What are US Adults doing with their mobiles?

The USA has a mobile penetration of 86%. The majority’s most popular activity on a mobile phone is sending text messages by far! In the age category 18-29, more than 94% use SMS. See Silicon Alley Insider Chart:

Six things publishers should focus on by P. Zollman

I wondered. “If I had to launch a new interactive-media product today, what six things wouldI focus on to be successful?”.

Reviewing tons of Web sites each month, I’m struck by a simple fact: Too many are trying to be “all things to all people.” There’s local, there’s national. There’s weather, there’s sports. There are directories and classifieds. There are entertainment guides, video clips, scrolling headlines and widgets and gidgets and gadgets.

You may note I didn’t say “launch a new Web site.” I started to, in fact. But if you’re launching a new “Web site,” you’re already behind the curve. Read on.

What’s most important?

1.  “The conversation.” Don’t do anything that doesn’t engage people, that doesn’t get them involved, or doesn’t promote their views (and content) as well as your own. These are two-way media, and they need participation to work. Involvement. Make sure comments are visible on your home page, or your mobile screen. Get people Twittering and referring your site to others. Make “the conversation” integral to your home page, and every page. Don’t hide it at the bottom. As for getting people involved, focus on content that people are passionate about. At a local newspaper, that may be zoning or education, taxes or traffic. Or all of the above. In recruitment, it’s salaries and openings and the latest hiring trends. Real estate? Prices and rates and “the beautiful homes.” Focus on things that matter. People will respond.

2.  “The bargains.” On a local site, people want local bargains. Not just from advertisers. Promote a “deal of the day” to get users engaged. Sell services at 50 percent off; that brings ‘em in. Even on something like a recruitment site, there are “bargains” of a different sort. Great jobs, salary calculators, cost-of-living info. People want a deal. Give it to them.

 3. “The breaking news.” Again, this isn’t just for newspaper or even news sites. Some real estate sites certainly include “breaking news.” Auto sites, recruitment sites, entertainment sites – all  can and must be up-to-the-minute, fresh, and lively.

 4. “The faces.” Remember the maxim I learned when I was a beginning editor: “You never go wrong with kids and animals.” Ever. Or faces. Pictures. Video clips. People want to see themselves, and their friends and neighbors. They want to see the beautiful people, and the ridiculous people doing stupid things. Show them. Lots of them. And don’t make faces microscopic, or hide them. Make them a big box on your home page or on your mobile screen.

 5. “The movies.” People want to see and hear things moving. Text on a screen is so passive, and so passé. Susan Boyle generated how many views, how fast, of her brilliant singing? She topped 100 million views on YouTube in less than a week. “United breaks guitars” brought new fame to a small country-music group from Halifax, N.S., within hours. It wouldn’t have gone anywhere as text in a box, or as an audio clip. It moved, and it was funny.

 6. “The top cars / homes / jobs / stuff.” People may not be looking for “classifieds,” but they’re always interested in what someone else’s home is selling for, or what kinds of jobs are out there, or what someone else is selling (or buying). The right “top homes / jobs / cars / stuff” spark conversation, too, not just sit there as ads on a screen. Showcase what’s going on in your community for your users. And that doesn’t have to be a geographic community; it can be an “interest” community as well.

As I reread my list, I realized this isn’t just about interactive media. They’re about PC screens and mobile screens, but frankly, these things work on newsprint, too. Okay, not “the movies” part. Even “the conversations” work on paper, although they’re tougher there – but anyone who’s edited or read a lively editorial page knows they, too, can get people engaged, thinking, passionate, even angry. It’s not about the delivery platform – newsprint, PC screen, mobile device – so much as it is about remembering what matters.

Don’t forget mobile. It’s the “next big thing.” If all of this works on your Web site, but your Web site doesn’t work on mobile devices, you’re facing failure. Soon.
Part of “what matters,” of course, is revenue. But if you can get the hang of the six things I’ve listed above, and you train a strong sales team to sell, sell, sell, you’ll have a product that gets everyone involved – audience(s), advertisers, your team. And that will make it successful.

Peter M. Zollman is founding principal of the Advanced Interactive Media Group / Classified Intelligence, a consulting group that works with media companies to help develop profitable interactive media services. He can be reached at peterz@aimgroup.com, 1-407-788-2780

Mobiya.co.uk surpasses 200k live adverts

Mobiya’s traffic doubles month over month, due to the fast-growing index of live classified adverts, currently surpassing the 205,000 mark. It was only six weeks ago that Mobiya reached the 100k milestone.

We service more than 550,000 unique users every month. Every day these users pull more than one million classified ads from our network through search queries from the major search engines.

Mobiya has also built online an advertising inventory of 5 million monthly impressions. We currently work with DoubleClick to serve banners and skyscrapers.

