O2 Becomes Bebo's First UK Open Mobile Partner

Social media network Bebo has revealed that O2 has become the first UK operator to receive Bebo Open Mobile Partner status. Launched last week, Bebo Open Mobile is a global partnership program for mobile operators, handset manufacturers and mobile software developers. The initiative offers Partners a suite of tools to support the delivery of the Bebo social networking experience to mobile users. As a Bebo Open Mobile Partner, O2 will become the first UK operator to benefit from access to the program’s mobile Internet, messaging and media technologies. O2 will collaborate with Bebo to offer exclusive mobile content to its users, as afforded by its Bebo Open Mobile Partner status. Specifically, O2 and Bebo are today announcing the deployment of two services. Bebo Open Mobile Internet: O2 and Bebo have launched an O2 version of the Bebo mobile platform with O2 Active navigation, support for mobile advertising and a range of customised O2 featuresBebo Open Mobile Messaging: O2 is the first operator to deploy the Bebo Open Mobile Messaging tools. O2 customers can immediately receive Bebo alerts and updates on their mobile phones through the 62326 (MBEBO) Shortcode. Additionally, O2 customers can update their Bebo profiles, add photos to their gallery, participate in special offers and interact with friends through the Shortcode. The two companies soft launched the O2 version of the Bebo mobile platform in late December. They report that the site has experienced over 60% growth in traffic in just four weeks. “We know how important social networks are to our customers, and have seen huge traffic growth to Bebo and other social networking sites over our portal,” says O2 Head of Content at O2, Antony Douglas. “Becoming a Bebo Open Mobile Partner will further enhance the experience for our customers.”

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MDA Stats Show SMS and MMS Increases

The Mobile Data Association (MDA) has published its latest quarterly report on mobile phone usage in the UK. The report covers activity from October 2008 - January 2009 for text messaging (SMS) and picture and video (or multimedia) messaging (MMS). The data shows continued growth of both metrics, and highlights clear trends in the way both businesses and consumers recognise the respective merits of SMS compared to MMS.Consumers have, without question, made mobile messaging their own, the MDA notes. It connects friends and family, and feeds pictures, video or messages to social media tools. Both SMS and MMS now have a clear place in the connected lives of UK mobile owners.The trend observed by the MDA in 2008 was the distinct and different uses of SMS versus MMS, adopted by consumers. Users clearly see value and use the two technologies in different ways. While SMS is used for conversational activity, MMS is much more ‘event-driven, and this was underlined by the seasonal use of both technologies during the festive period.On Christmas Day 2008, 337.2 million text messages were sent, a 26% increase on Christmas Day 2007. The MMS count was 4.5 million, 38% up on last year. The figures for New Year’s Eve were 397.9 million for SMS, 37% up on the previous year, and 2.7 million for MMS, a 36% increase on 2007. Looking at MMS volumes in November and December, the MDA says the increase associated with the seasonal event is clear, with a 52% rise in the number of MMS messages sent in December 07 compared to November 07, and a 25% increase in December 08 compared to November 08. The MDA believes that MMS and SMS will continue to co-exist as complementary technologies. It says it is unlikely that MMS will supersede SMS, as the volume of conversational messages will always be greater than those perceived as event-driven, requiring a video or picture message. In 2008, MMS has achieved significant momentum and the commitment from mobile operators to offer competitive bundled tariffs will see MMS volumes continue to grow, the MDA believes. The report also includes a summary of the total number of SMS and MMS messages sent over the past few years, as detailed below: Total number of text messages (SMS) sent in:2008: 78.9 billion2007: 56.9 billion2006: 41.8 billion
Total number of picture messages (MMS) sent in:2008: 553 million2007: 449 million 2006: 336 million
“It’s fascinating to see the evolution of mobile technology,” says MDA Chairman Steve Reynolds. “Most compelling is the way users define its use and application. The idea that MMS has a distinct role compared to SMS is a great example. It further highlights the enjoyment that mobile technologies bring us all; the ability to connect people through an event or occasion makes mobile an incredibly powerful part of people’s lives.”

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Sccope Adds Mapping to iPhone Site

Online and mobile price comparison service Sccope has added mapping capability for the iPhone version of its mobile site, allowing them to not only find the best prices for products, but also to find their nearest store. Sccope says the iPhone feature is easy to use. Just visit www.sccope.com/iphone on your iPhone and the site will automatically load the iPhone site. Then you can search for your product by name or product number and view the lowest prices, availability and delivery details. Select the best result to find out if there’s a store near you and get a map to the store to help you plan the route, or instantly buy the desired product online. Sccope delivers the lowest prices from top retailers such as John Lewis, Comet and Tesco, with results from over 50 of the UK’s most trusted retail brands.“In a world where we want everything ‘now’, our new application will provide consumers with multiple options for getting the very best deals for their money, including store opening times, phone numbers and the ability to share price comparison results with friends,” says Sccope CEO, : Douglas Orr. “We continue to work closely with consumers to understand what would make their lives easier, and the iPhone’s integration to mapping is the first in a long list of innovations for Sccope."

