BMW launches world-first: personalized mobile video advertising campaign in China

GoMo new reports that BMW has selected China for a world-first in advertising – personalized video messages delivered directly to cell phones. The targeted messages, distributed Dec 21-24, 2009 in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, address individual customers with a holiday greeting that is uniquely tailored to a specific individual.

Technology for the campaign was provided by Clip in Touch. The company provides a platform for sending advertising campaigns via MMS. The uniqueness comes in allowing users to personalize, edit and add their own voice, video and text to any advertising campaign.

Initial response to the campaign has been very positive, generating more test drives in a three day period than at any time this year.

Read the full article at http://www.gomonews.com/bmw-launches-world-first-personalized-mobile-video-advertising-campaign-in-china/

World Tech Update, CES Special

This week’s World Tech Update comes to you from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where -

• Samsung unveils new TVs, a 3D home entertainment system, e-readers and an app store.
• Microsoft announces Project Natal availability.
• Intel officially releases its next generation chips.
• Mobile TV hopes to catch on in the US.
• Lenovo shows off a laptop that splits in two.
• iPhone controlled helicopter mixes the physical and virtual worlds.

The Future Of Mobile Augmented Reality

By Justin, Mobile Marketing Watch.

The concept of augmented reality (AR) is still very much in its infancy, but the opportunities it presents in the areas of mobile marketing , commerce and gaming is more than plentiful.  How far have we come in bringing AR to fruition and what does the future hold for the concept?

A new report from Juniper Research projects the technology combining the physical world with virtual imagery and information will generate only $2 million in revenue next year, but the projection is set to increase dramatically to nearly $714 million by 2014.  By then, most of that revenue will be derived from things like paid application downloads, subscription-based services and advertising, according to Juniper.

Most analysts predict that mobile gaming will be the primary driver behind increased interest in mobile AR, with location-based search coming in at a close second.  That location-based relevance will make AR-based ad-networks more attractive to brands and advertisers as well, as the networks can charge higher CPC and CPM rates because of it.

To get to the point of widespread mobile AR functionality, mobile devices have to become able to facilitate the advanced functions that bring AR to life.  Growth will be driven by wider adoption of Android phones and the iPhone as well as the spread of technologies like digital compasses and accelerometers that help to power mobile AR.  As smartphones become smarter, AR inches closer to becoming a reality.

Another so-called “digital strategist,” Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Partners, predicts mobile is where AR is mostly likely to go mainstream.  ”Expect Google to develop a product that maps physical products with their online information, making them yet the middleman for Internet Advertising — again,” he wrote in a recent post.  ”Furthermore, it gets really interesting when a brand can ‘hijack’ another company’s brand by creating augmented reality experiences on the boxes of their competitors.”

For now, we can only speculate as to what AR will do for mobile marketing and the mobile industry as a whole, but it will undoubtedly be a game-changer.

Smartphones Driving Adoption of Mobile TV

Via Cellular News.

Consumer demand for mobile TV and VOD is being driven by the ability of smartphones to deliver personalised and targeted content that can be accessed immediately. ­The recent Olswang ‘Digital Convergence’ Survey of UK consumers revealed that ownership of an iPhone encouraged 37% of users to substitute their home TV viewing by watching VOD services on their device.

MobiTV, a provider of live streaming and VOD services, believes that devices like the iPhone have transformed the experience of watching TV on a mobile handset and support the view that smart phones will continue to drive consumer adoption of mobile TV services.

Jan Olin, European Managing Director for MobiTV, believes that the iPhone has changed the perception of watching live TV and VOD on a mobile device altogether, educating users to the possibilities that the mobile platform can offer. MobiTV itself has developed a range of live streaming and VOD applications that are compatible with all the major smartphone platforms including the iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile.

Read the full article at http://www.cellular-news.com

VideoActive Report

VideoActive Report:
Hulu Adds Search and Analytics, Apple TV-Service Proposal Gets Some Nibbles, Branded Virtual Goods Are Presents for Marketers, Too, Tribal Fusion’s 100-Percent Engagement Guarantee.