Mobile Devices For Kids On the Go

Thanks Next Great Thing

June 23rd, 2009 by NGT

For many young people, the mobile phone is a status symbol and an extension of identity. For aspirational young kids and tweens, this is no different. For them, getting a phone is a rite of passage, and the age at which this happens is getting younger and younger. According to Nielsen Mobile, the average age a kid starts using a borrowed cell phone is 8.6, and they typically get their own at 10.1.

However, most handset manufacturers don’t cater this this market — only recently shifting their adult-centric view. Parents may also be relutant to pass back their new iPhone (though we’re seeing this as well). This has opened up a market for special mobile devices just for kids. Here are some of the players:

• Fisher-Price offers the Pixter, a PDA-style portable activity center for kids. It has a color touchscreen and stylus with which children can draw, color and play with, not entirely unlike Adobe Illustrator. Separate software adds more features like math lessons, and an extra snap-on digital camera makes the “phone” just like Mom and Dad’s. While the Pixter is a fun tool, it still seems more like other handheld gaming devices for children than an actual mobile.

• If realism is what you’re going for, Bandai has you covered there with the “Mobile Communicator Smart Berry” for kids. This Japanese “toy” lets users actually email, text and play online games with each other as long as they’re within 10 meters of one another. It works on a wireless network and comes with a keyboard and an LCD touchscreen. Following this TotBerry trend, LeapFrog recently introduced the Text & Learn, affectionately known as the ‘baby BlackBerry.’ It even looks like a giant, colorful version of the real thing. Made for kids ages three and up, the Text & Learn features a full QWERY keyboard and pretend browser, and encourages little users to “text” with the virtual guide Scout.

• For slightly older children with a desire for phone-like capabilities, there’s Firefly Mobile, “the mobile phone for mobile kids.” It has actual voice services and a pay-as-you-go-plan. However, it’s made for smaller hands and instead of a regular dial pad, there are just five keys. Parents use a PIN to program up to 22 outgoing numbers into the phone, putting adults in charge of just who their kids are talking to. The Firefly has struggled to find a market though. Tweens, who now increasingly own real phones, find it too babyish, while younger kids have less of a need since they are almost always with adults. Still, the Firefly can be seen as the training bra of a mobile lifestyle.

• Aware of tweens’ fashion sensibility and love of “real” phones, another contender for the tween market, Kajeet, offers LG, Samsung, and Sanyo phones that parents (with their kids) can customize. The Maryland-based company offers shared payment plans (the kids can pay the texts, the parents can pay the calls), limits for call or text usage, blockable contacts, and GPS for the restless children. On the other hand, Kajeet does not offer any kind of data service, a crucial feature for generation Y.

So what does this mobile mania for pre-teens mean? Some are concerned. In France, there are even new laws in the works that crack down on children’s use of mobile phones. Advertising these devices to children under 12 will be prohibited under the legislation and steps will be taken to ban the sale of any phone designed to be used by kids under six years old.

However, if the trend we’re seing in youth adoption continues, pacifiers will soon come with keypads. If nothing else, we’re breeding a tech savvy generation who will be the next wave in mobile innovators.

evolution in music ownership and the cloud theory

How will The Cloud change the way we think about music ownership?
by Nicholas Deleon on March 23, 2009
This article is thanks to Crunch Gear

cloudmusic

One of the highlights of last week’s SXSW show, aside from seeing the Austin Crew again (hi, guys!), was when I spent some time talking to a few of the guys from Rhapsody, just like I did last year. The conversation touched a number of topics, but the one I found most interesting was the changing notion of music ownership. That is, now that most of us are at least familiar with streaming, on-demand music from pick-your-service (Imeem, Pandora, Spotify, Rhapsody, etc.), will people in the future still see music as a “thing” that they’ll own, or more like a service that they’ll tap into whenever the need arises? Will people still cling to a finite number of MP3s on their iPod, or will they prefer to have their music on The Cloud, using a device (say, the iPhone) that can call upon any song at will? A sort of, “Shoot, I wish I had that U2 song on my iPod right now” versus, “Here, let me stream that U2 song for you.” And, if people are becoming more comfortable with this type of music consumption, where does that leave traditional, download-to-own services like iTunes and Amazon MP3? The things we think about!

It’s like this: we’re right about at the point where most of us have a smartphone or other device that has a reasonably reliable, always-on Internet connection. As such, we’re right about at the point where a service—the aforementioned ones, or perhaps some new one—can came along and say, “Oh hai! You know, instead of taking your iPod with you everywhere you go, why not just connect your phone to our service? We have every song in recorded history in our database (“Cloud”), and they’re all yours, provided you pay us $15 per month. Think about it: every song ever, in the palm of your hands. That sure beats listening to the same MP3s over and over again, right?!” That’s a best case scenario, of course. While Rhapsody told me the record labels are now much easier to deal with than they were in the past—there’s still a few music executives yelling, “Go away, Internet!”—, we’re still a little bit away from having Everything Ever at our fingertips. On the technical side of things, that also assumes that our Internet connections are, indeed, sound as a pound (aside: I think that phrase needs to be updated!), something that any iPhone-using SXSW attendee will tell you isn’t exactly the case just yet.

But, for the purposes of this here article, let’s assume that all those problems have been solved. Let’s assume that the mobile Internet is fast, reliable and affordable, and that the record labels have opened up their vaults for placement in The Cloud; no technical issues remain. The only thing we have to confront now is the consumer and her listening habits: will they change? Have they already changed? Does Little Stacy, who’s currently in junior high and listens to music via YouTube and Imeem, portend an adult who won’t think of music in terms of CDs and MP3s, but of something that’s “just there,” for lack of a better term? She won’t have a personal music library, in the form of vinyl, CDs, MP3s, FLACs, or whatever; The Cloud will be her library, on which everything ever recorded will reside. The notion of “not having that album” will be totally alien to her; she has everything, always. No, she doesn’t own any of it—it belongs to the record labels, by way of your Rhapsody and Spotify (or whatever)—but it’s always available to her wherever she goes, so why should she care wether or not she “owns” it? Ownership, in this scenario, will become an antiquated concept, no longer applicable to current conditions, and Adult Stacy wouldn’t have it any other way. Nothing’s stopping Stacy from buying a physical copy of an album on some future whiz-bang format, which includes a super-de-dooper high quality copy of the album, but it would be the exception and not the rule. People still go camping (“roughing it”) even though they have fully decorated master bedroom they can sleep in.

But that describes Little Stacy, our hastily invented character who’s currently in junior high; at most she’s 13-year-old. What about Big Steve, who’s 15 years out of college and works in a spiffy office downtown? He still owns his music—in fact, he’s probably just getting used to buying songs off iTunes and the like—and the idea of songs “being there” is sorta weird to him. What if they’re not there? (Big Steve is a glass-half-empty kind of guy; blame the recession.) And even if the songs were there, why should he pay a monthly fee for an entire library of music he’ll never listen to? How is that better than having an iPod filled with only the songs he likes—he loves Danzig—without any garbage pop music getting in the way? A cynic could say, well, long-term, Big Steve is irrelevant, since he doesn’t buy new music anyway, and besides, it’s his kids whom the music industry will be targeting in a few years anyway. Let him “own” all the music he wants, since it’s only a matter of time till he isn’t even on the music industry’s radar. Of course, that completely ignores the fact that, with his fancy corner office, Big Steve has more disposable income to throw at the music industry (and the services we’ve been talking about) than Little Stacy ever will while she’s growing up. To ignore Big Steve, and all the dollar signs he represents, would be foolish. That’s not to say that Big Steve can’t still buy CDs and MP3s, of course, but the question here is whether or not people, in the future, will be comfortable with not owning music. And as people like Little Stacy use the aforementioned services, they’ll no doubt get used to it; it’ll be just another thing they do, like sending thousands of text messages per month or spending hours upon hours on Facebook.

