Mobile ad info resource EverySingleOneOfUs launches

By Dan Butcher

December 10, 2008

Mobile standard bearer

An industry venture known as EverySingleOneOfUs has launched as a grassroots resource for the mobile advertising industry.

The effort unites a cross-section of carriers, mobile companies, publishers, associations, industry experts and brands to educate the market and encourage discussions about emerging business models, industry issues and areas of growth. It is designed to aggregate knowledge and authorize best practices and methodologies that ensure an optimal mobile advertising consumer experience.

"The strategy is based on the recognition that mobile advertising is missing the mark," said Peggy Anne Salz, Cologne, Germany-based spokeswoman for EverySingleOneOfUs, London. "We expect advertising to foot the bill for everything in mobile.

"If something is as important to companies' business model as mobile advertising, it is critical that it works," she said. "We know where we need to go: targeted and relevant mobile advertising.

"Nothing positive is going to happen unless we figure out how to get there from here."

Who are you calling 'end user'?

The goal is to help companies, stakeholders and shareholders engage with potential consumers and ultimately drive mobile advertising revenues and positive results.

EverySingleOneOfUs was founded by Jonathan MacDonald, who was previously a chairman of the Music Industries Association, commercial director of Ministry of Sound and sales director at the advertising-funded mobile network Blyk.

The success of mobile advertising and subsidized models based on delivery of content, applications and services is dependent upon the willingness of participants to accept advertising on their mobile devices.

God bless us, EverySingleOneOfUs

While recent research, including a 2007 survey by Generator Research, confirms that more than half of mobile consumers -- 61 percent in the U.S. and 72 percent in Britain -- are interested in mobile advertising, there is a catch: Mobile advertising must be relevant and genuinely useful.

Ultimately, consumers demand advertising that relates to their interests and is tailored to their specific needs.

Anything else will be perceived as spam, which degrades the experience, increases the likelihood of churn and breeds a distinct lack of trust.

Mr. MacDonald believes that the promised land of 'upward curve revenue' from mobile is unlikely to happen without a catalyst.

This catalyst can only come, according to Mr. MacDonald, by working together in the interests of citizens rather than the protective interests of various elements of the mobile value chain.

The EverySingleOneOfUs movement uses tools to map out structure and progress, such as 'Personal Brain'.

The inspiration for the EverySingleOneOfUs movement comes from The Communication Ideal (Vol. 1), an online publication authored by Mr. MacDonald.

Contributors range from senior executives at mobile networks such as Carl Taylor, director of applications and services for Hutchinson Whampoa, through to bloggers/research analysts including Ms. Salz, founder of MSearchGroove, and best-selling author and independent consultant Tomi Ahonen.

The goal is to identify and differentiate the shortcomings in mobile advertising approaches, more specifically the industry's blanket assumptions about consumer behaviour, from the positive opportunities and potentials for growth.

Mr. MacDonald has connected with a wider network of professionals and practitioners to develop No Way Back From Here (Vol. 2) -- a collaborative effort to provide players in the evolving mobile advertising ecosystem with a roadmap for change.

This second volume, which is a work in progress, will guide the future work of EverySingleOneOfUs worldwide.

The first phase will kick off with Mobile Advertising U.K., a research project that will be endorsed by industry associations in early 2009.

Drawing from primary research, in-depth interviews with 25-plus mobile executives, agencies and mobile networks, as well as an online consumer survey, Mobile Advertising U.K. will document the state of the mobile advertising industry in Britain and shed light on industry obstacles and opportunities.

To an extent, Mobile Advertising U.K. will follow the blueprint of Mobile Advertising Netherlands, a mobile advertising research project spearheaded by AENEUS Strategy Consulting and Management and sponsored by some 20-plus companies.

These include GroupM, a media investment management operation; telecom vendor Alcatel-Lucent; carriers and service providers Vodafone, T-Mobile, KPN and Blyk; and full-service media agencies Starcom, Marvellous, MADS Mediacom Mindshare and Mediaedge:CIA.

The research project stage will conclude by the end of Q1 2009 and will be complemented by a range of conferences, seminars, workshops, consultancy, platform development and master-classes from industry leaders.

"As far as mobile advertising distribution methods, ad-supported content is important -- not only downloadable content, but for mobile social networking companies and others," Ms. Salz said. "Everyone has mobile advertising in their business plan -- content subsidized by mobile advertising is a key assumption of most business plans.

"We understand mobile advertising needs to be relevant and targeted because of the personal nature of mobile devices, which is step one," she said. "However, we have to understand how to put that into practice, to understand where we are at this point and what we mean by targeting and relevancy."

EverySingleOneOfUs is set up to encourage communication among the various players in the mobile ecosystem.

"We need an intense, serious, honest assessment of consumer behavior to find out what is relevant to them, which will be done by talking with all of the companies in the ecosystem," Ms. Salz said. "Communication is at the center of mobile advertising, and all of the various players have to come together to get this right, to become a catalyst for the mobile industry.

"We need to bring our information together, we need to talk to each other and we need this platform for that," she said. "These are real companies, operators and hardnosed business people.

"We need to all come together and exchange expertise -- we need to get together and make things happen."