Image via CrunchBase

2011 was a year of rapid growth and change in the mobile advertising industry. It was the year that saw smartphones, Tablets and the mobile internet become mainstream among consumers, and that saw marketers and advertisers increase spend and begin prioritising mobile. 2012 looks set to be even more of a critical year in the development of the industry. From Adfonic’s own data and knowledge of the industry we predict that the following developments will become hot topics over the next 12 months.

Tablet boom
With the iPad being one of 2011′s most popular Christmas presents, and with the new Kindle Fire making tablets more affordable and accessible, we can expect to see tablet devices replacing lower-end laptops and notebooks over the course of 2012. It is not unrealistic to expect that Tablet ownership will more than double.

Rich media going mass market
Rich media is already emerging as a game-changer for the mobile advertising industry, as it offers the consumer a more engaging and interactive experience and facilitates superior branding opportunities for advertisers. Until now, rich media advertisements for mobile have, for the most part, been offered as a premium or niche service across a small number of high end mobile publishers. In 2012, mobile ad networks will be offering rich media on a global scale, giving advertisers access to millions of consumers and challenging budgets across other media channels.

Advertising spend shifting towards mobile
As smartphone penetration booms, consumer mobile usage will continue to increase and extend across new times of the day. For example, one of the most quoted use cases in 2011 has been consumer use of tablet or smartphone devices during TV commercials. Consumers are browsing mobile sites and using apps on their tablets and smartphones in place of TV commercial consumption, which suggests that the perception of mobile as primarily an extension of the PC internet will finally disappear. It is becoming increasingly clear that mobile operates as an alternative to the “fixed internet” for many people and this can no longer be ignored. Advertising budgets will increasingly follow the consumer over to mobile.

Phasing out of feature phones
Smartphones are now becoming more economically accessible to all consumer segments as a result of the large range of Android devices coupled with Apple’s pricing strategy for older phones. As the number of services and options begin to concentrate on tablet and smartphone platforms, advertisers and agencies will slowly phase out features phones from their plans.

Apple and UDIDs
During 2010 and 2011, much investment poured into app tracked campaigns enabling advertisers to deliver installed apps at low cost. A new common approach, superseding UDIDs, will become mainstream across agencies, advertisers, ad networks and other players in the ecosystem, as Apple plans to phase out access to the UDID on its mobile devices.

Mobile web versus applications 
During 2011, there were hints (driven predominantly by large industry players opting for HTML5 over a multi-app approach) of the mobile web challenging applications as the way forward for mobile internet usage. During 2012, we are likely to see this debate evolve with the potential for some major decisions by digital players to impact the market and force some rethinking.

Geo-location services 
There is likely to be more integration across marketing channels, platforms and other parties that will enable geo-location services and advertising to ramp up during 2012. Driven predominantly out of the US (where most geo-location business is currently concentrated) we are likely to see more demand for campaigns targeted to smaller areas (ring-fencing) with a view to driving footfall into retail stores, restaurants and other outlets.

Increasing use of mobile payments 
While this may not be the year that mobile payments become mainstream, many players will come together to make significant progress in piecing together the mobile commerce ecosystem. The success of Google Wallet last year will drive industry players forward in 2012, with major advertising events like the Olympics providing a springboard for new, exciting innovations around mobile commerce.

Facebook and mobile advertising
Facebook has been holding back on pushing mobile advertising aggressively. With close to 1bn users online, and over 300m users now accessing Facebook via their mobile, it provides a significant game-changer and possible milestone for the mobile advertising industry. However Facebook decides to execute on mobile advertising will, without a doubt, have a big impact on the digital industry in general.

Further progress on standards and privacy
With mobile advertising moving at such a fast pace in terms of innovation and market demand, there will be  increasing requirements for further standardisation (ad formats, for example, including rich media) and frameworks and policies driven by the trade bodies on privacy and data.

Via: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/content/whats-trending-2012?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

As you probably know, the details of iOS 5 were released today at the Wordlwide Developer’s conference, and while we’re covering all of the new features that are coming, we wanted to give you a more in depth look at Mail and Safari, both of which are getting exciting new changes.

iOS 5 won’t be released until the fall, but we’ve got a lot to look forward to. Safari is already a very popular web browser, and 2/3rds of all mobile web browsing is done with Safari. It’s always lacked some necessary features, and I’m pleased to say that iOS 5 changes all of that.

