Southend selects Relay Station voice services

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Dec 17, 2007

Coca-Cola League 1 team Southend United FC has become the latest club to adopt Relay Station's voice broadcasting technology and services to better communicate and interact with fans.
The first voice broadcast from the club occurred last week with a personalised message from manager Steve Tilson being sent to the mobiles and landlines of supporters offering them an 18 per cent discount on the price of a 12-game, second half-season ticket if they sign up before Christmas.
Alternatively, fans can opt for a 15 per cent discount for five league match tickets during the second half of the season.
Voice broadcasting is fast becoming a must-have tool for clubs to send personalised messages to supporters.
All that clubs need do to benefit from Relay Station's technology is record a message from the manager or player on an MP3, copy the telephone numbers of fans from a database to a spreadsheet, and send both to Relay Station with instructions on when to broadcast.
The personalised message is sent to the mobiles or landlines of all fans simultaneously (or spread out over a number of hours to avoid overloading ticket office staff) and they have the option to opt out from future broadcasts in the unlikely event they do not wish to receive personalised messages from their club.
The technology is widely used by many Premiership and Championship clubs including Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Coventry and Stoke City.
"Sustained fans support in the second half of the season will be vital to Southend United if we are to win promotion to the Championship next season," said Garry Adamson, Director of Commercial Services at Southend United FC.
"Relay Station's technology will be instrumental to us in obtaining that support and maximising home attendances".

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Wigan boss Steve Bruce tries voice broadcasting

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Jan 15, 2008

Steve Bruce, manager of Wigan Athletic, will call 10,000 season ticket holders this week and ask them to attend the home FA Cup clash with Chelsea FC on 26 January.
Wigan Athletic is a regular user of Relay Station's voice broadcasting technology.
In December 2007, manager Steve Bruce used the technology to "call" nearly 3,000 supporters to promote half-season ticket sales.
The response was overwhelming.
Relay Station's voice broadcasting is one of the most effective means for clubs to interact and engage with fans.
The technology is a proven generator of revenue streams for many Premiership and Championship clubs including Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Coventry and Stoke City.
All that clubs need do to benefit from Relay Station's technology is record a message from the manager or player on an MP3, copy the telephone numbers of fans from a database to a spreadsheet, and send both to Relay Station with instructions on when to broadcast.
The personalised message is sent to the mobiles or landlines of all fans simultaneously (or spread out over a number of hours to avoid overloading ticket office staff) and they have the option to opt out from future broadcasts in the unlikely event they do not wish to receive personalised messages from their club.
"Wigan's FA Cup tie with depleted Chelsea promises to be one of the highlights of our season and the team needs as many fans as possible at the JJB Stadium to spur them on and get a result," said Antony Clark, Wigan's sales director.
"Relay Station's voice broadcasting technology will enable Steve Bruce to get that personal message out to season ticket holders in a most effective way".

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IMImobile unveils integrated mobile ad platform

