Mobile Advertising For The Masses

1. From Meeting Place To Marketplace 1.1 Open for business Whats out there 2. The great experiment Methodology Mobile Social networks Mobile Analytics Lets meet the ad networks 3. The big picture Get the edge 4. Conclusion _

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Mobile Advertising For The Masses

The adventure continues.
The emergence of empowered individuals, the advance of so-called digital natives individuals who have grown up with the Internet and the abundance of applications designed to give consumers more of a say in how they create, access, and enjoy content have transformed communication and, more specifically, the business of advertising. As I have argued on MSearchGroove - the knowledge resource I founded to provide analysis and commentary on mobile advertising, mobile search, and social media - and in Vol 1 of this series of white papers (Mobile advertising for newbies), advertising is in urgent need of redefinition. It must be useful, not intrusive. More importantly, it must be perceived as valuable information that is somehow relevant to what matters to consumers most. To be clear, the new mobile advertising paradigm is still about push. However, there is an increasingly important element of pull, allowing (empowering) people to choose advertising in tune with their individual lifestyles and life stages. Deliver the right ad to the right individual in the correct context? Despite the phenomenal growth of mobile advertising, brands have yet to reach advertising nirvanathat heady place where targeting tools allow them to aim for specific groups with offers specially tailored to their interests. But mobile social networks are where it's bound to happen first (and already happening!). These virtual spaces are a perfect match with how we choose to lead our mobile lives. We live, work, and play, and in a new collective state of hyper-connectedness. In fact, we no longer alert others to when we are online in our mobile communities; that's our new default state. Instead, we let our friends know when we go to sleep, take a bath, or just plan to be incommunicado for an extended period of time. So, what is the impact of our always-on existence on industries that rely on the mobile Web for communications, business growth, and interactive marketing? In a word: profound. The mobile phone, a personal device we have at all times, has gained a new importance as a socializing tool. We know from recent research (which I detail in the next section) that an increasing number of people are flocking to mobile social networks to stay in touch with friends (and make new friends) and share information and memorable moments they capture with their mobile devices.

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It's a trend that changes relationships, transforms identities, and creates new communities, allowing clever brands and media companies unique insight into their target audience if the mobile social network collects the right customer information and employs the proper mobile analytics solutions to wring value out of the data. Fortunately for advertisers, an increasing number of mobile social networks have developed the corporate DNA to achieve just this. By building trust, encouraging open, two-way communication, and harnessing opt-in to collect key socio-demographic data (gender, age, location the works!) from their members with their permission, mobile social networks are able to create a wealth of opportunities for advertisers eager to gain valuable insight into their target segments. It's granular detail that goes a long way toward better targeting, allowing the ad networks managed by mobile communities to create highly relevant matches with potential advertisers and deliver an optimal user experience for all. The transparency of the interaction is what drives members to share more personal data than they might normally volunteer The purpose of this white paper is to provide a reality-check, road test the ad networks offered by three leading mobile social networks, and document the level of targeting each provides advertisers. I conclude with an analysis of the results of the three campaigns, paying special attention to the mobile analytics tools and capabilities offered by each mobile social network, and the extent to which they enable publishers and advertisers to plan and execute more targeted mobile advertising campaigns. Which network(s) provide you the insight and analytics tools to deliver your message to the people you want to reach? My observations are designed to help you make the choice that is right for you.

Enjoy!

Peggy Anne Salz Chief Analyst, Publisher MSearchGroove

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1. From Meeting Place To Marketplace

In Vol 1 of this series (Mobile advertising for newbies) I explained why the capabilities of the mobile phone are uniquely suited to generate massive new mobile advertising opportunities. For brands and publishers, it's clear that mobile is the primary channel if the end-game is about engaging with us on our terms. However, the emergence of empowered consumers and the abundance of applications designed to give consumers more of a say in how they create, access and enjoy content have done more than transform publishing and advertising; they have also contributed to the phenomenal popularity of mobile social networks. The mobile social networking space, which includes dating, chatting and content sharing services, is where we live our virtual lives. Proof of the magnitude of this trend comes from Mobile Social Networking: Communities and Content on the Move, a comprehensive industry report released by Informa Telecoms & Media. In 2008 it counted a whopping 200+ companies worldwide with a focus on some form of mobile social networking. The rise in the number of services is matched by an increase in their membership. Informa predicts the total number of users worldwide will reach 12.5 percent penetration of the global mobile population in the most conservative scenario, and account for some 23 percent of the total in the high-growth scenario. It estimated there were over 50 million mobile social networking users (or 2.3 percent of the global mobile user population) at the end of 2007. Usage of social networking services is "nearing a critical mass" in South Korea and Japan. The U.S., the Nordic countries, and Western Europe are also experiencing high growth, boosted by the popularity of the mobile Internet and the introduction of a slew of new WAP services offering communities deeper engagement and exciting new features. "Both off-deck and on-deck, the latest mobile community platforms are providing rich media experiences that users want on their mobile handsets," the report concluded. Does strong growth translate into revenue growth? The answer is not so clear-cut and depends to a great extent on the ability of mobile companies to agree on the value chain and sort out business models in the coming year. It's a tall order but Informa takes an upbeat view. 3 Mobile advertising for the masses v1.0 Anytime, Anywhere The spread of location-based services, peer-to-peer recommendation, and devices such as the "Facebook phone" (the INQ1) - a new handset that integrates the social networking site with all the traditional functions of a mobile phone, such as contacts book and message inbox boost the popularity and reach of mobile social networks, making them a part of our daily mobile lifestyle.

It is convinced revenue growth will accelerate in the next two years, continuing the upward trend that started in 2006, when it estimates mobile social networking revenues exceeded $1.5 billion and took the industry by surprise when they more than doubled a year later. By 2012, Informa forecasts that revenues generated from all business models in this industry are forecast to reach $28.9 billion in the most conservative scenario and $52 billion in the high growth scenario.

