“You can’t approach mobile like the Internet or other media,” said Mandel. It’s a personal device. Some of the best ad campaigns offer utility in the form of a useful application or some kind of entertainment such as video or a game, she said. Both utility and entertainment were included in a campaign for DHL created by Mandel and her team at Ogilvy earlier this year.

Marketing using mobile devices is very new.  It is very hard to predict how mobile users will react to advertising on their personal device.  Users will not want to be bombarded with messages each day especially when they have no interest in the product or service that the company wishes to offer.  One drawback to advertisers looking into mobile: Carriers don’t provide data that metrics-minded advertisers crave to target messaging. Data include demographic and psychographic information, location, and other useful information.However, there is a huge benefit for marketers using mobile as a vehicle to consumers. “Most people have their cell phones on them all the time, so if they’re if watching TV or reading a magazine and they see an invitation that says they can use their mobile phone to enter a contest or to enter a vote, they don’t have to move – they can respond to that call to action right where they’re sitting.” Globally, there are 2.5 billion cell phones in use, up a half billion in 12 months, according to Wireless Intelligence. (CBC) The key to mobile advertising is to let the customer be involved and engaged similar to web advertising. Imagine you’re watching a music video on your mobile device and at the end of the video you have the opportunity, through a single click experience, to buy the artist’s T-shirts, CDs, live tracks not available through any other media, or event posters. Last year, Molson used MyThum technology to issue concert “tickets” by SMS. Ticket recipients get a bar code on their mobile phones, which are then scanned when they get to the theatre.

In addition “As the technology for hand-held devices has advanced, more and more people have traded in their traditional cell phones for gadgets such as smart phones and PDAs,” said Jeffrey Glueck, chief marketing officer for Travelocity. “Whether it’s changing a flight or adding a rental car to their booking, mobile.travelocity.com gives travelers options for managing their trip while they’re on-the-go.” Coupled with increased marketing for online banking, retail banking customers are looking ahead to where the two technologies meet: mobile banking.

“Probably the most important medium for advertising in the 21st century is going to be the cell phone — not print media, not billboards”.  Although mobile advertising is not very big right now, marketers take this into consideration for the future. One of the main concerns with mobile marketing is that the user has to pay for incoming and outgoing messages. If companies can eliminate this barrier by paying the bill themselves then it will open up enormous opportunities. Cell phone users in Singapore can now get free e-mail access, thanks to the development efforts of St. John’s-based Consilient, a developer of “push” e-mail, multimedia and advertising solutions for mobile phones.  If marketers in North America can follow Singapore, it will open up a huge doorway for companies to reach their target market.

References  

ClickZ: The iPhone and Local Search Marketing                                                                           http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3626458 

ClickZ: Mobile Advertising 101: Tips for Beginners                                                                               http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627376 

ClickZ: Music Gone Mobile                                                                                                                  http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624661                                                                                      

The Globe and Mail Technology: Target audiences give text messaging the thumbs uphttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070920.wsrfastmythum20/BNStory/Technology/ 

The Globe and Mail: Pushing the Mobile Envelope http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FLAC.20070911.TQ7PG5_2%2FTPStory%2F%3Fquery%3Dmarketing%2Busing%2Bsms&ord=25085713&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true

CBC: Companies discover marketing power of text messaging                                              http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2006/09/25/text-messaging.html

Business Wire: Travelocity Launches New Service for Mobile Devices             http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071114005168&newsLang=en 

CNN Money: Diebold Reveals Branch of the Future Updates at Retail Delivery 2007Company presents mobile banking technology at concept room                                                                 http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/CLW05814112007-1.htm 

 

Virtual worlds targeted at children are a relatively new market, but one that’s growing quickly. Researchers expect that more than half of kids online will belong to a virtual world within four years–more than double the current figures.

Kids are spending more time online than ever before. Social networking sites for children are growing fast – and they are attracting attention from big media companies and concerned adults, says Matthew Wall. Parents are very concerned because its very difficult to monitor how their child interacts online.  Unlike TV where certain shows are rated and can easily be blocked, the internet is extremely hard to control. But concern is growing about the way some of these sites are marketing themselves to young children. Webkinz may be advertising-free, but it is nonetheless relentlessly commercial in its approach.

“There is a lot of interest in the Webkinz business model as it is one of the first to combine the real and virtual worlds so effectively.Offering real toys reinforced by a virtual world of games is a brilliant way to enhance a brand and build up a continual relationship with it. That they can do this without resorting to advertising, as many free-to-play games sites have to do, is impressive.” It will be difficult for young kids to realize that they are being advertised to. A lot of them will just think that they are playing one of the latest games without even realizing that they are being marketed too.

“This is a very powerful medium for marketing because it involves this huge engagement. It’s more powerful than a sugar cereal commercial,” said Bob Bowers, CEO of Numedeon, whose Whyville members spend about three and a half hours a month on the virtual world. He added: “Therefore there need to be standards”. The internet is much more effective because it’s a lean forward medium rather than a lean back medium like what were used to in TV ads.

How effective will online advertising be? For example, both Gaia Online and Whyville worked with Toyota on a Scion car promotion. After launching a virtual car ownership promotion “In the first three hours we had 29,000 Gaia users getting a car and showing it off to their friends,” according to Craig Sherman, CEO of Gaia Online. Businesses are going to be investing a substancial amount of money into future online advertising. Research firm Parks Associates expects that advertisers will spend $150 million in virtual worlds by 2012, up 10 times the spending in 2006. Though still a relatively small amount, it excludes marketers spending on their own virtual worlds, like BarbieGirls.com.

