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SOME RECENT PRESS RELEASES
Entrepreneurs, Humanitarians, Artists, Academics and Other Leaders Come Together To Form THE MOBILE MOVEMENT Initiative
- Combining creativity, compassion and a depth of experience across multiple disciplines, Founding Members commit to providing non-profit organizations with a mobile platform and applications that will extend their reach and help “Mobilize the Message”
- Organization launches with first project supporting Earth Day Network and LUNCH , a short documentary exposing the unhealthy foods children across America are being fed at school
BOSTON, MA; April 20, 2010: The Founding Members of a new initiative supporting non-profits – The Mobile Movement – announced today they have formed a coalition committed to bringing mobile capabilities to non-profits in order that they may reach millions more people in need by leveraging mobile devices , networks and innovative applications they will create in partnership with social entrepreneurs.
“Non-profits provide critical information, services and comfort to millions of people daily,” said Carol Glennon, founding director of The Mobile Movement. “Extending our enterprise-quality mobile services to these organizations will help them to increase their reach by optimizing their content for the mobile device while also providing much need discreet and often private services in highly secure and efficient ways. As we launch this effort we are very fortunate to be supported by a board of advisors with experience in education, non-profit services, finance and mobile applications, as well as the compassionate creativity we’ll need to continually innovate. Together we will build a platform and services by collaborating with our non-profit colleagues enabling them to help more people everywhere mobile devices can be found.”
Ms. Glennon, who is also founder and CEO of Renu Mobile, a leading mobile applications and marketing agency committed to delivering mobile applications and marketing solutions that are extremely cost effective and environmentally responsible, has aligned talents from across a spectrum of capabilities to support her in scaling The Mobile Movement offering, noting that “it takes experience, talent and contacts from across a wide range of disciplines to build something as broad and sustainable as we have in mind.” Ms. Glennon noted that the unifying theme for all advisory board members is a history of commitment to helping others less fortunate and often in dire circumstances.
Members of the advisory board also include:
Avis Richards, film maker and philanthropist creating short videos and documentary films for dozens of non-profits;
Cynthia Artin, managing director of a private equity firm and investor in telecom, software and mobile applications companies, located in NYC;
Kevin Patrick, serial social entrepreneur and producer, founder of a new web-based exchange that brings together musicians with the causes they care about, located in NYC;
Laura Marriott, global thought leader in the mobile marketing industry, consultant and former global President of the Mobile Marketing Association;
Dr. Mary Cronin, professor of management, consultant and author of mobile and smart product strategy analyses located in Boston, Massachusetts;
Peggy Anne Salz, leading industry analyst, innovator and founder of MSearchGroove, the source of commentary and analysis on mobile search, mobile advertising, social media, located in Cologne, Germany; and
Simone Schmidlkofer, expert in corporate social responsibility programs, entrepreneur and founder of a global strategy and branding agency, located in Geneva, Switzerland.
“With over 4 billion mobile subscribers worldwide and more than 150 billion text messages being sent every month in the United States, it’s clear that mobile messaging is the most timely and effective way to connect people to resources,” said founding member, Mary J. Cronin, Professor of Management, Boston College. “Thousands of non-profit organizations, however, are not yet using mobile messaging to serve their community because they lack the technical expertise and budget. The Mobile Movement helps to make mobile connection realistic for large and small organizations that provide essential services. I am honored to be a member of the founding advisory board for this organization, and to support the Mobile Movement vision of connecting resources to the people who need them.”
“Bringing together industry experts to help launch mobile initiatives for the non-profit sector is critical to help raise awareness – and enhances efforts already established by organizations like the Mobile Giving Foundation and CauseWorld,” said Laura Marriott, mobile marketing consultant and former global President of the Mobile Marketing Association. “The Mobile Movement allows for even more ‘gifts in kind’ to be given and creates an environment for innovation and collaboration by connecting those who need help, with those who wish to help. It is an environment where everybody wins and I am pleased to be a part of it!”
“Nothing reaches more people in the world today than mobile phones,” said Avis Richards, founding board member, lifelong humanitarian, and Founder and President of Birds Nest Foundation, a non-profit organization that produces short videos and documentaries for a wide range of important causes. “We can share our stories and services with millions more people using the Mobile Movement platform, including the ‘moving pictures’ Birds Nest is all about.”
