Best Paper - 04-53 CONTEST Mobile Advertisement and Search From a Service Platforms Perspective

Common Technology Strategy (CONTEST)

CONTEST 04-53 of 42 Version 3.0.0

CONTEST 04-53 (COmmoN TEchnology STrategy)

Mobile Advertisement and Search From

Service Platforms Perspective

Type of document: Report



Document history:

Document version no

Revision description Revision Responsible

Revision Date

0.1.0 First version with ToC Dag N. Ness 27.01.2008

0.5.0 Investigation version – 50% Complete Celeste Norlund 03.09.2008

0.9.0 First Draft Version – 90% Complete Geir Gylterud 10.10.2008

1.0.0 Ready for Work Group Approval Celeste Norlund 24.10.2008

2.0.0 Approved By Work Group including comments from CRM4

Celeste Norlund 24.11.2008

3.0.0 CONTEST Approved Celeste Norlund 12.12.2008

The following persons contributed to the contents of this document: Celeste Norlund(editor), Geir Gylterud,

Sune Jakobsson, Alf Sollund, Haakon Bratsberg, Darren Tan Kian Liang, Peter Lundgren, Pontus Hidling,

Petar Babic, Rade Hajder, Backo Vasiljevic, Bjørn Lyngstad, Christian Malmin, Tamas Kumli, K.M.

Tariquzzaman,.



Executive summary

The ecosystem for mobile advertising is in an establishment phase – new players will enter the market and constellations and acquisitions will happen. The value in the value chain is created at the advertisers’ end of the chain. The operators can play a role in this value creation, in particular due to our unique assets like customer data and insight. This is of course provided that the MNO capitalizes on these assets and acquires the required advertising platform assets. The Telenor OpCos must develop the local long term strategy and decide on a position(s) to target. , Roles and suggested positions for each OpCo are proposed in the Telenor Group Mobile Search and Advertising Strategy document[1]. Entering into the advertising business must be a conscious decision followed up by a whole hearted operative implementation. It is the ability to target customers through the telco knowledge of who the customer is and the possibility of using customer data to better target advertising for customers that makes mobile advertising such a promising revenue generator. Advertisers expect to pay higher rates if they can target the customer better OpCos expect that their customer knowledge will allow them to charge these higher rates. It is recommended to start with pilots and testing in the market – but the long term picture should be defined. The market for mobile advertising must be built and it will take some time. Patience and realistic business cases must be developed, revenue potential is less than telco turnover – but this is a growth potential that might be critical for telcos.

There are some key elements OpCos need to understand and focus on. The value chain and the systems

and components the operator needs to perform Mobile Advertising and Search are detailed in this report.

There is new functionality as well as competency needed to perform Mobile Advertising and Search. Most

key is making the customer data available to partners and third parties in a way that increases revenues but

does not infringe on user privacy. Enhancing the customer data asset with customer insight is something

each operator should do. The customer insight or profiling should remain as an asset of the operator and

care should be taken when considering outsourcing or partnerships to ensure the key information is not

given to the partner but retained by the operator. This implies that the operator should carefully specify

within the contract how user data is handled and if outsourced, how this is accumulated knowledge on

customer behaviour and preference is retained by the operator.

Although Mobile Advertising is in its infancy there is much focus in the industry on creating and adopting

standards based solutions. Activities in the industry and standardization organizations such as the Mobile

Marketing Association (MMA), GSMA and OMA have been ongoing for a few years.

There are a large number of vendors with solutions which cover all or parts of the functionality that an

Operator needs to perform Mobile Advertising and Search. Branded and white label search vendors have

some major players which are recognized when looking for solutions. For Mobile Advertising the market is

very big with many actors and none seeming to have a major position. We believe over time this will change

through acquisitions and other market factors.

Since Mobile Advertising and Search are relatively new as services CONTEST suggests that there is further

work to be done in a future release of this work item which would potentially cover:

• The development and status of the advertisement based MVNOs such as Blyk.

• Are alternative access channels such as blue tooth or WiFi disruptive technologies?

• How to ensure that the customer data, which is the operators’ key asset for mobile advertising, is made available to partners and 3rd parties and is enhanced with preferences and usage history to allow better targeting.

• Which systems and technology should an Operator own or control and what should be outsourced or partnered on?



List of contents:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................................ 3

1. SCOPE .......................................................................................................................................... 6

2. DEFINITIONS ................................................................................................................................ 6

3. SEARCH AND ADVERTISING ..................................................................................................... 6

3.1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF MOBILE SEARCH ............................................................... 6

3.1.1 Description of Branded search ......................................................................................... 7 3.1.2 Description of White Label search .................................................................................... 8

3.1.2.1 Deployment options for White Label search ............................................................ 8

3.2. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF MOBILE ADVERTISING ...................................................... 9

3.2.1 Mobile advertisement on different channels ..................................................................... 9 3.2.2 Technical implications of advertising in different channels............................................. 10

4. STATUS IN OPCOS.................................................................................................................... 11

4.1. DIGI ......................................................................................................................... 11

4.2. DTAC...................................................................................................................... 11

4.3. GRAMEENPHONE...................................................................................................... 11

4.4. KYIVSTAR ................................................................................................................ 12

4.5. PANNON ................................................................................................................... 12

4.6. PROMONTE ............................................................................................................... 12

4.7. TELENOR DENMARK................................................................................................. 12

4.8. TELENOR NORWAY .................................................................................................. 12

4.9. TELENOR PAKISTAN ................................................................................................. 13

4.10. TELENOR SERBIA ................................................................................................. 13

4.11. TELENOR SWEDEN................................................................................................ 13

5. VALUE CHAIN AND BUSINESS MODELS................................................................................ 14

5.1. ADVERTISEMENT VALUE CHAIN AND BUSINESS MODEL........................................... 14

5.1.1 Value Chain .................................................................................................................... 15 5.1.2 Roles............................................................................................................................... 16

6. SERVICE PLATFORMS.............................................................................................................. 17

6.1. FUNCTIONAL ARCHITECTURE ................................................................................... 17

6.1.1 Content control................................................................................................................ 19 6.1.2 Content adaptation.......................................................................................................... 19 6.1.3 User and Usage Profiling options ................................................................................... 19

6.1.3.1 Data collection........................................................................................................ 20 6.1.3.2 Data tools ............................................................................................................... 20 6.1.3.3 Data usage............................................................................................................. 20

7. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR OPERATOR ROLES ............................................................ 21

8. TERMINALS AND DEVICE ISSUES .......................................................................................... 21

9. REGULATORY ISSUES.............................................................................................................. 21

9.1. PRIVACY PROTECTION ISSUES................................................................................... 22

9.2. ADVERTISING – REGULATORY LIMITATIONS ............................................................. 22

10. STANDARDIZATION AND OTHER FORUMS....................................................................... 23

10.1. OMA.................................................................................................................... 23

10.1.1 Search ........................................................................................................................ 23 10.1.2 Mobile Advertising ...................................................................................................... 24



10.2. GSMA ................................................................................................................. 26

10.3. OTHER MOBILE ADVERTISEMENT RELATED FORUMS ........................................... 27

11. SEARCH PILOT AND RFI IN GC MARKETS ........................................................................ 27

11.1. THE MOBILE SEARCH ADVERTISING RFI ............................................................. 28

11.2. THE WHITE LABEL SEARCH PILOT ....................................................................... 28

12. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND FURTHER WORK ............................................................ 29

13. ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................................................... 30

14. LIST OF REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 31

ANNEX 1. VENDOR SUMMARIES ................................................................................................. 31

A1.01 AIRWIDE SOLUTIONS....................................................................................................... 31

A1.02 ADAPTIVE MOBILE ........................................................................................................... 32

A1.03 AMDOCS ............................................................................................................................ 33

A1.04 AMOBEE............................................................................................................................. 33

A1.05 YAHOO ............................................................................................................................... 34

A1.06 MEDIO................................................................................................................................. 35

A1.07 MCN (MOBILE CONTENT NETWORKS) .......................................................................... 37

A1.08 ERICSSON.......................................................................................................................... 39

A1.09 JUMPTAP ........................................................................................................................... 40

A1.10 TIETOENATOR................................................................................................................... 41



1. Scope

The scope of this report is to give an introduction to Mobile Advertising and Search describing:

- The work done internally in Telenor to date, both in the OpCos and in Telenor ASA/GC,

- Mobile advertising and mobile search and the components needed to implement advertising and

search,

- Regulatory requirements, issues and constraints ,

- Industry initiatives and standardization in this area

- High level summary and insight on current vendor solutions.

As a further step towards addressing Mobile Advertising and Search in Telenor the need to understand

what is required in terms of network infrastructure in order to support future business models and service

concepts was identified by the Telenor Mobile Advertisement and Search strategizing project and this

document will focus on this.

2. Definitions

Cost per Action (CPA): (sometimes known as Pay Per Action or PPA) is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action (a purchase, a form submission, and so on) linked to the advertisement. Cost per Impression (CPI): CPI is a phrase often used in online advertising and marketing related to web traffic. It is used for measuring the worth and cost of a specific e-marketing campaign. This technique is applied with web banners, text links, e-mail spam, and opt-in e-mail advertising, although opt-in e-mail advertising is more commonly charged on a Cost Per Action (CPA) basis. Cost per Mille (CPM): is a commonly used measurement in advertising. In Latin mille means thousand, therefore, CPM means cost per thousand. Radio, television, newspaper, magazine, Out-of-home advertising and online advertising can be purchased on the basis of what it costs to show the ad to one thousand viewers (CPM). It is used in marketing as a benchmark to calculate the relative cost of an advertising campaign or an ad message in a given medium. Rather than an absolute cost, CPM estimates the cost per 1000 views of the ad. Cost per Thousand (CPT): See Cost per Mille. Click-through rate (CTR): CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if your banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and one person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent. Mobile Marketing: The use of wireless media as an integrated content delivery and direct response vehicle within a cross media or stand alone marketing communications program. Mobile Advertising: A form of advertising that is communicated to the consumer/target via handset. This type of advertising is most commonly seen as a Mobile web banner (top of the page), Mobile web poster (bottom of the page banner), and full screen interstitial, which appears while a requested mobile web page is "loading". Other forms of this type of advertising are SMS and MMS ads, mobile gaming ads and mobile video ads (pre, mid and post roll).

3. Search and advertising

3.1. General description of mobile search The Mobile Search and Advertisement strategy document [1] identifies that mobile search merits its own

focus due to multiple reasons;

• The search service gives value to the customer by enabling access to relevant services and

content, based on the search query, search history, preferences, and location in any combination

depending on the technical solution.

