Location-based mobile advertising, and its typical application of geo-fencing, is one of today’s hottest mobile marketing’s topics. However, the true power of location is often misunderstood. When it comes to driving ROI through mobile advertising, location often doesn’t matter – at least not in the way you think it does. Instead of simply geo-fencing a static location, the more effective use of mobile location technology considers historical location data and the consumer behavior it reveals.

Smart marketers are implementing “location for lifestyle” targeting strategies as opposed to zeroing in on “location right now tactics.” Sending an ad to a consumer based on their current location often isn’t as powerful as sending mobile ads based on the user’s lifestyle and behavior that analysis of historical location data reveals. In fact, our research has shown that there is no correlation between distance-to-store and mobile ad clicks for retailer brands.

Also, consider that most consumers have their day planned out. They may be walking past a retail location and receive an ad, but they are unlikely to stop what they are doing and immediately head into the retailer to make a purchase – especially if the deal isn’t relevant to them.

Studies show that 80 percent of purchases are planned. Therefore, marketers should deliver ads to consumers about relevant topics beforehand to influence purchasing decisions. By analyzing historical location data, marketers can tell more about a consumer’s lifestyle choices and preferences – fast food junkies, shoe-shopping addict, loyal WalMart customer, etc. – and send them ads based on those preferences.

This reinforces the notion that simple geo-fencing is not an optimal targeting practice on its own. Instead, it is critical to target users based on what location tells us about their behavior. Especially for national brands that have many well-known locations in a metro area, consumers’ historical shopping patterns, demographics and lifestyle will have a greater impact on driving store visit rates (SVRs) and ultimately purchases, than the fact that they are one mile from a retail outlet.

Critics of location-based technology are quick to blame the data, claiming it to be unreliable or inaccurate. While the industry still largely struggles with the quality of location data, the lack of a relationship between a mobile user’s real-time distance to a store and CTRs cannot be explained by “bad location data.” Location data is of varying quality, but even the best location data doesn’t prove valuable in this situation.

Marketers should keep in mind that targeting power comes from understanding what location reveals about the user, not just the location point itself. It is who, not where, that more strongly impacts CTRs and SVRs. The power of mobile location data lies in extracting context and meaning from historical location patterns to interpret meaningful insights about users; not the fleeting, real-time moment that a consumer enters a geo-fence.

That's a pretty penny from a medium that until late last year, marketers will still unsure about.

Let's timehop back to August 2012. In an article entitled, "Why is Pandora not making more money in mobile?" Mobile Marketer cites several reasons why the music-streaming service was struggling, including smaller screens that don't allow for large-format, high-impact ad formats.

At that point, most ads were in the form of small banners, and video hadn't really come onto the scene yet. "The mobile advertising market is still in the early stages," they wrote, and is not keeping up with Pandora's mobile use.

Fast forward to today. Mobile traffic in the Music, Video and Media category (Pandora among others) continues to soar, and has consistently been #1 in terms of impression volume on our Opera Mediaworks mobile advertising platform.

However, as you can see here in the Q1 2013 State of Mobile Advertising report, revenue has definitely caught up with impressions.

About 18% of all revenue is generated by mobile sites and apps that serve music, video and media content. Compare this to the more traditional "money-makers" in the mobile, like Sports (11.5%), News & Information (9.5%) and Business & Finance (8%) and you'll see why Pandora is killing it.

The entire category is killing it. Massive numbers of users are using mobile devices to consume music content —and this audience and engagement is very appealing to advertisers. Pandora stands out as the shining star because they understand how to optimize advertising within their user experience in a way that is minimally disruptive, yet highly engaging.

And Pandora is killing it because the mobile advertising market has grown up. With high-impact rich media and video ad formats, and key targeting capabilities using the valuable registration and profile data typically available from music services, the revenue per mobile-user or listening-hour has increased.

Now, whether their revenue will climb at a fast enough rate to exceed their content costs...this is no doubt heavily debated in the music industry today, because companies like Pandora generate huge exposure for their content and actually contribute much-needed revenue. The music industry needs them in order to be successful.

Despite the ubiquity of these devices, marketers continue to struggle to effectively monetize the mobile channel. It’s time to step back, look at what makes mobile different and come up with some fresh thinking.

Mobile devices aren’t little desktops. They’re not even little laptops. Too much of the advertising taking place on these devices is rooted in what worked on the traditional Web. Banners on mobile browsers are for the birds. Tiny fonts and big fingers are a terrible combination. How many times have you inadvertently clicked an ad while simply trying to scroll or stretch or pinch a page? It’s great for click through rates, even if unintentionally.

Creativity takes the cake. When we see something novel we notice; it’s human nature. Marketers get this and they’re increasingly trying new ways to grab our attention in the mobile world. In-app advertising is a first step but a lot of it simply relies on what are essentially still banners. But some brands are doing interesting things with apps themselves – either as stand-alone programs or as part of a broader campaign.

One device, many use cases. The fact that we can talk about banner ads in the mobile browser, in-app ads and app-based campaigns speaks to the variety of use cases that exist on mobile. Within seconds a user can take a photo, customize it using Instagram, share it on Facebook and move on to browse the Web. In virtually every use case there is an opportunity for brands to engage.

A universal view of me and of you. One of the challenges with the various use cases described above is recognizing that the same user is performing them all. It may seem elementary but marketers have no way to bridge between the mobile Web and apps when it comes to recognizing their audience. The result is wasted impressions, the inability to do frequency capping and a less than optimal user experience.

Performance is paramount. Marketing on mobile devices is still marketing, and a big part of marketing is managing hundreds of billions of impressions on hundreds of millions of devices in tiny slivers of a second. While speed is critical, longevity is important too as it means customers can be confidently reached for an extended period of time.

Privacy, privacy, privacy. Marketers have played fast and loose with customer data, skirting best practices and turning a deaf ear to consumers’ requests for greater privacy protection. Mobile offers a fresh start – based on the concept of privacy-by-design – for the industry to give consumers the protection they want while still providing marketers with the data they need to create relevant and respectful relationships.

