Four Screens Media » Mobile

Will Hulu on the iPhone be the catalyst for a burst of mainstream mobile video?

analyst — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:13:52 +0000

Often times it’s a single product, inserted into an already up and running industry, that serves as a catalyst to take a new media or medium from early adopter growth to mainstream usage. Think iPhone to mobile browsing or Wii and casual video games. Will hulu do the same for mobile video?

Mobile video has been around for a number of years, standing ready to break out. Hulu, which took online TV mainstream with a consumer friendly site and familiar content, now plans an iPhone app which could have the same impact, according to Alley Insider.

It’s still too early to now the app’s exact capabilities and how more mainstream mobile video usage will truly impact marketing and communications (the mobile video related campaigns right now are small and experimental as compared to TV and Web video). But it will be interesting to see what Hulu comes up with and if it has the same impact as their site.

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Verizon Wireless Offers Loopt Social Mapping Service

analyst — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:04:19 +0000

Verizon announced they will offer Loopt social mapping to their wireless subscribers. Loopt’s location based service lets people share their location using mobile maps, tag content (such as photos) with location information and send information to blogs and other online properties. As we are seeing with other serivces, Loopt has privacy features to allow users to maintain control over their location data. The service, which will only be available on specific handsets (presumably GPS enabled ones), will cost $3.99 per month.

As with the other services, we’ll be watching to see if Loopt provides any opportunities for marketers. This isn’t about bombarding consumers with messages about MacDonald’s around the corner but providing information people want. For example, you may want to sign up for a Starbuck’s service that let’s you know when a friend is in a nearby Starbuck’s.

Read the full release here

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Is the mobile web more profitable?

analyst — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:40:13 +0000

Yes. As the social media industry looks for more and better ad rates, the mobile web may be the next target. There is one key reason that got me thinking about the potential impact on advertising and why it may actually work for consumers -the action oriented context of mobile social networking.

Reading Stephen Wildstrom’s column on mobile search this week and he talks about using mobile to do something as opposed to simply find something out. The same is turning out to be true for the social mobile web. People are already starting to use the mobile social web for action oriented purposes – meeting people, finding places, scheduling – as opposed to simply getting updates on friends’ activities (though that will also happens). This means an opportunity to insert action oriented ads when people actually want them. So instead of advertising for a chain of restaurants when people happen to talk about food online (and thus be ignored), you can advertise for a chain of restaurants when people are actually walking and looking to eat. It may be a smaller screen, but that action context makes the mobile ad more valuable.