Mobile Marketing Issue 4 by Mobile Marketing Magazine

Issue Four | December 2010

News | Views | Analysis

Growing Pains

How brands are overcoming the mobile marketing challenge in Latin America

Every Little App Helps

We chart the development of Tescoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grocery shopping app from the drawing board to the iPhone

Square Deals How Foursquare, PlacePop and others are using mobile to redefine loyalty

Keep It Simple, Stupid

Why The KISS Rule is key for brands commissioning mobile apps

Premium Meets Performance

ubiyoo Global MD explains why the ad network is the perfect mobile advertising vehicle Awards Special: effective mobile marketing awards winners revealed

By the end of 2010, 1 in 5 people will own a Smart Phone.

And with 20% of smartphone owners saying they intend to purchase more on their mobiles in the next 12 months, this is a channel waiting to be embraced! With a ten year heritage in providing award winning eCommerce websites, Portaltech are spearheading the development of mobile apps with our 'QuickLive Mobile' commerce application. We put your customer first, to ensure that we create the best mobile app for your business and multi channel strategy. Contact us today, to organise a free demo of 'QuickLive Mobileâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Sales : Mark Adams Retail & Brand : Rachel Wilkinson

Tel : 0207 981 0023 Email : rachel.wilkinson@portaltech.co.uk Web : www.portaltech.co.uk

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

contents

Let’s Celebrate! We’re in party mood here at Mobile Marketing. It’s nothing to do with the festive season, more because in this issue, we’re celebrating all that’s best about mobile marketing, as we can at last reveal the winners of our Effective Mobile Marketing Awards (EMMAs) programme for the industry. To get to this point, our judging panel sweated over almost 100 entries, from some of the biggest brands, agencies, ad networks and mobile operators in the world. Everyone who made it to the final can feel proud of their achievements. As for the winners, they can be forgiven for shouting about their success from the rooftops. We offer our heartfelt congratulations to all of them. But we have plenty more for you in this issue too, including a look at the growing popularity of mobile check-in services like Foursquare and Gowalla. We also follow the development of Tesco.com’s grocery shopping app from the drawing board to the handset. And in our big interview, we talk to Christian Louca, global managing director of mobile ad network ubiyoo, who explains how the company combines the best of premium and performance ad networks. Helen Keegan explains why she is prepared to give Microsoft’s latest stab at the mobile market, Windows Phone 7, a chance. And Mick Rigby, chairman of Yodel Digital, explains how looking back into the past can help paint a clearer picture of mobile’s future. At this time of year, of course, thoughts begin to turn to Mobile World Congress, where the print edition of Mobile Marketing made its debut earlier this year. It’s been an incredibly exciting time for us since then, and there’s plenty more to come yet. We hope to see you out in Barcelona in February, but between now and then, there is the small matter of Christmas to deal with. So we’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers, advertisers, suppliers and anyone else we come into contact with a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

David Murphy Editor

Cover story 20 Best of both worlds ubiyoo global managing director Christian Louca explains how the company combines the best of premium and performance networks

Thought leadership 5 Future perfect Mick Rigby looks at the history of the web for clues to mobile’s future

11 From head to handset We talk to Tesco.com and app developer Ribot to get the inside track on the story of Tesco.com’s grocery shopping app

15 A mature approach David Murphy talks to adsmobi managing director Ramy Yared to find out more about some of the company’s innovative media formats

Best practice 17 Dev zone

21 Effectively brilliant

Ed Lea urges brands to think about simplicity and utility when making plans for a mobile app

The waiting is over; we can finally reveal the winners of the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards (EMMAs)

34 Off-deck

The real world

30 Focus on Latin America

Helen Keegan shares her views on Windows Phone 7

Business models 6 “Nice to see you” We investigate the rise and rise of mobile check-in loyalty services

We examine mobile marketing in Latin America, and find that, in spite of some regulatory issues, brands are taking to the mobile channel with alacrity, spurred on by the locals’ love of communication

Subscribe today and guarantee your copy news | views | analysis

GrowinG pAins hoW brands are overcoming the mobile marKeting challenge in latin america

EvEry LittLE App HELps

We chart the development of tesco’s grocery shopping app from the draWing board to the iphone

squArE dEALs hoW foursquare, placepop and others are using mobile to redefine loyalty

KEEp it simpLE, stupid

Why the Kiss rule is Key for brands commissioning mobile apps

prEmium mEEts pErformAncE

ubiyoo MD explains why the ad network is the perfect mobile advertising vehicle AwArDs specIAl: effective mobile marKeting aWards Winners revealed

If you want to be sure of receiving your copy of the print edition of Mobile Marketing four times a year, you can subscribe today to go on our controlled circulation list. It costs just £25 (UK); £35 (Europe); or £40 (rest of the world). Just send an email to subscriptions@mobilemarketingmagazine.com and we’ll respond telling you what you need to do.

Editor: David Murphy - david.murphy@mobilemarketingmagazine.com +44 (0) 7976 927062 Commercial Director: John Owen - john.owen@mobilemarketingmagazine.com +44 (0) 7769 674824 Contributors: George Cole, Martin Conway, Helen Keegan, Peggy Anne Salz Design: Nathan Taverner, The Page Design Consultancy Ltd - info@thepagedesign.co.uk Print: DS Print - sales@dsprintltd.com Special thanks this issue to: Jo Murphy, Rowan Chambers, Nathan Taverner, Becks McRobb For a paid subscription please email: subscriptions@mobilemarketingmagazine.com One Year Subscription Rates – UK: £25.00 Europe: £35.00 ROW: £40.00 Mobile Marketing is published by Dot Media Ltd., 15 Loraine Gardens, Ashtead, Surrey KT21 1PD. www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

December 2010

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

thought leadership

FUTURE PERFECT

Mick Rigby, chairman of Yodel Digital, advises anyone trying to second-guess mobile’s future to start by looking at the past

hen looking forward to the future, it’s always smart to look back and see what happened in the past in similar circumstances. And in order to determine the growth and spread of mobile we don’t have to go too far back into the past to see what’s likely to happen. To see what’s going to happen in the UK in terms of mobile growth, we only need to go back to the start of 1999, where the size of the audience using the internet was 9.8m and the total ad spend across the previous 12 months was £30m. There are incredible similarities with the mobile internet market in 2008, where there were 9.4m users and an ad spend of £28.6m (Source: Comscore/IAB/PWC/WARC).

Double-digit growth From 2000 onwards, there has been doubledigit growth every year in online for both usage numbers and ad spend. The question is, will this be replicated in mobile? On the surface, and looking at recent trends, it would appear that mobile internet usage and the services associated with it will grow in a similar way to how fixed-line grew. However, I believe that this is not the case - I expect that mobile will grow faster, for a number of very good reasons. Whereas, in the late 90s, the infrastructure for rapid growth of fixed-line usage (i.e. broadband penetration) was not in place, it is very different now for mobile. The infrastructure is in place for pretty much everyone in the UK who wants to access the mobile internet via 3G networks – you only have to look to 2003 to see the rapid growth that year in online usage and ad spend when broadband connectivity started to take off to see the impact that good infrastructure has. In addition, the technology to use mobile browsing to its maximum potential, in

the form of smartphones, is available at a sensible price for most people. Accessibility to broadband, plus affordable, decent-quality computers on which to access it, was still a problem in the late ‘90s and the early part of this decade, when the growth of the internet was good, but not rapid. The other advantage mobile has over the fixed-line internet is that it can piggy-back on fixed-line broadband’s reach through the availability of private and public wi-fi, not only opening up further connectivity opportunities, but also giving users a faster and richer experience on their phone. However, the big advantage that mobile has over the early days of the internet is that most people now have a need and a reason to be using the mobile internet. Because the vast majority of the UK population is now online and using it daily, and it has become an invaluable part of their lives. We therefore have a transferable (and insatiable) desire, and a requirement for internet use on the go. So what is driving people to use mobile web-based services and generate the growth that I am convinced we are going

“It would appear that mobile internet usage and the services associated with it will grow in a similar way to how fixedline grew, but this is not the case – I expect that mobile will grow faster”

December 2010

to see? There are a number of factors, but to my mind, the key drivers are the ‘unique’ services such as mobile email, IP phone calling and Instant Messaging, plus location-based search and other GPS-driven services. Not to mention the established online services that have adapted exceptionally well to mobile, such as Facebook, Ebay, and news and sport updates. Mobile provides an instant and constantly-available, personalised internet and application service.

Security and trust For most people using the internet in the early days, the big hurdle they had to mentally get over was that of security and trust in the services they were using, especially when it came to buying online, or sharing personal data. This is currently the case in mobile too. Only experience and time spent in the mobile space will convince people, which again, reflects the first steps into the fixed-line internet for many. Applications, to some extent, deliver a sense of security and confidence, due to the fact they have been downloaded via an app store and consequently, the user assumes, quite rightly, that Apple (in the case of iPhone apps) has vetted the brand and the application. Apple, possibly inadvertently, has overcome the security and trust hurdle by giving the user a bubble of safety, secure in which they can use mobile internet-based services. Mobile is going to have a massive impact on business via e-commerce opportunities, 1:1 CRM activity and more personalised, timely and relevant marketing. The big winners will be the brands that venture into the space now and gain invaluable knowledge before it really takes off. Just look to what happened on the fixed-line internet if you need convincing.

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

business models

“Nice to see you” George Cole investigates the rise and rise of mobile-based loyalty programmes that reward consumers for physically checking in to a retail outlet

ost of us check into hotels regularly, but now, millions of people are also checking into cafes, bars, restaurants, retail stores and numerous other venues. Check-in services are generating a lot of excitement in the mobile marketing and social media environments, and it’s easy to see why. At its simplest, a check-in service links a person’s location to

places within their immediate locality, using location-based technologies like GPS, wi-fi and cell site tracking. In most cases, all the user needs is a mobile phone loaded with the appropriate app. It means that a targeted mobile marketing campaign can hit the right person at the right time, when they are in the right place to respond to your marketing message or promotion.

