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It was great to see so many consumer brands and journalists at yesterday’s InMobi and Mobext event in London.  The morning unveiled exclusive insights gathered across 7 different markets, that examined the media consumption habits of over 8,400 respondents.  The survey was delivered across mobile and tablet devices through InMobi’s network.  Hosted by InMobi and Mobext the event gave delegates a snapshot of the research which clearly discussed how tablet owners are “retail gold dust” and how tablets are a “step on the road to a much more meaningful brand experience”.  The audience of brands were taking notes on their mobile devices and getting vocal on twitter, search #tablet12.

There was a great line-up of speakers including InMobi’s Director of Sales, EME, John Stoneman who presented the research findings along with Denise Truner, Head of Intelligence at MPG Media contacts.  Guest speakers also included David Graham, Havas Media Head of Digital who explained the relevance of the research in context to a brand’s digital communication strategy.  Zeebox founder Ernesto Schmitt showcased how dual screening offers a disruptive channel to market.  A strong theme that came out of all of the presentations was how consumers see their relationship with their mobile devices as a love story, it is the firs thing they reach for in the morning and the last thing they touch at night.

Highlights from the research included:

• 69% of tablet users have shopped via their device in the last 30 days
• 7 out of 10 users regularly use their tablet and watch TV at the same time
• 63% of tablet users in the UK agreed that it is easier to access media content on a tablet than on a mobile or laptop
• 42% said that their tablet device has revolutionised the way they communicate with friends/colleagues

Entertaining delegates in the break was the chance to feel Senseg’s feel-able touchscreen; there was a crowd of delegates all reaching out to have a play and a feel of the screen.  You could feel grass, tiles and what looked like a pebble surface… Very cool.

It really was a fantastic morning and there has been a huge amount of buzz in the press around the event and research, the NMA have published their take on the research and eConsultancy have written an excellent summary of the event and insights .  We’re looking forward to continuing our work in the area and have some country specific deeper dives planned for release very soon.

Until then, we have created a whitepaper that details the exclusive findings and has more detail on how we conducted the research and an infographic that captures the key results.

When we build products at InMobi, we try looking beyond the problem and look at the solution instead. So when the UDID deprecation news began doing the rounds, we knew we wanted to build a product that not only addressed the specific problem but also the other issues that advertisers are facing today.

As an advertiser have you ever wondered if the ad networks that you are working with use the same algorithm for conversion tracking? If not, then how does an advertiser working with different ad networks compare a campaign performance across these networks? Let’s put the apples to oranges comparison dilemma aside for a minute. To collate this data in the first place, an advertiser will have to go through the laborious process of logging into the different ad networks, generate the reports and then consolidate it to even begin comparing performance. And the solution to all these problems has to not only keep in mind that UDID would be deprecated, but would need to be flexible enough to not be affected by other such technology impacts that the future might hold.

So we went back to the drawing board with all these problems to find an apt answer for our advertisers. InMobi’s experience with a large number of advertisers put us in a position to clearly understand the requirements of an advertiser and come up with the best solution – InMobi Ad Tracker.

1. Independent and Open platform: InMobi Ad Tracker is a conversion tracking platform that can track your conversions across all channels. This means that you have a single dashboard to view all your reports across all ad networks and publishers. And since the conversion tracking method is the same, you now have apples to apples comparison of how an ad channel is performing for you. It also means that you do not have to go through integration cycles with multiple solution providers. Just one solution for all your needs.
2. Good bye UDID: The solution is a UDID free solution that mainly uses browser cookies to track conversions. To be truly independent of any ID, the best in market solution that works across all channels is a cookie based approach. Hence, this was our first choice for the product.
3. Multiple matching technologies: To ensure that you never miss out on inventory, the solution combines different technologies such as browser cookies, ODIN 1 and Market Referrer. Support of these multiple technologies also ensures that if some technology gets deprecated, you are not affected.

What’s more, we provide you all this at absolutely no cost. We believe that an advertiser should spend money in running effective campaigns and leave the tracking part to us.

