JiWire’s Latest Report on Mobile Advertising

JiWire has released its latest Mobile Audience Insights Report, which talks about the latest trends and developments in the world of mobile advertising. The report takes a detailed look at the impact of mobile apps, consumer adoption of Wi-Fi technology, consumer response to location based advertising, and more.

The report is based on the responses of two thousand random customers who were picked by the company for a detailed survey. The survey was conducted from March 2010 to April 2010.

Some of the key points of the report include

• Nearly 40% of the respondents said that they are interested in using different types of mobile applications and they spend at least an hour every day using them. On average, they have 22 apps on their mobile device.

• More than 75% of the respondents said that they prefer free mobile apps that come with advertising to paid apps.

• 35% of the respondents clicked on an in-app ad, 27% visited the website of the advertiser, and 18% bought something from an ad in an app.

• 53% of the respondents said that they are willing to share their location details with a mobile advertising company to receive targeted ads on their mobile phone. More than 80% of the respondents said that they are likely to respond to an ad that is relevant to their current location.

• Games, entertainment, news, travel, weather, and social networking are some of the most preferred mobile app categories.

The report pretty much resonates with my thoughts on mobile phone advertising. A lot of people do not mind ads as long as they are relevant and non-intrusive. Moreover, an increasingly large number of people are getting comfortable with the idea of ad-funded apps and services. Add to this the fact that the number of smartphones sold on the market is increasing by the day and you can understand why experts say that the future of mobile advertising is bright.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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New Interactive Mobile Advertising Service from America Movil and MyScreen

America Movil, a well known wireless service provider in Latin America, has joined hands with MyScreen, a Canada based mobile advertising company, to launch an interactive mobile advertising service across Latin American and the Caribbean.

This, as you can imagine, is an opt-in service which is available only to those who subscribe to the service voluntarily. Customers will be delivered interactive full screen ads at the end of every call. Banner ads will be served when customers are browsing the net on their mobile phone. The subscribers who opt in to the service will get special discounts, offers, and free services which are not available to regular subscribers of America Movil.

The ads delivered are highly targeted based on the preferences of each subscriber. The subscribers can get ads from different categories like health, entertainment, lifestyle, and sports. Subscribers can accumulate reward points for every ad they view on their mobile phone. They can redeem these reward points to get free services and other such offers from their operator.

America Movil and MyScreen conducted a trial this year to get an idea of the response from subscribers. Much to everyone’s surprise, the ads from MyScreen generated 20% CTR (click through rate), which is unprecedented to say the least. Just so you know, online ads, which have become ubiquitous these days, generate a CTR of 1%. In other words, the response to mobile ads, at least in this scenario, was 20 times higher than the response to online ads. This encouraged the parties involved tremendously to introduce the service to America Movil customers.

In my opinion, the timing of this alliance could not have been better. A recent report from Juniper Research says that mobile advertising in Latin America is still in its nascent stage and is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. In 2012, the amount spent on mobile advertising in the region is expected to be somewhere around $1.3 billion. Considering the fact that America Movil has millions of subscribers from the region, it makes sense for them to join hands with MyScreen to come up with such a service.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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68100 - Ad-funded Mobile Directory Enquiry Service in the U.K.

One of the complaints of people who live in the U.K. is that the directory enquiries service in the country is pretty expensive. Popular companies like Yell, Maureen, and BT charge about £1 per minute which is not cheap by any stretch of imagination. Now, there is a cheaper alternative available in the form of 68100.

The directory enquiry service offered by 68100 covers both business and residential landline numbers in the country and costs only 35p per minute. Now, some of you might be thinking ‘there has to be a catch somewhere’. It is true. There is a catch. You need to listen to an ad when you call this number. It is a concept that you are all familiar with – mobile advertising. Let me tell you how it works.

1. You call 68100.

2. Your call is attended by an operator who searches for the number you request.

3. You listen to a small 20-second ad.

4. An automatic voice reads out the number you requested.

5. Once you hang up the phone, you get a text message which contains the requested number and an offer from an advertiser.

6. If you want the service to connect you to the number you requested, you can press 1.

7. If you are interested in the offer from the advertiser, you can press 2.

It is like any other directory enquiry service. The only difference is that it is available at an affordable price since a significant portion of the cost is covered by mobile advertisers.

