ActiveMedia has a mobile solution for just about every situation; from mobile ticketing to mobile “loyalty” and a few days ago announced the launch of their new mobile marketing platform dubbed ActiveFRONT.  It aims to “comprehensively bring the power of WAP and SMS together to deliver fully integrated mobile marketing campaigns.”

ActiveFRONT aims to offer fully managed, “campaign-aligned” mobile Internet sites that work with SMS and WAP marketing campaigns to deliver a unique marketing impact and significantly richer brand experience to the end-users.  ActiveFRONT seeks to be particularly relevant for marketers wanting to run mobile campaigns that feature community-portals for things like special interest groups, lead generation, product catalog, and content sales and delivery. Raj Singh, Managing Director, at ActiveMedia said this about the new platform;

“We are proud to leverage our deep experience and unmatched understanding of mobile marketing to bring this cutting edge services suite. ActiveFRONT services include campaign conceptualization, design, building, hosting, content management, and auxiliary services such as SMS/WAP push, plus campaign management and promotion. We are sure that this suite would be of great benefit to brands and agencies looking to tap the mobile medium. ActiveFRONT is part of our ongoing commitment in 2008 to offer marketers a complete portfolio of mobile marketing and advertising services.”

The platform looks like it takes good advantage of WAP campaigns opposed to other mobile channels only because of the increased interactivity of a WAP environment.  Because of this, ActiveFRONT includes a ton of call-to-actions that can be used to boost the campaign; things like Click2SMS, Click2Call and Click2Email.

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With the IPhone growing almost as ubiquitous as cell phones themselves, businesses large and small are rapidly developing versions of their established web sites specifically for the Apple device, apparently whether there’s a good reason for it or not. 

As Apple has redundantly advertised, one of the iPhone’s greatest strengths is it’s full Web browser that enables users to access and view complete, original Web sites and not “watered-down ones” designed for small cell phone screens. Despite this established fact, a number of companies, including Ion Interactive, are preparing to release software that “helps marketing departments customize their business’s web site for the iPhone.”

As the Wall Street Journal sarcastically reported, “this is one of those company-you’ve-never-heard-of-does-something-you-don’t-care-about stories. Except that it illustrates how easy it is to get caught up in the moment.”

A study conducted by Internet Researchers StatCounter showed that people who own iPhones account for only about 0.18% of Internet browsing in the US. Naturally, one would only speculate that the majority of those unique users visit more established, iconic websites like MySpace, Google, or Yahoo when they find time to browse the web from their mobile handset. Companies like Ion Interactive, however, are striving to change the browsing habits of iphone users by helping businesses of all sizes attract and retain consumer attention through products and services that will customize websites specifically for the iPhone.

It’s a forward-thinking plan that currently clashes with the conventional wisdom that the iPhone is mobile marketing territory for the “big boys only.” Nonethless, learning, planning and building for the “unavoidable future of mobile smartphone growth and its resulting demand” is potentially one of the smartest courses of action for any mobile marketing business to undertake in 2008.

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Undoubtedly one of the coolest sites I’ve come across in a long time, Myxer.com is not only where millions of people go to download from the Internet’s largest collection of ring tones, wallpapers and videos, it has also provided more than 13,000 bands with a unique opportunity to reach their fans and network with peers through the vast and growing Myxer audience.

An advertising supported site, virtually all of the content (250,000 pieces in all) is free and compatible with more than one thousand handsets in nearly one hundred countries.

According to their website, “Myxer began three years ago with one goal in mind — to be the champion for indie bands and musicians that want their voice heard in the mobile space.” To this end, Myxer has cataloged and presented an unbelievably impressive collection of multimedia content that is uniting people through music, direct interaction, and most of all, through inspiration.

A rapidly growing site (in content and following) Myxer recently announced the launch of BrandTones, “a unique, cost-effective brand extension program designed to make it even easier for companies to connect with consumers through mobile.” Essentially, BrandTones are free, customized ring tones that “enhance the traditional digital marketing components of an advertising campaign.”

To date, Adidas, Volkswagen and Lowe’s have tapped Myxer for these creative campaigns that “express their brand personality while delivering relevant content to consumers – generating viral buzz, extending reach and strengthening loyalty.”

Check out Myxer.com to see what all the excitement is about. Chances are, you’ll bookmark it, too.

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Of the myriad mobile sites and services on the horizon, those that capture my fancy are the ones that serve the most practical of purposes.  Needless to say, when I learned of PhoneFavs, a mobile optimized web portal and online bookmarking service designed for cell phones and portable gadgets, I was instantly intrigued by the prospect of gaining mobile access to my frequently used and abused bookmarks.
 
According to the site, PhoneFavs “allows you to view and use your bookmarks on a mobile device in an easy to use small screen format. You can store, organize and share your bookmarks and access them on any device, anywhere. You can even import your existing bookmarks from Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and del.icio.us.”

Perhaps most conveniently, PhoneFavs additionally provides a mobile web directory, a mobile software store, and a mobile web transcoder that “mobilizes” more elaborate, larger web pages for optimal viewing on a small cell phone screen.

