Mobile Marketing Issue 8 - December 2011

December 2011

News | Views | Analysis

Velti Calling CEO ALEX MOUKAS REVEALS ALL ABOUT THE FIRM’S FUTURE PLANS

GIFT WRAPPED

WE PUT THREE FESTIVE APPS THROUGH THEIR PACES

MAD FOR APPS

OUR EXCLUSIVE RESEARCH REVEALS INDIANS’ APPETITE FOR APPS

JUST POPPING TO THE POP-UP SHOP

Awards special – the low-down on all the winnersr

Jo in Re us a 26 tail t th J S e LO AN um Mo ND 20 m bi ON 12 it le

EBAY HITS THE HIGH STREET

TASTING CAPACITY

50 ML

Awards Special 3 November 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

contents

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elcome to our latest print edition. In this issue, we celebrate the very best that mobile marketing has to offer, as we profile the winning campaigns and platforms in the 2011 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards. Those of you who were with us at the Awards Ceremony in London in November will remember what a fantastic evening it was.

For everyone else, our 12-page Awards Special starting on p.12 will hopefully give you some idea of what an incredibly high standard of entries we attracted this year. We can’t wait to see what next year’s program brings.

Also in this issue, on p.6, we take an exclusive look at eBay’s pop-up shop, which the online giant opened up on London’s Dean Street for five days in early December. Could eBay, Amazon et al one day have a permanent presence on the High Street? Who knows, but in the meantime, eBay’s quasi-virtual store offers an interesting insight into the multichannel approach that most retailers are now adopting.

Russell Buckley, a mentor on the UK Springboard Accelerator, has written a piece for us explaining how the program helps nurture start-ups, creating the mobile marketing stars of the future. Catch that on p.30. And in her regular missive, on p.42, Helen Keegan looks at the current state of play for mCommerce.

You want more? How about exclusive research carried out by Mobile Marketing into the app usage of consumers in the UK, US and India. You’ll find the results on p.36, and we guarantee they are not what you would have expected.

In our cover interview on p.26, we talk to Alex Moukas, CEO of Velti, fresh from its acquisition of Mobile Interactive Group. Moukas tells us about the company’s global reach, and about Velti’s efforts to drive the mobile marketing business forward.

Finally, we have a catch-up on our own latest activities, including the Mobile Retail Summit, set for 26 January 2012 in London; the Mobile Masterclass series, taking place in the UK, US and Germany in 2012; and the Mobile Training Academy, helping all businesses to go mobile successfully.

As ever, enjoy the issue, and stay tuned to the website for all the news every day.

David Murphy Editor

Cover story

The real world

26 End-to-end Game

6 Let’s get physical

Velti CEO Alex Moukas talks to David Murphy about the company’s recent acquisitions and future plans

Alex Spencer takes a trip down the High Street to eBay’s pop-up shop

Thought leadership 5

Fast forward to the future Mobext MD Chris Bourke looks at the year ahead in mobile marketing

29 Dev zone Mubaloo MD Mark Mason turns the spotlight on apps in the enterprise

42 Off-deck Helen Keegan offers a mid-term report on the current state of the mCommerce market

Technology 40 Mobile ad network directory Your essential guide to mobile advertising networks

Business models 10 Join us at the Mobile

Retail Summit The latest news on our free event for the retail community, which takes place in London on 26 January

35 Winning Formula Big Time Arabia general manager Roland Beckmann-Kunz tells David Murphy about the company’s move into the Middle East December 2011

News | Views | Analysis

Velti Calling CEO ALEX MOUKAS REVEALS ALL ABOUT THE FIRM’S FUTURE PLANS

giFt WRaPPeD

WE PUT THREE FESTIVE APPS THROUGH THEIR PACES

MaD FOR aPPS

OUR EXCLUSIVE RESEARCH REVEALS INDIANS’ APPETITE FOR APPS

JUSt POPPing tO tHe POP-UP SHOP

EBAY HITS THE HIGH STREET

Awards special – the low-down on all the winnersr

Jo in Re us at 26 tail th JA Su e LO N m Mob NDO 20 m ile 12 it N

W

36 Digital snapshot We reveal the results of primary research into app usage in the US, UK and India

Best practice 12 Mobile Masterclass Full calendar details of our 19 Mobile Masterclass events for 2012 in the UK, US and Germany

13 Celebrating Excellence We profile the winning campaigns and platforms in this year’s Effective Mobile Marketing Awards

30 Springboard to success Russell Buckley takes a closer look at the Springboard Accelerator program, designed to nurture UK start-ups

33 Make it mobile If you’re one of the brands committed to making 2012 the year you truly embrace mobile, our Mobile Training Academy can help you make it happen

38 Application Showcase We put three festive mobile applications to the test

Subscribe today and guarantee your copy If you want to be sure of receiving your copy of the print edition of Mobile Marketing four times a year, you can subscribe today to go on our controlled circulation list. It costs just £30 (UK); or £40 (rest of the world). To take out a subscription, just send an email to: subscriptions@mobilemarketingmagazine. com and we’ll respond telling you what you need to do.

Editor: David Murphy - david.murphy@mobilemarketingmagazine.com +44 (0) 7976 927062 Commercial Director: John Owen - john.owen@mobilemarketingmagazine.com +44 (0) 7769 674824 Business Development Manager: Richard Partridge - richard.partridge@mobilemarketingmagazine.com Business Development Executive: Celeste Marie - celeste.marie@mobilemarketingmagazine.com +44 (0) 203 008 5376 Staff Writer: Alex Spencer - alex.spencer@mobilemarketingmagazine.com +44 (0) 203 008 5376 Contributors: George Cole, Helen Keegan, Russell Buckley Design and Production: Alistair Gillan, AQ2 Mobile - info@aq2.info Print: Advent Print Group info@advent-colour.co.uk Special thanks this issue to: Jo Murphy, Rowan Chambers, Alistair Gillan For a paid subscription please email: subscriptions@mobilemarketingmagazine.com One Year Subscription Rates – UK: £30.00; ROW: £40.00 Mobile Marketing is published by Dot Media Ltd., 81 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3AY www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

December 2011

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thought leadership

5

F AST FORWARD TO THE FUTURE Mobext managing director, Chris Bourke, polishes his crystal ball and looks ahead to 2012

I

t is always a privilege to be asked to make Mobile industry predictions, and against the backdrop of such an epochal year, for which the ancient Mayans predicted a transformative event, it is impossible not to draw parallels. The locus of Mobile is shifting, pulled by the immense gravity of its colossal cousins, offline and online. This presents challenges and opportunities for those responsible for mobile strategy, and I’ll do my best to be prescient, but in the words of Niels Bohr, prediction is difficult - especially about the future.

mCommerce will grow faster than any public predictions If the mobile rollercoaster has taught me anything over the last 10 years, it is that that the time-frame of the industry obeys relativistic principles; an mCommerce wormhole exists that will accelerate its growth beyond all expectations. Double any growth statistics you hear.

Mobile search and display spend will follow and eat into online budgets As mCommerce growth outstrips all of our best predictions, advertising budget will follow. It will scale, and mobile media will generate better ROI than online. Brands will transfer budget accordingly.

The beginning of the end for ‘mobile’…

“By nature man hates change; seldom will he quit his old home ‘till it has actually fallen around his ears.” Thomas Carlyle Expect to hear the adjective ‘mobile’ far less frequently in 2012. It will start with consumers referencing the web more as a single entity, independent of device. Mobile will be replaced with a new vernacular that will include connected devices and consumer context. …but the start of genuine integration with other channels Few mobile campaigns will generate returns if the medium is used in isolation; those supported by offline and online will see benchmark-beating ROI. Media synergy, frequency effects and cross-platform amplification will work together to drive more engagement and sales in 2012.

Mobile rich ads will become self contained satellite sites Mobile is the nursery for the young star that is HTML5, and we can expect the capabilities of this technology to become more evident in 2012, as developers squeeze it for its potential. Expect to see self-contained, rich-transactional ads; it’s an inevitable trend, as display clickthrough rates fall across mobile, and consumers gravitate to the lowest friction transaction point.

The first contextual ads launch Combining consumer location data with web page journey-tracking allows brands to develop contextual profiles for consumers. Ads will be served, not only at the right place, but at the right time, and in the best browsingbehaviour situation.

Mobile earns its spurs in the sales funnel Before brands invest in mobile, they first want to know how to attribute value to its role in the customer’s new multiple-device journey to sale. Is mobile

an inert link or a crucial bridge, assisting the research phase? Expect this seemingly insoluble problem to be resolved in 2012, pouring thousands of gallons of fuel on an already raging mCommerce inferno.

Tablets will grow faster than any public predictions Expect a Tablet shipping purple patch - that no infographic will be capable of displaying - to hit on Christmas Day this year. Brands will wake up and realize that linear, interruptive Tablet advertising – the kind that mimics magazine advertising models – can be so much more.

Dual-screen goes mainstream Driven by the commercial interests of broadcasters, and Tablet startups offering packaged dual-screen media deals, dual-screening will capture the imagination of the mainstream public by the end of 2012. For example, a consumer watching the X Factor on TV while also using the X Factor app could be targeted with an ad tied to what’s happening on screen, perhaps encouraging the viewer to vote for one of the contestants.

Get ready for an mCommerce boom in 2012

The Social Mobile juggernaut shifts into high gear Social is much more than just Facebook, and progressive brands, such as Subway, see the potential.

Expect to see many more brands recognize that mobile can, with permission, map consumer’s physical paths, and that this data can be incorporated into their social graph for mutual brand/consumer benefit.

What about real-time bidding, NFC, voice control and mobile coupons I hear you ask? All outside the 2012 Mobile Marketing park in my opinion, but will likely warrant a place in the 2013 list. In the meantime, I’ll put a hat and salt & pepper shakers to one side in the event that any of these predictions fail to materialize.

December 2011

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the real world

Let’s Get Physical Just in time for the Christmas shopping season, eBay made its first foray into bricks and mortar with a pop-up shop in London. Alex Spencer found it an interesting, if imperfect, glimpse into the future of retail

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

December 2011

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Scanning an item with the eBay app’s barcode scanner functionality takes the shopper to the product page on the mobile site, where it can be bought as normal

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the real world

“I THINK WITHIN A FEW YEARS WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A CASHLESS SOCIETY. THIS IS JUST THE START OF EXPERIMENTING WITH HOW SHOPPERS CAN USE THEIR SMARTPHONES” SUZI PERRY: The Gadget Show

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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A

s more and more retailers realise that multichannel is the name of the game, and that in addition to their bricks and mortar stores and their website, they need a mobile site and possibly a Facebook store too, so the pureplay online retailers are starting to investigate the appeal of having a presence on the High Street.

And so it was that on 1 December 2011, eBay opened what it called a ‘Christmas Boutique’ in London’s Dean Street.

Complete with hundreds of products, each marked with a QR code, the pop-up store was open for a mere five days, from 1-5 December. Sensing this was too intriguing a prospect to miss, we went down to the store to take a closer look at in-store smartphone shopping in action.

The store contained around 200 items, split into three themed rooms, For Him, For Her and the family - friendly Christmas Grotto. Each of these presented “a curated selection of gifts that we’re hoping might provide a little inspiration for the person who’s got everything”, according to eBay’s head of consumer PR strategy and planning, Julia Hutton-Potts.

