Industry experts warn of confusion in the mobile app market

Microsoft, Nokia and Orange all launched mobile application stores at the GSM World Congress this week, but industry experts warned the rush to market could cause confusion for publishers and advertisers.
The launches join existing app stores from O2, Samsung and Google Android as the industry bids to drive usage of content services via mobile apps which offer consumers a much richer experience than can be achieved via a mobile website.
However, there is a risk that the emergence of a clutch of app stores with competing development requirements, marketing strategies and distribution methods will lead to confusion for app publishers.
Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of US operator giant AT&T, used his keynote speech to warn the industry about the dangers of creating a fragmented ecosystem. "We need to get apps to work across platforms, devices and operating systems. We should use a standard base API to allow developers to create mass market apps that are cross-platfrom."
Mike Wehrs, CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association, said brands should focus on stores which were generating the largest amount of traffic. "If there were one operating system it would be easier. At the moment there are only three that really matter in terms of volume - Nokia, Windows Mobile and iPhone."
Phil Northam, global marketing manager for Samsung, said publishers must consider which platform was likely to offer consumers the best experience. "What makes your app special and which platform brings the best out of it is the one that matters," said Northam.
Udo Szabo, senior manager for Ovi product strategy at Nokia, said it was likely many mobiles would feature two competing app stores. He added Nokia worked closely with existing partners and developers via its Forum Nokia mobile apps development initiative to let publishers take advantage of Nokia«s global reach. "We don't know how many app stores will be in each phone. We offer global reach and have put the store on high and low end phones," Szabo added.
Google is bidding to decrease its dependence on having to develop multiple versions of applications by taking advantage of increasingly powerful browser web kits. Its latest version of rich mapping tool Google Mobile Maps for Palm, will run using the phone's mobile browser, rather than as an application, for the first time.
Vic Gundoria, VP of engineering for Google, said developers should look to take advantage of web kits to build one service that works cross-device and platforms in order to reduce costs.
"You have the ability to build an application that spans devices if you use a modern browser," said Gundoria. "We're seeing the emergence of a platform that spans devices. We don't need to name it, it's called the web."

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Celltick Drives Users to Coca Cola Thailand Mobile Ad Campaign

Celltick, the pioneer of mobile idle screen marketing solutions, is pleased to announce its appointment by media agency Initiative to promote Coca Cola's ad campaigns in Thailand and to drive young adults in the 15-24 year old age bracket to its promotional activities.
Celltick's LiveScreen Media platform was put to the test in a recent Coca Cola exclusive music festival - "Coke Zaah". The campaign targeted the desirable but hard-to-reach young adult audience in a fun and engaging way to build hype and excitement around the launch event in Central World, Bangkok, which boasted exclusive performances from local Thai bands such as Titanium, Modern Dog and Potato. Messages delivered to the idle screen of target users' mobile phones promoted the time and location of the event as well as including a 'free gift' call to action.
Messages were broadcast to users' mobile phones through mLIVE!, an exclusive service powered by Celltick's LiveScreen(R) Media Technology and designed to bring Active Content Discovery to subscribers of leading Thai mobile network operator AIS. By combining cell broadcast technology with relevant subscriber information, services like mLIVE! allow operators to cost-effectively deliver revenue-generating opportunities in a user-friendly, targeted fashion. With mLIVE! Operators can deliver segmented content, rich media and advertising to a virtually unlimited number of users.
During the campaign which ran for five days, users were given the opportunity to download exclusive vouchers which could be redeemed simply by flashing the SMS message at the festival. The overwhelming response to the campaign significantly exceeded the target of 15,000 SMS voucher downloads from an estimated 650,000 viewers in Central Bangkok
Weerapong Tengprathip, managing director on the Coke business from Initiative adds: "The mLIVE! service allowed us to deliver personalised advertising that was both engaging and interactive, increasing the positive response from users and helping drive a successful launch event for the new drink."
Mr. Prattna Leelapanang, Assistant Vice President - Value Added Service, AIS Says: "The Coca Cola campaign demonstrates how mLIVE! can be used to target users in a non-intrusive and response-driven fashion, using a media popular amongst the target age group. We look forward to working with other brands to reach their audiences in a similar fashion. In mLIVE! Celltick has created a viable and effective mobile marketing tool that helps us drive up mobile internet traffic and subscriber usage of value-added services."
Stephen Dunford, CEO of Celltick, comments: "For a company like Coca Cola, mLIVE! Powered by LiveScreen Media offers a unique opportunity to reach a mass audience on a personal scale, in a direct and non-intrusive fashion. This move from one of the world's best known brands demonstrates that intelligent, targeted mobile marketing has now come of age as a valuable tool in the marketer's portfolio."
About Celltick (http://www.celltick.com )
Celltick Technologies Ltd., the pioneer of Active Mobile Marketing, has introduced a new medium into the mobile space. Its flagship product, LiveScreen(TM) Media, allows content providers and advertisers to broadcast targeted content and marketing messages to millions of mobile idle screens, turning them into a network of interactive billboards, creating a strong revenue stream for operators.
Celltick cooperates with mobile operators to turn the mobile screen into a powerful revenue driver. The company has close relations with all network infrastructure companies, major SIM vendors, leading handset manufacturers and industry standard organisations, as well as global content providers and media agents.
Founded in 2000 and privately owned, Celltick is headquartered in the UK with offices in Israel, Russia, Singapore, India, Thailand and Brazil.
About Initiative (http://www.initiative.com)
Initiative is a media marketing and digital company.
Defined by outstanding entrepreneurial talent, Initiative is a dynamic and flexible worldwide network, deeply connected to the people, cultures and communities we serve.
As one of the world's leading media strategy, planning and activation companies - with over thirty years of experience, and a network spanning six continents, with 91 offices in 70 countries, Initiative helps grow brands and build businesses.
About AIS (http://www.ais.co.th)
Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS), a subsidiary of Shin Corporation PCL., is the established leader in Thailand's wireless communications industry after more than 15 years of services with its market share more than 50%.
To date, AIS service network covers 795 districts (amphur) throughout Thailand, plus international roaming across in six continents. AIS continues to integrate the latest in advanced technology and deliver more than just voice communication, with GPRS and EDGE technology.
AIS strongly believe that wireless communications bring changes to the way Thai people live their life, regardless of who they are and what they do. With endless communications possibilities, the quality of life is better.

