Consumers want 'Return Gift' from Mobile Advertisers

As mobile advertising grows, consumers are becomingly increasingly wise not to be lured by the ads. In fact, according to a latest online study, they are now looking for something in return from these advertisers as the price for standing these 'irritating and intrusive' ads.

The study also found that these ads became more receptive when users found free content with them. For example, a number of companies are giving out free downloads with their mobile ads. It was also discovered that users in developed countries were the least receptive to these ads. Whereas, developing countries had a relatively more tolerant mobile user base.

As a consequence, mobile marketing associations around the globe are formulating strategies to suit their targeted segment and to ensure that they keep away from intrusive tactics and spam advertising.

So, the next time your phone rings, better check it out... you never know what lies in store for you!

Buyers awaiting Google Phone

The air is rife with speculation that search engine kingpin Google is planning to launch its phone in near future. As per latest industry news, the company has already made huge amount of investment in this 'dream' project.

To be known as GPhone, the handset will have compatibility to other Google products like Gmail, Google Search and Google Maps. This means, as a user, we will have the all-inclusive world of Google at our disposal through one mobile phone. It is rumoured that the production contracts for GPhone will be given to a variety of manufacturers. However, another faction believes that the contract will be awarded on the basis of an auction.

Google itself is mum about the project, but a few insiders claim that the company is actually in talks with a few reputed mobile networks and handset manufacturers to customise Google applications in mobile phones.

Even though experts insist that the project will still take some time to take off, buyers in the mobile phone market are eagerly waiting to have a dekko at this supposedly high-profile product.

Microsoft and Ask.com come to small businesses' aid

Small online businesses, rejoice! Global search engine industry giants have come to the aid of your betterment. Microsoft and Ask.com have joined hands to come up with a special scheme, wherein Microsoft Office Live users can get advertising access from Ask.com.

Office Live adManager's beta advertising service will now comprise this special service. Now you can access and manage your keyword advertising accounts directly. In fact, you also have the option of buying advertisements from MSN, Live Search and Ask Sponsored Listings.

Online marketing experts are more than happy with this latest development. In fact, top bosses of Microsoft are going gaga with the coming together of two extremely popular search engines – the first collaboration of its kind. This 'contextual targeting' service is being touted as a platform for small businesses to understand and work on search engine marketing modules.

This scheme is all set to give Google's AdSense programme a tough run for its money. The latter has been extremely successful mainly because it has not faced strong enough competition in the market. With the advent of this power-packed collaboration, Google's might is surely to be put to test.

Wikipedia is new Online News King

The free online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia has notched up the top spot in the list of best online news and information destinations. Latest surveys praise Wiki to the skies, as the site claims to have had more than 46.8 million visitors in May 2007. Right behind it is Weather Channel – more than ten million visitors away!

Users love this site because of its feature of real time editing, wherein a news story is presented as an article laden with facts, within few minutes of breaking out. Take the Virginia Tech Shootout incident or the launch of Apple iPhone, Wikipedia was one of the first information sources to present these stories.

And, the best part is, this is a people's forum. Common users collaborate with qualified editors to write articles. Even press reporters are now referring to this site for their stories. Indeed, it is happy time for news mongers!

LAND ROVERing the markets!

Land Rover is considering launching a smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicle in an attempt to shed its image as one of the worst polluters in the car industry. The news comes as regulatory and consumer pressure grows on carmakers to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Land Rover is already taking steps to lower emissions from its existing line-up and runs one of the car industry's largest carbon-offsetting programmes. But its smallest vehicle, the Freelander compact sports utility vehicle (SUV), emits 194g of CO2 per km compared with a target of an average of 140g per km being proposed by the European Union by 2008.

Geoff Polites, who runs Land Rover and sister marque Jaguar, told the Financial Times: "Part of the process will include downsizing and smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles."

Land Rover and Jaguar's parent company Ford is "reviewing options" for the brands, which is widely expected to lead to a sale.

"And which market do you cater to?"

The evolution of our mature marketplace, along with the technology that allows consumers to be in control, has created a seismic shift from one-size-fits-all mass markets to millions of markets of self interest. All mature markets inevitably evolve into this kind of economy, driven by ever-narrower markets of desire and ever-narrower facets of individual self-identities.
Obviously, as every market matures, choice increases. Then competition drives up quality and convenience to the point at which offerings become 'commoditized'. The only businesses that then thrive are those that move beyond "me-too" or incremental offerings to marketing more-relevant and more differentiated products and services. The only way to accomplish this is to focus on a narrower target.

The 'How To' Concept

All right guys, we have had much to talk about the well known and new technologies with respect to niche marketing but now let's go "Old School". Yes, one of the oldest tricks in the books is the "How To' trick. It might be the easiest exercise but indeed, is the safest bet.
Visualise this, "How to Start your business with $1?" "How to lose 10kg in 10 days?" "How to control your clients without moving a limb?" and so on...
No matter how much, you may critiscise the speaker's intentions or call the action as spam or simply, not trust the claim, it definitely does create the necassary curiosity and makes you visit the content/intended page at least once.
So that is the One chance you can get to woo your target audience and get what you can, by a simple method like this.