Xellular Identity - All About Mobile Content & Marketing

Super Tuesday - Super New Mobile Apps!

A big day like today brings cool new mobile apps!

First, let me share my own news:

As you know, I recently joined MyFrame Inc., who offers you a cool new mobile application called Flixwagon. For those of you who don't know what Flixwagon is, Flixwagon enables anyone with a capable 3G/WiFi mobile phone to broadcast live videos to the internet.

So you're probably saying, "ok, new mobile gig, where's the news?". We partnered MTV. Today, MTV's street journalism team will broadcast from 23 states to ThinkMTV using Flixwagon. Throughout the day, MTV will regularly break into programming and showcase news features from the live reports.

James Whatley from SpinVox shared that that SpinVox has partnered with WNYC Radio to enable greater listener interactivity during the station’s ongoing coverage of the multi-state primary Super Tuesday. Voters will be encouraged to contribute thoughts, comments and observations by speaking messages to a special phone number set up for the radio station. Those messages will be converted into text by SpinVox and will dynamically become a part of the coverage in real time. Hockenberry and Udoji will report on voter sentiments and read select text on-air.

Interesting to see how new means of communication take part in one of the biggest political events. Will follow closely.

Mobile Sunday Barcelona

Rudy just published the list of people who are going to attend the Mobile Sunday Barcelona gathering "an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums - has already over 100 people subscribed to the wiki!"

I plan to attend, hope to see you there! :)

Chating with the Guru

Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with the Symbian Guru, who is also a dear friend of mine, a.k.a. Ricky Cadden.

The topics ranged from creating and sharing media to how exactly our mobiles fit into our lives, and how they might help us connect better locally. Our conversation is now available as a podcast so go over to Ricky's to listen to it.

Mobile World Congress

Hi friends,

I am attending the Mobile World Congress Barcelona (February 11-14 2008) with Flixwagon.
If any of you wants to meet, you are very welcome to drop me a line: xen [dot] mendelsohn [at] gmail [dot] com.

See you in Barcelona! :)
Xen

Samsung Tries To Go Social Web 2.0

I was just reading at Go2Web2.0 about Samsung & YouTube's NewYears project. Users are invited to answer one of following questions in a short video (less than 1 minute long):

1. Make a video that reveals the one word that is your personal theme for 2008
2. Reenact the best of worst thing that happened to you in 2007
3. What cool things have you done with your mobile phone this year?
4. In 2008 what kind of cool mobile phone should Samsong develop for you?

Users can browse the videos using Google map and pick videos by location.

I can easily answer question #4 and say that Samsung should embed the Flixwagon live mobile broadcasting service in all of the devices :)

***

From a marketing point of view, while it is nice to see a huge mobile consumer brand interacting with users, IMO this campaign is not appealing enough; or in other words -- it lacks any real added value for the users.

1. YouTube users can upload their own created content to YouTube any day, therefore there is not much of an offer here. Plus, the current Samsung campaign limits users' videos up to a minute long while YouTube allows up to 10 minutes and 100 MB.

2. There is no clear incentive. Best clips will gain...? What? Self expression? A sense of belonging to a community? The perceived value should be the clearest message in any campaign.

3. And the worst: while a mobile consumer brand is involved in this campaign, there is no use of the mobile channel. How come there is no mobile offering in this campaign? Samsung could easily offer that the best 3 clips will be available on the mobile; or best suggestions (answers to questions 3 and 4) will be taken into development; or best clips will win Samsung handsets... ?

Ringback Tones Promotions

Hi all,

Xmas is right around the corner with its creative ringback tone mass media campaigns... But before that, I didn't want to leave without acknowledgment a few RBT campaigns from the last two months.

First campaign is brought to you from Colombia. The Colombian mobile operator Tigo has partnered Sony BMG to promote its content in a leaflet inside CDs and DVDs. Now Colombian CD\DVD buyers can simply send the short code that appears on the leaflet via SMS and get their own Backtone (Tigo's service name for ringback tones). The most crucial factor in this campaign is the offered playlist -- it would be very clever to offer music of the same type as the bought CD\DVD.

The second campaign is brought to you from the US. American mobile operator Cingular the mew AT&T launched a huge "Win a trip for 2 to meet Fall Out Boy, 50 Cents or Taylor Swift" campaign. AT&T users are encouraged to "Find Your Tone-ality to Fit Your Personality" and download an Answer Tone (AT&T's service name for ringback tones) and apply. Then, "if the artist calls you and hears his or her own song, you've won!"

And I can't wait to see this year's ringback tones Xmas campaigns... now that's a treat :)

Pricing: THE "Make or Break" Factor

We've been asked many times - what is the right price for ringback tones? Should it be related to the price of ringtones? What parameters should be taken into consideration while determining the price? Those are great questions that I'll try to answer here, based on the experience and data that has been gathered from many operators worldwide.

In general, the ringback tones pricing model is based on a combination of these revenue streams:

• Content fee - the price that is paid for each selected tune.
• Monthly/daily fee - the price that is paid for operating/enabling the ringback tones service.
• Registration fee - a one time fee that is paid upon joining the service.
• Content expiration - some operators have a tune expiration date, which means that after X days the activated tune expires. If the subscriber won't buy a new tune after the old tune expires, the default "ring ring" will be assigned to his/her account. Usually operators notify the subscriber that his/her selected ringback tone is about to expire and will offer a new tune (for a full/reduced price).

These four streams join up to 3 common pricing models:

1) Content fee + Monthly/daily fee:
An AT&T user (for example) is charged $1.99 per tune + additional $0.99 of monthly fee for the Answer Tones service. The monthly fee is charged regardless of the number of Answer Tones ordered.

The benefits of this model are the constant revenue stream & quick return of investment (ROI) coming from the monthly fee. However, setting the right monthly fee is crucial; overcharging will lead to high churn rates.

2) Content fee + Content expiration:
An AMC user (for example) is charged 120 lekë ($1.41 USD) for content fee and the Fun Tune expires after 6 months.

The benefit of this model is the lower user resistance due to the lower (perceived) price for ringback tones. Content expiration increases awareness of the service (subscribers don't hear their own tune and many times they actually forget that they are subscribed to the service) and aims to generate more usage. When the tune expires, users are offered to purchase a new tune. At this point users are actually reminded that they have been subscribed to the ringback tones service which leads to 2 scenarios: a) users choose to opt-in and buy a new tune (i.e. pay the content fee) or b) users are reminded that they have been subscribed to a service that they no longer want and they opt-out. Unfortunately, many users choose to opt out, causing higher service churn rates.

Operators that use this pricing model are strongly recommended to have a good renewal system which offers the user a new tune upon the expiration date and provide an easy and intuitive purchasing experience (usually via SMS with deep linking). The importance of the renewal system is greater as the tune's "shelf life" is shorter. Also, it should be based on intuitive call for action.

3) Content fee + Registration fee:
A Kyivstar user (for example) is charged 7,30 UAH ($1.45 USD) upon joining the D-Jingle service (one time payment for activating the service) + additional 7,30 UAH ($1.45 USD) for each tune. All tunes expire after 3 months.

This model is less popular among operators as it generates lower revenue stream for the operator. Also, at the first purchase, subscriber is charged for two payments (content fee and registration fee) at once, making the perceived price relatively high.

To summarize, each of these models has it advantages and disadvantages but there is no correlation between the pricing model & the ringback tones service take-up; however, there is correlation between price & service take-up, the price is THE "make or break" factor, as you can see in the following diagram:

Effective Pricing - Guidelines:

While there is no single winning recipe for ringback tones pricing, we do have some recommendations and guidelines for effective pricing. First and most important, the ringback tones price should be:

• Affordable - based on subscribers' capabilities
• Perceived as fair - compared with other operators & services

How can you make sure the price is affordable and perceived as fair?

Factor	Recommendation
Competitors	Lower or equal to competitors' price
Ringtones	<monthly fee + content fee> should be 30% below or above ringtones price
Monthly ARPU	<monthly fee + content fee> should be lower than 20% of ARPU
Average Prepaid card	Users should be able to pay monthly fee & purchase ringback tones along with their other voice & data expenses

And one last tip: if you don't have it already - create and promote a "promotion" category with a lower price. The promotion items can include the new single the music label is currently promoting, music covers, a discount for the first purchase etc'.

Coming Soon: Multimadia Ringback Tones

Real announced at the CTIA conference it will supply wireless operators with multimedia ringback tones. The Multimedia ringback tone takes the very popular musical ringback tone service to a whole different dimension, from the audio space to the visual video clip arena. It allows you to set a video clip to entertain your callers while waiting you answer their call.

"Building upon Real’s pioneering success in Ringback Tones (RBTs), Real is making Multimedia Ringback (MRB) Services available to mobile operators around the world.  This new 3G mobile service—first launched with Korea’s SK Telecom earlier this year—ushers in a new level of personalization in RBTs, allowing subscribers to incorporate audio, images and video to deliver a unique, customized experience to callers before they are connected."

[via press release]

Related stories: A Jump Into the Future - Multimedia Ringback Tones

The Fun Dial Marketing Seminar - First Coverage

Back in 2002 was the first introduction of customized ringback tones, made by the South Korean operator SK Telecom with its 'Color Ring' ringback tones service. SK Telecom generated over €80 million (US$100 million) in Q2 2002 and has reached 54% of SK Telecom's 18 million subscribers in penetration.

Despite of the cold welcoming of operators in Europe and America, today Ringback Tones is becoming one of the biggest mobile entertainment revenue generators. In some operators Ringback tones are overtaking ringtones sales. In Europe and North America there’s a 60%-80% of Ringback Tone potential end-user-coverage, at least one operator in each Western European country and almost all in North America has already launched the service. Also analysts forecast a substantial ringback tones market growth in the upcoming years.

