innerActive - Mobile Ads Review

Mobile advertising market will be worth over $12 billion by 2011

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Worldwide mobile advertising market alone will be worth over $12 billion by 2011 as telecom carriers around the world are turning their attention to advertising as a potential source of revenue, according to a new forecast by Gartner.

The Gartner report conclude that telecom operators will need to overcome some key challenges to realize their advertising ambitions. Those challenges include the need to disrupt the current distribution of advertising money between competing media channels and convince advertisers and marketers that their various channels, customer knowledge, analytics and network control features can reach the intended audience more effectively than traditional channels.

"If a carrier can execute its advertising strategy well and overcome the key challenges, it could move quickly to reap the benefits," said King-Yew Foong, research director at Gartner. "Carriers can expect to become an integral part of consumers' lifestyles when they can reliably deliver relevant advertisements to them. This will require closer cooperation and partnerships with other businesses, such as retailers, restaurants and cinemas."

The report entitled "How Carriers Can Position Themselves to win in the Advertising Market" also said that if telecom carriers are to compete effectively for advertising revenue, they must convince advertisers and marketers of the effectiveness and value of their approach while distinguishing their value proposition from companies such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and traditional media such as television broadcasters and newspapers. By developing the skills to enable them to do these things, telecom carriers will also improve their understanding of the advertisers' perspective and how to meet advertisers' requirements, such as audience validation.

innerActive Co-CEO to participate in panel discussion at IMA Mobile Advertising conference

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:46:00 +0000

Offer Yehudai, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of innerActive Smart Media, will participate in a panel discussion entitled, “Ads & Content Infrastructure – Barriers & Accelerators” at IMA Mobile Advertising conference.

The members of panel, which will moderate Lior Zadicareo, Managing Partner, Starvision Partners, include: Eran Hertzmann, Head of Mobile Advertising, Mobixell Networks; Ilan Weizman, VP Marketing, Surf Communication Solutions; Guy Horowitz, Dir. Strategy, modu; and Ariel Maislos, Founder & CEO, puddingmedia.

The panel will to discuss the crucial issue of the future of mobile in-game advertising such as:

Does advertising is an opportunity for brand companies?
Which content are suited for mobile ad-funded?
How likely are mobile ad campaigns to attract advertisers?
Are mobil phone users are willing to receive advertising in exchange for free digital content?

Worldwide mobile advertising is projected to surpass $2.7 billion in 2008, up from $1.7 billion in 2007, according to Gartner forecast (March 2008). The industry is poised for consistent growth and by the end of 2011 worldwide mobile advertising revenue is forecast to surpass $12.8 billion.

The event entitled, “Mobile Advertising: Exploring the Potential beyond the Hype”, is organized by The Israel Mobile and Communications Association (IMA) and will be held on June 29, 2008, at Gan Oranim, Tel-Aviv.

More Advertisers to deploy mobile coupons

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:35:00 +0000

More advertisers are expected to use mobile coupons or promotions next year, although anticipated growth will remain in single digits, according to a report “Mobile Coupons: Identifying New Opportunities Beyond Early Trials,” published by JupiterResearch.

The study conclude that mobile coupon must focus on highly relevant offers, deliver value, manage frequency, and give the consumer control, in order to be truly successful. Currently, 30% of the consumers are interested in receiving coupons on their mobile phones.

"Mobile coupons are gaining traction among advertisers, and are no longer just a niche tactic, rather they are moving toward the mainstream to more common use,” explained Neil Strother, analyst with JupiterResearch and lead author of the report. “There are definite benefits to using mobile coupons such as real-time offers, geo-targeting, personalization, time-of-day redemption tracking, triggering impulse purchases, and a lower cost of delivery. But while there is tremendous untapped potential, there are still barriers that exist.”

Redemption methods are one key inhibitor to wider use by advertisers. Few retailers have systems able to read coupons directly from handset screens. This lack means the POS requires another way of verifying and tracking. Current methods include the following: entering the code manually in a cash register; matching it with a customer’s loyalty card number; or writing it down on paper—the least preferable way. But while there are still hurdles that need to be cleared, this method of mobile marketing presents some potential and clear benefits to advertisers.