There is more packed into the feature rich platform. To read more about how you can benefit from InMobi Ad Tracker, check out www.inmobi.com/adtracker. Or you could simply login to adtracker.inmobi.com to get started

I hope you benefit from the advantages of InMobi Ad Tracker

The app world woke up a few days back with a scare when news about Apple going through with its UDID deprecation plan hit the industry. While this definitely has substantial effects on a lot of app developers and companies that provide services using UDID, it is not new information as this idea has been floating around for over 6 months.

At InMobi, we respect the decision to deprecate the UDID keeping in mind the privacy of users. We are in the business to provide value add to users and any solution which can potentially compromise the privacy is a big no-no for us. However, it is important for companies working with ad networks to understand how the deprecation of UDID can affect them. Currently, most ad networks use UDID to provide a whole gamut of product offerings, which will all begin to fail in the lack of UDID. Without an alternative, the impact will be seen on both the advertiser and publisher front.

InMobi has been working on a UDID free solution for our Publishers and Advertisers ever since the potential connection of UDID and privacy concerns emerged. We have invested time in finding a solution that will have long-term benefits rather than a quick-fix solution to the problem at hand. I am happy to announce that we will be rolling out this new solution to all our partners shortly. So, both publisher and advertisers working with us will be offered the new solution that they can adopt at the earliest.

With the changes that we have in store, UDID will be a thing of the past. But what’s more exciting is the additional features that we will be rolling out with the new solution. I do not want to trivialize the impact of UDID deprecation, but honestly, we have been expecting this for a while and have been gearing ourselves up to the eventuality. Hence, it doesn’t come as a big surprise. Rather, I look at it as an opportunity for publisher and advertisers to revisit the services they are getting from ad networks and get more than what they have previously been getting.

The first in line UDID-free solution is for our Publisher. Click here to read what our developer evangelist has to say.

We want to thank everyone who came our to our party last night, you all helped make our first ever InMobi GDC Party – Mobile OS Dance Battle! a huge success. Who won the battle? Monique as iOS made a strong showing and Joey as Android was equally amazing. Ultimately, it was just too close to tell and we declared a tie. You can watch the the event video here. We hope to see you all next year.

Download Our Mobile Advertising Best Practices Whitepaper For Free

We had a great time last night. It was nice to blow off some steam, however GDC is not just all fun and games. We developed a whitepaper called Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games and Apps, which can be downloaded here. It’s a practical guide for marketers who want to get the most from mobile advertising, but need some guidance.

If you want to take your game to the next level with mobile adveritisng, Here are six tips for success from our whitepaper.

Keep your app under 20 MB
The iTunes store imposes a 20 MB limit on app installs across a wireless network. In the Android Marketplace the limit is 50 MB. Keeping your app under the 20 MB limit dramatically increases the number of installs from advertising.

Advertise on multiple ad networks
Spread out your ad buy on multiple ad networks in order to get the most reach. Ad networks have different sites and apps on their systems and you will not reach the total market if you stick to just one ad network.

Rotate your creative often
You want to update your creative as often as twice a month, as your creative will lose appeal overtime. Also, matching the creative to seasonality and other external events should help increase the relevancy to your customers and improve performance.

Prioritize the English language
Most smartphone users are in English markets or understand English well enough to be able to use most apps. Culturally neutral apps, such as Angry Birds, are popular around the world since they require limited English skills.

Build a portfolio of apps
The most successful app developers have a portfolio strategy and develop lots of apps. Having more apps allows you to cross promote games and build upon what you have learned from one app to another. This tends to be a hit driven business.

Focus on acquiring users not clicks
This is a common trap many marketers fall into. They measure and optimize to clicks when they really need to measure acquiring users. Don’t evaluate campaign performance on your click through rate; evaluate it on how cheaply you can acquire new users.

Downloaded the whitepaper here.

The MWC InMobi team returned this week after their week-longstint in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress.

