The Awards

The global media and marketing industry will celebrate the very best in media thinking and communications strategy from around the world at the fourth annual Festival of Media. We invite you to enter innovative, creative, effective communications strategies for consideration by the judges of the Festival of Media Awards 2010. The winners of the Awards will be announced at a Gala Dinner, the finale of the Festival of Media, held at the City of Arts & Sciences in Valencia, Spain on 20 April 2010.

All entries must be submitted by 28 January 2010. The shortlist will be announced March 1, 2010.

Download the “Call for Entries” brochure.

The Festival of Media

Taking place from 18-20 April, the Festival of Media 2010 will focus on four separate strands that tackle the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the industry as we emerge from the global recession and plan for a brighter future.

• Inspiring leadership
• Integration
• Pioneers & Innovators
• Recovery

With the conference agenda, exhibition and awards all reflecting these four strands, the Festival promises to provide delegates with the opportunity to benchmark yourself against the best work, consider strategic opportunities and be inspired by the world’s best communicators.

For more information, visit the conference website.

There was an initial wave of ad network acquisitions (AOL-Third Screen, Nokia-Enpocket, Microsoft-Screentonic), but that has slowed recently. However, ClickZ thinks it likely that the M&A activity will start up again.

Greg Sterling, analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence, is quoted as saying he expects to see some big plays happen. “While Third Screen Media has already been bought, and Enpocket has already been bought…the question isn’t which ones will be bought, but which ones won’t be bought,” he said.

The article also looks at how different agencies and publishers work with the ad networks. Some use mobile ad networks exclusively, and others tend to mix them with more traditional online ad networks And some publishers continue their direct sales as well.

For a good overview of what is happening today with mobile ad networks, read the full article here.

AOL has had some difficulty in combining the business operations of all the advertising companies it has acquired in recent years – Third Screen Media, Lightningcast, AdTech, Tacoda, Quigo, Perifilliate, and Advertising.com. However, Gibbs points to the two recent deals that AOL’s Platform A has concluded as evidence of AOL’s growing prowess in the mobile market.

• An agreement with Verizon Wireless to be their exclusive display advertising and sales partner for mobile web inventory.
• A similar agreement with Virgin Mobile, which is especially important as the MVNO targets the teen and young adult market that is particularly receptive to mobile advertising. On top of this, Virgin Mobile has already seen big success with the Sugar Mama program that rewards users who opt in to receive mobile ads.

Read the full article here.

Bustos Media, Lotus Communications and Davidson Media Group are among the first media companies to join the network. These represent more than 50 radio and television stations, nearly one million listeners and viewers. Brand marketers will be able to choose the markets, stations and the demographics in order to efficiently target their audience.

“The Hispanic market represents an unprecedented opportunity for broadcasters and brands because of its large and growing population, enormous purchasing power and great consumer loyalty,” said Ivan Braiker, chief executive officer of HipCricket. “Hispanics are also among the earliest and fastest adopters of mobile technology, so the ultimate way to meaningfully engage with this community is through mobile marketing.”

One of the nation’s most rapidly-growing demographics, Hispanics are heavy users of mobile technology and text messaging. In a recent Mobile Marketing Association study, 32 percent of Hispanic consumers indicated that they were moderately or highly receptive to mobile marketing messages.

“Mobile marketing solutions from HipCricket will help us to connect with our audience in ways we never thought possible,” said Peter Davidson, president/founder of Davidson Media Group. “The company offers a flexible, easy to use platform for delivering customized messages to Hispanic audiences.”

See the full release here.

Other Posts on Hispanic Marketing:
Latin-Pak Launches Mobile Advertising.
Young Hispanics a “golden opportunity” for mobile advertising says M:Metrics.