Xellular Identity - All About Mobile Content & Marketing

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.

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]

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]

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!

Klonies For Adults? -Yes!

I was reading some very interesting bloggers' opinions about the Klonies service at Skype by Jean Mercier and by Phil Wolff and wanted to answer both. As my comment was becoming longer and longer, I decided to post it here and offer a bonus - Klonies pics!

Before actually addressing the points raised by both Jean and Phil, let me provide some background info for those of you who are not familiar with Klonies; Klonies are 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.

Both Jean and Phil talk about the workplace and the adult Skype users segment; both raise a certain feeling of discomfort with the young looks of the Klonies; this feeling is associated to the older users (of Skype and in general).

As a member of the Klonies team at Comverse, let me share some insights: at a trial we had at a European TIER 1 mobile operator a few months ago, we received very enthusiastic responses from young adults (19-24) and adults (25 and up) participating the trial. Both young adults and adults participants replied that they find the Klonies content to be appealing and fun to use and that they would be willing to pay for this mobile service.

As for the Klonies looks, yes, Klonies are good looking and juvenile, as they are primarily targeted to the youth mobile market. Klonies are good looking as they are our alter ego, our “wanna be web\mobile persona”. Klonies are also means for playing with our identity. Over the web we can “try” different characteristics as if they were different outfits (or costumes), we can express hidden parts of our personality that we don’t expose in daily life, such as our desires.

As for "rugged", "mature", "experienced", "damaged", “fat” avatars, the question is who would want to have his exact body shape and look to be his\her web representation? Imagine yourself this situation: I’m a very cool teenager but my face is all covered with pimples. Would I want my avatar to be polka dotted as well? -of course not! Would I want to have a button that adds zits to my avatar’s face? -no!! Nobody thinks zits are a good way to promote yourself. We all prefer to show an improved image of ourselves. If an “add a zit" option exists in the avatars building studio, and I’d deny its existence because I want my avatar to look cool and hip (who wouldn’t?!), my friends would say I’m lying about the way I look. The bottom line is that no button that adds flaws is welcome in avatars world. Better not have this possibility\option.

And last note about the Klonies looks - we are working on different skeletons to address different market tastes:

Also, different cultures have different conventions of how to present our body and how to pose:

 

Thanks Jean or sharing your thoughs and Thanks Phil for raising great ideas (I tried to reply to all of them at the comments section).

WeeWorld Survey Reveals Why Generation Y Loves Avatars

Yesterday Weeworld revealed its survey’s results on “Why generation Y loves avatars”; a survey which is very important for the entire avatars market. For those of you who are not familiar with Weeworld, Weeworld is an online web avatar provider looking like the South Park’s characters. You can follow this link and create a Weemee.

“Based on more than 750 unique respondents, the survey revealed that U.S. Millennials ("Gen Y," born between 1978 and 2000) are using avatars such as WeeWorld's WeeMees because they like having a cartoon version of themselves for entertainment and to express themselves online.
The survey results also revealed key industry trends, significant variations by age and gender, and specific insight regarding WeeMee usage. Key findings include:

• 82% of respondents noted having an avatar “because it is fun,” while 66% also noted a key driver was “because it’s a cartoon version of myself,” and 45% “to express [themselves]”
• YouTube was ranked the number one site that was used regularly (at least monthly) at 57%, while MySpace was a close second at 43%

Based on the wide array of respondents, variations by age or gender also became apparent such as:

• Respondents older than 26 years old unanimously ranked “more animations” as a very important feature, further highlighting the importance of fun and levity
• Females ranked room-building capabilities to provide a home for their avatar as their most wanted feature, while males wanted more animation
• Younger respondents (14-16 years old) ranked YouTube as the site that was most used regularly (at least monthly) at 65%, while older respondents (17 years old and above) ranked MySpace as the site that was most used regularly at 57%

According to Wikipedia's definition, Gen Y was “the first to grow up with the Internet in a developed, prolific form, including music downloads, instant messaging and cellular phones” and “even before they could type and mouse-click their way through the Internet, they grew up with modern media choices: television remotes to encourage channel flipping; cable, with its wealth of channels among which to switch.” Many consider Gen Y as the most important generation for marketers based on their expansive spending power and significant influence over their parents’ purchases. However, with the continued evolution of Web 2.0 and the growth of widgets, APIs and avatars, the motives behind this unique generation’s immersion in the digital arena and how to effectively engage it challenge today’s marketers.

With approximately 76 million Millennials in the United States and 15 million people worldwide having created at least one WeeMee, there is a lot of room for growth. A WeeMee is born every three seconds and 700,000 new WeeMees are born each month.

The survey revealed WeeMee-specific findings on how and why users interact, for example:

• 71% of users changed their WeeMee at least once a week; 21% changed it on a daily basis
• 60% updated their WeeMees to show how they were feeling or what they were doing, while 55% update their WeeMees to wear or show an item they want to own in real life
• 40% of U.S. users discovered WeeWorld through a friend"
  
  [via Weeworld's press release]

Special: A Sneak Peak at the mobileYouth report 2007 (Part II)

Hi everyone,

Continuing with a great success, let me welcome here again a dear friend of mine. Please welcome Savka Andic, Research Associate at the Wireless World Forum, who is also the co-author of the mobileYouth 2006 report. Savka has agreed to share some insights from the upcoming mobileYouth 2007 report! If you missed the first part of this interview, just follow the link.

Savka, the stage is yours!

Which handsets are popular among different age groups and why?
There is a whole school of “handset anthropology” devoted to the study of how mobile handsets mark out group identity. Handsets are not only associated with different age groups but also with different lifestyles and aspirations. One recent Australian survey I came across drew the following conclusions about the identity of handset owners:

Handset	Typical Owner
Motorola	Fashion-conscious under 24s
Nokia	Family-minded, middle-aged managers
Sony Ericsson	Ambitious young men trying to make their mark
Samsung	Career-minded young women
LG	Mothers

According to this survey, I would be an ambitious young man, given that I’m the proud owner of a Sony Ericsson Walkman handset -  It’s a great handset and I would recommend it to music lovers everywhere (Sony Ericsson are not sponsoring me to say this!).

Notice that Motorola is very much seen as a youth handset, particularly in the United States. This is due largely to the success of the slim and zippy Motorola V3 RAZR handset. The handset’s status as a badge of inclusion among youth made it into an iconic youth handset. Nokia, as always, is renowned for its durability and reliability, and for this reason is favoured by more active youth with a propensity for breaking things!

Which services appeal most to different age groups and why?
Pre-teens and younger teens will favour services which allow them maximum communication with their friends. Services such as Boost Mobile’s Loopt service are popular with this age group. Boost Mobile customers can download Boost Loopt on its existing Java- and GPS-enable handsets. Once you activate the service, Boost Loopt can use GPS to locate you and others who subscribe to the service and have accepted your Boost Loopt invitation to list them as friends. When Boost Loopt is running, a map appears on screen showing your own location. Up and down hardware navigation controls on your handset cycle through your friends' locations, from nearest to farthest or from farthest to nearest. Left and right navigation buttons control the zoom view of the map.

Like some instant messaging clients, Boost Loopt lets you scribble a short status message about what you're doing; you can also broadcast messages to groups of friends (which you can define by name, using a desktop browser) or to all friends within a certain distance. Boost Loopt lets you bookmark locations and define events to which you can then invite your friends. The service expects to introduce additional community mapping features--such as the ability to tag, blog about, and annotate locations with images and videos--later on.

Older teens and young adults will favour services such as Chaos Mobile, a portal for mobile music and content based on punk and rock music, skateboarding and other extreme sports associated with the “Vans Warped” tour. On Chaos Mobile, consumers can download songs, related content such as ringtones and wallpapers and find additional music and artist information exclusive to the portal. This age group also favours MVNOs such as Amp’d Mobile, which creates and delivers exclusive mobile content to its subscribers (such as the Li’l Bush series). These kinds of services are more geared to a youth expression of individuality and desire for unique content than simply to satisfy a need for belonging.

What can you say about issues like texting and linguistic degradation?
The results are inconclusive. While some studies have shown that youth linguistic skills are adversely affected by text messaging and we hear that “txt spk” is showing up with disturbing frequency in school essays and exams, other studies have shown that the children who text most frequently are on average stronger readers and writers than the less frequent texters. So texting doesn’t have a noticeable effect on the language used by children with pre-existing stronger literary skills. What still needs further investigation is whether children with weaker literary skills are more adversely affected by texting.

Thank you Savka for this great interview :)

Special: A Sneak Peak at the mobileYouth report 2007

Hi everyone,

Continuing with a great success, let me welcome here again a dear friend of mine. Please welcome Savka Andic, Research Associate at the Wireless World Forum, who is also the co-author of the mobileYouth 2006 report. Savka has agreed to share some insights from the upcoming mobileYouth 2007 report!

Savka, the stage is yours!

What can you say about the differences in mobile usage among youth worldwide?
Differences in mobile usage among youth worldwide are due more to differences in mobile industry structure than they are to any underlying cultural differences between today’s youth. In fact, youth are remarkably similar and share the same basic needs the world over; what’s different is how the mobile industry recognizes and responds to these needs. We often hear arguments about how Japanese and Korean youth are more “gadget-crazy” and more likely to be early adopters than American or European youth, or how the culture is simply different in East Asia and youth there are naturally drawn to strange new technologies. This is like arguing that people living in the tropics spend more time outdoors than those living in snowy climates because they are innately drawn to nature, completely ignoring the fact that it’s much warmer near the equator and therefore more pleasant to spend time outside than in the freezing cold! It’s flawed logic which overlooks the generative conditions of youth mobile use.

