QderoPateo, a unique startup that generated some buzz with its focus on “Articulated Naturality,” has launched a bluetooth proximity marketing solution and the beginning of its “Bluetooth Advertising Network.”  The announcement, sent in a press release yesterday, comes after I mention a complete lack of interest in proximity marketing in the recent past.

The proximity marketing solution, dubbed “Blu-Pons,” is focused on malls and shopping centers and uses distinct calls-to-action to encourage roaming consumers to turn their Bluetooth on and make themselves discoverable.  Once they do so, the Blu-Pon system implicitly asks for permission to push a coupon to the user, and if they accept, the coupon is transmitted.

Upon acceptance, the coupon is downloaded and stored on the user’s phone to be presented and redeemed at the participating retailer during purchase.  Later this year, the company plans to add the ability to redeem “Blu-Bucks” at retailers, providing a unique retention tool to keep customers coming back for more.

In addition, the company will soon launch an online advertising portal at blu-pons.com to enable advertisers to purchase and manage Blu-Pon campaigns online- with complete reporting that can even be emailed directly to the campaign manager for easy ROI measurement.

While the solution is not unlike several others on the market around the world, QderoPateo has taken things a bit farther in terms of campaign management and access, reporting and the concept of creating a “network” between hotspots.  Still, the prohibiting factors of the bluetooth marketing concept is still present.  Since this implementation is US-based, it will be interesting to see how consumers respond, and how retailers embrace the new concept.

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Millennial Media is the first to admit its feelings towards 2009 being the so-called “year of mobile,” as opposed to this year or any other that supposedly held the moniker.  To back up its position, Millennial has released a unique S.M.A.R.T report (Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting) to detail some quick and interesting facts about 2009 in a simple year-in-review.

As seen through Millennial’s network, the top 5 smartphone devices in 2009, in terms of impression share, was the iPhone in first place, followed in order by the Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Pearl, T-Mobile/HTC G1 and the Blackberry Storm.  Apple OS impressions increased 357% from January to December 2009, backing up its number one position, while RIM OS impressions grew 90% in the same period, proving how far RIM devices have come in terms of mobile Web usage.

In terms of engagement, the average user-session time in 2009 was 5:02, while the average monthly ad requests per page view was 1.06.  Audience campaigns experienced a 153% CTR lift in 2009, while 17% of advertisers used rich media on a monthly basis.  In total, Millennial finished out the year with 3,759 devices in its network, a 353% increase in deal size year-over-year, a whopping 756% increase in brand-business and a 54% increase in advertisers overall.

With these kind of numbers, it’s easy to agree that 2009 could have held the title of “year of mobile,” though it will be interesting to see these same figures next year for comparison.  Any way you cut it, mobile advertising is growing at a break-neck pace, and a quick overview of stats to quantify things is always welcomed.

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Mobixell utilized the first day of MWC to unveil its new RSS gateway solution, whereby RSS feeds can be delivered to subscribers via SMS/MMS, eliminating the need for users to download a client to keep up on the latest news their interested in.

The solution was designed to offer an alternative to existing client-based mobile RSS feed readers and enables operators to generate additional revenue and retain a prominent position in the so-called “value-chain.”  The solution allows RSS feeds to be delivered to all multimedia-enabled handsets without users having to install and configure anything.  The RSS Gateway tracks the feeds of selected websites — be it news, sports, weather, stock quotes or podcasts — and sends registered subscribers the newly available content  as an alert service via SMS or MMS.

The URL to the target website is embedded in the notification message, prompting the subscriber to launch a browsing session to get the whole story.  The idea is to give operators a way to add a range of Web 2.0 services to their offerings, while driving additional revenue and promote customer loyalty along the way.

Being aimed squarely at carriers, the RSS Gateway solution is yet another attempt to help carriers get in on the explosion of mobile services that are prime to be taken advantage of.  While it’s a unique solution, I don’t foresee the advantage for consumers in the end.  It adds benefit for carriers in adding a solution for furthered engagement of subscribers, but consumers are already bombarded with ways to access mobile content on their devices.  Also, receiving news alerts from an RSS feed via SMS could get annoying overtime.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this one plays out.

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As MWC heads into full swing the announcements are coming in hot and heavy, starting with Orange debuting its mobile advertising plans for 2010.

You may remember Orange announcing a pilot program about a month ago related to its integration with Blyk, dubbed “Orange shots,” which serves SMS/MMS ads based on user preference and other user data obtained through the carrier.  With the pilot proving very successful, Orange is furthering its plans to cover its entire European footprint by the end of 2010.

Orange is taking things a step further by bringing interactive SMS and MMS advertising into new markets and tailoring offers locally to give advertisers new and targeted ways to engage with customers, no matter where they might be located across Europe.  Depending on which market, each offer is tailored to incentivize customers with localized, relevant rewards such as exclusive content, film and games reviews, celebrity gossip, free texts, prizes and other benefits like up-to-date sports information.

