A study by IDC (U.S. Wireless Wallpaper and Graphical Content 2004-2008 Forecast) reveals that graphical content has emerged in 2004 as the fastest-growing mass market for wireless data in the United States. The business, which includes wallpapers, caller ID graphics and screensavers, should grow from just under $150 million this year to over $1.1 billion by 2008.
Despite this interesting indication, low penetration levels of advanced handsets, lack of digital rights management standards, lack of cross-carrier shortcodes and relatively low user awareness of the availability of such content still represent a huge obstacle to the business development.

To become famous, all you need is a mobile camera phone.
Italian carrier Tim has launched an MMS based casting to discover new "movie talents". The competition is divided in two parts: users can text a 20 seconds video with an interpretation of their favourite movie character, getting the chance to win the participation in a movie. The other option is to send a picture, in this case the best one will win a photographic book by Claudio Porcarelli.
The initiative will be supported by a promotional tour around the main Italian cities.

Orbital has developed the online presence for Gin Larios. The site aims at engaging young consumers with the brand (of course they have to be older than 18). As Diario Ipmark reports, the section "Fiestas Antárticas" challenges people to join dance parties around Spain to win an iPod mini and Gin Larios merchandising.

Ericsson and Proximity Worldwide have signed an agreement to jointly promote effective solutions for mobile marketing. Starting in four countries, Germany, Italy, Singapore, and the United States, the mobile infrastructure will be utilized as a marketing communications channel. Johan Bergendahl, Vice President Marketing at Ericsson comments:

3G Americas has published a white paper (.pdf) which identifies the development approaches and business models for consumer wireless applications as well as substantiates the opportunity of this growing wireless data market with the GSM family of technologies.

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This will help me paying the bills and launching new features in the next future.
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Zugara has created a new site for Reebok. RBK Streets is a cool site where users can hang around, interact with the environment to discover Reebok's shoes and an impressive range of goodies.
The site works for branding, since it ties in sport, lifestyle and music under the RBK banner. It also presents a promotion featuring 50 Cent and a contest where you can create your own mix, upload it, and 50 Cent will judge it. Furthermore, there is a loyalty-type program for RBK. As the user plays the games and interacts with the site, he/she earns 'street cred'. There is a contest each month where the person with the highest street cred amount wins. Additional cred is earned the more a person plays either the DJ game in the 40/40 Club (S. Carter area) or in the Alley-Opp game at the Above the Rim Court.

Tony Blair will join a mobile chat room to get in touch with its public. The initiative is the first of its kind, and it's surely extremely interesting. The only problem as The Register reports, is that the questions are being vetted in advance...

Glue London has created a micro-site and a viral game to promote Eurostar's 10th birthday. As Brand Republic reports, the site is connected to the tv spot by TBWA\London.

Digital-Lifestyles.info reports thee BBC will be launching a multi-format campaign to promote Digital Radio. The ads, created by Fallon, will run until Christmas on tv, radio and the Internet.

TextnWatch2Win100K is an initiative launched by Unwired Appeal and Insite Media Group to engage spectators during NY Knicks basketball matches. During the first quarter of select Knicks’ games, fans are broadcast questions via television ads, radio spots, and SMS. After registering, participants can instantly reply to questions using text-messaging from their cell phones. Results are tracked during the game and broadcast live during the fourth quarter.
Keary Griffin, director of technology at Unwired Appeal comments:

Tire manufacturer Uniroyal has launched an advergame to support its online marketing efforts. The Uniroyal Fun Cup is a realistic web race developed by the German agency WM Team. The game has an impressive graphics (that can even make you sick...), and it's available in five languages.

There is a big buzz around mobile gaming, consumers want to play, and developers want to make money out of it. On Wireless Developer Network Jim Harvey of Pinpoint Networks shares a few suggestions to make the mobile gaming business profitable.

Blockdot has released a new holiday game called, “Attack of the Mutant Artificial Trees”. The game is a 'point and shoot' style game in which mutated artificial trees burst out of their boxes with sounds like "bah humbug" and eerie monster groans in their effort to take away your Christmas spirit.
The National Christmas Tree Association sponsored the game and is using it to educate players on the positive points of having a real Christmas tree this year. The advergame also presents the opportunity for kids ages 6-16 to win a $5,000-$10,000 scholarship or a trip for four to two exciting destinations.

The game is nice, but I believe the funniest thing about this news is the fact that a "Christmas Tree Association" exists... Strange things happen in the US...

In-Stat/MDR reports Mobile gaming is emerging as one of the fastest-growing and most popular applications in India's digital consumer economy. The Indian mobile gaming market will generate $26 million (US$) in revenue in 2004, and will increase to $336 million in annual revenue by 2009. Clint Wheelock, Director of In-Stat/MDR's wireless research group comments:

The Cal, Pirelli's Calendar 2005 by photographer Patrick Demarchellier is online on Msn.it. As Pubblicità Italia (in Italian) reports, the site features models' biographies, pictures from the calendar and an exclusive backstage video. Users visiting MSN's special section can also enter a competition to win the dvd edition of Pirelli 2005 Calendar.

