Mobile Marketing Blog by InMovil Media

To stay in the mobile marketing report sector of the Asian region I encountered the following report.

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com) has announced the addition of a Chinese Mobile Advertising Report to their offering.

This report incorporates the knowledge of an experienced and on-the-ground China-based research team with extensive interviews of over 35 leading industry players to deliver an insightful,  overview and analysis of China’s mobile marketing and advertising industry. It cuts through the hype of what will be possible when 3G is used to its full potential and the spin of officially released company statistics to reveal what opportunities genuinely exist in the chinese market, which companies are really making money with mobile marketng, and what challenges confront further industry growth.

Key features of the report include:

-Market Size and Growth Forecasts

-SMS, MMS, and WAP Push

-WAP, Mobile Search, and Mobile Video

-2D Barcode, LBS, and Mobile In-Game Ads

-Company Profiles of over 35 Major Industry Players

-Network and Platform Infrastructure Development Status

-Case Studies

China’s mobile marketing and advertsising sector, supported by a surge in the mobile subscriber base to over 530 mn and active WAP users to over 40 mn, is on track to grow  55% in 2008. Looking to take advantage of the mobile medium’s ability to deliver highly customized and segmented  mobile marketing campaigns, major brand names like Nike and Coca-Cola have also begun to spend significant resources to mobile advertising in China. At the same time, new mobile ad agencies and applications developers have emerged to drive market development.

More and robust growth in China’s mobile advertising market, faces a variety of challenges, including the ongoing delay in issuance of 3G licenses, stricter anti-spam and personal information security regulations, an operator-centric business environments, policy uncertainties, and a lack of established third-party monitoring and measurement organization.

With company profiles of the leading public and private companies in China that use mobile advertising, this report provides valuable strategic insights - particularly to enterprise, private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund investors, advertisers, ad agencies, and mobile advertising professionals - for successful engagement and investment in the industry.

Please contact us to help you to market your business in China with mobile marketing.

Infinita Inc., a consulting firm based in Tokyo, specializing in mobile telecommunications, announced today the release of its new research report “21st Century Mobile Marketing: Global Insights from the World’s Most Advanced Mobile Society: Japan”.

This 188-page market report provides detailed insights into the inner workings of mobile marketing and advertising in a country where the vast majority of the population uses mobile Internet services already - and where mobile marketing is fast evolving into a standard part of the marketing mix, a scenario soon to become reality in many other parts of the world as well.

According to industry data released by Japan’s largest advertising agency Dentsu in late February 2008, mobile advertising expenditures in the Japanese market in 2007 increased by almost 60% compared to the previous year, reaching JPY 62.1 billion (ca. USD 620 million). This result tops even Dentsu’s own optimistic prognosis, published 12 months earlier, by 12%, a significant performance in an advertising market close to saturation - total advertising expenditures in Japan only grew by 1.1% from 2006 to 2007, and by 1.7% between 2005 and 2006.

For the first time ever, online advertising expenditures (JPY 443.6 billion, ca. USD 4.4 billion) exceeded combined radio and magazine advertising expenditures, which each were down around 4% on a YoY basis. Newspaper advertising suffered even more heavily at -5%, and TV advertising expenditures are down for the third year in a row. While the importance of mobile advertising is growing, it still accounts for a relatively small share of online advertising revenues (10.3%) and for a minor piece of the whole advertising pie, which is still dominated by TV, print and sales promotion.

Considering how media usage is developing in Japan, there is still clearly a disconnect between advertising spendings on traditional media and mobile. Between 2000 and 2006, the share of time that consumers spend on mobile (relative to all forms of media) has increased four-fold to 4%, but mobile-related expenditures still only account for 1% of all advertising spendings. 25% of Japanese mobile data users today respond to mobile campaigns and actually sign up for promotions or make purchases as a result. Close to another third click on ads, but do not participate in promotional offers.

Thus, there is no question that mobile advertising will continue to gain in significance in Japan - a market where more than 4 in 5 of a total 100 million mobile subscribers use mobile data services. Which factors have contributed to where we stand today, what are the forces driving the industry at the moment, and which challenges and opportunities does the market face in the coming years? Taking Japan as an example of an advanced mobile society, what developments can be expected in other markets, which are fast catching up technologically and with regard to user adoption?

Do you want an answer to these questions and how to apply them to your business, please contact us.

U.S. brands have integrated mobile marketing into their traditional advertising campaigns, CRM programs and Call Centers in order to increase higher response, enhance loyalty and improve customer relations. When applied correctly, targeted and creatively, mobile marketing gives exceptional results.

