Wireless Federation

As mobile advertising continues to establish itself as an important marketing channel, AdMob, the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace, continues its own expansion. AdMob today announced the opening of a new East Coast headquarters in New York City, “AdMob East,” to serve growing interest in mobile advertising among New York based agencies.

AdMob has experienced dramatic growth as mobile internet usage has skyrocketed. In 2007, marketers embraced mobile as a highly personal way to reach their customers. The company has observed marked increases in the number of campaigns as well as average size of budgets available for mobile marketing and is expanding its East Coast operations in response to growing demand from agencies and brands.

AdMob sells mobile ads on behalf of over 3000 publishers, including leading branded sites like AccuWeather, CBS and ESPN and innovative mobile content companies such as Peperonity, ItsMy, Mocospace and Fotochatter. AdMob began building a full service Sales organization in late 2006 to complement its online self-serve marketplace. The AdMob Sales organization is now more than a dozen people strong in San Mateo, Los Angeles, New York and London.

“Marketers are increasingly extending their campaigns to mobile and we want to be available to guide them through best practices,” said Tony Nethercutt, AdMob Vice President of Sales. “We are deepening our presence in New York to better support agencies and brands as they ramp their mobile marketing efforts.” AdMob recently passed the two-year anniversary of the January 2006 launch of its online mobile ad marketplace. In the past two years, AdMob has served over 15 Billion ads, including over 2 Billion in December 2007 alone.

Two Sales Directors, Adam Schneider and Robyn Borok, will lead the new AdMob East location. Between them, they have over 35 years of TV, radio, print, interactive and mobile advertising experience.

AdMob East is located on the 39th Floor of 245 Park Avenue between 46th and 47th Street in New York.

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CHICAGO Increased awareness and greater stay consideration were among the fruits of Hampton Hotels’ recent campaign on the Weather Channel’s mobile phone Web site.

The study by Dynamic Logic, a marketing metric firm based in New York, measured the effectiveness of the Hilton brand’s summer campaign on the Weather Channel Mobile Web. The site provides visitors with hourly forecasts, current conditions, severe weather warnings and radar maps for thousands of cities worldwide. Seventy-two percent of respondents in Dynamic Logic’s research had traveled within the past year; nearly two-thirds access the Web through their cellular phones more than once daily; and 42 percent visit weather.com more than once a day.
“We were definitely impressed with our first venture in mobile Web advertising, and we do have monies budgeted in 2008 to continue with this advertising initiative,” said Judy Christa Cathey, vp, Hampton brand marketing. “We are always looking for ways to better connect with younger target audiences, and we see mobile Web advertising as a trend with longevity in the advertising industry and for Hampton Hotels.”

The banner campaign raised message association with Hampton compared with other lodging brands. The favorability score toward Hampton was higher among consumers exposed to the ads, 62 percent, compared with the 48 percent of visitors who did not see the ads. Hampton mobile phone ads also increased the survey participants’ stay consideration for their next trip by 11.4 percent. Travel brands appear to be among the early adopters of mobile Web advertising since many travelers already research and book online. Airlines are assigning more resources to online and mobile advertising, and American Airlines in particular is devoting about 30 percent of its ad budget to those media.

“Early results, such as these, are encouraging because they show that mobile campaigns are being noticed and can have a positive impact on key brand measures,” said Kara Manatt, Dynamic Logic’s research director. “Historically, new formats often perform well at the outset since they are fresh to the eyes of the consumer. As we develop norms over time, we expect to have more detail on the staying power of mobile display advertising.”

The findings are in the best interests of Weather.com, which has been among the early players along with ESPN, USA Today and The New York Times in developing mobile advertising business models. Last March, Fox partnered with Third Screen Media to develop mobile advertising properties, and U.S. Sprint was among the first U.S. cellular phone players to announce a mobile Web effort.

Mobile Web advertising is small fry in the $300 billion world of U.S. advertising—$871 million in spending last year, per Informa Telecoms and Media, but marketers are lured by the potential of tapping into more than 200 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. Ads on a cell phone seem like an intrusion, but an Online Publishers Study released last March found that 18 percent of 6,000 consumers surveyed in the U.S. and Europe would watch advertising in exchange for free content. Twenty-two percent said they like advertising when it offers something for free.

