NeuStar » mobilegroove

The positive response to my earlier recap of barcode milestones and reprint of my exclusive interview with Scanbuy, a major player in the space,

It's a busy next couple of days as I put the final finishing touches to my mobile advertising webinars. First is my contribution (together with Dusan Hamlin, Managing Director of the agency Inside Mobile) to Multi-Channel Advertising, a webinar taking place this Wednesday at 10:00 am CET (GMT +1:00), organized by Mobixell, a provider of a comprehensive range of mobile media solutions enabling service providers to deliver mobile messaging, mobile advertising, and mobile TV. (You can register here.) The webinar dovetails well with my mobile advertising projects, including Mobile Advertising Research U.K., a research project MSG has undertaken to expertly document the state of the mobile advertising industry in the U.K., identify growth opportunities in the emerging mobile advertising marketplace, and benefit stakeholders, shareholders, and consumers worldwide. It draws upon primary research, including in-depth interviews with 15+ mobile executives, agencies, and mobile networks, including an interview this week with Freddy Friedman, Mobixell Head of Advertising. With my MSG hat on I will also request a later briefing with Mobixell (for MSG) to discuss recent news, new customers, and the role of mobile in a multi-channel advertising strategy. I've also wrapped up my contribution to a series on audio-visual presentations on mobile advertising produced by Henry Stewart Talks (HST), which will likely go live in early June. HST, a company with a 35-year tradition, provides access to world class seminars by leading thinkers and authorities from around the globe in one online resource. The company commissioned me to summarize the findings of both volumes of my extremely popular mobile advertising white paper series (sponsored by Bango): Mobile Advertising for Newbies, which provides a how-to guide to mobile advertising and analytics; and Mobile Advertising For The Masses, which examines the market opportunity for running campaigns in a mobile social networks. I am pleased to have the opportunity (as part of HST's Marketing & Management series) to educate the marketplace about mobile advertising and the pivotal role of mobile analytics.

Back as promised with an exclusive podcast to connect the dots in the recent raft of announcements and get the inside track on Scanbuy strategy. Indeed, there are a lot of open questions since Scanbuy, a leader in mobile marketing solutions based on barcodes, surprised the industry in early April with the decision to make the specs for the company's proprietary EZcode 2D barcode symbology "globally available." What does this really mean and what structures will Scanbuy put in place to see this through? These are just a few of the questions I explore with Jonathan Bulkeley, Scanbuy CEO. (Personal thanks to David Javitch, Scanbuy VP of Marketing, for streamlining my request and arranging the podcast, the first such in-depth interview since the announcement.) To fully understand the significance of Scanbuy's decision, it's important to review the events and announcements that have effectively dealt companies up and down the mobile barcode business ecosystem (Scanbuy included) a new hand of cards. First came the decision in February by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to re-examine the patent claims filed by NeoMedia Technologies, a provider of barcode scanning solutions. The move prompted NeoMedia to push forward in March on a patent licensing program and tie up with other vendors (3GVision, Mobile Discovery, Mobile Tag, and NeuStar) in a pilot program based on open standards in a bid to show interoperability between the technologies out there and - more importantly - position NeuStar, a short code registry, as a central clearinghouse in the middle. More about this model and Jonathan's own take in the podcast.