NMK's report on Beers and Innovation 7

AN NMK TOPIC > Project Management by: NMK posted: 2007/01/31

So do agencies innovate? The seventh in our Beers and Innovations series addressed an issue that's always been at the heart of the purpose of the series. Ian Delaney attempts to decipher his notes from the session. Many thanks to our chair and panel: Frank Boyd moderated; the panellists were Nicholas Roope from Poke, Desiree Collier from Marsteller and Jamie Riddell of Cheeze. More information on our speakers is here. All were provocative and insightful. These events are not just about going to a presentation, though, and discussion points raised by every participant helped to extend and deepen the debate. Thanks, equally, to all of them. (But, no, you don't get a link ;-) ) The Problem Agencies are expected to be innovative. But there are significant issues. Nik Roope started with a useful attempt to pin down exactly what we mean by 'innovation'. Perhaps it's more useful to start with what we don't mean: it doesn't mean being creative or doing something different. For Nik, it meant making things better. He felt the term was continually mis-used: "many creative agencies just pump out banners". What's really needed are new products and properties borne from new ideas that move things forwards. Are UK agencies in a position to deliver this? No, said Roope, drawing attention to reports of problems at agencies Nucleus and Atomic over cash flow. Cash flow is a significant issue for many agencies. They need to get their jobs signed off and the money in the bank. This can make them risk-averse, which is obviously likely to stifle innovation. Later discussions echoed this sentiment and expanded on it. Eachan Fletcher talked about the 'diminishing returns' of innovation - once an idea is out there it loses value rapidly. Rather controversially, he suggested that the pinnacle of innovation is to 'create a new problem'. Rufus Leonard said that 'all too often there is not a catalyst to innovate' in terms of a client's interest in something new. Solutions I There's a glimmer of hope, though, in the recent incidence of stakeholder relationships for agencies in viral campaigns. A viral that's generated from a clever idea might not take very long to make, but should ideas be charged by the hour? What about if agencies were remunerated as a proportion of the success of the campaign? The difficulty has been in getting clients to agree to such a model. "The marketing departments are not biting," as one participant put it. One difficulty is that innovative models often require the buy-in of multiple departments at the client, which slows work down and often stops it altogether. However, one participant reported a recent deal along these lines at Orange. Lucy Ann Burke from BP said that one of the issues faced by her organisation was agencies not working together, that technical agencies and creative agencies sometimes appeared to have entirely different agendas despite notionally working to the same brief. Roope said that perhaps another route would be to adopt the approach taken by Japanese car makers like Toyota, where everyone in the company has the power to stop the production cycle and is strongly encouraged and motivated to contribute improvements. Solutions II Jamie Riddell suggested that there were two types of innovation to think about - externalinternal. External innovation might result in a funky new widget for a client. However, internal innovation - changing the ways in which you actually work - might be needed in order for that to happen. If you can develop processes that save time and improve productivity, then that has a clear benefit. and It also feeds into the chances of being innovative. If you haven't got time to do anything but crank out products, then your chances of doing anything fresh are pretty limited. So the challenge is to allocate time and resources. Agencies are never given a blank cheque by clients to spend on researching and inventing. They therefore have innovate ahead of time. Taking the example of Second Life, just flying about a bit in the virtual world isn't really going to sell the idea to a client. However, if you've actually invested time, maybe customised your avatar, mastered the contruction tools and built an office in the world, then when and if a client shows an inkling of interest then you've got a means to demonstrate the potential value of a presence in the world. Riddell stressed that this was pretty risky - with only two and a half million users, nobody really knows whether Second Life is going to be big. However, having done the research, it becomes another card in his hand to potentially play at the right time. Discussion revealed some scepticism about Second Life. Some participants pointed out that it had all been done before in earlier, long-forgotten virtual worlds. Others stated that a virtual presence in Second Life could hardly be counted as innovative, since it's been done many times already: "it's hanging on the coat-tails of what's cool". In an excellent counter-point, one participant said, "Yes, but it really depends on how you establish that presence." Innovation, it seems, isn't just about the form, it's the delivery too. Riddell said that innovation was the product life-cycle of agencies. He pointed out that there's a considerable amount of innovation going on in search engine marketing. Because that industry doesn't seem sexy to people in creative agencies, it doesn't get talked about, but nonetheless, it's pushing the market forward. It takes considerable courage to be doing innovative things because you don't know whether they are useful or not until a long time after the investment has been made. The agencies are often 6-8 months ahead of clients, in terms of understanding what's cutting edge. Some clients now, for example, are asking for MySpace accounts, when that might seem passe to anyone working in the digital industry. Even worse, with larger clients, it might take a further 6-8 months to get sign off, meaning that your innovations better be pretty startling because the chances are that they'll be well behind the curve. Riddell finished by saying that perhaps the way to lead clients into welcoming innovation is to think more carefully about what they need, as opposed to simply answering the question. Finding solutions to their needs can sell in innovation. Solutions III Desiree Collier made the point that her company Marsteller - an international PR agency - is very well-placed to rise on the innovation wave. For all kinds of companies, in all kinds of contexts, conversations are becoming key. So, in many respects, PR matters are at the forefront of companies' marketing concerns. Marsteller is in a position to be involved at different levels of the larger businesses it looks after. This can allow it to take a holistic view of the client's overall aims and try to ensure that their communications on these different levels are consistent. Public Relations companies are now hiring digital experts to work alongside traditional PRs and extend the possibilities of their offerings. One enormous advantage that they have over many of the creative, digital agencies is that they are hired on a retainer basis. It's very rare for them to be asked to produce one or two objects. This advantage helps to suggest one answer some to some of the earlier concerns about creativity - finding the time and keeping the cash flowing. The PR company's role is no longer just about getting column inches. And some of what they're doing is helping to create the conditions in which their clients are able to embrace innovation. One secret to innovation that came out of an earlier discussion was the necessity of getting as close as possible to clients' customers, something that agencies find hard to find the time and money to be able to do. Collier said that a lot of time at Marsteller was spent monitoring every aspect of their clients' communications and communications about them. This can lead them into a position where they're able to advocate models of best practice and can lead them into very deep involvement into the release cycle and positioning of a client's products and services. This apparent luxury and involvement comes at a price, of course. Consultants are expected to be experts in any new communications ideas and techniques. They need to spend time and money researching the future of communications on an ongoing basis in order to have the answers within reach at all times. Collier finished by pointing out the need for bravery in order to foster innovation. Agencies should not be afraid to question their brief if they believe their clients' needs actually demand a different solution. Solutions IV Frank Boyd recounted the story of the invention of the mouse. Stanford Research Institute came up with a prototype after considerable technical struggle. The only trouble was, once they'd produced this contraption, no-one had any idea what to do with it. They ended up licensing the design to Apple and Xerox at $50K apiece. The researcher in question apparently still wakes up thinking 'what if I had a dime for every mouse made since?' His point was that new ideas are one thing, but creating value is something very different. One issue facing potential innovators is the nature of the pitch process. To win a pitch, agencies have to have done a substantial amount of the work before they are even in with a chance of earning anything. Naturally, innovative pitches tend to involve more time and money, and so are even more of a risk. Participants also pointed out that even if their innovative pitch is the best idea, it's not unknown for their prospective clients to take that idea and work with it using another, presumably cheaper, agency. He described some of the work of the BBC Innovation Labs, part of which involves paid pitches. This is a practice that few of those working within the industry had encountered. The BBC, however, adapts the model it uses for commissioning programmes, whereby the programme makers retain intellectual property rights over the programme, and the broadcaster obtains the right to broadcast it a few times. The model allows Innovation Labs to adopt a very extensive in-depth pitch process, with four distinct stages. However, because companies are paid for their pitches and obtain intellectual property rights, it encourages innovation. Boyd was keen to establish that there are processes and a methodology to innovation, rather than it being the product of a mystical muse. Learnings The discussion continued late into the night, of course, and a lot of the arguments won't be settled any time soon. However, for the sake of neatness, I'd sum up some ideas that seemed to attract a lot of support from participants thus: a) Agencies certainly want to be innovative. However, structurally, meaning both the structure of the marketplace and their own internal structures, they find it hard to be so. b) Agencies can become stronger and more able to innovate by working with each other. Or forming loose associations with agencies that complement their own skill set to deliver 'full service'. They can become more like large organisations in this way. c) Focusing on the client's wider aims and needs can help foster innovation to a greater extent than thinking about what they're asking for today. Your need to put money in the bank might work against this, though. d) For agencies, both the pitch process and the way in which work is paid for discourage innovative solutions. Clients looking for such a thing might consider alternative approaches such as revenue sharing, IP agreements and paid pitches. If you have blogged about the session, do let me know, and I'll link here: Innovative Agency Theory or how to get a head in Advertising Recipe for Innovation Book for Beers and Innovation 8: The Attention Seekers here.

