Category — Mobile Interactive

It’s been a while since i’m posted one of these… but that’s partly because it’s been a bit more difficult to maintain the same publishing schedule over the summer when there are other things I’d rather be doing than banging away at my keyboard

Here are three articles you may have missed that were published on either onedegree.ca or the canadianmarketingblog.com recently:

1. Don’t focus on mobile, focus on the customer
2. The mobile phone book goes social
3. Status is “Online” for mobile instant messaging

Last summer when the iphone went on sale in the U.S. consumers were loving the visual voice mail feature that allowed people to see who called and what was said as an email or SMS message from their device.

This also means you can check your vmail as text in noisy places, or if you are out of country and don’t want to check your messages and incur hundreds or $$$ in fees.

What I didn’t realize is that Telus also offers this service and was the first one to do so in Canada. Check out their press release here.  The Telus service also allows you to get an audio recording of the message as an attachment to your email.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any rate information on their website- but this is a feature worth investigating if you want the benefits of visual voice mail without having to switch to Rogers to get it on the iphone.

Earlier this year I made 10 predictions for mobile - and many of them have already come true! Check out the original post here. 

As part of their mobile insert this month, Strategy Magazine asked if I could provide 10 new sets of predictions… so here they are 10 predictions for the Canadian Mobile marketing ecosystem over the next 12 months as printed in this month’s issue:  

1. Fixed Bluetooth networks will appear all over the country - giving marketers and advertisers proximity marketing abilities as seen in the UK and South Africa
2. One carrier will start the 2d bar code craze by introducing a line of devices that come with a decoder pre-installed. Scanning heads of lettuce for nutritional information will become common-place shortly after (as they already are in Japan)
3. The Mobile web will become more important for marketers as a channel than SMS as devices such as the iphone and the blackberry bold (and rumoured thunder) will raise the bar in terms of overall experience with a high speed mobile web experience on our national 3G network
4. Mobile widgets and applications become bigger drivers for consumer behaviour than the device itself. It will no longer be just about the hardware
5. Palm will make a comeback and once again compete in the “smartphone” space
6. Thanks to built-in GPS in many devices, Location based services (LBS) mashups will make your mobile device more personal and relevant. Marketers will be shortly behind
7. A new Social Networking utility goes totally mobile (with LBS) - and competes with facebook for Canadian mindshare
8. Mobile gaming will explode in popularity - leading to strong growth in mobile advertising
9. At least one new GSM national Carrier will enter the marketplace and will compete directly with Rogers. They’ll probably sell the iphone too. Look for either Bell or Telus (or both) to signal a move into supporting GSM in Canada as well
10. Over 30 billion SMS messages will be sent in Canada - up from the predicted 18 billion this year

The Canadian spectrum auction ended this week and the good news for Canadians is that more choices are on their way.

For a full account of the outcome, check out the article in the Globe here.

Here’s the 15 second summary:

• The Canadian government raised 3 times more than anticipated during the auction
• Yak communications (owned by Globalive Communications Corp) who currently sells long distance plans in Canada is poised to be become a near national player. They now have spectrum rights in all provinces except for Quebec where they were outbid by Videotron
• Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc (run by John Bitove and backed Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen) has also bought spectrum rights in 10 of the 13 largest cities in Canada. They will be targeting the 38% of Canadians who currently do not have a mobile device
• 3 new regional Carriers have emerged - Videotron in Quebec, Shaw in the West, and Bragg Communications in the East
• Consumers can expect new Carrier options to be available by this time next year

I would expect the current big three to roll out “new” plans that are more competitive than current in-market plans - but with hefty commitments… like 3 year contracts so that you’ll be stuck with a big penalty if you dare cross to the dark side next summer.

Although consumers will welcome better priced plans, the big question is - will the new entrants try to differentiate themselves beyond discounting?

If you were President for a day at the new Carrier, what would directive would you give to create a higher consumer value proposition?

Here are some initial thoughts…

• Focus more on the software and give the hardware away - or at least keep them unlocked. The more people can personalize their mobile device with widgets, apps, and tools, the more value they will see in your service.
  • How about a suggestions widget pre-loaded on every device? Publish them on the mobile web and desktop web and quarterly release a report on how many were actioned on or being considered for action
  • Make sure all communications are mobile web-enabled and supported with multiple SMS opt-in alert opportunities. I.e. SMS alert to indicate your new bill is in… then click to mobile web to view and pay etc…
• Keep the network open to allow the creation of innovative services from 3rd parties
• Create a unique perks or loyalty program that aligns with the lifestyle of their most valuable and most grow-able customers
• Offer opportunity for completely free mobile services with an Ad supported model for SMS, mobile web, and on device messaging

Let’s also hope that history does not repeat itself. The last time there was a spectrum auction in Canada (1995), Fido and Clearnet were created only to be bought out by Rogers and Telus a few years later.

The CWTA released their quarterly report last week and highlights are consistent with year long trends.

More Canadians are texting more often.

