perjantai 18. heinäkuuta 2008

Ads During Economic Downturn

Huh

I thought that during the summer I might find some time to test this blogging thing. Seems though that there is hardly any news worthy of speculating. Everyone’s on holiday.

Anyways I thought these posts were interesting:
http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=2409

Harris Interactive looks at consumer reactions to the US economic downturn. The study shows that over 1/3 of consumers say that it will not affect their spending habits, and that mobile advertising is becoming an increasingly viable advertising channel. More than half (56%) of teens and more than a third (37%) of adults would be interested by mobile advertising if they received something in return.

There was also on interesting post on Google acting as a good indicator of an economic downturn. Unfortunately I cannot find the post anymore. Anyways; the idea is that companies reduce their ad spending in an unsecured economic stage. And since Google is one of the biggest "advertisers" their results give an insight on what's happening.

This one is in Finnish:
http://www.digitoday.fi/bisnes/2008/07/18/google-petti-odotukset/200818792/66

So the analysts were not too happy with Google’s results. The share dropped 12%.

Are we heading for a recession? Will the ad spending and mobile industry suffer? Nokia seems to be doing fairly ok according to their Q2 results. However the chip makers (Intel etc.) have also been seen as a good indicator on mobile companies’ future scenarios. And so far it seems that the device manufacturers have not ordered chips as in previous years.

This post sure is full of nothing... Will probably be one which indicates taht ths blogging thjing is not for me :) Just thought I'd try to write some crappy English.

Br. Vesa

tiistai 8. heinäkuuta 2008

Future shopping

This next post will be merely for fun.

Just thought I'd comment on the shopping experiences. Shopping experiences are changing. Consumers are taking the internet shopping to new levels. The internet is full of reports stating that online is taking a bigger share of revenues. Just as a silly example amazon.com has been doing nicely according to the stock markets ? See the 6 year chart after the tech-bubble.




The x, y and upcoming z generations are all accustomed to the online shopping experiences. This trend will spread. In the future i.e. 5 to 10 years more stuff will be bought online. Why bother traveling to a shop when you can get it delivered home?

Shopping is done via the internet (PC) and increasingly via mobile phones either by adding the shopping/content to ones phone/carrier bill or paying with a credit card. Anyways...

In the meantime:
http://www.phonemag.com/german-supermarket-replaces-checkout-with-cellphones-073706.php

A chain of German supermarkets have utilized cell phones to make it possible for the purchases to be scanned directly from the cell phone. As you go through the store you use the camera on your phone to scan each item. Once you’re finished shopping you press a button on the phone to conclude the process which brings up a barcode on the screen. You allow the machine near the door to scan the barcode and you pay there.

Sounds nice and its happening. Similar stuff can be and has already been considered using Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID
It has also been proposed to use RFID for store checkout to replace the cashier with an automatic system which needs no barcode scanning. Initially this would mean that the shop would have for example “doors” scanning your groceries and cashiering your wallet/credit card or cell phone.

Hmm... We need to start taking those Japanese comics seriously with humans having stuff implanted in their bodies and cars flying around.

Br. Vesa


keskiviikko 2. heinäkuuta 2008

Ad Alliances

Things are pretty mellow not at the work
Last week(s) that surely wasn’t the case thus so few posts.

Anyways these links:

http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=2479
Nokia Interactive: Issues a new alliance aimed at making mobile advertising easier for brands. The alliance will integrate advertising solutions from multiple companies into a single Nokia interface.

http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=2502
Telefónica has launched a global mobile advertising alliance in partnership with Amobee Media Systems. The alliance will allow advertisers to show targeted ads of all types to Telefonica’s 170 million subscribers around the world.

And lastly: http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=2453
Nokia has announced the launch of “Ad Labs” in London and Boston. These labs will aim to train advertising agency workers in the finer points of mobile advertising.

Companies (not only Nokia) are gathering their strengths in order to understand mobile advertising. How can brands produce relevant targeted ads for their trusted consumers?

Personally I feel similar as Mike Baker: “Succeeding in mobile requires much more than a banner ad alone. Brands have the opportunity to deliver immersive, highly engaging experiences to consumers." Nevertheless I feel that it is immensely difficult to reach this target. The whole industry and "ecosystem” including carriers, ad/digi agencies, brands etc. will need to be fully aware of the time-span needed to effectively learn how to use mobile advertising. This will not happen over night nor will it come without training and investments/costs.

The times seem now more ready for mobile advertising than they have been for the past 5years. Hope the alliances and hard training will pay off.

Br. Vesa