Bachelor's Thesis: Mobile Advertising

BACHELOR’S THESIS

MOBILE ADVERTISING

OUM VANTHARITH

Under The Supervision Of
Dr. DANIEL KARLSTROM

Submitted In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirements Of The
Bachelor Degree of Arts in Media Management

Department of Media and Communication
Royal University of Phnom Penh

May 2006

ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS
This thesis has not been made possible if without the contributions of the following people.

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my tutor Dr. Daniel Karlstrom, who
despite his busy schedule devoted a great deal of time in supervising me. Thank you very much for your
constant confidence and encouraging support throughout the process of writing this thesis.

My deepest thank also goes to the management of Department of Media and Communication for my
four year education here at Royal University of Phnom Penh. My heartfelt thank is also extended to my
thesis facilitator Berry Schipper for his useful suggestions and comments during my tutor’s absence.

I would also like to thank all the people involved in spending their valuable time, particularly in the
interviews. Their answers and feedbacks help drawing an evaluation for my Demo and making it
successfully.

Lastly, I am grateful to my parents, brothers and sisters, and especially my friends, who are always full
of hope and encouragement toward me. Without their loving and support, this thesis will prove
unsuccessful.

Phnom Penh, May 26th, 2006

OUM Vantharith

i

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Java’s Logo...........................................................................................................................................3
Figure 2.2: A Complete Java Runtime Environment and its Architecture ....................................................6
Figure 2.3: GSM Technologies Evolution ..........................................................................................................8
Figure 2.4: Some of Nokia’s Screen Resolution.................................................................................................9
Figure 2.5: A 60x60 Pixel Image on 128x128 Versus 240x320 Screen Resolution.......................................9
Figure 2.6: Wired Magazine in Print Version ...................................................................................................13
Figure 2.7: Online Version: HotWired.com/Wired ........................................................................................13
Figure 3.1: How does a Typical I-Mode Screen look like? .............................................................................18
Figure 3.2: Samples of Mobile Media from Add2hone’s Mobile Advertising Server.................................19
Figure 3.3: The Trade-Off between Richness and Reach in Advertising.....................................................22
Figure 3.4: Mobile Advertising Framework......................................................................................................24
Figure 3.5: Taxonomy of Mobile Advertising Campaigns..............................................................................26
Figure 3.6: Screen Shot of CellCard Unlimited’s Web Site ............................................................................30
Figure 3.7: CellCard Unlimited on Mobile Phone ...........................................................................................30
Figure 3.8: Promotional SMS by MobiTel in Occasion of Valentine’s Day ................................................31
Figure 3.9: Caltex’s CoffeePlus...........................................................................................................................31
Figure 3.10: Caltex’s CoffeePlus SMS Advert via Samart Hello GSM Network ........................................31
Figure 3.11: Some Titles of Mobizines .............................................................................................................35
Figure 3.12: Some of the supported Handsets for Refresh Mobile’s Mobizines .......................................36
Figure 3.13: Few Samples of Google’s Online Ads.........................................................................................37
Figure 3.14: Samples of AvantGo’s Ad Formats and Sizes............................................................................38
Figure 3.15: Ad Formats and their Placement within the Demo ..................................................................39
Figure 3.16: Basic Structure of the Demo Mobizine.......................................................................................40
Figure 3.17: Kambuja News’ Home and its Variety of News Sections ........................................................41
Figure 3.18: Kambuja News’s Visual Demo.....................................................................................................42

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS
LIST OF FIGURES

1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................ 1
1.1 Background .................................................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Aim of the Thesis .......................................................................................................................................................1
1.3 Scope ............................................................................................................................................................................2
1.4 Outline of the Thesis .................................................................................................................................................2
1.5 Abbreviations and Technical Terms .......................................................................................................................2

2 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................3
2.1 Mobile Technology ....................................................................................................................................................3
2.1.1 Java Technology ...............................................................................................................................................3
2.1.2 Mobile Java........................................................................................................................................................5
2.1.3 Handset’s Capabilities......................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Advertising Media ....................................................................................................................................................11
2.2.1 A Brief History ...............................................................................................................................................11
2.2.2 Conventional Advertising Media .................................................................................................................12
2.2.3 Emergence of the Internet............................................................................................................................13
2.3 Mobile Advertising...................................................................................................................................................14

3 MOBILE ADVERTISING IN REALITY...................................................... 17
3.1 Mobile Advertising around the Globe ..................................................................................................................17
3.1.1 Major Mobile Technologies in Use for Mobile Advertising....................................................................17
3.1.2 Mobile Advertising Business Solutions.......................................................................................................18
3.2 Characteristics of Mobile Advertising Medium...................................................................................................19
3.2.1 Strengths and Opportunities ........................................................................................................................20
3.2.2 Weaknesses and Threats................................................................................................................................20
3.3 Advertising via Mobile Phones ..............................................................................................................................21
3.4 Types of Mobile Advertising Campaigns .............................................................................................................23
3.4.1 Push Campaign ...............................................................................................................................................25
3.4.2 Pull Campaign .................................................................................................................................................25
3.4.3 Dialogue Campaign........................................................................................................................................25
3.5 Forms of Mobile Advertising ..................................................................................................................................26
3.5.1 Competitions...................................................................................................................................................26
3.5.2 Mobile Coupons .............................................................................................................................................27
3.5.3 Mobile Tickets ................................................................................................................................................27
3.5.4 Location-Based Services................................................................................................................................27
3.5.5 Alerts ................................................................................................................................................................28
3.5.6 Sponsorships ...................................................................................................................................................28
3.6 Mobile Advertising in Cambodian Context .........................................................................................................28
3.6.1 Existing Mobile Advertising in use..............................................................................................................29
3.6.2 Speculation of Mobile Advertising’s future in Cambodia........................................................................32
3.7 Demo..........................................................................................................................................................................33
3.7.1 Constraints on the Demo..............................................................................................................................33
3.7.2 Construction of the Demo ...........................................................................................................................39
3.7.3 Evaluation of the Demo................................................................................................................................43

4 CONCLUSION...............................................................................................45
REFERENCES
APPENDICES

iii

Introduction

1 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, I will present an introduction of Mobile Advertising. Project B: “Mobile Advertising” is
one of the main theme: “Mobile Media” Projects, with another classmate TRAM Lyrattanak’s Project
A: “Mobile Magazine” that both are supervised by Dr. Daniel KARLSTROM.

I will briefly provide a short background and the aim of the thesis. And finally, scope and outline for
the thesis will be presented.

1.1 Background
Advertising is one of the largest industries around the world. Advertising is believed to emerge in the
early history of humankind. Advertising has evolved over long periods of time, adapting social changes
in order to survive itself.

Though advertising in conventional media, such as newspaper, magazine, TV and radio, is still
prominent, but today emerges a trendy development of new advertising medium –mobile phone.

The convergence of mobile phone and the Internet promises to change people’s lives. This
convergence enables people to get access to the Internet via their mobile phones, which is known as
Mobile Internet.

With advanced mobile technology and fast growing mobile penetration, this enables mobile phones to
become a realistic advertising medium in a very personal and customized fashion. Mobile advertising
brings along both opportunities and threats to advertisers. So it needs to be handled with cautions, so
that mobile advertising can be a successful story.

1.2 Aim of the Thesis
The aim of this thesis is to explore the mobile advertising, which is a new, exciting and expanding
industry as a marketing channel with unique features, but still in its infancy.

With the new mobile phones that are being released, we can do much more in Java than what we can
do in WAP. So we are able to present media in a much more controlled fashion.

However, the problems with mobile devices include, among many others: small screen resolutions,
different resolutions on every phone and limited data connectivity etc.

In Project B: Mobile Advertising, I am to explore and discover ways in adapting advertising media to
suit mobile phones. And my main questions to be answered are:

How does today’s advertising in media translate to mobile phones?
What limitations and possibilities are introduced by the mobile media format?
Are new media and advertising business models possible with the mobile media?

Besides these three main questions, I will also try to discover new advertising concepts to be
incorporated into the demo in Project A: Mobile Magazine.

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Introduction

1.3 Scope
Mobile Advertising is a new phenomenon, especially in Cambodian context where there is a blurry
emergence of this trendy mobile advertising.

Though it is a new trend, mobile advertising is very broad and extensive, and also due to limited time
allocated for undertaking this thesis, as well as my narrow knowledge on this subject, this thesis will
mainly focus on exploring the mobile advertising and its industry: What is mobile advertising? What are
its characteristics? What are its forms? What are the effective campaigns?

In addition, I am also to explore existing mobile advertising in Cambodia and speculate its future.

1.4 Outline of the Thesis
Chapter two is a literature review of Mobile Advertising and its key elements. I will present the
developments of Mobile Technology and Advertising Media.

