Report: More Cell Phones than People in Russia…
There are now more cell phones in Russia than people, according to eMarketer.
Russia’s population tops at 142 million.
GSM phones, the standard in most non-U.S. countries, account for 99 percent of handsets sold. In the former Soviet Union, some 30 million were purchased in 2006. Overall, revenue from handsets reached $5.48 billion.
59 percent of phones sold in Russia last year had cameras, and a third had build-in mp3 players. Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola were the top three mobile phone brands.
Mobile Ads Crawling Along
APRIL 3, 2007
Text from mobile marketers: ‘U 1st.’ Mobile data use has doubled since 2003, but mobile marketing is still taking baby steps, according to a new report by Forrester Research and ClickZ. The study claimed that only 13% of interactive marketers used text messaging to reach consumers in December 2006. When asked what would convince them to spend marketing dollars on mobile-enabled sites, mobile text messages, branded microsites, podcasts, in-game ads, RSS and other emerging areas, most of the companies questioned in the Forrester study said “proof of use.” Just because a lot of people have mobile phones does not mean that marketers are ready to start sending ads to all of them, according to eMarketer Mobile Analyst John du Pre Gauntt. “Mobile marketing/advertising draws passionate viewpoints, both pro and con,” says Mr. Gauntt, “ranging from those who want it to jumpstart a sluggish mobile content and data market, to those who want to protect mobile from the marketing cacophony that infests every other media platform.” Response rates for marketers who do connect are compelling. A Dunkin’ Donuts-sponsored mobile campaign in downtown Boston used SMS mobile coupons for new latte drinks. Consumers got coupons through a geographically targeted WAP campaign on various Boston mobile Web sites. The campaign generated a 4% click-through rate that converted into a 21% increase in store traffic from customers redeeming their coupons. There are plenty of people ready to get such promotions, according to an ROI Research study commissioned by Bluestreak. Among those who used e-mail and one of five other emerging technologies, 88% of respondents used text messaging, second only to e-mail. As much as Japan is trumpeted as the future of mobile data, and far ahead of the US in mobile marketing, the US and Canada still have a scale that makes up for the rudimentary state of North American mobile marketing. And it’s not as if marketers aren’t talking about mobile marketing, according to a survey taken at the recent CTIA mobile industry association conference by LogicaCMG Telecoms. Wayne Irwin of Logica summed up mobile marketer sentiment as revealed by the survey. “The most important word here is ‘relevant,’” said Mr. Irwin. “The mobile industry is approaching advertising very cautiously, and is watching consumer adoption very closely to ensure success. Done well, if it’s relevant and targeted, mobile advertising can help drive down costs to the consumer while helping grow revenues for the mobile operator.” Get the global perspective on mobile marketing. Read the eMarketer Mobile Marketing and Advertising report.
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Published: March 28, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. (AdAge.com) — The mobile screen this year will join the TV screen and the PC screen at the table during the TV upfront.
This 360-degree integration is possible for the first time this year, said Cyriac Roeding, VP-wireless, CBS Digital Media.
MediaFlo
CBS and others can offer mobile ad inventory to marketers in this year’s upfront thanks to the launch of MediaFlo, a multicast mobile network. NBC Universal, Fox, ESPN and Viacom have all agreed to distribute their content over their own MediaFlo mobile channels.
Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom, said his company has already lined up Intel and Pepsi to sponsor its mobile offerings. He was bullish about the prospects of mobile marketing and said his company would be aggressive in selling such offerings. “In short, we believe advertising can work on wireless,” he said.
NBC unveiled this week that its NCBU Digital2Go initiative — which includes linear video channels NBC News2Go and NBC2Go — will be available on MediaFlo, initially through Verizon Wireless VCast phones and later from other carriers. And to step fully onto the mobile platform, NBC Universal launched four sites for the mobile web: NBC, USA, Bravo and NBC Sports.
