24^th March 2010

For the first time in Ireland Irish mobile services company, Digital Reach Group (DRG) can reveal the true state of the Irish smartphone market. The research is being uncovered in advance of the launch of the iPhone this week from Vodafone. 

With an advertising network that covers a range of the most popular websites in Ireland, DRG has produced statistical estimates on smartphone market share, usage patterns and the amount of iPhones in circulation.  DRG’s ad network, known as Adforce, consists of RTE, Vodafone, Meteor and Bebo and served up a total of 80 million ads in seven months reaching over 500,000 people.  “An analysis of the mobile web traffic to our network gives a valid representation of the market share of devices and the usage patterns of users,” said DRG’s Operations Director Gavan Drohan.

The key findings of DRG’s research are:

• Approximately 250,000 iPhones are currently active on Irish networks
• While O2 makes up the highest proportion of iPhone mobile traffic at 35%, 10% of iPhone traffic already comes from Vodafone iPhone devices ahead of the company launching the handset. The remainder of the traffic is made of Wifi access as users often have wifi access at home and in work
• The most popular individual smartphone handset is the Apple iPhone followed by handsets from Nokia’s E and N series and Blackberry’s 8000 series respectively
• iPhone traffic was static between September and November 2009 but increased by 50% in December 2009 versus November.   This is possibly due to O2’s free iPhone offer in advance of the end of its exclusivity deal with Apple for the handset
• Apple traffic on the network is divided at 82% for the iPhone and 18% for the iPod Touch
• Google’s Android system is a new entrant into the Irish market but is making rapid inroads at 0.5% already since the launch of HTC’s Hero handset on Meteor last October
• Peaks and troughs in usage are less pronounced for iPhones than other devices, as people tend to use them far more regularly throughout the day. This reinforces the idea that there are benefits to combining excellent usability with an attractive data tariff.
• The top five handset manufacturers on the network are 1. Nokia  2. Sony Ericsson 3. Research In Motion (Blackberry) 4. Samsung 5. Apple

“There is a lot of hype about the mobile apps gold rush but these figures show that this is truly an exciting time for app developers and the mobile industry.  There is something of a format war for developers that Apple are clearly winning but we note that Google’s Android system is making rapid inroads into the market too.  As more Android handsets become available from different manufacturers this year, it may start to eat into the iPhone’s market share,” added Drohan.

The research also reveals that the iPhone Touch is a notable success as a home internet browser.  DRG’s Managing Director Colm Grealy added “The proportion of users browsing over wifi at home and work explains why manufacturers are rushing out tablet devices.  Mobile internet is now here and the public are increasingly more inclined to go online on these handheld devices.  This means that businesses without a mobile web strategy must look at the medium now or risk being left behind.”

For more information please contact:

Bernice Burnside or Thomas Brunkard

Bvisible Communications, 01- 845 2401 or email bernice@bvisible.ie or thomas@bvisible.ie

Editors Note

DRG’s Operations Director Gavan Drohan is readily available to comment on the above.  At DRG Drohan manages the team responsible for campaign delivery.  He also curates the company’s statistics on the mobile market, usage and device segmentation. 

Prior to DRG Drohan worked with O2 Ireland where he was responsible for establishing O2’s advertising unit in 2007. As part of their new business unit, Gavan was tasked with identifying future areas of revenue growth for O2 in the area of advertising. 

Prior to that role Drohan was responsible for the launch of O2’s first smartphones and device product development. Drohan has also worked for Motorola and Amdahl. 

About DRG 

Irish digital communications company Digital Reach Group (DRG) was established in September 2009 and comprises two divisions.  Adforce is its advertising network and sales division and provides a single point of contact for media agencies and brands wishing to buy advertising across a number of the most visited mobile Internet sites in Ireland.  A second division, Digital Reach offers a full end-to -end service to website publishers including advertising sales, apps and the ad-serving technology. 

DRG currently employs 10 people from its Dublin offices with plans for expansion in the coming months. 

Existing clients include RTE, Meteor, Vodafone, Bebo and the HSE.  More information can be found at www.drg.ie

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Click here to read an Irish Times article covering Irish involvement in the World Congress.

Irish digital communications company Digital Reach Group (DRG) has agreed an exclusive deal with mobile phone network operator Meteor to provide advertising sales services, together with the ad serving technology, for Meteor’s mobile web portal. Meteor now has over one million customers on its network with its mobile portal providing News, Music, Sport, Entertainment and Games content.

Meteor now joins Bebo and Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE as a customer of DRG’s expanding mobile advertising network, Adforce.ie. In the four months since starting business over 30 million ads have been served up through Adforce.ie, marking a successful start to the venture.

Commenting on the deal Meteor’s Director of Advanced Product Development, Elaine Robinson, of Meteor said: “Much of a consumer’s daily information is now coming from their phone so mobile is becoming ever more integral as an information resource. DRG showed us the greatest understanding on how best to monetise our online content. Their solution strikes the perfect balance between the user’s experience and the advertiser’s needs.”

