Posts Tagged ‘Mobile’

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Mobile Ad Spend to Rapidly Increase

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

“Mobile Advertising and Marketing: Change Is in the Air,” a new report from eMarketer, found that mobile advertising is expected to rapidly increase during the next five years.

Even though the number of mobile users and mobile devices is growing, mobile advertising and marketing dollars are falling behind. However, the report predicts that mobile ad spending, including messaging-based formats, will reach $416 million this year, but that number will increase to $1.56 billion by 2013.

“As an emerging advertising channel, mobile will continue to see lofty growth rates through 2013,” Noah Elkin, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, said. “Mobile will grow considerably more quickly than online ad spending as a whole, more in line with emerging online formats such as digital video.”

Although eMarketer has revised downward its projections for mobile advertising to account for the economic downturn, the overall long-term outlook for mobile is still optimistic. Other companies have predicted varying estimates for mobile ad spending.

Yankee Group predicts $184 million will be spent this year, while the Mobile Marketing Association predicts $1.7 billion will be spent this year. Experts say the difference in predictions reflects the immaturity of mobile advertising and marketing.

When it comes to spending share for various mobile formats, eMarketer predicts search will see an increase from $57.6 million, or 18 percent, in 2008 to $577.2 million, or 37 percent, in 2013. Display is expected to grow from 22 percent of the total to 35 percent, while SMS is predicted to decline from 60 percent of the total to 28 percent.

“Disparate hardware and software platforms, competing app stores, rival search engines and a large, fragmented universe of agencies and service providers make the mobile ecosystem more daunting than the desktop environment,” Elkin said. “But overcoming this complexity pays dividends.”

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The Mobile Population

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

The majority of mobile phone users are inseparable from their devices, taking their smartphones and traditional phones with them all the time.

This year, 91.4 percent of the U.S. population is a mobile phone subscriber. That number is expected to increase to 95.3 percent by 2011 and again to 96.7 percent by 2013, according to “Mobile Users and Usage: It’s Personal,” a new study by eMarketer.

“With mobile usage now pervasive, eMarketer believes that mobile will develop into a ubiquitous platform for messaging, social networking, entertainment and Web access,” eMarketer Senior Analyst Noah Elkin said.

The study found the mobile subscriber population is not uniform. According to ComScore, 53 percent of mobile phone subscribers are women, while 47 percent are men. However, there are more male subscribers in the 18 to 44-year-old age range. There also are variations in usage by age, income, ethnicity and device type.

Text messaging has surpassed voice calling as the most popular means of communication on mobile devices. Nielsen found that during Q1, the average American mobile phone subscriber sent or received 486 text messages per month, but only made 182 calls.

During that same time, those 13 to 17-years old sent and received more than three times as many texts on a monthly basis as those 18 to 24-years old, and more than 50 times as many texts as those 55 to 64-years old.

In addition to text messaging, mobile Internet usage also has been steadily increasing. eMarketer found this growth will continue during the next five years, with the number of mobile users accessing the Internet to rise from 73.7 million this year to 134.3 million in 2013.

The mobile Internet user population is about one-third the size of the population that uses wired Internet, and smartphones have helped to bridge the gap between mobile Web and desktops.

“Growing sophistication in users, devices and usage patterns will mean increased opportunities for marketers to connect with consumers, particularly among the growing population of smartphone users,” Elkin said. “Yet marketers must take seriously the highly personal relationship users have with their mobile devices, and respect the need for a value exchange.”

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Mobile Subscriptions to Reach 4 Billion

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

If you’re in the job space and need more convincing that mobile is the way to go when it comes to recruiting candidates, listen to this.

A new report from Bitkom found that there will be more than 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions throughout the world by the end of this year. Although there are more than 4 billion handsets, the number only refers to the amount of in-use numbers or connections.

Bitkom, a German industry association, took its research figures from the Berlin-based Information Technology Observatory. If you take into consideration that the world’s population is currently estimated to be 6.8 billion, that means three out of every five people will have a mobile phone.

