The New York Times recently ran an interesting article about mobile coupons:
Is a coupon still a coupon if you can’t clip ’n’ save it? Betting that the answer is yes, some advertisers are beginning to invest in mobile coupons — discounts that are delivered to customers’ cellphones (with their permission), often via text messages.
Read more at the New York Times.
BrandWeek is reporting on an exciting development in the mobile couponing space:
McDonald’s is dialing up mobile coupons for a regional test at 113 locations in Utah, Wyoming and Nevada. Consumers can receive one of the chain’s new iced coffees for free when they use a mobile coupon at participating stores between April 7-27.
So how does it work?
Customers are asked to go to cellfire.com or text “mcd” to 22888 to receive the application. Upon signing up, they receive a unique redemption code that consumers show the McDonald’s cashier. Once registered, they can receive future offers from other merchants as well
Read more @ BrandWeek.
Ars Technica has a first look at Amazon's recently announced SMS ordering system. Some details about the system:
Amazon is still working on its goal of becoming your one-stop shop for anything, at any time or any place. Today, the company introduced TextBuyIt, a sort of SMS version of its 1-Click buying system. Users can send a text message to "AMAZON" (262966) with a product name, author, artist name, ISBN, or UPC code and receive the top two Amazon search results back almost instantly. From there, they can find out more information or simply make a purchase directly from their mobile phones. Although the process is a breeze on a smartphone, Amazon's real goal is to make buying easy for those with "plain old" mobile phones.
Head over to Ars to see some screenshots of the system in action on the author's iPhone.
The New York Times recently ran an interesting story on the evolution of airline boarding passes:
First came the kiosk, a strange addition to airport terminals when Continental Airlines began offering it as a check-in option in 1995. It was followed by Web check-in, introduced by Alaska Airlines in 1999.
Now, with 80 percent of passengers using these self-service options, the next step is electronic boarding passes, which essentially turn the hand-held devices and mobile phones of travelers into their boarding passes.
Far off technology? Nope, it's already here:
[S]o far, Continental is the only carrier in the United States to begin testing the electronic passes, allowing those travelers to pass through security and board the plane without handling a piece of paper. Their boarding pass is an image of an encrypted bar code displayed on the phone’s screen, which can be scanned by gate agents and security personnel.
Read more at The New York Times.
Mobile gaming isn't just about selling games. NBC understands that it is about extending the brand:
Players work to solve the latest celebrity crime in New York, investigating the crime scene, interrogating witnesses and bringing their key suspect to trial. Cast members like Alana De La Garza offer advice and feedback to help move the case along, and mini-games like Warrant Race (where players rush to try to secure warrants) are also included.
"Creating mobile games based on popular television series like 'Law & Order' is one way NBC Universal is looking to extend our audiences' experience with the brand," said Jeremy Laws, senior vice president, mobile and broadband, Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group.
Read more @ OnlineMediaDaily.
From the indispensable OnlineMediaDaily:
MORE THAN 2.6 BILLION MOBILE ticket transactions amounting to nearly $87 billion will be delivered to 208 million mobile users by 2011, according to a new study.
The report by Juniper Research found that the mobile ticketing business is gearing up for major launches in the next few years as early trials evolve into commercial services controlled by the ticketing issuers such as Ticketmaster and Tickets.com.
Read more @ OnlineMediaDaily.
The NY Times has an interesting piece on the coming migration of social networks to mobile phones:
Social networks may be nothing new to habitués of the Internet. Several years of competition among Facebook, MySpace and Friendster have generated tens of millions of members.
But now the market is teeming with companies that want to bring the same phenomenon to the cellphone. There are so many “mobile social networking” upstarts, in fact, that when New Media Age magazine in Britain tried to identify the “ones to watch,” it ended up naming 10 companies.
What is so appealing about the mobile space?
The prize, as these start-ups see it, is the 3.3 billion cellphone subscribers, a number that far surpasses the total of Internet users. The advantage over computer-based communities, they believe, is the ability to know where a cellphone is, thanks to global positioning satellites and related technologies.
The market research company Informa Telecoms said in a report last month that about 50 million people, or about 2.3 percent of all mobile users, already use the cellphone for social networking, from chat services to multimedia sharing. The company forecast that the penetration rate would mushroom to at least 12.5 percent in five years.
Head over to the Times to read more.
U.S. CONSUMERS ARE MOVING CLOSER to being able to use their cell phones as mobile wallets, according to a new study.
The report, by technology research firm In-Stat, projects that by 2012 between 8 million and 30 million customers in North America will be making contactless payments via cell phone. The key is incorporating the short-range wireless technology into handsets and payment systems that make such transactions possible.
