• by Kelly Samardak , July 13, 2009

IAB Marketplace: Mobile, The Roosevelt Hotel, New York
July 13, 2009

I love mobile nerdery. I do. Of all emerging (yes, it's still emerging) channels of consumer engagement, this one is occupied by some of the best nerds out there. And they embrace it. But although they're "beyond zealotry," the industry is still one of "almost there" with metrics and "almost there" with regard to synchronized clapping.

I entered The Roosevelt Hotel dreading the room of noise kidnapping. I was pleasantly surprised to find that something must have been tweaked between the last event I attended (Video) and today because the echoes weren't canceling out the words of Kristine Van Dillen, Director, Industry Initiative and Partnerships, Mobile Marketing Association; and Joe Laszlo, Research Director, IAB. I descended upon an open outlet, stole a chair, and got to listening. Van Dillen and Laszlo were in the middle of answering the question "How do I know if it's working?" (from the session "1-2-3 Spend! All a Buyer Needs to Know About Mobile Marketing").

Some snippets: "We see a lot of click-through... and click-through cost of acquisition. But what I think we want to be able to do is create some sort of common language." -- Van Dillen.

"I don't think it's impossible for standalone to break into mobile..." -- Laszlo assured Bruce from Fandango, who requested advice for standalone publishers looking to break into the mobile space and get that money -- "and you'll want to join the IAB."

"The mobile consumer is far ahead of the brand. Brands need to work out ways to engage with the consumer in a meaningful way." -- Gary Schwartz, President and CEO, Impact Mobile Inc.  Cross the chasm and all that. Once the brands figure it out, it sounds like it's going to be an orca feeding frenzy -- and the big-eyed seals are rich apps and ads.

And now for something completely different -- the vivacious Eric Litman, Chairman and CEO of Medialets, and the equally excited Jamie Wells, US Mobile Director, OMD's Ignition Factory, began their panel with dancing. Oh no, don't worry, the CEO and the Director did not break into Capoeira -- they merely introduced Dufon Smith, the actual dancer from the Dockers "Shakeable ad." Shakin' what his mama gave him in real life, Dufon showed us why the ad, using the iPhone's motion-detecting feature, was such a hit. I think the audience was initially stunned by this high-energy interruption. Of course I took video!

Litman and Wells went through the process and the plan of how it all came together, saying things like Social KPIs and Media KPIs (I had to look it up, my ability to store acronyms is dead). As for measuring the success of the campaign, the panel of two asked the audience not to back into budget -- they were challenging the audience to unwrap their brains from hard numbers and money, and focus on what this was. According to Wells, "this was a pure brand campaign. There was no specific inventory goal. It was purely about changing audience perception" of Dockers.  This was in response to a question from the audience focusing on sales goals. You know, were numbers met or exceeded.

Who knew Dockers was so risk taking. I mean, khakis, people. They're so safe!

The panel ended with an encore by Dufon, who inspired the audience to clap along to the beat while I crossed my fingers in wishful synchronicity. I'm inspired. I think I'm going to suggest that at the next MediaPost/OMMA event we transition from panel to panel with break dance fighting hell - I'll even do some square dancing (which I used to EXCEL at in third grade) if it keeps people focused!

That's it for now -- I'm going to pay attention to the next session "Planet of the Apps; Is This the Future of Mobile Advertising?" If you want to follow along and you're on Twitter, just slap #iabnet into the search box and you'll see what everyone's talking about. But come back here, of course, to get the scoop through my eyeballs.

Oh! while wandering around taking horrible pictures I bet Tom Cunniff in the flesh. We've only known each other on Twitter and his vast knowledge of the east village has helped me in the romantic dinner and cleaners/tailors departments many times. He was with Joseph Trotz, a former photojournalist and fellow Canon fiend.  

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com!