Ipsos MediaCT’s John Carroll remarked, “It was great to receive recognition for the work Ipsos are doing in the mobile space. We believe the passive behavioral collection approach can co-exist with traditional survey-based methods. It’s a very exciting opportunity for researchers.”

Hannu Verkasalo from Arbitron Mobile said “We are proud for the positive result of our collaboration with Ipsos, and for the recognition of the highly innovative potential of our passive tracking solution. Arbitron Mobile’s on-device metering is a game-changing solution that can provide researchers with actual user data in unparalleled depth.”

Teemu has a background in working with financial controlling and HR from both small start-ups and international corporations which will help former Zokem to transform its operations towards Arbitron Inc.

“I am extremely happy to join the Arbitron Mobile team. The company is in a very interesting position with the recent acquisition and I am looking forward to help building a good working relationship and find new ways of working with our teams in Finland, France, Singapore and the US.”

Helsinki, Finland; July 28, 2011 – Arbitron Inc., (NYSE: ARB) announced today that it has acquired Zokem Oy, a Finland-based mobile audience measurement and analytics firm for a payment of approximately $11.7 million in cash at closing with possible additional incremental cash payments through 2014 of up to $12 million based on future financial performance.

Zokem provides custom and syndicated mobile research panels, plug-and-play mobile media measurement tools and software building blocks for mobile device tracking to the leading companies in the marketing research, wireless, Internet, media and marketing industries.

Through its proprietary and passive mobile application, Zokem customers can track and interpret consumer use of mobile devices and media. The technology also provides information on network performance and effectiveness of mobile ad campaigns. Zokem currently operates panels in 14 global markets and has relationships with a number of the largest mobile industry participants around the world.

Zokem will operate as Arbitron Mobile, a new division of Arbitron Inc., which will be led by Dr. Hannu Verkasalo, Zokem founder and CEO, and will report to Sean Creamer, executive vice president, U.S. Media Services for Arbitron.

“To better position themselves in the global mobile marketplace, advertisers, content providers and mobile operators are more eager than ever to understand how consumers are using mobile devices,” said William T. Kerr, president and chief executive officer, Arbitron Inc. “The acquisition of Zokem enhances our capabilities in the mobile audience measurement arena and provides Arbitron with valuable new resources for our growing cross-platform initiatives.”

“Arbitron’s expertise in survey methodology, its currency panels for media measurement and its established sales channels are a tremendous complement to Zokem’s mobile technology, mobile expertise and international footprint. We will be in a strong position to capitalize on these assets while continuing to work with our existing partners,” said Hannu Verkasalo, founder and chief executive officer, Zokem Oy. “We are already delivering unique and valuable insights to advertisers and media buyers around the world who want a better understanding of how consumers rely on their mobile devices and services. Arbitron Mobile is now better positioned to enhance and expand these insights. For Zokem’s management, employees, customers and investors, this acquisition is a welcome step forward”.

About Zokem
Zokem is a market leader in next-generation mobile analytics, offering a 360˚ view of the mobile consumer through passive on-device measurements. With 10 years of experience from the field, Zokem has been growing due to rapid adoption of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets with an accompanying shift of ad dollars to mobile advertising. Zokem conducts custom research projects for product development, consumer insights and benchmarking purposes and operates opt-in mobile research panels in 14 major markets globally. Zokem partners with the top firms in the field, including China Mobile and Nokia Siemens Networks, to interpret the world’s fast growing mass medium – mobile. Zokem has offices in Espoo, Finland as well as sales representatives in London, Paris, New York City and Singapore.

About Arbitron
Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is an international media and marketing research firm serving the media–radio, television, cable and out-of-home–the mobile industry as well as advertising agencies and advertisers around the world. Arbitron’s businesses include: measuring network and local market radio audiences across the United States; surveying the retail, media and product patterns of U.S. consumers; providing mobile audience measurement and analytics in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia, and developing application software used for analyzing media audience and marketing information data

The Company has developed the Portable People Meter ™ (PPMTM), the PPM 360™, new technologies for media and marketing research.

Portable People Meter™, PPM™ and PPM 360™ are marks of Arbitron Inc.

