Day 2

On Day two we heard Ben Kinealy & Scott Taylor on Mobile TV and I was impressed with Scott’s detailed presentation & knowledgeable manner. (the MoMo Melbourne team were so impressed with Scott’s pres we invited him to speak at our Mobile TV event last Monday).

Mike Walsh from Tomorrow did a brilliant job moderating the Mobile TV panel. Mike had clearly done his homework and was able to gently guide the discussion, keeping everyone on topic, and delving into the difficult questions. On the topic of what will work in Mobile TV, Ben Liebmann talked about Fremantle media’s approach to innovation “our CEO wants Fremantle to be there everytime it fails, rather than not be there when it works”. I like that attitude. To be successful at innovation, you have to be really really good at failing.

Nick Love from Fox Interactive talked about how important the mobile channel is for MySpace, with a goal of generating 50% of mySpace traffic from mobile within 3 years. Them’s big goals. Nick alluded to the fact that a new version of MySpace mobile will be launched in Australia in about a month and he identified that MySpace mobile has a pure monetisation strategy through mobile display & search advertising as well as from custom advertiser profiles. It will be interesting to see the advertising opportunities presented by MySpace mobile locally in the coming months.

It was also interesting to hear that MySpace mobile sees usage peaks on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, with a correlating peak online for Thursday – Sunday. This to me reinforces the view that people use the mobile channel for different things, in different ways to the online channel. Mobile is not just about accessing a big web site from your phone.

Which brings me to the iPhone. The love-hate relationship between mobile industry afficionados and the iPhone is telling. It reflects the value we all see in the device, vs the uncertainty we feel as an industry in the face of certain change. Somewhat reluctantly we accept the iPhone may be the disruptive technology of the decade. Enthusiastically we anticipate the stampede of mass audience to ‘our’ mobile web. And increasingly we find ourselves defending our mobile web against claims of its obsolescence. Several speakers at MCW, including Michael Beresford from Telstra highlighted the differences between online & mobile needs. As an extension of that, there is a need for organisations to cater for iPhone users specifically, rather than simply expecting them to accept a shrunk down version of your website. This is not to mention the many valuable mobile-only business models that do not even have web functionality. The debate is only just beginning.

Oliver Weidlich from Ideal Interfaces gave an informative presentation on the pros & cons of the iPhone and showed plenty of screen shots for those who haven’t yet had their mitts on one. I for one was converted, much to my disgust! Oliver will be going over to WWDC where the 3G iPhone is expected to be launched on June 9^th. Watch this space for more details about when, where & how you can pick one up in Australia.

Certainly the iPhone and other web friendly devices will go a long to way toward encouraging users to go off-deck. Nick Love told MCW that off-deck traffic already represents more than half of MySpace mobile traffic. My notes aren’t clear, but I think it was also Nick who claimed that the Sony PSP has 20% of all off-deck traffic, generating 15-20k unique users, and 75 million Page Impressions per day in Australia. I am curious as to what PSP users are browsing, particularly whether they are hitting mobile websites or online?

Martin Hoffman from Loop Mobile gave a fast paced, information rich presentation on mobile communities, and I’m afraid it was so compelling I didn’t remember to take a single note. But thanks Martin for waking us up and getting my brain going again after lunch on day 2.

Warming us up before the third day on Mobile Advertising we heard from Geoffrey Handley from the Hyperfactory. Hyperfactory is a NZ based company set to open a Sydney office any day now. With plenty of global mobile marketing campaigns under their belt, Geoffrey’s presentation was entertaining and interesting. He made one comment that gave me pause: “Mobile is no longer an afterthought for advertisers”. With Hyperfactory’s experience globally, that might very well be the case, but I think you could count on one hand the Australian advertisers for whom mobile is NOT an afterthought. I would love to be wrong on this, but I think we’re a fair way off that in Australia just yet.

Geoffrey also gave us MCW’s most quotable quote for mobile professionals to share with potential clients. “You wouldn’t strip out the visuals from a video ad and call it a radio ad. You wouldn’t take a still from a TV ad and call it a poster” Mobile is a different channel. Create mobile specific media for your mobile advertising.

Willie Pang & Tomasso del Re gave a joint presentation about Yahoo Mobile but I have to say I was disappointed. I was keen to hear about Yahoo’s plans locally, after all this is Mobile Content World, Australia. Most of us in the local mobile industry are familiar with the Yahoo mobile product suite and so a presentation devoted to detailing these was not the best use of the time. I stuck my hand up and asked the burning question

Emily Freeman: So what are Yahoo doing locally in Mobile Advertising?
Yahoo: Umm

In all seriousness, Yahoo has apparently had mobile advertising available locally since late last year. I think the reason it fell under my radar was that it is sponsorship based, rather than search marketing. I was intrigued to hear Tommaso comment that Mobile Search is not yet a viable proposition “Mobile Search will not be here for another 2 – 3 years”. Instead Yahoo believe the focus should be on display & sponsorship opportunities in mobile. “There is more that mobile can deliver beyond the click”. I agree with them, that mobile advertising can move away from a debate about clicks & impressions and into tightly integrated content propositions that don’t necessarily even look like the advertising we know & love today. But coming from Yahoo, this surprised me.

The final outstanding presenter for Day 2 was Matt Houltham from Zenith Optimedia who gave the most informed overview of the local mobile ad space that I’ve heard to date. I was almost disappointed I hadn’t prepared it myself! The note I wrote to myself at the time was “This man knows mobile advertising”. Enough said.