comScore: Comparative Report on Mobile Usage in Japan, United States and Europe

Japan Mobile Audience “Most Connected” with 3 of 4 Users Accessing Mobile Media in June 2010. Social Networking Shows Highest Reach among U.S. Mobile Users, While Europeans Text the Most.

comScore’s latest report from its MobiLens service examined multiple dimensions of mobile usage between Japan, US and Europe including content consumption, demographic comparisons and top social networking brands across markets to provide a comparative look at how consumers interact with mobile media across various geographic markets.

“Mobile media usage continues to accelerate across the globe, driven by advancing technologies and the growing number of content options available to consumers,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. “As we look across markets, dramatic differences in mobile media consumption, brand adoption and user behaviour become evident. These differences are even more pronounced than they are for PC-based Internet usage due to the complex nature of mobile – including various device capabilities, operating systems and methods of accessing content. For brands seeking to establish a multi-market presence, understanding usage dynamics across geographies is essential to implementing a successful global mobile marketing strategy.”

Mobile Behaviour Varies Across Markets

A cross-market analysis of mobile activities in Japan, the U.S. and Europe revealed significant differences among consumers by geography. Mobile users in Japan were the “most connected” of the three markets, with more than 75 percent using connected media (browsed, accessed applications or downloaded content) in June, compared to 43.7 percent in the U.S. and 38.5 percent in Europe. (I’m wondering what the range is across the different European countries. And I wonder if this would be further skewed if it was beyond the EU5 of UK, Spain, France, Germany and Italy.)

Japanese mobile users also displayed the strongest usage of both applications and browsers with 59.3 percent of the entire mobile population accessing their browsers in June and 42.3 percent accessing applications. Comparatively 34.0 percent of mobile users in the U.S. and 25.8 percent in Europe used their mobile browsers, with 31.1 percent in the U.S. and 24.9 percent in Europe accessing applications.

Messaging methods also varied with Europeans displaying the strongest use of text messaging with 81.7 percent sending a text message in June, compared to 66.8 percent in the U.S. and just 40.1 percent in Japan. Japanese users exhibited the highest reach in the email category at 54 percent, while consumers in the U.S. were most likely to use instant messaging services on their mobile (17.2 percent). (With the introduction of i-mode in Japan, peer to peer messaging was based on email rather than SMS so these figures are not the least bit surprising. Europe was the first to adopt SMS and the US was pretty late to the game to implement cross network compatibility for SMS, hence the lower figures.)

Social networking/blogs reached the greatest percentage of mobile users in the U.S. at 21.3 percent, followed by Japan at 17.0 percent and Europe at 14.7 percent. Japanese users were most likely to capture photos (63.0 percent) and watch TV/video (22.0 percent) on their mobiles, while Europeans were most likely to listen to music (24.2 percent) and play games (24.1 percent).

Select Mobile Behaviours in Japan, United States and EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT). June 2010. Total Mobile Audience Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens

Percent of Total Mobile Audience	Japan	US	Europe
Total Audience: 13+ yrs old	100%	100%	100%
Used connected media (Browsed, Accessed Applications or Downloaded Content)	75.2%	43.7%	38.5%
Used browser	59.3%	34.0%	25.8%
Used application	42.3%	31.1%	24.9%
Messaging Usage
Sent text message to another phone	40.1%	66.8%	81.7%
Used instant messaging service	3.3%	17.2%	12.6%
Used email (work or personal)	54.0%	27.9%	18.8%
Social Media/Entertainment
Accessed Social Networking Site/ Blog	17.0%	21.3%	14.7%
Listened to music on mobile phone	12.5%	13.9%	24.2%
Took photos	63.0%	50.6%	56.8%
Captured video	15.4%	19.2%	25.8%
Watched TV and/or video on mobile	22.0%	4.8%	5.4%
Played games	16.3%	22.5%	24.1%
Financial Information
Accessed bank accounts	8.0%	9.4%	7.1%
Accessed financial news/stock quotes	16.1%	10.0%	7.2%
Retail/Travel
Accessed online retail	7.2%	5.5%	4.1%
Accessed classifieds	4.2%	6.6%	4.2%
Accessed travel service	3.3%	4.7%	4.1%
Other
Accessed maps	15.7%	16.0%	10.8%
Accessed traffic reports	12.6%	8.2%	5.9%
Accessed weather	34.1%	22.3%	13.7%