Mobile is exciting. It’s promising, fun, personal, immediate, intimate and it’s everywhere. Now is the time for marketers to create engaging connections with their customers that are just as exciting and promising and personal and fun as the devices they run on. It’s time for marketers to look at their audiences, the ecosystem and the available technology to deliver relevant content for engaging consumer experiences.

During a period when online publishers were already improvising monetization efforts to compensate for the rise of programmatic buying, mobile introduced yet another variable that would further complicate the situation, forcing a shift in focus. Already squeezing every last cent out of online CPM’s, mobile traffic immediately made its presence felt as online audiences were no longer restricted to a computer screen as a means of accessing their favorite digital content. As a result, mobile traffic began cannibalizing impressions from the desktop impressions, further impacting an already depleting bottom line. Digital publishers reliant on online advertising revenue were suddenly dealt with a brand new form of supply to figure out and monetize immediately, or face a slow death at the expense of mobile's rapid growth.

By properly understanding the psyche of the mobile user, and aligning approaches to meet what consumers demand, these basic mobile guidelines for publishers will not only help your properties produce a mobile experience that maximizes mobile audience engagement, but also the revenue stream that follows:

· Content is king, and this is especially true in mobile. When determining how to slice and dice online content for the mobile screen, hone in on the content that matters to your audience and make it compatible for their mobile viewing pleasure. For this content to be considered mobile compatible at least two requirements must be met. First, this content needs to be easily found and identified by the user upon initial visit and, second, it must be made native to the mobile screen. Simply shrinking pre-existing content, which then requires the mobile visitor to pinch and zoom to engage with information is a mobile property’s worst enemy. In fact, a recent study commissioned by Google found that 79% of mobile visitors that find a mobile site difficult to use would immediately leave to find a suitable replacement.

· Mobile is a “need to know now” medium. Unlike TV, Radio or PC, mobile users carry this Internet connected device with them at all times. This reality feeds our instincts for instant gratification, so it’s only natural that a mobile user is accustomed to immediately being able to access desired content or information. Within seconds, a mobile device can be leveraged to find the nearest food, access the latest sports scores, lookup tomorrow’s weather forecast, watch a trailer, or purchase movie tickets. To reproduce a successful mobile experience for your organic audience, their immediate asks must be met.

· Which is better, App or Mobile Optimized site? Depending on who you ask, there is an argument to be made for either as each format comes with an inherit set of benefits and limitations. When deciding on which to adopt, it is advised to let the content influence the decision-making. For example, apps are conducive to rich content experiences. Publishers with an audience who primarily consume video, music, images, and social media are more likely to reproduce a favorable mobile experience for their audience through an app. On the other hand, a well-designed mobile optimized site may be best suited for content that is research or task oriented. Whereas apps are largely utilized for consumption of media or leisurely browsing, mobile web audiences are typically on a mission in search of facts or specific information.

· Monetization of mobile is very possible. For most publishers reliant on ad revenue, low mobile CPM’s and ad fill rates are top concerns of this medium. That said, many publishers who find themselves in this situation can look to experience immediate gains by examining mobile monetization shortfalls and adjusting appropriately. For one, just because a site can be accessed from a mobile device does NOT make it mobile optimized. All too often I come across web based properties simply trying to milk their pre-existing ad demand by serving online formatted banners within mobile based viewing sessions. Plenty of mobile demand exists, but a "mobile first" ad serving infrastructure must be in place to start reaping these benefits.

Given that mobile traffic already accounts for 20% of all daily U.S. Internet traffic and, with sales of mobile devices also surpassing PCs, this shift in traffic from desktop to mobile is not destined to slow down anytime soon. For those ill-prepared to fully absorb this continual transition, the good news is that it’s not too late for publishers to adopt a successful mobile strategy, regardless if they are starting from scratch or purely looking to improve upon current framework.

I feel that as an industry, we are just now diving deep into the real potential of mobile advertising. We must think about the possibilities beyond mobile banners to help brands and publishers alike enable native experiences that are truly optimized on mobile devices.  Our goal at Zumobi is to captivate consumers with brand integrated experiences on mobile as it has become the screen of choice in 2013 and beyond.

As mobile advertising continues to ascend to new heights, industry thought leaders are paving the way for the development of mobile as the de facto platform. Mobile Marketer just published their report honoring the top Mobile Women to Watch for 2013 where I’m honored to be recognized amongst some of the true visionaries in the mobile industry. The 25 women on this list represent marketers, retailers and brands such as Sephora, Rovio Entertainment, Coca-Cola, Cars.com and Google. Also on the list are executives from agencies, market research firms and consulting groups, all working to evangelize mobile as the primary platform of choice. To us, mobile is a way of life and not simply a technology or marketing channel.

Upon reflection of receiving this award, here are some highlights from my industry colleagues that I found particularly engaging and inspiring:

"My biggest challenge is one of the things that I also love about mobile – it moves so fast. It is critical for me to spend time talking to Sephora customers and employees, researching trends and technology capabilities and then trying to make the best bets on what to do next. This is still the Wild West of mobile commerce. There are big unknowns that we retailers, consumers and mobile developers are all going to figure out together: mobile Web versus apps, mobile and cloud-based payments, device form factors and usage scenarios and showrooming versus mobile as a loyalty-driver in stores."

- Johnna Marcus, Director for Mobile and Digital Store Marketing, Sephora

"The mobile space is exciting, dynamic and critical to the future of marketing as whole. I am thrilled to see lots of young women and men getting involved in mobile marketing. The challenge is retaining and advancing women to leadership positions. There are lots of ways to do this. One that is very important to me is to “lift as you climb.” This is about helping other women and creating stronger networks. I have had amazing mentors throughout my career and believe that it is critical to pay it forward."

