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Tag Archives: Mobile Advertising
Sprint's New Mobile Ad Network Pinsight Media+ Promises Better Targeting, Metrics and CTR
I spent the last two days at the Sprint Open Solutions Conference as a guest of Sprint which is the third largest US mobile operator. The event, which used to be called the Sprint Developer Conference, has been broadened to include more business related content but there are still many technical sessions targeted at consumer and enterprise mobile app developers.
There were a couple of interesting presentations on mobile advertising. It's no secret that the revenue per click or impression from ads on mobile apps and mobile websites is about a tenth of what desktop ads deliver. The main reason for that is that advertisers and agencies are not sold on mobile advertising. Although mobile advertising spend is growing at a rate of 50% per year, it's still miniscule when compared with advertising as a whole. 23% of all US media consumption is on mobile devices, but only 1% of ad budgets go toward mobile advertising! As a result, there are too few ads to go around making mobile advertising a buyers market. What will it take to increase mobile spending? I think three things are holding mobile advertising back; poor targeting, lousy metrics and a lack of mobile friendly payment methods.
Sprint recently launched a mobile ad network called Pinsight Media+ which aims to improve both mobile ad targeting and metrics for both in-app ads and banner ads on mobile websites. Pinsight has partnered with ad technology company Amobee, mega-agency Digitas and major ad networks including Jumptap and the Nokia Media Network to create an ad delivery platform that it claims offers superior targeting and analytics and delivers better than industry average click through rates and CPM. They also say that they respect users privacy and have made interest based ad targeting opt-in, althoug I think the opt-in requirement may only apply to Sprint subscribers.
Pinsight Media+ operates as an ad aggregator serving ads from its partner ad networks as well as Sprint house ads. App developers and "large" mobile web publishers are encouraged to apply at pinsightmedia.com or developer.sprint.com/dynamicContent/pinsightmedia/ for Sprint developer program members. I couldn't get a definitive answer as to how large a mobile web publisher needed to be to be accepted. For what it's worth, when I identified myself as a publisher serving 600K monthly impressions I was encouraged to apply. Pinsight Media+ can serve ads globally, but according to Pinsight director Dan Polk its most effective with US based traffic, and especially Sprint traffic.
Gallery: Sprint Open Solutions Conference. Click for larger view and description.
Carnival of the Mobilists #252
Photo: Fabiana Zonca - Some rights reserved 
Welcome to the latest edition of the Carnival of the Mobilists, a recurring showcase of the best recent blog posts on mobile topics. This month's Carnival offers a fine selection of posts from all areas of the mobile ecosystem.
In The End of Cross-Platform Mobile Operating Systems Richard Monson-Haefel at Ambient Strategic Mobility argues that tightly integrated mobile ecosystems à la iOS are the key to success for mobile platforms. Agree or disagree?
Sachendra Yadav at Technology, Mobility, Usability and other Musings analyzes UX issues in a popular iPhone RSS reader app and offers suggestions for fixing them in How NOT to design for multiple screens: Pulse iPhone App Usability issues.
Which world city makes the greatest and most sophisticated use of mobile technology? The mobile city project – the blueprint of a truly mobilized city by mobiThinking's Andy looks for the answer.
At Mobyaffiliates James Coops argues that for mobile publishers, admob's best days are behind it and the upstart mobile ad network mobfox is the new admob.
Musings of a mobile marketer's Helen Keegan looks at "App Overload" and the difficulties users have finding quality apps relevant to their needs in The trouble With Apps.
Helen also alerts us that the Vodafone Smart Accessibility Awards are open for entries. Prizes totalling €200k will be awarded to the apps that best enable social participation, independent living, mobility and well-being for disabled and elderly individuals.
Peter-Paul Koch (ppk) at [quirksmode] looks at why and how any new WebOS owner or licensee will need to engage and enable Web developers in Twelve steps for saving webOS.
MediaNama's Nikhil Pahwa presents some ideas for encouraging India's mobile services ecosystem to government regulators in MediaNama’s Final Recommendations To TRAI On Regulation Of MVAS.
At MobileGrove Peggy Anne Salz interviews Ogilvy's Rory Sutherland who tells marketers that the best way to get consumer's attention is by providing real value. Peggy's Rory Sutherland Tells Mobile Marketers: Focus On Value Exchange & Consumer Experience is a must read for mobile marketers.
Also at MobileGroove, Charles Knight looks at recently acquired Goby, an app that helps you find things to do nearby and interviews Goby's CEO in Mobile Search App Goby Finds Fun Stuff Nearby; Acquired By TeleNav.
At SmartMobs Judy Breck explores the unlikely reason that Martha's Vineyard residents warmly welcome the president of the United States when he vacations there. It's because Obama brings cell power to the Vineyard.
WapReview's contribution to the Carnival is GetGlue's Mobile Webapp Lets you Check-in to Books, Movies, Music, Baseball Games and More, my review of the trending mobile media check in service GetGlue.