After the great success of the online ordering service, Domino Pizza is going wireless. Next year Domino will launch a text ordering and delivery service. As New Media Age reports, Domino's already has a shortcode (61212) and the service will be operated in-house.

Gartner G2 presents a comment on the Internet's influence as a news medium. The analysis by Mike McGuire starts from the recent presidential election in the United States, which illustrated to political and media incumbents alike the Internet's power to raise money, deliver information, seek assistance and empower feedback.

The Opera Economic & Media Forecast 2005 (.pdf) predicts online advertising will overtake radio. The report analyses in particular the UK advertising economy, compares different media and anticipates a series of trends for 2005. Opera predicts the online advertising marketplace will be worth £699m in 2005, a 26.2% increase over these years total of £553m. Advertisers' confidence in the medium is growing, and technology (i.e. broadband) is unveiling new ways to reach, interact and engage users.
Finance, Travel, Automotive and IT (Computing and Mobile Telephony) are the categories driving online spend.

Looking for a smart online advertising agency in The Netherlands? I have an idea, have a look at Frisidee... My friend Paul just launched it, and it's set for success!

Online ads work for branding, says Andrew Warner, the global brand director of SonyEricsson. His opinion is reported in an article on intellagencia.com:

Last week we talked about Fox launching a mobile version of its 24 series. The news has attracted the interest of The Motley Fool (free reg.) as well, where Steve Mallas wrote a good comment about Fox' marketing strategy taking advantage of a new channel.

The mobile episodes represent a cost-effective way to brand the 24 series, building awareness in users both about the content and the mobile video technology.

In an innovative in-venue campaign, ThumbPlay has partnered up with Swagger Wireless to provide concertgoers to the current national 'Jay-Z and Friends' tour with an on-screen chat application, in which text messages are displayed on large video screens installed in the concert venues.
ThumbPlay and Swagger Wireless have created the first travelling text-to-big screen application, which enables marketers to develop truly interactive promotional programs with consumers. The application covers all major U.S. carriers, at a cost of 99 cents per message sent up to the big screen. The promotion runs for 30 minutes before each of the 40 concerts on the current U.S. Jay-Z tour, providing a revenue source for the artist as well as a fun, interactive promotional program for audience members.
Are Traasdahl, the president and founder of ThumbPlay commented:

Nike has created an online follow-up ad for its Shox shoes. At www.nikeshox.com people can see the second part of the tv spot by Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam in which a man a man chases the hot dog stand through the streets of Lisbon.

Italian carrier Tim and Buongiorno Vitaminic have created "Melody Card Ferrarelle", a card inside the 6-bottles pack of Ferrarelle mineral water, with a code to get a free ringtone. Pubblicità Italia reports about the initiative which will run until the end of February and will be open to users of all Italian carriers. The code a part from the free ringtone will also allow consumers to enter a draw to win a Nokia 6600.
The Melody Card will be promoted with a tv campaign on MTV and an sms marketing campaign to Tim users subscribed to the TimSpot service.

Mobile entertainment services will propel 3G to become a high-volume, high-revenue industry. Doug Rasor, Texas Instruments' Vice President and Manager for Worldwide Strategic Marketing, is convinced that ringtones, 3d games, video and multi-megapixel cameras will drive the growth of 3G. Stockwatch reports the press release about Rasor's presentation at the 3G World Congress:

Text and buy your train ticket to travel through the Swiss Federal Railway. NZZ Online reports Switzerland’s Federal Railways has announced plans to sell tickets over the mobile phone network next year.
Travellers will be able to buy their tickets by texting a message - indicating their departure station and destination - to a dedicated number. They will then receive a message that can be used as a ticket.

I wonder how the controller will validate the ticket ;-)

Sony Ericsson has launched a multi-channel effort to promote its new K500i camera phone. The "Sleep-Tomorrow" campaign by Mec Digital will be featured through the Lycos European network until February 2005.
A competition giving away a five-days vacation is associated to the initiative. To enter, people had to submit a description of how they will spend their perfect day. Now we are already in the second phase of the challenge, in order to win a "perfect" day, users have to guess the best five ideas selected by Sony.

To find out more about Sony Ericsson online branding strategies, you can also read a comment by Philip Smith on Revolution.

If your rent a car from Europcar for three times, you get a guide to the best restaurant in Italy. The initiative "Travel with taste" is supported by an online campaign (by Slash) which employs about 7 percent of the budget. The planning includes banners, rich media on sites with high traffic volumes like Virgilio and Repubblica, and keyword advertising through Google and Overture networks.

