RINGTONES: Win while you're ringing - Ringtones are often irritating, but brands are looking to turn the catchy quality of mobile phone tunes to their advantage.(Industry Overview)
Source: Revolution

Everyone suffers from it - an irritatingly catchy tune that gets into your head and will not leave until sleep, death or something more exciting takes over. Broadcasters and advertisers have exploited this phenomenon for years - the former to extend the life of content via theme tunes, the latter to keep their products at the top of consumers' minds.

Now brands have another opportunity to exploit the marketing potential of melody: the ringtone. Any product associated with a catchy tune can benefit. They are only just beginning to be taken up as a marketing medium, but ringtones are set for fast growth as they become more sophisticated and even a standard part of brand marketing.

Thomas Dolby, 80s electro-pop star and founder of audio software company Beatnik, is working with Nokia on ringtones. He believes that the medium has great potential. 'Global brand companies are not really aware of ringtone marketing yet, but they are starting to look at it,' he says.

The European mobile services market (mostly ringtones) was worth Eur590 million (pounds 354m) last year, according to Jupiter MMXI analyst Olivier Beauvillain.

He estimates that the UK accounts for about 20 per cent - about pounds 75m - of that figure.

Most of that activity relates to independent companies selling ringtones over the net. But there are already signs of big brand involvement, mostly so far relating to broadcasters.

Visitors to the Sex and the City page on the Channel 4 web site (www.channel4.com), for example, can pay pounds 1.99 to download the theme tune, which has recently been a hit in the charts.

As well as bringing in revenue, having the theme tune emitted from mobile phones across the country has a huge marketing benefit for the channel while consumers get the chance to be associated with the equity of the show.

Robert Marsh, Channel 4 controller of telephony development, reveals: 'Sex and the City is one of the biggest sellers - we have sold quite a few thousand.'

Marsh says research for the channel suggests ringtones are not price-sensitive. If people decide they want the Channel 4 News ringtone, for example, they don't particularly care whether they have to pay pounds 1.50 or pounds 4.50 for it. A review of pricing is planned - all ringtones currently cost pounds 1.99. The channel sees big potential for profit from ringtones, as the cost of sending one can be as low as 3p.

Recent pronouncements from the Independent Television Commission (ITC) have cleared the way for broadcasters to promote ringtones on-air in the same way as books at the end of shows - although the ITC only has jurisdiction over commercial television, so this change would have no impact on the BBC. Marsh says the likelihood is that the next Big Brother series, which is scheduled to start toward the end of this month, will be the first time a ringtone is promoted in this way.

MTV, which sells ringtones in a similar way, has plans to take the concept further, according to the channel's internet and mobile manager, Matthew Kershaw. The broadcaster is in the process of devising games around ringtones. 'We are looking at the idea of games involving ringtones that could be co-sponsored by a brand. People seem to change ringtones like they change their jeans, so it is an ideal opportunity for brands that want to get in bed with a youth audience,' says Kershaw.

Channel 4 and most other operators currently charge via a premium-rate landline number, but MTV is in the process of moving from this system to a reverse billing system through the user's mobile phone account.

Aside from broadcasters, those already seeking to use ringtones to drive marketing activity include record companies who are learning to use ringtones as a way of promoting an artist. After initial uncertainty, the record industry seems to have decided that getting a phrase from a new song heard as a ringtone is a good way to help break a new product. In March, the Daily Star offered readers a free Unchained Melody ringtone to promote a version of the song by Pop Idol's Gareth Gates.

And other entertainment brands are catching on. Bernadette Lyons, UK managing director of mobile services company Mobileway UK, says her company has worked with the World Wrestling Foundation, for example.

'Each wrestler has an entrance theme that is played when they enter the ring. The idea is that these could become ringtones,' she says.

Media companies are perhaps best placed to exploit ringtones, but as their sophistication increases, it is likely that a wider selection of brands will want to be involved. Indeed, there are signs that this is already happening.

Ringtone-led brand marketing activity has, for example, involved a giveaway of ad jingle ringtones from web sites (see panel, p28), and ringtones have been used as competition prizes by McDonald's, and tested by Lloyds TSB. The bank's employees received an SMS to alert them to the start of a new TV campaign followed by the ringtone from the ad.

Jacqui Church, digital strategist at Zenith interactive solutions, a division of Lloyds TSB's media agency Zenith Media, anticipates that the use of ringtones will become widespread and more creative. 'It is easy to see how an England World Cup theme might make a good ringtone for one of the team's sponsors,' she says. 'Can you imagine a whole stadium with everyone holding up their phones playing your theme at the same time? It could be a good stunt.'

At the moment, ringtones are monophonic - they play one note at a time.

New phones will have polyphonic ringtones, but a more important development will be the rise of phones that can play samples of digital music. Small digital files of audio, such as a section from a hit recording or advertising jingle, will be used as ringtones. Such sampled ringtones will typically be short bits of music looped together.

Beatnik's Dolby is among those working with samples from pop songs to create ringtones. The main riff from Booker T and the MG's hit from the 60s, Green Onions, (associated with the BBC's cricket coverage for many years) is one example.

Currently, the distribution of a ringtone requires a fee to be paid to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society and Performing Rights Society, which collect on behalf of the composers and publishers. But when the ringtones become sampled pieces of recorded work such as pop songs, there will also need to be a payment to the relevant record companies.

Despite the additional cost, Dolby sees much potential for the medium.

'The new ringtones will maintain the shrillness of the monophonic melody, but have an arrangement that makes it sound richer with drums and accompanying stuff. Brand managers are obviously going to be happier to be involved with these better quality sounds,' he says. Hence, brands could produce ringtones that are samples of their advertising jingles.

