The importance of being accessible.
In the previous po
st we touched the subject of how complexity and inaccessibility for ordinary people impede progress of mobile advertising.
If something is simple and catchy like top 50 chart song, it is bound for mass success.If there is one company who knows that, it is Google. They made it simple with AdWords and now they open up new lands called mobile industry. Doing it Bill Gates style, they acquired mobile ad network, AdMob, and now they are pushing the open mobile platform Android to set the global dominance and conquer the whole galaxy.
They made Android bearing in mind that time, money and simplicity are the key factors which attract developers. In 2007 the Android release statement said: “Through Android, developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers will be better positioned to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost. The Android platform will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products.” In the first quarter of 2010 Android OS based phones ranked second among smartphone OS handsets sold in the U.S. It took Google just three years to take Android where it is now.
Android App Inventor which was released recently is a natural step for Google to attain a wider audience. Now not only a developer but any person with an Android phone can create apps using simple drag and drop blocks of code. No skills are required apart from knowing how to press buttons on a phone. Of course the end result is simple programs; you can’t make Office 2011 by putting two graphic blocks together, but still it can attract more consumers and it is something that can help Google in the war against Apple.
Now, Eyeline is following the same trend of simplicity and has something unique to offer for people who want to make money in mobile industry. Now virtually everybody with some knowledge of HTML can make their own mobile service. Granted, it is not as simple as Android App Inventor but it is something developers can use to create service of any complexity using our API. Here is the most important part of the offer: Eyeline Mobilizer (SADS) allows you to fully focus on creating and implementing ideas of your service, avoiding the need to go to operators and solve paper issues. Service can be accessed by USSD, WAP and Java.
Keep it simple, learn more about it here. And then contact us at info@eyeline.mobi.
[photo: flickr/laihiu]
Why mobile advertising hasn’t really boomed yet?
Well, the time goes by and the promising prodigy which mobile advertising is, is still not living up to its potential. Researches continue to release reports forecasting annual growth and saying that next year it will finally hit the jackpot. The problem is, we had the same reports five years ago. The fact that 60% of world’s population have mobile phones and still many companies are hesitating to get into this advertising field may raise the question of whether they are living under a rock or not. They are not, in fact.
Blogosphere now discusses that the only way to improve mobile advertising is to concentrate on the soft ways of delivering ads, bearing in mind consumer privacy. Of course, the very nature of mobile phone as something private should not be forgotten or privacy violations may put this industry to end before it even sets off in a proper way. Of course you need to think of scenario where a potential customer gets engaged, becomes interactively involved and receive relevant information. Of course all these things are essential for making successful mobile ad campaign.
These conditions for mobile advertising to finally thrive have been repeated for quite some time, and by now we would’ve seen some improvement which manifests itself in numbers of companies who successfully used mobile for advertising. Sure, they are and were companies who benefited from it. Strangely it is always mega companies like Coca-Cola or Adidas. Here is the list of top mobile marketing campaigns from 2006. As you can see, again, it were big names like Nike, American Express and NBC. Also, as written in that post they used these key success factors:
- Relevant to the consumer
- Welcome invitation to participate
- Entertaining
- Drives a specific action
- Integrated where appropriate
- Connects what was previously disconnected
- Simplicity
That was four years ago, but still in 2010 these factors are presented as something that companies “don’t get” in order for mobile marketing to blossom. Maybe there is something else?
Look at Google Ads. In the first quarter of 2010 Google earned 30% of its revenue with this service. Every person, every company, no matter how small it is, using it, can start advertising in the matter of minutes. It is highly accessible.
To start advertising on mobile phones you have to go to mobile operators. A startup of a mobile campaign requires much effort and expenses. You can’t spend five bucks and test it for a while to see how it works, like you do it at Google Ads. For small and middle sized business it is much easier to go for paper, radio or TV advertising. So, maybe in order for mobile advertising to breakthrough it has to be available to a wider audience? Maybe that’s the reason it makes uncertain steps every year?
Web 2.0. Where we are at, in terms of marketing.
The Web 2.0 phenomena came about around ten years ago and now it represents the Internet as we all know it: Youtube, blogs, social-networking sites, wikipedia, peer-to-peer networks and so on. People completely embraced the idea of being participants in this collaborative effort, which might be the biggest one since building the Tower of Babel.
