UK Advertising Regulator Bans Another iPhone 3G Ad
By Lynnette Luna
For the second time, the UK's Advertising Standard Authority banned an Apple iPhone advertisement for what is says misleads consumers. This time the agency is banning an ad that touts how fast the iPhone 3G can browse the Internet. The ad shows a person using the iPhone to browse the web, downloading a file and viewing Google Maps at very fast speeds. And the dialogue says the touch-screen device "helps you get the news, really fast," and "download pretty much anything, really fast."
The regulator said the commercial would likely mislead viewers into believing they could get those types of connectivity speeds on their iPhone 3G devices. Before the regulator banned the ad, Apple argued that the commercial was designed to show that the iPhone 3G was significantly faster than the first-generation iPhone devices. Apple also said it had a note in the ad that read, "Network performance will vary by location." The agency didn't buy that explanation.
In August, the regulator banned another iPhone 3G ad that promised users access to "all parts of the Internet" on their Apple devices. [FierceBroadbandWireless]
iPhone In-Application Advertising from JumpTap and Pinch Media
The advertising world continues to pay attention to the iPhone, which is beginning to represent a significant share of mobile web page views. JumpTap and Pinch Media will combine efforts to allow advertisers to place ads in iPhone applications.
The new offering will utilize JumpTap’s mobile ad network with Pinch Media’s analytics and ad serving technology. Developers of iPhone applications can now easily integrate advertising into their apps, thus bringing in a new revenue stream and keeping consumer prices low (or free!).
And on the other hand, this will provide advertisers an excellent opportunity to reach the desirable iPhone user base, and benefit from the rich user experience the iPhone provides.
JumpTap is a mobile focused search company that has a worldwide mobile ad sales team. (see interview with Dan Olschwang, JumpTap CEO).
Pinch Media has a network of iPhone application developers who use Pinch Analytics in their iPhone apps. The analytics module provides a comprehensive view into the number of unique users, length of time the application is being used, geographic location and other valuable data.
Since Apple launched its 3G iPhone July 12th, more than 800 applications have become available. iPhone applications are growing extremely rapidly, with the most popular free applications having over 250,000 unique users in less than two weeks. Individuals are extremely engaged with their applications - on average, spending almost five minutes a session. [MobiAdNews]
Bango and Millenial Team Up To Provide Advertising Metrics
Bango and Millenial Media have announced a partnership that will allow mobile advertisers to better understand the traffic that is being exposed to their ads, and so optimize for better performance.
Millennial Media has announced that it has integrated Bango’s mobile analytics into its Decktrade marketplace platform. Decktrade is a performance-based, self-service network for mobile advertising, featuring a simple-to-use auction environment.
Bango’s analytics platform was recently upgraded, and now provides the two metrics most sought after by website owners: the number of unique visitors browsing the site and conversion rates from mobile marketing campaigns (see post with more details on Bango Analytics.)
Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango said “this partnership gives mobile website owners the tools to target exactly the right audience across multiple markets and to increase their success on the mobile web”.
Eric Eller, Millennial Media’s SVP of products and marketing explained further, “Our Decktrade customers will benefit from being able to leverage the response of each campaign to then reinvest where they see the strongest performance.” [MobiAdNews]
Pinch Media and JumTap Offer In-Application iPhone Advertising
Pinch Media, the first analytics and advertising company for iPhone applications, and JumpTap, the leading mobile search and advertising company, today announced the creation of the most significant iPhone application advertising network at MobileBeat 2008.
The partnership combines Pinch Media's analytics and advertising technology for iPhone App Store applications with JumpTap's comprehensive mobile ad network. Developers can easily insert advertisements into their applications to effectively creative revenue to drive their businesses. In turn, advertisers can creatively reach the iPhone's desirable demographics in the immersive in-application environment.
Pinch Media has already built a trusted network of iPhone application developers. By combining the power of Pinch Analytics into their iPhone apps, developers are free to innovate, develop and monetize their applications. The analytics module provides a comprehensive view into the number of unique users, length of time the application is being used, geographic location and other valuable data. This information provides advertisers the unique opportunity to reach relevant audiences through targeted in-application advertising on the most popular and growing mobile traffic.