“The strongest growth in mobile phone usage now comes from emerging and developing countries,” Bitkom’s Friedrich Jousssen, who also heads mobile phone provider Vodafone’s German operations, said.

For instance, in India alone, mobile phone usage is expected to increase by 32 percent this year to 457 million people. A 14 percent increase is anticipated in Brazil and a 12 percent increase is expected in China, bringing the number of people in that country using mobile phones to 684 million.

On the flip side, industrialized countries are seeing more modest growth rates.

The European Union already has more mobile phone contracts than citizens, causing the industry to focus on mobile internet provision via advanced UMTS technology, the fastest mobile-phone signal currently available. That technology is expected to grow by 36 percent to reach 172 million users in Europe, and could increase by 74 percent to reach 108 million American users.

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Mobile App Remains Silent

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

If you’re an adult, you won’t be able to use a recently-launched mobile application. But for teenager’s, that’s the draw.

Fanta, a soft drink brand of the The Coca Cola Company, recently teamed up with Ogilvy Advertising to create the Fanta Stealth Sound System. The mobile application allows teenagers to talk in secret without adults being able to know they’re even communicating.

The application works by using technology that incorporates very high pitched sounds that are audible to teenagers but unidentifiable to adults. This is the same technology that was previously used to prevent teenagers from gathering in public places.

The application plays a series of sounds, which users can choose from a pre-set menu. The sounds all have pre-defined meanings, allowing teenagers to secretly communicate. The application allows for quick response and doesn’t require data charges.

The product will play to Fanta’s brand message, of which teenagers are an important part, by conveying its playful imagination.

“Mobile advertising is all about using the unique elements of the wireless device as opposed to borrowing inventory from previous media channels,” Scott Seaborn, head of mobile technologies at Ogilvy Group UK, said. “Mobile phones are communication tools. This fact was not forgotten in our creative work for Fanta on mobile.”

Sander Munsterman, CEO of XS2TheWorld, which served as Ogilvy’s technical partner on the project, said the application took only two weeks to create.

“The most important thing was the app had to look flashy and had to work on the broadest range of handsets,” he said. “The development process went very smooth as Ogilvy provided us with all the right material.”

The application has been distributed free of charge from the Fanta mobile site, which also offers games, ringtones, wallpapers and 3D downloads. The mobile site’s URL also was placed on 60 million cans throughout the United Kingdom. Ogilvy also created a humorous video about the application. The application has been downloaded more than 320,000 times during the past month alone.

“We felt this was a perfect way of engaging with our core target group of teenages in a way we hadn’t done before,” Prinz Pinakatt, group interactive marketing manager at Coca Cola Europe, said. “It helped us to become part of a community – the community is teenagers. It’s brilliant.”

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Local Mobile to Increase

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Those who are taking advantage of the power of mobile should start to focus on the local element.

Some reports are revealing that local mobile advertising will soon be a big trend, with local mobile search at the top of the list. If you’re using mobile methods to attract job candidates – whether through text messaging campaigns or setting up a mobile-friendly Web site – you should know that focusing on local can benefit your company and job seekers.

Using local mobile advertising or local mobile search can allow a job seeker to pinpoint companies that are hiring and see open positions within their local market.

In “Going Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity,” The Kelsey Group states that local mobile ad revenue will reach $3.1 billion in 2013, an increase from $160 million last year. At the same time, mobile search will reach $2.3 billion. During 2008, local searches made up 27.8 percent of all searches, but that number is expected to reach 35.1 percent by 2013. The report further states that about 15 percent of all Apple iPhone applications are local.

“As mobile data consumption rises, we expect local marketing to be a big winner,” Michael Boland, program director for mobile local media at The Kelsey Group, said. “There is a strong correlation between local search and the mobile use case, which will cause a good portion of the ongoing mobile application boom to focus on local.”

In the “U.S. Local Media Annual Forecast (2008-2013)” report, The Kelsey Group predicts that local advertising revenues will decrease from $155.3 billion in 2008 to $144.4 billion in 2013, a negative 1.4 percent compound annual growth rate.

