Mobile Groove

VODAFONE OPENS: On Tuesday Vodafone announced that it will stimulate a new generation of mobile Internet applications by providing Internet service developers with a single point of access to their global customer base. With direct access to Vodafone’s billing system and controlled access to other network capabilities such as location awareness, content partners will be able to reach all customers on mobile devices.

Conducted through the global Joint Innovation Lab (JIL), which also includes Verizon Wireless, the initiative is designed to help developers create widgets for an audience of up to one billion customers across the four JIL partner networks.

This has been widely heralded as Vodafone’s venture into the app store market. Only after the APIs are released to developers will it be any easier to tell if Vodafone has a good chance of emulating the success of Apple’s original. (Source)

The bottom line: Betavine, Vodafone’s open source developer community will also need to play a key role in feeding out information and supporting developers.

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VODAFONE MOBILE AD RESULTS: Vodafone announced on Wednesday that it had fulfilled its ambition to open up mobile advertising services to 18 operating company markets in the last 18 months. It says strong revenue growth from mobile advertising services was experienced during 2008/9, and it plans to continue the roll out, expanding the type of mobile advertising services and their reach.

Over the last year Vodafone Marketing Solutions has run over 2000 campaigns across its global footprint for hundreds of global brands. These brands are enjoying considerable success with mobile banner campaigns and newer mobile advertising formats such as branded content, sponsored alerts, opt-in push messaging and advertising on service based text message, according to Vodafone.

Vodafone says it will continue to invest in its advertising offering over the coming year by adding to its global reach through affiliates and partners “including operators such as Mobilkom, Proximus, Vodacom, and China Mobile” and by seeking to extend the number, type and effectiveness of its advertising service portfolio. (Source)

The bottom line: These developments in mobile advertising can only be good for a still nascent, yet evidently burgeoning market with many new technologies to explore. As the technologies and partnerships develop, together with mobile Internet usage and penetration of sophisticated handsets, so will the numbers exposed to mobile advertising.

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ORANGE TRAFFIC: Orange revealed record mobile Internet traffic

You know the specter of the downturn has hit mobile when a super power like Google claims it can’t attend participate in industry events because of budget constraints.

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!)

The press release goes out on the wire tomorrow a.m. (I’m personally distributing it via MSG partner RealWire), but my colleagues have allowed me a little scoop on this one. Every Single One Of Us, a global effort aggregating knowledge, and authorizing best practice and methodologies that ensure optimal mobile advertising user experience, is kicking off the Mobile Advertising U.K. research project, which I’m proud to report also has the endorsement of three leading global mobile marketing organizations: The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK) and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

Following an RFP (Request For Proposal), MSG was selected from among five research and consulting companies to take the lead role in Mobile Advertising U.K., conducting in-depth primary and secondary research — including one-on-one interviews with 25+ executives at a mix of agencies, enablers, and operators in the U.K. — as well as online and mobile surveys of U.K. consumers. This ambitious and far-reaching project will be coordinated by ÆNEAS Strategy Consulting and Management, an international consultancy firm founded by my esteemed colleague Tarik Fawzi that has driven the development of innovative mobile advertising strategies on behalf of players in the emerging business ecosystem since 2004.

Our research will be the first such project to include the views of both advertisers and consumers, thus providing the industry qualitative and quantitative insights into trends and attitudes. As we point out in the chart below, which shows the USPs of a range of mobile advertising research, our collaboration will quite literally set the bar.