"By adding ad-supported iPhone applications to JumpTap's mobile advertising network, we can immediately provide high-quality brand advertisers to our developers," said Greg Yardley, Pinch Media's co-founder and chief executive officer. "Pinch Media's iPhone-optimized advertising and analytics package provides iPhone developers with a straightforward and simple way to expand their businesses."
iPhone traffic currently represents over 30 percent of US page views among top mobile sites, presenting an unparalleled opportunity for brands to effectively engage with their users. Since Apple launched its 3G iPhone July 12th, more than 800 applications have become available.
Pinch Media's analytics package, currently deployed in many App Store applications, substantiates that iPhone applications are growing extremely rapidly, with the most popular free applications having over 250,000 unique users in less than two weeks. Individuals are extremely engaged with their applications - on average, spending almost five minutes a session.
"The iPhone's App Store can already be considered a huge success and we're just beginning to see signs of its full advertising power," said Paran Johar, chief marketing officer of JumpTap. "This partnership creates the highest quality iPhone application ad network which will have a significant impact on the marketplace. Leveraging JumpTap's global experience and sales team, brands will have the ability to deliver relevant and highly targeted ads to the highest quality premium traffic."/PR
Spanish-Language Ad Trends
Does TV wield an outsize influence?
Advertisers spent nearly $6 billion in Spanish-language media last year, up 3% from $5.64 billion in 2006. Cable TV saw the greatest percentage increase, rising by 76%, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
Spanish TV networks remained on top, collecting $3.01 billion in 2007. Spot TV ad spending rose 8% in 2007 to $1.67 billion.
Media is extremely influential in the lives of US Hispanic adults. Among respondents to a Vertis Communications survey, 23% said they were influenced to buy something by watching television, compared with 19% of the total US population. US Hispanics were also more likely to be influenced by the Internet.
Read more - eMarketer
UK Podcast Ad Potential
Making the most of niche listening
Advertisers in the UK who sponsor podcasts have a potentially sizable audience, according to Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) UK's "Podcasting and Radio Listening via Internet Survey," conducted in April and May by Ipsos-MORI.
More than one-half of responding podcast downloaders said they would be at least somewhat interested in downloading free podcasts that included advertising. Only 31% said they would be interested in paying for ad-free podcasts.
RAJAR said the average podcast user subscribed to 3.6 podcasts and spent just over one hour per week listening to them.
More than four out of 10 UK Internet users ages 16 to 54 have downloaded podcasts at some point, compared with 29.5% of US Internet users, according to Universal McCann's April 2008 "Power to the People: Social Media Tracker" report.
Regular podcast downloaders are more rare, according to a Wiggin-sponsored study of UK adult Internet users conducted in January by Entertainment Media Research. Only 8% of respondents said they were regular podcast listeners, and only 2% paid to subscribe to podcasts.
Read more - eMarketer
AdMob: Explosive Growth of iPhone Advertising
AdMob has released ad metrics for their iPhone ad network, and the numbers are looking good! Launched just one year ago, almost 250 million ads have been served, and growth is at 30% per month. This may be more evidence that an iPhone type browsing experience is what’s needed to get people onto the mobile web, leading to overall uptake in mobile advertising.
In the month of June, AdMob served 51.8 million iPhone ads, up 32 percent from the 39.1 million served in June.
The most traffic comes from the following countries (in order): United States, Philippines, United Kingdom and France.
Some of the popular features of the AdMob iPhone ad unit include a store locator integrated with Google maps, and consumer interaction options such as ‘click to call’ and ‘click to play video’.
Major advertisers that have run campaigns on the iPhone ad network include Fox, Jaguar, and Land Rover.
- To see the Jaguar ad on the iPhone, go here.
- To read the MobiAD write up of the Jaguar campaign, go here.
