Mobile Market Moving Forward

Raise your hand if you’ve heard someone say “this is the year for mobile advertising” recently. Now raise your hand if you heard someone say that last year. Now raise your hand if you expect to hear it next year.

In my short professional career, I’ve heard it every year, and I having always worked close to the mobile space. Two announcements today in my opinion have made it more possible that we are closer than we think to mobile advertising platforms becoming more and more readily available, understandable, and accessible to the modern media planner.

Nielsen has extended their recognized @Plan product with an extension called Mobile@Plan, an attempt to allow marketers to more accurately target their audience on the mobile platform. Read Mark Walsh’s article here.

Not to be outdone, comScore has announced their acquisition of M:Metrics. Already established in mobile measurement, M:Metrics is known for monitoring clickable display advertising across a variety of mobile web destinations. Learn more here.

Apparently Anyone Under 30 Is A Moron

Anyone who attended “Trading Places!” at iMedia this past week may have picked up the sentiment that the “younger generation” of media folk are lazy and only interested in earning there next free lunch. Being a sub- 30 year old marketing professional, I highly resent the fact that myself and my colleagues are to be written off based on our age and not our talents.

I am not going to sit here and dispute the fact there are groups of media buyers who will pompously move from free lunch to happy hour without even a concern as to the sales reps presentation or their time they are committing. But is writing off a generation of professionals really a positive thing for OUR business? Yes I said OUR business; me and my team are a part of it too. Someone prove to us that we don’t belong….

iMedia Agency Summit Gets A B+

A disclaimer to preface this entry: I only attended one panel, one presentation, and spent the rest of the time in Austin, TX schmoozing and hustling.

Having said that, I still feel confident that I can give the summit an overall positive grade; a B+. Not an official attendee, I was there supporting clients, both of whom rocked. popsauce network sponsored the opening shuttles and absolutely killed. The power of offering cold beer to people who’ve been flying for four hours. Next client presentation was Sportgenic, who grabbed everyone’s attention with a hilarious rendition of “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader,” aptly titled “Are You Smarter Than A Media Intern.” Goes without saying we threw our brand new intern on stage and broke him in. As usual, passing out free Pearl Izumis to the agency folks got us on everyone’s good side, and most people admitted that it was the best presentation of the week.

In my opinion, and most will agree, the most amazing evening of the week was the presence of Annie Griffiths Belt, renowned National Geographic photographer. She blew the crowd away with her tales of travelling the world and dazzled the group with absolutely stunning photos. The display focused on her book “A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel.” The agency attendees standing ovation was said to be the first in iMedia history, and all who were there will most likely never forget it.

There are a few negatives from the trip worth mentioning. One, the sense of entitlement from the agency people that bordered on rudeness really stuck with me as I passed out free shoes courtesy of Sportgenic. Only a small percentage made an effort to thank myself or the sponsor for the generous gift, and the undeserving sense of privilege really rang true from the agency side of the business. Two, me and my team being called “minions” and “durhamites.” Really nothing against the industry here, but if you are going to fault everyone who is under 30, than you are a complete hypocrite, because there isn’t a single person in the marketing world that started at a senior level in their mid thirties. Everyone has to work their way up. And without being cocky or rude, I’d gladly take my team of sub- thirties strategists against competing thought leaders any day of the week.

Things I've Missed At iMedia

iMedia Agency Summit started this past weekend here in Austin, TX.

These are the great things I missed so far:

William Hung

Russel Simmons


This list better not get longer!

Apparently Facebook Still Isn’t Making Money

This isn’t necessarily newsworthy to anyone in marketing, but interesting to see that Facebook still charges about $0.15 CPM (cost per thousand impressions) for its ad inventory, and continues to make absolutely no revenue compared to it’s unreal $15 Billion valuation.

It’s always funny to try and explain to someone outside the ad world that Facebook makes no money.

Today’s story from CNN Money gives a glimpse into the world of Mark Zuckerberg and how the young CEO plans to prove Facebook’s worth.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/12/technology/cracks_facebook_hempel.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008051308

Kobe's Moment; Long Overdue

Nice branding play by Kia...I'm actually not going to tie this to marketing. It just makes me happy.

Me and My Friends Are Keepin' Our Jobs

Media Post’s OMMA Magazine’s May edition got dropped on my desk about 45 minutes ago. Needing some reprieve from my computer, I kicked my feet up at the desk and took in some old fashioned reading.

Lynn Russo Whylly wrote a fantastic article entitled “What Lies Beneath.” It’s an attempt to track the amount of money being spent in digital media “below the line.” Where is money being spent that can’t be immediately tracked by an ROI number. Great article, take it when you get a moment. I finished the article feeling good thanks to this solid opening excerpt:

As Wall Street continues its bumpy ride, the media industry is itself bracing for a downturn. While there are plenty of bad things about a recession - like people losing all of their savings, their jobs and in many cases, their homes - it's not all negative. The bright side? Digital media joins the good company of porn, alcohol and cosmetics as industries that do well during tough times.

iPhone's 1 Year Birthday

It's starting to look more and more certain that Apple will release the 3G iPhone this coming June, on the 1 year anniversary of it's original release. MacRumors reports today that AT&T is limiting vacation time in prep for the upcoming release:

Last year, AT&T limited employee vacation requests between June 15-July 15 in anticipation of the original iPhone launch which took place on June 29th, 2007.Today, Boy Genius Report publishes another AT&T memo that is again restricting vacation requests, this time between June 15th and July 12th 2008. The reason for the restriction is "to ensure adequate store staffing and to give everyone an equal opportunity to benefit from an exciting product launch." AT&T expects "heavier than normal customer traffic" in their stores due to an "exciting Summer Promotional Launch". Of course, speculation points to Apple launching their new 3G iPhone during that time. The timeframe is consistent with a previous report that claimed that Apple was targeting "on or around June 27th" to approximately coincide with the one year anniversary of the iPhone launch. Meanwhile, the NYTimes believes that the European launch for the 3G iPhone will be "by the August summer holidays" according to a person close to the situation.Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference takes place between June 9-13th in San Francisco, and could serve as the launching ground for the next generation iPhone.

As a dedicated Mac user and iPhone owner, I have mixed feelings on the release. The life of the iPhone has not been without its ups and downs. The original debocales regarding number of units produced, price varations, etc. have left some with a skewed viewed of Apple's usual customer friendly outlook.

Personally, I'm just pissed that I'll have to shell out $400 for an updated phone later this year.

In unrelated news, I just hid an empty soda can in one of my colleagues drawers. Will he find it? Come back tomorrow to find out.

Who's Tired?