Tag: Josh-Lovison

Three reasons Android could terminate Apple

Posted on by Lab Team

Best blogs of 2009 The smartphone market seems to be shoe-in: Apple has got momentum in the space reminiscent of their takeover of the MP3 player market years prior with the iPod. Despite this momentum, the discerning media planner working on mobile for six months out should take note – Google’s Android is poised to crash Apple’s party.

Android Clones: While the iPhone had Chinese imitation devices, Android will literally have a clone army. The open source system will live on a handful of devices by the end of this year, and dozens of devices by the end of 2010. So while the system seemed to languish when the only Android device was the G1, with phones like the HTC Hero and myTouch 3G, Android will traverse carrier networks and handset manufactures. Continue reading “Three reasons Android could terminate Apple”

The battle over wireless networks begins

Posted on by Lab Team

The battle for net neutrality begins (iStock)The FCC has thrown down the gauntlet about network neutrality. While there is a case to be made both for and against a government mandated network neutrality, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is strongly making the case for it. He’s working to have the FCC’s current governing principals turned into hard-coded rules, and to increase the four to six, adding in a principal regarding network non-discrimination (aka neutrality) and one on transparency and openness.
Those are some fighting words.

The FCC has so far skirted around the issues of network neutrality, ruling in ways that indicated their support of the concept, but not calling it out specifically. This latest move is going to cause ripples. Continue reading “The battle over wireless networks begins”

Game marketing lessons from retailers

Posted on by Lab Team

Ubisoft Montreal/Target Column originally featured on MediaPost

There’s a recent trend among video game retailers that’s worthy of note for brand marketers. For a while now, retailers such as GameStop have been offering exclusive extras for their customers. These premiums were typically small tchotchkes, small inexpensive trinkets. But now we’re seeing this trend extend into the realm of downloadable content.

I recently returned from a vacation to Italy, where I saw the Palazzo Medici — an exquisite palace built during the Renaissance by Florence’s resident ruling family. If I want to access the Palazzo in Ubisoft’s upcoming game “Assassin’s Creed 2,” I’ll have to purchase the title from GameStop. This is hardly the only instance of this type of promotion. Read more.

How to avoid in-game ad debacles

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How to avoid outrage for in-game ads (Anyaka via Flickr)Column originally featured on MediaPost

Last week, columnist Shankar Gupta noted the loading time debacle with “Wipeout HD”‘s in-game ads. The story is a frightening one for marketers unfamiliar with the gaming space. What was essentially a 10-second mistake resulted in the early termination of a campaign and loads of upset customers. Is the gaming space really so unpredictable and volatile?

Yes and no. Gamers can be a surly sort, quick to band together for a common cause against a shared enemy. But it’s really not that difficult to know how to avoid conflict. A key concept here is one that really should prevail for all media channels: The best advertising is perceived by a consumer as content. The “rocket science” for gaming ads involves maximizing ROI, targeting the buy, and leveraging the in-game elements into a larger integrated campaign. Avoiding a riot shouldn’t be rocket science, and here are a few tips to help avoid such a scenario. Read More.

EA: A market trend?

Posted on by Lab Team

EA: A marketing trend? (Sims3)Column originally featured on MediaPost

Electronic Arts is shaking things up and leading by example. The video game company seems to be evolving a new approach to game publishing, one that promises a cross-platform distribution model fortified against piracy.

The game worth looking at closely for following this trend is “The Sims 3.” The title launched but a few months ago, and has now seen over 3.7 million copies sold, outstripping the previous bestseller “The Sims 2.” What’s interesting about these sales is that they follow a torrent (pun intended) of pirated downloads from a leaked version of the game prior to release. Rather than lamenting the piracy, EA execs suggested that internally, they shifted the viewpoint to seeing the leaked version as an “extended demo.” The reason behind this was the sheer volume of additional content exclusive to registered users that didn’t ship on the retail disk.

