Mobile advertising is the topic of the week at MSearchGroove. I’m attending the Mobile Marketing Forum Europe in Berlin; MSearchGroove has joined forces with research firm ÆNEAS Strategy to partner with the Mobile Marketing Association and undertake the organization’s first pan-European research project examining the attitudes of mobile buyers; and Smaato, a pioneering mobile advertising company that operates a leading mobile ad optimization platform, has launched Mobile Advertising Award 2009, thus kicking of the  search among the world’s developers and publishes for outstanding innovation.

After the success of competition last year, Smaato is back with a bigger and better Mobile Advertising Award 2009. As Harald Neidhardt, Smaato CMO & Co-Founder put it: “With more than 100 entrants in its first year we could not ask for more positive feedback. We think this is a clear indictor that there is a lot of creativity and positive energy in the ecosystem. The best is yet to come!”

This year, the competition is divided into three categories of ad-enabled mobile solutions: iPhone, mobile website and applications, and games running on all other platforms. Participation is free and you can learn more about the application procedure here.

Deadline for submissions is October 9th.  The winner will be announced at the Mobile 2.0 Conference in San Francisco on October 15th.

The winning companies in each category will be invited to attend Mobile World Congress, the leading mobile industry event, in Barcelona (February 15-18). In addition, Smaato will introduce these innovative publishers and developers to VC’s at the partner level. Other prizes include a booth at the hugely successful mobile industry event M-Days in Munich (January 28-29, 2010) and free event tickets.

MSearchGroove is proud to be a media partner and – on a personal note – I am honored to be named to the panel of judges.

This high-caliber group of industry influencers includes (in alphabetical order) Tomi Ahonen (Author), James Cameron (Camerjam), Jim Cook (MobiAdNews), Lubna Dajani (Mobile Monday, NYC), Bambi Francisco (vator.tv), Tim Green (Mobile Entertainment), Trey Harvin (mobiThinking), Matthäus Krzykowski (Venturebeat), Ragnar Kruse (Smaato Inc.), Caroline Lewko (WIP), Bena Roberts (GoMoNews), Kei Shimada (Infinita), Michelle Sklar (bnetTV), Matthew Snyder (IAB), Giselle Tsirulnik (Mobile Marketer), Mark Wächter (Mobile Monday, Germany & BVDW) and Rudy De Waele (dotOpen/mTrends).

By way of background, last year’s Mobile Advertising Award finalists included: aka-aki, buzzd, funkysexycool, Fish Labs, Fring, Peperoni, Queep, Skout, Tourspot and Vayyoo. The winner was DialPlus with a smartphone interface for showing visual information from the Web for a phone number before, during and after a call.

With all attention focused on mobile advertising the timing is perfect to draw your attention to Higher Revenues With Mobile Ad Optimization & Global Ad Network Aggregation. This white paper, developed by Smaato to explain the nuts and bolts of ad revenue optimization, describes the opportunities available to mobile publishers and developers seeking to monetize their inventory worldwide.  Specifically, it explores how/why different mobile ad networks deliver different mobile fill rates and outlines the pricing tiers for mobile inventory.

Harald asked me to contribute a quote to the press release back in June, which stands firm as my assessment of the white paper and the company that created it.

“The buzz in the mobile advertising space is around delivering the right ad to the right person- even better if this occurs in the right context. But the real issue publishers face is how to identify – in real-time – the right ad network to deliver the right results. Smaato, a global company whose own evolution shows its grasp of the key issues impacting the mobile advertising business ecosystem at all levels, has gained significant traction through its ability to dynamically identify the ad networks that monetize publishers’ inventory best. This innovation is core to Smaato’s competitive advantage and pivotal in moving the mobile advertising industry to the next level.”

You can download the white paper here – and I hope you will circle back with your thoughts/opinion/feedback.

Disclaimer: Smaato has been an MSG supporter.

I’ll follow up on those conversations next week. For now, all attention is focused on Mobile Advertising For The Masses, my new-release white paper timed to CTIA and an essential read for marketers who want to tap into mobile social networks (and the ad networks they provide) to drive positive results. This time I evaluate the analytics capabilities offered by three ad networks: BuzzCity (BuzzCity), itsmy.com (itsmy.biz), and Peperonity (AdMob). I also compare the depth and breadth of analysis they provide, and examine the need for an additional comprehensive mobile analytics package to connect the dots, fill in the gaps, and give me the big picture view of what my campaigns achieved and how I might use this insight to plan and target future campaigns.