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Windows Mobile Edges Ahead Of Apple In Mobile Advertising Performance; Smaato Worldwide Index Reveals New Mobile Advertising Metrics Exclusively On MSearchGroove
Fact-packed Smaato report focuses on U.S. & South-East Asian markets
Special Smaato Podcast Series Showcases Mobile Advertising Award Winners & Trends That Matter
REDWOOD SHORES, CA. and COLOGNE, Germany – March 4, 2010 – Smaato Inc., a leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising agency, has released its latest global mobile advertising metrics in an exclusive post at MSearchGroove, a top 50 influential source of analysis and commentary on mobile marketing, mobile search and social media. Smaato’s Worldwide Index – which analyzes ad network fill rates and sheds important light on click-through rates (CTR) segmented by handset operating system, geography and response times – is based on data collected from 35 mobile ad networks and over 4 billion ad requests served in the Smaato network of more than 3,000 registered mobile publishers in February 2010.
Overall, Smaato’s metrics show that the average worldwide ad network fill rates remain constant at 29% in February 2010. The fill rate is measured as the percentage of ads delivered per ad request and varies by different factors, like country, device, content type.
Smaato’s Index also provides a breakdown of CTR data, segmented according to operating system, showing that Symbian continues to lead the pack, with Android a distant second. However, there are some significant shifts that indicate the gap between operating system CTRs could be closing fast. For example, BlackBerry comes in at 51, up from 30 in December 2009, while Symbian – still the dominant operating system – has dropped slightly. It comes in at 147, compared with 173 in December 2009.
However, the biggest surprise is the lead Windows Mobile has over Apple. Specifically, the iPhone and iPod Touch show a declining CTR, coming in with a rate of 89. This is the first time Apple devices have dipped below the average Index of 100, and the first time that Windows Mobile has edged ahead of its rival. In December 2009 the iPhone posted a CTR Index of 119, sliding to 104 in January 2010.
A more detailed analysis of the Smaato Worldwide Index, which covers the ad fill rates of the global top 10 ad networks and a special focus on the fill rates of mobile ad networks in the U.S. and South-East Asia, has been posted on MSearchGroove today (www.msearchgroove.com).
Overall, the best performing mobile ad network in the Smaato Worldwide Index had a fill rate of 72% in February 2010, down 17 from January. Despite this decrease, the average for worldwide ad network fill rate performance remained steady at 29%. What’s more, Smaato found that six of the top ten ad networks performed above this average. This re-enforces the pivotal importance and advantages of the network aggregation business model. Smaato aggregates 35 ad networks across the globe to ensure partners get the highest possible fill rate.
“Publishers struggle to identify – in real-time – the right ad network to deliver the right results,” notes Peggy Anne Salz, Chief Analyst at MSearchGroove (MSG). “Smaato’s aggregation model, which has gained traction globally through its ability to dynamically identify the ad networks that monetize publishers’ inventory best, is core to Smaato’s competitive advantage.”
Smaato is also focused on cultivating a robust mobile advertising business ecosystem in which in can play a leadership role. To this end Smaato also dedicates significant resources to identify and encourage mobile advertising pioneers and innovators.
A prime example of this is the Smaato Mobile Advertising Award, which recognizes excellence in the mobile advertising and developers harnessing mobile apps and the mobile Web that can also be tapped to deliver compelling messages and campaigns to consumers worldwide.
Among the winners – chosen by a world-class jury of leading influencers of the mobile community including MSearchGroove – were: Aloqa, a U.S.-based mobile service that proactively notifies people of interesting places, events, music, movies and other activities nearby; Waze, an Israeli startup that taps the wisdom of crowds to provide real-time maps, traffic information and turn-by-turn directions; and Yoose, a provider of mobile coupon and loyalty programs based in Germany.
To showcase these high-flyer companies and their views on industry hot topics including engagement, location services, mobile couponing and crowd-sourcing Smaato has collaborated with MSearchGroove to produce a special podcast series showcasing the three company CEOs. In the interviews, which originally aired in time for the Mobile World Congress in February, the executives also comment on the meetings with eight top-notch VCs – high-level introductions that are part of the Smaato Award. The complete podcast series can be found at www.msearchgroove.com.