 

At present, most of the operators are facing various challenges in the way to increase Ringback Tones service penetration, create on going usage of content, increase the awareness and in general turn Ringback tones into a more successful service. Understanding operators' needs and challenges Comverse Fun Dial (Comverse’s Ringback Tone brand) team came up with the idea to hold the second ever marketing seminar focusing the European market. The Fun Dial Seminar brought together leading industry experts, mobile operators, (some that have already launched the service and some which are on the process of launching), as well as content providers, music labels and managed services providers to facilitate an environment of knowledge sharing and to create an open forum to discuss burning issues related to Ringback Tones.

For those of you who weren't able to attent the Seminar, I will cover here some of the study cases presented at the Seminar:

• How to turn the Ringback Tone into a successful service generating significant revenue?
•Case studies of successful Ringback Tone marketing strategies led by mobile operators
• Opening the ringback tones service to 3rd party content providers.

You're welcome to tune in every Tuesday for a part of this series!

Back in 2002 was the first introduction of customized ringback tones, made by the South Korean operator SK Telecom with its 'Color Ring' ringback tones service. SK Telecom generated over €80 million (US$100 million) in Q2 2002 and has reached 54% of SK Telecom's 18 million subscribers in penetration.

Despite of the cold welcoming of operators in Europe and America, today Ringback Tones is becoming one of the biggest mobile entertainment revenue generators. In some operators Ringback tones are overtaking ringtones sales. In Europe and North America there’s a 60%-80% of Ringback Tone potential end-user-coverage, at least one operator in each Western European country and almost all in North America has already launched the service. Also analysts forecast a substantial ringback tones market growth in the upcoming years.

 

At present, most of the operators are facing various challenges in the way to increase Ringback Tones service penetration, create on going usage of content, increase the awareness and in general turn Ringback tones into a more successful service. Understanding operators' needs and challenges Comverse Fun Dial (Comverse’s Ringback Tone brand) team came up with the idea to hold the second ever marketing seminar focusing the European market. The Fun Dial Seminar brought together leading industry experts, mobile operators, (some that have already launched the service and some which are on the process of launching), as well as content providers, music labels and managed services providers to facilitate an environment of knowledge sharing and to create an open forum to discuss burning issues related to Ringback Tones.

For those of you who weren't able to attent the Seminar, I will cover here some of the study cases presented at the Seminar:

• How to turn the Ringback Tone into a successful service generating significant revenue?
•Case studies of successful Ringback Tone marketing strategies led by mobile operators
• Opening the ringback tones service to 3rd party content providers.

You're welcome to tune in every Tuesday for a part of this series!

Avatars @ Mashable

Mashable has a great roundup of 27 best avatar builders.

As a big fan of avatars and a team member of the Klonies here at Comverse I was very happy to see the topic has been getting traction and coverage!

Hopefully in the next roundup we will see Klonies mentioned there as well... :)

Reminder: The Webinar is Today

Just a quick post to remind you that our webinar is happenning today. If you'd like to join - you're only one click away.

Enjoy!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Learn how can operators gain significant revenues from ringback tones by leaving the marketing to third party experts to promote the concept of RBTs successfully.

• Ringback Tones - The Next Wave
  Mr. Meidad Sharon, Director of Product Marketing, Fun Dial^TM Comverse
• The First Ever Off-deck Ringback Tones Case Study in the Western Hemisphere
  Mr. Andrew Rippon, Vice President Sales Central Europe, Jamba
• Q&A

one of the leading global mobile entertainment D2C companies, is the first off-deck player in the western world to carry out a mass-communication campaign promoting its ringback tones in 2 operators in Germany, generating substantial revenues for both mobile operators and Jamba.

Comverse Fun Broker takes the ringback tone service out of the “walled garden” by enabling ringback tones to be sold off-deck by third-party players, using the successful model used for ringtones. By that, Fun Broker enables operators and content providers to exploit the huge off-deck potential.

Come and have a taste of the next BIG THING for ringback tones!
September 20, 2007 at 15:30 GMT; 11:30 EST; 17:30 Israel time;

Mobicious Introduces Free "Make My Ringtone" Feature

One of the most successful mobile content types, leading in service penetration and $$ is the ringtone. Since it was introduced back in 1998 by the Finnish mobile operator Elisa, ringtones struck the world hard, leaving hardly any objectors who haven't changed their default ringtone (or at least scanned through the preloaded default ringtones gallery).

Today, almost 10 years after the first launch, there is still a huge demand! According to Strategy Analytics the future for ringtones is still very bright:

   

Lately there has been plenty of commentary since Apple’s September 5th announcement, unveiling the ability for iPhone users to purchase and customize ringtones from iTunes for an additional 99 cents. Buying more than a handful of ringtones would get expensive, but it’s still a better deal than the typical $3 ringtone for other phones.

For the rest of us who don't own an iPhone, now Mobicious enables you to create a custom ringtone for free. While several companies have offered ways of doing this with expensive PC packages and hard-to-use websites, Mobicious have developed an easier way.  On the Mobicious site, you’ll now find "Make My Ringtone", a new feature that allows you to take your own music and make a custom ringtone from your favorite song.  It's fun, free, and works on all major U.S. carriers including Verizon. Simply select an MP3 from your desktop, choose any 20 second clip, and send it to your phone.

[Thanks David!]

Related Stories: Mobicious: One Part iTunes, One Part Google

Myxer & Amie Street Team Up

A few months ago I interviewed Myxer people about their line of business. Today Myxer announced a new partnership with Amie Street to mobilize their priced-by-demand ringtone service.

According to the press release,

"AmieStreet.com is bringing its community pricing model to the ringtone market, and for the first time offering ringtones at multiple price points based on their popularity with members. AmieStreet.com is the first digital music store where members of the community drive the discovery, promotion and pricing of music. All ringtones on AmieStreet.com will start at a price of zero cents. As more people purchase a ringtone the price rises, capping at $1.99. The dynamic prices on AmieStreet.com allow fans to buy music without breaking the bank and serves as a useful tool for finding great music, often for free."

For the entire press release click here

One of the barriers many user generated based communities have is the lack of high quality of content (not everyone is talented like Andy Mckee or heart-stirring like Tasha and Dishka). What I liked in this newly partnership is how they dealt with this barrier, how the two partners complement each other's lacks; AmieStreet, brings the content of independent artists who wish to sell their songs online, and Myxer provides the platform to mobilize this content. And the cherry on top is the community essence provided by AmieStreet's pricing model where prices of ringtones are determined by popularity of downloads. Nice work!

Related links: Amazon Leads Investment in Music Site AmieStreet (NBC)

You're Invited to a Webinar

Hi all,

As you know, at my day job I work in Product Marketing at Comverse. I wanted to share something I've been working on lately:

Next week we're having a webinar which will cover the off-portal new market for ringback tones. (You're probably raising an eyebrow and wondering what am I talking about...) Here is a short overview and some background information:

As you know, a ringtone is a music file that is installed on your mobile device. After downloading the file (from your operator's portal or from other providers) the file is yours to keep. A personalized ringback tone is a tune heard while your callers call you which replaces the default "ring ring" tune. as opposed to the ringtone, your ringback tone is at the operator's system. This is why the operator has been the only player who could offer this service.

The upcoming webinar will present the first case study of two German mobile operators who have opened their system to a content provider who has been successfully promoting their ringback tones services.

Attached is the invitation to the fun dial webinar, feel free to join! :)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Learn how can operators gain significant revenues from ringback tones by leaving the marketing to third party experts to promote the concept of RBTs successfully.

• Ringback Tones - The Next Wave
  Mr. Meidad Sharon, Director of Product Marketing, Fun Dial^TM Comverse
• The First Ever Off-deck Ringback Tones Case Study in the Western Hemisphere
  Mr. Andrew Rippon, Vice President Sales Central Europe, Jamba
• Q&A

one of the leading global mobile entertainment D2C companies, is the first off-deck player in the western world to carry out a mass-communication campaign promoting its ringback tones in 2 operators in Germany, generating substantial revenues for both mobile operators and Jamba.

Comverse Fun Broker takes the ringback tone service out of the “walled garden” by enabling ringback tones to be sold off-deck by third-party players, using the successful model used for ringtones. By that, Fun Broker enables operators and content providers to exploit the huge off-deck potential.

Come and have a taste of the next BIG THING for ringback tones!
September 20, 2007 at 15:30 GMT; 11:30 EST; 17:30 Israel time;

Usability Rules!

The common goal of all usability professionals, no matter if they specialize in cooking utensils, clothing or developing mobile applications and services, is to develop products from the end-user needs’ perspective, so they could use them easily and intuitively. Developing products should not be based only on technical possibilities and/or limitations. why? Simply, when it's easy to use, more people will use it and the more revenues the product\service generates. Unfortunately, many products fall at the "technical trap" and leave behind the goal of intuitive usage.

That is why I was very impressed with Hutch (India) “Copy Callertune” feature:

So simple. So elegant. So intuitive. All you need to do is press the * key when the ringback tone is playing. Who wouldn't press * if he\she hears a cool Callertune?

At Hutch’s website I’ve found the following directions:

“How to copy Callertunes Like your friend’s Callertune? Now you can set it on your own Hutch phone - it’s easy! Just call your friend, and while the Callertune is playing, simply press the * key on your Hutch phone. That’s it - the Callertune will automatically be copied and set on your Hutch phone.”

