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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Mobixell gets $6 million funding

Mobile advertising solutions provider Mobixell Networks has got a cool $6 million fund from Apex Partners, Intel Capital, and SMAC Partners. This fund was raised in the fourth round and Mobixell has raised $29 million to date.

Mobixell is based in California and Israel. The company specializes in delivering mobile advertising solutions and mobile multimedia solutions.

It has a pretty good mobile advertising solution package which includes different modules like messaging, video, WAP, ringback tones, and many more. Its mobile advertising solution can process and optimize a variety of mobile content including images, audio files, video files, and MMS.

Its mobile multimedia solutions include special content production suites for mobile content production, mobile webcast gateway, and other multimedia handling solutions.

Mobixell has also got a pretty impressive client list which includes some famous names like Orange, Vodafone, and O2 among others.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Mobile advertising - South Africa remains on top

South Africa is one country which is light years ahead of other countries when it comes to mobile advertising. It is considered the hottest market right now and the numbers speak for themselves. The average response rate for mobile advertising campaigns in South Africa is anywhere from 10% to 25%, which is nothing short of amazing.

The latest success story, MXit, proves it once again. MXit is a mobile social networking site which is as popular as Facebook in South Africa. With a subscriber base of over 7 million, the company is a dream for mobile advertisers. A huge number of mobile advertisers are interested in working with MXit as the response rates are really high.

This is not just a one-off story. Mobile phone is considered the hottest advertising medium in South Africa today and it is predicted that mobile advertising will be worth way over R1.5 billion in the next three years.

In case you’re wondering how it’s possible, let me explain.

1. Mobile advertising is cost effective. It’s way cheaper than traditional advertising methods like TV, magazines, or radio. And it delivers tremendous results.

2. You can create a mobile advertising campaign and launch it within a week’s time. And you can see the results in a day or two. This is simply unimaginable in the case of traditional advertising.

3. Most importantly, South African mobile users are prolific when it comes to mobile web. A majority of mobile users use mobile internet very regularly and this helps mobile advertisers create interactive mobile advertising campaigns to reach out to them.

Already, South African students have mobile advertising as part of their syllabus, in case you don’t know. It can only mean one thing and that is the next generation will be even more receptive to mobile advertising. Interesting, don’t you think?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Mobile advertising in India - A closer look

With a 270 million mobile user base, India is one of the hottest markets out there for mobile advertisers. And it is evident from the number of mobile advertising companies that have started up in the past few years. Since Indians use the text message (SMS) facility extensively, text message advertising is considered the best option out there by many.

A lot of companies are already into text message marketing and the results of late have been very, very positive. Hindustan Lever and Coca Cola launched mobile advertising campaigns and have had great success so far and very recently, Ford launched a mobile advertising campaign which was also very successful.

Companies like Affle, Webaroo, Netcore Solutions, and Gingersoft Media have come up with their own innovative SMS marketing technologies to help companies reach their customers easily.

1. Affle’s SMS 2.0 technology is considered the next big thing as far as mobile advertising in India is concerned. You can download SMS 2.0 into your mobile phone for free. Once downloaded, the software will replace the existing SMS system with its own sophisticated browser which has a lot of features such as emoticons, rich colors, icons, signature, and many more. Using this, you will be able to spice up your text messages like never before.

2. SMS GupShup from Webaroo lets you build your own mobile communities. You can send text messages to everyone in your community at the click of a button and at the rate of a single text message. You’ll also be able to send micro blogs to your community members.

3. SMS MyToday from Netcore Solutions has a free text messaging service. You’ll be sent updates every day from your areas of interest.

4. Perhaps the most famous of them all, mGinger, pays you to get ads on your mobile phone.

In all these services, you’ll be served with ads in your text messages. Usually, the bottom space of the message box is used to serve ads. But since these services are free, a lot of Indian mobile users are cool with this idea. In a relatively short period of time, Webaroo has a 7 million user base, mGinger has a 1.5 million user base, and Affle has a 500,000 user base which is steadily growing. With numbers like this, the Indian mobile advertising market looks poised for a huge growth in the future.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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