Corona increases brand awareness, beer sales via mobile sponsorship

EDITOR'S NOTE: Use AdKing.com's App4Ads to create your own regionally-oriented app promoting local businesses...or use the BizApp Creator to design specialized apps for your business advertisers. Suggest sponsorships like this example of Corona so that the advertiser can actually be paid to be running their ads inside their Mobile Web App.


Corona is the launch sponsor of Thrillist’s iPad application and is engaging affluent male consumers with the brand, as well as offering a beach getaway just by interacting with the content.

The Thrillist for iPad app features local recommendations for places to eat, drink, and shop in a consumer’s neighborhood. The app is available in Apple’s App Store for free download.

“The response from the ad community has been incredible and encouraging,” said Chris Steib, director of product development at Thrillist, New York.

“Corona is our initial launch partner, with some really sexy beach-themed ads, and we're sold out through the rest of the calendar year with other clients,” he said.

“Right now the app is sold as a month-by-month exclusive takeover; depending on the number of installs and the rate of adoption, we might be able to change that in 2012 to deliver ads locally or across verticals, like we do with email and Web.”

Corona time
When users log-in to the application they see the Corona ad within the Thrillist app.

Corona is featuring background ads within the iPad app.

The ads show the company’s beer bottles and say “Tap For a Chance to Win a Corona Beach Getaway.”

“Our in-app browser opens up to the URL of the client's choice – takes over the screen, but doesn't leave Thrillist,” Mr. Steib said. “In this case, it's Corona's beach giveaway sweepstakes homepage on Facebook and it may require log in.

“There's a huge sales component to this,” he said. “Our clients are always looking for new, unique ways to reach out to a very targeted, very loyal audience of affluent-male-20-something readers – iPad's right smack in the middle of that demographic."

App features
The app use GPS to find Thrillist recommendations closest to users and lets them browse nearby and undiscovered neighborhoods and recommendations.

Readers can add articles to the My Thrillist section and view the best of the Web with the company’s daily picks

“First, 25 million devices is hard to ignore,” Mr. Steib said. “Even though the number was lower when we first started thinking about iPad, it was obvious that owning the device would become something of a cultural status symbol – so having [an] app for it would be a business status symbol all the same.

“Making a native app is a gesture, showing you're not just checking a box to say ‘we're on iPad,’ but that you've cared enough to build something custom for that unique, tactile experience,” he said.

“Mobile is 100 percent aligned with our content, sales, and user-acquisition strategies.”


“The apps are very well monetized...” Mr. Steib said. “Combined, these elements make mobile a critical part of our business.

“And now that we've been mobile for a year, we'll be able to dive deep into the data and start thinking about what new content and features we can create for a mobile-optimized – if not mobile-exclusive – experience,” he said.

-Rimma Kats, Mobile Marketer Daily

US Teens Among Biggest Consumers of Mobile Content, Mobile Ads

US teenagers have been cited by Nielsen Company as the fastest growing audience enamored of mobile content.

According to the data presented by Nielsen, teenagers (ages 12-17) consume nearly twice as much mobile video content as other viewers in different age groups.

Mobile subscribers 12-17 watched 7 hours 13 minutes of mobile video a month in Q4 2010, compared to 4 hours 20 minutes for the general population.

In a post on the Nielsenwire dubbed “Kids Today: How the Class of 2011 Engages with Media,” the news couldn’t be better for mobile marketers. Teens are far more receptive to mobile advertising than their elders. Nielsen finds that more than half (58%) surveyed in September 2010 said they “always” or “sometimes” look at mobile ads.

Incredibly, the research also finds that teens are spending less time talking on the phone and watching TV. Texting and social media have largely cut into the time once spent on those particular activities.

Besides seniors 65-plus, teens talk the least on their phones, talking an average of 515 minutes per month in Q1 2011 versus more than 750 minutes among 18-24 year olds. In Q1 2011, teens 13-17 sent an average of 3,364 mobile texts per month, more than doubling the rate of the next most active texting demo, 18-24 year olds (1,640 texts per month).