28 million US mobile user responded to mobile ads

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:28:00 +0000

28 million American mobile phone users in US (11.5% of all US mobile subscribers) responded to mobile advertisement such as banner ads on mobile web pages, SMS advertising, or video advertising, in the past 30 days, according to the bi-annual Mobile Advertising Report from Nielsen Mobile. Those users say they are open to mobile advertising because it decreases their mobile bill, improves the availability of mobile content or relevant to their interests.

The study reveals that the number of mobile users who recalled seeing mobile advertising between the second and fourth quarters of 2007 increased 38% to 58 million subscribers. Teen data users (ages 13-17) were the most likely age segment to recall seeing mobile advertising - 46% recalled seeing some type of mobile advertisement, compared to 29% of all data users.

"Increasing levels of consumer recall, interaction and receptivity to mobile advertising reinforce the validity of the mobile marketing medium," said Jeff Herrmann, VP of Mobile Media at Nielsen Mobile. "Successful mobile marketers will meet the challenge offered by consumers by engaging with them in a way that adds value to the mobile user content experience."

Nielsen's report findings also show that increasing number of mobile users appear to understand the value proposition of ad-supported mobile content, and expect to see more advertising over their cell phones in the future. 32% of users said they are open to mobile advertising if it lowers their overall bill, 13% said they are open to mobile advertising if it improves the media and content currently available, and 14% said they are already open to mobile advertising so long as it is relevant to their interests. 23% expect to see more mobile advertising in the future.

Ad-funded mobile entertainment to generate revenue of $290 million in the UK by 2012

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:41:00 +0000

Ad-funded mobile entertainment (AFME), with mobile games and video in particular, is set to generate substantial revenues of $290 million (£145m) by 2012, according to a report by the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF).

The report, that takes an in-depth look into the impact of ad-funded mobile entertainment on the on-portal mobile entertainment market in the UK, estimate that ad-funded mobile entertainment will have generated revenue for the UK mobile games market of over $1.2 million in 2008, and by 2012 it will be contributing $82 million.

“There are approximately 3 billion mobile subscribers around the world. Being able to provide them with content for free or at a subsidized cost will drive up mobile content consumption and provide users with targeted, personalized advertising that is meaningful to them,” said Rimma Perelmuter, MEF Executive Director.

NeuStar integrated innerActive's mobile advertising solution in its mobile IM application

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:27:00 +0000

NeuStar has embedded innerActive's ad-funded mobile entertainment channel inside its mobile Instant Messaging (IM) application. NeuStar is showcasing the new personalised and contextual mobile advertising based IM solution, at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2008 show.

The solution will enable operators to deliver online advertising through a range of models, including toaster pop-up banners, product placement, and branded information services called "presence-enabled Ad Buddies" through the operator's mobile IM service. Operators will benefit from attractive advertising pricing schemes, and users will benefit from the option of communicating for free or at discounted rates.

"Advertising over mobile IM provides new revenue streams and is creating new partnerships between operators, advertising agencies, brands, publishers, and third party developers to deliver an on-demand, interactive, and rich mobile advertising experience,” said Allen Scott, general manager at NeuStar Next Generation Messaging (NGM). “NeuStar's third party developer program, called the Innovation Zone, is driving innovation over mobile IM -- and innerActive is helping operators to capitalise on the new opportunities mobile IM brings."

NeuStar is a provider of clearinghouse and directory services to the global communications and Internet industry. In November 2006, NeuStar created its Next Generation Messaging Services by acquiring Israeli provider of instant messaging solution, Followap.

Compelling results for innerActive’s UK mobile entertainment trial

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:12:00 +0000

The six-week mobile entertainment trial of innerActive in UK shows a very high CTR of 39% on average. The trial with digital entertainment firm Jamster gave mobile users in UK the opportunity to download six free games from the Jamster site, in return for viewing advertising and promotions from sponsors.

The mobile advertisements and promotion features were sponsored by top international brands such as Calvin Klein, Domino's Pizza, Fox, Paramount Pictures and eBay. Incentives included wallpapers, movie trailers, pizza vouchers and prizes such as portable media players.

