What Would Alex Bosika Do?

Got to love BI for breaking it down for us.  Look at that small “blip” on the chart for the FREE FOOD!  Woo Hoo…! LOL

Bottom-line: Yahoo has an uphill battle to do whatever they think they can do with their content and mobile.  It is a very, VERY busy world out there and right now, all the products (remaining/existing) are a mess. 

Ask yourself when was the LAST time you used ANYTHING from Yahoo!  I can’t even remember — it’s been at least 5 years.  “Content” is a commodity and even if unique in the realm of the Economist and the Wall Street Journal, that is a world of the lucky few when it comes to digital monetization. 

I certainly don’t have all the answers because content is an old paradigm and its value prop is way past DOA (are we still talking “content” in the old school world view of digital and media channels of the dot-com era?  Yes, there is “content strategy” today - agreed. But “content” built in dot-com era under a media brand is really, really tired and the transition to mobile is NOT certain for monetization given the fragmented universe of apps, experiences, and mind share.  People have even less time to retain any mind share on the device deck.

Media should spend less time fantasizing here on what “could be” and more time on “where’s the beef?” because at the moment, it’s a lot of buzz and a lot of talk and at least BlackBerry has DELIVERED a product (albeit late for many, many reasons) compared to Yahoo! that has failed to deliver “something” for eons.

A.

A good amount of iPhone 5 early adopters took to the Internet over the weekend, reporting that their brand new iPhone 5 has scuffs and dings out of the box. Or, even if the phone was perfect out of the box, it did not stay that way for very long. It seems the black iPhone 5 shows scratches more easily than the white. Apple has yet to comment on the issue.  — Techcrunch

If this is true, there are going to be quite a few peeved folks.  I bought an unlocked BB curve and it didn’t have Gorilla Glass and I forgot one day and put the device in the same pocket as my car keys.  Scrrrrrratch…right down the centre of the screen.

Yes, user error but at $450, it is a detail that the device manufacturer needs to think about.  It was this issue alone that caused the original iPhone to get delayed by Steve Jobs. 

People should not have to go the protective cover case route to cover their investment cost which can be anywhere from $450-$900 per unlocked device purchase.  Even with a telecom subsidy, it is still money and there is nothing worse than seeing scratches days after purchase.

It’s funny to watch.

The media mocks the “fanboys” (the overnight campers) but they’re just as prepared to give usLIVE COVERAGEof the door-crasher sales queue.  Sheesh. Here’s a snapshot of the newsletter I got from Crunch Daily this AM.

Don’t blame Apple for all of this or their customers because the media does a pretty good job of generating the hype.  Live coverage for an iPhone 5 launch?  Really?  OK, it’s TechCrunch.  A tech portal.  But still…ask my lady and she would say the same thing she says about social media behaviour… “nothing to do?”

Secretly, Tim Cook and Apple are laughing all the way to the bank - enough to become a bank of their own.

Related articles

• Samsung mocks iPhone 5 line sitters (again) in new Galaxy S III ad (9to5mac.com)
• Samsung mocks iPhone 5 in ad campaign (telegraph.co.uk)
• Marketers Target Front of iPhone 5 Line [PICS] (mashable.com)
• Viral Video: iPhone 5 parody video with Steve Jobs - Firstpost (firstpost.com)
• Samsung mocks iPhone 5 “totally different plug” with print ad (adland.tv)

A Harris Interactive Survey commissioned by ad platform player, MediaBrix, offers up some interesting findings that actually don’t really surprise me at all.  We saw some of this in our own findings/research at my last mobile marketing startup.  The online survey obtained results from 2,200 American adults.

SURVEY RESULTS FOUND THAT:

• 60% of smartphone owners prefer “immersive and integrated” ads in mobile apps
• 40% of smartphone owners prefer “standard banners”

THE SAME SURVEY FOUND SIMILARITIES WITH FACEBOOK USERS:

• 28% of Facebook users preferred standard banners
• 72%  of Facebook users preferred immersive and integrated ad units

Immersive and integrated ad units include things like virtual rewards,  currency, or interactive video ads displayed during “natural breaks” within the app (say, a game) vs. in a manner which interrupts flow of use.  For flow of use, the survey found that only 38% of smartphone users preferred “pre-roll” video advertisements displayed before the game or app is used. 

In fact, 62% of smartphone users preferred initiating video ads or viewing them during natural breaks.

