Mobile Content & Entertainment - MIW 2008

22. October 2008 by Don Jose.

 BATTLE FOR THE HOMESCREEN

 Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software

Opera’s vision is to provide the best Internet experience on any device. We started with the browser in 1994. When you’re a small company, to compete, you innovate. When we started, there was Microsoft and Netscape.

Now, we’re leading in the mobile space and Opera is the world’s leading web browser. It’s an unmatched footprint. We work with everyone.

The future is not just about mobile phones, but all devices that will be connected to the Internet.

The services that win on the ordinary web also win on the mobile web. The cost of teaching people to do something new is too high - WAP was a mistake, let’s not do it again.

Users surf the same content on mobile. Applications on the PC are web-based. There’s been a transition from native applications to web-based applications.

The boundries are blurring between PCs/laptops and mobile devices.

Widgets are Web 2.0 applications. Opera widgets are already in the market. Widgets using web technology also ease cross platform development. Widgets also simplify user experience by making information to the user with a minimum of interaction and waiting time.

-JC

CONNECTING CONTENT TO CONSUMER: BUILDING VIABLE MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS

Carl Taylor, Director of Applications & Services, Hutchison 3UK

Users want ubiquity. If it’s missing in the content world, it does not work well with mobility. Second point, greater mobility.

Mark Anderson, CEO, HipLogic

One of the things that doesn’t work are MVNOs in the U.S.

For example, ESPN. No matter how big the brand is, it’s tough to get users to pay for both content and voice. The challenge is to get content out without having the content brand having to provide voice as well.

Keith Waters, Director of Research, Orange Labs

Demographics are important when looking at demand on the network. Orange is looking at that to decide what to roll out next. There are a lot of players coming to market, whether it’s content, operators, or device makers. Usually, a user will be calling an operator when something doesn’t work.

Carl Taylor

One of my roles, that we as a global group, we can buy handsets in bulk. If we have to buy a lot of different codecs, that really raises the price of the handsets. So, I understand the frustration when smaller players come up with something, it has to be feasable on a global basis.

Simplicity and ubiquity is from the perspective of the user. The carrier needs to look at the economics. There has to be benefit to both.

Mark Anderson

The U.S. experience is that carriers have not done well in selling data to users. In Europe, they do a much better job. I think that’s going to change. Example, CarPhone Warehouse and Best Buy. Users will understand why they’re purchasing data.

Carl Taylor

For example in Sweeden, we offered small, medium, and high data bundles. Most went for medium, because they didn’t understand how much a megabite of data was in real usage. Later, many switched to the small option once they figured out how much they’d use on a monthly basis.

Mark Anderson

People in U.S. don’t realize that I-Phone is a small segment of the data-centric devices in the global context.

Carl Taylor

We’re looking at where voice and data peaks during the day. There’s a peak in the morning for data when people commute and use laptops. Voice spikes at lunchtime. Voice goes up around 6:30 at night and then trails off. Data goes up later in the evening. There’s not a problem with network capacity.

Keith Waters

The most logical trend in content is audio and video downloads. People want personalized data. Another important aspect, for young people, for instance, is presence on the network.

Carl Taylor

Social networking and peer recommendations are driving traffic.

Keith Waters

Android is a good step forward. We are at the beginning of the beginning. If you step back and take a look at the Internet as we knew it in the mid-90s, it was the Dark Ages. Now, mobile is at the same stage. To be specific, if you look at the I-Phone, it’s only a tiny fraction of the U.S. market. If you build services for that platform, it’s too small. You have to solve the device problem. You have to get content out to wide range of devices. The Android is just another platform. It’s geeky.

Carl Taylor

If you’re a media buyer, the I-Phone is a small percentage. It’s niche. Android is in many different formats, from cheap to top end. So it will cover all different markets. The Google Android, it reaches all demographics.

Keith Waters

If you look at the open nature of the Android platform, imagine what it’ll be like in five years. The game has shifted away from the lock-step Microsoft operating system. That doesn’t mean that they’re free. If you’re a content provider, be sensitive.

Mark Anderson

Open doesn’t mean open. Open means and open eco-system.

Carl Taylor

Advertising media buyers have been complaining that mobile is too complicated. They want a standardized way. Now there’s a standard way that’s been developed. Click through is also gathered in a standardized way by an independent body and delivered by to the advertiser. Those kind of models need to move into the U.S., then we’ll see a much more stable and robust mobile advertising scene in the U.S.