Specific to Rhapsody, yes, you can now buy MP3s from their online store. (Even disruptive technologies and companies like to hedge their bets.) Whether or not that’s the way forward, or merely something done to placate the Big Steves of the world, is what we’re trying to determine. My guess? I hope they have house music in The Cloud.

Interactive e-cast Sharpie billboards

Thanks to Australian Cool Hunter for this post... however, I'm not sure that being allowed and even encouraged to graffiti something in a public space really "satiates" the desire to deface public property as their article suggests. But it is still a nice interactive idea with semi-product demo thrown in. Actually, it reminds me of the Adidas Adicolour campaign detailed here and pictured just below which was much better in my opinion.
Many of us have a fascination with graffiti art, and we sometimes look over our shoulders to make sure no one's watching when we scratch our initials in a freshly laid slab of concrete, or carve them into a wooden desk, or even scribble profanities across the stall door in a public toilet.
The creative minds working for Sharpie, the ultimate in permanent markers have discovered a way to satiate our desires to deface public domain. Interactive e-cast billboards have been scattered around cities, which allow people to experience the rush of creating their own graffiti. Choose some colours, write a message and Sharpie makes it possible for anyone to leave his permanent mark on the side of the bus stop or the public phone or anywhere else billboard advertising may be experienced.

Youth no longer defined by age

Youth No Longer Defined by Chronological Age; Consumers Stay ‘Younger’ Longer

Thanks to Marketing Charts for this post. You can checkout the original article here.

The traditional demographic definition of “youth” is no longer applicable in today’s society, and marketers should target consumers based upon their engagement and participation in youth culture rather than on their chronological age, according to the “Golden Age of Youth” study from Viacom Brand Solutions International (VBSI).

As people worldwide delay the onset of adult responsibilities and stay emotionally and physically younger for longer, it is becoming more acceptable for older people to participate in youthful pursuits. To support this trend, marketers should routinely consider the often-overlooked 25-34 age group a part of the youth market, VBSI said.
“Contemporary youth should now be defined as ‘the absence of functional and/or emotional maturity,’ reflecting the fact that accepting traditional responsibilities such as mortgages, children and developing a strong sense of self-identity/perspective is occurring later and later in life,” the study said.

Indeed, 52% of all 25-34 year-olds agree they still have “a lot of growing up to do,” and this sentiment is highest in Asian (78%) and Latin American (66%) markets.

“Even in these financially challenging times, people are trying to stay younger for longer,” said Kevin Razvi, EVP and managing director of VBSI. “25-to-34 year-olds are continuing to consume music, gaming and the internet and are enjoying the pursuits of their younger years while benefiting from a greater level of personal and financial freedom. We therefore need to rethink what ‘youth’ actually means and how we and our partners can approach this constantly evolving group of people.”

Three Stages of Youth

Though those between 25 and 34 remain youthful, there are some important differences among them and their younger and older counterparts. The study identified three distinct stages of youth: “Discovery” (16-19 years old), “Experimentation” (20-24 years old) and “Golden” (25-34 years old), and found that the youth market has grown to include all three as the differentiation between traditional demographic groups has become blurred through lifestyle choice and spending power.

Key findings:
25-34 year-olds do not respond to the same marketing as teens and those who assume they do are seeing a “youth mirage.” Though they may look similar and access many of the same brands, only 9% of those 25-34 globally said that they would actually like to be a teenager in 2008. Agreement with this statement was lowest in developed markets: Japan (4%), Europe (5%) and the US (9%).

“Golden” Youth are happier, and more confident/secure and gravitate toward premium, understated and often luxurious brands and experiences to affirm their identity. In contrast, teenagers are highly focused on material gain and employ brands to define their identity.

25-34-year-olds are most likely to agree that they are happy or content with their personal life, and are 24% more likely than teens to agree that they “love life.”

More than 80% of the global respondents say that that the 20s should be about exploring life and having fun.

Teens feel under pressure to figure out who they are and where they are going and are 23% more likely than those 25-34 to agree that their life is more stressful. This is particularly true in Europe and in the US.

17% of the global sample who said they’d “made some major decisions in life too early” were the most unhappy and stressed group of 25-34 year olds among all the respondents.

“Traditional adult brands need to adopt a more youthful tone to avoid being seen as irrelevant,” the study said. To support this, 23% of the 25-to-34-year-old global sample feels that financial institutions are aimed at those older than they are; while youthful brands have a new market beyond the core teenage target. In the traditionally young area of technology, one-third of 25-34 year olds agree they’re really interested in new technology, and 66% say that they take the time to learn how things work to get the most out of them.Other regional differences:

Respondents age 25-34 who are married are significantly more likely to be happy (66%) vs. singles (30%).

Only 36% of Europeans and 39% of Asians 25-34 feel like they’re struggling with their current financial situation vs. 55% in Latin America and 51% in America.

71% of 25-34-year-olds agree they feel comfortable with who they are. Those who feel most settled with their identity live in Mexico (84%), India (83%) and Saudi Arabia (82%). Those who are least comfortable are the Japanese (26%).

35% of Europeans would find it strange if someone got married in their early 20s vs. only 20% of Americans and 18% of Japanese.

In general, 78% are optimistic about their future. This is highest in Latin America (85%), lowest in Asia (67%) and the US (72%).

62% of Latin Americans felt they made life decisions too early vs. only 24% Japanese, 37% of Europeans and 50% of Americans.

The study also found that from a global perspective, 25 is the “ideal” age overall. Additional findings and regional differences:

27 is the ideal age to buy a house (25 in the UK, 33 in Japan).
22 is the ideal age to buy a car (20 in the US and UK, and 29 in China).
26 is the ideal age for love (25 in Saudi Arabia and 28 in Mexico).
23 is the ideal age to get a credit card (20 in the US)
19 is the ideal age to travel without parents (25 in Saudi Arabia).
27 is the ideal age to be a parent.
20 is the ideal age to lose your virginity (no differences by region).
22 is the ideal age to move out on your own.
26 is the ideal age to start saving for retirement (23 in US and 25 in Europe and Latin America)

About the survey: VBSI used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to survey more than 25,000 respondents between age 16-46 in 18 countries. These included Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, UK and the US. The survey was carried out between January and August 2008.

Teen tips on how so totally NOT to do digital

Thanks to NGT for providing us with this insightful article on vital digital perspectives from those that probably know it best


Brands all over the world are trying to reach young people through digital channels. So how are they doing? Are the kids digging their Facebook apps? What about that jam playing on their website? Are they besties with marketers on Bebo? Hmmm, not so much.
PSFK pointed us to Ruby Pseudo’s “Teen Commandments for brands wanting to ‘do digital’” which includes some way harsh, but important, feedback from young Brits. For one, they’re bored of Facebook shenanigans (see image).

Fern, a 23-year-old from London, said “I generally hate - with a passion - all Facebook applications. I currently have 500 unchecked applications. They are of no interest to me whatsoever. I don’t care what celebrity I look like; I don’t care whether I’m hot or not and I don’t have time to draw silly pictures on walls”

Perhaps Solomon, (21) sums it up then with “Offer prizes for shooting a duck? What am I? A freakin’ idiot?”