“It’s still early days and there’s no single ‘right’ approach to locationbased advertising. This remains a very fragmented market that is full of experimentation.” Neil Strother, ABI Research

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

Check-in services come in various forms, as Neil Strother practice director at ABI Research, points out: “It’s still early days and there’s no single ‘right’ approach to location-based advertising. This remains a very fragmented market that is full of experimentation.” Some check-in services work automatically, requiring users to simply carry their phone. In the UK, O2 is running a sixmonth location-based mobile marketing trial involving Starbucks and L’Oréal. O2’s partner, Placecast, has a developed a system called ShopAlerts. With ShopAlerts, a brand or retailer uses “geo-zones,” or designated areas, to trigger SMS or MMS messages (no smartphone or app required) to a user’s phone when they step inside the geo-zone.

GPS tracking Shopkick says its service aims to increase store visits, drive purchases, and improve the efficiency of brands’ marketing spend. Its US partner stores include Macy’s, American Eagle Outfitters and Best Buy. Shopkick uses an iPhone app, which automatically tracks and checks-in consumers. The system uses GPS tracking to locate shoppers outside a store, but once inside, an inaudible signal is broadcast from speakers dotted around the store and automatically picked up by the iPhone’s microphone, to pinpoint the owner’s precise location. The system can be used to reward consumers if they purchase goods or simply browse around a store. Many check-in services, however, use a smartphone app in combination with a manual check-in system, often linked to social networking sites. Foursquare, launched in 2009,

UK operator O2 has partnered with US firm Placecast for a 6-month location-based trial in the UK

has already attracted more than 3m users worldwide, as well as thousands of supporting venues, and top brands like Starbucks, MacDonald’s, Gap and Domino’s Pizza. To use Foursquare, you download an app onto your smartphone (the service is multi-platform) and then check-in at numerous venues. You can inform your friends

of your whereabouts by pinging or push-notifying them on their handsets, or posting details on your Facebook or Twitter page. Some venues run marketing promotions, enabling people who frequently check-in to earn badges or become the ‘Mayor’ of the venue if they make the most check-ins within a set period. Foursquare check-in awards can be linked to special offers or rewards.

Virtual loyalty card

Foursquare users can become the ‘Mayor’ of a venue by checking-in there more than anyone else

PlacePop describes itself as a virtual loyalty card. Users can earn bronze, silver, gold and platinum cards, according to the frequency of their checkins. “The consumer is getting rewarded for their loyalty. People go to a bunch of places, but only a small percentage have a loyalty card and that’s mainly because the existing system - whether it’s paper cards or punch cards - is very clunky,” says PlacePop CEO, Kent Lindstrom. PlacePop is free to consumers, with businesses charged for the number of acquisitions they get. Lindstrom says

December 2010

“The current check-in business model is about rewarding people who are already in your venue. What’s valuable for a business is to bring in people who are not already your clients” Michael Ferguson, Geomium

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

business models

PlacePop is aimed at the general consumer and not early adopters, adding that: “A reward could be as basic as a simple ‘Thank you’ message from the owner for visiting their business. It’s still a nice little reward and opens up a communication channel.”

and marketing partnerships with companies such as Toms Shoes, USA Today, CNN, Chevrolet, Adobe and Nike, a reflection of the extent to which brands are starting to recognise the appeal of mobile check-in services.

Virtual passport

UK firm Geomium has adopted a different business strategy from services such as Foursquare. “Our system is about the mainstream. The original systems, with multigaming and checking-in to earn badges, only fit a certain audience,” claims Geomium CEO, Michael Ferguson. Instead, the service offers what Ferguson describes as: “Slipstream, location-based recognition. If you are out in London, what’s relevant to you and your friends may be only within a few kilometres, and you currently need to filter what’s relevant to you and your friends.” Geomium works by aggregating data from various sources, including

Another check-in service, Gowalla, uses a virtual passport system, which gets “stamped” whenever users check-in at various places called ‘spots’. Pia Arthur, Gowalla’s communications manager, says: “More and more brands are recognising the marketing value that location-based services have to offer; they are unique tools that can enhance customer relationships. We provide businesses with the ability to have branded spots and to directly target their customers and potential customers through specials, promotions, and loyalty programs.” Gowalla has formed branding

Real-time information

Retailers are tying check-ins to offers to reward loyal customers, and encourage new ones to try out their shops, bars and restaurants. While it’s early days, consumers seem to like the idea

Yelp, Qype and Eventful, in order to provide useful, realtime information to its users. “The current check-in business model, which rewards the Mayor, is about rewarding people who are already in your venue. What’s valuable for a business is to bring in people who are not already your clients,” says Ferguson. “This can be done with a featured deal, which enables you to bring in people who weren’t looking at your sector.” Ferguson gives the example of a woman looking for a restaurant, who could also be shown a deal for a manicure. “She might think: ‘Wow, I can get my nails done before I go to the restaurant’. “So you are pushing services at people, but in a nonintrusive way.”

Healthy future Supporters of check-in services see a healthy future. ABI Research forecasts that US businesses are set to spend $1.8bn (£1.1bn) on them in 2015, as part of their overall mobile marketing budgets. “Brands are excited about this sector. The early adopters have realised that social media is important, and that as your user-base grows, a community develops and becomes more valuable to a brand,” says Geomium’s Ferguson. PlacePop’s Lindstrom notes that: “People are walking into stores with their noses stuck in a mobile device, and that’s coming between them and the retailer. Brands and retailers are thinking: ‘We have to get on that platform.’” Gowalla’s Arthur observes that check-in services are attracting a wide spectrum of users: “Gowalla’s

“People are walking into stores with their noses stuck in a mobile device, and that’s coming between them and the retailer. Brands and retailers are thinking: ‘We have to get on that platform’” Kent Lindstrom, PlacePop

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

most active passport holders are between the ages of 18-34, but we have also been seeing a lot of momentum in the 34-55 and 55 and up, age groups,” he tells Mobile Marketing. With statistics like these, it’s little wonder that some of the biggest online brands are showing a great interest in check-in services. Yahoo! has purchased Koprol, an Indonesian, location-based social network. Google has appointed Marissa Mayer, its former vice president of search products, to lead the company’s location and local services strategy. Facebook has also moved into the checkin market. It has bought the check-in service, Hot Potato, and also launched Facebook Places in the US and the UK – further roll-outs are planned. Facebook Places can be used with an iPhone app and other web-enabled mobile devices (via touch.facebook.com). It allows users to check-in at venues, and enables designated friends to be informed of their location via their smartphone or Facebook page.

Positive move Facebook’s entry into the check-in services market has been widely welcomed. Holger Leudorf, Foursquare’s vice president of mobile and partnerships, says: “This will certainly put the spotlight on the check-in industry even more, but I don’t think it represents Facebook stealing our thunder.” Geomium’s Ferguson adds: “Facebook Places is a positive move for the market. Before Facebook Places, a lot of people didn’t know about location and check-in. What we need to do

With check-in rewards, there’s never been a better excuse to nip down to the pub

“More and more brands are recognising the marketing value that locationbased services have to offer; they are unique tools that can enhance customer relationships” Pia Arthur, Gowalla

is to take people who are ready [for location and check-in] and add a lot of value to the user. We show you what’s going on and what’s going around, and that’s of more value.” He also thinks that: “Location is difficult for Facebook. They have so much information and it’s hard for them to share it in a useful way.” PlacePop’s Lindstrom believes that the market will grow rapidly, and that Facebook is the key. He says: “Facebook is the market catalyst. The number of people that will try a new app is relatively small, compared with the number of people willing to try a new feature on Facebook. Check-in services were not growing rapidly, but as soon as Facebook introduced it, they began growing quickly. What we can do is to process your Facebook check-in into loyalty and rewards, while others will process them into badges.

December 2010

We think we will have a much bigger audience.” But it’s hard to believe that Facebook will simply let its rivals reap most of the rewards. At present, Facebook Places uses page adverts to raise revenue, and at the UK launch of Facebook Places, Michael Eyal Sharon, product manager for Facebook Places, said: “There’s no commercialisation of [Facebook’s] checkin [service]. There’s no commercial aspect of it. Right now, it’s just a product for users to enjoy and share.” Many will have noted Sharon’s use of the phrase: ‘right now’. PlacePop’s Lindstrom forecasts that: “This market will be very big indeed in a short while.” The question is whether the new check-in service providers will be able to hold their own against the might of Google and Facebook, or whether one of the upstarts might prevail.

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

Chaos in the Mobile Channel? Take control with the OpenMarket mobile transaction hub More subscribers. More devices. More applications. The mobile landscape is changing dramatically â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and OpenMarket can help. Our vast industry knowledge and market expertise can help you navigate the mobile channel and reach your target audience. We are 100% focused on providing superior mobile payments, messaging and value-added services to help your business effectively monetize the mobile channel. Take control with OpenMarket today. Whether you are new to the mobile channel or are actively selling mobile content and services, you need a mobile business partner that can get your ideas to market fast - and deliver a reliable solution you can count on for mobile business success.

