I am Helen Keegan, a veteran of mobile marketing, advertising and media since 2000. This is my diary and musings about mobile since 2004. I am part consultant and part events organiser in London, Barcelona & beyond (Swedish Beers & Heroes of the Mobile Fringe). I write here about mobile tech and media, and some other stuff too.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Off to Worcester for some R 'n R
Just wanted to wish all my friends, readers and fellow bloggers and mobilists a wonderful Christmas and a happy and successful New Year.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Rok's been busy launching Ansanow
There's been some debate about the relevance of these services with the advent of google and the mobile internet. I suppose the big difference is that 82ask (where you text your question to 82275), at least, has access to a load of paid-for information services that you just don't get access to on google or ansanow for that matter (AFAIK) so you can ask business questions about market share, financial results and so on. It also has a permanent team on the case who do this day in day out and now have solid experience in how to answer a difficult question in a text message. And anyway, if you're in the pub, and desperately need to know something, do you really want to be googling on your phone when you can just do it by text and carry on with your beer and your conversation?
Webby's go mobile
And then it all became clear when they announced there are 3 mobile categories this year for best mobile site that sell products and services: listings and updates, news and entertainment and the mobile marketplace. These are all sponsored by dotmobi.
You'd best be quick though if you want to enter - the deadline is this Friday 15th December and you can enter online and it costs USD 245 to enter a mobile site (with discounts for certain kinds of entrants) and looks like a fairly straightforward process.
Good luck!
Ever wondered about how to use myspace for promoting stuff?
What will mobile TV advertising look like?
They plan to experiment with all formats - video, banners, links, ticker texts, branded content as well as targeting according to age, gender, personal interests and location. So I wonder if they'll manage to work out that it's context not just location that matters when it comes to location based services - i.e. if I'm in Soho on a Tuesday morning, the chances are, I'm on my way to a meeting. If I'm there on a Friday evening, the chances are I'm having drinks or dinner with friends.
Definitely one to watch to see what results we see and what impact that has on the rest of the industry.
FT attracts youth with text campaign
If you accept the voucher, available via text message, you can get a free copy of the paper for two weeks. The voucher is validated through mobile phone top-up terminals and via e-pay.
This sounds great. Unfortunately, I don't have a Martin McColl newsagent anywhere nearby. So if any reader does pop by one of these newsagents, would they mind trying out the campaign and letting me know how it works please?
Neomedia sells off its subsidiaries
Coca Cola ventures into branding on mobile
Mobile news feeds from the BBC
They also want to hear from people who have created sites or services using the BBC's mobile feeds. So if you've seen, heard or created anything interesting, then get in touch with Lucie McLean.
Monday, December 04, 2006
It's Christmas and turkeys have gone mobile!
Qipit and Shozu team up
It's dead simple. You take a picture of your document with a digital camera or a cameraphone, you upload it to Qipit (with one click from your phone now that Shozu is integrated) and it turns the jpg into a user friendly pdf file which is emailed to you and you can share, print, store, whatever.
Sounds like a good way to back up documents electronically to me that didn't come in an electronic format in the first place (insurance, finance, contracts) and also to keep hold of meeting notes from whiteboards and the like. And what's more, the basic service is free.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
It's been a week for mobile awards...
Entry to the awards was open to the 400 members of the Forum Nokia PRO developer community, which range from start-up companies to established players.
The 2006 award winners were in six application categories - Games, Music, Imaging, Productivity, Enterprise and Branded Content - as well as 'Developer of the Year' and 'Innovator of the Year'.
The full list of winners of the 2006 Awards runs as follows:
Best Game Application: The Silhouette Game - Telcogames (UK)
Best Enterprise Application: ColorCAM(TM) - ColorZip (Singapore)
Best Imaging Application: WOWPix - Reallusion (US)
Best Music Application: MobiRadio - Idetic (US)
Best Productivity Application: SNAPin Self Service - SNAPin Software (US)
Best Branded Content Application: ShoZu - Cognima (UK)
Developer of the Year: Refresh Mobile - Mobizines
Innovator of the Year: SNAPin Software - SNAPin Self Service
Best use of mobile in customer acquisition: Peugeot 207 campaign by Marvellous
Best use of mobile in CRM: O2's 'yes please' campaign by Archibald Ingall Stretton
Best use of mobile in brand building: Robinson's 'Winbledon' campaign by Enpocket
Best example of mobile in customer service: TFL's 'Safer Travel at Night' service by Incentivated (a most worthy winner IMHO for the tangible results it has achieved)
Best new offering from a mobile services provider: Get Close to the Sugababes by Endemol
Most innovative use of mobile in marketing: Sony PS24 by 20/20 London
Mobile as a b2b tool: adidas Taylor Made by Sponge (there were no other shortlisted entrants for this category - nevertheless, it's a good campaign and deserved to win)
Best use of mobile and branded content: Vodafone Live Music by Enpocket (now forgive my cynicism, but isn't this just a rehash of T-Mobile's successful Streetgigs from 2005/6?)
Best use of mobile as part of an integrated campaign - NSPCC 'Speechless' by Angel
Best first-time advertiser on mobile: Canon's sponsorship of 3's WorldCup video by 4th Screen
Best insight and research into mobile: NSPCC 'Speechless' by Angel
Best use of mobile in events: O2 Wireless festival by MIG and O2
The MMA Outstanding Merit Award: Enpocket
The Grand Prix Award: Peugeot 207 by Marvellous
Interested in emerging trends in mobile?
In this first issue of et, you can find out about QR codes, see how a new technology recognises the end credits of a TV show and directs you to its mobile site, watch a commercial for RFID credit card phones in Japan and discover a new service that's a cross between Google Maps and Shozu.
To subscribe to receive future infopack by email every month, just send a blank email to etsubscribe [at] worldforumgroup [dot] com (remove the bits there that you don't need). They won't pass on your email to anyone else and you can unsubscribe at any time. It's well worth a read.
TextAid with Tom Baker
Not only that, but BT has created a whole new beat combo by bringing together Tom Baker and 1960s pop icons, The Kinks and recorded a new version of the band's number 1 'You Really Got Me' and it's all for charity. You can hear a preview and preorder the track at TextAid. The tune will be on sale officially on 7Digital, itunes and emusic from 18 December. The plan is to raise at least £100k for Shelter over the Christmas period.
I should add that the service doesn't work if you sent to a landline in Eire or if you send a text from a T-Mobile phone (why on earth not when they were one of the first, if not *the* first network to offer it??). You can still text from a T-Mobile phone but you get the standard voice service which is frankly pretty weird and don't get to play with Tom Baker's voice which is a real pity. Come on T-Mobile - sort it out!