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Jan 23, 2008

IMImobile, the global provider of value-added services to mobile telecoms operators and content owners, has commenced pre-launch trials of its Ad-Ring mobile advertisement platform.
Ad-Ring is the industry's first fully integrated mobile advertising platform.
It provides an environment in which multi-format ad campaigns can be created and delivered to consumers via a full range of media covering SMS, MMS, voice, WAP portal, caller ring back tone and video streaming.
Furthermore Ad-Ring is delivered as a module within IMImobile's DaVinci service delivery platform (SDP) and is provided as a fully managed service.
DaVinci has enabled 4 billion user interactions worldwide in 2007 alone.
Commenting on the development of Ad-Ring, IMImobile CEO Vishwanath Alluri said: "Our advertising partners have increasingly complex needs that demand a highly flexible and intelligent platform; Ad-Ring is an open platform that not only meets those needs but also provides a user-friendly and sophisticated interface that will allow our customers to initiate and manage consumer campaigns quickly and easily, taking full advantage of the highly targeted nature of mobile advertising".
The development of Ad-Ring, which is expected to launch commercially in the first quarter of 2008, is an evolutionary development of IMImobile's proven DaVinci managed service delivery platform, which provides the tools to cost effectively deliver a range of services off the shelf, a development architecture to develop and deliver new services and an environment in which operators and partners access detailed market and infrastructure intelligence.
The open architecture enables easy integration with VAS platforms including WAP, SMS, MMS, caller ring back tone, Voice and Video.
DaVinci incorporates a comprehensive management information system that enables IMImobile's customers to properly understand subscriber usage and behaviour to determine individual requirements and target services accordingly.
The management information system is fully integrated with Ad-Ring to provide detailed subscriber segmentation and targeting data, together with campaign measurement and analysis.
IMImobile is a leading provider of carrier-grade messaging platforms and gateways, content management systems, and voice platforms through managed services.
Services provided by these platforms include interactive portals, community and user generated content applications, caller ring back tone and video streaming.
IMImobile delivers managed VAS and content platforms and aggregates content for operators and portals, manages the delivery of content for content partners and manages mobile campaigns for media, advertising and enterprise customers.
The customers include operators such as Cable and Wireless, Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Maxis, enterprise customers such as Google and Reuters, content partners and portal customers such as Yahoo!, Sony, Disney and Universal.
IMImobile is a fast-growing global company with 300 employees worldwide, operations in 51 countries supporting 202 operator deployments and over 400 content partners.
IMImobile's differentiation comes from its unique combination of content management, operational model, business model and technology based on own IPRs, to achieve a quality and breadth of solution, cost-effective managed services delivery model and high service level availability unmatched in the industry.
IMImobile will be exhibiting at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from 11-14 February.

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Free trial of voice message broadcasting

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Feb 12, 2008

Government agencies, local authorities, emergency services, enterprises and sports clubs can measure the immediate impact of voice message broadcasting on their operations.
Voice and messaging broadcasting specialist Relay Station has announced the second quarter of continuous profitability and the doubling of average quarterly revenues since July 2007.
The new owners of Relay Station, backed by General Capital and St Helen's Private Equity, acquired the voice and messaging technology of the business in October 2006 and have since secured several enterprise contracts with call centres, government agencies and credit and debt collection companies.
Relay Station has also announced a move to new offices in Amesbury, Wiltshire, a new interactive website, a free limited trial offer of its flagship voice message broadcasting product, and its intention to list on London's AIM market.
The free broadcasting trial will enable government agencies, charities, call centres, advertising agencies, brand managers, enterprises, sports clubs, debt collection agencies and any other type of operation addressing large publics to measure the immediate impact of personalised voice message broadcasting.
All that organisations and businesses need do to take up the free offer is visit Relay Station's new website, fill in a form, record a message and call to action using the company's dial-in voice recorder, provide the landline numbers of 1,000 customers, and Relay Station will do the rest.
Trial users will receive a report shortly after the broadcast confirming the time each customer received their message.
Tips on voice message techniques can be downloaded from the support section of Relay Station's website.
Relay Station was formed in 2000 and was the subject of a management buyout in 2006.
The company's business operations have since been strengthened and its product suite enhanced resulting in the rapid growth of its customer base.
Today, Relay Station's voice broadcasting, SMS/MMS, fax and email products and services are used by such customers as Alertbox, Animal Health, Aston Villa FC, Citroen, Ford Retail, Gemini Property, Knight BMW Group, London Wasps, Manchester City FC, Ocean Finance, Philips Credit, Saracens Rugby Club, Stratstone, Wigan Warriors, and many more.
"Relay Station is focused on becoming a significant voice and digital messaging broadcaster through new product offerings and acquisitions as this technology becomes an established part of public and private sector communications in the UK and Europe," said Martin Peck, one of Relay Station's directors.
"The growth we have experienced since 2006 has prompted us to consider a major corporate expansion via an AIM listing".

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Airwide and TietoEnator integrate mobile offering

