Comverse » mobilegroove

EDITOR'S NOTE: While many may have gone gaga over the iPad, this must-read article (via The New York Times) reminds us the real (and global) excitement is still about no-frills mobile phones and text messaging. In fact, I'm off to London tomorrow for a mobile advertising solution launch designed and commercialized to harness text and picture messaging in a two-way conversation between brands and people (aptly called Dialogue). Meantime, several sessions during the MMA Mobile Market Forum this week in Singapore also focus on the importance of messaging to deliver compelling mobile marketing. Connect the dots, mobile is becoming the universal technology (to borrow from the NYT piece). Eliza gives us a roundup of stats that drive this home. Good catch girl!

NOT JUST ADVERTISING: What do people want from mobile messaging services? According to research conducted by Dialogue Communications, people are warming up to the idea of receiving SMS-based appointment reminders. The website is thin on methodology (how many were asked what), but 67 percent of respondents said they would be happy to receive a wide range of reminders and alerts via their mobile phone. Source

The last several days have been sharply focused on mobile advertising, beginning with the Mobile Marketing Forum in Berlin (an extremely worthwhile event that highlighted how brands such as Nike, Coke and P&G are benefiting from pragmatic approaches to mobile advertising) and continuing today and tomorrow with the Comverse HUB Value Added Services Seminar in Budapest. (By way of background, Comverse HUB is a synergistic framework of Value Added Services, comprised of four product families - Voice, Messaging, Mobile Internet and Mobile Advertising.) I am honored that Comverse has asked me to speak on the key findings of Mobile Advertising Research UK, a research project research endorsed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), to expertly document the state of the mobile advertising industry in the U.K. and identify growth opportunities in the emerging mobile advertising marketplace. I'll be back later this week with a summary of the key takeaways from the Mobile Marketing Forum (including some eye-opening brand case studies and results that set the bar – literally). I'll also have some highlights from the Comverse event (where I join speakers from companies including Orange-FT Group, Kyivstar Ukraine, Vodafone Italy, and MegaFon Russia, as well as Jonathan MacDonald, a mobile advertising authority/consultant and Managing Director of Jonathan MacDonald Associates). For readers who may not be familiar with the Mobile Advertising Research U.K. project allow me to outline the top level findings I will also share with delegates at today's event.

Back from Mobile Advertising UK (Twitter feed: #maduk) in London with new and practical insights into mobile advertising and extremely positive feedback on my report findings. Regular readers will recall that MSG was commissioned to conduct Mobile Advertising UK, a research project research endorsed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), to expertly document the state of the mobile advertising industry in the U.K. and identify growth opportunities in the emerging mobile advertising marketplace. The report - which combines valuable consumer insights gathered by ÆNEAS Strategy Consulting and Management (coordinated by my esteemed colleagues Tarik Fawzi and Atva van Zanten) and qualitative research based on 20+ interviews with operators, enablers, agencies, and brands contributed by MSG - will be formally released in July. Pricing is GBP 2,999 ($4,866) for the report. 500 GBP discount for MMA and IAB members, and people who attended the event. For more information, email James Cameron (james@camerjam.com) or call +44 7940 749874. And while we're at it: A huge around of applause for James, long-time MSG friend and supporter, whose Camerjam Events company successfully brought together 130+ professionals and pundits at this inaugural event sure to spread to other countries soon! In the meantime, allow me to share some of the key findings and data points based on an online survey of 1,000+ UK mobile users. (And please follow along in the complete presentation below via SlideShare, and listen in to this audio interview (supported by the iPhone blogging app Audio Boo) via The Really Mobile Project, where I put some of the stats into perspective.)