However, smart companies know that a sluggish economy spell opportunity for businesses that know how to move forward when the economy is standing still. Indeed, the doom-and-gloom mood hasn’t stopped 50+ industry heavyweights from around the world from meeting in London in June for an executive brainstorm about the future profit opportunities in an open mobile world.

I am reminded of the recent MSG podcast with Tom Huseby, Managing Partner, SeaPoint Ventures, and his observation that there is plenty of money and opportunity in mobile, but it’s up to entrepreneurs to structure their good ideas so VCs get it. Mobile has enjoyed an exceptionally high growth trajectory and even the credit crunch can’t discourage VCs from investing. “On the whole, venture capitalists have not run out of money. The bars are high and it’s difficult, but my gosh, my advice to entrepreneurs is keep working on your idea until it does appeal to the money, or don’t use the money to do it.” What has VCs excited? Open systems, open storefronts and open operators – and lots of apps.

Against this backdrop, the timing couldn’t be better for an industry event sharply focused on what open is (and isn’t). Yes, it’s about new and increasingly open business ecosystems (where mobile operators can still play a central role provided they play according to the new rules). But open means much more. It’s about the convergence of platforms and devices to blur the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds, and transform communication, content, advertising, search and retail.

More importantly, open is about the shift from command-control to coordinate-cultivate, a seismic shift in how we do business and make money.

How do we get there from here? What models are sustainable and which are hype? There are no easy answers. However, the Open Mobile Summit (June 10-11 in London), produced by Robin Batt, an independent consultant with 13 years experience in the space, certainly covers all the bases to offer attendees insights that will allow them to take charge of the wave of change rather than be crashed by it. (In fact, even Google is attending!)

I was so impressed by the line-up of topics and top-notch speakers that I immediately signed on to be a premiere media sponsor and moderate the session on mobile advertising. I am pleased to report I now have 5 heavily discount passes to share with readers at just £995, valid until 26 May. VIP code: MSG. Register here http://www.openmobilesummit.com

The Open Mobile Summit, like the emerging value chain it represents, brings together world-class speakers from mobile operators, handset OEMs, wireless software houses, and Internet and applications companies, to explore how to profit in an open mobile economy. I hope you will join me and senior executives from T-Mobile, Vodafone, TeliaSonera, O2, Google, Nokia, Yahoo, RIM, Acer, LG, Motorola, and Symbian – plus a mix of VCs and industry analysts at this powerful cross-industry networking event.

The Open Mobile Summit provides an executive summary on all the key strategic developments – and growth areas – in mobile today. Including:

• App Stores: Fad or Future?
• Who will own the mobile desktop?
• Beyond the phone
• Internet vs made-for mobile
• Future of the Operator Deck
• Inter-connected Entertainment
• Mobile Advertising
• Where’s the value in open mobile
• How to monetize mobile Internet
• Open APIs and Smart Pipes

Full agenda here http://www.openmobilesummit.com/agenda.aspx

Speakers include:

Operators:

• Christopher Schläffer, Group Product & Innovation Officer, Deutsche Telekom * Keynote Speaker
• Kenneth Karlberg, President Business Area Mobility Services, TeliaSonera * Keynote Speaker
• Yves Maitre, SVP Devices, Orange
• Dr Mike Short, Vice President R&D, Telefonica O2 Europe
• Hossein Moiin, Fellow Mobility, British Telecom
• Tanya Field, Director, Mobile Data Group, Telefonica O2
• Pieter Knook, Director Internet Services, Vodafone
• Ed Candy, Former CTO, 3
• Nabeel Mardi, VP Device Development, T-Mobile International
• Christiane Vejlø, Head of Innovation, 3 Denmark
• Chris Bruce, GM, BT Openzone
• Geraldine Wilson, CEO, Truphone
• Martin Wrigley, Director Technology, Orange

Devices:

