mobile advertising

Scientists investigate body area networks for mobile ads

Jim Barthold — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:42:10 -0400

Think advertising has gotten as invasive as it can. Guess again. Here's the skinny. Scientists at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute in Korea are developing a way to use what they call "body area networks" to connect a person to advertising using their skin and their cell phones. The scientists believe the ads will only be relevant to the person whose skin is being invaded. To get the information, a subject must walk up to an electronic poster and touch it. Information collected from the person's cell phone will be transmitted to decide which ads to show.

The idea, at least for advertisers, is that these networks will be incredibly effective at targeting their audiences, often hitting the bull's eye with information that outstrips anything that could be delivered by conventional posters and billboards. The good thing about the system--at least for those who want to avoid advertising at any cost--the only way to get the information is by touching the ads. So, if you don't like it, don't touch it.

For more:
- see this article

Related stories:
Nokia to open mobile advertising labs
Mobile advertising needs to up its game

16. Marco Boerries, Executive Vice President, Yahoo Connected Life

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:05:22 -0400

What makes him powerful: Yahoo dominated headlines throughout 2008, mostly for all the wrong reasons. After rejecting rival Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion buyout bid, the struggling web services giant found itself under siege from activist investor Carl Icahn. Icahn threatened a proxy battle if the deal was not consummated and claimed that Yahoo's board "acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders" by turning down Microsoft's $33 per share takeover offer. Microsoft and Yahoo continued their mating dance for months, with Microsoft finally withdrawing its offer in early May--with its market capitalization in tatters, Yahoo soon after inked a non-exclusive search advertising alliance with rival Google, prompting many executives and senior employees to leave the firm after losing confidence in co-founder CEO Jerry Yang's ability to right the ship.

Swept aside in the takeover soap opera were the significant advances made by Yahoo's mobile unit under the leadership of Marco Boerries, head of Yahoo's Connected Life Division, which encompasses its mobile, digital home, PC client and broadband teams around the globe. With Yahoo's traditional web revenues eroding, the company is looking to the mobile platform as the next evolution of its business, and Boerries has responded with a series of new initiatives. At January's Consumer Electronics Show, Yahoo debuted a revamped Yahoo Go 3.0 mobile portal, a new mobile advertising initiative and, perhaps most significantly, its fledgling Mobile Developer Platform to third-party applications. In the months to follow, Yahoo announced a new multi-platform advertising effort dubbed Apex, a mobile content management solution called onePlace, a voice-enabled version of its oneSearch mobile search application and a mobile advertising revenue agreement with AT&T, not to mention a number of additional international search and marketing deals.

But Boerries must solve--on the mobile web--the same conundrum Yahoo faces on the wired web--specifically, how to keep pace with the seemingly unstoppable force that is Google. Consumer research provider Nielsen Mobile reports that Google dominated mobile web searches in the first quarter of 2008, accounting for 61 percent of mobile queries during the three-month period in question, while Yahoo was a distant second with 18 percent. Yahoo has largely reinvented its mobile image in the likeness of its opponent, opening its platform to third-party development and pinning its revenue hopes on mobile advertising--the problem is that Google, as well as Microsoft, can lay claim to mobile operating systems of their own, a huge tactical advantage that severely limits Yahoo's mobile scope and reach. However, a flurry of recent breakthroughs--including an idle-screen ad deal with Nokia and the debut of the oneConnect social networking app for Apple's iPhone--proves Boerries isn't going down without a fight.

22. Dan Schulman, CEO of Virgin Mobile USA

Phil Goldstein — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:26:50 -0400

What makes him powerful: Dan Schulman has the distinction of heading up Virgin Mobile USA, one of the first major MVNOs to launch in the U.S. back in 2002 and one of the few MVNOs to survive in today's tumultuous wireless marketplace. While the U.S. market has not been a particularly friendly place for virtual operators, Schulman has managed to keep Virgin Mobile USA alive and growing.

Virgin, which started as a joint venture with Sprint, initially targeted the youth market--a demographic group that Schulman has said was underserved by traditional wireless carriers. That early focus was critical to Virgin's initial success and the reason the MVNO grew so quickly, attaining 3 million-plus customers by early 2005.