BBC coverage of Mobile Data report

Mobile internet use 'increasing'

More phones than ever have access to simple data services Mobile phone users in the UK accessed the internet via their handsets about 15.9 million times throughout December 2006, says the Mobile Data Association. The association's report shows an increase of one million unique sessions over November 2006, the prior record. However, much of the recent increase could be due to seasonal gift-giving said Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst at Jupiter Research. In the past three months, mobile users accessed the web 45.6 million times. Unique consumer internet sessions on the O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone networks were included in the report. Despite the new numbers, Mr Husson said mobile data was "far from being mainstream". More usage in 2007 He added that an increase in data use should be expected over the next year due to a larger installed base of internet-capable mobile phones, better user experiences, user education, and new consumer-friendly price points. The question for mobile network owners is: can they convert web browsers into purchasers of other services Nick Lane Principal Analyst, Informa Telecoms and Media Nick Lane, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media, reiterated the importance of user education. "The continued advancement of handsets means people are beginning to spend more time familiarising themselves with new services," most common of which are news, sport and weather updates Mr Lane said. He said that by the end of 2007, 797.6 million mobile phone subscriptions worldwide, or roughly 25%, will include web browsing. Location based services Both analysts said that location-based mobile services should be a growth area for mobile data in the coming year. In a recent survey conducted by Informa, consumers repeatedly ranked location-aware services like maps as a highly desirable handset feature. "All the major players are starting to build services around navigation and maps, but they're still new," and aren't quite ready yet Mr Husson said. "It's only a question of time" before location services will be added to the increasing amount of digital information available on handsets, he added.

Aditon's first live demo at Mobile Monday London

MoMo London: "Bubble 2.0?"

This week's Mobile Monday, the first of 2007, featured a great panel discussion on the current innovation and funding boom, especially as it relates to mobile startups. Are we in a bubble and if so, is it all about to go horribly wrong...again? Well, the consensus of the panel seemed to be that there are some very real differences this time around. Watch out for the podcast, coming soon, for the whole story.

Roughly 200 mobile industry executives came to hear our expert panel of prognosticators pontificate on this portentious issue.

We also heard from some great startups working on mobile innovations:Aditon, OOKL, Quickal and Reporo. Many thanks to our panelists and to our great demoers!

Finally, we have opened up the voting for Mobile Monday London's entrant into the Mobile Monday Global Peer Awards happening on the 12th of Feb in Barcelona (co-located with the lesser-known 3GSM event).

The vote is to be performed through SMS, one vote each and is sponsored by Telecom Express . Send in one of the following messages to 88088

MOMO JUVINO
MOMO OTODIO
MOMO 3GDOCTOR
MOMO WIDERWEB
MOMO PINPPL
MOMO OOKL
MOMO ACTIVEMEDIA
MOMO RAPIDMOBILE
MOMO MARMOT
MOMO PITCHTV
MOMO REPORO
MOMO ADITON
MOMO QUICKAL

This service is free but you will be charged your normal network rates to send the message.

posted by Dan Appelquist # 16:12

Aditon's first blog coverage

courtesy of We Are All Going to Die:

Mobile Monday London Post-Mortem

I just got back from the Mobile Monday London event.

Some of the speakers were fairly interesting, although a bit too much stammering and faffing went on. A bit more get up and go could be useful.

There were a couple things I found interesting. They were talking about a Bubble 2.0.

I’m not really sure what that means, and I think that perhaps they should have agreed on what a “Bubble” is before they went into whether or not it was one.

Are some people going to make bad investments? Of course. Doesn’t that mean there is a Bubble, no… there are a lot of fools. Some of which maybe didn’t learn anything from the last tech “bubble”, or “correction” or whatever you want to call it.

Are companies like CMGI popping up? No, that makes me think there is no Bubble. That was a horrible idea.

But what about YouTube and MySpace? They don’t exactly have sane and rational valuations…
But I really think they are one-offs. There is too much VC money sitting on the sidelines to be hollering about a Bubble. The fact that it is a topic of discussion shows that there are a lot of shitty ideas.
Most of the companies that demo-ed were… not surprisingly, crap.

I liked AdItOn and I thought Reporo had some good ideas, if they were a bit narrow in focus.

The rest of them sucked.

MoCoNews interview of Lucy Hood, Fox Mobile

Interview: Lucy Hood, President, Fox Mobile; Stratton Sclavos, CEO, VeriSign

The announcement of a News Corp.-VeriSign Jamba joint venture left a lot of questions unanswered. We can fill in some of the blanks now thanks to a joint interview with Stratton Sclavos, CEO of VeriSign and Lucy Hood, president of Fox Mobile Entertainment. Hood will become CEO of Jamba when the deal closes; Sclavos was in her office on Maple Drive this afternoon.

Why a joint venture? Hood: What we’re all very excited about is designing the world’s first vertically integrated mobile entertainment company. You’ve got content and marketing and product integration in terms of advertising and so on from News Corp. VeriSign stands for technological excellence and Jamba is a great example of that, a platform that delivers content to 30 countries in languages that reach a billion people. Sclavos: We also believe this is the start of what’s going to be a great collaboration, many more new products and many more new opportunities are going to be in the future and we both have a lot to bring as a partner. We’ve worked long and hard on this and we’ve known each other for some time. ...
Would you have been able to sell Jamba as a whole? Sclavos: Certainly. We had several other offers to do that; we were not interested. We really wanted to develop the integrated approach to the market and have what we believe was the strongest partner in the space given the assets that News Corp. is launching right now.
You had a vision for the company when you acquired it (in 2004) and things didn’t quite pan out… what will make this better for Jamba than the past couple of years have been? Sclavos: I think as Peter Chernin has said, News Corp. has a relentless focus on the consumer and they have great content creation, they have great ability to build brands and capture customer loyalty. Those were not strengths of the VeriSign corporation. We bring ... the technology and the infrastructure and the ability to have the global footprint to deliver all these new and interesting ways and all these new handsets. If you put it together, it’s a pretty interesting combination.
You still see a lot of potential and a lot of growth in the market? Sclavos: I think what people have to remember is we’re only a couple of years into this and our expectation is most of the opportunity is ahead of us and probably for the next decade or so. Think of what’s going to happen on the network ... with devices, and how entertainment on these devices is really going to be probably the main driver of what people use their mobile devices for. We think this is a pretty exciting time to have a front seat.