For example, people used to argue that texting would never take off in the US like it did in Europe or Asia because more people had access to email and wouldn’t be interested in using the phone for sending messages. However, in 2006 texting grew fivefold in the US and is now nearly on a par with texting in Europe after the dismantling of major industry-related barriers such as SMS interoperability and charging models where customers paid to receive text messages.

Youth in Northeast Asia continue to lead the world in high levels of data usage, where on average youth data ARPU comprises 40% of total ARPU. In Europe, America and the Middle East data ARPU still lags significantly behind, comprising about 10-20% of total ARPU. I predict a move towards significantly heavier data use among youth in the coming few years, particularly with the increasing uptake of mobile music.

Where are the emerging youth markets for mobile products and services?
Geographically speaking, China, India and Brazil will continue to be key markets for the next five years, all three of them ripe for growth. In the more mature markets, mobile content is still very much an emerging market for youth with a lot of potential. Operators and content providers are not yet finding the best ways to satisfy youth desire for mobile content, with the notable exceptions of youth MVNOs such as Amp’d Mobile in the US and the East Asian operators. Amp’d Mobile’s success shows the considerable appetite which youth have for mobile content: an ARPU four times higher than the US/European average and content revenues nearly ten times higher than the US/European average.

What are the economic implications of mobileYouth purchasing?
Displacement, displacement, displacement! Mobile’s intrusion into the traditional areas of youth consumption has created displacement in both the financial and the social arenas. The more conventional youth symbols of social status and maturity, such as cigarettes and special clothing, have been displaced to a considerable degree by mobile. In fact, the decline in smoking among UK 15-16 year olds during the late 1990s and early 2000s was attributed in part to the rise of the mobile phone, which not only left youth with less disposable income to spend on cigarettes but also functioned as a tool to define status and signify maturity much in the manner of the cigarette.

Financially speaking, mobile has displaced a remarkable $500 billion worth of youth spending since 1996. In 2006 alone, youth worldwide spent $130 billion of their disposable income on mobile, and by 2010 that figure will rise to $350 billion. Today youth on average spend 10% of their disposable income on mobile, but in certain regions such as Japan, Korea and the Middle East, that figure is as high as 15-20%.

You claim there is a lack of consumer focus in mobile industry. What are the reasons for it?
We identify two basic reasons for this lack: the residual effect of uncompetitive market conditions in early markets and the general attitude of the technology industry towards consumers. Decades ago, the divide between technology and the average consumer was very great. Technology did not make up the fabric of everyday life like it does today and average people had less knowledge and lower expectations of technological products. In turn, the industry did not feel obliged to take consumer needs into account and this fostered an industry push model of technology. The industry assumed that consumers (or “end users” as it still calls them) would eagerly lap up all of the products pushed upon them, a mentality which continues today with concept such as “killer apps” and the like.

Telephony was traditionally seen as a utility, much like gas and water. Gas, water and landlines are commodities, and you really don’t care who provides them for you as long as it’s reasonably cheap and good quality. This telephony-as-utility approach had a residual effect on the mobile industry. However, mobile networks cannot behave towards consumers as if they are providing a mass-produced generic utility - mobile phones are crucial social tools and people are anything but indifferent to them like towards gas or water.

What are the “mobile myths” according to mobileYouth?
The lack of consumer focus in the mobile industry addressed above has spawned a series of myths regarding how consumers use their phones and what they want on mobile. One of the main myths which I touched on above is that consumers want “killer apps” – fun and “cool” new technologies and “feature-rich” phones. The principal message of mobile youth is that “killer apps” and “features” mean nothing unless they are underpinned by a social benefit for the consumer, especially for young consumers, whose universe is tightly defined by the type of social interaction they have. This is why complicated services with no clear social benefit such as MMS have not taken off, despite the industry pitch. Why should kids send expensive and convoluted MMS when they can upload their mobile photos to Flickr using services like Shozu and share them with friends?
This is where Comverse has done a great job with mobile avatars. Mobile avatars recognize youth’s need to extend their self-expression beyond their phone, making the avatar a form of social currency among youth.

Another myth is the myth of mobility – the idea that simply being able to take something with you on your phone is a social benefit. Mobilizing existing services such as TV and social networks is not necessarily compelling for youth – there must be some added benefit beyond mobility which reinforces youth’s existing peer group or helps them interact more effectively with their environment. It is for this reason that PC and mobile social networks are actually quite different, and simply sticking a PC MySpace page on mobile phones is not really compelling or a big deal for youth. This is also why technologies like QR codes can be very beneficial, because the leverage the unique flexibility of the mobile phone to the consumer’s benefit.

Kids use their mobile phones a lot at home where they can easily access PC and landlines, so obviously the appeal of the mobile phone goes deeper than just “mobility” otherwise they would only use their phones when “on the go”

Thank you Savka for these great insights :)
Savka will be here next Thursday, so don't forget tune in! 

What Motivates Mobile Phone Buyers? Self-expression

Once again, self expression is one of the main motivations when buying a new mobile phone. According to NPD,

“What motivates buyers when they choose a new mobile phone? Many factors come into play, of course, but having the desired capabilities and a flip-phone form factor rise to the top most often.

With a couple of exceptions, buyers have ranked these two criteria highest (roughly 40 percent) over the past seven quarters. That’s testament to the fact that experienced phone buyers know what they want in a phone and make purchases based on these factors.
The third most often cited reason for choosing a particular phone is that it is a “good brand,” which again reflects a mature market. Buyers have obviously come to trust certain handset makers over others.”

Also, when drilling down, we see that self expression is rated the highest among the youth age group:

“Age can play a role as well in the purchase of a handset. Among the various age groups, different profiles emerge based on the top purchase motivator. For example, buyers 18 to 24 chose “it’s a cool phone” as their top motivator for buying a handset during the last year. Those 25 to 44 most often chose “had the capabilities I wanted.” And consumers 45 and older chose “flip phone / can be closed” as their top criterion for purchase.

Based on age and the top purchase motivator, three distinct target groups emerge:

• The youngest buyers seek a desirable device that reeks of “cool” (design is key, but the phone has to deliver on functionality, too).
• Young to middle-aged buyers want a wide range of capabilities. Getting just the right combination is the trick, so the device must strike a balance between popular must-have features and those that might just be nice to have.
• For people just past middle age and the older crowd, a solid flip phone will suffice; however, it shouldn’t lack basic capabilities and the brand is still important, too.”

[via NPD]

The Friday Feed

Hi all,

I wanted to let you know that my dear friends, Nick Wright, Savka Andic and Jan Kuczynski from mobileYouth (part of the Wireless World Forum) have a new blog called The Friday Feed.

At 3GSM, the World Forum Research team recorded a series of podcast interviews with a wide mix of attendees. One of them was my colleague, Tal Dagan, which was interviewed about the Klonies.

If you're interested, you can listen to Tal's podcast here. Also there are a lot of other interesitng podcast so head over and pay a visit at The Friday Feed.

Enjoy!

Mobile Networking - A Question

I just finished reading an article about the mobile social networking software (MoSoSo) on USA Today and found this:

“The Iowa State University media professor, who has written extensively about the cultural impact of new technologies, suggests that an increased focus on networking only with like-minded folks could diminish the ability to deal with the unfamiliar - a skill that is vital to democratic institutions.”

[via USA Today]

Can someone please explain this to me? I don’t see how networking "diminishes the ability to deal with the unfamiliar." No matter where we are, we get closer and stick to people who share the same fields of interest and are like minded… How networking through the mobile is any different than networking in real life?

NY: Babysitting Children's Mobiles

Anastasia Goodstein covers the ongoing story about the NY ban on cell phones in the nation's largest school system.

“The decision by Mayor Bloomberg to enforce the ban of cell phones in New York City public schools originated as part of a 1987 decision to prohibit all electronic devices that was part of a metal detector process meant to discover weapons. School safety officers began confiscating all electronic devices including phones, pagers and iPods being brought to school. The ban has parents up in arms because they are afraid they won't be able to reach their children in case of an emergency or terrorist attack and is being challenged in court.”

[via Totally Wired]

It seems that officials are now signaling that there may be room for compromise. They are exploring the option to install lockers outside schools to store the devices. This development has delayed recent court arguments on the ban.

When I was a teenager we didn’t have mobile phones (and I’m not THAT old). My parents bought me my first mobile when I joined the army and as a soldier I had only one free hour to take a shower, get ready to sleep and to stand in line for the 3 payphones available in the military base. So, yes, the mobile gave me the opportunity to use the free hour more efficiently and stay in touch with my family. This doesn’t mean that today’s parents should give up on the ability to reach their children. Just get some perspective and remember that while being at school there are many adults around which are in charge and also parents can always call the office and leave their kids a message (as we used to do not so long ago).

However, students will remain students and teacher will always need to deal with disciplinary issues; if it won’t be a mobile phone ringing it will be other communication device/tool (remember the paper notes we used to pass around?). It is the essence of being a kid.

Forgot Your Password? Try A New Identity

Danah Boyd has written a very interesting post about youth's tendency to forget things, like their login passwords etc and their approach when being locked out of mySpace/Xanga/Blogger happens:

"Sara created a MySpace using an email address that she made specifically for that purpose. After vacation, she couldn't remember her MySpace password (or her email password). She created a new MySpace page using a new throwaway email address. When i asked her if she was irritated that she had to do this after investing time in the previous profile, she said, "nah.. I had too many Friends that I didn't know anyways."