With OpenMarket, you can: Sell mobile content like ringtones, wallpapers and games Deliver innovative social networking and financial services programs Send news and information alerts that increase brand awareness and loyalty Launch mobile marketing campaigns and promotions using SMS and MMS Use SMS advertising to deliver targeted messages to your consumer base

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

business models

From head to handset

David Murphy talks to Tesco’s Angela Maurer and Ribot’s Antony Ribot about the development process for Tesco.com’s grocery shopping app

The first stage of the app development process was all about brainstorming, making a note of any idea, no matter how random

here are, quite literally, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of apps out there now in the world’s app stores, the vast majority gathering digital dust on the shelves, while a few superstars grab all the headlines and get the lion’s share of the downloads. But how does an app that starts as an idea end up as that app? That’s what we sought to find out by talking to Angela Maurer, head of web and mobile development at Tesco.com, who commissioned the company’s grocery shopping app, and Antony Ribot, co-founder of app developer Ribot, which was handed the task of building it. So where did the idea for the app, which is currently available for iPhone, Nokia and Windows Phone 7 handsets, come from? Tesco.com’s Maurer takes up the story…

“I look after customer innovation and mobile at Tesco.com,” she says. “A year ago, I started looking for ways in which we could help our customers do their shopping in an easier, more convenient way for them. We commissioned research, and this revealed that customers did not want to sit at their PC for half an hour or more and do the shop in one go. They wanted to add products as and when they thought of them and not be stuck in one room in the house, so mobile seemed to make perfect sense, especially with all the hype around the iPhone.”

Innovation Event The next step Tesco.com took was to stage an open innovation event in August 2009 called TJam, involving customers, Tesco staff and members of the Tesco.com

digital team. This gave Maurer the information she needed, direct from Tesco customers, to put together a brief that outlined the sort of features and functionality that would need to be included in the app. This brief was sent to five app development firms, and after completing due diligence, Maurer and her team selected Ribot for the task in hand. “We were presented with a set of customer journey needs, and it was clear that ‘Favourites’ was really important to customers, because it helps them shop in a faster way,” says Ribot, taking up the story. “We tapped into the client’s insight and knowledge, and we were not afraid to ask naïve questions to get into the Tesco.com shopper’s mindset.” From the outset, says Ribot, the company was clear that it

December 2010

After the ideas have been filtered, the next stage is to create paper ‘wireframes’ of the app, showing how it will flow

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

business models

As icons and text in the correct font are added, the app begins to take shape

The digital wireframes show, with explanatory notes, how the app will function

Almost there – the app is taking shape and close to completion

was not being asked to create an app, but rather, a shopping experience. “Given the mobile context, we knew it was not about implementing every feature on the Tesco.com website, but instead, understanding how customers currently used the website and then thinking about that in the context of mobile,” he says. This, in fact, proved to be a key element in the app development process. The

research highlighted the fact that many customers did not do their online shop in one sitting, but instead, went back to it and did their shopping “little and often”, adding a few things to their basket each time to make up one order.

The mobile experience “That seemed to us to be a very interesting way of using your shopping basket,” says Ribot. “The idea that over

the timespan of a week, a customer is adding things to their basket, just spending a few minutes at a time doing the shop. On the website, of course, you would have to sit down at the PC to do this, but on mobile, you could do it almost wherever you happened to be, so it made sense for us that this should be a core part of the mobile shopping experience.” This insight, in fact, tallied with Ribot’s own research into mobile user behaviours. One of the core usage scenarios among European users is the idea of “data snacking”, glancing at information for less than 60-seconds, whether that’s to catch the news headlines, or simply to check the phone’s homescreen for messages or missed calls. “We thought: ‘Why not apply that to the shopping experience?’” says Ribot. “So you might only have 30 seconds to spare, but you just remembered that you need some milk, so you should be able to launch the app, add milk to your basket and then close the app. Then later in the week, you can carry on making up the order, either on your phone or your PC.” And this, in fact, is exactly how the app works, with the added functionality, added a few weeks after the app launched, of barcode scanning. This enables a Tesco.com shopper using the app to add an item to the shopping basket simply by scanning its barcode from within the app. Think about enjoying a nice glass of wine over dinner at a friend’s house and being able to instantly add it to your own shopping basket just by scanning the barcode, and the appeal of the feature quickly becomes evident.

“Spending a few minutes at a time doing the shop - it made sense for us that that should be a core part of the mobile experience” Antony Ribot, Ribot Different challenges In developing the app, the teams at Ribot and Tesco.com faced very different challenges. For the Ribot team, the first stage was to nail the look and feel, user experience and functionality of the app on paper, before developing digital wireframes to see how this actually looked on a phone. “Prototypes are really important in mobile, because if you design the interface on a PC and then look at it on a PC, you don’t get the context, so we try to get the physical experience on a real handset as quickly as possible,” says Ribot. “Only then as a designer and a user do you know if the interface works.” From there on, the app was built in stages, with Ribot’s developers working closely with the Tesco.com team on user experience and functionality testing, to make sure that the finished app was

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

was close to the tight brief Tesco had drawn up for it. For Maurer at Tesco.com, the challenge was a different one. If the app was going to serve its purpose, then it wasn’t enough that it looked great and was easy to use. There was the small matter of integrating it with Tesco’s back-end systems, so that when someone added that pint of milk to their shopping basket while they were waiting for a bus, it actually resulted in a pint of milk being added to their shopping basket, and delivered to their house. For a relatively new medium like mobile, which was not on many people’s radar at Tesco.com, this was easier said than done.

“The challenge for anyone in a big company is that when you need an IT job done, there is a process to go through and there are always big programmes of work going on,” she says. “A small request for a mobile app or an API change is difficult because mobile is largely unproven, so it’s hard to interrupt a programme of work that’s been going on for two years, but that’s what we had to do, even if it did mean I had to make myself a little unpopular internally.” Given the success the app has enjoyed, with around 400,000 downloads in the first six weeks after launch, and sales from the app looking “better than expected”,

Here’s one we made earlier – the finished app in all its glory

according to Maurer, mobile’s stock within Tesco has risen, which she says will make it easier to make the business case for investing more money and human resource in future mobile projects. Her advice to anyone about to embark on their own app development project is simple: “Go for it, take the risks and don’t be afraid of the fact you will have to try to change the mindset of people within your organisation. We had to convince people that the app did not have to do everything a customer would want to do. Take the minimum amount of work that would make a big difference to customer’s lives and go for it.”

A Brave New Business World +

Mobile Apps

Business

Game Changer

Now is your chance to become part of the only national trade show for mobile business solutions and applications. MobileAppEx is the event for everyone interested in using mobile technology for their business. Here businesses will be able to find products and services that will bring them into the mobile future. Register before January 31, 2011 and receive a 15% discount. Call us today at 773-326-9925. Chicago, IL June 14 – 16, 2011

December 2010

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

LOOKING for mobile

Inlogic software Mobile games developer

content

Games offer for a worldwide distribution:

Action

Looking for a new job in mobile? Propel London has recruited in the digital space since 2001, and has an unmatched reputation for success.

Adventure Adu Adult Applications Arcade Bikini Casino Casual Erotic Puzzle Jump 'n' Run

Call Matt Hawkes, our dedicated mobile specialist.

RPG Sports More than 80 games available!

0207 004 0573 www.propellondon.com matt@propellondon.com

Yahoo Job Spec Job Title: Mobile Advertising Solutions – Product Manager Yahoo! is a true web pioneer - founded 15 years ago to help people make sense of the internet. Today, across the globe, over 550 million people use Yahoo! every month. As the web expands we continue to build innovative and imaginative experiences that are uniquely Yahoo! We do it each and every day and you could too. Now’s the time to show the world what you’ve got. Put your ideas to work and help half a billion people get more from the internet than they ever imagined. The Advertising Marketplaces EU Team drives our efforts across the organization to build the most efficient, profitable and frictionless marketplaces for Display, Marketing Technology, Direct Response, Search, and Mobile. The team also leads cross-organizational projects related to outsourcing, EBW/Advertiser Experience, Training and other strategic EU regional and global priorities. The Mobile Advertising Marketplace team defines the cross functional priorities for the mobile business that together execute on the EMEA regional mobile strategy incorporating users, publishers and advertisers. We are looking for a hands-on, technical authority who will act as the ‘go-to’ person for all things related to Mobile Advertising Products. You will be fully versed in all current an up-coming mobile advertising platforms, formats and ad targeting solutions in the EMEA region and you will be able to utilise your system knowledge for technical issue resolution and general troubleshooting. You will also manage the test and deployment of new mobile

advertising products and monitor the performance of existing products and platforms. There will be project related duties, to include owning, running and delivering cross functional Mobilerelated projects and to provide cross functional support and guidance on mobile advertising to Sales and BD teams. You should have good knowledge of Ad serving infrastructure and Ad networks, HTML5 / XML / CSS / JavaScript / SQL / PHP / Unix / Linux, mobile technologies including Operating Systems and Applications. In return we offer an excellent compensation package, including competitive basic and full benefits. We work in a relaxed yet professional environment with fun and creativity at the heart of everything we do, therefore a sense of humour is certainly welcomed. If you would like to be part of this exciting and innovative team, please apply now.

Salary £50-55K+ benefits (Pension, BUPA, Stock, 10% Bonus, 25 days holiday, etc.) Location: London Job reference number: 32019 on our careers site http://careers.yahoo.com/emea

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

business models

A Mature Approach

Mobile media firm adsmobi has some interesting ideas up its sleeve, as managing director Ramy Yared explains to David Murphy

hen any new channel comes along, there’s no shortage of people willing to sell it. So it is with mobile advertising. There are dozens of mobile ad networks out there, keen to help brands and agencies spend more of their money on mobile, and with good reason. It’s a very measurable channel, that has been proven to deliver results. But Ramy Yared, managing director of mobile media buying platform adsmobi, says it pays to take a slightly more considered approach. He says: “We are fortunate to have some big clients, like Nokia, ABC and Vodafone on the brand side, and Buongiorno and American Venture Holdings on the performance side, but it’s essential that when you get these clients on board, you keep optimising and delivering, so that your advertisers continue to believe in mobile. A one-off, high CPM buy may be great, but it doesn’t secure your future.” For its mobile advertising inventory, adsmobi taps into the 9,000 publishers and 16bn monthly impressions delivered by the Smaato network. In doing so, Yared says the company seeks to deliver as much transparency as possible to its advertisers. “Blind networks have their place, and deliver great results for certain advertisers, but

wherever possible, we like to be able to tell our advertisers which sites, even which sections of which sites, they are buying,” he says. “Where this is not possible because of the nature of the relationship between Smaato and the publisher, we will provide as much information about the users and their demographics and interests as we can, to help advertisers and agencies make the right decisions.”