It’s among my best work and worth the all-nighters during and since my stay in New York to put in the final finishing touches. I won’t go into the details here (for that you’ll have to download the free white paper), but I can say BuzzCity came out on top, allowing me to visibility into who my customers are (gender), where they are (location down to the U.S. state level), and handset make and model, for a start.

itsmy.com also allowed me to hone my campaign to target my key demographic, but outdated order and payment systems dampened my enthusiasm. Peperonity also had a few highpoints, but hasn’t quite reached its full potential.

I look forward to catch-calls and briefings with senior executives at both networks. My mobile advertising experiments cued me into some interesting features and functionality in the pipeline and I am anxious to learn more, insights into their ad networks, which  I’ll be sure to share on MSG.

BTW: I’m also pleased that I have been invited by Andrew Darling to speak on mobile advertising, social media and my key findings during Mobile Advertising & the Rise of Social Networking: What does it mean for Brands, Agencies and Service Providers?, a Knowledge & Networking Seminar organized by AIME, (The Association for Interactive Media and Entertainment) that will take place in London on April 2. (More details on the program and venue here.)

All attendees will receive copies of my two best practice white papers – “Mobile Advertising for Newbies” and “Mobile Advertising for the Masses.”

Speakers include:

• Nandi Gurprasad, VP of Alliances, Bango
• Matt Dicks, Commercial Director, Flirtomatic
• Dusan Hamlin, Joint Managing Director, Inside Mobile
• Mark Brill, Chairman Mobile Council, DMA
• Henry Stevens, Director of Media and Entertainment, GSMA

Key themes to be explored:

• Is advertising content?
• Brands in social media advertising – listen first, then join in the conversation.
• If social networks have become the new ‘water coolers’, incubating new micro audiences with differentiated tastes, what makes advertising too intrusive in this new environment?
• What’s the ‘next big thing’ in mobile advertising – mobile for the masses?
• Is it just about advertising messages? What kinds of mobile services suit mobile advertising?
• Measuring success and understanding how important targeting is. Which types of campaigns work?
• Are social networking services the ultimate channel for the ‘long tail’?
• What is ’social currency’ and how do you convert it into revenue?

As I illustrate in my white paper, mobile social networks have the inside track on their growing membership. Opt-in procedures, often requiring users to register and fill out detailed questionnaires, put mobile social networking companies in the enviable position of being able to not only collect valuable customer data, but also provide advertisers a breakdown of customer segments by gender, location, make and model of handset – and much more. It’s valuable information brands can harness to fine-tune and plan future campaigns.

But, as I show in my final analysis, you can do one better if you also employ a more comprehensive analytics solution to measure success, failure, and how well your campaign really achieved your business objectives.

A comprehensive analytics solution represents a perfect complement to the solutions provided by mobile social ad networks, giving advertisers a more holistic view of their customers and allowing them to answer the critical questions every advertiser and publisher needs to know: Who are my customers? What did they look at? Where did they come from? What were the results? Did community members convert to the campaign goals?

My take: To maximize results on a social networking site, it’s critical that advertisers follow these three principals.

• Make the most out of mobile analytics offered by both the ad network and an independent vendor such as Bango to match your marketing message/campaign with the community. Social networking sites generally require members to register, which raises the bar in terms of interest, motivation, and qualification. This puts your message in an environment where members are predisposed to relevant messages. In a best case scenario, people should view your marketing as an extension of their mobile experience, rather than spam.

• Consider virtual gifting and other schemes to provide something of value to users and their community. After all, the goal here is to encourage user interaction, cultivate a two-way conversation, and boost brand awareness. This is not an environment for marketing pitches and product-pushers. Success stories include Flirtomatic, a pioneer mobile flirting service with the ability to monetize mobile users through conversation with added fun and great content such as virtual flowers, chocolate, and kisses. The company recently extended its reach to enable members to give the objects of their affection real gifts including chocolate and sexy underwear.

• Participate actively in the community, and interact with members to build relationships and enable them to deepen their relationships with each other by providing tools that will let them do what they are there to do: Keep in touch with friends, connect with people who share their interests, and share content and feelings with the community. More importantly, keep in mind you don’t need whiz-bang technology to engage with members in a meaningful exchange about your brand. Text ads and banner display ads are a great way to start. Besides, they are going to be around with us for a while yet to come. The innovation is not in advertising formats, but how we use them.

In a market where two-way conversation is the end-goal, and where traffic on mobile social networking is on the rise, brands that lend their voice to the conversation wil most likely deliver their advertising message loud and clear.

Disclaimer: Bango is an MSG supporter.

Will 2009 be the year of mobile advertising? In Germany the question isn’t associated with market hype; it’s linked to the realization that the climate and conditions are right in Germany for mobile marketing to finally and formally take-off. Gone are many of the legal and business hurdles that have stifled ideas and innovation, paving the way for home-grown mobile marketing companies – such as MindMatics AG, Netbiscuits GmbH, Smaato Inc., and YOC AG – to take their place among international giants. This overview names companies and some interesting stats – thanks again to Mark (“Mr. Mobile”) Waechter, independent media consultant and head of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) in Germany.

