UrbanSpoon Generates $5k per 100k Visitors

Through brand advertising, affiliate networks, ad networks and citysearch ads UrbanSpoon is generating $5,000 per 100,000 visitors.

This traffic and revenue is predominantly coming through the iPhone.

You can read more about it over on TechCrunch.

Mobile Internet To Spur Carriers To Acquire

Mobile carriers are predicted to start acquiring more and more mobile internet services. With the rise in mobile internet and phones like the iPhone breaking down those wall gardens this seems a smart move, on the carriers part, so the carriers can maintain their end to end service for the customer.

An article from mocoNews got me thinking about this:

A bigger role for telecoms: The rise of the mobile internet will also spur carriers to buy up services. Case in point: AT&T’s 2008 purchase of Wi-Fi operator Wayport is seen as a way for manage the flow of content and expand their relationships with other companies. For example the Wayport deal expanded the carrier’s Wi-Fi network to nearly 20,000 hotspots in the U.S. by adding locations at some Marriott Vacation Club and Four Seasons hotels as well as McDonald’s restaurants.“In the wired Internet, the carrier was a dumb pipe,” Jefferies & Co.‘s Robert Jackman told Reuters. “In mobile Internet, carriers will play a bigger role. If you can’t control end-to-end through to the billing relationship, you can’t control the end-customer.”

Are Mobile Operators Anti-Competitive?

The U.S. is looking into whether it’s major players are abusing their power.

The Department of Justice has started reviewing the practices of mobile carriers in the U.S., including AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), to determine if they have abused their power in recent years, reports the WSJ, which quotes unnamed people familiar with the situation.

(read more)

This could have serious implications for the local Australian market so I will be following this story closely.

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Mobile Internet Advertising Is The Future

A recent whitepaper from Juniper Research shows that the future of mobile advertising is in mobile internet advertising.

Mobile internet advertising is expected to dominate all other forms of mobile advertising by the year 2014. Other channels of note in the future are personal messaging (person-to-person SMS for advertising) and idle-screen advertising.

You can read more about the report over at MobiAD or you can purchase the report from Juniper.

Local advertising on the Big Screen

With 83% of cinema audiences living within a 10-15km radius of the cinema, the big screen is a great opportunity to advertise your small business.

The other week I saw The Hangover at the Orpheum in Cremorne. Being the strange individual that I am, I enjoyed pondering the fantastic local advertising opportunity as much as I enjoyed the movie itself. When you sit down before the movie you’re treated to advertisements and what struck me about the advertisements at the Orpheum was just how local they were. Almost every advertisement was for a business that you could visit after a 2-5 minute walk as soon as your movie finished. They local businesses getting their name in front of a local audience.

An inquiry into advertising costs revealed that advertising with the cinema is reasonably priced on a “per view” basis.

The issue is ROI and measuring ROI. The advertising company behind the Orpheum tells me that they have many repeat customers so that in itself could be seen as a sign that advertising at the local cinema works.

TrueLocal takes a swipe at the Yellow Pages

I believe in the imminent death of that big fat phone book and it looks like the folks over at TrueLocal do as well. Not only do they believe in it, but they’re using it to take a massive swipe at their largest competitor.

Here are some great pieces from the site:

(Talking about Sydney) The number of people who use the Yellow Pages print directory less than once a month or don’t use it all has increased by 48% between 2002 and 2008.

Latest Yellow Pages Print Directory Attitudes Survey where 58% of Australian’s, if given the option, would choose not to have the Yellow Pages Print Directory delivered to their home (Core Data Research).

91.4% said they search the Internet when looking for a business.

77.5% of Australians use the YellowPages print directory less than once a month or not at all.

Whether those 77.5% of Australians are turning to TrueLocal or YellowPages online is another question. They may just be turning to Google/Google Maps or not searching for businesses at all.

I wonder how well this tactic is working for TrueLocal…

MEGA kickstart your mobile idea

The Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance (MEGA) is going to hold an information night on July 9th. MEGA looks like a great opportunity for people looking to turn their idea into a business or just take their idea to the next level.

mega is a workshop lab that incubates ideas for mobile content and applications and associated platforms. Working with many of Australia’s leading mobile and digital commercial experts, ideas are developed through a series of industry-led workshops before being pitched to a panel of investors, telcos, broadcasters, and industry mentors.

Our simple goal is to grow the entrepreneurial and creative capability of Australia’s mobile, digital and cross-platform industries.

You can read more about the information evening or you can checkout the mega site itself.

Unfortunately, I’d love to be attend and undertake the MEGA course but I will be quite busy with infome. Going off and trying to create another mobile startup at this point doesn’t seem like such a good idea! =D

Develop Sidewalk.com for up to $1m in funding

Citysearch (part of IAC) wants to crowd source the development of Sidewalk.com. Citysearch wants to create “the next hot local guide app for Web and mobile” for the domain Sidewalk.com.

The winner will receive $10,000 with the possibility of developing and managing the new business venture with the possibility of up to $1 million in funding. There is also the possibility of a 10% equity stake in the venture.

You can apply and read more about the contest at Sidewalk.com.

You can read more about Citysearch and this contest:

• IAC Wants You to Build Sidewalk.com
• Sidewalk Being Revived by Citysearch
• Relevant links about Citysearch

Optus Happy Place – iPhone place for people in Sydney

Optus is having the “Optus Happy Place” for people to talk about their iPhone and the things they do with their iPhone. Given that I recently broke my collarbone I’m undecided as to whether I will go down yet, but I may pop my head in tomorrow.

Optus has announced it will be opening an inflatable pop-up venue –The Happy Place – where all Sydney-siders will be able to find out more about the new Apple iPhone 3.0 software.

Open to all and free of charge to the public, the venue will host a series of interactive, intimate ‘HAPPlication Sessions’ where a range of leading experts and celebrities will share their stories on how the device has enhanced their work and life since its iconic launch.

…

The Happy Place, located at First Fleet Park, will provide a wide range of speakers conducting up to eight sessions daily from Monday 22 – Thursday 25 June.

You can read more about it here.

Engagement is key to mobile advertising campaigns

Amethon Solutions has published a recent report looking at mobile advertising. The key insight from the report is that mobile advertising must focus on high quality engagement with the audience.

This means:

• Engaging in a mobile friendly form. Simply converting content from other digital media isn’t good enough. Mobile users need mobile friendly solutions. It could be that you only ask your user to enter one field rather than five because filling out forms on mobile is difficult.
• Engaging with a mobile relevant message. Mobile messages must be suited to when people access their mobiles like when they’re out and about. So, you should be short, sharp and, if possible, local.
• Engage with something special for your mobile user. If you really want to get someone to engage with your mobile campaign, offer them something special. M-Vouch is a great example of this.

There is much more that can be taken out of the report and a lot of useful information for mobile advertisers and advertisers looking to exploit mobile. You can get all of that information by heading over to Amethon’s Mobile Advertising – Beyond the Click Through page.

Thanks to Amethon Solutions CEO Michael Stone for sending that through.