After months of controversy surrounding wireless companies, the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to launch a wide-ranging probe of the wireless industry. "We are transitioning from a voice-centric world to a world of ubiquitous, mobile Internet access," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. "This transition promises to increase the pace of innovation and investment, but only if we have an open and competitive marketplace that gives every great idea a chance to make its way to consumers so that the best products or services win." The investigation, which could pave the way for new regulations, will encompass a variety of matters, including spectrum availability, wireless networks, devices, applications, and business practices. In addition, the FCC said it's seeking comments about "how the public has used wireless services and technology to solve real-world problems in areas such as health care, energy, education, and public safety." The agency's probe comes as regulators and advocates have increasingly challenged some wireless practices. Earlier this summer, four U.S. senators publicly questioned whether exclusivity deals -- such as the one tying the iPhone to AT&T -- are unfair to consumers. Also, last month the FCC sought answers from Apple, AT&T and Google about an apparent decision to block Google Voice from the iPhone. Google Voice would have allowed iPhone users to send free SMS messages and make cheap international phone calls. Meanwhile, broadband advocacy group Free Press recently urged the FCC to specify that neutrality rules apply to wireless networks. The group argues that consumers should be free to use any lawful applications on wireless networks, and has called for an investigation into Apple's decision to disallow a Skype VoIP app for the iPhone that would have worked on the 3G network. Instead, the approved app works only on the Wi-Fi network. At least one commissioner, Michael Copps, indicated on Thursday that he's open to Free Press's argument on that point. "The freedom to choose devices and applications is, I believe, good for consumers and good for entrepreneurs, too." Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of broadband advocacy group Public Knowledge, praised the FCC's decision to investigate. "The Commission took exactly the right path today when it voted to look at all aspects of competition in the wireless industry," she said in a statement. "For too long, the appearance of competition among a few carriers has masked underlying anti-competitive industry practices ranging from consumer contracts to roaming agreements."
Bruce Goerlich, a long-time Madison Avenue media research guru who most recently was the top researcher within Publicis' ZenithOptimedia Group, has landed as Chief Research Officer at Rentrak Corp., one of a group of companies vying to develop a commercialized research marketplace from the burgeoning universe of digital set-top devices. Rentrak also announced that Michael Vinson, former senior vice president-managing director of digital insights and analytics at Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group, has joined as vice president of statistical sciences and analytics. The moves mark part of an ongoing exodus of top media researchers from Madison Avenue to the vendor side of the business, and come at a time when research, analytics and consumer insights are being touted by major ad agencies as a critical resource. Rentrak said the positions - both new in its organization - have been established to help develop new research products aimed at Madison Avenue, as the ad industry shifts from traditional linear television to video-on-demand, online and mobile video advertising platforms. Rentrak, which began as an aggregator and analyzer of videocassette rental data for the major Hollywood studios, has move aggressively into the digital video marketplace, and is now a major player tracking the distribution of video-on-demand content. More recently, it has pushed into the burgeoning digital set-top data marketplace, and is competing with companies such as TNS, TiVo, TRA Analytics, and even Nielsen Co., as they all vie to become the dominant source for audience measurement data derived from so-called "clickstream" databases. According to a recent report in the Financial Times, a coalition of big advertisers, agencies and TV networks is backing yet another soon-to-be-announced player, dubbed CIMM (Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement) that reportedly will launch a new measurement service combing clickstream data from TV, online and mobile databases as soon as this fall. Rentrak executives have long positioned their expertise as one based on aggregating, managing, and analyzing the data streams of video content, and claim it is what enabled the homevideo marketplace to develop a commercialized structure. According to a Rentrak spokesperson, the company currently is processing data from 13 million digital set-top devices in the U.S. with "commercialized data" available from 3.8 million of them via AT&T's U-Verse system. The company was also retained by NBC Universal recently to begin aggregating, analyzing and modeling video-on-demand and mobile video data streams. Goerlich and Vinson are expected to help bridge the gap with Madison Avenue. Both are well known and highly respected among both advertisers and agencies. During his 25 year career at some of Madison Avenue's top shops, Goerlich was a key player in the development of new approaches to media research, including TV audience reach optimization systems and econometric approaches. Most recently, he was the president of strategic resources at ZenithOptimedia North America, and had previously served as chairman of the Advertising Research Foundation, and is a past president of the Market Research Association. Prior to his role at Starcom MediaVest Group, Vinson was chief research scientist at erinMedia, a company that had an ambitious plan to develop a new commercialized TV audience measurement system derived from digital set-top devices that would have competed with Nielsen. After settling a federal antitrust suit against Nielsen for undisclosed terms, erinMedia has since gone dormant.
