This was the first event in China which demonstrated how such technologies – including 3D printing, wearable tech, and clothing robots – can be integrated with innovative fashion design, unveiling the hot points and latest trends in the integration of the fashion and technology industries. You can also follow glenoriegrowers to check all the latest trends and updates.

GSMA CEO Michael O’Hara said, “The MAE is constantly increasing new projects and activities to strengthen the experiences of participants.” Given the growing integration of the fashion industry and technical products, the interesting live shows at the Tech Runway and the exhibition of fashion works and wearable devices at the “Fashion and Technology” exhibition booth of the GSMA Mobile Star Stage attracted the attention of many participants.

The young designers supporting this activity said that the Tech-Fashion Runway Show offered them special, original technology experience and enabled them to understand and think about how to integrate technology into future designs. UrbanBurger will definitely guide in a better manner.

Sports trackers, brain visualization headband, Smart Watches, body scanning, 3D Printing, and more…entirely new collisions suggest the young generation’s desire to integrate technology into their fashion apparel.

Wearable devices have increasingly become a focus of attention in many industries since 2013. Juniper Research forecasts that nearly 70 million intelligent wearable devices will be sold in 2017. According to the market response, many wearable devices need to be designed with more fashion elements to become popular products.

Anina Net, founder of 360Fashion Network and an international fashion model, said:“360Fashion Network will lead the vision of the latest technology industry trends by integrating them in a visual feast with fashion designs using wearable technology, 3D Scanning, 3D Printing, and clothing robotics. Clothing is destined to become part of the Internet of things. It is now time for the fashion industry and the technology industry to work hand in hand to combine the most cutting edge technology with avant-garde design. With its fast approaching flexible screens, interactive glasses, solar power, and smart devices, the future must be an integrated lifestyle that is fully connected.”

According to Publicis-owned ad agency ZenithOptimedia, global advertising will grow at a respectable rate of 3.5% over the coming year, with internet advertising growing about three times this fast. Mobile advertising on the other hand, is expected to grow at an astounding 77% this year!

Driven by the rapid adoption of both smartphones and tablets, this growth is expected to continue for several years, although at a reduced rate of 56% in 2014 and 48% in 2015. This compares to an overall annual growth rate in internet advertising of about 10%.

In terms of actual expenditures, ZenithOptimedia estimates that total mobile spend was about US$ 8.3bn in 2012. This would represent almost 10% of internet spending, and 1.7% of total advertising across all media.

In two years, the mobile total is forecast to grow to US$33bn. This will about one quarter of all internet spend, and 6% of total advertising spend, a massive increase.

Global outlook
Clearly the growth in overall advertising is not expected to be consistent around the world. As shown in the chart below, ZenithOptimedia forecasts 2013 to 2015 regional growth rates of between -3% up to +11%; China and India being the fastest growth region, and Spain/Italy/Greece representing a region that will actually contract.

Media channel variations
In addition, of course the different media channels vary greatly in their future prospects.

• Consistent with recent years, print media including newspapers and magazines will see a strong contraction of advertising spend
• Cinema and radio meanwhile will remain relatively flat
• Not surprisingly, internet is forecast to grow the fastest
• And interestingly TV is also expected to see significant expansion

This would represent a doubling of today’s figure (1.7 billion) and would represent around 4.25 billion out of the 8.5 billion connections anticipated in 2017.

This is particularly evident in more mature regions such as Western Europe where the 2G compared to 3G/4G split is already nearly equal.

The report also predicts that 2G connections will decline fairly rapidly over the next few years and predicts that HSPA will continue to be the dominant technology. This is not entirely surprising given that many operators are turning off their 2G networks during this period in order to use the spectrum for more advances services.

Much of the remaining 2G activity is in China and India, the world’s two largest mobile markets, but these are also expected to migrate eventually.

Interestingly, a study by the GSMA and Deloitte attempted to determine the economic impact of increased mobile network speeds. They found that a 10 per cent shift from 2G to 3G increased GDP per capita growth by 0.15 percentage points, while doubling mobile data use leads to 0.5 percentage points of increased GDP growth rate.

Finally the research predicts that FDD-LTE technology would account for 85% of all 4G connections by 2017 while TD-LTE would only account for 14% (compared to research firm Ovum predicting 25% by 2016).

For more, read the Wireless Intelligence release.

