lean-forward medium, but now it’s more cluttered,” Mr. Neufeld said. “TV is definitely lean-back now, but mobile is lean-forward, so more immersive metrics are of more value, rather than say ‘I kind of think I reached a certain demographic.’

“Mobile is definitely going to impact what younger demographics do on the PC—they’re not emailing, they’re texting or tweeting,” he said.

“Usage is going down here but going up there, which is good for mobile, but maybe bad for content publisher because it forces you to connect the dots a little more, as the print industry is demonstrating right now.”
MMA has its say
The industry currently measures the success of mobile advertising with many types of metrics.

The Mobile Marketing Association, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Media Research Center are working on Global Mobile Measurement Guidelines to establish a common framework for mobile ad measurement for release in 2010.

“The MMA is trying to make strides to make sure we put together best practices, guidelines and standards to help brands and agencies invest in the mobile space,” said Kristine van Dillen, director of industry initiatives and partnerships at the Mobile Marketing Association, New York. “The metrics that I hear about a ton are impressions, click-through rates, page-views and how long a person is engaging with an iPhone app or rich-media advertisement.

“The ones we are trying to create global measurement guidelines for include ‘How do you accurately capture impressions and click-through rates of banner ads on the mobile Web? How can brands and agencies trust the accuracy of those metrics?”

While many firms are measuring mobile advertising in different ways, brands are ultimately looking for the ability of mobile ads to drive conversions and revenue.

“The next steps are measuring brand engagement, closing the loop on impressions and driving purchases of physical and virtual goods,” Ms. Van Dillen said. “We’re also looking at messaging, which is a little bit different.

“Brands and agencies have concerns—with so many ways to measure effectiveness, how do you compare rich media to messaging to TV and out of home?” she said. “They’re looking for apples-to-apples comparisons for mobile.

“Mobile has the opportunity to have the most meaningful measurements of any channel, and we need accurate numbers so you can compare it to other marketing channels as well.”

It Knows Where You Are, and What You’re Looking For11-06-09

by Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times

Big Web companies and start-ups alike are scrambling to create the best applications to allow users to search for surrounding businesses and events from a mobile phone. Loopt, a service that lets people find their friends on the go, is now entering the crowded field.
On Tuesday, Loopt will introduce a new search service, Pulse, on its Web site. An updated application for Apple’s iPhone will be available soon.

Mainstream search engines from Google and Microsoft already offer local business listings, and the popular user review sites Yelp and Citysearch have mobile phone applications. Smaller sites like NearbyNow and Metromix are also jumping into mobile search, which uses the GPS capability in many cellphones to figure out where a person is and show ads for nearby businesses.

“Everybody’s got an eye on the mobile space and location as a central part of the search experience, but I don’t think there is some definitive app,” said Greg Sterling, an analyst on local mobile search. “It’s very elusive because it’s such an unwieldy segment.”

Loopt aims to distinguish itself by making its service comprehensive. It incorporates feeds from 20 sources, including listings and review services like Zagat, Citysearch and Eventful as well as content sites like DailyCandy, Thrillist and The Village Voice.

Pulse produces a personalized and ever-changing list of recommendations based on where you are, the time of day and Loopt’s own data on where you and your friends have been. It shows editorial descriptions and reviews from the partner sites and averages the ratings a business has received.

Pulse also factors in more subjective factors, like which places are particularly popular with Loopt users at a given moment. That will help Pulse come up with recommendations that a site like Google might not, said Sam Altman, a Loopt co-founder.

“One thing we’ve tried to do is strike a nice balance between purely algorithmic search and saying, “This is a brand-new and hot coffee shop that just opened in this city,’ ” he said.

Pulse is a new direction for Loopt, which has been focused on helping people find friends who are nearby and checked into the service.

Unlike competitors like Foursquare, Loopt gets some revenue from cellphone carriers, which include its service in their data plans or buy its technology to run their own location-based applications.

Pulse lists businesses like gyms and gas stations and events like movies and farmers’ markets, in addition to the usual bars and restaurants. It hopes to become partners with more sites, so users might be able to book tickets or make reservations from within the application. It also plans to include data from Twitter’s future location-based service.

