Asian eMarketing July 2010 by MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd

JULY 2010

Mobile Marketing & Advertising

marketing & advertising

Apple Pulls Mobile Advertising into its Ecosystem, pg. 4

Rising Power of Mobility and Devices Inspires MICA, pg. 38

Smaato: Mobile Advertising Accelerates in Asia-Pacific, pg. 44

EDITORIAL:

Dear Reader, Mobile marketing and advertising are coming of age. Seen as the most personal means of communication with consumers, mobile advertising gets ready for entering the larger advertising markets of print, TV, radio and online. Despite market caution, mobile advertising has gained momentum in some areas, with SMS and messaging continuing to dominate as the vehicles able to interact with the majority of mobile phones. However, the surge in Smartphone applications broadens the appeal for marketing messages inserted during program runtime, mobile publishing spreads further as well as mobile tagging and location seems to become mobile marketersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; best friend, expected to be an integral component for precision audience targeting soon. This issue of Asian e-Marketing examines the expansion and growth of the mobile segment and describes major trends and players in the mobile marketing and advertising industry - focusing as usual on the Asia-Pacific region. Enjoy the read!

Daniela La Marca Editor-in-Chief. Asian e-Marketing O N L I N E

Exclusive Sponsor of this Issue

V E R S I O N

July 2010

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

MOBILE MARKETING & ANVERTISING (Part 1) :

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Apple Pulls Mobile Advertising into its Ecosystem

Rising Power of Mobility and Devices Inspires MICA

Mobile Access of Handheld Devices Put Companies at Risk

Samsung Launched World’s First Smart Projector Phone

Killer Mobile Apps and Other Value-Added Services in Asia

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Mobile Operators Should Learn from Utility Companies

Smaato: Mobile Advertising Accelerates in Asia-Pacific

Huge Growth Forecast in Mobile App Market

What Can be Learned from Mobile Payments Leader Japan

Computer Chamber of Macau joins the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO)

3G Migration Strategies in China

LEGISLATION

FEATURE

MMA’s Mobile Advertising Guidelines

Cloud Computing: It’s an Evolution, Not a Revolution!

BUZZWORD

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Mobile Tagging and What You Should now About It

Mobile Marketing versus Mobile Advertising: Do you know the difference?

IMPRINT

Advertising Campaigns on the "Third Screen" are Gaining Momentum

MMA’s Aspect on Mobile Measurement and Metrics

Pull the Right Strings in Mobile Advertising

The Art of Great Meetings Part 1: Read between the lines – are your guests really interested in your meetings?

New Communication Dimensions Thanks to Mobile Advertising

“Sorry, I was in the middle of a sandwich”

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Apple pulls mobile advertising into its ecosystem The arrival of the iAd platform will see Apple move into the one part of the mobile market from which it has previously been absent – mobile advertising. The iAd platform, announced at the recent iPhone 4.0 OS launch, supports inapplication advertising that will span the iPhone, iPod touch, and newly launched iPad. Apple is being typically bullish in predicting great things for its advertising play. CEO Steve Jobs reckons there will soon be around 100 million Apple devices on the market and that most of people’s mobile activity will be dominated by applications, on which they will spend around 30 minutes per day. According to Jobs, if ten ads were to appear on each device every day, this would make for 1 billion ad impressions daily. The potential revenue from this scenario could be substantial.

Apple’s play is ambitious and slick, but it still faces challenges before it can corner the market – not just from Google but also from the complexity of videobased in-application advertising. There is also concern over how tightly Apple intends to control its mobile advertising platform, which is currently unclear. The big issue here is whether Apple will impose rules that in effect prevent agencies and developers from having access to the kind of rich capabilities promised by its mobile advertising vision unless they go through the iAd platform. Apple’s advertising play is both an opportunity and a necessity The iAd platform – built on the back of Quattro Wireless, which Apple acquired in January for $275 million – will support full-screen video and other interactive advertising formats built into applications, which is

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

appealing to brands. But the danger with this level of integration is that unless in-app ads are extremely well designed and targeted, they will be highly intrusive and turn users off. This is a tall order for agencies to get right. Another potential issue for developers and agencies is whether they can run the same in-application ad across the iPhone and iPad, or whether the ad in question will have to be repurposed to accommodate the different capabilities and form factors of each device.

interactivity of the Web are the two most desirable elements for both advertisers and users, but have never come together, especially on mobile. Cue Apple, which will bring these elements together thanks to the combo of iAd and its devices. This is classic, clever Apple marketing and a move to push the company’s innovation around the user interface to the fore of mobile advertising. The fact that Apple is a genuine leader in this space should not blind us to the fact that rich video is a costly, complex format to deliver.

Mobile advertising does present Apple with a potentially big revenue opportunity, but in some respects it had to introduce a mobile advertising proposition to bolster its application ecosystem. The price of paid applications is falling and the overall proportion of free-to-paid applications is increasing. Developers need new revenue incentives and this is another reason why advertising is so important to Apple. Under the business terms announced by Apple, developers will receive 60% of the iAd revenues generated by their application while Apple will retain the 40% balance. Interestingly, Apple keeps a more modest 30% of the revenues generated by paid-for applications. This is another indication of where Apple sees the App Store revenue potential going forward. Apple will deliver, but the promise is wrapped in clever marketing Steve Jobs is positioning Apple’s in -app advertising as a new category that is different from other formats such as search and online advertising in general. This is a little disingenuous: in-application advertising is a small market but it is not new, and it is also well understood that mobile is a different advertising environment from online. Jobs also made much of how the emotional engagement of TV/video and the

Apple brings a lot to the table, and will give Google a run for its money Apple will do a good job of addressing the complexity of in-app advertising and has an ecosystem that puts it in a leading position. It has a fast-growing base of devices – Jobs has announced that around 50 million iPhones have sold, and alongside this are the iPod touch and new iPad (450,000 of the latter shipped already). Apple has the largest application store on the market, with 185,000 apps and 4 billion downloads to date. The counterpoint to this is that Google Android devices are picking up, and Google is a far more experienced mobile advertising player than Apple, with a wider portfolio than just in-app advertising. Google’s ad solutions are not fancy but they are cost-effective for advertisers with an easy, self-serve interface.

It is also aiming to boost its mobile advertising play through the proposed $750 million acquisition of AdMob, one of the largest mobile advertising networks in the industry. Google has made a show of welcoming Apple’s move into mobile advertising, and in this instance Google might actually mean it, as it is hoping Apple’s push into mobile advertising will weaken the FTC argument for blocking its takeover of AdMob. Other players will feel the iAd effect more acutely With or without AdMob, Google will face stiff competition from Apple, but others will also feel the pain – notably rival device platform/app store players such as Nokia and Microsoft, and mobile operators pursuing their own mobile advertising strategy. Apple’s plans could also hit the independent ecosystem building up around iPhone applications including Millenial Meida and Greystripe (ad networks), PurpleTalk (ad exchange), Medialets (platform/analytics), PinchMedia (analytics). And these companies are just the specialists. What Apple has not made very clear is how developers and other parties work with these companies alongside iAd. It seems unlikely that Apple will insist that iAd is the only gateway to in-application advertising in the Apple ecosystem – this would anger the industry and could even draw regulatory scrutiny. But what Apple could do is create an environment that favors its platforms in other ways; for example, by only allowing access to its devices’ rich APIs via the iAd platform. This would not explicitly exclude other ad networks, but it would make them less attractive partners for developers and agencies – for example, resulting ads might be less interactive.♦ By Eden Zoller, Principal Analyst of Ovum, a Datamonitor company

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Mobile Access of Handheld Devices Put Companies at Risk Smartphones outsold laptop computers for the first time and the trend is likely to continue as many people acquired a taste to leave their laptops at home in favor of the smaller, lighter devices. While only a few mobile workers currently do all of their work on Smartphones, a survey from research firm In-Stat revealed that over 50% envision using Smartphones as their sole computing device in the future. Thus, security solutions must be in place to protect enterprises from vulnerabilities associated with this growing segment, keeping in mind that the advances in flexibility, power, and mobile access of handheld devices come with a risk. Popular features such as email and Internet connectivity, still-maturing protocols and practices, and expanded access to corporate networks and confidential information, expose enterprises to a vast and growing array of security threats. At the same rate technology makes progresses, cyber-attacks become more complex and sophisticated, including blended threats that can enter and infect multiple areas of an enterprise’s network. Protecting one part of a corpo-rate network— for example, the network gateway—without protecting endpoint devices, such as handhelds, is a gift for hackers looking for new vulnerabilities and lapses in security coverage. So it is not surprising that handheld devices have become a growing target for malicious activity by organized criminals, who seek to exploit corporate IT vulnerabilities for financial gain.

Is security jeopardizing Smartphones’ popularity? Smartphones, with their PC-like computing capabilities, are the fastest growing segment, as well as the most vulnerable to security risks of all handheld communication device categories. As they combine cellular phone capabilities with basic tools such as address books and contact lists, additional functionality like Bluetooth, MMS, and streaming video, plus more advanced features such as “push” email and Web access and the fact that they typically access corporate information, files, and resources over the Internet using software, specially designed for remote access and smaller user interfaces, gives an overview of lurking risks. However, given the changing business environment and ever-increasing capabilities packed into Smartphones, it is no wonder that they are rapidly becoming an indispensable part of business. Handheld wireless communication devices deliver real business value, allowing users to access information and applications like never before. But here’s where it gets challenging. With features such as Bluetooth, MMS, email, and Internet access, handhelds are becoming a backdoor into corporate networks and a new target for malicious activity. Protecting the security at an enterprise perimeter level is not enough, not when endpoints such as handhelds can be used as an entry point for attacks or as a mechanism for spreading malicious activity like virus, worms, Trojans, spyware and other malware.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Operating System Share, Worldwide—Smartphone Only

Source: AdMob Mobile Metrics Report: http://metrics.admob.com/2009/10/placing-admob-metrics-in-context/

The types of hand-held threats are already broad and I don’t want to go into any further details here. Already over 400 different mobile viruses have been reported. Security experts and industry analysts expect this number to grow in much the same way that malware affecting PCs has grown over the past ten years. Access to sensitive corporate data, often over unsecured wireless access points and networks, leaves businesses vulnerable to unauthorized access, loss or theft of data, including intellectual property and confidential customer information, and associated non-compliance with security regulations. Applications like online mobile banking and email expose users to the same types of threats facing PCs, confronting them increasingly with adware, spyware and phishing attacks. Currently, the greatest threat to enterprises deploying handheld devices occurs when data stored on devices falls into unauthorized hands. An alarming number of devices are lost or stolen every year, and research shows that the vast majority contain confidential business data.

Growing market of handheld devices attracts attention of hackers

As Smartphone operating systems standardize and consolidate, hackers will be able to have an even greater impact for the same level of effort, that’s for sure. So, let’s take a look at the most common operating systems in order to get a better overview: • Symbian, an open OS dominated the market for quite some time, but has been outpaced now by Apple’s iOS and the Linux-based Android OS, according to the recent Mobile Metrics report of AdMob. • Apple’s iPhone entered the scene just three years ago and now dominates the market. Running on a mobile version of its Mac OS X operating system, the iPhone software has built-in support for a VPN client and supports a range of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) protocols, focusing on multimedia features. • But Linux operating systems for mobile phones are also on the rise, as seen with Google’s G1 Smartphone, running the Linuxbased Android OS. • Palm OS is a proprietary embedded operating system used on some mobile devices and was a pioneer in Smartphones with the introduction and popularity of the Treo.