Mobile Media Usage by Demographic Segment

A demographic analysis of mobile media users across markets showed that mobile media consumption was more balanced across age segments in Japan when compared to the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S., 25-34 year olds were 44 percent more likely to access mobile media than an average mobile user, with 18-24 year olds 39 percent more likely. In Europe, 18-24 year olds represented the most-connected segment, 54 percent more likely to be mobile media users, while persons age 25-34 were 35 percent more likely.

The U.S. and Europe also showed greater gender disparity among mobile media audiences. Females were 9 percent less likely to be mobile media users in the U.S., while females in Europe were 16 percent less likely.

Mobile Media Usage in Japan, United States and EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT) by Demographic Segment. June 2010. Source: comScore MobiLens. Connected Media Audience Index*

	Japan	US	Europe
Total Audience: 13+ yrs old	100%	100%	100%
Male	102	110	116
Female	98	91	84
Person’s Age:
13-17	114	130	133
18-24	117	139	154
25-34	114	144	135
35-44	111	117	103
45-54	105	85	78
55+	80	39	57

* Index = % demographic segment / % demographic base*100

Top Mobile Social Media Brands

Across markets, local and global brands showed varying levels of adoption by mobile audiences. In all three markets, the top mobile social media brand mirrored the top PC-based social networking brand with Facebook leading in the U.S. and Europe and Mixi leading in Japan. Local brands Gree and Mobage Town were the #2 and #4 most accessed social networking brands in Japan. Twitter was the only brand to be ranked in the top four in all markets.

Top Mobile Social Networking/Chat/Blog Brands in Japan, United States and EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT) by Audience Size June 2010. Total Mobile Audience Age 13+. Source: comScore MobiLens

Japan	US	Europe
Mixi	Facebook	Facebook
Gree	MySpace	YouTube
Twitter	YouTube	MSN /Windows Live/ Bing
Mobage Town	Twitter	Twitter

Update 11 October 2010: Friend and mobilist, Kei Shimada, who is based in Tokyo commented on the above from comScore and says: "Somehow I very much doubt the outcome of this report. Banking services can't be this high, because of the lack of banking services in Japan on mobile. Much more versatile abroad. Other financial services, I agree somewhat.
Text messaging in Japan at 40.1% is still very high even if its the lowest among the 3 regions, as its almost non-existent because of interoperability issues among carriers, and email being dominant. By the way, email is "free" (included in data plan) in Japan, and not charged like SMS is abroad.
Social Networking Sites can't be this low comparatively, among the (especially) US and EU, with 120+ billion PV per month on the big 3 SNS in Japan.
Japan is the most connected, I agree, but the details are a very odd."

About comScore
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Technorati Tags: statistics,mobile usage

What if Tesco decided to really take on mobile?

It has struck me that the mobile industry, despite being enormous, has a lot to learn still and some growing up to do when it comes to diversifying their business, increasing revenues and creating a sustainable ecosystem.

Mobile technology is central to our world these days and is a remote control for life. It’s our access to our friends and family. It’s the route to information at the click of a button. It’s how we find our way around the city streets. It’s how we communicate and it’s how we consume media of all kinds – interactive or not.

My background is retail (although not grocery, which I know has some unique characteristics) so I’m slightly biased here, but I think we, in the mobile world, have a lot to learn about from other sectors like retail and FMCG when it comes to product development, wholesaling goods, customer service, merchandising and display, marketing and lots more besides. It is said that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers yet we don’t seem to have applied that thinking enough in the world of mobile.