It produced a great layout for doing marketing and business. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have several millions users. On top of that, we have services like Flickr and Youtube, where all content is user generated and shared with real enthusiasm.
The era of Web 2.0 marked the global prevalence of the Internet. To the point where virtually everybody is involved. From a 10-year-old to a 99-year-old. To some, its refreshing to know that their grandmother has her own Myspace account and is proficient with google and surfing the net. Marketers, on the other hand, find it more and more difficult to address message to their potential clients.
Indeed, with such a mixed audience it often happens that a teenager gets a Mercedes-Benz ad, while an executive is recommended to buy a designer handbag. No surprise that social networks continue to see low returns on ads. Moreover, they are now experiencing privacy issues for sharing members’ information with third-party companies. The very same companies that are eager to sell Mercedes’ and handbags.
So, the next question will be – were do we go from here? The right answer is – make personalization more personal and intelligent.
Everybody in the world owns a mobile phone. It is something that nobody leaves home without. Yet, the strange fact is – only about 6% of companies use mobile marketing.
Mobile advertising pushes personalization a little bit further and allows you to deliver much more targeted advertisements. However, it shouldn’t be considered just another method of delivering spam. The exciting thing about it is that it serves as a convergence point for traditional media and provides a channel for measuring the effectiveness of the whole marketing campaign.
How mobile marketing can help you to earn more money?
Scenario:
1. Traditional media advertisements (TV, radio, billboards, magazines) include a customer service number so that if the reader is interested in the offer, he/she can dial the number to receive information about the product or get a discount.
2.The interested customer can now subscribe to your new offer or news. This is an important point as he or she is doing so voluntarily, and it opens a marketing channel with customers, thus avoiding any legal issues.
3.Users are now engaged, and you start to collect data about them to deliver targeted ads. Not only their preferences can be recorded, but also their geographical position.
4.On top of that, it gives you the opportunity to measure the efficiency of your advertisement in traditional media, as now you can see how people react to it.
More and more companies are looking to jump on the mobile marketing bandwagon. Studies show that 56% of companies plan to increase budgets for mobile marketing in 2010. Hopefully 2011 will be the year when mobile marketing will really blossom.
Mobilizing business. Eyeline’s approach.
Mobile technology has made a considerable impact on our lives, both positively and negatively. Some may argue that such advancements have resulted in more negativity, while other factions may disagree. As far as we are concerned however, we should consider how best to exploit this new technology which, whether we like it or not, is here to stay.
Everybody and their mom have a mobile phone. Technology has grown by leaps and bounds and nowadays we have cell phones the size of a match box, albeit slimmer, which has the functionality of a massive desktop PC. You can see people checking the news while queuing up, spamming on forums while commuting on public transport, all in all enjoying the convenience of new mobile technology.
Now, if you were to look a little deeper, you will realize that all these millions of mobile phone users are potential clients. That’s a huge market to have access to.
Perhaps, you already want to create a mobile service or give people the opportunity to access your existing business via their mobile phone? The intriguing part is that this doesn’t require much effort at all.
If you have a website there are several ways to do it:
- Web site mobilizer. We have covered this topic in detail here. In short, a program of this type creates a mobile version of your website in seconds, but the end result is not always perfect.
- Mobile site builder. Allows making a mobile web site from scratch using pre-defined blocks.
- Plugins for WordPress based web sites. Creates a mobile version of the WordPress web page.
If you want an SMS service, then aggregators is the way to go. Basically, they organize the connection with operators around the world. Aggregators provide connectivity with cell phone carriers and the SMS gateway so you can send and receive messages and various content like ringtones, etc. Using it can be expensive and that’s only just one of its many drawbacks. Read more on aggregators here.
For those of you who want to simplify the development of services, something to consider would be Eyeline’s SADS.
By developing on SADS (Service Adaptation & Delivery System) your service can be accessed by USSD, WAP and JAVA. You can get a short Call2Service number that users need to dial to enter the service.
There are three ways to develop a service on SADS:
- If a service is static and no changes are required regularly (like, for example, a discount which users get when they dial a service number), then the best way is to create an xml file. It’s no harder than making an html page, so any person who has basic knowledge of html can do it. Only one file and voila, you have the global service. The next step would be to promote the number.