Cost-per-ranking Yared says the company’s approach is to work with an advertiser, establish what they are trying to achieve, then come back with a mobile media plan that might embrace a variety of advertising models, including traditional CPC (cost-per-click) and CPM (cost-per-thousand) models, plus, for mobile apps, some innovative new propositions, such as cost-per-download and cost-per-ranking. OK, cost-per-download has been around for a little while and is effectively, cost-peracquisition, but specific to mobile apps. The advertiser only pays when someone clicks on their ad and then goes on to download the app being advertised. This is possible for Android as well as iPhone. Cost-per-ranking, however, is an unusual idea, and one that takes a minute or two to

get your head round. It offers advertisers a guaranteed spot in the top 25 or top 50 in the iTunes store for a predefined budget. This doesn’t sound like the easiest thing in the world for anyone to calculate, given the varying amount of competition there would be in any given category at any given point in time. “It does involve a lot of metrics,” says Yared. “Everything depends on the vertical, but also the market. You can imagine that you have to spend more to make the top 25 in the US than in France, for example. We guarantee a top 25 ranking, but we also have an agreement with the client

“A one-off, high CPM buy may be great, but it doesn’t secure your Future”

December 2010

that if we make the top 10, then we will receive another payment on top.” Yared says advertisers like the cost-per-ranking idea because it takes away a lot of the risk and a lot of the headache, telling them exactly what they need to spend to get a top 25 or top 50 ranking. Another idea that, perhaps not surprisingly, appeals to advertisers is a match spend program, where, for every dollar spent with adsmobi, the firm will give the advertiser the same again. “It means that if someone has $50,000 to spend, they can give us $25,000 and we will eke another $25,000 out of it,” says Yared. “The market is mature enough now to enable us to take this kind of approach and build strong relationships with advertiser brands.” This maturity is something Yared welcomes. He says: “As more brands and agencies start to understand what mobile advertising is and how they can leverage it, it’s no longer a question of getting money into the platform, or closing a deal at any price. The growing maturity of the market enables us to cater for every need by being more transparent and open with clients, and that’s going to help the market develop. I believe there’s a lot more growth to come in the mobile advertising market yet.”

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

thought leadership

DEV ZONE

Ed Lea, CTO at cross-platform app developer Grapple, advises brands to keep things simple – and useful - and look beyond the iPhone when commissioning apps

s an app development agency, we talk to countless brands, agencies and businesses of all sizes every week about creating mobile apps. Every inquiry is different, however a number of over-arching trends have emerged. Here we take a look at a selection of them.

Never been done before? There may be a good reason why Each week we receive numerous calls from individuals and entrepreneurs who want an app developed for free in return for a revenue share, many of whom have had “the best ever idea for an app that’s never been done before” and guardedly refuse to reveal any of the details until an NDA has been signed. Typically, in these cases, one of two things will be true: either the app has in fact been done before, albeit with a subtle difference. Or, there will be a very good reason why not. Sometime this is due to the limitations of mobile devices, but more commonly, it is because the idea simply isn’t one that would deliver any value to the consumer or client. Even if we assume that the app concept is solid, and that people might consider paying good money for it, in most circumstances a revenue share model is unlikely to make commercial sense.

the-next-big-thing apps, but the branded ones too. So asking any developer to rely on an unproven idea and someone else’s marketing experience and budget does not make financial sense. Fortunately, the majority of established brands and businesses understand this, and are aware they need to set aside significant budget for their app marketing plan.

iPhones, as do their friends, their families and their children, are still often surprised to see the actual percentage market share that Apple enjoys. What they are now realizing is that building a cross-platform app that will run on Android, Blackberry and Nokia smartphones, as well as those from Apple, is now essential to fulfilling these

Thinking cross-platform

A simple app is often a better app

Often in clients eyes “app” will be synonymous with “iPhone app” and versions for other platforms such as BlackBerry or Nokia are thought of only as something to be considered further down the line. The reality is that shareholders of large brands and businesses have their priorities focused on increasing sales or raising awareness. An app is just another way of driving their bottom line, regardless of platform. Marketing directors and senior agency executives who almost unanimously use

All too often, clients are tempted to do as much as possible with their apps. An app could technically contain a game, an element of Augmented Reality (AR), links to social media and a selection of YouTube videos. But what is crucial is to think why you are including these elements. In most cases, the company in question will already have a YouTube channel and a social media presence, so consumers can already engage with the brand in this way through a host of other media. While games and AR can provide interesting distractions for a few minutes, they rarely build long-term relationships. The most successful apps are those that make people’s lives easier or better in a simple and clever way. BSkyB’s Sky+ app allows users to record programmes on their home TV while they are at work or on the bus. It would have been easy to include videos of upcoming shows or try and sell DVD box sets of series through the app, but that would have complicated and confused the user experience unnecessarily. If I want to submit a meter reading to my gas company, doing it on my mobile in an app is great, but I don’t want to have to watch the gas company’s latest commercial before I do so. The best apps are those that solve a real problem for consumers, often in a way that delights or surprises them. And then stop. They solve a problem, rather than create more questions.

Investing sufficiently in promotion is vital to secure downloads There are already hundreds of thousands of apps, with billions downloaded every year, so making yours stand out from the crowd is imperative to its success. Creating an app and then submitting it successfully to the major app stores is only half the journey. A well-planned and executed marketing campaign is essential to ensure the downloads start rolling in. Promoting the app once it is available is just as important as coming up with a good concept, design and even actually creating the app. This is true of every app, not just

BSkyB’s Sky+ app scores because it keeps things simple, but makes its users’ lives easier, in a small way

December 2010

core business objectives.

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

business models

Best of Both Worlds ubiyoo global managing director Christian Louca explains to David Murphy how the company combines the best of premium and performance ad networks

n the world of mobile advertising, things break down into two distinct camps. At one end of the spectrum, you have premium ad networks, such as YOC, 4th Screen Advertising, Unanimis and Yahoo!, that sell mobile inventory on behalf of specific publisher and operator clients, such as The Sun, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and Vodafone. This inventory is often, though not always in the UK, sold on a CPM (cost per thousand) basis, where the rate the advertiser pays is based on the number of visitors to the publisher’s site, irrespective of whether any of these people ever click on their ad. At the other end of the spectrum are performance ad networks, such as AdMob and BuzzCity. Networks like this sell inventory on a channel basis, where advertisers buy the inventory “blind”; i.e. they cannot specify the sites they would like their ads to appear on, only the types of site, such as those frequented by men aged 18-34 who are interested in sport, for example. If the advertiser is able to buy ad space in a specific channel, such as News or Sports, for example, and has visibility on the portfolio of sites but cannot buy site specific, the network is dubbed “semi-blind”.

In a performance ad network, the inventory is usually sold through an auction bidding self-serve platform on a CPC (cost-per-click) basis, where the advertiser pays a pre-agreed amount of money every time someone clicks on their ad. Sometimes, ads are sold on a CPA (cost-per-acquisition) basis, where the advertiser pays an agreed amount every time a new user completes the desired action, such as registering on a company’s marketing database, for example, or perhaps, downloading a mobile app.

Big brand advertisers Christian Louca, global managing director of mobile ad network ubiyoo, believes the premium ad networks have done a good job in attracting big brand advertisers to the mobile channel. “In markets like the UK, and elsewhere in Europe, we have seen mobile advertising move from on-portal to off-portal because of the history between the media owner and the advertiser community, online and in print,” says Louca. “This means that even if the advertiser does not fully understand the channel they are buying, advertising with a title they are familiar with makes it somehow easier for them to understand, and gives

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

them peace of mind about investing in mobile.” Where things often fall down, however, in Louca’s opinion, is in the execution. “There is still work to be done on the creative side of things,” he says. “Even today, advertisers and agencies are getting the basics wrong, using mobile advertising to drive mobile users to a website that is not optimised for mobile. We are in a better place than we

traffic and matching that with the intent of the consumer.” The difference on mobile, compared to online, says Louca, is that the performance networks don’t necessarily have the same reach yet. He says: “Performance ad networks will talk about how many billions of impressions they have, but you have to take that with a pinch of salt, because often, they are specific to certain regions, or

“Because we set our minimum CPC rate a good deal higher than the typical performance network, it means we attract a certain type of advertiser that the premium publishers like” were this time last year, but it still happens. “On the plus side, what we have seen over the last five years is a disproportionate spend on technology to media. Many brands have been putting in place technology infrastructure and spending far less on media, about 80 per cent technology and 20 per cent media. What we will see over the next year or so, in terms of spend, are these two falling back in line with one another.”

