And the winners are....

The magazine supplement for this year's #emmas (Effective Mobile Marketing Awards) award winners dropped into my inbox today from David Murphy at Mobile Marketing Magazine. The awards were last month so some of you will already be familiar with the winners but in case you missed it, it's worth a look.

What struck me most about the range of winners and campaigns is that mobile marketing has grown up - mainstream brands doing large-scale, innovative campaigns. I guess it's about time, 15 years on, that this is happening.

So if you're after some inspiration about what's possible with mobile marketing, then take a look at this year's winners and check out their work.

The Effective Mobile Marketing Awards are now open for entries

The 2015 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards are open for business. Brought to you by the Mobile Marketing Magazine team, The Awards, now in their sixth year, recognise excellence in mobile marketing across 35 categories, and have attracted more than 200 entries in each of the last three years. I’ve previously been a judge for these awards.

Mothercare, Tesco, Renault, North Face, IKEA, Subway and Lloyds Banking Group were among the brands picking up awards last time round, while Manning Gottlieb OMD, Mindshare, Mobile 5, Future Platforms and OMD were among the victorious agencies.

In addition to the 35 primary categories, there will also once again be four People’s Choice Awards, with the shortlist drawn up by a panel of industry experts and the winners chosen by a public vote. The cost to enter starts at £175 for a single entry with discounts for multiple entries by the same company.

To enter the Awards, download the Entry form here, fill it in and return via email to awards@mobilemarketingmagazine.com before the entry deadline – 5pm UK time, Friday 7 August 2015.

More information about the awards over on their website.

Wirehive 100–get your entries in by 19 July 2013

It’s time for some local recognition and the Wirehive 100 is giving agencies in the South of England a chance to shine by entering for their place in the Wirehive 100 league table and also to enter one of 12 specific categories to win a prestigious Wirehive 100 award. I’m judging the mobile category again this year and look forward to seeing some new work from new agencies.

How do I get involved?

The Wirehive100 Awards and League Table are open to any digital agency in the South of England based in the following counties: Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent, Wiltshire, Berkshire and Surrey.

It’s free to put yourself forward for the Wirehive 100 League Table. You can do that here.

Then there are 12 categories that you can enter for the awards for which there’s a charge of £75 per entry. The categories include several techie categories including Techie of the Year, Best Mobile Project and Best Tech award which may well appeal to some of you reading this. All twelve categories are listed here.

The deadline for both is 19 July 2013 – that’s just a few days away. If you miss the deadline, there is a week’s grace period but it’ll cost you £100 to take advantage of that. And do check the terms and conditions of entry too to make sure you qualify.

So get those thinking caps on and get entering. Make my life as a judge difficult by making sure there are some great mobile entries in there! Best of luck and hope to see some of you at the awards ceremony.

Hints & Tips for Winning Awards

I’m very lucky to judge many different awards ranging from mobile industry specific ones like the Meffys and the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards to ones that are not immersed in mobile like the Sony Radio Academy Awards and the Wirehive 100 to innovation awards like Vodafone Mobile Clicks and Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards. As such, over the years, I’ve seen many awards entries and see what a winning entry looks like.

Since it’s the run up to the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards, David Murphy, Editor, Mobile Marketing Magazine, asked a selection of judges to join a Tweet Chat to discuss this year’s entries – what was good, what was lacking and what we’d like to see more of. It was a really interesting discussion with Rob Thurner, Russell Buckley, myself and James Cameron. You can see the collection of tweets over on Mobile Marketing Magazine http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/awards-preview-judges-twitter-panel

Some common mistakes creep in to these things. Often the task of filling in the form is delegated to someone junior or someone who has not been hands on with the campaign. I still see a lack of evidence. Saying something along the lines of ‘the client was really happy with the results’ just doesn’t cut it. You could have the coolest sounding concept, but if you can’t tell the judges what the results were, then we can’t judge you and your entry will be discarded. I also see entries that have not answered the questions and also have clearly been cut and pasted from a case study or press release which means it can be harder to discover the nuggets of information that you need to judge one entry over another. And I see entries for categories where I really can’t see the connection at all. So my advice is, keep it to the point, answer the questions and justify why you deserve to win the award with actual demonstration of innovation, originality, effectiveness etc. And include the numbers. The information is kept private and is not published. Be proud of your work and take the time to communicate why it’s so good with the judges. Make our jobs harder each time!

If you’re interested to see who made the shortlist (and there are some fab companies and campaigns on that list), you can find more information here http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/awards/ and you can also book your tickets to the Award Ceremony on 29th November. I think there are a handful of tickets left. If the last two years are anything to go by, it should be a good night.

I recently talked about this stuff for the MEFFYs too on video which you also may find useful.

So for the next time you enter an award, best of luck and don’t let yours be the entry that gets discarded for not completing the entry form properly.

2012 Wirehive 100 Digital Agency Awards

Yes, it’s most definitely award entry season. I’ve just spent the day reviewing and scoring the entries for the Meffys. The Mobile Marketing Magazine Awards are still open for entries here. And just in, I’m going to be a judge on the Best Mobile/Tablet category for the Wirehive Awards which are new this year and supported by Digital Donut and BIMA and sponsored by RecruitmentRevolution.com and Mundays with individual award categories also sponsored.

Some might ask why I’m involved with judging yet another awards… well this one is a bit different as it’s very regional. It’s designed to celebrate the work of digital agencies who are outside of London but in the South or South East. And there are *a lot* of them. These are often the agencies servicing local businesses well but don’t always have the scale to compete for the larger national or international accounts. But they’re still doing good work in digital and they’re still innovative and still working in mobile and more. So from judging the global Meffys today, I’m going to the other end of the scale with these highly regionalised awards.

So here’s the deal. If you’re outside of London and you’re a digital agency, you can apply to be in the Wirehive 100 League Table. This is free, gratis, no charge. Plus it gives you a vote for a peer agency in the Most Respected category and automatic entry into the Fast Growth and Most Efficient if you want to submit them. These are all free.

Other categories cost just £50 each to enter and you can enter for as many categories as you like.

You may be wondering what constitutes the South or South East? It excludes London but does include all the Home counties and all southern counties. It does not include the South West – i.e. Bristol and beyond. Not sure if you qualify? You can always ask here.

But what if you have offices in say, Manchester and Brighton? If you have an agency with an office in the eligible area and the billing entered is specific to that office, then that’s just fine. However, if your billing includes the billing for the Manchester office (in this example), then then that wouldn’t qualify. Still not sure? Then please ask here.

You have until 13 August to get your entries in http://100.wirehive.net/ and then it’s a month until the big awards bash itself hosted by Gadget Show’s Suzi Perry no less. I look forward to going through the entries for the Mobile & Tablet category.