• Alan Brenner, SVP, RIM * Keynote Speaker
• Christy Wyatt, Vice President, Software Platforms and Ecosystem, Motorola * Keynote Speaker
• Aymer de Lencquesaing, Senior Corporate VP, Acer
• Marco Argenti, VP Media, Nokia
• Jin-Sung Choi, VP Mobile Communications, LG Electronics
• Jon ‘maddog’ Hall, Chief Advocate, openmoko

Internet / Applications:

• Hugo Barra, Global Director Mobile Applications, Google
• Mitch Lazar, MD, Yahoo! Mobile, Europe
• Frank Keeling, MD Europe, Glu Mobile
• Steve Ives, CEO, Taptu
• Ray Anderson, CEO, Bango
• Paran Johar, CMO, JumpTap
• Ted Wugofski, CTO, Handmark
• Russell Buckley, VP Alliances Admob / Chair MMA
• Ilja Laurs, CEO, GetJar
• Jakob Berg, CEO, Popcatcher
• Rob Lewis, CEO, Omnifone
• Sean Kane, Head of Mobile, Bebo Inc

Software and Silicon:

• Lee Williams, Executive Director, Symbian Foundation * Keynote Speaker
• Morgan Gillis, Executive Director, LiMo Foundation
• Kiyo Oishi, CEO, Access Systems * Keynote Speaker
• Rich Green, former EVP, Sun Microsystems
• Jon S von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera
• Jay Sullivan, VP, Mozilla Foundation
• Enrico Salvatori, SVP & GM, Qualcomm Europe
• Gil Rosen, Vice President – Strategic Initiatives & Customer Experience, Amdocs Interactive

Analysts and Organizations:

• Henry Stevens, Entertainment and Media Director, GSMA
• Philipp Diebert, Executive Program Manager, NGMN
• Tim Raby, MD, OMTP
• Mike Grant, Partner, Analysys Mason
• Matt Hatton, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason
• Caroline Gabriel, Rethink Research
• Simon Torrance, CEO, STL Partners / Telco 2.0
• Philipp Hoschka, Deputy Director, w3c
• Peggy Salz, Editor, MSearchGroove
• Ajit Jaokar, Founder, Futuretext
• Stewart Anderton, Principal Consultant, Ovum
• Robert Andrews, Editor, paidContent:UK

Content / Media / Agency:

• Christian Lindholm, Partner, Fjord
• Scott Seaborn, Head of Mobile, Ogilvy Group UK
• Sunil Gundeira, VP Mobile, Disney EMEA
• Barney Wragg, Independent Media Consultant
• Rob Unsworth, VP, Digital Chocolate

Investment community:

• Rajeev Chand, Managing Director Wireless, Rutberg & Co
• Rod Hall, Executive Director European Comms, JP Morgan
• Kaj-Erik Relander, Partner, Accel Partners
• James Enck, Senior Partner, mCapital

I hope to see you there, and if you want to catch-up or meet-up, then please reach out to me at peggy@msearchgroove.com – or schedule a slot with my PA Andrea Henninge (andrea@msearchgroove.com).

To be clear: I am not blaming any one ad network. Realistically, it’s early days and we have to crawl, walk, run. However, companies with far less passion for the industry than I will no doubt soon lose patience with trial-and-error ad targeting.

(On a personal note, using referral data from a recent banner ad campaign offering a Body Mass Index calculator for free download I discovered the ad was showing up on a range of irrelevant sites focused on topics ranging from MP3s to “chat with hot girls.” My own intellectual curiosity is boundless and I believe serendipity is a must-have element in our lives (an observation proven by the fact that visitors to the hot chat site did indeed click on my BMI offer). However, are you willing to bet your ad budget on the off chance that someone interested in hot chat will click through to check if they are overweight? Fat chance (no pun intended).

No wonder targeting is the new mobile business mantra. From here on expect a new emphasis on quality and not quantity in mobile advertising. JumpTap, a mobile search and advertising company, has another one to add: Exclusivity. In the pre-holiday hectic, JumpTap took the wraps off what it calls a Premium Ad Network. In comparison to “typical ad networks,” JumpTap tells us that media buys across the JumpTap Premium Ad Network of premium mobile channels (including ten different audience segmented packages including entertainment, finance, news, reference, sports, lifestyle, social networking, travel, and games) elicits “higher engagement and a higher return on investment.” The logic at play here: Branded content sites have a greater impact on key metrics such as increased CTRs, brand awareness and purchase intent than generic mobile ad networks. Translated: Big brands draw big interest.