Mark Anderson

Measurement is one challenge, but getting the content out across platforms is also a problem. There has to be a critical mass to make it count on the distribution end to make it appealing to advertisers.

Carl Taylor

Mobile broadband is providing divergence. You can have a mobile modem and use your full querty laptop. Or a consumer can choose to use a pocket size device.

Keith Waters

The pocket size is different than a handheld which is bigger. It may depend on location so that a user will choose the device to suit a particular situation.

Mark Anderson

To get funding, as we did for HipLogic, it helps to have the right people on board. Our team had significant previous experience in building platforms. On the Internet it was easier, on mobile there needs to be significant innovation in the business plan.

Keith Waters

To grow, we should look at some of the pieces. Some of our experience has been leveling the playing field for developers. We’ve mentioned standards, some from the Internet are existing. They need to be mobilized in a way that makes sense. It’ll make it easier to get things out. I think existing Internet standards is the way to go.

Mark Anderson

I’ll differ with that. We started with the user experience. We saw that J2ME is not working. We knew what the cell could do. We wanted to deliver information to users. We teamed with content providers to push information. We need to innovate and not wait for standards to be adopted. Developers would work in Java Script.

Carl Taylor

One of the things we’ve done has been to get pay-as-you-go to contracts. There’s also a strong draw with established brands like Yahoo from tethered web to the same brands on the mobile web. Users are familiar with them and more likely to go to those brands they know on the mobile web.

BEYOND CONTENT DELIVERY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT

Jim Eadie, VP, Digital Distribution, MTV Networks

Stephanie Boyle, Director, Innovation & User Experience, Practice, North America, Ericsson

John Tremblay, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing, Azuki Systems

Eran Wyler, Founder & CEO, InfoGin

Jim Eadie

Our strength in mobile at MTV is very much on the video side. We see a number of structural challenges. We’re expecting about 100 million streams this year. When you break it down, how do we actually dynamically serve. We’re working with MobiTV and you’ll see that in a couple of months.

Stephanie Boyle

We’re really working on the larger ecosystem of adverstising. Looking at problems of today and tomorrow. As we look at all channels in the broadcast space, mobile is small.

John Tremblay

There’s not a lot of inventory right now. At the end of the day, it’s about scale and inventory. We’re automating the flow from desktop to mobile.

Eran Wyler

That’s what we’re doing at InfoGin. The content providers have to concentrate on the content and we have to get it out to the handsets. We see the world in which you focus on the creativity side and don’t build a light version of your content. Small screen size does not seem to matter. Even videos on small screens.

John Tremblay

Relevency is important in content consumption. One of the ways we’re doing it is snackable size content. Easily viewable and easily shared.

Personalization means a ringtone and wallpaper. We learn about your tastes and social media contacts.

Eran Wyler

We don’t need to narrow or give a light version of everything. Users are familiar with the Internet and they want the same content that they get on the desktop access to the web. I think most users would like the full version of CNN, for example. We shouldn’t try to tell the user what he will get.

Stephanie Boyle

We beleive in the Internet being the same and letting users get it delivered in different ways.

John Tremblay

Now we’re in the flat web. But I think that the next wave, rich media, we’ll need to make it navigatable via mobile.

Jim Eadie

I agree that there are certain elements that make sense to emphasize. Simple interactions. A good example, taking an element from Comedy Central, bring it to mobile so that users can interact. We get some great responses. There are prizes. It brings the brand to mobile in a simple way.

But also, in some cases, users do want full episodes.

Eran Wyler

I’m not saying there’s not a place for specific mobile experience. I’m saying we should provide both mobile-specific experiences and also the same experiences that are available via the web on a desktop. Let users decide what they want to access.

John Tremblay

I think there’s a certain degree of personalization that’s necessary. Not everthing will translate to mobile.

Stephanie Boyle

There’s time-shifting and place-shifting. Mobile can create a seamless experience.

John Tremblay

Sports is an example. Clips can be blasted to fans via mobile. Perhaps when a fan is leaving a venue after being a spectator at a sporting event.

Jim Eadie

We use mobile a lot for promotion of programming. Such as, tune into the next episode of The Hills.

We’ve had strong on-deck relationships, partly because of who we are, MTV is an established brand. We want to have a good grasp of audience aggregation points.

