Two videos based on a great publication from Young and Rubicam – presented by Simon Silvester.

MOBILE

• Always on
• Always with you
• Always connected

The world is changing as the mobile becomes the computer.

Part 1:

Part 2:

I earlier came across an article titled ‘Is 2010 going to be the year of the greatest battle yet, Android v iPhone?’. I have taken the decision not to share as in short, No it is not!

It is amazing to see so many supposed intelligent people being taken in by the iPhone and now the Android fantasy. A fantasy is exactly what it is – an inability to reflect the current market and a complete speculation about the future.  RIM, Nokia and Symbian going to go away and the world is going to be iPhone and Android – based on what evidence?

Sadly these fantasies seem to have been cemented by individuals that have invested time, effort or money into iPhone/Android, or have had a poor experience with their rivals in the past.

Looking at the mMetrics statistics for the US is quite revealing. In October 2009, Android devices have less than 0.5% market share and the iPhone around 3.7%. In other countries the story is similar. Neither have dominant positions. As I have suggested before, Mobile strategy – iPhone should factor but certainly not dominate, considering actual market share the iPhone receives a disproportionate amount of attention from the media, mobile industry and businesses alike. To counter those that will now come out and state that iPhone users dominate the mobile web usage, by volume of pages yes but by numbers of users no. According to AT&T, 4% of their iPhone users account for almost 60% of their total iPhone mobile web usage. In real terms just 350,000 are therefore significant users, out of a US mobile installed base of some 260 million that is not particularly impressive.

What is for certain is that both Apple and Google will make a further in road in to the mobile space in 2010 and onwards. But is the battle going to be focused only on these two. Certainly not! The way Google is reportedly going to be approaching the market, directly selling to consumers, in my view can only play into one organisation’s hands. If a consumer was to start to accept the real cost of a mobile device, without any subsidies or at least not linked to a mobile operator, this will change the playing field. The door could be firmly open to an organisation like Microsoft. Without question they have some serious work to do to get their Windows Mobile platform fit for purpose. But simply loosening the controlling grip of the mobile operators on the type of devices and distribution should play right in to the hands of an organisation such as Microsoft.  

Oh and Nokia, RIM and others are sure not to lie down and sit back and watch from the sidelines. So 2010 is unlikely to be a two horse race.

First of Martin’s Inside track columns on mobile. Directly from leading online site mSearchgroove.

Local focused mobile advertising is shaping up to be more than a revenue opportunity. There is every indication that it will be one the few channels to buck the downward trend in advertising spend over the next few years. Where’s the money? Martin Wilson – MSG columnist and owner of Indigo 102, a strategic consultancy with a sharp focus on media and mobility – argues the winners will be the ones that keep it simple and make it valuable.

Mobile advertising continues to be a good news/bad news story. And your view seems to depend on the news you want to hear.

November was a stellar month for mobile advertising. Google paid an eye- watering $750 million to acquire 3-year old AdMob, a Silicon Valley-based leader in display and iPhone ad formats. Google is not one to waste money, so you can imagine what a huge opportunity mobile advertising really is (even if the rest of the industry is blinded to it) if a Web giant is willing to pay almost $1 billion for a company with mobile expertise. I wonder if we won’t look back in two years and say it was steal…

At the end spectrum, there are always industry pessimists who ask when mobile advertising will finally be big business. However, I must also note (with a grin) that many of these nay-sayers are large publishers (can’t name names) who are 1) amazed by the tremendous traffic to their mobile Web destinations and 2) clueless about how they might harness mobile advertising and monetise these eyeballs.

And let’s not forget the mood among traditional media players. Doom and gloom everywhere you look: newspapers, direct mail, TV, radio, yellow pages, outdoor, magazines and PC Internet.

In fact, the BIA Financial Network (BIA), parent of the Kelsey Group, forecast spend on these media to decline to $144.4 billion by 2013 from $155 billion last year.  But there are winners among the losers. With budgets under pressure and advertisers beginning to demand far more tangible results, traditional media – such as print – is likely to be hit far harder.

Marketers have long realised this trend and increasingly turn their attention to online and new media channels. Against this backdrop, online commands an ever-increasing share of spend. BIA has forecast the new media share globally to grow from around 9 percent today to over 22 percent by 2013. Moreover, a recent study from Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) predicts by 2013 the new media share of advertising in the U.K. will be around 34 percent.

Clearly, the advertising market is going to shrink and see a substitution of spend. It’s a trend that squeezes traditional media and spells opportunity for companies that either play in new media or migrate value to their online assets. Thus, your chances of survival are a measure of your willingness to rethink your media business models and refocus your operating principles.

