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CONTEST 04-53
(COmmoN TEchnology STrategy)
Type of document:
Report
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Document history:
Revision description First version with ToC Investigation version 50% Complete First Draft Version 90% Complete Ready for Work Group Approval Approved By Work Group including comments from CRM4 CONTEST Approved
Revision Responsible Dag N. Ness Celeste Norlund Geir Gylterud Celeste Norlund Celeste Norlund Celeste Norlund
The following persons contributed to the contents of this document: Celeste Norlund(editor), Geir Gylterud, Sune Jakobsson, Alf Sollund, Haakon Bratsberg, Darren Tan Kian Liang, Peter Lundgren, Pontus Hidling, Petar Babic, Rade Hajder, Backo Vasiljevic, Bjrn Lyngstad, Christian Malmin, Tamas Kumli, K.M. Tariquzzaman,.
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Executive summary
The ecosystem for mobile advertising is in an establishment phase new players will enter the market and constellations and acquisitions will happen. The value in the value chain is created at the advertisers end of the chain. The operators can play a role in this value creation, in particular due to our unique assets like customer data and insight. This is of course provided that the MNO capitalizes on these assets and acquires the required advertising platform assets. The Telenor OpCos must develop the local long term strategy and decide on a position(s) to target. , Roles and suggested positions for each OpCo are proposed in the Telenor Group Mobile Search and Advertising Strategy document[1]. Entering into the advertising business must be a conscious decision followed up by a whole hearted operative implementation. It is the ability to target customers through the telco knowledge of who the customer is and the possibility of using customer data to better target advertising for customers that makes mobile advertising such a promising revenue generator. Advertisers expect to pay higher rates if they can target the customer better OpCos expect that their customer knowledge will allow them to charge these higher rates. It is recommended to start with pilots and testing in the market but the long term picture should be defined. The market for mobile advertising must be built and it will take some time. Patience and realistic business cases must be developed, revenue potential is less than telco turnover but this is a growth potential that might be critical for telcos. There are some key elements OpCos need to understand and focus on. The value chain and the systems and components the operator needs to perform Mobile Advertising and Search are detailed in this report. There is new functionality as well as competency needed to perform Mobile Advertising and Search. Most key is making the customer data available to partners and third parties in a way that increases revenues but does not infringe on user privacy. Enhancing the customer data asset with customer insight is something each operator should do. The customer insight or profiling should remain as an asset of the operator and care should be taken when considering outsourcing or partnerships to ensure the key information is not given to the partner but retained by the operator. This implies that the operator should carefully specify within the contract how user data is handled and if outsourced, how this is accumulated knowledge on customer behaviour and preference is retained by the operator. Although Mobile Advertising is in its infancy there is much focus in the industry on creating and adopting standards based solutions. Activities in the industry and standardization organizations such as the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), GSMA and OMA have been ongoing for a few years. There are a large number of vendors with solutions which cover all or parts of the functionality that an Operator needs to perform Mobile Advertising and Search. Branded and white label search vendors have some major players which are recognized when looking for solutions. For Mobile Advertising the market is very big with many actors and none seeming to have a major position. We believe over time this will change through acquisitions and other market factors. Since Mobile Advertising and Search are relatively new as services CONTEST suggests that there is further work to be done in a future release of this work item which would potentially cover: The development and status of the advertisement based MVNOs such as Blyk. Are alternative access channels such as blue tooth or WiFi disruptive technologies? How to ensure that the customer data, which is the operators key asset for mobile advertising, is made available to partners and 3rd parties and is enhanced with preferences and usage history to allow better targeting. Which systems and technology should an Operator own or control and what should be outsourced or partnered on?
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List of contents: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................................ 3 1. 2. 3. SCOPE .......................................................................................................................................... 6 DEFINITIONS ................................................................................................................................ 6 SEARCH AND ADVERTISING ..................................................................................................... 6
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF MOBILE SEARCH ............................................................... 6 3.1.1 Description of Branded search ......................................................................................... 7 3.1.2 Description of White Label search .................................................................................... 8 3.1.2.1 Deployment options for White Label search ............................................................ 8 3.2. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF MOBILE ADVERTISING ...................................................... 9 3.2.1 Mobile advertisement on different channels ..................................................................... 9 3.2.2 Technical implications of advertising in different channels............................................. 10 3.1.
4. STATUS IN OPCOS .................................................................................................................... 11
4.1. 4.2. 4.3. 4.4. 4.5. 4.6. 4.7. 4.8. 4.9. 4.10. 4.11.
5.
DIGI ......................................................................................................................... 11 DTAC ...................................................................................................................... 11 GRAMEENPHONE ...................................................................................................... 11 KYIVSTAR ................................................................................................................ 12 PANNON ................................................................................................................... 12 PROMONTE ............................................................................................................... 12 TELENOR DENMARK................................................................................................. 12 TELENOR NORWAY .................................................................................................. 12 TELENOR PAKISTAN ................................................................................................. 13 TELENOR SERBIA ................................................................................................. 13 TELENOR SWEDEN................................................................................................ 13 ADVERTISEMENT VALUE CHAIN AND BUSINESS MODEL........................................... 14
Value Chain .................................................................................................................... 15 Roles ............................................................................................................................... 16
5.1.
5.1.1 5.1.2 6.
SERVICE PLATFORMS.............................................................................................................. 17
6.1.
FUNCTIONAL ARCHITECTURE ................................................................................... 17 6.1.1 Content control................................................................................................................ 19 6.1.2 Content adaptation.......................................................................................................... 19 6.1.3 User and Usage Profiling options ................................................................................... 19 6.1.3.1 Data collection........................................................................................................ 20 6.1.3.2 Data tools ............................................................................................................... 20 6.1.3.3 Data usage ............................................................................................................. 20
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR OPERATOR ROLES ............................................................ 21 TERMINALS AND DEVICE ISSUES .......................................................................................... 21 REGULATORY ISSUES.............................................................................................................. 21
7. 8. 9.
9.1. 9.2.
10.
10.1.
10.1.1 10.1.2
OMA.................................................................................................................... 23
Search ........................................................................................................................ 23 Mobile Advertising ...................................................................................................... 24
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10.2. 10.3.
11.
11.1. 11.2.
12. 13. 14.
THE MOBILE SEARCH ADVERTISING RFI ............................................................. 28 THE WHITE LABEL SEARCH PILOT ....................................................................... 28
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND FURTHER WORK ............................................................ 29 ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................................................... 30 LIST OF REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 31 VENDOR SUMMARIES ................................................................................................. 31 AIRWIDE SOLUTIONS....................................................................................................... 31 ADAPTIVE MOBILE ........................................................................................................... 32 AMDOCS ............................................................................................................................ 33 AMOBEE............................................................................................................................. 33 YAHOO ............................................................................................................................... 34 MEDIO................................................................................................................................. 35 MCN (MOBILE CONTENT NETWORKS) .......................................................................... 37 ERICSSON.......................................................................................................................... 39 JUMPTAP ........................................................................................................................... 40 TIETOENATOR................................................................................................................... 41
ANNEX 1. A1.01 A1.02 A1.03 A1.04 A1.05 A1.06 A1.07 A1.08 A1.09 A1.10
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1. Scope
The scope of this report is to give an introduction to Mobile Advertising and Search describing: - The work done internally in Telenor to date, both in the OpCos and in Telenor ASA/GC, - Mobile advertising and mobile search and the components needed to implement advertising and search, - Regulatory requirements, issues and constraints , - Industry initiatives and standardization in this area - High level summary and insight on current vendor solutions. As a further step towards addressing Mobile Advertising and Search in Telenor the need to understand what is required in terms of network infrastructure in order to support future business models and service concepts was identified by the Telenor Mobile Advertisement and Search strategizing project and this document will focus on this.
