Why do some mobile operators suck big time?

Hello folks,

It’s weekend time and as usual I checked out the feeds in my mailbox. One article stood out from the rest and caught my attention more than anything else.

Just when I thought mobile advertisers and operators will be more careful in the future to avoid unfortunate incidents like the China Mobile and Focus Media problem, I stumbled on to this news. Honestly, I was annoyed big time. Let me explain.

SingTel, a very famous mobile operator in Singapore, has the habit of sending mobile ads to its subscribers. What’s the big deal, you ask me? Well; here, the customers only have the option to opt out of the ads, not to opt in. Confused? Let me explain further.

With a mobile connection from SingTel, you automatically get ads on your mobile phone. You can’t do a damn thing about it. In other words, there is no opt-in option for people so that only those who want ads can opt in and those who don’t want can simply stay out. In this case, the operator only gives you the choice to opt out any time you want. In other words, you’ll get ads on your mobile phone whether you like it or not. If you don’t like it, it’s your duty to opt out of it.

Seriously, I cannot think of a better way to annoy the hell out of customers. But then, this has been a trend in some third world countries for quite some time now, and I know it better than anyone else. Airtel, the leading mobile operator in India, has been accused of sending unsolicited text message ads and marketing calls time and again in the past. Again, it’s the duty of the customer to opt out of these ads if he doesn’t want them.

This is plain stupid and someone needs to do something about it. At the end of the day, no matter how good your mobile ads are, there are still some people who prefer to stay out of them. And you have no rights whatsoever to poke your nose into their mobile phone. Like I’ve mentioned time and again, mobile advertising will be a success only if you respect the privacy of consumers and give them a choice to choose what they want and what they don’t want. Hope the powers-that-be realize this sooner than later.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Rant.

1 comment.

Will newspapers go mobile?

Websites are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. Corporations are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. Advertisers are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. Banks are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. What’s next on the list? Newspapers, they say.

When you look at the current scenario, it looks like an obvious transition for newspapers. The circulation is declining by the day as people are more and more getting used to the content available on the internet and the mobile phone. In this case, newspapers hardly have a choice.

Fortunately, the bigwigs of the newspaper world have realized the need for this transition. Already, we have seen Associated Content launch its mobile portal and I have no doubt it will be followed by other news networks. The writing is on the wall. With 3.3 billion active users, mobile market is the biggest market there is. Realizing this, U.S. mobile carriers have invested an astonishing $40 billion to retool themselves according to the new mobile age.

Currently, more than 30% of mobile users surf the internet on their mobile phone. The number is rapidly rising as new mobile users these days mostly go for web enabled mobile phones. With this being the case, newspapers have to find a way to get into the mobile phone at any cost.

The newspaper, fortunately, is almost tailor made for a medium like mobile phone. The specialty of newspapers lies in their ability to provide local content, which is exactly what mobile users want. The more local your data is, the better it will be for the users, since most of them use their mobile phone to find out local information like weather, local events, and so on. So, the transition will be seamless, so to speak. When newspapers go mobile, it will also mean a huge opportunity for mobile advertisers to be able to display highly targeted ads along with the local news content.

What needs to be done – this everyone seems to know. When will it get done? That’s the question. Don’t you agree?

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Web.

0 comments.

Advertising in mobile games - A summary

This post is kinda like a summary. Of everything I’ve talked about advertising on mobile games so far. A couple of my friends asked me to explain mobile games, the concept of advertising in mobile games, how they do it, why they do it, and of course some official facts and figures to back up my claims. Though I’ve talked about mobile games and advertising in mobile games quite often in this blog, I thought it would be nice to summarize it in just one post to make it easier for my readers. So, here it goes.

If you were to rate some of the most favorite pastimes of mobile users, mobile video games would certainly be one of them. From kids to teenagers to adults, everyone likes to spend a little time on mobile games every now and then. And downloading a game to your mobile phone has become ever so easy thanks to mobile advertisers. You have ad funded mobile video games that are free to download and they are very popular among people now. In fact, media analyst Screen Digest predicts that by 2012, over 60 million mobile games will be downloaded per year. That’s a monstrous number which just goes to show the popularity of mobile video games.

