I have been watching the trends of Twitter Applications, Browsers and Platforms over the last couple of months and this type of segmentation and convergence had emerged.

First of all, what has excited me and what I have been waiting for over the last year has been an application that handles automatic translation.

Given the fact that I speak both Japanese and English and have business in both Asia and here in North America, I have wanted to build a consistent cross-border  following on twitter.  I found that with the existing Twitter platform, the only way to do this is with two-accounts.  With my existing account, when I tweet in Japanese, I loose followers.  When I tweet in English, I have a hard time growing Japanese followers.

I mentioned this concept to the Digital Garage folks last February when I was in Japan, but they all laughed.  About a year ago during a Breakfast in Vancouver, Jeff Pulver ( Founder of 140conf.com, serial entrepreneur and VOIP visionary)  and I had a lot of fun with this by cutting segments from Google translate into twitter to go back and forth between English and Twitter.  Even when Jeff started to Tweet in Hebrew, he saw how this took conversations to the next level and really touched individuals on the other end.  I can not stop thinking of the smile on his face when he said ” This is amazing”. So this is really the state of now when we see the auto-translation of different languages for different countries or multi-lingual translations.

When I saw the announcement in April by Hootsuite I felt like they were really listening to the customer; as there must had been lots others like me with the same predicament.  In my mind this is a big move by the Hootsuite folks in their attempt  at this and even though we have not yet seen this capability on Facebook,  MARK MY WORDS….. This is going to be one of the most important features for them with their 500M users in the coming months.  If they do not buy Hootsuite, then they will do this timeselves by the end of the year.

Given the fact I would like to Tweet in both English and Japanese simultaneously,  I really thought this would be a feature that Twitter would release to the market.  Given that Google is so strong in language tools, and Google has a terrific product ( Google Translate), I was pretty sure we would see this from our friends at Google first. Even thought this would get quickly integrated into Google Buzz so that it scaled.   English language schools  have grown from the cottage industry base to a core part of  Japanese society.  With the growth of iPhone and Android devices cross-border,  I am sure this type of feature is going to be more and more important.

What we have seen is that our friends in Vancouver ( Hootsuite) have really looked to market differentiation with these translation tools.  It only makes sense as Vancouver is one of those multilingual communities, and even here in Canada most people have adopted the two-language way ( English, French).

This is what the Hootsuite folks have to say:

Need more ways to socialize? Seeking zen-like efficiency? Start by updating HootSuite for iPhone to clear your mind and make your social media experience more enjoyable. This update adds full localization in four languages to go along with the recently-released translation tools. Both are designed to help marketers, socializers, and internationalists understand the vibe about their brand, industry, and interests from all over the globe. Additionally, the release includes a kit full of new tools to help you stay on top of multiple social streams — and share the best parts with remarkable efficiency.  All the features are available in both the Lite (no-cost) and Full ($2.99 USD) versions of HootSuite for iPhone.

This may be a risky strategy for Hootsuite as unless they can get clients on both sides of the pond ( meaning that in order to really use the multilingual features, but send and received need a Hootsuite client) Twitter will just copy and improve on this. When Twitter does release its interfaces to support multilingual capabilities, where will this leave Hootsuite?

Secondly, when it comes to integration we are seeing many companies bring in all the different feeds into there Applications. Fring just announced with much success their Video-Call capability for mobile, Seesmic continues to be “Switzerland” with all of the different Feed integrations.  I have just been waiting for them to make the product opensource or open API’s… as we have started to see more of with Tweetdeck and the Buzz API.

So where does this leave us?  As Twitter sits in the middle of it all, it makes me wonder if Twitter has just become a proprietary TCP/IP-like bit pipe?   They made the move to build there user experiences by buying the Application company Atebits most recently, but they are in a  good position being in the middle.

The wildcard in this evolution in my mind is now the Browser.   So lastly, I must say that the convergence that starts to get interesting is now what Plug-ins and what enablers we start to see in the browser as it also has become a standalone application in its own right. Opera released its application for the iPhone and in weeks we have seen Millions of downloads.  They have developed a widget framework that has been adapted by several of the carriers now to promote services, application and advertising revenue from the Widgets.  JIL ( Joint Innovation Lab – Softbank, Verizon, China Mobile and Vodafone) have actively been starting to promote the cross border opportunities with widgets through there entire network of devices as a core driver for developers, but the fact still remains that over 50% of developers are now focued on iPhone Applications.

