Archive for Advertising
by Imran Ali
April 25, 2008 at 3:22 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Privacy, HSDPA
UK-based Phorm has attracted criticism like no other company in the recent history of tehcnology, rapidly gaining an image of a company rapaciously consuming the personal rights and privacy of internet users and in the process ensuring its telco partners - British ISPs such as BT, Virgin and TalkTalk - are even less loved than they already are.
Phorm works with its ISP partners at their network’s infrastructural level to analyse the browsing patterns of users and serve targeted, relevant advertising to those users.
Some of the criticism has been unfair - privacy isn’t an absolute and people wil ltrade access to their privacy for some return in value. Criticism has been levelled largely at the lack of transparency and permission, but I think more importantly, that Phorm and its ISP partners aren’t sharing any created value with those creating it!
So what has Phorm to do with mobility? Many of the target partners for companies like Phorm have mobile and wireless ISP arms and it’s likely Phorm-like analytics can be applied to the burgeoning use of the mobile internet via smartphones, HSDPA dongles and maybe even some clever analysis of SMS and voice traffic, though it’s not entirely clear what the user experience of a mobile-Phorm would be?
More importantly, Phorm’s antics have given mobile users a headstart in ensuring that network operators are forced to at least consent them and possibly share some of the newly created value with them. If it’s possible to hate your cellco even more, companies like Phorm will be the ones that could help make it happen!
by Hylton Jolliffe
April 8, 2008 at 1:57 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Mobile Advertising, Advertising, CTIA Wireless, CTIA 2008, CTIA Roundtable 2008
Peggy Anne Salz, the founder and publisher of MSearchgroove, which provides analysis and commentary on mobile search, mobile advertising and social media, led a discussion that addressed, among other things, the following questions: “What will be the role of operators in mobile advertising two years from now? What are the key factors for increasing or losing their seat at the table?” Here, she offers the conclusions and remaining questions of their discussion.
Among those who participated at her table: Keith Mallinson of WiseHarbor, James Whatley of SpinVox, Andy Miller of Quattro Wireless, Jeff Arbor of The Hyperfactory, Jonathan Steuer of Iconoculture, Dominick Tolli of Virgin Mobile USA, Jason DeWitt of Skydeck, Jay Seaton of Airwide, and Mickey Opacic of M3Mobile.
by Darla Mack
February 5, 2008 at 7:15 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Mobile Advertising, Advertising, Venture Capital
Ringleader Digital (formerly MoPhap) has announced its new ad serving platform with new technologies such as Click to Call and device specific targeting. The company was relaunched yesterday with a new brand and new website.
According to sources, Ringleader is making mobile advertising as easy as the typical online media buy and anyone interested in taking their campaign to the next level, the mobile platform, can benefit from their offering.
Ringleader Digital resurfaces under the $6 million Series A Round of venture funding led by W2 Group, a next-generation marketing services company.
As of today, Ringleader falls under the W2 umbrella of next generation companies offering a range of advertising, communications and marketing services to a long list of technology and healthcare clients.
“Ringleader is the first mobile advertising network that finally fulfills the promise and potential of the Mobile Web,†said Larry Weber, CEO of W2 Group. “Right now, other mobile advertising networks are complicated, segmented and filled with guess work and administrative headaches. Ringleader takes online advertising and puts it on mobile devices. It doesn’t get less complicated than that.â€
Common mobile advertising practices typically require the use of server-side software that inherently brings exclusivity to inventory access. Also, mobile ads are often limited by different device requirements. The result is a complex and costly mobile advertising experience that requires multiple relationships between publishers, ad servers, ad networks and sometimes carriers for one single campaign. With delivery of third-party ad serving, Ringleader eliminates all of these complications.
via: Press Release
by Ewan Spence
December 28, 2007 at 5:45 pm · Filed under Communication, Convergence, Advertising
There are some who hope that the mobile message in 2008 will simply read “Vote Bush for President 2008.†(Un)fortunately term limits take care of that one, but there are a lot of names who want to be there come November 2008, and getting their message out is their goal.
