8 to 9 June, 2010
New York, USA

The latest in the series of Mobile Marketing associations Forum returns to the North America region and more specifically New York. more»

17 to 19 May, 2010
New Jersey, USA

The Digital Strategies for Broadcasting conference focuses on the latest trends for enhancing traditional media businesses into the new digital age. more»

19 to 21 April, 2010
San Francisco, USA

The latest in the ad:tech series of conferences returns to San Francisco from April 19 until April 21. more»

14 to 15 April, 2010
Singapore

The latest in the series of Mobile Marketing associations Forum returns to the APAC region and more specifically Singapore. more»

7 to 8 April, 2010
New York, USA

The “Think Mobile” conference is brought to you by Mediabistro and will look into how media and other businesses can take advantage of the mobile eco system. more»

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Certain consumer services have been around for many years, and yet manage to evolve with the times and stay current.

The Yellow Pages is one such service. When it began almost 50 years ago, it was a book that consumers could use to find local businesses. As the internet boom took off, Yell.com became popular, and as mobile internet grew, an iPhone app was launched.

And now Yell has upgraded their iPhone application to include Augmented Reality, providing the most up to date way for people to find their local businesses.
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A recent study by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) has found that browsing the mobile web is more popular than reading newspapers or magazines.

The study found that on average 71 million Europeans use the internet on their mobile each week – for an average time of almost one hour every day. more»

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) announces that its 7th Mobile Entertainment Awards, known as the ‘Meffys’, is now open for entries. The Meffys span the entire mobile entertainment & media industry, from apps to social media.

The deadline for entries is 16 April, and the winners will be announced at a Gala dinner on the evening before MeM on 21st June at The Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

For more information or to enter, click HERE. more»

7 to 8 April, 2010
Beijing, China

On January 7th 2009, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 3G operation licenses to the three main operators in China. These licenses are expected to accelerate the use of the Mobile Internet in China. more»

Ringback tones are a very phone centric form of advertising – there is really no parallel in print, online, or TV.

If you have ever wondered what these are, or wanted to understand more about how they work and the right way to implement a RBT system, then take a look at this whitepaper from the Mobile Marketing Association. more»

Volkswagen has launched its fourth iPhone game called “Volkswagen Think Blue Challenge.”

In keeping with today’s greater awareness of environmental impact, the game aims to promote the fuel-saving capabilities of VW’s Polo and Polo BlueMotion cars. more»

Since Apple bought Quattro Wireless at the end of last year there has been speculation that Apple might decide to enter the mobile ad business.

A recent job offering on the Apple website seems to confirm their intentions. more»

Juniper Research has released its latest report on the mobile ticketing industry, in which it predicts that by 2014 nearly 15 billion tickets will be delivered to consumer’s mobile devices. more»

Trinity Mobile has announced a 1200% year-on-year growth in the delivery of mobile boarding passes to airline passengers in 2009. Last year, the company sent out over 600,000 mobile boarding passes via SMS compared with 50,000 in 2008. more»

InMobi is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing global mobile ad networks.

The company was founded just 3 years ago by three Indian entrepreneurs. It is now active in over 35 markets and processes over 7.5 billion ad requests per month.

Growing a company this quickly in a market that is evolving as fast as mobile advertising is not an easy task. We spoke recently with Naveen Tewari, CEO and founder of InMobi about InMobi’s 2-stage strategy for growth, as well as the key changes that he sees coming to the global mobile advertising market. more»

Understanding what is in the minds of consumers is always important for marketers. And as mobile has become the communication channel of choice for the youth market, what better tool to use to understand their perceptions of various brands.

In the past two years, mobile Q&A company ChaCha has responded to over 400 million queries, primarily from users who are 13 to 24 years years old. Now, ChaCha has teamed up with research firm Frost & Sullivan to put together a very interesting whitepaper on brand perception in the youth market. more»

The finalists for this year’s Festival of Media Awards competition have been announced, with 8 mobile campaigns making the shortlist in the “Best Use of Mobile” category.

