InfoVision to Broadcast Video Feed on Mobile Using CellSerf

InfoVision 2007 – The Knowledge Summit has formed the InfoVision Mobile Community using CellSerf technology. InfoVision 2007 will bring together a dazzling array of internationally known thought leaders to share, discuss and debate pertinent issues on social networking.

F. C. Kohli, Ajit Balakrishnan, Hsinchun Chen, Noshir Contractor, Jawahar Malhotra, Pandu Nayak, Prabhakar Raghavan, Vijay Raghavan, Rohini Srihari, and other renowned speakers will cover different aspects of social networking, knowledge discovery and innovation.

Videos clippings of the lectures and discussions will be broadcast on mobile using CellSerf. Participants with CellSerf on their mobile will be able to view these videos. Registrations for the event to be held in Mumbai on 17-18 December, 2007, are still open.

CellSerf will be used in a lot of interesting and useful ways before and during the conference, for example:

1. Serving conference updates on the mobile phone before and during the conference
2. Serving short video feeds of lectures during the conference
3. Mobile based QA where delegates in the audience can ask questions using the CellSerf application. This can happen any time during the talk
4. Delegate journalist program where delegates can share their conference experience in the form of video clips, audio clips, pictures and text. These clips will be put on the conference website and broadcast to other delegates on their mobile phones.
5. Information sharing program where delegates can share information, thoughts and comments with others at the conference. This can be local information like tips on good restaurants in the conference neighborhood, pictures of interesting local sights or more general like the good books available on the topic of social networking

What’s the Use of a Mobile Phone?

In his blog Marc Meyer asks the question, “The thing that you grab along with your keys, your purse or your wallet, what is it? It goes wherever you go.” He goes on to give the quick and obvious answer “Your phone.” He makes a valid point here, that today the mobile phone is an indispensable part of everyone’s life.

The mobile phone was and is designed as a peer to peer communication tool. But mostly this communication has been in the form of talking and recently texting. So telecoms have been generating revenues mostly based on customer talk times and texting numbers.

A recent Nokia survey came up with some interesting facts. Nearly half the respondents (44%) use their mobile device as their primary camera, with India being home to the most prolific mobile photographers (68%). Globally, seventy two percent now don’t use a separate alarm clock and 73% use their mobile as their main watch or clock. Further, 67% of the respondents predict the mobile phone will replace their MP3 player. Already a large percentage are listening to their music on a mobile phone. Over a third (36%) of respondents are browsing on their mobile devices at least once a month. Inevitably, Japan leads the way in mobile internet usage with 37% admitting to going online on their mobile on a daily basis. In India, today there are more mobile internet users than computer internet users.

And looking to the future, more than one in two (58%) of those questioned would like to be able to control all their household appliances via their mobile device. This is especially true in India (85%).

So the mobile phone is now evolving into a multi functional multimedia device. As the study points people now use their phones for more than just calling and texting. The multimedia device in their hand is more powerful than that. This also means that the way people communicate should change. With CellSerf a user can share expressions that can be in video, voice, picture, and text, with their friends.

When your mobile phone is capable of doing more, why limit your interactions with friends and family to just phone calls and SMSes. You just bought a new bike, well click a picture of it and share it with your friends in real time using CellSerf. Almost everybody today has a mobile handset. And, afterall, that is all you need to share everyday expressions.

Mobile Advertising: What’s Being Said About It

The mobile is indispensable today. We carry it everywhere. We use it to talk, click pictures, listen to music. It is with us all the time.

To the advertisers this very personal medium is an attractive way to reach out to each and every consumer.

But this advertising channel has to be used effectively for it to have the right effect on the consumers.

Here we present a sampling of the views being expressed on Mobile Advertising by thought leaders in this area. If you know other articles which should be here please do let us know. We hope to keep adding other articles to this set here.

Attractive Channel

Christopher Mills in his blog “Mobile Marketing – Why It Works” says it works because of the convenience of the channel, the ability to reach the right audience, and the personal nature of the medium.

