So now Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) enter the mobile marketing space with the launch of a “fresh platform” that “will enable operators to securely execute targeted mobile advertising and marketing campaigns”. It’s a mystery as to why they took so long given that Sybase, through the subsidiary Sybase 365 have been doing this for a while. In the wake of Google’s potential purchase of Admob (currently under review by the Federal Trade Commission), O2’s launch of 02 Media and product announcements from Orange is this further evidence that 2010 could be a significant year for mobile marketing?
Towing the part line
Oracle is following the “party line” regarding the need to deliver more effective ad campaigns through better targeting and like many operator focused solutions they expound the fact that by delivering appropriate tools to the operators the holy grail of personalisation in mobile advertising will be reached.
Better targeting?
The theory continues to be that unlocking the operator’s data – subscriber demographics, handset type, usage patterns and location are the main ingredients for better targeting. For my part I fail to see the connection between this data however voluminous and the brands and product /services that I might actually want to hear from. The really relevant data is in the hands of the brands and retailers who understand what the consumer is doing - where they are spending, when the spending and what they are spending on. This is not consolidated. Each entity guards its data carefully.
Where next?
In the near term, only brands and advertisers that have taken the time through their direct marketing efforts to build accurate profiles of their customers will be able to deliver the kind of targeted marketing and advertising to which the operators aspire. Just “doing mobile” will not deliver.
In time, consumers may choose to give up the kind of data that will allow the operators to help deliver really targeted ad campaigns but then the question will be - why use an operator to reach consumers who can be reached quite easily as long as I have opt-in and as long as there are the tools and services that can get me connected easily?
Ade Bamigboye, CEO Mobile Flow
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Sunday, 6 December 2009
O2 Media In Targeted UK Mobile Advertising Push - The Return Of Walled Gardens?
First published via Gerson Lehrman Group 06.12.2009
For a long while operators have been considering how best to leverage their key assets – infrastructure and subscribers – so as to increase the rate of revenue generation. With the launch of their O2 More service, O2 are starting a wave of activity which will see operators attempt to take back the initiative and create value from mobile data services. But are we about to see a return to the kind of “walled gardens” that existed in the early days of the mobile internet and do we need to go there?
First Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) acquired AdMob, now 02 Media undertake a high profile launch of their “targeted advertising service” - 02 More - and early in 2010 Orange are set to launch their own targeted service using Blyk’s technology. All of this activity is giving voice to the fact that scale and targeting are what really matters in the mobile advertising business.
Are “walled gardens” set for a return?
But the 02 announcement highlights an issue that has yet to be addressed, who owns the customer? O2 are in effect putting a ring fence around their 20m subscribers and saying, “They are our customers, if your want to market to them then do it through us and abide by the controls that we are putting in place.” This has strong parallels to the “walled garden” approach that operator’s first took when they started offering mobile internet access. Subscribers could only access the internet through their operator’s portal and the operator controlled what content was available to them. It was not good for subscribers and did not work for the brands that had deep enough pockets to rent space on those portals in the first place.
If all operators take this approach advertisers will have to choose which networks they advertise on or run the same campaign across multiple operator networks. This is not really efficient and maybe just as they got bored with walled gardens, they will tire of having to deal with multiple operators in different ways in order to deliver the same message to an audience that is broader than one operator’s subscriber base.
Contrast this approach to that of setting up a short code service to support a promotion. Any subscriber from any network can respond. Respondents to some extent are opting in and declaring themselves interested in what is on offer. Subject to following the relevant rules, and good practice – Mobile Marketing Association, Institute of Direct Marketing and so on brands can continue their engagement with these new customers long after the initial campaign and the customers can opt-out whenever they want. Why do we need walled gardens?
Measurable personalised advertising, really?
A lot of information is required to deliver the level of personalisation that really matters to consumers. Operators have the handset type, location data, usage patterns and billing profiles when actually what is required includes leisure and lifestyle choices, brand preferences and social network affiliations. So will subscribers really take the time to access a dedicated website, give up this level of information and maintain it when they have already given it to the brands that they have affiliations with and who will continue to market to them directly in any case?
