Asian e-Marketing August 2010

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AUGUST 2010

Mobile Marketing & Advertising

MMA on the Role of Mobile Marketing in the Digital Age, pg. 4

InMobi’s Distinguished Mobile Advertising Solution, pg. 45

Full Steam Ahead for Yahoo!’s Mobile Strategy, pg. 53


EDITORIAL:

O N L I N E

V E R S I O N

Dear Reader, It is expected that by the end of the year the threshold of 5 billion mobile connections worldwide will be exceeded for the first time. Worldwide mobile phone sales already added up to 314.7 million units in the first quarter of 2010 and recorded a 17 percent increase, while Smartphone sales even reached an increase of 48.7 percent from the first quarter of 2009 with 54.3 million units sold, according to Gartner. Thus, it seems that the forecasts of further penetration of web-enabled mobile devices have been proven to be right - especially since mobile e-mail, rich messaging and social networking will continue to drive demand for Smartphones – corroborating the optimistic belief that mobile marketing and mobile advertising will have its absolute break-through this year. Have a look on the first article of this issue, providing insights into Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director of the Mobile Marketing Association, Asia Pacific, views on the role of mobile marketing in the digital age. In any case, mobile devices will for sure play a significant role in the future, so get well informed to tap the full potential of the mobile innovations on offer. Bye for now & enjoy reading!

Daniela La Marca Editor-in-Chief Asian e-Marketing PS: Any feedback or in case you are interest in contributing an article to Asian e-Marketing, please contact me directly at Daniela (at) mediabuzz.com.sg. Of course advertisers are welcome, too. If you couldn’t catch the previous issue of Asian e-Marketing here is another chance.

Exclusive Sponsor of this Issue


AUGUST 2010

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

MOBILE MARKETING & ANVERTISING (Part 2) : RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

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Check Point Secures Remote Network Access for Handheld Wireless Devices 38

MMA Asia Pacific on the Role of Mobile Marketing in the Digital Age

4

Survival Tips on Managing the Top 10 Personalities You Meet in Meetings!

41

Digital Content: The Changing Rules of Engagement

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TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

45

Mobile Broadband Outstrips Fixed Broadband, But Does Not Replace It

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InMobi’s Distinguished Mobile Advertising Solution

45

Persistent Rise of Mobile Development Frameworks (MDF)

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Sybase Unwired Platform Enables Next Generation of Mobile Applications

47

Movius Uncovers the Market for Second-Line Mobile Service

49

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

53

Globys Reveals Apps that Drive Most Frequent Mobile Internet Usage in Australia 17

Full Steam Ahead for Yahoo!’s Mobile Strategy

53

Future of the Mobile Content Value Chain in Asia’s Emerging Markets

19

Hoiio Makes Mobile Communication Cheaper, Simpler and Smarter 55

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CMO Council and MediaBUZZ Signed Partnership Agreement

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RIM’s Key Selling Point Put to Test

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Citibank Rejoices with New Comprehensive Mobile Application

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LEGISLATION

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MMA’s Guidelines on SMS and MMS

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BUZZWORD

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Mobile Operating System

68

IMPRINT

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Intensifying of Competition Between Handset Providers and More Pressure on Operators in China

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Banks Must Wake Up to Mobile Virus Threat

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Media Tablets on the Up in Asia Pacific, Says IDC

Frost & Sullivan: Data Services to Drive Growth as SEA’s Mobile Market Nears Saturation 22 ComScore’s Study on Social Networking Access via Mobile Browser

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Data Trumps Voice on Australia’s Smartphones

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Microsoft Advertising Designs Innovative Tool to Test Digital Savvy 27

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

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Mobile Marketing Basics

29

The End of the Beginning of Mobile Marketing

31

Location-Based Services

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QR Codes Hit the Road from the Billboard to the Mobile Internet

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Mobile Marketing: The Recipe for Success

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MMA Asia Pacific on the Role of Mobile Marketing in the Digital Age The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has just announced their repositioning to create additional membership benefits and enhance effectiveness to meet the changing face of mobile marketing. “In its formative years, the MMA placed great emphasis on helping build a global industry, creating standards and guidelines to support the growth of a new industry,” said Federico Pisani Massamormile, MMA’s Global Board Chairman and Interim CEO. “In many ways, the need to act as evangelists for the mobile channel has evolved into a need to get brands and agencies to increase spend on a channel they’re now aware of, marketers understand the need to include mobile in their plans, but still need support to find the right role for mobile in the marketing mix. We aim to make mobile an indispensable part of everyone’s marketing mix.”

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The newly repositioned MMA will now concentrate its efforts on what it believes to be the five building blocks of the industry: • Promote the channel, the industry and individual member companies to brands and agencies in order to create more commercial opportunities for its members, demonstrating that membership creates a competitive advantage for companies. • Educate brands, agencies and consumers about the full scale and scope of the mobile marketing channel, highlighting its advantages and benefits. • Measure by creating and developing authoritative measurements and metrics while providing insights into the size, growth, trends and effectiveness of mobile marketing. • Guide by continuing to create and develop guidelines, best practices and standards designed to ease the planning, purchasing and implementation of mobile marketing.


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Protect our opportunities by representing the industry before regulators and legislators and by managing industry self-regulatory programs to maximize public and industry confidence in mobile marketing, lowering barriers to entry and minimizing non-economic costs of doing business. Mobile devices are becoming more and more popular as an advertising channel with the number of advertisers and campaigns increasing significantly in the last year. According to Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director of Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific, the first quarter of 2010 showed a positive trend for mobile campaigns, as several new industries joined the mobile market. While the lifestyle industry was first, the automotive, telecommunications, and media service industries have now started to actively use the mobile channel - of course with good reasons - especially in Asia. Mobile marketing Asia: a sure thing

success

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With a population of more than 3.8 billion people, a mobile population of 2.27 billion and a mobile Internet population of 432.65 million, it is expected that by the end of 2010 the number of mobile Internet users across the whole of Asia will expand by 168.54 million, taking the total number in the region to 592.19 million users. For any company involved in advertising this represents an astonishing opportunity to deliver display-based campaigns for brands. While developed Western markets usually have high expectations regarding access, speed and reach, the majority of mobile users in developing countries are still accessing content over 2G networks that painfully restrict the potential of delivering a rich-media mobile experience to consumers. With 3G or alternative wireless broadband access technologies just around the corner, if not already implemented, the future for mobile marketing

looks rosy indeed. Regardless of the access, mobile Internet already has a massive audience across Asia, not to mention that it is the continent with the largest growth potential with only 16% of the population having mobile access! Rohit believes that the mobile marketing and advertising industry in Asia is close to about $2 billion dollars, whereas the majority of that money actually comes from Japan and Korea, which are the most advanced Asian markets. He explains: “In developing markets, messaging makes the majority of the advertising dollar, I would say close to about 50%. In developed markets, however, it is the mobile web that drives revenue.” He believes that the mobile industry will be worth around $14 to 15 billion dollars in about five years time, taking into consideration that the global advertising industry is expected to make about $415 billion dollars. Reaching consumers in through mobile channels

Asia

According to Rohit, MMA’s Asia Pacific expert, while mobile marketing enjoys no more than 10% of the advertising spent right now, he expects this to change soon. “The reason why it will change is because PC penetration is very low. In some markets it is less than one percent. In the same market the mobile penetration is 60 – 70%”, he states and emphasizes further “These are the consumers the brands and marketers have never been able to reach but wanted to and therefore mobile advertising dollars will very soon surpass PC internet advertising dollars in Asia.” As an example he added: “In 2008 India had spent about $500,000 dollars on mobile advertising, today they are close to about $25 million dollars - a 5,000% increase in just two years!” Rohit also believes that in another three to five years mobile will get a bigger part of the advertising budget, pointing out that the Inter-

net is almost 20 years old now, while mobile is just a three year old business. Considering that fact, the success of the mobile medium is quite impressive, as it is already enjoying a 20 to 25% revenue share with the further prospect of subscribers getting used to mobile advertising. MMA’s Asia Pacific MD Rohit expressed hope that the ecosystem the brands, agencies and publishers – come together as an integrated business solution instead of a simple sale of technology. That’s the tipping point he claims and adds, “I personally believe, the tipping point is now”. “There is no other medium that can be used to reach such a huge amount of consumers. It is the most interactive and targetable medium, which can be measured on an individual basis. It’s a medium that can enable both CRM and a relationship with the brand. It’s innovative and most importantly it is not sitting in isolation. It truly represents 360 degrees of marketing. Whether you do your TV, print, or outdoor ads, you can use the mobile device as a medium to get an immediate response from consumers, as it is an interactive element that’s not separate from any other medium”, he says. New types of interactive marketing delivered by advanced technology and innovations As mobile devices provide continuously creative opportunities to keep on innovating, there will probably always be something new on the market. Just remember the recent launch of the iPad, which gives us a new dimension and new advertising form to play with. Now the limitation of having a small screen belongs to the past, it had improved already with the iPhones and Smartphones which have bigger screens than the traditional feature phones, but the iPad’s innovation and creativity will require associations like MMA to adapt their guidelines around the clock.

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“As an association we believe it’s an ongoing process. We are already publishing advertising guidelines which we update every three months. We will continue do these updates and I don’t see an end anywhere in the near future”, Rohit affirms, explaining further: “Three years ago, there was no iPhone so there were no applications - now we have guidelines on applications. Two years ago there was no gaming - now we have gaming and we have applications and guidelines and best practices all around that. A few weeks back we didn’t have the iPad - now we have it and therefore we will prepare advertising standards and guidelines on that platform too. Technology and solution providers will continue to offer creative support and come up with innovative solutions, providing marketers and their consumers with targeted advertisements.” Mobile location-based advertising: the future driver in mobile advertising The dream of all marketers is the ability to reach consumers when the offer is most appreciated and today many industry players are counting on location-based advertising (LBA), a new form of advertising that uses location-tracking technology in mobile networks, to target consumers with locationspecific advertising on their mobile devices. According to Rohit, “Mobile LBA is one of the key drivers of the industry, but what’s really required for its breakthrough is content. Today the one thing that’s missing on LBA is the relevant content, so that you can map that content to the location that you are providing the service. That is the investment that needs to happen from content providers and publishers to become more and more effective”, he says. The mobile phone provides completely new and engaging ways to reach consumers and location is certainly

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one of the best targeting mechanisms to find and recruit consumers. Rohit reminds us: “Successful innovations depend on consumer preferences; therefore you need to abide by consumer privacy, permission-based marketing and security. If we don’t, we will sadly damage LBA as we did with SMS by creating a new form of spamming”. He states further: “Consumers don’t hate advertising. They love it as long as it is relevant and targeted.” Traditional marketers are looking at location-based services (LBS) from a mapping navigation perspective, Rohit believes that it will go beyond that, namely “to a service level, where the content is generated based on the use of preferences.” Augmented reality is now: virtual world meets reality Rohit expects augmented reality to converge with location on top of applications, into a messaging platform, with the key driver for that convergence being content. Content could be information, service, downloadable content, searchrelated content, or just a service on game application. All are new innovations using mobile as a device that is helping facilitate that innovation. “Now you can have that on a location based service, e.g. an augmented reality application running when you enter a Nike shop that shows an ad or a discount coupon. That’s merging augmented reality to location-based services” and Rohit believes that the convergence of all these services will be the key driver for the growth of the industry which has spent a lot of time, effort and energy over the past four to five years to achieve this goal. Mobile search: another key driver The way we know how search on the PC and the mobile web happens today will definitely evolve in future. Most probably you search

for a restaurant or hotel when travelling, so location based relevance is the stimulus, which increases with the ease that smart phones and iPhones provide. Simply put, mobile search is not just a shift of PC based web search to mobile devices, but more a transformation into treelike branches of specialized mobile broadband and mobile content segments which will enjoy a fast-paced evolution. In some mature markets the local relevance is already very high as there is a wealth of good content. In the emerging markets and Asia, a lot of search actually happens through messaging, not the traditional mobile web service that we know, or the traditional search that we know from Google, Yahoo!, or others. According to Rohit, messaging will continue to be the key element for people to find contacts and services and be another key driver of the industry’s future breakthroughs. Mobile metrics and measurements of ad campaigns Mobile metrics and measurements are the hottest topic right now as they still pose a challenge to the industry. “The lack of mobile metrics and standards respectively is the reason why the big money isn’t coming in and why big companies and brands are not spending their dollars”, Rohit claims. “The reason that holds the industry back is the fact that it is neither possible to quantify and measure campaigns on mobile nor compare mobile to the other traditional media that has built-up research metrics and analytics over the past 30 to 40 years.” “If I were a brand manager at Coca Cola today, it wouldn’t be possible to analyze the performance of my mobile campaign versus my print campaign versus my TV campaign, as I don’t have the metrics identified yet”, Rohit elaborates. “However”, he says, “a lot of work is going on at MMA”, which is working on measurement metrics guidelines together with industry bodies


RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

like the IAB, GSMA, and research companies like Nielsen or comScore. “We have already identified the key metrics measures”, he declares proudly, knowing that it will keep evolving as it has been with advertising guidelines, especially when taking into consideration the metrics across the market ecosystem.

The Six Cs of mobile marketing

MMA, as an industrial body, does not represent any particular verticals’ interests. “We are not a telco body, brand body, or agency, but telcos, brands, agencies, publishers, handset manufacturers, and technology providers are our members” Rohit explains, “but when you work on an ecosystem which spans so broadly, you need to make sure everybody understands each other’s metrics to be able to measure those metrics at the same level. A simple solution is needed rather than the very technology-orientated metrics, which brands don’t understand, agencies don’t understand, consumers don’t understand. It’s about identifying what those measures are and putting them into practice on a self- regulated-basis. The numbers, however, have to be big enough to be interesting to the major players and to drive standardization of metrics”, Rohit elaborated.

He mentioned immediately the “6 C’s” of mobile marketing which Mike Wehrs, President/CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association once came up with. All in all it states that brands and advertisers must be able to provide positive and valuable experiences. If consumers don’t truly buy into and understand the rules of engagement for the messages and marketing programs they’re receiving, chances are high that they press the delete button without even looking at the content.

Mobile marketers must ensure relevance, engagement, interaction, and most importantly respect from the consumer to be truly successful, Rohit once said and I wanted to know from him, if he sees businesses in Asia Pacific really following his advice.

Brands using mobile as a marketing channel have to make sure that they deliver messages that consumers believe are positive, highly relevant, somewhat entertaining and of specific value to them individually.

and to develop a true dialogue of interaction with customers. Not to mention that marketers have to make customers aware of all the policing mechanisms in place to ensure that the mobile marketing experience they receive is a positive one. Most of all, marketers need to move away from traditional push — or interruption-based — advertising and adopt the six central tenets of a positive consumer experience: choice, control, customization, consideration, constraint and confidentiality, which form the basis of the Mobile Marketing Association’s global Code of Conduct and Consumer Best Practices. Rohit emphasizes again that “brands trying to reach consumers via mobile should make sure their communications are interesting, relevant, valuable and, above all, requested.” Thank you! By Daniela La Marca

The trick would be to know how to build and develop this level of trust,

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Digital Content: The Changing Rules of Engagement Media players from the Internet, TV, and publishing have converged on the digital content space, intensifying competition for a consumer base reluctant to pay for most content. Consequently, players in the digital content sector are increasingly intent on monetizing their digital content services in any way they can, while at the same time investors and management turn the financial screws. The dynamic forces of competition, monetization, technology, and consumer behaviour are altering the digital landscape, leading to changes in the rules of engagement for the digital content sector. We take a look at a selection of changes in the digital landscape and the corresponding new rules of engagement for the digital content sector. Online content and applications are increasingly not consumed on a PC Several Ovum surveys underline a growing trend in consumers looking to access and interact with content on mobile devices compared with desktop PCs.

