Xellular Identity - All About Mobile Content & Marketing

Super Tuesday - Super New Mobile Apps!

A big day like today brings cool new mobile apps!

First, let me share my own news:

As you know, I recently joined MyFrame Inc., who offers you a cool new mobile application called Flixwagon. For those of you who don't know what Flixwagon is, Flixwagon enables anyone with a capable 3G/WiFi mobile phone to broadcast live videos to the internet.

So you're probably saying, "ok, new mobile gig, where's the news?". We partnered MTV. Today, MTV's street journalism team will broadcast from 23 states to ThinkMTV using Flixwagon. Throughout the day, MTV will regularly break into programming and showcase news features from the live reports.

James Whatley from SpinVox shared that that SpinVox has partnered with WNYC Radio to enable greater listener interactivity during the station’s ongoing coverage of the multi-state primary Super Tuesday. Voters will be encouraged to contribute thoughts, comments and observations by speaking messages to a special phone number set up for the radio station. Those messages will be converted into text by SpinVox and will dynamically become a part of the coverage in real time. Hockenberry and Udoji will report on voter sentiments and read select text on-air.

Interesting to see how new means of communication take part in one of the biggest political events. Will follow closely.

Mobile Sunday Barcelona

Rudy just published the list of people who are going to attend the Mobile Sunday Barcelona gathering "an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums - has already over 100 people subscribed to the wiki!"

I plan to attend, hope to see you there! :)

Chating with the Guru

Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with the Symbian Guru, who is also a dear friend of mine, a.k.a. Ricky Cadden.

The topics ranged from creating and sharing media to how exactly our mobiles fit into our lives, and how they might help us connect better locally. Our conversation is now available as a podcast so go over to Ricky's to listen to it.

Mobile World Congress

Hi friends,

I am attending the Mobile World Congress Barcelona (February 11-14 2008) with Flixwagon.
If any of you wants to meet, you are very welcome to drop me a line: xen [dot] mendelsohn [at] gmail [dot] com.

See you in Barcelona! :)
Xen

Samsung Tries To Go Social Web 2.0

I was just reading at Go2Web2.0 about Samsung & YouTube's NewYears project. Users are invited to answer one of following questions in a short video (less than 1 minute long):

1. Make a video that reveals the one word that is your personal theme for 2008
2. Reenact the best of worst thing that happened to you in 2007
3. What cool things have you done with your mobile phone this year?
4. In 2008 what kind of cool mobile phone should Samsong develop for you?

Users can browse the videos using Google map and pick videos by location.

I can easily answer question #4 and say that Samsung should embed the Flixwagon live mobile broadcasting service in all of the devices :)

***

From a marketing point of view, while it is nice to see a huge mobile consumer brand interacting with users, IMO this campaign is not appealing enough; or in other words -- it lacks any real added value for the users.

1. YouTube users can upload their own created content to YouTube any day, therefore there is not much of an offer here. Plus, the current Samsung campaign limits users' videos up to a minute long while YouTube allows up to 10 minutes and 100 MB.

2. There is no clear incentive. Best clips will gain...? What? Self expression? A sense of belonging to a community? The perceived value should be the clearest message in any campaign.

3. And the worst: while a mobile consumer brand is involved in this campaign, there is no use of the mobile channel. How come there is no mobile offering in this campaign? Samsung could easily offer that the best 3 clips will be available on the mobile; or best suggestions (answers to questions 3 and 4) will be taken into development; or best clips will win Samsung handsets... ?

Ringback Tones Promotions

Hi all,

Xmas is right around the corner with its creative ringback tone mass media campaigns... But before that, I didn't want to leave without acknowledgment a few RBT campaigns from the last two months.

First campaign is brought to you from Colombia. The Colombian mobile operator Tigo has partnered Sony BMG to promote its content in a leaflet inside CDs and DVDs. Now Colombian CD\DVD buyers can simply send the short code that appears on the leaflet via SMS and get their own Backtone (Tigo's service name for ringback tones). The most crucial factor in this campaign is the offered playlist -- it would be very clever to offer music of the same type as the bought CD\DVD.