The average American watched 34 hours 39 minutes of TV per week in Q4 2010, a year-over-year increase of two minutes. Teens age 12-17 watch the least amount of TV on average (23 hours 41 minutes per week).
And although teens are, overall, spending less time on their computers these days, the activities they engage in on their desktops and laptops is also noteworthy for marketers. Nielsen finds that American 18 year olds averaged 39 hours, 50 minutes online from their home computers, of which 5 hours, 26 minutes was spent streaming online video.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

IDC Says Global Smartphone Shipments will Approach 1 Billion by 2015

According to the latest Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report from International Data Corporation (IDC), the global smartphone market is on pace to grow 55% in 2011 (472 million shipments). But over the next four years, IDC says smartphone shipments will reach unprecedented new heights. By 2015, IDC estimates that worldwide smartphone shipments will reach 982 million.

The rapidly expanding smartphone market, IDC claims, will grow more than four times the rate of the overall mobile phone market this year. Why? Helping drive sales are falling average prices, increased phone functionality, and lower-cost data plans.

“The smartphone floodgates are open wide,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’. “Mobile phone users around the world are turning in their ‘talk-and-text’ devices for smartphones as these devices allow users to perform daily tasks like shopping and banking from anywhere. The growth trend is particularly pronounced in emerging markets where adoption is still in its early days. As a result, the growth in regions such as Asia/Pacific and Latin America, will be dramatic over the coming years.”

By comparison, only 305 million smartphones shipped in 2010.

“Underpinning smartphone growth is the rapidly shifting operating system landscape,” adds Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team. “End-users are becoming more sophisticated about what kinds of experiences are offered by the different operating systems. Taking this as their cue, operating system developers will strive for more intuitive and seamless experiences, but will also look to differentiate themselves along key features and characteristics.”

IDC expects Android, which passed Symbian as the leading operating system worldwide in Q4 2010, to grow to more than 40% of the market in the second half of 2011. A significant and growing list of vendors who have made Android the cornerstone of their respective smartphone strategies is propelling the growth of Android.

[Apple's iPhone] iOS was the third ranked OS going into 2011 and will remain a force in the mobile phone market throughout the forecast. After an initial explosive growth period, iOS is expected to grow at a more modest pace throughout the latter half of the forecast as the smartphone market matures and diversifies. Although a small market share decline is expected, IDC expects significant overall shipment volume growth through the end of 2015.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

New Study: Smartphone Users Frequently Browse Mobile Web

An inaugural study finds significant numbers of smartphone users across key markets browse the mobile Web multiple times daily, with nearly all users expecting to maintain or increase mobile online usage in the next 12 months.

The MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) (www.mmaglobal.com) and Google will be presenting key findings from a new global research study designed to provide insights into how people are using their mobile devices and the readiness of businesses to engage consumers via mobile. Two separate surveys informed this study: a consumer-facing survey, which included interviews with thousands of smartphone users in 30 different countries, and a business-facing survey conducted in 5 countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Japan) which incorporated over 1000 interviews with marketing decision makers.

The initial research results will be presented at the MMA Forum New York on June 16-17, 2011 in New York City, with additional data and insights being rolled out over the course of the next few months. The research, conducted on behalf of Google by IpsosGmbH and TNS Infratest, will be presented by Owen Charlebois, Global Manager, Advertising, Marketing and Media Research at Google.

"Our collaboration with Google is the latest example of the MMA's commitment to providing the industry with actionable research insights," said Michael Becker, North American Managing Director, MMA. "As the study shows, smartphones are used extensively by consumers and are a powerful new tool in engaging the marketplace. We look forward to working with Google to help mobile ecosystem members identify opportunities worldwide leveraging the results of this research."

"A mobile user study of this scope is unprecedented and offers a truly global view of how smartphones are transforming the lives of individuals," said Mr. Charlebois. "Further it offers a valuable perspective on how marketers are adapting to the increasingly mobile world."

The MMA's other research products include the award-winning International Journal of Mobile Marketing (IJMM), which is peer-reviewed by a 14-member board that includes researchers from topic academic institutions and companies such as SnapTell and Yahoo.