(Though it’s worth mentioning that these quotes are from 20-somethings, not teens…)

Secondly, they are tired of inauthenticity, pandering, pop-ups and other nonsense (they want utility, just like the rest of us!) Here Ruby enumerates rules of engagement for brands in the youth space:

1. Too often, I think brands believe frippery is fantastic, it’s not - get to the point. Kids - like adults - probably want to know something along the lines of the following from your site… a) where your nearest store, event or retailer is, b) what your product/event/etc is going to cost them, c) how to get in touch with you or d) something pretty much damn nothing like playing a game whereby you click a cursor so some girls knickers fall off.

2. Present the freaking facts. Have a place where kids can put their own opinions down, and be approachable.

3. Don’t redirect them, that’s just rude - they’ve just turned up at your digital door. Sort your URL out.

4. Don’t put some tune you think is ‘hip’ on in the background; it won’t be.

5. And don’t turn up on their Facebook page and think you know what’s going on - you don’t.

6. Also, whilst we’re at it, if they’re recently broken hearted, they won’t want to speak to you about it. Secondly, they don’t want you shoving some ‘Single? Broken-Hearted?” quip questions at them either. Have some manners.

7. Bebo… is not looked at by anyone over the age of 12. I’d say 8, but they’ll have some statistic to wak back at me that would disprove my point.

8. Do not, whatever you do, appropriate youth culture on your site, but hell, we hope you know this.

9. Avoid pop-ups. Kids hate them.

10. Finally, with Facebook and MySpace etc, please remember that you’re in their (digital) space: they didn’t ask you to be there, and they can’t very well ask you to leave, so talk nicely. And if you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all…

Stunning stats about kids and mobiles (in the USA)

Cell Phones Key to Teens’ Social Lives, 47% Can Text with Eyes Closed

Nearly half (47%) of US teens say their social life would end or be worsened without their cell phone, and nearly six in 10 (57%) credit their mobile device with improving their life, according to a national survey from CTIA and Harris Interactive.

Four out of five teens (17 million) carry a wireless device (a 40% increase since 2004), finds the study titled “Teenagers: A Generation Unplugged,” which probes how the growing teen wireless segment is using wireless products and how they want to use them in the future.

Impact on Teen Life

- A majority (57%) of teens view their cell phone as the key to their social life.
- Second only to clothing, teens say, a person’s cell phone tells the most about their social status or popularity, outranking jewelry, watches and shoes.

Providing Entertainment and Security
- More than half of the respondents (52%) agree that the cell phone has become a new form of entertainment.
- One-third of teens play games on their phone.
- 80% say their cell phone provides a sense of security while on the go, confirming that the cell phone has become their mobile safety net when needing a ride (79%), getting important information (51%), or just helping out someone in trouble (35%).
- Teens carry cell phones to have access to friends, family and current events.
- Though only one in five (18%) teens care to pinpoint the location of their family and friends via their cell phone, 36% hate the idea of a cell phone feature that allows others to know their exact location.

Texting Replacing Talking

The study also confirmed that texting is replacing talking among teens. Teens admitted spending nearly an equal amount of time talking as they do texting each month. The feature is so important to them that if texting were no longer an option 47% of teens say their social life would end or be worsened - that’s especially so among females (54% vs. 40%).

Teens say texting has advantages over talking because it offers more options, including multitasking, speed, the option to avoid verbal communication, and because it is fun - in that order, according to the study.

With more than 1 billion text messages sent each day, it is no surprise that 42% of teens say they can text blindfolded, the study found.
“Teens have created a new form of communication. We call it texting, but in essence it is a reflection of how teens want to communicate to match their lifestyles. It is all about multitasking, speed, privacy and control,” said Joseph Porus, VP & chief architect, Technology Group, Harris Interactive. “Teens in this study are crying for personalization and control of exactly what a wireless device or plan can do for them.”

Devices of the Future

The survey asked teens what future changes they’d like to see in wireless services and devices and found that respondents want cell phones that break boundaries and are personalized to fit their lifestyles.

Teens remain excited and openminded about the wireless possibilities and their ideal future mobile devices would feature five applications - phone, MP3 player, GPS, laptop computer and video player, according to Harris.

Also on teens’ wish lists are phones that…
- Guarantee secured data access to the user only (80%)
- Provide accessibility to personal health records (66%)
- Present opportunities to be educated anywhere in the world (66%)
- Bring users closer to global issues impacting teens’ world (63%)
- Are shockproof and waterproof (81%)
- Have endless power (80%)
- Feature a privacy screen (58%)
- Are made of flexible material and fold into different shapes and sizes (39%)
- Have artificial intelligence - ask it questions and it gives answers (38%)

“In the future, mobility for teens means mobile banking, mobile voting, location based services, personal entertainment - the sky is the limit for how mobile our lifestyles can be,” said Steve Largent, president and CEO, CTIA - The Wireless Association. “We’ve certainly come a long way in 25 years and expect teens to be a growth driver for the industry and have a major impact on the wireless landscape for years to come.”

About the study: The study was conducted online in July 2008 among a nationally representative sample of 2,089 teenagers (age 13-19) across the US who have cell phones. More than 100 questions were asked on mobile phone usage, attitudes, behaviors, and teens’ desires and aspirations for the future of mobile communications, entertainment, and other features.

Thanks to Marketing Charts.
Original post at:
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/cell-phones-key-to-teens-social-lives-47-can-text-with-eyes-closed-6126/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Introducing the Hype-rbola

An interesting way of ranking trends and displaying information... also a great resource of hot and hyped websites - thanks again to NGT. 

Anyone who follows “trends” can tell you that not everything is worth its buzz. So what differentiates a one-hit wonder from the “next great thing”? Well, is it useful? And are people using it?

From the top-left, proceeding counter-clockwise:

1. The Jonas Brothers: Like fellow Disney-backed superstar Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers blasted onto the pre-teen scene (or thereabouts) with all the force of a candy-coated hammer. Sure they’ve got talent, but, like Ms. Montana, there’s quite a bit of hype involved, like a lot of hype. Sorry boys, see you in Tiger Beat.

2. Muxtape: Muxtape sure did have a lot of hype, and then it got served - legally. The hype for sharing personal music mixes survives, though, and it is undoubted that Muxtape is part of a larger trend in mixtape discovery sites.

3. Loopt: This location-based service beat others to the punch with an iPhone app (and popped neon collars.) Too bad it spammed everyone and showed their whereabouts without permission. Any social network-based LBS needs to have numbers to be useful, and Loopt just isn’t there yet.

4. Tumblr: Microblogging met macroblogging with this innovative platform, but Tumblr needs to improve their skinny interface and confusing citations to really win us over.

5. Face Your Manga: There’s not a lot to Face Your Manga, but you’ve never had as much fun wasting time either. So, yeah, it’s mostly hype and you’re not going to get a lot of utility out of it, but you will get a sweet avatar for your Twitter account.

6. Urban Spoon: This iPhone app even made the New York Times coverage when it launched, and while its fun to use the motion sensor, its restaurant recommendations will leave you hungry for a real guide.

7. Twitter Spam: JDE287uh9w8 is following you. Sweet! First random facebook friends, now robots spamming you on Twitter. Not that we have anything against robots, but they often don’t have many interesting things to say.