"Teens are not dreaming of portability (like so many adults i meet). They are happy to make new accounts on new sites; they enjoy building out profiles. (Part of this could be that they have a lot more time on their hands.) The idea of taking MySpace material to Facebook when they transition is completely foreign. They're going to a new site, they want to start over. [...] Some teens chew through IM handles like candy; their nicks are things like "o-so-funny" rather than the first name, last name standard that seems to pervade professional worlds. It's not seen as something to build an extensive identity around, but something to use to talk to friends in the moment."

[via zephoria]

Forgetting the password and creating a new account is a great opportunity to start over a new account with a new profile, i.e. a new identity. It is even more appealing for youth because adolescence is the age when many 'roles' are being tried/played with as part of the process of constructing an independent (from parents) identity.

in contrast, let's keep Cyworld with its 'real-name policy' and huge success among teens and young adults in mind...

Relevance Marketing - The Messengers

Sony Pictures is a great example of clever segmentation of target audience and a great example of leveraging segments’ needs and behavior to promote a new product; in this case, the upcoming thriller movie "The Messengers".

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“To promote the upcoming supernatural thriller "The Messengers", Sony Pictures has included in its dossier of digital-marketing tools a ringtone only young consumers can hear.”

"The ultrasonic ringtone -- ringtones that are audible to teenagers but not adults -- are a featured aspect of the film's promotional campaign, which is geared toward a teen audience.”

Understanding youth’s need to belong to a peer group and the place the mobile phone holds in the lives of youth as a tool to make a personal statement about themselves, Sony Pictures is promoting its new movie through a ringtone that only teens can hear. Besides having a thematic relevance to the movie since “the movie's story line about a young female protagonist insisting she hears voices that her parents cannot hear”, the ringtone has huge relevance to youth’s psychological and behavioral needs.

And Sony Pictures don't settle down with just ringtones to promote the movie,

“Along with the thematically-integrated ringtones and online interactivity, Epstein [executive director, worldwide digital marketing strategy, Columbia TriStar Marketing Group] also noted a blog on the Weblog community Xanga and an eventual 1-800 number as other communicative features tied to the film's marketing efforts. The hope is that it feels like one continuous conversation with Jess [the main character in the film] -- you see her profile on a social networking site, you call her and IM her -- as she draws you into her current situation," said Epstein, noting the intent of the campaign is to have users transcend a couple of digital mediums.”

And if you're interested in more about relevance marketing and youth - here's a link and my previous thoughts about the ultrasonic ringtone.

Youth Mobile Trends Summary

Hi everyone,

Many have asked me to summarize the very interesting and value-added knowledge resource published here during November; so here are the links to the mobileYouth interviews:

• Nick Wright on: What is Mobile Youth?
• Jan Kuczynkli on: Mobile Music and Youth
• Savka Andic on: Mobile Marketing and Youth
• Nick Wright on: Mobile Services and Youth

Enjoy! :)

South Korea To Introduce Rules To Limit Teenagers' Mobile Phone Use

According to the AFP, South Korea will introduce new regulations to limit teenagers' use of mobile phones because mounting bills are becoming a common problem for many Korean households. Starting next year, teen's mobile contract will be different, it will contain a recommendation that teenagers and their parents join an existing bill ceiling system under which teenagers cannot spend more than the equivalent of 40 dollars a month. The contract will also advise teenagers and their parents on how to prevent the excessive use of services and more detailed information about the services they use.

""I think this is the first system in the world aimed at guiding teenagers to use their cell phones responsibly," said Hong Sung-Wan, of the telecommunications ministry. The new regulations are aimed at providing the parents with means to put tabs on their children's use of mobile services and control it," he said.

According to government statistics, more than four million of the country's six million teenagers have their own mobile phones. "The number of teenagers who are aged between 13 and 18 and are charged more than 100,000 won (108 dollars) every month is 100,000," Hong told AFP, adding that favourite services include online games and text messages."

[via AFP]

From consumers' perspective this is a positive governmental intervention providing parents more tools to manage their teenagers' monthly mobile spendings. However, from the mobile operators' point of view this actually means kissing goodbye to ~$6,800,000 every month(!) if all youth subscribers will join the bill ceiling system under of $40 a month. Will mobile operators let this happen without a fight?

Greece: Mobile Phones in Schools are Banned

The BBC reports that

"Greece's education ministry has banned children from using mobile phones while at school. The education ministry says that children will no longer be able to bring their phones into schools even if they are switched off.

The ruling follows the rape of a 16-year-old girl during a school sit-in which was reportedly videoed by fellow pupils on their mobiles. Senior school students who repeatedly ignore the new ruling face the prospect of expulsion.

[mobile phones] are mainly used for listening to music, sending text messages and playing games but the gang rape of a 16-year-old Bulgarian girl on the island of Evia has convinced the education ministry that children will have to do without their precious status symbols.
The rape was reportedly videoed by some of the girls' female classmates using their mobile phones. This detail, highlighting callous disregard for the victim's plight, horrified Greece.

There has also been a rise in "happy-slapping" incidents where violent assaults by bullies are captured on video and circulated. Teachers and psychologists have concluded that the video taping of bad behaviour encourages further disorder as well as competition amongst pupils to create increasingly shocking images."

[via BBC]

According to the mobileYouth 2005 report, usually parents initiate mobile ownership amongst the younger demographic. The main reasons are safety and the need for increased contact compensating for their busy lifestyles. They probably have never thought that the mobile phone itself encourages malbehavior or even danger. Greece's education ministry outlawed mobile phones while at school - but what will parents say about the new ruling? What would you say as parents?

Nick Wright on Mobile Services and Youth

Welcome to the fourth and last part of the mobile youth trends and behavior coverage. Today, Nick Wright, a Research Associate at the Wireless World Forum, who is a co-author of the mobileYouth 2006 report will be visiting here.  Also, recently Nick has started blogging and you should pay a visit and read his insightful Virtual Marketing and Media blog!

For those of you who missed the previous parts of the mobile youth trends coverage here are the links: Nick Wright talked about mobile youth trends, Jan Kuczynski talked about mobile music and youth and Savka Andic talked about mobile marketing and youth.

Well, let's give Nick a warm welcome!

N: It’s great to be back again on Xellular Identity, Xen. As you know, last week we were frantically preparing for the mobileYouth summit, so I didn’t have time to visit here. As it turns out, waiting turned out to be the best move, as the summit itself provides a great talking point about mobile services.

X: How was the event? Did it go well?

N: It was great and the stimulating panel discussions provided plenty of healthy round-table discussion about the youth sector and the problems facing the industry in general. One of the highlights of the event is covered nicely by Bena Roberts on GoMo News, involving the final panel discussion of the afternoon between Jonathan Jowitt (formerly with Orange but now independent) and Raimond Scholze, VP of Customer Insights at T-mobile. The topic of this spirited debate surrounded the issue of youth churn amongst operators and the inability of the mobile industry to drive their young consumers towards adopting mobile services outside of voice and text. Raimond was arguing that with 40% market share, T-Mobile could not be concerned with micro-segmentation without alienating large parts of its audience. They were rolling out music services because that’s what their customers wanted but it was clear that T-Mobile did not consider music an essential revenue-generating service for operators. The music industry is worth US$30 million, Raimond pointed out, but the mobile industry is worth US$40 billion: the implication is that music is a “nice-to-have” rather than a “need-to-have” service. However, at this stage, the problem is not so much in generating revenue from youth customers (though that is obviously something mobile services are trying to achieve) as with actually keeping them on your service.

At 33%, the UK mobile operators not only have the highest churn rate of any country but this is also the highest churn rate of any service industry in the UK. That’s one third of youth in the UK changing operator at least once a year and that alone represents an estimated US$1.8 billion in lost revenue. There is also the cost of acquisition which amounts to at least $250 for each new subscriber including advertising costs, handset subsidies and customer service costs (a dissatisfied or confused customer costs far more to maintain than one who is well-informed and satisfied). A study of American companies in 90s shows that even a 5% increase in customer loyalty can amount to a 25-80% increase in profitability. Music’s value, or the value of any mobile service, should not be measured just in terms of its ability to increase youth ARPU but in its ability to keep the young consumer satisfied and therefore loyal - that in itself is likely to create more profit than a high-cost service that is rarely used.

X: So why have mobile operators failed to get youth to engage with mobile services?

N: It’s largely due to a very introspective approach that operators continue to adopt. This is still manifested in the language with which operators still address their consumers and the very channelled, inflexible “value chain” that exists. One of the most amusing but shocking revelations from a podcast I heard recently was that there is only one other industry that views its consumers as “end users” - the drug industry! The youth consumer has a need for a mobile service to improve his existing communications or provide significant entertainment within his peer group and if that is not achieved then they will not care about it. Part of the problem is the “if we make it someone will use it” mentality, which still needs to shift towards “if you want it, we will make it happen”. The issue can be most obviously explained by looking at the example of MMS.

