AT&T Floral Cell Phone Ad for Mother's Day

Flowers open up to reveal Samsung’s cell phones in this creative Mother’s Day ad by AT & T.

[via Trendhunter]

AT&T multi-cultural print campaign

Spotted on TrendHunter, new AT&T multi-cultural print campaign.

Google introduces brand-image ads for phones

Accoroding to Reuters, has introduced brand-image ads for mobile phones.

"The company said it had designed mobile images to look like standard graphical display ads for desktop computer Web pages, but made them smaller to fit on mobile phone screens.

The company said all mobile image ads are targeted according to the keywords users type into phones to search for information. The ads are priced on a cost-per-click basis, and must link to Web pages optimized to work on mobile phones.

Only one image ad is displayed on each mobile page, a move to that appears designed to limit clutter on small screens.

... Mobile image ads are available in 13 national markets: Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the UK, and the United States, Google said."

Mobile Marketing in Cosmetics

An innovative Mobile Marketing campaign by pontomobi for the Cosmetics Industry that came in my in box:

Natura, the major cosmetics brand in Brazil, invested in mobile marketing to promote the launching of its new products line Chronos.

Instead of making a traditional invitation to the press conference, the branded opted for a surprising mobile interaction.

Every journalist received an invitation by e-mail with a link to open a web video. In the video, the team from Natura’s PR starts to talk about the press conference and one professional asks if there was somebody missing to contact and they decided to call that person.

Surprisingly the name of the journalist appears on the mobile phone screen and the real mobile phone rings. When the journalist picks-up the phone there is a voice-recording message from Natura’s team inviting him to the press conference.

Everything happens in real-time and the response to the event was beyond every expectations.

Mobile Advertising Revenue to Surpass $2.7 Billion in 2008

Worldwide mobile advertising is projected to surpass $2.7 billion in 2008, up from $1.7 billion in 2007, but the market has developed slowly and obstacles remain, according to Gartner.

[via Cellular News]

Nielsen says mobile ads growing, consumers respond

About 23 percent of U.S. mobile phone users have seen advertising on their cell phones in the last 30 days and about half of them responded to the ads, according to a report from the Nielsen Co released on Tuesday.

... According to Nielsen almost a third of people who use data services such as text messaging or Web surfing are open to advertising if it lowers the overall bill.

[via Reuters]

Motorola rolls out new ad campaign

Motorola introduced a new ad campaign aimed at the government and public safety sector.

The campaign, called “Second Nature,” is a website that works as a “virtual city,” where police chiefs, fire chiefs and municipal CIOs can go to explore Motorola technology in real-life situations.

The campaign also includes print ads, online ads, e-mail, direct mail and collateral.

Take a spin! Amazingly done. Developed by BBDO New York

[via BtoB Online]

"Wake up Service" or booty call

News3Yen reports on a uh, original mobile marketing idea launched by Axe deoderant in Japan.

"Similar to a booty call in English, getting a “Morning Call” in Japanese can both mean the regular wake-up call one can ask for in a hotel, and also getting call from a lover first thing in the morning.

AXE deoderant, is offering a “Wake-Up Service”. These wake-up calls will only work on cellphones with a Flash player in their browser and of course calling a Japanese toll-free phone number from outside Japan is going to be problematic."

Advertisers' direct cellphone connection

This sounds ominous. From the IHT.

"Celltick, a British company that develops software to deliver content to mobile phones, planned to announce Thursday the release of a new product that allows advertisers and media companies to bypass the operators and send content directly to cellphones.

... Celltick believes it has solved the problem of intrusiveness with a silent ticker that floats across the screen of a handset while it is not in use, a tactic that a few other companies are trying to exploit as well.

Celltick baits users with little bits of content, such as a news headline, stock quotes or games, on the screen of an idle phone. Two clicks, in some cases one, and the content arrives downloaded from the Internet."

