160 Characters brings you the Global Messaging Awards 2010

I’m so pleased to be able to write this blog post. For a while there, a few months back, it looked like 160 Characters had shut up shop and turned its back on the mobile world. I’m very pleased to say, that due to popular demand, Mike Grenville has reopened the shop. And even better, he’s running the Global Messaging Awards again this year. And I’m very happy to be a judge again.

So without further ado, I’m pleased to tell you that the Global Messaging Awards are now open for entries until 31st May 2010.  If you enter before 28 April, it’s £95 to enter, between 29th April and 17th May, it’s £145 to enter and after that until the closing date, it’s £245. So get your skates on if you’d like to take advantage of the early bird entry fees.

With ten different categories of awards this year, anyone involved in the messaging community will find something that they can enter. To enter just visit the awards web site awards.160characters.org, choose the right category and complete the form. The 2010 categories are:

• Messaging Infrastructure or Platform
• Messaging Application or Service: Public Sector
• Messaging Application: Business
• Messaging Application: Consumer
• Innovation in Messaging
• Best new Marketing Campaign Using Messaging
• Mobile Financial Services Solution
• Messaging Application or Service: Social Use
• Effective Use of Mobile Ticketing
• Telematics/Telemetry/M2M Messaging

I’m particularly interested to see what the entries will look like for the ‘Best New Marketing Campaign using Messaging’ and the best Consumer Messaging Application.

SMS is still alive and kicking and is still on the increase. It seems that with each new mobile technology that’s adopted, the volume of messaging just increases. Which is fantastic news. It might not be the sexiest technology out there, but it’s very convenient and it works on every phone. I think there’s a lot of mileage yet in SMS based services and marketing. And no, I’m not talking about sending bulk SMS advertising – I’m talking intelligent use of SMS. Let’s see who enters!

Not every mobile user is able or wants to access an App Store and the savvy mobile companies realise that to reach out to the mass market text messaging is still the way to go. Whether it is to offer bank account updates; to pay for content; to allow machines to ‘talk’ to machines; or to deliver business messages to your team or customers - SMS is the method of choice. And that doesn’t include the messages sent to friends and family.

In fact, the Mobile Data Association recently reported that the UK sent an average of 11million messages every hour - an increase of 23% on 2008 and an increase of 70% in just two years.

This year’s awards are once again organised by 160 Characters and the awards ceremony will be held during Informa’s Global Messaging Congress, held at the Victoria Park Plaza Hotel in London.

The panel of judges will be headed up by Mike Grenville, CEO of 160 Characters and is made up of industry experts who all have experience of how to put SMS to best use.

The final closing date for entries is 31st May 2010.

More information on the awards can be found here - awards.160characters.org

Technorati Tags: messaging,sms marketing,sms,global messaging congress,global messaging awards,awards,160characters

Tuesday linkage

It is Tuesday right? And it is March already (how did that happen)? So it must be time for some links.

This is an interesting post from the Admob blog about iphone advertisers best practice. I would say that quite a few of those tips and hints are relevant for anyone doing stuff in mobile advertising. It’s not exactly rocket science (but then mobile advertising isn’t) but it’s good to be reminded of the simple stuff every now and then. And this is a great checklist.

Bango is also running an interesting experiment in running a mobile website, Mobislim. They have a real mobile website set up and are sharing all the analytics, results, learnings and more with their audience in a blog format. If you are a mobile webmaster looking to commercialise your offering, this is well worth keeping an eye on.

If stats are your thing then have a look at MSearchGroove’s post covering stats around mobile web traffic, mobile search and advertising. Peggy Anne Salz has some interesting insight and links to share.

There was a little flurry of excitement about Process Away recently and their iphone App. Agreed, it looks really good and looks like a great solution to be able to take payments at your live event without a huge investment in hardware, software, wifi and the rest. That I don’t doubt. But who are they and why would I trust them with my money? And even looking at the FAQs, that doesn’t reassure me much. Seeing as folks making business decisions about technology are very often  not technologists, the technology jargon about security is meaningless. Some explanation of who you are, some reassurance that customer’s money is safe, some reassurance of how the service is underwritten and this could be a real goer. Or am I being a curmudgeon here?

I’ve been asked to be a judge for 2009’s Mobile Messaging Awards which is very exciting. Get those entries in! I’m also judging this year’s Webby Awards… still very North American in its focus which is a shame as I firmly believe there is mobile talent beyond those shores. I guess there’s always next year to enter…

Technorati Tags: links,mobile,statistics,m-commerce,m-payments,m-retail,m-transactions,awards,160characters,mobile web,mobile internet,admob,mobile advertising,iphone

The Implications of the New Gambling Act - seminar 25th July

NOC and 160 Characters have joined forces to put on an event to discuss the implications of the new Gambling Act. This has implications for the way quizzes and competitions are devised and managed on television, but it also has implications for sales promotion quizzes and competitions too and how those are handled. NOC has brought together a variety of speakers (and delegates) to discuss the impact on the service providers in this sector and to assess the future landscape of this currently lucrative industry sector after the Gambling Act comes into force in September 2007. There are new compliance and regulatory rules to consider and if you are active, or considering being active in this sector, then this seminar is probably well worth a look.

The seminar is being held at 3pm on 25th July and costs £50 for members of 160 Characters or NOC and £80 for non-members. More information on their website.

The topics and speakers include:

"Bringing the GA to Life - The latest views and decisions of the Gambling Commission"
Tom Kavanagh, Deputy Chief Executive,
Gambling Commission

"The new regulatory framework for PRS in broadcast"

Paul Whiteing, Director of Policy & Innovation, ICSTIS

"What does the new GA mean for the Interactive Media Industry? - A checklist of actions to consider"
Brinsley Dresden, Head of Media, Brands &

Technology, Lewis Silkin

"Defining the roles and responsibilities of service providers and their customers within a clear regulatory framework"

Scott Davies, Director, Million-2-1

"Vote for independence - the importance of getting that external assistance for all promotional activities"
Jeremy Stern, Managing Director, PromoVeritas