Groceries at the supermarket… 40 euros. Pay everything with you mobile phone… Priceless. Well OK not priceless, but certainly convenient.

There’s been a big controversy around this type of payment for a few years now. The neo-Luddites argue that cash should not be replaced and some companies worried about security and the implications of it. Truth be told, once the infrastructure is in place, everyone will use it. There’s no doubt about it.

According to the latest study from Goldmedia consulting, there is a huge majority in German who are willing to get tickets (plane, train, concerts) via mobile phone. So it’s just a matter of time.

People will decide
In places like Japan for example, is common since 2004 to pay with your mobile phone. The testbed of the world is way ahead of mobile technology for their own good.

On the other side of the world, like some villages in Africa, mobile minutes are treated as currency. So I cannot help to find it funny that you can pay cab ride in Nigeria with your mobile phone but not in New York.

Some companies are already looking into the future. With an initial investment of $70 million Euros, Nokia is playing with the idea of a mobile-phone-payment solution that could be knocking your door sooner rather than later.

Here is some stuff you should be able to pay:

• Music, videos, online game subscription or items and digital goods.
• Transportation fares (plane, bus, subway or train) and parking meters.
• Books, magazines, tickets and other hard goods.

Personally, I don’t walk around with a lot of cash. Most of my daily transactions are done electronically. My phone has replaced, my camera, my watch and the newspaper… Why not my wallet! It’s one less thing I have to carry with me, specially in places like Barcelona full of pick-pockets. Hope it comes to Germany sooner than later.

If you have a smartphone, video is certainly nothing new. Most smartphones offer the possibility to play local video or over the internet. The promise of faster connections seems to be around the corner, but we know already than in places like Japan (the mobile test bed of the world) superfast connections have made possible TV Channels on the mobile phones. It is not surprise that advertisers are eager to recycle their Ad spots and get them mobile. However this is not a good idea for a medium so personal, intimate and in which relevant content is expected. We’ve learned our lessons from the internet and we know that the 30 sec spot will not work.

MTV Networks is finally waking up to the fact that TV alone won’t cut it. They’ve already lost a lot of their audience by lagging behind during the whole Internet revolution. This time around they want to make sure to stay on the cutting edge once again. As part of their research on VOD (Video on the demand) together with MobiTV, MTV just aunched “The How To Show“. Made exclusively for mobile phones, this show brings celebrities to showcase their trade. You’ll get to see the occasional 20/30 sec spot to begin each episode. But since the whole thing still an experiment, I guess we can forgive them for the moment.

Some stats for the skeptics

According to Nielsen’s Three Screen Report 13.4 million Americans watched 3.3 hours of Mobile video in the 1Q of 2009 and the numbers will increase when bandwidth become faster and more available. Teens for example, between the ages 13-17 are avid viewers of mobile video reporting an average of 6.5 hours of video on their mobile phones each month. These figures makes them the premium target group for any mobile video campaign.

I couldn’t find the stats for Germany (reliable anyway) for video usage, but in a country with 80 million people and 70% market penetration, that’s a hell of a lot of users! Pretty sure a big chunk is watching video.

Why Mobile Video and why now? Obviously a video still the most compelling medium to reach any audience because of the storytelling power it can provide. However, television is static and turn the user into passive recipients of content. Not good. So, imagine how powerful it could be to create videos that are relevant for users and how companies can establish a REAL dialog with their consumers. The next logical level would be to be contextual, followed by more personal and relevant video content delivered to you. Content that is associated with the brand of your choice and that follows that sense of “Forever there” that consumers are looking for from their favorite brands. Nobody seems to listen that the time has come for companies to give meaning to their brands and stop trying to compete for attention. In this context advertising is no longer a competition about who can scream louder, but who can be present at the right time, at the right place and who can actually give something back in return for the loyalty. The 30 sec spots while convenient for an Ad agency to recycle and play it on your handset is not only intrusive but sadly ineffective. We are at the stage now, where the new medium tries to adopt the format of the old medium(TV/Internet), but new uses for mobile video is just around the corner. I’ll keep you posted

In an industry dominated by SMS campaigns, MMS, shrunken banners mimicking the ones on internet, ring tones and some other primitive forms of marketing, mobile phone has acquired the reputation of been the underachiever of the media world. Undeniably, the introduction of the iPhone changed the way we think about mobile phones, the way we interact with them and what we expect from our devices. We are now living what is been called by some the “Post iPhone era” and every new smartphone that comes out in the market is expected to be better or at least have the same functionality. While innovative and cool, advertisers are worried that an offer that can be streamlined and sold by the pound is yet to emerge in this current innovative climate. Just like the early days of the internet a lot of experimenting is going on, but defined formats are not well established.