8. Blanka: If you enjoyed Street Fighter as a youth, or if you still do, chances are - at one point - you took a chance on Blanka. Were you rewarded? Maybe, but it was probably by accident. Sure, Blanka looks tough and if you mash the right buttons, he electrocutes his opponent, but everyone knows that Chun-Li is the best, and Blanka only matches up against Zangief and his inexplicable shin hair …

9. Emotes: They’re not getting a lot of attention and we’re not sure they deserve it yet, but Emotes are an interesting idea. A social site for youth, Emotes allow youngsters to work through their emotions in third person (via the aptly named “Emotes”). There’s a story in there somewhere, but for now it’s an interesting take on the common theme of social networking.

10. Placefav: The unique thing about Placefav is that it cuts to the point with location, location, location. Of all the things we snap on film, place is perhaps the most binding, as it sets a context. Placefav could be big for those who just want their images served up simply.

11. Instapaper: You see a thousand articles a day that are worth reading (RSS - noooo!) but you just don’t have time. While Instapaper isn’t offering you the best-case scenario - a time machine - they are offering the next best, which is a way to read it later. Which we still never did…until the Instapaper iPhone app! Genius.

12. Dodgeball: This LBS is an oldie but goodie that is dead simple to use. While Dodgeball’s time in the spotlight may have passed, we’ll keep “checking in” until something better comes along.

13. Drop.io’s Drop It Toolbar: Drop.io is awesome and if you don’t know, now you know. Even more awesome is Drop.io’s “Drop It” toolbar for Firefox. All you have to do is drag the file to be transferred over to the red dot on your browser. Once it’s done uploading, it will pop up in a new window. It’s easier than cake and twice as sweet.

14. Nokia N95: Speaking of time machines, we’re not sure the Nokia N95 isn’t one. It has everything else: pictures, movies, browsing, texting, barcode reading, video ringers, GPS… At a whopping $900, it’s supplanted the iPhone as THE status symbol for mobile youth.
Full posting at:
http://www.nextgreatthing.com/wordpress/2008/09/03/introducing-the-hype-rbola/

AWESOME iPhone apps

Here is some creative apps inspiration developed for the iPhone... thanks to NGT for this. What i love best about these, is that the apps are actually practical as well as fun.


The iPhone is democratizing mobile, and now that the App Store has opened, even the non-tech savvy are tricking their phones out. Our coworker Zack–a 20-something who calls himself an “unlikely iPhone owner”–has been like a kid in a candy store for the past few weeks. In an effort to discern which of the many (many) apps available are resonating with youth and why, we asked for his personal top 5:

Shazam
Definitely the coolest app out there right now. It answers the oft-asked question: Who sings this? Simply hold your iPhone up to the music and after a few seconds, it detects the song playing and stores it for future reference. It also gives you the option to purchase the song on iTunes or watch the music video on YouTube.

Save Benjis
For most Gen-Yers like myself, living can sometimes be expensive, which is why I love this one so much. Search for any item by brand name, product number, or even bar code and you can instantly compare prices of over 100 major online retailers that carry the item. It even allows you to purchase the product straight from your iPhone.

Remote
A very simple app that turns your iPhone into a remote control for your iTunes library on your Mac or PC. It’s extremely responsive and, right now, the one I use most often.

Pandora Radio
Like its online counterpart, the Pandora app lets you tag songs on a like/dislike basis then suggests new ones you might like. The only downside is that it quickly drains the little battery life the iPhone 3G has to begin with. But at the end of the day, it’s a great way to discover new music.

Phone Saber
Even if you don’t love Star Wars, you’ll love this app that turns your device into your very own light saber (it makes ‘zzswoosh’ sounds as you swing it through the air.) Now the force can be with any iPhone owner that wants it

Don't discount discount snail mail offers

We've become so keen to get in touch with the wired-up Gen Ys that we've over-emphasised electronic contact at the expense of direct mail. It turns out that they are now so un-used to receiving direct mail offers in the physical mailbox at home that teens really like being contacted this way. Ironically, this seems to be an (pardon the pun) "under the wire" way to reach them.
See the article at http://www.marketingprofs.com/news/marketing-inspiration/index.asp?nlid=454&cd=dmo121&adref=NmiM378

Brands punk'd by social media sites

This is a neat list of brands that have been brand-jacked by social media... in other words, when online turns bad. Let's learn from them and hope we never join them:

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/05/02/a-chonology-of-brands-that-got-punkd-by-social-media/

Everybody loves "Family Guy" - but do they love watching ads online?

Google in LA is experimenting with a new method of distributing original material on the web, which involves a plan to syndicate a new program by the creator of "Family Guy", Seth MacFarlane, called "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy", using its AdSense advertising system to thousands of websites that are predetirmined to be gathering spots for Mr MacFarlane's target audience. 

Instead of placing a static ad on a Web page, Google will place a "Cavalcade" video clip. Advertising will then be incorporated into the clips in various ways.

I don't know about you, but the clips would have to be pretty freakin' hilarious for me to sit through the ads just to watch a two min clip online.

Thanks to the NY Times for this post. To read more, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/business/30google.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1214874203-XpPyo0ZQXLn5mY3x5XVnjw

Hands Free Gaming in Time for Christmas!

I wonder: Is there a risk that the more you play the less you are able to? (i.e. as the game feeds off your brain cells, doesn't it also kill it? - I know my mother would think so!)

Thanks to the NewYork Times for this little novelty.

Moving Mountains With the Brain, Not a Joystick
By ANNE EISENBERG
Published: June 8, 2008

STILL using a mouse, keyboard, joystick or motion sensor to control the action in a video game? It may be time to try brain power instead.

A new headset system picks up electrical activity from the brain, as well as from facial muscles and other spots, and translates it into on-screen commands. This lets players vanquish villains not with a click, but with a thought.

Put on the headset, made by Emotiv Systems in San Francisco, and when a giant boulder blocks the path in a game you are playing, you can levitate it — not by something as crude as a keystroke, but just by concentrating on raising it, said Tan Le, Emotiv’s president. The headset captures electrical signals when you concentrate; then the computer processes these signals and pairs a screen action with them, like lifting a stone or repairing a falling bridge.

The headset is the consumer cousin of brain-computer interfaces developed in research labs and used, for example, by monkeys who manipulate prosthetic arms with thoughts. The monkeys’ intentions are detected by sensors, translated into machine language and used to move the arm. In general, some interfaces use sensors implanted directly in the brain; others use electrode-studded caps.

For humans, Emotiv plans to have its noninvasive, wireless EPOC headset ($299) on sale in time for Christmas, Ms. Le said. With 16 sensors that lightly touch the head, it uses a standard technology, electroencephalography, or EEG, to pick up electrical signals from the scalp’s surface and convert them to actions that control or enhance what happens on screen.

To help players master the art of moving on-screen objects solely through concentration, the headset will come bundled with a game, set on a magical mountain, that includes practice exercises, said Geoffrey Mackellar, Emotiv’s research and development manager. “You clear the mind,” he said, and then do 30 to 40 seconds of training, by concentrating, for instance, on visualizing a block lifting from the earth. “On the first or second attempt, you can lift it at will.”

Other, harder challenges follow. In constant feedback, he said, the machine learns more about how users think just as users grow more skillful at concentrating.

Many game developers are incorporating the EPOC’s biofeedback abilities into their applications, Ms. Le said.

The system doesn’t just lift boulders. It can also detect some of a player’s facial expressions and emotional responses: smile, frown or wink, for instance, and an avatar on screen can do so, too. Grow bored during a battle, and the system can detect ennui and supply a few dragons, or change the music. The device tracks a total of about 30 responses.