Shared inventory Louca’s bigger beef, however, is with the way that ad inventory is sold, resold and shared in the performance ad network community, something that ubiyoo aims to address. “Typically, advertisers on performance networks are looking for a direct response, rather than brand awareness,” he says. “It’s about: ‘What’s the lowest price I can I get the click for?’ It’s really no different to the way Google AdSense works; it’s all about driving

the inventory is regurgitated. So globally, you don’t have the same reach that you have online, and so you see a lot of inventory sharing and limited reach for specific demographics or other targeting criteria.” The problem created by this practice of inventory sharing, using mediation platforms and exchanges, Louca argues, is one of cannibalisation, Not taking in to consideration the fact that an advertiser’s ad will continue to appear multiple times to the same user, when the interest may not have been there at the first call, is a quick way to kill the performance industry, he says. It may maximise sales for the ad network or publisher, but it does not maximise the return for the publisher. In fact, it reduces their yield, meaning they have to burn through more inventory in order to deliver the campaigns. The performance of the advertiser’s campaign is compromised by not delivering a truer unique, hence slowing the campaign, and reducing the quality of the click.

Remnant inventory What may not be immediately obvious is that some of this inventory being shared or, as Louca puts it, “regurgitated” can come from premium network publishers. So if The Sun or Flirtomatic, or whoever it might be, has inventory that it cannot sell on a CPM basis, it will go into the performance network market and sell at performance network rates, with a typically low cost-per-click. ubiyoo’s approach is to take this inventory and extract a premium performance rate for it. ubiyoo has two distinct advertising markets. ubiyooWorld operates just like any other performance network. But ubiyoo Connect takes remnant premium publisher inventory from its open network on an exclusive basis, and sells it at much higher CPC rate than the typical performance network. The advertiser cannot specify the sites they want their ads to appear on, but can have visibility on the portfolio of sites, and can target users by Channel, Demographic, Platform and Country.

Premium mobile publishers like The Sun don’t like the low CPC rates they get when their remant inventory goes into the performance network market

December 2010

“Premium publishers don’t like the low CPC rates they get for their remnant inventory on performance networks, and they don’t like the fact that they don’t have as much control over the types of advertiser appearing on their site,” says Louca. “With ubiyoo Connect, we have premium advertisers who want to run performance, direct response campaigns on a CPC basis, and because we set our minimum CPC rate a good deal higher than the typical performance network, it means we attract a certain type of advertiser that the premium publishers like.” As this inventory is exclusive to ubiyoo, it will not be available through any other network, mediation platform or exchange. This, says Louca, will improve overall campaign performance, and means the publisher does not have to burn through as much inventory to deliver the campaigns, thus improving their yield and maximising their return. For the advertiser, this means their campaign performs better, and delivers a truer unique click. As plans go, it sounds a reasonably cunning one, creating a middle ground for premium publishers to make more money from their remnant mobile ad inventory by selling it to brand advertisers for less than they would like to, but much more than they have previously been able to in the performance market. Louca says it’s just the latest stage in mobile advertising’s evolution. “There are lots of smart companies out there coming up with smart ideas; we think this is just one more,” he says. “I don’t think anyone knows what the end game is for mobile advertising yet. The market is still in its infancy, and that makes it a very exciting space to play in.”

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

We route consumers to your door.

NAVTEQ’s patented LocationPointTM Advertising technology enables brick and mortar merchants to pinpoint where consumers are, deliver ads within a few metres of advertised points of purchase, and guide them to the merchant’s doorstep with one-click “Click-to-Route” calls to action.

Good advertising moves people. Great advertising moves with them.

navteqmedia.com

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

best practice

s EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING AWARDS

Sponsor’s Statement

Effectively Brilliant The votes are in, the deliberations have been made, and finally, we can reveal the names of the winners of the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards (EMMAs)

e launched the Awards to salute and showcase the best, most effective mobile marketing campaigns out there. We invited leading brands, agencies and operators from around the world to submit their entries across 12 categories, and we were genuinely amazed by the standard of work we saw. We brought together some of the most respected names in the industry to help with the judging, while taking care to ensure that no-one was asked to judge any category in which their own company had an entry, to ensure there were no conflicts of interest.

Some categories were more popular than others and one, Mobile Search, attracted no entries at all – reflecting, perhaps, a lack of activity in this area. We hope things improve going forward. Everywhere else, however, there was nothing but great work to salute, and we had a tremendously difficult task trying to whittle down almost 100 entries to the ones that made it through to the final. Over the next eight pages then, we invite you to join us on a journey through a mobile marketing wonderland as we salute the best, most effective work out there.

December 2010

This is an enormously exciting time to be involved in mobile marketing. The worldwide market now contains over 4.6bn phones, and in 2010, advertising through the mobile channel is expected to increase by 79 per cent, generating over £1bn in revenues, and there is still much unrealised potential in the marketplace. Take the ‘hidden’ mobile market, which can deliver more than 10bn pitches per month to consumers at almost no cost, and without going through an opt-in gateway. This ‘hidden’ market is where mobile network operators use mobile marketing to sell their own products to their own customers, through which they could generate as many as 25bn impressions a month. But impressions aren’t nearly enough. Because while mobile allows for a uniquely intimate form of technology-based marketing, consumers will only tolerate a finite number of these extremely personal contacts. So anyone thinking of talking to customers via mobile needs to make the most of these limited opportunities. Because in this space, the line between spam and marketing can be very thin indeed. Here at Upstream, we’re committed to changing the industry focus from impressions to effectiveness, and that’s why we chose to sponsor these awards. Because we share the conviction that the drive for effectiveness and innovation is what the industry’s future must be based on, and that we must hold up the pioneering companies, campaigns and platforms that are breaking new ground, driving the market towards maturity by defining best practices in the process. Alex Vratskides, CEO Upstream

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

best practice

Most Effectives

Mobile APPLICATION b2c

Judge’s View:

EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING AWARDS

“Genius – there’s no other word for it”

WINNER

TouchType - SwiftKey SwiftKey is, quite simply, one of the most innovative and useful apps we have ever seen. It’s an Android app that uses TouchType’s patent-pending Fluency language prediction engine to learn a user’s writing style and complete words and sentences for them, making touchscreen typing easier and quicker. The developers have analysed over 50bn words in nine major languages to build the models that drive the prediction engine. The technology understands the relationship between words, and can accurately predict about a third of words before a user taps a key, with 80 per cent of words predicted with two or fewer key taps. The effect this has on text entry speed is remarkable, since typically, you only have to tap one or two characters, then select one of the three words SwiftKey suggests. Better still, if there’s a phrase you use regularly in text messages or emails, perhaps a weekly text to check someone’s availability for something, it will remember the phrase and spell it out one word at a time as you go. The free, beta version of the app was downloaded 100,000 times in its first three days on Android Market, while the paid version topped the platform’s paid apps chart for seven days straight when it launched in September. iPhone users must be wondering when they’ll get a look in.

Highly Commended

Shazam - Shazam Shazam has picked up numerous awards over the years and pushed SwiftKey very hard in ours. Both apps share that little bit of magic; in Shazam’s case, enabling users to hear an unfamiliar song they like the sound of, and identify it (and much more besides), simply by holding their phone somewhere vaguely near the speaker for a few seconds. With over 75m Shazam users round the world, this is an app that remains as popular as it was when it launched as an IVR-based service eight years ago.

Finalists Accumulate - Flexion Wrapper iSpeech - Drive Safe.ly Moneysupermarket.com Vouchers Portaltech - Stripeylines

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

Most Effectives

Mobile ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING AWARDS

WINNER

Sky Sports/ Procter & Gamble - ‘Pringoooals’

Earlier this year, Procter & Gamble was looking for a new and innovative medium to engage users throughout May and June, with an expressed focus on the 2010 World Cup. Sky Media designed, built and hosted a dedicated ‘Pringoooals Soundboard’ iPhone app to engage soccer fans and complement existing Pringoooals campaigns. The app enabled users to express the excitement, frustration and euphoria of following their team whilst watching the games. It had multiple sounds and functionality, ranging from Air-Horn, Applause and Trumpets to licensed clips of the famous “They Think it’s all over” commentary from the 1966 World Cup final. Shaking the phone made the app shout: “Goooooooal!”, the idea being that when someone jumped up to celebrate a goal, the phone would intuitively know what to sound to play. Finally a ‘Red Card; element was included, so the user could signal their disdain at the referee (or their friends) turning the iPhone screen completely Red and chanting “Off, Off” at the recipient. The entire campaign was advertised exclusively on Sky’s World Cup Score Centre and Sky Sports News iPhone apps, driving all users directly into iTunes to instantaneously download the free app. The results of the campaign are commercially sensitive, but were released to the judges, who deemed this to be an incredibly powerful and effective campaign, and a worthy winner.

Most Effectives

Mobile Site

EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING AWARDS

Runners up AdMob/Fetch Media - Lovestruck.com Out There Media – Samsung Galaxy S Launch Auto Trader Mobile – ‘Now That’s The Cat’s Pyjamas’ Campaign Pontomobi – Dove Sampling Machine Yodel Digital – Jobsite

WINNER Mobile Interactive Group – m.marksandspencer.com

The retail sector is just beginning to get its head around mobile and one firm, Marks & Spencer, is leading the charge. The M&S mobile site, created by Mobile Interactive Group, launched in May 2010. It includes a product search, storefinder, and a full product range for Women’s, Men’s, Kids Clothing, Technology and more – around 24,000 products in total. The site is great to look at and easy to use. Customers can also access the same account details on both the mobile and the PC, enabling users to complete a transaction on mobile that may have started on a PC, or vice versa. And when you look at the numbers, things get even better. In the first four months after launch, the site attracted 1.2m unique visitors, who between them, generated over 10m page views. During that period, there were more than 13,000 orders placed on the site, ranging from clothes to TVs, with the largest order placed via a mobile totalling £3,280, for two sofas. The M&S mobile site creates a compelling argument for retailers to go mobile and reap the benefits.

