News Groove: Australian Content Stalled; Mobile Web Use Grows; Mobile Campaigns Drag; ComTel Copies Blyk To Offer Ad-Funded Mobile Services
Borrowing a page from Blyk? The email release and PPT presentation I got proclaim Australia is ready for a Blyk-approach to mobile advertising, so this must be the model. Australian MVNO ComTel Corporation, Ltd., which uses the Vodafone network, has launched SMSPup Mobile, the country’s first advertising subsidized mobile phone service. The flagship offer is the SMSPup Mobile monthly $10 Get $130 Cap Plan, a new plan offering $130 of talk and text value for $29 per month – but customers who agree to receive five SMS or email ads per day will only be charged $10. On top of the 65 percent discount, users can also earn reward points that can be redeemed for prizes, such as movie passes and travel discounts. To qualify for the discount, subscribers must be over 18, and agree to answer some basic demographic and lifestyle questions. As in the case of Blyk, this customer data is key to delivering relevant advertising. ComTel – which last year acquired Empowered Communications, Australia’s largest permission-based marketing e-marketing group with some 360 brands on board since 2004 – now runs an extensive permission-based mobile advertising business and counts almost 500,000 users who have subscribed to one of the services offered by Empowered. The reach is significant, but will the relevancy impress? It had better. In a survey conducted recently by ComTel, more than half of respondents said they would welcome ads on their mobile devices if the messages were relevant and meant a discount in call and text services.
My take: SMSPup Mobile joins ComTel’s stable of segment-focused mobile offerings and confirms that Blyk’s model is on the money. But Blyk is keenly focused on the 18-24 demographic, a successful strategy that allows brands to address only that target group. ComTel’s new offer is for everyone (mainly 18-40), so I have to wonder if a service that caters to such a broad segment of the population will allow brands the reach, relevancy, results and engagement they require to make mobile advertising a viable business.
Does a niche market buy most mobile content? It sure looks that way in Australia. According to the latest Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index published by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, fewer mobile users are buying content; but those making the purchases are buying more. Only 33 percent of respondents said they bought mobile content in the last year, a drop from 2007 numbers. However, their game purchases increased by 50 percent, and paid SMS alerts also increased 60 percent. Content users want in the future includes maps, news and weather. Only 16 percent have used social networking and instant messaging functions, according to the study.
My take: These numbers should get us thinking… Fewer people are buying more content. Is it the users or the content that is holding back market growth? Answering this fundamental question will help us seek a solution. If users aren’t consuming content because they don’t know how, then we need to focus on improving usability/discoverability. If users know how to get content but would rather not because there’s nothing on offer they like, then we need to fix that (and also make creating and distributing content more of a no-brainer). Either way, the industry is at a critical crossroads.
Which markets lead in mobile Web usage? Two new reports shed some light on this. They disagree on several points – as you would expect – but do manage to agree on one thing: The numbers are on the rise. According to Juniper Research, the community of mobile Internet service users will increase from 577 million to 1.7 billion by 2013. Juniper attributes the increased demand to an increase in Web 2.0 applications, such as social networking, user generated content and instant messaging. Juniper reckons the Far East and China are the largest mobile Web markets, with nearly 416 billion users by 2013. South America is the market with the greatest untapped potential. Meanwhile, research firm Infonetics Research isn’t quite so upbeat about data and Internet use. It expects demand for basic voice services to drive growth in the number of mobile subscribers in Brazil, Russia, India and China. In its Fixed and Mobile Subscribers report, Infonetics reported that the number of mobile subscribers rose 31 percent from 2006 to 2007, reaching 5.2 billion by 2011. Cellular mobile broadband subscribers are expected to grow at a 104 percent compound annual rate from 2007 to 2011.
My take: No real surprises here – but worthwhile stats for our reports/ presentations.
Are operators and service providers holding back profits? A new survey of mobile industry sources from Valista, a digital commerce software and managed services company, indicates mobile operators and service providers are a source of frustration. Eighty percent of respondents said that new mobile campaigns take three to nine months to launch (!). Industry experts say that this should take less than one month. Also, none of the survey respondents said they implemented customer loyalty programs to motivate customers to make either initial or repeat purchases. Instead, more than 70 percent opt to offer promotions, such as discounts, free trials and product bundling. Regardless, opinions on where those purchases will be generated are mixed: 51 percent of respondents predicted that the broadband/cable channel would experience the greatest growth for content purchases in the next two years; 48 percent said mobile would post more growth.
My take: Another report that should have alarm bells ringing in boardrooms everywhere. Mobile content is a retail business where time-to-market is critical. Time is a luxury and having to wait three to nine months to launch campaigns is a risky business indeed!
Tags: Blyk, Mobile Web, SMSPup
