This production is unlike anything I have done before. In my career, I have placed billions of dollars’ worth of ads for clients and felt little more than the satisfaction of keeping a budget straight; but here, today, we are running radio spots, print ads, banners and straight-up walking into businesses and handing people a website URL that will actually help them — no BS or misdirected strategic frameworks or anything like that. Google is here to help, period. What we are doing is good for them, and if enough people around the country hear about it, it’s good for Google and “Howtogomo.com.” Yeah, it’s marketing and whatever, but we are actually going to help real people and real businesses up close in a place that needs a bit of a pat on the back. So I am not ashamed to admit it: It feels good to work in advertising today. Plus the people in Mobile are so thankful and happy.

So, let’s go! Mobilize Mobile!

GoMo is an initiative that aims to help businesses build mobile-friendly websites. And, in an era when three mobile devices are activated for every baby born on earth, GoMo couldn’t be timelier.

Consider these facts:

• Web searches from mobile devices have increased 400% in the last two years.
• Soon, more people will access the web from a mobile device than desktop computers.
• Businesses can increase consumer engagement up to 85% with a mobile-optimized website.

But in spite of these compelling statistics, only 36% of American businesses have mobile friendly sites. Everyone else is missing out on a huge opportunity to reach customers in a new and very personal way.

As advertising professionals, this is exactly the kind of opportunity we should be encouraging our clients to jump on. A campaign without mobile strategy is really just not a complete campaign anymore. This is as rich and as crucial a field to be playing in as the internet itself was 15 years ago, and the time to do it is now.

And that’s where GoMo comes in. Visit the case study section of GoMo to learn more about how consumers use mobile and understand best practices for mobile sites. You can even run your site — or your client’s site — through the GoMoMeter for a personalized report on how to get mobile-friendly.  Get smart about mobile, and get ready for a revolution in digital creative.

1.  Storytelling still rules

Finding, creating and leveraging the relevant things that make a story interesting is still part of the process. It used to be about finding the news hook that would attract an editor. Today, you need to break through an even greater amount of clutter to attract attention. So, you’ve got to know what’s interesting and what should hit the cutting room floor.

2.  Forging relationships with key stakeholders still matters

The platforms have changed, but the relationships matter more than ever. The conversations used to be one-way. Today, it’s much more about two-way communication with the same set of stakeholders than anything wildly different from ten years ago.

3.  Connecting assets with opportunities is still vital to success

We’re still fueling campaigns with creative resources – this is one of the key reasons I’ve enjoyed working at Mullen for more than 12 years. Things are better with creative resources. PR and Social efforts have a greater chance of generating interest if they have an element of magic involved.

4. Setting and reaching goals won’t ever go away

A campaign launch used to include setting goals for what we wanted to get out of it from a publicity standpoint. That part remains, but now we talk about more interesting goals such as readers, fans, followers, engagement and sharing metrics. These quantitative and qualitative factors intrigue me and provide something for which to strive.

5.  Surprising ourselves is still why we keep working

This is a job that should be about pushing ourselves and our clients to innovate and break through the clutter. I don’t see that ever changing.

When you step back from the rush of new people, platforms, places and how they continue to all grow more connected, what can you point to in your line of work that hasn’t changed?

Let’s continue the conversation @ericmontague

His presentation piqued my curiosity, so I decided to follow up on Twitter and try to convince him to do a Skype interview with me. Mind you, Jyri’s no newbie to the Silicon Valley scene. He also founded Jaiku, which was acquired by Google in 2007. I wasn’t sure he’d take the call, but that’s one of the best things about Twitter, you can connect to literally anyone and most people will actually respond to you. This was the case with Jyri.

Below is a summary of the 30 minute conversation we had via Skype and the reasons why marketers need to pay attention to Ditto.

What it is

Ditto is an iphone application (coming soon to android) that allows users to say what they’re about to do and then get feedback from existing friends on Facebook or Twitter or other users in the same location. The inspiration behind Ditto was the insight that “where are you going” is one of the most common expressions communicated through mobile devices. The application aims to coordinate this planning process through the mobile, social and local information incorporated within it. Currently, it is tracking at about 10,000 downloads per week.

