Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category

 Aditic Mobile Advertising Product had a huge success in Barcelona 3GSM 2010
      By Ryan Mojaat,  February 24th, 2010 :: Advertising, Interviews

Fashion experts have glamorous catwalks in New York, Milan or Paris, worldwide jet set has many prestigious festivals cinema such as Cannes International Festival in France or Oscars ceremony in the US… and aficionados of mobile devices have the Mobile World Congress, also called 3GSM. Taking place in Barcelona, this is the biggest event for mobile fanatics from all around the world.

The 2010 Mobile World Congress has been held 15-18 February. For four days, we have experienced that this is the place for mobile leaders to collect, collaborate, coordinate business and experience the newest technologies. The event featured conferences, an exhibition with more than 1,300 companies displaying pioneering products and technology that will define the mobile future, an awards ceremony, industry seminars, and the world’s best venue for mobile industry networking.

The advent of Smartphones and the iPhone in particular, has incredibly changed the agencies’ and advertisers’ appetite for mobile advertising. But while everybody is unconditionally convinced that mobile phones supply a unique way of reaching the consumers, neither brands nor agencies seem truly happy with the performances offered by existing ad networks.

In that sense, and despite the gloomy situation of the market today, ADITIC made the difference in the mobile advertising jungle present at 3GSM: innovative, simple, we are able to offer services to developers, agencies and advertisers, and we enable clients to identify audiences and serve campaigns on the growing inventory of mobile operators and publishers.

Indeed ADITIC provides a wild range of simple and flexible tools to maximize revenues, just by registering and then integrating some lines of code; we offer innovative ad formats, as well as an easy integration and a high revenue share for Publishers and Developers. Thanks to our complete demographic data (classified by age, gender, city, phone brand, phone model, country, operator, etc…) we can supply a strong and performing device to all advertisers or agencies eager to develop mobile ad campaigns.

Our success during the exhibition has been unexpectedly huge and we would like to thank all the customers who visited us, whom trust leads us to expect a bright future for ADITIC. Therefore rendezvous is already taken for a new exciting experience in Barcelona next year!

  
 Developing Mobile Applications for Nokia: Gian-Luca Cioletti Podcast
      By Shaun Zelber,  July 28th, 2009 :: Interviews

Mobile Application Development at Forum Nokia.
Mobile application development is the heart and soul of the smartphone and mobile computing market. Without mobile application software, billions of mobile phone users around the world could make phone calls-not surfing the mobile Internet, playing mobile games or sending and receiving emails.

While the iTunes and BlackBerry App stores have received the most press attention of late, Nokia of Finland, through its Forum Nokia operation, has assisted mobile developers for many years.
Despite Nokia’s loss of market share in the handset market, the company believes offering innovative applications by working with developers is the road to profitability. Assisting developers with technical support (see the Forum Nokia Developer Community online) and the marketing of their applications through the Nokia OVI store are critical.
Bloomberg in a recent article wrote that Nokia’s failure to beat Apple’s iPhone and software puts its market share at risk, while a number of mobile app developers have migrated from Nokia’s Symbian OS platform to the iPhone, Android and other mobile platforms.

  
 Video interview with Trey Harvin
      By Shaun Zelber,  June 18th, 2009 :: Interviews

For your enjoyment: an interview with dotMobi’s CEO, Trey Harvin. The interview was conducted by Sarah Blue of bnetTV at the Las Vegas CTIA event this past April.

  
 Improve Mobile Website Optimization With SiteSpect: Eric Hansen Podcast
      By Shaun Zelber,  June 10th, 2009 :: Interviews

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“Eric

Mobile website owners, similar to non-mobile website owners, may believe that website optimization, mobile analytics, search engine marketing and other digital marketing techniques are too challenging, take excessive time and, in many cases, become impossible to manage. This convinces some mobile marketers to “fly by the seat of their pants” when assessing mobile website performance.

Eric Hansen, Founder and C.E.O. of SiteSpect, a Boston-based marketing-focused website testing and optimization firm, will probably disagree with you. Since starting the firm in 2004, Hansen’s team has helped numerous companies, including J.C. Penney, Overstock.com, The New York Times, CreditCards.com and others that have greatly improved their website marketing performance by optimizing mobile content and placement.

According to Hansen, SiteSpect is the only company in its space providing accurate mobile website user behavior on phones that don’t support Javascript and cookies. Per Hansen, 50% of worldwide mobile handsets are not Javascript enabled. As a result, marketers are hindered in accurately assessing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and mobile website performance.

Marketers use SiteSpect’s software and hardware solutions to better understand how various website elements, such as time spent on a web page or the impact of images, text placement, links, discounts and other content impacting accurate segmentation, lead conversion, sales and overall marketing results.