Unicast
“We’ve staked a huge claim,” said Salil Dalvi, general manager-wireless platforms, NBC Universal. “We’re aggressively offering our content in the marketplace,” he said.
NBC also plans to offer through a competing unicast service, MobiTV, full-length prime-time and cable entertainment shows on demand, as well as seven short-form video channels. MobiTV, an early entrant into the mobile video space, has some live channels, like CNN, but the bulk of its offerings is video-on-demand content, which works well with its unicast system. Unicast networks send out one signal from a cellphone tower to one phone, whereas multicast networks, such as MediaFlo, operate more like traditional TV programming, sending out one signal to many devices. For the major TV players, that means they can operate mobile networks in a similar fashion to a cable offering.
ESPN Mobile TV’s MediaFlo offering will include live college baseball and football in addition to made-for-mobile programs ESPN ReSet and ScoreCenter.
Prime-time shows
Fox Mobile will include prime-time shows such as “24″ and “Prison Break” as well as reality shows on MediaFlo. Like CBS, which is planning to bring “I Love Lucy” and other classics to the mobile screen, Fox plans to revive some of the shows from its archives for mobile phones, such as “Lost in Space.” CBS will also offer mobile news and weather alerts.
One network won’t be on MediaFlo, however. Bruce Gersh, senior VP-business development, ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television, said during a panel discussion that ABC and MediaFlo just couldn’t come to business terms.
But he is not averse to ABC having its own mobile offering. “We’re learning already that it’s additive; it’s not cannibalistic,” said Bruce Gersh, senior VP- business development, ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television.
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – Media conglomerate Viacom Inc. said on Wednesday its MTV Networks signed on Intel Corp. and Pepsi-Cola North America as the first advertising sponsors for its programs delivered on cell phones.
Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman announced the deals at the CTIA wireless showcase in Orlando, Florida.
Wireless and media companies are betting that mobile entertainment will gain momentum among subscribers in 2007, offering advertisers a new way to reach consumers and cell phone companies an additional revenue stream.
“We believe advertising can work on the wireless platform. Indeed we view it as a critical medium,” Dauman said during a keynote speech at the conference.
Viacom sends 1 million video streams to mobile phones every month, Dauman said.
Intel and Pepsi brands will be featured on mobile channels dedicated to MTV’s music and youth programming as well as the content of Comedy Central. Viacom said it was the first time it had offered advertisers the opportunity to link their brands to its mobile programming.
The company said it had also expanded a deal to show its programming on Sprint Nextel wireless service, with 14 live and video-on-demand channels.
MTV aims to launch new mobile Web sites for its Nickelodeon, Spike TV and TV Land channels starting in the second quarter.
Viacom’s Comedy Central will also offer a mobile video game based on its popular “South Park” cartoon series. “South Park 10: The Game” will be available on most major wireless carriers in the United States and Europe in the first week of April, the company said.
Viacom Class B shares fell 42 cents, or 1 percent, to $40.48 in midday trading.
The Associated PressBy BRUCE MEYERSON
Thursday, March 1, 2007; 4:15 PM
NEW YORK — Verizon Wireless on Thursday launched a broadcast TV service for cell phones in about 20 Midwestern and Western markets, charging $15 to $25 a month for the initial lineup from eight leading networks.
While Verizon had already said it planned to introduce the service this month, the launch provided this country’s first detailed glimpse of the features and pricing for a long-awaited next wave in cellular technology.
Notably, the launch came one day after a demonstration in New York of a planned rival broadcast service called Modeo, as well as an announcement by MobiTV, a forerunner to these new offerings, that it has reached 2 million users.
V Cast Mobile TV, delivered over a separate wireless network operated by Qualcomm Inc., requires a new handset capable of receiving the broadcast signal in addition to the regular cellular signal for phone calls and mobile Internet access.
The eight 24-hour channels are CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN, Fox Mobile, MTV, NBC 2Go, NBC News 2Go and Nickelodeon.
While most of the programming will be identical to that shown by those networks on regular TV, only some shows will be broadcast at the same time.