Each item acted as a gateway for shoppers. Scanning the attached QR code tag on their smartphone took customers to the relevant page on eBay’s mobile site. Depending on the item, this could be either for that individual product or a relevant shopfront selection. Customers could then buy directly from eBay and have their choice delivered to their home. For those shoppers without a smartphone, HTC tablets were provided in store.

Big numbers The Christmas Boutique’s brief opening period bookended ‘Super Sunday’ on 4 December, eBay’s busiest shopping day, during which it was expecting 5.8m people to log onto its site. At the peak of Super Sunday, 30 gifts are bought every second on eBay, and three of those are bought via smartphones. Big numbers.

Clearly, it’s a good time for mCommerce.

“Globally, an item is purchased every second using the eBay mobile app. And in the UK, eBay is now seeing mobile account for more than 10 per cent of all its purchases, with triple digit growth year on year,” Hutton-Potts noted. “We envisage this Christmas will be the first for serious

mobile shopping - there’s an item purchased with a smartphone every second, and 5bn purchases will have been made by the end of the year, globally - and we want to keep eBay at the forefront.”

Intriguing mix The Christmas Boutique offered an intriguing mix of online and offline shopping, made possibly by the always-connected nature of the modern mobile phone, and the ability of QR codes and other ‘marker’ technologies to link the offline and online worlds. According to Miriam LaHage, eBay’s VP of fashion: “We want to expand people’s view to show that shopping online can be inspirational, especially with sites

The eBay Christmas boutique combined the worlds of online and offline shopping

that use editorialised content.” As an attempt to bring the experience of in-store browsing to a browser, this recalls the Amazon ethos of targeting consumers with a personalised selection of products. (As some readers may recall, Amazon itself was rumoured to be looking at the idea of a physical store a couple of years ago, rumours which it denied.)

Among the shoppers browsing the goods in eBay’s pop-up was Suzi Perry, presenter of The Gadget Show. “Our shopping habits are changing”, she told us. “I love to shop online, but I like to see what I’m buying, so I think having the combination of the two and not having to queue to pay - is a perfect shopping experience.”

There was a lot of talk of “inspiration”, from all quarters. “We’re hoping to inspire

December 2011

and excite people about mobile shopping, and equally to showcase the incredible selection of items on eBay this Christmas and, of course, the rest of the year,” said Hutton-Potts. However, it wasn’t all marketing talk - Annette, a customer visiting from Leeds, told us: “It’s inspired me to do some shopping on eBay tonight, use some of the gift ideas.” She had no intention of buying at the time, but had heard about the Boutique online and, like us, had found the concept too intriguing to pass up. Perhaps most interestingly, however, of her group of three, only Annette owned a smartphone that she could use in the store.

How was the shopping experience, as a customer? To be truthful, not perfect: under the lighting of a shop, cameras on lower spec smartphones can have trouble scanning QR codes, and - at a time when price comparison is de rigeur - having to scan a product to find out its price feels a little odd.

These issues are, perhaps, to be expected - after all, the Christmas Boutique is more prototype than retail venture.

Not that the store was a direct blueprint for the future, exactly. Hutton-Potts emphasised: “We’ve got no plan for an ongoing physical presence, but watch this space.

We’re keen to maintain what we see as leadership position.”

Rather, it was a statement of intent, showing what could be possible - “experiment” was another word being used repeatedly. Suzi Perry predicted: “I think within a few years we’re going to have a cashless society anyway. This is just the start of experimenting with how shoppers can use their smartphones.” eBay also tested a slightly different approach with two ‘shopping windows’ in San Francisco and New York, but only the UK had a full bricks and mortar store. “In the US we’ve set up store-fronts with a selection of items that have QR codes on them, so this store is taking it one step further,” LaHage told us.

For now then, for the online giants like eBay, the pop-up shop is just that - transient, experimental, flag-waving. But in an age when any QR code- or similarly-equipped poster could feasibly function as a retail outlet, it may not be long before eBay, Amazon et al are on the High Street to stay. But don’t be surprised if their ‘shop’ is more bus shelter than Selfridges.

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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business models

JOIN US FOR THE MOBILE RETAIL SUMMIT A major one-day conference and exposition looking at all aspects of mobile in the retail channel

O

n 26 January 2012, Mobile Marketing is staging the Mobile Retail Summit. This new, one-day conference and exposition aims to give retail executives a thorough grounding in all aspects of mobile marketing, enabling them to leave the event in a position to devise their mobile strategy, or improve on their existing one.

The day is divided into four sessions, each looking at a specific aspect of how retailers can put mobile to work.

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

The first session, ‘On Device’, looks at how retailers can engage with consumers, and sell to them, via the mobile itself, through mobile sites and apps.

This section of the conference will explain how to build sites and apps and integrate them with your back-end systems; how to drive traffic to your site; and how to get your app downloaded, in an era in which the world is awash with mobile apps, and app discovery is key.

The second session, ‘Driving Footfall’, explores how mobile can be used to drive people into your High St. stores.

This session will include presentations on mobile CRM and loyalty campaigns, including how to build an opted-in mobile database, and the overlap between mobile and social media. It will also look at mobile advertising, and how you can use location-based services and advertising to get people in store.

The third session, ‘In Store’ looks at how retailers can use mobile in store for customer service, and to drive sales.

This section of the conference will include sessions on the use of QR codes and barcodes in store to enable customers to find out more about products on display. It will also cover mobile coupons and vouchers, and mobile payments, investigating the many options that are available to retailers.

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Bronze Sponsors

Date: Thursday 26 January 2012 Venue: Victoria Plaza, 239 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, SW1V 1EQ

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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Join these great Retailers already confirmed to attend:

Tesco, John Lewis, Post Office, Amazon, Argos, Homebase, Carphone Warehouse, Westfield, Ted Baker, Oasis, Liberty, Comet, Greggs

Session 4

Alongside the conference,

The final session, ‘The Future’ looks at the future of mobile in the retail channel, in the nearand longer-term. This session will include sessions on iPad kiosks and queue-busting solutions; the connected changing room; and the use of Augmented Reality in store to help consumers find their way around, and target them with offers. It will also include live demos of some of the hottest mobile marketing technologies and tools out there.

there will be an exposition featuring leading mobile solutions providers with a proven track record in the retail sector, plus mobile surgeries, where retailers can get answers to their specific questions.

The Mobile Retail Summit is a fantastic opportunity to get to grips with mobile, find out more about the stuff you already know about, and learn about the new opportunities coming to the fore in this fast-changing sector.

Retailers can book their free pass at www.mretailsummit.com.

People not in the retail industry can attend on payment of a ÂŁ595 delegate fee.

For more details of sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities, please contact john.owen@mobilemarketingmagazine.com

Event Overview: One-day conference programme, packed with insightful keynote speakers Exposition, with exhibiting opportunities for 20 solutions providers Retailer case studies highlighting the highs and lows of their move into the mobile channel mCommerce Surgeries, offering 1-on 1 meeting opportunities with senior executives from the retail industry Packed full of networking opportunities throughout the day

Endorsed by

Organised by

Free for Retailers to attend

December 2011

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MOBILE MASTERCLASS SERIES 2012 Taking business mobile across the UK, US and German markets

RETAIL

PUBLISHING

FINANCE

TRAVEL

UK

AUTOMOTIVE

US

SPORTS

AGENCY

GERMANY

18 JAN

Public Sector, London

6 FEB

Finance, New York

20 MAR

Retail, Hamburg

2 MAY

Retail, London

6 FEB

Retail, New York

20 MAR

Brand & Agency,

2 MAY

Finance, London

7 FEB

Travel & Tourism,

13 JUN

Travel & Tourism, London

13 JUN

Automotive, London

18 SEP

Sport & Leisure,

7 FEB

Brand & Agency,

New York

24 APR

Retail, Munich

Brand & Agency,

24 APR

Brand & Agency, Munich

New York 16 OCT

London 6 NOV

Hamburg

16 OCT

Brand & Agency,

25 SEP

Finance, Frankfurt

San Francisco

25 SEP

Automotive, Frankfurt

Retail, San Francisco

London

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

DON’T TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT

Sponsorship opportunities are limited to 6 per event and selling out fast. To get your brand in front of the digital decision makers from any of the sectors listed above, contact John Owen on +44 (0)7769 674824 john.owen@mobilemarketingmagazine.com

"In terms of partnership development with leading brands, the Mobile Brand & Agency Masterclass was a commercial breath of fresh air. Erudite speakers shared views and raised questions in a convivial environment that created a real sense of anticipation amongst delegates; this made for effortless networking with the brand owners in attendance and I would not hesitate to recommend the event to anyone charged with building relationships with senior marketing executives."

Chris Bourke, Managing Director, mobext

ORGANISED BY

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best practice

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Celebrating Excellence W

Sponsor’s Statement

David Murphy Editor

As in 2010, the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards have done a fantastic job in unearthing some great campaigns, platforms and technologies, from brands, agencies and technology providers, large and small, from around the world.

When these Awards launched in 2010, we had no hesitation in backing them, because effectiveness is the mantra that underpins everything we do here at Upstream. It’s why we operate on a revenue share business model that means we can run campaigns and deploy our platform for brands and mobile operators at no risk to themselves.

Because we know, from our 10 years’ experience in the mobile marketing technology business, what works, how to do it, and how often to do it.

Over the following pages, you’ll find examples of companies who have mastered the art and science of creating and executing effective mobile marketing campaigns. It’s right that we should celebrate these companies’ achievements, because nothing will convince the mobile marketing refuseniks – few though they may be more than hard evidence that marketing to mobile consumers with the right technology, consumer insight and creativity delivers exceptional results.

The time that we, as consumers, spend interacting with brands via our phones and other mobile devices, is increasing. The money that brands and organisations are putting into their mobile marketing budgets is also rising – right across the board, across all industry verticals, and among public sector institutions and charities as well. Finally, the level of engagement that brands are able to create with their customers and prospects on

hat an incredible Awards Program this has been.

We are all so caught up in the frantic pace of the mobile marketing business that it takes something like an Awards Program to give you time to pause for thought, deliberate, and really get under the bonnet of some the fantastic work being done in this industry.

We had a record 154 entries for this year’s Awards, and judging them was both an inspiring task, and a thankless one. Inspiring because you can’t fail to be inspired when you see the quality of the work submitted. And thankless because, when the standard is so high, separating the great from the merely good becomes incredibly difficult.

That task fell to our judging panel, to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for the time taken to get to know the campaigns they were presented with, and identify the ones worthy of the highest honour.

Everyone who made it on to the shortlist for this year’s Awards can be proud of their achievements. The winners set the standards for others to aspire to. We are proud to celebrate their success over the next 11 pages, and we are already eagerly anticipating the entries for next year’s Awards.

December 2011

mobile is also growing, thanks to the ever-increasing sophistication of the smartphones and tablets that we all now take for granted.

But mobile marketing has the potential to mean a lot more than just marketing over phones and tablets. As consumers increasingly communicate, shop, read and live ‘on the go’, mobile marketing is perhaps a new way of marketing to these consumers altogether – irrespective of the particular medium they might be using. It represents a new marketing philosophy and practice that works.