EA has instead approached the Sims franchise as a content portal to additional downloads, some of which were free, and others for pay. They are now adding this same model to the iPhone version of “The Sims 3,” making use of in-app commerce enabled by the iPhone 3.0 software release. This brings up the other facet of EA’s burgeoning model that’s extremely compelling: cross distribution.  Read more.

Why Apple, AT&T, and consumers are at odds

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Why Apple, AT&T and consumers are at oddsIn tech circles, Apple’s been making some decisions that have concerned many consumers (not to mention Google’s CEO, who resigned from Apple’s board Monday). They have potentially caused serious damage to their relationship with Google, and undermined much of the promise of leading the charge in bringing unparalleled functionality to the mobile phone.

So what happened? The first recent rumblings of discontent came around the time of the 3.0 software launch and the release of the iPhone 3GS. While the iPhone now had sanctioned video capabilities, some of the very neat live broadcasting solutions like Qik or Flixwagon weren’t being allowed into the AppStore, despite already having software functioning flawlessly for months on jailbroken versions of the iPhone.

Then the trouble with Google started. Continue reading “Why Apple, AT&T, and consumers are at odds”

Is Nielsen right on teens?

Posted on by Lab Team

teensaThe human brain loves outliers. It uses them to provide new perspectives on the norm. With this in mind, Nielsen’s recent How Teens Use Media report attempts to ignore outliers, and look purely at research to give a perspective of teen media consumption, and in so doing, attempts to portray a more grounded and non-biased perspective of teen behavior.

Unfortunately for Nielsen, bias is unavoidable, and their report ignores certain outliers to the detriment of its overall perspective. The report’s findings, covering all of Nielsen’s research properties, showcases the inability of non-integrated research to accurately portray the behavior of the most integrated generation. Continue reading “Is Nielsen right on teens?”

The Internet gets married, has kids, settles down

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Grow up (via Ant's photostream/Flickr)The Internet is on its way to settling down. Don’t misunderstand me, as far as the interwebs are concerned, 401 still means unauthorized access and has nothing to do with retirement (yes, that’s a geek joke). Instead, it means that the Internet is giving up on the chaos of its youth and settling into a respectable and tactful adulthood. At the root of the issue lies the concept of online identity.

For the past decade, our collective online experiences have been modeled after a Matrix-esque experience. We select usernames, which become our residual self-image. Behind these fairly anonymous handles humanity as a whole has been able to momentarily devolve into caustic, self-righteous, judgmental twelve-year-olds (not me, of course). Not that this was necessarily a bad thing, it just was. But the status quo is changing. So what’s the agent of change? Continue reading “The Internet gets married, has kids, settles down”

Apple takes off the gloves

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Apple takes off the gloves (iStock)There were a few big announcements regarding the iPhone and iPod Touch at WWDC this week.  The biggest announcement was actually just a price drop: With the iPhone 3G at only $99, it hits the magical price point that’s going to move a lot of phones.  Though admittedly, there is still a large issue in the monthly costs to AT&T, as a plan with unlimited data and text is going to be more per month than the phone costs.

Apple’s newly announced numbers show a continued acceleration in the popularity of the AppStore.  While 40 million iPhones or iPod Touch devices worldwide reflects a steady progression, the announcement of 50,000 apps in the AppStore is a sharp increase over past numbers.  With over one billion apps downloaded since the AppStore’s inception, that’s an average of 20,000 downloads per application. Continue reading “Apple takes off the gloves”

Mobile applications as the second Web

Posted on by Lab Team

mobilewebYou might think the iPhone has conquered the mobile universe, certainly in the US. Or at least, that’s what the bulk of articles published in 2009 seem to indicate. While the iPhone has heavily influenced mobile in the states and abroad, the numbers overstate the scenario dramatically. As a result, some amazing shifts haven’t gotten much notice.

It’s articles like this one that are the problem. In this instance, the Net Applications data looks at Web browser market share for mobile devices, but in the methodology caveats listed on Net Applications’ site, it points out that the browsers needed to be HTML and JavaScript compliant. Well, no wonder the iPhone has such a commanding lead — tons of other feature phone and even smartphone mobile browsers aren’t included. Continue reading “Mobile applications as the second Web”