Previously: - Celltick launches mobile-marketing platform

Yahoo Makes a New Play for Ads on Mobile Phones

On Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo is planning to announce that it has opened up some of its key mobile software and services to outside publishers and programmers in an effort to make Yahoo’s own mobile offerings more useful to more people. The New York Times reports.

"... Now users of Yahoo’s mobile offerings will also have easy access to applications from other companies.

As more of them create useful programs that run on top of Yahoo’s mobile services, the company hopes that more users will choose its services over those of rivals.

... And developers who write services to run on Yahoo’s mobile offerings could choose to have Yahoo deliver ads on those services."

Mobile Ads: Not So Fast

Mobile advertising revenues aren't growing as fast as expected, and that could spell trouble for a bunch of venture-funded startups. Business Week reports.

Text Message Petition Filed with FCC

Eight consumer and public-interest groups filed a petition with the FCC asking to prohibit carriers from blocking advertisements sent via text messaging.

This petition comes after Verizon Wireless decided in September to block text messages on its network from abortion rights group Naral ProChoice America. The decision was reversed the same day and the ads were allowed.

[via Mobile Crunch]

Twin Cities Highway Billboard Promotes SMS

A text-messaging promotion from radio station B96 and Taco Bell asks drivers to text their phone number to win a shopping spree. While the billboard has created controversy, the station says the billboard on Interstate 494 is no different than having a phone number or website posted on the sign. Fox News reports.

"B96 says text messaging is one of the best ways to reach young listeners and they hope drivers know better than to take out their phone while driving.

he text messaging promotion on the billboard runs through the end of the week, but B96 isn’t sure if it will do a similar promotion in the future."

Microsoft ads coming to a phone near you

According to Network World, Microsoft has started placing ads on MSN Mobile, a portal that connects mobile phone users with Hotmail, instant messaging, search, news and other Web content.

"The news isn't unexpected. The move to advertise to U.S. cell phone owners follows Microsoft's mobile advertising moves in Japan and Europe. It also follows Yahoo, that has been doing the same since late 2006.

Microsoft lined up some heavy hitters as its first U.S advertisers. These include Paramount Pictures, Ford's Jaguar brand, and Bank of America. These are not location-aware ads, the story reports, but a hyped-up version of your run-of-the-mill banner ads. But that's what's interesting about this announcement. Microsoft is experimenting with the advertisements themselves.

... Rather than flashing annoying banner ads at mobile phone users, the MSN Mobile ad will include an exclusive movie clip. This clip will be the subject of a contest, says Microsoft. The person with the most views of the movie clip from his/her mobile phone will be among the first to see the movie – before it is publicly released."

Do not call, say 380 million telephone users

More than 380 million Indian telephone subscribers, who do not want to receive telemarketing calls or SMS messages, have registered with the National Do Not Call Registry, the telecom market regulator said Tuesday. [via Indian Muslims.info]

Text Ads on Shopping Cart Handles

Modified shopping cart handles by Modstream, enables marketers to place their messages right between shoppers' hands. [via Springwise]

"Messages are wirelessly streamed to a small screen in a hard plastic case that replaces the standard shopping cart handle. Advertisers and retailers log on to modstream.com to enter their messages, selecting stores where they want their message to appear.

Messages can be run across a complete chain or targeted to specific regions, stores or times of day. Since the messages can be changed on the fly, it's easy to adapt the ads for short-run sales or clearance items."

New iPhone TV ads

New iPhone TV commercials which started yesterday can be viewed here. Elegant, but so serious.

[via TUAW]

Marketers hail the mobile phone as advertising's promised land

Advertising on mobile phones is a tiny business. Last year spending on mobile ads was $871m worldwide according to
Informa Telecoms & Media, a research firm, compared with $24 billion spent on internet advertising and $450 billion spent on all advertising. [via The Economist ]

"But marketing wizards are beginning to talk about it with the sort of hyperbole they normally reserve for products they are paid to sell. It is destined, some say, to supplant not only internet advertising, the latest fad, but also television, radio, print and billboards, the four traditional pillars of the business.