Eran Wyler

More than 70 percent of our users are going for off-deck content. Even a small content provider can be a great success in this environment.

-JC

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Advancing the Mobile User Experience

22. October 2008 by Don Jose.

Marcelo Vieira, General Manager, OMAP Business Unit, Texas Instruments

OMAP is the applications processer at TI. We build the chips and processers.

Unleashing the ultimate user experience: mobile experiences with functionalities of standalone consumer electronics products; intuitive and compelling user interfaces will drive usage; and seamless connectivity to user content.

Making it easy will drive usage. There’s a huge growth opportunity. Smartphones are starting to make strides, but the experience is not maximized yet.

A smartphone uses a high-level operating system (HLOS). Now, under 20 percent. By 2012, up to 35 percent.

Importance of HLOS: OEMs & independent software vendors get simplified software development; and operators get consistent support and service deployment model.

Content delivery to mobile devices is on the rise. In 2007, less than $20 billion. By 2011, nearly $50 billion.

What’s a Mobile Internet Device (MID)? Boots in seconds, goes all day on a single charge, includes office productivity, has a higher-resolution screen, and is handheld.

Demand for mobile Internet is increasing: pocket MIDs (3.5-4.5″ screen, weighs 1/4 lb.); tablets (5-8″ screen, 1/2 lb.); netbooks (8-12″ screen, 1 lb.). PC and notebook vendors and CE handheld vendors will also be in the mix.

Products that will be available in 2009 and beyond- 

Endless opportunities for better mobile user experiences: fast full-page web browsing, 12 mp camera, HD 720p video.

Enhanced graphics and navigation spur growth of location-based services. The “big picture” viewing experience with DLP Pico mobile projection technology. It will project what’s on the mobile device to a wall or other surface.

In summary, the smartphone sement represents the largest wireless opportunity. Demand for mobile Internet and consumer electronics functionality on the rise, application processors needed. New usage models and technologies.

-JC

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HipLogic at MIW 2008

22. October 2008 by Don Jose.

I’m not even sure what these guys do yet as I sit down to listen, but my intitial impression is that ‘they get it.’ Why is that?, you may well ask. Well, it’s because HipLogic is sponsoring lunch for reporters. How do you get reporters’ attention? Feed them. Yes, they get it. -JC

HipLogic, Inc. (formerly Numbobig) is announcing its next generation mobile phone platform that will change the way people consume content on their mobile phones.

Mark Anderson, CEO, HipLogic

We’ve been working for the past three years to change the game.

HipLogic has a Built for Mobile experience. It’s simple, the phone boots into a personalized phonetop. It’s always on, it delivers “Smart-Pull” content to devices. It’s flexible and it’s portable. It’s designed to connect consumers with media and brands.

Mark Young - HipLogic Visionary

Development began from a consumer perspective, from the handset experience. Then we worked backward. After looking at the available technology, we decided we needed to build something new.

What we’re announcing is a platform. It’s a mult-tasking virtual machine. It’s always on, 24 x 7. It’s a complete phonetop, with background updates and content notifications.

It’s personalizable, customizable, compelling, and accomodates mobile-specific brand experiences.

Device-Network integration includes access to phone features, local mash-up, Internet, and operator services.

Consumers design a phone-top to suit their particular interests, branded and designed by the user.

We’ve been working with content brands. We’ll announce the brands next year when we release the product. Brands have several layers of negotiations to conduct to make it happen.

HipLogic works on 150 phone models across 18 OEMs and with most every carrier.

When we were developing, camera phones were the big thing. So we benefited from the blowout in memory capaicty in handsets driven by the need to process photos. It takes about 1 Mb to operate the HipLogic platform. It sits right on top of the operating system. Memory is flexible.

Mark Anderson

We’ll come out with our business model in Q1 ‘09, including pricing.

Mark Young

We differentiate ourselves by having the experience of J2ME. What we bring to market is a list of content brands, that will be announced later, that can be accessed very easily by using the HipLogic platform.

We’ve optimized data transfer to the handset. We’ve made it scalable. It works as a smart pipe.

For example, location will be an available on the HipLogic platform regardless of whether the handset is GPS-capable.

All you can data plans have caught on in Europe, and we’ll see that happen in the U.S.