Opera has positioned themselves very nicely in this Application game and it is going to be interesting what the next big moves are?  Will Opera be aquired as part of the JV of JIL? Will Facebook buy Opera? or will we see the integration of Twitter and all these applications into Opera?  or will we see Opera buy Hootsuite?

The fact remains that in the Application space there is a lot of convergence going on.  What we have not heard much of these days for advanced integrated apps is Google.  They did have their flagship Google I/O conference several weeks back and it is exciting to see that they are really driving HTML5.  As HTML5 expands this gets very interesting from the standpoint of Application convergence.  Where will this all go with HTML5 ( See my next post)

Last week at OMMA mobile in NYC, Charles Johnson from Microsoft’s Mobile Advertising organization announced a key initiative that in my mind is in the forefront of mobile convergence; Multiscreen marketing in the mobile world.

[ Slide presentation]

The keynote paralleled Microsoft’s release of a full cross-media strategy of integrating their own assets of  MSN mobile to a consistant experience between Online and mobile.

1) Consistant Experience between PC and Mobile

2) Optimized for Smart Phones

3) Dynamic tabbed content and Auto suggest with Bing Mobile

4) Integrated seamless display and search through out all properties making it ubiquitous throughout a consumers day

This was a very strategic and forward thinking move by Microsoft as very few of the online ad networks have released as similar platform.  Now media buyers and planners can streamline their process with the integration of mobile as part of the overall strategy; A one-stop shop for media placement bringing a consistent experience across all the different platform types.  With this step and process moving forward, Microsoft is validating that  mobile is not only a separate channel but an integrated part of an entire media strategy.  As brands and marketers grapple with the right mobile strategy, this is a very clean and easy-of-entry strategy to buy cross-media through the entire Microsoft network and compare all media distribution for the most effective ROI. “Not only is it the media delivery” stated Charles, “but an integrated solution that will bring insights and analytics in one consistent vantage point.”

I am sure we will see many more companies following this lead in the near future, but this time Microsoft is a clear leader!

With the recent announcements of Apple and the iAD release even thought the mobile networks such as Crisp, Millennial Media and a variety of others are launching services around iAD, I have been in discussion with many mobile ad networks that are a bit worried.

In the online advertising world there has been  the ad network business, the ad server business, the ad exchange business, the yeild management and analytics business and a variety of others. Even the buy and sell side have been separated to match the processes of the agency world.  In Apple’s endeavors to enter this space, they made a very interesting choice to be in the Ad Server, Ad Network, Ad Exchange and then manage the publisher relationships.  They went after the entire value chain!  At least is seems this way?

iAD could have been potentially an adserver strategy  like Doubleclick once was to the Ad Networks.  They had two products; one for Agencies and one for Publishers.   The only different would have been that  Apple integrated an Ad server like strategy into the platform, and then let the creativity come from the ad networks that surround around it.  The fact that Apple bought an ad network ( Quatto) to be part of iAD is like the analogy of  Google buying Doubleclick and integrating in an adnetwork.  Nothing is wrong with this when you are in a position to do so.   I think Apple might have been potentially wiser to stick with ad server like strategy over an ad network one for starters to be more neutral in the industry, as this is just my feeling as it would have been in alignment with the iphone platform strategy today…. just being sandwiched in the middle and taking a cut of the action.   To also become an  ad networks  would mean some level of competition to get brands to place ads via Apple versus the other ad networks for inventory…..time will certainly tell how Apple manages this, and even though being agnostic might had been a good first choice, they are in a great position build a great ad network for themselves and own everything since the world and users love the product.

Hard to be agnostic when you have the entire value chain and you want others to sit next to you, that is for sure.   It is like Apple becoming a record label trying to pull artists away from other record labels to join their network at the same time asking the record labels to link to their distribution…. I guess you can say they are doing this somewhat as well.   Apple has done a great job at being agnostic to a certain point even though it is a closed ecosystem.   There was a comfort in partnership and a long term trust from participants.

