BRANDING UNBOUND

Sex and the Cell Phone

From the Troubling Trends Dept: Paris Hilton is rearing her pretty head for another mobile initiative, and new "force feedback" cell phones hint at a new era of mobile porn. Let me explain: Paris Hilton has been the sex kitten du jour online and on TV for at least seven of her allotted 15 minutes of fame. Her Simple Life show is included in Verizon's V-Cast mobile TV service. And now, mobile marketing firm ipsh! says a new mobile promotion for the upcoming Warner Bros. horror flick HOUSE of WAX enables consumers to download Hilton Pix to their cell phones (as if they hadn't already). At the same time, Wired reports that Samsung will introduce a new phone next week that provides a mobile version of a rumble game controller like those in force-feedback joysticks. That's really cool for mobile video games. But what happens when Hilton's product marketing team gets word? As Wired points out, England-based Vibelet already sells a Java download that enables phones to vibrate. The company's been trying to play a part in porn-based curios like Jenna Jameson's "moantones." Can pulsating Paris pix be far behind? It's no secret that baser instincts have long driven tech adoption, from video to DVD to video games to the Internet. Now it may be mobility's turn: Strategy Analytics predicts that worldwide, consumers will spend $5 billion on mobile porn by 2010. But even with new pulsating action, Dennis Adamo, CEO of Wicket Wireless, the company behind Jameson's "moantones" isn't convinced such "teledildonics" will catch on. "I'm concerned about radiation," he tells Wired, referring to the idea of holding radio gadgets to your most sensitive parts for long periods of time. Let’s just hope others share Adamo's concern, too.

Global Ad Agencies Eye Asia's Mobile Marketing Revolution

It's no secret that advertising firms from around the world are increasingly flocking to Tokyo and other parts east for a first hand look at the vanguard of mobile marketing in hopes of gleaning some insight into making wireless advertising click elsewhere. But as The Wall Street Journal reports, many are discovering that major differences in the adoption of cell phones could create culture shock as global advertisers start exploring the medium in earnest. As the Journal points out, cell phones are seen primarily as communications tools in the U.S., where they were first adopted by harried business people. In Asia, young people have been the primary drivers of such things as text messaging and surfing the wireless Web. For instance, cell phones were adopted most quickly by Japanese girls with little personal space, taboos against carrying on telephone calls in public, and a dearth of available Internet-enabled PCs. In South Korea, there’s nothing strange about calling someone a “technosexual” in a land where devices like cell phones define how cool you are. As a result, advertisers from NewsCorp’s Star TV to Johnson and Johnson’s Accuvue to Viacom’s MTV have substantially boosted market share by bouncing advertising and other forms of branded content to young consumers’ handsets. Now, word is out: Advertising agencies had better gear up for the mobile generation. As Brian Fetherstonhaugh, chief executive of OgilvyOne put it to the Journal: “Most ad agencies are not yet well equipped to handle the new job of making great communications for the phone.” As a sign of new urgency, Fetherstonhaugh gathered staff and top clients to meetings in Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong to prepare them for marketing’s Next Big Thing. The meetings’ subtitle: “Don’t Get Left Behind.” If that doesn't sum it up, I don't know what does.

SPRINT BETTING ON MOBILE ADVERTISING, COMMERCE

According to Computer World, Sprint sees many new opportunities for advertising-supported mobile games and content.

As the pub quotes Paul Reddick, vice president of business development for Sprint PCS: “It’s inescapable that that’s a great opportunity over the long term.”

Speaking at the Wireless Ventures conference in Redwood Shores, Calif., Reddick said Sprint is looking at ways of inserting advertising into mobile games, content and its mobile TV service. The company is even looking at radio frequency identification (RFID) for a way to enable consumers to use their phones like credit cards and easily pay bills at stores and restaurants without ever digging for cash, or swiping a card.

As I point out in the book, early innovators are actively experimenting with these technologies to create new ways for consumers to connect with their favorite brands through the most personal device ever invented. What business models work best is yet to be determined. But either way, Reddick’s right: Marketing’s mobile revolution is real. And it’s headed for a cell phone near you.

Ringing Up Sales

Just in time for the summer season, entertainment studios are making the move to mobile marketing faster than you can say, "Warp speed ahead!"

Cingular Wireless has launched Cingular Sounds, which offers ringtones such as Coldplay's "Speed of Sound," even before they ever hit record stores or the radio.

The company has also teamed up with LucasFilm to offer Star Wars III-related ringtones and other premium content for cell phone customers. A current TV commercial features a director trying to coach Chewbacca in an audio track performance ("Sound mad!" "Sound sad!" "I love it! Make me hate it!") in which every directive is met with the same, familier Wookie roar.

But nobody's more aggressive (or obnoxious, perhaps) than UK wireless carrier Orange, which is offering a complete Star Wars Box set with the purchase of certain Nokia phones. Included in the set: A Darth Vader Desktop Phone Holder and a furry Chewbacca cell phone pouch.

Truthfully, these sorts of promotions have tended to benefit mobile carriers more than the movies and music they promote. For the studios, the notion has mostly meant incremental licensing revenue. Carriers typically pay for the right to use content from entertainment companies in order to promote the adoption of data services. But that's starting to change. As ringtones have hit $500 million in sales in the US, and billions around the world, studios have become very interested in building out mobility as a sales channel. The same will be true for video content over the next few years.

Which is all very cool. As long as we can do away with the Chewbacca pouches.