How was the value arrived at? Sclavos: There were many tangibles and intangibles ... including News Corp.’s ability to bring additional value to the relationship through their content like The Simpsons and their other properties like MySpace ... Certainly the financial piece had both some amount of traditional external metrics as well as what we believe were the intangible assets.
How is this going to set up? What brands survive? Does Fox Mobile disappear? Hood: The new company will combine Jamba, Fox Mobile Entertainment and Mobizzo. Obviously, what we would do is migrate all the Mobizzo content to the Jamba and Jamster portals. That’s how we’ll approach the branding. We’re working on developing areas like MySpace. We actually have Simpson’s content ready to go so that will be a very exciting launch, which you’ll see on a global basis.

A lot of people don’t understand the relationship between Fox Mobile Entertainment and FIM. Can you explain a little bit? Hood: Fox has three digital verticals: Fox Interactive Media headed by Ross Levinsohn; Pay TV/VOD headed by Pete Levinsohn and then I oversee Fox Mobile Entertainment. First of all, we’ve collaborated for years and we have more meetings together than we do apart because clearly you’re seeing a lot of convergence in this world. At the same time, my group has a laser focus on the mobile market and the way we describe that is reaching subscribers through carriers around the world. Since there are two billion of them, we think it’s a pretty sizeable market. ... You’ll see specific collaborations, like the fact that Jamba will be MySpace’s m-commerce partner. Exclusively. ... Any kind of content you want to get via your MySpace page on your mobile phone—and there’s quite a lot of it—will be sold through our platform.
Stratton, was that one of the appeals to you? The ability to tap right away into this large marketplace that Fox Interactive has developed? Sclavos: Of course it was. ... First of all, it’s the pre-eminent community-based site and for the demographic that is going to be the mainstream demographic for mobile entertainment, they are today on MySpace ... They are doing new things every day, they’re including things like user-generated content ... I think that their expertise here and the community that they’re continuing to build, especially now that they’ve started to roll it our internationally, it’s really one of the most significant things we are hoping to learn from them.

You mentioned keeping Jamster and Jamba? How do you have those two co-exist? Will it be Jamster for the U.S., Jamba everywhere else? Hood: Jamba is one of the most recognized brand names in Europe. In countries like Germany and The Netherlands, it’s got 99 percent brand awareness so that’s very powerful. We also happen to really like the name Jamster, which is the English-language brand for Jamba. We’re strategizing and planning how these will roll out in the future. You’ve got two very strong brand names and that’s a great asset to bring to a partnership.

You were very excited about Mobizzo and the prospects for that? What happened? Hood: What happened is m-commerce is still in its early stages. We created a lot of good content for Mobizzo; Family Guy sold extraordinarily well. Our original product line did extremely well as well. But we really wanted to roll out faster on a global basis and, let’s face it, we were in one territory and Jamba is in 30. We wanted to be across multiple continents now.
If you hadn’t done this acquisition, would you have been in the position of deciding whether or not Mobizzo continues to exist? Hood: No. ... The company’s very committed to building a direct-to-consumer business in the mobile sector ... We’ve just accelerated our activities with this partnership with VeriSign.

More acquisitions coming from the JV or are you going to work with what you have for now?Sclavos: I think we should close the venture first. I think we both believe it’s a huge opportunity and the partnership gives us a platform to do great things.

Off portal ads growing - MoCoNews

Off-Portal Advertising Flourishes, One Billion Ads Served in Six Months

• Posted by Peggy Anne Salz
• Mon 29 Jan 2007 08:33 AM

AdMob Inc., the mobile advertising marketplace for content owners and advertisers, has served a whopping one billion mobile web advertisements in the past six months. The total is news €“ but so it the spectacular growth in off-portal activity the company has seen in its first year of operation.
Admob has also collected so surprising data to match. Across the AdMob network the top five countries in terms of traffic are:

1. US - 20% (90 million page views/month)
2. South Africa - 15% (66 million page views/month)
3. India - 13% (57 million page views/month)
4. UK - 12% (53 million page views/month)
5. Romania - 5% (22 million page views/month)

Admob figures also reveal the most sought-after content. Publishers of community content generate the lion's share of traffic (45 percent). This category is followed by Downloads (44 percent), Portals (8 percent), Entertainment (2 percent) and News & Information (1 percent). Press release

IMG buys Nunet - MoCoNews

Sports Firm IMG Buys Germany-Based Mobile TV Firm Nunet

• Posted by Rafat Ali
• Mon 29 Jan 2007 11:18 AM

IMG, the sports and other media management giant, has bought out Germany-based mobile Tv technology and content applications firm Nunet. The company says Nunet streams more than 200 channels for over 20 mobile network operators in Europe, Africa and the Americas, and clients include Vodafone Germany, Vodafone Global, A1 Mobilkom in Austria, Swisscom in Switzerland and Vodacom in South Africa.

Nunet will continue to operate its content aggregation and distribution services under its own brand, and be run as an independent business within the IMG Media Group. Nunet is based in Cologne, Germany and today employs 50 people. IMG plans to move its Cologne office into the NuNet facility, expanding the total presence of IMG Media in the German market to over 100 people.

Some more details in the release here.

New Marketing Partners Help Make Sugar Mama from Virgin Mobile USA Even Sweeter

Deals with Jive Records, Levi Strauss Signature(R), Sony Pictures, U.S. Navy Expand Innovative Advertising Incentive Program

WARREN, N.J., Jan. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading U.S. youth wireless network Virgin Mobile USA is kicking off 2007 by offering customers new opportunities for earning wireless "airtime in their spare time" through its innovative Sugar Mama marketing program.

The company announced that several top brands, including Jive Records[Sony/BMG Entertainment], Levi Strauss Signature(R), Sony Pictures[Columbia/Tri-Star] and the U.S. Navy are sweetening the Sugar Mama deal for Virgin Mobile customers. The addition of these well-known national brands -- joining charter sponsors Xbox (Microsoft) and truth(R), the American Legacy Foundation(R)'s national youth smoking prevention campaign-- allows Virgin Mobile to bring even more options and benefits to its young customer base through advertising content specifically tailored for them.

Launched last summer, Sugar Mama is an innovative mobile advertising incentive program where customers opt-in to receive mobile and Web-based advertising content and are rewarded with free airtime for their Virgin Mobile phones. In order to receive airtime credit, customers simply interact with advertising or other marketing creative, then click through or text back responses to questions from partner brands. This interaction gives advertisers valuable feedback from a core target audience directly engaged with the product, while earning the customer one free minute of airtime for each spot viewed online.