The second campaign is brought to you from the US. American mobile operator Cingular the mew AT&T launched a huge "Win a trip for 2 to meet Fall Out Boy, 50 Cents or Taylor Swift" campaign. AT&T users are encouraged to "Find Your Tone-ality to Fit Your Personality" and download an Answer Tone (AT&T's service name for ringback tones) and apply. Then, "if the artist calls you and hears his or her own song, you've won!"

And I can't wait to see this year's ringback tones Xmas campaigns... now that's a treat :)

Pricing: THE "Make or Break" Factor

We've been asked many times - what is the right price for ringback tones? Should it be related to the price of ringtones? What parameters should be taken into consideration while determining the price? Those are great questions that I'll try to answer here, based on the experience and data that has been gathered from many operators worldwide.

In general, the ringback tones pricing model is based on a combination of these revenue streams:

• Content fee - the price that is paid for each selected tune.
• Monthly/daily fee - the price that is paid for operating/enabling the ringback tones service.
• Registration fee - a one time fee that is paid upon joining the service.
• Content expiration - some operators have a tune expiration date, which means that after X days the activated tune expires. If the subscriber won't buy a new tune after the old tune expires, the default "ring ring" will be assigned to his/her account. Usually operators notify the subscriber that his/her selected ringback tone is about to expire and will offer a new tune (for a full/reduced price).

These four streams join up to 3 common pricing models:

1) Content fee + Monthly/daily fee:
An AT&T user (for example) is charged $1.99 per tune + additional $0.99 of monthly fee for the Answer Tones service. The monthly fee is charged regardless of the number of Answer Tones ordered.

The benefits of this model are the constant revenue stream & quick return of investment (ROI) coming from the monthly fee. However, setting the right monthly fee is crucial; overcharging will lead to high churn rates.

2) Content fee + Content expiration:
An AMC user (for example) is charged 120 lekë ($1.41 USD) for content fee and the Fun Tune expires after 6 months.

The benefit of this model is the lower user resistance due to the lower (perceived) price for ringback tones. Content expiration increases awareness of the service (subscribers don't hear their own tune and many times they actually forget that they are subscribed to the service) and aims to generate more usage. When the tune expires, users are offered to purchase a new tune. At this point users are actually reminded that they have been subscribed to the ringback tones service which leads to 2 scenarios: a) users choose to opt-in and buy a new tune (i.e. pay the content fee) or b) users are reminded that they have been subscribed to a service that they no longer want and they opt-out. Unfortunately, many users choose to opt out, causing higher service churn rates.

Operators that use this pricing model are strongly recommended to have a good renewal system which offers the user a new tune upon the expiration date and provide an easy and intuitive purchasing experience (usually via SMS with deep linking). The importance of the renewal system is greater as the tune's "shelf life" is shorter. Also, it should be based on intuitive call for action.

3) Content fee + Registration fee:
A Kyivstar user (for example) is charged 7,30 UAH ($1.45 USD) upon joining the D-Jingle service (one time payment for activating the service) + additional 7,30 UAH ($1.45 USD) for each tune. All tunes expire after 3 months.

This model is less popular among operators as it generates lower revenue stream for the operator. Also, at the first purchase, subscriber is charged for two payments (content fee and registration fee) at once, making the perceived price relatively high.

To summarize, each of these models has it advantages and disadvantages but there is no correlation between the pricing model & the ringback tones service take-up; however, there is correlation between price & service take-up, the price is THE "make or break" factor, as you can see in the following diagram:

Effective Pricing - Guidelines:

While there is no single winning recipe for ringback tones pricing, we do have some recommendations and guidelines for effective pricing. First and most important, the ringback tones price should be:

• Affordable - based on subscribers' capabilities
• Perceived as fair - compared with other operators & services

How can you make sure the price is affordable and perceived as fair?

Factor	Recommendation
Competitors	Lower or equal to competitors' price
Ringtones	<monthly fee + content fee> should be 30% below or above ringtones price
Monthly ARPU	<monthly fee + content fee> should be lower than 20% of ARPU
Average Prepaid card	Users should be able to pay monthly fee & purchase ringback tones along with their other voice & data expenses

And one last tip: if you don't have it already - create and promote a "promotion" category with a lower price. The promotion items can include the new single the music label is currently promoting, music covers, a discount for the first purchase etc'.

