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Amobee, Winstar and Quattro Aim to Boost Position, Profitability.

Boost Mobile, the self-proclaimed “lifestyle-based telecommunications brand” focused on the prepaid (pay-as-you-go) US market, announced that they are partnering with Mobile Ad Serving Firm Amobee to bring their on deck mobile web advertising inventory to market - effective immediately - with Acura and Fox Searchlight Pictures already on board as advertisers.

Initially the Boost Mobile advertising inventory will consist of mobile web banner units, although it is well-known that Amobee’s “carrier grade” mobile ad server is fully-capable of serving far more interesting ad units, such as SMS sponsorship, mobile video ads and other enhanced units. Whether Boost ultimately decides to bring additional mobile ad formats remains to be seen.

In addition to the usual mobile web targeting parameters, such as content category and handset targeting, Amobee will leverage its direct carrier-relationship to provide more sophisticated mobile advertising services, including the highly sought-after “session-independent frequency cap.” No plans have been announced regarding more controversial approaches to mobile ad targeting, such location-based or behavioral targeting.

In a noteworthy move, Amobee has chosen to augment its current mobile ad sales partner Winstar Interactive with US-based Quattro Wireless. Our regular readers will recall that back in December of last year mobilestance predicted that Winstar alone would be unable to sell enough ads to satisfy Amobee’s business objectives, and that additional sales partners would ultimately be needed.

It is unclear how ad accounts will be divided between these Winstar and Quattro, but clearly Amobee will need to actively manage this process to avoid any awkward channel conflicts that might arise with multiple (and independent) sales organizations selling the same product to an overlapping customer base.

Analysis. As Boost Mobile is a wholly owned division of Sprint Wireless, Amobee is well positioned to unseat current US legacy “on deck” mobile ad serving companies - specifically Enpocket (now Nokia), who currently manages all the on deck WAP inventory on Sprint - as well as Third Screen Media / AOL, who manages (and sometimes sells) the Verizon Wireless on deck inventory.

Quattro Wireless, who will be celebrating its first birthday in May of this year, has already impressed many with a series of strong moves - including their launch with P&G and Univision Movil, their long term / tail GetMobile platform, and the securing of key talent. Together with Amobee’s well-distributed technology and Boost’s highly attractive audience, these players just might have what it takes to achieve the ultimate (and so far elusive) goal in the mobile advertising marketplace: serious profitability.

Mobile Banking Finds Some Success in the US, While Payment Services Face Mounting Concerns.

A new study by Harris Interactive finds a virtual glass half full/empty scenario developing in the US mobile commerce space. Depending on which way you look at it, the domestic m-commerce market is either poised for explosive growth, or is doomed to follow in the footsteps of other “once hot, now not” slow growth areas… such as mobile video or Bluetooth marketing.

First, the “good” news: US consumers are increasingly taking to mobile banking services for activities such as balance inquiries and fund transfers. The survey “finds 16 percent of mobile phone subscribers already use mobile banking services, with 60 percent of these people using the services at least once a week.” Of those not currently engaging in mobile banking services, 35 percent expressed interest in “checking bank account balances and transferring funds via their mobile devices. A third of those surveyed (33 percent) also said they would like to receive text message alerts from their financial institutions.”

However, US consumers draw the line at conducting actual financial transactions via mobile. A mere 19% of those surveyed had any interest in “mobile wallet” services, while only 16% expressed interest in “mobile shopping.” Consumers cited three core reasons behind their lack of interest in the channel:

1. Security Concerns. 66% claimed “Security / Encryption” was their primary concern, while 63% cited “Exposure to Fraud”, and 61% were concerned they “Might lose device with valuable information.”
2. Price Sensitivities. 58% of those surveyed identified “Cost” as a reason for their lack of interest in mobile commerce services. 33% were either “very” or “extremely concerned” with how “price per transaction” would affect the overall cost of mobile transactions.
3. Quality Issues. “Usability”(43%), “Reliability” (37%) and “Speed of Network” (23%) rounded out the top reasons for lack of interest in m-commerce.

Joseph Porus, Vice President, Harris Interactive, remains optimistic on the potential of mobile commerce while also cautioning against taking a consumer’s “expressed interest” in future products too literally. “Payment is where we’re all the applications are headed,” said Porus “[but] there’s also a halo affect with all of these studies when it comes to interest levels. Once a consumer actually sees the [product or service], along with the price, you can usually cut the ‘Interest’ number in half. Still, these numbers are very encouraging.”

You can find some of the raw data here: .pdf link.