Way to go! And if you come across more cool examples - don't be shy and send me a word about it. Thanks :)

Focus on Mobile Avatars - Mobagetown Japan

After answering a few readers queries through email, I realized that there is a growing reader's interest in mobile offering of avatars. Therefore, I decided to reply in a series of posts for the benefit of others who might be interested as well.

One of my favorite examples of a smart business model and a VERY successful avatar service is Mobile Game Town (Mobagetown) from Japan. It is the largest and fastest growing mobile Social Networking Service (SNS), available only on mobile. The site is a blend of casual games and social networking, multiplayer and singleplayer games coupled with chat, blogs and avatars.

An interesting fact is that Mobile Game Town is offered by DeNA, a Tokyo-based e-commerce company that runs virtual auction sites and shopping malls. This fact leaves a notable footmark on the business model (and makes a differentiator from other SNS sites). DeNA hooks the users with free mobile games with over 30 titles to choose from, supported by advertisement. Users buy from mobile e-commerce sites and get “mobile gold” which is then used to dress their avatars; by spending in the real world users get virtual money to dress their virtual alter ego, their avatar.

[via DeNA]

Mobile Game Town’s success is overwhelming: 5 million users with over 400 million daily page views back in May in less than a year from its official launch. Just to put the numbers in perspective, Mobile Game Town’s stats are four times larger than that of Yahoo's mobile portal! 

And to give you a sense of latest (brilliant) marketing activities:

In June, DeNA announced "an interesting summer Yukata campaign. In co-operation with Aeon  dept. store the companies have set-up a virtual avatar catalogue from which members can build, for a modest fee, their outfit based on actual products complete with best dressed contest prizes. This would seem to be a rather slick ad campaign ultimately designed to drive purchases of the real thing just in time for the summer matsuri (festival) season. The company ran a similar campaign for Nike where customers who bought physical goods were rewarded with virtual prizes."

[via Wireless World Japan]

And a special treat from the Wireless Watch Japan - a video demo of both "Mobile Game Town" and Disney's "Wonder Days" (which will be reviewed here on its own in one of my next posts).

College Students Are More Open to Mobile Advertizing

According to a new study from Ball State, "Technically oriented college students are increasingly receptive to receiving advertising via text messages on their cell phones and other mobile devices".

"An analysis of mobile communications by college students during 2005-07 found that 56.3% of respondents would accept ads if they would get something free, said Michael Hanley, a Ball State advertising professor and mobile marketing researcher.

About 37.4% of college students said it would only take the offer of a free ringtone for them to would accept advertisements on their cell phones while 21.4% preferred a discount or coupon to a restaurant, movie or grocery store and 20% wanted free minutes, upgrades, access to the Internet or music."
[via MobiAd Network]

Update: Continuing on the search for analysis about mobile advertizing I found this (which I think supports the findings from above):

Acording to a study by media agency Universal McCann "people always complain about things that are interruptive - it still works in traditional media but in this environment consumers have so much choice where they source content from and if it detracts from the experience they will go elsewhere.

The survey, which covered 9,500 people with a mobile phone and an internet connection in 21 countries from the UK to Mexico, suggests the marketing opportunity to reach gadget users is bigger than ever.

Consumers in the developing world were the most receptive to advertising, particularly Mexico, China and Thailand, while the US, France and the UK were the least receptive markets. On a mobile phone, the best forms of advertising were opt-in Bluetooth formats that provide information or vouchers direct to the mobile, popular with 72% of the global sample, and sponsored search results. Adverts on mobile internet pages and TV adverts on mobiles were rejected by 61% of respondents.

For podcasts and videocasts, sponsorship was the most valued form of advertising, followed by brand recommendations from presenters. Adverts at the beginning of the clip were acceptable but interruptive ads in the middle of a video or audio clip were not."

[via The Guardian]

The Mobile Content Market - Moving Into An Off-Portal Eco-System

Mobile Content Market - 30,000 ft. View 

Communication, entertainment, information… consumer interest in using mobile phones has amazingly grown worldwide over the past few years. Mobile Content, the fast growing market in mobile, is expected to grow from $18bn in 2005 (Informa Telecoms & Media, July 2006) to $42.8bn in 2010:

• Music - $11.4bn
• Mobile Games - $11.2bn
• Gambling - $7.6bn
• Adult Content - $2.3bn
• WAP Browsing, Infotainment, dating and other applications - rest of market

The mobile industry lead by the mobile operators has spent a lot of $$ to encourage growth of the mobile content market. By establishing the first content-based services, operators put the cornerstone and made content available to their subscribers through their own web portals both for the web and mobile.

all rights reserved to John Puterbaugh, Nellymoser Inc.

[Figure 1]

Initiating the first content-based services has positioned operators as the storefront of the mobile content stores, offering a wide offering (see figure 2 and 3).

[Figure 2]

all rights reserved to John Puterbaugh, Nellymoser Inc.

[Figure 3 ]

Operator portals have been important for being the first milestone, however they have provided limited opportunities. Operators maintain a wide portfolio of mobile products and services while maintaining a reach portal is too demanding for most. This has led to a gradual opening of the market to many more players who share the load (and profits).

The Off-Portal Eco-System

Thanks to this process operators have witnessed that content providers ultimately sustain consumer interest by providing a large variety of compelling content, being constantly updated with the newest hits. Today, the appetite among content providers to leverage the mobile outlet is higher than ever, seeing each month new content brands entering the mobile market. Just as in the early days of the Web, when users initially experienced the online world through a web portal before exploring out to find what they seek, we are now starting to see increasingly wide browsing behavior amongst mobile users.

This consumer activity is increasingly channeled outside of the operator portal. These two channels to market - through an operator portal, or directly to the consumer by the brand itself - are complementary drivers to the total growth in mobile data usage. In most of the off-portal services, the operator is still part of the billing process, providing a simple payment experience. The differences are that the operator does not promote the service in its own portal, and the marketing is managed by the content provider.

The most popular discovery method for off-portal services is the common short codes which enable users to interact using SMS as an entry point into content/services provided by parties other than operators. Phone users then are charged directly to their mobile phone bill. The main services powered by common short codes today are ringtones, wallpapers, games, news alerts and voting applications.
Today, common short codes are the only ubiquitous cross-operator method of marketing off-portal content, being available to all mobile subscribers.

Off-Portal: Everybody Wins

The off-portal channel to market is very attractive; it brings more brands and services into the mobile market, providing wider choice and usage opportunities for mobile users. It also provides a route into the market for more specialized content providers that cannot access the market through operator portals.

Brands of all sizes can invest marketing dollars into campaigns with a single call-to-action that works for practically all mobile users using short codes. They can also leverage their websites traffic to generate mobile usage. And most important for consumer brands, it enables them to clearly differentiate from their competitors through creative marketing.Operators on their behalf, enjoy a growing income from SMS and data traffic with 0 cost of marketing since content providers take care of the marketing to the end consumers. And consumers, from their point of view, enjoy the same mobile services across multiple operator networks.

The off-portal mobile content market is a vital part of the mobile data market. The marketing benefit – reaching mobile users everywhere, regardless of their network, is a strong driver for brands to route their marketing efforts to the off-portal channel and to incorporate mobile services to their marketing campaigns.

*Figure 1 and 3 were used with the curtsey of John Puterbaugh from Nellymoser Inc.

Your Help Is Needed

Hi,

I'm back from a short vacation (I moved to a new apartment) and found this ringback tones commercial of Hutch in my inbox. The problem is that I don't know Hindi... so if any of my dear readers can help with the translation, it will be very much appreciated. Thanks :)

Back to Nature: Roaring Ringtones

Last week I was amazed by the creativity of Singtones and wondered what more can be offered in this so crowded market of ringtones. The blog reader and Outreach Coordinator Tammy Monroe of Conservation Calling LLC pitched in:

Want a Lion's roar as your ringtone? How about a Frogs Chorus? Conservation Calling offers ringtones (for $2.49) and wallpapers ($for 1.99) to personalize your mobile phones with a wild nature theme. The company contributes 10% of its net revenue to American Forests' Global ReLeaf campaign. Every dollar donated plants a tree. Unfortunately, the service is only available in North America so I wasn't able to get my Dolphin ringtone...

Great cause! Thanks Tammy!

Pimp My Ringtones

You'd probably think "hey, what more can be offered in a bursting market of $9 billion of ringtones?!" But creativity has no limits -- my dear friend Russell Buckly of Mobhappy writes about a new personalized ringtone service called Singtones.

"Singtones offer the ultimate ringtone customisation, even more so than Orgasmatones (whatever happened to them?) with the added benefit that you wouldn’t be embarrassed if your Mum heard it.

Singtones offer you the ability to record your very own version of a well known song. Then the software “fixes” those with dodgy or tone deaf voices, so everyone can get a good result. The cost? A mere £1.50 ($3)."

So, what is next...?

Ringback Tones - some figures

"Personalization is what is really driving the mobile phone market right now," said Laura Merritt, spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless. "The cell phone has become an extension of people's personalities with ringtones, ringback tones and other customizable options."

"Verizon wouldn't give exact figures on how much money the company makes off of extras like ringtones. However, in the first quarter of this year alone, Verizon customers downloaded 106 million ringtones, ringbacks, songs, games and applications, Merritt said. Each one of these customizations costs anywhere from $1 to $10."Ringtones and ringback tones are certainly among our more popular offerings," Merritt said."

[via The news Herald]

Google Plans to Shake the Mobile Content Eco-System

Search giant Google is developing a new mobile search service to aid consumers seeking to purchase ringtones, games and related premium content. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google will offer lists of providers selling the content they seek, and in the future Google will begin charging content firms for placement in its search results, an approach mirroring the sponsored links Google currently offers on traditional Web searches.   