Mark Bridge at the TheFoneCast presents an Interview with Neal Fullman, CEO of Get Taxi about the startup's plans to use an app running on a dedicated mobile device to revolutionize the way London cabs are dispatched and booked.
My Post of the Month pick goes to ppk for his suggestions for saving WebOS. I hope someone does pick up HP's cast off mobile OS and that they take the suggestions to heart. We need more, not less mobile ecosystem diversity and WebOS is arguably the most interesting and innovative of the current crop of mobile operating systems and too good to die.
The Best Post by a New Carnival Participant honors go to Richard Monson-Haefel for his well reasoned analysis of the relative merits of a closed, integrated mobile ecosystem like the iPhone vs. the Windows PC/Linux/Android approach of supplying a platform to multiple hardware vendors.
Watch for a new Carnival of the Mobiliists next month a site to be announced. If you write about mobile topics of any type consider submitting you best post to the next Carnival. It's easy and will bring new readers to your blog. Just send your entry to: [email protected] Anyone writing about mobile is welcome. For more about the Carnival visit mobili.st.
Posted in Carnival of the Mobilists
Tagged accesibility, Apps, India, Mobile Advertising, mobile and society, mobile marketing, mobile platforms, mobile UX, WebOS
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Hands On With Bolt Browser's xAD Local Search
Bolt browser recently started returning results for local searches from mobile local search and advertising company xAD. According to xAD the partnership will give users more relevant results and added features like reviews, offers, maps and directions. Currently live in the US only, xAD results will soon start appearing for Bolt users in Germany, U.K. and France.
I gave xAD a try with a few local search queries. Results were generally pretty good. For most queries xAD returned results that were as good or better than Google's. For example, in a search for "Sushi 94102", xAD (image above, left) returned more nearby results than Google (image above, left). I like that xAD shows the distance to each establishment on the results page and displays all results on a map (not shown). xAD results, at least in Bolt, were also more attractively formatted than the equivalent ones from Google.
When you do click through, xAD emphases the establishment's description (image below, left), which is generaly writen by the business. Google relies on user reviews (image below, right) which are a click away on xAD.
One problem I had with xAD is that its search parser seems easily confused. When I tried a search for "sushi union square san francisco" xAD gave me results for Union Square hotels (image below, left). An xAD search for "iphone unlocking san francisco" returned to two locksmiths and a mobile phone shop 25 miles away named "Iphones". Google returned locally relevant results for both queries (image below, right). xAD provides a link to retry the query with Google at the top of every results page, that comes in handy when searches go awry.
xAD is, of course, primarily an ad network. Presumably the deal gives Bitstream some additional revenue, which is a good thing for the company but also for users. Proxy based browsers like Bolt, Opera Mini and UC Browser do a great job of bringing a rich mobile Internet experience to all users, esprecially thoese on non-smartphones or slow networks. Server side compression in proxy browsers also cuts data usage by up to 90% reducing network congestion and svaing users on metered data plan money. But there's a huge and costly server and network infrastructure behind proxy based browsers. Good revenue sources are esential to keeping Bolt online and free.
Opera Launches Appcelerate Program For Mobile App Developers
Yesterday at APPNATION Opera Software announced the availability of Appcelerate, a program intended to help with the discovery, distribution and monitization of mobile apps.
Appcelerate lets developers place their apps in the Opera Mobile Store, a web based app store at mobilestore.opera.com/ that works in all browsers. The Opera Mobile Store is a featured Speed Dial link on the start page in Opera Mini, the world most popular mobile browser with over 100,000 users. The Opera Mobile Store is available in over 200 countries.
I spoke with Mahi de Silva, EVP, Consumer Mobile, Opera Software about Appcelerate. According him, Appcelerate helps developers promote content and applications to a global audience with:
- Featured promotion of select apps within the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers including geographically target daily and weekly featured apps.
- Targeted pay-per-download campaign pricing that gives your app a featured listing in the Opera Mobile Store for specific countries, handsets and operating systems. You only pay for successful downloads.
- Matching pay-per-download marketing funds for all qualified applications
The Opera Mobile Store directly supports app and content downloads for Android, Java, Symbian and Blackberry devices. It's also available in Opera Mini on the Phone and iPad. On the Apple devices download links take the user to iTunes to complete the download.
Paid apps in the Opera Mobile store are distributed on a 70/30 revenus share basis. Free apps, including add-supported ones are distributed at no charge to the developer. Opera offers an ad-wrap API but devlopers are free to use other ad networks
Developers can learn more about the Opera Mobile Store and join Appcelerate by visiting opera.com/portal/appcelerate/.
Related Posts:
Hands On With Opera's New In-Browser Mobile App Store
CTIA: Opera's Jon von Tetzchner on Mobile Advertising and Adobe Flash
Posted in Events
Tagged App Store, APPNATION, Apps, Mobile Advertising, Opera Software
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