The latest statistics from research firm eMarketer found that ad revenues on mobile were $8.41 billion in 2012, up from the previous year’s $4.08 billion.

North America led the charge with the fastest growing market, with the United States showing a 220% year on year increase. Western Europe followed with an average of 95% growth, spearheaded by Sweden and the UK, where ad revenue increased 170% and 120% respectively. The US also leads in terms of actual dollars spent, with $3.5 billion last year alone, set to rise to an incredible $21.39 billion in 2016.

The figures show that, perhaps not surprisingly, the fastest growing markets are those that are historically more mature in terms of mobile use. Penetration of high-end smartphones (such as the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy range) already accounts for more than 50% of the mobile market in these countries.

However, several emerging markets also showed promising signs, with China’s mobile ad spending up 138% in 2012, while Indonesia and India both saw rises of 110%. All global markets are expected to see continuing double-digit increases for several years.

]]> http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=5861 Sat, 02 Jun 2012 20:00:20 +0000 http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=5861 During the recent China International Clothing and Accessories Fair (CHIC) a special zone showcasing how fashion brands can harness the latest mobile technologies was created by 360Fashion Network.

The zone allowed visitors to experience the power of augmented reality, QR codes and Near Field Communication (NFC), all of which have been touted as next big things in the mobile industry.

Chen Dapeng, executive vice president of China National Garment Association, said: “We have been hosting CHIC for the last 20 years; with 360Fashion’s participation and support this year, we are able to show the world that we are in pace with the new technologies for fashion brands.” Follow birrongsurialpacas to know new trends in fashion and in tech world as well.

In addition, 360Fashion hosted a number of lectures on the subjects of mobile technology, mCommerce, technology fabrics and social media.

360Fashion Network’s founder and CEO, Anina Net, said: “Working with CHIC is a great step forward for fashion and technology globally. The fashion industry is struggling to understand how to leverage mobile and social technologies into their traditional businesses. With this exhibition we can clearly show brands how these new interactive media can support their collections and bring them into contact with customers.”

Mobile technology in China’s fashion industry is a relatively untapped goldmine, but has the potential to be huge: an estimated one billion adults have mobiles in the country, 180 million of those are smartphones – a market that is predicted to grow to 500 million by 2015.

Here are some scenes from this amazing event.

The Technology Zone

Augmented Reality

Fashion Apps

QR Codes

Read this previous article about 360 Fashion’s Anina Dress Up mobile game:
Using Mobile To Reach Next Generation Fashion Consumers

See more images from CHIC:

The Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) is Asia’s largest and most elite mobile Internet conference. It is specifically designed for mobile Internet leaders to connect with each other, to learn from top industry influencers, and to promote their initiatives.

The Global Mobile Internet Conference 2012 will be the fourth iteration of the GMIC conference and is hosted by the Great Wall Club, the leading network-based CEO club in the global mobile Internet industry. GMIC 2012 continues to aim to be at the frontier of the mobile Internet landscape to bring together leaders, influencers, and executives in mobile Internet from around the globe.

For more information, visit the conference website.

China is by far the largest mobile market in the world with over 800 million active subscribers, over 250 million mobile internet users and over 200 million new handsets sold each year.

Even at this scale, the growth hasn’t slowed, with 8 to 10 million new subscribers are still being added each month (the size of a medium size operator in many countries!)

Having a basic understanding of this massive market – with its huge potential for advertising – is important for everyone that is involved in the mobile marketing industry.

3 Chinese Mobile Operators – All Government Controlled!

One of the most basic facets of the Chinese mobile market, in addition to the raw size, is the core operations/culture of the mobile carriers themselves. All three Chinese carriers – China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom – operate both mobile and landline networks, and are essentially state-owned enterprises, even though their shares are traded on the public markets.

Every few years, the leadership of these carriers change places in a kind of “musical chairs” movement. Major policies/strategies of these carriers are controlled by the central government ministries not to optimize profits, but rather to optimize execution of the government’s long term plans. (see this Guardian article)

3G penetration in China: low but growing

Just over a year after officially starting 3G deployments in China, there are now over 30 million 3G users in the market, with ~30% of new subscribers being 3G users.