As mobile phones morph into mobile wallets, and the mobile advertising platform expands and matures, marketers will essentially gain the ability to display targeted ads in customer's wallets...
Read the entire story about the In-Stat report at OnlineMediaDaily.
Ran Pass Liquors is more than your average liquor store.
Each year, this El Paso-based liquor store donates over 10% of its
income to local charities, sponsors numerous events in the El Paso
market - from live bands to its very own event "UNITY JAM" – and stays
ahead of the game by offering their customers drink recipes and special
discounts. To further extend their reach, Ran Pass also delivers and
sells to bars & nightclubs. Following an overhaul of their website,
customers will be able to seek information on brands, mixers, wines,
etc.
Objective:
Ran Pass was looking for an innovative way to keep current and
potential customers posted on their weekly discounts, specials, events
and other news, especially during slower days of the week. With the
upcoming website, they not only wanted to offer customers an online
ordering option, but also a TXT-2-Order option for those customers on
the go. Ran Pass Liquors turned to Club Texting to come up with a
custom program that will meet these needs.
Solution:
Ran Pass chose to unveil their text messaging program in two phases.
The first was a push to generate signups and send mass discounts to
their subscribers. Here is a sample of tactics:
Phase two, which will be completed shortly, will include a brand new online ordering system for deliveries. Registered customers who wish to order via SMS can simply text “LIQUOR + their order” to 25827. They will immediately receive a confirmation message, and their order will be delivered in under 30 minutes.
Outcome:
Using the Club Texting system, Ran Pass has started collecting a
valuable database of cell phone numbers and, with a strong marketing
campaign in place over the next few months, will be a pioneer in mobile
spirits sales!
Visit Club Texting to supercharge your business' mobile marketing efforts.
OnlineMediaDaily has information on a new JupiterResearch report on the state of the mobile web. The results are interesting:
SOME 40% OF WEB SITE operators have launched mobile sites and another 22% plan to do so in the next year, according to a new JupiterResearch study.
And what does the near future hold?
Driving the growth of mobile sites are factors such as the expansion of 3G networks and smartphones and improving prospects for deriving revenue from mobile advertising. Jupiter estimates that increasing page views and usage will push annual mobile display and search advertising revenue to $825 million by 2012.
Head over to OnlineMediaDaily to read more commentary on the Mobile Web Sites: Designing for Mobility report.
In an interesting development in the UK--unfortunately for American card sharks--London-based mobile gambling service Betnow has scored a first round of funding from Balderton Capital and angel investors:
Betnow allows users to place bets on football, golf, horse racing, dog racing and tennis matches by sending SMS text messages to 89808. Betting instructions can be written out using English language; payment is handled via the mobile contract or via a bank account, winnings can be collected from a customer’s local Post Office branch.
Lest you think this is a niche market, consider this:
Mobile gambling was forecast to be worth $1.3 billion in 2007 and $26 billion by 2012, according to a Juniper Research white paper released in October, with the UK outlook looking particularly good thanks to recently relaxed regulations on advertising.
Read more at paidContent:UK.
Business Week has posted an interesting story about the potential for Asian wireless firms to jump into the US Market:
The renewed interest in U.S. wireless assets might seem puzzling with average monthly phone bills holding steady and the supply of potential first-time customers dwindling fast in a nation where more than a quarter-billion of the population already carries mobile phones.
The answer may lie in mobile Internet access and data services. "We have more opportunity in terms of data [services] growth than any other developed country," says Gene Frantz, a partner at Texas Pacific Group, which, along with another private equity firm, purchased No. 5 U.S. wireless carrier Alltel for $27.5 billion in November.
What is at stake?
While most North American wireless users currently pay less than $10 a month for data services, that spending may rise to nearly $38 a month by 2012, according to Insight Research. Over that same period, the consultancy says, wireless data spending by Europeans, Asians, and Latin Americans is only expected to roughly double, to about $20 a month. Overall, North American data revenues are projected to grow 36.4% a year—faster than in any other region of the world—to reach $132 billion by 2012, up from $28 billion this year, according to Insight Research.
Head over to Business Week to read the rest of this article.
OnlineMediaDaily relays this report from Chetan Sharma Consulting:
For the first nine months of 2007, mobile data revenues reached $17.7 billion, increasing 59% from the year-earlier period. Verizon led the way with $5.4 billion in mobile data sales, followed by AT&T with $4.95 billion, and Sprint at $3.7 billion.
Read the entire article @ MediaPost's OnlineMediaDaily.
The Google-Phone-Mobile-Etc. Rumor Mill Keeps Churning:
Google Inc is in active talks with number-two U.S. mobile carrier Verizon Wireless about putting Google applications on phones it offers, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
"There are good useful talks going on and they could result in a deal," one of the sources said.
