On Your Marks, Get Set...

David MacQueen Head of Mobile at analyst Screen Digest, which recently released a report analyzing the prospects for mobile advertising, takes a closer look at the companies vying for supremacy in this emerging market sector

Major companies including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Nokia and Yahoo! have put significant focus on mobile advertising. All have been committing capital, either through acquisitions or internal investment in this sector. Although each has different legacy areas of expertise, strategies are converging towards mobile, either by choice or obligation, paving the way for intense competition. So what are the strategies, and prospects, for these companies in the mobile advertising sector?

Nokia
In 2007 Nokia shipped a staggering 430 million devices, giving it a 38% share of the mobile handset market. However, the company has been undergoing a transformation towards services and the OVI brand embodies the company’s strategic shift. Advertising is a major component of the company’s evolution.
OVI is an umbrella concept, a brand which will ultimately incorporate all of Nokia’s content services, including the Nokia Music Stores, the re-launched N-Gage mobile gaming platform, mapping and social networking. Nokia acquired mobile advertising specialist Enpocket in 2007. Enpocket had developed an advertising delivery technology and operates a mobile advertising network through which the company sells inventory on the portals of major mobile operators, such as Orange and Sprint. However, Nokia has yet to integrate advertising into its mobile content channels. With Nokia’s acquisition of Navteq for some €5.7 billion (£4.8 billion), many feel that Nokia is the company best placed to make location-based advertising a success.
Nokia’s key challenge is to convince its largest customers, the mobile operators, that its content services and the operators’ own content services can coexist. Some operators have refused to take handsets integrated with the Music Store as it competes with their own music services. Without a mass market reach for the services, possible only with mobile operator involvement, Nokia will not achieve the mass audiences that advertisers are most interested in.

200? – The Year Of Mobile

Nick Fuller, Consultant at Jaywing, part of Digital Marketing Group (DMG), looks at what's needed to get beyond the hype end encourage more brands to use mobile as a marketing channel

Think of mobile marketing and the phrase ‘false dawn’ inevitably springs to mind. Many advocates have talked for years about the ubiquity of the device, its personal reach and the benefits of immediacy and location awareness. And yet, even now, many brands and agencies have yet to develop a comprehensive mobile strategy. 
And now in 2008 we have the latest example of the convergence argument - the launch of the iPhone once again raises the spectre of a hand-held device that is all things at once from communication device, game player and music player to computer (amongst others). Yet it’s hard to see how this development will bring too much clarity to the debate.
At the heart of the issue is the traditional technology divide. In the blue corner - the tech enthusiasts who are looking for additional functions in a new device even before they’ve taken it out of the box. In the red corner – the rest of us, who will probably never use more than 10% of the functions that we have anyway. This is incredibly important – even at a very basic level, it is the reason that the humble SMS is still the dominant medium over unarguably much richer technologies such as the mobile Internet (according to Ofcom, less than 10 million UK mobile users have 3G and, without it, the mobile Internet is really a non starter) and MMS (which has really not taken off beyond peer-to-peer because of its cost and relative complexity).

Picocells and Femtocells Explained

Eventually, someone, somewhere, was going to be saddled with the task of explaining what picocells and femtocells are all about. Mark Keenan, General Manager, EMEA for RadioFrame Networks, which has pioneered the development of low power, ‘plug and play’ picocells and femtocells, offered to take it on. Not surprisingly, we said: “Yes please”. Over to you Mark…

Indoor base stations – commonly known as picocells and femtocells – are predicted to be one of the fastest growing areas of mobile communications in the next few years. Industry analyst firm ABI Research has predicted that in 2011, there will be over 100 million users worldwide, with Europe being among the strongest markets. 
For the mobile industry, picocells and femtocells represent a massive business opportunity.  But it would be wrong to think that these indoor base stations are still at the concept stage: firms such as RadioFrame are already shipping picocells to network operators in Europe, and femtocell trials are taking place across the continent. Within the next 12 months, we confidently expect to see operators offering these devices to their customers, although there are a number of hurdles to overcome – more on that later.
So what exactly are these wonder products?

Sitting on a Goldmine

Avichai Levy VP Marketing at mobile multimedia and advertising company Mobixell, urges mobile operators to take the necessary step to ensure they profit from the boom in mobile advertising

Strategy Analytics predicts that mobile advertising will represent a fifth of global spending on Internet advertising by 2011 and will generate $14.4 billion (£7.2 billion) of revenue, so it’s easy to see why mobile advertising is being hailed as a major opportunity for the future. But who will be the beneficiaries of this upsurge of interest? Will it be the Internet giants like Google or Yahoo, or will the content providers and brand owners reap the rewards? Or perhaps this time, the wireless operators will grasp the opportunity. I’d like to think that the mobile operators will heed the lessons learned by ISPs in failing to exploit the Internet advertising wave and make sure that they don’t become just the dumb pipe vendor, while the other players run off with the major spoils.
At present, the winners and losers are hard to predict. At Mobixell, we are seeing a number of mobile operators dipping a toe in the water with pilot projects, and Google has been quick to enter the fray by offering Adwords on the mobile phone as a default option to all its advertisers. The stakes are clearly high, as 2007 saw the jostling for position by major companies in M&A activities, such as Microsoft’s acquisition of ScreenTonic, Nokia purchasing Enpocket and AOL snapping up ThirdScreenMedia, in a bid to buy in expertise in the mobile advertising arena. 
One thing is for sure, the traditional media owners in the print and broadcast world are right to be worried, as industry experts predict that 2008 will be the year when advertisers start to earmark a significant portion of their advertising funds for mobile and online advertising.

FMC? Not For Me

Francois Mazoudier, CEO at Speakanet, which offers the GoHello all-mobile telephony solution, argues that  fixed-mobile convergence may be just another short-lived solution the telephony industry has latched onto

With CTIA 2008 taking place this week, the technology news will be littered with articles on the benefits of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC). Event exhibitors will be raving about their so-called solutions that enable FMC in the office environment, but few will have given much thought about whether it is really the best solution for their customers.
Already this week, we have seen UCStrategies.com announce a new enterprise whitepaper which focuses on FMC and the solutions that businesses can deploy to benefit from unified communications. UCStrategies.com acknowledges that mobility is a key driver to unified communications, but still states that to stay connected, businesses need to integrate mobile with wired networks, creating FMC. Although the paper claims to identify the core benefits of FMC, providing an objective assessment of the available options, it really shouts about the complexities that come with installing FMC technology, and ultimately becoming unified.

Who needs fixed-line?
FMC pushes for a united fixed and mobile world, where communications can be passed transparently between networks. However, in today’s mobile environment, there is no need for the fixed-line telephony bit. Businesses can be unified by being all-mobile, without the unnecessary complication of integrating mobile with the wire line.
But what are the alternatives to FMC? Up until recently, mobility was designed as an extension to office desk phones and hardware systems, being perceived as too expensive to handle all office calls. But now it is the fixed-to-mobile element that is too expensive, so mobiles have rapidly grown into individuals’ main and preferred choice of communication.
Speakanet identified this trend early, and invented GoHello to address this situation. GoHello allows businesses to make traditional telephony systems (analogue and VoIP) obsolete, while removing the high costs of mobility and giving employees’ just one phone – their mobile – but with full PBX functionality. The simple-to-use system can be provisioned and activated instantly via the web and takes just 10 minutes to set up.
Put bluntly, GoHello eradicates all the complexity of a fixed line, and therefore an FMC solution, as there is no need for hardware, techies, long-term contracts and expensive upgrades. Handover between fixed and mobile is inherent, because its all-mobile. It could be said then that FMC is just another momentary fad. A favourite talking point of the industry which telecoms companies have jumped on. FMC is really about the move to mobile, where everyone’s phone is wireless, so let’s stop talking about FMC, and instead talk about accelerating the move to mobile.