Looking to the future, all the projections seem to point to the conclusion that consumers will become even more ‘mobile’. Yet few companies in the mobile marketing space have achieved critical mass. As all forms of digital marketing converge, irrespective of the medium used, a significant threat and opportunity arises. Mobile marketers must search for the wider application of the unique insights and technologies that they are capturing, and not remain restricted to any one particular medium. They must remember that ‘mobile’ is more about consumer mindsets, and less about the latest handset or tablet.

The challenge ahead is for capable mobile marketing companies to become significant players in the overall marketing space and not to be pigeon-holed as strictly phone, SMS or apps marketers.

But for now, as the headline sponsor of the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards, we offer our congratulations to all the shortlisted and winning companies.

Marco Veremis, President, Upstream www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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best practice

Most Effective Tablet Application

WINNER BSkyB Sky News for iPad BSkyB’s aims in developing the Sky News iPad app were to support Sky’s reputation for innovation; drive usage and advocacy towards Sky News; and to get non-Sky and non-Sky News consumers engaged with the brand.

The Sky News for iPad app achieves all these goals, and more. It provides an original way to experience the day’s news, delivering an immersive news environment with video at its centre. The app aims to play to the strengths of the Sky News brand - breaking news, live video, and rich content.

The app centres around a ‘timeline’ that is updated as the day’s news unfolds. New technology developed by Sky lets users rewind live video to the start - even if the app was not active when the event commenced.

Each news story has a ‘module’ that includes extra content such as interactive images, stills galleries, graphs, and bespoke HTML content.

For its innovation, design, and the immersive, interactive experience it delivers, the Sky News for iPad app takes the award for Most Effective Tablet Application.

Highly Commended DK/AKQA – The Human Body App AKQA and publisher DK adapted the Human Body Book for iPad to wide acclaim. The app covers 12 systems of the body, with over 200 images, annotations, illustrations, and four CGI videos showing key processes in the body. There is also a rotatable 3D model of the human body, with removable layers.

The app also features haptic feedback to illustrate processes such as heartbeats and breathing. It reached 500 daily downloads within two weeks of launch, and looks set to break even within three months of launch.

FINALISTS

Auto Trader – Auto Trader iPad App Financial Times/Assanka FT Web App Somo/Audi – Audi UK’s Guide to Le Mans 2011 Tigerspike/Telegraph Media Group – TMG iPad App

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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Most Effective Mobile Sales Promotion/Direct Response Campaign

WINNER Pepsico/Rabarba – Pepsi Content in a Bottle Pepsi has run a number of text-and-win campaigns in the Turkish market, and having seen their success, other brands have adopted similar tactics, giving away free talk time and text messages to encourage consumer engagement.

So with its ‘Content in a Bottle’ campaign, Pepsi knew it had to break the mould, and come up with a new twist on the text-and-win concept. The twist came in the shape of a whole raft of new incentives. Pepsi researched its target audience to find out what would appeal to them before creating the promotion, and then offered prizes including pop music ringback tones, and free Premier League Football highlights subscriptions from mobile operator Turkcell. Consumers just had to text unique codes found under Pepsi can lids to stand a chance of winning.

The range of content meant the campaign appealed to a wide demographic, and each participant also received 12 hours of free airtime from Turkcell. The promotion was supported by celebrity endorsements in TV commercials to raise awareness.

The promotion ran for four months, and helped Pepsi to reach its highest market share in the country in eight years, with 3m people participating in the campaign, on average, four times each.

Highly Commended Found/Autoglass - Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile Following successful campaigns for Premier Inn and Flybe, Found turned its hand to windscreens with a mobile strategy designed to provide Autoglass with an optimised presence across mobile search, and incorporate click-to-call functionality to capture motorists who need immediate roadside assistance.

The project combined simple, conversion-focused mobile web landing pages with a highly targeted mobile PPC campaign, including dynamic insertion of different click-to-call phone numbers, according to the referring search terms, and geo-targeting of ads for locationbased searches.

The campaign delivered excellent click-to-call conversion rates, right from launch.

FINALISTS

OpenMarket – Disasters Emergency Committee East Africa Drought Appeal Pharos Mobile – Burger King Monopoly Madness Saudi Telecom Company/Upstream – 100 BMW X5 *100 Days Turkcell/Aerodeon/Shell Turcas – Shell FuelSave Fuels

December 2011

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best practice

Most Effective Travel & Tourism Solution

WINNER TripAdvisor – TripAdvisor App Travel website TripAdvisor responded to the increase in the dynamic use of mobile devices in consumer travel with its smartphone app, which is available for iOS, Android, Nokia, Windows Phone, and Palm devices.

The app offers a ‘Near Me Now’ feature that allows travellers to find nearby hotels, eateries and attractions wherever they are in the world. On the iPad 2 and iPhone, the app has a ‘Live View’ feature, which uses Augmented Reality to bring up TripAdvisor reviews, laid over the image from the device’s camera. Travellers can simply point their device at establishments to easily access TripAdvisor’s wealth of trusted reviews and opinions in real-time while they’re in their travel destination.

Other features that impressed the judges included the ‘My Saves’ option that enables users to save their favourite restaurants, hotels and attractions so they can be found easily again, enabling travellers to create their own mini-guide to a destination; the ‘Virtual Tours’ feature that allows travellers to take a virtual walk through their travel destination with TripAdvisor reviews and opinions superimposed over Street View from Google; and the facility to find cheap flights using the award-winning TripAdvisor Flights search engine, and to compare airline fees using its Fees Estimator. Don’t leave home without it.

FINALISTS

Incentivated/British Airways – British Airways SMS Customer Service Messaging RedFish Media – MGM Luxor Las Vegas Mobile Alerts

Highly Commended Crafted Media/Colchester Zoo – Colchester Zoo Mobile App Available on iPhone and Android, the Colchester Zoo mobile app is a great example of a tourist attraction app that goes the extra mile to help consumers make the most of their day out. With a zoomable map and What’s On Guide, visitors can choose from over 50 displays, add them to their personalised schedule and even receive reminders 10 minutes before each show starts.

Created by digital agency Crafted Media, the app is also educational, offering information about the animals at the zoo, and has seen strong download numbers.

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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Most Effective Mobile Charity Campaign/Solution

WINNER OpenMarket - Disasters Emergency Committee East Africa Drought Appeal The Third Sector is beginning to embrace mobile as a donation mechanism, and the SMS-based donation platform that OpenMarket created for the Disasters and Emergencies Committee (DEC) following the drought in East Africa that left 10m people in need of food, water and emergency healthcare, is a prime example.

The solution that OpenMarket created allows consumers to donate £5 in response to the humanitarian crisis in East Africa by texting one of the keywords - ‘HELP’, ‘CRISIS’, ‘AID’, ‘DONATE’, ‘HELP’, ‘SUPPORT’ or ‘AFRICA’ - to the shortcode, 70000.

The 70000 shortcode has been developed specifically for charity appeals by OpenMarket and the company has worked with all UK mobile network operators to facilitate rapid and VAT-free outpayments by linking directly to operator billing APIs. The shortcode can be rapidly launched across all networks in less than 24 hours, allowing charities to reach the UK’s 50m mobile users.

At the point of the OpenMarket/DEC entry submission, more than £1.2m had been raised via SMS donations, since the DEC launched the Appeal in late June 2011. OpenMarket’s CMX2 platform also allows donors to opt into Gift Aid when making donations, boosting the value of those donations by 25 per cent.

Highly Commended M&S/Oxfam/Profero – One-day Wardrobe Clearout This campaign aimed to encourage people to donate the clothes that they no longer wear to Oxfam. The mobile activity aimed to engage with iPhone-using mums. Consumers were sent an ad in the form of a calendar entry, which could be saved to the handset to remind them to take part in the event. M&S offered a £5 discount at their stores for anyone donating an item of clothing or soft furnishing.

In a week-long campaign, 24,534 women added the event to their calendar. 400,000 items of clothing were donated, and £1m was raised for Oxfam.

FINALISTS

bemoko/Macmillan Cancer Support – Macmillan Mobile Site DIDMO/Salvation Army/GetJar – Salvation Army Daily Cup Social Justice National Geographic/Velti – The Last Lions Safaricom M-Pesa/Redsky – Kenyans for Kenya

December 2011

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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best practice

Most Effective Mobile CRM/Enterprise Messaging Campaign

WINNER Incentivated/British Airways British Airways SMS Customer Service Messaging BA’s text service, powered by Incentivated on its SMS platform, is deployed in a number of ways.

Most of these are customer-facing, but the airline also uses the platform to manage its internal processes more efficiently.

Automated outbound messages are sent to customers who have registered for the service, to alert them to any disruption to their flight.

Another outbound text alerts the passenger that they can now check in, and includes their booking reference and flight information. Family members and taxi drivers can also send a text to BA to request an update on the performance of a given flight in order to check that it is due to arrive at the scheduled time.

The platform is also used to send an SMS confirmation to BA staff travelling “standby” when required seats become available. BA’s Logistics team also use it to facilitate repairs, avoid delays, or just to ensure that routine maintenance of a landed aircraft, including re-fuelling and cleaning, happens on time and at the right place.

The judges were impressed by the many ways in which BA has put the Incentivated platform to work, for the benefit of its customers, and the business. They were impressed, too, by the commercially- sensitive numbers supplied in support of the entry. It’s a worthy winner.

Highly Commended Ericsson IPX/Velti - A&N Mobile CRM Ericsson IPX and Velti jointly deliver a range of opt-in advertising programmes and Premium-SMS services to the readers of A&N Media’s various publications.

The schemes encourage customer engagement via SMS, inviting readers to text in to get hints for puzzles, submit competition entries, or provide feedback. Ericsson IPX manages operator billing payment services, while Velti handles the collection of customer information The activity has helped A&N Media to build an opt-in mobile database in excess of 1.5m unique mobile numbers.

FINALISTS

MePlease – MePlease SmartLinks Nokia/JWT/bemoko – Nokia Source

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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Most Effective Location-based Service/Campaign

WINNER Rippll – Rippll GeoWave GeoWave was born out of Rippll founder Doug Chisholm’s frustrations with mobile advertising in 2007, when, as digital account director for Burger King and Tesco at Initiative Media, he had a brief – and a budget - for more engaging mobile advertising that the incumbent players could not deliver.

Chisholm wanted to engage the Burger King audience on mobile, using apps, location targeting and mobile vouchers, and when the iPhone launched, it was the prompt he was looking for to form Rippll and create a technology platform to do just that.

GeoWave provides advertisers and agencies with an ad-server that can tell where a consumer is, and serve an ad for a nearby business; ad serving tags to enable any mobile publisher or developer to run a campaign; a user-friendly interface for uploading campaigns, plus a reporting interface including maps to show where ads are performing best; and rich ad creative, including maps and vouchers GeoWave allows for ads to be served in specific regions, or even around the advertiser’s stores, or their competitors’.

The first GeoWave-powered, location-based ad campaign was delivered for TGI Fridays in partnership with 4th Screen Advertising in 2010.

Since then, GeoWave has delivered campaigns for brands including McDonalds, Vodafone, HMV, IKEA, and Dove, and we expect to see lots more in the future.