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Feb 15, 2008

The integrated mobile advertising solution supports multiple advertising models and allows rich targeting for increased ad revenues.
Airwide Solutions, the leading provider of next-generation mobile messaging and mobile internet infrastructure, applications and solutions, and TietoEnator, a leading European IT services provider, have announced that the companies will provide a integrated mobile advertising solution designed to offer customers an end-to-end solution for managing the mobile advertising ecosystem, and creating and managing mobile advertising campaigns.
Both TietoEnator and Airwide have mobile advertising solutions that cover critical elements of the mobile advertising value chain.
Airwide provides an ad-optimised service delivery platform encompassing multichannel ad-insertion, personalisation, usage tracking, as well as revenue management.
TietoEnator complements the solution providing operators with capabilities for ad sales support, booking and targeting..
As opposed to standalone or delivery channel-specific solutions, the integrated solution minimises OPEX and CAPEX because it can be linked with existing ad networks and ad management systems as sources of ads and ad revenue.
Furthermore, the integration with operator network capabilities allows efficient advertiser invoicing and innovative targeting of advertising campaigns based on subscriber location, device, presence and social network information.
Even more importantly, the cross-channel support enables building a complete profile of the subscriber, usage history and individual preferences that allows granular segmentation and ad targeting on a subscriber level also in other channels.
Such capabilities are extremely valuable from the advertiser perspective, resulting in higher advertising rates and ultimately increased ad revenue.
"When deeply personalised, consumers find advertising to be interesting, inspiring and fun," said Kaj Hagros, Vice President of Market Development for Airwide Solutions.
"This allows operators to expose an entirely new medium to brands and advertisers.
"The integrated solution provided by Airwide and TietoEnator is ideal for helping operators to meet this opportunity in the marketplace by supporting multiple advertising models and interactive campaigns with a single solution.
"Ad space which is targeted to a selected group of customers is more valuable to advertisers; the sophisticated way in which the integrated solution targets and monitors campaigns benefits the whole value chain from advertisers to consumers".
"When done properly, the mobile ad management process generates data which can be utilised in new business models beyond advertising," said Ville Virtanen, Senior Consultant, TietoEnator Telecom and Media.
The Airwide Mobile Advertising Solution is a full, yet modular, service delivery platform optimised for the advertising business model.
By deploying the Airwide Mobile Advertising Solution, mobile operators can generate significant new revenue streams by being in a position to attract big brands and external advertisers.
Using the multichannel ad-insertion capabilities of the Airwide Mobile Advertising Solution, operators can create sponsored person-to-person (P2P) and application-to-person (A2P) messaging campaigns, run targeted SMS, MMS and WAP Push and browsing campaigns and distribute personalised banner advertising.
Due to the open API's of the Airwide Mobile Advertising Solution, it can easily be integrated with third-party campaign creation and advertiser management solutions that offer customers the benefits of a flexible yet comprehensive best of breed solution.
Combined with the TietoEnator Cross-Advertising Solution, which covers Ad Booking and Management and enables campaign creation and advertiser customer management, the integrated offering will enable customers to make one investment in a solution that covers the entire end-to-end process of provisioning, conducting and measuring targeted ad campaigns.
The Cross-Advertising Solution from TietoEnator is a proven and effective solution for handling the cross-media - print, web, TV, mobile - selling, booking and production of advertisements, campaign layout planning, and invoicing.
The solution handles information from different parts in the production process and uses it in creation and sales planning, statistics follow-up, invoicing and customer ledger.
The Cross-Advertising Solution's next generation web-based interface further supports self-care interfaces allowing the customers themselves to handle a large part of the booking and ad production process.
This results in better customer service and minimises operator involvement in day-to-day ad creation and management.
More than 250 media houses and newspapers use TietoEnator's systems for advertising management.
TietoEnator is among the leading architects in building a more efficient information society and one of the largest IT services providers in Europe.
TietoEnator specialises in consulting, developing and hosting its customers' business operations in the digital economy.
The group's services are based on a combination of deep industry-specific expertise and the latest information technology.
TietoEnator has about 16,000 experts in close to 30 countries.

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Animal Health launches managed broadcast alerts