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GSMA LEADS MOBILE ADVERTISING INITIATIVE

The GSMA and a task force comprising Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile International and 3, today unveiled the results of a feasibility study examining mobile audience metrics that will enable media and advertising agencies, brands and publishers to deliver better mobile advertising campaigns. The study, part of the GSMA's Mobile Media Metrics programme, has created a measurement process for mobile browsing that respects the privacy of mobile users and provides rich planning information for the media and advertising communities. "Access to transparent measurement is essential in establishing mobile as a legitimate advertising medium. This programme will help take the guesswork out of mobile for brands, publishers and agencies," said Rob Conway, CEO and Board Member of the GSMA. "For the first time, the advertising community has access to real, aggregated mobile audience data, which offers insight into the most popular sites, ranked by number of visitors, page impressions, time and duration of visits. This will enable better planning of marketing campaigns, and in turn, will accelerate sales of mobile advertising inventory." Top SitesThe results of the study, based on a sample of anonymised data from UK mobile operators, reveal that operator sites continue to command the largest audiences, with 68% of UK mobile users visiting operator portals. Google is the top off-portal destination and Facebook is the top mobile site by time spent browsing, with other social networking sites featuring strongly. In addition to the top sites, a total of 167,648 mobile Internet sites have been measured during the feasibility study. Top Mobile Sites vs. Top Internet Sites, December 2008UK Mobile Phone Users (sample of UK Operators) and UK Internet Users* Top 10 Mobile SitesTop 10 PC Internet Sites1Mobile Operator SitesGoogle Sites2Google SitesMicrosoft Sites3Facebook.comYahoo! Sites4Yahoo! SitesFacebook.com5BBC SitesEBay6Apple Inc. SitesBBC Sites7Microsoft SitesAOL (inc. Bebo)8Sony Online (inc. Sony Ericsson)Amazon Sites9NokiaAsk Network10AOL (inc. Bebo)Wikimedia Foundation Sites
Source: GSMA Mobile Media Metrics; comScore Media Metrix (PC data) User BehaviourThe output of the GSMA's Mobile Media Metrics programme will allow brands, publishers and agencies access to rich, aggregated user behaviour data, enabling comparison with other media. For example, mobile users accessing Facebook spend an average of 24 minutes per day on the site, similar to the 27.5 minutes spent by PC users. Mobile users on Facebook averaged 3.3 visits per day versus 2.3 visits per day by PC users. Mobile is used consistently throughout the whole day, but the early morning (7-10am) is the key day part for mobile, accounting for 22% of total mobile minutes browsed, compared with only 11% of total minutes browsed by PC Internet users in the same day part. Mobile can therefore act as an extension to media such as the Internet and TV, while it reinforces other early morning media, such as radio and newspapers. DemographicsThe real value comes in the combination of aggregated site popularity and user behaviour data with independently collected demographic information, which enables more effective targeting of campaigns. Mobile is confirmed as a strong youth medium with 48 per cent of users between 18-34 years old, compared to 40 per cent for the fixed Internet and 29 per cent for the TV audience (source: BMRB's TGI). Mobile is also more skewed towards men, who represent 63 per cent of total users compared with 53 per cent for the fixed Internet. "The mobile phone has the potential to offer relevant, personalised advertising on a level that has largely been unattainable until now," said Conway. "This potential can only be achieved if mobile is part of a sophisticated, integrated approach to advertising. The rich data delivered through this programme will enable advertisers to create truly comprehensive, cross-platform media plan and campaigns." In the feasibility study, the GSMA worked with comScore as its measurement partner and ABC Electronic its media audit partner, as well as key industry stakeholders including JICWEBS and its member associations. The next phase of the programme will see the commercial launch of an audited mobile measurement service, expected in the second half of 2009. The GSMA will establish three further working groups, one each for advertisers, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. These working groups will confirm the measurement and reporting needs of the media industry, gather support for the proposed measures as a ‘common currency' for mobile audience measurement, and establish how best to integrate this valuable information into existing cross-media business processes and tools. Supporting quotes:"Establishing a common system for mobile advertising will make it as easy for advertisers to run campaigns on mobiles as it is across traditional media such as television and radio. This marks a significant step forward in driving the credibility of mobile advertising," said Tanya Field, Director - Mobile Data Group, Telefónica S.A. "Mobile Media Metrics is vital to the development of Mobile Advertising industry," said Frank Boulben, Director Commercial Strategy at Vodafone Group. "The GSMA has supported a solution which can be deployed by mobile operators in virtually every country and is based on ongoing collaboration with the leading advertisers and advertising agencies." "Mobile advertising is an innovative channel with solid future potential in terms of reach, targeting and message relevance. One of the key building blocks for the successful take-up of mobile advertising is a standardised measurement system for mobile media audiences allowing advertisers to make informed decisions on the ROI of their campaigns. The GSMA initiative will play a vital role in bringing all the necessary elements together to ensure an effective mobile audience measurement process is put in place," said Ingo Schneider, Vice President Multimedia, T-Mobile International. "We're now in an era of less hype and more reality when it comes to mobile advertising. This Mobile Media Metrics initiative is a big step forward in making mobile advertising simpler to plan, buy, execute and measure. It will provide a clearer picture of the usage of mobile as a medium for the advertising industry and as brands invest more in mobile, it will help us to pass on even greater benefits to customers, such as choice, quality and ad-funded services," said Steve Heald, Sales Director, Partner Channels, Orange UK. "Network operators have long sought the independent verification which will allow them to monetise mobile Internet usage on their networks. Media buyers have also been excited about mobile for years, but have never had access to the independent statistics to justify large ad spend; hopefully Mobile Media Metrics will change all this. 3 is very excited about the opportunity provided by this initiative and we look forward to helping media buyers generate a higher ROI through the use of mobile advertising," said Neil Andrews, Head of Portal Advertising at 3 UK. "Robust audience data is vital to the success of any medium, and Mobile Media Metrics represents a huge step forward for the industry. Once media planners start using the research to justify mobile advertising on schedules, we can expect to see the medium grow with well targeted cross-network campaigns" said Guy Philippson, CEO of IAB UK. "ABCe is looking forward to working with the mobile industry to progress and ultimately deliver mobile measurement to the standards agreed by JICWEBS (The Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards in the UK and Ireland). Media planners, owners and buyers require trusted and transparent data to justify driving media budgets to mobile," said Richard Foan, MD of ABC Electronic.

