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

Wed Aug 29 10:32:32 CDT 2007

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/AR
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Your Content Is Calling
by Steve Smith, Tuesday, August 28, 2007 

<http://mediapst.adbureau.net/adclick/acc_random=082881636/SITE=EMAIL/AR
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<http://mediapst.adbureau.net/adclick/acc_random=082881636/SITE=EMAIL/AR
EA=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 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/AR
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  Mobile Insider for Tuesday, August 28, 2007:

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArti
cle&art_send_date=2007-8-28&art_type=38 

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