IBM Survey On Mobile Phone Based Entertainment

IBM’s recent global online survey of consumer digital media and entertainment habits has unearthed some interesting facts. Let me present to you the ones that caught my attention.

1. According to the survey, a lot of mobile users these days are willing to get ads on their mobile phones in return for free digital content. Well; if you’ve been following this blog, this news should not come as a surprise to you at all. But the interesting thing here is that mobile users from six countries – India, Australia, the U.S., Germany, Japan, and the U.K. – have said the same thing.

2. Quite a few mobile users have stated that they would be willing to share their personal information with mobile advertisers if they were to get targeted incentives through mobile ads. The most preferred incentives include free audio/video tracks, discount coupons to retail stores, and air travel and hotel reward points.

3. A lot of mobile users find the mobile search facility extremely useful. Moreover, with the advent of 3G networks, mobile web could become a lot more popular than what it is right now – something which I have stated again and again in this blog.

4. Mobile social networking is considered the next big thing. It is one of the most sought after services by mobile users around the world.

5. One thing that stands out in the survey is the notable decline of TV as the primary media device. Thanks to the wide range of multimedia content available on the internet and mobile phones, people do not tend to spend as much time on TV as they used to in the past.

6. Most people do not prefer TV type advertising - getting interrupted by ads in the middle of a program. Instead, they prefer to see ads before and after the show. This way, they get to enjoy the digital content without any interruption. Product placement is yet another option for mobile advertisers, but it could, if overdone, turn customers off. So, they should try not to go overboard with product placement in mobile video games and other such digital entertainment content.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Funambol to serve mobile ads in its portal

Open source mobile messaging software producer Funambol recently announced that it will serve mobile ads in its online portal myFUNAMBOL. For those of you that don’t know Funambol, here is a small intro.

Funambol is famous for its mobile 2.0 messaging software which is considered probably the best push email solution for mobile phones today. Mobile enthusiasts rate Funambol better than Apple MobileMe and the sync apps available for Blackberry. It supports over a billion devices including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile.

Now, back to the news. Funambol says the ads served will not be overtly prominent or intrusive in nature. Mobile users will find ads in their inbox and message viewing screens. Funambol believes that this is perhaps the best idea to monetize its service in the most effective manner. There are two reasons for this.

First, mobile users absolutely love Funambol. It is really easy to use and it is one of the best push email apps for mobile phone today. So, they won’t mind a few ads here and there as long as it doesn’t bring down the quality of user experience.

Second, finding ads in inbox is not at all uncommon. Gmail has been doing it ever since its inception and people have had no problem with that whatsoever. So, similarly, they won’t find the ads in myFUNAMBOL intrusive or disturbing.

In my opinion, this is a welcome move. As Funambol is an open source project, they need to monetize it one way or the other to stay in the competition. And as long as people find their service useful, I think they probably won’t mind these ads.

What do you think? Will you say okay to a few ads in your inbox if you get to use such open source mobile apps for free or at a very low cost? Share your thoughts.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Mobile advertisers to target the Hispanic community?

The latest report from comScore discusses the prospects of mobile advertising in the Hispanic mobile user community. Not surprisingly, the predictions are very optimistic.

Hispanics and Latin Americans have always been active mobile users and it gets reflected on the fact that they over-index in mobile data and mobile advertising consumption. Also, a significant number of Hispanics and Latin Americans do not have access to the PC or the internet, but have a mobile connection. So, not surprisingly, when it comes to mobile content consumption, Hispanics are way ahead of the market average. This makes mobile marketing the perfect option for businesses to target the Hispanic and the Latin American community. Now, let us take a look at some numbers from the report.

1. Over 70% of Hispanic mobile users regularly download mobile content while the market average is only around 48%.

2. Over 40% of Hispanic mobile users can recall seeing ads on their mobile phone while the market average is only 30%.

3. Over 22% of Hispanic mobile users responded to mobile ads while the market average is only around 13%.

Based on this data, we can safely assume that the Hispanic market could be one of the most exciting markets for mobile advertisers. Already, mobile marketing companies like Hipcricket, Latin-Pak, Ansible Mobile, Vibes Media, and Univision Movil have started targeting the Hispanic mobile user community specifically and as the community grows stronger, we can expect a lot more companies to enter the market as well.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Ad funded mobile operator Blyk has 200,000 subscribers now

It’s time for a little celebration in good old Blighty. Blyk, the London based ad funded mobile operator, has reached yet another milestone quietly. The company has increased the number of its subscribers to a whopping 200,000.

To understand the significance of this feat, we need to put things in perspective. Blyk is the first ad funded mobile operator in the world. When it started off, it had just one goal. It was to get 100,000 subscribers within the first year. However, since the company was funded completely by advertisements, no one really thought it was possible. The idea of people getting talk time in return for getting ads on their mobile phone didn’t sound majorly appealing at that point of time. However, the response was so good that it reached its goal in just six months.

Now, just a few months after reaching its goal of 100,000 subscribers, the company has crossed yet another milestone – 200,000 loyal customers – All of them willing to get ads on their mobile phone to get free talk time and free text messages.

The important thing to be noted here is that the response rate for these mobile ads has been nothing short of terrific. 25% of the customers who get ads on their mobile phone respond to them. In other words, it costs only around $0.85 per response, making it highly profitable for the advertisers.

200,000, when compared to the millions of subscribers in the UK, might seem like a small number. But you have to consider an important point here. This is the beginning of a trend. Mobile advertising is still in its infant stage and a lot of mobile users around the world are yet to realize its benefits. So, in a relatively new market, Blyk has been able to get 200,000 loyal subscribers within such a short span of time. And it has managed to achieve the highest response rates at the lowest costs possible. In other words, it has got a highly targeted customer base which is a dream for any advertiser. With the number of mobile users increasing by the day and people becoming aware of mobile advertising, you can only expect these numbers to up. To put it simply – watch out for Blyk.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Blyk.

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Mobile TV to become a $15 billion market in 2012

It seems mobile TV has caught the attention of market analysts big time. A lot of experts are touting mobile TV as the next big thing and here’s yet another report which has come up with quite an optimistic prediction, I should say.

A new research report from Multimedia Intelligence predicts that mobile TV market will be worth a whopping $15 billion in 2012. The report says that customers now demand personalized entertainment from their mobile phones more than ever before, as there is a huge influx of high-end mobile phones in the market these days. This has led to the belief that mobile TV will play a huge role in the future of mobile entertainment.

Also, mobile TV is considered the perfect medium for advertising by many as it has a huge advantage over other forms of mobile ads such as text message ads, banner ads, and WAP links. Ads in TV are something we’ve all got used to. So, when you’re watching your favorite show on mobile TV, an ad break won’t look too strange to you. On the other hand, a mobile banner ad can easily be considered intrusive by many. Also, the recall rates for mobile TV ads will be extremely high, as the ads are highly engaging. This is something I’ve already discussed in detail here.

However, there is one missing link here. While mobile TV could provide some good on-the-go entertainment for users and some good ad revenue for advertisers and operators, it will happen only if it’s offered free of cost. A paid mobile TV service, no matter how good it is, will not find a lot of takers in this era of freebies. We already have an example for this in the form of AT&T and Verizon’s mobile TV service - both got a lukewarm response from users. So, like I already said, ad-funded mobile TV could be the future. What do you think folks?

Categories: Mobile TV.

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