• Mobile search is potentially one of the most important advertising revenues sources.



• Search has been a driver for the usage of Internet and for the development of advertisement on the

internet.

• Search is expected to be even more important as a driver for the usage of Mobile Internet (high hit-

rate is even more important for limited input/output facilities e.g. small screens).

The strategy document distinguishes between the following search types and categories:

1) Generic search: Search on Internet, e.g. Google

2) Vertical search: Search in catalogues/categories; e.g. address books: yellow pages, 1881

3) Federated search: Categorization of search results into sub-categories, e.g. @work or searching

across several vertical searches and combining results to a categorized list

4) Location Based Services: Search results based on location

5) Enterprise search: Search can be based on text, barcodes, QR (Quick Response, two-dimensional

bar code), sound/audio and picture/visual

In practical terms, assuring a pleasing mobile search means a number of things, including:

• Providing consumers a click-saving experience that returns answers instead of links.

• Inferring a consumer's context from his or her device, location and other information within ranking

algorithms.

• Balancing the subscriber's short-term and long-term preferences to present personalized relevant

results that adapt to a consumer's changing context.

• Providing rich client interfaces with streamlined interfaces including custom shortcuts, auto-

completion of search terms, or voice inputs to simplify the user experience.

• Making the best usage of the graphical capabilities on the terminal, when presenting and formatting

the search results, minimizing the number of duplicate results.

The mobile search experience is in practical terms a service assuring a pleasant way of searching for a

number of things. The search dialogue can be realized in many ways, across multiple channels, ranging

from advanced search clients in the handset utilizing voice commands to simple SMS queries, however the

most offered solution from the vendors seems to be based on usage of WAP clients and keyboard input.

Mobile search can be divided into two distinct categories, being branded search and white label search.

3.1.1 Description of Branded search

Recognised search brands on the Internet are: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, and they also provide clients to enhance the search experience, by adding location from location enabled handsets. Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft have done well out of their partnerships with the operators. The operators’ cooperation was the fastest and most straightforward way of getting their search boxes and business models onto the mobile screen instead of struggling to establish a mobile presence from the off-portal wilderness. Google is probably the most recognized search brand, and they are also active in the mobile media channel. They provide searches formatted for mobile terminals, using WAP browsing techniques, and location enhanced clients (Google Maps) for a range of popular terminals, from different vendors (Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, RIM, Apple etc.). When you as an end-user access the Google portal at http://m.google.com you can choose from a range of services, including search. Yahoo uses the same strategy. They provide a WAP portal, where users can search using WAP browsing techniques. When you access the Yahoo portal at http://m.yahoo.com you are asked to “upgrade” to the Yahoo experience. They then provide an upgrade that is a client that has a search function in addition to the “Yahoo” experience for popular handsets. The client generates leads using sponsored search links that appear within mobile search results in Yahoo! oneSearch™. Yahoo supports a limited set of languages in the search client. Yahoo also supports SMS as input to start a search dialogue. Yahoo’s advertisement business can provide demographic, behavioural and time-of-day targeting. The also provide in-game advertisements. Microsoft has the Live Search portal and uses a similar strategy, but is more focussed on terminals with Windows Mobile operating system. Live Search is found at http://m.live.com Live Search via the mobile browser can be accessed on any mobile phone with Internet access. Live Search provides access to information on the Internet, including weather forecasts, stock quotes, news headlines, and



websites. It provide local features such as local business search, driving directions, and detailed maps and traffic that work on almost any phone with Internet access. Microsoft supports the same languages as their operating systems, and they also support voice as input on a set of supported handsets. Nokia is slightly on the sideline in the search domain, but they do provide a fixed link on all newer Nokia handsets, where a user is directed into the Nokia portal, and the user is presented a selection of categories for the terminal. The portal page has a paid banner at the bottom of the screen.

3.1.2 Description of White Label search

The White Label search companies differentiate them selves from the Branded Label search companies by

providing one or more of the following functionalities:

• The search engine

• The user interface

• A mobile advertisement platform

They focus on made-for-mobile click-saving dialogues, and deliver results on federated search or indexed

search.

The White Label search lets the MNO customize the search front, by adding own logos, and look-and-feel

to the search dialogue, and thereby exposing their own brand. The White Label search companies can provide client frameworks, based on WAP, BREW or Java. They let operators add their own logos and customization, and may provide a framework for publishers and advertisers. WAP based solutions usually integrate into the operator’s portal, and may utilize customer data. They provide tools for creating and tracking personalization and promotion, and are able to create targeted indexes for individual users or user groups. If the vendor supplies an ad management platform then these tools let you design campaigns, and provide reporting on the efficiency of the campaign. This enables operators to better document the efficiency of a particular campaign towards the adverting companies or agencies. If content or information is distributed and/or in multiple formats or channels, the tools can consolidate them to provide federated search across all items. Most white label search companies can provide a bundled solution for advertisers, publishers and operators. Examples of white label companies are MCN, JumpTap, FAST, InfoSpace and Medio systems.

3.1.2.1 Deployment options for White Label search

The White label search can be deployed either internally within the MNO network or externally to the MNO network. In the external case the WAP starting page at the operator reroutes the WAP session to the external site, and the search site takes care of the logistics involved in formatting the results, collecting the advertisements, ranking the search, and providing behavioural, demographic, and time-of-day targeting. Content is often supplied in a generic form to the white label platform and then transcoded on the fly or prepared for the most popular handset types. Some vendors provide possibilities for the operator to embed their own content or partner’s content in the search results. The external case is very clean when it comes to integration towards the operator, since it only require rerouting from the operators portal, or the entire portal can be outsourced to the white label vendor. Some caution should be exercised since the operator then gives away a lot of information on how and what customers search for, and how they respond to the results. The operator can collect this information for internal use in parallel, but there might however be some regulatory and legal issues on data collection. In the internal case the operator installs the portal and search engine in their network, and provide remote access to the white label provider, so that they can assist in search relevance, ranking, time-of-day and other enhancements to the search results.



3.2. General description of mobile advertising According to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), mobile advertising is a “rapidly growing sector providing brands, agencies and marketers the opportunity to connect with consumers beyond traditional and digital media and directly on their mobile phones”. The mobile phone is a personal device and it typically has one unique user. This makes the mobile phone a more precisely targeted communication channel as compared to more traditional advertising channels like TV and newspapers. As such, the mobile channel has a genuine potential to contribute to improving campaign effectiveness and response levels compared to other media. The mobile has a great value as a stand-alone medium for advertising, but it is also well suited to play a vital role in cross-media advertisement campaigns, providing improved “eyeball” reach and a tool for interaction with the consumers as it provides a response path. As a personal device, the mobile also has great opportunities in personalisation of advertisements, taking into account the personal information that operators already have about users, the potential of keeping track and storing information about service usage and browsing habits and the ability to position mobile devices connected to an operator network.

3.2.1 Mobile advertisement on different channels

Mobile advertising can be delivered through various channels to the consumer, and each channel has its own characteristics that make it suitable for use in different types of advertising campaigns. The channels can be broken down into four main categories: Mobile messaging, Mobile Web, Mobile video and Mobile applications (downloaded to the mobile terminal). Mobile messaging Mobile messaging, including text (SMS) and multimedia messages (MMS), is supported by almost all mobile phones sold over the past few years and is seen as an effective way to reach the large community of mobile users. Interactive applications frequently use SMS with short codes (four- to six-digit phone numbers) to/from which messages can be sent and received. Mobile messaging is good for delivering text and multimedia advertisements (banners, pictures and animated images), inviting the user to a mobile web site or to place a call (click to call, sponsored call), SMS and MMS are also good for running an interactive dialogue with the user (e.g. voting or polling). Mobile Web Mobile Web offers users the ability to browse and search for information, buy content and services, play games and do banking on their mobile phone. This channel offers the opportunity to display banners and text ads, sponsored links and branded mobile adapted web sites. Mobile video Mobile video is delivered over a mobile network to the mobile phone’s embedded media player. Videos can be downloaded or streamed and are usually accessed from a Mobile Web site or contained in an MMS message. Mobile video gives the opportunity to add advertisement within the video clip as video ads, static images or animations. Ads could be used for branding or directing users to a Mobile Web site. Mobile applications Users have the opportunity to download and run different types of applications such as games and lifestyle tools on their mobile phones. As for Mobile video, various types of ads could be embedded in the applications and displayed as banners, still images, animations etc. Branded applications could also be used for building brand awareness. This channel also includes applications with the only purpose of displaying Ads on the mobile phones. An example of such an application is “idle mode advertising“ which is used to display advertisements (preloaded to the mobile phone) while the mobile phone is in idle mode (not in use). USSD Advertisements can be appended after a USSD message. There are possibilities to use location based information to provide personalized ads to the subscribers. This puts added requirements to the ad platform to be robust enough to interface with HLR and LBS nodes. Voice Platforms



Voice platforms can be programmed to playback pre-defined audio information to the callers. Platforms like Music Juke box/Voice chat can be integrated with the ad platform to solicit advertisements dynamically and playback personalized ads to subscribers. The Voice Platform can also capture the user response by DTMF tone and report back the response action to the ad platform. It is also possible to utilize location based information to deliver personalized advertisements to subscribers. Cell Broadcasting Advertisement delivery through cell broadcasting can be an interesting and innovative way to deliver messages to subscribers within a targeted area. In most mobile phones these messages will appear on top of the mobile screen if this option is enabled in the handset. GrameenPhone at present uses this mechanism to broadcast messages about some of its own Services. The primary challenge will be to integrate advertisement databases with network elements and broadcast specific messages in specific locations. Measure the success of advertisement campaigns run using Cell Broadcasting technology is a challenge and needs to be looked at more closely.