Research firm Juniper Research is also bullish about market, which it splits into three sub-categories: Dating - consists of chatroom services, highly specialized forms of social networks where members/subscribers join to connect for a date or longer term partnership Personal Content Distribution (PCD), virtual spaces where users upload their audio and video files to third-party sites for other mobile users to watch or listen to Social Networking social structures where individuals connect around common interests

Let Us Entertain You In November 2008, Internet traffic monitoring firm Hitwise revealed an interesting and potentially lucrative overlap between social networks designed specifically for mobile and mobile entertainment. It reported that MocoSpace, a leading mobile social network popular in the U.S., was the number one site on both counts. In fact, MocoSpace's popularity in the mobile entertainment category exceeded that of the mobile sites of major brands including AOL, MySpace, and Yahoo.

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Juniper identifies three types of social networking services in the mobile space: Online social network brands and giants that seek to extend their reach to mobile; mobile-only social networks that offer their services to users on their mobile phones only; and companies with services geared to bridge the mobile and fixed environments. Pulling together the figures for end-user generated revenues and ad spend from personal content delivery (PCD), social networking, and dating, Juniper concludes that the total market for mobile user-generated content (Mobile UGC) will increase from $540 million in 2007 to $7.3 billion by 2013. Advertising, long hailed the great hope for future revenue growth, is estimated to account for nearly one-third of total revenues generated in the combined Mobile UGC space by the end of 2013, and more than half of all mobile social networking revenues, according to Juniper. Adfunded is also the driver in the PCD sector, where 32 percent of download content offered from sites and destinations will be ad-funded by 2013, generating more than $9 billion in revenues. But the real news is the sea change in business models confirmed by Juniper's numbers and several research reports since: The assumption that users would pay a small mobility premium to access social networks on their handsets, has been replaced by the uncomfortable truth that free membership, augmented with mobile advertising and the sale of premium content, is the business model bound to work best. Put another way, mobile social networking may have started out with services aimed at allowing users to stay connected with their communities, but the market has experienced a tectonic shift in business models as companies have focused on mobile advertising as a means to monetize their growing membership. Indeed, the combination of millions of current users of online social networks going mobile, and the increased popularity of mobile-only social networks such as MocoSpace (operated by U.S.based JNJ Mobile, Inc), itsmy.com (operated by German-based Gofresh GmbH), and mygamma.com (operated by Singapore-based BuzzCity) among youth and users in emerging markets has convinced marketers there is money to be made. As Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and co-author of the eMarketer report Mobile Social Networks, observed: "Along with the rapidly growing audience, marketers are drawn to mobile social networking because it creates a unique context in which to promote their goods and services.

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It goes beyond simply linking people with digital content by adding the immediacy of sharing with friendsa very powerful marketing proposition. She concluded: "Even if only a tiny percentage of the 3 billion worldwide mobile phone users take up mobile social networking, the potential advertising inventory reaches mind-boggling levels."

1.1 Open for business

Sensing a business opportunity, a number of companies sharpened their focus on ad-funded schemes. An example is itsmy.com. After one year in beta phase, itsmy.com formally launched itsmy.biz in October 2008, the largest social advertising network with a reach of 4 million people on the mobile Internet. The service runs on an ad-platform developed in-house by Gofresh, and offers a mix of mobile advertising formats, from banners to click-to-call, in-game advertising, WAP-site branding, Mobile TV, and personalized content downloads. "The concept behind Gofresh's new mobile advertising idea is simple: Don't book channels, reach people on their mobile phones," Sabine Irrgang, COO and Co-Founder of Gofresh, said in a press statement. "To make advertising a success on mobiles, ads have to be relevant for the user and targeted for the brands." According to Antonio Vince Staybl, Gofresh CEO, users are invited to get involved with brands by creating their own mobile content around products like cars, shoes, sunglasses, which they can publish or send to other members. "The effect is highly appreciated by the publishers: brand awareness and recollection are much higher than with conventional banners and text ads." Gofresh's rich media enabled ad-platform focuses on three advertising formats: animated full color banners, mobile site and content branding as well as mobile video and Mobile TV. Gofresh reports that banner click-through-rates (CTRs) are as high as 2.5 percent (a data point supported by my own mobile advertising experiment, but more on that later in Section 3 of this white paper). During the beta phase Mobile TV and video gained the most traction with community members; Gofresh reported every video had been watched an average of 3.5 times. To cultivate a closer relationship between people and the brands they like most, Gofresh became the first company to give community members control over the advertising channel they accept, allowing its users to choose their favorites from 15 different advertising channels, such as fashion, sports, entertainment and education. As Vince puts it: The idea is to turn mobile marketing on its head and present users with advertising they appreciate and connect brands with consumers that want to hear what they have to say instead of a static target group of, for example, female users between the ages of 18 and 24.

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BuzzCity, a major player in the mobile social network space whose ad-funded myGamma community targets blue-collar workers and the newly-connected middle class across emerging markets, counts 3+ million users across 80 countries (as of December 2008). The BuzzCity Mobile Advertising Index, a report that tracks the growth of off-portal mobile Internet use in more than 200 countries around the world, showed for Q4 2008 an almost 50 percent growth in paid banner advertisements in the U.S. Specifically, 382 million mobile banner ads were served in the U.S. in the last three months of 2008, a 47 percent increase over the previous quarter, and a 209 percent increase for the year.

By way of background, BuzzCity has developed what KF Lai, BuzzCity CEO, in an exclusive interview with MSearchGroove (MSG), calls a Long Tail mobile ad network that effectively aggregates around 2,000 smaller sites. As KF Lai put it in a recent interview: It's all about allowing advertisers to reach a diverse audience. "After all, if you want 1,000 people to respond to your offer, youre more likely to succeed if you try to attract 1,000 people from 1,000 different sites rather than 1,000 visitors to a single site." In addition to the network, BuzzCity also provides developers a platform to show, sell, and monetize their applications through advertising. What do members like most? KF revealed to MSG that popular applications are ones that allow users to have some fun and express themselves. An example is Hug Me. "Its just a simple hug, and users can give each other virtual hugs and show each other they care. Virtual gifting is very big, and we expect to see quite a number of virtual gifting applications moving forward."