Chapter three presents today’s mobile advertising. I am to explore the characteristics of mobile
advertising medium, the different forms of mobile advertising, and the diverse types of mobile
advertising campaigns. Moreover, I am also to explore and speculate the future of mobile advertising in
Cambodian context. And lastly, a demo will be presented with its evaluation.

Finally, a conclusion will be presented in chapter four.

1.5 Abbreviations and Technical Terms
In order to avoid confusions and misunderstandings, a glossary of abbreviations and technical terms
used in this thesis is to be found in the appendices.

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Literature Review

2 LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, I will explore development and evolution of key elements of mobile advertising, i.e.
mobile technology and advertising media. And finally, an introductory section on Mobile Advertising
will be presented with some experts’ expectation on mobile advertising.

2.1 Mobile Technology
Yesterday’s mobile phones were all about voice and short message service (SMS). But everything’s
changed as technology advances. These days, mobile phones can do a lot more things from voice to
data, games, and internet etc. And Java is one of the mobile technologies that must be attributed.

2.1.1 Java Technology
Java is a recent technology for machine-independent software developed by Sun Microsystems and first
appeared in 1990s.

Java Technology consists of three main components:
• Java Programming Language,
• Java Virtual Machine, and
• Java Platform.

Figure 2.1: Java’s Logo (Source: Java)

According to Wikipedia.com, a free online encyclopedia, Java Programming Language or Java language,
is an object-oriented high-level programming language developed by Sun Microsystems in the early
1990s.

The Java programming language was designed to be platform independent, meaning that it can be used
not only in one single platform but also in other platforms as well. It is a derivative of C++
programming language with a simpler syntax, a more robust runtime environment and simplified
memory management (Wikipedia: 1).

Originally, the Java language was developed for programming consumer electronic devices, but it
evolved over the years into a set of technologies used primarily to develop desktop and server-based
applications.

As stated in an article titled “A Survey of J2ME Today” by Enrique Ortiz, October 2004, the Java
started in the early 1990s with the Green Project and the Oak programming language, later renamed
Java.

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Literature Review

Today's J2ME is the descendant of earlier platforms for small devices created by Sun Microsystems: the
Oak part of the Green Project (early 1990s), Java Card (1996), PersonalJava (1997) and EmbeddedJava
(1998), and more recently the Spotless System and the K virtual machine (1999). Now five years old,
J2ME targets high-end and low-end electronic devices with a single Java platform (Ortiz, 2004).

Overview of Java 2 Platform
One of the three main components of Java technology is Java platform. The Java Platform is the name
for a computing environment or platform, which can run applications developed by using the Java
programming language and its set of development tools.

The Java platform is neither a specific hardware nor operating system, but it is rather an execution
engine called a virtual machine, and a set of standard libraries which provide its common functionality
(Wikipedia: 2).

Components of Java 2 Platform
A Learning page of Sun’s website titled “Introduction to Mobility Java Technology”, states that the
Java 2 Platform comprises three elements: the Java programming language, a virtual machine, and a set
of standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

Sun describes these three main components as followings:

• The Java programming language is syntactically similar to C++ programming language, but
differs fundamentally. While C++ language uses unsafe pointers and programmers are
responsible for allocating and freeing memory, the Java programming language uses type safe
object references, and unused memory is reclaimed automatically. In addition, the Java
programming language avoids multiple inheritance, a likely source of confusion and ambiguity
in C++ language, in favor of a cleaner construct, interfaces.

• A Virtual Machine forms the foundation of the Java Platform. This architecture offers several
attractive features: The virtual machine can be implemented to run a top a variety of operating
systems and hardware, with binary-compatible Java applications operating consistently across
many implementations. In addition, the virtual machine provides tight control of executed
binaries, enabling safe execution of untrusted code.

• And finally, an extensive set of standard application programming interfaces (APIs) rounds out
the Java platform. These support almost everything you might want your applications to do.

Taken together, the Java language, Java virtual machine and Java APIs compose the Java platform.
(Sun: 1)

Editions of Java 2 Platform
With the intention to encompass a wide range of computer hardware, everything from smart cards
through enterprise servers, Sun had defined three platforms targeting different application
environments.

• Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) is designed for conventional desktop computers.

• Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) is a comprehensive platform for multi-user, enterprise-wide
applications. It is a superset of J2SE that is geared toward enterprise programming with an
emphasis on server-side development.

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Literature Review

• Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) is set of technologies and specifications developed for small
mobile devices such as mobile phones, pagers etc. It is a subset of J2SE that is geared toward
embedded and handheld devices that cannot support a full J2SE implementation.

Although there is a certain amount of overlap, each edition targets a different kind of application
developer. Splitting Java 2 platform into three editions makes it possible for Java to evolve in different
directions while staying true to the spirit of the language.

2.1.2 Mobile Java
Wireless communications is a huge field, encompassing everything from radio and television
broadcasting through pagers, mobile phones, and satellite communications. The field of mobile phones
is expanding very fast at the same time that standards and protocols are being adopted, used, updated,
and sometimes discarded.

Particularly, Java Technology designed to target a wide range of consumer computing devices is called
J2ME, and also simply known as Mobile Java.

Sun Microsystems’ website describes J2ME this way:

“Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition is a highly optimized Java runtime environment targeting a wide range of consumer
products, including pagers, cellular phones, screen phones, digital set-top boxes and car navigation systems.” (Sun: 2)

As described by Enrique Ortiz in his survey article, J2ME does not define a new programming language.
Instead, it adapts existing Java technology to handheld and embedded devices. J2ME maintains
compatibility with J2SE wherever feasible.

To address the stricter limitations of small devices J2ME sometimes replaces J2SE APIs and adds new
interfaces - but the evolution of J2ME is as much about omitting unnecessary parts of J2SE and J2EE
as it is about adding new ones.(Ortiz, 2004)

Unlike J2SE, J2ME is not a piece of software, nor is it a single specification. Instead, J2ME is a
platform, a collection of technologies and specifications that are designed for different parts of the
small device market. Because J2ME spans such a variety of devices, it wouldn't make sense to try to
create a one-size-fits-all solution (Sun: 1).

Therefore, J2ME is designed and divided into configurations, profiles, and optional packages. Figure
2.2 illustrates a complete Java runtime environment and its architecture.

• A configuration defines the basic J2ME runtime environment. This environment includes the
virtual machine, which can be more limited than the VM (Virtual Machine) used by J2SE, and a
set of core classes derived primarily from J2SE. The key point is that each configuration is
geared toward a specific family of devices with similar capabilities.

• A profile extends a configuration, adding domain-specific classes to the core set of classes. In
other words, profiles provide classes that are geared toward specific uses of devices and that
provide functionality missing from the base configuration—things such as user interface classes,
persistence mechanisms, and so on. Profiles are the double-edged sword of J2ME. While they
provide important and necessary functionality, not every device will support every profile.

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Literature Review

• An optional package provides functionality that may not be associated with a specific
configuration or profile. One example of an optional package is the Bluetooth API (JSR 82),
which provides a standardized API for using Bluetooth networking. This optional package
could be implemented alongside virtually any combination of configurations and profiles (Ortiz,
2001).

Figure 2.2: A Complete Java Runtime Environment and its Architecture

2.1.3 Handset’s Capabilities
As mobile technology advances and broaden its capabilities, mobile handsets have been upgraded with
special features to meet consumers’ needs and tastes.

With these capabilities, mobile phone empowers itself as a new advertising medium for the wireless
generation. However, besides its capabilities, limitations do exist. This forces the mobile phone, which
is still in the stage of advancing itself to fully support mobile advertising, to find its way to adapt itself
as a personal and customized advertising portal.

In the following sections, I will discuss the common attributes that mobile handsets share.

Networks and Data Transfer
There are many mobile network standards currently in use around the world. But, in the following
sections, I will only discuss about currently used networks with their data connectivity. As mobile
infrastructure has been successfully advancing into a better quality and connectivity, mobile users can
enjoy experiencing improved connection and high-speed data transfer.

• GSM
GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communications, which is very popular standard for mobile
phones. GSM is the technology that underpins most of the world's mobile phone networks.
GSM is considered a Second Generation (2G) mobile phone technology due to its capabilities in
providing both digital signaling and speech channels.

The key advantage of GSM systems for phone users has been higher digital voice quality and low cost
alternatives to making calls such as text messaging. And the advantage for network operators has been
the ability to deploy equipment from different vendors because the open standard allows easy inter-
operability (Wikipedia: 3).

GSM is a cellular network, which means that mobile phones connect to it by searching for cells in the
immediate vicinity. GSM networks operate at various different radio frequencies. Most GSM networks
operate at 900 MHz or 1800 MHz.