3.2.2 Technical implications of advertising in different channels

Mobile messaging There are at least two different scenarios for delivering advertisements via Mobile messaging:

1. Using the messaging channels to deliver messages with advertisement only or advertisements added to content delivered to a user

2. Intercepting messaging traffic and inserting advertisements in the Peer 2 Peer (P2P) messaging traffic

In the first scenario, there are no major changes needed to legacy platforms as SMSCs and MMSCs that would be involved in the delivery of messages. Messages containing advertisements could be inserted via CPA or CPA-like interfaces and advertisements could also be added to content delivered by 3party content providers as part of the function of the CPA platform or as part of a separate advertisement application. Special attention should be given to the support of opt in/out mechanisms, to ensure that privacy requirements issues are dealt with. In the second scenario, to be able to intercept and add advertisements to P2P SMS and MMS traffic, changes to legacy servers might be necessary to support such a function. Alternatively the functionality of adding advertisements to messages could be supported in SMS/MMS Gateways. Mobile Web To be able to place advertisements as banners and text on Web and WAP pages, this has to be supported by the Portal platform. The Portal server has to be able to send a request to the Ad Server for suitable ads and to integrate the ads (banners, links, et.) within WAP or Web pages that is delivered to the browser on the users terminal Mobile video Mobile ads can be integrated within premium video content or played as separate video clips and images before, during and/or after the video clip the user asked for is played. Banners and ads could also include links for downloading or streaming of video ads to a users terminal. The media server or streaming server has to be able to support this kind of mixing and also clips and images might have to be uploaded to the media server in advance with a scheme for playing the ads. Mobile applications Delivering advertisements to applications in a user’s device does not seem to have any technical implications on existing platforms. Ads could be delivered over a data connection and preloaded and stored in an advertisement engine on the device itself. Other applications on the device would then be able to request and place advertisements within the application context. Other implications It is a reasonable assumption that users in general will not be willing to pay for advertisement content or services delivered to their devices, although they are already today paying for data traffic related to downloading banners, text and images placed on WAP and Web portals. When delivering more data traffic intensive ad services like video ads, the operators have to provide support for the user not to be charged for the data transfer. Most operators already have solutions in their WAP GWs and GPRS nodes to handle this. It should be possible in some way to tag and detect advertisement traffic



originating from within the operators domain and resist from charging of that traffic. Within the same advertising campaign it might also be necessary to include both free and premium rate charging. Another aspect on advertisement and charging that needs to be studied further is the offering of rewards and rewarding schemes towards subscribers that accept advertisements delivered to their device. An example of this is an ad-funded messaging scenario where a subscriber who has opted in to receive advertising messages might be rewarded with free messaging bundles or free voice minutes for each ad click-through. This requires interaction and possible exchange of ad metrics with existing charging and rating systems and the details here needs further study.

4. Status in OpCos

4.1. DiGi DiGi has conducted a Proof-of-Concept on Mobile Vouchers at a prominent shopping centre. Essentially, users whom are interested to get discounts from selected shops in the shopping centre would initiate a SMS to retrieve the mobile voucher and present it at the shop to redeem the discounts. Today, there are normal advertisement banners at DiGi WAP Portal. These advertisement banners are not customized to WAP browsers. However, DiGi is in the midst of selecting vendors for a platform that could track user browsing activities & build user profiles. By having the user profiles, the platform is able to “target & recommend” contents & services via WAP Portal. Although, this is not a direct Mobile Advertisement initiative, we foresee that the tracking & profiling features will build a crucial foundation in knowing what our subscribers’ preference. Most of these platforms have some elements of Campaign Management module and it could be used for Mobile Advertisement to target subscribers based profiles. With regards to mobile search, DiGi has partnered with Yahoo One Search as the preferred partner for WAP search within DiGi WAP Portal. With One Search, users would be presented with relevant contents like DiGi premium contents, related content sites, related images, news, etc.

4.2. DTAC DTAC are using MCN as an external search engine for the WAP portal. The MCN platform is hosted externally of the DTAC network. Mobile advertising is being looked at, but no clear plans at the moment. SMS broadcast is however used quite a lot, but most for information about new services from DTAC.

4.3. GrameenPhone Have you run any mobile advertising campaigns? No, we have not run any campaigns. What we are continuing to do is SMS bulk push mainly for our internal product/promotion and service campaigns. We also did some cell-broadcast for similar purposes. Sometimes we are asked by the local regulator to push some SMS for govt. notifications but as of now, we haven’t done anything commercially. Apart from SMS and cell-broadcast, We are doing ad-tail on USSD balance enquiry. With 98% prepaid penetration and a balance-conscious subscription base this tactic proved to be very effective here. In one occasion we also did some pre-call announcement for notification purpose for a special group of subscribers.

Are you investigating Mobile Advertisement in connection with Search or not? We are not investigating mobile advertisement in connection with search. If yes, are you considering branded search (Google, yahoo, et.) or a White label search with your own logo?

When are you planning to issue RFIs/RFQs for Mobile Advertising? We don’t have any plan right now.



I hope you can take the time to give us some input on what GrameenPhone is doing in the Mobile Advertising and Search space. I hope you can give me feedback by latest 10.10 let me know if this is doable for you. From commercial we had some focus on this area and it was getting some momentum. However, due to some restructuring the whole initiative is stalled and hasn’t been revamped yet. We are currently doing SMS blast for our own information dissemination, not selling SMS bulk to other advertisers. Similar is for Cell Broadcast (idle screen). We are using this for our own information dissemination, not for others. Still the focus channel for Mobile Advertisement is pretty much limited to SMS and Cell Broadcast. But we deeply feel that if the regulatory issues are cleared, there is huge potential in this are and consolidated approach is very crucial. We few months back evaluated Ad driven services (e.g. Mobile Email, Ring back Tone etc.) but no tangible step has been taken yet. There are many other channels/ options (e.g. MMS, WAP portal insertions, Scroll during live TV, P2P SMS insertion) and we have initiated the process to take a phase wise approach in going to this arena.

4.4. Kyivstar

4.5. Pannon As of today there is no mobile advertisement services implemented yet in Pannon. Although we put banner advertisements to our WAP portal pages, they are aimed to drive our own content download services. (There is no commercial agreement, ranking, measurements or anything behind). SMS and MMS have never been tried for ads. The first mobile advertisement pilot project is planed for early 2009. The primary goal is to gain experience on this business, e.g. we'll consult media and advertisement agencies to see their needs then we will investigate what customer data should be collected to support mobile advertisement, etc. Although our marketing guys see the relation between search and ads, search has not been involved into the pilot.

• Have you run any mobile advertising campaigns? No external campaigns yet. We do have banners on the WAP that are pointing to own on-portal downloadable contents

• If yes what channels did you use: o Portal - WAP Banners? Other? Portal banners on own on-portal content o SMS - ad tail? no o MMS - ad tail or ad picture/banner? no

• Are you investigating Mobile Advertisement in connection with Search or not? Search was rather a separate topic, but certainly there are connections. We will evaluate these connections when planning and implementing search and/or advertising

• If yes, are you considering branded search (Google, yahoo, etc.) or a White label search with your own logo? This is not decided yet, but white label seems to be a better option due to more flexibility and lower price

• When are you planning to issue RFIs/RFQs for Mobile Advertising? early 2009

4.6. Promonte Promonte is currently not working with Mobile Advertising and Search.

4.7. Telenor Denmark

4.8. Telenor Norway Telenor Norway has run several advertising campaigns during the last years. The campaigns have been limited and not advanced. The campaigns have used channels like SMS, MMS and WAP Portals and have been successful. Best response has been to campaigns using SMS and WAP portal. WAP Portal with “rotating” banners on our WAP Portal is still ongoing. SMS and MMS channels have mostly been used to promote internal services, but campaigns or market place/space on our WAP portal has been sold to external parties and partners of Telenor. Telenor Norway has no plans for combining Mobile ads and search, but has sold branded search on our WAP Portal (cooperation with Norwegian company Sesam).



Telenor Norway are currently working on the strategy for 2009 – 2011, but it’s still not clear what to do with advertising and search. Telenor Norway will have one common approach to this new market (if any) so small activities run as today (e.g. banners on portal) will be stopped. Banners on WAP Portal will be used to promote our own products until one common approach is in place for Norway.

4.9. Telenor Pakistan

4.10. Telenor Serbia Telenor Serbia is currently running process of strategic positioning, and in parallel, several pilot projects in the field of Mobile Marketing and Advertising. Aim of these pilots is to explore different possibilities in this area and to gain learning’s and experience from actual cases. Data that will be collected in pilot projects will be used for purpose of analyzing potential of different channels and for attracting potential MMA customers. To date we launched two pilot projects. First pilot is related to the banners placed on Telenor WAP page. Pilot project is conducted in cooperation with brand “Guarana” which have the largest market share among energy drinks in Serbia. Advertiser banners are placed on Telenor WAP page with the navigation to the Guarana micro WAP site which is developed by our internal team. On Guarana WAP site users can find branded content (ring tones, wallpapers, videos, and comics) that can be downloaded free of charge. WAP search engine is second pilot project that is launched in Telenor Serbia. It is white label search that is completely developed by internal technology department. To date, search engine display links towards next sections on Telenor site: news and content platform (wallpapers, ring tones and themes). Search is indexing only Telenor WAP site. For now there is no strategic decision weather Telenor Serbia will use branded or white label search in the future. Other pilots are in analysis phase and are related to the Bluetooth and SMS marketing. Their launch is planned during Q4 2008. Telenor Serbia had several presentations related to the Mobile Marketing and Advertising platform. Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, Comverse, Velti and Acision have presented their solutions on these fields. There is no defined time frame in which RFI/RFQ will be issued.

4.11. Telenor Sweden Advertising is one of the areas that are prioritized by management in Telenor Sweden. Mobile Reach Package: The mobile reach package lets advertisers buy ad space across Swedish mobile operators’ portals (TeliaSonera, Tele2, Telenor, 3). This package covers in 60% of all mobile internet traffic in Sweden and was launched October 1st. The first advertiser to buy it was Adidas. As of 2008 this is purely ads and not connected to search or any other demographics. Telenor Sweden is using Adiento as partner to sell the banner inventory. Adiento is using their partner MADS to deliver the technical solution in delivering banner ads. When integrating demographics the solution needs to be looked over to verify ownership of data.

Sponsored links in SMS: Similar to sponsored links in Google’s product Gmail, the sponsored link will appear at the end of a P2P text message, if there is enough space i.e if the message is below 160 characters. The concept is built upon contextual analysis using adaptive systems (AI). This will allow for targeting ads (sponsored links) based on the content of the message. Telenor Sweden is planning for a trial in Q1 together with local media owner Aftonbladet. GSMA Mobile Advertising Program: Mobile can deliver better metrics than any other media, however these metrics must be of a common standard in order to be adopted by the advertising market (advertisers, media agencies etc). The four Swedish operators (Telia, Tele2, Telenor, 3) have



launched, together with GSMA, a project in which operators will aggregate and present common metrics (e.g unique users, impressions etc) on an anonymous census level. The project will be due in ca 5 months. One initiative is to use MMS as a bearer for advertisements and then track the MMS. By tracking the MMS we will be able to see the viral effect (see how the MMS is forwarded by our subscribers). A trial during 1-2 weeks is planned during spring/summer. The idea of the trial is the following:

• Offer the ability to send videos & pictures via MMS to handsets from enabling channels such as web, WAP or by SMS-activation

• Enrich the MMS’s content with advertising/coupons tailored to the content’s tags and target group

• Spread and communicate the enabling channels through online banners, Telenor Stores, Telenor WAP portal, billboards and other public spaces.