- To see the Land Rover ad on the iPhone and read the MobiAD write up of the Land Rover campaign, go here. [MobiAdNews]
Telefónica, Amobee Launches Global Ad Alliance
Telefónica has launched a global mobile advertising alliance in partnership with Amobee Media Systems. The alliance will allow advertisers to show targeted ads of all types to Telefonica’s 170 million subscribers around the world.
The Ad Server platform from Amobee Media Systems will support all mobile channels with a single ad-server including WAP banners, games, video and music players, applications, messaging (SMS & MMS), ring back tones as well as video & music streaming. This can allow for more precise contextual and behavioural targeting of advertisements, as well as allowing Telefónica to provide a single point of contact for agencies and advertisers wishing to buy, deploy and monitor campaigns across all mobile channels.
One of the strengths of mobile advertising is that it can take so many forms, and therefore foster engagement with consumers across a range of touch points. The down side to this versatility is that is has often been quite difficult to manage campaigns of this sort, since the level of integration between the mobile channels is small to none.
Mobile users will also benefit from increasingly relevant targeted ads, while at the same time enjoying cheaper access to premium services when opting-in to receive advertisements.
Deployment begins in the UK, Spain, Mexico and Colombia this year, and will roll out across the remainder of Telefónica’s regional businesses in 2009. [MobiAdNews]
Young Adults Influenced by Mobile Advertising
Spreading the word, by handset.
Many mobile marketers are still struggling to influence consumers, judging by an analysis of BIGresearch's "Simultaneous Media Usage Study."
Only 6.9% of adults surveyed said that video on mobile phones influenced them to purchase electronics; 6.4% said text messaging did the same.
However, mobile media was twice as effective among young consumers, with 14.2% of 18 to 24 year-olds saying that mobile video influenced them and 15.9% saying text messaging did.
"Given the state of our economy, mobile advertisers have a unique environment in which to build strategies that influence consumers to buy via their cellphones, especially the media-elusive 18 to 24 year-old segment," said Gary Drenik, president of BIGresearch, in a statement.
Those results complement a study by Ketchum and the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center. Their research found that young adult influencers were more likely to use mobile media than were other consumers.
Read more -eMarketer
Digital In-Theater Ad Spending Grows
It's summer blockbuster—and incremental revenue—season.
There is a reason moviegoers now get ads with their popcorn, before the previews and on bathroom speakers: Those ads are lucrative. Revenues from ads that play at movie theaters are increasing, according to the Cinema Advertising Council (CAC).
The professional association said that such ads, combined with off-screen theater impressions, brought in nearly $540 million in 2007 for member theaters, up from nearly $456 million in 2006. On-screen ads accounted for about 92% of total cinema advertising revenues in 2006. CAC members make up about 82% of US movie screens, the group said.
On-screen cinema advertising includes commercials shown before movie previews and feature presentations, while off-screen revenues include those from audio programming, sampling, special events, concession promotions and lobby-based promotions.
Concession-area marketing revenues jumped 48% in 2007, while revenues from in-lobby and in-auditorium audio programming more than doubled, and in-lobby sampling program revenues nearly quadrupled. Almost three-quarters of in-theater ad revenues come from national or regional advertisers.
Read more - eMarketer
Sony Pictures Goes Live With Ad-Supported Mobile TV
Sony Pictures Television has announced that its Minisode Network is now available on Sprint TV. The multi-platform video network features four to six minute versions of popular television shows. Sony Pictures has also announced that Honda will be the launch sponsor for the ad-supported network. This follows a successful trial as sponsor of the Minisode Network on MySpace and Crackle.com.
“The Minisode Network, which was designed to be a new and interesting way to bring our library to the digital world, has quickly become hugely popular with both users and advertisers,” said Eric Berger, vice president, mobile entertainment, SPT. “We are thrilled to have these two major brands supporting the Network: Sprint, which is a leader in mobile video; and Honda, who is expanding their relationship with us as the network extends across platforms.”
Honda’s ads will take two forms, first of all as a 15 second pre-roll to the video and secondly there will be a WAP site that includes clickable Honda banner ads. These will take customers to a specially created landing page that will offer free colorful wallpapers.