Under Schulman's direction, the company also has been an innovative leader in the advertising area. The company launched the Sugar Mama mobile advertising service in 2006. The program gives customers free airtime in return for viewing mobile ads. A year after the program's launch, Virgin said more than 330,000 of its 5 million subscribers had signed onto the plan.

But Virgin has come under increasing pressure since Schulman and his executive team took the company public in the fall of 2007, generating about $412 million for the firm. In fact, during the most recent quarter, Virgin earned just $3.5 million in net income, down from $7.1 million in the same period in 2007. Revenue was down to $317.4 million from 327.6 million and the company lost about 111,000 subscribers bringing its total subscriber base to just under 5 million.

Yet Schulman has ushered in some bright spots for the company. Virgin completed its acquisition of rival MVNO Helio at the end of August. Although Virgin continues to consider the youth demographic its core customer base, the Helio acquisition will increase Virgin's reach to other demographic groups, including Korean-Americans. As part of the Helio deal, Korean wireless player SK Telekom invested $25 million in cash in Virgin, which it badly needed.

On the outs: Virgin Mobile USA sees another departure

Phil Goldstein — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:01:29 -0400

Virgin Mobile USA's head of mobile advertising will be leaving the wireless carrier to join AOL's Platform-A ad division, making it the second departure from the company in as many weeks.

Scott Kelliher joined the company in 2006 and his exit comes on the heels of the departure of Virgin Mobile USA's CFO John Feehan, who announced in mid-September that he would be leaving the carrier to become CFO of the private data protection company Lifelock. Kelliher was instrumental in developing Virgin's Sugar Mama ad campaign, which gave users free airtime for agreeing to view mobile ads.

The MVNO, which completed the acquisition of rival Helio in late August, has struggled since its stock went public a year ago. It opened at $15 per share and has since tumbled to around $3. The company has promised improved growth for the second half of 2008 and into 2009.

A Virgin Mobile USA spokeswoman said that "people come and go in a dynamic company, that Virgin Mobile has many, many people who have been here since launch," and that there is no connection between Kelliher's departure and Feehan's. She also said, regarding Feehan's decision to leave the carrier, "that after seven years, this opportunity comes at a time when our balance sheet is the strongest it's been, given the Helio acquisition and ancillary benefits, and that he relishes moving to another pre-IPO experience."

[Story updated Thursday, October 2]

For more:
- see this article

Related Articles:
Virgin Mobile USA CFO steps down
Virgin Mobile extends Sugar Mama to Facebook

CTIA, Neustar celebrate short code anniversary

Sue Marek — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:24:32 -0400

It's been five years since the U.S. Common Short Code program debuted and to mark the anniversary CTIA and Neustar decided to recognize three companies with the CSC Pioneer award.

HipCricket won the application provider award. The Kirkland, Wa.-based firm leased short codes with 358 active codes in 2008 and has done more than 17,000 mobile marketing campaigns. The company, which specializes in providing campaigns for radio and TV broadcasters, uses OpenMarket, the winner of the CSC Pioneer award for aggregator, as its aggregation partner.

The winner of the new customer award is M3 Mobile Marketing, a firm that creates and integrates brand-specific mobile advertising campaigns.

For more:
- see this press release

Google CEO: Mobile advertising to generate more revenue than today's web

Lynnette Luna — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:16:55 -0400

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that the next major growth wave for Google in terms of search engine marketing is the mobile Internet. He cited the iPhone as the first mobile device with a good web browser and that more devices will come to market, enabling advertising to become personal. He predicted that within a few years, mobile advertising would generate more revenue than advertising on today's web.

Schmidt said he was less enthusiastic about the advertising possibilities of video portals like YouTube and DoubleClick, and said he generally wasn't happy with the advertising prospects of Web 2.0 in general. Google has invested some $900 million in a deal with MySpace that saw the search engine as the exclusive advertising and search engine. It reached many users but was proving difficult to establish the ad network. "Some things work, and others just don't--but the mobile Internet always works," he said.

For more on Schmidt's feelings about the mobile Internet:
- read this piece from Heise.de

Related articles:
In open access environment, Internet giants like Google still need operator friends. See this Google open access editorial
Expect major mobile innovations: Google. See this Google mobile web editorial

Vodafone makes first mobile Internet acquisition

Lynnette Luna — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:39:43 -0400

Vodafone made its first acquisition in the mobile Internet space, paying $49 million in cash for Zyb, a private Dutch company that provides social networking and contacts management technology--two hot applications in the mobile space. Zyb enables mobile users to back up their contacts on a website and offers IM services and calendar-sharing with other users online, a service that could morph into a platform for mobile advertising. The deal is part of Vodafone's "total communications" strategy in the newly created Internet Services division to offer services beyond the mobile phone.