Statements in this release that are not strictly historical, including the statements regarding expectations for 2011 and any other statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future, may be “forward-looking” statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those suggested or indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, among other things, our ability to successfully integrate acquired operations, diversions of management resources, expenses incurred in financing the acquisition, differing levels of management and internal control effectiveness at the acquired entity, other unanticipated problems and liabilities, , changes in the market, potential downturns in economic conditions, foreign exchange fluctuations, competition, our ability to develop and successfully market new products and technologies, the growth rates and cyclicality of markets we serve, our ability to expand our business in new markets, , litigation and other contingent liabilities including intellectual property matters, our compliance with applicable laws and regulations and changes in applicable laws and regulations, our ability to achieve projected efficiencies, cost reductions, sales growth and earnings, and other international economic, political, legal and business factors. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in our SEC filings, including our 2010 Annual Report on Form 10-K. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release and the Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Following the highly successful event in Singapore, Zokem attended also MMA’s flagship event held in NYC in June. Zokem attended a couple of panel discussions, and shared the stage with Jesse Haines from Google to talk about topics around mobile media measurements.

Actually, quite a wide array of topics was discussed in this year’s NYC event. Those included separate sessions for mobile analytics and workshops around mobile apps, indicating that the conference has gained maturity and the different talks and presentations provide increased value to a significant number of business people. Of course the number of people matters, but this year I particularly liked the tone and depth of talks. There is also a better sense of realism in the game nowadays, people are not just hyping about mobile advertising, but facts and numbers matter, and nobody is expecting ridiculous growth numbers but instead looking at real opportunities to capitalize on the emergence of smartphones and increasing engagement between consumers and the mobile screen.

I was asked to comment the status of mobile advertising in AN interview by RCR Wireless during the MMA NYC conference. While I was a bit careful not to shed too much light on our new commercial studies and data streams, one of the points I made is that we already have many of the fundamentals in place for a fruitful mobile ad ecosystem: enough devices (and penetration), enough engagement between the user and the device (face time), and enough apps and web site visits. Zokem’s passive measurement figures also reflect on this as people are engaging through campaign apps, marketing messages, and web site or app-based advertising.

However, there is still a lot to be done in understanding the specifics, we see that there is a great difference between the bulk display ads and highly targeted contextual “hints” for people to initiate a commercial transaction, whether it is about making a call to a local pizza place, or opening a compelling local offer from Groupon.

The event was probably bigger than ever – I was positively surprised to see such a high number of people attending: advertisers, brands, research companies, members of the academia. But, one challenge still remains: Carriers are practically non-existent in these events. Carriers – show up! Many are slightly pessimistic about carriers’ ability to play a role in mobile advertising, but I am still positive.

There are many advantages carriers have, from the fact that they are still the number one interface to the consumer in most countries, to the point that carriers still are in control of the essential fundamentals of mobility – the cellular networks. There just are no other connectivity options available that would be efficient enough. And in terms of technology, carriers could play a key role in authentication, mobile payments, privacy handling, and location-based services – if they can pull the right triggers.

Thanks to the partnership with Ipsos MediaCT, Zokem will make available smartphone and tablet usage data, combined with event-based survey polls, to United Kingdom and France based clients through a solution that is based on Zokem’s Mobile Life market research panels and Mobile Media Tracker metering technology. The solution that provides 360-degree insights into consumer behaviour around the use of new technologies is aimed at all companies within the media, content and telecommunications sectors.

What is passive measurement? In contrast to active measurement methods, which are based on respondents’ ability to recall, passive measurement methods record behaviour in real-time with little or no effort on behalf of the respondent. Zokem Mobile Media Tracker is very simple to use: respondents first give authorisation to download the app, which will then seamlessly record the respondents’ interactions with their smartphone. The system can be switched off at any time, and all research data is anonymous.

What does the solution measure? Zokem’s Mobile Media Tracker measures all forms of usage of a smartphone or tablet: communications (voice, SMS, email, MMS, use of social networks), apps and media consumption (TV/video, music/radio, informational content, games) web browsing (time spent, pages viewed, mobile advertising) and any other functionality available on the device (such as maps, calendars, agendas, alarm clocks, cameras). Zokem Media tracker records a huge quantity of information which enables us to recreate the lives of smartphone and tablet users, and gives an unprecedented view of the way people communicate and interact and the media consumed on the move. This passive measurement can be enriched by additional interviews or diaries to understand respondents’ motivations.

Results of a pilot survey conducted in the first quarter of 2011 in the United Kingdom

Why is the solution unique? The Mobile Life powered reports are unique for several reasons: Firstly, they offer an exhaustive list of mobile phone usage data, including web browsing and usage of apps, whether or not online. They take all types of connections into account, including Wi-Fi, which offers significant insight into connections made from home. This allows building up a complete view of mobile usage, providing a rich source of data to plan and sell advertising or to understand how apps or media are being consumed via mobile. On-device metering data also equips us with possibilities to measure accurately the engagement with apps or content.

