Poland uses celebrity ploy to sell iPhone

In Poland, apparently, the iPhone lacks the clout it has in the U.S. 

Orange, the dominant telecom in Poland, has hired actors to line up in front of Apple stores. The company hopes that the actors will pique consumers' interest, ultimately driving phone sales. (The new iPhone is scheduled to go on sale in Poland this Friday.)

Reuters has the full story.

"Old people" lead trend of photo messaging

comScore and M:Metrics report that photo messaging is gaining traction in the U.S. and around the world. Photo messaging in the U.S. has increased by 60% over last year. The growth is most pronounced in the teen and 35-plus age ranges. (Odd that the 24-35 demo is lagging its younger and elder couterparts.)

Surprisingly, in Europe the majority of growth is in the 55-plus demographic.

Read MediaBuyerPlanner's story covering these findings.

Some neat mobile stats

Here's to the marriage of mobile and music.
And here are some neat stats, thanks to M:Metrics:

--17.8 million people listened to mobile music in April, an audience that grew by 30 percent since December 2007.
--5.6 million, or 9.7 percent of, Verizon subscribers reported listening to mobile music, a rate that is 23 percent above the market average (7.9 percent)
--Sideloading is the dominant mode of mobile music consumption, with 13.9 million people reporting they consumed music this way.
--1.6 million, or 2.8 percent of, Verizon subscribers reported downloading music in the month, more than double the average of 1.3 percent. In total, 3 million people downloaded music in April.

Men's Health hits newsstands today with mobile-enabled ads

Men's Health and SnapTell's collaboration -- an issue of the magazine that features 100% "snap" enabled ads -- is now on sale. Take a photo of any one of the ads in the magazine, send it to SnapTell, and receive promotions in return. I'm looking forward to learning what kind of response the ads get.

The 18-24 set is twice as susceptible to mobile ads as general pop.

Marketing Charts reports that while the general population is only 6-7% affected by mobile ads, for the 18-24 demo, mobile ads are twice as effective. 14.2% report that mobile video ads influence their (tech) purchases, and 15.9% say that mobile text ads influence them.
Find out more about the 18-24 demo's mobile consumption.

Puma leverages mobile, getting people "together everywhere"

MediaPost reported yesterday on Puma's mobile campaign "Together Everywhere." The campaign acts on the concept that when it comes to mobile marketing, the campaign has to both give something valuable to the consumer, and use the platform for what it specifically offers. Banner advertising on a WAP site isn't as innovative or potentially effective as something that leverage's mobile's specific features. In this case, Puma gives Europeans watching the Union of European Football Associations Euro 2008 games the opportunity to conference call up to 10 different friends for free, getting everyone on the call together. This move not only ensures broad reach, but positive brand association.

What's holding up mobile marketing?

Motricity released finding from a survey today that points to the state of the industry and what's holding things back. Per the release:

· 40 percent of marketing agencies said they currently spend less than 2 percent on mobile marketing initiatives, however, one-third of the group said they expected to increase spending by more than 25 percent next year.

· 71 percent of the content providers and 58 percent of technology providers polled said that advertisers aren’t using mobile marketing and advertising because the channel is underdeveloped.

· 31 percent of wireless operators reported that they are looking for more information from the mobile ecosystem on the strategies used for executing mobile marketing campaigns.

· 49 percent of content providers and 36 percent of aggregators said that “targeting and demographics” are most critical to effective mobile marketing campaigns.

· 23 percent of wireless operators said they felt that content customization and personalization are the key to increasing mobile marketing.

· 48 percent of agencies said opt-ins or registrations are most important for demonstrating return-on-investment.

Per the bolded points, it looks like what many need is more information. Plenty of people and companies are working on providing that information, iMedia and The Mobile Word included.