Social Media Marketing » mobilegroove

Regular readers will recall that I am sharply focused on tools/technologies and companies providing personalization and recommendations solutions to mobile operators and content owners. My passion stems from my own ongoing research into content discovery and – more recently – work on a new report on mobile personalization and recommendation. (If you are a company in this space, then I invite you to contact me directly.)

10 MILLION PEOPLE IN BRITAIN GET ONLINE ON THEIR MOBILE PHONES, or 20 percent of those with handsets, says some new research from Nielsen. The firm also says that smartphone ownership increased by more than 10 percent over the last three months, with 6.2 million of the devices now in use in the UK

Judging from the high level of interest in social search-related companies and concepts - such as Taptu, abphone, and people-powered answers search from ChaCha - expressed by participants at conferences where I have spoken, I am confident social search is more than just another hot topic. In fact, this new breed of services, which combines mobile social networking fun and community with the utility of mobile search, potentially creates new forms of interaction and new opportunities for the delivery of relevant mobile advertising. Granted we aren't there yet, but there are some signposts that I believe mark the way. One start-up that that stands out is HeyStaks (www.heystaks.com). The company, based in University College Dublin, Ireland, was founded by Dr. Maurice Coyle and Dr. Peter Briggs, and is a spin-out from the research group of Prof. Barry Smyth, who is perhaps best known as co-founder and Chief Scientist of ChangingWorlds (now a Unit of Amdocs Interactive), a company that has pioneered personalization technology. I recently caught up with Barry for a guided tour of the service and an update on the company's mobile ambitions. I am also proud that Barry recently partnered with me to publish a series of thought leadership columns exclusively on MSG. Understandably, Barry took a break from the series (which kicked off with this exploration of the "hidden interaction costs" associated with surfing and exploring the mobile Internet) to develop his path-breaking HeyStaks service - now in Beta. But he'll be back soon with a typically cool column focused on the intelligent delivery of personalized content and advertising, so watch this space! What is the problem? As the company cleverly points out in the cartoon strip below, we waste a lot of time searching for things our peers are also searching for (or may already have found!). To make matters worse, we have a lot of trouble sharing what we find with people once we find it. A solution is to make search a social activity (and that goes double for mobile search, in my view) and provide people the tools to create and communicate the searches that matter to them most.

Between Mobile Advertising U.K and research and interviews I am conducting for MSG's own MobiAD World Focus project, I am sharply focused on finding answers to the "big questions" in mobile advertising. The obvious question (Where is the money?) came up during last week's European Mobile Media Conference in Prague. It's not an easy one to answer, but Jonathan MacDonald, an esteemed colleague who also has a long track record in advising companies on their mobile strategies, was up to the challenge. He turned the question around and showed in his presentation that the money is where it always was: With people we are best advised to stop treating as consumers. (You can view Jonathan's slide deck along with a few others here, thanks to Jan Rezab from HungryMobile.) So, how do we get our share of the money out there? Jonathan suggests companies position themselves closer to people and respect their requirement (particularly in the mobile space) for conversation - both with the brand and with their peers. In a nutshell: "Abandon control of communications and realize that advocacy is more powerful than you. Provide facilities and utilities for people to talk with each other and listen [to what they say]. The next step is about creating and co-creating experiences, products, and services that people value. Get that right and the way is clear to pursue a strategy that will ensure you get your share of the money. I won't give it all away here (and perhaps you'll have to attend Jonathan's upcoming mobile advertising workshop), but let's just say a big part of it is "creating things that are open, customizable, extensible, and share-able." Before you dismiss this as a warm-and-fuzzy approach, I recommend you read The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers, a must-read business book co-authored by C. K. Prahalad that has had a profound impact on my work. In this recent interview he further outlines how the role of the consumer (the individual!) has changed. "Traditionally, companies create products based on their market research and exchange that for a value. But it has changed now, with customers equally involved in solving the problem. Co-creation is not customization, but it is personalized." Prahalad doesn't specifically address mobile - an extremely personal device central to our lives - but it's easy to make a logical leap and conclude that people are likely to be more demanding of a say in personalizing a personal experience like receiving personalized content/advertising on a personal device. My point: Mobile is personal and mobile advertising (actually all communications from all companies) will have to at least offer people a say in their experiences. If they choose to be passive "consumers" then we have to let them make that choice themselves (as opposed to us making it for them). This brings me to the presentation from Mark Linder, Global Client Leader at WPP, a global advertising and communications agency. Mark focused on the other "big question" in the industry: What will have to happen for mobile advertising to really take off? He gave us a choice: 1) Mobile advertising will have to prove its effectiveness to the advertiser, and utility to the consumer or 2) Mobile advertising will have to prove its emotionality as an experience. Which do YOU choose?

Super-charged from a super week at ThinkMobile. With 450+ attendees, the inaugural event was a huge success, and a huge part of that is to the credit of Matthew Snyder - ThinkMobile Conference Chair and Founder, & CEO of ADObjects, a strategic cross-media consultancy - who brought together an eclectic mix of professionals and practitioners. I used the opportunity to connect with some cool companies and mobile pundits, so check back for a line-up of exclusive briefings and in-depth analyses, beginning with a podcast with Bob Rosenshein, Answer.com CEO. In our audio interview, we discuss what makes for an optimal mobile search experience, and talk in broad terms about the company's mobile strategy. Having just packed 100+ business cards and a stack of notebooks in my suitcase, it's going to be tough choosing whom to showcase next, but be assured I will pick the gems. My dear colleagues from bnetTV also covered the event, providing me the opportunity to do some impromptu interviews with Smaato, Nokia Interactive, David Berkowitz (Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy at digital marketing agency 360i), and Mobify, a start-up that gets publishers around the pain and expense of making a version of their website for mobile phones (and the iPhone) by enabling publishers to create "mobile views" of their existing destination. (I'll have more about the company, and an interview with Igor Faletski, Mobify CEO, in a special post that outlines the process in a how-to that results in an iPhone version of MSG.) A real highpoint of the conference: The chance to connect with Alan Moore, founding director of SMLXL (Small Medium Large XtraLarge), a specialist community and engagement marketing firm, and co-author of Social Media Marketing: How Data Analytics Helps to Monetize the User Base in Telecoms, Social Networks, Media and Advertising in a Converged Ecosystem. I'll deep-dive into this work in a future podcast, but in the meantime allow me to leave you with a key bullet point from Alan's presentation (and one that echoed across a string of post-session discussions): Advertising inventory as we know it is dead. Think about it.