The question now is whether people will be willing to listen to ads or not. It is difficult to answer this question. Some might avoid using this service because of their rabid aversion for ads. Some might use this service since it is cheap. I, for one, wouldn’t mind using such a service if I can save a pound or two. So, it all depends on people’s preferences.

The only problem with this service, in my opinion, is that it primarily caters to people who have low end mobile phones without internet connectivity option. If a person has a high end mobile phone, like I do, he can easily get the information he wants by visiting the website of Yell or Maureen. He does not need to use this service at all. Apart from this, I do not see any other problem with this service. This, I think, is yet another example as to how useful mobile advertising can be if presented the right way. What do you think?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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The Need for Mobile Websites - Will Big Brands Wake Up?

Here’s a news item that surprised me to say the least. Interbrand recently released its list of the top 100 brands for 2009 and nearly 1/3rd of the brands in that list do not have their own mobile website.

If your reaction to this news is ‘dude, what’s the big deal?’ – let me tell you something. According to statistics, the number of people who use smart phones (read iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc) keeps increasing every year. In North America alone, nearly 26% of mobile users use the mobile web facility on their phone regularly. In other words, they use their mobile phone to browse the web. With more and more people buying internet enabled high end phones, it is only logical to assume that this percentage will grow significantly in the near future. So, you’d assume that big brands would have woken up to reality long time back and created their own mobile websites, right? Well; it turns out it is not the case.

Remember – I am not talking about small, lesser known brands here. Big, famous brands like Coca Cola and GE do not have a mobile website. To say that this is surprising is a huge understatement.

I have talked about the importance of big brands having a good mobile presence and how important it is to have a decent mobile website. I firmly believe that a well designed, easy to access mobile website is of paramount importance for any brand, leave alone huge brands like Coca Cola and GE.

Some could argue that iPhone and certain other mobile phones offer a full browser experience and so there is no need for a mobile website. Guess what? Not everyone in the U.S. uses an iPhone. There are other phones whose mobile browsers are not nearly as good as the iPhone mobile browser. What about the people who use these phones? What are they supposed to do?

Contrary to what most people think, browsing the web using a mobile phone is not easy. The screen is small, the keypad is small, and it is certainly not as easy as browsing the web on your PC or laptop. This is why you need to have a customized mobile website which loads quickly and easy to navigate. It is not hard to do. Facebook has a very good mobile site, Toyota has one, MySpace has one, Microsoft has one, and a number of other famous brands have one too. So, the only explanation is that some brands have not yet realized the potential of mobile internet and are reluctant to reach out to their users through their most personal device – the mobile phone.

I hope it does not stay this way. The future is mobile and let us hope – for the sake of all mobile users in the world – these brands realize this sooner than later.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Web.

2 comments.

Facebook Mobile Reaches a New Milestone - 65 Million Active Users

Facebook Mobile has reached a new milestone folks. It now has over 65 million active users from different parts of the world, making it one of the most popular mobile social networking sites in the world today. What makes this news even more incredible is that it has happened in an incredibly short span of time. About eight months back, the number of active users was only around 20 million. Now, it is well over 65 million. In other words, the site has attracted more than 40 million new users in a span of eight months – eight months. Incredible is the only word that comes to my mind.

Let us dissect this achievement a little. There are a number of mobile social networking sites available today. What makes Facebook Mobile so popular among mobile users? From what I have seen so far, I can think of the following reasons.

• It is available in a number of different languages. So, no matter what language you speak, you are likely to find a version of Facebook Mobile in that language.

• There are a large number of Facebook Mobile applications available for different types of handsets including iPhone, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Palm, Samsung, HTC, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry. So, no matter what handset you use, you can access it easily.

• It has come up with innovative features like Facebook SMS which lets you set your status, receive notifications, and send and receive messages via SMS. It is very convenient for people who are not able to log into the mobile site all the time.

• It is available in two formats – an ordinary version which works on any mobile phone and a special version which is meant only for touch screen phones.

Not hard to understand why the website has attracted so many people, isn’t it? In fact, experts say that the site will have more than 100 million users in 2010. Considering its growth in the past few months, it is not hard to believe.

Finally, here’s something for the hardcore Facebook users among you. People on Facebook Blog have announced that Facebook Connect, starting from today, will be available on a number of mobile sites and applications. Well; you knew they had something up their sleeve, didn’t you?

PS: To know more about mobile social networking, you can check out this post.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

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