Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Tamome CEO shares his vision of mobile & technology with launch of his new business

Posted: November 16, 2012 in Ad Industry, Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Networks, Affiliates, Digital Display Advertising, Digital Marketing, Display advertising, Industry News, Information communications technology, M-Commerce, Marketing, Mobile Ad Networks, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Affiliate Networks, Mobile Affiliation, Mobile Developers, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Search, Mobile SEM, Mobile Technology, Performance Advertising, SEM, SEO, Tablets, Tamome, Technology, Technology Evolution, Technology Theory, Wireless Technologies
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Tamome – Mobile Affiliate Advertising Marketplace launched by Founder & CEO Christian Louca

www.tamome.co.uk

Calling Partnerships

As Founder & CEO of Tamome I announce we are open for partnerships within the mobile affiliate advertising market sector.  The Tamome team have been quietly building our technology since February of this year and we are now live with major clients.  We are looking to extend partnerships with advertisers, affiliates, publishers and app developers. The time has come for the birth of mobile affiliation, a massively overlooked market segment that warrants some attention.

We have strong ambitions to drive this froward;  with all our knowledge, insight, motivations, passion and general love of the industry we hope to disrupt the market through creating exciting opportunity for all our partners and partners customers alike.  We invite you to participate in the next generation of mobile advertising.

A little bit of vision

With smartphone and tablet penetration accelerating across the globe and with more and more people using this as their means to stay connected with the world; always on, always connected and always with us.  This has become the preferred method of; communicating with friends, family, colleagues, TV Shows, entertainment,  finding out what is happening in the world, sharing content on a global scale in seconds,  navigating our way around the worlds cities and towns, letting our utility suppliers know how much we owe them, staying in touch with what is important to us, researching, understanding perceived value of anything through to buying digital goods, products or services and making payments.  It is no wonder that in such a short period of time where this is happening right in front of our eyes, we still cannot even begin to imagine where it will take us in the future.

Technology is so powerful; it has allowed the human race to advance in ways that were just simply not even conceivable before its time. ‘Before its time’…I am not sure what I mean by that.  Since technology has been around longer than the human race.  It seems strange even writing that; but I believe the reality of technology starts with life itself and the evolution of the world that we know and live in today.  Mobile technology is just one element of a whole world of biological and non-biological technology evolutions.  Non-biological evolutions need a creator, a creator can exist because of biological evolutions.  Make sense?  I think ‘technology’ is an almost impossible thing to define but I think we have to split this in these two pieces.

Biological Evolution of living technology

‘Technology that were Creators’

Biological evolution of the Human Race

Non-Biological Evolution of non-living technology

with the biological evolution of technology that were creators

‘technology that was created’

Technology that was made by technology that were creators

So it should be clear now that mobile sits within the Technology that was made by Technology that were creators space. Why is this important?  We need to understand the context of the bigger picture rather than just looking at mobile.

Technology evolution depends on its creators.  That is you and I. Creators evolve according to their natural evolution (remember we are biological technology).  Now the lines start to blur because you could ask ‘are we evolving according to the technology that we are creating?’  Anyway, another time for that one.

We have since life began carved, manufactured, developed, created concepts of technology to ultimately make our existence on earth enriched, easier and healthier.  The internet has enabled us to put all our thoughts, ideas and concepts all into one place, like a giant brain.  Thanks to mobile technology this brain is now accessible to us all across the connected world like being on a drip.  We can open it and close it as and when we feel.  Its always there, its always on but we are in control as to when we use it to make our days enriched, easier or healthier.  This is the power of mobile and why like no other industry it is growing at a rate that we have never seen before anywhere else in our time.  I am proud to be part of such an amazing evolution of technology and communication  that is simply extraordinary.

Christian Louca

Guardian mobile site drives mores unique browsers & traffic than apps & tablets combined but where is the engagement?

Posted: May 17, 2012 in Digital Marketing, Industry News, Information communications technology, Internet, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Applications, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Online, Publishing, Publishing Industry, Tablets, Technology, Uncategorized, User Experience & Usability
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Deutsch: logo der tageszeitung the guardian

the guardian (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It has been some time since I first remember trying to sign The Guardian to the YOC media network, sometime in 2009.  From memory at the time, 4th Screen were selling around 1 million page views per month.  I have posted below the latest figures from their site**, that figure now stands at 6.2 million and generates more unique browsers and monthly page views than their iOS, Android and iOS tablet apps combined.  These figures are somewhat surprising but not because their mobile internet has the biggest pull,  rather that their mobile traffic has only 6 fold in 4 or so years and all their mobile channels are not generating significant page impressions.

