Editor’s note:

Text messaging allows companies and brands to interact with mobile users everywhere. From appointment reminders, to remote diagnosis, to more personalized mobile marketing pitches, these conversations are driving new growth and new business models.

The Mobile Data Association’s most recent Mobile Trends Report found that the U.K. is sending 11 text messages per hour. That may not sound like much, but mobile data analyst Tomi Ahonen has global figures that show the vast reach and potential of messaging. At the end of 2009, 77 percent of the 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers on the planet used SMS text messaging (that’s 3.5 billion), and 37 percent used MMS messaging (1.7 billion).

Connect the dots, and messaging is a mass media used and enjoyed by a global messaging-literate audience.

Despite our fixation with smartphones, super-phones and apps — mobile 2.0 attractions that interest affluent audiences and users living in developed markets – text continues to be the main attraction. SMS features on all mobile devices launched to the market. Thus, messaging is the best and most effective way to reach everyone everywhere.

Moreover, the evolution of mobile marketing and the introduction of new mobile tools and technologies are pushing messaging usage to new levels. Little wonder that messaging continues to make considerable money. Non-voice mobile markets are still predominantly driven by SMS messaging, which is second only to voice in mobile network operators’ revenues.

A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITY

SMS began as a person-to-person form of communication. Over time text emerged as an ideal way to deliver mobile marketing messaging, a scenario that made good business sense from brands, but partially blinded the industry to the many other use cases possible.

While it is often neglected in favor of new, richer mobile media, messaging is still the centerpiece of mobile marketing campaigns today. But it also sits at the centre of much more.

Messaging is used to deliver basic notifications to both consumers (B2C) and businesses (B2B). And it is increasingly being deployed in more innovative ways across a number of industry sectors.

Indeed, messaging can be harnessed to coordinate aid efforts, raise funds, and help people and non-profits in remote areas of emerging nations organize their daily routines. Closer to home, messaging can significantly reduce costs and increase productivity in the U.K.’s own healthcare sector.

The advance of messaging and the its impact on business and society at all levels strengthens the MDA in its goal to promote the use and benefits of mobile data and allow companies across the mobile data industry to speak with a single voice.

Building on successful projects such as the BBC Radio 1 Picture Messaging Day in December 2009 — a day that saw over 42,000 BBC Radio 1 listeners send in MMS messages of themselves via an MDA-enabled free short code — the trade body will continue to focus on activities that bring mobile data to a larger audience.

Indeed, a key focus in the 2010/12 term will planning and activities to integrate messaging into preparations for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Efforts will also center on ways to improve mobile giving by streamlining the mobile charity text messaging process in accordance with the existing MDA framework.

To spearhead this effort Roger Craven – CEO of Vir2, a U.K. pioneer in mobile charity fundraising services – has recently been appointed Director Responsible for Mobile Charity within the MDA. The position has been created to encourage wider adoption of the framework and make it possible for more users to give to their favorite charities and causes. Roger is more than qualified. Since founding Vir2 in 2005, he has been involved in over a thousand charity campaigns using messaging, Bluetooth and other mobile media. He has also lobbied British Parliament for HMRC VAT rules for SMS donations to be clarified.

In recognition of messaging and its increasing role in marketing the MDA has also appointed Oscar Jenkins — CEO of Dynmark International, a U.K.-based mobile marketing company with a strong focus on messaging — the MDA Director responsible for Mobile Marketing. Shawn Brown, Head of Sales at Dialogue Communications, a mobile solutions specialist, has been named Director responsible for Regulatory matters.

MOBILE DATA STATS

From telematics and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) messaging, to mobile health and mobile (conversational) marketing, the intersection between mobile and business is a lucrative one. This is where the MDA strives through its work to bring benefits to industry, educating stakeholders about the potential applications and giving guidance on best practice.

Technology and user behavior are perfectly aligned to drive significant growth in mobile messaging – both SMS and MMS. However, regulatory issues must also be overcome before messaging can achieve its commercial potential as a mass-market mass media.

Live SMS voting, competitions, chat and tarot services are all well-positioned to experience healthy growth provided the industry is united on best practice and firm regulation. This is why the MDA is involved in liaison with PhonepayPlus, the U.K. regulator of phone-paid services, as it draws up its latest Code of Practice.

There’s a lot at stake.

A study by the research firm ThinkTank estimates that Premium SMS market revenues totalled GBP316.7 million in 2009. Meantime, new MDA board member Dynmark recently reported that the commercial messaging market (which excludes person-to-person messaging) will be worth GBP 620 million in 2011. This forecast is a clear indication that mobile data is thriving and will remain a strong-growth sector for some time to come.

What’s more, Dynmark suggests that evolving media consumption behavior through subscription-based publisher paywall models will likely encourage new ways of integrating messaging as companies and organisations seek new ways to monetize their content.

BUSINESS IS BOOMING

Clearly, messaging in the enterprise – and across a variety of sectors including M2M, healthcare and public sector — is poised for significant growth.

A vertical high on the radar is mobile health (mHealth). Here the deployment of even the simplest messaging service, such as a reminder service alerting patients to the time of their appointments, can create huge benefits and cost savings. In fact, local health organizations estimate the cost associated with missed appointments alone is a whopping GBP180 million per year. More importantly, the National Health Service (NHS), the U.K.’s publicly funded health service, report inefficiencies cost the country GBP800 million. An excellent opportunity for mobile to reduce wastage and make a positive difference.

Against this backdrop, case studies demonstrate that messaging is the best way to reach patients on the move.

Why? Because text messaging is simple, affordable and it can give consumers the opportunity to reply. Another benefit is the guarantee of scheduled delivery within a 24-48 hour period before the appointment, allowing doctors and general practitioners to reach patients when they are most likely to respond in the first place. And let’s not forget that these messages can be delivered to all mobile devices everywhere. Sensing a business opportunity, an increasing number of companies now offer solutions that integrate with appointment software, completely automating the task.

As this column illustrates, messaging and mobile data continue to play a central role in much more than marketing campaigns and direct-to-consumer offerings. It is a primary communications medium that connects companies and enables all verticals to communicate with their customers. Bank statements, medical advice, appointment reminders, voting and location-linked services are just a few examples of the services that will ensure the advance of messaging in data-hungry societies across the globe.

* * *

Mark Hawkins is the Director of Communications of the Mobile Data Association (MDA), a U.K. trade organization that has spearheaded the promotion and use of mobile data by businesses and consumers since it was established in 1994. As a director of the MDA Mark has acquired a deep knowledge of the mobile industry. An area of expertise is mobile data transmission and aggregation, including messaging (SMS and MMS), 3G Video and Location-Based Services (LBS). Mark is also the founder of Composed Communication, a company providing public relations and marketing communications services to technology companies.

For more information, and good reasons to join(!), visit the MDA website here. Sign up to become a member here.

Editor’s note:

Some five years ago, Mizuko Ito, a cultural anthropologist at Keio University in Japan, burst on the scene with what was back then an amazing observation.

By watching how people interacted with their mobile phones in Japan she concluded that mobile shaped every aspect of our everyday lives. Based on this revelation she co-authored Personal, Portable, Pedestrian, a milestone book whose revolutionary views on mobile and its impact on our relationships, identities, and communications with people, companies and brands, are more pertinent than ever.

In this work, Ito and her colleagues outline the pivotal importance of the mobile phone, based on the fact that it is personal (we customize and personalize mobile devices and consider them an extension of our personal identity); portable (even the Japanese name for mobile, keitai, – roughly translated “something you carry with you” – stresses the relation between the user and the device and not between the technology and function); and pedestrian (because it is portable it’s a perfect fit with life as it happens on-the-street, melding with activities that require partial or sporadic attention such as waiting for a bus, shopping, or – in the case of children – riding a bike).

Fast forward, and we have mounting evidence of just how fiercely personal our relationship to our mobile phones really is. Ito suggested it was intimate, but I’m not sure if that description goes far enough.

FEELING NAKED

Take the 2008 study conducted by the wireless trade association CTIA and Harris Interactive, a market research firm. This survey of some 2,000 teens across the U.S. revealed that respondents feel that mobile phones have become a vital part of their lives and their identities.

Just how vital comes through loud and clear in this comment from a 17-year old who participated in the study:

“Leaving home without my phone almost feels like leaving the house naked.”

A more recent quote, this time from a must-read article in the Guardian, drives this point home – full-force (!)

“I’d rather give up, like, a kidney than my phone.”

Philippa Grogan, the 16-year old interviewed for the piece, can’t imagine how anyone could function without a mobile phone. The article goes on to outline the personal relationship youth have with their mobile phones and their singular focus on communicating with their friends (via text and Facebook update, for example). Connect the dots, and any disturbance in this communications flow – such as uninvited and irrelevant advertising – will correctly be dismissed as annoying spam.

PERSONAL SPACE

Indeed, the mobile phone – essential to most, and akin to an appendage for youth — provides brands and advertisers a tremendous marketing opportunity provided they play by the rules.

These rules, which define what I call engagement marketing, center on asking permission in order to deliver people brand messages they will accept and appreciate. This approach makes perfect business sense in view of the intensely personal relationship people have with their mobile phones. Put simply, it’s their personal device and their personal space – and intruders beware!

An interview with Coca-Cola, which appeared in the Netsize Guide 2009, underlines the importance of permission and preferences.

As Prinz Pinakatt, Manager of Interactive Marketing for Coca-Cola in Europe,  put at the time: “We describe the digital space as the dining table. [When you deliver an ad] you are invited to the dining table of the consumer. The mobile phone is even more personal, so it’s sort of the bedroom. Given that this space is so intensely personal brands like us have to be really careful about what we do. A homepage takeover on the mobile phone, for example, might end up immediately in a lawsuit. We have to seek a balance and that’s why we are experimenting a lot…. In some cases, and regions such as Africa, it’s as simple as having a conversation using SMS.”

Whatever approach brands and advertisers take, it’s clear that they must be based on permission, preference and a deep respect for people’s privacy. As mobile becomes even more integrated in our lives and more central to our psyche, companies that attempt to barge in on our personal space will see the door slammed in their face.

Editor’s note: Starting next month a virtual round table on MSG will explore the views of youth around the world, delving into their views on mobile, advertising and their likes/dislikes. How personal is mobile really? Check back and find out! You can also follow MSearchGroove (@msearchgroove) or Optism (@optismww) for updates.

* * *

Lisa Ciangiulli, Director of Marketing for Alcatel-Lucent Global Advertising Solutions, where she has been instrumental in the development and marketing of Optism™, Alcatel-Lucent’s powerful permission-based mobile advertising solution. In this role, and throughout her career, Ciangiulli has spearheaded efforts to encourage cooperation between players across the ecosystem with the ultimate goal of enabling closer communication with the consumer. In May she was named to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) North America Board of Directors. You can follow her on Twitter (@LisaCiangiulli).

Disclaimer: Optism is an MSG supporter.

The sale of digital goods continues to be a robust business. In fact, the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) – the global trade body for the mobile media and entertainment industry – told MSG in this podcast that overall confidence in the mobile entertainment market continues to climb. Little wonder that the organization projects that the value of the mobile media market will rise from $32 billion for 2009 to $36 billion for 2010. (listen to the podcast here.)

However, the much more exciting opportunity could be mobile commerce that bridges the digital and physical worlds, allowing consumers to pay for real goods and services using their mobile phones and mobile retail apps.

MOBILE COMMERCE SURVEY RESULTS

Indeed, consumers see real value in mobile commerce and the convenience of being able to find and buy goods (digital and physical) at the moment of inspiration. It’s a profound shift that we’ll explore in more depth when Netsize releases the next in its series of thought leadership white papers analyzing the results of its milestone Mobile Trends Survey 2010.

By way of background, Netsize conducted a survey of over 1,000 professionals and practitioners across 67 countries to gain insights into key trends that top the industry agenda, including the advance of mobile applications stores, progress towards global mobile commerce and the pivotal importance of mobile as a means to bridge our virtual and physical worlds. (Download the apps report here.)

CONTEXT MATTERS A LOT (!)

But it’s not just about buying stuff with our mobile phones; it’s about enhancing our complete retail experience and transforming our mobile phones into what some call the fourth retail channel.

It’s not so far-fetched. Already, consumers – particularly smartphone owners – are researching and purchasing goods and services on the move. In fact, Compete, a Kantar Media company that produces a quarterly Smartphone Intelligence survey, forecasts a mobile shopping “explosion” this year as more people use their phones to comparison shop and ultimately buy goods on the go.

At the other end of the spectrum, a January 2010 survey of holiday shoppers from Motorola found that more than half (51 percent) of consumers across 11 countries used their mobile phones for in-store activities such as comparison shopping and for obtaining peer feedback, product information, and coupons.

All this bodes well for companies that enable retailers to offer opportunities for new levels of consumer connection.

INTERVIEW WITH NEARBYNOW CEO SCOTT DUNLAP

Success in retail is all about helping consumers find and buy what they want most. NearbyNow, a U.S. – based provider of personal shopping services, has taken this experience a step further, providing mobile shopping applications for magazines, brands, and retailers so that their consumers can stay updated on the latest products, buy online, or even locate and put products on hold at a nearby store. In 2009 the company released a succession of iPhone applications for lifestyle publications such as GQ, Seventeen, Brides, Lucky, Runner’s World and others, all based on their iPhone Platform. NearbyNow currently partners with more than 65,000 stores across the U.S. and continues to build mobile applications for leading lifestyle brands, retailers, and publications. Scott talks about the future of shopping and the role of social interaction.

Q: NearbyNow started out as a way for consumers to search all products and sales available at local shopping centers using the Internet or mobile phones. Now you build branded iPhone application to drive local purchasing. Please explain this shift.

A: Our original service allowed consumers to walk into a shopping mall and find any product they wanted in the size and color they wanted – even put it on hold –before they got to the mall to buy it. Over time we noticed that the same items were in demand over and over again.

We dug into the numbers and consumer behavior, and we found out that it’s really six or seven magazines and a couple of TV shows that most influence consumer purchasing. The real fashion-conscious demographic – teens and women aged 25-to 35 — were using their mobile devices to look for products that they saw in the magazines. Most of them were looking nearby, so they could try them on or try them out.

To connect and measure this, we built iPhone applications for the magazines. Consumers can see all the products that are in the magazine in one place and type in their size to find the closest store that has it. We connect the user from inspiration to trial.

Q: You have begun experimenting with new combinations of services around mobile shopping. What can you share?

A: We have over 1 million mobile shoppers now, and it has become clear that “mobile shopping” has unique patterns of user behavior in discovery, purchasing, and social networking. An example is the Brides Dressing Room, the first wedding and bridesmaid dress locator application on a mobile device. We found out that when looking at bridal gowns, most brides want feedback from a close set of friends, not everyone on Facebook. So we built a feature that allows a bride to send a picture of the dream dress to friends and family to get instant feedback via e-mail. It’s a mini-social network capability designed specifically for interaction around a single purchase, albeit an important one.

Q: We already have social networks such as Facebook, where we can post the purchases we are considering? Why create mini-networks?

A: The Bride example made sense because there was more social interaction prior to purchase than we had seen with any other item. We actually found that no one wanted to post the wedding gown they might buy on Facebook. It’s just not a broad social network play. It’s about communicating with a small group of folks involved in the wedding. There is a specific purpose to this network and we need a different kind of social network, not the tools that Facebook and MySpace provide.

Somewhere between the magazine and the in-store purchase is where all the action is happening. Capturing this on a mobile device says so much about purchasing behavior – who influences it, what products are considered, where they are considered, and more. It’s just amazing!

Q: Another thing that is amazing is the conversions on the mobile advertising. What are you seeing?

A: The conversion numbers are great, but the biggest impact is really about having information about purchasing that can be fed back to advertisers and retailers. Magazines are taking the data – which shows the number of consumers they reach and how much purchasing they incentivized – and handing that back to their advertisers, who can’t get enough of it. Having a mobile app allows magazines to answer a lot of questions about conversion that they couldn’t quantify before. In many cases, they can even show demand that was generated after the product had sold out, and how much business that represents. It’s very powerful.

The overall conversion to purchase per use is about 6 percent. What’s really fascinating is how that breaks down. Of the 6 percent, 5.5 percent are converting by finding a nearby store and purchasing there. The remaining one-half of one percent is purchasing the item directly from a mobile Web site.

Q: Do you expect that to change going forward?

A: As the user base grows, we expect this to come down some. But I don’t think the ratio of in-store to online purchasing will change that much. Offering both online and in-store alternatives really blurs the barriers between the physical and digital Internet world. It’s important to note that mobile shoppers will always have a foot in both worlds, constantly evaluating between a product available now down the street, or cheaper online if you are willing to wait and pay for shipping. You can think of it as a “convenience curve” that trades off price for convenience and immediacy. The ultimate price is probably found online; the ultimate convenience is paying a premium to have the item brought to you wherever it is currently geo-located.  In all of these scenarios the role of mobile is to be a connector device. It gives you that world of physical and digital options at all times.

Q: Mobile commerce, mobile advertising, mobile social networking. Where do you see the growth opportunity?

A: There is a big opportunity for mobile to increase commerce for both online and physical stores, but the biggest opportunity will be innovation from mobile advertising. In the short term, companies like NearbyNow that host many apps on the same platform can give advertisers an opportunity to reach a wide range of people who are actively shopping. This solves the “reach” problem that holds back a lot of advertisers. NearbyNow will evolve into an ad network, but using ad “units” far more powerful than banner ads. We’re talking engaging experiences, like how-to videos to get a celebrity look, a catalog of all the products in the video, and using the phone to make an appointment with a nearby stylist to help you purchase and try it on. These are things we are doing today.

From here we will see a lot of innovation on mobile ads. How about a coupon that is only good for one hour to stop you from buying online? How about a similar ad targeted to people shopping at Nordstrom to get them to come to Macy’s? Once the capabilities can reach millions, the whole game is going to change. That’s the power of mobile shopping.

(Editor’s note: Scott and I connected just now and he has not only launched his ad network; it’s consistently selling-out (!) It’s a unique story and one that Scott will share with me later in the week. Look for a post recounting recent progress at NearbyNow next week…)

THE NETSIZE GUIDE

The Netsize Guide – which features exclusive interviews with 28 industry senior executives at leading companies and organizations including Havas, M&S, MMA, Nokia NAVTEQ, PayPal and Sony Music Entertainment — provides unique perspectives and reveals how players across the mobile ecosystem are preparing to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities ahead.

The Netsize Guide 2010 also includes the results of Mobile Trends Survey 2010, an online survey asking +1,000 mobile professionals and practitioners across 67 countries their views on these key themes and their insights into trends that top the industry agenda, including the advance of mobile applications stores, progress towards global mobile commerce and the increasing importance of mobile across a range of business verticals.

Finally, the Netsize Guide 2010 presents detailed data on the wireless telecoms sector in 41 countries, including revenues, market shares and value-added service offerings for messaging and billing of 194 mobile network operators worldwide.

Disclaimer: Netsize is an MSG supporter. Peggy Anne Salz is author of the Netsize Guide 2010.

Editor’s note:

Many companies/brands may like to assume that people are passive consumers – willing to settle for ‘few-sizes-fit-all’ mobile marketing and advertising pitches on their mobile phones, but the reality is quite different.

Empowered consumers– particularly digital “natives” who have grown up with the Internet –are demanding more choice and more control over their mobile experiences and the mobile advertising they are willing to accept.

Against this backdrop, advertising is becoming content and people naturally want mobile advertising that fits their lifestyles and life stages. And we know people are only interested in receiving content they are interested in. Anything else is spam.

GET PERSONAL

The same goes for brand messages. As Dan Parker, Sponge CEO, sees it: Consumers do want to receive targeted advertising about the brands they love and the products and services that fit their personal preferences — as long as their privacy is protected.

Connect the dots, and the ideal mobile advertising approach – one that will drive a high response rate — is one that enables brands to deliver advertising that is permission-based and reflects personal preferences.

This view was echoed by the media, analysts and agencies that attended the global launch press conference marking the debut of Optism, a permission-based mobile marketing solution from Alcatel-Lucent. Beyond discussing the nuts and bolts of the solution, the event provided ecosystem players a platform to discuss the future of mobile marketing and pivotal role of permission.

Why should brands make the effort? Why must advertising become more of a service? These are just a few of the questions that I explore with Dan in the interview below. (Also check out this recent podcast interview with Dan here.)

PEOPLE POWERED

At the other end of the spectrum, Anne Morris, veteran telecoms journalist, is open about her personal dislike of mobile advertising. In her view, the days for intrusive advertising and hard-sell are numbered. “There is going to be an element of having to go out there to people and say: So, can I have your permission [first]?”

But it’s more than a Communication Ideal (a nod here to the milestone book by Jonathan MacDonald, co-founder of this fluid world). It’s an ideal business model for brands and operators. As Anne put it: “If this presents an opportunity for operators to get their place in the value chain, that that’s obviously going to be a good thing.”

Special thanks to Vincent Camara and the fantastic team at intrudersTV. This series also marks a new collaboration between MSG and intrudersTV to film industry events and deep-dive discussions with industry movers and shakers.

Disclaimer: Optism is an MSG supporter.

For mobile operators, getting peoples’ permission before introducing a mobile advertising service is mandatory in ensuring a non-intrusive experience. Operators can’t just assume that their customers are interested in receiving ads on the most personal device that they own. Mobile operators enjoy an advantage over others in the ecosystem and that is their direct relationship with customers. These customers must be able to trust a mobile operator to protect their privacy and respect their right to determine what appears on their mobile; otherwise the risk is that they will move on to an operator they can trust. From deep insight into this mindset, we see there is an overwhelming attitude of “If you show us that we can trust you, we’ll be more inclined to share additional information with you and to be receptive to other service offers you might have”.

Unlike earlier generations, consumers are now extremely empowered. Technology and innovation provides us with tools, platforms and channels that make it possible for us to bring our opinions and concerns to the widest possible audience. We’ve already talked about how, as individuals, we expect to be asked permission as a matter of respect. We wouldn’t accept someone intruding into our other personal spaces — our homes or cars for example — without asking permission. And we won’t accept that kind of behaviour on our mobiles, which are an extension of our personal space.

We also need to be able to control the situation for which we give permission. With mobile advertising, this means that we must understand exactly what it is that we are giving permission for, and that we know how to retract that permission, should we want to do so. Of course, in addition to control and trust, we need to be offered something that is of value to us, something that makes it worth our while to invite advertisers into our world.

For advertisers, having our permission to begin the conversation increases the likelihood that we’ll listen to you.

Read the rest of this post here.

A raft of announcements and events from the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) signals a new level of excitement and activity in the global mobile media industry. From the advance of smartphones and app stores to the widespread recognition that service enablers (offered by mobile operators and handset makers) are essential to the health and wealth of the entire business ecosystem, the industry is in a new phase of development and mindset. As Rimma Perelmuter, MEF Executive Director, puts it: “There’s a real sense in this $36 billion global industry that we are at a new stage of innovation. We’re seeing consumers around the world using their mobile phones as their key point of access to content and media, and the industry is evolving to make that user experience one that is more engaging and more holistic.”

PERSONALIZATION PLAYERS & VODAFONE 360

Against this backdrop, this year’s Meffy award is much more than a recognition of excellence and innovation. It’s a welcome confirmation that the industry is experiencing a true coming of age, striking out in new directions and defining new areas of opportunity around mobile apps, mobile commerce and cross-platform content and technology.