The MWC week started with a bang as the team introduced delegates to InMobi, sharing who we are, what we do and examples of how we can work with all areas of the mobile eco-system. Monday was topped off with InMobi’s sponsorship of the MEF Connects Party, which was held at the beautiful Picasso Museum. The party attracted over 500 guests from 50 different countries.

The rest of the week was spent catching up with partners, customers and meeting new and interesting people, all wanting to expand their business further within the Mobile world. The InMobi stand was a great meeting point for everyone and was constantly buzzing full of people, especially when it was time to announce the winner of our MWC InMobi passport competition! Congratulations again to our winners!

Whilst at Mobile World Congress, InMobi Founder and CEO, Naveen Tewari delivered the keynote at the Mobile Advertising conference track where he revealed our exclusive Global Media Consumption research findingshundreds of delegates. If you missed the session you can view the infographic and watch a sizzle reel that highlights the key findings. The results stimulated conversation at the stand and within the press, we interviewed witha number of key titles including NMA, CNN, Spanish publication Que! and the Japanese title, Nikkei.

Towards the end of the week, InMobi sponsored the WIP Party at the cool Rock Museum; the night was a lot of fun seeing guests take the mic at the Jameoke and posing in the InMobi photo booth.

You wouldn’t of thought Thursday was the final day, as the stand was still busy with delegates. It was a great way to end our participation at Mobile World Congress, keeping us on our toes until the very end. All in all an excellent week, and we are looking forward to continuing conversations with everyone over the coming days and weeks.

Don’t forget you can access our Media Consumption infographic here and you can also get in touch with your local InMobi representative be emailing marketing@inmobi.com.

Hi all,

We launched new JP site today, March 8th. New site design is the same to the global site. What do you think of the top page back ground photo? It is “Ginza” known as an upscale area of Tokyo with numerous department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses. Ginza is recognized as one of the most luxurious shopping districts in the world. I hope to be No.1 mobile ad network service offering high quality service like Ginza area.
We have renewed all of contents such as company profile, services, sprout etc. And more contents will be added after this. We do believe that this new design should enhance the relationship with all of partners including developers, publishers, advertisers and agencies.

Thanks!
Kosuke Seto
Marketing Director for Japan

Netflix offers me the film Lethal Weapon because I like 48 Hours, and recommends the TV program Burn Notice because I like Mad Men and Arrested Development. The predictions are sometimes pretty close to the mark, sometimes seriously off-target, but usually entertaining.

Rush

In contrast, MOG thinks, “Since you love Rush, I bet you’d like to hear some Blue Oyster Cult.”

Nope. I wouldn’t. Sometimes apps miss. And that’s okay.

Netflix and MOG are among an emerging class of applications that are working to understand our unique tastes by uncovering the delicate influences that determine why we want what we want. These apps are supposed to get to know us; bluntly customizing to our tastes is how the app proves its value.

Ads have to play it cool, or risk being creepy.

The shock of seeing a personalized offer in an advertisement, without understanding how the magic trick was done, can make people nervous. Consumers are correctly wary of advertisers taking notes and collecting data behind their back. However, there are a number of things advertisers can do, to personalize ads without crossing the line.

The key to personalizing without being creepy is to be up-front about where the data is coming from. Don’t hide anything. Advertisers new to personalization are sometimes tempted to make it seem like a magic trick. This is a bad idea. The payoff just isn’t there. It’s possible to make personalization feel like service instead of a privacy breach. Be open about why the ad is personalized and where the data came from to power it. If it’s done correctly, consumers will appreciate what you have done for them.

Ads that appear in personalized apps can typically be personalized without making us feel violated. When ads are personalized in an environment that’s also personalized, it lends valuable context to the ad. This is why Facebook can offer up sponsored stories, and why Groupon can give you personalized deals. Consumers understand and are coming to expect this behavior. The data and the ad appear inside the “circle of trust”.