Research In Motion (RIM) Blackberry devices use a proprietary multi-tasking OS and place special focus on email capabilities. • Windows Mobile is a compact OS integrated into a suite of applications designed for mobile devices based on the Microsoft Win32 API and runs on multiple hardware platforms. As malicious entry into any part of an enterprise’s network architecture can be lethal, vulnerabilities have to be addressed by protecting all endpoints, including PCs and handheld devices. Therefore keep in mind the five primary components to handheld wireless communication device security which are secure remote network access, virus and malware protection, endpoint security policy compliance, data security, and centralized management. If you are interested in reading the details on how to ensure security and stability of information and network assets, watch out for the second part of this article in the August issue of Asian e-Marketing.♦ Excerpt from Check Point Handheld Wireless Security: Business-critical devices face new security threats.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Killer Mobile Apps and Other Value-Added Services in Asia New research commissioned by Globys, a leading provider of contextual marketing solutions for the worldwide telecommunications market, on the usage habits of mobile data users in Asia has revealed the unique value of select apps and other mobile value-added services (VAS) relative to other non-mobile channels. The research indicates that users are gravitating toward using their mobile devices versus other information delivery channels to more efficiently obtain what they want, where and when they want it. “Mobile isn’t like a PC experience where people sit down in front of their screens to consume meals of information. The unique value of apps and other value-added services is that they enable on the go ‘snacking’ of information,” said Duane Edwards, Senior Vice President of Globys. “What our research makes clear is that for a variety of activities in Asia like managing financial portfolios, wagering, and staying connected with friends and family, mobile is quickly becoming the preferred channel of engagement.” Globys conducts research with early adopters of mobile data services in culturally distinct markets to augment the predictive models that help drive its contextual marketing platform.

“What we’re looking for are disruptive services that convert behavior from one screen to another, and more specifically, those that address consumers’ needs for getting information on the fly,” said Edwards. “That’s how an operator knows it has a killer mobile app or VAS, one that offers real value when it is delivered in a contextual and highly relevant manner.” Specifically Globys’ research in Asia identified: • • • •

the details of how mobile apps and VAS get used in real life situations the occasions that matter in driving usage of these services which apps and VAS resonate in a specific market due to true cultural saliency and finally, the emotional and social stakes of getting real time information on mobile devices

The research findings reveal not just who certain mobile data services resonate with, but where, when, and precisely why they are most valued. For instance, in Asia, mobile betting eliminates the stress of having to wait in queue on the phone or at a local track to place last minute bets as the odds are changing.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Betting apps are mostly accessed by blue collar men 30 – 60 years old on racing days just a few minutes before each race. The men mostly track odds, place bets, check results and manage their account funds. They prefer placing bets via their mobiles devices because it’s faster and more efficient, as compared to other methods, and provides an enhanced sense of control as it allows for bets to be made up until the very minute the race begins just as the odds are changing. What Globys’ research uncovered was the power of this particular service in Asia to outperform traditional channels for the management and placing of bets. The data also looks at mobile Facebook and finance usage: Mobile Facebook app is most compelling for young adults 18 – 30 years of age in the mornings at home just minutes after they wake up. Those accessing Facebook want to review news feeds and check on the status of replies and

comments posted the night before. Users actually prefer to access Facebook on their phones at this time because it is easier and faster than a PC. Finance apps are most compelling just before the stock market opens while commuting to work. Those accessing it are mostly active, but amateur, mid to long-term investors.

They mostly check stock quotes and breaking financial news from overnight foreign market activity. Users seek the added sense of control that comes with tweaking orders from the night before, or submitting new ones based on the latest fluctuations in foreign markets.♦ By Globys www.Globys.com

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Mobile Operators Should Learn from Utility Companies If you are a mobile operator facing the prospect of slow growth or no growth, the experience of utility companies should interest you.

Commoditization was always going to happen

Just like electricity and gas products have been commoditized, mobile operators are now concerned that the wind of commoditization for voice and data products is blowing unstoppably. In their report, “What mobile operators can learn from utilities”, Ovum urges mobile operators to learn from the experience of utilities in adapting to a slow-growing, but stable, cashrich market.

Although it has not yet reached panic levels, the commoditization of voice and data services has altered the mobile telecoms landscape. On the surface, the industry is still stable, running well, generating strong cash flow, relevant in today’s society, and is an engine for economic growth. However, revenue growth is slow or (sometimes) worryingly absent. Yesterday’s hope – the emerging markets – is rapidly nearing market maturity, and a “killer application” remains illusive.

Mobile operators have always hoped that they wouldn't be reduced to bit carriers. While that idealism was warranted five years ago, today’s reality calls for them to accept that there isn’t much they can do beyond carrying voice and data traffic.

The fixed telecoms sector went through the same trend five years ago. Then, multi-user DSL services wiped out any hopes for the walled garden strategies promoted by the likes of AOL. Today, a similar fate has hit the mobile sector.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Smartphones, flat-rate voice and data tariffs, the decoupling of applications from connectivity, and a consumer base that has got used to the freedom of the open Internet mean that mobile operators are limited in what they can do to find new revenue sources.

It is time for the industry to review its operational model and pricing Mobile operators have always hoped that they wouldn't be reduced to bit carriers. While that idealism was warranted five years ago, today’s reality calls for them to accept that there isn’t much they can do beyond carrying voice and data traffic. Ovum’s “Telecoms in 2020” report series, highlighted that there is a profitable business for operators who position themselves as LEAN (low-cost enablers of agnostic networks) – carrying bits in their networks as efficiently as possible. Utilities are comfortable and profitable with the LEAN model. As such, they devote their efforts and new technology (e.g. smart meter-

ing) towards making the process of supplying electricity/gas efficient. Ultimately, the key concern is about money and how to remain profitable. Utilities maintain a tight grip on their pricing by retaining a rental element to their pricing and charging more for incremental usage. Mobile operators have largely abandoned separate rental revenues but it is good to see them starting to impose controls on data usage.

Operators and regulators need to reconsider the importance of infrastructure competition As in the case of utilities, there is no longer such a strong justification for infrastructure competition in many mobile markets. Market penetration has crept above 100%. Competition at the retail level is healthy enough for regulators. Not surprisingly, operators and regulators are encouraging the growth of network sharing.

If operators are sharing networks, isn’t it time to also question the expectation for each operator to build its own network? And, in the postLTE era, how are these networks paid for? Utilities do not always rely exclusively on the private sector to fund new networks. Governments step in occasionally, either via general taxation, specific duties, or by endorsing inflation-busting price rises. The telecoms industry has begun to tap into these sources too, as can be seen in the use of the universal service obligation fund (such as in India) or the emerging debate on how to fund new high-speed broadband networks in Australia, Europe, and the US.♦ By Emeka Obiodu, Senior Analyst of Ovum, a Datamonitor Group

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Huge Growth Forecast in Mobile App Market

The dominance of Apple’s iPhone in the mobile app download market will be eroded over the coming years as rivals Android, Symbian and BlackBerry make inroads, Ovum has forecast.

Between 2009 and 2015, Ovum expects Google’s Android to increase its Smartphone base from 5% to 18% penetration and its mobile application download share from 14% to 26%.

A new report by the independent telecoms analyst states that mobile application downloads, generated by non-operator application stores, will grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 41% globally over the next five years, with total downloads almost reaching 21.3 billion by 2015. That’s up from 2.69 billion in 2009.

While BlackBerry looks set to lose Smartphone share over the forecast period as newer players like Android move in aggressively, it will more than triple its share of the app download market from 5% to 17%. Similarly, Microsoft loses Smartphone share but doubles its mobile application download share.

According to Ovum, Apple generated a massive 67% of all Smartphone app downloads in 2009, despite claiming just 14% of the overall Smartphone installed base. Symbian, conversely, commanded a 49% share of the Smartphone installed base but only generated an estimated 9% of the total applications downloads market. The report states in 2015 Apple will generate a relatively modest 22% of app downloads, compared to 19% for Symbian. Michele Mackenzie, principal analyst at Ovum and report co-author, said: “The iPhone generates the lion’s share of Smartphone app downloads but over the period we will see the share of application downloads becoming more equally distributed. Over the forecast period other Smartphone platforms gain ground and by 2015 the landscape looks very different in terms of market share.”

Adam Leach, Ovum principal analyst and report coauthor, said that while North America will continue to dominate, its share of the Smartphone mobile app downloads market will decrease from 57% in 2009 to 31% in 2015. “Application stores benefit from a vast appetite for applications in this region as well as a growing Smartphone base, as well as the fact that the dominant Smartphone players have their roots in the North American market”, he added. Ovum expects Asia Pacific to experience the highest growth, with its share of the global market set to quadruple from 5% in the early phase to 20% by 2015. This growth will be driven by growing penetration of Smartphones in the region coupled with the increased availability of applications with local relevance.♦ By Ovum, part of the Datamonitor group

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

What Can be Learned from Mobile Payments Leader Japan Within industry experts’ persistent predictions about the imminent advent of mobile near-field communication (NFC) contactless payments, the Japanese market is frequently cited as proof that such payments have a future. However, Japanese market reality is not as much of a straightforward success as many believe. Based on primary research with leading mobile carriers, banks, payment services, brands, and technology vendors, the Boston-based financial research and consulting firm Celent identified ways to learn how to lay the groundwork for faster, more successful implementations of mobile NFC payment solutions. The key findings of Celent’s report “Lessons from the Mobile Payments Leader: What the World Can Learn from the Japanese Market” are the following:

•

Only a minority (even though a growing one) of Japanese consumers are using mobile contactless payments. Among Japan's market base of roughly 117 million total contactless payment accounts, Celent estimates that 28 million accounts are registered for mobile payments, and 20 million accounts are active in such payments. In other words, only 17% of the contactless account base, certainly not everyone, is making mobile proximity payments. Given the rising number of mobile phones shipped with mobile wallets and the fact that mobile subscribers swap out old phones for new ones every 24 to 36 months in Japan, it is fair to say that within a short time, mobile wallet saturation across the entire population will be well over 90%. In just over four years, almost one-quarter of contactless payment accounts in Japan have been "mobilized"; i.e., 24% of contactless accounts are registered as mobile accounts, and the remaining 76% are plastic card accounts.

There are a number of lessons to be learned from Japan, which transcends market ecosystems, including the following:

•

Customer adoption takes time. Mobile contactless payments require relatively complicated discovery, download, registration, and use processes that take time to catch on; critical mass does not occur overnight, even in such a technologically fluent country as Japan. For consumers, the payments aspect of mobile payments is ironically irrelevant. For consumers, flawless payment (i.e. financial settlement) functionality is assumed and thus is not a selling point. Rather, consumers are almost exclusively drawn by incentives. In other words, payments are a commodity-an afterthought. Merchants feel the same way consumers do; the value of mobile payments is not the payments themselves. Instead, merchants are overwhelmingly responsive to the benefits of the incentive-type information that "wraps" the financial transaction, such as coupons, discounts, and loyalty points. While such sales lift benefits hold traction with merchants, transaction speed and cash handling cost reduction benefits are of secondary importance. The use of new technology and business models associated with mobile payments creates a catalyst for market entry. In Japan, the card- and mobile-based contactless payment space is dominated by non-FIs, including mobile carriers, third party payments companies, and retailers. Banks and legacy payment brands have been easily usurped.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

â&#x20AC;˘

Inter- and intra-industry collaboration is absolutely essential. The mobile payments ecosystem is dependent upon a number of differing industries, â&#x20AC;˘ which need to be included as stakeholders to grow the market. This includes not only marketing alliances but also joint investments, sometimes undertaken by competitors. Failure to include a major player can lead to its creation of a competing payment solution.

Market players should see other industries not as part of the problem, but as part of the solution. The jury is out on whether banks can make money. Prepaid mobile contactless payments reduce banks' role to funds transfers. Credit products are not geared toward contactless use cases. This means that banks' main hope lies with contactless debit products, for which there is no track record in Japan.