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Gigafone Ties Up with Xtract

Mobile marketing solutions group Gigafone has formed a partnership with Xtract, which specialises in social intelligence solutions for online and mobile applications, to provide a targeted mobile marketing platform for mobile operators, publishers, agencies and advertisers. Gigafone will utilise Xtract’s unique Social Links solution to provide marketers with a better view of how and when their marketing is being consumed, and by whom, and to track campaign performance. Xtract’s Social Links application identifies the social network structures within the customer base and finds the most influential people for marketers to target. Gigafone says that when incorporated into its targeted mobile marketing solution, where consumers can choose the type of ads they want to receive in return for incentives such as discount vouchers or free mobile minutes, the result is “a completely new level of customer experience and a tangible tool for increasing the effectiveness of targeted marketing activities and measuring return on investment”.Xtract Vice President Jouko Ahvenainen says: “We wanted a partner that offered a solution that overcomes the last mile delivery problem of mobile marketing. Mobile marketing simply falls short at the last mile without the ability to capture user preferences and profiles in an engaging way. Gigafone’s full service mobile marketing solution fulfils this need, and its established links in the mobile advertising ecosystem places us in a great position to take this proposition to market.”Both Gigafone and Xtract will be exhibiting at the Mobile World Congress. Gigafone is on Stand AV16 on the Avenue, and Xtract in Hall 7, Stand IZ31.

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SFR Gets Personal with Pontis Platform

SFR is a Vodafone subsidiary, and the second largest mobile operator in France. It is also a major player in the French economy, with 10,000 staff, 18.8 million subscribers and revenues in excess of €9 billion (£8.1 billion). The company prides itself on its innovative approach and places a strong emphasis on developing new services and high speed networks to keep it at the forefront of technological innovation. Today, the French mobile marketplace is as competitive as ever and the challenge to maintain customer loyalty and satisfaction from mobile content is significant. At the 2005 GSM World Congress in Barcelona, a chance meeting with Pontis, which offers a personalised approach to the marketing of mobile services, set SFR on the path towards a new level of personalization of mobile content offers via its WAP portal.
The challengeThe marketing team at SFR had been searching for a way to create more personalised, targeted marketing offers to boost the selling of a variety of mobile content via the company’s WAP portal and to increase customer satisfaction. Following a competitive tendering process and technical evaluation phase in 2006, Pontis, in partnership with Capgemini, was tasked with creating and implementing a solution that would enable targeted marketing activities to be planned, launched and evaluated, based on actual subscriber behaviour and known preferences and interests. For SFR’s marketing team, the fact that Pontis was able to provide marketing templates like ‘Buy One Get One Free’ (BOGOF) and ‘Happy Hour’ - familiar retail-type marketing paradigms, which made it easy to understand and apply - was especially appealing, especially with the capability to deliver real-time online banners. Another key factor which swung opinion towards the Pontis solution was its ability to monitor and track usage on content partners’ sites. Since all the content links on the portal redirect the user away from the SFR portal, this was a mandatory requirement, and one which Pontis was able to accommodate. In April 2007, the Pontis Marketing Delivery Platform (MDP) went live to SFR’s entire WAP browser population (apart from a 10% control group for comparison purposes). Its introduction meant that the SFR product management team was able to develop a series of marketing campaigns based on a subscriber’s actual usage patterns. For example, it can now segment non-users, low-users and high-users of a service such as ringtones, and develop a series of targeted offers to entice users to download more ringtones. Since April 2007, the results of the new, personalised approach to promoting a variety of different services, including ringtones, games, music, video and adult content, enabled SFR to launch and manage a large portfolio of marketing offers. Using the MDP desktop improved the workflow process and time to market.
Results According to Nicolas Oyarbide, CRM Product Manager in charge of the WAP portal:“The improvement in the take-up of various offers has been as high as 20% for some campaigns, with improved usage giving more than 10% revenue increase. Revenue improvement has been most pronounced on new services like video clips, where awareness is particularly key to improved market penetration. For services like these, we have seen a doubling in usage. For more mature products like ringtones, the impact has been to maintain demand which would otherwise tend to tail off as they reach the end of their lifecycle.” Another area in which the Pontis MDP has made a dramatic difference is in the area of banner ads. Being able to deliver personalized, relevant banner ads on the portal was one of the key elements that drove the success of the WAP marketing initiative. According to Oyarbide:“The WAP portal is really our shop window, and it’s important that we are able to use the space efficiently to deliver the most relevant offers to each subscriber. If a customer is a high consumer of games, but has shown no interest in ringtones, it’s more sensible to give gaming promotions a higher profile on the portal for that user.” The Pontis solution is able to determine the most relevant offers based on usage patterns, and position a banner advert that is most likely to appeal to the customer, and place it in a prominent position on their individual portal. For Oyarbide, who is keen to gain the maximum traction from banner ads, the Pontis solution helps him to prioritise the different services and also have the ability to monitor and change banner ads on a daily basis, based on real-time statistical analysis of clickthrough rates. Since deploying the service over a year ago, the Pontis MDP has become a central component of the marketing activities of the WAP team. The MDP supports SFR’s marketing activities and goals to increase ARPU, as well as giving the product marketing team the flexibility and freedom to launch a multitude of different marketing campaigns quickly and cost effectively, and to react swiftly to competitive offers or new opportunities as they present themselves.
Future plansPlans for the future include providing an upgraded platform, which will increase the capacity of the system and enable it to monitor additional off-portal traffic such as sports, videos, chat and logos and MMS via the portal. Plans are also afoot to deploy Pontis across other SFR sites, and to use it to deploy SMS campaigns and promote SFRs own messaging services to its users. Says Oyarbide:“The Pontis MDP give us real-time CRM, which offers us the insight to see what works and what doesn’t and (to) be able to respond speedily to different marketing conditions. Prior to deploying Pontis it would take us weeks to be able to plan and deploy a new marketing offer, now we can do it in a few hours. The system is a real winner for SFR - as we can see from the increased ARPU and customer’s loyalty. But it also works for our customers, who only receive relevant offers and – since the mobile phone is such as personal device – this means that they get to hear about promotions that are most likely to be of interest to them.”

