I suspected as much, but app store data is hard to come by as Apple does not reveal insights other than  total downloads and segmented top download lists and companies like Pinch are few and far between. To date, most iPhone developers have been adding simple tracking methods within their apps on their own accord so the data available to advertisers is limited and hard to come by. Aggregated iPhone analytics is a niche “industry” whose time has come so that Media planners can get a better sense if the “channel” is working or not.  Companies to watch include -Pinch Media, Flurry, Medialets and Admob to some extent.  

From a marketing perspective, brands looking to make any real impact with an application really need to focus on the Media plan surrounding the launch of a new application to get the app ranked on Apple’s top 100 or better lists as it appears this is the make or break bar to hit in terms of a tipping point.

This brings up another issue – driving traffic to iPhone applications isn’t exactly a well known science yet.  Yes, many marketers are realizing you can deep link to an application from the Web to the iTunes page where the app resides, but others are incorrectly thinking they can buy their way into sponsoring the featured apps section within iTunes.

First off, did you notice the iPhone icons on the sample image??! A closer look reveals that nearly all of them are exact copies. Engadget has blown the image up so you can see the Chinese characters.

Placing cloning discussions aside for the moment, try to imagine a world where large numbers of teenagers are carrying mobile phones equipped with projectors. The vision of influential teens displaying an MMS, mobile internet page, video clip or unique application on their school locker with a major brand located somewhere for an audience to see is intriguing. The “I want that too” viral quotient could be off the charts and the idea of a moving billboard becomes a reality. Viral video and social networking also would get a big boost.

(NOTE: If you think mobile advertising reporting is tough now, tracking impressions in this sort of scenario would be an extremely difficult to say the least.)

This concept along with my previous post on leveraging mobile SD cards for marketing purposes are just two examples of how fast mobile technology is evolving and thus creating new marketing opportunities via the handset. Granted we are still trying to figure out SMS and banner ads, but the future looks promising!

That’s a lot of phones with removable memory slots! Of course the real trick will be educating consumers on actually purchasing these cards and using them, but that’s up to smart merchandisers and to some extent companies like SanDisk to figure that out. I can’t imagine the Carriers are thrilled with the concept of pre-loaded memory cards as it potentially cuts them out of application download revenue share and data usage fees, but nevertheless the concept has potential to spur consumers to utilize their handsets for more than just phone calls.

There have been companies (SEE ROK Media) that have loaded content onto mobile memory cards in the past, but the uptake to my knowledge has been negligible in a retail scenario. A good sign that this concept might work is that the practice of “sideloading” content, especially music, has had very good traction – especially outside of the States. Consumers, primarily youth, have discovered the cost savings associated with downloading and sharing music while bypassing their Carrier’s networks.

Marketers, especially those targeting Generation Y consumers, might start experimenting with mixing mobile content such as music or games with utility applications (e.g. the Kellogg’s Exercise reminder) that showcase the brand being promoted. Rest assured that their will be unique advertising opportunities within the memory card as the developers have significant control over the card’s actions.

Media companies dabbling in Mobile today may view mobile storage cards as yet another distribution outlet for their video content. I can certainly envision NBC packaging a special “OFFICE” SD Card filled with short snippits of the show’s best bits.

Interesting, but certainly not a shocking prediction given the rapid adoption of smartphones here in the U.S. and the increase in promotions from the Carriers for low-cost, flat rate data plans. However, there are a couple of things to consider when thinking about whether or not Mobile Email will be a next BIG thing that marketers will need to pay close attention to with regards to optimizing the consumer experience on a handset.

First of all, email users will need a data plan of some sort and Nielsen Mobile recently pegged the percentage of consumers with an unlimited data plan at 14%. The research firm also stated that 95 million (37%) subscribers paid for mobile internet access either as part of a subscription or transactionally and that 40 million subs were active users of mobile internet (used at least once in a given month).