A chip inside the headset collects the signals and sends them wirelessly to a receiver plugged into a U.S.B. port of the computer, where most of the processing occurs, Dr. Mackellar said.

The sleek Emotiv headset is a version of the EEG cap used for decades to record brain electrical activity, said Nathan Fox, a professor of human development at the University of Maryland.

“There can be as many as 256 electrodes at one time in a cap,” he said. ‘The placement corresponds in some rough approximation to brain areas that are underneath the scalp.”

Medical-grade EEG caps are used in research to eavesdrop on the brain as it plans motion and to translate these plans, for example, into cursor actions on a screen so paralyzed people can control a computer to write messages.

The Emotiv headset, too, taps the power of the mind, as well as using feedback from muscles, Dr. Mackellar said.

“We definitely read brain waves — no doubt about it — but we also read other things,” he said. “In classical EEG, movements of the face and muscles are regarded as noise. But we use some of it, rather than discard it.”

Anton Nijholt, a professor of computer science at the University of Twente in the Netherlands who does research on innovative interfaces for games, looks forward to the extra means of interaction that EEG headsets will provide. But he doesn’t think that all consumers will be able to use them to raise mountains.

“Not all people are able to display the mental activity necessary to move an object on a screen,” he said. “Some people may not be able to imagine movement in a way that EEG can detect.”

So far, Dr. Mackellar said, all 200 testers of the headset had indeed been able to move on-screen objects mentally.

ANOTHER headset, the Neural Impulse Actuator ($169), just released by the OCZ Technology Group in Sunnyvale, Calif., has three sensors in a headband that pick up electrical activity primarily from muscles and convert it into commands, said Michael Schuette, vice president for technology development. Players of shooting games, for instance, may use eye movement to trigger a shot, shaving milliseconds off of their response time and sparing their hands.

The exact source of the electrical activity the headset is picking up may not be important, said Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw, chief of the laboratory for nervous system disorders at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health in Albany. He uses EEG caps as part of brain-computer interfaces for severely paralyzed people. His systems record brain activity alone, but for a consumer game device, a cap that picks up a mixture of brain and muscle activity may be acceptable.

“In a lot of these commercial uses, people don’t care if the activity is coming from the brain or forehead muscles,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to them so long as they can play the game.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/technology/08novel.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The new shake 'n' make

This post from iMedia Connection, details some cool new applications that are in the mix for Apple's iPhone. 

The Siite example is certainly relevant for Dairy Farmers Ski yogurt, but i wonder what our other brands could develop using this technology?  You could shake coins from a piggy bank for Comm Bank or rock a cruise boat for P&O? Surely there must be loads more - let me know and post your ideas in the comments!

Breakthrough marketing with a twist, shake and squeeze
By Alan Ruthazer
Published: June 06, 2008

New iPhone applications open the field for creative marketing. Here are some examples of what's in the works.

Developers looking for the next marketing platform see the smart phone as a hot opportunity, one that -- with the impending launch of the new iPhone -- is heating up fast.

With the release of Apple's iPhone Software Developer's Kit (SDK) earlier this year, there has been tremendous speculation, along with a few sneak peeks of next generation applications for this mobile device from the likes of SalesForce.com, EA and Sega.

What's driving this fervor? Apple's elegant hardware and sleek user interface certainly go a long way toward forging a relationship between users and their device, but things really get interesting when one brings the accelerometer and multi-touch technology into play.

With the accelerometer the iPhone can measure gravity-induced reaction forces -- spinning, tipping or flipping-- and multi-touch functionality enables users to interact with the touch screen by simultaneously touching it in multiple locations.

As developers begin to tap into these technologies we will start seeing groundbreaking applications. This device also presents the opportunity to dramatically change the marketing landscape. That said, the following are a few iPhone-based marketing projects now under development in SiiTE Interactive's idea lab.

Shakin' things up
SiiTE is helping one of the fastest growing frozen yogurt franchises with a mobile coupon-generating iPhone application. Users make their fruit and yogurt choices, and then literally shake the phone to blend them up. Once the concoction is ready, a mobile coupon for their drink is displayed. Yogurt fans bring their iPhone into the store to have the onscreen bar code scanned and receive a discount.

For those about to rock
Since the cell phone has evolved as the replacement cigarette lighter for fans to hold high in solidarity at rock concerts, it is time for the evolution to continue. Soon music fans will be able to not only hold their lit iPhones to illuminate the concert halls, they will be able to shake them in unison to generate the sounds of maracas, tambourines, jingle bells, etc. This mobile music app may be among promotional items fans will download as they purchase their next iTunes song.

Give a little squeeze
To help a leading orange juice brand drive home the message that their juice is fresh-squeezed, users can take the "Juicer" challenge utilizing iPhone technology. Here, users try to beat the clock and fill as many glasses of OJ as they can by tilting their iPhone to roll an orange into a squeezing zone and then use two fingers to squeeze the juice from the orange. With a flick of the wrist, the used orange is flipped off screen as the next orange rolls into place.

Radical community
Nothing is quite as good as bragging rights when it comes to the world of board sports (surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding). Soon, thanks to the accelerometer, iPhone-equipped snowboarders will be able to verify whether that last spin was a true 360. They'll also be able to keep a log of their tricks and share their info with fellow snowboarders as they virtually compete against other users, and even the pros.

iFold
Many say the art of letter writing has died as a result of email culture, but the ancient art of paper folding, or origami, may spur its resurrection. Users will soon be able to send an Origami-gram to friends. Thanks to multi-touch technology, people will be able to write a note, then fold the virtual paper into custom origami configurations. Their swans, boxes and flowers will be saved in online galleries for other users to enjoy.

There will surely be plenty more ideas to develop with these technologies as rumors about the next generation iPhones continue to spread. Some include the addition of a video camera, a broadband connection, GPS, and even haptic technology (a tactile feedback system where users will feel keys that aren't there).

As clever uses of these technologies roll out in upcoming months it will be exciting to see how Apple will make an impression on us with "one more thing."

Alan Ruthazer is CEO, SiiTE Interactive.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19490.asp

Understanding teenagers in the digital space

This posts aims to investigate who teenagers are, how they use the Internet, and how we should be targeting them. 

[Thanks to Sramana Mitra for this post]

Teenagers are trendsetters and are early adopters and they total 33 million in the U.S. They are also aspirational in nature. They prefer to stay ahead of the pack. Research shows that 67% of the teenagers in the U.S. own a mobile phone and 45% of them have iPods. 32% of the teenagers play computer or video games frequently. According to CBSNews.com poll, teenagers on average spend 2.9 hours surfing the Internet daily and are among the most avid users of the Internet.

87% of the teenagers log on to the Internet from their home whereas around 75% of the teens log on from school or a friend’s house. The Internet is a vital part of the teenagers’ education process and 90% of the teens in the U.S. use the Internet to research school assignments. 88% of the teenagers’ use the Internet for email, 82% Instant Messaging, 68% social networking and 60% download music. Compared to 16% of adults, 28% of the teenagers have blogs and it is an important medium for them to share personal news and commentary.

According to reports published by USA Today an estimated 65% of undergraduates in US colleges are members of TheFacebook.com and an approximate 900,000 high school students hold accounts with either MySpace.com or Xanga.com. Teenagers dislike intrusive advertising but don’t mind brand messages and product placements, if they are informative or are subtle, especially, humorous.