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This means that the ability to deliver multi-screen experiences is paramount, allowing consumers to access content in different modes – the more seamless, the better. This is becoming a key focus for a growing number of service providers, notably in the threescreen TV arena from the likes of Sky, Orange, Verizon, and Telefonica. In future there will continue to be a core of allpurpose devices able to support a wide range of horizontal content and applications, but alongside this we will see growth in specialist device types, some of which will be dedicated to providing a premium user experience for one application category. Many of these specialist devices will also be sold with bundled connectivity in the manner pioneered by Amazon with its Kindle e-book reader. New rule of engagement: Build multi-screen reach In order to keep up with their migrating consumers, building multi-screen reach will be a new rule of engagement for telcos, which will need to ensure they


RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

have multi-screen capabilities and can deliver across fixed and mobile networks to a range of device types. If the service provider cannot deliver the right content to the right device, their customer acquisition will be handicapped. The rise of the controlled content ecosystem There is telco, media and online convergence up and down the value chain as players take stakes and buy-out rivals or promising companies in a bid to strengthen and extend their control over the digital content value system. The shining example of Apple iTunes aside, Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal is another example of attempts to extend control over the content ecosystem. New rule of engagement: Acquire SMART capabilities Controlling content ecosystems requires what Ovum calls SMART capabilities. Acquiring SMART capabilities provides telcos with an opportunity to participate in the digital content sector and compete with controlled content ecosystems, rather than just incurring their traffic as a network cost. SMART refers to Services, Management, Applications, Relationships, and Technology. A SMART player successfully deploys value-added services, leveraging expertise in platforms, infrastructure, and applications to aggregate content and services to manage their distribution on behalf of content and service providers as well as the consumer. For these players, a key focus will be to acquire exclusive content, buy into content production or aggregation, or form partnerships to guarantee strong ongoing content relationships. Content flood burdens the consumer with choice Digital technology and content can enrich so much of what we do, but

the flipside is that they can make life more complex rather than less so. The proliferation of content and applications is bewildering for many people, who step back rather than be drowned in a flood of content. In addition, rather than accepting what they're given, consumers are increasingly questioning what they want. The result is that consumers need help to discover, navigate, and select from massive ranges of content. New rule of engagement: Discovery and recommendation is a key element of the consumer experience Discovery and recommendation is a new rule of engagement in the digital content sector and will be key to increasing session times and upselling. Digital content services will be able to differentiate using a highly integrated and even entertaining discovery and recommendation experience in order to attract and retain subscribers. Digital content is still complicated to access for the majority Consumer demand for anytimeanywhere content on a choice of devices is leading to significant audiences migrating to on-demand viewing, whether time-shifting on PVRs, or catch-up TV or online video. Accessing these services is still complicated for the large majority. Complexity also springs from specific challenges from incompatibility in formats, standards, and devices, which in turn means difficulties in content portability and sharing. The concept of the "digital divide" could also be applied to the "greenfield" majority of Internet users – that is, those who utilize only the basic services but are frightened off by digital content services because of their lack of simplicity and usability. New rule of engagement: Simplicity and usability is key to attracting the greenfield majority

Growing the digital content sector requires the conversion of a mass audience from the greenfield majority of Internet users. To do this a key rule of engagement is simplicity and usability. Suppliers need to appreciate that providing richer services does not mean throwing things at consumers and expecting them to get on with it. Although some digital adventurers will be happy and able to take the lead, others will not, so service providers need to think about how to support the majority and create compelling value propositions. New-wave interactivity will revolutionize the consumer experience for applications and devices Interactivity is becoming an integral part of consumer content and applications, but to date it has been fairly basic and focused around communications/social media and giving people more control over service consumption. But this is about to go through a sea change due to the impact of a number of key, sensory technologies, of which the more interesting include: Motion sensor technology (MST) MST has already taken route in the gaming environment and some mobile phone applications. MST enables the user to sit back and simply point at the screen to manipulate it with subtle movements. At the recent Mobile World Congress, NTT DoCoMo demonstrated eyecontrolled playback and volume for an MP3 player. Haptics. Concerned with the technology and physiology of touch, haptics is already making its way into touch-screen technology with mobile vendors such as Samsung. Haptics will feed directly into applications going forward, particularly games and also utility applications related to education and training. Augmented reality. This is a relatively new technology that allows

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graphics, audio and other sensory enhancements such as touch to be superimposed on real-world objects/environments in realtime. It is already being used in mobile applications, through the phone's camera and GPS capabilities, to gather information about local sites and overlay this information on the phone's screen. New rule of engagement: Integrate sensory technology to enrich the consumer experience The deployment of sensory technology to achieve superior performance capable of revolutionizing a CE market is proven. Nintendo's use of sensory technology was key to the success of its Wii games console, and Apple's integration of capacitive touch-screen technology was fundamental to enriching the iPhone consumer experience. The Xbox's controller-less gaming interface, Project Natal, could well become another example of how the integration of new sensory technology has become a new rule of engagement.

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Digital content enters a new phase of monetization There is evidence that digital content is entering a new phase of monetization as old business models become less effective and new ones come into force. In the words of Rupert Murdoch, News Corp's combative leader, "there isn't enough advertising in the world to go around to make all the websites profitable." The bottom line is that digital content providers, whether publishers, operator portals, newspapers, or video, gaming and music services, are not attracting the paying audiences or advertisers necessary to break even on their own, resulting in ambitious and highly strategic moves to monetize and launch new business models. New rule of engagement: design hybrid business models Publishers, music and video services have, so far, not optimized their revenues through free pureplay ad-supported business models alone, and have left the search giants and ad networks as the main profiteers of online advertising.

Consequently, the new rule of engagement requires the design of multiple complementary business models into an integrated offering that optimizes the capture of value. Emerging hybrid models include: The "Freemium" approach, which balances free services with multiple revenue streams from advertising and premium content in order to optimize revenues. Bundling-based business models that combine a range of services that upsell subscribers to more expensive packages, increasing ARPU. These models can also have the effect of reducing churn and therefore introducing an indirect revenue stream. New advertising and conversational marketing techniques are being integrated into new hybrid business models that take advantage of new ad metrics and new engaging ad units, and incorporate social networking and conversational marketing into the mix. By Eden Zoller and Mark Little, Ovum part of the Datamonitor group


RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Mobile Broadband Outstrips Fixed Broadband, But Does Not Replace It

Ovum's new broadband forecast shows an increase in growth rate for mobile broadband subscriptions – good news certainly for mobile operators. By the end of 2015 mobile broadband will swamp fixed broadband subscriptions by more than 300%. A startling statistic, but not one that should overly concern fixed broadband operators. Fixed broadband is not as susceptible to fixed-to-mobile substitution as fixed voice was, and growth opportunities are still possible in the fixed broadband market. By 2015 there will be approximately 3.2 billion mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide, a huge figure when compared to the 785 million fixed broadband subscriptions at the same point in time. Although such significant growth cannot fail to impact the fixed broadband market, this should certainly not be seen as a doom scenario. During the next five years the global fixed broadband market will continue to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 7%. By 2015, on a worldwide basis, 36% of homes will have a fixed broadband subscription. Twenty-five percent of these homes will be served by optical fiber technology, and a further 18% by hybrid-fiber coax (HFC). HFC networks are increasingly being upgraded to DOCSIS

3.0 technology, and thus an increasing portion of such customers will also be able to receive advanced, high-bandwidth services into the home. By 2015 most developed countries will see fixed broadband household penetration of over 60%, and the vast majority will not see any decline due to mobile substitution during this time period. Emerging markets will also still see growth Emerging markets are more susceptible to mobile broadband substitution. However, on the whole this is not existing fixed broadband customers migrating to mobile broadband services, but people who have never had a fixed broadband connection moving straight to mobile broadband. At least from a digital inclusion point of view, this trend should be viewed as a positive, as mobile broadband is enabling more people to get online for the first time. From a fixed broadband perspective, this does stem potential growth. In emerging markets, fixed broadband household penetration is on average more likely to be below 30% by 2015, compared to being above 60% for the more developed markets. In countries such as India it will be below 10%.

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The future may be wireless, but fixed broadband will play a key role

However, even for fixed broadband operators such countries still represent good growth potential. Regions such as South and Central America, Eastern Europe, and Middle East and Africa all have a greater CAGR over the next five years than developed markets, which have now largely reached saturation point.

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Even though fixed broadband is now seen as a mature market, its story is far from over. Devices are increasingly becoming wireless, and mobile broadband technology is developing fast, but it is unlikely, at least in the next decade, that it will catch the more advanced fixed broadband technologies in terms of capability or cost of delivery. It simply won't make technological or financial sense therefore for operators to cut the fixed broadband connection to the home, even if inside the home many of the devices are in fact wireless in nature. Indeed, all around the world, developed and emerging markets alike are exploring and deploying new FTTH/B networks, with many countries seeing such investment as being a critical factor to their future social and economic success.

If such investment and deployments continue to come to fruition, and an increasing number of homes become connected to this new optical fiber based network, then the world could see a new surge in fixed broadband subscriptions. By Michael Philpott, Principal Analyst, Ovum – part of the Datamonitor group


RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Persistent Rise of Mobile Development Frameworks (MDF) According to Ovum Telecoms mobile application download and revenues forecasts, by 2015 the annual end-user revenues from application downloads (dominated by Smartphone devices) will reach over $5.5 billion, with North America and Europe accounting each for over $1.8 billion, followed by APAC with over $0.9 billion. The multiplicity of operating systems, devices, network carriers, and pricing plans for end users makes it complex for software developers to enter the Smartphone and tablet market. The market attracts carriers, enterprises, games developers, and others with the promise of high rewards and productivity benefits for users. It is currently led by business-to-consumer applications, but enterprise applications beyond webmail will also see growth.

Business users prefer to use their personal devices and employers will need to adjust to this by enabling back-office access. This trend will also have implications for the burgeoning mobile development and application lifecycle management (ALM) market. The adoption of Smartphone and tablet devices by the general public for personal use has created a new market for application developers, with enterprise applications also beginning to appear. The current focus is on Android (Google), BlackBerry OS (Research in Motion), iPhone iOS 4 (Apple), Palm webOS (HP), Symbian OS (mainly Nokia), and Microsoft Windows Mobile. These devices provide the choice of operating across mobile networks (GSM, CDMA) or broadband services (Wi-Fi).

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Managing multiple operatingsystem options, different versions and API changes, types of network access and licenses, geographical usage patterns, and multiple development languages can be complex for developers because writing an application for one device and then manually porting it to another entails a fresh rewrite and is highly time-consuming. For the class of mobile apps that are front web interfaces to serverside/intranet components, a "write once, deploy multiple times" development environment is the answer. This has given rise to mobile development frameworks (MDFs), also called mobile enterprise application platforms, from vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, edge IPK, Salesforce.com, Sybase, and Syclo. The frameworks cover the spectrum of app store and warehouse creation for carriers and enterprises where the infrastructure for deployment, revenue scheme, and back-end API connectivity to SAP, Oracle, or corporate data sources is available.

For games development or more ambitious interactive applications where extracting the best performance and exploiting unique device features matters, direct native development will remain a preference. The native mobile market needs "winners" in order for platform consolidation and device reach to improve, and with Android's impressive adoption rate it might yet fulfil such a role. Management of mobile development is an opportunity for established application lifecycle management (ALM) vendors The mobile development market is not one that has particular resonance for traditional ALM vendors because many point solutions are suitable for desktop, mobile, and embedded development. However, the needs of mobile developers are now being met by a new breed of MDF makers that offer a range of lifecycle-management features, and ALM vendors are seeing an opportunity to better support enterprise mobile developers and plug in to MDFs.

Support for Agile development methodologies is one area in which the latest generation of ALM products is particularly strong. The attraction of an MDF for a business is that it enables a strategic investment to be made in mobile device delivery, ensuring that the costs arising from complexity issues do not escalate out of control, and managing the updating of devices without the expensive task of shipping them in and out. There is also out-of-the-box connectivity to enterprise applications such as Oracle and SAP. The fragmentation of the development market, with specialist MDF vendors, a host of ALM vendors, separate IDE players, and a vast point development solution market, creates a volatile and uncertain future. As HTML5 emerges it will drive the mobile apps market forward with offline support and advanced forms, while the high-end plug-in vendors Adobe (Flash), Microsoft (.NET, Silverlight), and Oracle (Java, JavaFX) will also aim to compete. By Michael Azoff, Principal Analyst, Ovum part of the Datamonitor group

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Intensifying of Competition Between Handset Providers and More Pressure on Operators in China Handset providers play an important role in China's 3G ecosystem. Therefore, intensifying competition in the market requires handset providers to develop partnership strategies with operators that leverage their core competencies. Ovum has identified three potential paths that operators and handset providers could follow. Path I: supporting operator requirements - In this scenario, the operators control the user interface and pre -install their own value-added services. In return, the handset providers gain commitments to minimum device purchases and the ability to leverage the operators' sales networks. All of China's operators have adopted partnership strategies of this kind for 3G handsets.

The player that controls the user interface will win the lion's share of margin

Path II: handsets as consumer electronic devices - In this case, handset providers cooperate with content and application providers or partner with vertical Internet portals. This strategy creates differentiation and a selling point for attracting users in targeted segments, as e.g. in the youth segment those who want access to websites on the go.

In contrast, handset providers need to avoid relying too much on operator subsidies and should develop their core competencies to follow the second and third paths.

Path III: handsets as application platforms - Here handset providers act as an enabler, and establish an open platform for third-party developers such as Apple, RIM, and Nokia. However, this strategy can be risky due to conflict with telcos and the fact that all mainland Chinese operators have launched their own application stores, which compete with handsetbased offers.

In the 3G era, all operators realize the importance of the handset and have launched significant handset subsidy policies. But with handset providers expanding control of the user interface, it is hard to imagine them reversing this trend.

Handset providers are currently in a stronger longterm position, and operators must use their subsidy strategies to buy time to develop their own content offers and brand recognition. This would be impossible in a smaller market, but the sheer scale of their Chinese customer bases is an asset that few operators enjoy. By Tracey Chen, Senior Analyst, Ovum part of the Datamonitor group

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Banks Must Wake Up to Mobile Virus Threat Banks offering mobile payment services must wake up to the threat of malware viruses or risk having to play catch-up with criminals, Ovum has warned. A new report by the independent technology analyst states that banks should work with mobile network operators and handset vendors to improve security. In addition, they should plan for living with malware and always assume the possibility of an attack.

In addition, security must not detract from usability. Ovum believes security must be unobtrusive enough not to interfere with normal transaction flows, but at the same time provide users with the confidence to know that their banking activities are protected.

Graham Titterington, Principal Analyst at Ovum and report co-author, believes doing nothing is not an option. He said: "Mobile banking is inherently vulnerable. Mobile devices may be lost, stolen or hacked and are used in situations that are inherently less secure than sitting in an office or at a home computer. "Mobile networks may be intercepted either by breaking the wireless encryption mechanism or by hacking into the wired backbone of the network where encryption is not mandatory under telecommunications standards. IT malware that compromises back-end servers, but is harmless in the wireless environment, may be passed through the mobile banking interface."

"Banks must adopt a 'defence in depth' strategy to detect and limit the effects of an attack", said Titterington. "Network vulnerabilities can be avoided by adopting end-to-end encryption of transactions, independent of any encryption provided by the network operator."

Ovum believes defence has to design incrementally to a level that is at least equivalent to that deployed in Internet banking. However, mobile security must not be simply a copy of Internet security. While many of the concerns and strategies are similar, the approach must be tailored to the characteristics of the channel and the way in which it is used.

"The main objection to this in the past has been the limited computational power of the mobile device, but the time has come to reject this argument as mobile devices become more powerful. Encryption, while not a panacea, protects against eavesdropping, message alteration, and 'man-in-the-middle' attacks." The report adds that banks should be particularly rigorous in checking the creation of new payment mandates, while emphasizing ease of use when making further payments using an existing payment instruction. It recommends that banks should consider offering to reverse payments made in error, as they do with direct debit payments, even if fraud is not proven. By Ovum - part of the Datamonitor group Report: The malware threat to mobile banking

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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Globys Reveals Apps that Drive Most Frequent Mobile Internet Usage in Australia New research commissioned by Globys, a leading provider of contextual marketing solutions for the worldwide telecommunications market, on the usage habits of mobile data users in Australia has revealed

What our research does is identifies which applications drive the most frequent usage and why. This insight along with predictive modeling helps us deliver contextually relevant mobile Internet experiences targeted to individual subscribers."

those applications that drive the highest frequency of mobile Internet usage.

What Globys has found is that helping operators deliver a more personalized and sticky mobile Internet experience can not only encourage trial, but also drive ongoing usage and lower churn of data services.

The research indicates that social networking, transportation, news, sports, weather, and lifestyle are the categories of information most valued by early adopters of the mobile Internet in Australia. The research reveals that these types of applications are utilized most frequently because they enable fast, easy, onthe-go information-seeking and decision making at critical moments in time. "Many telecom operators are having to evolve their strategies from focusing solely on getting people to sign up for data plans to retaining them in order to protect data revenues," said Duane Edwards, Senior Vice President of Globys. "To increase usage and boost customer loyalty, operators must find new ways to introduce the value of data services to those who have not yet realized it, but the question is often 'how'.