Why it’s different

Most LBS apps revolve around the gesture of “checking-in.” The thing about “checking-in” is that it’s about actions taken, what’s already happened, where you are already at. Ditto is creating a new category of services about the “near future” or what you’re about to do in the next 30 minutes to three hours.

Why it will prevail

Ditto will prevail amidst a marketplace of 400,000 applications for three reasons:

• It was designed specifically as a mobile experience. The product was developed as an application, similar to foursquare. It was born as a simple, touch experience that incorporates local (mobile) data. Whereas other social services such as Facebook and Twitter were created primarily as a PC experience, and are more recently integrating location-based services.
• The focus is on the user experience first and there is real benefit to the user. Ditto is building out more platforms and observing consumer behavior before monetizing. They are capturing and providing value at key decision points for consumers. For instance, Jyri talked about a situation where he was thinking about going to the movies to see Source Code. He put that information on Ditto. No sooner than five minutes, one of his Facebook friends responded and mentioned that Source Code was not anywhere near as good as [insert movie B]. Because Jyri knew this friend and respected his taste, he went to see the other movie instead. Through Ditto, Jyri was saved from seeing a movie he likely would not have appreciated.

• The marketing value is clear. Although Ditto’s priority is on the user, it is easy to see how marketing can actually enhance the user experience. Imagine suggesting that you’d like to get a cup of coffee and Starbucks responding to you with a coupon for a store nearby or a free sample of a new latte. For brands, reaching consumers at the decision point is extremely powerful. The user benefit also exists in that they are receiving offers that are relevant to them based on declared real time interests.

What do you say? Ditto?

1. Jamie Foxx is cool. The conference began with a keynote via Skype from Jamie Foxx.  I’m not completely sure what he said or how it related to mobile, but he is famous and he looked good.  Reason enough to believe.

2. Even Elmo is mobile. Who better to follow Jamie Foxx than Sesame Street. Surprisingly, Sesame Worldwide has embraced mobile communications more than a lot of big brands.  They view mobile as a key channel to educate and entertain children.  Sesame has built sophisticated mobile apps, mobile sites, and podcasts.  If mobile is intuitive enough for Elmo, major marketers need to be active in the space.

3. Mobile is about action. One of the most insightful presentations was conducted by Jamie Wells at Microsoft.  According to his research, one of the distinctions between mobile and the PC is that mobile is about immediate action.  70% of mobile searches lead to action within one hour vs. one month for 70% of PC search users to take action.

4 Chacha is more than a dance. The answers driven company called Chacha is reinventing search.  They are an SMS, app and site that has real people answering questions for users.  Their site is the fastest growing in the Comscore top 100 sites.  Users feel such a connection to the service that they are actually wishing it good night.  An important player to consider in search conversations.

5. Big spenders on mobile devices. M-commerce is not just about low ticket items.  Eve Richey from Dell told us that three out of five of their top selling products from a mobile device are laptops.

6. Mobile is racing. Dan Rosen from AKQA inspired the audience by discussing the Real Racing GTI app created for client VW.  The entire budget was spent on working with developers to make the app a great user experience, with self-perpetuating social elements built in.  Oh, and it actually worked.  200 cars were sold to players, half of which were new customers.

7. MySpace is crashing. Literally, the presentation shut down every five minutes.  They are putting some energy behind their redesign though and envision mobile to be a big part of that.  Not sure I buy it, but 25 million MySpace mobile users isn’t too shabby.

8. Adapt or die. Jeffrey Hayzlett, author and “celebrity CEO” brought a lot of energy to the stage.  He encouraged making mistakes if it meant taking bigger risks and learning.  Ultimately, he said, be bold because at the end of the day no one is going to die. This is marketing, not the ER.

