Martin Creaner's Blog - All Comments

re: Where will the money come from?

Martin Creaner — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:14:25 GMT

Some very good comments here. I fully agree with David that its all about adding value and continually innovating. And adding value very often is about the low investment stuff such as re-packaging of an existing offering rather than the high investment stuff. Also like Robs thought about competitive/combative type marketing opportunities. The key to making the Pepsi Versus Coke type example work is (a) being on-line, and (b) being able to offer a tangible instant reward that has a much higher value than its cost to the operator. This is perfect for mobile prepay customers.

re: Where will the money come from?

David Hustace — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:46:21 GMT

On-line free services are certainly a phenomenon us to understand if your core fee based business is threatened. One answer it to continuously add value for that fee. Netflix, which is low cost, provides tremendous value and has been able to quickly adapt its business model to retain and increase its value perceived by customers. Examples are the offering of a low-cost upgrade to the account if you want blue-ray media (a great move on an existing model) as well as it's embedded media player in Sony equipment is a hugely successful strategic move.

I just happened to have just finished adding "The Quick and the Dead" to my Instant Queue just before catching up on your blog ;)

re: Where will the money come from?

Robert Rich — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:33:46 GMT

I agree with Martin that in the long term the machine to machine (M2M) market will be important. There are many other examples as well- I gave some of these during my talk at our TM Forum track at Mobile World Congress.

I also think there is monetization beyond advertising. For example, what if you were a teenager, and were offered 10 minutes of talk time or 20 messages for taking a short survey? what if you got a small "top up" every time you bought a Pepsi instead of a Coke? it's not just advertising, it's sponsorship as well.

So M2M will be huge (if we don't give it away) in the future, but I think the other big play in developing countries will be mobile money. it's probably too late in developed countires to fight the credit card companies, but there are lots of countries that still have this need.

Finally, I agree with Stephen that cultural and regional differentiation is one way that local providers can battle global brands (like Apple). in fact, you'll see a little bit of that in my upcoming app store report. And on th webinar on April first... no fooling!

The opportunities will be there. The industry just needs to figure out which ones are right, and go for them.

re: Where will the money come from?

Stephen Fleece — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:32:52 GMT

In the long-term, I predict that successful advertising business models that Service Providers of many types use will be diverse and creative. They will vary by some of the unique aspects of culture and regional market. In many cases, the app or service itself may be free to the consumer, but will have embedded advertising in some form that the Service Provider cuts a revenue share from for value-added enablers of distribution (delivery QoS, ad measurement, behavioral targeting, real-time context , etc.).

I agree that success with discounts on traditional communications access service usage in exchange for being pounded with ads may be limited.

re: Where will the money come from?

Tinniam Ganesh — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:38:51 GMT

A very thought provoking article. It is interesting to wonder what kind of business model will be adopted with respect to receiving mobile ads. WIll the user get a discount for his usage and for seeing an ad and a portion of the revenue going to the CSP like the internet. I think that will be real challenge.

T V Ganesh

Where will the money come from?

Martin Creaner's Blog — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:36:09 GMT

Where will the next tranche of telecoms revenue come from. The conventional wisdom is that we will continue

re: Getting into bed with the banks - creating a mobile money marketplace

Martin Creaner — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:54:17 GMT

Tinniam, I'm sure you are right that there will be an initial fear, but I don't think that will take long to pass. As you say it will start with micro-payments, but I would not rule out it leading to larger payments of a few hundred dollars. Of course the big questions this then creates is whether telcos have to comply with terms and conditions other credit and banking institutions have to abide by. I'm no expert on that topic, but I suspect that it is very important.

re: Getting into bed with the banks - creating a mobile money marketplace

Tinniam Ganesh — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:13:40 GMT

Initially there was a certain fear and resistance to payment through the Web. Nowadays that has become more common. I would expect that there would be an initial fear for payments through the mobile. It will probably happen for small amounts. I do not see it happen for large money transfer.

re: Now is the time for Mobile Advertising

Josh Goldfein — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:50:53 GMT

Apple recently made the rules much stricter for using location information in apps.

"If your app uses [location] information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store."

This is a direct shot ad AdMob and any other location based ad service on iPhone. Apple's acquisition of Quattro surely played a huge part in this decision. They'd like to drive developers to use their ad platform and only theirs.

In my experience Google AdWords targeted to mobile devices is wildly more successful at delivering ROI than any other large mobile ad platform. AdMob was a 50% loss; Google AdWords has been a 3:1 ROI.

Of course Martin is absolutely right, it's the niche markets around the edges that are going to explode. Next gen phones allow for marketing agencies to develop localized user bases around a product (app) or specialized social network. That network is fertile group for selling push advertising for local clients, and local clients are very interested.

re: Now is the time for Mobile Advertising

Stephen Fleece — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:27:25 GMT

Traditional CSPs in established markets will need to up their game to sustainably succeed in being relevant and adding real value in mobile ads. I expect successful mobile ad operators will play more aggressively with regulatory constraints and risks, and transform their marketing culture and analytics capabilities up to world class levels of innovation and consumer-focused creativity. That's new territory for communication service providers.

Google commands a significant share of advertising power in the new world order, and they are not about to give it up. Their acquisition of AdMob is significant. Another recent example... www.mobile-ent.biz/.../Google-wins-patent-for-location-based-advertising. I make no mistake in expecting Android is device platform for Google's mobile advertising moves among other things. Ads pay the Google shareholders. I ask CSPs, what pays your shareholders?

Where broadband, local advertising, and established brands like Google and Apple are limited in emerging markets, I think text-based ads over messaging-based value-added services will thrive for some time to come. CSP success is ripe here for some timeframe in the right markets.