FINALISTS

Found/Autoglass – Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile Mazda/Joule/Mindshare – Mazda MX5 Facebook Deals NAVTEQ Media Solutions/Peugeot – Peugeot Hyperlocal Advertising Campaign NAVTEQ Media Solutions/ Spur Restaurants/ Wand – Spur Restaurants Location-aware Mobile Ads

Highly Commended Grapple – Fable III Kingmaker This iPhone/Android app was created by Grapple Mobile for the launch of the Fable III Kingmaker game, to generate buzz, and drive sales. The app challenged players to battle across the ‘Kingdom of Europa’, an imaginary kingdom plotted over the real map of Europe. Players could plant ‘flags’ using GPS technology, and collect Kingmaker gold by visiting GAME shops. By the time the game launched, there were over 93,000 active users of Fable III Kingmaker, who had cumulatively planted over 5m flags and collected more than 5bn gold coins.

December 2011

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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best practice

Most Effective Campaign from a Mobile Operator

WINNER Buongiorno Recharge & Win Recharge and Win is a fully managed revenue stimulation and loyalty proposition for operators from Buongiorno. It is designed to boost ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) by delivering an increase in top-up frequency and amount. It also reduces churn and increases customer loyalty, using a gamification mechanic to offer consumers relevant and valuable rewards. Finally, it enables the operator to collect customer data to assist them in targeting their customers more precisely in future marketing campaigns.

Recharge and Win rewards prepay customers in real time as they transact with the network. When the customer buys top-up credit, a code is sent to their phone, which is entered into a fun web or mobile web game. Upon entering the code and playing the game, the customer receives a prize, such as free texts or talk time, physical prizes, or entries into a grand prize draw.

The scheme is currently deployed with six major operators worldwide, including O2 UK and O2 Germany, Optus Australia and TIM Italy. It is delivering an average 30 per cent redemption rate; 9 per cent average increase in redeemer monthly spend; and 25 per cent average decrease in redeemer churn.

For stats like these, Recharge & Win takes the award for Best Campaign from a Mobile Operator.

Highly Commended Saudi Telecom Company/Upstream – 100 BMW X5 *100 Days The ‘100 BMW X5 *100 Days’ promotion was devised and executed by Upstream.

It gave Saudi Telecom Company’s entire wireless subscriber base of 22m consumers the chance to opt into a trivia-based mobile marketing promotion, in which correct answers garnered credits towards digital content, and further opportunities to enter a daily draw to win a BMW X5. Consumers were engaged via messages sent to their mobile phone.

The campaign ran for 100 days, with a new car given away every day, for the duration of the campaign. Results are confidential, but hugely impressive.

FINALISTS

BigTime/MTN Zambia Mega Millions Promotion Future Platforms/Orange – Official Glastonbury App Orange Romania/Velti – A New Day, a New Life

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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Most Effective Mobile Application – b2c

WINNER Debenhams – Debenhams iPhone, Nokia and Android App

FINALISTS

AKQA/Random House – Nigella Quick Collection iPhone App Future Platforms/Orange – Official Glastonbury App Grapple – Premier Inn Mobile Pizza Express/2ergo – Pizza Express iPhone App Poynt – The Poynt App

Most Effective Mobile Couponing or Barcode Campaign

WINNER Sainsbury’s/Groupe Aeroplan – Sainsbury’s Mobile Apps

FINALISTS

Incentivated/M&S – M&S Mobile Loyalty Program – Redemption Coupons ScanBuy/Taco Bell – Unlock the Box

Debenhams drew on the collective wisdom of the Debenhams Design Team – an online panel of over 15,000 customers – to create the Debenhams app, which enables customers to shop the retailer’s complete range, for delivery to their door or collection from store. Customers looking for inspiration can watch and shop videos from Debenhams TV and share Wish or Gift Lists with friends and family for a second opinion.

Using the barcode scanner, customers can check pricing and reviews and buy larger items in store for home delivery, while time-poor customers can use it to quickly look up products on their phone and add them to their Wish or Gift List.

Location also features heavily, with a store locator, store layout guides, and the ability to send push notifications to app users within a certain radius of a Debenhams store to drive footfall.

The judges loved this app for the quality of its design, the user experience, and for some hugely impressive results that accompanied it. In the six months since launch, the iPhone version of the app achieved over 500,000 downloads, and generated over £1.5m in sales, across a total of 2.4m shopping sessions. A very worthy winner.

Sainsbury’s mobile app, created by Groupe Aeroplan, enhances the retailer’s much-used Nectar points loyalty scheme. The app is available on iOS, Android, and Nokia devices, and allows Sainsbury’s to engage with and reward its customers, drive store traffic, and generate return on investment.

It provides Nectar members with their points balance, and with exclusive offers that consistently generate significantly higher response rates than any other Sainsbury’s direct marketing channel; Offers can be targeted to customers that shop in certain aisles, and can also include recipes, or even TV and radio ads to drive brand engagement and purchase. Aside from Nectar points and discounts, the app also offers aisle and shelf store navigation, a searchable store locator, and the ability to shop online. It also integrates with the Sainsbury’s ‘Feed Your Family for £50’ campaign, via a meal planner for recipe inspiration.

The judges were impressed by the degree of integration with the Nectar loyalty scheme, and while the stats relating to the app are commercially sensitive and confidential, they were impressed too by download numbers, average offer opt-in and redemption rates, and total offer opt-ins.

December 2011

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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best practice

Most Effective Mobile Advertising Platform/Network

Most Effective Mobile Advertising Campaign

WINNER

WINNER

Txtlocal – Txtlocal

Fetch Media/Sony Columbia Music - Calvin Harris & Kelis, Bounce: Single LauncH

You don’t attract brands the likes of Google and Manchester United without good reason, and Txtlocal’s platform has done just that, not to mention another 75,000 other clients, who use it to keep customers engaged, drive sales, and, in the case of charity clients, solicit donations.

Clients manage their messaging campaigns through the Txtlocal Control Panel, an intuitive self-service platform where users can manage the campaign creative, develop messages, and pay for the service.

Additional services include the ability to deploy shortcodes for lead generation and payments; mobile web building services; an email-to-SMS Gateway that allows businesses to send and receive text messages from any email program; and sophisticated campaign measurement and analysis tools.

In 2006 Txtlocal’s platform delivered 245,000 messages. The projection for 2011 is in excess of 300m. Messaging may not be as cool or as fashionable as some of the rich media advertising formats now available to brands, but for its sheer effectiveness, Txtlocal takes the award.

Calvin Harris doesn’t release albums, focusing instead on three big summer anthems each year.

For this song, Bounce, a collaboration with Kelis, mobile was the only advertising vehicle.

The campaign objective was to drive sales, in order to move the single up the charts, and drive radio play, to establish the track as the big hit for summer 2011.

Fetch carried out creative design and media buying for the campaign, which targeted Shazam and Ministry of Sound users. The HTML5 banner ad featured a bouncing ball animation. When the ad was tapped, it delivered a full-screen, expandable ad with two calls to action, to watch the music video, or buy the song.

The campaign generated more than 8m impressions within 10 days, with 30 per cent of users watching the video or clicking through to iTunes to buy the song. The single went straight into Radio 1’s A List and charted at No.2 within its first week in the iTunes chart. Music to anyone’s ears.

FINALISTS FINALISTS

Adfonic – Adfonic Blismobile – Blis App Zone madvertise – madvertise Mobile Advertising Marketplace Placecast – ShopAlerts by Placecast Smaato – Smaato Open Mobile Advertising Platform (SOMA)

Found/Autoglass – Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile NAVTEQ Media Solutions/Peugeot – Peugeot Hyperlocal Advertising Campaign Nokia/Pring – Nokia Eidi on Pring Vogue Turkey/Rabara – Vogue Turkey’s 1st Year Anniversary Campaign Warner Bros/Millennial Media/ Odyssey Mobile Interaction – Green Lantern

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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Most Effective Mobile Application – b2b

Most Effective Mobile Site

Most Effective Mobile Ticketing Solution

WINNER

WINNER

Auto Trader – Dealer Portal Mobile iPhone App

The Guardian – The Masabi/Chiltern Guardian Mobile Site Railways – Ticket Machine in Your Pocket

The Dealer Portal Mobile app enables car dealers to set up and manage ads for their stock via their iPhone. The app also includes a Profit Indicator feature that allows dealers to understand the margin they’d make on a given car, and gives a suggested price before they buy, based on realtime, market-based intelligence.

For the ability it offers car dealers, not only to run their business remotely, but actually to develop it by adding and displaying new stock to their inventory instantly, Auto Trader’s Dealer Portal Mobile app takes the award.

The judges loved this free, adsupported site for the clarity of presentation, ease of navigation, the quality of the content, and the impressive user and advertising numbers. The site carries all the content from the newspaper’s website, including live football scores, favourites, top stories, and new navigation features.

The site attracts over 7m unique browsers and more than 36m page views per month, and accounts for around 12 per cent of the Guardian’s total digital traffic. By combining targeted advertising solutions with rich media creative formats, the Guardian’s mobile site has also delivered a significant increase in ad revenues.

FINALISTS

Egencia – Egencia Mobile iPhone App Global Bay – iPad Retail App O2 Media/Golden Gekko – O2 Media App IDG Global Solutions/OMG/HP – IDG/HP ROI Resource Centres Safaricom M-Pesa/Redsky – M-Pesa Buy Goods

WINNER

Masabi, and its ticketing services provider, Atos, developed a complete, end-to-end mobile rail ticketing system for Chiltern Railways, powered by the Atos rail booking engine and using EncryptME, the world’s first NIST-certified mobile security software. The system turns the humble mobile phone into both a ticket machine and the ticket itself. This implementation marks the first time in the UK that rail passengers can use both smartphones and everyday handsets to buy and receive mobile rail tickets, and customer feedback on the app has been overwhelmingly positive.

FINALISTS

bemoko/Macmillan Cancer Support – Macmillan Mobile Site Found/Autoglass Incentivated/Centaur – Marketing Week Live!

New Look/MIG – New Look’s Mobile Commerce Site Somo/Audi – Audi Mobile Site

December 2011

FINALISTS

Movement/Virgin Media – mTicketing at V Festival: Our Garden Safaricom M-Pesa/Redsky – Safaricom M-Pesa Ticketing www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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best practice

Most Effective mCommerce Solution

Most Effective Mobile Publishing Solution

Most Effective Mobile Payment Solution

WINNER

WINNER

WINNER

New Look/MIG – New Look’s Mobile Commerce Site

Mippin App Factory

Flexion – Flexion Wrapper

Designed and built by Mobile Interactive Group (MIG), New Look’s transactional mobile site utilises Javascript, CSS3 and HTML5. It offers ‘One Click’ checkout for registered users, and “Accordion” navigation to minimise the number of page refreshes required.

The site has exceeded targets since it launched, New Look has reported a 24 per cent increase in mobile visits, and a 33 per cent increase in page views. Between the launch of the site in April, and the end of July, there has also been a 60 per cent increase in orders, and a 45 per cent increase in revenues.

The Mippin App Factory aims to give anyone the tools to build an app in just five minutes. The culmination of six years and $12m worth of investment, the Mippin App Factory is an app creation platform that creates simple native mobile and web apps, and is available at low cost to businesses large and small.

The judges were impressed by the ease with which apps can be created by the App Factory, and by the download numbers. Dennis Publishing’s Auto Express app, for example, built using the Mippin App Factory, has been downloaded more than 250,000 times.

