Vishal Sharma
Sunday, September 21, 2008
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I recently did an email based interview with Emily Freeman, founder of Mobilist, one of the emerging mobile consultants on the Status of Mobile Advertising in Australia. Lets explore what she has to say about this emerging platform and the opportunity: • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? At Sensis I managed websites like Whereis Online and in 2004 I was offered the opportunity to develop Sensis' first WAP products. Back then there was no mobile industry, so it's exciting to have been part of something from the very beginning. After developing Sensis' Mobile Advertising strategy in 2007 I decided it was time to put all that experience to the test and go out on my own. More about my career background here Mobilist provides consultancy on mobile strategy, and services including mobile SEM and search, mobile advertising & marketing, product development and customer acquisition for mobile sites & campaigns. The main issues The main opportunities • To what extent are mobile operators in The Frost & Sullivan 2008 report on the All of the Australian carriers are exploring mobile advertising as a revenue stream, some more aggressively than others. In many cases mobile campaigns have been offered as part of a broader online/mobile package, in order to encourage advertisers to trial the mobile channel. Most will throw in a free 'mobile campaign site' with a media buy. Both Vodafone & Telstra take a CPM based approach to mobile advertising, advertising rates between $20 - $75 CPM to serve mobile banners across their mobile portal properties. Vodafone has been the most proactive carrier in Telstra, through their advertising arm Sensis MediaSmart, has been delivering a variety of simple, banner based mobile advertising campaigns on the BigPond and Sensis mobile sites since running trials of mobile advertising capabilities in early 2007. The results of this trial can be found here. Recently Telstra has also been exploring the use of QR codes in print campaigns to drive traffic to mobile campaign sites. Three has taken a different approach to mobile advertising to date. Their focus is on integrated content/advertising packages which they put together on a case by case basis, rather than delivering simple banners across their portal. Optus has had some small scale trial activity in mobile advertising but does not yet have a scalable commercial mobile advertising product in the Australian market. • To what extent are advertising agencies taking advantage of the mobile advertising format? Many local agencies are using the mobile channel in integrated campaigns or targeting the mobile channel specifically. Often agencies will have a strong relationship with a single publisher (ie. NineMSN) or a Carrier and tend to focus campaigns around their capabilities and audience. For example, the WPP group of agencies entered into an agreement earlier this year with Sensis/Telstra to deliver mobile advertising for many of their major brands. Most of the carriers (which are technically media channels) also offer agency-like services, including development of creative, destination sites and campaign planning, along with booking of mobile media. Equally, NineMSN through their 5th Finger business operate as both agency & publisher, enabling advertisers to go direct for a full mobile advertising solution, or work through their agency for selected services. A significant opportunity exists for agencies to build cross carrier / cross publisher campaigns and thus reach the entire Australian mobile audience, rather than a narrow focus on users from a single carrier only. Global mobile agency Hyperfactory recently set up Australian headquarters with a view to targeting local advertisers and have been actively recruiting a specialist team in Many of these are small niche agencies, but we are seeing more of the larger digital agencies testing the water, often in partnership with carriers or specialty firms such as Front Foot Media, who develop mobile destination sites, or QM Codes who build campaigns linking print ads to mobile content using mobile codes. • To what extent are media planners taking advantage of the mobile route? • It is said that the mobile ecosystem has four stakeholders - advertisers, publishers, carriers and subscribers? How can they all benefit through mobile ads? Your comments please. Opportunities for Advertisers (& their agencies) Publishers Carriers Subscribers • What is your take on opt-in advertising? Opt-in is an important factor in the delivery of Mobile Marketing, which is more often based around messaging (SMS/MMS). Obviously advertisers need an opted-in database or an opt-in mechanism before pushing content via these channels. Mobile Advertising is more often delivered within existing mobile content, in the form of search ads, banners or sponsorships. This reflects the way advertising works online. The user 'opts in' to the advertising when they choose to interact (ie. click). In a good campaign this means they can go on to participate further, such as entering a competition or signing up for content. By interacting the user is expressing their desire to get involved with the brand. Other forms of opt-in mobile advertising include signing up to receive SMS ads in return for a free or subsidised mobile service, such as that recently launched by SMS Pup. There is a great opportunity locally (particularly for carriers) to offer users opt-in ads in return for services. According to the 2007 AIMIA Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index, 89% of recipients said they would definitely use more content & services if they were free or subsidised. • What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation and the Telecom industry? The Victorian government already does a lot through organisations like Film Victoria, Multimedia Victoria and the recently established Mobility Vic. There are numerous grants, programmes and opportunities available for anyone with some initiative. It's a shame not to have the Commercial Ready grants anymore though. I think there should be more support for venture capital investment in technology based startups. Tax breaks or financial incentives for VCs to encourage their involvement in local startups would really pick up the pace locally. At • If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do? I don't pretend to have the first idea about politics or economics but I'd focus on local initiatives that could make a big impact in the long term. Things like providing every home with a water tank, helping set up community gardens or neighborhood groups to grow vegies & become partially self-sustaining. Secondly I'd provide incentives to support small, locally based business, even home based businesses. And finally, I'd make sure any politician allowed to advise or make decisions on technology and innovation would have to pass a test to prove they can use twitter, blogs, rss readers, instant messaging and the mobile internet. Anyone with this kind of power should at the very least be able to download software, transfer music to an ipod and be able to demonstrate a working knowledge of a social network. Ideally they would have a blog and a significant community of followers from which to draw input to policy, but i suspect that's asking too much just yet! • Do you have any advice for people who are looking for mobile as a platform for advertising?
My background is a mix of marketing and online. After my Marketing degree I worked in marketing & product management for companies like Ernst & Young, Fairfax & Microsoft in the 
stable role at Sensis when the crash came.
Thanks Emily for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.
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