Phil Brown, managing director of Nokia UK - who already has a sample from Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin as his ringtone - believes that the extent of branded ringtone activity will probably relate to the number of companies that make music a big part of their brand activity. 'At Nokia, we used a particular type of music to reinforce our brand from an early stage which eventually became a ringtone. If brands use music in a big way, I am sure they will consider it as important,' Brown says.

Not everyone is a fan of ringtone marketing, though. Nick Jankel-Elliott, director of strategy and insight at digital marketing agency Happy Dog, which is carrying out mobile work for Disney, thinks that ringtones can work against a brand image.

'Ringtones are essentially free - or at least there are plenty of places where you can get them for free,' he says. 'As a brand, do you want to be associated with things that can be found for free on some dodgy site?' Jankel-Elliot believes that contrary to majority opinion, brands targeting the young should not offer ringtones as, he says, tones have lost their 'hipness'. 'If your brand is supposed to be cool and youthful, you lose credibility if you offer ringtones which are frankly quite dull,' he says.

Chris Seth, media director at marketing agency Proximity London, thinks that brands do need an existing relationship with music to avoid brand dissonance, but that quite a lot of brands might find a way to get involved. 'In a time-constrained world of media overload, ringtones give the opportunity to make an impact and grab attention,' he says.

It seems likely that brands with a degree of credibility - entertainment, clothing and cultural, for example - will have a good chance of extending their equity into ringtones and get consumers to adopt them in the same way as they do branded T-shirts. For other brands, though, activity may be more restricted, maybe to specific events or promotions. A special Irish Rover St Patrick's Day ringtone for Guinness, perhaps?

But Brown thinks it is more likely that branded ringtones will grow in importance as a part of the whole marketing mix.

Indeed, a campaign just agreed for the latest Star Wars film will involve a ringtone as well as a picture download and a special phone cover. 'If you are interested, you will probably be able to get a similar package for Manchester United,' Brown says.

Dolby suggests that people who can bear to have an ad jingle as their ringtone might be offered discounted talktime in return, although enforcement could be a problem.

Ringtones look set to become as important status symbols as mobile phones themselves, with some people having a subsidised phone in return for using a ringtone jingle, while others pay for something more exclusive. Either way, keeping your head free of irritating melodic phrases in a public places looks as though it is going to get a lot more difficult.

THE PHONES, THE PHONES ...

We asked a few digital personalities to reveal what rings their bells

My current ringtone is The Next Episode, taken from Dr Dre's album featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg '2001'. My last ringtone was from the old Western, The Magnificent Seven, composed by Elmer Bernstein

Herbert Kim

Source O2

I have the Pac Man retro video game intro music on my phone at the moment. I'm not sure if I should have admitted to that, but I only got it because we were looking to offer ringtones at the Firebox site. It grew on me, so I kept it

Michael Smith

Firebox.com

Alas, as my mobile phone rings about 50 times most days, my ringtone options are pretty limited: a quiet paging beep or a gentle vibe.

And so far I've avoided installing any of the graphics I keep being sent

Danny Meadows-Klue

IAB

My normal ringtone is a bluesy number, which I think sounds cool but irritates everyone else. I have the Ride of the Valkyries for when my wife calls. This is due to my love of Wagner and no reflection on my wife

Stephen Taylor

Securicor eSolutions

HULA HOOPS PROVIDES RINGTONES FROM ITS TV AD ONLINE

Hula Hoops' web site (www.hulahoops.co.uk) is built around its puppet character, Hoopy McHula.

The site, which launched in August, is run by integrated marketing agency Billington Cartmell in association with technology company iTouch.

The web site is aimed at teenagers and offers picture messages, answer phone messages, logos and text jokes as well as ringtones.

Everything can be sent between phones and the items sent publicise the site, as they all include the Hula Hoops web address.

The site uses ringtones in two ways. First, the site links through to an iTouch page, where users can buy a selection of ringtones.

Second, the site offers users a free download of the tune from the Hula Hoop ad as a ringtone.

Ed Gray, account director at Billington Cartmell, says: 'I think we are the first to offer a ringtone from an ad as a text download in this way. It works well as the music on the ad is pretty funky.'

Gray says that 3,000 to 4,000 visitors a month are taking some kind of text message from the site. He estimates this to be about 20 per cent of visitors.

'It is an additional brand involvement through the ringtone medium,' he adds.

FOX KIDS EUROPE OFFERS MEMBERS POPULAR THEME TUNES

Fox Kids Europe carried out research into mobile phone and SMS use among its registered members (children aged eight to 13) last autumn.

The broadcaster discovered that 45 per cent of its male audience and 34 per cent of its female audience use mobile phones, and that they use them primarily for text messaging and downloading ringtones and logos.

It made sense for the company to make these services available on its web site (www.foxkids.co.uk).

In January, Fox Kids Europe partnered with mobile services company m-Wise to launch a raft of mobile services, including ringtones.

Kids can download the theme tunes of popular Fox Kids shows such as Hulk, Digimon and Power Rangers. To do so they must text a specific code to Fox Kids' 'short number' and are charged pounds 1.50, which appears on their phone bills. The service works on Nokia phones and on the Vodafone and O2 networks, but not on pay-as-you-go phones.

Other mobile services offered on the site include 'moodswings', which allows users to tailor their phone with a daily logo; interactive competitions and 'ticker tape' - messages sent to Fox Kids are displayed on the site and on the company's interactive games channel, Fox Kids Play.

'SMS is a natural extension of the digital services we already supply to children and our partnership with m-Wise enables us to offer interactive entertainment to kids wherever they are,' says Natalie Tydeman, managing director, online and interactive, at Fox Kids Europe.