Bridgewater Systems - Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising represents a significant opportunity for operators. According to Frost & Sullivan, mobile advertising revenues will grow from $1.3 Billion in 2007 to $7.1 Billion by 2011. Many mobile operators are experimenting with ad placements within on-portal content that they control. However, this opportunity also extends to a broader set of off-portal content, whereby mobile operators can collaborate with advertising networks to personalize content using a key strategic asset – subscriber data. For example, operators can provide dynamic contextual data such as the subscriber’s location, roaming status and language preference to create relevant, targeted advertising.

Mobile operators can capitalize on their subscriber data assets by brokering subscriber data,with the appropriate permission and respect for subscriber identity and privacy to mobile advertising providers. This enables them to generate revenue streams in the open mobile ecosystem and adopt advertising-based business models whereby the operator derives advertising and click-based revenues, much like Google’s Internet business model.

Situation

The mobile device provides a new opportunity for mobile advertising and marketing. The personalized nature of the mobile device will drive new opportunities to customize and extend the reach of marketing offers.

Mobile devices have unparalleled reach with high penetration in developing and developed markets and are increasingly becoming the user’s sole device—displacing traditional wireline connectivity.
Smartphones are enabling access to the mobile Internet, opening new ways to provide innovative web-based advertising similar to the wireline Internet experience.

Attitudes toward mobile advertising are changing as subscribers experience the benefits of personally relevant offers in exchange for reduced service fees and other incentives. In a recent report, 32% of data users said they were open to mobile advertising if it lowered their overall bill; 13% said they were open to mobile advertising if it improved content; 14% said they were open to mobile advertising as long as it was relevant; and 23% expected to see more mobile advertising in the future (Source: Nielsen, March 2008).

Advertising is typically targeted based on relevance to content; for example, a sports gaming site might host advertising for sports brands. It is not targeted on the basis of contextual relevance to the mobile subscriber using data that the mobile operator can broker securely to advertising providers; such as location, roaming patterns, language preference.

Challenges

There are several challenges that mobile operators face in delivering personalized mobile advertising:

Protecting subscriber privacy – The ability to mask personally identifiable subscriber data and broker only specific types of subscriber data that can be used responsibly for targeted advertising.
Security of data exchange with advertising networks.
Flexible opt-in, opt-out options for subscribers – This needs to be managed on a regular basis in concert with the subscriber data brokering process. For example, the ability to dynamically check subscriber opt-in, opt-out status, create time windows whereby opt-in/out status needs to be reconfirmed or offered again to the subscriber.
Monitoring and reporting on how and when subscriber data is brokered to ensure proper charging and settlement transactions.

Bridgewater’s Solution

Bridgewater’s Subscriber Data Broker™ brings together disparate subscriber data including profile, dynamic state and usage information from multiple sources in the mobile operator network, and provides the sophisticated tools to broker these data assets to mobile advertising networks. It uses governance rules that control how and which types of subscriber data can be brokered to third-party advertising providers. Operators can support multiple advertising networks simultaneously with flexible governance rules that can be customized to meet the requirements of different types of advertising content or campaigns. It also features an opt-in subscriber portal that works in concert with governance rules to invoke sharing of non-personally identifiable subscriber data on a selective basis.

Operator Benefits

Opportunity for revenue sharing with advertising providers.
New services – Download advertising-funded music tracks for free.
Enables targeted, personalized advertising based on location, primary language, demographics, and roaming patterns for example. This may be more appealing to subscribers than generic offers.
Protects subscriber privacy – Using flexible governance rules.
Gives subscribers control – Opt-in or opt-out mechanism.
Reduces subscriber churn by offering incentives to take part in mobile advertising programs.

Subscriber Data Broker Advantage

Unified view of subscriber data (profile, state and usage) that can be brokered while protecting subscriber privacy.
Field-proven interoperability with third-party applications.
Security mechanisms to ensure secure exchange of data with third parties.
Flexible business rules can enable federation of subscriber data from existing databases for the purposes of brokering.
Features reporting of subscriber data broker exchanges for the purposes of settlement with Advertising Networks, and Advertisers.

How it Works