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Content Delivery >> Mobile Rah!
12/29/2005
SchoolFightSongs.com, on the other hand, is much more open with its customer list, cataloging all of the schools on one Web page. This last site d'esn’t work with carriers and instead has opted to sell content independently online. Surprisingly, the company manages to charge $5 per song—particularly high considering that most of the ring tones are monophonic.Even television networks are getting into the game. ESPN recently launched ESPN Mobile, a partnership with Sprint, through which ESPN Insider members can receive a discount on ring tones, images, games, and other forms of mobile content in the area of college sports. FOX Sports offers a similar option through its FOX Sports Mobile service, a monthly $4.99 service that sends scores and updates via text message to cell phones from just about any of the carriers. As of now, both services mimic the providers’ general Internet sites, prompting some critics to question whether mobile content from a television network is really worth the investment.
“Sure, some sports fans will be interested, but the most important thing to mobile content buyers is still quality of delivery,” says Mike Masnick, CEO of Techdirt, a CA-based business and technology blog that tracks various industries including mobile content. “Who are you going to trust to have better quality?” adds Masnick, “A well-known mobile operator, or ESPN?”
What They’re Saying
These concerns haven’t seemed to phase academics one bit. On the contrary, throughout academia, officials at those colleges that have embraced mobile content simply can’t say enough about the new market. Many campus marketing executives only agree to discuss their deals off the record, for fear of violating confidentiality agreements. In all of these cases, officials say they are getting at least 10 percent of all mobile content purchases, meaning that for every $2 a student spends on a ring tone, the institution immediately earns 20 cents. In dribs and drabs, this may not amount to much, but if 10,000 students buy only one item each, the institution gets $2,000 it would not have had otherwise, and if over the course of the year those students purchase again and again, that’s a nice little revenue flow.
Officials also point to the way mobile content enables students and alumni to customize phones with their own recipes for school spirit. Steve Mackenzie, associate athletics director for Marketing and Development at the University of Arizona, hails the way a recent contract with Smartphones enables his school to let users set up their phones with whatever ring tones they like. Frank Cuervo, director of Marketing and Promotions at the University of Missouri, agrees, adding that he’s looking forward to parlaying this customizability into an opportunity for the school to extend its brand further and deeper than ever before.
“This new medium…is giving us a great way to keep in touch with our fans,” he says. “At the same time, [we’re] letting them show their spirit and support their school [in whatever way they want].”
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