So I guess now that  they have the momentum, why not do it themselves? Google did this with Doubleclick.   Is this not like  it has been in the media world all the time? Companies do a lot of syndicating back and forth..  Disney definitely sells ads for its network, and so does most other media.   It is a clear indication that direct networks will stay  the predominate force for direct  network publishers.  I guess you could ask, how a company like Glam is any different?  They own a lot of publishers that are part of their focused verticals.  The difference I guess is that Apple now owns the entire thing ( the horizontal as well)  when content moves through the platform.

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.

In the wake of the Google Acquisition announcement of AdMob for $750M last week,   the Global Mobile Marketing Forum held in LA on November 17^th exhibited a lot of excitement about the future of mobile for 2010. Every year has been the running debate over when is the “Year of Mobile”, and 2009 was clearly the transition for mobile marketing. Mobile marketing has been up 40% this year and from the words of the chair in the kick-off of the day, Michael Weirs, CEO of the Mobile Marking Association stated that, “The third largest acquisition by Google of AdMob, gives us a lot of confidence and validation that mobile advertising and marketing is about to explode, and we are excited about all that has happened over the course of 2009.  Now we are seeing Mobile as a budget line item. For instance, Volkswagon is doing things exclusively with iPhone Apps independent of other media channels”.  We had many of our Pacific North West colleagues here, including Microsoft that made an announcement of joining the Mobile Marketing Association’s new Premium Membership category as the spearhead partner to support much of the policy discussions facing the industry today, and our friends at MyThumb won an award in the North America Multi-Mobile Channel to validate that Canada is also part of the Global leadership in the creative marketing of mobile.  Michael Carter, CEO, MyThum in his acceptance speech stated, “This one for you Canada!”.

The event was filled with many great presentations and new nuggets of information about the industry with a sit down Awards Ceremony Dinner in the evening.  Many of the Global Mobile Marketing firms flew in for the event from China, South Africa and as far as Brazil.   It was showcase of the best in class mobile marketing companies and campaigns to date.  Here is link for the winners of the Global Advertising and Marketing Awards ceremony in the evening.  Mobile Advertising Awards Winners.

I had the opportunity to judge the competition and some of the campaigns that were real “eye-openers” from my perspective in terms of real ROI and creative excellance were from agencies such as Mobile Dreams Factory’s Mini Mobile Dealer, Gap Style Mixer from AKQA, Pizza Hut iPhone App from Pizza Hut, Trident Fresh from F.biz and  MyThum’s Rogers/Live Nation live ticketing solution.

Some of the highlights and comments from the day are as follows:

Tom Daly, Group Manager, Strategy and Planning, Coca-Cola Company, presented what it takes for mobile agencies to work with Coca-Cola.  It is not easy to get into Coca-Cola, but “We are working with over 400 brands in 200 countries with a minimum of $8K per brand per country, and it is growing and we are looking for new partners”. We have three core things we look for in mobile agencies. 1) Your Talent & Environment 2) Your thought leadership and 3) Your account management process.  “We look for best in class to take Coca-Cola to the world leaders in creative mobile marketing and transparency is key”

Matt Crowley, CMO, AT&T Interactive presented the future of local and search as the real driver for mobile advertising. He said that when you think about mobile, and if look at it as a function of mobile advertising, search must be a key driver.  “Today the total of Mobile ad spend is about 70% Display and SMS compared to 30% search, but this will change to 25% Display and SMS,  with 70% Search in 2013” , said Matt.  “With most of it as local search, of the 79M AT&T subs and 22M on Medianet (AT&T’s mobile portal) there is over 22% access of Medianet daily.”  He elaborated that their focus is on the actual precision consumer targeting at a local level with integrated marketing solutions- linking SMS to banners.  “We have seen over 250% YOY mobile search network growth and our goal is to pre-load the YP mobile app with local search on every device”, stated Matt

