Guest post published on mSearchGroove 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mobile advertising is certain the hot topic at CTIA, where Mobile Web And Apps World Forum (Ajit Jaokar’s CTIA partner event) was standing room only. (Well done Ajit!) Players from across the ecosystem are anxious to explore new models to monetize inventory, apps and services. However, as I pointed out during my panel — moderated by well-known analyst and author Chetan Sharma – there’s still is a lot of mileage left in established models such as text and MMS approaches to advertising before we focus too much of our effort on the whiz-bang new ad units and creatives. In his guest contribution, Martin Wilson – MSG columnist and owner of Indigo 102, a strategic consultancy with a focus on media and mobility and a deep understanding of the local space— argues that traditional media owners also have a lot of untapped energy and assets.

***

Advertising based on location is set to be the most valuable and highly contested sectors as players including AdMob, AOL/ Third Screen Media, Jumptap, Millennial Media, and Quattro Wireless jockey for position. Who will be in the winners’ circle? So far, traditional media owners and directory publishers appear to be the laggards and not the leaders in this race – although they clearly have the capabilities mix to dominate this space. Why are they hell-bent on missing the boat? Martin Wilson argues traditional media owners and directory publishers can still be among the champions, not the casualties, provided they act fast.

Mobile advertising has come a long way in a short time. No need to ask ourselves when it finally be the “year of mobile advertising” because the recent flurry of activity tells us mobile advertising has arrived.

First, it was the milestone acquisitions – Google buying AdMob, Apple snapping up Quattro Wireless and Opera surprising us by purchasing AdMarvel. Then it was the funding – Millennial Media led by New Enterprise Associates and Glam Media led by Aeris Capital – that sealed it. Mobile advertising has been validated.

Almost overnight our attention has turned from fixed online advertising to mobile. Now mobile – a personal device that enables brands to market to an audience of one – is widely regarded as the Next Frontier companies must conquer. Little wonder that companies – including Apple, Facebook, Google, Millennial Media and Yahoo – are lining up to do just this.

The market is crowding and muddying our understanding of what matters most.

Predictably, we want to reuse our understanding of old media (online and TV, for example) to comprehend the role and importance of mobile, the new mass media. Thus, we are fixated on size and those players with high volume inventory. Unfortunately, mobile advertising is not just the same numbers game.

Take the narrow view communicated in a controversial report by U.S. research agency Interactive Data Corp (IDC). It estimated the total 2009 mobile advertising spend in the U.S. at around $290 million, a figure based on total page impressions. It calculated market share according to share of total spend and concluded Millennial Media leads the pack with 18 percent ($51 million), followed by AdMob with 14 percent ($40 million), Google with 10 percent ($28 million) and Quattro Wireless in sixth place with 7 percent ($21 million.).

It was also reported by IDC that Glam Media counts 160 million monthly visits to the sites they control or represent, resulting in some 2.5 billion page views. Does this make them a market leader?

Maybe on paper.

However, as I argue in this column, it’s not about page impressions. That is not where the battle will be fought (or won, for that matter).

RAISE YOUR GLOVES

The money is in local advertising, or more accurately advertising based on location. That’s not just my view. Google has been clear about its interest in local online mobile content – and its intention to own the space. In its fourth-quarter earnings call, Google described local mobile advertising as a “huge” opportunity and more recently at the 2010 Mobile World Congress (MWC) claimed to have made mobile its number one priority.

Interestingly, going local (delivering advertising based on location) brings with it a whole new challenge. For one, it is infinitely more difficult to deliver relevant advertising to people
(which is the way brands must deliver advertising on a personal device such as our mobile phones). The opportunity to target an individual based on location is hugely powerful, but the room for error in these brand messages is frightfully slim. Get it wrong and the advertising performance diminishes — significantly.

Put another way, local advertising can’t be a matter of hit-or-miss. Generic advertising is a “fail” and tactical, targeted advertising is – literally – spot-on.

But it sounds easier than it is. This approach – though essential – flies in the face of how we measure advertising success. Suddenly, our singular focus on numbers and quantity (high volume and market share) is irrelevant. Local means delivering quality advertising. It also requires a totally new skillset, a whole new understanding of what we mean by context and how we should deliver relevant advertising.