“Most people today use a cell phone. Lack of cell phone spam translates into a major channel of communications without the noise of traditional channels,” explained John Spagnuolo, President of the New Media Institute.

“The closer and the more targeted you connect with consumers within their lifestyle, the better your results will be,” noted Bas Vervoort, Director of InMovil Media. “When properly and creatively executed, mobile marketing can increase traditional response rates by 5-20%, Moreover it delivers a higher-level of customer service and enhances loyalty.”
Mobile Marketing Tips

1. Offer an incentive for individuals to opt-in to your mobile campaign.
2. Segment your messaging. Mobile technology makes this task easy and seamless.
3. Measure and refine your mobile marketing program in real-time.

A mobile marketing program may include the following features:
* Lead capture
* Additional touch-points to traditional advertising campaigns
* Pre/during/post event marketing
* Promotions, sweepstakes & contests
* Coupons & discounts
* Lifestyle, loyalty & community brand building
* Multi-media content creation and distribution
* Mobile videos
* Location based marketing
* Mobile polling and voting
* Sales and distribution programs
* Segmented broadcast messaging
* Web and email integration

If you want to know how you can use these mobile marketing tips for your company, please contact us.

JupiterResearch says that it has found that introducing portable media players (PMP’s) with internet browsing capabilities are likely to stimulate significant growth in the amount of people accessing the mobile web and will create additional opportunity for mobile advertisers, who are expected to spend $2.2 billion on mobile messaging, display ads, and search via mobile technology by the year 2012.

Adoption of internet browsing on mobile phones is expected to climb from 16 percent at the end of 2007 to 19 percent at the end of 2008.

Their new study was completed in cooperation with mobile advertising service provider AdMob.

According to the report, the majority of page views and advertising impressions on mobile phones and portable media players are on a small screen with a mini-browser. Impressions and click-through rates (CTR) per device, however, are higher for mobile devices with full browsers.

“Mobility is adding a time and space dimension to media and advertising that has the potential to drive up CPM’s significantly. We are finding ads with location tags are selling at five to tenfold premiums over basic ads,” said Julie Ask, Vice President at JupiterResearch and lead author of the report. “The ability to tag users with location, demographics, and behavioral data complemented by devices that support rich media to avoid having their role in the advertising value chain made obsolete must continued to push forward.”

In order to be truly successful, mobile carriers must continue to enable access with affordable portable media players, mobile devices and innovative business models while protecting their stake in the value chain by adding information layers to user profiles.

“New mobile devices such as portable media players available on the market with dramatically improved user interfaces and capable of fully rendering HTML web sites are driving consumer demand for Internet access on mobile devices,” said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch. “Carriers should continue to enable consumers by rolling out more devices that look like portable media players at affordable prices – perhaps even as a second device – and continue to break down economic barriers of pricing and application restrictions to consumer adoption.”

 Contact Us to see how we can help your company to access the mobile internet.

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.

To help brands and marketers identify key market trends, mobile subscriber usage patterns, and success metrics for mobile marketing in Western Europe, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) announced the results of its inaugural Mobile Attitude and Usage Study for five markets in Western Europe. The study surveyed 1,535 participants in the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain and provides actionable insights into the region’s consumer mobile usage by demographic group and awareness. The report also identifies usage of mobile phone features and services, and interest in and concerns about specific applications.

The study’s key findings include:

One in ten mobile users in the Western European markets is highly interested in mobile marketing and another three in ten indicate moderate interest. This level of interest translates into an overall growth opportunity for mobile marketing.

Italian and Spanish consumers are most interested in mobile marketing. Over half of all users in Italy and Spain are at least moderately interested in mobile marketing and similar proportions express potential to opt-in.

2-way text messaging is the most important mobile feature across all age groups. The ability to send and receive SMS was at the top of the list for all age groups except teens, for whom it ranks second to camera functionality. Across the Western European markets surveyed, seven in ten have experience with text messaging, with the most text-savvy consumers in Italy and Spain. Over half of all users surveyed use SMS at least weekly and 37% are daily users. Daily use is most common among 13 – 24 year olds.

Western European consumers poised for an increase in mobile marketing. 15% of all consumers surveyed have had some experience with mobile marketing. Mobile phones are almost universal and most phones are equipped to receive mobile messages. More than half use text messaging at least weekly and 7 in 10 are familiar with the technology.