Employing SiteSpect’s website analysis solutions, marketers “non-intrusively” test website performance during marketing campaigns, working at network level, without involving IT or making changes in their websites. SiteSpect, in tandem with marketing management, then assists marketers better assess landing page, copy and other content placement changes to increase conversions and realistically set goals for future mobile marketing campaigns.

Through a partnership with Bango, a mobile analytics firm delivering historical reports, SiteSpect’s customers can further measure mobile behavior by creating new offers and promotions to boost conversions, grow website traffic and answer “what if” questions that predict future mobile user behavior.

Eric Hansen believes these capabilities give marketers the ability to conduct digital website experiments that better reveal mobile user preferences and achieve marketing campaign goals.

If you own or operate a mobile website, take 33 minutes and listen to one of the top experts in the field share ideas that affect the success of both mobile and non-mobile websites.

SiteSpect Mobile Content Testing and Optimization

SiteSpect Demo

Eric Hansen:

Twitter: ericjhansen

LinkedIn Profile

FaceBook

MobileMarketer Article

  
 Brian Prows interviews Michael Boland from the Kelsey Group’s Mobile Local Media Forecast Division
      By Shaun Zelber,  March 30th, 2009 :: Interviews

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

  
 Brian Prows interviews Naveen Tewari of mKhoj
      By Shaun Zelber,  February 27th, 2009 :: Interviews

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Mobile advertising networks, partnering mobile advertisers and publishers, are growing rapidly in India and worldwide–especially in developing countries where Internet access is limited. Over 320 million people in India have a mobile phone with 10 million new subscribers activating service monthly. The 25 and under age group is the fastest growing segment of India’s insatiable adoption of mobile handsets. Reaching these and other advertiser-targeted groups is achievable using mobile ad networks.

Recently, I had an opportunity to interview mKhoj’s founder and CEO Naveen Tewari, who runs one of the largest mobile ad networks in Asia. mKhoj (pronounced “m-couch”) is one of the leading mobile advertising networks that automates the creation, placement and monitoring of mobile ad placements among major advertisers and website publishers seeking to monetize their web properties.

Based in Bangalore, India with offices in Mumbai, Singapore and Palo Alto, CA, mKhoj received nearly $8 million in funding to target mobile markets in Southeast and South Asia, the Middle East and Africa–areas of the world where mobile is the only channel for advertisers and publishers to reach growing populations that lack landline-based Internet service.

In the interview, Newari discusses a large “mass niche” of mobile users, defined demographically by income or personal interests. The company’s ability to rotate ads based on type of handset, country and other demographics better positions mobile advertisers’ ability to maximize their ROI while delivering targeted content advertising to publishers.

Companies, such as Reebok, have created multimedia campaigns, integrating mobile advertising in promotional campaigns that drive desired branding and demonstrable results. In one campaign, Reebok achieved a 10%-12% conversion rate bringing customers to retail stores when mobile was used in conjunction with an overall promotional strategy.

Marketers around the world are researching and testing use of the mobile Internet to drive products and services to market, create brand awareness and optimize ROI. Conversions, according to Newari, vary by 1%-7%, depending on website, while post click-through conversions of 5%-20% become achievable deploying mobile in advertising campaigns.

Listen to an eye-opening podcast with mKhoj’s Naveen Tewari as he explores the power of mobile advertising networks to maximize both advertiser and publisher profitability.

Links to the podcast:

mKhoj Case Studies
“Mobile, the Most Engaging Mass Media” (mKhoj blog post)
Publisher Advantages of Mobile Ad Networks
Advertiser Advantages
Naveen Tewari (Futher Information)
MobilOpen International Mobile Group

  
 Brian Prows interviews Vianney Settini of TexoMobile
      By Shaun Zelber,  February 20th, 2009 :: Interviews

Mobile portals and mobile websites continue expanding worldwide. Over one million mobile websites

Vianney Settini, co-founder of TexoMobile, a French company providing mobile advertising services and a portal called iGloo, a mobile web portal promoting mobile communities, is a comprehensive site for chat, dating, blogs, free email, social media and other services. iGloo is supported by advertising revenues.

TexoMobile runs MobPartner, a mobile marketing and affiliation network that is part of TexoMobile, allowing advertiser access to mobile users in over 130 countries, based on CPA (cost per acquisition). TexoMobile also offers CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per thousand) mobile advertising campaigns.

Listen as Brian Prows of MobileBeyond converses with Vianney about global mobile advertising. are are now registered and their growth is exponential. A major interest of mobile Internet site owners is learning how to monetize their mobile web properties through CPC, CPA or CPM advertising.