WHAT IS ‘LOCAL’

If you say ‘mobile’ and ‘local’ in the same sentence, two scenarios spring to mind: ‘where I am now’ and ‘where I am going to be’. But which one is it? It depends. A common mistake is to assume your current location is important, that your location at that point in time is key.

Often it is not.

Mobile is about being ‘mobile.’ It’s about roaming. Mobile location can be a related to a number of things, places nearby or places close to my final destination. Deciding what is relevant is core to the success of any service or proposition delivered via mobile. I’m amazed by the number of services that get it completely wrong.

Why? Because there is more to delivering a mobile location service (let alone location relevant mobile advertising) than knowing the location of the individual. Companies need a detailed knowledge of what is really nearby.

In the U.K. alone, there are over 30,000 recognised places or points of interest. And that’s before you take into account synonyms, postcodes and street names. Linking them together in a meaningful way is no simple task. What are the postcodes or streets in London’s West End or Soho? The taxonomy is complex. When expanding a location to deliver results the relationship between places is important to get right – otherwise the service will deliver meaningless results and fail in the consumers eyes.

With so much as stake, I wonder why companies are so willing to take risks. By adding location to the mix they think they are growing the size of their inventory. In reality they also increase their chances of failure.

Currently, mobile advertising companies work on serving relevant ads based on generic attributes such as country, mobile network, handset type, time of day or theme of the page content. Add location as an attribute and everything changes. Relevancy – potentially down to a micro level – has to be on the mark. Delivering advertising based on locations becomes a mammoth task with a very different set of management challenges.

FREEDOM OF CHOICE

Advertising is content and people will pay with their attention. The structure of the content is important, and keep in mind at all times that mobile is a ‘pull’ medium. Give the people what they want and need. Provide enough information to attract, influence and help inform the decision or action.

You also need to remember that ‘local’ at a micro level is all about offering rich content – which can be challenging to deliver and scale. At the other end of the spectrum, ‘local’ at a macro level is all about providing comprehensive content – which can be challenging to deliver with added-value and competitive differentiation. A rule that applies to both types of ‘local’ content: Content gives a service credibility, interest and value if there is a valid reason (that consumers can understand) why a particular content is shown to them at a specific point in time.

Poorly targeted content is more than a potential annoyance. For many consumers, being exposed to irrelevant content (this includes advertising) on their mobile phones represents a ‘fail’ that interrupts what they are doing and – depending on data plan – costs bandwidth and money. Get it wrong and deliver the wrong content and the consequences can be severe and instant.

Content also needs to be inclusive not exclusive. If a user wants a pizza place nearby, they mean it (!) The service should deliver them details on the restaurant nearby and not the one 15 miles away simply because that business owner paid a premium for it.

Put another way, a location-based social network service should offer people loads of places people can check-in to, and not just the ones a handful of ‘power users’ know, mark and promote. Likewise, a local guide service must have all the places of interest for a town or city, not just the well—known ones in the surrounding area.

Why do local services need to be all-inclusive?

Because the consumer is empowered. They are spoilt by choice and demand the content they want. The Long Tail taught us all that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work in entertainment content. And there is mounting evidence that the same focus on the mainstream will no longer be tolerated in location-based services.

Relevance, as I have shown, is critical in content services.

The consumer’s perception of relevancy is enhanced when:

• They are offered greater choice
• They are empowered to select from a range of options
• They are ultimately responsible for the due diligence and decision

Of course, offering a broad choice of content (in this case, location related information and location relevant advertising) requires the service provider has a stockpile of content to start.

WHAT REALLY COUNTS

Above all, a location-based service has to pass the toughest road test there is. It has to show the consumer what they know is there. Put simply, consumers judge the true accuracy and relevancy of a local service by its ability to offer breadth, choice and insight into the places and businesses they know are nearby.

If the service can pass the test, it earns consumer trust.