"Although Japan obviously differs from the rest of the world, its success in the mobile contactless payments space merits examination," says Red Gillen, Senior Analyst with Celent's Banking Group and author of the report. "If one puts aside the technical and infrastructure differences of the Japanese market, there are a number of empirical, strategic business lessons that are relevant to other countries."â&#x2122;Ś

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

3G migration strategies in China In order to continue the strong mobile revenue growth seen in China, operators are driving 2G to 3G migrations in saturating urban markets, according to a report from Ovum, the global analyst and consulting company. In the medium term, 3G mobile data and value-added services are the path to urban revenue growth. In its “3G migration strategies in China” report, Ovum predicts 3G connections will increase to 69 million in 2010, due to ambitious 3G subsidy plans by the three mobile operators. 3G connections will then grow at a CAGR of 160% from 2010 to 2014. “We expect 3G connections to make up around 40% of overall mobile connections by 2014”, explains Tracey Chen, Senior Analyst at Ovum. The report predicts in particular, that connections will move to 3G faster in urban regions, leaving a higher proportion of 2G users in rural areas. Overall, Ovum expects 2G connections to continue to grow over the next three years, reaching 768 million in 2011. After that, 2G will decline gradually due to migration to 3G, as seen in Figure 1 (based on connection)

“Operators will need to rethink their 3G data pricing to achieve their ambitions. The three mobile operators should differentiate their migration strategies by leveraging their respective capabilities”, said Tracey Chen, based in Beijing. China Mobile’s primary imperatives are retaining lucrative 2G users, capturing enterprise users through simple and low-priced mobile services, and accelerating the maturity of the TD-SCDMA ecosystem. For China Telecom, it is necessary to capture new mobile users by offering fixed/mobile service bundling in both residential and enterprise segments, and to pay more attention on launching low to medium prices for CDMA2000 handsets to appeal to lowspending users. China Unicom is aiming to attract high-end users by offering popular handsets, favorable price packages and appealing loyalty plans, as well as using, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA)’s scale to drive its handsets into the medium to low-end market.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Figure 1 China 2G/3G connections and penetrations forecast: 2009â&#x20AC;&#x201C;14

Source: Ovum

In the medium term, new business models and revenue sources will also emerge to aid 3G growth. Relevant value-added services include application stores, mobile advertising, and mobile-payment services.

Although operators are launching application stores of their own, the application stores offered by handset providers will change the ecosystem for mobile content and threaten the leadership of operators in this area.

However, Ovum believes it is in the interests of participating parties, including content providers, ISPs, operators, and handset providers, to form partnerships to improve growth prospects.â&#x2122;Ś

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Access to sensitive corporate data, often over unsecured wireless access points and networks, leaves businesses vulnerable to unauthorized access, loss or theft of data, including intellectual property and confidential customer information,

and

associated

non-

compliance with security regulations. Applications like online mobile banking and email expose users to the same types of threats facing PCs, confronting them increasingly with adware, spyware and phishing attacks.â&#x20AC;? ~ Check Point

FEATURE

Cloud Computing: It’s an Evolution, Not a Revolution Last month, Springboard Research was holding its Cloud Asia 2010 event in Singapore and will even have a second round on the subject in Hong Kong next week. The well attended seminar cum exhibition in the Lion City was sponsored by Google, VMware, MessageLabs, Citrix, and AZAAS and had as focus on how to “extract real business value from cloud computing”. Especially the excellent speeches of Mr. Michael Barnes, Vice President of Software and Asia Pacific Research at Springboard Research, are worthwhile to summarize in this feature, as he was talking about the state of cloud computing - trends, issues, opportunities, and its adoption in Singapore. Although, there have been many events on the subject in the past months, his discourses were revealing as he mentioned a lot of uncertainties on what Cloud Computing actually means for businesses. Having just finished Springboard’s annual cloud survey of over 474 Asia Pacific users, his presentations

dealt with ‘real’ examples of the issue, shared data and proof of the tool from a user perspective. Cloud computing, put simply, is “a collection of IT-enabled resources and capabilities that can be delivered via the Internet as a service”, Michael defines. Quite interestingly, only 55% of the 74 companies surveyed in Singapore found the product relevant and 60% of the same users felt that the product was over-hyped and confusing. But as an advocate of Cloud Computing, Michael encourages users to focus on the practical benefits, such as lowered costs driven by economies of scale and much greater flexibility in sourcing and adapting to change. Whilst Michael understands that all companies are different and therefore will have most probably different needs, ‘Cloud’ capabilities are only in its preliminary phases and are opening up endless possibilities to the varying marketplaces. In his words: “Cloud Computing is the next phase in the delivery and consumption of IT-enabled services and a major evolutionary step in the maturing of the IT industry”.

FEATURE

“It provides an opportunity for organizations in Asia Pacific to leapfrog competitors in other regions”, he adds and discloses that he expects organizations across Asia Pacific to embrace Cloud Computing as a way to drive greater standardization at the IT infrastructure level, while simultaneously lowering the resources required to leverage technology solutions for business benefits. Although awareness of Cloud Computing in the Asia Pacific region is still low, it will continue to drive further demand for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), as well as broaden the types of services available via additional ondemand model, such as PaaS (Platform as a Service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). SaaS currently represents 90% of the cloud market, as businesses can relate to their services, requirements and innovations for their future growth, though infrastructure and platforms produce the highest demand across the region. For businesses it is about leveraging the multi-tenancy and shareable resources to achieve economies of scale and driving innovation to those areas where they can add more value. “It gives companies the chance for more scalability and dynamic resource allocation in a timeframe that they require”, Michael points out and mentions here mainly two types of clouds: 1. Public Cloud – services delivered over the internet from an off-site third-party provider, who bills consumers based on usage or the less commonly used flat rate. 2. Private Cloud – delivery of equivalent cloud based services on private networks, typically leveraging existing data centers, especially if it has to deal with internal and sensitive data which is available on internal networks. Most markets, with the exception of India, chose the Private Cloud,

however, both types allow the users ease of access, economies of scale, and the ability to share resources and more efficient provisioning. According to Springboard’s researches, 60% -80% of Asian companies’ IT spending supports activities they already have. Michael equates this with ‘keeping the lights on’, meaning that there is no added value to that massive percentage of IT spend. In today’s environment, however, businesses should be spending at least 30% on innovation or improvements on products to move forward. On the other hand, he points out that “most software has a usage rate of only 2030% and feels that it is waste to pay software one hundred percent, if it is possible to pay for its usage only - comparing it with charging for electricity, water, or telephone bills. Thus, according to Michael “the ongoing evolution of IT will allow efficient allocation of resources – best of breed capabilities and limited waste, but more importantly massive increase in accessibility”. “There is no good reason why we should own the underlying infrastructure from a business standpoint. As well as we do not own the rights to a telephone line, when we only want it to function well, we should picture the Cloud”, he added. Fact is that the adoption of Cloud Computing is gaining momentum and has doubled worldwide since 1999, although its fraction of the pie is still small (approx. 20%). The main reasons for its adoption are according to Michael: 1. Flexibility and responsiveness (43%) - be it ease of application, simplified server provisioning, or simplifies software updates. 2. Costs (33%) - be it infrastructure, hardware or reduced IT staffing and administration of the applications.

In growth markets such as Singapore, Cloud Computing gives a business the opportunity to innovate, creating a ‘change agent’ rather than an ‘enabler’ who operates in an environment with limited IT capabilities and still maximizes ROI of technology that remains key to competitive advantage. The lack of ‘legacy’ in some Asian markets actually provides an opportunity to companies in these markets, allowing them to leapfrog global competitors in more developed countries that invested too early. Still, there are a number of challenges that Cloud Computing faces, as Michael points out: “Security, integration, management, and data governance”. In this context, establishing and maintaining trusted relationships is critical to overall market growth. In fact, delivering strong support is even more important in the still nascent Cloud Computing market as it is needed to overcome the early skepticism, uncertainty, and doubts that characterize the market”, Michael advises. Indeed, Cloud vendors struggle in reality more with trust than technology issues. In conclusion Springboard’s presenter stressed four main pointers: 1. The ongoing industrialization of IT is inevitable – repeatable and integrative offerings are key to business success 2. Focus on practical benefits – business priorities must drive IT decisions 3. Cloud computing will not replace all on-premise IT deployments – some areas will be impacted sooner than others but some challenges will still remain 4. Educate yourself – cloud computing is not new, it’s an evolution, not a revolution Michael emphasized as well that the implications of cloud computing for IT decision makers have three common drivers - lowering costs, improving services, and sharing resources:

FEATURE 1. The most prevalent driver in recent years has not surprisingly been costs. IT decision makers increasingly do not have the authority or inclination to invest in significant upfront expenditures, due to the global impact of the recession, which unfortunately had an impact on the perceived ‘value’ of Cloud Computing, too. 2. The second driver revolves around the ease of application and service deployment, created by spending in the initial investment stages in short-term application models. 3. Looking beyond the next 12 months, the third driver will globally lead to simplified resource/ server provisioning, relating to improving IT operations and infrastructure as a service. “Most processes are evolutionary and we should embrace and understand the cycles so that we can learn from those phases and develop on what works and what doesn’t”, Michael highlights. And states further:

“There are still going to be technological challenges that will not be fully resolved in this evolutional cycle and whilst we will make the wrong choices in some instances the underlying principles are sound”. Typical concerns are for instance loss of control and loss of ownership of data, which is why storage and disaster recovery rank second in priority for current nonusers. Still, results from Springboard’s survey shows, that data storage is foreseen as the key area in the future for the take up of cloud computing, as well as Web conferencing, e-mail and Cloud solutions for enterprise applications such as CRM, ERP, SCM, BI, etc., constitutes the bulk of Cloud-related spending. In the end, there are five key areas to address: 1. Identify business and IT priorities – sourcing new solutions (CRM, collaborations, etc) and improving data centre operations

2. Determine the best ‘sourcing’ approach – on-premise versus offpremise, dedicated versus shared 3. Private cloud enablement – ensure buy-in at the right level and invest in ‘enabling technology’ 4. Public cloud enablement – choose appropriate project 5. Understand your organization and its limitations – cultural resistance and lack of control After all, to sum it up, cloud computing is an evolution, not a revolution. Each company has to decide when to join the movement, to what extent, and in what areas it makes most business sense. The key is to be aware of it and to know when it is the optimal sourcing option.♦ By Daniela La Marca

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cloud Computing is the next phase in the delivery and consumption of IT-enabled services and a major evolutionary step in the maturing of the IT industryâ&#x20AC;?. ~ Michael Barnes, Springboard Research

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Mobile Marketing versus Mobile Advertising: Nonchalantly I mixed and lumped together "mobile marketing" and "mobile advertising", until I did some research recently - actually specifically for the current issue that is dealing with both terms. And what I found out could be of interest to you, as I now know that I am not the only one lost in confusion and erroneously believing that it stands for the same.

Who explains the differences? Or who really dares to agree on a definition chart before going into business discussions? Instead of a clear understanding, technical terms are aimlessly thrown about, and the question is whether advertisers and agencies speak the same language, or even know what they should brief from each other at all?

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Indeed, there are various definitions going around and which one will be commonly accepted is still written in the stars. Is it possible to come up with the one and only, true and valid(,) definition to set a baseline standard? Well, I did some research and came across all kinds of interesting definitions for "Mobile Marketing" and "Mobile Advertising", whereas a few of the most interesting ones I am listing here: 1. Troy Norcross of consumerpreference.com found in 2006 the following definitions: Mobile Marketing: The systematic planning, implementing and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products where the primary point of contact with the consumer is via their mobile device. Mobile Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers where such communication is delivered to a mobile phone or other mobile device.

Examples of mobile advertising would include: WAP Banner ads, mobile search advertising, mobile video bumpers, interstitial ads in on device portals. 2. Wikipedia makes it quite clear that there is no commonly accepted definition for Mobile Marketing, as it rather presents various definitions for the concept of mobile marketing than anything else. However, it defines Mobile Marketing broadly as “the use of the mobile medium as a means of marketing communication” or “distribution of any kind of promotional or advertising messages to customer through wireless networks”, offering even a more specific definition, by saying: Mobile Marketing is using interactive wireless media to provide customers with time and location sensitive, personalized information that promotes goods, services and ideas, thereby generating value for all stakeholders”. Not providing any specific definition, only descriptions for technical use, illustrates the difficult classification of the notion. Mobile Advertising is defined as a form of advertising via mobile (wireless) phones or other mobile devices. It is a subset of mobile marketing.