In fact, this year’s awards saw the introduction of seven new categories that reflect key industry trends and point the way to where the action is. A particularly important one this time around was content discovery and personalization, a category I developed together with Kim Arazi, Member Relations Director, and judged as part of my duties for the third consecutive year.

The decision was a tough one as always, and the range and calibre of companies focused on technology to unlock the value in profile data (demographics, browsing patterns, purchases) to generate real revenues was impressive.

One entry that underlines the tangible business value of personalization was Vodafone 360, the Vodafone app store. Here a personalization engine (powered by Xiam, a Qualcomm company), which provides recommendations based on user behavior, was at the center of the mobile operator’s strategy to deliver a richer retailing experience. The impact of personalization was measurable and Vodafone later revealed anayltics to Mobile Entertainment that show four times more customers buy on the basis of recommendation than on promotion.

Other entries included CSL MyNet Personalized Mobile Internet Service (powered by AMDOCS Interactive), another exceptional example of how personalization technologies are allowing operators to offer value in the off-portal space, and Taptu, a mobile search and discovery company making its mark by indexing the Mobile Touch Web to expose touch-friendly content people can enjoy on their touch devices.

MEFFY WINNERS & FANCHARGE

Another category that shows the coming of age of consumer engagement was mobile advertising. I also judged the category and was struck by the shift in mobile marketing approaches away from sales pitches to enhanced experiences. Indeed, agencies and brands are correctly embracing mobile as a mass media and focusing their efforts on innovative ways to place mobile at the center of a 360-degree experience.

An excellent example of this was the winning entry. Go! Go! Lions, an integrated mobile campaign carried out with the Seibu Lions, a Japanese major-league professional baseball team, used the Fancharge platform, an integrated suite of mobile marketing and fan engagement applications for live sports and entertainment, to deliver everything from content to coupons to commerce. (Click on the image below to see this impressive campaign — and thanks to Fancharge for sharing and hosting this video.)

Other Meffy 2010 Winners:

• App Store Blockbuster
  CBS Mobile for ‘NCAA March Madness on Demand’ [Check it out here]
• Business Intelligence
  Motally for ‘Motally’
• Consumer Experience
  FindaProperty.com for FindaProperty
• Content Discovery & Personalization
  Taptu for ‘Touch Search’
• Cross Platform Content
  Zed Group for ‘Planet 51’
• Cross-Platform Technology
  MTS for ‘Omlet.ru’
• Games
  PopCap for ‘Plants vs Zombies’
• Innovative App
  CBS Mobile for ‘CW City-Wize iPhone App’ [Check it out here.]
• Innovative Business Model
  Mob4Hire for ‘Crowd Sourced Mobile Testing’
• M-Commerce
  Wau Movil for ‘First Gateway Service Offer in Latin America’
• Mobile Connected Device
  Novatel Wireless for ‘MiFi Intelligent Mobile Hotspot’
• Mobile First Innovation
  Tata Teleservices for ‘English Seekho’
• Music Service
  Shazam for ‘Shazam Encore’
• Social Media
  Handmade Mobile for ‘Flirtomatic’
• Technology Innovation
  Layar for ‘Layar Reality Browser’
• TV & Video Service
  CBS Mobile for ‘TV.com Android & iPhone Mobile’

The MEF Outstanding Contribution award went this year to Dr. Andrew Hsu, the inventor of modern touchscreen technology for mobile handsets. Thanks to Rimma, Kim and the excellent team at Hotwire PR (especially Morgan Evans) for arranging a briefing with Andrew.

Andrew and I discussed how touchscreen has revolutionized the device landscape and explore progress and learnings around the Fuse, a prototype device that brings together captive touch with tilt-sensing, squeeze-sensing and haptics. An awesome experience and more in the podcast next week!

PODCAST WITH RIMMA PERELMUTER

Meantime, I caught up with Rimma Perelmuter, MEF Executive Director, to connect the dots in a long string of MEF announcements and releases.

While the Meffys are certainly a good way to gauge what’s hot and what’s on the horizon, the Business Confidence Index (BCI), based on survey of MEF members, is an even better measure of revenue and business trends in the now $36 billion mobile media market – up from $32 billion in 2009. Rimma walks through the results and discusses the opportunities for growth around smartphones, apps, payments and commerce. She also discusses the top three challenges: consumer awareness and trust, fragmentation and operating systems.

Based on the survey it’s clear that the industry must collaborate to create the business models that will allow everyone to make money on mobile media. To provide companies a roadmap to navigate this new terrain the MEF released a Smart Enablers Guide that builds on the organization’s existing initiative to show how access to service enablers (such as location information) can provide business benefits.

It’s a meaty document chock full of case studies and member survey results on topics including the role of the mobile operator, the spectrum of smart enablers, and the battle looming ahead in the value chain.

Contributions and columns I will be writing for the MEF publications and newsletters will go into more depth, but Rimma starts us off with a high-level overview of why this initiative deserves the support of all the stakeholders.

And finally, Rimma discusses the global agenda and progress in the MENA region. In mid-June MEF celebrated the co-founding of its first office in the Middle East. The office,  based at the  Qatar Science & Technology Park, an innovation hub, will be responsible for localizing strategic MEF initiatives. The Middle east was identified in surveys as a key growth market for the mobile media sector.

MEF grows its global presence

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST [17:30]

When we were young, we were taught to ask for permission before doing something – especially if it affected another person. It’s just common courtesy. Two years ago, in Permission Marketing, Seth Godin reminded us that when you apply the concept of permission to marketing it is “the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.” Then he went on to set a few ground rules, including “Permission doesn’t have to be formal but it has to be obvious.” Getting permission requires special effort. It’s based on a value exchange and treating people with respect.

Fast forward to spring 2010, and it’s clear, permission marketing has found a champion in the mobile marketing world. At Optism, permission is at the core of what we do. And we’re not alone. Other key stakeholders in mobile marketing are playing close attention to the role of permission with good reason.

Mobile is always referred to as the most personal medium and it is. Many other forms of communication can be based on a “opt out” principle (allowing the consumer to request that he or she not be contacted, after initial contact has been made). With mobile, the customer needs to opt in before you even begin the conversation. There’s no room for error here. You can’t beg consumers for forgiveness later or you run the risk of alienating your audience. In many jurisdictions, there can even be serious legal ramifications (see Overcoming legal hurdles of mobile marketing in last month’s Mobile Marketer).

Permission is critical, but it’s also just the first step. It needs to be combined with an understanding of consumer preferences. That’s when you really beginning to create value. Using the power of mobile as an interactive medium is essential and messaging can be key in unleashing this power. Messaging can be used to trigger a relevant conversation between consumers and the brands they want to hear from. Not just a one-off message, but an actual exchange that provides brands, agencies, operators and consumers a foundation on which to build real engagement.

We said it before and we’ll say it again: getting permission and building trust with consumers takes effort, but when it’s done right it delivers tangible rewards. Getting the consumer’s permission elevates your message from SPAM to information. With that foundation in place, you’re ready to start building a mutually beneficial relationship.

Stay tuned. Next week, we’re going to look at what permission actually means to different stakeholders in mobile marketing.

* * *

Lisa Ciangiulli, Director of Marketing for Alcatel-Lucent Global Advertising Solutions, where she has been instrumental in the development and marketing of Optism™, Alcatel-Lucent’s powerful permission-based mobile advertising solution. In this role, and throughout her career, Ciangiulli has spearheaded efforts to encourage cooperation between players across the ecosystem with the ultimate goal of enabling closer communication with the consumer. In May she was named to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) North America Board of Directors. You can follow her on Twitter (@LisaCiangiulli).

Disclaimer: Optism is an MSG supporter.

What you see is what you get? Advances in AR are transforming this idea into an ideal business model. This was a message that came across loud and clear at the Mobile Marketing Forum in June (an event organized by the Mobile Marketing Association) when agencies such as The Hyperfactory outlined recent marketing campaigns and impressive results.

But it’s not just about impact. Swedish retail giant IKEA has cleverly harnessed AR to take its 2010 catalog to mobile. The AR app for iPhone allows people to select a piece of furniture from the IKEA catalog and then check out how it looks in the room around them. What’s more, people can change the size of the furniture to fit the room by using the phone’s camera. The app, which takes the pain out of shopping for that perfect sofa, is a blockbuster success and a sure sign that AR is moving from novelty to utility.

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN ELLENBY, GEOVECTOR CEO

What is the future outlook for this new form of immersive marketing?

We catch up with John Ellenby, CEO of GeoVector, for his views. Headquartered in San Francisco, GeoVector has been inventing, developing and fielding innovative pointing and AR capabilities for mobile devices since 1991. Since then the company has experienced much success in Japan, where it launched the first commercial AR offering on the KDDI network with the help of local partners. In 2009 GeoVector released its first application for the iPhone and Android platforms aimed at the U.S. and European markets. The World Surfer application does more than hyperlink the real world; it also provides an attractive vehicle for marketers to connect with consumers on the go.

* * *

Q: GeoVector has a long track record in directional searching and AR. Please walk me through some of the milestones and key learnings you can share.

A: We provided a commercial service in Japan beginning in 2006. As you know, this is a technology-savvy market. But it’s also a market where users are concerned about user-friendliness and personal privacy. They want to have a service that’s 24/7. More importantly, it should be easy to use and useful. The Japanese will also not put up with spam. So, if the phone grunts out or delivers some message like ‘lovely lattes here’ when you pass a coffee shop, that’s a service that they will kill immediately — and with good reason.

What we have learnt from Japan is that there is a requirement for carrier-grade services, offering up-time, privacy and security.  Our operations in the U.S. and Europe, where we have launched World Surfer, leverage our experience in Japan.

The World Surfer is a product that brings local search applications together with  pointing and Augmented Reality to a variety of handsets, not just top-of-the-line smartphones. We’re interested in reaching the middle-grade phones, if you like, and so are businesses and brands.  So, we’re trying to position ourselves as a highly-reliable service provider with an imaginative, easy-to-use and secure product that can be provisioned and be made available on a large variety and volume of phones.

Q: How does combining pointing and Augmented Reality add value to the service? And what is the end-user experience?

A: Accurate pointing underpins the service. It knows which way the user is pointing the phone and delivers the user information along the vector that the phone is pointing, hence the company name GeoVector. That information can be visualized in a variety of ways. We can visualize it as lists.  We can visualize it on a compass.  And we can show the things that at in that direction as well as the things that meet your criteria.

So, we can display this as a list. But it can also be shown in graphics, which is what World Surfer does. In addition, we have the ability to visualize information in other ways that are covered by our patents that harness various kinds of Augmented Reality. In fact, Release 2 of our World Surfer will have augmented reality as a part of that visualization, allowing users to retrieve information in camera view. This will also make entertainment content very engaging.

Q: Can you provide an example of how entertainment fits in?

A: Let’s take the example of a billboard advertisement for a movie. You point the phone at the billboard to receive some related content on your phone, as well as the times the movie is playing at a nearby theater. It’s also easy to imagine that one of the leading characters in the movie joins you on the device screen and guides you – and you are in the form of an avatar on the screen – to the theater. As you know, one of our co-founders is from Pixar, so our company has a strong connection to animated entertainment and the scenario I described is not too far away.

Q: What are the key business drivers?

A: I think the timing is right because the devices are available. Another driver is the strong interest we are beginning to see from advertisers. They are beginning to produce more imaginative content and campaigns for mobile. I’m excited about this development because these advertisers are going to bring considerable creativity and imagination to this space and produce some very engaging content.

A third factor is the willingness of people to use data services. But usage is no longer just about checking the weather or retrieving information about your bid on eBay. Now it’s about discovery and ways to use my phone to find out what’s interesting or what has changed.

We’ve had positive feedback from users of World Surfer and people say it’s actually rekindled their interest in the world around them. They use it to find out more about the area they’re in, and this also represents an extraordinary opportunity to the merchandiser, the advertiser or the enterprise that wishes to serve them at that place and meet their needs.  Moving forward, more of these services will be triggered through pointing and they will be personalized services available to you if you’re willing to identify yourself to them. That’s where the offer and the infrastructure that we’ve created in Japan comes in to provide people privacy and security, making them feel comfortable about identifying themselves to companies that want to reach out to them.

Q: What kinds of services do you support now and what services do you envision?

A: In the U.S. Papa John’s [pizza] and Starbucks are featured on our World Surfer application on the iPhone and Android platforms. Users can click the Papa John’s or Starbucks channel and interact with the brands on several levels, including obtaining a guide to the nearest location and coupons. In the case of Starbucks this could facilitate the ordering and paying process, which beats lining up for service.

So, instead of standing in line and having to say, ‘I want a double latte with a cinnamon twist and a cinnamon bun,’ you pre-order it by pointing at the location of the coffee house. As you come closer it’s ready for you. This is what is happening now and what we’ll see more of in the future. Consumers will be able to do more than ever — order things they way they like them, access information they need and even buy books from Amazon related to the landmark where they’re standing –all this and all at the point of action.

Q: What do you expect in 2010 and beyond?

A: I expect the industry to experience massive growth. There will be more money invested to promote and provision these pointing and Augmented Reality services, and we’ll see major carriers and portals offering them as well. This will happen because of the obvious value they offer to advertisers, enterprises and the venture capital companies the industry needs to get this started.

For GeoVector it will be an exciting year. We already partner with NEC and Mapion in Japan and we’re interested in partnering with other companies on a revenue share basis. Advertising will be another focus. I am excited by the number of advertising agencies that are speaking with us because, to me, that’s a sign that we have a real winner here.

THE NETSIZE GUIDE

The Netsize Guide – which features exclusive interviews with 28 industry senior executives at leading companies and organizations including Havas, M&S, MMA, Nokia NAVTEQ, PayPal and Sony Music Entertainment — provides unique perspectives and reveals how players across the mobile ecosystem are preparing to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities ahead.

The Netsize Guide 2010 also includes the results of Mobile Trends Survey 2010, an online survey asking +1,000 mobile professionals and practitioners across 67 countries their views on these key themes and their insights into trends that top the industry agenda, including the advance of mobile applications stores, progress towards global mobile commerce and the increasing importance of mobile across a range of business verticals.

Finally, the Netsize Guide 2010 presents detailed data on the wireless telecoms sector in 41 countries, including revenues, market shares and value-added service offerings for messaging and billing of 194 mobile network operators worldwide.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE NETSIZE GUIDE HERE.

Disclaimer: Netsize is an MSG supporter. Peggy Anne Salz is author of the Netsize Guide 2010.

What are the user experiences and use cases that will drive positive results? What are the challenges and opportunities that face us as we seek answers and solutions? These are just a few of the questions this all-day event will debate and discuss. In fact, this new white paper from Chetan (available for download here/PDF) provides a comprehensive overview of the topics/issues that deserve a top-notch spot on your business agenda.

MSG MEDIA SPONSOR

MSG is extremely proud to be a media sponsor and promote this excellent event. I’m also pleased to report I have lined up the first exclusive pre-event podcast with Paul Palmieri, Millennial Media CEO. Keep checking back or follow MSG on Twitter (@msearchgroove & @peggyanne) to get the inside track on the speakers and the hot topics they will discuss.

Registration is Open Now. Early Bird special rate expires June 30th(!) – Enter MSG to receive your discount rate

Confirmed speakers include:

Glenn Lurie, President, AT&T;Danny Bowman, President, Sprint Nextel; Subba Rao, CEO, TataDoCoMo; Mike Sievert, Chief Commercial Officer, Clearwire; Louis Gump, VP Mobile, CNN; Paul Palmieri, Founder and CEO, Millennial Media; Dr. Sailesh Chutani, CEO, Mobisante; Abhi Ingle, VP, AT&T Wireless; Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave; Amir Mashkoori, CEO, Kovio; Stephen David, Former CIO, Proctor & Gamble; Dr. Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow, User Experience, Intel; Hank Skorny, SVP, Real Networks; Jon Stross, VP & GM – Babycenter, Johnson & Johnson; Dr. Suzanne Clough, Chief Medical Officer, WellDoc; Dr. Boris Nikolic, Sr. Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Krishna Vedati, SVP & GM – Mobile, AT&T Interactive; Christopher Dean, Chief Strategy Officer, Skype; Russ McGuire, VP, Sprint Nextel; Jack Kennedy, EVP, News Corp; David Weiden, General Partner, Khosla Ventures; Anand Chandrasekhar, SVP and GM, Intel; Chamath Palihapitiya, VP Growth/Mobile, Facebook; Rob Glaser, Chairman, Real Networks; Wim Sweldens, President, Alcatel-Lucent; Takayuki Hoshuyama, CEO, D2 Communications; Neville Ray, SVP, T-Mobile, Bob Azzi, SVP—Networks, Sprint Nextel; Mario Queiroz, VP—Android, Google; Matt Bross, CTO and Vice Chairman, Huawei; and Tony Lewis, VP – Open Development, Verizon.

Topics they will discuss/debate include:

•    Emerging Devices
•    Internet of Things
•    Network Evolution
•    Content, Media, and Entertainment
•    New sources of Revenue and Business Models
•    Evolution of Communication and Interaction
•    Mobile Cloud Computing
•    Globalization and Competition
•    Mobile Anthropology
•    Mobile as a platform
•    The economics and politics of consumer data and privacy
•    Nurturing Developer Ecosystems
•    Shifts in the Ecosystem
•    Mobile Health and Implications
•    Mobile Retail
•    Japanese Mobile Industry
•    Innovations at each level of the value chain
•    Mobile Social and Commerce
•    Managing network growth

Register today for your special rate – and I hope to see you there!

I’m pleased that my calls for posts and hosts via Twitter (@COTMobilists) have encouraged new activity and interest in the Carnival. This is reflected in the number of submissions I received this week and the offers from Mobilists to take the helm and host the COM. Thanks to Steve Litchfield over at allaboutsymbian.com, who will host later in July. There are more slots open, so check out the calendar and pick your date to host soonest.

This week’s line-up:

Tam Hanna conducts an interview with Resco, a Slovakian company sharply focused on Windows Mobile 7. What’s the view of WM7? What is the likely take-up among enterprise users? Is the timing of the release good for business (literally)? Lots of key questions, so read on and find out.

Tomi Ahonen provides us a masterpiece of math and logic. His post recounts the key stats we need to know to understand just how much money the Apple App store has made and argues that the numbers spell disaster for developers who hope to make real money selling their apps. As he puts it: “I have been claiming now for many months that the App Store hysteria is developing into a tech bubble, and that most developers will never recover their costs.” It’s a well-researched post that starts off as a typical Tomi rant, but evolves to offer us some hard-nosed business advice. It also earns my vote for Best Blog Of The Week. More on the numbers and the reasoning behind Tomi’s dead-serious warning to mobile companies and investors in our monthly MSG podcast next week.

We know Tomi doesn’t buy the apps hype. But what about Web shortcuts? Steve Litchfield over at allaboutsymbian.com points out that booksmarks may be the best way to get Web content on your smartphone. What’s more, since many servers auto-detecting a mobile phone OS and adapting their content automatically, bookmarks are a sure-fire way to “bypass a lot of typical high profile ‘apps’ entirely.” Steve wraps this up with a road test of some popular apps (app vs Web bookmark and complete with screenshots) and assess the user experience. So, do we really need app stores to get a lot of the content we love? Read on and find out…

Kudos to Stasys Bielinis over at UnwiredView.com for his keen observations and conclusions from the Droid X launch. What has happened to Motorola’s Android smartphone strategy? Where is the MotoBlur interface now? And how can handset makers differentiate on the platform? Could it be that Google has learned to innovate at Internet speed? Will handset companies ever catch up? Read on and find out…

Taking a similar stance, Sachendra Yadav tracks the evolution of the Android operating system as it takes up the charge to beat back Apple. Consolidating and defining the UI layers in the Android OS is the best solution. But how will handset makers differentiate? Will it be through media features and social networking? Sachendra is hardly convinced…

Keeping with the focus on developers, Steven Hoober over at Little Spring Designs blog walks us through a detailed discussion focused (no pun intended!) on images, resolutions and new approaches that get good images to display even better on a mobile screen.

Helpful advice of a different kind comes from Terence Eden. His blog post provides us a textbook example of bad mobile advertising (badvertising) using the example of an Apple app advert shown on an Android device. A complete mismatch and a bad user experience via the Guardian – or, more likely, whoever runs their advertising department. But it gets worse – a lot worse. How could this badvertising disaster involving the Guardian, Barclays Bank and Apple have been avoided? Terence has the answers…

In contrast, my submission from MSearchGroove offers a positive example of how charities can harness mobile for the greater good. A cancer awareness campaign gets our attention using barcodes and calls-to-action that make sense (and a difference!)

Volker Hirsch over at Volker on Mobile connects the dots in recent comments by carrier representative to conclude that the classic 50/50 rev share model may be on the way out. Will it be replaced by a 70/30 rev share model that favors developers? No clear answers, but Vodafone’s content Services Director hinted at last week’s MEM event in London that it beginning to see things differently. Will operators embrace Volker’s logic and understand that “the real value of (great) content to carriers may not lie in incremental revenues (be it 50% or 30%) but in softer albeit much, much more important values, namely marketing, positioning as well as customer retention.” Read on and find out…

And finally, an emotional plea from Antoine RJ Wright for change in the U.S. mobile market. It may not be everyone’s taste in posts, but there’s no arguing that many customer feel locked in a market that is high on carrier control and low on carrier innovation…

* * *

That’s a wrap for this week. Next week we converge on Communities Dominate Brands where Tomi will summarize the best of the week’s mobile blogging.

In the meantime, I encourage EVERYONE to get involved and submit a post. Better yet – recruit your buddies to join in as well. I still miss posts from bloggers in the emerging world where I know the REAL innovation is happening…

Editor’s note:

Mobile marketing is becoming a risky business. Companies can either embrace the models we know from the online space, where advertising is about brands bombarding people with a one-size-fits-all pitch. (Translated: spam.) Or advertisers can harness the personal nature of the mobile medium to begin a conversation (with people’s permission, of course) based on their explicit preferences and respectful of their privacy concerns.

The latter approach – one designed from the ground up to give consumers a stronger say in their mobile experience – is gaining serious traction as more brands and operators recognize the pivotal importance of opt-in in all they do. Indeed, conversational marketing – as some refer to it – is much more than a market buzzword. It has become a market mega-trend with analyst Mobile Squared estimating that the market in the U.S. alone will be worth a whopping $2.04 billion in 2015, up from $47.8 million in 2010.

Indeed, companies across the mobile marketing ecosystem are beginning to recognize the central role of permission-based, preference-relevant, two-way conversation in all kinds of customer interaction (ranging from marketing and advertising to customer service and commerce). Against this backdrop, Alcatel-Lucent recently took the wraps off Optism, a permission-based mobile marketing solution that does more than give consumers a say in their advertising; it also ensures mobile operators a seat at the center of the action.

Is Alcatel-Lucent late to the game or early to recognize a new market opportunity? What is the real role of the mobile operator? What does consumer research tell us? These are just a few of the questions that I explore with Thomas Labarthe, Alcatel-Lucent VP Mobile Advertising.

Next in the series, we discuss the merits of permission-based mobile marketing with David Murphy, Mobile Marketing Magazine Editor; Anne Morris, veteran telecoms journalist; and Jonathan MacDonald, Co-Founder of this fluid world and a frequent keynote at mobile industry events worldwide.

Disclaimer: Optism is an MSG client and supporter.

Mobile isn’t about just mobile anymore! To drive this point home I must borrow an observation from Alan Moore, consultant, pundit, friend, colleague and a brave voice I am proud to showcase on MSG soon. Put simply, mobile has become the “remote control of our lives.” It sits at the center of all we do – and it forces us to start thinking of mobile as much more than just a phone.

