Survey Finds 61 Percent of Mobile Users Would Agree to View Advertising for Discount on Monthly Bill

Transverse, a pioneer of open source business solutions, today released the results of a wireless and mobile industry research survey which provides insight into mobile customers’ phone use and their willingness to view advertisements in exchange for discounts to their monthly service bill.

The survey, commissioned by Transverse and conducted by iGR, a market strategy consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile industry, interviewed 810 wireless subscribers ages 18 to 65, found that the majority of respondents were receptive to mobile advertising. In fact, 56 percent of mobile users said they would view ads on their phones if they were given a 25 to 50 percent discount on their monthly bill.

Among the other key findings of the survey were:

* Mobile users under the age of 35 were most receptive to advertisements on their mobile device as incentives for discounts on their monthly service bill.
* Younger users ages 18-25, who are more apt to text, were among the most willing to trade the number of text messages sent/received while audiences 26-44 years of age, who are more apt to talk, were most willing to trade voice usage for discounted services.
* 46 percent of those surveyed said that a 25 to 50 percent discount on their monthly bill was enough of an incentive to provide access to their usage patterns, including browsing, email and texting habits, as well as location - but not personal information such as the content of texts and emails.

“Mobile advertising has taken on many forms, and is generally considered to be intrusive. But when consumers are given the choice to receive ads and share their usage patterns in exchange for discounts, mobile advertising has the potential to be highly targeted and highly effective,” Iain Gillott, President of iGR. “These survey findings indicate that consumers are open to non-traditional mobile advertising models.”

“With today’s economy, consumers are actively looking for ways to cut back their monthly expenses,” said Jim Messer, president and CEO of Transverse. “When a carrier is able to open up their customer base to create better value relationships among users, brands, merchants and the media companies, consumers will see a significant reduction on their monthly bill, advertisers will have a highly targeted avenue to reach their audience, and wireless service providers will see new revenue streams to improve their bottom lines. All of this is made possible with state-of-the-art OSS technology available today.”

Mobile advertising to hit the mainstream by 2010

Mobile advertising is set to become a mainstay of UK marketing plans over the next two years despite a current disconnect between usage and understanding of the medium, according to the latest research from the IAB.

Despite the positive findings, the study also indicated that there is still a strong need for industry-wide education, with 76 per cent of respondents requiring further information on the efficacy of the medium.

Jim Cook, editor of MobiAdNews and chair of the IAB Mobile Council, comments: “Expectations for mobile advertising are high but actual understanding is low. The industry needs to address measurement, effectiveness and benchmarks if mobile advertising is going to reach a tipping point by 2010. The IAB intends to tackle each of these areas through quality research, events and collaboration with other mobile trade bodies like the GSMA and the MMA.”

Will Mobile Marketers Pony Up for Texts?

During the past few weeks there have been reports that Verizon Wireless may start charging $0.03 per outbound SMS message sent to its subscribers. That would double or triple the cost to marketers who send SMS text messages to their opted-in consumers who use Verizon.

Text messages are the biggest component of mobile message advertising, which will reach $4.5 billion in revenues in the US by 2012, from nearly $1.5 billion this year.

For its part, Verizon told The New York Times the company had not set any specific price for delivery of text messages or a date that any fee might go into effect.

Service providers have definitely been carrying more traffic on their networks as a result of texts. Americans sent 75 billion text messages in June 2008 alone, according to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association—up from 29 billion in June 2007.

John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst at eMarketer, said that carriers had some justification for wanting fees from marketers because otherwise they would have to pass full costs on to consumers—which would not serve either industry.

However, Mr. Gauntt said carriers should not just look at mobile marketers as another revenue stream to tout in earnings calls. “You milk the cow once it’s grown, not after it’s just been weaned,” he said.

“Carriers will likely start charging marketers for commercial texts at some point. But in the long run, it will be thought of as negotiating point, rather than a threat to the freedom of the mobile Web,” Mr. Gauntt concluded.

Puma mobile campaign targets Chinese F1 fans

SINGAPORE - Puma is running a mobile campaign around the Chinese Grand Prix created by mobile agency Phonevalley, including a specially created game, a member-get-member drive and mobile coupon mechanics.

Launched the week leading up to the F1 Grand Prix race in Shanghai on Sunday, Publicis agency Phonevalley has designed a mobile campaign centred around an F1-themed Puma mobile website, which features Puma's 'F Wan' videogame racing site. In Chinese, "wan" means "play".
Designed in partnership with media agency Zenith China, the website allows users to download the F1 racing game to their mobile device, complete with in-game advertising.

Players are encouraged to submit their scores by SMS back to the Puma website with the incentive that the top three scorers each week win Puma merchandise. Prizes are also awarded for users who forward the game onto friends.

The mobile site allows gives access to a store locator that identifies the closest Puma retailer. It also provides in-store promotion details and gift coupons, including Puma F1 toys and Puma F1 mobile screensavers and wallpaper.

Banners and text links to the site will be displayed on three Chinse mobile portals -- QQ, 3g.cn and Kong.net. SMS short codes are also integrated into Puma print ads.
Alexandre Mars, CEO of Phonevalley and head of mobile for Publicis Groupe, said: "Following our recent Euro 2008 campaign for Puma, I am thrilled to pursue our mobile operations for the sport lifestyle brand in China.
"With its 600m mobile subscribers, the Chinese market is undoubtedly a fantastic opportunity for Puma to develop its mobile presence."

