[asterisk-biz] FW: Mobile Insider: Your Content Is Calling

Wed Aug 29 11:06:00 CDT 2007

Pretty interesting is the fact that Unwired Buyer and I assume Unwired 
Nation uses Asterisk and developed the external IVR app and released to 
to us.

Thanks,
Steve

Dean Collins wrote:
>
> Thought this email might interest some asterisk developers.
>
> Regards,
>
> Dean Collins
> Cognation Pty Ltd
> dean at cognation.net
> <mailto:dean at cognation.net>+1-212-203-4357 Ph
> +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial).
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* MediaPost Publications [mailto:mobileinsider at mediapost.com]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, 28 August 2007 1:50 PM
> *To:* Dean Collins
> *Subject:* Mobile Insider: Your Content Is Calling
>
> <http://mediapst.adbureau.net/adclick/acc_random=082881636/SITE=EMAIL/AREA=MOBILEINSIDER/AAMSZ=BANNER/GUID=082881636/QUAL=0>
>
> 	
>
> Your Content Is Calling
> by Steve Smith, Tuesday, August 28, 2007
>
> <http://mediapst.adbureau.net/adclick/acc_random=082881636/SITE=EMAIL/AREA=MOBILEINSIDER/AAMSZ=TOWER/GUID=082881636/QUAL=0>**IT 
> GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT **the voice channel is the under-utilized and 
> under-appreciated piece of the mobile content and marketing puzzle. I 
> say that it goes without saying because so many companies have been 
> saying precisely that for a couple of years now.
>
> I have covered and tried a number of schemes: radio stations 
> rebroadcasting via voice, mobile podcasting, and even in-venue 
> programming like sending the live chatter between NASCAR drivers and 
> their pit crews to phones. I have no idea how many consumers may have 
> adopted any of these models in a habitual way. I know that I tend to 
> drop off from using them pretty quickly. Sometimes the initiation 
> procedure is awkward, or I just forget the service is available. There 
> is also the issue of content quality (usually grainy) and the 
> convenience factor. You have to hold the phone to your ear in most 
> cases to listen passively to a program, and have little control over 
> fast-forwarding or jumping through an index. From a publisher and 
> marketer’s perspective, voice may seem like an unexplored channel, but 
> from a user’s perspective (well, this user) voice-over-phone is not 
> ideal for content consumption.
>
> Unwired Nation <%20http://www.unwirednation.com>is an interesting 
> attempt to leverage voice. First, it is an ad-supported publishing 
> platform. The company announced deals with RSS feed aggregator Pheedo 
> and others to vocalize their content, shape it into interactive calls 
> to an opt-in user, and wrap it in ads that can contextually target the 
> user. In Pheedo’s case, its standard digest e-mails of a feed will be 
> turned into a narrated pre-scheduled call. A decision tree in the call 
> lets users select from the headlines they want to drill into for more 
> of the story. “You do it in the form of a content-based alert, so 
> every story might have a contextual promotion,” says Stacey Zuniga, 
> Unwired’s co-founder. About half a dozen publishers are integrating 
> the solution now for formal launches in coming weeks. Pricing is in 
> the $70 CPM range.
>
> In the demo I tried, the opt-in call had the advantage of being brief 
> and interactive. Rather than having to sit back and listen to radio on 
> your phone (which is a special kind of torture), you can punch a key 
> to get the full story or a deeper blurb after reading the concise 
> headlines.
>
> The ad spots are interesting, too, because they are relatively 
> non-interruptive. The very brief spot lets you hit a key to get more 
> information via email or SMS rather than hijacking the voice content. 
> Brevity seems to be a key to making voice content work, because having 
> to sit with the phone to your ear through content you don’t really 
> want is much like sitting through the Gatling gun prattle of a 
> telemarketer before you can step in and say “not interested.” Adding 
> options and interactivity to the voice flow seems to undercut the tedium.
>
> Unwired Nation is making available to a wider range of publishers and 
> advertisers a platform it has been deploying on eBay for years. EBay 
> bidders have the option to get phone alerts on their auction to 
> monitor and make final bids as the auction closes. Unwired calls 
> bidders about three-and-a-half minutes before the bidding closes, and 
> key presses let them enter final bids.
>
> Since the end of last year, Unwired Nation has been selling contextual 
> ads into this space, mainly to other eBay Power Sellers who can target 
> categories of interest with additional sale offers. The 8- to 
> 10-second ads run in the beginning of the call while the bidding 
> information is being retrieved. Zuniga claims a click-through rate of 
> up to 14% on these spots. For eBay, Unwired Nation already does 
> between 600,000 and 1 million calls a month, he says.
>
> Of course the question becomes whether an opt-in voice content 
> platform works in the long run for a range of information. The success 
> of this approach at eBay may have a lot to do with the nature of the 
> content and the audience. For the rabid bidder, having real-time 
> access to the last moments of an auction is part of the eBay sport, 
> and getting called by your content is not an annoyance but a service 
> that enhances the drama. For a fantasy sports nut, getting voice 
> notifications of a player injury or trade may be appealing, although I 
> am not sure why a text message wouldn’t be better. For content that 
> invites high levels of involvement and passion, where we crave a sense 
> of closeness to a breaking event or moment, then voice content 
> delivery can be welcome.
>
> But that level of intimacy also makes voice a risky and unpredictable 
> channel for any kind of automated delivery. For an RSS feed? Well, I 
> don’t know if I want my headlines calling me. Just as consumers loathe 
> the idea of telemarketers accessing them in the special private zone 
> of a cell phone, I am not so sure I will want a daily call from my 
> news alerts service, even if I did opt into it. Any channel that a 
> consumer also uses for high-value, highly personal relationships holds 
> tremendous promise and danger for a publisher or marketer. In order to 
> get into that zone, you need to have a service that is of real value 
> and importance to the user. I think voice alerts are different from 
> SMS or email messages. It is a channel that could and should be used, 
> but I suspect it will require careful programming.
>
> After all, if I wanted to tap my foot impatiently while waiting for a 
> voice on the other end of the line to get to the point, well, I would 
> just call my mom.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Post your response to the public Mobile Insider blog. 
> <http://blogs.mediapost.com/mobile_insider/?p=110#comments>
>
> See what others are saying on the Mobile Insider blog. 
> <http://blogs.mediapost.com/mobile_insider/>
>
> //Contributing writer Steve Smith is a longtime new-media consultant 
> and columnist, and current editor of Digital Media Report for 
> MinOnline.com and Mobile Media Report for TelecomWeb.com Contact him 
> at popeyesmith at comcast.net. //
>
>
> <http://mediapst.adbureau.net/adclick/acc_random=082881636/SITE=EMAIL/AREA=MOBILEINSIDER/AAMSZ=SPEEDBUMP/GUID=082881636/QUAL=0>
>
> 	
>
>
> Mobile Insider for Tuesday, August 28, 2007:
> http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_send_date=2007-8-28&art_type=38 
> <http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_send_date=2007-8-28&art_type=38> 
>
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