Currently, we can’t open tabs, which is possibly the most frustrating thing about using Safari on a mobile device. In iOS 5, tabbed browsing is fully supported and lightning fast. When fall rolls around, you’ll be able to browse the Internet on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch in the same way you browse on a PC or Mac.

Safari Reader is another new browser function that will make reading news articles more enjoyable. It strips out all distractions and excess content, presenting only the text of a web page. It even combines multiple page stories into one flowing piece. This feature will be accessible from a new button in the address bar.

A built in Reading List will allow you to mark pages that you want to read later, much like bookmarking. Your Reading List can sync across multiple devices, so you’ll always know just what you wanted to read, regardless of which device you’re using. Full story and website content can be emailed to anyone (instead of just sending a link), and Twitter integration is included.

Mail, like Safari, is one of iOS’s most used applications. In iOS 5 Mail will be receiving some significant changes, making it more user friendly. There is a new ergonomic split keyboard option, which can be accessed by dragging the keyboard up. This keyboard is smaller, and perfect for typing with your thumbs. Bringing up your Mail inbox in portrait mode is simple – it just takes a single swipe.

There is a new system-wide dictionary that functions like the one in iBooks. In Mail, if you don’t know a word, you can tap it and get a dictionary definition. Searching has been changed and enhanced, allowing you to search through entire messages as well as subject titles. I wasn’t aware that search wasn’t already doing this, but thinking about it, I haven’t always gotten great search results, so this should beef up searching quite a bit.

Messages can be flagged and marked unread, email addresses can be dragged from one field to another (such as to, cc, bcc, etc.) controlled indentation is supported, and most importantly, rich-text formatting has been added so that you can now use functions like bold, underline, and italics to emphasize your messages. Good news for exchange customers: S/MIME has been implemented, and a lock will appear when you’re sending an encrypted message.

These updates of Mail and Safari include some must have features that I have been sorely missing on my iDevices. In fact, a lot of these are things that should have been added years ago, and I’m certainly excited to welcome iOS 5. Are you happy with the feature set being added with iOS 5? Did Apple leave out anything you were expecting?

Via: http://www.padgadget.com/2011/06/06/an-in-depth-look-at-safari-and-mail-in-ios-5/

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/11piubpwiqubf06/event/

Posted By ] Jillian

Yeah yeah yeah, Lion looks fantastic –but what about iOS 5? Many of us were not-so-patiently waiting to hear what would become of our iOS devices, and from the moment Scott Forstall took the stage we weren’t disappointed.

The address continued with an overview of the 10 key features among a noted 200 that will be included in the upgrade:

1. Notifications
   1. Addition of a Notification Center, accessed by swiping down from the top of the screen
   2. No more annoying popups, a brief, non-persistent animation will alert you to a new notification
   3. All notifications will be itemized on the the lock screen, with a swipe bringing you to the correct app
   4. Can be cleared individually, but can easily be removed by tapping the [X] to dismiss
2. Newsstand
   1. Easy access to all of your newspaper and magazine subscriptions
   2. New issues are automatically downloaded in the background and placed into a single location integrated with the home screen
3. Twitter integration
   1. Full iOS integration with a single sign-on with interaction available for all apps, including Camera and Photos
   2. Add twitter account handles to your contacts
4. Safari
   1. Safari Reader creates an uncluttered view of website story content, a 20-page review can be turned into a single longer page with one click
   2. Easy sharing of website content and links
   3. Tabbed browsing
   4. Reading List features allows you to save content for reading later
5. Reminders
   1. Create lists with optional reminders by date and location (be reminded when you arrive or leave)
   2. Will sync across all devices including integration with Cal
6. Camera
   1. Camera button added to the lock screen
   2. Use the volume-up button to take pictures –fully tactile approach for a shutter button
   3. More advanced features including pinch-to-zoom and manual exposure settings by tapping areas of your photo
   4. Editing directly on your device including crop, rotate, reduce red-eye, and one click enhance
7. Mail
   1. Rich text formatting with indentation control
   2. Draggable addresses
   3. Search entire message content
   4. Flag as unread
   5. S/MIME support
   6. OS-wide dictionary that all apps can access with tap-to-define functionality
   7. A new keyboard can be split with your thumbs for faster on-screen typing
8. PC Free
   1. No more PC required with activation, set-up, software updates all available Over-the-Air (OTA)
   2. Only download delta updates, meaning only the information that was changed –reducing the data downloaded
   3. More configuration available on the device itself including adding and removing calendars and mailboxes
9. Game Center
   1. Purchase and download apps from within Game Center itself
   2. Increased social aspects including friend discovery, friend of friend discovery and enhanced score/achievement sharing
10. iMessage
    1. Messaging platform supported by all iOS devices including iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone
    2. Send text messages (including group messages), photos, videos and contacts
    3. Includes delivery receipts, read receipts, and typing indication