MOBILE MATTERS

The media futurist Jeffrey Cole points out that the biggest challenge companies face is their own reliance on traditional advertising models. “The problem [is] people often believe there is enough life left in the ‘old advertising model.’” While many companies are still waiting for traditional advertising techniques to deliver, Jeffrey is convinced that the “big breakthroughs will be digital advertising developed by those who grew up their entire life with digital media.”

If Jeffrey is correct, and I believe he is, then mobile – a personal medium digital natives regard as an extension of themselves – is where we will see the meaningful innovation and positive business results.

Indeed, mobile continues to be the bright spot in a raft of recent industry reports. Then market outlook is even more buoyant when it comes to advertising approaches that successfully combine location and promotion.

The Kelsey Group, a research firm specialised in location-based services, expects mobile local advertising revenue alone to reach more than $3.1 billion by 2013, up from just $160 million in 2008. Meanwhile, Gartner forecasts total spending on mobile advertising to grow to $7.5 billion in 2012, up from $530.2 million in 2008.

Connect the dots in these reports, and mobile advertising revenues could outstrip anything that has gone before, making mobile one of the fastest growing advertising channels of all time. A remarkable feat when you consider that the overall advertising industry (traditional and online) will continue its decline. No wonder Google was so keen to snap up AdMob and stake its turf.

WHY WILL MOBILE GROW

In a word, mobile is different. While other media may be limited to a time or context in our daily routines (print in the morning when we read the newspaper on the train and TV when we get home in the evening), mobile is a 24/7 channel directly to us.

Look at it this way and mobile ticks so many marketing boxes that you ignore it at your peril.

• Mobile is a life-line for the 18 to 30- year old demographic, a very attractive demographic to marketers and notoriously difficult to reach.
• Mobile is a personal device and rarely shared, making one-to-one marketing a real possibility.
• Mobile is present at the point of purchase, providing marketers a channel to influence people’s brand choice and encourage the all-important impulse buy.
• Mobile is measurable, allowing marketers insights into campaign performance and their ROI.

However, for most brands and media owners, mobile remains one of the great untapped channels.

WHO WILL “GET” IT?

Not everyone is blind to the tremendous opportunities at the intersection of local information and advertising approaches. In fact, there is a staggering number of players across the ecosystem jockeying for a lead position. At one end of the spectrum you have the search engines and platforms: Taptu, MCN, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, just to name a few. At the other end, you have dozens of directory publishers (Yell, Pagine Gialle, Pages Jaunes, etc.). And let’s not forget the social networks, media owners, verticals, handset manufacturers and mobile operators all lining up for a slice of the action.

The market is crowded. But, if companies continue with their current approaches, then a shake-out is imminent.

To be clear, only a handful of mobile players have what it takes to be highly successful. The barriers to entry, the complexities of the mobile channel and challenges of distribution and discovery make this a game for deep-pocketed players. But other companies have an equal chance (even if they don’t have equal budgets) if they use mobile in a smart and meaningful way to deliver real value to the consumer.

WHAT WILL MAKE A WINNER?

The winners will be the companies that have much more than content (such as local listings, for example). It will be those players that have the capabilities mix to deliver mobile consumers a contextual, relevant and tailored offering. This presupposes the know-how to deliver to the device capabilities, provide consumers the features they expect, enhance location information, support social and viral distribution and add value through marketing and advertising.

It may sound simple, but why are so many companies still getting it wrong?

In my view, they lack focus and an understanding of the mobile channel.

In contrast, companies succeeding in mobile are those players that have recognised the gaps in their knowledge of new media and brought in professionals that do. (Even better if these professionals are themselves digital natives with an instinctive grasp of mobile and its impact on every aspect of our daily lives.)

Leading digital agencies such as AKQA and Ogilvy, and progressive media owners including the BBC and Sky have long had dedicated mobile teams in place. Now other companies are following their lead, dedicating more resources to mobile or buying in skills as they need them (either because they believe in the true potential of mobile or because they have been pushed into mobile by brands who understand how important it is to engage with consumers on their personal device).

If you doubt that mobile demands experts with a different skills set, then consider the real reason Google acquired AdMob: it’s easier (and cheaper) to buy skilled people than make the investments and risk missing the mobile advertising opportunity altogether.

While many agencies and media companies have a long way to go (and a lot to lose), it is encouraging to see so many brands moving full-steam into mobile and reaping real benefits. The list of successful campaigns is impressive: Guinness with its ‘Passport to greatness’ campaign, British Airways with its ‘Mobile check-in’, HSBC with its ‘Business banking’, Sky with its ‘Remote record’, the BBC with ‘BBC mobile’ and the New York Times with their NY Times iPhone app. It is interesting to note that all these companies have dedicated teams or experienced agencies that understand usability and what makes mobile different. Even if these brands appear to experiment or treat mobile as a separate business, they are serious about mobile’s position as part of the digital marketing mix.