At the moment, most mobile advertising takes the form of text messages. But telecoms firms are also beginning to deliver ads to handsets alongside video clips, web pages, and music and game downloads, through mobiles that are nifty enough to permit such things.

Informa forecasts that annual expenditure will reach $11.4 billion by 2011. Other analysts predict the market will be as big as $20 billion by then."

State-of-the-Art High Definition Billboard in Times Square

ClearChannel Outdoor 's Spectacolor Division unveiled a digital billboard in Times Square this week. [Press release]

The new Spectacolor HD billboard is the first to run multiple advertiser spots in conjunction with streaming news, weather and live HD broadcasts, which are

provided exclusively by CNN.

In addition to streaming news, the billboard will also provide viewers with a dedicated audio channel received via mobile phones by dialing a toll free number.

Advertisers will have access to a standard feature set that includes Bluetooth downloads, interactive content via short code (SPECHD) and Times Square's first free public WiFi Hot Spot."

Interactive content displayed on Spectacolor HD will allow people to communicate directly with a brand and each other through a web-based interface that turns people's mobile phones into remote controls." [via MediaBuyerPlanner]

Links to other interactive billboards .

DoubleClick launches mobile ad platform

DoubleClick is expanding its advertising services for mobile phones, reports InfoWorld.

"DoubleClick's media company customers can now sell and manage advertisements online and on mobile phones. The new capability is integrated into DoubleClick's publishing service so that publishers can schedule mobile advertisements in the same way that they currently deliver other online ads, it said."

[Press release]

Shopping by text

Cellphone messages are starting to replace toll-free calls and the Web as the easy way to buy clothing and more, according to an article in USA Weekend.

"Already common in Korea and Japan, where people shop by digits for everything from sodas to cars, text-buying is expected to take off here, too.

... That's why Urban Outfitters, which sells clothing, shoes and furnishings, launched UO TXT in June to alert regular customers to pre-sales and new items. "Glamour," "Lucky" and "Stuff" magazines have jumped in, too, the last with its September issue. "Guys will love it,'' predicts "Stuff" publisher John Lumpkin. "You can shop without getting off your couch. It's the least hassle.'

Interestingly enough, text shoppers are as likely to be men as women and usually are ages 25 to 34. "It's not the instant-message crowd,'' says Mark Kaplan, founder and chief marketing officer at ShopText, which, along with PayPal, offers the service. People ages 18 to 34 are four times more likely to carry a cellphone than cash, and the number of mobile phones globally is triple that of PCs."

Myspace Offers Ad-Supported Mobile Version

According to an article in the Associated Press, social networking Web site MySpace is launching a free, advertising-supported cell phone version Monday as part of a wider bid o attract advertising for mobile Web sites.

... "The new version set to launch Monday will work on all U.S. carriers and will allow users to send and receive messages and friend requests, comment on pictures, post bulletins, update blogs, and find and search for friends."

Google launches AdSense for mobile

Google has just launched AdSense for mobile, a program that contextually targets ads to mobile website content.

Like Google's other AdSense products, mobile text ads run on an auction model. The system automatically reviews the content of publishers’ mobile websites and delivers text ads that are relevant to the websites’ audience and content. Publishers earn money whenever mobile users click on the ads.

In their own words:

If you have a website optimized for mobile browsers, or are interested in creating one, you can start monetizing your mobile site by accessing a growing number of our mobile advertisers.

When you add the new AdSense for mobile code to your site, we'll display relevant ads using the same targeting technology that you are familiar with for existing AdSense products.

AdSense for Mobile will be available in the following countries: US, England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Russia, Netherlands, Australia, India, China, and Japan (available in the coming weeks).

[via Inside AdSense]

Google Includes AdWords In Google Mobile Search

Google will start showing AdWords ads within Google Mobile Search in the next few days, although it will only show ads for sites whose landing pages can be adapted to fit on a mobile phone screen reports SearchEngineWatch via Moco News.