It will be interesting to see if proposed new charges for incoming texting as announced last week by Bell and Telus will impact overall numbers. It will also be neat to see the impact of the iphone…  will Canadians text even more or will they simply migrate to mobile instant messaging (MIM), Twitter, and other mobile web based communication options?

I know - it’s not just about the iphone - super awesome third generation mobile devices from Blackberry (Bold), Palm (Centro) and Samsung (Instinct) promise to make the next quarter an exciting one for our market.

Here are some highlights to the report:

• 4.1 billion messages were sent peer to peer in Q1 (note messages related to mobile marketing campaigns are not counted). Note that 10.1 billion were sent in all of 2007
• 1.4 billion messages were sent in March 2008 alone
• 42% of Canadian mobile subscribers sent at least one peer-to-peer message in March 2008. Imagine what that number would if your friends who return your text with a phone call because they don’t know how to text… figured it out?
• MMS-capable common short codes were made available for the first time
• As of May 14th, North America’s first user-generated mobile picture messaging service on broadcast television was launched in Canada
• There are 25 active mobile micro-payments (m-commerce) applications approved in Canada

Thanks to Scott Ingram who found this gem of an article: 21st century Mobile Marketing: Global insights into the world’s most advanced mobile society: Japan by Christopher Billich from Infinita inc.

This six page PDF report is a must read for anybody wanting a preview into what the North American mobile market could look like in 5 years or less.

Although there are some variables unique to Japan, most of what they’ve accomplished is as a result of early adoption of high speed mobile networks (3G+), fixed data plans, and standards across all carriers for software adoption - all things that are just now falling into place for us in Canada.

There is also a 122 page detailed report available here for $3,000 for those with research budgets at their disposal!

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, announced last week the acquisition of M:Metrics, Inc., the recognized leader in mobile measurement.

As a combined company, comScore becomes the immediate leader in measuring the mobile channel.

Although data provided by M:Metrics has not traditionally included Canada, this move is part of a global initiative to be the leader in measuring mobile.

I met up with Bryan Segal, VP of Sales at comScore recently in Kelowna for a CMO conference on Social Media. When asked about measuring mobile, he was quick to say they are committed to providing mobile data in Canada. After the announcement came out last week, I asked him about his his thoughts on the new acquisition:

Yes we are very happy with this news, as our acquisition of M:Metrics makes comScore an immediate market leader in this space. As for Canada we are continually working to bring mobile measurement to the marketplace, and this acquisition of M:Metrics will hopefully facilitate and expedite this process.

This is good news for marketers who are looking for credible and deeper access to usage and experience data within the mobile channel. 

Having a global view of user behaviour across all digital channels will be incredibly useful as we continue to work mobile into our integrated marketing programs.

The Globe and Mail recently reported that mobile advertising was years away from a breakthrough. You can read their full article here.

Although I agree we are still in the early stages of mobile advertising, I would suggest that “years” is more likely about two years. Just as we’re seeing exponential growth in leveraging the mobile channel for marketing activities, we are now seeing similar growth in mobile inventory for brands looking to place ads on carrier networks (both on and off-deck).

In Canada, there was virtually no mobile ad inventory to buy a year ago. Today, there’s well over 5 million impressions in mobile inventory to be bought on and off-portal. Although relatively small in comparison to email or the desktop web, this is growing rapidly.

Industry insiders have indicated that the metrics are looking pretty good too.

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I’ve recently installed the Weather Network blackberry widget on my Blackberry 8800. One of the advantages of creating a device specific widget is that you can enrich the user experience beyond a typical mobile website.

The Weather Network is no exception - taking full advantage of the blackberry Java platform to delivery an intuitive and easy to manage widget.

Once you’ve downloaded the widget, you can select your city of choice for weather updates. Coming soon - the ability to add up to 5 more cities - although I believe there should be an unlimited city option like there is on the iphone weather widget by Yahoo.

The neat thing is that once your choice city has been selected, you can get the current temperature by just scrolling over the icon on your blackberry desktop. Clicking on the icon will give you a detailed forecast for that day. Using the options button, you can switch to short and long term forecasts too.

Want to try it out? Point your blackberry mobile web browser to: http://weyebb.pelmorex.com

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The Globe and Mail reported today that Microsoft is again talking to Yahoo. Get the full article here.

Seen largely as a way to counter any potential Google and Yahoo advertising partnership, a new Microsoft relationship would bolster their rating and access to the market while giving Yahoo shareholder value without raising too many regulatory eyebrows around anti-trust.

The long term play

Although still relatively small compared to the desktop web market, partnering with Yahoo now means Microsoft can also get access to their leading mobile platform.

Within two years mobile advertising in Canada will include inventory for marketers that will reach beyond Carrier on-deck portals. Already we are seeing early versions of mobile search (with proximity capabilities), mobile video, and mobile social networking sites with built-in ad-serving abilities. This market is going to be massive.

It also sets up the possibility of another takeover attempt in the not so distant future.