July 20, 2007 – “Marketers Optimistic on Future of Mobile Ads,” Giselle Abramerich, DMNews

• The prevalence of cell phones has marketers seriously considering the future of mobile. There is already an 85 percent cell phone penetration in the United States, according to pay-per-call company Ingenio. That surpasses landlines, which have 72 percent penetration.
• “There is a lot of hype about mobile marketing and where it is going,” said Neil Strother, an analyst at JupiterResearch, which estimates mobile reach will be at 2.9 billion by 2011. Today, mobile reach is at 171 million.
• “The mobile market has the advantage of learning from the online world,” he said. “That market has been dominated by search and I expect the same to be true of mobile.”

July 19, 2007 – “Mobile Marketers Talk About Children,” Kenneth Hein, BrandWeek

• Protecting children under the age of 13 was one of the biggest issues addressed by the latest Mobile Marketing Association Consumer Best Practices Guidelines released on July 17.
• The new guidelines range from broad suggestions like complying with COPPA standards, to more targeted recommendations like avoiding exhortative language such as “only” and “just” when it comes to offers.
• The other significant change to guidelines was adding mandatory double opt-ins when using interactive voice response or the mobile Web.

July 18, 2007 – “Mobile E-Mail Marketing Gets Skimmed,” eMarketer

• E-mail users read their messages in a different way on mobile phones than on PCs, according to ExactTarget's "E-Mail Marketing for the Small Screen" report. Nearly nine in 10 mobile e-mail users skimmed messages on their phones, and then read the full version on desktop or laptop computers.
• Mobile e-mail users usually did not click on links within e-mails — just over half had ever done so. Nor do they make online purchases with their smartphones.
• Mobile e-mail users were typically between the ages of 18 and 44, self-employed or employed full-time and highly educated. Nearly three-quarters of mobile e-mail users had annual household incomes of $100,000 or more, although falling smartphone prices were enticing middle-income users to buy them as well.

July 16, 2007 – “Reaching More Customers with a Simple Text Message,” Bob Tedeschi, New York Times

• Coca-Cola is creating a virtual teenager hangout like MySpace.com and Facebook--but on cell phones--to lure more youths to its brand.
• Coke, part of a growing group of advertisers putting ad campaigns on cell phones, will make the U.S. site available to Web-ready phones on June 22. A similar site launched in China last week. And Coke is eyeing markets in other regions like Latin America.
• Yankee Group has forecast the mobile ad market to more than quadruple to $275 million in 2007 and eventually increase to $2.2 billion in 2010, up from an estimated $60 million in 2006.

July 3, 2007 – “3 Things To Revolutionize Mobile Marketing,” Rohit Bhargava, Internet Financial News

• Time Based Opt In - The way most opt-in's work is that an individual company seeks my permission to market to me, and once they have it they can send me messages at any time based on their own schedule. We all know this comes with wastage as many of the messages will likely reach me at a time when I am not interested in them. For email, this is not as much of a problem as I can just save it for later. Mobile marketing is about immediacy - and therefore less suited to this model of opt-ins. What we need is a time based opt-in where I can indicate my status and openness to marketing messages as easily as I change my status on an instant messenger window. This works for consumers and for marketers - ensuring the messages arrive at a point when consumers are most likely to act on them.
• My Marketing Profile - Unfortunately, delivering messages at the right time doesn't necessarily mean they will be relevant. Right now, users can create profiles on social networking sites, indicate news preferences to get the most relevant news, and otherwise create profiles on thousands of sites to save their preferences. What people can't usually set is their marketing preferences. Of course, you can opt in to messages from individual marketers, but what about opting into messages from every company in a mall that you frequent, or all middle eastern restaurants in Brooklyn? Setting these parameters into my profile lets me opt into messages that have the most relevance. The difficulty is the level of coordination (sometimes between competitors) that would be required to make this work.
• Synchronization of Mobile And Retail - As anyone who has ever downloaded a marketing offer to their mobile phone knows, the entire process falls apart if you go into a retail location to redeem the offer and the staff are unaware of the promotion or how to honor it. This is a large stumbling block and one that will continue to hinder the adoption of mobile as a channel to receive marketing messages. Consumers need to feel that what they get via mobile is integrated into a real life experience (where appropriate), or mobile marketing will always need to fight the same credibility battle.

June 24, 2007 – “Hollywood seeks opening in iPhone,” Laura M. Holson, New York Times

• Mobile phone makers are scurrying to offer new products to compete with the iPhone's touch screen. Wireless carriers also seem more willing to listen to their partners' advice. And in Hollywood, where Jobs' convention-defying tactics are all too familiar, media executives are eagerly preparing for a new era as they hope to position more content where consumers want it: in their hands.
• For years, mobile phone carriers like AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint have closely controlled what cell phone users watch, when they watch it, and on what kind of screen they watch it.
• Even Jobs' competitors, who are quick to point out that the iPhone has limitations, like its sole availability through AT&T, say that it will nudge resistant wireless carriers to pay more attention to their customers' wishes.

