AT&T to support QR code based advertising

I’ve talked about the impact QR codes can have on mobile advertising already in this blog. Now, it seems Americans will have an opportunity to try it out. AT&T recently decided to support one such technology developed by Mobot, a Massachusetts based company.

With this technology, you can use your mobile phone camera to scan a barcode, logo, or picture and get something cool in return. It might be a discount coupon, some cool stuff to download, or a gift voucher. It is also said that depending on the response that AT&T gets, Verizon and T-Mobile might also follow suit.

Google is also very excited about this technology as it might help Google set its foot in print advertising. Google plans to place print ads with barcodes that can be scanned by mobile phone cameras. Google analytics tools will take note of things like how many people scanned the ad and what type of ads got noticed so that you, as a mobile advertiser, can get an idea of how well your ad campaign has performed.

I think this could be a terrific idea if executed well. As a mobile user, I’d always find it easier to scan an ad with my mobile camera and get the info I want as opposed to responding to a text message. What do you guys say?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Watch 2012 Olympics on mobile TV

Olympics 2012 will mark the beginning of a significant technology that can change the very way mobile phones are being used. I’m talking about Mobile TV. Err… is there any correlation between Olympics and Mobile TV? Yes, there is.

London Olympics would be the most watched event in 2012 without a doubt and mobile operators and mobile advertisers are thinking of ways to make the most out of this opportunity. The answer for that could very well be Mobile TV.

A lot of operators are testing the waters already and they’ll be ready to help you check out Olympics events right on your mobile phone, come 2012. The most important things that could decide the way operators will bring you mobile entertainment are the auctions for L Band Spectrum, 2.6 gigahertz spectrum, and analogue television spectrum. The reason is simple – these auctions will decide which technology can be used to take mobile TV to consumers in the most effective way. Operators are already very busy working on various technologies to make 2012 Olympics go mobile. Check out this list.

Vodafone, in Italy, brings mobile television to users through DVB-H (digital video broadcasting handheld) technology, backed by Nokia.

Orange and T-Mobile use TDtv technology for mobile television and will soon launch about 24 mobile TV channels to test the market.

BT and Virgin used DAB technology for their BT Movio mobile TV, which is now a defunct service.

Qualcomm’s MediaFLO is yet another technology that can work well with the L Band Spectrum.

The only way mobile operators can profit from mobile TV is through mobile advertising. So, there are talks on that too. I’ve already stated my opinion on mobile TV advertising and I think it will open new avenues for both mobile advertisers and mobile operators. Not to mention, we, mobile users, will end up getting so many options in our mobile phone that we’ll find it difficult to choose one.

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

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Yahoo OnePlace - Mobile bookmarks made easy

Do you find it hard to revisit sites again and again in your mobile phone? Do you wish you could bookmark important sites, news feeds, and search results in your mobile phone? Well; Yahoo will soon have an answer for this.

In the second quarter, Yahoo will launch OnePlace, a mobile phone tool which will allow users to bookmark their favorite web pages on their mobile phone. This saves the hassle of keying in the URL every time, especially for the sites that you visit often – like flight information, weather reports, or sports pages.

Yahoo says it has reinvented the process of bookmarking and has customized it to the needs of mobile users. OnePlace will not bookmark fixed pages – instead, it will have placeholders linked to pages that have updated info, thereby making it easier for users to find out the latest information.

More importantly, OnePlace, with the help of two other Yahoo mobile services namely oneSearch and oneConnect, will customize the content behind the bookmarks according to the user’s location and preferences. Marco Boerries, the man behind Yahoo mobile, thinks this will help people get the most relevant and the most recent results from their bookmarked pages.

Methinks Yahoo is trying hard to topple Google from its top position. Yahoo has stated that it aims to reach more than 750 million users by the end of this year. It has already partnered with big names like Telefonica, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Going by the speed at which Yahoo is coming up with new products and services and partnering with the big names in the industry, Google is in for some stiff competition.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Yahoo.

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Google becomes the default search engine on Opera mobile browser

From now on, Opera Mobile users and Opera Mini users will see a default Google search bar on the start page. Opera and Google recently got into an agreement wherein Google will be the default search engine in both Opera Mobile and Opera Mini mobile browsers. In case you don’t know, Opera Mobile is the mobile browser for smartphones and PDAs and Opera Mini is the mobile browser for low-end mobile phones.

Interestingly, Yahoo was the one who partnered with Opera last year to make it the default search engine in Opera mobile browser. But now both Yahoo and Opera have called off the agreement and Google has used this opportunity to its advantage.

This would be a fruitful partnership for Google, as Opera mobile browser is used by tens of millions of users all over the world. If you remember, Yahoo became the default search engine for T-Mobile in Europe some time back, replacing Google. Now, Google has replaced Yahoo and has become the default search engine for Opera. This, as they say, is competition at its best.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Google, All things mobile phones.

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AdMob + Unicast = Effective Mobile Advertising Campaigns

AdMob, a well known name in mobile advertising, has joined hands with Unicast in an effort to make its mobile advertising campaigns better and more effective. Through this partnership, AdMob will use Unicast’s Rich Media Mobile Platform to make its advertising campaigns richer, better, and more effective.

Rich Media Mobile is a technology which can be used to create rich, effective mobile advertisements and track their performance. Mobile advertisers are thrilled at the prospect of having a technology which will not only make their advertising campaigns better, but also track their performance and hence help them calculate the ROI (Return on Investment) perfectly.

Rich Media Mobile uses a unique technology which can automatically find out the type of mobile phone a user has and the kind of media it can play and offer the mobile content in the right format. In other words, this technology will customize mobile content and deliver it appropriately. This will help mobile marketers deliver their content effectively and enhance the experience of mobile advertising for end users. You can track your advertising campaigns through real-time reporting and assess their effectiveness. The service is compatible with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and other prominent US carriers.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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