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Rcrnews writes….Mobile television is still in its infancy—mostly gaining traction among early adopters and primarily young men—but the subscriber base has more than doubled from 3 million to about 7 million users in the past year, Kanishka Agarwal, vice president of mobile media at Telephia, said in opening remarks on a panel at last week’s CTIA Wireless 2007 event focusing on the outlook for mobile TV in 2007.

The star-studded panel of TV network executives and mobile TV enablers packed a large room to standing-room only capacity. Yet not one of them claimed early victory.

Sizzle reel after sizzle reel hit the big screen as each of the executives waxed poetic about the medium’s future. Meanwhile, in almost the same breath, they admitted shortcomings in what they’re calling the early days of the service.

“We are very firm believers in the experience on the cellphone and we believe that where we’re currently at is really the very, very early days,� CBS Mobile Executive Vice President Cyriac Roeding said. “If we don’t start today, we’re never going to get there quickly.�

He described CBS’ initiative in mobile as nothing short of developing a completely new network that demands 18 hours a day of entertaining programming—quite different from the traditional fervor aimed at the two-hour, prime-time slot. “I believe very much in this next step in mobile television,� he said. “This is really about a different user experience. This is less of a device than a user situation.�

Much of Roeding’s excitement is focused on the years ahead. He admits the current makeup of mobile television

doesn’t yet deliver the interactive user experience that he believes will push the service into more open arms, but he sees this as a logical step toward that direction and is anxious about the potential.

He said CBS is doubly interested in MediaFLO USA Inc.’s network because as a broadcast service it mirrors the advertising opportunities available to CBS on more traditional platforms.

“We have basically opened the gates to mobile advertising in a very big way with this service,� he said. “We’re starting to put advertising into video clips as well and starting to experiment with it,� but “at the end of the day, it’s about the consumer experience so we have to make sure the consumer has an advantage if there’s advertising connected to it.�

ABC Entertainment executive Bruce Gersh said it too is creating multiple channels on which to deliver its content. “We used to either have a film studio or a TV studio,� he said. ABC, however, is one of the few glaring absences on the current MediaFLO roster, though its ESPN brand is on the docket.

“Unfortunately with respect to MediaFLO, we just couldn’t come to business terms,� he said, marking the first official comment on the matter. Later, during a question-and-answer session, Gersh was pressed to further explain what broke down in the talks, and MediaFLO President Gina Lombardi joked, “You brought that on yourself, dude.�

Both companies are still talking, they said. “We plan to add additional content providers,� Lombardi said.

“Our goal is all about reach,� Gersh said, adding that if they can reach a fan at home, online and on mobile it would be a homerun for the major network. “We’re not looking at mobile as just a North American opportunity, we’re looking at is as a global opportunity,� he said.

Tammy Franklin of Turner Broadcasting, another notable absentee on the MediaFLO service, said the network has participated in all the major trials and is continuing to learn and refine its mobile strategy. The company recently partnered with L.M. Ericsson to develop and deliver its suite of news and entertainment content to the handheld.

“You know the service is really just launching. We really don’t know what people want to watch,� she said.

“I think the exciting thing is to see how these commercial services are accepted in the marketplace,� said Salil Dalvi, general manager of wireless platforms at NBC Universal. “The full-length programming component is up and running.�

Paul Scanlan, COO and co-founder at MobiTV, said being one of the pioneers in mobile television has given the company exceptional foresight into the road ahead. “Don’t underestimate the progress that we have made and continue to make,� he said, adding that MobiTV has looked into broadcast options, but is hedging its bets elsewhere. “To be honest, we’re making our bet on WiMAX,� he said.

Scanlan argues that the quality of MobiTV, which runs over carriers’ 3G networks, is of the same quality as MediaFLO and that “they haven’t even put a dent in those networks in terms of capacity.� MediaFLO runs on a separate network committed entirely to broadcast mobile television.

Scott Wills, president and COO of Aloha Partners L.P.’s HiWire, stood out among the panelists as the only member without a “sizzle reel� and went with a PowerPoint presentation that offered statistics he claimed proved that DVB-H and HiWire were uniquely positioned to the lead the pack in terms of monetization, the wealth of content and costs on all fronts. He dove straight into the core business model of mobile television.