We think the results of this trial speak for themselves. Our breakthrough technology, which enables us to dynamically embed relevant, contextual advertising and other marketing offers in-game, delivers great results. This new entertainment channel will offer an enriched user experience, reaching a vast and untapped audience and setting a new type of interactive dialogue between advertisers and audiences.

innerActive to reveal its successful UK trial results with Jamster at GSMA 2008 show

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:19:00 +0000

innerActive Smart Media will reveal the successful UK trial results of a mobile in-game advertising service with digital entertainment partner Jamster, and will showcase its groundbreaking new ad-funded product for Instant Messaging (IM) and presence systems, at the Mobile World Congress 2008, Hall 4 level 1 IMA Pavilion, 11-14 February 2008 in Barcelona, Spain.

We are also planning to announce new commercial launches with leading international off-deck portals and new partnerships for our ad-funded entertainment channels. innerActive has already launched at the end of last year its commercial service with Cellcom, Israel's largest operator, offering free mobile content.

The highly successful UK trial, which ended on 31 December ’07, gave UK mobile users the opportunity to download six free games from the Jamster site, in return for viewing advertising and promotions from sponsors. The mobile advertisements and promotion features were sponsored by top international brands including: Calvin Klein, Domino's Pizza, Fox, SPIDER-MAN™ 3, Paramount Pictures, What's on TV, Pick Me Up, NME.COM, and eBay.

Ziv Elul to participate in panel discussion on ad-supported mobile games at MGF 2008

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:42:00 +0000

Ziv Elul, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of innerActive Smart Media, will participate in a panel discussion entitled, “Ad-supported mobile games: big revenue potential or just another fad?” at MGF 2008, the leading European mobile games event.

Other members of the panel include, Christopher Kassulke, the CEO of HandyGames; Erica Chriss, VP of Strategy and Business Development of Greystripe; Markus Råmark, CEO & Co-Founder of Mobile Advertising Solution MAS; John Conlon, the Head of Content in Virgin Mobile, and Xavier Louis, Product Manager for Games of 3.

The panel will to discuss the crucial issue of the future of mobile in-game advertising such as:

- Which games are suited for ad-funded mobile games?

- How likely are mobile games to attract advertisers?

- Does advertising is an opportunity for smaller or independent games developers?

- Are consumers willing to receive advertising in exchange for cheaper mobile games?

- How will in-game advertising really work and what will be its impact on game plays?

- What degree will consumers buy into ad-funded mobile games?

The Mobile Game Forum event will take place on January 23-24, 2008, at Sofitel St. James London.

In-game mobile ads trial in UK

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 08:58:00 +0000

After months of preparation we finally launch our first in-game mobile ads campaign trial in UK, with the world leading digital content distributor, Jamster. The new innovative ad-funded entertainment channel offers British mobile users the opportunity to download free mobile games, like Supermoto Extreme, 2007 World Soccer, Arcade SideGole, Solitair and Cubes.

The users are exposing to truly non-intrusive ads, which are sponsored by top international brands such as: adidas, Calvin Klein, Domino's Pizza, Fox, SPIDER-MAN™ 3, Paramount Pictures, What's on TV, Pick Me Up, NME.COM, and eBay. The in-game ads are targeted and segmented in real time according to users' behavior and responses, generating valuable incentives like wallpapers & movies trailers, and several prizes such as portable media players or pizza vouchers.

We think that innerActive solution provides Jamster flexible capabilities for dynamically delivering in-content and contextual multimedia advertisement, and are creating an enriched user experience for cellphone subscribers in UK. And we support our partner view that, “in game advertising is a good way to address “first time users” of mobile games.”

Mobile brand ad spending is starting to rise

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:44:00 +0000

Global brand are starting to shift more money to mobile advertising, according to a new eMarketer research. Global budget devoted to mobile brand advertising is going to rise to $277 million in 2007 from $123 million in 2006 and will rise to $3.5 billion in 2011.

The research, Mobile Brand Advertising, conclude that as better infrastructure is constructed and more inventory gradually become available, brand marketers are beginning to experiment with the mobile medium. But convincing advertisers to invest larger budgets will require fundamental rethinking by both mobile operators and marketing service providers.