• The content and coupon will create incentives for viral propagation throughout the network

• Revenues will be generated from advertising spending and shared among the involved parties

The purpose and the scope for the trial will be:

• Evaluate Amethon’s technology together with Telenor’s network

• Evaluate advertisers willingness to pay

• Evaluate MMS as carrier of rich content

• Evaluate users’ propensity of forwarding advertise-enriched content.

This Trial was never concluded due to legal aspects. Regarding search, Telenor Sweden is today using the Google search bar within the mobile portal. Google do not give any kickback on their search results and income revenues at the moment. Telenor Sweden has been negotiating with Google to get another business agreement in place, in order to get a part of the revenue that Google gets from “clicks”. Discussions are ongoing also with other search providers. Currently search is supported by the standard Google search engine that presents the search results in the same way as they are presented on the web. Statistics shows that 8% of the traffic away from the WAP portal is a click on a link from the Google search. The first step we will have take to improve the search experience for our portal visitors is to include the on net results for search and put them on the top in the result screen.

5. Value Chain and Business Models

Telenor ASA is running a project in 2008 to assess the potential of Mobile advertising and mobile search. The project is one of 4 Wild Card projects prioritized by Group Executive Management (GEM). This section will give an introduction to the advertising and search, and outline the roles Telenor can take in the different markets based on the work done in the strategizing sub-project which produced the strategy document: Telenor Group Mobile Search and Advertising Strategy [1].

5.1. Advertisement value chain and Business Model The figure below represents a high level view of the players in the mobile advertisement market. Detailed descriptions can be found in the document reference [1].



Figure 5-1 Simplified market overview

5.1.1 Value Chain

Understanding how the revenues flow from the advertisers to the other players in the value chain allows us

to understand what potential revenues are possible based on what role is taken. As indicated in the diagram

by Ovum, roles can be combined and served by one player.

Telenor as a MNO, through sales of own media space, may retain 50-60% of the variable revenues, this is

quite good. Ad-networks are left with 40-50%, these networks are volume based and target/reach the long

tail as a main driver. The revenues here might be quite substantial in the future and this position is attractive

(ref. Google in online advertising).

Telenor – as a MNO – must thus enable and leverage its own marketing for mobile advertising and sell its

own and possibly also 3rd party media space in order to take part of this business from the operator point of

view. In chapter 5.1.2 we discuss the possible positions Telenor can take in this eco-system.

The ecosystem for mobile advertising is in an establishment phase – new players will enter the market and

constellations and acquisitions will happen. The value in the value chain is created at the advertisers’ part of

the value chain. The operators can take a good part of this value creation, in particular due to assets like

customer data and insight. This is of course provided that the MNO capitalizes on these assets and

acquires the required advertising platform assets.



Figure 5-2 Value creation in the value chain (source: Ovum)

5.1.2 Roles

The project has identified eight different positions the MNOs may target, combinations of these positions are possible:

- Mobile Marketing company (similar to More Mobile Relations in Scandinavia) - Part of the “Agencies” role in the value chain;B2B solutions, relationship marketing, agency,

full service provider

- Sales of own media space - Sales only own inventory to national + local advertisers

- Ad-funded services/subscriptions - Using advertising as a funding for MNO/MVNO business objectives - Selected business models as per market fit: Advertisers requiring targeting

- Capitalize on customer data - Demographics, social networking analysis - Advertisers requiring targeting

- Ad-funded MVNO - Using advertising as a funding for MNO/MVNO business objectives - New/Existing markets + Targeted segments

- CPA for advertisers - Taking a role in the value chain towards the ad-networks role; giving the advertisers tools to

reach the whole mobile customer base in a country - Access role own network, co-operation other MNOs if agreements - Local advertising business,

- Local Enabler - Taking a role in the value chain towards the ad-networks role; using a mobile advertising

platform for placing advertisements in other media spaces than solely own - B2B + CRM service selling own + others’ inventories; capitalize on local presence, customer

data and distribution, CPA - Local advertising business - long tail

- National Catalyst - Taking a role in the value chain towards the ad-networks role; a fully fledged dominating ad-

networks position (platform and sales of media spaces) for mobile advertising in order to serve long tail



- Dominant position within mobile ads; reaching beyond own network, selling others inventory + own, enabling new business models by connecting different buyers and sellers, network effects

- Target all advertisers within country, also global brands - Build on network effects - Target connecting other groups (Telco 2.0)

In addition to defining the roles, there are recommendations for which positions to take for each OpCo in the Group – see Figure 5-3 Relevant positions for the Telenor OpCos below.

Figure 5-3 Relevant positions for the Telenor OpCos

As seen in figure Figure 5-3, all OpCos should invest in the first 5 positions; the Local Enabler and National Catalyst roles are only suggested for given OpCos. Ad-funded MVNOs can be used by Telenor as a tool to enter new markets, and is not seen as a means OpCos should use in local markets.

6. Service Platforms

6.1. Functional architecture The architecture for Mobile Advertisement and Search related services can be divided into functional blocks as shown in Figure 6-1 Functional architecture of Mobile Advertisement and Search services. An overview of the functional components and a short description of their functional area are given here:

• Ad & Campaign Mgmt provides the functions necessary to give advertisers easy access in order to plan, deliver and get feedback on advertising campaigns. It should support management of advertisers through self-service interfaces, tools for planning, delivery and assessment of advertisement campaigns, interfaces and tools for uploading and storage of advertisements and advertisement metadata and support charging of advertisers by creating charging information based on advertisement metrics that are collected.

• The advertisements and their related metadata that is delivered by advertisers and information related to the planned campaigns are stored in a database, the Ad Db.



• The Ad Server is responsible for selecting and serving ads to the various delivery channels based on information about active campaigns, priority of campaigns and user profile/context data. The Ad Server select and retrieve advertisements from the Ad Db and distribute the selected advertisement to the applications which is involved in delivering and presenting advertisements to the user (Portal, Search Engine, Messaging Servers etc.). Various kind of information about a user that can be accessed from User Profile and User Context servers can be used in the selection process to “target” the advertisement to a specific user.

• The User Profile Server is a generic function that manages and stores user information independently from the advertisement service. The User Profile data can be collected and input from different sources including Self-care portals and CRM systems. The information in the User Profile include personal details like age, address and gender, user supplied generic and/or ad specific preferences describing interest areas, preferred delivery channel and times. Historic data about a user’s service usage, including information like browsing habits, items purchased and search history, could also be used in the ad selection process. Collection, processing and storage of such data are in the architecture handled by the User/Usage Profiling function and the data is stored in the User Profile Server. Data about service usage can be derived from analyzing input from different sources including portal/browser logs, CDRs, search logs etc.

• The User Context Server contains information that is dynamically updated about a user’s current context. This information could be used by the Ad Server to select advertisements most relevant to the current context of the user. Context information could e.g. include information as current location of the user or availability on various channels. The User Context Server collects its information from other servers like Location Servers (LCS) and Presence Servers based on what is present in the operators network.

• The Ad Metrics Db stores information identifying the results of the advertisement campaigns. This information is collected from the applications that are involved in the delivery channel by the Ad Server. The applications log and return various parameters collected during delivery, presentation and monitoring of user interactions related to a specific advertisement (e.g. if a user clicks on an ad banner or on an ad link, or places a call from a “click-to-call” link in the advertisement). The data is analyzed and presented to the Advertiser, making it possible to evaluate the success of the campaign and can be used by the Advertiser to improve future campaigns

Different applications represent different channels which are used to present the user with advertisements in different ways.

• The Portal and the Search Engine use the Ad Server to select WAP and Web banners and sponsored links relevant to the user’s profile/context information and suited to the topic the user browses or searches for.

• Advertisements could be presented to the user in the device’s Browser or it could also be delivered to a specific application in the device, e.g. a search client, represented in the architecture by Ad Apps. User actions related to the user interacting with the advertisements, e.g. by clicking on a link, is reported back to the Ad Server which stores the information in the Metrics Db.

• SP Apps represents network based services like SMS, MMS, IM, Video streaming etc. These services can be used to embed advertisements in the content or services they provide to the user. Device Apps represents the corresponding applications in the device. They are responsible of presenting the message or content, including the ads, to the user. It should not be necessary to make any changes to the Device Apps in order for them to present the ads as the ad formats should be adapted to the capabilities of the terminal either by the SP Apps or by the Ad Server

• The Ad Engine, residing on the user’s device, represents an optional function supporting distribution and temporary storage of advertisements on the device itself. It enables distribution of advertisements to a user’s device during e.g. off-peak traffic periods. The downloaded advertisements could be presented to the user in advertisement specific applications on the device, represented by the Ad Apps. An example of such an application could be “Idle Mode advertising”, where advertisements are shown on the device’s screen while the device is not in use or idle.

Metrics on the advertisement presentation and user actions linked to the user interacting with advertisements needs to be reported by all of the applications involved in delivering and presenting the advertisements to the user.



Figure 6-1 Functional architecture of Mobile Advertisement and Search services

6.1.1 Content control

When it comes to controlling or filtering of ads being delivered to a user, this should be handled in the Ad Server during the ad selection process. The Ad Metadata stored with the ad in the Ad Db should include the necessary information about restrictions or constraints for receivers of the specific ad. This could be information as e.g. minimum age limitations and based on this information, the Ad Server should be able to compare these restrictions to users profile data, and thus prevent inappropriate ads being delivered to a user.

6.1.2 Content adaptation

Like all other content, advertisements in the form of banners, pictures and videos need to be adapted to the capabilities of a user’s device regarding e.g. screen size, resolution etc. Depending on the existing services and functionality in an operator’s network, some ad channels (like MMSC and Portal) might already have its own content adaptation functions. There are also centralized solutions available on the market that provides a central content adaptation engine that could be integrated towards MMSCs, WAP Portals, etc. In the functional architecture we have indicated an Ad Adaptation function within the Ad Server just to illustrate the need for adaptation of ads. It is also possible to perform adaptation in the AD Server, but the best solution would possible be to reuse a centralized adaptation function or to leave adaptation to the servers in the channels that delivers the ads to the user.