Teen Favorites

According to Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU) 34% of the teenagers aged 12 to 19, ranked MySpace.com as their favorite website. Yahoo.com was second with 19% votes and Google.com claimed the third spot with 14% votes. They use Google.com and Yahoo.com to either check mail or search material for their assignments or stuff that they would like to buy or are curious about.

Social Networking is very popular among the teenagers and most of them spend on an average one hour daily to either post or read postings. MySpace.com, TheFacebook.com, Xanga.com and Tagged.com are the most popular social networking websites among the teenagers. Video and photo-sharing websites like YouTube.com and Flickr.com are fast catching on with the teens, who are creating profiles and sharing their videos and photo collections. iTunes is another favorite of the teens. Sports sites like ESPN.com are popular among the male teens.

Visit Alexa for the top 9 websites visited by teenagers.

Why Teenagers?

Teenagers are not into online shopping as only 6% shops online. However, they do spend a lot of time researching products online, which they intend to buy. Teenagers directly and indirectly control billions of dollars in purchasing power and according to TRU, teenagers helped spend around $159 billion in 2005 and this amount is expected to grow by 5% CAGR in the next 5 years. Since teens spend a lot of time online, marketers want to use the Internet to grab the eyeballs, create brand awareness and build brand loyalty among the teenagers who influence family purchase decisions.

Such has been the popularity of the Internet media that Teen People a popular teenage magazine has withdrawn its print edition and decided to concentrate on its website ONLY. According to TNS Media Intelligence advertisement revenues for TeenPeople.com has grown six folds from 2004 to 2005 indicating a strategic shift in advertising and elevating the Internet as the most preferred medium. Elle Girl also withdrew its print edition and is currently available only on the Net.

Teenagers today spend more time (average 2.9 hours) on the Internet than they spend reading newspaper or magazines. Online newspapers and magazines along with blogs are more interesting and spontaneous for these next generation kids as it provides them with an interactive platform to share views across the globe. eMarketer forecasts ad spending on social networking to reach $2 billion by 2010 and projects video ad spending to rise 82.2% in 2006 and 89.0% in 2007.

Prospective employers, college admissions offices, and marketers are logging on to social networking websites like MySpace.com to gather information about the teenagers and to fine tune their product and service offerings according to the teenagers’ preferences. These websites give a very good idea of what’s their on the teenagers’ mind. As teenagers discuss among themselves, marketers can find out, which sports, food, apparel, gadgets, cars are on the top of their mind.

Business Model

A large portion of the advertising dollars are shifting from traditional mediums like print and television to the digital media. Video game companies have radically shifted their marketing dollars to the web, and in fact, they are themselves becoming good places to advertise, as inline advertise in computer games become popular.

According to Fuse a youth-marketing agency, online advertising is much cheaper than other forms of advertising and could be done with a budget of $2,000 to $3,000. According to experts online advertising provides more bang for every dollar spend than print or television.

Advertisement revenues are the main source of revenues for these websites. The advertising rates for Yahoo start with low minimum monthly subscriptions ranging from $10 to $50. The average cost per click for teenage category is $0.12 while the overall cost per click is $0.07, which implies the cost-effective pricing for advertising space targeted at teenagers. Advertising can be placed on most websites with a budget of $3000. Attractive discounts are offered to advertisers with budgets over $10,000.

Social networking has experienced phenomenal growth in the past year and marketers are more than willing to associate with them as they see it as a wonderful opportunity to reach out to their target customer. U.S. ad spend on social networking is expected to be $865 million in 2007 and MySpace.com will account for $525 million or 60% of the total ad spend in 2007.

Though social networking on the Internet is a huge success, most of the websites are burning cash today and it will take a while before they generate profits. ClassMates.com a social networking website, which attracts around 125,000 visits daily and has over 3.5 million registered members from 30,000 High Schools, is a profitable venture.

Venture Capital, M&A and PE Activity

With the strong growth in revenues and profits of new age media companies like Google and Yahoo and the soaring popularity of Internet businesses like MySpace.com and YouTube.com, Venture Capital and Private Equity Firms are back scouting and investing in similar Internet businesses, especially those targeted at the youth. The social networking space targeted is experiencing a lot of investment from venture capitalists. VC’s expect Internet to be their preferred medium of communication. Teenage social networking is a niche segment that has exhibited significant growth in the past two years.

Below are details of some VC fundings of websites that are targeted at teenagers:

[Note: Friendster number is the recapitalized number.]

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation bought MySpace.com in mid 2005 for $580 million and today it is the fastest growing social network with over 140 million users. Google bought out YouTube.com in October 2006 for $1.65 billion. United Online acquired Classmates.com for $131.4 million in November 2004.

Competitive Market but Opportunity in Niche

Major media companies like Google, Yahoo, Viacom, News Corp. and AOL are all trying to woo the teenagers. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and so the Internet is full of clones of social networking, video and photo-sharing sites and with start-up costs low and VCs more than willing to fund new ventures in this space, it has resulted in over-crowding of the space. 2007 is expected to witness fierce competition in the social media space, and a lot of carcasses. Behavioral science shows that teenagers are fickle-minded and tend to change their tastes frequently. It is tough to hold on to their interest levels.

There is opportunity in niche websites targeted at teenagers as they spend a lot of time surfing the net. Research by Youth Trends show that young teens prefer visiting sites dedicated to them. If they are provided with quality, dynamic content, user friendly interface, with a chance to interact and play among themselves, it will appeal to them. Flip.com, a niche site for teenage girls by Publisher Conde Nast is slated to be launched in 2007, plans to do just that. Social networks still do not have adequate ROI metrics and this could be an opportunity for new generation networks to attract advertising dollars by leveraging the strength of their parent companies. In this case, CondeNast owns the popular fashion magazine Vogue, which might be able to direct both important celebrities, content and key advertisers their way.

Conclusion

Teenagers are being chased by the entrepreneurs, media companies and advertising dollars. iPod and iTunes became a massive hit by using the teenager segment as their penetration point. It remains to be seen who else does a comparably good job in leveraging this segment’s tremendous online presence and early-adoption capabilities. Obvious players in the Education industry are dogs, and sadly, they have not at all woken up to social networking’s significant potential in educating teenagers.

http://sramanamitra.com/articles/segments-and-lifestyles/teenagers/

How to connect with teenage girls in cyber space - legally of course!

This is an interesting blog looking at how the fashion industry is using an existing gaming platform to make money, rather then generating content which they hope teenagers will engage with. 

How will other retailers embrace social networking and other interactive technologies to help them build their brands?

Thanks to Forbes.com for this post.

Teenagers are easy to reach if you know how to play their game.

For the fashion industry, traditionally a late adopter of technology, it has been a particularly steep learning experience even though pre-teens and teens directly and indirectly control billions of dollars in purchasing power. But a small Swedish company called Stardoll seems to have cracked the code on how to hook young girls (see Teen Market Overview).

Stardoll is an online community where girls ages 8 to 18 play with virtual dolls. They can make "MeDolls," dolls that look like themselves, or celebrity look-alike dolls. Girls can also dress themselves and celebrities with merchandise from a virtual shop in its virtual galleria called the "starplaza," and they can also network with other users on the site.

Join the discussion: Will retailers embrace social networking and other interactive technologies to help them build their brands? Tell us what you think in the Readers Comments section below.

