Apple UDID Statement

We at Mocean Mobile are sensitive to privacy concerns in the industry, and respect Apple’s decision to deprecate and disallow the use of UDID by developers in their applications.

In anticipation of this occurrence, we’ve tested a third party conversion tracking solution that we feel can help our customers perform important functions without the need for any unique device information, while we continue to focus on longer-term industry-accepted technology solutions that ensure the safety and privacy of our customers and consumers.

In our upcoming SDK release, you will notice that UDID has been made an optional parameter.  We recommend that you do not use device UDID when submitting apps to the App Store for approval;  they will likely be rejected.  Instead of device UDID, you may pass in the Apple-approved CFUUID, which will allow for the continued use of platform functionalities such as frequency capping in the immediate.  To be clear, if you have access to your own unique user identifiers (i.e. user generated data), you may still pass these in using the UDID parameter to facilitate both frequency capping and conversion tracking.  Nothing changes on that end.

Please contact your sales representative or your account manager for more information on how you can take advantage of the solutions we are supporting in light of this recent announcement by Apple.

David Gwozdz
Chief Executive Officer

Mocean Mobile

The Missing Piece in Mobile Monetization

by Amy Vale

With the surge in US mobile commerce sales and with the explosive growth of smartphones, tablets and e-readers, more companies are reaping the benefits of mobile advertising than ever before. When you take a look at the statistics, which show the increasing amount of sales happening through mobile devices, we predict that there are going to be a huge increase in the number of mobile ads coming from large multinational companies. Have you monetized your mobile properties, your mobile website, app or destination? Now is the time to be doing so. 


Mobile commerce is soaring. According to e-marketer research, in 2011 US mobile commerce sales surged 91.4% to reach a massive $6.7 billion.  It is expected that this boost will continue growing with an anticipated $31 billion by the year 2015. 


Of the seven most common business models that brands, retailers, publishers and developers use to monetize applications, research has shown mobile commerce demonstrates the most gains, according to a study by Appcelerator and IDC. Mobile commerce showed 86% year-over-year growth, the biggest jump out of the seven monetization tactics. The other six tactics include app store sales, advertising, in-app purchases, brand loyalty and engagement, subscription and coupons/loyalty. By far, the standout tactic is mobile commerce. 

Mobile ad spend worldwide is predicted to be US$3.3 billion in 2011 sky rocketing to $20.6 billion in 2015, driven by search ads and local ads. In the US over half of U.S. mobile ad spending is local. Asia – Japan particularly – continues to dominate global mobile ad spend. With this data, we can see that there is going to need to be a lot of new mobile ads coming from companies big and small if these numbers are to be realized. We predict that it will not just be the big multinational companies that increase their mobile ad spend. Driving the growth in local mobile advertising will be the increasing number of small and medium-sized businesses that will begin adopting mobile advertising. 


The missing piece in mobile monetization is you. With such massive growth expected, now is the time for you to be monetizing your mobile properties.  If you have a mobile site, application or destination that isn’t monetized with mobile advertising get to it.  For the industry to grow, and you to benefit from the boom, it is essential to be out there monetizing your mobile work. It really is a win-win situation.

The Top 5 Reasons Why Mobile Advertising is Better

by Amy Vale
While we are probably preaching to the converted, we still sometimes get asked: “What is the real advantage of mobile advertising over desktop advertising?” We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to discuss the topic by highlighting the key advantages of mobile marketing. To start with, it is interesting to know some of the mobile statistics:

• A Chadwick Martin Bailey study showed that 50% of today’s estimated 69.5 million smartphone users in the U.S. use their device for shopping.  
• Forrester Research estimated that U.S. tablet sales is expected to double from 26 million this year to more than 50 million in 2012. 
• We have also seen predictions that mobile internet use is going to surpass desktop internet use by 2015. 
• More than 10 billion apps have been downloaded (In January 2011 Apple commemorated the download of the 10 billionth App Store app). 

Based on these facts alone we can see the value of mobile advertising, and even more so, for companies targeting consumers aged 18-35 as this demographic are amongst the highest mobile media users.  On top of this, there are also FIVE very clear and convincing reasons why all businesses should have strong mobile campaigns as part of their integrated marketing strategy.
1. Everyday all day - a user’s mobile is with them at all times unlike a desktop computer. You’ve seen it; people are whipping out their smartphone at all times of the day: to check the weather when you wake up, the stock market fluctuations, GPS location on a map, the best subway route, and that is just by 9am. People use their mobiles more than their desktops and throughout the day, not just when they are in the office or at home. This is especially true of the younger age group.
2. Targeted demographic - With mobile advertising you have precise targeting by demographics such as device and interests. Demographic targeting can really enhance your business with specific brand messages aimed at key audiences and then of course you will ensure higher levels of reception and engagement. IAB says it perfectly: “Beyond TVs or even PCs, mobile handsets are highly personal devices, and mobile media will be highly personal as well. Delivering relevant, desired, valuable information on mobile devices has the potential to move consumer relationships with brands to a new and very deep level.”
3. Touch - Mobile gets more of the person involved and engaging in the ad itself, and therefore means higher levels of engagement with the ad and with the brand. With rich media ads you get touch, sound and sight rather than just sound and sight like you do with ads on a desktop.
4. Better metrics - Mobile delivers better brand performance metrics than online advertising.
5. Localization - Mobile operates on a real-time location basis. For example consumers looking for where to shop, eat or for things to do turn to their mobile to compare prices, read reviews and obtain coupons or deals on the go, and purchase in that precise moment. Mobile provides users with high levels of convenience and relevance. 

