@ Mipcom: What Needs to Be Resolved In Mobile Business Models

(c) MocoNews

Besides InfoSpace's own cloudy future, of course...Infospace president Stephen Davis spoke at Mipcom, and said the long-term value proposition for mobile TV has yet to be written: "We're trying a lot of things and experimenting, waiting to see what the customer will adopt and what they will pay for and what the elasticity is. Ultimately, as the ad model becomes more sophisticated we'll see that advertising represents a far better model for monetizing content long term than it does today."
– Davis did not have an answer for what that monetization will look like and when it will happen. But he says there is much to be learnt from the trials of monetizing broadband services, not least that a different system of quantifying mobile ads might be needed. "We're talking to advertising agencies and big brands looking to buy and the traditional CPM model does not work for them. Yet they under that mob represents one of most targeted, relevant distribution channels for delivering their message so we almost need to adopt a different measurement system to quantify the value for them - particularly in US where markets are becoming much more verticalized. We're focusing on very specific segments of demographics in a way haven't been able to in search, for instance."
– He said Infospace's research into ad forms had found product placement to be the most accepted and least obtrusive way of monetizing content. "You give the consumer a reason to experience even a two or three second banner ad or click on a product placement plug - give them an incentive like a credit or a ringtone - and then give them that content for free. It's a Pavlov's dog mentality that you can develop over the long term of content delivery. Product placement is the most accepted and least obtrusive for now. I don't know if that is long term but it works for now."
– And what will those ad and sponsorship models look like? "Cable TV is the most relevant model. The all-you-can eat mentality is a mentality across broadband, and even linear platforms, that consumers like and are most comfortable with." He described the current market as still predominantly about personalization with 80 percent of revenues for most US mobile companies coming from ringtones. "In the short term, a combination of a subscription model bundled with an а la carte option to up-sell or cross-sell individual pieces of content is a pretty decent model for creators or owners of IP to fully maximize the value of what they have."
– Davis, a former president of Granada America and Carlton America, said established brands like MTV have a clear advantage in the mobile environment. "Once the consumer is drawn in by the brand then you can wrap them in original content." Discovery is still one of the biggest issues in mobile content: "It's irrespective of how good the content is if you can't find it, it takes multiple clicks and it's a poor user experience. Consumers are very fickle and have so many alternatives they will not adopt mobile as a primary distribution channel for consumption of video or anything else." He said the first step in planning the delivery is any content is to work out how it will be found, and that subscription is the cleanest package for content producers.

Technorati tags: mobile TV