The new search site is said to enable users not only to find a list of mobile content providers, but will also provide an easy purchase interface (through Google Checkout or PayPal). Google has apparently been working “for months with content providers - including large entertainment companies and smaller mobile-media aggregators” in preparation for the services launch. Insiders say to the WSJ that the initiative has suffered a series of technological setbacks, with an official commercial launch date currently uncertain. Google also is said to be mulling a social networking service enabling its Gmail users to exchange content.

This offering will challenge mobile operators who profit well from mobile content such as ringtones, wallpapers etc'. Previous initiatives to create a mobile search engine and mobile content directory like Mobicious haven't dared to shake the eco-system's balance by offering an alternative purchase interface that cannibalizes operators' share. I hope this new challenge will accelerate the process of opening the mobile walled-gardens and create an alternative playground in the image of off-deck/off-portal eco-system.

Frank Dickson of iSuppli: Strong Long Term Growth Lies in the Mobile Full-Track-Downloads

Hi all,

Welcome to the second part of the mobile content coverage.

Today, Frank Dickson from iSuppli will be visiting here. Frank is Principal Analyst, Multimedia Content Services. He covers markets for digital video and home entertainment, with focus areas including IPTV, video on demand, home networking and broadband video.

Hi Frank. How are you today?
Life is good. Thanks for asking.

What has been successful to date and what promises to sell in the future?
In addition to premium content, messaging continues to grow strongly worldwide but with significant regional variation. The mature country markets of Western Europe and Asia saw growth, but the growth in the Americas almost astounding. Growth is strongest among the US operators, several of which saw revenue associated with messaging double in 2006 compared to 2005. Messaging growth is being driven by both increased p2p messaging usage as well as increased premium SMS associated with mobile content purchases and participative TV.

What are the key drivers for market growth for different types of mobile content and entertainment?
The future is all about video! The mobile video market continues to develop, but remains highly fragmented on nearly all fronts. Business models are uncertain. Technology standards are uncertain.  Consumer usage models are uncertain. Content rights need to be resolved. Geographic differences are significant in both content consumption and regulatory environment. As a result, the mobile video market will take time to develop, but offers the biggest potential upside. Competitors across the value chain should participate early to learn and develop a position in the market. Competitors should set expectations appropriately for a highly volatile market with high uncertainty in the short term. Agility will be key to adapt to rapid change.

Many state that widespread consumer demand has lagged after a rapid penetration rate. Why? What are the barriers for market growth of market for mobile content?
The major barrier to growth of mobile content is leakage, as in revenue leakage. Approximately, 5% to 10% of transactions turn out as bad transactions due to fraud, lack of funds on a prepaid card or delivery problems. Another 5% to 15% of good transactions result in refunds due to shady marketing practices, overly protective wireless operators not wanting a customer to have a bad content experience or a lack of transaction visibility for customer service. Wait, did I mention the customer service support call costs? There is money leaking everywhere.

One of the problems is that the wireless operators want to be in the center of the purchase experience.  The billing systems however are built to service reoccurring wireless subscription customers. Wireless operators making themselves the nexus of mobile commerce transactions creates a problem as they are now providing high volume transaction clearing services like those provided by Visa, PayPal and others.  Frankly, processing financial transactions is not at the heart of their distinctive competencies.

How will the services evolve over time?
The mobile music market is among the most dynamic content categories worldwide. Polyphonic ringtones are receding with a transition to realtones. However, on a worldwide basis, the overall ringtone category appears to be slowing. 

Ringback tones continue to gain strength in Asia, but haven't migrated significantly to other geographic regions yet. Video ringtones are among the newest services positioned as a next-generation ringtone.
The emergence of full track download music services continues, with operators worldwide deploying services. Dramatic growth of these services remains mixed regionally and by operator. Consumers are still slow to build awareness, while operators have significant challenges to put together a cohesive and easy-to-use full track music storefront. Overall, in the emerging battle between music phones and mp3/pmp players, the music store and music delivery platform still significantly favors mp3-oriented services. 

What applications will drive the market in the next few years?
We believe that there is strong long term growth in the mobile full-track-download market. However, outside of Asia, the inflection point for dramatic growth is still developing. Overall, iSuppli reduced it’s full track download forecast in this quarters tracker, while increasing our outlook for mobile music streaming services. Full track downloads will continue to be among the strongest mobile content markets, while streaming music services will segment the market somewhat and take advantage the subscription-based business model which aligns ideally with mobile operator business models.

For example, we did end-user primary research to provide more insight into consumer demand.  Approximately two-third so respondents listened to music on they PMP; however, only 10% listened on their phones. This suggests their may be some struggle converting individuals from a usage specific device mentality to unbiquitious device mentality.

A big thanks to Frank Dickson for this great interview! :)

Klonies at the NYT

As a fan of David Pogue of the NY Times, I was very proud to see his review of the Klonies mobile Caller ID:

"You know how young people are spending $10 billion a year on ringtones, just because it lets them express themselves? The next big thing, I'm convinced, will be avatars. This feature, too, was on display: You design your own little character, or avatar, choosing a hairstyle, clothes, facial features and so on. Then, whenever you call people, your character appears on their cellphone screens. I'll bet avatars will be the next huge teen fad in 2010 or so."

[via NYT]

Let me provide some background info for those of you who are not familiar with Klonies; Klonies is a new service of personalized avatars by the mobile solutions provider Comverse, that enables the creation of avatars from a big content library of body types, eyes, hairstyles, hats, glasses, moods, clothes, branded accessories, etc., which can be used in traditional web forums, as well as to extend this experience to the mobile arena. Comverse has created a mobile Caller ID service, by which a user can create his Klonie either on the Web or on his mobile handset. Klonies let youth segment do something they could never even dream of doing before: create expressive avatars that represent them on other people’s phones. Klonies give the users extended means for self expression: they define how they are seen by their friends, on their phones.

Enriched Ringback Tones Offering With Non-Music Content

When you think of ringback tone, the first thing that probably pops into your mind is a personalized music played when you wait for the person called to answer. Last week I came across creative thinking of what can be nice to hear while waiting:

The Indian mobile operator Hutch enriched its ringback tone portfolio with a few creative non-music content categories (apart of the natural/default music category):

• One of the categories offered by Hutch is playing cricket scores for callers. Once Cricket Callertunes are enabled, it will play cricket scores on match days, and even carries a stadium jingle followed by the match details. When the day's play is over, Cricket Callertunes will automatically get disabled and the default Callertunes will be activated. On the next match day, Cricket Callertunes will automatically be re-activated and so on. [No need for me to spell it out how these so frequent updates generate $$, right? ;)]
• The second category offered by Hutch is called “Busy Callertunes”. Once it is enabled, callers will know that you are unable to take their calls. You can set an appropriate Busy Callertunes to tell when you are in a meeting, at the movies, have low battery, or on a holiday, without answering the phone (activation is made by sending SMS).

This is a great example how “thinking out of the box” can help operators build a creative and wider offering which attracts many more users to the service. And I’ll end this post with the TV commercial of the Cricket Callertunes - enjoy!

Frank Dickson of iSuppli: Content Will Be the Battelfield

Hi all,

Today, Frank Dickson from iSuppli will be visiting here. Frank is Principal Analyst, Multimedia Content Services. He covers markets for digital video and home entertainment, with focus areas including IPTV, video on demand, home networking and broadband video.

Frank has over a decade of industry and market research experience. In his most recent prior role, he was Senior Director of In-Stat’s Convergence Groups and responsible for the firm’s multimedia and convergence research. His coverage included multimedia services, content, equipment, infrastructure, and residential connectivity, and semiconductors. Frank has a Masters Degree with Distinction from The American Graduate School of International Management and an MBA from Arizona State University. He also holds a Bachelors of Science Cum Laude Degree in Operations/Production Management from Arizona State University.

Getting to Know Frank

Hi Frank. Thank you for visiting Xellular Identity :) How are you?
Life is good. Thanks for asking.

What got you interested in mobile?
Greed. Whoops. Did I cross the line from honesty to transparency?

Wireless subscribers are measured in “B’s” as in billions. hat type of market size means that a whole lot of people have a lot at stake and are willing to buy research. 

What takes up your time other than mobile?
I live in Arizona with 360 days a year of sun shine. Time for me is spent in sporting activities or watching my son play baseball. It is not a life as exciting as 007, but I like it all the same.

The Market of Mobile Content

How big is the market for mobile content and entertainment?
REALLY BIG! Try almost US$20 billion worth of big. Music alone with its multiple usage applications will almost reach US$9 billion.

Which important trends are shaping the mobile content market?

1. Growth in ringtones & Ringtunes is slowing. Asia and Europe are maturing, while heady growth rates in North America moderate. Continued growth in mature markets will migrate to product extensions of ringtones and development of full-track download and streaming music services which will take time to develop. The growth opportunities for digital music across all categories are shifting to the emerging mobile markets: Latin America, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and developing Asia. 
2. Mobile gaming growth is slowing significantly, particularly in Asia. However, North America remains a growth market. Furthermore, game quality is improving with new advanced 3D graphics technology in handsets and multi-player gaming capabilities. The opportunity to expand the market relies on broader awareness for the core segment of casual mobile games, and development of new gaming segments. Developers and operators need to focus on leveraging the unique characteristics of mobile gaming: mobility, connectivity and location.

How significant contributor to the overall revenue is the mobile content expected to be in the future?
How significant? It seems to be the battlefield will be centered on content. The markets for mobile premium content, including music, video and gaming continue to drive operator data revenue.  Messaging continues to be a strong market as well, with dramatic growth in North America. 