I have always been an advocate for mobile internet and I do get and understand that having an app strategy for print and digital publishers makes perfect sense.  After all, I have personally been involved in building so many for clients as such, why wouldn’t I think this.  My bigger question is why is their mobile internet site and apps not generating higher levels of uniques or monthly page impressions?  We know they have an award winning app and their paid for model seemed to work and made them a small profit after development costs.

But… why is their mobile internet site generating far less monthly page impressions in ratio to their applications? And… are their applications generating enough impressions in ratio to the unique users?

Mobile Internet

Generating 6.2 million page impressions from 2.5 million unique browsers can be averaged out that for every one customer visiting the site once a month is only generating 2.5 page impressions per visit.  I am guessing that their customers are visiting more than once a month which would mean they are generating even less impressions per visit (just divide the impression number by the number of visits).  As you can see from these states it becomes somewhat disappointing and raises some concern.  Maybe I am interpreting unique browsers wrongly as unique users, but it sounds like the same thing to me.

The iphone app is a little better…

Again applying the same principle generating 1 million page impressions from 34,000 uniques can be averaged out that for every 1 customer using the app once a month is generating about 30 impressions per visit.  Like their mobile internet users the reality is they are visiting more than once a month and therefore the impressions they generate per visit are even less.

Lets look at the rest, again applying the same methodology…

iPad app

45,113 monthly uniques generating 3.45 million page impressions equates to 1 customer visiting once a month generating 75 page impressions per visit.

Android app

11,000 monthly uniques are generating 1.2 million page impressions equates to 1 customer visiting once a month generating 110 page impressions per visit.

What does this all mean?

Image representing Android as depicted in Crun...

In summary, it shows that their Android app is generating a much richer experience than their other channels.  Or maybe Android users are just more engaged than iOS users.  We have to be careful here as their mobile internet site will have traffic from all devices but overall the statistics suggest that most of their mobile site users are less engaged than their app users.

In my experience, working with print and digital publishers it is typical for a user to generate up to 10 impressions per visit but at an absolute minimum of visiting the site or apps 2 to 3 times a week.  This would mean you would have to divide those impressions (generated by the users) by approximately 12.  In doing that, the numbers would suggest that only their Android app and iPad app are delivering a rich experience where the user is most engaged generating 9 to 6 impressions per visit respectively.  The others fall well short of this and their mobile internet site alarmingly so.

m.guardian**

A dedicated mobile site giving users access to guardiannews.comcontent any time and from any device. It is optimised for mobile screen sizes and connection speeds.

Traffic:

2.5 million monthly unique browsers
6.2 million monthly page views

m.guardian is showing incredible growth and almost doubled its traffic over the course of 2011 – growth that is outstripping total growth of the mobile internet market (+25% yr on yr).

Users are accessing a broad range of content through m.guardian with the top five most visited sections being world news, football, sport, technology and Comment is free. Comment is free alone delivers over 250,000 page views per month – an indication that users are valuable opinion leaders.

iPhone app

An award winning iPhone app featuring video, live blogs and more that is available free to users in the US.

Traffic:

34,000 monthly unique browsers

1 million monthly page views

With steady growth in unique browsers of almost 50% over the last four months, the iPhone app is another strong performer in GNM’s mobile portfolio. What’s more, the proportion of heavy users is high at just over 50%. That, combined with a strong frequency metric for user behaviour, indicates a very loyal and engaged audience.

In addition to the regular news content, users have a strong preference for football, sport and business content.

iPad app

We launched our critically acclaimed iPad app in October 2011 and since then it has been downloaded more than 500,000 times (globally). With a clean, modern design and easy navigation the Guardian iPad app is immensely readable.

Traffic:

45,113 monthly unique browsers

3.45 million monthly page views

Android App

Free to download and available from the Android market worldwide it contains the latest news, sport, comment, reviews, videos, podcasts and picture galleries from the Guardian website.