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Peperonity, the mobile community belonging to Germany's Peperoni Mobile & Internet Software GmbH, broke on the scene in 2001. The company which also enjoys significant success in whitelabelling its platform for operator partners, including E-Plus, Tele2, Telefnica O2, T-Mobile, and WIND - reports 400 million page impressions, 12 million unique visitors per month and a total of over 2 million registered users (the community doesn't require visitors who want to check out the content or the community to register). In addition, Peperonity stands out as the only mobile social networking service available in 10 languages. In fact, Peperonity's phenomenal popularity and global reach was recently confirmed in the State of the Mobile Web, December 2008 and 2008 Year-in-Review, reports published by Opera Software ASA, a provider of browsers for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. The reports examined the top social networks in key countries for Opera Mini users as ranked by the number of unique users they attracted. (By way of background, the community destination peperonity.com is integrated in mobile browsers from Opera and Skyfire.)

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Opera, which first looked at the social networking trend in May 2008 , noticed that sites like Facebook, MySpace, orkut, vKontakte, and others drove a substantial amount of traffic over the Opera Mini servers. "In subsequent reports, in different countries around the world, we saw similar results," Jon S. von Tetzchner, Opera Software CEO, states on the company website. In its 2008 Year-in-Review the company presents some astonishing growth figures of the top social networks in each of its top countries. A key data point for Peperonity: Use of the social network through the Opera Mini browser grew almost 400 percent. To keep the momentum going and support the creation of attractive user-generated content, Peperoni also provides a mobile-only site building toolkit allowing registered users to create their own sites for free in five steps via phone or PC and then fill them with user-generated content such as text, photos, and animation, as well as integrate features like chats, blogs or discussion boards. Peperonity recently added video, allowing users to publish their mobile videos directly to their sites. Additional features and functionality in the pipeline include presence and status, a Web version of the site that community members can access on their PC, and the ability to know the user's gender. Today Peperonity is home to a whopping 8 million pages of community generated content, with no signs of slowing thanks to a redesign of its own home page, making it easier for users to build and launch their own mobile sites and connect with community members. It is also currently the largest publisher destination for ads on the ad marketplace belonging to AdMob.

A raft of recent reports indicates the mobile social networking trend will not only continue but accelerate: Digital marketing analyst eMarketer projects that over 800 million people worldwide will access social networks via their mobile phones by 2012, up from 82 million in 2007. That translates into a surge from 2.7 percent to 18.8 percent of mobile phone users. ABI Research reckons more than 140 million mobile subscribers worldwide will use social networks on their phones by 2013, generating over $410 million in subscription revenues. That uptick is based on increased usage in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. Nielsen Mobile, a service of The Nielsen Company, reported the U.K. took the lead in Europe in mobile social networking on a percentage basis -- with the U.S. boasting comparable numbers. In the U.K., approximately 810,000 mobile subscribers, or 1.7 percent of all mobile subscribers in the country, visited social networking websites on their mobile phones in the first quarter of 2008. 9 Mobile advertising for the masses v1.0

Whats out there

Social networking sites where you can advertise

www.mobiluck.com
Share where you are with your friends, receive alerts when they are nearby and chat 24/7 for free.

www.wadja.com
Wadja is a mobile web, media and social messaging service, managing your communication and interaction from trusted sources (friends, family and address book contacts).

www.zannel.com
Zannel is about life in real time. Its a way for you and your friends to share what youre doing, feeling, and seeing as it happens. Its a free service that allows you to create your own mobile page where you can post videos, pictures, and text updates with your phone to instantly share with your friends and start a conversation.

www.the3gdatingagency.com
The 3G Dating Agency is a global mobile Community service that doesnt require subscription and works on every 3G Phone and every 3G Network to enable safe peer-topeer text and video connectivity between members.

www.funkysexycool.com
FunkySexyCool is a rapidly growing mobile-based social community offering young adults a fast and fun way to flirt and date with people from around the World anywhere, anytime via their mobile phone. Members are able to browse profiles, message members, find matches, create and share interests, rate pictures, make friends, and much more.

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Some other mobile social networking sites

2. The great experiment

The purpose of this section is to detail the level of targeting provided by the ad networks operated by three mobile social networks. Section 3 will analyze the results of the three campaigns, paying special attention to the mobile analytics tools and capabilities offered by each mobile social network, and the extent to which they enable publishers and advertisers to plan and execute more targeted mobile advertising campaigns. For an in-depth look at the data, and an assessment of how well each ad network performed, check out the accompanying blog at http://mobislim.wordpress.com/. Mobislim is a mobile site owned and managed by Bango, a provider of real-time mobile analytics, and available to all marketers for testing mobile campaigns and tracking success with analytics.

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Methodology:
Three banner ad campaigns advertising a free download for a Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator. Each banner ad campaign: Had a budget of $200 Targeted the U.S. and the U.K. Set no limitation on handset makes and models.

There is an option across the ad networks I tested to target specific handsets. However, I chose not to use this feature as the objective of my tests was to explore the full depth and breadth of the proprietary ad management and mobile analytics reporting capabilities offered by each individual ad network. I therefore deemed that insight into the makes and capabilities of the handsets provided by each reporting system, as well as the spread of handsets each ad network could identify for my campaign, was an adequate indication of their reach.

Mobile social networks:

Chosen at random to provide an even size and scope, and listed in alphabetical order. BuzzCity Operates the mobile community, myGamma.com, for two distinct audiences: the newly connected emerging middle class in developing markets and the blue collar sector in developed regions. With over 3 million registered users across 80 countries, myGamma has evolved to include community centric tools including discussion groups, blogs, photo albums, and in-session games and activities. Monetization: BuzzCitys Mobile Advertising Network includes not only the myGamma portfolio of user sites but an additional 2,000 popular mobile sites worldwide. Through this network, BuzzCity reports it delivers in excess of 3 billion advertising impressions each month.

