Opinion: Mobile Ads Are Anything but Intrusive

Opinion: Mobile Ads Are Anything but Intrusive

Because of its massive and largely untapped potential, mobile advertising maintains a continually high level of buzz in the marketing world. Amid that buzz, however, is a strident little voice protesting that mobile marketing is too intrusive for today's consumer. It's time to put that myth to rest for good.

The personal connection with our mobile devices is likely the source of the misguided intrusiveness controversy. Have you ever heard a baby boomer say that his mobile phone makes him "too connected"? I have. Ever hear a 22-year-old say that? Me neither. As a matter of fact, the millennials -- the primary users of mobile non-voice services -- are as unnerved to be disconnected as boomers and Gen Xers are loathe to be too connected. The truth is, mobile advertising may well be the most consumer-friendly advertising model out there.

First, the basics. The mobile platform is a valuable and effective means for reaching desirable audiences and demographics, including the influential millennial generation that is so appealing to advertisers. Paid models for mobile content such as the ringtones and games that spawned big new entertainment markets have been the focus of attention over the past few years. As with every new medium, however, the ability to deliver content and services -- at no cost to customers -- is the key to unlocking the potential of a medium. Mobile is no exception, and its rich potential for advertisers will enable the business model.

From Internet Marketing and Online Annonsering

Is the mobile phone ready for the marketing mix? - 22 Feb 2008

Is the mobile phone ready for the marketing mix?

The mobile phone's increasing potential as a marketing channel is forcing marketers to ring in the changes. Originally only the domain of a few leading-edge brands from the entertainment sector, now a growing number of firms are exploring the mobile channel as a part of their marketing mix.

A study by Airwide revealed that the number of brands planning SMS and MMS mobile marketing/advertising has doubled over the past year to 28 percent, and the same study also claimed that many brands are planning to increase the proportion of the budget allocated to mobile campaigns.

Fro Internet Marketing

Press Release Distribution - Targetwire.com

Press Release Distribution - Targetwire.com: "According to the Mobile Search & Advertising Forum 2008, the main Internet operators are 'not betting on WAP advertising being a different medium from traditional Web advertising.'"

Google and Mobile Internet

Google and Mobile Internet:

Over the past few days there seems to be a lot of action with Google and Mobile search. As the advancement in mobile technology continues, the major search engines are finding.

From Internet Marketing

Yahoo Buy Spins Wheels For Microsoft Mobile | WebProNews

Yahoo Buy Spins Wheels For Microsoft Mobile

Mobiles may matter more than the desktop

Since the PC browser search and ad experience have been dominated by Google, Microsoft's competitive play may be on the mobile side, where no single provider dominates search.

Picking off Yahoo during a low point in its market performance would give Microsoft a significant boost to its online fortunes. Microsoft's share of the search market triples if the takeover succeeds, and paid search ad revenue should increase.

The cynical viewpoints we have witnessed online about competitors in other industries teaming up to take down a market leader, and failing in spectacular fashion, suggests Microsoft may opt for a softer target to establish itself as the go-to destination.

Millions of mobile phones nestle in the pockets and pocketbooks of people around the globe. Microsoft already occupies the desktops of millions of people, even if those folks promptly head to Google after booting Windows.

From Internet Marketing & Online Annonsering

Nokia mobile advertising network LetsGoMobile

Nokia mobile advertising network LetsGoMobile: Nokia announced the launch of the global Nokia Media Network, a premium advertising network including over 70 leading publisher and operators as well as Nokia media properties. AccuWeather, Discovery, Hearst, Reuters, and Sprint have joined with Nokia to form the first global mobile ad network of top tier publishers. Nokia Media Network's wide reach of the most desirable mobile audience is yielding click-through rates averaging 10% in certain channels, the highest reported response rates in the industry.

From Online Annonsering and Internet Marketing

Mobile ads take baby steps to reach consumers | Technology | Internet | Reuters

Mobile ads take baby steps to reach consumers | Technology | Internet | Reuters

Advertising is not just a straight move from the PC to the mobile phone," Marco Boerries, head of Yahoo's mobile business, said in a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

"We're trying to invent mobile advertising."

Ad companies and operators see it as an opportunity to generate new revenue streams. According to a number of studies the mobile ad market is expected to generate revenues ranging somewhere between $1 billion and $24 billion within 4 years.

From Internet Advertising

Mobile phone firms agree to develop common system for advertising | Media | guardian.co.uk

Mobile phone firms agree to develop common system for advertising | Media | guardian.co.uk

The UK's five biggest mobile operators have struck a ground-breaking deal to develop a common system for mobile advertising, which aims to make it as easy for advertisers to run campaigns on mobiles as it is across other media such as TV and press.

Advertisers and agencies have long complained that one of the key stumbling blocks facing the mobile advertising sector is the lack of a consistent way of measuring audiences and transparency between operators.

Now the international operations of Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange and 3 have formed a working group to define a common mobile advertising audience measurement system, similar to what already exists for other mediums such as TV and press.

"This initiative represents a great opportunity to reach out to the media buying world in order to secure more mobile budget from big brand spenders," said Neil Andrews, head of portal at 3.

From Online Annonsering

FT.com / Companies / Telecoms - UK mobile companies to develop advertising standards

FT.com / Companies / Telecoms - UK mobile companies to develop advertising standards

The UK’s five mobile operators, Vodafone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile and 3, will on Monday announce that they are working together to develop common measurement standards for mobile advertising.