U.S. mobile phone owners spend about $60 on accessories over the life of the handset, and the global wireless handset accessories market is worth about $63 billion in 2009, according to the results of a recent survey conducted by ABI Research. The survey, conducted in July, polled 1,000 adult consumers about which accessories they acquired when the handset was purchased, and where they sourced the accessories they bought later. Chargers -- car chargers, standard chargers and additional chargers -- led the field in terms of numbers purchased. Carrying or protective cases were the next most popular, followed by batteries and memory cards. Other accessory types include hands-free kits, headsets and cosmetic enhancements. Within those categories, age demographics played a role in the popularity of accessories. Younger (under age 40) purchasers tended more than those over 40 to buy batteries, data connection cables and protective cases at the time of the phone's purchase. The popularity of data cables and protective cases among younger buyers reflects the greater likelihood that they own a higher-priced media-focused handset or smartphone. The takeaway is that mobile marketers need to treat older and younger consumers differently, says Michael Morgan, industry analyst of mobile devices at ABI Research. "It is not necessarily true that younger consumers spend more on accessories, although they have more physical accessories. Older consumers may opt for top-of-the-line Bluetooth headsets, while younger consumers may be purchasing silicone protective cases for their iPhones and a set of wired earbuds," Morgan tells Marketing Daily. In the end, accessory manufacturers must consider what type of handset their accessory is designed for, and they must understand the type of consumer who purchases that device, where they purchase that device or accessories and when in the ownership cycle they purchase the accessories, he adds. "For the most part, the value of the accessory is understood by consumers, as accessories (except for BT headsets) such as headphones, carrying cases, chargers and bling are not as complex as the cell phones they are paired with," Morgan says. Charger purchasing patterns are likely to change quite dramatically in a couple of years as a universal charger interface begins to penetrate the market. Retail stores operated by the major mobile service providers garner most of the accessories purchases. Across the board, about half of all accessories were bought in these outlets, with major retail stores generally running second. Online sales were surprisingly low. It will be difficult for online marketers to make a strong push with accessories because of the way that accessories are purchased, Morgan says. Consumers usually purchase their handsets in a retail location, and that is also when and where they seek out their accessories. "Granted, later in the handset ownership cycle, consumers browse through stores such as BestBuy or Walmart and pick up an accessory here or there, but again, this is driven by in-store retail," Morgan says. "For online retail to grab a larger share of the market, they will need to increase consumer awareness, leverage the ability to carry unlimited SKUs and offer more eccentric accessories that retail locations do not carry. Also, Web-specific discounts and bundles may help to garner more sales from consumers who use the Web to research a product before going to a retail location to purchase." The survey's results are summarized in New York-based ABI Research's brief, "Mobile Device Accessories: U.S. Consumer Purchasing Trends and Channel Analysis," which focuses on 16 key accessory segments and eight acquisition channels to identify the accessories that U.S. consumers are buying, where they are buying, and when.
Captain Morgan is keeping its new "Calling All Captains" campaign fresh by adding elements periodically -- for instance, a just-launched online tool that lets pranksters create customized voicemails to send to friends or foes. Users choose from three voicemail personas on callingallcaptains.com -- one, for instance, is a "bartender" claiming that he was stiffed on a tab by the message recipient; the other two are a "cute girl at the bar" and an "angry boyfriend." The message is personalized and made more believable by filling in information such as the recipient's first name and what that person was wearing during a recent bar visit or other actual evening out. The jokester can review the message before having it sent to the chosen cell phone, where it will go to voicemail immediately or after a single ring (depending on the carrier). The voicemail messages always end with a heads-up that the message is a joke, from Captain Morgan and the sender, who is mentioned by first name -- and a suggestion that the goofed-upon now go visit the site and send his own voicemails. Diageo Rums Director of Marketing Tom Herbst describes the voicemail tool, created by MRM Worldwide, as "another outlet to interact with friends in the playful and fun-loving fashion synonymous with the Captain Morgan brand." It also, of course, meshes with the tone of the overall Calling All Captains campaign, which is squarely aimed at young male adults. The campaign's centerpieces are 15- and 30-second TV commercials featuring young men adopting personas of their own. Examples: "Captain Improv," who devises on-the-spot identities and costumes for friends to impress girls in a bar, and "Captain Icebreaker," who uses a clever trick to introduce himself to a girl in a bar. Another, "Captain Keymaster," spotlights the message of drinking responsibly. More creative variations are in the wings, confirms Greg Leonard, senior director of public relations, tequilas and rums for Captain Morgan parent Diageo. The campaign launched in May, with heavy airing of the TV spots, created by Grey Worldwide, commencing in July and continuing through the summer. Key outlets include ESPN, Spike TV, Comedy Central, FX, TBS and Discovery. The integrated campaign also includes online and outdoor advertising, on- and off-premise activations and promotions at concerts and other large events across the country throughout the year (Leonard notes that having the "Captain" show up unexpectedly at events reinforces the brand's spontaneous, fun image). Two events definitely on the schedule are on Halloween -- always a big night for Captain Morgan. For this year's holiday, the brand will be sponsoring an inaugural "Halladega" event at Talladega Superspeedway, as well as its usual sponsorship of Key West's Fantasy Fest parade. Diageo marketers are pleased with the positive buzz and feedback generated by the campaign thus far on Facebook (where it has a page with about 111,000 fans) and other social media, reports Leonard.
