Yankee Group's cousin, TrendsMedia, is putting on an important Mobile Industry conference this week in Boston - Mobile Internet World. Important because this event (like VON/VOIP/Video last week) is about the current real business going on ... infrastructure - the boring stuff that makes all the fun social marketing possible.
Here is a start of my assessment as I sit in presentations by visionaries like Tim Berners-Lee of the W3C talking about keeping the mobile platform open (yes, more important boring stuff like Standards).
Google's Android and "Open Handset Alliance" was unveiled at MomoBoston by David Carson and Alan Blount. Supported by Nokia's Franklin Davis. Is it a YAP (Yet Another Platform) or THE other platform!?
The other above shot is from an informative panel (about the fun stuff) with the help of MITX called "Mobile Social Networking Panel - The Next Revolution in 24/7 Personal Broadband Engagement"
With:
Boyd Peterson - SVP of Consumer Research Yankee Group
Keith Erskine - Founder Padpaw, Inc.
Ben Keighran - CEO Bluepulse
Justin Siegel - CEO MocoSpace
Antonio Vince Staybl - CEO and itsmy.com
Here are a few key points:
- Business models are still TBD. People won't pay for applications and services (the answer lies in mining your own data for consumer desires and solutions).
- Mobile service growth is hard. Have a web-based agenda/partner to capture people at their computer.
- "Conversational Marketing" is a good term to throw around
- "Back Channel" marketing is going to be big (sponsored up/downloads and later usage including data analysis of activity)
- A Mobile participant is more connected than online (they are out there interacting)
- Verizon is still a pain. Sprint and Boost are less so
- Who will take the unfilled throne as the top Creative Mobile Agency...?
Go here to see this 4:00 video on how MOVO used its mobille community campaign platform for Isobar's Adidas event.
For interesting event marketing, check out Canada-based LiveHive's "nano-gaming" platform. Very cool at sporting events in the arena...
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