The companies will work with the GSM Association, the global trade association for the handset industry, to pool information on customer numbers and usage patterns. This will help develop a common set of metrics for measuring the reach of mobile advertising.

From Internet Marketing

Chipmakers Demo Android Prototype Phones In Barcelona

Chipmakers Demo Android Prototype Phones In Barcelona

This week the mega mobile conference 3GSM (now formally called the GSMA Mobile World Congress) is taking place in Barcelona, Spain. And true to the pre-conference hype and speculation, several mobile chip makers are showing off Android prototype phones. (Gizmodo has a "hands-on" video with a prototype from the conference.) It's important to note that these prototypes are just demonstration phones and not impending models to be released. However, Google's Andy Rubin had said previously that we would see consumer handsets running Android in the second half of this year.

From Internet Marketing

Nokia May Lead In Location-Based Advertising | WebProNews

Nokia May Lead In Location-Based Advertising | WebProNews

If you connect the acquisition and investment dots, you wind up following Acuity Mobile to Navteq to Nokia. And since Acuity deals in mobile marketing, Navteq works with maps, and Nokia's all about cell phones, this could indicate that some pretty big companies are growing more interested in location-based advertising.Granted, a press release spelled out at least one part of the equation, but any and all credit for spotting it and making other connections goes to Om Malik. Although I'm not sure we've taken the time to say so, it's great to see Malik at work again, and trying to steal credit would hardly be a nice way of welcoming him back.

From Internet Marketing

Are You Ready for Location-Based Advertising? - GigaOM

Are You Ready for Location-Based Advertising?

Google’s preeminence in Silicon Valley is largely due to its ability to offer advertisers a way to hawk their messages against contextually relevant keywords. The plain-text advertising messages, which aim to peddle everything from broadband connections to litigation services, have worked well enough to make Larry and Sergey mega-billionaires (the current nosebleed-inducing decline not withstanding) of the rarest kind.

If in the first eight years of the 21st century contextual text advertising has proven to be the magic potion, then it is safe to say that the next decade or so is going to be about location-relevant advertising and marketing messages. LBA (location-based advertising) has been talked about in hushed tones for so long that it’s hard not to roll one’s eyes. I have been skeptical for a while, but more recently my opinion has started to change.

From Our CMS System

ARM to show Google phone prototype next week

Source Says: ARM to show Google phone prototype next week

British chip designer ARM will show a prototype mobile phone based on Google's Android platform next Monday at the Mobile world congress wireless show in Barcelona, a source close to the company said today.

Google and ARM declined to comment on the report.

Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) have said that they plan to offer phones based on the open-source Android software platform this year.

Internet search leader Google may upset the wireless industry with its software system designed to make the Web as smoothly accessible from mobile devices as from PCs, challenging Nokia, Microsoft and Apple.

It is also bidding for wireless spectrum in the U.S. in a move that pits it against entrenched carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Its operator partners in the Open Handset Alliance announced in November include China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Telefonica -- which have all said that they are working with handset makers to develop Google-based phones.

Research firm Strategy Analytics has estimated that Android will be in 2% of smart phones this year.

From CMS System

Opera Upgrades Mobile Web Browser -- Opera Software -- InformationWeek

Opera Upgrades Mobile Web Browser -- Opera Software -- InformationWeek

Opera Software on Tuesday unveiled the latest version of its mobile Web browser for commercial use; the browser includes enhancements like zooming, panning, and Flash support.

Opera Mobile 9.5 uses Opera's zoom technology to enlarge content on a Web page, and pages can be saved for offline browsing when there isn't an Internet connection available. The new version also uses Opera's Presto rendering engine to speed up the loading of pages. Opera said it tweaked the engine to improve performance by accelerating the handling of Web pages, even those coded using JavaScript and Ajax.

From Internet Marketing

Mobile ad market part of Microsoft's goal in Yahoo bid

Mobile ad market part of Microsoft's goal in Yahoo bid

Mobile advertising is "part of what Microsoft wants to get into, no doubt," said Phillip Redman, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "Leadership in mobile advertising is still unclaimed, while Google is threatening to do there what it did on the Internet, so Microsoft is being preemptive."

From Website Optimization

Yahoo's mobile promise

Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo is clearly a move to thwart rival Google from taking over the entire Internet, but such a deal also could give Microsoft a huge boost in the mobile market.

It's ridiculous to think that Microsoft would put together a deal of this magnitude for Yahoo's mobile assets alone. There are obviously other more pressing synergies and tie-ups between the companies. But the mobile piece of the story could be a nice added bonus that could pay huge dividends in the future.

Mobile is the next frontier for Internet companies. Nearly 3 billion people worldwide use cell phones today. That's nearly triple the number of people who have computers, so it makes sense that Internet companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft would all see opportunity here.

And so far, each company has been taking stabs at addressing the market. Google offers its search and mapping applications on cell phones to help people find restaurants, movies, and shops when they're out and about.

From Internet Marketing and Online Annonsering

Google says mobile advertising is the future

A huge revolution in location-based advertising is soon to take place, according to the chief exec of Google.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, Eric Schmidt said that mobile users could be affected by the soon-to-be truly mobile internet.

"It's the recreation of the Internet, it's the recreation of the PC (personal computer) story and it is before us - and it is very likely it will happen in the next year", he told assembled journalists.

At the moment, reports Reuters, analysts have been cautious about the future of mobile advertising, or advertising that targets where the phone users is, and consultancy Forrester predicting revenues of under $1 billion by 2012.

But, according to Schmidt, this is a massive underestimation.

From Internet Marketing