“We’re pleased to extend the exciting and successful Minisode Network program that is now venturing into mobile,” said Jenny Howell, manager of interactive marketing at American Honda Motor Co. “The Minisode Network program distinctively leverages the Fit campaign’s arresting visuals and unique energetic tonality to capture the attention of an eclectic target.” [MobiAdNews]
Microsoft Rebrands Ad Offering
Microsoft has announced that it has rebranded its advertising business under the new name of Microsoft Advertising. The move is a clear sign that Microsoft is taking the fight to Google and its other rivals in mobile and internet advertising. The new brand will incorporate many of the companies that Microsoft has purchased in recent times.
Explaining the new organization, Microsoft SVP Brian McAndrews said “It’s designed to let customers know that we’re committed to making sense out of a complex environment, and that we have everything they need, all under one roof”
The companies included are:
- aQuantive, who specialize in digital marketing services and technologies and who own interactive agency AvenueA/Razorfish, digital marketing technology company Atlas Search and DrivePM, a performance media company.
- The AdECN exchange, which is auction-based exchange for online display advertising.
- ScreenTonic, who have a ad network and offer a mobile advertising platform.
- Rapt, who help ad supported businesses monetise their media assets.
- YaData, who’s Segmentation Suite enables marketing managers to discover, understand, operate in and manage multiple actionable customer segments on a daily basis. [MobiAdNews]
The Aim of Behavioral Targeting
Why isn’t behavioral targeting a hit with advertisers? Behavioral targeting offers many potential benefits:
- For advertisers, effective behavioral targeting leads to ad campaigns that are more likely to sway their audience.
- For publishers, it can mean making more money from undersold or unsold ad inventory.
- For the public, it means the ad-supported Internet might become more relevant.
- The promise of behavioral targeting is huge, but overdue.
- eMarketer estimates that US spending for behaviorally targeted online advertising will reach only $775 million in 2008."
The growth of behaviorally targeted online advertising has been delayed by incomplete development of technology, brand marketers that prefer to have their ads appear with relevant content and concerns over violating consumer privacy," says David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Behavioral Targeting: Marketing Trends. "But a number of things are changing."
In fact, eMarketer projects that behaviorally targeted ad spending will reach $4.4 billion by the end of 2012.
Behavioral targeting segments the audience based on observed and measured data, such as the pages or sites users visit, content viewed, search queries entered, ads clicked, information share on social networks and products placed in online shopping carts. This data is combined with the time, length and frequency of visits.
"Recency counts a lot, too," says Mr. Hallerman, "data from two weeks ago is far less accurate at predicting interest than that from two days ago."
Behavioral targeting is getting increasing attention from advertisers, publishers, the public, politicians and mainstream media. For now, though, it contributes little to total US Internet ad spending—only 3% for 2008.
Read more - eMarketer
Nokia Simplifies Mobile Advertising with Launch of Nokia Advertising Alliance
Nokia today announced the launch of the Nokia Advertising Alliance, which will simplify mobile advertising for brand advertisers. The program brings together leading mobile marketing solutions, including couponing, location-based targeting, image recognition, and other emerging technologies, to offer advertisers a simple way to increase consumer engagement. Now brands can work with Nokia to combine the reach of mobile advertising on the Nokia Media Network with the latest mobile technologies for more effective campaigns.
Mobile is maturing into an effective advertising medium, however, the fragmentation of certain technologies makes it hard for some programs to scale," said Brian Bos, Senior Vice President, Convergence Director at MindShare-Team Detroit. "We applaud Nokia's efforts to streamline this evolving market and make it easier to manage our clients' mobile advertising investment."
"To realise truly integrated advertising, it's imperative that major brands can make use of a range of mobile services. The Advertising Alliance brings together the most innovative technologies in the market, and brings trust to brands who want to use them," said Scott Heron, Director of Digital Services at Wunderman.
Members of the Alliance are integrated with the Nokia Media Network allowing brands to plan, execute and measure mobile advertising campaigns through a single Nokia interface. A range of companies have been initially certified as Members of the Alliance, including i-movo, Mobile Acuity, Mobiqa, and uLocate, with many additional members in testing. Leading brands from the automotive to entertainment industries have built campaigns using the Nokia Advertising Alliance.