Moving forward, Smaato will join MSearchGroove’s growing roster of contributors and collaborators. MSearchGroove showcases thought leadership from a select group of partners and supporters including Tego Interactive, a company delivering delivers digital strategy and execution for startups, brands and mobile network operators worldwide; Bango, a mobile payments and mobile analytics provider; Taptu, a mobile search provider; and Netsize a mobile commerce and communications provider on topics ranging from usability and user experience to mobile industry mega-trends. In addition, MSearchGroove publishes exclusive columns from leading industry executives including Colm Healy, Vice President of EMEA Services for Qualcomm Internet Services (QIS) and General Manager of Xiam Technologies, and Antti Öhrling, Co-Founder of Blyk, the messaging media that works with mobile operators to link young people with brands and other stuff they like.
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MSearchGroove Named Top 50 Influential Independent Technology Website By Konector
New Report Releases Essential Data & Details for Marketing, Advertising and PR Professionals Worldwide
NEW YORK, N.Y. and COLOGNE, Germany – February 24, 2010 – MSearchGroove, the source of analysis and commentary on mobile marketing, mobile search and social media, leads the list of top 50 influential technology blogs and websites worldwide, according to Top Independent Gadget Blogs and Bloggers. The new report – which provides marketing, advertising and PR professionals with key data and stats on the most influential technology and gadget blogs — is compiled and published by Konector, a company linking digital marketers with leading bloggers to help promote brands to highly targeted audiences. The company further found that a whopping 40+ million visit the top 140 technology and gadget websites each month.
MSearchGroove joins an impressive roster of technology websites and blogs including CrunchGear, Crunch Mobile and ReadWriteWeb. Other important destinations not included in the top 50 but nonetheless listed in the top 140 tracked in the Konector report include: All Things Digital, Mobile Industry Review and Scobelizer. Konector does not include corporate blogs or blog networks in the Top 50 list, which is why websites including Ars Technica, Gizmodo and VentureBeat are not mentioned.
To deliver their message to their target demographic marketing, advertising and PR professionals must connect with quality audiences of influencers who will accept and – even better – amplify the brand message. To achieve this Konector uses a unique methodology to measure the quantity and quality of visitors. “When ranking the blogs we focus on three main criteria: reach, frequency and interaction,” notes Kingsley Maunder, a director at Konector. “We use our proprietary Online Impact Factor to measure how many people visit a blog, how often they visit that blog, the time spent on the blog and how active they are once they get there.”
Being named a top 50 influential technology destination is the latest in a string of developments and accolades that has seen MSearchGroove extend its global reach and reputation through the production of highly-acclaimed white papers, market research, podcasts and editorial content for the mobile industry.
“Konector effectively identifies the sites that matter most, and I am proud that MSearchGroove, a knowledge resource and thinking space for the mobile industry, is among them,” notes Peggy Anne Salz, MSearchGroove founder and chief analyst. “More importantly, mobile is no longer about technology; it’s about the means to collaborate, communicate, and connect with diverse networks of people. The pivotal position of mobile and mobility in our lives and lifestyles forces companies representing all industries and sectors everywhere to track and connect directly with a Long Tail of technology blogs and bloggers.”
Working with Tego Interactive, an experienced team of professionals helping to build businesses through converged Web and mobile solutions, MSearchGroove is extending its reach with new projects and new partners. In the next weeks MSearchGroove will showcase industry thought leadership from leading companies by formally launching a series of branded microsites – known as Briefing Rooms.
These destinations, accessible via the MSearchGroove homepage and mobile website, will promote ideas and insights from MSearchGroove partner companies including Tego Interactive, mobile payments and mobile analytics provider Bango, mobile search provider Taptu and mobile commerce and communications provider Netsize on topics ranging from usability and user experience to mobile industry mega-trends. MSearchGroove will also announce partners in the areas of mobile marketing and Augmented Reality in the next weeks.
MSearchGroove is also growing its roster of contributors and collaborators. In addition to exclusive columns from leading industry executives including Colm Healy, Vice President of EMEA Services for Qualcomm Internet Services (QIS) and General Manager of Xiam Technologies, and Antti Öhrling, Co-Founder of Blyk, the messaging media that works with mobile operators to link young people with brands and other stuff they like, MSearchGroove has also added author Eliza Dashwood, who will be contributing regular analysis of mobile advertising and social media, and commenting on key industry data points.
Dashwood has a 10+ year track record in the online industry delivering digital strategy and execution for brands and accounts including Mercedes Benz, The White Company and Optical Express. She has held a variety of senior positions at digital agencies including Ambergreen, a digital marketing agency headquartered in Scotland, and MediaVision, a media planning agency with clients throughout Britain, Europe and North America.