It sounds like a menace, but it's just the title of CNN's branding campaign launched online and on Tv. iMediaConnection explains the initiative features CNN on-air journalists such Christiane Amanpour,and Paula Zahn in humorous promotional spots.

The IAB has released a new detailed definition and standard for global online ad impression measurement. The guidelines have the support of almost all major online publishers, as well as approximately 35 out of the 37 major online advertising server technologies worldwide.
A full copy of the new guidelines is available at:
http://www.iab.net/standards/measurement.asp.

I'm sorry I can't be positive when I read about such campaigns. I have nothing against Microsoft or Intel, I just believe the theme they have chosen is rather depressing. The "Digital Joy" concept summarizes the negative aspects of contemporary lifestyles. I don't want the brands to take me back to the countryside, I'm perfectly aware of the technology's pervasiness, and I couldn't probably leave without my cell phone or my iBook. What I don't like is the association of the concept of joy to the digital world that is around us. Let's try to keep things simple and don't celebrate the Big Brother becoming part of our lifes.

Ok, enough with boring personal comments, here is the link to the campaign description: the press release by Intel presenting the integrated marketing effort created by Deutsch.

The promotion in Italyof the new Honda Fr-V has started last week and will last for about ten days. As Pubblicità Italia (in Italian) refers, the creativity is by Ata De Martini, while ZenithOptimedia Interactive managed the planning. The campaign objective is to build awareness and attract potential customers to the open day, November 20 when the car will be officiali launched on the market.
As it usually happens for this kind of initiative, there is also a competition which gives away a journey for six people.

The launch of the new Opel Tigra TwinTop has been promoted in Switzerland with a multi-channel campaign created by Trio. The initiative has included an advergame and a smart MMS-based guerrilla marketing game to engage people around the country. People who signed up with their mobile received an SMS alert saying the new Tigra car was in town, the ones who were able to take a picture of it could then send an MMS to enter a competition and win a car.
To find out more about "Catch the Tigra" you can read the case study on Trio's site (opens a .pdf in French).

The New Zealand Herald publishes today the list of the annual Netguide winners. The best web sites are listed per category.

Emerce (in Dutch) reports the online advertising market has grown by 62 percent in the third quarter (with respect to the same period of 2003). According to IAB NL and BBC De Media en Reclamebank which examined datas provided by thirteen companies in the advertising industry (Msn, Lycos, Adformatie, Funda, Wanadoo etc...) there has been a total spending of 14.7 million euros. The amount is slightly lower than the one invested in the second quarter (15.6 million euros) but confirms the extremely positive trend of the Dutch market in 2004.

Pan Advertising has created a web site to present and promote the new Ford Focus in Italy. On www.newfocusexperience.it users can get in touch with the new car and its lifestyle. The most interesting part of the site is the FocusTrip, where people can sign up to win a week-end in a European capital, as well as a fuel bonus or the possibility to drive around the new Focus for seven days.

The interesting thing to note is that in order to enter the competition, you need to provide your mobile telephone number. They say it's the only way they have to inform you in case of winnings... Apparently it's a smart move to enrich their database, but I believe many users might be annoyed by the "pushy" request.

Nestlé is promoting the launch of its new cereals in France with an integrated marketing campaign developed with the support of Phonevalley and Business Interactif. On the cereals' packs consumers find a code they can use on the dedicated web site 1Max2Bol.com to win mobile phones Siemens C65 or free SMS to be sent through the site. As explained in Business Interactif's press release, the campaign aims at generating awareness of Nestlé's new Lion, Crunch and Golden Grahams brands taking advantage of a viral effect and of teenagers' interest in mobile messaging.
The planning also includes tv and radio ads as well as presentations in students' campus.

Pfizer has decided to extend its streaming video advertising campaign with MSN Video through the end of 2005. The news is reported on ClickZ, explaining that the decision has been taken after reading the results of a study conducted by Millward Brown, which claims that online video ads are as effective as tv spots.

The article does not question Pfizer's decision, which is legitimate, but the reason that has been provided to explain it. Online video ads might be effective, but probably they are not the most effective way for online branding.

PS: This might be the study Pfizer refers to: Streaming Media on the Web:
The Involvement of TV Style Ads In a - Lean Forward - Medium. If this is the one, it has been presented in 2000, and we definetely need more evidences to prove the case...

Spanish bank Bankinter has launched an sms based service to inform people each time their bank card is used. As MarketingDirecto (in Spanish) explains this service has the objective to let people know on time if their card has been stolen or misused.

The London 2012 Committee has presented a website to promote its candidacy. The site and a viral push that supports the initiative has been developed by Panlogic. If you feel like supporting London, sign the flag (to make Britain proud...).

An advergame (Poppit?) and a quiz have been launched by Kimberly-Clark to promote its Kotex brand. MediaPost explains the internet effort will include a video of an animated ad, which will be shown on sites visited by women aged 18-24.

