Mobile Radio Simplified. Accessible. Relevant.

This article from Ad Age on the growth of alternative advertising is a must-read for CMO’s and agencies looking to gain or maintain leadership.

Although covering a very broad topic, the elements related to mobile advertising, and what radio categorizes as NTR or non-traditional advertising is the most dynamic area of growth in alternative advertising. Having said that, this growing quarter of the larger set is disruptive, volatile, and dynamic. The numbers are impossible to predict, although we all welcome consultants doing their prognostications anyway — that’s what they do.

What will the affect of CelleCasting be for radio advertising by making it interactive? What will be the affect of social media as people begin to share their ad preferences, and use RSS more and more to get informed on their own terms? What other innovations in mobile advertising are on the horizon?

No one knows… but you can bet the CMO’s and agencies who are investing ahead into new media pioneers now will be rewarded. Toyota set 10% of their 2008 ad budget aside for alternative, experimental media. I feel this is the right amount of seed to plant into the future of advertising.

Ten years ago, mobile advertising was in its infancy, something that most cellular users had not encountered. In 2008, an eMarketer study finds that 58 million US mobile subscribers have seen a mobile advertisement on their phones in the past 30 days. That accounts for 23% of U.S. mobile subscribers.

While far from market saturation, it does represent a substantial increase, one that will continue in its upward trend.

But just how lucrative is the mobile advertising market? Ask 10 people and you’ll get 10 different answers. MocoNews this week summed it up by showing that mobile advertising forecasts range anywhere from $11 billion to $250 billion in the next several years.

Compared to the $871 million spent on mobile ads worldwide in 2006 (according to Informa Telecoms & Media), even the most modest projection represents an 1100% increase.

But will mobile users tolerate ads served over their most personal media device? eMarketer goes on to say that for some, the answer is yes.

In addition, 32% of mobile data users said they were open to receiving mobile advertising if it lowers their overall bill and 13% were open to mobile ads if it improved the media and content currently available.

This stat overlooks the more subtle and natural form of mobile advertising, the audio ad. When served in the midst of audio and radio content that consumers deliberately seek out, those numbers may increase. After all, the audio ad overcomes barriers inherent in data based ads, because it is accessible to every phone. It is universally accessible, just like the audio content that is attached to it with cellecasting.

The next few years will see enormous increases in mobile ads. We predict a big portion of that will be in ubiquitous, short, interactive audio ads placed amidst premium talk radio content that is more and more moving to on-demand mobile delivery.

As the jewel of his keynote in the RAB Radio conference yesterday, Jeff Haley said that if radio was available on every mobile phone, and if half the subscribers listened to it for half an hour a day, then that would create $3 billion annual increase in radio advertising revenue. Then he said we need to commit to seeing this happen. Here it for yourself.

We are with you Jeff, and dare I say, already a few steps down the road. We have enabled any talk format radio to be delivered to all 243 million cell phones as well as the 181 million landlines anywhere, anytime on CelleCast. It is not dependent on FM tuners being put into handsets and the instant on-demand capabilities create the kind of passion re-ignition value needed to reach todays consumer.

Having developed the technical network to make this happen and as we prepare to launch the Dr. Laura Program as our marquis program cellecast, we are now ready to engage the advertising community squarely to accelerate the achievement of the 2020 goals.

To give you the three points of what the Radio 2020 initiative is, here it is from Jeff’s speech:

1) Address perceived concerns about the health of Radio head on.
2) Engage the industry head on to connect stations, producers to “build an entire radio ecosystem”.
3) engage consumers to reignite their passion for radio.

BTW, this initiative was first presented by NAB’s David Rehr at the 07 NAB Radio show in Charlotte. He had 4 points. I remember then that we were poised to deliver 3 of the 4. When I speak at the Radio Convergence Conference in San Jose next month, I’ll be sure to bring this up.

Also of interest from Jeff’s state of the industry address:
Katz and Interep and RAB are creating a new hub for advertising communication. What will these mean for media buyers?

For all the hype about mobile advertising and what a giant it will be in the future, its current state is still fraught with many challenges. MocoNews reports that among them are too much complexity, fragmentation, carrier’s issues, and ultimately, convincing marketers to do a mobile campaign.

All that pertains to visual (text and banner) mobile ads, converging on a space where they are not yet expected or accepted. True, they’ll likely become normal down the road. But in the meantime there is a painfully overlooked way to do mobile advertising: audio.

After all, aren’t mobile phones first and foremost an audio channel? So serving ads through a audio channel should most naturally be in the same form.

Believe it or not, doing mobile audio ads sidesteps all the challenges mentioned above. Pair ads with popular radio and audio content that consumers are accessing more and more from their phones, and you’ve got a winner. A solution that sidesteps carrier issues because the ads can be served to any handset in the world. This also eliminates the complexity because we’re all already trained to listen to ads on the radio. It doesn’t require a new behavior to be learned. No complex click through screens on tiny mobile browsers. Just a quick painless audio ad, inviting consumers to push one button if they want to hear more.

Universal accessibility for mobile campaigns. Achievable sooner than you think.

Do you ever talk back to the radio or TV? Come on now, admit it. Most of us do. Now imagine that your outcries at that reality TV show or that talk radio host could actually be heard. It’s closer than you think.