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Apple Leads the Pack of Application Stores, Android Distant Second; Netsize Survey of Professionals, Practitioners and Execs Identifies Mobile Trends and Industry Leaders
Netsize previews survey results at M-Days mobile conference and trade show in Munich, Germany
Munich, Germany, January 28, 2010 — Netsize, a leading mobile commerce and communications enabler, today revealed the first results of the Mobile Trends Survey 2010. Drawing from an online survey of 1,000+ professionals and practitioners, the survey provides insights into key trends that top the industry agenda, including the advance of mobile applications stores, progress towards global mobile commerce and the pivotal importance of mobile as a means to bridge our virtual and physical worlds.
Using the occasion of M-Days – one of Europe’s biggest mobile industry events and exhibitions held in Munich, Germany – Netsize provided conference attendees, industry influencers and key bloggers a sneak peek into the controversial survey results, starting with respondents’ views on app store leaders and the enablers that give them and their offers the competitive edge.
According to the survey, the vast majority (87 percent) of respondents believe the Apple App Store will be the most successful app store in the mobile space. Google’s Android Market is a distant second (60 percent), followed by Nokia’s Ovi Store (30 percent) and RIM’s BlackBerry App World (27 percent). Surprisingly, applications stores run by mobile operators finished low in the list, indicating that platform providers and handset makers may well dominate the space for a time to come.
When asked to rate the unique selling proposition of application stores over other software distribution and sales channels, 65 percent of respondents put convenience (“everything in one place”) at the top of the list. This was followed by compatibility “software applications specific to the device”), choice (“a long tail of thousands of applications to choose from”), and ease of payment (“operator billing, for example”).
Netsize, provider of operator billing solutions to most of the large mobile device vendors for their application stores, released the application store survey findings to the stage for a lively discussion of the future of mobile and the role of software application stores during “Mobile Trends 2020, Mobile Research and App-Commerce: What Comes Next in Europe?”. The M-Days session was led and moderated by Peggy Anne Salz, mobile thought leader and MSearchGroove Founder and Chief Analyst.
The complete mobile trends survey results – which cover topics related to mobile entertainment, mobile marketing, mobile commerce, mobile payments and mobile convergence – will be released as part of the Netsize Guide 2010, a comprehensive mobile industry analysis and almanac published by Netsize and written by MSearchGroove’s Salz. Netsize will launch the Netsize Guide 2010 on February 16, 2010 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
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Show Us Your Stuff! MSearchGroove Holds London MEET MSG DAY to Connect With Companies, Agencies, Brands & Start-Ups
MSearchGroove hosts day of meetings in London with companies impacting mobile and advertising; spotlight on new publishing projects and media solutions
London, UK – November 2, 2009 – MSearchGroove, the source of analysis and commentary on mobile advertising, mobile search and social media, today announces the first “Meet MSG Day” to be held on November 5th in central London. The event will provide an opportunity to connect with Peggy Anne Salz, mobile thought leader and MSearchGroove Founder and Chief Analyst, and learn about upcoming opportunities with MSearchGroove.
Taking place at Villandry, an elegant French restaurant located on Great Portland Street in the heart of London, the MSearchGroove team will welcome an eclectic mix of vendors, enablers and agencies including Adfonic, Alcatel-Lucent, comScore, Netsize and Smaato, to name a few. Attendees will have the opportunity to brief MSearchGroove on their company offering, in addition to learning about upcoming opportunities such as new media solutions that provide unprecedented access to industry executives and influencers. Other sponsorship opportunities available include a choice of media solutions, such as podcasts, webinars and branded microsites called “Briefing Rooms’.
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MSearchGroove Launches Mobile Groove Podcast Series
First podcast available from August 28th: Talks Blyk, Spinvox and calls Platform Players showdown
London, UK – August 27, 2009 – MSearchGroove, the leading source of analysis and commentary on mobile search, mobile advertising and social media, today announces the launch of the Mobile Groove podcast series. The series, available from Friday, August 28th, will showcase industry commentary and insights of the top market news in the mobile industry.
Mobile Groove by MSearchGroove is designed to provide valuable insight to companies seeking ways to monetise their digital assets, drive mobile advertising revenues and connect with empowered consumers. Episodes will offer no-holds-barred commentary on the companies and trends that matter most from series co-host Inmaculada Martinez, a leading digital media strategist and advisor to venture capitalists. A long-time innovator, Martinez has been referred to as a “free radical” by Red Herring and Fast Company.