Be sure to consider letting people opt out of it. Hugo Liu, Chief Scientist of Hunch, says that personalizing without giving people a way to opt out is like constructing a building without fire escapes. I support giving some audiences the ability to opt out of the personalized experience. Obviously, this depends on the audience.

Reject accessing stale data; just use the data that’s right there in the open.  It can yield the best results and help avoid creepiness. Surprisingly, the most valuable data to use for personalization – the dataset that actually matters most – is usually the data that’s right there in the open. Accessing past purchase history and Experian data might seem like an exciting opportunity, but it’s usually not very relevant. Data becomes stale quickly. There’s usually little to gain from using this sort of data.

The most valuable data to make ads more relevant are:

1) Device type, OS and SDK. Optimizing an ad for the device experience is critical to making the ad as relevant and actionable as possible. Sometimes we call this targeting, but it’s just a form of customization. If a user is on Android 2.3.6, eliminate transition effects. If on iOS 5.1, offer a click-to-buy via iTunes.

2) Location. Where is the user right now? What’s happening around the user right now? Is she shopping, or at a concert? Is she in a hospital or a museum? What’s nearby? Location data can make ads extremely actionable. GPS data is available in HTML5 and advertisers should not be afraid to ask users to share it.

3) Intent. What is the user searching for? Car dealerships or car parts? Coffee or tea? Have they abandoned a shopping cart? Listening for subtle clues here is important, especially for re-targeting. Partnership with a data management platform can really help with this type of customization.

This interview with Hidetaka Tembata, President of InMobi Japan, was recently published in the March issue of Sendenkaigi magazine.

Global deployment accelerated with cross-device solutions

Hidetaka Tembata (“Terry”),  VP & Managing Director, Japan

As smartphones, which are open to the world, spread in Japan, people have been more actively utilizing them for global ad communications.  How will ads change with the growth of the cross-device market?

As smartphones, which are open to the world, spread in Japan, people have been more actively utilizing them for global ad communications.  How will ads change with the growth of the cross-device market?Has smartphone already become the main mobile device?

In Senden Kaigi issued on February 1, 2011, I forecasted that smartphones would become the main mobile device.  The forecast is becoming reality.  Even in countries which were said to be mainly the market for featured phones such as Southeast Asia, India, and China, as well as in Africa and South America, this trend remains strong.

Looking at the Internet ad market, the domestic market accounted for 99.9…% of the relations between advertisers and media companies.  But along with the advancement of open platforms for smartphones, the situation has been gradually changing.

Trend towards cross device and cross media

One of the factors that drive the global trend is the fact that the cross-device market is becoming normal.

For example, the NFL Super Bowl held on February 5 was a big event with TV viewership of 111.3 million across the U.S.  According to InMobi’s survey, almost half of the viewers (45%) are presumed to have accessed online using mobile devices (many of which were smartphones) for over 30 minutes while the game was on air.

Mobile devices are already essential as media that sides up to other media such as TV.  InMobi has partnered globally with Sony’s device network, and launched in February the experimental distribution of ads on PlayStation3 for the first time in Japan.  We have obtained interesting findings through the project.

Recently, people often ask me whether TVs and PCs will disappear when smartphones are fully spread.  That won’t happen because these devices provide users with different values and worlds.

However, the ad market hasn’t successfully created a business model connecting these devices.  I hope the day will come soon when ad companies for all devices share the same view of the world, including the evaluation standards for the effectiveness of ads, to allow the industry-wide discussions.

Making it happen with change of devices Internet ads advancing towards next stage

One of the specific trends to make this happen is the advancement of Internet ads driven by rich media ads.  Last August, InMobi acquired Sprout, a provider of rich media ad solutions, and started providing services across the globe.  We will be able to show the first actual example in Japan this spring.  Without specific knowledge about HTML5 and other technologies, users can create and operate an ad, and once it is created, it works with any device.  And it maximizes creators’ potential abilities.  It is also possible to set targeting for each ad element.  In the future, we want to achieve simple targeting for media and devices as well.