Louis Gump, VP of Mobile, CNN ( A celebrity in the mobile marketing community as a past Chair of the MMA board and a long-timer in the industry) discussed the future of news on mobile. He asked the audience how many look at news on their mobile before they get out of bed in the morning and the crowd showed about 30%. He elaborated to say that mobile news is something that has been exciting for Turner to really build a mobile strategy. CNN has a Freemium model with the mobile website free and agreed on the paid CNN app. They debated the pricing for this, but decided on the $1.99 price as a way to keep mobile moving forward as a profit center to propel initiatives across all the mobile strategies of CNN. For CNN mobile products they do not think of iPhones only, but have very holistic strategy of  butfour major platforms

1)      Mobile website, with 11~12M users  per month and free and ad supported,

2)      Text messaging- breaking news alerts,

3)      Video- on-demand and streaming, clips much more widely.

4)      Apps and a Sept 27^th release that has changed the way news is consumed on the  iPhone.

5)      Their mobile news strategy follows the following usage cases.

• Read
• Watch
• Save
• Follow
• iReport ( citizen journalism) with users getting a my CNN section on the phone. The iReport product with  the reporting has become a  trusted source, and 1-button for the ability to quickly upload and mix together….

“We wanted a dual revenue stream, and at $1.99, yes, there was debate over prices from $0.99~9.99,  but we chose that price as we doing this for marketing. We want mobile as a sustainable business platform.  We should not  loose-money and for news gathering organizations, “ he stated, “ We need not only the oneway free route, but a way to think of sustainability of 3,5 and10 years down the road.”   “ Of all the users that access news both from Online and Mobile, 34% only access it only from mobile. This serves as unduplicated reach for home consumptions. Over 1/3 were not going to anybody on any other platform mobile is now the channel for CNN to reach a different demographic of people” said Louis

Charles Johnson, Head of Mobile Advertising for Microsoft lead an engaging panel on the future of mobile advertising. Ken Wilner, CEO,  Zumobi and a native of Seattle stated that that key to mobile is “engagement”. Yes, acquisition is important, but once you obtain a consumer, the on-going engagement is second to none as mobile is with the consumer all the time, everywhere. Frank Babieri, CEO,  Transpera stated, “ That of the users that access online video that also access mobile video,  more then 62% of the time they will access it from mobile. This is a defining point for mobile and the industry”. Charles concluded that all of us usually replace our phones every 12~18months and we  will most likely get a smart or super phone.  2010 will be the year of mass-device transition, that will accellorate our industry even further.

Bruce Withers, Head of Mobile, Wells Fargo, shared a vision around mobile banking. Wells Fargo has been nominated as one of the top mobile banking solutions in North America and mentioned that this is a core to their strategy to reach young customers ( Gen Y and Millennials) that are mobile professionals that need banking services on the go.  Wells Fargo, as well, have a multi-approach strategy for mobile.  From Text messaging alerts were the user averages about 19 requests per month, to  the mobile website and iPhone application that both get about 6 sessions per month. They are continuing to grow very nicely.   They have added unique features in their iPhone App such as ATM finder and direct links to wellsfargo.com.   He stated that is it important for a mobile web strategy to find partners that are compliant with the W3C and described the process of how they won the ABI Research Award in mobile banking by scoring tops in all of the categories of 1)Reach, 2)Breadth of services, 3)Security and 4)Discoverability.  Of the twenty-nine banks entered they were at the top.  He stated that consumer behavior is really changing and mobile is the a key strategy now for them as a financial institution.

Given the large changes in the industry, Peter Johnson, VP Research, Mobile Marketing Association, took the stage to describe the latest from the Research and Metrics Committee.  They have been having quite an open dialog with the Agency community and in a recent survey they found a highlight of the research that successful mobile marketers that leveraged coupons and loyality programs found this to be the most successful of all the mobile marketing approaches.   Even today the average media spend for agencies on mobile is still only 1.8% of the total spend.  However, those that have found mobile marketing successful have been moving the budgets already to the 2~3% amount of thier overall spend.  He stated that in 2009 there was a total of about $1.7B on mobile marketing.  However, this would have been $2.5B  if the successful were the norm, so there is more best practices, education and a wider sharing of knowledge still required.  The MMA is working toward more sharing of the knowledge worldwide and making sure best practices are better evangelized.