"Succeeding in mobile requires much more than a banner ad alone. Brands have the opportunity to deliver immersive, highly engaging experiences to consumers. The Alliance gives brands access to a range of novel mobile ad experiences from one trusted vendor," said Mike Baker, VP and Head of Nokia Interactive Advertising.
Nokia Interactive Advertising provides brands with all that they need to connect with and engage the mobile consumer. It includes:- The Nokia Media Network which gives reach to millions of mobile consumers through advertising on more than 100 blue-chip mobile publishers, operator partners and Nokia properties.- Nokia Interactive Solutions that creates end-to-end, high performance mobile campaigns for brands from banner ads, mobile internet sites and location finders to mobile coupons, click-to-call and other advanced mobile mechanics. /PR
Google Now Provides Third-party Ads for Your Sites
By releasing its new policies, Google now allows third-party vendors ads for your sites and also blogs (you can see one ad at my blog a2bTV.com). Below are the third-party vendors that are already approved and may visit those vendor websites to opt out of cookies (if the vendor offers this capability):
North America: Ad servers
- DoubleClick DFA (http://www.doubleclick.com)
- Mediaplex (http://www.mediaplex.com)
North America: Rich media
- DoubleClick Rich Media (http://www.doubleclick.com)
- Eyeblaster (http://www.eyeblaster.com)
- EyeWonder (http://www.eyewonder.com)
- Interpolls (http://www.interpolls.com)
- Pointroll (http://www.pointroll.com)
- Unicast (http://www.unicast.com)
North America: Research
- Dynamic Logic/Safecount (http://www.safecount.net)
- Factor TG (http://www.factortg.com)
- IAG (http://www.iagr.net)
- InsightExpress (http://www.insightexpress.com)
Advertising Standards Will Support The Growth of Mobile Advertising
As businesses begin to recognize the potential of mobile advertising, the need for specific guidelines in this area is becoming starkly apparent: standards are needed to gain the confidence of advertisers and ad agencies and to establish the mobile handset as a viable alternative media channel.
Eran Hertzmann, AVP for Mobile Advertising at Mobixell, has been a key contributor to the ad standards within the OMA and MMA working groups. Eran explains who is working on standards, what is the current status, and shares his views on why they are essential for market growth.
Why Standards?
Industry analysts estimate the growth of mobile advertising will continue to skyrocket - 2007’s advertising revenues of $2.7 billion are predicted to rise to a staggering $19.1 billion by 2012 . That said, there is a general consensus amongst industry pundits that this particular market will be made or broken within the next two years. The development of widely endorsed and accepted standards on both a technological and user-oriented level is fundamental to securing a sound basis for the future growth of the mobile advertising industry.
We need to define a common understanding of what will be delivered to users which is consistent, regardless of which operator is managing the network. It is vital that the value chain for all players involved be clearly defined and expectations and inter-relationships between players fully understood in order for the business to flow freely and the lofty ambitions for this industry be fully realized.
Read more - eMobiAdNews
Monetizing iPhone Applications With Advertising!
Smaato has announced the launch of iSOMA, an in-application mobile advertising platform for iPhone SDK developers. It will enable developers to monetize mobile applications for the iPhone through mobile advertising.
SOMA (Smaato Open Mobile Advertising) platform is a quick and easy way for mobile developers to ad-enable their applications – whether online (live request) or offline (cached ads). The SOMA API is provided free of charge to the mobile developer community from the Smaato website.
Smaato already supports leading smartphone operating systems as well as hundreds of Java ME enabled handsets with native SOMA clients. These include: Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm, Blackberry, Java ME as well as the upcoming Google’s Android platform.
At the same time, Smaato has announced a new strategic alliance with mobile software companies. The companies included are Funambol, Go Life Mobile, MobiComp, Mocondi, MotionApps, Mobifusion, Quickoffice, Spotigo, and Spodtronic. Smaato will help them ad-enable their solutions. [MobiAdNews]
Pepsi Taps MyClick for Mobile Marketing
Soft drink giant Pepsi-Cola announced a partnership with snap-and-click mobile marketing firm MyClick Media to launch a multi-platform digital marketing effort targeting Chinese consumers between the ages of 12 and 24.