Judge’s View:

“Great to look at, easy to use, and great numbers too – a clear winner”

Runners up The Guardian – m.guardian.co.uk Flirtomatic

December 2010

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

best practice

Most Effectives

Mobile Application b2b EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING AWARDS

Judge’s View:

“A great-looking app that is clearly excelling at the job it was designed for”

WINNER

NXP Semiconductors – NXP iPhone App With its iPhone app, semiconductor maker NXP wanted to take the pain out of finding semiconductors for design engineers who spend up to three days each month online, trying to find the right components for their designs. NXP wanted to boost loyalty by helping these engineers to do their job more quickly and effectively by giving them access to product specifications, plus the ability to place an order, wherever they happened to find themselves. The app puts 10,000 NXP semiconductor products, literally, in the palm of engineers’ hands. Users can search NXP products; access detailed product specifications and share them via social media; order products; find sales offices and distributors; and access technical support. The app launched on iTunes in July, and was downloaded more than 2,000 times in the first two months. In the same time period, downloads of datasheets increased by 1,200 per cent, while the app also drove a significant boost in traffic to the NXP website.

Highly Commended

Propeller Mobile – Congrex Conference App

Finalists Crafted Media - Anyspacedirect Grapple – Beehive Business Call Management Huddle – Huddle for Mobile SPB Software – SPB Mobile Shell

Propeller Mobile created this iPhone/iPad app for conference organiser Congrex for the EAACI 2010 (European Association for Allergy and Clinical Immunology) event at the Excel Centre, London, in June 2010. The app acted as a networking and navigating tool, helping the delegates make the most of the event, but also providing Congrex with insightful data to help shape future congresses. In addition to key information about the event, the app enabled delegates to create their own digital profiles, promoting themselves to other delegates and vendors. The app was downloaded 475 and times and used 50,000 times, with an average session length of 12.7 minutes.

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

Most Effectives Mobile EFFECTIVE OperatorMOBILE Opt-in MARKETING AWARDS Subscriber Database Campaign

Most Effectives

WINNER

EFFECTIVE Bluetooth MOBILE MARKETING Marketing AWARDS Campaign

Turkcell - Rabarba BlisMobile – ClearMen ‘Cool Unilever Cornetto Sport’ Campaign ‘Enigma’ Campaign This campaign ran during the 2010 World Cup. Clear Cool Sport, an anti-dandruff shampoo for men, was seeking to be one of the top-of-mind brands during the tournament. The aim of the campaign was to add a local touch to the global Clear Cool Sport commercials, which starred soccer superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo. The brand knew that soccer fans would be following the games and news online as well as on TV, so it created an online campaign that tapped into Turkcell’s opted-in subscriber database. The hero of the campaign, Arda, had to overcome a series of obstacles to get to a game in which Ronaldo was playing. In one level of the game, the character lost his way and called visitors to the campaign site on their own mobile phone. Picking up their phones, visitors gave him directions on their mobile, and using voice recognition technology, their instructions were translated into actions within the web game. With thousands of people playing the game at the same time, it was vital that the mobile-web integration worked faultlessly, and it did. This innovative use of mobile created a huge buzz in the national press and in online blogs and forums on the net. It was effective too, with sales of the shampoo showing a 60 per cent year-on-year increase.

BlisMobile’s Bluetooth campaign for Unilever’s Cornetto Enigma brand was aimed at 16 - 24 year olds, and was centred around the idea of: ‘It’s what inside that counts’. This was to reflect the new, improved Cornetto cone, which features ice cream and toppings throughout the whole cone. The campaign included a dating competition which offered an ‘Average Jo’ the chance to win a date with a ‘Heat Hunk’ or a ‘High Street Honey’ to see if it truly is what’s inside that counts. Through a call to action on giant Transvision screens at Manchester Piccadilly, and London Waterloo and Victoria Stations, and on the London and Southampton bus networks, consumers were offered the chance to download a series of video interviews with ‘Heat Hunks’ and ‘High Street Honeys’. To cater for both business and leisure commuters, new videos were issued every Monday morning to cater for the business commuter, while content was changed every Thursday evening to cater for weekend leisure commuters. The attention to detail paid off. The campaign generated 119,991 downloads, in excess of the guaranteed 100,000. The additional 20,000 downloads were not charged for, and the download rate was 10.3 per cent. A great example of a Bluetooth campaign with a clear strategy, well executed, that delivered excellent results.

Judge’s View:

Finalists Indosat i-klan Orange Shots/Optimium ‘Leap Year’ Campaign Velti – AVEA ‘World of Advantages’

“Good, strong, clear call to action, good use of outdoor media, and an incentive that was perfect for the target audience” Finalist Incentivated - Estee Lauder DKNY ‘Candy Apples’ Launch

December 2010

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

best practice

Most Effectives EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING AWARDS

mCommerce

Solution

WINNER

Ericsson IPX/LINK Mobility Skåne Transport SMS Bus Tickets Following a number of robberies on buses in the Skåne region of Sweden, the regional transport authority, Skåne Travel, was looking for alternatives to using cash to buy bus tickets, both to increase the safety of its bus drivers, and to improve the service it offered to its customers. Working with Ericsson IPX, LINK Mobility designed and built a ticketing solution for Skåne Travel, which lets travellers not only buy tickets on their mobile, but also view the latest travel information and bus timetables on their handset. The system uses a small Java app. When a passenger buys a ticket, a premium SMS is sent to Ericsson IPX. After checking the customer has sufficient credit on their mobile account, the price of the ticket is charged to their mobile account, and a ticket is sent to the app on their mobile. The ticket is colour-coded, both to reduce fraud, and to help the drivers verify the tickets quickly. The service has proved extremely popular with customers, as it is easy to use and means they no longer need to carry change for the bus. Around 18,000 mobile tickets are now sold each month. Bus loading times are reduced, as drivers only need to check tickets, rather than selling them. And drivers no longer need to carry cash, as the app is the only way of buying ‘spot’ tickets on the bus, though customers can still buy prepaid cards, monthly season passes and paper tickets in advance of boarding the bus.

Judge’s View:

“Projects like this show why the transport sector is getting so excited about mobile ticketing. A win-win for the bus company and passengers alike”

Highly Commended

Bango – Bango In-app Billing Bango’s in-app billing solution is a simple and unified way to monetize all mobile applications across all mobile platforms. It offers developers the option to collect payment using operator billing or credit cards with a Direct Billing API where there’s no need for the customer to open a browser. This means that the payment is performed fully within the application, speeding up the payment process. Users of the service include Flirtomatic, Shazam and Touchnote.

Finalists Ericsson IPX/Selecta - MobiVending Vending Machine SMS Purchase Mobile Interactive Group – m.marksandspencer.com Portaltech L.K.Bennett Mobile Site Touchnote – Touchnote Postcards

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

Most Effectives

Judge’s View:

CRM/Enterprise EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING AWARDS

Messaging Campaign

WINNER

Incentivated M&S Mobile CRM Campaign

“A stunning example of how to get mobile CRM right, for a brand whose demographic does not look particularly mobilefriendly at first glance

In the spring of 2009, Marks & Spencer (M&S) handed Incentivated a challenging brief to create and execute a CRM campaign to grow its mobile database size from nothing to 210,000 in the space of a year. The campaign reached out principally to loyalty programme customers and non-loyalty customers who had signed up for text alerts, with offers, deals, promotions and news about M&S. This enabled M&S to engage with customers through the mobile channel directly, and use it to complement existing direct mail and email contact strategies. Campaign activity included textand-win competitions, event reminders for instore loyalty events, and internal education so that M&S employees understood the campaign objectives. Different message types were tested, and all results tracked, to see what worked best. By August 2010, the campaign had far exceeded its target, having recruited 700,000 opted-in customers to the database. It has also created a robust new measurable channel for the loyalty team to add into their marketing plan, and has also been shown to trigger an increase in in-store purchase, as measured by basket spend, for those receiving the mobile messages as opposed to those who do not. A worthy winner.

Highly Commended

Velti - Argos ‘Text & Take Home’ Service This is a really useful service that lets Argos customers pricecheck products, receive a notification when an out-of-stock product is back in their nearest store, or reserve items for collection at a certain store. Millions of customers use the service, generating hundreds of millions of pounds of sales. In 2009 alone, Argos’s mobile channel delivered over $100m (£62m) of incremental revenue. In 2009, all Argos channels sent over 30m mobile customer notifications, while the Text & Reserve interactive channel resulted in almost £30m worth of product reservations.

Finalists Dynmark – Carphone Warehouse ‘Fab Phonecall’ Competition Txtlocal - Constructaquote.com Txtlocal - Papa John’s ‘Offer of the Month’

December 2010

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

best practice

Most Effectives

Location-based EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING AWARDS

Service/ Campaign

WINNER

Judge’s View:

“A healthy clickthrough rate, and of those, almost 40 per cent requesting directions to the restaurant – you can’t argue with figures like those”

NAVTEQ Media Solutions McDonalds LocationPoint Campaign McDonald’s Finland launched a location-targeted mobile ad campaign on NAVTEQ’s LocationPoint Advertising platform. The campaign targeted consumers within a certain distance of a McDonald’s restaurant with an ad offering them a McDonald’s cheeseburger for €1. Consumers who clicked on the ads saw the details of the promotion, and could receive driving or walking directions to the nearest store location. The campaign delivered an excellent 7 per cent clickthrough rate, and of those consumers who clicked through, 39 per cent selected the click-to-navigate option, which offered drive-to or walk-to navigation to the nearest McDonald’s outlet, using Nokia’s Ovi Maps navigation. This is a solid performance in a fast-emerging market sector, and proves mobile advertising’s ability to catch consumers “in the moment” and drive retail footfall.