"You need a vacation, Dad." "No you need a vacation. You just want me to give you one and have me and my credit card tag along in case we're needed." "See, he's cranky." She appeals to my partner. "You two need a vacation." "This is what I am saying," my better half chimes in. She has been waiting all summer for this discussion about the absence of a vacation. "See how snippy he is." "Knock it off or I will write about both of you in the next column." "Fine," my daughter replies. "And don't forget to tell them what a crank you are because you spent all summer down in that cave of yours writing about media and programming conferences where other people talk even more about media. Haven't you people figured this out yet?" Consider it done. They have been told. Since I now have been sworn to a new resolution that summers must include a vacation, let's spread the joy around. If I have to make resolutions to change, then so does everyone else, dammit. The one thing I have learned after all of these months here in "the cave" surrounded by cell phones is that more work needs to be done. How about some resolutions in the mobile marketing industry to make our 2010 better than 2009? To wit: Provide real mobile search results. I have been whining about this all year, but I still find it maddening that the major engines aren't floating mobile-friendly sites to the top of the search results. Hell, for much of the year Google "mobile" searches were presenting me with the same results page as their Web searches. The search experience will be better on mobile when the search experience is, well, mobile. Stop kicking me out of apps and into browsers. The entire mobile app experience is undermined when a developer can't keep the ad experience contained within the original application. Ads are less intrusive when the user can see clearly she can back out of them. The NYTimes apps are still one of the best examples. The new ad units in that app from Medialets are full-screen takeovers, but they take place in the confines of the news brand. Banish the landing pages that tell me to "sign up at the Web site." No joke. I keep running into half-heartedly mobile ad experiences that won't let me register with a brand or complete an action in the mobile space itself. Improve the app store experiences. The early thrill of the mobile application model is waning and some of the same problems of discovery and limited choice that plagued the decks for years are now apparent in the stores. Palm Pre really needs apps. It is just sad in there. Android, you need a decent online catalog. The on-deck store is cluttered with bikini wallpapers and meaningless sound boards and the online store is not flexible or complete. BlackBerry has all of its App World applications nicely indexed on the Web site. Let's make this a model. And while I am at it -- iTunes needs to grow up. In the music library I actually like the Genius recommendations for similar tunes, and it has been responsible for my buying tons of single tracks. But we need a stronger recommendation engine in the App Store to surface truly relevant programs. Banish the Michael Jackson text alerts. Nothing involving the late singer is "breaking news" anymore. Sending subscribers an SMS alert about the latest rumor about a coroner's report abuses the privilege. Nintendo, please come to my phone? This may be my last annual plea for Nintendo to bring some of its brilliant portable game design sense to phones. This week the company released its Professor Layton and Diabolical Box, another brilliant mobile media experience. While the iPhone and the applications model have led to a gratifying flowering of fun mobile gaming (finally), it is good to remember that one company mastered the portable game years ago...but they seem uninterested in mobile. One more time, Nintendo. The window of opportunity to make a splash here is closing -- but whenever you are ready to bring Warioware, Zelda or the Mario RPGs here, feel free. And bring that back catalog of Final Fantasy games with you. 2D Codes. Somebody make this work? I know I will take it in the knees (again) from all of you 2D code vendors out there who think your own fugly code will remake mobile marketing. I have no idea how many codes are now in the field, let alone how to distinguish one from another. The bottom line is that so long as users have to download a discrete program to make someone else's marketing program work, then this platform is for mobile geeks only. The promise is great; the hurdles are obvious. Speaking of which... . A seamless mobile couponing experience. It is hard to imagine a marketing platform with so much promise that needs so much work on all of its levels. The front-end experience of getting coupons is haphazard. None of the aggregators has established enough direct partnerships with retailers to attract much consumer interest, and there are too many companies just scraping Web coupons that are barely visible on a phone. At the point-of-sale too many stores clerks are clueless when faced with a mobile coupon. But when this fractured system finally comes together, there is no doubt in my mind that a gusher of innovation and marketing dollars will be in there somewhere. It just makes too much good sense. A moratorium on "is this the year of mobile?" Spare us this shallow attempt to take the temperature of a mobile marketing segment that continues to evolve slower than hoped. Don't ask questions for which the answer would be meaningless. Mobile marketing is going to be a prolonged evolution of platforms, experimentation and marketers feeling their way toward a proper strategy for their brands. Even if there were a "year of mobile," we'll only know after it happens.