Shared Responsibility

Lorcan Burke, CEO of AdaptiveMobile, which povides mobile subscriber protection services, urges network operators to play their part in protecting children from exposure to inappropriate content on their mobile phones

The Mobile Broadband Group, which consists of the UK’s top six mobile operators, has been lobbying government to legislate handset manufacturers to protect vulnerable subscribers from harmful websites and the mobile Internet. While I think it is a positive development that this issue is finally receiving the attention it deserves, I do believe giving the sole responsibility to handset manufacturers is not the way to go, and fundamentally overlooks some key issues.

Blurred lines
Legislating against illegal websites is more complex than simply blocking a list of harmful or illicit URLs. Organisations such as The Internet Watch Foundation in the UK already works closely with the Government, law enforcement organisations, ISPs and mobile network operators to minimise the availability of illegal Internet content, including images of child sexual abuse, criminally obscene content and incitement to racial hatred content. Concerns arise, however, with websites that are legal, but suitable only for certain age groups, such as websites offering dieting advice and online chat services. And while Dr. Tanya Byron’s recent report on child safety on the Internet has uncovered a number of very interesting proposals, such as classifying video and online games in a way that makes them easier to understand, it will be important to apply the same rules to games played on mobile phones.   

Mobile: The Intelligent Channel

Ray Welsh, Sales & Marketing Director at digital marketing company Mailtrack, argues that in times of economic downturn, highly accountable marketing channels like mobile come into their own

There has been much speculation over recent months about the possible threat of recession and the subsequent effect this will have on UK business. During times of economic downturn, past experience shows us that marketing budgets are normally the first casualty. This puts marketers under increasing pressure to prove their worth. But far from being nervous, the current climate presents mobile marketers with an ideal opportunity to finally cement the medium’s position within the wider marketing mix.
When there is a general atmosphere of caution towards marketing expenditure, one could argue that as your competitors cut back on their marketing spend, there are greater benefits to be had by actually choosing to fight even harder for your customers’ attention, to remain at the forefront of their minds. This certainly doesn’t mean doubling marketing spend on a whim, but rather, making more intelligent use of your existing budgets to ensure that what you do spend is actually working. It’s here where mobile marketing’s biggest opportunity lies.

Q-busting

Jon Pollard, Head of Operations at Mighty Mouse Digital, ponders when the popularity of QR Codes will spread beyond early-adopter countries such as Japan and S. Korea

We’ve seen a relatively slow uptake of mobile marketing in the UK, despite the inherent and obvious opportunities which exist for the marketer. However, the increasing interest in QR (Quick Response) codes might finally see things change.
The QR code, essentially a 2D barcode, is a compressed form of data, which, when interpreted by a QR Code reader, generates a specific action such as a link to a website, or the  creation of a voucher. All the user needs to do, provided they have a QR Code reader on their cameraphone, is to use the phone’s camera to take a photo of the code. The conventions used are an open standard, therefore anyone can generate a code and they can be read by anyone with a code reader. People might currently see QR codes in action scanned on airline boarding cards and for shipping/ delivery companies such as FedEx where they form part of their tracking process.

Huge potential
The take-up of QR technology in mobile marketing is still somewhat elusive, however, and this is especially true of the UK market, though our US businesses see a similar situation. Despite this, the potential is huge, given that QR Codes allow both immediate and delayed audience response. Furthermore, because, as noted above, they can be used for multiple applications, the potential exists for the codes to become familiar as an intrinsic part of everyday life, rather than just as a marketing technique.
The key advantage is in eliminating the need for users to remember a URL they've seen in an ad. In the same way, QR codes hold direct benefits over SMS shortcodes, as asking consumers to send a text to a shortcode requires them to physically remember the number, whereas, once scanned, QR codes point a user directly to a mobile site.Therefore, in theory, QR codes should improve response rates by creating direct interactivity between the audience and the call to action. Experience from territories where QR Codes have taken off also suggests that they become part of the viewer’s engagement with the marketing piece in a way that shortcodes don’t. At the same time, this method has the potential to be deployed in a fairly ‘guerrilla’ manner, for example, placing a QR code in a completely unexpected place, without any obvious context.

Universally used
It’s not difficult to understand why this technology has taken off in Japan, the home of technological innovation. Indeed, it’s tempting, if stereotyping, to say that gimmicks and new technology appeal wholeheartedly to the Japanese user. However, the uptake is more likely down to Japanese mobile phone companies, who saw the potential and embraced the technology early on. By embedding a QR Code reader into mobile phones, they made the technology available to the masses. In fact, QR codes are so universally used in some Asian markets that in many cases, the QR code is the only call to action in a marketing piece. The key to mainstreaming this technology is, of course, access to the decoder.
But what about mass adoption in the UK? Already, we have seen News International and Emap begin using mobile barcodes in a bid to direct users from print ads to mobile sites. In fact, in the last couple of months, readers of The Sun and Kerrang! have been exposed to QR Codes, as the publishers attempt to educate both their audience and advertisers about the technology. At the same time, use of mobile Internet is growing at a steady pace, as devices which can properly view websites become more common.
Rather than waiting for people to proactively seek out and download the decoders, the next step, however, is to ensure that the technology is in their hands in the first place. That means exciting “new” technologies such as QR codes need to become standard on UK and EU mobile handsets. This rings true, even if handsets begin to ship with the software pre-installed, as on the Nokia N95. On this device, consumers still have to navigate the phone in order to find and open the QR Code reader in order for the application to work. Ideally, in the same way that most phones offer you a series of actions you can apply when you’ve taken a photo (store/email/MMS the image), one of the default options should be ‘decode’.
To this end, I read recently that the GSMA (GSM Association) and the OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) have both started looking at developing technology and standards for the marketing industry with regard to mobile barcodes. This is clearly a step in the right direction, and one which will give those engaged in mobile marketing confidence for the future. Because it’s only through increased knowledge and understanding that the lure of being able to interact with ads will draw people to them. Before too long, we might actually start to experience the mainstreaming of QR technology here in the UK, as already witnessed in Japan and elsewhere.

 

The Secret to Mobile CRM Success…Keep it Simple!

Christian Wettr, President of CRM company W-Systems Corp, offers advice to businesses looking to choose a mobile CRM system for their field sales force 

Mobile CRM is rapidly becoming a must-have for field sales and service organisations as they realise the tangible ROI that can be achieved through reducing office-based administration and enabling personnel to manage routine tasks and real time reporting ‘in the field’. But with a growing number of mobile CRM solutions available, many organizations are in danger of choosing over-complex applications or irrelevant mobile extensions of existing CRM systems.

My advice is as follows: Keep it simple, both for the mobile users,and for your IT administrators.

The ‘Virtual’ Business
According to the Gartner Group, there are just under 60 million mobile workers who are away form their workstations for at least 20% of the working week. And with recent reports suggesting that mobile CRM will grow to 20% of total CRM revenues by 2010, many organisations are now revisiting their current CRM provision as the ‘virtualization’ of business processes and procedures draws ever closer.
The reality is that more and more mobile devices are able to access high speed Internet, and with an increasingly mobile workforce, flexible work patterns and a rise in ‘home office’ workers, it is clear that there is a demand even in small and medium sized companies for a new ‘virtual’ office hub, where information can be shared and analyzed across all channels of the organization in real time.