"Virgin Mobile broke new ground with Sugar Mama, in terms of offering brand new way for marketers to engage with our customers," said Howard Handler, chief marketing officer, Virgin Mobile USA. "The response to date has been tremendous so we're excited to bring this new slate of forward-thinking brands into the Sugar Mama family." Since its launch, Sugar Mama has hosted more than 250,000 customers, with approximately 1,000 new users opting in each day. Virgin Mobile customers have earned over three million free minutes of airtime from Sugar Mama viewing.

In keeping with the Virgin Mobile philosophy, Sugar Mama sponsors are carefully chosen from like-minded products and services most valuable and appealing to Virgin Mobile's youth-focused network of more than 4.6 million customers. Each sponsor is able to offer content it feels will best suit both its needs and the Sugar Mama platform and audience. For Sony Pictures, that means movie trailers; for Jive Records, customers see portions of music videos. The U.S. Navy features spots similar to its TV placements.

Virgin Mobile recently enhanced the Sugar Mama platform with additional multi-media functionality including viral elements.

"What really attracted us to the Sugar Mama program is that it is truly a pull vs. a push tactic," explained Stacy Doren, director, media and online, Levi Strauss Signature(R). "The audience is electing to receive the message and interact with the Levi Strauss Signature(R) brand in order to receive the bonus air time. It provides a new and innovative way to reach our consumers and provides us with the assurance that our message is being heard.

"Virgin Mobile's main demographic tends to overlap with a core movie- going audience for many of our theatrical releases. The Sugar Mama program allows us to target those consumers in a unique way, have them interact with our branded movie content for our upcoming movie, The Messengers, and get rewarded with a relevant form of currency airtime," said Dwight Caines, executive vice president, Worldwide Digital Marketing Strategy for Columbia TriStar Marketing Group.

"The United States Navy is always seeking innovative ways to engage with our target audience, for whom technology is second nature," said Commander David Hostetler, director of advertising plans for the United States Navy. "Partnering with Virgin Mobile provides us with a unique and effective way to open a two-way dialog with potential recruits."

Virgin Mobile customers can choose to participate in Sugar Mama by opting in at http://www.virginmobileusa.com. Customers are required to be over the age of 13 and to provide limited demographic information. To earn airtime, they have the option of watching a streaming video advertisement or receiving SMS messages that contain advertisements, quizzes or discounts.

Virgin Mobile's Sugar Mama is powered by Ultramercial LLC, which provides the back-end functionality allowing viewers to watch and interact with a full- screen commercial and receive airtime that the customer would otherwise have to pay for by credit card or other form of airtime Top-Up.

About Virgin Mobile USA, LLC:

The nation's leading wireless youth network, Virgin Mobile USA

http://www.virginmobileusa.com provides more than 4.6 million customers with the most flexibility and choice in wireless products and services without long-term contracts. The company operates on the Sprint Nationwide PCS network, and is a joint venture between Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Sprint Nextel. J.D. Power and Associates has ranked Virgin Mobile highest in customer satisfaction among wireless prepaid services, and its own customers report a 91% satisfaction rate. Proud of its charitable and environmental programs, Virgin Mobile donates 5% of profits from downloadable content to The RE*Generation, its pro-social initiative to help millions of at-risk and homeless teens; and provides postage-paid return envelopes in every new package for customers to recycle old phones.

NMA on poor Ad engine support

Digital agencies slam portals' inventory for limiting creativity

Article Type: News | Author: By Andrew McCormick | Source: NMA magazine | Published: 25.01.07

UK digital ad agencies have hit out at market-leading portals MSN and Yahoo! for failing to offer ad inventory that meets the needs of their clients. Speaking at music industry event Midemnet on Saturday, Tara Moss (pictured), head of communications strategy at Aegis media agency Isobar, said, "With a lot of attention from consumers shifting online, I'm very disappointed in online publishers like Yahoo! and MSN that have kept the internet as a 2D medium. In terms of motion and vision,...

Mobile Advertising for Operators - Analysys

How can operators gain from mobile advertising?

By Andrew Kloeden, Analysys Consulting

25 January 2007

The latest column from Analysys explains why customer information is the key to unlocking revenue potential in mobile advertising.

Mobile operators worldwide are currently experiencing stagnating voice ARPUs as data services fail to generate significant new revenues. Mobile advertising, if correctly executed, may represent an opportunity for operators to create ARPU benefits from data services.

Although mobile advertising is still in its infancy, several business models are emerging (see Exhibit 1). The most established is SMS "push" advertising, which tends to be poorly targeted and largely bypasses the mobile operators. Prices for bulk SMS are very low and this business model does not represent a large revenue opportunity for mobile operators.

Exhibit 1: Mobile advertising business models




Exploiting Web-based content and multimedia
There are two developing areas of mobile content that are opening up opportunities for advertisers: Web-based content and multimedia services.

Advertising-funded Internet players such as Google and Yahoo! see mobile subscribers as the source of future growth. Yahoo! Go for mobile (which enables access to Yahoo! services and personalised Internet content) has been available on all Windows Mobile-enabled handsets since August 2006, and was available on Symbian handsets from the start of that year.

Similarly, Google has recently allowed developers to exploit the mobile version of Google Maps in order to promote new business models that will drive mobile advertising. The threat of these models for mobile operators is that the value-added services that generate premium revenues remain under the control of content generators, and mobile networks are reduced to simple data carriage.

The development of new multimedia services, such as mobile TV and games, has also given rise to several other new business models for mobile advertising. For example, in Germany, O2 has launched a youth-oriented mobile TV series in conjunction with Burda, a print media group, using product placement revenues from McDonald's.

In South Korea, a group of major broadcasters have rolled out a T-DMB network to offer mobile TV. This service is free of charge to customers who have T-DMB-compatible mobile handsets, and is funded wholly by advertising.

Advertising-funded downloads of games and other small packages of content are another potential market. Several big brands including Coca-Cola, Saab and Societe Generale have signed up to Orange France's current trial of advertising-funded game downloads.

The critical advantage of advertising-funded content is that, because it is discounted or free of charge for customers, a significant barrier to take-up is reduced.

The challenge for mobile operators is to capture the value created by this beyond simple data carriage. To succeed they must take full advantage of the main strength that they alone possess: their detailed knowledge of the end customer.

The customer is key
Mobile operators hold large databases of customer information that is potentially very valuable to advertisers. This includes demographic and credit data for post-paid users, calling and SMS behaviour and location behaviour. Such data can be used to target advertising efforts more effectively.

In order to maximise the value they can extract from mobile advertising, mobile operators must overcome a number of challenges, principally by:

• Ensuring that they have the marketing, database management and data-mining capabilities to be able to target specific audiences. This is necessary to ensure high-impact, targeted advertising that has high value for advertisers;
• Pushing the development of business models that do not bypass their networks, to counteract worrying developments for operators such as Yahoo!’s direct deals with handset manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola and RIM;
• Overcoming data protection and privacy concerns.

In most countries, operators must ask permission to use customer information for advertising purposes. This may be overcome by offering content that is compelling enough for subscribers to opt in, thus allowing the use of their information, as has been successfully achieved in South Korea and Germany.