Secondly, as Zokem’s Mobile Media Tracker works on all major smartphone and tablet operating systems (Android, Apple, Blackberry, and Symbian), the reporting provides a complete comparison of all the major smartphone types currently on the market. Finally, the Mobile Media Tracker offers a fully integrated solution, from data collection to the delivery of actionable insights, combining passive data with survey or polling questions which can be behaviourally triggered, for example satisfaction with an app on close or exit.

How to use it? Zokem and Ipsos will produce trend data from Zokem’s dedicated panels in the UK and France by adapting Zokem’s Mobile Life research to these specific markets’ needs. These results will be delivered as standard reports to provide the major smartphone and tablet trends for each country. Additionally, Zokem Mobile Media Tracker can be deployed on any ad hoc sample, especially on clients’ proprietary panels.

Results of a pilot survey conducted in the first quarter of 2011 in the United Kingdom

According to Liz Landy, MD for Ipsos MediaCT in the UK, “this new integrated solution represents what many of our clients have been asking for: being able to connect with consumers without the barrier of recall and gain direct access, and understanding, of their daily lives.”

Andreas Piani, General Manager Europe for Zokem, said: “after refining our advanced technology through bespoke projects with a number of top device vendors, operators and Internet companies, we will now offer this powerful tool to a wider clientele. Thanks to the strategic partnership with Ipsos, ICT actors in the United Kingdom will have access to our technology through a well-known company with extensive experience in market research and proven know-how in marketing consulting.”

For more information, please contact:

Ipsos: Ashish Prashar on 07775 501 839 or 020 7437 3452
Zokem: Meri-Tuuli Kupiainen, +358 45 633 7320, meri.kupiainen@zokem.com

The results show that there is a slight peak in the user engagement in the afternoon on working days, mainly as a result of the peak due to voice calls. For the rest of the day, engagement with different smartphone features is divided evenly with obvious effects of the time of day (day vs night), including apps and Internet.

It is notable that on weekends usage starts a couple of hours later than working days, indicating that people might sleep longer, and are not so much into active usage right in the morning.

When looking at different application categories for working days and the engagement figures (face time) with them relative to the total time spent with smartphone each hour, it is easy to see that outside office hours various applications and web browser capture much more of user attention than messaging and voice. More specifically, before 8am, and after 6pm, non-voice and non-messaging related usage makes up more than 50% of total smartphone usage.

“Apps and web seem to be the key areas for advertisers and marketers to engage with the mobile audience, and they are definitely the sweetspots for targeting”, says CEO Hannu Verkasalo from Zokem.

Zokem’s mobile research panels provide a rare 360-degree view on mobile consumer behavior from apps and content usage to media streams and people’s social behavior. Through Zokem’s media measurements, topics such as mobile advertising, campaigns, and search behavior can be easily studied to reveal macro level events as they happen.

While there are a number of research reports on tablets already available, Zokem will now offer a full, 360-degree view to the use of tablets by sharing some of the passive measurement insights from its Mobile Life panels in the U.S. The panels include both smartphone and tablet users that have installed the Zokem application in their device.

In an in-depth analysis on tablet vs. smartphone usage patterns, conducted during April 2011, it was found out that applications are clearly dominating the web browser both on smartphones and tablets when measured with face time, a measure that reflects actual usage of a service. In smartphones the share of application usage is overwhelming – it achieves almost 6 times more face time than web browsing. In tablets, however, the difference is not so significant with 39% of face time allocated to web browser and 61% to applications.

“It can be speculated that for tablets, the bigger screen and the better overall user experience in browsing contribute to the relatively higher face time for web browsing. On smartphones, on the other hand, a smaller screen and of course, better availability of apps, contribute to the apps dominance”, says Jing Wu from Zokem’s research team.

As calling and text messaging features are not available on most tablets, only applications, such as games, entertainment, books, office and multimedia, and web browsing are included in the above face time graph.

Zokem’s 360-degree user study benchmarks differences between the usage of tablets and smartphones. More mobile insights on tablet usage will be published next week in a series of tablet insights reports. Zokem continues to run its Mobile Life panels in the developed smartphone markets providing insights on consumer behavior, user satisfaction and media consumption to improve ad targeting and enable competitive intelligence.