Thus, a shopping guide needs to list the shops nearby and not the ones across town. It needs to drill down to the hyperlocal level and present up shops in the area – even better if lists the shop they can see in the distance. Then they can feel secure knowing the service is up-to-date and mirrors the real world around them. (And isn’t that what we all expect of a service that professes to offer local information?)

The same goes for mobile advertising. A guide to city nightlife should be chock-full of bars and clubs and their promotions.

How do service providers get their hands on all this content and advertising?

They partner with companies that have it as their stock in trade.

Take the directory publisher Yell in the U.K. It boasts over 2.3 million business listings –that satisfies the requirement for basic core and structured content. Yell also has over 200,000 searchable online advertisers – that fulfils the demand for depth of differentiating content.

Surely tapping into this content (listings and advertising) is the first – and essential – step to building a strong foundation of content linked to location. What’s more, it’s shortcut to offering the wealth and breadth of content – including familiar content – that consumers have come to demand.

It seems self-evident. But some companies fail to grasp it. In the last weeks I have seen a number of services – TopTable, Grub.it, Center’d to name just a few – come to market with neither basic core and structured content nor in-depth and diffentiating content. Predictably, they were instantly knocked by consumers.

IT TAKES TWO [OR MORE]

As I have shown, the success of a service linked to location depends on the breadth and depth of content (listings and advertising) it offers. It’s content that has long been the lifeblood of directory publishers, but nowhere is it written that these giants will beat the nimble newcomers moving on their turf.

Granted, it will take time for these newcomers to learn the ropes and collect and index the location linked information core to competitive edge. However, there is little reason for more traditional media players, who sit on a stockpile of location linked content, to assume that time is on their side.

Take the case of uLocate Communications, a location services company, headquartered in the U.S.

Sensing a business opportunity it moved fact to fill the gap in the current mobile advertising environment and recently launched Where Ads, a hyperlocal and holistic ad network that pulls together local ad providers that work in other mediums, including directory services, coupons, events and other aggregation services.

Partnerships will be increasingly important. Even for the traditional players it is unlikely that they will excel alone. The recent pairing of directory publisher DexOne and Yelp in the U.S. is a testament that neither company has the critical mass and/or appeal to succeed in isolation.

The new network underlines the importance of getting the right players to the table. Strategic partnering brings a new dimension to the service offer and delivers value to the consumer. But it’s knowing whom to partner with that will decide if a service flies or fails. Picking the right partner requires knowledge and focus. It also helps if the partners we choose have a track record in local and a proven ability to generate revenue.

While the newcomers may have the ambitious mobile strategies, it’s the traditional media owners and directory publishers from the online space that have mastered the capabilities necessary to convert consumer activity (a need/desire to know what’s really nearby) into revenue.

Case in point: Pages Jaunes, the French directory publisher. In 2009 the company counted 885 million visits and online revenues of €461 million. That’s equivalent to €0.52 per visit – a staggering conversion to value. Imagine a scenario where consumers conduct the same number of searches using Google – it’s nowhere near the same conversion rate (or revenues for the advertiser, I might add).

Make no mistake: No other organisation can even potentially come close to the conversion rates and value delivered by traditional media owners and directory publishers. Their ability to create value is inextricably linked to their superior capabilities. They have infrastructure, sales teams and existing customers to target.

In the online space traditional media owners and directory publishers lost their edge to search giants such as Google and Yahoo and have been struggling to catch-up ever since. Mobile is a new game with new possibilities. It’s also a space where location linked content – and lots of it – combined with the capabilities to deliver this content when/where consumers need and appreciate it most can mean the difference between success and failure. These market conditions play in favour of traditional media players and directory publishers. Now it’s up to these companies to recognise their advantage and work with the right people/companies to evolve their businesses, embrace mobile and deliver what users demand.

THE TAKEAWAY

Context, relevance, critical mass and content quality are all key components to a successful and sustainable service in the local mobile space. Who will own this space? Hard to say. But don’t be too quick to write off the traditional media owners and directory publishers that lost the plot in online. They could make a collective and explosive comeback in mobile. Success will be achieved by the companies that see the opportunity, accelerate their efforts, focus on their core strengths and bring the people and partners on board who have mobile expertise.