Traffic:

11,000 monthly unique browsers

1.2 million monthly page views

The app delivers a globally minded audience of opinion leaders and the most popular sections include football, Comment is free and world news.

Furthermore, over one in three are heavy users and this has steadily increased over the last few months – an indication that user loyalty and engagement is growing.

SOURCE**: Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/advertising/mobile?newsfeed=true)

One tablet generates as many website visits as four smartphones

Posted: May 16, 2012 in Industry News, Information communications technology, Internet, Mediation Platforms, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Smartphones, Tablets, Technology, Wireless Technologies
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My Comments on the below:

It is becoming harder and harder to differentiate between a smartphone and tablet.  However, there are two distinctive behaviours that will not change.  Browsing the internet ‘at home’ and ‘on the go’.  There is a certain size tablet that will mainly stay at home for the internet browsing as described in the article such as an iPad or other earlier tablet devices. In parallel, the newer smaller devices such as Galaxy Note that blur the line between smartphone and tablet lean towards being a device that access information ‘on the go’ and equally ‘at home’.  The key difference is they are delivering a larger visual experience ‘on the go’ and a larger enough experience to access the internet ‘at home’ that could be considered richer than traditional smartphones.  Maybe we should call them internetphones :)

Posted By } David Moth

One tablet generates as many website visits as four smartphones, according to data from Adobe’s Digital Index Report.

By the end of Q1 2012 smartphones accounted for 6.1% of site visits compared to 4.3% on tablet.

However, smartphones only maintain a greater share of website visits due to the lower penetration rate of tablets.

The report highlights that from 2010 through to 2011 there were 5.3 times more smartphones shipped across North America and Western Europe compared to tablets.

Adobe predicts that at its current rate of growth tablet traffic will surpass smartphone traffic within 12 months.

Within a year of its launch in Q2 2010 the iPad accounted for 1% of total website visits, reaching 4.3% of total visits by the end of 2011.

In contrast, within the first two years of the iPhone market entry, smartphones accounted for 0.4% of total website visits, taking nearly three years to reach 1% of total visits.

If this trend continues then tablets will account for more than 10% of website visits in 2014.

But Adobe’s report isn’t the first piece of research to highlight the growing popularity of tablets.

A recent survey by InMobi and Mobext found that 69% of tablet owners make a purchase on their device every month.

This highlights the fact that e-tailers need to have a tablet strategy in place.

Our comprehensive blog post, ‘tablets: the opportunity for marketers‘, has a number of tips for how advertisers should seek to target tablet users.

However, we should also be careful not to overstate the importance of tablets, as despite similar levels of engagement PCs drive disproportionately more website visits than tablets.

Adobe’s report shows across North America and Western Europe there were six times more PCs shipped than tablets in between 2009 and 2011.

Yet in Q1 2012 PCs accounted for 19 times more website visits.

The reasons for this are fairly obvious – people use PCs all day at work, and most tablet owners will also use a PC for browsing at home.

Adobe report also appears to fail to take into account the millions of PCs in existence before 2009.

Finally, the data shows that tablet users are more likely to use their device to visit certain types of websites.

For example, consumers consider tablets and PCs to be nearly interchangeable for media consumption and for repeated interactions with financial service providers.

“This suggests that consumers consider tablets to be similar to PCs for visits that are repeated, routine, involve passive consumption of content, and so on.”

However, PC conversion rates are much higher than tablet for retail and travel sites, “suggesting that consumers prefer PCs for visits involving research, comparison of alternatives, and online purchasing.”

Adobe’s Digital Index Report presents findings from an analysis of 23bn visits made to more than 325 mobile and traditional brand websites from January to March of 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Via: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9880-one-tablet-generates-as-many-website-visits-as-four-smartphones?utm_medium=email&utm_source=daily_pulse

 

Looking for permanent PHP developers #recruitment #mobile #advertising

Posted: February 27, 2012 in Ad Industry, Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Developers, Information communications technology, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Developers, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Recruitment, Technology, Telecommunications
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Hello everybody,

We are looking for several permanent developers with the desire and skill to build our new mobile venture. If you fulfil a significant portion of the desired skills and experiences we’d like to hear from you.

Knowledge and understanding of the web and mobile market is a must have.  If this sounds of interest please let us know and we can send through full details.