"The ads will be included automatically, with people needing to opt-out if they don’t want their ads to appear on mobile screens. They will be free until November 18th, but from then on customer will get charged for them."

Hearst adds two new mobile sites

Hearst Magazines
Digital Media Group has launched new mobile sites that correspond with its Harpers Bazaar and Marie Claire titles. DMNews reports.

"Marie Claire and Bazaar mobile site users will have the ability to access fashion, beauty and life advice via their mobile phones. Hearst already has agreements with most US mobile carriers, including AT&T/Cingular, Sprint and Verizon.

... The new sites, created internally by Hearst, join seven other Hearst mobile sites, including Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Seventeen. All nine sites offer interactive features such as search functions, “talk-to-us” links and downloads."

Phones, Guns and Photocopies

A poster for a store which sells phones, guns and makes photocopies. How weird is that?

A Flickr post spotted on Tom Hume

Nokia warns the world of jealous computers

Core 77 picks up on Nokia's new JealousComputers.com|A Global warning campaign. Fun.

"All over the Internet, reports are flooding in of angry computers attacking their users. A closer look reveals they all have one thing in common: a new Nokia 95 was on the scene of each incident.

Watch the footage full of viral ads, "victim" reports, instructional videos, and opportunities for user participation.

The above image is taken from a collection of "medical pictures from a doctor's office", showing a female who's been smacked in the face with a keyboard, a seemingly rare case among a flood of laptop bite casualties."

Pigs With Cellphones, but No Condoms

The The New York Times reports on a commercial which aired for the first time last night on two of the four major networks. It caught my eye only because cellphones are used as a prop, but it's interesting. [via TV Barn Ticker]

In a commercial for Trojan condoms that premiered last night, women in a bar are surrounded by anthropomorphized, cellphone-toting pigs.

One shuffles to the men’s room, where, after procuring a condom from a vending machine, he is transformed into a head-turner in his 20s. When he returns to the bar, a fetching blond who had been indifferent now smiles at him invitingly.

Fox and CBS both rejected the commercial.

Some networks draw a strong line between messages about disease prevention — which may be allowed — and those about pregnancy prevention, which may be considered controversial for religious and moral reasons.”.

In a written response to Trojan, though, Fox said that it had rejected the spot because, “Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.”

In its rejection, CBS wrote, “"hile we understand and appreciate the humor of this creative, we do not find it appropriate for our network even with late-night-only restrictions.”

Amazing that it was rejected. VWatch the commercial and see for yourself.

Idle screen advertising

According to the AP, advertisers have found a way to put their sales pitches right in your purse or pocket.

Wireless company Revol is offering their customers the option to download software from Mobile Posse to get a $10 discount off their cell phone bill. In exchange, pop up messages will appear on the users cell phone screen when not in use. The service is called "idle screen" advetising.

Other idle screen advertising schemes:

-- Celltick's new service allows companies to buy space on your mobile phone's idle screen.

-- News/weather/sports to scroll by on the bottom of (Motorola) cell phone screens.

-- Motorola To Launch Idle-Screen Pointcast-like Service in U.S

Hollywood Loves the Tiny Screen. Advertisers Don’t.

According to The New York Times, while short, multiepisode cellphone series are growing in popularity, the lucrative advertising dollars prevalent in other entertainment segments — and which studios rely on for profit — have been slow to migrate to the supersmall screen.

"In the two years since Fox Mobile and MTV Networks pioneered the market for cellphone programming, almost every major film and television studio is developing projects. But, for now, advertisers are reluctant to abandon traditional formats.

In 2006, $421 million was spent on mobile phone advertising, said a study by the market research firm eMarketer. By contrast, broadcast television advertising was estimated at $48 billion last year, according to the Universal McCann media agency.

... Alana Muller, director of wireless data marketing for Sprint, said companies are reluctant to sponsor ads because demand for video is still new. According to the Yankee Group, the number of mobile video viewers in the United States is about 5 million, 10 times more than in 2004 but still a small fraction of the 195 million mobile phone subscribers nationwide."