One Step at a Time

Guy Talmi, Senior Marketing Director at Pontis, outlines how companies can benefit from a staged approach to mobile marketing

Mobile users only accept marketing offers, or purchase new content, when the offers are highly personalised and delivered to them at the right time. What’s more, if users are bombarded with offer after offer, there’s a risk that they will be seen as spam and create customer dissatisfaction. To avoid this risk, mobile marketers should adopt a personalized multi-step campaign strategy, rather than a series of generic ‘one trick pony’ campaigns.
A well-managed, personalised, multi-step, campaign will increase user acceptance of marketing offers and sell more digital services and content. In order to achieve this, marketers need to plan a series of synchronized offers, that will initially be targeted based on the usual segmentation criteria and subsequently be based on each user’s actual response behaviour.
The marketer must first define the business objectives of the campaign, and then determine which broad segment of users to target with the initial offer, such as new users or occasional users, for instance. The offer must address the entire pre-defined segment and be relevant, appealing, clear, and simple, for example, offering a discounted first purchase of any song download to potential new users of a music service.

Holding Out for a Brand Hero

Chris Bourke, Managing Director of mobile agency Aerodeon, argues that market-leading brands will be the catalyst for mobile advertising’s growth

Property prices crashing, stock markets correcting and banks losing millions; without a doubt we are coming to the end of one of the most prosperous economic cycles in history. But what triggers such changes in the economy? Many will assume that government and banks conspire to create these events, but look more closely and you’ll see that the institutions we rely on to protect our financial welfare are at the mercy of economic phenomena outside of their control. When the price of a product falls, rational consumers take this as a signal to buy rather than sell. In the stock market however, a ‘herd instinct’ takes over and a sale by some investors triggers further selling by others. And this herd instinct is not confined to the financial markets - sociologists witness it in street demonstrations, sporting events and even everyday decision making.

In the marketing trade press and blogs, the same questions are posed again and again - when will mobile advertising grow? When will it deliver on its promise? Is this ‘the year’? We can draw on the science of herd behaviour to help us answer these questions, and I contend that advertiser spend on new media is susceptible to the same irrational forces that allow one influential investor to shift how the masses spend their money on stocks and shares. Brand leaders within key sectors, be it automotive, finance or FMCG, are usually conservative and risk averse and they take their time evaluating the potential of new media. Brand challengers however, don’t have this time luxury, so they tend to default to competing via the same media in which the brand leader dominates.

What You'll See at MWC

As the mobile industry decamps en masse to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress,  Mike Short, Head of Research & Development at O2, offers his predictions for the show

Last year, as the last European Chairman of the Global GSM Association, I was asked by many people heading over to Barcelona, what I thought the big trends from the show would be. As Head of Research & Development at O2 and Chair of the UK Mobile Data Association, I see a lot of innovation and new initiatives in the mobile space. So I thought I would repeat the exercise this year. Below are my key takes about what will be the most talked about themes at this year’s hotly-anticipated show.

Mobile Data and Applications
There will be a lot of experience shared around the 3G evolution, mobile Internet and mobile email space again this year as we head towards a much richer and more comprehensive data market. The growing influence of the web will also come through in both business and consumer applications, touching new sectors such as Transport, Health and Education.

Mobile Commerce and Banking 
Support for the GSMA Pay-By-Mobile initiative took off last year with a range of handset manufacturers and operators such as Nokia, Motorola, O2, Vodafone and Orange pledging to examine the use of NFC (Near Field Communications) for contactless payments. With the UK’s first large scale NFC trial – the O2 Wallet – going live in November 2007, Mobile World Congress will be a platform for further brands to review and discuss their plans for using NFC technology in 2008. This may also be complemented by GSMA-led money transfer initiatives, to help the “unbanked” around the world through mobile.

Mobile Advertising
2008 will be the year that mobile advertising comes of age. With more consumers than ever now browsing the web through their mobile handsets, there is a significant and largely untapped audience for advertisers to target customers appropriately with relevant messaging. At MWC, expect operators, partnering with advertising specialists, to discuss how they can provide better targeting and measurement for mobile advertising, campaigns, from behavioural- and demographic- to geographic- and channel-based targeting.

Screens, Eyewear and Accessories
When Bluetooth was first unveiled, largely for headsets, back in 1998, it did not achieve immediate consumer acceptance. It was around four years before that happened. Talk has now moved to the adoption of screens and video eyewear. MWC 2008 should see the debut of products such as pico projectors. With companies like Plastic Logic, Polymer vision, Vuzix, Microvision, and MyVu on show, it will be interesting to see how this market develops as we move from a verbal to a visual world of mobile. The idea of wearing video eyewear on the beach to watch the latest episode of Lost, whilst still getting a tan and protecting your eyes from the sun, may not be far off. 

Mobile Communities and Social Networking
The steady growth of Facebook, Bebo and MySpace means making these communities truly mobile will generate excitement as well. The mobile industry has dabbled in this area with messaging and applications that can be downloaded straight to a handset, and there are still a lot more to be understood and implemented. We will see further offerings coming down the line later this year, potentially around what the future holds for user-generated content (UGC) on mobile. The recent announcement of EyeVibe by O2 and 3 in the UK is just one illustration of this.   

M2M Forecast
Machine-to-machine, or M2M, will continue to grow, as mobile provides new opportunities for machine as well as people connectivity. Telematics services are already growing rapidly now that GSM/3G modules have fallen in cost, and can be designed into longer-term telematics applications, from health care to transport, from environmental management to energy .
With more (mobile) phones than people in most developed nations, the global forecast of M2M could be as high as 60 billion by 2020, based on there being 10 times more machines than people around the world, but this will only happen with broader cross-sector cooperation and partnerships. 

Barcelona Tapas – Something for Everyone
·    Mobile video and TV - expect many more demos and trials to be announced, but no one single standard adopted globally.
·    Mobile bar code standards.
·    GPS will be integrated more fully into networks and devices, enabling many new innovative mapping and location-based services.
·    Environmental /climate change solutions – the role that mobile can play in this.

I am sure there will be a million more thoughts and ideas that will come out of Mobile World Congress and I would love to hear your views on the big stories and trends.

Microsoft and Yahoo – the Mobile Search Dimension

Matt Brocklehurst, Head of Marketing at search specialist Latitude, examines the implications for the mobile search market of Microsoft's bid for Yahoo!