Zokem announces today two new recruitments to the Zokem team, providing strategic support to Zokem’s current activities in Asia-Pacific. The appointments are part of Zokem’s expansion to new Asian markets, including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan. After opening the office in Singapore, Zokem has presence in all key markets, building on top of earlier openings in New York City, Paris and London.

Zokem has appointed Giovanni Montesanti, as a General Manager Asia-Pacific. Mr. Montesanti is a full-rounded marketing and sales veteran with significant executive experience from various industries, including telecom and consumer electronics in Europe, Asia and North America. Montesanti has a pivotal role in expanding Zokem’s sales and client base in the region.

Marcello Fontana has been appointed as Director of Business Development, Asia-Pacific. Mr. Fontana has over 15 years of global experience in leading financial services, and from technology and media companies in executive management positions. Marcello is also actively involved in applied research in the areas of machine learning and semantic analytics.

We met with Giovanni Montesanti and Marcello Fontana in Singapore to discuss Zokem’s positioning and the special characteristics of the mobile ecosystem in the Asia-Pacific region.

What do you think are the key differences in the mobile business and the ecosystem in Asia vs. the West?

Fontana: The mobile business and ecosystem in Asia are distinctly different compared to what we observe in the West. First of all, Asian income distribution is more polarized, with low average income levels coexisting with pockets of great wealth. Also alternative digital platforms are far less available in Asian developing markets, making the smartphone both a significant investment and the primary computing platform for a large fraction of the population.

In addition, Asian countries exhibit extreme diversity in terms of language, traditions, stage of development, income, and consumer preferences, and innovation often is more about affordability than top-of-the-line features.

Montesanti: I can only emphasize on the high mobile penetration in Asia which makes the mobile phone the medium of choice compared to landlines, computers, and so on. Asia is the most populous region in the world. As much as it has been influenced by other regions in the past, I believe the next decade will be shaped by Asian cultures, macro-trends and economies.

The way Asian consumers develop will change global trends in consumption and it will shake the roots of segmentation and lifestyle definitions. Needs and wants, aspirations and desires of Asian youth, for instance, will redefine our ecosystem. The mobile phone is the only medium that can reach ubiquitously every consumer segment of one.

What differences do you see between the various Asian markets with regards to the potential and value of the research that Zokem provides?

Fontana: As a matter of fact, I believe that Zokem technology and data provide great value in all Asian markets. Compared to the Western world, the availability of detailed and location-specific consumer data is extremely low in Asia, thus magnifying the value of Zokem’s offering. This applies both to research, as well as to other products and services embedding Zokem intelligence.

Montesanti: As Marcello perfectly said, because of the disparity and large diversity across Asian countries, and the extreme polarization within the large population in certain markets, Zokem can provide deeper insights on consumer behaviour creating a 24/7 window on their lives which is unparalleled. For instance, in China it is estimated that by 2015 the middle class will exceed the population of the entire North America. Zokem is uniquely positioned to capture the needs and wants of this new class, which will be invaluable to a myriad of large consumers good companies such as P&G, Unilever as well as Financial Institutions (banks, insurances, etc) who would need to redefine and re-align their market strategies and value propositions.

Personally, what do you believe are the key elements in Zokem’s value proposition?

Montesanti: Zokem has the unique ability of combining a decade long consumer and behavioural research knowledge with the most advanced analytics tools that provide a 360-degree window into consumers’ lives day-in, day-out. Because of its passive metering technology and approach, consumers are monitored from every aspect of their lives without adapting their behaviour, therefore providing trueinsights on the spectrum of their activities such as sleeping patterns or daily movement and activities, to the extent of assessing also their social circles.

Fontana: Having worked with “big data” since the late ‘90s, I think that the distinctiveness, detail, and speed in gathering and distributing intelligence are the key elements in Zokem’s value proposition. And then, of course, its people and the unusually varied skills and experience mix Zokem is assembling across markets.

About Zokem

Zokem is the market leader in the next-generation mobile analytics, offering a 360˚ view on mobile users through on-device metering. Zokem runs its mobile research panels in all major markets globally, and partners with the top market research, wireless and Internet companies to interpret the biggest mass medium of the world – mobile. Zokem has offices in Espoo, London, Paris, New York City and Singapore. For more information, visit www.zokem.com.

Contact:
giovanni.montesanti@zokem.com, +66 890 339 102 (m)
marcello.fontana@zokem.com, +65 9017 2531 (m)

In a UK based smartphone study that was carried out over the course of the royal wedding week it was found out that people were using their smartphones and tablets very actively to look for information about current topics, the royal wedding of course being the key event of the past week. Zokem took the snapshot from its Mobile Life UK research panel that includes a wide range of smartphones and carriers in the UK, and meters mobile consumer behavior in a panel study setting.