Most Effectives EFFECTIVE Mobile Couponing MOBILE MARKETING or Barcode AWARDS Campaign

Finalists O2 Media – ‘Photobox’ Campaign ScreenTicket – Sprite ‘Sell Your Mother’ Campaign

Finalists KEO Digital – Landshare iPhone App Placecast – Placecast ShopAlerts Yodel Digital - woZZon Android App

WINNER

Fancharge - Go Go Lions Baseball Campaign This was a true 360-degree campaign for the Seibu Lions, a Japanese major-league pro baseball team, run in conjunction with a local radio station, and executed using the FANCHARGE mobile marketing and fan engagement platform. The campaign had a number of objectives, from collecting data on the makeup of the fans, to encouraging more female and family attendance, and driving increased purchase of tickets and merchandise via mobile. Three weeks before the game, Lions fans received a call-to-action via radio, TV, print, the web and mobile, to send a mobile trigger and register personal details. Pre-registered users then received personalized branded mobile home pages and were entered in timed draws for loaded mobile QR code passes. Winners’ phones were scanned at the venue on game day to claim free tickets, branded goods, mobile content, discounts, and entry into a jumbo-screen mobile competition for signed team merchandise, also claimed via QR code scanning. The venue featured mobile QR scanning stations, and roaming staff with portable NFC/RFID devices, delivering coupons to users’ phones. Activity was monitored in real-time on-site for the client to gauge the success of the campaign. The campaign generated 8,000 mobile responses from fans, more than 1,000 of whom arrived early with their QR codes and were scanned to collect campaign gifts. 80 per cent of registered fans redeemed mobile promotions for food/beverage and merchandise, and 20 per cent responded to offers on next-event tickets. The game was a sell-out, and exit interviews showed 90 per cent of the participants understood the event was a campaign between the Lions and the local radio station, while 80 per cent of participants wanted to repeat the experience.

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

Most Effectives EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING AWARDS

Sales Promotion/

Direct Response Campaign

WINNER

Judge’s View:

“The fact that these campaigns were delivered at zero cost – and risk – to the operator, coupled with the results, makes this a clear winner”

Upstream Systems - MTN 2010 FIFA World Cup Campaign, West Africa This was a set of three parallel mobile marketing promotions for MTN in Nigeria, Ghana and Benin, run at zero cost to the operator, on a revenue-share basis. The core objective behind the trio of promotions was to leverage the inevitable excitement across all of Africa generated by the World Cup, which was being hosted in S. Africa for the first time in its history. Across these three W. African countries, MTN subscribers could send a text message to a shortcode and enter draws to win great prizes, including a big cash giveaway every day in Nigeria; a Hyundai i10 car every day in Ghana; and a Sony LCD TV every day and Hyundai cars every month in Benin. The campaigns ran for approximately 90 days in each market. Upstream devised and ran each campaign end to end, from selecting the prizes to managing incoming and outgoing SMS on its proprietary MCS (Marketing Communication Suite) platform,. The investment needed for these campaigns was also taken on by Upstream. The campaign was limited to mobile, and specifically SMS, reflecting Upstream’s grasp of the realities of W. Africa specifically the high penetration of SMS-capable mobile devices, and low levels of ownership of smartphones, PDAs or fixed devices. The results of the campaigns are commercially sensitive, but suffice to say, they blew the judges’ socks off, with staggering participation, ROI and ARPU uplift figures.

Highly Commended

Sponge/OpenMarket Coca-Cola ‘Gimme Credit’ Campaign This Sponge/Open Market promotion for Coca-Cola offered £0.50 worth of mobile credit to consumers buying promotional packs of Dr. Pepper, Fanta and Sprite soft drinks. The promotion was available to contract and Pay As You Go customers on all major mobile networks in the UK, and targeted the teen market. It was based on research that showed that teens have limited spending power, but say they cannot live without their mobiles and tend to run out of credit. It ran on 32.2m packs, and was promoted online, outdoor, on TV and at point of sale. And it delivered the highest redemption rate of all on-pack promotions run by Coca-Cola in 2009. The promotion was so successful that it ran again in 2010, and is also being adopted by Coca-Cola Global in other international markets.

Finalists Fancharge - Go Go Lions Baseball Campaign Sponge - Zavvi.com Customer Acquisition Campaign Incentivated – Jaguar XJ Launch Upstream Systems - Vodafone 90 Mercedes C-Class ‘One Every Day!’ Campaign

December 2010

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

the real world

FOCUS ON LATIN AMERICA Over the past five years, the Americas’ mobile sector has grown to surpass that of Europe. The challenge now is to remove the remaining obstacles to mobile marketing campaigns and foreign brand investment. Martin Conway reports

t’s been fiesta time for Latin America’s mobile sector of late, with the region witnessing consistent year-on-year growth in activity. Figures released by mobile market database Wireless Intelligence show that in Q2 2010, LatAm recorded an additional 15m mobile connections, resulting in a total of nearly 530m by the end of June. This upsurge has propelled the region to the global number two spot, in terms of market share, surpassing Western Europe by a marginal amount. Brazil is leading the way, with 188m mobile connections, representing one third of the LatAm total. This figure is expected to hit 200m in Q4. While the region’s growth is undoubted, and is certainly proving a major draw for mobile marketers and advertisers,

there is nonetheless further work to be done in LatAm, especially when it comes to clearing up regulatory practice and boosting the scope of mobile web browsing. Fortunately, signs indicate that this enormous market is more than up to the challenge.

Growth across the board “The LatAm market boom began in 2006 and really spiked between 2007 and 2010,” Terence Reis, director of operations at Brazil-based mobile marketing agency PontoMobi, tells Mobile Marketing. “The growth has more or less been across the board – Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela have all been doing well, although Brazil has been getting the most attention, due to the size of its market. The

only countries we see struggling are Cuba and Bolivia and that’s mainly due to their current economic situations rather than anything mobile-specific.” Reis’ view is endorsed by Jorge Partidas, CEO of mobile marketing giant Wau Movil, and vice chairman for LatAm at the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), whose activities largely involve networking, pushing for clarification on regulatory matters and “helping global companies to get a foot in the door, as well as addressing their initial concerns that LatAm constitutes some “crazy marketplace”, as Partidas puts it. He adds: “Sometimes, foreign companies tend to view LatAm as one big country, rather than 20 separate countries with a 60:40 ratio of Spanish and Portuguese speakers.”

“There’s a strong social element to the rise of mobile connectivity. People in LatAm are more prone to stay in contact with friends and family than in some other regions” Jorge Partidas, Wau Movil

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

In addition to the countries listed by Reis, Partidas also identifies strong mobile growth in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica. “I was speaking to a mobile company in October 2010, and they revealed that, per capita, Costa Rica was the most relevant market for their activities,” he comments. “Venezuela is more in the news for its political situation, but it is actually one of the most precious LatAm territories for mobile development, and is the leader in the region for BlackBerry usage.”

turers, although imported Chinese devices have made a small impact on the market. Overall, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and BlackBerry retain the lion’s share of business. “There is a big demand for Blackberrys and the iPhone 4 in Brazil,” says Reis, noting that approximately 0.7 per cent of the country’s 190m population has adopted the iPhone. Partidas adds: “There’s a strong social element to the rise of mobile connectivity. People in

The social element Much of this growth has centred on several key social factors. PontoMobi’s Reis explains: “Brazil’s middle class is getting bigger, and there are more packages and deals for 3G and smartphones than before, particularly grey market products, which can be purchased at reasonable prices from eBay.” Interestingly, there has been little to no penetration by LatAm-based handset manufac-

Venezuela leads the LatAm region for BlackBerry usage

LatAm are more prone to stay in contact with friends and family than in some other regions, and this technology is really pulling people together. It’s really common to see people texting, from taxi drivers to housewives, and more avidly so than in Europe. It’s also important to remember that having a BlackBerry or smartphone is seen as a status symbol in LatAm.” Subsequently, marketing campaigns that can engage with this social aspect are more likely to achieve success. PontoMobi’s Reis says: “Anything that people can show to their friends is bound to be popular, and music plays an important role too.” A PontoMobi campaign

campaigns were based around reverse auctions, where people stood the chance to win a house, a car or motorbike, or money on a daily basis – at just $1 a text, there was a huge amount of public participation in these campaigns. Ironically, this was made possible by Brazil’s relatively lax mobile marketing regulations, which led to a lot of players creating interesting and appealing prizes.” Beyond sweepstakes and socially interactive campaigns, soccer and adult content remain popular traffic drivers in Brazil, and there is increasing demand for apps. Twitter is also starting to take off in LatAm, spearheaded by politicians, who

hosted with credit card flagship Hipercard invited mobile users to submit recordings of themselves singing along to the theme of the Brazilian American Idol TV franchise, a project that managed to attract over 1,200 participants. Fabien Vega, VP, sales at international mobile marketing agency Velti, which has worked extensively in LatAm, adds: “Anything that’s exciting, dynamic and lively, and that brings people together as part of an event, works.” Velti has conducted a number of successful mobile marketing campaigns, having recorded significant public interaction for a text-to-win campaign in Mexico, executed on behalf of General Motors. Around 1m mobile users participated in this campaign, in which 65 cars were distributed to winners. Without doubt, sweepstakes and ‘text-to-win’ promotions for daily deals are the most crucial driving force in the majority of LatAm mobile interactions, particularly in Brazil. This ranges from promotional offers from well-known brands such as Unilever and Nestlé, to the kinds of wild giveaways that might raise eyebrows in US and European territories. Partidas says: “A lot of the initial Brazilian mobile

keep supporters up to date with regular tweets.