Get this right and you’re more than fit for the fight ahead. 

Editor’s note: Martin’s next column will focus on how companies should evolve a digital strategy that harnesses mobile to complement existing digital services and thus generate more value. As he shows us: in digital, the outcome can be worth more than the sum of the parts.

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 digital 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 mass market mobile services across three continents. You can contact Martin directly (martin@indigo102.com) and follow on Twitter (@indigo102).

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)

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes.”
Marcel Proust

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.

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

The media industry has changed. The emergence of digital technologies has seen to that, more people are reached by media and more frequently than ever before. With more people engaging with media why do we continue to hear stories about the media companies struggling to make returns?

THE FOUNDATION HAS CHANGED. If you consider that the foundation of the media industry is historically linked to those that deliver the media content to you – the distributor, news store, the paper boy or girl, publisher and broadcaster – we can start to see why digital technologies have had such a dramatic impact on the traditional media industry.

The foundation is not the road the printed publication travelled, or the sheet of paper that the content is printed, neither is it the airwaves that carries a broadcast signal, it is not the content creator or the even the brand – it is the mechanism that actually delivers the content to eyes and ears.

Digital technologies have changed the landscape, although the principle of the foundation has not changed the players have. The foundation today is linked to organisation such as Google, Facebook, Youtube, Bebo, Skype and Twitter – they are now the mechanism that delivers content to eyes and ears. These players have been brought about by our every increasing appetite to consume and share news and information. The change has been rapid as digital technologies remove the barriers associated to the traditional media. The format, location, distance and time are no longer considerations, the transfer of content and information can be instantaneous and to anywhere in the world.

The issue with the foundation is it has never been hugely lucrative. Think of the newspaper girl or boy they get just a few pence for each paper delivered, the newspaper delivery firm even less per delivered unit. In the traditional world there was money associated with the delivery. For the new foundation this has largely changed there is no money associated to distribution. If you take the list of the new players Google is in the anomaly in that it is the only one that has and is making real money. The others all have fabulous values attached to their organisations but have failed to show any real way to make a return.

So how come Google was different? Basically they got lucky they were in the right place at the right time, they had the right product for the moment and their product was simple. Their first mover advantage gave them a commanding position as a foundation provider. Without them it was harder to access and consume media in the digital environment they became the primary distributor. Google became synonymous with searching on the internet. This commanding position meant that they were able to place a premium charge against the use of the foundation. In the old world they attached the equivalent of a toll charge to a main road or motorway, a placement of 3” border full of sponsorship around the edge of your favourite television programme.

It is unlikely that such a commanding position for other new foundation providers will be achieved as the digital media environment has become fragmented. Third parties have gained a position at the point of actual delivery to the consumer, Organisations like Tweetdeck now provide the interface to Twitter and Facebook,  the foundation role is weakened as consumers have choice and as such commercialisation becomes more challenging. Many of the prospective players will fail to deliver returns - they no longer have exclusive control of distribution and they don’t have the infrastructure, resources or experience.  

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 by Sebastian May, Artlab – University of Westminster)

Partnerships and Joint ventures have to be a way forward.

I previously wrote about how the market opportunity in the new media world will be realised by the those that have grown up around the digital environment – the indigenous – as they are the ones that are most likely to get it and understand how the business models can and will work. These will be individuals that understand the operations of traditional media but are not held back by the need to re-think the traditional business models and operating principles. The traditional media owners still have a very important role to play — they know how to deliver revenue.

The past few years has seen some great media concepts to come to the market, but realistically how many in their current form will be around in say five years. The last five years has given us the likes of Youtube, MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and now Twitter. All have had fabulous price tags attached, yet none have delivered any realistic value (revenue).

The poor commercial performance is not for lack of a great concept or even consumer engagement; all of the players have user numbers measured in millions. They have audience reach. The challenge has been to convert those great product concepts and massive audience reach to a commercial benefit. So far no one player has succeeded. Why is that?

For most it is a control thing. It has to be.