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MWC - Beware the Hype

John Strand, CEO of Strand Consult, looks at the key themes likely to emerge from this year's Mobile World Congress, which starts on Monday in Barcelona
Next week, another Mobile World Congress (MWC) will begin, and once again many of the most important people in the mobile industry will flock to Barcelona to show their new products, exchange knowledge and share points of view. MWC remains the telecom industry’s largest get-together – a get-together that attracted 55,000 visitors last year.Traditions are wonderful. Traditions are one of the things that maintain a certain level of stability in our lives. And if you work in the mobile industry, there is no doubt that attending MWC is a tradition that is hard to do without. Unfortunately, however, there are a number of people who will not be attending this year's conference. The financial climate and the increasing pressure on the infrastructure providers has resulted in many people either losing their jobs, or alternatively being asked not to attend the MWC.If you choose to view MWC from a financial crisis viewpoint, it is not difficult to find the depressing things. We believe one should take a different approach to MWC, and look at how things will be in the future. We believe it is important to see how the mobile industry can help improve the world's financial economy and make daily life easier and more inexpensive for the many people, companies and institutions that use mobile solutions to streamline their work and every day lives.
Moment of truth For many companies, the year 2009 will be the moment of truth, and we believe that those that are innovative and that can deliver new and exciting products that the market cannot do without, have a chance of being successful in 2009. We believe that those companies that can help operators, corporate customers and others in reducing their costs will also have the chance of selling their solutions on a difficult market. Simply put, one could say that the mobile industry's market players either need to justify their right to exist - or leave the business.So what will we see at MWC in 2009? We have no doubt that once again this year MWC will produce a lot of hype. Many market players will use their PR companies to announce to the world that their solution is unique. Some market players will recommend using advertising-based business models to achieve success, while others will claim the path to success in the mobile world will be phones like the iPhone and Android-based handsets. Strand Consult disagrees with these market players.To everyone who tries to hype their solutions, we can only say that they ought to read our analysiswww.strandreports.com/sw3501.aspthat shows that the iPhone is the operator's worst friend. In fact, our analyses show that 4.5 million Norwegians today spend more money on mobile services annually than the many millions of iPhone users around the world. So if we had invested in a company that was trying to create a market position by claiming that the iPhone would make them rich, we would most probably immediately replace the management! The market in the mobile industry is not the 0.1% of customers around the world that have an iPhone, it is the 99.9% of the mobile customers that have other phones that the mobile industry is making a living from - and will be making a living from in the future. They are the customers that generate cash flow.This year, we will learn that mobile broadband is not just a regional success; it is a global success, and the number of customers that are purchasing a mobile broadband connection daily is exploding. Mobile broadband is the fastest growing product in mobile history. Today, mobile broadband has become many people's primary broadband connection, and in many markets, customers are migrating away from DSL products and over to mobile broadband products.It will be exciting to hear this year how the roadmap for UMTS towards LTE will develop, and how quickly this development will happen. We believe that LTE will be marketed as a natural evolution of UMTS, and we believe there will be a great deal of focus on the fact that LTE - like UMTS - will cover a wide spectrum, perhaps even an area wider than UMTS is covering today. There is no doubt that the future network will be a combination of UMTS and LTE. The question is however to what extent GSM will be phased out, and how WIMAX will develop in a world where the infrastructure providers are focusing on mass-market technologies. MWC 2009 will probably show that WIMAX is under pressure and that it is a technology that is standing in the shadow of UMTS.Fixed-mobile convergence There will most probably also be a great deal of focus on how fixed line and mobile will converge, or whether these two solutions should converge. We guarantee that a number of players will push towards fixed-mobile convergence. On the other hand, why should those two technologies converge and what would the business model be for these products? Are we talking about product bundling or technological bundling? Again this year, we will be hearing a good deal about UMA and femtocells. The question is whether the people talking about the solutions will also talk about the underlying business models. We are having difficulty in seeing the business models and understanding how a mobile operator can plan their network, based on the expectations of a number of femtocells within a certain geographic area.We believe that infrastructure providers like Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent will have a