Coming Soon: Multimadia Ringback Tones

Real announced at the CTIA conference it will supply wireless operators with multimedia ringback tones. The Multimedia ringback tone takes the very popular musical ringback tone service to a whole different dimension, from the audio space to the visual video clip arena. It allows you to set a video clip to entertain your callers while waiting you answer their call.

"Building upon Real’s pioneering success in Ringback Tones (RBTs), Real is making Multimedia Ringback (MRB) Services available to mobile operators around the world.  This new 3G mobile service—first launched with Korea’s SK Telecom earlier this year—ushers in a new level of personalization in RBTs, allowing subscribers to incorporate audio, images and video to deliver a unique, customized experience to callers before they are connected."

[via press release]

Related stories: A Jump Into the Future - Multimedia Ringback Tones

The Fun Dial Marketing Seminar - First Coverage

Back in 2002 was the first introduction of customized ringback tones, made by the South Korean operator SK Telecom with its 'Color Ring' ringback tones service. SK Telecom generated over €80 million (US$100 million) in Q2 2002 and has reached 54% of SK Telecom's 18 million subscribers in penetration.

Despite of the cold welcoming of operators in Europe and America, today Ringback Tones is becoming one of the biggest mobile entertainment revenue generators. In some operators Ringback tones are overtaking ringtones sales. In Europe and North America there’s a 60%-80% of Ringback Tone potential end-user-coverage, at least one operator in each Western European country and almost all in North America has already launched the service. Also analysts forecast a substantial ringback tones market growth in the upcoming years.

 

At present, most of the operators are facing various challenges in the way to increase Ringback Tones service penetration, create on going usage of content, increase the awareness and in general turn Ringback tones into a more successful service. Understanding operators' needs and challenges Comverse Fun Dial (Comverse’s Ringback Tone brand) team came up with the idea to hold the second ever marketing seminar focusing the European market. The Fun Dial Seminar brought together leading industry experts, mobile operators, (some that have already launched the service and some which are on the process of launching), as well as content providers, music labels and managed services providers to facilitate an environment of knowledge sharing and to create an open forum to discuss burning issues related to Ringback Tones.

For those of you who weren't able to attent the Seminar, I will cover here some of the study cases presented at the Seminar:

• How to turn the Ringback Tone into a successful service generating significant revenue?
•Case studies of successful Ringback Tone marketing strategies led by mobile operators
• Opening the ringback tones service to 3rd party content providers.

You're welcome to tune in every Tuesday for a part of this series!

Back in 2002 was the first introduction of customized ringback tones, made by the South Korean operator SK Telecom with its 'Color Ring' ringback tones service. SK Telecom generated over €80 million (US$100 million) in Q2 2002 and has reached 54% of SK Telecom's 18 million subscribers in penetration.

Despite of the cold welcoming of operators in Europe and America, today Ringback Tones is becoming one of the biggest mobile entertainment revenue generators. In some operators Ringback tones are overtaking ringtones sales. In Europe and North America there’s a 60%-80% of Ringback Tone potential end-user-coverage, at least one operator in each Western European country and almost all in North America has already launched the service. Also analysts forecast a substantial ringback tones market growth in the upcoming years.

 

At present, most of the operators are facing various challenges in the way to increase Ringback Tones service penetration, create on going usage of content, increase the awareness and in general turn Ringback tones into a more successful service. Understanding operators' needs and challenges Comverse Fun Dial (Comverse’s Ringback Tone brand) team came up with the idea to hold the second ever marketing seminar focusing the European market. The Fun Dial Seminar brought together leading industry experts, mobile operators, (some that have already launched the service and some which are on the process of launching), as well as content providers, music labels and managed services providers to facilitate an environment of knowledge sharing and to create an open forum to discuss burning issues related to Ringback Tones.

For those of you who weren't able to attent the Seminar, I will cover here some of the study cases presented at the Seminar:

• How to turn the Ringback Tone into a successful service generating significant revenue?
•Case studies of successful Ringback Tone marketing strategies led by mobile operators
• Opening the ringback tones service to 3rd party content providers.

You're welcome to tune in every Tuesday for a part of this series!

Avatars @ Mashable

Mashable has a great roundup of 27 best avatar builders.

As a big fan of avatars and a team member of the Klonies here at Comverse I was very happy to see the topic has been getting traction and coverage!