If mobile operators can successfully influence the business models that eventually dominate the market, and exploit their marketing, data mining and content aggregation capabilities, mobile advertising may represent an opportunity to extract significant new revenues from mobile data services.

Andrew Kloeden is a consultant with consultancy and research firm Analysys, global advisors on telecoms, IT, and media (www.analysys.com).

Amp'd and Virgin's Sugar Mama on MoCoNews

Amp’d Joins Mobile Ad Goldrush

• Posted by James Quintana Pearce
• Sun 21 Jan 2007 05:06 AM

The New York Times (reg) has a piece on mobile advertising and the way it will subsidize content… it reports that Amp’d is planning an opt-in service that will give its customers fr*ee access to shows and other content in exchange for watching ads. That’s due sometime this year.
There’s also an interesting factbite on Virgin Mobile’s Suga Mama service: “Sugar Mama ... compensates its phone users with fr*ee calling minutes for watching commercials, reading advertiser text messages and taking surveys from brands. Since last July, about 250,000 phone users have participated, earning a total of about three million minutes, said Howard Handler, chief marketing officer of Virgin Mobile USA”.

Orange & Amobee to trial advertising in mobile games

Orange France has signed a new agreement with Amobee Media Systems to trial advertising within mobile games.

Under the terms of the deal, Orange's subscribers will be offered the opportunity to download mobile games either at a discount price or for free - on the understanding that they will feature adverts.

The ads won't appear during gameplay, but in between levels and while games are loading. Users will be able to get more information about the advertised brands by visiting a WAP site, or can click to ignore the ads and continue playing.

The games will be supplied by mobile publisher Filao, and advertisers already signed up to take part in the trial include Coca-Cola, Saab, Travelski, Societe General and Mobifun.

The service will use Amobi's Handset Application Programming Interface, and the trial will run for two months.

"The mobile industry is willing to test the role that ad-funding could play in growing the mobile entertainment market," said Amobee's Patrick Parodi

"Similar trials in other territories have shown high levels of user acceptance - provided that the model is opt-in and controlled by the user. We are confident that this trial will further demonstrate a willingness among mobile customers to accept advertising in exchange for discounts or additional value."

Jerome Le Feuvre, head of mobile games and music at Orange France, added, "The objectives for Orange France are to understand how mobile users will respond to in-game advertising, and to engage with advertisers and agencies to better understand their expectations.

"The trial should enable us to gather live usage data about the impact and acceptance of advertising within a mobile game, and test the potential of new business models around mobile content."

Another reason to delay flat-rate subs

NOC - News & Updates: "Skype not ready for mobility
16 January 2007

Oops - another reason to not introduce flat-rate data plans....

Skype's head of mobile access has said that until network operators stop charging by the quantity of data transmitted then Skype won't be available on mobile phones.

Skype is a popular VoIP service which offers free calls to other Skype users, but if the user is paying their network operator for the data they use then the calls can be anything but free.

'We don't want to be in a situation where we say: 'Skype is free' and then at the end of the month the user gets this huge broadband bill,' Eric Lagier told Reuters at CES.

When the idea of Skype on 3G was first mooted many networks responded that it wasn't a problem: given the amount they intended to charge for data they would make more money on a Skype call than a normal voice connection. But with the emergence of Wi-Fi networks, and Wi-Fi-capable handsets, unlimited connectivity is available; and with the promise of free calls such connectivity could challenge the dominance of network operators.

All this seems to make sense, until you remember that T-Mobile already offers a largely unlimited tariff with Web 'n' Walk ( capped, like most ADSL broadband connections ), and that 3 are already offering unlimited Skype calls though they aren't doing proper VoIP as they depend on the voice channel for the wireless portion of the connect"

Netimperative report on Digital Publishers flaws

Digital advertisers 'critical of publishers' ability to deliver'

By Staff

16-01-2007 10:44 AM

Most online advertisers and ad agencies in the UK are critical of their online publishers' ability to execute fully, according to a new study.

The research, conducted by research group GMI on behalf of Operative, reveals that more than half (53%) say they are unconvinced publishers have the appropriate business processes, practices and infrastructure in place to deliver effectively on contracts.

When asked to judge publishers on customer service, ROI/accountability, campaign delivery, accuracy of responses to RFPs and ad trafficking, 70% of advertisers and agencies thought publishers were either average or under par.

Overall, many publishers agreed with their clients' views (67%). All parties agreed that customer service was the most important measurement criteria but only half of the publishers questioned felt it was something they were good at. Only 18 % said they believed they gave better than average to good ROI.

When asked about their three greatest operational challenges over the coming two to three years, 2 in 3 publishers cited the full integration of their current systems and tools, closely followed by improving customer service and streamlining operational processes.

All three of these areas of pain came ahead of staff training and development, and attracting more skilled sales and operational staff. The majority (68%) agreed that operational personnel are currently spending too much time on low value tasks that could be automated.

Nearly all (90%) publishers agreed that operational efficiency is becoming more important to helping them meet client expectations and 75% said they had plans within the next two years to invest in operational enterprise software.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the last 12 months have seen many advertisers dealing with more publishers than before, combined with significant hikes in online ad spend (by up to 25% in most cases during 2006) which they forecast will continue during 2007 at similar rates of increase.

Tullio Siragusa, Senior Vice President at Operative, said: "Without doubt, many publishers have key business challenges to address and overcome within the next 6-12 months. It is pleasing that the majority of publishers are eager to stay ahead of their competition through the implementation of operational improvements and changes."

The survey findings are based on responses from 50 UK-based advertiser/digital media agency decision makers, and 50 UK-based online publisher decision makers. Companies ranged in size from below £1 million to in excess of £100 million. Only those responsible for digital media planning/buying and digital media sales/operations were eligible to take part.

MoCoNews coverage of Endemol at NapteMobile++

@Napte Mobile++: Endemol UK’s Mobile Experience

• Posted by James Quintana Pearce
• Mon 15 Jan 2007 02:47 PM

Rafat did the opening Q&A/Presentation at Napte Mobile++ with Peter Cowley, MD of Digital Media for Endemol UK. Most of it was very interesting presentations of shows that have little relevance for MocoNews, but there were a few interesting points that Rafat dragged out…
-- Cowley said that the new media audience wants bite-sized content that is new and fresh, and the real skill that producers need is to make that content available across all the platforms. So if there’s a successful TV show or mobile series (such as Get Close To The Sugababes) rather than just porting it straight to other platforms it needs to be repackaged to be suitable.
-- Endemol has a fund for investing in new media of 15 million pounds (US$29.5 million) which was announced six months ago. The reason behind this is that Endemol is good at doing big projects but not very good at being nimble in the marketplace and adapting to new technologies, so it’s investing in companies that are good at that—mobile, broadband and games companies. It’s good to see a major company recognize it’s weaknesses…
-- Some Norway shows indicated that “an audience that participated with a mobile show stayed with the show a bit longer than a passive audience member”, so interactive mobile TV is a good thing to target.
-- Cowley also gave some figures that indicated the broader reach of fr*ee content, with one show on broadband the downloads went from a few thousand to 24 million when it was switched to a fr*ee model. Big Brother downloads increased by ten-fold when it moved from an paid download model to a fr*ee, ad-supported model. That figure was in the six figures last year.
-- One of the major issues with made-for-mobile content is marketing and promoting the show. If the mobile effort is an extension of a popular TV show you can do marketing on the shows. With Endemol’s Sugababes effort it relied heavily on the carrier partner O2 for marketing. “Also in the show we had to find ways to get people to come back the next day… You really need a platform owner or distributor to get behind it and promote them in their community, and hopefully it will snowball as they tell they friends.”
Related stories:
--Interview With Michiel de Gooijer, Endemol
--Audio Interview: Endemol Plans For Tailor-Made, User-Created Content

