January 13, 2009
Me2everyone.com (beta launch): Next generation business social networks
Me2Everyone.com
make friends, shop online, become a member and you automatically become a shareholder.
It will offer facilities to ease the reach of businesses and business owners to their intended consumers.
You need to have a referral code to register, click on the link below and it will take you there and give you a referral code
http://www.me2everyone.com/21456
Me2everyone will be a social networking site intertwined in a game like atmosphere, sort of a mix between the Myspace.com and Facebook realms and that of Secondlife. The rapid growth of the site will be attributed to the share program they are offering. Currently the first 100,000 members to register at Me2everyone.com will receive 2500 shares of the company. Each referral they get will give them an additional 5000 shares. The company claims that they will be trying to go public sometime in 2012, and has a goal of 0.58 pounds per share at the public launch. Thats about 290 per referral if all go as planned. Of course anything can happen in 3 years, and startups like Me2everyone are not always easy to attract attention or turn a profit.
Upon signup, you recieve your first 1000 shares, worth $0.001 each, and you will recieve 3000 shares upon referring any of your friends.
Originally posted @ http://profilesblog.com/2009/01/me2everyone/
Try it out, worth a look
July 19, 2008
Introduction to mobile advertising
Introduction to mobile advertising
Mobile marketing on the other hand encompasses all of the above, but also includes text messaging, mobile commerce and Bluetooth marketing. These methods of marketing use mobile, but don’t necessarily use the internet. On a mobile device, you can usually tell when an application is using the internet because it will either warn you in advance or a small connection symbol will appear at the edge of the screen (often a spinning globe).
Accessing the internet on mobile can be done in a number of different ways, but the current standard in the UK is using one of two different technologies:
- 3G – this stands for ‘third generation’ and allows for high speed data transfer using a mobile phone signal. It is now the standard for mobile internet connection in the UK and costs the user money depending on how much information they download. Although mobile operators now offer fixed cost monthly packages (discussed later in this report).
- WIFI – stands for ‘wireless fidelity’. In the same way that computers and laptops can connect to the internet using wireless routers, mobile phones are now adding the same technology. This means that a phone can bypass the need to connect via a mobile signal, and instead connect to the internet using existing broadband connections, be it in the home, office or public place.
However, as technology develops, the lines are continuing to merge as some companies are producing systems that combine text and mobile website technology. For instance, it is possible to send a text message with a link for instant access to a website. Then, by registering on the website, it is possible to receive text alerts to be reminded when to look at the website again for updates. For the purpose of this report, we will be concentrating on mobile internet advertising and its growth in the UK.
What are the similarities with internet advertising?
There are a number of similarities that can be drawn between traditional internet advertising and mobile internet advertising despite being delivered and consumed differently it uses much of the same technology. Plus many of the fundamental characteristics of online advertising (interactivity, permission based etc.) still apply.
In most instances, advertising is booked using exactly the same models that you already use for internet advertising, like Google’s AdWords for paid search for example.
The way in which adverts are delivered is also largely the same. For instance banner adverts still appear on mobile sites next to relevant content and video adverts appear before or after video programming.
What are the differences with internet advertising?
The differences are largely practical:
- Small screen size resulting in less space for content.
- Harder to use interfaces (although this is improving).
- Slower connection speeds resulting in a need for smaller file sizes.
- Internet accessed on the move, away from desks.
- Usually supplementary to primary internet access on computers or laptops.
- Mobile internet is used for different reasons e.g. for snippets of information useful for a journey such as restaurant locations to meet a friend, timetables for trains, short news bites or TV programmes to pass the time on a train journey.
Bear all of this in mind and understand what a user requires from a mobile internet experience and you will begin to realise that mobile advertising must be treated very differently. However, like internet ads, mobile ads work best when they are relevant and useful to the user and created for that particular device.
The state of the mobile advertising market
The UK mobile advertising market is in its infancy. Today, the majority of mobile advertising bought and sold is ‘on portal’, sold through third party sales-houses (e.g. Screen Tonic for Orange, Yahoo! for Vodafone and 4th Screen for O2). Inventory on ‘off-portal’ sites is also sold by third party specialist sales-houses (e.g. Admob, Adinfuse) as well as some web companies like Unanimis. This allows for interest group targeting, when adverts are placed on sites depending on the audience interested in the content of that site (e.g. sites like The Spectator, Financial Times and The Economist may attract a slightly older demographic). For on-portal advertising the ad sales model which sees mobile inventory sold according to the section of the portal where the ad appears will be replaced by a model targeting mobile users by socio-demographic profiling, behavioural analysis and location in order to provide better targeting.
