German Company To Try QR Code Based Mobile Advertising

Sennheiser, a Germany based audio technology company, says that its print ad on the latest issue of InTune Magazine will contain an interactive QR code linked to an application. The application contains music related content that could be useful for teachers who teach music and students who learn music.

InTune Magazine has joined hands with Didmo, a mobile business solutions provider based in Sweden, to use its custom QR codes in print ads. When a mobile user scans the QR code using his mobile phone, he will be directed to Magmito applications that contain lots of content related to teaching and learning music. It could be text, images, or audio and video tutorials.

The best part about these applications is that the content they have is not just limited for high end phones or smartphones like the iPhone. The basic content can be accessed by anyone with a mobile phone. Multimedia content like audio and video clips and certain additional features and experiences are, however, meant only for people who have high end mobile phones.

Using QR codes in mobile advertising is not exactly a new idea. It has been tried and tested by a lot of companies before. These codes, like I have already mentioned several times on this blog, bridge the gap between print content and mobile content. With interactive QR codes, you can mobilize a print ad. People, instead of visiting your website or calling your company to know more details, could just scan the code, download the application, and get more information in a matter of just a few seconds. This, needless to say, is a huge advantage for any business as it increases the response rate significantly.

The technology of QR code based mobile advertising is still in its infant stage. However, as more and more companies start to realize just how advantageous it can be for their business, we will certainly see a sharp increase in the number of QR code embedded print ads on magazines and newspapers.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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India - The Second Largest Consumer of Mobile Internet

A recent report by Google says that India is the second largest consumer of mobile internet in the world today. The report says that more than 14 billion mobile web page views were generated in the month of February 2010. India accounted for 5.9% of these page views. The U.S., being the largest consumer of mobile internet, accounted for more than 50% of page views in February.

India has managed to edge past its closest competitor China in terms of mobile data usage. Its burgeoning mobile user population (currently more than 500 million mobile phone users) is one of the main reasons why it has managed to topple China and rise to the second position. Another reason could be the recent fallout between Google and the Chinese government, which has weakened Google’s presence in China considerably. Given the fact that this report only considers countries where Google has a strong presence, it is not very surprising that India is ahead of China in terms of mobile internet usage.

An important fact to be mentioned here is that though India has more than 500 million mobile users, only about 25 million users use the paid data services offered by network operators. Google India, however, predicts that this number could rise to 100 million by the end of 2010.

An interesting fact that the report has mentioned is that most Indian mobile users use reasonably priced low end handsets like Nokia 5130 Express Music and Nokia 3110c. In stark contrast, mobile users in the U.S. use high end handsets like the iPhone for mobile internet purposes. This situation, however, is expected to change soon thanks to the proliferation of high end devices in the Indian market lately. As more and more people turn their attention toward high end phones, the number of mobile internet users in India is expected to rise steadily in the coming years.

Categories: Mobile Web.

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Working Mothers - The Target Customer Base for Mobile Advertisers

Here’s a quick question for you – whom do you think is the most important target customer segment for mobile advertising? I bet most of you would not hesitate to say that teens and young adults are the target customer base for mobile advertisers. Well; guess what? You are in for a surprise. Let me tell you why.

Working moms, according to a recent report, are more likely to spend money on mobile content than most other people. The latest report from Scarborough says that married women who have at least one child and a steady job are more likely to download mobile content and respond to mobile advertising campaigns than most other people.

The report says that the mobile bill of a working mother is nearly 20% more than the mobile bill of the average mobile user in the country. This is a significant difference and it just goes to show that married women with jobs do not mind spending a lot on their wireless bills. The report also says that a working mother is 40% more likely to download multimedia content to her mobile phone than the average mobile user. These are important data and they make us look at the mobile user demographic in a slightly different manner.

It is not hard to understand why working moms spend more money than most people on their mobile phones. A married woman who has a full time job and a kid is likely to make important decisions for her family. She gets to choose a lot of things for her husband, kids, and herself. So, when she comes across an offer which is good and could save her some money, she is likely to make a decision immediately. So, when mobile marketers send her targeted ads, she is likely to respond. This is why the working mother demographic is considered important by many.

If you remember, I already talked about people in the 30-50 age bracket who are likely to spend money on mobile related stuff here. Now, with this report, it becomes very clear. People with a considerable amount of disposable income are certainly an important target for mobile advertisers. They have money, they are used to taking quick decisions, and they do not think twice before responding to what they consider good offers. So, it is a good idea for mobile advertisers to widen their approach and target different customer segments to get better results.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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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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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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