Photo credit: Tom Arthur

Think about a supermarket - And let’s face it, most App stores are essentially supermarkets for apps. Supermarkets stock 1000s of lines – but they are all carefully selected and chosen based on customer insight and buying trends, the products are placed carefully, if not scientifically, on shelves to maximise their potential for sales. Certain products are promoted in a variety of ways – sometimes by the supermarket, but more often than not by the producer, or even if the supermarket does the marketing, it’s paid for by the producer. Next time you go to the supermarket have a look at how things are promoted - 3 for 2 offers, buy tortilla chips and get a certain brand of salsa dip free, recipe cards encouraging you to try certain ingredients, free samples, on-pack promotions – there’s a lot going on and this list isn’t exhaustive. Products and brands are competing for physical space, customer mindshare and ultimately for sales.

Now let’s look at your typical app store. It’s all very democratic and level playing field, sort of. Pretty much anyone can upload their app (subject to rules of decency, and some limited technical, legal or commercial constraints). There’s no particular product selection process to make sure the product is right for the store or more specifically the customer base of that store beyond having the right device (iphone, Android, Series 60 Nokia etc). Prime shelf space are the app charts in specific categories and it’s very limited. And it’s hard to find stuff – mainly because there’s too much there in the first place. (Can you imagine what your local Tesco would look like if everyone who’d ever had a product idea put it up for sale in the store? How much shelf space would you need and how, as a shopper, would you find anything?). There are limited promotions. I haven’t seen any 3 for 2 offers, or on(/in)-app promotions beyond an annoying advert which keeps flashing at you when you’re trying to play a game and covers up a key touchpoint in it (top tip, turn the wifi off and the ad-funded app is suddenly not ad-funded any more).

Photo credit: Peekaboo

Now let’s look at Tesco in more detail (I choose Tesco because it’s our UK No1 supermarket with global reach, takes £1 in every £3 spent in the UK on groceries and it’s making £6,000 profit a minute, not turnover – profit, and that’s up 12.5% on last year. It’s big.)

Tesco has a lot going for it which means it can enter other markets and do very well in them – banking (including offering mortgages by the end of 2010), music (even doing exclusive distribution deals with artists like Faithless), book retailing, being a media owner in its own right…

1. Physical location – there are Tesco shops up and down the country of all shapes and sizes, serving all markets. It is mass market.

2. It has the biggest loyalty card in the UK – The Tesco Clubcard. The company who numbercrunch the clubcard and sales data provide amazing analytics for the supermarket to inform the product buying process – which products do or don’t get picked , which get marketed, data to support marketing initiatives and valuable market research data for third parties.

3. It has an online commerce operation for groceries, fashion and household and the related expertise in e-commerce, logistics, distribution, search engine optimisation, online marketing, email marketing and more.

4. It operates in the financial services sector so has information about customer buying habits outside of Tesco for Tesco Bank customers.

5. It has magazines, posters, online advertising – all revenue (and ultimately profit) generating.

6. It has a mobile network which is growing fast. And it has all the associated data that goes with that – call and SMS patterns, mobile data usage – all linked to the clubcard and transaction data.

7. It now has mobile apps – and a growing suite of them. And an ethos that “simpler is better”. You can read more about Tesco’s foray into the world of mobile apps at Nick Lansley’s TechForTesco blog.

8. They know how to negotiate deals and how to work with suppliers to drive down the cost of production to improve their profit margins (this is not always good for the producer, but Tesco has this down to a fine art.

9. They’re focused on customers - customer service and getting the in-store experience right (not perfect, but good enough enough of the time that customers are satisfied) is key. They spend a fortune on staff training which includes customer service. And they have staff on hand to answer your queries and give you a smile (mostly) when you shop with them. I don’t know if this is replicated with the online shopping experience or not as I don’t use Tesco for online shopping.