Carnival of the Mobilists #277

 

Yes, it’s come around again and I’m this week’s curator of the Carnival of the Mobilists and what a week it has been. Plenty going on in the world of Nokia and RIM. Innovation is being supported with various awards and accelerator programs. And mobile is still most definitely big news. So here’s my round-up.

Awards and other Programs for Mobile Entrepreneurs

The Annual Effective Mobile Marketing Awards are open for entries until 10 August. There are 20 categories and they are free to enter and are global. Disclaimer, I’m a judge and I co-hosted the awards last year.

The 9th Annual Meffys are open for entries until 19 July. Just a few days to go so don’t delay. These are global awards with special categories and prices for start-ups. More details here. Disclaimer, I’m a judge.

Russell Buckley tells us about UK accelerator programme, Springboard, why he supports it (including investing in it) and what the opportunities are for mobile entrepreneurs this year with the very first mobile-focussed accelerator. Closing date to apply is 22 July so not long to go.

QPrize is now open for entries too. This is Qualcomm Ventures seed investment competition. I don’t know much about it yet (I’m doing a bit more research into it), but just highlighting it for reference.

Handset Wars

Goodness me, watching the demise of Nokia and now RIM is not a pleasant experience. The chatter about both is endless at the moment. How to you make head or tail of it? Are both dead in the water? Will we see them fight back? Will they be bought, die or rise from their ashes like a phoenix? …

Tomi Ahonen thinks Stephen Elop is the worst CEO of all time. With Nokia’s share price at an all time low of $1.92 at the time of writing, Elop and the Nokia board certainly have some serious questions to answer. This one isn’t so much as a blog post as an essay so don’t expect a quick read. Grab a cuppa and set aside some time to read this one and take in the comments too. I have friends at Nokia. I have friends who have been made redundant from Nokia. I have a drawer full of beloved Nokia phones. I like Windows Phone too. I don’t want to see Nokia die but there’s no denying they are in deep, deep trouble.

And then there’s RIM. Another one who has been in the wars lately. Delaying the BB10 launch is a bit of a nightmare. There were 5,000 enthusiastic developers who went home from BlackBerry World in Orlando and many hundreds, if not thousands returning home from various BB10Jam meet-ups globally with their prototype devices and told their friends and family they were excited about the upcoming launch of BB10 for Christmas. BlackBerry hasn’t just let down their developer community, they’ve let down their loyal customers who are desperate for an upgrade if they haven’t jumped ship already to Android or iOS. There are three articles of note I’d like to point you to on this one. First is untether.tv’s post which takes a look at the numbers and thinks RIM needs to focus on saving the company, Terence Eden ponders how to solve a problem like BlackBerry and Michael Selvidge thinks RIM can be saved in three easy steps. What do you think?

Then there’s the story of Maemo from Randall Arnold. Do any of you remember that OS? I do. I had a Nokia 770 and if I remember rightly, Rovio of Angry Birds fame was developing games on that platform. Is there hope for Maemo to come out smiling out of the Nokia warzone?

Mobile Marketing, Advertising and Commerce

For the first year at Cannes Lions, there was a section for mobile. Finally, advertising agencies are catching up with their clients and taking notice of mobile as an integral part of any marketing campaign. This is a major step forward. Hey, I may even be tempted to take a trip to Cannes next year to check it all out. In the meantime, Andy Favell from MobiThinking has done a very comprehensive round-up of the winning entries (including their videos and case studies) and also the stats behind the awards. Both make for a good read. Again, this is something worth setting aside some time for but if you’re in the mobile marketing game, this one is for you.

Global Mobile Commerce: Removing Payment Friction & Boosting Customer Engagement by Diarmuid Mallon is a guest post on Mobile Groove and is the first of a series of articles which will form part of the Mobile Commerce Guide 2012. Common sense tells us that by making it easier for customers to buy they will buy more. You wouldn’t have a front door to a shop that took five minutes to open so why would you make the payment options overly complicated? It’s very, very easy to click away from a purchase.

Mobile Apps and Games

Here are a couple of good articles that should get app developers thinking and help then on their way to making more money for them and their clients. First up is a piece from CodeNgo which looks at the opportunity of making sure your app is available in different languages. The stats make sense to me. Next is one from the mainstream Techcrunch, but it was a good one so I’ve included it: 8 Ways Mobile Developers can Make the Most Money on Apps. Sensible advice indeed.

Missed out on Google I/O? Never fear, Tom Hume was there and he’s got some thoughts about the new Google Nexus tablet and the role it will have. A game changer? Maybe… have a read.

Mobile Games has been a hot topic recently around Technokitten Towers, not least, because I was helping the Mobile Monday Shoreditch team get set up and their first event was the A to Z of Mobile Gaming. You can read a round-up of the evening here and it includes links to video vox pops from the night too. We also enjoyed some AR gaming on the night and playing games on BlackBerry Playbooks. Well, MobyAffiliate has gone the extra mile and taken a comprehensive look at the companies in the mobile and social gaming space and written it all up for you to create a guide to the sector ‘The World’s Top Mobile Social Games Developers, Publishers and Platforms’.

Further Food for Thought

A couple of podcasts you might be interested in having a listen to or watch are the Disruptive Social Care Podcast where I was a guest last week and talked about the role of mobile in healthcare and the importance of making websites and services accessible on mobile and accessible to those with disabilities or impairments amongst other things with Shirley Ayres and Stuart Arnott.  Then there’s this one from Hashbang TV where Elizabeth Varley tells the TechHub story. OK, the latter isn’t mobile specific, but it’s still relevant inasmuch as it’s the story of an entrepreneur focussed on supporting tech start-ups. And both podcasts are about disruption in some shape or form.

And finally, some food for thought from Antoine RJ Wright. Were Mobile Phones the Wrong Turn? Antoine ponders if we haven’t missed the point with mobile technology and that perhaps it needs a rethink as we’re asking devices (read battery life and bandwidth) to do more than it can really deal with.

Post of the Week

My post of the week has to go to Andy Favell for such a comprehensive round-up of the Cannes Mobile Lions. It’s in my sweet spot of mobile marketing and it’s great to see it entering the mainstream in this way and it’s great to get up close and personal to such a variety of case studies. What’s your post of the week?

Next week

Next week’s Carnival will be hosted by Martin Wilson of Indigo 102. And you can also support the Carnival of the Mobilists by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter or sharing this post.

All photos sourced from Flickr and used under Creative Commons Licence.

Meffys 2012–Global Awards Open for Entries NOW–deadline 9 July 2012

**UPDATE 3 July 2012** The entry deadline has been extended by 10 days to Thursday 19 July so you have an additional 10 days to get your entry in. Not only that, but there is a special category, the Meffys Outstanding Contribution Award, and nominations are now open for it. This honours mobile pioneers and visionaries and celebrates a mobile hero whose seminal work has been fundamental to the growth of the mobile industry. You can nominate online now (it's a simple form to complete).