During the actual wedding day last Friday, almost 1% of all mobile web page requests and searches in the UK were about the royal wedding. The chart below shows the proportional share of all mobile search actions and the web page requests that were directly related to the wedding, with search words or articles containing words such as “royal wedding” or “Kate Middleton”.

On Monday April 25th, there was already some activity visible; about 0.1% of all mobile web browsing in the UK was related directly to the royal wedding. During the course of the week, this increased to 0.2%, and not surprisingly, Friday was a actual peak day when the proportional share of wedding related mobile web usage rocketed close to 1%. During the weekend, after the wedding mania was already ascending, usage behaviors returned to the level of the pre-wedding days.

“The study shows that mobile is an increasingly important channel for people to access information about ongoing events, news or happenings”, says Hannu Verkasalo, CEO of Zokem, about the results. “Now that our mobile panels are growing, our research is changing from mere apps, web and device usage statistics towards new dimensions, including search, advertising and commerce. Mobile being a personal, ubiquitous medium, the information we capture from the Mobile Life research panels can reflect dynamically various phenomena of our surrounding society and economy”, Verkasalo adds.

Zokem’s mobile research panels provide a rare 360-degree view on mobile consumer behavior from apps and content usage to media streams and people’s social behavior. Through Zokem’s media measurements, topics such as mobile advertising, campaigns, and search behavior can be easily studied to reveal macro level events as they happen.

While nearly all U.S. smartphone users browse the Internet, use voice, messaging and social networking services on a daily basis, mobile gaming steals already a considerable slice of the daily smartphone face time. The Zokem Mobile Life research reports in the U.S. show that almost 60% of smartphone users played games on their mobiles on a monthly basis.

Instead of claimed usage with questionnaires, the results are based on metering actual user behavior amidst people’s everyday lives in a longitudinal research panel. During March 2011, Words With Friends was the most popular game with 20 % of smartphone users who played the game at least once per month, followed by Angry Birds that attracted 13 % of all smartphone users.

‘Gaming has already the same penetration among smartphone users as, for example, weather and utility services, both of which are usually considered as daily commodities. Of course, the number of people trying something once is only half of the truth, and by looking at the actual time spent with different phone features, we see that gaming is actually doing even better when measured with actual face time’ says Dr. Sampsa Jaatinen, head of analytics at Zokem. Gaming ranks at the 6th place on overall active usage time, right after browsing, social media, and personal information management apps (PIM), gaming capturing on average 6% of the monthly face time over all smartphone users.

Within gaming, social games rule both in reach (penetration) and engagement (on-the-screen face time) dimensions among smartphone users. ‘Words With Friends has inspired surprisingly many people to try it out, as well as Zynga, which is not just one game but an application used for playing multiple games, especially on Facebook’ Jaatinen tells. Zynga includes highly popular games such as Mafia Wars and Farm Ville that are both multiplayer games and games with a social aspect.

The involvement of the social aspect in mobile gaming is not that surprising when looking at the development of the console and PC gaming market that has seen a steady rise of multiplayer online games in the recent years, and games such as Guitar Hero are becoming daily pastime. Out of all games, however, Angry Birds, is persistently swimming against the stream; the game that is by nature somewhere between the social and traditional games, seems to be breaking the current trend by having introduced a solo player game that has attracted players across the world. According to Zokem research, Angry Birds has also seen the most rapid rise to the top over the past 12 months, topping today with 13% of US smartphone users playing it on a monthly basis.

‘The popularity of Angry Birds among smartphone users in Zokem’s smartphone panels, though not completely surprising based on our own statistics, is an important finding for us still’, says Director of Business Development Peter Vesterbacka from Finland-originated Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds. ‘The rapid growth in our user base is an even more important fact, as at the moment we are on path to make Angry Birds even a bigger brand, expanding from the original iPhone platform to all of the other major smartphone platforms, which will hopefully bring a further boost in terms of our user base’, continues Vesterbacka of the success of Angry Birds.

Complementary to social and multiplayer games, also rather traditional games such as Jewels or Solitaire, both of which can be found preinstalled on various smartphone devices, still hold a strong user base.

These results are based on Zokem’s market leading longitudinal smartphone research panels, currently running in nine countries across North-America and Europe, metering and interpreting mobile consumption and mobile user experience.