Specifically Globys' research in Australia identified:

• • • •

the details of how the mobile Internet gets used in real life situations which URLs and apps underlie the motivation for frequent mobile Internet usage the highest value categories of mobile information used most frequently by early adopters and finally, the emotional and social stakes of getting real time information on mobile devices

The research findings reveal not just which mobile data services are accessed most frequently, but among whom, when, where, and most importantly why.

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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS For instance, in Melbourne, weather apps are accessed daily as a fast, easy means of checking the current forecast and deciding what to wear, as well as the best mode of transportation. What Globys' research uncovered was that weather apps are particularly compelling because something emotionally important is at stake, and because the mobile device delivers weather information much faster than a morning television program.

• The most popular Social Networking app, Mobile Facebook, enables users to stay connected to family, friends and colleagues, regardless of where they are. The heaviest Facebook users are young, single 18 – 30 year olds and access the application daily in the mornings and after work, most often while in transit. • The most popular Weather applications include: Weather.com , WeatherZone, Oz weather, Pocket (PKT) Weather. Women 25 – 35 years of age mostly access these applications in the mornings before work to know to how to dress for the day and decide on the best mode of transportation.

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• The most popular Transportation applications include: Tripview, Tram Tracker, Metlink, and are mostly accessed by 18 – 34 year old women in the mornings before work and in the afternoons after work to identify bus and train locations and obtain updates on delays and cancellation to reduce the stress of uncertainly and feel more in control over their commute. • The most popular News applications include: SMH, The Age, The Australian, Herald Sun, 9MSN, ABC and are mostly used by 25 – 35 year old men and corporate women on public transportation when on the go access is highly desirable. They read headlines in the mornings in order to feel informed and be able to participate in conversations with family, mates and colleagues. • The most popular Sports applications include: AFL, NRL, ESPN, ESPN soccernet, Foxsports, Sportal.com, Footytips.com.au and are primarily used by male ARF and rugby fanatics 20 – 50 years of age. The men access the applications Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings to extend their engagement in the sport and build anticipation for the next game. They also access the applications before games on Thursday and Friday

afternoons to stay informed about favorite teams, scores and players, and to appear knowledgeable in conversations with mates. • The most popular Restaurant applications include: AroundMe, UrbanSpoon, Good food Guide, Menulog and are mostly used by 20 – 30 year old women in relationships on Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Women use the applications as virtual concierge services to locate restaurants in close proximity and evaluate them via customer comments and ratings, thus greatly enhancing the ease of finding high quality restaurants at a specific moment and location. Globys uses rich customer data and analytics to help telecom operators deliver more relevant content and services that provide a personalized mobile Internet experience for their subscribers. The company's newly launched Mobile Occasions solution proactively delivers contextually relevant products, services and content to the mobile device at the specific time a customer is most likely to make a purchase. The end result – consumers discover the value of the mobile Internet in their everyday lives while operators increase penetration and reduce churn of data services.


RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Future of the Mobile Content Value Chain in Asia’s Emerging Markets The mobile content and applications market is currently small, but it has significant potential to drive Asia's emerging market operator non-voice revenues and ARPU. However, only some emerging market operators are yet to give this space the serious attention and resources it requires. So how will this market evolve? Ovum believes there are six key issues that will shape the future development of the market for mobile content and applications in such markets:

• • • • • •

the development of the content value chain the availability of suitable devices network coverage, capacity and bandwidth literacy and approaches to overcoming challenges thereof content services and applications user demand and affordability.

Given the brevity of this article only the first issue will be addressed.

Mobile operators in the value chain Currently emerging market mobile operators are prevalent in the value chain, dominating content delivery and the user retail environment for purchasing content and applications in the shape of operator portals. Many are now seeking to expand their role into content aggregation, application stores, smart enabler services for developers and other third parties. Other players besides operators will be seeking an expanded role in the content value chain, but unlike their counterparts in developed markets, operators in emerging markets are typically in a stronger position. This is due to a number of often overlapping factors: There is a higher level of mobile penetration compared to fixed broadband/PC penetration, which contributes to a more mobile operator centric scenario. There is also lower penetration of banking and payment services, which puts greater value on operator billing capabilities. Further expansion of mobile money services is set to strengthen mobile operators' competence in this area. Operators in emerging markets typically have powerful brands that, outside of the affluent, middle-class segment, have far more resonance with mass-market consumers compared to online players and device vendors.

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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

The lack of fixed broadband/PC penetration, particularly in rural areas, means that Google and the like will be little known to most people. Brand status and power is important in the content value chain for building a powerful retail channel, particularly for application stores. It can also play an important role in negotiating content revenuesharing agreements. Local content beyond the basics is not abundant in most emerging markets, but mobile operators are nonetheless more adept at providing it than many of their rivals in the content value chain. The international online/mobile content offerings are in English and cater to Western tastes, and it is a similar story for applications found on device vendor stores. Operators dominate the consumer retail channels for purchasing content in the form of operator portals that typically function on walledgarden principals – a closed model that has almost disappeared in developed markets. Device vendor app stores will have minimal impact The rise of device vendor application stores in mature markets has been meteoric, and vendors are now setting their sights on emerging markets, with launches planned in India and China. How deeply entrenched they will become in emerging markets, and how they will threaten operators' positions in the value chain remains to be seen. Ovum doesn't expect device vendor application stores to have the kind of impact in emerging markets that they are currently having in mature markets. This is partly because of the strong position that operators have in emerging markets compared to their developed market counterparts.

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It is also because device vendor application stores are typically coupled with expensive, mid- to highend Smartphones, which have low penetration in emerging markets and are largely confined to the affluent middle classes. This will not change dramatically in the next five years.

This contrasts the more generous 70:30 split between developers and operators becoming standard in mature markets. The comparatively unfavorable terms for content partners in emerging markets is having a negative effect because it gives them little incentive to produce compelling applications.

However, device vendors are not confining their content ambitions to application stores. Many have a wider agenda that could have a greater impact on the mass market. Some vendors have very specific initiatives focused on developing countries – for example, the provision of utility applications supported on mass market feature phones such as Nokia Life Tools service, which includes regional market information for popular crops in local languages.

However, we do expect the current revenue sharing models to improve in favor of content providers in the medium term, for two reasons. First, operators will have to rely more on data revenues going forward, and will need the support of content partners – unbalanced revenue sharing will be a deterrent in this respect. Second, device vendor application stores are starting to launch in emerging markets and offer a better percentage of revenues to content and application developers. This will have a knockon effect and, at the very least, operators opening their own stores will have to offer comparable revenue-share agreements or risk seeing developers decamp to device vendor stores.

Current revenue sharing models will hinder content innovation Mobile operators in emerging markets take a higher cut of content and application revenues compared to operators in developed countries. Emerging market operators typically take around a 50% share, with the balance going to content partners although they may receive less if an aggregator/technology is involved.

By Nathan Burley, Analyst in Ovum's Asia-Pacific research team – part of the Datamonitor group


RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Media Tablets on the Up in Asia Pacific, Says IDC IDC expects media tablet shipments in the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) to grow from 1.3 million units in 2009 to 9.6 million units in 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 65%. Key countries for media tablet sales in the near term include the developed markets of Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, while China and Korea will be major opportunities towards the end of the forecast period. IDC defines media tablets as tablet form factor devices with 7-12in. color displays, harnessing ARMbased processors and running lightweight operating systems such as Apple's iOS and Google's Android OS. Apple's popular iPad characterizes the first wave of media tablets, but further efforts will come from both PC and mobile phone makers. "Media tablets are expected to occupy a space between Smartphones and portable PCs without replacing either. They will complement PCs as media consumption devices, while allowing seamless sharing of content with mobile phones. Currently marketed as multifunction entertainment devices, the success of media tablets will hinge critically on the availability of local applications and content," commented Bryan Ma, Associate Vice President, Asia/Pacific Devices and Peripherals Research at IDC.

"Media tablets are certainly the talk of the town today, but the next year or so will be critical for the category's evolution as early adopters figure out what they really need a media tablet for, and in what kind of usage scenario," said Bryan. "Even if e-Book content is not as readily available in Asia as in Western countries, simple web surfing and gaming apps could still provide enough of a value proposition to allow the category to move forward here." However, despite the early promise of the category, significant challenges remain. Hardware makers appear uncertain about the choice between x86- and ARM-based platforms. The myriad of operating systems touted for the category, which includes from Android, Chrome, MeeGo and WebOS, will also further serve to fragment and impede the development of the market. Bryan concluded, "IDC remains cautiously optimistic about the longer term potential of the media tablet segment. In Asia in particular, the iPad is likely to spark off intense competition from Asian brands, leading to a wealth of offerings in varying price tiers. With operators migrating towards 4G networks in the coming years, media tablets will further become a strategic vehicle for increased mobile data usage. There are certainly roadblocks, but the media tablet appears here to stay."

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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Frost & Sullivan: Data Services to Drive Growth as SEA’s Mobile Market Nears Saturation According to Frost & Sullivan, growth in Southeast Asia's (SEA) mobile services is expected to be driven by data services as mobile connections penetration surpassed 90 percent in 2009 and slowing revenue growth signal saturation. Capping a three-year run of high growth, 2009 saw Southeast Asia's mobile connections rising 22.1 percent to 489 million (subscriptions). Total revenues however grew just 3.2 percent, reaching US$28.7 billion in the same year. "Last year marked a tipping point for service growth drivers in Southeast Asia - and the rest of Asia - as data services revenues, reaching US$7.1 billion, drove 60 percent of Southeast Asia's total revenue growth," says Frost & Sullivan senior consultant Nicholas Khoo.

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Southeast Asian operators' growth focus is shifting from customer acquisition to maintaining existing revenue streams and developing new ones. "Plain old voice and text messaging services will no longer deliver larger revenue growth than data services, even in developing markets such as Cambodia and Vietnam," he adds. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (Southeast Asia Wireless Outlook 2010) finds that data usage in this market - covering seven Southeast Asian nations will grow to account for 40.4 percent (just over US$12.4 billion) of total mobile revenues by end2015, up from 27.8 percent in 2009. Southeast Asia is at the beginning of another wave of mobile data services enabled by exponentially improved networks and device capabilities.


RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Frost & Sullivan identifies three broad data service segments: 1. Mobile Internet: on existing and upgrading low- to mid-end devices delivering relevant 'thin' services and Internet service extensions; 2. Mobilised Internet: on mid- to high-end Smartphones offering new services and extensions around portability of the Internet experience and services; 3. Mobile Broadband: adds mobility value to broadband through un-tethered access on a variety of portable devices. "Mobile broadband offers the clearest new connections growth and new revenue stream opportunity for operators," says Frost & Sullivan senior industry analyst Shi Min. She adds that countries like Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia - already with mobile penetration of 137 percent, 127 percent (although half are reportedly inactive) and 108 percent, respectively, in 2009 present the best potential for mobile broadband given the broadband- and Internet-receptiveness of these nations.

Shi explains, "In developed markets, like Singapore, mobilized Internet and mobile broadband competition is likely to revolve around branding and value-capture based on lifestyle patterns, personalization and convenience." The Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand (each with mobile penetration of 80 percent and above; and low fixed-Internet and broadband penetration), on the other hand, offer fertile environments for mobile and mobilized

Internet, giving users access to an almost transparent fixed Internet experience on their devices. "In developing markets, mobile could well become the primary narrow and broadband Internet access service," Khoo says. He however adds that the intermediate challenges for operators to navigate are end-user device affordability and familiarity with and usage of the Internet in low Internet-readiness markets.

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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

ComScore’s Study on Social Networking Access via Mobile Browser comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released a study on social networking access via mobile browser. The study found that 30.8 percent of Smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3 points from 22.5 percent one year ago. Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112 percent in the past year, while Twitter experienced a 347percent jump. "Social networking remains one of the most popular and fastest-growing behaviors on both the PC-based Internet and the mobile Web," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile.

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"Social media is a natural sweet spot for mobile since mobile devices are at the center of how people communicate with their circle of friends, whether by phone, text, email, or, increasingly, accessing social networking sites via a mobile browser." More than 30 Percent of Smartphone Owners Access Social Networking Sites via Mobile Browser In January 2010, 11.1 percent of all mobile phone users accessed a social networking site via mobile browser, an increase of 4.6 percentage points from the previous year. Much of this growth has been driven by Smartphone owners, 30.8 percent of whom accessed social networking sites on their mobile browsers, up more than 8 percentage points on the year. By comparison, just 6.8 percent of feature phone users accessed social networking sites on their mobile phones.


RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Mobile Browser Access of Facebook and Twitter Posts Triple-Digit Growth Access of leading social networking sites via mobile browser continues to see significant growth. In January 2010, 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook via their mobile browser, up 112 percent from the previous year. MySpace attracted 11.4 million users, approximately half that of Facebook, in January.

Interestingly, Facebook's mobile browser audience surpassed MySpace in February 2009 -three months earlier than the Facebook audience exceeded that of MySpace on the PC-based Internet in May 2009. Twitter, which has experienced tremendous growth in both mobile and PC-based visitation, attracted 4.7 million mobile users in January, up 347 percent versus year ago. These figures do not include access of the social networking services by the nearly 6 million mobile phone owners who do so exclusively through mobile applications.

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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Data Trumps Voice on Australia’s Smartphones

Australia's accelerating numbers of mobile Smartphone owners are using their handsets to access data more frequently than using the telephone feature, according to new research from media agency Initiative. Included in the research is clear evidence that mobile data is being frequently accessed by all age groups and they are open to commercial messaging on their 'phones under certain conditions. "We are seeing a powerful, new media emerging," said Chris O'Keefe, managing director of Initiative Sydney. "It is a very personal media platform, but the data reveals that people will download both free and paid programming and messaging onto their 'phones based on need and relevance. It is the ultimate consumer-controlled environment and presents unique opportunities for marketers." Australia is one of eight countries in the Initiative study. Among local Smartphone users voice calls account for 39%, while accessing data, including email, totals 51% of activity, gaming takes 6% and various other functions take the remaining 4%. Contrary to some speculation about Smartphone users, frequent accessing of data is strong across all age groups 18 to 54 years old and among men and women. Previously it was thought that Smartphone data usage was confined mostly to younger age groups and "techies". A further 51% of those surveyed accessed the internet (excluding e-mails) from their Smartphones several times a day and 19% said they accessed the internet once a day. The remaining 30% said they accessed the internet less than once a day.

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While it is unknown how many Smartphones in Australia have been bought for business use, the Initiative data shows that 72% of mobile phone use is driven by personal interest and in general across the sample people spend about 27 minutes a day accessing the internet from their Smartphones. "Another key finding is that mobile data access from Smartphones is an extra media activity in Australia and has no impact on people's time spent on other media," said O'Keefe. "There is no road map for how this media will develop, but it's clear that mobile data usage is in addition to people's existing media consumption and this includes time on the other two major 'screens' – PC/laptop and television." Focusing on some of the media and marketing aspects of the study, 36% of Smartphone users have agreed to receive mobile content from companies and engagement is strongest in the 35-44 year-old bracket. But 42% of the sample want to avoid advertising on their mobiles and said they would rather pay more than $50 for apps rather than take commercial messaging. The Initiative Australia survey draws on data from a sample of 1,072 Smartphone users aged between 18 and 54 years old who accessed the internet (excluding email) from their handsets at least weekly. The survey was conducted between April and May 2010 and in addition to Australia, data was collected from a total of 8,000 people in the US, UK, Italy, Sweden, South Korea, China and India. By initiative


RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Microsoft Advertising Designs Innovative Tool to Test Digital Savvy Move over, EQ and IQ, there's a new Q in town. DQ or Digital Quotient tells you how savvy you are in the digital space. Take up the challenge to find out your DQ and know where you stand among the "digerati" – a community made up of the digital elite. To reflect the importance of a different type of intellectual aptitude in today's online world, Microsoft Advertising has created the Digital Quotient (DQ), an online assessment tool to gauge the digital awareness and knowledge of advertising professionals in the Asia-Pacific region. Each test consists of 20 questions across five categories – Digital Basics, Digital Media Trends, Consumer Behavior, Ad Performance, and Digital Creativity – which are randomly selected from the overall question database of 120 questions. The DQ aims to tell marketers and advertisers what they need to know to keep pace with the rapidly evolving world of digital marketing. The test will help them ascertain their strengths and weaknesses, and point them to areas where they need to boost particular skills. "When you consider that by 2013 the Asia Pacific region alone will account for some US$21.2 billion worth of revenue from mobile and Internet advertising, you can expect that fierce competition will be brewing," said Kenneth Andrew, Marketing Director, Microsoft Advertising. "Marketers who are not in synch with the times will most certainly fail to capture the potential of engaging with consumers who are spending increasing amounts of time online. "We recognized that there was no existing benchmark for people to assess their knowledge in the digital space. The DQ test sets a standard which allows professionals to determine where they stand in relation to the rest of the industry."