Unless something really big happens, it is safe to say that Microsoft has the ‘Tech Story of the Month’ title all sewn up with the attempted takeover of Yahoo! that it announced on Friday. A bid worth approximately £22.4 billion, the proposed deal sees Microsoft willing to stump up a fair amount of brass in order to take on Google in a race where the stakes grow higher every day.
While it is certainly not the main attraction of the takeover attempt, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned mobile services explicitly in the proposal letter he wrote to the Yahoo! board. As Ballmer knows, any deal joining Yahoo! and Microsoft's mobile endeavours could launch a serious challenge to Google.
Estimates project that, over the next five to 15 years, mobile search could be worth up to £10 billion. Right now, it is a significantly less developed area than the overall online search market. As such, there is much more ground to be gained by Microsoft and Yahoo! there, and both companies have been relentless in their mobile efforts over the last several months.
In January 2007, Yahoo! launched oneSearch, its mobile search service. OneSearch comes in the form of a downloadable application which the user installs on his or her phone, and gives results from the areas of news, images, sport, events, finance, and business listings for each queried search phrase. Late last year, Yahoo! also added Wikipedia and its popular Yahoo! Answers to oneSearch's functionality. Just last month, the beta version of Yahoo! Go 3, Yahoo's dedicated mobile platform, was released for use only on higher end phones such as Apple's iPhone, Nokia Series 60 handsets, and “select” Windows Mobile devices.
We can expect that range of Windows Mobile phones running Yahoo! Go 3 to expand quickly if the Microsoft takeover goes through. Indeed, Microsoft's stronger ties with mobile operators - especially in the US - is one area where they could be of particular help to Yahoo. For in the US, carriers actively remove Yahoo! Go from the 250 or so handsets on which it comes pre-loaded. So American mobile users must just as actively find out about Yahoo! Go and then manually download it. This has been a thorn in Yahoo's side in terms of uptake, to put it mildly, but Microsoft could remove this if the deal goes through: It projects 20 million in Windows Mobile licence sales for 2008, and has its mobile operating system distributed in 55 countries by 160 mobile carriers.
Almost a year ago, Microsoft acquired Tellme Networks - its largest ever private purchase and the fourth largest deal in Microsoft's corporate history. Tellme provides voice-enabled mobile search, automated directory assistance and enterprise customer service. Indeed, the enterprise side is where Microsoft's mobile strength seems to lie, with Yahoo! being much more developed on the consumer side. If Microsoft integrated Yahoo! Go into Windows Mobile, this could give both companies - and especially Microsoft - the boost they need to reach millions more users.
On the other hand, Microsoft has been roundly criticised for failing to maximise the leverage it should have got out of Motion Bridge, an acclaimed mobile search provider it acquired almost two years ago. That move has been described as a desperation-driven purchase that amounted to Microsoft “killing” Motion Bridge - echoing accusations and predictions which have been levelled against the Yahoo! acquisition attempt in recent days.
Meanwhile, Google's forays into mobile have been a mixture of rumour, speculation, and actual services. The long-fabled Google phone may or may not (smart money is on not) come to fruition, but its mobile operating service Android will give Microsoft and Yahoo! a run for their money. The search giant has already made swift and steady progress in engaging users on mobile, through local search (via mobile web and SMS), maps, and even AdWords.
In the US, Google also plans to bid on upcoming wireless spectrum auctions, and has taken a robust and active interest in how American regulators will carry out those auctions, eager to ensure that its content will make its way quickly and without trouble to users' phones. That content includes YouTube videos. Just last month, Google upgraded its YouTube Mobile service to allow users to download any YouTube video, and added all of the features they know from the website.
Just the other week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was not shy in his proclamations about the potential for a “huge revolution” with fully mobile services online, likening it in impact to a “re-creation of the Internet”.
It's a revolution whose leader has yet to be anointed, and the crown is definitely up for grabs. That's exactly what Microsoft - a company that gave Google a jump start on the web by underestimating the Internet's potential during its earliest years - is betting on.

Making the BOGOF Work in Mobile

Guy Talmi, Senior Marketing Director at Pontis, offers advice on how to successfully deploy a time-honoured sales promotion tactic in the mobile marketing environment

Buy One Get One Free, (aka ‘BOGOF’) offers has been a popular sales promotion tool for as long as most people can remember. It is one of the most popular forms of promotion in FMCG/packaged goods and, if used correctly, can encourage repeat purchase by existing customers and initial purchase by new users.

As the name suggests, BOGOF is used to motivate consumers to buy one item by offering another of the same item for free or at a discounted rate, even if, under normal circumstances, they would not have bought the item. It is typically used in the FMCG industry to promote brand loyalty, and is also now used for digital offers, such as buy one song, get another half price or download a song and get the ringtone for free. Used correctly, BOGOF is a powerful tool to help attract new users, and boost ARPU and brand loyalty, making it essential for the mobile marketer’s toolkit.
For mobile marketers, using BOGOF is not as straightforward as it is for their FMCG counterparts. Supermarkets advertise products on their shelves, giving shoppers the freedom to pick up two items if they want, or keep walking if the offer is not relevant. While it’s easy to encourage a supermarket shopper to buy two pots of coffee, offering a mobile user the option to buy identical content twice isn’t likely to work. For instance, a mobile gamer isn’t going to buy the same game twice, which brings forward the challenge that faces all mobile marketers – how can they successfully target and recommend their offerings to the right users, at the right time?

Discount offer
To promote digital services to existing users, the most effective method is to send them a discount offer, or other benefit, relating to the content they have purchased previously. For instance, if a user has downloaded a song by the Spice Girls, then the marketer can send a BOGOF offer for songs by the Spice Girls, or from the same pop genre. The items in the BOGOF offer can come from different product lines or even partners, as long as they are relevant to the user.
The best way for mobile marketers to take advantage of the BOGOF concept and encourage repeat purchases is to give users a broad yet targeted choice. Instead of offering BOGOF for only one product, mobile marketers can target users with an offering such as: “Buy one game and get another game from the same category free”. That way the user isn’t limited by the offer, making it more appealing.
For users who are yet to make their first purchase, the most effective approach is to offer them a generalised BOGOF to see what content they purchase. Their preferences will be unknown to the marketer and so recommendations to download content would be out of the question. Offering something for free will help push the new user to download content for the first time. The marketer can then monitor the choice of content in order to make the next offer more targeted, promoting repeat purchases. 

Stock clearance
In the FMCG market, BOGOF offers are often used during times of stock clearance. But mobile marketers don’t have stock clearances and, unlike supermarket managers, they often don’t have the same flexibility to set the price of items, due to factors such as revenue share models with content providers, and other limitations, including the  flexibility (or lack of) of billing systems.
In order to get the best out of their promotions, mobile marketers need to make the most of all the customer information they have. By monitoring user purchases, mobile marketers can provide personal, targeted offers that pack more punch then those made by their supermarket counterparts. In addition, by offering BOGOFs to new users, marketers can gain the information they need about user preferences. This can then lead to new users becoming active users and increasing brand loyalty and ARPU for operators.

The Telecoms World According to Deloitte

Each year, the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) practice at Deloitte announces its predictions for the telecommunications sector. The 2008 series of predictions has drawn on internal and external inputs from conversations with member firm clients, contributions from Deloitte member firms’ 6,000 partners and managers specializing in TMT, and discussions with industry analysts as well as interviews with leading executives from around the world. Here, Deloitte Telecommunications Partner Tony Cooper summarises this year’s predictions. 

The outlook for the telecommunications sector in 2008 is varied. This year’s predictions cover the impact of a possible economic downturn on the sector; the growing viability of a machine-to-machine market, catalyzed by the imminent arrival of the $10 (£5) mobile phone; the rise of the emerging market global mobile titan; the outlook for GSM as it reaches 21 years of age; and the uncertain relationship between bandwidth and revenues in the broadband market.

Prey becomes predator
While the credit crunch may dampen the overall pace of mergers and acquisitions activity in 2008, the will to grow via acquisitions is likely to remain strong in the telecommunications sector. However, while established, developed-world mobile operators may be looking for acquisitions, in 2008, the tables may be turned. The leading operators in emerging markets may transform themselves from prey to predator, with the cash generated from hundreds of millions of new subscribers providing a potent war chest, unconstrained by the higher interest rates that have followed the credit crunch.

Questioning the need for speed
The debate over how fast is fast enough in the telecommunications is likely to be as vigorous in 2008 as in earlier years. But concerns over the cost of financing will cause telecommunications companies and their shareholders to question far more aggressively the business case for speed. Telecommunications companies should be careful not to prioritise the quest for attaining the limits of what is technically possible over the unrelenting need for profitability.

Giving mobile GPS direction
In 2008, prices for GPS chipsets will fall to just a few dollars and the number of devices that incorporate the technology is expected to grow rapidly. The mobile industry will overlook several critical differences between how satellite navigation is used in vehicles and how it might be used by people on foot. Thus, while a growing number of GPS-enabled mobile phones may be shipped and sold in 2008, aside from the initial novelty, their use may be infrequent. Which may mean just additional costs, but with disappointing added value.

