U.S. FIGURES: The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) released figures from its annual U.S. Mobile Attitude and Usage Study this week. The study (carried out by Synovate) is based on 1,405 online interviews using a nationally representative consumer online panel of over 1.5 million households, and gives the stat hungry the chance to evaluate U.S. mobile user trends over the past 3 years.

·       25 percent of respondents expressed an interest in mobile marketing; only 6 percent were highly interested (19 percent moderately interested)

·       25-44 year olds showed the highest participation rates for mobile marketing. 8 percent of 25-34 year olds and 7 percent of 35-44 year olds have opted in or participated in a mobile marketing campaign

·       Voting campaigns are used by 45 percent of respondents, followed by status alerts (33 percent)

·       Only 10 percent have used their mobiles to redeem coupons, and 16 percent for discounts on products and services

·       No surprises, but worth noting – the 13-24 age group send the most text messages, averaging over 50 per week

·       More newsworthy:  54 percent of 13-34 year olds use SMS for social networking

Overall, the MMA indicates users are utilising more of their phone features, creating additional opportunities for marketers to reach them with coupons and other relevant, exclusive to mobile information. Granted, the MMA has an interest in encouraging brands to get in and test the waters, but the survey nonetheless reinforces the importance of the mobile channel. And, with users slowly warming to mobile campaigns, there’s no time like the present.

MOBILE DIRECTORY ADVERTISING: U.S. mobile operator AT&T has agreed to acquire mobile search specialist Ingenio in a move that will see the pay-per-call technology integrated into AT&T’s search and directory portfolio (YELLOWPAGES.COM Network, AT&T Real Yellow Pages and 1-800-Yellow Pages). Mobile local search has long been trumpeted as a perfect fit between mobile and advertising, although inroads into this space have seen slow growth. However, Ingenio’s system enables advertisers to track call generation and hence enable AT&T to charge them performance-based fees depending on volume.

This purchase shows clear intent from AT&T. Both Microsoft and Yahoo had been mooted as potential suitors for Ingenio, but by stepping up to the plate, AT&T is clearly positioning itself as a direct competitor to the behemoths of search advertising.

The marriage of this pay-per-call application to AT&T’s already impressive directory businesses represents a tectonic shift in the mobile search model. In a word: mobile operators can have it all if they try. They can own the search results and – more importantly – give advertisers more scope for connecting with their customers.

OPERATOR PORTAL: Following on the heels of Vodafone Czech Republic, Vodafone Spain has tied up with Amobee to insert dynamic and interactive adverts into their Vodafone Live! portal. The deal will see Amobee provide a centralised ad-server and campaign management solution that will deliver contextual and relevant ads to all types of mobile content. Although the days of the operator portal seem to be numbered, Vodafone Spain are ploughing ahead with Vodafone Live! and already have a roster of ten advertisers on board, including Heineken, Nestlé, Atrapalo.com and Linea Directa.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at 8:49 pm and is filed under Local Search, Location-based services, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.