Stardoll Chief Executive Mattias Miksche admits he didn't completely understand his market when he began heading the company a few years ago. "When I first saw the initial site I didn't really get it--like most men," he says. "But I showed it to my wife, who was 35, and to my daughter, who was 5--and they both absolutely loved it. So I figured there could be quite an untapped market there."

Today, Stockholm-based Stardoll features more than 330 dolls and tens of thousands of virtual garments and accessories. It is also the No. 1 site worldwide for pre-teen and teen girls, according to comScore. The site has over 7 million unique visitors per month and 16 million registered users from 200 countries.

Compare these numbers to TeenVogue, Conde Nast's magazine that targets the same demographic and has less than 3 million readers. TeenVogue's mission statement says: "Style-conscious girls everywhere know there's only one source for relevant fashion and beauty news communicated in a sophisticated tone with the power of the Vogue brand. In a time of expanding media choices, true authority is irreplaceable--and unmistakable."

Is it?

Stardoll, like Vogue, earns revenues from advertising. Advertisers on Stardoll include major fashion and entertainment brands such as Donna Karan, LVMH, Disney (nyse: DIS - news - people ) and Sephora. Stardoll also earns revenues from products sold in its virtual shop. The site sells between 60,000 to 180,000 items per day.

Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures think Stardoll is building an addictive destination for a prized demographic, and they have invested $10 million in the company.

Despite Stardoll's success, the fashion industry hasn't yet figured out how to take advantage of the company to help it build brands. Here's an example of how this might work.

Zara, a retailer based in Spain, launches a virtual collection on Stardoll, which becomes an instant viral hit among pre-teen and teenage girls. Let's say seven designs in the collection bubble up to the top as the most popular, each with an average following of 1.2 million girls. Knowing this, would Zara need any other focus group or market research to figure out exactly what is striking a chord with its target consumers?

If Zara becomes really disciplined, it can pre-launch each season's designs into Stardoll, collect market feedback and provide that data to its stores around the world. Zara can also do geographically targeted research through Stardoll. For instance, Zara's Florida stores can look at data for Florida consumers, while Los Angeles stores can drill down on what teens in L.A. like.

I spent a year working with the fashion industry during the dot-com heydays, and I was struck by how little science and analysis is applied in the fashion business. As a result, the industry remains a nightmare of surplus inventory, which leads to markdowns and unhealthy profit-and-loss statements that precariously balance companies at the edge of life and death.

But it doesn't need to be this way. Other industries, such as financial services, manufacturing and insurance, have embraced technology and benefited tremendously from its infinite potential. Why not fashion?

http://www.forbes.com/technology/ebusiness/2008/05/29/mitra-stardoll-retail-tech-ebiz-cx_sm_0530stardoll.html

Mobile Advertising Key to Reaching Consumers in Economic Downturn

[Thanks to MC Marketing Charts for this interesting post on leveraging mobile advertising]

Despite rising fuel and food prices, over one-third of consumers say the economy will not affect their spending habits - so most say it will - and one way for advertisers to grab consumers’ attention in such times may be via their mobile devices, according to a new study.

For marketers interested in reaching fickle consumers during this economic downturn, there’s hope in that 41% consumer say they have no plans to stop or cut-back on the purchase of cell phones, found a Harris Interactive study on people’s attitudes toward the economy and technology.

Most (60%) of consumers who say they will limit their discretionary spending will curtail going out to restaurants (74%) and purchasing electronics (71%), among other choices like buying fewer clothes and taking fewer vacations.

Meanwhile, the use of mobile phones has become an indispensable part of their lives for many, and many are even severing ties to landlines: 16% of US homes are using wireless phones exclusively - more than double the number from four years ago, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

These trends support the push by marketers to leverage mobile advertising as part of an integrated marketing program to promote their brands and sell products and services, Harris analysts conclude.

Mobile Advertising Findings

Mobile advertising can gain a foothold if it is unobtrusive, targeted toward an individual’s personal tastes and offers something unique, Harris said:

Among teens surveyed, over half (56%) said they would be interested in viewing mobile ads with incentives, while over one-third (37%) of adults noted that they would be receptive to such advertising.

As the best mobile advertising incentive, cash is king, with 80% of adults and 70% of teens identifying it as the top incentive for responding to mobile advertising:

Entertainment downloads (61%), free music (57%) and complimentary minutes (53%) also are popular incentives among teens.

Among adults, free minutes (49%) and discount coupons (37%) are appealing incentives. Free entertainment (31%) and music (24%) downloads also captured the attention of adults.

As for types of ads preferred, adults tend to favor dining deals (53%) whereas teens are interested in outdoor activities, travel and entertainment (70%).

Text messaging is the most preferred advertising approach for over two-thirds (69% of adults and 64% of teens) of consumers:
Teens are more willing to accept advertising images on their mobile phones (47%), versus adults (35%).

The allure of video imagery in mobile advertising is down 10% among adults from last year, but adults are now more open to ads’ being transferred automatically to their email (30%) than in the past.

Providing personal information to marketers to help them target advertising messages and products has always been a sensitive topic, but more than half (54%) of adult respondents say they are comfortable doing so for mobile advertisers, especially if offered for the right incentive. 

Others agree, but want to choose who sees this information (21%).

Teens, surprisingly, are guarded about their personal information - only 35% would divulge it, even if an incentive is offered, and 25% say they would never provide personal information.

About the data (pdf): The 2008 Consumer Acceptance of Mobile Advertising study was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive in February 2008 among 1,000 US adults age 18 and over and 200 teenagers age 13-17. The 2008 Telecom Report was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive in April 2008 among 1,000 US adults age 18 and over. The data were weighted to reflect the US population.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/topics/email/mobile-advertising-key-to-reaching-consumers-in-economic-downturn-4750/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

How to tap into mobile social networking without pissing off the user

[Thanks to i Media Connection for this post]

Published: May 15, 2008

Finding the ad opportunities in mobile

By Tom Hespos


Success in mobile social networking will come for online marketers when they learn to make investments in the user's flow experience.

I often save my social networking tasks for my train ride home. It's a good time to approve friend requests in Facebook, answer questions from my LinkedIn network, and update my Twitter feed with my latest 140-character news nuggets.

All of this can be done from my BlackBerry Pearl, a smartphone that is a couple of years old, but by no means lagging behind the pack from a capabilities standpoint. Facebook has an application built specifically for BlackBerries, which I've been using for several months now. It's great for approving friend requests, sending and getting private messages, poking someone, or maybe writing on someone's wall, but it's definitely not the full Facebook experience that can be had on a PC. Still, I've used it to connect with friends and business associates alike, and the application is valuable enough to me that if I got a new phone today, I'd be looking to make sure whatever phone I bought was compatible with Facebook's mobile experience.

Twitter has a nice mobile site as well, stripping down the interface so that mobile phones can digest it more quickly and easily. Posting a tweet is easy, as is catching up on feeds from followers and folks you follow.

It's not as if Twitter had an ad-supported model to begin with, but when I network over my phone, there's a distinct and very noticeable lack of advertising. The targeted Facebook ads I'm used to seeing, as well as the generally irrelevant skyscrapers down the left-hand side of the website, are not part of the mobile experience. I don't see ads on LinkedIn when I log into my account.

It's obvious that decisions have been made that are favorable toward usability. I'm sure the social networking players have had offers to monetize the mobile channel but have made the decision to stick with keeping their applications easy to use. So the question on my mind is: "Will there ever be an ad opportunity in mobile social networking?"