June 20, 2007 –“Apple: iPhone to access YouTube content,” Reuters

• YouTube has begun encoding its videos in a new format to improve quality and save battery life when viewed over wireless devices.
• The iPhone will be the first mobile device to use the new format, Apple said. More than 10,000 videos will be available on the iPhone when it hit stores on June 29, with more material added each week.

June 7, 2007 – “Sprint Adds Local Product Search via GPS,” Marguerite Reardon, CNET News

• Sprint Nextel said Thursday it is offering a new application that will let subscribers search for products in nearby retail stores directly from their handsets.
• The service, which uses embedded GPS (Global Positioning System) chips in phones, allows shoppers to use their cell phones to find any of 85 million products available at 30,000 stores across the country. People type in a keyword, product name, model number or UPC number to search for the product.
• Sprint will charge subscribers $1.99 a month to use the application. This fee is on top of a data plan, which costs $15 to $25 per month, that subscribers also must have to access the application.

June 7, 2007 – “Coke’s New Fizz – A Mobile Social Network,” Reuters

• Coca-Cola is creating a virtual teenager hangout like MySpace.com and Facebook--but on cell phones--to lure more youths to its brand.
• Coke, part of a growing group of advertisers putting ad campaigns on cell phones, will make the U.S. site available to Web-ready phones on June 22. A similar site launched in China last week. And Coke is eyeing markets in other regions like Latin America.
• Yankee Group has forecast the mobile ad market to more than quadruple to $275 million in 2007 and eventually increase to $2.2 billion in 2010, up from an estimated $60 million in 2006.

June 4, 2007 – “Wireless VoIP Drives Auto Dealership,” Bert Latamore, ComputerWorld

• When Kings Toyota built its 68,000-square-foot new-car showroom — the largest Toyota showroom in the U.S. — across the street from its existing facility last summer, a new wireless voice-over-IP system from SpectraLink Corp. was so integral to the expansion that the showroom’s opening date depended in part on when the VoIP system would be ready.
• The VoIP system has practically eliminated the need for pages and relieved switchboard problems. When a salesperson sits down with a customer and doesn’t want to be interrupted, he can turn his phone off. When he is finished with the sale, he can turn it back on and get his voice mail.
• VoIP also allows salespeople to forward their calls to their cell phones and dial in for their voice mail on their days off. “In our business, being available is everything,” Carmichael says. “If you have been working with a customer for a week, and they call you with the one question that will get you the sale on your day off, and they can’t get you but they can get your competitor, you miss the sale.”

May 16, 2007 – “Verizon Wireless Launches ESPN Application,” Marguerite Reardon, CNET News

• Subscribers of Verizon's V Cast V Pak, which provides unlimited data usage for $15 a month, can now access the new service, called ESPN MVP, at no additional charge. Users simply download the application from Verizon's Get It Now service. The application is not available to subscribers of the $3-a-day V Cast pass.
• The ESPN MVP application was created from an application that ESPN used when it was a mobile virtual-network operator delivering a service called Mobile ESPN. The service, launched in February 2006 during the Super Bowl, was only offered for about eight months before ESPN pulled the plug.
• Mobile ESPN never published subscriber numbers, but some observers speculate that the venture never gained more than 30,000 subscribers, well below original estimates of 240,000 subscribers. While fans were impressed with the multimedia application, not enough people were sufficiently dazzled to switch their cell phone plans and sign up for the service. Some criticized Mobile ESPN for its lack of "cool" and sophisticated handsets.

April 25, 2007 – “BlackBerry Goes International,” Dawn Kawamoto, CNET News

• Research In Motion and Verizon Wireless unveiled on Wednesday a BlackBerry "World Edition" smart phone and service designed to work in more than 60 countries.
• Verizon's Global BlackBerry service will feature a local number for domestic and international use in Australia and Europe, and in portions of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North America. The service provides constant connectivity for the device's wireless e-mail, contacts, calendar, organizer and Internet access.
• The BlackBerry 8830 ties to an EV-DO/GPRS network for high-speed data transfers. GSM/GPRS service provides constant voice and e-mail while traveling in foreign countries. Other features include a media player, Bluetooth connectivity and a new trackball navigation system. 

April 13, 2007 – “Would you like Wi-Fi with that Burger?” Robert L. Mitchell, Computerworld

• McDonald's best-kept secret may be that it offers free Wi-Fi with every meal. More than 8,000 of its restaurants provide high-speed wireless service to customers. The fast food giant has yet to fully promote the perk, but it has already attracted one group: Gamers using Nintendo DS systems currently account for 25 percent of the Wi-Fi traffic in its restaurants.
• Wi-Fi is just one of several technologies that are beginning to transform the restaurant business. Others include tools for automating operations, contactless payment systems, kiosks, digital menu boards, and Web and mobile ordering and payment technologies. Such innovations are a big leap for an industry that only recently began accepting debit and credit cards, and change is still coming slowly.