To get subscribers engaged for the longer term, the available advertising will need to be highly compelling and advertisers will want to measure it so that they can ensure its effectiveness. If they are offering discounts and money off deals are we going to see hundreds of thousands of subscribers waving their iPhones, Nokias and Samsungs at cashiers across the nation as they rush to redeem them? If not, how will advertisers know exactly what effect their campaigns are having? Retailers beware.
Better targeting or better revenue model?
At a time when brands, advertisers and their agencies are exploring the broader use of mobile – apps, internet, video, TV and even e-Books - to deliver value added targeted messages to their target audiences, messaging does not deliver the richness of content or level of interactivity that subscribers expect. It is an easy way for operators to increase data revenues which can be further increased by controlling the number of messages that each subscriber receives. Controlling the number of messages that are delivered to the subscribers under the guise of “spam prevention” in effect increases the rates that advertisers will have to pay in order to ensure that their messages are amongst the limited set that are permitted to be delivered. This removes one of the key benefits of mobile as a direct marketing channel, its’ relatively low cost compared to all other channels.
For a long while operators have been considering how best to leverage their key assets – infrastructure and subscribers – so as to increase the rate of revenue generation. With the launch of their O2 More service, O2 are starting a wave of activity which will see operators attempt to take back the initiative and create value from mobile data services. But are we about to see a return to the kind of “walled gardens” that existed in the early days of the mobile internet and do we need to go there?
First Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) acquired AdMob, now 02 Media undertake a high profile launch of their “targeted advertising service” - 02 More - and early in 2010 Orange are set to launch their own targeted service using Blyk’s technology. All of this activity is giving voice to the fact that scale and targeting are what really matters in the mobile advertising business.
Are “walled gardens” set for a return?
But the 02 announcement highlights an issue that has yet to be addressed, who owns the customer? O2 are in effect putting a ring fence around their 20m subscribers and saying, “They are our customers, if your want to market to them then do it through us and abide by the controls that we are putting in place.” This has strong parallels to the “walled garden” approach that operator’s first took when they started offering mobile internet access. Subscribers could only access the internet through their operator’s portal and the operator controlled what content was available to them. It was not good for subscribers and did not work for the brands that had deep enough pockets to rent space on those portals in the first place.
If all operators take this approach advertisers will have to choose which networks they advertise on or run the same campaign across multiple operator networks. This is not really efficient and maybe just as they got bored with walled gardens, they will tire of having to deal with multiple operators in different ways in order to deliver the same message to an audience that is broader than one operator’s subscriber base.
Contrast this approach to that of setting up a short code service to support a promotion. Any subscriber from any network can respond. Respondents to some extent are opting in and declaring themselves interested in what is on offer. Subject to following the relevant rules, and good practice – Mobile Marketing Association, Institute of Direct Marketing and so on brands can continue their engagement with these new customers long after the initial campaign and the customers can opt-out whenever they want. Why do we need walled gardens?
Measurable personalised advertising, really?
A lot of information is required to deliver the level of personalisation that really matters to consumers. Operators have the handset type, location data, usage patterns and billing profiles when actually what is required includes leisure and lifestyle choices, brand preferences and social network affiliations. So will subscribers really take the time to access a dedicated website, give up this level of information and maintain it when they have already given it to the brands that they have affiliations with and who will continue to market to them directly in any case?
To get subscribers engaged for the longer term, the available advertising will need to be highly compelling and advertisers will want to measure it so that they can ensure its effectiveness. If they are offering discounts and money off deals are we going to see hundreds of thousands of subscribers waving their iPhones, Nokias and Samsungs at cashiers across the nation as they rush to redeem them? If not, how will advertisers know exactly what effect their campaigns are having? Retailers beware.
Better targeting or better revenue model?
At a time when brands, advertisers and their agencies are exploring the broader use of mobile – apps, internet, video, TV and even e-Books - to deliver value added targeted messages to their target audiences, messaging does not deliver the richness of content or level of interactivity that subscribers expect. It is an easy way for operators to increase data revenues which can be further increased by controlling the number of messages that each subscriber receives. Controlling the number of messages that are delivered to the subscribers under the guise of “spam prevention” in effect increases the rates that advertisers will have to pay in order to ensure that their messages are amongst the limited set that are permitted to be delivered. This removes one of the key benefits of mobile as a direct marketing channel, its’ relatively low cost compared to all other channels.
