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.
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.
Tags: 2d barcode, advertisers, advertising campaign, advertising campaigns, ad agency, battlefields, big time, fight details, habanero, interactive mobile advertising, Mobile advertisers, mobile advertising campaign, mobile advertising campaigns, mobile phone, mobile advertising, mobile campaign, mobile user, phenomenal job, qr codes, ranks in the army, sending a text message, spicy snacks, text message, tohato, weekend time
Technorati Tags: 2d barcode, advertisers, advertising campaign, advertising campaigns, ad agency, battlefields, big time, fight details, habanero, interactive mobile advertising, Mobile advertisers, mobile advertising campaign, mobile advertising campaigns, mobile phone, mobile advertising, mobile campaign, mobile user, phenomenal job, qr codes, ranks in the army, sending a text message, spicy snacks, text message, tohato, weekend time
Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Games.
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.
Regular readers of this blog might know that I’ve discussed the importance of analytic tools to track a mobile ad campaign’s performance time and again. Now, AdMob, the leading mobile ad platform provider, has come up with a mobile metrics package which helps you track the performance of your mobile sites and mobile advertising campaigns. More importantly, the service is entirely free of cost.
Called AdMob Mobile Analytics, the service is free of cost and it can be compared to Google’s Google Analytics service. With this, you can track your mobile site’s performance more effectively with data such as the number of unique visitors, duration of visit, geographical details of users, page performance, and so on. Also, using this service, you will be able to track any ad campaign, not just AdMob’s ad campaigns. So, it’s truly a great opportunity for mobile advertisers and mobile site owners.
Tags: Admob, AdMob Mobile Analytics, advertisers, advertising campaigns, ad campaign, ad campaigns, analytic tools, blog, geographical details, Google, Google Analytics, metrics, Mobile advertisers, mobile advertising campaign, mobile analytics, mobile advertising, page performance, platform provider, unique visitors
Technorati Tags: Admob, AdMob Mobile Analytics, advertisers, advertising campaigns, ad campaign, ad campaigns, analytic tools, blog, geographical details, Google, Google Analytics, metrics, Mobile advertisers, mobile advertising campaign, mobile analytics, mobile advertising, page performance, platform provider, unique visitors
Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.
According to a recent report from VNPT (Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group), mobile marketing is slowly becoming popular in Vietnam.
Vietnam has over 30 million mobile users and ever since VNPT started to collaborate with a number of national level businesses to come up with mobile advertising services in 2006, the popularity of mobile marketing has gone up a quite a few notches.
Interestingly, a lot of Vietnamese say that mobile marketing gives them a sense of ‘democracy’ – something which they love. True to this fact, the most famous form of mobile marketing in Vietnam is the SMS poll in interactive shows where people can vote for something/someone through text messages.
But the important thing to be noted here is – though the number of mobile users is steadily increasing over the past few years, mobile advertisers say that Vietnam is not yet ready for a full fledged mobile advertising campaign. The reason is ignorance. A lot of mobile users are of the opinion that mobile advertising is all about sending spam messages to users. So, understandably, it will take some time to make them understand what mobile advertising actually is.
Tags: democracy, interactive shows, Mobile advertisers, mobile advertising, mobile advertising campaign, mobile advertising services, mobile marketing, mobile users, SMS poll, spam messages, text messages, Vietnam, Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group, VNPT
Technorati Tags: democracy, interactive shows, Mobile advertisers, mobile advertising, mobile advertising campaign, mobile advertising services, mobile marketing, mobile users, SMS poll, spam messages, text messages, Vietnam, Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group, VNPT
Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.
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