9. Yellow pages live on.  As LBS becomes a real component of mobile campaigns, it’s important to consider players like Where and YP, or AT&Ts yellow pages reinvented.  These guys can provide scale to hyper local initiatives and drive traffic to retail locations.  AT&T has seen 4-5x higher CTRs for geo-enabled banners than standard banners.

10. Asia is where it’s at. I was completely blown away by Rohit Dadwal’s discussion of the mobile marketplace in Asia and how it is exploding.  People are selling mobile devices on buses, using them for basic survival needs and actually responding to mobile advertising.  An AXE mobile voice campaign over there generated 680 million incoming calls.

For more perspectives and a chronicle of the event visit #MMAF2010LA through search.twitter.com.

QR poster @Harvard

I’m assuming part of the reason you even bothered to read this post is because the obscure, colorless 2D code to the left, also known as a QR Code, piqued your interest. Maybe you’ve seen them before but never activated one, maybe you’ve never seen one, or maybe you’re in advertising and you think they’re already passé. In the advertising world, we’re all myopic. Because QR codes are becoming more and more a part of our conversation, we forget that the majority of America doesn’t even own a smartphone capable of reading the codes. In order to gauge QR acceptance with real experience, I crafted a marketing campaign for the recent Boston Book Festival. There was no money to put behind the effort, so everything I did had to be free.

The experiment
The Boston Book Festival promotion consisted of outdoor signage (or messages printed on pieces of paper). The messages included a provocative quote from one of the authors participating in the event and a QR code that directed the user to the Boston Book Festival registration page. One version consisted of simply that, the quote and the QR code, and a second version consisted of the quote, the QR code and directions that explained how to download a QR reader, scan the code and what to expect if you did. Through a QR generator and a Bit.ly URL shortener I was able to create the codes and track each version separately. Because college students are likely to be interested in a book fair, I distributed 160 signs on the Harvard campus for one day (a Sunday). They were placed on outdoor billboards on the quad, on bulletin boards in dorms and throughout the campus.

While imperfect, the goals of the experiment were to: 1) get an understanding of total activation and; 2) directionally gauge whether the version that included instruction outperformed the version without instruction. Oh, and: 3) increase attendance at the Boston Book Festival.

The results
30 total individuals activated the QR code. 18 came from the version with instruction and 12 from the version without instruction. Let’s assume a 5,000 traffic estimate, considering approx. 7,000 Harvard undergrads, a slower day of the week, distribution occurred largely on the undergrad quad only, and they were only up for a short time period. We’ll also take a guess (yes, a guess) that on average each person saw 2 signs. That leads us to .3% response rate.

Harvard students reading the QR poster

The takeaways
[Caveat: None of these insights are grounded in statistically significant findings or a perfect experiment, but rather they are informed observations based on real activity.]

1. Consumers are activating QR codes more than they are clicking on banners online (in some cases). While a .3% response rate is nothing to write home about, it was achieved at no out-of-pocket cost and is a higher rate than some online banner campaigns.
2. Consumers need instruction on how to activate the QR code. We can also gauge that we are at a point where QR codes are still in their infancy and consumers need education on how to use them. As they continue to be preloaded in the newer devices, we would expect their adoption rate to increase accordingly.
3. The QR code itself should be seen as a teaser tactic as well as a way to engage consumers. Interestingly, the goal of QR codes is generally to activate otherwise static media experiences.  However, while the intended effect occurred for .3% of estimated traffic, the QR codes more effectively served a different purpose. I would say at least eight of ten consumers walking by stopped to read the signage because they were confused about the QR code. Although they did not act on the instructions, they paid attention to the signage due to the code. While the folks at CTIA have argued that QR codes are ineffective for advertising in their nascent stage, I would urge all marketers to consider their stopping power as well as activation ability.

These findings have been compiled from one simple experiment. Do you or your agency have larger scale QR code campaigns running? Do you agree with these observations and are there additional insights to add?

Given that mobile shopping is the media injectable du jour, your ability to stay knowledgeable, focused, and results-driven is key to making sure your mobile efforts matter. Abandon the following thoughts wholesale and it’s quite possible that anything you do in mobile won’t matter.