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Economic Downturn Will Create Opportunities for Mobile Advertising, Says Analysys Mason

Prospects for mobile advertising in 2009 are promising despite the economic downturn, but realism is called for, says Analysys Mason, the global telecoms adviser during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The current economic downturn is placing significant pressure on the global advertising market. Consumers will be spending more time at home, and looking for free and inexpensive entertainment and information. Advertisers require high-impact media that are highly engaging and highly personal in order to deliver the best value for money. Mobile advertising has the potential to address both of these needs effectively.
"For mobile, the downturn creates a conflicting set of pressures. On the positive side, mobile advertising will benefit indirectly from the accelerating shift of advertising spend from traditional to digital media, particularly as consumer take-up of mobile entertainment services grows in line with greater take-up of 3G," explains Alexandra Rehak, Principal Analyst at Analysys Mason.
Analysys Mason forecasts that, by 2012, mobile advertising will account for over 4% of total advertising spend in European countries that have relatively high mobile penetration and 3G network coverage, and for as much as 2% of advertising spend in emerging Central and Eastern European economies.
"However, for most players in mobile content markets, it is unrealistic to expect significant amounts of revenue from mobile advertising in the short-to-medium term," explains Rehak. "The current economic environment will restrict investment in new technologies and services, and limit advertisers' appetites for untested propositions, as well as potentially constraining consumer spend on new mobile content services that could support advertising, and on higher-spec mobile devices that support richer mobile entertainment applications."
In order to survive the difficult economic conditions, mobile operators and their advertising partners should bear in mind the following trends.
Search advertising will become a key platform on mobile. Major online search players, such as Google and Yahoo!, are better placed to attract mobile advertising spend than new entrants or mobile-only players, at least in the short term.
Producers of highly popular branded content will look to capitalise on brand by selling mobile advertising directly. For example, UK pay-TV provider BSkyB began offering mobile display advertisements in November 2008, served on its mobile sports and news syndicated services.
Developing markets and 16-25 year-old users will be particularly responsive to mobile advertising. Attention has centred on targeting advertisements by subscriber interests or behaviour, but simpler targeting (by consumer age or level of market development) can be very effective as a lower-cost starting point.
Ad-funded services and applications will be a significant growth area. As consumers tighten their budgets, ad-funded or ad-subsidised games, music, video and even messaging services on the mobile present excellent opportunities for advertisers to reach targeted audiences.
"The market will experience something of a breathing period now, as advertising buyers reconfigure advertising budgets to suit the new economic conditions, and mobile operators focus on keeping subscribers on board and happy. To the extent that mobile advertising can help facilitate this, in a manner that is both attractive and highly cost effective from the advertiser's perspective, all parties will benefit from its growth," explains Rehak.

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Genaker Unveils Genaker2200 Software Suite

Genaker, which develops SIP-based applications, has announced the launch of its Mobile Rich Communication Suite (RCS) of software, Genaker2200. The software allows any Java-based device to be used with a new generation of new communication services, including buddy-lists, Instant Messaging (IM), and the ability to start multi-media calls from any phone.Genaker says that its software is a standard SIP/IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) client that provides the user with an interface that has all the basic Java functionality of a high-end device. genaker2200 allows service providers to increase their target user base, expanding beyond Smartphone users to target users of low-cost phones, including pre-paid customers. genaker2200 also introduces the company’s new ‘Content Buddies’ concept. Content buddies are advanced IMS applications that connect the mobile and the web worlds, bringing social network interaction and web content to the rich communication clients. Genaker says that these buddies, that can be available to any devices connected to the IMS cloud, open a new spectrum of micro-subscription services to service providers.According to ABI Research Senior Analyst Nadine Manjaro “RCS will enable interoperable rich communication regardless of device or network and will include in-call multimedia sharing, conversational messaging and presence-enhanced contact management for mobile and fixed customers.”