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itsmy.com A mobile-only social network - offering members a mix of "fully personalizable" and free homepages, personal mobile TV broadcasting capabilities, and location-based services - that counts more than 2 million registered mobile users, and 4.5 million mobile homepages and content pages containing 10 million items of user-generated content. Monetization: A mix of micropayments for digital gifts and social games, as well as homepage widgets and designs. The mobile social ad network runs on Gofresh's proprietary mobile rich media platform: itsmy.biz. It supports more than 3,500 different handsets and browser variations, and enables mobile advertising like mobile TV ads, viral marketing tools, multiple user-generated content channels, and rich media. Peperonity A mobile social network pioneer that launched in 2001, emphasizing user-generated content and community. Today it counts approximately 400 million page impressions, 12 million unique users per month, and 5 million pages of self-generated content. Monetization: A partnership deal with AdMob provides advertisers on the AdMob ad network exclusive access to the Peperonity mobile community. Peperonity also works with other ad networks, including MobVision and Google to generate a 100-percent ad fill rate.

Mobile analytics:
I chose to focus on the analytics capabilities offered by the three ad networks: BuzzCity (BuzzCity), itsmy.com (itsmy.biz), and Peperonity (AdMob). In section 3, I compare the depth and breadth of analysis offered by the three ad networks and examine the need for an additional comprehensive mobile analytics package to connect the dots, fill in the gaps, and give me the big picture view of what my campaigns achieved and how I might use this insight to plan and target future campaigns. To be clear, the aim here is not to compare CTRs or assess in any way how well my three campaigns performed. To properly assess performance of the three ad networks, I would also need to acknowledge and address a laundry list of do's and don'ts around Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Nor is the objective to compare the campaign analysis provided by Bango Mobile Analytics with other offers on the market. This was achieved in Vol 1 of this series of white papers (Mobile advertising for newbies). There you can find an overview of the solutions available on the market, and drill into the features and functionalities of the mobile analytics solutions provided by AdMob and Bango and how well they answer the critical questions every advertiser and publisher needs to know: Who are my customers? What did they look at? Where did they come from? What were the results?

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Give consumers the advertising they will likely appreciate as opposed to spam? It's a tall order but an increasing number of companies including Gigafone, a mobile marketing services group with offices in Russia, Asia-Pacific, and Europe is developing ways to offer users ad-funded mobile services; Croatian mobile operator Vip, which recently took the wraps off an ad-funded mobile scheme called Tomato Plus; and Blyk, an ad-funded Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) I profiled in Vol.1 of this series of white papers (Mobile advertising for newbies) "get" it. They understand that asking users their permission and using the two-way exchange to collect important demographic data is the best way to reach the mobile advertising Nirvana of being able to deliver the right ad to the right person. And, if analytics permit it, developing the ability to match the marketing pitch to user context such as time of day; location (country, region, state); activity (buying a piece of downloadable content, casting a vote in a talent contest, or road testing a new mobile game - and the list goes on).

However, while many companies may ask consumers to submit their basic demographic data, the level of engagement that characterizes mobile social networks allows them to collect more data than most. They know their users best, visibility that creates a wealth of opportunities for advertisers to gain valuable insight into their target segments. This is possible because community members go through a registration process known as opt-in that in most cases includes filling out a detailed questionnaire. It's granular detail that goes a long way toward better targeting, allowing the ad networks managed by mobile communities to create highly relevant matches with potential advertisers and deliver an optimal user experience for all. The transparency of the interaction is what drives members to share more personal data than they might normally volunteer. To be clear: All targeting capabilities including opt-in must comply with existing countryspecific regulatory and legal frameworks covering privacy and the use of personal data. This welcome message came through loud and clear in the Global Code of Conduct, guidelines introduced by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), a global non-profit trade organization established to lead the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies. The MMA Global Code of Conduct is intended to guide companies within the mobile ecosystem so that they can effectively and responsibly leverage the mobile channel for marketing purposes, while protecting consumer privacy and the consumer experience at all times.

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It covers five categories, including Choice & Consent, which outlines best practice and the need to respect the right of the individual to control what mobile messages they receive by obtaining consent (opt-in) and implementing a simple termination (opt-out) process. For more information, visit www.mmaglobal.com

Fast-Track
You run a campaign to increase mindshare or market share or both. Tracking your results with a mobile analytics solution is the only reliable way to know if you are on the money or wasting it.

For all three campaigns, I inserted a Bango tracking link in both the banner ad and the download page. This allowed me to measure the number of clicks on the ad and enable goal comparison (in this case, how many users clicked to actually download the BMI calculator). As I observe later in this white paper, the tracking link, and the insight it provides into devices, geographies, and unique visitors, represents a perfect complement to the customer information (gender, U.S. state) offered by BuzzCity, for example. What Works? What ad models most effectively reach social networkers on their mobile phones? New data released by market research firm InsightExpress, which surveyed 1,593 respondents to learn their attitude about advertising Sign up for a mobile analytics account, and get your individual tracking number. This unique tracking link - which points to the URL of your choice essentially follows and records user interaction with a particular landing page, event, campaign or conversion. It's your call, and the procedure doesn't change no matter what. online speaks volumes about the campaigns and approaches likely to drive positive results in mobile. According to the majority of social networkers themselves, opt-in advertising works best, while randomly generated ads are far less successful. About 40 percent of respondents condone the practice of opt-in advertising.

Bango in-brief:

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Bango has visibility in what over 20 million users browsed and bought on the mobile Web during the past year. How does it know this? Bango's technology allows it to assign each individual a unique user ID based on information Bango gathers from browser analysis, session information and its long-established billing relationships with mobile operators. This unique user ID often referred to as a digital fingerprint - enables Bango to distinguish between new and repeat users and therefore quantify precisely the number of unique visitors to a given website.