Now, being based in the UK, and in a constituency that is pretty much solid for one party, I’m not going to preach here about the benefits or problems with one US Presidential Candidate over another; what I am interested in is how they’re going to use Web 2.0 and Mobile Messaging to find, mobilise and use their supporters.
Ewan MacLeod pointed this out over the festive seasons with a post on Obama’s use of SMS shortcodes (in his case OBAMA, or 62262). It didn’t take long for the supporter of another candidate to point out their shortcode – Hilary Clinton using 442008 (the 44th President will be elected in 2008). It’s not the first time MacLeod has pointed out Obama’s use of technology, with his use of text messaging to gain an audience for his show with TV host Oprah Winfrey, but I’m sure we’ll see more and more of this in the next few weeks and months (during Primary season) and then onwards with the chosen candidates towards the main event.
It says a lot about the power of Web 2.0 to reach the younger votes, a group that is generally regarded as being hard to both reach and motivate – interacting with them on platforms such as Facebook, having Twitter accounts is going to become the norm for candidates in many elections, not just the bigger US versions. It might take time, but the blogging politician has an opportunity to make a connection for life with his or her constituents; something especially important where there are no term limits (such as Capitol Hill in the US and the United Kingdom House of Commons).
What’s been the most unusual political outreach online you’ve seen?
by Ewan Spence
November 29, 2007 at 12:45 pm · Filed under Facebook, Advertising
There’s a lot of discussion going at the moment in blogging and social network circles around Facebook and their advertising strategy, namely the Beacon project. This is where your purchases made in certain online stores are shared with other Facebook users in an almost “celebrity endorsement†style ‘Ewan just bought this’ river of news alert.
It’s fair to say that Facebook haven’t exactly taken the purest white route in this project. Yes you can opt out of it (on an advertiser by advertiser basis) and you do get an on screen option per purchase (but only for a short period of time before it vanishes and your consent is assumed); but this project seems designed with more in favour to the advertiser than the user of Facebook. There’s always a certain give and take in the balance a site maintains between the members and the revenue streams, and I’m confident over the next month Facebook are going to alter the Beacon project to bring this balance back. And there’ll probably be a pres release at some point about ‘how “user power†made them think twice and isn’t it great we listen to then?’
I still think that the easiest solution won’t be taken up. Whatever route Zuckerberg’s Behemoth goes down, I doubt it would be as simple as my route… a rev-share on the money that Facebook makes from each endorsement/Beacon advert.
After all, if they want to use my face to sell a pair of trainers, at least give me my percentage.
by Imran Ali
November 2, 2007 at 4:52 pm · Filed under Mobile Advertising, Twitter, Advertising, OS X
A few weeks ago, Twitter began to sneak ‘tips’ into the footers of mobile notifications, widely thought to be early experiments with advertising and possible revenue models. The tips themselves are kinda cute and unobtrusive, though it remains to be see whether this is indeed an experiment in micro-ads or just a method to drive retention and growth. Indeed, Evan Williams has stated that he sees brands paying to be ‘followed’, opening a new channel to advertising audiences.
More interestingly, IconFactory recently released a new version of Twitterific, its popular OS X Twitter desktop client. Previously free, the new edition is comes in paid, ad-free and ad-supported editions. As can be seen from the screenshot, ads are dropped into the UI as just another Twitter notification. This works surprisingly well and with ads supplied by The Deck, generally targetted well to the Twitter demographic.
With third parties such as Iconfactory now disintermediating Twitter from advertising, this raises important questions as to who owns the user experience and hence the routes to monetisation. Perhaps, if Twitter pursues its branded channels strategy, they can co-exist peacefully with the likes of Twitterific; however there’s nothing to really stop third parties entering the same space.
Is Twitter heading for a showdown with its developer community?
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