The pitch to advertisers is compelling, Mr. Altman said, because Pulse knows where someone is, what they are looking for and what they previously liked. Retailers like Jack in the Box, Target and Chili’s have already agreed to offer coupons on Pulse. Users can save coupons to their phone to show the cashier.
Mobile coupons can get seven times as many responses as those in print or online because people do not need to write down a code or print the coupon, said Maria Mandel, executive director of digital innovation at Ogilvy, the advertising agency.

Still, Ogilvy does not have many clients that are interested in location-based promotions, she said. “The issue with mobile right now is you don’t have a large enough audience size at the moment. That will change as the media channel grows.”

Pulse will also share revenue with content partners like Citysearch. When a user reads a Citysearch review on Pulse and then clicks on the restaurant’s Web site, both Citysearch and Loopt will earn money.

Yelp, one of the most popular sites for searching local businesses, is notably absent from Pulse. That is because Yelp was not convinced that Loopt would clearly show that its reviews and information came from Yelp, said Stephanie Ichinose, a Yelp spokeswoman.

Mr. Altman said he hoped to cooperate with Yelp in the future. “I have huge respect for Yelp, and they’re probably the leader in the local content space right now, but I don’t think they’re better than everything else put together,” he said.

Here's To Smartphones10-31-09

A New Ad Campaign from HTC Celebrates the Smartphone

Taiwanese mobile company HTC has released a new ad campaign featuring the tagline, 'quietly brilliant.'

The ad is shot from a 'phone's-eye' view and features the many different ways people interact with their devices.

The commercial says:

"It's the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see at night. It stresses you out; it calms you down. It helps you remember; it helps you forget. It keeps you connected. It's the only thing you own that is always within an arm's reach. "

The ad explains just how important smartphones, and mobile phones in general, have become in everyone's life. It truly is the one thing that everyone is constantly connected to. It reinforces the fact that there's a need for mobile content, and a race to get it out there.

Mobile ads, apps, sites, and texts are effective. Get in on it.

Mobile Marketing Revenue to Hit $24 Billion in 201310-30-09

NEW YORK-- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Mobile marketing, which was born in countries such as Japan and South Korea, has taken off in Western Europe and is beginning to grow in North America. As consumers move to flat-rate data plans and adopt mobile messaging, and as new platforms for advertising-supported mobile search, video and gaming content services arrive, mobile marketing is expected to grow to over $24 billion worldwide in 2013, jumping from just $1.8 billion in 2007.

“The clear difference in this market over the past twelve months has been the embrace of mobile marketing as an integral part of cross-media brand campaigns," says ABI Research director Michael Wolf. “Mobile is no longer off-limits in the minds of advertisers, but is instead seen as a very personal way to reach consumers who can be incentivized through information services and compelling content, as well as through more directly relevant and targeted messaging."

The market, however, is still very much a “wild west" environment and will take time to develop. Hundreds of mobile marketing platform providers have sprung up, and larger players such as Google, Yahoo, and Nokia have made significant investments in this fast-changing market. Emerging players in the ad network and software space such as Admob, Enpocket/Nokia and Millennial Media are becoming important new players in a market that is similar to the Internet advertising gold rush of the late 1990s.

“In these early stages, many of the technology platform players are also doubling as the interactive agencies for large brands," Wolf notes. “However, we see large ad agencies and their interactive divisions or partners increasingly working with key platform providers as roles become more defined."

A recent survey by ABI Research found that while consumers are initially leery of mobile marketing, their perspective largely depends on whether they see some advantage for themselves. While 54% of survey respondents indicated they were totally opposed to mobile marketing messages, 70% of those same respondents said that an incentive such as a ringtone or a free song might make them receptive to mobile marketing.

Twitter Metrics Still Misses Mobile10-30-09

Market intelligencer Hitwise published new research yesterday about visits to the Twitter website, showing that such visits have been in decline since a peak in July.

The figures relate to visits by US users to the Twitter website, which follows a similar report from Hitwise in September. US users account for over 60 percent of all Twitter usage.

Yet such numbers don’t include the numbers of users who don’t visit the website but instead use Twitter to interact with their communities via third-party applications.

Such figures could be significant and may skew interpretations of any metrics about how people user Twitter, including from what platform (desktop, mobile, etc), as I’ve wondered about before.