Michael Krammer verlässt E-Plus

Michael Krammer verlässt E-Plus

Michael Krammer, Vorsitzender der Geschäftsführung von E-Plus, der deutschen Mobilfunktochter von KPN, hat heute den Aufsichtsrat von E-Plus über seinen Rücktritt von allen Ämtern aus persönlichen Gründen informiert und scheidet Ende Januar 2007 aus. Krammer wechselte im Mai 2006 zu E-Plus von Tele.ring Austria. Stan Miller, Mitglied des Vorstands von KPN und verantwortlich für die internationalen Mobilfunkaktivitäten von KPN, und Thorsten Dirks, stellvertretender Vorsitzender der Geschäftsführung von E-Plus, werden die operativen Geschäfte zunächst weiterführen bis ein Nachfolger die Geschäftsführung dauerhaft übernimmt. Stan Miller kommentiert Krammers Entscheidung wie folgt: "Persönlich bedauere ich das Ausscheiden von Michael Krammer. Während seiner Zeit bei E-Plus hat er unsere weitere Entwicklung als Herausforderer im deutschen Mobilfunkmarkt entscheidend vorangetrieben. Dennoch respektiere ich seine Entscheidung, danke ihm für seinen Beitrag als CEO und wünsche ihm und seiner Familie das Beste für die Zukunft." Düsseldorf, 12. Januar 2007

E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co. KG Corporate Communications Catrin Glücksmann E-Mail: catrin.gluecksmann@eplus.de Tel. +49 – 211 – 448 4140 Fax +49 – 211 – 448 4777 www.eplus.de/presse

E-Plus CEO Steps Down - Telecom News Wire

Light Reading - Mobile/Wireless - E-Plus CEO Steps Down - Telecom News Wire:

"THE HAGUE, The Netherlands -- Michael Krammer, CEO of KPN’s German mobile unit E-Plus GmbH & Co KG, has today informed the Supervisory Board of E-Plus of his decision to resign from his post at the end of January 2007, citing personal reasons. Krammer joined E-Plus from Tele.ring Austria in May 2006. Stan Miller, Member of the Board of KPN and CEO of KPN’s international mobile activities, and Thorsten Dirks, the Deputy CEO of E-Plus, will assume responsibility for the day to day running of the company until a permanent appointment can be made.

Commenting on Krammer’s decision, Stan Miller said: “It is with personal regret that I see Michael go. During his time at E-Plus, he has played an important role in the further development of our mobile challenger business in Germany. However, I respect his decision and wish Michael and his family all the best for the future.”"

E-Plus Youth Brand - Wireless/News

E-Plus plans youth brand, more shops, less management:

* September 27th, 2006
* 2:00 pm

German mobile operator E-Plus has launched its action plan called Be best challenger, including a focus on voice, SMS and price and a continuation of its multi-brands strategy. As part of the action plan, E-Plus will launch a youth brand in the second half of this year and invest in its network to increase voice capacity and indoor coverage where customer demand is for fixed-mobile convergence. In a presentation of the strategy, CEO Michael Krammer said that the company will not invest in mobile TV services because the EBITDA margin is almost three times lower than the mobile voice EBITDA margin.

E-Plus will also cut 40 percent of its current management jobs to 92 managers to increase the speed of decision-making and increase management productivity by 25 percent. The operator wants to reduce the FTE headcount by 10 percent or 300 FTEs from 2,900 to 2,600 and increase the number of customer-facing FTEs from 58 percent to 70 percent. To reach this goal, E-Plus wants to outsource network operations and certain back-office operations plus increase the number of own shops from the current 183, plus start opening more partner-franchise shops. The distribution channel increase will also lower the customer acquisition costs, increasing the profitability "

Orange tries Ad-funded content - Fiercewireless

Orange France Launches First Ad-Funded Trial, Brings Coke And Saab On Board

• Posted by Peggy Anne Salz
• Thu 11 Jan 2007 12:54 PM

Orange France has taken the wraps off the country's first ad-funded scheme involving major brands including Coke, Saab, Travelski, and Mobifun. The operator will test the ad-funded model, a business model that uses advertising to help fund mobile content and entertainment services, for the next two months using technology provided by mobile advertising solutions company Amobee Media Systems (Amobee also has some intersting stats about the viability of ad-funded schemes). The trial will offer users the option of downloading a game, from leading games publisher Filao, at a reduced price or for fr*ee, if they accept advertising within the game. The ads are served interstitially during idle time in between levels or while the game is loading.

MTV mobile report on MocoNews

MTV Forms New Digital Team, Focus on Mobile Content & Relationships

• Posted by Peggy Anne Salz
• Fri 05 Jan 2007 01:52 PM

Viacom-owned MTV Networks has formed a new Global Digital Media executive team with a brief to provide strategic guidance to the company’s portfolio of multiplatform brands. The team will be under Mika Salmi, President of Global Digital Media for MTV Networks, and will “help guide MTVN’s brands in digital distribution expansion, product development and technical support, and cross-brand programming”, and work with executives throughout MTV who have digital efforts underway. Staci at PaidContent has the in-depth details, on the mobile side the team includes Greg Clayman, SVP, MTVN Mobile Media, who manages mobile partnerships and content distribution and will support the teams at the individual MTVN brands in developing a wide portfolio of mobile content and apps.
According to Viacom’s press release MTVN publishes more than 600 clips and 30 hours of mobile video content per month in the U.S. alone.

Financial Times Mobile News Reader - MoCoNews

Financial Times Expands Mobile Offering

• Posted by James Quintana Pearce
• Tue 09 Jan 2007 11:28 AM

The Financial Times has extended its mobile offering, launching a Java application based mobile news reader. The service offers access to news, comment, analysis, stock prices, a 30-day search function and premium content for subscribers, reports Press Gazette. There is also a My FT section which selects articles based on the users reading habits, which should make it easier to use. The application is fr*ee, and while there is no mention of advertising FT did indicate it would seek revenue from advertising a year or so ago. The other main difference between this and FT’s previous mobile efforts is that this is global and off the carrier deck, whereas previous efforts were through deals with specific carriers, mostly in the UK.
Related stories:
--Financial Times Expands Mobile Service With Video & Audio

Yahoo Go 2.0 on Clicz

Yahoo Ups the Mobile Ante
› › › ClickZ News

By Kate Kaye | January 9, 2007

Yahoo is counting on user adoption of its new mobile search and content platform to boost ad inventory and create broader mobile reach for advertisers. Along with promoting the new Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 application to its huge online audience, the publisher hopes pre-bundling of the app on devices from Samsung and Motorola will also grow market share. The publisher's new wireless search service has also been designed to speed up information gathering for users in the hopes of boosting usage.