Mobiya semi-final Vodafone Mobile Clicks

Vodafone Mobile Clicks is a contest for startups on the mobile market. After a one hour presentation in front of a professional jury consisting of Richard Titus, CEO at Associated Northcliffe Digital and Al Russell, head of Vodafone Internet Services UK, Mobiya was selected to participate in the semi-final. The semi-final takes place on the 6th of September in London. More information about Vodafone Mobile Clicks here.

Mobiya and Kick Mobile Announce Mobile Advertising Partnership and Launch SMS Ad-Insertion Service

Mobiya today announced their partnership with Kick Mobile, a London based mobile advertising sales company. The companies are joining forces to deliver powerful mobile advertising campaigns.

Kick Mobile’s creative approach to mobile advertising combined with the effectiveness of Mobiya’s keyword contextual and location specific SMS advertising inventory enables hyper-targeted campaigns and lead generation.

Mobiya delivers excellent campaign effectiveness and response levels.

“Mobiya can target a promotion for a pet insurance product, in real-time and over SMS, to buyers of puppies responding to a pet classified advert in print or online. How powerful is that!?” says Sacha Vekeman, director of business development at Mobiya.

“We have been looking for a partner company that can leverage our ad insertion technology and reporting transparency through working closely with advertisers. Kick Mobile took the discussion beyond inventory volumes and WAP activity levels and embraced the value of context” says Vekeman.

“In this tough economic climate, it has become increasingly important to deliver efficient campaigns which achieve a high ROI.  Mobiya offers a highly targeted opportunity which delivers results.” says Stefan Adamczyk, managing director at Kick Mobile “but mobile is personal – it is about context, content, location and reach.”

“Kick Mobile is pleased to partner with Mobiya. They work hard to thoroughly understand the advertiser’s objectives and Mobiya’s laser targeted inventory and ad placement technology enables us to deliver transparent and successful advertising campaigns.” Adamczyk continues.

“Our SMS ad-insertion campaigns  achieve sales conversions of more than 30%. Compare this to the 1% click through that publishers traditionally get over mobile advertising networks” says  Vekeman. 

Kick Mobile is appointed to handle all advertising sales and develop the mobile advertising strategy for Mobiya in the UK.

About Kick Mobile

Kick mobile is an independent mobile advertising company which delivers commercial advertising solutions across WAP, video, mobile applications and SMS.

Web: www.kickmobile.co.uk

Mobiya goes hyperlocal and adds Hull Colour Pages to its classified network

Classified advertising is local advertising. Hometown media have been in the business of connecting people to local real estate, cars and jobs for quite some time. Besides classifieds, the promotion of local services via paper and online directories were owned by hyperlocal media.

The digitization of information and classified content did not only affect national media, but also hyperlocal media such as Hull Colour Pages. No media group today is able to deal with the complexity of web and mobile technologies, the consolidation of enormous classified data streams and the monetization of the content.

Mobiya is powering the classified service of Hull Colour Pages, a directory publisher and local advertising specialist with access to 270,000 households and businesses. Hull Colour Pages is fully owned by KCOM Group, also known as Kingston Communications, the leading communications and publishing group in East Yorkshire.

Visit the Mobiya powered classified listings for Hull Colour Pages: http://colourpages.mobiya.co.uk/

To introduce Hull Colour Pages, see Nick Thompson, General Manager of Publishing Services:

Mobiya names Duncan Dunlop as non-executive director

Promoting the growth of Mobile Classifieds in the UK

LONDON, UK, January 21, 2009: Mobiya today announced that Duncan Dunlop has joined the board of directors of Mobiya Holdings Limited as a non-executive director. Mr. Dunlop will advise and support the company as it brings its online classified and advertising technology to market.

Mobiya is pioneering mobile classifieds in Europe and already has a strong online presence after only three months since launching in the UK.

Mr. Dunlop joins the company as it scales its online content aggregation, indexing and distribution platform and rolls out new mobile interactivity and advertising products. Recent online growth has been phenomenal and Mobiya UK continues to achieve double digit growth week on week.

“Duncan Dunlop is a world-class expert in the online advertising and classified sector and is enormously respected throughout the industry. We are delighted to welcome him aboard” said Martin Davis, Chairman of Mobiya Holdings Limited.

Mr. Dunlop has extensive experience in developing online business models and currently oversees the UK operations of Oodle, a subsidiary of the world’s largest search company for classifieds. Through partnerships with leading classifieds operators Mr. Dunlop has grown Oodle’s search index from 900,000 listings in 2007 to over 4 million today. Additionally Oodle’s online traffic has grown through distribution deals with a number of the UK’s leading media companies.