Interactive voting, receiving ads and product/service information are the most common applications of mobile marketing. 18 – 34 year olds have the highest rate of participation in mobile marketing efforts. However, age is not strongly predictive; interest levels are similar across ages 13 – 54.

Across all regions surveyed, mobile coupons, status alerts about accounts/purchases and special sales have greatest appeal. Over half the users have increased data usage to some extent in the past year vs. slightly under half reporting an increase in voice usage.

“This study confirms that mobile users in Western Europe already appreciate mobile marketing and have a desire to opt in to receive relevant product and services,” said Richard Saggers, MMA EMEA Chairman and Head of Mobile Advertising, Vodafone Global Services. “These results indicate Italy and Spain are significantly advanced users of mobile, and already have the most experience with mobile marketing and are therefore more likely to participate. At least 60% in all age categories surveyed have experience with text messaging, indicating a big opportunity for marketers.”

“Western Europe represents a significant opportunity for mobile marketers. One in three consumers surveyed indicated that their mobile phone is highly important to them and they are very dependent on it. With consumers acknowledging their mobile is always on them, brands need to begin integrating mobile into their marketing campaigns ASAP. Clearly, mobile is proving its potential value as a marketing tool,” said Laura Marriott, President of the MMA.

Contact us, to see how we can help your business take advantage of this opportunity.

In order to help brands and marketers identify key market trends, mobile subscriber usage patterns, and success metrics for mobile marketing in the United States, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) (www.mmaglobal.com) today announced the results of its third-annual Mobile Attitude and Usage Study. The study provides insights into overall consumer mobile usage by demographic group, awareness and usage of mobile phone features and services, and interest in and concerns about specific applications. The study is available immediately, free of charge, to all current MMA Global members.

The study’s key findings include:

• Interest in mobile marketing remains as high as it was in the previous two surveys. One in four respondents in the 2007 survey expressed interest in mobile marketing. Although some respondents had difficulty readily associating benefits with mobile marketing, those who do say that they value the ability to receive highly relevant information, the coupons and rewards received and the convenience of accessing the desired applications quickly and easily.
• The number of consumers who have experienced mobile marketing continues to grow. One out of 20 respondents had participated in mobile marketing. The highest participation is among respondents age 25-44.
• Sweepstakes and voting campaigns are the most widely used types of mobile marketing. The second most common type is receiving alerts about products, services, accounts. Ten percent of respondents have used their mobile phones to receive and redeem coupons.
• Ethnic groups are key audiences for mobile marketing. For example, African Americans and English-dominant Hispanics indicate stronger interest in mobile marketing than Caucasians. These findings suggest that the mobile channel can be highly effective for reaching specific ethnic groups.
• Teens and young adults use text messaging more than any other demographic. People ages 13-24 send and receive the most – more than 50 messages per week – while half of all survey respondents use text messaging at least once a week. This usage shows that most mobile users are at least familiar with text messaging, if not regular users, making it an effective tool for mobile marketing campaigns.

“The 2007 Mobile Attitude and Usage Study reinforces that the mobile channel remains one of the most powerful tools available for brands and companies,” said Laura Marriott, president of the MMA. “U.S. consumers continue to use more of their phones’ features, creating additional opportunities for marketers to reach them with coupons and other relevant, exclusive to mobile information.”

“What’s exciting about this year’s study is the continued escalation in adoption of the camera phone with 58% (up from 35% in 2006) of all consumers now saying they use this feature,” said Gene Keenan, vice president mobile strategies for Isobar. “This dovetails perfectly with the coming cross-carrier interoperability of picture messaging via a short code. We expect to see some very innovative campaigns this coming year using picture phoning.”

Keenan also noted, “The really exciting news is the importance that mobile plays in the daily lives of consumers, as we’re experienced through the use of text messaging for social interactions.”

Also noteworthy is that 54 percent of 13-34 year olds use SMS for social networking, while 44 percent of 13-34 year olds said they use text messaging for flirting or dating, and 10 percent of 13-34 year olds said they have broken up with a boy or girl friend using text messaging.

The 2007 study, conducted by Synovate, consisted of 1,405 online interviews using a nationally representative consumer online panel of over 1.5 million households. The sampling plan for the main study sample was identical to the 2005 and 2006 survey waves, in order to ensure maximum compatibility between studies and allow for accurate trending. In addition to the main study sample, the 2006 and 2007 surveys included a booster sample of African-American and Hispanic interviews (18+ years of age).

The study focuses on the U.S. market. The MMA also conducted similar studies in Asia-Pacific and Western Europe, results will be released later in 2007.