"With Go 2.0, we're now going to be able to grow the client [application] inventory," said Yahoo Senior Director of Global Mobile Products Ojas Rege. The company will now offer display ads targeted based on content and behavioral data, or targeted to specific carriers. No new advertisers are running ads in conjunction with the platform launch, Rege added, mentioning Pepsi as a recent mobile advertiser.

Yahoo will also continue selling sponsored mobile text listings, now through its oneSearch service, which will be the default search technology for the new platform as well as its other mobile Web and SMS services. Rather than listing Web links to traditional sites, the search service offers up category-specific data based on keyword searches. The content platform, now in beta, allows users to toggle from one content-specific area to another, accessing customized information and RSS feeds, and providing search results relevant to that category.

"The mobile search experience has to be completely different than the PC search experience," said Rege.

Indeed, recognizing the need to provide quick bits of information with minimal click-through, the new search service provides users who enter terms like "Broncos" or "Beyonce" with data on sports scores or celebrity break-ups instead of just links to sports or entertainment news sites.

"Applications like [Yahoo's] make mobile content easier to find," said Christine Overby, principal analyst at Forrester Research. "One of the reasons we find a dearth of [mobile ad] campaigns in the U.S. is it's so difficult for consumers to find things either on their phone or their network."

According to a mobile marketing paper published by Forrester last month, 11 percent of U.S. mobile consumers use the mobile Internet.

Go 2.0's segments content areas into categories including News, Sports, Finance and Entertainment. The Local section offers city guides and rated business listings, along with local news, weather and traffic. In addition to e-mail and SMS messaging, the platform also integrates Flickr, Yahoo's photo-sharing and management service, allowing users to tag and post photos from their phones to their Flickr accounts.

Besides promoting the mobile services to its Web audience, Yahoo has set up several distribution partnerships. Samsung will pre-load the new search service and content platform on mobile phones around the world, and Motorola will pre-install the Go 2.0 application in its mobile devices this year. Yahoo has also extended its relationships with Nokia and Blackberry maker Research In Motion, making the platform available to Blackberry and Nokia device users in 2007. In addition, oneSearch will be the exclusive search provider for Opera mobile browsers.

Mobile Marketing Association Executive Director Laura Marriott likens the approach to Microsoft's software distribution partnerships. The relationships "might help drive early adoption" by users, she added.

Yahoo also aims to derive revenue from its mobile offerings through alignments like the one it announced late last year with Vodafone; the U.K. wireless carrier is using Yahoo as its exclusive mobile display ad provider.

Samsung and Yahoo rival Google are also pairing up to promote Google mobile applications in Samsung phones this year. Selected handsets will include Google Maps and Gmail applications, and enable easy access to Google search. Google offers a mobile version of its AdWords text link ads.

When it comes to mobile advertising, "It's still too early to give a clear advantage to any one company, even a company with a brand as strong as Yahoo," said Forrester's Overby.

Lee Hancock, founder and CEO of mobile content provider go2, takes the increasingly competitive state of his industry as a promising sign. "I think the competition is very healthy….It will ultimately result in enhanced content to end users because the advertising business model will encourage a lot of competition in the marketplace," he said.

Communities Dominate Brands: Putting 2.7 billion in context: Mobile phone users

Communities Dominate Brands: Putting 2.7 billion in context: Mobile phone users:

This is a great article comparing mobile growth to other major industry sectors such as car ownership, do give the whole thing a read... but here's the take-away:

"SO HERE IS THE BIG PICTURE

2.7 Billion phones in active use. There is a subscription for 40% of the planet's population. Maybe 10% of those are multiple subscriptions (in Europe and Industrialized Asia mostly) so perhaps 2.4 Billion people or 36% of the planet's population actually carry at least one phone.

During 2006 they sold about 950 million mobile phones. More phones sold last year than the total installed base of personal computers in use. Out of the 950 phones sold last year, two in three had built-in cameras, 30% had MP3 players. Four out of five had colour screens. All 950 million could access the web (at least via WAP), and all 950 million could send and receive SMS text messages. Over two in three were high speed (at least GPRS/EDGE/CDMA2000 1xRTT); while one in five phones sold last year was a 3G phone."

Sennari

Sennari: "I believe part of the difference in volume comes from “discovery.” That is the process by which we find content on the handset. It’s just too damned hard to find what’s out there quickly. 3G makes the download process faster, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll actually find the content faster. There are three ways to fix the discovery process.

The first is for western carriers and handset manufacturers to change what happens when the phone is turned on. Immediately upon ‘boot up’ the phone should show me a portal interface, like turning on a web browser. The carrier shouldn’t charge data fees for this. Now the consumer can easily make a call, but just as easily read the news or buy a game. I will go out on a limb and say this simple change would change the nature of the mobile content business.

The second solution is for carriers to motivate alternate retail channels to use their billing systems. These channels include: SMS short codes via TV and magazine ads, pre-embedding content juke boxes onto the handset, carrier decks better integrated with the handset interface, SMS marketing of new content options, and wireless retailers getting into content via short codes or pre-embedding.

The third solution is for publishers to leverage 2.5 and 3G networks to integrate automatic customer registration and community capabilities with all applica"

Fireside Chat: The Long Tail - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)

Fireside Chat: The Long Tail - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals): "Chris, tell me more about this long tail of content aggregators. any examples in mind?
Chris
Well, we’re starting to see vertical Digg clones. We just started one, called Lipstick, that’s focused on fashion and celebrities. I can imagine thousands of those..
Tim
I could name a dozen already…
Chris
Tim/Dave: can you imagine vertical music sites? On Classical or Jazz?
Dave
I think maybe in classical because it is such a different set of problems to solve
Tim
Rhapsody had a classical and a jazz version when we first launched, but it turns out most folks want everything, even if 98% of their time is going to be spent in just one genre
Dave
In general, vertical music sites don’t work because people’s taste are very diverse and since there is little reason for us or Rhapsody to exclude someone, it is easier to use our services"

The Long Tail and Discovery - Peter D. Csathy at Digital Media Update

Making Sense of the Long Tail -- the Key Role Played by Recommendation Features

In today's Wall Street Journal, Don Clark writes an article titled "Ticketmaster Invests in Music Site", underscoring that "[t]he deal is the latest sign of investor interest in 'music discovery' sites ..." -- this time, Ticketmaster's acqusition of a 25% stake in iLike.com (run by Hadi Partovi, formerly of MSN's digital music efforts, and his twin brother Ali).

But, digital media companies prominently featuring content "discovery" features -- such as music recommendation engines -- certainly are nothing new. My former company, Musicmatch (the services of which I still use today to power my in-home music experience), helped to pioneer music discovery -- we used music discovery in our messaging as a critical way to differentiate ourselves from the competition. Virtually all of the "big" digital music services today use some variation of collaborative filtering to power their recommendation features -- and some of the newer entrants (such as Pandora and Mercora have their own "spins" on music recommendation). You will find recommendation features (i.e., "discovery") front and center in upcoming digital video services by NetFlix and others as well (expect Netflix's digital distribution efforts to begin Q1 of 2007).