There is an important distinction to make within the aforementioned numbers in that they don’t represent (at least I don’t think they do) those consumers accessing email via emails readers from say Good or Blackberry versus their mobile browser. It’s safe to assume that most corporate users are accessing email via a reader versus a browser, but as MMetrics noted, the smartphone penetration rate is close to 7% within the U.S.- This number isn’t exactly huge, but there is data that supports that these users are heavy users of email via their devices.

From an overall addressable market, MMetrics stated that 13.1% of wireless subscribers had used email on their phone during a specific time period and Nielsen Mobile stated that eMail was the second most visited category (on the mobile web) after Portals. Again, were not talking huge numbers, but significant enough to warrant a closer look at the consumer experience.- (NOTE: as of May 2008 Yahoo! had 14 million unique visitors to their mobile mail page according to Nielsen.)

I did some quick testing of some HTML emails via my Yahoo! email account on Nokia’s S60 browser, Palm’s TREO 750W browser and an Openwave browser via Verizon’s popular LG VX8300 handset. On each browser HTML gets stripped out and the rendering is not easy on the eyes to say the least. I even tried GMAIL on the Treo browser and some of the hyperlinks within an HTML newsletter were rendered inactive. On the reader side, trying to read HTML emails via a Blackberry reader or Palm reader produced equally frustrating results.

From a marketer’s perspective if you are targeting an on-the-go business crowd or a demographic that utilizes smartphones, it may not be enough to assume that handset OEMs, browser developers, internet email providers and email reader vendors will utilize tools and transcoding tricks to properly render your campaign emails properly. Your message may be lost and deleted before the consumer ever has the chance to re-read your email on their PC.

That said, there are some companies such as Pivotal Veracity that offer to optimize your emails for the various device types and email readers. (This company has some interesting comparison shots of how html emails render across a handful of different devices including Blackberry, Palm and Windows Mobile.)

Quick Anecdote: when attending industry events such as CTIA or MMA or presenting to advertising agencies it is always fun to watch a decent number of users fumble around on their smartphones when you ask them to participate in a demo via SMS. They have gotten so used to sending short emails back and forth between other smartphone-toting colleagues that TXTING is now an afterthought.

Regarding the use of a QR code reader to help spur impulse shopping. I like the thought, but have a series of thoughts surrounding the consumer adoption challenges.

• 2D code readers, while numerous, are almost non-existent in the U.S. market with regards to being pre-installed on any handsets. There are some high end NOKIA’s such as the N95 that ship with a QR code reader, but the mass majority of handsets sold through the Carriers including those from Blackberry and Apple do not ship with a reader. Now, the good news is that you can download readers for various cameraphones capable of downloading a J2ME application (which is most phones today) including popular smartphones from Blackberry and Apple. (Checkout Scanbuy’s reader for Blackberry’s Pearl and Curve models OR visit your iPhone APP store for their just released iPhone 2D code reader.)
• That said, Polo or rather their advertising agency, is going to have to work pretty hard to educate consumers on what the funny looking black and white codes are for on their print materials. The call-to-action is KEY! Changing consumer behavior is not easy especially when it comes to seemingly complex technical items on the mobile phone. Just getting consumers to download the 2D code reader is a challenge in itself as various industry studies all point to consumers being leery of potential hidden costs when using new mobile applications (e.g. video, mobile web, MMS).
• Polo will also have to spend to drive traffic to their new mobile site just to encourage their viewers to download the QR reader. It will be interesting to see what tactics they employ to get some early adopters to the site – e.g. coupons, dramatic cost savings on advertised products, etc..
• In terms of getting help from Carriers and other big tech companies to drive awareness for 2D codes, I know that Scanbuy was recently involved with SPRINT in a public trial of their reader, but I have not seen any recent news from the other Carriers yet (rest assured they are evaluating the technology because it leads to increased data usage). Google’s Android will include 2D code reader functionality and Microsoft has said in the past it will try to play in this field as well.
• The 2D code market participants are also working to decide on some sort of standards. Currently, because of their prevalence in Japan, QR and Datamatrix code formats are getting a good deal of press. However, companies like Scanbuy, NeoMedia, BeeTagg and Nextcode to name few, have developed their own code formats specifically for use with the Mobile handset. (this is a story for another day . Not all 2D codes readers read ALL codes, so standards are a must for widespread adoption. The MMA is assisting in helping these participants come to some sort for conclusion.

