T-MOBILE CZECH STUDY SAYS SMS/MMS AD RESPONSE RATE 27 TIMES HIGHER THAN INTERNET BANNER CAMPAIGNS.  The project confirmed the high response rates of SMS and MMS ads, based on campaigns from 22 advertisers, including Coca-Cola, Nestle, L’Oreal, Ford, Komercni banka and Eurolines. The most successful campaign had a response rate of almost 12 percent, while even the results of the least successful campaign were three times higher than the average response rate for Czech internet campaigns. Source

The bottom line: These results highlight the potential of compelling, relevant and properly targeted messages. In particular, they illustrate how much more likely are consumers are to respond to SMS and MMS ads than simple Internet banners.  Peggy adds: Mobile Advertising Research U.K. confirms this, but there’s also a lot of mileage left in banners. For more on what makes for a great mobile advertising experience and a balanced value chain check back tomorrow for my take on a new-launch Hardees campaign.

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TOP APPLICATIONS ON THE APPLE APP STORE HAVE MORE THAN 1 MILLION USERS, according to AdMob’s latest Mobile Metrics Report for May 2009. The report found that the most popular free applications in AdMob’s iPhone network generated the majority of usage, with the top 5 percent of applications garnering more than 100,000 users in May, and some apps showing more than 1 million active users.

A further 14 percent of applications had between 10,000 and 100,000 active users, while 54 percent of applications had less than 1,000. AdMob reached 15.1 million unique users through iPhone and iPod touch devices across 2,309 applications in May, with the average user accessing four applications.  44 percent of iPhone ad requests came from devices running the new version 3.0 of the iPhone OS, compared to just 1 percent of iPod touch requests.  Source

The bottom line: These numbers from AdMob underline the ongoing popularity of apps on the iPhone. But they also offer some insight into the potential value of in-app advertising for developers and content providers, since the apps in AdMob’s iPhone network are all free to download, and earn money solely from advertising.

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SUBSCRIPTION VIDEO AND MUSIC ACCOUNT FOR 40 PERCENT OF MOBILE DOWNLOADS IN THE UK, according to a study from GfK, as the model grows in popularity against pay-per-download sales. The research also states that casual and classic trivia and word games lead the mobile gaming market with 27 per cent of sales, while the budget sector (£3 or less) is also enjoying success through basic and retro games.  It also adds that nine per cent of the mobile tariffs signed up in the UK in Q1 have bundled-in flat-rate data.
Source

The bottom line: This study illustrates the growing popularity of the flat-rate model, both in mobile data access, but also in content subscriptions. Still, the content-subscription model contrasts with the booming pay-per-download app store model.  Will one triumph over the other?

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AD-FUNDED MMS REVENUES TO HIT $8.7 BILLION by 2014, says Juniper Research in a new Mobile Messaging report.  The report says that annual growth rates are reaching 94%, with SMS and mobile email continuing to dominate the person-to-person (p2p) mobile messaging market.

The report, entitled “Mobile Messaging & IP Evolution”, found that the Far East & China would lead the global ad-funded MMS market by a considerable margin, followed by North America and Western Europe.  The adoption of push MMS and SMS in mature and emerging markets has enabled network operators to support ad-funded voice and SMS tariffs, and combat falling ARPU, while providing brands with new advertising channels. Source

The bottom line: These are bold projections from Juniper.  P2P MMS messaging still has a way to go before it reaches the usage level of SMS, but these projections suggest that MMS advertising could prove to be a lucrative revenue stream in its own right.

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MORE THAN 60 PERCENT OF MOBILE USERS STILL ONLY USE THEIR HANDSET FOR VOICE AND TEXT, according to a KPMG survey. The survey of 4,190 consumers in 19 countries also says that consumer satisfaction rates with mobile services have increased. Music satisfaction is up to 66 percent, video 52 percent (from just 14 percent), IM 44 percent and live TV 38 percent.