It’s time for a revolution and Jerome Nadel, Executive Vice President of Marketing & User Experience at Sagem Wireless, has the fresh mindset to lead it. He understands that mobile is not about technology, it’s about people. But it’s also not about warm and fuzzy ideas about hard-nosed business models and strategies that will help companies stand out by delivering an excellent experience (device AND content) to a sharply targeted customer segment.

That’s where the new Puma phone comes in – a segmented phone that brings together information service, social connectedness and brand pizzazz into a single lifestyle device that sets the bar.

No wonder Jerome is a keynote at MLOVE – the multidisciplinary event that promises to give us all a view of what’s next now. His vision of sharply segmented mobile phones covers the bases to be the next BIG THING in mobile.There are still some places left – so register soon to connect, communicate and brainstorm with 30+ speakers renowned for their original thinking and path-breaking activities across a range of disciplines — from commerce and advertising to fashion and finance.

Register at www.mlove.com/register . You simply have to enter the code:VIP-MSG to receive an instant 20% discount.

Among the podcast highlights

NEW MINDSET: “I’m leading a cultural and organizational revolution: This is a classical shift from the techno-centric to a user-centric or a market-centric approach.  This is a company that historically developed phones and it’s transitioning to a company that’s creating what we refer to as “category breaking devices and services” that – from the user-centric perspective – are built on customer insight, innovation and packaged with impeccable product design.”

USABILITY: In Jerome’s view the experience – specifically, the holistic experience that a branded and brand-linked device can offer – is THE differentiator. “Clearly, there are remarkable trends occurring around what a mobile device is….We see advances in technology where more and more everything is a smart phone, and we shift from a model of…heterogeneous capability to a divergent model …where everything works equally well. [The question is:] How do I differentiate by either brand or lifestyle affinity to connect to this services that are relevant for me?”

BRAND MEETS MOBILE: “The brand of Puma is much more than a reflection of the products that they make and sell. They’ve spanned from retail to e-tail and have really been extremely effective in the digital below-the-line gorilla viral space….They are arguably a veritable content aggregator and distributor. They spend a lot of their almost half a billion euros a year in marketing spend on things that are digital and viral.” But Puma isn’t just launching a branded device. It has focused on “services that connect not only to the rich media content that Puma aggregates and distributes primarily through the Web.” The next step: it could extend its connection by enabling people to download branded applications and even engage in mobile commerce.

PUMA PREVIEW: Jerome will be bringing Puma phones to MLOVE (and giving them away!), so it’s a great opportunity to see this new device and get the inside track on the services it connects to. A highlight is the Puma World Portal. More about that in the podcast…

MY TAKE

This is an interview that should make brands think – hard. I leave you with a key observation from Jerome. For brands the question is: “not only how do I – through targeted affinity – touch more closely my brand advocate; but how do I actually transact and exchange with them? How can I monetize the value of this digital and mobile connection?” This is not a return of the branded devices (remember the Spiderman phone?). This is the start of a new business ecosystem that puts brands at the core of a crusade to deliver new kind of a mobile experience, enhanced by content (from media companies) and connectivity (from mobile operators).

Listen to the podcast here. [15:20]

Give the people what they want? On traditional media – such as TV – it’s a guessing game. But on a fiercely personal device such as the mobile phone, brands can start a conversation (using SMS or MMS – or both, for example) with people to just ask. Research shows people will volunteer personal information if they perceive that they are getting value in return – and part of that value is getting advertising that is relevant. Even better if that advertising is also life-simplifying.

A prime example of this is Amazon, which cleverly includes recommendations (translated: advice about what you could/should buy) in its conversations with customers online. As Dan puts it: “That is where advertising has crossed a line at that point in time. It’s now become a service that I appreciate rather than an intrusion that I do not.” The challenge – and the opportunity – is all around harnessing “to communicate to people things that they’re really genuinely interested in. That’s when that advertising starts to become a service for people in helping making their life more convenient and connect[ing] them with the things they want, when they want them.”

Dan – who also hosted the global launch of Optism, a permission-based mobile marketing solution from Alcatel-Lucent that bridges gaps between operators and advertisers – also speaks frankly about what he calls the “relationship gulf” that separates brands/agencies from mobile operators. As he sees it: The key question is how well the network operators embrace their data. “While they offer an ability to communicate with people, they’re just really a pipe at the end of the day. The moment they open up their data and their understanding of the customers… allowing brands to utilize that understanding to communicate more effectively, they [mobile operators] suddenly become a very rich media partner.”

Among the highlights

ASKING PERMISSION: It’s imperative. Dan believes brands should ask people for permission to communicate with them. The customer information a brand gains as a result is “richer and more detailed.” Understanding it and linking it to relevant brand messages allows brands to “actually developing things that are going to be very, very powerful for both the consumer and the brand.” Dan also shares an excellent case study of a campaign his company did for Birds Eye foods that recorded a whopping 11 percent response rate (!).

By way of background, the Birds Eye campaign started off as a fairly straightforward text to win campaign – with the short code details printed on the package. Sponge used the information (it knew the food people bought because they were texting in the short code printed on the pack in the first place) to deliver a product related text. The agency created three different databases, each relevant to a product group.

The first was generic nutritional information. So, Sponge sent text messages such as: Did you realize that five chicken dippers have less fat than a pork sausage? The second was recipe information. So, Sponge sent a product-related recipe idea by text. The third and most interesting offer was product suggestions. Dan tells me that cross-selling technique dramatically increased sales of specific product ranges within the Birds Eye food categories. In the end, the database of people who opted in to receive ongoing communications from Birds Eye was well over 100,000 (!).

MOBILE BUDGETS: What Dan sees tells him the conditions are perfect for significant growth following a recession that saw brands put the brakes on mobile spending. “We’re certainly seeing a trend this year that says that the foot is coming off the brake….We’re seeing an immense amount of interest and we’re seeing people talk more seriously about their budgets and having proper goals and expectations of what they might be able to achieve with the medium.”

WHAT WE NEED?: “Results. I don’t think there’s anything more complicated than that, is that we need to show tangible results that says if you spend X, then you make Y because that’s the way of the world economy these days. I don’t think mobile is ever going to be able to offer quite the sort of exciting brand pizzazz that you get from a big glossy TV advert, but what it can do is put more people in your store, more people buying your product, or more people enquiring about your services. So, great case studies that show good results is what we need above all else in this industry.”

WHAT’S NEXT: brands have to get better at engagement marketing. It’s about using permission and context to deliver campaigns such as the Bird’s Eye campaign to continue the conversation with consumes long after the campaign is over. Re-marketing is therefore on the top of the agenda. Dan also sees excitement around apps and location- linked advertising – as long as it makes life easier for the consumer.

MY TAKE:

A welcome look at the issues from an agency passionate about the business imperative to deliver helpful information instead of annoying advertising. Mobile marketing is on the march again – and with that momentum comes the realization that the best way to deliver people advertising they will accept and appreciate may be to ask them first.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE. [14:36]

Editor’s note: The series continues in two weeks with the views of other companies in the engagement ecosystem. We’ll here from brands and agencies and delve into research that captures the view of the youth consumer.

Disclaimer: Optism is an MSG client and supporter.

Fragmentation, distribution, monetization. These are the headaches that plague developers everywhere. It’s all about reaching an audience of people who are mostly likely to appreciate and buy their apps. Or, if the model is ad-funded, it’s about an approach linked to advertising that people will accept. In both scenarios, the ability to bubble up apps we appreciate – or encourage us to discover the wealth of apps at our finger tips – is at the foundation of a sound and scalable business model.

This is the view of an increasing number of companies focused on connecting the dots in our browsing and purchasing patterns to enhance customer profiles and – ultimately – suggest apps and stuff we will likely download, buy and recommend to our friends.

In this podcast Colm Healy — Vice President of EMEA Services for Qualcomm Internet Services, General Manager of Xiam Technologies, and a frequent columnist/contributor on MSG – talks about the link between personalization and app stores. We also discuss a range of related topics including the outlook for HTML5, the challenges to the emerging app ecosystem and the potential role of the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) in the scheme of things. By way of background, WAC brings together 24 mobile operators in a community to create an eco system for the development and distribution of mobile and internet applications irrespective of hardware device or software technology.

Among the highlights:

FRAGMENTATION & FRUSTRATION: Colm doesn’t have all the apps he wants on his device. They’re just not available for his Android phone – and that’s a shortcoming that tries his patience. His view: it’s annoying to him and to all users everywhere. “End-users want to be able to get the content they love, to engage the brands that they really find useful. If the industry fails to be able to allow them to get to that, then that’s a real missed opportunity by the industry.” The root problem is fragmentation – but HTML5 is shaping up to solve this. The new standard “brings the experience of a Web page closer to the experience of running a native application.” Overall the technology will “make the browser, which is effectively ubiquitous platform that everybody supports, more powerful and more like the kind of experience that people want on their phones.”

LIGHTWEIGHT APPS: Where HTML5 and other developments come together to pay off the most is what Colm calls lightweight apps. “If you’re trying to run a high-end game, you’re absolutely going to want to run it natively on the phone and frankly it’s very difficult for you to get away from the fragmentation there. Just as in the console game world, there’s a range of platforms you have to address, in the mobile game world the same is going to apply.” The solution – and the excitement – is around lightweight apps. “HTML5 offers the promise of being able to run all of these across multiple different devices with a single code base.”

WAC: There is a great deal of potential. But there are also challenges. “The key people, the people who ultimately decide what technologies end up on the handset, are the handset manufacturers and the WAC is clearly an operator-driven initiative. So, success will be down (1) to their ability to work together for a standard, which I think is something very achievable and (2), to quickly have that adopted by handset – supported widely by handset manufacturers, which I think is more of a challenge.

RETAIL & ADVERTISING: Personalization sits at the heart of a good mobile retail experience. “In my view is there’s a bit of a nuclear arms race going on in terms of the number of applications that a particular platform has. Frankly, for most end users, there are a finite number of applications. There’s a fixed or finite size as to what an application developer eco system needs to be for it to be found useful and enriching….So, once you get to a couple of thousand apps, you absolutely need personalization.” It matches people with apps they want and oils the whole retail experience. “This whole nuclear arms race will come to a bit of an end and it will become much more about how engaged are users with the particular retail experience.” Advertising is also a fit. “Instead of you having to advertise to 2 million people to get the 10,000 that you are likely to respond to you, you can get to those 10,000 people. It directly lowers the barriers to entry, the barriers to profit. The real issue here is [about] the barriers to a sustainable business model for the content developer.”

Editor’s note: Colm and I will be back on June 30th. The topic of the third and final part of this podcast series: Is discovery the new search?

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE.[11:04]

Disclaimer: Xiam Technologies, a Qualcomm company, is an MSG supporter.

Jumptap keeps them coming. Last month it was all about Consumer Intelligence, which MSG covered in detail here. To recap: The aim is to put consumers in control of their advertising by allowing them to choose the advertising they will accept on their mobile phones. This week the news is Jumptap’s decision to add of video to its premium mobile ad network through a technology partnership with iVdopia (for pre-app interstitials) and Limelight Networks, (for in-stream video, including pre roll, mid roll, post roll). The move effectively establishes Jumptap as a one-stop shop for search, display, rich media, video and in-app advertising.

Interestingly, iVdopia recently introduced a new twist on video ads it calls Viper Ads, which make the most of device capabilities for a more tightly integrated, interactive mobile video ad experience. We learn from Light reading Mobile that iVdopia powered a cool campaign for the iPhone that allowed users to push away the “sands of time” on their touchscreen to reveal a menu of interactive options related to the movie Prince of Persia. The post quoted iVdopia Chief Operating Officer Chhavi Upadhyay as saying that [for a recent campaign] 89 percent of people who watched a Viper ad, which was 27 percent of the total, actually took action on it too.

RICH MEDIA PAYS

Jumptap beefed up its rich media offer in April through a partnership Medialets and Crisp Wireless. The tie-up paved the way for the creation of what the companies call a Unified Rich Media Ad Platform, allowing advertisers and publishers to take advantage of a variety of ad units including configurable click through actions, tap-to-video, tap-to-audio, scrolling shakable, take-over-branding, location-aware – and more.

As Adam Soroca, Chief Product Officer and General Manager of Jumptap put it in a press statement at the time: Delivering a broad array of highly-engaging, rich media ad units for mobile apps and the mobile Web is the best way to expand an advertiser’s campaign reach and increasing a publisher’s fill rates and eCPMs. “Rich media campaigns are proven to drive higher levels of user engagement, more than any other media, with demonstrated increases in message lift association and higher CTRs.”

mobile video ads from jumptap

Jumptap is equally bullish about the outlook for video, and draws from Nielsen figures to make a strong case for high engagement and better response rates. Driven by the significant increase in smartphone penetration, mobile video usage is also on the rise. In the U.S. people spend an average of three hours and 37 minutes each month watching video on mobile phones. Connect the dots, and mobile video ads present advertisers with a significant opportunity to deliver messages that drive engagement and deliver higher ROI.

Indeed, just today Orange UK said it is expecting a big boost to its mobile TV viewing figures from the World Cup. Mobile Entertainment quotes the mobile operator’s head of sport partnerships and services Steve Wallage as saying: “Based on the surge in demand for mobile TV during the Ashes last summer, we expect viewing figures could rocket by at least 74 percent during the World Cup.” (Unfortunately, Orange doesn’t disclose how many viewers it has in total – so a 74 percent increase could be massive or minor…Nonetheless, mobile video is clearly gaining traction.)

INTERVIEW WITH PARAN JOHAR

To get the inside track on the announcement and some new Jumptap stats, I caught up with Paran Johar, Jumptap CMO. Huge thanks to Julie Ginches, who heads up marcom, for arranging this briefing on the fly!

MSG: So, now Jumptap is a one-stop. Why the focus on scope?

Paran: Whether it’s search, display advertising, rich media, or video, or – on the other side – branding or performance, they [advertisers/publishers] can come to Jumptap and get a comprehensive solution. That’s the number one reason for this announcement. Number two – from the publisher side – it’s about providing the same scope of services to help monetize their traffic. So, whether it’s to monetize display advertising, rich media or mobile video, we provide solutions for all of that. In addition to that, this [deal] allows them [publishers] to monetize it for premium advertisers for brand engagement, or if they have remnant inventory, for performance advertisers.

Having a one-stop-shop or one resource, makes the buying process simpler. There’s only advertising partner for an agency to do search, video and rich media. What is even more important is to have an open system. We offer an open system for rich media, which we announced [the Unified Rich Media Ad Platform]. It’s multi-platform and multi-handset, that is our approach. That is more important because an advertiser fundamentally doesn’t care what handset or what OS they’re running on; they care about they have an audience. That’s why an open approach is really going to be the one that wins in the long run.

MSG: Getting back to video, several execs have told me they are seeing more interesting in video. What are seeing that makes you excited enough to add it to the mix?

Paran: If you remember our last release was all about consumer intelligence, driving relevancy to drive engagement. That is one side of the coin. The second part to drive engagement is really about the creative, right? Mobile video is that next evolution in mobile creative. Certainly rich media is the first step, but the one right after that is sight, sound and motion — which is obviously video.

We know from Nielsen that mobile video users grew 57 percent to 17.6 million year over year, and that they spent an average of 3 hours 37 minutes. But what is even more interesting is the type of viewing they’re doing. It’s a much more active environment versus on the PC or on a TV, where people are much more in a passive state. When you’re watching video on your cellphone, you’re 100-percent focused on it, and so we felt this was a great way to round out our offering for advertisers.

Mobile video ads engage

MSG: Beyond being a one-stop-shop, what is the interplay between the formats and approaches you are offering here? I’m thinking about the focus on relevancy here…

Paran: They all work in conjunction with our focus on consumer intelligence to drive engagement. When you package all these pieces together, they work together to drive user engagement. On the relevancy side, it’s allowing consumers to manage their own profiles. On the creative side, it’s allowing advertisers to have these multiple formats. So, click-to-video, allows a big movie studio like Sony to promote their trailer in a new way. Consumers can literally, click on the banner and then watch the movie trailer. With interstitial, we’re allowing pre-roll. So, after you have downloaded an app and you’re opening it, we allow advertisers to insert pre-roll into that. Finally, in-stream. If you’re watching a news clip – say, on CNN.com — prior to you watching the content, you will see a 5 to 15-second pre-roll ad.

The innovation really doesn’t come from the actual ad unit itself, because you don’t want to provide more hurdles for advertisers to learn something brand new, a new way of doing something. What we are providing is a framework that they’re comfortable with – and certainly a nice extension of the PC Internet – coupled with targeting parameters that allow them to drive engagement.

MSG: High engagement is part of it. But what about the CPMs?

Paran: CPMs for video, you mean? It ranges – depending on placement within the app — from a low of 15 to a high of, say, 25.

MSG: What are the rollout plans?

Paran: We’re in the process of lining up our beta advertisers and we’ll be live probably within the next two weeks. We’ve got about half a dozen advertisers who are going to be the initial beta testers of this for the product. They’re actually buying the inventory and we’ll be launching them live in about two weeks and probably announcing the results in about five to six weeks. Right now, we’re in the process of announcing it, (a) telling the market that we have mobile video and (b) selling it, selling the first opportunities for advertisers.

MSG: Your last announcement is about putting consumers at the center of their experiences. Does this extend to mobile video ads?

Paran: The ultimate open approach is really allowing the consumer to be part of it, and we’re taking the leadership role.

MSG: Video is part of the opt-in package?

Paran: Yes, absolutely.

MSG: Let’s catch up on the other partnerships you have and the objectives…

Paran: Number one, with Crisp and Medialets: what’s exciting with those partners, and new partners that we’re going to be bringing on board, is that it allows an advertiser to plug directly into our system and run their current rich media initiatives. We have our own rich media package, so — if they’re not working with a partner — they can utilize that. That’s why we are and will continue to take an open approach to the eco system in general.

To give you an update on Jumptap in general: we have seen growth at a rate of about 30 percent quarter over quarter. And the reason for that is really simple. It is our open approach. Apple is really taking a walled garden stance and – you know this better than anyone – their pricing structure of a $10 CPM+, or $2 CPC – that is getting an incredible amount of push-back from advertisers.

Ours is much more simple, much more in line with what advertisers are used to. Whether it’s on the branding side for a premium mobile ad network or whether it’s on the performance side with our CPC performance ad network, we get to benefit from both sides.

If you look at Apple, they’re really trying to capture the big brand dollars. Google is known for performance and their acquisition of AdMob really kind of illustrates how they’re really going after the long tail. We sit in the middle. We have our premium business, so we get the benefit from the growth by brand advertisers. We also have our performance CPC network, so we get the benefit from the direct response advertisers as well.
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Prior to the briefing, Jumptap also provided MSG some key data points.

By way of background, the Jumptap Premium Ad Network delivers the broadest reach and highest quality video ad inventory including 50+ million monthly impressions from premium publishers and applications including Mobi TV, MSNBC, Best of YouTube, iBasketball, iBowl, Movie Challenge Lite, and MovieFX. Advertisers can reach audiences across a broad array of content categories including entertainment, utilities, games, music, news, sports, and a wide range of devices including Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Jumptap also offers comprehensive creative management and sophisticated campaign analytics.

Advertisers on network: Over 350 premium and performance advertisers

Mobile ads served or page impressions: 8 billion performance & 900 million premium

Unique mobile users that see ads: 55 million

The breakdown: 34% IPhone, 10% RIM, 7% Android, 2% Windows Mobile, 1.5% Palm OS

The recent raft of recent stats and forecasts on smartphone sales and shipments confirm a buoyant outlook for devices and app downloads. Gartner, for example, reckons downloads could reach 4 billion this year alone, and rise to a whopping 21 billion by 2013. Meantime, smartphone device shipments are on schedule to surpass 390 million by 2013.

This is great news for developers who are lining up to capitalize on this mega-opportunity. But, before we break out the champagne, developers everywhere have to be clear about the current conditions of the marketplace, the best practices for app distribution and monetization, and the nuts and bolts of maximizing revenues and measuring real results.

This is where the new white paper from Bango – “ap(p)tly titled Make Money From Your Mobile Apps – comes in. In addition to some key web browsing numbers and trends, the white paper also outlines how developers can make the most out of their mobile apps by knowing who their audience is, what phones they have and how people interact with their apps.

I caught up with Ray Anderson, Bango CEO, to review the key takeaways, which include the surprising results of a road test of the Nokia Ovi and Android Market app stores.

Among the highlights:

KEEP AN EYE ON PROFIT: It’s business critical and it’s the responsibility of the developer. “The first thing you need to do is track responses to your campaigns to find out how much your responses are actually costing….Secondly, you should track your sales – it sounds logical, but you should track how much money you actually make from each sale, not just how many sales you get….So, if you track those two pieces, the cost of each marketing action and the amount of money you get as a result of them, then … you can figure out how much sales you’re making per marketing dollar and you can decide whether each particular campaign is worthwhile.”

ROAD TEST: The white paper documents the registration and payment procedures in the Nokia Ovi and Android market app stores. Both are long winded and complex (at least the first tie around). The refund policies and the fact people can download your apps without paying are also hard realities that developers should factor into their app sales and distribution strategies. The verdict: in both app stores the audience is restricted and the payment process is tedious. So, don’t rely solely on app sores to sell your apps. Another piece of advice: “If you’re finding that you’re not getting a very good yield on paying apps, then by all means get non-paying apps out. A lot of people still download non-paying apps and use them as an on-ramp to your methods of monetization later.”

Bango road test results: Nokia Ovi app store payment experience

CONVERSION: “The payment experience is the biggest impact on conversion rate and we have effectively a gold standard at Bango, we call the 91 percent level, which is the sort of yield you get when you have a good, straightforward payment experience that’s usually one click.” To date Bango is achieving it “on a lot of European operators and on Sprint in the U.S.” The more complex the payment experience, the more likely conversion will drop. “The payment experience is absolutely profound and getting a few more percent of yield can make the difference between a business model that’s profitable or loss-making, or it can make a difference between a business that can actually grow or is going to shrink.”

FREEMIUM: It’s early days, but the outlook for freemium is positive (particularly since it’s a model proven to be effective on the PC). “A lot of things are driving freemium. We know that the app stores are very driven to get out lots of apps. They’re more driven by volumes of apps and download numbers and the availability of apps than they are by making profit for the content providers at the moment, so that’s one reason why freemium is becoming very popular.”

SUPERMARKETS AREN’T SELLING: A provocative point the white paper makes: huge app stores are not really good for developers (or for consumers, for that matter). Why does Ray believe this? “First, the majority of these app stores, especially the device-based app stores, often run on the handsets and therefore they’re not well integrated with the way the Web works. So, it’s very difficult for social marketing systems and social links and so on to cross-link into pages of the store.” Another shortcoming: mobile device hypermarkets are not run to make the app vendors [developers] more successful or as successful as they could be. And they’re not really run to encourage consumer choice and let the consumers have what they want. They’re normally run with a sort of single-minded approach to making those devices more successful.”

WHAT’S NEXT AT BANGO?: Ray offers us a scoop. “One of the things we’ve discovered through deployment of our payment systems worldwide is that, while we’ve managed to connect dozens of mobile operators’ payment systems and we’ve managed to connect credit cards, there is a huge opportunity in markets where the operator isn’t offering payment to their consumers.” Against this backdrop, Bango has a project in the works that is aimed at “enabling another way of collecting payments to help content providers collect money and to help consumers pay money for the content they like, especially in areas , such as the emerging markets, where mobile operators aren’t yet collecting payments for consumers.

