Mobile Marketing Blog by InMovil Media

Advertisers recognized the current iPhone as a new marketing platform and some even developed campaigns targeted to iPhone users. Although it was a it is a good looking device, the phone’s slow Internet speed was a real shortcoming. However…

The new iPhone, which Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to unveil next week, will be a high-speed 3G model. With the new iPhone connecting to the web is faster and less frustrating, this will improve the user experience for example for downloading music and videos.

Another great prospect are rumors that the iPhone will come equipped with GPS, this makes it possible to pinpoint where the device is being used. The ability to target users in this manner is particularly appealing to marketers.

“Both from the marketing side, as the consumer side, there is the promise of location- based targeting,” said Tim Ruisbroek, director of InMovil Media, a mobile marketing firm. “Marketers get re ally excited about this.”

For years, the advertising business has been waiting for mobile marketing to catch on. Mobile Advertisers have to work with an array of service providers and device makers with different capabilities. Therefore making mobile campaigns for large audiences is diffucult job.

While the 3G iPhone won’t solve all these problems, however marketing experts believe it will help advertisers to deal with mobile phone shortcomings.

Moreover, Apple is putting pressure on other hand set companies to come up with “iPhone killers” that make the whole mobile phone experience faster, easier and more userfriendly.

Rivals are also making mobile-ad moves. For instance, Finnish phone giant Nokia purchased mobile-ad company Enpocket last year, while Google is expected to rock with their open-source software “Android”, for mobile phones in the fall.

All in all the conclusion is the mobile industry is moving fast powered by the urge for marketers to use the mobile channel ready to deliver highly targeted ads and create the best advertising medium so far.

Contact us to see how we can help your business to monetize this mobile advertising medium.

After having received more and more request from businesses that are interested in mobile 2D barcodes, I have devoted some time to give a practical explanation what 2D barcodes entail for making media interactive by using a mobile device.

To basic thing is to create the data matrix and QR codes (2D mobile barcode) to link print media to the mobile web. What does this mean?

It is now possible to make traditional print media interactive by linking it directly to the mobile web. Our solution generates a unique data matrix code and QR code for each mobile web page created related to the printed information or advertisement. This code can be printed on advertisements, magazine articles, or even posters to provide an immediate call to action. When the 2D mobile barcode is scanned with the camera of a mobile phone it links straight through to the related mobile webpage - where you can; get further information and register interest, to a competition entry, buy concert tickets or other products directly with the mobile phone.

Datamatrix and QR codes are 2D barcodes consisting of a totally unique pattern of black and white squares that act as a quick link through to a specific mobile web page. When using InMovil Media to create and publish QR codes, these codes are automatically generated and can then be printed wherever required. Once the codes are scanned by the mobile device, consumers can quickly and easily access promoted content any time and any where they are. And unlike SMS or MMS triggers it is a free service.

Adding Data matrix or QR codes to print media meets a market demand for offering an easy and effective way to facilitate instant customer interaction with consumers on the move for a truly interactive marketing campaign. For example a consumer, waiting for the bus, a train journey or simply reading a paper or magazine becomes more interesting with the ability to purchase products, respond to articles or enter competitions without having to be back in front of a PC and search again for the product or information. And for your business it does not only provides an immediate call to action but a new and effective way to directly measure the success of print campaigns. Besides print media the codes can also be put on your normal website, if you want that people bookmark you mobile version of the website via this barcode.

Consumers love the opportunity for instant response and discovery of what this new technology can provide. This adds a completely new dimension to print media, which from our experience is good news for marketing campaigns.

Contact us to see how we can help your business use 2D mobile barcodes in an interactive way.

Many advertisers are in wait-and-see mode on mobile advertising. “At the moment, the level of transparency is not enough to drive significant budgets into this medium,” acknowledges Henry Stevens, director of media and entertainment at the GSM Association, a trade group that represents wireless service providers.

Even as ads on mobile phones become more common, advertisers are holding off on a full-blown embrace of the tiny screen as a marketing tool.

There’s no denying mobile phone users are seeing more ads. A Mar. 4 study by Nielsen found that 58 million U.S. wireless subscribers had viewed an ad on their mobile phones in the past month. The problem is that mobile advertisers don’t know what users are doing, if anything, when they see the ads. Until advertisers find out, they may hold off on committing more precious marketing dollars to the mobile medium. “Advertisers that are used to full accountability are left in the dark,” says Farhad Divecha, director at London-based ad agency AccuraCast.

The hesitance is understandable. In the online marketing world, determining how well a campaign is performing is easy. Web sites embed tracking software known as “cookies” on your personal computer. Those cookies monitor your browsing activity and pass the information to advertisers and the ad-placement networks that distribute their ads across the Web.

A Consistent Yardstick

The mobile industry has refused to facilitate this tried-and-true approach. Most wireless service providers block cookies before they can ever get to cell phones, arguing that to allow them would open a hole in their networks for computer viruses.

Complicating matters, what little data the wireless service providers do pass back to mobile advertisers varies widely in terms of what they measure. Mobile-advertising networks, in turn, crunch the disparate data in different ways to gauge the audience response to mobile ads.

One mobile ad network might report the number of phones that received an ad, while another might report how many users actually viewed the ad. The distinction is subtle, but important for mobile advertisers. Without a consistent yardstick, it’s hard to compare the results of a campaign.

Click here to see our mobile statistics tools how we can help you to have a consistent yardstick.

Wait and See

Even Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), which is determined to extend its dominance in Web advertising to cell phones, has no reliable analytical tools customers can use to gauge the success of mobile marketing campaigns. “The mobile ad space is nascent, and we are currently working to figure out the best ad formats for our advertisers and users,” Google spokesperson Daniel Rubin wrote in an e-mail.

As a result of these obstacles, there are doubts whether the mobile advertising market will fulfill robust predictions, such as a Gartner (NYSE: IT) forecast for US$11 billion in global ad revenue by 2011, up from less than $1 billion last year.

Measures of Success

In a bid to rectify the situation, the association announced in February that five of its most prominent members — Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) , Telefonica O2 Europe, T-Mobile International, FT/Orange Group and 3 — have formed a working group to define common metrics for mobile advertising. By year-end, these companies hope to develop a set of standard measures and then launch a trial in Britain. Using input from mobile ad agencies and wireless carriers worldwide, the group will attempt to define everything from what constitutes a click to how to measure different kinds of user behavior. “The experimentation stage is almost over and, in order to scale, operators need to work together (to fix this problem),” Stevens says.

Not surprisingly, we see the urgency in delivering more reliable mobile data to their clients. “We want to enable mobile advertisers to understand the added value of mobile ads more deeply,” says Bas Vervoort, vice president of InMovil Media. “We want to let our clients see where a propsect goes, which phones they use and when. To make sure our clients truly engage with their audience.”

Click here to see how we can help your company to reach your audience with mobile advertising.