2/6/11 Brands are not sure about their effectiveness but...
According to a new survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers, in conjunction with the Mobile Marketing Association, a whopping 88 percent of advertisers plan to be active in mobile in 2011—up from 62 percent last year. Three quarters of brands plan to significantly increase their mobile ad spending. On average, respondents said they plan to spend 59 percent more than they did on mobile in 2010.
However, while mobile is becoming a standard line on the average flowchart, brands are still waiting to be wowed by the medium’s effectiveness. Just a quarter of the 97 advertisers surveyed by the ANA called their mobile campaigns “extremely” or “very” successful while 53 percent labeled their mobile activity as “somewhat” successful—a rather lukewarm endorsement for a much-hyped media.
According to the ANA/MMA’s findings, mobile may take some getting used to. Brands that have been active longer in the space were more likely to rate their efforts as successful versus brands that were new to the medium.
@- Mike Shields
1/31/11 Facebook and their mobile deals
The social network has already lined up promotions with several businesses including Starbucks, Debenhams and mobile network O2.
The service ties into Facebook Places, an add-on for mobile phones that launched in 2010 as a way for users to share their location with friends.
Users who login to Places via the dedicated Facebook app for the iPhone and handsets running Google's Android system can update their whereabouts - or "check in" - whenever they visit a variety of shops, restaurants and other venues.
With Deals, users will not just be able to tell other people their location, but can also take advantage of any special offers that the retailer has.
"Your life is not just about the people in it, but also the experiences you are having and the places around you," said Joanna Shields, Facebook's vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Bonus rewards
As well as discounts and special offers, Deals can also allow participating retailers to use Facebook to offer "golden ticket" rewards or give bonuses to users who bring other friends along with them.
It can also be used by businesses to link up with charities — for example, users checking in to Argos shops will trigger a £1 donation by the company to Teenage Cancer Trust.
Deals launched in November in America, and its early success has convinced the company to expand, with today's launch covering not only the UK but also Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Launch partners in Britain include Benetton, Yo! Sushi, Alton Towers and Mazda. The company says it is working on more partnerships and that it also plans to move beyond major high street brands.
"Over time we plan on expanding such that small businesses can have access to these deals," said Emily White, a former Google advertising executive hired by Facebook last year to run the company's local products.
The service is intended to capitalise on Facebook's popularity, particularly on phones.
Around a third of Facebook's 650 million users worldwide use the company's mobile application or access the website from their handset.
The service is free to retailers and shoppers alike, and Facebook will not take a slice of any income generated by the deals.
Instead, the social networking giant hopes that it can forge more valuable deals with advertisers by encouraging foot traffic into their shops and making them more visible to its vast user base.
@NBC.Com
1/29/11 Smartphones take the lead
The mobile phone market had its best year in 2010 since 2006, increasing shipments 18.5% to 1.39 billion worldwide. For the fourth quarter, shipments grew 17.9%, a new quarterly high driven by smartphones, according to new data from IDC.
The figures mark a rebound from 2009, when the market declined 1.6% in the wake of the global recession. A stronger economy and the proliferation of more affordable smartphones lifted the growth rate to its highest level since the 22.6% gain in 2006.
"The mobile phone market has the wind behind its sails," said Kevin Restivo, a senior research analyst at IDC, in a statement. "Mobile phone users are eager to swap out older devices for ones that handle data as well as voice, which is driving growth and replacement cycles."
Highlighting the trend has been the rise of Chinese manufacturer ZTE, which sells mainly lower-cost feature phones in emerging markets, but is expanding its range of devices to include smartphones. ZTE surged past Apple in the fourth quarter to claim the No. 4 slot among the world's top phone makers, with shipments up 76.8% from a year ago to 16.8 million units in the fourth quarter.
Apple slipped to No. 5 despite shipping a record 16.2 million iPhones in the quarter, or 4% share of the global phone market. IDC said Apple and BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion maintained a healthy lead in the U.S., where new entrants like Dell, Huawei and Sanyo launched their first phones in the market.
The firm also noted that 4G took a step forward with the commercial launch of Verizon's 4G LTE network, though there's still a long way to go before higher speed service becomes a reality for most mobile subscribers.
A released by ABI Research Friday estimated the number of handsets and smartphones shipped in the fourth quarter increased 15.6% to 390 million, and 1.36 billion for the year. ABI recently forecast the growing number of smartphones combined with better network performance will push mobile content revenue worldwide to $6 billion.
The firm advises that digital game publishers, music companies and video producers should push ahead with mobile projects. "On the other hand, non-media companies--especially those without content at hand--should take a breath," according to ABI practice director Neil Strother.
@IAB