- Jesse Haines, Global Head of Mobile Ads Marketing, Google

"The most intriguing part of the emerging mobile marketplace is trying to understand how consumer behavior will change. How consumers use mobile has fundamentally changed entire organizations and mandates us to reimagine value propositions, business models and products. And it keeps evolving, making it a very exciting time to be at the forefront of mobile."

- Sharon Knitter, Senior Director of Mobile, Cars.com

"We need to be talking about mobile technology in the classroom both at the university level and at the MBA level. Your profiling of women in mobility will also attract women to the field by highlighting successes and opportunities in this important technology growth field."

- Lisa Mitnick, Managing Director, Accenture Mobility

We at Zumobi have been creating rich-media experiences for both brands and publishers for years, and look forward to leading the way for the next generation of mobile ads along size these amazing contributors.

It seems that ever since the advent of mobile devices, brand marketers have been scrambling to keep up. In the early days of online advertising – and even more recent ones – advertisers simply transferred the content of their more traditional ads onto mobile devices and wished really hard that consumers would latch on. But as we have learned over the years, nothing worthwhile is that simple.

The consumer who clicks on an ad when surfing the Internet taps a different ad on his iPad. But even if the consumer does see your brand’s ad, who’s to say it’s effective? Learning what it takes to make a compelling ad is just as daunting as what form it should come in.

Whether you focus on B2B or B2C, we already know the overused-at-this-point-phrase that “content is king,” but what that really means is that brands today have the ability to become their own media companies. With that in mind, there are lessons to learn from Mashable’s Robyn Peterson’s recent article, “4 Things Media Companies Must Do… Or Die.”

Peterson contends that fear is holding media companies back as new and better platforms surge ahead, and outlines steps for surviving the mediapocalypse…which I’ll re-categorize at this point in the year as “New Year’s Resolutions for Marketers.” The highlights for brand marketers to take away are:

1. Think Social First, Then Search: Audiences love to share big, visual content. These shares impact SEO. Make sharing as simple – and attractive – as possible. Good social will translate directly into good search.
2. Embrace Mobile, Before It Runs You Over: “Mobile is not coming – it’s already here.” When designing new ad content, make the hardest decisions first by designing and engineering the smallest possible version. Look to the early adopters for the next wave in mobile platforms, and be prepared for all forms.
3. Redefine “Advertising”: Brands should work with existing media companies to create informative, viral content. With media consumption at an all time high, the battle for consumer attention is bigger than ever. By partnering to create social content around an idea or inspiration, the strategy will be around for a long time to come.
4. Become Product-Driven: Media companies who outsource their product development to tech companies not only atrophy their own service organizations, but pay outsiders for slower, less effective page views. Brands likewise need to embrace the mindset that “We don't need a toolbox with everyone else's tools in it, we need something unique,” so that they can face the challenges of experiential advertising.

Peterson’s article ends here. Without these four components, he says, media companies will die in the wake of modern media consumption. But I have a fifth prong to add to this marketing fork: the need for quality original content. Without the exceptionally clever, creative content that was always at the core of successful advertising, the first four recommendations are like an extraordinarily well-wrapped gift, but without the actual product that was desired. Shouldn’t we give consumers just a little more credit?

It’s possible to find success by following these rules, but unless media companies and brands alike focus on truly great messaging, will they remain successful in the rapidly evolving world of media platforms? I guess only time will tell. That, or we’ll all die out.

Just look at what the Google Dev Team has to say about this issue:

“Device manufacturers are welcome to backport the change if they wish. However, Android 2.2 is final as far as our codebase is concerned — with the exception of critical bugs, we can’t really make changes to it. Regardless, there’s nothing that can be done to fix this on affected devices without an OTA, which is again up to device manufacturers.”

There is a better approach for the mobile advertising industry – Universal Device Recognition. This approach does not depend on a device-provided identifier like the Android Device ID, does not leave any permanent identifiers on the device and works across all devices all the time.

But often the best way to understand what's around the corner is to take a peek back at where you came from, what direction you're going, and how fast you're traveling.

Last week our parent company, Opera Software, released a report that does just that. It looks back on the biggest moments and trends from the year, leveraging the data from its mobile ad platform of 10,000 sites and apps which serves 40 billion impressions a month. So we're not talking about a casual, subjective glance; this is a deep dive into what actually happened in the last 12 months.

Several of these trends are no doubt going to continue in 2013, and likely build even more momentum:

iPhone and iOS will enjoy the view from the top

The Samsung Galaxy III is definitely a huge hit among many -- about 30 million have sold since it's mid-year launch. But the iPhone 5, which launched about four months later, now accounts for 16.1% of all iPhone device traffic compared to the S III's 8% of Android traffic. And nearly half (44.4%) of all impressions are served on iOS-based devices, compared to 29% on Android devices. To top it off, iOS 6 is now at a 65% adoption rate, and as we've noted, is providing solutions to a lot of problems we had been facing this year.

Music, video and entertainment content will continue to dominate mobile

Mobile music powerhouse Pandora was in the news a lot this year for its success in monetizing mobile, and Shazam and Slacker Radio made huge strides too. But mobile consumers are devouring video and entertainment content as well. Nearly one in four (23.8%) mobile impressions in 2012 was served on a site or app in the Music, Video and Media category. Together with Entertainment, these publishers generated 30% of total revenue for the year.

Targeting will only get better

To say we're exciting about the targeting possibilities in 2013 would be a grand understatement. Apple has led the way with a simple privacy-compliant unique identifer called the IDFA built into iOS 6, and we hope Google will follow suit.

Innovative ad units will kill the boring banner

We're already seeing cool campaigns like Kia's Build a Car, which uses a tap-to-expand ad unit that allows users to see various colors and 360-degree views, leading to a more sophisticated mobile site with customization options, video content and car-shopping tools. Look for more engaging experiences like this one in the coming year.