So far talks between the Web search leader and Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, revolve around technology and potential business models such as advertising-sponsored services, one of the people said.
And following up on the story earlier in the month--Details Emerge About The GPhone. It's Not A Phone:
The [Wall Street] Journal reported that Google was expected in two weeks to announce advanced software and services, enabling handset makers to sell Google-powered phones by mid-2008, citing people familiar with the matter. Google declined to comment.
Read the entire article @ Reuters.
Today's edition of MediaDailyNews features coverage of a recent Magazine Publishing trade conference. The message from a number of speakers was clear:
MAGAZINES HAVE BEEN slow to launch mobile content initiatives. They must shift into high gear--or risk missing out on a new wave of digital commerce that will rival the emergence of the Internet as an economic engine in the 1990s, according to mobile media and measurement executives speaking at the American Magazine Conference on Monday.
Read the entire article @ MediaDailyNews.
AOL recently unveiled a new mobile portal, hoping to compete with Yahoo and Google, who have both made progress this year in the mobile space:
The upgrades include more mobile-friendly incarnations of AOL Search, Mail, MapQuest, and AOL Instant Messenger, among other features from AOL's home page. The new mobile search, for instance, will offer results that are more tailored to users on the go, such as driving directions and click-to-call options linked to services like MapQuest and Moviefone.
A mobilized myAOL service will enable users to personalize the AOL mobile site by selecting news headlines, pictures, and RSS feeds to their liking. Separately, AOL plans to launch AOL MyMobile, a new application similar to Yahoo's Go service, by year's end.
It will allow Mobile Windows users to download a range of AOL services such as Mail, Cityguide and Search, and will remember recent requests to help speed searches on the fly. Recently acquired mobile ad platform Third Screen Media will supply targeted advertising to AOL MyMobile.
A new mobile widget for GPS-enabled phones will also allow AIM users to locate each other, marking a step by AOL into the mobile social networking area pioneered by companies like Dodgeball and Zingku.
As part of the new mobile push, AOL is also formally launching Winamp Remote, letting people access and listen to music stored on their computers from on their cell phones.
If these services work as promised, they should be fairly successful, as they extend current properties, which already have large, loyal subscriber counts. Read the entire article @ Online Media Daily.
JoonBug Productions is a leading organizer of New Year's Eve Parties, with celebrations in Times Square, Downtown, Midtown, and on Cruise Ships. As a small, growing New York City-based company, JoonBug hires additional salespeople every fall to help sell New Years Eve tickets. In a city where space comes at a premium, it is essential for JoonBug to efficiently coordinate their sales staff. This means assuring that there are always just enough salespeople per phone in the office at any given time. In the past JoonBug has relied upon email and phone calls, which never worked perfectly during the harried fall sales season. So last year they decided to do something different. They decided to implement a Club Texting-powered text messaging solution.
In October, as they hired their seasonal staff, they collected cellular phone numbers and entered them into their Club Texting account's database. With this data in hand, JoonBug found new and innovative ways to communicate with their sales team. Sick team members were asked to text in. As soon as the information was received text blasts went out offering everyone else the opportunity to pick up a shift. When office schedules changed, as they often did, everyone could be notified instantly (at times at the last minute). In short, at their busiest time of the year, JoonBug Productions was able to radically simplify a tiresome, unorganized process that is nonetheless essential to their business.
On The Web:
JoonBug Productions - New Year's Eve Parties
Club Texting Case Studies
FierceMobileContent picked up on an interesting press release from Verizon and AAA:
Verizon Wireless announced a partnership with motoring and leisure travel organization AAA to launch AAA Mobile, a tool enabling travelers to find AAA-rated points of interest and access roadside assistance services via GPS-enabled handsets. AAA Mobile delivers visual and audible directions to any travel destination in the U.S., including locate AAA Approved sites like Diamond Rated hotels and restaurants--subscribers may review detailed AAA descriptions, receive maps and bookmark favorite locations. The service also offers single-click access to roadside assistance. AAA Mobile is now available for $9.99 per month.
MediaPost's Online Media Daily reports on the latest transaction in the busy mobile sector:
THE MOBILE CONTENT AND SERVICES feeding frenzy continues, as San Francisco-based SendMe has announced its acquisition of the mbuzzy online and mobile community.
Meanwhile, London-based Refresh Mobile has rolled out Mippin, a service that aggregates, displays and customizes content for a user's mobile Web experience.
Opportunities for marketers to "go mobile" with branded applications, sponsored content and standard mobile ads are bundled into both announcements.
