A one-stop destination for rugby fans, the mobi site features bite-sized bits of news and rugby trivia, all perfectly packaged for mobile. Attractions include news and views from SA’s top rugby journos, up to date fixtures and logs, featured videos, and links to the twitter profiles of top SA and international players.

On the lighter side, look out for the sport’s most beautiful supporters in the Rugga Babes section, check out ‘Hero and Zero‘ for SA Rugby’s take on who cracked it and who stacked it, or just brush up on your sports trivia with ‘Stats and Facts’.

Probably the site’s biggest pull factor is its live scores functionality, which means you can keep an eye on the action wherever you are and whatever your handset type (the platform renders to over 6500 device types, from low end to high-end). You can even opt to view the full text commentary for a live, blow-by-blow match account.

Become a fan at sarmag.mobi.

The infographic below from Product Development Technologies shows this evolution through major product lines and pop culture. It’s inspiring to see the strides made in telecommunications since 1965′s fictional depiction of cell phones in the TV series ‘Get Smart’.

An authentic showcase of local and global creative talent, onesmallseed.mobi features everything from small South African businesses and garage creatives to international artists, musicians, architects and designers. Look out for film and book reviews, event previews, profiles, an inspiring image gallery, seamless social network integration and plenty more.

The mobi site complements one small seed’s already strong media offering, including a quarterly print magazine, a blog, a social network, online TV, a photography publication, a production company and a series of events.

Check it out at onesmallseed.mobi and if you like what you see, become a fan.

The study included a sample of 2000 respondents in urban South Africa and quotas based on age, gender and all LSM [Living Standards Measure] levels across each metropolitan area in South Africa were used, MMA SA and Nielsen said.

For more info visit mobileinsights.co.za

Unsurprisingly , some of the most technologically advanced societies – Japan, Sweden and South Korea – boast the lowest bandwidth prices, and all offer 4G wireless broadband, while South Africa is one of the most expensive for its humble 3G offering.

Provided by Android Tablet Fanatic

Vaseline Made for Men is a men’s interest mobi site featuring the latest sport scores, gadget reviews, A-list celeb tweets, top 10 listings, music downloads, competitions, celebrity endorsements, updates and more. The site enables fans to communicate with each another, while giving Vaseline the opportunity to communicate directly and constantly with its target market.

Handyandy.mobi was designed to support the Handy Andy Home Show that airs on etv every Monday. The home improvement show features one deserving candidate who receives a free room makeover and offers ‘Handy Hints’ on how to give treasured home appliances a new lease on life. The mobi site is packed full of supporting information, including episode videos, cleaning tips, product information, host profiles, competitions, forums and a free music playlist which is proving to be a major drawcard for users.

And then there’s the uber boysy Axe-effect.mobi offering a healthy dose of babes, sports, cars, gadgets, music, night life and more. Launched just a few days ago, this site is already proving to be the place to be for guys who want to be informed, entertained and connected, with a little eye-candy on the side…

Highlights include Seth’s daily ‘Morning Spice’ article, giving a personal take on his favorite headlines from around the world. Other regular topics include business, technology, entertainment, travel, social media, music, sport, science, cars, beautiful people and politics.

Apart from featuring award-winning content (2oceansVibe won Best Entertainment and Most Controversial website at the 2010 SA Blog Award), 2oceansVibe.mobi also offers easy access to 2oceansVibe TV and 2OV radio. Users can download radio apps for use on the iPhone, Blackberry and Android.

If you’re tired of conventional media offerings, 2oceansVibe.mobi is well worth a visit.

* Find out what the 2oceansVibe crew REALLY think of their move to mobile here.

Featuring style tips, celebrity interviews, recipes, financial advice, fitness tips and great competitions, the newly launched Expresso mobi site is the perfect one to visit when you’re in need of a little caffeine boost. Get your daily dose at expressoshow.mobi.

Expressoshow.mobi is listed on the new-look Thumbtribe Best of the Mobile Web directory alongside some of Thumbtribe’s other popular publishing partners, including Cosmopolitan, JHB Live, CARmag, 2oceansVibe and What’s On.

The rapidly expanding directory, available at thumbtribe.mobi, was recently restructured to include exciting new categories, including Youth, Surf, Men’s and Women’s interest, and Business and Banking.

In the past year or so, however, several things have changed.

New phones not only have larger screens but those like Google’s Android, Apple’s iPhone and the BlackBerry are specifically designed for Internet access.

Mobile operators have come out with affordable data bundles and have adapted their networks to cope better with data traffic.