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Kodak Embeds Scalado SpeedTags

Mobile imaging software specialist Scalado has announced that its SpeedTags technology will be implemented in Kodak's upcoming KSP-720060 TRUESENSE-enabled image signal processor (ISP). Scalado's technology will be integrated in the KSP-720060 and follow-on stand-alone ISP companion chips to enable quick and easy management of large files and an improvement in overall JPEG image handling performance in mobile devices, including cameraphones and PDAs. “Kodak is committed to bringing industry-leading DSC and video performance to next-generation imaging devices,” says Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak's Image Sensor Solutions business. “The combination of Scalado's SpeedTags and Kodak's advanced image processing will enable us to offer a best in class end user experience for capturing, storing, retrieving and manipulating images directly on mobile phones and other portable devices.”

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MWC 09 Attracts 47,000 Visitors

The GSM Association (GSMA) has reported that more than 47,000 visitors from 189 countries attended the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC), which ended yesterday. The GSMA says that 50% of Mobile World Congress attendees hold C-level positions, including more than 2,800 CEOs. It points out that the figure includes delegates, exhibitors, contractors and media. Some might consider the inclusion of contractors a tad spurious, desperate even, We have asked for a like for like comparison with last year’s figure, but at the time of writing, we have not had a reply. The Congress featured 1,300 exhibiting companies and occupied more than 57,000 sq m of exhibition and hospitality space, a footprint 11% larger than that of the previous year. Almost 2,400 international print, web and broadcast media attended the event. “We’re extremely pleased with the turnout that we’ve seen this week,” says John Hoffman, CEO of GSM Conferences, which is involved in the organization of the event. “The strong level of attendance, particularly among the C-suite of the world’s leading communications companies, demonstrates that Mobile World Congress continues to be the place where the industry comes to do business. The mobile industry stands out as one of the few vibrant sectors in a tumultuous world economy, and this week’s Congress emphasises the important role mobile has in creating new opportunities that will drive future growth.”

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Home, Sweet Home

Back at my desk in the UK, it feels great to be back in the real world. Mobile World Congress is undoubtedly great fun, and there’s always a real buzz about the place, but it’s absolutely manic too, and to a certain extent, we’re still playing catch up with some of the news coming out of MWC and elsewhere, so we’ll run one of our news in brief round-ups on Monday. The organisers say the event was a great success, noting that more than 47,000 people attended, though the gloss is taken off this figure somewhat when they point out that this figure includes not just visitors and exhibitors, but also the press (2,400), and even the people who built the stands. No idea how many they account for, but with 1,300 companies exhibiting, say two per exhibitor at a rough guess, and you get some idea. Coming out of an event like MWC, it’s hard not to be optimistic about the future for mobile marketing. So in the interests of balance, we’ll offer something of a reality check this afternoon at around 4pm, with a Guest Column from John Wade, Director of Digital Strategy at direct/digital agency Wunderman, who argues that this is no time for brands to be experimenting with mobile, and explains why. Read it if you dare, and whether you think he’s talking sense, or complete hogwash, please leave a comment to let us know what you think. Think of the debate as the perfect way to start a weekend that anyone who was out in Barcelona, or is still heading back, will be looking forward to with unparalleled relish.
David MurphyEditor

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BuzzCity Launches myGamma Developer Platform

BuzzCity has launched its myGamma Developer Platform, opening its API to third party developers to integrate their applications with its mobile social networking service, myGamma. myGamma now has 3.2 million members and provides users with various resident applications, including chatting, blogging and photo-sharing tools. The myGamma Developer Platform allows developers to create social networking applications that leverage the growing popularity of the mobile Internet, providing developers with seamless integration with myGamma and direct access to members. “Our users certainly want to do more with their mobiles and this will mean more applications,” says BuzzCity CEO, KF Lai. “Our recent surveys clearly show users wanting to communicate, exchange and transact. By providing this platform, developers get direct access to our members and create better opportunities to generate revenues.”BuzzCity says it expects to see yet more engaging and useful applications developed as a result of the launch of the platform. It says that insights into user activity suggest that utility applications like job alerts or cheap fare alerts will prove just as popular as fun activities such as virtual snowballs and water-bombs. BuzzCity also expects more advertisers to use the Developer Platform to deploy applications as an alternate means of reaching mobile Internet users. “We're seeing a tectonic shift in business models, as social networks make the move from meeting place to marketplace,” observes Peggy Anne Salz, Founder and Chief Analyst of MSearchGroove, a knowledge resource that provides analysis and commentary on mobile search, advertising and social media. “The end-game is about more than simply allowing users to stay connected via mobile communities; the ultimate winners will be companies such as BuzzCity that successfully provide developers with a complete platform to create, distribute, promote and monetize their apps and content.”

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MEF Launches Smart Pipe Enablers Initiative

The Mobile Entertainment Forum has announced the launch of its global ‘Smart Pipe Enablers Initiative’ to create an industry-wide framework that will lay the foundation for the next generation of mobile entertainment services. The MEF says the impact of the initiative will be more useful services, taken up faster by the industry.Smart Pipe Enabler Services are to be provided by operators to third-party providers of content and services, enabling the delivery of a simpler, faster, more intuitive and more enjoyable user experience for the consumer. The MEF says initiative will make a major contribution to industry efforts in this area by devising a coherent, profitable and workable model for enabling services, and accelerating their uptake through education and promotion. The initiative has been founded by three full MEF members - the BBC, mBlox and Vodafone Group.Enabler services offered by network operators will deliver many capabilities to content providers, including age verification, location, identity authentication, reliable phone applications, specific tariffs to consumers, and delivery with specific quality of service. Enabled by these services, content providers can offer the consumer a better user experience, a key objective for much of the MEF’s work.The Smart Pipe Enablers Initiative will create an industry-wide framework of business requirements for standards, complementing and supporting work in other bodies, such as the GSM Association, on the development of technical standards. The MEF says it will form a working group with its members and will be liaising with regulators and other industry bodies to ensure the guidelines become the de facto reference point for enabling services across the globe. The MEF says the Enablers Initiative is fundamental to the future growth of the mobile entertainment industry, half of whose revenues come from off-portal services. It says the value of creating a coherent and co-ordinated approach to enablers is highlighted by the enabling services that operators offer today, such as bulk SMS, premium billing, short code rental and location look-ups. “The mobile industry is at the dawn of a new era with many new services becoming available,” says MEF Global Chair Andrew Bud. “As mobile content becomes richer and more sophisticated it is important for the industry to create common standards to enable the next phase of growth. Some operators are doing this individually or in groups, evolving into ‘smart pipes,’ but without a fully co-ordinated approach, the market is in danger of developing a fragmented landscape that will inhibit the take up of consumer services. The MEF Enablers Initiative will address this and lay the foundation for the next generation of mobile operator services for years to come.”The MEF Enablers Initiative is global in scope and the first phase will be the production of a white paper, due in June 2009.