As for privacy, it will be a similar with existing tethered Internet use. Privacy laws will apply.

www.hiplogic.com

-JC

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Mobile Intertent World 2008, Boston

22. October 2008 by Don Jose.

I’m at the MIW 2008 to jumpstart my interest in the mobile space as good place for Don Jose Media. I’m reporting on the fly, taking it in and spewing it out. Enjoy. -Joe Cox

 UNLEASHING THE POWER OF THE ANYWHERE NETWORK 

Emily Nagle Green, CEO, Yankee Group, is telling us about The Anywhere Network. It’s about a common platform, bandwith, intelliegence, seamlessness, and ubiquity. It’s Yankee Group’s vision, but not today’s reality.

Yankee Group is researching the trend, and according to Green, “When we get there, it’s going to be great.”

 So, is the Mobile Internet the same as The Anywhere Network? Well, the Mobile Internet is included in The Anywhere Network as part of a larger network, including the rest of the Internet.

Some of the issues that have been holding the progress of The Anywhere Network are: network limitations, device limitations, pricing problems, spectrum, and the mobile operator model.

Using the analogy of the Hoover Dam, Green talks about the incredible pressure at the base of the Hoover Dam. And so, in the same way, pressures are building behind the mobile dam: handset advances, new spectrum options, and threats proven viable.

It’s been a question, early on in the mobile space, how users would use mobile data. Priced right, users love mobile data , according to Green, citing examples of how flat rate data plans have flourished in Europe.

 There are cracks in the dam, however. Mobile revenues are declining, on a net basis. There’s a risk of unprofitable platforms.

Cracks lead to leaking dams. Recalling the AOL experience in Internet, there was a massive decline from 30 million subscribers to about 8 million today. Those users did not leave the Internet, Green says. They moved elsewhere within the Internet.

There’s another way to think about control. Showing a slide of a bilateral dam in Holland, Green draws a parallel to the mobile browser.

There will be a new mobile landscape, whether there are catastrophic changes or slower, thoughtful changes, there will be new network business models, a dissolution of current distribution chain, withering of device-specific software.

Expect and unleashed consumer impact. One device won’t suffice. Every application will be a mash-up. Users won’t want to switch between traffic information and their calendar. There will be even more trading of information for value- trading who I am and where I am for value.

On the enterprise side, there will be further consumer push on corporate Information Technology. Surveys of workers by Yankee, show that personal technology experiences are better than at work. That will change, Green says. There will be pervasive dual-mode connectivity.

In summary, if we acknowledge the cracks, skip the sandbags, move the cattle to higher ground, we can begin the controlled release and power the landscape.

Bringing the players together in the mobile space is imperitive.

Green encourages everyone to follow the conversation on Twitter.

MOBILE FREEDOM NOW

Russ McGuire is the VP Corporate Strategy at Sprint.

There’s a coming together of two different revolutions. The Internet was a revolution and there’s a similar thing happening in mobile.

As recently in the mid-1990’s, the enterprise space considered the Internet to be a toy compared to the quality of products being produced. Most people didn’t have an e-mail address on their business cards. But by 1995, more people did have e-mail for use in the business world.

Back then, there wasn’t a full utilization of the Internet. The same goes for the mobile space right now. Most businesses have not figured the way in which mobile is making how they operate fundamentally different.

At Sprit, it’s considered to be a revolution based on three factors: instant, compelling, worry-free. Instant is stuff that works now, compelling is something that a user says, “I have to have this.” Worry-free is a goal that requires carriers to cahnge. The present reality is that carriers are not the easiest people to work with, for instance, prohibitive costs.

Instant is, where I am, I am connected and do things right away. Sprint has launched WiMAX in Baltimore as XHOM. It’s a totally new business model. The cracks in the dam are the existing business models. A jump to The Anywhere Network is impossible with the existing business model.

Sprint’s XOHM is a big investment in infrastructure to make the Internet more open and usable.

Another aspect of instant mobility is push-to-talk. Femo is yet another technology that improves coverage for mobile devices inside homes.

For mobility to become compelling for all users, Sprint can make bets, but can’t imagine all the applications. So it needs to be easier for application developers to launch on the Sprint network, McGuire says. There are regular application developer conferences. Sprint offers better and better tools for developers.

Openness is esential for revolutionizing mobility.

Sprint is offering Simly Everything for $99.99 per month that makes connectivity worry-free for users. Ready Now and One Click are other efforts to make the user experience worry-free.