Hopefully in the next roundup we will see Klonies mentioned there as well... :)

Reminder: The Webinar is Today

Just a quick post to remind you that our webinar is happenning today. If you'd like to join - you're only one click away.

Enjoy!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Learn how can operators gain significant revenues from ringback tones by leaving the marketing to third party experts to promote the concept of RBTs successfully.

• Ringback Tones - The Next Wave
  Mr. Meidad Sharon, Director of Product Marketing, Fun Dial^TM Comverse
• The First Ever Off-deck Ringback Tones Case Study in the Western Hemisphere
  Mr. Andrew Rippon, Vice President Sales Central Europe, Jamba
• Q&A

one of the leading global mobile entertainment D2C companies, is the first off-deck player in the western world to carry out a mass-communication campaign promoting its ringback tones in 2 operators in Germany, generating substantial revenues for both mobile operators and Jamba.

Comverse Fun Broker takes the ringback tone service out of the “walled garden” by enabling ringback tones to be sold off-deck by third-party players, using the successful model used for ringtones. By that, Fun Broker enables operators and content providers to exploit the huge off-deck potential.

Come and have a taste of the next BIG THING for ringback tones!
September 20, 2007 at 15:30 GMT; 11:30 EST; 17:30 Israel time;

Mobicious Introduces Free "Make My Ringtone" Feature

One of the most successful mobile content types, leading in service penetration and $$ is the ringtone. Since it was introduced back in 1998 by the Finnish mobile operator Elisa, ringtones struck the world hard, leaving hardly any objectors who haven't changed their default ringtone (or at least scanned through the preloaded default ringtones gallery).

Today, almost 10 years after the first launch, there is still a huge demand! According to Strategy Analytics the future for ringtones is still very bright:

   

Lately there has been plenty of commentary since Apple’s September 5th announcement, unveiling the ability for iPhone users to purchase and customize ringtones from iTunes for an additional 99 cents. Buying more than a handful of ringtones would get expensive, but it’s still a better deal than the typical $3 ringtone for other phones.

For the rest of us who don't own an iPhone, now Mobicious enables you to create a custom ringtone for free. While several companies have offered ways of doing this with expensive PC packages and hard-to-use websites, Mobicious have developed an easier way.  On the Mobicious site, you’ll now find "Make My Ringtone", a new feature that allows you to take your own music and make a custom ringtone from your favorite song.  It's fun, free, and works on all major U.S. carriers including Verizon. Simply select an MP3 from your desktop, choose any 20 second clip, and send it to your phone.

[Thanks David!]

Related Stories: Mobicious: One Part iTunes, One Part Google

Myxer & Amie Street Team Up

A few months ago I interviewed Myxer people about their line of business. Today Myxer announced a new partnership with Amie Street to mobilize their priced-by-demand ringtone service.

According to the press release,

"AmieStreet.com is bringing its community pricing model to the ringtone market, and for the first time offering ringtones at multiple price points based on their popularity with members. AmieStreet.com is the first digital music store where members of the community drive the discovery, promotion and pricing of music. All ringtones on AmieStreet.com will start at a price of zero cents. As more people purchase a ringtone the price rises, capping at $1.99. The dynamic prices on AmieStreet.com allow fans to buy music without breaking the bank and serves as a useful tool for finding great music, often for free."

For the entire press release click here

One of the barriers many user generated based communities have is the lack of high quality of content (not everyone is talented like Andy Mckee or heart-stirring like Tasha and Dishka). What I liked in this newly partnership is how they dealt with this barrier, how the two partners complement each other's lacks; AmieStreet, brings the content of independent artists who wish to sell their songs online, and Myxer provides the platform to mobilize this content. And the cherry on top is the community essence provided by AmieStreet's pricing model where prices of ringtones are determined by popularity of downloads. Nice work!

Related links: Amazon Leads Investment in Music Site AmieStreet (NBC)

You're Invited to a Webinar

Hi all,

As you know, at my day job I work in Product Marketing at Comverse. I wanted to share something I've been working on lately:

Next week we're having a webinar which will cover the off-portal new market for ringback tones. (You're probably raising an eyebrow and wondering what am I talking about...) Here is a short overview and some background information:

As you know, a ringtone is a music file that is installed on your mobile device. After downloading the file (from your operator's portal or from other providers) the file is yours to keep. A personalized ringback tone is a tune heard while your callers call you which replaces the default "ring ring" tune. as opposed to the ringtone, your ringback tone is at the operator's system. This is why the operator has been the only player who could offer this service.