For example: the MTV broadcast will be identical around the clock; CBS Mobile will show some daytime soap operas at different hours, but feature simultaneous showings of the “CBS Evening News,” “Survivor” and the “Late Show With David Letterman”; On Comedy Central, “The Daily Show” and the “The Colbert Report” will be shown at their normal hour, but “South Park,” “Reno 911,” and “Chappelle’s Show” will be time-shifted.
Verizon Wireless, owned jointly by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, is offering the broadcast TV lineup either as a standalone product for $15 a month, or bundled for $25 a month with the company’s mobile Web access and the wide-ranging library of V Cast video clip downloads.
The first dual-mode handset from Samsung Electronics Co. costs $200 without signing a new Verizon service contract, or $50 less with a new commitment. Verizon Wireless expects to introduce a second handset made by LG Electronics Co. in the coming weeks.
The biggest markets for the initial launch of V Cast Mobile TV signal are Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans, St. Louis, Salt Lake City and Seattle.
The service is also available in Portland, Ore., Tuscon, Ariz., Omaha and Lincoln in Nebraska, the Albuquerque-Santa Fe region of New Mexico; Palm Springs, Calif., Colorado Springs, Colo., Jacksonville, Fla., Wichita, Kan., the Norfolk-Richmond region of Virginia, and Spokane, Wash.
In addition to Verizon, Qualcomm has signed on AT&T Inc.’s Cingular Wireless to offer the MediaFlo TV service, though that launch isn’t expected until late this year.
Modeo, which is being developed by cellular tower operator Crown Castle International Corp., is running a trial of its service in the New York City area with six TV channels, but has yet to announce any wireless providers to carry its service.
At the presentation Wednesday night, Modeo stressed that the potential market for mobile TV included laptops and other portable devices, and that the venture was forging ahead regardless of MediaFlo’s win with the two biggest U.S. carriers.
 | Enpocket Inc. reports customers click on cellphone ads 3 to 6 percent of the time. |
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In an ad-saturated world, the cellphone screen is a nearly pristine canvas.
But a number of area companies are helping to transform the device that 220 million people are loath to leave at home into a personal, pocket-sized billboard, hawking everything from the latest ringtone to Fabio-favored “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!”
“We’re calling the phone ‘the brand in your hand’ — you’re never more than a foot away from it, 24 hours a day,” said Fareena Sultan , associate professor of marketing at Northeastern University’s College of Business Administration. The challenge, Sultan said, will be to produce an advertisement for the phone “that excites the person holding it.”
Fueled by faster wireless networks, more capable phones, and increasingly popular data services, the cellphone ad space is poised to grow, according to industry watchers, and a cluster of Boston start-ups have positioned themselves as the middlemen who bring brands to the screen.
Boston-based Enpocket Inc. partnered with Sprint Nextel Corp. to place banner ads on the carrier’s mobile browser homepage last year. Third Screen Media Inc. , also in Boston, builds cellphone-sized banner ads for major brands such as Burger King Holdings Inc. , Bank of America Corp. , and Toyota Motor Corp.
uLocate Communications Inc. in Framingham plans to unveil mobile advertising that uses global positioning technology to send ads to phone users in specific locations later this year. Lexington-based Mobot Inc. used its mobile visual search — in which users search and browse the Web using pictures taken with a cellphone camera — to power a Starbucks Corp. visual scavenger hunt and Acura sweepstakes this summer. VeriSign Inc. bought m-Qube Inc. , a Watertown company that provided mobile marketing services, for $250 million last year. MobileLime in Watertown turns the phone into a mobile membership card that receives coupons and store alerts from grocery stores and fast-food restaurants.
“Boston does have a good technology base, but the fact is we’re close to New York as well, with its strong advertising companies,” said Eric McCabe , vice president of marketing for JumpTap Inc., a Cambridge company that offers mobile search on Alltel Corp. and Virgin Mobile USA and auctions search keywords to advertisers, the same way Google Inc. does online.