In data transmission, GSM is based on a circuit-switched data protocol. One of the two defined
protocols is Circuit Switched Data (CSD), which reserves the full bandwidth of that circuit during the
lifetime of the connection with an uplink and downlink rate ranges from 9.6 to 14 kbps (kilobits per
second). The connection is typically charged on a per-second basis, regardless of the amount of data
sent over the link.

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Literature Review

The single largest factor attributable to GSM becoming the dominant mobile voice platform in the
world is that it offers the widest terminal range of any other cellular standard.

• GPRS
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is not a completely new standard, but it’s rather an added feature
to existing GSM technology with capabilities of packet data transfer, and first integrated into GSM
standards releases in 1997.

GPRS is a mobile data service available to users of GSM mobile phones. It is often described as "2.5G",
that is, a technology between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of mobile telephony. It
provides moderate speed data transfer, faster than GSM’s CSD protocol with a speed range between in
the GSM network.

GPRS is packet-switched which means that multiple users share the same transmission channel, only
transmitting when they have data to send. This means that the total available bandwidth can be
immediately dedicated to those users who are actually sending at any given moment, providing higher
utilization where users only send or receive data intermittently (Wikipedia: 4).

The advantage of packet-switched connections is that bandwidth is only used when there is actually
data to transmit. GPRS data are generally billed by the kilobyte, unlike circuit-switched data
connections are billed per second (Wikipedia: 4). And thus, it is usually a cheaper alternative for
applications that only need to send and receive data sporadically, like instant messaging.

GPRS is a connectivity solution based on Internet Protocols that supports a wide range of enterprise
and consumer applications. With throughput rates of up to 40 kbps, users have a similar access speed
to a dial-up modem, but with the convenience of being able to connect from anywhere. GPRS
customers enjoy advanced, feature-rich data services such as color Internet browsing, e-mail on the
move, powerful visual communications such as video streaming, multimedia messages and location-
based services (World GSM: 1).

• EDGE
Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution, or EDGE, is a digital mobile phone technology which acts
as a bolt-on enhancement to 2G and 2.5G General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) networks. EDGE
(also known as EGPRS or Enhanced GPRS) is a superset to GPRS and can function on any network
with GPRS deployed on it, provided the carrier implements the necessary upgrades.

EDGE can carry data speeds up to 236.8 kbps for 4 time slots (theoretical maximum is 473.6 kbps for
8 time slots) in packet mode. It also enhances the circuit data mode called High Speed Circuit Switched
Data (HSCSD), increasing the data rate of this service also.

EDGE provides up to three times the data capacity of GPRS. Using EDGE, operators can handle
three times more subscribers than GPRS; triple their data rate per subscriber, or add extra capacity to
their voice communications.

EDGE allows the delivery of advanced mobile services such as the downloading of video and music
clips, full multimedia messaging, high-speed color Internet access and e-mail on the move (GSM
World: 2 ).

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Literature Review

• 3G (Third Generation)
3G is short for third-generation mobile telephone technology. The services associated with 3G provide
the ability to transfer both voice data (a telephone call) and non-voice data such as downloading
information, exchanging email, and instant messaging.

The 3G platform provides support for virtually any known service; voice, messaging, content,
combinations of voice and multimedia, broadband and enterprise services – all with full mobility and
global roaming capability.

The first country which introduced 3G on a large commercial scale was Japan. And it is expected that
during 2006 the transition from 2G to 3G will be largely completed in Japan, and upgrades to the next
3.5G stage with 3 mbps (megabits per second) data rates is underway (Wikipedia: 5).

Figure 2.3 illustrates how GSM technologies have been evolving over time.

Figure 2.3: GSM Technologies Evolution (Source: GSMworld.com)

Display
Display is one of the significant parts of mobile phones. Without a display, many services are not useful,
especially those dealing with text, image or motion. Importantly, being an advertising medium, mobile
handsets need a display to expose its commercial messages visually.

Display’s attributes are screen size, resolution, color depth and aspect ratio. Screen sizes vary from
ranges of mobile handsets. Even handsets from the same brand manufacturer, do not necessarily have
the same screen size, resolution, or color depth.

For instance, Nokia, one of the most successful handset manufacturers, has been producing many
models for the market. Among all of its handset models, the screen size varies, and comes as the
following sizes: 96x65, 128x128, 128x160, 176x208, 208x208, 240x320, 352x416, 640x200, and 640x320
pixels (J2MEpolish.org).

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Literature Review

Figure 2.4: Some of Nokia’s Screen Resolution

While Nokia making its handsets with this range of screen sizes, other brands also set their own
standard range for screen sizes for its handsets. Particularly, Motorola has been making handsets with a
number of screen sizes: 111x100, 119x64, 120x160, 128x100, 128x128, 130x130, 176x204, 176x220,
208x320, 220x176, and 240x320, among which 176x220 is the most common screen size for Motorola.
And also for Sony-Ericsson, its screen size varies and comes into: 128x128, 128x160, 176x220, 208x320,
and 240x320, among which, 128x160 and 176x220 are the common size (J2MEpolish.org).

It is noticed that in the past, handsets came with a small screen size due to the limitation of technology
as well as there is no demand in bigger screen size. But lately as technology develop to a higher extent
and the demand from handset users in experiencing higher resolution phones, comes a new trend in
production of better display handsets with higher resolution.

As screen size varies from one handset to another, so it is crucial to set a standard for displaying images.
In order to avoid scaling images or float graphics, which can not be supported by mobile handsets,
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format is used as the common image type. PNG format is one of
the vector graphics formats, and is significantly small size and can be easily portable (J2MEpolish.org).

The variation of display’s attributes makes mobile phone application programmers difficult to design an
application to fit all of these big ranges of different display properties. So it is advised to target a family
of specific handsets in advance, before developing an application.

This is illustrated in Figure 2.5. Notice how small the image appears on the 128x128 screen compared
to the higher resolution 240x320 screen.

Figure 2.5: A 60x60 Pixel Image on 128x128 Versus 240x320 Screen Resolution

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Literature Review

Power Consumption
Power consumption will be always a big issue, if people would like to mobility. For old model phones
with limited and low technology, phone battery can last for a certain lifetime. But as technology
advances with modern features, which are really consuming huge amount of power, so battery will not
last long.

High end phones of 2.5G and 3G have shorter battery life due to many factors, particularly their screen.
These phones have bigger screen size; almost all of them are color with better lighting, which consumes
more battery power.

As mobile phone is a personal and handy device, it is almost attached to a person and is turned on all
the time. If the phone is on and in standby mode, then it has longer battery lifetime. But as the modern
phones equipped with so many new and advanced features like camera, music player, games and so on,
so people are likely to depend much on their mobile phones, making their usage time longer, thus
shortens the battery lifetime.

So a better and long lasting battery needs replacing, in order to ensure the joy of mobility in a longer
pleasant period.

Memory
Memory is one of the essential aspects of mobile phones. Internal memory inside the phone is
upgrading to higher capacity as mobile phones can also be used for music and gaming purposes.

There are three types of memory: Jar, Heap and RMS. Jar is the file extension of mobile Java
application, which is the memory where the application itself is stored. Heap is a temporary memory
stores for a short moments in phone. While the Java application is executing, RMS is the memory
where the applications can save data to be persistent between executions.

For instance, Nokia Series 40 handsets can store 200 Kb Heap size, support only 64 Kb maximum Jar
size and can save maximum size of 20 Kb of RMS (maximum size of one record). But for Nokia
N-Gage QD, which is specially designed for gaming besides its basic functions as mobile phone, is
capable to support larger size memories. It can store Heap memory up to 16 Mb of size, and it also can
support as big size as 4 Mb of Jar files (J2MEpolish.org).

These memory types do impose limitations on applications. For example of Nokia Series 40, these
mobile phones can only support installation of applications, whose Jar size is 64 Kb or smaller. This
mean, programmer can only design any application with greater size than 64 Kb for this family of
Nokia Series 40. So for application itself, it’s too small that many images or other multimedia items can
not be included in the application.

For Heap memory, it is like a desktop PC’s RAM (Random Access Memory), where temporary
executed applications are stored. With 200 Kb of Heap for Nokia Series 40, the phones are relatively
slow and can not handle well with many applications opening at the same time or viewing high quality
of images. And for RMS, Nokia Series 40 phones are time-consuming to install an application, because
they can save just 20 Kb as the maximum for each record.

Unlike Nokia N-gage QD, it can support installation of big applications, especially games with
maximum size of 4 Mb. Moreover, it also allows its users the ability to enjoy using many applications at
the same time with more eases and less time-consuming, due to its big Heap memory of 16 Mb.