The Hispanic segment will explode

With publishers like Univision catering to the Latino community -- and being named one of Opera's notable publishers of the year -- many brand advertisers are finally seeing clear opportunities to hone in on this segment. About halfway through the year, a study confirmed that Hispanics outpace non-Hispanics in smartphone adoption, and use them to research and make purchases more often. The demographic is more likely to remember brands advertised on mobile devices, and they are motivated to visit brand sites and/or retail stores as a result of digital advertising and social posts.

This summer, after diving into data from campaigns running on our parent company's mobile ad platform, we discovered something pretty neat: Mobile campaigns that take full advantage of the sophisticated capabilities of the modern smartphone (e.g., HTML5, camera, video) always result in higher dwell times and interaction rates post-click.

Now, in the Q3 report, we're discovering something even better: the deeper characteristics of a high performing mobile campaign.

We found that those that emphasize fun and simplicity catalyzed the most user interaction and brand stickiness, and those that utilized new, innovative ad units delivered click-through rates of 5% and even higher. Incidentally, they also generated the most revenue and publisher satisfaction, so everyone was happy.

By closely observing these campaigns (two of which are demonstrated below) we were able to pull out some mobile creative best practices that will hopefully help mobile marketers as they think about how to best capture the attention of their roving audience.

Challenge the user's expectations

For Mazda, we used a “break-in”unit that enters from the outside and places the ad in position. The expanded unit dynamically drags the ad across the screen, causing surprise, as the user is accustomed to the static screen content of their mobile web browser.

Appeal to the senses

Mazda’s robotic arm effect was visually satisfying because of the movement, and Fiat’s bright, bold colors served to add an element of fun to its campaign – also in alignment with the nature of the brand.

Invite the user to create and customize

Mobile users are accustomed both to playing games and creative expression such as taking photos, sketching or even including emoticons within email and text messages. Ads that allow them to continue to play and create on their phones offer incredible brand engagement opportunities. The Fiat campaign, for example, allowed consumers to swipe the color onto the car, letting them customize the image as they would want to customize their cars in real life.

For those already on board with mobile advertising, make sure to run with Rich Media creative. Mobile is all about engagement; so don’t be shy about using the native functions of the smartphone to engage consumers with your brand, products and offers.

• Use push notifications to let users know when they are close to your store.
  • GPS locators are great for retail stores—brands like Starbucks, Target and Goodyear use this creative functionality to drive in-store traffic.
• Include the option to set calendar reminders.
  • This functionality is great for entertainment clients that want to remind fans to watch upcoming movies and shows, or for retailers to remind customers that a sale is starting or announce that a new product is available.
• If you have an app, increase interactivity by implementing a rewards or loyalty program.
  • Consumers will be more excited to keep spending with you if they are getting something in return.
• Apply audio and video to grab attention and make your offer more appealing.
  • Audio and video complement cross-platform campaigns, especially for new product launches as they can align with radio and television advertising respectively.

Also, make sure ads are built in HTML5 when possible—this will lower the cost of creative and you will be able to run the ad on both mobile and display.

Outside of advertising on mobile platforms, there are two distinct ways for brands to better connect with mobile consumers—mobile optimized sites and branded apps. Any brand ignoring mobile optimization risks losing revenue as 61% of customers who visit a mobile unfriendly site are likely to go to a competitor’s site and 57% of consumers will not recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site[iii]. And, although users prefer to shop on the mobile web, apps are important too.  This is especially true for retailers; 43% of mobile consumers have downloaded retail apps to shop[iv]. As mobile usage continues to grow, so will these numbers.

Developing a mobile marketing strategy can seem overwhelming. Some savvy mobile platforms will create alternatives to the above options as an added value if your creative development resources are limited. Instead of going without a mobile presence at all in Q4, partner with someone who can solve your cross-platform media needs.  The efforts will keep your brand top of mind among mobile audiences and boost sales as m-commerce continues to skyrocket.

According to eMarketer[1], mobile spending will rise 62% in 2012, and for good reason. Mobile marketing provides advertisers the sole opportunity to connect with consumers already in the purchase mindset: in-store and researching products for the last time before making a final purchase decision. Brands should take advantage of the devices’ native capabilities such as GPS and search as well as the high user engagement rates with mobile creative and the availability of cross-platform social sharing data.

Brands still wary of mobile advertising need to realize that 47% of media is now consumed on smartphones and tablets[2]; 44% of Americans own smartphones; mobile adoption rate is at 120% in the US[3]; and 80% of smartphone owners don’t leave home without them[2]. These numbers can’t be ignored.

While it’s no doubt that TV and desktop display still capture a decent amount of our attention, any brands not utilizing mobile advertising solutions are handing consumers over to the competition on a silver platter. A retailer’s mission is no longer just to get consumers into a store. Now, more than ever, they are challenged to be the product of choice wrung up at the register.  With smartphone devices in their hands, shoppers are able to compare prices, read reviews, locate a store with the product in stock or order the product to be shipped to their home from virtually anywhere.

This past August, Google released a study that revealed not only are consumers more engaged on smartphone devices, but also that they often switch between devices throughout the day. Users shift between multiple screens in two ways—sequentially and simultaneously. Simultaneous usage involves using more than one device at the same time for either a related or unrelated activity. Smartphones are most frequently used with another device. Sequential usage, however, is moving from one device to another at different times to accomplish a task. The top activities most commonly performed sequentially between two devices are browsing the Internet (81%), social networking (73%), shopping online (67%) and searching for information (67%)[2].

The multi-screen experience is growing rapidly among millennials, making it imperative for brands to focus advertising across platforms, especially since 34% of the time users will just grab the closest device to complete a task[2].  By creating a marketing strategy that encompasses all four screens, advertisers can be more certain that the right audience will be exposed to their messaging. And, by leveraging data from both display and mobile, brand marketers can amplify consumers down the purchase funnel.

Last week the Mobile Leaders Alliance kicked off MLA Sessions, an innovative new continued education series, in New York during this year's Advertising Week. The first iteration was an in-depth classroom on mobile planning that featured several tenured professionals leading sessions on Holistic Mobile Planning, Mobile Planning for Social Integration and Navigating Mobile Creativity.

