Ad funded mobile phone service in the Philippines

A new mobile phone service, fully funded by advertisements, has been launched in the Philippines. The service is called U Mobile and it is targeted mainly toward young people.

This is the first-of-its-kind service in the Philippines, where more than 45% of the people are said to own mobile phones. This service is specifically targeted toward people from age 15 to 34 – popularly termed ‘the youth and yuppies’. The phone service is open for people only on an invitation only basis. You can use this service absolutely free of cost provided you’re willing to get that many ads in your mobile phone as specified by the service provider.

The company aims to get anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 subscribers within one year.

This company reminds me of Blyk, which has had phenomenal success so far. However, the success of this ad funded phone service depends on user response. If you remember, Blyk set a similar target of 100,000 subscribers in one year in the UK and reached it in just six months. It remains to be seen if this Filipino company can do so.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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YuuZoo enters mobile advertising with a bang

YuuZoo, a popular name in the world of mobile content and mobile advertising, has moved from its beta phase and will soon start rendering its services to a number of countries including China, India, US, UK, Germany, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

In case you don’t know YuuZoo, here’s a small piece of info. YuuZoo is backed and financed by a number of high profile executives from Nokia, Ogilvy & Mather, and Ericsson and is famous world over.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of YuuZoo is the extensive range of mobile content it has on offer. It has partnered with some of the best mobile technology companies in the world and offers a wide range of mobile content, most of which are exclusive.

With the current set up, YuuZoo can easily reach around 1 billion consumers around the world. What this means to mobile advertisers around the world is that they can now easily target a huge number of consumers with the help of YuuZoo. With its technology, YuuZoo can help mobile advertisers send highly targeted ads to consumers – both local and international.

It will be interesting to see the growth of YuuZoo in the coming months. With such a strong set up, I think it is certainly a force to be reckoned with in the mobile advertising industry.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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M:Ad - Mobile advertising tracking service from M:Metrics

Some time back, in this blog, I had discussed the need for mobile analytic tools. And now, we have a solution. M:Metrics, the mobile media authority, has come up with M:Ad, a tracking service for mobile advertising in the U.K. From now on, mobile advertisers can track their mobile ad campaigns and get critical data with pinpoint accuracy.

M:Ad will track mobile advertisements and classify them for ease of use. With this, mobile advertisers can get data on what kind of mobile ads are served, when are these ads served, the company behind those ads, and their market penetration. This will bring greater clarity to the mobile advertising industry and help mobile advertisers target potential customers more easily.

First it was the U.S., now it’s the U.K. M:Metrics is slowly expanding its network, which is a good thing for the mobile advertising industry as a whole. Considering that M:Ad was a huge success in the United States, I have no doubt that it will be a success in the U.K. too. The sooner M:Ad goes international, the better it will be for the mobile advertising industry.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Host Telecom’s innovative mobile advertising idea

Host Telecom, a mobile advertising firm, has come up with an idea that could very well become a success and even better, create a new trend in mobile advertising. They have come up with a video ring back tone for mobile phones, which will replace ordinary ring back tones. What’s so special, you ask me? Well; these video ring back tones will be used to advertise a product/service on mobile phones. So, when someone calls someone else, instead of the same old ring back tone, he will get a video on his mobile screen, which will advertise a product or service. This, undoubtedly, will catch the user’s attention and will not be considered intrusive by most, as they are not interrupted during their conversation and only when they are waiting for the person to pick up the call.

As you would expect, Liverpool Seed Fund has invested ₤100,000 in Host Telecom to explore the potential of this mobile app and to assess the market demand. Martyn Butterworth, the Chairman of Host Telecom, says that there are 60 billion mobile connections every year, in the UK alone. In other words, this means there are 400 million hours of space available for advertising and social networking, every year. Lateral thinking; anyone?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Cellphone advertising to hit Europe big time

The holidays are about to begin and those of you that live in Europe now have one more reason to look forward to the New Year. Blyk, a fairly popular network in the U.K., has started offering mobile ads to its users in the U.K. on an opt-in basis and it’s soon planning to extend the idea across Europe in 2008. These ads are being served only on an invitation-only basis, which means users will be “invited” to opt in for cellphone ads and those who do so will get free talk time, free text messages, and many other benefits.

Mobile users will be asked for details such as their likes and dislikes, lifestyle, brands they like, services they use, and so on. This information will be vital for mobile marketing and this will help the marketers come up with targeted ads for consumers. The more targeted an ad is, the more are the chances of the customer liking it and subsequently going for that product/service. So, the kind of ads you get on your mobile phone will depend on your preferences and interests.

According to Blyk’s latest plan, users that agree to get ads in their mobile phone will be able to get a maximum of 217 free SMS (text messages) and 43 minutes of free talk time per month. This has raised a lot of interest among users and the results so far have been positive. The service is about to be extended across Europe and Blyk is targeting a strong customer base of around 40 million youngsters between 16 to 24 years of age.

However, the operator agrees that it’s venturing into a territory wherein it needs to be really careful in terms of the marketing strategy. A lot of hue and cry has been raised regarding the privacy of mobile phone users and the people in Blyk are aware of all these issues. They are very clear about one thing. The kind of mobile phone ads they offer right now are strictly available on an invitation-only basis and only those who wish to get ads on their mobile phones will be able to get them. Blyk believes that the kind of freebies they offer will surely entice the users to opt in for mobile ads and it will definitely be a win-win deal for both the consumer and the marketer. Also, customers will be able to opt out of any mobile ad service at any given point of time easily. This makes it easier for the consumers as they have nothing to lose. If you are a user, you can opt in for mobile ads and enjoy all the freebies like free text messages and free talk time and if you don’t like what you get on your mobile, you can simply opt out of it any time you want. I think this no-frills-attached scheme will tempt a lot of users to try out mobile ads at least once. Have you guys tried out these ads from Blyk? Guys and gals from U.K., could you share your experiences?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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