Operators are looking to mobile content and other value-added services for 1) Revenue growth and 2) churn reduction. As the operators are the primary mobile distribution channel, content providers, application providers and technology providers need to focus on these two objectives.

Voice ARPU declines accelerated in the quarter for most of our profiled operators. Across the 20 key operators, Q1 2007 aggregate voice ARPU declined 6% sequentially compared to Q4 2006. Voice ARPU declines were mixed among operators on a worldwide basis with some seeing slight increases while others were down. Meanwhile mobile data ARPU increased sequentially by 1%. Overall, most of the global operators saw Data ARPU growth. Data ARPU is particularly strong among North American operators, where both messaging revenue and mobile multimedia content are seeing strong growth.  Across all the operators, nearly 20% of revenue is now associated with data. Three of our tracked operators get over 30% of revenue from data: SK Telecom, NTT Docomo and O2. Aggregate subscriber growth slowed to 3% sequentially in Q1 2007, down from sequential growth of 6% in Q4 2006.

Thank you Frank! :) Don't forget to join us next Sunday for the second part of this interview.

No More Ringbacks for GrandCentral Users

Google confirmed yesterday what the blogosphere has suspected: it has acquired GrandCentral Communications, an online voice communications management startup. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal will result in one notable change for GrandCentral users: users will no longer be able to upload their own ring back tones. Instead, GrandCentral users "will be able to choose from a selection of licensed sound files made available within the GrandCentral service."

Looks like Google wants to avoid copyright issues related to users' uploaded music. Another possible reason I read is to assure potential mobile partners that Google isn't a threat to their ringback tones business. I'd really love to hear what you think about this move my dear RBT experts! :)

You Asked, We Answered

Today we have a an interview with Comverse Fun Dial marketing experts, Audelia Boker and Inbal Rosenberg, and Scott Manthey of JabberTones will be asking the questions!

Scott: Why have ringback tones in general been the red headed step child in the content mobile industry? I have felt that the hype in the industry after real tone/master tone debate and the never found app skipped right onto video when ringbacks were today and video is still tomorrow. Is it the carriers (b/c there is no competition= no marketing?) The content producers (figured the carriers would advertise for them?)
Audelia: For a long time, the only players that were able to market ringback tones were the operators since it's a network service. Therefore, B2C players such as content aggregators couldn't take part in the business and promote the service. This is about to change, with content mobile players stepping in.

Scott: Why haven't the enterprise sector jumped into ringback space - branding their company cell phones without spending on a pbx?
Inbal: I think it all depends on how aggressively the operator is marketing the service to this segment. We know of operators that 20% out of their ringback tones users are corporate users.
Xen: There are some mobile operators that have realized that the business is a relevant segment for ringback tones. For example, Orange IL targeted its business customers and provided a suiting offering -- to turn the ringback tone into a channel to communicate with wide audience. Many big sized companies use the corporate ringback tone as another channel of advertising (and play their advertising campaign), small and medium sized businesses, which have smaller budgets for advertising, use their company’s ringback tones to position themselves as creative, dynamic, cool and promising companies.

Scott: In terms of trends of ringback tones purchasing, is there a correlation with handsets or computer usage or any customer habits outside the mobile arena?
Audelia: Not that we know of. We are more aware of a correlation with other mobile types of usage (SMS usage, games, etc…).

Scott: I have heard that the beast selling ringback tones are movie themes - is this consistent with your data? How is the content different than the top selling ringtones? More voice tones? More music? I really care more about the content that is not being driven by a marketing campaign - A team theme song for instance.
Audelia: It very much depends on the country specificities. Overall, we know that most successful ringback tones are music related. But in some countries (e.g. Turkey, China) jokes are very successful too.

Scott: Can we compare the adoption curve in the US to Asia with the overall marketing budgets and educational campaigns?
Audelia: No. In Asia, more or less from day1, all operators and content providers invested in the service. Therefore awareness grew almost over night and service adoption was much faster.

Scott: Do you think there is a correlation between the age of ringback tones users and the fact that ringback tones are only for post paid? Whereas ringtone sales are for both pre and post paid?
Audelia: RBT are not only for post paid in most countries in the world. If that's the case in the US, it certainly has an impact on the average age of RBT users.
Xen: We run into a great example of Hutch, the Indian mobile operator, which sells ringback tones for prepaid with Fun Cards. Here is the TV ad:

Scott: How many telcos have a pre paid ringback tones service? I know Telefonica launched with Comverse but are there any elsewhere in the world?
Inbal: yes. Most operators in APAC & Eastern Europe have prepaid ringback tones service as in most cases over 80% of their users are prepaid.

Scott: Overall is the ringback tone service a less developed service than sms b/c essentially it is a voicemail technology and carriers have little faith in old technology?
Audelia: What do you mean by voicemail technology? Ringback tones is less developed mostly because it has no functional benefit, whereas SMS obviously do. Moreover, ringback tones require constant marketing efforts, whereas it's not the case for SMS. So it's less a matter of faith and more a matter of efforts required in order to promote the service and generate revenues.

Thank you Scott, Audelia and Inbal for this spontaneous interview! :) If you have further questions, feel free to send them over.

Levi's Goes Mobile

Levi’s, best known for jeans, was known for getting into the mobile phone business with a couple new hand sets. Yesterday came more details about the phones themselves. Levi’s says that their phone embraces mobile technology and enables young people to connect, enjoy music, images and video.

The adults might not understand the fuss around a Levis mobile phone and would say to their teenaged kid "who needs it?!", however mobile phones offer far more than simply a means of voice communication. They can provide entertainment, convey social status, and express one's individuality. It is known that "trendiness" is of high importance when selecting a mobile phone.

The Levi’s look brings a riveted looking case to the phone and a detachable chain that can hold the phone to your pants like those biker style wallets. ”Technology is at the heart of today’s youth culture and mobile phones are the ultimate accessory. Adding a mobile phone to our collection is a natural progression for Levi's®, a brand that is driven to meet the desires of young people”, says You Nguyen, Senior Vice President of Levi's® Product.

The phone will be offered in metallic silver, black and brown copper. Editions aimed more at the ladies will be shiny silver and shiny sand. The phone is made under license from the ModelLabs Group and will be available in stores in Europe in September of 2007. No word on when it will come state side, or any specs other that what colors the thing will come in.

[Via Levi's]

Seamus McAteer of M:Metrics on the Ringback Tones Market (Part III)

Welcome to the third part of the ringback tones coverage. Today, Seamus McAteer will be visiting here. Seamus is a co-founder, chief product architect and senior analyst at M:Metrics. Seamus has covered the wireless industry since the early 1990s and has earned a reputation as one of the most respected and credible analysts in the industry. He held director and research fellow positions in several corporations analyzing internet and communications technology before founding his own wireless and telecommunications advisory services firm. He is frequently sought by the media for expert commentary on wireless, Internet and related technologies.

If you missed the previous two part here are the links: the first part and second part.

Seamus, the stage is yours:

Hi Seamus. Thank you for visiting Xellular Identity :) How are you?
Great, thanks :)

What kind of business models exist today in the ringback tones market?
Pricing for Ringbacks can vary quite considerably. Most operators charge a monthly fee of between 99 cents for Cingular and Verizon and $1.49 for T-Mobile. Sprint charges $2.50 for use of a tone for a 90 day period. Some operators such as Boost charge a monthly subscription fee for use of a song. Again, like the issue with lots of different names, lots of different pricing schemes has got to create some confusion.

Labels like Ringback tones because it yields a nice recurring revenue stream and they get a nice royalty payment as operators will use a label-owned recording by the artist, this is not the case for poly tones for example. As a result labels can expect so share north of 30% of the retail revenue in most major markets.

Do you see correlation between market adoption and churn for ringback tones?
Comparing adoption rates and churn across markets it is evident that as adoption climbs churn falls. For example Spain has the highest level of adoption among the markets with track with about 10% of Spanish mobile subscribers over 13 reportedly using the service and it has the lowest churn rate of about 12% in a month. Italy has the highest churn of over 20% monthly and the lowest rate of adoption after the UK at about 3%.

Any examples of marketing best practices?
Verizon has the highest level of awareness and lowest churn for ringback services in the US. Its packaging of the services has been effective – it uses an introductory notification to tell the caller that their party is being reached. It’s launch was also effective, it worked closely with Warner Music on a mutual campaign.

Anything else to add to this interview?
Nothing, except that it was nice to hang out with you and the Comverse team at your customer event in Miami to talk about theories of social networking and the ringback market!

A big thanks to Seamus for his willingness to put the time and effort to convert his presentation given at the Fun Dial marketing Seminar (April 2007, Miami) into an interview and share with us all. :)

Update: Nokia: A New Flagship Concept in Israel

As promised, I went to the new Nokia flagship store today to bring you some pics and remarks :)

The store is located in one of the popular hi-tech districts of Tel-Aviv. However, it is not in a place that the average man\woman would get to walk through if he\she doesn't work there or have a business meeting...

The 150 aquare meters store is divided into 4 sections: HEAR, SEE, DO and PLAY. In each section visitors are invited to try the relevant handsets and apps:

Tomer gave us a very informative tour, which was great, thank you Tomer! Excuse me for what I'm about to say here, but my favourite Nokia handsets - after the divine N-95 - were the fashionable ones, like the 7380 that looks like a lipstick... :)

However, comparing this flagship store to the Manhattan store, I was somewhat disappointed... I guess I expected to a bigger "wow".

Nokia: A New Flagship Concept in Israel

Nokia opened up their first flagship concept shop in Israel (just below my office actually), following their concept shops at NY, Moscow, Prague and Helsinki.