For more about Vodafone's Internet strategy:
- check out this article from the Financial Times

Virgin Mobile USA subs earn minutes from Facebook

Thu, 15 May 2008 11:30:14 -0400

Virgin Mobile USA announced the Fund My Phone application, which extends the operator's Sugar Mama marketing program to the Facebook social networking platform and enables consumers to earn wireless airtime for their fellow Virgin Mobile subscribers. Over 700,000 Virgin Mobile USA customers have joined the Sugar Mama initiative since its 2006 launch, viewing ad spots, responding to branded text messages and completing surveys to earn free airtime--with Fund My Phone, consumers download the app to their Facebook profile page and share up to five different spots with Facebook friends, scoring free minutes as the ads are viewed.

For more on Fund My Phone:
-read this release

Related articles:
Virgin Mobile USA teams with Limbo
Virgin Mobile USA: Ringbacks on the rise
Facebook for Mobile Operators debuts on Vodafone
Frengo flirts with Facebook for mobile dating

ALSO NOTED: T-Mobile's Android promise; Blyk hits 100K; and much more...

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:59:50 -0400

> Nokia does the right thing with Spike Lee.

> MMA releases mobile advertising guidelines.

> Sony Ericsson adds Veveo video discovery service.

> T-Mobile USA confirms Android-based handsets will ship this year. Article

And Finally... Blyk hits 100,000 users for its ad-funded MVNO. Article

Netbiscuits integrates SMS campaign tool

Mike Dolan — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:44:43 -0400

Mobile content transcoding software provider Dynetic Solutions announced the integration of customizable SMS services into its Netbiscuits mobile Internet development platform. According to Dynetic, the new short-message campaigning tool provides its own short code, enabling content publishers, marketing and advertising agencies, application developers and service providers to combine SMS services with their mobile web efforts to deliver SMS alerts, SMS newsletters and text-based content sharing services. Dynetic also announced further enhancements to the Netbiscuits platform, including the addition of new North American and Asian mobile handsets to its global device detection database.

The Netbiscuits platform enables applications ranging from mobile advertising landing pages to user-generated content community services--Dynetic targets Netbiscuits to partners like Internet auction giant eBay, which employs the platform to enable SMS bidding alerts and related mobile tools for buyers and sellers. "Our focus in on content adaptation and delivery," said Dynetic Solutions CEO Michael NeidhÃƒÂ¶fer in an interview with FierceMobileContent. "The emphasis is on how to create the optimal user experience on a phone--the market is full of companies that say they can transcode the web to mobile, but it's a new medium, with a smaller screen and different navigation, so you need to build an experience you think your customers will use."--Jason

VC: T-Mobile invests in femtocells

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:59:52 -0500

Mobile ads and femtocells.

VENTURE CAPITAL
COMPANY	AMOUNT/ROUND	LEAD INVESTORS	DESCRIPTION
Ubiquisys Swindon, UK	$25M N/A	T-Mobile Venture Fund	Ubiquisys makes femtocells. T-Mobile Venture fund contributed to the $25 million round.
Tzero Sunnyvale, CA	$18M third	CID Group	Tzero makes ultra-wideband technology and wireless video products.
Rapid Mobile Scotland	$4M second	New Enterprise Associates	Rapid develops mobile advertising and mobile application positioning software.

ALSO NOTED: Google Gears goes mobile; Jobs: Flash isn't good enough for iPhone; and much more...

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:59:50 -0500

> Google Gears goes mobile. Article

> Mobile advertising recall and response rising. Article

> Apple CEO Steve Jobs: Adobe Flash is not good enough for the iPhone. Article

> 4INFO plans to tip off March Madness alerts. Article

And Finally... iPhone imitator Meizu's booth is raided and shut down by police in Germany at the CeBIT conference. Article

ALSO NOTED: Microsoft WM-Zune phone? iPhone Australia; and much more...

