Is ad-funded mobile TV the future?

Communicasia is one of the most talked about IT events this year and Communicasia 2008 is underway as I’m writing this blog. A congregation of IT and communication majors from all over the world are expected to be there and the list of attendees is quite impressive.

MComms TV, an Australian company, caught my attention. It is a mobile TV innovation company and it showcased a software-based solution which in my opinion can play a huge part in mobile TV in the future.

MComms Ad Insert, the software-based solution, places advertisements in live mobile TV streams seamlessly. The company couldn’t have chosen a better time. Just recently, Verizon and AT&T launched their own mobile TV service and they both received lukewarm reception from mobile users. The reason is pretty clear. Mobile users, a big number of them, are not ready to pay a monthly subscription for mobile TV yet. In this case, the only way to make users tune into mobile TV is to offer the service for free. Which is possible only if it’s ad-funded. You get the picture?

Now at this juncture, a technology like MComms Ad Insert could come handy. Operators can now try to offer free mobile TV backed with advertisements. After all, the users get to access a variety of mobile content including but not limited to music videos, TV shows, and movie trailers.

What do you say? Have any of you guys subscribed to Verizon or AT&T’s mobile TV service? Will you give it a try if it was free of cost? Let me know your views.

Categories: Mobile TV.

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Yahoo to send text message ads to mobile users

As the next step in its quest for domination in the mobile advertising industry, Yahoo might soon start sending text message ads to mobile users. It is all set to announce a partnership with a startup in Silicon Valley (where else?) called 4INFO. Yahoo believes that 4INFO’s technology will be very helpful in its text message advertising campaigns.

Yahoo is planning to send mobile content including news, sports updates, horoscopes, weather forecasts, and other things via text messages. The total number of characters allowed in a text message is 160. Out of this, 40 characters will be dedicated to advertisements.

The point, however, is, they seem to have an interesting deal. Yahoo will send mobile content backed up with mobile ads and 4INFO will try to send ads through its own mobile advertising network. The revenue will be split 60-40 between them and whoever managed to make a sale will walk away with 60% of the share. How about that?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Yahoo.

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Download free mobile games from freemobilegames.mobi

Just a couple of days back we saw a report from Screen Digest which said that mobile video games will become hugely popular in a few years from now and over 60 million games will be downloaded every year. Now, we have another company which lets you do exactly the same – download video games to your mobile phone free of cost.

Freemobilegames.mobi is a site which allows you to download ad funded mobile games for free. It’s basically a simple procedure. You go to the site, select the kind of handset that you have, look at the categories of games for that particular handset, select one, and download it to your mobile phone.

Now, though these games are supported by advertisements, you’ll have to pay a small charge to download and play the game, if you don’t have unlimited data plan. If you have unlimited data plan, then the games are absolutely free for you. The advertisements will be shown before the start of the game and after the finish of the game.

I think the site’s future depends on the value they provide for users. If the games are varied and interesting enough for uses, the site can expect quite a handful of downloads regularly. That aside, I think the domain name is one heck of a name. I’ve already blogged about dot mobi domains becoming very popular and ‘costly’ and this domain name is simply the best you can get for a site that offers free mobile video games. Don’t you agree?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Games.

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Ad funded mobile phone service in the Philippines

A new mobile phone service, fully funded by advertisements, has been launched in the Philippines. The service is called U Mobile and it is targeted mainly toward young people.

This is the first-of-its-kind service in the Philippines, where more than 45% of the people are said to own mobile phones. This service is specifically targeted toward people from age 15 to 34 – popularly termed ‘the youth and yuppies’. The phone service is open for people only on an invitation only basis. You can use this service absolutely free of cost provided you’re willing to get that many ads in your mobile phone as specified by the service provider.

The company aims to get anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 subscribers within one year.

This company reminds me of Blyk, which has had phenomenal success so far. However, the success of this ad funded phone service depends on user response. If you remember, Blyk set a similar target of 100,000 subscribers in one year in the UK and reached it in just six months. It remains to be seen if this Filipino company can do so.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Men’s Health to incorporate fully interactive advertising

Perhaps the most popular men’s lifestyle magazine in the world today, Men’s Health, is all set to become the first magazine to incorporate fully interactive advertising in the U.S.A. Men’s Health has joined hands with SnapTell, a mobile marketing solutions company, to incorporate image recognition based technology in its magazine.

What this means to you, the magazine reader, is this. From now on, you can simply take a snap of the advertisements in the magazines with your cell phone camera and send a short code to SnapTell. In return, you’ll get a promotional bounce-back. It might be a discount coupon, a sweepstake offer, product sample, or free wallpapers and videos.

This makes responding to ads so easy for the users and this might increase user response big time. We’ve seen ads in magazines and newspapers which ask us to call a number or visit a store to get more information. But this is really, really simple. You just need to take a snap and send a short code. I think the response rate for this kind of interactive advertising will be way better than traditional ads, for obvious reasons.

Also, there are two things that make this technology extremely useful. First, it’s compatible with all cell phone providers across the country. Second, you don’t need to download any software to make use of this technology.

Men’s Health’s July/August issue will be the first issue to come out with this technology and it hits the news stands on June 24. Make sure you check it out.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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