Spotify arrives on the iPhone

Spotify has developed an iPhone application, allowing users to have the same experience on their mobile as when using Spotify on the web.

It was only a matter of time before Spotify tailored the service for mobile, however it is currently only available for premium subscribers, i.e. those who pay £9.99 per month.

The application, which will apparently be available from the App Store shortly, enables users to listen to tracks even when they are not connected to the network, so still functions on the underground or when in airplane mode.

It’s unclear whether the app will one day be ad-funded and therefore made available for free - something which would undoubtedly prove popular with music fans.

- Sam

Augmented Reality and LBS Developments

Check out www.mobvis.org and ‘demos’ for some interesting technological developments in Location Based Services and Augmented Reality.

After taking a photo with your mobile phone, Mobvis technology allows for accurate location recognition, placing hyperlinks on certain items it can provide information about, such as local shops, transport stops and timetables and cinemas. The interesting thing is that to date GPS capabilities have not been quite so accurate and highly focussed, but Mobvis allows for highly targeted information display as its search is limited to what is displayed in your mobile viewfinder.

As Mediapost points out, the technology could act as an “incredible interactive guide.” Going one step further to suggest a GPS enabled city infrastructure, “Assuming city buses are equipped with GPS and telemetric units, it could also tell you how long you have to wait for the next bus.”

Impact on search

The technology certainly has implications on search, and how and what users search for, as it in effect allows people to ‘navigate their own reality.’ It would give incredible insight into peoples’ search habits and how these are impacted by their physical location.

Mobvis are currently testing the technology in three European cities.

- Sam

Billing Revolution Brings One-Click Payments To iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android Apps

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2008/11/10/billing-revolution-brings-one-click-payments-to-iphone-blackberry-and-iphone-apps/

I realized last night that every person in the industry uses the joke around 'This is year for mobile'! Outside of vowing to not make the joke anymore myself, I caused me to think about what would need to happen to propel the advertising for this media vehicle.

Here is an example of one such thing in my mind. Billing Revolution is offering one touch payment for items over the mobile phone (and charging only a small fee for such a transaction).

Check out the link to learn more about this company but it could assist in mobile payment across devices and markets.

Rick

Nokia Unveils Multi-Platform “Voyeuristic” Ad Campaign

Nokia has unveiled a cross-platform new advertising campaign for its new Supernova 7610, aiming to engage and interact with a younger audience via its own ‘web 2.0 drama.’ The integrated campaign, which utilises multiple channels including TV, print, outdoor, radio and digital, kicks off with a TV ad centred around the lives of three characters, with the drama unfolding after they listen to each others’ voicemail.

Upon visiting www.somebodyelsesphone.com, fans can learn everything about the characters through their text messages, photos, videos and calls. They will also be able to add an image of each character’s Nokia Supernova 7610 phone as a widget to their existing social networking profiles. The campaign will run in 10 different languages through a constant content feed over six weeks. When the six weeks are up, the characters’ story lines will hit crucial decision making points, at which stage fans will be able to interact via the website and mobile to decide the characters’ fates, while being in with a chance to meet the characters.

All in all it’s a nice example of an ad campaign which is dependent on user interaction while neatly showcasing the particular product’s key features.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1600158116/bctid1858953112

-Sam

News Corp Buys Out Jamster

Jamba, or Jamster, the mobile company which creates content including wallpapers, ringtones, mobile games and short made-for-mobile episodes of TV shows, has been bought out by News Corporation.

Jamster, perhaps best known for its Crazy Frog character, was bought out by the global media company for a cool $200m, showing an interest in mobile content that is going nowhere.

- Sam

Google Phone Details Leaked

TechCrunch has reported that with less than 12 hours to go until the launch of the first ever Google phone, G1, news has begun to leak about the phone's specifications.

Reports TechCrunch, "Images extracted from the depths of T-Mobile’s G1 site have begun hitting tip boxes, and now TmoNews has managed to get their hands on a bunch of specs and details.

What’s known so far:
In-store, immediate sales only available in stores within 5 miles of a 3G covered area. If a store is beyond that range, representatives will walk customers through a T-mobile.com purchase.

