Alright people. For one last time, one freaking last time, I’ll try to clarify some of the most common misconceptions about mobile advertising.
What is mobile advertising?
It’s time to come out of the cave, pal. Even my granny knows about it. Mobile advertising is nothing but ads on your mobile phone – as simple as that.
Oh dear god, why do they send me ads?
To help you take part in the space research program sponsored by the NASA. Okay; I’m kidding. Ads on mobile phones serve the same purpose as ads on TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, and the internet. All these ads want to sell you something.
Ugh; can you explain further?
Sure I can. You see, you take your mobile phone with you no matter where you go, don’t you? You get ads on TV, you see ads on magazines and newspapers, and you have ads all over the internet. However, there is a fundamental difference between these ads and mobile ads. The response rate for the former is not so impressive. The reason is – you can always skip those ads. You can change the channel during an ad break, you can simply overlook an ad in a magazine, and you can easily block ads in the internet using your browser. However, with mobile phones, the response rate is very high as people will surely check out text messages and attend calls. In other words, an ad on a mobile phone will never go unnoticed.
What the hell? How can they send me ads without my permission?
Relax bro. No one is going to send ads to your mobile phone without your permission. This is precisely the reason why they’ve come up with something called the opt-in facility. What this means is – you can opt in to a mobile advertising campaign any time you want. If you don’t like it for some reasons, you can easily opt out of it any time you want. Easy as 1-2-3.
But why would I say yes to mobile ads, even if I had the choice to opt out any time I want?
Good question. See, mobile ads are not sent by loonies on a random basis. There is something called targeted advertising which makes things better. When you opt in to a mobile advertising campaign, you’ll be usually asked about your interests, likes and dislikes, brands you like, products you use, and a whole bunch of such questions. Using this data, mobile advertisers will be able to send relevant, targeted ads to you.
For example, if you’re a big foodie, an advertiser can send a discount coupon for a big Mac. If you’re a fitness freak, he can send you a WAP link to a site which discusses the latest trends in fitness and bodybuilding. In other words, the ads you get on your mobile phone will match your interests so you can make use of the information one way or the other.
All that is fine. I don’t want mobile ads. Now what do I do?
That’s cool. If you don’t want mobile ads, don’t opt in to any mobile ad campaign. Strictly say no to them. If you’re already a part of a campaign, simply opt out of it.
Do I only get promotional offers and discount coupons via mobile ads?
No, there are more interesting offers. How does free talk time sound to you? Or how about free text messages? Hell, there are companies that pay you to get ads on your mobile phone. There are companies which offer such things for real. Virgin does that, Blyk does that, and a number of other operators are contemplating on that. If you have doubts, check out this, this, this, this, and this.
Oh that’s nice. But I read in XYZ website that mobile ads are intrusive, a threat to privacy, etc?
Screw them. What do you think? The telecom industry is highly competitive. They just can’t afford to annoy their customers. Especially in this age of internet, they just can’t afford to make a mistake for they’ll be ripped apart by thousands of websites and blogs.
But I’m still not convinced?
Well; I think this story will convince you. China Mobile, the biggest mobile operator in the world, was made to eat humble pie due to mobile ad spam. So, I repeat, operators will not take the risk of annoying their customers with spam ads.
But what if operators all over the world made a pact and started sending ads no matter what?
What if the sun exploded? What if aliens popped out of your PC? What if George Bush got elected for the third time? What if Paris Hilton became a professor in Harvard?
See, these what-ifs are endless. Most importantly, they’re not gonna happen. So, stop thinking like a fiction writer.
Phew; so there it is folks. Hope that clarifies all your doubts about mobile phone advertising. Now, tell me. What more could I do to convince the so-called experts who constantly spew hate-filled passages about mobile advertising without any basic understanding?
Tags: Blyk, China Mobile, discount coupons, free talk time, free text messages, George Bush, mobile ads, mobile advertising, mobile advertising campaign, mobile phone, NASA, Paris Hilton, promotional offers, rant, targeted ads, Virgin, WAP
Technorati Tags: Blyk, China Mobile, discount coupons, free talk time, free text messages, George Bush, mobile ads, mobile advertising, mobile advertising campaign, mobile phone, NASA, Paris Hilton, promotional offers, rant, targeted ads, Virgin, WAP
Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Rant.
