Moods & Targeted Advertising: Will it work?

This morning in the LA Times, I came across an interesting article about a company called Moodagent and the future role that advertisers will have with its iPhone application

How will advertisers change their message and product offerings given a consumers mood? Will geo-targeting a certain demographic based on certain moods eventually change the advertising landscape as companies and products start to develop a repertoire between the consumer and brand that will eventually lead to a long-lasting relationship?

The Haiti Crisis: Mobile Helping the Cause

Americans have used there mobile phones to now contribute thus far $9 million to the relief efforts in Haiti.

I think this is an amazing in the way that technology has allowed me to contribute to a crisis and immediately. It is interesting to note that in 2009 via mobile phones, there was a total of $4 million contributed. Leading the way is the American Red Cross where mobile users can text HAITI to 90999. In addition here are other text message codes to donate:

- Text the word “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5 to the Yele Haiti foundation.
- Text the word “HAITI” to 20222 to donate $10 to the Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief Fund.
- Text “HAITI” to 25383 to donate $5 to the International Rescue Committee.
- Text “HAITI” to 85944 to donate $10 to the International Medical Corps.

What kind of effect do you think mobile phone texting donations would have had on the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts?

Americans increase use of text messaging

This morning in the Los Angeles Times there is a great article on how text messaging in the United States is taking off and is even stating that Americans have gone text crazy. For examples in Dec 2007 Americans sent 48 billion text messages in that one month and in Dec 2008 that number increased almost three-fold with 110 billion text message being set that month.

It is interesting to note that from the article and as expected a majority of those sending text messages in the US are teens even though 61% of adults are now expected to be using text messaging. As noted in the article much of these text messages are private conversations, so it will be interesting to see how will mobile marketing companies continue to target this current and future market and what role will advertisers ultimately play? How will private text conversations among teens translate into monetization and increase revenues for companies involve in the text message/mobile business landscape. Furthermore, Google’s purchase of AdMob will only continue to harvest the interest in this industry.

How many text messages will be sent by Americans in Dec 2009? 250 Billion?

Infiniti Own the Sky Campaign: SMS Mobile Marketing

Here is a campaign titled Own the Sky from Movoxx for their client, Infiniti, that is currently an OMMA award finalist in the Best Integration Cross Platform category.

This campaign was very unique and innovative in that Infiniti worked with Movoxx who used SMS alerts to promote the launch of Infiniti G convertible in addition to creating WAP Landing pages. Consumers that clicked on the Infinity link within the SMS could enter the “Own the Sky” contest, by typing in their mobile number and email address for the chance to win a Bose SoundDock system. In addition to brand engagement and generating awareness of the G Convertible product launch, Infiniti wanted to help consumers find their local Infiniti dealership in a convenient, unique way, with the ultimate goal of encouraging consumers to take a test drive and, hopefully, buy a car.

MoVoxx intelligently serves ads into mobile content that reaches over 25 million unique mobile users every month. Proprietary mobile analytics and optimization systems allow MoVoxx to deliver superior post-click conversion rates – true ROI drivers.

Founded in 2006, MoVoxx is backed by Greycroft Partners, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital and BV Capital.

2009: The Year of Social Gaming

If 2007 was considered the year of social networking then 2009 and now 2010 must be the year of social gaming. The ever increasing worldwide popularity of Apple’s iPhone and mobile functionality of Facebook along with the release of the Google Android has allowed consumers to instantly use their mobile platforms to download games and interact with many of millions of worldwide gamers on the go, which shows an explosive growth towards social networks and games on those platforms. Facebook has played a major role in the increased presence of social gaming where it has made games a popular category and as of today, the top 10 facebook games has accounted for over 260 million active monthly users including such games as Farmville, Mafia Wars, Pet Society and RestaurantCity.

Within the past 24 hours, two of the leading social gaming companies and Facebook application developers, Zynga and RockYou have received additional rounds of financing and this comes off the big news last week when Electronic Arts (ERTS) acquired social gaming company, Playfish for $300 million. The $375 million that was used to acquire and further finance these social gaming companies shows a shift between traditional console gaming towards social and digital gaming. Read more