3. In November 2009, the Mobile Marketing Association updated its definition of Mobile Marketing, saying: “Mobile Marketing is a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.” In its Glossary from 2008 (http:// www.mmaglobal.com/glossary.pdf) it is defined as: “The use of wireless media as an integrated content delivery and direct response vehicle within a cross-media or standalone marketing communications program.” Indeed, Mobile marketing is commonly known as wireless marketing, however please consider that wireless is not necessarily mobile. For instance, a consumer’s communications with a Web site from a desktop computer at home, with signals carried over a wireless local area network (WLAN) or over a satellite network, would qualify as wireless but not mobile communications. Mobile Advertising is described as: “A form of advertising that is communicated to the consumer/target via a handset. This type of advertising is most commonly seen as a Mobile Web Banner (top of page), Mobile Web Poster (bottom of page), and full screen interstitial,

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

which appears while a requested mobile web page is “loading”. Other forma of this type of advertising are SMS and MMS ads, mobile gaming ads, and mobile video ads (pre, mid, and post roll).” 4. Only a few months ago Bryce Marshall, director of strategic services at Knotice wrote about the issue as well, saying: “The myriad meanings are justified because the term “mobile marketing” generically describes marketing interactions with an individual consumer through the technologies found on a mobile device. The more technologies that are found, the more ways there are to describe “mobile marketing tactics.”Mobile Advertising is described by him as one of the four mobile marketing tactics, SMS/MMS, Mobile Web, and Applications, that are currently more widely adopted by marketers and consumers alike. He explicates further: “While mobile advertising is one of the more complex mobile tactics, mobile ads fall into a couple of primary categories: mobile banners and mobile search. Each is a spinoff of the established online ad channels with virtually the same roster of ad partners creating alternatives for consumers browsing

and searching the Internet through a mobile browser.” 5. As we dare to believe that the science finds by all means good definitions, let’s take a look at Möhlenbruch and Schmieder’s explanation of Mobile Marketing (2002). According to them Mobile Marketing is “the design, realization and control of marketing activities by use of wireless data transfer technologies on mobile terminal devices in line with a marketorientated business administration.” And Wohlfahrt (2002) understands Mobile Advertising as campaignoriented support of marketing and communication policy on mobile devices through the use of mobile data services - that go beyond the mere voice. Mobile advertising is often used as a synonym for mobile marketing, but is in a strict sense limited to activities making the customers aware of a product. It is a subset of mobile marketing: Activities like vouchers, which attract also existing customers, or campaigns to tighten existing customer relationships, are not part in advertising in a strict sense.

Based on the definitions of the advertising industry, it is perhaps convenient to use the following meaning for mobile marketing and advertising: Mobile marketing are both pushand pull-based advertising tactics, which in the context of mobile messaging services are addressed to the recipients. Mobile advertising is only pullbased advertising on mobile Internet. Whether these short explanations will be suffice for the by now fairly well developed and hotly soughtafter mobile marketing industry some may doubt. But it may give them something to talk about. So let’s wait now and hope that some experts soon provide us with exact terminologies, which can be incorporated into everyday language and allows everybody communication at eye level.♦ By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Advertising Campaigns on the "Third Screen" are Gaining Momentum Mobile phones, the so-called third screens, are increasingly used at home next to TV and computer screens, according to a study of media agency Initiative. According to their report, that surveyed 8000 active Smartphone users across four continents, 60% of mobile Web usage is performed at home now, with around 30% of Smartphone users starting their day, and even 45% closing their day with the mobile Internet. The peak time for Smartphone usage is in the evening (64%), when its users have some time to relax. People are browsing the mobile Web at home even while watching TV, listening to the radio, or just walking around. Thus, the "always on" devices really seem to gain momentum in high-speed, hand in hand with mobile advertising, which became widely accepted especially in the past two years. Without doubts the future of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;small screensâ&#x20AC;? looks promising, as the technological potentials to access information in any place and at any time continuously grow. In the years to come a new digital revolution will find its way into our daily life and change our media usage

intensively, as the mobile medium provides not only information providers, but also advertisers completely new perspectives. Just consider tagging ads (see BUZZword) in various media, with a way for people to respond to offers or participate in promotions via mobile device, to mention just one. But despite growing success, many agencies still take a skeptical view towards the new medium, which is probably due to the fact that online advertising concepts can hardly be transferred 1:1 to the mobile Internet. Additional expenses for concept, compilation of advertising material and the preparation of the socalled landing pages are therefore unavoidable. And as the volumes of mobile campaigns are in many cases still only in the four-digit range, the expenses are often perceived as to high in relation to the benefits, although the mobile Internet rewards advertisers with an above average conversion rate and clickthrough rates of 1 to 2 percent. Though there is a sea of attractive opportunities to advertise on a mobile phone, like SMS, MMS and WAP push, search and display banners, Bluetooth, CellID-Push, in-game and

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

in-video adverts, or in-menu and pre-call adverts, there are currently still no uniform measurement methods in place to evaluate their performance. The reason is that there are still only a few mobile portals that exceed the one million page views per month, but a billing in CPM can’t be taken into consideration in smaller portals with 200,000500,000 PI's a month only. Therefore, many providers are seeking a time-based billing model, where the customer is placed exclusively on the portal for several weeks, as a specific targeting for end devices or location basis is barely feasible. Yet, the target group of mobile surfers is already interesting due to the user stratum. Since many consumers access mobile content with the iPhone or iPod Touch, followed by BlackBerry devices and the Nokia N series, marketers can get access to decision-makers and innovators with a higher income than can be reached with the mobile medium only. And by taking a closer look, the often-cited limitation in displaying advertising content due to the small screen size actually represents a major advantage over traditional online advertising.

Users simply have no chance to overlook the mobile advertisements as ad blockers are not available in the mobile Internet yet. The standardization of advertising media is on track as well, although it is still in its infancy compared to online advertising. Uniform banner sizes and formats have been established in the market, such as GIF or JPEG-banners in the standard size of 96x16 to 305x64 pixels, which are the most common advertising materials, reducing advertisers’ efforts and costs. Some advertisers are moreover focusing on mobile applications, which the customer installs on the end device to then retrieve further information or entertainment content. Such applications often obtain more commitment of the addressee, but have in general the disadvantage that the production and installation process is much more costly. Flash advertising or even advertising in videos have not really prevailed yet as far as I know. This is partly due to the limited Flash support of the end devices, but also

due to the long loading times of the videos. Another important reason not to deploy these formats yet is the cost risk on the end user side as high charges per megabyte of data transfer are incurred on many of the providers’ tariff plans. But it is only a matter of time until the mobile Internet will become an important pillar in cross-media offers of big advertising offensives as its strong growth is irresistible and its full potential by far not been tapped, yet. Just consider that the mobile phone offers several back channels without cross-media conversion in a jiffy, such as linked phone numbers, SMS, online forms or email. Expect the growth of mobile advertising to expand this year exponentially and target group specific advertising will be near at hand no matter at what time and which place. The digital revolution will continue to change the use of media in the coming years as the mobile phone not only offers information providers but advertisers alike fresh perspectives all over and over again.♦ By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

MMA’s Aspect on Mobile Measurement and Metrics Bringing additional marketing dollars into the mobile category is critical for the growth of the mobile marketing industry. The reason behind the conservative mobile marketing spend seen today is that brand marketers are still looking for tangibility and measurability. Definition, accuracy and consistency of measurement are absolutely integral to the development of the mobile channel. With the introduction of accountability to the medium, marketers will no longer see mobile marketing as a ‘trial & error’ exercise but as one of the most affordable and effective medium for reaching their consumers.

Before allocating a more significant budget to mobile, brands require a deep understanding of:

• • • •

The role the medium plays in the overall mix Consumer acceptance of brand messaging Consistent guidelines and best practices to ensure rapid deployment across brands and geographies Evidence of effectiveness and value

Measurement has become a crucial element to quantify the mobile opportunity to drive brand involvement.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

The mobile value chain presents a complex model for effective measurement, given the number of players involved and the necessary access to information that has historically been available in operator networks only. So what must we, as an industry, do to drive the brand spend and marketing effectiveness measures?

•

Define ad currencies. Defining what we're measuring is the perfect place to start. In mobile, we have mobile Web, downloadable, mobile search, mobile video and television, and so forth, all of which must have a set of currencies on which to base measurement.

•

The Mobile Marketing Association in collaboration with the Media Rating Council came up with the ‘Mobile Measurement Ad Currency Definitions.’ Created to serve as the basis for discussions on development of a set of guidelines for mobile ad counting, the document provides ad currency definitions that apply to each of the referenced forms of advertisements including ad impressions, rich media as impressions, streaming video advertising and click measurement:

•

Ad impression: An ad impression is defined as the measure of the delivery of an advertisement from an ad delivery system in response to a user request. This request may be a result of a user calling for the ad to be delivered, or the technology used by the user calling for the ad to be delivered based on other user actions. Streaming video advertising: To maintain the concept of counting on when the user has the greatest opportunity to see the ad, the buffering that often occurs upon initial delivery of a video commercial must be accounted for. A valid streaming video ad impression should only be counted only once the video ad begins to appear to the user post-buffering.

Rich media ad impression: the measurement of rich media ad impressions should also occur as late in the process as possible. Rich media providers should tag ads so that they are counted only when they are played. Alternative ad designs should be made available for delivery to users with disabled flash functionalities. Click Measurement: Ad impressions related to click measurement are those ads that include content on which the user may click to obtain additional content or to initiate a transaction. At present there are differing methods used for the counting of clicks. Regardless of method used, these methods should be fully disclosed to users. Development and use of unique click identifiers is encouraged.

Quantify elements for success. Once you have the currencies, define the success elements for mobile, allowing brand marketers to understand what works. Measure the medium. Once you have all the tools in place, measure mobile's effectiveness in crossmedia marketing communications initiatives. Determining what and how much to allocate to mobile is critically important to driving ongoing spend to the channel. The lack of standardized metrics to measure audience engagement has been one of the main challenges that have kept the mobile marketing and advertising industry from reaching its full potential. Measurement will be the next element to help a brand determine the right mobile spend and prioritize mobile against other media. What's important is gaining the input and leadership from the critical players in the ecosystem. And it will take the cooperation of all key constituents -- including professional organizations, leading brand marketers, content providers, and wireless operators -- to develop a measure-

ment initiative that achieves the level of information brands require to move ahead with their mobile investments. Recently, GSMA and comScore Inc., in partnership with operators O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3UK, announced the official UK launch of the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) product. Taking irreversibly, made anonymous, mobile Internet usage data from all five UK mobile operators, the service will provide a rich, aggregated view of mobile Internet usage behavior, enabling market-level analysis of site visitation and engagement metrics, such as page views, time spent on specific sites, and device types and features. The GSMA-comScore initiative provides us with an excellent indicator of mobile marketing industry metrics in a mature market like the UK. This is definitely a more tangible measurement of reach as compared to other traditional media channels. For markets like India and the Philippines that have some of the highest mobile penetration and SMS usage rates, metrics such as these will provide agencies with the ammunition to demonstrate the value of the mobile channel to brands as they consider mobile as an integral part of their campaigns.♦ By Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, APAC, Mobile Marketing Association

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Pull the Right Strings in Mobile Advertising A few years have passed by since the first solid ideas for mobile advertising in the context of WAP and MMS have been debated in the industry. Although a lot of mobile advertising campaigns have come to life so far, providing some very good case studies that demonstrate how it can be used successfully, mobile advertising has still a long way to go compared to Internet advertising, which already belongs to our daily life. Upon investigation of various mobile advertising campaigns, the principles of success for all forms of advertising emerged, such as a clear definition of the

objectives of the campaign or ensuring the measurability. Beyond that, there are mainly four specific factors that justify a successful mobile advertising campaign, which are: 1. The overall customer acceptance The currently still to some extend low consumer acceptance is based almost exclusively on the customer's perceived or feared intrusiveness of mobile advertising messages. Customers' trust, however, can be obtained in several ways and special incentives such as voucher or playful applications integrated in advertising can definitely increase the acceptance significantly on the con-

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

sumer side, besides for instance offering ad-funded calling minutes and SMSs. 2. A clearly defined target group. Mobile advertising in general offers a great opportunity for precise targeting. Some necessary criteria are already known, through the use of mobile phones alone e.g. the phone type, and thus the functionality of the device (e.g. requirement for playing videos or running Java applications), user profiles through registration, and for instance as well the location of the customer. This allows that at the right time, at the most suitable place, the right information can be provided for the customer. Double-digit CTRs (Click Through Rates) are not uncommon for such targeted campaigns. Some car manufacturers such as Range Rover, Ford or Hyundai already very regularly use mobile advertising banners in order to strengthen their brand and reach for their mobile campaigns average CTRs of up to nearly 10 percent. 3. The integration into a broad campaign. Mobile advertising campaigns are most successful when they are incorporated in a broad advertising campaign, supporting ideally the traditional advertising channels, as regardless of location, clients become accessible for advertisers now.