Measurement
Buying advertising on the mobile internet is similar to buying display advertising on traditional internet. In most cases banner ad impressions can be purchased by cost-per-thousand (CPM). Prices vary according to the degree of targeting: the majority of on-portal ads sell for £10 – £20 per thousand, whilst highly targeted ads on special interest sites, or served only to certain aggregated sociodemographics or served on a search results page can sell for up to £100 per thousand. Othermobile internet site owners, predominantly publishers, sell their mobile inventory on both the CPM and cost-per-click (CPM) bases. Prices for display advertising are typically 5p – 25p per click.
Highly bespoke on and off portal banner campaigns comfortably generate double digit response rates at a fractional cost of other traditional channels. Click through rates range from 0.5% (on a typical off-portal site) up to 4% (on portal), considerably higher (sometimes 15 times) than the equivalent for traditional internet sites.
Inventory
Inventory is still relatively scarce because of a ‘shortage of eyeballs’. Both reach and frequency are a long way from their theoretical maximum due to the early stage of the market. Today less than a third of mobile subscribers regularly use the mobile internet and they average only one page per day (source: MMA UK).
The total UK inventory of page impressions is estimated at one billion page impressions per month (October 2007) but is growing at 9% month-on-month and is expected to reach over five billion by the end of 2008 (source: MMA UK).
Opportunities
Mobiles offer a vast number of opportunities for advertisers, but only through clever marketing that takes into consideration the needs of a consumer on the smaller device. Benefits include:
- Mobiles are extremely personal because they are only used by one person; a dream for targeting and measurement.
- Mobiles are always with the user , resulting in opportunities to target people in ways that no other device can.
- Mobiles are always on (unless the battery runs out!) allowing the user to access advertising at any time, no matter where they are.
- Mobiles are highly interactive – all mobile handsets now come with many different uses (call, text, camera, music player, web browser).
- Mobiles have unparalleled reach with over 90% of the UK population owning one, if not more, handsets.
Trends
Accessing the internet on mobile is becoming faster and easier. 3G allows for mobile optimised web pages to load within a few seconds, almost equivalent to broadband internet access (in terms of the speed of page load). WIFI technology allows for internet access at the same speed as internet on a computer at no extra cost. As WIFI becomes more commonplace in public spaces too like cafes and hotels, mobile internet is easier and far cheaper than it has ever been.
In terms of marketing, text and picture messaging (SMS / MMS) are still being used to introduce advertisers to mobile, almost as a taster for everything else mobile has to offer. However, this is gradually beginning to change as mobile advertising develops and people become more aware of what the medium can be used for.
Search is being used more on mobile with operators implementing search on their own portals and other sites as well. Search has been one of the driving forces behind internet growth and the growth of internet advertising, and this is being replicated on mobile.
Banner ads are already being used well across mobile internet, although it is still a very young area with a lot of improvement to be made. However, we are already seeing increased creativity with mobile banners and sponsorships.
Video pre-roll and post-roll, and ad-funded content are starting to emerge. Volume is limited both in terms of current audience and advertising, but this is increasing and will continue to do so rapidly over next few years.
July 15, 2008
Mobile Advertising Reaches for the Sky
Originally posted at http://www.wirelessweek.com/Mobile-Advertising.aspx
Mobile Advertising Reaches for the Sky
By Brad Smith
WirelessWeek – August 15, 2007
There’s a lot of uncertainty about the specifics, but nearly everyone thinks
the mobile world is a good one for some kind of advertising.
Mobile advertising seems to be an industry that’s about ready to explode, chasing the billions already being spent on Internet advertising. But mobility, although it has unmatched attractions for advertisers, also is a business very much in a state of flux.
Some of those in the burgeoning mobile advertising industry, which has been making money mostly through text-driven ads, expect advances in networks and advertising capabilities to reach an inflexion point in time for the Christmas shopping season. If so, mobile advertising could become a tiger escaping from its cage next year.
| Global Mobile Ad Spend Forecast for 2011 |
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Source: Strategy Analytics
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What has everyone so excited about mobile advertising is what has happened on the Internet. Ad spending on the Web is growing at a compound annual rate of 18.3% and will reach $73 billion in 2011, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The consultancy says Internet advertising will comprise 14% of the entire global advertising market by that year.