2. Definitions
Cost per Action (CPA): (sometimes known as Pay Per Action or PPA) is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action (a purchase, a form submission, and so on) linked to the advertisement. Cost per Impression (CPI): CPI is a phrase often used in online advertising and marketing related to web traffic. It is used for measuring the worth and cost of a specific e-marketing campaign. This technique is applied with web banners, text links, e-mail spam, and opt-in e-mail advertising, although opt-in e-mail advertising is more commonly charged on a Cost Per Action (CPA) basis. Cost per Mille (CPM): is a commonly used measurement in advertising. In Latin mille means thousand, therefore, CPM means cost per thousand. Radio, television, newspaper, magazine, Out-ofhome advertising and online advertising can be purchased on the basis of what it costs to show the ad to one thousand viewers (CPM). It is used in marketing as a benchmark to calculate the relative cost of an advertising campaign or an ad message in a given medium. Rather than an absolute cost, CPM estimates the cost per 1000 views of the ad. Cost per Thousand (CPT): See Cost per Mille. Click-through rate (CTR): CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if your banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and one person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent. Mobile Marketing: The use of wireless media as an integrated content delivery and direct response vehicle within a cross media or stand alone marketing communications program. Mobile Advertising: A form of advertising that is communicated to the consumer/target via handset. This type of advertising is most commonly seen as a Mobile web banner (top of the page), Mobile web poster (bottom of the page banner), and full screen interstitial, which appears while a requested mobile web page is "loading". Other forms of this type of advertising are SMS and MMS ads, mobile gaming ads and mobile video ads (pre, mid and post roll).
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Search has been a driver for the usage of Internet and for the development of advertisement on the internet. Search is expected to be even more important as a driver for the usage of Mobile Internet (high hitrate is even more important for limited input/output facilities e.g. small screens).
The strategy document distinguishes between the following search types and categories: 1) Generic search: Search on Internet, e.g. Google 2) Vertical search: Search in catalogues/categories; e.g. address books: yellow pages, 1881 3) Federated search: Categorization of search results into sub-categories, e.g. @work or searching across several vertical searches and combining results to a categorized list 4) Location Based Services: Search results based on location 5) Enterprise search: Search can be based on text, barcodes, QR (Quick Response, two-dimensional bar code), sound/audio and picture/visual In practical terms, assuring a pleasing mobile search means a number of things, including: Providing consumers a click-saving experience that returns answers instead of links. Inferring a consumer's context from his or her device, location and other information within ranking algorithms. Balancing the subscriber's short-term and long-term preferences to present personalized relevant results that adapt to a consumer's changing context. Providing rich client interfaces with streamlined interfaces including custom shortcuts, autocompletion of search terms, or voice inputs to simplify the user experience. Making the best usage of the graphical capabilities on the terminal, when presenting and formatting the search results, minimizing the number of duplicate results. The mobile search experience is in practical terms a service assuring a pleasant way of searching for a number of things. The search dialogue can be realized in many ways, across multiple channels, ranging from advanced search clients in the handset utilizing voice commands to simple SMS queries, however the most offered solution from the vendors seems to be based on usage of WAP clients and keyboard input. Mobile search can be divided into two distinct categories, being branded search and white label search. 3.1.1 Description of Branded search Recognised search brands on the Internet are: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, and they also provide clients to enhance the search experience, by adding location from location enabled handsets. Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft have done well out of their partnerships with the operators. The operators cooperation was the fastest and most straightforward way of getting their search boxes and business models onto the mobile screen instead of struggling to establish a mobile presence from the off-portal wilderness. Google is probably the most recognized search brand, and they are also active in the mobile media channel. They provide searches formatted for mobile terminals, using WAP browsing techniques, and location enhanced clients (Google Maps) for a range of popular terminals, from different vendors (Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, RIM, Apple etc.). When you as an end-user access the Google portal at http://m.google.com you can choose from a range of services, including search. Yahoo uses the same strategy. They provide a WAP portal, where users can search using WAP browsing techniques. When you access the Yahoo portal at http://m.yahoo.com you are asked to upgrade to the Yahoo experience. They then provide an upgrade that is a client that has a search function in addition to the Yahoo experience for popular handsets. The client generates leads using sponsored search links that appear within mobile search results in Yahoo! oneSearch. Yahoo supports a limited set of languages in the search client. Yahoo also supports SMS as input to start a search dialogue. Yahoos advertisement business can provide demographic, behavioural and time-ofday targeting. The also provide in-game advertisements. Microsoft has the Live Search portal and uses a similar strategy, but is more focussed on terminals with Windows Mobile operating system. Live Search is found at http://m.live.com Live Search via the mobile browser can be accessed on any mobile phone with Internet access. Live Search provides access to information on the Internet, including weather forecasts, stock quotes, news headlines, and
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websites. It provide local features such as local business search, driving directions, and detailed maps and traffic that work on almost any phone with Internet access. Microsoft supports the same languages as their operating systems, and they also support voice as input on a set of supported handsets. Nokia is slightly on the sideline in the search domain, but they do provide a fixed link on all newer Nokia handsets, where a user is directed into the Nokia portal, and the user is presented a selection of categories for the terminal. The portal page has a paid banner at the bottom of the screen. 3.1.2 Description of White Label search
The White Label search companies differentiate them selves from the Branded Label search companies by providing one or more of the following functionalities: The search engine The user interface A mobile advertisement platform They focus on made-for-mobile click-saving dialogues, and deliver results on federated search or indexed search. The White Label search lets the MNO customize the search front, by adding own logos, and look-and-feel to the search dialogue, and thereby exposing their own brand. The White Label search companies can provide client frameworks, based on WAP, BREW or Java. They let operators add their own logos and customization, and may provide a framework for publishers and advertisers. WAP based solutions usually integrate into the operators portal, and may utilize customer data. They provide tools for creating and tracking personalization and promotion, and are able to create targeted indexes for individual users or user groups. If the vendor supplies an ad management platform then these tools let you design campaigns, and provide reporting on the efficiency of the campaign. This enables operators to better document the efficiency of a particular campaign towards the adverting companies or agencies. If content or information is distributed and/or in multiple formats or channels, the tools can consolidate them to provide federated search across all items. Most white label search companies can provide a bundled solution for advertisers, publishers and operators. Examples of white label companies are MCN, JumpTap, FAST, InfoSpace and Medio systems. 3.1.2.1 Deployment options for White Label search The White label search can be deployed either internally within the MNO network or externally to the MNO network. In the external case the WAP starting page at the operator reroutes the WAP session to the external site, and the search site takes care of the logistics involved in formatting the results, collecting the advertisements, ranking the search, and providing behavioural, demographic, and time-of-day targeting. Content is often supplied in a generic form to the white label platform and then transcoded on the fly or prepared for the most popular handset types. Some vendors provide possibilities for the operator to embed their own content or partners content in the search results. The external case is very clean when it comes to integration towards the operator, since it only require rerouting from the operators portal, or the entire portal can be outsourced to the white label vendor. Some caution should be exercised since the operator then gives away a lot of information on how and what customers search for, and how they respond to the results. The operator can collect this information for internal use in parallel, but there might however be some regulatory and legal issues on data collection. In the internal case the operator installs the portal and search engine in their network, and provide remote access to the white label provider, so that they can assist in search relevance, ranking, timeof-day and other enhancements to the search results.