The upcoming webinar will present the first case study of two German mobile operators who have opened their system to a content provider who has been successfully promoting their ringback tones services.

Attached is the invitation to the fun dial webinar, feel free to join! :)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Learn how can operators gain significant revenues from ringback tones by leaving the marketing to third party experts to promote the concept of RBTs successfully.

• Ringback Tones - The Next Wave
  Mr. Meidad Sharon, Director of Product Marketing, Fun Dial^TM Comverse
• The First Ever Off-deck Ringback Tones Case Study in the Western Hemisphere
  Mr. Andrew Rippon, Vice President Sales Central Europe, Jamba
• Q&A

one of the leading global mobile entertainment D2C companies, is the first off-deck player in the western world to carry out a mass-communication campaign promoting its ringback tones in 2 operators in Germany, generating substantial revenues for both mobile operators and Jamba.

Comverse Fun Broker takes the ringback tone service out of the “walled garden” by enabling ringback tones to be sold off-deck by third-party players, using the successful model used for ringtones. By that, Fun Broker enables operators and content providers to exploit the huge off-deck potential.

Come and have a taste of the next BIG THING for ringback tones!
September 20, 2007 at 15:30 GMT; 11:30 EST; 17:30 Israel time;

Usability Rules!

The common goal of all usability professionals, no matter if they specialize in cooking utensils, clothing or developing mobile applications and services, is to develop products from the end-user needs’ perspective, so they could use them easily and intuitively. Developing products should not be based only on technical possibilities and/or limitations. why? Simply, when it's easy to use, more people will use it and the more revenues the product\service generates. Unfortunately, many products fall at the "technical trap" and leave behind the goal of intuitive usage.

That is why I was very impressed with Hutch (India) “Copy Callertune” feature:

So simple. So elegant. So intuitive. All you need to do is press the * key when the ringback tone is playing. Who wouldn't press * if he\she hears a cool Callertune?

At Hutch’s website I’ve found the following directions:

“How to copy Callertunes Like your friend’s Callertune? Now you can set it on your own Hutch phone - it’s easy! Just call your friend, and while the Callertune is playing, simply press the * key on your Hutch phone. That’s it - the Callertune will automatically be copied and set on your Hutch phone.”

Way to go! And if you come across more cool examples - don't be shy and send me a word about it. Thanks :)

Focus on Mobile Avatars - Mobagetown Japan

After answering a few readers queries through email, I realized that there is a growing reader's interest in mobile offering of avatars. Therefore, I decided to reply in a series of posts for the benefit of others who might be interested as well.

One of my favorite examples of a smart business model and a VERY successful avatar service is Mobile Game Town (Mobagetown) from Japan. It is the largest and fastest growing mobile Social Networking Service (SNS), available only on mobile. The site is a blend of casual games and social networking, multiplayer and singleplayer games coupled with chat, blogs and avatars.

An interesting fact is that Mobile Game Town is offered by DeNA, a Tokyo-based e-commerce company that runs virtual auction sites and shopping malls. This fact leaves a notable footmark on the business model (and makes a differentiator from other SNS sites). DeNA hooks the users with free mobile games with over 30 titles to choose from, supported by advertisement. Users buy from mobile e-commerce sites and get “mobile gold” which is then used to dress their avatars; by spending in the real world users get virtual money to dress their virtual alter ego, their avatar.

[via DeNA]

Mobile Game Town’s success is overwhelming: 5 million users with over 400 million daily page views back in May in less than a year from its official launch. Just to put the numbers in perspective, Mobile Game Town’s stats are four times larger than that of Yahoo's mobile portal! 

And to give you a sense of latest (brilliant) marketing activities:

In June, DeNA announced "an interesting summer Yukata campaign. In co-operation with Aeon  dept. store the companies have set-up a virtual avatar catalogue from which members can build, for a modest fee, their outfit based on actual products complete with best dressed contest prizes. This would seem to be a rather slick ad campaign ultimately designed to drive purchases of the real thing just in time for the summer matsuri (festival) season. The company ran a similar campaign for Nike where customers who bought physical goods were rewarded with virtual prizes."