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:59:50 -0500

> Yahoo at work on multi-platform digital ad effort. Article

> Mobile music revenues should hit $17.5 billion by 2012. Article

> Admob and Unicast have partnered on mobile advertising. Article

> Microsoft mulling Windows Mobile Zune phone? Article

> Understanding Motorola's troubled search for a buyer for its handset division. Video

> Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford on the 53 percent jump in Symbian OS-equipped devices. Video

And Finally... Exclusive deal for the iPhone could be illegal in Australia. Article

Consilient takes top Innovator Award at GSMA Mobile Summit in Macau

Brian Dolan — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:10:38 -0500

Last November at the GSM AssociationÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Mobile Summit conference in Macau, mobile advertising and push email company Consilient won the Innovation Award for best consumer application as well as the grand prize for most innovative application overall.

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Consilient launched in 2000 as a partner for push email juggernaut Research In Motion. Consilient primarily helped RIM connect to various existing servers it had yet to sync up with, but eventually the company realized it could do for consumer email accounts what RIM did for the enterprise. Of course, many start-ups had similar plans, so Consilient found its first carrier partner in Singapore: SingTel.

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Consilient describes SingTel as the most innovative and aggressive operators in the APAC region. SingTel launched ConsilientÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s mobile push email solution in September of 2006 as a paid application. Last June the carrier began offering a free, ad-supported version of the service powered by Consilient. The new ad-supported version of the push email service marked a turning point for Consilient.

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Consilient teamed up with MindShare to ink deals with brands looking to tap into the intimate connection users have with the mobile phones and KFC, Pizza Hut and Glaxo Smith Kline jumped at the chance. These brandsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s advertisements covered the usersÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ data charges and subscription fees, which made the service free to use.

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ConsilientÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s CEOÃ‚Â Trevor AdeyÃ‚Â noted that one of the judges at the GSMA Innovation Awards said: Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh you guys are a multi-channel advertising server with free push email built-in.Ã¢â‚¬Â While the assertion runs counter to ConsilientÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s chronological development, it is a characterization the company embraces fully.

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Trevor noted that mobile advertising is much more accepted in the APAC market because many of the users in those countries are used to an environment flush with adsÃ¢â‚¬â€much like Times Square in New York.

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Another reason forÃ‚Â Consilient's success in Asia?

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Ã¢â‚¬Å“I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t think that RIM and BlackBerry are as much of a factor over there,Ã¢â‚¬Â Adey said. Ã¢â‚¬Å“They are just not as entrenched in APAC as they are here [in North America].Ã¢â‚¬Â -Brian

VC: eBuddy snags $9.5M

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:59:52 -0500

Mobile IM, smartphones and advertising raise the big rounds this week.

VENTURE CAPITAL
COMPANY	AMOUNT/ROUND	LEAD INVESTORS	DESCRIPTION
Numobiq Pleasanton, CA	$4.5M first	Benchmark	Numobiq turns regular handsets into smartphones with its software.
eBuddy Amsterdam	$9.5M second	Prime Technology	eBuddy makes mobile IM apps.
Ringleader New York, New York	$6M first	W2 Group	Ringleader runs a mobile advertising network.

VC: Airbiquity's $25M round

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:59:52 -0500

VENTURE CAPITAL
COMPANY	AMOUNT/ROUND	LEAD INVESTORS	DESCRIPTION
Airbiquity Seattle, WA	$25M fifth	Ignition Partners	Airbiquity provides wireless data communications solutions for product suppliers and service providers in the M2M and telematics industries. Release
Ad Infuse San Francisco, CA	$12M N/A	Softbank Capital	Ad Infuse develops personalized mobile advertising solutions. Release
Momail Stockholm, Sweden	$5.4M first	Swedish 6th Pension Fund	Momail is a mobile email start-up. Release
Smaato San Mateo, CA	$3.5M first	Aeris Capital	Smaato offers a mobile advertising platform. Release
ProVision Bristol, UK	$1.5M N/A	South West Venture Fund	ProVision Communications specializes in digital wireless video technology. Release

Report: Mobile marketing to hit $24B in rev

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:59:54 -0500

According to a recent report from ABI Research, mobile marketing is on track to hit $24 billion in revenue worldwide by 2013. That figure is nearly twelve times the sector's current revenue pull: $1.8 billion in 2007. A recent survey by ABI found that while 54 percent of mobile users were totally opposed to marketing messages, 70 percent of those respondents, however, said an incentive like a ringtone would make them more receptive.

