http://www.mediapost.com/publications/ Learn to reach your target wherever and whenever. en-us Copyright 2009 MediaPost Communications http://www.mediapost.com/rss Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:11:59 EST For the time being, mobile video advertising is at that strange teen stage where it is starting to look like a recognizable grown-up. Smart/App phone technologies and 3G speeds are making the experience truly viable. Like a teen, mobile video looks almost adult, until it opens its mouth. Then you realize it still has a long way to go and lots to figure out. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117714Steve Smith <popeyesmith@comcast.net>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:00:02 ESTAs much as we like all of those branded apps and leveraging the phone to activate TV programming and out-of-home advertising experiences, users do not always conform to the fantasies of national brands. The mobile competition for mindshare will be fought on the ground, close to home -- and over the information that is most relevant to the user here and now. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117566Steve Smith <popeyesmith@comcast.net>Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:00:04 ESTYou know that catchy little metallic "Droid" voice that emanates from the new Verizon/Motorola/Android device released last weekend? Guess when it stops being cute? About an hour into a traffic jam on I-95, while in a Mini Cooper with two women who have to pee. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117348Steve Smith <popeyesmith@comcast.net>Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:33:27 ESTYesterday, some of the media seemed shocked... shocked... to discover that Google was interested in mobile marketing. While the dowry of $750 million seemed overly generous to most of us, the marriage itself is unsurprising. AdMob's self-service model and roots in performance advertising map nicely against Google. Some recent stat from Google revealed that it sees 50 times more searches coming from iPhones than any other mobile source, and AdMob is rumored to have a large share of the display market on that platform. It all makes sense on paper. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117184Steve Smith <popeyesmith@comcast.net>Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:54:33 ESTDeclaring a "year of mobile" has become such a running joke in the industry that even if and when a "year of mobile" does occur, none of us will be willing to say as much. And why bother? But if ever there was a mobile moment, 2010 is going to be it. At last week's OMMA Mobile, I was struck by the quiet confidence of mobile marketers that their time had arrived. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116909Steve Smith <popeyesmith@comcast.net>Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:45:15 ESTt was starting to sound like a running joke: "We tried to talk the client out of it, but they wanted their app." Panel after panel at last week's OMMA Mobile seemed to echo the same mobile marketing lament. "We tried to tell them -- it didn't fit the brand, distribution was costly, there were better alternatives out there..." Well, at least now we know why there are so many lousy apps with brand names attached to them. To paraphrase Don Draper: The client is always wrong. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116710Steve Smith <popeyesmith@comcast.net>Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:30:24 ESTI turned my 17-year-old daughter loose in the app store last weekend just to see what happened. I agreed to let her take my cast-off 3G to use as an iPod Touch on the condition that she reported on her activities so that my readers and I could get a micro-sample of teen priorities when it comes to cell phones. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116435Steve Smith <popeyesmith@comcast.net>Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:31:39 EST"You're going to L.A.?" I can hear my daughter cooking up the phony indignation. "Without me? Where was the memo on this?" Actually, it is all a dodge. She has known of the trip for months. And anyway, my journey westward for Thursday's OMMA Mobile event will make her week. The overprotective worrier in the tag-team of "helicopters" she calls her parents will be off-radar for a few days. And this week, at least, I will be distracted by a show that I myself am excited to see. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116203Steve Smith <popeyesmith@comcast.net>Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:45:33 ESTAn announcement from ESPN this week seems to have fallen outside of the mobile industry's radar, but to me it indicates just how quickly the mobile Web is accelerating. According to the sports brand, traffic to its mobile Web sites rose 82% between September 2008 and September 2009. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=115916Steve Smith <popeyesmith@comcast.net>Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:00:57 ESTBeing the glutton for mobile marketing punishment that I am, I spent a hunk of time the other night taking phone cam snaps of the latest issue of Wired magazine. In a partnership with kooaba, the Conde Nast book is mobilizing almost all of its ad pages so that users can snap a picture of most ads in the November issue and get content in return from the kooaba iPhone/Android app. As Wired publisher Howard Mittman says in his announcement in the issue, "Imagine an ad that comes to life - that uses emerging technologies to augment what an advertisement says and how you experience it." This may be his and the magazine industry's fantasy. I am not sure I have heard a consumer utter this wish. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=115789Steve Smith <popeyesmith@comcast.net>Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:47:56 EST