Flexion’s Wrapper technology is a neat, sophisticated way of adding billing and other services to downloadable content. It works by creating a small amount of code that is ‘wrapped’ around mobile content such as games or apps, and enables a range of additional services, such as in-app billing, content discovery, and on-device retailing.

Content owners can create customised pricing options and promotional models, such as free trials, rentals and loyalty schemes.

They can also offer additional content to their customers through Discovery, a dynamic storefront delivered with every wrapped game. A free trial is enabled by a Flexion Wrapper every second, with 4m wrapped products activated every month. It has reached a total of 40m customers so far.

FINALISTS

FINALISTS

FINALISTS

Pizza Express/2ergo – Pizza Express iPhone App Usablenet/JD Sports – JD Sports Fashion Mobile

Rippll – Appsplash Vodafone/AMVG – vRead Wapple – Canvas, Architect and Exhibit Woodwing - Tablet Publishing Solution

Bango – Bango Payment Payment One – Anyphone Safaricom/M-Pesa – M-Pesa Buy Goods Txtnation – JunglePay

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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26

business models

END-TO-END GAME David Murphy talks to Alex Moukas, CEO of mobile marketing giant, Velti

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“THIS CONSTANT REFINING OF THE DATA, COMBINED WITH END-TOEND TRACKING, MEANS THAT OUR CUSTOMERS ARE NOT SIMPLY BUYING INVENTORY, THEY ARE ABLE TO BUY OUTCOMES” Alex Moukas, Velti

hen Velti IPOd in January 2011, it was a sign, perhaps, that the mobile marketing business was taking its first real steps towards maturity. The offering swelled Velti’s coffers to the tune of some $170m (£109m) and after raising a further $140m in June, the firm set about spending some of the cash, and setting in motion the inevitable process of consolidation that looks likely to define the mobile marketing sector over the next couple of years.

The company bought mobile CRM firm Air2Web, followed by the Chinese ad exchange, Casee in September, then continued its buying spree in November, with the acquisition of UK-headquartered Mobile Interactive Group for an initial $25m, rising to a maximum $59m depending on performance. “We had been talking to MIG for a long time,” explains Velti CEO, Alex Moukas.

“We like the way they worked, and anyone that can grow a business to $100m billings in seven years with no institutional funding clearly knows what they are doing.”

Moukas believes the acquisitions play an important part in Velti’s desire to stand out from the crowd, and establish

its global credentials. “We are the best-capitalised company in the sector, and that allows us to look at some of the great companies and management teams out there, and bring them into the Velti family,” he says.

“The mobile marketing industry is a very noisy place to be. There are hundreds of companies, and because it’s still a little bit nascent, people get confused about who’s who and what they provide. We are keen to differentiate ourselves, as a global, end-to-end platform provider, from the hundreds of companies out there providing point solutions, and with only local, as opposed to global reach. We feel

it’s essential for clients to be able to rely on the same platform in smartphone-savvy markets as they do in developing markets.”

End-to-end offering Moukas becomes animated when asked about the platform that underpins the hundreds of campaigns that Velti runs every year, offering brands and operators, including National Geographic, Vodafone, Subway and MBC Group, access to 3.7bn consumers in more than 50 countries.

“We have 350 software engineers totally focused on building and developing the platform,” he says. “It contains 50m lines of code, and we release a new

Velti will roll out a global mobile marketing campaign for Subway in 2012

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

27

version every six to eight weeks, incorporating new business practices, and new tools that clients tell us they need as they learn the lessons from the campaigns they run.

“It’s an end-to-end offering,” he continues. “It combines mobile marketing with mobile advertising, and enables us to track the customer journey, from seeing an ad to completing an action, whether that’s downloading a coupon, visiting a website or walking into a physical store to redeem an offer. Because the platform is end-to-end, we can close the loop. This is critical.”

Like any successful marketing platform, Velti’s is driven by data, and a powerful predictive analytics engine. Globally, the platform processes more than 3.1bn data facts every day. The campaigns it powers have so far reached more than half a billion consumers around the globe, all of whom have opted in and provided profiling information.

This information, together with behavioural data, based on their response, or otherwise, to campaigns, is analysed and refined to enable constantly improved targeting of the next offer.

“This constant refining of the data, combined with the end-toend tracking, means that our customers are not simply buying inventory, they are able to buy outcomes, so we can tell a car maker, for example, how much each qualified lead for a new car he’s trying to sell will cost him,” Moukas tells Mobile Marketing.

Stellar growth In recent years, Velti has enjoyed stellar growth. In 2008, it tripled its revenues to $49.5m, from just $16.4m a year earlier. Last year, it posted revenues of $116.3m, and the analyst consensus for 2011 is $175.6m, rising to $254m in 2012.

Headcount has risen too, from 370 in 2008, to 980 today, as the

company invests in more software engineers to develop the platform, and account management teams to deliver excellent customer service and real-time campaign optimisation.

Despite these figures, however, Moukas believes the best is yet to come. He says: “In markets such as the US, we are seeing the beginnings of the acceleration of exponential growth of the market. If you look at the time consumers spend on the mobile channel, its 8 per cent, but brands’ spend in the mobile channel is only around 0.5 per cent, so there is a huge discrepancy, 15x. It was exactly the same in the early days of the web, but today, consumers spend 25 per cent of their time there, and brands spend 18 per cent of their marketing dollars there. With exponential growth, people often underestimate how long it will take, but also, how big it will be.”

While he is certain that this growth will come, Moukas is also clear that he isn’t relying solely on forward-thinking brands to make it happen.

“Customers usually don’t know what they want, so we put a stake in the ground and say that, two years from now, this is what should be happening, so we are driving towards that and customers should follow,” he says.

“We have to be customer-centric in terms of specific features and how they integrate with their systems, but less so on how the market is evolving. We have to take a lead there.

“18 months ago, everyone wanted an app, before that it was mobile advertising. Now brands are slowly starting to realise that just as they have an integrated approach to their digital spend, they need to do the same thing with mobile. The good news is that at a macro level, customers now see that mobile needs to be a core part of

M

BIG CATS CATS GO GO MOBILE MOBILE BIG

obile marketing firm Velti collaborated with National Geographic, one of the world’s largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions, to drive awareness of the plummeting population of lions in the wild. The campaign aimed to promote National Geographic’s movie, The Last Lions, encouraging ticket sales using a broad range of mobile marketing and advertising that leveraged the full breadth of Velti’s mGage mobile marketing platform.

Velti put together a comprehensive mobile campaign that included mobile media, a mobile site, SMS sweepstakes, mobile community nurturing, an iPhone application and an Android launcher.

The mobile site enabled users to watch the trailer, find a movie theater, enter the sweepstake competitions, download mobile content, and post to social networks. Through the SMS mobile community and sweepstakes, users could win tickets and receive alerts and reminders about the movie.

Meanwhile, an iPhone app allowed users to place pictures of themselves into scenes from the film, and post them on Facebook and Twitter.

The mobile site attracted more than one quarter of a million visitors, with a 3-minute average visit duration, twice that of the industry average. A mobile CRM campaign drove a three-fold increase in traffic to the site.

“The National Geographic Entertainment team is fully convinced of the value of mobile initiatives to make a real impact with our audience,” says Nikki Lowry, director of marketing for National Geographic Entertainment. “Thanks to ‘The Last Lions’ campaign, we saw a bump in the movie’s social media communities and, most importantly for us here at National Geographic, contributions to the Big Cats Initiative.” their spending, rather than part of their innovation spending, so we are seeing separate budget line items, but it takes time. As the saying goes, no-one ever got fired for buying TV.”

December 2011

We may not quite be at the point yet where no-one ever got fired for buying mobile, but if Moukas and his team at Velti have their way, the day may not be too far off.

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thought leadership

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DEV ZONE Mubaloo CEO Mark Mason considers the role of mobile apps in the enterprise

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he consumerisation of IT. The Post-PC era. The mobile workforce. Call it what you will.

Readers of Mobile Marketing will all either be of the mindset, or coming round to it, that in the past five years, mobiles have become the primary devices in what will soon be a Post-PC world.

The mass popularisation of mobile app stores in 2008 saw an ‘appsplosion’ in the trend of campaign apps. Times have changed though. Companies are starting to understand that mobile apps are about more than just helping to build a brand. Gaming, news and utility tend to be the most-used apps that people download. While campaign apps can tick boxes for marketing directors, they are often gimmicky, and provide no long-term value for either party.

Carefully-designed, bespoke applications, on the other hand, offer an opportunity for marketers to reinvent the way they engage with customers.

By providing real benefits from mobile platforms that help to enhance productivity and engagement with employees, stakeholders and consumers, the enterprise world is the current area of app explosion.

Apple has stated that 93 per cent of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying iPads in their companies. 90 per cent of Fortune 100 companies are doing the same with iPhones.

For more proof across the

whole marketplace, research by Intuit suggests that 72 per cent of small businesses use mobile apps in the business, while 70 per cent of enterprise executives in large corporations use at least one app for business.

Popular apps The Intuit research shows that currently, the most popular operational apps used in businesses are GPS navigation, contact management and document access. They also suggest that small business employees save as much as 11.3 hours per week using apps. Clearly, the market is there.

In the same way that designing a mobile website requires developers to rethink the type of information they deliver, creating apps that deliver long-term engagement requires the same approach. Mobile is about providing information and utility in the moment, wherever and whenever. This can range from fuel prices, local information, weather, news and a whole lot more. In the enterprise environment, it could be apps that enable cross-communication among employees, or that fulfil HR functions, such as time sheets, checking your benefits, holiday status and virtually anything you can think of.

As a company that specialises in creating these types of apps, we have seen the evolution

over the past few years, of how mobile can be used to transform business operations. One recent example includes an app for a

security. Certain platforms are more secure than others, but in the enterprise market, solutions exist to maintain the security of

leading student accommodation operator, designed specifically for non-technically-minded maintenance staff. Taking into consideration the end user, the app was designed to be as simple as possible, yet includes all the essential tools to enable better productivity. The introduction of the app has transformed the company’s workflow and assessment processes, bringing far-reaching benefits in terms of profitability and improved customer service.

apps. With app deployment and management software for the enterprise, it is even possible to remotely wipe content.

As with any app, targeting the right platform is always a must. While web-apps are improving all the time, and offer advantages for certain applications, native apps offer additional security, speed and design benefits that cannot be overlooked.

Demand for enterprise apps is clear and rising. With the right level of education, awareness and security in place, companies can protect their employees and assets, whilst also helping their business expand the ways they interact, collaborate and operate every day.

Technical considerations There are, of course, technical considerations. With users wanting to access personal, confidential data on their phones, apps may need to offer high levels of

Mubaloo’s iPad app supports Global Radio’s sales team

December 2011

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best practice

Springboard to Success Russell Buckley looks at the work of the UK Accelerator, Springboard, in helping startups bring new ideas and technologies to market

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

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he roadmap to entrepreneurial success has been disrupted in the last few years with the rise and rise of the Accelerator. Pioneered by TechStars in the US, the concept has been borrowed and adapted both locally and internationally, with the leading UK version being the Springboard program.