MMS was subject to huge industry hype but once it was released consumers gave it the cold shoulder, failing to find any real use for it. In 2001, industry analysts predicted that MMS would overtake SMS as the preferred means of data communication by 2008. 83% of consumers still use SMS, whereas only 25% use MMS. SMS is still responsible for 90% of data revenue, despite predictions that MMS would generate 66.3% of mobile messaging revenues by 2006. Here it is important to distinguish between industry “hype” and consumer “buzz”. The industry was excited but consumers couldn’t find any use for it, mainly because they hadn’t asked for it and it didn’t improve any existing behaviour.

Mobile TV is currently undergoing similar industry hype and is also generating a fair amount of consumer buzz but whether consumers will be satisfied by mobile TV services is still unclear. Extensive consumer surveys seem to show considerable interest but it seems to me that the idea is appealing than the potential reality. BT Movio’s survey found that 59% of consumers would pay £8 a month for mobile TV service on their current network, while an O2 survey showed that 85% were satisfied with the service and that 57% would take up the service within the next 6 months. However, BT Movio’s is purely a broadcast service and, as such, its appeal will be limited unless the youth consumer is watching live events (which may have an additional pay-per-view cost). Why watch a snippet of your favourite TV show half-way through when you can use TiVo or Sky+ to record the show in full and watch it at home?

Operators need to think through the reasons why consumers want mobile TV and provide a service that fulfils that unanswered need. Do youth really have £8 a month to spend on a service that adds nothing except mobility into the equation and which they get for free at home? Can Mobile TV not more usefully replace youth spending on video rental services, for example via a video-on-demand service with a fixed-fee monthly subscription? There are plenty of unanswered questions about this service.

X: How can operators successfully position themselves to appeal to youth with their mobile services?

N: How about entertainingly educating their consumers on how their services can socially benefit them? We ran a workshop last week prior to the event, something we hope to make into a regular event, and showed the difference between an advert by a Western operator (02) and one by a Japanese one (DoCoMo). The O2 advert is fairly generic with no specific mention of any benefits the service offers, with a high-production feel but without any real message. The DoCoMo advert, while perhaps lower in production value and less polished, uses its special effects to clearly highlight all the benefits that its mobile services can offer the young consumer. DoCoMo is not even particularly youth-focused in comparison with its competitors but already it’s clear (even in another language!) that the mobile can give you what you want when you want it and simultaneously provides a guideline as to how to use it.

Operators often tend to highlight the technological advances in their phones and services involving a lot of numbers, capital letters and technical jargon that mean little to anyone, especially the young consumer with limited attention for details. All young consumers want to know is “what can I do with it that’s better than what I can do now?”; it’s not an unreasonable question and it’s up to the industry to answer it, rather than “improve” the technology of existing features.

Another issue that was highlighted at the Trends Summit was that operators believed many content providers were being “impatient”, that it took time to turn a traditionally technology-focused industry into a consumer-focused industry. In fact the impatient ones are not the content providers or the software companies it’s the consumers that these companies are trying to serve. Try telling that to someone young: “We understand what you are saying and we think we can do it: but it’ll take 2-4 years.” Will that young customer still care by that time? The customer demand will have moved on.

X: Would you say that operators have to treat their youth demographic differently?

N: To an extent, yes. Obviously telcos cannot abandon their other customer segments but they can market more specifically at their youth segment. It’s important to remember that simple “youth demographic” customer segmentation is fairly limited in its effectiveness. This “youth segment” is one of the most diverse and fragmented of any age demographic and if you adopt a “one size fits all” approach to the demographic you may as well not bother segmenting at all. Different youth groups require different approaches and the youth MVNOs Amp’d and Boost have already shown considerable reduction of churn (down to 2%) and increases in ARPU (Amp’d claims its average ARPU is $100, twice the average for other operators) by appealing to their fairly niche youth segments (athletic, interested in sports like surfing and snowboarding).

Appealing to youth involves speaking their language, allowing them to participate, creating relationships and allowing for creative experimentation. If you want to see examples of successful youth services, take a look at the internet right now. Social media is not just a buzz word, it’s the online language youth are using to connect to each other in new and diverse ways. Helio, another youth-based MVNO, aims to facilitate this new development by providing their consumers with mobile MySpace and most importantly it uses its website to communicate with its consumers directly and gain feedback to improve its services and gauge customer satisfaction. Operators need to consider rewarding youth loyalty more actively, as Japanese operators have done. Use of operator and partner services need to be promoted and consumers must see the benefits in the form of real discounts. Reward schemes are known to increase sales and decrease churn, as in the case of Tesco’s Clubcard which increased sales by 28%.

X: Thank you Nick for this interview!

I also want to thank Nick Wright, Jan Kuczynski and Savka Andic of the Wireless World Forum for the most interesting and eye-opening coverage of the mobile youth market during the last month.

mobileYouth Summit

Hi everyone,

Last Friday the mobileYouth Tends Summit was held at the Tower Hotel, London.

Tom Hume  published a great summary of the introduction from Graham Brown of the Wireless World Forum, the panel session about "Marketing to youth: how do we engage consumers?" and the panel about MobileYouth: Music and Fun.

Enjoy!

SMSing Under The Dinner Table

Hi everyone,

The forth part of the mobile youth trends coverage will be posted to next Thursday due to the mobileYouth Tends Summit that will be held tomorrow (Friday 24th of November) at the Tower Hotel, London. If you’re thinking of attending - I’m sure it is worthwhile.

Looking for mobile news related to youth I’ve found a very amusing research related to the American holiday season held by T-Mobile which shows how mobile has created new family dynamics at holiday dinners and family gatherings.

In the survey:

• 70% of young adults (ages 18-22) and 56% of parents surveyed say they've made or answered wireless calls during a holiday gathering.
• 35% of young adults say they've read or sent an e-mail or text message under the dinner table during a holiday family gathering.
• In addition, 67% of parents and young adults now agree that it is ok to use their mobile phone during holiday gatherings. Moreover, 73% of people surveyed agree the mobile phone can improve the holidays by keeping people in touch with those not there in person.

[via Cellular News]

One thing wasn’t very clear and changes my opinion entirely (regarding the described findings): whether “using their mobile phone during holiday gatherings” means “SMSing under the dinner table” as the title given by Cellular News implicates. If we’re talking about literally texting under the dinning table, sneaking letters without accidentally getting caught - you might say I’m too conservative… I think it’s pretty rude to sit with your family and text to friends under the dinning table. That’s me. As Dr. Tracy Wellens said, it might “include more people than ever before at family gatherings”. Yet it seems more like bonding with teenager’s peer group at the stake of disrespecting the people who made a big effort to be able to sit together at the dinning table… How about waiting for after dinner to reply?

****

And don't forget to drop by next Thursday for the last part of my "mobile youth trends" coverage!

Leveraging Ringback Tone's Coolness

When we ask ringback tones users why they like the service, the most frequent answer by far is because "it's cool". So, I tried to understand what “cool” is and how operators can leverage this quality. According to Wikipedia:

“Cool is in popular culture, it is an aesthetic of attitude, behaviour, comportment, appearance and style. Because of the varied and changing connotations of cool, as well its subjective nature, the word has no one meaning. It is very frequently used as an expression of admiration or approval. A great deal of literature has been committed to understanding the concept of cool in societies.”
[via Wikipedia]

Being cool is the goal of almost every teenager around the globe because being cool, deep down, means belonging to a peer group. Music usually goes a long with ‘cool’, since it is also a very powerful social tool, especially for teenagers - or in Jan Kuczynski’s own words (in an interview a few days ago): “music gives them something to talk about, social status from knowing about the newest and coolest bands and the type of music you listen to can even define which social group you belong to. Firstly, youth can only use music as a social tool if it’s up-to-date, so unless youth constantly put feelers out to explore new music, they get left behind. Secondly, teens like to display their music tastes - whether it’s through their CD rack, their Coldplay t-shirt or simply by turning up their headphones so everyone can hear. Thirdly, youth like sharing music as it earns them social currency and reinforces peer bonds - that’s why teenagers spend time and effort burning compilation CDs for their friends.”

Marketers, on their behalf, try to promote their product\service as cool and as THE source for coolness to its owner, i.e. owning X makes you cool in the eyes of others. Also, many mobile operators, such as TRE Sweden or T-Mobile Czech Republic for example, have realized that music is something that everyone, and especially youth, can relate to and is considered as cool. Thus, they have defined music as a strategic asset they want to leverage, which allows them  to promote – among other music services - their ringback tone services.

Hopefully, in the future ringback tones will be part of a total music/entertainment experience: users will pay a subscription fee and will be able to download in one click a package or X packages a month, that will include a true-tone, a ringback tone, and even a video clip of their favorite song or artist.

This naturally leads me to THE question "what is the future business model of the music industry" and more about that next Tuesday so don't forget to tune in…

MocoSpace

The other day Justin Siegel of JNJ Mobile shared that MocoSpace has just gotten a facelift. My test drive of this social software raised a few questions which Justin kindly answered and I decided to publish them here.

The first thing that intrigued me was the added value for MocoSpace mobile\web users, having other MoSoSo in the mobile neighborhood:

Justin: Today, there are no sites that offer people the combination of communication, self-expression & content sharing available on MocoSpace. The added value for MocoSpace users is that with MocoSpace they can now enjoy the benefits of finding friends (chat, browse profiles), staying connected to them (mobile email, messaging, guestbook), self-expression (personalized profiles, blogs, favorites, photos, videos, etc.), and content sharing (photos, videos, blogs, wallpapers, etc.) all on 1 great site available from virtually any device including mobile phones, smart phones, and personal computers. 

