Mobile Fix – Superbowl
Simon Andrews, founder of the full service mobile agency addictive!, on why second-screen was just hype at the Superbowl (but why search did work)…
As we gear up for Euro 2012 and the Olympics, what can we learn about the prospects for mobile from the Superbowl?
One fact that terrifies all the operators is that people use their phones at these events to share pictures and video – AT&T reported that people in the stadium uploaded about 40% more data than they downloaded.
But the second screen hype seems to have been just that – hype. While Shazam are bullish about how the ads they tagged performed well, other commentators suggest a missed opportunity. Many of the ads had no call to action and others just had a web address, while only 16% pointed people to social.
However, as we expected, the thing that did work was search. Google tell us that; SuperBowl ad related searches in the US rose 200% on desktop, 970% on tablets and a whopping 2700% on smartphones.
Frukt have a good round of the ads that ran and we’re reminded that TV can – and does – get people talking. Chrysler ran a fantastic two minute ad, created by Wiedens with a little help from Clint Eastwood, that has sparked lots of debate with the Fruitcake party – sorry the Tea party – condemning it as political. Searches for Clint Eastwood during the game went up by 5000% – we hope that Chrysler had bought search directing people to somewhere they could watch the ad again.
As Google say in their blog post; Advertisers are beginning to see that mobile can deepen engagement with their brands and extend the value of their ad buy beyond the 30 seconds on air.
But we agree with those that point out the real winner might have been Apple – who didn’t run any ads but got fantastic coverage when virtually everyone on the Giants team pulled out their iPhone to take pictures of each other.
Facebook ads coming soon
Following the IPO filing we’ve seen speculation that Facebook are about to solve its mobile monetisation issue with the extension of featured stories to mobile users. It’s clear that mobile is an issue for Facebook, but also a huge opportunity.
In the US, the mobile ad market as a whole is expected to be worth just $2.6 billion this year with Google ($750 million) and Apple ($90 million) the key players. With the huge usage, high dwell time and the data that Facebook have, they should be able to make a big impact in mobile ads.
Some question just how effective this will be, arguing that the mobile experience on Facebook is underwhelming. Whilst we tend to agree, we expect to see some radical improvements in the mobile experience soon. Remember that at F7 we were told Timeline would be available on all devices?
One other interesting revelation from the filing papers is that the Facebook interpretation of an active user is a little looser than one might expect. For example, if you click the like button on the Addictive homepage, you’re an active user of Facebook, even if you never visit the Facebook site. Looking at Nielsen data it would seem that around eight million US users (of 161 million) fall into this category, so it’s not a huge issue.
One other piece of news on Facebook underlines their commitment to mobile – Facebook has announced a deal with UK company Bango to enable mobile payments. There are few details yet, but its an interesting step for Facebook, adding payments to their vertical stack. Intriguingly we see that Bango has also signed a deal with Amazon recently – again no details on what the deal is about. Given how dominant Amazon are with its one click payments it seems odd it needs to bring in a partner in this space.
Path runs into privacy problems
When people question whether Facebook will be as dominant on mobile as it is on desktop, Path is invariably quoted as one of the examples of potential threats. Since relaunching, it has done very well and seems to have a bright future.
But this week they have been getting attention for the wrong reasons. A smart programmer discovered that Path takes a copy of each users contacts and stores it on their servers. So somewhere in San Francisco is a full copy of all our contacts. Path were quick to apologise and change their policy. And it was swiftly pointed out that many social apps behave in a similar way. But it does feel like this issue isn’t going to go away. The Guardian has a good round up of the story and some thoughts on implications.
Google have been busy this week with news of their Solve for X conference, where they bring together some of the smartest people in the world to look at solving big problems. Some of the amazing subjects include a new way to produce fresh water and a way to take a picture of the minds eye.
News of some high tech glasses they have developed leaked too. These glasses are wearable but provide a computer interface. So, as you meet someone, Google Googles can identify the person and give you their profile on your glasses – so you need never forget a name again. We’re getting closer and closer to the Minority Report.
The new Google office – or campus – in East London looks like a great resource and a way to connect with the vibrant start up culture in this area
But thinking about their business now, we were fascinated by a chart on Splatf called eggs in one basket, which looks at what proportion of a company’s revenue comes from its biggest revenue source.
Amazon make nearly 90% of their money from product sales. Apple make 52% of their revenue from iPhones. RIM make nearly 80% of their money from hardware sales.
And lots of businesses rely on advertising – Facebook around 83%, Yahoo 81%, AOL 63%. And Google makes 96% of its revenue from advertising. That is a lot of eggs in one basket and some people think this is in jeopardy as Apple, Facebook and Amazon seek to balkanise the web and lock Google out of their walled gardens.
We think it’s always dangerous to underestimate Google.
Retail
After our piece on Brand Cathedrals last week we were interested to see that Amazon seems likely to open a physical store – probably to promote the Kindle.
Forrester have a new report out looking at the renaissance of the retail store and we think some smart retailers are going to use showrooming, mobile and ecommerce to reinvent high street shopping. As the Tesco QR shop in Korea showed, you don’t need a lot of space to sell product. And just as stores like JCrew’s Liquor Store in New York sells other brands to compliment their own label product, why doesn’t a retailer use the Amazon affiliate scheme to dramatically expand their range? 6% isn’t a bad margin.
Switching to online retail, the hottest thing in social right now is Pinterest, and they are starting to monetise their content with some affiliate deals. Given the rapid growth of this site and its clear influence on retail, we wouldn’t be surprised to see someone like Amazon come sniffing round with a checkbook. Whilst Boutique.com, the Google foray into retail, failed, people like ASOS and Net a Porter are showing you can sell a lot of schmutter if you get social and online content right.
There are lots of interesting starts ups playing in this space.
Click here for your full Mobile Fix (complete with links to background articles).