An Accelerator is a mentordriven, seed stage investment programme. Entrepreneurial teams lucky enough to win a place on one are given some funding, along with a short, but very intensive residential course, led by a team of successful business people. The mentors - who can be entrepreneurs, corporate whizzes, venture capitalists or academics - play a critical part in the programme by imparting their learning and wisdom to each of the teams.

The result of all this is that the teams get catapulted to the next stage in their entrepreneurial journeys at a far faster trajectory than they would do on their own, hence the generic Accelerator description. The model has been running long enough now for this to be proven beyond doubt, with over 50 per cent of participants going on to raise more funding. This is an astonishing figure in comparison with market averages.

Making the cut This year, I was flattered to be asked by the Springboard programme to be a mentor, along with the great and the good of the UK tech scene. So what exactly does this involve?

Places on the Springboard programme, as with most Accelerators, are hotly contested.

This means that, as a mentor, you’re guaranteed to only work with the crème de la crème.

The first stage is to meet all of the teams for about 10-15 minutes each – mentoring’s answer to

speed dating. The purpose of these brief introductions is for both mentors and mentees to find out about each other, and create a shortlist for more detailed exploration.

Apart from the technology link, the teams have little in common, and this year’s crop ranged far and wide across the startup spectrum. They included MiniMonos, a fun social network for kids based on a world inhabited by monkeys; TotalGigs, a way for event attendees to relive the collective concert experience; and Apiary, a one-stop destination for API developers to create and share their work.

I found all the teams interesting in different ways, which is a reflection of the thorough selection process the

“OVER 50 PER CENT OF PARTICIPANTS GO ON TO RAISE MORE FUNDING. THIS IS AN ASTONISHING FIGURE IN COMPARISON WITH MARKET AVERAGES” teams have to go through to make the cut. But as the process went on, I naturally gravitated towards three or four teams who I thought I’d like to get to know a little better, and could add value to, given my experience working in the mobile marketing sector.

After the initial shortlisting is completed, a series of onehour sessions are held, so that mentors can reduce their shortlist to one company. In some cases, mentors might not select anyone, or in the case of a few hardy (or foolhardy!) souls, they might choose to mentor two entrepreneurial teams for the rest of the 3-month programme.

Mentoring Once a mentor has found a company to focus on - and the company has accepted them the real work begins. How to be a mentor isn’t prescribed by Springboard in any way, so it’s up to the two parties to figure out what works for them.

In my case, the two entrepreneurs behind HubFlow and I agreed to work together.

HubFlow uses mobile to enhance learning for enterprises, particularly focusing on video.

Its target audience is mainly large companies, that have dispersed sales forces.

Our mentor methodology settled on a weekly call, supplemented with email updates. This worked pretty well, though sometimes calls were missed when pressing deadlines arrived on either side.

Unlike some start-ups, HubFlow started getting clients immediately, which is both a blessing and a curse, as it means some of the pre-planning building blocks for the company were skipped over, resulting in a sort of Ready, Fire, Aim approach. This kind of scenario can be frustrating at times for both the mentor and the mentees, but in my experience, it’s much better than the alternative scenario of the customers never arriving in the first place!

Judgement Day Judgement arrives at Springboard in the form of Investor Day at the end of the programme. Each team gets to pitch the fruits of their labours to a packed auditorium of angel investors and VCs, all keen to invest in the best of the graduating teams. It’s a fascinating experience as a mentor to see how much all the teams have developed in three months, to compare notes and network with other mentors.

December 2011

In the US, TechStars already has a consortium of investors who offer all successful entrants to the programme a guaranteed convertible loan note of $100,000, such is their confidence in the Accelerator. And based on the quality of the graduates at Investor Day, it’s very easy to see that this confidence is well placed. It’s surely only a matter of time before a similar deal is on offer for the UK version.

What’s next?

Springboard is already planning its 2012 programme, so any budding entrepreneurs who are reading this now should seriously consider applying.

Speaking to a selection of the graduates at this year’s Investor Day, there is no doubt that the programme is highly demanding, very intensive and fraught with pressure at times. But all of the teams agreed that they would do it again, that they would recommend it to their peers, and that it would stand them in excellent stead for the future, which is ultimately what it’s all about.

Would I agree to be a mentor again? Absolutely I’ve already signed up for the 2012 programme, and did so without any hesitation. It’s a fascinating process to be involved in, and from a selfish point of view, it helps hone your own management skills by exposing you to all kinds of issues you may not normally come across.

At the same time, it allows you to help a new generation of entrepreneurs to build something great, without making some of the mistakes we all made as we climbed the ladder to success. Roll on 2012!

Russell Buckley is CMO at mobile coupon company Eagle Eye Solutions and a mentor on the UK Springboard program.

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

32

best practice

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

best practice

33

MAKE IT MOBILE

Few brands have developed dedicated mobile sites – eBay is one of the exceptions

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to make mobile drive your business or career, you may need to improve your mobile knowledge.

Rob Thurner, mobile specialist and advisor to the Mobile Training Academy, explains how

D

espite the current economic climate, we should all feel bullish about the prospects for mobile in 2012. Market leaders in most sectors now have a taste for what mobile can achieve for their business. The majority of brands, however, are still coasting down the hard shoulder. Few have moved from trial phase and fully harnessed mobile to drive greater media efficiencies by better optimising their marketing budgets, or to generate an effective, robust new revenue channel.

The good news is that mobile is delivering results and moving the needle for today’s pioneering mobile marketers. eBay announced recently that mobile transactions – tracking at one per second – will generate sales of $5bn for 2011 - a five-fold increase on 2010.

If you couldn’t get a table at the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards in November, you missed an evening charged with energy, enthusiasm and optimism from the 250 clients, agencies and mobile operators who came to celebrate our industry’s best output.

Take a look through pages 13 - 24 to see how winners including BskyB, British Airways, The Guardian and TripAdvisor achieved outstanding results through mobile.

So what do the runners up need to improve, and what do the brands which didn’t make the shortlist need to change? Here are three tips for 2012, which will be core to MTA’s training agenda for brands and their agencies.

1. Fix your mobile internet presence Optimising your site for mobile is no longer a “nice to have”. Research shows that con-

sumers expect a decent user experience on the mobile internet, and will shift allegiance to competitor brands which avoid tedious, egg-timer experiences. According to Google, 83 per cent of brands have still not optimised their websites for mobile, which tallies with mobile site bounce-rates, 88 per cent on average. To retain customers, you need to optimise how your site looks on mobile.

The MTA is working with mobile site developers, including Netbiscuits, to provide practical training courses for brands looking to enhance or replace existing, standalone, templated sites with high-end sites providing complete customisation, populated with robust APIs, and integrated with dynamic content from product catalogues and customer databases.

2. Deliver co-ordinated multi-screen marketing We live in a multi-screen world: 86 per cent of us are “dual screening”. There’s plenty of new evidence revealing how, where and when we’re using our devices: laptops, mobile phones and tablets, and how we use these devices in conjunction with one another. 51 per cent of all tablet use is done whilst watching TV. (Source: Internet Advertising Bureau, Dec 2011). Brands need to use this insight to plan and execute integrated, multi-media campaigns and services, repurposing content for each device.

MTA trainers, including Eagle Eye Solutions and OpenMarket, have developed and executed fully integrated mobile marketing solutions where mobile plays an essential activation role for other communications

December 2011

channels, whether enabling in-store voucher redemption, running mobile CRM campaigns, providing push notifications or generating charity donations via Premium SMS.

3. Business need v tactical execution Many brands start with a tactical solution before considering the business need. This is particularly true with apps: there are plenty of standalone apps which achieve modest downloads because the app is ill conceived, with scant regard for its role in the broader marketing strategy and the consumer benefit it offers. Brands need to shift from silobased creation to integrated planning and execution, addressing business objectives.

One of our training partners, Golden Gekko, brings best practice advice and practical guidance to the MTA training, based on delivering dynamic app-based solutions across multiple operating platforms for global brands, reaching consumers in all continents.

TRAINING AGENDA FOR 2012 The MTA started running training courses in November. We’re now rolling out our training to brands and agencies in January.

One size does not fit all in mobile. Each brand, and each brand manager within the same company, will have different training needs. To accommodate this diversity, MTA is working with its training partners now to develop and deliver off-the-shelf and bespoke courses.

To discuss how MTA can meet your training needs in 2012, email robthurner@mobiletrainingacademy.com or text KNOWLEDGE followed by your NAME to 88600.

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

34

Involved 2012:

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

business models

35

Winning Formula Big Time Arabia general manager Roland Beckmann-Kunz gives David Murphy the low-down on the company’s new Middle East operation

B

ig Time Entertainment is not a firm to let the grass grow under its feet. Barely six months after it set up shop in Greece, the company launched Big Time Arabia on 1 October, to bring its own brand of SMSbased revenue-generation to carriers in the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and parts of Asia.

Big Time runs trivia-based promotions for carriers, offering their subscribers the chance to win big prizes, while at the same time increasing both loyalty and revenues for the carrier. Big Time takes the risk; the operator reaps the rewards, with Big Time taking a slice of the revenues generated.

see great potential for using our SMS-based interactive games to engage with consumers in the region.”

The business model, and the engagement model, for the Arabian business is exactly the same as the parent company’s. Carriers invite their subscribers to join in the games. Those who decide to get involved receive a text message from the carrier containing a trivia question. A correct answer earns points for the participant, and a chance to earn more points by answering

“WE KNOW HOW MUCH TO CHARGE FOR AN SMS, HOW TO GET MORE ENGAGEMENT, AND GENERATE MORE REVENUES. IT’S A WINNING FORMULA, IN EVERY SENSE.”

Successful campaigns The launch of the Arabian branch follows a string of successful campaigns with carriers, including MTN in Swaziland and Cellcom in Liberia. The MTN campaign broke even after just four days, while Cellcom saw a 27 per cent participation rate from its subscriber base, compared to an industry norm of 8 per cent.

The Arabian operation is headed up by Roland Beckmann-Kunz, who brings an impressive pedigree to the role, having joined from Etisalat, where he was head of content. Prior to that, he spent four years at Vodafone Germany, and before that, he was with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Online Group.

Beckmann-Kunz is optimistic about the firm’s prospects in the region. “We see mobile penetration of over 200 per cent here,” he tells Mobile Marketing. “People like their mobile phone; they carry it with them at all times, and are open to new ideas, and to playing games on their phones, so we

says. “We also try to come up with questions that will enrich the players’ knowledge, because that makes them feel better. And we use local, native copywriters to create the questions, so they can ask people questions relating to things that are happening in their country and create some empathy with them.”

The questions also go through a rigorous screening process, with only the best one’s making the cut. Big Time’s platform samples the questions, sending maybe 20 to

Roland Beckmann-Kunz Big Time Arabia the next question correctly, and ultimately, the chance to enter the final prize draw, where there could be as much as £200,000 or a brand new Ferrari on offer to the winner.

Of course, anyone can pick up a book of trivia questions and send them out as text messages, but Beckmann-Kunz says there is more of an art to it than that.

Engaging questions “You need good, engaging questions, and a tight feedback loop, so the players feel that it’s more like an ongoing conversation,” he

December 2011

a control group of around 5,000 subscribers. These are ranked by the quality of the responses to them, and participation levels.

The top question is then chosen as the one to send out to all players.

