Bango Improves Analytics with Goal Comparison

Bango has added a goal comparison feature to its Bango Analytics mobile analytics tool, enabling marketers to see which mobile ad campaigns and traffic sources deliver the best conversion rates. Advertisers can also compare the value of the traffic from third-party ad services using independent data provided by Bango Analytics. Some companies have already reported discrepancies approaching 20% between the traffic they are getting and what they have paid for, says Bango. 
With the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) reporting the need for “independent testing and scrutiny to build trust and confidence in the mobile advertising”, Bango says it aims to fill this gap with a service that provides hard data, free from any vendor bias. The new goal comparison feature helps marketers measure the return on investment for campaigns across different ad networks to make smarter buying decisions.
Bango says the Bango User ID technology offers a level of precision not found with other mobile analytics products, by providing a reliable and persistent identity for every mobile user. It tracks real people as they enter a mobile website from different sources and reach a defined goal, such as click to call, buying content or downloading an application.
“It’s not the number of hits on your site that ultimately matters, but whether they convert into value for the business,” says Bango CEO, Ray Anderson. “Being able to measure ROI through accurate tracking can make the difference between success and failure. Businesses that aggregate traffic from a wide variety of sources and want an independent way of ensuring the traffic they receive is what they paid for, can use Bango Analytics as their trusted auditing tool.
Bango Analytics operates as a hosted service, allowing mobile website owners anywhere in the world to connect their sites to the Analytics service in minutes and use it free of charge. You can try it for yourself here. And with a video about it here.

Mobile Advertising? Bring it On

Mobile agency Aerodeon has revealed the results of what it claims is the first ever sector-specific research project into consumer attitudes towards mobile phone advertising. The research, commissioned by Aerodeon, was conducted by brand research company, Millward Brown. The study was supported by sponsors across several key market sectors in digital advertising including Peugeot, Diageo, Sky, Nestle, More Th>n, Procter & Gamble and Orange. For all sectors covered, it found that over three in every five mobile Internet users are more inclined to purchase a brand in response to relevant opt-in advertising on their mobiles.
Conducted in January 2008, the research project solicited and measured the opinions of more than 1,000 18-64 year old PC Internet users in the UK, split equally by gender. The study aimed to highlight which product and service sectors would benefit most from investment in mobile advertising and marketing, and which formats, content and communication methods would be most acceptable to consumers and effective for advertisers.

Other findings include:
· 52% of all PC Internet users use the mobile Internet, rising to 77% of 18-24 year olds.

· One in three of all mobile Internet users browse at least once a week.

· Average surfing time per session is six minutes, with one quarter of all 18-34 year olds spending more than 10 minutes per session when browsing the mobile Internet.

· Mobile Internet surfing makes consumers feel they have reduced consumption of magazines and newspapers (net of 17% feel they are reading less). In contrast, it seems mobile surfing may increase PC-based Internet consumption (net of 23% feel they are surfing more).

· Two in three of all mobile Internet users use mobile Internet to search.

· Among heavy users of the mobile Internet, having access to the mobile Internet is more important than TV or newspapers.

· Nearly half of all regular mobile Internet users use the mobile web to research big ticket, high consideration items such as cars and holidays.

· The main barrier to adoption for non-users is cost and a lack of knowledge about how to access mobile Internet services.

Advertisers who sponsored the research are now examining the findings to identify the best category-specific mobile marketing opportunities among their individual target audiences.
“This study contributes to the growing body of compelling evidence that mobile offers advertisers unique advantages, and that investment in it is necessary to achieve a 360 degree digital communication strategy,” says Aerodeon Managing Director, Chris Bourke.
Steve Ricketts, Head of Third Party Services at Orange UK, believes the study provides powerful evidence for UK digital advertisers to take the initiative and include more mobile media in their marketing plans. He says:
“The results show that more and more British consumers are using mobile media and that their behaviour offers advertisers brand new ways to engage potential customers, drive sales and build brand equity. These positive findings reflect the ever increasing adoption and uptake of mobile media.”

Mobile Ad Spend Heads for a Billion

Annual mobile ad spend will pass $1 billion (£512 million) in 2008. That’s the conclusion of a report just released by Juniper Research. 
‘Mobile Advertising, Delivery Channels, Strategies & Forecasts 2008-2013’ contains forecasts of  recipients, response rates, and ad spend across eight key geographical regions until 2013. The 162-page study offers a detailed breakdown of the mobile advertising market, profiling leading companies within all sectors of the mobile advertising environment, including agencies, ad networks, application providers, operators and MVNOs.
The report focuses on seven key advertising delivery channels – SMS, MMS, in-content download, on-portal, mobile Internet, idle screen and Mobile TV - exploring the strategies so far adopted by principle players across the mobile advertising ecosystem and the potential opportunities available.
It looks at the current value of the mobile advertising market; the leading players; response rates; key drivers and hurdles; and mobile advertising regulation. It also considers how the mobile advertising value chain likely to develop; which mobile delivery channels will be the most successful for advertisers; and at the strategies that brands, ad agencies, operators and content providers should implement to facilitate the successful deployment of, and greatest response to, mobile advertising.
The report costs £1,490 for a single-user PDF or hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide licence.
You can get more details here. And a free Whitepaper here.

Greystripe Signs Up Sega

Ad-supported mobile games and applications distributor Greystripe has signed a deal with Sega to deliver free mobile games.
Three classic game titles from the Sega collection will be delivered across mobile phones worldwide through all 50 of Greystripe's Catalog Platform partners in addition to GameJump.com, the world's largest ad-supported mobile game portal. Additionally, Sega will monetize its mobile game content via Greystripe's AdWRAP advertising network, which includes brands like Diet Coke, Yahoo!, New Line Cinema and eBay. The three games available initially are ‘Sonic Jump’, ‘Afterburner II’, and ‘Golden Axe’.
“Sega has selected to be a part of the Greystripe’s distribution network of sites as it opens up the category to a whole new market of consumers,” says Linda Chaplin, VP of Mobile at Sega. “The ‘free games’ proposition allows consumers to try mobile games without risk, and we’re confident that our brands and commitment to quality will convince consumers to stay and continue gaming on their mobile phones.”
Greystripe CEO Michael Chang adds:
“Besides being the biggest name in gaming, Sega has incredible IP and truly understands the move to mobile with their classic game titles. Our partnership with them is a huge win for our end users and demonstrates that Greystripe is able to bring the biggest brands to the mobile gaming audience.”
Greystripe recently celebrated 50 million game downloads, including titles from Sega, Digital Chocolate, Vivendi Games Mobile and Hands-On Mobile, downloaded from GameJump.com, Greystripe’s proprietary mobile game portal.
Greystripe's patent-pending AdWRAP technology automates the process that enables ads to be wrapped directly with mobile games and applications without any complex coding and development for the content owner.

mobilePeople Drives Truvo Search Solution

Truvo, a local search and advertising publisher operating across six countries, has launched a downloadable Java search service for mobile users in Belgium, based on mobilePeople's ‘liquid’ platform. Truvo, formerly called World Directories, says it is the first international directory publisher to add multiple content sources in a searchable format next to its own yellow and white pages listings.
Truvo’s searchable content includes yellow pages (Pages d’Or); white pages (Pages Blanches); full news content from hln.be; weather from Meteo; a mobile web search; and  ringtones and wallpapers. The integration of different content sources will increase traffic in Truvo’s mobile portal and ensure the stickiness of the service with users, the company says.
The Truvo Mobile platform will undertake a search across all data sources and return results by each content source. Then, using a drop-down menu, the user can also select to search per source. Users can save results to their phonebooks, call a business directly and contact a company, by sending an email directly from the results. The solution is available in both French and Dutch and utilises a single search box approach.
The liquid MAP solution provides the option to display the results of businesses or people on a fully realised map, which also allows zooming and panning. Additionally, users can click on a point of interest to receive additional information in a pop-up menu. The user can then highlight an entire street and view information on it by clicking through. MobilePeople utilises Scaleable Vector Graphics (SVG), considered superior to other map technologies that allow less traffic cost for the user.
“Truvo strives to provide the best and most relevant information to our users and as such we have provided them with the ability to search across a wide range of content, including yellow and white pages, news, weather, ringtones, wallpapers as well as Wikipedia,” says Roeland De Meulemeester, Group Manager Online for Truvo Corporate. “This partnership means our customers will receive an unrivalled mobile search experience.”
Last month, Truvo launched the Java client-based mobile search solution with mobilePeople in Belgium. Further country launches in Portugal and the Republic of Ireland are scheduled for the coming months.

