Mobile Advertising Hopefuls Pitch at Under the Radar

Mobile advertising proved that it was still nascent at today's Under the Radar - Mobility conference in  Mountain View. Four companies presented, and expert panelists Erik de Kroon of Vodafone, Daniel Rosen of AKQA Mobile, and Eric Ver Ploeg of VantagePoint threw pointy darts at the presenters as noted. My quick take? Keep an eye on Zoove and Transpera as potential game-changers in the mobile advertising market. (Disclosure note: Transpera is a First Round Capital investee.) Here's a quick sketch of the presenters and their game plans.

Hovr
What: Ad-enabled games for mobile handsets, driven by a targeting platform.
Growth plan: Free games with engaging social features will cultivate a large user base; ad inventory generated as users play games. Targeting platform wil enable Hovr to monetize them.
How they're doing: 3+ million downloads in 7 months, and over 300,000 registered users. 25-30% of registrants are playing regularly. Current advertisers range from Best Buy to the US military. Raised $550K from angels.
Pointy darts: Mobile gaming is a competitive landscape, and Hovr is unlikely to get any exclusives or lock in users. Need to see evidence that social features are driving engagement, especially since most games do not have a social currency baked in (a la World of Warcraft).
My take: President Vipul Sawhney cheerfully answered the panelist's questions, but didn't have the desired metrics yet. That being said, the company is clearly focused, he's delivering content with an average cost of $5 for free, and his audience is scaling - all of which are worth a look.

Transpera
What: Helps online video publishers create mobile video channels in order to get more revenue streams and add new users. Dynamic ad serving based on targeting against a specific video. Has their own ad network.
Growth plan: Mobile video delivery platform gets content from web to mobile; then community interaction and personalization features will deepen the user's engagement. Selling primarily to publishers, but will also work with carriers to enable their own platforms. Making money either via contextual ads or carrier-based subscription.
How they're doing: Working on a deployment with a large carrier. No metrics reported yet, but planned inventory is pre-sold. Raised $3M from First Round Capital, IDG Ventures, and Intel Capital.
Pointy darts: Not clear who they sell to, and why YouTube, ESPN, et al would adopt here instead of building their own system. Not on agency radars yet, since the mobile video market is still young and consumers aren't consuming mobile content much yet. (CEO Frank Barbieri thinks it will take 12-18 months.)
Gut check: Getting established early in the market is just fine, so long as you're aware that you are early and will need to dig in for the duration. As an FRC staffer, I'm looking forward to Transpera following the excellent example set by their cohort fellow Videoegg.

XOsphere 
What: Mobile platform that pushes content ranging from SMS to rich media out to mobile handsets.
Growth plan: Focus on vertical categories in order to get established, then insert their platform into transactions such as photo sharing, location-based services, and mobile commerce. Believes that they are differentiated from competition since they are both platform- and content-agnostic -- their goal is to support as many handsets as possible.
How they're doing: Just starting to develop relationships with agencies, and signed up Cirque du Soleil and DIC Entertainment as early customers. Launching a social networking application called Mommy & Me  in two weeks, cobranded by DIC and Wal-Mart.
Pointy darts: Montage of mobile buzzwords here, but what's the real value? If they're a broad-based, one-stop shop with no real expertise in any one type of campaign or platform, are marketers better off by going elsewhere?
Gut check: The company has real initial customers signed up, which is impressive, but I agree that they will need to develop a more focused value proposition in order to keep them.

Zoove
What: Mobile marketing technology platform that solves SMS short code complexity. You don't need to text phrases to SMS numbers, you only dial a number in order receive a WAP push for the mobile web page. Single provisioning for an entire name space, so carriers like it.
Growth plan: Selling mobile domain names, similar to a web URL, and then providing a resolution service that one can describe as 'mobile DNS services'. Later, they'll add user targeting, device recognition, and ad serving. Users without data plans (and most users do not have one) will be able to click through the WAP push message in order to access a white-listed IP address.
How they're doing: Already live with China Mobile and in active discussions with US carriers. Patents being filed for the mobile DNS service. Raised $6.5M from Worldview Technology Partners and Cardinal Venture Capital.
Pointy darts: Concern about appeal for US carriers beside Sprint, but CEO is actively discussing cross-carrier implementations. Also, it may be tough to displace SMS messaging as a paradigm for information - will agencies find this to be a sexy solution?
Gut check: The management team looks top-notch and it's a big idea that will need solid execution. As a bonus, much of their solution looks tough to replicate. Love it.

Comments

[George]

Hello there :-)

If you have the time, I found at interesting website containing information about some program that is being developed. The producers, or the website at least, claims you can earn some money each month just by using the program. Think it is somekind of advertising, but then again it soundt really good. The website is www.eovendo.eu.

Kind regards

George