San Mateo-based mbuzzy adds a social networking asset to SendMe's pair of mobile entertainment properties--SendMeMobile.com (a distribution network for ringtones, games and other interactive content) and SoLow.com (an SMS-based bidding game that users play to win prizes like electronics and trips).
With mbuzzy, users create a profile and share pictures, videos and other content via mobile phone or desktop. The off-deck service also allows for instant messaging, chat and status alerts--and it's not tied to any particular carrier or handset, maximizing the potential for market penetration.
Here's a story we can look forward to seeing rewritten in the near future in the US as we begin to catch up with the rest of the world in the mobile data arena:
According to the French association of multimedia mobiles (AFMM), the use of bar codes in magazines this summer was very successful. 15% to 25% of traffic to the websites of Public, Closer, and Voici were generated thanks to users coming through the bar codes.
The bar code technology enables users to access online content on their phone by taking a photography of the code, inserted in the paper, with their mobile.
Users must first download a special application, Flashcode, in order to identify the bar code and access the content.
In July and August, there were about 30,000 downloads of the Flashcode software.
“One of the main priorities now will be to gradually pre-equip mobile devices with the Flashcode software, so that the user doesn’t have to download it," said Nicolas Guieysse, from the AFMM.
@ The Editors Weblog (via mocoNews)
The iPhone will be arriving in the UK on November 9th, in an exclusive deal with O2. Competitor Vodaphone is not waiting idly:
Vodafone is planning to offer its all-you-can-eat music service free of charge in a bid to drive customer uptake in the UK. Although Vodafone’s MusicStation service was launched with a £1.99 per week charge, the operator will offer it free on 18-month contracts of £40 ($80) or higher using certain handsets. MusicStation offers unlimited downloads for a subscription price, but if the person stops paying the subscription they stop being able to play the songs.
Coincidence? mocoNews says otherwise:
Vodafone’s free move is clearly intended to help it better compete with O2 and the iPhone during the traditional Christmas mobile sales rush. It’s of course hoping that despite the lacklustre record so far for operator-portal music services, the MusicStation subscription model will strike a chord with users.
Full Story @ mocoNews.
In an potentially important development, Bylk has launched the first free pan-European mobile service. It would be interesting to see how receptive consumers are to an ad-supported service like this--unfortunately Bylk is not exactly what it first appears to be:
At a press conference in London, Blyk founders Pekka Ala-Pietila and Antii Ohrling said Monday that they have started offering subscribers 217 free texts and 42 free minutes in exchange for accepting MMS (picture messaging) and SMS (text) advertising. Customers will be charged for additional usage.
After that, you've got to pay up, which begs the question, why not just pay from the start and not bother with the ads. Nevertheless, Bylk should make for an interesting experiment.
For more, head over to Red Herring.
SPRINT NEXTEL IS GIVING RETAILERS another way to market, advertise and pull money from the pockets of subscribers. The wireless carrier on Thursday introduced Mobile Shopper that lets consumers buy products via their mobile phones through an e-commerce tool powered by mShopper, a Boulder, Colo.-based company owned by 2B Wireless.
The service allows consumers to search among 7 million products from 30 online retailers such as eLuxury, eBags, JC Penney's, Wal-Mart and Target, which have an opportunity to tie promotions and ads to Sprint's mobile Web application.
And how will Spring promote this service?
While television or radio ads won't promote the service, Sprint spokeswoman Emmy Anderson says the Kansas City, Mo.-based carrier will market Mobile Shopper through text messages sent to some of its 54 million voice subscribers. A link on Sprint's Web site provides a demonstration and literature to educate consumers.
Sprint has been the most aggressive carrier when it comes to getting voice subscribers to sign up for data services, says Julie Ask, wireless analyst at JupiterResearch.
Read more at Media Post's Marketing Daily.
Last week's Washington Post included an interesting story about the growing popularity of mobile comic books. With their graphic content, short size, and devoted fanbase, mobile comic books seem like a revenue generating mobile data service that just might do well for itself:
Sean Demory realized a long-held dream of becoming a published comic book writer when "Thunder Road," a post-apocalyptic adventure he developed with artist Steven Sanders, was released.
"I've been plugging away and pitching things for 15 to 20 years," Demory said. "This is the first one that landed in fertile soil."
But don't look for the tales of Merritt and his buddies on the shelves of a comic bookstore or even the Internet. "Thunder Road" is the first comic book released in the United States exclusively via cellphone, part of a lineup of mobile comic books offered by Kansas City-based uClick.
"It opens up a market that wouldn't necessarily be seen as a traditional comic market," Demory said of the launch last month.
