Category — industry news

I’ve resigned from BSTREET to accept a new role at RIM leading digital marketing for the North American market.

Over the last two years I’ve been able to help BSTREET build, expand, and evolve their digital capability to include in-house expertise in digital media, social media, and mobile. With a solid development team also now in-house, I’m leaving BSTREET in very capable hands and wish them great success moving forward.

As a mobile evangelist and digital marketer, working at RIM in this capacity is very exciting. I can hardly wait to get started on Monday

This is the question posed by Dave Forbe over at Perfectio and the list of nominees is a who’s who in Canadian Social Media. 

I’m honoured to have been nominated by Kate Trgovac from Onedgree.ca (where I have contributed as author over the past year) and her own personal blog my name is kate. Thanks Kate – it’s an honour! 

• Vote for your most influential Man in Social Media here. 
• Vote for your most influential Woman in Social Media here.

A new Harris / Decima survey has reported mobile penetration in Canada at 72% – up from 64% in 2006.

This now means that mobile has grown to roughly the same size at the Canadian broadband internet market.  

Other notable highlights include:

• The number of households with cell phones only have increased by 20% since 2006 – and an additional 19% say they may discontinue their home phone in the next year
• 69% of households have more than one cell phone
• Alberta leads Canada with 82% penetration / adoption
• Quebec is the lowest at 61%
• SMS and picture taking are the top two activities in Canada apart from Voice calls
• About 54 million SMS messages are being sent a month now
• 38% of Youth have sent or received MMS

Atlhough our overall engagement numbers still trail other countries in almost every category, the trend is positive.

To read the full press release, click here.

Earlier this year I predicted that we’d start seeing bluetooth networks popping up around Canada… and then this release came in from Broadburst last week:

Broadburst Technologies’ Bluetooth Broadcast Network Live and ‘On-Air’ in Downtown Toronto

Toronto, Ontario – November 7, 2008 – Broadburst Technologies Inc., a North American mobile media company utilizing Bluetooth® wireless technology to deliver interactive services and content to mobile phones, announced today that its downtown Toronto Bluetooth Broadcast Network is now live and ‘on-air’ at 40 Gateway Newstand locations.  Broadburst’s Bluetooth transmitters are now positioned throughout the Toronto transit system and other high traffic pedestrian areas in the downtown core to deliver rich, interactive media content

“We are extremely pleased to launch this new phase of our Bluetooth broadcast network,” said William Kells, CEO of Broadburst Technologies Inc.  “Our coverage area in downtown Toronto is extremely attractive to advertisers who want to connect directly with mobile phone users as they move through the city.  By using Broadburst’s Network, advertisers can send localized content in an entertaining and informative way to cell phones of potential customers, who can download and enjoy the content free of charge.  Broadcasting content via Bluetooth allows advertisers to reach potential customers in the moment, as they are making decisions on products and services at point of purchase.”

“We have already received calls from companies interested in taking advantage of the new network to reach out to mobile customers,” said Noah Aychental, Vice President of Marketing and Promotion for Gateway Newstands.  ”Our traffic numbers speak for themselves, as millions of people pass by our stores everyday, and with an enticing mobile offer we can now connect advertisers to a very targeted mobile phone audience.”

The launch of the 40 location network in downtown Toronto is the first phase of a roll-out program that could see Broadburst Technologies’ Bluetooth Broadcast Network grow to over 500 Gateway locations across Canada and the Unites States.  Gateway newsstands are strategically positioned in high traffic locations such as transit stops, shopping centres, office towers and neighbourhood convenience stores.

In South Africa some malls have bluetooth zones that allows consumers to download native apps to their phone which are updated automatically with coupons, sales, and retail info every time they come back to the mall.

It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing similar applications of bluetooth here.

Today the mobile marketing association is releasing it’s annual mobile attitude and usage study which measures overall mobile usage by demographic group for many of the largest markets in the world.

Unfortunately,  Canada was not one of the countries surveyed; however, findings and trends reported from the U.S. are directionally true for Canada.

I’ve sent an email to the MMA requesting details on why Canada could not be included this time around and offered support for enabling it in the future.