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Feb 28, 2008

Government agency Animal Health has selected Relay Station's broadcasting technology to launch a managed multi-form, early-warning subscription service for farmers, livestock keepers and vets.
For the first time, subscribers can receive Animal Health alerts in the form most convenient for them - voice or SMS messaging to their mobile or landline, email, or by fax at no cost in minutes of new outbreaks of animal disease such as bluetongue, avian influenza and foot and mouth disease.
Relay Station has been working closely with Animal Health since 2005, initially providing emergency broadcasting of voice, SMS, fax and email message alerts each time a notifiable animal disease alert occurred across the UK.
The service enabled Animal Health to communicate with the large number of stakeholders involved in responding to outbreaks of animal diseases.
Emergency services, vets and public officials welcomed Animal Health's initiative, enabling them to quickly deploy the most effective response and to seal off infected premises.
Importantly for Animal Health, it freed-up critical staff and resources and provided an extensive audit trail while providing a more effective way of reaching stakeholders in the shortest time.
Building upon its successful relationship with Relay Station, Animal Health has now decided to introduce a new subscription service aimed at further improving the reach and coverage of the early-warning programme.
Central to the service is an innovative data management tool developed by Relay Station which enables Animal Health to send specific alert messages to specific groups in specific areas.
The tool can be accessed from any location at anytime.
Subscription to the service is free and all that farmers or vets need do to activate the service and receive alerts by phone, email or fax is to complete a simple form on Animal Health's website or by calling the Agency's interactive telephone system.
David Shearn, Animal Health's Contingency Communications Manager, said: "Animal Health is focused on providing the best early warning alert system possible and Relay Station's technology and frontline support singularly allows us to achieve this.
"We expect thousands of farmers and vets to take advantage of this new flexible service so that all can become proactive in limiting the cost of animal disease".

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Canada's Green Party tries voice broadcasting

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Mar 11, 2008
Relay Station's voice message broadcasting service has been selected by the Green Party of Canada to poll voters and establish how they intend to vote in the 17 March by-elections.
A recorded message will be sent to the mobiles or landlines of 87,000 registered voters.
The message asks how they will vote and asks them to reply by touching a specific number on their phone's keypad representing each of the main parties.
Relay Station will provide the Green Party with an analysis of voter intentions shortly after the broadcast.
A further voice broadcast invites 30,000 voters to a Green Party rally in Ottawa.
The Green Party of Canada chose Relay Station's voice broadcasting service as a faster, less intrusive and less costly method of establishing voter trends than telephone calling, knocking on doors, or catching voters in the high street.
It also serves the party's tree-saving environmental principles in eliminating the need to use printed material wherever possible.
Executive director Jim Campbell commented: "We live in a mobile world and the Green Party firmly believes that traditional methods of polling have had their day.
"Relay Station's voice broadcasting service is a compelling solution to help us establish voter intentions in the simplest, shortest and most effective way".
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Mobile traffic generation - the new black art?