GoldSpot in Denuo Tie-up

GoldSpot Media, which specializes in dynamic ad-insertion for Mobile TV and video, has entered into a partnership with Denuo, the media futures practice of marketing services holding company Publicis Groupe, S.A., to expand its insight into the behaviour and motivation of the mobile consumer, and to collaborate on the enhancement and development of the company’s current and future Mobile TV and video advertising offerings.
GoldSpot Media’s dynamic ad-insertion solution adapts the proven inventory and revenue-sharing business models used successfully in traditional TV and optimises them for the mobile medium.The end-to-end solution enables personalised, interactive ad insertion and replacement in rebroadcast TV content, as well as short clips over 3G. By leveraging Denuo’s knowledge of the mobile consumer thought and buying process, in addition to the evolving needs of the advertising buying community, GoldSpot says it can continue to advance its offerings to meet the Mobile TV and video ARPU projections of mobile service providers around the world.
“As our Mobile TV and video advertising model is being evaluated by mobile service providers around the world, we’re constantly receiving feedback on a wide range of issues that will ultimately determine the viability of this new advertising media,” says William Ganon, Senior Vice President of Advertising Strategy at GoldSpot Media. “By partnering with Denuo, we’ve added the insight of some of the most knowledgeable, experienced and innovative thinkers in the global mobile advertising industry. The Denuo partnership bolsters our strategic capabilities and creates a collaborative development environment that ensures our products are meeting the needs and best practices of the mobile advertising industry.”
Denuo will provide GoldSpot Media with insight into current advertising market demands, including planning and buying requirements for online, mobile and TV advertising, and guidance on advertising model priorities to generate value for all key players in the Mobile TV and video value chain.
“We believe that there is a significant untapped market for Mobile TV and video advertising,” says Denuo Senior Vice President of Ventures, Timothy Hanlon. “Strategic, collaborative partnerships within the Mobile TV and video value-chain are the key to establishing sustainable business models and maximizing the advertising potential of the medium. GoldSpot’s unique mobile video advertising solution offers the potential to significantly enhance the business case for Mobile TV and video advertising.”

BluePod Hits the Shops

Bluepod Media has signed exclusive bluetooth marketing agreements with two major shopping centres, the Bullring in Birmingham and the Trafford Centre in Manchester. An average of one million shoppers visit both retail destinations every week. The deals mean that brand owners will now have an opportunity to communicate promotional campaigns with shoppers on a one to one basis in “a completely new and unique way”.
Shoppers in both destinations carrying Bluetooth-enabled phones will be asked via a Bluetooth message for permission to be sent a Trafford Centre- or Bullring-branded menu of content to their phone. From the menu, shoppers will be able to access third party promotional offers and content linked to retail sites, as well as information about the shopping centre itself.
“The deal we have signed with Bluepod Media will inevitably add value to our shoppers’ experience,” says Jon Levenson, Managing Director of Trafford Centre sister company, Peel Advertising. “We are looking forward to exploring the potential of Bluetooth marketing in The Trafford Centre and our airports.”
Bluepod Media offers proximity advertising on a pay-per-download model, with advertisers only paying each time their content is accessed. The box is about the size of a hardback book and only needs a mains socket to function. National Bluetooth marketing campaigns are handled centrally by Bluepod Media and can be remotely operated throughout the portfolio of exclusive venues. Bluepod can provide detailed statistical reports on the effectiveness of a campaign, and says it is currently the only mobile marketing company committed to have usage independently certified by ABC Electronic.
Content that can be distributed by Bluepod Media is limited only by mobile phone technology, the company notes. Successful campaigns have previously included film trailers, promotional music downloads and digital vouchers for discounted products. Shoppers can opt in to receive content free of charge, at a pay-per-download cost of between £0.40 and £0.70 to the advertiser.
The company adds that recent Bluetooth marketing campaigns it has run demonstrate the impact that proximity advertising by Bluetooth can make. Over 400,000 film trailers promoting the Warner Bros. film ‘I am Legend’ film were downloaded in a two week period across Vue cinemas nationwide. At Portsmouth Football Club, 6,245 Premiership fans opted in to download a movie trailer to their phones from a total match attendance of 20,200.
“Bluetooth marketing is no longer limited to poster sites, and can cover destinations, allowing brands to target consumers by profile as well as environment,” says Bluepod Media Managing Director, John Scorah. “The FMCG marketer has always strived for a cost effective and measurable way of achieving a one to one customer relationship. We provide a way for brands to achieve just that whilst they have only one thing on their mind – shopping! Any FMCG promotional campaign should now include Bluetooth as part of an integrated mix.”

mobileSTATS Puts Stats on the Mobile

UK company mobileSTATS has announced the launched of its mobile analytics solution of the same name, which is designed to monitor traffic to mobile websites. The solution makes all statistics available to view on the client’s mobile phone in real time.
Businesses signing up to the mobileSTATS service can track the number of visitors to their website, where they come from, which pages they are looking at, peak traffic times, cost-per-click activity, and much more.
“In the quest to optimise online marketing, companies need intelligent web usage information to measure what’s working well, and what isn’t,” says mobileSTATS Managing Director, Jon Kelly. “mobileSTATS can deliver that information to your mobile or Blackberry, in real time, around the clock. Imagine having the equivalent of Google analytics on your phone, with instant real-time reporting available.”
Users can choose to access graphs, performance comparisons and information about which ‘natural referrers’, such as Google and MSN, are generating traffic or sales, on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. And if a trend or hotspot changes, or a site goes down, mobileSTATS will immediately send an SMS alert to a designated mobile phone, to enable a rapid response.
“CEOs and marketing directors can now access key website performance data on the golf course or during a business lunch via their mobile phone to ensure they are always completely up to date,” says Kelly.
The mobileSTATS service supports all types of web formats, including Flash, and delivers conventional website performance statistics to users’ mobile phones. The company also has a team of consultants available to provide more in-depth reports for board meetings, to work with in-house teams to design and build mobile websites, and to develop strategies to drive quality traffic.

Sri Lankan Brief for Celltick

Dialog, Sri Lanka’s largest mobile operator, has appointed Celltick to manage its interactive mobile media service, Zero77 LIVE. Under the terms of the agreement, Celltick will be responsible for raising revenues for Dialog by managing all aspects of the service, including editorial content, programming, content alliances and advertising sales. 
Zero77 LIVE, powered by Celltick’s LiveScreen Media, began broadcasting to a test subscriber base of 120,000 users, and is now open to all Dialog subscribers. Zero77 LIVE delivers carefully targeted content and marketing messages directly to subscribers' mobile idle screens, turning them into a network of synchronised, interactive personal billboards.
Since its launch in 2003, the service’s popularity has grown phenomenally, says Celltick, noting that in December 2006, Dialog had to extend the service to keep up with subscriber demand. Zero77 LIVE has proven to increase Dialog’s ARPU and provide strong revenue streams from advertising, the company says. In the new agreement, in which the service will reach all of Dialog's 4.5 million subscribers, Celltick and Dialog expect to raise ARPU even further, due to revenues stemming from a well targeted mix of content and advertising messages.
Celltick’s managed service team will work at Dialog, editing content and programming the broadcasts in order to build a relevant, high quality user experience for subscribers. The team will also be responsible for building strong relationships with local and global content aggregators and advertising agencies, to provide fresh content and increase revenue.
“Celltick's LiveScreen Media, branded by Dialog Zero77 LIVE, has helped propel Dialog to the forefront of innovation, proving to be a valuable service to our subscribers, as well as a great revenue stream for the business,” says Dialog Chief Marketing Officer, Nushad Perera. “We are keen to maximise its potential and are confident that Celltick has the expertise to achieve this.”
Celltick recently evolved its business strategy from a license-based to a managed services model. Under the new proposition, Celltick will distribute unlimited licenses at no cost to mobile operators and will be responsible for managing all aspects of the LiveScreen Media service.