Several companies are experimenting with putting printed material on mobile phones, including publisher HarperCollins's announcement this summer it would begin putting excerpts of new books on Apple's iPhones.
Mobile comic books are still in their infancy in the United States -- uClick says it's grown to about 55,000 readers a month in the first year of offering its GoComics service.
But it touches on two strengthening trends: Comic book creators looking to leap to the digital arena, where production and distribution are cheap, and the demand by wireless providers for data-rich applications to drive future revenues.
"Obviously comics have a pretty large following," said David Oberholzer, associate director of content programming for Verizon Wireless, which offers GoComics along with competitors AT&T and Sprint Nextel. "You want to mimic what's out there already and have that on your deck."For $4.49 a month on Verizon, or $3.99 a month for AT&T and Sprint, subscribers can view nearly a dozen different traditional comic books. There's also a separate subscription service for Japanese comics called manga.
Read the entire article at the Washington Post.
Media Post's Online Media Daily has some news on the mobile classifieds front:
MOBILE FIRM IQZONE ROLLED OUT a free service that lets users create, send and post photo and video ads to online classifieds via mobile phone. Meanwhile, Yellow Book USA posted links to a set of online video ads--spots that the local search powerhouse crafted to give advertisers a preview of its forthcoming video classified offering. The two services are the latest examples of how video is shaping the development of both online and mobile classifieds.
IQzone's "Snap Send Sell" service is geared toward the under-30 market--namely, college students aiming to sell cars and textbooks, or find roommates. Users take photos or video of their merchandise, include the ad copy with price and ZIP-code info, and then send to ad@iqzone.com. The application then categorizes the item for sale and submits the ad to a number free online classifieds and aggregators like oodle, edgeio, and LiveDeal.
Classifieds are big business--newspapers rely on them for revenue--and developments like this one, along with the ever-expanding reach of Craiglist, spell big trouble for an industry already in deep water.
Media Post is reporting that Gannett Co, the owner of the USA Today and nearly 100 other smaller newspapers, has just rolled out a lot of free mobile content:
The Virginia-based media outlet has developed mobile news sites that correspond to some 84 daily newspapers and 19 broadcast station Web sites, as well as one for its national paper USA Today.
In addition to local news and information, the sites link to national news coverage available via the USA Today mobile site, and the content will be supported by local, regional and national display ads.
Users with handsets and data plans that allow for Internet browsing can access the sites for free by entering an 'm' before an existing Gannett site's URL (such as http://m.tennessean.com), via links from the home pages of all Gannet newspaper and broadcast Web sites, or by texting a unique daily short code to 59523. The short codes are being promoted through Gannett's print, online and broadcast news presentations.
RCR Wireless News is reporting that People Magazine will be launching their own custom-built application:
The periodical launched People Mobile, a downloadable application that delivers breaking celebrity news, photo galleries, a puzzle game and a style blog. The application is available on carrier decks for $4 per month in addition to messaging charges
This is an interesting development, worth keeping an eye on. Not content to merely deliver a messaging or mobile web-based solution, People has built their own mobile application. And, bucking the usual model, the application itself is free; instead monetization will come through subscription access. If they see success with this strategy we might see a lot of brand-based, downloadable applications, especially if the FCC's recent ruling opens up the landscape.
Fortune Magazine is reporting that Nokia is launching a hybrid computer/mobile music store, similar to iTunes, in order to blunt the impact of the iPhone's eventual arrival in Europe:
Fortune has learned from sources involved in the project that Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo will launch the new worldwide service Aug. 29 at a London event that will include live music at the Ministry of Sound nightclub. The new Nokia Web site will let consumers download songs to their PCs and transfer them to mobile phones and other portable music players, similar to Apple's iTunes. Nokia is expected to let users transfer songs to non-Nokia phones using digital-rights-management software.
Head over to Fortune (at CNN Money) to read more details.
(via mocoNews)
We covered Shop Text's SMS payment platform back in April. Today we're passing along a press release that hit our Inbox: "Hi Fidel and F5 Records become first indie label and artist to run ShopText campaign."
In anticipation of the release of Hi Fidel's Company of Wolves album, F5 Records and ShopText formed a partnership to allow fans to order the album with a simple text message.
ShopText is the new, fun and easy way to shop, sample or donate simply by texting a keyword they see in any magazine, newspaper, television, poster, jumbotron or other offline advertisement. For those with ShopText accounts already, all you need to do is text ' FIDEL' to 467467 to order using your ShopText account and mobile phone. "As an indie music fan myself, I am excited that F5 is thinking out of the box and got in touch with us." says Mark Kaplan, Founder & CMO of ShopText. Kaplan adds, "We believe that by making music more accessible, ShopText is a great service for fans and artists alike."