6.1.3 User and Usage Profiling options

There are multiple options on the architectural side regarding search and advertisements, but they commonly share the potential need for user profile data, user context data, and content data if they would like to personalize ads towards the user. For the same reason, user data is also needed by other services and therefore the collection and processing of information related to the user should be seen as a common function or service in the network independent of the services that are using the data. The implication of this is that the User and Usage Profiling function can be looked upon as a



data warehouse operation. By doing it this way, data collection, tools to operate on the data, and how to interpret and use the data can be separated. However one must keep in mind that the real value lies within the data, and that there are complicated legal matters related to how the data is collected and used.

Figure 6-2 A data warehouse (MEDIO)

6.1.3.1 Data collection

Data can be collected either by traffic interception, or by using already existing operator’s data. This in itself contains several issues depending on how the data warehouse is organized and located. A reasonable assumption is that the data is distributed, and consisting of both internal and external parts. Parts of the data are most likely to reside in the BSS, like users subscription information, containing details on the subscriber like gender and age. The challenge is then to provide a unified view of this data to the services that needs it. Uploading of data to the data warehouse should be made possible by the use of standardized API’s or alternatively by submitting data in batches to the data warehouse database on regular intervals. Some of the data is fairly static, like terminal type, home address, age, user preferences, etc. The dynamic data is collected through real-time interception of messaging, collection of terminal location, URL tracking on WAP and WEB portals. There is a need to track user behaviour in on-network & off-network traffic (WAP & Web Portals). Based on user browsing & contents purchase behaviour, the platform must be able to track URLs that has been visited and categorize users into individual profiles. Today, there are systems that are able to track subscriber activities based on:

• Implicit Activities (Automatically tracking user browsing activities)

• Explicit Activities (Users volunteer to provide information via standard preference page in the Operator portal)

There are multiple legal issues on the data collection itself and for the use of the data that must be addressed before implementing the solution. This is the case for what data is collected, who gets access to the data, and what data combination the user has agreed to share with the operator. Another challenge is to provide means for the users to opt-in/out on receiving ads, so that they understand what they have opted-in for and how they can opt-out.

6.1.3.2 Data tools

Profiling tools can analyze data input and create user profiles based on the data collected in the warehouse, based on behaviour, location, demographics, CRM, etc. Some vendors provide tools to manipulate the ranking on search hits, thereby enabling the provider to place recommended product ads to the end-user.

6.1.3.3 Data usage

Once we have the profiles and recommendations in place, and know the users preferences and terminal type, we are able to target and adapt the content and ads for the end-user. This can be done on the fly or for static content; the content can be formatted to a generic format or ready-made for a limited set of popular terminals. Depending on the user’s preferences and profile, this also allows for tailing of P2P messaging.



7. System Requirements for Operator Roles

The Telenor Group Mobile Search and Advertising Strategy [1] document identified eight different positions the MNOs may target, combinations of these positions are possible. The following grouping will provide guidance on what functionality is needed to fulfill each role: - Mobile Marketing company (similar to More Mobile Relations in Scandinavia): A mobile marketing company will need an ad management system with the functionality specified above in section 6.1 or partnership with an ad sales company to supply and manage the advertisements and may need needs. Dependent on the scope of the company they may also choose to invest in solutions which actually perform the ad delivery and control the ad delivery for certain channels. - Sales of own media space: The functionality needed here is integration to a mobile ad sales company. The operator sells space through the ad sales company and based on the agreement or limits set for sale of the space, the most lucrative ads are placed on the operator’s site. - Ad-funded services/subscriptions: To offer ad-funded services or subscription the operator must have a flexible rating engine and additional system functionality such that when ad campaigns are run the subscriber traffic is rated correctly and the subscriber account information tracking ads received and reacted on are correctly updated. - Capitalize on customer data: In order to capitalize on customer information the operator must make this information available to advertisers in an agreed upon format. This requires development of new interfaces and life cycle control of these interfaces as well as the management of the advertisement partners receiving the information. Most operators have systems which could possibly be used as is (e.g. CPA, other 3

rd party management systems) or might require updating

for management of these advertisers. - Ad-funded MVNO – An ad funded MVNO requires a complete MVNO platform with added functionality for handling advertisements to its subscriber base. This - CPA for advertisers – This role assumes that the support for advertisement could be integrated into the current OpCo CPA solution. This would require development of some new interfaces and logic in the CPA solution. The operator would have developed support for opt-in/op-out and offer interfaces for selection of ads from an ad-network company which handles the ads for the mobile market. - Local Enabler and National Catalyst - The Local Enabler (LE) and National Catalyst (NC) roles require similar platform support even though they are different. There will be a need for full ad platform support and development of interfaces to all operators in the country for NC and possible also for LE dependent on scope. More focus will have to be placed on building the ad network – getting the advertisers into the network and placing ads at higher rate due to the ability to target customers better

8. Terminals and Device issues

Mobile search requires as a minimum a device with WAP or Internet access capabilities and a browser able to display WAP and/or Web pages. Mobile advertisement in itself does not require advanced terminals, but more advanced handsets give improved capabilities for delivering and presenting the Ads. Depending on the channel used for advertising, some types of advertisements might set higher requirements to the device for e.g. memory capacity, application environment and display resolution. SMS and MMS are standard on most terminals and advertising via these channels should be able to reach almost all users. To run advanced campaigns, in game advertising, video/TV advertising and interstitials the need for more advanced terminals is present. For these types of advertisement there is functionality needed in the handset. This implies that the operator will need more control over the terminal and the terminal may need ad applications and control logic to display ads correctly, at the correct time and in the correct context as well as for collecting metrics data to be reported back to the advertiser such that revenues can be secured. Current work in OMA on mobile advertising (see Feil! Fant ikke referansekilden.) covers the solution architecture, functionality and interfaces between the terminal client and network server.

9. Regulatory issues

Mobile advertisement and search services raise typically two sets of regulatory issues:



• Data protection / privacy: To what extent can the service provider (or the platform provider) utilize

user data for both search and advertising?

• Marketing regulation: Is the proposed format for marketing acceptable in the relevant jurisdictions? We cannot answer these two questions on a general level. Details about both the service and national legislation are required. Thus, this section will only outline regulatory considerations. Any project that relates to search or advertising should include a regulatory assessment at an early stage to identify the potential impact on the business case and/or service design.

9.1. Privacy protection issues It is necessary to collect and process information about the users in order to achieve targeted advertising and search. This raises privacy issues and should be handled with great care since it could result in loss of customer confidence and increased churn if not managed appropriately. Additionally, national privacy regulation typically set criteria for processing of personal data in combination with requirements on data security, processing and so on. The definition of personal data will vary between jurisdictions but is generally understood as data that can be linked to an individual. In Europe IP-addresses are regarded as personal data. The criteria in EU Directive 95/46/EC [6] can serve as an illustration:

• The data subject has unambiguously given his consent, or

• Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject, or

• Processing is necessary for a defined set of reasons. In the EU legitimate reasons include processing that is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract, or processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by the third party or parties to whom the data are disclosed, except where such interests are overridden by the interests for fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject. Consequently, search or advertisement services that utilize a persons current IP-address, physical location or usage history, must fulfill the basic criteria for processing personal data. Many Internet services currently require users to consent to their privacy policy, but probably less than 1% of the users actually read the policy before giving their consent. Note that “consent” is a strict requirement in Europe. It has to be active, informed and voluntarily. In practice service providers rely on the more broad balance of interest summarized above.

9.2. Advertising – regulatory limitations Regulation of advertising varies across different markets in Europe and Asia. According to the M-Ads white paper by OMA [5] there are a few regulators that may place restrictions on advertising content. One well-known regulator is the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in Great Britain. It is a self-regulatory body focusing on rules for the advertising industry, published as a set of codes in order to protect consumers. These codes span from suitability of content to verification of misleading material. ASA was a founding member of the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA), which brings together multi national advertising regulatory bodies. These advertising regulators usually liaise with the local government and process complaints that have been received. If a complaint leads to a ruling of the advertising regulator, several restrictions can be given to the advertising content producer, as well as for the distributor of the content. They rank from warnings, censoring to even ban of material. The most relevant concerns in this context is related to the protection of the user against unwanted addressed marketing, prevent misleading advertisements, and to reduce the marketing intensity towards special groups such as minors. The U.S. and almost all countries in Western Europe have a policy that users must give permission to be sent marketing messages via their mobile phones. This opt-in policy seems to works well, aided by



self-policing by industry associations such as the Mobile Marketing Association1 (MMA – US based), which has its own set of policies and best practices. Regarding push advertisements (“addressed marketing”) the EU Directive 97/66/EC [7] allows each country to decide if the user has to opt-in to receive ads, or if ads can be sent without explicit consent and only give the users the right to opt-out.

10. Standardization and other forums

10.1. OMA

10.1.1 Search

The area of Search has been discussed as a possible topic of work within OMA, but OMA members have not yet managed to agree on the scope of the proposals that have been submitted so far. As of September 2008, there is still disagreement among OMA partners that any standardization is needed in this area. The proposed scope of a Search enabler will be to define an open framework which is composed of a Mobile Search Server and a Mobile Search Client and which integrates the capabilities of many professional/vertical search engines. Client/Server and Search Engine/Server interfaces will need to be defined. A paradigm shift that could be driven by the by the proposed OMA work is illustrated in Figure 10-1.

New Paradigm

3rd application3rd application3rd application3rd application

MSF UserMSF UserMSF UserMSF User

Mobile Search Framework

AD Enabler

Location

Context

…Presence

User profile Location

Context

…Presence

User profile

Operator Network

Vertical Search Engines

Local Restaurant SEPharmacy SE

Match Making SE

…

OperatorResourcesOperatorResources

Reuse

Reuse

We are not going to standardize search engine.

Figure 10-1 New search paradigm

The proposed work item should define interfaces between the search framework and search clients and

towards vertical search engines/directory services.

1 Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) establishes standards, guidelines and best practices for mobile

advertisement and marketing. http://mmaglobal.com/



10.1.2 Mobile Advertising

OMA is working on the definition of an Enabler for Mobile Advertising The Enabler, when finished, will consist of a set of documents describing requirements, architecture and detailed technical specifications. Current status, as of September 2008, is that the requirements have been approved and work is currently ongoing on the architecture specifications. The group in OMA responsible for the work is the Content Delivery WG. The Requirement Document [4] contains use cases and defines the requirements for the Mobile Advertisement Enabler. The following areas are covered in the current version of the RD:

• Personalization of the Advertisements – personalizing and targeting the advertisements to a particular user

• Interactivity of Advertisements – enabling new payment models as cost-per-click and cost-per-action

• Advertising Metrics - metering advertisement impact and user behaviour A set of actors has been defined as part of the Mobile Advertisement ecosystem as shown in Figure 10-2 OMA Mobile Advertisement actors:

• Advertiser - supplies advertisement(s) characterized with information related to the targeted audience, campaign etc. The Advertiser may receive metrics data about their campaign based on an agreement with the Service Provider.