great deal of focus - and talk a great deal - about delivering equipment to operators that will be marketed as being forward-compatible. In other words, equipment that can be upgraded to new technologies as they are launched. Their main message this year will be how they can give operators increased value for their CAPEX, and how they can help operators reduce their OPEX. Companies selling hardware will send out the message that they can deliver the capacity the operators will be requiring over the coming years, and that they can deliver it so that the equipment can develop together with the customer and the market. The question arises whether this will result in operators being forced into taking a single-vendor strategy, or whether they can continue with a multi-vendor strategy.There will be focus on capacity - and when we go home from MWC 2009, many will probably have realised that the largest data quantities will not be consumed on Smartphones, but on portable PCs. The number of new PCs with built-in 3G is exploding, and customers are flocking to buy these products, while an increasing number of operators are simultaneously moving their focus away from high-end phones and over to portable PCs with built-in 3G/HSDPA.We do not believe that the tphone manufacturers will be forgotten this year, but compared to previous years, they will most probably be marginalised. It will be exciting to see how many new market players will emerge this year. We believe that a number of new players from the IT world will be giving the mobile world a go.Mobile applicationsWe also believe there will be a great deal of focus on mobile applications, including how to use mobile applications, and how they can help make many people's daily lives easier around the world, at this year’s conference. There will be a great deal of focus on the usefulness of mobile applications, and we are certain that we will see many exciting and very useful applications and solutions at both the conference and exhibition.There is no doubt that the usefulness of mobile solutions will be high priority. Mobile applications are about much more than simply mobile email, Java games and ringtones. We will see that the technology, bandwidth and customers are all ready to make use of the new mobile possibilities. In fact, we have no doubt that many companies can not only use mobile applications to streamline their business, but that companies and public institutions can also become more accessible and efficient by taking advantage of mobile applications.This year there are a number of exciting presentations at MWC that all show how mobile applications are being used around the world. We will see how these applications are being used, regardless of whether people live in the Western world or in emerging markets. The use of mobile applications and solutions is not a national or regional phenomenon, but a global one. We are looking forward to hearing about the many exciting cases. Business modelsThere are 3 main areas - business models, business models and business models. But one other key thing is new technologies; how customers embrace new technologies and what possibilities there will be in the future. How that technological development will be financed is a completely different question. We hope that the financial crisis will make the many innovative market players increase their focus on the underlying business models. Those of us that still remember the recession the telecom industry experienced after the year 2000, when the telecom and IT bubble burst, can remember that the companies that survived that recession were those that focused on how to produce, market and sell their solutions based on a healthy business model. We believe that those companies that remember this in 2009 will have a large chance of returning to the Mobile World Congress in 2010. To the rest, we wish good luck on whatever path they choose to take.Regarding business models, the largest discussion will be whether they should be based on direct billing, the relationship between the service provider and end user, or whether the operator’s billing system should be used to charge for the services that customers buy and use on their mobile phones, or for the mobile broadband connection that PCs use to go online.At Strand Consult we have been working a great deal in this area, and we believe that the operator centralised model already known from the premium SMS market will spread to a number of other areas. We believe that we will especially see this model implemented on the mobile broadband services market. In our report, ‘Successful Strategies for the Mobile Broadband Market’, http://www.strandreports.com/sw3293.asp we have examined this area and created the business model that we believe will succeed on this market. We call it the BCAP model (Broadband Content and Application Provider). You can read more about this model here: http://www.strandreports.com/sw3584.asp.There is no doubt that MWC 2009 will be exciting, despite the financial crisis. For many, the year 2009 will be the year where they meet the moment of truth and what companies will experience will be very much along the lines that we have written in our 2009 market predictions: www.strandreports.com/sw3516.asp .We have absolutely no doubt that there will also be many companies that try to hype their solutions - on the other hand the question is whether these market players shouldn’t instead try to adapt their businesses to the mobile reality that generates cash flow.

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15 mobile phone owners that should be shot