Searching Questions Answered

Local Search will become a key application for over 30% of mobile phone users by 2013. That’s the conclusion of a new report just published by Juniper Research. The report, ‘Mobile Search & Discovery: Opportunities & Markets, 2008-2013’, assesses the current and future potential of mobile search applications and services, forecasting mobile search and associated mobile advertising and data revenues across eight key geographical regions until 2013.
The 190-page study analyses major players in the sector, providing a qualitative detailed outlook from key executives in the industry, including strategies from market leading companies such as Google and Yahoo! In addition, the report explains the changes that are underway in the mobile search market, with the emergence of off-portal and on-device search, exploring the key drivers for the growth of mobile advertising.
The report defines five categories of mobile search; general web search; on-device search; local search; on-portal content search; and off-portal content search, with forecasts for each category, including users, number of searches, cost-per-clickthrough and total number of searches that are ad-supported. It also concentrates on how these developments, along with ad-supported revenues within mobile search, are likely to impact upon the growth of the mobile advertising sector.
The report looks at the current and future size of the mobile search market, and at the key drivers for mobile search adoption. It examines the strategies of Google and Yahoo! within the mobile environment, and considers which regions are likely to see the highest uptake of mobile search. It also looks at how much data revenue mobile operators will generate through search services, and at the impact the deployment of 3G services will have upon mobile search.
The report costs £1,490 for a single-user PDF or hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide licence.
You can get more information here.  And a free Whitepaper here.

Jaguar Celebrates Mobile Campaign Success

Jaguar Cars has announced results from its mobile advertising campaign in the US. The campaign drives traffic to its mobile Internet site, created by Global Beach and built by Incentivated, which promotes the new luxury Jaguar XF.
The mobile advertising campaign appears on mobile Internet sites including MSN.mobi, cars.mobi, Yahoo Mobile and admob.com. Since its launch in November to coincide with the unveiling of the XF at the Los Angeles motor show, the campaign has delivered over 15 million ad impressions across the mobile Internet, delivering over 85,000 unique visitors to the Jaguar XF WAP site, representing a clickthrough rate of 0.6%. Mobile banner ads are the only medium used to promote the WAPsite.
Global Beach, Jaguar’s world-wide digital agency, designed the WAP site for the US market, partnering with mobile specialist Incentivated for the build. The site (www.jaguarxf.mobi) provides a gallery of high quality images to promote the car’s design, innovation and performance, including high- and low-resolution versions of XF videos.
The site allows visitors to input their ZIP code in order to locate their nearest dealer and book a test drive, or to order a brochure. Visitors can also submit their email address in order to request a branded email newsletter, and can download wallpapers to their handsets.
The site uses detection software to ensure the content served to visitors’ mobile browsers is dynamically optimized for each handset. As a result, the service automatically resizes the WAP site for viewing on iPhones, Smartphones, BlackBerrys, PDAs and over 2,000 other mobile devices in use across the US. The campaign was  large enough to warrant a dedicated iPhone mobile Internet site, despite the views of some who claim regular websites look good enough for the small screen of an iPhone.
Since the campaign launch, there have been over 12,000 videos and more than 16,000 wallpapers downloaded. For users who ventured beyond the home-page, the average dwell time was 2 minutes, 12 seconds. 1.2% of users requested an email brochure by entering their email address into the WAPsite. 2.6% located their nearest dealer to arrange a test drive.
“Jaguar is proud to translate our positive digital experiences with mobile marketing, and to deliver an engaging and rich brand experience for our technologically advanced customer base,” says Rome Murphy, Interactive Marketing Manager for Jaguar North America. “We are particularly impressed with the user experience across a broad range of handset types.”
Robert Thurner, Commercial Director at Incentivated adds: “We applaud Jaguar for running a campaign which harnesses the mobile medium’s unique strengths in combining exceptional rich content with a response mechanic and location-based services. Yielding a healthy ROI, the campaign demonstrates the exceptional value mobile marketing can deliver.”

AdMob Launches Analytics

Mobile advertising network AdMob has announced the launch of  AdMob Mobile Analytics, which the company says delivers a comprehensive solution for understanding user behaviour and makes it easy to measure the usage of mobile websites and ad campaigns.
AdMob Mobile Analytics, which runs independent of the company's other services, can be set up in less than 10 minutes and does not require ad spend or publishing activity with the company's flagship product, the AdMob mobile advertising network. AdMob Analytics will offer businesses a free, simple solution to maximize commerce, advertising and content on the mobile Internet and to improve the overall user experience.
“AdMob has invested heavily in user, device and carrier detection to fuel our statistical modelling and optimization efforts,” says AdMob CEO and Founder, Omar Hamoui. “We've been building some very sophisticated technologies for our own network and are now in a position to empower sites to take advantage of our engineering investments to optimize their mobile web efforts. We hope AdMob Mobile Analytics will provide a further catalyst for the growth of the mobile web.”
AdMob says that AdMob Mobile Analytics will help mobile site owners understand their audience, optimize their content and improve usability. The AdMob Analytics suite allows mobile site owners to track site performance metrics such as unique visitors, duration of visit and page performance, as well as user details, including geography, operator and device specifics. This information will help mobile site owners tune their sites to the specific consumers visiting their mobile web presence. Mobile Websites can use the insights they gain from AdMob Mobile Analytics to offer consumers more of what they want and make it easier for them to find and interact with content.
“The mobile web has grown significantly in the past year, thanks to device, network and billing catalysts,” says Linda Barrabee, Program Manager, Wireless at Yankee Group. “Analytics tools are critical for web publishers, and the availability of these solutions will assist in driving a better user experience on the mobile web.”
AdMob Mobile Analytics will also provide visibility into a site's sources of traffic, including search engines, direct traffic and advertising. Combined with the ability to track conversion of the specific events and actions that the campaign seeks to drive, this will enable measurement of campaign performance. With AdMob Mobile Analytics, says AdMob, advertisers can track the success of campaigns run on any mobile ad network.
AdMob says it has leveraged its existing user identification technology and global infrastructure in building its analytics offering, which is a free service that works for any size of business and is not limited by visitors or page views.   
AdMob is accepting limited private beta sign ups for AdMob Analytics, starting today. To find out more, click here.

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.

MMA Releases Global Mobile Ad Guidelines

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), which represents more than 600 companies across the mobile marketing ecosystem, has released its global Mobile Advertising Guidelines. The first set of global guidelines issued by the association is designed to encourage the uptake of mobile advertising by brands worldwide, whild enhancing and protecting the customer’s experience, by creating a framework for brands and media companies to deliver mobile advertising in a positive and consistent way. The guidelines have received industry endorsements from associations such as IAB UK and Mexico, dotMobi Advisory Group (MAG), ADMA and others.
The Global guidelines capitalise on the progress made in 2007, with the publication of region-specific Mobile Advertising Guidelines for North America, Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa. The regional guidelines have been integrated into a global guideline to ensure a consistent approach to mobile advertising worldwide.
“The creation of ad guidelines by the MMA ensures that the industry is taking a proactive approach to keep subscriber experience, content integrity and simplified execution as the driving forces behind all mobile advertising programs,” says MMA President, Laura Marriott.
The guidelines provide improved formats around mobile web advertising, and include new guidelines for messaging (including SMS and MMS) and downloadable content. The MMA has also introduced a publication called ‘Mobile Advertising Overview’, which aims to educate those new to the mobile advertising space. The guidelines include recommended aspect ratios and banner dimensions, maximum file sizes, file formats and other technical specifications.
“To ensure the best consumer mobile marketing experience, it is essential to have industry-wide accepted advertising guidelines,” says Stephanie Bauer, Marketing Manager for Verizon. “The MMA and its committees continue to update these guidelines, reflecting the most up-to-date practices for marketers across the globe.”
The guidelines have been prepared by the MMA’s Mobile Advertising Committee, which was created to establish a library of format and policy guidelines for advertising within content on mobile devices. The Committee is made up of over 50 MMA member companies.
The MMA Global Mobile Advertising Guidelines can be downloaded here.   