10. It has really deep pockets. Like really deep. Did I mention they’ve been making £6,000 a minute PROFIT?

So what if Tesco were to really take on the mobile world? What might it look like?

Well, the app store would be more focussed and better organised (simpler is better). The apps perhaps could be bought on a wholesale basis rather than a revenue share. That way, rather than piling it high and selling it cheap, a proper selection process could happen and the app store’s shelf space would be limited (just like it is in real life). You’d earn loyalty points with each sale. Points can be used against rewards or money off any of your shopping at Tesco (whether that’s Tesco Mobile or your grocery shopping). Not only that, but the developers might be able to negotiate a better revenue share deal.

And what about if we looked beyond the app store. How about if Tesco provided suppliers (be that FMCG, mobile apps, clothing, whatever) with a full-service marketing option. Customer insight (based on transaction data plus mobile data cross matched with qualitative stuff and all opt-in) with multiple routes to market via mobile, magazine, posters (digital and physical posters), product placement, shelf offers (digital and physical), location-based (based on your usual local store and/or your actual physical location). Add in cross-marketing opportunities between different media and apps across the Tesco portfolio – now that would be a very powerful offering.

And what about if Tesco were to take on some web 2.0 and mobile 2.0 principles and built-in customer collaboration, accessibility to the tools which isn’t just based on how much money you have, and working with producers and suppliers to help them improve the supply chain process to cut costs and improve margins?

Could that happen? Would that happen? Would we want it to happen? (I can see there are a whole bunch of data privacy issues looming with it – will data monopolies be banned like company monopolies are?)

Are the network operators still making so much more money that they make Tesco look like chicken feed? Is Tesco the David to the MNO’s Goliath?

Comments, thoughts?

Technorati Tags: mobile,m-commerce,mobile marketing,future of mobile

More mobile news on a Monday morning

I’ve been saving links galore and keeping browser tabs open for weeks now with a view to sharing them or blogging them at some point so here are my Top 3 for the day.

Tech Media Invest 100 – the 2010 list

The companies listed have been picked for their innovation and creativity over the past year in areas as diverse as flirting services, games and music recognition. There are some great companies in there – many of whom I know from the mobile world already like Shazam, Rummble, Flirtomatic, Mippin and Jeego. But there are many others on the list I don’t know and most definitely warrant further investigation. Winners will be announced at the Tech Media Invest 2010 event on 18 October and will receive free legal advice from Kemp Little (who also kindly support Mobile Monday London) and free financial consulting advice from PwC. Enjoy!

Music and mobile

Another one from The Guardian, this article is about the art of building an album as a mobile application from musician, Oliver Blank. It’s an interesting insight into an artist and their take on how to use digital technology, including mobile apps and be creative with it, but also be commercial. Sharing is high on Oliver’s list and he trusts his listeners to pay for his music if they really like it. Well worth a read for some forward thinking in both apps and music.

Common sense advice for  experienced and wannabe mobile marketers

Mobile Marketing Magazine editor, David Murphy, has written up a really good article about best practice tips he learned at the recent MobileSquared Roadshow (which I couldn’t attend due to illness). In the article, David shares an in-depth case study about student recruitment for the University of Hertfordshire (I like to think that maybe my lectures there about mobile marketing a few years back helped this along a bit ;) ). But not only that, David also shares InMobi’s, James Lamberti’s, presentation dispelling some myths and common mis-assumptions about mobile marketing:

1. Mobile is just like the desktop
2. Can we talk about what’s new?
3. Do you offer hyper-targeting?
4. Where are your best practices?
5. Consumers are not ready
6. No thanks, I prefer to wait

Rather than diving deep here, I’m going to let you read David’s article instead.

And I also recommend you take a look at the latest issue of Mobile Marketing Magazine’s print and digital edition – a really good read.

Technorati Tags: mobile marketing,mobile music,tech start-ups,Tech Media Invest,mobile advertising

Sustainability in the 21st Century… some food for thought

My twitter pal, Dan Thomas posted this picture the other day on twitter.