“We are sticking to what we know in the region,” says Beckmann-Kunz. “The advantage we have is that we know how much to charge for an SMS, and how to get more engagement, get people to take part more often, and generate more revenues by charging less than the competition. It’s a winning formula, in every sense.”

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

36

the real world

Digital Snapshot We asked 3,000 consumers in the UK, US, and India about their app usage.

The results are in, and they make for interesting reading

I

ndia has emerged as a hotbed of app users in exclusive research carried out by Mobile Marketing using our Toluna Quick Survey research tool. The study, which asked 1,000 consumers each in the UK, US and India about their app usage, revealed that 49 per cent of those in the UK, and a staggering 56 per cent in the US, do not own a single app. In India, however, the vast majority have at least one app on their mobile device; only 8 per cent of respondents do not have any, and 15 per cent have more than 20.

Magnus Jern, CEO of GoldenGekko believes the reason for the higher incidence of app downloads in India is because the people in that country who can download apps have made more a conscious decision to buy a device that enables them to do so. He told Mobile Marketing: “In the UK and the US, a lot of people with no interest in apps or smartphones will get a free smartphone upgrade when their contract is renewed, whether they need it or not. In India, which is predominately a prepay market, the people that own a smartphone have chosen to purchase one.�

Where apps had been downloaded, however, they had been used frequently. Overall, 31 per cent of the consumers in the three countries who have apps download at least one every week. 60 per cent of app users use at least one app on their mobile device every week, and nearly as many - 57 per cent - use apps every single day. This means that, of those who have any apps at all on their mobile, 92 per cent use them on a daily basis.

Most consumers said they were willing to pay for apps: 59 per cent of those who have apps on their phone had bought at least one.

When asked what influenced their decision to buy a paid app, the most common response (21 per cent) was that it was primarily the individual's own feeling that the app in question would be useful to them in some way.

In the UK and US, the research revealed that recommendations from friends have more effect on consumers making this decision than good reviews, but this was not true of India, where 23 per cent bought apps based on reviews, compared to only 15 per cent because of a recommendation from a friend. The try-before-you-buy approach, at 25 per cent, was the single most effective method in convincing Indian consumers to buy a paid app, compared to 15 per cent in the UK and in the US.

HOW MANY OF YOUR APPS DO YOU USE EVERY DAY?

Of those respondents who own at least one app, the vast majority use them on a daily basis. Most commonly, consumers use between three and five apps every day

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

37

HOW MANY APPS DO YOU HAVE ON YOUR PHONE?

“IN THE UK AND THE US, A LOT OF PEOPLE WITH NO INTEREST IN APPS OR SMARTPHONES WILL GET A FREE SMARTPHONE UPGRADE WHEN THEIR CONTRACT IS RENEWED, WHETHER THEY NEED IT OR NOT.” While Indian respondents are far more likely than those from the UK and US to have any apps at all on their mobile device, a roughly equal amount of respondents in each country own more than 20 apps Asked to name the single best app on their mobile, most respondents were stumped. But from those who could make their mind up, a few familiar names emerged as the most-loved apps. Facebook took the number one spot, with “Google” in second place and Angry Birds in third. When it came to what types of apps consumers liked best, games were most popular, while weather, news and sport were also commonly picked.

When it came to devices, our study found that the most common make of mobile phone was Nokia, making up 28 per cent of the total devices used by respondents. This figure differed greatly across the countries surveyed, however. 48 per cent of the mobile phones from India were Nokia, but in the US, Nokia devices represented only 10 per cent. Android (16 per cent) was the second most popular platform overall, closely followed by the iPhone (13 per cent) and BlackBerry (12 per cent).

MAGNUS JERN, GOLDEN GEKKO

“In the UK and US, iOS is one of the top two smartphone operating systems,” notes Jern. “The requirement of having a credit card to register on iTunes could be a barrier for a lot of people to download apps. In India, the leading smartphone OS is still Nokia's Symbian.

There are less barriers to entry, as there are a lot more open app stores where you can download apps for free.”

The differences between India as a market and the UK and US were a recurring theme throughout the results. The Opera browser, which only received two mentions elsewhere, was named as the best app by 40 Indian respondents.

The results from the UK and US painted largely similar pictures - though, at 3 per cent, the Americans are twice as likely to use 10 or more apps every day. Windows Phone 7 has also gained a slightly better foothold in the US - with 6 per cent of respondents using one than in the UK (3 per cent) or India (2 per cent).

DEVICE TYPE BY COUNTRY

UK

US

December 2011

INDIA

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

38

best practice

APPLICATION Showcase With Christmas approaching, the app stores are awash with festive themed products, and we take a look at three apps to help you get organised for the big day.

Good Food Festive Recipes

T

he Good Food Festive Recipes app, developed for iOS by BBC Worldwide, offers users over 160 recipes, including main meals, canapés and drinks, as well as more Christmas-specific categories including Gifts and Leftovers. Given that the recipes are available for free online, however, the app has to work to justify its £1.99 price tag.

The app splits its functionality between five sections: Recipes, Favourites, Shopping list, Extras, and Picks. Opening onto the Picks screen, Good Food Festive presents a selection of 10 recipes, shuffled every time the app is opened, with each recipe given an attractive full-screen display with a large photo and brief description.

These can be navigated by swiping from left to right, but although the screens of the app are laid out horizontally, most navigation is done by pressing buttons rather than gesturing.

The result is intuitive and easy to use, but could feel a little smoother to browse.

Each section stores the last recipe opened within it, meaning users can jump quickly between three dishes, and bookmark more by marking them as Favourites, which can then be

accessed through the relevant section, or shared on Facebook, Twitter or via email.

The search function, however, is rather basic, only capable of searching ingredients by their titles, rather than ingredients or the categories with which every recipe is tagged – including Easy, Vegetarian, and Freezable.

Though they are presented as buttons, these tags have no functionality and cannot be browsed.

The layout, which separates the information onto separate screens – each recipe is divided into Overview, with nutritional information; Ingredients; and Method – is attractively understated, presenting recipes one element at a time without piling on UI features. This lends clarity to the instructions and shows off the cookbook-style photos.

Each recipe’s ingredients can be instantly transferred to a shopping list and, in recipes and on the shopping list, measurements can be switched between metric and imperial with the press of a button. The functionality of the app is thoughtfully wide enough to be comprehensive. Under the Extras section, there are in-depth looks at traditional festive ingredients – brussel sprouts, chestnuts, etc – with instructions on how

to buy, prepare, and cook each, and instructional videos. The videos, which cover topics including how to sharpen knives and to how make roast potatoes, stream, which which can be a slight issue for users with limited internet access. The videos are the only part of the app which rotates when the device is turned landscape. There is also a timer, which is able to automatically calculate cooking time for a turkey based on its weight and the type of oven being used.

It cannot be denied that the Good Food Festive Recipes app, as well as being neatly presented, is crammed with features. For those users who aren’t willing to risk leaving their device in the firing line of a kitchen surface on Christmas day, it might be more useful in the preparation stages than during cooking. Nevertheless, this is a great app which squeezes every drop of functionality out of a simple idea. When it’s time to put the turkey in the oven, it’s unlikely to be a purchase you’ll regret.

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

39

Oz Clarke’s Christmas Wines

A

free app developed by Gravitywell for Anova Books, Oz Clarke’s Christmas Wines provides a database of white, red, and sparkling wines, selected for the festive season by wine writer Oz Clarke. The listing for each wine features a label image, the stockist, tasting notes written

by Clarke and a chart of all key information, including price.

As well as an Oz Talks screen, which presents a handful of blog posts, there are three tabs offering different ways to browse the selection. Xmas Wines lists the two dozen featured wines, with a series of tabs along the righthand side indicating whether it is a red or white. Wine Finder enables users to filter wines by

Gift Plan

G

lasshouse’s iOs app Gift Plan joins a busy market, with Giftopia, No More Socks and Gifts HD filling a similar niche. For £1.99, it provides exactly what it says on the tin - a tool for creating and managing interactive Christmas lists, across four screens: Calendar, Ideas, Occasions, and Shopping.

Occasions presents approaching events chronologically, with the number of days remaining.

From here, users can access a recipient-orientated display, each individual given a full screen with a photograph and an overlaid text summary, which can be navigated between with a horizontal swipe. More information can be accessed, including clothes sizes, and personal likes and dislikes, gift ideas and

criteria including grape variety, alcohol volume, and region.

Finally, Stockists presents information on the 15 featured retailers, most of which is largely disposable but provides a quick way of navigating directly to the range available in your nearest supermarket.

The app also features a lot of bonus material, including a selection of articles and an introduction by Oz Clarke, but too much of it is hidden away in the ‘More’ screen - including the guide on how to use the app. In the same menu, are Favourites and a shopping list, which show wines marked by pressing the relevant button on their listing and are, functionally, both exactly the same.

All of these screens are laid

out clearly and neatly, if not especially attractively. The app is very basic looking and utilitarian, but this means that – apart from the numerous options buried under the More tab – it is simple to use.

At two dozen, the selection of wine is limited, and the app feels like a promotional item - it is, as a constant banner advertises, a miniaturised free version of the Best Wines 2011 app – but it is nevertheless useful. With prices ranging from what the app calls ‘cheerful’, wines for £5, up to one bottle at £30.99, there’s enough variety to select wines both for yourself and to be given as gifts, and the number of wines covered should be enough to keep the most enthusiast drinker occupied over the Christ-

mas period. It might not be a companion to whittle away the hours with but, as a free taster both of the paid version and of the world of wine, Oz Clarke’s Christmas Wines is pretty hard not to recommend.

previously bought items. This makes up the body of the app, and should have a section of its own, especially as other sections only apply a slightly different filter to the same information.

Gift Plan has a wide range of functionality, with many nice touches -including all-important password protection and an import function, drawing names and pictures from Facebook or the device’s contacts. Some features feel extraneous, however, while a few obvious exclusions - such as the ability to connect to shopping sites to buy the gifts look like missed opportunities.

Ultimately, Gift Plan’s greatest virtues lie in its looks. The app uses a chunky design that is user-friendly, with large buttons that are easy to select, and aesthetically pleasing. The user’s own images are incorporated nicely, but this is dependent on photographs of gifts and recipients being added. For an app meant to be used in secret, this might be a case of misplaced priorities.

December 2011

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

40

mobile ad network directory

Type of business

Ad network/marketplace

Ad network, content discovery platform

Ad network, creative, payments

LAUNCH DATE

July 2009

August 2011

January 2007

OPERATES

Worldwide

Worldwide

Worldwide

sales offices

London (HQ), Madrid , New York, Paris, San Fransisco, Singapore

India, Korea, London, New York

San Francisco, New York,Chicago, London, Paris, Berlin, Milan, Dubai, Singapore, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Sydney, Bangalore, Tokyo, Seoul

blind/transparent

Blind

Targeted

Premium, Prem Blind, Semi-blind

cpm/cpc/cpA(%)

10/90/0

10/90/0

10/90/0

In-app advertising?

