Mobile Advertisers Eyeing the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa

A recent report from JBB research, a U.S. based research group, says that the 2010 soccer world cup could give the mobile advertising industry in South Africa a huge boost.

The soccer world cup starts on June 11 and ends on July 11. This month long event is supposed to generate a huge amount of interest among fans all over the country and advertisers are planning to reach out to these fans using the mobile phone as a medium.

The report says that advertisers are planning to come up with a lot of ad funded UGC (user generated content) applications to make fans actively participate in various contests. The soccer world cup is the world’s most watched sporting event and the amount of money spent on advertising will be huge. A significant amount of this money will be spent on mobile advertising since the country has a very active mobile user base.

This news should not come as a surprise for anyone who has been a regular reader of this blog, since we have already discussed the staggering growth of mobile advertising in South Africa here, here, here, and here. If you are an advertiser in a country which has 30 million mobile users, most of whom are into mobile social networking and mobile web, it is only natural that you use the mobile phone as a medium to reach out to your target customer base. In fact, the report says that most South Africans keep in touch with each other through mobile social networking sites like MXit, Meep, MTN’s noknok, and Facebook instead of calling each other or texting each other.

The report also says that the number of high end phone users in the country could increase significantly by the end of this year, when video broadcasting enabled mobile phones are introduced to the market. This could open a plethora of opportunities for advertisers to reach out to their target customer base – video streaming, video based mobile blogging, and more. So, mobile advertisers are very optimistic and are expecting very good response rates for their mobile marketing campaigns.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Will Microsoft Tag Change the Landscape of Mobile Marketing?

Using 2D barcodes in mobile marketing is something that we are aware of. However, when Microsoft decides to do it, it definitely deserves a special mention. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it will introduce a new barcode technology which will bring the print medium, internet medium, and the mobile phone together successfully.

At CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2009, Microsoft released the beta version of what they call Microsoft Tag – a barcode technology which can help to store data in the form of graphical bitmaps.

Microsoft Tag differs from QR codes or any other type of 2D barcode available today because of an important reason – It is based on a brand new technology called HCCB (High Capacity Color Barcodes) which uses triangle shaped color pixels to store data instead of the usual black and white square pixels. Moreover, these tags do not store any information. Instead, they store a unique ID which is used to retrieve information from Microsoft servers. So, it is now possible to store a lot more information than what can be usually stored in conventional 2D barcodes.

Here is how it works.

Microsoft Tag contains HCCB data which is nothing but a unique ID for the information stored in a Microsoft server. When the tag is read, the HCCB data is sent to the server and the publisher’s URL is returned to the mobile phone and the user is able to open the appropriate website in his mobile browser. All this takes place in a span of few seconds.

What you need

What you need is an internet enabled smart phone with a camera, a reasonably good data plan, Microsoft Tag application, and a Microsoft Tag account. This application works on phones which run on Symbian, Blackberry, Android, J2ME-MMP, Palm, Java 2 Micro Edition, iPhone, and any Windows OS.

You can open an account on Microsoft Tag webpage in a matter of few seconds and download the application on to your mobile phone for free.

How you use it?

When you see a print ad with a Microsoft Tag, all you need to do is activate the tag application on your mobile phone and take a picture of the barcode using your mobile phone camera. Immediately, you will be able to see the publisher’s website, which contains information about the product or service mentioned in the ad, on your mobile browser.

Why is it good for businesses?

It is a very simple yet effective way to reach the end user. It makes advertising a lot easier. When people find a product or service mentioned in a print ad appealing, they usually try to get more information about it. If the business owner can give them the information they want immediately, the chances of a sale increase significantly. This is now possible with Microsoft Tag. It is reliable, easy to use, and, most importantly, free. So, a lot people, small business owners in particular, can benefit immensely from this technology. I think this technology will make a big impact in the near future and will increase the scope of mobile marketing tremendously. Let us wait and see if I am proven right or not.

PS - You can read more about 2D barcodes and their role in mobile marketing here,here, and here.

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

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IAB Releases Mobile Buyer’s Guide at Mobile Conference

The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) released a first-of-its-kind Mobile Buyer’s Guide for mobile marketing agencies at the IAB Marketplace: Mobile Conference on Monday.

The guide explains the medium of mobile advertising in detail and offers valuable information for mobile marketers to help them create and run mobile marketing campaigns successfully. The guide contains everything you need to know about mobile advertising – key terms and definitions, an overview of the U.S. market, a look at the key demographics, tips to create and run mobile marketing campaigns, and a number of examples to illustrate the intricacies involved in such campaigns.

You can take a look at the guide here.

Personally, I think this is a great initiative by the IAB. Though a lot of experts predict a big future for mobile advertising, it is still in its nascent stage and an unbelievably huge number of people are completely unaware of its potential. This kind of a detailed guide will definitely help people understand the value of advertising on mobile phones.