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MMA Reveals Membership Growth

Mobile is on track to be the most pervasive media channel in the world. Over one billion mobile devices are sold annually, and ubiquitous consumer usage will soon make mobile the primary screen worldwide. Always on and always connected – even more than the TV and web – the mobile channel provides brands with the unique ability to connect with their consumer like never before, building a meaningful dialogue of engagement between the brand and the consumer.With such growth come challenges to marketers: What are the best practices for all players? How do brands engage? How are other marketers maximizing the channel, and how are they gauging their success? How can mobile technologies become more standardized and accessible when incorporating them in the marketing mix?
The Mobile Marketing Association’s Mobile Marketing Forum series brings the entire mobile marketing ecosystem together under one roof. In partnership with Informa Telecoms & Media, the series brings together leading operators, brands, agencies, content providers, entertainment and media companies from around the globe to drive the momentum for mobile marketing adoption. The forums deliver the best learning and networking experience of any event in the mobile space, complete with fully interactive agendas packed with the latest brand, operator and agency case studies designed to give you the most value from your attendance. Those new to mobile will learn best practices with real-world application, and those already engaged in mobile can learn how to deploy more advanced capabilities to enhance existing mobile initiatives.
You will hear from industry thought leaders who really challenge existing thinking and drive initiatives; you can expect powerful debate and well-facilitated interaction; you will meet new partners and business connections; and you can expect to leave each event with new ideas and perspectives that will change the way you do business.

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Case Study: How Yakult Mobilised the Sales Force

Yakult is the original probiotic. The company operates in 31 countries and territories, across five continents, and every day, around 25 million people drink Yakult. In the UK and Ireland, Yakult is sold throughout all major supermarkets and in many convenience store outlets.
Background Prior to 2006, Yakult’s field sales team consisted of around 20 sales executives, each of whom had responsibility for a fixed territory. Store visits were scheduled and undertaken on a routine basis, rather than in response to flagged problems. Following every store visit, sales executives downloaded paper-based reports incorporating EPOS data on past sales. These reports were re-keyed into a central database in order to facilitate analysis of Yakult’s sales patterns across all retailers. Typically, this analysis showed that sales were impacted by problems such as poor availability of stock, slow stock turnaround, shelf-life wastage and stock being positioned in the wrong place, outside of agreed merchandising guidelines. As the problems could not be detected and reported in real-time, however, they could not be rectified immediately.
Taking stock In order to increase visibility, optimise productivity and drive efficiencies, Yakult took a decision in 2006 to review its field sales operations across the UK and Ireland. The primary aim of the review was to ensure that the field sales team was deployed effectively, in order to ensure that all time was spent adding value to the business and driving improvements to the bottom line. It was clear that Yakult’s fixed territory model lacked flexibility and allowed undetected problems such as stock wastage and poor merchandising to persist for too long. This, combined with a lack of real-time information hampered visibility, analysis and planning, and harboured inefficiencies.
A new approach At this stage Yakult introduced two key initiatives to streamline and improve field sales operations. The first stage was to restructure the field sales model. The traditional territory model became obsolete and virtual territories were created to enable a more flexible, responsive approach to account management. This model meant that stores could be visited as and when an issue was flagged. Problems could therefore be resolved quickly, and inefficiencies minimised. The second stage was to source a solution which would streamline all sales information, and equip the sales team with handheld devices which could be used to download and upload vital sales information. Having extensively researched the market, Yakult selected solutions from O4 and CACI. CACI’s Insite & Callsmart solution was selected to enable Yakult to optimise field resources and create territory structures and call schedules for each sales executive. O4 was selected as a complete mobile execution solution which disseminates information to sales executives, and enables sales executives to report information back to a central management suite. Yakult Project Manager, Reshma Patel, explains: “Having already completed stage one of our project, Yakult already had aims, objectives and processes established, therefore we required a solution which would be flexible enough to facilitate our goals rather than dictate new ones. O4 adapted and integrated very easily with Yakult’s existing systems and the CACI solution, which made for a quick implementation and a successful go-live.” Both solutions went live in July 2008 following a five month implementation.
Reaping the benefits Using the combined O4 and CACI solutions Yakult is now able to identify stores which require attention, rather than waiting for a routine visit which might previously have been scheduled several months’ down the line. The solutions also enable Yakult to review available resources and split workload appropriately. For example, if a problem is flagged at a particular store, the system can identify the nearest sales executive according to their location or schedule, and allocate them, saving valuable time and resources. The O4 solution comprises a real-time customer database, including sales history and analysis; promotions and sales updates; sales executives’ detailed schedule for the week ahead, including what time a meeting is, how long it should take, how long it will take to get there, and what route would be best. It can also run vehicle check surveys where necessary. The handheld device’s built-in camera also means that sales executives can take and file photographs to accompany reports. “Through using O4 and CACI, we have saved approximately 40% in field sales force time, which means 40% more resources which can be channelled back into strategy, development and marketing,” says Reshma. “Feedback from the team is great. The sales executives love the solution, as it looks after time-consuming administration and paperwork, saving valuable time. It also enables them to have information to hand at all times when visiting a store, therefore they feel more proactive and well informed when on visits. By being better prepared, they get so much more out of each visit.“We are delighted with the return on our investment in O4 and CACI. The speed and accuracy of information we now have access to helps to drive the business forward, and a happier, more productive field sales force is driving immeasurable benefits to our bottom line.”