Of course, we were teased with additional things that they didn’t cover in detail, such as AirPlay mirroring of your iOS device to your television, multitasking gestures and WiFi syncing.

In keeping with the theme of the conference, Apple promised over 1500 new API’s for developers. This will translate into a lot more apps with a lot more functionality and a lot more potential! Putting power in the hands of developers means we are looking foward an even more innovative future.

While the inevitable comparisons to other devices and their features will no doubt follow, I don’t think anybody can deny that iOS 5 is a giant leap forward on an already innovative and progressive platform.

With release of iOS 5 set for the fall, only one question remains… how can we possibly wait?

Via: http://www.padgadget.com/2011/06/06/wwdc-keynote-whats-new-in-ios-5/

At press event in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, mobile commerce company Square launched two new mobile applications designed to make mobile commerce easier and more accessible than ever before.

Square Register is an iPad app–available for download today–that facilitates retail checkout, sales tracking, and customer communication. Square Register allows merchants to use an iPad instead of a cash register or credit card terminal.

“We think that this obsoletes credit terminals and cash registers,” said Square CEO Jack Dorsey at the press event. “Those are a thing of the past.”

A consumer-oriented app for both iPhone and Android users called Card Case complements the Square Register merchant app. Card Case stores virtual merchant-branded information cards thatenable and promote local commerce. Think of Card Case as a virtual wallet populated with virtual credit cards, each associated with a particular vendor.

Dorsey likens these information cards to opening a tab at bar: They provide an easy way to return to the seller and charge another item. In essence, these cards combine loyalty cards with a local commerce angle.

For merchants, Dorsey’s value proposition goes beyond reducing the friction of commerce. The Square system provides immediate access to useful business metrics.

“It gives you data,” said Dorsey. “Every single merchant that uses the Square Register has Google-style analytics for everything they do. They can easily answer the question, ‘How many cappuccinos did I sell today?’”

The cost to merchants is a 2.75% transaction fee for swiped credit cards or 3.5% + 15 for credit card numbers entered manually.

Square Register and Card Case include: access to a location-based Directory, which provides merchants with a way to publish information about their business that Card Case users can discover; a Menu feature, for publishing menus, items, and specials to customers; and Tabs, a one-click payment mechanism.

IDC analyst Aaron McPherson expressed skepticism that Square’s system will be widely adopted because it requires both the merchant and consumer to have the right software installed. “It’s a closed system where both the merchant and consumer have to get involved,” he said. “But to the extent this can work purely in software using the mobile network as a communication channel, Square has an advantage.”

McPherson said he hoped Square would work to integrate its system with a PC-based point-of-sale system. “The iPad as a tablet is very hard to secure,” he said. “People might just rip them off counters.”

Square was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, one of three co-founders of Twitter, and Jim McKelvey. The company launched its free, portable credit card reader for the iPhone and Android phones in early 2010. To date, the company says it has delivered 500,000 of credit card readers, resulting in over a million transactions in May. Based on current usage, the company projects $1 billion in annualized gross payment volume.

Businesses that wish to participate in Card Case can apply online; there are presently 50 authorized Square merchants in Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Washington, DC where consumers can have their Card Case accounts activated. An Android version of Card Case is expected to be available shortly.

Via: http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/business/229625404

Image via CrunchBase

Posted By ] Marie-Paule Graham of Broadband Genie

The internet is omni-present and if you want to access much of the world, getting on the internet is the fastest way to do it. High street retail has been massively hit by the likes of Amazon and this trend is set to continue.

So, what’s the best platform for accessing the internet when not at home?

There are three: laptop; smartphone or tablet.