The store is over 150 square meters big and cost half a million dollars to build. It has a futuristic design which divides the store into 4 sections, each provides a different experience for the visitor of the store: HEAR, SEE, DO and PLAY. The aim of Nokia is to strengthen the playful experience and less the sale experience of the visitors.

Among the handsets, you can find the N95 and N76 that will be launched soon, 5700, E65 and E61, displayed in the four sections of the store.

Ricky, I promise to get back there on Sunday and take pics for you. So stay tuned, more pics will be uploaded soon :)

AT&T's Survey - An Alternative Point of View

The most important thing for mobile operators is how their services are being used, how much and by whom. This week, the American operator The New AT&T (formerly Cingular Wireless) reveals some interesting findings from a recent research commissioned by the operator.

According to the research, it turns out that men talk more on their mobiles than women - but only just. The survey of about 1,000 users found that men average 458 minutes usage per month on their phones, with women just behind at an average of 453 minutes:

 

What the press release doesn't say, but it is clear when displaying the data in a visual manner, is that for the last few years mobile voice calls are in decline for men and in a slight trend of growth for women. Interesting to see how AT&T chooses to present this data, as if "Women are quickly catching up with men in cell phone usage, illustrating that all consumers enjoy the flexibility and mobility that wireless phones add as they communicate with friends, family and business colleagues" and not because men use mobile voice calls less and less...!

However, the current state of the wireline service isn't much different: overall, both men and women continue to use cell phones more than home phones on average (455 minutes compared with 394 minutes), a trend that began in 2005:

The survey also reveals that women use wireless phones more than men to talk with friends and family, but men use their phones more for business conversations.

Gathering data of usage and consumption are very important to understand the service and to steer its future, but analyzing the data correctly is at the leart of it...

[via Cellular News]

Seamus McAteer of M:Metrics on the Ringback Tones' Market

Welcome to the second part of the ringback tones coverage. Today, Seamus McAteer will be visiting here. Seamus is a co-founder, chief product architect and senior analyst at M:Metrics. Seamus has covered the wireless industry since the early 1990s and has earned a reputation as one of the most respected and credible analysts in the industry. He held director and research fellow positions in several corporations analyzing internet and communications technology before founding his own wireless and telecommunications advisory services firm. He is frequently sought by the media for expert commentary on wireless, Internet and related technologies.

If you missed the first part, just follow this link.

Well, let's welcome Seamus:

Hi Seamus. Thank you for visiting Xellular Identity :) How are you?
Great, thanks :)

What are the market size estimates for ringback tones?
M:Metrics tracks use by end-users not revenues. In terms of overall usage we are talking about a service that was being used by about 9 million or so subscribers in the US in April, which is a doubling over the prior year.

How significant contributors to the overall revenue are the ringback tones to be in the future?
If adoption creeps up to about 20% in five years -- which is feasible --  then we are talking about a market with 50 million users spending about $3.50 per month if we account for increased switching and purchase of new songs etc. as people get more used to the service. Then we are talking about a market worth $2.1 billion just in the US. Not bad but still only 1% of all revenue. Ringbacks will be one component of the mobile music market which will include full tracks, music videos, video tones, and master tones. Music is a strategic priority for operators along with video, games, mobile Web, and advertising.

What are the barriers for market growth of ringback tones?
I think that the big barrier for growth in the market is marketing and education. We are getting beyond the early adopter stage where there is really significant social risk associated with use of ringbacks and people are confused when they hear a ringback and hang up. This is particularly the case among subscribers under 35 years of age. To get beyond the early adopter group there needs to be clearer marketing of the service and simplified pricing. The fact that there is no accepted consumer friendly generic name for the category is a real breather of confusion. The term Ringback is actually used as a brand name by Verizon and other operators have shied from using it.

Who are the major players?
Among operators in the US Verizon and T-Mobile, which launched services towards the end of 2004, have a lead in the market with adoption among their base of about 7%. Verizon leads on a market share basis given its substantially larger base of subscribers. Sprint is next in the market in terms of conversion with about 5% of its base.

The major players among vendors are RealNetworks through its acquisition of WiderThan and Comverse. NMS would be another major vendor in the market.

Thank you Seamus :)
Seamus will be here next Tuesday with more of M:Metrics insights about the American market of ringback tones -- so don't forget tune in!

Sprite Ventures Into Mobile Social Networking

Targeting youth, the Coca-Cola Company announced the launch of “Sprite Yard”, a mobile social network. The Sprite Yard will enable users to send messages, chat, download content and share photos. The official launch is set for the 1st of June at China and 22nd of June at the USA.

To register as a new user, you need to text "YARD" to short code 59666, enter a tag name and password; upon completing the registration process, users may create public profiles, compile buddy lists, detail activities in the Planner and send short messages, or Shouts. In addition, Sprint Yard will offer exclusive content like visitones (visual ringtones combining images and music) and animated mobisodes.

What I liked is that awareness will be driven through PIN codes contained in the bottle caps (and not through mass media campaigns)! According to the company, Coca-Cola sells 10 billion single-serve bottles globally each year, providing a powerful activation mechanism for its promotional initiatives.

Only a limited amount of consumer brands have ventured into creating a social network, let alone a mobile one… It will be interesting to follow Sprite Yard's success (or failure). Any speculations?

[via press release]

Switch!

In response to my latest posts about Sprint's mobile content offering and Sprint's marketing activities, I received this video the other day. The video is a little long but it's worth it.

Ricky - this one is dedicated to you. Thank you for your great and insightful comments! :)

And thanks John for the link!

Seamus McAteer of M:Metrics on the Ringback Tones' Consumer

Hi all,

Today I have the honor to host Mr. Seamus McAteer at Xellular Identity. Seamus is a co-founder, chief product architect and senior analyst at M:Metrics. Seamus McAteer has covered the wireless industry since the early 1990s and has earned a reputation as one of the most respected and credible analysts in the industry. He held director and research fellow positions in several corporations analyzing internet and communications technology before founding his own wireless and telecommunications advisory services firm. He is frequently sought by the media for expert commentary on wireless, Internet and related technologies.

First time our paths crossed was when M:metrics published their report about the ringback tones market titled "Ringing(back) into the year":

According to M:Metrics, the mobile market authority, while ringtone purchasing declined in Europe and leveled out in the U.S. market, a new star was rising: the ringback tone.

The mobile measurement firm found that ringbacks have grown most aggressively in the United States, at a rate of 225 percent from the quarter ended January to the quarter ended November. Ringback subscriptions grew across Europe, at a rate of 150 percent Germany and 146 percent in the U.K. during the same period. Between July and November, ringbacks grew 12.8 percent in France and 11 percent in Spain.

“The rise in ringbacks indicates that personalization remains an important motivation for mobile content purchases,” said Jen Wu, entertainment analyst at M:Metrics. “While we see a decrease in ringtone purchases, we do see an increase in user-created ringtones. Since it’s impossible to hack a ringback tone, this growing market is not threatened by piracy and end-user savvy.”

[via M:metrics]

After reading the report I really wanted to interview Seamus about it; then I was very lucky to actually meet Seamus in person and hear his presentation about the ringback tones market in the USA at the Fun Dial Marketing Seminar. His presentation was very interesting and I really appreciate Seamus' willingness to put the time and effort to convert it into an interview and share with all of my readers.

Getting to Know Seamus

Hi Seamus. Thank you for visiting Xellular Identity :) How are you?
Good… jetlagged after a trip to China, but otherwise all is well.

What brought you to the world of mobile?
I covered the mobile sector as an analyst since the mid-90s when I was with SRI International, a big technology think tank. I wound up picking up coverage of mobile data and handheld computing for a number of syndicated services which were offered by the Business Intelligence Center. I was more of a generalist technology forecaster at the Center before I fell into a specialization in mobile.

What takes up your time other than mobile?
Since I founded M:Metrics in 2004 I have had limited time for a lot of things that I enjoy outside of work. Time with friends and family are a big priority. I love to run trails in the Bay Area, enjoy studying history, and love live Jazz.

Something interesting to share with the world about you?
I have 8 sisters and 2 brothers. We are all close, like an Irish clan, and family gatherings are a lot of fun.

The ringback tones' Consumers

What is offered in this market today?
M:Metrics tracks the market for mobile content and applications in the US and leading markets in Europe. In the US about 10 operators offer ringbacks branded using various monikers such as Calling Tones from Sprint, or Answer Tones from AT&T, and Calling Tunes for T-Mobile. All of these names for the same generic category have got to be confusing for customers.

How users become aware of the ringback tones service?
Ringbacks have built in viral adoption appeal. I think that most people learn about ringbacks when they hear it when they call a friend. Awareness differs significantly by operator which shows that marketing must also have something to do with building awareness.

Who buys ringback tones?
Subscription to ringback services is gender neutral almost 50:50 male to female adoption in the US. Consumption skews young with a median age of about 28 but it is older compared with ringtone purchase, which has a median age of under 27, or listening to music loaded over the air which has a median age of close to 24. African Americans are more than 2.5 times more likely than the market average to subscribe to ringback tones.

Thank you Seamus :)
Seamus will be here next Tuesday with more of M:Metrics insights about the American market of ringback tones -- so don't forget tune in!

The Filter: Explore Your iTunes

In response to my post about MixSherpa, I was contacted by one of “The Filter” people, inviting me to explore their new music recommendation software. The Filter is a music recommendation service which started as a beta in 2006, and is endorsed by Peter Gabriel (the guy from Genesis). It essentially creates playlists on the fly and also helps users navigate their phone via recommendations. The site creates playlists from users' iTunes\ MP3 library based on “seed” tracks of their choice, and it can automatically create playlists based on present mood.