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Reality Check

Jon Wade, Director of Digital Strategy for direct/digital agency Wunderman, argues that this is no time for marketers to experiment with mobile
Mobile is not the place to be in the UK this year. Marketers are not going to experimenting with mobile in such tough economic conditions, apart from in emerging markets.Almost without exception, every mobile marketing presentation I have ever watched or participated in begins with hyperbole:
“There are predicted to be 4,000,000,000 mobile phone subscriptions worldwide by the end of 2009”
“More people in China have a mobile phone than live in the USA”
“24% of people would rather sacrifice their first-born child than contemplate an evening without their mobile”
Whilst these things are undoubtedly true (apart from the last one, I made that up) and very impressive on the surface, those same presentations usually end with “ – is this the year mobile marketing goes mainstream?” Err, no. Not this year, definitely not this year.Hidden, usually in the middle of the presentation, are the mobile Internet usage stats. Whilst mobile phones are ubiquitous, online usage via mobile in the UK is not. The latest whitepaper from comScore, December 2008’s ‘U.K. PC & Mobile Internet Usage Report’, makes interesting reading. As of July 2008, total PC internet users stood at 35.2 million people, representing 70% of the total population aged 15 or more. Mobile Internet usage stood at 12.9 million, a comparatively measly 25% of the UK population, even after they extended that population to include everyone aged 13 or more. This number also belies a distinct tailing off in this usage rate since May 2008. Compare this to the positively ever-forward-marching PC Internet usage, which is unrelenting in its push upward, showing an 11% year-on-year growth. It gets worse though for some marketers.There is a distinct skew toward younger demographics using this medium, in common with early adopter patterns with other technologies. 56% are aged 34 or less, whereas the PC Internet usage sees a much more even spread of demographics. And what are they doing? Search, email and social networking are the applications with the highest growth profiles.
Reasons to be fearful The reasons for this lack of adoption are actually, common-sense for anyone who has gone online on mobile to any degree. Speed of content loading is cited by the younger demographic as a key issue. Usability is the bug-bear of the older demographic. Cost afflicts both. Smartphones don’t solve any of these issues.So, Generation Y are all over it (comparatively speaking). But, unless you are actively targeting Gen Y with a product that leverages temporal or geographic relevance, is a specific mobile marketing strategy the way to go? It could be argued that if search, email and social networking are the killer apps for mobile, your strategic approach for mobile should be nothing more than ensuring platform agnosticism in your strategies for those other disciplines.To the subject of a global recession. In these tough economic times, there are much happier hunting grounds than making experimental forays into mobile marketing. There’s the good old, accountable, dependable “regular” internet for a start. Usage continues to rise, measurement continues to become easier and more accurate and return-on-investment continues to be proven. And let’s face it - marketing budgets are being slashed left, right and centre in this economic downturn. We all trot out the “spend now, benefit when we come out of the recession” argument but it doesn’t cut it with the FD does it? “Benefit later? What if there is no later…?”
No time to experimentIt’s therefore my conjecture that 2009 is not the year to be spending what little marketing budget you’ve got left by experimenting in the mobile marketing space in the UK. That’s not to say that all brands should not do any mobile marketing at all, far from it. Mobile marketing can be very effective when used in a relevant and smart way. That is to say, when your target audience and product lends itself to it. However, my advice to brands would be to do so only if you already know what type of return you are going to get from it (to make that difficult FD conversation a little easier). Those brands that have done their experimentation during happier times should crank up their investment in the medium where they can prove return-on-investment – but if you haven’t, now is not the time to be dipping your toe in the water. Better, look to “regular” PC-based Internet marketing that can demonstrate reach and return.The exception to this advice, and there is always an exception (just like the mobile marketing presentation always has a number with at least nine zeros after it) is where you are marketing into emerging markets. There we are seeing rapid growth in the online population, fuelled largely through mobile Internet usage. In these markets, now is definitely the time to be experimenting…as long as you can convince the FD.

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Nike breaks mobile bar code campaign at Mountain Dew event

Nike 6.0, the footwear giant’s action sports brand, is running a mobile 2D bar code campaign targeting teens at the Winter Dew Tour, an extreme sports competition sponsored by Mountain Dew.
Nike’s agency partner Taow Productions tapped Jagtag to optimize Nike’s tour sponsorship, sponsored athletes, on-site footprint, physical signage and digital content using an MMS 2D bar code system. At every Dew Tour event, consumers can now engage the brand’s physical media to request Nike 6.0 athletes’ videos, pictures and information, which are sent immediately to their mobile phone.
“Nike was testing 2D bar codes to connect their Dew Tour athletes with the consumers in a more personal way,” said Butch Bannon, director of business development and special projects for Taow Productions, Portland, OR.
“Once they had a bit of a dialogue with their consumers via their handset, a piece of content was delivered to their mobile devicem,” he said.
There were Jagtag 2D bar codes on posters of various athletes inside of the Nike ID station igloo—a freestanding snow-block hut—that was built in the sponsor village at the base of the peaks.