Exploiting new media’s growing need to communicate
In 2008, digital communications will become more voluminous, varied, vibrant and vital to the way we live than ever before. New media companies (such as social networks, synthetic worlds and blogs) are likely to offer services via which a large volume of traditional and newer forms of communication is initiated. All of these trends may reassure the telecommunications industry that demand for communications is more vibrant than ever. Demand for new media might however also highlight the telecommunications sector’s inability to monetise more of this demand.

GSM comes of age
GSM does appear, for its first 21 years, to be a resounding success story. On 7 September 2008, GSM comes of age: over 700 GSM networks in more than 200 countries are expected to carry over 16 billion minutes of calls and 6 billion text messages. But in the year it comes of age, GSM’s outlook is expected to remain as challenging as ever. In 2008, GSM mobile operators should evolve new strategies for every aspect of their business. GSM may have been a gifted child, but as an adult, it is likely to have to mature quickly, develop new relationships and skills, and work like never before to stay on top.

To see the report in full, click here.

The Sun Shines on QR Codes

Howard Furr-Barton, Managing Director of online marketing agency Brand Attention, offers an update on the use of QR Codes in mobile marketing and pleads for digital agencies to make sure that they are used in conjunction with mobile-friendly websites

The QR Code made its mainstream UK debut in The Sun last month. Tabloid temptress Keeley Hazel was pictured sporting a giant QR Code (amongst other assets), for an eight-page feature explaining QR Codes and their role in The Sun’s mobile offering. The Sun sends readers to football results, news articles and page three of its dedicated mobile site through URLs embedded within the QR Codes.
This foremost exposure of the QR Code to such a sizable, mainstream audience has, I believe, sparked the fuse for its launch into the mass UK market. With other newspapers set to follow suit, 2008 is set to become the year in which the foundations of 2D barcode technology are accepted as a conventional means of data capture.
This acceptance is leading to advancements in the codes themselves, the expansion of their data capacity and the readers used to capture that data. Companies heading the research and development include technology and IT giants, IBM and Google. Google in particular has stamped its recognition of the QR Code with the launch of its own  QR Code reader, the ZXing. It seems Google plans to use the QR Codes in conjunction with its recent move into printed media throughout US markets. A QR Code reader has also been developed for Apple’s iphone. It’s thought that by 2010, all new handset models will include a code reader as standard. At present, Nokia’s N series phones remain the only ‘QR ready’ handsets; however code readers can be downloaded for free for any modern phone.

With rapid advances in code readers, it could be assumed that the next generation of 2D barcodes won’t be too far behind. This is probably not the case. QR Codes have been a common sight in Japan for over five years, so if it’s taken this long to gain acceptance into the mainstream UK market, its probably fair to assume that the QR Code will probably remain a uniform mobile barcode for at least a few years.
Creative marketing agencies have taken immediate notice of the QR Code’s birth and,  in particular, its acceptance by UK consumers. At this early stage of the QR life cycle, most QR savvy consumers will zap just about any code they see, just out of curiosity.  In turn, marketers are pushing the boundaries of strategic and creative applications for the QR Code, so expect them to see them popping up just about everywhere in 2008.
It seems then that mobile data capture is here to stay, and is becoming an integral part of any strategic marketing plan. Its cost effectiveness shouldn’t be overlooked either. Free to generate and free to read. However, consumer traffic volume remains completely ineffectual if the directed website is not mobile ready, a fundamental mistake still being made by professional marketing agencies. A dedicated mobile website, designed specifically to meet the limitations of mobile screen sizes and navigational control, relieves the visitor of endless scrolling and constant eye strain. It should also be noted that mobile websites, as with traditional sites, are obliged to comply fully with W3C website standards, another ignorance of many agencies.
Get it right and you’ve got an effective mobile marketing tool, get it wrong and you’ve frustrated your customers and restricted accessibility.

Get Ready for the Mobile Search Boom

Netrank Managing Director Lucy Allen explains how to optimise your website for mobile search

Mobile search is going to get very big in 2008 as handsets, ad targeting and people’s confidence in the mobile Internet grows. There are big opportunities for brands to jump in and dominate their competitive space while the competition is low. The available space at the top of search engines is smaller in mobile web; hence the winners will win big and the losers will not get a look in.
So far, the features available on mobile phones have been largely driven by fashion trends and price-bracketing of phones. There has been a Catch-22 situation, with users not hurrying to buy Internet access and providers not moving to create that demand.
As Google’s monopoly over the web transfers to mobile phones, however, 2008 will offer increasing opportunities for savvy advertisers and search marketers hoping to transfer their skills to mobile technology. With Google’s Android collaboration opening up mobile technology for thousands of phone models, as well as the transfer of its current web offerings to the mobile web, no one can afford to ignore the mobile search dynamic. 
The growing  levels of access offered on phones, combined with Google Web, Google Check Out, and more recently, Google Maps with My Location, offers a very frightening or interesting (depending on your point of view) vision of the future of advertising.
At Netrank, we believe that the single most significant change in search marketing for 2008 will be the coming of age of mobile technology. With the arrival of the iPhone, the HTC Touch and other handsets that deliver a truly “mobile” Internet experience, we predict that mobile search volumes will rise dramatically, in line with usage.

Hitting the Right Note

KF Lai, CEO of BuzzCity, which develops global wireless communities, predicts a bright future for mobile social networking, fuelled by the music industry, in 2008

2007 saw unprecedented consumer adoption of social networking services and this growth shows no signs of abating, but in fact extending to the mobile domain. Juniper predicts a huge increase of mobile social networkers – from 14 million in 2007 to nearly 600 million in 2012.
One element that contributes towards the increased uptake of mobile social networks is the music industry. And in turn, the growth of the music industry is being fuelled by mobile social networking, with mobile community users downloading and sharing ringtones and music files faster than hot new artists can produce them. While 2007 saw a lot of controversy surrounding the online and mobile music markets, the recording industry is finally beginning to publicly acknowledge the fact that music downloading/P2P sharing is not responsible for the ills of the music industry or even the (eventual) death of the CD. 
More record labels, including music giant Warner Music, are beginning to sell music online, and at a cheaper price as more and more popular music begins to enter the public domain. The rising popularity of independent music will promote the practice of file sharing which will encourage a larger music following online. Networked communities are key drivers to this explosion of online and mobile music uptake, particularly the more specific mobile networked communities, as they provide low cost and easy distribution pathways to niche producers of music (and video) content.
Mobile communities provide a closer, more intimate experience between musicians and  their fans, and will be the social media of choice in the evolved music industry of 2008. Not only does the medium of mobile prove extremely effective at targeting predetermined social network groups, but with many users having limited access to the Internet via a PC, mobiles are now emerging as the most convenient and popular way to quickly discover cool new music which can then be downloaded directly on to their handsets.
In 2008, more and more mobile carriers and mobile content providers will tap into this fast-growing market, focusing on music and videos as a cornerstone of their offering, with mobile communities continuing to fuel the uptake of mobile music as users share and develop their music tastes and knowledge via the medium of mobile social networking.