The podcast, produced and hosted by Peggy Anne Salz, MSearchGroove Founder and Chief Analyst, will air on the last Friday of every month and consist of three thought-provoking segments: The Big Picture, a wrap of the month’s news and views; Street Groove, an informed discussion of the companies and technologies sure to rock the mobile space; and The Radar, a roundup of talk on the street and what is highest on investors’ radars.
Providing short, digestible and insightful commentary, the first podcast will provide insight on industry hot topics including the rise and fall of ad-funded MVNO Blyk, the controversy surrounding voice-to-text provider Spinvox and an in-depth look at the key platform players of the moment.
Working with Tego Interactive, an experienced team of professionals helping to build businesses through converged Web and mobile solutions, the first podcast will go live on Friday, and will be accessible via the MSearchGroove web site home page. In September Mobile Groove will also be available for download via a dedicated iTunes channel.
“I am delighted to be working with MSearchGroove,” said Martinez, Principal at Stradbroke Advisors. “Through this podcast we aim to provide in-depth analysis and access to the stories and companies that truly matter in a straightforward and informative editorial style, ensuring people get the real gist of what’s key in mobile worldwide.”
“This is an incredibly exciting time at MSearchGroove, and this announcement represents part of a new-look and focus, with several upcoming announcements planned in the coming weeks,” said Salz. “Inma brings unrivalled experience and insight to the Mobile Groove podcast series. Having seen the industry from from the vantage point of both a mobile entrepreneur and an investor, she has a unique ability to pinpoint the industry’s dynamics and get the inside track on what’s hot and what’s not.”
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ChaCha Voice Search on iPhone Outperforms Voice-enabled Search from Giants Google & Yahoo!
ChaCha’s Service Delivers Better Answers More Often, According to a New Report from MSearchGroove
LONDON – July 16, 2009 – Pump Up The Volume: An Assessment of Voice-Enabled Web Search on the iPhone, a performance analysis of voice-enabled mobile search services published today by MSearchGroove, found that ChaCha, the fastest growing SMS mobile search service in the industry, “proved superior” to two other voice-enabled search options for the iPhone: the Google Mobile App with Voice and Vlingo for iPhone, a voice enabled application that allows users to direct their spoken queries to Google or Yahoo! (For the purposes of this study Vlingo provided a spoken interface to the Yahoo! search engine.)
ChaCha proved to offer exceptional results, with its human guides interpreting the search query accurately in the majority of cases. According to the study, ChaCha interpreted natural language search queries, that is, queries asked as questions, accurately in 94.4% of the tests and delivered an accurate search result in 88.9% of cases. The Google voice recognition technology interpreted queries accurately in 16.7% of tests and delivered accurate search results in 22.2% of tests. The Vlingo for iPhone voice recognition technology correctly interpreted queries in 72.2 % of cases and delivered accurate results (via Yahoo!) in 27.8% of tests.
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Smaato releases new white paper on Mobile Advertising Optimization
New York, June 1, 2009 – Smaato, the leading global mobile Ad Optimizer, released today its new white paper on Mobile Advertising: “Higher revenues with mobile Ad Optimization & global Ad Network aggregation.” The white paper can be downloaded here.
The white paper describes the opportunities mobile publishers and developers have to monetize their inventory world wide. It explores how different mobile fill rates can be expected from mobile ad networks and what types of pricing tiers are out there for mobile inventory. It also explains how ad revenue optimization works, and helps to realize the true potential of mobile inventory.
“Publishers of mobile websites & developers of cool mobile apps face the growing challenge of matching their expanding global popularity with the daunting task of filling their ad inventory associated with those very services. Smaato identified this issue many moons ago, and is capitalizing on the provision of global mobile ad optimization using its SOMA platform. Smaato has come from nowhere and gained significant experience and footprint in this section of mobile advertising and marketing in a very short, yet incredibly successful, period” states Nick Lane, chief researcher / writer, mobileSQUARED.
The information featured in the white paper is based on the experience of Smaato’s ad ops and engineering teams over the last years in order to boost mobile ad revenues and give mobile publishers the opportunity to maximize their Ad ARPU.