Kind regards,

Christian

New Mobile Venture (Stealth Mode)

Founder

Google Ventures’ Rich Miner talks about the mobile revolution

Posted: September 13, 2011 in Industry News, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mobile Applications, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Technology, Venture Capitalism, Wireless Technologies
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Google Ventures announced recently that it is investing inAstrid, a task management app, and Crittercism, an SDK that helps provide customer support for mobile.

Google Ventures’ partner Rich Miner made the announcement during VentureBeat’s fourth annual MobileBeat conference. (We have a separate story withmore details on the Astrid investment.) We’ll be posting more on those companies throughout the day.

After the announcement, Miner answered the question on everyone’s mind: Where’s the Android fund? Kleiner Perkins has its Apple-focused iFund, but neither Google nor venture firms have anything similar for Android startups.

“I think the time has gone by,” said Miner. “It’s now all about mobile.”

The proof is in the pudding, er, funding: Astrid and Crittercism are both mobile companies.

Miner has a front seat to watch mobile phone market growth. He became a partner of Google Ventures after Android, the mobile platforms company he co-founded, was acquired six years ago. He has over 25 years of experience growing businesses with innovative communications and interface-intensive applications. During his early years at Google, he helped lead the development of the Android platform and ecosystem. Prior to Android, Rich was a Vice President at Orange, where he led R&D activities in North America and was an original principal at Orange Ventures when it was founded.

Miner recalled his early days at Google six years ago, when Android was “treated as a separate startup.” The company was self-funded when Google picked it up.

“It was Larry [Page, Google co-founder] who latched on first. He was our champion. He shared our strategic view,” said Miner. He says he was impressed that Page, his co-founder Sergey Brin and then-CEO-now-chairman Eric Schmidt understood the mobile industry. It was important for Android to have support and flexibility right from the start, and those ingredients are necessary today.

“There were skeptics about Android all the way through last year,” said Miner. “There has been a tipping point.”

That tipping point happened in the last six months, he explains. As a VC, Miner’s goal has always been to make money, and Apple’s App Store makes money. Up until last year he was recommending companies focus on iOS. Now, he says, Android is “on a rocket ship.”

Another hot topic: Where is Google going with Chrome?

Miner believes the line between Android and Chrome has been drawn: Android is for mobile, while Chrome is for desktop and laptop environments. The theme is that Google understands the open platform. Miner also believes native apps and HTML 5 both have their place. Android, however, supports both for the times you want or need to go offline.

Via: http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/12/google-ventures-rich-miner-on-the-mobile-revolution/

BOMBSHELL: Google Buying Handset Maker Motorola Mobility For $12.5 Billion

Posted: August 15, 2011 in Handset manufacturers, Industry News, Information communications technology, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mobile Handsets, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Phones, Mobile Technology, Smartphones, Technology, Telecommunications, Wireless Technologies
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Huge!

Google is buying handset maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in cash.

That’s a 61% premium.

Needless to say this is a gamechanger in the mobile world, as Google moves down the stack, and is no longer just an operating system provider meaning it competes directly with Apple as well as the various other handset makers who currently use Android.

What’s more, one of the biggest arguments in favor of Apple’s continued to dominance is that without a complete end-to-end “stack”, no other platform could compete with its integrated software/hardware setup.

Bear in mind that Google has over $35 billion in cash, so this answers one question about what they’ll do with it. The company still has tons more dry poweder.

Other handset makers, like RIMM and Nokia are both up pre-market on the news as the focus obviously turns to Microsoft: Is it now forced to buy one of them? Or does Microsoft benefit because the remaining handset makers (Samsung, etc.) now turn more towards Windows?

Another angle that will be scrutinized is MMI’s patent portfolio, and how that plays out.

That’s one of the key points made by Larry Page in his post on the subject:

We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Appleand other companies.

Obviously lots to digest. Stay tuned with LIVE coverage all day at SAI.

Full press release below, and below that we’ve posted Larry Page’s Google blog post explaining the deal.

—————

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. & LIBERTYVILLE, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - News) and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:MMI - News) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said, “This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world. We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses.”

Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, said, “We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem. However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals in the US, the European Union and other jurisdictions, and the approval of Motorola Mobility’s stockholders. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2011 or early 2012.