With nearly three hours of curriculum, attendees walked away with a plethora of knowledge and thanks to our sponsor Eye - the innovators behind the location based service Amplify by Eye, enjoyed cocktails and networking at the After Sessions Cocktail Party with mobile leaders from: Mediavest, Fresh Digital, Disney, Chase, Travora and more.

The MLA, in conjunction with Eye, has just released a downloadable white paper that includes MLA Sessions Key Takeaways & Best Practices. This comprehensive document recaps the learnings and best practices discussed during the inaugural MLA Sessions. Download the white paper today and contact the MLA directly for more information on a customized Session for your business.

 
Download the White Paper
 

Location, location, location! We’ve all heard or used this phrase in a multitude of fashions over the years, but the mobile platform has taken this to an entirely new level. Location is one of the key differentiators that separates mobile from any other medium available to marketers today. Often being dubbed, "The Holy Grail" of marketing, location data provides marketers the best possible chance to serve a consumer the right message at the right time.

In recent months, the conversation surrounding location for mobile marketing and advertising has been abundant, yet fairly unchanged. Innovators are still searching for new ways to increase the sharing of this data by consumers, as well as, testing new ways to utilize the data already being generated.

Many mobile ad networks tout geo-fencing or hyper-local targeting capabilities, but few have the ability to execute with a high degree of success. There are, however, a few companies that have taken location to new depths. For example, Jumptap recently announced a partnership with PlaceIQ to deliver hyper-local ads for a retail client of Hill Holiday.  Paran Johar, CMO at Jumptap, was quoted as saying,

“Our exclusive relationship with PlaceIQ goes beyond standard geo-fencing to offer hyper-local audience targeting to connect brands and advertisers with a larger group of a specific audience type.”

The campaign was able to generate a 41.21% CTR lift in New York and 51.47% CTR lift in Chicago (over non-hyper-local targeted ads) by layering third party data over the consumers’ location data to target on a level of context that was unmatched in the industry…until now.

On the 15^th of August, JiWire launched The Location Graph ^TM. The location-based mobile media company is now using their vast amounts of user data to show just how close the connections are between a consumer’s physical location and their behavior. JiWire’s data is fed by the largest pure latitude and longitude network in the industry and includes more than 3 billion location tags. The company says this database continues to grow by more than 16 million tags per day.

JiWire is able to analyze this data to build anonymous user profiles based on consumers’ past and present locations. For example, a mobile user may visit a children’s park, grocery store, zoo and maternity store within a given month, which could ultimately qualify that user as a parent. Granted, this could also qualify the user as a 17 year old babysitter, but that is why the company continually updates these profiles; to generate a much clearer view of each individual.

How do they accomplish this?

JiWire's proprietary algorithms leverage 3rd party data to continually refine and improve the profile. So far, JiWire has profiled over 500 million devices across its network and this patent-pending process has the makings of being one of the most sophisticated forms of audience targeting that the mobile industry has seen to date.

JiWire has publicly stated that defining audiences on mobile is nothing new; in fact, most mobile audiences are defined by using content or geo-fencing as a proxy. However, JiWire believes that this type of location creates a better proxy for intent.

This is because where a person has been is more important than which mobile apps or websites they visit and geo-fencing tends to eliminate potential consumers based on the fact that they might be standing 100 meters outside a pre-determined area. The Location Graph helps provide deep insights into consumer patterns; defining similarities, frequency, loyalty, and more for brand marketers. It’s not just about where you’re standing, but where you’ve been and where you’ll most likely to travel to next.

While the immediate reach on the Location Graph is approximately 150MM impressions/month, lat/long impressions typically only represents about 10% of their mobile traffic, which is why The Location Graph becomes so important. By using those lat/long patterns to build audience profiles, JiWire can essentially unlock the other 90% of non-lat/long impressions by applying back-end consumer modeling through their machine learning technology.

In a recent blog post by Jiwire’s VP of Engineering, Lenny Blyukher explains,

“After the offline machine learning activities are done and the Data Science team believes it has come up with the right models for our test or live campaigns, the team produces a custom Java library that encapsulates a serialized modeling logic. The ad platform team can easily plug this module into the ad stack. The new targeting rules then become a part of a live ad platform.”

He goes on to say,

“…there is no question that we have a long and exciting road ahead for operationalizing and improving our ‘big data’ audience profiling platform. However, the industry has been disrupted and there is no looking back!”

One of the most important pieces to the puzzle is that The Location Graph is certified by TRUSTe, the leading provider of privacy management solutions. This partnership helps to ensure consumer’s privacy on mobile devices through the TRUSTe Mobile Ads privacy management solution. This allows anyone to easily opt-out if they don’t want to receive targeted ads and guarantees that all data is stored and handled in a way that protects the user’s privacy.

Assuring privacy and making the opt-out of these targeted ads simple for consumers is such an integral key to the long-term growth and success of these types of platforms. If we’ve learned anything over the past few years, it’s that consumers will not stand for the mining of private data or the serving of ads that leverage personal data without their knowledge. If you’re looking for an example, just ask rootkit maker, Carrier IQ about their recent lawsuit troubles regarding unauthorized consumer tracking.

JiWire’s relationship with TRUSTe should help avoid any major privacy issues, while making consumers feel more comfortable about sharing their location data. In fact, eMarketer and JiWire reported yesterday that more than six in 10 mobile Wi-Fi hotspot users tagged their social media status updates, photo uploads or other posts with their location in Q2 of 2012. Even Instagram’s new update seems to be heavily pushing consumers to geo-tag their photos more often, by allowing users to view the uploaded images on a map of the world.

When asked about the new offering, Gabriel Cheng, Group Head of Media Solutions at Ansible Mobile was quoted as saying,

“JiWire's Location Graph is a huge step forward in moving beyond geo-fencing physical locations to apply location history as a means of gaining insights into discrete audiences. The additional context provided by location history, coupled with the other targeting criteria we rely on, is a great example of how innovation can add to proven methodologies and ultimately elevate the true value of mobile. This is poised to be a game-changer for the mobile ad industry."

