Carnival of the Mobilists

There’s always a lot happening in mobile, but I try to keep the focus of Mobilista on Australian happenings as there are plenty of places to go for global mobile news.  If you’re keen to tap into some of these global blogs and discussions, you might want to check out the Carnival of the Mobilists,  a weekly wrap up of blog posts talking about mobile.   The Carnival has a global focus so the news isn’t always relevant in Australia, but it’s a great backgrounder.  Each week the Carnival is hosted by a different mobile blogger, so everyone benefits from the traffic & exposure.  The host researches and selects the best articles from the week, and provides a quick summary and links.   This week’s Carnival of the Mobilists is hosted by Caroline Lewko from wipJAM.

MMA Mobile Marketing Forum, Berlin

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is holding their Mobile Marketing Forum in Berlin this week. Aussie mobilist Oliver Palmer from Tigerspike is there and has been live tweeting from the event.   You can follow Oliver on Twitter to keep up with what’s happening, or use Twitter Search for the hashtag #mmf09 to see everybody’s tweets from the event.  Several of the presentations are already live on the MMF website and general feeling from the event is that it is a very exciting time for mobile marketing and advertising (OMG did someone say  THIS is the year of mobile??)

mNet to merge with Mercury Mobility

In more local news, Australian business mNet Corporation announced yesterday that they will be merging with mobile content & personalisation company Mercury Mobility. According to the press release, the combined business will produce ”a new generation of mobile expertise and capabilities, targeting global mobile carriers, media companies and content and brand owners”.  This article in Computerworld provides a good overview of the merger details, and you can follow mNet CEO Horden Wiltshire on Twitter.

MEGA (mobile enterprise growth alliance) is a programme that brings together industry & government with entrepeneurs to build our local mobile industry.  The supporters of MEGA reads like a who’s who of the mobile industry in Australia.   Dozens of local mobile practitioners with a broad mix of technical, creative and business skills have volunteered their time to teach and mentor MEGA participants over the duration of the 4 month programme. The culmination is a pitch day, when participants have the opportunity to lay out their business plans in front of potential investors and business people.

The closing date for applications is this Friday and participants will be selected based on their background, experience, project ideas and above all their passion and enthusiasm.   Passion was a key theme of the info session actually.  The inimitable Justin Brow is a walking advertisement for passion, and his enthusiasm had rubbed off on everyone by the end of the session.  I think this is a genuinely exciting programme and one I am proud to be a supporter of.

You can’t beat the opportunity to be guided by industry experts and introduced to high profile business leaders in your field of interest.  If you have a mobile idea, or just really want to get a foot in the door in the mobile industry, this could be the opportunity you’ve been looking for.

You’ve got til next Friday to apply, so get onto it ASAP!  And, if I can give you a little hint – I heard it said at the info session that if your application is overflowing with nothing but passion & enthusiasm – you’re a sure thing to be selected!

The AIMIA Mobile Industry Group is launching the updated AIMIA Mobile Advertising Guidelines on June 10, 2009 in Sydney. The launch event is from 9.30 – 12.00 on the 10th at the KPMG Auditorium and includes presentations on Mobile Advertising from Kelly Ajai (Communicator), Kerry Field (Mindshare), Jon Slade (NineMSN) and Angus Beattie (3 Mobile). The morning will be moderated by the inimitable Jennifer Wilson, Chair of the AIMIA Mobile Industry Group.

This will be a good chance to mix it with the local mobile advertising crew, and hear about mobile advertising from the experts. I’ll be there! More info and registration details from AIMIA.

Oliver, Jenny and I have been putting the finishing touches on the course materials and I am really  looking forward to the opportunity to work with a group of enthusiastic wannabe mobile marketers!  The course will cover the latest trends in mobile technology and marketing, and teach participants how to take advantage of them.

Course Content includes:

• how to engage consumers through the mobile channel
• the logistics of implementing a mobile marketing campaign
• how to integrate mobile into your overall marketing strategies

I’ll be running the show down in Melbourne on June 18th and will have a few guest lecturers there on the day to impart their wisdom and expertise.  Jenny Williams (IdeaGarden) will fire up Sydney attendees on June 11th with a little bit of support from yours truly (I’ll be making cups of tea)

I would love to see you there.  I know if you’re reading Mobilista then you’re already interested in mobile marketing – perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to take that interest and turn it into some really exciting mobile marketing activities before 2009 is out.

At the start of the year I predicted we’d see some great local examples of mobile marketing and advertising in Australia in 2009.  Will you be behind one of those great examples??

Here’s a quick snapshot:   

The third day had a smaller group of participants locked into an intensive few hours focusing on Mobile Advertising. The great thing about this day was that every speaker was well informed and engaging, with some involvement in Mobile Advertising locally. This made for a relevant and informative day for all involved.