“Many of the pieces are in place for mobile brand advertising to start scaling up,” said John du Pre Gauntt, eMarketer senior analyst. "Most importantly, there are mobile-centric tribes of users in both advanced and developing economies. The mobile screen is increasingly the first place to reach them."

The eMarketer forecast is support by a new survey of 50 global brand-name companies, commissioned by Airwide. The survey found that more brands are looking to spend a greater proportion of their marketing budget on mobile campaigns in the near future with 71% of brands projecting to spend up to 10% of their budget on mobile marketing within two years' time.

Growth in the sophistication of mobile marketing campaigns was reflected in the number of brands considering implementing both SMS and MMS mobile marketing in the next 12 months, which doubled to 28% since a similar survey in 2006.

Nokia want to lead the mobile content space: acquire mobile advertising company Enpocket

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:05:00 +0000

Mobile device manufacturing Nokia announced today that it is going to acquire the mobile advertising company Enpocket in order to enhance its mobile advertising business. This deal will allow Nokia to provider technology and services to optimize mobile advertising campaigns for global brands, leveraging Enpocket's platform and strong partnerships with advertisers, publishers and operators.

"Nokia has already announced its intention to be a leading company in consumer Internet services and we believe that mobile advertising will be an important element in monetizing those services for our customers and partners," said Tero Ojanperä, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia. "This acquisition is a game changing move to bring the reach and depth of Nokia to organize the market across the world, and make it easier for an ecosystem to develop."

Enpocket’s mobile advertising campaign management and delivery system platform can deliver mobile advertising across multiple formats including SMS, MMS, mobile Internet advertising, and video.

The surprising move by the Finnish company is support our view that at the end of the day the content is the king, and the way to reach the subscribers is through the rich media channel. Nokia took a bit conservative approach by targeting formats such SMS and MMS but still, it does reinforce our vision in innerActive. Delivering promotions and advertising to the end users in the space of rich content, such as games, live video and IM, intend to gain higher acceptance among the audience.

TV taking a back seat to the Mobile & PC

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 12:32:00 +0000

We probably didn’t have to wait to IBM to know that television has an inspiring past and unclear future. But, still the new IBM study about consumer digital media and entertainment habits, offer a very fascination view about the future of TV, Internt and mobile devices.

Interesting findings we think it’s worth mention are:

Internet vs. TV – 66% reported viewing between 1 to 4 hours of TV per day, versus 60% who reported the same levels of personal Internet usage.

Mobile Video – 7% reported having a video content subscription for their mobile phones. For respondents in Germany who had watched mobile video, 23% prefer to view user generated content, and 21% prefer video trailers or promotions.

Mobile TV - Nearly third UK users who watch mobile TV reduced their standard TV set viewing patterns as a result of new mobile device services.

Social networks - Consumers are increasingly contributing to online video or social networking sites: 9% of German and 7% of U.S. respondents claim to have contributed to a user-generated content site. In Australia, 36% of the participant in the survey contributing to social networking sites and 9% contributing to video content sites.

This power shift from was well summarized by Saul Berman, IBM Media & Entertainment Strategy who said that, "The Internet is becoming consumers' primary entertainment source. The TV is increasingly taking a back seat to the cell phone and the personal computer among consumers age 18 to 34.”

Mobile user-generated content revenues will grow to $5.7 billion in 2012

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:51:00 +0000

Juniper Research come up today with a very interesting numbers. The telecoms analyst firm forecast that mobile user-generated content (UGC) revenues from social networking, dating and personal content delivery services will increase from $572 million in 2007 to more than $5.7 billion in 2012.

Mobile social networking will contribute $2.85 billion in 2012, as the number of active users of mobile social networking sites is expected to rise from 14 million in 2007 to nearly 600 million in the next five years.

While mobile UGC services are in their infancy, a digital content players like the South Korean social network Mobile Cyworld, are already generating substantial revenues for their operators. Furthermore, the volume of downloads from mobile personal content delivery sites such as the 3 mobile TV channel, SeeMeTV, are expected to rise from less than 200 million in 2007 to more than 9 billion in 2012.

Dr Windsor Holden, the analyst of this new report, predicts that Off-portal social networking sites will increasingly opt for free-to-consumer, and ad-funded business models will gain visibility and market presence. Why? He did not say it explicit, but we think its related to one of his key finding, that high data charges remain a key hurdle to mass service adoption.