Let's meet the ad networks

You have your campaign worked out, but which network(s) will let you deliver your message to the people you want to reach? Here are some observations to help you make the choice that is right for you. For each ad network I evaluated three performance characteristics. These included: 1) Targeting. 2) Order and payment. 3) Online reporting. I also noted any issues or shortcomings I observed. Likewise, I noted "value-adds, special features the network offered that contribute to their competitive edge. I considered these to be essential and awarded one for each characteristic based on factors such as usability (ease of set-up and availability of online payment mechanisms, for example), flexibility (quality/frequency of online reporting, for example), and visibility (the number of targeting options and extent to which they would likely deliver deep customer insights, for example). In some cases, ad networks received a the less vibrant colors indicate a less satisfactory approach, but not poor enough to omit the rating altogether.

Key Characteristics

Characteristic: Targeting

Defined as: Depth and breadth of options offered to advertisers to fine-tune a mobile advertising campaign. All steps advertisers must follow and the "paperwork" they must complete to run a mobile advertising campaign. Availability and quality of the system that allows advertisers to monitor their campaign and make any necessary adjustments during the campaign to achieve business objectives.

Order & payment Online reporting

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BuzzCity
Rating:
Simple and flexible are the "buzzwords" here. (No pun intended )

Targeting:
A straightforward "at-a-glance" page on the BuzzCity site outlines the how and why of the various options available to advertisers to fine-tune their mobile advertising campaign. High marks for allowing me to run campaigns in multiple territories at the same time and with different bids. (I didn't choose this option, but BuzzCity stands out as the only ad network of the three networks I tested that supports this. An advantage for advertisers that want to manage campaigns around the globe.) BuzzCity also supports targeting according to time of day, and content/community channels. (I chose myGamma and Community.)

Order and payment:

Online, quick and easy using major credit cards or PayPal. Minimum campaign is $20 and I can increase my budget to $5000 all online.

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Online reporting:
Sets the bar but remember (!) to retrieve and export results every 3 days for the duration of your campaign. (The system is set up to make results available to advertisers for a period of three days and then delete.)

Value-add:
I can direct users to my own WAP site, or to a landing page hosted by BuzzCity. (I chose to direct them to Mobislim.) For a small fee I can also conduct a survey of mobile community members an interesting feedback mechanism that could provide the reality-check advertisers require to see if their marketing message strikes a chord.

Itsmy.com
Rating:
Solid system but needs to get with the times.

Targeting:
Limited targeting for a mobile community that pushes the boundaries. Unlike BuzzCity, which allows me to run multiple campaigns in multiple territories, I am restricted to one campaign and one target country. In fact, the site specifically asks me to "pls choose one". (I can select two territories if I choose "Europe" without the U.K., or "World" without the U.S. but this makes no sense since I want to target the U.K. and the U.S. in the first place.) No other targeting options are available, which strikes me as unusual. I can't pick the channel of advertising, but itsmy.com members can. Some disconnect!

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As I pointed out in Section 1 on this white paper (page 6), itsmy.com set the bar in November 2008 by allowing users to choose the advertising they receive from 15 different advertising channels, such as fashion, sports, entertainment, and education. It would add a lot of value if advertisers could target those same channels!

Order and payment:

Short on temper and patience with this procedure. Fill out a form, print it out, add credit card information by hand, and fax (!) it to HQ in Munich. It's clear that itsmy.com is not set up to handle online payments. No PayPal. Minimum campaign is $500.00, but I am permitted to run two campaigns at $100.00 each. (Thanks Gofresh! )

Online reporting (not):

No online reporting system, but, as I detail on page 24 and 25, the report I (finally!) receive at the end of my campaign does provide me visibility into clicks, CTRs, impressions and gender.

Value-add:
Kudos for following Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) best practice for banner sizes. By way of background, the Mobile Advertising Guidelines is a global framework designed to accelerate mobile advertising uptake and enhance the consumer experience. Released by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) in April 2008 with an aim to allowing brands and media companies to deliver mobile advertising in a positive and consistent way, the guidelines include recommended aspect ratios and banner dimensions, maximum file sizes, file formats and other technical specifications. "To ensure the best consumer mobile marketing experience, it is essential to have industry-wide accepted advertising guidelines," Stephanie Bauer, Marketing Manager for Verizon, said in a press statement at the time. For more information, the MMA Mobile Advertising Guidelines can be downloaded here.

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Peperonity
Rating:
Better targeting but you may need a bigger budget .

Targeting:
By way of background, Peperonity directs advertisers to AdMob, where they can choose to target campaigns according to content channels and geography. (I choose the channel BOX with tipman: I cannot choose only to Communities, but advertise in Peperonity. In fact, reviewing the referral information obtained by Bango Mobile Analytics, I later discover that my advertising was spread across all the publishers that are part of the Community channel within AdMob, including sites like Hi5, MoCoSpace, and Friendster.) Multiple campaigns? Only in theory. In practice, at the time of my mobile advertising experiment it was not possible to run campaigns in two territories at the same time. Because the minimum bid in the U.S. and U.K. was different, I was required by the system to set up two different campaigns. As I detail in the box below, having two campaigns did not mean I could choose to split my budget equally between them. The system had the last word on this. Since then I have returned to the AdMob site to find that it's cheaper and easier to target "All countries and carriers" which is basically quite a low level of targeting. If I want to reach users in the U.K. only, the minimum bid increases to $0.20. Hmmm. Now I have to wonder what happens when I set up the campaign to target "All countries" at a minimum bid of $0.10. Do I still get impressions in the U.K. (at a minimum bid of 0.20), or have I somehow indirectly put restrictions on my campaign and overall ability to achieve my business objectives. So many questions a perfect experiment for my colleague Maria Sanchez to document on the Mobislim blog. Hope she takes the hint!