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Aug 17, 2007

Mobile marketing strategies are becoming increasingly important as organisations look to extend online presence to the burgeoning mobile market, argues Advertising2Mobile.
Few brands and publishers have developed successful mobile strategies - deterred in part by network operator strategies that have added significant cost to the traffic generation process.
It is no longer a case of "build it and they will come".
In today's highly controlled mobile market, traffic generation is becoming a complex and challenging skill.
Despite the clear commercial opportunities and pent-up user demand, many organisations still lack a coherent mobile strategy and are struggling to attain value for money from investment in mobile advertising.
However, there are notable exceptions.
Those companies that have embraced an integrated mobile marketing solution that combines site creation with strong billing mechanisms and real-time traffic generation are achieving excellent returns.
So just what is the key to mobile marketing success asks Adam Brogden, Managing Director, Advertising2Mobile.
Mobile phone users are increasingly opting to use their handsets rather than a PC to access the internet.
Indeed, the UK mobile data market alone is estimated to be worth GBP1billion by 2009, according to the Mobile Data Association.
This increase in data use is being driven by a larger installed base of internet-capable mobile phones, better user experiences, user education and new consumer-friendly price points as operators reduce data charges.
Clearly it is now time for organisations to leverage their online presence and extend the brand to a mobile audience.
Yet to date few organisations have made that move.
Many candidly admit a lack of understanding of the challenges surrounding the mobile marketplace.
And most companies are also aware of the expensive mistakes already made by some organisations in a bid to build a mobile presence.
According to figures from analyst Informa Telecoms and Media, by the end of 2007, out of 797.6 million mobile phone subscriptions worldwide roughly 25 per cent will include web browsing.
The opportunity is fantastic.
So why are more organisations not proactively embracing this potentially lucrative marketplace? Most companies have already dabbled with mobile technologies, using product printed SMS codes for example to get customers to register for prizes or competitions.
Now it is time to extend that activity and maximise the opportunities provided by widespread adoption of mobile internet browsing to create a truly interactive customer relationship.
There are several key issues to address: the user experience, the quality of transaction, efficient billing mechanisms and, critically, the traffic generation.
The latter is a newly required skill that has been driven by a rapid change in network operator attitudes.
Whilst for early adopters of mobile marketing, keen users managed to find their way to sites via simple search techniques, these days the network operators have a tight control over user activity.
It is increasingly tough to generate network traffic and the majority of routes demand a financial premium.
As a result achieving a successful mobile presence is not simply a case of extending the existing internet, print and TV brand to the mobile; it is far more complicated.
With up to a dozen different paid-for options for generating traffic, and as many free alternatives, choosing the best approach requires detailed market understanding.
Yet simply setting up these accounts is complex: each has different pricing models and management interfaces.
Understanding which channel is most suitable for each demographic or product type is very important to get a campaign off to a strong start.
But strategies cannot be set in stone.
Costs for each channel vary, often minute by minute.
Some channels set traffic price on a daily basis; others vary it dynamically reflecting the peaks and troughs in user activity.
Every channel is different and maximising traffic to a site is a complex process that requires market understanding and insight into the vagaries of each operator's system.
Those companies that are not aware of the complexities of mobile generation can spend a lot of money without delivering a return.
It is therefore essential to monitor spend in real time.
But the investment also needs to be monitored against profitability - not volume of traffic generated.
While mobile users demonstrate little or no loyalty they are not adventurous and will typically use the same search options time after time.
Therefore there is a clear tipping point in the mobile model - increasing the spend in a successful channel may initially boost profitability but will then start to remarket to the same user base, limiting additional sales opportunities and resulting in a rapid drop in value for money.
Real-time management is, therefore, essential to ensure mobile media spend is maximised.
But this is not a cost effective process for organisations to manage internally - a fact which may currently be deterring many from plunging wholeheartedly into this fast growing market.
Yet there is no reason to eschew this lucrative marketplace.
Using a mobile media buyer, organisations can outsource the complex traffic generation issue to a company with staff dedicated to monitoring traffic generation options in real time, looking at price, volumes and revenue generated to maximise client returns.
And this approach is highly profitable, delivering on average a 20 per cent return week on week.
With daily and weekly reports, organisations can monitor performance and plan on going spend, as well as gaining significant insight into the best options for forthcoming campaigns.
Critically, the burden of day to day management is removed, enabling an organisation to focus on its core operations and refine the mobile strategy without the distraction of complex and time consuming traffic generation processes.
For once, user demand is ahead of the curve, with mobile users embracing the technology faster than the major brands.
There is a high demand for mobile internet, as recognised by the network operators.
Complexity may be deterring some organisations, but by combining a robust real-time mobile media buying solution with proven site development, content reformatting and billing mechanisms, organisations can now very rapidly attain a mobile strategy, and critically, achieve a tangible return from day one.

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Calvin Klein goes mobile

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Aug 20, 2007

Calvin Klein has enhanced its existing promotional campaign by adding a mobile element to promote its new ckIN2U fragrances.
The mobile WAP site developed by New Visions will be promoted on posters in over 20 top shopping centres around the UK.
Consumers are incentivised to text in and gain access to the ckIN2U mobile site to obtain a free sample of the fragrance.
In addition consumers can enter to win exclusive ckIN2U iPods on offer as part of the promotion.
On the mobile site consumers can also download wallpapers, send the site link to their friend and also obtain a list of stockists for the Calvin Klein fragrance.
The campaign is part of a communications plan devised by OMD UK.
Christophe Spencer of OMD said: "This is the first time a premium fragrance brand such as Calvin Klein has used mobile to offer samples to consumers.
"Mobile is starting to become an interesting medium for our clients, we can obtain data from customers who are interested in our clients' products and from the data we collect we can re-market special promotions back to our customers".
New Visions is a full service mobile agency working with clients such as EMI, Harper Collins, ActiVision, VNU, Warner Bros, RSPB, Strongbow.
New Visions provides creative, retail, media and marketing solutions to brands and service providers who want to reach out to consumers via their mobiles.

