Milk mobile markets
Even if smartphones are now gaining in importance in our country, they will only have a very modest share of the media mix in the next few years.
Smartphones have been booming since Apple announced the iPhone in 2007 and it officially went on sale in Switzerland last year. Market leader Swisscom sold around 267,000 iPhones between July 11, 2008 and June 31, 2009 and reports that one in five cell phones sold last year was a smartphone, twice as many as in 2007. Competitor Orange does not disclose sales figures for the iPhone on request, but confirms the trend. And Sunrise notes that more than half of its customers have a subscription contract for high-speed data traffic (UMTS). The industry estimates that around one million smartphones will be in use in Switzerland by the end of the year.
10 percent on weekdays, 20 percent on Sundays
Media companies have not overlooked this trend and have made their websites fit for mobile devices in recent years. Because mobile screens are much smaller and data transmission is much more expensive, websites have to be stripped of visual ballast, which can be largely automated with modern software. As a result, mobile surfing is rapidly becoming a mainstream phenomenon: Marc Lamarche, responsible for mobile at Edipresse, reports monthly growth of 10 percent with currently 2 million page views and 200,000 visitors. On weekdays, mobile traffic at LeMatin.ch accounts for 10 percent of web traffic and on Sundays even a fifth. According to the Ringier press office, Blick mobil recorded 336,943 visits with 2.3 million page views in September 2009. At NZZ Online, Michael Näf, Head of Product Management NZZ Online, registers 320,000 mobile visits with 1 million page impressions per month.
Apps are winning the race
However, mobile websites are a thing of the past in the Internet world - mobile applications are the order of the day: small programs, so-called apps, which can be downloaded and installed on the smartphone. As with the iPhone, Apple has a dominant position in this business. On September 28, the 2 billionth download of an application was reported, of which there are over 85,000 in the App Store. Such applications can be free or have a price tag, with 30 percent of the price remaining in Apple's coffers. Since this summer, it has also been possible to sell subscriptions in paid applications, for example for additional content such as new levels in games or additional cities in city guides or to subscribe to further issues of a magazine.
Swiss publishers have also jumped on this bandwagon: 20 Minuten and Blick have it, Tagi and the other Newsnetz titles have it anyway, and NZZ is testing it and wants to start next, the Aargauer Zeitung has it, as do various SRG business units - they all offer iPhone customers free applications so that they can access their content as easily and conveniently as possible while on the move. Such applications not only offer news in text and images, but also videos and radio programs. When there is breaking news, text messages are displayed and anyone who wants to can take part in surveys, consult event calendars, horoscopes, television programs or advertisements. News can be downloaded at home or in the office via WLAN so that it can be read on the move without a data connection, which is often still expensive.
Marc Lamarche from Edipresse reveals usage figures that show where the journey is heading: The number of visits via an iPhone application are three (Le Matin and 24 heures) to four times (Tribune de Genève) higher than via the mobile websites. Three to five and a half times more pages are called up, but this can be attributed to the fact that the application program calls them up without the user ever looking at them. For Mike A. Weber, Head of Mobile Business at AdLink Media, it is clear that apps are much better received by the public than the corresponding offers on mobile browsers, as they are simpler and easier to use. While newer advertising formats, such as interstitials or splash sites, are only used in isolated cases, advertisements via image banners are accepted here and do not trigger any negative reactions from the audience. Patrik Rauch from Mindshare (GroupM) assumes that pure, classic display advertising without the corresponding benefits will only appeal to mobile users to a limited extent. Intelligent communication concepts such as location-based services, which are tailored to the mobile user, are needed for success.
With the handbrake on
Despite the boom in smartphones, publishers are not yet earning any money with them. Although better prices are paid for advertising on mobile devices than on the Internet, Ringier, for example, is still "very slow" in terms of ad sales, according to press spokesman Stefan Hackh. And he goes on to analyze: "Interestingly, it is not due to traffic, but on the one hand to the ignorance of advertising customers and on the other hand to the problem that advertisers can place a banner, but lack the mobile website to do so." At the NZZ, Michael Näf has observed "lively demand from the advertising market" and also notes: "However, booking behavior is still reserved." Marc Lamarche from Edipresse shares this assessment, but he knows: "Advertisers who have worked with us are very satisfied with the campaigns", because the results in the mobile area are currently higher than those in the conventional web.