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Setting up campaigns with AdMob in two or more countries? Don't assume you have the last say in how your budget is spent and where. I set up two campaigns (in the U.S. and the U.K.) for $200.00, thinking I could simply assign $100.00 to each. Not so. The system makes that decision for you. In my case, I spent my budget in the U.S. in a total of 8 hours except the campaign also ran from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., not the slot during which I would normally expect to connect with my target audience of weight-conscious, health-conscious, fun-loving individuals. This leaves a big question in my mind: Would I have achieved different results had I been able to have the final word on when my campaign ran? No easy answer here. My U.K. campaign failed to run properly for some reason. In this business, it's crawl, walk run for everyone, and no one gets it right all the time. But, if you want to be 100 percent sure you have control over your spending across campaigns and geographies, you're best advised to set up different accounts for each campaign - and leave nothing to chance .

Order and payment:

Online, quick and easy using major credit cards. Minimum campaign is $50.00 (down from $100 previous).

Online reporting:
No social-demographic information, but it does provide me visibility into impressions, CTRs, clicks and expenditure.

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Value-add:
It's AdMob - but a trimmed-down version geared to AdMob's publishers. I miss the real thing and would rather have access to the all-singing and dancing AdMob analytics solution I reviewed in Vol 1 of this series (Mobile advertising for newbies). But it's not all bad news. Publishers can boost the quantity and quality of the data by following the procedure I outlined in my earlier white paper, and add tracking parameters to the URL. It's not always a breeze, but the analytics, which are updated periodically, provide a snapshot of visitors (not unique visitors, however), indications of engagement (as measured by the length of the visit, depth of visit, and loyalty), and the top 10 keywords by visits. All details that don't appear in the Peperonity online reporting. Still, it would be a lot better if this option were integrated from the go. Go figure!

3. The big picture

In this section I examine the quality of the mobile analytics, and the visibility each solution provides into the campaigns we run and the audiences we reach. I also assess the need for an additional analytics solution to fill in any gaps and give me the big picture view of what my campaigns really achieved. For each ad network I evaluated one key performance characteristics: targeting. As I stated at the start of this white paper, it was well beyond the scope of the paper to rank campaigns according to the results they delivered and the CTRs they recorded, although I do share this as a matter of record. In my evaluation I pay special attention to which the mobile analytics provided by each ad network would likely enable publishers and advertisers to plan and execute more targeted mobile advertising campaigns the second time around. As I am examining only one characteristic, I (degree of targeting) I therefore award each network a single . This time the size of the heart (one, two or three colored shadow effects) is an indication of the depth and breadth of sociodemographic data about my customers. I conclude this section with a summary of how and why a more comprehensive mobile analytics solution would be a huge help, allowing me to fill in the gaps and gain a more holistic view of my customers. By way of background, Vol 1 of this series of white papers (Mobile advertising for newbies) compares the capabilities of the solutions offered by AdMob and Bango, so it is not necessary to road test their solutions again in this paper. As I stated before, advertisers should choose their analytics solutions to match their needs. In this white paper I look at the value-add of using both the reporting provided by the mobile social networks, and the comprehensive analytics solution provided by Bango.

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Take advantage of the analytics tools provided by both the mobile social network and mobile analytics vendors such as Bango to: segment and target your audience measure success and failure fine-tune and refine future campaigns identify new markets and new opportunities

BuzzCity:
Rating: The whole nine yards
In addition to the basics I would expect from any ad network (clicks, CTRs, CPC and CPM), I have a breakdown of key demographics by campaign and by month.

Specifically, I have insight into gender. And what a surprise! Over 83 percent of the consumers who clicked on my ad were male. I'm not only amazed to know guys are receptive to a free BMI calculator; I have insight that allows me to reconsider my pitch moving forward. Maybe I should do a more rugged site design or offer a free download chart showing the exercises and/or foods that help build the most muscles

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Location (down to the state level!) Another welcome insight into my audience. Over one-third is in Mississippi. In my experiment I can't really cash in on having this deep insight into location. But it's easy to imagine advertising campaigns that could benefit from being able to link their offer to a local event or happening such as a music festival.

And handset manufacturer. But let's not break out the champagne just yet. Over one-third of the handsets are "Others" and another 16 percent are "Others unknown." I also don't know which models my audience has and we all know there is a world of difference between a low-end Nokia and a high-end N-Series.

CTR achieved in this campaign: U.S. (0.27%) U.K. (0.25%) Combined (0.25%)

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Itsmy.com:
Rating: More bang for the buck
Results for your campaign after the fact (when it's too late to make adjustments to the campaign) and via email (!) Demographic data shows gender, but offers no visibility into location or handset make.

UK clicks Male 51% Female 49%

US clicks Male 45% Female 55%

But I do have extra visibility where it counts: a comprehensive overview of ad performance across the three banners I submitted according to the specs recommended by the Mobile Advertising Guidelines introduced by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and supported by itsmy.com. In a nutshell, I can see the number of times each banner in each campaign was shown, clicked on and clicked through.

January 15 15 15 16 16 16 17 17 17 18 18 18 19 19 19

Shows 2011 1875 1637 2075 1753 1562 2084 1782 1559 1950 1746 1756 1309 1267 1195

Clicks 54 49 46 61 42 37 46 43 36 53 46 44 31 29 25

CTR 2.69% 2.61% 2.81% 2.94% 2.40% 2.37% 2.21% 2.41% 2.31% 2.72% 2.63% 2.51% 2.37% 2.29% 2.09% us us us us us us us us us us us us us us us

Banner bango bango bango bango bango bango bango bango bango bango bango bango bango bango bango bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi bmi blue green purple green purple blue blue green purple green purple blue blue purple green

Daily Totals Impressions 5523

Ave CTR Clicks 149 2.70%

5390

140

2.60%

5425

125

2.30%

5452

143

2.62%

3771

85

2.25%

Overall

25561

642

2.51%

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And speaking of click-through, the numbers (below) are something to write home about .

