AdGooroo has begun monitoring web sites in five western European and two Latin American countries for clients of its SEM Insight product.

AdGooroo provides online marketers and agencies with search engine marketing tools. AdGooroo clients now can monitor keyword-based online campaigns and competitive activity in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Mexico and Brazil.

Previously, AdGooroo clients could use SEM Insight to monitor sites based in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and Japan….More

Mobile operators face exciting opportunities to increase revenue and market share by offering innovative infrastructure solutions that allow national and regional advertisers to deliver targeted messages to mobile subscribers. Mobile marketing today is a largely untapped revenue stream, but it offers tremendous opportunities for mobile operators to create partnerships that allow advertisers to cost-effectively communicate with customers and prospects. There are several factors that have converged to make now the time right for more advanced and pervasive mobile marketing-if mobile operators are prepared to handle the new business models this opportunity can create

One of the broad, general trends impacting network readiness for mobile marketing is the advent of Mobile Messaging 2.0. This next-generation of messaging technology is transforming the one-size-fits-all short message service (SMS) into user-defined, rich media messaging where users have much more control over how they communicate with others. It incorporates an emerging set of principles that will guide operators in the development of mobile messaging networks. At its heart, Mobile Messaging 2.0 is a fundamental shift away from “network-defined messaging” to “user-defined messaging” that has the potential to benefit everyone.

In addition, it is well established that online marketing has created major revenue streams in related markets, and mobile operators can leverage insights from these experiences. For example, Google (News - Alert) has been able to leverage its primary search capabilities to create huge new revenue streams, and “free” e-mail services like Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s (News - Alert) MSN Hotmail embrace advertising and generate new revenue streams from promotions delivered through free e-mail services.

The Importance Of The Brand
Mobile operators can not only create new revenue streams via advertising, they can also leverage mobile marketing to cross-sell and up-sell existing subscribers to increase average revenue per user levels. Mobile marketing creates opportunities to deliver high-value information that improves subscriber loyalties and encourages them to increase their reliance on and utilization of mobile platforms. Mobile operators can also leverage their own infrastructure to promote their own merchandise and service offerings to the end consumer, therefore in effect becoming customers of their own mobile marketing platform.

Mobile operators have traditionally focused on building the value of their own brands so they could increase revenue and profits while building longer-lasting relationships with subscribers and reducing churn. But to succeed in the race to develop mobile marketing partnerships, for the first time mobile operators have to change the existing paradigm of branding to become a valuable channel that motivates brand marketers to shift budgets from traditional print, television and radio advertising to mobile marketing campaigns.

Last year, Airwide Solutions (News - Alert) commissioned Vanson Bourne to survey 50 leading brand names about their plans for mobile marketing. We found that 89% of major brands surveyed plan to market via text and multimedia messaging to mobile devices by next year, and that nearly one-third plan to spend in excess of 10% of their marketing budgets on mobile marketing campaigns. Within just four years, over half of the brands surveyed expect to spend up to 25% of their total marketing budgets on mobile marketing…more

A website’s domain name (also know as a website address or URL) is an important consideration when developing your online presence.

A website’s domain name (also know as a website address or URL) is an important consideration when developing your online presence. Choosing an appropriate domain name is the first step in the process of building online credibility. Remember to choose carefully because this online address may be where your business resides for the rest of its operating life. Now, some important tips to consider before choosing your domain name…more

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND, August 22, 2007 - ad:tech will be holding its third London conference and expo this autumn with hundreds of exhibitors and experts coming together to discuss the latest in Internet marketing technology.

The show is designed to bring companies operating in digital advertising and Internet marketing together with people interested in investing in the one of the most effective forms on marketing to date. The theme of this year’s ad:tech event is the consumer, and top players in the industry will be sharing their secrets with attendees on how to connect with consumers in today’s digital market….More

It is clear, at least in India, that the mobile success story has been far bigger and faster than the internet’s. As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s data, by the end of July 2007, India had a total of 192.98 million wireless subscribers under the GSM, CDMA and WLL services. The internet subscriber base stood at 9.2 million as on March 31, 2007.