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Multimedia
Multimedia is another key feature of mobile handsets. Music, video and game are what multimedia is
for. Handsets support both audio and video files with several extensions. For most high end Nokia
handsets, audio comes with various formats such as *.mid, *.amr, and *.wav and video with *.3gpp file
extensions.

Beside these supported formats for multimedia, there are many added-in formats too such as audio files
including *.mp3 extension, and video files including *.avi extension etc, which are not supported by all
phones, but by high-end phones.

2.2 Advertising Media
Before coming to advertising media, we should know firstly, what is advertising?
There are many different definitions. A common definition can be simply described as: Advertising is a
paid non-personal form of presentation in order to promote a product or idea sponsored by an identified sponsor.

In advertising, the term media refers to newspapers, magazines, radio and television etc. as its
communication vehicles, which are used to get commercial messages across to its target audiences.

2.2.1 A Brief History
In the early history of human civilization, first indefinite forms of advertising somehow emerged as
described in Microsoft Encarta 2006 Encyclopedia as following:

Archaeologists have found evidence of advertising dating back to the 3000s BC, among the Babylonians. One of the first
known methods of advertising was the outdoor display, usually an eye-catching sign painted on the wall of a building.
Archaeologists have uncovered many such signs, notably in the ruins of ancient Rome and Pompeii. An outdoor
advertisement excavated in Rome offers property for rent, and one found painted on a wall in Pompeii calls the attention of
travelers to a tavern situated in another town. (Encarta, 2006)

In the Middle Ages era, a simple but effective form of advertising appeared in a method of word-of-
mouth. This form of advertising had been used by ancient people to read public notices aloud or to
shout the praises of their goods, who were the forerunners of the modern announcer who delivers
radio and television commercials.

Graphic forms of advertising did appear early in history, but printed advertising made little headway
until about 1450 when Johannes Gutenberg, a German printer, invented the movable-type printing
press. This invention helped the mass distribution of printed materials possible to mass audiences.

The first advertisement in English appeared in 1472 in the form of a handbill announcing a prayer
book for sale. Two hundred years later, the first newspaper ad was published offering a reward for the
return of 12 stolen horses (Encarta, 2006).

Then in early 20th century, technology introduced radio as a new medium, both for information and a
way of new advertising medium. This created a new opportunity besides print press and by the end of
the 1920s advertising had established itself in radio.

Television had been introduced in 1940, but because of the high cost of TV sets and the lack of
programming, it was not immediately embraced. As the American economy soared in the 1950s, so did
the sale of TV sets and the advertising that paid for the popular new shows. Soon TV far surpassed
radio as an advertising medium (Encarta, 2006).

The appearance of the Internet as a medium for marketing and advertising started in 1994. And still as
technology advances, new kind of advertising media emergences.

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Literature Review

2.2.2 Conventional Advertising Media
Print and broadcasting media are conventional, and still the prominent advertising vehicles in the media
mix, though the emergence of the internet and possibilities of other advertising media is apparently
visible.

Print
Print media refers to newspapers and magazines, which are elements of advertisers’ media mix in their
advertising strategy.

Print media offers its uniqueness and flexibility for advertising creativity. There are many options for
advertisers in print, whether they choose to advertise either in newspapers or magazines, or both, as
they significantly can increase the reach and impact of their campaigns.

From a marketing perspective, Arens (2002) concludes that the beauty of print media is the ability to
target audiences selectively and achieve maximum exposure for a product.

The newspaper is a mass medium, a source of information read by almost everybody. It offers great
flexibility, which assists creativity, and if compared to ads in broadcast media, its printed message lasts
much longer. Nevertheless, this medium also has many disadvantages such as, lack of audience
selectivity, short life span, poor production quality, heavy advertising competition, potentially poor ad
placement, and overlapping circulation. But still today, the newspaper is the major community-serving
medium, the informative source for both news and advertising.

Magazines offer distinct advantages. They are the most selective of all mass media and are flexible in
both readership and advertising. They offer unsurpassed color, excellent reproduction quality, authority
and believability, long shelf life, and prestige at an efficient cost. However, they often require long lead
times, have problems offering reach and frequency, and are subject to heavy advertising competition
(Arens, 2002).

Broadcast
Broadcast media refers to radios and televisions.

The rise of radio and television broadcasting in the early 20th century posed new competitive threats to
print media. Radio reached the height of its influence during World War II (1934-1945), and then after
World War II, the arrival of television ended nearly two centuries of news reporting dominated by
newspapers.

Radio is a highly creative medium. According to Belch (2004), the greatest aspect of radio is its ability
to offer excellent reach and frequency to selective audiences at a very efficient price. However, its
weaknesses are the limitations of sound, segmented audiences, and its short-lived and haft-heard
commercials.

Like radio, television is a powerful creative tool with its unique advantages such as mass coverage at
efficient cost, impact, prestige, and social dominance. But it still has many disadvantages, including high
actual cost, limited selectivity, brevity, clutter, and susceptibility to zipping and zapping (Belch & Belch,
2004).

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Literature Review

2.2.3 Emergence of the Internet
The rapid and widespread expansion of the Internet has enabled millions of people to go online and
enjoy another new dimension of lifestyle.

Online advertising has a short history. The emergence of the Internet as a medium for marketing and
advertising started in 1994. According to Kaye and Medoff (2001), HotWired, the online version of
Wired Magazine, posted the first banner ad and it was also the first to introduce and produce other
types of online ads such as button ads and online sponsorships.

The cover of the magazine Wired is shown in Figure 2.6 and the online version in Figure 2.7. Notice
how the advertising is integrated in the layout of the website using a banner format.

Figure 2.6: Wired Magazine in Print Version (Source: HotWired)

Figure 2.7: Online Version: HotWired.com/Wired (Source: HotWired)

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Literature Review

The following years, the emergence of the Web as an interactive medium for advertising was widely
acknowledged. First, Sun Microsystems revolutionized Web advertising around 1995 with its release of
Java, which led to the rich-media ads with combinations of texts, sounds, and videos. Java also baked
cookies –applications that identify users and track customers’ movements around the Web. The Web is
no longer just the newest mass medium, but it is also the newest commercial medium (Kate & Medoff,
2001).

The Internet has unique features that differentiate it from conventional media, both print and
broadcast counterparts, in several respects, which can be summed up into three main points:

• The Internet can serve as not only a communication channel but also a transaction and
distribution channel.

• The Internet is by nature interactive, offering two-way communication.

• The Internet has the capacity for multimedia content that is suitable for high-impact advertising.

2.3 Mobile Advertising
As technology advances, now people on the move with their mobile phones can easily get wireless
Internet access without bothering to have either, a wired connection, a PC or a laptop, and this
technology can be referred as Mobile Internet.

Wallage and Hegarty of the 451 (2000), the online news and analysis service, pointed out mobile
Internet as a new trend and considered it as the second internet age. In their article titled “Mobile
Internet, the Second Internet Age?” they concluded that mobile internet brings impact and is changing
all our lives forever.

The convergence of the mobile phone and the Internet promise to change all our lives forever - the way we work, the way we
buy goods, the way in which we communicate with each other. Mobile devices, still used almost exclusively for voice, are on
the threshold of a wave of new service opportunities for businesses and for customers. (Wallage & Hegarty, 2000)

The appeal of the mobile device as a business tool is obviously evident. People working in office will
spend about 20% of their waking day in front of the PC. So what with a person for the rest 80% of his
or her waking hours is a mobile device, particularly mobile phone.

With mobile Internet, now in many corners of the globe, people can book a cinema ticket using their
mobile device, download an airline ticket to phone, convert dollars to euros on phone wallet and
receive information and keep updated with news around the world. Mobile services are not only
informational, but are also truly moving toward transactional services (Wallage & Hegarty, 2000).

The mobile Internet, according to Wallage and Hegarty (2000), represents a significant challenge to
existing business models. For long time, people have been accessing Internet and browsing through
thousands of pages of graphics rich content by experiencing with the PC and traditional desktop
Internet environment. But that Internet will not be the same Internet delivered to the mobile device.
Nowadays, mobile internet is predominated by text data, and applications have been remodeled for the
mobile environment.

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Literature Review

In the past couple of years, one of the most significant evolutions in mobile technology has been WAP
(Wireless Application Protocol), which enables the users to log on to stripped-down websites using
their mobile phone. At present, the typical WAP device has a limited user interface, low memory and is
connected to a slow GSM wireless network. WAP itself is the protocol that enables the provision of a
cut-down version of a web-site with little or no graphics on a handset (Wallage & Hegarty, 2000).