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Voice platforms can be programmed to playback pre-defined audio information to the callers. Platforms like Music Juke box/Voice chat can be integrated with the ad platform to solicit advertisements dynamically and playback personalized ads to subscribers. The Voice Platform can also capture the user response by DTMF tone and report back the response action to the ad platform. It is also possible to utilize location based information to deliver personalized advertisements to subscribers. Cell Broadcasting Advertisement delivery through cell broadcasting can be an interesting and innovative way to deliver messages to subscribers within a targeted area. In most mobile phones these messages will appear on top of the mobile screen if this option is enabled in the handset. GrameenPhone at present uses this mechanism to broadcast messages about some of its own Services. The primary challenge will be to integrate advertisement databases with network elements and broadcast specific messages in specific locations. Measure the success of advertisement campaigns run using Cell Broadcasting technology is a challenge and needs to be looked at more closely. 3.2.2 Technical implications of advertising in different channels Mobile messaging There are at least two different scenarios for delivering advertisements via Mobile messaging: 1. Using the messaging channels to deliver messages with advertisement only or advertisements added to content delivered to a user 2. Intercepting messaging traffic and inserting advertisements in the Peer 2 Peer (P2P) messaging traffic In the first scenario, there are no major changes needed to legacy platforms as SMSCs and MMSCs that would be involved in the delivery of messages. Messages containing advertisements could be inserted via CPA or CPA-like interfaces and advertisements could also be added to content delivered by 3party content providers as part of the function of the CPA platform or as part of a separate advertisement application. Special attention should be given to the support of opt in/out mechanisms, to ensure that privacy requirements issues are dealt with. In the second scenario, to be able to intercept and add advertisements to P2P SMS and MMS traffic, changes to legacy servers might be necessary to support such a function. Alternatively the functionality of adding advertisements to messages could be supported in SMS/MMS Gateways. Mobile Web To be able to place advertisements as banners and text on Web and WAP pages, this has to be supported by the Portal platform. The Portal server has to be able to send a request to the Ad Server for suitable ads and to integrate the ads (banners, links, et.) within WAP or Web pages that is delivered to the browser on the users terminal Mobile video Mobile ads can be integrated within premium video content or played as separate video clips and images before, during and/or after the video clip the user asked for is played. Banners and ads could also include links for downloading or streaming of video ads to a users terminal. The media server or streaming server has to be able to support this kind of mixing and also clips and images might have to be uploaded to the media server in advance with a scheme for playing the ads. Mobile applications Delivering advertisements to applications in a users device does not seem to have any technical implications on existing platforms. Ads could be delivered over a data connection and preloaded and stored in an advertisement engine on the device itself. Other applications on the device would then be able to request and place advertisements within the application context. Other implications It is a reasonable assumption that users in general will not be willing to pay for advertisement content or services delivered to their devices, although they are already today paying for data traffic related to downloading banners, text and images placed on WAP and Web portals. When delivering more data traffic intensive ad services like video ads, the operators have to provide support for the user not to be charged for the data transfer. Most operators already have solutions in their WAP GWs and GPRS nodes to handle this. It should be possible in some way to tag and detect advertisement traffic
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originating from within the operators domain and resist from charging of that traffic. Within the same advertising campaign it might also be necessary to include both free and premium rate charging. Another aspect on advertisement and charging that needs to be studied further is the offering of rewards and rewarding schemes towards subscribers that accept advertisements delivered to their device. An example of this is an ad-funded messaging scenario where a subscriber who has opted in to receive advertising messages might be rewarded with free messaging bundles or free voice minutes for each ad click-through. This requires interaction and possible exchange of ad metrics with existing charging and rating systems and the details here needs further study.
4.2. DTAC
DTAC are using MCN as an external search engine for the WAP portal. The MCN platform is hosted externally of the DTAC network. Mobile advertising is being looked at, but no clear plans at the moment. SMS broadcast is however used quite a lot, but most for information about new services from DTAC.
4.3. GrameenPhone
Have you run any mobile advertising campaigns? No, we have not run any campaigns. What we are continuing to do is SMS bulk push mainly for our internal product/promotion and service campaigns. We also did some cell-broadcast for similar purposes. Sometimes we are asked by the local regulator to push some SMS for govt. notifications but as of now, we havent done anything commercially. Apart from SMS and cell-broadcast, We are doing ad-tail on USSD balance enquiry. With 98% prepaid penetration and a balanceconscious subscription base this tactic proved to be very effective here. In one occasion we also did some pre-call announcement for notification purpose for a special group of subscribers. Are you investigating Mobile Advertisement in connection with Search or not? We are not investigating mobile advertisement in connection with search. If yes, are you considering branded search (Google, yahoo, et.) or a White label search with your own logo? When are you planning to issue RFIs/RFQs for Mobile Advertising? We dont have any plan right now.
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I hope you can take the time to give us some input on what GrameenPhone is doing in the Mobile Advertising and Search space. I hope you can give me feedback by latest 10.10 let me know if this is doable for you. From commercial we had some focus on this area and it was getting some momentum. However, due to some restructuring the whole initiative is stalled and hasnt been revamped yet. We are currently doing SMS blast for our own information dissemination, not selling SMS bulk to other advertisers. Similar is for Cell Broadcast (idle screen). We are using this for our own information dissemination, not for others. Still the focus channel for Mobile Advertisement is pretty much limited to SMS and Cell Broadcast. But we deeply feel that if the regulatory issues are cleared, there is huge potential in this are and consolidated approach is very crucial. We few months back evaluated Ad driven services (e.g. Mobile Email, Ring back Tone etc.) but no tangible step has been taken yet. There are many other channels/ options (e.g. MMS, WAP portal insertions, Scroll during live TV, P2P SMS insertion) and we have initiated the process to take a phase wise approach in going to this arena.
4.6. Promonte
Promonte is currently not working with Mobile Advertising and Search.
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Telenor Norway are currently working on the strategy for 2009 2011, but its still not clear what to do with advertising and search. Telenor Norway will have one common approach to this new market (if any) so small activities run as today (e.g. banners on portal) will be stopped. Banners on WAP Portal will be used to promote our own products until one common approach is in place for Norway.