Asked when more users will be buying smartphones, McGuire doesn’t believe smartphones will be right for everyone ever. Ehanced power will come in different forms on more traditional handsets.

As for convergence, McGuire says the mobile browser has been considered as the poor cousin of the desktop experience. He believes that’s starting to change. The mobile aspect is becoming more rich. But some applications will be more appropriate and unique to the desktop and the same will be true for mobile devices.

New user interfaces are in the works, such as touch screens, but there are users who would prefer a full querty keyboard. Voice activation is great, but it won’t be an answer for everthing. The One Click interface is one of Sprint’s efforts to simplify the user experience, according to McGuire.

ENABLING THE BEST INTERNET EXPERIENCE IN YOUR POCKET

Anand Chandrasekher is SVP/GM at Ultra Mobility Group at Intel.

There’s a lot of changes in technology and in business. Looking back, 2008 will be considered The Year of Mobility.

If you look at Internet growth, it continues, mostly through tethered connections. If you look at what people are doing, that’s changing, very fast. We don’t know who the top 10 websites will be in 10 years.

The social networking trend is growing dramatically. About 25 percent of all traffic on the Internet is social networking. Previously, the dominant activity was pornography.

User genterated content such as You Tube has grown 84%. Location based services are increasing incredibly.

Forrester finds that 2 to 1, people prefer the full Internet on their handsets compared to limited Internet.

So, the software spiral becomes the Internet spiral. On the Internet, first it was text, then photos, then videos, and social networking. Now it’s mash-ups.

Referring to a vision video, user interface, multi touch, and and speach activation were included. Navigation (context) and the need for performance plus a robust software environment.

Intel believes, considering the 1.5 billion Internet users now, that the number will increase and be fueled by the mobile Internet.

Four elements are essential: broadband wireless, software compatibility, Internet compatibility, and performance.

Intel launched the Atom, the world’s smallest transistor, the lowest power CPU, fully Core 2 Duo compatilble. The Moorestown, expected by 2010, will pack into a ruler-size package the power from a 2005-era laptop. Another prototype is about the size of a SpeedStick deodorant package.

Lonnie Arima, VP/GM of Portable Devices at Navteq, involved with location based solutions, says that opportunities developed by Intel for mobile Internet will include personal navigation. Devices will change from being static to enable more than navigation with the use of the Atom chip.

Chandrasekher says the user interface will be changing, moving away from the Wiindows environment that has dominated the personal computer experience.

Gunnar Evermann, Chief Mobile Technology Officer at Nuance, demonstrates the DragonBar speech recognition possibilities via the Atom chip.

Broadband wireless is clearly critical. WiMAX deployments are increasing. Balitimore, for example.

Adding computing to wireless devices is creating all kinds of possibilities. Combining computing and communications will mean a dramatic change in the user experience.

THE OPEN INTERNET GENERATION: ALWAYS MOBILE, ALWAYS ON

 Albert Chu, VP of Marketing & Alliances, ACCESS

The vision of accessing the Internet beyond the PC is the foundation of ACCESS. We can all shape and profit from the mobile Internet generation.

In Japan, last year, the number of mobile users surpassed the tethered access to the Internet.

The open Internet generation includes a variety of social networking activities. Fears that an open Internet would divide families, surveys show that better connectivity through mobile devices has improved communications within families.

Online life has become mainstream. Young people are driving the growth of new online activities.

Today, 1.5 billion devices are connected to the Internet. By 2012, 3 billion devices are expected to be connected, half of them, mobile devices. 

Regular appliances, such as refrigerators, may also become connected. By 2020, 70 billion devices could be connected to the Internet. The economics will be staggering.

The future is incredible. Making it happen will mean openness. Open standards and an open platform.

The business opportunities will be enhanced. IP-enabled devices will be connected. IP-everywhere.

To make it work, content and application developers need to be able to create knowing their products will work everywhere. One way to do that is through widgets.

For example, in Japan, online retailers and social network sites are accessed through widgets.

The DLNA, the Digital Living Network Alliance, consists of consumer electronic companies that are sharing technology that allows devices to communicate with each other in the home.

Mobile software complexity has doubled every year, pointing to the need for open platforms. Feature phones and mid-teir phones should also be included in the open platform, not just smartphones.

The ACCESS Linux Platform 3.0, recently demonstrated in Japan, is an example of progress that’s happening now.