For now, people are “pulling” ads toward them — visiting mobile websites supported by ads, clicking on banner ads, reading sponsored search results like the ones that show up on Google, or sending short text messages to enter contests and get product information.
But carriers who have been hesitant to turn the potentially lucrative cellphone screen into ad space because of concerns over privacy and consumer patience are beginning to test the waters, said Roger Entner, analyst at Ovum
Sprint Nextel began posting banner ads on its mobile Internet homepage last fall. Verizon Wireless Inc. has been “exploring the possibility of banner advertising” on its mobile Internet browser, according to spokesman Mike Murphy. Cingular Wireless is planning to add advertising to its mobile search engine.
“We’re trying to be very prudent,” said Steve Krom , vice president and general manager for Cingular in New England. “The big question is : Are users going to find it acceptable to see advertisements and pay for service, too ?”
Cellphone carriers, which generally know a lot about their customers, are trying hard to avoid the mistakes of the Internet. The Federal Communications Commission prohibits companies from sending unwanted spam to wireless devices, and telemarketers are prohibited from auto-dialing cellphone numbers.
Eventually, a business model could evolve in which consumers opt in to see ads every time they open their phone, but get a discount on content or services, Entner said. The cellphone could develop into a medium supported by both ads and subscriber fees, like cable television.
But mobile ad spending is a tiny fraction of marketing campaigns today. Last year, companies spent $421 million, or 2.6 percent of total online ad spending, on mobile campaigns in the United States, according to eMarketer Inc.
Major advertisers, ranging from Ford Motor Co. to the US Navy, have begun testing the space with videos, mobile Web pages, and mobile extras — such as “Fabio-grams” promoting Unilever NV’s butter substitute.
Research firm eMarketer projects US mobile ad spending could grow in 2011 to $4.8 billion, or 12 percent of total online ad spending. A year ago, a typical ad campaign at Third Screen Media was about $30,000; today a typical campaign is more than $150,000 and ad slots fill up months ahead of time, according to chief marketing officer Jeff Janer .
“Last year was about people starting to realize mobile was becoming a legitimate new advertising medium,” said Maria Mandel , executive director of the two-year-old Digital Innovation Group at OgilvyInteractive. “When you have 220 million-plus people with a mobile phone, it’s a wake-up call to advertisers that this is a significant way of reaching eyeballs.”
Marketers think the mobile ad channel may be a good way to catch the attention of 18- to 34-year-olds who eschew traditional media channels, skipping commercials with digital video recorders and reading news online.
Also, “the phone is a device that can be with the consumer . . . right there in the aisle. That’s called the moment of truth,” said John Hadl , a strategic advisor for major brand marketers including Procter & Gamble Co.
Mobile ad campaigns typically cost more than advertising online, but online cons
umers click on banner ads .2 percent of the time, versus a 2 to 3 percent click-through rate on the mobile Web, according to eMarketer.
Mike Baker , chief executive of Enpocket said that his company reports 3 to 6 percent click-throughs.
A mobile campaign run by OgilvyInteractive’s Digital Innovation Group and Third Screen Media for Lenovo Group Ltd. documented a 6.66 percent click-through rate.
Last month , Third Screen Media began using outside, third-party data to measure the efficacy of its ads — a move it hopes will help to legitimize the medium in the eyes of potential clients.
But to be successful rather than annoying, the ads have to be targeted, relevant, and even cool.
Such companies are still experimenting — figuring out how to tap the potential of the mobile marketing ecosystem without starting a backlash.
“It’s a very, very private space. People have a tremendous emotional attachment; we’ve got to be really careful,” Sultan said. “If you think spam is bad, it’s really, really bad on your cellphone.”
Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com. 