At MocoSpace, we think that it's crucial to incorporate several "best practices", which include

• safety features that allow members to protect themselves and allow site admins to monitor and address abuse issues
• a design that facilitates navigation and minimizes clicks
• broad handset support (wap 1.0, 2.0, xhtml)
• free and premium service options
• privacy levels for members
• customer support & help sections

MocoSpace’s competitors come mainly from 3 distinct areas. First there are the Web content competitors, ie MySpace, Youtube, Facebook, etc. These are sites with lots of content and big existing social networks. Second are the Web communication competitors MSN, Yahoo & Google.  These companies will continue to roll out mobile offerings that cover email, chat, and IM. Third, are the early mobile competition primarily led by WAP chat sites such as AirG and Jumbuck.

Regarding MocoSpace’s placement at the MoSoSo market:

Justin: MocoSpace is in an excellent position in the MoSoSo market thanks to the strength of its product offering and also its location, i.e. North America. In the US, unlike Asia for example, there are not many if any players really taking aim today at what we are doing in terms of breadth and depth of their offering. Some companies are offering photo sharing or chat, but none are offering a product that truly combines the notions of connectivity, communication, and content they way MocoSpace is today.

And some thoughts about the future:

Justin: MocoSpace will continue to enhance its existing features to further enable communication as well as content sharing & creation. Without giving away too much about our product roadmap, I would suggest that our next area of focus will be music.

Mososo is such a broad term that covers so much ground, it's practically impossible to try to predict it's future because the "it" is vague and continually changing. That said, the future of this category of sites and services is going to be huge, it's going to be ad supported, and it's going to obliterate the remnants of operators' walled gardens. I think it will take the idea of connectivity to a new level in terms of people always feeling plugged in to their friends, peer groups, etc. I'm not a big fan of the pursuit of the "killer app" beyond voice and email. However, I do think that MoSoSo is probably the closest we've come to a killer category. I sure hope our evolution as an industry didn't peak with Crazy Frog!

Interviewing Savka Andic on Mobile Marketing & Youth

Welcome to the third part of the mobile youth trends and behavior coverage. Today, Savka Andic, Research Associate at the Wireless World Forum, who is also the co-author of the mobileYouth 2006 report will be visiting here!

For those of you who missed the first 2 part of the mobile youth trends coverage here are the links: Nick Wright talked about mobile youth trends and Jan Kuczynski talked about mobile music and youth.

And now, let me welcome Savka Andic!

Hi Xen and all my readers, I’m Savka Andic, colleague of Jan and Nick (who spoke with you previously on Xellular Identity) and co-author of the 2006 mobile Youth report. A relatively new arrival to both the UK and the world of mobile, I completed my BA in Political Science and French  in the mountainous city of Vancouver, Canada earlier this year and, degree in one hand and British passport in another, was lured to the urban bustle of London. Shortly thereafter, I joined Wireless World Forum as a researcher.

-How are you?
I’m great, Xen. Very busy, but I guess that’s not always a bad thing.

-What brought you into the world of mobile?
My job, essentially! Only a few months ago, I knew less about mobile than some of the youth I now interview for research. However, my background is in politics and the social sciences, so I find the social implications of mobile, marketing and social media very interesting.

-Other hobbies, fields of interest?
Politics and international relations remain two great passions of mine, along with skiing, traveling, world music and a rather taxing branch of yoga known as Hot Bikram. I also indulge in the occasional bout of cocktail mixing (and drinking), my favorite being the marvellous Mojito.

-Something interesting to share with the world about you?
This isn’t particularly interesting, but I can read words backwards in full sentences, as if it were forwards. Don’t ask :)

Mobile Marketing

-There are many successful marketing tools. What are the key elements for mobile marketing's appeal?

Good question Xen - you’ve gone to the heart of the matter. In fact, one thing we found over the course of our research is that many marketing tools that were previously very successful are not so effective with youth anymore. There are two reasons for this: the huge volume of advertising messages that youth are exposed to today, and the decreasing time which youth spend exposed to traditional media such as TV.

Youth are exposed to hundreds of advertising messages per day (up to three or four more than 40 years ago), with the result that day-after advertising recall rates have plummeted, from 26% in the 1960s to 7% in 2005.  Compounding this is the fact that youth today simply spend much less time exposed to traditional broadcast media such as TV and radio, and much more time online and on their mobiles. In the UK alone, there has been a 16% TV watching among 16-24 year olds constitutes a 16% drop since 2001. In sum, not only are youth less exposed to traditional media and therefore to the marketing messages which appear on these media, they are less likely to act on the messages they do receive if these messages are not directly relevant to their needs and lifestyles.

Basically, marketers today have a problem getting through to youth. This is where mobile comes in: We can identify three specific areas where mobile will prove invaluable to marketers. Firstly, its ability to deliver highly relevant and targeted advertising on a personal platform; secondly, its ability to build communities around brands, and thirdly, its ability to act as a linchpin between a variety of different advertising channels. More on this topic later – this answer is getting way too long!

-Mobile marketing so far has focused on SMS. Is there more to mobile marketing?

Xen, you’ve raised a great point and highlighted a major obstacle to creating successful mobile marketing.  In our report, we distinguish between two approaches to marketing, “reach” and relevance”. Reach is the traditional marketing approach, whereby the success of a campaign is basically judged by how many (potential) consumers it can reach. On the flip side is relevance marketing, where success is measured not by the scale of the campaign but rather how relevant the message is to specific consumers.

Many consumers today associate marketing on the mobile with a stereotypically reach approach, largely because of the SMS push campaigns of the “text-to-win” variety. In fact, mobile today is the perfect example of a reach approach being applied to a relevance platform – that is, a platform with great potential for delivering individualized and targeted relevance marketing.

This skewed approach to marketing on the mobile is basically the result of a temporary incongruence between the medium and the message. Messages will gradually adapt themselves to best suit the vehicle of their delivery, but like any adaptation, it takes a bit of time and a bit of trial and error. In the question above, I outlined three key advantages of mobile marketing: its ability to deliver highly relevant and targeted advertising on a personal platform; its ability to build communities around brands, and its ability to act as a linchpin between a variety of different advertising channels. For example, marketers can set up permission marketing schemes whereby youth divulge valuable information on their preferences to advertisers in exchange for targeted mobile ads – in fact such a service specifically for youth (the ad-supported mobile) will be launched next year by the Finnish company Blyk.

Mobile also allows brands to strengthen youth loyalty by building communities. A good example is Coca Cola’s “Coke Fridge” in Germany, where consumers collect codes from promotional Coke packs which can be redeemed on Coke Fridge - on either the internet site, or a mobile JAVA application version. Consumers can exchange the points obtained for ringtones, wallpapers and mobile games or music downloads via iTunes. Coke Fridge also features an instant messaging application, which offers youth social benefits of communication and allows youth to invite friends, which spreads awareness of the site virally.

Finally, the portability of the mobile phone means it can fuse together many disparate advertising channels to create interactive marketing campaigns. The “Warren” campaign launched in 2003 by Virgin Mobile Australia was a good example of a successful campaign integrating mobile into marketing, as it combined aspects of TV, online, print, radio and mobile advertising to create an interactive and engaging experience for the consumer.

-Are there different marketing strategies when it comes to the youth segment? How?
Absolutely. As I discussed above, young consumers don’t respond particularly well to traditional reach advertising.  To resonate with youth, marketers must craft relevant marketing messages that speak to their specific interests and preferences. Even more so, marketers must create advertising that involves young consumers in some way - interactivity is a key component of successfully attracting and building young consumer loyalty. This is simply because interactivity makes products more fun and more real. Mobile marketing has shown a great capacity for fun and interactive marketing, which makes it an ideal strategy for the youth segment - both the Coke Fridge and Virgin Mobile “Warren” examples. I also said it’s important that products be “real”, ie. authentic. What authenticity really means is that youth feel they have a certain emotional investment in the product, and that it reflects them in some way. A good dose of interactivity always increases the authenticity of a product. A great non-mobile example of this is Jones Soda, a soft drinks company. Jones Soda encourages consumers to send in their favorite photos, selects the best ones and publishes them on the labels of its soda bottles. Young consumers love this, as they gain status from being featured on the bottle and feel an emotional investment in the product and hence greater brand loyalty.

-What are the challenges mobile marketing faces today?
There are three main ones which we talk about in the report: First is that the marketing industry in general lacks confidence in mobile marketing, and a shift in mindset is needed before mobile marketing becomes more accepted. Marketers are holding back from the mobile platform due to a lack of traditional reach-oriented data to confirm the success of mobile marketing campaigns. Change must come from reassessing the metrics employed for measuring “old media” marketing techniques towards metrics that suit the mobile platform more specifically. We have to start focusing on “share of customer” rather than conventional market share, meaning focusing more on knowing your customers well and targeting them with relevant information than simply trying to grab as many customers as possible with generic, watered-down advertising.

Another problem is that Mobile marketing so far has focused on SMS push marketing campaigns which were initially successful because of their novelty value but have ultimately become annoying.

SMS marketing limits the potential of the mobile to engage consumers. Direct marketing may yield short-term results but there is no motivation for peer-to-peer marketing which limits the lifespan of any marketing campaign. When consumers are motivated to market the product to others, target segments become smaller and the result is more sustainable, leading to long-term yields through organically growing campaigns. Generic campaigns, such as mobile banner ads or TV style advertising, will see diminished returns over time as consumers become less receptive.