The DQ test was originally developed by Microsoft Advertising Taiwan in September 2009, and within two months, it garnered participation from over 500 industry professionals. The results showed that Taiwan-based industry professionals were generally digitally savvy, with all scoring over 55 percent, and a third of respondents even obtaining a score of over 80 percent. Now launched in Asia-Pacific, the DQ test also comes with a contest element. Not only will the region's digerati get the chance find out how digitally savvy they are, the overall highest DQ test winner will win a trip to SPIKES Asia Advertising Festival in Singapore from 19 to 21 September, and an XBOX 360, courtesy of Microsoft Advertising. Following the announcement of the overall contest winners at SPIKES, the DQ test will still be available online for users to assess themselves. Given the rapid pace of movement in the digital industry, the questions will be frequently amended and updated to reflect changes in the industry. "The Digital Quotient is an important tool in the education of industry personnel as it provides the framework for plugging their knowledge gaps. As one of the leading global players in digital advertising, we are committed to working with digital marketers to improve their understanding of the digital media landscape. We look forward to working with agencies and marketers from around the region on the Digital Quotient," added Andrew. What is your Digital Quotient? Aspiring digerati can participate in the Digital Quotient test at http://advertising.microsoft.com/asia/dqtest

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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

We are still in the early days of the mobile marketing industry, so the market must continue to be educated on the options and opportunities available to it. ~ Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, MMA Asia Pacific

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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Mobile Marketing Basics Though there's much excitement around mobile marketing's rapid progression and advanced features, there are still a number of organizations that are in the dark about the immense benefits of a mobile marketing campaign in these technology driven times.

dio, and so on drives interest and response from your target demographic. Today, mobile marketing doesn't stand alone; it's best when integrated into those other media channels.

Some of the most asked questions I receive from such members of various industries regard the basics: What is mobile marketing? How do I get involved? What mobile marketing tactics should I utilize? What tactics are best suited for my brand category? Who do I call to get started?

One of the most important places to begin in defining your mobile campaign or initiative is to clearly identify your campaign's strategic goals and objectives. Once these objectives are determined, it will be easier to determine what mobile tactics work best -- as well as what measurement criteria can be used to evaluate the campaign's success. Some goals or objectives for mobile marketing are increasing brand awareness; generating a customer opt-in database (although the database can only be used by the brand for the specific purpose that's confirmed with the consumer); driving attendance or participation in events, visits, or purchases; increasing revenues; and improving customer loyalty.

We are still in the early days of the mobile marketing industry, so the market must continue to be educated on the options and opportunities available to it. Although there is a large base of providers experienced in all marketing tactics, many are just starting to dip their toes in. It is interesting to hear how many brands across various industries are recognizing that mobile has become an integral element in their campaigns, due primarily to the ability to connect with the consumer in real time. The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) defines "mobile marketing" as "the use of wireless media as an integrated content delivery and direct response vehicle within a cross-media marketing communications program." This means mobile is one of many media channels and the key to success is integrating mobile with other traditional and digital media elements. Mobile integrated with print, on-pack, TV, ra-

Define Mobile Marketing Goals

Select a Mobile Marketing Partner After you define your goals, you must select a mobile marketing partner. The mobile partner can be in one of the following areas:

• • •

An agency or a mobile-specific agency An aggregator A mobile application service provider (MASP)

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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Be wary: carriers have a number of • relationships (direct connections) with aggregators and will counsel you to approach one of the folks in the above categories. You can choose to partner with an MMA member instead. This ensures your partner will adhere to and be aware of the industry's best prac• tices and guidelines. Select Mobile Marketing Tactics

Next, select your mobile marketing tactics. The most common tactics to date include sweepstakes, instant win, polling/voting, picture messaging, WAP, text to buy, participation TV, trivia, alerts, coupons, text to screen, and mobile content promotions (ring tones, videos, wallpapers). Each of these will deliver a different value and experience to your target consumer. Work with your mobile marketing partner to determine what's best for • you to achieve your specific goals and objectives. Keep the following in mind when choosing your tactics:

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Mobile is a unique medium, and campaigns should be developed and designed with that in mind. The mobile medium has its own unique set of interactions and learned behaviors. Leverage them in your executions. Don't just repurpose content from other media. Create experiences that are mobile specific. Don't forget the user. Make it usable! Rather than create complex applications which require the consumer to learn new technologies or new ways to access information, keep it simple. Use the tried and true, the mobile technologies with ubiquitous coverage – text, mobile web – and keep the consumer interaction and engagement short. Exploit Mobile Behavior. Remember when consumers are accessing your services, they want value and they want it now (facilitate spontaneity). By using the mobile channels that are driving volume, you can reach the mobile consumer whenever and wherever they are.

Focus on the Mobile Key Messages and Demographics: 1. Mobile users are time poor. 2. Lots of youth users 3. Integrate into cross media campaigns including print, out of home, etc. 4. Provide a mechanism to buy or gain more information (value exchange) Guidelines & Best Practices: Stick to the industry guidelines that help to ensure consumer privacy and a positive, consistent consumer experience.

Your mobile marketing partner will not only help you define your tactics and ensure your approach to the consumer is sound but also help you define promotion flow; manage the database; procure a short code, if required; conduct testing; provide ongoing customer support and monitoring; and provide campaign reporting and analysis. Most important, however, your partner will help ensure your campaign follows industry rules and best practices to protect the consumer experience and consumer privacy. By Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific Pte Ltd


BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

The End of the Beginning of Mobile Marketing Many people look at technical changes with askance or often even reject it from the beginning. So, to no surprise, there aren't really good discussions out there on why it's worth to use the mobile channel for marketing measures. Maybe one reason is the fact that mobile marketing is already around for more than 10 years and promobile discussions should have been getting around a long time ago? Or perhaps it is assumed that everybody simply already knows all benefits mobile marketing has to offer? But if this would be the case, shouldn't there be better, more creative and innovative mobile campaigns all over the place? The current hype around mobile easily misleads to neglect basics with regards to content, but only those who understand the advantages and the innovative nature of the medium can use mobile marketing in an allencompassing way.

Mobile marketing offers a bundle of unique opportunities In recent years, an enormous amount of articles, studies and best practices on various facets of mobile marketing have been published, which emphasize usually in the introductory paragraphs the benefits of the medium. However, a little bit more fundamental research wouldn't hurt, according to Tomi T. Ahonen. The popular author, consultant, and motivational speaker claims that most experts focus exclusively on the aspect of the device as being the most personal medium in the world. Unfortunately, their approaches often fall too short by mistaking the "most personal medium" with "personally-tailored advertising channel", although the importance of an "opt in" is always pointed out. Tomi T. Ahonen, however, opens up other perspectives by giving us his seven aspects on make the medium and hence mobile marketing unique:

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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

1.

Mobile is generally the first personal mass media;

2.

It is the only medium that is always carried around;

3.

It is always on;

4.

No other medium has a builtin payment function;

5.

Only mobile phones are always available at the "point of creative inspiration";

6.

With no other medium a target group can be determined as accurately;

7.

Only mobile devices can also measure the social context of media consumption.

It's not practicable to go into all aspects, but it would be debatable whether the points 1, 6 and 7 had earlier already been fulfilled by the Internet and of course point 4 is less relevant for mobile marketing. The actual new features of mobile

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phones and mobile marketing are the points 2, 3 and 5, as mobile devices are carried around and are turned on always and everywhere. Hence, characteristics such as measurability, social context and personality receive an additional qualitative dimension, which didn't exist in this form before, although they are not completely new. With all innovations the medium provides for mobile marketing purposes, its original function could actually be the decisive one, namely the purpose of serving as a communication tool. From the cell phone to its forerunners the fixed line or even telegraph, its usage is for communication in particular. The end of the beginning of mobile marketing as we know it today will be achieved when taking a closer look again at the truly unique features of the medium and use it more for its dedicated purpose: Always on and always with you, means to some extent not necessarily that mobile marketing does happen only on the cell phone.

In the future it will be more effective only in conjunction with other media. And sooner or later the term mobile marketing will completely lose significance - as it will be more than that. By Daniela La Marca


BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Location-Based Services For years, we've used the same example when discussing location-based services: imagine you're walking past a Starbucks and a coupon for a dollar off a latte is pushed to your mobile device just as you pass the store. Location targeting enables advertisers to deliver brand or tactical campaign messages when they are most relevant to the consumer – when he or she is within a visiting radius to a shop front; and when this individual is most likely to make a purchasing decision. In Asia, location based advertising is still at a nascent stage. However, it is highly relevant as it offers marketers the possibility of better targeting and higher levels of consumer engagement within fragmented or disparate regions. APAC consumers can vary greatly, there is no one size fits all solution. Even within a single Asian country, we see significant differences in consumers - from language to socio-economic factors and even access to mainstream media and internet connectivity. By combining the massive reach of the mobile phone and targeting abilities of location aware solutions, marketers can enable delivery of relevant, localized content that engages the consumer and adds value to the brand.

Location-based services can be split into four categories. These define the various ways that businesses can work with LBS players to reach out to their target audience.

• •

Business to Business (B2B): These include location-based enterprise applications like fleet/asset management or courier tracking services. Consumer to Business (C2B): These are proximity-based services that consumers access when they need them. Examples would be a user being able to locate a close by hospital during an emergency or a nearby restaurant or movie theatre for a night out. Business to Consumer (B2C): These include proximity-based, targeted advertisements, discounts, offers, coupons etc delivered to consumers at the right place and time. A common example used is that of a consumer walking past his favourite coffee shop and immediately receiving a coupon for a dollar off on a latte. Consumer to Consumer (C2C): These include location-based social networking services that allow

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users to update their friends and contacts on their location or track the movements of their friends. Having a presence on location-based social networks can help businesses track their customers. A successful LBS offering comes from collaborations between different players. These include operators, sponsors, service providers, application service providers, application developers, content providers, location determination technology providers, regulators, etc. Today, location infrastructure can locate a subscriber within 15 to 150 meters, depending on whether handset or network-based solutions have been deployed within the carrier network. This provides the location granularity that would help enable more targeted mobile marketing applications. Why, then, is location still not mainstream for brand utilizations? Consumer privacy and permissions need resolution and have been debated for some time. Ensuring consumers appropriately provide permission to be located at the time and by the application that they've authorized will be a crucial issue to solve before mobile marketers can use location in broad

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mainstream campaigns. Rules around access to and protection of the consumer's location information and location history will also be key. Another necessary component to ensure ubiquitous location services will be location interoperability between carriers and handsets, similar to what has been developed for SMS. Passing or sharing a location between applications and networks will be key to moving locationbased mobile campaigns across carriers forward. Let's also not forget mobile marketing applications require the consumer to opt in to participate. The example of a consumer being pushed an ad when walking by a store will only happen if that consumer previously signed up to receive the alerts. There may never be a mass push of ads to all consumers who walk by a Starbucks, with perhaps one exception. In Europe and Asia, there are smallscale location services applications using Bluetooth technology that will do exactly that: push marketing and ad messages to your device if Bluetooth is turned on and you're in range of the application. This may be interesting but is also intrusive.

The 'where' is only one component for location services. We should also be able to know the 'who', knowing details about consumers at any time: their interests, availability, and personal information. Together, the 'who' and 'where' would be a valuable combination for any mobile marketer. It would enable true consumer targeting based on the consumer's exact preferences at the time and place the consumer is ready to interact with your brand. We're now seeing new business ideas based on location-based technology. For example, there are dating services that use the technology to set up meetings for their computer-generated matches. Anytime a prospective match from their database is in close proximity to each other, both parties get a notification with each other's details on their mobile devices and can decide whether they would like to go ahead and meet with the other person. A number of such smaller businesses and application developers can use their local insights and databases to create unique LBS offerings. By Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific Pte Ltd


BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

QR Codes Hit the Road from the Billboard to the Mobile Internet In recent years QR codes are becoming more and more popular in the advertising industry. Appearing like squares with integrated labyrinths at first glance, they can be scanned with a mobile phone camera and in an instant reveal a link to a brand portal and the mobile Internet. Its main goal is gaining customer loyalty and developing an appropriate brand image. Originally from Japan, QR codes were first developed and used there in the car industry in the 90s and only later gained popularity in the advertising industry. With free reading programs from the Internet, which run on most Java-enabled mobile phones, they can be decrypted to reveal its information pool. The camera of the mobile phone photographs the code, hands it on to the Java application for decryption, which then in turn retrieves the browser of the phone and opens the page with the additional information. The innovative access through scans via mobile phones can be placed on print media such as flyers, brochures, or magazines, allowing fast access to a brands' information via mobile Internet portals. But whoever wants to advertise successfully with QR codes should consider, besides a few other things, the unique characteristics of the technical components:

First of all the purpose has to be specified, as well as what's most suitable for the image building. QR codes are almost predestined for brands related to lifestyle and tech-savvy target groups. The strength of mobile advertising is the integration of a traditional with an innovative digital approach: An early addition of the mobile channel in the design of integrated campaigns is necessary to get optimum participation and downloads from the campaign. The edited information on the mobile portal should meet the expectations of the target group.

If you invest in a high-quality integrated campaign, but skimp on the mobile portal, you will disappoint your audiences. Codes that are too long, or have too much detail information after the code, may affect the technical function. Ideal is therefore a length of 30 characters and a 4 pixel margin per code. Advertising media with QR codes should always include an indication of where the necessary reader software can be downloaded. The software is usually already pre-installed in newer mobile phone models, but not on older devices. The design and implementation of mobile marketing campaigns and the construction of corresponding mobile portals should preferably be operated by the same provider in order to guarantee a smooth interaction of the two campaign components and a high quality implementation.

If you want to exploit the full potential of the mobile channel with QR codes, consider integrating them with the other marketing instruments and channels as each has its own strength and weaknesses. Marketing campaigns have to play in the offline, online, and mobile world at the same time. In doing so, QR codes can be the predestined point of contact. While online is mainly used by consumers and businesses to do research supporting a buying decision, the offline world consists of the physical presences like shops, but also the traditional media. Connect them by pushing mobile to action and provide a QR code on a billboard or print ad asking to text for more information. By Daniela La Marca You may want to read "Mobile tagging and what you should know about it", covered in the previous issue of Asian e-Marketing

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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Mobile Marketing: The Recipe for Success Currently, many of the top brands try to figure out what to do with mobile marketing. Some establish mobile sites, just like it happened 10 years ago when online became mainstream. Those sites initially were static, then they became dynamic and the content was updated on a regular basis, and finally came transactional/interactive websites. The same is happening with mobile sites, which means many out there are still static, some are dynamic, and we also start seeing those which allow transactional interaction with the respective companies. Nobody expects mobile marketing to unlock the potential of the mobile medium, if executed as traditional marketing just in a different channel. However, there is nothing wrong with it as the mobile phone is without doubt a great channel to connect to customers. And indeed many businesses are already quite successful in their efforts to make use of the new instruments, exemplified here with the catering industry.

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How can more be gained from mobile marketing? The best a restaurant can do to increase its sales is firstly to reward their regular customers and secondly to make occasional guests to regular ones. This much is clear. The question that arises is how to get this done when the daily business keeps you already extremely busy and you can't manage to become an advertising specialist overnight? For the hotel and catering industry mobile marketing is a cost effective target-group approach. It provides a direct reach to the customer, personalization, interactivity, user friendliness, and rapid implementation to name the advantages briefly. In addition, the areas of applications for the catering trade are far reaching. Consider for example that there is a quiet evening in your restaurant and you have the tool to change this within minutes by sending a mobile marketing campaign to your customers? Reaching them all over the city with your message just when they are thinking about what's for dinner today?


BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Or for each reservation you send a confirmation via SMS? Or you might want to boost the pleasant anticipation, point out a special offer, or your starters menu with your mobile SMS activities? Another option would be to send coupons to selected guests that can be redeemed on quiet evenings. Your guests will carry this coupon around on their cell phone and be constantly reminded of you. It is of no surprise that the success rate of mobile coupons is on an average pretty high especially in restaurants and cafes. So-called mobile coupons have a redemption rate of 5-15% compared to 1% for conventional paper coupons. Another way of using mobile marketing in your restaurant, bistro, or cafe can be to prompt special events. Communicate for instance movie nights, theme nights, live music and other special activities. You can even accept reservations directly via SMS. Indeed, a number of business analysts agree that mobile marketing or bulk SMS is the advertising medium of the future as they are used for a number of goals, which are essentially the same as with the traditional nonmobile channels:

• • • •

Drive and maintain brand equity and loyalty Generate attention for products or services Generate sales leads Gain customer insights

Just take a look at the young generation today that unanimously agrees that their phone is the most important device they possess. We are really talking here about the communication device of the future that has sheer inexhaustible opportunities on offer.

tages for companies. At a glance, benefits are usually:

• •

How easy is it to implement mobile marketing into the daily business' life? Of course, you can send mobile marketing campaigns from your mobile phone. But, this is not only expensive, it is time consuming as well due to the many contacts. There is a sea of software around that is taking over the mass sending of SMS, like e.g. XGate, RouteSms, or GraphicMail to name just a few. All are providing its customers with compact, user-friendly e-mail and mobile marketing solutions that include a lot of advan-

• •

That the so-called hosted service require no installation or advanced computer skills; That you can easily import within seconds already existing address books from other applications such as Outlook or Gmail, Mobile Sender ID: You select the number that shall appear as the sender's SMS. Your mobile marketing campaigns are sent as if sent from this number and the recipient can reply directly to this number, without the need to constantly check your computer. The prices of bulk SMS are significantly lower than those of network providers. There is a statistics function available to analyze the sent campaign success rate, etc.

Whatever you are planning, always remember that your activities should be part of an orchestrated effort in the mobile space. By Daniela La Marca

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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Check Point Secures Remote Network Access for Handheld Wireless Devices Check Point's solution provides secure remote access, data security, virus and malware protection, and security deployment and management for handheld wireless devices. According to Check Point, enterprises face two risks when they allow handheld devices to connect to corporate resources over unsecured networks and via Wi-Fi hotspots: unauthorized persons or servers may access the corporate network, and data may be compromised during transmission. If either of these occurs, an enterprise is left wide open to damage. Thankfully there is a straightforward solution. Enterprises can protect against these risks by deploying a network access control (NAC) solution and encrypting data in transit. A NAC solution, simply put, ensures that users are who they say they are, before being allowed to access corporate resources, as, enter-

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prises can define NAC rules at the gateway and verify authorization before a user is allowed to connect over a VPN. Handheld devices support a variety of authentication methods, including passwords, tokens, certificates and shared secrets. A strong secure remote network access solution will support a broad range of industry standards and should include WPA2, a secure wireless authorization protocol designed for enterprises and mobile devices operating over Wi-Fi networks. Once access is authorized, the data must be protected in transit. Wireless communication protocols The most popular secure wireless communication protocols are IPSec, IPSec over L2TP, PPTP, SSL and TCP/IP. While TCP/IP is the basic communica-


BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

tion protocol of the Internet, the others represent different methods of creating a virtual private network (VPN), a secure "tunnel" for safe transmission of information across the Internet. The most popular forms are IPSec and SSL VPNs, and newer Smartphones use industry standard protocols for both. Whereas IPSec VPNs require a client loaded onto the endpoint device, SSL VPNs afford the most flexibility because they are clientless. Users of handheld devices typically access the SSL VPN via a simple Web browser. A strong SSL VPN solution will provide mobile workers with transparent, uninterrupted connectivity, allowing them to easily traverse firewalls, proxies, and network address translation (NAT) devices without the disruption of having to constantly reauthorize as they roam across multiple cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Virus and malware protection Regardless of secure transmission protocols deployed, the chosen VPN should include a firewall that protects the network from unauthorized access by outside, unknown networks and unauthorized users. Deploying personal firewalls on handheld devices helps block malicious traffic and prevents the propagation of worms and the potentially harmful effects of spyware, such as Flexispy, a variant of the Skulls Trojan. Firewall protection on both the endpoint and the gateway are consistent with multi-layered security, a recommended practice for strong protection. Ideally, firewalls should be integrated into other security technologies such as the VPN, NAC and NAT and should include intrusion prevention, antivirus and web content filtering capabilities. Unified security architecture with centralized management can allow enterprises to administer and deploy security policy from a single console. Endpoint security policy compliance

Since IT administrators do not have direct access to handheld devices and may not be installing bundled software or VPN clients, they do not have as much direct control over the devices as they would like. This is a significant concern because handhelds, like other endpoint devices, can be used as an entry point of attack or to spread an existing virus or threat. In the PC realm, there has been a dramatic rise in spyware including keystroke loggers, Trojan horses, and malware designed specifically to automate financial crime. These threats are now beginning to target handheld devices. Malware threatens information confidentiality, endangers system passwords and increases the risk of data loss or compromise. A strong handheld endpoint security solution protects against threats by ensuring that a device complies with an enterprise's security policy before a user is allowed to access the network. Prior to granting access, endpoint security solutions ensure that antimalware software is up to date, devices patches and updates are in place, and real-time threat updates are received. Endpoint security for handhelds should be tailored to a device's unique characteristics such as computing power and screen size. Malware scanners should employ signatures and rules that identify malware targeting the device's specific operating system. Virus signature updates should take into account the different Smartphone interfaces, such as SMS, MMS, and ActiveSync. Security providers are just beginning to develop anti-virus and anti-malware scanning tools to address these differences. Since most malware is conveyed via unsolicited messages, endpoint security for mobile devices should include interface blocking utilities; the ability, for example, to turn on or off SMS/MMS or Bluetooth capabilities.

Such utilities should include granular device settings so that IT administrators can apply different rules to different groups, and interface blocking should be configurable centrally within an enterprise for maximum visibility. Data security for handheld wireless devices Analysts agree that lost or stolen devices currently pose the greatest threat. A device usage survey conducted by Check Point found that 22% of mobile device owners had lost their devices, and a staggering 81% of these devices had no protection such as encryption. What's more, 37% of these devices contained sensitive information, such as passwords, corporate data and bank account details. Research shows that the vast majority of lost or stolen mobile devices contain company communications and confidential business information. Because handhelds are often used by the most senior-level managers and by those accessing critical customer and financial data, the risk is enormous. Two solutions protect data on the devices from falling into the wrong hands: data encryption and device access control. To protect against data loss or abuse, all data stored in files, folders and memory cards on the handheld device should be encrypted. A good solution should be transparent and simple, encrypting files on the fly without interrupting workflow. Handheld owners should be required to enter an access code or other authentication procedure before being allowed to access device features and stored data. With both of these protections in place, IT staff can sleep better at night knowing that data stored on the devices is protected. As an additional safeguard, enterprises may adopt technology allowing IT administrators to remotely wipe a phone clean in the event that it is reported lost or stolen.

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Security deployment and management for handheld wireless devices Most enterprises have a formal security policy in place, outlining their overall security and risk strategies. A good handheld device security solution allows an enterprise to monitor and protect devices within the context of this overall security strategy. It should offer centralized management of handheld devices, including policy management, monitoring, and enforcement, and should enable an integrated view of security status across the entire enterprise. With centralized management, IT administrators can deploy security policies such as access rights, encryption settings and interface blocking rules, deploy patches and device updates, and distribute security threat updates and alerts. Centralized configuration and maintenance of security solutions for handhelds allows an enterprise to configure resources and policies more consistently and provides administrators with greater visibility into policies and status. A security management tool allows an enterprise to build an audit trail of the performance and events associated with handheld devices and delivers critical information needed to spot security threats and aid planning. Network attacks have become increasingly complex, often involving blended threats. A sound handheld security solution should integrate into an overall, unified security management solution for the enterprise so that administrators can correlate security threats across all products and solutions to quickly identify potential attacks. For example, being able to see a user attempting to login to IPSec and SSL VPNs from different locations is an easy way to spot a potential login violation.

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Conclusion To stay competitive in a changing business world, enterprises must leverage technology to meet the needs of workers while ensuring the security and stability of information and network assets. Handheld wireless communication devices are becoming an indispensable part of business. As workers continue to adopt and use handheld devices to check email, surf the Web, and access corporate resources, the potential for devastating security breaches will also increase. If enterprises do not quickly address the vulnerabilities posed by handheld wireless communication devices, they risk loss of data, damaged reputations, disrupted operations, and costly reparations. Cybercriminals, a new breed of criminals specializing in malicious activity for financial gain, are beginning to target vulnerabilities associated with handheld devices. Already over 400 different mobile viruses have been identified, and experts warn that the number of threats will rise significantly. Meanwhile, awareness of the level of risk associated with handheld devices has been low. To protect against

costly security breaches, enterprises need to accomplish four aims: protect the data on physical handheld devices so that it is not compromised when lost or stolen; secure data in transit and provide strong authorization; ensure device compliance via endpoint security tools; and implement centralized security deployment and management. Excerpt from Check Point Handheld Wireless Security: Business-critical devices face new security threats (Part 2)

If you missed part 1 of Check Point’s Whitepaper, you can read it here.


BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Survival Tips on Managing the Top 10 Personalities You Meet in Meetings! Have you ever felt the frustration of people joining your meeting late and interrupting your presentation? What about getting distracted by the tapping of a keyboard from someone multi tasking on a conference call? Whether online, over the phone or face-to-face, keeping people engaged and productive during a meeting is not an easy task. Even the best planned meetings can be a total loss if the attendees are not given an agenda or know the objective of the meeting prior and during the meeting. At PGi, we have identified a list of ‘unique’ personalities we often encounter in meetings and some tips to helping you get the best out of your time and the people attending. 1. The Multitasker: Admit it, all of us are guilty of multitasking during a meeting. In fact, a recent survey conducted by PGi in June 2010 concluded that more than 50 percent of professionals in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia multi task during conference calls or web meetings.

Explaining ground rules and expectations at the beginning of a meeting is a great way to ensure you are setting the right tone for the meeting.

• All mobile phones should be switched off when seated at the conference table. Not only is this going to help with keeping everyone focused with the task at hand, but mobile signals cause interference with many speaker phones commonly used in corporate conference rooms. Involve the Multitasker in your presentation. This works great when you are having a virtual meeting. Ask the Multitasker to share their desktop so they can demo an application or other relevant materials, which keeps them out of their inbox, chat, or browsing the web.

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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

2. The Mobile Meeter: This personality thinks nothing of conducting or attending meetings in the airport lounge or in a restaurant. What’s worse, some of them take their conference calls from the restroom and forget to mute! The Mobile Meeter needs to have conference details handy in an Outlook Calendar so they can quick-dial into a meeting and have a clear understanding of how to self-mute background noise.

For Mobile Meeters out there… invest in a noisecanceling headset so background noise doesn’t get in the way of your message. This headset will make it seem that you are in a closed-door conference room when actually, you are taking the call while driving with the windows down.

Remind your attendees at the beginning of every meeting how to mute their line, and ask that they do when they are not speaking. If you find this doesn’t fix the situation, you can always mute-all as the meeting owner and ask participants to “un-mute” themselves as needed.

4. The Overbooked: Doesn't know how to say no to a meeting invite so they attend them all. And the best part is, they are always late! The Overbooked generally greets team gatherings with "Sorry, I had a meeting that ran late ... ". Here are some useful tips:

The fact that the Overbooked soul still makes time to attend your meeting even if they have 10 others to attend to, means that they are willing to participate and share their thoughts – so do acknowledge that!

If you know that in the next 15 minutes, your Overbooked attendee needs to rush off, offer to be a Timekeeper and inform the rest of the group accordingly

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3. The Disrupter: Changing the topic or taking people down a side street, the Disrupter can blow up an agenda and make other meeting participants irritable and cranky. You will know the Disrupter as they often end a sentence with “that said, let me digress to another topic”. So what’s the trick?

Let the Disrupter know about a specific part of the conference that they know something about. Then you can ask them for the opinion, input, thoughts and ideas.

No matter how many times the Disrupter interferes; always acknowledge their contribution – and most importantly, the opportunity for questions at a LATER stage.

5. The Interrupter: When a good idea comes to mind, the Interrupter can't wait to present and share it with the group. And does it ... right at that moment! The trick to this is simple: Don’t be afraid to create ground rules to control contributions from your attendees. Simply saying ‘no interruptions while others are giving their update’ will suffice. If the Interrupter forgets the rule and steps in anyway, you can say “Hold that thought for a moment, let’s hear the rest of what Linda has to say”. 6. The Socialiser: Outgoing and charismatic, the Socialicer is a skillful and enthusiastic communicator. They are always prompt, always interested in where you live, how many children you have and what you had for lunch. Maintaining personal boundaries is a problem for Socialiser though – so what do you do? When the conversation goes off on a tangent, let the Socialiser know that it can be taken offline, at a different time. Now, let’s move on with the meeting


BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

7. The Maestro: A complete professional, never starts a meeting without establishing a clear agenda. At the end of a meeting clearly recaps the discussion, outlines next steps and identifies action items. Even when the Maestro isn’t running a meeting, their organizational command shines through. The Maestro’s smooth skills in communicating and dealing with questions can often help manage other personalities like the Disrupter, Interrupter or even, the Socialiser, so offer the Maestro to be the chairperson. 9. The Snacker: Kudos to the person who will work through lunch, but mind your table manners, please! People eat all the time during web or conference calls. For those who really need to eat, learning about mute features is a requirement. As the host, encourage your attendees to mute their line when they are not speaking or presenting. 10. The Social Networker: In this day and age, many professionals are Facebooking and Tweeting live from a meeting. You know who they are but what do you say to them? If you know that one of your attendees is updating her status when other members of the team are sharing their thoughts, you may want to pass the presenter control to the Social Networker and encourage them to voice their thoughts and ideas instead.

8. The Timekeeper: Is not afraid to say “We’ve used up half of our meeting time and have only covered one item. Can we move on and cover the other nine?” No matter what is happening in a meeting, the Timekeeper is aware that the meeting has a time limit and tries to motivate the team to complete the meeting at the predicted close. If you know that one of your meeting attendees has the Timekeeper personality traits, allow them to take on the responsibility of keeping track of the agenda and let the group know how much time remains for discussion. By Joanne Rigby, Marketing Director, Asia Pacific, PGi

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TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

InMobi’s Distinguished Mobile Advertising Solution The mobile phone evolved in just a few years from a prestige object for managers to a multifunctional communication and organizational tool for the masses. Almost everyone owns a mobile phone these days, allowing mobile advertising to be fast paced. The power of mobile advertising derives from its ability to serve extremely relevant ads to customers, however, only the combination of the commonly wellknown inherent advantages of mobile as a medium, spurred on by a mobile ad network like InMobi, makes mobile advertising finally absolutely tempting. While SMS based advertising was the first step, mobile internet advertising has much more to offer due to its ability to tap into the user context and show ads in a non intrusive manner. Asian e-Marketing had the pleasure to interview industry veteran, Emmanuel Allix, InMobi's vice president and managing director, APAC, who was willing to give us some insights into his expertise. For more than 19 years in the IT and Internet arenas across Asia and Europe, he now oversees the entire operations of InMobi in the region.

InMobi, formerly mKhoj, was founded in 2007 and is the world's largest independent mobile ad network. The company reaches around 185 Million consumers around the world and serves over 20.3 billion ad impressions on a monthly basis across 115 countries. inMobi serves ads on mobile web and mobile apps and is to no surprise the largest mobile ad network in Asia as well - with 11.5 billion ad impressions in the region. Emmanuel describes his company vividly, saying: "Technology is in InMobi DNA and we are proud to provide our partners with the best solution for all their mobile advertising needs. We are able to provide our advertiser partners with precise targeting like demography, handset, operating system, browser, carrier, site type and time of day. And we also provide them with a large inventory of over 4000 publishers where their ads can be shown in order to reach their consumers. InMobi allows rich ad formats that ensure a great user experience to consumers, as e.g. ads that can play a video or initiate a voice call. That's the reason why many global advertisers such as Reebok, Pepsi, Quaker Oats, Nokia, Yamaha etc. have worked with InMobi."

