April » 2009 » mobilegroove

The realization that mobile advertising is ripe for a re-think (and the stark possibility that traditional advertising inventory may be dead on the mobile platform, as Alan Moore, author luminary and founder of the communication consultancy SMLXL, suggests) forces operators, brands, enablers and agencies to focus on what many are calling engagement marketing. At the other end of the spectrum, this shift in mindset also turns up the pressure on mobile search providers to develop services that are (likewise) more useful, engaging and personal. Indeed, improving the mobile search user experience is at the center of a sustainable and successful mobile search and advertising strategy. Users are encouraged to explore the wealth of content and applications at their fingertips, and their urge to discover leads to more queries and more opportunities to deliver paid search advertising. It's not quite the fixed Internet all over again, but there are similarities. The outcome is a virtuous cycle where useful search results and targeted advertising convince users that mobile search is a useful way to find content and applications that matter to them. What's more, the advance of app stores (similar to the excitement the industry experienced when content portals were the rage) underlines the critical importance of a better interplay between search and advertising moving forward. I am therefore encouraged by improvements (from companies such as Yahoo), and excited by the increasing popularity of new mobile search paradigms, ranging from multimodal search (which has received a much-needed boost thanks to the iPhone); to approaches that integrate human input/judgment to deliver search results we're much more likely to appreciate.

MSG is proud to have deep ties with AltSearchEngines (ASE), a destination synonymous with news and quality analysis on all things related to alternative search engines (defined as all search engines other than Google), and a deep friendship with Charles Knight, ASE publisher and the "Voice of Alternative Search" (as he is regarded by a growing community of professionals and practitioners passionate about search). So, when Charles asked me to support him in his annual effort to showcase alternative search by asking readers to go a day without Google, I naturally agreed. To be clear, this is not about being anti-Google; it's about encouraging people to explore the choice of alternative search engines available to them. Last count there were some 1,500 alternative search engines - ranging from Faroo, which enables peer-to-peer Internet search, to Kosmix, a new twist on old meta search that delivers search results across a multitude of categories, including opinions from Omgili, video from Truveo, social search results from Mahalo and the basics from sources such as eBay, YouTube, and Wikipedia. And the list goes on... Charles tells me his annual call to action was as popular as ever this year, resulting in posts, tweets and emails from readers sharing their experiences as they went through a day without Google. For just one day, I would like you to use an alternative to Google when you perform searches on your mobile phone. I know from my own work researching mobile search and compiling a comprehensive directory of mobile search providers, that the choice in mobile search engines is impressive. If you want to know results that really resonate with real people, then you might consider

Regular readers may recall that Every Single One Of Us, a global effort aggregating knowledge, and authorizing best practice and methodologies that ensure optimal mobile advertising user experience, selected MSG from among five research and consulting companies to take the lead role in Mobile Advertising U.K. I am proud that this project has moved into the next phase and I can report some exciting progress on several fronts. Following my trip to London last week to speak at an excellent quality mobile advertising networking event organized by AIME (more on that in my analysis tomorrow), I connected with my esteemed colleague Tarik Fawzi, founder of ÆNEAS Strategy Consulting and Management, an international consultancy firm, to finalize some details around the project. We have identified an impressive list of executives at a mix of agencies, enablers, and operators in the U.K., whose views and experiences will be crucial elements in this ambitious undertaking. The research project -- which has the endorsement of three leading global mobile marketing organizations: The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK), and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) - will also be the topic of a special industry event on June 15 in London.