There are two ways in which advertisers place their ads in mobile video games. First, ads are placed before and after a game. This is by far the most common form of advertising in mobile video games. You download a game and when you’re about to start playing it, you’ll be shown some ad spots. Then when you finish playing the game, you’ll be shown some more ad spots. This method works well with users as they are not disturbed during the course of the game. Also, advertisers tend to gain from this as there is no way these ads can go unnoticed.

Second method is called product placement. Now, this method is even more refined and the ads are blended seamlessly into the gaming environment. In this method, you’ll not find ads popping up before or after the game. Instead, you’ll find them placed within your game. The soccer players might be wearing Nike jerseys, the boxers might be wearing Adidas shoes, and the signboards might have Microsoft logos. This way, the brands are shown to us in a subtle way and it doesn’t distract our attention on the game at all. So, this method is also pretty popular with advertisers these days.

The mobile advertising industry is growing fast and ad funded mobile games have never been so popular. There are plenty of companies that offer free mobile games for download which are completely ad funded. Going by the popularity of these games, the prediction made by Screen Digest very much looks like a possibility in the next few years.

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

0 comments.

Cell phone advertisers target teens

What to wear for the prom? What’s hot and what’s not this season? How to say no to alcohol on the prom night? Well; teens can get all this info and more right on their cell phone.

Since teenagers are the ones who spend a lot of time on their cell phone, cell phone advertisers have started target them by offering lots of cool stuff through text messages, WAP links, and more. Now, they can subscribe to ad campaigns and have lots of cool tips, offers, and other things delivered right on their cell phone. They could get fashion tips, news about the latest model jewelry, WAP links to cool mobile sites, discount coupons on famous beauty products, and more. Cell phone advertisers say that teenagers don’t mind getting relevant ads that they find useful and respond to them pretty regularly.

Advertisers find it easier to create a following for their products through cell phone advertising. As these text alerts and ads are delivered only to people who are interested, they are most likely to respond to them. So, the response rate is pretty high in this kind of interactive advertising.

I think it’s a nice arrangement. Teens get what they want and the advertisers get what they want. However, I think advertisers should not send a gazillion ads to their teenage subscribers just because they’re open to it. They could easily get fed up. Also, a lot of teenagers don’t have a regular disposable income and depend on their parents for their cell phone bill. As an advertiser, you sure don’t want to make these parents see red when they come to know how much their son or daughter is spending on text messages. So, a small number of relevant, useful ads at regular intervals could be the perfect recipe to attract a lot of teens.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

2 comments.

Innovative mobile advertising campaign from Japan

It’s weekend time and, as usual, I started digging into the RSS feeds I’ve subscribed to. And I came across this news which I thought was very cool.

Tohato, a snacks company in Japan, has done a phenomenal job in interactive mobile advertising. Tohato has come up with a mobile advertising campaign based on its two popular brands of spicy snacks namely Habanero and Satan Jorquia.

The idea is simple. All you need to do is, buy a pack of snack, scan the 2D barcode printed on the pack, and enter the game via your mobile phone. First, you’ll be asked to pick your favorite brand between Habanero and Satan Jorquia. Each brand has its own ‘evil army’ and whoever chooses that brand becomes a part of that army. There will be a ‘World’s Worst War’ in which both these armies will fight against each other.

You can also move up the ranks in the army by recruiting your friends to join your army. In turn, they could recruit their other friends to join the army. As more and more people join through you, you’ll be promoted. There are twenty battlefields in which these armies will fight against each other and after every fight, details like how many died, how many were promoted, which battlefield was captured by whom, and other things will be delivered to you via your mobile phone.

The response for this campaign has been great so far, as the game is highly engaging. The ad agency in Japan which created this mobile advertising campaign has already got several awards worldwide for the best mobile campaign.

Japan once again has proved that it’s miles ahead of other countries when it comes to mobile advertising. If you notice, using QR codes in mobile advertising campaigns has paid off big time and it has made their job every so easy. I for one, as a mobile user, find the idea of scanning the barcode easier than say sending a text message to get more details on a particular product. I really hope that mobile advertisers in the U.S. and Europe take note of this and use QR codes in their mobile advertising campaigns.

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

0 comments.

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