DOWNLOAD THE WHITE PAPER HERE

Listen to the podcast here.

Disclaimer: Bango is an MSG supporter.

Tomi Ahonen needs little introduction. His path-breaking ideas on mobile and its centerpiece role in our daily lives have profoundly impacted my work at MSG and elsewhere. His thinking about mobility and his observations that it has indeed become our 7th mass media can be heard in boardrooms and conference rooms around the world. Today Tomi is giving the keynote at the MMA Forum, where his ideas will no doubt resonate with advertisers and brands just beginning to understand why mobile is different.

To recap: Tomi – in his book, Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media: Cellphone, Cameraphone, iPhone, Smartphone — believes mobile is rising to become the “7th of the mass media,” following print from the 1500s, recording from the 1900s, cinema from the 1910s, radio from the 1920s, TV from the 1950s, and Internet from the 1990s.

What makes mobile special? Seven unique benefits:

1. Mobile phones are the first personal mass media channel
2. Mobile phones are permanently carried
3. Mobile phone are always on
4. Only mobile phones provide a built-in payment channel
5. Mobile phones are available at the point of creative impulse, enabling user-generated content
6. Mobile phones are the first media with near perfect audience data
7. Only mobile phones capture the social context of media consumption

It’s an exciting observation, with profound consequences that I will continue to document in contributions and columns here and elsewhere.

It’s also a way of thinking that Tomi and I will explore in our newest collaboration: a no-holds-barred monthly podcast looking at the stats and stories that rocked the industry.

In a nutshell, our podcast consists of three thought-provoking segments: The Numbers Game, a wrap of the month’s reports and stats; The Story, an informed discussion of the companies and technologies highest on investors’ radars; and Wacky Stats, a lighter look at our mobile behavior.

To kick off the series Tomi looks at mobile’s bigger milestone: 4.8 billion total subscribers. What does this number mean? How did we achieve it? And when do we cross the 5 billion mark?

We also talk frankly about location services and where the money is. What did Nokia do right/wrong? And what does its location strategy tell us about the outlook for the sector on the whole? Are investors our time and their money? What is Tomi’s message (as an ex-Nokia, mobile veteran) to analysts and entrepreneurs?

Finally, we wrap up with a ‘wacky stat’ from the U.K. that may surprise you. It’s all about text, drugs, rock-n-roll…

Listen to the podcast here and pass it on! 16:47

Mobile marketing has moved on. It’s all about ways advertisers can deliver brand messages and branded utilities to people in a context that they are sure to appreciate. It’s also about ways advertisers can harness mobile to really reach people and encourage calls to action that deepen the dialogue or inspire that all-important impulse buy.

Indeed, companies across the emerging ecosystem –including companies in financial services, education and healthcare – are all looking at way to make mobile the cornerstone of their marketing, commerce and CRM strategies.

There are no easy answers, but attendees at the MMA Forum next week in New York (June 8-9 – with a pre-event workshop on June 7) will certainly get some valuable ideas from connecting with the experts. This year, the MMA Forum will feature speakers from across the mobile ecosystem, including Alcatel-Lucent, Best Buy, Disney, Google, Kodak, Microsoft, MTV, Openwave and the United Nations Foundation – to name a few.

The MMA’s goals to educate the marketplace and move mobile marketing a giant step forward are perfectly aligned with my own objectives at MSearchGroove. This is why I caught up with Michael Becker, North America Managing Director for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), to learn more about the hot topics and new features that will make this particular MMA event the most interactive and productive for attendees – ever (!)

Among the highlights:

The Agency, Brand & Retailer Roundtable (sponsored by Neustar and Hipcricket)

The event will be held at Ogivly from 2:00pm to 5:00pm in New York, and will be followed by a cocktail reception from 5:00 pm to 7:00 PM. Qualified agencies, brands & retailers are invited to register by emailing their complete contact info to the MMA at forum@mmaglobal.com. There is no cost for them to attend.

The “Adopt-A-Brand” program

Under this program, agencies, brands and retailers interested in attending the MMA Forum may join the waitlist to be matched and adopted by a vendor, who will pay the reduced event entrance fee of $500 on behalf of the agency, brand or retailer. Alternatively, those agencies, brands and retailers that do not want risk not being adopted or matched once the available event tickets for this program are sold out, can register immediately for the event at the reduced price of $500 by returning the completed adopt-a-brand registration form, which can be download at http://mobilemarketingforum.com/?q=node/1008.

The Mobile Experience Lab

An interactive way for delegates to hear from the industry’s thought leaders, experience successful mobile campaigns firsthand, and interact with brands using mobile as part of their integrated marketing strategy. Each mobile campaign features a booth that provides attendees with an interactive, hands-on opportunity to experience the campaign from an end user’s perspective. From 2D barcodes (via NeoMedia) to interactive mobile movies that encourage commerce through product placement and mobile interaction (via Mozaik), the emphasis is on hands-on experience and cool technologies that allow brands to connect with people on the move.

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Listen to the podcast here [12:59]

The Apple app store model – which relies on credit card billing to effectively bypass the mobile operator – may be staggeringly popular in markets such as the U.S. But it doesn’t dictate the direction for the global mobile applications market and the 75+ (and counting) app stores jockeying for position and competitive edge.

Indeed, Apple has been able to capture a large percentage of the apps market from within its own walled garden. Its app store model is inextricably linked with its iTunes content storefront and married to its range of proprietary devices. Thus discovery, download and payment are all part of the same seamless experience. The fact that this approach may actually limit its future market reach (to high-end devices users and owners of credit cards, for example) doesn’t bother Apple in the least.

However, the customer segments Apple ignores (such as featurephone users, youth with credit cards and emerging markets that prefer freemium and ad-supported content models) spell opportunity for the dozens of app store providers and thousands of developers bringing their virtual goods and services to market.

Granted, it’s a tougher play –one that requires providers to cater to a plethora of devices and payment preferences – but the pay-off is worth it.

According to Sizing Up The Global Apps Market, the recent milestone report from Chetan Sharma Consulting (commissioned by independent app store GetJar), app downloads are expected to rise from over 7 billion in 2009 (Asia accounted for a whopping 37 percent of the total) to almost 50 billion by 2012. Revenue is forecast to increase from $4.1 billion in 2009 to $17.5 billion by 2012. Predictably, a variety of models — ranging from paid apps and apps bundled with subscription offers, to ad-funded schemes and loyalty programs that raise brand awareness – will drive distribution and monetization. (Listen in to the podcast with getJar here.]

MAKING APPS PAY

Chetan’s report and the sheer number of app stores (75+ listed here via WIP Connect) confirm the existence of a Long Tail of app stores catering to a variety of customer segments (enterprise, gamers), devices (smartphones, featurephones, netbooks, personal navigation devices) and geographies (Asia, India).

By way of background, WIP Connect reckons 39 out of the 75 stores listed are smartphone-only app stores catering to a variety of high-end devices. However, 26 app stores offer software and content for both smartphone and feature phones, while another three focus exclusively on feature phones.

It’s clear that we are seeing an avalanche of new app store providers. But we are also seeing an increase in the range of payment and monetization models coming online as developers seek to increase flexibility (by supporting pay-per-use, freemium and subscription models) and take more control over the end-to-end app experience. An outcome of this is the new interest in solutions that allow developers and providers to sell content, virtual goods and add-ons from within the app (so-called in-app billing).

NETSIZE SURVEY

What are the components of a good app store experience? An earlier Netsize survey of 1,000+ mobile professionals and practitioners across 67 countries, concluded that the four C’s - Convenience, Compatibility, Choice, and Charging are the top enablers of application store success.

The newest report, aptly titled App Store Billing, delves down deeper in the survey results to identify the payment models and mechanisms likely to deliver mass-market success.

Among the findings:

• The majority (85 percent) of respondents indicated that operator billing is a key enabler for application store mass market appeal.
• Almost half (46 percent) of respondents believe operator billing alone will dominate; 39 percent also include credit card billing in the mix.
• Only 15 percent of respondents indicated credit card billing alone will ensure mass-market success for app store providers.

Put simply, the report confirms that the tenets of Retail 101 hold for app stores everywhere. Retailers (providers and developers) must embrace a variety of business models and payment methods to reach their target audience. Credit card billing may be the rage in regions where Apple has carved out a significant share of the market. But the race is just starting.

As Netsize CEO Stan Chesnais put it in a press statement: “The survey shows providers will need to develop much more than a me-too application storefront modeled on the Apple blueprint. Clearly, to guarantee a seamless user experience and a ubiquitous quality of service, application store providers must support a variety of payment mechanisms including operator billing.”

APP STORE LANDSCAPE

The research also presents substantial proof that a Long Tail of app stores is indeed emerging. To illustrate this exciting trend Netsize has drawn from publicly available research to rank the top 52 app stores by size and the number of applications on offer (as of May 2010). The chart speaks volumes (literally) and can be downloaded with the report here.

Predictably, application stores linked with the Apple iPhone and Android platforms lead the list. However, a substantial number of independent application stores run by mobile operators and independent providers also hold top positions. Indeed, new entrants are breaking on the scene with niche app stores that target a wide variety of customer segments.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE NETSIZE APP BILLING REPORT HERE

My take: Are app stores going the way of mobile portals? It sure looks that way if we add up the numbers (75+ app stores) and note their niche focus on vertical markets (such as retail, enterprise, and even cars.). We will no doubt witness an avalanche of app stores and the emergence of an almost equal number of business models (paid apps, subscription bundles, freemium, ad-funded– and everything in between). To support these app store providers and developers will need to offer a variety of payment mechanisms, including operator-billing. Interestingly, app store business growth will likely be driven by models that put the provider/developer in control of the experience. Top of the list: freemium-type models that offer consumers free applications as a means to cross-sell or up-sell consumers to a variety of paid content and services, ranging from real-world physical goods to digital services. (And we should not underestimate the potential of mobile commerce. It was the business model that Alisa Bowen, Thomas Reuters SVP, told me had the most mileage and would potentially make the most money for content owners – period. Listen in!)

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Continuing the focus on app stores, I’ll be back later this week with a look at Ondeego, an app store that has cleverly chosen to target the mobile enterprise and the needs of workers on the move.

Disclaimer: Netsize is an MSG supporter and client.

In-brief:

Does the iPad represent an opportunity or a threat to content companies? Can print publishing survive? What are the monetization models that will guarantee sustainable mass-market success? These are just a few of the hot topics media companies, analysts and attendees will debate during M-PUBLISHING on June 1 in London.

There are still a few tickets for this event –  which combines an array of formats, sessions and provocative one-on-one debates to identify winning business models and encourage alliances that will deliver positive results. Speakers at M-PUBLISHING include: representatives from leading U.K. daily newspapers (Guardian, Mirror, Evening Standard, Mail, FT), global magazine publishers (IPC Media, Bauer Media, Contagious Magazine), and book publishers (HarperCollins, Ether Books). Digital media experts from Sky, Absolute Radio will also present their key learnings and Teletext Mobile will use the event to demo its new iPad application for the Metro, a free newspaper in the U.K.

OPINION POLLS

To identify industry concerns and gauge interest in issues such as advertising-funded schemes and the rift between mobile applications and mobile websites Camerjam has also conducted an informal online poll of practitioners and professionals. The survey, which is still going on, has provided some interesting initial findings:

• Is there a future for print publishing? Yes 77% (357 votes), No 23% (109 votes)
• Apps vs. mobile websites ? Apps 74% (201 votes), Mobile websites 26% (72 votes)
• Is ad funded or paid content more sustainable? Ad funded 48% (32 votes), Paid 52% (35 votes)

PODCAST WITH PAUL REDDICK, HANDMARK CEO

In the countdown to this high-caliber event Camerjam has teamed with MSG to produce a special podcast interview with Paul Reddick, CEO of Handmark.(press release)  In this exclusive interview Paul urges publishers to acknowledge the impact of device and platform fragmentation on their future business. As he put it:  “Publishers need to be where their customers are. It’s not just the iPhone or the iPad. You [publishers] must build rich applications that take advantage of what all these devices can do….It’s not enough to have a good brand and a great app. Publishers also need to seek partners that actively drive distribution of their apps and monetization of their business.”

Among the highlights:

APPS VS WEBSITES: “You’re going to get far more engaged with the customer with an application versus just providing an optimized global website, and that application needs to be able to cache information, to cover text, pictures, video, and other elements that you want to keep up to date. Then you [really] take advantage of what that specific device can do.” Paul says he is currently seeing a lot of rich apps – and this makes sense because these apps also offer users a richer experience. “These applications allow customers to personalize to some degree the content and the whole viral aspect of being able to share content between these applications is fantastic as well.  I also think the opportunity is to make real money….Media brands are getting to have their day again. To get to customers with an icon and their content –something they seemed to have lost in search on the Web.”

iPAD: For a media company, it’s important to play across all devices. “I think it’s very important to keep the distinction between mobile and portable devices out there and recognize that – while Apple is pioneering – it’s not ploughing new ground alone.  There are others that will be out there soon.”

ADAPT OR DIE?: Publishers “have to adapt to the environment of mobile as that’s where the customers are going to be.  You can’t just write an iPhone or an iPad application and expect to hit the majority of the market. In the U.S. Android and RIM are huge markets publishers will need to address. “In the rest of the world, you definitely want to be on Nokia phones.” So, what should publishers chose? All of the above. “I think it would be ridiculous to say you write or produce a TV show that, for example, only runs on a Samsung TV.  So, it’s important that you’re able to run across all of these devices.

SECRET SAUCE: Handmark works with the existing content management system that the publishers have in place to make it simple to keep up to date with Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Java platforms. “Soon to be some new platforms that we’ll be covering as well.” Paul says getting media partners to market quickly is key. But, increasingly, media companies choose Handmark for assistance in distribution and monetization. In addition, Handmark also connects with publishers’ existing CRM systems, allowing it to recognize if a reader also has a connection to the publication (for example, an online subscription).

MARKET MOVES: “It’s moved much more to an audience building than it has been in the past.  In the past, we built an audience by knowing someone at a carrier or any of the other gatekeepers to those audiences.  Now, media brands have an extraordinary opportunity to put themselves right, front and center with their customers.” Paul likes to compare the pace of change in publishing to Amazon’s rise to the top. “Amazon established buying habits online years ago and it was very hard for existing retailers to come in later and displace the space that Amazon had taken.  We think the same thing can happen in mobile. If existing brands don’t jump in early enough, others will displace them. People are establishing their reading habits now. They’re dating somebody whether you’re there or not, and you need to make sure it’s you and you need to get out there.”

Listen to the podcast here. [14:26]

In brief:

In April Alcatel-Lucent officially made its bid for leadership in the mobile advertising space with Optism, an ecosystem approach to mobile advertising that has been designed and commercialized to bring together mobile operators, agencies and advertisers. To achieve this Alcatel-Lucent has specifically brought together media expertise including executives from OgilvyOne and OgilvyInteractive (agencies), MTV (brand) and Blyk (the first ad-funded MVNO). The heart of Optism is the advertising platform, fully hosted and managed by Alcatel-Lucent that connects directly into mobile networks, aggregating their inventory and offering a single entry point for advertisers and marketers to book mobile media. MSG speaks with Thomas Labarthe, Alcatel-Lucent VP Mobile Advertising.

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MSG: To start off: why the focus on this breed of permission-based marketing? As I understand it, you call it conversational marketing and it’s all about combining consumer permissions and preferences using MMS and SMS to create a dialogue with people and drive results. Isn’t that a step backwards when the blogosphere is buzzing with discussions of new formats and approaches?

A: There are three main ‘branches’ of mobile advertising: mobile banners that we see in applications and across mobile websites, which tend to not be targeted and aren’t engaging due to their lack of graphics and small size. Mobile search is the second avenue, leveraging the Google model of serving ads based on keywords used. This approach is more contextual than display banners because it’s about delivering ads triggered by a person that has expressed a need. They’re searching for downloadable content or information they can’t wait to access on their PC. While there is an opportunity here, it’s also the hard truth that the space is already dominated by the Internet search companies. The third area is permission-based marketing that uses messaging to trigger a conversation, allowing subscribers the opportunity to engage in relevant conversations with the brands they want to hear from. More importantly, messaging is not a one-off. It’s the start of an exchange and provides brands and agencies a foundation on which they can build real engagement. In fact, conversational marketing quickly becomes a launch pad for more sophisticated and branded experiences on the mobile device, and more lucrative mobile Web interactions such as mobile payments, Web browsing, calls to action and location-based services.

Beyond the benefits to people, because they have opted in to receive the messages in the first place, and brands, because they have an eager audience, are the benefits to mobile operators. They are not spectators to what’s happening. They are in the middle of the action and the value-creation. While the first two branches of mobile advertising are delivered over the top of their networks, conversational marketing allows them to provide more than the pipes. They become a full participant in the mobile advertising value chain, and reap a share of the revenues generated.

MSG: Let’s focus on the consumer part of the equation first. Clearly, if you have their buy-in, then they won’t dismiss the advertising as spam. What is the opt-in process and what was the thinking that went into designing it?

A: Advertisers now request more efficient and reliable targeting options as well as the possibility to re-engage the audience and build loyalty. We believe the best way is to transparently ask people for their permission and preferences in order to build trust, engagement and long-term relationships based on value exchange. As you said, we ask first and that conversation – that respect for the individual – is at the core of our approach. Consumers opt in to ways that they can be connected with their favorite brands through relevant and engaging information that’s tailored to their specific interests and lifestyles.

To start mobile subscribers are asked two to three questions–typically around gender, age and their key topic of interest. That is, the channel of advertising they want to receive- such as sports, fashion or music. The number here is significant. If you just send 10 questions in a survey for people to respond to before they opt in, it will not happen. We have conducted global grassroots research [Alcatel-Lucent Market Advantage Research - PDF], surveying 2,200 people ages 13-25, and they told us this is what they will accept. What’s more, we found that people want simplicity. In particular, the opt-in process must be easy and intuitive. Consumers have little patience with technology shortcomings or long, involved processes.

MSG: How can you enrich this information over time to help brands to deliver even more targeted campaigns?

A: Building in preferences into the solution will be a gradual process. The solution is designed to continually obtain more detailed information about a subscriber’s interest based on the type of campaigns they respond to. Take an advertising campaign about cars that I opt in to receive because I like cars. The campaign could start off by asking me: Which I like more: a sports coupe or a sedan model? I reply back with a text that I prefer the sports car. The system notes my response. That’s a great feature of our system because it gives brands rich re-marketing possibilities. They can review the data collected on previous campaigns and target only the people who did or didn’t participate in the previous campaign, depending on what the brand business objectives are. So, if we go back to my example, I volunteered the information that I like the sports coupe. The brand knows that I like high performance cars and can either build on our conversation to send me more information about this model of car, or even reward me with a voucher for motor oil I can redeem at a nearby dealer if I go in for a test drive.

So, there is a wide variety of re-marketing options. As such, Optism will be able to provide significantly deeper demographic information a year from now as it continually collects that information into its database. I should stress that this data reflects my preferences that I have volunteered as part of my interaction with the brand campaign. We are not collecting personally identifiable information and consumers have the option to update their profiles, change preferences and permissions at any time. They can even opt-out if they aren’t satisfied with the service.

MSG: Optism is a fully hosted mobile advertising solution – but it is also focused at brokering relationships to create a business ecosystem, as you said, placing mobile operators back in the center of the action, and empowering consumers to call the shots by asking them to choose the advertising they are willing to accept. Why did you choose this multi-dimensional approach and what concrete issues is it designed to solve?

A: Mobile advertising has long been touted as a new growth area for mobile operators, but we recognized there were some serious hurdles we, as an industry, had to cross to get there. When we started this project about a year and a half ago, we spent quite some time with advertisers, brands and agencies to really understand their challenges and opportunities. Their main message to us was it needed to be easier for them to buy mobile media from mobile operators. The main obstacle is the fragmentation of the market. Many mobile operators are offering inventories, but the technical complexity of this market makes it very difficult for media agencies to buy campaigns and advertising space. There was clearly a need to simplify the buying process, and brands and agencies also wanted simplicity and scale.

In recognition of this, our main objective with Optism has been to bring scale and simplicity to permission-based marketing by enabling new targeted inventories for advertisers. We achieve scale because our solution pulls together mobile ad space from multiple operators, helping media buyers and media agencies access enough inventory to conduct targeted ad campaigns. At the same time, this opens up new revenue opportunities for mobile operators. Finally, they can benefit from a solution that helps them aggregate their advertising inventory with other mobile operators’ inventories to make sure advertisers can distribute their advertising message to a wide audience– beyond local boundaries to national and international audiences.

MSG: Put simply, it’s all about providing a central location for ad agencies to book and launch conversational marketing campaigns across mobile operators with Optism taking a middleman role here…

A: Yes. The solution fits really the heart of the mobile advertising value chain. This value chain starts with a brand or an advertiser wanting to run a marketing campaign. For that, they work with a media agency – also called media buyer – that buys the space where the campaign will be released. We also call those spaces ‘inventories’ because the space is dynamic and depends on the time and frequency element. Naturally, the media buyers also approach the mobile operators, who are the media owners in the value chain. Mobile operators have lots of media inventories to release those campaigns. And, in the end, the campaign is served to an end-user – that’s the value chain. Brand – media agency – media owner – end-user.

Concretely, our solution sits between the media buyer and the operator, the media owner, and brokers the relationship, making it simple for the media buyer to purchase those inventories. Thanks to the hosting element of our platform, we aggregate inventories or campaign spaces across several mobile operators. In other words, we simplify the ad-buying process by providing operator-agnostic inventories. As a result, media buyers and agencies have a one-stop shop to purchase those campaigns, as well to create them, launch them, and get feedback on their performance though Web-based tools that we designed together with brands and agencies for precisely that purpose.

MSG: Optism is a solution, but it also refers to the ability to broker the relationships between advertisers and operators.…

A: While building the Optism team, I had the great opportunity to bring together technical telco people with experts from media and advertisers. We purposely aimed for this mix because we wanted a team that knew the business but also understood how to create, maintain and broker business relationships. This was not really part of the DNA of Alcatel-Lucent. So we’ve hired a team of experts from the media and advertising space, including executives from OgilvyOne, OgilvyInteractive, MTV and Blyk [the first ad-funded MVNO]. We have also forged working relationships with GroupM [WPP], the IAB [Interactive Advertising Bureau] and the MMA [Mobile Marketing Association]. Alcatel-Lucent joined the MMA’s Premium Membership tier in February — a position that’s only available to a limited number of companies that have substantial influence and leadership in the mobile marketing industry – to really drive the permission-based marketing space. Our aim is to help provide standards in the presentation of preference data. That way, we can help to simplify efforts for all members of the value chain with the goal of ultimately making mobile into a credible and respected media channel.

MSG: What is the business model?

Optism is fully hosted so there is no cost to the mobile operator. Alcatel-Lucent shares the revenue with the mobile operator and the media agency, with the operator taking the larger share. So basically, we take a share of the revenue when media buyers book their campaigns. We have already signed up Orange Austria and we are working with E-Plus in Germany. We have more operators to announce in the next weeks. Our approach is also to help [mobile] networks expose their advertising assets to other parties including developers in order to monetize them – and more importantly, innovate on top of them. This goes far beyond just mobile advertising.

MSG: So let’s wrap up with your view of the future of mobile advertising — beyond just mobile advertising. What’s high on your radar?