FREE is the NEW ECONOMY

Only the whole, smartphone users believe in “free”.  61% of them preferred free mobile apps and 88% preferred keeping them free in return for relevant advertising displayed during natural breaks within the app or game. 

Not surprisingly, only 12% surveyed had a preference for in-app purchases in the form of virtual goods and currency.

WHAT IT ALL MEANS

It means app users have become a finicky bunch if this and a few other surveys seems to suggest.  Freemium is the new economics mixing a blend of try-before-buy with free-forever-apps supported by ads.  For developers, the goal will be to find immersive and integrated ad platform solutions.  I’ll be honest, I am blind and utterly bored with the standard banner ads I see in iOS apps today.  Please, give me a paradigm shift!

However, interesting overlay ads which I have discovered within iPad newsstand apps for Bloomberg BusinessWeek and Wired have not only engaged me but also peaked curiosity and discovery than no traditional print ad can over.  It truly works and I caught myself being “interrupted” from my digital reading to experiment, learn and find out more about the particular product advertised. 

Toronto-based Pelmorex, a Canadian broadcaster for the Weather Network, has been on the forefront of delivering some unique ad units and engagement models on mobile that have simply worked very well.  Such as their “Patio Finder” built-in as a feature/function within the iOS app to marry weather, bar locations with patios, and advertiser brands that sell their product at the specified establishment is a smart execution. 

If developers think in this manner and adopt approaches, like Steve Jobs did with the robust iAds demo, the future looks very bright for app advertising models and platform solutions.

Related articles

• In-app ads: How to get 20% engagement and 2000% higher click-through (venturebeat.com)
• Monetization Deficiencies in Facebook Apps and Mobile Apps, Says Survey (valuewalk.com)
• Survey Says Old School Ads Won’t Cut it on Facebook and Mobile (marketingpilgrim.com)
• Study: Facebook App Users Aren’t Anti-Advertising, But Banner Ads Won’t Cut It (allfacebook.com)
• How Facebook App Center is aiding iOS, Android app discovery (gigaom.com)

More data points from the world of statistics. :-)

Top Mobile Original Equipment Manufacturers

Having a closer look at the data points, I was surprised at how close Motorola was as an OEM handset competitor to Apple.  In May 2012, Apple pulled away but clearly, Samsung remains the dominant OEM Android brand in the U.S. market.

Top Smartphone Platforms

On the smartphone platform side, we see nominal changes between Google and Windows Mobile, and somewhat larger changes between Apple and RIM.  Symbian, the O/S predecessor to Nokia’s current Windows Phone strategy, will eventually fall off the charts as a dead platform.  I am still a hopeful believer in the RIM platform and while naysayers are looking for a blood and guts dead pool collapse of the Canadian brand, we’ll have to wait until Q1, 2013 to see what happens — I like the underdog spirit so I expect RIM to re-assert its position in the marketplace.

Top Mobile Content Usage

I am puzzled that sending text messages is considered “content” - more like data filler for the data sheets.  Perhaps the most interesting part of this table is the amount of social networking being accessed from a smartphone handset.  I would have expected this number to be a lot higher; especially considering the botched Facebook IPO and its advisory around mobile usage and the lack of a clear mobile ad revenue strategy.  That said, the table isn’t really exciting (to me, at least) and doesn’t really advance the discussion in a positive trend-line manner.  Call it boredom. 

Show me something I already didn’t know, I guess.

The media had a field slow day yesterday so they opted to keep harping on the same old boring drumbeat.  But we have good people at Research in Motion fighting the good fight.  Until then, we’ll let them speak and build their “Klout”. ;-)

And so on, and so on.  Now onto more serious stuff. 

My good friend, Volker Hirsch (Director, Global Head of Business Development - Games), is a likeable, tall, well-spoken international man (Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego Volker Hirsch?) has his own view on games.  Here’s the slideshare presentation.  Volker, oddly your name “Volker” gets auto-corrected to “Revolver” — Volker (aka Revolver) Hirsch.  It’s in the game! LOL  Great presentation mate!

Looking forward to new devices, a new U/X and tons of games.  I almost have too many of them on other devices. :-)

Related articles

• RIM Apparently Not Interested In Switching To Windows Phone (forbes.com)
• Checking In On Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?: The Movie (videogum.com)
• ‘Carmen Sandiego’ is coming to the big screen, Jennifer Lopez eyeing lead role (theverge.com)