UK mobile operators failed to offer relevant services to their subscribers

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:46:00 +0000

Mobile users in UK are unhappy with the way that mobile operators are currently marketing their voice and data services, according to findings of new survey by GfK NOP.

70% of 752 mobile phone users that participated in the survey consider the marketing offers they receive not to be relevant to them and 64% of these confess to being annoyed by them. Just 11% of those surveyed had ever purchased an item, or signed up for a special promotion or bundle as a result of an online promotion or offer from their mobile service provider.

The survey, commissioned by mobile marketing delivery platforms provider Pontis, reveals that 57% of teenagers and young adult feel that the services they are offered today are irrelevant. This age group also declared itself to be the most irritated by receiving marketing spam, and close to half of them are willing to change operators to one that can provide them with marketing offers and services more tailored to their lifestyles.

“These results are proof of the fact that the mass marketing approach most operators still take today is not working,” said Guy Talmi, Senior Marketing Director at Pontis.”It shows that their inability to tailor services and content to the individual user’s interests and to attract new revenue streams.”

The survey also highlights how mobile operators are failing to capture the imagination of the baby boomer generation, with 75% of 45-54 year olds and 78% of 55-64 year olds viewing the marketing offers they receive as irrelevant to them.

Mobile ads - the next big thing

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:28:00 +0000

Mobile advertising is clearly the next big thing in telephony, according to July cover story of the Red Herring Magazine. The article - Screen Stalkers – conclude that while web advertising has been getting all the attention, mobile advertising has grown up in the background, attracting the attention of tens of millions of people. But hundred of millions are predicted to follow.

The most optimistic forecast in the article came from Geraldine Wilson, the vice president of Yahoo’s Connected Life Europe division, who said that, “We believe that mobile will be the most powerful advertising medium the world has ever seen. The opportunities for targeting and direct response are unprecedented.”

Mobile users intensively responded to ad-funded games

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 20:15:00 +0000

Finally we can disclose the successful results of our ad-funded mobile games pilot with Israel's largest mobile operator Cellcom. The trial, that was base on innerActive's Campaign Management System, showed results of 44% Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and 19% Acquisition Rate for Mobile Advertising Campaigns. Those are remarkable results for an advertising campaign if one compare to the low rate CRT of online campaign using contextual advertising like Google Adwords or banner based campaign.

The value-added service, which offers Cellcom’s mobile subscribers free game downloads, got an exceptional reaction from the end users. On average a trend of 10 times higher game downloads per user was observer, compared to pre-pilot download numbers. The Tetris game set a new record for as the number of download jumped by 14 times. The new business model, that this represents, motivated an untapped segment of mobile users to download mobile games as 24% of the participants did not download games in the six month period before the test and 54% did not do it in the three months prior to the pilot.

We think that the ad-funded model used in the trial has created a new dialog with the consumers while at the same time setting a new level of response and conversion to targeted and relevant marketing content. The usage of in-content deliver within the games has become a great online media experience within various audiences, especial in the youth segment (9-20 year old) – 65% enjoying the benefits.

Driving from this successful pilot and our faith in the huge potential in-content ad-funded mobile advertising, we are about to launch soon our new solution for live streaming advertising on both video and music channels.

Cellcom tested innerActive's ad-funded games technology

noreply@blogger.com (innerActive SmartMedia Blog) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:47:00 +0000

Israel's largest mobile operator Cellcom has launched an ad-funded mobile games service using innerActive's technology. The mobile game service offers Cellcom’s mobile users the opportunity to download mobile games free of charge, in exchange for exposure to advertisements within the games. The dynamically inserted ads are targeted and segmented in real time according to user profiles, and generated – among other - upon users' behavior and responses.

This was the first test of our new mobile advertising platform and a great opportunity to empower the quality of experience of the Israeli mobile community. The successful result of the pilot supports our new advertising model of providing mobile user with relevant, non-intrusive ads insertion during the content usage.

The mobile advertising campaigns were built in cooperation with leading Israeli advertising agencies such as McCann Digital, Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO and top brands advertisers such as: Nokia, McDonalds, Diadora, Samsung, Adidas and Walt Disney.