The Age of WAP and Growth of Mobile Advertising
Sometime ago, at the turn of the 21st century, I, together with some friends, attended a training seminar for building wap sites. Back then, tech guys, mostly from Globe Telecom are eager to be at the forefront of 3G evolution, the next big one in mobile tech capabilities.
Unfortunately, it was more of a “Slowsky” movement than Comcast high speed rate and wap continued to be buried by SMS messaging technology in the Philippines.
The past few years, wap has slowly gained a foothold and a good one too. When we launched our other web site with wap access we knew this is the way to go as more and more US travellers get used to using their mobile for collecting information on the go. Soon after we found out that Google and Yahoo have brought the advertising competition into the mobile arena. Hoooray!
Virgin Mobile has upped the ante recently with the launch of its content-sharing program through the new ‘Studio V’ for Virgin mobile subscribers. Virgin mobile provides the largest no-annual contract wireless service in the US and now they are leveraging that asset by empowering their customers to, as the press release puts it,
“channels its customers’ creative energy with the introduction of Studio V, a unique mobile content community enabling the creation and sharing of user-generated graphics and ringtones, and rewarding customers for their creativity. Studio V, at http://studiov.virginmobileusa.com, encourages customers to explore their free-spirited, artistic side through the creation of user-generated ringtones and wallpapers that other Virgin Mobile USA customers can purchase, with a cash reward credited back to the creator of the content for every download
… Virgin Mobile USA customers can upload and edit graphics content - including photographs, designs and other graphics - to make personalized wallpaper; and edit pre-existing audio content to make personalized ringtones. Everything that a Virgin Mobile USA customer uploads to or creates on Studio V to be shared with others in the Virgin Mobile USA community is free of charge. Customers can choose to submit their content to a private gallery which is accessible only to the content creator, or to a public gallery which is accessible to other Virgin Mobile USA customers for download, ratings and comments. As an added feature, content creators will earn ten cents for each item purchased, which will be credited to their Virgin Mobile accounts. All content is screened by 9 Track Mind using technology screening solutions…”
This raises Virgin Mobile’s potential for advertising and consumer sales. A win-win situation for them and the consumer and a very creative marketing strategy.
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