In cased you missed it over at Mobile Monday Shoreditch or Swedish Beers blogs, I thought I’d better remind you about the Meffys. It’s just a week to go to your entry in for the 9th Annual Meffys. The organisation behind them is MEF, the global community for mobile content and commerce. MEF has been going for more than 10 years now as a trade association and has witnessed the worlds of mobile content and commerce grow and flourish in that time and these awards reflect that dynamic environment.

Judged by an independent and uniquely international panel of journalists, academics, analysts and VCs (and that includes me – I’ve been judging the awards for several years now), the Meffys are the global benchmark for measuring success and rewarding innovation in mobile content and commerce. Last year, more than 350 industry leaders from over 30 countries gathered in London to attend the Meffys, reflecting their stature as the premier global awards for the mobile content and commerce industry (aka, they’re awards worth entering).

So the nitty gritty -

Key dates:

From 29th May, companies are invited to submit entries in 13 categories until the deadline of July 9th (that’s next Monday people). The 2012 winners will be announced at a gala dinner on 12th September 2012 at the prestigious Park Lane Hotel in Mayfair. You can start the entry process here.

How much does it cost?
These awards are not free to enter but don’t let that put you off. The price per submission for non-members is £350 and for MEF members is £150. And start-ups, sit up and take notice of this one, for you, there’s a special price of just £75 to enter the four innovation awards categories if you’re a start-up*.
*A start-up is a company that is less than two years old and has received less than £1.5m in funding.
It doesn’t matter where your start-up is based. These are global awards after all. So get your thinking caps on and get those entries in sharpish for a chance to be a nominee and pitch to a group of influential CEOs and a chance to win one of the awards. More details here.
What are the categories?

The 2012 Meffys categories in full:

1. Social & Entertainment App - NEW
2. Life tools App - NEW
3. Brand on Mobile
4. Publisher on Mobile - NEW
5. Content Service
6. m-Commerce Service
7. Consumer Trust - NEW
8. Discovery & Engagement - NEW
9. Social Responsibility & Development - NEW

Innovation Categories

1. Innovation Award for Apps
2. Innovation Award for Technology
3. Innovation Award for Growth Markets
4. Innovation Award for Monetization

All nominees in each of the four innovation categories will be given the opportunity to pitch to the C-level executives at the MEF CEO Summit to be held at City Hall, on the evening preceding the Meffys. The CEOs will then vote to determine the most innovative mobile product or service and the winner of this “CEO Summit Award for Innovation” will be honoured at the Meffys Gala Awards Dinner. And if you get a chance to attend the dinner, you should! It’s great fun and great networking. Ruby Wax was also totally brilliant last year as the host.

Best of luck! And I look forward to reviewing the entries.

New Media Age Award Nomination

I’m absolutely thrilled to bits to be nominated for a New Media Age Award for The Greatest Contribution to New Media by an individual. Swedish Beers and the Heroes of the Mobile Fringe Festival gets a mention in the write-up. I'm in such good company too, I'm not sure how I managed to sneak my way on to the list, but I’m very pleased I did.

Anyway, if you feel so inclined, and you have a UK mobile, you can vote for me by SMS until 27 April 2012. Text NMA3 to 82100 if you'd like to vote for me and it's a standard rate text. The text service is provided by Sponge so you know you’ll be in good hands. More details about the awards, the other nominees and how to vote for them here http://www.nmaawards.co.uk/GIC2012.aspx. The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on 28 June 2012.

Thank you to the NMA editorial team for including me in this year’s nominations and thanks to everyone voting for me. You’ve made this technokitten very happy.

MiM Award 2012 deadline is 4 March 2012

The MiM Award 2012 (deadline 4th March; finals 22nd March) are go and I’m very pleased to be on of their judges this year. There’s always a good selection of mobile apps and services to look at and I hope this year’s is no different. It’s free to enter and by entering, The MiM Award can get you in front of customers, investors and the press. The MiM Award is for privately owned mobile businesses that are making their customers' businesses mobile.

"For Masabi, winning the BLN MiM Award has been a real boost. In particular winning the award facing such strong competition, and having been judged by a wide range of respected industry experts and investors, has been terrific for the company in terms of raising awareness and building credibility. On
the back of this platform, Masabi has continued to generate significant momentum, securing new customers and launching new products. If you want to raise your profile with decision makers in the mobile world, you should definitely enter the MiM Award 2012." -- CEO, Masabi

How does it work? Mobile businesses (that's you!) spend 2 minutes applying here before the deadline at midnight 4th March 2012. It's free to apply. Twelve finalists will be chosen to present at MiM 2012 (22nd March) and our judges choose a winner. Easy.  So get that laptop out and get filling in the form.

Fun and frolics at the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards 2011

I’ve been a regular columnist for Mobile Marketing Magazine for some time now and have been a judge for their awards both this year and last year. Even better though, this year, I got to present the awards alongside David Murphy at Delfina. This was a great honour for me, made even better as I knew so many of the entrants and winners personally. So here’s my blog post rounding up the occasion. If you have time to read through to the end, you’ll see the list of winners and finalists and also some information about why they won and videos where there are videos available. These make for good case study examples in many sectors and in many countries. They’re not limited to the UK. Special thanks to David Murphy and John Owen for including me in the proceedings. And thank you to the sponsors, Upstream, Propel and OpenMarket for supporting such a great initiative.

I’ve only just spotted that the video from the event is up now which I’ve included here.

The photos are also up on flickr and you can see the set below

And of course, last but not least, details of all the winners
Winners include: The Guardian; Sainsbury’s (Groupe Aeroplan); BSkyB; Pepsico (Rabarba); Auto Trader; New Look (MIG); TripAdvisor; British Airways (Incentivated); Debenhams; Chiltern Railways (Masabi); Disasters Emergency Committee (OpenMarket); Txtlocal; Sony Columbia Music (Fetch Media); Buongiorno; Mippin; Rippll; Flexion.

