Maria Nguyen
New kid on the mobile marketing block YoMo TV may have only opened its doors in April, but the company is already claiming a 5% share of all mobile advertising in Australia and is set to launch a “world-first” application that can turn home PCs into Bluetooth pods.
Short for “your mobile”, YoMo TV is a Melbourne-based proximity broadcast company that launched with a national Bluetooth mobile content distribution platform to broadcast news, entertainment and advertising to an expected 30,000 users each week.
Its content program consists of tens of thousands of free, 30-second video clips sourced from large media publishers, such as Fairfax, Reuters and IMG.
All content is entirely funded by advertisers and broadcast to mobiles via YoMo TV’s exclusive Bluetooth network of more than 1500 locations including sporting grounds, shopping centres, pubs and bars, airports and other major transport hubs.
Telstra Dome, the SCG, MCG, Gabba, AMP shopping centres, Boost Juice and Gloria Jeans are some of the venues already on board the YoMo TV network, while Melbourne Airport is also expected to sign on.
The company has secured advertising deals with major brands including NAB, Krispy Kreme, CUB Foster’s, the Victorian Government, ANZ, TAC, Gloria Jeans, Boost Juice and Swinburne University.
YoMo chairman Danny Schwartz says the company’s revenue is derived solely from network advertisers and shared with the venue landlords, who also help with PR and advertising costs.
While mobile phone advertising is still nascent (projected to reach $200m by 2010), Schwartz says more than 60% of mobile handsets are Bluetooth enabled. He believes the beauty of Bluetooth as a delivery channel, lies in the fact it is “carrier neutral and handset neutral”.
“Bluetooth is the path of least resistance,” he claims.
“It doesn’t matter (which carrier) you are with, because with Bluetooth, there is no walled garden, and the content is free.”
Another advantage is the ability to deliver specific, day-part advertising messages that are also location and demographic specific, Schwartz added.
Despite launching only three months ago, Schwartz is already planning the next phase of YoMo TV – a new, patented technology he describes as a “world first”, developed in Australia by an Adelaide firm.
To be rolled out nationally around September following trials in South Australia, this new software application, once downloaded to a mobile phone, will enable a constant connection between the phone and the YoMo TV network.
At the moment, Bluetooth networks send or “push” individual messages to a phone, asking if the user agrees to accept specific information when they are in the Bluetooth zone.
This new application will make YoMo TV’s entire program of contents available when users are within the network, so they can select or “pull” from a menu of relevant news and entertainment options – turning Bluetooth into a pull, rather than a push marketing technology, Schwartz says.
Schwartz also told Digital Media YoMo TV has bought exclusive worldwide rights to commercialise the application that will also deliver more media-rich content and allow users to make free YoMo-to-YoMo mobile calls (like Skype), and watch catch-up TV within the network.
Schwartz said the application can also be downloaded onto a PC that is Bluetooth enabled.
“If you download the app to your home PC, you will, in effect, be turning that PC into a YoMo Bluetooth pod. Via Bluetooth, your mobile will be hooked up to your PC, which is hooked up to our network through the internet and so you can do all those things on your mobile that you would do online on your PC – make free YoMo-to-YoMo voice calls, instant message, send emails, surf the web, SMS and send voice messages,” Schwartz said.
“And if your PC doesn’t have Bluetooth, we will send you a free Bluetooth antenna.”
To support the “enhanced application”, Schwartz said YoMo will launch “a large-scale” marketing campaign to educate media agencies, advertisers and consumers about its capabilities.
“The future of mobile content distribution is very dynamic and there are great apps coming out,” Schwartz added.
“The tiny screen is becoming just as powerful as big screen and the telcos will be in strife because of the cheaper marketing environments being developed by and for mobile phones, which are no doubt, the most personal of devices that are carried everywhere by the user.” DM