• Favs Portable Bookmarks: PhoneFavs lets you keep a list of bookmarks online in a mobile friendly format. Your Favs can be tagged, searched, shared and mobilized at your convenience. PhoneFavs’ bookmarking utility works best in combination with your primary desktop computer. With the browser buttons in place, you can easily save sites you might want to bookmark or visit later on your mobile device.
• PhoneFavs Mobilizer: The Mobilizer is a mobile transcoder that automatically adapts standard web pages for better viewing on a mobile device. It removes most images and formatting for greatly improved readability and faster load times. An icon on your Favs list will open your saved Fav with the mobilizer or you can enter any website address from the PhoneFavs homepage to browse the web in a small screen friendly format.
• Directory: The PhoneFavs mobile link directory includes over 300 handpicked sites optimized for use on mobile phones. There are over 25 categories and subcategories of destinations and you can suggest a site if we don’t have it listed.
• Mobile Software: PhoneFavs offers a mobile optimized software store. The store offers thousands of free downloads and commercial titles for many popular smartphones including devices running Palm OS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Symbian (Nokia S60) platforms. Customers can download free trials and even purchase applications right from their handset.

Although it is customized for mobile access, PhoneFavs is said to work best in conjunction with a desktop browser. The PhoneFavs browser buttons allow users to quickly bookmark webpages or other content of considerable length and store it on PhoneFavs for viewing on your mobile device at a later time.

In addition to being free and able to safeguard the privacy of the sites visited and content saved, PhoneFavs is easy to use and a quickly addictive tool.

Visit pfavs.com with your web browser and check it out for yourself.

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As usual on a dreary afternoon lunch break from work, I reveled in the guilty pleasure of checking my MySpace to spy on the latest developments in the silly cyber social world of my closest friends and acquaintances.

Per my normal routine, I scanned my top friends looking for new profile updates. Then, I checked my messages, accepted a friend request, and chuckled at the humorous musings posted on my already cluttered wall. Indeed, this MySpace experience was similar to all others except for one glaring difference. This was the first time I visited Myspace away from my PC and on my mobile phone.

The world’s most popular social network has gone mobile with MySpace Mobile, a new site designed specifically for those on the go who are just as hopelessly obsessed with MySpace as I am.

According to the specs, MySpace Mobile features include:

– Message Management - send, read and reply to messages from all of your
MySpace friends, as well as field friend requests.

– Viewing Photo Albums - easily look at MySpace photo albums by choosing
“My Photos” on MySpace Mobile.

– Viewing Friends - look up profiles of your friends and others through
your MySpace profile. Just as on standard MySpace, MySpace Mobile lets
you see profile pictures and other member information via mobile devices.

– Friend Search - search for people by name or e-mail address, as well as
send friend invites and review invites that are pending.

– Comments / Blog Posting - post comments and update blogs just as you
would from a PC. Any new information entered will be posted to a
member’s mobile and online MySpace profile simultaneously.

Overall, Myspace Mobile is an outstanding mobile version of the real thing. It’s easy to use, familiar as ever, and just as comforting as always.

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According to a fascinating article published by Creative Search Media, business owners and other entrepreneurs interested in reaching a broad spectrum of cultural and ethnic consumers that shop online should invest in enabling their website to be viewed on mobile phones.

CSM cites several interesting studies revealing that mobile marketing is a phenomenon that “Hispanic and African American audiences are embracing at rates unmatched by other ethnic groups.” And “if they can’t see your web site, you’ll not only lose the sale but also the chance to build long-term relationships.”

This report is likely helping to raise awareness about the importance of doing more than just translating the text on websites into other languages. To excel, mobile marketing in a contemporary setting requires business owners to make their web sites culturally attractive and accessible to those entrenched in and attracted to mobile media.

Mobile Marketing, in its basic function, serves to expedite at cost effective rates the ability of companies large and small to successfully promote their products and services, in particular, to younger consumers. So far, the attempts to capitalize on advertising opportunities in the vast mobile phone market have also revealed the ways in which mobile marketing can unite culturally or ethnically diverse peoples – an admirable goal for all practitioners of this burgeoning form of cutting edge marketing.

To that end, CSM provided a helped link to check whether or not your web site is presently “mobile friendly.” Simply visit W3C MobileOK Checker and run your site through the test to get a unique response as to how your site shapes up.

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The Wall Street Journal nails it today with an article about how ripe the Indian market is for Cellphone advertising. Not entirely for the reasons you’d think though. It’s not a numbers thing, well sorta, but not in the sense that it’s coveted because countless numbers of people have em. It’s the medium combined with the numbers that makes it a killer space.

Know why?

Think rural markets or villages. Cellular networks in India are expected to reach 90,000 villages over the next couple of years. Today it’s 30,000. It’s estimated that nearly 50% of the population in India doesn’t have television. Guess what greater than 100% of them have? Mobile phones! That’s the standard medium if you want to reach the 200 million in India.

Here’s a quote from the article.

“PriceWaterHouseCoopers estimates that only 115 million out of 200 million households in India owned television sets last year. Meanwhile, the number of cellphone users is already 250 million; that number is expected to double in the next five years.“

The WSJ article indicates that Cellular Network operators are currently adding more than 8 million subscribers per month.

See the enormity of the opportunity now, and this is just one Country.

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