October 30, 2009

Starting Prices on The BuzzCity Mobile Internet Ad Network

Starting prices (minimum bids) will no longer be fixed at $0.01 for CPC for some countries within the BuzzCity Mobile Ad Network. To date, this value has been kept at the most mimimum, allowing the available inventory to attract bidders who then place competing bids.

As experienced advertisers get better acquainted with the quality of our network, they start bidding at a price above the (previous) one cent minimum. This invariably sets a “reserve price” (of sorts) that is invisible to newer advertisers - new bids at one cent will get fewer exposure and clicks.

Commentary : Mobile Net 'heading for data jam' ?

News out of the UK – Mobile internet is becoming increasingly popular but should we expect repercussions?

Whether we want to be the first with the new Cheryl Cole ringtone or the new Fifa game, we all love to download things to our mobile phones. However, is our urge to download set to cause mobile operators a massive headache?

October 29, 2009

CAMPAIGN OPTIMISATION SECRETS

by Michael de Souza, Executive Producer, South Africa

Here in South Africa in recent months, we’ve noticed two distinct approaches to managing campaigns on the BuzzCity network. There are those who upload their campaigns and let them run, hardly making any changes. Then there are clients who monitor and optimise their campaigns, making constant tweaks, testing new bidding levels and exploring targeting options. No prizes for guessing who’s getting the best performance and return on adspend.

Some of our most experienced advertisers are sinfully lazy! They upload a campaign based on past experience. They set start and end dates, enter a bid rate, upload one version of a good solid creative and perhaps include some relevant targeting. Then they sit back and let the campaign run. Sometimes this means that an early mistake will play itself out through the entire campaign. That's an extreme case. Most advertisers still get decent results – it's just that they could be doing a lot better.

So, I’ve taken note of how some of our very best advertisers* continually optimise their campaigns and I hope they won’t mind me sharing a couple of their secrets with you.

Here’s what they’re doing:

October 13, 2009

INDIA! INVEST IN EDUCATION

By Manish Mishra, Country Manager & Executive Producer (India)

Earlier this year, I reported that there's been a shift in mobile advertising in India from branding to direct sales. Over the past nine months, I've seen increased evidence of this in the accounts that we serve.

Mobile ad sales overall in India have grown significantly in 2009 as compared to a year earlier. The BuzzCity Advertising Network served 899 million ads in India in the third quarter, 36% higher than a year earlier. More than a billion ads were served in Q2 '09, a 60% year-on-year increase.

Digital agencies like Webchutney, meanwhile, expect India's top 500 advertisers to markedly increase mobile's share of digital advertising over the next year from two percent to nine percent.

October 07, 2009

MOBILE ADVERTISING INDEX (Q3-09)

Our latest Ad Index is just out.

In the third quarter of 2009, more than 5.4 billion advertiser banners were delivered across the entire network. Among the Top 5, Indonesia, India, United States and South Africa remained unchanged in ranking.


  1. Indonesia remains in top position - more than 1.8 billion banners were served to Indonesian audiences – although traffic dropped by 52% from the previous quarter.
  2. Indian advertising also declined by 16% and fell below the 1 billion mark.
  3. South African traffic declined in the third quarter, reversing the trend of previous quarters but remained in fourth place behind USA.
  4. Kenya enjoyed 52% growth and replaced United Kingdom in 5th place.

October 05, 2009

Commentary : When Will Mobile Advertising Overtake the Internet?

Very interesting news out of the UK.

The trade association for digital advertising there, the IAB (
Internet Advertising Bureau) has reported that the UK is the first major economy to spend more on internet ads than on television. According to The Guardian, TV advertising has been the leading ad medium for almost half a century. But it took the internet just 10 years to take the lead.

UK advertisers spent £1.75bn on internet advertising in the first six months of 2009, compared to £1.6bn on TV advertising. Back in 1998, UK advertisers spent just £19.4m on internet ads.

Will mobile be able to overtake the internet in an even shorter period of time?

The IAB notes five key drivers for the success of online ads. Unsurprisingly, these are also key success factors for Mobile albeit with one very important difference: