Microsoft Buys Mobile Advertising Company ScreenTonic

Microsoft this anniversary agreed to buy Mobile advertising aggregation ScreenTonic for an bearding sum. Will this move accomplish Windows Mobile 6 a Mobile advertising platform?

ScreenTonic offers a amount of solutions for advertisers searching to barrage ads on Mobile devices. In accession to its Mobile ad platform, alleged STAMP, ScreenTonic aswell serves as a Mobile ad agency.

Microsoft is crumbling no time in accepting a ballast in the Mobile ad market:

"The Mobile Internet is an amazing car for brands to affix with their ambition audiences, because accessories like corpuscle phones accredit alternation to yield abode around anywhere or anytime," said Steve Berkowitz, chief carnality admiral of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. "The accretion of ScreenTonic will be allotment of our abiding action to bear ad adventures that map to the environment. Together, we will be able to accommodate accordant ads area consumers are, if they are actively affianced and communicating."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer afresh said that one of his company's better abjure was not accepting into the online advertising bazaar anon enough. Obviously, Microsoft does not absorbed to echo this aberration with mobile.

What do you think? Can Microsoft advantage Windows Mobile 6 to become a amateur in Mobile advertising? Or will this accomplishment just be a echo of MSN?

Gets Going Mobile Advertising

Unlike the TV or the PC — two mediums that are aggregate by assorted humans at the home — the corpuscle buzz is a claimed accessory that in a lot of if not all cases represents a individual user.

Associated with that individual user is their alternation with specific brands.

Increasingly, advertisers are leveraging some anatomy of adaptable commercial to aggrandize their ability to these users. Already a well- accustomed abnormality in Europe and Asia Pacific, adaptable commercial is accepting drive in the U.S. market.

Taking the antecedent advance for adaptable bartering is Virgin Adaptable USA with its Sugar Mama attack for adolescent users. Not far abaft Virgin are Sprint and Verizon Wireless.

The International Bartering Bureau (IAB) — which afresh just appear a white cardboard on arising adaptable bartering trends — believes adaptable bartering could play a key role in allowance to actualize added cast loyalty.

“Regardless of what affectionate of an ad attack an advertiser is running, adaptable can accord a role to that ad campaign,” says Joe Laszlo, analysis administrator for the IAB. “We accept apparent affirmation that adaptable ads can get people’s absorption in a branding faculty as well. It does not accept to be all about accepting anyone to do something appropriate again and there. It can be about that longer-term accord a chump has with a brand.”

Integrating with SMS

For adaptable operators, the acceptable account is that Short Messaging Account (SMS) is a smashing success.

Industry analysis from Portio and added analysis firms adumbrate that this bazaar is not assuming any signs of slowing down. In fact, Portio and added analysts adumbrate that SMS will abound at a bulk of 50 percent amid the years 2007-2012.

The bad account is that for all of SMS’s growth, a adaptable operator’s margins for SMS casework are growing at a abundant lower bulk of just 32 percent. (see Tekelec scales up the SMS pole) So how can the adaptable abettor enhance their profitability, while continuing to edge the chump appetence for all you can eat SMS messaging plans?

One way operators can account this alterity could be to synch text- based adaptable ads with their SMS service. And vendors such as Tekelec are blessed to help. With its TekMedia Adaptable Bartering Solution, Tekelec enables wireless operators to admit bulletin argument or bartering afore or afterwards the absolute admission SMS content.

“If you attending at accustomed acceptance of how continued an SMS bulletin is, it would about be about eight characters,” says Alan Pascoe, Senior Manager Product Marketing for Tekelec. “People accept their own abracadabra and their own acronyms for texting because it cuts down on the characters. What that agency is you will accept a huge bulk of amplitude in the SMS bulletin in which you could potentially use up.”

Mobile operators can use the Tekelec band-aid to not alone actualize time and location-based bartering programs, but by application subscriber profiles, they can aswell ambition agreeable to bout an alone user’s preferences.

Operators could admit a bartering argument for sponsored SMS or a argument ad for new services.

And while he would not acknowledge any specific wireless abettor chump names, Pascoe says Tekelec has already active up at atomic one ample bearding adaptable abettor that’s in the action of enabling text-based bartering campaigns to ride on its network.

Opting in

Similar to the acceleration of chargeless e-mail casework such as Yahoo! and Hotmail — both of which are ad-supported programs — adaptable operators could use a agnate tack to accumulate their SMS chump abject happy. By developing a affairs area the user can opt-in to get ads on their handset, the wireless abettor could again accolade the user with US$50.00 off their SMS bill or added incentives.

Despite the attraction of a lower fee, IAB’s Laszlo believes that abundant like the actualization of chargeless e-mail service, a user’s accommodation to opt in to such an advertiser-based plan will be based on their accurate needs and perceptions.

“In absolutely the aforementioned way, for a lot of consumers chargeless or awful subsidized SMS casework will be a abundant prospect, but some consumers will acquisition added means or accept not to go with an ad-supported service,” Laszlo says. “It’s abundant that consumers accept that best and I anticipate they will for a continued time to come. I don’t anticipate the bazaar will go absolutely one way or the other.” (see Adaptable bartering befalling knocking)

Of course, as adaptable operators cycle out targeted and location-based ads to their user base, there’s consistently a catechism about chump privacy. Walking down a city-limits street, there’s no curtailment of billboards on the abandon of buses that say assurance up for this new challenge or account by artlessly sending a argument bulletin to a specific number.

But even if the wireless user decides to opt-in to a accurate program, the wireless industry has created a bifold opt in to ensure that a user does not assurance up for something that they may not want. Pascoe thinks that by giving users the appropriate to accept ads on an opt-in basis, the wireless industry will be able to ensure the user’s aloofness rights.

“I allegorize it to e-mail and with e-mail you get a lot of letters that could be advised spam,” he says. “I generally say I accept a actual abutting accord with my laptop, but I accept a abundant afterpiece accord with my phone. Accepting an e-mail spam is a bit added abroad than accepting a spam bulletin on my handset.”

Similarly, the IAB says that the wireless industry all-embracing has put the appropriate pieces in abode for their chump base.

“I don’t see any insurmountable barrier blocks about admission or use of claimed information,” Laszlo says. “I anticipate for some consumers it’s traveling to be a anticipation that will be account accomplishing and for others it will be something they will never opt for. I anticipate a lot of humans abatement in the middle. The industry knows this and it will be alert to accomplish abiding it’s not involuntarily treading on people’s privacy.”

Mobile Advertising Crucial to Reaching Consumers in Economic Downturn

Despite ascent ammunition and aliment prices, one-third of consumers say the abridgement will not affect their spending habits — a lot of say it will — and one way for advertisers to grab consumers' absorption in such times may be via their adaptable devices, according to a new study, writes MarketingCharts.

For marketers absorbed in extensive arbitrary consumers during this bread-and-butter downturn, there's achievement in that 41 percent customer say they acquire no affairs to stop or cut-back on the acquirement of corpuscle phones, begin a Harris Interactive abstraction on people's attitudes against the abridgement and technology.

Most (60 percent) of consumers who say they will absolute their arbitrary spending will abbreviate traveling out to restaurants (74 percent) and purchasing electronics (71 percent), a allotment of added choices like affairs beneath clothes and demography beneath vacations.

harris-telecom-trends-economic-downturn.jpg

Meanwhile, the use of adaptable phones has become an indispensible allotment of their lives for many, and abounding are even disengagement ties to landlines: 16 percent of US homes are application wireless phones alone - added than bifold the amount from four years ago, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

These trends abutment the advance by marketers to advantage adaptable commercial as allotment of an chip business affairs to advance their brands and advertise articles and services, Harris analysts conclude.

Mobile Commercial Findings

Mobile commercial can accretion a ballast if it is unobtrusive, targeted against an individual's claimed tastes and offers something unique, Harris said:

* A allotment of adolescence surveyed, over bisected (56 percent) said they would be absorbed in examination adaptable ads with incentives, while over one-third (37 percent) of adults acclaimed that they would be acceptant to such advertising.

* As the best adaptable commercial incentive, banknote is king, with 80 percent of adults and 70 percent of adolescence anecdotic it as the top allurement for responding to adaptable advertising:

o Ball downloads (61 percent), chargeless music (57 percent) and adulatory account (53 percent) aswell are accepted incentives a allotment of teens.

o A allotment of adults, chargeless account (49 percent) and abatement coupons (37 percent) are ambrosial incentives. Chargeless ball (31 percent) and music (24 percent) downloads aswell captured the absorption of adults.

* As for types of ads preferred, adults tend to favor dining deals (53 percent) admitting adolescence are absorbed in alfresco activities, biking and ball (70 percent).

* Text messaging is the a lot of adopted commercial access for over two-thirds (69 percent of adults and 64 percent of teens) of consumers:

o Adolescence are added accommodating to acquire commercial images on their adaptable phones (47 percent), against adults (35 percent).

o The attraction of video adumbration in adaptable commercial is down 10 percent a allotment of adults from endure year, but adults are now added accessible to ads' getting transferred automatically to their email (30 percent) than in the past.

* Providing claimed advice to marketers to advice them ambition commercial letters and articles has consistently been a acute topic, but added than bisected (54 percent) of developed respondents say they are adequate accomplishing so for adaptable advertisers, abnormally if offered for the appropriate incentive.

o Others agree, but wish to accept who sees this advice (21 percent).

o Teens, surprisingly, are attentive about their claimed advice - alone 35 percent would admit it, even if an allurement is offered, and 25 percent say they would never accommodate claimed information.

About the abstracts (pdf): The 2008 Customer Acceptance of Adaptable Commercial abstraction was conducted online aural the United States by Harris Interactive in February 2008 a allotment of 1,000 US adults age 18 and over and 200 teenagers age 13-17. The 2008 Telecom Report was conducted online aural the United States by Harris Interactive in April 2008 a allotment of 1,000 US adults age 18 and over. The abstracts were abounding to reflect the US population.

Mobile Advertising Reaches for the Sky

There’s a lot of ambiguity about the specifics, but about anybody thinks

the adaptable apple is a acceptable one for some affectionate of advertising.

Mobile advertising seems to be an industry that’s about accessible to explode, block the billions already getting spent on Internet advertising. But mobility, although it has incomparable attractions for advertisers, aswell is a business actual abundant in a accompaniment of flux.

Some of those in the beginning adaptable commercial industry, which has been authoritative money mostly through text-driven ads, apprehend advances in networks and commercial capabilities to ability an inflexion point in time for the Christmas arcade season. If so, adaptable commercial could become a tiger artifice from its cage next year.

All-around Adaptable Ad Absorb Forecast for 2011

Global Adaptable Ad Spend

Source: Strategy Analytics

What has anybody so aflame about adaptable commercial is what has happened on the Internet. Ad spending on the Web is growing at a admixture anniversary amount of 18.3% and will ability $73 billion in 2011, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The consultancy says Internet commercial will comprise 14% of the absolute all-around commercial bazaar by that year.

Another analysis company, eMarketer, expects Internet ad spending in the United States to absolute $19.5 billion this year Nielsen NetRatings says the top 10 Internet advertisers in the United States spent $278.4 actor in June alone, led by InterActive Corporation’s $47.2 million. Those numbers exclude seek advertising, which is the fastest-growing articulation of Internet advertising.

If adaptable commercial follows that spending curve, it’s no admiration the industry sees big things ahead. Strategy Analytics is forecasting advertisers will absorb $1.4 billion on adaptable media this year, with that ascent to $14.4 billion in 2011. eMarketer says adaptable ad spending accomplished $1.5 billion endure year and will abound to $14 by 2011.

“The angle for adaptable commercial absorb has decidedly avant-garde in the accomplished 12 months,” says Phil Taylor, administrator of Strategy Analytic’s all-around wireless practice. “The accumulation of commercial account is rapidly accretion as adaptable publishers attending to advance commercial as a acquirement stream.”

Taylor addendum that Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone accept all accelerated their affairs to advertise commercial through their networks. “Advertisers arise to be responding positively,” he says.

And again there’s the absorption that Google, which lives on its Internet ad revenue, has apparent in adaptable advertising. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at the All Things Digital appointment in May that the aggregation wants its allotment of adaptable ad acquirement because “they are alert as assisting or added than the non-mobile buzz ads because they’re added personal.” Carriers accept bidding some affair about Google’s entry, fearing they could lose ad revenue.

Despite these aflush expectations, there still is some attention axiomatic because adaptable commercial in a altered and alien average is bringing calm carriers, ad agencies, publishers, adaptable ad technology companies and brands. Anybody is treading on alien ground.

The No. 1 affair adverse adaptable advertising, says Kanishka Agarwal, carnality admiral of adaptable media for Telephia, is that the adaptable industry is not a individual commercial medium. Brands and advertisers are accustomed with alive with print, TV, radio and the Internet as abstracted entities. But adaptable networks can accompany calm the Internet, video, text, gaming, music and more.

“Mobile is a accumulation of absolutely abstracted media with altered characteristics,” Agarwal says. “They alter in anatomy and in the audiences they draw. People are still aggravating to amount out a way to handle this.”

One of those addition it out is John Hadl, CEO of Cast in Hand and cardinal adviser to Proctor & Gamble on its adaptable strategy. Hadl created added than 50 adaptable commercial campaigns in 2006, including Cover Girl and Old Spice.

Hadl says the top antecedence for advertisers is that they wish to buy audiences and not technology. “Brands are about extensive consumers and audiences,” he says, abacus that technology is not absorbing to advertisers.

“The botheration is that adaptable companies are mostly affairs accoutrement now,” he says. “We’re all accepting awash platforms and technology. You accept to accord us an audience.”

Hadl aswell thinks adaptable commercial will become added absorbing to above brands if richer agreeable on wireless accessories becomes added widespread, abnormally video and TV. The richer the media, the richer the customer experience, which drives sales and cast recognition.

As continued as anybody in the adaptable commercial business remembers that the “consumer is boss,” Hadl says, he is optimistic about the future. Anybody circuitous is aggravating altered things to see how they work, accepting their acknowledgment from customer reactions.

Another bureau alive in the adaptable amphitheatre is Nurun/ant acreage interactive. Michael Koziol, controlling carnality president, says adaptable commercial is abundant added circuitous than online commercial was in the 1990s. Part of that is because wireless operators are demography a stronger position on accession a allotment than did the active telcos.

“It’s not absurd that they are added involved,” he says of the carriers. “It doesn’t accomplish it as assisting for agreeable backdrop area the ISP didn’t ask for a share. AOL did, but area are they now?”

There aswell is a abundant accord of ambiguity because no one in the amount alternation knows absolutely what will plan or how to amount it. “Everybody is accomplishing altered things and no one is affective in the aforementioned direction,” he says. “In the 1990s, a lot of things were affective in the aforementioned administration at least.”

Nurun has done some adaptable advertising, some of which has formed able-bodied and some that hasn’t. Koziol believes the approaching of adaptable will be beneath in commercial and added in architecture cast affection by abutting with individuals with advice in context.

“Phones are claimed space, which makes them ambrosial for marketers but is alarming amphitheatre for advance advertising,” he says, abacus that carrying ads to phones should be on-demand or at the point of need.

Some above brands accept started affective into adaptable advertising. Among them are Proctor & Gamble, CBS and Coca-Cola. CBS afresh active a accord with four adaptable commercial companies, AdMob, Millennial Media, Rhythm NewMedia and Third Screen Media. Third Screen aswell has a accord with Fox TV.

Cyriac Roeding, controlling carnality admiral of CBS Mobile, says anniversary of the four will accommodate altered technologies and casework for CBS content, including banderole and argument ads on WAP sites, phones and video commercials absorbed to video content.

Cyriac Roeding, executive vice president of CBS Mobile, says each of the four will provide different technologies and services for CBS content, including banner and text ads on WAP sites, phones and video commercials attached to video content.

Coca-Cola’s Sprite cast this summer launched a WAP-based adaptable association account in the United States aimed accurately at teenagers. The service, alleged The Yard, allows users to actualize a arrangement of accompany who can allotment photos and messages, as able-bodied as get agreeable like adaptable buzz wallpapers, amateur and video mobisodes content. The architecture of the appliance and the agreeable is accurately aimed at teenagers because they are a key bazaar for Sprite, according to Mark Greatrex, chief carnality admiral for business communications for Coca-Cola.

Teenagers are a decidedly difficult articulation to ability with a business campaign, Greatrex said, so Coca-Cola absitively to ability them area they are – on their adaptable phones. Sprite is application abbreviate codes and PINs begin on the caps of Sprite bottles to drive users to The Yard.

Coca-Cola is alive with all the U.S. carriers, but all that any user needs is a WAP-enabled buzz and a abstracts plan. Teenagers can argument the chat Yard to the abbreviate cipher 59666 to get a WAP hotlink to the site. They again set up their tag name and countersign and allure others to accompany their network.

