It’s A Difficult Time, But There Is “Careful Optimism”<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"
During MWC in Barcelona, we met with a lot of knowledgeable people from across the mobile marketing value chain. Although everyone was clearly uneasy about the impact of the current global economy, we found a strong, underlying optimism about mobile advertising and marketing. <\/p>\n
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In order to give you better insight into their thinking, we made a series of short, one minute interviews with some of these experts: publishers, agencies, developers, technology companies, venture capitalists<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \n We’ve also put together a quick round up of some of the top trends we saw at the show. Answer: <\/strong> Click Here for minivideo<\/a><\/div>\n Answer: <\/strong> Click Here for minivideo<\/a><\/div>\n Answer: <\/strong> Click Here for minivideo<\/a><\/div>\n Answer: <\/strong> Click Here for minivideo<\/a><\/div>\n Answer: <\/strong> Click Here for minivideo<\/a><\/div>\n Answer: <\/strong> Click Here for minivideo<\/a><\/div>\n And here are some final observations about the key developments and trends that we saw during the show.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n Another bright spot is that there seems to be a ongoing stream of new technologies that will continue to enrich the world of mobile marketing. For example: <\/p>\n
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Mauro Montarano<\/strong>
\nCEO
\nFox Mobile <\/p>\n
\nWhat is do you see as the future for mobile video over the next 12 months?<\/p>\n
\nIt will be “the age of mobile video”, with both ad-funded unbranded video, plus streaming branded video bundled with flat mobile data plans.<\/p>\n
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Harry Dewhirst<\/strong>
\nMedia Director and Co-founder
\nRing Ring Media <\/p>\n
\nWhat are the current trends in mobile advertising that you are seeing these days?<\/p>\n
\nMore and more brands are embracing mobile, and starting to invest in the channel.<\/p>\n
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Magnus Jern<\/strong>
\nCEO
\nGolden Gekko<\/p>\n
\nWhat is your view on the proliferation of mobile operating systems, and “apps stores”?<\/p>\n
\nChoosing which operating system and app store is a big challenge for developers and brands, and perhaps this will lead to a resurgence of Java.<\/p>\n
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Chris Wade<\/strong>
\nChairman
\nMobile Acuity <\/p>\n
\nWhat is the environment like for hi-tech start-ups these days?<\/p>\n
\nStart-up companies need to act like “grown-up” companies.<\/p>\n
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David Klein<\/strong>
\nVP, Advertising Sales
\nNavteq<\/p>\n
\nIs there a future for location based advertising?<\/p>\n
\nMobile will provide a strong link between advertising and retail, and therefore improve ROI.<\/p>\n
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Pamir Gelenbe<\/strong>
\nPartner
\nNewtonmore Group<\/p>\n
\nWhat is the VC view of opportunities in the mobile industry these days?<\/p>\n
\nIt’s been a tough business, but we feel a “careful optimism”.<\/p>\n
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Mobile Applications Are Everywhere<\/strong>
\nThe biggest change in the world of mobile marketing and advertising since last year is the overwhelming appearance of mobile applications used for marketing campaigns. Enabled by better handsets, faster networks, and the emergence of “app stores”, these have become a hot area of creativity.
\n(Read MobiAD article Mobile Applications: The Next Big Thing In Mobile Marketing?<\/a>)<\/p>\n
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Big is the new Small<\/strong>
\nThere has clearly been a sea change in handset design. Everyone is now focused on touchscreen devices with smartphone capabilities. Remember just a couple of years ago when handset companies competed to see who could make the smallest phone? Those days are gone, thanks to the need to support mobile internet and mobile apps.<\/p>\n
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Mobile Internet is real<\/strong>
\nA major change has occurred in just one year – the mobile internet is now for real. In the conference discussions, in product presentations, and just by watching people at the show, it was evident that mobile internet is now a standard part of people’s lives. It seems as though better handsets, faster network speeds, and the growth of lower cost or flat data plans have created a “perfect storm” which is driving the growth of mobile internet.<\/p>\n
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Location is still missing<\/strong>
\nAlthough I remain a big believer in the future of location based services and advertising, it looks as though that is still somewhere off in the future. A lot of companies are still working on services in this area and there is some uptake, but until there is an easy, reliable, consistent, efficient (ie not battery draining) way to determine a consumer’s location and then have it fed to an application, then I think we will continue to see small steps instead of the breakthrough we are all hoping for.<\/p>\n
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Mobile Marketing & Advertising – Growing Up<\/strong>
\nAlthough there was perhaps less ‘hype’ about mobile marketing than last year, it seemed as though the industry may have in fact reached a higher level of maturity – more talk from agencies that brands are committed, more examples of successful campaigns, more discussions more about how to make it better (relevant, measured, less cumbersome) rather than discussing basic reasons to trial. <\/p>\n