Adith Charlie in his article “Going the M-Ad Way” quotes a study that says that mobile advertising may surpass other digital media like internet.

Graham Jarvis in the article “Advertising: Mobile Marketing Conversion Rates” argues that the conversion rates possible in the mobile medium are better than any other. Further this medium offers unsurpassed interactivity between the consumer and advertiser.

The mobile advertising thought leadership meeting pondered “Mobile Advertising: Will Hype Give Way to Real Business in 2008?” and concluded that real businesses will have to start taking note of this medium.

What may not work?

Christine Thompson in her blog “Mobile Advertising – Who Wants It?” lists out why the current intrusive advertising models being used by mobile marketers don’t work.

Rene Millman’s post “Mobile Spam Alienating Phone Users” points to a survey that says 2/3 of users are upset by the spam they get from their telecoms.

Marc Meyer in his blog “Mobile Marketing Won’t Work Until…” says accessibility on the mobile is the main issue to be tackled before it gains acceptance.

What may work?

L. Venkata Subramaniam in his article “Advertisers to Vie for that Two Square Inch Space On Your Mobile Handset” points out that users accept advertisements on their mobile handsets in return for free applications and media on their handsets.

The result of a poll on 1000+ mobile phone users is presented in this article titled “50% of Phone Users Find Mobile Advertising ‘Favorable’.” People are especially favorable if the advertising is paying for a free service.

Atanu Dey in his blog “A Bit on Mobile Advertising” wonders whether the economies of mobile phones will one day make it possible to pay for the mobile services one uses through advertising (like on TV, newspapers etc.)

Marc Meyer in his blog “Mobile Marketing, Are You Ready?” predicts that the mobile search model will work in a big way.

Boudewijn Pesch in his column “Mobile Advertising – The Million Dollar Question?” says turning mobile advertising into a viable business model is simple if you develop deep understanding and capability in mobile advertising, customer intelligence, profiling and mobile telecoms domains.

Alexander Van Elsas in his blog “2o Bln Reasons to Get Advertisements Right” challenges advertisers to find good models other than mobile search to draw the attention of the user and provide value.

Marc Meyer in his blog “A Word to Mobile Marketers: Dumb it Down” lays down some simple steps that mobile site developers should follow.

The CellSerf Way

This brings us back to where CellSerf fits in all this. CellSerf is a free application for the users. It is paid for by non-intrusive, targeted, interactive advertising. And that’s what makes it attractive to both the user and the advertiser!

From your Computer Login on the CellSerf Homepage to Check Messages

Once you download and install the CellSerf mobile application you will receive a login and password via SMS and email. You can use this to login from a computer to the CellSerf site and check your CellSerf Inbox. You can also send text messages to other CellSerf users on their mobile from this site.

Press Release: CellSerf Partners Candid Marketing for Developing Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising takes a new avatar: CellSerf and Candid Marketing partner in mobile advertising

New Delhi, India, Thursday, November 15, 2007 — CellSerf ( www.cellserf.com) and Candid Marketing ( www.candidmarketing.com) joined hands today to enter the mobile advertising space.

CellSerf, a mobile media and technology company based out of New Delhi, India and Sunnyvale, CA, has partnered with Candid Marketing, a leading marketing services company, for developing the mobile advertising market and business in India. Candid Marketing is a division of IMSG Plc. (www.imsg.co.uk) with a presence in many of the high growth markets worldwide. In India, Candid Marketing is a leading marketing services company and is widely regarded as the pioneer in innovative below-the-line marketing solutions. With its offices in six major cities, Candid executes marketing and sales programs across more than 120 cities for most major international brands with a presence in India.

CellSerf’s founder Vishal Batra said, “As a highly innovative and leading promotional marketing services company in India, we see Candid Marketing as the ideal media partner for our Mobile VAS offerings. Their reach and reputation is unmatched and we would be able to leverage their experience in taking CellSerf’s first-of-kind mobile media application to advertisers for non-intrusive custom-built sniper target solutions.”