April 4, 2007 – “MasterCard goes Mobile… Nearby,” Joan Voight, AdWeek

• MasterCard is using mobile marketing to let cardholders use their phones to find the nearest ATMs in the U.S., Canada, Australia and much of Europe. The initiative, called "MasterCard Nearby," also provides branded information such as merchant locations and directions.
• Marketing experts point out that U.S. consumers are skeptical about mobile ads, so companies using such tools must seek ways to be useful while promoting their brands. Successful mobile campaigns "respect the medium and deliver value to targeted audiences," said Forrester analyst Christine Spivey Overby.
• MasterCard is leveraging mobile phones in other attempts to boost customer convenience and brand loyalty. One example: It conducted a test in New York's subway system that allowed riders to tap their phones on a digital reader, rather than using standard fare cards. MasterCard has also said it is working to enable person-to-person cross-border money transfers via mobile phones.

March 12, 2007 – “Carriers Locked in Content Land Grab,” Kenneth Hein AdWeek

• Wireless carriers are rushing to corral exclusive mobile content in a land grab not seen since the early days of satellite radio. As a result, consumers are being forced to choose—and get walled off from—the content they want.
• The wireless communications giants have long depended on minutes packages, broad coverage and trendy phones to differentiate themselves. However, in many consumers' eyes these attributes are nearly indistinguishable. Looking to help retain and attract customers, each of the major players is avidly inking exclusive content deals with sports and entertainment properties. Big ad dollars have been spent to promote the agreements, even though service, not content, is still what currently drives the category.
• In the past, consumers' decisions were based mostly on the quality of the voice service. Today, "we're continuing to see content and data services become more of a factor," said Phil Leakas, general manager of Nielsen Mobile, New York.

March 5, 2007 – “Crave coffee? Text your nearest Starbucks,” Melissa Allison, The Seattle Times

• Cell phone users can send a text message with the area's zip code to MYSBUX, and a list of nearby Starbucks stores will pop back. And customers using mobile devices with Web access will find a store locator by typing www.starbucks.com. Starbucks might be the first company to use its own so-called ``short code'' to allow mobile users to find its stores.
  
• It's ironic that Starbucks would be the first, she noted, because there's a joke in the mobile marketing community that says eventually every person with a mobile device will get pinged with an offer every time they walk by a Starbucks.

March 5, 2006 – “There’s Good News and There’s Bad News,” Noreen O’Leary, AdWeek

• This year has already been christened a breakthrough year for mobile marketing, a promising medium that, with 2 billion cell-phone users worldwide, is one of the largest distribution channels on the planet. And the ad industry's biggest players are dipping their toes in previously uncharted waters: P&G Mobile Ad Lab is rolling out 35 mobile-based programs through the end of the third quarter; Pepsi is launching mobile video ads this summer; and Jeep is considering extending its Web miniseries, the Mudds, onto mobile phones.
  
• They are compelling examples of how the biggest mass marketers are looking to get closer to their customers—in their pockets and purses, right next to their wallets. The good news? Holding companies with strong specialist offerings are well placed to cash in on these faster-growing, higher-margin businesses. The bad news? Their flagship ad-agency networks are finding it harder and harder to justify their roles as lead marketing advisers.

March 3, 2007 – “The Under-Hyped Promise of M-Marketing,” John P. Mello, Jr., E-Commerce Times

• "IDC believes that mobile marketing is one of the instances in which the current hype actually underestimates the full potential of the market opportunity," stated the report.
  
• "While the advertising and mobile industries have largely agreed that mobile represents the third screen in users' lives," the report continued, "IDC believes that the real value of mobile marketing is that it provides an unparalleled window into the lives of mobile users."
  
• That window will be an irresistible target for marketers over the next five years. IDC estimates that the mobile advertising market will mushroom from US$160 million in 2006 to $4.2 billion in 2011.

March 1, 2007 – “IDC: Mobile Marketing Represents Unprecedented Opportunity for Advertisers, Mobile Providers,” Mae Kowalke, TMC Net

• Marketing may at times be misunderstood or given a bum rap, but it remains true that companies which don’t market, don’t exist. New technologies in the past few years have opened up previously unforeseen venues for getting the word out about products and services. One such venue, mobile marketing, holds great promise for the advertising and mobile industries. In a new report out this week, IDC explores the benefits of mobile marketing and examines how this medium can best be leveraged.
  
• A key factor in succeeding with mobile marketing, IDC said, is respecting the limited tolerance mobile users have for pitches that last more then 8-10 seconds. Successful mobile marketing campaigns engage the user in the first few second, rather than treating them as a captive audience.
  
• “If done right, mobile marketing provides an unparalleled window into the lives of mobile users such as their search, discovery and sharing of content,” the IDC report said. “In addition, there are more than a dozen different mobile marketing formats that offer ways to create entirely new marketing experiences.”