I am sorry. But anybody who has the intelligence capacity, or lack thereof, to run up a telephone bill of $85k should be shot and his body cremated so that the organs cannot be donated to another unfortunate soul.
Canadian, Piotr Staniaszek, thought he could use his “$10 unlimited mobile browser plan from Bell Mobility” as cheap access point to the internet to browse, download and download some more to his heart’s content without being charged additional costs.
His defense for running up the bill now appears to lie somewhere between lack of communication, ignorance and stupidity. Ok, fair enough, the last two was added by me.
As if that isn’t enough, He said he thought the first bill for $65,000 in November was a mistake.
When he spoke to Bell Mobility he was informed the bill had climbed to nearly $85,000 after more downloading.
He downloaded high-definition movies and other large files unaware that this incurred massive extra charges.
Bell Mobility has since lowered the bill to $3,243, but Mr Staniaszek says he intends to fight the charges anyway.
Then he delivers the killer line that erases all reasonable doubt for me on his mental stability.
The thing is, they’ve cut my phone off for being like $100 over,” he told CBC News.
Here, I’m $85,000 over and nobody bothered to give me a call and tell me what was going on.
So this article spurred me on to draft a list of the type of people who should be shot for owning a mobile phone:
1. Piotr Staniaszek (for obvious reasons)
2. People who pay additional costs for a state-of-the-art phone but hardly even use it to make calls
3. The same people in point #2 who then come to me to asking to explain to them what some of the phone’s features are
4. People who use “Meisie meisie”, the farting noise, the ambulance siren or the standard Nokia tone (Yes, you too) as ring tone
5. People like Kurt Darren who use “Meisie meisie” tunes as ring tones
6. People driving on the highway at 60km per hour in the fast lane chatting on their phones
7. People who speak on their phones like it’s a walkie-talkie (Have you seen those kids?)
8. Women who think mobile phones is an excellent weapon to use in matrimonial disagreements
9. Men who think the model of their mobile phones represent the size of their wallets and other parts of their anatomy (take a drive through Clifton, Seapoint and you’ll know what I mean)
10. People who’ve bought those clip-on thingies to wear their mobile phone like a 9mm pistol (On their belts)
11. People in #10 that tuck in their shirts to show off their “gun”
12. People in #10, 11 that wear khaki shirts and matching pants with it
13. People in #10, 11, 12 who’s phone is actually the Nokia 3210
14. People who prefer, after 8 years, to still choose the Nokia 3210 when eligible for an upgrade because “It has everything I need in a phone” (Sorry dad!)
15. Some people in my office that does all of the above
Please add some more in the comments section.

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Business first, then puberty

This world of ours is full of extraordinary people, you know. It’s no coincidence that many of today’s masterminds behind successful internet and mobile businesses are child prodigies, more often than not worth more than both their parents combined.
Meet Carl Ocab. A meager 14 years old and brainchild, literally, of www.carlocab.com, make money online with a 13 year old.
He’s too young to smoke, too young to drink, but the 14 year old prodigy makes a fortune as a… blogger!
We’re often told that our lives would be much simpler, with fewer obstacles, stress and worries if we could just shift our mindsets and behaviour back to when we were kids. We had a carefree life, challenging personalities and had the confidence back then that is truly needed in today’s world to ensure success.
When we were kids, we hardly ever let opportunities pass us by, regardless of the risk and possibility of failure. That is what makes these kids more special. They have found their niche, their passion in a very early stage in life and had the tenacity to do something about it.
Our fear of failure, embarrassment and scrutiny restrict our natural will to apply our minds and bodies to new experiences. Similarly in business, our inclination to follow our gut feel is stifled by protocol, tedious processes, ignorant decision making and our aversion to taking risks.
I see this in practice virtually every day. Businesses are afraid to pay notice to the plea of their customers, however subtle or direct. They refuse to acknowledge the change in consumer behaviour, change in trends and change in preference because they have smothered their natural ability to listen.
They also mostly refuse to change protocol or communications because their Neanderthal approach of top down management is firmly embedded in their being. They believe that a paying customer is a happy customer.
They’re scared to let go of the control of their brand. They prefer to let their mission statement do the talking in a time where customers aren’t willing to listen to corporate thumb suck anymore.
The truth however is that they have probably lost control of their brand already. Today, if you don’t have your finger on the internet pulse, you’ll more than likely be missing critical discussions around your brand.
Stop putting your faith in professional spin doctors to publish crafty contributions from the CEO, industry jargon that confuses and perceivably influences the belief system of your customers where in fact all it is that your customers really want is a direct communication channel to someone that actually gives a sh*t.
The key ingredient to success is simple. It is the willingness to change that stubborn mind shift that is so damn hard. Furthermore, it is the fear of losing control that is having you sit idly while your adventurous competition walks away with the prom queen.
Carl has a simple approach to business: Almost everything nowadays is possible. You want to be invisible? There’s a coat for that. You want to change your colour from black to white? Ask Michael Jackson!

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The Joys of Grocery Shopping

Shoprite (Checkers), lower prices you can trust. But what about convenience? Competitive prices inevitably mean more feet through the store, higher demands from consumers and longer checkout queues.
In a number of articles in the past I have expressed my disdain about the lack of convenience of many product and service suppliers. A complete marketing strategy features a great product, with effective advertising and marketing campaigns that reaches a relevant audience, but without convenience perfectly nestled at the base of any campaign, the purpose is defeated for all practical reasons.
The more human beings are exposed to convenience, the more convenience they demand. And it is up to the smart marketers to help their clients move toward that.
So when I first read about ShopRite (unfortunately not ours in South Africa, but keep reading) taking shopping carts (the actual in store shopping carts) to an even more convenient level, I was quite impressed.
They have implemented a digital MediaCart in their shops for their loyalty card holders which enable their shoppers to type in their shopping list at home and then when they swipe their cards on the MediaCart the list will display. As the shoppers then scan their items and place it inside the cart, the console will display a running price tally.
The MediaCart also has a built in infrared unit that provides feedback on the location of the shopper. This data is useful for marketers, product suppliers and store arrangement purposes in particular.
It also serves as advertising medium as product suppliers could display relevant in store advertisements to the shoppers’ benefit, depending on their location in the store, items in the cart and preferred brands that have been chosen.
Best of all, when the shopper is done, there is no need for them to stand in line to pay for the groceries, as that would only defeat the purpose. A simple swipe of the card an electronic transaction then debits their account.