How to Get Ahead In Mobile Advertising

Oren Glanz, CEO of Olista, explains why he feels Service Adoption Management (SAM) can help operators increase the success of wireless services by enabling them to gain full insight into their customers’ experiences

For operators looking for new revenue streams, mobile advertising looks like a surefire winner. The numbers certainly stack up: for example, a report by Strategy Analytics claimed mobile advertising revenues would reach $14.4 billion (£7 million)  by 2011. Another report issued this year by Airwide Solutions confirmed that brands, the budget holders, are keying into mobile advertising in a reassuringly big way.
The report highlighted the fact that the number of brands planning SMS and MMS mobile marketing/advertising had doubled to 28% in a year, since a similar survey had been carried out in 2006. The report also claimed that many brands had plans to increase the proportion of the budget allocated to mobile advertising campaigns. 
Such favourable statistics (of which those given in this article are only a small example) and the optimism that prevails in both industries, make it very easy to be blinded by a glowing impression of a market sector in which there is real money to be made.
As subscriber numbers grow and new data services are introduced, the cost of high quality content will increase, causing problems with existing (flat-rate) data plans. For those who want to be competitive, mobile advertising could be the enabler. It’s a tantalising prospect for mobile operators and advertising agencies alike, two industries that are keenly aware of the need to find fresh revenue sources. While the interest and the budget is obviously there, its early days, and there’s a lot that can go wrong. All it takes is a run of bad experiences, and a couple of high-profile mobile advertising campaigns to fail, for the bubble to burst.   

Innovation not Imitation

Sham Careem, MD of MoMac UK, urges brands to embrace the mobile Internet for real, rather than relying on operators’ website transcoding solutions

Depending on your point of view, the arrival of the iPhone, taken together with mobile operators’ latest advertising campaigns signalling that ‘The Internet is Now Mobile” either heralds a new era in making the Internet truly mobile, or simply creates another closed environment for content transactions and represents a technological triple-jump backwards for the real mobile Internet. While the latter is true, the former is less so.
Simply scaling the Internet down to the mobile screen is insufficient to claim that you are making the Internet ‘truly mobile’. The lack of in-line Java and Adobe Flash support means only a very rudimentary web presence can be replicated on the mobile. The true open mobile Internet entails giving consumers the power to interact with compelling sites which offer value that compliments the uniqueness of the mobile proposition. And this means scaling up.
The current trend by mobile operators is to repurpose Internet sites designed for desk-based users downwards to suit a mobile browser experience. This transcoding approach is fundamentally flawed because it does not address the true requirements of the mobile user. For mobile users, an Internet experience is about consuming information directly and immediately, not browsing for it over a period of time so the idea that what users want to do with their mobile phones is browse exactly the same content that they would while sat at a PC with time to kill, is nonsensical.

Time to Go Mobile

Howard Furr-Barton, managing director of online and mobile marketing company Brand Attention,  urges brands to invest in mobile websites, and in QR Codes to drive traffic to them

With ever-increasing Internet speeds, alongside cheaper mobile browsing, it was only a matter of time before mobile data capture caught on. The Quick Response or QR Code allows mobile users to capture data using their phone’s camera. The camera is simply aimed at the code, allowing the embedded software to automatically detect, de-code, and display the information on screen. Naturally, marketers have been quick to pounce on this technology, not only for its creative marketing applications, but for its ability to provide results that are 100% measurable.

Imagine a poster campaign implemented across London. You, as a marketer, want to find out which poster locations are giving you the most publicity and attracting the most attention. Using the QR Code’s ability to embed URLs, you can create separate landing pages for each individual poster, allowing you to track exactly who read your poster, at what time and in what location. As with most new technology, the birthplace of the QR Code was Japan, where they can be found on McDonalds wrappers, bus timetables and even printed on prawn crackers.
According to comScore, in Japan, 2007 was the first year that saw a 50:50 split between users surfing on mobile devices and those browsing on conventional computers from work or home. With the UK set to follow suit, businesses are scrambling to get mobile-ready. The problem lies in the fact that conventional websites are designed to display on a screen size 10 to 20 times larger than most mobile devices. This makes browsing on a mobile device an absolute nightmare, with endless scrolling and sluggish load times. The solution: dedicated mobile websites designed specifically for mobile surfing.
In the past, mobile sites couldn’t support and utilise the applications and versatility of a conventional site. However, with rapid advances in handsets and their surfing capabilities, mobile devices are now capable of exploiting nearly every application and function available through conventional websites.

So what’s the difference?
Unlike conventional sites, dedicated mobile websites need to be dynamic, in that they should display and perform in a uniform manner across all mobile devices. Like conventional sites, they should also comply with guidelines laid down by W3C, the body that enforces the disability and discriminatory act across the web. Businesses should also ensure that their dedicated mobile site is registered under a .mobi domain. .mobi, as with .gov for government sites, is the standardised domain extension for sites designed for mobile browsing.
So your two essential marketing tools for 2007 are: a QR Code marketing campaign; and a Dedicated Mobile Website. These two tools really are a marriage made in Heaven. Use them together and you’ve got yourself a creative marketing campaign that’s effective, measurable and applicable to practically anything.

A Question of Speed

Yogen Patel, VP Product Marketing at Ceon, looks at how Product Lifecycle Management solutions can help mobile operators to get new products and services to market in the timeframes that the modern consumer demands

One of the defining characteristics of the Web 2.0 generation of consumers who buy goods and socialise online is their demand for mobile and entertainment services that are linked to their lifestyle and individual preferences. This new generation of consumers - the fastest growing market for revenue-rich mobile data services - are increasingly impatient and fickle individuals who are notoriously prone to switching network providers as frequently as they do phones.
Many operators, however, are struggling to deliver new dynamic services at the speed at which the market now requires. Converged services operators are looking to launch anywhere from 20 to 40 or more product offers and packages every few months. Reliance on traditional, labour-intensive methods for defining, managing and launching new products is no longer tenable if operators want to meet their objectives of delivering the right offer to the right customer at the right time.
As timing and targeting, together with speed of deployment, are proving critical in winning consumers’ business, operators need to adopt more agile and innovative ways of managing the ‘product idea to product launch’ process. Improving the speed and efficiency with which they introduce new, more complex converged services offerings is essential if they are to survive in this increasingly fierce competitive market. 
Lacking the right tools and technology to support the product management process could severely hinder efforts to win and retain young consumers. Operators will need to overcome this challenge if they are to efficiently and quickly provide a tailored mix of services to their consumers.

Global Mobile

Broadsystem CEO Caroline Worboys looks at the potential for mobile marketing in fast-growing economies around the world

According to First Direct, there are currently 71 million active mobile phone handsets in the UK, with one in 10 people owning four or more. A decade ago there were just 13 million mobiles and a mere 8% of us owned more than one. These staggering growth statistics indicate as a nation just how mobile we have become.
Without a doubt, the mobile phone has revolutionised communication, although many argue perhaps not for the better! The majority of us are now 'on call' or contactable 24 hours a day - less than a third of us turn our phones off at night. With this opening up of social accessibility has come the demand for 24-hour access to information. We expect to be able to text a number and in return receive up-to-date information, whatever the time, wherever we are. We can access train times, weather reports and football scores - all sent direct to our phones in real time. Equally, our bank can text us to inform us of when we've been paid or if we go overdrawn. Delivery companies can keep us updated on their progress and doctors and dentists will remind us of imminent appointments by SMS. Additionally, the mobile phone has also given us more of a voice. TV programmes, radio stations, newspapers and magazines now actively encourage real time feedback via shortcode text and as a result we have never have been more vocal.