[via Wireless World Japan]

And a special treat from the Wireless Watch Japan - a video demo of both "Mobile Game Town" and Disney's "Wonder Days" (which will be reviewed here on its own in one of my next posts).

College Students Are More Open to Mobile Advertizing

According to a new study from Ball State, "Technically oriented college students are increasingly receptive to receiving advertising via text messages on their cell phones and other mobile devices".

"An analysis of mobile communications by college students during 2005-07 found that 56.3% of respondents would accept ads if they would get something free, said Michael Hanley, a Ball State advertising professor and mobile marketing researcher.

About 37.4% of college students said it would only take the offer of a free ringtone for them to would accept advertisements on their cell phones while 21.4% preferred a discount or coupon to a restaurant, movie or grocery store and 20% wanted free minutes, upgrades, access to the Internet or music."
[via MobiAd Network]

Update: Continuing on the search for analysis about mobile advertizing I found this (which I think supports the findings from above):

Acording to a study by media agency Universal McCann "people always complain about things that are interruptive - it still works in traditional media but in this environment consumers have so much choice where they source content from and if it detracts from the experience they will go elsewhere.

The survey, which covered 9,500 people with a mobile phone and an internet connection in 21 countries from the UK to Mexico, suggests the marketing opportunity to reach gadget users is bigger than ever.

Consumers in the developing world were the most receptive to advertising, particularly Mexico, China and Thailand, while the US, France and the UK were the least receptive markets. On a mobile phone, the best forms of advertising were opt-in Bluetooth formats that provide information or vouchers direct to the mobile, popular with 72% of the global sample, and sponsored search results. Adverts on mobile internet pages and TV adverts on mobiles were rejected by 61% of respondents.

For podcasts and videocasts, sponsorship was the most valued form of advertising, followed by brand recommendations from presenters. Adverts at the beginning of the clip were acceptable but interruptive ads in the middle of a video or audio clip were not."

[via The Guardian]

The Mobile Content Market - Moving Into An Off-Portal Eco-System

Mobile Content Market - 30,000 ft. View 

Communication, entertainment, information… consumer interest in using mobile phones has amazingly grown worldwide over the past few years. Mobile Content, the fast growing market in mobile, is expected to grow from $18bn in 2005 (Informa Telecoms & Media, July 2006) to $42.8bn in 2010:

• Music - $11.4bn
• Mobile Games - $11.2bn
• Gambling - $7.6bn
• Adult Content - $2.3bn
• WAP Browsing, Infotainment, dating and other applications - rest of market

The mobile industry lead by the mobile operators has spent a lot of $$ to encourage growth of the mobile content market. By establishing the first content-based services, operators put the cornerstone and made content available to their subscribers through their own web portals both for the web and mobile.

all rights reserved to John Puterbaugh, Nellymoser Inc.

[Figure 1]

Initiating the first content-based services has positioned operators as the storefront of the mobile content stores, offering a wide offering (see figure 2 and 3).

[Figure 2]

all rights reserved to John Puterbaugh, Nellymoser Inc.

[Figure 3 ]

Operator portals have been important for being the first milestone, however they have provided limited opportunities. Operators maintain a wide portfolio of mobile products and services while maintaining a reach portal is too demanding for most. This has led to a gradual opening of the market to many more players who share the load (and profits).

The Off-Portal Eco-System

Thanks to this process operators have witnessed that content providers ultimately sustain consumer interest by providing a large variety of compelling content, being constantly updated with the newest hits. Today, the appetite among content providers to leverage the mobile outlet is higher than ever, seeing each month new content brands entering the mobile market. Just as in the early days of the Web, when users initially experienced the online world through a web portal before exploring out to find what they seek, we are now starting to see increasingly wide browsing behavior amongst mobile users.

This consumer activity is increasingly channeled outside of the operator portal. These two channels to market - through an operator portal, or directly to the consumer by the brand itself - are complementary drivers to the total growth in mobile data usage. In most of the off-portal services, the operator is still part of the billing process, providing a simple payment experience. The differences are that the operator does not promote the service in its own portal, and the marketing is managed by the content provider.