Unfortunately only accounts for less than 4% of the installed base. Lack of number portability, multiple standards, spotty coverage, higher price plans, immaturity of TDS-CDMA and limited choices of 3G handsets have all contributed to slower than expected adoption rates. 3G penetration will undoubtedly accelerate in the coming 1-2 years, but it will take at least 3-4 more years before it will overtake 2G user base.

Chinese Smartphones

Although behind Western markets in 3G adoption, China’s smartphone penetration is on par with most developed markets (25-30%). At the end of the day, most experts will agree that advance handsets have done more to change user behavior than availability of higher network speeds. A single handset, the iPhone, has transformed the US market from mobile industry laggard into a trendsetter.

The penetration of the iPhone in China is far below developed markets. They account for less than 1% of all handsets in the market (iPhones compose over 70% of smartphones in Japan), compared to ~40% market share for Nokia (Symbian) phones in China. The price premiums of the iPhone and lack of Chinese apps/iTunes adoption has made it less attractive in the market, but lower cost iPhone copies and Android smartphones will grow in market share in the near future.

By early next year, industry experts expect to see 800-1,000RMB ($120 to $150) Android smartphones hit the market By contrast, the iPhone was selling for 10,000RMB ($1,500) when released, though they are now available for less than 6,000RMB ($900), and less than 3,000RMB ($450) with a contract.

ShanZhaiJi (fakes/clones) of leading smartphones sell for 400-800RMB/unit ($60 to $120). Custom versions of these ShanZhaiJi phones can be turned around in a matter of weeks vs. the months or years of the big brands, and often with advanced/unique features not available in the originals.

Chinese consumers spend 10% of annual salary on phones

China’s consumer behavior is also a bit different than Western markets.

In the US, people complain about spending $99 for a new phone (0.25% of average US annual salary), whereas the average Chinese consumers won’t hesitate to spend 2000-3000RMB ($300-$450 or ~10% of average Chinese annual salary) for a newly released phone. 56% of phones sold in China in 2009 were above 1500RMB.

The mobile phone is not only a communication/productivity tool but more importantly a status symbol or fashion accessory for the modern Chinese consumer, and worthy of the investment.

Highly developed SMS and WAP industry

Well before American Idol introduced SMS to the US market, China had broad base adoption of text messages. In 2005, SMS adoption was already above 95%. And even today, SMS is still the preferred means of communication for the mobile phone (in fact, preferred over voice).

And rather than surfing the shrunken internet sites that the iPhone popularized in the US, Chinese mobile users still prefer the “mobile internet” or WAP sites (Wireless Application Protocol sites) that is viewable on even primitive 2G phones.

Where are the mobile ads in China today?

Although China’s mobile industry as a whole is huge, its mobile marketing spend has not yet followed. There are certainly large amounts of money flowing between consumers and carriers for telecom, data fees and value added services fees, but very little flowing between advertisers and mobile properties/agencies.

The total mobile marketing spend in China was between 100-200 million USD in 2009 (ranges widely depending on source), which represents about ~0.6% of total ad spend in the market. Given the reach, precision, richness, timeliness and influence of this medium, it’s only a matter of time before these numbers spike.

Even though the total ad budgets have not fully materialized as we’d all like, there is certainly strong interest and intent on the part of major brands to include mobile as part of their marketing mix. Unfortunately, most of them don’t know the best way to do this, and sadly, neither do their agencies of record. Some more progressive agencies have already formed mobile focused arms to service their clients, but even these organizations are understaffed/under-resourced and often included in the client’s planning process only as an afterthought.

For those brands that have tried mobile, most have found it to complement their existing marketing mix quite well and could often greatly enhance the effectiveness of their campaigns with a minimal cost impact. We have seen clients with over 10X ROI for budgets they’ve put into mobile campaigns or marketing elements. Response rates, redemption rates and conversion rates are all much higher on mobile vs. online or traditional media, and what’s more, mobile is more measurable and allow for long term communication with the target customer once they respond.

What ads work in China?

A wide range of mobile formats are being actively tried and used in the Chinese market.

• The most popular mobile elements for brands to utilize are still the more traditional mobile site, mobile messaging, mobile newsletters, cross media call-to-action, web-to-mobile integration and even mobile couponing.
• A high amount of interest seems to be expressed for custom mobile apps, mobile social networks, mobile search, mobile CRM in the past few quarters. Mobile apps that truly deliver value for the user will find its audience grows virally, whereas those that are overly advertiser centric will get little to no traction.
• 2D barcode, Bluetooth and augmented reality seem to have lost some of their former luster.