Of course you're dying to know about the artist:
Company of Wolves is a testament to Hi Fidel's progressive rhyme styling and lyrical word schemes, which allows the listener to join in on the journey though time and space and benefit from the destination.
A truly global emcee with a viewpoint and sound to back it up, one would be hard pressed to box his sound into a single category. However, The Company of Wolves is perhaps the most accessible work yet to emerge from Fidel's extended career, while still retaining that uniquely lop-sided worldview that makes his music so dazedly impressive.
On Tuesday FierceMobileContent posted an interview with Marie Jacobson, executive vice president, programming and production, international networks at Sony Pictures Television International. They discussed how Sony has jumped on the mobile content bandwagon. You can read the entire article here, but we've gone ahead and highlighted some choice quotes:
Mobile is a big focus for us. Mobile is an extension of a lot of great things we are doing in the TV space. It’s also a fertile development platform and distribution platform for a lot of stuff—video, personalization, games and networks.
...
FierceMobileContent: Is mobile being integrated into programming from the concept stage?
Jacobson: Absolutely. In fact, if it isn’t then it really isn’t a dedicated experience. We try to reinforce that. If it’s a retrofit to mobile or to Internet it feels like it. Consumers are too wise for that. In mature markets, the mobile consumer is looking for specific content that speaks to them as a mobile consumer. That is specific content. If we are producing a TV property, then we want to be sure is that on any one platform our viewer or consumer is getting a different dedicated experience.
...
For “Afterworld,” specifically, there is 130 three-minute pieces of content, linear content, that tells the story. That could play across TV, mobile and Internet. We also have 13 broadcast one-half hours for the same franchise for the broadcasters. Then we have recaps, trailers, music videos and those things are geared toward the mobile and Internet consumer.When you drill down more you have to ask, what can we do for mobile for a non-3G consumer? We’re creating a really cool mobile comic strip. We are creating a rich comic strip experience for the non-3G consumer that wants to experience it but can’t yet.
We also have premium downloads and a casual game in development that will bridge the gap for “Afterworld” between season 1 and season 2.
At the early stage-at script stage—we got involved last year. It was very important for us to have something to offer that was dedicated to each platform.
You can read the rest of the article at FierceMobileContent.
Today's issue of the New York Times includes a report that Nielsen--known for its television ratings--is jumping into the mobile subscriber analysis arena. They've done so by acquiring Telephia, a private San Francisco firm.
The Times explains that "Telephia has become one of the most respected sources of data about cellphone use — tracking consumers’ phone calling, mobile Web surfing, video viewing and just about everything else."
So why does Nielsen feel the time is right?
Cellphones are quickly becoming a top priority among media executives who think that consumers will soon watch more of their television, read more of their news and interact with magazines using their phones. Cellphone carriers are promoting their video content offerings, often in partnership with media companies, and this week Apple will introduce its long-anticipated iPhone, which will be focused as much on media consumption as it will be on phone calls.
“I’m sure it will have an effect on the consumer market because the designs that Apple introduces and the functionality always seems to be replicated by other consumer technology companies,” said George Kliavkoff, the chief digital officer of NBC Universal.
Read the entire article @ The New York Times' Website (via Textually)
160 Characters is reporting on the launch of a new SMS-based mobile payment system:
Anam Mobile and TR2 Communications have launched a service that will allow operators to offer global money transfers via SMS.
Using an application called #CASH - developed and owned by TR2 Communications, it can be used globally for international funds transfer and local P2P payments.
So how does it work?
To send money a user writes an SMS that begins "#cash" followed by the amount to send, then selects the person they want to send it to from their address book. Anam’s Smart Services platform then diverts the message to the #Cash Application Server for processing.
The person sending the money is then sent a text message with information to call an IVR which reads out the transaction who then confirms the transaction is correct by entering their PIN.
The money is transferred once pin-checked and once complete a text message confirmation is received. The recipient of the transfer receives a text message to tell them they have been transferred money.
We're still early along in the mobile payments game, but expect to hear more and more announcements like this one in the future.
See 160 Characters Association for more.
Technorati Tags: mobile payments, sms
MobileTechNews has the details on a Telephia Premium SMS report, and the news is great:
Premium SMS revenues totaled more than $273 million, making up 32 percent of mobile content revenue in Q1 2007, according to Telephia, the world's largest provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets.
...
Download purchases paid for via premium SMS (at off-portal storefronts) totaled nearly $215 million, accounting for 79 percent of premium SMS revenue. These off-portal storefront purchases include content such as ringtones and horoscopes. Voting/sweepstakes entries generated more than $35 million. While voting/sweepstakes entries generated only 13 percent of total revenues for premium SMS transactions, they represented 47 percent of premium SMS volume, equaling more than 34 million transactions.
