"Ad-funded content has taken off with a bang and will continue its rapid growth, and not only in First World countries as one might expect, but also in the rest of the world," predicts Norman Parkin, CEO of Integrat.
Integrat has been involved in a number of initiatives this year where customers have been assisted in developing their mobile marketing strategies, of which ad-funded content is but one such product.
With the saturation of the low quality content markets in Europe and Australia, South Africa is soon to follow. Subscribers are realising more and more that content can be obtained free of charge from ad-served WAP and Web sites, but users are still willing to pay for quality content, like brands, music, Java games, adult content and the like.
Another benefit of ad-funded content is that companies are not geographically limited and can service the world with the same product.
The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has been envisioning that solid ad-funded business models could rejuvenate a stalling mobile entertainment industry since 2006, when 80% of executives (according to a member survey) felt that their focus should shift more towards ad-funded mobile entertainment (AFME).
Now, what precisely is ad-funded entertainment you might ask? Well, the MEF defines it as "revenue generated through mobile advertising to subsidize or fully fund the cost of existing mobile entertainment to the consumer".
If that clears things up a bit more for you, then you will really be delighted to read the following: In a recent study of the mobile entertainment market in the UK, with specific focus on mobile games and video, the MEF found that AFME is set to generate $286 million in revenue by 2012.
There are currently approximately three billion (increases daily through emerging markets) active mobile users in the world and if one keeps the ultimate goal of having the mobile phone as the primary method of delivering news, information and entertainment in mind, then providing content free or at a subsidized cost, while seeing content consumption rise exponentially with the support of targeted, personalised advertising ... it really is a no brainer.
For further information on how to optimise this opportunity, please contact Integrat at marketing@integrat.co.za.
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