Dongles

Dongles are great for people who carry their laptops with them all day. For something just a little bigger than a USB stick, you get all the power of the internet on the move. Dongles also have Wi-Fi capabilities allowing you to drop into a wi-fi hotspot when you need to.

The best packages are determined by several factors: speed, download limits, coverage and price. if you’re a heavy user, contracts will give you faster speeds, larger download limits and a better price ong term. For infrequent users, Pay As You Go (PAYG) is lighter on the pocket, but the speed is slower.

The major plus of the dongle is that you can do everything you would expect to from an office or home connection while on the move; important for business users. All providers also offer a free laptop when you sign a 2-year contract.

Smartphone

Their great strength is the portable accessibility to the world at large. The device itself is a computer on which you can view attachments, a browser for email and general web surfing, a camera, a portable TV. Some models like the Sony Ericcson Xperia Play have been tailored specifically for gamers or the Nokia X6 for music lovers. Other models like the iPhone and HTC range do everything pretty well, allowing the user to define the device.

Using your smartphone, you can blog with text, images and video; broadcast your take on an event through your social media channels – the operation to kill Osama bin Laden was ‘live tweeted’ by an unsuspecting local who was woken by US helicopters at 1am. You can stream music, TV and live events; connect with industry peers, celebrities and friends; you can trade on the stock market; you can make e-commerce transaction. Recently, Vodafone announced an app that allows you to pay for taxis through your smartphone.

An activity as personal and private as internet banking is much easier to do in a public place with a smartphone than it would be in an internet cafe. Keeping your security codes private is much easier on a handheld device than on a large qwerty keyboard. Using your smartphone means banking can happen more at your convenience than ever before.

Smartphones are the beautiful toys at the centre of our personal worlds. They also have a darker side.

Google’s Android App Market is open, allowing anyone to create an app for sale. In March this year, Google removed 21 popular apps from its store after discovering they were malware masquerading as something fun or useful.

Apple were criticised recently after revelations that the company regularly tracks and stores iPhone and iPad users’ location data. Tracking is necessary for location based apps, but alarms were raised when it was revealed user’s caches held unencrypted data from 10 months ago. Apple have admitted the software is flawed and announced they will reduce the size of the cache, encrypt the actual data stored and block location gathering when the user switches the location services off. Google’s Android platform also does this, but the information is more secure. This hasn’t stopped lawsuits being filed in the U.S.

Apple have admitted failure on the part of technology creators to educate users on this issue.

Tablets

Tablet technology is evolving quickly, with names like Blackberry Playbook, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy TAB and Dell Streak all swimming in the wake of the iPad 2.

The big advantage of a tablet computer is the size, thickness – or lack of – and weight. User experience varies between brands with the Samsung tablet lying neatly in one hand at 7.1”, while the iPad 2 needs two hands for fully user enjoyment.

Some brands are allowing development of tablet-native apps and some not. Those who don’t are being caught out in the usability department.

3G models use the same network as dongles and Smartphone’s, and face the same issues with speed and coverage. The major upside for 3G users is the Data Plan: a 1 month rolling contract that offers a particular speed and download limit valid for 30 days. Some carriers are offering tablets on exactly the same 2-year deals they offer with laptops. However, with the speed of the markets evolution, the iPad released two years from now will probably have five times the capacity and capabilities of today’s latest release. Something to bear in mind before you sign on the dotted line.

About the author: Marie-Paule Graham writes on behalf of Broadband Genie and Mobile Phone Genie, the independent comparison websites for broadband and mobile phones.

Image via CrunchBase

Posted BY ] DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Microsoft is on the verge of buying Skype for $8.5 billion – despite the Internet phone service making a loss last year.

The deal would be the biggest in the 36-year history of the world’s largest software company.

It could indicate Microsoft’s intention to compete with Apple and Google as it pours resources into the mobile and internet arenas.

Despite doubling sales and profit in the last eight years, Microsoft’s stock has largely languished at the same level, as investors worry about its ability to counter new rivals or adapt to new ways of computing.

Microsoft already has video chat as a function in its Windows Live Messenger service, but it is not available on its Windows Phone 7 software.

Adapting for the future: Head of Microsoft, Bill Gates

Skype also makes versions of its own service which can be used as an app on the iPhone and iPad, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and Android phones. It cannot be used on Microsoft phones.