Most Effective Mobile Site

Winner: The Guardian for The Guardian Mobile Site
Summary: Developing the mobile site is part of The Guardian’s Open Strategy. Its core purpose is to increase the reach of the brand. The aim is to deliver text and image content in a fast, fresh site that will appeal to readers on any handset in any country.
Results: Since launch in March 2009, m.guardian.co.uk has grown into the UK’s number one mobile content service for the digital newspaper industry, achieving over 7 million unique browsers and page views of more than 36 million per month. It accounts for around 12 per cent of The Guardian's total digital traffic and has seen a 233 per cent increase year on year. m.guardian.co.uk has also seen strong growth in its global audience, particularly from the US (2.12m unique browsers) and Canada, Ireland, Australia and India. Combining targeted mobile ad solutions with rich-media formats has allowed The Guardian to grow advertising revenues by more than 80 per cent year on year.
Finalists:
bemoko/Macmillan Cancer Support for Macmillan Mobile Site
Found/Autoglass for Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile
Incentivated/Centaur for Marketing Week Live!
New Look/MIG for New Look’s Mobile Commerce Site
Somo/Audi for Audi Mobile Site

Most Effective Mobile Sales Promotion/Direct Response Campaign

Winner: Pepsico/Rabarba for Pepsi Content in a Bottle
Summary: Unique codes were found under the lids of Pepsi bottles. Consumers who texted the unique codes under the Pepsi can lids won: a) one month free Premier League Live Football subscription from Turkcell including live goal videos, breaking news and information about their favourite teams of choice; b) one month free Ring Back Tone (RBT) subscription from Turkcell, so when people called them they would hear one of five different tracks instead of the usual ringtone; c) each participant also won 12 hours of free airtime from Turkcell.
Results: During the four-month period, 3 million people participated in the campaign up to four times each on average; totalling up to 11.5 million participations. At the end of this campaign, Pepsi reached its highest market share in the last eight years.

Highly commended: Found/Autoglass for Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile
Finalists:
OpenMarket for Disasters Emergency Committee East Africa Drought Appeal
Pharos Mobile for Burger King Monopoly Madness
Saudi Telecom Company/Upstream for 100 BMW X5 *100 Days
Turkcell/Aerodeon/Shell Turcas for Shell FuelSave Fuels

Most Effective mCommerce Solution

Winner: New Look/MIG for New Look’s Mobile Commerce Site
Summary: New Look launched its fully transactional mobile website in April 2011. The HTML5 and CSS3-based site was designed and built by Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) and integrates into New Look’s back-end systems. Key features include fast one-click checkout for registered users; engaging zoom functionality; easy to browse products in one, two or three column formats; seamless viewing with accordion navigation to reduce page refreshes and single consumer shopping basket between the website and mobile site. Two sites were built – one for high-end devices and one for low-end devices. The redirect automatically detects the user’s device and serves the best mobile experience for that specific device.
Results: In three months the mobile site delivered 24 per cent increase in mobile visits, 60 per cent increase in orders and 45 per cent increase in revenue. • See this video demo
Finalists:
Pizza Express/2ergo for Pizza Express iPhone App
Usablenet/JD Sports for JD Sports Fashion Mobile

Most Effective Mobile Advertising Campaign

Winner: Fetch Media and Sony Columbia Music for the launch of Calvin Harris & Kelis single Bounce.
Summary: The only promotion for the new Calvin Harris single was via mobile advertising. The campaign objective was to drive engagement and purchase of the new single so moving it up the charts and encouraging more radio play, thus making it the summer anthem of 2011. The media targeted was Shazam, Ministry of Sound and MTV. A rich-media HTML5 ad campaign was specially built for MTV, using a ball bouncing in the banner, once visitors tapped on the ball, they were exposed to a full screen expandable ad inviting them to watch the video and buy the single.
Results: The campaign received more than 8 million impressions within 10 days. 30 per cent of the people who clicked through the ad watched the video or clicked to iTunes. The single went straight into BBC Radio 1’s A List and charted at number 2 in its first week in the iTunes chart.

Finalists:
Found/Autoglass for Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile
NAVTEQ Media Solutions/Peugeot for Peugeot Hyper-local Advertising Campaign
Nokia/Pring for Nokia Eidi on Pring
Vogue Turkey/Rabara for Vogue Turkey’s 1st Year Anniversary Campaign
Warner Bros/Millennial Media/Odyssey Mobile Interaction for Green Lantern

Most Effective Mobile CRM/Enterprise Messaging Campaign

Winner: Incentivated and British Airways for British Airways SMS Customer Service Messaging
Summary: BA’s text service, available for UK- and US-registered mobile phones, allows passengers to get up-to-the-minute flight information for yesterday, today and the next 14 days, direct to their mobile, using the dedicated shortcodes. Messaging services include the following notifications: disruption to service; online check in open; lost baggage warning; standby notifications for staff; maintenance messages for staff; flight information services for people meeting a passenger.
Highly commended: Ericsson IPX/Velti for A&N Mobile CRM
Finalists:
MePlease for MePlease SmartLinks
Nokia/JWT/Bemoko for Nokia Source

Most Effective Mobile Ticketing Solution

Winner: Masabi/Chiltern Railways for Ticket Machine in Your Pocket
Summary: In May 2011, Chiltern Railways was the first rail operator to go live with the full barcode ticket system provided by transport-ticketing specialist Masabi and ticketing services provider Atos. Rail passengers with smartphones or feature phones can buy and receive rail tickets through one transaction for any rail journey in the UK. Barcodes can be securely validated on the train using the guard's portable ticketing machine. Unlike most commercial booking services, the Chiltern Railways application does not charge a booking fee and is free to download. To get the application passengers just need to text “Chiltern” to 88600 or search the relevant app stores.

Finalists:
Movement/Virgin Media for mTicketing at V Festival: Our Garden
Safaricom M-Pesa/Redsky for Safaricom M-Pesa Ticketing

Most Effective Mobile Charity Campaign/Solution

Winner: OpenMarket for the Disasters Emergency Committee East Africa Drought
Summary: More than 10 million people in East Africa have been left in need of food, water and emergency healthcare because of one of the worst droughts in 60 years. Working with the Disasters Emergencies Committee (DEC), OpenMarket supported the UK appeal by enabling SMS donations via its mobile payments and campaign management platform, CMX2. TV and print media ad campaigns encouraged people to donate £5 (US $7.83) directly to the appeal by texting ‘HELP’, ‘CRISIS’, ‘AID’, ‘DONATE’, ‘HELP’, ‘SUPPORT’ or ‘AFRICA’ keywords to 70000.
Results: More than £1,200,000 (US $1,878,798) has been raised via SMS donations since DEC launched the Appeal in June 2011. This is 500 per cent more than DEC had raised from text donating in the past. The campaign also allowed donors to opt-in to Gift Aid, meaning that individuals can increase their donation by 25 per cent if they opt in to the HMRC Gift Aid scheme – 60 per cent of donors subsequently opted in.
Highly commended: M&S/Oxfam/Profero for the One-day Wardrobe Clear out
Finalists:
Bemoko/Macmillan Cancer Support for Macmillan Mobile Site
DIDMO/Salvation Army/GetJar for Salvation Army Daily Cup Social Justice
National Geographic/Velti for The Last Lions
Safaricom M-Pesa/Redsky for Kenyans for Kenya

Most Effective Mobile Application – b2b

Winner: Auto Trader for Dealer Portal iPhone App
Summary: The Dealer Portal Mobile app allows dealers to manage their advertising any time, any where on their iPhone. Dealers can take photos of their stock on their iPhone, view their forecourt and edit adverts, all on the move. A ‘Profit Indicator’ helps dealers calculate the margin they’d make, with a suggested price. This is based on real-time, accurate, market-based information and helps to reduce the risk associated with purchase and increase the likelihood of making a profit. To ensure that enough dealers had iPhones, Autotrader ran a promotion which gave away a free iPhone to dealers who purchased a particular mobile advertising product bundle. 1,250 dealers took up the iPhone offer.
Results: 1,788 dealers have logged onto the app since launch, representing about 19 per cent of the online Dealer Portal users. 66 per cent of app users return each month; 40 per cent of app users uploaded an advert in August 2011.