Blyk Hits 100,000

Ad-funded mobile network Blyk has revealed that it has signed up over 100,000 members since its launch in the UK at the end of September, 2007. Blyk was aiming to sign up 100,000 members in the first year, so has hit its target five months ahead of schedule.
Blyk gives members free texts and minutes every month, equating to an individual saving of over £280 each year, with no contract, hidden costs or fees, in return for receiving up to six highly targeted advertising messages per day from brands including Xbox, Adidas, STA Travel, Penguin, Brylcreem, Boots, COI and RSPCA.
Blyk says the ad campaigns that fund the service have generated average response rates of 29%, at a time when trust in other forms of mass advertising is falling and brands are finding it increasingly difficult to engage with young people.
“Young people have embraced Blyk because it makes phone bills and contracts a thing of the past,” says UK CEO, Shaun Gregory. “We believe that communication should be free, like most other forms of media in the UK. Blyk provides brands and advertisers with an exciting way of reaching the youth market in a very personalised way that works. Reaching 100,000 members is significant for advertisers, because it gives them the opportunity to engage with a mass youth audience in a highly efficient and cost-effective way. In six months we have built up a deep knowledge of our member base, which now exceeds many established youth media players, and with over 7 million 16-24 year old phone owners in the UK there is huge potential for growth."
Blyk’s proposition is based on the insight that messaging is the simple dominant mobile behaviour for 16-24 year olds. When new members join Blyk, they are profiled, based on their lifestyle and personal interests. This profiling is 100% opt-in and it helps Blyk to build up a deep knowledge of its customer base and deliver relevant communications to them.
Brands are using Blyk to create awareness, build relationships and drive action and sales through one-to-one interactions. Although the average response rate to campaigns is 29%, says Blyk, many are significantly higher.
Penguin Books ran a campaign on Blyk to promote the launch of Nick Hornby’s latest novel ‘Slam’ and achieved an unprecedented 67% response rate. Blyk created a two-part messaging dialogue, whereby positive respondents received a 90-second audio preview of the opening chapter read by Nicholas Hoult, star of Channel 4’s ‘Skins’ - a media first for using audio clips sent via mobile to promote a book.
Blyk is launching in the Netherlands in the second half of 2008, followed by other European markets and has recently attracted new investors Goldman Sachs and Industrial and Financial Investments Company (IFIC). They join a roster that includes Sofinnova Partners and a number of private investors.

BuzzCity Reports Mobile Ad Surge

BuzzCity, which provides global wireless communities and consumer services, has released the myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index, which it says demonstrates the popularity of its myGamma mobile social network. BuzzCity also reports a growth in demand for its service in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which the company says will surprise both the global mobile community and digital advertising industries. BuzzCity believes the growth is a result of changes in mobile operator business models,  offering affordable and understandable mobile data packages.
The myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index shows advertising page views in the first quarter of 2008. The top 10 countries are as follows:
1. Indonesia: 654 million (up 13,328% on Q1 2007)
2.  India: 577 million (up 1,522%)
3.  South Africa: 426 million (up 418%)
4.  USA: 132 million (up 917%)
5.  Kenya: 79 million (up 424%)
6.  Romania: 57 million (up 446%)
7.  Bangladesh: 53 million (up 305%)
8.  China: 37 million (up 6,053%)
9.  Brunei: 35 million (up 221%)
10.  Pakistan: 35 million (up 814%)

BuzzCity’s myGamma mobile social network service operates on an ad-funded model as the  primary source of revenue. Ads are served on myGamma and on more than 2,000 publisher sites globally. BuzzCity tracks the growth of the network and, by extension, the growth of the mobile Internet in more than 70 countries around the world.
The company recently announced plans for a US office. Traffic in the US has grown more than 900%. BuzzCity expects page views in the US to grow to more than 100 million per month in the next quarter.
In Q1 2007, the myGamma banner network served just over 260 million banners in its top 10 countries. In Q1 2008, the Top 10 countries served more than 2 billion ads, a growth of 800%. The Top 10 also saw some new entrants, with Indonesia, China and Pakistan replacing Thailand, Nigeria & Malaysia.
“In Q1 of 2008, we served more than 26 million banner advertisements to Egyptian users,” says BuzzCity CEO, KF Lai. “This is a growth of 5,400% against the first quarter of 2007, when we served only 490,000 impressions. During this period, Saudi Arabian traffic grew by nearly 900% to 22 million banners. In both cases, increased mobile penetration and healthy competition among carriers invariably sees more consumer activity on the mobile Internet. We are only going to see more of this, everywhere.”

Screen Digest Report Analyses Mobile Advertising Prospects

Media analyst Screen Digest has released its report, ‘Mobile media advertising opportunities: The market for advertising on TV, video and games’. The research examines the emerging market for rich media advertising delivered to consumers via their mobile phone in the form of TV, video, games, user-generated content (UGC) and music. The report includes the findings of an exclusive survey of GroupM’s advertising agencies in 25 countries to assess the current and future potential for this form of advertising across the globe.
Screen Digest believes the market for rich media advertising on mobile will reach $2.79 billion (£1.4 billion) by 2012, with global Mobile TV advertising accounting for the lion’s share at $2.44bn. In terms of the formats that will deliver this revenue, the company says, there are those that will deliver, and those that will disappoint.

Delivering revenues: Mobile TV and Video on Demand
The report says that by 2012, advertising will account for over 20% of Mobile TV revenues, but without its own metrics, it will struggle to be considered as a standalone advertising channel. Free-to-air broadcast markets such as Japan and South Korea will offer bigger advertising opportunities than markets where Mobile TV will be offered as paid subscriptions to the consumer, such as North America and most of Europe. Mobile Video-on-Demand advertising will be small in comparison, reaching $336 million in 2012 by supporting extracts from popular programmes and sponsoring recurring content, such as news and weather forecasts.

Marketing tools: games, UGC and music
In terms of delivering advertising revenues, Screen Digest believes that games, UGC and music will disappoint. However, these formats will provide a valuable source of innovative marketing opportunities for brands aspiring to connect and interact with their customers. For example, Screen Digest predicts that by 2012, over 60 million ad-funded mobile games will be downloaded per year worldwide.

Getting advertising direct to the consumer – anytime, anywhere, any format
More ubiquitous than the PC, mobile offers the opportunity to send personalised messages to people in all markets. Advertising sent via the mobile phone reaches the recipient directly, wherever they are, at any time and location, offering effective targeting, as well as interactivity and consumer engagement.
Yet despite these benefits, mobile advertising is very much in its infancy. Julien Theys, one of the authors of the report notes the factors that are holding back the mass market take up of mobile advertising. He says:
“Data pricing structures, handset and mobile web usability, content quality and the lack of audience metrics to measure effectiveness are preventing mobile advertising from reaching its market potential. Although we expect these hurdles to be overcome in the coming years, mobile media advertising will have to compete with search, display, messaging advertising as well as many innovative uses of mobile in marketing campaigns.”

View from GroupM: an emerging format with potential
The advertising executives surveyed in GroupM’s agencies in 25 countries were positive about the capabilities offered by mobile advertising, in particular targeting by location, interactivity and high response rates. To date only 15% had used mobile advertising, either as a standalone or integrated campaign, underlining Screen Digest’s view that this is an emerging technology. Of those agencies that had trialled mobile advertising, 75% had used mobile content as a promotional item at least once, while 67% had placed an ad in rich media at least once. The reasons given for not incorporating it into ad campaigns included poor user experience and usability, handset limitations and the lack of clear measurement metrics.
David MacQueen, Head of Mobile and Co-author of the report concludes:
“Mobile advertising, and mobile rich media advertising in particular, is a growing industry, with a rapidly evolving landscape. Nokia, Microsoft and Google have been very active in developing mobile advertising operations, either internally or through external acquisitions. The potential is huge, and some of the world’s largest companies are vying for control of what they see as the next major advertising medium.”