Amanda Brook from Sensis mentioned the mobile advertising agreements that Sensis has with Publicis Mojo, OMD & the WPP group. Amanda’s presentation was full of interesting information that painted a picture about the current mobile environment “Yellow Mobile took 5 months to generate the level of usage it took Yellow Online 5 years to achieve”, and insight into the future as Sensis see it “Mobile codes will be the greatest innovation in print advertising since the printing press”. Amanda also raised some of the challenges faced by BigPond & Sensis to educate users that mobile ad sites are free to browse. This is not a challenge they should have to face alone – surely an industry wide standard would best serve the user?

Rob Belgiovane from BWM was inspiring with his quote “2.7 Billion users could be potentially reached on the same device, potentially simultaneously”. Food for thought.

Rob threw heaps of engaging advertising campaigns at us, barely focusing on mobile, but making the point that it’s NOT the channel, but the insight that matters. If you capture the hearts & minds of people, the method of communication is irrelevant. Devices & technology just make it easier to share & pass messages on.

Chris Noone from NineMSN told us that Mobile is far more worthy a core for an integrated campaign than TV. I look forward to seeing that philosophy adopted by local advertisers. He also threw out the challenge that any outdoor campaign without an SMS interaction is not working hard enough for you.

Chris’ tips for mobile include using a mobile call to action on all media, using high penetration access methods to drive traffic to your mobile destination, ensuring low page weights with relevant content and easy response mechanisms. Use phone specific features and give customers a reason to return.

NineMSN are launching mobile advertising on MSN Messenger & Hotmail on July 1 and promise that demographic targeting will be available soon. On the grapevine I’ve also heard that NineMSN have offered select local advertisers the opportunity to be part of the launch of advertising on Hotmail & Messenger.

The panel on Making Mobile Advertising into a Viable Revenue Stream was lively and animated. Chris Taylor from BigPond commented that all the media buying groups are asking about the granularity of targeting that is available in mobile. While I agree that targeting is one of the key advantages of the mobile channel, there is still a gap between the expectations of advertisers and the limited reach they are likely to gain by being too granular in their targeting. Angus Beattie from 3 Mobile agreed that Advertisers can have unrealistic expectations and that the industry as a whole need to work on common metrics & measurement.

Peter Birch from Network 10 discussed exclusivity of content and the fact that an Australian user would have to sign up to three different networks to access exclusive content on Big Brother, Australian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. That’s not an ideal situation for Network 10 and they are open about their desire to give their content away for free to the customers of all carriers and use advertising to monetise it.

Peter encouraged advertisers to move away from the word ‘trial’ in their mobile advertising. He amused me with the following statement “Mobile Advertising is already here – just not enough people are doing it”. Too true!

Richard Mergler from MIA asked the panel which part of the agency ecosystem they think mobile advertising budget will come from. That’s a really smart question and the answers, in my opinion were illuminating. Digital agencies tend to tack on mobile advertising to their online & branding budgets. That’s not necessarily the most logical fit to the mobile channel. While branding campaigns have a place in mobile, the direct response nature of mobile translates perfectly to direct marketing and I would like to see more DM campaigns being extended to include a mobile component.

Network 10 seem to have grasped the DM fit, with Peter Birch announcing a mobile vouchering system they are soon to launch which has “huge potential to make a ton of money for whoever gets it right”.

Angus Beattie presented the successful Ford campaign run by 3 Mobile over several years and showed how the campaign has been tailored over time with a commitment from both parties to an ongoing relationship. 3 Mobile believe in creating a solid partnership with advertisers in these early days, rather than distancing themselves through media-buying agencies & CPM based campaigns. He also noted that 3 Mobile are in the final stages of an Ad-Serving RFI. I wonder if 3 Mobile’s philosophy will change once they have an ad serving capability in place..?

Dave Mallam from COGS media talked about his new online content network & ad serving business and the opportunities it presents to translate to mobile. COGS media is focussed on monetising compelling content and they believe the industry needs to educate creative agencies to build an array of content that is ‘size’ agnostic (ie. channel agnostic) so that it can be repurposed easily.

Kerry Field from Mindshare gave an honest & informed presentation on Mindshare’s experiences in the mobile space, and the successes (and otherwise) that they’ve had recently. Kerry mentioned the WPP mobile alliance which incorporates several of WPP’s companies in Australia. The mobile alliance has made a formal commitment to the mobile channel, and it will be interesting to see what comes out of this commitment and how the various companies can work together. Kerry also talked about the need for the mobile advertising industry to work together to build the space for all of us. Many in the room echoed her sentiments and I personally believe we as an industry should tackle both formal & informal solutions to address that need.

Jim Shomos from Forget The Rules chaired the final panel and ended the day on a high, asking panelists what they would do for mobile advertising if they had a magic wand. Here’s what they had to say. Give users unlimited data plans. Think about the handset as an extension of thought. Educate adver
tisers to think about brands uniquely – they’re not all the same. Use mobile as the glue to integrate cross media campaigns. Allow agencies to be engaged earlier so they have time to deliver great results in mobile.

And my final quotable quote from the day “The biggest barrier to the take up of mobile advertising, is that most marketers don’t have high-end handsets”.

In the words of Andrew Grill from London Calling, if you want to be in mobile advertising, you need to walk the talk.

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.