Specially designed mobile websites (mobi sites) which need less bandwidth, along with software applications (apps) which connect users quickly to a website, have made accessing the Internet by phone much easier.

All this played a role in Internet penetration in SA rising from 5,3m in 2009 to 6,8m in 2010, according to technology research company World Wide Worx. The bulk of this growth came from a steep climb in the mobile Internet.

The numbers look impressive, but making money from it doesn’t follow that easily. Social networking site MXit has found a way by charging a small fee for use of its chat rooms, but there isn’t yet an obvious advertising model for mobile Internet.

KickOff editor Richard Maguire admits as much. The soccer magazine has seen the number of users of its mobile site rise from about 4000 a year ago to close to 100000 . Yet Maguire says KickOff is still looking at ways to cash in on this following. For now, it is happy to sell it as an “add on” to advertisers looking for another channel.

Junk Mail Publishing MD Felix Erken has a similar problem. Junk Mail’s mobile site has 600000 users but apart from selling a few “click through” ads, it is not really seen as a revenue stream.

There will come a time when it is a money spinner, but for now Erken is happy just to foster users into some kind of mobile online community.

Maguire is looking at developing KickOff’s mobile site along similar lines. He says it gives the magazine a direct link with its readers and opens the door for tailoring messages for them.

Tim Shier, head of measurement at the Digital Media & Marketing Association , says this kind of interactive relationship is what makes the mobile Internet different. “Consumer interaction in the mobile space — be it through Facebook, Twitter, MXit or article comments — is considerably more personal,” he says.

The way it can bring businesses closer to their customers is something marketers have long craved . Thumbtribe CEO Graeme Haley says that through the mobile Internet, advertisers can get detailed information like age, income and gender from users. Instead of taking a scattergun approach and spending on a range of media, Haley says, a campaign can be designed with a laser-like focus on a specific user .

He says a mobile Internet campaign can even target particular locations. A user, for instance, can get discount vouchers to redeem at certain stores. Using this knowledge, future campaigns can be designed around these users and the area where the vouchers were redeemed .

Thumbtribe designs mobile websites but also makes its money from placing ads and gathering information on visitors to these sites.

Unsurprisingly, Haley sees things differently. “The mobile Internet is here to stay,” he says.

Quirk CEO Justin Spratt believes that in time, the mobile Internet will just be part of the “regular” Internet. The digital marketer argues that even now there is really no need for apps and mobi sites because consumers can access the Web through powerful smartphones and sophisticated computer codes .

“Apps and mobi sites are just the bridge,” he says.

It’s too early to say who will eventually be proven right, but it looks like apps at least are going to be around for a while. A recent survey conducted by Wireless Intelligence found smartphone users spent more time on apps than on voice calls or browsing the Web.

Article published in the Financial Mail, 7 April 2011.

Who are you? I am Chris Wilson from Thumbtribe, a coffee fanatic who consumes too many double Espressos in a day and loves New York City… especially in winter.

What is your philosophy on digital marketing? Be passionate and have integrity, as it runs at 1000 miles an hour and is ever evolving and ever growing. The education never stops, the learning is continuous and I would not want to be anywhere else.

Do brands know enough about what digital marketing campaigns can offer them? Not entirely, but they are adapting and learning fast. It is our duty to educate more about this evolving industry and show brands the possibilities of digital.

What excites you about the digital marketing and advertising industry? You will never stop growing, the knowledge will never end.  You can run a campaign on a shoestring budget and still get results that are measurable. The fact that it is instant, the changes you make are instant and the level of optimisation you can do to get the best results is just remarkable.

In your opinion, what is the one digital marketing campaign that stands out from the rest, and why? When car manufacturer Jaguar launched their new XF luxury sedan in the US market, they decided to do it with a major mobile advertising campaign.  1,2% of users requested a brochure to be emailed to them. 2,6% located their nearest dealer off the mobi site and arranged a test drive.

How would you describe consumers in the “Attention Age”? They consume content at a rapid rate,  they are looking for “instant”, “now” and “immediate”. Offer this and you have them, fail at the above and you have lost them forever.
Any predictions for what’s next in the online world? On the mobile side of things, Android is making huge waves. Smart phones are becoming cheaper to the consumer so that percentage will grow - and the tablet war is about to start.

What would make you join a particular Facebook Page or follow a Twitter account? Relevance. As long as it is relevant to what I like and what my interests are, then I will join/follow/like.

Article published on Digivox, 5 April 2011.
View the full article here.