Cracking the QR Code in Mobile Marketing

By Amy Vale

It seems like mobile codes are all the rage now, they are everywhere and everyone seems to be jumping on board the code train. QR Codes are one of the big items for the 2012 mobile marketing ecosystem, but this doesn’t mean that everyone understands what they are and how to take advantage of their marketing prowess. The idea essentially is to use your mobile as a device with a downloaded ‘reader’ to scan a bar code, which directs you to more information about the brand or product.

We are seeing barcodes in print media, for example in magazines and newspapers alongside adverts and other marketing material. We are also seeing barcodes popping up in retail stores, where consumers are encouraged to scan QR Codes at the shelf to help provide information that will close the sale.

QR codes have been gaining momentum since about 2010, and the broader public is slowly but surely learning how they work and beginning to appreciate their uses. For a consumer, they offer an easy way to access an app or a quick way to access more information about a product. For example, standing in the shopping aisle, if a shopper wants to find out more about a product, they traditionally would google it on their smartphone. With QR codes, they simply scan the code and get the information they need. For a brand, it offers a way to direct the consumer to the information they want, not what pops up first on google when they search. It also offers a new medium for traditional marketing tools such as competitions and offers.

Along with the benefits, QR codes do come with challenges for the brand and publishers need to be aware of this. First, we need to get the consumer to scan the ad. This requires a willingness to scan and also knowledge on how to scan. For many people still, QR codes are a confusing, bizarre pattern. Publishers play a key role in educating the consumer in how to use QR codes. Secondly, once the consumer has scanned the code, we need to keep the consumer engaged. This means custom mobile landing pages, and quick and convenient ways for the consumer to get the information they are looking for.

To help you navigate the challenges and get the most out of your QR codes, we have compiled our top 4 do’s when incorporating QR codes into your marketing strategy.

1.      Mobile bar codes should be integrated into your overall strategy alongside traditional advertising, mobile ads and an app campaign.

2.      You want to aim to give the user access to content that goes beyond the space that they are scanning from, and definately link to mobile formatted content.

3.      Update the code with new content regularly and dynamically, for example, it is effective to make use of a mobile bar code over the holiday sales, but remember that consumers will continue to scan codes throughout the year so consider things such as daily or weekly specials if you’re in the retail space.  

4.      Help your consumers to access to codes. In a print ad for example, position them in a way that makes it easy to see scan. Include copy next to the code, explaining it and how it is used and make sure the QR code is easy to scan. Use a URL shortener such as bit.ly to condense long codes so the QR code will be less complex.

Free or Paid Apps - Which Option is Best?

by Amy Vale


Discussions have been going on for the last few years, not only within the publisher community, but across the U.S about whether apps should be paid or free of charge. There is the question of what is the best business model and also the way this affects the consumer’s experience. This question has also come a long way since the discussion first started precisely because of mobile advertising. You now have many options available to you - paid, free, and somewhere in the middle. While a paid app can provide a larger up-front profit, providing an app for free and monetizing it with mobile advertising can produce a continuing revenue stream. 

The main difference between a paid app and one released for free is the amount of potential users that will see it and then download it. Most users who are app browsing naturally prefer free ones and as a result, these receive more views and downloads. These are some strong reasons to develop a free app.

So, does this mean you should always release your apps for free? Some developers believe that if you can design and create an app which gives the user something valuable which they can’t find in a free app, then making it paid can be a great revenue maker. Even if it is available in some form for free, if your app is higher quality and comes with added value making it paid may be a good idea.

The in-between option is the possibility of releasing a “lite” version of your paid app for free. The idea is that you release a fully-featured paid version and a free version with limited functions. This enables the user to test out the app, realize its potential, and then want to purchase the full version for all the benefits.

However, the strongest option, one where users benefit and you, the publisher does too, is where you keep the app free and monetize it with mobile ads through in-app advertising via banner ads, interstitials and rich media ads. This means you can make money through your app while still releasing it to the public for free, so you get the benefit of more views and downloads for being listed under the “free” section in the app store, and you also have the in-app advertising revenue stream.

There are several alternatives for releasing a mobile app, and it is up to you and your development team to figure out which method will work best for you - not only for generating revenue but also with your strategic campaign. Monetizing a free app through mobile advertising is a very powerful, and proven, revenue generator.