Recently, WAP has been a business failure due to its poor connection speeds, the high costs and lack of
comfort and ease of use. With the introduction of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), a packet
based cellular network, WAP services are benefiting from increased speeds and “always-on”
functionality. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) is another important step towards a
packet-based environment and uses the GSM infrastructure, which can offer potentially greater speeds
threefold than GPRS.

Wallage and Hegarty (2000) emphasized its significance as advertising medium due to the mobile
trinity: “Location, Personalization, and Timeliness,” which make mobile devices a marketer’s dream.
But there are limitations and mobile advertising will find its way and adapt itself as a personal and
customized advertising portal.

Limitations do exist and there is a price to pay for mobility. For instance, power consumption will
continue to be an issue if people don’t want to carry a battery pack. Mobile infrastructure will always be
behind fixed infrastructure in terms of capabilities. The mobile terminal will evolve greatly and into
much more discrete segments than it is seen today. The move to 3G, although beset by problems, will
provide greatly increased speeds (Wallage & Hegarty, 2000).

Advertising has to change and adapt the mobile channel. Consumers are making a shift to digital media
and personalization, that it changes the relationship between advertisers and consumers.

Market forecasters also think of today’s advertisements as applied to mobile terminals. The ads will be
personalized and will often be location or time-sensitive. They will often have information or content
attached. The aim is not just to sell, but to create branding, customer retention and loyalty, product
awareness and develop consumer aspirations. It is believed that mobile advertising will evolve to
mobile marketing and include such elements as brand awareness, promotion, direct response,
merchant-partner relationships and e-commerce (Wallage & Hegarty, 2000).

So what is really mobile advertising or wireless advertising?
According to ccWAP.com, a company offering mobile marketing solution, it defines mobile advertising
as a newest dimension of business to customer communication as below:

Mobile Advertising is a new kind of advertising through the use of mobile communication devices such as mobile phones,
PDAs etc. These devices make it possible to get the message and/or advertisings across to your customers on the "mobile
way". The new mobile advertising channel enables a much more effective business to customer communication. The target
group is now reachable all the time and anywhere. (ccWAP.com)

It is predicted that mobile advertising will soon become a major advertising channel for many
businesses. It is vital that a communication platform can offer a business the possibility to provide the
target groups exactly the messages they desire and not just "spam" them with uninterested adverts.

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Literature Review

A special communication platform, which enables to communicate with the target group over mobile
channels, makes it possible to create an innovative, exactly timed, money-saving and -above all- an
efficient communication with the customer. Several studies and tests have underlined this statement
with very clearly (ccWAP.com).

However, the opportunity for mobile advertising is far wider. Wallage and Hegarty (2000) pointed out
that the usage of mobile terminals will change radically as the speed, functionality and applications
improve.

It becomes natural for content, information and advertising or marketing messages to be transmitted
from the mobile terminal to the mobile device. The mobile device will become far more important for
users, and hence the opportunity for corporations to communicate marketing messages through a
mobile device (Wallage & Hegarty, 2000).

Wallage and Hegarty (2000) concluded that mobile advertising will be part of a mobile marketing mix
and will utilize new techniques and approaches. The mobile will fit in with other media as part of a
multi-channel approach. Mobile advertising will leverage its key advantages and work within its
limitations. Mobile advertising will not be intrusive, because it will be understood and accepted by
consumers, and will provide information, content and money-saving options.

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Mobile Advertising In Reality

3 MOBILE ADVERTISING IN REALITY
3.1 Mobile Advertising around the globe
Mobile advertising is a brand new phenomenon. Mobile advertising, also known m-advertising, is a new
way in delivering commercial messages to mobile devices. And so mobile devices, themselves, play a
crucial role as advertising channels and they have many new features and therefore opportunities in
comparison with conventional media.

There is no commonly accepted definition of ‘mobile advertising’ in existence. But according to
Leppäniemi and Karjaluoto (2004), mobile advertising can be defined as:

“Any paid message communicated by mobile media with the intent to influence the attitudes, intentions and behavior of
those addressed by the commercial messages.”

There is some confusion between the terms: mobile advertising and wireless advertising. So in order to
avoid further confusions it is valuable to clarify the concepts of these two terms. According to
Paavilainen (2002) and Barnes (2002), mobile advertising refers to the use of mobile channel as a
medium to deliver the commercial messages to mobile devices. For wireless advertising, it can be seen
as a wireless internet and online advertising in the first place (Leppäniemi & Karjaluoto, 2004).

3.1.1 Major Mobile Technologies in Use for Mobile Advertising
Currently, there are three major mobile technologies that are being used globally, including WAP
(Wireless Application Protocol), I-Mode and SMS (Short Messaging Service).

WAP is the standard and most-used by mobile vendors and service business in the US. I-Mode, based
on C-HTML (Compact Hyper Text Markup Language) is most popular in wireless technology in Japan.
And in Europe, SMS is the most popular protocol in mobile community.
These technologies tend to focus on distinctive group of users and require particular mobile devices
and mobile environments.

WAP is a specification for presenting and interacting with information wireless devices. It empowers
mobile users to interact and access to information and services instantly with ease (WAP Forum, 2004).
WAP is one of the most popular internet services, which allows mobile users to have access to email,
latest news updates, sports result, and other useful information on their mobile phone, regardless of
place and time.

I-Mode is Japanese NTT DoCoMo's mobile internet access system, and has created a revolution in
both business and private lifestyles in Japan. I-Mode was developed as an innovative mobile Internet
platform with the aim of promoting a further evolution in mobile communications.

According to NTT DoCoMo web site, some 45 million subscribers have been attracted to I-Mode
service since its launch in February 1999 and currently more than 95,000 Internet sites are providing a
variety of contents. I-Mode is considered as one of the great successes in world telecom industry,
especially in Japan.

There are around 100 or more different DoCoMo handsets (counting color variations) and many more
from other Japanese telecom companies, a large range of choice to choose for reception of mobile
internet systems .Figure 3.1 illustrates i-mode screen images on a FOMA/3G SH900i handset
(EuroTechnology Japan, 2004).

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Figure 3.1: How does a Typical I-Mode Screen look like? (Source: EuroTechnology Japan, 2004)

Short Messaging Service or SMS is a mobile phone feature that offers mobile users to send and receive
short messages to and from their mobile phone over telecom networks. SMS was initially designed for
exchanging short messages, so it is very limited in term of its 160 characters per message.

Most customer-based applications via SMS are person-to-person messaging, and information services
including weather forecast, traffic news, horoscope, and currency rate. Mobile users can seek this kind
of information or services by customizing their mobile phones, receiving information from network
operator or between other users, particularly their peers.

Today mobile advertising is mainly conducted by using simple SMS, which can support maximum of
160 characters. With the use of available WAP, adverts will be much more better appealing to mobile
phone users, which is not only plain text but also with other multimedia like voice, graphics and music.

But WAP has been a commercial failure due to its high costs, slow access speed, small screen, lack of
comfort, and unease of use, which allows only a very small number of mobile phone users to have
access to mobile Internet. In contrast, I-Mode has been succeeding in Japan and now is spreading to
Europe. Despite the fact of limitations in its initial form, SMS is very popular and successful in Europe
due to its high traffic.

3.1.2 Mobile Advertising Business Solutions
Besides the existing mobile advertising technologies, new mobile advertising business solutions has
been developed in order to meet the needs of companies to reach their customers in a better improved
way.

One of these available mobile advertising solutions is Mobile Advertising Server offered by Add2Phone,
a company based in UK. Add2Phone's Mobile Advertising Server equips companies with the power to
create permission-based marketing campaigns rapidly and cost-effectively in the right mobile media:
both or either Java, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS) and/or
Short Messaging Service (SMS).

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With the great help from this automatic Mobile Adverting Server, companies need only to provide
ideas of how mobility can enhance their marketing strategy and customer dialogue. Mobile Advertising
Server offers the technology to make campaigns interactive, relevant and timely. Moreover, companies
are at ease that they can manage the mobile advertising campaigns and observe their results in real-time
over the Internet (Add2Phone.com).

With Mobile Advertising Server from Add2Phone, companies get custom-built mobile marketing
campaigns remarkably quickly. Such campaigns can use an interactive one-to-one channel that reaches
into the hands of the companies’ highly targeted audience. The interactive, permission-based, targeted
and timely nature of the marketing gives high rates of response and customer satisfaction. Campaign
results are immediate and measurable in real-time, allowing dynamic campaign management
(Add2Phone.com).

In addition, Mobile Advertising Server allows branding and sponsorship of value added services and
can turn on an instant new revenue stream for service providers. Below are some specimens of how
Mobile Advertising Server’s approaches look like in different mobile media (See Figure 3.2).

