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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Mobile search grew 68% last year - says research firm

The latest report from comScore says that mobile search is growing by leaps and bounds in the U.S. and Western Europe – a terrific 68% growth in the U.S. and 38% growth in Western Europe. The research firm says that mobile search has a huge future and these numbers could go up considerably in the coming years.

With the influx of high end phones like Apple iPhone and smart phones, mobile users find it easier to access the internet from their mobile phone. So, they use the search facility extensively. Experts say that the introduction of 3G has played a big role in the growth of mobile search. In fact, since the introduction of 3G, the number of mobile users in the U.S. that use the mobile search facility has doubled.

Now, let’s take a look at some numbers.

1. Between June 2007 and June 2008, around 21 million U.S. subscribers and 4.5 million European subscribers used the mobile search facility.

2. Google is the most important search provider for mobile phones. It has a 60% market share in mobile search around the world. It is followed by its fiercest competitor in the mobile space, Yahoo, which has a market share of around 35%. As you know, Google is the default search provider for Sprint and the iPhone and Yahoo is the default search provider for AT&T.

3. 9.5% of mobile users in the U.K. used the mobile search facility last year, which is unprecedented. In the U.S., around 9.2% of mobile users used the search facility.

If the mobile industry continues to grow at this rate, which it will, we can expect a lot more high end phones at affordable rates, cheaper and better data plans, and as a result, a huge increase in the number of people who use the mobile search facility.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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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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On why some people should not be allowed to blog

I’ve written quite a few rant pieces in this blog. In all those posts, I usually picked on a blog post which was either annoying or ill-informed in nature. But trust me. None of those posts can hold a candle to what you’re about to see now.

There was a story in the Daily Mail. I’ve summarized it below.

A young man in UK was killed in a car accident. Apparently, he was looking at his mobile phone when he tried to cross the road and didn’t see the car coming toward him. So, naturally, he was hit by the car and suffered very bad injuries. He was taken to the hospital, but he died anyway.

The interesting twist to this story is that the text message was apparently a ‘spam’ message sent by a debt management company. So, this blogger decided to spice up things a little and came up with this horrendous headline.

“Deadly Cell Phone Text Ad”

And then, he goes on to say that the text advert led to the man’s death.

Can someone freakin’ tell me what this guy’s problem is? The victim died because of his carelessness and not because of the driver’s fault. And most certainly, it was not the text message’s fault. Now, if you notice the article in the Daily Mail carefully, nobody, including the family members of the deceased, has blamed either the driver or the text message. Our man simply gave a dramatic twist to the story to get a few more hits.

Now, had it been a text message from a relative, could he have come up with a headline like this?

“Young Man Killed by Relative through Deadly Text Message”

Seriously folks; if you hate spam, I have no problems. At all. But please don’t try to come up with such sinfully stupid posts. It only reflects on your intelligence.

Categories: Rant.

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Indian company to introduce audio ads in mobile phones

How many times have you called your friend on his mobile phone and heard a song instead of the usual ringback tone? It’s quite common these days, right? Well; we’re about to get to the next stage of it. How about getting some audio ads instead of ringback tones?

OnMobile, an interactive advertising company in India, has come up with this idea. Suitably named AdRBT (Ad Ringback Tones), the program allows mobile users to opt in to the program which will replace the usual ringback tone with a variety of audio ads. In exchange, the user will get special discounts and offers.

OnMobile is confident that these audio ads will have high response rates and excellent recall rates and the impact might be huge. However, I think it’s only a 50/50 chance. Not many will be excited at the prospect of replacing their ringback tones with arbitrary ads and it might not be a smooth sail for the company initially. The way I see it, even people who are fine with text message ads and banner ads might find these audio ads a tad intrusive. But then, it’s just my opinion. And the Indians in general are not as finicky about mobile ads as their US counter parts. So, I might as well be proved wrong. Either way, it will be interesting to see the progress this company makes.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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