Why are "discovery" and its twin cousin "recommendation" technologies so critical to the media/content consumption experience? Very simple -- if they work correctly, recommendation features can help consumers "make sense" out of the millions of works of media (music, television, movies) now available online -- and they do it very efficiently, effectively, and in a very fun way. Yes, fun. Recommendation engines can help you re-discover not only those artists, songs, TV shows, and movies that you had long forgotten, but also those about which you were never aware (but are thankful that you found as a direct result of these seemingly "new" technologies).

For consumers, the pay-off is immediate -- more enjoyment of their overall online digital media experience. This leads to more consumption ... including, of course, more consumption of the long-heralded "long tail." And, what is good for consumers is also good for the content providers ...

Posted by Peter D. Csathy at 6:37 AM

Plusmo on Venture Beat

Plusmo slides content across your idle mobile phone

By Matt Marshall 01.5.07 12:32 PM

Plusmo is a San Jose start-up that lets you fill your idle mobile phone screen with content — from news alerts to Flickr photos and blog content.

Plusmo is backed with $500,000 from angel investors, including Iggy Fanlo, chief exec of AdBrite, Rajeev Motwani, a Stanford professor who advised Google, Gil Penchina, chief exe of Wikia, and several others.

Like many other mobile companies, however, Plusmo knows that competition for users’ attention is cut-throat. Mobile content providers are numerous these days. And — surprise — people are still using their cell-phones mainly for voice and text (see Othmer’s column at VentureBeat today about this). Finally, it will take near a million users to sustain an advertising-based mobile content business, Plusmo’s co-founders estimate. Until Plusmo gets there, signing one good deal to distribute content for an honest price can trump the grandest of free distribution strategies. That’s what Plusmo has done, with cricket. More on that in a sec.

Plusmo says 200,000 people have downloaded its application since it launched six months ago. The application lets users load all kinds of blog and other Web content. The content is like a slide show on your screen (see Plusmo for example). Once you sign up, say for VentureBeat content, Plusmo pushes VentureBeat headlines to you — and they scroll across your screen — saving you from having to visit VentureBeat.com’s site. Or if you want to find out the nearest Starbucks, you can download the Starbucks feature, which offers you info on the nearest stores and click-to-call. Or you can register for all stories on Google and Yahoo news about Tiger Woods, and those pushed to you in a slide show of headlines. Each one of these services sit on your screen in the form of a box “gadget” — see image below. The plan is to then offer locally relevant advertising beside the content.

To be clear, people can get some of this content promised by Plusmo in other ways, too — Plusmo is targeting those who want content to scroll across their idle screen.

Of 80,000 people who have returned to Plusmo to request more content, 8,000 people do so daily, and another 8,000 at least weekly, says chief executive Krishna Vedati.

Plusmo’s biggest boost comes from users of its live cricket game-casting. Plusmo offers play-by-play text info for free, and video highlights to users paying $5 monthly. More than a thousand users have paid. With the cricket world cup in March, Plusmo expects up to ten thousand subscribers. But it gets only 50 percent revenue share from the rights owner — Willow. This has encouraged Plusmo to pursue cricket-casting deals with carriers too, but carriers will take a cut too. NFL games may come next. It says the revenue from these deals put it on track to make $1 million in revenue next year.

It serves BlackBerry, Windows Mobile/PPC and J2ME MIDP 1.0 & 2.0 phones with native clients. It plans to serve Treo phones by Q1 2007.

The company’s founding team — Vedati, Srinivas Mandyam & Kelvin Chong — hail from mobile company Covigo, a mobile middleware company founded in 2000 and sold in 2003 to Symbol. Krishna is also a Stanford grad, and has good ties with the start-up community.

It plans to raise another $500,000 soon, and then a venture round later this year.

Other mobile content players include Widsets and San Bruno’s Bluepulse. Widsets offers a very similar service as Plusmo. Bluepulse, another player, adds more social networking features like chat and text. Like Plusmo, it features content widgets, giving users access to specific sites — like Digg, Gmail and Flickr. Bluepulse also offers mobile IM, and focuses on developers, allowing them to deliver games. Plusmo doesn’t do games, mobile IM or social networking.

Another company, Onskreen, offers a product called Fusion, which offers news, ringtones and other content, but only in partnership with operators.

Handmark, of Kansas City, also offers content, from TV to games, but mostly through subscription.

Below are some of the “venture” channels and features offered by Plusmo.

Personalised ads on phones - BBC

Personalised adverts on mobile TV

Mobile TV is a growing market worldwide

Mobile TV viewers in Norway will be served personalised adverts as part of a two-month trial.

Banner adverts will be sent to mobile phones and tailored to the individual user under the trial by broadcaster NRK, a mobile TV pioneer.

"Advertisers see value in people being interested in certain products in a given context," said Gunnar Garfors, director of development at NRK.

Two TV channels and four radio stations are taking part in the trial.

"Most people who watch mobile TV in Norway do so because they are bored somewhere, on transport, or waiting," said Mr Garfors.

"You can assume they are near a shop or service which may be relevant."

The TV and radio stations are streamed to the phones over a 3G phone network and are "near-live with a few seconds' delay.

Mobile TV is a growing market that is yet to hit the mainstream partly because of cost and partly because of competing mobile TV standards.

We are losing out on younger viewers and listeners when it comes to traditional TV and radio Gunnar Garfors, NRK The obstacles to TV's future

Unlike other "live TV services" on the market, the NRK trial is streaming video rather than broadcasting it.

According to research firm eMarketer there are 44.5 million 3G subscribers worldwide who watch mobile TV on their phone. Their report predicts the number will double each year, reaching 520.9 million by 2009.

The number of subscribers who pay for premium video services and watch them on their phone will go from six million worldwide to 121.5 million by 2009, it predicts.

Adverts from 20 different companies are targeted to the viewers, depending on the information given to NRK when they signed up for the trial.

Mr Garfors said: "We know lots about the viewers; we have their phone numbers, their name, sex and where they live.

"We can also determine their presumed interests when we see what they watch or listen to and what times they do it.

And we know where they are geographically because of positioning technology.

"When we put this all together we have a fair amount of relevant information which can give them more relevant advertising material."

While the trial is a "proof of concept", Mr Garfors said future developments could see adverts sent to phones dependent on the precise location of the viewer.

Target demographic

For example, companies could have adverts sent to viewers matching their target demographic who happen to be waiting for a bus close to shops where their products are on sale.

Adverts could be personalised based on location

People taking part in the trial download a small computer program - a Java application - onto their phones.

The application is also used to change channels on the phone as well as to give viewers the chance to vote interactively during programmes, and send audio and video messages.

"You can also watch or listen to on demand programmes."

Norway is pioneering mobile TV and radio, said Mr Garfors.

"It's beyond the early adopters. Most phones are 3G and they all have built in video players. It's quite popular."

Cost continues to be a barrier for many people, however, as mobile operators charge customers for the data - in this case video or audio - that is downloaded on to their phones.

Mr Garfors said: "One of the problems is that the operators have different price systems. It's still assumed to be quite expensive."

But the introduction of flat rate subscription services - for about £3 a month - could open the floodgates to more viewers.

Mr Garfors said NRK was pioneering mobile TV because of changing viewing habits among the younger generation.

He said: "We are losing out on younger viewers and listeners when it comes to traditional TV and radio.

"On the mobile platform they are big users. If we are just going to continue to do traditional TV and radio, who knows who long we will be in business?"