Big Spenders: America's Mobile Youth

From Fierce Wireless: According to new research from the UK-based Wireless World Forum, Americans 25 and younger aren’t the laggards in mobile phone usage we thought they were. In fact, they now lead the world in spending on cell phones and premium content such as ringtones and games. For years, European youth were considered among the vanguard of mobile usage. But 50 million American cell phone users under 25 now spend more on phones and content than their counterparts in France, the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain – combined. Which is all very cool. But here’s where it gets interesting: According to the report, this wireless spending will amount to $20 billion this year, accounting for $1 in every $10 this age group will spend in 2005. Just another indicator of the important role mobility plays to a new generation of consumers.

Mobile Ads for B2B, Too

It's no surprise that most mobile marketing is aimed at cell phone-toting consumers. But B2B Magazine reports that even business-to-business marketers are exploring the wireless as an advertising medium. FEDEX Kinkos launched an ad campaign with Vindigo to promote the launch of the company's copy and printing centers. According to B2B, the campaign consisted of a static logo, a page with the nearest FedEX Kinko's location information and messages to business executives who had opted in to receive such messages on their PDAs. A typical message: "The new look of fedexkinkos.com makes it even easier to find the tools and information you need." FEDEX isn't revealing response rates, but the company is in talks with wireless carriers about further advertising promotions. Meanwhile, Visa USA is exploring mobile marketing as a way to reach business people. As Irene Waldman, director of marketing services for Visa, tells the magazine, "This technology will evolve, just as the Internet has. As more consumers begin to use the applications, there will be more applications that arise that are more relevant for the business market."

BBDO CEO: Mobile Phones to Replace TV as Prime Ad Medium

The Financial Times is reporting that the CEO of the world's third largest advertising agency predicts that cell phones are destined to surpass TV as the primary consumer advertising medium.

The Times quotes Andrew Robertson, chief executive of Omnicom's BBDO advertising agency as saying: “We are rapidly getting to the point where the single most important medium that people have is their wireless device,” he said. “It's with them every single moment of the day. It's genuinely the convergence box that everyone has been talking about for so many years.”

The prediction came as BBDO release a report that said consumers are now more willing to give up their TVs than they are their cell phones or home PC's.

Of course, the challenges of the new medium are not lost on Robertson: Cell phone users would be outraged by commercial interruptions. So marketers will have to help develop content that's so engaging that mobile consumers will actually seek it out.

Make no mistake: TV's not going anywhere. But ad dollars are.

Even with new-fangled mobile TV offerings, consumers probably won't make a wholesale switch to watching all their favorite shows on a cell phone.

But advertisers will increasingly start moving a portion of their ad spend to the mobile medium as a response mechanism for what consumers see on TV, in print, outdoor or on the radio.

Without a doubt, the cell phone is becoming the most direct and interactive link to consumers ever invented. Even if Robertson overstates the issue ... and he might not ... he's on the right track: Advertising agencies had better "mobilize" before consumers start tuning them out.

Satellite Radio Just The Beginning

The New York Times is making much of the unexpectedly large increase in subscriptions to satellite services XM and Sirius, and the pressure it's putting on traditional broadcasters. Over 6 million people now routinely pay $13 a month for a service that's been free for 80 years. It's no wonder: Satellite radio offers much more diversity in programming and welcome relief from today's repetitive – some might say oppressive, Britney-fied playlists. But the Times is missing the other half of the story, and what it means for marketers.

That's because that other revolution of in-car media – OnStar and the ilk – provides the potential for a two way interaction between marketers and consumers as never before possible. As OnStar president Chet Huber tells it in the book, "We think it’s a tremendous service opportunity in a convergence between satellite radio and a platform like OnStar. And we’re managing the business toward that objective. Today, satellite radio is kind of a one-way distribution into the vehicle. But that whole world could open up with a back channel that allows you to essentially interact with that content, or to facilitate purchases. A service like OnStar can act as the back channel in that kind of relationship."

Take Howard Stern. When the popular shock jock decided to move his show from broadcast radio syndication to the Sirius satellite radio system in 2006, it wasn’t just because the FCC has been hounding him for indecency, or even just the estimated $500 million payday. It was because a direct, and increasingly interactive line to the consumer means we’re no just talking about the Howard Stern Show. We’re talking about the Howard Stern Shopping Network, where Howard can sell show paraphernalia, gear, clothing, books and more. Not just from Stern and company, but even those products hawked by his guests.

That's the future of radio, whether radio understands that or not.

Good News: Ad Age Survey Says Mobile The Place to Be

From the big 75th Anniversary issue of Advertising Age (March 28): In a survey by Westin Rinehart, when asked whether in the next few years they anticipate spending more or less time with various media, over 96 percent of consumers say they think they'll spend more time using cell phones for such activities as text messaging and other 3G-enabled functions. Among 11-to 17-year-olds, 100 percent said they be spending more time with their phones. "Once you move to 3G as in Europe, then what else do you need if you have a device with email, TV, Web and can make phone calls," says Morris Reid, managing director of Westin Rinehart. "If [marketers] don't have a mobile strategy, they're going to lose."

Bad News: Ball State Kids Say Mobile Ads Get An "F"

Chicago Tribune, by way of Fierce Wireless: A new study from Ball State University's Center for Media Design, college students by and large ignore SMS-based advertisements. A survey of 1,171 students found one in four students say they've received such ads on their cell phones. Only 5 percent of those who received the ads could remember what company sent them, and only 1 percent responded. Not surprisingly, almost all the ads that achieved any recall – 90 percent - were for adult content. Not encouraging news for mobile marketers: The sample at Ball State wasn't exactly cell phone neophytes. 97 percent report owning cell phones, and 68 percent send SMS messages, and 14 percent have used instant messaging via their phones. Clearly, mobile marketers have their work cut out for them.