IBM Survey On Mobile Phone Based Entertainment

IBM’s recent global online survey of consumer digital media and entertainment habits has unearthed some interesting facts. Let me present to you the ones that caught my attention.

1. According to the survey, a lot of mobile users these days are willing to get ads on their mobile phones in return for free digital content. Well; if you’ve been following this blog, this news should not come as a surprise to you at all. But the interesting thing here is that mobile users from six countries – India, Australia, the U.S., Germany, Japan, and the U.K. – have said the same thing.

2. Quite a few mobile users have stated that they would be willing to share their personal information with mobile advertisers if they were to get targeted incentives through mobile ads. The most preferred incentives include free audio/video tracks, discount coupons to retail stores, and air travel and hotel reward points.

3. A lot of mobile users find the mobile search facility extremely useful. Moreover, with the advent of 3G networks, mobile web could become a lot more popular than what it is right now – something which I have stated again and again in this blog.

4. Mobile social networking is considered the next big thing. It is one of the most sought after services by mobile users around the world.

5. One thing that stands out in the survey is the notable decline of TV as the primary media device. Thanks to the wide range of multimedia content available on the internet and mobile phones, people do not tend to spend as much time on TV as they used to in the past.

6. Most people do not prefer TV type advertising - getting interrupted by ads in the middle of a program. Instead, they prefer to see ads before and after the show. This way, they get to enjoy the digital content without any interruption. Product placement is yet another option for mobile advertisers, but it could, if overdone, turn customers off. So, they should try not to go overboard with product placement in mobile video games and other such digital entertainment content.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

0 comments.

Yet another interesting report on mobile advertising - II

I recently read a brilliant report on mobile advertising by Arthur D Little, a leading management firm. It says that mobile broadband will gain significant popularity in the next five years and with Europe being the leader in mobile based services now, mobile broadband penetration in Europe will be the highest in the world, up to 50%.

The report also talks about the role of mobile operators in mobile advertising. I was surprised to read that advertising generates only 5% of mobile operators’ revenue whereas in other media, advertising plays a bigger role and constitutes around 16% of the total revenue. This clearly indicates that mobile operators are yet to understand the impact of advertising as a revenue generating model. However, with mobile market growing fast, they need to think of ways to tap the revenue that can be generated from advertising.

Internet kingpins like Google and Yahoo have realized the importance of mobile advertising and are working on making it a successful source of revenue. At this stage, mobile operators need to do something on their own to generate revenue through advertising or they need to at least form partnerships with big players like Google and Yahoo and share the revenue. Either way, there is money to be made in mobile advertising and whether you are an operator or an advertiser, you need to come up with an idea to get your share.

The report also talks about Blyk and takes it as a case study to describe how successful mobile advertising could be, if it’s done the right way.

I’ve always believed that mobile broadband has a great future and moreover, we are now at a stage where we are fed up with 3G networks and talking about WiMax as an alternative. So, the stage is set for mobile broadband to become the next big thing.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

0 comments.