Mobimag - Print Medium Goes Mobile in the Middle East

Mobivision, a digital media solutions provider based in Dubai, has developed a first-of-its-kind mobile application called Mobimag, which allows people to read magazines and newspapers on their mobile phones.

Mobimag is an ad-funded platform, which means it is available free to customers. The developers call it an intuitive, effective, and interactive advertising platform. They say the adverts could be in the form of small applications, games, videos, or animations, which gives advertisers a variety of choices to reach their target customer base. The platform has a ‘click to call’ button which customers can use to respond to the adverts.

The USP of the application is that it displays magazines and newspapers exactly in the same format as their print versions. It allows users to open and view the content in a mobile friendly format. Accessing print material on mobile phones is a fairly new concept in the Middle East, so, understandably, the application has garnered a lot of attention quickly.

Prominent UAE publishers including Campaign Middle East, Gulf Business Magazine, and the 7DAYS newspaper are available on the platform. Mobivision plans to have at least 20 publishers onboard within the end of the year. It should not be a problem as the platform offers a solution to a problem that most publishers in the region face – lack of multiple revenue streams. So, publishers are most likely to use this platform to deliver their content to the fast-growing mobile phone user base in the region.

Mobimag is compatible with more than 240 mobile phones, including Windows Mobile and Symbian based smartphones and certain models of Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, and HTC. Surprisingly, it is not compatible with the Blackberry, Android, and the iPhone – three of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the Middle Eastern region today. The company, however, has stated that customized applications for the Blackberry, Android, and the iPhone will be released later this year. It has also mentioned that a very special application for the iPad will be released shortly.

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

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US Mobile Display Ad Spending Likely to Exceed $1 Billion in 2015

ABI Research’s recent report says that mobile advertising spending on display ads in the United States is likely to quadruple in the next few years. The amount spent on mobile display ads, which stands at just over $300 million now, is expected to exceed $1.2 billion in 2015.

Neil Strother of ABI Research says that a survey conducted by the firm in February revealed that 28% of mobile users use the mobile internet facility regularly. He says that the percentage of mobile internet users has increased phenomenally in the last 14 months, which is a great sign for the mobile advertising market.

The report, based on the inputs from a number of mobile marketers, technology vendors, mobile network operators, and advertising agency executives, says that there has been a steady increase in the amount allocated for mobile ad campaigns by companies. Industry insiders say that they have been seeing year-over-year increases of 25%-30%, which is unprecedented when you consider the fact that the industry is still in its infant stage.

Marketers use different types of ads like mobile display ads, text message ads, in-app ads, search ads, and video ads to reach their target audience. They rely on simple text message ads to reach people with low end phones that lack advanced features like mobile TV, internet, audio, and video. On the other hand, they use a variety of rich, multimedia ads to reach people with smartphones that come loaded with advanced features. Statistics show that smartphone penetration in the US is just about 20% now. As this number increases, we can expect a huge surge in the number of mobile ads served across the country.

One of the important signs that indicate a bright future for the industry is the entry of big players like Apple and Google. So far, the industry has been dominated by independent ad networks like Millennial Media, Jumptap, and Greystripe. Google’s acquisition of AdMob and Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless, however, has changed the scenario completely. It shows that the idea of using the mobile phone as an advertising medium is slowly getting mainstream acceptance, which is great news for anyone is related to the mobile advertising industry.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Mobile Applications Revenue to Reach $32 Billion in 2015

Juniper Research’s latest report says that the revenue generated from mobile applications is set to increase sharply in the next few years. The report predicts that the revenue generated from in-app advertising, pay-per-download, and value added services will rise from $10 billion in 2009 to $32 billion in 2015.

The report sheds some light on Apple app store, the most popular name when it comes to mobile applications. As some of you might be aware of, Apple’s mobile app portal registered its 4 billionth download in April 2010, which is a remarkable feat. While ‘4 billion’ sounds like a huge number, the fact that most of these downloads were free makes us look at the statistics in a completely different manner. In fact, the number of paid-for applications is somewhere in the range of 5% to 15% of the total number of apps downloaded. So, the report says that the number of downloads and the amount of revenue generated are not directly proportional and hence an increase in the number of downloads does not necessarily mean an increase in industry revenues.

One of the main points that the report raises is the importance of developing mobile applications that can be accessed using a wide range of handsets. While platform-specific applications can be downloaded and used only by a particular set of mobile users, these generic applications can be downloaded and used by anyone who has a mobile phone. This move can be particularly effective in developing markets where the use of high end mobile phones and smartphones is very rare as most of the people still use low end phones.

The report also discusses in detail a number of topics including the need for scale, the need to monetize the mass market, app store overload, and content legacy. You can find more details here.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Applications.

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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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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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