May » 2010 » mobilegroove

In brief: MSG kicks off MAD Movers, a series profiling a wide range of players across the emerging mobile marketing business ecosystem. Thomas Labarthe, Alcatel-Lucent VP Mobile Advertising, talks about the importance of permission, the evolution of advertising and the approaches that will keep mobile operators in the game. Will people-powered mobile marketing become the norm?

In April Alcatel-Lucent officially made its bid for leadership in the mobile advertising space with Optism, an ecosystem approach to mobile advertising that has been designed and commercialized to bring together mobile operators, agencies and advertisers. To achieve this Alcatel-Lucent has specifically brought

Editor's Note: The market is poised for growth. But how can mobile operators gear up for this opportunity? Lisa Cianguilli offers some business guidelines that deliver results.

The advertising industry is huge, with an estimated value of $1 trillion (Source: WPP, STL, Kelsey Group, PWC). While about half of that amount is spent on traditional advertising (including print, radio and television), the market is largely flat. Traditional media simply don’t provide the level of response advertisers are looking for. It’s also becoming increasingly difficult to reach audiences over the usual channels (consider the impact of the PVR on television advertising!).

Most importantly, traditional advertising doesn’t enable brands to measure how many people view an ad. Digital advertising, on the other hand, is a healthy, dynamic market with the potential for an excellent return on investment. It also offers the personalization needed to improve targeting, relevance and responsiveness. And thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices, the mass consumer audience is there.

Editor's Note: This blog post originally appeared on the Optism blog, a home for engagement marketing. You can follow Optism on Twitter (@optismww) and sign up here for the latest news.

Hulu, the U.S. online video service announced a stream of changes to its offering a few days back. Our favorite was the ‘Ad Tailor’. As Hulu puts it, "The goal of Ad Tailor is to increase the relevance of ads for our viewers." It’s very simple. When a viewer watches a program on Hulu, during the ad break, the user is asked how relevant the ad was to them. This helps Hulu overtime to display more relevant ads to that viewer.

The advertising industry is so often caught up in clever technology that involves complex behavioral or contextual algorithms that they forget that ‘users’ are actually ‘humans’. What better way to find out what is relevant than to ask?

In brief: This week we set the stage for a soon-to-be released Netsize report that reveals the business models and payments mechanisms necessary for app stores to achieve mass-market commercial success. Perfect timing to continue the Netsize Guide 2010 "Best Of" series with Patrick Mork, GetJar VP Marketing, and his sober look at the app store landscape.

With 75 app stores (and still counting) open for business it's clear that creating competitive differentiation is going to be critical in the next weeks. What will likely separate the leaders from the laggards? Choice? Ease of payment? Content discovery? Something else?