The third problem is that mobile marketing is frequently isolated from overall marketing campaigns. Mobile is treated as a separate marketing channel with a more technological bent than other platforms, meaning there is little integration with holistic marketing strategies. Mobile marketers are often more focused on one marketing technology rather than a larger solution and the high operator charges discourage the kind of experimentation needed to view the larger mobile picture. Mobile marketing also remains an anomaly amongst advertising platforms in that the consumer is expected to pay to interact, which is likely to disappoint consumers both in terms of the brand advertised and the advertising medium itself.

-Any interesting examples of mobile marketing best practice?
In the report we have pretty interesting case studies, such as the following McDonalds example, proving how effective mobile marketing can be.

McDonalds Japan used the mobile as the principle marketing channel to target young female consumers for the launch of its limited edition Prawn Fillet-o burger.

Aside from contents relating to fashion and teen idols, the mobile site’s main feature was a flash wallpaper heart motif which consumers could download for free. Consumers could customize the motif, changing the colors used to match their mood and share their customized version with friends, giving the site a viral dimension.

Average monthly page views of the mobile site hit 49,000 and sales of the limited edition burger were nearly four times that of previous limited edition menu items.

Thank you Savka! :)

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Next week there will be a new guest visiting here and talking about mobile services and youth. Wanna know who??? - Don't forget to tune in next Thursday to find out! Have a great weekend!

Interviewing Jan Kuczynski on Mobile Music and Youth Trends

Welcome to the second part of the mobile youth trends and behavior coverage. Today, Jan Kuczynski, Associate Manager at the Wireless World Forum, who is also the co-author of the mobileYouth 2006 report will be visiting here! Jan has been with Wireless World Forum for almost a year with a focus on emerging mobile trends and technology. Prior to joining W2F, Jan spent two years in snowy northern Japan and one year in the sunny south of France “I can personally recommend the Jurançon sec to anyone into their white wines”.

For those of you who missed the first part of the mobile youth trends coverage: Nick Wright, Jan's colleague, visited Xellular Identity last week and we had a great conversation - you can read it here.

Well, enough said... Jan, the stage is yours!

-Hi Jan, how are you?

Good thanks, Xen. Thanks for inviting me at Xellular Identity!

-How’s the weather in London?

We’ve been really lucky recently actually - it’s another bright and sunny autumn day!

-What got you interested in mobile?

I’ve always had an interest in the latest technology, but I suppose I really fell in love with my mobile when I spent two years living in Japan. There were some great handsets and services over there which kept me busy during my daily train commute. I would always be using my mobile to shop on Amazon, check maps using GPS or just browse around. Since I came back to the UK, I’ve stopped using my mobile so much. I still like to keep my eye on some of the new mobile developments back over in Japan - though sometimes it makes me just a little jealous…

-What takes up your time other than mobile?

Reading (I’ll have to look into your recommendation of Murakami’s “Wind-up Bird Chronicle”!), rugby league, skiing and getting out of London now and again to see the rest of the world. I’ve also been in big trouble with my housemate recently for repeatedly stealing their new Nintendo DS with tetris!

-Today’s topic is mobile music - do you use your mobile as a music player?

Actually, I don’t! The biggest deal breaker is that my handset doesn’t have a regular headphone socket. I really hate the standard headphones that come bundled with most ‘music phones’ these days so I would only use my phone as a music player if I could use my headphones. The other issue that holds me back is the lack of a good all-in-one music service that will let me use my mobile music on my PC and not cost me a fortune in data charges for OTA downloads from my phone.

-OK, not a mobile music convertee yet ;) but you’re a music fan, right?

Yes I am - and so it was fun to do research into the new trends in youth music consumption and try out some of the services that are so popular with today’s teens - in fact, I even went to two concerts of artists that I found out about on MySpace!

-Does music take a different role in the lives of teenagers and adults?

Yes, it does. As we grow older, we tend to have smaller groups of close friends, but for teenagers, friends, peers and social groups are the most important things in their lives. Music is a powerful social tool for teenagers - it gives them something to talk about, social status from knowing about the newest and coolest bands and the type of music you listen to can even define which social group you belong to (in my school you were either a metal-er or a raver based on your music tastes - I’ll let you guess which one I was ;) ).

-What are the key drivers for music’s appeal to youth?

Youth don’t just play music - they explore, display and share music. Firstly, youth can only use music as a social tool if it’s up-to-date, so unless youth constantly put feelers out to explore new music, they get left behind. Secondly, teens like to display their music tastes - whether it’s through their CD rack, their Coldplay t-shirt or simply by turning up their headphones so everyone can hear. Thirdly, youth like sharing music as it earns them social currency and reinforces peer bonds - that’s why teenagers spend time and effort burning compilation CDs for their friends.

-Has the way youth consume music changed over the last 10 years?

The key drivers haven’t changed - youth still want to explore, display and share their music - but the music industry itself has undergone a big transformation over the last few years. Music formats have shifted from analogue to digital and sources of new music have become more diverse. When I was younger, there was only one music chart, one MTV and just a handful of radio stations for youth. Now there’s the internet, a whole spectrum of music charts and channels and more and more specialist music genres (HipHopera or Neo-Rave anyone?).

-What music services are most popular among teens?

The most popular teen music services now are internet services which help youth best explore, display and share their music in the new fragmented, digital music world. Some services focus on improving one of these aspects (for example, Last.fm focuses on exploring, BBC’s Musicubes are a new way of displaying and Kazaa is mainly about sharing), whereas some enhance all three. MySpace, for example, is all about exploring for new music through a social network, displaying your music tastes on your homepage and sharing new tracks with a community of peers.

-How can we make mobile music more appealing to youth?

I think we need to move beyond the “mp3 playback” mindset to make mobile music a competitor for other popular youth music services. Just adding mp3 playback to a handset doesn’t exploit mobile music’s potential to let youth explore, display and share their music.

I’ve started to see some great new mobile products and services which do exactly that. For exploring, mobile technologies such as QR codes, image and audio recognition provide really interesting opportunities to use the mobile to discover new music. For displaying, there is a growing market for Bluetooth speakers which help youth make a display of their music collection, and there’s a great handset called “Neon” in Japan which shows the track title and artist in glowing LEDs along the side of the phone. For sharing, Vodafone have developed a DRM system where young people can swap music over Bluetooth, MMS, infrared and memory cards and there are some new music services that let youth share playlists with friends.

Mobile music has great potential, but I think it’s only by using mobile technology to build on the key drivers of exploring, displaying and sharing that we can make mobile music services more appealing to youth.

Thank you Jan! :)

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Next week there will be a new guest visiting here and talking about the art of marketing mobile services for the youth segment. Wanna know who??? - don't forget to tune in next Thursday to find out!

Interviewing Nick Wright on Mobile Youth Trends

For quite some time I was thinking about covering a wider scope of the mobile youth trends and behavior. Reading and looking for a body of knowledge, I got to know Nick Wright, a Research Associate at the Wireless World Forum, who is a co-author of the mobileYouth 2006 report. Nick has a BA in English and has worked in film journalism, English teaching and publishing. He joined Wireless World Forum in 2006 after a year living and working abroad in Russia and Turkey. Having made an incredible gesture, Nick will be my special guest at Xellular Identity during the month of November. First, I will be publishing the email interview conducted earlier, and later on Nick has agreed to answer your questions(!)

Well enough talking, let’s give Nick a worm to the stage!

Getting to Know Nick

-Hi Nick, how are you?   
Great, great to be here :)

-What brought you into the world of mobile?
What appealed to me when I joined Wireless World Forum 2 months ago was the consumer focus inherent in their approach to research. I had just finished a period teaching English to kids in Russia and Turkey and I knew the importance of appealing to young people and getting their attention. When I joined I knew as much as the next person about mobiles but within a very short time I discovered that this was an area where huge leaps in development were possible on a daily basis. It’s an exciting area to be involved in and it’s rare to see an industry so passionate about the possibilities that their medium offers. What we are trying to do with the mobileYouth report is refocus that passion to keep it relevant to the youth consumers so that all that energy isn’t lost.

-Other hobbies, fields of interest?
I’m an avid film buff but I temper the long time spent sitting in front of the screen by keeping active though running, rowing and yoga. Recently, it’s been an exciting time for me since the London Film Festival has been showing all over the city. The new, the strange and the classic jostle for attention around London and I’m frankly spoilt for choice. Last Sunday it set a world record for showing its much-anticipated, completely unknown “Surprise Film” on 50 screens at the same time (including a hospital, a prison and some lucky person’s living room). It turned out to be Robert Altman’s hilarious and touching new film “A Prairie Home Companion”, his first for 5 years. It was worth the suspense!

-3 birthday wishes?
1) A solution (or a basket of solutions) to solve the climate crisis we’re facing right now. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth comes at an all-too convenient time.
2) The persistence to train for the London marathon for next year
3) The Complete Stanley Kubrick Collection on DVD.

-What did you get for Christmas last year?
A Russian chapka from my parents: I was in Moscow teaching English and the benny hat wasn’t doing the trick any more!

mobileYouth

-High influence of the peer group, the need to build an independent personality, search of identity… adolescence was always about those burning questions, so what has mobile to do with it?
The relationship between youth and their mobiles is not necessarily based on being “fun, cool, or entertaining”. It’s a key social tool employed in the dynamics of the peer group. Youth consume mobile products - as they do others - to make statements about themselves and their relationship with their peers.

