Huis - Jake Matthews

Starbucks Continues Yahoo Mobile Banner Ads

Today I was browsing on Yahoo! Mobile again and found that Starbucks is still taking advantage of local mobile advertising.

Here is the current banner that is running

Starbucks has been running a campaign for a while now.  I started seeing this type of banner a couple of weeks ago while browsing in New York City. This banner above is unmistakably Starbucks' brand.  It makes sense too because anything to do with Starbucks should be locally based advertising...mmm "so close you can smell it"

MarketingVox was out in front with news way back in early 2006, that Starbucks and Yahoo had some joint ventures on a micro-site.  It looks like Starbucks is still nice and cozy with Yahoo! 

I must say that the Yahoo! Mobile experience is still quite good.  Yahoo oneSearch continues to provide relevant results and is really user-friendly.

Paul Yiu, Yahoo!'s Mobile Search guru mentioned in the announcement on Y!searchblog that you need to download Yahoo Go 2.0 in order to use oneSearch, but that is not necessarily true.  I believe it's best to download Go if you don't have a "smartphone", but since I have a Blackberry 8830 World, I've been using oneSearch without Go, and it seems to work just fine.  Go seems more so to just pretty things up when browsing Yahoo! news and such.  It does present search results in a really pretty format, shows images and suggests a lot of local results that without downloading Go, oneSearch does not present.  With Go downloaded, certainly Yahoo has a better opportunity to display better advertising too, so I can see why Mr. Yiu would want all users to download it.

W3C Mobile Web Initiative

In case anyone is looking a central source on developments in leading edge, standards based mobile web technology, you can find it over at W3C Mobile Web Initiative  You may also contribute to their various working groups and test cases/environments.

From the W3C Press Releases area the purpose of the program is as follows:

The mission of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) is to make Web  
access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web  
access from a desktop device. Through the MWI Sponsorship Program,  
key players in the mobile production chain, including authoring tool  
vendors, content providers, handset manufacturers, adaptation  
providers, browser vendors and mobile operators lead the Initiative.  
MWI participants develop authoring guidelines, checklists and best  
practices, as well as a database of descriptions that can be used by  
content authors to adapt their content to a particular device.

In a couple of past posts I've been tracking some mobile issues.  

 

Bank of America: 3rd New York Yahoo Mobile Advertiser

Today I came across the following banner advertisement while browsing Yahoo Mobile on Verizon Wireless' network in New York City.  Bank of America has stepped into the fray with new banner advertising and calls to action to download ring-tones ("Move your Feet" by Junior Senior) on their site.  The whole function of this is to prompt users to go completely mobile to continue internet banking while on the run. Increa$ed mobile usability +  Increa$ed site visits yields increa$ed brand loyalty. 

Here is the banner image from Bank of America's ad:

In my last post on this subject, Starbucks Coffee Company and Paramount Pictures where the first to market their wares on Yahoo Mobile.

By the way, who the heck is Junior Senior?  Nifty stuff BofA!

Google Pushes further into Phones

Search Engine Land (SEL) comments on the Wall Street Journal article that Google is pushing further and further on its bid to distribute its software and services bundles through wireless carrier relationships and to producing it's own handset.

SEL reports in this article that talks are far along with T-Mobile (relative to the Side-Kick connection), but I see them as a better fit to go with Verizon Wireless.  The only reason I say this is because the Google team in NYC works closely with Verizon Wireless, from what I've heard here and there. 

With regard to a Google handset, on the one hand it makes sense because it would fly of the shelves. BUT, who besides Apple has ever made money on a handset.  And Google is a search company, not a PC or handset maker.  I think that they are going to spread themselves too thin. 

Starbucks & Paramount Pictures: First Advertisers on Yahoo Mobile

I'm always browsing the web on my Blackberry and I really like to use Yahoo! Mobile, as pointed out in my posts here.

I am deeply interested to see who will be the first movers to advertise on Mobile screens and for a while I had only seen Yahoo! promoting it's own products, like Yahoo! Go.  However lately, in New York City, where I spend most of my time, I've seen fresh new graphic banners from corporate advertisers.  The first two that I have seen are:

Starbucks and Paramount Pictures advertising for their new movie Hot Rod

For me, I just find it intriguing to see who are the first movers into mobile advertising.