There were a few highlights for me, and a few disappointments. Certainly the event was lacking in the enthusiasm & passion you would expect to emanate from a collection of people at the cutting edge of an emerging industry like mobile. There was a sense of ‘same-old, same-old’ from a lot of participants, and many of the panels felt a little tired. Haven’t we had this debate before? Can I comment without getting approval from PR in advance?

That said, there were numerous interesting speakers and plenty of people to meet in the break-out sessions. I’ve summarised some of my thoughts below, and apologise for focusing predominantly on topics of my own personal interest. I just didn’t have the time to cover all the presenters, topics & themes from all three days.

Day 1

I enjoyed hearing from Nicholas Heller from Google UK and local emerging technologies Product Specialist Justin Baird. The focus was not particularly local, but I was impressed with the Android demo and found myself quite inspired about the possibilities.

Bill Burton from Telstra spoke convincingly and honestly, which in itself was a feat for a Senior Telstra executive. The carrier panel was weighed down by cagey responses to audience comments, and the ever-popular but sadly half hearted debate around carriers being data pipes. The overriding message from each carrier was their newfound openness to off-deck content and the crumbling of walled gardens. Time & again we heard variations on the same theme “we want our users to embrace the mobile web”.

Amanda Brook (Head of Mobile at Sensis) spoke on day three about Mobile Advertising, Michael Beresford spoke on usability and Scott Taylor covered Mobile TV on day two. The combined impact of Amanda, Scott, Michael B, Michael Padden & Bill Burton did Telstra proud, as the company came out looking smart, open and well informed about the mobile industry locally. I say this regardless of the validity of their strategy. As a recent ex-employee of Sensis working on mobile strategy, it would be unfair of me to comment either way. Conversely, as an ex-employee I am not easily impressed as I can see straight through a whitewash, so my respect is probably harder to earn than that of an outsider! Either way, Telstra presented a strong front this year.

The carriers focussed a lot on the importance of customer targeting for the delivery of mobile content & advertising, and all repeated the message that beyond the data pipe, carriers provide access to location, billing relationships and the all important customer data to facilitate mobile interactions. A couple of difficult audience questions however revealed some of the uncomfortable truths behind the PR:

Dominique Lee: When will you all be launching wap billing?
Carriers: Umm
Vodafone: “you will probably see something in the next…. unspecified timeframe”
Audience: ROFL

Antony McGregor Dey: How easy is it for customers to engage with Carrier APIs?
Carriers: Really hard :-/

Paz Saveedra presented News Digital’s mobile strategy, with a nice demonstration of the ‘big web’ personalisation capability behind m.news.com.au . I liked the way News lets you interactively define your mobile experience online. On the flip side, when I saw the tedious sign up procedure I couldn’t back out fast enough. It’s a shame that big organisations need to justify really useful innovations by implementing usability killers like lengthy sign-ups. Coming from that world, I do get it. But win my heart now and I’ll share my details later.

Paz was open about the fact that the opportunity to earn advertising revenue was part of the reason News launched an off-deck mobile site. She is not alone in the industry in finding that the most difficult part of that equation is to engage with advertising media in the mobile medium. There is an urgent need to educate advertisers & their agencies, not to mention the internal sales teams of publishers like Fairfax.

Of obvious importance to advertisers is also the number of users they can target via the mobile site. News Digital uses print, online & SMS shortcode methods to generate mobile traffic. They are also spending time investigating SEO for their mobile sites. Chris Watt from Fairfax was another publisher to agree that after signing up advertisers, traffic was the number one priority. As with News, Fairfax has access to a variety of proprietary channels for generating traffic, but NineMSN revealed that Carrier portals & SMS Shortcodes were the most successful techniques for them.

Dinuke Ranasinghe from PayPal talked about Mobile commerce, which I admit is not my special topic. That said I watch PayPal mobile with interest and will be keen to see how the product rolls out in terms of adoption locally. Dinuke told us that Paypal will launch eBay mobile checkout soon in Australia and this is likely to have a big impact on mobile uptake, not just for eBay but also other PayPal facilitated transaction sites.

MEGA (Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance) started in Adelaide last year and is now rolling out in Victoria & NSW. It’s an industry led programme in which leading mobile industry experts guide participants through the development of new business ideas over a 2 month period.

Each session is run by a local mobile professional with industry experience. Participants learn all there is to know about the Australian & Global mobile environments, and work together on business plans for their ideas. The course culminates in an opportunity to pitch to investors.

The list of sponsors & presenters in Melbourne & Sydney is a who’s who of the mobile industry locally. The lucky participants will have access to the best & brightest this country has to offer and I really look forward to seeing what comes out of the 2008 series.

The programme is open to individuals, teams & corporates. Organisers are keen to see people from all skill backgrounds apply – from programmers, content producers & artists to entrepeneurs and business professionals. They’re looking for enthusiasm & creativity more than anything else.

If you have an idea based around mobiles that you’d love to get off the ground, this is a fantastic opportunity. Applications close May 5th. Go to www.mega.org.au to apply or email justin@mega.org.au