GoldSpot Launches Trial-in-a-Box Mobile TV Solution

GoldSpot Media has announced the launch of ‘Trial-in-a-Box’, which it says is the first rapid prototyping platform providing a controlled environment for evaluating the profitability of targeted, interactive mobile broadcast TV advertising models. 
GoldSpot says it has launched the solution in order to accelerate the process of identifying and evaluating profitable and sustainable business models, in response to the two major barriers to the commercialisation of mobile broadcast services: the ROI from the significant cost of deployment;  and subscriber unwillingness to pay sizable monthly subscriptions for the service.
Trial-in-a-Box leverages GoldSpot’s end-to-end dynamic ad-insertion solution for broadcast TV and streaming video on mobile phones. It adapts the proven inventory and revenue-sharing business models used successfully in the traditional TV market and optimizes them for the mobile medium. Trial-in-a-Box provides Mobile TV value chain partners with the ability to test the effectiveness of multiple advertising business models, ranging from free broadcast TV to individual pay-per-stream, and everything in between.   
“Virtually everything is in place today, including mature broadcast technologies, standardization, mobile broadcast terminals, high quality content and consumer acceptance, to make interactive mobile broadcast TV a reality," says GoldSpot Media Senior Vice President, Business Development, Staffan Nilsson.  "The glaring exception is proof that it can be profitable to the entire value-chain. Trial-in-a-Box is designed to help solve the Catch-22. It’s the first controlled opportunity for Mobile TV service providers and ad inventory holders to determine how to optimally integrate advertising to create highly-profitable mobile video services across broadcast and 3G.”
GoldSpot says its Mobile TV and video advertising solution facilitates the creation of new ad and interactivity formats, allowing ad inventory owners to analyze appropriate advertising models based on their regional regulatory environments. The Trial-in-a-Box product will allow service providers to conduct advertising experiments with various forms of broadcast content, including live broadcasts, such as sports and news; recorded content, such as movies and TV shows; and tailored made-for-mobile content.

AdMob Releases March Stats

Mobile ad network AdMob has unveiled statistics for March from its mobile ad network. The data reveals that total the total number of ad impressions on the AdMob network increased by 10% to 2.55 billion from 2.31 billion. Ad requests also continued to soar, rising by 11.8%.
The statistics also show that Nokia’s share of network impressions decreased by 2.5%, and that Nokia lost 2.2% of its US ad impressions share to Motorola and RIM. The RAZR V3 took the top device spot in the US, and the Nokia N70 moved into first place in India. The top devices remained the same in the UK (Sony Ericsson K800i), South Africa (Motorola v360) and Indonesia (Nokia 6600).
In March, iPhone traffic also started growing at the same pace as the rest of the AdMob network. You can download the full report here.

Buongiorno in Voda Egypt Deployment

Mobile entertainment company Buongiorno has signed a deal with Vodafone Egypt to support the launch of the first mobile advertising program in the region. The program is running with top tier advertisers such as BMW, P&G, Pepsi and Hyundai on multiple channels, including MMS, WAP banners, SMS and Interactive Voice Response. Buongiorno’s Marketing Services division is providing Vodafone Egypt with the full solution, including its proprietary Ad Serving Platform, business consultancy, advertising sales support, campaign management and media planning for the participating brands. Addish Kulkami, MD of Buongiorno Marketing Services UK, the regional division responsible for the deal and the project, says: “At the heart of Buongiorno’s technology solution for mobile ad management is our B!3A platform, which is currently connected to carriers in over 30 countries, processing over 250 million messages each month and 150 million WAP pages per month.”
The B!3A platform consists of a variety of modules, including Ad Server, which provides campaign creation, media planning and forecasting, multichannel delivery of ads, and reporting. Other elements of B!3A in use in the Vodafone Egypt deployment are the Site Manager module to build WAP sites, and the Mobile Marketing module to run SMS and MMS push messaging. “We had been looking for an experienced partner with a proven effective end-to-end solution,” says Karim Khalifa, Head of Mobile Advertising at Vodafone Egypt. “In this sense, and for our specific market needs, Buongiorno Marketing Services’ solution was selected as best of breed for multi-channel mobile advertising.” Buongiorno Group, which owns 60% of the digital marketing business in a joint venture with the Japanese trading conglomerate Mitsui, has indicated that it expects the Buongiorno Marketing Services division to grow by up to 30% in revenues for fiscal year 2008.

Report Examines Mobile Search Prospects

Juniper Research has released its report, ‘Mobile Search & Discovery: Opportunities & Markets, 2008-2013’ which looks at the prospects for mobile search applications and services; forecasting mobile search and associated mobile advertising and data revenues across eight key geographical regions up until 2013.
The 190-page study analyses more than 15 major players, providing a qualitative detailed outlook from key executives in the industry, including strategies from market leading companies such as Google and Yahoo! In addition, the report examines the changes that are underway in the mobile search market, with the emergence of off-portal and on-device search, exploring the key drivers for the growth of mobile advertising.
The report defines five categories of mobile search, including general web search; on-device search; local search; on-portal content search; and off-portal content search. Market development forecasts for each category include number of users, number of searches, cost-per-click-through and total number of searches that are ad-supported. It further concentrates on how these developments, along with ad-supported revenues within mobile search, are likely to impact upon the growth of the mobile advertising sector.
The report examines the current and future size of the mobile search market; the key drivers for mobile search adoption; the strategies of Google and Yahoo! within the mobile environment; the major players in mobile search; and the regions in which mobile search usage is likely to be highest.
The report costs £1,490 for a hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide licence.
You can get more details here. And a free Whitepaper here.

QuickPlay and Amobee Partner for Mobile Ad Solution

QuickPlay Media,  which specializes in Mobile TV and video solutions, and mobile advertising firm Amobee Media Systems have teamed up to provide mobile service providers with the ability to launch ad-funded mobile video.
Through the partnership, Amobee and QuickPlay are offering a full-service mobile video advertising solution that they say attracts new users to mobile video, and unleashes new advertising revenue opportunities for providers. The joint solution also gives brands the opportunity to buy rich media mobile ad inventory. As part of the collaboration, Amobee will work with ad agencies to source the ads, as well as providing ad server capabilities and dynamic ad selection based on available user profiles and contextual information. QuickPlay’s OpenVideo media management platform will power streaming video, and provide dynamic, real-time video ad insertion. Together, Amobee and QuickPlay will provide comprehensive, unified reporting, including key metrics such as ads watched and the precise amount of time each ad is viewed.
“As new content is made available to mobile subscribers, service providers are looking at new ways to stimulate mobile video demand,” says QuickPlay Media President and CEO, Wayne Purboo “This exciting partnership with Amobee is yet another example of our commitment to bring mobile video to the masses. Clearly, advertising will be a large part of the business model for mobile media, and together with Amobee, we look forward to further lowering the barrier to entry for consumers to enjoy mobile video services.”      
Amobee CEO, Amobee Zohar Levkovitz, says the company’s goal is to help operators build a profitable revenue stream from advertising and give their subscribers the ability to consume more for less.
“By partnering with QuickPlay, we are making it even easier and quicker for operators to add rich advertising to their video services,” says Levkovitz. 
The solution’s first implementation was Vodafone Italy’s FreeVideo service, which gives Vodafone Italy 3G users free access to a wide range of high-quality, local and branded video content.