A recent IDC report revealed that despite consumer confidence bottoming out last year, internet equipped smart phones continue to sell well with a 49% increase in December on the same month last year.

Colm Grealy, CEO of DRG Group and Adforce said: “These figures demonstrate that interest in mobile media is growing unchecked by the recession as more consumers become mobile web users. Shrinking advertising budgets coupled with the value and precision of mobile web advertising have buoyed industry interest in our technologies and sites, which are some of the most visited mobile Internet sites in Ireland.”

The announcement is made as DRG Group exhibits at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from 15th February as part of an Enterprise Ireland delegation. Speaking of the company’s attendance at the event Grealy added: “The potential for mobile to be a driver for investment is immense and it is an honour to be part of the Irish delegation at a very prestigious event on the industry’s calendar. The mobile sector could become a major driver for jobs and investment in Ireland as it continues to rebound against the downturn.”

A Daily Mail article on this announcement appears below:

To set up a meeting email kevin@adforce.ie

or call us directly on +353 87 781 7891.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Click here for the official Mobile World Congress web site.

Floor Plan below – click here to view a full size version of the floor plan.

The DIT mobile site enabled prospective students to find out more about the DIT open day, request a prospectus and click to call the college admissions office.

The full story is available on the HSE site

http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/itstops.html

DRG.ie will create a number of companies to service the multi-faceted mobile Internet sector. The first of these is Adforce, which provides a single point of contact for advertisers who want to market their products to mobile Internet users. The company is working with such prestigious clients as RTÉ, Bebo and Vodafone.

“We have every intention of being at the forefront of the smart economy and with this will come jobs,” said managing director, Colm Grealy. “Internet usage on mobile devices is growing at a phenomenal rate and this provides new opportunities to commercialise this shift.”

More than two-thirds of the population now regard themselves as Internet users, according to a comprehensive survey conducted for Comreg in July 2009 by MillwardBrown Lansdowne. The survey also found that almost one in five people in Ireland were already using mobile devices to access the Internet. With mobile ownership in Ireland running at more than 100% and all new handsets now Internet-enabled, this figure is likely to increase exponentially over the next few years.

Social networking sites, for example, are seeing a rapid rise in mobile access. In August 2009 alone, Facebook counted 65m visitors accessing the site from mobile phones worldwide – a dramatic increase from last December’s figure of 20m.

“The sites of network operators, information content providers and social media are growing in popularity,” Grealy said. “These mobile pioneers are leading the way that others will surely follow very quickly as they realise the potential gains from mobile.”

The management team’s extensive experience in the areas of Internet, mobile marketing and new media has attracted equity and technology investment from MIG (www.migcan.co.uk). The company topped of the Sunday Times’ Tech Track 100 index in 2008, which ranks Britain’s fastest-growing private tech companies based on sales growth over the previous three years.

Barry Houlihan, MIG’s chief executive and founder, described the investment in DRG.ie as “a massive vote of confidence in the management team and what it will achieve in Ireland”.

“MIG’s significant technology expertise in mobile advertising will ensure that the Adforce business grows quickly into Ireland’s leading mobile advertising business,” he said. “Adforce has had huge success already winning premium contracts and its management team will be working closely with our UK market leading mobile advertising agency 4th Screen to develop existing commercial, brand and agency relationships to drive the growth of mobile advertising in the Irish market.”

DRG.ie has retained Dublin firm Matheson Ormsby Prentice as its legal advisers.

Tech Media Invest 2009 is aimed at the whole spectrum of tech and media companies in the UK – from fresh start ups with the next generation of technologies, through fast growing, investor-backed platforms right through to those riding the big waves in the market right now.

Mobile Interactive Group will shortly be releasing their financial results year end 30th April 2009, demonstrating exceptional year on year growth.

The top 100 companies have been published in The Guardian newspaper supplement today and the top 50 companies will be showcased within the dedicated investment forum on 1st October at the Emirates Stadium, London.

The Top 100 list comprises of the following:
• Top 10 – these are the UK’s top 10 entrepreneurial tech and media companies as ranked and judged by the Advisory Board
• The rest of the Top 100 – the 90 best UK emerging and innovative tech and media companies
• Trailblazers – 10 companies chosen by the Advisory Board because they have all flourished in new tech and media markets

Objectives: The “Fly the Flag for Football” campaign aimed to create excitement around both the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup, whilst building an opted-in database for future mobile advertising campaigns. Fly the Flag turned to Yonder Mobile Media to create and execute a mobile campaign that directly engaged the target audience.

Strategy: The campaign commenced with a pull campaign that urged consumers to SMS ‘Flag’ to 41929 or to go to the mobile website www.flythesouthafricanflag.mobi to enter. Consumers who SMS’d in got a message back with a link to the flythesouthafricanflag mobile website.