By way of background, JumpTap has third-party exclusives with content publishers including NBC.com, BravoTV.com, SCIFI.com, astrology.com, E! Online, Currency, Citizen Sports (Sportacular),LimeLife, ScoreMobile iPhone Edition, SportsTap, Showtimes, and Sudoku (Free). Other more recent additions to the JumpTap Premium Mobile Ad Network also include: media companies MSNBC, NBA, AOL, Ask.com, Fox News & Business, and Kargo (includes MotorTrend, Tiger Beat, Shape, US Magazine); mobile content companies Hands-On Mobile, MocoSpace, and Verve Wireless; and iPhone web and client applications including AroundMe, BlackBook, Loopt, Mobile News Network Powered by AP, Shazam, and SnapMyLife.

At the other end of the spectrum, JumpTap launched ADtap for Publishers, a solution that provides mobile publishers, media companies and iPhone application developers a means to monetize their traffic and streamline sales to brands and agencies (companies in the JumpTap Premium Mobile Ad Network). JumpTap also now provides the full outsourcing of mobile advertising operations for early-stage publishers to monetize their impressions. Partner programs allow publishers access to reciprocal remnant advertising across other member sites as a means to increase visibility and drive traffic. Finally, ADtap can integrate and manage multiple third-party ad networks for high-volume publishers seeking to backfill remnant inventory.

To round out the offer JumpTap has formally rebranded its mobile advertising engine (targeting technology JumpTap discussed with MSG here) as tapLink, a platform that builds targeting intelligence from multiple sources including search queries, browsing history, demographic and location data. Read between the lines and JumpTap has put together a capabilities mix to deliver targeted ads and drive higher yields. Relevant ads tied to content that rocks – makes sense…

But what does this shift tell us about JumpTap? Is it a mobile search company or an ad network? Is JumpTap going strong in Europe? These are some of the questions I explored in a briefing with Paran Johar, JumpTap CMO. (Thanks again to Julie Ginches at JumpTap who has a perfect track record in arranging briefings for me with JumpTap execs.)

Q: Let’s start with Denmark, where you are exclusively handling the mobile advertising inventory for 3 there. How does this impact your footprint there?

A: As you know, we’re working with 3 and we’re working with TeliaSonera. I think this is a real testament to what’s happening in the mobile operator environment. More operators are recognising that – as they reinvent themselves – they need to become more media- centric and they need to partner with companies that can empower them to make that transformation . Someone whose interests are clearly aligned with theirs and can help them develop their own mobile ad revenue streams.

Q: You’re in charge of inventory. But where does mobile search fit in here? At conferences people ask me: Is JumpTap still a search provider – so I’ll put the question to you…

A: We’ve evolved. Our core business is mobile advertising, both premium and performance. The key differentiators are our premium mobile ad network and performance marketplace both of which continue to grow globally and remember the mobile ad network could include on- or off-deck, meaning it could be publisher inventory or it could be carrier inventory .  Second is our unique targeting abilities – this is where our search heritage comes into play as keyword search and query data helps fuel more effective and targeted advertising but it goes beyond that –  by tapping numerous other information feeds. And then there’s the full array of Publisher, Advertiser and Operator solutions and services that make it easy for partners to monetize their assets.

Q: So, clearly intertwined?

A: Yes. So, with 3 Denmark, we are representing their mobile ad display inventory.  In the case of TeliaSonera, we do white label search and we monetize display advertising for them.

Q: So you both a search company and an advertising company? You’ve not left one for the other?