“A six-minute high resolution video clip loses money� on a unicast system, and carriers stand to make merely pennies on low-resolution video clips while they continue to enjoy handsome profits from SMS and other data services, he said.

Following the end of his slideshow, MobiTV’s Scanlan jumped in to call his slide on monetization “one of the most misleading slides I’ve ever seen in a panel like this.�

Wills said HiWire will be launching its initial market in Las Vegas next quarter and that a LG Electronics Co. Ltd. cellphone will be working on the T-Mobile USA network in a new trial.

Lombardi honed in on the fact that MediaFLO’s service is already in full swing, having landed multiyear deals with Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., and it plans to launch in more markets and add additional content providers soon.

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Hollywoodreporter writes…After hanging up its branded cellular phone package in September, the Walt Disney Co. is re-entering the wireless business with a pair of deals announced Thursday with Verizon Wireless and MediaFlo USA.

ESPN and Verizon are joining forces on mobile in several forms, including as part of the phone company’s V Cast subscription lineup and through V Cast TV, a package of 24/7 channels being distributed by MediaFlo, a division of Qualcomm. Terms of the multiyear deals were not disclosed.

The exclusive licensing deals represent an about-face from the costly flop of Mobile ESPN, which failed to find traction among consumers and was promptly shuttered. That MVNO venture was launched with Sprint.

“For ESPN, this is the right strategy and the right carrier relationship to grow our business while serving millions of sports fans with the information they want, when and how they want it,” ESPN Enterprises executive vp Salil Mehta said.
Mobile ESPN, which offered real-time sports news and video, will be resurrected on V Cast as well as other content pieces. For V Cast TV, ESPN will provide an entire channel of content, including live sporting events, though it will not be a simulcast of ESPN.

V Cast TV, scheduled to launch in the first quarter, will start off with such partners as CBS, NBC and MTV.

In other ESPN digital news, the sports network will kick off a minute-long, online iteration of its iconic “SportsCenter” on Monday, a day after the franchise marks its 30,000th episode.

Separately, newly minted CBS Mobile also announced Thursday a suite of new offerings. The new CBS Mobile Store is an online destination where consumers can download mobile games and CBS-branded wallpapers and voicetones. It also offers daily mobile video alerts featuring the funniest moments from the previous night’s broadcast of the “Late Show With David Letterman.”

Additionally, two new ad-supported Web sites utilizing WAP technology were launched Thursday. CBS SportsLine will feature real-time sports scores, player stats and the ability for users to control fantasy sports teams from their wireless phone. CBS News’ mobile site will offer access to the full stories and images of breaking news events in near real-time.

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FierceMobileContent writes…An additional wrinkle to the ESPN story: The defection of Mobile ESPN senior VP and general manager Manish Jha, who was announced today as CEO of mobile media services provider Vantrix. A 16-year ESPN vet, Jha oversaw all of the network’s mobile initiatives, including the Mobile ESPN MVNO launch and content licensing.

With Jha’s arrival, Vantrix co-founder and former CEO Jean Mayrand assumes the duties of president and CTO. “Manish Jha brings to Vantrix outstanding leadership, a strong passion and commitment to mobile content, extensive mobile media relationships and global experience as a media executive,” Mayrand said in a prepared statement. “He has a keen understanding of the technology and industry forces that are rapidly changing the mobile ecosystem in which Vantrix operates.”

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FierceMobileContent writes…ESPN will resurrect its Mobile ESPN service via Verizon Wireless, this time as a straight-ahead content application and not as an MVNO. The multiyear exclusive deal between VZW and the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports will extend beyond scores, news, video highlights and fantasy gaming services to include a separate MediaFLO broadcast channel featuring much of the same programming aired on ESPN’s multitude of cable sports networks.

Mobile ESPN is expected to launch sometime this spring, with an unnamed VZW exec telling the AP the application will eventually be adapted for all V Cast-compatible handsets–”Not all people with V Cast-capable handsets use V Cast [and] we expect ESPN will drive additional adoption.” The companies declined to disclose financial terms.

“ESPN has built the best wireless sports application of its kind and we are extremely pleased to offer our unique content and unmatched innovation through the nation’s leading wireless carrier and data provider,” said ESPN Enterprises executive VP Salil Mehta in a prepared statement. “For ESPN, this is the right strategy and the right carrier relationship to grow our business while serving millions of sports fans with the information they want, when and how they want it.”