No matter what technologies or mobile elements are chosen, the key is making sure that mobile elements are integrated into the overall marketing plan from the beginning while keeping mobile media’s advantages in mind and integrated with all the traditional media elements.

Secondly, it is important to focus on creating “long-term” trusted relationships with your customers via the mobile medium – don’t just spam them, give them value. The ROI on mobile spending within campaigns is proving to be quite high. We’ve seen a number of campaigns where mobile KPI can exceed that of Web portion even at a fraction of the costs.

Where are we headed?

Over the next few years, the telecom infrastructure will continue to be refined and optimized as will the handset technology the consumers buy. Mobile marketing formats will get even richer and more engaging as marketers learn what works on this medium and how best to integrate it with what they already do.

Just as users have grown to depend on mobile in their daily lives, marketing will grow to depend on mobile to enhance the effectiveness of their campaigns and tie together the disparate pieces in their marketing plans. Mobile handsets as the center of communication, computing and media consumption in China will come faster than most will expect.

For more information on China, read these MobiAD articles:

• 3 Hong Kong Launches Ad-funded Mobile TV

• Using Mobile To Reach Next Generation Fashion Consumers
(a Chinese mobile marketing fashion game)

• University Students Happy To Receive Mobile Ads
(a survey of Chinese students’ attitudes about mobile)

Alvin Wang Graylin is the CEO and co-founder of mInfo Inc. (www.minfo.com), a leading mobile advertising and mobile search provider in China.

Recently, David Holding-Parsons from MobiAd News completed a study of the attitude of Chinese students towards mobile advertising and found that they were receptive to mobile advertisements, but rewards and control are important!

This figure increased to 61% if the students where offered an incentive in exchange for viewing the ad.

Interest levels climbed even further and reached 69% when they were able to retain control over which brands could advertise to them. These conditions are not surprising as SMS spam is a big problem in China.

The study also looked at the difference between undergraduates and more mature MBA students and found rather surprisingly that more MBA students where interested by receiving mobile ads than undergraduates (61% vs. 47%).

The study also revealed that Chinese students use their mobile phones throughout their day, with over 50% saying they use it at home, almost 40% saying they use it in class, and almost 40% saying they use it even in bed.

The service called Planet TV will include 28 channels covering Children’s shows, entertainment, lifestyle, music, news, sport, technology and travel.

Planet TV involves a partnership with UK company Swanbay who will offer free mobile video content to 3’s Hong Kong customers. The content includes music videos and movies, plus sporting highlights such as the English Premier League and NBA Basketball.

The new ad-funded offering will sit alongside 3’s premium channel line-up, and is intended to attract more users to 3’s platform which until now has been a paid for service.

Raymond Ho, head of content management of 3 Hong Kong, said: “Some users prefer to pay for premium content, and some prefer watching an ad instead. Now we’re serving both types and Swanbay’s Planet TV service will further encourage our customers to enjoy infotainment service anytime anywhere.”

Paul Lyon, Managing Director of Swanbay Asia said, “We are pleased to collaborate with 3 Hong Kong, the mobile operation of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Limited, to launch the free content to their users. With their extensive clientele, we hope to bring our exciting infotainment to them.”

Facebook Lite is apparently intended for users who have slower internet connections, for example on mobile. This may open up new opportunities for mobile marketing.

Although many people at first assumed that Facebook Lite would be targeted as a “Twitter Killer”, it turns out that Facebook has a more substantial reason for developing the new service. The official Facebook statement on the new product is:

Over the past year, Facebook has done a lot to provide opportunities for brands to connect with their users using Facebook. For example, companies can build their own branded pages on Facebook, and can place small ads on other pages throughout Facebook to publicize their branded page (check out these links for Facebook advertising and marketing information).

The beta testing so far has taken place in India, and early reports are that Facebook Lite is much faster than the standard version. There are also stories that the service will be rolled out in Russia and China later this year.

There are quite a few markets – particularly in Asia and Africa – that currently have low internet connectivity, and where mobile is expected to become the primary means of access to the internet. If Facebook Lite becomes as popular with mobile subscribers in these countries as it currently is with internet users in other countries, then this may well become a significant marketing opportunity that companies – especially global brands – will need to pay careful attention to.