A: We’re trying to bring it full circle here, everyone knows about our white label search heritageWe’ve launched the Premium Mobile Ad Network, and obviously the monetization and targeting platform, tapLink, which is really the engine that helps monetise publisher’s inventory to a higher level and possesses the targeting intelligence to delivers the relevant ads. So, if you think about it, the publisher gets a higher effective CPM because now they have a much more targeted audience. The advertiser gets targeted audiences, so their dollars are being wasted less. And the user gets a better experience because they’re not being spammed with ads irrelevant to their interests.

Q: Who are your competitors now that you are evolving into an ad network?

A: We compete with Google and Yahoo. And both sit at that intersection. They both have search and advertising. Google has it with the acquisition of Double Click and certainly Yahoo has a display product. Many of our operators, many of our partners, started with search but it has evolved into a dual relationship [search and advertising]. There are the pure play generic ad networks out there but their targeting capabilities are so rudimentary, we don’t think they’ll be around for the long run.

Q: Is your value-ad the white label neutrality you bring to the table or the exclusives with content companies. Do you get more mileage out of search or advertising?

A: First, an observation about the marketplace, because it’s also evolving. It really is the most aggressive we’ve seen and we’re seeing more that operators want a white label search solution provider who can actually take their carrier data, monetize it and provide a branded experience for their customer base.  Operators can concede that business completely [to branded search providers], but they still need a platform like tapLink which sits at a totally different layer in the stack, to utilize and protect the data necessary to deliver targeted ads.  That same evolution holds for the ad display network business as well.

Back to your other question. Our business is mobile advertising.  I think what this says is that more operators are beginning to understand that they need help to reinvent themselves as a media-centric organisations, and they recognize that a carrier-friendly solution like JumpTap is critical in that reinvention.  They know and trust us from the earlier white label search partnerships and we’ve also proven our advertising solutions with some of the largest and most recognized carriers in the industry.

Q: How are you helping operators get reach?

In Denmark we’re allowing them to participate in our premium mobile ad network as opposed to some of the ad networks that just really focus on mass reach and billions and billions of impressions.  Our approach is premium content plus targeting builds relevancy which leads to user engagement.  It is really getting premium content providers. Whether that’s an operator, a publisher or an application developer, those are all forms of content. If you add that content to relevant targeting, users will engage more.  We’re the only ones out there right now really focusing on getting the content, adding on the targeting premise to build a relevancy so the consumer doesn’t get a generic ad. They get what is relevant.

Q: Are you saying you won’t show an ad if you don’t have the right ad to match a query?

A: We may choose not to show one, or we may show one the publisher chooses to show. Different publishers and operators are going to have different rules. If we don’t have a relevant ad, there might be times they [publishers] may show a house ad.

Q: Can you share some stats? Your recent press release states: “Of 2.3 billion total available monthly impressions, the JumpTap Premium Mobile Ad Network attracts more than 26 million unique users with over 450 million premium page views per month. The iPhone, which has experienced rapid growth across JumpTap’s ad network, offers over 260 million monthly premium impressions.”

A: I think the key here is really bringing together consumer interest to provide a high level of engagement in a premium content network.  We did do a study some time ago in Scandinavia which showed the increase in brand metrics of our network. In general, our click rates are above industry average. Certainly, I don’t know what our competitor click-through rates are, but we’re seeing [CTR] rates ranging from 2 – 15 percent, which is certainly high within the overall mobile advertising eco system.

Q: Why are you focused on exclusive deals with content companies in the pipeline?

A: The volume that we’re doing on the Premium Ad Network is 300 million premium page views per month. I think exclusive is very important because, if you’re a media buyer and you have four of five different ad networks selling your inventory, that just commoditizes it. Why? Because if I know that five ad networks are selling it, I’ll just call each and every one of them until I get the best price. So, we focus on exclusive relationships. In the platform I talked about [tapLink] it’s about taking input from multiple sources –  it could be search word query data, it could be browsing history, demographic information or location data –  whatever is passed to us from an operator or another publisher, to build relevancy.

NOTE: After the briefing Paran told me more exclusive deals are in the pipeline. He promised to let me in on the news early, so please check back.

Disclaimer: Maria Sanchez is an employee of Bango, an MSG supporter; JumpTap has sponsored an MSG podcast series.