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launched, together with GSMA, a project in which operators will aggregate and present common metrics (e.g unique users, impressions etc) on an anonymous census level. The project will be due in ca 5 months. One initiative is to use MMS as a bearer for advertisements and then track the MMS. By tracking the MMS we will be able to see the viral effect (see how the MMS is forwarded by our subscribers). A trial during 1-2 weeks is planned during spring/summer. The idea of the trial is the following: Offer the ability to send videos & pictures via MMS to handsets from enabling channels such as web, WAP or by SMS-activation Enrich the MMSs content with advertising/coupons tailored to the contents tags and target group Spread and communicate the enabling channels through online banners, Telenor Stores, Telenor WAP portal, billboards and other public spaces. The content and coupon will create incentives for viral propagation throughout the network Revenues will be generated from advertising spending and shared among the involved parties The purpose and the scope for the trial will be: Evaluate Amethons technology together with Telenors network Evaluate advertisers willingness to pay Evaluate MMS as carrier of rich content Evaluate users propensity of forwarding advertise-enriched content. This Trial was never concluded due to legal aspects. Regarding search, Telenor Sweden is today using the Google search bar within the mobile portal. Google do not give any kickback on their search results and income revenues at the moment. Telenor Sweden has been negotiating with Google to get another business agreement in place, in order to get a part of the revenue that Google gets from clicks. Discussions are ongoing also with other search providers. Currently search is supported by the standard Google search engine that presents the search results in the same way as they are presented on the web. Statistics shows that 8% of the traffic away from the WAP portal is a click on a link from the Google search. The first step we will have take to improve the search experience for our portal visitors is to include the on net results for search and put them on the top in the result screen.
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5.1.1
Value Chain
Understanding how the revenues flow from the advertisers to the other players in the value chain allows us to understand what potential revenues are possible based on what role is taken. As indicated in the diagram by Ovum, roles can be combined and served by one player. Telenor as a MNO, through sales of own media space, may retain 50-60% of the variable revenues, this is quite good. Ad-networks are left with 40-50%, these networks are volume based and target/reach the long tail as a main driver. The revenues here might be quite substantial in the future and this position is attractive (ref. Google in online advertising). Telenor as a MNO must thus enable and leverage its own marketing for mobile advertising and sell its own and possibly also 3rd party media space in order to take part of this business from the operator point of view. In chapter 5.1.2 we discuss the possible positions Telenor can take in this eco-system. The ecosystem for mobile advertising is in an establishment phase new players will enter the market and constellations and acquisitions will happen. The value in the value chain is created at the advertisers part of the value chain. The operators can take a good part of this value creation, in particular due to assets like customer data and insight. This is of course provided that the MNO capitalizes on these assets and acquires the required advertising platform assets.
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5.1.2 Roles The project has identified eight different positions the MNOs may target, combinations of these positions are possible: - Mobile Marketing company (similar to More Mobile Relations in Scandinavia) - Part of the Agencies role in the value chain;B2B solutions, relationship marketing, agency, full service provider - Sales of own media space - Sales only own inventory to national + local advertisers - Ad-funded services/subscriptions - Using advertising as a funding for MNO/MVNO business objectives - Selected business models as per market fit: Advertisers requiring targeting - Capitalize on customer data - Demographics, social networking analysis - Advertisers requiring targeting - Ad-funded MVNO - Using advertising as a funding for MNO/MVNO business objectives - New/Existing markets + Targeted segments - CPA for advertisers - Taking a role in the value chain towards the ad-networks role; giving the advertisers tools to reach the whole mobile customer base in a country - Access role own network, co-operation other MNOs if agreements - Local advertising business, - Local Enabler - Taking a role in the value chain towards the ad-networks role; using a mobile advertising platform for placing advertisements in other media spaces than solely own - B2B + CRM service selling own + others inventories; capitalize on local presence, customer data and distribution, CPA - Local advertising business - long tail - National Catalyst - Taking a role in the value chain towards the ad-networks role; a fully fledged dominating adnetworks position (platform and sales of media spaces) for mobile advertising in order to serve long tail
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Dominant position within mobile ads; reaching beyond own network, selling others inventory + own, enabling new business models by connecting different buyers and sellers, network effects Target all advertisers within country, also global brands Build on network effects Target connecting other groups (Telco 2.0)
In addition to defining the roles, there are recommendations for which positions to take for each OpCo in the Group see Figure 5-3 Relevant positions for the Telenor OpCos below.
As seen in figure Figure 5-3, all OpCos should invest in the first 5 positions; the Local Enabler and National Catalyst roles are only suggested for given OpCos. Ad-funded MVNOs can be used by Telenor as a tool to enter new markets, and is not seen as a means OpCos should use in local markets.
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The Ad Server is responsible for selecting and serving ads to the various delivery channels based on information about active campaigns, priority of campaigns and user profile/context data. The Ad Server select and retrieve advertisements from the Ad Db and distribute the selected advertisement to the applications which is involved in delivering and presenting advertisements to the user (Portal, Search Engine, Messaging Servers etc.). Various kind of information about a user that can be accessed from User Profile and User Context servers can be used in the selection process to target the advertisement to a specific user. The User Profile Server is a generic function that manages and stores user information independently from the advertisement service. The User Profile data can be collected and input from different sources including Self-care portals and CRM systems. The information in the User Profile include personal details like age, address and gender, user supplied generic and/or ad specific preferences describing interest areas, preferred delivery channel and times. Historic data about a users service usage, including information like browsing habits, items purchased and search history, could also be used in the ad selection process. Collection, processing and storage of such data are in the architecture handled by the User/Usage Profiling function and the data is stored in the User Profile Server. Data about service usage can be derived from analyzing input from different sources including portal/browser logs, CDRs, search logs etc. The User Context Server contains information that is dynamically updated about a users current context. This information could be used by the Ad Server to select advertisements most relevant to the current context of the user. Context information could e.g. include information as current location of the user or availability on various channels. The User Context Server collects its information from other servers like Location Servers (LCS) and Presence Servers based on what is present in the operators network. The Ad Metrics Db stores information identifying the results of the advertisement campaigns. This information is collected from the applications that are involved in the delivery channel by the Ad Server. The applications log and return various parameters collected during delivery, presentation and monitoring of user interactions related to a specific advertisement (e.g. if a user clicks on an ad banner or on an ad link, or places a call from a click-to-call link in the advertisement). The data is analyzed and presented to the Advertiser, making it possible to evaluate the success of the campaign and can be used by the Advertiser to improve future campaigns Different applications represent different channels which are used to present the user with advertisements in different ways. The Portal and the Search Engine use the Ad Server to select WAP and Web banners and sponsored links relevant to the users profile/context information and suited to the topic the user browses or searches for. Advertisements could be presented to the user in the devices Browser or it could also be delivered to a specific application in the device, e.g. a search client, represented in the architecture by Ad Apps. User actions related to the user interacting with the advertisements, e.g. by clicking on a link, is reported back to the Ad Server which stores the information in the Metrics Db. SP Apps represents network based services like SMS, MMS, IM, Video streaming etc. These services can be used to embed advertisements in the content or services they provide to the user. Device Apps represents the corresponding applications in the device. They are responsible of presenting the message or content, including the ads, to the user. It should not be necessary to make any changes to the Device Apps in order for them to present the ads as the ad formats should be adapted to the capabilities of the terminal either by the SP Apps or by the Ad Server The Ad Engine, residing on the users device, represents an optional function supporting distribution and temporary storage of advertisements on the device itself. It enables distribution of advertisements to a users device during e.g. off-peak traffic periods. The downloaded advertisements could be presented to the user in advertisement specific applications on the device, represented by the Ad Apps. An example of such an application could be Idle Mode advertising, where advertisements are shown on the devices screen while the device is not in use or idle. Metrics on the advertisement presentation and user actions linked to the user interacting with advertisements needs to be reported by all of the applications involved in delivering and presenting the advertisements to the user.