Throughout that time period, only the local interactive segment will show growth, but all other local media will see marginal to rapid declines during the next 18 to 36 months. Only a small amount of traditional media will rebound, thanks to a revived economy beginning in 2011, but most traditional media will continue to decline.

The interactive share of local ad spending will go from 9 percent in 2008 to 22.2 percent in 2013. The local interactive segment will increase from $14 billion in 2008 to $32.1 billion in 2013, while the traditional segment will decrease from $141.3 billion in 2008 to $112.4 billion in 2013.

“Within the local advertising sector, there will be a real share shift, and the players most ready to leverage and adopt interactive models will achieve greater success going forward,” Kelsey Group CEO Neal Polachek said. “The share shift we expect could actually be more pronounced if the major traditional media are not able to integrate new interactive products into their bundle.”

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Reach More Candidates with Mobile

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Having a mobile presence is paramount if you want to connect to job seekers.

Searching for jobs online used to be the norm, but as more people become unhappy in their current positions and use employer time and resources to find a new job, those employers are taking notice. As a result, employees are getting fired. This could all be avoided if candidates had access to mobile job searching.

The mobile phone is becoming the top choice of communication for most people. Mobile phones are easy to use, portable and versatile. Unlike land lines or computers, they can be used virtually everywhere.

There are currently more than 4 billion handsets connecting users throughout the world. A recent study by the CDC found that for the first time, cell phones outnumber fixed land lines as a household’s unique phone, as one in five homes have a cell phone but no land line.

Statistics like these are causing more and more employers to turn to mobile. Employers that only rely on traditional advertising or online advertising, such as job boards, might have some luck finding potential candidates, but they are missing a key demographic.

Employers who use mobile are able to connect with job seekers anywhere at anytime. People looking for work can use their cell phone to receive text alerts of open jobs or browse employers’ mobile Web sites. Mobile job searching allows potential candidates to browse open positions when it’s most convenient for them, whether they’re waiting in line or at work.

If you’re tempted to use your work computer to search for jobs – don’t. Mobile searching would be a better alternative, as employers are catching onto the trend that company computers are being used to search for jobs and employees are seeing the repercussions.

According to an article by MSN Careers, one employer at a public relations agency fired an employee for excessive job hunting while at work. The employer began monitoring the employee’s computer habits when her productivity noticeably declined and found her job search was taking more time than her current job, which violated her employment agreement.

“If you want to get fired, by all means job hunt, but your work computer is 100 percent the property of the company for which you work,” the employer cautions. “So even if you are doing the searching at home, best to do so on your personal [home computer]. If your company has monitoring software on your computer, it will record your activity whether you are at work or at home.”

If you’re caught job searching on the clock, it could have negative effects for your future. On top of not being able to receive unemployment because you violated an employment contract, you’ll be hard pressed to get a positive recommendation from your current employer.

“If your employer sees you are job searching, even if just because of casual curiosity, it sends the message that you wish to leave your current employer, and it could cause them to include you in planned layoffs for which you may have never been considered before,” the employer added.

A better alternative would be to use your mobile phone to search for a job. That way you’re guaranteed privacy, as an employer has no right to access your mobile phone. This would avoid any need for you to use a work computer to search for another job and would eliminate your chances of being fired for doing so.

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mJob Partners with Bayard

Monday, May 18th, 2009

mJob has partnered with Bayard Advertising, a full-service recruitment communications company.

Bayard Advertising partners with employers to save time and money by developing interactive strategies, employer brand campaigns, weekly ad creation and placement and Web site design.

The new partnership will allow Bayard’s clients the option of including a mobile initiative powered by mJob to enhance their current sourcing and candidate management campaigns.

“Our alliance with mJob gives us a competitive advantage to offer the best mobile marketing solutions available,” Eric Holwell, director of of Interactive Services at Bayard Advertising, said. “In addition to standard text messaging campaigns, mJob expands our scope of services to include bluecasting, scan marketing and WAP site development which can host our clients’ jobs in a readable format designed for mobile handsets. Targeted SEO and SEM strategies are available as well which will assist in taking advantage of the 20 million people who search on a mobile handset.”