Apple’s FaceTime video calling service — available on its latest iPhone and Mac computers — has been a big hit with consumers.

Google recently followed suit by adding video to its popular Google Talk application for smartphones.

The deal is relatively small for Microsoft, which has $50 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet.

The $8.5 billion purchase price would likely include the $686 million in long-term debt on Skype’s balance sheet.

‘I think the price is quite reasonable,’ said Sean Lee, a Taipei-based manager of the Global Top Dividend Fund at Shinkong Investment Trust, which owns Microsoft shares.

Luxembourg-based Skype, which had delayed plans for an initial public offering, had recently been looking at other options.

Facebook and Google were separately considering a tie-up with Skype.

Microsoft and Skype declined comment.

Via: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1385472/Microsoft-set-buy-Skype-8-5bn-biggest-deal-history.html#ixzz1LwjCmCFZ

A few weeks ago, when Comscore’s mobile survey showed that Google’s Android smartphone platform had blown past BlackBerry and iPhone to dominate the US market, Apple fans temporarily panicked.

It was the 1990s all over again!

But then Apple posted another monster quarter with great iPhone sales, and Apple fans rejoiced (and lambasted anyone who had murmured word one about Android.)

(How could Apple possibly be losing share, Apple fans roared. Apple’s US iPhone sales grew 155% year over year!)

Well, now the Nielsen numbers are out. And they show the same trend Comscore’s numbers did:

Android is gaining share by leaps and bounds, and iPhone share is dead in the water.

Specifically, Nielsen’s numbers suggest that, of all the smartphones sold in the US in the past six months, fully 50% were based on the Android platform.  Meanwhile, only 25% of buyers bought an iPhone, and only 15% bought a BlackBerry:

Now, these numbers extend back beyond February, when Apple started selling the iPhone through Verizon (which helps). And another Nielsen survey, of purchasing intent, suggests that going forward the sales may be more evenly split. So Apple looks poised to regain some share, at least relative to RIM and other also-rans.

Here’s the purchasing intent of those who expect to buy a smartphone over the next year. Last year, iPhone was the big winner. Now, by a small margin, it’s Android:

As for current platform market share (phones in use), Nielsen’s numbers look very similar to Comscore: In March, Android had 37% of the US market, iPhone had 27%, and BlackBerry had 22%:

After the initial Comscore numbers came out, Apple fans also made the perfectly reasonable point that, if you’re assessing platform market share, you should also include iPod touches and perhaps even iPads when looking at Apple’s numbers.  And, certainly, if you include both of those, Apple’s overall share looks better.  But, globally, if you add up iPhones and iPod touches, Apple still lost share to Android year over year.

Why do Android’s gains matter? Can’t Apple just hold onto the “premium” segment of the market?

The Android gains matter because technology platform markets tend to standardize around a single dominant platform (see Windows in PCs, Facebook in social, Google in search). And the more dominant the platform becomes, the more valuable it becomes and the harder it becomes to dislodge. The network effect kicks in, and developers building products designed to work with the platform devote more and more of their energy to the platform. The reward for building and working with other platforms, meanwhile, drops, and gradually developers stop developing for them.

(This has not happened yet. Developers are certainly gearing up to develop for Android, but most say that they develop for the iPhone first. And Apple’s app distribution and payment mechanism is still far superior to Android’s. But lots more developers now develop for Android than they did two years ago.)

Importantly, it’s not a question of which platform is “better.” (This is irrelevant.) It’s a question of which platform everyone else uses.  And increasingly, in the smartphone market, barring a radical change in trend, that’s Android.

So that’s why Android’s gains matter. And, yes, Apple fans should be scared about them.

As we’ve said before, Apple is fighting a very similar war to the one it fought–and lost–in the 1990s. It is trying to build the best integrated products, hardware and software, and maintain complete control over the ecosystem around them. This end-to-end control makes it easier for Apple to build products that are “better,” but it makes it much harder for the company to compete against a software platform that is standard across many hardware manufacturers (Windows in the 1990s, Android now).

As we explain here, two important things are different about the current Android - iPhone battle as compared to the Mac – Windows war in the 1990s. First, Apple is maintaining price parity (or better) with the leading Android phones. (Macs were always priced higher than PCs). Second, Android is still a fragmented platform, which significantly reduces the benefits of “interoperability” across multiple manufacturers.