A: It’s not just about advertising, which is why I call it conversational marketing. It’s the idea of there being a real dialogue between the brand and the user, and messaging is clearly a channel that provides a lot of scale and simplicity in the response mechanisms. Brands can build on this to introduce calls to action, ways to engage consumers beyond the campaign itself. This can go way beyond leading users to landing sites. Campaigns can connect to mobile payment systems, and we demonstrated this at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where we demonstrated an e-Wallet linked to Optism. Imagine being engaged in a campaign where you receive periodic vouchers from the brand, reach into an e-wallet application on the phone, and then redeem it by waving it over an NFC [Near-Field Communications] point of sale. The next step is about bringing together advertising and retail.
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Next week: Thomas Labarthe discusses the central role of the consumer in the value chain and shares some insights from the company’s Youth Lab research.

Next in the MAD MOVERS series: Millennial Media talks about key metrics and the campaigns that set the bar.

Disclaimer: Alcatel-Lucent is an MSG supporter.

The advertising industry is huge, with an estimated value of $1 trillion (Source: WPP, STL, Kelsey Group, PWC). While about half of that amount is spent on traditional advertising (including print, radio and television), the market is largely flat. Traditional media simply don’t provide the level of response advertisers are looking for. It’s also becoming increasingly difficult to reach audiences over the usual channels (consider the impact of the PVR on television advertising!).

Most importantly, traditional advertising doesn’t enable brands to measure how many people view an ad. Digital advertising, on the other hand, is a healthy, dynamic market with the potential for an excellent return on investment. It also offers the personalization needed to improve targeting, relevance and responsiveness. And thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices, the mass consumer audience is there.

To date, the majority of mobile advertising is delivered over the top (OTT) of your networks. You’re providing and maintaining the roadway for advertisers to communicate with your subscribers, but you’re not getting a great return on that investment. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Take advantage of your advantages

As a mobile operator, you have a unique advantage over other media owners: your direct relationship with your subscribers. You can leverage that relationship, along with your mobile network resources, to become a valued participant in the mobile marketing and advertising value chain.

As you explore new opportunities for mobile advertising, keep the following guidelines in mind.

1. Protect your relationship with subscribers by focusing on permission- and preference-based advertising. This will ensure that your subscribers regard the service as a benefit, not a nuisance. In fact, by delivering messages that your subscribers want to receive, you’ll be giving them another reason to stay with you as their provider. An effective mobile advertising service will also help to differentiate you from competitors and draw new subscribers to you.

2. Emphasize services that offer the best ROI potential. Currently, you may be offering bulk SMS to media agencies at the lowest possible cost, but this approach does not realize the highest possible return for you. Instead, focus on creating higher value mobile media that is permission- and preference based. This gives advertisers a responsive and scalable channel to engage in conversations with your subscribers. It is much more valuable to marketers and advertisers, and therefore yields a much higher return.

3. Develop a compelling service that differentiates you from competitors. You’re going to be competing head-to-head with application and content providers that already have both mindshare with your customers and strong media relationships. To attract advertising budgets your way, you’ll need to offer something different and better, with a measurable ROI so marketers and advertisers can easily see the added value. In addition to supporting permission- and preference-based advertising, you will need to be able to provide the kind of reach brands are looking for. Advertisers want to distribute their advertising message to a wide audience — beyond local boundaries to national and international audiences. One way of accomplishing this is by working with a partner to aggregate your advertising inventory with that of other mobile operators.

4. Seek opportunities to partner with experts in the marketing and advertising field. The right partner can help you overcome any relationship gaps that may exist between you and advertisers. Ideally, the partner will help you sell your advertising inventory, so you can remain focused on your core business, while the partner looks after the day-to-day mechanics of providing a mobile advertising service.

Timing is everything

Mobile advertising offers an optimal balance of reach and effectiveness. It provides a more direct connection to consumers, simply because of the incredible proliferation of mobile devices, and because it is the most personal of all media. While this form of advertising is still in its infancy, it is expected to grow significantly over the next few years. The greatest rewards as a provider of mobile advertising will be won by those who
get out in front of competitors with an effective, easy to use solution that meets the marketing and advertising industry’s requirements head-on.

Leading the conversation

In the last two years, Alcatel-Lucent has made significant investments in the advertising arena, building relationships and developing innovative strategies for tapping into mobile advertising and marketing opportunities. Our leadership in mobile advertising has been recognized by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) by designating Alcatel-Lucent a Premium Member of the MMA. The MMA reserves the Premium Member tier to companies with the scale, scope and resources to effect genuine change in the marketplace.

We’ve just launched Optism™ a powerful permission-based mobile marketing solution that will help mobile operators as well as marketers and advertisers to make the most of the mobile advertising opportunity. For more information, go to www.alcatel-lucent.com/optism and www.optism.com.

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Lisa Ciangiulli, Director of Marketing for Alcatel-Lucent Global Advertising Solutions, where she has been instrumental in the development and marketing of Optism™, Alcatel-Lucent’s powerful permission-based mobile advertising solution. In this role, and throughout her career, Ciangiulli has spearheaded efforts to encourage cooperation between players across the ecosystem with the ultimate goal of enabling closer communication with the consumer. In May she was named to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) North America Board of Directors. You can follow her on Twitter (@LisaCiangiulli).

Disclaimer: Optism is an MSG supporter.

Hulu, the U.S. online video service announced a stream of changes to its offering a few days back. Our favorite was the ‘Ad Tailor’. As Hulu puts it, “The goal of Ad Tailor is to increase the relevance of ads for our viewers.” It’s very simple. When a viewer watches a program on Hulu, during the ad break, the user is asked how relevant the ad was to them. This helps Hulu overtime to display more relevant ads to that viewer.

The advertising industry is so often caught up in clever technology that involves complex behavioral or contextual algorithms that they forget that ‘users’ are actually ‘humans’. What better way to find out what is relevant than to ask?

We at Optism firmly believe in explicit profiling. The mobile phone is the most personal device in the world and commands its own rules of engagement. If the mobile industry were to follow its older sister, online, we could end up where the online display industry is now, with click-through rates and CPMs at an all time low because of poor targeting and low engagement. Preference-based marketing has a major role to play in ensuring the long term success of mobile advertising.

“The more efficiently we can match ads up with users, the more everyone benefits. Users see more relevant ads, and advertisers reach a more targeted and receptive audience,”says Eugene Wei VP, Product at Hulu.

Eugene is right and we salute Hulu for leading the charge in the online video space.

The Open Mobile Summit is only a day away and – if you can somehow manage a ticket – I suggest you head on over. There are just over 50 seats left and the line-up of a whopping 70 speakers, includes senior execs from major players including Google, Yahoo, Nokia, Spotify, Admob, Ogilvy, AKQA, the BBC, MTV, FT.com, Opera, Vodafone, O2, HTC – and the list goes on. A special highlight: the first public appearance by Alberto Torres, the former McKinsey consultant who has recently been appointed head of Nokia’s MeeGo smartphone operating system.

Kudos to Robin Batt, my esteemed colleague and the executive producer of this conference. Robin fully understands that doing business -and making money- in an Open Mobile world will require new thinking and business models. The caliber -and variety- of speakers from across the mobile business ecosystem that she has brought together for this event will undoubtedly deliver attendees some answers and useful advice. MSG is proud to support Open Mobile Summit as a media sponsor. I won’t be able to attend this event – but I have already booked my flight for the next Open Mobile Summit (San Francisco, November 8-9) and suggest you do the same.

INTERVIEW WITH ALISA BOWEN

To promote this event and give you a preview of the hot topics on the agenda, I caught up with Alisa Bowen, Senior VP consumer publishing at Thomson Reuters, who will speak tomorrow on the future of publishing in a three-screen world. Alisa oversees the sales, marketing, product development and operations for the company’s Web, Mobile and IPTV propositions in 12 languages and 17 markets globally.  From the start mobile has been at the top of her agenda, so I used the opportunity to ask Alisa what makes her so sure mobile is so powerful.

Among the highlights:

CONTEXT MATTERS: Thomson Reuters is sharply focused on the business professional, a customer segment that is increasingly mobile. “We need to do a world class job of providing them with the information they need wherever they are, whatever context they’re operating in and on whatever device is most convenient to them.  Thomson Reuters provides intelligent information which means both information that you can make real business decisions on, but it also means information that it contextually aware.” Moving forward, that means much more intelligence built into the services. “It’s essentially just beginning.  I think contextual awareness we’re seeing begins with location awareness…but I think there is tremendous opportunity in the future for the technology to become so much more sophisticated, to understand what your mobile consumption habits have been, and then customize your applications around that.” Alisa envisions a linkage between technology and context resulting in services that “know” our moods or the appointments in our calendar and then uses this insight to serve up relevant information.

READING & RELATIONSHIPS: “We spent a lot of time last year researching how business professionals were using mobile devices and what we discovered was that there is no generation gap. There’s been a seismic mind shift in terms of people’s adoption of mobile technology.” But it’s more than just information access on the fly; Alisa says mobile also has to help them connect with their peers in new ways. “For many of our professionals, their jobs are now much more about managing relationships.” They need information but they also need to be “a part of a community internally within [their] own organization and externally within [their] own client base.”

MOBILE VS DESKTOP: It’s not a case of “either or” – it’s a matter of creating content that harnesses the best of both. “In previous eras of our mobile strategy, there was a tendency for us to try and cram everything that somebody would use on a desktop onto a smaller screen.  We’ve seen the light, so to speak, and I think we understand much more clearly that the mobile information consumption is not just the same stuff on a smaller screen.” This recognition has prompted Thomson Reuters to “split a desktop companion product from what we call task-oriented, bite-size applications that are very focused on executing a specific task. In the case of consumer media, that’s news awareness, browsing and reading, and so we’ve developed applications that just do that superbly and they don’t try to do everything else.”

APPS & ROADMAP: Alisa is predictable tight-lipped about the details, but hints that apps such as the News Pro for iPad is a prime example of where things are going. Video is another focus, which is why the company’s financial services division recently released Reuters Insider. “It’s an extremely innovative new video platform for financial professionals; it aggregates content from third parties but also showcases Reuters’ world class financial reporting on video.  It has a number of interesting usability features and functions and essentially allows users the ability to create their own channel by dragging and dropping — from their desktop and from their iPad and from their iPhone — different video clips that fit their profile.” In addition, the service provides a transcript of the video content in “almost real-time” and allows users to search those transcripts and jump using touch gestures to the specific place in the video that contains the relevant keywords they’re interested in following.

ADVERTISING & M-COMMERCE: “I think customers have some cultural sensitivity to paying for the content. But they’re not just paying for the content, so my plea to publishers is to understand that balance between content and experience. One without the other is worthless, but both together is extremely powerful….I think it’s up to us as an industry to make of it what we can and I think you will see advertisers follow in and marketers follow in behind that.” But it’s not just about stock-standard banners and ad units we know from the Internet. “I think the [iPad] platform is a canvas for much more creative and rich advertising and marketing experiences [such as video].” So how can publishers make real money? Alisa is bullish about the potential for the iPad, in particular, to drive sales of real stuff.  “I think that we forget sometimes that the iPad platform represents 125 million users with their live credit card details entered into a store, one click away from buying real stuff. I think that is incredibly powerful….I think if publishers can think about how to harness that opportunity around commerce for buying real goods and services, as well as virtual ones, then that’s a pretty interesting space that I don’t think is being well discussed yet.”

My take: Publishers and media companies are well-advised to embrace mobile. But they must also factor our “state” into the equation. Thomson Reuters has created robust services that effectively split the desktop chores from the task we have to perform on the move. Mobile optimizing content is not about whiz-bang stuff; it’s about understanding what we want to do and providing us the tools (information and access to our communities) to do it well. I was also struck by the sharp focus on video moving forward (for both rich advertising and exciting content presentation). Will video be the next big thing? A tough one to call (and fraught with bandwidth issues we also need to consider). Nonetheless, this bodes well for an announcement we can expect soon: the launch of the industry’s first mobile video ad network. I’ve signed up for a pre-briefing and will report back once it’s prime time.

Listen to the podcast here. [15:07]

EDITORS NOTE: MSearchGroove (MSG) – named a top 50 influential technology site by Konector – provides its platform to showcase select events that set the bar. In addition to standard media sponsorships, MSG produces interviews and podcasts free of charge for select event partners to boost promotion and create buzz. Contact me directly (peggy@msearchgroove.com) to explore ways we can collaborate to make your event stand out.

Next in the series: An interview with Paul Reddick, Handmark CEO, in the run up to M-Publishing, the premier mobile publishing event (London, June 1) organized by James Cameron and the team at Camerjam.

Editor’s note:

In the run up to launch of the iconic iPad device it’s no wonder that the topic has come up in several recent mobile marketing meetings with clients and colleagues alike. The emotional bond – even obsession – with this device is understandable. But the need for hard-nosed business realism (particularly if you are a publisher or marketer aiming to delight your particular customer base or target demographic) is much greater.

Effective mobile strategies – whether the objective is to increase traffic to your website, market downloadable content/apps or simply deliver a mobile advertising campaign via text links or display banners – must have the consumer at the core.

Put another way, on a device as personal as a mobile phone, you don’t dare not to put the customer first. In practical terms this means making every effort to ensure what you offer (advertising, content, downloads) is a perfect fit with your customer base.

Part of this is about choosing the proper targeting parameters for your campaigns, a task that you can perform with the help of a number of solutions, including Bango Analytics. But it doesn’t stop there. You also need to be sure that what you are offering can be accessed and enjoyed by your target demographic. That is why knowing your customer and – more importantly – knowing what devices they use when they access your offer in the first place are critical.

DEVICES MATTER

I’ll explore the impact of the iPad later in this column. First, let’s look at how and why strategy and mobile must be aligned.

If the end-game is all about engaging the customer, then it’s clear that delivering super-charged content, which requires 4G connectivity, the newest Apple iPhone and ownership of a credit card, doesn’t add up if your target demographic is mass market youth (who rarely have credit cards and can just barely afford smartphones). Fine, if you want to target affluent individuals in North America or Western Europe. In other words, your device focus and target demographic have to be in sync.

We also know from Sizing Up The Global Mobile Apps Market, a recent report from Chetan Sharma Consulting, that sophisticated smartphones (such as the Apple iPhone) are the rage in North America and most of Europe. In Asia, however, featurephones are the norm. This has a direct impact on the apps and app store landscape in these regions.

The vast majority of apps are ad-funded in Asia, which makes business sense because most people in this region cannot generally afford to pay for apps. The popularity of operator-run app stores, catering to featurephone, not smartphone users, is staggering.

Clearly, as this report illustrates, there are distinct differences between what developers, publishers and advertisers must recognize and build into their mobile strategies.

Reams of reports have also been written about the differences between customer segments. I mentioned above that youth rarely make purchases with a credit card, which is why an iPhone-centric approach makes little sense if you want to attract youth. A great resource for information on marketing to youth is Mobile Youth, which has also posted some thought-provoking insights on youth’s current love affair with … BlackBerry.

Surprise!

DO SMART STRATEGIES FOCUS ON SMARTPHONES?

Despite the hype at industry conferences and the enthusiasm in the tech blogosphere, Vision Mobile, a leading strategic consultancy reminds us this week that Apple and Android are only a footnote in the global mobile market story, accounting for circa 1 percent of the global installed base of mobile handsets.

Meantime, new numbers from IDC and Strategy Analytics confirm that smartphone sales have surged. According to Strategy Analytics, global smart phone shipments in the first quarter increased 50 percent to 54 million, pushing Apple into the top three handset makers. It’s impressive growth, but not nearly as exciting if we remember that worldwide handset penetration is set to reach 5 billion (!) by the end of the year.

Put it into this perspective and, at present, smartphones shipped have accounted for only 18 percent of the total worldwide mobile phone shipments. And it’s not just about the iPhone. Strategy Analytics report that not all smartphone manufacturers compete in the same markets. Nokia and other manufacturers will compete in China, India and other emerging markets; and Motorola will focus on the U.S. and other mature markets.

Apple’s first-quarter mobile phone shipments totaled 8.8 million, accounting for market share of 16.4 percent in the global smartphone market. Still, calculated according to the total global handset shipments, Apple’s share in global mobile phone market has reached 3 percent.

And let’s not forget the gains made by RIM BlackBerry.

IDC reports that RIM entered the top five handset makers for the first time, pushing Motorola off the list of the world’s best-selling mobile phone makers. And remember this is all mobile phones and not just smartphones. IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker reported that 294.9 million mobile phone handsets were shipped in the first quarter.

The purpose of this section is not to claim any one phone model is better or cooler than another. I want to leave you with a checklist of what you need to factor into your formula for success. Namely, understanding the diversity of devices, the regional differences and the key requirements of your customer base are essential. Not including any one of these into your equation can be a fatal mistake.

iPAD: THE MAGICAL MOBILE?

Which brings me to the new kid on the block. We can debate whether the iPad will be the savior of the publishing industry. But we must be clear on whether it is indeed a mobile device. After all, it is somewhat larger than a phone and you can’t make calls on it.

On the other hand, the iPad uses the iPhone operating system and has an app store crammed full of familiar iPhone apps. The device is great for browsing the Web, and the latest version even has 3G mobile broadband capabilities. From a marketers perspective it follows that iPad can be slotted in right next to the iPhone and the iPod Touch. It’s the same device family and the same proprietary operating systems reusing the same end-to-end digital storefront, iTunes.

But, before marketers simply assume the same paradigm holds true for this new device (and that their same pages, apps and banner ads will be seen by iPad users as much as iPhone users), let’s note some characteristics that distinguish the iPad from everything else on the market.

Unlike mobile devices, the iPad is hardly an always-on, personal device. That is, not unless you have big pockets, purses or would like to run around like this chap.(Twitter pic courtesry of Paul Stamatiou and via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)

For the rest of us, the iPad is more similar to netbooks, laptops and Kindles. What’s more, the iPad is not a communications device. So, all those ads that point at click-to-call pages simply won’t work – not even with the latest 3G version.

MOBILITY UNLEASHED

In my view, whether the iPad is mobile ultimately depends on your definition of mobile. Interestingly, the plethora of devices coming online and even aspiring to their own app stores calls on us all to re-think our definition of mobile any way.

Indeed, TomTom, a maker of personal navigation devices, recently threw its hat into the ring announcing its intention to create an app store of GPS-focused apps, content and services. Meantime, the report from Chetan Sharma Consulting foresees an explosion of app stores and offers for all devices and platforms that include cars (telematics), digital picture frames and weight scales (!)

Clearly, mobile phones are not the only game in town.

Nowadays mobile refers to any portable, connected device that gives you access to information and services.

Against this backdrop, our new, much wider definition would naturally include the iPad. That being the case, the pressure is now on publishers, developers and marketers to broaden their view of the market.

WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE

As I have pointed out, their market – and their mobility strategies – should not shut out other connected devices such as netbooks, ebook readers like the Amazon Kindle and handheld gaming consoles like the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable. And if your market focus is cars, digital cameras or the intelligent kitchen appliances that we’ve been talking about for well over a decade, it may be that the time is ripe to map out marketing for your app or service.

Mobility means many things and brings with it many opportunities. But be careful that you don’t lose focus while you try to take it all in. The key question to ask here is not: is it mobile? You must ask yourself: does my target audience use this mobile device to access my offer or interact with my campaigns? What’s more, if a large percentage of your audience does indeed use that device, then optimizing content and campaigns for that device is a business imperative.

To help put this into context, here are some numbers that shed light on the reach and popularity of these new connected devices. Nintendo has shipped well in excess of 100 million Wi-Fi enabled Nintendo DS handheld game consoles worldwide. That’s huge! But it only spells opportunity if your offer or campaigns targets a youth audience that’s heavily into games and entertainment.

Moving back to the iPad and similar devices, DisplaySearch, a company providing market research tracking electronic devices with displays, reports that over 5 million e-readers were sold in 2009, of which over 3 million were Amazon Kindles. Meantime, StrategyAnalytics estimates over 30 million netbooks were shipped worldwide in 2009. In comparison, Apple has just passed the 1 million iPads sold mark – a much smaller number, but not bad for just one month of U.S. sales. But compare that figure with the 294.9 million mobile phone handsets IDC reports were shipped in Q12010 and you’ll gain an entirely new perspective on this device and its significance in the global mobile marketplace.

INFORMATION IS POWER

So, before you rush to plan content, offers and campaigns that will allow you to dominate the fledgling iPad market, you need to be sure it’s worth the effort. You can only know for sure if you measure your traffic. This allows you visibility into the devices your target audience uses and how they interact with your offer.

Naturally, if the vast of majority of your customer base is using connected devices (iPads, Kindles, netbooks, games consoles), then you have to optimize your offer for this devices now. Likewise, if smartphones (iPhones, BlackBerry, Android) is topping the list, then you also need to react.

The point is: you can only get this valuable information by installing an effective mobile analytics solution like Bango Analytics on your website. It’s easy to set up and will tell you what mobile devices your customers are using, visibility that will also help you identify the main growth areas for your business. Only then can you make an informed decision on where to focus your effort and budget with confidence.

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Andy is a leading authority in mobile web technologies, a self-confessed ‘gadgeteer’ and a supporter of connected mobile living. He has over 17 year’s Web experience and helped sponsor the first web conference at CERN in 1994. Andy was also responsible for the first integration of Web technology into a desktop GUI with IXI X-desktop, and introduced the world to the Web-based Desktop, the Webtop, at SCO. He designed the first browser-based remote application access solutions for Tarantella Inc., enabling applications from centrally located UNIX, Linux and Windows servers to be used over the Internet by mobile workforces. Andy is currently VP Product Marketing at Bango, a leading supplier of mobile Web analytics and billing solutions. Before joining Bango, Andy was Head of Marketing and Product Management for ANT plc, a leader in Web-based user interface platforms for the IPTV market. Prior to that, he was responsible for worldwide marketing at Microsoft Research in Cambridge. Andy holds a BSc in Computer Science from Staffordshire University. You can follow Andy on Twitter (@MrBov).

Disclaimer: Bango is an MSG supporter and client.

In brief:

It’s encouraging to see a much sharper focus on mobile search and a growing realization among mobile operators, content providers and publishers/developers that there is a lot more to mobile search than the universal model we know from the online Internet. Mobile phone form factors push companies to develop new mobile search services that deliver us relevant results in tune with our intent and context. All the better if these services make use of features and functions such as voice recognition, image recognition, location-awareness and Augmented Reality.

Another development that makes search essential is the avalanche of apps and app stores, and the drive by all the players in the ecosystem to make these content and services storefronts a commercial success. Case in point: Apple’s decision to snap up Siri, a voice-activated digital personal assist that takes the concept of search to a new level (allowing us to find not search!)

OPEN CALL FOR MOBILE SEARCH FIRMS

Regular readers will recall that I have tracked mobile search from the start (hence, the name MSearchGroove, following on the popularity of my industry-first report on the mobile search and content discovery space).

My background and passion also allow me to connect with cool companies in the space such as Taptu, the first mobile search company to index the Mobile Touch Web; Expertmaker, a mobile search company in stealth mode that allows us to refine our search parameters in real-time; GetFugu, a company that combines search and image recognition to help people find local businesses and navigate to their website; and Aisle 411, a company at the sweet spot between mobile search and inventory management. (Check out the bnetTV video interviews I conducted with Carl Freer, GetFugu founder, and Nathan Pettyjohn, Aisle 411 Chairman & CEO.)