Figure 3.2: Samples of Mobile Media from Add2hone’s Mobile Advertising Server (Source: Add2Phone.com)

3.2 Characteristics of Mobile Advertising Medium
Jelassi and Enders (2004) had come up with a question regarding to aspects of mobile advertising
medium, “does mobile advertising have the potential to be a significant source of revenue in the
future?” And the answer is likely to be yes.

According to Borzo (2002), initial studies on this new mobile advertising medium indicated that mobile
advertising campaigns could generate response rates as high as 40%, compared with less than 1%
respond rate generally expected from Internet banner ads, thus mobile campaigns can be very
successful (Jelassi & Enders, 2004).

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Therefore, it is worth to take a deep look and analyze the characteristics of this new mobile medium.

3.2.1 Strengths and Weaknesses
Since most people carry their mobile phones with them wherever they go, the mobile advertising
medium is an exceptionally personal channel. Despite the fact that it is very personal medium, mobile
phone is also considerably sensitive and needs to be handled with cautions.

According to Andersson and Nilsson (2000), with its personal nature, mobile phone can play a better
role as a channel to get advertising messages crossed to target mobile users. A mobile phone is a
personal belonging of a specific individual, unlike regular phones or computers that are often tied to an
entire family or a group of people.

This mobile medium, as a powerful advertising channel, has two significant strengths: its capability to
allow personalization, and cost-effectiveness and flexibility in production.

Andersson and Nilsson (2000) pointed out that, firstly the mobile medium is capable to adapt
commercial messages for particular individual. This helps enable targeted communication and the
immediate attention of the mobile user. Moreover, it is also both place and time independent, meaning
that advertisers are able to reach a person where and when it is most appropriate.

Secondly, in comparison with other media, production for the mobile medium is very cost-effective
and flexible. It is very easy to produce a message and the message can be delivered quickly, and later to
be easily changed at any time (Andersson & Nilsson, 2000).

Despite its strengths, mobile advertising medium also has its own weaknesses including its sensitive
nature, limited media formats, and reluctance in accepting mobile advertising among mobile users etc.

Andersson and Nilsson (2000) showed that, with its very personal nature, the mobile medium is, at the
same time, an extremely sensitive channel. This means, making burdens on this infant mobile
advertising industry in terms of when, where and how to advertise. Moreover, in terms of graphics and
exposure opportunities, this medium is very limited. The current wireless advertising messages could be
seen as static in the sense of message design but dynamic in the sense of variation and real time changes.

Weaknesses are also partly posed by mobile users’ side and its advertising effectiveness. The prevailing
uncertainties regarding mobile users’ acceptance and advertising effectiveness block the way and
become obstacles for mobile advertising. Another constraint is the lack of ad standards and accepted
metrics for measuring ad delivery and consumer responses (Andersson & Nilsson, 2000).

3.2.2 Opportunities and Threats
The high and increasing mobile penetration in many countries around the globe is great prospects for
mobile advertising. It is a great market driver and this implies opportunities for industry growth by the
increase in potential exposure points. Since the convergence between the Internet and mobility started,
it opens up for more contents and more services that can either be financed or combine with
advertising, and with a positive promising trend.

The mobile infrastructure and high speed technology advancement present great potential for mobile
advertising. Andersson and Nilsson (2000) revealed that this helps improve appearance of
advertisement and offers an opportunity to deliver high impression messages with graphics-rich and
multimedia, which greatly improves the possibility for an interactive relation with the mobile users.

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Many new systems are created and currently in use to focus on follow-up and keeping tracks of mobile
users’ behavior. These systems enable collected information to be used for customer relations
management and marketing intelligence.

The development also offers new ways of advertising using highly sophisticated targeting and location-
based techniques. This offers advertisers extra opportunities to pay only for reaching the targeted
individuals they want to reach, thus in a cost-effective way. This could also mean value added for the
end-user, when they do not have to search for or miss out on offers of special interest to them
(Andersson & Nilsson, 2000).

Nevertheless, there are threats for mobile advertising. Andersson and Nilsson (2000) classified the
treats into three points:

• Firstly, the reluctance among mobile users due to privacy fears or fear of being spammed with
advertising.

• Secondly, initial misuse of the channel, including spamming and unauthorized use of personal
information, could threaten to close it.

• Finally there is the risk of the WAP-effect, i.e. too many expectations in the early stages which
will slow down industry development. The medium is still restricted regarding space, colors,
graphics, and movement. Many stakeholders will be disappointed, if there are too many
performance promises that will not be fulfilled.

3.3 Advertising via Mobile Phones
In the past, it was easy to get advertising messages crossed to large groups of people and grab their
attention. But as the market is becoming more and more fragmented due to the increase in number of
media types, it is hard to get time and attention from the target audience.

According to Jelassi and Enders (2004), finding appropriate strategies to reach target customers with
their messages is a must and has become more and more difficult for marketing managers.

In addition, due to differences regarding to different media types’ Reach or Richness, different
approaches are employed. Jelassi and Enders (2004) described Reach and Richness as followings:

• Reach is a function of how easily customers, or in this case, participants in advertising
campaigns, can be reached through a given medium. E.g. how many mobile users can be
reached and participated in the advertising campaign?

• Richness, in contrast, is defined by:
(1) bandwidth, i.e. the amount of information that can be moved from sender to recipient
in a given time, in this case from a company to target mobile users/ customers.
(2) the degree of individual customization of the information, and
(3) interactivity, i.e. the possibility of two-way or interactive communication.

The rich marketing information communication, i.e. information that ranks high on all three aspects,
has traditionally required physical proximity to customers and/or channels specifically dedicated to
transmitting the information (See Figure 3.3) (Jelassi & Enders, 2004).

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Figure 3.3: The Trade-Off between Richness and Reach in Advertising (Source: Jelassi & Enders, 2004)

How does the mobile phone fare within the richness versus reach framework? Mobile phone can serve
as a powerful platform to reach out and get in touch with mobile users since it simultaneously provides
expanded reach and a number of richness advantages in comparison with most other media types
(Jelassi & Enders, 2004).

Advertising via mobile phones has four distinctive aspects: Ubiquitous Access, Detailed User
Information, Integrated Response Channel and Personal Channel, which Jelassi and Enders describes
as followings:

• Ubiquitous Access: Mobile phones can be seen almost everywhere in their respective owners’
hand. Mobile users carry their phones to anywhere and almost all times of the day. Especially, it
is very true for teenagers and young users who regard the mobile phone as a personal means to
stay in touch with their friends –primarily via SMS.

According to Jelassi and Enders (2004), ubiquitous access becomes remarkably prominent in
busy places where people are waiting or on commuting, like buses, trains and subways, airport
lounges, etc. The time people spend traveling is prime time for marketing because it presents a
time when people are not engaged in other activities and they are free, therefore receptive to
other kinds of entertainment.

• Detailed User Information: While conventional marketing campaigns have restricted access
to very limited customer information, Jalassi and Enders (2004) pointed out that mobile
advertising campaigns is much better-off.

Mobile campaigns can draw on extensive and individual information about each user (e.g.
demography and preferences such as age, sex, usage profile, etc.) And this useful user
information can facilitate the successful launching of highly targeted campaigns for specific
products and services based on individual preferences of the user.

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• Integrated Response Channel: The mobile phone presents the opportunity to interact
directly with the user, making it possible to communicate with mobile users and be able to
receive their responses back through the same medium.

Jelassi and Enders (2004) illustrated the two advantage mobile phones offer as an advertising
medium. Firstly, it provides the opportunity for rich interaction. The interactivity and ubiquity
of the mobile phone opens up the possibility for existing conventional media (such as the TV,
radio, print ) to become more interactive. E.g. companies can reach consumers by putting
advertising spots on TV and then stay in touch with them through the mobile phone.

Secondly, mobile marketing companies are able to measure precisely the impact and
effectiveness of their campaigns and then can adapt their strategies properly –an approach
which is much uneasy to do with conventional marketing media.

• Personal Channel: Unlike other advertising media, Jelassi and Enders (2004) defined the
mobile phone as a very personal belonging that is owned by only one person. This personal
nature helps it receive much more attention and can be much more powerful than other less-
personal media platforms, if it is properly handled without taking risks or making troubles to
mobile users.

Jelassi and Enders (2004) quoted Brian Levin, CEO of a US wireless marketing firm Mobliss, summing
up the advantages of mobile phones as the advertising medium as saying:

“When you have a little time to spare, such as in the airport or at the bus stop—then you want to be engaged or
entertained. Once you are there, the proximity of this device [the mobile phone] to your face, the intimacy there, is very
powerful both in terms of direct response and in terms of branding.”