Finalists:
Egencia for Egencia Mobile iPhone App
Global Bay for iPad Retail App
O2 Media/Golden Gekko for O2 Media App
IDG Global Solutions/OMG/HP for IDG/HP ROI Resource Centres
Safaricom M-Pesa/Redsky for M-Pesa Buy Goods

Most Effective Mobile Couponing or Barcode Campaign

Winner: Groupe Aeroplan for Sainsbury’s Mobile App
Summary: The Sainsbury’s mobile app (for iOS, Android and Nokia) launched in August 2010 provides collectors of Nectar loyalty points with their points balance and exclusive offers. It consistently generates significantly higher response rates than other Sainsbury’s direct marketing channels. Sainsbury’s and FMCG suppliers provide the offers that are displayed on both the Sainsbury’s and Nectar apps for four weeks. The offers can be targeted by gender and category (i.e. targeting customers that mostly shop in certain aisles e.g. pet, baby, alcohol, and integrates with the Sainsbury’s Feed Your Family for £50 campaign via a meal planner for recipe inspiration. Shoppers can also purchase general merchandise through the app and will be able to buy food soon.
Finalists:
Incentivated for M&S Mobile Loyalty Program
ScanBuy for Taco Bell – Unlock the Box

Most Effective Mobile Application – b2c

Winner: Debenhams for Debenhams iPhone, Nokia and Android App
Summary: Launched in October 2010, the app offers the full Debenhams range for sale with delivery to the customer’s door or collect from store. They can view multiple product images with zoom capability and tailor searches using the ‘narrow the selection’ button were they can filter by type, brand, colour, price, and size. This was the first app on the UK high street to include a barcode scanner that acts like a virtual shopping assistant. The app also allows Debenhams to push location-based offers to customers that are near the stores.
Results: The app paid for itself within three weeks of launch. In the first 6 months the app had been downloaded 500,000 times and delivered over £1.5 million (US $2.35 million) in sales.

Finalists:
AKQA/Random House for Nigella Quick Collection iPhone App
Future Platforms/Orange for Official Glastonbury App
Grapple for Premier Inn Mobile
Pizza Express/2ergo for Pizza Express iPhone App
Poynt for The Poynt App

Most Effective Location-based Service/Campaign

Winner: Rippll for Rippll GeoWave
Summary: Rippll GeoWave is a technology platform for running location-based mobile advertising campaigns. Rippll provides simple-to-use ad serving tags to publishers and ad networks turning regular ad campaigns into location-based ad campaigns. Rippll GeoWave allows ads to be served in specific regions, such as near the advertiser’s store and allows for different advertising messages to be served in different locations. Map-based reporting shows where the ads are working best so publishers and advertisers can optimize campaigns. Rippll works with ad networks 4th Screen Advertising, YOC and StrikeAd to place tags in mobile publishers such as The Guardian, EBuddy and The Sun. Rippll has run location-based campaigns for TGI Fridays, McDonalds, IKEA, HMV, Dove and eBay among others.
Highly commended: Grapple for Fable III Kingmaker
Finalists:
Found/Autoglass for Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile
Mazda/Joule/Mindshare for Mazda MX5 Facebook Deals
NAVTEQ Media Solutions/Peugeot for Peugeot Hyper-local Advertising Campaign
NAVTEQ Media Solutions/Spur Restaurants/Wand for Spur Restaurants Location-Aware Mobile Ads

Most Effective Tablet Application

Winner: BSkyB for Sky News for iPad
Summary: Sky News for iPad is an app built around live events and breaking news displayed chronologically on a timeline that is updated as the news day unfolds. Technology developed by Sky lets users rewind live video to the start – even if the app was not active when the event commenced. Each story is supported by a number of modules that deliver editorial depth and context. Modules include interactive stills, image galleries and graphs, as well as bespoke HTML content created on a daily basis.

Highly commended: DK/AKQA for The Human Body App
Finalists:
Auto Trader for Auto Trader iPad App
Financial Times/Assanka for FT Web App
Somo/Audi for Audi UK’s Guide to Le Mans 2011
Tigerspike/Telegraph Media Group for TMG iPad App

Most Effective Mobile Advertising Platform or Network

Winner: Txtlocal for Txtlocal Control Panel
Summary: 75,000 use the Web-based Txtlocal control panel to send in excess of 25 million text messages every month. Txtlocal allows business to text thousands of people within minutes from as little as UK £0.025. (US $0.038) Txtlocal also enables companies to set up a shortcode to solicit opt-ins to text campaigns or build a mobile Website for recipients of messages to click through to further information.
Results: Using Txtlocal, The English National Opera could advertise last-minute ticket deals and minimise revenue lost from empty seats. Two ENO campaigns delivered £8,000 ($12,530) gross profit from a £500 ($783) spend on text credits. Papa John’s Pizza increased sales 31.7 per cent during a three-day text campaign promoting a discounted price offer. Subway used Txtlocal to inform its customers of special-offer meal-deal promotions generating a response rate of 24 per cent. Domino’s Pizza received 10-12 per cent redemptions from a text campaign delivering £10,000 ($15,661) of sales from a £350 ($548) investment.


Luigi uses Txtlocal to increase customers from Txtlocal Limited on Vimeo.
Finalists:
Adfonic for Adfonic
Blismobile for Blis App Zone
madvertise for madvertise Mobile Advertising Marketplace
Placecast for ShopAlerts by Placecast
Smaato for Smaato Open Mobile Advertising Platform (SOMA)

Most Effective Campaign from a Mobile Operator

Winner: Buongiorno for Recharge and Win
Summary: Recharge and Win is a fully managed revenue stimulation and loyalty program that rewards prepay customers each time they top up. After topping up the customer receives a code allowing them to enter a WAP competition/game to win a reward/prize such as free SMS/Minutes, physical prizes or a paint-ball experience. Buongiorno Recharge and Win customers include Optus Australia, O2 UK, Proximus Belgium, O2 Germany Telecom New Zealand and TIM Italy.
Results: Recharge and Win helps operators increase the monthly spend of participants by 9 per cent and reduce churn among participants by 25 per cent.