Jagtag, you're it
If consumers take a picture of a Jagtags 2D bar code and send a picture message to the short code 524824, they receive a short video clip featuring that athlete on their mobile phone.
“For example, if they like Simon Dumont, they can take picture of a Jagtag and send it to a short code, and they are sent pictures of Simon Dumont on the half pipe and in the backcountry, lifestyle shots of Simon and fun facts about the athlete,” Mr. Bannon said.
“The goal was to make the athletes more personal to the Nike 6.0 consumer,” he said. “We researched various 2D bar code solutions, and Jagtag is the company we’re most comfortable with.

Ellery Hollingsworth is a 17-year-old snowboarder sponsored by Nike and Burton
“Jagtag was especially appealing to us because you don’t need to download an application—there’s no thin layer code on your mobile device that has to be downloaded.”
Jagtag’s MMS 2D bar code system works with every camera phone on the Verizon Wireless and AT&T networks.
Jagtag received approval from AT&T and Verizon Wireless to integrate two-way MMS on their networks, which enabled the company to provide advertisers such as Nike with a 2D bar code service, which has the potential to reach approximately 80 percent of the market.
Jagtag is also completing its certification with Alltel Wireless.
Jagtag’s platform is a means to deliver audio, video and pictures to a mass mobile audience, which may not have an all-you-can-eat data plan.
“Something like 80 percent of mobile phones in the country can receive the content no problem, which is a big one for us,” Mr. Bannon said. “A lot of these apps will send you to the mobile Web, which can get expensive, and is not exactly a pleasant experience, depending on your phone.
“This is great, because consumers can take a picture, send it in and get a response right back to their phone,” he said. “There’s nothing complicated about it, and kids have enjoyed doing it.”
Consumers can participate without any special sign up, without downloading an application and without accessing the mobile Web.
Nike 6.0 is currently looking at ways to integrate Jagtag into all aspects of the marketing mix for the 2010 fiscal year.
Nike 6.0 is courting the younger generation of action sports athletes and their fans.
The target demographic of Nike’s Winter Dew Tour campaign is youth between 13 and 18 who enjoy action sports such as BMX, mountain biking, wakeboarding, Moto, surfing, wakeboarding, snowboarding and free skiing.
The first two legs of the Winter Dew Tour took place at Breckenridge, CO, and Mount Snow, VT. The third and final event, the Toyota Championship, will take place Feb. 19-22 at Northstar-At-Tahoe, CA.
More than 100 snowboarders and free skiers fill the Winter Dew Tour roster, all competing for a $1.5 million prize purse.
Athletes sponsored by Nike 6.0 include Elena Hight, Ellery Hollingsworth, Jossi Wells, Sammy Carlson, Simon Dumont, Trevor Jacob and Mason Aguirre. Mobile content is available for all of them via the Nike/Taow/Jagtag campaign.
Fans can watch live coverage on NBC, MTV, MTV2 and USA.
The Winter Dew Tour features men and women’s snowboarding in slopestyle and superpipe events, men’s free skiing in both slopestyle and superpipe, and live concerts from artists such as Alkaline Trio and Common.
The Winter Dew Tour is affiliated with the Alliance of Action Sports.
Mountain Dew is the tour title partner, while Toyota is the event title partner. In addition to Nike 6.0, other Dew Tour sponsors include Ball Park Alpha Dawgs, Verizon Wireless, Wendy’s and Sony Playstation.
“We’ve worked with Nike for a long time, their past experience in mobile was more of a text-to-get campaign,” Mr. Bannon said. “The action of consumers taking pictures, sending them to a short code and getting a response is more effective.
“There’s recognition of the Jagtag [2D bar code] itself,” he said. “There’s no fine print involved—it’s like a stop sign—you know what you’re supposed to do.”
Taow Productions’ list of clients includes many large international brands.
Jagtag is a non-invasive, consumer-initiated "pull" mobile media that transforms a marketer's physical marketing properties into on-demand, interactive media.
MMS technology provides device ID, which enables Jagtag to optimize video returns across carriers and handsets.
Over the next few weeks, Jagtag is launching its first print and in-venue programs.
“The biggest issue around 2D bar codes is that they usually require the consumer to download an application prior to use,” said Dudley Fitzpatrick, CEO of Jagtag Inc., Princeton, NJ. “It’s always been a barrier to trial and a barrier to reach, betting on false consumer behavior, that they’ll take the time to download an app.
“Jagtag went after solving that issue to bring brands meaningful reach,” he said.
He cites statistics that 40 percent of U.S. mobile phone users are sending multimedia or picture messages—MMS—while 20 percent are accessing the mobile Web.
“With our system, every camera phone works instantly, and people are habitually taking and sending pictures with their mobile phones,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said. “We’re not sending people to the Internet without a data plan, which can be expensive— 70 to 75 percent of people with a camera phone, have a picture messaging plan.
“We understand the technology requirements of the different handsets, so we can send multimedia messages and make sure that it looks its best and actually plays on that phone,” he said. “It’s a wildly engaging media.
“We give you the best of what a smartphone can handle—WAP links—and the best of what a standard feature phone can handle—MMS.” --> -->

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Adidas runs mobile campaign to promote sportswear

“In addition, they wanted to drive traffic to their mobile site and had specific goals for activity on the site: to drive video views and ringtone and wallpaper downloads,” she said.
The target audience for the campaign was young urban influencers.