I look forward to including these and more cool companies in my keynote presentation to the European Commission. The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, which is part of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, has organized an exploratory expert workshop titled “Exploring the Future of Mobile Search” to discuss the innovation potential in mobile search. The workshop will take place in Ghent, Belgium (June 9), during the 9th Conference of Telecommunication, Media and Internet Techno-Economics.

Timed to this event I will also kick off a new series on MSG profiling mobile search newcomers and innovators. If you are a mobile search company and want to be included in my ongoing work and upcoming series, then please contact me directly (peggy@msearchgroove.com).

DATA POINTS

With search at the top of the business agenda, the timing is excellent to recount the key takeaways of several recent mobile search reports.

MOBILE COMMERCE & MOBILE SEARCH: Mobile Commerce (MC) – which handles over 25 percent of the searches coming from U.K. mobile operator portals and other sources – recently released a report summarizing the trends it observes based on the search queries it “sees” per year.

Among the findings:

• The volume of searches has more than doubled over the last 12 months. MC reports an increase in mobile search usage from 125 million queries to 250 million, in part due to the jump in the number of people signing up for flat-rate data bundles to surf the mobile Web. The number of searches per unique user also shows an increase. The total has grown from 8 per month to 13. (Granted this is not the frequency of use we know from the online Internet, but it is an indication that users are gravitating to the search box on portals as they become more familiar with the mobile Web.)
• The position of the search box is critical. MC’s data confirms that the higher the search box is placed on the portal, the more people use it. It’s not rocket science, but it does show that there are very simple ways to significantly increase the use of search. Even stating that search is free of charge (as Orange has done on its Orange World Portal) can boost usage.
• Tag clouds are useful shortcuts. Many use search instead of bookmarks to reach sites and destinations quickly (which is why Facebook was the single most searched term of 2009). MC tells us that displaying tag clouds containing the most popular search terms is another way to increase searches and drive results.
• Date, time and current events drive searches. No surprise here – but you can follow Steve Page, MC founder, who shares the top search terms and trends via his Twitter feed (@sjspage).
• Internet destinations and giants (Google, Facebook, YouTube) are top search terms. In addition to this information and analysis (summarized in this earlier post on MSG) MC shares how subjects are searched, reminding advertisers that they must bid on many related terms and tag their mobile pages correctly to ensure their results are high up in the natural search results for the terms.
• Are local terms also local searches? Google may have recently claimed that 33 percent of all searches on mobile have a local context, but MC is less convinced. It shows that searches such as “Manchester” are more about local soccer teams (Manchester United) than the city. Of all location searches, 55 percent include either a city or area name, 17 percent have a point-of-interest, 15 percent use a full zip code and 13 percent have a partial zip code.
• Search shortcomings can be avoided. Transcoding is not the only way to mobilize sites. Advertisers should build versions optimized for device types. (Taptu indexes sites that are touch-friendly and built from the ground up for access via touchscreen devices, for example.) The intelligence behind the search boxes could also be better. MC’s road test of search on Nokia Ovi reveals that it delivers games results for pac man – but not for pacman. Android Market suffers the “same shortcoming.” (BTW: This could be solved with a simple “Did You Mean” response to clarify the search term and the searcher’s intent.)

Source

The bottom line: MC has brought together a lot of insights about what people search for and how they search for it. Mobile search isn’t perfect, but volumes are increasing, and so is the pressure on providers to deliver a better experience. And it’s not just about mobile operators any more. The rise of the app stores means publishers and the 75 app stores are well-advised to develop mobile search strategies to deliver people the apps they want – or at least relevant results.

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ARE APPS BEATING SEARCH?: This insightful post from GigaOM draws from a Broadpoint AmTech note and asks if apps are poised to disrupt the standard online search model. The Broadpoint report says search engines derive significant revenues from commerce-related queries (searching for “Amazon” or “eBay”) and suggests that warns that the growth in the usage of mobile apps that take people directly to destinations could be bad news for Google & Co. “If users get in the habit of simply using the Amazon app to search for products or a Fandango app for movies, then Google would be seriously impacted,” the report concludes.

Source

The bottom line: Mobile apps cover the bases to bypass search engines when the purpose of the search is navigational (using the search box as a shortcut) and commercial (looking for a product on Amazon by searching for Amazon first, for example). Sebastian Rupley, who wrote the post, reminds us that Google can likely read the writing on the wall, which is why the search giant is so interested in the “spread of Android-based phones, many of which emphasize its tools and applications, and steer users into its search/ad ecosystem.” It will be interesting to see how all search engines react to the onslaught of mobile apps that make finding and buying stuff with our phones a no-brainer.

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FACEBOOK DOMINATES: We all know that social networking is the number one activity on mobile. A recent ComScore report reveals that search queries on the social networking site (online) grew by a whopping 48 percent between February and March 2010. In its study, which is based on 15.4 billion core searches in the U.S., ComScore also found Google leads with 65.1 percent of the market, down 0.4 percent from February. It was followed by Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask and AOL. Microsoft showed a 7 percent increase after adding mapping and other features.

Source

The bottom line: Read between the lines and this bodes well for social sites and social search via mobile. Facebook, which has more than 400 million active users, is exploding when it comes to search (up 48 percent) on the Internet. Only a matter of time before this trend spreads to mobile, our preferred way to connect with our social networks and information about people who matter most to us on the fly. Meantime, Tech Crunch points out that search growth is slowing. The post concludes: the slowdown “may also be an indication that the search industry is maturing, and the next leg of growth may not kick in until people start searching on their mobile phones in a significant way or something else gives people a reason to search even more than they already do.”

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TAPTU TOUCH WEB REPORTS: This week Taptu releases the fourth in its series of reports analyzing the Mobile Touch Web. To make sure we are all on the same page and to set the stage for the next report findings, here’s a summary of the key takeaways.

• The January Report defined the Touch Web (and the ecosystem emerging around it) and concluded that the Mobile Touch Web had arrived full force. According to the company, which indexes touch-friendly sites and destinations, there were around 326,000 touch-friendly sites in January compared with a total of 180,000 apps across all app stores.
• The February Report takes this a step further, offering a breakdown of the sites that make up the Mobile Touch Web. The report emphasized shopping and services, a major subset of this new Web. In total Taptu counts approx. 83,000 Mobile Touch websites devoted to shopping and services. Why is this significant? Shopping and services accounts for about 26 percent of all sites. The same category accounts for less than 4 percent of apps in app stores. Taptu concludes that commerce is a chief focus on the Mobile Touch Web and will play an important role in its evolution.
• The March Report takes an in-depth look at the Government and Non-Profit sector and its growing presence on the Touch Web. The report highlights some of the leading services from Education institutions such as MIT, the Haiti disaster relief effort from the Charity sector and various local and federal government agencies that are using the Touch Web to reach a mass audience. A surprise: a large number of religious organizations embracing the Mobile Touch Web (a whopping 72 percent of all sites in the Government & Non-Profit segment are faith-based services).

Source: You can download all Taptu reports here: http://taptu.com/metrics/

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AUSTRALIA STATS: This post draws from new Nielsen research to provide numbers on mobile search usage in Australia.

• 73 percent of mobile Internet users conduct searches, compared to 38 percent accessing email and 14 percent checking social media sites
• The figure (73 percent) of people using mobile search was just 30 percent a year ago
• 43 percent of total Australian mobile phone owners have Internet-enabled handsets, though just 29 percent use their mobiles to access the Internet
• Search came out on top of activities conducted on mobile Internet; checking the news and weather, emails, maps and directories, and social networking were also cited as common mobile activities

The report also includes some insights into mobile social networking and the top handsets.

Source

The bottom line: Great to have country-specific stats. Although mobile Internet usage has a way to go, there is a tendency among users to use mobile search to explore all the exciting content at their finger tips. Makes sense that we start off by transferring our online experience to mobile.

Disclaimer: Taptu is an MSG supporter and client.

First, a round of thanks to all the companies and individuals that have reached out to become part of  The Mobile Movement, a coalition of entrepreneurs, humanitarians, artists, academics and other industry leaders committed to bringing mobile capabilities to non-profits.

In the last weeks since the launch several members of the advisory board (which includes MSG and Laura Marriott, consultant and former global President of the Mobile Marketing Association) got together for the first board meeting in Boston to evaluate and prioritize the flood of requests from non-profits and companies.

It was also an honor for my post on our launch and mission to be chosen “Post Of The Week” by the Carnival Of The Mobilists (and COM host Holly Kolman).

HEALTHCARE IS THE FOCUS

The positive feedback to The Mobile Movement is overwhelming, and we are encouraged by the number of organizations resolved to reach millions more people in need by leveraging mobile devices, networks and innovative applications they will create in partnership with social entrepreneurs.

Healthcare is a prime focus and we have already received several requests from non-profits interested in harnessing mobile to offer early cancer detection services, for example. An interesting application in discussion is a location-linked early detection service that would allow people to input their zip code to find the nearest clinic offering these screening services.

MEDIA SPONSPOR FOR MOBILE CHARITY EVENT

Clearly, mobile is becoming a strategic focus for an increasing number of non-profit organizations and charities.

The timing couldn’t be better for an event exploring how the charitable sector can leverage mobile and this is precisely the focus of Empowering the Charitable Sector with Interactive Technology (May 27, London), an all-day knowledge seminar organized by AIME (the Association for Interactive media & Entertainment).

MSG is proud to be a media partner of this worthwhile event, which will feature presentations, case studies and panel discussions based around an editorial agenda that brings together charities, advertising & marketing agencies, service providers, broadcasters, industry bodies and mobile operators.

Attendees will learn, first hand from established charitable organizations and their supporting partners, how to put together multiple platform solutions which maximize the potential for all kinds of charities to connect with the public and collect donations on a massive scale, while benefiting from lower overheads.

The event will also include a number of networking opportunities throughout, such as coffee and tea breaks, lunch and possibly a small exhibition space for companies to showcase products and services.

It will also bring charities new to using mobile together with experts in an environment to share ideas, contacts and key learnings.

SPEAKERS & TOPICS

In an increasingly ‘connected’ world, interactive platforms such as the web, TV, mobile and social media offer the charitable sector opportunities to drive higher revenue generation and public engagement at lower costs.

This event looks as the key areas that charities should be focusing on in order to maximize their fundraising activities and get the most out of their investment in digital platforms.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Caroline Lien, Head of Interactive, Comic Relief & Sports Relief
• Jim Manis, President, Mobile Giving Foundation
• Chris Ward, Director Join1 Goal Organization
• Daniela Martimo, Director, World Society for the Protection of Animals
• Simone Schmidlkofer, President, Cause2Connect
• Mike Short, Honorary Chairman, Mobile Data Association
• Doug Laughlen, Director, Local Giving Organization
• David Ryder, Director, y6Media Ltd
• Darren Parker, Business Development Director, BT Agile Media
• Robert Thurner, Commercial Director, Inventivated
• Rob Weisz, Commercial Director, Mobile Interactive Technology
• Rory Maguire, Head of Payments, 3
• Roger Craven, Managing Director, Vir2 Ltd
• Paul Swaddle, Marketing Director, WIN PLC

Case studies include:

Comic Relief/Sports Relief
Save the Children
Unicef
Leonard Cheshire Disability Organization
World Society for the Protection of Animals
Just Giving Organization
DEC

Key topics include:

• Text Donations – tax and revenue share implications
• Maximising Direct Response using WAP, SMS, Web and Email marketing to achieve optimum outcomes
• Enabling a standardized charitable giving process across MNO platforms
• Understanding the practicalities of data segmentation
• Text and Email Alerts – CRM and data management
• The role of apps and Social Media Integration
• Online fundraising –key points for success
• Legislation – Opt outs, black and grey listings
• Other platforms available for fundraising – IVR, Red Button
• Driving consumer engagement to support your mobile, online and social media strategies
• What does the future hold?

Pricing: AIME Members & attendees from the charity sector (GBP 75.00), non members (GBP 99.00)

So, register as soon as possible to ensure your place. And here’s a link where you can book your place today.

REGISTER HERE

Disclaimer: Peggy Anne Salz is member of The Mobile Movement advisory board.

In brief:

Blyk — the company that launched the world’s first ad-funded MVNO in the U.K. in 2007 and then moved to operator partnership model in 2009 – is back with its first commercial launch and consumer-facing service. The direct-to-consumer, pre-paid mobile services offer is branded Blyk and offered in partnership with Vodafone in the Netherlands.

Following the blueprint of the business model it pioneered in the U.K., Blyk offers free text messages and calling minutes (1,000 SMS and 1,000 free Blyk-to-Blyk minutes) to youth (and then some since the demographic is 16- to 29-year olds) in return for accepting a set number of SMS/MMS mobile ads per day. Once again, Blyk requires users to opt-in from the start and chose the advertising channels they want to receive.

To ensure that users aren’t just opting in to receive perks, the Dutch service requires users to top up every three months and update the information. This permission-based approach – delivering users advertising related topics such as fashion and sports that they agreed to accept in the first place – helped brands achieve high response rates on campaigns they delivered to Blyk’s profiled audience in the U.K. Overall, Blyk says it delivered campaigns on behalf of over 2,000 brands and reached an average response rate of 25 percent.

As Pekka Ala-Pietila, CEO and Co-founder of Blyk, explained in this earlier interview, the only part of the puzzle missing back then was scale. Put simply, media buyers wanted to reach more youth than had signed up for Blyk’s service in the U.K. This is why Blyk made the move from an MVNO model to a partnership model where it now focuses on providing mobile operators a managed mobile advertising service and delivering advertisers a greater reach.

BLYK IN NETHERLANDS & BEYOND

I caught up with Pekka following the launch to get an update on the U.K. services (offered in exclusive partnership with Orange) and the overall outlook for mobile messaging and advertising.

Here is a summary of the key points:

Mobile advertising formats: Predictably, Blyk is bullish about the outlook for advertising delivered using a mix of SMS and MMS. However, Pekka sees opportunities beyond messaging that spill into app advertising and notifications. “We believe messaging is the paradigm. It will win and find its way into other multiple formats such as notifications in apps, which are also push, and instant messaging.” No matter what flavors of messaging emerge, Blyk will remain “platform and transport agnostic.” He adds. “We can use W-LANs and email to give us the breadth if we need it.” As far as formats go, messaging will dominate, followed by search and in-app ads.

U.K. and beyond: Pekka was tight-lipped about stats and details, but has promised to update MSG at a later date (together with Orange) on progress in the U.K. That update will include APRU numbers that Blyk achieved during its time as an MVNO. Meantime, Pekka is “very pleased” with the partnership with Orange (where Blyk is not a consumer-facing service) and Orange’s overall strategic view of mobile advertising. The Monkey offer, the Orange service that draws from Blyk’s mobile advertising model, is a “different offer and constellation” but the results to mobile advertising campaigns are similar. “We are seeing similar results although the set up and model are different. We anticipated this. So, we can report the results and response rates are at the high level we reached at Blyk – as MVNO – and now as partner to the mobile operator [Orange].

Increasing competition: Blyk may have been one of the first, but – as I show in my upcoming report on permission-based for GigaOm PRO — a slew of companies have since staked their turf delivering, enabling and brokering permission-based advertising. How will Blyk continue to differentiate? Pekka said the rise in the number of rivals confirms that messaging is where the action – and the business – is. “We are rolling out the right services in the right sequence of countries and this will generate results, allowing us to move up the learning curve quickly and ahead of the competition.” India, the largest youth market, is next on the list.

Blyk proposition in the Netherlands: In addition to the free texts, “attractive rates for mobile Internet, roaming and other benefits” are planned. One example could be a members program that rewards members for recruiting friends/peers to use Blyk. The service is branded Blyk and the focus is on growth through minimal marketing budget and maximum impact. Pekka noted that Blyk’s grassroots marketing campaigns in the U.K. had achieved a net advocacy rate similar to Facebook and YouTube. It plans to follow a similar blueprint to recruit members in the Netherlands.

RANDOM ACTS OF FREEDOM

Which brings us to my chat earlier today with Eric Kip, MD for Blyk Netherlands. He couldn’t give me numbers but he did let me in on the details of the company’s “random” social media approach designed to deliver very deliberate results. As Eric put it: With more than 50 MVNO brands jockeying for position Blyk had to go for “small events with big impact.”

The motto: “Blyk Likes Freedom, Do You?” (and how can anyone disagree with freedom??)

Eric tells me the Blyk team brings together two Blyk employees, a small agency and “students and advocates who just like Blyk,” to commit “random acts of freedom” to reward people for just being – well – alive.

Timed to the launch Blyk took over a store selling sneakers and sporting apparel, closed the doors and then offered the people inside a free pair of sneakers. “The idea is to enrich people’s lives with actions and excitement they wouldn’t expect.”

For the twenty-something crowd, the Blyk team plans to reward people in coffee shops with lunches and perks. “We’ll just pop up and pay for their lunch.” Other campaigns will revolve around free movie tickets. Eric is even mulling over whether to make it all into a game and encourage youth to guess where the band of Blyk do-gooders will show up next…

My take: Reams of research (including the research I conducted for Mobile Advertising Research U.K., a research project endorsed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) to expertly document the state of the mobile advertising industry in the U.K.) suggest that permission-based advertising is at the center of a virtuous cycle for all stakeholders. People opt-in, choose their advertising and – in the process — volunteer personal information. Brands and advertisers then use these insights to deliver advertising the people who most likely want to hear their message in the first place. It’s early days, but high response rates speak volumes. Display advertising appears to be different because it is one-way not two-way. Permission (in the form of opt-out) may quiet privacy concerns but the principle lack of a brand conversation (a text exchange that asks people if they like what they see and factors their answer into the marketing response) doesn’t let brands get quite as close to people as they would like. More about that in my upcoming GigaOM PRO report on permission-based advertising models.

In the meantime, Blyk’s launch shows progress and proves the permission-based model has benefits. But even more interesting is Blyk’s decision to go for small “events” with big impact. Because the business is people-focused (as permission-based advertising is), it makes good business sense to connect with people directly at the grassroots level. It is not social marketing – it’s the way all marketing of services in this space (and beyond) will have to be.

Disclaimer: Blyk is an MSG supporter and has authored a series of sponsored thought leadership columns examining mobile advertising strategies and business models.

In brief:

The overwhelming positive response to Europe’s first-ever Augmented Reality Business Conference and Developer Camp (ARBCon) speaks volumes about the new direction and vast potential of AR. The event – which was organized by my esteemed colleague Dan Romescu, an AR pioneer, to bring together companies across the emerging business ecosystem including developers, VCs and researchers. It attracted over 155 participants and featured over 30 speakers/keynotes from 17 countries.

I am pleased to collaborate with Dan to grow this event and continue this exchange on MSG through a series of interviews and podcasts with key players in this industry beginning with Dan, who will speak about the Augmented Citizen and the requirement for industry standards and a framework to ensure AR becomes a robust business with the buy-in of the people it impacts. So, what this space!

Meantime, the timing is excellent to move on to another in the “best of” selection of executive interviews from the Netsize Guide 2010.

This week the topic is AR from the perspective of Layar, a Dutch company released its reality browser application Layar last year. This mobile browser shows people what is around them by displaying real-time digital information on top of reality they view through the device camera. On top of the camera image Layar adds content ‘layers,’ which are the equivalent of Web pages in normal browsers. The platform allows customers, such as businesses, the ability to offer a range of layers, allowing consumers to see houses for sale, popular bars and shops, jobs on offer in the area, and a list of local doctors and ATMs by scanning the landscape.

Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, Layar Co-founder & VP of Distribution and Marketing, discusses the ways AR enhances reality and paves the way for real business models.

INTERVIEW WITH MAARTEN LENS-FITZGERALD

Q: Augmented Reality has been around for almost 20 years, but mobile AR exploded last year, when penetration of smartphones equipped with GPS systems, compasses and accelerometers increased. What level of interest are you seeing?

A: In the week that we launched the iPhone app we had over 100,000 downloads and we served over a million augmented views to the world. Currently, there are over 1,500 developers and over 300 layers have been published.

Q: How do you make money on Layer?

A: It’s free for the user and it’s free for the content provider or developer. Where we make money is placement. To understand this we have to understand the user experience. Starting up the Layar application automatically activates the camera. The embedded GPS automatically knows the location of the phone and the compass determines in which direction the phone is facing. Each partner provides a set of location coordinates with relevant information which forms a digital layer.

There will be lots of layers, just as there are Web pages. The problem will be discovery. We address this by allowing companies to participate in our Pay for Prominence program. When users start Layar, it starts up in the Favorites list, which is like Bookmarks on your Web browser. Those positions are for sale. The same goes for the Featured section, a section where companies can pay for placement to reach the more advanced users who come back.

Q: How do you make these layers relevant to me and my context?

A: What we serve in the Favorite and Featured sections is all based on your region. If you’re in the U.S. you won’t see the Dutch layers, for example. So, based on where you are, you select a layer and we send the request through our server to give you the relevant content. If you open up the Trulia layer to find homes for sale, you will be shown houses around your location.

Q: How do you see your pay for placement model evolving? Will you harness personalization or targeting?

A: That is how it will develop. What we do now is help content owners get on top of the stack of layers, much in the same way that Google has AdWords. We will have premium layers where companies can pay to add something to a layer relevant to their offer.

In the future, the browser will know who you are, and that you’re ready to go out, for example. Based on this the top layers you see will be layers about places to go, a lot like restaurant review guides. Some of these listings will be paid for by the restaurant owners or businesses who want to appear in the layer, the same way they advertise on Web pages, for example.

Q: You focus on advertising in this example. Is that the big growth opportunity?

A: It’s for the businesses that need to provide to their customers information right here, right now. I’m looking for a house for sale, so show me one. But it’s not just about real estate; it’s about goods and services nearby in the real world. Where is the bus station? Where can I get a taxi? Where can I get a bite to eat? Any business that has to get this information out to us can benefit from AR. And to enhance this we have added the ability for businesses to provide AR experiences complete with 3-D objects and interactivity.

Q: AR is a nascent industry. What is the value chain and how do you work with other players in your ecosystem, such as operators and brands?

A: We’re in for great ride and, as an industry, we’ll see come change and consolidation. In the end there will only be one or two companies that have the browser and the platform, and will grow from there. I see that happening and within the next six months.

How the value chain is shaping up? Actually, it’s not a chain; it’s a web and it’s all connected. On one hand, we have the users and we’re working on a better user interface to satisfy them. An example of this is our 3-D release, for which we also need new 3-D content and the content developers.

On the other hand, we have the device manufacturers that we talk to in order to get pre-installation deals and also ensure their devices work well with our software, and vice versa. Then we also talk with the carriers about where we can get pre-installed and have a unique offering with Layar.

Q: What is your vision for what AR can enable and how that will impact our lives moving forward?

A: An experience that is very core to AR is the ability to walk around and experience other worlds and walk around in a city the way it was a century ago, for example. That kind of storytelling will enable the creation of immersive experiences. It’s easy to imagine the benefit to education. It will be like being able to not just read a book, but actually visualize it. This is why we added 3-D and interactivity.

AR will also be a boost to vendor relationship management, putting the individual in control of the information they will accept based on their needs. Put another way, AR will allow people to issue a ‘Request For Proposal,‘ which businesses can answer.

Let’s say you’re looking for a table for four in a Mexican restaurant. You put that information out and people are only then allowed to see your profile and to reply to you using AR. So, a restaurant owner might pop up in front of you, saying, ‘hey, I’ve got a table and we have good food – so take a look at the reviews here on the Web and then come on over.’ If you end up going to that restaurant, then we might get a percentage of that deal. That’s a model we’re looking at.