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6.1.1 Content control When it comes to controlling or filtering of ads being delivered to a user, this should be handled in the Ad Server during the ad selection process. The Ad Metadata stored with the ad in the Ad Db should include the necessary information about restrictions or constraints for receivers of the specific ad. This could be information as e.g. minimum age limitations and based on this information, the Ad Server should be able to compare these restrictions to users profile data, and thus prevent inappropriate ads being delivered to a user. 6.1.2 Content adaptation Like all other content, advertisements in the form of banners, pictures and videos need to be adapted to the capabilities of a users device regarding e.g. screen size, resolution etc. Depending on the existing services and functionality in an operators network, some ad channels (like MMSC and Portal) might already have its own content adaptation functions. There are also centralized solutions available on the market that provides a central content adaptation engine that could be integrated towards MMSCs, WAP Portals, etc. In the functional architecture we have indicated an Ad Adaptation function within the Ad Server just to illustrate the need for adaptation of ads. It is also possible to perform adaptation in the AD Server, but the best solution would possible be to reuse a centralized adaptation function or to leave adaptation to the servers in the channels that delivers the ads to the user. 6.1.3 User and Usage Profiling options There are multiple options on the architectural side regarding search and advertisements, but they commonly share the potential need for user profile data, user context data, and content data if they would like to personalize ads towards the user. For the same reason, user data is also needed by other services and therefore the collection and processing of information related to the user should be seen as a common function or service in the network independent of the services that are using the data. The implication of this is that the User and Usage Profiling function can be looked upon as a
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data warehouse operation. By doing it this way, data collection, tools to operate on the data, and how to interpret and use the data can be separated. However one must keep in mind that the real value lies within the data, and that there are complicated legal matters related to how the data is collected and used.
6.1.3.1 Data collection Data can be collected either by traffic interception, or by using already existing operators data. This in itself contains several issues depending on how the data warehouse is organized and located. A reasonable assumption is that the data is distributed, and consisting of both internal and external parts. Parts of the data are most likely to reside in the BSS, like users subscription information, containing details on the subscriber like gender and age. The challenge is then to provide a unified view of this data to the services that needs it. Uploading of data to the data warehouse should be made possible by the use of standardized APIs or alternatively by submitting data in batches to the data warehouse database on regular intervals. Some of the data is fairly static, like terminal type, home address, age, user preferences, etc. The dynamic data is collected through real-time interception of messaging, collection of terminal location, URL tracking on WAP and WEB portals. There is a need to track user behaviour in on-network & off-network traffic (WAP & Web Portals). Based on user browsing & contents purchase behaviour, the platform must be able to track URLs that has been visited and categorize users into individual profiles. Today, there are systems that are able to track subscriber activities based on: Implicit Activities (Automatically tracking user browsing activities) Explicit Activities (Users volunteer to provide information via standard preference page in the Operator portal) There are multiple legal issues on the data collection itself and for the use of the data that must be addressed before implementing the solution. This is the case for what data is collected, who gets access to the data, and what data combination the user has agreed to share with the operator. Another challenge is to provide means for the users to opt-in/out on receiving ads, so that they understand what they have opted-in for and how they can opt-out. 6.1.3.2 Data tools Profiling tools can analyze data input and create user profiles based on the data collected in the warehouse, based on behaviour, location, demographics, CRM, etc. Some vendors provide tools to manipulate the ranking on search hits, thereby enabling the provider to place recommended product ads to the end-user. 6.1.3.3 Data usage Once we have the profiles and recommendations in place, and know the users preferences and terminal type, we are able to target and adapt the content and ads for the end-user. This can be done on the fly or for static content; the content can be formatted to a generic format or ready-made for a limited set of popular terminals. Depending on the users preferences and profile, this also allows for tailing of P2P messaging.
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9. Regulatory issues
Mobile advertisement and search services raise typically two sets of regulatory issues:
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Data protection / privacy: To what extent can the service provider (or the platform provider) utilize user data for both search and advertising? Marketing regulation: Is the proposed format for marketing acceptable in the relevant jurisdictions?
We cannot answer these two questions on a general level. Details about both the service and national legislation are required. Thus, this section will only outline regulatory considerations. Any project that relates to search or advertising should include a regulatory assessment at an early stage to identify the potential impact on the business case and/or service design.
The most relevant concerns in this context is related to the protection of the user against unwanted addressed marketing, prevent misleading advertisements, and to reduce the marketing intensity towards special groups such as minors. The U.S. and almost all countries in Western Europe have a policy that users must give permission to be sent marketing messages via their mobile phones. This opt-in policy seems to works well, aided by
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self-policing by industry associations such as the Mobile Marketing Association1 (MMA US based), which has its own set of policies and best practices. Regarding push advertisements (addressed marketing) the EU Directive 97/66/EC [7] allows each country to decide if the user has to opt-in to receive ads, or if ads can be sent without explicit consent and only give the users the right to opt-out.
New Paradigm
AD Enabler
3rd application MSF User
Re u se
Operator Network
Reuse
Location
Operator Resources
The proposed work item should define interfaces between the search framework and search clients and towards vertical search engines/directory services. Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) establishes standards, guidelines and best practices for mobile advertisement and marketing. http://mmaglobal.com/
1
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10.1.2 Mobile Advertising OMA is working on the definition of an Enabler for Mobile Advertising The Enabler, when finished, will consist of a set of documents describing requirements, architecture and detailed technical specifications. Current status, as of September 2008, is that the requirements have been approved and work is currently ongoing on the architecture specifications. The group in OMA responsible for the work is the Content Delivery WG. The Requirement Document [4] contains use cases and defines the requirements for the Mobile Advertisement Enabler. The following areas are covered in the current version of the RD: Personalization of the Advertisements personalizing and targeting the advertisements to a particular user Interactivity of Advertisements enabling new payment models as cost-per-click and costper-action Advertising Metrics - metering advertisement impact and user behaviour A set of actors has been defined as part of the Mobile Advertisement ecosystem as shown in Figure 10-2 OMA Mobile Advertisement actors: Advertiser - supplies advertisement(s) characterized with information related to the targeted audience, campaign etc. The Advertiser may receive metrics data about their campaign based on an agreement with the Service Provider. Content Provider - provides content to a user and in general is willing to reinforce the value of its content by allowing advertisement to be sent along with the content. Service Provider - offers the mobile advertising service to Users via the MobAd Enabler. o Manages the MobAd Enabler User Profile data, based on information such as user related, context related, interest and advertising preferences. o May deliver the advertising by the use of SP Apps (network based applications such as the streaming media service, MMS service, SP-portal or other applications) as well as Ad Apps (device resident applications such as on-device portal, games or other applications). o Manages the MobAd Enabler Advertisements Metadata that will be used for the mobile advertising service. o Uses the metrics data provided by the MobAd enabler to improve the service and may share these metrics data with other actors such as the Content Provider or the Advertiser. o Configures and maintains the MobAd Enabler. o May have some other roles such as providing billing service, subscription etc. User - consumes personalized interactive mobile advertising content. Exposes, modifies his/her MobAd user information, interest, context and preferences and may have the option to opt-in and opt-out from the mobile advertising Service. Ad App - receives the advertisements through MobAd Enabler, and presents them to the User. The Ad App may communicate information about Users actions to the MobAd Enabler. SP App - resides in the Network and interacts with the MobAd Enabler. It can embed the advertisements in content that it provides to the User and may communicate information about Users actions to the MobAd Enabler.