One touch access to: Search, Maps, Gmail, Youtube, Calendar, and Google Talk
Gmail account and data plan required
GPS
3.1 mp camera, no video recording
No stereo bluetooth (A2DP)
Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in
Weighs 5.6 ounces
480×320 65K color screen
5 hour talk time, 130 hour standby time
Expandable up to 8GB"

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/22/t-mobile-g1-specs-leaked-prior-to-announcement/

Watch this space for the official announcement..

- Sam

Virgin Mobile provides Location Based Services

From TechCrunch, we have learned that Virgin Mobile has signed a deal with location based city guide slash social network, Buzzd.

The deal will allow users to obtain local entertainment information (events, concerts, restaurant reviews/ratings) to be broadcast and shared among users in the same proximity.

While several other companies are now offering LBS to their users, this is another example of why we should be externalizing our clients' data to these services and thinking about marketing opportunities to the early adopters.



Here is the link to the original post:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/02/virgin-mobile-gets-buzzd-on-location-based-entertainment/

Rick

Nokia Comes With Music to launch in the UK Next Month, but so far No Network Operators are on Board…

Nokia has announced that the UK will be the first market in the world to receive the Comes With Music service next month, followed by the rest of Europe next year. Nokia Comes With Music phones will come with a one year subscription to a Nokia-run music download platform, which will be accessible via your phone or PC, giving users free access to a bank of over 2 million songs from major music companies Universal, Sony and Warner.

All tracks will be DRM-free, meaning the user will still be able to access and listen to the track after the minimum one year contract has ended.
Major mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse is confirmed as a partner, but so far none of the major UK mobile network operators have signed up to the service, instead preferring their customers to use their own music download service as opposed to that of an actual handset manufacturer. Nokia is aiming to become a market leader in the music on your mobile sector but the success of the service remains to be seen.

Nokia UK MD Simon Ainslie comments, "This is a unique proposition. Nobody has launched an unlimited music service that allows you to keep your music with no catches. What we are trying to do is bring back some value to the music industry from people who are not paying for music. There are a lot of parents who would like to legitimise their children's purchasing of music”.

- Sam

New Research Suggests Mobile Advertising Lifts Brand Metrics and Purchase Intent

Dynamic Logic recently announced the aggregate results of mobile branding research studies which compared people exposed to the mobile campaigns to those not exposed, suggesting that mobile advertising can be an effective medium for raising brand metrics throughout the purchase funnel.

An average increase of +23.9 percentage points in Mobile Ad Awareness shows that these campaigns generally cut through and grab users' attention. Average increases in Brand Favourability and Purchase Intent of +5.4 and +4.7 percentage points, respectively, support the ability of mobile advertising to change consumers' attitudes towards a brand and to drive intent to purchase.

Mobile Advertising Impact on Brand Metrics:

Significant Metric Positive Impact (Delta % of respondents)
Mobile ad awareness 23.9%
Message association 12.2
Aided brand awareness 6.9
Brand favourability 5.4
Purchase intent 4.7

Source: Dynamic Logic AdIndex, July 2008 (Delta is % of respondents positively impacted by mobile ad exposure. Initial study considered small sample size)
N.B.: These findings are based on 21 mobile ad campaigns across a variety of industries. (Alcohol, Automotive, Consumer Electronics, CPG, Entertainment, Financial Services, Retail, Telecomm, Travel) The averages could significantly change as the number of campaigns increases, so any comparison made to them is directional.

The report posits that part of the reason for these positive increases may be a result of the newness of the medium. People may be intrigued and pay more attention to the advertising on their mobile phone since it is presented on a smaller screen and is located in a less cluttered environment compared to the Internet.

Michelle Eule, Managing Director of Dynamic Logic, says "... As we do more studies, we continue to build these initial averages into a normative database that can be used for a more granular look into the mobile data... (the) same way our... database is used for online performance benchmarking and planning."

Kevin Arrix, Senior Vice President, Digital Sales, MTVN Networks, notes that "These averages clearly demonstrate to marketers that mobile is an increasingly powerful medium for communicating ad messages and engaging with today's consumer... Having initial averages to compare a campaign's performance against can serve as a guideline to what's working and what's not in these early stages of the medium."

For more information, please visit Dynamic Logic.