• Content Provider - provides content to a user and in general is willing to reinforce the value of its content by allowing advertisement to be sent along with the content.

• Service Provider - offers the mobile advertising service to Users via the MobAd Enabler. o Manages the MobAd Enabler User Profile data, based on information such as user

related, context related, interest and advertising preferences. o May deliver the advertising by the use of SP Apps (network based applications such

as the streaming media service, MMS service, SP-portal or other applications) as well as Ad Apps (device resident applications such as on-device portal, games or other applications).

o Manages the MobAd Enabler Advertisements Metadata that will be used for the mobile advertising service.

o Uses the metrics data provided by the MobAd enabler to improve the service and may share these metrics data with other actors such as the Content Provider or the Advertiser.

o Configures and maintains the MobAd Enabler. o May have some other roles such as providing billing service, subscription etc.

• User - consumes personalized interactive mobile advertising content. Exposes, modifies his/her MobAd user information, interest, context and preferences and may have the option to opt-in and opt-out from the mobile advertising Service.

• Ad App - receives the advertisements through MobAd Enabler, and presents them to the User. The Ad App may communicate information about Users’ actions to the MobAd Enabler.

• SP App - resides in the Network and interacts with the MobAd Enabler. It can embed the advertisements in content that it provides to the User and may communicate information about Users’ actions to the MobAd Enabler.



Figure 10-2 OMA Mobile Advertisement actors

The work on the architecture is still in progress and in an early phase. The current document [5] provides a

draft architecture figure as shown in Figure 10-3 OMA Draft Mobile Advertisement architecture.

The architecture consists of the following entities:

• Ad Engine - refers to MobAd Enabler Entities on a Device. It is a device-resident group of

functionalities potentially organized in logical modules. It interacts with different Ad Apps and

performs functions such as: obtaining appropriate ads from MobAd entities in the network, selecting

ads from a local storage, providing metrics related feedback to MobAd entities in the network,

filtering and matching information as well as potentially scanning content.

• MobAd Enabler Entities on the Network – represents network resident functions specified by the

MobAd Enabler

• Ad App – represents device-resident applications which interact with the MobAd Enabler Entities

on the Device (Ad Engine) in order to present advertisement(s) to the user.

• SP App – represent Mob Ad applications that are executing within the Service Provider

environment (e.g.: on an MMSC or SP-portal) and interacts with MobAd Enabler entities on the

network for providing Ads as part of its service (e.g. requesting Ads, providing metrics data). SP

App is not one of the MobAd Enabler Entities on the Network, but an external actor which interacts

with them.

• Contextualization and Personalization resources represents resources in the network and/or on the

device that provides the information input for the process to tailor advertisements according to a

users context (e.g. location, device capabilities etc.) and a users characteristics (preferences,

demographics, etc.). User Data (or User Information) can be considered as formed by two sets of

data:

• User Profile (data that can be considered static)

• User Context (data that can be considered dynamic)

Network

Devices

MobAd Enabler

Advertisers

Content Providers

Service Provider

Users

Ad Apps

SP Apps



The possible relevant OMA enablers to retrieve User Context data could be (not exhaustive):

• (SIMPLE) Presence (such as presence status, type of place, activity, mood)

• MLS (Mobile Location Service ) and SUPL (Secure User Plane Location ) (current

location)

• UAProf (device capabilities)

• DPE (device capabilities, phone profile)

Figure 10-3 OMA Draft Mobile Advertisement architecture

TBD-X represents a collection of interfaces between the components of the architecture. OMA will reuse

existing standards for the interfaces where possible, but if needed, new interfaces will be defined. The figure

shows two such new interfaces, MobAd-1 and MobAd-2.

MobAd-1 is an interface between the Ad Engine and the Ad App. The Ad Engine exposes this interface to

the Ad App. The Ad App uses this interface to requests ads from the Ad Engine, and to report ad metrics

data to the Ad Engine.

MobAd-2 is an interface exposed by the MobAd entities on the Network and used by the SP App to submit

an AdRequest message with some parameters. The MobAd entities on the Network use this interface to

provide an AdResponse to the SP App.

Advertisement is also a topic within the Game Services WG of OMA. The group has made a proposal for a

Work Item called In-Game Advertising (IGA) with the purpose to:

• Consider in-game advertising models (How to present adverts in games).

• Define interface between the game client and server to interchange IGA information.

• Define interfaces towards other OMA enablers.

10.2. GSMA The GSMA started the Mobile Advertising Programme in 2007. It has four work streams:

– Inventory definitions, Codes of Conduct – Measurement, Metrics, Customer Profiles: to look at best practice in these areas so

as to protect the privacy of customers, optimise targeting and demonstrate return on mobile advertising investment to media buyers & advertisers

– Mobile Media Planning and Buying – Mobile advertising Communications Programme

As of April 2008, the measurement, metrics and customer profiles was on target. GSMA has formal cooperation agreement with the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) on producing guidelines for development of national codes of conduct & defining standard inventories for different forms of mobile advertising (formats, specifications, commercial models, etc.). Telenor Sweden is contributing to the measurement, metrics and cutomer profiles work stream and is running project (also being run in the UK) to define and collect metrics which are common across all MNOs in Sweden.

Ad Server

Ad Engine Ad App

SP App

Contextualization and

Personalization Resources

CP-Network

CP-Device

MobAd-3

MobAd-2

MobAd-1

Delv-1



10.3. Other Mobile Advertisement related forums Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

MMA stimulates the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies; clears obstacles to market development; establishes standards and best practices for sustainable growth; and evangelizes the mobile channel for use by brands and third party content providers. The MMA has produced guidelines which deal with the mobile web (WAP 1.0 and WAP2.0) and downloadable ads.

Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF)

The MEF drives the mobile entertainment industry's evolution and its commercial potential reducing entry barriers to innovative entertainment market; offers a platform for the mobile entertainment industry to raise its public profile by promoting its offerings and facilitates the development of commercial standards and best practices.

Interacting Advertising Bureau (IAB)

The IAB proves and promotes the effectiveness of interactive advertising; grows the advertising marketplace and ensures secure transactions in interactive advertising processes; set committees, task forces and councils for discussing industry-specific issues.

11. Search pilot and RFI in GC Markets

Telenor is assessing the Mobile Advertisement and Search. A Wild Card Project owned by Telenor Strategy and led by GC Markets has been running since January 2008. Several workshops have been run and a pilot on Mobile search using anonymous customer data was run. As a result of the information obtained, the project was extended to run an RFI for MNO search. The Mobile Search Pilot had 2 main objectives:

1. To understand how to design an improved mobile search experience for our customers using a Telenor branded search service.

2. To understand how to use our customer data to increase targeting of the advertisements. The following feedback and insights were gained from running the pilot:

• Using contextual enablers like Time and Location to improve the relevance of the results

• Lack of mobile (WAP) content / pages – a need for technical solutions/partners to transcode web content to mobile formats

• Reduce fear of cost when using the service

• Stimulate mobile search service take-up and usage by educating the customer

• Adding new content categories (news and Weather) in addition to our current categories Additionally, based on the pilot the hypothesis that personalization of Mobile advertising leads to higher click through rates was given further support.

• There are indications that personalization may lead to higher Click Through Rates, see Figure 11-1 Personalization based on age, gender and place of residence.

• Higher Price per click levels can be justified based on levels of segmentation.



Figure 11-1 Personalization based on age, gender and place of residence

11.1. The Mobile Search Advertising RFI As stated above, the Mobile Advertisement and Search Wild Card Project owned by Telenor Strategy was extended to run an RFI for MNO search The following vendors replied to the RFI:

• MCN - Mobile Content Network

• Medio Systems

• Jumptap

• Yahoo

• FAST Search and Transfer The RFI was composed of 25 questions, 11 questions focused on General Information and the remaining 14 questions focused on Product information from the vendor. To evaluate the answers from the vendors participating in the RFI, we established an evaluation model. Each answer from each vendor was given a (subjective) rank from 1 to 5 to reflect their compliance to the requirements set out in the RFI. The rank is given by the following:

1 = Compliant + adding significant new value to a mobile search and advertising solution 2 = Compliant + demonstrate key insight solving challenges within mobile ad& search 3 = Compliant 4 = Partly Compliant 5 = Not compliant

A summary of the vendor scores for the 14 product questions based on the above scale was: o Mobile Content Network (MCN) 66 o JumpTap 64 o FAST 64 o Medio Systems 62 o Yahoo Scandinavia 57.

11.2. The White Label Search Pilot The white label Search Pilot is documented in the R&I Report 31[9] – If advertising is a must – please

personalise! A mobile search and ads pilot study among Telenor Norway Customers.

A white label mobile federated search service was developed, advertising campaigns were produced,

and finally, the service was tested by around 175 Telenor Norway customers. The pilot was launched

in May 2008 and ran for 2 months. The users received the service through a replica of the Telenor

Click Through Rates

2,49 %

6,91 %

2,84 %2,59 %

0,00 % 0,00 %0,00 %

1,00 %

2,00 %

3,00 %

4,00 %

5,00 %

6,00 %

7,00 %

8,00 %

1 juni - 15 juni 16 juni - 31 juli

Personalised

Ordinary

Text



Entry portal. Three randomized groups were respectively given a service a) free from ads, b) with

random ads, and c) with personalised ads. The personalization was based on the user’s search

terms, age, gender, and place of residence. User attitudes and experiences were collected through

web surveys, focus groups and traffic logs.

General non-familiarity with mobile Internet services and uncertainty about usage costs represent

main barriers to wide use of mobile search. Also, the small font size is a barrier to the users older than

45 years and to those keeping old mobiles with small displays. In general the small display –

compared to the PC screen – hampers hit list overviews and the judgement of relevance before

clicking.

The study uncovered challenges with regard to gathering and presenting search results from different

content sources. Due to delays in network communication “no results” was now and then presented in

cases where results obviously should be found.

The project resulted in a number of recommendations for an improved mobile search service, for mobile ads and personalization aspects and recommendations for further research for search and advertising.

