Twit FeedBono Asks Fans to Text Message
Bono, lead singer of U2 is using text messaging during his concerts to get U2 fans involved in his One Campaign. The rockstar asks fans to take out their wireless phones and urges them to text message their names to the One Campaign’s number. Shortly after, the names appear like movie credits on the stage’s big screen.
(Source: Washington Post)
Ringtone Reaffirms Teenagers’ Spending Habits
According to the University of Birmingham, the success of The Crazy Frog’s Axel F ringtone validates findings that teenagers spend more money on ringtones and computer games than music alone. The Crazy Frog Axel F is set to be the first wireless ringtone to top the charts, according to a BBC News report.
(Source: BBC News)
E! Signs Wireless Phone DealSmart
Video Technologies and E! Entertainment Television announced an agreement to provide entertainment content for wireless phones. The service will feature clips from E! Entertainment’s shows E! News, The Awful Truth, Wild On! and red carpet interviews.
Source: Los Angeles Business Journal
Young Wireless Users are Most Interested in Music
According to a survey conducted by the Network Management Group, commercial-free radio on wireless phones and the ability to download music to phones are the two most interesting advanced services to young adults. About 40% of 1,000 wireless users between 13 and 34 years old are interested in commercial-free radio on their wireless devices. Nearly 35% of those surveyed showed an interest in wireless music downloads, according to the report.
Source: Reuters
Game Developers Look to Expand on Wireless Phones
Some of the gaming industry’s largest developers, including THQ, Namco and Sega, demonstrated wireless phone games at the Electronic Entertainment Expo video game trade show. According to research firm The Yankee Group, revenue from wireless gaming totaled an estimated $173 million in 2004 and will reach nearly $1 billion in 2008. (Source: Reuters )
Con Hacked Into Hilton’s Sidekick
The hackers who obtained photos of Paris Hilton from her wireless phone used “social engineering” instead of technical hacking, according to a Washington Post report. According to the report, a 16-year-old received access to celebrity accounts by convincing a T-Mobile employee to give him confidential information. The hacker was part of a group that discovered a security glitch in T-Mobile Sidekicks when passwords are pre-programmed. According to T-Mobile, it has since invested millions of dollars to protect customers’ information and continues to reinforce their systems to address the security needs of their subscribers. (Source: Washington Post)
Mobile Marketing: It’s In the Mix
The first stage in mobile marketing’s inevitable evolution is officially over, and it is time to bring the industry forward into its next era of integration with larger branding initiatives. So say companies that are in the process of developing technologies and marketing campaigns that will bring the medium to the next level in 2005 and 2006. A year ago, the carriers themselves were the largest clients and true believers in the handset’s potential as a marketing device; this year, the big brands are pretty much all in.
“It’s been staggering; it’s really taken off,” says Jeff Philbin of Vibes Media, whose clients now include Hershey, Anheuser Busch and ESPN. “We’re very heavily into Fortune 500 campaigns,” adds Darrin Hegemier, chief marketing officer at Global Wireless Entertainment (GWE), which manages mobile initiative for Calloway Golf, Evel Knievel and the Reef extreme sports brand. Both Vibes and GWE exemplify the next waves of mobile campaigns.
The mobile-marketing industry is way beyond sending a Dunkin’ Donuts latte coupon via SMS. Both Vibes and GWE are leveraging the cellphone’s ubiquity to make mobile a part of an ongoing conversation with a brand on a global basis. “Everyone learned in the last year that you can’t do a 60-day messaging campaign regionally with a [brand] and be successful,” Hegemier tells sister publication Wireless Business Forecast. “It’s not fully integrated with marketing and vertically integrated with other marketing. No platform will do it for you. It takes a comprehensive multi-year strategy.”
The mobile platform’s real-time properties are about to be leveraged even more aggressively this year as marketers invite users themselves to contribute content to an event. Vibes has begun using its Live Text-2-Screen and Pix-2-Screen platforms that let users submit text and images that go directly to a screen behind a band or on a “jumbo-tron” at a venue. Vibes used it for a Motorola promotion in Times Square on New Year’s Eve and for the current “Green Day” tour. It is running in-bar programs for Maxim and Bud Light, where customers can text-2-screen as a kind of flirting. An iRadio application lets radio listeners text song requests and contest entries to a station without getting a busy signal
Direct Marketing Industry Set To Capitalise On Growth In Mobile Subscriptions
The emerging direct marketing industry in the Middle East is preparing to capitalise on the significant growth in mobile and Internet subscriptions throughout the region. Direct Marketing 2005, the region’s first conference for the direct marketing industry, being held from the June 11 to 15, 2005, at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Dubai will focus on the increasing potential of targeting consumers through internet and mobile marketing.
Vindigo Releases Suite of Enhanced Mobile Marketing Solutions Targeting Cell Phone Users
Vindigo, a leading mobile media company, announces a suite of marketing solutions with enhanced direct response features for advertisers looking to reach cell phone users. Vindigo has added email and SMS opt-in capabilities to its industry-leading advertising on mobile web and downloadable content sponsorship offerings. With Vindigo tools, advertisers can first build a database of mobile consumers who opt-in to receive text messages, and in lock step execute a follow-up SMS campaign. Vindigo makes it easy to implement end-to-end mobile marketing campaigns, which build both brand equity and generate qualified leads.
Users Continue to “Cut the Cord”
According to a Washington Post report, an estimated 6% of the U.S. population has “cut the cord”. Millions of college students, young professionals and families are ditching their traditional wireline phones and relying exclusively on their wireless phones. According to the report, the trend is expected to continue as generations grow accustomed to wireless phones.