Mike Carter, CEO, MyThum and Tiffany Gerhard, Sr. Manager, Marketing- Emerging Capabilities, BestBuy had a great session on the success of cross-media marketing for a retail brand.  For me it was one of the highlights of the day given the fact Best Buy only  two years ago was doing just about nothing in mobileand now through partnerships have a very holistic cross-company strategy.  They now have a strategy that includes mobile as part of the media-mix, marketing budget and core strategy to the CRM strategy. “ We wanted to find the core strategy of mobile for the Best Buy brand and for us it is in the area of CRM and mobile commerce ”. stated Tiffany. “ We have found the usage case quite good for us when many of our customers come into the store that find when a product is out of stock, they can just go to thier Best Buy application and click-to-buy in one action and then have the product delivered right to their home”. She said. For them building a relationship as part of their CRM strategy proved to be quite useful in the final sale as well as guiding all kinds of useful information that can support consumers in the buying  process. Mobile has become a priority for them and they mentioned that “ everyday now is a learning process for us to get better with mobile”.  For Best Buy they have these objectives for thier mobile strategy.

• Bridge physical and digital
• Support local growth efforts
• Increase customer satisfaction & loyality
• Create ongoing customer conversations.  Trigger to aquire and go forward basis, based on one-off projects, to a continued and to build that base

They said that even though MyThum was key for them to build up the mobile solution for Best Buy, there is a lot of in-house integration at this time and that the partnership will continue in a very unique manner. Getting experts to support in the process has really made it efficient and easy for us to enter mobile successfully

To finalize, here are some other quick discussions and quotes through-out the day.

• Zaw Thet, CEO, 4Info discussed the need for an industry wide initiative for the mobile cookie.  Today the next best thing is the users telephone number or UID on the iPhone.  By using this we can recognise and build cross-media campaigns for targeting users from platform to platform.
• Chetan Sharma, Chetan Sharma Consulting, stated that we are finally seeing the growth of the networks and now mobile has surpassed the data card.
• Michael Shim,  Head of Mobile Sales, Yahoo!, described that Yahoo’s growth of 54.8%  still is greater then the average for the industry of 45.4% with the mobile internet.  They are doing all kinds of unique ad solutions for the App as well as working on many cross-media campaigns with clients such as Subway that links the web to mobile
• Maria Mandel, Senior Partner, Executive Director Digital Innovation, Ogilvy and North American Board Chair, Mobile Marketing Association, described again that  Mobile is the highest, always on, personalized device, simple text messaging and simple text messaging. There is a tactic for any objective.  It is not about the tactic, how they use the mobile device and the best way for that user….Reaching that consumer at the right time with the right message.

So in conclusion, was “2009 the year of Mobile”? The day provided a lot of discussion and debate, but the general consensus was that we are not there yet and that 2010 would really be the year of mobile.  With budgets coming back,  mobile starting to be line items, and with the acceleration of  replacement of phones with smartphones in 2010, the year of mobile is 2010.   The market in 2010 will clearly be a place of reach and scale for proper turn-key media strategies and mobile.

With the recent news of Google’s acquisition of AbMob for $750M, there has been real debate over what is to come of the mobile Internet and apps.  I found this acquisition interesting as one of the key strengths and strategies of AdMob has been in facilitating the iPhone in-app ad market. Although there are many providers such as SMAATO, Greystrip, etc…,  AdMob’s strength was with their self-serve engine and global footprint that enabled them to scale quite eloquently with the iPhone as well.  Many claim they were the mobile ad experts of  the long-tail publishers,  but iPhone was not a long-tail product with many extremely creative premium brand engagement solutions as apps leveraging AdMob.  With up to 60% of the apps free,  the facilities of AdMob and the others have been the key driver of this business model for developers focusing on the rich app experience.  Now with this acquisition, Google has its own foot hold in the marketplace of iPhone advertising even as it embarks on its own independent  journey with Android, with the monetization of both in-app and web a balanced growth and combined cross-media strategy.   As we have heard in the press,  Google positioned Android as the Internet machine,  the ability to add free navigation and scale with the largest advertising community on the web today inclusive of mobile puts them in a very solid lead position.