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TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Campaign measurement and ROI is part of their daily business as they work very closely with clients to optimize their results. "Our network is CPC based and ROI is the primary measurement our clients use to evaluate a campaign with, therefore we help track pre-click and post-click activities", Emmanuel remarks. Factors that accelerate InMobi's growth InMobi's advanced technology

targeting

inMobi developed a very unique way of targeting with their so-called "customer discovery technique', providing not only their distinguished technology, but also a business model. The mobile advertising expert helps novices in the field to reach the exact audience they are looking by offering a wide range of targeting parameters like demography, carrier, handset, OS, site type, time of day and browser. In addition to their massive global reach and targeting options, the InMobi platform incorporates post click data into the optimization process with a product called AdROIt - an automated technology that sets objectives and measures conversion performance to improve ROI. Emmanuel explains: "The final step in the process is where we are able to find new customers for advertisers. We do this by finding new pockets of consumers that advertisers were not targeting but had the same purchase intent as the target audience. We provide this information to the advertisers who can then add these new groups of people to their target audience." InMobi is further a performance network and therefore provides deep analytical real-time tools that deliver significant results for customers.

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InMobi started its business in emerging markets where the mobile phone wasn't just a screen, but actually the "only" screen. Operators in these markets are in general very competitive and provide data browsing at very reasonable prices. Hence, mobile internet was exploding in these markets and InMobi grew to be the largest mobile ad network in Asia and Africa. Once their leadership position has been established there, they leveraged on that success and insights gained to enter the developed markets like Europe and North America, as Emmanuel told us. "The other reason was our focus on technology. From the day we started, the technology has been built in a way that it can scale to a really large size. We are always focused on improving the technology and the product and this gives our partners an edge above competition", he said, emphasizing again that there are mainly two reasons for their success:

•

•

The reverse strategy of growing and establishing in the emerging markets and then entering the developed markets. Their continuous focus on technology and innovation.

In general, the fact that mobile advertising is still in its infancy stages, and does not have some standards set, is a bit challenging, Emmanuel stated. According to him the differences between markets in the Asia Pacific region create significant challenges, too.

"While our platform can automate and simplify almost all of the technical complications, there are still language, cultural and social differences that require expert knowledge of each market", he said. "Then there are troubles like the availability of 3G and Smartphones", he added, which ensure a better user experience, but are not yet available in many Asian markets. Emmanuel is aware that although their product offering is unique, they need to stay constantly focused on innovations to stay ahead of competition. "In Asia, we are the largest and we plan to focus on being able to provide our partners with larger scale and improved technology. We understand the nuances of the Asian market and we plan to continue to learn more and help advertisers leverage local insights to better their performance. We also have plans to expand into Japan soon", he told us proudly. He expects brands that reach out to young users, or correlate their brand with youth and innovation, to be the first to start spending larger amounts on mobile advertising. "Loyalty management is another trend that is coming up in the region", he said. And in the region, advertisers have also begun to leverage the fact that there are different languages and cultures in these markets. "It seems that local language ads, which means ads that run for a certain event, like a festival or sports season, do very well", he added. Taking into consideration the capabilities of the medium and the fact that experts around the world believe that the industry is only at its infancy and poised for phenomenal growth in the near future, mobile advertising is all set to be the next generation of advertising. Fact is that in Asia Pacific more and more brands are adopting mobile advertising and are starting to spend more of their marketing budgets with mobile campaigns. By Daniela La Marca


TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Sybase Unwired Platform Enables Next Generation of Mobile Applications In line with the growing market demand for innovative mobile applications Sybase, Inc., an SAP company and industry leader in enterprise and mobile software, has announced the latest version of Sybase® Unwired Platform that will enable enterprise developers to simply and quickly build applications that connect business data from more sources, including SAP applications, to mobile workers on any device. Through a single integrated infrastructure, Sybase Unwired Platform is the most expansive and secure platform for empowering employees and transforming the enterprise. The Sybase Unwired Platform is a flexible, open, and scalable enterprise-class application and services platform built on proven technologies from the industry leader in mobility. With seamless integration with a variety of enterprise applications and support for industry standard database, service-oriented architecture, and web services protocols, the platform en-

ables the next generation of mobile applications and services that will transform any organization. The platform securely delivers data and services to all the major device platforms. Moreover, developers looking to build advanced mobile applications will benefit from the powerful 4GL tooling and the integration with common development environment such as Eclipse. When deployed with the industry leading Afaria Server, Sybase Unwired Platform's capabilities are extended even further by providing a single administrative console to centrally manage, secure and deploy mobile data, applications and devices. Compatible with devices like iPhone and iPad, RIM BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Windows, and Symbian, and Android support to follow its key features comprise:

• • •

Simplified Mobility Lower total cost of ownership Empowered IT and Integrated Processes

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TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Sybase Unwired Platform, positioned in the Leaders quadrant in Gartner, Inc’s 2009 Magic Quadrant for Mobile Enterprise Application Platformsi, provides a flexible, integrated infrastructure that reduces the complexity of developing and deploying mobile applications for all major device types, including iPhone® and iPad®, RIM BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Windows, and Symbian, with Android support to follow. Gary Kovacs, Senior Vice President, Markets, Solutions and Products at Sybase believes “that more than 95 percent of organizations will be choosing a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) or packaged mobile application vendors as their primary mobile development platforms through 2012 and expects the number of enterprises choosing multichannel MEAP vendors to rise by 10 percent in the next three years. The Sybase Unwired Platform provides key benefits to the mobile enterprise, including:

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Simplified Mobility – Reduces complexity of developing and deploying mobile applications with a comprehensive, integrated infrastructure Empowered IT – Quickly offers innovative applications for task and knowledge workers who need mobile access to enterprise information Integrated Processes – Provides out-of-box tools and services that easily integrate with existing enterprise infrastructure, business processes and enterprise applications Lower total cost of ownership – Simplifies and accelerates creation of business process mobilization and integration without need for development resources. Fast reaction to changing business needs – Significantly accelerates deployment of mobilized business processes.

Sybase Unwired Platform is a key component of the Sybase Mobility Platform, the industry’s first and

most expansive framework of bestin-class mobility servers, mobile applications and mobile services, empowering enterprises to transform the way they connect with their customers and enable their employees. “Sybase Unwired Platform enables leading enterprises to transform the way they operate by providing employees with anywhere, anytime access to business critical applications,” said Gary Kovacs, adding: “Unlike tactical or point mobile application solutions, the latest platform release is a comprehensive end-to-end infrastructure that enables enterprises to empower their employees and connect to their customers in new and innovative ways leveraging mobile.” Watch an interview with Gary Kovacs, Senior Vice President, Markets, Solutions and Products at Sybase discussing the Sybase Mobility Platform.


TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Movius Uncovers the Market for Second-Line Mobile Service Movius Interactive Corporation, a global leader in messaging, collaboration and mobile media solutions, sees multiple lines on a single device as the next big thing in mobile. Their view follows several emerging factors, including an extensive user survey conducted across the United States by industry analysts Frost and Sullivan, rapidly increasing penetration rates in many countries across the world and reducing landline levels. "While it is obvious that having to carry multiple phones around is inconvenient, inefficient and actually quite expensive, there have been few widely available solutions to address this dilemma," said Movius CTO John Boden. "What Frost & Sullivan has shown us is that more than 60% of people in this position would jump at the chance to consolidate their numbers on to one device."

Usage of mobile phones has exploded worldwide as it has become the primary communication tool for many people in their personal and professional lives. The result is that mobile phone or SIM penetration rates have surpassed 100% in many countries including Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam. The obvious reason so many markets have penetration rates exceeding 100% is that people have multiple means to connect either by carrying multiple handsets or multiple SIM cards. In Western Europe, for example, the penetration is reported at 130%, but when adjusted for those carrying multiple devices the real market penetration is 87%. This is because the average number of connections per user of a mobile device is 1.47, according to TIA's 2010 ICT Market Review and Forecast.

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TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

The estimates in the US for people owning more than one mobile phone continue to increase with some of the latest forecasts ranging from 17% to over 35% while the estimate for those carrying three or more phones is greater than 7%. This trend appears to run contrary to many market predictions in the past that indicated that individuals desired a simpler, unified communication solution where they could merge all their communication onto a single device or, at least, be able to manage all their communication from one device. Given this preference for a single device, why are individuals acting contrary to this and carrying multiple mobile phones? The answer can be found by looking at the different types of mobile users in the market:

Business Users Mobile's early adopters were the business travelers who needed an easy way to communicate while on the go. The use of mobile in business has expanded towards many disciplines due to market drivers like telecommunicating and the global, 24-hour business environment. The problem is that the expanded workday makes separating business and personal life difficult as individuals become accessible anytime, all day long.

Entrepreneur Many entrepreneurs and small business owners actually run multiple small businesses. An example would be the car salesman who also owns a couple rental properties. His phone rings and he doesn't necessarily know if it's a new business opportunity or a renter calling to explain why this month's rent will be late. He gets interrupted regardless. He must respond to all business with equal priority.

Multi-Lifestyles Most people would place different priorities to their personal contacts and would therefore like an ability to segment their personal lives. For

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example, a father would likely give greater priority to a call from his children because they need a ride home than a friend who just calls to chat about last night's game. Currently, though, all these calls likely come into one number and the consumer's only means to segment the calls is via screening the caller ID. Given the obvious need, there have been a few attempts to service this market. Multi-Line SIM cards or phones that could hold multiple SIM cards were one of the early attempts to service this need. The drawback with this option, though, is that the consumer typically has to purchase a multi-SIM capable phone and possibly having a more expensive phone with a reduced feature set. Consumers desire a broad range of handset options and multi-SIM phones simply don't offer many choices. Additionally, some handset apps have recently been introduced and over-the-top solutions have started to appear. These are very limited to specific handsets such as the iPhone. In order to truly meet all the different market and consumer needs outlined earlier, it's important that any multi-number solution have the following capabilities:

• • • •

• •

Easy to use on existing phones Multiple billing options Separate voicemail boxes Ability to control the service by turning individual lines off (i.e., automatically forward to a separate voicemail) and back on as desired Ability to out-dial as well as receive calls from second numbers Ability to receive and send text messages associated with the second number

A recent entry in this space is SideLineSM Service from Movius. This service allows multiple numbers on a single phone. With this service, calls that are placed to the second number are uniquely identified so

the subscriber knows that the call was targeted for this second number. While calls to the second number can be directed to an existing mobile phone the subscriber can also change their settings so that these calls are forwarded instead to a personal, voice-messaging system. SMS notifications of new messages received are sent to the primary mobile phone so the subscriber is aware they have a message waiting even if they are only watching one of their numbers. These SMS messages include details on who called, when they called and the length of the message. The subscriber can click on the link in the message to listen to the message. After listening to a message, subscribers can decide whether to call the person back. Subscribers can also place calls from the Side-Line Service in two different ways. This can be done by entering a carrier defined prefix in front of the number called (e.g., *56 770-283-1000). Additionally, after reviewing messages and while still in their mailbox, the subscriber can return a call or initiate a new call. In both cases the called party will see the subscriber's Side-Line Number as the incoming number, thereby maintaining complete social separation between phone lines and their identification. While this service is new it appears to have large potential. A big endorsement of this approach was recently made by Telefonica who announced they will be rolling out this service throughout Latin America. One Phone Can Be Simply Complex Consumer behavior and preference regarding telephony service have significantly changed over the last decade. In 2009, North America, Europe and Asia Pacific all saw a decrease in landline penetrations per household. In the US, a recent study by Yankee Group reported that 28% of respondents did not have a landline phone.


TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

This well-documented trend in individuals dropping their landline is primarily driven by consumer's reliance on their mobile device as their exclusive telephone.

People have multiple roles and personas that they prefer to keep separated. To appreciate this, let us look closer at the different types of mobile users:

While these consumers could have had calls or messages to their fixed line forwarded to their mobile device there was no compelling reason to maintain the landline so they simply cancelled it. The mobile phone is always available so why have a fixed line phone that is only available when you are in a fixed location? The idea of a phone number being associated with a family or organization is being replaced with the reality that every individual has his or her own distinct phone number.

While the mobile phone has made connecting to individuals much simpler because a mobile number can be the only number, it has created a new issue. The underlying problem, as outlined above with the three different types of mobile users, is that individuals don't necessarily want to be available to all callers at all times. Therefore the mobile phone has become a paradox; it has both made life simpler and at the same time more complex.

Business User: With just one mobile, it is difficult to "turn off" personal calls when at work – or vice versa. Also it is virtually impossible to segment business and personal calls from an expense point of view or, which is increasingly an issue for tax reasons. Entrepreneur: A small multibusiness person cannot differentiate calls for each business or prioritize them based on customer type. With multi-line capability they could manage all their requirements much more easily. Personal: Again there is no opportunity to segment calls or to identify a type of call coming in or prioritize, for example, one's own children or family.

One Phone, Multiple Number Options No detailed study is needed to show that having to carry multiple phones is inconvenient and expensive.

The obvious solution would be to have the ability to have multiple phone numbers on one mobile device and the market seems to agree. A recent U.S. based study by Frost & Sullivan shows that more than 60% of individuals with multiple phones would like to have the ability to converge multiple phone numbers onto a single device. Additionally, approximately 25% of those with only one phone would consider adding a second line. Conclusion The need for multiple mobile phone numbers is real and substantial. There is a large percentage of the population that is carrying multiple phones to meet this need but they are looking for a better solution. Consumers want a one-phone, multiple-number solution. Obviously the largest potential is for a solution that can be deployed on any phone and therefore also does not require any software client on the handset. Carriers who offer such a service have the potential to truly differentiate themselves by addressing this need. The market demand is real and solutions are now available to provide consumers a compelling service.

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"Users are increasingly relying on mobile devices to communicate and access the Internet and they are looking for seamless integration between those devices and PCs.� ~ Rose Tsou, senior vice president, Asia Region, Yahoo!


COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Full Steam Ahead for Yahoo!’s Mobile Strategy Just yesterday Yahoo! Southeast Asia invited the media over to their brand new office in Singapore’s banking district. Their down-to-earth attitude in organizing a gettogether with the media to introduce their new personnel reflects the world-class online media company’s vision “to be the center of people's (online) lives”. As this edition of Asian e-Marketing is focusing on mobile marketing, I would like to point out Yahoo!’s continuous efforts to deliver new personally relevant and meaningful experiences to their users and emphasize their recent achievements in the mobile arena, respectively. Yahoo! Inc. extends social and mobile strategy with location-based community With the acquisition of Indonesian location-based social networks firm Koprol three months ago and a global partnership with Nokia, Yahoo! extended its social, mobile, and local offerings and in addition focuses on the intersection of location, community expertise and mobile experiences that have become important trends around the globe. Yahoo! offers a greatly expanded geographical range for Koprol services and a wealth of educational and entertainment material.

Targeting 90 percent of Indonesian citizens who are not online to try the Web via Yahoo!, Koprol enables users to interact and share knowledge about their community in a way that is uniquely tailored to mobile phones. Koprol's service allows people to connect and share photos, reviews, and additional information about locations in real-time using just their mobile phone browser. Once on Koprol, people can "checkin" to their current location and see where others are and what they are doing. The service helps people find local businesses, such as popular shops or restaurants, based on user ratings including a "thumbsup" feature to elevate favorite places to the top of the ranking. Users can also start or join discussions based on particular locations and invite friends to participate, creating a unique city-based social mobile community resource. Actually Yahoo! plans to leverage the rich community of information generated by Koprol users to make its properties and applications, including its homepage and media and communications products, even more locally relevant. Rose Tsou, senior vice president, Asia Region at Yahoo! said: "Users are increasingly relying on mobile devices to communicate and access the Internet and they are looking for seamless integration between those devices and PCs. This is especially true in many emerging markets, where we are introducing the Yahoo! brand to many new-to-Net users," adding "Koprol was uniquely designed for mobile phones

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COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Yahoo! oneSearch partnerships

and within a year has already built a strong user base.” Therefore Yahoo! decided to provide the global scale and technology and introduces the service to new markets. Yahoo!’s new handset and new messaging apps But Yahoo!’s cutting edge reaches beyond that. For instance, two month ago, during the Communic Asia 2010 Show, Yahoo! unveiled a new handset and new messaging apps aimed at mobile internet adopters in fast-growing emerging markets. I am talking about the Alcatel One Touch phone, which provides direct access to Yahoo! content through a single button as well as its new apps bundle Messenger One along with APIs. Messenger One was aimed at "new-to-Net users," offering mobile registration, a unified inbox covering email, IM and SMS, and a searchable archive, according to Irv Henderson, vice president of mobile and local product development. Instead of having plans to monetize the product right away, Yahoo!’s main focus right now would be the growth of their user base according to him. And he states further that emerging mobile markets were "crucial" for Yahoo, whose internet ad display business is primarily focused on PC users. Henderson said the opening of the APIs was targeted initially at Indonesian developers, intended to "drive innovation" on the messaging platform.