Swiss chocolate producer Lindt is running an online campaign in Italy to promote its products. The creative has been developed by Olà and aims at highlighting the quality of Lindt chocolate by stimulating all the senses. As Pubblicità Italia refers, ads will be running on the online version of the magazines donnamoderna.com and panorama.it.

24: Conspiracy will be available to Vodafone users thanks to an agreement signed with Twentieth Century Fox. As AdWeek reports, the series is designed to be seen on 3G mobile phones and will consist in 24, one-minute weekly vignettes to the Vodafone mobile phone community in 23 countries.

Easyjet is running today a one-day campaign on MSN to promoted its brand and its 187 destinations. The creative has been developed by OMD Digital.

If you integrate online and offline in your viral marketing campaign it would turn out far more effective. This is one of the lessons learned by Motorola in two years of online marketing. An interesting article on ContentBiz.com tells more about Motorola's online efforts.

About one month ago I posted about Snapple's mobile marketing initiative in the US. The results of the campaign have been presented last week in a press release: the campaign was successful at generating brand awareness among a hard to reach demographic and had a quantifiable effect on increased sales and intention to purchase Snapple in the future.

Snapple's mobile marketing program was built around "Snaffle", Snapple's main promotion for the critical summer months. Snapple printed numbers on 225 million bottle caps that the public could then match with winning Snaffle numbers. The campaign experienced excellent positive responses, and 33% of those who participated bought additional Snapple products as a result.

3 and EMI have announced last week the exclusive release of Robbie Williams' new video, 'Misunderstood' to 3 mobile phones before it is premiered on TV or web. 3G.co.uk quotes the opinion of Doug Lucas, Vice President, Digital Development & Distribution at EMI Music:

Johnnie Walker Green Label is a new label launched by Diageo. It can be discovered through an interactive journey on the web site created by Dare Digital. The atmosphere is evocative and relaxing, interactivity is added to the photographs to engage users and invite them to explore the environment.

As Revolution Magazine reports, the launch of the new label is supported by online advertising and email marketing.

The trick from Asa Bailey to Ogilvy & Mather UK... have yourself a look at their web site: http://www.ogilvymather.co.uk. The domain was available for just £4.95...
The tip from Asa Bailey is "If you understood the modern brand... you'd understand how to protect it..."

While you visit Asa's web site, have a look their latest viral video.

Karlsberg has launched a music portal to support its "strange" drink Mixery which combines bier+coke+x. (I knew about Fanta+bier, but I can't imagine Coke+bier... no offense, but only Germans are able to drink this kind of stuffs :-)

As Wuv explains, the portal allows users to download music, logos and ringtones for their mobile phones. There is also a competition connected to the initiative, with the sms-codes printed on Mixery's labels, consumers can get some of the above mentioned goodies for free.

Someone says mobile video represents the fourth screen, some other believe it's just the third (read the article published today on the NY Times). Anyway mobile videos and mobile marketing in general are getting more and more attention from advertisers. Recently Motorola has sponsored the "Cell Stories" a film by Ed Lachman entirely shot with the V710 camera phone which is now part of America's first phonecam "art exhibit".

Vindigo and Cadillac have partnered to launch the first contextual sponsorships for mobile phones. Cadillac Hot Spots, a sponsored channel on Vindigo city guides, provides wireless subscribers with an exclusive insider's guide to the best in shopping and restaurants in Cadillac's top 10 markets, including New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The opinion of Tom Hassett, Cadillac's interactive marketing manager, is quoted in the press release:

The beer brand Grolsch has decided to invest more in 2005 in new media communication. They will focus on online marketing and mobile channels to create an active relationship with their customers. As Nicola Young, head of relationship marketing at Coors (the brand owner) explains on New Media Age:

Coors' agency is Leith, a firm voted Scottish Agency of the Year five years running. The agency has been recently sold to Cello, a newly incorporated marketing services group (read more about it on Scotsman.com).

Bridget Jones is back with a sequel debuting next week in the UK. The new movie will be promoted online on the portal Wanadoo with a dedicated channel. The campaign has been created by Zed Media. Read more on Netimperative.

Universal Pictures is launching a mobile marketing campaign to promote the release on DVD of 'The Bourne Supremacy'. Revolution Magazine says the campaign, run by Flytxt will invite people to join the five day "Do you have what it takes to be Bourne?" an sms based challenge.
The campaign is starting this month in Australia, and will land in Europe early next year.

BBC News reports Nokia is launching a wireless ticket system on German buses. Passengers with a Nokia 3220 will be able to pay by passing their phone over a smart-card reader already installed on the buses.
Gerhard Romen, head of market development at Nokia says that the system will open further possibilities to have mobile devices to interact with everyday environments.

Are looking for more cool interactive ideas? Check the archives