Mobile Advertising: Supercharge Your Brand in the Exploding Wireless Market [ハードカバー]

This book is exceptionally well researched and written, covering comprehensively the full spectrum of cellphone advertising, from the pioneer markets such as Finland and Sweden, to the backwards markets of mobile telecoms such as the USA to the cutting edge markets such as South Korea and Japan, to markets in developing countries such as India. The content is totally up-to-date, including the brand new mobile ads based UK wireless carrier Blyk. The authors have interviewed numerous industry thought-leaders for the book, include 16 case studies and even short essays by 13 executives from major players. The book is very well balanced covering the advertising and media angles as well as the cellphone side. It is also a robust and realistic treatment of the current state of the industry, not pulling punches, and admitting to lots of issues that need to be resolved. A thoroughly useful, practical and insightful book that I can recommend to anyone interested in advertising on cellphones.

Tomi T Ahonen
Author of 5 books on cellphones and convergence
Lecturing at Oxford University short courses on cellphones
Hong Kong

It's today's freshest (March 2008) book on Mobile Marketing. I am half through the book and I want to share my immediate impressions.

I like how the book is organized. The way the presentation unfolds enhances my reading experience - I am interested to be reminded about all existing marketing channels. Even if you are a teacher of marketing or an experienced marketing professional, it is still good to review - even if one has to battle the temptation to exclaim "I know this!" - the history of marketing. And what this history is teaching us, or at least is making clearer for me, is this: it is hard (the change is usually revolutionary!) but possible (it is just growing a lot!) to predict the next turn in development of marketing.

March 1, 2008 article at http://www.alleyinsider.com/ by Henry Blodget cites a poll of 1,979 adults surveyed online by http://www.zogby.com/. In this, claimed representative, sample of the US population:

* 48% said their primary source of news is the Internet (up 20% from only a year ago)
* 29% of Americans say their primary news source is TV
* 11% say it's radio
* 10% say it's newspapers

Whatever the statistics, here is a general trend: people, on average, spend more time on the Internet than with any other single media. Obviously, the ad budgets follow eyeballs of people (in 2007, the online portion of the total ad spend was estimated at 30%).

The shift of marketing to the Internet is truly revolutionary. Growth of the channel and its effectiveness are amazing. The speed is "7 percentage points of market share in a single year". Effectiveness is truly redefined - to paraphrase the famous quote of John Wanamaker, we now know which half of the advertising dollars is wasted. It became possible with the invention of online search advertising model that was introduced by Google. Ads became relevant and contextual; campaign planning became easier; campaign results fairer. What is even more important, in my view, is that marketing campaigns become measurable. Also note that the Internet combines all the features of the old media, to wit: video, audio, pictures, text. At the same time, there is something very new about this channel. It's also interactive.

Now think about this: in 2008 the Internet will be more frequently accessed on mobile phones than on PCs. In Japan and Korea, browsing is used by 90 percent of all cell phone users. There are 3 billion cell phone subscribers worldwide, three times the number of PC users, who stare on their phones at least daily. There are two times more people using SMS (TXT) than email.

What does it mean? It means that the potential is huge and that it has been building up for the last ten years, now reaching its tipping point. So what is awaiting us soon and how to capitalize on the opportunity?

Read! (I also have to finish the book!)

Chetan Sharma, Joe Herzog and Victor Melfi have provided a comprehensive analysis of the growing field of mobile marketing and advertising--deftly illuminating the refinement of advertising arts from persuading the customer to now engaging the customer wherever, whenever, and whatever they may be doing via their mobile or wireless phone.
As an executive and consultant in the mobile marketing business, I especially liked their engaging tone and educational style which truly separates them from other books which spend too much time on the bits and bytes of mobile technology and fail to take on its complex commercial methods.
Mobile Advertising's extensive review of this developing and lucrative field will supercharge beginners understanding and even polish a professional's perspective.
Setting the stage with an evolution of the advertising business and how its convergence with mobile technology will transform marketing, they take the reader from baby steps to the most current uses and applications of mobile marketing including an entire chapter covering 20 case studies drawn from in-market company experiences around the world--well beyond the now 5 year old scenario of mobile coupon delivery as you walk past a Starbucks. That chapter is worth the cost of the book on its own if you want to learn about this business.
They demonstrate a full command of the complex ecosystem as reflected by their technical diagrams illuminating the magic of mobile, their illuminating business model analyses as well as comparative pricing methods and current levels for mobile advertising. These guys know all the buzz around mobile advertising and show the reader where the biz is. Very valuable for anyone interested in this new medium for mass advertising.