An example of such a successful integrated marketing campaign provides Dunkin 'Donuts. The company invited customers via print and broadcast advertising to send a code via SMS and got in return a link for a download voucher for a coffee. The whole campaign, which was running for two months, led to a turnover increase of 9 percent. This proves that campaigns that offer a reasonable value-add, by all means may have a measurable success for the advertiser. Still, any campaign should consider that less is often more as sometimes a simple SMS is sufficient for registered users to distribute, for example, a link. For banner advertising short and concise information is most important and should be considered. 4. The adaptation of the message to the context of mobile phone usage. The mobile phone is valued as something very personal and therefore unwanted messages are perceived as harassment. As mobile advertising is exceptionally successful when customers are ready to interact and to reveal information about them, all market participants have to operate in a disciplined manner, including the definition of a framework and making sure that consumer confidence is not abused. Only then a solid and successful business model can be developed.

Mobile network operators have developed a close relationship with end users and can therefore manage advertising campaigns targeted according to certain criteria like demographics, location and mobile device type of the consumer. They basically still pull the strings, as they control, besides the tariff rates, the data traffic as well. However, many advertising models are only useful if the customer does not have to pay for the data communication. Therefore, some mobile operators started to cooperate both with ad servers for placement of advertisements as well as with Internet companies for the provision of various applications - from search functions to exclusive music tracks of famous artists. A standardized business model, however, didn't become widely accepted yet and this implies in particular for mobile operators, Internet companies and handset manufacturers a huge growth potential. As the off-portal Internet gains in importance, the traditional internet companies like Google or Yahoo, but also handset manufacturers such as e.g. Nokia, benefit increasingly. So the most important thing in this new competition is in particular, which supplier gains the trust of users and, above all, can keep it.â&#x2122;Ś By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

The Art of Great Meetings Part 1: Read between the lines – are your guests really interested in your meetings? All of us have been on a web or phone conference where the host asks “are there any questions” and the sound of a clock ticking is all you can hear after that. What about getting a response like “could you repeat that question please, I was on mute”. Frustrating, isn’t it?

easily as face-to-face meetings. Often, the important message that you are trying to get across is missed in the process. So how can you close the gap? Here are some simple guidelines you can use to gauge your audience’s level of interest and how to keep them engaged.

Sensing the tone and voice reactions of your audience in a virtual environment doesn’t always come as

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

It’s all about learning the basics

•

A famous study by Albert Mehrabian concluded that human beings communicate as much as 38 percent of our message through our voice (tone, pitch, and so on), with as little as 7 percent through the words we actually say. When it comes to meetings, always be on the lookout for ‘what’ the other party is saying and most importantly, ‘how’ they say it. If you’re in a web meeting, it’s good to encourage your guests to use their web cams because it will give you more of an insight by looking for cues in their eyes and overall body language. Most importantly, learn to interpret messages from the tone of their voice.

•

Ways to read your audience and keep them engaged 1. Listen to their speed and tone Like body language or facial expressions, tone and speed can tell you a lot about your audiences’ level of engagement. For example, if they reply in:

•

• • • •

•

Monotonous and curt says, “Can we please move on and get this done? I’ve got better things to do”. Slow speed and low pitch communicates, "I'm not in the right frame of mind for this meeting and want to be left alone." An abrupt speed and loud tone say, "I'm frustrated and not open to input!" Muffled with drawn-out speed indicates “Pardon me, I’ve not woken up yet”. Ask if there is anything else they would like to discuss apart from what’s on the agenda Give them a task to do and get them to share it with the rest of the attendees once the time is up Regularly ask each attendee for their agreement or feedback verbally

Throw a little bit of humor to lighten up the mood Run polls through the web conferencing interface. Make these fun or informative and use them often.

When any of the above happens, try to spice things up with your audience by doing: 2. Listen to their voice inflections: Stressing different words in the same sentences gives you clues to your audiences’ moods. For instance, stressing the words “would you” in this sentence makes it sound defensive: “What would you like us to do about it!” But, if they stress the words “like us”, it hints that they are curious and want to find out more. 3. If they’re not talking, get them talking: If you are experiencing the uncomfortable silence during a web meeting, you may want to ditch the PowerPoint and use a digital whiteboard as a substitute. If this happens during a conference call, you may want to pass presenter control to your audience and encourage them to voice their thoughts and ideas instead. Also, always have back-up activities – such as polling and voting that require your audience’s participation to illustrate a point. When you create an open, collaborative environment, you’ll be surprised who comes out of their shell.

rating the flow of the discussion. During a web meeting, you can also get the multi-taskers to share their desktops so they can demonstrate an application or walk the audience through a presentation. These tricks will definitely work in keeping them away from their inbox, chat, or browsing the web. At the end of the day, if you are the one running the meeting always remember to be fun and entertaining and most importantly, yourself. Start the meeting by telling a story or delivering a creative opening to set the right mood and tone. Original examples, especially from your own recent experience, always work well to relate and identify with your attendees. Engaging your attendees with an occasional relevant joke also helps them to loosen up and raise the level of expectancy and anticipation. When you know that your audience is excited, you will feel confident and they will settle in more easily. With that in mind, good luck!♦ Keep a look out for PGi’s The Art of Great Meetings Part 2 on 10 ‘unique’ meeting personalities you often encounter in meetings and tips to improve your interactions with them.

4. Identify multi-taskers: We all do it, and we can agree it makes for less productive meetings. Who’s muted and but is actually on the other line with her friends? Who’s in a remote office and not in the conference room with others? When you know that you have multi -taskers in the group, try to encourage them to own a piece of the meeting like taking the minutes or even mode

By Joanne Rigby, Asia Pacific Marketing Director, PGi

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

New Communication Dimensions Thanks to Mobile Advertising For many people the mobile phone has become their constant companion, which they use not only for phone calls but to selectively send and receive text messages, images, as well as audio and video files. The most personal mass media and first advertising medium in the pocket seems to have finally hit the road to success. Having mobile portals up their sleeves that offer a new generation of promotional environments also gets higher attention of mobile advertisers. Now they can make their brand a constant companion of their consumers and reach clients personally, anytime, and anywhere.

The mobile web, applications and text messaging are changing the way consumers search, shop, and interact with one another. And since mobile advertising becomes increasingly location and context-aware, consumers are able to conveniently find nearby points of interest, locate coupons and special offers, and employ their mobile browsers to enhance their shopping experience. Without doubt, mobile has left its pioneer stage behind and is coming of age, including standards in the field of advertising or audience measurement. Just less than two years after the start of mobile advertising some guidelines are uniformly adopted by all part-

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

ners in the market and defined Mobile Advertising Standards are at hand that recognize the peculiarities of the medium and ensure its effective handling. Thus, the mobile industry has been actually about seven years faster than the stationary Internet back then.

from mobile by developing and executing on a properly crafted mobile advertising strategy, as Microsoft Advertising summarized it in their whitepaper “The Consumer Packaged Goods Industry’s Guide to Mobile Advertising”. According to their report, mobile advertising, besides developing a one-to-one relationship with consumers, does a lot in addition:

• • • • • •

Besides the standard advertising formats, innovative special formats that enable with multimedia elements an effective showcasing of the brand on the phone have been developed. With mobile advertising, marketers can start a dialog with their target group through interactive attempts and ensure that the audience is dealing with their brand. And that is simply invaluable especially in times of increasing resistance to advertising! If a real added value is offered on top, the impact of advertising can be increased significantly. The mobile phone is both a media to promote messages and a channel to sell and transact. It opens an interactive channel to engage with nearly everyone who carries an end device with an increasing number of those accessing the mobile web. Especially consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, such as for instance Coca-Cola, can benefit

Builds brand awareness Extends special offers and coupons Increases sales and in-store traffic Acquires and retain customers Enhances multichannel campaign efforts Stimulates word-of-mouth and social media engagements

As their best practices for mobile advertising efforts of CPG brands are appreciable as well, I am listing them here, too:

1. Specials and promotions within mobile search and banner advertising can be used to sell perishable inventory such as consumer products with timerelevant packaging. Please, ensure to change promotions regularly not to become boring. 2. Aim for long-term communication plans when doing onpackage promotions. Consumers may keep product package for a long-time. 3. Mobile coupons, sample redemption and apps with store locators help drive consumers to retailers that sell your product. Make sure that everyone in the delivery chain is aware of and supports your program, especially with programs that encourage retail point-of-sale redemption as in the case of coupons and sample redemptions.

4. Invest in commerce enabled mobile web presence. Landing pages are increasingly mobile commerce-enabled, allowing for a transaction right on the spot. 5. Make sure your message is relevant and targeted, as it increases the response rate of any mobile campaign. CPG companies can target through a combination parameters including location, customer’s online behavior, handset, wireless carrier, age, gender, household income and time of day. 6. Build a mobile database so that you can send consumers offers and deals. Always include an opt-in option on the landing page or in the ad creative. 7. Keep your program calls-toaction clear and simple. Consumers should not have to think about what it is the marketer wants them to do. 8. Think past the click and consider each step of your mobile advertising campaign in advance to be able to react fast once consumers respond. 9. Choose appropriate mobile partners that can help you leverage the power of the various mobile media and mobile advertising practices. Ask for references from successful campaigns to find a vendor that aligns with your needs. 10. Adopt the Mobile Marketing Association’s guidelines (see Legislation) 11. Track, measure and analyze the results of your mobile advertising campaign continuously and be able to make appropriate adjustments if needed.♦ By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

“Sorry, I was in the middle of a sandwich” More Than 30 Percent of Business Professionals in Singapore Risk Embarrassing Moments During Conference Calls In a world that demands more to be done during the working day, a new survey from meeting experts Premiere Global (PGi), has found that more than 50 percent of professionals in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong multi-task during conference calls or web meetings. Not surprisingly, more than 35 percent admitted that they had experienced an awkward episode as a result of doing too much at one time, like saying something embarrassing about another person or sharing a joke on their screen when they shouldn’t. The survey that was commissioned by PGi in June 2010 asked a total of 1,000 full-time workers in these three markets about their meeting habits during conference calls.

