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.

Research firm eMarketer recently downsized its U.S.

mobile-ad revenue spend this year, dropping the forecast to $760 million,

reduced from its $2.8 billion forecast for 2009 predicted last March, with a

substantial reduction for 2010-2013. However,

Mike and Kelsey are sticking to their higher forecasts.

Online giants, like Google and MSN and large advertisers,

continue to dominate mobile advertising, but SMB’s will garner more of the

mobile advertising pie as ad revenue growth continues. Mobile search

advertising will emulate online search practices-bidding for keywords,

demographic targeting, etc.

Mike states that fewer dot mobi sites will appear, due to

company’s optimizing their existing websites for mobile devices. XHTML mobile device like the iPhone, Google’s

Android devices and other smartphones are the biggest targets for mobile

advertisers.

Current handsets in the U.S. (266M) will grow to 280M in

2009, 286M by 2011, 291M by 2012 and flat by 2013 due to high saturation among

the total population.

Mike makes astute comments about the growth of Netbooks and

mobile devices, combined with 3G and 4G handsets. Netbooks, the most “mobile”

laptops on the market, easily complement cell phones, even if only used for

voice communications. In fact, Mike says, the use of voice, already tested and

in use by Google, is another channel for mobile advertisers.

Mobile marketers are realizing that “the application is the

new ad unit.” One example, discussed in the interview, is a Coca-Cola brand

campaign in Brazil.

For example, Coca-Cola worked with Nokia to launch a special

edition mobile phone brand ‘Coca-Cola Zero Studio’ to put their brand directly

into the hands of consumers in Brazil. The exclusive music content was bundled

on device and acted as a real incentive to consumers to buy the Nokia 5310

Xpress Music Special edition, a handset that was designed by Nokia with music

in mind.

Other mobile applications and services-especially on

smartphones-are boosting mobile advertising revenues and rapidly growing. The iPhone

and BlackBerry

Application Stores are established channels for application developers.

MobilePeople

in Denmark, quoted in one of Kelsey’s blog posts, provides local mobile search

and advertising solutions for directory publishers and directory assistance

providers, offering SMB’s a new sales channel to monetize their businesses.

Listen as Brian

Prows with MobileBeyond (iTunes)

and IM-Mobile discusses mobile marketing

and advertising trends with a visionary in the field.

Links for the

Podcast:

Michael Boland Bio:

-LinkedIn Bio

-The Kelsey Group

Going

Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity

The Kelsey Group

Kelsey Group Blog

Kelsey Group on

Twitter

Kelsey

FaceBook Group

Reach Michael at mboland@KelseyGroup.com

Skype is embracing the Android platform with the expected launch of the Skype Lite app for devices running on Google’s mobile OS. The application will enable T-Mobile G1 users to make cheap calls without the need of a mobile Internet connection and also chat via instant messages with people in their Skype friends list.

The company’s first native VoIP client for Java, Skype Lite will also be available on many other Java-enabled phones, such as models from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG and Samsung. Depending on your mobile price plan, you can use your inclusive minutes or call your Skype friends for the cost of a local call with the new Skype Lite. The instant messaging feature though, will use your data plan.

Skype has been expanding its reach to a variety of mobile devices, from Windows Mobile smartphones to Internet tablets like the Nokia N810. Now it’s coming to the hottest new platform the Android OS, a platform that is set to expand exponentially this year, on forthcoming devices from Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson.

Skype Lite was already available to many handset models from Nokia, SE, Samsung and Motorola, but in a beta stage. The coming release, for both Android and other devices, is expected make it prime time and move the app out of beta status. As for availability, it will take a few days for Skype Lite to appear on Android Marketplace, while the version for the other devices should be available later on today from the Skype website.

The T-Mobile ad :

The T-Mobile inspired Facebook fueled impromptu event :

This was a very interesting event for us mobile internet fanatics because many of the people where notified by SMS. This type of mass movement is not new.. many similar type of events have happened in political happenings in Asia for example. But this one is unique in that it mimics an ad.. a mobile ad at that.