As I see it, many players are trying to grab a piece of this roughly $2.6 billion* globally in 2010 pie of mobile music (according to Phil Taylor of Strategy Analytics); and also be one of the most meaningful key success factors to increase music consumption - the music discovery and recommendation channel. However, you also need a differentiator - The Filter’s differentiator lies within the rediscovering music we already have and don’t always remember we have it.

The Filter is a free application and is currently available for Windows, Mac (Beta), and Nokia Symbians - Series 60, Nokia E60, N93 and N80.

*This figure doesn’t include personalization products like ringtones or ringback tones.

Mobicious: One Part iTunes, One Part Google

Back in January, Michele MacKenzie of Ovum, addressed the key challenges wireless players are facing when growing the wireless content market:

“The market place for mobile content was dominated, in earlier years, by the closed portals of the mobile operators. Those days are over now. We estimate that in Europe 50-70% of content revenues are driven from outside the operator-branded portal. […]An on portal and off portal strategy are not mutually exclusive, they complement each other and are both needed. The walled garden is no longer viable: a single portal will not meet all of consumers’ growing demands. And operators benefit from off-portal content too: it drives revenues from data traffic, and we believe it will also help open the way for advertising revenues going forward.

Mobicious, who just launched this week, try to put the described above into practice; “Mobicious” (a name that came  about by squeezing “ambitious,” “delicious” and “mobile” together) hopes to be the best place for mobile phone users to discover mobile content and services.

How? Mobicious offers a diverse listings of mobile content like mobile services, ringtones, wallpapers, weather alerts and video games. By “diverse listings of mobile content” they mean both on-portal and off-portal mobile content.

Having the mobile consumer in mind, Mobicious wants to be the one place to find everything for your mobile phone, including paid-for and free content, on-deck and off-deck. When particular item costs money to download, Mobicious sends the user directly to the company’s own online store. By This, Mobicious actually addresses the mobile content discovery problem and tries to simply it. Things are simpler when all content is under one directory which includes support, forums, ratings, reviews, and help. Mobicious also copes with consumers fear from hidden phone bill charges when downloading content from off-portals - by deep linking into the content owners’ download pages in case the item has a price tag.

To put things to the test I searched Mobicious for “Madonna” (note that the service is currently available only to US users). As you can see at the screenshot below, I can download pictures and ringers of Madonna, some for free and some require a plan:

 

You can also try the Mobicious mobile web page by pointing your mobile browser to www.mobicious.com.

And last thing, on the business side,

"Mobicious’ business plan is twofold: selling ads on its Web site and taking a cut, about 10 percent to 15 percent, of purchases made that originated from its site. Since the company won’t charge upfront fees, and will make it easier for people to buy features, cell phone carriers are mostly welcoming the idea of sharing revenue, Chang said. “It’s a really easy sales pitch,” he said."

[via the Boston Hearald]

Sprint Offers Pandora Personalised Radio Stream on Mobile Phones

American mobile operator Sprint announced another agreement to eiden its mobile content offering:

In their first mobile deal, Pandora, a personalized online music service provider, is offering to stream radio stations on a number of Sprint handsets via pre-installed or downloaded software. Pandora, which enables its 6.5 million online subscribers to enter a favorite song or artist and listen to streaming content with the same sound and style, will offer the same service to Sprint's mobile customers.

To download the client, take your Sprint phone browser to Pandora.com and you will be prompted to download it. This offer is free for 30 days. After that you must have a Pandora premium account, which costs $3/month with a Sprint data plan (this also removes ads from Pandora.com when you listen there). The service will work initially on five phone models but will expand to all high-speed data phones sold by Sprint by the end of June.

Pandora is based on the Music Genome Project, a proprietary system that employs musicians to analyze songs one at a time, identifying musical qualities like melody, harmony, rhythm, arrangement, lyrics and vocals. Information about each current song, like title, artist and album, is displayed on the phone's color screen, and Sprint subscribers may scroll backwards to see the same data for recently played songs. Users may also rate songs to adjust Pandora's programming, pause and skip songs. In addition, Sprint subscribers may bookmark songs, saving title and artist for subsequent purchase at the Sprint Music Store. The Sprint service will integrate with Pandora's online service, enabling users to save up to 100 stations per account. Sprint customers can also create new stations directly on their phones.

[via Press release]

Sprint is the first mobile operator to offer Pandora, it would be interesting to see how other mobile operators will follow...

Mix Sherpa: A New Mobile Music Discovery Service

Hi all,

Today I wanted to review a very creative campaign done by Sprint to promote its new mobile music store called Mix Sherpa.

Sprint was looking for a way to create buzz and raise awareness for their recently launched Music Store in an already very crowded space with Verizon's, T-Mobile's and The New AT&T's (Cingular) music download stores. Also, the audience of "Advanced Connected", which Sprint wanted to reach, is extremely averse to traditional advertising and blatant promotion.

So how did Sprint manage these challenges?

The human\social angle - Sprint invented a whole story about 2 characters:
Ias Westbury, a washed up pop star from the 1980s running a record store on Melrose and DJ Supahboy5 who works at Ian’s store. To make the story seem more real, Ian even has his own myspace page and a music video for Ian’s one and only hit from the 80s called “Under the Moon” [which was directed by the music video legend Nigel Dick, (Tears For Fears, Guns N’ Roses, Britney Spears)].

The added value to the user - Sprint integrated a discovery and recommendation engine into the story about Ian:
Users engage with Ian and the DJ by creating their own playlists and in return getting an “expert” review of their choices. Users also get recommendations based on the newly created playlist. The added value for the users is the discovery of new music that fits their tastes and the reaffirmation of who they are and what their musical taste says about them.

Finally, piling a playlist and getting exposed to new music while interacting with a cool character will (hopefully) generate Sprint music downloads! Who wouldn't want to take the playlist to the mobile? Especially if the recommendations will prove themselves as precise, or in Ian's words:

"You go to the site and select your own custom playlist. Through the magic they call a “logic engine” - I'm able to analyze your playlist - and maybe analyze what's going on in that head of yours too. I'll offer you everything in my arsenal with humor, wit and charm - naturally. My longtime employee DJ Supahboy5 is also online to interject with his own opinions on songs and styles. We've got information on bands and songs, and links to download everything you need to take your mobile phone to the next level“.

As for the mobile part, Sprint offers "Sprint Music Manager" which is PC client that helps you sync your music from your PC to your mobile using a USB cord. As I don’t have a Sprint phone (I don't live in the US) I asked to get a demo account to try the new service. However, if someone gets the opportunity to play with it in the meantime, please share your experience and insights! :)

Ringback Tones: The Future Digital Music Distribution Channel?

"The overall value of the worldwide music industry has been in decline for several years, falling from a high-point of $39.7 billion USD in 2000 to just $32.1 billion USD in 2006." This is the main drive for the music labels to look for new outlets. One of them is the mobile music market. Lately, we have been witnessing a new marketing approach on behalf of the music labels; the ringtone and ringback tone have started to replace the old single played at the radio stations. Music labels now have been providing exclusivity for new singles mobile operators for a limited time, many times before the album has been even released.

What are the benefits of using this method?

• For the users - users are attracted to the exclusive and hot ringback tone and want to have the latest and hottest new song;
• For the operators - operators create more awareness to the ringback tones service, they generate more usage and hopefully more penetration of the ringback tones service. Also they are perceived as innovative, cool, updated with the current music… And, let's not forget that later on, after the exclusive ringback tone expires, they will notify the users and offer a new ringback tone and so on…
• For the music labels - music labels get the public to spread the word about and play the new release, i.e. increase awareness to the new song and drive sales later on when the album is out.

In Malaysia,

"pop singer Misha Omar released 2 singles as a digital single/truetone, some three months before the scheduled full album release. "This is the way the industry is moving. It looks like we will be doing it for all of our artistes," said Sony BMG managing director for Malaysia, Adrian Lim. Warner Music's new media development manager Wong Mei Chen said the company is also walking down the same path. "That's the trend that the business is going into. You'll be seeing more of that. You'll hear it as a ringtone before you hear it on radio." Wong cited examples like Linkin Park where the ringtone for the What I've Done single, which was released two months before the Minutes to Midnight album in May."

[via The Star Online, Thanks Gabi!]

However, this trend is not limited only to the more advanced Asian markets; some popular international acts are even beginning to sell more ringtones than albums: The Pussycat Dolls, for example, sold close to 80,000 ringtones of songs like "Don't Cha and Beep" while their album only sold about 50,000 copies."
[via The Star Online]

Also, In the past, I presented here another 2 international examples:

• American operator Sprint has used this marketing strategy when it offered, EXCLUSIVELY, Pearl Jam's "World Wide Suicide" single both as ringback tone (Caller Tone) and ringtone.

• And Orange France offered Johnny Hallyday's new ringback tone (Fun Tone) "La loi du silence" exclusively to its users. And here's the clip:

Seems like ringback tones might be the future digital music distribution channel. Any comments? :)

Traveling Abroad? Try Steape Mobile Translator

If you have been traveling around the world, you may need some help with communicating in different languages of wherever you may be. So, here are some good news:

Another player has entered into the mobile translation apps scene this week, this time it is a Dutch company called Steape who brings to the US and UK markets a mobile translation service that has been very popular among Dutch travelers.

Steape offers three: Mini-Speaking Dictionary, Steape Travel and Steape Knowledge. The Mini-Speaking Dictionary consists of 500 traveller-related words. Steape Travel contains nearly 100 phrases covering travel-related topics: Chat basics; Travel & Go; Small Talk; Overnight Accommodation; Money; Shopping; Flirting & Dating; Going Out & Sightseeing; Eating & Drinking; Help & Health and Service & Communication. Steape Knowledge is composed of useful basic vocabulary, such as numbers, days of the week etc., and is free when another product is purchased. The translators currently work on 138 mobile phones types, and the list grows continuously.