Google is working to fix the second problem, though–enacting much tighter rules about how Android can be used. And if the platform is to become dominant and ubiquitous, it will likely continue to tighten these rules.

And Apple’s price parity certainly does not appear to have stopped the Android juggernaut so far. And the reported delay in the release of the iPhone 5 until September won’t help.

See Also: Android Is Destroying Everyone, Especially RIM — iPhone’s Dead In The Water

Via: http://www.businessinsider.com/android-versus-iphone-smartphone-share-2011-4

There is no question as to whether consumers have embraced smartphones with open arms, and the mobile Internet has finally reached enough scale to offer critical opportunities for marketers, according to Yahoo Inc.

According to Yahoo’s report, “Mobile Internet – Delivering on the Promise of Mobile Advertising,” brands have not yet realized the full potential of mobile advertising. In order to do so in 2011, brands need to approach mobile as a channel and not just a strategy.

“Mobile Internet came of age in 2010, offering advertisers the scale, tools and technology to develop effective campaigns and vie for a fair share of major media budgets,” Yahoo says in the executive summary of the report. “However, mobile advertising still lags behind the opportunity.

“Will brands realize the full potential of mobile in 2011? To do so, marketers will need to approach mobile as a channel, not a strategy, albeit a particularly effective channel due to its ability to connect with consumers in a very personal way.

“If it feels like mobile phones are everywhere, it’s because they are.”

Content consumption
With 96 percent wireless penetration in the United States as of December, according to CTIA – The Wireless Association, mobile phones are everywhere.

Mobile phones are personal devices and consumers are unusually attached to them, claiming they are an extension of their person and psyche, per Yahoo.

This dependence on the mobile device is for more than just voice services. Consumers are consuming a huge amount of content via their devices, with the Internet at the top of the content consumption food chain.

According to Yahoo, 86 percent of mobile Internet users surf the mobile Web while watching television.

Consumers are increasingly relying on their mobile devices for shopping, checking bank balances, locating restaurants or stores, navigating routes, monitoring health, paying bills, downloading music and videos, texting friends and making phone calls.

Yahoo says these behaviors prove that consumers have embraced smartphones with open arms and mobile Internet has finally reached enough scale to offer critical opportunities for marketers.

And then came the tablet.

Yahoo says in its report that tablets have emerged as a potential contender for screen dominance. With approximately 10.3 million tablet users in 2010 and that number expected to reach 82.1 million by 2015, tablets such as the iPad have undoubtedly caused a disruption in the mobile space.

In 2012 tablet sales will grow to 36 percent of U.S. PC sales, according to Yahoo, and this number will likely outstrip notebooks/mini-PCs, which are expected to be 32 percent of overall PC sales.

IPad users are open to advertising, especially if coupled with an interesting video (49 percent) or interactive features (46 percent), according to Yahoo.

Mobile advertising
There are obvious opportunities having to do with mobile advertising.

“Faster network speeds, function-rich smartphones and tablets, a burgeoning portfolio of applications and more engaging ad formats like screen takeovers and expandable ads enable mobile to compete with more established media,” the Yahoo report says. “As for mobile’s position in the media rankings, the facts speak for themselves.

“Mobile attracts younger, more affluent and more educated consumers and delivers on performance benchmarks such as awareness, message association and purchase intent,” it says.

Yahoo claims the most important function of the mobile device, as it pertains to marketing, is its ability to move the consumer through the purchase funnel.

Fifty percent of mobile users claim they have gone on to make a purchase after researching on their device, per Yahoo. A whopping 90 percent of mobile users access the Internet while in retail locations, turning the device into a sort of shopping companion.

According to Yahoo, mobile advertising is most effective when campaigns are coupled with online display. The company said in its report that the combination of mobile and online amplifies budget efficiencies and achieves synergies that increase key metrics such as awareness and purchase intent.

To prove this point, integrated mobile and PC campaigns resulted in a 54 percent increase in brand awareness, a 46 percent increase in brand favorability and a 42 percent increase in aided brand awareness, according to Yahoo.

Additionally, click-through rates on a movie campaign on mobile are 30-times higher than the PC counterpart. Ad recall scored 15 percent higher among users who viewed a mobile ad than any other channel.