Please note that these aforementioned challenges need to be combined with getting consumers to use their mobile phone just to browse the web and be comfortable making purchases via their credit card on the mobile web – these are NOT easy obstacles to overcome and will take time, but Polo should be commended for jumping into the deep-end head first!

So what’s the hold up? One of the major hurdles to overcome is the ability of the wireless Carrier’s existing billing systems to process FTEU messages. Generally speaking, all messages sent through Aggregators for off-deck marketing programs are either tagged at a Standard or Premium rate and are processed accordingly by the Carriers. Technical changes need to be made by both parties – especially on the Carrier’s side.

In addition to technical enhancements, I suspect the Carriers need to map out the business processes for these FTEU programs. At a high level, the current process for off-deck messaging programs works like this: The Carriers receive messages via their Aggregators. These messages are “tagged” as either Premium (if they carry a charge) or Standard Rated. In either case, the Carrier is responsible for billing the consumer and/or debiting the user’s message allotment if the consumer has a messaging plan. For Premium programs, the Carrier will send the Aggregator a record of successful billing attempts and will pay the Aggregator their negotiated share of revenue. The Aggregator then pays the Marketer their share of revenue. Everyone is happy.

For Standard rated programs, the Aggregator more often than not simply tallies the number of messages processed via their gateways to the various Carriers and charges the Advertiser/Marketer the pre-negotiated messaging delivery fees. (NOTE: I am aware of only one major U.S. Carrier that currently charges their Aggregators for Standard rate messages (MTs only) once a specified threshold is hit. Another major Carrier has stated it is well within their rights to charge for Standard MTs, but has yet to enforce this.)

The FTEU business model poses some interesting challenges and questions. A possible scenario will have Advertisers/Marketers negotiating FTEU message delivery rates with their Aggregator (assume the Carriers will have special rates for Aggregators as well for these programs). Unlike the current Standard rated process, the Aggregator may be forced to reconcile these FTEU messages with the Carriers especially if the Carriers are charging per MT and/or monitoring the delivery of these messages on their end – all of which requires manpower and system changes.

QUESTIONS FOR FUTURE: what happens when Advertisers want to run FTEU programs that establish a 2-way dialogue with a consumer – who will pick up the tab for messages sent by consumers (MOs)? What happens when Marketers start inserting advertisements in their FTEU messages and the Carriers want a cut of the advertising revenues?

SIDE NOTE: I am aware that one of the major Carriers is working on their FTEU business model now and we would hope to see something from them by the end of 2008.

 

This should prove to be an interesting development within the Mobile Marketing community especially as premium off-deck revenue continues to decline and the demand for Standard rated messaging programs continues to increase. There’s already enough “tension” between content providers, brands, advertisers and aggregators with the collective group of Carriers over revenue share splits, message delivery costs, compliance regulations and potential MMS MO delivery costs. Now throw in the idea that each Carrier may possibly want a cut of the advertising revenues for messages traveling over their networks and you’ve got a bit of a maelstrom.

It will also be interesting to see the impact this pending development will especially have on the Mobile advertising players, mobile marketing providers that power Std. rated programs and of course the advertisers footing the bill for any ad campaigns. Suddenly the relatively high CPM rates mobile has commanded for SMS ads seem like a necessity with all extra hands in the cookie jar.

INITIAL QUESTIONS:

• will each Carrier outlay their own set of payment and reconciliation policies?
• will MMS carry different policies due to higher costs?
• will the Carriers share demographic information to improve targeting of ads?