Roger Keller from Zed digital (ZenithOptimedia) also confirms that customers are still unwilling to invest in a new advertising channel, especially as the focus of efforts does not allow for test runs in difficult economic times. In his opinion, the offers of the mobile platforms have recently become "more attractive than ever". The cross-media packages are particularly interesting in purchasing. Patrik Rauch is of a different opinion: "The prices of the providers, mainly the publishing houses, seem too high and unfounded to us." Rauch is certain that lower prices will be better able to encourage advertisers to experiment.
Mobile data hole
The development of the mobile advertising market in Switzerland is also hindered by the lack of industry data. Says Patrik Rauch: "Unfortunately, it is difficult to obtain meaningful and usable data in Switzerland." And Roger Keller echoes this sentiment: "We would like to see reliable data from all providers available here, as is usual in other media, ideally obtained from neutral third parties." Only marketers have data on the mobile advertising market today, as Mike Weber from AdLink confirms. It is based on ad management, which is managed for the major content providers, but is not published "for reasons of data protection and the exclusion of competitors". Simon Morton, CEO of Admazing, is therefore clear: "To improve the data situation, we need the cooperation of publishers and the commitment of organizations such as the IAB and Netmetrix". However, it is doubtful whether Switzerland will succeed in establishing market standards and reliable metrics for planning in the industry next year and thus catch up with other countries such as Germany. Although Rolf Schmitz, Managing Director of NET-Metrix AG, confirms that the company is looking into measuring mobile Internet usage, he adds: "However, we are still at a very early stage in our deliberations."
Profitable payment applications?
In contrast to the everything-is-free Internet, there are billing models for mobile, which is why the reader market is also being targeted. Everyone agrees that there is no money to be made from consumers with simple news and that higher-quality offers are needed. An obvious case in point is the Ringier financial portal Cash with a paid application for real-time quotes (share prices on Swiss stock exchanges in real time) and price alerts for portfolios. At 20 Minuten, online boss Hansi Voigt reveals: "We have various paid subscription applications in the pipeline. The 20 Minuten paid apps will either offer very individual benefits or a "very spectacular service". However, the basic app will remain free. Newsnetz boss Peter Wälty is also thinking about mobile paid applications and can imagine offering the content of the SonntagsZeitung and the magazine for three issues for CHF 4.40, with the option of subscribing to further issues. Meanwhile, Marc Lamarche has already launched two paid applications for the general public in June this year, which make restaurant information from the 24 heures and Tribune de Genève restaurant editorial teams in Vaud and Geneva easily accessible on the move. By September, they had been sold 900 and 1,300 times for CHF 9.90 each - which means that the earnings potential for payment applications has been explored for the time being.
Christoph J. Walther
10 percent on weekdays, 20 percent on Sundays
Media companies have not overlooked this trend and have made their websites fit for mobile devices in recent years. Because mobile screens are much smaller and data transmission is much more expensive, websites have to be stripped of visual ballast, which can be largely automated with modern software. As a result, mobile surfing is rapidly becoming a mainstream phenomenon: Marc Lamarche, responsible for mobile at Edipresse, reports monthly growth of 10 percent with currently 2 million page views and 200,000 visitors. On weekdays, mobile traffic at LeMatin.ch accounts for 10 percent of web traffic and on Sundays even a fifth. According to the Ringier press office, Blick mobil recorded 336,943 visits with 2.3 million page views in September 2009. At NZZ Online, Michael Näf, Head of Product Management NZZ Online, registers 320,000 mobile visits with 1 million page impressions per month.
Apps are winning the race
However, mobile websites are a thing of the past in the Internet world - mobile applications are the order of the day: small programs, so-called apps, which can be downloaded and installed on the smartphone. As with the iPhone, Apple has a dominant position in this business. On September 28, the 2 billionth download of an application was reported, of which there are over 85,000 in the App Store. Such applications can be free or have a price tag, with 30 percent of the price remaining in Apple's coffers. Since this summer, it has also been possible to sell subscriptions in paid applications, for example for additional content such as new levels in games or additional cities in city guides or to subscribe to further issues of a magazine.