In Singapore, nearly 60 percent of business professionals like to work on another task in tandem, go through their emails, or even chat with co-workers offline on an entirely unrelated topic. Interestingly, respondents also admitted to watching TV (11 percent), reading the news (23 percent) and checking social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter (17 percent). Given Singapore’s obsession with food, it’s no surprise that 28 percent of respondents are happy to eat their way through a conference call! Some of the most embarrassing conferencing moments for Singapore included:

• • •

“Speaking in my native language and realized that the phone was not muted” “Didn’t hear that the question was directed at me” “Had a completely different conversation altogether because I thought I was talking to a different person”

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Joanne Rigby, marketing director at PGi said, “Although the person on the other end of the line – or screen – cannot see you, it’s important to participate and be engaged in the meeting as if it is a face-to-face interaction, especially when more and more of us are regularly conducting meetings remotely. Simple things such as muting your phone and minimizing your email and instant messaging pop-ups will help you to have a more professional meeting, and hopefully one that’s blooper-free too.” Conference calls on the go The research also revealed some pretty interesting places that Singaporeans have taken work-related conference calls, including at the train station, in a hospital, during a flight and even in the theatre! “Whilst calls have taken place in some rather interesting locations, it’s clear that Singaporeans are also using collaboration tools to work more flexibly, with nearly 60 percent having used web or audio conferencing for work purposes whilst at home. It shows that businesses and employees are really

embracing technology to allow them more freedom in their work,” adds Joanne. However, for those who are working from home, it can sometimes be difficult to switch off or create clear boundaries for work and rest. “Try to create a defining moment – such as reading your favorite book or watching a movie– to signal the formal end of your working day,” continues Joanne. Joanne also offers some additional tips on conferencing etiquette for both participants and meeting organizers, enabling more productive meetings both online and over the phone:

•

Stay engaged: To ensure people are focused throughout a call, keeping them on their toes will decrease the amount of time they spend multitasking. If you’re presenting, ask lots of questions and make calls as interactive as possible. Be organized: Send through a meeting agenda in advance, and ask attendees to come

•

prepared with information they want to discuss in the meeting too. Not only will this help more people get involved, but it will also help the meeting stay on track and not go off at tangents. Cut out the noise: You wouldn’t expect interruptions in a face-to-face meeting, so for those that are frequently on the move and have to take conference calls on the run, make sure conference details are included in the email invitation, along with instructions to mute/ un-mute their line to block out background noise. Seeing is believing: With technology opening up more doors than ever before, the ability to use web conferencing in conjunction with the telephone means that it’s possible to see people on webcams throughout the meeting too. Having some face-to-face time makes things far more personal.♦ By Premier Global Services, Inc

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Rising Power of Mobility and Devices Inspires MICA As part of the Singapore Government’s efforts to enhance its online presence and connect with the public more effectively, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) commissioned home-grown provider of missioncritical government infrastructure and solutions, Ecquaria Technologies Pte Ltd, to revamp their www.gov.sg portal and develop an appropriate iPhone app. MICA's goal is to offer a convenient platform to access and get updates on government news, initiatives and information, supported by a ‘single access serving multiple needs’ approach. The increasing ubiquity and popularity of Smartphones in Singapore, due to the excellent national broadband infrastructure, motivated MICA to improve its online presence and be accessible “on the go”. Singapore has a mobile population penetration rate of 139.6% (as at May 2010) so the government responded quickly to the changing consumption pattern

and uses the opportunity to extend its range of services to better reach out to the public that is taking up new media experiences with staggering speed. MICA’s decision to embrace advanced technology for presenting a refreshing layout of their portal and enhanced features for easy navigation is therefore more than comprehensible. The launch of the iPhone app can then be regarded as the next step to keep pace with the increasingly demanding ubiquity, connectivity and content flowing across different devices that supports ever-greater interactivity and convenience. Commenting on the launch of the www.gov.sg portal, Rear Admiral (NS) SIM Gim Guan, Deputy Secretary (Information and Corporate Management) MICA, said: “Over the years, with the rapid changes in infocomm technology, our people have become more sophisticated users of the internet. The government should therefore go beyond delivering electronic services and information online, to also providing a more holistic online experience. The revamp positions the www.gov.sg portal as the electronic communications

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

platform for the public to connect with the Singapore Government. The public can now have an integrated and seamless access to the latest news updates and services across all government agencies from a single platform.” With an increasing number of people accessing news and information using mobile devices, RADM Sim added, “We are also continuously exploring new ways to reach out to the public, particularly the increasingly mobile and younger generation. We are therefore pleased to provide this new government-centric application on the App Store. This will enable iPhone users to get the latest government news and updates anywhere, anytime.” Moving forward, MICA will work on providing similar applications to make the www.gov.sg website accessible to more users on other mobile channels. Ms Bhavani, Director of MICA’s Public Communications Division elaborates: “The transformed portal has a stronger focus on communicating the government news of the day to the public. Citizens will enjoy the convenience of going to just one website for their daily news dosage, or have alerts via Twitter, RSS feeds or email delivered directly to their desktops. The public can also enjoy the convenience of accessing electronic-services, calendar of government events and directory of contact information from a single platform. Another value-add feature that the public will find useful is the integrated Frequently Asked Questions, or iFAQ.” The new Website offers further an enhanced search engine that yields richer search results, as it crawls more databases, which include web pages, FAQs, directory listing and e -services related to the search keyword. This certainly saves users the hassle of having to do multiple searches. And finally the www.gov.sg iPhone app provides another avenue for the public to access the latest government news, available free of charge from

the Apple App Store through iTunes or iPod touch at http:// itunes.apple.com/app/www-gov-sg/ id371635515?mt=8. MICA’s spokespersons state further: “We are currently exploring a Java application for mobile phones which use the Android operating system, as we are seeing an increasing number of Android phones introduced in the market and hence this is going to push up demand for Android apps. This will enable more mobile users to access government news and information on the go.” Best is that besides providing news, events, feedback and search features, MICA’s new portal is updated throughout the day. The por-

tal offers, as mentioned, dynamic user-friendly features such as new media interactive tools to better engage and involve the users and is improved in design and usability. Users with different Internet browsers and devices can enjoy conveniently a consistent and hassle-free quality experience. Ecquaria, an associate company of BT Frontline, supported MICA’s iPhone app project. With more than a decade of experience the company could already set benchmarks in innovative public service delivery by introducing and adopting a radical new Service-Oriented approach as an immutable forethought in the design, development and deployment of iGov infrastructures.

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

According to Chong Ser Wah, Director of Professional Services, Ecquaria Technologies: “Efficiency is a key consideration in rolling out the iPhone app. One challenge was to ensure that updates made on the portal can be simultaneously refreshed on the iPhone app without incurring additional steps. The architectural design of the workflow system allows us to do just that, without having to incur additional operational effort.” Noting the company’s relentless focus on offering innovation and creating value for customers, Dr Foong Wai Keong, President & CEO of Ecquaria Technologies added: “We are excited about the launch and are looking forward to work closely with MICA to add some of the latest ideas and innovation along with creative design to make www.gov.sg succeed as the preferred Singapore Government online news and communications platform. The addition of the www.gov.sg app for iPhone is one of the ways to demonstrate our commitment to our customer to help the Singapore Government reach out to more segments of the public.”

“Currently, the www.gov.sg receives an average of 7.5 million views per month, based on Google Analytics’ tool, which provides insight on website traffic”, says Ms Bhavani, adding that within the first week of the launch itself, the www.gov.sg iPhone app registered as the Top 3 under News/Free application category (behind The Straits Times and Channel NewsAsia) on App Store and garnered 8,931 iPhone app downloads as at July 12, 2010.

Encouraged by success, Ms Bhavani brings forward that MICA will continuously explore new ways to improve the usability of the website as well as ensure that the information and e-services are up-todate, relevant and accessible to the public. As using the Internet seems to be one of the great unifying experiences of the current era, Internet-style interactivity and access to content will continue to expand across media consumption in every segment and for sure have a stake in the future.♦ By Daniela La Marca

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Samsung Launched World’s First Smart Projector Phone The popular consumer electronics brand Samsung launched the world’s first Smart Projector phone this month in Singapore. The Samsung Galaxy Beam was presented on July 8, 2010 to the media and Asian e-Marketing was one of the first that glanced at this innovative product. Due to the high penetration of latest technology phones, as well as the good infrastructure Singapore has to offer, the Galaxy Beam (Model GT-I8520) is launched first exclusively with StarHub in the Island Republic, as the provider can stream 24 channels on its mobile offering, of which 14 are even free. Samsung’s global competitiveness has improved dramatically over the past few years, due to their consumer-oriented approach of fulfilling demands and their flexible yet cost-effective multi-platform strategies. The uniqueness of their new Smartphone, which runs on the Android 2.1 platform, is not only that it features an ultra bright and high resolution Super AMOLED screen, but that it has an integrated Pico projector, which transforms the phone into a pocket presentation tool or home theatre.

Most picture or video formats are supported, as well as many MS Office applications like Word or Power Point, making it theoretically possible to run sales presentations from the mobile device. Though Samsung sees this feature as a business tool, I personally find this to be a bit pretentious, as it is clear, that such a small projector is not bright enough to present content effectively during daytime, except if the meeting room is very dark. In addition, presentations have to be pre-loaded onto the microSD card. For a business application, a neat feature would be, that a PC could interface by wire, or even better, wirelessly with the phone for business presentations. Yet, the true strength of this feature will most likely stay in the personal entertainment area for quite some time, until other major technical breakthroughs in projection come in the next years, increasing its brightness. Having said that, the picture quality of the projection system is very good and has a focus range of 5 to 50 inches of screen size, making it ideal for home entertainment applications. Though the built-in loudspeaker system is sufficient to let a small group of people hear the sound of the video presentation, an external speaker system can easily connected via the standard headphone jack. The application ideas for this feature are endless, being able to watch movies

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

as a group while in remote areas on vacation, on budget plans (just don’t annoy the neighbors), or anywhere, that you would normally not think of having a TV at hand. The Galaxy Beam’s projection system obviously drastically reduces the battery time on a single charge, which is stated to be an impressive standby of 530 hours and talk time of 7 hours. In the projection mode Samsung claims a battery life of about 3.5 hours, and when projection and streaming of TV content takes place simultaneously, about 2 hours. So don’t forget to bring the charger or a spare battery. Otherwise, the Galaxy Beam is packed with the standard smart phone features, which can be intuitively found on the crystal clear touch screen display. Starhub will offer the phone in four different data packages, the phone ranging from SGD 0 to 398 and the packages from SGD 38 to 205 per month.

Overall, the new Smartphone reinforces Samsung’s technical leadership and strong design capabilities, proving that the Korean manufacturer put added emphasis on the model line-up built on the Android platform to rival iPhone.

We will see if with the Galaxy Beam Samsung developed a killer mobile service tool, but the integrated builtin projector and high resolution screen definitely give the new Smartphone its own and innovative product identity in this highly competitive market.♦ By Roger Stadler

As using the Internet seems to be one of the great unifying experiences of the current era, Internet-style interactivity and access to content will continue to expand across media consumption in every segment and for sure have a stake in the future.

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Smaato: Mobile Advertising Accelerates Smaato Inc., a global mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, published recently a whitepaper on mobile advertising in South-EastAsia that caught my attention, as it reveals interesting results on the mobile Internet boom in the region. The privately held company, based in Silicon Valley, was founded in 2005 by an experienced international management team. Asian e-Marketing had the chance to interview its CoFounder and CMO, Harald Neidhardt, to find out more about Smaatoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advance and push for growth in the mobile advertising space in Asia. In order to tackle the complex Asian market, which is renowned for its own rules and requirements, the company established a Singapore presence already in 2009, after attending the MMA Forum there.

