Out There Campaign comes out incredibly successful
Blackberry maker RIM had launched the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm 9500 Smartphone, in 2009. RIM and Out There Media joined hands to create and manage a mobile advertising campaign across Austria to target the under 26 year old market with this new device. The campaign was run for two weeks and Vodafone subscribers got it delivered through Vodafone live! portal.
Those who visited the portal were also offered a free Justin Timerlake music video for watching the 15-second long advertisement.
Through out the two weeks, the BlackBerry Storm ad was viewed for 140,000 times through the Vodafone live! portal. The advertisement as a clickthrough-rate of 5.5% and the Justin Timberlake video was streamed a total of 2,101 times. The conversion rate for the entire campaign was 27.5%.
According to Kerstin Trikalitis, Out There Media CEO, this is a great example of targeted mobile advertising in action and the fantastic results that brands can achieve through this medium.
The company strongly believes in the power of reaching out to consumers directly and they are very happy to witness through all their campaigns that mobile advertising is an ideal way of doing so. Targeted and appropriate campaigns, such as this one for RIM, prove that this approach can achieve great results.
Wireless shoppers make heavy searches: Google
According to Google Inc., the Internet giant wireless carriers, retailers and manufacturers need to have a strong voice in the marketplace and promote phone features in order to increase their online campaign clicks.
Google also added that carriers, retailers and manufacturers should increase online marketing to accommodate today’s wireless shopping hobbit.
According to Kyle Keogh, industry director of technology sales at Google, Mountain View, CA, people are searching for phones but not finding what they are looking for but the search volume is high.
As per the study, a whopping 78 percent of the first clicks are on brand names. Other key finding of the study include that the wireless phone arena is a competitive marketplace and smartphones bring new customers to retailers, carriers and manufacturers.
Over 2,961 consumers had participated in this survey. 65 percent of which were found to be new smartphone owners.
Mobile apps to generate $1.6 billion revenue this year: Study
According to a new study conducted by the Yankee Group, mobile applications are expected to generate nearly $1.6 billion revenue in the United States in the year 2010.
There are several factors in the report which show the increase in the shipments of smartphones, and more application stores including the expensive ones. Though Apple iPhone users and AT&T subscribers download more applications than anyone else, the research organization has predicted that Android will be the next breakout smartphone application platform.
According to Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at Yankee Group, Boston, MA, two factors drove the company to increase their forecast, the first one was an increase in the percentage of apps that consumers were willing to pay for- up from 18 percent in August to 30 percent in January- and an overall increase in average paid application price from $1.99 in August to $2.85 this year.
The 2009 forecast of the company was $343 million, but that was using the prior paid app ratio of 18 percent with an average price of $1.99.
Apps revenue to increase manifold by 2012- GetJar
A report has been released by independent app store GetJar predicting that the worth of the global mobile applications market will become as high as $17.5 billion (£11.5 billion) by 2012. The current value is a fourfold increase from its value of $4.1 billion in 2009. It has also been predicted that an increase from 7 billion in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012 will be noticed in the total number of mobile app downloads as well.
Off-deck paid-for apps will become the biggest revenue generator by 2012. In 2009, on-deck apps accounted for over 60% of all apps revenue but the percentage is expected to fall under 23% by 2012. Apart from apps, opportunities for both high end smartphones and feature phones have also been reflected in the report.
According to the report, revenue opportunities in Europe are set to soar from $1.5 billion in 2009 to $8.5 billion in 2012, while in North America, the figure will rise from around $2.1 billion to around $6.7 billion in 2012. Currently, Asia is the most popular country with applications having 37% of global downloads in 2009. However, North America accounts for the spending of maximum money for downloading these applications.
Mobile Marketing Association launches Rich Media Ad Whitepaper
A whitepaper has been launched by the Mobile Marketing Association on Rich Media Mobile Advertising. The aim of this whitepaper will be to educate the mobile marketing industry about the rich mobile media ad units.
The whitepaper will be containing definitions, attributes and examples of Rich Media advertising in the market place. The MMA has created a definition for Rich Media Mobile Ad Units with this document which is interactive or non-interactive ad units displayed on a mobile web page or in a mobile application. It offers the following: inclusion of streaming video content or animated GIF within the ad unit, inclusion of sound, and a richer interactive feature set than basic mobile click-through.
The whitepaper has been created by MMA member companies serving on the organization’s Mobile Advertising Committee including Quattro Wireless, Crisp Wireless, Eyewonder, Millenial Media, Greystripe, GOGII, JumpTap, Medialets, Rhythm NewMedia and The Weather Channel.
According to Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, APAC, MMA, the 2009 Asia Pacific Smartphone market is estimated to be 52 million devices, which indicates a tech-savvy consumer group that wants to get the most out of their mobile experiences. And with the increasing penetration of these feature-rich Smartphones, marketers have now started to increase mobile ad capabilities and provide richer content on mobile devices.
Aerosmith drummer challenges fans to “Hit Hard†competition
Rock solid rhythms of Aerosmith’s legendary drummer, Joey Kramer is unbeatable. However now iPhone users can challenge their drumming skills on Kramer’s recently launched iPhone application Hit Hardâ€. This move has come after celebrity Services Company Paid Inc. collaborated with Kramer to challenge iPhone fans drumming skills with a new application.
According to Keith Garde, President of Paid Inc. Boston, Aerosmith and Joey Kramer have always been about connecting with their fans in the most cutting-edge ways and this new application is another step in that direction. It consistently continues to support the band in reaching their fans in whatever platform, technologies and methods they are using.
The application also has a different feature for those users who do not want to compete with Kramer’s beat. These users can create their own beats in a freestyle play. Each level in the game has a mock lesson where users can tap the correct sequence to match his beat. Players who will be able to finish all the levels of the game can enter the high score contest for a chance to win a prize from Kramer.
According to Garde, though the application is currently available only for the iPhone and iPod touch, the company is looking forward to expand it into other smartphone platforms.
Motorola CEOs continue to accept their pay cuts
Motorola is fighting for getting back its image of a giant mobile phone maker it once was. With the introduction of Android phones, the company has shown a clear sign of its way back to prominence. Also, in order to support the company one step further, co-CEO Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha have agreed to continue taking their voluntary salary cut of 25% for 2010.
Motorola is all set to make their long-awaited comeback in the mobile space with solid plans to divide the company into two separate publicly trade entities. While Sanjay Jha is expected to take his seat as the head of the Mobile devices and Home Businesses division, Greg Brown will rein the Motorola Enterprise unit.
Though the company has showed that they have the capability to be one of the formidable players in the smartphone space, the long-term success of the company will largely depend on its ability to continue to capture mindshare in the US and around the world. At present, Motorola Droid is considered to be a good step; but it won’t be enough to carry Moto through the next year.
Motorola to roll out Android smartphones in China
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Android smartphones incorporated with the Bing search engine will be rolled out by US vendor Motorola in China by the end of this month. Bing search and map functions will be added by Motorola to its Android-powered smartphones, as part of a global alliance just signed with Microsoft. A new widget that also includes the Microsoft search engine along with a pre-loaded Bing bookmark on its mobile browsers will be included by the company.
A new feature on the Android handsets for China was announced by the company in the month of January in the wake of the Google-Chinese censorship debacle. The new article would have enabled the users to select their own search provider, including local search champion Baidu.
The first customized Android device supporting Wi-Fi and WAPI, the Motorola XT701 was launched by W-CDMA operator China Unicom earlier this week.
