HTML 5 and mobile advertising

I’ve been hearing more and more about HTML5 and I have seen a few HTML5 demos on smartphones showing some beautiful video-based content that rivals anything one might see on a full-fat PC using Adobe Flash. But what that means for marketers and advertisers is maybe not so clear. Guest contributor, Kate Manning, clarifies for us. Over to Kate…
There has been a lot of hype about HTML5, both for mobile advertising and advertising as a whole, but if you aren’t up on the technical side of advertising, this may not seem like such as a big deal. HTML5 has drastically improved video embedding, making it much easier for developers and for the mobile phone to use. Again, maybe this doesn’t seem like a big deal yet, but many experts are saying that HTML5 will dominate the field of video advertising, a trophy formerly held by Flash. Since mobile phones all support HTML, and will soon support HTML5, this is set to change mobile advertising for the better.
Video advertising and mobile phones just seem to go together, but for the longest time there have been major availability issues. Flash has been a popular video advertisement format, but many mobile phones don’t support Flash. JavaScript can also be used, but you run into the same problem, only some phones support JavaScript. This means you can only advertise to a small percentage of mobile users, and that doesn’t spell good ROIs.
However, every mobile smartphone supports HTML, it’s how web applications are able to work. While HTML5 hasn’t gained universal support just yet, it is only a matter of time before every mobile phone upgrades to this new standard. Since every phone supports HTML, this means you can finally advertise to every user, instead of having to choose a specific format and hoping for the best. This also makes it easier for websites to show adverts, making Webmasters more willing to place videos on their mobile websites.
Not only is availability solved, but adding a video is also much easier. With previous HTML versions, you had to write a long piece of coding to embed the video into a website. Considering how popular videos are for mobile advertising, and just the Internet in general, you would expect HTML to make this easier. In HTML5, they finally did. Instead of using several lines of code to embed a video, you just use the <video> tag, and that’s it. Less coding means better rendering. The videos load better, the website loads faster and both advertisers and viewers are happy.
Mobile advertising is easy when people are browsing online, but what about offline browsing? Your videos will not load, meaning that advertisements can lose their effectiveness. HTML5 has implemented a way to save rich media in the device’s hard drive, so even if they are browsing offline, the video will play because it is already loaded.
Aside from making mobile advertising easier, it is also more intuitive. Along with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScripts are combined into the HTML standard coding library. Both of these are used to control the appearance of a website or advertisement, and to add scripts to a website. Combining them into the HTML5 standard means you can do more with your advertisements without having to worry about whether mobile devices can or cannot load the advertisement.
Operating costs also go down, because there is no need for expensive coding platforms. In the past, developers would have to purchase expensive programs to make mobile advertisements, which could ruin profits. However, HTML5 is an open program, meaning that it can be used for free, and the programs that help you create HTML5 advertisements will be much cheaper.
Tracking mobile advertisements has, until recently, been educated guesswork. Usually, these metrics are based on how often the mobile phone requests a banner of video from the server; however, if the mobile phone cannot or does not load the advertisement, it would still count as an impression. Not only does that mean that tracking metrics are overinflated, but you also have to pay for impressions that may never occur.
With HTML5, since it is integrated with JavaScript, the server tracks an impression only if the ad is displayed. Better metrics means accurate tracking, and accurate payments, for mobile advertising.
Many experts are saying that HTML5 is going to change the world of mobile advertising, while others are saying this is nothing by hype. With all the changes that HTML5 promises, one can be sure that there will be a large impact in the mobile advertising world.
You can see it in action here with this demo video.

So Kate’s told us what she thinks. What do you think? Is the future here already? Is it time for marketers to get savvy with HTML5 or are you going to wait and see? Comments welcome.
About the author: Kate Manning didn't expect to find herself at the intersection of business, marketing, and the Internet, but with sound writing and editing skills, she makes the most of it.

Further resources:
Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5
How HTML5 is changing the face of mobile http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/software-technology/9314.html
IABUK HTML5 Advertising FAQ http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/html5advertisingfaq.html (this one is a bit out of date, but they promise to update it when there’s new stuff to announce)
Brightcove’s HTML5 Whitepaper January 2011 http://blog.brightcove.com/en/2011/01/html5-video-facts-fiction-new-whitepaper
Direct Marketing Association: What HTML5 means to mobile marketers http://www.dma.org.uk/toolkit/what-html5-means-mobile-marketers
HTML5 capability of USA’s top mobile devices, March 2011 http://mmaglobal.com/news/netbiscuits-reveals-html5-capabilities-top-mobile-devices

Challenges faced by the Operators and Mobile Developer Community by Umar Akram

I was approached this week by Danish entrepreneur Umar Akram (see pic) from Mobile Weaver ApS to publish his article which is a discussion about the challenges faced by mobile operators and mobile developers with a call for a unifying standards body for mobile development to ease those challenges.

