In 2010, Gartner forecasts that SMS volumes will surpass 2.1 trillion, which is a 12.7% increase from 2009. Gartner analysts said that messaging traffic and revenues continue to be driven by new subscribers in developing markets.
“Strong organic growth continues in Asia’s developing markets, with marginal subscribers turning to low-cost messaging as an entry-level service,” said Madhusudan Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner. “In the mature markets of the Asia/Pacific region, SMS has seen sustained healthy growth as a result of steady price declines and increasingly generous SMS and data bundles.” Read more

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

The company will join in the top 50 cutting-edge companies from around the world to showcase businesses in the areas of Internet Tech, Health Care and Clean Tech, presenting the newly developed self-service mobile marketing platform, TMSfactory.com, to officially go public on June 17 at the Digital Sandbox Network, New York City.

Recently, the company launched the beta of TMSfactory with the mission of providing self-service functionalities to create and manage mobile campaigns using the simplified mobile tools and widgets integrated in the platform for convenient ‘drag and drop’ navigation.

The presentation in New York City is concurrent to the company’s official opening of the TMSfactory platform to the public. The company will feature four major functions integrated in TMSfactory version 1, consequently considering it as one of the most comprehensive platforms in the world’s mobile marketing scene. The future versions of this open platform will integrate third party partners (mobile services, widgets, publishers) and a complete solution for merchants to include mobile payment.

TMSfactory covers the self-service functionalities to: 1) Create and manage a mobile campaign; 2) Embed the campaign to other media locations (such as TV, print, email, web and social) using “media to mobile” widgets for instant display and access; 3) Monitor the campaign’s data; and 4) Measure the campaign’s results.

TheTMSway Ltd is a sole mobile content development company from Asia that provides mobile marketing solutions, bringing together online and offline brands and media closer to the target audiences worldwide.

“We are excited about this Venture Summit opportunity and we anticipate a very productive outcome from the participation”, says Frederick Saurat, Co-founder and CEO of TheTMSway Ltd.

About TheTMSway Ltd

TheTMSway (www.theTMSway.com) is a Hong Kong based company which provides a platform to develop, monetize and promote mobile business. TheTMSway connects Advertisers and Media (and soon merchants) to consumers using the Mobile Medium as a bridge to engage in conversation and deliver personal content (marketing or payment). In complement to its self-service platform “www.TMSfactory.com”, “TheTMSway” provides premium services for Media and Ad agencies. Mobile portfolio “http://m.thetmsway.com/portfolio.php”

About New York Venture Summit

The New York Venture Summit is a premier industry gathering that connects senior executives of early stage and emerging growth companies, venture capitalists, angel investors, technology transfer professionals, university researchers, incubators, successful entrepreneurs and premier service providers. The event provides exposure to companies deserving for global funding.

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Retailers in SMS window need time to catch up with technology

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Is the value-proposition of mobile marketing getting across?

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722 million Mobile Business Connections by 2014, Driven by Smarter Devices and High Speed Connectivity According to Research

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Mobile Email Will Grab the Larger Share of APAC’s Enterprise Mobility Pie

Mobile email will remain the undisputed leader of the Asia Pacific Enterprise Mobility market, estimated to grow to US$3.7 billion in 2012, says Springboard Research.

In the report, the majority of content downloads were initiated via SMS. The study was produced by the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO) and found majority of Uganda telecom companies to pushing towards 100% growth in mobile content downloads.
Read full article…

Toblerone runs ‘Play it Forward, Share the Gratitude’ mobile campaign

By Dan Butcher

March 11, 2009

Kraft Foods’ Toblerone has lunched the ‘Play it, Forward it, Share the Gratitude’ mobile promotion targeting the digital generation—students and young workers.

The campaign encourages consumers to extend gratitude to loved ones by uploading mobile video and text messages and have them broadcasted on digital walls in Greenbelt and Bonifacio High Street in the Philippines. There is a Web site for the Toblerone ‘Play it, Forward it’ promotion with brand information, details about the promotion, upload and entry forms, desktop widgets, contact details and tallies of uploaded videos, texts and votes.

“The strategy behind the Toblerone campaign is to develop brand awareness for its new product—Fruit & Nut—directly to the location of targeted audiences using personal media—mobile and social networks,” said Frederick Saurat, cofounder of TheTMSway Ltd., Hong Kong.

“So far, the campaign has gained positive results in terms of imaging and ROI,” he said.

Toblerone is a chocolate bar made by Kraft Foods Switzerland. It is best known for its triangular chunks (representing the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps), its distinctive packaging, its prism shape (triangular prism or pentahedron) and its ubiquity in airport duty-free shops.

Complementing its self-service platform, TheTMSway provides services for media such as StarTV and TV5Monde; ad agencies Ogilvy, Mindshare, Starcom and Havas; and for brands such as Nike, Motorola and Citibank.

From the Toblerone campaign site, consumers can send their thank you videos and text messages to the mobile phones of families and friends.

For the contest, Toblerone will select the best thank you uploads with prizes for both video and text-message winners. Consumers can win an iPod Touch or an iPod Nano.

Photo shows Toblerone's campaign site (left) and apps in Facebook (right)

The campaign is using the original 1D bar code on the candy’s packaging in order to connect to the TMS search engine. Submitting the ID code to the TMS search engine offers direct access to a discount mobile coupon.

TMS also created a social application for Toblerone’s campaign and placed it on two social networks—Facebook.com and Friendster.com.

Consumers can send a Toblerone reward from Facebook or Friendster to friends’ mobile phones.

The campaign is currently running.

“Our TMSfactory erases the pain of campaigns via new media by developing and synchronizing the campaigns to different platforms: the social networks (such as Friendster and Facebook) and the mobile (connected to different mobile operating systems) offering consumers a practical way to interact between the platforms,” Mr. Saurat said.

“Our factory provides our clients the data, statistics and analysis of their campaigns in real time,” he said. “This way, our clients can monitor how far their campaigns have impacted their target audiences and if goals are exactly achieved.”

By David Blecken

ASIA-PACIFIC – French TV network TV5Monde has unveiled a free bilingual mobile portal for users in Asia-Pacific that will reportedly offer a range of tools and services to support its cable and satellite distribution.

In a statement, the company said the mobile platform, developed in conjunction with Hong Kong consultancy The TMS Way, would facilitate access to new, and in particular younger, audiences, as well as building loyalty with current subscribers.

The portal is reportedly optimised for all mobile operating systems and is able to recognise up to 8,000 devices, enabling access across the 45 countries served by TV5Monde in the region.

Services will include streaming news bulletins, programme schedule information, a video gallery and a travellers’ kit comprising features such as a currency converter, weather details and alerts, and background information on international destinations.

A spokesperson for the channel noted that the portal would create a range of targeted advertising opportunities, including language-, country- and device-specific banners, branded SMS, e-mail and newsletters, and links to websites and spot inserts. A campaign for French DJ act Justice consisting of a branded mini site will run over the initial four weeks following the portal’s launch.

The channel’s marketing director, Alexandre Muller (pictured), described the initiative as a “cost-efficient marketing tool to rejuvenate brand image” and to reach out to mobile users who may not have access to the linear service at home.

The development comes as TV5Monde celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Original article here:

http://www.brandrepublic.asia/Media/newsarticle/2009_02/TV5Monde-unveils-bilingual-mobile-portal/34234