The new players are set on dominating their field and being able to dictate the pace of development. Today is not about control. If it was these services would already be delivering significant returns. A domination approach very rarely works. Businesses should cease to attempt to control entire products or value chains, they should instead become assemblers of the world’s best components. This will enable focus on core business skills and in turn deliver greater overall returns.

The new players have created a new backbone for media, they are shaping the way consumers engage, consume and share media. They have created the new media world.

Most of our traditional media owners have historically made significant revenues but are starting to struggle in the new media world. Most are simply not good at technology and find it challenging to build brand engagement. Consider a media owner like Yellow Pages their business is about conversion and retention of customers, or advertisers. They sell to, process and manage massive volumes of advertisers each year.

The traditional owners are very good at delivering revenue, distribution is their core challenge. The new players are great on distribution, poor on revenue. Surely strong grounds for partnership.

I just read this great article by Thom Kennon and thought it would be worthwhile to re-publish it on my blog to spread the word. This is an absolute must read for every marketer. It is a wake-up call for all those who still think that mobile marketing can be “the fifth wheel” of a marketing strategy or, worse still, that mobile marketing does not need to feature at all.

Making mobile the heart of multichannel marketing in next planning cycle

Thom Kennon is vice president of strategy at Wunderman

I bet you have become as weary as me when, each year, usually during the post-Thanksgiving prediction season, we start reading those pieces about “This year [coming year] is definitely the Year of Mobile.”

In the spirit of this tradition, we offer up a short pop quiz to help you calculate exactly when your own personal year of mobile was:

Diageo launches searchable night life, entertainment database and mobile on-demand service – NiteFly. Available to subscribers in select British cities, NiteFly lets opt-in punters stumble from clubs at closing hours, ping the service from their mobile phones and quickly find what’s next on the drinking and dining dance card for an after-hours lark.

OK – guess the year. 2009? 2007? Maybe back in the dark ages of 2003? Nope. It was pre-digital apocalypse – 2000. Although I do not know why they trusted me and us, I lead the digital marketing team that concocted it.

Case and point being, whether you are a brand or a marketer, at this point in the game it is highly recommended that you sort out your own personal year of mobile – and get on with it.

Chances are you have a similar story, perhaps even of similar vintage.

Even for those of us still awaiting some great, communal customer-led surge into the mobile channel (hint: stop that), there are, of course, things left to do, frontiers to brave, case studies to create, business to be won and customers to be captured.   Many, I would boldly suggest, through mobile.

We’re gonna need a new map
So, what is your plan?

Unless you are a dedicated mobile agency, provider or channel specialist, when you sit down to plan your – or your client’s – marketing campaign calendar, how often do you start with mobile?

I am suggesting we not simply move “mobile” to the front of the planning queue from its current position as the last box ticked. Perhaps you start each new planning cycle with a simple, must-answer question: “What’s mobile’s role in my all-channel plans and how will it be integrated?”

Here is an example. You are a credit card issuer who traditionally focused mostly on direct mail, digital display and search engine marketing when it came to hitting your acquisition numbers.

After a duck-and-cover year (for many of us), you are now ready to venture from the bunker and resume with the important work of getting new customers. What if you modified your planning process by asking yourself this, instead of where does mobile – maybe – fit within my digital strategy:
 
What’s the role of mobile within my overall marketing strategy? Heck, let us be specific. What’s the role of mobile within my above-the-line and advertising strategy?  What’s the role of mobile in my integrated search strategy? My out-of-home and print strategies? How about my retail, merchandising and customer/partner marketing programs and campaigns?

Pretty soon your card customer acquisition campaigns will all start including mobile as a primary call to action for your out-of-home ads. As a critical push/pull from Web with SMS links to register or buy. Even incentivized “txt to a friend” offers tapping mobile’s viral reach, ease and affect. Oh, of course, optimizing for mobile search visibility to capture mobile searchers for bank branches.    

See where I am heading? You need a new map to get you there. A map that lets you see where, how, and when mobile fits everywhere into the plan. A map which, perhaps, presumes that mobile’s role is not at the end or even at the beginning of your all-up campaign channel and media planning process. It is at the heart.

