Using a unique open, global infrastructure platform, Bango provides the three essential elements needed for a successful presence on the mobile internet: Bango drives traffic to mobile sites. Bango identifies and provides information about consumers visiting mobile internet sites; and Bango makes it easy to sell mobile content to any consumer in the world.

Fli Digital, a full service agency with expertise in web, print, advertising and mobile, says Bango played a critical role in its successful move into the mobile marketplace.

“Bango allows us to offer the complete package,” said Scott Teger, Fli Digital Co-Founder. “Their open platform, together with our robust content management system (“FLICMS”) allows us to offer our clients a very powerful asset for managing, deploying, and reporting on their marketing goals.”

As a Bango Partner, Fli Digital integrated Bango services in mobile marketing programs for several clients, such as their most recent Website and Mobile Storefront, StingIt.net. The integration enabled Fli Digital to:

• Help Fli Digital clients identify and track customers by verifying client information with the digital fingerprint provided by Bango. Clients use this information for customer service, loyalty programs, and marketing initiatives
• Pass and receive custom data through the Bango system to ensure proper delivery between Web and WAP sites
• Manage and report on campaigns, sales, and content performance
• Enable clients to make real time changes to both their content and pricing for example easily adding new content, featured artists and offering promotional pricing

In a recently developed case study, Bango outlines in detail how this integrated approach helped StingIt.net – a company working to give independent music artists and labels a presence on the mobile internet. To learn more about Bango, visit www.bango.com/casestudies/stingit.aspx

The mobile internet enables brands to have their own mobile content shop where users browse and buy in one seamless flow, without the need to exit the shop to send a Premium SMS message to buy content. MediaPlazza hosts a catalogue of over 100,000 items including ringtones, images, games and videos. It also provides expertise and technical support so brands can white label the MediaPlazza platform to strengthen their brand on mobile and build a revenue stream.

“We chose Bango because it is the only company with world-wide WAP billing coverage and with so many relationships with mobile operators that enable us to make a charge directly to the consumer’s phone bill,” said Frédéric Avril, Marketing Manager at MediaPlazza. “Bango moves us beyond using Premium SMS as the main payment method to providing WAP billing with the benefits of its user friendly payment experience.”

“With affiliates in over 60 countries, it is important to MediaPlazza that users have a convenient and simple payment method available to them,” said Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango. “If ‘pay on bill’ is not available then our BillRank technology finds the next best fit so people can pay for content using their credit or debit card or from their PayPal account. Our aim is to make it easy for brands to collect payment for mobile content, wherever the users are.”

Businesses of all sizes are seizing the opportunity to engage directly with their consumers on the mobile internet. These include global brands such as News Corporation, Manchester United Football Club, Discovery Mobile and MTV, together with smaller, niche content providers.

Bango and Bonfire Media have teamed up to deliver the award-winning Pocket Auctions for eBay to millions of mobile phone users in Europe. eBay users in Europe can now bid and buy, search active and completed items and check their My eBay accounts at anytime and from anyplace, direct from their mobile phones.

There is a solid opportunity for mobile subscription services. “With up to 15 percent of wireless revenues in the United States already coming from data services, it makes sense that we’ll see a rise in mobile subscription services especially as new services make it easier and safer to enroll,” said Roger Entner, vice president of wireless telecomm, Ovum.

“eBay is already a massive global phenomenon and Pocket Auctions for eBay is now helping to change the way users can interact with eBay to fit in with their busy lives, when they can not always be near a PC,” said Ray Anderson, CEO at Bango.

The application provides access to My eBay from a mobile phone, synchronized with their PC account. Users also gain access to search and mobile price checking, which enables roving bargain hunters to check out prices on the move—for instance, while at a garage sale to see if they can make money selling an item on eBay. Pocket Auctions for eBay also features viewing of full-screen images and a fast user-interface and overall experience.

Pocket Auctions for eBay, developed by Bonfire Media, is available to European mobile users by directing their phone browsers to bango.bonfiremedia.com. The Bango technology provides WAP billing so users can download the application direct to their phones and pay using operator billing, Premium SMS, credit/debit card or PayPal.

“By harnessing the mobile internet and integrating with Bango, Pocket Auctions for eBay is now available to eBay users in Europe at anytime and on any network,” says Alex Poon, CEO of Bonfire Media. “The service has already been popular in the UK and is now being launched with localized services in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.”

Bango Advantage dynamically connects consumers to the best billing provider to enable high earning mobile sites to get global reach through more than 40 different billing channels for a cost of just 1 cent on a typical $1 transaction.

“Bango delivers standard rates equivalent to going direct to individual billing companies, yet without the costs or complexities of integrating with each of them,” said Matt Dicks, Head of Media at Ministry of Sound. “And when we pass our agreed volume levels, Bango takes us to within 1% of best available mobile operator wholesale rates, giving us the broadest reach at the lowest cost.”

Bango Advantage is designed for leading companies and global brands that want to build the best direct relationships with their customers through the mobile internet. Bango Advantage delivers everything that is needed to drive people to a mobile site, identify, track and understand these visitors and charge for premium content world-wide. It provides all the tools, information and services needed to establish a highly successful presence on the mobile internet.

Bango uses all the leading billing methods and our unique BillRank™ technology to determine the optimum billing method to pay for mobile services,” said Ray Anderson, CEO at Bango. “It is important to us is that content providers get maximum returns on their marketing investment by earning the highest possible rate – we’re here to make them successful.”

If a customer of the new Bango Advantage package finds a better available payout rate for a specific billing channel, then Bango will integrate that rate and match it. With this approach, Bango and its “Advantage Partners” can use their combined buying power to benefit all content providers. Bango also ensures compliance with payment schemes such as PayForIt, the UK mobile operators’ trusted mobile payment scheme and the MMA guidelines in the US.

Content providers also choose Bango for the higher overall conversion rates achieved with this technology. Users are given choices on ways to pay and this leads to more completed payments. These payment options include pay on phone bill, credit/debit card and PayPal. Content providers get paid for 100% of all transactions as Bango’s tracking and fraud prevention measures overcome revenue leakage, estimated by iGillottResearch to be as high as 18% of sales.

Why the mobile internet?
The Bango payment service, a core component of the Bango Advantage package, provides billing within a WAP session. By building sites on the mobile internet model, brands ensure they provide a superior user experience where users only pay for the content they want and that works on their phone. It also taps into increasing use of search and advertising on mobile as people looking for new mobile content and services, browse into mobile sites from a search engine or click-through from a mobile ad.

Businesses of all sizes are using Bango to seize the opportunity to engage directly with their consumers on the mobile internet. These include global brands such as News Corporation, Manchester United Football Club, Discovery Mobile and MTV, together with smaller, niche content providers. Each Bango package is designed for business’s different needs from the Bango Focus package for smaller content providers to the Bango Target and Bango Advantage package for global brands.

• Welcome – Elaine Davies, VP Customer Services, Bango
• Use Bango Analytics to target your marketing - Ray Anderson, CEO, Bango
• Update from Bango Customer Support - Elaine Davies, VP Customer Services, Bango
• * Industry update – Steve Ricketts,  Head of Third Party Services, Orange, UK  
• Payforit – Martin Harris, SVP Corporate Sales, Bango

* Please email vanessa@bango.com to receive this presentation