Webcast Information

Google and Motorola Mobility will hold a conference call with financial analysts to discuss this announcement today at 8:30am ET. The toll-free dial-in number for the call is 877-616-4476 (conference ID: 92149124). The call will also be webcast live at http://investor.shareholder.com/media/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=101369&CompanyID=ABEA-3VZHGF&e=1&mediaKey=A21887C59EBAAC12F1BCF4D43C080953. The webcast version of the conference call will be available through the same link following the conference call.

———————–

Supercharging Android: Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

8/15/2011 04:35:00 AM

Since its launch in November 2007, Android has not only dramatically increased consumer choice but also improved the entire mobile experience for users. Today, more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide—with over 550,000 devices now lit up every day—through a network of about 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries. Given Android’s phenomenal success, we are always looking for new ways to supercharge the Android ecosystem. That is why I am so excited today to announce that we have agreed to acquire Motorola.

Motorola has a history of over 80 years of innovation in communications technology and products, and in the development of intellectual property, which have helped drive the remarkable revolution in mobile computing we are all enjoying today. Its many industry milestones include the introduction of the world’s first portable cell phone nearly 30 years ago, and the StarTAC—the smallest and lightest phone on earth at time of launch. In 2007, Motorola was a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance that worked to make Android the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. I have loved my Motorola phones from the StarTAC era up to the current DROIDs.

In 2008, Motorola bet big on Android as the sole operating system across all of its smartphone devices. It was a smart bet and we’re thrilled at the success they’ve achieved so far. We believe that their mobile business is on an upward trajectory and poised for explosive growth.

Motorola is also a market leader in the home devices and video solutions business. With the transition to Internet Protocol, we are excited to work together with Motorola and the industry to support our partners and cooperate with them to accelerate innovation in this space.

Motorola’s total commitment to Android in mobile devices is one of many reasons that there is a natural fit between our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers everywhere.

This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences.

We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

The combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences. I am confident that these great experiences will create huge value for shareholders.

I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.

Posted by Larry Page, CEO

Via: http://www.businessinsider.com/breaking-google-buying-motorola-mobility-for-125-billion-2011-8#ixzz1V6KELtUY

Mobile advertising: profit at your fingertips

Posted: June 10, 2011 in Digital Display Advertising, Digital Trends, Display advertising, Industry News, Internet, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Multichannel Marketing, Online, Smartphones, Tablets, Technology, Telecommunications, Television, Wireless Technologies
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Posted By ] James Robinson

Expensively produced adverts that were once only seen in glossy magazines are now being produced for many tablets and smartphones. Photograph: Jim Wilson/New York Times/Redux/eyevine

Mobile advertising is finally beginning to come of age as phones transform the relationship brands have with their customers in new, and sometimes unexpected, ways. The rate of growth is astounding, and the pace of change so rapid it is now difficult to believe that many companies greeted the predicted inexorable growth of mobile advertising with barely disguised scepticism a decade or so ago.

The UK market was worth £83m in 2010, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), up from £37.6m the previous year, an 116% like-for-like increase. Online market research company comScore says that in 2010 there were 19.1 million monthly mobile internet users in this country, up by 4.6 million from the same month the previous year. US investment bank Morgan Stanley said this year that “online advertising may finally be entering a golden age”.

The bank believes that the mobile advertising market in western countries is set to reach the recent growth rates seen in Japan, where mobile ad spend rose threefold from 2006 to 2009, to stand at $1bn (£610m). FirstPartner, a consultancy company, predicts that the UK market will be valued at £992m by 2015.

Much of that growth has been driven by the mobile internet and, latterly, by smartphones. Jon Mew, head of mobile at the IAB, points out that 41% of the population already have a smartphone. “By next year that should be half of the population,” he says, “and it shows no sign of slowing.”

Rik Haslam, chief creative officer at leading digital advertising agency RAPP, says: “Clients sometimes ask me whether mobile advertising is really something they should focus on. I tell them that right now more smartphones are being built than laptops and desktops combined, that mobile internet use is ramping up almost 300% faster than desktop internet access did, and that more than 50% of people use a mobile device while watching TV. So yes, it’s something clients should focus on.” He adds: “If the internet revolution disrupted business norms, then the smartphone revolution is devastating business norms.”

Analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate that by 2020 there will be about 10bn mobile internet devices worldwide – 10 times the number of PCs currently in use.