New model planning
As we all emerge from the same bunker as our credit card brand colleague above, whether we are marketing soda, mobile phones, insurance, hamburgers, or luxury autos it is not too far of a stretch to suggest that “digital” – in all its components and expressions – can, should, must now live at the heart of our fully integrated marketeering strategy.

And, at the heart of our digital channel and media strategy, we boldly place mobile.  Call it an exercise, call it a lark. 

Call it a new way of thinking inside-out, about how we plan, implement and optimize our all-channel/all-media marketing. Call it a new planning model that better fits with the brave new world we inhabit as we improvise, invent and innovate our way towards wringing the maximum efficiency from all our marketing spend.

As presumptuous and vain as it might seem, things might start to look something like this …

What do we do now
OK, OK, I know this is a lot to suggest in one sitting. Toss a little water in your face, walk around a little, take a break. OK, we ready? Let us continue.

As we shift our above-the-line budgets from channels and media focused on impressions and clicks to more organic and responsive messaging to ignite discovery and sharing, I am suggesting that digital has every right to sit at the center of our planning process and models. And there is mobile, in the center of the plan model.

If you need a really persuasive reason for the board or your boss or you client, try this: When it comes to all-channel marketing nothing has changed the digital marketer’s playbook more than the emergence, adoption and increasing affordability of the mobile Web since search changed everything the last time.

To put this in an historic frame, before that, arguably, it was the birth of data-driven direct mail. Before that, and I know you beat me there – television.

The mobile Web. It is that big. What this means for marketers – especially for those amongst us who have yet to experience their own personal year of mobile – is this: you have no excuse for staying on the side lines.

Assuming you have been busy over the past decade getting really good at digital content strategy, search optimization, online CRM, ecommerce and response analytics you will be fine. Your mobile strategy and your digital strategy just became one and the same thing.
 
Pockets are everywhere and so are purses, briefcases and those weird holster things – and most of them have mobile devices in them. The simple fact is that there will soon be more than 1 billion Web-enabled mobile devices in global circulation and every one of them is attached to a potential customer of yours or mine.

So, as you plan for next year and beyond and chart the media, channel and touch point mix that will deliver your most efficient return on reaching specific business and marketing targets such as sales, downloads, visits, usage, referrals, repeats, renewals, average basket size, in-store traffic and bottom-line results, ask yourself: how many of those could use mobile as an essential touch point or consumption point in the mix?

Chances are, there’s not a campaign you could think of in 2010 and beyond – above the line, below the line and through the line – that could not be boosted, anchored, amplified or even saved by asking mobile to do its job. Mobile is at the heart of your new marketing model. 

Happy personal year of mobile – to repeat and first-time callers alike.

Thom Kennon is vice president of strategy at relationship marketing agency Wunderman New York. Reach him at thom.kennon@wunderman.com

Touch Local have acquired from ITV 100% of the share capital of Enable media who operate Scoot and AskAlix in the UK. Established in 2004, TouchLocal is backed by Balderton Capital, the leading Venture Capital Firm.

 The key benefits of this acquisition are as follows:

 1. A combined paying customer base in excess of 25,000 local business advertisers on  annual subscriptions and growing at 8% per month.

 2. More than 2 million UK businesses listed, 500,000 of whom have activated their profiles.

 3.Over 3.5m uniques and 6m searches per month. Generating over 8m calls to SME’s per year.

 4. A field and telesales team in excess of 130 people and a really established platform for further aggressive growth.

 5. A forward combined revenue run rate in excess of $32m and EBITDA in excess of $7.5m.

 6.  A significant move forward in annual renewals rates that can exceed 80%.

 7. Strengthening of distribution strategy that will enable more exclusive partners to be added this year in addition to our local search partnership with AOL.

http://www.touchlocal.com/

A truely clever integration of traditional print marketing and digital marketing. Ok not everyones cup of tea but used to great effect in this execution.

To launch a new deodorant in Uruguay, the Lowe Ginkgo agency in Montevideo have combined traditional print media with mobile. So how does it work?