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That Girl, Eskom and Mosquitoes. A night in Paradise.

Shifting my mind from wines, sports stars, great food and quirky wine makers back to mobile marketing takes some effort. It takes a little more preparation and research after a nice two week layoff, the excitement of new projects and meeting an all too fascinating girl.
These are the sort of life altering pressures previously unknown to me as I drifted through my daily tasks completely oblivious to a life divorced from my laptop and mobile phone.
That was two weeks ago. Now suddenly things have changed. The previously ordinary and sometimes tedious 24 hour days seem slightly more hastened. Somehow it seems that there are now about 30 minutes to every hour and to top it all off, I now have load shedding to negotiate as well.
I’m a structured person. Albeit not meticulously organised, I still place a great amount of emphasis on planning my days ahead. I’m not your spur of the moment person and nothing irks me more than having to adjust my schedule at the last minute because “life happens” or whatever.
I like knowing things. For instance, when I meet a girl, the best part of the encounter for me would be to immediately sense the attraction (if any), to have a communications platform carefully crafted already and full well know what to expect at least a couple of days in advance.
You’d think that my life is boring, but I’ll have you know that the amount of adrenaline that rushes to my brain on more occasions than I care to divulge is often enough to deem the main character’s super powers from Pushing Daisies not worthy of the airtime on M-Net.
If it hadn’t happened yet, you’d probably soon end up wondering what exactly all this has to do with mobile marketing. The answer would be, well, nothing. But also everything.
You see, if some clever, outside the box thinking nut job at Eskom cared enough about the load shedding crisis that is paralysing our tourism industry, halves our economy and exponentially increases our traffic congestion, then a simple paid for sms service on load shedding times, reminders and ad hoc notifications on changes to their scheduled downtime would suffice.
I wouldn’t be rushing from the office at 5pm last night to make it to the gym, the shop to get dinner, manage to cook it, devour it, shower, check my mails and read 4 lines of The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO before the electricity is supposed to kneel before the electro empire’s command at 8pm.
You guessed it. With great anticipation, slightly elevated breath from all the mayhem and trembling like Larry Hagman first thing in the morning because he hasn’t had his remedy yet, 8pm came and went like the promise of competitive fuel prices and reasonable bank charges.
It was 9:30pm when I realised I was still waiting. Doing absolutely nothing, except waiting. Waiting for Eskom to deliver on their promise of another romantic solo act with blue scented candles, a room exceeding 30 degrees and a declaration of war against those bloodsucking mosquitoes.
The lights were on, literally. But no one was home.
Come to think of it, I probably could’ve called that girl.

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Are you textually active?

Pete likes Jenny. Like in, a lot actually. But she doesn’t know! He spends his nights listening to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and “When you’re Gone” through his earphones on his MP3 enabled Samsung D900. He like, thinks of her and stuff.
From her Facebook profile he knows that she loves Avril Lavigne, is into soft teddy bears and thinks Brad Pitt is like, a babe! He knows all of her friends by browsing her Flickr photo albums. He even knows why her previous boyfriend was dumped, all thanks to being in the same Mxit group and picking up on her heartbroken conversations with others willing to listen.
He’s carefully planning his first meeting with her. He’s calculating how much money he’ll require for the first date. He’s carefully rehearsing his pick up lines in his head. He needs to be funny, but not sarcastic. Also not too funny, because that’s just childish and hey, he’s like, 16 already.
He’s not planning on what to wear for the date, how to style his hair and he’s most definitely not practicing his killer smile in the mirror. And his pimply face is the last thing that is depriving him of any sleep. Why is that?
Simply because the entire date will occur via his mobile phone. The money he requires is based on airtime. He’s in charge. Technology has enabled him to present the perfect model of himself to this girl. His best picture is stored on his phone ready to be fired off when things aren’t looking up for him.
Does this sound familiar? I bet it does to the majority of people reading this that are younger than 30. For the rest, parents included, this might be a revelation of what goes on for hours behind his closed bedroom door at night. It also explains his constant plea for airtime.
There are millions of Petes and Jennys out there. Each one of them is representative of a brand. A brand that defines their being, albeit skewed at that early stage of adulthood. Whether it is healthy that Pete’s entire wardrobe is Puma and Billabong oriented and Jenny prefers Sissy Boy jeans, is irrelevant.
The fact is, just like their airtime requirements, their choice in brand affinity is non-negotiable. Parents spend millions on these brands each year. The truth is though, if some of these brands knew how to revisit their own childhood days, mommies and daddies would have to spend even more.
Good news for brands. Bad news for parents. For these kids have little money to spend on these brands. It is also a futile attempt marketing their brand to the parents of these kids. They are all too relieved to know that some of these advertising are missed because Pete is upstairs locked in his room.
Pete and Jenny on the other hand would not mind for a second when a quick video or MMS interrupts their first date with a special offer on an Xbox 360 or the latest Avril Lavigne album.
Think about your product for a second. Think about who your target market is. Kids don’t have money, but they have influence beyond your wildest imagination.
Then think about a vehicle to carry your message to these little manipulators and then execute on it. Parents would be so proud of you!

