Joy Liuzzo, Senior Director of Marketing and Mobile Research at InsightExpress, was a voice of reason at the OMMA Mobile conference in Los Angeles on Thursday. While a panel of agency and mobile marketing services providers piped on about the success of a few of their iPhone apps, the mobile industry researcher noted that only about 15 percent of the population uses smartphones and has access to these apps. “We find in our research that folks use 3-4 apps” most frequently, Liuzzo said, which means the opportunity for success there is very limited. She noted that in many cases, …

Patrick Moorehead, director of emerging media at Razorfish, believes SMS have much better ROI than iPhone applications. Retailers use SMS to drive store launches. "This is sexier than an application," he says. The retailer needs to get people in the door. It's a numbers game. He says retailers get between 8% and 10% click-throughs on the links because people want to find store locations and discount offers. On a four to six week campaign and a $20 million budget, between 10% and 20% would go toward emerging technology, including mobile.

There are two worlds: the agency world and the real world. When Patrick Moorehead, Director of Emerging Media at Razorfish, who calls himself a conscientious iPhone objector since its indicative of agency mobile navel-gazing, asked for a show of hands from the audience on who owns an iPhone, hands went up all around the room. He shrugged and said they need something to show their clients the snazzy iPhone Apps they are making them. "We're obsessed with the 15 percent of users who have smart phones, and then the 20 percent of that 15 percent who have iPhones."

Sometime it’s better to rent than own â€" as in the case of phone apps. “We took over a phone app for Lionsgate ‘s “Crank 2”, says Jason Meil, evp of director of innovations for Initiative, on the OMMA panel, “How agencies are triaging the Mobile Dimensions." The phone app was on the rise, he says, and that made it work for the movie.. “It had as seven figure installed based," he says. "It [ended] up driving hundred and hundreds of trailers views.”

Often times buying vs. building makes more sense when it comes to mobile applications, according to Jason Meil, EVP, Director of Innovations, Initiative. Don't think you always have to build the iPhone app from scratch. When Initiative bought one app in particular it already had an install base.So, when they updated the application for the client, the campaign already had a built in customer base. Sometimes there are apps in the market that don't do well for one marketing strategy, but could do much better for another. For Meil, the application drove hundreds and hundreds of downloads for their …

Okay, sorry, but I'm taking advantage of having the floor on this blog at OMMA Mobile to wish the Internet 'Happy Birthday.' Yes, the Internet turns 40 today, according to National Geographic. I find it ironic that we're sitting here in Los Angeles listening to experts talk about advertising, marketing and accessing the Internet via a mobile phone. Wow, we've come a long way in 40 years. So what's the message that started it all, you ask? "lo," according to National Geographic. "On October 29, 1969, that message became the first ever to travel between two computers …

"The good thing Apple has done with the iPhone is get everyone excited about mobile; the bad thing is it's made everyone want an app even if they aren't sure why they want one," says Jason meil, EVP, Director of INnovations, Initiative. "We spend a lot of time talking people off the ledge about why they might not need an app."

A few tidbits of information to provide insight on the future of CRM and video: Kodak has 17 different CRM systems and it will be some time before the company can link it to mobile. "But we'll get there," says Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO and VP, Eastman Kodak Co. When the topic turned to video, Hayzlett says it will become the most important piece of mobile. It's the most preferred way people want information. The problem is bandwidth.

Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO and VP, Eastman Kodak Company, married his brand to the mob, with a mobile ad where a malfunctioning printer gets whacked. Eastman hired Vincent Pastore, the actor who played "Big Pussy" on the Sopranos, to do in the printer and deliver the message that it should have used Kodak ink. Hayzlett says the brand then played the ad in theaters, because of its cinematic elements. However, that presented a real issue with the activation. "What's the first things everyone does when they get int he theater," asked Hayzlett, nearly slapping his forehead with the realization that people …

"Mobile will become the single most dominate media there is," says Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO and VP, Eastman Kodak Co. He dropped his laptop and now he carries two mobile phones.