Mobile advertising market in South-East-Asia According to Smaatoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s report more than 400 million people will have access to the mobile Internet this year and the average mobile Internet user across Asia will generate 26.47 page impressions per day. Users in Asia will be producing over 15 billion page impressions on a daily basis (including Japan and China) and the total spending in the mobile advertising market will be about $1.5billion in 2010 in the region. These figures speak for themselves and prove that the mobile Internet is an exceptional opportunity for brands to communicate with their customers, so I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to elaborate on this here in detail. Fact is that mobile Internet usage across Asia is second only to messaging when it comes to mobile data services, while the hype of the developed mobile world around apps and Smartphones has penetrated massively the region, too. It is a growing marketplace that

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

gets rolling in Asia today and is going to be very big. Still, the mobile Internet journey in Asia seems to be only at the beginning, with Japan, South Korea, and China as forerunners, which are not only the flag bearers for mobile advertising across Asia, but actually even doing so globally. Challenges and highlights The numbers in Asia are certainly impressive and the opportunities immense, but Smaato warns that the complexity of mobile advertising campaigns shouldn’t be underestimated and that there are a many hurdles a brand must overcome to connect with consumers. It is for instance important that the brand creates compelling content, deemed relevant and contextual to the consumer, while accounting for the diverse national cultural differences across Asia. This content must then traverse over 400 devices in use across Asia, ranging from legacy devices to Feature Phones and Smartphones, each with different screen sizes, running on different operating systems, and over disparate operator networks. On top comes the multitude of ad networks required to finally serve the content to the consumer. Precisely due to the complexities in-

volved in delivering a mobile display campaign, the majority of operations have been restricted to country campaigns. Mr. Neidhardt is proud that his company could gain significant traction in the region in the past year with its aggregated ad network approach, claiming: “Asian countries have become the largest inventory leaders in the Smaato network behind the USA. Strong countries include Indonesia, Japan, India, South Korea and Vietnam. The inventory is huge and now we are working with our ad network partners to bring the advertising budgets up to par as well.” He adds further: “At Smaato we are convinced that the future is mobile, as published in our white paper. We believe that Asia is the next powerhouse in regards to mobile advertising. As Japan leads the mobile advertising market with the first country to exceed the $1 billion budget mark, we are convinced that other countries within Asia and the Southeast Asian markets will also excel. We see strong inventories in Indonesia and India, followed by South Korea and also Vietnam.” He expects an explosive growth in ad spend in Asia (10% - 20%) and is convinced that mobile advertising will become bigger than online advertising in the near future.

Harald Neidhardt Smaato’s CMO is especially fond of the growth of mobile as a medium in emerging markets, where citizens are now getting more and more connected through means of mobile devices. He believes as well that not only marketing but also education and communication can make the world a better place. While the western world is leveraging their choice of display devices and different media - like TV, PC, laptop, Smartphone or tablet PC emerging markets have the chance to leapfrog “old electronic media”. Therefore, “marketers and agencies should continue and enhance investments in mobile media rather sooner than later”, he advices, adding that foresight is necessary to take mobile experiments to a higher level.

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

He is convinced that “marketers, who risk small mistakes, can learn and apply their new gained knowledge to a long-term advantage by staying relevant and grow the business with young and interactive consumer groups”. As per Mr. Neidhardt, “advertising as an industry will change fundamentally with declining traditional media consumption and the advent of social media.” "Consumers are nowadays more educated and aware of choices and different technologies”, he explains and Smaato’s mobile advertising (SOMA) platform, most probably can please them. It aggregates more than 40 mobile ad networks worldwide and optimizes mobile advertising revenues according to automated rules overseen by an experienced ad operations team. More than 5000 publishers have signed up with Smaato as a partner to monetize their content in around 220 countries so far and Smaato is managing 7 billion ad requests per month. SOMA’s unique feature is the aggregation of multiple leading ad networks globally to maximize mobile advertising ARPU. It can be easily integrated with ad networks, ad inventory owners (publishers, developers and operators) and 3rd party ad technology providers and supports all of the most popular handsets, including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Phone. Mobile advertisement ROI measurement When asked to give his insights how mobile advertisement ROI can be measured, Mr. Neidhardt explains: “Mobile advertising can be measured by performance (like in the Smaato Metrics) or by indirect factors like brand lift and conversion in mobile sales. There are different approaches in measurement from the MMA and the GSMA to name a few, but so far research is at an early stage and just the increase of usage of the mobile medium is an indicator as well.

Ultimately, any medium will be measured by its commercial success. When the first $1billion is made in m-commerce and the first 1 billion consumers are registered with Facebook on mobile, as an example, we know we have something big.” “There are already some great analytics tools that measure mobile web traffic that are getting deeper in behavioral data and give guidance to marketers”, he added. The mobile display market in developed nations has evolved using a cost per thousand (CPM) model, but in parts of SE Asia, in particular, it is a cost-per click (CPC) model that has been adopted for the majority mobile display campaigns. The CPC model provides a guarantee to advertisers that they will only have to pay for their ad if a subscriber clicks on it. For the last 18-24 months this has been the favored model in developing markets, because it is perceived as a more secure return on investment, enabling companies to experiment with mobile advertising in the nearterm. However, during the past 12 months, the model has expanded beyond CPC - towards a more elaborate cost-per action (CPA) model that is incorporating browsing (landing page), call, text or email. Smaato is convinced that more and better trained mobile specialists in

agencies and media companies, plus a new generation of mobile trained consumers, will soon expose the most viable business model for SE Asia in mobile advertising and mobile commerce. What’s next? Mobile location-based advertising (LBA) will be one of the drivers in mobile advertising according to Smaato’s CMO, although the industry is just entering the era where lots of information and services are more relevant to the consumer when made location-aware. He says: “In general, as a marketing industry, we have to learn to think in different engagement techniques to fulfill the promise of conversational advertising. What I mean is that we are at an early stage of the mobile advertising industry and the banner format might not be the Holy Grail for mobile marketing in the long run. We can add augmented reality, time, voice, video and LBA combined with the social aspect and data rate plans that allow the consumer to be always on. People will define which services are being used or which are a gimmick or plain over-engineered. What is for sure is that the mobile industry is shifting towards making the whole mobile experience better and more playful, and that includes especially the post click conversion and experience.”♦ By Daniela La Marca

CLICK HERE

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Computer Chamber of Macau joins the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) The Asia Pacific ICT Industry Cooperation Summit was held on 16th of July 2010 in Macau, in conjunction with the opening of the 1st Communic Macau 2010. The signing ceremony took place at the Macau Fishermans Warf Exhibition Hall on the day of the opening of the inaugural Communic event. The signing of the agreement between The Computer Chamber of Macau was witnessed by guests from the MSAR Government, as well as 33 ASOCIO delegates from nine other member countries, including Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. In addition, delegations from the Provinces of Zhuhai (Zhuhai Association for Science and Technology), Shenzhen (Shenzhen Computer Industry Association), and Hong Kong (The Chamber of Hong Kong Computer industry) also attended the ceremony. In conjunction with this visit, the ASOCIO delegation was received furthermore by the Macau Economic Services Department (www.economia.gov.mo), The Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (www.ipim.gov.mo), as well as the Bureau of Telecommunications Regulation Department (www.dsrt.gov.mo).

The Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) is a group of IT industry associations coming from various economies in Asia and Oceania region. Established in 1984, ASOCIO’s objective is to promote, encourage and foster relationships and trade between its members, and to develop the computing industry in the region. Presently, ASOCIO represents the interests of 29 economies, comprising 22 members from Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and seven guest members from USA, UK, Canada, Spain, Russia, France, Kenya and now also Macau. Today, ASOCIO’s members account for more than 10,000 ICT companies and represent approximately US$300 billion of ICT revenue in the region. Under the ASOCIO umbrella, member economies are provided an opportunity to collaborate amongst the member economies for growth. For more information, please check out the following link: www.asocio.org ♦ By Roger Stadler

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are convinced that the future is mobile and believe that Asia is the next powerhouse in regards to mobile advertising. As Japan leads the mobile advertising market with the first country to exceed the $1 billion budget mark, we are convinced that other countries within Asia and the Southeast Asian markets will also excel. We see strong inventories in Indonesia and India, followed by South Korea and also Vietnam and expects an explosive growth in ad spend in Asia and mobile advertising become bigger than online advertising in the near future.â&#x20AC;? ~ Harald Neidhardt, Co-Founder and CMO, Smaato Inc.

LEGISLATION

MMA’s Mobile Advertising Guidelines The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) provides recommendations for the global ad units broadly used in mobile advertising in the following mobile media channels: Mobile Web, messaging, applications and mobile video and TV. The Guidelines recommend ad unit usage best practices, creative technical specifications, as well as guidance on ad insertion and delivery necessary to implement mobile advertising initiatives. The MMA’s “Global Mobile Advertising Guidelines” are widely used in the market today and are based on best practices and optimal consumer experiences, aiming to promote the development of advertising on mobile phones by:

• • •

Reducing the effort required to produce creative material, Ensuring that advertisements display effectively on the majority of mobile phones Providing an engaging, non-intrusive consumer experience.

The MMA’s Mobile Advertising Overview is a supplemental document that provides an overview of the mobile media channels that are available to advertisers today, as well as the benefits of, and considerations for, optimizing campaign effectiveness and strengthening consumer satisfaction. The MMA guidelines are the result of ongoing collaboration across the MMA Mobile Advertising Committee with representation from companies in Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America (LATAM) and North America (NA). Committee members are representative of all parties in the mobile marketing ecosystem, including handset manufacturers, operators, content providers, agencies, brands and technology enablers. The target audience for these guidelines is all companies and individuals involved in the commissioning, creation, distribution and hosting of mobile advertising. The MMA Mobile Advertising Guidelines present a baseline through which widespread adoption will accelerate market development and ensure consumer satisfaction.

LEGISLATION

Universal Mobile Ads In order to make preferred MMA ad units easier to define, adopt and reference, a subset of advertising units have been defined as “universal” mobile ad units. These “universal” mobile ad units already enjoy broad support across the industry. The model for this package of ad unit identification is the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Universal Ad Package (UAP). The MMA hopes to adopt a similar structure in the future and is working on an initiative with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to drive accuracy in the measurement of mobile ad units. Publishers who are compliant with the MMA Mobile Advertising Guidelines will provide advertisers with at least one of the ad units designated “universal” in this document, and will attest that those ad units have the ability to reach the majority of that publisher’s audience. Publishers are also free to offer more ad units beyond universal units. Advertisers can be sure that by producing creative material according to these universal ad units, they will be able to advertise through publishers who are compliant with the MMA Mobile Advertising Guidelines. Advertisers are not obliged to provide all ad units in every case. Also, advertisers are free to use ad units beyond those defined as universal. Mobile Web The Mobile Web features text and graphics optimized to match the specific screen resolutions and browser capabilities of each user’s mobile phone. Therefore, a Smartphone with a high resolution screen can be served large, visually rich ads and a mobile phone with fewer resources can be served lightweight ads designed for small screens with limited resolution.