In case you’re looking at this from a small screen, it says ‘Approx 1 million tonnes of textiles are thrown away each year in the UK. Only a 1/4 of this is recycled’.

Then I read another tweet that ‘25% of books are never sold and 60% of magazines are never read’. And that means a lot of books and magazines are pulped.

Next I stumbled across Monty Munford’s recent article for The Telegraph on the rubbish that India has to deal with.

So you might assume that maybe going digital is a good thing as it means less waste…. And then I saw this tweet from James Cridland:

"Spotify uses the same amount of bandwidth as all of Sweden has combined; and that's to cover only 7 million people." #radiodays

Hmm. Something to think about. Well, it made me stop and think at least. Maybe you too.

Technorati Tags: sustainability,recycling,bandwidth consumption,garbage,pollution

MePlease launches today and shares interesting case studies

It’s about time I blogged a few things as it has been a while and I feel no better place to start than with MePlease. I’ve known about MePlease for some time now as I met the founder, Steve Jarrett, over a year ago at The Tuttle Club and it was then that I first heard about his plans to launch a new company to provide mobile and social marketing services to retailers. Some of you may know that this is a topic close to my heart having spent my early career in fashion retail and more than 10 years ago, was part of the start-up team at ZagMe, the world’s first location-based mobile marketing service (sadly no longer). With all that in mind, I am certainly critical of mobile marketing services to retailers – sometimes overly so. But that’s because I’ve been there, done that and can quickly see the holes in a new service. I’m pleased to say that this isn’t the case with MePlease. With several solid and successful client campaigns under their belt, they’re now in full launch mode and sent me their latest press release.

So what is MePlease and what’s so special about them?

MePlease is an integrated social and mobile marketing platform that provides businesses with powerful ways to engage customers on their mobiles, along with easy social media sharing. Just as importantly, their platform gives people using MePlease complete control over which businesses can interact with them and how often. [I like the fact they’re combining ubiquitous SMS with mobile web and social media. No, SMS couponing isn’t unique, they’re not the first to do it, but I believe they’re doing it right, and I know for a fact they have a strong management and investment team.] And you can see how it works in this short video clip featuring Me Please's Cait Roberts (you may recognise her from TechfluffTV and Mobile Monday London.

MePlease In Action at PizzaExpress from MePlease on Vimeo.

The MePlease team also tell me that its mobile social platform makes any marketing campaign interactive, measurable and shareable. It has the ability to include voting, competitions, customer feedback, location check-ins and the sending of treats and promotions.  Using SMS, mobile web, facebook and more, this enables companies to help achieve specific business goals such as increasing loyalty, acquiring new customers, and driving footfall. MePlease provides a seamless experience with social media, especially Facebook’s Open Graph, making it easy for anyone to share MePlease treats and invitations with friends.  Importantly, however, with MePlease customers are in control of what companies they hear from and how often. Unlike mobile location or voucher-based applications, MePlease works on any phone and can connect with any business or service, from national brands to small businesses. [Sounds pretty comprehensive to me and worth a look if your game is retail. And I know they also have ways to be location-based without a customer needing to have a smartphone.]

Pizza Express ‘Create Your Pizza Challenge’ Campaign

PizzaExpress, the UK’s favourite high-street pizzeria (well, it’s certainly my favourite high-street pizzeria and a firm favourite with the Mobile Monday London team), is among the first to take advantage of the MePlease’s integrated social media and mobile platform in an upcoming national campaign.

PizzaExpress is using the MePlease system to enable interactive customer voting during the final round of their ‘Create Your Pizza Challenge’, which has already drawn over 48,000 entries since the competition opened (not too shabby a response I would say). Through on-table displays in every PizzaExpress locations from October 18th to November 14th, customers will be prompted to text-in their vote for one of the five finalist pizzas they would like to see on the menu. Once customers text-in, they will also be able to post their vote directly to Facebook to encourage viral sharing via MePlease.