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

My Martin Luther King moment

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of consumer freedom in the history of our nation.
I have a dream that one day…
- The mobile phone will serve as universal remote control to all transactions, banking, personal and internet communications and combine all feature sets of modern day technology to replace or complement computer desktops and laptops.
- All television commercials will have sms call to action. I believe this will once again place relevance to television advertising where consumer convenience is placed as top priority.
- That mobile networks, banking institutions and courier services could work together to enable smoother transactions where consumers would once again have time to spend on more important things in life.
The idea is for a (television) commercial to drive a call to action via sms to place an order. The order will be processed via the mobile network where the user could be identified, bank account looked up and the amount debited from the account automatically. The sms will determine whether the consumer requires delivery and a phone call would confirm delivery of the product.
- The television would be connected to an online profile where keywords or tags would determine the display of relevant commercials on television. This will be aid toward the death of mass marketing and a giant leap toward relevance marketing.
Relevant advertising would improve sales for the product suppliers and the mobile phone purchase mechanism would increase instant gratification purchasing.
- The weekly subscription plague of ringtones, love messages, naked women, cheap talk and tarot readings would find a better business model where the fine print wouldn’t be invisible to even someone with 20/20 vision. I believe there is a market for it, but due to their underhand tactics their approach borders on fraudulent.
- Our mobile phones would serve as debit / credit card, driver’s license and ID. I was told that this would be problematic due to security reasons, but you have to protect your wallet anyway, don’t you?
- It will become law for vehicle registrations to be connected to the mobile phone and bank accounts in order for traffic violations to be registered automatically and fines deducted from the owners bank account immediately.
This would ensure a more loyal and safe approach to driving, decrease road accidents and would relieve our taxes because of the government’s inability to retrieve its outstanding debt.
I have a dream that one day my children will live in a nation where they will not be preoccupied by the questions posed to us as consumers, but that they will live by the answers that technology provides.
I have a dream today!
Do you?

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

The Most Effective One Week Marketing Strategy for You to Use

I had been looking for an effective FREE marketing strategy that not only I could use, but that could tell others about so they could be helped as well. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to help. I guess that this natural desire was even emphasis by the fact that I needed help and didn't find anyone or anything out there that could really help me.
Network marketing is an area where so many people need help! This is because so many people, who embark in this business, not only are new in the business, but more often than not are new to the whole concept of network marketing.
The good news is, though, help does exist out there, and it's all about finding it. After much searching and persistence I found some very helpful tools that have helped me greatly and are still helping me today.
One of those tools is one of the most effective one week marketing strategy I have ever applied which gave me quick results, and all I had to do is follow the steps. And, yes, the steps are all FREE. This is what we now call bum marketing. All free marketing strategies that you can use to build your campaign no matter what you are selling. With these strategies, you can beat PPC! Yes, beat people who are spending top dollar in advertising on search engine results.
Where are you with your internet business right now? Could you use a little help? Have you found the missing link that would make the difference?
Making it or not making it in this internet marketing business really depends on 2 things: 1) Finding the help that you need. 2) Applying what you've learned once you have found it. That is all it takes, and that is all it took for me and for all the network marketers who have made it to very comfortable daily incomes.
If you are reading this article, help is really at a click of the mouse for you. It is my pleasure to introduce this most effective one week marketing strategy to you which has brought very quick cash results to my Clickbank account and can bring you very quick cash results to yours as well.