Making the Invisible Visible

Orly Nesher, VP Marketing at Starhome,  discusses the need for operators to ensure price visibility, and increase awareness of the features available, to encourage revenues from mobile data roaming in the face of falling prices

The issue of mobile roaming was once again one of the hot topics across Europe this summer, with the announcements surrounding the European Union’s new Roaming Regulations. The EU Commission for Information Society and Media, which regulates the charges of mobile phone use when abroad in the EU, has introduced price caps for voice calls. The ruling caps the rates that operators can charge each other while subscribers are roaming in the EU, but more importantly, limits the tariffs an operator can charge its customers.
Subsequently, the ceiling for roaming tariffs has been set to gradually decrease over the next three years. Presently this only applies to voice calls within the EU, regardless of whether you are a pre- or post-paid customer, and thanks to the new EU law, subscribers have benefited from improved transparency of charges since 1 October. When subscribers cross from one EU state to another, they receive an SMS informing them of the price they can expect to pay for making and receiving calls during their time in that country. This message is free, and is designed to allow the user to seek more detailed prices by SMS if desired.

TV, Advertising and MobileYouth

Nadja Litschko, Research Consultant for Wireless World Forum  and co-author of the mobileYouth 2007 report, looks at young people's attitude to advertising on TV, on the web, and on mobile

Some wise marketing owl once said “the medium is the message” and for a generation we have followed his advice. The rise of network television in the 1980s and youth focused programming such as MTV made TV arguably the coolest medium for generation X.
Data from the latest mobileYouth survey 2007 showing 98% of under 25s owning a mobile phone and dedicating 13% of their disposable income to this latest youth icon would lead many to naturally assume that TV is dead and mobile the new TV.
Yet, TV still claims the largest proportion of all advertising spend. £19 billion was spent on advertising in the UK in 2006, with 43.7% of that sum going to press and 24.1% to TV, making the latter the second largest advertising medium after press worth £4.5 billion. (Source: Advertising Association, 2007; Open Gardens, 2007) TV also has a long history as an established marketing channel where the rules, practices and successful approaches are already well known, whereas on newer channels those still need to be discovered.
For almost a century, marketing has relied on interruption to engage consumers. Of all the available media, TV had developed the art of interruption marketing to its highest levels. Levi’s TV adverts touting the “original jean” as daring and sexy became the social currency of the 1980s teen.
Although the medium remains relatively unchanged for a generation, the generations they target have moved on. Youth have choice and choice means that viewers are no longer forced to accept interruption. Not only are they able to flick channels either manually or with the help of software when the ads arrive, but increasingly youth’s attention is elsewhere – multitasking TV time with internet and mobile.
TV is able to reach a large, defined audience and the ratings demonstrate its consistency in performance. Viewing figures released by BARB confirm that viewing time in the UK has consistently increased over the past 10 years, and that the average adult watched 3.81 hours of broadcast TV every day in May 2007(Source: Thinkbox, 2007). However, lack of viewer data beyond raw numbers means the viewing figures may claim an audience, but advertisers are increasingly dubious as to whether the interruptions are actually registering.
In search of accountability in their spend, marketers have turned to the internet and to some extent mobile. According to Kieron Matthews, Head of Marketing at the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), Internet advertising grows around 40% every year in the UK and is estimated to be worth £2.5 billion by the end of 2007. This would make it bigger than Direct Marketing and the second largest channel after TV.
Mobile, however, is still in its infancy. Tomi Ahonen, author of reputable publications such as ‘Communities Dominate Brands’, sees mobile as the centre of future marketing campaigns with other media supporting it.
However, Matthew White, head of advertising for Channel 4, the UK channel that brought teens wall-to-wall Big Brother, warns in the mobileYouth report about the perils of “overcooking new media”. No matter what channel is chosen, he says, the crucial part is to deliver a relevant message to the right audience at the right time.
When MTV and a number of political forces in the US combined the “Rock the Vote” using SMS to underpin youth engagement in politics, the campaign flopped. Despite the apparent appeal of the mobile channel as a tool for engagement, the content still remained irrelevant. The trouble was, politics meant little to today’s youth. So what is the key to successful youth marketing?
The answer lies in the right mix of media, and it is crucial to determine which combination of channels would be most suitable with regard to product type, message and target audience. Building a dialogue with young consumers requires a cross-media approach, where mobile and possibly TV support the overall objectives of the campaign effort, rather than making an isolated investment in 'mobile marketing'.
So while youth may be less engaged with traditional marketing channels, neither one holds the answer. Neither mobile nor TV alone can validate a marketing campaign for an increasingly difficult-to-reach consumer base.

Celebrate the Difference

Kok Fung Lai, CEO of BuzzCity, which develops global wireless communities and consumer services, says there are good reasons why mobile user-generated content (UGC) is sometimes more popular than on the PC

A report released this week from Juniper Research forecast explosive growth for UGC in the mobile space in the coming years, generating revenues of over $5.7 billion (£2.9 billion) in 2012, from just $572 million this year.
This growth will be mainly driven by users in the developing countries, as well as blue-collar workers in developed countries. Users attracted to mobile social networking will be very different from those using similar sites on the PC, in terms of experience, preference, usage and spending patterns.
Operators and mobile social networking sites should appreciate these differences, rather than trying to replicate the formulas currently working in the PC world. Most attempts to expand successful PC-based social networking sites to the mobile world have had limited success. This is because there are many mobile social networkers who are not familiar with big name PC social networking sites. Similarly, operators need to understand that mobile users see mobile UGC in a different light to UGC on a PC. A mobile phone user will want something easy and quick to access; they are less likely to blog on their mobile but more likely to log onto a mobile dating service. The key to creating revenue from UGC will be ensuring that it is contextually-relevant.
In some countries, the reason for more mobile social network users over PCs is because of infrastructure. Computers and broadband access are expensive. Mobile phones are relatively cheap. Mobile Internet users who don’t have access to a PC, or are in a country where broadband is non-existent, are more likely to use a mobile for their social networking needs. Even in places like the US and UK, where high-speed broadband is available and penetration is high, we find that the people who prefer mobile networking are individuals who don’t use computers a lot - maybe they work on their feet or are always on the move.
In developing countries, it is cheaper and easier to get a mobile than a landline. This is because telephone companies often do not have enough landlines available, and there are long waiting lists. It can take a year or so to get a line installed, and it is very expensive when compared to the general cost of living. A cheap and easily accessible alternative is needed and mobile phones are now the technology of choice. If operators in these regions begin to charge for the services they will be cutting off their nose to spite their face, destroying the take up of services before they have a chance to recoup the benefits.
Mobile operators are under pressure from regulators to stop all subscription services, but many are struggling with what alternative pricing model they will use. In this environment, more onus should be on the media owners to be in charge of the ad-supported model, much like newspapers today and the Internet when it first launched. Most mobile advertising spend currently comes from direct marketing budgets, and despite its obvious potential, mobile advertising will not establish itself as a major market until it has the commercial capability to tap into the enormous above-the-line advertising budgets.