The most popular discovery method for off-portal services is the common short codes which enable users to interact using SMS as an entry point into content/services provided by parties other than operators. Phone users then are charged directly to their mobile phone bill. The main services powered by common short codes today are ringtones, wallpapers, games, news alerts and voting applications.
Today, common short codes are the only ubiquitous cross-operator method of marketing off-portal content, being available to all mobile subscribers.

Off-Portal: Everybody Wins

The off-portal channel to market is very attractive; it brings more brands and services into the mobile market, providing wider choice and usage opportunities for mobile users. It also provides a route into the market for more specialized content providers that cannot access the market through operator portals.

Brands of all sizes can invest marketing dollars into campaigns with a single call-to-action that works for practically all mobile users using short codes. They can also leverage their websites traffic to generate mobile usage. And most important for consumer brands, it enables them to clearly differentiate from their competitors through creative marketing.Operators on their behalf, enjoy a growing income from SMS and data traffic with 0 cost of marketing since content providers take care of the marketing to the end consumers. And consumers, from their point of view, enjoy the same mobile services across multiple operator networks.

The off-portal mobile content market is a vital part of the mobile data market. The marketing benefit – reaching mobile users everywhere, regardless of their network, is a strong driver for brands to route their marketing efforts to the off-portal channel and to incorporate mobile services to their marketing campaigns.

*Figure 1 and 3 were used with the curtsey of John Puterbaugh from Nellymoser Inc.

Your Help Is Needed

Hi,

I'm back from a short vacation (I moved to a new apartment) and found this ringback tones commercial of Hutch in my inbox. The problem is that I don't know Hindi... so if any of my dear readers can help with the translation, it will be very much appreciated. Thanks :)

Back to Nature: Roaring Ringtones

Last week I was amazed by the creativity of Singtones and wondered what more can be offered in this so crowded market of ringtones. The blog reader and Outreach Coordinator Tammy Monroe of Conservation Calling LLC pitched in:

Want a Lion's roar as your ringtone? How about a Frogs Chorus? Conservation Calling offers ringtones (for $2.49) and wallpapers ($for 1.99) to personalize your mobile phones with a wild nature theme. The company contributes 10% of its net revenue to American Forests' Global ReLeaf campaign. Every dollar donated plants a tree. Unfortunately, the service is only available in North America so I wasn't able to get my Dolphin ringtone...

Great cause! Thanks Tammy!

Pimp My Ringtones

You'd probably think "hey, what more can be offered in a bursting market of $9 billion of ringtones?!" But creativity has no limits -- my dear friend Russell Buckly of Mobhappy writes about a new personalized ringtone service called Singtones.

"Singtones offer the ultimate ringtone customisation, even more so than Orgasmatones (whatever happened to them?) with the added benefit that you wouldn’t be embarrassed if your Mum heard it.

Singtones offer you the ability to record your very own version of a well known song. Then the software “fixes” those with dodgy or tone deaf voices, so everyone can get a good result. The cost? A mere £1.50 ($3)."

So, what is next...?

Ringback Tones - some figures

"Personalization is what is really driving the mobile phone market right now," said Laura Merritt, spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless. "The cell phone has become an extension of people's personalities with ringtones, ringback tones and other customizable options."

"Verizon wouldn't give exact figures on how much money the company makes off of extras like ringtones. However, in the first quarter of this year alone, Verizon customers downloaded 106 million ringtones, ringbacks, songs, games and applications, Merritt said. Each one of these customizations costs anywhere from $1 to $10."Ringtones and ringback tones are certainly among our more popular offerings," Merritt said."

[via The news Herald]

Google Plans to Shake the Mobile Content Eco-System

Search giant Google is developing a new mobile search service to aid consumers seeking to purchase ringtones, games and related premium content. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google will offer lists of providers selling the content they seek, and in the future Google will begin charging content firms for placement in its search results, an approach mirroring the sponsored links Google currently offers on traditional Web searches.   

The new search site is said to enable users not only to find a list of mobile content providers, but will also provide an easy purchase interface (through Google Checkout or PayPal). Google has apparently been working “for months with content providers - including large entertainment companies and smaller mobile-media aggregators” in preparation for the services launch. Insiders say to the WSJ that the initiative has suffered a series of technological setbacks, with an official commercial launch date currently uncertain. Google also is said to be mulling a social networking service enabling its Gmail users to exchange content.