- Services such as weather and horoscopes, where the information has to be changed daily, can be executed by SADS plugin for WordPress. In this case, you must have someone to type and enter all the information manually. No special knowledge is required, apart from knowing how to press buttons.
- The final method, allows for creating services of any complexity. We provide the API and you can literally program anything you want.
In future posts we will continue to observe Eyeline’s SADS. If you are interested, please contact us at info@eyeline.mobi.
Mobile services creation. How to mobilize your content. Using Mobilizers & Mobile site constructors.
In these series of posts, we will explore the creation of mobile services and the problems that surround this process. There are several ways to do it, but in this post we’ll look at website mobilizes – and the easiest way to get your website to mobile Internet ASAP.
One of the most popular tools for it is – Instant Mobilizer (IM) by dotMobi.
This in fact, is a transcoder. IM takes existing web sites and automatically converts it to a mobile-friendly format without you having to go through the hassle of programming and content management. It re-flows web pages to a single vertical column by resizing images and changing site navigation. The service is free, if you purchase one of the .mobi domains from several hosting companies.
Although this may sound good on paper, in reality, the end result is not so. The reason for it is, when we create a web site, things like coding standards are often not one of our first priorities. Instead we tend to give more preference to the look and feel of a web page. So, what happens is that when you insert your web page to IM, you may end up with a complete mishmash.
There is a list on IM website that says the following features may not appear correctly:
- Image maps
- Flash objects
- Frames
- Certain forms depended on JavaScript
- JavaScript pop-ups and mouseover behaviors
- Tables used for layout purposes
Click this link for more information: http://instantmobilizer.com/test-your-site.php.
If you own a small business and have a relatively simple website, then by all means, do give it a go. But do bear in mind that it can only serve as a provider of information about your business: phone number, address, maps and driving directions. If your web site is e-commerce based and you think that IM can convert the payment system of your web page…think again, because it can’t.
Anyway, something to remember would be, who is the target audience of this service? If you don’t have time or don’t want to spend money on creating a mobile web site, you can use IM to quickly convert your webpage and check whether there is any interest in the mobile version of it. If there is a decent amount of visitors and the traffic is satisfactory, then maybe it can encourage you to create a mobile site from scratch. But if you are thinking on a larger scale and plan to make money from mobile Internet, then Instant Mobilizer is not the right choice for you.
There is also a number of web tools such as moFuse, Zinadoo and Movylo that allows you to make a simple mobile site using templates and a WYSIWYG editor.
It only takes a few minutes to make a simple but visually pleasing mobile page. However, using such constructors does have its flip side; you are limited by a number of pre-defined templates. Mobile sites created with these services can serve as an information provider for small and medium businesses or be a news and weather platform. But as in the case of IM, if you want to sell content or products then you have to look elsewhere. Although, moFuse did recently add the Google Checkout function to their suit. So if this type of money transactions suits you, do give it a go.
Keep an eye open for the updated tools mentioned in this article, as developers often add new functionality and useful features.
The Great iPad fever. Early diagnosis.
Yes. The new Apple device is announced and gadget freaks are smashing their heads against the wall. “No multitasking, no cameras, no flash, no this, no that” – these are the main symptoms on the Internet blogs right now. Some, though, are quite immune to the illness and draw sober conclusions about why iPad is cool.
So, why on Earth Apple would make such useless device (according to geeks) which costs at least half a grand? What is the audience for it? As always, Apple thinks different. And with iPad, they are probably thinking of your mom, dad, kids and maybe even your grandma and grandpa.
When it comes to user experience, seems like iPad is the best thing ever created, to get people with no knowledge about computers to the digital world. Browsing web, watching movies, emails, photos – all common tasks are executed in this device with ease and elegance. Your mom is likely to appreciate the slick and showy look of it. Using fingers to manipulate certainly adds to the appeal, as it significantly improves user experience. It is almost like in a Sci-Fi movie, i.e. cool as hell.
These people don’t need multitasking. They don’t need to read The New York Times and watch Youtube simultaneously, while looking through photos. They want just casually do one thing at a time, like reading a newspaper in the kitchen, or watching movie while on a train. And all that is without the complications of PCs.
