Microsoft says yes to banner ads in mobile phones

Microsoft has announced that it will allow advertisers to serve mobile users with banner ads from now on. Advertisers will now be able to display banner ads to mobile users using Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail. However, this is restricted only to the users in the U.S., France, Spain, and the U.K.

By doing this, Microsoft has joined the list of companies like Google, AdMob, Yahoo, and Third Screen which serve banner ads to mobile users.

Microsoft also hinted that it might soon introduce keyword advertising service in Windows Live Search Mobile. Though the beta version is available in the U.S. now, Microsoft believes that there is still room for improvement and it might hit the market only later this year. Microsoft is also working on expanding its presence in mobile market and has made Live Search Mobile available in 49 markets.

It’s good to see that Microsoft has put the Yahoo fiasco behind and working to improve its position in the mobile market. However, with Yahoo going great guns and Google looking to leave no stone unturned for Android, it better be watchful.

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

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The role of mobile video in mobile advertising

Among the different options that are available in mobile advertising - which include text messaging, banner ads, mobile video, mobile TV, mobile audio (ring back tone), and mobile internet ads – text message is the most preferred and the most used form, as it is the only service available in all kinds of mobile phones. However, mobile video and mobile TV are far more engaging and effective in advertising and the only reason they are not used as often as they should have been is the poor quality of mobile videos and the low number of users with mobile phones that support such facility.

As you know, not every mobile phone is as good as the iPhone when it comes to mobile videos and mobile internet, which makes it difficult for mobile advertisers to go that route. However, according to M:Metrics, the number of people who watch mobile videos has increased steadily over the last year or two, which is an encouraging news for mobile advertisers.

According to its statistics, last year alone, some 9 million people in the U.S. watched some kind of video on their mobile phones. People are most interested to watch movie trailers, music videos, sports updates, weather reports, comedy, celebrity news, cartoons, and TV shows.

The statistics tell us a story. People are interested to watch videos on their mobile phone, but the thing that stops most people from doing so is either poor video quality or the high price charged by some of the carriers to watch videos.

Two things need to be done. First, more and more high-end mobile phones with facilities like video, mobile TV, and mobile internet should be introduced in the market, of course at an affordable rate. Second, mobile advertisers should partner with carriers to provide ad-funded mobile content like mobile TV and mobile video for free. While both these things cannot be done overnight, they will definitely see the light of the day in the coming days.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Free mobile calls could be the future?

I always thought it was a possibility and my faith has been reinforced. I’m talking about the possibility of free mobile phone calls and going by the development in mobile advertising industry, it could soon become reality.

Vodafone recently launched Free4me portal, which you can access through its multimedia menu Vodafone Live. What’s so special about this portal? Well; all the services, I mean every single service, in the portal are free. That’s right, it won’t cost you a single penny. Everything is ad-funded and if you agree to get ads on your mobile phone, you can use the services free of cost. The ads could come in the form of banner ads, SMS or text messages, and MMS.

As of now, the portal has mobile TV shows, competitions, club guides, and other services for customers. Vodafone is planning to add a lot more to the portal in the form of music videos, celebrity interviews, live shows, and video footage from TV shows.

Experts predict that by 2012, free mobile calls could become reality, thanks to mobile advertising. Who knows? May be twenty years from now, our kids won’t even know that something called mobile bill existed.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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uVuMobile and GoGo Mobile Media to take on Southeast Asian and Middle East mobile segment

uVuMobile, a well known mobility software and services company, has formed a strategic alliance with GoGo Mobile Media, a famous video and audio content distribution company, in a move to grab a share of the rapidly burgeoning mobile advertising industry in Southeast Asia, particularly India, and the Middle East.

Now, this might have been yet another M&A news in the mobile advertising industry, had it not been for the fact that the parties involved are interested not in the western market, but in the eastern market. For those of you that don’t know, India is considered the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world with over 220 million users. And the number is increasing by the day rapidly. Similarly, other countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East are also fast catching up with the mobile phone revolution, thereby making it a ripe market for mobile content distributors and advertisers.

Also, Asians use premium services like SMS, MMS, mobile internet, mobile video, and mobile email features a lot more extensively than their western counterparts. So, it will be a hell lot easier for the advertisers to reach out to customers in say India, than the ones in the U.S., thanks to the different options of mobile advertising they have (read text messages, banner ads, video ads, mobile web ads) in the Asian market. One thing’s for sure. The U.S. needs to catch up a lot when it comes to mobile usage.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Build you own mobile advertising site - Go the Wapple way

This could quite possibly be the greatest step in making mobile advertising reach out to customers in every nook and cranny of the world. Wapple, a world leader in mobile interactive advertising, has come up with a service which can help companies reach out to end users through their mobile phone, wherever they are.

Wapple allows you to build your own dynamic mobile advertisement sites. How does it sound? Wapple Canvas, as it’s called, allows anyone with little technical knowledge to build a mobile advertisement site to promote his own or someone else’s product/service. What this means is, you can build a mobile advertising site and start promoting your products/offers through text messages or banner ads on mobile phones in a short period of time.

In case you feel you don’t have the time to build your own mobile advertising site, Wapple takes care of it too. You just have to give your ideas and input and Wapple will come up with a mobile advertising site to promote whatever you want.

When I heard this for the first time, I thought this could be a great way for small companies to promote their products/service through mobile advertising. But then, I came to know that MTV has been associated with Wapple to promote its programs. So, get ready for a mobile advertising revolution.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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