MBlox launches SMS ad-insertion pilot
April 3, 2009
The mBlox booth at the CTIA Wireless 2009 show in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS -- While the crowds are thinner compared to last year, the energy is palpable at CTIA Wireless. One of the joys of covering this event is meeting with the key mobile players such as mBlox executive chairman Andrew Bud.
What comes through these one-on-one interactions is how these executives like Mr. Bud are helping shape and evolve mobile to the point where technology, marketing and the consumer experience converge. Not surprisingly, there is much jostling for positioning as the go-to leader in each mobile segment.
"It's not an easy market out there, but we're seeing very good resilience," Mr. Bud said.
The Sunnyvale, CA- and London-based aggregator recently announced 2.5 billion transactions between wireless carriers and content providers in 2008, all passing through mBlox. That amounts to a street value of an estimated $500 million-worth of transactions.
In a piece of repositioning, mBlox prefers to style itself as a mobile transaction network instead of aggregator. The growing role of such networks may have to do with the better moniker.
"The mobile transaction network is becoming more important," Mr. Bud said. "Mobile carriers are beginning to embrace the concept of open access to their enabling services.
"We're seeing carriers making money not only from retailer services, but also backend enabling services," he said.
The four enabling services comprise transmission, or sending SMS and MMS application-to-person messages; charging and billing; terminal context -- what's the handset being used for, location presence; and subscriber insights including age, gender, DMA, socio-economic class and even behavioral data.
Seeing the growth of this market convinced mBlox to enter mobile advertising. The company's new pilot program offers the insertion of ads on commercial SMS messages, serving content providers, ad networks and carriers as well as carriers.
As part of the trial, an inventory of 10 million messages per month will be allowed. Content providers will review and approve all ads. They will also be subject to U.S. carrier rules.
"This is a business model where advertising covers the sender's cost of the text message so that the sender -- application company -- can offer free text messages to customers for different sorts of brands on an unlimited basis," Mr. Bud said.
Advertisers and ad networks participating in the pilot include MoVoxx, Kadoink, Jingle Networks and Pudding Media. Publishers and content providers include Myxer, LSN and dmd: mobile.
"Up until now you've had ad sales executives playing aggregators and aggregators playing agencies," Mr. Bud said. "What this makes possible is a best-of-breed solution for customers to provide free text messages."