Blyk is one company which I’ve written a lot about in this blog, even at the risk of sounding like a paid blogger. But then, that’s me. If I like something – it might be a concept, a company, a person, or whatever – I’ll write about it.
The success story of Blyk is one of the most talked about stories in town right now. When the company first announced that it will offer free talk time and free text message facility to customers who opt in to mobile ads, not many thought it was a good idea. But then, it reached its target of 100,000 subscribers in the UK in just six months. The company’s customer base is full of young people who don’t mind getting targeted, relevant ads on their mobile phone. Now, thanks to this great success, Blyk has announced its plans to expand its virtual empire further.
The company will soon start its operations in Germany, Spain, Netherlands, and Belgium. If you remember, it announced its plans to further expand its network quite some time back when it got the much-needed funding from Goldman Sachs and Kuwait’s Industrial Financial Investments Company.
In my opinion, Blyk has set an example, a precedent for operators around the world. If you know your target customer segment and target them properly with the right plan, you will almost always succeed.
Tags: blogger, Blyk, customer segment, free talk time, free text message, goldman sachs, mobile ads, mobile phone, relevant ads, talk time
Technorati Tags: blogger, Blyk, customer segment, free talk time, free text message, goldman sachs, mobile ads, mobile phone, relevant ads, talk time
Categories: Blyk.
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.
Tags: 3g networks, advertiser, arthur d little, Blyk, broadband penetration, case study, Europe, Google, kingpins, management firm, media advertising, mobile advertising, mobile broadband, mobile market, mobile operators, partnerships, popularity, WiMax, Yahoo
Technorati Tags: 3g networks, advertiser, arthur d little, Blyk, broadband penetration, case study, Europe, Google, kingpins, management firm, media advertising, mobile advertising, mobile broadband, mobile market, mobile operators, partnerships, popularity, WiMax, Yahoo
Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.
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.
Tags: advertisements, Blyk, invitation, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobile phone service, phenomenal success, Philippines, service provider, subscribers, target, U Mobile, UK, yuppies
Technorati Tags: advertisements, Blyk, invitation, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobile phone service, phenomenal success, Philippines, service provider, subscribers, target, U Mobile, UK, yuppies
Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.
When I talk about mobile advertising being effective and all that jazz, I just mean one thing. That is the response rate. There are advertisements on TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, and the internet, but none of them has been as effective as ads on mobile phones. And to think that mobile advertising is still in its nascent stage!!!
Take for example, Blyk. Now, Blyk is a well-known name for regular readers of this blog, as I’ve talked about it quite a few times. Recently, Blyk reached the landmark of 100,000 subscribers in the U.K. in just six months after its start. Let’s take a look at some numbers here.
The average response rate of mobile advertising campaigns from Blyk is a whopping 29%. It is miles ahead of others in this aspect. Especially, for some ad campaigns, the response rate is just unbelievable. Some time back, Blyk did a promotional campaign for Nick Hornby’s novel Slam which was released by Penguin Books. The response rate was an astounding 69%. Can you even think of getting this kind of a response from newspaper ads or even online ads?
This is simply why I keep saying that when done well, a mobile advertising campaign could bring in phenomenal results. What say you?
Tags: advertisements, advertising campaign, advertising campaigns, ad campaigns, Blyk, landmark, magazines, mobile advertising campaign, mobile advertising campaigns, mobile advertising, mobile phones, nascent stage, nick hornby, novel, Penguin, penguin books, phenomenal results, response rate, slam, subscribers
Technorati Tags: advertisements, advertising campaign, advertising campaigns, ad campaigns, Blyk, landmark, magazines, mobile advertising campaign, mobile advertising campaigns, mobile advertising, mobile phones, nascent stage, nick hornby, novel, Penguin, penguin books, phenomenal results, response rate, slam, subscribers
Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Blyk.
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