While we’re still in early days of the platform, mobile developers are feverishly innovating new ways to target consumers with more relevant ads. JiWire’s Location Graph is definitely a step in the right direction and I’d venture to bet  we’ll start seeing more proprietary technologies such as this in the very near future.

About JiWire

JiWire is the leader in connecting advertisers to today's On-The-Go Mobile Audience, using the world's largest location-based interactive media channel. JiWire's platform enables advertisers to identify and deliver ads to audience segments based on a person's physical location while taking the venue type and brand into account.

Dan Wittmers is the Founder & CEO of the Mobile Leaders Alliance. He has a natural understanding of the entire mobile ecosystem, and during his tenure, has had the opportunity to work with Fortune 500 brands and agencies across North America. Educated in media, messaging, development, SaaS tools and predictive analytics, he is an emerging thought leader in the mobile industry.

Back in September of 2011, Polo Ralph Lauren sponsored a takeover of the New York Times iPad App. The Medialets powered rich media experience provided a magazine-esque user experience with beautiful imagery, extensive video content and detailed product information. The ground-breaking execution also touted the first in-ad shopping cart and allowed non-subscribers of NYT to access select content past the application's paywall.

Their recent "Sports of Summer" campaign has also taken over the NYT iPad app and touts similar first to market executions. Some of the highlights include:

• The sponsorship unlocks six sections of The New York Times subscriber content, including Sports, Fashion, Home & Garden, Travel, T Magazine and Olympics.
• Several different banners connect users to another immersive magazine-like experience, this time showcasing “the Sports of Summer” content – the Olympics and other sports like U.S. Open Golf, Wimbledon, The Open Championship, Black Watch Polo and U.S. Open Tennis.
• The campaign invites consumers to browse a range of sports apparel and, like the previous Polo Ralph Lauren takeover of The New York Times, users can shop directly in the ad unit.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Oolaya Global Online Video Index: Infographic

Dan Wittmers

Dan Wittmers is the Founder & CEO of the Mobile Leaders Alliance. He has a natural understanding of the entire mobile ecosystem, and during his tenure, has had the opportunity to work with Fortune 500 brands and agencies across North America. Educated in media, messaging, development, SaaS tools and predictive analytics, he is an emerging thought leader in the mobile industry.

• The secret to achieving valuable interactions with your brand on mobile is to leverage the sophisticated capabilities of the latest devices?
• Business & Finance generates more revenue per impression than any other mobile publishing category?
• Mobile ad network performance varies significantly over very short periods of time?

These are some of the highlights from the first quarterly State of Mobile Advertising report that Opera Software, Mobile Theory's parent company, is releasing today -- using data from its mobile ad platform that serves 35 billion impressions a month on 9,000 mobile sites and apps.

Topics include eCPM rates across various mobile devices, mobile monetization by category, and regional breakdown of ad impressions. (Ex: The top 5 European countries are showing impressive growth, but North America still generates 73% of global impressions.)

To review the colorful 8-page report, download it here.

One of the most fascinating areas of the report is the section on rich media. Top of mind for many advertisers now is the ROI on rich media ads, which do carry a higher price tag. There have been studies that do clearly show that rich media on mobile to be more effective in driving higher CTR -- but this report notes that it also catalyzes more customer engagement.

Specifically, rich media that leverages the native functions of mobile devices, such as sophisticated HTML and camera interfaces — has been shown to have a direct correlation to time spent interacting with the ad unit.

For instance, 66% of users that click through to a video will complete that interaction, with an average dwell time of 52 seconds. Photo-taking capabilities warrant an even higher dwell time (1 min 25 secs), and about half of consumers will continue to interact with the ad post-click.

What does this mean for brand advertisers? It's simple: take advantage of all that the latest mobile OS has to offer. When crafting campaigns, really stretch your mind to think about how they can interact with your ad, given the current technology that's available.

Look at the types of devices that your target demo is carrying and consider the most popular calls to action on those devices, among that group. That's your magical combination that will not only work, but will give you the kind of engagement level you can see in this infographic.

When I sat down to write this, I wasn’t exactly sure what to say.  For those of you who know me, you know that’s a rarity when it comes to me and the topic of mobile.  I decided to watch a little early morning television and hopefully find inspiration in the comfort of that glorious blue tint.  When I turned on the TV, there was an Eva Mendez movie on called, ‘Live!’.IMDB describes this 2007 drama as, “A mocumentary following an ambitious TV network executive trying to produce a controversial reality show where contestants play Russian Roulette.”  I know, sounds amazing, right?!?

Now, ordinarily I would have just changed the channel, but as I scrolled through my guide hoping to find a suitable replacement, a quote used by Andre Braugher while attempting to persuade the FCC to air the reality show got me thinking. He said:

"The function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute.It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it invites a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it passes for acceptance of an idea." - Supreme Court Justice, William O. Douglas

With Douglas' statement in mind, I propose to you that mobile is to the marketing industry today as free speech has been to the American way of life;  a platform both 'provocative and challenging' that has had 'profound unsettling effects as it passes for acceptance of an idea.’  Not too far off from what the digital world experienced in the early 2000’s, but at an accelerated rate, with a greater degree of difficulty in the execution and increased demand on traceable results; heavily due to best practices and standardization of the digital platform over the last 15 years. It is important to remember that mobile is not a new digital medium.  It is a new platform all unto itself and a very powerful one when used properly.  

Mobile shot to the forefront of the marketing industry around 2008 with the launch of the iPhone.  Let us not forget though that mobile did not begin with, nor should it ever be defined by the iPhone and its capabilities.  Make no mistake; what Steve Jobs and Apple have done for this industry has been truly monumental.  However, much like the introduction of fire, the wheel and (dare I say it) the original GameBoy, mobile itself has changed the way we live.Thus, it is imperative to our future as (mobile) professionals to remember that this is just the beginning and not a time to become complacent with the ‘tried and true’, but a time to push the medium;  to continually reinvent it, so that in the end, people will marvel at what we’ve built.