Swiss publishers have also jumped on this bandwagon: 20 Minuten and Blick have it, Tagi and the other Newsnetz titles have it anyway, and NZZ is testing it and wants to start next, the Aargauer Zeitung has it, as do various SRG business units - they all offer iPhone customers free applications so that they can access their content as easily and conveniently as possible while on the move. Such applications not only offer news in text and images, but also videos and radio programs. When there is breaking news, text messages are displayed and anyone who wants to can take part in surveys, consult event calendars, horoscopes, television programs or advertisements. News can be downloaded at home or in the office via WLAN so that it can be read on the move without a data connection, which is often still expensive.
Marc Lamarche from Edipresse reveals usage figures that show where the journey is heading: The number of visits via an iPhone application are three (Le Matin and 24 heures) to four times (Tribune de Genève) higher than via the mobile websites. Three to five and a half times more pages are called up, but this can be attributed to the fact that the application program calls them up without the user ever looking at them. For Mike A. Weber, Head of Mobile Business at AdLink Media, it is clear that apps are much better received by the public than the corresponding offers on mobile browsers, as they are simpler and easier to use. While newer advertising formats, such as interstitials or splash sites, are only used in isolated cases, advertisements via image banners are accepted here and do not trigger any negative reactions from the audience. Patrik Rauch from Mindshare (GroupM) assumes that pure, classic display advertising without the corresponding benefits will only appeal to mobile users to a limited extent. Intelligent communication concepts such as location-based services, which are tailored to the mobile user, are needed for success.
With the handbrake on
Despite the boom in smartphones, publishers are not yet earning any money with them. Although better prices are paid for advertising on mobile devices than on the Internet, Ringier, for example, is still "very slow" in terms of ad sales, according to press spokesman Stefan Hackh. And he goes on to analyze: "Interestingly, it is not due to traffic, but on the one hand to the ignorance of advertising customers and on the other hand to the problem that advertisers can place a banner, but lack the mobile website to do so." At the NZZ, Michael Näf has observed "lively demand from the advertising market" and also notes: "However, booking behavior is still reserved." Marc Lamarche from Edipresse shares this assessment, but he knows: "Advertisers who have worked with us are very satisfied with the campaigns", because the results in the mobile area are currently higher than those in the conventional web.
Roger Keller from Zed digital (ZenithOptimedia) also confirms that customers are still unwilling to invest in a new advertising channel, especially as the focus of efforts does not allow for test runs in difficult economic times. In his opinion, the offers of the mobile platforms have recently become "more attractive than ever". The cross-media packages are particularly interesting in purchasing. Patrik Rauch is of a different opinion: "The prices of the providers, mainly the publishing houses, seem too high and unfounded to us." Rauch is certain that lower prices will be better able to encourage advertisers to experiment.
Mobile data hole
The development of the mobile advertising market in Switzerland is also hindered by the lack of industry data. Says Patrik Rauch: "Unfortunately, it is difficult to obtain meaningful and usable data in Switzerland." And Roger Keller echoes this sentiment: "We would like to see reliable data from all providers available here, as is usual in other media, ideally obtained from neutral third parties." Only marketers have data on the mobile advertising market today, as Mike Weber from AdLink confirms. It is based on ad management, which is managed for the major content providers, but is not published "for reasons of data protection and the exclusion of competitors". Simon Morton, CEO of Admazing, is therefore clear: "To improve the data situation, we need the cooperation of publishers and the commitment of organizations such as the IAB and Netmetrix". However, it is doubtful whether Switzerland will succeed in establishing market standards and reliable metrics for planning in the industry next year and thus catch up with other countries such as Germany. Although Rolf Schmitz, Managing Director of NET-Metrix AG, confirms that the company is looking into measuring mobile Internet usage, he adds: "However, we are still at a very early stage in our deliberations."
Profitable payment applications?