Paul Palmieri, admiral and CEO of Millennial Media and above controlling at Verizon Wireless, says one of the affidavit carriers and agreeable owners are acceptable added absorbed in commercial is that downloads by wireless subscribers has started to apathetic and they’re searching for new means to abutment downloads as able-bodied as addition revenue.

Research by M:Metrics confirms Palmieri’s assertion. The analysis aggregation says the bulk of downloads over wireless networks in the United States has risen boring from 38.7 actor in January to 40.8 actor in May and has been on alone a slight acclivous trend over the endure year.

“There is traveling to accept to be a bound of acceptance on the administrator ancillary as some the subscription-based agreeable moves into an ad-supported model,” Palmieri says. “That could yield some time but we anticipate it will happen. If you accept a cable download archetypal and it slows, it will be beneath of a bound of faith.”

Palmieri says Millennial Media’s business based on exceptional CPM (cost per thousand impressions) has been “growing absolutely nicely.” The added assumption way of charging for adaptable commercial is based on a click-through rate, agnate to the Internet.

Millennial operates ad-serving technology as able-bodied as marketplaces area publishers and advertisers can buy and acquaint ads. It’s newest marketplace, Decktrade, is a performance-based self-service bargain belvedere that Palmieri says has provided “quite a cogent percentage” of the company’s acquirement back it launched in March.

Palmieri says one of the keys to the approaching of adaptable commercial will be the conception of experience-based content, such as a WAP website for an artist’s fan club. The fan can see pictures, analysis bout dates and conceivably buy something. That alteration to rich, alternate agreeable is starting to yield place, he says.

“We’re in a about-face now,” Palmieri says. “There is a improvement of WAP and an actualization over the endure six months of added experience-based content.”

Palmieri aswell sees growing absorption on the allotment of advertisers and brands to use adaptable channels, while there hasn’t been a agnate uptick in the bulk of ad account getting created.

Coming from the carrier world, it adeptness not be hasty that Palmieri thinks operators should be able to allegation a exceptional for acceptance ads to run over their networks. Carriers reportedly are charging ante as abundant as 10 times college than Internet rates, but Palmieri says that may be justified.

“This is the a lot of claimed accessory that humans own,” he says. “It is the a lot of claimed abode you can adeptness a consumer. That absolutely is something appropriate and something exceptional and it care to advised as such. The angle that the amount is 10 times the Internet is well-deserved.”

Ari Paparo, carnality admiral of affluent media for the Internet ad aggregation Doubleclick, thinks adaptable commercial ante will appear down as the industry matures and commercial account rises.

Jeff Janer, CMO for Third Screen Media, says his aggregation in fact has apparent an access in brands and adaptable sites gluttonous to advertise. He says the accumulation of commercial has best up but that it is not well-targeted.

Third Screen afresh teamed with Telephia to accommodate third-party altitude of adaptable Internet usage, something advertisers wish to know. But carriers aswell authority addition key to barometer how able an ad attack is because they apperceive who their subscribers are. Carriers are understandably afraid to access their subscribers’ aloofness but could accomplish demographic advice accessible on an opt-in basis.

“Advertisers wish a third-party validation,” Janer says. “The absolute money is not traveling to alpha abounding until third parties are engaged.”

Third Screen afresh was acquired by AOL accessory Advertising.com, which Janer says has abundantly broadcast its reach. Telephia says Third Screen has the adeptness of extensive bisected of all U.S. adaptable agreeable subscribers, with alert the bulk of adaptable ad campaigns as it had a year earlier.

Text-driven adaptable commercial has been the capital disciplinarian in the industry until now, says Telephia’s Agarwal, but he says ads on the adaptable Internet are acrimonious up and the next borderland will be adaptable video. SMS, acclimated by 150 actor Americans, is a accumulation bazaar but WAP and video are not, he says. However commercial could accomplish those mass-market media because ads can lower or annihilate the end-user costs.

“Text will be absolute for several years because anybody has a buzz that can use it,” he says. “The buzz is additional alone to your underwear for what you accept with you all the time. And SMS is the better mass-market way to adeptness that. Advertisers and marketers buy audiences and SMS delivers that admirers now.”

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