There’s a convergence of devices and services accessing the open Internet.

WEB ON MOBILE: THE SAME OR DIFFERENT?

Erik de Kroon, Head of Marketing for Internet Discovery, Vodafone

What is Internet discovery? Access and browsing, broadband, search, widgets, etc.

Vodafone is operating in 25 countries: Europe, Asia, India, U.S. Also, 42 partner markets- no equity stake, but work closely.

Since 2007, Vodafone started marketing mobile Internet. That’s 4 different things: flat rate pricing; content adaptation solutions; services from leading Internet players (Facebook, Google, eBay, Microsoft); and promotion campaigns.

Now, 90 percent of customers use Vodafone Live, even as off-portal page views are growing.

Most popular search terms at Vodafone are dominated by social networks, followed by adult content, e-mail, shopping, downloads, YouTube, gambling, sports, news & weather, and Google.

So, the main differences between PC and mobile.

The entry point is important- the screen is smaller and navigation is mostly different. There are business model differences- content purchases are popular, but users are not buying cars with their handsets. The reach is different- applications do not tend to work accross all devices. (That presents a major problem for content providers who need to make content available to a variety of platforms.)

Mobile widgets are good solutions. Useres are familiar with widgets from the web and standards are already in place.

On the PC, there are widgets, small applications, and full applications. In the mobile space, simple content updates are available, as well as small apps, but more complex device functions require more standardization.

The JIL (Joint Innovation Lab) is backed by the world’s largest mobile operators and it promotes acceleration of standardization of widget technology. The second area that needs attention is the developer community. A developer website is in the works. First, there will be basic widgets, then more rich experiences.

Emerging markets, non-European and non-U.S. include South Africa, Egypt, Turkey, and Romania. They’re large and growing fast. Mobile penetration is outpacing Internet presentation in those countries.

Some of the themes driving the demand for mobile Internet in emerging markets are economics- affordability, to justify the investment. Also, functional benefits- the ease and simplicity of use. And the emotional benefits- the relevence to daily life.

Mobile access to the Internet is becoming the main access to the Internet in many emerging markets.

The Internet is becoming mobile. Mobile operators will play a key role.

OPEN DEVELOPMENT - INNOVATION, CHOICE, GROWTH

Anthony Lewis, VP of Open Development, Verizon Wireless

The brand strategy has been about the network. The ads on TV show the people behind the network. The investment has been in the network with capital investment. Users go to Verizon because the network is reliable.

There’s redundancy, drive testing, etc., to keep the network up to speed.

The retail model include 2400+ sotres.

Product evolution started with big car phones, then 2G data, now 3G.

Verizon has the highest customer loyalty.

The changes include: broadband in the home (FiOS), broadband on the go (Verizon Wireless), and business services.

The changing wireless paradigm includes a wide range of devices that will be connected to the Internet. Medical devices, auto and telemetry, and digital lifestyle devices will drive change in the mobile industry.

Users will move to ways to make life easier and better. Wireless connections will explode.

The data opportunity includes 4G, LTE. There will be a global standard, significant throughput, global partnerships, and scales of economy. Benefits of the 700 MHz include fewer cell sites, faster roll-out, lower build-out and operating costs, best in-building coverage, speed/performance, and nationwide clear spectrum.

About 2010, the 700 MHz network will be rolled out. It’s an agressive track.

Open development will augment the existing model that consists of Verizon devices that work on the Verizon network. It’s about new opportunities, innovation, and choice for users and partners. Without partners, distribution and manufacturers, it won’t work.

Open development will ignite the market for non-traditional devices.

Customers will connect to the Verizon Wireless network with ANY device that meets minimum technical specifications. Customers will activate via an 800 number or through a web portal.

The OD Web portal = www.verizonwireless-opendevelopment.com

There will be traditional handsets, consumer electronics, and machine to machine devices.

-JC

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Mobile Marketing ready for Latin Alternative

18. July 2008 by Don Jose.

There’s new research available about mobile marketing. A survey by the Direct Marketing Association finds that text messaging gets the most response. Of those who do respond (about one in four), more than 70 percent have data plans.

Consumers don’t seem to like to be charged when a marketing message shows up in their mobile inbox. Duh. The study- “Mobile Marketing: Consumer Perspectives” - was conducted online among 800 mobile phone owners in March and April. An article about the study appears at Mobile Marketer: “Costs will determine mobile marketing adoption.”