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Users
Network
Advertisers
Devices
MobAd Enabler
SP Apps
Figure 10-2 OMA Mobile Advertisement actors
Service Provider
The work on the architecture is still in progress and in an early phase. The current document [5] provides a draft architecture figure as shown in Figure 10-3 OMA Draft Mobile Advertisement architecture. The architecture consists of the following entities: Ad Engine - refers to MobAd Enabler Entities on a Device. It is a device-resident group of functionalities potentially organized in logical modules. It interacts with different Ad Apps and performs functions such as: obtaining appropriate ads from MobAd entities in the network, selecting ads from a local storage, providing metrics related feedback to MobAd entities in the network, filtering and matching information as well as potentially scanning content. MobAd Enabler Entities on the Network represents network resident functions specified by the MobAd Enabler Ad App represents device-resident applications which interact with the MobAd Enabler Entities on the Device (Ad Engine) in order to present advertisement(s) to the user. SP App represent Mob Ad applications that are executing within the Service Provider environment (e.g.: on an MMSC or SP-portal) and interacts with MobAd Enabler entities on the network for providing Ads as part of its service (e.g. requesting Ads, providing metrics data). SP App is not one of the MobAd Enabler Entities on the Network, but an external actor which interacts with them. Contextualization and Personalization resources represents resources in the network and/or on the device that provides the information input for the process to tailor advertisements according to a users context (e.g. location, device capabilities etc.) and a users characteristics (preferences, demographics, etc.). User Data (or User Information) can be considered as formed by two sets of data: User Profile (data that can be considered static) User Context (data that can be considered dynamic)
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The possible relevant OMA enablers to retrieve User Context data could be (not exhaustive): (SIMPLE) Presence (such as presence status, type of place, activity, mood) MLS (Mobile Location Service ) and SUPL (Secure User Plane Location ) (current location) UAProf (device capabilities) DPE (device capabilities, phone profile)
MobAd-2 Ad Server
SP App
MobAd-3
Delv-1
CP-Device Ad Engine
MobAd-1 Ad App
TBD-X represents a collection of interfaces between the components of the architecture. OMA will reuse existing standards for the interfaces where possible, but if needed, new interfaces will be defined. The figure shows two such new interfaces, MobAd-1 and MobAd-2. MobAd-1 is an interface between the Ad Engine and the Ad App. The Ad Engine exposes this interface to the Ad App. The Ad App uses this interface to requests ads from the Ad Engine, and to report ad metrics data to the Ad Engine. MobAd-2 is an interface exposed by the MobAd entities on the Network and used by the SP App to submit an AdRequest message with some parameters. The MobAd entities on the Network use this interface to provide an AdResponse to the SP App. Advertisement is also a topic within the Game Services WG of OMA. The group has made a proposal for a Work Item called In-Game Advertising (IGA) with the purpose to: Consider in-game advertising models (How to present adverts in games). Define interface between the game client and server to interchange IGA information. Define interfaces towards other OMA enablers.
10.2. GSMA
The GSMA started the Mobile Advertising Programme in 2007. It has four work streams: Inventory definitions, Codes of Conduct Measurement, Metrics, Customer Profiles: to look at best practice in these areas so as to protect the privacy of customers, optimise targeting and demonstrate return on mobile advertising investment to media buyers & advertisers Mobile Media Planning and Buying Mobile advertising Communications Programme As of April 2008, the measurement, metrics and customer profiles was on target. GSMA has formal cooperation agreement with the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) on producing guidelines for development of national codes of conduct & defining standard inventories for different forms of mobile advertising (formats, specifications, commercial models, etc.). Telenor Sweden is contributing to the measurement, metrics and cutomer profiles work stream and is running project (also being run in the UK) to define and collect metrics which are common across all MNOs in Sweden.
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Entry portal. Three randomized groups were respectively given a service a) free from ads, b) with random ads, and c) with personalised ads. The personalization was based on the users search terms, age, gender, and place of residence. User attitudes and experiences were collected through web surveys, focus groups and traffic logs. General non-familiarity with mobile Internet services and uncertainty about usage costs represent main barriers to wide use of mobile search. Also, the small font size is a barrier to the users older than 45 years and to those keeping old mobiles with small displays. In general the small display compared to the PC screen hampers hit list overviews and the judgement of relevance before clicking. The study uncovered challenges with regard to gathering and presenting search results from different content sources. Due to delays in network communication no results was now and then presented in cases where results obviously should be found. The project resulted in a number of recommendations for an improved mobile search service, for mobile ads and personalization aspects and recommendations for further research for search and advertising.
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extended user profiles as DiGi is currently doing (see Feil! Fant ikke referansekilden.). This information would help in improving the targeting and personalization of ads toward a user. Although the revenue potential for Mobile Advertising is less than telco turnover, it has a growth potential that might be critical for telcos. The market for mobile advertising must be built and it will take some time. Patience and realistic business cases must be developed, revenue potential is smaller than telco turnover but this is a growth potential that might be critical for telcos. A key message is that Telenor OpCos must develop a local long term strategy and realistic business cases, and decide on the position(s) to target. Entering into the advertising business must be a conscious decision followed up by a whole hearted operative implementation. It is the ability to target customers through the telco knowledge of who the customer is and the possibility of using customer data to better target advertising for customers that makes mobile advertising such a promising revenue generator. Advertisers expect to pay higher rates if they can target the customer better OpCos expect that their customer knowledge will allow them to charge these higher rates. It is recommended to start with pilots and test implementations in the market immediately but the long term picture should be defined. Further Work As mobile advertising and search is a fairly new area, not everything cannot be covered or understood at this point in time. Further work in this area should cover: The development and status of the advertisement based MVNOs such as Blyk. The potential disruptive nature of alternative access channels such as blue tooth or WiFi disruptive technologies? How to ensure that the customer data, which is the operators key asset for mobile rd advertising, is made available to partners and 3 parties and is enhanced with preferences and usage history to allow better targeting. What systems and technology should an Operator own or control and what should be outsourced or partnered on? How to use campaign management with mobile advertising? How does and existing campaign management system fit with the mobile advertising platform? Can it be used as is or are extensions necessary? Related to the above question, we would like to better understand the linkage back to internal telco marketing/cross-selling needs as systems architecture would look the same. Mobile Ads is external party centric. Look into a suggested implementation architecture for a mobile operator - dtac has tried this earlier but the business case is hard to justify for the up front investments, e.g., expensive BSC features to support the Celltick platform.