The factors influencing users’ next mobile content purchase, according to the survey are, in order: clarity of pricing, cost, ability to save content, download speed and the ability to try content before purchasing it.  36 percent of respondents said they would accept mobile advertising, while 49 percent said they would accept it in music and 28 percent in games.  Source

The bottom line: The level of acceptance of mobile advertising is encouraging.  However, the headline is arguably the most pertinent point: for over 60 percent of consumers, the mobile internet doesn’t exist and text messaging is the only data application of a mobile device.

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MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT REVENUES ARE EXPECTED TO GROW 28 PERCENT ON AVERAGE over the next year, according to the Mobile Entertainment Forum’s quarterly Business Confidence Index, up one percent from its last survey.

Content owners are much more optimistic about their revenues, with the anticipated average income up from $6.1 million to $17.1 million.Revenue in Western Europe is expected to be down 10 percent, North American revenues are predicted to be up 8

percent. 81 percent of respondents said they were as confident as last year about the future of their business. Source

The bottom line: This MEF study illustrates a bullish mobile entertainment market, unbowed by the economic climate.  It could be that, aside from the natural obligation towards market confidence, stakeholders believe the purchasing of relatively low cost content through microbilling will remain popular as consumers delay the big ticket items and seek alternative forms of entertainment.

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APATHY AND PRICE RULE IN NOT SELECTING THE iPHONE, say the latest findings from The NPD Group.  The study showed that the primary reasons consumers do not want to purchase an iPhone are “lack of interest” (55 percent) and “high price” (42 percent).

One in five mobile phone owners say they want to purchase an iPhone, but have not yet done so, and NPD’s report indicates data plan pricing and exclusivity remain key obstacles.  18 percent of consumers who have not purchased an iPhone cited the expense of the data plan, while 21 percent said they didn’t want to switch carriers.  Source

The bottom line: Reasons why Apple’s iPhone isn’t persuading everyone to leave their current carrier and device seem quite simple: they aren’t actually that bothered.  Given the previous data point, which revealed that 60 percent of people only use voice and text, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

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iPHONE USERS TOP SMARTPHONE LOYALTY ratings, according to a new survey by Crowd Science.  It also says four out of ten BlackBerry and other smartphone users would switch to Apple’s iPhone as their next smartphone purchase.

On the other hand, only 14 percent of non-BlackBerry smartphone users would switch to a BlackBerry for their next purchase. Meanwhile, a huge 82 percent of iPhone users are loyal to the brand. Source

The bottom line: In contrast to the previous report, this one highlights the attitudes of smartphone users who, almost by definition of being smartphone users, care a little more.  The study is as much a study of consumer brand perception, and the iPhone steals the show as expected, but BlackBerry may take note of the small minority who would switch for their next purchase.

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MORE THAN HALF HAVE MOBILE SECURITY FEARS, according to mobile security specialists, Cloudmark Inc.  The report says mobile spam now affects two in three consumers, more than 50 percent worry about mobile security, and only 7 percent believe the information they send over the phone is secure.

Cloudmark also says the concern about mobile security is detrimentally affecting the adoption of mobile services such as banking and e-commerce, with more than two thirds (69.3%) of consumers stating that they wouldn’t use value-added services such as mobile banking.

Two thirds of consumers (65.9%) have received unwanted or unsolicited messages (spam) on their mobile phone. While a majority of spam messages could simply be seen as a nuisance, 29% of respondents had received malicious spam such as phishing messages, fraud messages or messages containing inappropriate content.  Source

The bottom line: This report highlights the ongoing fears around the security of mobile devices, which will likely become more prevalent as smartphones become more pervasive, and spammers and malware authors pay more attention to mobile. However, we should also remember that the mobile security specialists who produced the report might have a small agenda of their own.

Tags: ad-funded, AdMob, app store, Apple, BlackBerry, Coca-Cola, Eurolines, Ford, Hardees, iPhone, Komercni banka, L'Oreal, MEF, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Advertising U.K., Mobile Marketing, Mobile Security, Nestle, smartphone, T-Mobile, T-Mobile Czech

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Data Points, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Content, Mobile Research, Personalization. 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.