Archive for February - 2010

GSMA and comScore Announce UK Launch of Mobile Media Metrics

Posted at 8/02/2010 by Nextology in GSMA, Mobile Internet

gsmaThe GSMA and comScore, Inc., in partnership with operators O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3UK, today announced the official UK launch of the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) product, a pioneering census-level solution for mobile media reporting. Taking irreversibly anonymised mobile Internet usage data from all five UK mobile operators, the service will provide comprehensive insights into mobile media consumption, empowering brands and agencies to plan effective and focused campaigns for the mobile medium.

“On behalf of our operator partners, comScore and the GSMA, we are excited to be launching Mobile Media Metrics in the UK, our first market, and we anticipate that it will accelerate growth in the mobile advertising market,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA.  “The underlying principle of Mobile Media Metrics is to deliver valuable and actionable reporting tools to the media industry, while respecting the privacy of individuals. Access to transparent measurement is essential in establishing mobile as a legitimate advertising medium, and Mobile Media Metrics is a critical element in advancing this process.”

The GSMA Mobile Media Metrics service is based on anonymised, census-level data for mobile Internet usage across mobile networks, which is augmented with demographic data that has been collected with the consent of a representative sample of mobile Internet users. The Mobile Media Metrics service provides a rich, aggregated view of mobile Internet usage behaviour, enabling market-level analysis of site visitation and engagement metrics, such as page views, time spent on specific sites, and device types and features.

“The initiative undertaken by the GSMA and comScore is a great step forward for mobile media,” said Richard Foan, Managing Director of ABCe and Chair of JICWEBS.  “Based on ABCe’s independent validation of Mobile Media Metrics, advertisers, agencies and media owners can rest assured that key metrics are compliant with and endorsed by the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS).”

Based on pre-production data*, 16 million people in the UK accessed the Internet from their mobile phones in December 2009, viewing a combined total of 6.7 billion pages and spending an aggregate of 4.8 billion minutes online during the month. The top 10 sites accounted for 70 per cent of both total pages viewed and total time spent online on mobiles during the month.

Top 10 UK Mobile Internet Sites Dec-2009* Source: GSMA Mobile Media Metrics
Total Unique Visitors (000) Total Pages Viewed (000) Total Minutes (000)
Total Mobile Internet Audience 15,947 Total Mobile Internet Audience 6,659,428 Total Mobile Internet Audience 4,792,411
Facebook.com 4,986 Facebook.com 2,635,771 Facebook.com 2,156,886
Google Sites 4,567 Google Sites 894,273 Google Sites 395,576
Telefonica Mobile Networks 3,731 Orange Sites 252,294 Microsoft Sites 165,725
Orange Sites 3,553 Apple Inc. 177,648 Orange Sites 138,529
Vodafone Group 3,310 AOL (inc. Bebo) 158,988 AOL (inc. Bebo) 106,446
Yahoo! Sites 1,995 Vodafone Group 135,003 Apple Inc. 104,118
BBC Sites 1,851 BBC Sites 104,303 Vodafone Group 89,126
Microsoft Sites 1,639 Microsoft Sites 103,566 BBC Sites 83,614
Apple Inc. 1,525 eBay 95,662 Flirtomatic 54,503
Nokia 1,147 Flirtomatic 92,654 Yahoo! Sites 48,685

Mobile Internet usage is accelerating, driven largely by the rise of smartphone devices, which are now used by one fifth of the total UK mobile subscriber base, according to comScore’s MobiLens survey. Significantly, while smartphone users represent just 29 per cent of the UK total mobile Internet audience, they accounted for 47 per cent of total page views, and 51 per cent of the total time spent online in December 2009.

GSMA MMM Core Reports is the foundation of comScore’s GSMA MMM suite of reports on mobile browsing. Full production data for the MMM Core Reports will be released in March 2010 based on February data. The GSMA and comScore are planning a full complement of additional MMM products to measure mobile usage of applications, search, reach and frequency, ad tracking, and ad effectiveness, as well as linkage of the MMM database to Kantar Media’s Target Group Index (TGI).  The MMM service will also be expanded to include Wi-Fi traffic through site-centric measurement of publishers’ and ad networks’ sites, using comScore’s Media Metrix 360 solution, for a de-duplicated view of the online and mobile Internet.

* As the operators ramp up to full delivery of anonymised data to comScore, the MMM database has been populated with a subset of December data – “pre-production data” – from three operators.  Pre-production data for January from four operators will be delivered later in February 2010, and we anticipate delivery of full production data from all five operators early in Q2 2010.

Source: GSMA

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NYTimes: Mobile Advertising Ready to Grow

Posted at 1/02/2010 by Nextology in Mobile Advertising, Mobile Internet

mobile-advertisingEvery year around this time, a few brave forecasters declare that advertising on mobile devices is poised to become the next big thing in marketing. And every year, the results disappoint.

But this year, with technology powerhouses like Apple and Google introducing whole new mobile devices and buying up ad firms specializing in the small screen, the forecasts may finally be right.

By now, the sales pitch is familiar: The mobile phone offers advertisers all the benefits of traditional Internet ads, including the ability to track their effectiveness. And it lets marketers reach consumers on the go, on a gadget they clutch intimately.

Why, then, according to Juniper Research, did worldwide spending on mobile advertising last year amount to only $1.4 billion — less than one third of one percent of total ad revenue?

For one thing, some marketers remain wary about trying it, for fear of annoying consumers by intruding on their personal space. A technical toolbox poorly equipped to work with small screens has also hurt; after all, banner ads the size of thumbnails don’t make a big impression.

Industry analysts say that now, with the introduction of Apple’s iPad tablet, an entirely new approach to mobile ads could be near.

That is because the iPad, a cross between a laptop and an iPhone, looks more like an iPhone from an ad perspective. It does not support Adobe Flash, the software used for much PC-based advertising. So, to make their ads available to iPad users, marketers may have to develop new kinds of ads, rather than simply adapting existing Web ads.

Apple, seeing big potential in mobile advertising, recently agreed to acquire a specialist in that business, Quattro Wireless. That followed a deal by Google to buy one of the largest players in the field, AdMob. The combined $1 billion-plus cost was of a scale not previously seen in the world of advertising on the tiny screen.

“It’s a pretty exciting time for the market,” said Oliver Roxburgh, managing director of the British operations of YOC, a mobile ad agency. “It’s starting to grow up a little.”

Mr. Roxburgh’s enthusiasm has been buoyed by the efforts of Apple and Google and is shared by a growing chorus of industry experts.

Indeed, Windsor Holden, a principal analyst at Juniper Research, predicts that mobile ad spending worldwide will more than quadruple, to $6 billion, by 2014. And he does not shrink from the prediction.

“Everybody has been hoping for about the last five years that the next year would be the one when mobile advertising takes off,” Mr. Holden said. “There are a number of pointers to the possibility that this will be the year when we get some significant traction.”

Via: New York Times

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