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

Article Marketing is All About Creating Online

If you have a business and a website, one of the best marketing tools available to you is Article Marketing. Article Marketing is all about creating online articles that you publish in article directories. The goal is to get your article out to readers who will be interested to learn more about you and your business. As a marketing tool, it helps connect your website to your target market effectively and inexpensively.What your article should haveArticle Marketing is simply writing what you know about your business. You want to create an informative article that others will want to read. It should start with a catchy title that will compel readers to read the rest of the article. Of course, the main body of the article should be just as compelling. For more details www.lazyman-article-guide.com. Short, well-written, and interesting articles establish you as an expert in your field. It should generate more interest about you and what you do. The article should end with a resource box that gives readers information about you, including your name, your website, and other contact information. It should also include a capsule version of what you do, what your business is about, and what they should do to make the best use of the information you gave them (i.e., avail of your services).Reaching your target audienceArticle Marketing is one of the most inexpensive marketing tools available. By publishing your article in article directories, your words reach more people through more channels. Newsletter publishers can find your article and use it as content for their ezine or offline newsletter. Your article and your name will find their way to more people, and they will look you up on your website. Article Marketing also drives more traffic to your website by getting ranked on search engines. With proper use of keywords and phrases in your article, they will get indexed by search engines, and preferably within the first page. Of course, people will check out your article more frequently and your article will lead them back to you.Extending your marketSocial Bookmarking and Article Marketing are made for each other. When people find your article useful, they will bookmark it through services like Digg, StumbleUpon and Del.icio.us. This helps connect your name and your article to other people who share the same interests as your current target audience. As you reach more people, your customer base naturally expands as well.New material and new businessArticle Marketing also benefits from Social Bookmarking by helping you find out what your niche market is interested in. For more details www.press-release-profits.com. Through the bookmarks of your readers, you will find out what other topics they look for on the Internet. If you are knowledgeable about these same topics, then you can create more articles that will interest your current readers and, hopefully, more new readers and potential clients. It can also help you keep your business up-to-date with the needs of your clients.Where to publish your articleThere are literally hundreds of article directories on the Internet. However, you usually have to pay a subscription fee to get your articles published in these directories. It also pays to have your articles actively promoted through the directories' own RSS feeds and websites. Thus, it's usually best to stick to the larger and more popular article directories like: EzineArticles GoArticles WebProNews ArticleDashboard SearchWarp Article Marketing is an inexpensive marketing tool that helps you connect to your target market and beyond. Maximize its potential and you will maximize your business prospects.

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Mobile Advertising Presents a Multitude of Marketing Opportunities

According to the internet research firm, eMarketer, there are over 405-million mobile internet users worldwide. Projections see this figure reading over 800-million in four years. Staggering indeed, and an exciting opportunity for internet marketers, especially in Africa where mobile represents a much larger penetration than fixed line Internet connections.It’s also an exciting opportunity to engage with customers because it enables marketers to interact with them right at their touch-point with the internet, right in the palm of their hand. Handheld devices are becoming more and more enabled, and this combination of PDA, camera, email, MP3 player, internet browser and so forth is only serving to make the penetration and dependency on these devices more and more prolific. Clearly, with mobile and WAP sites, the mobile internet brings a new dimension to ecommerce and the way transactions are done. How WAP differs from traditional webWAP sites need to be simple and suitable for the smaller screen size. In addition to the design and technical considerations when putting together a WAP site, marketers need to consider that the purposes or intent of a mobile internet user are potentially different to a person sitting in front of a computer. WAP users tend to prefer goal-driven services that provide quick answers to specific problems. Examples include finding the nearest hotel, a towing service or weather forecasts. Other uses for WAP include entertainment-focused services for users who are looking to kill time. Overall, WAP services should target users with immediate context-driven content. Mobile services now include everything from SMS to podcasting and video-on-the-go, so the opportunities to advertise are virtually limitless.The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) released a whitepaper in April 2008 which presents an overview of mobile advertising as it stands.The mobile channels that are defined include the mobile web, downloadable applications, mobile messaging and mobile video. Each channel presents a number of advertising opportunities. Mobile WebThe most obvious channel is perhaps the mobile web. On the mobile web, advertising opportunities include banner advertising, text ads and branded mobile websites. Here, ads are primarily sold on a CPC or CPM basis. It is possible to set up ads in a number of formats in the mobile web channel, but these are most commonly banner and text ads.Mobile MessagingThese days virtually every single handset, no matter how rudimentary, is able to send and receive Short Message Service (SMS) and to a certain but more limited extent, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). These form the basis of mobile messaging. SMS is limited to only text characters, while MMS can include images, sound and video content. There are a number of opportunities for advertisers through the mobile messaging channel – these include text advertisements, branding though splash pages and animated images. Downloadable ApplicationsDownloadable applications refers to software or specific content that users download to their mobile device, that then remains on the phone – these services can include games, ringtones and lifestyle tool applications. These types of application downloads are only available to those users with compatible devices and data plans. Advertising opportunities within the downloadable application channel include ad placement within the apps, and branded applications.Mobile VideoThe final channel is mobile video. This refers to video that is sent via a cell phone operator network to a handset’s embedded media player.Mobile videos are either streamed live or downloaded either from the mobile web, or as part of an MMS. Ad placement here can be as pre-, post- or mid-roll adverts. Marketers could incorporate static images or produce branded videos specifically for this channel. What are the expected results?These advertising opportunities can be useful as part of a broader CRM strategy, for branding, direct sales and for driving users to a mobile or WAP site. Many mobile advertisers report response rates of between 10 and 30 percent, meaning that targeted mobile advertising is a powerful tool. With the forecasts indicating a high adoption rate and rapid expansion in this area, the mobile arena is certainly one that should not be neglected when it comes to broader internet marketing strategies.

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