Yet another interesting report on mobile advertising - II

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.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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M:Metrics has some encouraging news for mobile marketers

A recent report from M:Metrics states that men in the age group of 18-34 are considered the best target for mobile advertisers in the U.S. and Europe. Men in this age group respond to text message advertisements and more importantly, access mobile web quite frequently. This has made mobile marketers take notice of this potential customer segment.

In Europe, mobile users in this segment are equally inclined to both text message adverts and mobile media. In fact, the numbers are quite encouraging for mobile marketers in Europe. In England, the number of mobile media users is 26.8% while in France and Germany it is 18.4% and 18.5% respectively. In fact, a significant amount of mobile users in England who belong to this age group prefer their mobile phone to TV, as they can get everything they want from mobile web.

The report also says that almost one third of mobile users in UK said that they prefer to respond to mobile ads and would like to buy products that are advertised. This statistics, more than anything else, should be very encouraging for mobile marketers in Europe.

Mobile users in the U.S., unlike their European counterparts, are not that much interested in text message adverts. They are more inclined to access mobile web for news and other information.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Using QR codes in mobile advertising a good idea?

One of the stories that I read recently in a website caught my attention. It’s about using QR codes (Quick Response codes) in mobile advertising. Even I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time and the person who wrote that story almost stole the words from my mouth.

For those of you who don’t know – unlike other ordinary codes, the contents of a QR code can be scanned and decoded at a very high speed.

QR codes are very popular in countries like Japan and Korea but not so in the U.S. or even in Europe for that matter. In Japan and Korea, these QR codes in advertisements can be scanned and decoded by mobile phones. So, when you see an ad, you can simply scan the code with your mobile phone and it will take you to a hyperlink or WAP sites where you can get a wealth of information about the product/service mentioned in the ad.

More than 40% of mobile users in Japan use their mobile phones to scan QR codes in adverts regularly. In fact, a lot of mobile phones in Japan come preloaded with the application required to scan such codes. If not, the app can be downloaded from the internet without much trouble.

This has helped mobile advertisers a lot in Japan and Korea. Mobile users find it easier to scan codes to get information rather than having to send a text message or make a call. So, this minimizes effort on mobile users’ part and makes the job of the mobile advertiser easier than ever.

It would be great if U.S. and Europe can catch up with this technology, as it can be a tremendous opportunity for advertisers to reach out to end users without much trouble. I think this idea will get a great response from mobile users as well, as all they need to do is, take a snap of the ad with their mobile phone and get all the information they want. What do you think?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Mobile social networking could be the future

Everyone talks about mobile advertising these days and most importantly, everyone, irrespective of their knowledge in this issue, seems to have an opinion on the same. Marketing experts world over say that mobile advertising could be huge and one of the most important reasons is the rising awareness on social networking sites.

Social networking has become hugely popular all over the world. Apart from big markets like the U.S. and Europe, the numbers from countries like India and Brazil are staggering and it only shows people’s growing interest in this phenomenon called social networking. This is why mobile advertising could be huge. Social networking, by definition, is about people that want to keep in touch with their friends and share info among them by the hour. Now, you can’t expect someone to roam around with a laptop all the time and this is where mobile phone comes into the picture. If social networking sits can be made easily accessible on mobile phones, the response would be tremendous. The mobile phone is always with you and it will help you keep in touch with your friends by the minute through these sites. Already, lots of mobile applications support this facility and you also have mobile social networking sites from Facebook and the like.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt says that mobile advertising could be twice as profitable as conventional advertising, as the ads are targeted and more personal. However, it all depends on how easy the user finds it to use his mobile internet. Now, the most important thing is the quality of mobile internet. The speed needs to be improved and the screens need to be widened in order to give the users a rich experience. As of now, surfing Facebook in an ordinary phone is way difficult than doing it in an iPhone. So, the focus should be on making mobile internet access simpler for the users. The more we see phones like the iPhone, the easier it will be for the advertisers to reach out to the end users. One thing’s for sure – the future is gonna be exciting.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Mobile Social Networking.

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Cellphone advertising to hit Europe big time

The holidays are about to begin and those of you that live in Europe now have one more reason to look forward to the New Year. Blyk, a fairly popular network in the U.K., has started offering mobile ads to its users in the U.K. on an opt-in basis and it’s soon planning to extend the idea across Europe in 2008. These ads are being served only on an invitation-only basis, which means users will be “invited” to opt in for cellphone ads and those who do so will get free talk time, free text messages, and many other benefits.

Mobile users will be asked for details such as their likes and dislikes, lifestyle, brands they like, services they use, and so on. This information will be vital for mobile marketing and this will help the marketers come up with targeted ads for consumers. The more targeted an ad is, the more are the chances of the customer liking it and subsequently going for that product/service. So, the kind of ads you get on your mobile phone will depend on your preferences and interests.

According to Blyk’s latest plan, users that agree to get ads in their mobile phone will be able to get a maximum of 217 free SMS (text messages) and 43 minutes of free talk time per month. This has raised a lot of interest among users and the results so far have been positive. The service is about to be extended across Europe and Blyk is targeting a strong customer base of around 40 million youngsters between 16 to 24 years of age.

However, the operator agrees that it’s venturing into a territory wherein it needs to be really careful in terms of the marketing strategy. A lot of hue and cry has been raised regarding the privacy of mobile phone users and the people in Blyk are aware of all these issues. They are very clear about one thing. The kind of mobile phone ads they offer right now are strictly available on an invitation-only basis and only those who wish to get ads on their mobile phones will be able to get them. Blyk believes that the kind of freebies they offer will surely entice the users to opt in for mobile ads and it will definitely be a win-win deal for both the consumer and the marketer. Also, customers will be able to opt out of any mobile ad service at any given point of time easily. This makes it easier for the consumers as they have nothing to lose. If you are a user, you can opt in for mobile ads and enjoy all the freebies like free text messages and free talk time and if you don’t like what you get on your mobile, you can simply opt out of it any time you want. I think this no-frills-attached scheme will tempt a lot of users to try out mobile ads at least once. Have you guys tried out these ads from Blyk? Guys and gals from U.K., could you share your experiences?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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