CTR achieved in this campaign: U.S.(2.51%) U.K. (2.45%) Combined (2.48%)

Peperonity:
Rating: Close but no cigar
Adding tracking parameters provided by AdMob to my URL would open a world of targeting possibilities, but Peperonity alone doesn't even show key data such as gender. (Surely it collects this as part of the opt-in process to register new members). However, it is possible to wring more value out of the analytics provided by Peperonity if you employ some deductive reasoning. For example, "results by type of campaign" tells us banners were displayed 60 percent of the time. Connect the dots, and we can likely conclude that 60 percent of the handsets used by my customers were makes and models that can display banners rather than just text ads.
Admob text campaign results

CTR achieved in this campaign: U.S. (0.25%) U.K. (N/A)

Admob banner campaign results

Yes, you read it right. I have no figures for my U.K. campaign because the confusion over minimum bids and a bug somewhere in the system led to my campaign only running in the U.S. (On top of that my U.S. campaign was short-lived, and ran in the wee hours of the morning. Not ideal. After I spent my budget (guess more early-birds are into weight loss than I thought) I couldn't add funds to my account to keep my U.S. campaign going to target people I know might be interested in my marketing message such as fitness-enthusiasts who might surf the Web before breakfast or during their lunch break because the system simply doesn't allow it.

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Get The Edge

Mobile social networking companies provide advertisers granular detail on their members (gained through detailed questionnaires and opt-in processes) and deep insights into the data that matters, such as gender, location, and the mobile devices members use to interact with advertising and hopefully click-through to convert or complete the campaign's call to action. Granted, it's great data, and it goes a long way toward helping advertisers to adjust their strategies and execute their future campaigns. However, when the end-game is all about getting a big(ger) picture view of what you achieved and where you missed the mark, then a more comprehensive analytics solution is a must. In practical terms, the two are complementary not competitive and the combination pegs the needle. Specifically, a mobile analytics tool such as the one provided by Bango, would:

Provide me real-time access to my campaign so I can monitor results as they happen and react to sudden market swings that could impact my campaign when they happen and not after the damage is done or the window of opportunity has closed. I also have a detailed overview over time a must if I want to pinpoint results that are separated by weeks or months, or trends that develop over time. (Remember that BuzzCity makes click logs available for the last three days only restricting me Enable me to see all the countries where consumers responded to my campaign. (What better way to discover new markets and opportunities?)

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Breakdown all the handsets (make and model) that my audience has. (The more I know about the devices my audience has, the better I can target my campaign and be doubly sure that the content I offer works on the majority of handsets, for example.)

Allow me (through the Bango tracking link, for example) to see how many consumers clicked through to actually download the BMI calculator, and (through the Bango ID) to measure the number of unique visitors.

Reveal referral information, allowing me more visibility into where my traffic really comes from, and adjust my campaign strategy and spend to target those destinations. (In the case of Peperonity I am surprised to learn that only 4.65 percent of my traffic actually came through Peperonity. Other AdMob publishers, including Hi5, MocoSpace, Friendster, and Moblyng, also figure in my results. It's great to have insight into the publishers that are part of Communities channel within AdMob, but it's almost too much of a good thing: I wanted to target Peperonity, not a mix of other mobile social communities.) For the inside track on what these networks really deliver, visit the Mobislim blog at http://mobislim.wordpress.com for all the data. There we'll give you a login to Bango Analytics so you can see the data for yourself.

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Conclusion
As this white paper illustrates, mobile social networks have the inside track on their growing membership. Opt-in procedures, often requiring users to register and fill out detailed questionnaires, put mobile social networking companies in the enviable position of being able to not only collect valuable customer data, but also share it with advertisers (without revealing the identity of the individual user or compromising consumer privacy considerations and regulation in any way). Put another way, mobile social networking companies are uniquely positioned to provide advertisers a breakdown of customer segments by gender, location, make and model of handset and much more! It's valuable data you can harness to fine-tune and plan future campaigns. But, as I show in my final analysis in section 3 of this white paper, you can do one better if you also employ a more comprehensive analytics solution to measure success, failure, and how well your campaign really achieved your business objectives. What's more, a comprehensive analytics solution gives advertisers a more holistic view of their customers, allowing them to answer the critical questions every advertiser and publisher needs to know: Who are my customers? What did they look at? Where did they come from? What were the results? Did community members convert to the campaign goals? Providing advertisers deep insight into their customers is essential in the social media arena, an exciting space where traffic is high and increasing, but mobile social networks are still struggling to find a solid revenue stream. While the ad-funded model holds the most promise, mobile social network sites, mobile carriers, mobile content providers and advertisers all face enormous challenges to reach that potential. We lack the stats for the mobile space, but a new report from market research firm eMarketer discusses the disconnect between the usage of Internet social networks and the level of advertising spend they attract. In 2009, eMarketer forecasts that more than 44 percent of Internet users will visit a social network at least once per month. But social network advertising will represent just 5 percent of overall online ad dollars. However, online social networks also offer valuable blueprints for fledgling mobile social networks and companies in the emerging social media value chain still trying to come up with successful ad models. Put simply, targeting is where much of the action (and potentially the money) is!