This emerging platform has given us access to long-sought-after consumer data like real-time location, a piece of information we use to create “relevance,” one of the keys to mobile advertising according to IAB Mobile’s recent Local Buyers Guide.  While location has its place in the ecosystem, I challenge that our job is not merely to remind consumers where they are, but to help place them where they truly want to be at that moment of engagement; driving that new car, sitting in first class traveling to some tropical place or simply satisfying a quick caffeine fix.  Only mobile has the ability to provoke such inspired emotion and subsequent response, because we see the device as an extension of ourselves; a distinct identifier of whom we are as people.Finally, a truly one-to-one form of communication between brands and their consumers, but as it's been said, "with great power comes great responsibility."

Our mobile phone is the most private device we own.  It’s what makes mobileinteractions so powerful; the exchange of private information for perceivedvalue back to an individual.  But what does that really mean?  Individuals are as different from one another as the operating systems that power their devices.  So how do we find that perfect blend of value exchange while still achieving both relevance and reach?  We do this by creating a deeper understanding of our consumers as individuals and how they prefer to interact with their device or brand of choice.

Understanding consumers at this core level takes time and heavy investment, two things mobile marketers often find themselves in short supply of in these early days.  However, when considering going mobile, one merely needs remind themselves that the “R” in ROI stands for return, not revenue.  Defining short-term, realistic goals for your business’ mobile strategy is pivotal to its long-term success.  I often refer back to the world of construction during this process, using the mantra, “Measure twice. Cut once.” There’s nothing more detrimental to a brand’s mobile success than a poorly executed user experience.

Innovation is moving fast and while eyeballs are shifting, some marketers are struggling to shift with them, seemingly stuck in a never ending cycle of “dipping their toes in,” while cries of fragmentation and insufficient attribution echo in sellers’ ears.  While better attribution models seem hopeful, the fragmentation of mobile is not simply going to disappear, and sitting around waiting for it to “stabilize” is not a strategy, it’s a death sentence.  Mobile does not come with a one-size-fits-all label attached. You can’t merely check it off a list.  It requires substantial planning of a holistic mobile marketing mix with cross-platform tie-ins, testing various pieces of the puzzle at a time with a grander image as the end-game.

Lastly, and most importantly, investing in a new platform isn’t just about running test campaigns and analyzing engagement rates.  It means investing in the hiring, education and development of resources to help better understand the infrastructure. It means employing qualified mobile professionals in-house and empowering them to make the tough decisions, not just offer suggestions.  What’s more, it means educating yourself, because information is everywhere and absorbing it means the fragmentation stops looking so scary.  You never know, you might just find something to get passionate about (again).

Earlier this week, Mozilla – the creators of popular web browser FireFox, introduced their newest version of FireFox for Android mobile browser to the world. In addition to introducing  faster browsing and synchronization functionalities the Mozilla team has launched a full suite of safety features to help protect users privacy and security while surfing on the mobile web. The most exciting of these privacy features is Do-Not-Track (DNT) – a mobile version of the friendliest controls for consumer privacy in existence today and a feature that was introduced to the online community by Mozilla in 2009 and has been a feature of their desktop browser for a few years now.

Mozilla’s continued focus and innovative development around the consumer experience, not only in terms of features and functionality, but also for consumer privacy, has propelled the DNT concept to gain recognition and support from the FTC and the EU Commission as well as from all major desktop browsers (IE, FireFox, Opera and Safari have integrated DNT support – Chrome is expected to include by end of 2012 – but offers multiple browser plug-ins to extend this functionality to their consumers).  Until now, the DNT offering to consumers has been limited to browsers on desktop/laptop computers, essentially leaving the mobile community DNT-free even though mobile browser and application usage has been increasing substantially year over year. Will this move by Mozilla help usher in the same acknowledgement and implementation of DNT by mobile browsers that was seen post their introduction of this feature to the desktop world?  One can certainly hope!

Do-Not-Track is an ideal privacy solution, it is simple and IMHO, if my parents (who are not too computer savvy) can protect their privacy while on the internet with one simple click of a button, then what more could we as an industry ask for?  While this is important for standard internet use, this feature is incredibly vital for the mobile web as our phones continue to become an extension of ourselves – from our photos, calendar, work/personal email, banking, messages, Facebook, videos and soon our wallets.  The mobile web doesn’t stay at work or at home – it is with us at all times and where there is great value to personalization and convenience, there needs to be respect for people who need to cut the proverbial tracking chord for whatever reason they choose.

I personally, and the whole AdTruth team as well, applaud Mozilla for pushing DNT forward as the industry as a whole sorts out the details of how to make this standard work effectively for all parties. Unfortunately, we should not wait any longer – DNT is going to happen and needs to happen – and should not be used for leverage or for pandering or as a weapon against competitors or even to limit innovation…this solution was a result of innovative thinking and development and designed to allow consumers to feel they are respected and protected – which should be the goal of us all – not matter what government agency, advocacy group, ad company, regulatory body, tracking technology…we need to follow Mozilla’s lead and make DNT available to all consumers no matter how they access the web.

Thank you again Mozilla for leading the way!

P.S. This one is for you Sid.

Tracking in mobile requires some clever workarounds.

Why isn’t mobile the same as online?

Well, first you have to understand that tracking in generally done with the use of cookies. A wonderfully anonymous, easily-deleted, and low-file-size technology that is widely used on the desktop internet.

But there are two types of cookies. There are first-party cookies, which are the ones that remember your password when you log in to a website (and therefore keep you from having to re-enter your username on every mobile site you log into). They’re called ‘first party’ because they’re set on the same domain as the website you’re visiting, and have a very high acceptance rate (95%).