Mobile Marketer, AdMob, Mindshare, ESPN, HBO, NBC Universal, Nestle, AIG, Deutsch, IKEA, CNN Digital, Verizon Wireless, Microsoft, Pandora, Citi, and Nokia Interactive Advertising were some of the names involved in the conference. The future of mobile marketing was discussed in detail and the general feeling among both business owners and marketers was that mobile marketing as a medium is poised for huge growth.

Some of the important points raised at the conference include

• The click through rates of mobile display ads are five to ten times more than the click through rates of banner ads on websites.

• Online advertising has reached a point where almost every other website is filled with ads and people have started ignoring a majority of those ads. Advertising on mobile phones, on the other hand, is still in its nascent stage and a lot of consumers show interest in it.

• Microsoft, which has been trying really hard to dominate both the online and the mobile space, has had very good success with mobile ads so far. Compared to their online ads, mobile ads have performed exceptionally well so far. As a result, Microsoft is planning to invest a lot of money in mobile advertising.

• At the time of recession, mobile phone advertising can help businesses irrespective of their size. Mobile advertising campaigns are easy to create, easy to manage, and give excellent results. The response rates of these campaigns are usually way higher than the response rates of traditional advertising methods.

• A lot of companies have yet to try mobile coupons, location based advertising, and other types of mobile marketing which give very good results. However, experts believe that the situation will change slowly as more and more people are becoming aware of the potential of advertising on mobile phones.

Based on what I have seen and heard so far, I am of the opinion that mobile advertising, as a medium, will break through to the mainstream in a few years from now. What do you guys think?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Popeye Chicken’s Mobile Coupon Campaign a Major Success

Check this out folks; this is easily one of the most amazing news I’ve heard from the mobile marketing industry lately.

Popeye’s Chicken recently ran a mobile coupon campaign in Wichita, Kansas to promote its three-piece chicken dinner. The campaign, which was developed by Ping Mobile, was a super success with a response rate of nearly 54%.

The campaign was simple. It asked customers to text the keyword ‘POPEYES’ to 74642. On doing so, the customers got a message from Popeye’s Chicken. The message had a mobile coupon which the customer can use to get a free two piece chicken dinner on buying a three piece chicken dinner and a medium drink. The customers were also given a choice to join the Popeye’s Chicken VIP Club to get more such offers right in their mobile phones.

Over 750 people responded to the campaign and more than 50% of them have opted in to join the VIP club to receive more such offers in the future. The customers, at the time of opting in, are reminded that they have the option to opt out of the campaign any time they want simply by texting ‘STOP’. This reassures the users that they can opt in and opt out of the campaign any time they want without any hassles.

This is something that I have always said about mobile coupons. Such campaigns are highly targeted, affordable, and, most importantly, very effective. The response rates for these types of campaigns are usually way higher than what you get with traditional marketing campaigns. Mobile advertising, like I’ve always said, is where the future lies for everyone – from big businesses to small ‘mom and pop’ local retailers.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Future of Mobile Advertising - Notes from Cannes Lions Ad Festival 2009

Mobile advertising was one of the important topics which were discussed at the 56th International Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. A number of executives representing big advertising and marketing firms around the world discussed the future of mobile marketing.

A lot of people who discussed the future of mobile phone advertising were of the opinion that it could become really big in the next two or three years. There are two reasons why they believe so.

1. The large number of mobile applications designed exclusively for smart phones which allow users to access multimedia content right from their mobile phones.

2. The ever-growing popularity of social networks like MySpace and Facebook which can be accessed right from the mobile phone thanks to mobile social networking.

Statistics show that mobile advertising has grown at an average of 45% in the last five years, which is incredible to say the least. In other words, what used to be a $3 billion industry has now become a whopping $30 billion industry in just about five years.

Let us now take a look at some of the most important points discussed.

1. A lot of executives said that they have launched a lot of mobile advertising campaigns in the recent past and the response so far has been pretty good.

2. Almost everyone was of the opinion that advertisers need to be more creative to generate interest among users. They were very clear that run of the mill ads which interrupt users every two minutes will definitely not work.

3. It was predicted that in the next three to five years, mobile marketing will account for nearly 10% of global media ad spending.

4. Highly targeted local mobile advertising campaigns will generate enormous amount of interest among small retailers. (Incidentally, this is something that I have repeatedly said in this blog. You can take a look at it here, here, here, and here.)

5. Emerging markets like Africa and Latin America hold a lot of promise as the number of mobile users has increased steadily in the past few years.

6. One of the biggest hurdles for advertisers around the world is the lack of compatibility between 3G networks in Asia and Europe.

7. 4G – the fourth generation high speed mobile technology – is something that advertising firms around the world are waiting for with bated breath. It is expected to hit the market in another ten years or so.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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