“Use mobile ad buys strategically to smooth over audience troughs when traditional advertising traffic diminishes during work hours and on weekends,” Yahoo says in its report. “Mobile is finally scalable enough to be an extension of an advertiser’s communication strategy and should be incorporated into all buys.”

Via: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/9637.html

Image via CrunchBase

Posted By ] IB Times Staff Reporter

Jefferies & Co. believes that Google Inc., Apple Inc., Adobe Systems, Microsoft Corp., and the large advertising agencies are potential acquirers of Velti Plc (NASDAQ: VELT).

“We believe that the bigger players will be acquisitive in mobile marketing over time to complement their mobile advertising and desktop advertising/marketing platforms,” said Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies.

Larger companies have been acquisitive in mobile advertising. In May 2010, Google bought Admob, and in January 2010 Apple acquired Quattro. Apple and Google paid 12 times and 13 times bookings, and while those acquisitions (Quattro and AdMob) are not perfect comparable to Velti, they do validate the size and market opportunity, in Misek’s opinion.

Misek believes the U.S. mobile marketing represents an attractive revenue opportunity for Velti. IDC estimates U.S. Mobile Internet advertising will grow to $2.5 billion in 2013 from less than $1 billion in 2009, a greater than 30 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Currently, the company generates 5 percent of its revenue from the U.S.

To capture the potential growth in the U.S., Velti acquired Ad Infuse in 2009 and subsequently acquired MobClix and Media Cannon. Misek believes that while the US is more mature in smartphone penetration, app ecosystems and technology usage; mobile marketing appears to be more mature in Europe.

Misek said his anecdotal evidence suggest that large multinationals have been using mobile devices to great success to drive brand awareness, consumer actions and importantly anonymous data collection.

Mobile marketing and advertising is a nascent market overall but momentum, in Misek’s opinion, is slowly building among corporations and advertising agencies. While mobile ad spending is relatively new, awareness of the benefits of mobile is increasing at a rapid rate, and multi-national corporations have begun to allocate a defined percentage of their advertising budget to mobile.

Gartner predicts that global mobile advertising will grow from $530.2 million in 2008 to more than $13 billion in 2013, a 74.3 percent CAGR. Misek believes growth will be mainly driven by increasing use of mobile devices, especially tablet PCs capable of consuming rich media and smartphones.

Misek expects tablets will grow from 20 million units shipped in 2010 to well above consensus estimates of 60 million in 2011 and continues on a strong upward trajectory. Misek estimates smartphones will grow from 22 percent of handset shipments in 2010 to 30 percent in 2011 to 38 percent in 2012.

Misek believes the additional functionality of smartphones and tablets will drive more interesting and interactive marketing campaigns and ads as well as greater usage, thereby increasing total available market.

According to IDC, the U.S. Mobile Internet advertising spend was $280 million in 2009 and they estimate that it will grow to $2.5 billion market by 2013, a CAGR of 76 percent. More important, mobile is the fastest-growing part of spending on Internet advertising. Jefferies Internet analyst Youssef Squali estimates that the global Internet advertising market will grow from $41 billion in 2007 to $69 billion in 2012, an 11 percent CAGR.

Misek said Velti has relatively low penetration in the U.S. market versus iLoop and Vibes who have greater share, but Velti has recently been acquiring intellectual property and customers that should allow it to expand its domestic base. The global capability and platform approach should drive growth, in Misek’s view.

Velti is an industry leader in mobile marketing and advertising, a market that is just now beginning to receive independent budgetary attention from advertisers. The company sells SaaS (Software as a Service) to customers who span the globe and the mobile marketing food chain from carriers and agencies to publishers. Velti’s SaaS-based model has enabled revenue growth that has outstripped the market over the past two years.

Velti has enjoyed double-digit growth in the last two years and Misek believes the growth of mobile marketing should support Velti’s revenue growth more than 30 percent CAGR in the next few years. According to Gartner, worldwide mobile advertising revenue is expected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2010 to $13.5 billion in 2013.

Misek expects Velti is well positioned to capture revenue share from customers given the company’s global scale and increasing brand recognition. Misek forecasts annual revenues to grow about 50 percent each of the next two years.

Via: http://hken.ibtimes.com/articles/120599/20110310/velti-mobile-marketing-nasdaq-stock-market-advertising-agencies-google-apple-adobe-systems-microsoft.htm