However, besides its advantages over other advertising medium, at the same time the mobile phone
also presents shortcomings and risk factors. Jelassi and Enders (2004) pointed out two bad aspects as
the followings:

• Limited media format: Mobile phones today still have to cope with a very limited set of visual
and audio capabilities. In second-generation (2G) phones, their capabilities are still imperfect.
For instance, screens are typically small, have only low resolution and are typically not in color.
Sound effects are also limited due to the small speakers, and text messages cannot be longer
than 160 characters. The challenge is then to ensure at this stage that consumers do not expect
an identical experience to what they receive through other devices such as TV or PC.

• Private Sphere: The personal nature of mobile phones does not only present an opportunity
but also a challenge for mobile advertisers. Unlike TV or Internet, the mobile phone is a very
personal device to which only limited number of people such as family, friends and a selected
few others will gain access. Hence, unsolicited “spamming” is considered much more intrusive
than in other media formats.

3.4 Types of Mobile Advertising Campaigns
Despite the fact that mobile phones offer very personal nature, it is also extremely sensitive to make a
successful advertising campaign over mobile phones and it should also be carefully taken into
consideration of not offending mobile phone users.

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Jelassi and Enders (2004) quoted Will Harris, global marketing director for Genie, British Telecom’s
mobile Internet service, emphasizing that: “Sending unsolicited messages is tantamount to brand suicide. Our
business is entirely dependent on the goodwill of our customers.”

Clear guidelines for responsible advertising need to be created in order to protect mobile phone users.
The main aspect of these guidelines is consent, i.e. approval from consumers to agree or opt-in to
receive the adverts. Moreover, mobile users must have full knowledge and right to their personal
information, i.e. a clear understanding of what their personal information is being used for, and if they
wish, be removed from the advertiser's databases (Jelassi & Enders, 2004).

Thus, mobile advertisers must find appropriate ways to convince mobile users to opt into their
campaigns voluntarily and this can attribute to success of a mobile campaign.

Jelassi and Enders (2004) also quoted Cyriac Roeding, 12Snap's Marketing Director, explaining why
many companies have obstacles in attracting mobile phone users into their mobile campaigns.

“A lot of companies make the mistake of coming to this from a technological angle, rather than thinking about what the
consumer wants. If advertising is entertaining, if it engages the emotions, it will be accepted.”

A number of giant corporations like Sony, 20th Century Fox and McDonald’s are employing mobile
advertising in their marketing mix, especially to reach their target youth customers, even if knowing that
mobile advertising is a recently new phenomenon. These campaigns vary in relation to the level of
active involvement of advertiser and mobile phone user (See Figure 3.4) (Jelassi & Enders, 2004).

Figure 3.4: Mobile Advertising Framework (Source: Jelassi & Enders, 2004)

According to Jelassi and Enders (2004), level of activity refers to the participation both advertiser and
consumer involve during an advertising campaign’s period. Conventional advertising campaigns in
either form of TV spots, radio commercials, print ads or posters are still dominantly employed in
today’s advertising industry. Due to their non-interactive, one-way advertisements, these conventional
campaigns offer low levels of activity on both the advertiser’s and the consumer’s side.

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In contrast, mobile advertising campaigns demonstrate high levels of activity either on the side of the
advertiser, the mobile phone user or both. High level of activity on the advertising company’s side
means that the mobile user is approached proactively, whereas a high level of activity on the mobile
user’s side means that he or she responds actively to an advert or a newspaper ad, for example, by
seeking additional information via the mobile phone (Jelassi & Enders, 2004).

According to Jelassi and Enders (2004), from mobile advertising framework, mobile advertising
campaigns can be categorized into three distinctive types: Push, Pull and Dialogue campaigns. These
three mobile campaigns are defined as followings:

3.4.1 Push Campaign
Mobile push advertising is categorized as messages that are proactively sent out to mobile users.
Employing this approach, companies can use databases with existing customer profiles or purchase
externally, to reach their target group of mobile users (Jelassi & Enders, 2004).

Due to its sensitivity, Jelassi and Enders (2004) stressed that mobile phone should be well treated and it
is vital to make sure that all people in the customer information’s database have agreed beforehand to
receive mobile advertising. Moreover, in a successful push campaign, it is crucial to guarantee that the
selected target group from the customer database is interested in the certain advertising, which
demands an extensive profiling of the database. By doing so, companies can avoid disaffection of
uninterested mobile users and at the same time, maximize the cost-effectiveness impact of advertising
campaign on those targeted.

3.4.2 Pull Campaign
In applying a pull approach, Jelassi and Enders (2004) pointed out that advertisers can use their
conventional marketing media mix such as TV, radio, print or packaging to promote an interactive
mobile campaign. For example, a customer might be invited to participate in a raffle or lucky draw for
free food through his or her mobile phone after happens to see a telephone number on a French fries
box. By calling the number, he or she gives the “opt-in” –an explicit consent to the campaign –and can
then participate in this advertising campaign to win free food.

Via mobile pull campaigns, customers can request for specific information through their mobile phones,
which mean they show an explicit consent to receive their wanted information from advertisers. This is
an advantage pull campaigns offer, which the issue of spam is out of question as mobile phone users
pull or drag the information toward themselves, so all the received information is likely to be very
welcome.

3.4.3 Dialogue Campaign
Jelassi and Enders (2004) differentiated mobile dialogue campaigns from the two above-mentioned
campaigns in terms of their duration and the intensity of interaction between advertiser and mobile
user. Simple push and pull campaigns is likely to last from only two to four weeks and may focus on
one single theme such as a raffle or a game.

Unlike push and pull campaigns, dialogue campaigns consist a variety of diverse themes that construct
on one another and may last several months. Their objective is to set up a long-lasting relationship with
mobile users as to generate extensive and detailed insights into their preferences. For instance, a mobile
horoscope service allows the advertiser to capture the birthday of the mobile user, which can then be
used later on for sending out personal birthday greetings. The in-depth consumer information serves
then to distribute mobile coupons –for example, a free candy bar as a birthday present –to introduce
new products or to do market research in a much targeted fashion (Jelassi & Enders, 2004).

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Building on this framework, it is now possible to categorize the actual implementations of mobile
advertising campaigns (See Figure 3.5).

Figure 3.5: Taxonomy of Mobile Advertising Campaigns (Source: Jelassi & Enders, 2004)

3.5 Forms of Mobile Advertising
There are many existing forms of mobile advertising currently employed around the world. The most
commonly used mobile advertising forms including Competitions, Coupons, Tickets, Location-Based
Services, Alerts and Sponsorships.

In the following sections, each form of mobile advertising will be presented.

3.5.1 Competitions
Competition is one of most popular forms of mobile advertising based on SMS. This kind of mobile
advertising form attracts mobile phone users to participate in competitions by offering great incentive,
so that a relationship between mobile users and the company is built via this contact.

According to Haig (2002), as a basis of SMS campaign, the main advantage of competitions is that the
prize provides mobile users a tangible reason to contact the relevant company. The more attractive the
prize is, the more likely larger number of mobile users entering into the competition, thus the higher
chance of success in the mobile campaign.

According to Grapevine Interactive, a firm offering interactive mobile marketing, mobile competition is
classified into four categories:

• Simple Entry: It enables mobile users to enter a competition by simply write an SMS with a
keyword associated with the sponsoring brand to a competition number.

• Txt ‘n Win Promotion: This kind of promotion provides an ideal way to get mobile customers
to interact with a brand. Txt ‘n Win enables mobile users to take part in a branded competition
via SMS and win prizes.

• SMS Quiz: SMS Quiz offers a perfect means to interact with mobile customers and in many
cases to build a brand. It works very best as part of a promotional activity’s package, enhancing
and supporting event sponsorship or a sales promotion.

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• SMS Voting: SMS Voting is perfectly useful to make conventional broadcast media more
interactive. It offers an innovative way for TV viewers and radio audience to interact, express
an opinion or vote on an issue while the program is broadcasted on air.

3.5.2 Mobile Coupons
Mobile coupon is a new feature advertisers have discovered. It functions like print coupon, but it
differs in how it is delivered to customers. Mobile coupons are sent with a commercial message as a
SMS or MMS via mobile network while print coupons are distributed to customers physically in person.

By sending mobile coupons, advertisers have created an added value attached with the message instead
of sending the message with a general promotion. This makes mobile users feel good with a sense of
exclusivity due to a special offer from the company. Coupon-based campaign is an ideal way to build
customers’ loyalty as advertisers can make use of mobile coupons to attract them by offering an added
value or an offer like special discounts (Haig, 2002).

Haig (2002) categorized mobile coupons into two types: Impulse Coupons and Pre-selected Coupons:

• Impulse coupons are highly time-sensitive and designed by advertisers to increase impulse
purchases. In general, impulse coupons are sent to mobile users who already have subscribed
and opted in, but are uninformed when they will receive them.