Old Habits Die Hard

Tim Deluca Smith, VP Marketing at WDS Global, discusses how best to educate users about new applications and data services

How can the mobile industry encourage more profitable usage patterns amongst consumers? It’s a question on many people’s lips, because innovation in the mobile industry is like nothing else; the speed at which new ideas are realised, technologies developed and handsets launched is beyond compare. But while we celebrate this innovation, it is often the user who is left struggling to scale the heights of the technological learning curve. Indeed, many never realise the true functionality of their new device or service, perceiving it to be too complex and simply abandoning new features in a bid to return to their voice and SMS comfort zone.
That’s because if you scratch through the shiny surface of innovation, you could easily argue that not much has changed in the design and usability of mobile services and devices in the last five years. We are still expected to plough through user manuals and contend with frustratingly unhelpful error messages that seem to have been designed with the sole purpose of antagonising and disengaging us. In the background sit our mobile operators, fingers crossed that we’ll stumble accidentally on that great new feature that may actually prompt us to increase monthly spend.
It’s about time that we all took a good look at how consumers interact with new technologies.
Slow adoption of new data services still afflicts the industry, with many users simply unable to set-up and use new applications. Not only does this mean a loss in service revenue, but it contributes to the continual escalation of support costs, driven in part by end-users looking to fix troublesome services.
So we know that users don’t typically read the manual (until they encounter a problem) and that while a user may change device, they won’t necessarily change their usage patterns to match. But we also know that it’s in the first few hours of device ownership that the user is most engaged. It’s in this period that he personalises the device with ringtones and graphics, imports contacts and, most importantly, explores the menus. It’s a perfect time in which to introduce new services and features.
With this in min, it’s important that mobile devices are ready to run and configured for all services from the moment they are taken from their box and charged-up. However, as mobile devices continue to grow in complexity, this idealistic ‘ready to run’ scenario becomes increasingly harder to achieve. It is also not enough to simply assume that just because a device has been configured for a service, that the service will actually be used.
Instead the need exists to encourage users, introduce them to new services and guide them through usage. This notion of ‘on-device support’, designed to captivate the user, is intrinsic in establishing profitable usage patterns and preventing subsequent (and costly) calls to customer care.
The ultimate goal for the mobile operator in the exploratory period of ownership should be to draw the user in. This is quite commonplace in the PC software industry, where applications will launch straight into a tutorial or ‘wizard’ environment the first time the programme is launched. If I purchase a new handset on the basis of its camera feature, or simply if the handset I chose is heavily advertised as having a high-resolution camera, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that I’ll give it go and take some pictures as I explore. In turn, it would not be unreasonable for the camera application to subsequently jump into an MMS tutorial, explaining the benefits of sharing photos with friends through the MMS service.
This approach also presents the user with immediate exposure to support content, and overcomes the risk of users overlooking support links that may be detached from the main operational flow of software. The presentation of support content on first time application usage is the only true pre-emptive mechanism guaranteed to expose the availability of help to the user. 
On-device mechanisms and content that are easily accessible to the user, and which guide them through the software application or service, can not only help to reduce call centre volumes, but also encourage long-term adoption of a service. Of course, the design and positioning of the content needs to be carefully designed and implemented so that is not perceived as obtrusive, or too discrete that it is overlooked; the correct approach however can prove a powerful mechanism for educating and instructing the user on how to use an
application.    
For the mobile device manufacturer, it is critical the user explores and achieves real benefit from the full capabilities of their device. If the user can benefit from the broad range of functions available to them without any usability and support barriers, they will be more likely to develop brand loyalty. Likewise for the mobile operator, the ease of use of the device provides the key to unlocking service adoption. If a user is unhindered by set-up or usability issues, they will be far more likely to adopt the service, and consequently deliver additional revenues to the operator.
The mobile industry is defined by the speed at which it innovates. Consumer demand for the latest technology has never been greater, driving new product design and service development. Unfortunately, human nature means that an end-user’s desire for the latest handset is not always followed by a change in behaviour or usage patterns. That end result is a lot of wasted functionality and, more importantly, missed opportunity.

Seize the Day

Robert Thurner, Commercial Director of mobile marketing agency Incentivated, explains how mobile is bridging the gap between the offline and online worlds, and urges brands to get involved sooner rather than later

Last week, GMTV announced the resignation of its Managing Director, Paul Corley in response to a scandal the BBC television programme Panorama exposed in April, in which it alleged that “callers to premium-rate phone competitions on the GMTV breakfast show had been defrauded out of millions of pounds… Since 2003, callers had wasted a total of £45,000 a day - or £10m a year - entering the competitions.” The move is part of a series of measures GMTV and Opera have introduced to help prevent a repeat of the problem.
Although these measures are clearly a very positive step forward in restoring public confidence, what is paramount is that all market players take a responsible attitude to growing the mobile sector through self regulation and the development of best practice guidelines. Codes of Conduct developed by the Direct Marketing Association, Institute of Sales Promotion and Mobile Marketing Association, as well as the existing rulebook developed by the Advertising Standards Authority, are very clear in such cases, and together with the premium rate regulator ICSTIS, should be strictly adhered to. We must also remember that episodes such as the one in April 2007 are very much the exception and not the norm, and should not undermine all the positive work currently happening in the industry which should not be ignored.
Text message campaigns can offer a vital service. Incentivated’s campaign for the Mayor of London allowed the general public to receive contact details by text for the closest licensed minicab firms in an effort to reduce sexual assaults by illegal minicab drivers. British Airways delivers time-sensitive travel alerts to passengers and cabin crew, allowing travelers to learn about disruptions and act upon them instead of finding out at the airport when it’s too late.
But mobile means so much more than text messaging. Sending an SMS to a shortcode on a poster, a press or TV ad is only the start of the mobile journey. Today’s handsets serve up mobile Internet sites, providing rich content, and real-time interaction. Location-based services allow us to browse for relevant and local information from tourist attractions to jobs, and to receive time-sensitive barcodes for easy redemption. Mobile Internet sites requesting prospects’ email addresses prove how mobile can act as the bridge bringing people from the offline world into the online environment.
The mobile landscape is changing fast. The majority of handsets sold will be 3G-enabled by the year end, allowing a superior user experience of the mobile Internet and content downloads. Vodafone is the latest of the operators to offer flat-rate data charges, removing one of the last barriers to people browsing the mobile web.
The mobile channel provides immediacy, engagement, interactivity and instant measurement, while remaining extremely private. As brands recognise the leading role mobile plays in today’s complex communications mix, the mobile market is preparing for rapid growth.
Legislation is in place to protect the consumer, and text campaigns that allow the public to make charitable donations, find safe taxis and even land a new job, prove the many benefits of mobile and text services. Offering the mobile as a medium for consumers to interact with brands and good causes that incite an immediate desire to respond and be involved is bringing traditional media to life.
For readers of Mobile Marketing Magazine who are yet to do so, now is the time to seize the mobile opportunity, or risk being left behind.

It's All About The Users

Danny Kalish, CTO at Unipier, argues that for mobile advertising to be successful, mobile operators need to adopt an approach that allows them to target specific users with relevant advertisements and at the same time manage the overall ad-related user experience including user privacy and charging aspects.

For many years, advertising has been the driving financial force behind all successful media such as TV, the Internet and newspapers. Nowadays, with falling subscriber voice revenues and fierce competition, there is a growing interest in mobile advertising among mobile operators as a potential new revenue source.
The mobile device is potentially the most effective advertising media ever developed. It is personal, always-on and enables precise targeting of advertising based on contextual information such as location, user profile and usage history. A recent report from Strategy Analytics predicts incredible potential for this market and suggests mobile advertising could account for up to 25% of worldwide Internet advertising expenditure by 2011. Mobile advertising as a revenue stream is rapidly increasing, with the same report predicting that mobile Internet advertising will grow from $1.4 billion this year to $14.4 billion by 2011.
So will mobile advertising be another over-hyped idea, or can it actually deliver genuine value to  consumers?

Mobile Set for Take-off

Mobile marketing is on the rise and is rapidly becoming an integral part of the marketing mix, with more agencies and brands utilising the mobile channel than ever before. Yet a report commissioned by Airwide Solutions earlier this year highlighted that 55% of companies were unsure how to reach specific target audiences via mobile campaigns. In this piece, one of the last things he wrote before his tragic death at the weekend, Paul Griffiths, MD of interactive mobile company Dialogue Communications, looks at the current state of mobile marketing and offers advice on how best to use the mobile medium to reach their customers

Mobile marketing still represents a relatively small part of the overall mix, but this is increasing, and more brands are realising