Let’s leave aside comparison to Kindle – reading books is just one of the functions that iPad have, and it is not the main one. Though Apple is exploring the new market with iBooks, it is likely to succeed with it. iPad have this aesthetic appeal, as all the products that Apple designs. Ignoring technical characteristics, imagine, what your girlfriend would like more as a present, a bland Kindle or a trendy piece of glass with a lovely apple on the backside? And still, if she doesn’t want to read books she can enjoy other functions, which Kindle doesn’t have. And the price is not that different – but iPad is not only a book reader.
As always, Apple fans will be buying it, just because it is Apple. It may also be the first introduction to Mac OS for Windows users. They may finally follow the hype, as 499$ is not that much. And many people will buy it as addition to their home PCs and notebooks.
There is also this niche, people new to computers, which can be quite considerable. Creating services for them, one should follow the prime example – the iPad itself. Simplicity. The NY Times demonstrated the new app for reading their web site at the iPad presentation that perfectly represents this philosophy. Even inexperienced users can learn how to use it in two minutes. Easy and useful web sites and apps are likely to have big success with this market.
Bashing every new Apple device seems like a nice tradition. We, however, think that Stevie will again make loads of cash, and very much deserved, as iPad is truly an innovative gadget. Just wait and see.
How to Create a Mobile Service?
What is a Mobile Service?
I would define it as a service accessible from mobile phone. One particular case is a service on WAP. However, one shall keep in mind SMS and USSD as communication channels.
Why Create a Mobile Service?
1. For revenue
2. To improve the loyalty of clients (as an extension of marcom – marketing communications – to mobile)
3. As a channel to promote your own products and services
4. Self-expression and fun
We will be concentrating, obviously, on motivations 1-3. The last case is not that interesting for us from the commercial standpoint (at least for now).
What is Needed to Create a Mobile Service
1. It is necessary to create a service as a WAP site, or as a USSD menu, or as an SMS scenario, or as a combination thereof.
2. It is necessary to fill the service with content.
3. It is necessary to acquire entry points to the service, such as a DNS server (for example in .MOBI zone), a number for SMS messages (an SMS short code), a Call2Service number.
4. The service should be hosted somewhere (and probably not on your home computer!). It would be nice to have it hosted more or less reliably.
5. When using SMS and USSD scenarios, it is necessary to connect to mobile operators or aggregators.
6. It is necessary to decide how money will be made. If the business model assumes that subscribers will be paying right from their mobile phones, a system accepting payments from mobile phones needs to be developed.
7. If the business model assumes advertising revenues, it would be good to partner with advertising aggregators like AdMob or Google, otherwise you will need to look for advertisers yourself, sell advertising space, and have your own system for insertion of advertisement.
8. When the service is up and running, and payments can be accepted, and advertising is displayed – there is only one “small” thing left – traffic! How to attract users?
9. Your own efforts – you can use your own web site and other media channels to convert and propel users into the mobile world.
10. Another option – advertising through others. Let’s call it a task of promotion.
11. Once the user has visited the service (meaning we had already promoted it) we are facing a task to support communication through the mobile channel. It can be most effectively done through SMS in GSM/UMTS networks (mobile email for Japanese users).
12. When the service is going good, we need to analyze how it works. It means analyzing how do all of the parts work, meaning not only the WAP part, but also the SMS and USSD parts. Therefore, we need a module which gathers information on all delivery channels and analyzes the data. The familiar Google Analytics, which is a de facto standard for Web services, does not work here in part because it cannot collect information on SMS and USSD services.
Mobile Wallets
Mobile Payments, Including the Use of USSD, Are (Somewhat) Explained Here:
Mobile Money Transfer Explained, Part 2: Mobile Wallets
February 2008
LONDON, UK — Mobile money transfer is the hottest topic in mobile payments now. Pilot programmes and commercial launches are being announced seemingly on a daily basis. But how do you make MMT work for your organisation? One of the first things you’ll need is a mobile wallet…
In the course of researching MMT 08 – the world’s first independent MMT conference – Steven Clarke, Event Director and Chief Payments Researcher for the Clarion Events Payments Division spoke to hundreds of MMT innovators, and is pleased to share his research in a series of papers. In this edition, we spoke to the leading mWallet vendors. Read more
Future Phones… Beware of Morph!
Created by Grant Borodin
Moses, 10 Commandments, and USSD
Created by Grant Borodin