In order to accommodate the wide range of mobile phone capabilities, it is recommended that advertisers produce and provide ad creative in a few pre-defined dimensions, discussed in this section. The appropriate ad unit is selected from this set of pre-defined forms based on a particular mobile phone model’s capabilities so that it best fits the mobile phone’s display. This approach helps ensure a good user experience and increases process and campaign effectiveness. 1. Mobile Web Advertising Unit Definitions The recommended ad units for Mobile Web are as follows: • Mobile Web Banner Ad is a universal color graphics ad unit displayed on a Mobile Web site. The universal Mobile Web Banner Ad is defined as a still image intended for use in mass -market campaigns where the goal is a good user experience across all mobile phone models, network technologies and data bandwidths. In some cases, particularly in Europe, animated Mobile Web Banner Ads may be available for supplemental use in campaigns to convey a rich media experience. All Mobile Web Banner Ads must be clickable by the end user and may be placed in any location on a Mobile Web site. Supplementary, a Mobile Web Banner Ad can be followed by a Text Tagline Ad to emphasize the clickable character of the ad unit. • WAP 1.0 Banner Ad is a supplemental black-and-white, still graphics ad unit for use in campaigns that target older mobile phones. A WAP 1.0 Banner Ad can be followed by a supplemental Text Tagline Ad to emphasize the clickable character of the ad unit. • Text Tagline Ad is a supplemental ad unit displaying only text. Text links may be used in older mobile phones not capable of supporting graphical images and/ or by publishers that

prefer to use text ads instead of graphical ads on their mobile sites. 2. Mobile Web Banner Ad Specifications The recommended specification for a Mobile Web ad unit consists of a series of specification components, i.e. aspect ratios, media formats, dimensions and file sizes. When providing inventory specifications, publishers should remember to also quantify those parameters they support. Agencies and advertisers should remember to verify the specifications with each publisher on their media plan. Specification Components a) Aspect Ratios The recommended universal aspect ratios for Mobile Web Banner Ads are 6:1 and 4:1. Key considerations for providing universal aspect ratios include: • Keeping the aspect ratio constant simplifies resizing of images and reduces effort. • Both aspect ratios provide sufficient creative space to ensure an effective advertising experience, yet small enough not to be intrusive. Having two aspect ratios gives publishers flexibility in terms of layout and positioning in different contexts b) Dimensions The recommended universal Mobile Web Banner Ad widths are 120, 168, 216 and 300 pixels. Establishing guidelines for Mobile Ad unit dimensions has several benefits: • Limiting the amount of distinct dimensions reduces the amount of time and resources spent on creative production. • Dimensions selected provide a good fit for the majority of mobile phones. Dimensions selected for Mobile Web Banner Ads provide for an exact pixel height for both ratios defined which simplifies scaling of the creative.

LEGISLATION

c) Media Formats The recommended formats for Mobile Web Banner Ads are: • GIF, PNG or JPEG as universal formats for still images. • GIF for animated images. d) File Size The maximum graphic file size is dependent on the banner chosen. Commonly between > 1 - 7.5 KB file size. e) Character Limits for Text Taglines Character limits (rather than file size limits) are applicable for Text Taglines appended to Mobile Web Banner Ads. Screen width has no effect on text tagline sizes – recommendation between 10 to 24 characters. 3. Mobile Web Advertising Creative Design Principles •

•

In addition to the MMA Mobile Advertising Guidelines, other established guidelines for Mobile Web content delivery should apply to Mobile Web sites containing image banners, as well as to Mobile Web sites that users reach via links in image banners (post-click), such as jump pages, campaign sites and self-contained, permanent third-party Mobile Web sites. More detailed design principles and style guides for Mobile Web sites can be found in the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices at http://www.w3.org/TR/ mobile-bp. Irrespective of using supplemental text taglines, the MMA recommends that advertisements contain some form of call-to-action clearly identifiable by the user (e.g., “find out more” icon button). Text taglines are a supplemental feature that can be added to Mobile Web Banner Ads. Limitations: Mobile Web Banner Ads with text taglines together use more real estate (space in the usable browser window), typically at the expense of other Web elements,

such as navigation and content. Media owners and publishers need to make a case-by -case decision about what best suits their business requirements. 4. Mobile Web Advertising Insertion and Delivery The following recommendations are for Mobile Web advertising insertion and delivery, as appropriate to the technology. a) Ad Indicators Some publishers and markets recommend or require the use of ad indicators (signifiers) when displaying an ad unit. The publisher or local market guidelines define the exact format and placement of the ad indicator. Indicators are used with both text and banner ads:

• A Text link ad indicator is defined as text used to indicate the text link is an ad. An example is the use of “Ad:” preceding the ad text link.

• A Banner ad indicator is defined as a portion of the Mobile Web Banner Ad used to display the ad indicator and indicate the Mobile Web Banner Ad is an ad unit rather than content. The indicator typically is located on the side or the corner of the ad unit and may use text (e.g., “AD” in English speaking markets) or an icon. • When choosing to use an ad indicator, the MMA recommends that the ad indicator be included with the creative ads. b) Functionality • Automatic resizing of Mobile Web banners: Some publishers and ad-serving solutions provide a capability to re-size the ad creative dynamically to match the mobile

phone’s screen dimensions and capabilities. In cases where the publisher or adserving solution requires only one banner image, the MMA recommends using the XLarge Mobile Web Banner ad unit specifications as the default re-sizeable banner. It’s important that the creative takes into account both the impact of image re-sizing (i.e. certain amount of degradation of image quality) and that the automatic resizing may not work well with animated banners. • Animated banner images: When using animated Mobile Web Banner Ads, please note: Mobile phones that don’t support image animation tend to render only the first image frame. For this reason, the MMA recommends that the first image frame should contain the entire advertising message, instead of leaving important information for subsequent frames. To date, automatic resizing of animated images does not always deliver ideal results. Therefore, the MMA does not recommend applying automatic resizing with animated image banners. The MMA is studying this issue in order to find a workable recommendation. There are several possible animation formats, including animated GIF, SVG, Flash, Silverlight and interlaced JPEG. Animated GIF currently is the most widely supported on mobile phones. The MMA is studying options for improvements that will be incorporated into future guidelines.♦ More on Text Messaging (SMS), Multimedia Messaging (MMS), Mobile Video and TV in the next issue of Asian e-Marketing.

MMAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Global Mobile Advertising Guidelinesâ&#x20AC;? are widely used in the market today and are based on best practices and optimal consumer experiences, aiming to promote the development of advertising on mobile phones.

BUZZWORDS

Mobile Tagging and What You Should Know About It Mobile Tagging, also called Mobile Code Reading, uses the camera of a mobile phone for the reading of data encoded in a two-dimensional barcode that can be read by optical scanners, called barcode readers, or scanned from an image by special software. A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which has been originally represented in the widths (lines) and the spacing of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1D (1 dimensional) barcodes. Its continuation is the 2D (2 dimensional) matrix codes, which comes in patterns of squares, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns within images termed. Although 2D systems use symbols other than bars, they are generally referred to as barcodes as well. Usually there is a variety of data stored in such a code, but regarding mobile tagging mainly an encrypted URL, which is redirected directly to the phone browser after successful decoding. This means that the user, for instance, can immediately access additional information on the web by scanning a code from a newspaper advertisement.

In general, the great benefit of mobile tagging for companies is that static information carriers such as advertising posters, newspapers, business cards or even T-shirts can become associated with the Internet in a versatile way, whereas the end customer in turn has a fast, accurate and above all self-directed access to further information. The application is compared to sending a text message quite user-friendly, besides being striking and graphically appealing and thus an appropriate advertising media.

BUZZWORDS

Mobile Tagging has been developed in 2003 and is currently most prominent in Asia, especially Japan. Densos' QR (QuickResponse) Code in Asia and the Data Matrix are currently the most popular 2D barcodes, which are both ISO-standardized. These “open source codes' are the most used for optical reading with mobile phones, however, a QR code is always 60% larger than a DataMatrix code and this tends to mean that DataMatrix is the primary code used for example in packaging and enterprise solutions. Until now mobile tagging, however, hasn’t really made its way, most probably largely due to the lack of the following conditions: Lack of standards The procedure for coding the corresponding data is not standardized, which complicates the use of mobile code. So far, in essence, the ISO-standardized 2D codes of the type Data Matrix, QR, but also Aztec made their way. Which one is used basically doesn’t matter as they vary only slightly in their appearance. You may ask now why it is so important to use one of these standardized codes? The answer is simple: It’s due to the software. Specific generators are needed to translate the data into the codes.

QR, Data Matrix and Aztec Codes is about open specifications, thus these codes can be used by several developers of such generators as well as readers. All others, nonstandard codes, are manufacturer specifications that limit the usage of the codes by allowing it only in the manufacturer’s own products. As a result of this problem, the Mobile Codes Consortium MC ² has been set up, with the common goal to develop and maintain a uniform standard for both the codes and the appropriate reader. Mobile devices The mass market is still not ready for mobile tagging, as not enough manufacturers offer their mobile devices with the appropriate software. Currently, there is no manufacturer that has pre-installed a barcode reader on each of its mobile phones. Although there are for almost all of the latest phones barcode readers from different manufacturers as a free software - what needs to be installed first, is usually used only little. To introduce mobile tagging to the mass market, readers must be preinstalled by default on future mobile phones. A major mobile tagging boom can’t be declared yet, as the advertising industry can’t exploit its potential before the above requirements are provided.

Who should be interested in Mobile Tagging? Brands with digital affinity are the pioneers that are using such new technology, as mobile tagging is cost effective and presents the companies innovatively. The reason for the success of mobile tagging, besides the flexible and multiple fields of application, is the quick, precise and customerdriven access to information. According to the principle of physical world connection, the user is able to gather digital information immediately by scanning a twodimensional barcode, for example in an advertisement. There are currently around 70 different types of barcodes around and the number of codes is essentially restricted to a dozen types, which can be read by installing specific software (reader) on the mobile device. At present, mobile tagging is finding more and more its way into the day -to-day-life of many Asians, with campaigns in the fields of commercial, public and private tagging, trying to realize the idea of an absolute convergence between information media. Mobile tagging connects static information carriers with the Internet and encourages the interactive behavior of the user. It’s expected that the future success of mobile tagging lies in the real enterprise solutions, where the codes will be monetized and customized for business and commercial use.

BUZZWORDS

It will be at the forefront of intelligent and professional use - examples of which are; e.govt., tourism, advertising and targeted marketing, packaging, supply chain management, brand management and brand protection, logistics, track and trace, anti-counterfeit or smuggling, IDs and passports, transport and ticketing, parking, disability, CRM, cross media campaigns, mticketing, m-payments, e-learning, as well as complete integration of localization, personalization, objects and other data.â&#x2122;Ś By Daniela La Marca

Further information: Commercial tagging Commercial tagging includes the use of multi-dimensional barcodes, especially in the fields of mobile marketing and advertising. Showcases in this context are additional information on products (e. g. the nutrient content on hamburgers), direct downloads (e. g. free ringtones, clips or mobile games) and the direct link to a specific site of a company.

Particularly in the field of commercial tagging it is vital for the code to be able to be branded (e.g. it is possible to integrate a logo in the code). Public tagging In terms of public tagging, barcodes serve as a hyperlink to additional information on public information carriers. This information may include maps, customer reviews or other non-commercial advice.

Private tagging In view of private tagging, personal motives come to the fore. Besides the opportunity for creating direct hyperlinks on blogs or profiles, it is possible to participate immediately in online auctions (e.g. barcodes on cars with ebay hyperlinks). Furthermore barcodes allow services like saving data automatically in the contact list of mobile phones by scanning a code printed on business cards. In addition to higher user friendliness, private tagging offers novel opportunities for selfpresentation.â&#x2122;Ś

IMPRINT

MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd, launched in early 2004, is an independent online publisher in the Asia Pacific region focusing on the business of digital media and marketing. Asian e-Marketing is a true pioneer in Asia Pacificâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital marketing scene, empowering e-marketers in the vibrant and fast-paced electronic marketing environment. Key sections include e-marketing tips, best practices and trends/statistics, legislation affecting e-marketing, training the spotlight on companies and their e-marketing campaigns and e-marketing leadership profiles. Click here for the latest online edition

Interested in Advertising?

Editor-in-Chief: Daniela La Marca Contributing Editor: Roger Stadler

Check out our mediakit and prices. Or drop us a line (info@mediabuzz.com.sg) if you are interested in becoming the exclusive sponsorship of an issue: Phone: +65 6836 2807 Fax: +65 6235 1706

http://www.mediabuzz.com.sg http://www.mediabuzz.asia Tell a friend and send him our registration form !

MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd respects the privacy of its readers. If you no longer want to receive Asian e-Marketing follow this link, enter your email address and write unsubscribe into the subject line.

Circulation & IT Manager: Mike Khoo Sales & Marketing: Carla Bertuzzi Articles contributed by: Joanne Rigby Rohit Dadwal Emeka Obiodu Eden Zoller

Published monthly by MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd 26 Saunders Road Emerald Hill Singapore 228268 Tel: +65 6836 1607 Tax: +65 6235 1706