In brief: A look at value chain confusion, the impact on mobile advertising and Hardee’s blueprint that brings some order to the value chain and benefits to people, PLUS Jumptap’s CMO Paran Johar talks about targeting and how to leverage it – and I can’t resist connecting the dots in Jumptap’s recent announcements.

The mobile advertising value chain is riddled with questions and shortcomings at this early stage of the game. Uncertainty over who has what place at the table, how many mouths we need to feed and whether there’s enough food to go around in the first place have created confusion and cost the industry valuable time and resources.

This is one of the key findings to emerge in Mobile Advertising Research U.K., a research project (undertaken by MSG, coordinated by Aeneas Strategy Consulting & Management, and guided by Every Single One Of Us) that draws upon interviews with companies across the ecosystem and a survey of 1,000+ individuals (purposely refraining from using consumers to refer to people) to expertly document the state of the mobile advertising industry in the U.K.

Chief gripes

Admittedly, the challenges are rife: the inability of mobile operators to deliver customer segmentation that effectively delivers a familiar demographic (say, males between 19-24 living in London as opposed to millennials, business prosumers or other concepts brands and buyers can’t relate to) ; the overemphasis on clickthrough, when we should be developing metrics and measurement better suited to mobile, such as cost per acquisition or cost per engagement, that better reflect its personal nature and value; and the overall lack of creativity and flexibility to move beyond the links and banners we know from the Internet. But widespread confusion over the mobile advertising value chain was reported as the single biggest obstacle blocking the industry from unlocking the vast potential of mobile advertising.

In fact, the consensus is that congestion in the value chain has paved the way for inevitable market consolidation, a process that may begin as early as late 2009.

Amid this confusion, it is virtually impossible to gain a sound understanding of the mobile advertising business models. To help the industry build a market and encourage the creation of a healthy ecosystem, Mobile Advertising Research U.K. offers insights into the value chain and the functions individual players must perform to enable brands to connect to people on their mobile phone. We have also identified where companies can (and will) play multiple roles in the value chain to build core capabilities and deliver value-add.

Unsurprisingly, although the report advises companies to collaborate (not compete) until the mobile advertising market has matured and business models have emerged, many of the executives interviewed revealed strategies to assert their dominance in the value chain by trying to squeeze players to their left and right into more peripheral roles. It is not possible to predict the outcome at this point, nor can we ascertain the impact on the overall market ecosystem. However, it’s clear that the value chain will continue to be an issue and become more complex and fragmented.

Education and examples

So, while it seems that the value chain is both the problem and the solution, it’s encouraging to see examples of how mobile companies can (and should) come together in pursuit of a greater goal: Covering all the bases to execute exceptional mobile advertising campaigns.

My work on Mobile Advertising Research U.K. (which will be repeated in 2010) has allowed me to connect with an eclectic mix of creative agencies, mobile marketing firms and applications companies, relationships that allow me to showcase notable campaigns, case studies and key learnings on MSG for the benefit of companies across the mobile advertising business ecosystem. I’m particularly looking forward to connecting with Alex Meisl, Chairman of Sponge, a mobile digital agency, in a few weeks for the inside track on a “powerful” mobile advertising campaign he assures me will impress me even more the campaign his agency put together for the Bird’s Eye frozen foods company.

By way of background, this promotion pegs the needle in my book. It started out as a simple text-to-win scheme and evolved into a personal dialogue with the individual, encouraging them to try other Bird’s Eye products. In practice, because the consumer sent a text to the short code on the back of the package, Sponge knew what the individual consumer bought and could suggest a complementary product, such as frozen potato waffles to accompany fish sticks. As Alex put it: “We wanted to move mobile advertising away from just a single point of contact to building up a long-term relationship with the consumer.” It paid off. Bird’s Eye was able to create an opt-in database of well over 100,000 people open and interested in receiving more text messages and rich advertising delivered via email moving forward.