“The buzz in the mobile advertising space is around delivering the right ad to the right person – even better if this occurs in the right context. But the real issue publishers face is how to identify – in real-time – the right ad network to deliver the right results,” added Peggy Anne Salz, Chief Analyst at MSearchGroove (MSG). “Smaato, a global company whose own evolution shows its grasp of the key issues impacting the mobile advertising business ecosystem at all levels, has gained significant traction through its ability to dynamically identify the ad networks that monetize publishers’ inventory best. This innovation is core to Smaato’s competitive advantage and pivotal in moving the mobile advertising industry to the next level.“
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Mobile advertising on social networking sites must drive two-way interaction says Bango research
Posted on March 26, 2009 by Bango
Focus of debate at AIME seminar on Mobile Advertising, April 2, London
“Mobile advertising for the masses” white paper
The publication today of the new white paper, “Mobile Advertising for the Masses” by Peggy Anne Salz, highlights that in the personal world of mobile social networks, advertising that encourages two-way interaction between advertisers and consumers will be more successful than conventional “push” style banner ads. The report suggests that virtual gifting is seen by many as the starting point for cultivating this two-way conversation.
The white paper is aimed at marketers who want to understand how to effectively market to mobile communities; it is available for download at http://bango.com/whitepaper2. Both Peggy Anne Salz, chief analyst at MSearchGroove.com, and mobile analytics vendor, Bango, will be discussing this topic at the AIME seminar on Mobile advertising on April 2 in London. More at http://www.aimelink.org/KN/MobAdvSocNet.aspx
“After testing mobile advertising on three mobile social networks – Buzzcity, Itsmy and Peperonity – the research clearly shows that demographic data they provide is essential as advertisers seek to develop dialogues with communities and deliver marketing messages sure to resonate with their members,” said Peggy Anne Salz.
“Clever mobile social networks even encourage their members to choose the ads they want, such as only ads about sports or fashion, making it possible for people to receive ads they find genuinely useful and interesting, as opposed to spam. No matter what the approach, it’s clear: A personal medium like mobile and an intensely personal space like a social network demand a much more personal touch from advertisers. “
The need for mobile analytics from an independent vendor such as Bango gives advertisers a more holistic view of their customers, allowing them to answer the critical questions every advertiser needs to know: Who are my customers? What did they look at? Where did they come from? Did community members convert to the campaign goals?
Mobile social networking was selected as the topic of the second white paper on mobile advertising because millions of current users of online social networks are going mobile and there’s increased popularity in mobile-only social networks such as Itsmy, Buzzcity, Peperonity and Mocospace. There will be 140 million users of mobile social networks by 2013, according to ABI Research.
This white paper provides a reality-check, road testing the ad networks offered by three leading mobile social networks, and documents the level of targeting each provides advertisers. It then evaluates how mobile analytics delivers a deeper understanding on how each campaign perform.
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Bango helps digital marketers get up-to-speed on mobile advertising
Posted on September 24, 2008 by Bango
New practical ‘how to’ white paper authored by mobile guru, Peggy Anne Salz of MSearchGroove.com
At ad:tech London, Bango today published a practical, ‘how to’ white paper on mobile advertising for agencies and digital marketers who want to move into mobile but need some help. The “Mobile advertising for newbies” white paper provides hints and tips on running mobile advertising campaigns and analyzes the approach and results of three real campaigns.
The white paper is available as a free download at http://www.bango.com/whitepaper and is written by mobile guru Peggy Anne Salz who is chief analyst and publisher of MSearchGroove.com.
“We want to dispel the myth that mobile advertising is hard and complex,” said Andy Bovingdon, VP Product Marketing at Bango. “While it does require some knowledge and expertise, this white paper is designed to guide readers through their first steps into mobile advertising. Author Peggy Anne Salz expertly shows us what’s involved in setting up campaigns and how easy and important it is to analyze results with a mobile analytics tool.”
To give marketers the inside track on how an actual campaign works, Bango created a small-scale mobile site called Mobislim (mobislim.wap.com) which is a light-hearted look at slimming diets. Marketers can also visit the accompanying Mobislim blog (mobislim.wordpress.com) to see the three campaigns cited in the white paper. As the white paper is just the beginning of an ongoing investigation into mobile advertising, details of further ad campaigns will be detailed on the Mobislim blog and it’s here that people can feedback their own experiences.
