Mobile phone users tend to exhibit split personalities when using the latest wireless devices. Their primary rationale for spending the beau coup bucks on GSM or GPRS technology is to be able to do more than just talk. Lest we forget, a picture is worth at least a thousand words, as is the right information at the right time. The inspiration for groovy gear like the Sony-Ericsson T-68, Sprint PCS Vision, or the T-Mobile equipped Handspring Treo 270, to name just a few, is the transcendence to a higher plane of productivity. Like checking a stock quote or a sports score, retrieving or composing (thumb-typing style) an E-mail message, or using instant SMS messaging, transposing idle time into Type-A hyperactivity. But there are also those times, when waiting for the dentist, or for a train to arrive, or at the end of a weary day, when the issue isn’t so much time saved as time on your hands. It’s at times like these that the wireless device becomes the entertainer, your portal into the pleasurable domain of solo or multi-user gaming. In this leisure time domain, mobile gamers have found a kind of bliss through a Seattle company, aptly named Mobliss.
Before his leap into the online realm, Mobliss co-founder and CEO Brian Levin was instrumental in other, more tangible forms of consumer marketing, including building the Jagermeister spirits brand. He also introduced one of the most successful product launches in history with Grey Goose Vodka, taking, in his own words, “a brand that absolutely tastes terrible and turning it in something that people couldn’t live without.” With his penchant for building consumer brands out of “spirits” (perhaps the closest thing to ethereal wireless air time) Levin has turned Mobliss into the brand to watch in wireless entertainment. In his first Website branding experience, Brian was a key contributor to the success of MountainZone.com.
With the proliferation of next-gen wireless devices exploding in Seattle, and that explosion also being ignited here by companies such as AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile, we thought this height of Fall Internet fashion to be the perfect topic to grace this month’s ShopTalk.
Seattle24x7: Brian, Mobliss began life at a time when many other firms were giving theirs up?
Levin: We had the joy and foresight of incorporating Mobliss two weeks before the big NASDAQ crash, in March of 2000. We have a few guys here who were early on at Amazon. Also a few people from Wingcast and AdRelevance. That’s a good thing about being in Seattle. There’s a lot of talent here.
Seattle24x7: You made an interesting transition from the “spirit” world of beverage marketing to the virtual world of wireless branding?
Levin: It’s the same principle. Keep it simple. Keep it relevant. Give the consumer value for their interaction with you. Our focus is on the consumer side of wireless as opposed to the enterprise side for that reason.
Seattle24x7: What position does Mobliss occupy in the world of wireless entertainment ?
Levin: This is a media model that is closest to the way Cable TV evolved. The cable companies in our case are the wireless carriers. They maintain a pre-existing billing relationship with the consumer. The devices are the TVs, so to speak. Mobliss is the network, analogous to an HBO or a TNT, responsible for the programming that engages and entertains consumers.
If you think about the way HBO evolved, they started out by rebroadcasting popular movies, using brands that people were already familiar with. That’s also the way that this has been evolving. When you have a small screen and a very limited choice of applications, you’re going to select something that has a popular brand behind it as opposed to something that doesn’t. As HBO evolved, they began to perpetuate their own proprietary brand with original series like The Soprano’s. We’re evolving the same way, but right now we’re in the early days where the big winners and the big hits are repurposed brand content that people know.
Seattle24x7: Creativity and originality will be crucial as the network matures?
Levin: Absolutely. In this medium you have to be almost an artiste’ to effectively engage a consumer when you’re on a 2 inch screen or using 160 characters of text. The agencies and media companies we work with are used to the Internet or TV where the sky’s the limit. They’re really challenged when they have to think in this new medium of very basic graphics, if any, and slow interface speeds. It has to be simple, but yet you still have to differentiate.
The most important thing is to utilize the strengths of mobility and minimize the weaknesses. A mobile device is in your pocket at all times, so you can take advantage of ubiquity, being able to alert people to time sensitive information. If it’s a game, you can add the aspect of a sense of urgency by urging people to respond quickly, like playing a spy game, sending a message that they have to respond to in a timely manner. And there’s also the sense of community. You can interact with other people. You can play multi-player games, and do things like chats and dating services. That’s what we have going on right now with Family Feud. It’s a big multi-player experience based on this powerful brand that everyone knows and it happens to be great for the medium because it’s text-based and has got that mass appeal.