This offering will challenge mobile operators who profit well from mobile content such as ringtones, wallpapers etc'. Previous initiatives to create a mobile search engine and mobile content directory like Mobicious haven't dared to shake the eco-system's balance by offering an alternative purchase interface that cannibalizes operators' share. I hope this new challenge will accelerate the process of opening the mobile walled-gardens and create an alternative playground in the image of off-deck/off-portal eco-system.

Frank Dickson of iSuppli: Strong Long Term Growth Lies in the Mobile Full-Track-Downloads

Hi all,

Welcome to the second part of the mobile content coverage.

Today, Frank Dickson from iSuppli will be visiting here. Frank is Principal Analyst, Multimedia Content Services. He covers markets for digital video and home entertainment, with focus areas including IPTV, video on demand, home networking and broadband video.

Hi Frank. How are you today?
Life is good. Thanks for asking.

What has been successful to date and what promises to sell in the future?
In addition to premium content, messaging continues to grow strongly worldwide but with significant regional variation. The mature country markets of Western Europe and Asia saw growth, but the growth in the Americas almost astounding. Growth is strongest among the US operators, several of which saw revenue associated with messaging double in 2006 compared to 2005. Messaging growth is being driven by both increased p2p messaging usage as well as increased premium SMS associated with mobile content purchases and participative TV.

What are the key drivers for market growth for different types of mobile content and entertainment?
The future is all about video! The mobile video market continues to develop, but remains highly fragmented on nearly all fronts. Business models are uncertain. Technology standards are uncertain.  Consumer usage models are uncertain. Content rights need to be resolved. Geographic differences are significant in both content consumption and regulatory environment. As a result, the mobile video market will take time to develop, but offers the biggest potential upside. Competitors across the value chain should participate early to learn and develop a position in the market. Competitors should set expectations appropriately for a highly volatile market with high uncertainty in the short term. Agility will be key to adapt to rapid change.

Many state that widespread consumer demand has lagged after a rapid penetration rate. Why? What are the barriers for market growth of market for mobile content?
The major barrier to growth of mobile content is leakage, as in revenue leakage. Approximately, 5% to 10% of transactions turn out as bad transactions due to fraud, lack of funds on a prepaid card or delivery problems. Another 5% to 15% of good transactions result in refunds due to shady marketing practices, overly protective wireless operators not wanting a customer to have a bad content experience or a lack of transaction visibility for customer service. Wait, did I mention the customer service support call costs? There is money leaking everywhere.

One of the problems is that the wireless operators want to be in the center of the purchase experience.  The billing systems however are built to service reoccurring wireless subscription customers. Wireless operators making themselves the nexus of mobile commerce transactions creates a problem as they are now providing high volume transaction clearing services like those provided by Visa, PayPal and others.  Frankly, processing financial transactions is not at the heart of their distinctive competencies.

How will the services evolve over time?
The mobile music market is among the most dynamic content categories worldwide. Polyphonic ringtones are receding with a transition to realtones. However, on a worldwide basis, the overall ringtone category appears to be slowing. 

Ringback tones continue to gain strength in Asia, but haven't migrated significantly to other geographic regions yet. Video ringtones are among the newest services positioned as a next-generation ringtone.
The emergence of full track download music services continues, with operators worldwide deploying services. Dramatic growth of these services remains mixed regionally and by operator. Consumers are still slow to build awareness, while operators have significant challenges to put together a cohesive and easy-to-use full track music storefront. Overall, in the emerging battle between music phones and mp3/pmp players, the music store and music delivery platform still significantly favors mp3-oriented services. 

What applications will drive the market in the next few years?
We believe that there is strong long term growth in the mobile full-track-download market. However, outside of Asia, the inflection point for dramatic growth is still developing. Overall, iSuppli reduced it’s full track download forecast in this quarters tracker, while increasing our outlook for mobile music streaming services. Full track downloads will continue to be among the strongest mobile content markets, while streaming music services will segment the market somewhat and take advantage the subscription-based business model which aligns ideally with mobile operator business models.

For example, we did end-user primary research to provide more insight into consumer demand.  Approximately two-third so respondents listened to music on they PMP; however, only 10% listened on their phones. This suggests their may be some struggle converting individuals from a usage specific device mentality to unbiquitious device mentality.

A big thanks to Frank Dickson for this great interview! :)