As marketers become more creative and adapt to new methods it will be increasingly difficult for consumers to know when they are being advertised to. Consumers are so saturated with advertisments that most of us block them out. However, the future success of advertising will depend on consumers not knowong that they are being advertised to. Children need more protection online as unscrupulous advertisers switch from TV to the internet. Children can easiliy be manipulated by advertising because they are unaware that they are being advertised too. 

References

Click Z: Virtual Worlds Aren’t Just for Reaching Adults Anymore                                                                     http://www.clickz.com/3626340

CNET News: Are kids ready for advertising in virtual worlds?  

http://www.news.com/Are-kids-ready-for-ads-in-virtual-worlds/2009-1024_3-6213661.html?tag=nefd.pop

The Guardian: Online marketers aim for the kids                          http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/17/advertising

The Guardian: Virtual worlds for kids take off                         http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/09/digitalmedia.web20

 

Face book Inc. announced a new advertising system that allows marketers to target their messages based on the interests of the social-networking site’s millions of users, confirming weeks of speculation.

Advertising on face book will be extremely challenging for marketers.  It has raised many concerns with users as their profiles contain a lot of personal information. Although, marketers are able to personalize ads with the amount of information that is available to them, people do not want to be disrupted with advertisements while using this site. “The biggest thing marketers should learn about social networks is how to be part of the experience instead of disruptive,” said Melanie Deitch, director of marketing at Facebook. Deitch tells companies to go back to the drawing board if they want flashing ads or other forms of intrusive advertising.

How are companies going to achieve this on facebook? Facebook doesn’t allow companies to brand their own web pages. Instead, companies are setting up and sponsoring groups. The benefits of joining these groups range from discounts on products to chances to meet celebrities. Others run contests or provide free content, like music or desktop wallpaper. Apple Computer, for example, sponsors the Apple Students group, which offers deals on Apple products and has more than 471,000 members. Victoria’s Secret’s Pink sleep and loungewear group has more than 210,000 members companies are coming up with new approaches. If users are opting in to the sponsored sites then it is not annoying or distruptive to them.  Marketers have to become increaslingly creative for it to be worth while for the user to visit the sponsored site.

The key to marketing success on social websites is to get users involved. “When people engage your page on Facebook, that’s going to spread information about your brand virally through the social graph,” Zuckerberg said. “It becomes a trusted referral.”  A marketing phenomenon that encourages people to pass along a marketing message in such a way that it spreads like a virus. It includes compulsive reading, listening or viewing.  It can be text, image, video or sound.  It is so amazing that people have the urge to share with others.  The internet is the ideal place for viral marketing because of the network effect (Class Lecture). 

Young people know when their online social worlds are being invaded by advertisers, but social networks are starting to become viable branding avenues for companies that understand user participation is what makes them tick.  If marketers can create an ad or a campaign that is truly remarkable they will be highly successful on face book. 

References  

Cnet Newa: Facebook Ads make a flashy debut in NewYork                                                                                           http://www.news.com/the-social/8301-13577_3-9811932-36.html 

The Wall Street Journal: Face book rolls out behavioral ad system              http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119437737843484207.html?mod=googlenews_wsj  

Wired: Big Biz Buddies up with Gen Y.                                                                   http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2006/12/72311    

 

Consumers complain more about web advertising than any other forms of advertising. 

Advertisers learned that being intrusive to the web user is very ineffective. Users got annoyed and downloaded software to prevent pop up blockers and to control spam. They realized the most effective way to reach the consumers is to pull them in, rather than push ads out to them.  The web provides a highly targeted receptive audience.  Web advertising can be interactive, and therefore by definition more engaging (Lecture Notes).  

The Winston-Salem-based company said in a news release that its technology should be welcomed by users because it “is a completely opt-in ad experience” that is less intrusive than traditional forms of online advertising. GETImperative’s technology allows people to identify products they see in some form of media, and follow links to be able to purchase those products themselves. CEO Rick Harrison said that makes for a more seamless viewing experience for the audience, which is better for advertisers who don’t want their messages tuned out. This makes a more positive experience for the internet users, rather than a negative on, like before.  If the user is having a good experience the ad will be much more effective for both the user and the advertiser.   

The fastest growing form of advertising on the web is Rich Media. Rich-media ads are the flamboyant video or animated promotions that frequently superimpose themselves on the screens of viewers who visit content sites. “Rich media is about creating a more positive brand image”.  Rich media is a form of entertainment to the consumer, rather than a traditional ad.  If the consumer can tell that it’s advertising, then it didn’t work (Class Notes).   

E-Marketer projects U.S spending on online video advertising will rise to $4.3 billionin 2011, from $410 million last year. Online video ads will be delivered with an accuracy never dreamed possible with broadcast video. Think of the power and value when media planners can say, “Your Dove Beauty Bar commercial will only be shown to profiled or registered users of a portal, say MSN or Yahoo. We can guarantee it will be seen only by women above the age of 24, and they’ll see all three of your ads in sequence. Furthermore, we’ll guarantee how many ads will actually be viewed not just broadcast.” Broadcast TV, which relies on ratings, will never be able to make a similar guarantee to advertisers.

Advertising on the web can be extremely powerful and effective.  It allows marketers to reach the target market in a more interactive way than any other medium.  By entertaining the consumer rather than selling to them, users will not only view the advertisement but become highly involved in the experience.  With so much information available on the web, marketers are able to offer a much more personalized experience.  

References  

ClickZ:The Rise of Online Video Ads                                                                                             http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627030 

The Business Journal: GET Interactive launches new advertising technology http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2007/10/01/daily19.html 

Wired: Flashy, Targeted Ads Fuel Boom                                                          http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2004/04/63251