A January 2007 report by Soundbuzz, a mobile music retailer, along with Pricewaterhouse Coopers and IFPI, states that revenues from physical sale of music in India will halve from Rs 1,000 crore in 2005 to Rs 500 crore in 2009/10. Interestingly, digital music online and mobile revenues are set to increase. These statistics, when viewed along with the tremendous mobile boom, show great opportunities in music on the mobile. New initiatives by content and mobile service providers point to the possibility.

In music, Saregama has recently introduced mobitune cards for ringtones, with three ringtones allowed per card. In addition, a pilot project across Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad is testing out music downloads at 25 Nokia outlets. Gavin D’abreo, chief marketing officer, Saregama, says, “We have tied up with Nokia for digital kiosks at their stores where consumers can download songs through a connecting USB, at Rs 12 per song.” 

The other part of the mobile value added services (VAS) revolution lies in internet access. A significant section of mobile users, youth more than others, has shown keen interest in web-based mobile services. An opportunity that is bound to see a lot of action in the near future. In fact, Airtel is just about to launch its Google search service on Airtel Live, in a tie-up with Google. This is significant because Google is today synonymous with online search, and highly popular, especially with youth.   

Other VAS are also getting popular. According to a December 2006 report by IAMAI and IMRB, the Mobile VAS in India stood at Rs 2,850 crore at the end of 2006 and, it is estimated, will grow at 60 per cent to touch Rs 4,560 crore by the end of 2007.  While peer-to-peer (P2P) SMS contributed the most at 40 per cent, ring tone downloads also contributed significantly at 35 per cent by end-2006. The telecom operators get close to 60 per cent of the total revenues from VAS (other than P2P SMS for which entire revenue goes to the operator) while the content creator and aggregator get the rest.

Enthused by the response to VAS and viewing it as a big opportunity into the future, Airtel is adding on Google search now, which it views as a significant initiative. This WAP-based service can be accessed on a GPRS enabled phone. Strongly targeted at youth, the Google search service will be positioned as the simplest way to search for anything. It will be supported by a new advertising campaign, to be released shortly.

Saket Agarwal, COO, Cellebrum, a six-year-old mobile content aggregating firm, says, “With the rise in GPRS handsets sales, polyphonic and true tones are raking in more revenues. GPRS services revenue brings close to 10 per cent of the total VAS revenues for a telecom operator.” He talks of projects like providing background music that would run through a conversation “If a guy wants to propose to his girlfriend without saying anything, a romantic song’s tune can play in the background. If an employee wants to give an impression to his boss that he is caught in traffic, a corresponding background theme can be chosen.”

He also talks of future projects that include a social networking initiative for mobile users and one on invited advertisements those which will play before a conversation between two mobile subscribers.

Connection, information, entertainment… the small mobile handset is sure looking at becoming a big device…..More

One of the big themes at Mobile Content World was ad-supported content—it’s generally accepted that mobile advertising will occur, the discussion is now around how much there will be, how it will be delivered and how much it will subsidize content and services. Anil Sabharwal, chief marketing office of MobiK, gave a good talk on mobile advertising and quoted that Google CEO Eric Schmidt that the phone should be completely free—advertising should subsidize the handset, the voice calls, the SMS, the content, evereything. It left me thinking that if everything was free, who would pay for advertising? After all, the whole point of advertising is to get people to spend money—if the consumer isn’t buying things no-one will have money to advertise. Sure, there will be advertisers from outside the industry, but if Starbucks ever decides to give away coffee in exchange for reading ads we’ll be in big trouble….More

TeamUP Mobile is a full service mobile marketing firm based in Colorado that helps universities/schools/businesses communicate with their communities through cell phones. The firm has partnered with e2Campus, a leading self service, web-based notification system that enables a non-technical administrator to communicate time-sensitive information to an entire campus community real time, anytime…