1. Everywhere isn’t everything.

Size matters. You know this. You can giggle about your insecurity later. For now, it’s important to recognize that just because you’ve got a cool e-commerce site, shrinking that same site to mobile size doesn’t make you better. Sacrificing usability on the altar of everywhere will only serve to complicate your tracking efforts and muddy the waters of your ROI conversation.

2. Success isn’t just about accessibility.

Hi there! Aren’t you just sick of all the time you waste on mundane tasks when you could be shopping? Lament no more! Download this app right now and shop on your phone while waiting in line for coffee! Shop while driving your car! Shop while doing family-friendly activities around the clock!

I’m kidding.

Making a brilliant concept discoverable, no matter if it’s a product, service or campaign, is an objective you can trace through every integrated campaign your partially-blind uncle has ever told you about. The unsavvy relative mention, if you weren’t already aware, is a success metric second only to hip hop brand references. Myspace and Facebook appear in songs but we’ve yet to hear T-Pain belt out, “I keep checking in because I want to be your mayor, baby.” Why? Because Foursquare isn’t truly mainstream yet.

Stay with me, fence sitter, it’s nearly time to leave an outrageous comment!

3. Context matters more than ever.

Put your consumer pants on for a moment and think about the idea of context as it applies to a mobile device. What is the context for your cell phone? Is it not an ever-shifting description of trees, faces, quiet moments waiting, and rushed glances thrown in passing? That cool UX you put together on three 20-inch displays depended on a context that only included a cup of coffee, a painting or two, and a paper-tearing cat named Wanaka.

If you want to do mobile, you’ve got to get mobile. You’re not creepily staring over my shoulder from your hiding spot in my office closet now. You’re walking with me. You’re living with me. Might as well stop trying to interrupt me and figure out which parts of your campaign I’d be happy to take along for the ride, eh?

Your turn. Pontificate or celebrate. I’m glad for your thoughts!

Melting Phone via CC by Allesandro Pinna

Nexus is divided  into 12 key categories starting with the consumer’s overall technological aptitude and then digging deeper into their mobile, social, video and mainstream media behavior. The study will get at some of the key questions keeping CMO’s up at night:

• Is my target using their console system as their primary entertainment device?

• Does my target listen to more terrestrial radio or has this been displaced with entities like Slacker, Pandora and LastFM?
  

  Slacker Personal Radio

• Is my target moving away from reading magazines on paper to reading them on tablets?

• Does my target look for information on their smartphone via search or apps?

• Where can I reach my target with TV commercials when they are not hitting the fast forward button?

• Does my consumer spend more time on the web via a desktop or a smartphone?

• Is my consumer starting to enact in commerce via social, mobile and/or their TV?

This is just a small sample of the kind of insight we can provide clients that will have a profound effect on the trajectory of their overall campaigns and we truly believe we are the first marketing (media) company to unearth this type of crucial intelligence. In an environment where consumers are galloping and marketers are chasing consumers, we believe this insight will provide our clients with a distinct and unfair advantage. What do you think are the key media questions that should be asked?

So here are five recent dynamics that every marketing professional needs to stay on top of:

• Apple announces big news
  • The launch of the iPhone 4, iOS 4 and the iAd platform are all intertwined and add up to significant news for Apple and the mobile industry. The iPhone 4, available June 24, will not be revolutionary, but is absolutely a significant step in Apple’s evolution, and its key benefit will allow marketers to add rich media and video – at scale– in their mobile marketing communication. The new iOS software allows consumers to interact with brands in a deep and meaningful way without ever leaving an app. As a result, the ad itself will now be as important (if not more important) as a branded application.
  • The new iAd platform also caught marketers by surprise as many scoffed when Steve Jobs said that the starting price to play was $1mm. But after less than two months, Apple tallied $60mm in advertising commitments from intrepid brands like Target, Geico, Nissan, Citibank and Disney to name just a few. The Nissan Leaf communication is particularly compelling and true to Steve Job’s vision, the new ad platform allows brands to tell cohesive and powerful stories. The iAds will start to roll out on 7/1.