We’re also looking at ways to benefit organizations such as the Heart Foundation in Holland. In time for Valentine’s Day we will make it possible for people to buy and display a 3-D heart in front of the house where their loved one lives, for example. The money will go to charity and people who walk around the city will see all these hearts placed by people who are expressing their love.

LAYAR STATS & UPDATE

To update the interview (conducted in late 2009 for inclusion in the Netsize Guide) I caught up earlier this week with Claire Boonstra, Layar Co-Founder.

According to Claire, the company has two major milestones to report.

One will be public in June, when Layar plans significant announcements during a press conference at Amsterdam HQ.

The other was just last week when the company launched a kind of AR app store/marketplace giving publishers on the Layar platform the opportunity to monetize their content for Android and iPhone platforms.

Specifically, publishers and developers (such as Berlitz, which was one of the first publishers to offer an AR city guide using the marketplace) can now create AR content, syndicate it on Layar’s platform and charge people a small one-time fee to access it.

The biz model: Layar is facilitating the marketplace – which uses PayPal to process the actual transactions – allowing people to buy and sell layers in the U.S., the U.K. Canada and Australia. Layar takes a 40 percent cut of the sale (compared with the Apple App Store that takes 30 percent) to pay costs associated with legal, admin and banking.

The numbers:

• Some 550 layers are live and another 2,000 are in development
• 3,000 publishers worldwide are creating AR content for the Layar platform
• 1.6 million Layar AR browsers installed and pre-installs on LG and Samsung models, as well as devices supported by Verizon and Sprint (with more to be announced “in the coming months”)

The takeaway: The opportunity: the 60/40 rev split may be more than the 70/30 we know from the Apple App Store, but this is a marketplace aimed at jumpstarting a real business for AR publishers. Making it way to do business (and enabling payments) is a value-add and Layar can extract value for it. Overall, a marketplace could bring mobile AR, which has long lagged behind desktop AR, a huge and necessary step forward.

THE NETSIZE GUIDE

The Netsize Guide – which features exclusive interviews with 28 industry senior executives at leading companies and organizations including Havas, M&S, MMA, Nokia NAVTEQ, PayPal and Sony Music Entertainment — provides unique perspectives and reveals how players across the mobile ecosystem are preparing to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities ahead.

The Netsize Guide 2010 also includes the results of Mobile Trends Survey 2010, an online survey asking +1,000 mobile professionals and practitioners across 67 countries their views on these key themes and their insights into trends that top the industry agenda, including the advance of mobile applications stores, progress towards global mobile commerce and the increasing importance of mobile across a range of business verticals.

Finally, the Netsize Guide 2010 presents detailed data on the wireless telecoms sector in 41 countries, including revenues, market shares and value-added service offerings for messaging and billing of 194 mobile network operators worldwide.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE NETSIZE GUIDE HERE.

Disclaimer: Netsize is an MSG supporter. Peggy Anne Salz is author of the Netsize Guide 2010.

This time the Carnival of the Mobilists – the line-up of the best blogs and bloggers on all things mobile – comes to us via Holly Kolman. Holly a first-time host, who – true to her blog title – is a real mobile enthusiast brings us COM #221. Kudos for an excellent job and I hope Holly will host another COM soon (!)

The line-up of blogs includes:

• A look at the recent announcement that Japan’s four leading mobile phone makers are teaming up with NTT DoCoMo to develop the operating system for DoCoMo’s next-generation mobile phones (via Ajit Jaokar @ Open Gardens)
• The real reason why Apple iPhone sales didn’t dip (via Tomi Ahonen @ Communities Dominate Brands)
• Refreshing realism on the iPhone and app opportunities (via Carl Martin @ Mobsessed)
• A welcome reminder to designers – and everyone in mobile – that not everyone will have or wants to have a smartphone (via new COM member Belen Barro Pena
• The potential headaches associated with supporting smartphones & the opportunity for operators to wring more value from helping their customs use them in the first place (two post via new COM contributors Amdocs)
• An in-depth look at opportunities in gaming and gambling (via James Coops @MobiAffiliates)
• More need-to-know mobile stats (via Andy Favell @mobiThinking – an excellent curator of key mobile advertising facts & figures)

PLUS Post Of The Week:

Humbled that this week’s pick is my own post on The Mobile Movement. By way of background, I have joined with entrepreneurs, humanitarians, artists & academics in a coalition committed to bringing mobile capabilities to non-profits in order that they may reach millions more people in need by leveraging mobile devices, networks and innovative applications created in partnership with social entrepreneurs.

On Monday I will update you on our recent advisory board meeting and the exciting projects in the works, as well as details about a new Knowledge Sharing event focused on mobile charity. (Disclaimer: MSG is aligned with the aims of The Mobile Movement and Peggy Anne Salz sits on the board of advisors.)

COM #220

Tsahi Levent-Levi over at Radvision steps up to host COM #220 – a vibrant mix of posts and insights that fits with the excitement that comes with the celebration of Israel’s Independence Day. Pay special attention to the post-even coverage and videos around this centerpiece event looking at the impact of technologies on our life and work in 2025. Another destination not to be missed: The Wadi – a new site/blog dedicated to the Israeli hi-tech industry. For links and details check out Tsahi’s blog post here.

Other posts included in the COM:

• A look at what iAd really means for the mobile space (via Carl Martin @ Mobsessed)
• How (and why) targeting can potentially increase conversions (via James Coops @ MobyAfilliates)
• An analysis that outlines the extent to which Android really is open source and the gaps that may alarm you (via Andreas Constantinou @ VisionMobile)
• Why mobile is the Here, the Now and the Future (via Antoine RJ Wright)
• A welcome roundup of stats showing why Asia will dominate in mobile (via Any Favell @mobiThinking)
• The security shortcomings associated with using Wi-Fi hotspot connection (via Martin Sauter @WirelessMoves)
• How Indian operator Idea Cellular is building a business on Pretones, content people can listen to while they call someone on their mobile phones (via very welcome COM newcomer Nikhil Pahwa)
• Musings on a possible Twitter business model that will likely become reality soon (via Ajit Jaokar @ Open Gardens)
• Tsahi’s own ideas on what videochat on the iPhone may be like

NOTE: Tsahi didn’t pick a Post Of The Week – so allow me to direct your attention to Andeas’ expertly researched and written post on Android. A real eye-opener!

COM #219

Although many of us tweeted our best wishes, a round of thanks to Antoine RJ Wright for hosting the COM #219 on his birthday. A gift to us all on his birthday is a summary of posts that set the bar.

These include:

• Management, tracking and targeting tips for your mobile campaign (via james Coops @MobyAffiliates)
• A rant about the Nexus (and all smartphones) with humor that reminds us what really makes a good user experience good (via “Mr Fat Fingers” Tsahi Levent-Levi @VoIP Survivor)
• Do companies really have a mobile strategy when all they do is launch an iPhone app? (a thoughtful post via Martin Wilson @ Indigo 102 – look for his more in-depth column on MSG soon)
• A look at what Apple results and sales really say about iPhone’s ongoing popularity (via Tomi Ahonen @Communities Dominate Brands)
• What does version 4.0 of the iPhone OS mean for developers? (via WIP Connector)
• A walk through the main points of Open Mobile (a book project I am proud to have edited) and a look at the 35+ mobile trends highest on the radar (via Ajit Jaokar @ Open Gardens) BTW: Ajit’s submission was chosen as Post Of The Week – all the more reason to read the post and download his book.
• A recap of Bible Tech (via our host Antoine RJ Wright)

COM #218

Carl Martin makes his debut as host of COM #218 and does a great job. We hope he returns to take the honors soon.

Meantime, here are the posts that made the line-up:

• A look at Nokia Bots: four mini-apps that bring new intelligence to our mobile devices –or do they? (via Antoine RJ Wright)
• MSG’s own analysis of why barcodes have a lot of mileage in the enterprise and beyond
• Must-read data points and details contained within the updated Global Mobile Data Market report (via Chetan Sharma)
• Mobile forecasts and milestones for 2010 (via Tomi Ahonen @Communities Dominate Brands)
• App promotion basics and a helpful list of companies, destinations and resources (via James Coops @ MobyAffiliates
• Are smartphones just PDAs by another name? (via Tsahi Levent-Levi @VoIP Survivor)
• A little phone geek fun (via Terence Eden)

COM #217

Martin Wilson takes the helm for COM #217 and leads us through an eclectic mix of posts and promotions people in the mobile industry need to know.

The line-up includes:

• Details on the forthcoming Mobile 2.0 Europe 2010 event (via the ever-active Rudy De Waele over at the new event website)
• An overview of the top developments and trends at CTIA (via Chetan Sharma)
• What is location really and where is the business value (via Martin Wilson and his guest column on MSG)
• A solid argument for the money – and the excitement – in Mobile 2.0 mashups that analysts might be missing (via Volker Hirsch @ Volker On Mobile)
• A discussion of affiliate marketing as a new and potentially much more lucrative way to monetize apps (via James Coops @ MobyAffiliates)
• An attempt to answer the question: when do apps make business sense (via PSFK, a New York City-based trends research and innovation company)
• A study of mobile commerce and a look at whether it is best suited to an app or a full-fledged mobile website (via Carl Martin @ Redweb)
• The decision my Mozilla to put its Windows development on hold (via Tam Hanna @ TamsPPC – the Windows Phone Blog)
• Are operators are confusing themselves and the market when it comes to defining (and understanding) mobile data? (via Declan Lonergan @ the Yankee Group)
• A podcast chock-full of highlights specific to the U.K. mobile market (via The Fonecast)
• To what extent can/does mobile education empower students to overcome a variety of physical and mental barriers (via Judy Breck’s guest appearance @ Handschooling.com)
• The inside track on BlackBerry’s popularity in the Middle East & a few surprising cultural causes (via Russell Buckley @ MobHappy)
• Expert advice to help you make the most of the Android G1 and Magic’s Limited RAM (via Dennis Bournique @ WAP Review)

COM #216

Tam Hanna hosts COM#216, a brief but appreciated summary of the top blog posts of the week. The On the heels of the industry-first report of the app market size and value, several posts choose to focus on the continuing app phenomenon.

Posts that made the line-up include:

• Highlights and data points from the milestone app report released by Chetan Sharma (via Chetan Sharma’s AORTA blog)
• A different perspective on the same report with additional insights and a podcast with GetJar, the number one independent app store worldwide (via MSG)
• An outreach from Verizon Wireless to developers (via WIP Connector)
• A comprehensive post that serves as a mobile marketing guide to Japan (mobiThinking connects the dots in observations made by Japan expert Christopher Billich)
• A hard and fair look at Adobe’s Flash mobile strategy (via Guilhem Ensuque @ Everything and the Mobile Software Universe…
• Why the 2.0 version of PayPal’s iPhone application could become one incredibly disruptive technology to the banking and credit/debit card industries (via Antoine RJ Wright)
• A run through a map app allowing people to reserve a parking space for their car (via Coldtags Suite)
• A look at mobile data charges and why transparency is just a part of the discussion (via Ajit Jaokar @ Open Gardens)
• A real life story reminds us of the collateral damage that can be caused by the wrong information when it spreads like wildfire via social media (via Dr. Jim Taylor @ Mobility Digest)

Again, no Post Of The Week was chosen. The app report is by far the most important industry news/trend. However, Jim’s thoughtful recount of a real-life incident illustrating how social media can ruin lives has my vote.

As he concludes: The story “demonstrates how the reputation and perhaps life of an innocent person can be summarily ruined as a result of an equally innocent, yet misconstrued, occurrence, poor due diligence and decision making on the part of people who should know better, and, ultimately, the power of social media.”

NOTE: If you want to submit your post to be considered for the weekly line-up by the COM host, then email your link by Sunday to mobilists@gmail.com. If you want to host a COM, then contact me directly (peggy@msearchgroove.com) Everyone is welcome to submit their post for consideration. Of course, there is no guarantee that all posts will be included in the final selection.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

* * *

Mobile phones – and specifically text messaging – are central to the lives of everyone everywhere on this planet. This is the message that came across loud and clear in this well-written analysis in the New York Times. To drive home this key point the article recounts how people in emerging and developing markets are using their simple mobile phones and SMS text to improve their lives, conduct commerce, transfer money, record and share sermons and even oversee elections.

Mobile has become the truly universal technology and text messaging – a flavor of people-powered communication discovered quite by accident by ordinary individuals eager to connect using their mobile phones – has become mobile’s first and truly universal language.

Granted, we increasingly use our mobile phones to explore the wealth of content on the mobile Web or browse the assortment of applications in our chosen device or mobile operator app store. But mobile is and remains central to our lives because we rely on it to connect with the people who matter most.

Put simply, texting is embedded into our mobile behavior.

Rafts of recent surveys show teens would rather text than speak, and even more have turned off their voicemail as a rule to show they mean it! Some five years ago Mizuko Ito, a cultural anthropologist at Keio University in Japan, observed in her book, Personal, Portable, Pedestrian, the emergence of “tele-nesting,” the practice–especially among youth in Japan, and now everyone everywhere –of staying in touch through a steady stream of text messages. In the West Alan Moore, author and founder of the Engagement Communication Consultancy SMLXL, reminds us that we are a “WE SPECIES,” individuals who are part of, and belong to, a bigger whole. Our messaging behavior reflects this enables us to achieve our ultimate goal: to (co-)create and share the narrative of our lives that adds meaning and value to us and everyone around us.

The simplicity of ordinary phones and the fact that people everywhere can use them to send and receive text messages opens up a world of opportunities. It also paves the way for global innovation that allows companies and startups everywhere to harness simple text messaging to achieve extraordinary results.

We’re already seeing evidence of a new breed of messaging services. And this is surely just the beginning. From life-simplifying reminders to life-saving medical advice, people around the world – particularly in emerging markets – are using text to connect, communicate and interact with companies, brands, medical doctors, government authorities and clergy – and the list goes on.

SPEAK TO US

The emerging markets may have a greater reliance on text messaging, but our appetite for messaging – and the value we receive on top of the text messages we send and receive — is growing.

This is the key finding of a recent survey of the U.K. market by Dialogue Communications, a mobile messaging and mobile payments company. It reveals more than 67 percent of respondents want more messaging in their lives.

According to the findings, respondents would welcome reminders and alerts via text for everything from medical alerts to bill payments. People said they wanted to move away from postal reminders because it’s convenient, reliable, easy to store and on a phone for future reference and simple to synch up with the calendars they already have on their mobile phones. (Again, messaging – all messaging – should be permission-based.)

And let us not forget the important fit between text and marketing, for all the reasons I have outlined above.

Destinations such as Mobile Marketer and Mobile Marketing Magazine document the success of messaging campaigns daily. Brands and agencies harness text to connect with consumers (an even more effective approach if the advertising is opt-in, of course). From soft drinks that use text messaging to deliver brand messages and links to downloadable content and perks, to large U.S. chains that cleverly use text messaging to deliver product vouchers and drive customer loyalty, the press is chock-full of case studies that underline the central position of text in marketing and advertising.

But we should not limit ourselves to just these. Paul Berney, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Managing Director Europe, has also said on several occasions that mobile CRM and mobile commerce loom large on the horizon as the next big opportunities for brands, agencies and all their partners.

I would take it one giant step further: messaging lays the groundwork for a much deeper – and potentially lucrative — exchange between a wide array of companies, advertisers and institutions, and the people who want to hear what they have to say. Brands want a dialogue with their consumers. What better and more effective way to achieve this than messaging?

Messaging in the proper context adds real value to our lives.

MORE MESSAGING MILEAGE

I have therefore identified three other scenarios where rich messaging – the mix of text and image we know from mobile advertising campaigns we have facilitated at Blyk on behalf of brands – could add significant value for everyone involved, including consumers.

1. AMS (Application Messaging Services): The heightened interest in ‘apps’ presents advertisers and mobile operators worldwide a new opportunity to deliver consumers a message they would appreciate in this context. We are witnessing the advance of services linked to reminders or alerts that connect with the mobile phone features and functionality to remind users us of birthdays, appointments and other important dates/events. Consumers have indicated that they would opt-in to receive these messages. Surely, this provides a perfect platform on which to deliver a related message or branded utility. And this could be so simple for handset manufactures. All they need to do is build on top of the functions they have already embedded into many phone models.
2. LMS (Location Messaging Services): The rise of travel advice and social media network services such as DOPPLR and WAZE point to a much larger trend: our willingness to receive messages about what’s nearby. From points of interest to traffic jams, consumers desire more information about their surroundings and have granted their permission to receive push messages that provide this detail. Again, this presents companies and mobile operators with an excellent opportunity to deliver a related and relevant commercial message. Done correctly this exchange might even lead to a transaction that consumers could perform using their mobile phones. The potential for mobile operators – the trusted keepers of our location data in the first place – are huge.
3. VMS (Value-Added Messaging): Here we are talking about real value to the consumer because these messages enhance and improve their lives. Mobile education and mobile health are two obvious examples. A global market survey of 3,000 consumers in six countries (500 each in Brazil, USA, Germany, South Africa, India and China) conducted by management consultancy McKinsey & Company suggests that mobile health (m-health) opportunities in 2010 could be worth between $50 and $60 billion in 2010, a finding that has prompted mobile operators – and the GSMA – the professional organization that unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem — to step up initiatives. According to the research, the vast majority of respondents were interested in the following services: PhoneDoctor, a service that would allow people to call to speak with a qualified physician for remote diagnosis and advice, and HealthWatch, a SIM embedded biosensor watch that monitors vitals, and is connected to emergency services. It is easy to imagine how companies – through sponsorship and commercial messages — could align with these services to deliver related information, offers and real value to people everywhere.

Clearly, our messaging behavior powers of a wide variety of use cases and scenarios. What’s more, as a WE SPECIES we have come to expect – even demand – a two-way conversation with the companies delivering messages to our phones.

From bank statements to medical advice, from appointment reminders to public opinion polls, from location-linked services that tell us what’s nearby to mobile CRM services that ask us if we are satisfied with the service we just received at the checkout, messaging impacts people’s lives and lifestyles at all levels.

It also paves the way for new business models and combinations of models that harness push, permission and personal context to benefit companies across the ecosystem and – most importantly – consumers.

I have identified three areas of new messaging opportunities where companies, provided they apply the same rules of engagement, can reap tremendous benefits and build long-term customer relationships built on trust and respect. I expect to see much more innovation in this space –and I welcome it wholeheartedly. If you are thinking about new opportunities in messaging or have an application success story to share, please reach out to me directly to continue the dialogue. After all, two-way communication always produces the best results. (antti.ohrling@blyk.com)

* * *

Antti is the Co-Founder of Blyk, the messaging media that works with mobile operators to link young people with brands and other stuff they like. He has over 25 years experience as a senior manager in branded goods, retail and wholesale, TV& film and advertising industries. Antti is also founder of Contra Advertising Group, today part of Touch Worldwide. He serves as Chairman of Contra China, an advertising agency specializing in mobile and social media marketing based in Beijing. In addition, Antti is a Fellow at the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Art, Manufactures and Commerce) in the U.K. and a regular speaker at lectures on innovative business strategies and brand issues worldwide. For more information about Blyk, check out the company profile and explore the collection of customer case studies.

Disclaimer: Blyk is an MSG supporter. This is another in a series of columns by Blyk examining mobile advertising strategies and business models.

In brief:

The avalanche of apps and app stores (nearly 70, according to WIP Connector) turns up the pressure on developers and other ecosystem parties to find ways to make money selling apps. How are apps discovered and promoted? And more importantly, how are these app emporiums and boutiques going to handle the simple CRM to encourage the all-important return purchase?

After all, it wasn’t so long ago that a study from Pinch Media, which analyzed over 30 million downloads from Apple’s App Store, reported that just 30 percent of people who buy an iPhone application actually use it the day after it was purchased. And the numbers plunge from there: after 20 days, less than 5 percent of those who downloaded an application are actively using it.

A lot of open questions. But one thing for certain: competitive differentiation is in the business model. And we know from the findings of a recent Netsize Mobile Trends Survey of +1,000 professionals and practitioners that the 4-Cs (Convenience, Compatibility, Choice and Charging) are key requirements for a winning app store (and so for the developers that hope to make a living selling their apps). Netsize is gearing up to release new (unpublished) survey results and a new report that reveals attitudes toward business models and what will enable real and significant app sales. Watch this space!

MAXIS, ONDEEGO & AMDOCS

What is the app store landscape and what are the monetization models?

This was also the topic at Mobile Web & Apps World Forum, a CTIA partner event organized by my esteemed colleague Ajit Jaokar. (Again, I congratulate Ajit on organizing a standing-room-only event dedicated to answering the tough questions around app fragmentation, monetization and how to make it all work. Thanks also for inviting me to speak during the SuperSession looking at mobile advertising and in-app opportunity moderated by mobile authority Chetan Sharma. It was an excellent session with Joe Lally from MTV Networks and Jerry Rocha from Nielsen and Gary Schwartz, CEO of Impact Mobile, and one that provides a great deal of material for future MSG analysis and follow-up.)

However, it was the session on personalization and content discovery, presented by Mike Lurye, Amdocs Interactive, Director of Product Marketing, that got people thinking about the business value of granular subscriber intelligence (anonymized) and ways it can be used to get consumers to the content they will appreciate and without making them search for it. To drive home the point Mike didn’t use marketing-speak. He used case studies from mobile operators in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific. (You can download all the speaker presentations here.)

I used the opportunity of our in-person meeting to discuss the larger issues around app store marketing and pick up on a fascinating conversation we had weeks earlier (in preparation for Mobile Monday Austria) delving into the tough choices facing developers.

Certainly, developers can jockey for position in the Apple App Store (and others), where getting featured (placed where people can find you easily) is the only way to build a business. But developers can also align themselves with retailers/operators that seek differentiation through innovative business models emphasizing customer service, easy discovery or local culture.

The latter works for Malaysian mobile operator Maxis. I am a great admirer of the carrier’s app store focus and mission: “to nurture and foster interesting developer applications for our community.” (This and more in this must-see video interview with Nava Wathan, Director 1Maxis, Maxis Communications.) Maxis has become the place to go for “something that is Malaysian.” Surely, many more mobile operators can pursue a similar strategy to stand out from the crowd (and build a successful business for their business ecosystems of developers and customers).

At the other end of the spectrum, Ondeego also “gets” it. It launched AppCentral, a mobile app store for the enterprise last fall becoming the first mobile application store meeting the unique needs of the enterprise workers and their IT departments. For enterprise employees a one-stop shop means that they can select what they need (serious apps) to do their job. For developers it means a channel to a difficult to access market and a chance to sell their productivity and enterprise apps direct to professionals who will likely buy.

PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH MIKE LURYE

First, credit where credit is due here. Although people have tweeted about the simplicity and originality of my views on the evolution of the app landscape and the marketing strategies that will help everyone make money, it was Mike who came up with the popular Supermarkets/Farmers Markets analogy.

I caught up with Mike in-person following the Web & Apps World Forum event to talk about marketplaces and ideal models for making money – now.

Here an excerpt:

APP STORES & STOREFRONTS: “The main difference between an app store and a traditional digital commerce storefront is actually not that it sells apps, but that it is based on a certain business model that’s been pioneered by Apple. Stores selling apps have been around for a very long time but Apple changed the game because they set up a business model that opened up the opportunity to get to market for a much broader range of developers and they did so by establishing very straightforward business terms that are the same for everybody.” But not all app stores must sell apps. China Mobile, for example, sells traditional digital merchandise (ringtones and wallpapers and so on) on the storefront they call their app store.