The Pepsi campaign challenges consumers to upload their photos along with basic personal data like birth date, mobile number and nickname to any one of six major Chinese web portals for a chance to star on Pepsi cans issued in conjunction with the upcoming Summer Olympics.
Consumers are encouraged to download the MyClick application to access voting, blogging and status updates on their submissions. Pepsi will also support the campaign via television ads, point-of-sale promotions and web, WAP and MMS efforts.
"Studies clearly show that snap and click almost double the response rates compared to traditional SMS messaging," said MyClick CTO Justin Tsang in a prepared statement. "Bearing in mind, it is a lot more complicated to type in a URL on your phone. You are triple-tapping or even quadruple-tapping to get to a character.
Once you go off the operator's portal, typing a URL on a phone that doesn't have a QWERTY keyboard is a difficult thing to do. It's a hurdle to interaction. MyClick is lightning fast, and it places no burden on the network. It is the fastest and most efficient solution for tele-voting. Consumers will jump at incorporating MyClick functionality into their mobile phones." [FierceMobileContent]
Targeted Advertising the Key to Video on Demand
Although video-on-demand (VOD) has enjoyed only limited consumer success since its introduction around the turn of this century, improving techniques for the insertion of targeted advertising, combined with a viewer population more accustomed to acquiring media content online, suggest that VOD’s time may be approaching.
The key factor, according to ABI Research analyst Paulhwa Lee, is “monetization”: service providers continue to seek the grail of higher profitability from each title accessed. And that grail increasingly appears to be found in the bundling of customized, tightly targeted advertising with the program content.
“VOD providers have two sources of revenue,” says Lee. “End-users pay for a la carte and subscription fees, while sponsors pay for advertising. The goal is to tailor interactive advertising to the individual viewer. Progress has been made towards that goal, but it is by no means perfected yet.”
Reflecting the increasing division of consumers into ever-smaller niches, VOD can offer providers another level of customization and differentiation: targeted verticals. Rogers in Canada, for instance, offers content specifically for Bollywood movie fans and films aimed at speakers of Cantonese and other multicultural groups.
To achieve critical market mass for targeted advertising, the VOD delivery system must be able to scale up to meet demand, and “concurrency rates” – the number of subscribing households that can watch on-demand at any given time – are a crucial metric.
In the United States, providers are adding video servers at a rapid rate, ultimately aiming for a concurrency rate of 100%. “US operators are trying to reach critical mass by offering the majority of VOD content for free,” says Lee. “They are hoping that once they get the broad subscriber base, they can cash in on the advertising.”
Regional differences affect VOD’s global success too. While targeted advertising is the common goal, it is closer to becoming a common part of VOD offerings in North America than in the less developed markets in Europe and elsewhere. [ABI Research]
What’s Holding Up Mobile Advertising?
Are mobile marketers moving ahead or merely spinning their wheels?
”2007 was not ‘the year of mobile marketing’ that it was advertised to be,” says John du Pre Gauntt, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report, Mobile Advertising: After the Growing Pains. “And 2008 won’t be either.”
Even though mobile marketing and advertising didn’t break into the mainstream during 2007, with events such as the iPhone launch and other under-the-hood improvements, mobile marketers did take strides to move past the experimental stage of development.
In fact, eMarketer forecasts that worldwide mobile advertising spending will reach $19 billion by 2012.
”The vast majority of the spending will be based on text-messaging campaigns,” says Mr. Gauntt, “with mobile display advertising and mobile search constituting the rest of the main market.”
However, compared to other interactive platforms, mobile still remains extremely small in overall spending.
”A basic problem facing mobile marketing and advertising is that, while the business proposition cuts across many industries—telecom, technology, media, marketing, retail—it affects the economics of each industry differently,” says Mr. Gauntt.
Read more - eMarketer
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