Byte on This

Just out of a meeting with Byte Mobile, a technology company whose Unison platform is used by 87, mainly Tier 1, operators worldwide to deliver a range of services, from content adaptation and mobile advertising to content filtering and parental controls.
When Chief Marketing Officer Adrian Hall, pausing between mouthfuls of sausage and mash, which, as a Brit exiled in California these last 10 years, he admitted was going down rather well, told me that Vodafone UK was one of the company’s customers, I wondered for a moment whether Byte was involved in Voda’s website transcoding “solution” which attracted so much criticism last year for effectively making dedicated WAP sites invisible to Vodafone UK users. In fact, it isn’t. That’s all the work of another company, Novarra, and Hall was happy to say that he thought the criticism was entirely justified.
His colleague, Marketing Director Dr. Graham Carey, then demoed the Byte adaption solution to me, using the YouTube and BBC websites to do so. The pages rendered quickly, and looked about as good as full-blown website can on a 2” screen. Carey was even able to play back a YouTube video on his Sony Ericsson handset, thanks to a licensing deal Byte has with Adobe for Flash video files.
Carey was keen to stress that the real estate of the website remains untouched, though despite this, the company can top and tail the content with mobile banner advertising, generating revenue for the network. It’s possibly the only way you’ll see the BBC homepage with an ad on the same screen, albeit sitting above the website frame.
The adaptation solution has only been available as part of the Unison platform for around 12 months, and Hall says that around 15-20% of Unison operator clients have so far deployed it, with others running tests on the technology. Where it has been deployed, he says, the results are good. Vodafone Ireland, for example, reported a 2-3x increase in off-portal web browsing within a couple of months of launch.
As flat-rate data becomes more prevalent, and as more people become comfortable with the idea of surfing the web, mobile or otherwise, on their handsets, solutions like Byte’s will have a bigger part to play in optimising the user experience. As Hall was keen to point out, the solution does not require the user to download a client to the handset, and works on any browser-equipped mobile.
The web is opening up to mobile devices. But with adaptation solutions like Byte’s, and Mippin’s RRS-feed based conversion engine, I just wonder how much of a need there will be in the future for dedicated mobile websites. Discuss.

David Murphy
Editor

MMA Backs io global's Three Screen Trial

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)  has announced its support for io global's ‘Three Screen Trial’ of integrated mobile/TV/PC marketing measurement practices.
The aim of the trial is to arrive at an optimal framework for assessing the role of mobile in integrated campaigns. For the first time, user response to branded content delivered on both mobile and PC platforms will be correlated with television viewing data. Outcomes from the trial are expected to provide MMA’s constituency with key insights on such issues as mobile marketing targeting and measurement.
io global is partnering with several major media companies and advertisers to deliver branded content to a sample of consumers for the trial. Participating publishers and ad agencies will have access to behavioural and purchasing data, as well as brand health measurements collected during the trial.
The trial will include only opt-in participants to be divided into test and control zones. Ad campaigns during the trial will be designed to include standard mobile marketing tactics such as banner ads, pre, post-roll and in-stream videos, as well as SMS and pure content sponsorship. The impact of different strategies will be measured by an independent research partner. io global says the trial will provide the mobile marketing industry with new mechanisms for measuring the role and effectiveness of mobile in integrated campaigns.
“We are pleased to be supporting io global on the Three Screen Trial,” says MMA President, Laura Marriott. “Measurement is key to all players in the ecosystem in order to drive mobile investment and maximize brand engagement with the mobile channel. The Three Screen Trial results will be one of the first steps in supporting the effectiveness of mobile in a cross media environment.”
The MMA is the premier global non-profit trade association established to lead the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies. The MMA launched a Measurement initiative in mid-2007 to respond to the need to develop consistent industry metrics to measure the success of the mobile channel.
io global, a spin off of British Telecommunications’ ventures program, is a worldwide provider of integrated mobile content solutions for wireless network operators, media companies, advertisers and advertising agencies to enhance the mobile experience for consumers. io global’s technology for managing and delivering content to mobile phones has been successfully deployed by carriers in high-growth markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“The Three Screen Trial will provide a ‘live lab’ to evaluate mobile’s impact on both sales and brand health,” says Bob DeSena, io global General Manager for North America. “Because of the unique characteristics of ioglobal’s platform, we are able to respond to the industry’s need for greater knowledge of integrated communications and the impact of different strategies on campaign outcomes.”

EC Keeps Watching Brief on Mobile Content Safety

Mobile operators serving 550 million customers in the European Union are putting in place safeguards to ensure that children can safely access content on mobile phones, as part of a programme coordinated by GSM Europe,  the European arm of the GSM Association.
One year after the introduction of GSM Europe’s European Framework for Safer Mobile Use by Younger Teenagers and Children, self-regulatory codes of conduct are now in place in 21 countries of the European Union. GSM Europe expects similar codes to be introduced in the remaining six countries of the EU, as 24 mobile operators and content providers covering all the Member States have signed the framework.
The framework sets out a number of measures, such as access control mechanisms, classification of commercial content, and the raising awareness and education, which operators should implement to ensure that children can safely access content on their mobile phones.
“As mobile broadband networks proliferate, enabling Europeans to easily access a rich selection of content via their handsets, our industry is moving in a timely fashion to ensure the necessary safeguards are in place to enable parents to have confidence in their children using these mobile services safely,” says GSM Europe Chair, Kaisu Karvala.
Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, says that  GSME and European mobile operators should be congratulated for the work they have done so far in trying to establish national codes of conduct for safer mobile use by children and young people, but says that more needs to be done.
“Mobile operators have taken an important step towards making online technologies safer for children and enhancing transparency,” she says. “In some countries, there is, however, still substantial work to be done to ensure that these principles are really put into practice. I will continue to follow this very closely, because practical measures and concrete implementation are what really matter to children and their parents. I strongly encourage mobile operators to cooperate in this implementation process with non-profit organisations and other stakeholders engaged in child safety. I will come back to this issue this autumn to see whether further measures by the Commission are required.”
The mobile industry is calling on EU policy-makers to provide support in achieving the objectives of the framework, in particular, the development and distribution of educational material to teachers and parents.

Europe

’s mobile operators will also regularly review the national codes of conduct to ensure they remain fit for purpose.

Bango Releases Mobile Ad Stats

Bango has released clickthrough and conversion rate data from mobile advertising campaigns that show that banner and text ads on mobile websites typically have a click through rate of 2-8% with a conversion rate of 2-5% which can be as high as 12% on some networks. The data was collected by Bango customers who use Bango Analytics to measure their mobile marketing campaigns.
The stats show that when the offer is closely aligned to the needs of a particular consumer profile, clickthrough and conversion rates increase, often doubling. Using Bango Analytics, mobile site owners can determine the characteristics of those most receptive to their marketing message. This information is then used to focus marketing campaigns on the countries, networks and handsets which return the highest conversion rates.
AdEye, a mobile marketing company that uses Bluetooth technology to target ads at consumers, ran billboard ads for Sony Ericsson and selected Bango Analytics so it could analyze the responses. 
“We want to understand more about who was clicking through - what network were they on, what device did used, how they responded to the offer, what they did next?" says EdEye CEO, Tommy Jensen. “Bango Analytics gives us this level of detail, which is incredibly valuable to our clients.”
Data from Bango Analytics showed that 47% of responses came from the number three mobile operator in Denmark, Telia, while just 29% came from the largest operator, TDC. An impressive 32.9% of the users that made a Bluetooth request went to the WAP campaign site.
By looking at the Bango Analytics data, another advertiser, Tapatap, a mobile social game site, calculated mobile ad conversion rates and acquisition costs per member. The impressive conversion rates have confirmed the wisdom of Tapatap's strategy of focusing its marketing efforts on mobile.
“We are using Bango Analytics for a wide range of tasks,” says Tapatap CEO, Andy Riedel. “One is to audit the traffic we are getting from the various traffic networks we use. We  aggregate traffic from a wide variety of sources and wanted an independent means to ensure that the traffic we receive is what we are paying for. Bango Analytics has proven to be very valuable as an independent auditing tool.”
Bango notes that the key to a successful mobile advertising campaign is buying traffic from the right mobile network as the subscriber profile of each varies - some have a younger demographic, others more professional users or more willing to try out innovative, new services.
“Our clients are interested in carrier-based targeting,” says Derek Merrill, Chief Innovation Officer at MoVoxx, a mobile as agency focused exclusively on SMS marketing. “One of our advertisers placed ads across our mobile social networking SMS inventory. The short text-based ads included a URL to download a branded mobile game. We used Bango Analytics to track clickthroughs and compare results across the major carriers.”
bango points out that it’s easy to insert tags or tracking links into the mobile site to identify traffic from ad campaigns and search keywords. Data collected can quickly be analyzed to determine the return on investment from each campaign. Bango Analytics operates as a hosted service, allowing mobile website owners anywhere in the world to connect their sites to the Analytics service in minutes and start getting results free of charge. You can find out more and try it out here.

