Yes- the open platform of Android is killing it.  This is just in track with my prediction.  Mobile will “touch everything”.  From traditional media, retail, consumer products, auto’s, etc.. etc… Apple’s model is just not one to scale. Scale is created when every major manufacturer uses your system to build product and Google has achieved that.  Even with Nokia’s move to MSFT, they will get a smaller market spot then what Google has achieved overnight.  Can Nokia-Msft convince carriers from shipping Android and have them move to this new dynamic duo?

Google seems to have the momentum at this point.

ADO hosted this event at Oct 3, 2011.  We had more then 300 participants and 36 Brand Marketing Mobile Apps  were submitted.   The event was in cooperation with Mobile Monday NYC, NYC mobile Apps, and NYC Mobile.   Also, we had a special guest from ROVIO Angry Bird’s CMO Peter Vesterbacka! The event was closed with a special performance from Erin Barra.

Those are some apps which ware submitted.

Winner is

* Ray Ban http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ray-ban-never-hide-u.s./id426128456?mt=8

From the team!
Ray-Ban NEVER HIDE is an immersive brand experience which connects Ray-Ban’s audience with the Never Hide campaign. This app engages users on multiple levels by allowing them to consume, create, and share Never Hide content. Imano worked with Luxottica Group’s agency, Vizeum, to integrate the app’s functionality with Ray-Ban’s global Never Hide campaign.

Designed and developed by Imano

Thank you for the sponsors and participant!

http://www.mediacrossmedia.com/mxm_series/nyc/oct_03_2011_brand_marketing_mobile_app_show-off/

In this recent chart released by Barclay’s, Mobile is not even a pimple compared to the spend in the other media channels.  This makes the case even stronger that if you are looking at a mobile strategy, it is not how much you spend for mobile, but rather how you integrate it into the other areas of spend.   As a mobile device is with you all the time, it is a good medium to link those other media strategies directly to a CRM that entails mobile.

I have been evangelizing the concept of multi-screen marketing or “SCREENING”.   Convergence media strategies is the right way to go for any media planner or buyer that is moving media dollars to the traditional areas to make sure mobile is part of the mix to build that conversion tracking and user engagement strategy along the way.

Well it has been Three years since I worked at Nokia, and it is great to start to work officially with Finland here in NYC.

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Finnish Mobile Association brings Finnish mobile expertise to New York

- There is life outside Nokia, media and advertising industries convergence with mobile seen as the next big thing.

May 2, 2011, Helsinki, Finland – Finnish Mobile Association (FinnMob), Greater Helsinki Promotion and Finpro are expanding operations to New York to promote Finnish mobile industry expertise and help Finnish companies to make it in the US. The trio aims to open doors for Finnish companies wanting to enter the world of mobile media and advertising.

FinnMob and Finpro are also establishing a new incubator and co-working space for Finnish companies in New York. They will offer office space as well as mentoring services and introduction to local investors. Today, there are more investments made in high-tech companies in New York than Silicon Valley.

“We can certainly see a shift from West Coast to East Coast happening in the technology market. For example, Google just opened their new media headquarters in New York. As convergence of mobile and media is continuing, it is important for mobile companies to be in New York, where all the major digital, media and advertising agencies are based. We believe that the next big revenue source for mobile will be from media and advertising,” comments Ismo Rantala, Managing Director of FinnMob.

FinnMob has been warmly welcomed to New York and they work closely with the New York Mayor’s office and New York University. The goal for FinnMob’s expansion to East Coast, is to find 30 most potential media houses that could benefit from mobile technology and introduce them to Finnish expertise.

”We have created a database of over 400 Finnish mobile companies, who we will be promoting in New York. If Finnish companies want to break in the US, they should head to the East Coast instead of Silicon Valley” Rantala continues.

Second goal of the project is to attract R&D to Finland, where there is talented workforce available. Many global companies already have presence in the country and Finland is leading the way in mobile gaming fuelled by the success of Angry Birds.

Finnish Mobile Association promotes Finnish mobile industry expertise globally. FinnMob acts as a matchmaker for Finnish companies looking for global opportunities by opening doors for potential new clients, investors and partners.

For more information:

Ismo Rantala, managing director

FinnMob

Ismo.rantala (at) finnmob.com

Tel. +358 40 556 7770

Scan to LG FashionWeek Mobile

Covered by Luxury Daily , [Click Here]

We have entered 2011 and I have to say the first decade did fly by rather quickly for us in the mobile industry.   I am a big fan of JWT and their things to watch deck.  I thought I would share it and highlight the top 10 in my mind for those realigning and creating a  mobile strategy this year.

In the late 90′s emerged the SEO firm that specialized in building solutions and strategies off of Google’s Search Engine or Search API. This way of thinking is a key reason for the success of Google. Google also succeeded with syndication ( offering Search as an API to be built into sites).  Well when twitter launched, releasing an API has given them the ability to generate an amazing amount of traffic through twitter via the different clients.  At least  today it is a vertical game of different twitter clients competing that has created a closed loop to drive the business of Twitter. The same can be said about Android today.  Be original and open, release and API and let others build something on top of the core and bring in all of their creative spirit.

