Meffys Mobile Entertainment Awards Highlight Mobile Advertising Models That Merit A Closer Look
I am honored to have had the opportunity (for the third consecutive year) to be on the judging panels for the Meffys Mobile Entertainment Awards (categories: Search & Discovery and Advertising Campaign). The Meffys are run by the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) and correctly dubbed the ‘Oscars of the mobile entertainment industry.’ Today I spent much of the day with colleagues David Murphy (Mobile Marketing Magazine), Pip Brooking (Media and Marketing), Jim Cook (MobiAdNews), Helen Keegan (Beep Marketing/Technokitten) reviewing the candidates in the two categories – albeit virtually since I was in my office near Cologne in Germany and they were gathered at the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) office in London.
In previous years I was most excited about the companies in the Search & Discovery category because I have purposely focused my career and this site on analyzing tools and technologies that assist us in seeking information/content relevant to our queries and in tune with our personal context. However, this time it was the progressive approaches to mobile advertising that grabbed my attention and won my respect.
(By way of background, last year the Meffys for the Search category recognized Gracenote, specifically Gracenote’s Mobile Music Platform, as a path-breaking way to enjoy and discover music on our mobile phones. During the last Mobile World Congress, I connected with Jim Hollingsworth, Gracenote Senior VP, Sales & Marketing, on behalf of MSG and bnetTV for a demo of this super-cool service. The video interview pops up at random in the bnetTV jukebox in the sidebar, so I encourage you to tune in when it comes around. This sector profile from Mobile Entertainment is also a help if you need a primer on the Music ID market, where Gracenote and Shazam are top contenders.)
I cannot divulge the mobile advertising campaign shortlist, nor can I deep dive into individual brands/campaigns/agencies. (The short list is slated for release next week.) But I can highlight the larger mobile advertising trends and models that merit a closer look.
What is different this year? Brands and agencies are much higher on the learning curve because they have got past the hype to ask the key question: What is the place of mobile in mobile advertising?
Is it ‘just another screen’? Or is it THE screen to rule them all? (More specifically, is it the 7th Mass Media, as author and consultant Tomi Ahonen observes? Or is it the remote control to our lives as Alan Moore, likewise a renowned author and consultant, reminds us in his comprehensive white paper, The glittering allure of the mobile society? Or is it something else?
The jury is out on this one. (In fact, it remains a central question I ask brands, agencies, operators and enablers daily as part of the Mobile Advertising Research U.K. project). There are no easy answers, but I was truly encouraged by the number and variety of mobile advertising campaigns that successfully harnessed the unique characteristics of mobile to deliver a message that resonated with the target audience.
By way of background, mobile offers 7 unique benefits:
1) Mobile phones are the first personal mass media channel
2) Mobile phones are permanently carried.
3) Mobile phone are always on
4) Only mobile phones provide a built-in payment channel.
5) Mobile phones are available at the point of creative impulse, enabling user-generated content.
6) Mobile phones are the first media with near perfect audience data.
7) Only mobile phones capture social context of media consumption.
Courtesy of Tomi and Alan
Notice anything missing? No mention of technology and whiz-bang features. Indeed, as I have observed on MSG and in my series of mobile advertising white papers, the innovation is not in the advertising formats, but in how we use them.
Against this backdrop, the campaigns that impressed harnessed relatively simple technologies such as IVR, video calling, Bluetooth and 2D barcodes to deliver engaging campaigns to a mass-market of people (trying to get away from calling us consumers). All the better if the campaigns orchestrated these capabilities to deliver a 360-degree, cross-media campaign.
My take: Brands and agencies, through their submissions to the judging panel, proved that we have a lot of mileage left in technologies on the table. Looking at mobile in the broadest sense delivers brands (and us) the broadest benefits. A word at this juncture about the iPhone: Granted iPhone apps are cool, and have earned a top-notch spot in the marketing mix, but (siding again with this insightful observation by Crisp Wireless) we shouldn’t lose sight of other exciting opportunities and invest so much effort (and resources) on approaches that effectively focus on a niche demographic.
Another observation following today’s judging: Mobile operators also have the opportunity to (w)ring much more value out of mobile advertising. Ringback tones, in particular, may be poised for a comeback as an ingenious way to turn dead-time into real benefits for people (they get rewards) and brands (they boost awareness). This is advertising that says ‘I’m so enamored of the brand that I choose to pass it on as part of my own digital persona.‘ Talk about advertising with a personal touch (!) Other opportunities that deserve a closer look: Schemes that introduce advertising (with our permission, of course!) into our SMS exchanges (in-text), into content buying and sharing (in-app), or enable a two-way conversation (via IVR) with the brand when the moment is right.
If you are anxious (as I am!) to speak with the companies behind these great ideas, I encourage you to attend the Meffys. This year, the awards are returning to London on 23 June, and will be held at the stylish Floridita in the heart of Soho before an audience of 300+ senior-level mobile execs. The Meffys also mark the start of the Mobile Entertainment Market (MeM), the annual international conference for mobile content organized by the MEF.
With speakers from all the top mobile content, service providers, network operators and mobile media companies and attended by execs from key mobile companies around the globe, MeM is a conference/networking opportunity you won’t want to miss!
To purchase tickets for the Meffys Awards, go to: ITMevents@informa.com
To purchase a corporate branded table of 10 at the Meffys, please contact: renee.harris@informa.com
For innovative sponsorship opportunities to suit any budget, please contact: maureen@m-e-f.org
To register for MeM (a ticket to the Meffys is included in the price), go to: www.mem09.com/register
Tags: Alan Moore, barcode, CrispWireless, iPhone, IVR, MEF, Meffy, Mobile As The 7th Mass Media, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Marketing, ringback tones