December 2010

Brazil’s barriers While Brazil has commanded the majority of headlines, establishing itself as the fifth largest hub of mobile connectivity in the world, there is still a lot of work required to ensure the country’s future expansion. “The Brazilian market is still short of being ‘mature’,” Reis explains. “It’s the ideal LatAm target in the eyes of manufacturers and app stores, with people saying ‘Brazil is essential to our strategy’, but this is mainly down to media attention – we still have a considerable way to go. For instance, postpaid contracts represent about 20 per cent of the market, the remainder being pay as you go, and I can’t see those numbers changing any time soon.” Taxation has proven a consistent thorn in the country’s side, Reis comments: “Brazil actually has one of the smallest average SMS rates per user. In Argentina, the figure stands at about 200 texts per month; in Brazil, it is more like 50. For other LatAm countries, the price of texting is going down, but in Brazil we’re looking at 12-13p per text. Price is definitely a barrier.” Wau Movil’s Partidas concurs: “Argentina is more

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

the real world

competitive than Brazil at present, though this tends to get overlooked due to Brazil’s sheer size. Taxes for telecoms and VAS (Value Added Services) are very steep, eating up about 50 per cent of costs.” High data costs have also it the popularity of downloads, with many Brazilians resorting to alternatives. Partidas continues: “There’s a lot of interest in games, but downloading one of these apps often costs as much as the game itself, and the ability to do so is largely dependent on the quality of the handset.” Reis notes that, as an alternative to directly downloading MP3s and videos, many Brazilian users prefer to download these files to their PCs and then “sideload” them on to their mobiles.

“We really need the mobile web to mature in Brazil, and costs will have to drop in order to achieve this,” argues Reis. “About 60m Brazilians, or a third of the population, use the internet and, for many, mobile browsing is their first, or sole source of web access. “Sometimes, the carriers provide obstacles too; many harbour an old-fashioned ‘us vs. them’ mindset. They see mobile marketing as a problem, and consider Microsoft, Google and Apple to be their enemies. These carriers place too much emphasis on voice-related services, oblivious to the fact that the average Brazilian consumer is mostly interested in what apps and software they can incorporate into their mobile activities, and that their least important consideration is the carrier.” In turn, Vega opines that many operators “have too much power” and feel little need to explore additional revenue streams, “as they are quite happy with the money they are making on voice services”.

Drive for transparency

“Before the registry was in place, a marketer who wanted to run a campaign across LatAm would have to lease a code from each individual operator in each country” Janet Roberts, Syniverse

One should not be too pessimistic about this state of affairs, though. Reis reasons that it is “only a matter of time before the mobile web expands,” and there are a number of moves afoot to give LatAm, and particularly Brazil, the support it requires in progressing to the next phase. The MEF’s 7th Business Confidence Index, released in August 2010, forecast that the LatAm mobile market will grow by 23 per cent in 2011, mostly bolstered by increased penetration of smartphones, mobile payments for content and service billing, and the ability to identify handset capability and location. However, this won’t happen unless the industry addresses long-running challenges, such as the fragmentation of operating systems, platforms

and handsets, licensing and digital rights management issues, and, most importantly, issues related to consumer awareness and trust. While lack of adequate regulation certainly enabled companies to exploit Brazil’s fondness for extravagant prize giveaways, the MEF is aware that this model cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. Partidas says: “Because of the size of the market and the complex nature of many LatAm countries, it’s been difficult for regulators to keep track of what’s going on. Smaller, less scrupulous providers have taken advantage of this state of affairs, and have carried out activities that could jeopardise future mobile marketing strategies. We want to expand the industry as a whole, and we simply can’t do that if the regulators are regularly picking up complaints.” This need for greater transparency has spurred the MEF to develop a Unified Code of Conduct for LatAm, in order to protect consumers, while creating a base for increased innovation among manufacturers and developers. Over 15 MEF member companies participated in drawing up the terms of the code, which was formally announced at the MEF Americas AGM in Miami on 30 November, 2010. The code will initially apply to Brazil, to serve as a reference point for other countries in the LatAm region.

Shortcodes made simple Another welcome initiative has been the recent launch, by Syniverse Technologies, of a LatAm common shortcode (CSC) hub. This provides enterprises, small businesses and brand marketers with the means to reach mobile subscribers across the region as a whole, via the creation of a single CSC for all 20 countries. By registering with Syniverse’s online portal, located at www.

0.7 per cent of the Brazilian population owns an iPhone

latinshortcodes.com, brands can search for and secure CSCs, available for lease in 3-, 6- and 12-month segments, costing $500 (£310) per month for random codes, or $1,000 per month for ‘vanity’, or pre-selected codes. “Before the registry was in place, a marketer who wanted to run a campaign across LatAm would have to undergo the tedious process of leasing a code from each individual operator in each country,” explains Janet Roberts, senior VP of marketing at Syniverse. “As a result, it could take up to six months to launch a campaign, and required a large devotion of resources just to complete the agreement process. “Some of the most successful uses of shortcodes in LatAm so far have been voting campaigns related to TV shows, as well as text-to-win contests to promote consumer goods. They have also been successfully leveraged for allowing consumers to opt-in for sports and news alerts, and to check their bank balances via SMS.” While a few hurdles remain, a combination of greater transparency, increased operator awareness and time-saving, streamlined avenues of entry for mobile marketers and their clients seem the best ways to build on the country’s undeniable attraction to publishers and advertisers across the globe.

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

MOBILE RETAIL MASTERCLASS 15 MARCH 2011 â&#x20AC;˘ LONDON - Learn how to drive footfall, maximise mobile commerce revenues and optimise your website for mobile - Combination of thought leadership, case studies and discussion groups to answer all your mobile questions

PLATINUM MOBILE EXPERT

- Retailers can attend the Mobile Masterclass free of charge - All attendees receive a bespoke piece of research into the mobile facts and figures that relate to the retail industry.

MOBILE EXPERTS The 2011 Masterclass Series continues with:

ÂŁ Publishing April 2011

Automotive September 2011

Hospitality May 2011

Banking & Finance November 2011

Travel June 2011

If you would like to become a Sponsor or Platinum Sponsor of one of the 2011 Masterclass Events please contact John Owen on +44 (0)7769 674824 or john.owen@mobilemarketingmagazine.com

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

thought leadership

OFFDECK

First it was Stephen Fry, now Helen Keegan comes out in praise of Windows Phone 7. Is there something in the air?

rands, agencies, app developers, in fact, just about anyone involved in the mobile marketing business, could be forgiven for feeling a sense of dread when they hear about the launch of yet another new mobile Operating System, (OS). With around a dozen out there already, any new addition just means there is another decision to make about whether the latest new kid on the block is one that’s worth getting close to. When the OS in question comes from a company – Microsoft – that has hardly covered itself in glory in the mobile space over the past decade or so, it would be even more understandable if its launch was largely ignored. And yet, in spite of Microsoft’s previous, I find myself quite taken by Windows Phone 7. Having lived with a Windows Phone 7 handset – the name, I admit is as clunky as some of the old Windows Mobile phones they used to turn out – for a few weeks now, I have been pleasantly surprised by the phone itself, and the intuitive OS that drives it.

Digital signage I think part of the reason it works so well is that it is clearly design-led, using clues from the real worlds, such as signage from railway and underground stations, translated into the digital world. I also like the fact that it doesn’t look and feel like any other smartphone platform. Call me a freak if you like, but I’ve never found the iPhone interface the intuitive joy that everyone else seems to be convinced it is.

I find Android to be much more intuitive than iPhone, and I find Windows Phone 7 more intuitive still. But there’s more to a smartphone platform than the user interface, important though this is. What you can do with the phone is key, and here again, Windows Phone 7 scores. The link with Office is great, tying in with Microsoft’s cloud computing strategy. It means you can access your documents online for free on the go, via the phone. I also like the way it connects with xBox for gaming in a seamless way. The word seamless could also be used to describe the way the phone syncs with my PC when it’s switched on and there is wi-fi available, to update any music I’ve downloaded from Windows Phone 7 marketplace. Of course, I’m not saying it’s perfect. For me at least, no touchscreen phone will

“I BELIEVE THAT WINDOWS PHONE 7 HAS A LOT GOING FOR IT. It’s easy to forget just what a trusted brand Microsoft is among both domestic and business PC users”

ever be as good as one with a real keypad, and that’s why, despite owning an iPhone, Android and a few other devices, it’s my N95 that I turn to for talking, texting, and doing all the other stuff I need to do as I go about my daily life. Marketplace will also end up suffering from the same problem that afflicts all app stores once there are more apps in there – discoverability. This is a problem that will be fixed over time, but it’s not one I have seen a solution to yet. But despite these small gripes, I do believe that Windows Phone 7 has a lot going for it. It’s easy to forget just what a trusted brand Microsoft is among both domestic and business PC users. There are lots of Windows Phone 7 handsets to choose from, and they are available across all UK networks. And while I appreciate that it may be difficult for some people to visualise Microsoft in the role of underdog, I do get a sense of Apple Fatigue setting in out there, as people realise that the iPhone is not the only cool phone in town any more. A friend told me the other day he wasn’t buying another iPhone. The reason was, he said, he didn’t want to give Apple any more money because he didn’t like their attitude. Microsoft as the good guys might seem too much to stomach at first glance, but if the company showed one thing at the launch of Windows Phone 7 a couple of months ago, it was humility. Not to mention a very neat operating system, and some cool phones too.

December 2010 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

open mobile advertising

Higher Ad Revenues for Mobile Apps & Websites Benefits for publishers and app developers: • Higher Fill Rates for your Global Reach • Optimization engine for 50+ Ad Networks • One API, free setup

FREE P U N SIG .com/mmm to

smaa

Smaato: The leading Mobile Ad Optimization Platform

New Smaato White Papers on Mobile Advertising in USA & Europe Free download at smaato.com/whitepaper Follow us on twitter @smaato and on facebook.com/smaato

info@smaato.com