12. Summary, conclusion and further work

The ecosystem for mobile advertising is in an establishment phase – new players will enter the market and constellations and acquisitions will happen. The value in the value chain is created at the advertisers’ side of the chain. The operators can play a role in this value creation, in particular due to our unique assets like customer data and insight. This is of course provided that the MNO capitalizes on these assets and acquires the required advertising platform assets. Roles and suggested positions for each OpCo are proposed in the Telenor Group Mobile Search and Advertising Strategy document[1]. Based on the input to this document, at least half of the Telenor OpCos currently have plans for doing something within the area of Mobile Advertising and Search. Several of the OpCos have already implemented mobile search solutions within their WAP portals, both branded and white label search solutions. The full potential is not yet exploited, as targeted and personalized advertising for search based on customer profiling and customer data is not yet implemented by any OpCo. A few OpCos are taking advantage of their WAP portal advertising opportunity and either selling it or using it for their own advertising. Of the alternative channels and approaches for mobile advertising, only advertising campaigns over SMS have been piloted, and only by a few OpCos in order to gain experience in this area. Telenor Global Coordination has run a white label search pilot which is documented in the R&I Report 31[9] and which resulted in a number of recommendations for an improved mobile search service, for mobile ads and personalization aspects and recommendations for further research for search and advertising.

The roles a Telenor OpCo can take as defined by the Telenor Group Mobile Search and Advertising

Strategy [1] document have been mapped to technology and systems needs. The functional architecture

defining components and responsibilities will help OpCos understand what is needed to perform Mobile

Advertising and Mobile Search. How these functionalities are realized and what the distribution of functions

between the OpCo and external actors will be is dependent on how each OpCo implements their solution –

potentially through partnering for some elements, procurement of systems and hosting or in-house

development for other functions. In the initial phase the OpCo will need the capabilities of media and

advertising agencies in order to build their own competence as they proceed.

One area which all OpCos will need to address and which will require support and implementation in technical systems is the area of privacy. Privacy protection and issues around privacy are subject to different regulatory regimes in different regions but independently of the regulatory requirements, the OpCos should ensure that they control and ensure privacy for their customers by ensuring all subscribers have opt-in and opt-out capabilities for all advertising related media and campaigns. It is also advantageous to plan, either separately or in connection with the development of opt-in and opt-out functionality, realization of a platform that could track and analyze user browsing activities and use this information to build



extended user profiles – as DiGi is currently doing (see Feil! Fant ikke referansekilden.). This information would help in improving the targeting and personalization of ads toward a user. Although the revenue potential for Mobile Advertising is less than telco turnover, it has a growth potential that might be critical for telcos. The market for mobile advertising must be built and it will take some time. Patience and realistic business cases must be developed, revenue potential is smaller than telco turnover – but this is a growth potential that might be critical for telcos. A key message is that Telenor OpCos must develop a local long term strategy and realistic business cases, and decide on the position(s) to target. Entering into the advertising business must be a conscious decision followed up by a whole hearted operative implementation. It is the ability to target customers through the telco knowledge of who the customer is and the possibility of using customer data to better target advertising for customers that makes mobile advertising such a promising revenue generator. Advertisers expect to pay higher rates if they can target the customer better OpCos expect that their customer knowledge will allow them to charge these higher rates. It is recommended to start with pilots and test implementations in the market immediately – but the long term picture should be defined.

Further Work

As mobile advertising and search is a fairly new area, not everything cannot be covered or understood at this point in time. Further work in this area should cover:

• The development and status of the advertisement based MVNOs such as Blyk.

• The potential disruptive nature of alternative access channels such as blue tooth or WiFi disruptive technologies?

• How to ensure that the customer data, which is the operators’ key asset for mobile advertising, is made available to partners and 3

rd parties and is enhanced with preferences

and usage history to allow better targeting.

• What systems and technology should an Operator own or control and what should be outsourced or partnered on?

• How to use campaign management with mobile advertising? How does and existing campaign management system fit with the mobile advertising platform? Can it be used as is or are extensions necessary?

• Related to the above question, we would like to better understand the linkage back to internal telco marketing/cross-selling needs as systems architecture would look the same. Mobile Ads is external party centric.

• Look into a suggested implementation architecture for a mobile operator - dtac has tried this earlier but the business case is hard to justify for the up front investments, e.g., expensive BSC features to support the Celltick platform.

13. Abbreviations

Below are some of the abbreviations used in this document. CPA Cost Per Action also referred to as PPA CPI Cost per Impression CPM Cost per Mille (CPM) also referred to as Cost per Thousand CPT Cost per Thousand CTR Click-through rate DRM Digital Rights Management IAB Interacting Advertising Bureau MEF Mobile Entertainment Forum MMA Mobile Marketing Association OCS Online Customer Service OMA Open Mobile Alliance OMAP Open Multimedia Application Platform – Texas Instrument microprocessor PPA PPC

Pay Per Action Pay Per Click

WAP Wireless Access Protocol WMA Windows Media Audio (WMA



14. List of references

[1] Telenor Group Mobile Search and Advertising Strategy, May 2008, Sissel Eng et al. [2] OVUM Straight Talk: telecom daily opinion 31 July 2008 [3] http://www.mobiadnews.com/?page_id=2583 JC Decaux Rolls Out BlueTooth Network [4] OMA-RD-Mobile-Advertising-V1_0-20080805-C, Candidate Version 1.0 – 05 Aug 2008,

http://member.openmobilealliance.org/Portal_documents/form1.asp?DT=P&TbId=146&SubTb=146&Param=Y4lKVETyWeLMLTLM2zT2R&Alone=0

[5] OMA-WP-MobAd_Framework_Scope_Initiatives-20070515-A, White Paper on Mobile Advertising –Framework, Scope and Initiatives– Approved – 15 May 2007

[6] Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. Official Journal of the European Communities of 23 November 1995 No L. 281

[7] Directive 97/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector. Official Journal of the European Communities of 30 January 1998 No L. 24.

[8] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amobee_Media_Systems [9] R&I R 17/2008 If advertising is a must – please personalise! A mobile search and ads pilot

study among Telenor Norway Customers, Sigmund Akselsen, Bente Evjemo, Calicrates Policroniades, Hans Jevanord, Jørgen Brecke, Thomas Tourrenc.

Annex 1. Vendor Summaries

Below is a list of vendors who were contacted to discuss Mobile Advertising and Search.

• Airwide Solutions (major portion of the Blyk platform)

• Adaptive Mobile

• Amdocs

• Amobee

• Cellent

• Ericsson

• JumpTap

• MCN

• Medio

• PacketVideo

• Tieto Enator Examples from a few vendors are included below:

A1.01 Airwide Solutions Search Solution: No Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes Channel: SMS, MMS, WEB, WAP

Business Model: Flexible for operator internal to hosted, provides the platform for the Blyk case.

The Airwide Mobile Advertising Solution is a full, modular, service delivery platform optimized for the

advertising business model. Airwide provides a solution for Ad-insertion, Campaign execution and

Campaign tracking. The ad-insertion can tail and insert messages on P2P communication between

subscribers.



Figure 14-1 Airwide hybrid platform

A1.02 Adaptive Mobile Search Solution: Support for Banners and keywords in search – mobile desktop search? Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes, Advertising management Channel: SMS, MMS, WEB, WAP, IMS, Email, IP apps, On-device client Business Model: MNO purchases, deploys and operates platform internally is the preferred model but they can work on an ASP revenue share model.

Adaptive Mobile mainly addresses: - Content Control - Permissions & Policy Management - User Insight & Analysis

They focus on policy enforcement, and brand improvement, in order to enforce that under-age customers do not get inappropriate content.



Figure 14-2 AdaptiveMobile platform

A1.03 Amdocs Search Solution: Have a search solution – acquired in 2007 approxiMatch Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes, full portfolio Channel: Say they can do any channel but difficult to understand supporting product Business Model: Only offers Hosted solution: Revenue Sharing only

AMDOCS Focus: Media sales and technology capabilities. AMDOCS solutions are on the Advertiser end of the value chain. 3 Components

• Publisher – can compare advertisers and which campaigns work best

• Digital Advertising Manager – allows advertiser to define campaign, evaluates success of campaign, gives metrics on ads (it is usually an ad agency that will use this tool – you have to have a sales agency involved here setting the rules, designing the pricing,

• Digital Administrator Manager (either operator or media sales on their behalf) o Ad Matching – use data mining to find result based on input (keywords) (use

of different keywords for internet and mobile – don’t use same keywords – advertisers need to build competency on these keywords)

o Advanced Ad Matching o Prioritization Rules

A1.04 Amobee Search Solution: Yes Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes Channel: WAP Browsing, Video & Music, Messaging and Games. Business Model: Not clear

Amobee Media Systems, a mobile advertising company, founded in 2005 by Gil Shulman, Saul Rurka and Zohar Levkovitz, has built and designed the first ad-serving solution dedicated to mobile operators. The solution allows them to dynamically insert advertisements into all forms of mobile communication and content, including: WAP Browsing, Video & Music, Messaging and Games. Amobee was founded in May of 2005 and went live in February 2006. The company is headquartered



in Redwood City, CA, and has a second commercial office in London, with its R & D center in Herzliya, Israel.

Amobee has run mobile advertising campaigns in Britain, France, Greece, Spain, Canada, Switzerland, the US, and the Czech Republic. Brands that have worked with Amobee include Coca Cola, Domino’s Pizza, Lenovo, Saab, and Lacoste.

VCs invested in Amobee include : Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Globespan.

Mobile giants Vodafone and Telefonica have both invested in the company.[8]

The solution has 3 main components:

- Campaign Management

- Inventory Management

- Delivery and Display Content Adaptation, In Apps (games, media player, client apps),In Coms (SMS, MMS, IM), In Browse (WAP, Video stream, Music)

Amobee uses Cognos as DW solution and ITP (IP Transfer Point) technology for SMS interception.

A1.05 Yahoo Search Solution: Yes Advertising Campaign Solution: Don’t think so. Channel: WAP based solution with client. Business Model: Hosted solution: Revenue Sharing only

Yahoo was contacted for Advertising and Search RFI in Telenor’s Wild Card Project. Content/Index build:

Web and WAP results are generated from indexes created by crawling web and mobile web sites. Yahoo!’s crawler, called Slurp, continually crawls the web, creating indexes of words on a page and following links to other pages. The mobile version of the crawler performs similar services tailored to sites that are optimised for mobile. Yahoo! does not support WML (WAP 1.x).

Yahoo!’s ranking algorithm is then applied to the indexed sites. This algorithm is continually updated by their research scientists in California and India. It ranks pages on multiple criteria, including the frequency of terms on the page, links coming into and out from the page, the page’s relationship to authoritative sites, and many others including algorithms to combat search engine optimisation fraud.