Mobile Advertising Set To Soar ? Yes, But What Is The Engine For Growth
First published via Gerson Lehrman Group 17.Nov.2009
Mobile advertising is set to soar but only if all mobile channels are used and the combination of enabling technology, analytics and advertiser mindset is focused on identifying the exact context of the consumer before ads are served.
Even with all of the hype surrounding mobile advertising, it is starting from a relatively low base. The IAB reports 2008 UK spend on mobile advertising at just ₤28.6M, which itself represented a growth of 90% on the previous year. A 100% year-on-year growth is not too difficult to predict when 2009 figures are reported. Google’s recent acquisition of AdMob will certainly add to this rate of growth during 2010 as brands, advertisers and agencies leverage what is a huge endorsement of the mobile advertising industry.
That the project to determine an accurate method to measure mobile web traffic might somehow have a major impact on the industry is questionable. Whilst the GSMA working in collaboration with the UK’s big five operators to achieve this was the right way to go, the results are late. The GSMA are behind the curve on this after all, the lack of metrics has not stopped AdMob from serving billions of mobile ad impressions. Further more other specialist companies such as Bango for example, are already providing such tools.
But what about the rest of the advertising industry and their involvement in the mobile web? For the brands, advertisers and agencies involved, focusing on the mobile web as the growth engine for mobile advertising is wrong. The tendency is still to treat the mobile web as a scaled down version of the internet. Mobile’s smaller screen and personal nature mean that it needs to be treated much more preciously that that. Ads served on the basis of what a consumer is browsing or what they are searching for will be hit-and-miss without tools that can accurately determine the context of the mobile consumers. Serving incorrectly targeted ads, even to consumers that have ‘opted-in’, will do much to damage brand values. The location, time of day and personal preferences of the consumer are key elements of that context and once it is available, there might be other more appropriate channels over which to advertise. SMS, MMS, mobile video and mobile apps all support advertising.
Ultimately growth in mobile advertising will be rapid but it will come from being able to address consumers across any one of, or combination of all, the mobile channels available and will be driven by a deep understanding of the mobile consumer's context not just by the mobile web.
Mobile advertising is set to soar but only if all mobile channels are used and the combination of enabling technology, analytics and advertiser mindset is focused on identifying the exact context of the consumer before ads are served.
Even with all of the hype surrounding mobile advertising, it is starting from a relatively low base. The IAB reports 2008 UK spend on mobile advertising at just ₤28.6M, which itself represented a growth of 90% on the previous year. A 100% year-on-year growth is not too difficult to predict when 2009 figures are reported. Google’s recent acquisition of AdMob will certainly add to this rate of growth during 2010 as brands, advertisers and agencies leverage what is a huge endorsement of the mobile advertising industry.
That the project to determine an accurate method to measure mobile web traffic might somehow have a major impact on the industry is questionable. Whilst the GSMA working in collaboration with the UK’s big five operators to achieve this was the right way to go, the results are late. The GSMA are behind the curve on this after all, the lack of metrics has not stopped AdMob from serving billions of mobile ad impressions. Further more other specialist companies such as Bango for example, are already providing such tools.
But what about the rest of the advertising industry and their involvement in the mobile web? For the brands, advertisers and agencies involved, focusing on the mobile web as the growth engine for mobile advertising is wrong. The tendency is still to treat the mobile web as a scaled down version of the internet. Mobile’s smaller screen and personal nature mean that it needs to be treated much more preciously that that. Ads served on the basis of what a consumer is browsing or what they are searching for will be hit-and-miss without tools that can accurately determine the context of the mobile consumers. Serving incorrectly targeted ads, even to consumers that have ‘opted-in’, will do much to damage brand values. The location, time of day and personal preferences of the consumer are key elements of that context and once it is available, there might be other more appropriate channels over which to advertise. SMS, MMS, mobile video and mobile apps all support advertising.
Ultimately growth in mobile advertising will be rapid but it will come from being able to address consumers across any one of, or combination of all, the mobile channels available and will be driven by a deep understanding of the mobile consumer's context not just by the mobile web.
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