Yes

Yes

Yes

ad formats

Banners, text links, interstitials, expandable banners, rich media

Banners, textual, rich media, video, full-screen banners, audio, apps, social

3D, rich media, video, social media, banners, text, full range of MMA and IAB formats

targeting

Country, geo-location, platform, device, day-part, mobile operator, demographic, channel

Contextual, real-time, keyword, location, age, gender, channels, demographics, operators, device, operating system, applications, phone/Tablet/SmartTV/PC/netbook

Category, handset technology (e.g. manufacturer, device, OS), demographic, location-based

restrictions

No adult publishers or campaigns

None

No adult, culturally sensitive, political, offensive

min spend (US$)

50

50

n/a

no. of publishers/ siTes/apps

10,000+

n/a

10,000+

unique publishers

n/a

n/a

50%

monthly impressions

Total: 20bn requests US: n/a UK: n/a France: n/a Germany: n/a Italy: n/a Spain: n/a

Total: n/a US: n/a UK: n/a France: n/a Germany: n/a Italy: n/a Spain: n/a

Total: 63bn US: 10bn UK: 3bn France: 900m Germany: 700m Italy: 350m Spain: 1bn

average fill rate

n/a

n/a

n/a

3 recent advertisers

Booking.com, Tesco, Mazda

On request

Samsung, Orange, Google

contact address

nicola.reed@adfonic.com

contact@hoopz.in

marketing@InMobi.com

they say

Adfonic, Europe’s largest independent global mobile advertising marketplace, enables advertisers to bid for display advertising space on mobile sites and applications to maximise their reach and results, and publishers to optimise the earning potential of their mobile traffic.

Adfonic operates in over 190 countries globally, and reaches an estimated 100m mobile unique users monthly. In addition to advanced targeting capabilities and extensive reach for advertisers, and competitive eCPMs and leading iOS & Android SDKs for publishers, Adfonic offers end-to-end transparency, with real-time reporting and analytics, and real-time post-click measurement, including app install tracking and conversion tracking for mobile sites.

Hoopz is the disruptive force behind the rapid growth of digital advertising and auto information discovery. Our management team comes from the leading online ad networks, mobile and device carriers and manufacturers, the largest brands and mobile technology companies.

Hoopz’s patent-pending, next-generation contextual and real-time digital marketing and auto information/content discovery platform (based on keywords in any application, without interfacing with the application) is set for innovation and thoughtleadership in digital marketing when deployed on phones, smartphones, Tablets, PCs, netbooks, Smart TVs, set top boxes, and any internet-connected device. Our platform offers unique benefits to consumers, brand owners, advertisers, telecom service providers, and device manufacturers.

InMobi is the world’s largest independent mobile ad network. With offices on five continents InMobi provides advertisers, publishers and developers with a uniquely global solution. The network delivers the unprecedented ability to reach 340m consumers, in over 165 countries, through more than 60.2bn mobile ad impressions monthly. The recent acquisition of Sprout, a leading HTML5 authoring platform for mobile rich media, helps expand InMobi’s offering to creative agencies and brands. InMobi was recently named “The Best Mobile Ad Network” at the 2011 MOBI Awards and was selected as a 2011 AlwaysOn Top 100 Mobile Company in Silicon Valley.

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

41

Ad network

Mobile Ad & Data Platform

Mobile ad network

Mobile performance network

July 2010

May 2006

May 2008

December 2006

Worldwide

Worldwide

Worldwide

Worldwide

Sydney, Los Angeles

Baltimore (HQ), London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Boston, Singapore, Washington DC

London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles

Berlin, San Francisco

Blind

Premium Blind

Blind and premium transparent

Semi-blind

20/30/50

n/a n/a n/a

n/a n/a n/a

0/0/100

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Banners, text ads, app sponsorships, interstitials, animated GIFs, advanced interstitials, rich media ads including text ads, banners ads, content unlockers, splash ads, push notifications, capture forms, video ads, app walls, offer walls, overlays, linkouts

Banners, expandable ads, interstitials and a broad variety of rich media features; mobile video products; smart apps, persistent shareable consumer destinations, which include the Mobile Circular, Media Gallery, Smash It, 360 View, amongst others. mmStudio provides a suite of advertising tools, including wireframes, that make innovation easy and enable advertisers and agencies to deliver compelling mobile ads on Millennial Media’s global mobile platform.

Text, banner and rich media

Text ads, banners, HTML5-based rich media ads for smartphones and iPad, Flash-based banners for Android tablets. Dimensions: standard MMA sizes, smartphonespecific sizes e.g. (e.g. 320 x 48, 320 x 50), standard web sizes for tablets (e.g. 728 x 90). Calls-to-action: redirection to (mobile) website, redirection to mobile application store, click to call

Country/geo-targeting, platform, category, content type, placement, time, carrier

Audience, local market, tactical (carrier, device operating system, app/browser), ‘Mobiblocks’, demographic, day-part, channel, run of network

Contextual keyword, publisher channel, location, platform/OS, model, operator, day-part

Country and city, mobile carrier, internet service provider when using wi-fi, operating system, operating system version, device brand, device model, screen size, feature phone vs. smartphone vs. tablet, day/time of day

None

No adult, sensitive, offensive

No adult

No adult

50

Please contact to discuss

10,000

1,000

10,000+

On Request

3,000+

2,000+

n/a

n/a

n/a

None

Total: On request US: On Request UK: On Request France: On Request Germany: On Request Italy: On Request Spain: On Request

Total: 3bn+ US: 2.6bn+ UK: 192m+ France: 23m+ Germany: 46m+ Italy: 39m+ Spain: 22m+

Total: 1bn US: n/a UK: n/a France: n/a Germany: n/a Italy: n/a Spain: n/a

95%

n/a

n/a

100%

Amobee, Outblaze, Snap Interactive

www.millennialmedia.com/brands

n/a

Groupon, Gameloft, iLove

bizdev@leadbolt.com

marketing@millennialmedia.com

avale@mojiva.com

talya@sponsormob.com

LeadBolt is an innovative online and app content monetization company. Recognising that app consumers have vastly different likes and habits, we provide the largest range of traditional and premium ad formats. These interactive ad formats deliver better ROI to both advertisers and publishers by creating higher response rates from consumers, and better eCPMs to app developers.

Millennial Media is the leading independent mobile advertising and data platform. We are committed to growing the mobile advertising marketplace by becoming the preferred partner to all advertisers seeking to reach mobile consumers, all application and media developers seeking to maximize ad revenue, and all mobile operators seeking to further monetize their networks. We have more than 55 reports on mobile advertising at: www. millennialmedia.com/research. You can see examples of successful campaigns at: www.millennialmedia.com/research/ campaign-summaries/

Mojiva is the mobile ad network that reaches more than 30m users in the EU5, over 750m unique users globally, and represents over 3,000 mobile publisher and apps. Through deep and open integration with all major rich media providers and ad servers, Mojiva can provide ad agencies with every imaginable mobile creative execution across mobile web sites, apps and devices. Founded in May 2008, Mojiva is led by a team of advertising and media veterans from Google, DoubleClick, Yahoo and AdMob, with more than 100 years of collective experience in online and mobile advertising and technology.

Sponsormob is a leading mobile performance network delivering mobile conversions for advertisers worldwide. Using our proprietary ad-serving and tracking software, we ensure relevant mobile ads are seen by the right people, to deliver optimal results. We simplify the mobile marketplace to offer advertisers low-risk, targeted advertising on mobile devices, to drive performance with one dedicated partner. Sponsormob also enables publishers to successfully generate revenue from their mobile traffic, with the best mobile offers available.

Total: 2bn+ US: n/a UK: n/a France: n/a Germany: n/a Italy: n/a Spain: n/a

December 2011

www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

42

thought leadership

OFF-DECK As the tills finally start ringing in the run up to Christmas, Helen Keegan considers the current state of play for mCommerce on the High Street

A

t this time of year, thoughts naturally turn to shopping, and thanks to the wonders of the web and mobile, the idea of buying Christmas presents for your loved ones does not necessarily have to involve a scrum on the High Street. In fact, this Christmas is likely to see all records broken in terms of the numbers of people buying on their mobile phone, and the amounts being spent by consumers in the channel, and we will no doubt hear from those retailers who have got their multichannel strategy right after the event, crowing about their numbers.

But these are early days for mCommerce, and although there are some high profile success stories like Marks & Spencer, Tesco and others, I still see a great deal of evidence of retailers who have not yet got it right. It seems to me that many retailers still have an app-first strategy, ignoring the reach and the power of the mobile web. It’s predicted that mobile browsing will take over from desktop browsing in just two years. You need to be ready for that Worse still, it’s not so much app-first as iPhone-and-Androidonly. Too often it seems, customers with BlackBerry or Nokia devices are shunned by retailers and other brands when they are developing their app strategy.

Yes, I’ve heard the arguments

that those smartphone customers and feature phone customers aren’t using mobile data on their phones, but I wonder if retailers have really done their homework on who their customers are and the devices they’re using and how. You know 95 per cent or so of your customers don’t have an iPhone and that 87 per cent of the population uses SMS, right?

Bad press There is a part of me, I admit, that can see how this happens.

Both RIM and Nokia have endured a lot of very bad press in recent months, and it’s very easy to buy into the negative hype around both companies and assume that to back either is to put your money on a loser.

But I think that underestimates both companies’ staying power. It also underestimates the installed base of millions and millions of BlackBerry and Nokia device users around the world, plus the fact that BlackBerry users, typically, tend to convert at a higher rate than users on other platforms. Windows Phone is making a relaunch splash. And for youth markets in the UK, BlackBerry, despite its problems, is still the only fruit.

I think ultimately, what’s needed is a holistic approach that embraces mCommerce, eCommerce, fCommerce and

sCommerce. (For anyone unfa-

Multichannel future

their stores are quasi-virtual in nature, like an upmarket, 21st Century Argos, without the 5-minute wait to collect your goods at the counter.

John Lewis has been running a similar experiment, with a QR code-based store in Brighton. The store is actually a window display in a branch of grocery retailer Waitrose which shows John Lewis’s 30 favourite things to buy for Christmas.

Scan the item you want and you are taken to the John Lewis mobile site to complete the transaction. John Lewis is also pushing the multichannel approach in its tagline: in store, online, mobile. This contrasts with another well-known High St. retailer that has blazed a trail on mobile, but whose TV ad campaign talks about going in store or online, but makes no mention of mobile. This is a missed opportunity, bearing in mind how many people are playing with their phones whilst watching TV. So mCommerce, and the companies that stand to benefit from it, are undoubtedly still

OK, it’s a bit of a gimmick at this stage, but it shows eBay’s willingness to at least contemplate the idea of a multichannel future, and who’s to say that it and Amazon will not end up as a permanent fixture on the High Street in years to come, even if

going through some growing pains. The key thing is to get started with mCommerce. It’s here and it’s happening already.

Then perhaps the numbers from Christmas 2012 will make even this year’s record figures look like a drop in the ocean.

miliar with sCommerce, I just invented the term; it’s when you have a real shop on a real street that people come into to buy things.)

This type of approach at least considers all channels and all platforms and how they fit together and complement each other, rather than ignoring any that seem to be out of favour at the present time. It looks at the role that email, SMS and advertising – mobile and otherwise – can play in keeping you top of mind, driving people into your shop, or to your website or mobile site and sharing that with their friends and family. And it treats any option as a potentially viable one, no matter how unintuitive it may at first appear.

A good example is eBay with its Christmas Boutique (see p6). Here’s a giant of the online world setting up a real, bricks and mortar shop in London where people can see the goods for sale, but then buy them using their phone or tablet.

December 2011 www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com

thought leadership

43

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