An Adidas banner ad on MovieTickets.com's mobile site
The Adidas mobile Web site lets consumers select their favorite type of music and listen to sample tracks from up-and-coming artists in each genre.
Consumers could then download ringtones from the musicians they liked best, view videos of their performances, opt-in to receive more ringtones in the future, send their friends ringtones and enter their ZIP code to find the nearest location where they could buy Adidas Superstars.
The campaign drove more than 290,000 visitors to the Adidas Originals mobile site, with each visitor consuming an average of 2.9 page views.

An Adidas banner ad on CBS Sports Mobile
Consumers downloaded more than 100,000 ringtones and sent more than 10,000 ringtones to friends.
Additionally, AdMob worked with Insight Express to conduct a brand study for Adidas in order to measure the impact of this highly engaging campaign’s key brand metrics.
The Insight Express brand study showed a significant increase in recommendation intent of more than 19 percent over the control group and an increase in message association of more than 34 percent over the control group.
Adidas Ltd. AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and part of the Adidas Group, which consists of Reebok sportswear company, the TaylorMade-adidas golf company and Rockport.
Besides sports footwear, the company also produces other products such as bags, shirts and other sports and clothing related goods.
The company is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second largest sportswear manufacturer in the world.
“AdMob enables our advertisers to reach a targeted audience of engaged consumers on their most personal device, their mobile phone,” Ms. Leverich said. “We enable publishers to generate revenue from their mobile traffic.”
Growing strongMobile advertising marketplace AdMob has experienced strong growth over the past year and added a number of new publisher partners and advertisers to its network.
In January 2009, worldwide requests in AdMob’s network increased 8 percent to 6.8 billion, led by double digit growth in Western Europe and Asia.
Over the past year, traffic from Western Europe more than doubled to total 550 million requests in January 2009, with strong growth in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
The combination of explosive growth in consumer usage of mobile Web sites and applications and AdMob’s recent product advancements—from new French, Spanish and German language interfaces to iPhone download tracking and ad units for Android applications—has played a significant role in the growth of its network worldwide, according to AdMob.
AdMob has extended its relationships with a number of mobile publishers and added new publisher partners to its network, including Flirtomatic, Mads (see story), peperonity.com, Taptu and WYAN.
AdMob’s network includes 6,000-plus mobile Web sites and 700 iPhone and Android applications.
AdMob claims that the number of brand and performance advertisers running campaigns on its network also continues to grow worldwide.
In December 2008, more than 60 brand advertisers ran campaigns on AdMob’s global network, including Adidas, Kodak, MTV, Nokia, O2 and Paramount, more than doubling the number that ran in the same period one year prior.
As revealed in AdMob’s January 2009 Mobile Metrics Report released last week, the iPhone is now the number-one device by usage in Western Europe, with 21 percent share of total requests.
This strong share reflects dramatically higher mobile Web and application usage by consumers and AdMob's presence on this device.
Nokia and Sony Ericsson are the number-two and three manufacturers in Western Europe, with 22 percent and 17 percent share, respectively.
Nokia continues to dominate the smartphone category with 11 of the top 15 devices.
AdMob is a mobile advertising marketplace serving more than 4.5 billion mobile banner and text ads per month.
Incorporated in April 2006, AdMob allows advertisers to target and reach their customers on the mobile Web and enables publishers to increase the value of their mobile sites in more than 160 countries.
“Mobile advertising has grown by leaps and bounds over the past year and is gaining an increasing share of budget from both brand and performance advertisers,” Ms. Leverich said.
“Usage of the Internet on mobile phones is projected to overtake Internet usage on PCs in the next few years, which demonstrates the size of the audience and opportunity for growth,” she said.
Netbiscuits partners with AdMobNetbiscuits Inc., a provider of a Web software platform for development, publishing and advertising on the mobile Internet, is working with AdMob to provide advertisement and placement tools to a wide mobile audience.
This will let publishers and developers integrate rich mobile ads using video, intelligent linking and device-specific schemes provided by Netbiscuits’ online platform to manage and create mobile content from one portal.
By integrating AdMob on Netbiscuits’ development platform, publishers and developers can reach a mobile audience.
The Netbiscuits platform recognizes more than 5,000 different mobile devices across all carriers globally.
AdMob advertisements and all other mobile content are adjusted on the fly to fit each screen size and form function, resulting in targeted ads for any mobile Web site developed with Netbiscuits.
The integration with Netbiscuits has allowed AdMob to use their platform to create and publish mobile sites and landing pages for its advertisers.
AdMob ads can now be delivered into mobile Web sites created with Netbiscuits.
In addition, AdMob’s free mobile analytics service can be integrated and accessed directly from the Netbiscuits dashboard.
Netbiscuits operates a B2B Web software platform for development, publishing and advertising in the mobile Internet.
Founded in 2000, the company, with more than 80 employees in the U.S., Germany and Singapore, serves the global mobile Internet programs of premium brands such as Yahoo, AOL, BILD, Spiegel, RTL, Konami, Sixt and eBay.
Globally, Netbiscuits delivers more than 1 billion mobile page impressions each month.
The Netbiscuits platform is available as a Web-based software service.
The platform provides all tools, interfaces and mobile enabling technologies online that are needed to create, publish and monetize professional mobile Web applications.
Netbiscuits allows content and media publishers, marketing and advertising agencies, application developers and service providers to achieve a faster path to profit from their mobile Internet programs.
“The monetization of mobile Web sites has never been easier,” said Ran Farmer, managing director of Netbiscuits, Reston, VA, in a written statement. “The seamless integration of AdMob ads and mobile analytics into Netbiscuits opens a direct revenue stream for our customers.
“At the same time, AdMob customers can take advantage of the superior mobile Internet experience that Netbiscuits’ mobile Web site creation and publication platform easily enables on any mobile phone in more than 40 countries worldwide,” he said. --> -->

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