Highly Commended: Saudi Telecom Company/Upstream for Win 100 BMW X5 in 100 Days
Finalists:
BigTime/MTN Zambia for Mega Millions Promotion
Future Platforms/Orange for Official Glastonbury App
Orange Romania/Velti for A New Day, a New Life

Most Effective Mobile Travel and Tourism Solution

Winner: TripAdvisor for the TripAdvisor App
Summary: TripAdvisor is a free travel app for iPhone, iPad, Android, Nokia, Windows, Palm available in 123 countries in 20 languages. The app includes a “Near Me Now” function, so travellers can determine what hotels, restaurants and attractions are nearby and a search engine to find cheap flights. The iPhone and iPad 2 version includes “Live View”, an augmented reality feature that allows travellers to view TripAdvisor’s 50 million traveller reviews and opinions of hotels, restaurants and attractions superimposed over what they see through the camera of their mobile device.
Highly commended: Crafted Media and Colchester Zoo for Colchester Zoo Mobile App
Finalists:
Incentivated/British Airways for British Airways SMS Customer Service Messaging
RedFish Media for MGM Luxor Las Vegas Mobile Alerts

Most Effective Mobile Payment Solution

Winner: Flexion for Flexion Wrapper
Summary: Flexion’s wrapper technology creates a small amount of code that is ‘wrapped’ around mobile content such as games or apps, enabling a range of additional services, such as in-app billing, DRM, content discovery and on-device retailing. Content owners can create customized pricing options and promotional models, such as free trials, rentals, bundles and discount and loyalty schemes. The wrapper technology increases conversion rates for apps, by allowing people to try before they buy.
Results: Four million wrapped products are activated every month. Flexion has reached a total of 40 million customers. Consumers have spent a total of UK £27 million (US $42.34) globally on the Flexion platform in the last three years.

Finalists:
Bango for Bango Payment
Flexion for Flexion Wrapper
Payment One for Anyphone
Safaricom/M-Pesa for M-Pesa Buy Goods
Txtnation for JunglePay

Most Effective Mobile Publishing Solution

Winner: Mippin for Mippin App Factory
Summary:
The Mippin App Factory allows anyone to build an app in just 5 minutes. App Pack prices start at UK £10 (US $15.68) – that includes a Web app for iPhone and Android app, a java launcher and mobile website. Native apps cost £500-£2,000 ($784-$3136).
Results: Over 40,000 apps have been built on App Factory implementations in the last 18 months. The most successful of these are OK! Magazine app (downloaded 475,000 times) and the Daily Star app (downloaded 300,000 times).

Using the App Factory to develop a web app for an RSS from WAC Apps on Vimeo.
Finalists:
Rippll for Appsplash
Vodafone/AMVG for vRead
Wapple for Canvas, Architect and Exhibit
Woodwing Tablet Publishing Solution

---

• 2010 Winners include (brand/agency): M&S (MIG); McDonalds (NAVTEQ); Unilever Cornetto (BlisMobile); Procter & Gamble (Sky Sports); Skåne (Ericsson IPX, LINK Mobility); ClearMen (Turkcell, Rabarba); MTN (Upstream); SwiftKey (TouchType); M&S (Incentivated); Lions Baseball (Fancharge); NXP SemiConductors… Full details and video case studies here.

The Europas are back!

The Europas, the European Tech Startup Awards, supported by TechCrunch Europe, are here again and open for entries until 7 October 2011.

Last year there was a month of online voting by the European tech startup industry for the finalists, where over 33,000 votes were cast and over 350 people joined the cream of Europe’s startups, VCs and entrepreneurs at a huge awards event.

This year, I’m told it's getting bigger to get the community even more involved, create an even bigger event, and find the best startups in Europe! You can enter here and tickets are here.

The Europas will be identifying the hottest tech startups in Europe right now, taking hundreds of entries, sifting through them with a large advisory board and then submitting the picks to a public vote which the entire industry can participate in. The results will then be merged to find the winners.

You can enter here. (Please read the instructions in full).

TechCrunch Europe / The Europas 2010 Final Cut from Newspepper on Vimeo.

To enter The Europas your startup must have been launched within the last 2 years (from September 2009). If your startup has received external funding, then it can ONLY be a Seed or Series A round of funding. Startups that have taken Series B rounds and beyond are NOT eligible to enter. Entrants can come from the “EMEA” region (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Entries must be in by Friday 7 October.

The Awards Ceremony will take place on Thursday, November 17 at the Carbon Bar in London’s West End. Tickets are here. It’s a cool modern bar and you’ll be joined by 450 of the crème de la crème of Europe’s tech startup and venture capital scene. There will be drink, food and we’ll be able to party ALL night.

The Categories

Best Education, Recruitment and Jobs Startup

Best Commerce, Finance or Payments Startup

Best Business or Enterprise Startup

Best Advertising or Marketing Tech Startup

Best Transport or Travel Startup

Best European Startup Programme

Best Startup Tool For Startups

Best Mobile or Apps Startup

Best Sport or Leisure Startup

Best Entertainment, Audio or Video Startup

Best Gaming or Social Games Startup

Best Culture (Fashion, Art, Music) Startup

Best Social Platform or Networking Startup

Best Service Provider to Startups

Best Startup Founder / Co-Founders

Best VC of the Year

Best Exit in 2011

Best Angel or Seed Investor of the Year

Best Startup Advisor/Mentor of the Year

The Europas Grand Prix 2011 (chosen by Judges)

LEAD SPONSORS:

UNRULY MEDIA

Reaching an audience of 725 million monthly unique users, Unruly distributes video and rich media formats across platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, premium publisher sites, influential blogs and mobile applications. Unruly’s mission is simple: to deliver the most awesome social video campaigns on the planet. Unruly uses its proprietary ad tech platform RAMP (Real-time Amplification and Measurement Platform) to identify the brand & content advocates that start conversations & fully trackable social metrics (measuring awareness, attention, advocacy & action) to deliver the desired brand engagement. Our outreach programme ensures we can reach a client’s target audience, however mass or niche.

Partners:

TechCity Investment Organisation

TCIO was set up by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and is designed to help the existing cluster of tech-digital and creative companies flourish. Tech City stretches out from the financial heart of the City of London to Stratford and the Olympic Park in East London, and is the fastest growing technology cluster in Europe. The TCIO team is a unique combination of experienced entrepreneurs and UKTI business specialists. Their role is to help existing companies succeed, as well as attract global business, entrepreneurs and high-value investment to the digital capital of Europe. For more information, visit www.techcityuk.com or www.ukti.gov.uk/techcity or follow us @techcityuk on twitter.

UKTI

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is the Government Department that helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy. We also help overseas companies bring their high quality investment to the UK’s economy – acknowledged as Europe’s best place from which to succeed in global business. UKTI offers expertise and contacts through its extensive network of specialists in the UK, and in British embassies and other diplomatic offices around the world. We provide companies with the tools they require to be competitive on the world stage. For more information on UKTI, visit www.ukti.gov.uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7215 8000. For latest press releases, visit the online newsroom at www.ukti.gov.uk/media.