In order to win tickers for themselves and 3 friends to various FIFA Confederation Cup 2009 matches the consumers had to answer two questions of which the answers could be found on the mobi site. They also had to provide the names and numbers of the three friends with whom they would share the tickets if they won. The referred friends received a personalized SMS that motivated them to click on the mobile website link to also enter the competition and to opt-in for updates.

A follow-up campaign was also launched with an SMS to the database notifying them that there were 365 days left until the kick off of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Results: The campaign had a 72% response and click-through rate. This percentage shows the number of consumers who visited the mobile website, profiled themselves, answered the questions and referred three friends after engaging with the Fly the Flag competition via SMS short code. The winners were easily selected from the real time report, which provided the client with accurate information on each entrant as well as the friends that each entrant referred. This proves that when integrated properly within a “traditional” campaign, incentive based mobile marketing has an extremely viral effect.

Courtesy: Mobile Marketing Association

By Jeff Hasen, Chief Marketing Officer, HipCricket

Years from now, when the mobile phone really is the remote control for life, historians will best be in position to gauge the 2007-09 contributions of Steve Jobs and Apple’s iPhone.

One may argue that the iPhone did more for the advancement of mobile marketing than any other piece of hardware.

According to a recent survey from Crowd Science, 38 percent of smart phone owners who don’t own an Apple iPhone would “probably” or “definitely” switch when making their next purchase. That article isn’t looking to demystify the iPhone, but it does aim to highlight an important point: Despite the unbounded enthusiasm for the device and the mania surrounding its mobile applications, the iPhone represents only a small fraction of today’s opportunity for marketers.

As of the end of second-quarter 2009, Apple had sold “only” 26 million iPhones, according to Apple (I agree the number is incredibly impressive, but let me finish). What this means is that there are approximately 244 million mobile phone subscribers in the U.S. who are not using the iPhone, according to statistics provided by CTIA.

Translation: If you are dedicating a significant amount of your marketing budget and effort to targeting just 9 percent of your potential audience, you’re selling yourself short.

The reality is that mobile marketing is not a one-hit wonder, but rather a robust pyramid comprised of several layers that individually and collectively can elevate a brand’s awareness and drive positive consumer action. At the bottom is SMS. According to CTIA, more than 160 million people in the U.S. are on a text plan and the average age of a “texter” is 38. Taking these numbers into account it should surprise no one to discover that SMS gives brands the greatest reach and taps into the behaviors and interests of hundreds of millions, all through a simple 160-character message. SMS is a proven mobile-marketing weapon that is driving brand awareness right now.

As you move up the pyramid, the next layer introduces mobile Web/WAP sites. According to the Kelsey Group, there are 54.5 million mobile Internet users on a regular basis. Add to that the fact that more than 172 million phones are capable of browsing the Web and it’s easy to the see the value these sites can bring to a brand.

Moving up the pyramid, you come to the social networking tier. Did you know that in January alone, comScore reports more than 27 million people accessed a social networking site from their mobile phone? Furthermore, experts from CCS Insight recently released the results of “Report on Mobile Internet Usage, 2009,” which found that a third of young adults are regularly accessing Facebook and Twitter from their mobile phones. By creating a branded Facebook page, companies can connect with this audience, giving them a chance to engage with the brands they care about as well as other brand devotees, all from their mobile phone.

On the next tier of our pyramid resides the mobile banner ad. The banner has been a core component of online advertising campaigns for years and now is making its mark in the mobile world. One example is Wiley Publishing. As part of its mobile marketing campaign, the makers of the For Dummies series launched a series of banners ads that in about three months delivered more than 1.3 million impressions and produced a 1.4 percent click-through rate, which is four times that of the more traditional online component, according to Wiley. This superior click-through rate agrees with findings from Verizon Wireless, which at the 2009 Mobile Advertising Degree conference shared its experiences. Specifically, Verizon found its mobile banner ad click-though rates to be 2 percent, compared to the .3 percent achieved from the online counterparts.

The final layer of the mobile-marketing pyramid ironically brings us right back to where we started — the mobile application. While it’s true that the number of iPhone users pales in comparison to the total number of mobile users, the fact is that adoption is growing and the power and influence of these applications will undoubtedly follow suit. Add to that the emergence of the BlackBerry App Store, the Google Android Application Store and the upcoming releases of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile (the new application store for Windows Mobile) and it’s easy to see how mobile applications will become more pervasive and influential. In fact, Jupiter reports that revenues from mobile applications will top $25 billion by 2014.

The mobile phone may fit nicely into your pocket, but mobile marketing’s limits reach much farther. Whether your brand taps into one layer or all layers, the opportunities exist to drive your brand to new heights, and the iPhone is just part of the equation.

Courtesy: Mobile Marketing Association