(a) Operator downloadable content Yahoo! itself is not in the mobile consumables business, but recognizes that it represents a significant business for most operators. Because of this, oneSearch includes comprehensive functionality for the integration of downloadable content into search results. This includes the ingestion and indexing of content feeds from providers, relevance algorithms for the surfacing of consumables appropriate to a user’s query, and a business rules framework that provides operators with assurance that their content will be displayed as expected.

Yahoo! has recently launched a beta in the US of the new oneSearch for HTML-capable handsets. This version delivers a superior user experience that leverages the display and technical capabilities of these higher-end devices. Yahoo! intends to introduce this functionality in beta form in Europe in the first half of 2008 and it should be available for partner integration in the second half of 2008.

Query Processing Categorization of queries Filtering Federation Indexed Feeds Query Forwarding and API Integration Delivery Device Profiling Rendering UI Customisation SafeSearch

Query Processing

Federation Delivery Post federation processing



A1.06 Medio

Search Solution: Provides White Label search external to the operator Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes, with advanced DWH tools Channel: WAP based solution with client Business Model: Hosted solution: Revenue Sharing only

This is a summary of the RFI response to the White Label Search request, dated May 2008.

Medio confirms positively to all the questions asked in the RFI, and provides detailed answer to the

questions asked in the RFI.

Medio was founded in 2004 with the goal of building and deploying a world-class mobile-centric search and

advertising product for use by wireless operators and mobile publishers. Medio provides white-label,

operator-integrated mobile search and advertising to Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, T-Mobile

International, and Telus Mobility. Medio provides white-label, publisher integrated mobile search and

advertising to ABC News (http://abcnews.mobi), CBS Sports (http://wap.cbssports.com/), CBS News

(http://wap.cbsnews.com/), plus many smaller publishers.

Medio provides two products for operators:

1. uSearch consists of the following components:

Ability to search multiple content categories from a single search experience

Categories include WWW, Local, News, Weather, and Mobile Web among others

Integration of operators’/publishers’ downloadable content within results

(Ability to create a matching browsing experience across this content)

Ability to search top-quality content within each content category

Present content from top brands & content providers – including operators’/publishers’ preferred

partners

Optimize content for the mobile experience

Intelligent search relevance capabilities

Recall & precision (balance of showing relevant results while knowing when not to show results for

a given query)

Providing Direct Answers™, not links, when possible

Search relevance based on query, content type, user, user behaviour, clusters & context

Features enabling better manageability & configurability

Selecting different content configurations

Business rule management (e.g. boosting within ranking, subsets of categories based on

subscriber’s data plan)

User interface configurability

Tools to automate, simplify, scale & manage the uSearch deployment

Advertising capabilities

Search advertising

Click-to-call & other calls to action

Reporting



Figure 14-3 uSeach architecture

2. The Analytics Primer that is a data warehouse tool to do:

• Ingest, data from sources like: such as WAP gateway logs, premium content purchase

history, and (where privacy laws and guidelines allow) the postal code of the billing

address.

• Analyse the data, where the most popular analysis techniques are clustering, inference

generation, classification, and rules generation/refinement.

i. Clustomers™, where customer data is mapped into an N-dimensional space, to

provide bottom-up data-driven customer segmentation.

ii. Inferences are used by Medio to increase the relevancy of our advertisement

placement engine. This is a variant of Amazon’s merchandising methods, and a

variant on Revenue Science’s behavioural and targeting, which places specific

ads on pages where the ads historically receive more clicks.

iii. Classifiers, where Medio statistically determines the genre of any page and site.

iv. Rule Optimization, where the analysis can group users

• Package, meaning recommendations are packaged as a database of items, matching

each item with a list of recommended items. Or for more personalized recommendations,

the database includes multiple lists within the mapping, one for each Clustomer.

• Use and Learn, insights are only useful when they result in action. Analysis can be

integrated into processes to automatically make changes, such as a matrix for generating

real-time product recommendations. Quite often, the packaged results are ingested by

humans who perform additional analysis techniques in order to understand the insights

and how best to use them to improve the user experience.



Figure 14-4 Analysis flow

A1.07 MCN (Mobile Content Networks)

Search Solution: Provides White label search external to the operator Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes Channel: WAP based solution without client, using standard WAP browser Business Model: Hosted solution, revenue Sharing only

This is summary of the RFI response to the White Label Search request, dated May 2008, and feedback

from DTAC on usage of their products. MCN provides a WAP portal that is optimised for handset browsers.

MCN (Mobile Content Networks) provides mobile search management and revenue solutions that connect

mobile users directly to the content they seek while delivering profitable new revenue streams for operators

and content providers. Their main products are:

• MobileSearch.net—an ASP-based white label solution that delivers relevant, actionable results

across both WAP and SMS in high value “vertical” content categories.

• allwords(sm)—the pioneering mobile vertical paid search program that delivers the mobile

industry’s highest performing PPC mobile content promotions.

MCN provides real-time mobile search solutions to partners in the world’s most advanced wireless data

markets and in emerging 3G markets. MCN launched MobileSearch.net services in Finland in 2005 and

now powers more than 20 mobile operator and portal search applications worldwide, including services in

Japan for Yahoo! Mobile Japan, and NTT DoCoMo (in partnership with D2Communications), all three



operators in Thailand (AIS, DTAC, and True), Scandinavia’s Tele2, Elisa, and DNA, and other customers in

Asia, Europe, and the U.S.

MCN provides federated search and a search management platform. MCN claims that with federated

search they can provide better searches with less effort, and means to prioritize content or items for sale.

The federated search consists of two parts:

1. The search engine can access deep and hidden content from content silos, and fresh content is

sent directly to the user from the original content provider. The engine uses usage-based rankings,

classification, metadata, local linguistic technology, and eliminates problems with duplicated

content storage.

2. A competitive ecosystem for content providers, where they have flexible charging methods, charge

by click, impression or action (sale). The ecosystem has flexible ranking methods by channel,

handset and market. A dynamic content source selection means more scalable content inclusion

and more competition.

The search management platform consists of three parts:

1. The federated search platform that connects to external content providers.

2. The means to rapidly deploy new search channels and content channels.

3. Tools to lets them cherry-pick the index and deliver highest value content, and augment existing

content with federated external content.

Frost & Sullivan has written a white paper on MCN and their findings and conclusions are:

1. MobileSearch.net is a unique mobile search management platform that successfully employs

federated search to deliver highly relevant, real-time results in a cost-effective and efficient manner

to mobile subscribers in two to three clicks.

2. MobileSearch.net is an effective, rapidly deployable search management platform that can be used

by both mobile operators and content portals to simplify the content discovery and purchase

process and hence increase the mobile operators’ non-voice revenues and content portal

revenues.

3. MobileSearch.net incorporates MCN’s patent-pending Mobile-Ad.net platform, further helping to

turn search into a significant revenue channel by delivery of highly relevant ads, including both up-

sell and cross-sell opportunities.

4. MobileSearch.net empowers content providers to generate new content and make it available to

mobile users without having to ‘open up’ their content repositories to third parties to ensure

discovery. This promotes the content providers’ participation in mobile search.

5. MobileSearch.net can be easily customized for specific and localized business needs, allowing

mobile operators and portal providers the ability to modify the rank order of the query results using

a self directed rules based engine.

6. The platform is able to address the issue of large content providers hiding the content available to

mobile search, by delivering both on-deck and off-deck results in response to a single search

query.

DTAC has piloted the MCN platform and their feedback is: TBD



A1.08 Ericsson Search Solution: No Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes Channel: WAP, SMS/MMS and applications. Business Model: Licensing, operator purchases, deploys and operates the solution. Ericsson sells additional advertisement “channels” like Mobile TV, Ring Back Tones etc.

Ericsson provides a mobile advertisement platform that has following functionality:

• Ad Management o Ad Inventory o Ad Rendering

• Campaign Management o Targeting o Channel selection o Ad spend

• Device Management o Device recognition o Device features

• User identification o Unique users o User profiling

• Personalization o Opt-in Acquired o Data mining generated

• Reporting o Media agency o Content publisher o Operator



A1.09 JumpTap Search Solution: White Label solution Advertising Campaign Solution: Partially. Channel: WAP Portal and client based Java and BREW solutions

Business Model: Based on revenue sharing

JumpTap provides two main products, the search engine and the ad network. The white-label

mobile search engine and mobile ad network provide partners with the most advanced and

targeted capabilities in the market so mobile operators can stay focused on understanding and

serving their subscribers. JumpTap provide a breadth of platforms (WAP, Java, and BREW) and

shield operators from device compatibility complexity. Mobile operators need strong and relevant

ad platforms to engage their subscribers and attract great advertisers. The strength of JumpTap's

ad network comes from our intelligent mobile search data, yielding better ad targeting and more

relevant results for the user. Ads are qualitatively and quantitatively fine-tuned for maximum ad

network performance. Plus, our variety of ad formats and networks create a higher fill rate.

JumpTap handles the entire process for mobile ad inventory fulfilment and business operations;

from advertiser management to billing and collections. JumpTap and the wireless operator build a

seamless, revenue-generating partnership delivering a high-quality paid search advertising

experience to subscribers and advertisers alike.

Figure 14-5 JumpTap search platform

JumpTap’s federated search infrastructure allows flexibility to accommodate the following:

• Static ranking: Operator determines a fixed order

• Popularity influence on ranking or results and categories



• Algorithmic blended with business rules ranking: TF/IDF, Field boosting, filtering of content,

count of results returned, and demoting content type

• Merge server that integrates structured content via API/XML, and unstructured content that

JumpTap crawls

JumpTap utilizes query classification to influence display logic

• Smart components

• Expanded results

• Matched Categories

• Recommendations

A1.10 TietoEnator Search Solution: No Advertising Campaign Solution: Yes Channel: WAP/Web Portal.

Business Model: Not one specific model, open for a range of models including hosted solutions and

revenue sharing.

TietoEnator mobile advertising solution handles the advertisement management and delivery

functionalities and it provides a web-based self-service user interface for advertisers to create

campaigns, monitor the campaign execution and view campaign reporting. The solution also includes

subscriber behaviour analyzing and profile database. The ad delivery and campaign execution system

takes care of the delivering the ads and executing the campaigns based on the targeting.

Figure 14-6 TietoEnator architecture

TietoEnator mobile advertising solution includes the following main functionalities:

• Creation and management of multi-channel campaigns

• Banner advertising

• SMS and MMS advertising

• Person-to-person messaging tagging

• Video advertising

• Targeting support

• Contextual targeting

• User profile based targeting



• Behavioural targeting

• Social network analysis

• Real-time measurement and reporting

• Browser-based self-service interface for advertisers

Best Paper - 04-53 CONTEST Mobile Advertisement and Search From a Service Platforms Perspective

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