John Sullivan, Director of Group IT at Gondola Group, (PizzaExpress’s parent company), said, “We really like that MePlease enables us to directly engage with our customers using their trusted one-to-one communication channel.  Recently over 10% of our MePlease users texted in for a special lunch event at our Richmond restaurant; this response rate was very encouraging and happened within 15 minutes of sending the initial call to action.” [We had similar response rates to this when we launched ZagMe so I’m not surprised at this figure. It is most definitely achievable.]

Steve Jarrett, CEO and Founder of MePlease commented, "Most businesses know they should be doing more with mobile and social media. I am hugely proud that our world-class team has created such a powerful, yet simple and fun way for businesses to engage with their customers and friends – while allowing each person to retain complete control about what they receive and from whom. There’s nothing else like the MePlease service available today and I’m really excited about the ways in which businesses are already using the platform.”

MePlease’s current clients include: PizzaExpress, Cineworld, Jack Wills, Nimax Theatre Group, Jongleur’s Comedy Clubs, Ted Baker, Waxy O’Connors’ Pubs, 333 Holdings, Kick Fitness, Tonicity Spa, William Thomas Hair, House Keepers London, Got Fitness and Fancy Dress.

And if you think this Pizza Express campaign is a one-off, then they’ve also achieved great results with many more, including the  Tragus Group (Bella Pasta, Strada and Cafe Rouge):

Project: 6 month trial at selected Tragus locations in London in order to prove viability of national rollout to 250+ UK restaurants

Key Results: 

• 9% average text redemption rate
• 53% redemption rate for single campaign
• 20% joined via sharing or signing up online

And also Jongleurs:

Project: Promote Jongleurs’ new comedy club Sway, Covent Garden London during August, a typically quiet month

Key Results:

• Drove up to 25% of the club’s footfall on Friday
  nights during one month, including ticket sales and
  food/beverage purchase
• Increased ROI by 40% in one month

“We are really pleased with the results of our first MePlease campaign. From a sales and marketing perspective, August is our most challenging month so the fact that MePlease filled up to a quarter of our seats that month is a truly outstanding result.”
- Will Beckett, Operations Manager, Jongleurs

Technorati Tags: mobile marketing,sms marketing,retail marketing,pizza express,MePlease,mobile advertising,sms advertising

A little bit of Glastonbury goes to Oxon

This September a little piece of Glastonbury comes to West Oxfordshire with the first ever Battstock Music Festival.

Battstock is a 1-day event sponsored by Wychwood Brewery and hosted in the grounds of The Batt School in Witney and is being held in order to raise funds for The Batt School Association.

Some of the best live acts around including, Danny & The Champions of The World and The Epstein are lined up to play along with Oxfordshire bands Les Clochards and Quadrophobe. Also on the bill are singer Daisy Chapman from Bristol and the perfect pop of London-based Jonathan Haselden plus there will be an appearance by youngsters from the Witchwood School of Rock.

There will also be food, stalls, a bar, music workshops, a bouncy castle, face painting and plenty of things to keep children entertained apart from the music.

Battstock is the brainchild of dear friend and online music promoter Adrian Phillips of TunA the Day http://www.tunatheday.com and Graeme Merrifield who runs the prestigious and rather wonderful, Wychwood Festival which I visited for the first time this year (and thoroughly enjoyed). All profits will go to The Batt School Association. 

Battstock

Sat 11 Sept - Gates open 1pm - Live music from 2pm – 9.30pm

Adults £5  |  under 16s £2

Tickets available from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/86482

And if you purchase online before the end of august you could win tickets to next year’s Wychwood Festival, £100 of CDs or cases of Wychwood beer.

You can also order by phone on tel 0845 257 4938 or from Rapture Entertainment record store in Witney.

Want to know more? Then check out the Promo video

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: festival,music,UK,Witney,Oxon,Oxfordshire,Batt School