WHERE ARE THE LOCAL CONTENT OWNERS?

Brands are leading (not all – but we have more solid case studies than last year), agencies are learning and everyone else is at least talking.

So, where are the director publishers? They are the only players with content and vast experience in traditional advertising who have yet to make the most out of their digital assets. They should have a natural edge over their competitors, but, as I pointed out in my last column for MSG, they are leaving money on the table.

Indeed, directory publishers are best placed to deliver compelling local mobile services and – importantly – commercialise them through advertising. After all, they have existing customers and a powerful sales force to sell advertising products.

It appears that directory publishers are so focused on the business challenge that they can’t see the opportunity mobile represents. This, unfortunately, leave the  door wide open to Google & Co, companies that “get” mobile and understand the value of listings.

WHAT DO THEY NEED?

To close this gap directory publishers must stop thinking of mobile as a technology and understand it is a utility. The mobile device has evolved into a multifunctional tool. It is our social organiser, our information resource, our boredom filler. Basically, it supports our lives. Directory publishers have content that is a perfect fit provided they also plug it into the equation to simply or enhance our daily routine.

Directory publishers must also acknowledge that mobile comes with a whole set of new rules. Granted, the industry has yet to figure out these rules, but borrowing ideas and approaches from traditional media will not work. A good starting point is to answer three core questions: how are you going to approach mobile?; why is your offer relevant?; and what do you expect a consumer to do?

My takeaway: As a marketing medium mobile is only set to grow in value. Providers that get the basics right and forge partnerships that allow them to unlock the potential of mobile, monetise their digital assets and deliver features that add value to our lives will be well-equipped to compete against rivals and win.

Editor’s note: Martin’s next column will focus on what companies (specifically, local media and directory publishers) should do to deliver contextually relevant mobile advertising based on location.

Martin Wilson has been involved in digital media for over 14 years, during which time he gained a wealth of experience in the fixed line and mobile Internet. In January 2008, Martin established Indigo 102, an independent consultancy, to assist organisations (including leading advertising agencies, directory publishers, media owners and online service providers) take their brands – and value propositions – mobile. In this role Martin has supported the development and launch of six mass market mobile services across three continents. You can contact Martin directly (martin@indigo102.com) and follow on Twitter (@indigo102).

In response to a post on Forum Oxford.

The mobile web is going to be bigger that the PC web because there are simple more of us with access, the mobile always with us and turned on. Mobile will be the first point of access to the internet environment for many moving forward, rather than mutually exclusive the mobile device and PC will always likely be complimentary. For some activities a PC is always likely to be a better device to use.

Context is important. Although not always the case, but certainly the majority of times, mobile needs are quite specific. Consumers are typically looking to find something and do something. When mobile for many an actionable outcome is a pre-requisite. To ‘Find’ opposed to ‘Search’ an underlying motivation – immediacy often important, patience and tolerance far lower.   

Mobile Internet is not the same as the PC Internet. The context is often very different.

I recently wrote on the blog about the potential winners in mobile;

“The winners will be those not simply with content but those who can recognise and deliver a contextual, relevant tailored offering to a mobile consumer. It will be the ones that ‘get mobile’; those that deliver to the device capabilities, present the expected features, use location well, support social and viral capabilities, add value through marketing and advertising.”….

“I find it surprising that brands and media owners do not treat mobile differently. Ten years ago most saw the opportunity Internet presented and were quick to develop specialist teams that could take forward viable business plans. Not to approach mobile in the same way is like suggesting radio programmes translate well to television. The channels have very different characteristics and capabilities.”

The answer is not transcoding. In my view transcoding simply recognises the lack of optimised content for the mobile user. It is a very poor short-term solution. Why? Many of the transcoded sites do not support actions – it is impossible to contact the business or undertake the call to action. If many more businesses were actually aware of the impact of transcoding I believe that there would be a greater movement to stop it being applied.

The important element for many businesses is to reflect on the value that mobile could deliver and build for it – not just sit back. For many businesses mobile interaction will become primary, PC secondary. Their internet strategy and investment should recognise this.

For a demonstration on how mobile can play a valuable part in your digital strategy get in touch.

Titled The New New Media, six articles will form a short series about the changing media environment. For other articles click here.

pl. me·di·a: A means of mass communication, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, or television.

The media industry has changed. The way media is delivered, the way we consume media has changed. It was not that long ago the majority of content was created by professionals and published by professionals, content was exclusive. Content created and pushed to our eyes and ears. A newspaper, magazine, television programme, website, everything used to be pushed and we consumed. Content is no longer pushed, today it is increasingly pulled. Digital technologies have changed the rules.