Parent company Disney launched Mobile ESPN in late 2005 in partnership with network provider Sprint, investing a combined $150 million in the MVNO and its sister service Disney Mobile, which remains a going concern. Disney shuttered Mobile ESPN in September after attracting fewer than 30,000 subscribers to the service. In stark contrast, Verizon Wireless boasts 59 million subscribers, about a third of them with V Cast handsets.

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Washingtonpost writes…ESPN is relaunching its shuttered cell phone service through Verizon Wireless, this time delivering its flashy feed of sports scores, news and video highlights through a top industry player instead of competing for subscribers with its own full-blown wireless brand.

The multiyear agreement giving Verizon Wireless exclusive U.S. rights to offer the Mobile ESPN application on its V Cast phones was expected to be announced on Thursday, executives at both companies said on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been finalized.

The companies also planned to announce that a broadcast TV service for cell phones that Verizon plans to introduce will feature an ESPN channel with much of the same programming being shown on its sports cable networks. Verizon expects to offer the service over MediaFLO _ a separate wireless network developed by Qualcomm Inc. that can broadcast up to 20 TV channels _ in at least one market by the end of March.

The Mobile ESPN service, expected to launch in the coming months, is to be included free as part of the $15 a month or $3 a day charge for V Cast’s assorted multimedia offerings, the executives said.

The Verizon relationship is the first example of the new strategy that ESPN executives promised last September in announcing they were pulling the plug on Mobile ESPN as a standalone cell phone company featuring its own handsets, calling plans, customer service and monthly phone bills.

That ambitious venture, launched in late 2005 by parent company Walt Disney Co., is believed to have signed up fewer than 30,000 customers despite drawing positive reviews for the sophisticated multimedia application that ESPN created to deliver its popular TV and Web content within the cramped constraints of a cell phone.

By contrast, Verizon Wireless has 59 million subscribers, a third of whom have phones compatible with V Cast.

“Not all people with V Cast-capable handsets use V Cast. We expect ESPN will drive additional adoption,” the Verizon executive said.

The companies declined to disclose the financial terms or exact length of the deal, though one executive noted that a multiyear arrangement is lengthier than a typical wireless content agreement.

The Mobile ESPN application will be adapted to all phones compatible with V Cast, starting with perhaps a couple of models at the outset, the executive said.

Mobile ESPN offers real-time scoring updates, video highlights, short newscasts and news alerts. Many features can be customized around a user’s favorite sports or teams. Participants in ESPN.com fantasy sports will be able to manage their teams via cell phone.

Verizon has been beefing up V Cast with marquis names in hopes of generating more revenue from non-voice services as it invests billions to upgrade its cell network for speedier data connections. In late November, the company reached deals to feature user-generated video from YouTube and Revver.com.

The shutdown of Mobile ESPN as an independent wireless carrier marked the first major bust in a rush of specialized cell ventures targeting niche audiences they contend are underserved by the Cingulars and Verizons of the world.

Last year, Disney said it had invested a combined $150 million in developing Mobile ESPN and Disney Mobile, another so-called “MVNO,” or mobile virtual network operator, that is still available. An MVNO doesn’t have its own wireless network. Instead, it puts its brand on another wireless operator’s service _ whose name is hidden from the customer _ and offers its own lineup of handsets and calling plans.

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WirelessWeek writes…As expected, Apple Computer Chief Executive Steve Jobs used his keynote address at MacWorld today to unveil the highly anticipated iPhone. The company’s shares were up more than 5% on the news.

The handset, which runs on Mac OS X, will play music as well as make calls and also is designed to sync media, e-mail accounts, photos and more. The iPhone features a 3.5-inch color screen and a digital camera.

The iPhone will forgo a traditional keyboard and instead feature Multitouch technology, which was developed to ignore unintended touches.

Wireless analyst Jeff Kagan expects Apple to receive a bounce from the iPhone announcement, but does not see it making a big difference to the industry competitors. “This (announcement) is similar to other moves from Disney, ESPN and others. Some work and some don’t,” he says. “I think Apple could do well with this, but we’ll have to wait and see. We thought ESPN would do well and they didn’t.”

Cingular Wireless is expected to be the first U.S. carrier to offer the iPhone, although that has not yet been confirmed by the companies.

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