“It has been said recently that the size of the mobile advertising market will likely underwhelm us in the near-term and overwhelm us in the mid to long-term,” said Peggy Anne Salz of MSearchGroove.com. “The market is clearly poised for significant growth, but only if the long tail of advertisers and publishers can get on board. They need a roadmap and this is why it’s critical to have a ‘how-to’ white paper at this juncture.”
Marketers can try out their own mobile advertising campaigns, directing traffic to the Mobislim mobile site if they don’t have one of their own. With a free Bango mobile analytics account (http://bango.com/products/analytics/default.aspx) they will be able to measure how the different campaigns perform, see the number of unique visitors and where the traffic is coming from plus calculate the conversion rates for all their campaigns.
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MSearchGroove joins with mobile industry authorities & academics to offer Mobile Search Masterclass
Reveals performance analysis of voice-enabled mobile search services from search giants Google, Yahoo! & ChaCha
London – June 26, 2008 – MSearchGroove, the source of analysis and commentary on mobile search, mobile advertising, and social media, will deliver a mobile search masterclass on June 30 in London. This course is delivered as part of The City University London’s Masterclass series as part of a collaboration between the giCentre and the Centre for Interactive Systems Research at the University. It will be run for the second year following from feedback last year and is endorsed by the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
MSearchGroove has joined with an impressive roster of industry authorities from companies including AmbieSense Ltd., a provider of ambient search services; Microsoft Research (Cambridge); g8wave Ltd., a mobile marketing company; and Mobile Commerce Ltd., a provider of location-based services that also possesses what the founders call a “piece of enablement” that gives them deep insight into the search queries passed through the operator portals in the U.K., and the results set returned to the user. This central position, combined with the company’s prowess in search advertising, makes MC a top address for the inside track on the quality of the mobile search experience offered by Google and Yahoo!, as well as their ability to deliver relevant results to users’ queries.
Speakers and sessions will examine a range of topics and developments including: mobile search statistics and surveys; key trends and developments; location services and search; user interfaces and usability; and the range of content and advertising monetization models involving mobile search. Last year, the case studies and analytics provided by Colin Bates, Mobile Commerce CTO, data also reported on MSearchGroove, provided invaluable insight into the most popular categories of mobile search queries and what users really want from their mobile search experience. The eye-opening observation: “Users are grazing, not researching. They are looking for time-fillers rather than facts, and they are using search boxes for site-finding rather than data-finding.”
During next week’s masterclass, Peggy Anne Salz, MSearchGroove Founder and Chief Analyst, will present an in-depth view of the mobile search landscape and the 10+ categories of mobile search gaining significant traction including multimodal (voice/visual); mobile vertical search (music/games); and social search, a people-powered search approach that effectively infuses human preferences and human judgments into computer algorithms to pinpoint relevant information and better answers.
Salz will also reveal the preliminary findings of Pump Up The Volume: An Assessment of Voice-Enabled Web Search on the iPhone, a performance analysis of voice-enabled mobile search services slated for publication in July by MSearchGroove. The report found that ChaCha, the fastest growing SMS mobile search service in the industry, “proved superior” to two other voice-enabled search options for the iPhone: the Google Mobile App with Voice and Vlingo for iPhone, a voice enabled application that allows users to direct their spoken queries to Google or Yahoo! For the purposes of this study Vlingo provided a spoken interface to the Yahoo! search engine.
To evaluate the overall performance of voice-enabled mobile services offered by ChaCha, Google and Vlingo for iPhone with Yahoo!, the researchers asked a series of 18 queries representative of six typical mobile search categories (Navigational, Directions, Information Local, Information General, Social, and Long-Tail). For each query the researchers evaluated nine performance characteristics including response time, results accuracy, voice recognition accuracy, number of results received, keytaps required, relevancy of the result, location awareness, use of advertising, and presence of other value-added features. The report marks the first collaboration between Salz and Peggy Albright, the study’s lead analyst and principal author.
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Funambol White Paper Reveals New Killer ‘Opp’: The Mass Market For Ad-Supported Mobile Email
Industry analyst firm MSearchGroove discusses how service providers
and mobile operators can compete and win against the Internet giants
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 24, 2008 — Market trends are converging to create a major opportunity for service providers and mobile operators – mobile email for the mass market. To seize this opportunity, service providers can deploy a solution that is based on open source for the broadest device compatibility, and supported by advertising to foster adoption among cost-conscious users. This is the key message in a new white paper released by Funambol, Inc., the leading provider of Mobile 2.0 messaging software powered by open source.
