Entertainment Sector Tops Mobile Ad Spending

A recent metrics report from Millennial Media has the details about the recent trends in mobile ad spending. According to the report, entertainment is the sector which tops the list as far as mobile ad spending is concerned.

The report also says that 2/3rd of the money spent on entertainment was spent by movie studios for promoting their movies. Major movie studios in Hollywood have been spending a considerable amount of money on mobile ads of late. If you have a high end cell phone like the iPhone or any other web enabled phone for that matter, you could have seen ads for movies like Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Fast & Furious 4. Since the response for such mobile campaigns is usually good, movie studios these days do not think twice to spend money on mobile advertising.

For the regular readers of this blog, this news might not be surprising, as we have already discussed this issue here, here, and here.

Apart from movies, a considerable amount has been spent on games (16% of the total spending), TV (9% of the total spending), music (4% of the total spending), and other things (7% of the total spending) that people are interested in.

One of the things to be noted here is that there has been a considerable change in the way mobile advertising is perceived by large companies in the entertainment industry lately. Earlier, the amount spent on mobile marketing campaigns was very little and it was usually for ringtones and stuff like that. Now, movie studios and television studios are coming up with mobile marketing campaigns to promote their movies, sitcoms, and reality TV shows. This just goes to show that a lot of people are slowly beginning to understand that mobile ad campaigns, when done the right way, can give very good results.

Apart from this, a lot of brands are turning their attention towards mobile ads to drive traffic to their mobile sites and enhance their presence in the mobile world. In my opinion, this is a good sign of things to come in the future. A lot of companies have developed mobile sites to help their readers access the websites they want right from their mobile phone. Since mobile web is becoming increasingly popular and the number of high end mobile users is growing fast, it is a good idea for big companies and popular brands to have their own mobile sites. This issue, as some of you might remember, has been already discussed in this blog.

The report also says that Apple iPhone and iPod Touch continue to dominate the mobile ad market by getting the lion’s share of ad impressions. However, it should be noted that other mobile phones like Samsung Instinct are giving a tough competition to Apple in terms of ad impressions.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

3 comments.

CNET Networks decides to go mobile

CNET Networks in the U.K. has decided to make its move into the mobile world and it has started quite well by mobilizing two of its famous sites – cnet.co.uk and gamespot.co.uk. From now on, you can access both these sites any time you want, if you have an internet enabled mobile phone.

You will be able to access tons of content from both these sites, including but not limited to news and gadget reviews. CNET Network currently has around 10 million users and it hopes to reach out to them even more effectively through these mobile sites. CNET has joined hands with Nokia’s mobile portal and operator 3 to widen its prospects in the mobile world. The mobile sites of CNET will be managed by MoMac.

This announcement from CNET could not have come at a better time, as mobile industry right now is growing at a fast pace. CNET Network said that the time is ripe for experimenting with mobile content and since U.K. is considered one of the biggest markets for mobile internet, it just makes it even better. The main reason behind this move, according to CNET, is to provide value-added service to its current users and to attract more tech-savvy users who look for information on the move, right on their mobile phone.

CNET has also announced that it will come up with the mobile version of three of its sites – silicon.com, zdnet.com, and SmartPlanet.

I think this is a great move from CNET. Coming at a time when the habit of surfing the web on mobile phones is on the rise, this move might enable CNET to grab a large market share when the market grows further.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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South Africa - Mobile advertisers’ dream market

While experts all over the world are arguing whether or not mobile advertising will grow at the rate it’s been predicted to grow, there is one market which has sent a loud and clear message to all of ‘em. It’s South Africa.

Mobile advertising in South Africa has been very successful and as a result lots and lots of brands are coming up with innovative mobile marketing campaigns to reach out to their target customers. Just check out the facts below.

1. MMS (multimedia messaging service) has been the most successful form of mobile advertising in SA. Most MMS campaigns get a tremendous response within just 48 hours.

2. The response rate for mobile advertising in general has been very good. It’s usually in the range of 10% to 25%, which is way better than the response rates for traditional advertising methods.

3. Amazingly, only less than 1% of people unsubscribe from mobile advertising campaigns on an average.

4. The viral impact of mobile ads has been phenomenal, with mobile users sharing mobile ads with their friends, family, and other people.

5. A lot of companies in South Africa have started their own mobile websites to bring customized mobile content to their customers and the response has been pretty good.

So, South African market has debunked the fact that people in general are averse to mobile ads and all that. Needless to mention, South Africa is said to have the most proactive mobile user base in the world and their data rates are perhaps the cheapest in the world.

This has just reaffirmed my faith that providing useful, relevant mobile content at affordable rates is the key to successful mobile advertising.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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The story of the Dot Mobi extension

Ever since mobile advertising and mobile internet became a big deal, there is a lot of talk about the Dot Mobi extension. Some say it’s worth tens of thousands dollars, some say it’s overpriced, and some say it’s underestimated. However, one thing is for sure. People are curious to know about the Dot Mobi extension. Let’s take a detailed look now.

First of all, I’ve got to tell you one thing. The Dot Mobi extension, as of now, is more expensive than the Dot Com, Dot Org, and Dot Net extensions. Thus, it’s true that there is enough demand in the market for that extension. However, some argue that Dot Mobi doesn’t really have a future. And they have a reason for it too.

They argue that Dot Mobi is something which will become famous only if the number of mobile sites grows at a fast rate. They also argue that with high-end phones like the Apple iPhone and Nokia N95, people are comfortable browsing normal websites in their mobile browsers, so there is actually no need for mobile sites. I, however, don’t buy this.

No matter how sophisticated your mobile phone is, viewing a normal website has its own downsides. There can be some technical difficulties and certain sites might not load properly, as they are not optimized for mobile phones. According to web experts, for an optimal mobile browsing experience, the markup language for websites should be XML with Java. This may not be the case in some websites, which might make your mobile browsing experience slightly annoying.

On the other hand, a mobile site is optimized for mobile phones and it’s ideal for the tiny little screen of the mobile phone. So, I think mobile sites might be the best choice for mobile phones. Already, there are plenty of mobile sites and big companies have bought Dot Mobi domains to develop their own mobile sites.

So, I think the Dot Mobi extension will become very popular. Already, we’ve seen some precursors for that and it might as well be the case a few years from now.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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CBS Mobile’s technology to enrich user experience in its mobile website

CBS Mobile has come up with a feature that might help you find what you want to read in mobile sites. It has partnered with Aggregate Knowledge to incorporate a technology which checks the click history of each and every web page visited in a mobile site, compares your click history with other people’s click history, finds out what people with similar tastes are viewing, and then delivers the most appropriate content for you.

For example, you read an article. Aggregate Knowledge will check out the click history of that article. It will find out how many people have read that article before and what other articles they went on to read after that. Then, it will show you those articles, which were read by others who read the same article that you did, in the form of “Your Headlines.”

People behind CBS Mobile are very confident that this will enrich the experience of mobile users who visit their WAP site and if everything happens according to their plan, they also have plans to introduce mobile advertising in their site. So, if you’re reading an article on Roger Federer, you might get an ad saying “Buy exclusive goodies signed by Roger Federer.” But this idea is only in the pipeline and will take off only based on the reception Aggregate Knowledge technology gets.

Though it’s a revolutionary idea as far as mobile sites are concerned, it’s not a new idea in the web. I mean, there are plenty of sites which already have this technology. You can find a number of sites in which when you read an article, you get a few links at the end of the article with the caption “people who read this article also read this, this, and this.” It actually helps you find similar content in the website without any effort. So, I think this technology will find a lot of takers in the mobile web space too.

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

1 comment.

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