"The clear difference in this market over the past twelve months has been the embrace of mobile marketing as an integral part of cross-media brand campaigns," says ABI Research director Michael Wolf. "Mobile is no longer off-limits in the minds of advertisers, but is instead seen as a very personal way to reach consumers who can be incentivized through information services and compelling content, as well as through more directly relevant and targeted messaging."

For more on the report:
- read this press release

Related:
- See what FierceMobileContent had to say about this story. Article
- Study: One in four interested in mobile marketing
- Mobile Marketing Association issues EMEA guidelines

VC: mGinger snags $2M in VC

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:59:52 -0500

VENTURE CAPITAL
COMPANY	AMOUNT/ROUND	LEAD INVESTORS	DESCRIPTION
mGinger Bangalore, India	$2M first	DFJ	mGinger develops permission-based mobile advertising services.
Buzzwire N/A	$8M second	Sequoia Venture Partners	Buzzwire provides online multimedia streaming to mobile phones.
Pyxis Mobile Waltham, MA	$1.95M second	Ascent	Pyxis makes wireless applications for the financial services industry.

VC: Moto Ventures backs Ruckus and ViVOTech

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:59:52 -0500

Millennial Media's $15 million second round and Motorola Ventures backs Ruckus Wireless and ViVOTech.

VENTURE CAPITAL
COMPANY	AMOUNT/ROUND	LEAD INVESTORS	DESCRIPTION
Millennial Media Baltimore, MD	$15M second	Charles River Ventures	Millennial Media is a cross-platform mobile advertising company.
Ruckus Wireless Sunnyvale, CA	$7.5M fifth	Motorola Ventures	Ruckus Wireless specializes in wireless home networking technologies, which are capable of routing HD video.
Kirusa Mumbai, India	$3M third	Qualcomm Ventures	Kirusa makes voice SMS applications.
Pinyon Reno, NV	$1.2M first	George Lauro of Alteon	Pinyon makes smart antenna solutions.
ViVOTech Santa Clara, CA	N/A N/A	Motorola Ventures	ViVOTech makes wireless payment software and previously raised $22.5 million in a third round of funding from First Data Corp., NCR, Miven Venture Partners and return backers Alloy Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Nokia Growth Partners.
Celltick London, UK	N/A fourth	N/A	Celltick provides a media platform to promote content and brands on mobile phones' idle screens.
4INFO Palo Alto, CA	N/A N/A	Peacock Equity	4INFO is a mobile search company.

Carriers: We will control mobile marketing

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:59:55 -0400

Yesterday afternoon Scott Kelliher, the director of mobile marketing at Virgin Mobile USA and Chris Black, a director at AT&T Mobility, explained the nuances of mobile advertising during a panel session at Marketing the Mobile Channel, conference co-located with the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment Show. The carrier representatives came out with guns blazing:

"I think as a carrier we have always taken the approach that we add a significant portion of value to the whole [mobile marketing] process," Black said. "We are going to do whatever it takes to hold onto that value when it comes to things like mobile banking and mobile marketing."

Negotiating revenue share agreements and deciding who "owns" the billing relationship have been considerable barriers for carriers, banks and brands looking to launch those two services. Black contended that the carriers will still retain much of the power. "While the off-portal world is an interesting one, we have found out that we very much need the carrier in that space to make it grow," Black said. "Even once more mobile users are off-portal than on-portal, the carrier's are still going to add a lot of value because of the user experiences they can create and the content that they can acquire."

Virgin Mobile USA's Kelliher is also very optimistic about the growth of mobile marketing and the carrier's continued place at the center of such services. Mobile marketing "is a new revenue source that does not require your customers to spend more money," Kelliher said. "For better or worse, there's no way around the fact that carriers are the bridge between advertisers and the customers."

Kelliher also touted the success of Virgin Mobile USA's Sugar Mama service, which enables users to listen to advertisements on their handsets in exchange for calling minutes. Kelliher said the average click-through rate for Sugar Mama is much higher than click-through rates online: Sugar Mama sees 5.5 percent click-through.

"We are answering to the dual-headed beast: our subscribers and our advertisers," Kelliher said. The service works so well because "the user knows exactly what they're getting" for listening to the ads, he said. "That's why they are much more engaged and much more responsive." -Brian