Assuming the carriers and mobile marketers can figure out how to eliminate those charges, it’s believed that mobile marketing will become more accepted and thus more effective.

Already, entertainment offers dominate present mobile marketing activity. Nearly half are related to entertaiment, music, and video.

“I would say that any marketers in entertainment, music, and video should seriously consider mobile marketing, if they haven’t already,” Ed Manzitti, vice president of research and market intelligence at DMA was quoted by Mobile Marketer as saying. “Marketers targeting teens and young adults should also consider integrating mobile into their marketing solutions.”

It would seem, according to the latest research, that mobile marketing would be a good fit for indie artists, and given that Latin hipsters are especially avid in the mobile space, Latin Alternative artists and bands might well be prime candidates for mobile marketing strategies.

So let’s say, for sake of argument, it doesn’t cost music fans to recieve a text message, for instance. (I’ll be wanting free MMS marketing deliveries as well, but let’s not get too far ahead. Walk now, run later.) It’s the cost of creating a short code that I’m wondering about now. Is it affordable for the band?

When marketing across wireless service providers using a common short code, content providers are usually large and well-known media organizations, according to the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA). Registering and leasing a designated short code costs $1,000 per month, half that for a random code. The minimum registration is 3 months. So the cheapest way in sets you back $1,500. Would that be an affordable chunk of a marketing mix for a band or and indie label that’s releasing an album, for example?

I’m not sure. I’d have to talk the numbers with the label people or the artists themselves.
What I’m considering is the creation of audio and/or video promotional media that would be sent to music fans in response to the short code. And what the heck, why not give away one track. You know the fan is interested, they’re dialing in the short code. They’re getting something free. I’m thinking the odds are pretty good that they’ll buy the whole enchilada.

Or, if you’re the marketer, and you’ve got 3 months, why not a serial of messages. Create a series of audio/video media that’s a continuing story: the band or artist telling the story of the album and its production process, what inspired the song writing, etc.

So if the fan doesn’t bite the first time around, invite them to keep punching that code in every week to get a little more of the story about that new collection of music until they’re sold on it.

You might be thinking to yourself about now, “Hey, you’re too far outside the box, Don Jose. Ay, pendejo.”
Well, I suppose I could go right back at you with, “Well, perhaps, but maybe you’re so far up your poop slide that you don’t recognize a good idea when you hear it, puto.”

But there’s no need to be vulgar or nasty here, is there? Seguro que no. We’re just rapping and looking for new ways to get the train to the station.

Time for me to disembark. Let me know what YOU think.

-Don Jose

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Adelante despues de LAMC 2008

14. July 2008 by Don Jose.

Attending the Latin Alternative Music Conference is always refreshing. Fresh music. Fresh faces. Musicians connect with fans and the media. Everybody gets crazy at New York City’s clubs and outdoor venues where the Latin Alternative music blares the underlying message: people want change. They want new riddims, new music business models, new ways to communicate, and new opportunities to be creative. It’s a positive vibe that recharges my batteries every time.

My only regret is that I did not have time to attend a single panel discussion during LAMC 2008. That’s where the latest information gets hashed out in a lively and entertaining chat fest. So if you were there and want to share, please do.

Although I missed out on the panels, I gained dozens of interviews with Latin Alternative musicians, artists, bands, and media people. Those will all be included in the weekly BTR Latin Worldwide at BreakThru Radio as well as the the corresponding music.

One of the things I hear from Latin Alternative artists is the importance of social networking. As a dual purpose, my conversations also provide valuable market research information for Don Jose Media’s development of new social media strategies for these extremely creative and energetic people. Your ideas and comments are always welcome.

To all the people I met during LAMC 2008, fue un gran placer, and I hope to continue the conversation con todos. Mi casa es su casa.

-DJ Don Jose

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DJ Don Jose at LAMC

12. July 2008 by Don Jose.

Welcome to Don Jose Way. This is the Don Jose Media blog. Don Jose Media is a micro-enterprise launched in 2003 as a business structure to handle my independent media endeavors. I’m Joe Cox. I produce and host a weekly, hour-long Latin Alternative music show at BreakThru Radio as DJ Don Jose.