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Yahoo! demonstrates further global momentum by unveiling the next phase of their mobile strategy for the Asia Pacific region with Yahoo! oneSearch partnerships that serves to reinforce Yahoo!s strong position in the mobile industry. The company signed over sixty Yahoo! oneSearch partner deals in the past few months, becoming that way the preferred search service on these carriers' respective mobile Internet sites. “This is a great milestone, putting us on our way to our goal of ultimately connecting the billions of mobile consumers around the globe with the best possible Internet experience," said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo! Yahoo! mobile advertising partnerships Across the fast-growing Asia Pacific market, Yahoo! has entered into a total of twenty-three strategic mobile search partnerships with mobile operators as well, providing the company with an opportunity to bolster its market share of mobile search queries in the countries in which Yahoo! operates. Additionally, Yahoo! delivers the next phase of mobile search technology by

launching Yahoo! oneSearch with voice for English speakers in Singapore and India. According to internal metrics, the product has successfully demonstrated the ability to increase the number of average searches per user by over 35% across the same mobile device models after discounting for speech accuracy rates. Yahoo! Go 3.0 Yahoo! Go 3.0 solidifies Yahoo!'s reputation for mobile innovation by delivering cutting-edge mobile experiences to consumers worldwide and taking mobile services to the next level with an upgraded and feature-rich user interface, a truly personalized start page and customizable access to consumers' favorite Internet brands and services through easy-to-use thirdparty widgets. Yahoo!'s flagship allin-one mobile offering, is available for consumers in Australia, India and Southeast Asia for download onto more than 270 mobile devices from major manufacturers worldwide and use it on most wireless networks by visiting http:// m.yahoo.com on compatible devices. By Daniela La Marca


COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Hoiio Makes Mobile Communication Cheaper, Simpler and Smarter Let me introduce you to Hoiio Pte Ltd, Asia's first mobile application that offers cost-effective communication solutions to Smartphones and mobile devices, being absolutely committed to give the best value to anyone calling within Asia. Hoiio's callrouting uses the best calling methods to extend competitive, overseas call rates with telco-grade voice quality for Smartphone users, without any additional steps to their dialing behavior. Its unique free mobile app is available for download in four major mobile app stores right now: Apple's App Store, Android's Market, Nokia's Ovi Store and BlackBerry's AppWorld. The company has strong R&D expertise and patents in IP network based unified communication systems, leveraging on mobile VoIP technology and GSM networks around the world to drastically reduce the cost of international and local calls made from Smartphones.

Not only is it easy to install, Hoiio brings more convenience to users as it seamlessly allows them to make regular mobile calls and SMSes from their phonebook or dial pad without the need for any prefixes, access numbers or PINs. Users do not have to change the way they make their calls as their mobile calls and SMSes are automatically routed through Hoiio's gateway to enjoy significant savings. Founded in 2007 and officially launched to the wider consumer market just last year, Hoiio has been so far warmly received by the masses. Their user base grew humbly by 10 fold and they have currently more than 100 enterprises using their services, while gradually attracting more. The company believes that Hoiio's provision of the "best value for money" attributed to the success, confirming their value proposition to make mobile communication cheaper, simpler and smarter. Hoiio product range is both for personal use and for SME and large corporations.

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COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

•

•

Hoiio for You is a solution that is tailored for end consumers whilst Hoiio for Business is for enterprises. The value proposition remains the same for both packages where Hoiio provides the best value for money method of making local and overseas calls. Hoiio for Business, however, is packed with additional productivity features that are designed with cost control and easy administration in mind. A web admin panel is provided for easy monitoring and management of the enterprise users' usage. Billing is also postpaid to avoid inconveniencing enterprises with heavy consumption with frequent top ups, making it at the same time easier to pay the monthly bill as business expenses.

Hoiio's current statistics show that for every 10 new registered users, they gain one new active user with a monthly acceptable Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). Hence, as long as the user acquisition costs are below 30% for each new

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registered user, they stay confident that 10% of them will convert to paying customers. In that case the company is able to achieve net ROI within 3 months. Hoiio greatly favours the approach of directly benefiting their users with marketing dollars, as seen with their "1 Million Minute campaign". By providing the free minutes to their registered users, they encourage them to spread the cost saving benefits of Hoiio for the Smart Phones users. "With the growing number of Smartphone users, we have seen an even greater increase in our Hoiio member community in Singapore. This is a testimonial that we are doing something right", said Mr. Ong Kok Choong, Chief Executive Officer of Hoiio". The introduction of this campaign supports our belief that communication should one day be free", he added. The main challenge Hoiio has to deal with right now is the fact that Singapore's online market is relatively small.

Thus, to allow an internet telephony company to take off, large economics of scale is needed. However, the company is currently in the midst of preparation to launch Hoiio's services in key Asian countries and in the US by the end of the year, which fortifies their belief that mobile's success will spread even further in the next few years. To continue getting first-hand news, keep your eyes peeled on www.hoiio.com! By Daniela La Marca


COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

CMO Council and MediaBUZZ Signed Partnership Agreement Last month the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council (www.cmocouncil.org) hosted its Asia Advisory Board Meeting at the Singapore Management University, corroborating its presence in Asia. The gathering teamed the Council with one of the region's premier educational institutions for a half-day of compelling discussions and debate. During the event the announcement was made that key executives from HP and MasterCard Worldwide will headline the Council's Asia Pacific Advisory Board. The next day, its new leadership group in India was introduced during the CMO Asia Awards at Suntec, Singapore. Both initiatives are part of a big regional expansion push, which recently launched a dedicated web site (http://www.cmocouncil.org/india/) and formed the mentioned leadership group for the India subcontinent. Over 30 of India's leading domestic and multi-national brands have been represented on this board, which will contribute insights to a new Access India Report to be published shortly by the CMO Council. This will provide unique intelligence and best practices for entering and expanding in India's rapidly emerging market with over 1.1 billion consumers. In looking at all markets across the Asia-Pacific region, the CMO Council will be using Singapore as its regional hub for meetings, gatherings, and conferences.

"Asia is brimming with exciting market developments, corporate growth stories, and business innovations," noted Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. "We're seeing a new flock of global brand contenders coming out of Asia and marketing effectiveness in this region will be key to global competitiveness among foreign multi-nationals," he added. Dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 12,000 global executives across 100 countries in multiple industries, segments and markets. Its 5,000 members control more than $150 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. CMO Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council's strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), Marketing Supply Chain Institute, Customer Experience Board, LoyaltyLeaders.org, Online Marketing Performance Institute, and the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME). Watch out for more news to come as Asian eMarketing will keep you informed on CMO Council's activities in the region. By Daniela La Marca

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COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

RIM’s Key Selling Point Put to Test The UAE government's decision to ban some functions of RIM's BlackBerry from October 11, citing security risks, reflects concern among some governments that the BlackBerry service does not allow them to monitor data traffic sent and received by BlackBerry users, and that this data is handled and stored offshore out of government control. The BlackBerry platform architecture relies on dedicated data centres (NOCs) which handle all BlackBerry data traffic over a secure, encrypted connection between the NOC and the handset. Some governments are uncomfortable with the solution because they have little or no visibility into BlackBerry data traffic, and are concerned that BlackBerry handsets may be used for criminal purposes. The difficulty for RIM is that security has been a key selling point for BlackBerry and acquiescing to government demands would significantly undermine its security credentials, particularly with business and public sector customers. There are legitimate reasons for wanting data encryption and privacy – and there is a concern that if RIM compromises with one government then others will demand the same access. This is part of a wider debate around government monitoring and filtering of telecommunications and the Internet, with deep implications for privacy (both personal and corporate), freedom of speech and national security. The loss of access to the UAE market will upset BlackBerry customers and international business travellers in the region, but RIM looks likely maintain its current stance and avoid damage to its reputation in the much larger North American and Western European markets

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BlackBerry versus government Several countries in the Middle East have threatened to ban the BlackBerry service because it enables citizens to have secret conversations and peruse the web with privacy. This will be the start of a test of RIM's commitment to maintaining a global secure email service. However, governments should be careful what they wish for. After all, their own staff are BlackBerry users as well. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) issued a self-titled "important announcement" on 2 August stating that it proposed to suspend BlackBerry messenger, email, and web-browsing services from 11 October. This was the latest development in an apparently longrunning discussion between the UAE government and the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM) that operates the BlackBerry service. The TRA adopted this position because RIM's secure telecommunications service prevented the UAE government from monitoring messages and emails, and restricting access to forbidden web content. The Saudi Arabian Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) followed suit within a few days, announcing a ban on BlackBerry service to be put into effect by 5 August. This follows similar discussions between RIM and the governments of China and India earlier in the year. The announcements have provoked a storm of discussion. That all countries conduct surveillance on their citizens is not disputed.


COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

The difference is the degree to which the people can hold the government to account for abuse of its powers of surveillance. Countries vary considerably in the manner in which the balance between citizen interests and state interests is defined – with dictatorships on the one extreme and liberal democracies on the other. However, the rise of the Internet and global wireless communications is challenging the each-country-to-its-own scenario – introducing notions of global freedom expectations that appear to transcend the sovereignty of governments to regulate what their citizens will and will not see, hear, and say. Platforms like BlackBerry deploy highly secure ICT services directly into the hands of individual citizens at a low cost. Wireless services transcend borders, secure messaging subverts telecommunications interceptions, data is hosted outside of the reach of government agencies, and unfiltered web content can be accessed freely. Suppliers such as RIM can now freeze government out of the regulatory loop by enabling citizens to have secret conversations – exactly the kind of secret conversations that are taken for granted as essen-

tial by any corporation or business, and indeed by government agencies themselves as users of the BlackBerry. RIM needs to hold firm This situation will be a challenging one for RIM to resolve. Developing nations are a large and growing market that it cannot afford to alienate. On the other hand, RIM's security policy is unambiguous: "The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is purposefully designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances." The strength of RIM's security is a core part of its unique selling proposition. While the security architecture is tighter for enterprise customers, there will be a 'guilt by association' impact for RIM if it is too accommodating of the demands of countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE – or if it is seen to be "flexible" on security when governments threaten to close market access. There is an irony in the fact that government agencies are themselves large users of the Black-

Berry platform. Agencies were initially wary of the security risks of RIM's Canadian-hosted email service, but are now comfortable with the security of the platform. However, this comfort rests on the assumption that RIM does not compromise the security of individual users by allowing "back door" access – to anyone. The biggest fear of some government agencies is that the security and intelligence services of an unfriendly foreign power could have access to their emails. If RIM starts down the slippery slope of offering "customized" security environments to individual governments, how long will it be before the company is "piggy in the middle" between two countries that have a serious interest in compromising each other's security for commercial, or even military, reasons? RIM would be better to withdraw from countries that do not yet see the value of its unique, globally secure, service offering. By Tim Renowden, Analyst & Steve Hodgkinson, Research Director, Ovum part of the Datamonitor group

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COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Citibank Rejoices with New Comprehensive Mobile Application Citibank defines a brand new mobile lifestyle with the launch of the first multi-platform mobile application "Citi Mobile" in Hong Kong. Thanks to the innovative mobile application, most Smartphone users in Hong Kong can now access Citibank's banking services and products, as well as credit card offers, anytime and anywhere with just a few clicks on their phones. Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 140 countries. Through Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Citi Hong Kong, Country Marketing Director, Maggie Yung said, "In this vibrant city, almost one in two people owns a Smartphone. We understand that our customers need to enjoy our services in a more mobile way. Therefore, building on the success of bringing Hong Kong's first device- and network-independent across-the-board Mobile Financial Services in 2008, we continue to invest in enhancing customer experience by launching this multi-platform and comprehensive Mobile Application that enables our customers to enjoy our services and offers on the road in a more convenient way." Citibank GCG, Director of Cards Business, Neil Gardner said, "Our user-friendly Mobile Application with GPS function allows Citibank Credit Cardholders to search for nearby exclusive offers which they can

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then enjoy at the most convenient time and place. With our strong commitment to creating unique customer experience, we will continue to enhance our service in order to let customers have access to timely and relevant offers for instant enjoyment." Key features of the Mobile Application bringing convenience to Smartphone users include:

• • •

Hot Picks: View the best three to five Citibank Credit Card offers Promotions: Spot nearby privileges through GPS, or search the offers by category and location Card Benefits: Rewards Calculator lets users know how many rewards points or rebates they can earn by spending with selected Citibank Credit Card Other Products: Selected privileges of other banking products and services

"This brand new comprehensive Mobile Application once again proves our innovation capability in product and service development. Through our continuous innovation, more services will be available on this new channel in the coming quarter," Ms. Yung added. The Mobile Application is compatible with most common mobile operating systems and available on four different platforms, namely iPhone App Store, Android Market, Market Place and Ovi Store. Smartphone users -no matter whether they are Citibank customers or not, can download the application for free to enjoy life to the fullest. It's quick and easy with no download of application or enrolment required.


Mobile Application with GPS function allow credit cardholders to search for nearby exclusive offers, which they can then enjoy at the most convenient time and place.


LEGISLATION

MMA’s Guidelines on SMS and MMS Text Messaging (SMS)

2.Initial SMS Ad Specifications

Short Message Service (SMS) is a communications service that allows the exchange of short text messages, limited to160 characters, between mobile phones.

Specification Components

It is also referred to as "text messaging" or "texting." SMS messages can be sent and received between virtually all operator networks. Virtually every mobile phone in the world supports SMS, creating a ubiquitous market for SMS-based advertising campaigns. SMS supports messages sent from one user to another, as well as messages sent from a machine, such as a PC, application or server, to a user. 1.SMS Advertising Unit Definitions The recommended ad units for SMS are as follows:

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Initial SMS Ad (Appended) is a universal text ad unit of variable length (often between 20-60 characters) appended to the content (or body) portion of the message containing the primary, nonadvertising content of the message. This ad unit uses the remaining space after the content portion of the message, and can be made available for advertiser usage by the publisher. As a principle, focus should remain on the content portion which should not be compromised by the ad unit. Complete SMS Ad (Full Message) is a universal text ad unit with up to 160 characters available for advertiser usage. There is no primary, nonadvertising content in the message and this ad unit is typically delivered as a reply to an Initial SMS Ad or "Text (keyword) to (short code)" callto-action. These ads may be delivered as part of an ongoing opt-in mobile advertising campaign.

a) Format SMS is a text-only medium. It does not support any rich media; however some mobile phones with click-to-call or click-to-web capability will display colored links and underlining of URLs and phone numbers. The font size is entirely controlled by the mobile phone and is not under control of advertiser or publisher. Therefore the message renders differently on different mobile phones. b) Length The length of the ad is the subject to the available space after the content. Consult your publisher for the maximum allowable length. Current practice is typically ads under 20-60 characters, with ads up to 80 characters. Advertisers should be aware that shorter copy allows for increased publishing inventory availability. When using double-byte characters (otherwise known as 16-bit) to send an SMS, the limit is 70 characters. 16-bit characters are associated with sending a Unicode text message, which is required to convey some of the special characters used in non-Latin alphabets, such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean. c) Location The ad copy will be inserted only at the end of the content portion of the SMS. In cases where the sender uses a personal SMS signature, the ad should be inserted after the signature. 3.Complete SMS Ad (Full Message) Specifications Specification Components 1. Format - See Short SMS Ad format 2. Length—A length of up to 160 Latin character 3. Location— The Complete SMS Ad will be the entire SMS message.


LEGISLATION

4.SMS Advertising Insertion and Delivery A) SMS Ad Indicators: The publisher or advertising insertion partner is responsible for including an ad indicator in Initial (Appended) SMS Ads. There should be a clear separation between the text message content and the ad. A carriage return or line break is recommended, however not all carriers support line breaks, so an ad indicator should also precede the ad copy. Acceptable ad indicators are: ∗ "*" (single asterisk) ∗ "**" (double-asterisk) ∗ "AD:" (or similar local language abbreviation) ∗ "-" (dash)

Click-to-call • Phone numbers should be local or domestic to the country that the ads are targeting. • Phone numbers should be functional. Ensure that the numbers are in service before the campaign launches. • Premium destination numbers that would result in a charge that exceeds standard rates to the end user should not be used unless the terms are fully disclosed in the ad. • Emergency numbers (e.g., 911 in the United States and Canada, or 112 in parts of Europe), or any unrelated service numbers, are not allowed in SMS ad units. Link to Mobile Web site

Note that a carriage return may count as two characters.

b) SMS Ad Functionality

Delivery

• Delivery of SMS Ad messages should be consistent with the MMA Global Code of Conduct. • SMS Ad messages should be delivered per the watershed hours requirements of your local market. Response (return SMS)

• If a user requests additional information be delivered to them via SMS, advertisers should respond to that request within 12 hours or the request (opt-in) for that particular message will be deemed expired. • Responses to user requests may be delivered by an alternate common short code or phone number, but the relationship to the original request should be clearly identifiable by the user. (For information about short codes, see the MMA Common Short Code Primer, available at • http://www.mmaglobal.com/ shortcodeprimer.pdf)

• •

Landing page should be viewable in Mobile Web browsers. Content of the linked Mobile Web site should be related to the advertisement. The landing page should be working properly. Please see Section 2.3 of this document for best practices on mobile web content.