Can anyone say American Idol?
Technorati Tags: premium sms, sms, mobile marketing, telephia
Guardian writer Victor Keegan has written today about why mobile content providers have been able to generate greater revenues than their brethren on the web:
Revenues from the web are about $25bn (£12.5bn) but the content on mobile networks is reckoned by Informa to be worth $31bn - and that is before music and mobile TV take off in a big way.
...
Tomi Ahonen, a strategy consultant, points out that whereas porn and gambling drove revenues on the internet, five content groups are more successful than adult material on mobile phones: music, infotainment, images, videogames and web browsing. He reminds us that in 2005 one annoying ringtone, Crazy Frog, outsold all of iTunes. A key reason is that most content on the web is free whereas mobile phones arrived with a payment system pre-installed for calls, followed by a premium service for texting. If the web had had its own payment system it would have taken a different course.
Head over to the Guardian to read the rest of this fascinating take on the present state of mobile commerce. (via Textually)
mocoNews.net is reporting on an interesting development in the nascent Mobile TV arena:
Rentrak, a company specialized in measuring TV viewing, has sealed a deal with mobile TV provider Hiwire to measure mobile TV viewing. Rentrak will provide Hiwire—a subsidiary of Aloha Partners, the largest owner of 700 MHz spectrum in the U.S.—with information on total viewers of video programming and of video ads on mobile phones. This data will no doubt be the ace in the hands of TV networks providing content to mobile TV providers as they seek to sell ads in mobile content.
Read the full press release (via MocoNews.net)
Last week Reuters ran a story on the prospects of the mobile advertising market--all signs point to extraordinary growth.
The more than $500 million mobile advertising market looks set to multiply in just a few years, helped by new technologies and the spread of more advanced phones.
...
"It will certainly be in the $4.5 to $5 billion range in terms of the marketplace (in five years)," he said, adding that estimates for the annual market now range from $500 million to $900 million."I think you need to be there. That's money that's coming from some place. It's coming from other media," Falco said.
...
Strategy Analytics, one of the most cautious forecasters on mobile advertising market growth, has forecast global mobile advertising market will reach $574 million this year and grow almost three-fold by 2010.
Microsoft continues to edge its way in to the Mobile Commerce arena. First, we reported a few weeks ago on the software giant's purchase of TellMe, and now we hear that they have snatched up ScreenTonic SA:
MICROSOFT IS ACQUIRING EUROPEAN MOBILE advertising company ScreenTonic SA in a bid to expand its mobile expertise--and intends to use the company as an eventual springboard to offer global mobile services.
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"The mobile Internet is an extraordinary vehicle for brands to connect with their target audiences, because devices like cell phones enable interaction to take place virtually anywhere or anytime," said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. "The acquisition will be part of our long-term strategy to deliver ad experiences that map to the environment." (MediaPost OnlineMediaDaily)
In other news, FierceMobileContent is reporting that Hearst Magazines will be launching some new mobile properties. What is interesting about this announcement is who Hearst is hoping to reach with this content:
Publisher Hearst Magazines and mobile technology and services company Crisp Wireless announced an agreement to launch three new made-for-mobile websites targeting women over the age of 35. The Good Housekeeping, House Beautiful and Redbook sites promise interactive mobile tools like calculators, quizzes, wallpapers, user-generated content and search services.
Who needs MovieFone when you can get local movie listings text messaged to your phone?
The MovieConnect application invites consumers to sign up to receive text messages directly from rich media ad units. Essentially, by "rolling over" a PointRoll unit, consumers can enter their mobile number and ZIP code to receive local listings and showtimes directly on their mobile device when they become available.
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The goal of MovieConnect is also to create targeted advertising with a local focus that can help studios and theaters buff ticket sales and enable tracking of individual customer interaction and behavior.
Read the entire article at MediaPost Online Media Daily.
Messaging services provider 4INFO announced the launch of what it calls the industry's first marketplace for SMS advertising:
The 4INFO Advertising Marketplace platform will enable marketers to include targeted advertising within SMS content from 4INFO's mobile services as well as partners including USA Today, Spark Networks and TV Guide.
Read more at FierceMobileContent.