Third-party cookies -- the ones that advertisers place on websites -- track unique visitors across multiple domains or pages where you might visit. You might notice that you get ‘chased around’ the web by an ad for a product you may have viewed recently -- those are third party cookies at work. In that example, third-party cookies are being used for retargeting.

Apple doesn't make it easy

The Safari mobile web browser, which now accounts for about 25% of mobile web browsing (see Browser Wars infographic) by default does not allow third-party cookie tracking to be set. On top of that, Apple is currently deprecating UDIDs (unique device identifiers), which historically served as a workaround to third-party cookies for advertisers. This has left the industry scrambling for new ways to track an individual without using the hardware information.

Why is this important? First, because apps and mobile websites are two different sandboxes, without a way to tie the two together, one person on a single device can appear as two different people. Second, conversion tracking requires the ability to ‘follow’ a user from a click either on an ad to within an application to an advertiser’s mobile website, or from a mobile web ad to an app download action.

Some clever workarounds

Tracking in either of these directions can be tricky, even if passing unique identifiers in the click URL. It’s a testament to the great people in our industry that the mobile advertising business has solid solutions as workarounds to these challenges.

Because these two methods for tracking are so important to running a successful digital campaign, there are some great workarounds. At Mobile Theory, we have a close partnership with Collider Media for data and audience targeting. Our workaround for targeting involves using a common login identifier. Once a user logs in to a mobile website or app, Collider can recognize which user has logged in and target accordingly.

In a way, it’s a connection of the online and mobile spheres to find a common anonymous identity. That identity, once matched, can reveal rich, anonymous user data that combines both online and mobile browsing activity to develop a deep, comprehensive view of the user that can be used to serve relevant advertising to unique individuals.

For conversion tracking, one approach that is quite simple is to not try to work around the third party cookie issue and use first-party cookies instead. To do this, you simply configure the cookie to be set by the first-party website for the advertiser. We can either work with the client to set these up or use in-house landing pages. In this way, we can use first-party cookies to track the behavior of a user that clicks on an ad in an app all the way through to a conversion on the landing page, creating a bridge between the actions.

A mobile-specific approach to tracking & targeting

We’ve noticed that there seems to be a lot of misinformation on the subject of how all tracking and targeting works in mobile and what exactly makes it different from online. Since the mobile medium is growing faster than any new medium in history, and will soon eclipse online in terms of usage, it’s important to discuss and collaborate on how technologies and approaches that work in one medium require a different approach in the other.

The important thing to remember is that mobile is truly a distinct environment from online, and as a result, requires its own individual tactics and approach. The good news is there are a number of unique mobile-specific targeting and tracking approaches that work very well to accomplish marketers’ goals.

For those that have not come across it yet (and there are plenty), AR is considered the next phase of Virtual Reality (VR). Where VR is a completely virtual space not bound by physical reality, AR combines the real world with the virtual world. It is a live, view of a real-world environment with elements that are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics etc.

Still confused? Well, that might be part of the problem.

Tesco in the UK recently launched an Augmented Reality (AR) program on their website that allows you to view items in their catalogue in your real world. So if you want to see how a TV would look in your living room before you buy it – this can be done. The practical application of this sort of technology is endless.

However, the technology being in its infancy, it is still rather clunky. For the Tesco AR to work, you first need to print out a “marker” so the AR program knows where to place the product. You need to place the marker on your TV cabinet. You then need to position your webcam so it sees the marker within the environment you want to view. Then, you can only rotate the marker – which is great if you want to see the back of the TV, but not much good if you want to look at the whole environment from a different angle.

So, we are back to the question – is it great technology that is just too complicated, or is it the beginning of something incredible?

To be fair, those of us who have been frustrated with the user experience to date, realise it is probably because we can see the real potential.

Imagine staring down 5th Avenue in NY or Covent Garden in London and wondering where to start. You grab your phone, aim your mobile camera at the street and as you walk down, signs on your mobile screen let you know what is on special at which store and what the items look like. Maybe it will even be able to show what the clothes look like on. Pretty amazing.

Some of my generation might say “won’t your arm get tired?” or “wouldn’t it be easier to walk down the street and see the sign in the shop window that says 40% off or just search online for the cheapest TV?” But remember what the chairman of IBM said in 1943: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Sometimes we cannot even imaging where advances in technology will take us, but surely any step that enhances the consumer experience and makes relevant information more accessible is a positive one.

TV Everywhere could be a big moneymaker for advertisers and networks. Viewers now have the option of watching their favorite shows on TV at home, on their laptop or even on their mobile device at no additional cost, which will change the way TV is purchased from a media standpoint.

Gone are the days when the family would gather in the family room to watch their favorite primetime TV shows. The VCR dabbled in changing this habit, but the DVR completely mastered this concept. Now viewers have the option of watching their favorite shows on TV at home, on their laptop or even on their mobile device at no additional cost. This concept is known as TV Everywhere.

The growing demand for TV Everywhere has transitioned TV from a platform device to an experience, which is beneficial to both the viewers and advertisers.  With TV Everywhere, cable operators are allowing mobile access to customers who pay for TV service, improving customer satisfaction and creating new revenue opportunities. And one of the main perks is that unlike DVR, consumers do not have to plan ahead to use it.

TV Everywhere could be a big moneymaker in the future for advertisers and networks. According to Needham & Co’s Laura Martin, TV Everywhere could bring an additional $5.6 billion into the ad market each year.  Since commercials will be the same as television, revenues will not be lost from ad skipping if the fast-forward button is disabled. This will also change the way TV is purchased from a media standpoint. Companies will be able to buy packages, which allow them to advertise across multiple platforms, and purchases will be focused more on impressions rather than ratings.

David Verklin, one of the cable industry's most influential executives, explains in this video why he's bullish on the future of television, and why the reasons have as much to do with new media as old.

In a world where technology is rapidly advancing, service providers will need to produce a consistent viewing experience across multiple devices in order to keep up. How do you think TV Everywhere will influence a shifting approach to advertising?