The white paper – entitled “Free For All: The Untapped Opportunity For Mass Market Mobile Email” and authored by Peggy Anne Salz, founder and chief analyst of MSearchGroove, an online source of analysis and commentary on mobile search, mobile advertising, and social media – contends that the arrival of flat-rate data plans and the advance of mobile advertising strategies create perfect Petri dish conditions for companies to offer mobile email services subsidized by relevant advertising.
In addition to the white paper, Funambol is recording a podcast with Peggy Anne Salz to discuss the white paper and its findings, including a Q&A session. To listen to the podcast when it becomes available, please visit the Funambol events page at http://www.funambol.com/news/events.php.
“As we talk with service providers, mobile operators and portals around the world, many are trying to further monetize their user bases,” said Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol CEO. “They are interested in ad-supported mobile email for the mass market but don’t know where to begin. This white paper and webcast are excellent educational opportunities to learn how to generate significant revenue with a free ad-supported mobile email service.”
There are two billion email accounts worldwide, and 3.3 billion people who own cell phones, yet less than 2 percent of people get email on their mobile phones. What about the remaining 98 percent? Salz explains: “User demand is not the bottleneck. Cost has been the primary barrier, which is why it is crucial for companies to offer this service free supported by advertising. Research confirms that consumers will accept mobile advertising in return for free content services, provided that advertising is targeted and tailored to their needs. Anything else is spam.”
The white paper points out that a business model which is powered by open source and funded by mobile advertising is the most effective way to deliver mobile email and PIM (Personal Information Management) sync services – services that allow users to maintain and update personal information such as address books, calendars and other content — to a mass market.
The open source approach is ideal to address the market for mobile email because, in contrast to proprietary software, it enables increased reach at reduced cost.
Put simply, open source unites teams of developers working together who share a common goal to constantly improve the software and deliver the most up-to-date capabilities. This means service providers and mobile operators – even those with the most limited resources – have the capability to manage mobile email services across myriad devices without making huge investments in support. “Using open source allows mobile operators and service providers to compete successfully against proprietary solutions, and drive differentiation where it matters most – providing compelling new mobile services to a mass market,” Salz says.
The ad-funded business model is the only approach that gives people the service they want at minimal or no cost, while allowing mobile operators and service providers to generate significant revenue.
To download the free white paper from the Funambol product library, please visit http://www.funambol.com/solutions/library.php (registration required).
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MSearchGroove Special Report Series: Personalization and Content Discovery Will Drive the Mobile Internet
ChangingWorlds’ Chief Scientist & Leading Analyst Launch Personalization Thought Leader Column
Dublin, Ireland, Monday May 12th 2008
ChangingWorlds’ Chief Scientist Prof. Barry Smyth, together with Peggy Anne Salz, leading industry analyst in the area of mobile search & content discovery technologies, today introduced the first in their series of Thought Leadership articles focused on personalization and content discovery for the mobile Internet.
Since its inception, ChangingWorlds has pioneered the intelligent delivery of personalized content to ensure the delivery of the right content to the right user. The company’s track record, which includes over 50 deployments of its dynamic personalization technology worldwide, speaks for itself.
In addition to his role at ChangingWorlds, Prof. Smyth is a leading researcher on the topic of personalization technologies for mobile information access, and a recognized expert in the area of artificial intelligence & advanced personalization. His work has won numerous international awards and been widely published.
Salz, the chief analyst and publisher of MSearchGroove, an online source of analysis and commentary on mobile search, content discovery, and mobile advertising, is a brave new voice in the mobile content industry. Internationally recognized for her in-depth research and reports in this area, she speaks regularly at industry conferences on the topics of mobile search, content discovery, social media, and personalization.
The combination of Prof. Smyth’s expertise and the media profile enjoyed by Salz and her online destination will ensure that this Thought Leadership series becomes an essential read for mobile executives and the mobile industry at large.
The first in this series of quarterly articles from Prof. Smyth is aptly titled ‘Overcoming Subscriber Interaction Costs Using Personalization to Increase the Value of the Mobile Internet.’ This column examines the hidden interaction costs associated with surfing and exploring the Mobile Internet and concludes that these costs – a sum of the time and effort required by subscribers to access the relevant content they demand – are prohibitive, frustrating, and threaten the future of mobile data usage worldwide.
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