Self-expression is such a key aspect of young people’s lives that they would rarely choose a non-branded alternative over an identifiable brand. 98% of teens for example would choose a brand/logo designed T-shirt over a plain one.

Mobile is most importantly a symbol of belonging to a group, both as a physical product (you must own a phone to be part of our group) and its communicative possibilities: texting is essential to youth not because of the content (very limited) of the texts themselves but because each text is a reaffirmation and a reminder that “I’m with you”.

If mobile operators are to make the most of this underlying desire for social interaction amongst youth peer groups, then they need to ask how they can benefit youth and improve their communication. So far the emphasis has been more about giving young people things to play with on their phone which don’t enhance or build on existing behaviour. The result is, at best, small-scale adoption and faddish blips but no long-term successes beyond texting.

-How is the mobile phone changing the lives of teenagers?
A pretty broad question! I think it’s fair to say that it’s allowed youth to remain hyper-connected at all times, to the extent that 14% of US mobileYouth surveyed admitted that they couldn’t live without their phones. Other surveys point to the fact that an increasing number of young people are bing admitted to clinics as “text-addicts”. Overall, youth may be building up a dependency on mobiles which have increasingly become a sign of social status and self-esteem: many admit to feeling depressed if they pass a whole day without receiving a text.

We found something similar in the recent vox pop survey we caught on camera last week. One person admitted that he didn’t know “how people survived before mobile phones” and almost all admitted that they loved texting. If you’d like to see what other information we gathered from the video interviews please visit this link.

However, overall it is fueling the more extrovert and allowing shyer teens to communicate more easily. One of the more interesting findings is that mobiles have come to take the place in youth culture traditionally held by cigarettes. They provide or allow private communication, the activity is carried out largely unsupervised and they effectively create a rare private space for youth to interact in.

The most popular aspects of the mobile are features that can be adapted to suit the needs of youth. Texting is easily understood (though it needs practice to reach the blurry speeds of some of the more proficient) and adaptable to the stage where adults find the language unintelligible. Wallpapers and handset choice allow for personalization which allows youth to express themselves and advertise their identity as part of their peer group.

One of the reasons for the low adoption of new mobile services is because youth cannot access the service easily either due to budget or the difficulty of setting up the service to begin with. One of the key factors in reaching the youth mass market is the ease of use of a service which allows it to become widely accepted across peer groups.

- Is there a special usage of the mobile phone when it comes to youth? Usage patterns? How youth’s usage/consumption of mobile services differ from other segments?
Youth are compulsive texters, as I have explained. Globally they spend four times as much  on texting  as the average mobile phone user (US$ 6 a year compared to US$ 1.5 across all ages). 29.8% of their ARPU is on data services, compared to 11% across all age ranges. There is a lot of room to exploit future data services for the youth market as long as operators exploit existing youth behaviour rather than churning out technological features that have little relevance to kids’ lives.

-What is the market size of mobileYouth?
Currently youth from 5-24 make up 28.1% of the mobile phone ownership market. They spend US$ 130 million on mobiles which is 24% of the total spend on mobiles for all ages. Youth spend on data services is US$ 38 million and, importantly 80% of that spending is on texting. Youth spend on data services is 43% of the total, which shows just how heavily they rely on text as opposed to voice to communicate.

-Do culture and orientation influence mobileYouth behavior? How?
Although we argue that the underlying social drivers behind youth consumers are broadly similar, there are superficial cultural differences that have often been given too much emphasis when, for example, some industry professionals dismiss Korean and Japanese youth markets as “gadget-obsessed”.  These markets are far more developed in their adoption of the mobile internet and the uses of camera phones but these are all easily explained in other terms that the Japanese being obsessed with technology.

Japanese and Korean youth have even higher levels of mobile data service ARPU than youth globally: 47.6% of mobileYouth ARPU was data, compared to the global average of 29.7%. One of the most popular mobile services in Korea is a mobile social networking site named Cyworld, which is essentially an extension of MySpace in that it allows youth to create their own virtual rooms and literally buy furniture to decorate it. It’s hugely popular (90% of Koreans in their 20s have used the service) and provides a perfect environment for youth to fulfil five of their basic social needs, as we identified them: Social Networking, Communication, Status display, Personalisation and acting as a Behavioural Platform.

To explain: Social networking essentially allows youth to keep connected to all their friends, reconnect with older friends (as in the case with Bebo, a UK-based social networking site for school students, for those children forced to move school) and meet new people with similar interests.
Communication is simply the ability to communicate via as many routes as possible: text, voice, IM, PM, e-mail etc. Cyworld allows consumers to interact in all these ways.

Status Display and personalisation are shown by the ability to adapt and personalize in a way that shows off the young author’s identity, likes and dislikes (specifically related to music), friends, profile and the customizable room. As in real life, the virtual world holds virtual objects that convey status in the same way as branded Nike trainers or ownership of the latest music does in real life.

Ultimately, since so many youth are on Cyworld, it essentially forms a behavioural platform for youth as well. By this I mean it presents a set of rules, perameters and structures for youth to interact around. A great way for youth to advance their status is to become a master of a certain behavoural platform. Specific sport varieties are also behavioural platforms so, for example, if you are a great skateboarder you will be given a higher status amongst your skater peer group. In the same way, collective familiarity with a certain platform, when everyone has access to it and understands the “rules”, tends to strengthen peer group bonds and the attachment to the platform itself.

Thank you Nick! :)

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For the second part of the interview and more insights about the mobile youth behavior, the mobile music market, and the future of this market - don't forget to tune in next Thursday!

Smells Like Teen Spirit

I've been invited to join the mobileYouth and w2forum virtual networking event being held in the popular youth hangout - the UK branch of Habbo Hotel on Friday 27th of October at 14:00-16:00 BST. This is a great opportunity to play around with avatars and meet some very interesting people - so I'm inviting you to join!

Also, starting next week, I'm having my November special coverage. A very interesting guest will be visiting Xellular Identity, and will talk about mobile youth trends... It smells like teen spirit around here... :)

Korean Avatars Market Review - Part III (Avatars Offerings)

Recently I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. Knowing it might interest some of you, I’ll be publishing the content of the presentation at this blog. Due to the length, I’ve been posting it in a few parts every Thursday. If you missed the opening, here’s the link to the first part and second part

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Avatars Offerings

Consumption of all kinds of online content has extremely grown in Korea ever since broadband internet service became popular. I’ll also add here a little piece of valuable info I got last week (Thanks Melanie) to get the idea of “heavy connectivity” that was discussed last week: on average, Korean Internet users spend 12.2 hours online per week and participate in 3-4 community websites!

South Korean users were the first to adopt avatars as their web representation. Respectively, the demand for avatars has grown with the fast adoption of online social interactions in a bodiless, ageless and sexless sphere. This amorphous presence has evoked the need to establish a visual presence by nominating a visual representant.

Most of the avatar providers are portal companies which entered the avatar market to upgrade their web offerings. This companies recognized that avatars can increase revenues by promoting more frequent and longer visits and by serving as a bridge to additional services. Only later down the road service providers realized that avatars are a consumer goods which should have a business model of their own. The avatar service evolved to a pay service which increased the quality of the offerings.

What makes the avatar phenomenon so interesting for many, is the fact that so many users are willing to pay to dress their avatar with clothing and accessories. Understanding that the avatar has a major role in self-representation in the social world over the web, service providers offer only a basic avatar. Many times the basic avatar doesn’t wear more than pajamas or a fig leaf. Service providers understood that users want to have an avatar that resembles them as much as possible, so they offered premium content for extra charge.

The major avatar providers in Korea are NEOWIZ (SayClub), Cyworld, Daum, MSN Korea and Yahoo! Korea.

NEOWIZ operates one of the most popular avatar sites - SayClub. SayClub has over 20 million subscribers which are equivalent to nearly 50% the population of Korea! Neowiz launched the first avatar service in 2000 and has occupied one of the leading positions among Korean internet companies offering avatars and games ever since. According to the company’s reports, Q1 2006 avatar revenues reached $2.4 M!

NEOWIZ was the first provider to employ an “avatars distributed for free, clothes and accessories sold for small amounts” business model. According to this model, users can buy designer avatar clothing and other premium content, with licensing fees being paid to actual consumer brand. This has led to the reality where Korean avatar owners spend more money on clothing for their avatar than they do for themselves. In a society where most of interactions happen over the web – this makes sense.

MSN Korea launched its MSN messenger in 2003 which includes “dynamic avatars”. Dynamic avatar changes according to the typed emoticons or certain words like ‘happy’, ‘angry’, etc’ in the chat window. Dynamic avatars require server capacity which is equal to the online games; which makes it harder for small portals to provide similar services. MSN Korea offers users a “multi avatar feature” which enables the user to employ up to 4 avatars. The displayed avatar depends on the chat partner. To initiate the service, users need to pay cyber money.

The last major avatar provider, which got a lot of coverage after its entrance to the U.S. market, is Cyworld. Cyworld is a social networking leader in Asia with localized sites in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, owned by a subsidiary of SK Telecom, the country's largest wireless provider. The Cyworld service is a combination of minihompies, online communities, music downloads, picture sharing, messenger and eBay. Cyworld’s users have avatars that visit (by linking) each other's "minihompy" [= a miniature homepage that looks like a 3D room which contains user’s blog, photos, and virtual items for sale]. Cyworld users also buy and sell music, ringtones, and clothes for their avatar. They can also buy skins to furnish their virtual minihompy. The service is free yet a big part of the content is available only for a fee, paid in virtual currency. Cyworld has astonishing penetration rates with 90% of the 20-year-old Koreans.