MAXIS MODEL: This mobile operator has cleverly defined the segment it will go after: the local population and local developers. “So, their store is never going to be very big, they acknowledge that. They are not trying to compete, they are trying to co-exist….This is a good strategy because when you know your customer and when you know what you want to offer to your customer that is valuable to them, and you know who is going to build it which is a local developer community, you are poised for success.”

FARMERS MARKETS: The close customer relationship is what makes a farmers market special. And mobile operators have a close customer relationship they can build on – if they recognize their real role. “The owner of the farmers’ market doesn’t get in between [the] transaction…There is a direct [customer] relationship and the owner of the farmers’ market acts as a facilitator. They make it work.” How? Through payment services, personalization insights and scale.

CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH: If you are about to pack, think again because it may have peaked. Apple found gold in apps and now everybody is moving to California (literally). “Now, guess what, not everybody who came to California at the time of gold rush became rich, some people did, but most actually didn’t, so that is what is going on right now. Everybody and their brother wants to have an app store; some people have a well thought out strategy. Maxis is an example of that. Some people are doing essentially a ‘me-too’ kind of a thing, and there is actually nothing wrong with that in principle as long as you realize that that’s what you’re doing.”

WHITE LABEL: Mike says it’s a low-risk model. The not-so-good news: it’s unlikely to build subscriber loyalty. “There is no leverage of the operator’s unique capabilities, there is no more value for the subscriber to purchase an application in that app store versus the original app store from the white label supplier themselves. There might be some cost advantage…but fundamentally it’s not a model that will differentiate the operator.

TAKE A PAGE FROM AMAZON: Personalization has made Amazon a success. “This is the business they are in: the business of personalization. They are offering it now as a platform to others. You do that search, you bring results not only from Amazon, but [also] from Amazon’s competitors and that’s OK by Amazon because they build such a sophisticated platform that now empowers [the] ecosystem.
***
MY TAKE: Are we on the brink of new business models or is history repeating itself? And — even if it is very much a repeat of the mobile portals – what will guarantee success for the developers and retailers this time around? At the moment, developers have a handful of choices: boost word-of-mouth promotion (tough and tedious, which is why Mob4Hire’s peer app recommendation is an interesting one to watch), mobile advertising (complicated and unpredictable, which is why we are all searching for better ways to deliver the right advertising to the right demographic) and placement (tricky and transient, which is why GetJar has cleverly created a model where developers pay for shelf space). What role will personalization play (even in a pre-paid environment)? My ongoing research into recommenders brings me together with mobile operators already wringing value out of granular analytics to help people discover content they’ll likely appreciate. A prime example is Hong Kong’s CSL, an operator I showcase in my upcoming report, that has harnessed personalization to support My Net, its own (branded) mobile Internet service. Clearly, personalization is moving up the business agenda (as it should) because it’s a way mobile operators can generate revenues (helping people find and buy what they want) and stay in the game.

* * *

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE: [13:00]

Disclaimer: Netsize is an MSG supporter. Amdocs is not an MSG supporter.  However, ChangingWorlds, a company acquired by Amdocs, has published a by-lined thought leadership column series on  MSG. Peggy Anne Salz has also spoken at invitation-only  thought leadership events organized by Amdocs for its operator clients.

In brief:

After months of researching my chapter contribution to an upcoming book on marketing to Digital Natives, it’s increasingly clear that mobile advertising companies – and their view of “consumers” needs — must evolve.

Mobile is a fiercely personal device and people – particularly empowered Digital Natives – want content and advertising on their terms. (I purposely mix content and advertising here because they are becoming one and the same thing.)

Another shift in the marketplace: our requirement to have a say in the content/advertising we are willing to receive. This came through loud and clear in the research/interviews I conducted for Mobile Advertising Research U.K. 2009 project, a research project endorsed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) to expertly document the state of the mobile advertising industry in the U.K.

Among the findings (based on 1,000+ consumer online responses and 20+ interviews with operators, enablers, agencies, and brands): only 32 percent of the 1,000+ consumers surveyed had a positive attitude toward receiving advertising messages on their mobile phone. However, that number rose to 64 percent, provided people were properly “incentivized,” and 70 percent if they were incentivized and “in control” of their mobile advertising experience.

Connect the dots, as an increasing number of mobile advertising companies and ecosystem companies have begun to do, and it’s clear that the capability to provide permission-based mobile advertising (with an easy opt-in/opt-out option) could become table stakes.

MOBILE PIONEERS

Companies such as BuzzCity’s myGamma and gofresh’s itsmy.com, mobile social networks turned mobile social ad networks, need little convincing. They made the strategic decision in 2007-08 to allow their verified members to choose the channel of advertising they would accept. Of course, this wasn’t just out of respect for the individual member. Opt-in also allows advertisers to better target their key demographic (example: sports enthusiasts with sports ads) and ensure members who receive a marketing message actually listen.

In my own mobile advertising road test/white paper (PDF) on behalf road test on behalf of Bango, a provider of mobile analytics solutions and MSG supporter, showed that this was indeed a plus for my own campaigns. In fact, I gave BuzzCity the highest marks overall because its opt-in allowed me to deliver effective mobile advertising. (Happy coincidence — I have an interview with BuzzCity CEO KF Lai next week and gofresh’s Vince Staybl has also just reached out to me from his NY trip to offer me a pre-briefing on some significant news, so watch this space.)

JUMPTAP CONSUMER INTELLIGENCE

Jumptap, a provider of mobile advertising solutions that also operates a major mobile ad network, aims to tackle these shortcomings. The company announced this week that is will implement a new feature in mid-year (translated: by end-June) that “enables mobile consumers to manage their own profiles for a more personalized brand experience.”

The focus is on permission-based advertising and on putting the consumer (individual) at the center of their advertising experience. In a nutshell, the feature will enable visitors to participating websites in Jumptap’s ad network to chose the mobile advertising content that interest them – and the choice to opt-out of the process altogether. (Specifically, all publishers in the network will be able to participate. Participating publishers will need to include a link to Jumptap’s profile manager.)

What’s the user experience?

People can choose from a variety of some 29 advertising content categories, including automotive, careers, chat & email, entertainment, finance, fitness, food & drink and games, as the slide below illustrates.

What’s at work (and how) in the background? And how does Jumptap avoid potentially presenting the same people with the same ads?

JumpTap operates a premium mobile advertising network with a penetration of approx. 50 million unique visits a month in the U.S. alone.

Predictably, Jumptap’s IP, which includes patented technology, mobile search algorithms and proprietary know-how around targeting and relevancy (which I have analyzed in this post), plays a huge role in delivering people mobile advertising they will likely find relevant and useful. The company counts unique visitors based on “distinct IDs we get from carriers, cookies, request headers and device IDs.” This can vary across network. “In instances where we don’t have a unique ID, we estimate the number of unique visitors based on page views/unique user that we see elsewhere in the network.”

INTERVIEW WITH PARAN JOHAR

Armed with this background I caught up with Jumptap CMO to learn still more about the nuts & bolts of this ambitious solution and what is says about the company’s wider mobile advertising strategy.

Q: Jumptap is one of a growing group of companies sharply focused on putting the consumer at the center of the mobile advertising ecosystem? Why is this important and what do you offer people?

A: What we’re now seeing is a new wave of mobile advertising right, with the focus on customer intelligence and really putting the customer at the forefront of the mobile advertising ecosystem. Many companies got lost and focused on other constituents: operators, publishers and advertisers. They are all important people, but we are putting the customer at the forefront of the mobile advertising ecosystem, and the way we’re doing that is allowing them to manage their own profiles in a really simple format. This also drives the relevancy of ads.

The concept of is revolutionary but because everyone else has been trying to satisfy other constituents. By driving customer intelligence you’re going to see a higher engagement rate. If you see a higher engagement rate, you’re going to see advertisers who are getting better ROI. If they’re getting a better ROI, you’re going to be able to charge them more. If you can charge them more, by default, you get a better publishing yield so you’re really taking care of all these other constituents by focusing on your core audience, which is the customer, and driving the customer intelligence.

Q: Other companies have a similar approach. And just last week Alcatel-Lucent broke on the scene with a mobile advertising solution that is the subject of a larger report I am currently writing. In it I argue that permission-based advertising is a good fit with messaging because you build a conversation that – in turn – can improve the customer data. But your focus is display….

A: Yes, it’s only about display and it’s not about behavioural targeting. What this is about is empowering consumers to choose their category of interest. That’s one component of the data that will drive the delivery of relevant advertising. It goes into the user profile. And then there might be a component related to context, a component related to carrier data, a component related to publishers’ data – or a keyword from a search. All these are components and the ultimate goal is to drive consumer relevancy through this focus on consumer intelligence– and the better we can understand our mobile ad network, the better we can serve relevant ads to consumers.

Throughout this process three things are critical. One is full-transparency. Two is respecting their privacy and making sure all this data is completely anonymous. And third is preference. We’re allowing them to tell advertisers ‘these are my categories of preference.’

Q: What’s the roll out and what are plans beyond the iPhone?

A: That’s a great question. We’re rolling this out at the end of Q2, and you’re going to get a link to a Beta site where you can go in on your iPhone – or any device – and just scroll through and change categories of interest to suit you. It’s incredibly simple. The idea was to keep it as simple as possible.

Q: It it’s for all handsets from the get-go?

A: It is for all handsets and all advertisers. It’s on iPhone and on mobile Internet, so it’s going to be limited at first. But, as it rolls out, it’s going to obviously develop [momentum]. The goal is ultimately to drive more relevant advertising to everyone on all handsets.

Q: I mentioned that other companies have placed some form of permission-based advertising at the core of what they do. Take BuzzCity. BuzzCity even surveys its members and shares this anonymized information with advertisers to help them target their audience. From an initial look at Jumptap is different because it offers the data to third-party publishers. This would perhaps be the differentiating factor. At the other end of the spectrum there is Alcatel-Lucent’s Optism solution, [a solution that harnesses permission-based advertising – specifically, text messaging – to improve targeting.] So, there are other flavors out there…

A: No one else is doing this the way we are. It is absolutely one of our key differentiators. We also have 80 percent of the carrier business in the U.S. AT&T works with two sales partners, right? One is Jumptap and the other is Yahoo. Needless to say, we’re in good company.

We also have the broadest IP portfolio of any mobile ad network. And we have our pay-per-lick performance marketplace that allows users to bid at a keyword level, category, handset or carrier. We’re the only ones who have all of that.

You bring up the mobile social networks such as BuzzCity. I think it’s a little bit different within a social media construct. That is one component that can be added to the user profile, certainly. But remember we are not taking a siloed approach. It’s not just contextual, not just consumer category information, not just behavioural, not just carrier information. It is all of these components aggregated across multiple forms of data to drive relevancy. That’s our consumer intelligence.

Q: Another part of this might be that you are a neutral network. You belong to a group of ad networks – including the likes of Millennial Media and inMobi – that is not in the Google or Apple camp…

A: I think that’s a great way to break out the marketplace now and there are three groups, so to speak. There’s a lot coming from Apple that I agree with — and there’s a lot that I don’t. On the one hand, Steve Jobs came out publicly and said that mobile advertising sucks and that he has this goal of driving relevancy right to his network. That’s something we applaud. It’s very much in line with our strategy of customer intelligence, so that I think is dead-on.

The piece I don’t think is dead-on is his approach. He’s almost creating a walled garden for himself, almost an AOL of the mobile Internet. Advertisers really don’t care where their ad runs. They care about reaching their audience, not the device. iPhone happens to be the sexy thing right now, but Android will be the next sexy thing – and it [Android] is already is starting to catch a lot of that limelight.

Imagine you were a TV buyer and you had to buy a 30 second TV spot and you had to be cognisant of whether your audience is watching television on a Samsung, Sony or Pioneer TV set. And then you had to worry about whether they were watching it over cable, satellite or a dish network. And then you had to customize your creative accordingly. And so on. It doesn’t make for an efficient marketplace and that’s where I think Apple is missing the boat a little bit. They’re becoming a walled garden in advertising, which I think is not good for the mobile advertising ecosystem in the long term.

Q: Finally, where is the excitement?

A: We’re doing a lot in rich media. Our Unified Rich Media Platform [which I detail further down] delivers the industry’s broadest set of rich media units – for both mobile Web and in apps – all from one network. And our rich media platform is completely open. So, if you’re a rich media buyer for you plug right into our system. We work with iPhone, Android, Palm, and Blackberry. We’re an open system and we help advertisers reach their target audience.

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MY TAKE: Permission-based advertising sits at the core of a variety of approaches and solutions I analyze in my upcoming report for GigaOM PRO, a project that has evolved from a SWOT analysis of mobile advertising solutions (including Alcatel-Lucent’s Optism and JumpTap’s solution powered by “consumer intelligence”) into a wider discussion of the business value of permission-based (opt-in).

We have ample evidence that permission-based messaging delivers positive results and response rates. A messaging approach also allows brands and other companies in the ecosystem to build on this personal profiling data (with the individual’s permission) by adding questions to refine the profile. This way, an individual who has signed up for car ads (a broad topic) might divulge that they are more into Audi than BMW and even say why they prefer one over the other. All voluntary information an advertiser would no doubt value.

Display is a different. It’s more one-way than two-way, and there is a danger of “spamming” people with repeat advertising because there aren’t enough ads in a category – or because the ad networks can’t identify unique users (and therefore gauge whether an individual user has seen the same ad already, or not). Jumptap claims to have addressed the latter with its IP, technology and techniques that allow the ad network to identify 50 million uniques per month in the U.S. alone.

This week’s announcement builds on that foundation. The focus is to increase the value and relevancy of mobile display ads. (Thus, Jumptap does not compete with companies that focus on mobile messaging and direct marketing.) To achieve this Jumptap inputs the advertising categories chosen by the individual into a much larger, more sophisticated equation that includes data from carriers, searches and some context. This covers the bases to provide people a better user experience (provided there is a good supply of ads in each category), and that should certainly lead to high advertiser ROI and publisher yields. Of course, the proof is in the numbers. We’ll have to wait a while for those. In the meantime, Jumptap’s move can be read as an important confirmation that all advertising – not just messaging – is correctly evolving to provide people more of a say in what they get.

Disclaimer: Bango is an MSG supporter with a branded thought leadership presence on this website; Jumptap has been an MSG supporter and sponsored a series of podcasts.

Who is making the money (and how) with barcodes? No easy answers there.

But the raft of recent announcements makes it clear that barcodes, like online/mobile search, cover the bases to become the interface to information everywhere. They allow us to access information (about products, places, people – the works!). Like search, barcodes also trigger the delivery of advertising in tune with the information we request.

With so much in common between these platforms (barcodes and search) it’s not surprising that search/OS giants Apple, Google and Microsoft have all unveiled ambitious barcode strategies. (Even Facebook has joined the party.) But even these giants will need to develop the IP and business ecosystems to make this work.

Will they “make” or “buy” the pieces they need (perhaps snapping up a provider of end-to-end barcode services that include the handset app and the overarching platform)? It’s a tough one to call. But one thing for certain: barcodes are in the bowling alley and making a solution from scratch (down to the clearing house or other barcode management scheme to help advertisers and brands achieve reach and interoperability among operators, agencies and enablers) may cost time even these giants don’t have.

MORE THAN MARKETING

While we wait to see how this could play out over the next months, barcode providers are signing deals that lay the groundwork for a myriad of applications beyond mobile marketing and couponing, bring the day closer when barcode scanning could well replace search as a means to access information about everything everywhere. (And without making us scroll through reams of results on our mobile devices, I might add.)

This exciting scenario is at the core of the recent tie-up between Renu Mobile – a company that provides marketing and advertising services including mobile Web (WAP), SMS, social media and now barcodes – and NeoMedia, a provider of barcode scanning, management and publishing solutions whose platform includes barcode reading software (NeoReader) and a barcode management system (NeoSphere).

Earlier this week the companies announced an agreement to include NeoMedia’s products as part of Renu Mobile’s end-to-end mobile campaign management services. This paves the way for Renu Mobile to build out its cross-media mobile marketing mix and deliver barcode capabilities to agencies and brands. I caught up with Carol Glennon, Renu Mobile CEO, to ask her about the tie-up with NeoMedia and her strategy to target a wide range of industry sectors including pharmaceuticals, enterprise and homeland security.

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

First, what does the tie-up mean?

According to Carol, it’s the only fit that allows her company to get reach without allying itself with a potential competitor. Put simply, NeoMedia NeoReader barcode reader software comes pre-installed on key devices and platforms. (NeoMedia recently announced its reader software was released for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Its reader software also comes pre-installed on Sony Ericsson devices – and more handset deals are imminent, I’m told.)

More importantly, NeoMedia doesn’t compete with Renu in managing/executing mobile marketing campaigns. If anything, NeoMedia, through its involvement with Neustar, a company spearheading the creation of a barcode clearing house to drive adoption and enable interoperability, is doing its part to ensure mobile marketing delivers. To date barcode companies NeoMedia, 3GVision, Mobile Data Systems and Mobile Discovery are using the Neustar clearing house (more in this press release from Mobile World congress).

Connect the dots, and it’s about delivering barcode campaigns that are open, interoperable and global.

However, it’s also about powering enterprise apps everywhere.

Carol aims to be on top of the game with a slew of clients and services that focus sharply on public sector, security and pharmaceuticals. It’s easy to imagine how scanning a barcode on a bottle of medicine could allow people to access valuable information such as the proper dose, potential side-effects and/or a mobile website with advice or the location of nearby pharmacies and physicians.

Likewise barcodes could ensure that authorities (such as police and fire) resolve an emergency situation with fewer casualties. Among the scenarios high on Carol’s radar: barcodes built into the firefighter’s badge that allow doctors access to details about the individual (profile, health record, allergies etc) when that person is unconscious or injured. “It’s about enabling services – and rapid deployment – without authorities having to invest in new equipment or learn a new skillset.” Little wonder the next stop for Carol is MILCOM 2010, a military trade conference focused on the “Next Decade of Military Communications.”

Keeping with the security scenario, barcodes could also allow authorities to define and oversee a security area. Barcodes on vehicles, equipment, even people would potentially streamline security checks and wring more value out of limited manpower and resources.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Carol tells me Renu will expand its mobile marketing activities through the partnership with NeoMedia. But Renu will also move full-steam ahead on its first test of a pharmaceutical application later in the summer.

After I interviewed Carol I saw a tweet from my esteemed colleague and Forrester anaylst Thomas Husson about his latest blog post, a must-read treatise aptly titled Liberty, equality and mobility. Having studied barcode reports and white papers in preparation for the posts I was writing, I struck by some interesting possibilities and parallels.

Thomas’ post is an excellent examination of the societal impact of mobile phones and the pivotal role of governments in moving effective communications and media tools a giant step forward. He argued that governments should balance investments and “make the most of mature mobile ecosystems” such as NFC (near-field communications). Thomas provides some examples and reminds us that “innovative research and development clusters that focus on mobile innovation, optimized transport systems, and a tech-savvy image are key to appearing innovative and attractive to firms looking for new locations. This is why the French government and the city of Nice are heavily backing the large-scale live Near Field Communication (NFC) trials that will take place in Q2 2010 in the South of France.”

While NFC is quite different from barcodes – there is some exciting overlap because they are both interfaces to the digital world of information, content and utilities.

In fact, Neustar joined with Visa at Mobile World Congress to showcase the potential of barcodes. In this pilot it was about scanning the barcode on the back of the Visa card to check your balance. But it’s easy to imagine more applications involving financial institutions.

Likewise, it would also be possible to scan a barcode (as it is to swipe an NFC-enabled device over an NFC tag) to manage workflow. (I am reminded here of a white paper I wrote for Nokia years back that argued workers – in this case technicians – could swipe their phones over an NFC tag on a particular piece of equipment to access repair records and streamline trouble-shooting.)

Hmm – sounds like an application that would fit with barcodes – particularly since these technicians could do this now with ordinary mobile phones. (NFC success is somewhat stalled until we have a critical mass of NFC-enabled devices.)

And, if we need any help figuring out additional scenarios, I’m sure Carol could think of a few…

The takeaway: Barcode business models and use cases are falling into place – and companies that miss this wave (and the opportunity to add a barcode component to their service offer) risk falling behind.

UPDATE: Carol just informed me via Skype that Renu Mobile has signed its first hospital customer. Looks like barcodes with be everywhere this year. Look for more analysis of this exciting space on MSG.

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Social media is more than a trend; it’s part of our daily existence. Whether it’s tagging people on Facebook, using your new smartphone to “tweet”, blogging a review of a brand that’s annoying you or connecting with colleagues and asking for references on LinkedIn, the whole world is talking. So what have we learned? And how has an avalanche of communications channels impacted our interaction? Here are some reports that offer some answers.

BLOGGING VS. SOCIAL: What are people using and why? A recent study from Pew Research Center reports a shift in behavior that could have consequences. For one, “since 2006, blogging has fallen among teens and young adults while simultaneously rising among older adults.” As the tools and technology embedded in social networking websites change, and use of the sites continues to grow, Pew says, “youth may be exchanging ‘macro-blogging’ for micro-blogging with status updates.” The split: adults are finding their voice online through blogs while teens and young adults are going for community. Source

The upshot: In the U.S. young adults are leading the way in mobile and wireless Internet usage. The outcome is a huge reduction in blog commenting and an explosion in two-way and micro-blogging communication. Predictably, Twitter stands out as the exception with only 10 percent of 14-17 year olds tweeting. Mobile uptake is soaring thanks to the fact that a whopping 58 percent of 12-year olds now carry a mobile device (!).

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SOCIAL SHOPPING: Here’s one even I didn’t expect. People are more open to brands that use new media to make the connection. Research findings via eMarketer from Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate, drawn from a survey of some 1,500 U.S. Internet users, indicate that social friends and followers feel more inclined to purchase from the brands they are fans of in the first place.

That’s pretty much common sense. But it’s interesting to note WHY people became fans in the first place.

Some of the top reasons for becoming a brand fan are as follows:

• 49% are customer of the brand
• 42% wish to show support for the brand
• 40% enjoy discounts and promos from the brand

Source

The upshot: Brands that are leveraging the power of social media to truly engage with their fans are walking the talk. They can count on a number of benefits from this – including improved chances of conversion.

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MONSTER MARCH FACEBOOK STATS: Facebook is huge – period. Just how big it is (in numbers AND influence) comes across in this infographic. It’s packed with detail, so allow me to give you a few highlights.

Mobile

• Over 100 million users access Facebook via mobile
• People who access Facebook on their mobiles are twice as active as those who do not
• Over 200 mobile operators worldwide are looking to deploy and promote Facebook via mobile

International

• 70 languages
• 70 percent of Facebook users are outside the U.S.

General Wow-Stats

• Since 2004 Facebook has grown to over 400 million active users worldwide
• More than 3 billion photos are posted on Facebook each month
• The Average user has 130 friends on Facebook

Source

The upshot: Facebook is a monster but where is the money in the long-term? Having been an executive at a marketing company I have to ask myself if the anatomy of Facebook (also revealed in the infographic) doesn’t translate into more opportunities and models beyond simple ad-serving. Would Facebook users tolerate more sledgehammer advertising? Maybe some brand fanatics would and I can think of some brands that could get real value out of this approach. Will big organizations learn from the likes of Coke, Barack Obama and Starbucks? Again, it’s easy to imagine brand strategies that could copy this success. What works? I’ll keep that to myself…