Branding and advertising go a lot deeper than just trying to trick or brainwash someone to buy a product with the typical no-brainer “Call to Action”(then again that is not the point of this post today). In this post we will focus on the devices and the different technical possibilities they offer. Here some of the most popular formats used for advertising on the smartphones:

Click-to-call: in this format while browsing the internet with a mobile phone, the user can click on a phone number just like it can click on a link and make a phone call. One significant benefit of click-to-call is that it allows companies to track when online visitors change from the website to a phone sales channel.

Video: many devices are able to play videos, which increases the chances of users to see the latest trailer, click on the number and book the tickets… There are currently many similar apps available including one official app from Sony.

Audio: with the introduction of radio on the mobile devices, traditional radio approach still a viable way of reaching consumers. Existing radio campaigns are pretty much alive. A more sophisticated model would be that of last.fm, pretty famous on the web already. They are a mix of radio and music store, offering a wide selection for free or introducing people to new music with a small preview. It gives the user the chance of buying the music online or download it directly to the phone via iTunes.

Location Based Services (LBS): uses the GPS feature of the phone to help people locate services in the area. Communities such as Qype include a combination of web2mobile where reviews about places can be easily found while on the go. Another good example of the usage of this feature was seen in the Virgin 1′s campaign “Terminate your Mate” made for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. You could send an SMS to your mates from a website requesting their position, soon after the user receives a terminator styled video telling them where they’ll be target for termination by no other than the Terminator himself.

Other applications include retails store locators and recently some “where-can-I-buy-this-product-around-here” from companies such as where2getit.com

Applications: My favorite out of the whole bunch. Finally companies are giving something in return instead of trying to compete for attention. Companies like NIKE have sucessfully combined  online communities of runners with mobile devices turning the brand into a meaningful experience. Another good example is CHANEL releasing one of the first iPhone apps to the market. It didn’t take too much time until others followed. Brands such as COCA COLA, STARBUCKS, RED BULL to mention a few, have their own apps ready to download for several different smartphones platforms.

QR-Code: every smartphone is able to scan these bad boys which can contain everything from a text message, a web address, phone number…You name it. Holding up to 4, 296 characters. Created in 1994 by Japanese automotive parts manufacturer Denso-Wave and called Quick Response (hence the name QR) to check their own inventories. In October 2008 MindMatics AG (now called CLANMO) launched the first European-wide campaign via Mobile QR Mosaic posters for the upcoming EA game, SPORE. Other have since followed.

Mobile Web: internet on the go. Basically all formats we find online with the exception of flash banners which are not supported by the iPhone yet. The Palm Pre will apparently be able to handle flash. The guys at AdMob seem to be the leader company in this type of advertising offering everything from mobile analytics, campaign management and mobile metrics, I also have to mention that they deliver on all formats I touch on in this post.

Blyk (We pay you to watch our ads model): Blyk is the first free mobile network funded solely by advertising and available only in the UK (for the moment anyway). The model is pretty easy, you tell them what you like and they send you advertising from several products in their portfolio. In exchange for you attention you can make free calls. Not such a bad deal.

In the next part, I’ll be talking more in-depth about each individual format and how they can be measured. In the meantime if you have any questions, please contact me or leave a comment.

The site was created by Mippin which is an application for mobile phones where you can combine your favorite web content into a single place. Althought the veracity of the statistics are a bit shady is worth paying it a visit.

Flurry

Flurry Analytics provides accurate, real time data to developers about how consumers use their mobile applications, as well as how applications are performing across different handsets. Application developers receive aggregated usage and performance data, as well as robust reporting and analysis tools. At the moment Flurry supports Android, iPhone and Java ME. Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile will be available soon thereafter.

It works by adding a piece of code (lighweight agent as tey call it) pretty much like google analytics for web pages. Te information is confidential and available only to the developer to analyze.

For the moment the service is free, let’s see in the future. Check it at http://www.flurry.com