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Mediaburst launches Co-op mobile campaign

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Sep 18, 2007

Mobile marketing leader Mediaburst has designed a mobile marketing campaign for The Co-operative Travel to instantly engage with retail environment.
A new in-store promotion is being launched this month on screens mounted at check-outs within Co-operative Food retail stores, enabling shoppers to text the travel company and save an extra GBP50 per booking off last-minute summer and autumn breaks to selected destinations.
All that shoppers need do is text the word "Summer" to a short code that appears on the in-store screen and they'll receive the auto response "Save an Extra GBP50 per booking off last minute summer holidays - for more information call 0870 574 9272, or text "Call Me" to 87103 for a Co-operative Travel booking agent to call them".
Mobile marketing is another touchpoint for The Co-operative Travel to engage with its customers.
Going forward, the company believes mobile marketing will become one of the preferred marketing channels for travel companies in the near term.
The Co-operative Travel is the UK's largest independent travel provider, with over 400 branches on the high street, state-of-the-art customer call centres and an award-winning website.
The Co-operative Travel is not owned by a parent tour operator and is therefore able to offer its customers a much wider range of holidays.
Being part of The Co-operative Group, co-operative values underpin the whole of The Co-operative Travel business, which is conducted in a socially responsible manner.
In November 2006, The Co-operative Travel became the first ever high street retailer to offer its customers the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions arising from their holiday travel.
"Clearly, Mediaburst is delighted to team up with The Co-operative Travel to support its initiatives in bringing this special travel deal to the attention of Co-operative shoppers," said Stuart Brown, Mediaburst's sales and marketing director.
"The campaign win follows our recent Bostik win and serves to further strengthen our position as the number one mobile marketing partner in big brand promotions".

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Xiam to power Vodafone mobile ad channel

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Sep 28, 2007

Xiam Technologies is to manage the technical and commercial inventory of Vodafone Ireland's Mobile Advertising proposition as part of Vodafone's recently released Mobile Internet portal.
Xiam will use its MPOS (My Personal Offers System) technology to serve ads on Vodafone's new Mobile Internet portal.
Xiam will also provide extensive ad management, reporting and campaign management to advertisers.
With Xiam, advertisers can present interactive advertisements on Vodafone's Mobile Internet portal such as animated click-through banners which can bring users to the advertisers mobile site or purchase content and services directly.
Chris Handley, Head of Mobile Internet and Content at Vodafone Ireland, commented: "At Vodafone we see mobile advertising as a significant opportunity to augment revenues whilst improving the portal offering and Xiam's proven commercial and technical know-how will bring the best to the channel for both advertisers and subscribers.
"We are delighted to announce Xiam as our partner for the advertising channel".
Colm Healy, CEO at Xiam, commented: "We are really excited about bringing our MPOS technology to Vodafone Mobile Internet - its ability to reliably track ads and combine real-time responses with data such as usage history, purchase history or credit rating to target ads more precisely will be a real driver of the channel for both Vodafone and advertisers.
"Feeding this data back into campaigns leads to higher response rates and allows advertisers to maximise return on investment".
Launch advertisers to appear on the portal include a mix of international and domestic brands including Xbox, Pepsi, SonyBMG, Halifax, Warner Bros, Irish Rail, Daft.ie, Carzone.ie, and RTE.
Vodafone has launched a new flat rate data tariff as well as a revamped portal design to make it easier for users to find content.
For advertisers, mobile provides much higher response rates than traditional media particularly with youth segments who are increasingly deserting traditional advertising media in favour of new media.
Xiam Technologies' Targeting and Recommendations system dynamically presents the best adverts to consumers by automatically collecting and analysing subscriber data and behavioural patterns.
The MPOS (My Personal Offers System) solution uses sophisticated analytical techniques to identify the right ads for subscribers and the right time to promote them.
By presenting adverts relevant to subscribers' interests and lifestyles, MPOS can dramatically accelerate conversion rates and improve user experience across all digital channels.