The key to Orange’s strategy is its emphasis on tailored localized services for each geographic region in its footprint.  For example, Orange will debut a new interactive ad-supported service called “Mio” in Spain this month, which provides all mobile customers in Spain the chance to opt-in, reaching beyond youth audiences, and serving highly relevant and location-based ads tailored to Spanish mobile customers.

Other mobile advertising trials are also taking place in Egypt and Jordan in the first half of this year, allowing for expansion into emerging markets, as well as mature markets overtime.  This localized approach is exactly what carriers should have been doing for a long time – utilizing the data it retains to provide unparalleled targeting and relevancy possibilities for mobile advertisers.

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I’ve long said that carriers continually miss the boat in terms of leveraging their position to capitalize on mobile marketing and advertising, and a new survey reinforces my stance even further.

CSS Insight, in its most recent survey, indicates that most consumers ignore the services offered by wireless carriers in favor of more familiar names on the Web. While the research suggests ways for network operators and phone-makers to maximize the uptake of the mobile Web, results indicate that many of these opportunities are being overlooked (again).

Most carrier-based “portals” and services such as Nokia’s Ovi are losing out to familiar Web brands like Facebook, Amazon and Twitter, who carry much more name recognition and worldwide appeal than that of a single carrier.  Still, carriers should have recognized the potential the mobile Web was inevitably going to provide and acted before it was too late.

Granted, the aforementioned survey was conducted in Europe, which differs slightly in terms of mobile tech and uptake than the US, but the sentiment remains the same- carriers have, again, failed to recognize an opportunity for immense revenue and user-interaction that would have kept them in front of their subscribers instead of pushing them away to third-party mobile Web content providers.

Martin Garner, Director of Mobile Internet at CCS Insight and one of the report’s authors, said: “Our survey reveals the true picture of mobile Internet usage among young consumers in Europe’s top five markets.  It shows that as smartphones become more affordable, people are using them to access the sites they know and love on their PCs.  Mobile network operators and handset manufacturers are losing the battle to define the mobile Internet experience, despite the huge sums they’re pouring into sites that compete with the familiar Web names.”

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One of the biggest complaints coming from those involved in mobile marketing and advertising — and those sitting on the sidelines — is the lack of tools to properly measure the effectiveness of mobile ads.  It’s one of the largest inhibitors for brands leery of the concept, and a primary roadblock that has to be overcome…but how?

In yet another study, it was found that more than half of executives would inject more money into mobile marketing if there was a better way of measuring its effectiveness – 58% to be exact, who simply want greater accountability in the segment.  ”As our research shows, there is a clear appetite for an industry-wide measurement platform,” said O2 Media Managing Director Sean Gregory.  ”The launch of Mobile Media Metrics will more than meet this need.”  While an industry-wide measurement platform would be ideal, it’s simply not viable in the current state of mobile marketing.

The problem is fragmentation of information.  Running a mobile campaign relies on multiple platforms, varying technologies and fragmented metrics from various sources, leaving many holes in its path.  You’re most likely faced with overlapping reports from ad-networks and agencies, duplication of conversion tracking to your site/mobile app and the daunting task of bringing everything together into something that’s actually usable.

While there’s no clear cut answer, and standardization and centralization of mobile metrics is a pipe dream at best, we’re left at the mercy of existing analytics providers and ad-networks to come up with an industry-wide solution.  The only answer in my opinion is for every ad-network and metrics-provider to liberate the data they accrue, and make it available via APIs.  Developers could devise a solution or create a mashup of sorts to centralize and make sense of all the fragmented information that plagues mobile marketers and advertisers.

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Smaato, a mobile-ad optimization startup, has released its latest “Mobile Advertising Metrics Report” for January, in which it compares leading mobile OSs and their ad-based click-through rates, among other unique metrics.

Last month’s report indicated that Symbian was the top mobile OS in terms of click-throughs, with Apple a close second, and Android in third place, but this month’s report paints a rather different picture.  Based on an average index of 100, January’s metrics show Android’s click-through rate was 163, up from just 65 in December.

Apple’s click-through rate dropped slightly from 119 in December to 104 for January, while Symbian remained the leader overall with 173.  Android has already bumped Apple from its #2 spot, and is only 10 shy of Symbian, showing just how far Android has come in a short period of time.

New to the report this month was a unique metric defining the average response time from ad-networks worldwide, or fill rates to be more specific, which stood at 256 milliseconds (MS).  Out of the 16 networks compared, the fastest time was 43 milliseconds, compared to the slowest, which stood at a lagging 887 milliseconds.

The biggest take-away of the report is obviously the progress Android is making in the mobile-ad scene.  Smaato attributes much of its growth to the influx of Android devices hitting the market quickly, such as the high-profile Nexus One and Motorola Droid, as well as the numerous operator-branded handsets that emerge everyday it seems.

It’s interesting to note that Smaato’s metrics are based upon 35 mobile ad networks and over 4 billion ad requests served in the Smaato Network of more than 2,300 registered mobile publishers, so while it’s definitely interesting metrics to build-on, the data is slightly skewed by not taking into account the entire ecosystem.  Still, it’s clear that Android is moving up the ranks quickly, but Apple’s intended integration of Quattro will change things substantially.

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