Apple does not have its own advertising platform for mobile to facilitate the free, but has been doing quite well without it.  Will Apple need its own advertising solutions to potentially offer as part of the free solution?  If I were a mobile ad exchange,  I would be talking to Apple about how to integrate the solution into the App Store process with the best yield management to give developers with their free offering the best revenue streams through federating in even Google and Admob. Was this not a problem that AdMob had not to long ago? At the end of the day as Apple is managing the platform, they are in a position to give developers the best revenue streams through yeild management and discovery.  This is what Facebook has done.  Enable their own advertising platform for their marketplace.  I think this trend will continue with platform providers all having their own solution for ad-serving and federating in ad networks and ad-tags.  I think who ever has an app store will now need an advertising exchange platform for support the delivery of free apps.   Not only that, having this facility will also enable some of the best opportunities for data optimization and relevancy targeting.  How will this now sit with AT&T that Google has better analytics of what is happening in the free community of iPhone?   Apple made the decision to drop Google maps and to bring in their own unique map platform?   Will Apple keep to the D2C only strategy and not get into these services further? As iPhone now grows,  so does Google with the acquisition of AdMob, giving them the data insights and strategies to see what is hot and what is not through the analytics of free in the iPhone Marketplace. We may someday forget the very powerful great reports that AdMob delivered to us about the state of the mobile industry via their network, as this will potentially go “dark” as Google has not been so forthcoming with that type of industry analytics for free. Yes- we get products and services for free, but the “secret behind-the-scenes analytical intelligence” is something worth its weight in gold and now a key asset they have to expand further.

iPhone is leading the pack when it comes to velocity, but Android is making its mark… with this we are bound to see Apple needing to expand to the other carriers in North America and also potentially open up a bit.  I would love to see stronger alliances with iPhone between the likes of RIM, Motorola, Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, HTC but those bridges seemed to be burned long ago? or not?

We are still in the early days of penetration of smart-phones and the overall potential of mobile access of the Internet in my opinion.   There are 150M Websites out there that are getting hit everyday even with mobile devices.  Many of them are iPhones that set the marketplace here in North America for full HTML browsing.  What is 100K apps compared to 150M websites? less then 0.1% of the size and potential of the Internet and with all devices in the future accessing the web, we are bound to see millions of widgets and mobile-versions of websites.

So when we say Apples to Apples comparison with iPhone,  I really feel we are talking about Apples to Gorillas unless Apple does make some major moves with strategic alliances and acquisitions.  I was once told, ” There is always somebody out there smarter and stronger then yourself in many ways, so leverage the community”.  Apple going at it on its own will now be a challenge with the Open Android approach that is sucking in so many of the hardware companies.  With Google now behind Motorola ( the giant that has been dormant for the last couple of years) and many others, it was fine for Apple to become great friends of the consumer, but they need more friends in this overall marketplace….. So lets hope and see if Apple will become the Gorilla in the room in the years to come.

mSearchGroove’s Peggy Salz presented a collaborative piece on how to best leverage location services on your business at the 2009 International Information Innovation Conference held on the 30th September & 1st of October 2009 at the George Hotel with the awards ceremony being held aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia in Edinburgh.

Now in its sixth year the directory assistance conference and awards supports the leading innovators and newcomers in the information services and search marketplace. To recognise the developments in the industry from 2010 the event will be called theInformation Innovation Conference & Awards.

ADObjects-Inc worked together with mSearchGroove to present real stories and solution for online directories to embrace a mobile strategy leveraging their content and location as a key driver for a syndicated business.  Here is the presentation from the event.

Last year there was not much going on along Madison Avenue here in NYC during Advertising Week. There was a small mobile advertising event, but this year is a different year for mobile.  Regardless of what the economy did to the Advertising industry in general over the course of 2009, Mobile Advertising is big at Advertising Week.

Check out Microsoft’s Sponsored mobile website for on-the-go information  http://www.adwk.mobi.   ( Although it would have been better for the existing site to have gone mobile, it is a good start for anybody visiting the event to not have to carry around the large printed event book).

Also, there are going to be many panels and events at OMMA, MIXX and of course the MOBILE AD SUMMIT on Tues the 22nd.

ADObjects, Inc will be around and tweeting the event….