13. Abbreviations
Below are some of the abbreviations used in this document. CPA CPI CPM CPT CTR DRM IAB MEF MMA OCS OMA OMAP PPA PPC WAP WMA Cost Per Action also referred to as PPA Cost per Impression Cost per Mille (CPM) also referred to as Cost per Thousand Cost per Thousand Click-through rate Digital Rights Management Interacting Advertising Bureau Mobile Entertainment Forum Mobile Marketing Association Online Customer Service Open Mobile Alliance Open Multimedia Application Platform Texas Instrument microprocessor Pay Per Action Pay Per Click Wireless Access Protocol Windows Media Audio (WMA
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[5] [6]
[7]
[8] [9]
A1.01
Airwide Solutions
Search Solution: No Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes Channel: SMS, MMS, WEB, WAP Business Model: Flexible for operator internal to hosted, provides the platform for the Blyk case. The Airwide Mobile Advertising Solution is a full, modular, service delivery platform optimized for the advertising business model. Airwide provides a solution for Ad-insertion, Campaign execution and Campaign tracking. The ad-insertion can tail and insert messages on P2P communication between subscribers.
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Adaptive Mobile
Search Solution: Support for Banners and keywords in search mobile desktop search? Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes, Advertising management Channel: SMS, MMS, WEB, WAP, IMS, Email, IP apps, On-device client Business Model: MNO purchases, deploys and operates platform internally is the preferred model but they can work on an ASP revenue share model. Adaptive Mobile mainly addresses: - Content Control - Permissions & Policy Management - User Insight & Analysis They focus on policy enforcement, and brand improvement, in order to enforce that under-age customers do not get inappropriate content.
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Amdocs
Search Solution: Have a search solution acquired in 2007 approxiMatch Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes, full portfolio Channel: Say they can do any channel but difficult to understand supporting product Business Model: Only offers Hosted solution: Revenue Sharing only AMDOCS Focus: Media sales and technology capabilities. AMDOCS solutions are on the Advertiser end of the value chain. 3 Components Publisher can compare advertisers and which campaigns work best Digital Advertising Manager allows advertiser to define campaign, evaluates success of campaign, gives metrics on ads (it is usually an ad agency that will use this tool you have to have a sales agency involved here setting the rules, designing the pricing, Digital Administrator Manager (either operator or media sales on their behalf) o Ad Matching use data mining to find result based on input (keywords) (use of different keywords for internet and mobile dont use same keywords advertisers need to build competency on these keywords) o Advanced Ad Matching o Prioritization Rules
A1.04
Amobee
Search Solution: Yes Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes Channel: WAP Browsing, Video & Music, Messaging and Games. Business Model: Not clear Amobee Media Systems, a mobile advertising company, founded in 2005 by Gil Shulman, Saul Rurka and Zohar Levkovitz, has built and designed the first ad-serving solution dedicated to mobile operators. The solution allows them to dynamically insert advertisements into all forms of mobile communication and content, including: WAP Browsing, Video & Music, Messaging and Games. Amobee was founded in May of 2005 and went live in February 2006. The company is headquartered
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in Redwood City, CA, and has a second commercial office in London, with its R & D center in Herzliya, Israel. Amobee has run mobile advertising campaigns in Britain, France, Greece, Spain, Canada, Switzerland, the US, and the Czech Republic. Brands that have worked with Amobee include Coca Cola, Dominos Pizza, Lenovo, Saab, and Lacoste. VCs invested in Amobee include : Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Globespan. Mobile giants Vodafone and Telefonica have both invested in the company.[8] The solution has 3 main components: - Campaign Management - Inventory Management - Delivery and Display Content Adaptation, In Apps (games, media player, client apps),In Coms (SMS, MMS, IM), In Browse (WAP, Video stream, Music) Amobee uses Cognos as DW solution and ITP (IP Transfer Point) technology for SMS interception.
A1.05
Yahoo
Search Solution: Yes Advertising Campaign Solution: Dont think so. Channel: WAP based solution with client. Business Model: Hosted solution: Revenue Sharing only Yahoo was contacted for Advertising and Search RFI in Telenors Wild Card Project. Content/Index build: Web and WAP results are generated from indexes created by crawling web and mobile web sites. Yahoo!s crawler, called Slurp, continually crawls the web, creating indexes of words on a page and following links to other pages. The mobile version of the crawler performs similar services tailored to sites that are optimised for mobile. Yahoo! does not support WML (WAP 1.x). Yahoo!s ranking algorithm is then applied to the indexed sites. This algorithm is continually updated by their research scientists in California and India. It ranks pages on multiple criteria, including the frequency of terms on the page, links coming into and out from the page, the pages relationship to authoritative sites, and many others including algorithms to combat search engine optimisation fraud.
Query Processing Categorization of queries Filtering Federation Indexed Feeds Query Forwarding and API Integration Delivery Device Profiling Rendering UI Customisation SafeSearch
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Medio
Search Solution: Provides White Label search external to the operator Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes, with advanced DWH tools Channel: WAP based solution with client Business Model: Hosted solution: Revenue Sharing only This is a summary of the RFI response to the White Label Search request, dated May 2008. Medio confirms positively to all the questions asked in the RFI, and provides detailed answer to the questions asked in the RFI. Medio was founded in 2004 with the goal of building and deploying a world-class mobile-centric search and advertising product for use by wireless operators and mobile publishers. Medio provides white-label, operator-integrated mobile search and advertising to Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, T-Mobile International, and Telus Mobility. Medio provides white-label, publisher integrated mobile search and advertising to ABC News (http://abcnews.mobi), CBS Sports (http://wap.cbssports.com/), CBS News (http://wap.cbsnews.com/), plus many smaller publishers. Medio provides two products for operators: 1. uSearch consists of the following components: Ability to search multiple content categories from a single search experience Categories include WWW, Local, News, Weather, and Mobile Web among others Integration of operators/publishers downloadable content within results (Ability to create a matching browsing experience across this content) Ability to search top-quality content within each content category Present content from top brands & content providers including operators/publishers preferred partners Optimize content for the mobile experience Intelligent search relevance capabilities Recall & precision (balance of showing relevant results while knowing when not to show results for a given query) Providing Direct Answers, not links, when possible Search relevance based on query, content type, user, user behaviour, clusters & context Features enabling better manageability & configurability Selecting different content configurations Business rule management (e.g. boosting within ranking, subsets of categories based on subscribers data plan) User interface configurability Tools to automate, simplify, scale & manage the uSearch deployment Advertising capabilities Search advertising Click-to-call & other calls to action Reporting
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2. The Analytics Primer that is a data warehouse tool to do: Ingest, data from sources like: such as WAP gateway logs, premium content purchase history, and (where privacy laws and guidelines allow) the postal code of the billing address. Analyse the data, where the most popular analysis techniques are clustering, inference generation, classification, and rules generation/refinement. i. Clustomers, where customer data is mapped into an N-dimensional space, to provide bottom-up data-driven customer segmentation. ii. Inferences are used by Medio to increase the relevancy of our advertisement placement engine. This is a variant of Amazons merchandising methods, and a variant on Revenue Sciences behavioural and targeting, which places specific ads on pages where the ads historically receive more clicks. iii. Classifiers, where Medio statistically determines the genre of any page and site. iv. Rule Optimization, where the analysis can group users Package, meaning recommendations are packaged as a database of items, matching each item with a list of recommended items. Or for more personalized recommendations, the database includes multiple lists within the mapping, one for each Clustomer. Use and Learn, insights are only useful when they result in action. Analysis can be integrated into processes to automatically make changes, such as a matrix for generating real-time product recommendations. Quite often, the packaged results are ingested by humans who perform additional analysis techniques in order to understand the insights and how best to use them to improve the user experience.