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MySpace's HyperTargeting initiative, for example, has helped double CPMs at the site, and 75 percent of advertisers that have tried it have come back for more, according to News Corp., the company run by media mogul Rupert Murdoch that acquired MySpace in 2005. At the other end of the spectrum, Facebook's SocialAds concept attempts to improve the relevance of advertising by mining the connections between Facebook members. To be clear, improved targeting (paired with mobile analytics tools that help advertisers plan and execute more effective campaigns moving forward) is just part of the competitive arsenal available to mobile social networks determined to make the move from meeting place to marketplace. Against this backdrop, virtual gifting is set to be the next big thing in mobile social networking, providing companies a sustainable source of revenue, and offering advertisers a new way to connect with community members and brand the experience. Indeed, the business imperative is to move beyond traditional ad units such as banners, and focus on developing a real dialogue with consumers. Virtual gifting, particularly if it incorporates a brands' message deeply into the content, makes for a winning strategy. As Arthur Goikhman, Cellufun Co-Founder and CEO, put it at a recent mobile industry event: "Social media is about finding connections to other people using the device thats on them all the time, and we think monetization strategies should be more geared towards virtual goods." In addition, publishers and brands need to bring consumers to the services they want to have on mobile. "Consumers learned to ignore banner ads on the PC, so they can learn to ignore them in one more place. Brands need to find things people are looking to interact with on their phone." At the other end of the spectrum, companies are convinced advertisers that provide widgets and other applications to help people chat and create and share content, are taking the proper approach. Put another way, mobile social networking is not just about display advertising; it's about all the cool things people can do all brought to them by advertisers and brands that want to make it easy for people to share content and express feelings with their friends. The jury is out on which business models will reap the best results. But companies agree that a one-size-fits-all offer is out of place - everywhere. As Prinz M. Pinakatt, Manager of Interactive Marketing Europe for Coca-Cola EU Group, put it in a recent interview with MSearchGroove: "We describe the digital space as the dining table. [When you deliver an ad] you are invited to the dining table of the consumer. The mobile phone is even more personal, so it's sort of the bedroom. Given that this space is so intensely personal, brands like us have to be really careful about what we do. We have to seek a balance and thats why we are experimenting a lot." Coca-Cola has identified social networks as a "key area" it wants to play in, regardless of device or platform. Social networks are private places with huge potential. "However, I haven't seen many brands that were really able to leverage that. We have had successes, but we have learned it is

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hard to be a member of the community [on the Internet], and its going to be even harder in mobile because the interaction time is shorter and the content that is provided is less rich." My take: To maximize results on a social networking site, it's critical that advertisers follow these three principals. Make the most out of mobile analytics offered by both the ad network and an independent vendor such as Bango to match your marketing message/campaign with the community. Social networking sites generally require members to register, which raises the bar in terms of interest, motivation, and qualification. This puts your message in an environment where members are predisposed to relevant messages. In a best case scenario people should view your marketing as an extension of their mobile experience, rather than spam. Consider virtual gifting and other schemes to provide something of value to users and their community. After all, the goal here is to encourage user interaction, cultivate a two-way conversation, and boost brand awareness. This is not an environment for marketing pitches and product-pushers. Success stories include Flirtomatic, a pioneer mobile flirting service with the ability to monetize mobile users through conversation with added fun and great content such as virtual flowers and kisses. The company recently extended its reach to enable members to give the objects of their affection real gifts including chocolate and sexy underwear.

Participate actively in the community, and interact with members to build relationships and enable them to deepen their relationships with each other by providing tools that will let them do what they are there to do: Keep in touch with friends, connect with people who share their interests, and share content and feelings with the community. More importantly, keep in mind you don't need whiz-bang technology to engage with members in a meaningful exchange about your brand. Text ads and banner display ads are a great way to start. Besides, they are going to be around with us for a while yet to come. The innovation is not in advertising formats, but how we use them. In the case of my mobile advertising experiment, I could have reached out to an organization like Weight Watchers to deliver their brand message in connection with the banner advertising a free BMI calculator and maybe next time I will In a market where two-way conversation is the end-goal, any brand that lends their voice to my advertising message can only make it come through loud and clear.

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This paper is sponsored by Bango

About Bango
Bango is a leading provider of real-time mobile analytics for website owners, marketing agencies and advertisers. Our hosted service allows businesses worldwide to independently measure the importance and success of mobile marketing, allowing them to establish the strongest personal relationships with their customers through any mobile phone (mass market and smartphones). Bango delivers the benefits of traditional Web analytics to the fast growing mobile world, providing familiar metrics like unique visitors alongside new mobile metrics like geo-location by country, operator identification (including virtual networks) and handset information (make, model, features). Bango is a mobile Web pioneer and in addition to providing mobile analytics solutions, the company has over 7 years experience in mobile billing. Bango's customers use Bango's payments network to collect payments in over 150 countries worldwide and put the charge on the consumer's on their phone bill, credit/debit card or PayPal account. Read more at www.bango.com The opinions expressed in this white paper are those of Peggy Anne Salz and MSearchGroove and do not reflect the opinions of the organizations referenced in this paper.

About Peggy Anne Salz

Peggy Anne Salz is the chief analyst and publisher of MSearchGroove, an online source of analysis and commentary on mobile search, mobile advertising and social media. Her report, Mobile Search & Content Discovery the first of its kind establishes Peggy as an authority on mobile search and content discovery technologies enabling media companies and mobile operators to monetize content and services. Her drive to spark debate about issues impacting the industry at all levels has won her international recognition as a brave new voice in the mobile content market. She has established a successful consulting career based on vision, insight, versatility, and over 15 years of industry experience.

About MSearchGroove
MSearchGroove.com provides analysis and commentary on mobile search, mobile advertising and social media. Through primary research and interviews with c-level executives and industry luminaries, MSG is the essential read for companies seeking ways to monetize their digital assets, drive mobile advertising revenues and harness the power of empowered consumers.

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Special thanks to
Tom Thurston Tom is the creator of mobislim.wap.com mobile site. Tom is a Java programmer who discovered the mobile internet in 2004 and has been building mobile systems ever since. Tom has worked with the likes of Disney and Reuters to provide on and off deck mobile internet sites, has contributed to the Volantis mobile products used by mobile operators such as Orange, Three and Turkcell, has architected and developed industry leading mobile entertainment sites on the O2 portal and has created the Bango enabled content delivery platform used to sell mobile assets for almost every football club in the UK. For more info see http://themobiledeveloper.com

Bango.net 2009

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