  
 Mobile Advertising and Monetizing Mobile Websites: Podcast Interview with Mobiya’s Sacha Vekeman
      By Shaun Zelber,  January 29th, 2009 :: Interviews

Brian Prows’ Interview of Mobiya’s : Sacha Vekeman

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Mobile advertisers and publishers continue seeking effective strategies and platforms to market products and monetize their websites. Advertisers seek new ways to increase lead conversion and sales through mobile channels as part of their overall marketing mix, while publishers increasingly desire to generate ad revenue on their websites. (SMS-based mobile advertising can achieve conversion rates between 32%-42%.)

In a recent podcast interview with marketing consultant Brian Prows and Sacha Vekeman, a found and and V.P. of Business Development of Mobiya in the U.K., Vekeman discusses lead generation and other mobile advertising applications in the U.K., Europe and the U.S., covering a variety of market niches including dating, real estate and auto.

Download the podcast here.

IM-Mobile

  
 AdMob’s Omar Hamoui Talks about the iPhone
      By Shaun Zelber,  January 13th, 2009 :: Interviews

Kara Swisher from All Things D does an upbeat interview of AdMob’s Omar Hamoui and they talk about the iPhone and a general overview of the mobile advertising industry.

While there are very few bright spots to look at in the start-up space in Silicon Valley these days, especially those relying on online advertising, the San Mateo, Calif.-based AdMob is at least slightly shiny.

The mobile advertising marketplace, backed by Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners, just got a big slug of funding-almost $16 million-to keep pushing to get ads on mobile phones, which has gotten a huge boost from the popularity of the iPhone.

The number of ads AdMob is serving on the iPhone jumped to more than 100 million in September, compared to 35 million the month before, for example.

The massive data usage by users of the popular mobile device by Apple (AAPL) has clearly turbocharged AdMob’s prospects, which were already on the rise. Compared to a year ago, the company said, the number of ads it served more than tripled the number of ads served on a monthly basis to 4.5 billion.

  
 Interview of Stéphane De Luca – MobileZoo.biz
      By Guillaume,  December 12th, 2008 :: Interviews

Yesterday, i have the pleasure to meet Stephane De Luca, the owner of MobileZoo.biz and have made a little interview of him.

Q :Could you tell us a few about you ?

Sure! I’m Stéphane de Luca, 42, and I’ve been in the software development since I’m 12, that is 30 years!
In my profesional life, I have had many positions in various companies managing large projects or businesses. I’ve been 10 years in the video game industry at the time where it was still possible to be really creative.
When the mobile industry emerge wih handset having color screens and the ability to expose games to the user, I joined In-Fusio with the idea of innvate in term of playability in a connected world. I have developed two major project that you can see on my site http://stephanedeluca.com : one is a desktop/mobile massive muliplayer online game, another is a realtime airsimulator that streams images up tp the mobile terminals.

Q : Could you present your service Mobilezoo.biz ?


I get started with MobileZoo in october 2006 because at that time there was no real world figures about what the mobile market were made of. When you decide to develop a title, say a game, you need to know on how many different handset model you have to produce a version. As this have a cost, you need to know what potential ROI you can expect.

Q : What do you propose with MobileZoo ?
MobileZoo is just that, a tool that let you knows what handsets are sucessfull, where they are used in what number. But you can also query the site to know what technical feature an handset supports. Or even what handsets support the list of a set of features. You also have access to the worldwide carrier-related information (# of users from a given carrier for example) or for a given country.
MobileZoo provides J2ME indepth information coverage (JSR and description), wireless network technical description.
You’ll also find the quaterly units sold by the top manufacturers and much more.

And last, but not least, if you are a developer, you can embed a very small library in your own app that will enable you to track your own users statistics when you deploy the app.

Q : How many handsets do you have in base ? How many do new do you detect each month ?
We do have about 1400 different handses currently (Dec 2008) from 70+ manufacturers. The number of detected handset really depends on the manufacturers and the pace of their production. Some times we can detect 10 handsets in a week or even more.
And the cool thing, is that MobileZoo regularly detects prototypes or not-yet-annonced models . Subscribe to the specific RSS on MobileZoo to be the first to know.

Q : What are the benefits for users using your tools ?
The major benefit consists of having a deeper knowledge of the industry you are in, with actual number, not estimates. And knowledge is power :-)

Do you search some partners, investors ?
MobilZoo is free. Meanwhile, we need to cover our cost – - servers IT infrastructure. Currently we’re not break even… We do monetize our traffic through internet advertising. Some corporation approache me to seal deal to have access to our technology or our database thru some web services. Though really cheap, those deals help us to maintain the service.

So anyone out there that can propose a business model or would be interested in m&a is welcome :D

By the way, there is something else… We are about to release the iPhone version of MobileZoo: anyone developping iPhone apps will benefit the deployement statistics analyzer of MobileZoo :-)

See you on http://www.mobilezoo.biz

Stéphane Thank you for your time