Daum, another major avatar provider is one of Korea's largest portals. Currently it has more than 35 million subscribers.

Next week - I’ll be talking about the next big thing... avatars entering into the mobile arena! So don’t forget to tune in on Thursday.

No Mobile? No Social Life

Noted - the mobile is the yardstick of teen's social life:

"78% of 11 to 17-year-olds believe having a mobile has given them a better social life as it meant it was easier to keep in touch with their friends. By contrast, many young people - especially teenage girls - admit they would feel unwanted if the day passed without their mobile ringing."

[via BBC News}

In my days it was getting invited to better Friday's nights dance parties\hang outs...

Mod Your Mobile

As a personalization evangelist, I've been familiar with ringtones, wallpapers and screensavers, colorful shells, Klonies as your Virtual mobile persona, mobile jewelry... Also I've been familiar with the fact that this is a major personal need of adolescence. But this is something I haven't seen yet... (and thanks Darren) :)

"'Mod' is short for modification, it's big in Japan and it's going to be massive over here. Show us what you can do with a tube of glue, some paint and a bit of imagination."

[via Orange UK]

To encourage users to express their creativity (ahm ahm...), Orange UK even has a prize winning competition for best 'modders'. Having my unique handmade mobile HS might make me want to keep it longer; yet if the modding didn't turn out as I wanted or I accidentally spilled too much glue on the screen - mom+dad are gonna need to buy me a new one...

   

Virtual Activism

Meez, a 3-D avatar provider, is widening its activity to virtual activism, under the newly-minted "CAUZ" banner, according to the company’s PR. The CAUZ brand is the result of collaboration with 7 youth-oriented non-profit organizations: 26 Valencia, Do Something, Just Think, Music for America, Outward Bound, Summer Search and YouthNoise.

"CAUZ virtual items will include t-shirts, hoodies and backgrounds that prominently display a non-profit's brand or a message about a social concern that is important to today's youth, like the environment or AIDS."

CAUZ items will be available for free, unlike Meez branded sportswear which has a price tag.

Many teens spend more time over the web than in real life, so these NGOs decided to promote social activism in the virtual arena. Cool. Yet, Merton and Lazersfeld* would have said (if they were alive) that consuming virtual activism is a "narcotic disfunction" of mass communication. It gives users the false sense of doing/acting while actually being passive, i.e. ONLY consuming activism at home (as TV entertainment or here - as virtual content).

What do you think?

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*Lazarsfeld, P.P., and Merton, R.K. (1948). Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action, in: Schramm and Robert (eds.) The Process and Effects of Mass Communication, pp. 459-480. University of Illinois Press.

SMS's New Visual Language - "Zlango"

ESC, the Israeli youth MVNO, launched a new mobile app which enables users insert graphic icons to replace words in SMSs. The new graphic ‘language’ is called Zlango and now contains 220 graphic symbols which, according to official PR, aims to add personal expression and some fun spirit to the dull SMS. All ESC users will be able to watch messages containing the Zlango icons using a link (provided in the Zlango SMS) to the company’s web portal and view the message as a pic file.

[via Ynet in Hebrew]

A few notes:

• SMS is turning to be more than 160 characters using visual signs to express more in each character (out of 160).
• Visual symbols are the shortest way to convey meaning: think about ads, banners and promotions - a pic is worth a thousand words, right? Why not leverage this characteristic in other fields where space is limited/ expensive?
• This is another step towards a “visual” mobile which doesn’t rely only on voice (bigger screens for visual caller ID, SMS, IPTV, wap portals, emails, etc…).
• Written language is being reduced into visual icons. Some are universal (like ESC's symbol for “and”) but many others are being made up by the mvno itself (like ESC's symbols for “big”, “now”, “new”). Who will be the authority to invent missing symbols and to decide on their common meaning?

Yahoo: Serve Yourselves

What would be next? Buying a carton of milk and walking outside to milk the cow ourselves?? Yet there are enough enthusiastic teenagers and film students that would grab the opportunity to be famous and do the work.

Technorati Tags: yahoo, user generated content

Update: Teen BuzzTones

Lately I get a lot of traffic coming from people searching for the teen Buztones, also known as Mosquito.

So... I have a special treat for you: Tom Sella sent me the file, so here you go: Download mosquito_RINGTONE.mp3  enjoy! :)

btw, I'm 26 yrs and I can still hear it...

Technorati Tags: tom sella, mosquito, teen buzz, youth, mobile trend, ringtones

Teen BuzzTones

we all agree that the mobile is more than just a mobile... it's also a personal statement about us, about our tastes, fashion, lifestyle etc… and not just the mobile itself; ringtones have played a major role in this trend as well. If you think about it, music is actually a fashion and personality statement as well, so the combination of mobile and music as means of conveying a message - turns the ringtone into a powerful tool for self expression purposes.

Having said all that, how can the latest teenage trend of using a high-pitched sound which can’t be heard by adults as a ringtones* (so they can use phones during classes) fits in this equation?

This high-pitched ringtone, a.k.a. TeenBuzz, is a personal statement as well. A teenager who uses it conveys the following message:

• I’m cool
• I’m tech savvy
• I’m very in - I’m familiar with all the latest trends
• I’m part of a social group - the group of teens who use the mobile in class (= I’m not a geek)
• I’m reinforcing my belonging to that social group
• I’m more interested in my friends than in the class/teacher
• I’m willing to take risks in class, but in a smart/sophisticated way

All that in a single action of changing the polyphonic ringtone to the high-pitched ringtone during class!

I wish that in my school days I had a cool toy like that! :)

*Mosquito

Technorati Tags: mosquito, teen buzz, youth, mobile trend, mobile behaviour, ringtones, self expression

ICQ: Fly Ads\Users Away

ICQ is launching a new advertising platform, called Broadcast To User (B2U) which enables broadcasting commercials while users are chatting on real time. The commercial is broadcasted to the dialog window after one of the users has sent a message and is waiting to a response from his counterpart. After an appearance of 10-17 seconds, the commercial gets smaller into the size of an icon and remains on the top right of the dialog window, serving as a link to the advertising company. ICQ people see this new platform as a powerful tool to have a real dialog with their wide audience of teen users.

Picture yourself the following situation: you’re IM-ing about some private stuff with your friend. Let’s say you’re crying about a not-so-long-ago break up from your b\g-friend. And there you have ads popping on your dialog screen, preventing you from seeing the last sentences you just wrote. After 10-17 seconds, the ads fly to the side of the text - but stick there. How would you feel about that? -pissed off that’s how! You get ads on the banner (I can live with that), on the message banner, on the contact list, on the welcome screen (they should have a law against that annoying thing), on the extraz page and now instead of your conversation text you’ll get flying ads! Doesn’t that remind you those hideous pop ups before the days of Google AdWords?

I don't see how this brings ICQ any closer to "having a dialog with their teenage users". All they really tell them is "fly away to other messengers"!

Technorati Tags: icq, B2U, im, marketing, advertisement, pop ups

Welcome To The First Signs of Maturity

""It got too fake," 18 year old Summer Stoker said. "You have all these people saying they want to be your friend. It's just a waste of time.""

[via Star Telegram]

well, there are some more mature and more self-aware teenagers... Great news :)

Technorati Tags: myspace, web comunities, web, youth

What Youth Really Wants (on the mobile)

Noted: More than half of UK 18- to 34-year-olds are engaging with brands through their mobile phone.

Technorati Tags: mobile content, mobile, brands, research, youth

For Privacy Matters Please Text

These days every kid has a mobile phone. There's no surprise in seeing companies and organizations trying to reach teenagers through their mobile phones, or better said – via texting.

"San Francisco just launched the nation's first text-messaging program aimed to shoot instant cellphone messages to sexually active young people seeking advice about sex and health. The service focuses on everything from what to do "if ur condom broke" to whom to call "if ur feeling down... like u wanna xcape ur life."

Written in the abbreviated style of text messaging, SexInfo is open to anyone with cellphone text messaging. But it is aimed at sexually active 12- to 24-year-olds in San Francisco, especially blacks, whose rates of sexually transmitted diseases have increased in the past year, says Jacqueline McCright of the San Francisco Department of Public Health."
[via USA Today]

What I liked about this initiation is that the San Fransisco Department of Public Health people chose the right means of communication for the specific target segment and for the cause. Info about sex is an urging content for teenagers, yet you probably ask - why is the mobile the right means of communication and not - let's say - the internet?

Texting, like IM-ing, creates a new sphere of communication. Texting and IM-ing provide a protective shield, because the “texter” is less involved in the situation; unlike participating in a F2F or on a phone conversation.

In their essence, texting and IM-ing are very close, yet teenagers prefer texting. Why? Because the mobile looks better after their privacy. Teenagers don't share their mobile with other people like they share the PC (with family members, friends, and/or random people at internet cafés…). So on the mobile, no one could see the latest word searches, the ongoing text conversation, or opened web screen. For private matters, the mobile has greater benefit.

No need to explain that when it comes to "if ur condom broke to whom to call" or "if ur feeling down... like u wanna xcape ur life" teenagers must feel confident enough to express and not intimidated by the fear of possible exposure... To make sure that teenagers would get the important info, the Health Department people made sure that the means of communication answer the users needs – get the info and keep their privacy at the same time. Nice guys!

Technorati Tags: SexInfo, texting, SMS, IM, youth