“I joined Mobiya because I share their vision that mobile will become a significant channel in the classified industry. Mobiya is an early mover here and in a great position with an exciting technology roadmap and a management team with an awesome track record. Mobiya is already proving new business models,” said Duncan Dunlop.

Prior to Mobiya and Oodle, Mr. Dunlop held business development and product development roles at Yahoo! and Lycos and the emerging online divisions of large classified and directory companies including Yell and Touchlocal.com.

Mr. Dunlop is 42 and holds B.Sc. in Math’s and Physics from Durham University.

Download PDF version: Download Mobiyaprdd

Oxygen8 Communications partners with Mobiya to penetrate SMS advertising market

Mobiya uses Oxygen8’s Gateway platform to distribute classified ads via mobile phones

London, January 19, 2009: Interactive communications company, Oxygen8 Communications, and Mobiya, the UK’s fastest growing mobile advertising company for SMS marketing, have announced a strategic international partnership to deliver classified ads to consumers via mobile phones.

The new partnership will see Mobiya utilising the Oxygen8 platform and infrastructure for its classified ads systems and is expected to generate significant additional reach for Mobiya as a result of Oxygen8’s international presence. The high level of traffic and the enhanced distribution facilitated by the partnership is also expected to increase advert volumes and response rates, creating additional revenue opportunities for Mobiya and its publisher customers.

Using the Mobiya classifieds network, buyers and sellers communicate about classified advertisements using their mobile phones. Sellers can create adverts using their mobile phones, along with a photograph and or even a video. Buyers can express an interest in a classified advert by sending a text message to a short code number, prompting the release of contact information from the buyer to the seller. The seller also receives real-time alerts as soon as someone responds to their advert, making Mobiya classifieds fast and effective.

A key feature of the Oxygen8 mobile platform is that it is scalable and able to handle hundreds of connections and hundreds of messages per second, enabling Mobiya to run numerous classifieds systems and connect hundreds of buyers and sellers simultaneously.

Martin Davis, CEO of Mobiya comments, “Mobile Classified adverts are increasingly popular in the UK market and provide an excellent vehicle for anyone who wants to sell or find a product or service quickly and easily using their mobile phone. Media publishers also see the benefits of running a Mobile Classified ads service for their customers as it encourages greater audience interaction whilst also driving brand value and loyalty.”

Davis continues, “We chose Oxygen8 Communications as our infrastructure partner because they have a well established, proven technology platform which provides excellent inter-connectivity, fast message throughput and scalability. In addition, Oxygen8 have a strong international presence, especially in several of the new territories that we are interested in targeting, including Africa and the USA. Working with Oxygen8 we can utilise their knowledge of local markets in order to drive adoption of Mobiya classified ads on a global scale.”

Colin White, UK CEO of Oxygen8 Communications, concludes, “A key feature of Mobiya’s Mobile Classified ads service is that it automatically processes traffic going in both directions; sellers are able to promote their products for sale via their mobile phones and buyers can instantly respond. This enables fast two-way interaction between buyers and sellers. For publishers and their advertising partners, there is also the opportunity to advertise complementary products around the main advert. So for example, if someone is interested in buying a car then they can also be offered relevant car insurance deals, instantaneously over the same SMS conversations. Using the Mobiya service via Oxygen8 publishers can maximise their new media revenue opportunities whilst also driving brand value.”

About Oxygent8 Communications: click here.

Download electronic copy: Download Mobiyapr.

Mobiya.co.uk triples its classified index from 10,000 to 32,000 in a single weekend

A new record was set this weekend as Mobiya.co.uk indexed over 22,000 new classifieds in less than three days. This brings our real-time classified index to 32,000 classifieds, with an average of 1,000 new classifieds every day. 100% of these ads are published with privacy response codes for SMS alerting and scam prevention. Due to the massive increase in our classified listings and the meta-distribution deal with Oodle, the SMS response growth rate doubles every week. We expect to reach 5,000 unique visitors per day by the end of this week, and will double that before the end of 2008. This will bring the annual online advertising inventory to 10 million pages. Mobiya sustains a leading position in the Pets for sale vertical. Dogs, cats and horses leading the pack with conversion rates up to 23%. For every 100 animals posted in our classified network, 23 people buy within the first 48 hours!

Mobiya now offers mobile lead generation for mobile content companies and advertisers

Mobiya has always focused on delivering the best possible mobile classified service for both our publisher partners and mobile consumers. We have also been able to continue to invest in the development of our mobile ad serving technology. This has successfully resulted in the delivery of mobile advertising campaigns for a variety of advertising customers. We have now packaged our delivery experience, mobile advertising inventory and analytics into an all-in-one solution, allowing you to discover your lead generation potential over the mobile channel. More information in our brochure: Download LeadGen PDF

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