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Why mobile marketing should be in your strategy

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Dec 7, 2007

According to research companies, national and international press, the mobile phone is the gateway to the next advertising promised land.
Advertising on mobile devices has until now been a relatively tiny proportion of the marketing mix for major corporations; during 2006 mobile advertising accounted for a mere GBP435m of spend compared with the GBP12bn spent on internet advertising and GBP225bn spent on all advertising; marketing gurus have been flummoxed as to how to unleash the power of mobile marketing, until now.
Mobile advertising is set to outstrip traditional media.
For those that are in the know, mobile advertising and marketing is set to outstrip not only online but also traditional media including billboards, print, radio and television.
As in the early days of email marketing where only simple plain text messages could be delivered, mobile marketing has been held back by similar content delivery constraints.
As a result marketers have attempted to engage their desired demographic by displaying advertisements to mobile users surfing the mobile web via their devices, all operating on different OS platforms; this has a multitude of flaws, not least that marketers must wait for their demographic to find them rather than push their message direct to the target audience in anything other than a rather unattractive plain text SMS.
Don Macinnes, Managing Director of Wizemobile.co.uk, said: "Don't wait for your prospects to find you".
Other than waiting for the desired prospect to find the marketer's advertising the other 'deal breaker' is that the prospect is paying to view the advertisement and is mindful of his data costs whilst visiting any advertising-led content link, minimising the responsiveness of the prospect.
With respected research companies suggesting that the currently flawed mobile advertising market will be worth GBP10bn within three years you would have thought a better way of utilising the medium, which is never further than 2m from the prospect, would have emerged: it has.
Doing away with the flawed pay-for-data-usage and then pay-per-click model, email marketing company wizemail.co.uk has created a push mobile marketing solution similar to the high-ROI marketer's favourite HTML email.
Branded Wizemobile, this mobile advertising medium pushes 30-second animated multimedia messages including music and voice to the marketer's clients and prospects in an engaging and unique manner.
Having the ability to go 'viral' and with reverse billing available makes for a unique marketing medium.
With an audience numbering in the billions, mobile phone marketing can potentially reach a larger global audience than the billion or so personal computers, with the mobile user base growth outstripping PCs and a marketer's message being delivered straight to the prospect's trouser pocket, which definitely is not the case with either television or computer-accessed advertising.
Marketing pundits expect Wizemobile to become the brand enabler of choice.

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Wigan FC uses Relay Station's voice services

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Dec 14, 2007

Voice broadcasting leader Relay Station has announced that new manager of Wigan Athletic FC, Steve Bruce, will send a personalised message to the landlines and mobiles of 2,750 fans this Thursday.
The broadcast is a year-end push on half-season ticket sales.
Wigan Athletic is a regular user of Relay Station's voice broadcasting technology.
In the past, the club has successfully used well-known players to record and send personalised messages to supporters.
Thursday's broadcast will go to supporters who previously purchased tickets, but do not have a current season ticket.
Voice broadcasting is no longer a nice-to-have tool for clubs to interact and engage with fans.
The technology is now a must-have generator of revenue streams for many Premiership and Championship clubs including Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Coventry and Stoke City.
All that clubs need do to benefit from Relay Station's technology is record a message from the manager or player on an MP3, copy the telephone numbers of fans from a database to a spreadsheet, and send both to Relay Station with instructions on when to broadcast.
The personalised message is sent to the mobiles or landlines of all fans simultaneously (or spread out over a number of hours to avoid overloading ticket office staff) and they have the option to opt out from future broadcasts in the unlikely event they do not wish to receive personalised messages from their club.
"We need as many fans as possible to get firmly behind the team as they truly do make a difference to the team's performance," said Antony Clark, Wigan's sales director.
"Relay Station's voice broadcasting technology is one of the fastest and most effective methods of getting that message out to the fans".
Relay Station is a leading communications provider to government, banks, enterprises, SMEs, charities, professional organisations, sports clubs, and many other types of operations with large audiences.
Its web-based products enable them to better engage and interact with their publics.
Call centres use Relay Station's voice broadcasting products to engage with up to 115,000 customers each hour.
Brands use the company's one-way and two-way text marketing solutions to launch mobile campaigns to more than 2 million consumers each hour.
Sports clubs send personalised voice messages and greetings from the manager and key players to the mobiles and landlines of supporters.
Businesses use its solutions to fax proposals to 10,000 buyers simultaneously and generate revenues in the shortest time.