You open up a magazine, browse as normal, flickering through the ads as you do until you come across a picture of a quite simply gorgeous blonde with blank white spaces.

You frustratingly look around the ad for an explanation and read: To complete this ad send AXE to 2345 after 9 pm.

The moment the text is received, an MMS is sent to your mobile with the rest of the ad. Placed over the page, which of course you would do, suddenly makes the ad complete.

As reported by The Next web.com

Yell Group (LSE: YELL.L – news) , the company behind the Yellow Pages directories, will launch an equity offering in a bid to raise at least £500m to pay down debt.

The group, which is currently struggling under a £3.8bn debt burden, aims to take that down to £3.3bn with the equity raising, before paying off a further £300m, either with any extra proceeds of the initial offering or by other means.

• Proposals are today being presented to the wider lending syndicate including:
• • Extension of debt maturities to 2014;
  • New covenant package giving appropriate headroom to the company’s updated base case financial model;
  • Ability to diversify the Group’s funding sources through issuance of bonds or similar instruments; and
  • A new margin of between 3.5% and 4.0% over LIBOR payable to consenting lenders, depending on quantum of equity raised and future leverage levels and a consent fee of 1.25% payable to consenting lenders
• Intention to launch an equity offering to raise gross proceeds of at least £500 million to repay debt and strengthen the Group’s capital structure.
• Intention to reduce senior term debt by a further £300 million within 18 months, by way of a receivables securitisation, high yield bond, larger initial equity issue, or other means.
• Agreement from the Group’s existing lenders is required before the proposed equity offering can proceed. Subject to this, the equity offering will be formally launched as soon as practicable and shareholder approval will be sought.
• The above proposals have received indications of support from a significant proportion of the Group’s largest lenders. 
• Current trading in line with guidance, with continuing strong cash flows and high cash conversion.

On 30 June 2009, Yell Group plc (‘Yell’ or the ‘Group’) announced that it had embarked upon a process comprehensively to refinance the Group and that this would lead to the Group holding discussions with its debt holders with a view to extending the maturity and changing the terms of its debt facilities and in due course, to discussions with its principal shareholders. These discussions and the resulting process were expected to take through to the Autumn to complete.

Since June, Yell has held discussions with a significant proportion of its largest lenders. The outline proposals announced today are the result of these discussions and will shortly be presented in detail to the full syndicate of the Group’s lenders. The process is consensual and the equity raising and debt proposals are inter-dependent. Subject to approval of the proposals by lenders representing 95% by value of Yell’s current term debt facilities, the equity offering will be launched as soon as practicable thereafter and a general meeting of shareholders called.

John Condron, Chief Executive Officer of Yell, said: ‘We have made good and constructive progress in a consensual process comprehensively to refinance the Group. It reflects the recognition of the robust and cash generative nature of Yell’s business model, which continues to show resilience relative to other media despite the current economic challenges. The process still has some way to go, but we believe the proposals developed as a result of our discussions with our principal lenders will deliver value to all parties, will support our Group through the current difficult economic times and ensure we are well positioned to benefit from any economic recovery.’

John Davis, Chief Financial Officer said: ‘Yell is trading in line with the guidance that we provided at the end of June, with particularly strong cash flows and high cash conversion but the economic environment remains challenging. The proposals we are outlining today would achieve an immediate reduction in net debt allowing the Group to deleverage more rapidly and to diversify its funding sources. We believe it represents a positive, credit-enhancing outcome for our lenders and increases the attractiveness of the Group to existing and prospective equity investors.’

Group financial outlook

Yell confirms its second quarter trading is in line with guidance given on 30 June 2009 and reiterated on 23 July 2009, when it indicated it expected revenues for the second quarter to be around 17% lower and EBITDA in the same period to be around 30% lower than the comparable period last year at constant exchange rates.

Trading conditions continue to be challenging and Yell believes it is too early to tell if confidence has returned to its core target customer base. As a consequence, Yell does not currently anticipate any significant improvement in the rate of year on year revenue decline for the remainder of the fiscal year. Its current expectation for the third quarter is for revenue to be around 16% lower than the same period last year at constant exchange rates.