I’m in New York, at City Hall Park. It’s Saturday, hazy sunshine, a nice breeze, and people are looking relaxed as they stroll by or stop to sit on the benches. I’m in the city to attend the Latin Alternative Music Conference. I’ve been busy with recorded audio interviews at the Roosevelt Hotel since I arrived on Wednesday. I interviewed Forro in the Dark band member Wednesday night at Nublu, actually, and then connected with more than thirty bands and artists at the hotel press room Thursday and Friday.

So I really should have had the first post in before I started handing out business cards with my blog address printed on them. I wonder what those people thought who dialed up Don Jose Way to find one of those lame “Hello World” posts the blog hosts slap in there when you set up the blog and just leave like that like a lame ass. They probably said to themselves, “Wow. DJ Don Jose gave me a business card with a blog address and when I go there all I see is ‘Hello World.’ What a lame-ass. Ay, pendejo!”

Alright, so they may still call me a pendejo, but I’m not a lame ass any more because now I’ve entered my first post.

I booked a cheap hotel room in Midtown only a few blocks from the Roosevelt. It’s not much like the Roosevelt. We’ll leave it at that. There is a TV room with internet access, but I’ve been in and out of there all week in the mornings and afternoons to check e-mail, etc. and I really wanted to get out. So I did a quick search and found this free WI-FI hotspot. Oh, yeah. You should know. I’m cheap. Well, I prefer the term “thrifty.” For example, I’m not taking cabs while I’m here, except for when I arrived, hauling a case of water bottles in my suitcase. (No, I’m not paying a buck apiece or more for water bottles in the city I told myself. I’ll buy a case at Sam’s Club and bring it with me and create a water stash in the hotel room fridge.) I opted for the $25 Metro Pass that let’s you ride for 7 days, unlimited. So I’m here for 5 days. That’s only 5 bucks a day to get around. Boy, what a cheap-ass.

Don’t worry. This blog isn’t going to be all about me. It’s about Don Jose Media. I guess the point is, when you’re operating a micro-enterprise, you really have to watch the bottom line. That’s any business, really.

The principal activity right now is BTR Latin Worldwide. I produce the show at my home studio. Yes, Don Jose Media is a home-based business. I have an office/studio in my house. I decide which tracks I’ll play, set them up in digital multitrack, cut my voice tracks, mix it down, and deliver it to BreakThru radio every week.

At LAMC 2007, I gathered fewer interviews than this year, after featuring an artist conversation every week, I ran out of material! So this year, I have nearly enough to get me through until next year. I’ll either gather more interviews one at a time to get enough for a full year of programs or I’m thinking about interviewing fans, you know, like a man-on-the-street thing (MOS). Certainly, women, too.

Years ago, when I first started a career in radio, I produced and hosted a nightly program broadcast on FM Yokohama. I was living in San Diego and I would interview young people about almost anything. The conversations were translated into Japanese and it helped young Japanese listeners to learn English. And each show featured a song from the CMJ chart, courtesy of the KCR collection at SDSU where I went to college. That was back in the the late 1980’s (when I was young!) Okay, so now I’m middle age but I still prefer Alternative music and Indie bands.

Maybe one of the things about writing a blog that is difficult for some is that it takes time. Yeah, so? “Now what’s your point, DJ Don Jose, you lame ass, cheap ass, pendejo?,” you may well ask. It’s nearly 1:00 pm now and the LAMC Summer Stage event featuring Julieta Venegas, DJ Bitman, and Plastilina Mosh begins at 3:00 pm. So I have to get my lame ass/cheap ass in gear and back on the the 4 train express to Grand Central, over to the cheap ass hotel, pack my cheap ass sandwich, crackers, and granola bars for lunch, dig up some sun screen, and jump on the subway again to get to the park.

The live shows are really the best thing about LAMC. I’ve been doing the crawl from club to club since Wednesday night and I’m still convinced, as I am again and again every time I come to New York, that the best variety of music venues are here.

So, what might I hope that you take away from this first Don Jose Way post? Well, Don Jose Media is a micro-enterprise run by Joe Cox. He’s a cheap-ass because it helps to keep the business profitable while it’s growing. What’s in ample supply is personalized service.

Right now, it’s all about DJ Don Jose and BTR Latin Worldwide. But I have a lot of fresh ideas for media creation that I’m working on accross a variety of digital platforms and I’ll be sharing them with you here at Don Jose Way.

-DJ Don Jose

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