See the full list of mobile campaign finalists here. more»

Service launches with major retailers including SONIC®, American Eagle Outfitters, and REI

San Francisco, CA – February 25, 2010 – Today Placecast introduces ShopAlerts, a new way to bring customers closer to the brands they love. ShopAlerts delivers location-triggered mobile messages when shoppers enter geo-fences that can be created around virtually any area. The service, previously tested in trials, has already demonstrated promising results for retail marketers across the United States.

How ShopAlerts works:
Placecast’s ShopAlerts service is a retailer marketing solution. Retailers leverage the technology to create their own version of the service; then consumers choose the brands they love, and may opt-in through many ways – at the store, online, via text-message, mobile website, or social network (like Facebook). Once ShopAlerts is activated, consumers go about their day and the service automatically alerts them when they are near a location that they are interested in or when the brand is offering sales and specials.

Unlike many new mobile advertising innovations available only as applications on smartphones, ShopAlerts works on any phone, which is a benefit for retailers who wish to reach the 196 million Americans who do not own smartphones but are interested in such shopping deals.[1]

What is a geo-fence?
ShopAlerts geo-fences are virtual boundaries that can be targeted via location-based marketing. Using geo-fencing, the service enables retailers to talk to their customers when they are near a store, shopping nearby, or doing other things they enjoy. Geo-fences can be created around any location and are set to trigger a personalized marketing message to opted-in consumers entering the defined area on their mobile phones. Customized messages are created and delivered automatically to shoppers creating a trusted, one-to-one communication channel based on place and time. Click here to watch a video of how it works.

“SMS is already very effective marketing platform and by adding location to the proposition you’ll see even greater consumer response,” said Greg Sterling, senior analyst for Opus Research’s Internet2Go program.

Since September 2009, the ShopAlerts service has run pilot programs across the U.S. with several major retailers including SONIC®, American Eagle Outfitters, and REI. Participants in the programs were surveyed with the following results:

• 60% of participants found the location-triggered messages to be cool & innovative
• 79% said it increased their likelihood to visit a store
• 65% made a purchase as a result of a ShopAlerts message
• 73% of participants would definitely or probably use the service in the future

ShopAlerts is designed to work easily and efficiently within the existing marketing structure and needs of retailers. The program is seamlessly integrated into retailers’ CRM and marketing programs; message content can mirror retailers’ existing marketing calendars, current promotions or on-the-fly events opted-in consumers find relevant.

“Geo-fence technology represents the next frontier for digital marketing as consumers expect to connect with brands at the right place and time, all via their mobile device,” said Alistair Goodman, CEO for 1020 Placecast.

Starting today, the ShopAlerts service is open to all retailers. To learn more, please visit http://www.placecast.net/shopalerts.html.

About 1020 Placecast, Inc.
1020, Inc. is the developer and owner of Placecast, the first location-based platform specifically designed to use digital marketing on mobile to drive consumers into physical environments.

1020’s groundbreaking Placecast service recently earned the company the OnMedia Top 100 Award, given to game-changing companies in the marketing, branding, advertising, and PR industries. Current partners include NAVTEQ and Alcatel-Lucent, and marketers include The North Face, FedEx Office, Avis and Budget Rental Cars and Hyatt Hotels. 1020 is funded by ONSET Ventures, Quatrex Capital, and Voyager Capital

Placecast has launched a new location-based mobile marketing service, called ShopAlerts, that aims to enable retail outlets to drive potential customers into their stores. The service uses SMS, which means that it will be available to all phone users, and not only Smartphone owners. more»

A recent study by MediaCom and Ribena has shown that brand awareness is 25% higher among people who have engaged with branded content. The research compared exposure to different types of Ribena display advertising. more»

The Mobile Entertainment Forum’s annual Business Confidence Index has predicted growth of 24% for the year 2010. While this figure is a downward adjustment from the figure of 33% announced in Q3 2009, it still represents very healthy growth. more»

The Guardian iPhone app, which was released in December 2009, managed to pass the 100,000 downloads mark within 10 weeks of its launch.

This number of downloaded apps should continue to grow as there are nearly half a million Guardian readers that access the Guardian mobile site each month via an iPhone or iPod touch. more»