BnetTV Columns & Coverage Continue; Motricity CEO Sees Trend To Personalized Content, Targeted Mobile Advertising & Operator Openness
Thanks to Andrea Henninge this next Mobile World Congress is shaping up to be the best so far! My schedule is packed with briefings, speaking engagements (such as Qualcomm’s Plaza Mobile Internet Forum), and a string of video interviews I’m conducting together with MSG’s own in-house film crew. The idea started out as a great way to give startups the opportunity to explain their value proposition and demo their services/applications for a fee, but since then a host of other more established companies have approached MSG to do in-depth interviews with C-Level executives. Slots are going fast – so if you would like to learn more please contact me directly.
MSG is also proud to partner with bnetTV to conduct studio interviews with an exciting line-up of companies including AdMob, BuddyMob, BuzzCity,Gigafone, Gracenote, GyPSii, JumpTap, MCN, Mob4Hire, Movius, and VISTO. The finished segments will showcase on MSG (in the customized video player in the right-hand corner), so please check back regularly. You can also look for event coverage – as well as my regular columns – on this special Events page bnetTV created exclusively for MSG.
Which brings me to this week’s column and focus on Motricity, a provider of mobile data solutions and services, ranging from mobile portals and storefronts, to messaging aggregation, to a slew of mobile operators and content providers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Alltel, TracFone Wireless, PlayPhone, CNN, FOX News, A&E, and Condé Nast. The company had a banner year in 2008. It achieved over $100 million in revenue, exceeded acquisition integration targets, expanded customer relationships, and delivered over 11.5 billion pageviews across all deployments of its mCore Platform. (Over the past year, Motricity reports mobile Internet access has grown 45 percent, a sure sign that mobile data services are gaining serious traction.)
But the real news is mobile marketing, a sector Ryan Wuerch, Motricity Chairman and CEO, tells me is poised for impressive growth.
During a recent interview with bnetTV, Ryan identified three key drivers behind this trend: The advance of the mobile Web, the arrival of handsets such as the Apple iPhone that deliver a satisfactory end-user experience, and the increasing recognition among mobile operators, agencies, brands, and content companies that advertising is content, and should therefore be customized (translated: targeted) to individual consumers based on factors such as profile, preference, and permission.
Put simply, plain-vanilla mobile content tailored to mass-market tastes doesn’t cut it. It’s about delivering personalized, compelling experiences to consumers in order to increase data usage, ARPU, and brand recognition. As Ryan put it: “Content providers and brands are looking to leverage the data, intelligence and connectivity of the carriers in order to offer a personalized, relevant solution to consumers.”
Another shift transforming the mobile marketplace: The emergence of the open mobile Web and truly open models that blur the boundaries between on-portal and off-portal (on-deck and off-deck). In Ryan’s view, its “one multi-channel content marketplace” with the mobile phone – a device with features and functionality including a personal navigation system, a barcode scanner, a camera, a radio, a walkie-talkie, a TV, an electronic programming guide, a remote control, a digital music player, a photo album, and an archive – at its center. Operators and brands are more closely aligned in their strategies to encourage mobile advertising and Motricity is more sharply focused on “being in the center of the mobile ecosystem for the movement of content and data” between all the parties involved.
My take: There can be only one business model. OPEN. Ryan believes players up and down the value chain will ultimately embrace the open strategy. Why? Because inclusive is better than exclusive, particularly when the end-game is about forging partnerships that will grow the pie for everyone.
Ironically, this is also the message of my own white paper, sponsored by Motricity and slated for release in the next weeks. Aptly titled ‘There Can Be Only One,’ the white paper demonstrates the business benefits of a comprehensive, all-inclusive federated mobile search strategy that meets user demand for choice by combining results from storefronts, the Internet and the mobile Web. I argue that such a strategy creates a new and robust ecosystem and firmly places mobile operators at its center. More may be better, but open is always best.
Look for the white paper available for free download via MSearchGroove.
Disclaimer: Motricity is an MSG supporter.
Tags: AdMob, bnetTV, Buddymob, BuzzCity, federated mobile search, Gigafone, Gracenote, GyPSii, JumpTap, MCN, Mob4Hire, Mobile Marketing, Motricity, Movius, Plaze Mobile Internet, Qualcomm, VISTO