The recently launched CellSerf mobile application optimizes advertising spends by offering a variety of options for the advertisers to connect with the end users. It offers the advertisers better return for their money by offering targeted advertising on a pay-per-view basis on the very intimate mobile medium.

The advertisers can choose their target viewers based on the user’s demographic information, and current interests. The advertiser can present video, audio, picture and text advertisements served on the mobile handset along with a surety that the user has viewed the ad. Further advertisers may choose the pricing models, between CPC (cost-per-click) and CPM (cost-per-mille), depending on the nature of its business and marketing campaign.

Batra added, “With CellSerf mobile application, we are presenting advertisers a TV like advertising channel that is many times more personal and captive and importantly non intrusive.”

To add more teeth to the application CellSerf combines Multimedia Instant Messaging, Global Multimedia Mobile Messaging and Multimedia Email that allows mobile users to go beyond the traditional style of communicating in Text and leverage the mobile phone’s multimedia capabilities to exchange Video, Pictures and Voice messages. The application and service is free to use. The mobile advertising solution is integrated with mobile IM, Messaging and Email applications to offer targeted multimedia advertisements to end users.

Candid Marketing’s founder and CEO Atul S Nath said, “CellSerf has all the applications to keep young mobile users engaged and connected with their friends and family. This presents itself as an outstanding opportunity for advertisers to interact with customers. To the advertiser we are offering a novel, cost-effective and most importantly interactive medium to communicate with customers.”

Candid Marketing’s Vice President Harsh Sisodia said, “CellSerf is the Swiss-knife of mobile applications as it offers connectivity through Instant Messaging, Email and Mobile Messaging all-in-one”. In between a user sending and receiving messages and emails, advertisements, intuitive communication and response-oriented interaction is facilitated with the user in a non-intrusive way.

With its incomparable penetration in India, the mobile phone as a medium is bigger than any other. There are more mobile phone users than TV viewers and newspaper readers today. The mobile has replaced traditional cameras as the preferred way to capture pictures and record videos. Mobile handsets are preferred for listening to music today and have become a truly personal medium to reach out to customers.

“With the CellSerf mobile application we are offering our clients a new and exciting medium for reaching out to customers. Today the penetration of mobiles in India is tremendous and with CellSerf we are allowing our clients an opportunity to touch each and every one of them in a way that will bring them maximum returns for advertising money”, said Harsh.

About CellSerf

CellSerf is a Mobile Media and Technology company (www.cellserf.com) based out of New Delhi and Sunnyvale, California. CellSerf has developed the next generation mobile messaging and IM service that elevates the user’s experience beyond text to take full advantage of the mobile phone’s multimedia capability. CellSerf offer’s an integrated application for Multimedia IM, Email and Mobile Messaging for free. Further it also integrates multimedia advertising on the mobile handset. CellSerf offers advertisers a focused and non-intrusive mobile marketing tool to reach customers.

About Candid Marketing

Candid Marketing (www.candidmarketing.com) is a division of IMSG (www.imsg.co.uk) an AIM (London Stock Exchange) listed company with presence in many of the high growth emerging markets of the world. Candid Marketing is India’s leading promotional marketing services company and is widely regarded as the pioneer of below-the-line marketing services industry in the country. From its offices in six major cities, Candid manages marketing and sales programs across 100+ cities for most major international brands with a presence in India. Having pioneered promotional marketing in India, Candid is known to be one of the most innovative and experienced companies in the business.

Candid Marketing has offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. In the last 12 years, Candid has managed over 15000 promotions and events across more than 120 cities and 30000 locations nationwide, and is known to be one of the most innovative and experienced companies in the business. Widely regarded amongst clients as the ‘execution’ specialist, Candid boasts the highest quality promotion execution and management in the industry. Having pioneered promotional marketing in India, Candid owns most resources and equipment, allowing economies of scale to translate into better value for client.