• The mobile wars continue to get volatile
  • The Google purchase of AdMob and Apple purchase of Quattro was just the opening salvo in the battle between these two Silicon Valley behemoths in the small but fast growing mobile ad market. Google blasted Apple last Thursday for imposing new rules on developers that bar rivals from selling ads inside the iPhone and iPad. Apple recently amended their rules to prohibit developers from sharing data from  iPhone apps with some companies and thus preventing AdMob from targeting ads giving their iAd platform a huge advantage.

• 4G becomes a reality
  • With the launch of the Sprint HTC Evo the next wave of mobile computing has emerged and make no mistake about it, this is a big deal. 4G mobile will be as important for brands and consumers as the shift from dial up to broadband. 4G will be 10x faster than 3G and there were actual lines at Sprint stores for the Evo as Sprint underestimated demand for the new phone. The Evo represents the most phones sold in one day in Sprint history. More than anything else, 4G will be a catalyst for video consumption on smartphones.

• M-Commerce starting to gain traction
  • As more consumers browse and shop via mobile devices and mobile geo apps like Foursquare and Gowalla continue to increase in scale, M-commerce will accelerate and big marketers like Home Depot, Lilly Pulitzer, Armani and 1-800-Flowers are finally starting to pay attention to its potential. Shoppers will order $2.2B in merchandise from mobile this year up over $1B from last year and as a result about 30% of retailers now have mobile commerce web sites.

• AT&T eliminates unlimited data plan
  • Many marketers and app developers are extremely nervous that just as the mobile market is poised to take off AT&T’s new “pay as you use” model will put a major crimp in consumers’ appetite for rich mobile content. Only time will tell, but if consumers start to think about “how big a file is” and if it’s worth it to download, the nascent but growing medium will be hindered.

In the span of three short weeks mobile has grabbed the headlines in the majority of marketing press and I have a feeling that this is just the beginning. Although the platform garners less than a $1B (estimated $593MM in 2010) in ad spend, the sky is the limit for a platform that combines interaction, emotion and personalization. Any big trends that should be added to the above?

Let’s start with Microsoft, already under siege from cloud computing, they are also in imminent danger of becoming irrelevant in the mobile space and have seen their smartphone share slip from 13.1% to 10.7%. Concurrently, Apple has surged to a 25% U.S. share and Android has surged to above 5%. Yes, this was an important venue and announcement for Microsoft as they unveiled their new Windows 7 operating system.  Let’s start with the good news – Microsoft threw out everything they had done in the past and started from scratch. A hard thing to do, but it showed the kind of intrepidness and humility they had historically lacked and was sorely needed. The overall design starts with tiles instead of just offering a plethora of apps; they have variety hubs that are organized in themes like “people hubs” and “game hubs.” The former will organize your pictures and email from friends and the latter will organize your games and connect to Xbox live. The other element that was really smart is that they have finally recognized that Zune is a much more valuable asset as part of their smartphone software vs. a standalone unit. So yes, I am giving Microsoft a big thumbs up on Windows 7 and I believe they have finally gotten it right. The question everybody is pondering is if it’s too late? More good news for Microsoft, most mobile pundits believe the smartphone market is still sorting itself out and they still have a chance to be a player. The software will be on a surfeit of phones including HP, Dell and HTC, and the software should roll out around holiday 2010.

The other big news was made by Nokia, still the world leader in phones, but which has slipped badly over the past 24 months amid steadily negative PR. Nokia and Intel teamed up to announce “MeeGo.” The goal of MeeGo is to create an entity that will go beyond smartphones and expand to cars, home phones and computers. Intel also has a lot riding on this new partnership as, although they dominate PCs along with Microsoft (sometimes referred to as Wintel), they have not made a dent in smartphones. Both companies hope this new entity will attract the developer community.

So there you have it – for once Apple and Google’s Android (or RIM) did not suck up all the oxygen from a mobile event. No this time it was two well known companies fighting for survival in the growing and all important smartphone wars.