In contrast to the everything-is-free Internet, there are billing models for mobile, which is why the reader market is also being targeted. Everyone agrees that there is no money to be made from consumers with simple news and that higher-quality offers are needed. An obvious case in point is the Ringier financial portal Cash with a paid application for real-time quotes (share prices on Swiss stock exchanges in real time) and price alerts for portfolios. At 20 Minuten, online boss Hansi Voigt reveals: "We have various paid subscription applications in the pipeline. The 20 Minuten paid apps will either offer very individual benefits or a "very spectacular service". However, the basic app will remain free. Newsnetz boss Peter Wälty is also thinking about mobile paid applications and can imagine offering the content of the SonntagsZeitung and the magazine for three issues for CHF 4.40, with the option of subscribing to further issues. Meanwhile, Marc Lamarche has already launched two paid applications for the general public in June this year, which make restaurant information from the 24 heures and Tribune de Genève restaurant editorial teams in Vaud and Geneva easily accessible on the move. By September, they had been sold 900 and 1,300 times for CHF 9.90 each - which means that the earnings potential for payment applications has been explored for the time being.
Christoph J. Walther
Pragmatic solution: Wemad
There is no data. This is the complaint of media planners in Switzerland when it comes to the booming multimedia communication on mobile devices. An "official" solution from the WEMF is not in sight for the time being - and it will be difficult to achieve given the imponderables of the mobile Internet. To provide the media industry with its lifeblood, reach data, we have launched WEmad (www.wemad.org). Anyone who operates a mobile website, offers apps and soon wants to get involved in the eReader business can quickly and inexpensively document the reach figures they have collected themselves and thus create credible industry-wide comparability. This benefits everyone: website operators as well as advertisers looking for access to attractive target groups.
The name, WEmad, says it all (and is not a reference to the zeitgeist): While "mad" stands for Mobile Audience Data, i.e. the topic, WE emphasizes the collaborative approach of the solution. Above all, WE also stands for the contemporary mechanisms of social networks, with which the best possible data quality is to be achieved. Site operators can not only enter their data on WEmad, but also explain how it was obtained. Which tools were used and how? Was the data additionally processed, for example by adjusting it for internal use? Other WEmad users can evaluate and comment on the reported figures. The result is a very pragmatic industry solution that can at least achieve a good approximation. And that is certainly better than nothing at all (especially as it is free to use).
WEmad is currently online as an operational alpha version. Over the course of the coming year, the functionality will be continuously expanded in a beta phase, with as much feedback from the industry as possible being incorporated. Once a suitable version has been achieved, it will be available in all national languages instead of just in English, as is currently the case. We will publish the results of the WEmad survey for the first time in our January 21, 2010 issue, taking into account all responses received by January 11. We hope that readers of Advertising Week will respond favorably to this initiative and support its further development.
There is no data. This is the complaint of media planners in Switzerland when it comes to the booming multimedia communication on mobile devices. An "official" solution from the WEMF is not in sight for the time being - and it will be difficult to achieve given the imponderables of the mobile Internet. To provide the media industry with its lifeblood, reach data, we have launched WEmad (www.wemad.org). Anyone who operates a mobile website, offers apps and soon wants to get involved in the eReader business can quickly and inexpensively document the reach figures they have collected themselves and thus create credible industry-wide comparability. This benefits everyone: website operators as well as advertisers looking for access to attractive target groups.
The name, WEmad, says it all (and is not a reference to the zeitgeist): While "mad" stands for Mobile Audience Data, i.e. the topic, WE emphasizes the collaborative approach of the solution. Above all, WE also stands for the contemporary mechanisms of social networks, with which the best possible data quality is to be achieved. Site operators can not only enter their data on WEmad, but also explain how it was obtained. Which tools were used and how? Was the data additionally processed, for example by adjusting it for internal use? Other WEmad users can evaluate and comment on the reported figures. The result is a very pragmatic industry solution that can at least achieve a good approximation. And that is certainly better than nothing at all (especially as it is free to use).
WEmad is currently online as an operational alpha version. Over the course of the coming year, the functionality will be continuously expanded in a beta phase, with as much feedback from the industry as possible being incorporated. Once a suitable version has been achieved, it will be available in all national languages instead of just in English, as is currently the case. We will publish the results of the WEmad survey for the first time in our January 21, 2010 issue, taking into account all responses received by January 11. We hope that readers of Advertising Week will respond favorably to this initiative and support its further development.