Hitwise says the decline in numbers is mostly due to Facebook’s dominance. That may well be so, but could it also be influenced by more people using third-party apps rather than going to the Twitter website? I think it’s a reasonable question but I can’t find anyone with an answer.

Then there’s mobile.

Mobile usage intrigues me most for four primary reasons:

Updating Twitter on the go is becoming easier literally by the day: it’s getting easier to access a network, cellular or wifi, almost anywhere you happen to be as those networks become more widespread, faster and more reliable.
The ways you can interact with Twitter from a mobile device are rapidly becoming more feature-rich – meaning, you can do far more valuable things to interact with your community than simply send and reply to tweets – as more Twitter apps become available especially on the iPhone, as some existing apps (with strong and loyal customer bases) evolve with additional features and functionality, and as more apps emerge that hook into Twitter (eg, mobile recording audio or doing online shopping and the app tweets your activity).
Ever more smarter handsets are coming from manufacturers ranging from Apple (iPhone), Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Blackberry, Palm (Pre), Android and others, all with a strong focus on the mobile web and apps rather than just making phone calls and sending text messages.
Especially in the US, there’s a clear trend in increasing overall usage of mobile devices to interact with content of all types on the web according to reports such as Pew Internet’s
Twitter and Status Updating, Fall 2009, which shows status updating and social networking “likely to grow as ever more internet users adopt mobile devices as a primary means of going online.” Pew’s view of the US is echoed elsewhere in the world in the latest monthly report from AdMob published yesterday showing strong growth in mobile usage in other major markets notably India, the UK and a number of countries in Southeast Asia.

So while metrics on Twitter usage such as those from Hitwise are useful pointers on what’s been happening, I don’t think they’re terribly valuable as predictors or even indicators without a more complete picture that includes mobile and third-party apps.

SMS As A Tool For Qualitative Research10-30-09

by Jim Bryson for Mobile Marketer

The post-email generation has quickly taught the rest of us about the convenience of the “txt msg,” but can qualitative researchers really gain consumer insights from messages so short that some are called tweets?

In a word, yes.

More of these researchers who seek to understand the motivations behind decisions and behavior are using text messaging as a tool and finding it holds exciting promise.

No longer must the research be conducted at a time convenient to the researcher. Now the research query can come to the participants in real-time through their mobile devices to glean more reliable and complete information.

But how can qualitative researchers dive deep into consumers’ motivations and attitudes about products or services, often buried deep within the psyche, using short, electronic messages?

Text feeds research
Often, text messaging serves as the first phase of a more in-depth research project that might include focus groups, online bulletin board research or some other in-depth method.

In this scenario, the text messaging serves an important role for establishing behavior patterns and helping the researcher to develop hypotheses to be explored in a more in-depth setting.

While mobile text messaging has certain limitations, gathering crucial attitudinal and behavioral information exactly when it occurs is a key benefit that no other research method can provide.

For example, text messaging allows the researcher for a fast food chain to send text messages to research participants asking a question such as, “At which fast food restaurant did you have breakfast and why did you choose that one?”

Texts such as the one listed above might be sent throughout the day to understand behavior and attitudes and potentially get more candid responses.

Over the course of several days and several respondents, the researcher can build a fairly complete profile of the target market.

Similarly, researchers send text messages to shoppers, people attending events, tourists, travelers and other study participants.

Diaries are dear
Compared to diaries and other response forms, compliance with text messaging is high, usually more than 80 percent, because nearly everyone has a mobile device and these messages are so immediate and convenient for the participant to respond to with a few simple keystrokes.

Compare this method with traditional qualitative methods: researchers often rely on written diaries to track behavior and attitudes to understand a question surrounding the use of fast food restaurants.

Diary compliance is often irregular and unpredictable, as participants are asked first to remember to write it down and next to remember what, when and where they ate. Often, this does not take place until the end of the day.

Still, there are limitations to the use of texting in qualitative analysis, the primary one being the 140-character constraint and the information sharing limitations it presents.

Also, there is the lack of the researcher’s ability to observe subjects’ responses and reactions in person or in a research setting to document the cues it might yield.

While these constraints can largely be overcome through an increased sample size and extensive follow-up research, mobile texting will likely become just another valuable tool in the toolbox qualitative researchers use to answer the question, “Why?”