Mobile marketing spend to rise 150% in five years

Mobile marketing is set to take off as major brands look to invest in the platform over the next five years, according to an independent survey commissioned by O2.

The survey shows brands will have increased their spend on mobile marketing by 150% come 2013 and do not anticipate any impact on budgets as a result of the economic downturn.

The survey, which was carried out by Vanson Bourne in May this year and included marketing and IT directors at 100 leading brands, also found that the personalised nature of mobile marketing campaigns means they generate a higher response rate than traditional advertising.

Of those marketing directors questioned, 60% favoured mobile marketing because it was considered better for close targeting, especially in financial services advertising.

The use of mobile marketing is increasing with specific services gaining in popularity. Text-to-win competitions and text-to-call-back or email campaigns have increased in use by more than 20% each, while retail and financial services ads were judged the most popular mobile advertising areas.

SMS was used by nearly a third of all businesses interviewed, yet half of the marketers questioned who have yet to make use of mobile marketing campaigns claim they are concerned that their customers will view the text messages as spam.

Simon Dean, head of mobile media at O2 UK said there has "never been a better time for brands to engage with their customers via mobile".

Dean said: "One in 10 of those we surveyed already think mobile marketing has saved their business at least £1m when compared to other marketing solutions.

"With more consumers than ever browsing the web through their mobile handsets, there is a significant and largely untapped audience for brands to target their customers directly."

Election Polls Hit Mobile Phones

In yet another sign of tech’s influence on the presidential election, JumpTap and Zogby International are teaming up to poll likely voters – on their cell phones. The surveys have been launched via a mobile ad banner campaign across “premium” mobile sites, the companies announced.

While the poll isn’t intended to be a rigorous, scientific assessment of voters’ likely leanings, the companies are hoping to gain insight into user engagement with polls.
“From an mobile advertising perspective, our goal is to show how relevancy in the mobile marketing channel encourages user engagement and willingness to respond to targeted messaging via their mobile phone,” Paran Johar, CMO of JumpTap, told ADOTAS. “From a polling perspective, we are interested to see if and how, a) users on various publisher sites vote in a distinct way, b) if different handset users have a certain political preference, and c) how mobile polling patterns compare to traditional polls – voter preference based on state, age, race and issues.”

Currently, 43 million U.S. mobile subscribers are using the mobile Internet.
JumpTap reaches more than 170 million mobile subscribers through partnerships with 18 mobile operators and numerous content publishers with its search and advertising solutions.
Zogby International was the most accurate pollster in every one of the last three presidential election cycles, and continues to improve its telephone and interactive methodologies using its own live operator, in-house call center in Upstate New York, and its own secure servers for its online polling projects. In the 2004 presidential election, not only was Zogby’s telephone polling right on the money, its interactive polling also nailed the election as well.

Riding the Perfect Storm of Mobile Marketing

A flurry of new studies and product releases last week seems to point to one thing: we're about to enter the perfect storm for mobile marketing. And it's time to think about how mobile marketing is different and how we can fit it into our increasingly complicated campaigns.

And while you may feel like you've heard this before well things are different now. The technology's become fairly mature. People are used to texting and mobile e-mail. Devices work a heck of a lot better, and today's mobile devices now come tricked out with GPS, Wi-Fi, cameras, and a host of other features that the old four-function flip phones of yore could only dream of.

People are changing their use of mobile technology, too. Fully 17 percent of households are ditching their landlines for mobile phones, and Nielsen Mobile predicts that the number could jump to 20 percent by year's end. While it's not a big surprise to anyone that teens are leading the mobile revolution, I was amused by a recent Harris Interactive study which found that nearly 60 percent of teens credited their mobile phone for improving their lives and that four out of five teens carry mobile devices (a 40 percent jump from 2004). In fact, the devices have become so much a part of their lives that the same study found that 42 percent of teens could text blindfolded!

While the mobile Web and mobile marketing in general have had their share of overhyped moments and jump-the-gun promises in the past 10 years, there's no question now that if you're a marketer, you'd better be paying attention. And once you start paying attention, you'd better start thinking differently.

Source: clickz.com

Mobile Ads Might Work with Teens

Their attention has a price

Nearly one-half of teen mobile phone users in the US said they would be at least somewhat interested in accepting mobile ads, as long as they got something in return, according to a September 2008 study conducted by Harris Interactive for mobile trade group CTIA.

For the past three years, Synovate has surveyed mobile phone users in the US on behalf of the Mobile Marketing Association. Each year, at least three-quarters of respondents said they were not interested in mobile marketing.

Do Ads Fit with Mobile User-Generated Content?

Once, long, long ago, advertisers only had to worry what was on the facing page.

YouTube educated the mass market about authoring and sharing user-generated content (UGC), and now advertisers are catching on, too.

Clearly, mobile UGC spending is growing. But advertisers still face challenges in reaching consumers in highly personalized—and often unpredictable—UGC settings. Nevertheless, smart marketers are beginning to address the distinct mobile UGC environment through contests, branded tools and other forms of digital collateral that add value to consumers' creative and distribution efforts.