Hardee’s multi-channel play

Another example high on my radar is Hardee’s new mobile campaign encouraging people to name their new line of Biscuit Holes. The multi-platform, interactive campaign will deliver geo-targeted advertising across Jumptap’s premium ad network through a channel of premium sites and applications that are frequented by the target audience of adults between the ages of 18 and 49. To ensure effective targeting (again, a prerequisite to an optimal advertising experience for both brands and people, as my own research shows), a custom channel was created for this campaign that brings together the mobile destinations (social networking, entertainment, sports and lifestyle brands) and publishers (Boost Mobile, Joker Poker, MocoSpace, LimeLife and Weatherbug) to fit this specific target audience. Hardee’s will also run display ads on tapMatch, Jumptap’s self service PPC mobile performance marketplace where the same ads will be delivered based on similar targeting parameters. (Release)

But what really stands out here is how the Hardee’s campaign, developed by advertising agency Mendelsohn Zien Advertising, has orchestrated the capabilities of key players to make this work.

• iLoop Mobile, a provider of integrated mobile marketing solutions and services, created the mobile-optimized site that features rich media such as videos of the ads, viral branded mobile greeting cards that people can send to each other, and product information) The site also integrates with the campaign Internet website via form fields that collect the person’s suggested name for the Biscuit Holes, as well as other user profile data. From there the data (in this case the suggested name for the Biscuit Holes) can be inserted into the TV spots.

• InsightExpress, a digital marketing research firm, closes the circle, bringing to the table its abilities to measure success and failure. Specifically, the research firm will measure the mobile campaign’s success, highlighting changes in consumer awareness, message association and purchase intent after exposure to the display banners and landing page.  Using Mobile InsightNorms, a database of 50+ mobile campaigns, InsightExpress will also compare the effectiveness of the Biscuit Holes campaign to previous mobile studies.

And there is a feedback loop to all of the companies in the ecosystem. Hardee’s, Mendelsohn Zien,   iLoop and InsightExpress will join Jumptap to showcase the results during ad:tech New York (Nov. 4) and share lessons learned from the multi-channel, multi-platform, multi-player campaign.

(By way of background, the partner companies – each fulfilling an essential element of the campaign and ensuring optimal execution – was set down at Jumptap’s MobileMix conference, which awarded Mendelsohn Zien Advertising a free “mobile advertising immersion program” – a kind of turnkey solution that brings together the companies listed above. The goal of the program is to showcase the ease in launching a mobile marketing campaign and demonstrate the overall effectiveness of mobile advertising.)

Jumptap’s Paran Johar

Thanks to Julie Ginches (who heads up marcom and is my constant companion on Skype) I arranged a briefing with Paran to discuss the campaign and get his view on mounting mobile advertising value chain tensions.

From our discussion:

Q. We know the Hardee’s news from late June, but what does it tell us about mobile advertising obstacles now? Is this the way to jumpstart and industry that has stalled?

A: That’s a great question. When we developed this concept, we really wanted to remove any barriers for an advertiser to test mobile advertising. No matter if they didn’t have a WAP site, a creative, or a way to measure it all. This program removes those barriers completely.

It was wonderful that Hardee’s won this because I think the fast food area has been moderate in terms of its adoption of mobile advertising. So I think they were the perfect winner. But what’s really great about this, and very unique, is that they integrated this into the overall campaign immediately. This is just not another ad in terms of ‘let’s just slap up some banners and see what happens’ It’s inviting  people to name the product, which I think leverages the medium [mobile] for what it does best.

Q: That’s what I’m hearing in all my interviews for the Mobile Advertising Research UK project: Mobile should sit at the center of a cross-media play. Is this your thinking?

A: Cross-media’s really critical because each medium has its place. Mobile has branding effects, we all know that from the dynamic study from InsightExpress. Television has a different role because of its sight, sound, and motion, and because it has a larger reach.

Within this mobile has the unique ability to be incredibly relevant, geo-specific, and interactive, all which complement other media such as online and TV. Mobile engages a consumer, when it’s relevant to interact with an ad and provide a response.

Q: Let’s talk more about targeting, because that also came out in my research. It has to be targeted and relevant, and our research into people’s attitudes supported this…

A: Yes, that’s why a perfect example is this campaign. They actually integrated that whole idea in campaign, the ‘Name Our Holes’ concept, into the mobile component. So people are going to be getting targeted media on both our performance marketplace tapMatch, and a premium mobile ad network targeting 18- to 49-year-old males, and they’re going to engage with ads to actually name the biscuit holes and provide feedback.