CTIA: ChangingWorlds Launches ClixSmart Ad Personalizer

ChangingWorlds, which specialises in personalisation solutions for mobile data and subscriber intelligence has launched its ClixSmart Ad Personalizer solution for mobile advertising to US carriers at the CTIA show in Las Vegas. With the launch of, ChangingWorlds' brings its unique personalization technology and subscriber intelligence creation capabilities to mobile advertising.
ChangingWorlds says that ClixSmart AdPersonalizer intelligently delivers personalised ads to users in a relevant, targeted, contextual and timely manner that is device- and network-agnostic. The solution uses the personalisation features of the ClixSmart Relevance Engine to identify, select, and deliver the most relevant advertising content to the right subscriber at the right time.
The ClixSmart Relevance Engine combines two unique technologies that have been developed by ChangingWorlds to deliver highly targeted mobile advertising that reflects behavioural and contextual factors, as well as the inherent content preferences of each individual subscriber. This ensures that mobile advertising revenue is maximized by optimizing inventory throughput and clickthrough rates.
Using a technology called User-Community Preferences (UCPs), the ClixSmart Relevance Engine can develop an enhanced view of subscriber preferences and behaviour that combines the interests of the individual subscriber with the preferences of like-minded subscribers (communities). Additionally, the ClixSmart Relevance Engine creates an Ad Signature for each individual ad, which defines the important characteristics of an ad that makes it relevant for particular users.
“Advertising is another form of content that must be highly personalised over mobile and not just using basic demographic or superficial profiling,” says ChangingWorlds Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Professor Barry Smyth. “Simply delivering an advert based on age, sex, handset type and location is not good enough, and will be intrusive and off-putting for mobile Internet users. ChangingWorlds is unrivalled in its ability to implicitly create individual behavioural and community subscriber intelligence by analyzing on-deck and off-deck usage and such subscriber intelligence is essential to the success of mobile advertising.”
ChangingWorlds' notes that its personalisation and subscriber intelligence technology has won numerous innovation awards from leading technology groups such as the American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). The technology is deployed in more than 50 mobile operators worldwide.

Local News

Local Matters, a US-based media technology solutions provider, and local mobile search and advertising company mobilePeople, have entered into a Share Purchase Agreement, under the terms of which Local Matters will acquire all of the outstanding capital stock of mobilePeople in exchange for a combination of cash and Local Matters stock. The combined company will provide directory publishers, media publishers and directory assistance providers with media technology solutions that connect consumers and advertisers across digital channels including the Internet, wireless and voice.
There are now more than 3 billion mobile users globally, and local search ranks among the top content categories that consumers use on their mobiles. Publishers are increasingly extending into Internet and mobile to capture users and local advertisers.
“We chose mobilePeople because we believe they have the best technology to create a mobile distribution presence for publishers,” says Local Matters CEO Perry Evans. “Its expertise, its track record and its innovation cycles set them apart from the many other companies in this space. Our aim now is to be the preferred one-stop shop for directory publishers and directory assistance providers for outsourced media technology solutions online, on wireless and on voice.”
The two companies formed a business partnership in 2006 and have several joint initiatives in progress. The closing of the transaction is subject to additional closing conditions and is currently expected to close in the second quarter of 2008.

AdMob Passes 20 Billion Milestone

Mobile advertising network AdMob has revealed that it has served its 20 billionth advertisement, making it the first mobile advertising company to hit this milestone worldwide. The company’s monthly impressions have grown from 500 million ads per month a year ago to 2.5 billion advertisements per month today. This, the company says, demonstrates both the electric pace of overall mobile web browsing worldwide and the growth of the AdMob network of sites.
AdMob’s 20 billionth ad impression was from financial services conglomerate HDFC. The ad was served in India at 1:56am UTC on Tuesday, 25 March, while a visitor was browsing Cricinfo’s mobile web site on a Nokia N70.
“This is an exciting milestone, but we’re most encouraged by the progress we’ve made on the underlying platform and technology that powers our marketplace,” says AdMob Founder and CEO, Omar Hamoui. “Our relevance and optimization efforts led by our team of statisticians and researchers have already yielded double digit gains in our ability to monetize our publisher’s sites. I’m very confident that over the next two quarters we will be making significant product enhancements and releasing entirely new solutions that will further unlock the true potential in mobile.”
AdMob has grown its ecosystem on the back of technology built to optimize relevance and targeting for the mobile environment. Hundreds of advertisers create and run ads through the marketplace on www.admob.com every day, and AdMob serves ads to mobile web users in over 160 countries daily. AdMob recently launched a Japanese language version of its online marketplace to serve the Japanese market, which is among the most developed country markets for mobile web browsing.
Brian Bos, SVP, Convergence Director of Mindshare - Team Detroit, which buuys mobile ad inventory for a number of clients says:
“Ford believes mobile marketing is an important and engaging way to reach consumers. AdMob has provided us with an efficient and highly targeted way to engage potential customers in the mobile environment. We congratulate them on their momentum and leadership in this medium.”
AdMob publishes network statistics on countries and devices on a monthly basis. You can see the stats here.

Using Mobile as a Store-finding Tool

Paint manufacturer Crown Paints has turned to mobile technology to help solve a problem that was potentially costing the company money in lost sales. The company’s main customer base consists of professional painters and decorators. As these tradesmen tend to cover a wide area, they may not know where their nearest Crown Decorator Centre is located. Crown needed an easy and convenient way of allowing the customer to find their nearest Centre while they are out and about. The answer lay in Radius, a mobile technology platform designed by mobile agency Wapfly for exactly this type of situation.
To find their nearest Crown Decorator Centre, the customer texts the word CROWN to the shortcode, 87766. The Radius platform detects the mobile user’s location and responds with a text message telling the customer the location of the nearest Centre. An option is also available for the customer to then phone the branch directly in order to check or pre-order stock.
“This type of technology has the potential to drastically alter the way that we communicate with customers, allowing businesses to reach the customer directly and fine tune any marketing specifically to them,” says Wapfly Technical Director, David Hague. “There is also the opportunity to generate extra revenue from this form of marketing, though Crown chose to charge their customers nothing for the service. The only cost to the customer is the price of the text message.”

Juniper Analyses Mobile Search Prospects

Juniper Research has released its report, ‘Search & Discovery: Opportunities & Markets, 2008-2013’.  The report assesses the current and future potential of mobile search applications and services, forecasting mobile search and associated mobile advertising and data revenues across eight key geographical regions until 2013.
The 190-page study analyses over 15 major players, providing a qualitative detailed outlook from key executives in the industry, including strategies from market-leading companies such as Google and Yahoo! In addition, the report explains the changes that are underway in the mobile search market, with the emergence of off-portal and on-device search, exploring the key drivers for the growth of mobile advertising.
The report defines five categories of mobile search, including general web search; on-device search; local search; on-portal content search; and off-portal content search. Market development forecasts are split into these five search strategies, and include users, number of searches, cost-per-clickthrough and total number of searches that are ad supported. It further concentrates on how these developments, along with ad-supported revenues within mobile search, are likely to impact upon the growth of the mobile advertising sector.
The report examined the current and future size of the mobile search market; the key drivers for mobile search adoption; the strategies being adopted by Google and Yahoo! within the mobile environment; who the major players in mobile search are; in which regions mobile search usage is likely to be highest; and how much data revenue mobile operators can expect to generate through search services.
The report costs £1,490 for a single-user PDF or hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide licence.
You can get more details here. A brochure here. And a free Whitepaper here.

