I've just read this article "Apps call, but will your phone answer" in MSNBC.com’s coverage of last week’s CES conference.  It's a topic which everyone here at Crisp is keenly aware off.  This article clearly makes the point that apps work on some phones, but not all. However, in reality the fragmentation issue of app incompatibility is significantly worse than portrayed in that article.  It has been around for a long time and isn’t getting any better because there really isn’t any unifying technology that is making much headway. 

While industry giants like Google prefer standards, software developers have a self-interest in pursuing new technologies.  To compare, one would easily assume it would be better and easier for auto parts manufacturers and car mechanics if everyone drove a car similar engine technology.  But the days of the Model-T are over.  This is a mature marketplace with (too) many types of cars that are still relatively expensive and increasingly diverse.  

Software developers, just like auto mechanics, benefit from the hard-to-achieve and broad skill set they’ve nurtured after years of building apps on multiple platforms.  Recent mobile software platform initiatives such as LiMo, Maemo, Bada, WebOS prove that there are plenty of people who don’t think that Windows Mobile, Palm, RIM, Android, BREW, Java ME, and Apple have done enough to complicate matters for developers and content publishers.

Google and most of the mobile advertising industry sees this fragmentation as a big problem.  Hence, there is much promotion on Google's part for HTML5 technology.  Without having too many delusions about its imminent success, Crisp loves to embrace HTML5, Flash, Javascript and other means to improve compatibility and simplification.  At Crisp, we always try to solve the fragmentation challenge instead of splitting efforts by re-writing the same functionality in many different programming environments.

Still, educating content publishers and advertisers that device fragmentation (app incompatibility) is a large problem, has been around for a long time and remains the important truth.  Acknowledging the problems while offering solutions to simplify the complexity for them has been one of the tactics Crisp employs to do business in mobile.  If you’d like to hear about how we do it, don't hesitate to contact me, or any other mobile veteran here at Crisp Wireless.
 

Around this time of year you read a lot of posts about what the new year will bring.  So we’ve taken out our crystal ball and here are our Top 5 Predictions for Mobile Advertising in 2010:

1. Android market share will reach 20% of the U.S. smartphone market.  With iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry each having significant market share, advertisers will focus all their attention on smartphones in the U.S.
2. Mobile commerce through apps and ads will become more commonplace as advertisers look to drive ROI and provide a direct link to sales.
3. Mobile video advertising will gain traction as now over 90 percent of phones support video.
4. Advertisers will require more than impressions and CTR when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of their mobile advertising.
5. Augmented reality apps and 2D tag technology will begin to play a role in mobile advertising.
    

As more brands look to engage in mobile advertising, we recognize that there is a lot of confusion in the marketplace on the role of different players.  It is no surprise since mobile can look like the wild-west compared to online advertising. 

Online is pretty simple.  If you want wide reach, you go to a horizontal ad network.  For specific audiences, go to vertical networks or direct to publishers.  Your online campaign is bought, trafficked and managed through an ad server, such as DART or ATLAS.  Ad formats and standards have been established by the IAB and rich media vendors like PointRoll or EyeBlaster.  You only need to worry about supporting a handful of browsers, and industry standards such as Flash are commonplace.  Reporting is delivered through your ad server or a rich media vendor’s. 

Yet in mobile, there is much more overlap between vendors.  Some publishers sell direct, others work with ad networks or both.  There is no clear distinction between premium and remnant inventory. Ad networks, rich media vendors, and ad servers all offer different technologies when it comes to ad formats, ad serving, and reporting.  Overall, there are more technologies (devices, OSs, etc) to support, and less standardization.  In short, it is an emerging market.  Rather than specialize, vendors do everything. Ad networks develop rich media ad units and rich media vendors offer connections to publishers.

So where does Crisp Wireless fit in?

We are a mobile rich media advertising company. What does that mean exactly? It means that we deliver a platform that includes engaging ad formats, optimizes rich media across the mobile web and mobile applications for smartphones, and delivers in-depth, real-time reporting and analytics from pre-click through conversion.  We do not represent ad inventory and we are not an ad network.

However, we have formed and manage an informal association of premium publishers, the Crisp Publisher Alliance. These are the publishers that have tested our rich media ad formats and are prepared to run Crisp ad units for appropriate campaigns brought to them by agencies. Unlike ad networks whose business model is based on revenue share, we charge a rich media serving CPM.

How Crisp Works with Publishers:

1. Premium publishers are invited to join our Rich Media Alliance.  We test and certify our ad formats for your mobile site or application.
2. We provide a platform, APIs, and rich media ad formats that command higher CPMs and deliver greater value to your advertisers.
3. We deliver real-time reporting to support campaign measurement pre and post-click.
4. We make agencies aware of publishers in the Crisp Publisher Alliance, which often results in campaign deal flow to publishers.
5. We also refer opportunities for brands looking to utilize our rich media ad units to our Publisher Alliance partners to close.
6. We work with some publisher ad sales teams to support their mobile sales efforts including RFPs, demos, and in-field sales training and support.

How Crisp Works with Brand Advertisers and Agencies:

1. Crisp provides innovative ad formats that deliver higher rates of engagement and interaction.
2. We offer ad templates, open APIs, and creative services enabling agencies to easily utilize our ad formats.
3. We support ad serving through your existing online ad server so there is no need to purchase a separate mobile ad server.
4. Crisp provides detailed, real-time analytics for A/B testing and campaign measurement.
5. We introduce you to our rich media publisher alliance to facilitate media buys and to enable you to easily set up campaigns on premium sites and applications.

How Crisp work with Ad Networks

1. Ad networks utilize Crisp’s rich media ad formats and reporting to deliver greater value to their advertisers.
2. Partnering with Crisp allows ad networks to focus on what they do best, selling mobile ad inventory.
3. Crisp is not competing with ad networks on ad inventory sales. On the contrary, we refer agencies to our Publisher Alliance partners or ad network partners for mobile ad buys.

Any premium publisher, whether or not we mobilize and manage its mobile sites, can join the Crisp Publisher Alliance. Of course, we continue to support our mobilization customers with innovation and services to maintain and enhance their mobile sites.  Joining the Crisp Publisher Alliance simply allows existing mobilization customers to maximize the revenue they receive from mobile advertising.

Still confused on who to work with in mobile advertising? Give me a call, I’m happy to share my views.