THE CREATOR AND CREATED HAS CHANGED. Content is no longer exclusively the domain of the professional. Content can be created and published by anyone. Barriers have been removed. Professionals still create and publish, but so do the rest of us. The quality has not dropped, the form has simply changed.  Content used to be based on structure and format. Words came in paragraphs, broadcasts came in programmes. Today snippets are the norm.

We consume increasing volume of content in flashes; Words come in 140 characters, broadcasts in one and a half minute bursts. Content is increasingly distributed via text message, or through services like Twitter or Youtube. Consumers create content and comment on existing content. Sometimes this content or comment links to or refers to content created by professionals or published by professionals, but often not. Consumers now dominate in the content stakes, they are the lead in create and share. The balance of power has shifted. The creator has changed.

Snippets are summaries; what is going on, something that has happened, a headline, a piece of information. They create interest; desire to pull more linked to headline, subject, content, tone, language, need or even the creator. Snippets grab attention, or do not. Interest generated in a nano second, we both engage and pull more or we walk away. Choose to walk we are informed, stay consume and we become more informed. Our ability, or desire, to consume rafts of content is diminishing. Summaries are often enough; content succinct, messages stark. The created has changed.

So why does this matter?

Desire and appetite for knowledge and information is not waning, content consumption is exponentially growing. Digital technologies are seeing to that. The challenge for the professionals is to understand how to take advantage; how to create, package, promote their content. Get this right and there are riches to be made. A snippet is more than a headline - control the snippet – it is the new way of marketing and commercialising content.

Importance of mobile is increasing, the channel is set to become a primary content environment for the majority. Gearing content and commercial capabilities for mobile will be key. 

Need more advice?  We specialise in mobile and are here to help.

(Image: Squashed Green golf ball creates chair designed by jean marie massaud truffle)

A fantastic look at the effect of digital technologies on the world we live in. To give you a flavour the quotes specific to mobile:

“The computer in your mobile phone today

is a million times cheaper

and a thousand times more powerful

and about a hundred thousand times smaller

[than the one computer at MIT in 1965]“

“So what used to fit into a building

now fits into your pocket

what fits in your pocket now

will fit inside a red blood cell in 25 years” – Ray Kurweil

Well worth a watch.

A tour around Nokia World 2009 conference held last week with Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian. Some great coverage as Rafe attempts to emulate Martin Brundle with a walking/talking tour.

A tour around Nokia World 2009 conference held last week with Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian. Some great coverage as Rafe attempts to emulate Martin Brundle with a walking/talking tour.

Nokia has announced the much talked about N900 to the world, featuring a new OS and upgraded features over last year’s flagship model, the N97.

The main difference is it’s using the Maemo OS, which has been reserved for Nokia’s internet tablets before, but now makes its debut in a phone-sized chassis. It’s the same slide-out QWERTY form factor as the N97, but the N900 has a more responsive screen, a keyboard more similar to the E75, and crucially a new UI too.

Improved multi-tasking

Maemo not only means improved multi-tasking (with 1GB of memory supporting a huge amount of applications) but also brings Mozilla’s internet browser to the masses, complete with full Flash 9.4 support.

It’s running with a super-powerful ARM Cortex-A8 processor and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration under the bonnet, and also brings a 5MP camera, 32GB of internal memory and ultra-fast 10Mbps HSDPA download speeds (if your network supports it).

The Maemo interface is completely redesigned as well to allow multi-tasking, with movable icons, an upgraded and more attractive UI, as well as more desktop-style applications.

The N900’s screen has a higher resolution than most previous Nokia phones, coming in at a WVGA (800 x 480) pixel count, so video watching will be simple.

Cheaper than before

“With Linux software, Mozilla-based browser technology and now also with cellular connectivity, the Nokia N900 delivers a powerful mobile experience,” says Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President of Markets for Nokia.

“The Nokia N900 shows where we are going with Maemo and we’ll continue to work with the community to push the software forward. What we have with Maemo is something that is fusing the power of the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, and it is great to see that it is evolving in exciting ways.”

The new phone will be on show at Nokia World in early September and has a penciled release date for later in the year with reasonable estimated price tag of €500.

Only a couple of days ago I wrote about the potential impact that online video would have on TV advertising. Today the BBC reported the first ever digital video advert will published in a traditional paper magazine in the US in September.

The video-in-print ads will appear in selected copies of the US magazine Entertainment Weekly and be displayed on a slim-line screen, about the size of a typical mobile phone display.  The screens will be fixed to the magazine page and use a chip used to store the video content. Using a principle similar to the musical greeting card will see the video activated when the page is turned. Each chip will be capable of storing upto 40 minutes of video.   

The first execution will preview programmes for US TV network CBS and feature adverts for Pepsi.

Reported by the BBC.