Airwide Takes Innovation Award

Airwide Solutions, which provides next-generation mobile messaging and mobile Internet infrastructure, applications and solutions, took the Gold Award in the ‘Innovation in Mobile Advertising’ category at the recent inaugural Visiongain Mobile Advertising and Marketing Awards (MAMAs). 
The Innovation Award was the most hotly-contested category, drawing up to three times as many entries as the next closest category. Airwide won for the company’s Mobile Advertising solution that enables mobile operators to effectively capitalise on the growing demand for mobile marketing and advertising. The solution, which has already been deployed at Blyk, the pan-European ad-funded mobile operator, enables operators to better promote their services and brand differentiation, as well as supporting multiple advertising models and interactive sales campaigns. 
“Winning an industry award of this nature is important validation of Airwide’s product direction and vision of enabling compelling new services such as mobile advertising that are based on proven mobile infrastructure,” says Kaj Hagros, Airwide Solutions Vice President of Market Development. “Examples such as this service that have been deployed as part of exciting new mobile advertising business models are proof that this is not just a vision, but is also being executed on today.” 
Richard Walledge, Event Producer for the Visiongain MAMA’s, says it was Airwide’s capacity to apply technological innovation to solving some of the issues that are inhibiting the growth of mobile advertising, as well as the company’s success with real-world customers, that made them stand out.

Amobee Powers Boost Ad Platform

Boost Mobile, a lifestyle-based telecommunications brand and wholly-owned division of Sprint Nextel, has taken the wraps off a new mobile advertising platform. Boost offers premium prepaid wireless phones and services. It is working with Amobee Media Systems, which specialises in providing mobile advertising solutions for wireless service providers, to deliver ads to Boost Mobile’s 4.6 million consumers, the majority of which are under the age of 30. 
Acura (www.acura.com), the luxury automotive brand, and Fox Searchlight Pictures, a film company that both finances and acquires motion pictures, are among the first companies to advertise on the platform. The first ads, which appeared yesterday, featured information on Fox Searchlight Pictures’ April 11 release, ‘Street Kings’. Shortly thereafter, consumers will begin seeing ads for Acura’s new 2009 TSX vehicle. Boost customers are not charged for viewing the ads, and they can opt-out from receiving ads by calling Boost customer service at 1-888-BOOST-4U.
Mobile advertising will appear initially on Boost Mobile’s BoostLIVE and Web Home. BoostLIVE is Boost Mobile’s handset storefront where customers can buy digital content such as ringtones, wallpapers, music, and games. Boost plans to expand advertising content to include messaging and key applications in the near future. 
“Mobile advertising is an excellent vehicle for reaching a growing segment of younger consumers who are drifting away from traditional mediums such as TV and print,” says Neil Lindsay, Vice President of Product Development at Boost Mobile. “The unique advantage Boost Mobile offers advertisers is access to today’s under-30 audience, a massive and growing crowd of consumers who are more likely to embrace advertising on their wireless phones.”

Jinny Makes Middle East Move

Jinny Software, which provides personalised messaging and media solutions to the mobile industry, has signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Dubai-based communications company, MCN Holding,  one of the Middle East’s best-known full-service advertising, marketing and media groups, which has numerous affiliates and subsidiaries throughout the Middle East and Africa.
Under the terms of the deal, MCN will work exclusively with Jinny and its Advertising Engine when it seeks to buy mobile network advertising space on behalf of its clients. This will apply to SMS, MMS or other emerging, messaging-based advertising methods. Jinny Software will, in turn, utilise the expertise of MCN as it seeks to deliver guidance and overall direction on mobile advertising to its existing customer base, as well as new clients throughout the region.
“The use of mobile communications for the delivery of targeted and effective advertising campaigns will grow rapidly, and is likely to become one of the most important media of the 21st Century,” says MCN Media Vice President, Oussama Jamal. “Our agreement with Jinny Software will make mobile advertising easier for operators and advertisers. Jinny’s technology allows us to go directly to our target audience, but, more importantly, allows us to show our clients exactly who has responded to a campaign, in real-time, something which has not existed in the industry before now.”
Built on Jinny’s messaging and filtering technologies, the Jinny Advertising Engine has the power to deliver tailored advertising in a variety of ways. Ads can be inserted into any type of peer-to-peer messaging traffic, in real-time, and with sophisticated internal algorithms, the solution ensures that the ad is relevant and useful to its audience. Employing easy-to-use tools to allow advertisers to deliver tailored advertising, Jinmny says the Advertising Engine makes it easy for advertisers to send their messages to a large number of targeted consumers via mobile networks.
“It is clear that in the early stages of this new business model for advertisement delivery, strategic partnerships are going to be crucial,” says Declan O’Mahony, Jinny Software Chief Commercial Officer. “Mobile operators have not had a lot of experience selling their multiple media channels to advertisers. With this agreement, MCN and Jinny can assist in bridging the gap between the advertisers and mobile operators.”

Velti on the Up

Mobile marketing and advertising technology service provider Velti reports that its 2007 revenues were 75% up on the previous year. Velti announced the launch of the Version 4 of its Mobile Marketing Platform (MMP 4.0) at Mobile World Congress 2008 last month, along with details of several new customer wins, including Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, LMVH's Hennessy, Pepsico and Colgate-Palmolive.
MMP 4.0 features enhanced advertising and marketing solutions spanning multiple media,  including mobile communities, games and applications. Using MMP 4.0, says Velti, advertisers and operators can offer consumers a unique, personalised mobile marketing experience using loyalty schemes, mobile coupons, social networks and other interactive activities. 
“2007 was the year when the mobile channel started to move into the mainstream advertising and marketing mix,” says Velti CEO, Alexandros Moukas. “Our market-leading full service mobile technology platform allows clients to manage more than 70 types of campaign solutions from development through to delivery and measurement. This holistic approach gives our customers the ability to deploy the right campaigns for their audiences to the timescales and across the regions they need.”
Velti created a number of brand loyalty-building campaigns for major operators in Europe during 2007. Orange UK partnered with Velti to launch an online and mobile music community which offers a priority mobile ticketing notification and purchasing service. The service is designed to enable Orange to develop a direct and interactive relationship with customers, allowing them to receive notifications of their favourite artists' concerts and reserve tickets via the mobile.
Velti notes that its work with mobile operator MTEL on a shortcode competition led to the country's most successful mobile campaign, with over 12.5 million messages from a subscriber base of just 4.5 million, while a Bacardi campaign for mobile invitations to parties had to close early due to its success.
Also last year, Velti and Interpublic Group announced the launch of Ansible, their joint venture which has formed a dedicated mobile marketing agency of the same name. Ansible currently operates in North America and Europe, with plans to open full-service offices in Asia. It is using Velti's MMP to offer mobile strategy, creative development and campaign management. Since its commercial launch in September 2007, Ansible has signed up five Fortune-50 customers for mobile campaigns in North America, Europe and Asia.

mobilePeople Launches liquid Solution

mobilePeople, the local mobile search provider, has introduced its liquid Advertising Suite, which it says further strengthens its proposition for directory publishers. The solution is designed to improve monetisation opportunities through the presentation of contextually and geographically relevant mobile advertising to mobile users.
The liquid Advertising Suite consists of the liquid Ad Server, the liquid Adsite Builder and liquid SMS Links. The liquid Advertising Suite is integrated with the mobilePeople liquid Mobile Search Platform, which is available in 12 markets worldwide. With Jupiter predicting that mobile search advertising will grow from $1.4 billion (£700 million) in 2006 to $2.9 billion by 2011, mobilePeople says the opportunity for directory publishers to monetise their mobile offer is huge
mobilePeople says the solution provides directory publishers and advertisers with “unparalleled opportunities for monetisation” by enabling them to integrate a complete set of mobile-specific advertising formats into the mobile offering. These take the form of priority products, sponsored links, banner and map advertisements, mobile adsites and click-to-call reporting. In addition, the company says, these products allow for flexible business models, as directory publishers and directory assistance providers can sell using either fixed or performance-based pricing models.
The Ad Server provides the capability to deliver targeted mobile ad campaigns for directory publishers. The Adsite Builder consists of tools for rich mobile website creation. SMS links is designed for directory assistance, to add v