In addition to determining destiny, there were boat rides. And rumored strange tweets from the buffet tables.
Doug Madey and I attended the conference. Here are some of the highlights from our Twitter feeds:
Who are you?
A big underlying theme at the conference — and in mobile in general — is the same old question, “Who is the mobile consumer?” Eric Bader, the Chief Strategy Officer at Initiative Worldwide, says mobile needs to remember that the consumers are mobile, not just the device, technology and platform. It’s about the people!
And these people mostly want to use their mobile phone to help them buy stuff in stores. So much for looking around for a salesman. Consumer research also shows that the first thing people do after leaving the gym is check their connections (email, Facebook) via their mobile device.
Industry Internals
Jeff Litvack with Associated Press showed a real iAd in his company’s news app, AP Mobile. Much cooler than we expected.
Jeremy Lockhorn of Razorfish reminded everyone that interactive is better. He showed an awesome example of an interactive ad from the 1950s and linked it to the consumption shift mobile has created.
Mobile Marketing Association’s Managing Director for North America Michael Becker claims that mobile is not just a channel, but a life necessity in many parts of the world. He showed some great examples of how mobile is integrated into life, death, sex, and spirituality.
P.S. Chasing the digital budget for a mobile or social carve out is nuts. Digital budgets are emaciated enough.
SMS/MMS Matters
What’s the biggest hold up for targeted SMS? Carrier costs. It seems that few consumers are excited about giving up one of their monthly texts in exchange for receiving a promo or coupon or anything from a company. Can’t say we disagree with them. As card-carrying members of Gen Y, we’ve yet to sign up for SMS/MMS promos…that is, knowingly sign up.
A challenge to the creatives: Give us a reason, and we’ll sign up!
Other Odds and Ends
Mobile flash. It’s the only reason I ever have to pull the battery on my Android phone. Come on Adobe! Can’t you figure this out EVER?
But batteries are not the biggest worry for Mike Bloxham of Ball State’s media lab. He says, “If battery life is the elephant in the room, then privacy is the T-Rex in the bed.” He says it’s time to understand consumer desire for comfort, and, presumably, time to change the bed sheets. Keep your T-Rex arms to yourself!
Toot Our Own Foghorn
We had an incredible awareness opportunity when the conference had to cancel our cocktail party because of high winds. So, to make nice, they gave Webtrends the sunset boat cruise!
Cage-match Mobile: It was full of VIP marketers, pundits and industry types all trapped on a boat. Big thanks to all the gods of wind: Aeolus, Fujin, Njord, Pazuzu, and that whole crew. Free Sperry Top-Siders for everyone next year!
P.S. Parting Shot
Lobster reviews? Dishing on the mac and cheese? Rumor had it there was a culinary spy crashing this conference, tweeting about the food he was inhaling at the buffet tables.
We didn’t see anyone doing (gulp) anything like that when (bite) we were there, but (chew, chew) the thought that anyone would go to the confer (crunch) ence just to tweet about the food is so (burp, urp) unprofessional.
Keine Kommunikationsobjekte vorhanden.
