Symbian’s Mobile Ad Click Through Rate Better than Apple OS

A recent report from Smaato says that Symbian users are more likely to click on mobile ads than Apple iPhone users. The report discusses the click through rates for mobile advertising campaigns in the U.S. for the month of April 2010. It says that the number of clicks generated by the Symbian smartphone platform is 2.7 times more than the number of clicks generated by the iPhone OS.

This statistics might come as a bit of a surprise for many, as most people are under the impression that the Apple iPhone is the undisputed leader of mobile ads. What is even surprising is that Apple is not even in the second position. It is in the fourth place, as feature phones and Windows mobile phones take the second and third place respectively. Google Android suffered nearly a 50% drop in its click through rates during the period of February 2010 to March 2010, which pushed it down to the fifth position. What this means is that no other operating system comes even closer to the click through rates of Symbian, which is backed by the world’s biggest mobile phone maker – Nokia.

The way I see it, this report from Smaato debunks the myth that Apple OS is the holy grail of mobile advertising and Symbian is an aging platform that no one really cares about. While the possibility of Apple reclaiming the top spot cannot be ruled out, it is still interesting to see Symbian performing so much better and exceeding everyone’s expectations.

In the coming months, this competition could only get more intense. Apple is all set to redefine the world of mobile advertising with the iPad and Symbian is all set to release its revamped mobile library – Symbian ˆ3. It should be interesting, don’t you think?

PS: You can download the report from this link.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Nokia, Apple.

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Ford’s innovative mobile marketing campaign in India

Okay folks, let me ask you a question.

You’re a billion dollar automobile company, you’ve just released a new, peppy edition of your car which appeals mostly to youngsters, and you want to grab the attention of young car enthusiasts all over the country. What do you do?

Simple. You do mobile marketing.

Ford did the exact same thing in India when it released its new Ford Ikon Music Edition car called the iKool. Ford used the services of MindShare, a mobile marketing company, to come up with a creative mobile marketing campaign for iKool. MindShare contacted Nokia and made an agreement to advertise on Airtel Live!, the WAP site of India’s leading mobile operator, Airtel. Airtel is part of Nokia Media Network and it readily agreed to this arrangement.

MindShare created an innovative, content rich WAP site for Ford iKool. Mobile users around the country were served with banner ads through Airtel Live!. Those who clicked on the banner ads were taken to the iKool WAP site where they had the chance to download mobile games, wallpapers, ringtones, and many more.

The response rate for this mobile marketing campaign was a terrific 8.58%. Especially, two content pages – “Services For You” and “News & Sports” – saw a phenomenal click through rate of 14%, which is unseen before.

Ford has actually set an important precedent, as far as I’m concerned. I still remember, when Ford came up with its new model called Fiesta in India about a year and a half back, it mostly relied on TV ads and newspaper and magazine coverage. Now, just within a couple of years, things have changed so much that it went straight to a mobile marketing company to get the job done. And the result was there for everyone to see, right?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Mobile ads have better recall rates than TV ads

How do you judge the impact of an advertisement? How do you find out if it was effective or not? In most cases, you go by brand recall - the ability of the customer to recall your brand after being shown the ad a few times. Until now, TV was considered the best medium to place ads as it had the highest brand recall rates. But mobile advertising has simply changed everything.

According to reports from analysts, mobile ads have higher recall rates than TV ads. At the recent Mobile Advertising Degree conference, the representatives of Verizon Wireless emphasized the same fact. They also added that despite being costlier, mobile ads are preferred over online ads because they have a phenomenal click through rate.

This is incredible. I’ll explain you why. First, TV has a huge reach. Second, ads in TV are so common that people no longer consider them a problem. Third, a TV screen is more fit for rich ads and watching an ad on a TV screen could be actually fun.

Now, let me compare this with mobile phones. First, a mobile phone, until now, is not considered a primary advertising medium. Second, ads in mobile are considered intrusive by many, so you can’t expect mobile advertisers to start sending ads to all and sundry. Third, watching an ad on a mobile screen, especially a low end mobile phone’s screen, is not exactly a great experience.

Going by what I’ve said above, anyone can say that the odds are stacked against mobile advertising. But guess what? Mobile ads have a phenomenal click through rate of 2% and more, which is way better than online ads.

Now, just imagine. If these kinds of results are possible right now, what could be the case in future when we have more high-end mobile phones, richer ad formats, improved technology, and most importantly, an open-minded society which is not averse to mobile ads? All I can say is one word – unimaginable.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Tesco Mobile’s mobile advertising campaign gets good response

Retail giant Tesco recently stated that it might consider taking its mobile advertising campaign to the next level soon, thanks to the positive response from its customers. The mobile division of Tesco, Tesco Mobile, has been running a trial WAP advertising portal since May 2007 and its growth has been impressive. Month after month, the portal grew enormously and last December, the portal had 30,000 unique visitors, which is very impressive. So, based on these results, Tesco Mobile has decided to embrace mobile advertising big time.

The click through rate (CTR) of the banner ads served at the portal was around 3% to 7%, which is again very impressive. The portal had a strong female user base which accounted for most of the clicks on the ads served. Most of these women are married and are responsible for household budget. So, naturally, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) such as toiletries, kitchen accessories, and cleaning products were the most preferred ones among the ads served.

This again has proved the fact that when served with the right ads in the right manner, people are willing to give mobile ads on their phone a try. The only thing that matters is – relevancy.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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DIDMO wins Frost & Sullivan Mobility Award

DIDMO, a Scandinavian mobile advertising company, was presented with the ‘Entrepreneurial Company of the Year’ award for its achievements in mobile advertising by Frost & Sullivan Mobility Committee.

The Frost & Sullivan Mobility Awards recognize the best in the mobile and wireless industry and award them every year. This year’s winner, DIDMO, is very popular with mobile users all over the world. It offers free, ad-supported, full version mobile video games to users for a period of 24 hours. After this period, customers may decide to purchase the game or not. The ads are very engaging and are shown only for about four seconds. This has gained significant popularity among mobile users, which is evident from the fact that the average click through rate of these ads is around 5-10%. Just to put this in perspective, I’ve got to tell you that the click through rate of ordinary ads is around 1-2%.

In my opinion, recognitions like this will help a company sustain its position in the industry and make the industry more competitive, thereby bringing the best out of every company in the industry.

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

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