MarketingBeyond

Michael Boland of Kelsey Group Talks About Mobile Advertising Future

Mobile Advertising Growth Forecast: Michael Boland Podcast

Mobile Advertising Growth Forecast: Michael Boland Podcast

Michael Boland, a senior analyst and program director for The Kelsey Group’s Mobile Local Media Forecast Division, is an expert in mobile advertising market research and the mobile industry.

Since joining The Kelsey Group in 2005, Mike has been instrumental in covering the local online space for Interactive Local Media practice.

Mike is a frequent speaker and organizer at top industry conferences including Kelsey Group events, search engine strategies and others. He has authored in-depth reports on the changing local media landscape including online video, social networking and mobile.

He contributes regularly to highly read online news sources such as Search Engine Watch and Huffington Post. A trusted source for reporters covering the interactive media space, his comments have appeared in major news and trade media, including the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Forbes.

The Kelsey Group is the leading provider of strategic research and analysis, data and competitive metrics on Yellow Pages, electronic directories, local search, SMB advertising and local media.

The Kelsey Group’s Mobile Local Media Forecast for mobile advertising (2008-2013) is highlighted in the report “Going Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity.

Kelsey’ s projections, quoted in Mobile Marketer, are  $330M in 2009; $720M in 2010; $1.5B 2011;  $2.3B in 2012; $3.1B in 2013, 20X $160M in 08; search: $81M in 09; $242M in 2010, $564M in 2011 & $905M in 2013.

In the podcast, Mike discusses local mobile search advertising trends, including advertising revenues changes from traditional media (radio, television, newspapers) to mobile (SMS, display and search). SMS still dominates, but local search is growing faster, and traditional media area adopting mobile marketing as another channel for revenue growth.

Hear it on MobileBeyond.

Xora Mobile Resource Market: Multi-Channel Marketing Example

Xora, a Silicon Valley Mobile Resource Market (MRM), company, provides location-specific reporting and alerts to companies with a mobile workforce. Many industries, including transportation, government, health care, construction and field services, need real-time data obtained from mobile handsets with or without GPS on employee & vehicle locations, project management status and other location-specific information. This increases operational efficiency for companies who have many mobile-intensive employees. The technology is also used to solve criminal cases, lawsuits and other personal matters more quickly and accurately with the aid of GPS/Satellite or cell phone triangulation capabilities.

Xora's use of multi-channel marketing, however, is the more interesting aspect of their approach. When you first see their website home page, which is very clean and uncluttered, you can select industry descriptions of Xora's applications ("industry smart") or choose multi-media ("Hear from Customers") or recent news ("Company Spotlight'). 

The "Hear from Customers" link leads to a web page offering case studies, podcasts or videos.
Visitors then have the choice of viewing text, audio or multi-media case studies and testimonials, arranged by vertical market and applications. This multi-channel approach accommodates prospects who prefer specific communication channels and reinforces Zora's marketing message across channels.

Visit Xora's website for further information.

Selling Small Business Ideas Online: The USA National Innovation Marketplace

Have a great idea or invention but need help marketing it?

The Wall Street Journal today announced a new online registry--the USA National Innovation Marketplace--making it easier for small businesses with new ideas or inventions to connect with larger companies.

Doug Hall, founder of Eureka Ranch Technology Ltd. of Cincinnati--the company providing the registry--said: "The goal...is to have small businesses incubate ideas from researchers and then sell them to large companies. The time is right...he says, since big businesses are coming under greater pressure to innovate quickly--but often lack the internal resources to do the job."

Small business inventors, using the Registry, could connect with other small-to-large businesses, develop joint ventures and bring new products or services to market more quickly and efficiently.

The upcoming launch of planeteureka.com has already caught the attention of Best Buy and Procter & Gamble's Future Works division. Best Buy believes its retail operations would benefit two-fold: introducing new products to its retail customers and using innovative technology to streamline its operations.

Naturally, they're concerns about announcing new ideas to the world. To protect small inventors, small businesses need certification through a partnership network center. Then, after 100 days, ideas are available to anyone, including larger companies. The service, initially, is free.

If you're a small business with a great idea or product, check out the WSJ article and planeteureka's website.

Leveraging Marketing Assets: Multi-Channel Marketing Boosts Response

What if you could double or triple your lead conversions in marketing campaigns? What if you could hold a prospect's attention 30 seconds longer than you do now? How would that affect direct response advertising?  What about building higher quality lists producing twice your usual results?

Marketers who implement strategies combining traditional communication channels, such as telephone and email, with innovative uses of new channels--podcasting, in particular--are generating superior results in their marketing campaigns.

Why, you ask? Because podcasting is becoming very popular in both B2B and B2C campaigns, and companies today are leveraging marketing assets that improve conversion rates. Try Googling "leveraging."  I just did. The result?: 9.8 MILLION hits clearly demonstrating the synergy marketers achieve by channeling their messages through multiple communication channels.

Googling podcasting resulted in 16.9 MILLION hits. Clearly, the Internet buzz means greater interest in listening to audio content at one's leisure, similar to webcasting, combining video and audio to explain more complex subjects. But audio-only podcasting may have greater exposure and impact due to its availability and ease-of-use. (You don't see many people working out in a gym with a video Ipod.)

E-mail...3 BILLION Google hits. And the lowly telephone? Only 302 MILLION.

If there's that much interest in emailing and phoning each other, why bother with the newer technologies? We're back to leveraging. However, this time, it's about leveraging one's time. The telephone is intrusive requiring immediate action. You either answer the phone or let the call go into voice mail. Email is a bit of both, depending on the sender. If you receive an important email--perhaps one you've been expecting--you open it, then leave the rest for later. Many times, emails and phone calls together enhance marketing effectiveness, accounting for their common use in marketing campaigns.

Aratron in a post on the Invision Power Board, writes about the concept of complementarity:

"Throughout my discussion I will be sustained by the concept of complmentarity. For if I ask a question from one point of view I will have one answer. But if I ask the same question from another and quite different point of view I may very well have a second answer. The second may be inconsistent with the first, but it can be viewed as complementary. And the two answers taken together will provide a richer, truer picture than either separately." Aratron could easily have been writing about multi-channel marketing.

Whether you prefer the word "synergy" or "complementarity" or "greater impact," the result is the same. A killer advertising or marketing message, delivered across multiple channels in non-linear time far exceeds the results of "forced compliance" channels such as broadcast advertising.

To demonstrate the power of 1+1=3, I've written a PBFA (pain, benefit, feature, advantage) strategy sheet, an outbound call guide, and a email landing page, explaining the call guide for a fictitious company called Routing.Com.  Notice the consistent message content and consider implementing similar multi-channel campaigns for your company.

Lennart Svanberg Mobile Marketing Podcast: Internet and Mobile Together

Lennart Svanberg, the Producer of the Internet Marketing Conference in New York on June 4th, 2008, speaks with Brian Prows in this podcast about growing interest among Internet marketers in mobile applications.

Lennart also discusses the state of global mobile technology, contrasting Swedish networks delivering up to 7.2Mbps data speeds to slower U.S. wireless networks. He also talks about innovative mobile marketing alliances, mobile book publishing in Japan, China's 500 million mobile users and Ericsson's agreement with China Telecom to build faster cellular networks. One publisher in Sweden even supplies its customers who purchase mobile websites with mobile phones.

Svanberg has insightful thoughts on the status of mobile technology around the globe.