And finally, in an example showing just how deeply text messaging has become a part of American society, the AP is reporting that the NCAA has approved a ban on text messaging between coaches and recruits. (Via Textually.org)
AT&T reported their 1st quarter earnings the other day, and it looks like Ma Bell has found her footing in the 21st Century:
AT&T reported first-quarter profits of $2.8 billion, an increase credited in part to mobile data service revenues generated by text messaging, web browsing and content downloads. AT&T's total wireless revenues grew 11.2 percent in the first quarter to $10 billion, with wireless data revenues increasing 66.8 percent over Q1 2006 to $1.5 billion. The former Cingular's wireless operations counted more than 33 million active data customers, up more than 30 percent over year-ago numbers, and delivered close to 230 million multimedia messages and 14 billion text messages. (Via FierceMobileContent)
You can read AT&T's entire press release at their corporate site.
If you attended college in the last five years, chances are you are familiar with www.Campusfood.com, or a similar online ordering system. For those of you who are a bit older, it works like this. Joe student is sitting in his dorm. He is hungry (and perhaps likely intoxicated). Finding a menu, a phone, and talking to a human being = very difficult. Enter Campusfood.com. Log on to the website, browse the menus of restaurants delivering to your campus, click on the items you want, and click buy. Your order is forwarded to the restaurant of your choosing and within the hour, your food arrives.
Perhaps you don't see the difference, perhaps it's a generational thing--whatever the case, Campusfood is insanely popular on many, many college campuses (and yes, they arrange deliveries to nearby apartments and homes.)
Now we hear that Campusfood will be rolling out text message ordering. How might that work? Let's turn to their press release--which Textually.org rightfully recognizes as "quite remarkable. It's on a campusfood.com webpage, with a PR text, YouTube video explaining their services, a link to the podcast and all the geeky logos to digg, del.icio.us, reddit and facebook." On to the press release:
Campusfood.com’s new online TXT/SMS service is available through all major carriers including Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile and Sprint by TXTing a Favorite to the 36368 shortcode. The restaurant receives the order like any other Campusfood.com order. Users can set up their Favorites on the website for easy one-click ordering. Both SMS/TXT and one-click ordering are free services to Campusfood.com customers.
One more reason to wish you were still in college.
Two pieces caught our eye today at MediaPost's Online Media Daily.
First, a new study seems to dispel the notion that America lags behind Europe when it comes to non-voice services:
AT LEAST WHEN IT COMES to mobile content that doesn't require fast networks or high-end devices, European and American consumption habits are more similar than is generally believed, according to a new study from M:Metrics and Buongiorno, the multinational digital entertainment company.
Two interesting findings come to light:
While text messaging is still far more prevalent in Europe, use of ring tones and graphics are very similar....and 80% of mobile music revenue comes from ring tones.
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Also, the U.S. actually outperforms most European countries when it comes to using mobile email and instant messaging.
So what's the catch?
...Use of mobile video, photo messaging and music correlate closely with penetration of 3G (third-generation high data-speed carriers), and penetration is considerably higher in European markets.
And what does that mean? US consumers are far from averse to using new, high-speed data services--they simply are not available to them on a widespread basis. The summer debut of the iPhone, coupled with continued mass investment in high-speed data networks (supported by high-paying business customers) should lead to a closing of this gap.
Meanwhile, this week saw a number of big mobile ad deal announcements:
Today we hear over at the Indianalopis Star that Hardee's has been experimenting with a new kind of coupon:
Hardee's customers in Indianapolis and St. Louis can download coupons to their cell phone for free and then show the phone to a cashier for a discount.
There are a lot of important things going on here, the first of which is, that the decision to roll out this new promotion was predicated on who Hardee's hoped to reach, and how they hoped to appeal to those customers:
There's something that just seems wrong about a 45-year-old woman clipping coupons so she can inhale two 1,410- calorie Monster Thickburgers for the price of one.
At least that's what the executives at Hardee's thought.So the fast-food chain turned to technology to get its coupons into the hands of its core customers -- young men who aren't exactly watching their weight.
It's too early to draw conclusions, but "We've gotten some positive feedback from a couple of restaurants. It's too early to talk about redemption," said Steve Lemley, vice president of marketing for St. Louis-based Hardee's. The whole idea of electronic couponing was new to us."
Indeed, it's still new to many companies. However, the more that companies like Hardee's dabble, the more the cell phone is becoming a popular tool for marketing and advertising.
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Currently, the most popular methods of engaging customers involve text messaging, to enter a sweepstakes, to get alerts about products or to vote for something, like your favorite American Idol.
The most important gem is buried at the bottom of the article:
Overall, about 42 percent of cell-phone users are open to advertising if it's relevant, if they asked for it or if they will get coupons or free services, according to the market research firm Yankee Group.
Put that figure in context--email inboxes are overrun with spam, more and more people are using their Tivos and DVRs to fast forward through commercials, newspaper circulation is declining, and savvy web surfers are blocking pop-ups and ignoring banner ads in greater numbers every day.
Source : IndyStar
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