The Emerging Nexus Of BT And Mobile Search
, Wednesday, February 14, 2007
WITH OVER 10% OF AMERICA’S 200-plus million cell phone subscribers now using the wireless Web on a regular basis, it’s clear a critical mass of both consumers and mobile consumer data will soon exist to make scaleable mobile targeting a reality. In theory, that is. In practice, the challenge remains creating a viable “ecosystem” for leveraging all that emerging behavioral data among mobile operators, mobile content providers and advertisers. In the discussion below Adam Soroca, vice president of search at JumpTap, a provider of “white label” search solutions for mobile operators, outlines what such an “ecosystem” might look like. Behavioral Insider: What seem to be the fundamental — or at least, major — differences between targeting for online and targeting in a mobile context? Adam Soroca: Mobile is a truly personal medium. The cell phone is a personal device that, unlike a computer, is unlikely to have multiple users. Also, the profiles you get from mobile customers have a substantially longer shelf life than what you’d customarily get from a cookie on a Web site. With mobile you get subscriber data, so the store of data for profiling can be much richer over time — whereas cookies get deleted constantly. In practice you’ve got targetable information that’s more locally based and actionable and timely. There’s clear data showing, for instance, that mobile user activity is much more geared to immediate specific purchase intent. Mobile users employ search to look for very definite services and content they need right that instant. BI: Search activity by mobile users remains an unknown commodity for the most part. As one of the early leaders in that space, what do you think is known about it at this stage? Soroca: There’s quite a bit of data we’ve accumulated on search behavior. One thing that comes out is that mobile users do search a lot. Our estimates are that in aggregate our mobile operators’ search traffic will exceed 250 million searches per month by the end of this year. The percentage of searches that result in a direct purchase keeps increasing. One study we did showed more than 11% of searches resulted in a sale. BI: How did JumpTag get its start in leveraging mobile search data? Soroca: We started out as a search service provider for carriers. What we did was provide mobile operators with white label search platforms. Based on the subscriber information in their databases, our system provided customized indexing of mobile content for their users to search. Doing this well involves progressively learning more about what an operator’s subscribers are interested in based on their profiles, and then providing them the simplest possible interface to access that information on and off portal. Essentially the way it works is that the more functionally relevant the search interface is for consumers, the more targetable consumer search trends and behavior can be for advertisers. BI: How does it work? Soroca: What we see opening up is help distilling behavioral profiles that enhance existing profiles of mobile users based on handset type, demography and geography, for the first time. The targeting can work in a variety of advertising models, from pay-per-click, pay-per-call, to more traditional CPM. If we see users searching for BMWs, we can target ads for specific local dealerships. BI: Beyond retargeting users based on search history, what other dimensions of behavioral targeting do you see on the near-term horizon for mobile? Soroca: Currently mobile ad solutions are mostly based on either specific application contexts like ‘we know someone likes to download ringtones so we can target ringtone ads,’ or by profile, as in ’someone uses X sort of handsets.’ Adding search behavior to that moves the mobile targeting learning curve ahead dramatically. But there’s still another dimension that can make behavioral profile much more powerful. That’s aggregating all the historical data related to search and browsing with all the demographic and subscription information in databases including off-network content. There are new technologies we’re working with that will enable us very soon to move in that direction. BI: We’ve talked about some of the motivations of operators and of advertisers for advancing mobile targseting. What about the content providers and the publishers on the sell side? Soroca: As the process has gone from expanding information and other content offerings from on-network portals to more off-net as well, I think the universe of behavioral and other data will move further and further beyond current silos. The exact road map isn’t clear. But what is clear is that publishers as well as operators are in the process of building deep wells of behavioral data. One possible trend will be that tier-one mobile content publishers will want to sell inventory by themselves through mobile operators who will extend partnership with them to open up their subscriber data profiles, anonymously, of course, on a case-by-case basis. Tier-two and tier-three publishers, on the other hand, may. and likely will, move more in an ad network model. In any case, there promises very soon to be a dramatically enlarged universe of data from all the buckets I’ve outlined — subscriber profiles from the operators, on- and off-network search, purchase and browsing data and publisher profile data.
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