“Bayard is a well-respected, long-standing company in this industry, and mJob is proud to be delivering solutions in tandem with their current array of services,” mJob Founder Joel Cheesman said. “This partnership ensures that Bayard’s clients can take advantage of the latest mobile technologies to ensure an effective, efficient mobile strategy.”

The most recent research indicates that mobile is the most pervasive technology. There are more than 4 billion handsets connecting users throughout the world, making mobile always within reach, unlike land lines and computers that aren’t as compact and versatile.

A recent study by the CDC shows that for the first time, cell phones outnumber fixed lines as a household’s unique phone. The study found one in five homes have a cell phone but no land line.

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Desktop and Mobile Searches Meet

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

On Tuesday, Google hosted a Searchology event, during which time the company revealed a number of core search upgrades, including some dealing with mobile.

Engineering Director Scott Huffman showed how Google searchers will soon be able to automatically synch their desktop and mobile searches.

“Mobile search is growing faster than search on PCs, and it’s the primary way that people access search in some countries,” he said. “But we want [it] to become a daily engagement activity no matter where you are.”

For instance, if someone is searching for upcoming flight information on a desktop, they could have the flight’s status translate to their phone, getting rid of any need to enter the data again. Huffman said this would stop people from having to “frantically look through their baggage for the sheet of paper with the flight number on it.”

In order for this type of function to work, people would need to be logged into a Google account. Google also recently upgraded its mobile image search, which has been optimized for touch-screen phones, and launched a location-aware astronomy app for the Android mobile operating system.

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AIRS Talks Up mJob

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

AIRS has posted an article on Going Mobile that highlights the effectiveness of mobile job searching and the potential of mJob:

For those keeping score, the discussion Zollman referenced at the Onrec conference has since taken place, and the result is a new destination, mobile. And, right now, the way to get there is via mJob.

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Nokia Brands its Cell phones

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Finland-based Nokia, the world’s biggest cellphone maker, is creating mobile devices wrapped in corporate logos.

The company is offering advertisers the right to brand mobile handsets for an undisclosed fee. According to an article by Advertising Age, advertisers can choose a Nokia phone that complements their demographic target, put the logo on the handset and accessories, embed mobile content into the phone and put it in packaging that also features their logo. The program should launch in the United States during the second half of this year.

Benefits to the company include Nokia’s ability to pre-load content on the advertisers behalf, while the benefit to consumers is being able to access that original content. David Kohl, Nokia Interactive head of sales-Americas, said this allows brands the opportunity to put content in the hands of the most potent advocates, those who like the brand and want to be seen with it.

The program has been running for about 18 months and seen some initial success in Brazil. When it arrives in the United States, the program will test how far consumers are willing to go to interact with brands.

The branded phones cost between $70 and $200 in Brazil and are sold through retailers that market them with in-store promotions and co-op advertising programs involving Nokia.

One of the program’s best-selling phones is under Unilever’s Seda personal care brand, which used a limited-edition pink Nokia phone to refresh its brand and launch a teen shampoo line. The device, which costs $100, came bundled with games, trial-size shampoos and exclusive music. The phone sold out within two months, and sold 200,000 units between April and December.

However, some critics of the program worry that Brazil’s mobile economics apply more to the program than that of the United States. For instance, customers in Brazil pay more for mobile Internet access and content, with songs costing about $3 a piece, but stateside content is inexpensive or free.

Also, Brazilians usually prepay for mobile phone time, meaning they can buy handsets without carrier oversight. However, in the United States, people usually buy phones through carriers who then subsidize the handsets in exchange for signing a service contract.

Companies such as Disney and ESPN have already failed at attempts to sell branded handsets. But Nokia said it’s currently in talks with T-Mobile and AT&T regarding distribution of the branded phones.

Most experts say the success of the program will depend on what consumers are able to gain from carrying a branded phone. Although the phones will cost the same or less than the unbranded version, most consumers will expect some form of compensation for being a sort of brand spokesperson.

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