I love hootsuite, tweetdeck and seesmic, but they are in a game of competition amongst each other that has spiraled to grow twitter.

In this world of the web, creating API’s for others to leverage their creativity now only builds your brand as a base platform, but gives you the chance to organically grow through degree marketing ( I use this term as the different degrees of relationship as it is like a super distribution model).

This seems like a a no-brainer, but looking at the stats really makes one think about what are the platforms you can create with an API for growing your business. This is a real strategy for 2010 for the web and beyond as well.

In Cooperation with MEF, ADObjects, Inc brings in the valuable overseas experience from Japan in m-Commerce as part of the International Guide on m-Commerce.  ADObjects, Inc provides leading edge consultancy services in the areas of mobile marketing and m-Commerce as well as building revenue generating partnerships with overseas companies looking toward market entry into North America. This guide has comprehensive examples and case studies from both leaders in Japan; SONY FeliCa and Entermotion.

FeliCa is a contactless RFID smart card system by Sony in Japan, primarily used in electronic money cards. The name stands for Felicity Card. First utilized in the Octopus card system in Hong Kong^[1], the technology is used in a variety of cards also in countries such as Singapore and Japan.  One of the key global operators to launch and bring FeliCa to the market was NTTDoCoMo. NTTDoCoMo’s m-Commerse Activities date back to the Early 20o5.   Brands such as McDonald’s and Seven-Eleven have fully utilized FeliCa for m-Commerce in Japan respectively.

Entermotion is one of the leading Japanese coupon and mobile marketing platform companies in Japan.

****************

Today, MEF North America Launches M-Commerce Guide to Drive Customer Acquisition, Retention and Conversion

• MEF values global mobile media industry at $36bn globally
• 53% of consumers have a propensity to use their mobile handsets for financial transactions*
• One out of every seven minutes of media consumption today takes place via mobile devices**

The M-Commerce guide is the first output of MEF’s M-Commerce Initiative led by an expert committee of members and written through consultation with leading industry players to engage, educate and evolve the potential of mobile. The guide is designed to help brands, content owners/producers and retailers better understand how to leverage the mobile device to drive customer acquisition, retention and, most importantly, conversion.

While the definition of M-Commerce includes a broad range of categories, for the purposes of this guide, we have limited the definition to include the following:

• Digital content, goods and services purchased and delivered on the mobile device (in channel services) as well as tangible products purchased through the handset but physically delivered (out of channel products)
• All forms of commerce whether paid for or ad-funded/sponsored.

Mobile banking is not included.

The guide has been authored with the leadership and invaluable support of the following MEF member companies: 2ergo, ADObjects, Billing Revolution, Boku, engage2mobile, Impact Mobile, Inmar, KPMG, mBlox, Motorola, Netbiscuits, Nokia, Polar Mobile, Playphone, RIM, Samsung, Sybase365, Synergy World, T-Mobile and Zong.

The guide has been published with the kind support and sponsorship of Impact Mobile, Inmar, KPMG and mBlox.

Download the Guide
To see the press release

Today is a very exciting day in the field of brand marketing and advertising!  It marks the day of the Advertising Revolution in my mind. Steve Job announced iAD at the iPhone 4.0 Dev conference.  It has been something we have all been anticipating for some time.  I myself have been looking at the ideas around emotional brand marketing and interactivity with mobile as a core part of our work here at ADObjects.   As the mobile device is so personal it is our emotional amplifier.  It is with us night and day and clearly something we just can not keep our eyes off of… it goes way beyond the SMS lead, but what experience surrounding the brand.

Our vision and motto: Digital Hand. Analog Touch is further realized….

Well Apple gets it and keeps revolutionizing upon the vision of all of us in the media space for what the true mobile device can be all about. Besides creating a massive ecosystem for publishers to bring unique new tantalizing experiences via applications, they have set a new bar in bringing out this exciting platform for brand marketers…

Here is some of the coverage……. not only is today the day of the Golf Masters where Tiger Woods is back with NIKE,  Steve obviously is bringing NIKE as an example at such a serendipitous time.   NIKE is attacking brand marketing from all different angles today!

1) iPhone Nike Ad Demo

Here is the coverage on Techcrunch

2) Apple Announces the iAD mobile advertising platform

And here is the comprehensive coverage of the day on gdgt.

3) Live iPhone 4.0 coverage

So now we have video, information, click-to-action and all different exciting formats blended together for brand marketers in a unique delivery system that came from the foundation of the mobile advertising company Quattro Wireless.  Regardless of what they paid for this company, Apple has been able to transform the vision of unique engagement marketing into there magical experience around the iPhone. Google has been about reach and performance via clicks-on-links.   Apple is about reach and performance based on clicks-on-emotions.   Our from this we will see new metrics emerge for the foundations of brand marketing as part of the conversion funnel such as CTE ( Click-to-Emotion).

How exciting is it going to be now to see how all the incumbents match this challenge.   Google is still in discussion with the FTC over Admob, Microsoft has been so focused on Search, and all the mobile advertising companies out there are trying to innovate in there own right with new mobile ad formats and concepts to bring differentiation.   This is big day as it will definitely get  media buyers to go deeper with their creative producers in the agencies to build that new from of brand-experience  for their clients with mobile.