Another research company, eMarketer, expects Internet ad spending in the United States to total $19.5 billion this year Nielsen NetRatings says the top 10 Internet advertisers in the United States spent $278.4 million in June alone, led by InterActive Corporation’s $47.2 million. Those numbers exclude search advertising, which is the fastest-growing segment of Internet advertising.
If mobile advertising follows that spending curve, it’s no wonder the industry sees big things ahead. Strategy Analytics is forecasting advertisers will spend $1.4 billion on mobile media this year, with that rising to $14.4 billion in 2011. eMarketer says mobile ad spending reached $1.5 billion last year and will grow to $14 by 2011.
“The outlook for mobile advertising spend has significantly advanced in the past 12 months,” says Phil Taylor, director of Strategy Analytic’s global wireless practice. “The supply of advertising inventory is rapidly increasing as mobile publishers look to develop advertising as a revenue stream.”
Taylor notes that Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone have all accelerated their plans to sell advertising through their networks. “Advertisers appear to be responding positively,” he says.
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And then there’s the interest that Google, which lives on its Internet ad revenue, has shown in mobile advertising. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at the All Things Digital conference in May that the company wants its share of mobile ad revenue because “they are twice as profitable or more than the non-mobile phone ads because they’re more personal.” Carriers have expressed some concern about Google’s entry, fearing they could lose ad revenue.
Despite these rosy expectations, there still is some caution evident because mobile advertising in a unique and unknown medium is bringing together carriers, ad agencies, publishers, mobile ad technology companies and brands. Everyone is treading on unfamiliar ground.
The No. 1 issue facing mobile advertising, says Kanishka Agarwal, vice president of mobile media for Telephia, is that the mobile industry is not a single advertising medium. Brands and advertisers are familiar with working with print, TV, radio and the Internet as separate entities. But mobile networks can bring together the Internet, video, text, gaming, music and more.
“Mobile is a group of quite separate media with different characteristics,” Agarwal says. “They differ in form and in the audiences they draw. People are still trying to figure out a way to handle this.”
One of those figuring it out is John Hadl, CEO of Brand in Hand and strategic adviser to Proctor & Gamble on its mobile strategy. Hadl created more than 50 mobile advertising campaigns in 2006, including Cover Girl and Old Spice.
Hadl says the top priority for advertisers is that they want to buy audiences and not technology. “Brands are about reaching consumers and audiences,” he says, adding that technology is not interesting to advertisers.
“The problem is that mobile companies are mostly selling tools now,” he says. “We’re all being sold platforms and technology. You have to give us an audience.”
Hadl also thinks mobile advertising will become more interesting to major brands when richer content on wireless devices becomes more widespread, especially video and TV. The richer the media, the richer the consumer experience, which drives sales and brand recognition.
As long as everyone in the mobile advertising business remembers that the “consumer is boss,” Hadl says, he is optimistic about the future. Everyone involved is trying different things to see how they work, getting their feedback from consumer reactions.
Another agency working in the mobile arena is Nurun/ant farm interactive. Michael Koziol, executive vice president, says mobile advertising is much more complex than online advertising was in the 1990s. Part of that is because wireless operators are taking a stronger position on collecting a share than did the wired telcos.
“It’s not unreasonable that they are more involved,” he says of the carriers. “It doesn’t make it as profitable for content properties where the ISP didn’t ask for a share. AOL did, but where are they now?”
There also is a great deal of uncertainty because no one in the value chain knows exactly what will work or how to price it. “Everybody is doing different things and no one is moving in the same direction,” he says. “In the 1990s, most things were moving in the same direction at least.”
Nurun has done some mobile advertising, some of which has worked well and some that hasn’t. Koziol believes the future of mobile will be less in advertising and more in building brand affinity by connecting with individuals with information in context.
“Phones are personal space, which makes them appealing for marketers but is dangerous ground for push advertising,” he says, adding that delivering ads to phones should be on-demand or at the point of need.
Some major brands have started moving into mobile advertising. Among them are Proctor & Gamble, CBS and Coca-Cola. CBS recently inked a deal with four mobile advertising companies, AdMob, Millennial Media, Rhythm NewMedia and Third Screen Media. Third Screen also has a deal with Fox TV.
Cyriac Roeding, executive vice president of CBS Mobile, says each of the four will provide different technologies and services for CBS content, including banner and text ads on WAP sites, phones and video commercials attached to video content.