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Taking the pain out of mobile marketing

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Oct 2, 2007

Mobile marketing leader Mediaburst has been selected by communications agency Multiply to provide text-to-win services for the new Twice as Fast Nurofen Express promotion.
The nationwide campaign promotes Nurofen's new Express product and Mediaburst's mobile services complement traditional magazine and in-store advertising.
The campaign is the first to use the new unified shortcode system for UK and Republic of Ireland on-pack promotions.
Just like Nurofen Express, everything happens twice as fast in New York and all that shoppers need do to enter the free prize draw and stand a chance of winning one of two weekend breaks on offer to the Big Apple is text Nurofen Express to 57782.
Return flights, two nights in a luxury Manhatten hotel and a choice of pulse-pumping activities and distractions are included in the breaks.
The campaign runs until 31 December 2007.
Texts are charged at standard network rates.
"In this age of instant communications, mobile messaging is fast becoming the new point of sale and possibly the most effective way for a brand to engage with its public in a personalised way," said Emma McCafferty, account director at Multiply.
"That means you need a trusted partner with the credentials to get the job done and in our book that means Mediaburst".
Multiply is one of Britain's key communications agencies: its talented staff have developed a customer base that most other agencies can only dream of and was named Best Newcomer Agency at the 2006 MCCA Awards.

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Wigan FC uses Relay Station's voice services

Edited by the Marketingservicestalk editorial team Oct 17, 2007

New Visions has joined forces with its technology partner Cube80 to form New Visions Mobile to capitalise on the growing demand for mobile marketing services.
Cube80 and New Visions have worked alongside each other for over five years and the merger is a move to capitalise on the growing demand for mobile marketing services.
Full service mobile agency New Visions specialises in supplying mobile marketing and media services to brand owners, publishers and the music industry.
Cube80 specialises in supplying technology that allows agencies like New Visions to build mobile internet sites, and create mobile download and marketing campaigns.
Julia McNally, Director and Co-Founder of New-Visions, said: "We started out as a technology agnostic mobile marketing agency, which always allowed us to select most advanced available technology, providing the best solutions to our clients.
"However, it became apparent that the Cube:80 platform was always ahead of the rest with their innovation".
McNally continued: "No other platform combines content management, automated transcoding, all forms of mobile DRM, wap and web creation tools with PSMS, PayForIt, Credit Card and PayPal billing along with Loyalty schemes and PIN code redemption facilities in one package".
Caroline Walton, Director of Operations, added: "New Visions has helped shape the Cube80 platform over the years, which has been constantly developed to serve the needs of clients such as EMI Music and Harper Collins; they have built our loyalty engine and integrated our download kiosks into the network operators and winning a MEFFY at the Mobile Entertainment Forum awards this year for the Lily Allen Mobile Club is testament to the capability of the combined businesses".
The main motivation for the merger is to expand and grow the business: the new company offers a broader range of advertising and marketing solutions by integrating specialist skills.
"We've already secured business in the USA and we see this as a huge opportunity for us", added McNally.
"We're seeing huge demand from brands, publishers and the music industry who want to promote their products and content on mobile and also want deep integrations into their existing business.
"The new combined company is now able to better meet these requirements".
Both companies' boards have approved the deal which will see New Visions Mobile's head office based in Soho, London.
In addition to the existing North American office in Vancouver there are immediate plans to set up a sales office in New York.
New Visions to date has been hugely successful in the mobile arena, boasting clients such as EMI, Warner Bros, Universal Music, Harper Collins and Global Cool.
Caroline Walton and Julia McNally, Co-Founders of New Visions, continue to be board members of the new company.
Chris Jackson, who joined Cube80 as CEO in June earlier this year, has been appointed CEO of New Visions Mobile.
Jackson said: "This is a very exciting time for New Visions Mobile; combining the expertise, knowledge and technology of the two companies, built up over the past five years, will create an unbeatable offering as this market expands".
Prior to Jackson's current responsibilities, he had a number of leadership roles including Partner at Wireless Frontiers, Chairman of Cybiko, CEO of Ezycharge, and Senior Director 3G Terminals at the GSMA.
Previously, He served as VP Strategy at Nokia and was the VP for GSM Product Management at the Motorola phone division.
New Visions Mobile provides mobile marketing, advertising and solutions to brands, publishers and the music industry.
The company provides the TribalText and AVision platform services that include Mobile Content Management and repurposing, DRM, Mobile Web and Internet Storefronts and Billing (including PayForiT, PayPal, Credit Card and International PSMS).

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