Co-Sponsors

Loveclients

The Search Marketing industry is plagued with big promises, and very little return so when describing an SEO Company, you don't often think 'Reliable', 'Transparent' and 'Affordable'. Not unless you're referring to LoveClients that is. With 24x7-365 live client service (we literally never close) - LoveClients offers transparently-priced seo packages and re-brandable white label seo outsourcing for designers, agencies and their clients.  Structuring our client sites to be deemed contextually relevant, and building authority in their niche - LoveClients works to deliver more targeted visitors, more often. There is no 'magic' to SEO, just well planned strategy & solid execution. With offices in London, Vancouver & Riga we take advantage of the differences in timezone, to offer a true 24x7-365 service offering. Visit LoveClients & initiate a Live Chat for a Free site evaluation, a team of experts is available to answer your queries in real time.

TechHub

TechHub (@TechHub on Twitter) is a community of entrepreneurs, startups, and developers. Just 10 seconds walk from Old Street tube station, TechHub offers easy access to London’s main technology cluster and is in close proximity to its financial heart. In addition to the affordable permanent desk space, fast wireless connection, large member-based co-working area, meeting rooms for hire and conference/event space for up to 200 people, TechHub offers a great community of like-minded individuals that believe in the power of their businesses to change the world. Members come from all over the world and use TechHub as a base when they’re in London. Great perks are also available to members in the form of discounts at bars, restaurants, cafes and hotels in the area. The facilities at TechHub include over 60 permanent desk spaces for monthly hire and loads of co-working space for over 50 people. Meeting rooms for hire are discounted to members and include A/V, wi-fi, whiteboards, kitchen facilities and printing. Permanent desk spaces come with wi-fi/wired data, locker space, personal keys, power and a mailing address. Email Miguel@techhub.comto join our mailing list detailing all our amazing events.

The EMMAs are open for entry

I’m always pleased to support Mobile Marketing Magazine Editor, David Murphy, in his ventures and this one is a particular favourite of mine. It’s the annual Effective Mobile Marketing Awards (or EMMAs as they’re affectionately known) sponsored by Upstream. It’s the second year and I’m most honoured to be a judge again.

Why do I like these awards?

• Well, they reward campaigns and initiatives that have actually worked, have met campaign goals and delivered a return on investment (if indeed that was the goal). And we can all learn from that so it ends up being a great repository of case studies
• They’re free to enter. Yes, that’s right, FREE to enter
• There’s a great range of categories to enter – whether you’re into apps, advertising or mCommerce, there’ll be a category for you to enter if mobile is your thing
• The winners get lovely PR coverage in the magazine – both online and in print
• The awards bash will be a treat if last year’s is anything to go by.

There are 17 categories, including several new ones, and entry is free. We also welcome multiple entries from the same company. The Awards will culminate in an Awards Ceremony at Delfina in London, on 3 November, 2011. The categories are below, and the deadline for entries is 5pm UK time, Friday, 26 August, 2011. So that’s a month to go, folks.

2011 Categories:

• Most Effective Mobile Application – b2c
• Most Effective Mobile Application – b2b
• Most Effective Tablet Application
• Most Effective Mobile Advertising Campaign
• Most Effective Mobile Advertising Platform/Network
• Most Effective Mobile Sales Promotion/Direct Response Campaign
• Most Effective Campaign from a Mobile Operator
• Most Effective mCommerce Solution
• Most Effective Mobile CRM/Enterprise Messaging Campaign
• Most Effective Location-based Service/Campaign
• Most Effective Mobile Couponing or Barcode Campaign
• Most Effective Mobile Site
• Most Effective Mobile Charity Campaign/Solution
• Most Effective Mobile Ticketing Solution
• Most Effective Mobile Payment Solution
• Most Effective Mobile Publishing Solution
• Most Effective Mobile Travel & Tourism Solution

Don't delay. Enter today. Go to the website for further details and to download the entry form.

Best of luck!

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

The Meffy’s are open for Entries

BREAKING NEWS: DEADLINE EXTENDED FOR ENTRIES UNTIL 23 APRIL!

I’m really pleased to be part of this for the second year in a row. This means I get to judge the mobile marketing related entries which is always lots of fun and absolutely fascinating. An honour and a privilege no less.

So what’s this all about then? Well The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), the global trade association of the mobile media industry, is running its 7^th Mobile Entertainment Awards, known as the ‘Meffys’. And they are now open for entries until 16th April. The Meffys span the entire mobile entertainment & media industry, from apps to social media so there should be a category for everyone.

Companies wishing to enter should visit: http://www.meffys.com/ and submit their entries by 16th 23rd April 2010.

Now I know folks will be wondering if it’s worth entering, and I’d have to say I think it is which is why I personally support it and why Mobile Monday London supports it too. These are world class awards and genuinely do attract entries from across the globe. Which also means that the winners and runners-up are on a global stage with the appropriate reach – not just to the MEF membership (which is not insignificant) but also the associated media partners. Of course, not everyone will win. And yes, there is an entry fee. But it’s not unreasonably priced at £300 for non-members and £100 for members.

Further details below. And if you do enter, good luck!

For highlights from the 2009 awards ceremony and a list of 2009 winners, please visit http://www.meffys.com/about/2009-highlights

This year’s new Meffys categories include Content Discovery & Personalisation, Cross-Platform, App Store Blockbuster, M-Commerce and Mobile Connected Device. These new categories not only reflect the growth in the number of apps and apps stores, such as the App Store Blockbuster Award that will recognise the best app on an individual app store, but also reflect current and future trends. Two such awards are the M-Commerce award and the Cross-Platform award, which reflect the 2010 trends identified by MEF at the beginning of the year.

In addition, the MEF board will once again present the Outstanding Contribution Award to a talented individual whose work has had a critical impact on the growth of the mobile entertainment industry.

Entering the Meffys 2010

MEF will be accepting entries for the 2010 Meffys awards from today. Companies interested in entering the awards or nominating a candidate for the Outstanding Contribution Award should go to the new Meffys website at http://www.meffys.com/ for full details. Entry costs have been frozen from last year and are as follows: £100 per entry for MEF members and £300 for non-members.

Meffys 2010 Categories:

Games Award
Music Service Award
TV & Video Service Award
Video Content Award

Content Discovery & Personalization Award
Cross-Platform Award

Social Media Award

Ad Campaign Award

App Store Blockbuster Award

Innovative App Award

Consumer Experience Award

Technology Innovation Award
Innovative Business Model Award
Mobile First Innovation Award

M-Commerce Award

Business Intelligence Award

Mobile Connected Device Award

Outstanding Contribution Award

Technorati Tags: meffy's,awards,mobile,mobile entertainment forum

The Mobile Premier Awards opens – and there’s an award for female entrepreneurs

You might be familiar with the Global Peer Awards that Rudy de Waele has been running in partnership with Mobile Monday for the last few years in Barcelona. Well, he’s now extended the concept to include more networks, including the Women in Mobile Data Association (see us on Facebook and LinkedIn) and has launched The Mobile Premier Awards 2010 and it is now open for entries.