5. Creative Design Principles The primary design goal should be that the SMS Advertising unit is clearly identifiable as an advertisement and is easily understood by the receiver of the message. The following design principles are suggestions. a) General Design Principles for SMS Ads Use abbreviations and "text speak" (e.g., LOL) with caution and avoid grammatical errors or misunderstandings. Use punctuation when required for clarity or emphasis. Note that a carriage return may count as two characters. Conduct testing to ensure that the

publishing network recognizes, and mobile phones properly render, any non-Latin or accented letters prior to use. Note that URLs contained in the text may allow click through to Mobile Web pages, depending on handset capability, and may appear underlined or in color. b) Design Principles for Initial SMS (Appended) Ads. If a URL is included in an appended ad, the URL should be as short as possible. A URL under 20- characters is recommended. To optimize the potential for frequency of delivery, the advertiser may develop several versions of ads with varying lengths, maximizing the ads' availability for insertion based on the length of the content portion of the message. For example, "Nike" or "Just do it - Nike." c) Design Principles for Complete SMS (Full Message) Ads The Complete SMS Ad unit can be used for any type of promotional message or call to action. The advertiser should be clearly identified in the ad copy. Creative may contain a URL. Use of short URLs is recommended to use reduce character count and maximize clarity and use of advertising space. The title or header of the message should reflect the consumer query or subscription that resulted in delivery of the full ad message copy. For example, if the consumer replied "HOME" to get more info on real estate, the resulting ad should have "HOME" in the first line. If the resulting ad is unfamiliar, the recipient may dismiss it as "Spam". Multimedia Messaging (MMS) Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a rich media messaging service that allows mobile users to send and receive messages that can include graphics, photos, audio, video and text. As such, it provides marketers with increased ad effectiveness over SMS.

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LEGISLATION

Another benefit is that unlike the Mobile Web, this media resides on the user's mobile phone, so a data connection isn't required to access the ad content once the message has been received. It should be noted that unlike SMS, MMS is not yet universally supported by all operator networks and all mobile phones; however the advertising opportunity using MMS is significant. These guidelines seek to ensure a clear distinction of MMS Advertising units from content to avoid perception of MMS Advertising as unsolicited communication and ensure maximum ad campaign effectiveness. The MMS guidelines consist of a set of ad unit dimensions, file formats and maximum file sizes, as well as additional considerations for advertisers and publishers.

1. MMS Advertising Unit Definitions The recommended ad units for MMS are as follows:

• MMS Short Text Ad is a supplementary text ad unit appended to the content (or body) portion of an MMS slide containing the primary, non-advertising content of the MMS slide. A MMS Short Text Ad can contain links that are clickable by the end user. As a principle, focus should remain on the content portion of the MMS slide which should not be compromised by the ad unit. • MMS Long Text Ad is a supplementary text ad unit filling all of an MMS slide, whereby the text can contain a link that is clickable by the end user. • MMS Banner Ad is a supplementary color graphics ad unit displayed at the top or bottom of an MMS slide. The supplementary MMS Banner Ad is defined as a still image intended for use in mass-market campaigns where the goal is a good user experience across all mobile phone models, network technolo-

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gies and data bandwidths. However, in some cases, particularly in Europe, supplementary animated MMS Banner Ads are available for use in campaigns where it is imperative to convey a rich media experience. An MMS Banner Ad can be clickable by the end user, in which case a separate text link can be considered. The MMS Banner Ad unit specification is similar to the Mobile Web Banner Ad specification in terms of aspect ratio and dimension. MMS Rectangle Ad is a universal color graphics plus optional text ad unit filling all of an MMS slide, whereby the text can contain a link. The universal MMS Rectangle Ad is defined as a still image intended for use in massmarket campaigns where the goal is a good user experience across all mobile phone models, network technologies and data bandwidths. However, in some cases, particularly in Europe, supplemental animated MMS Rectangle Ads are available for use in campaigns where it is imperative to convey a rich media experience. An MMS Rectangle Ad can be clickable by the end user, in which case a separate text link below the graphics is recommended. An MMS Rectangle Ad can be placed before the original content (pre-roll), within (mid-roll) or after (post-roll) of the MMS, on a separate slide. Mixing an MMS Rectangle Ad with other content (except audio) on one slide is not recommended. MMS Audio Ad is a supplementary audio clip that is played while an MMS Rectangle Ad or an MMS Full Ad is displayed. MMS Video Ad is a supplementary video ad unit and usually gets delivered as part of a MMS Full Ad. MMS Full Ad is a supplementary ad unit which only contains advertising content. The MMS Full Ad is a complete MMS composed of elements of MMS Short Text Ads, MMS Long Text Ads,

MMS Banner Ads, MMS Rectangle Ads, MMS Audio Ads and MMS Video Ads and distributed over one or multiple slides. There is no primary, non-advertising content in the MMS Full Ad and this ad unit is typically delivered in response to an ad request or based on some form of valid consent (opt-in) provided by the recipient. 2. MMS Advertising Unit Specifications Specification Components The following ad unit specifications provide the framework for producing MMS ad creative material suitable across a broad range of mobile phones with a compelling and engaging user experience. a) Media Formats for MMS ad units are as follows:

• • •

• •

JPG or GIF as universal formats for still images. GIF for animated images. AMR-NB (on GSM networks) and QCELP (on CDMA networks) are prevailing audio formats. AAC+, AAC, MP3, WAV (PCM encoded) become increasingly available on mobile phones. 3GP and 3G2 they are prevailing video formats. Recommended audio quality: @ 16bit 44 KHz Stereo; Recommended video quality: QVGA @250kbps, 20-30 frames per second.

b) Aspect Ratio Mobile phones vary substantially in their screen display designs: landscape, square or portrait. Unlike in the Mobile Web, MMS creators have no visibility of the individual target mobile phone and its screen characteristics at the time of MMS composing.


LEGISLATION

As a consequence, and to keep the need for vertical scrolling of ad messages to a minimum, the MMA recommends using any landscape aspect ratio for MMS Rectangle Ad images. This typically includes 16:9 and 4:3 ratios. Also, a 1:1 (square) ratio can produce acceptable results. Such aspect ratios usually allow for ad text to be visible together with the ad image on screens. Portrait aspect ratios are not recommended. For the MMS Banner Ad, aspect ratios apply as defined for the Mobile Web Banner Ad units in Section 2.2 (6:1 and 4:1).

For MMS Video Ads, the recommended aspect ratios are the following:

• • •

16:9 (HD) 4:3 (QVGA) 11:9 (QCIF)

c) Dimensions For all graphical MMS Ad elements, regardless of their aspect ratio, widths are recommended as defined for the Mobile Web Banner Ad units in Section 2.2, i.e.

• • • • •

X-Large MMS Image (width 300 pixels) Large MMS Image (width 216 pixels) Medium MMS Image (width 168 pixels) Small MMS Image (width 120 pixels) Respective heights being according to the aspect ratio selected.

• •

Large MMS Video (320 x 240 pixels) Medium MMS Video (176 x 144 pixels) Small MMS Video (128 x 96 pixels)

d) File Size The maximum MMS message file size available for advertisements depends on the following factors:

Mobile phones are currently capable of receiving MMS messages between a maximum of 100 KB to 600 KB sizes. Mobile network configurations apply irrespective of the mobile phone capability. Currently most networks support a maximum of 300 KB. However, some networks already increase this limit to 600 KB.

In order to reach a broad audience, the MMA recommends that the complete MMS file size does not exceed 300 KB. Maximum MMS file size and maximum ad file sizes are inclusive of all applicable elements (e.g., graphics, text and audio3). • For ads inserted to other content, the MMS ad file size should not exceed 100 KB. This limit allows 200 KB or more for the original content. This file size allows for good quality MMS Rectangle Ad images, even for many animated images.

For the MMS Full Ad unit, a maximum file size of 300 KB is recommended.

3. MMS Advertising Creative Design Principles a) Sender identification The sender of the MMS Full Ad message should be clearly identifiable by the message recipient. The "from" and "subject" field as well as the first message slide should reflect the consumer request or opt in context that resulted in delivery of the full ad. The message subject field alone is not sufficient for carrying this information because it is not shown on many mobile phones. For example, if the consumer has opted in to receiving advertisements from brand XYZ, the full ad messages delivered should have "XYZ" not only in the "from" and "subject" field but also in the first element (text or graphic) of the first slide. Local market guidelines or regulation might be in place requesting sender identification placement.

The Large MMS Image width (216 pixels) is the universal dimension recommended for use in MMS Ad campaigns where only one dimension is used. This width has proven to produce satisfactory user experience across today's mobile phones in mature mobile markets. For all MMS Video Ad elements, the following are the most common examples of frequently used dimensions:

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LEGISLATION

b) Ad Indicators Advertisers should consult their publisher and local markets to determine requirements for ad indicators. Indicators could be used with both text and graphical ads:

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Text ad indicators, where text is used to indicate the text is an ad. An example is the use of "Ad:" preceding the ad text. See also Section 3.4.1 on SMS ad indicators for more guidance. Graphical ad indicators, where a part of the creative is used to display the ad indicator and thus make it clear that the graphic is an ad rather than content. The indicator typically is located on the side or the corner of the creative and may use text (e.g., "AD" in English speaking markets) or an icon to indicate that the image is an ad. The ad indicator is part of the graphical and text ad elements and MMA recommends that when advertisers choose to use an ad indicator, it should be included with the creative material. Conventions for ad indicators vary by market and publisher.

4. MMS Advertising Insertion and Delivery a) Impact of Transcoding and Rendering of media on mobile phones MMS Message delivery includes two steps, transcoding and rendering; both which potentially impact the quality of the message, its formats, and the resolution of media elements. Many mobile operators support transcoding, also known as media adaptation. Transcoding, which automatically adapts content during message delivery, is done according to the receiving mobile phone capabilities (e.g. screen resolution, maximum message file size, supported media formats) to avoid negative user experience. While transcoding ensures that advertisements (along with possible other content) are consistently presented on all mobile phones, it can have a negative impact on the audio and visual elements if applied extensively. The ad unit specifications as defined in chapter 4.1 seek to reduce the need for transcoding, and retain the quality of the ad creatives.

Transcoding and rendering have advantages that are relevant for the purpose of MMS advertising:

• •

To provide a good experience for users on almost all MMScapable mobile phones. To allow creative material to be provided in one version only.

However, some caution is recommended:

Image creative should be chosen that properly resizes down to lower resolutions. For example, tiny text and graphical details should be avoided. Extensive media adaptation (from very large graphics down to very small ones) may render some creative material into poor quality for low-resolution mobile phone screens. This can happen to graphics containing text, details, thin lines or color palettes with texture.Creative producers are recommended to contact MMS service providers and/or network operators for more details. In case transcoding is not avail-


LEGISLATION

able on a network, only the standard audio formats (AMRNB on GSM networks and QCELP on CDMA networks) are recommended in MMS advertising. The process of MMS delivery can influence the content of MMS, therefore; testing the impact of resizing on quality and legibility of the creative material is recommended. The MMA further recommends that MMS ad delivery be tested on real phones prior to any campaign execution.

b) Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL)

Without this parameter it is up to the MMS client to set the order of image and text on one slide, which may lead to an unfavorable display representation. Height – determines the percentage of display space reserved for text and graphics respectively; this enables forcing the display of text below a picture in the visible area of the mobile phone display. Duration – controls the duration of display for each individual slide of the MMS. This parameter is of importance to synchronize the duration of slide display and length of audio play measured in seconds. If not properly set, the slide show may progress to the next slide before the audio (or video) has finished playing.

For MMS messages, SMIL defines the order of images and text on a slide, the time a slide is displayed, and other parameters. Media creators should consider the following SMIL parameters:

c) Other Considerations

Region – defines the order of text and graphics on MMS slides. It determines whether all slides of an MMS will start with graphics followed by text or vice versa.

International Roaming Inserting ads into MMS messages sent to users who are roaming abroad can generate additional costs for those users because they typically pay roaming fees for MMS data usage.

The industry is still developing best practices for this situation. Some MMS service providers/ operators provide the ability to block ad injection and sending ad MMS messages to roaming users, thus ensuring a good customer experience. If possible, this option should be used.

• Response

timing (return MMS) If a user requests advertising information to be delivered to him via MMS, this request should be respond to within 12 hours or the request (opt-in) for that particular message will be deemed expired.

MMS Video Ads 1. Advertisers should consider the following when developing MMS Video Ads: 2. Avoid using fast-moving videos 3. Avoid rapid scene changes (many scene changes in a short period) 4. Avoid using small letters for advertising messages.

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BUZZWORDS

Mobile Operating System A mobile operating system serves as an interface between the end user device (hardware) and the application (Software).

• •

In its intermediary role, it provides a uniform access to resources and controls access to them.

• • •

A mobile operating system, also known as a mobile OS, a mobile platform, or a handheld operating system, is the operating system that controls a mobile device—similar in principle to an operating system such as Mac OS, Linux or Windows that controls a desktop computer or laptop. However, they are currently somewhat simpler, and deal more with the wireless versions of broadband and local connectivity, mobile multimedia formats, and different input methods. The increasing importance of mobile devices has triggered intense competition among technology giants, like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Nokia in a bid to capture the bigger market share pre-emptively. Palm, Research In Motion (RIM) and Ericsson are also significant firms in the mobile platform sector. In November 2007, Google formed a Linux-based open source alliance to make inroads into this mobile platform market, raising consumer awareness of the growing mobile platform frenzy. The most common operating systems (OS) that can be found on Smartphones are:

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Symbian OS from the Symbian Foundation (open public license) RIM BlackBerry OS (closed source, proprietary)

• • •

iOS from Apple Inc. (closed source, proprietary) Windows Phone from Microsoft (closed source, proprietary) Android from Google Inc. (open source, GPL) Linux operating system (open source, GPL) Palm webOS from Palm Inc. and Palm OS/ Garnet OS from Access Co. (closed source, proprietary) bada from Samsung Electronics (closed source, proprietary) MeeGo from Nokia and Intel (open source, GPL) Maemo from Nokia (open source, GPL)

So far, with Microsoft's Windows Mobile, Nokia's Symbian S60, RIM's Blackberry OS, Apple's iPhone OS, Palm's webOS and Google's Android mainly six operating systems for Smartphones could established themselves. Besides, there are also various Linux ports and proprietary systems of the device manufacturers. Three of these operating systems - Symbian S60, Windows Mobile and Android – are designed for being used by several handset manufacturers, while iPhone OS, Blackberry OS and webOS are only available in combination with manufacturer's own end devices. The operating system appears to users especially via Graphical User Interface (GUI), which controls the interaction with the user-application and provides a uniform appearance. It delivers, besides the user interface, basic utilities such as e-mail client, web browser and PIM-applications. Of crucial importance for the performance of an operating system is the ability to run multiple programs simultaneously.


IMPRINT

MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd, launched in early 2004, is an independent online publisher in the Asia Pacific region, focusing on the business of digital media and marketing. Asian e-Marketing is a true pioneer in Asia Pacific’s digital marketing scene, empowering e-marketers in the vibrant and fast-paced electronic marketing environment. Key sections include e-marketing tips, best practices and trends/statistics, legislation affecting e-marketing, training the spotlight on companies and their e-marketing campaigns and e-marketing leadership profiles. Click here for the latest online edition

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Editor-in-Chief: Daniela La Marca Contributing Editor: Roger Stadler Circulation & IT Manager: Mike Khoo Sales & Marketing: Carla Bertuzzi Articles contributed by: Rohit Dadwal Joanne Rigby Eden Zoller Mark Little Michael Philpott Tracey Chen Nathan Burley Tim Renowden Steve Hodgkinson

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