Mobile World Congress (MWC) introduced me to some exciting German companies sure to leave their mark on mobile. Some (such as the amazing aki-aki) I met during my day judging the Mobile Peer Awards (the winner in the Emerging Startups category was Popcatcher, a Swedish company set to do for radio what TiVo did for TV). Others I connected with at the reception held by Smaato to announce the winner of the Smaato Mobile Advertising Award 2008 (which was DialPlus, by the way) and finalist companies: aka-aki, buzzd, Fishlabs, fring, FunkySexyCool, Peperoni, Qeep, Skout, TourSpot and Vayyoo.

I also had a deliciously disruptive discussion with Harald Neidhardt, Smaato CMO & Co-Founder, during which I also learned more about m.LOVE, a path-breaking group of “mobile passionistas” Harald has brought together to discuss the future of mobile and ways how “mobile advertising, mobile social communities and the society find solutions to be more engaging in the mobile media of the future.”

This dovetails quite well with the aims of Every Single One Of Us, so it’s no wonder that its founder, Jonathan MacDonald, has  joined their ranks. Likewise, MSG is also a passionate m.LOVE supporter, and I will use this platform to showcase the individuals and ideas driving this forward. Watch for the upcoming m.LOVE tour, a series of workshops bringing together people from all parts of the ecosystem spanning London, New York, Singapore, Barcelona, San Francisco, Hamburg, Milan, and Tokyo.

I was also pleased to meet Carsten Szameitat, managing director of 11 Prozent Communication, a company that organizes a number of cutting-edge industry events in Germany (such as M-Days, one speaking engagement I regrettably had to cancel). Carsten’s team also produces a comprehensive German-language industry newsletter. We share a vision to bring his publication to a larger audience, highlighting the companies and executives that rate a top-notch spot on your radar. I’m eager to connect with German companies for this and other projects, so please keep the pitches coming!

In the meantime, I have been commissioned by New Media Age (NMA) to provide readers news on industry trends and my pick of cool German companies. You can download the debut issue on the New Media Age website. I kicked off my string of contributions with a look at the German mobile advertising market, and an interview Mark (“Mr. Mobile”) Waechter, independent media consultant and head of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) in Germany. NMA printed a version quite different from the one I submitted, so allow me to share the complete Q&A here:

Q: Until now Germany has been the sleeping giant when it comes to mobile marketing. What has happened to wake the country and shake the market up?

A: We have made important progress in areas such as standards, guidelines, and definitions to make sure we are all on the same page and that we can all move the market forward.  For example, because of strict legislation that requires companies to mark advertising in a way that consumers can recognize it as advertising, we have agreed to recommend that advertising on a small mobile screen is simply marked with a “w”, standing for Werbung [German for advertisement]. There is very little space on a mobile screen and this is a solution that works. The next step is to quantify mobile marketing spending in Germany, numbers that are important to educate media buyers and the marketplace. It’s an on-going project because you need to have details on pricing, the total universe of inventory, and other statistics, but we are hoping to release figures in September.

Q: Can you offer a ball-park figure to give us a better idea of the size and potential of the German market?

A: The rough estimate for the market revenue is 400 million euros. Classical mobile direct response marketing, marketing that asks consumers to send an SMS to a short code or take a picture with their cameraphone to get more information or offers, accounts for the vast majority – some 80 percent -  of revenues. Mobile permission advertising campaigns – which are like the ones I just described except the brand proactively contacts consumers using their own database of contacts which they have bought or created – account for 15 percent. Finally, 5 percent of the total is mobile advertising, which we define as typical display and paid search advertising. The user receives and consumes content and somewhere they see advertising. In five years from now,  I expect that these numbers will have turned on their head, with mobile advertising accounting for the majority of revenues. In five years, I expect mobile marketing revenues in Germany will exceed 1.5 billion euros.

Q: What role will mobile operators play in helping brands achieve reach?

A: The next biggest project on our list is establishing metrics in what we call a gateway measurement approach – quite similar to what the major operators in the U.K. have formed. In Germany, we need a trust center, a neutral entity that will take data from all the operators, anonomize the data, and provide a view to what is going on with regards to the mobile Internet and mobile advertising. The GSMA endorses the plans to set this up in Germany – bringing together the four operators: T-Mobile, Vodafone, E-Plus and O2 — and it’s planned for September.

Disclaimer:  Smaato is an MSG supporter. MSG has partnered with Every Single One Of Us to conduct mobile advertising research in the U.K. and Gemany.