It seemed like an interesting enough topic to publish, and as I'm not a developer myself, I'd really welcome your thoughts and comments on what Umar has to say and whether or not you agree. Do we need a unifying body? Do any of the industry associations cover any of this off? Where do the W3C standards fit in to this? I'll let Umar take it from here.

"The revenue generated from voice is clearly diminishing with every passing day, forcing the operators to explore new areas of growth through continuous innovation in technologies and services. Recently I had an opportunity to attend a Vodafone D2C strategy briefing which brought out Vodafone initiative for the next three years. During this briefing Vodafone significantly highlighted the fact that despite the anticipated consolidation by European operators, the operators should focus on services other than the traditional voice based services so that they can generate greater revenue for themselves.

In the fast moving competitive market of Europe, operators are not only facing the challenge of competing with low cost MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) but are also continuously struggling to retain their existing subscribers. Besides few exceptions, many operators in Asia and other developing countries have still not been able to implement long term data services strategy, with the result their mobile play is still primarily focused on voice.

As the ARPU (average revenue per user) on voice continues to decrease, data has become the most dominant factor for operators in retaining and attracting the customers. The key factors which have complemented the growth of data services in developed countries are the increasing capabilities of mobile phones, faster networks like 3G and mobile applications that bring a rich user experience by changing the way people live, work and play.

With the changing trends, operators are now expecting their revenues to grow, as the subscriber’s appetite for content has increased. They are always on a look out for a “killer application” that can easily become popular among the subscribers and thus create brand loyalty for them. But from the mobile content developer’s perspective it’s not a simple task to come up with such an application.

The major challenge highlighted at the Google’s Open Source discussion event was the absence of standards for the developers in the industry. Optimizing these applications for different OS and broad range of mobile devices with varying screen sizes and versions remains the biggest problem for the mobile content developers. Even if the portability issues are resolved, distribution still remains a big challenge for the developers. It is the dream of every mobile content developer to get their content distributed through an operator. But the unending list of pre requisites on various issues of portability, certification and in some cases localization can turn this dream into a complete night mare.

The explosive growth in mobile content has transformed it into the buzzword of every article, publication and news around us. A new report issued by market intelligence firm iSuppli forecasts that the market for premium mobile content will exceed $44 billion by 2011, more than doubling the $20 million anticipated for 2007. The major driving force for the mobile content developer is to get an easy access to the information and APIs (application programming interface) which are held confidential by the OEMs and OS providers of mobile devices.

There should be one organization that can set guidelines and standards for content development by consulting all the stake holders in the value chain. This will facilitate the developers to focus only on the core issue, which is to develop applications for the consumers that can add value in their lives. This thing is not as simple as it seems.

Due to various political, economical and competitive landscape constraints, it’s very hard to unite all the stakeholders in one place and develop standards for content developers globally. Otherwise we can rightly say that lack of standards will remain the biggest hurdle for the content developer community."

This article is written by Umar Akram, a Danish entrepreneur who focuses on mobile and internet services. Umar is the founder and Vice President of Mobile Weaver ApS and is currently serving as the member of the board. Youpark, a flagship product of Mobile Weaver, is an online storefront that provides mobile users with over 12,000 best selling mobile software and games suitable for wide range of popular devices.

Mobile Advertising Guidelines published

If you're reading this blog, then the chances are that you have some kind of interest in mobile advertising. In which case, it's worth checking out the Mobile Marketing Asssociation's Mobile Advertising Guidelines document (pdf). It's US focussed but most of the rules apply over here in the UK and Europe. There are tips there about the different type of banner or click through campaigns you can do and some examples of how you might use them so well worth a look.

I've been using mobile advertising successfully for some of my clients in the last 6 months or so and I've been impressed with the results and conversion rates. Why not try it for yourself here with Admob who are one of the largest mobile advertising firms.

And finally, if you're after some new case studies to check out, then it's worth you have a look at the 2006 MMA Annual Mobile Marketing Guide in Association with Advertising Age (pdf). It was published in December 2006 so the information is still recent enough and it covers case studies from across the world, not just the USA.