Seattle24x7: Family Feud is one of your most popular licensed shows?
Levin: Right. we own the wireless rights for it. We also have Jumble (word scramble) from Tribune Media which is very popular. We’ve had that one out for quite a while and it’s doing really well. And a number of others.
Seattle24x7: This week is the kickoff of the 2002-3 NFL season. You have a popular game that ties in with the NFL?
Levin: “Pro Football Pick ’em.” You pick the winner of every game. It’s a full service package where we provide score information and schedules, and you can get Alerts based on your favorite teams. Things like odds and injury updates. In the game, you select the team you think is going to win — every game of the season if you like. The more games you predict correctly, the more points you score. If you pick an underdog to win the game, you get 2 points, if you pick a favorite to win a game, and they win, you get 1 point. We show you the line of each game, so you’re incentivized to choose the upsets.
Seattle24x7: The right incentive is a key component of gaming, correct?
Levin: We just ran a text messaging campaign with AT&T called Thumbs Up for Cash and had some great prizes around it. We’re still in the infancy of text messaging and we’re educating consumers on how to use it with a fun game. Its incentive marketing pure and simple, especially when you’re asking consumers to provide you with information in the mobile arena where user privacy is paramount. In mobile, the user has to be in control of their device. You can’t spam them. It’s taking that to an extra level.
Seattle24x7: How are you able to manage between different devices and carriers?
Levin: Back in the early Internet days, the big headache was between Netscape and Explorer. Now that’s been multiplied by a thousand because every carrier has twenty different phone models. They’re supposed to behave the same way but they don’t. There are different graphic sizes for different phones, and different interface features. That’s what we’ve spent the latter half of our 2-1/2 year history developing a technology platform to make sure our products are able to reach these consumers looking the best that they can.
We work with all the carriers. We work with AT&T Wireless, we work very closely with T-Mobile — it definitely helps to be in Seattle. We also have great relationships with Nextel, Sprint/PCS, Verizon, Bell Mobility and Telus up in Canada .
For Sprint/PCS and Verizon, we’ve created new platforms for distributing downloadable games. On Sprint it’s JME or Java, on Verizon it’s Brew. It’s a model that’s close to what they have in Japan with DoCoMo. You buy an application, it’s downloaded on your device, it’s billed at a premium rate, straight on your phone bill and the lion’s share of that revenue goes to the E-content provider. You can integrate advertising or advergaming.
Seattle24x7: As a network you also sell advertising?
Levin: Absolutely, we’re a media company, so we get our revenue through subscriptions, advertising and marketing, as well as licensing and syndication. The subscription billing is handled through the carrier. Many of these models are starting to come into place. AT&T just implemented theirs not too long ago. Sprint and Verizon as well. And most carriers are following suit. In the meantime, advertising and marketing has been a great way to grow this business until the subscription piece is the rule.
Seattle24x7: Thinking about all the possibilities in gaming, is gambling a future possibility?
Levin: In Europe, where gaming is a primary function of mobile one of the most popular applications is gaming. One of the companies we’re friendly with is perpetuating mobile betting on dog tracks.
When people talk about legalizing Internet gambling, there are a few things that need to happen first. One is that you have to be able to verify where somebody is — if they are in a jurisdiction of legalized gambling. The only way you can do that really is with a phone. You also need to know that somebody is of legal gambling age and that you can do in the same way it’s done on the Internet with privacy and security techniques. That’s what could make the phone the ultimate betting tool. It’s still a long way down the road.
Seattle24x7: What are the hottest new properties of the season?
Levin: A cool thing we have going on right now with RealNetworks and AT&T lets you can sign up for a service to receive alerts from Major League Baseball. What’s cool is that you can directly connect to the game once you get an alert. If you see that the Mariner’s are down by a run in the ninth inning, you can quickly enter into the audio of the game through your phone, live, as it’s going on.
Seattle24x7: I think for a baseball fan, we’d call that mobile bliss!
Levin: Just remember, everyone needs a little Mobliss in their life.
Larry Sivitz is the Managing Editor of Seattle24x7.
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