Will Mobile Video Score at the World Cup?
June 10, 2010
(WORLD CUP TECHNOLOGY)
Answer: Probably more than New Zealand will.
And we don't say that lightly: We have married us a lovely Kiwi lass and currently live in the Land of the Long White Cloud itself. But we live under no illusions. Life goes better that way, we've learned through experience.
Dialogic's (News - Alert) Martyn Davies, Video Marketing Manager, recently told TMC about the company's mobile video initiatives, including the company's thoughts on mobile video and the FIFA World Cup.
'In South Africa this year is the FIFA World Cup. That should be a great opportunity for all kinds of mobile advertising, marketing and football tie-ins,' he observed, since 'there's a huge, loyal base of fans for football teams, and the top clubs already have their own mobile departments that are trying to meet the needs of the fans, and of course make money out of that.'
One example Davies gave is Real Madrid, who have a mobile service for fans that has 40,000 members, who all pay twelve euros per month. Fans can watch video on the Real Madrid website, or through an iPhone (News - Alert) app, but fans with basic phones have to be content with news via SMS, ringtones or Cristiano Ronaldo wallpaper.
'There's a massive opportunity for video here,' Davies said. With the grim alternative being Cristiano Ronaldo gazing at himself in a mirror, his favorite activity, we see his point. 'At Dialogic, we've seen several projects where companies created 3G video portals for football fans -- one I saw recently was for football fans in Rome, who can choose their local team, Roma or Lazio, and find out all the details about their ranking, next match, and even view all of the goals in the last match played,' he said.
But there's more the service can offer: 'Fans visiting South Africa for the World Cup will not only want latest player news and goals, but they'll want to know how to get from A to B, what to see, where to stay,' he said, tactfully leaving out 'and where to avoid.'
This puts the United States in a rather strange position. We're currently ranked in the top 15 in the world and there isn't another country in the top 50 where soccer isn't the unquestioned #1 sport. Just makes you wonder how completely we'd dominate the world if Americans bothered with soccer at all.
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Marisa Torrieri