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Sprite’s The Yard campaign
lets friends share content. |
Coca-Cola’s Sprite brand this summer launched a WAP-based mobile community service in the United States aimed specifically at teenagers. The service, called The Yard, allows users to create a network of friends who can share photos and messages, as well as get content like mobile phone wallpapers, games and video mobisodes content. The design of the application and the content is specifically aimed at teenagers because they are a key market for Sprite, according to Mark Greatrex, senior vice president for marketing communications for Coca-Cola.
Teenagers are a particularly difficult segment to reach with a marketing campaign, Greatrex said, so Coca-Cola decided to reach them where they are – on their mobile phones. Sprite is using short codes and PINs found on the caps of Sprite bottles to drive users to The Yard.
Coca-Cola is working with all the U.S. carriers, but all that any user needs is a WAP-enabled phone and a data plan. Teenagers can text the word Yard to the short code 59666 to get a WAP link to the site. They then set up their tag name and password and invite others to join their network.
Paul Palmieri, president and CEO of Millennial Media and former executive at Verizon Wireless, says one of the reasons carriers and content owners are becoming more interested in advertising is that downloads by wireless subscribers has started to slow and they’re looking for new ways to support downloads as well as boost revenue.
Research by M:Metrics confirms Palmieri’s assertion. The research company says the number of downloads over wireless networks in the United States has risen slowly from 38.7 million in January to 40.8 million in May and has been on only a slight uphill trend over the last year.
“There is going to have to be a leap of faith on the publisher side as some the subscription-based content moves into an ad-supported model,” Palmieri says. “That could take some time but we think it will happen. If you have a subscription download model and it slows, it will be less of a leap of faith.”
Palmieri says Millennial Media’s business based on premium CPM (cost per thousand impressions) has been “growing really nicely.” The other principle way of charging for mobile advertising is based on a click-through rate, similar to the Internet.
Millennial operates ad-serving technology as well as marketplaces where publishers and advertisers can buy and sell ads. It’s newest marketplace, Decktrade, is a performance-based self-service auction platform that Palmieri says has provided “quite a significant percentage” of the company’s revenue since it launched in March.
Palmieri says one of the keys to the future of mobile advertising will be the creation of experience-based content, such as a WAP site for an artist’s fan club. The fan can see pictures, check tour dates and perhaps buy something. That transition to rich, interactive content is starting to take place, he says.
“We’re in a shift now,” Palmieri says. “There is a resurgence of WAP and an emergence over the last six months of more experience-based content.”
Palmieri also sees growing interest on the part of advertisers and brands to use mobile channels, while there hasn’t been a similar uptick in the amount of ad inventory being created.
Coming from the carrier world, it might not be surprising that Palmieri thinks operators should be able to charge a premium for allowing ads to run over their networks. Carriers reportedly are charging rates as much as 10 times higher than Internet rates, but Palmieri says that may be justified.
“This is the most personal device that people own,” he says. “It is the most personal place you can reach a consumer. That really is something special and something premium and it ought to treated as such. The notion that the price is 10 times the Internet is well-deserved.”
Ari Paparo, vice president of rich media for the Internet ad company Doubleclick, thinks mobile advertising rates will come down as the industry matures and advertising inventory rises.
Jeff Janer, CMO for Third Screen Media, says his company actually has seen an increase in brands and mobile sites seeking to advertise. He says the supply of advertising has picked up but that it is not well-targeted.
Third Screen recently teamed with Telephia to provide third-party measurement of mobile Internet usage, something advertisers want to know. But carriers also hold another key to measuring how effective an ad campaign is because they know who their subscribers are. Carriers are understandably reluctant to invade their subscribers’ privacy but could make demographic information available on an opt-in basis.
“Advertisers want a third-party validation,” Janer says. “The real money is not going to start flowing until third parties are engaged.”
Third Screen recently was acquired by AOL subsidiary Advertising.com, which Janer says has greatly expanded its reach. Telephia says Third Screen has the ability of reaching half of all U.S. mobile content subscribers, with twice the number of mobile ad campaigns as it had a year earlier.
Text-driven mobile advertising has been the main driver in the industry until now, says Telephia’s Agarwal, but he says ads on the mobile Internet are picking up and the next frontier will be mobile video. SMS, used by 150 million Americans, is a mass market but WAP and video are not, he says. However advertising could make those mass-market media because ads can lower or eliminate the end-user costs.
“Text will be predominant for several years because everyone has a phone that can use it,” he says. “The phone is second only to your underwear for what you have with you all the time. And SMS is the biggest mass-market way to reach that. Advertisers and marketers buy audiences and SMS delivers that audience now.”
Mobinttechno : being linkedin is just a thought 