I've long said that my own firm tends to shoot down many more mobile ad proposals than it approves for client media plans. By and large, this is due to a systematic problem with the ability of mobile ads to deliver. For direct response campaigns, the information-gathering process is often too cumbersome for mobile devices. (Not always, just the majority of the time.) For branding campaigns, we often don't have enough screen real estate to positively impact brand metrics. Couple all this together with the bandwidth restrictions of the typical mobile user and the fact that their mobile consumption tends to reflect a higher degree of immediacy of need for something other than a client's product, and we're stuck in a spot where most mobile proposals don't meet our needs.

Now, let's fold in some of the intricacies of social networking. I've said in this space before that extending utility to the end user and being a part of the flow experience are better approaches to the social space than straight advertising. I think this goes double for mobile social networking.

Think about it for a second. If you're managing your social life online, as many people both young and old do today, and you're on a mobile device that may or may not have a good enough connection in the next five minutes to continue a private message conversation or approve a connection request, how tweaked are you going to be when you find out that the thing holding your connection up is 45K worth of banner ads?

On the other hand, if a brand extended value in the form of a mobile app that supported multi-user mobile chat, would that not be a better position to be in? Instead of mobile users dreading the connection-clogging properties of your ad, they're actually looking forward to it. Seems to me that I'd rather have people welcoming my marketing material than shunning it.

To me, success in mobile social networking will come for online marketers when they learn to avoid straight messaging and make investments in extending utility and becoming an uninterruptive part of the user's flow experience.

Tom Hespos is the president of Underscore Marketing and blogs at Hespos.com.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19354.asp

Mobile marketing for teens

[Thanks to Los Angeles Times for this post]

Advertisers in touch with teens' cellphones

Youths are signing up to have pitches, photos and links to websites sent to their multifunction mobile devices.
By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 23, 2008
As she readied for last night's prom, Jamie McGraw asked her friends for advice about hairstyles, shoes and a dress.

She also turned to her cellphone for a little help.


A nation of young mobile phone users
McGraw receives daily text messages from Seventeen magazine about fashion, including tips about what to wear to the prom. She planned to take the magazine's suggestion to wear a brightly colored outfit and be prepared for "dress malfunctions." "When the texts recommend a certain look that sounds good, I will try it out, but it doesn't always mean buying something," the 17-year-old Laguna Niguel resident said.

Yakking teens and phones have been inseparable for decades. The difference today is that teens use their cellphones for a lot more than just talking. It has become a palm-size entertainment and information center increasingly consuming their time and attention. Advertisers are realizing that if they want to reach teens, they need their number -- literally.

"They're not watching TV, you're not reaching them in other places," said Andrew Miller, chief executive of Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising network. "Mobile is where they congregate."

This year, shy escorts can buy (for 99 cents) a preproduced video of a guy asking a girl to the prom ("We'd take amazing prom pictures together," he says) and then send it via mobile phone to ask a girl out, thanks to Venice-based Mogreet Inc.His nervous date can visit Cosmo Girl's mobile phone site and look at the prom section to find out how to say "No" to alcohol. And she can go to PromGirl.com to download a widget that lets her browse for prom dresses on her phone without burning up valuable Internet minutes.

It may all seem a little bothersome, but teens don't mind receiving messages about products on their phones, says Nic Covey, director of insights at research firm Nielsen Mobile. Nielsen said teens were nearly twice more likely than adults to trust and respond to advertising and pitches on mobile phones.

"For them, responding to an ad that's relevant by sending a text or following a link on their phone is a logical brand engagement," Covey said. It's so natural that the student council at Notre Dame high school in Sherman Oaks decided to invite teens to their graduation via a prerecorded video sent over a mobile phone.

Not all teens are so readily accessible, of course. Molly Nadeau, a senior at Fairfax High in Los Angeles, loves the trendy and inexpensive fashions of Forever 21 Inc., but that doesn't mean she wants to be inundated with blurbs about its latest blouses or jewelry on her mobile phone.

"Once they have my number, I just think the ads would come 24/7," she said. "I wouldn't want that." That wouldn't make her father happy, Nadeau noted, since he pays the phone bill and her plan doesn't allow for unlimited text messages.

Marketers claim they are sensitive to such resistance, saying that's why they craft the ads more in terms of useful information teens would want to get on their phones.

Hearst Magazines, for instance, has developed nine different mobile sites across different magazines, including Seventeen and Cosmo Girl. Cosmo Girl's site contains information on horoscopes, gossip, fashion, career advice and beauty tips, alongside promotions from retail giant J.C. Penney Co. and cosmetics maker Clinique Laboratories. Teens can also send a text message when they see a product they like in the magazine and sometimes receive a free sample.

"We decided we needed to follow [the reader] with our brands -- wherever she is, we needed to be there with her as a source of entertainment," said Sophia Stuart, director of mobile for Hearst Magazines Digital Media.

That means a prom section that gives girls advice on date etiquette and fun things to do aside from drinking and having sex. "We wanted to help her have a script and be there if she needs our help," Stuart said.

Other brands are messaging their way into teens' phones as well. Teens interested in Element Skateboards can sign up for text message alerts when there are skate events in their area, or when stores get new products. Those who want to be in the know about clothing retailer G by Guess can get text messages about sales and promotions.

"You have to take an active role in integrating a brand into consumers' lifestyles by being in their pockets," said Roman Tsunder, president of Access 360 Media Inc., which recently launched promotions for Guess Inc. and Element that encouraged teens to sign up to get text messages on their cellphones from the companies.

Teens don't seem to mind the text messages they receive from the retailers. Tsunder said only 4% of people who sign up for the texts ask to stop getting them. And Miller said 2% to 4% of those who see or receive ads on mobile phones click on them to find out more information. On the Internet via computers, so-called click-through rates are generally closer to 0.01%.

Some teens do mind, however, if advertisers bug them too overtly, said Alyson Hyder, media director for California at Avenue A/Razorfish, a digital marketing firm.

"They will be quick to turn on the backlash," Hyder said. That's why "brands that target the teen audience are looking at more authentic ways to insert themselves into the conversation, as opposed to advertising."

For a Nintendo Co. campaign, rather than send teens an ad about a new Nintendo game, mobile-phone marketing firm Hyperfactory published a brain teaser relating to it in game magazines. Users sent a text message to get the answer, and they received a message back with a link to sign up for alerts about the game and download free wallpaper and mobile games. The company declined to say how many consumers participated.

When Kiwibox.com, an online teen magazine, launches a service to send teens text messages with horoscopes and celebrity alerts this year, they'll include a short advertisement at the end sponsored by different brands such as Sparq Inc., a company that designs workout training programs for aspiring athletes, and Paramount Pictures.

But it can be a thin line between the type of product pitches that teens will accept on their mobile phones and those they won't.

Quentin Brown, an 18-year-old high school senior from Santa Monica, said he texted to vote during the National Basketball Assn.'s slam-dunk competition at this year's All-Star game. In return, he received a flurry of text messages with offers to buy jerseys and other basketball-related stuff. He didn't mind the texts for the jerseys, since he's interested in them and always looking for deals. But he didn't like getting ones about things he didn't care about, such as asking him to join an NBA fantasy draft or go to NBA summer camp.

"They were kind of stalking me," he said. "But then they stopped and I was glad."

alana.semuels@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/business/custom/admark/la-fi-teenphone23-2008may23,0,2679094.story

See below also for stats on USA teen mobile usage:

http://www.latimes.com/business/custom/admark/la-fi-teenbox23-2008may23,0,1140698.story