As a traveler at unfamiliar language surroundings, all you need to do is find the particular phrase you want to say on your mobile phone, press the action key and the phrase is played through the speaker of your mobile phone.

Steape costs USD 5.00 or £4.00, a reasonable price if compared with a phrase book.

[Via press repease]

 

Ringback Tones: The APAC Operators Cash Cow

The Ringback tone service has been highly successful ever since its early launching days back in 2002. The first introduction of customized ringback tones was made by the South Korean operator SK Telecom with its 'Color Ring' ringback tones service. SK Telecom generated over €80 million (US$100 million) in Q2 2002 and has reached 54% of SK Telecom's 18 million subscribers in penetration. In the Asian market in general, the ringback tones service has maintained an average of 20% service penetration across the board, with some operators reporting up to 50% penetration.

Ongoing content usage is a key success factor to the strong ringback tone business case, and content consumption is also very high in Asia. Operators in the region report that customers frequently change their content to fit their mood, style, musical taste and just for fun. Nevertheless, it is amazing to witness the amazing ongoing uptake of ringback tones in APAC today:

"A leading wireless internet company in China recently published its results for Q1 2007, among them its Colour Ringback Tones service results:

Out of total revenues of US$35.14 million in 1Q 07, the Colour Ringback Tones Service’s revenues were US$3.35 M, which are 10.5% of the total wireless Internet service revenues in the quarter. This figure is an up of 45.6% quarter over quarter and up 36.2% year over year. Colour Ringback Tones revenues made up.

The company also states that the Colour Ringback Tones business “continued to increase quarter over quarter due to Chinese New Year related and other event driven promotional activities with mobile operator partners. While Colour Ringback Tones revenues increased year over year due to our expanding relationship with China Mobile's centralized music platform and continued declines in the average unit price of Colour Ringback Tones, stimulating end-user demand."

[via Sys-con Media]

As you can see, the ringback tones service has been and still is a “cash cow” for APAC operators. Hopefully will see more European and American operators reaching these great numbers as well.

T-Mobile With A Music Offering For UK People

Hoping to captialise on its "Street Gigs"* events and Channel 4 music series  "Transmission", T-Mobile is extending its offering beyond T-Mobile customers for all music fans. How? T-Mobile is launching of a new music site named ARTISTdirect.com/uk. The site will go live on Monday morning and fans will be able to access exclusive content from StreetGigs artists such as The Fratellis, Mika, Badly Drawn Boy and the Arctic Monkeys.

T-mobile has teamed up with US-based ARTISTdirect.com, the largest site for independent music online. Based on the US version of the service, the UK partnership hopes to offer subscribers the chance to download content from its live music events 'Street Gigs' to the mobile and consume more mobile content. The new website will be dedicated to the UK market solely.

Music fans on T-Mobile will be able to download music via T-Zones, and non-T-Mobile customers will also be able to access news and get tickets to secretive StreetGigs and Channel 4's Transmission with T-Mobile.

[via press release]

What I like in this initiative is T-Mobile's understanding that as a consumer brand, it must have have an attractive offering to a wide audience; but even more important is to find the way to engage people which are not nesesarily T-Mobile's subscrubers. By providing them a reason to access the T-Mobile's website and incentivize them to visit recurrently, T-Mobile will build its public image and hopefully will draw more subscribers.

*For the non-UK readers, T-Mobile's "Street Gigs" is a unique series of live music events.

mobileYouth: A New Website

mobileYouth, a part of the Wireless World Forum, has a new look for their website. After getting the word from Josh I looked around and there are two things which are really worth the time to pay a visit:

• mobileYouth people now present videos from "on the street" interviews they run with teenagers. Many players in the mobile industry (and elsewhere) try to target this segment, but what do we really know about it...? This is our opportunity to watch, listen and learn.
• A series of podcasts covering the topics of teens, mobile, marketing and more...

And here is one of the videos about what youth think of mobile marketing. Enjoy!

Sprint: Leveraging Email Communication for A Successful Campaign

Hi everyone,

Getting back from the Fun Dial Marketing Seminar provides so many new topics to share with you :)

Today, I will review a very interesting and effective marketing campaign that basically don’t cost operators so much as above the line marketing activities (like mass advertising). The American mobile operator Sprint was facing a situation by which it had low ringback tones content downloads by existing subscribers, low awareness of people to the service and limited marketing budget.

Accordingly, the campaign’s objectives were
• To increase ringback tones downloads
• To increase number of ringback tones service users
• To increase awareness to ringback tones service

Sprint sent an email to a targeted group of 500K subscribers which constitute the ‘power users’\ heavy content services users. The reason for targeting only a certain group (and not the entire install base) was to intention to reach a critical mass of users - including “opinion leaders” – in a short period of time and leverage the viral nature of the ringback tone service. Having a core of users is what is needed to create a buzz.

This group of heavy users was offered James Blunts’ famous “You’re Beautiful” ringback tone (Call Tone) for free. The rational was to choose a famous musical track which is known to most people and “fit” wide range of ages and cultures. The drive to action was a click on link - “Try it - click on the “Download” link below” relying on impulsive buying behavior [see the image of the email]:

This simple button automatically activated the ringback tones service for those users.

The impulsive drive to action didn’t fail Sprint. In a matter of days it got an 8% of conversion rate out of the targeted recipients\population; meaning, Sprint pin pointed the “right people”. Also, Sprint witnessed an over 30% growth in weekly downloads.

In conclusion, choosing the right content and targeting to the right segment are key success factors. Also, with minor marketing investments substantial revenue can be generated.

Get Trusted Health Information On Your Mobile Phone

I was doing some spring cleaning in my mail box (sorry people, I was busy with the Fun Dial Marketing Seminar) and found a PR about a new service which I liked:

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) Group launched yesterday a new mobile service enabling you to get trusted health information on your mobile phone.

“From acne to warts, the latest on more than 80 common medical conditions can now be accessed from a mobile phone, allowing people to view trusted health information wherever and whenever they need it, and in complete privacy.”

[from press release]

When it comes to health inquiries, I think the internet has been a great tool. Who doesn’t look for symptoms before going to the doctor or looking for more info after getting a diagnosis?

So what added value has this new mobile service for the users? First, the ability to get the information on the go (“Is there anything I can do to recover quickly from jet lag when I go on holiday?”); second, the privacy of your search as usually PCs are public while mobile devices are privately held (“I’ve had unprotected sex and think I may have “caught” something, but I’m embarrassed to talk about it. Where can I get reliable, down-to-earth information before I visit my doctor?”).

“From acne to warts, the latest on more than 80 common medical conditions can now be accessed from a mobile phone, allowing people to view trusted health information wherever and whenever they need it, and in complete privacy.”

Access to the BMJ BestTreatments mobile service is done by texting "bmj myhealth" to 60300 at a cost of £3.00 and will be sent a link to the WAP site. Alternatively users can key bmj.myhealth.com into their phone's browser.

Let’s hope BMJ Group will do a good marketing job to increase the awareness to this new service for the benefit of all people who seek medical advice and can find this channel as useful.

Ringback Tone Current Market Overview

Back in 2002 was the first introduction of customized ringback tones, made by the South Korean operator SK Telecom with its 'Color Ring' ringback tones service. SK Telecom generated over €80 million (US$100 million) in Q2 2002 and has reached 54% of SK Telecom's 18 million subscribers in penetration.

In spite of the rapid growth and high penetration of ringback tones in South Korea, western operators decided to take an approach of “we will wait and see” towards the new app on the block. Having a lesson learnt about different markets behaving differently through the i-mode experience, western operators realized that not every "killer app" in Asia would necessarily stick in the USA and European markets.

Despite of the cold welcoming, today Ringback Tones is becoming one of the biggest mobile entertainment revenue generators. In some operators Ringback tones are overtaking ringtones sales. In Europe and North America there’s a 60%-80% of Ringback Tone potential end-user-coverage, 80%-90% wireless operators are expected to launch the service by end 2007, and at least one operator in each Western European countries and almost all in North America has already launched the service. Also analysts forecast a substantial ringback tones market growth in the upcoming years.

At present, most of the operators are facing various challenges in the way to increase Ringback Tones service penetration, create on going usage of content, increase the awareness and in general turn Ringback tones into a more successful service. Understanding operators' needs and challenges Comverse Fun Dial (Comverse’s Ringback Tone brand) team came up with the idea to hold the first ever marketing seminar focusing the American and Latin American markets. The Fun Dial Seminar brought together leading industry experts, Fun Dial customers and operators, (some that have already launched the service and some which are on the process of launching), as well as content providers, music labels and managed services providers to facilitate an environment of knowledge sharing and to create an open forum to discuss burning issues related to Ringback Tones.

Opening the second day, Seth Schachner, VP Latin Americas Markets at Sony BMG, presented the role of content in the success of mobile music. “Music and content are ever seeking creative new distribution channels. The wide adoption of cellular by a wider range of demographics, younger segments, music savvy’s etc’ has opened new avenues of revenue for both mobile companies as well as the music industry” He Said.

For those of you who weren't able to attent the Seminar, I will cover here some of the study cases presented at the Seminar:

• How to turn the Ringback Tone into a successful service generating significant revenue?
• Two case studies of successful Ringback Tone marketing strategies led by mobile operators
• The Comverse Fun Dial's vision on the future of the Ringback Tones service
• The current market of ringback tones according to M:metrics

You're welcome to tune in every Tuesday for a part of this series!