The Mobile Premier Awards recognize the year’s best in Mobile Start-up Innovation and are the largest open, global start-up competition in the mobile industry. The awards are the point of reference in start-up premiers during the Mobile World Congress on February 15, 2010 in Barcelona (yes, it’s nearly that time of year again) and are organized in collaboration with some of the main networks in the mobile industry.

We’re particularly excited about the award for female entrepreneurship… Anyway, more details about the whole shebang here. It’s free to enter and it seems to me to be exciting to be involved in it with both my Mobile Monday London hat and my Women in Mobile Data Association hat on. (Good job I like wearing hats eh).

The Mobile Premier Awards 2010 will include the following awards:

* MPA in Innovation - The best grassroots start-up innovation chosen by their peers in partnership with Mobile Monday. The Mobile Monday chapters will vote for their local most innovative start-up. An international jury of the most recognized mobile industry experts will select the 20 finalists from all the local chapter nominees to pitch at the event in Barcelona in front of investors, operators, media companies, peer entrepreneurs, and press and influential bloggers.

* MPA in Marketing - The best start-up in Mobile Marketing

* MPA in Entertainment - The best start-up in Mobile Entertainment in partnership with the Mobile Entertainment Forum

* MPA in User Experience - The best start-up in Mobile User Experience in partnership with MEX.

* MPA in Social Change - The best start-up using mobile for social change in partnership with Mobile Active.org

* MPA in Female Entrepreneurship - The best woman-led mobile start-up in partnership with Women2.0 and the Women in Mobile Data Association

Participation to these awards is free and open to any start-up with a mobile angle. Go to www.mobilepremierawards.com and take your chance to walk the red carpet in Barcelona!

Technorati Tags: mobile,women,wimd,women in mobile data,mobile peer awards,mobile premier awards,global peer awards,mobile monday,mobile monday london,mobile world congress,barcelona,start-up,entrepreneurship

Smaato Mobile Advertising Awards

Apologies for blog silence for the last few months. I’ve been busy twittering, but haven’t quite managed to write anything over 140 characters in length. Hopefully normal service will be resuming shortly.

Anyway, back to mobile business. My friends at Smaato have just announced their Mobile Advertising Awards and it looks pretty impressive to me. It’s the second year they’ve run it and entries are now open to find ‘the coolest ad-enabled mobile content on the planet.’

There are three categories – iPhone (inevitably), mobile website, and finally, mobile applications and games running on other platforms. It’s free to enter and there’s more info available on the Smaato website.

Smaato will invite the winners of each category to participate at next year’s Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona, Spain in February 2010. In addition, they will also make a number of introductions for winners to VC's at partner level.
Additional prizes are: a booth at M-Days in Munich, Germany in January 2010, free tickets for Mobile World Congress, and many more.

The jury features a plethora of experienced mobilists and I’m quite sure they’ll have their work cut out for them with 100 or so entries for the first year’s awards. They’ll be looking at unique approach, traction in the marketplace, the idea itself, originality, company positioning and more.

The main prize of a presence at Mobile World Congress is not to be sniffed at so if you’re working in this area, I suggest you seriously think about entering. And if you do, good luck!

Technorati Tags: mobile,awards,mobile advertising,mobile web,iphone,mobile applications,mobile games,smaato,mobile world congress

Meffys Awards entry deadline extended to 24th April due to popular demand

And yours truly, Helen Keegan, will be on the judging panel for the Mobile Advertising Award. Something I’m actually rather excited about.

Anyway, the key point is that the entry deadline for the awards has been extended to the 24th April so you still have another week to get your entry in. The official blurb and details are below for you all. It is pay to enter the awards, but don’t let that put you off entering, it’s still worthwhile and I do know that previous MoMoLo members who have entered the awards in previous years have benefitted, so please do consider it. There are a wide range of categories to choose from and think carefully about which ones to enter. I’ve judged other things before and am frustrated when something is submitted into the wrong category and fails when had it been submitted to a more appropriate category, it would have stood a chance of winning. So think on!

+++++++++++++++

Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), the global association for the mobile media industry, today announces that due to popular demand, the call for entries for the sixth international Meffys Mobile Entertainment Awards has been extended to Friday 24^th April 2009. Companies wishing to enter should visit: www.m-e-f.org. 

MEF is also pleased to announce that Hardeep Singh Kohli, a leading social commentator, BBC presenter and comedian, will host the Meffys ceremony on 23 June in London. As a columnist for The Scotsman and The Guardian, and a great fan of mobile games, Hardeep is passionate about the increasingly important role that mobile entertainment is playing in our everyday lives and says, “I am delighted to be hosting this year’s Meffys awards to help celebrate the leading companies in an industry where creativity and cutting-edge technology collide”.

Entering the Meffys 2009

MEF is accepting entries for the 2009 Meffys awards until 24 April. Entry costs have been frozen from last year and are as follows: £100 per entry for MEF members, £200 for members of supporting organisations and £300 for non-members.

For more details and information on entry categories go to: http://www.m-e-f.org/index.php?id=44

Meffys 2009 Categories:

• Games
• Music Service
• TV & Video Service
• Technology Innovation
• Content
• Social Networking
• Search & Discovery
• Ad Campaign
• Application
• Quality of Experience
• D2C Service
• ‘Mobile First’ Innovation
• Business Intelligence
• Innovative Business Model
• Handset

If you do decide to enter, good luck!

Technorati Tags: awards,meffy's,mobile entertainment forum,momolo,mobile monday london,mobile entertainment,judging

Female Social Media Guru UK Awards

Vote for me now (please)!

The award serves to celebrate the wealth of female speakers and practitioners of social media living in UK. In doing so its objective is to challenge the current under-representation of females on event panels by offering a high profile platform for women (something I’ve, ahem, mentioned before here once or twice).

Anyway, I’m thrilled to have been nominated (thanks to David Cushman) and would love to get to the final five so I get a chance to strut my stuff. That said, I’m in excellent company and I’d be very happy to see any of these ladies reach the final five. I’m genuinely interested to hear what they have to say.

If you’ve never seen or heard me speak before and are wondering whether or not I deserve your vote, then check out this blog post and video clip on The Future of Mobile. It’s only 6 minutes but I think is representative of what I can do. There are other videos and podcasts of me lurking around the internet too should you be interested in googling for them!

So, vote for me now – you’ll have to scroll down to the end of the poll almost to get to Helen Keegan but it’ll be worth it ;)

Thanks in advance! 

Technorati Tags: social media,guru,awards,uk,presentation,speaker,conference,women,events