And that feedback could be integrated back into the television TV spots and is actually going to be used on other things like a mass-focus group to get insights from consumers. And they can also engage with the brand on the WAP site by forwarding mobile greeting cards; by forwarding TV spots and viewing TV spots. So it really provides an opportunity for a consumer to engage with a brand and provide a level of interactivity on the ‘Naming Our Holes’ campaign.

Q: Other companies are involved here. Does that tell us something about who has a place at table, or do you just all get along really well?(laughter)

A: We did this to bring the ecosystem together to show results. iLoop, as our partner; so for a campaign ‘Name Our Holes’, they brought the WAP site to bear, and it wasn’t just a one-page WAP site – it was a WAP site that included engagement with consumers to actually name the biscuit holes for Hardee’s restaurants. It also provides a crucial component, allowing consumers to forward greeting cards if they’re a Hardee’s fan. And it also allows them to watch the commercials – if they so choose.

The InsideExpress component was critical because advertisers need analytics. They’re going to measure this from a click-through rate perspective – what was the click-through rate and what was the number of people that submitted a response and/or sent a greeting card? But, beyond that, what InsideExpress allows them to do is actually measure the brand lift; the awareness, the message association and purchase, and that’s critical because that is specific to the mobile channel.

Our component is the media component of this campaign, which allows the advertiser to target its audience, males 18 to 49, in specific geographies, both in the premium mobile ad network and in tapMatch.

It really shows the goal here is bringing all of us together in the ecosystem we can show how relevancy with a clean user experience of a WAP site can drive user engagement – can drive conversion – can drive brand awareness and brand metrics.

Q: You have three companies here, the average value chain has at least six steps between the brand and the individual. What so few mouths to feed?

A: When you think about the value chain, there’s typically a publisher, an operator, an ad network. There has to be a WAP provider that develops the WAP site and then there has to be measurement. We obviously work with many operators, many publishers, and many advertisers. We work with many constituents in the value chain. This program is a way just to bring together an ecosystem that shows how this can be done and how we can remove barriers to show how easy it is to launch a mobile advertising campaign and measure results.

Q: It’s an opt-in campaign, which again covers the bases from what my research reveals is best practice. What can you tell me about engagement?

A: For this campaign, we wanted to keep it simple. And keep in mind; we had to pull this all together in less than four weeks. Hardee’s is all about interacting and entertaining their customers, so this was a perfect platform to do that. That’s their main goal is involving the customers in an entertaining way. The main call to action of the entire promotion is naming the Hardee’s biscuit holes. That’s their goal, is that they’re coming out with this new product. It’s basically a new product launcher. At the same time, it’s about capturing people’s names, emails and phone numbers to build a CRM database for the future. So that’s a win as well.

A word about patents

Using the opportunity to connect again with Paran, I asked him about the significance of the recent decision by the United States Patent Office to award Jumptap a patent that “relates to a method for presenting an advertisement in association with a web page displayed on a mobile communication facility.”

By way of background, the patent covers a method that is based on:

• determining a first relevancy score based upon a statistical association between at least a first advertisement and one or more keywords;
• determining a second relevancy score based upon a statistical association between at least a second advertisement and the one or more keywords;
• receiving a web page request from the mobile communication facility;
• receiving contextual information from the web page, wherein the contextual information includes at least the one or more keywords; and
• presenting the first advertisement in association with the web page to be displayed on the mobile communication facility based upon a determination that the first relevancy score is greater than the second relevancy score.

Paran declined to comment, a decision I respect. A look around the blogosphere didn’t help put this into perspective either. Most sites simply regurgitated the news and my esteemed colleague Greg Sterling stands out as one of the few to think this through and tell us what it means.

His take: A strong IP portfolio makes the company [Jumptap] more attractive as an acquisition target or potentially gives it another (licensing) revenue stream down the line.

My take: Thinking this though – and knowing Jumptap CEO Dan Olschwang as well and as long as I do – I must come to a different conclusion. Dan has his eye on the prize. He is hardly focused on wielding IP to be a more attractive candidate for acquisition. If anything, he’s creating and communicating capabilities (including a store of impressive IP related to targeting and mobile advertising) to make it clear that Jumptap has its stake set firmly in the ground. Jumptap a candidate for takeover? More likely getting in gear to take over someone else.

Tags: Add new tag, Every Single One Of Us, JumpTap, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Advertising U.K., mobile analytics, Mobile Marketing, Mobile SEO

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Mobile Advertising, 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.