Media contact details

Shivani Batra, Media Relations,
CellSerf,

+1 408 420 3072,
shivani.batra__AT__cellserf.com

Monika Aggarwal, Media Relations,
CellSerf,

+91 9810491740,
monika.aggarwal__AT__cellserf.com

Harsh Sisodia, Vice President,
Candid Marketing,

+91 9223171491,
harsh__AT__candidmarketing.com

What CellSerf Offers Advertisers

Very simply put CellSerf offers an intimate medium for the advertisers to reach out to mobile savvy Indians. Video, Audio, Picture and Text ads can be shown to CellSerf users. What is more the method of reaching out is non-intrusive as adverts are presented along with the messages that users are exchanging with their friends. Further, it offers an interactive advertising medium as the advertisers can use CellSerf to get customer feedback, involve customers in contests and games, etc.

Various costing models are available to the Advertisers. Costing can be using CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per mille). Compared to any other medium the mobile offers better returns for the same advertising spend.

With CellSerf users can be targeted based on their specific interests and demographic profile like age, sex, location. Advertisers have the option of targeting only those users who are likely to be potential customers.

Connect to Friends Worldwide

CellSerf allows you to connect to your friends anywhere in the world. The CellSerf software application is not coupled with any handset or telecom service provider. CellSerf works on any phone that supports J2ME (CLDC 1.0 and MIDP 2.0 or higher). To use the software you need to activate a data service such as GPRS/EDGE on your mobile from your telecom operator.

You must keep the CellSerf application running on your mobile handset (in the background) to stay ‘online’. Whenever you get a message you are intimated by a ‘beep’. If you logout of the application then any messages sent to you appears in the inbox the next time you run CellSerf.

In the Media: Free Value Added Services on Your Phone

This is an interesting editorial that Hitesh Raj Bhagat wrote in the November 2007 issue of Living Digital.

EditorSpeak: Why be a pirate?

Hitesh Raj Bhagat, Issue Editor

Living Digital, November 2007 — The movie industry has been up in arms over the ‘menace’ of piracy. Illegal downloading of movies and copyrighted content is something they want to stop at all costs, since it results in losses running into millions. On TV, we watch advertisements without batting an eyelid. We don’t get anything out of it except the information. A new advertisement is repeated on most popular channels about 15 times a day, maybe more. More repeats happen during primetime. So you’ll be seeing the same ad again and again and again …

Similarly, while sitting in a movie theatre, we are subjected to 10, 15, sometimes even 20 minutes of commercials before the movie starts. I wouldn’t be complaining if I got to watch the movie for free, but I paid Rs 150 for that ticket and I came to watch the movie, not commercials. And unlike TV, I can’t mute the volume, turn it off, or switch to another channel. Now if someone downloads a movie to watch at home, devoid of ads and interruptions, can you really blame him?

In fact, revenue sharing with the customer is a model that is increasingly being adopted in the tech world. It started with the sites offering to pay you to read advertisements on your phone. Now, we also have value added services provided on your phone for free. Take CellSerf for example. You download a simple Java app to your phone, and using GPRS you can access your mail, send/receive video, voice and text or login to Yahoo, Google & MSN messenger. In return, you only have to view occasional adverts. (Get CellSerf from www.cellserf.com/app)

Speaking about piracy, there has been in the few months leading up to Diwali, what seems like a mass appearance of Chinese phones. Now these include Chinese brands (like Konka, Legend, Amoisonic, Eastcom and Keijan) and the Noklas, Sunny Eriksuns, and Mootrolas. The latter of course, are the pirated versions of popular brands. The apple iPhone has also been the ’source of inspiration’ for several knock-offs. Interestingly, there are little or no fakes available for Korean brands like LG and Samsung. Now here comes the concept of what I like to call ‘the opportunity to clone’. By releasing the desirable product in limited quanties and in limited markets, manufacturers are almost giving pirates the license to sell cloned products. LG and Samsung have for a long time now, been releasing devices simultaneously in Korea and China. So, if you are planning to buy a phone this festive season, make sure you get the real thing.