• As the name implies, pre-selected coupons have been pre-selected by mobile subscribers who
have shown an interest in some certain products. This can be seen as part of a long-term loyalty
program.

3.5.3 Mobile Tickets
Besides mobile coupons, mobile tickets are also gaining their popularity. Replacing the physical print
tickets, mobile tickets or mTickets are better off and very useful for today’s life. Mobile users with
mTickets of a certain services are likely to be able to avoid long queues and other possible benefits.

Haig (2002) raised up one example from ClubConnexion, the dance community website, which offers
mobile ticketing services or mTickets to its clients. This offers clients with mTickets some privileges
and incentives as they are able to jump the queue as well as are counted in a discounted paying guest list.
Moreover, this kind of mTickets is extremely practical in transportation services by replacing physical
tickets and offering ease of use to mobile users.

3.5.4 Location-Based Services
Location-based services are one of the stickiest issues related to mobile advertising. These services
represent both a mobile users’ utopia and a dystopian nightmare. Location-based services are useful as
mobile users are informed about their local offers they are really seeking plus they save time in looking
for those offers. But to a certain extent, this useful information will be a troublesome as mobile users
are annoyed by countless offer alerts to the phone (Haig, 2002).

As Haig (2002) pointed out, the threat of spamming and text overload is increased with the rise in
location-based services. Although mobile users have agreed and opted in to receive alerts, they still can
get in trouble if alerts come in every time they walk by the relevant location. However, the most useful
location-based services are possibly outside the retail arena.

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For instance, a location-based service of transportation and traffic, that SMS alerts are used to inform
the mobile subscribers and keep them up to date about delays and problems on their daily route. Such
service reduces the hassle of daily life by providing the useful information people need to know, rather
than get on mobile users’ nerves.

3.5.5 Alerts
According to Haig (2002), alerts can be both or either location or time sensitive, making it to be
perfectly fit with the mobile media. As mobile phones are ubiquitous and carried by people wherever
they go, this enables advertisers to reach mobile users at any time. Although SMS alerts are practically
push-based services, it also can work well with other pull-based services of mobile advertising.

For instance, web portal and search engine Lycos offers shopping alerts via SMS, which is a push-based
service aimed to provide mobile users with price comparison. Besides for sales purposes, alerts can also
be used to deliver timely information such as business news, sports results, stock quotes or other useful
information like weather forecast. Moreover, alerts can also be used with a chat-based service.

3.5.6 Sponsorships
Sponsoring an already established service is another way advertisers can reach mobile users. In
sponsorships, the sponsored money can be used to add value to the service or reduce the costs for
customers. For a successful sponsorship, it is vital to make sure that the sponsored service is relevant to
the company or brand. Moreover, the service should be able to help the company to target specific
mobile users, thus the company is able to identify who subscribe to the service.

3.6 Mobile Advertising in Cambodian Context
Back in 1993, Cambodia was the first country in the world where figure of mobile phone subscribers
was higher than that of the fixed telephone ones. The end of year 1992 brought mobile cellular and it
was introduced in Cambodia, where there were as little as about 4,000 fixed lines for Cambodia’s some
9.3 million population (World Investment News, 2004).

According to World Investment News (2004), at the beginning of new millennium, statistics showed
that in Cambodia, out of five telephone subscribers there were more than four using a mobile phone,
the highest ratio in the world. In the same year, Cambodian teledensity reached one, meaning that
among every 100 Cambodians, there was one telephone subscriber.

Currently, there are three main mobile telecom operators in Cambodia, namely CamGSM’s MobiTel,
CaSaCom’s Samart Hello GSM and Cambodia Shinawatra (CamShin). Now it is worth to take a look at
each company’s brief profile.

MobiTel (Prefix 012 and 092)
Established in 1996, CamGSM Co. Ltd. operates a GSM 900 and 1800 mobile network in Cambodia
under the trade name of MobiTel. CamGSM’s MobiTel is a joint venture between a leading Cambodian
consortium, The Royal Group and a Luxembourg-based corporation Millicom International Cellular
S.A. with interests in cellular operators in 20 countries.

MobiTel was Cambodia's first digital GSM network and is now the country's leading
telecommunications service provider. MobiTel offers broad network coverage, extending to every
corner of Cambodia and is subscribed by 500,000 customers. MobiTel offers a range of prepaid
services, including corporate services and a special service targeted to low-income users.

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Samart Hello GSM (Prefix 015 and 016)
Granted a concession agreement from Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPTC) in late 1992,
Cambodia Samart Communication Co., Ltd (CaSaCom) was a joint venture between Samart
Corporation Public Co., Ltd (Samart) and Malaysia Telecom (TM) in mid 1998, which later becomes
wholly owned subsidiary of Malaysia Telecom in early 2006.

The company is well known in the market under the names of "CASACOM" and "SAMART". Samart
Hello GSM operates two networks: Nordic Mobile Phone (NMT) and Global System Mobile (GSM)
telephone services through 900 MHz frequency. It is currently the second largest cellular operator in
Cambodia. At end 2004, the subscriber base of Samart Hello GSM stood at 120,000 subscribers,
bringing its market share to 12 per cent. This increased to 157,300 subscribers as at end 2005. The
Company is providing a latest digital GSM technology, which is able to provide voice, fax and data
communication with a high-speed performance of digital communication.

CamShin (Prefix 011 and 099)
Founded in 1993, Cambodia Shinawatra is a subsidiary of Shin Satellite PLC, Thailand and is also
known as CamShin. For its early operation, CamShin provided only fixed telephone lines in Phnom
Penh. But in the last ten years, CamShin has developed noticeably and expanded its services including
both fixed and mobile phone services (GSM 900, 1800 and CDMA 450) throughout Cambodia.

CamShin now serves more than 250,000 customers all over the country. CamShin’s growth can be
attributed to its use of new and improved technology, the widening of service coverage and more
customer focused activities.

3.6.1 Existing Mobile Advertising in use
The trendy development of mobile advertising is emerging itself in Cambodian telecom and advertising
industry. Currently, though the trend is relatively slow and a simple method of SMS advert is mainly
employed, mobile advertising is very promising and gaining its ground as an element of media mix of
an advertising campaign.

The existing approaches of mobile advertising are likely involved with TV interaction campaigns: SMS
Voting and SMS Quiz, and other informational services including sport result/score alert, weather
reports, horoscope and updating news etc. These services are mostly parts of the telecom service
providers’ own marketing strategies for both promotional and advertising purposes.

The three network operators are all offering services to customers, such as ringtones, music, short
video clips, logos, wallpapers, and picture messages etc. to decorate customers’ mobile phone and to
enhance their modern lifestyle. Besides this kind of services, informational services are also provided,
particularly soccer score alerts by SMS and daily horoscope etc.

Particularly, MobiTel launches its CellCard Unlimited both in standard web site and mobile version, so
that its customers can easily access to this site either by a PC or their mobile phone. From CellCard
Unlimited, mobile users can look for any useful information about CellCard, its services and special
features or promotions that are being offered (See Figure 3.6 and 3.7).

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Figure 3.6: Screen Shot of CellCard Unlimited’s Web Site (Source: CellCard Unlimited)

Figure 3.7: CellCard Unlimited on Mobile Phone (CellCard Unlimited)

Moreover, MobiTel also introduces its TV live CellCard Quiz aired twice weekly on CTN, which
attracts its customers to join a competition to win a 100 dollar worth CellCard refill card. CellCard’s
customers can take part in the competition, by simply writing a SMS with one of the three given
answers for a specific competition’s question, and then sending to its designated number 2006. The
phone numbers of the corrected answer will be counted into a lucky draw in TV show aired live on
CTN and only one number will be qualified to win a 100 dollar refill card.

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An example of mobile advertising MobiTel employed was its promotional SMS sent to both 012 and
092 phone users in occasion of Valentine’s Day, which encouraged its customers to visit its homepage
www.cellcard.com.kh in order to join in a competition to have chance winning two free tickets to The
Rock Entertainment Center on February 14 (See Figure 3.8).

Figure3.8: Promotional SMS by MobiTel in Occasion of Valentine’s Day

Besides mobile advertising campaigns done by telecom providers themselves, there is an emergence of
interests in using mobile campaigns by other sectors as part of their media mix. To rise up one example,
that is Caltex Cambodia Ltd. In launching CoffeePlus, its new catering service, which offers gourmet
coffees and desserts, Caltex has chosen and included mobile advertising campaign in its advertising
strategy (See Figure 3.9 and 3.10).

Figure3.9: Caltex’s CoffeePlus

Figure 3.10: Caltex’s CoffeePlus SMS Advert via Samart Hello GSM Network

31

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