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A1.07
Search Solution: Provides White label search external to the operator Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes Channel: WAP based solution without client, using standard WAP browser Business Model: Hosted solution, revenue Sharing only This is summary of the RFI response to the White Label Search request, dated May 2008, and feedback from DTAC on usage of their products. MCN provides a WAP portal that is optimised for handset browsers. MCN (Mobile Content Networks) provides mobile search management and revenue solutions that connect mobile users directly to the content they seek while delivering profitable new revenue streams for operators and content providers. Their main products are: MobileSearch.netan ASP-based white label solution that delivers relevant, actionable results across both WAP and SMS in high value vertical content categories. allwords(sm)the pioneering mobile vertical paid search program that delivers the mobile industrys highest performing PPC mobile content promotions.
MCN provides real-time mobile search solutions to partners in the worlds most advanced wireless data markets and in emerging 3G markets. MCN launched MobileSearch.net services in Finland in 2005 and now powers more than 20 mobile operator and portal search applications worldwide, including services in Japan for Yahoo! Mobile Japan, and NTT DoCoMo (in partnership with D2Communications), all three
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operators in Thailand (AIS, DTAC, and True), Scandinavias Tele2, Elisa, and DNA, and other customers in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. MCN provides federated search and a search management platform. MCN claims that with federated search they can provide better searches with less effort, and means to prioritize content or items for sale. The federated search consists of two parts: 1. The search engine can access deep and hidden content from content silos, and fresh content is sent directly to the user from the original content provider. The engine uses usage-based rankings, classification, metadata, local linguistic technology, and eliminates problems with duplicated content storage. 2. A competitive ecosystem for content providers, where they have flexible charging methods, charge by click, impression or action (sale). The ecosystem has flexible ranking methods by channel, handset and market. A dynamic content source selection means more scalable content inclusion and more competition. The search management platform consists of three parts: 1. The federated search platform that connects to external content providers. 2. The means to rapidly deploy new search channels and content channels. 3. Tools to lets them cherry-pick the index and deliver highest value content, and augment existing content with federated external content. Frost & Sullivan has written a white paper on MCN and their findings and conclusions are: 1. MobileSearch.net is a unique mobile search management platform that successfully employs federated search to deliver highly relevant, real-time results in a cost-effective and efficient manner to mobile subscribers in two to three clicks. 2. MobileSearch.net is an effective, rapidly deployable search management platform that can be used by both mobile operators and content portals to simplify the content discovery and purchase process and hence increase the mobile operators non-voice revenues and content portal revenues. 3. MobileSearch.net incorporates MCNs patent-pending Mobile-Ad.net platform, further helping to turn search into a significant revenue channel by delivery of highly relevant ads, including both upsell and cross-sell opportunities. 4. MobileSearch.net empowers content providers to generate new content and make it available to mobile users without having to open up their content repositories to third parties to ensure discovery. This promotes the content providers participation in mobile search. 5. MobileSearch.net can be easily customized for specific and localized business needs, allowing mobile operators and portal providers the ability to modify the rank order of the query results using a self directed rules based engine. 6. The platform is able to address the issue of large content providers hiding the content available to mobile search, by delivering both on-deck and off-deck results in response to a single search query. DTAC has piloted the MCN platform and their feedback is: TBD
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Ericsson
Search Solution: No Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes Channel: WAP, SMS/MMS and applications. Business Model: Licensing, operator purchases, deploys and operates the solution. Ericsson sells additional advertisement channels like Mobile TV, Ring Back Tones etc. Ericsson provides a mobile advertisement platform that has following functionality: Ad Management o Ad Inventory o Ad Rendering Campaign Management o Targeting o Channel selection o Ad spend Device Management o Device recognition o Device features User identification o Unique users o User profiling Personalization o Opt-in Acquired o Data mining generated Reporting o Media agency o Content publisher o Operator
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JumpTap
Search Solution: White Label solution Advertising Campaign Solution: Partially. Channel: WAP Portal and client based Java and BREW solutions Business Model: Based on revenue sharing
JumpTap provides two main products, the search engine and the ad network. The white-label mobile search engine and mobile ad network provide partners with the most advanced and targeted capabilities in the market so mobile operators can stay focused on understanding and serving their subscribers. JumpTap provide a breadth of platforms (WAP, Java, and BREW) and shield operators from device compatibility complexity. Mobile operators need strong and relevant ad platforms to engage their subscribers and attract great advertisers. The strength of JumpTap's ad network comes from our intelligent mobile search data, yielding better ad targeting and more relevant results for the user. Ads are qualitatively and quantitatively fine-tuned for maximum ad network performance. Plus, our variety of ad formats and networks create a higher fill rate. JumpTap handles the entire process for mobile ad inventory fulfilment and business operations; from advertiser management to billing and collections. JumpTap and the wireless operator build a seamless, revenue-generating partnership delivering a high-quality paid search advertising experience to subscribers and advertisers alike.
JumpTaps federated search infrastructure allows flexibility to accommodate the following: Static ranking: Operator determines a fixed order Popularity influence on ranking or results and categories
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Algorithmic blended with business rules ranking: TF/IDF, Field boosting, filtering of content, count of results returned, and demoting content type Merge server that integrates structured content via API/XML, and unstructured content that JumpTap crawls JumpTap utilizes query classification to influence display logic Smart components Expanded results Matched Categories Recommendations
A1.10
TietoEnator
Search Solution: No Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes Channel: WAP/Web Portal. Business Model: Not one specific model, open for a range of models including hosted solutions and revenue sharing. TietoEnator mobile advertising solution handles the advertisement management and delivery functionalities and it provides a web-based self-service user interface for advertisers to create campaigns, monitor the campaign execution and view campaign reporting. The solution also includes subscriber behaviour analyzing and profile database. The ad delivery and campaign execution system takes care of the delivering the ads and executing the campaigns based on the targeting.
TietoEnator mobile advertising solution includes the following main functionalities: Creation and management of multi-channel campaigns Banner advertising SMS and MMS advertising Person-to-person messaging tagging Video advertising Targeting support Contextual targeting User profile based targeting
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Behavioural targeting Social network analysis Real-time measurement and reporting Browser-based self-service interface for advertisers
CONTEST 04-53
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Version 3.0.0