bnetTV » mobilegroove

Mobile 2D barcode scanning is paving the way for a range of exciting and lucrative schemes hyperlinking our physical world of things (all objects including product packaging, printed media, TV, billboards, equipment – the works!) with a digital world or websites and destinations filled with information, advertising, applications downloads, coupons, processes and special offers.

The last weeks have seen a slew of announcements in this space, heralding a new phase in market development, new thinking about the business models (particularly the value to the enterprise) and new urgency in the race among companies across the emerging business ecosystem to get barcode strategies in place – fast (!).

When I connected with Randy Cavaiani, Novarra Vice President, Marketing, last week at CTIA I had a hunch that something big was in the pipeline. For one, he was in a great mood. Second, he used the opportunity to walk me through Novarra's big-picture vision of the mobile Internet, a topic we have discussed several times and at key milestones in

I've followed Novarra from the start and watched it cleverly and quietly align its server/micro-browser capabilities to focus on a much broader agenda. It’s all about providing operators, handset makers and Internet brands the technology and know-how to create new services and revenue streams (with the help of in-network intelligence, mobile Internet click-stream analytics and context information from Novarra).

Just tying up loose ends and pinning down last interviews before I'm off to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress (MWC). If you haven't booked a video interview with me or Michelle Sklar, then best to start planning for CTIA in March because all the slots (over 200!) for coverage are full.

However, there are some limited sponsorship opportunities available allowing companies placement through in-video overlay, logos and other promotion formats. It's an excellent way to reach an audience of over 1 million viewers. (All MWC interviews will be aired on bnetTV’s website, as well as over 150 other web and social media sites (including MSG), that are part of bnetTV's larger partner network.

Regular readers will recall that one of my oldest and closest partners is bnetTV, the source for mobile industry interviews. I've conducted dozens of interviews on behalf of bnetTV (featured in the video player and playlist in the right-hand sidebar) at leading mobile industry events worldwide and will be joining with Michelle Sklar and the rest of the bnetTV team to film interviews during Mobile World congress (MWC). Companies lining up to take advantage of this editorial opportunity include: Nuance, Novarra, Out There Media, JumpTap GetJar (during the must-attend Showstoppers mini-event), Neomedia and InMobi, to name a few.

Companies and execs are still confirming filming times – so it's going to be a busy and exciting show indeed! We still have some slots available, so please contact Michelle ASAP (michelle@bnettv.com) to schedule an interview.

In brief: This summary – which includes excerpts from an exclusive interview Marc Overton, Orange VP of Wholesale, Business Development & Partnerships – examines the mobile operator's mobile advertising strategy; outlines Monkey, the first of a slew of services specifically based on the Blyk model; and wraps up with insights from Alan Moore - an authority on social media marketing and founder of the Engagement Communication Consultancy SMLXL – who points out that content/services subsidized by advertising may have to be more than free to fly. On the heels of the extremely popular posts on Blyk and MSG's exclusive interview with Pekka Ala-Pietila, CEO and Co-founder of Blyk, the timing is perfect to deep-dive into Orange UK's mobile advertising aspirations now that it has formally folded Blyk's MVNO activities into its wider strategy. The first service that draws from Blyk's mobile advertising model – an approach built from the ground up to encourage a dialogue between brands and people that want to her their message by delivering people relevant advertising in tune with their preferences and profiles – is Orange Monkey. The first Pay As You Go (PAYG) package for the U.K. market offers free music to customers when they top up their mobile. (Although PaidContent suggests the service is not about free music since the tunes you get to listen to (not own) when you top up add up to about 600 minutes each month. This translates into GBP2.14 ($3.53) for customers regularly paying GBP30 ($49.23) in phone credits. But that may just be picking nits since people are getting music at no extra cost.) More about Monkey: it provides exclusive music, pre-release tracks and other content from Universal Music's catalogue and relies on British broadcaster Channel 4 to get the word out to the target demographic (16-34 year-olds with mass market phones) via the Channel 4 portfolio including 4Music, billed the most watched music channel in the U.K. A clever twist and nod to the power of multi-channel promotion: The 4Music team will be the editorial voice of the official Monkey website which will carry news, artist features, playlists, exclusive content and competitions. (Check out the Orange site for more details and a video demo of the service.) The promotion is about building buzz, loyalty and community. So, where does/will Blyk's mobile advertising approach come in? The focus on engagement and social networks is baked into the offer. As well as free music, Monkey offers customers free texts, allows for playlists to be shared on social networks, and it "delivers great offers from relevant brands direct to their mobile." Prior to the Monkey launch I was pre-briefed by Marc Overton, Orange VP of Wholesale, Business Development & Partnerships, who walked me through the concept and – more importantly – where brands and Blyk fit in the scheme of things.

Last week the news was all about GyPSii's new iPhone app. Developed by GeoSentric, GyPSii lets people, and now people who own iPhones ,create and share geotagged content in real-time with friends, family, and the growing global community of GyPSii members. But it doesn't stop there. The places and experiences users create become Internet-searchable destinations, available for friends and communities to share and comment on, not only in GyPSii, but also across other social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Read between the lines, and GyPSii goes one huge step beyond the slew of location-aware, mobile social networking services we've see up to this point. Sure, it allows people to instantly capture and share what they are actually doing, building a multi-media virtual diary on their world - the places they have been and the things that they have done. But it also allows people to search (and find) these places/people/experiences with their mobile phones. I am immediately reminded of the key theme of the Netsize Guide 2009, a milestone mobile almanac that represents an exciting (and on-going) collaboration with Stan Chesnais, Netsize CEO, who steered me in the direction of the next mega-trend in mobile: The blurring of the barriers between the virtual and physical worlds. But it's more than an adrenalin-driven vision of the future. As we described in the book (which I urge you to download via the MSG sidebar), it's happening now, and examples range from Ford's super-cool use of augmented reality in a mobile marketing campaign, to visual search/advertising schemes supported by SnapNow, to GyPSii's little known business model, which is all about indexing the world around us for the delivery of relevant advertising and services we can't yet imagine. (I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting with GyPSii at the time I wrote the book, but you can bet it has a top-notch spot in the 2010 Guide!) Shortly before GyPSii launched its iPhone app, Vanessa Vigar, Head of Corporate Communications, invited me to company HQ in Amsterdam to connect with Dan Harple, GyPSii CEO. The interview was a meeting of the minds, which I have produced as a two-part podcast here on MSG. (Thanks again for reaching out, Vanessa!) In Part 1, Dan gives me the high-level view of what GyPSii is (and isn't), presents his no-holds-barred view of the real market for location services, and walks me through the value propositions (for people and GyPSii partners) that are intertwined with the company mission to make sure all of us are out on our bikes searching the planet, instead of on our PCs searching the Internet.