About a year ago, I was a strong believer in the fact that native applications would only be a passing trend and the web page for mobile would start to overtake them in usage volume due to the transition to the full HTML browser in Smart Phones, the  larger volume of web sites and the ease of access via search and social media links.  According to Wolfram ( and a variety of other sources), I was able to find out that  on the web there is over 150M websites globally, there are over 8Billion page-views a day from the major Search Engine leads and over 8Billion page-views a day from clicks on links from Social Media.  Even though there are still only hundreds of thousands of Apps, this is a tiny number compared to the relative business of  the web and that over time the app would become part of the web experience with all content tied to links for ease of discovery.   In the case of a Native application that has been developed for a device like the iPod, iPhone or iPad is a self-contained black box and the content seems to only be accessable via installing the app and going to the home screen of the App.  Deep content in the App may be difficult to tag today for SEO    ( Search Engine Optimization) and this will leave many of the publishers of Apps only in a position to drive a user to the App and possibly not all the content contained in the app.  The fluidity of what we have know as Search Engine Marketing or Social Media Marketing that is the art of driving people to your site or landing page of content does not seem to have the same foundation around Apps in the internet that we have know to love with a one-click to get to the rich deep content.

Many SEO’s have struggled with the use of Flash in a site from the standpoint of this discovery and it has been a pain point in marketing for the greater search or social media marketing community.  New methods of tagging or marketing the Flash content and the use of other meta data/ keywords on a site have been used to refer to content , but it has not been optimal.

As Apps become more and more relevant and devices centralized around this experience has made it so that today we are looking at an entirely new Internet in my mind.   An Internet that has been structured by massively indexing webpages of content and the discussion and road map of the future of the Semantic Web.  Everything has been tied to links and now the rise of the meta-tags that can make discovery and access that much easier.  All of the things from the deep content we can search and discover to the apps and content that once was discoverable from a webpage.  Now with the growing trend of user experience and content consumption that are really self-contained packages derived from App stores the type of search needs to be treated differently.  This could be a new revolution for the advent of a new search engine to take on the Google, Yahoo, Bing of today that could essentially even be more social-media friendly as a search architecture.  Lately, I have found Google to be a mess in search relevancy, and I have been using Twitter as an alternative search engine for news and discussions more then 50% of my time.  It is also interesting to hear that   if Apple were to launch a new kind of search engine for applications it would clearly make sense given the course of this new Internet.

However, my gut still tells me it is going to be very difficult for one company like Apple to take on the world and create the next generation of Global Search Engine.  Rather a Search Engine for its own world and hopefully we will see some of the cool social elements associated with it.  What I believe could be the case from this strong spike in user adaption and the massive effect of apps on all of us is rather a new debate that stems back to the HTML5 vs. Flash discussion.  As Apple has been a strong advocate of the usage of HTML5 and has left Flash as the proprietary rich media standard out of its devices, there is room for the new innovation of leveraging now HTML5 as the new Application platform of choice for many media companies and developers and to breed an entirely new industry of Search Engine Optimization around HTML5 as it becomes the next foundation of the webpage and the run-time widget architecture of the Web.

Of course we will probably continue to see this self-contained in the closed ecosystem of Apple, and even through they are working with these open standards of HTML5 and others, there is this new paradigm shift toward Apps that will exist across all platforms that makes this discussion quite interesting.   Last week, at CTIA, I was discussing this with several different App developers from the Blackberry camp and found that they have started to do unique tagging of content even in the alert and push architecture of content from Apps.  This could be another hook into strong opportunities for searchable methods to all of this content that is formed from push experiences.  Apps have now been definitely know to be able to give us better experiences then typical web pages, but  the opportunities surrounding them from the standpoint of market discoverability of the deep content is still very open.  Will Blackberry at some point come up with there own search engine as well?  Will we see multiple search engines for different forms of App content that will then lead to the subject of an open API for the massive crawlers of the world to link each one in a greater search interface to find across multiple different channels?   Will this phenomena of the app keep evolving and create the opportunities for a new internet of channels and deep search accross those channels with dedicated tagging platforms within the apps of a each of the different platforms?

As the iPad’s application ecosystem evolves and so does the application ecosystems of  Blackberry, Nokia, Android, Palm, Windows, we will need to have a new kind of search and discovery mechanism that will lead us to a new form of Internet?  Look at all the Apps that live across Facebook and other social media and the opportunity for discovery requires one to be living in that portal. A simple Google or Bing search may take you to the App, but not the content within.

I would have never expected to see Apps over take Web pages, but this phenomena is getting so strong that it has and will create a New Internet  or Branch of the Internet that will keep evolving with the phenomena of  mobile usage case.  As we saw a strong growth in the area of SEO, SEM of the last 10 years, will we see a new form of SEO called SEOA ( Search Engine Optimization for Apps)?

Regardless of where this all goes, there is clearly new business opportunities for the SEO’s to start to design services and products for Application Publishers and Developers in designing their marketing and discovery platforms in a new way that is related to this phenomena of the mobile usage case.