In fact, it’s available now for radio. Not only interactive, but on demand. You listen to your favorite station or show on your phone when it’s convenient for you, giving your feedback instantly with the press of a button. No waiting on hold indefinitely before being put on air. No busy signals.

A look at recent research from Harris Interactive indicates that well over half of reality TV and sports viewers would like to interact with that sort of programming. Another key finding: 66% of viewers want to interact with advertising. As a side note, audio interactive advertising is already a reality. Check out this post for more.

Consumer desire leads the way (or should) in product development, so expect that interactive TV, in an even fuller capacity than you see now, will be not far down the road.

The only thing holding radio back from mobile, on demand interactivity is industry participation. Call your favorite radio station and tell them you’d like them as a cellecast. We can accommodate.

AR&D’s Terry Heaton makes some very great points about a new report from Burst Media about online video consumption habits. In reading this piece I of course am looking for its relationship to online audio and radio trends in particular.

Let’s start with the relevant parts of their conclusion and work from there:

Understand The Mindset Of Video Consumers: Video content is a vast treasure-trove of information and entertainment for web surfers. It is also a potential advertising treasure trove for marketers. However, marketers must tread carefully as they weed their way through the video content advertising forest. Online video consumers are not yet willing to exchange their uninterrupted viewing experience for advertising messages. For online video advertising to be truly effective, advertisers need to use approaches that fit this consumer mindset. Using shorter spots distinct from offline creative is one way of capturing consumers’ attention; and garnering greater consumer acceptance of advertising placements within online video content.

First, the key thing about video vs audio is that, while embedded within web pages, the consumer is already trained to wander and navigate here and there on a whim. Watching video must overcome a diffused level of attention to begin, so therefore an ad blows the whole experience. They are used to seeing ads on a peripheral sidebar rather than in a linear committed fashion. Audio consumption on the other hand is less of a foreground experience unless you are doing it while mobile. That makes the advertising paradigm more tolerable whether it comes from the radio, computer, or portable device.

That being said, the big consumer factor that transcends video and audio alike is the time factor. Clearly, today’s consumer is much less tolerant of advertising that interrupts. That is why we advocate and are pioneering a win-win between today’s audio listener who has a 12 second threshold, and the advertiser who wants to put out more information. It is called interactive advertising. Just give them a short message with a one button call to action and let “part B” of the ad give them the rest of the story. Let them press 8 for a text message to be sent to them, and let them press 7 again to buy the book directly over their phone. At the end of this user initialted diversion, let them be dropped right back into the programming where they left off, missing nothing. That is the kind of solution the study eludes to, and that is what we are working to deliver.

Get your interactive checkbook ready.

Interactive revenues.

What once was a great opportunity for radio, has now become an area of intense pressure for sales managers. Produce here or die. I kinda wish the opportunity side of the ideas had more time for exploration first, then perhaps the tools that can produce a long term benefit will be discovered. Short term thinking stemming from a need to stop the bleed only addresses the symptoms, not the cause.

This is relevant to us as we have indeed created a great advertising platform that works with the power of what radio is, while pioneering a new level of interactivity for radio spot advertising. The problem we face is the short attention span within the industry. The pressure for revenue now hinders the collaborative thinking that will create what is really needed… a permanent correction to the revenue graphs in the radio industry.

What kind of non-traditional ad channels are a good fit for radio? The ones that answer yes to the following:

• Is it measurable, and therefore no-risk?
• Is there a growing audience?
• Is it audio based and complementary to terrestrial radio?
• Is it highly targeted?
• Does it promote the producer as a pioneer in new media?

We are glad to say we hit a 100% yes on all of these factors and more.

Have your interactive managers give us a call to discuss how we can help turn the tide in your 08 forecasts.

This is always a really fun subject, and one we get asked about all the time. Here is a good article about what many companies are wading through:

Control Freak Operators Hindering Mobile Ad Market? (see my comment there)

People ask us all the time… “What deals do you currently have with the carriers?”

We plan on having many, but not until the time is right. The good news is that we don’t have to wait on anything on our end in the mean time. The phone lines are open and the media can play NOW.

The 21st century media buying climate comes with expectations of greater accountability, measurability, and ultimately, ROI. Gone are the days where account executives can secure large buys by merely waving figures for cume by daypart. Advertisers and agencies now rightfully expect to know precisely what their ad dollars are going for. Who is hearing the ad, when, how often and with what result? The digitizing of mainstream media has made this accountability a reality.

Arbitron has responded to this demand by introducing the Portable People Meter (PPM) to replace the archaic diary system to track listener habits. At last, an electronic measuring system that drills down to the specifics of what listeners are actually tuning into, and does so without them having to recall (thus, often misreport) what exactly they listened to. This solution signals a great awakening of the radio industry in serving the demands of advertisers. Unfortunately, the complete roll out and implementation of it in all major and large markets will take years.

As emerging media tools such as cellecasting enter the marketplace it’s vital to note that tracking and accountability are inherent tools. Imagine empowering the advertiser to pull a report that details exactly how many times an ad was heard, in context, and by whom. They then pay for a precise CPM, with no margin of error or inflated numbers. The good news is, this is soon moving from imagination to reality.

Fierce VoIP reports how voodoovox secured $8.1M in financing. They are now rising on our list of potential ad partners to contact next.