Here are some highlights as lifted from their press release:

• Overall interest in mobile marketing varies by geography.  The United States and Western Europe report comparable interest levels in mobile marketing; similar interest levels are also noted among mobile phone users in Asia Pacific and Latin American markets.
  • One-in-four mobile users in the US and Western Europe express strong or moderate interest in mobile marketing.
  • Interest levels are higher in Asia Pacific and Latin American markets where roughly one-half and two-thirds of mobile users respectively express strong or moderate interest.

• In all regions, “text-to-win” and interactive voting campaigns are the most common efforts in which mobile users have participated.
  • Echoing receptivity to mobile marketing overall, Asia Pacific and Latin American markets report greater participation in mobile marketing efforts; roughly one-in-five mobile users in these regions report having participated in mobile marketing efforts in the past year.

• Creating strong market opportunity for mobile marketers, across all countries and regions surveyed, heavy penetration and reliance on mobile phones combined with strong feature, text and mobile web usage indicate a willingness to accept mobile phones as devices that reach beyond traditional communications.
  • More than half of mobile consumers (regardless of market) report that their mobile phone is “highly important” to their daily life.
  • Mobile feature usage of non voice applications (text, mobile web, camera and picture messaging) is strong in all markets.

“Overall interest levels in the mobile marketing concept vary by market and geographic region – however, common in all markets is the importance of mobile phones in daily life.  Further, all markets show an ever increasing reliance on services that are precursors and enablers to mobile marketing efforts,” said Beth Ritchey, Vice President, Synovate Tech and Telecom.  “This year’s Mobile Attitude and Usage Study contains a wealth of information geared to help marketers understand market trends and opportunities in both individual markets and geographic regions.”

The global study covers the following markets: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. The study is available on Monday, November 17, free of charge, to all current MMA Global and Regional members and available at a discount for MMA Local Council members.  The market studies will also be available, for sale, after December 1.  For more information, visit www.mmaglobal.com

What do you think? Are these trends relevant to Canada as I believe? How about in your own market?

itsmy.com, one of the largest global mobile communities has chosen Taptu, an award-winning, pure-play search engine designed specifically for mobile, to provide itsmy.com’s growing community with a super fast search service, and access to an index of mobile-friendly web content.

The move will see itsmy.com’s mobile community of over two million users gain instant access to a variety of content via Taptu. Taptu’s strength is entertainment search; helping users find and enjoy a wealth of mobile content such as videos, music, images and lots more.

Taptu finds the best of the web for mobile phones; serving content to mobile devices that looks great and can be easily shared amongst friends. itsmy.com has chosen to add Taptu’s search functionality to give its users a rich mobile search experience; they can now search for entertaining mobile Internet content from within their community and also directly from their personal mobile homepage.

In addition to core search functionality, Taptu can now offer mobile partners, like itsmy.com, mobile search sponsored links. This provides partners with a new incremental revenue stream, and gives advertisers access to high-value and young audiences in a relevant and efficient way. With worldwide mobile advertising projected to surpass $2.7 billion in 2008*, the opportunity is clear.
*Source: Gartner “How to Move The Mobile Advertising Market Forward. March 2008.

Steve Ives, CEO at Taptu says of the partnership: “Despite the tightening financial environment, the mobile Internet continues to grow and advertisers are demanding better return on investment around marketing spend. Mobile search advertising offers far greater efficiency. It’s important for Taptu to partner with companies that share our vision. itsmy.com, like us, is focused on innovation and so we feel that this partnership is beneficial for both of us.”

Antonio Vince Staybl, CEO at itsmy.com says, “We as a pure play mobile community wanted to work with a company that really ‘gets’ mobile and understands that desktop search isn’t mobile search. Taptu is made for mobile and we love its unique and social way to search the mobile web. That’s exactly what we were looking for in a partner and that’s why we have replaced our existing provider.”

Want to learn more? Check out previous posts on each here:

1. WMC: Mobile search goes social with Taptu
2. WMC: Mobile search goes social with Taptu – part two
3. Mobile social network itsmy.com lets users decide what advertising to receive