But the story can’t be told by statistics alone, as compelling as they are. The arrival of tablets, Apple’s iPad in particular, and the popularity of location-based services, which use the GPS functionality of a smartphone to offer users services based on their location, have transformed the user experience – and the aesthetics – of mobile advertising. Put simply: it has become sexy.

“Traditional brands didn’t do much on mobile, but it’s changed dramatically in the last year,” says Mew.

In recent years, around two thirds of online advertising spend has traditionally been on ringtones and downloads, but 12% of spend last year came from companies that sell fast-moving consumer goods.

The look, feel and size, of the iPad, one of the fastest-selling new computer devices in history (it took just one month to sell 1m iPads; the iPhone reached the same target in 74 days), has prompted fashion brands and car companies to create sumptuous online campaigns that were only seen in glossy magazines or expensive television adverts until recently.

Generating a response

Although they have been talked about for some time, location-based services have only really started to take off over the past 12 months, aided by the launch of Google and Facebook products, such as Facebook Places. Those services are powerful, allowing carefully targeted advertising campaigns that generate far better responses among consumers. Research published by location data firm Navteq in August 2010 found that 41% of consumers who saw a specific mobile advert went into one of that retailer’s stores – and 53% said it was the advert that prompted them to visit.

Text messaging and advertising campaigns have become more targeted and more sophisticated. More people are using their phones rather than PCs to search the internet (10% of all UK traffic now comes through mobiles) and new mobile technology is enabling big corporations to experiment with reward schemes designed to attract and retain customers, which may, ultimately, make loyalty cards obsolete. M-commerce also continues to grow: mobile-generated sales at online giant eBay tripled to nearly $2bn in 2010, with the UK the fastest adopter.

Challenges remain for advertisers, however. The lure of the iPad and the iPhone, with their hugely popular apps, can make companies who want to establish a mobile advertising presence lazy. According to mobile marketing company 2ergo: “A lot of companies launch a mobile app and think they’ve ticked the mobile box – but an iPhone is only 11% of the total [mobile] market. You’re missing out on the bulk of your target audience.”

If a company wants to reach all of its target audience, it has to create content that can be used on all of the popular operating systems, which combined make up the vast majority of the market. Google’s operating system for mobiles, Android, is growing market share, and Android-powered phones recently overtook iPhone sales. BlackBerry-maker RIM has won a new audience of young enthusiasts who use its instant- messaging service.

All of those platforms are likely to enlarge, but there are lingering concerns among consumers about privacy and there is still some resistance about using services such as mobile internet at all. According to a recent IAB survey, 21% of respondents said they only used their mobile phone for texting or calling. That seems set to change, however, as mobile phones become the next link in the internet’s evolutionary chain. There have been several false dawns, most notably when WAP-enabled phones, which allowed users mobile access to the internet for the first time, became available at the end of the last century and failed to live up to the hype that surrounded their launch. This time around, the hyperbole seems justified.

Via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/mobile-marketing-2011/mobile-advertising-profit-fingertips

Google Acquires AdMeld For $400 Million

Posted: June 10, 2011 in Display advertising, Industry News, Information communications technology, Mediation Platforms, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mobile Ad Exchanges, Mobile Ad Networks, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Online Advertising, Technology
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AdMeld, an advertising optimization platform for publishers, has been acquired by Google for around $400 million according to multiple sources. The company, which launched in 2007, has raised just $30 million in venture capital from Foundry Group, Spark Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Time Warner Investments.

This is a sweet comeback for CEO Michael Barrett. As I noted in our first post about AdMeld in 2009, Barrett was fired from News Corp. in 2008 when the division that owned MySpacefailed to meet a $1 billion revenue target. Most sources we spoke with at the time said he was the fall guy for an unrealistic revenue target to begin with, set by News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch in a previous earnings call.

Website: admeld.com
Location: New York, New York, United States
Founded: October, 2007
Funding: $30M

Admeld helps the world’s top online publishers sell their ad inventory smarter. Built and run by publishing veterans, the company provides its clients with expertise and technology to capture new revenue streams, control how they sell each… Learn More

Website: google.com
Location: Mountain View, California, United States
Founded: September 7, 1998
IPO: August 19, 2004

Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including:… Learn More

Via: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/09/google-acquires-admeld-for-400-million/

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