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Perspectives on the wonderful world of tech

Born Mobile? Born stupid maybe. The fabulous Qualcomm CES Keynote highlights.

Happy New Year. If you are in marketing and are ever tempted to do anything like this. Sit down and think again. The only faint hope we have for the future of big company technology marketing is that this was all just a huge and elaborate joke.

So much has been written about the Qualcomm Keynote at CES this year that there is nothing else to say. The Verge has a good summary. We thought Twitter had gone a bit mad when we started to see Tweets about Big Bird, Steve Ballmer, Desmond Tutu, Star Trek: the Deeply Unimpressed Generation and an electric Rolls Royce sharing a platform. Oh and Maroon 5 being livestreamed to the world (with a Dido sound track – tricky things those music rights apparently). Apparently it was actually all true, and then some. Here’s 2 minutes 30 seconds of ‘highlights’…

Probably the most (we all think unintentionally) entertaining keynote talk at a technology trade show ever. If this was all done as a massive joke, Qualcomm Marketing, you are awesome. The world looked and laughed.

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Open Source Business Models – a great primer for our CEO Tales Open Source Business Models discussion.

Excellent short and succinct primer about how an open source company makes money from Kirk Wylie at OpenGamma and announcing our CEO Tales Open Source Business Models – 6th February, London.

The CTO of Morgan Stanley Europe said earlier this year that increasingly the company was using Open Source software as they moved away from ‘turnkey solutions’ delivered by the IBMs and Accentures of the world. The reasons he gave were compelling – as a customer of a software company, they get to choose what they use and get support for which reduces costs as well as enabling them to take more risks with smaller companies that may or may not be in business in a few years time. (Big companies buy from big companies because they don’t want to make technology decisions that are embedded in the business only to find the small company fails and they don’t have rights to use it. Open Source software means that they are less constrained).

Most people will think of Red Hat and MySQL as the poster children of the breed but companies with Open Source business models are appearing every day now and some of them have got to a considerable scale. This is a neat list of 50 or so.

For many people, Open Source means, ‘free’ and it can be hard to understand how a company can give stuff away and make money. This is a great post from Kirk Wylie at Open Gamma, about how they make money as a company.

Basically, they give the software away for free and charge for an ever expanding set of services starting with a simple all-inclusive fee that offers their customers four things they can’t get for free:

  • Proprietary components;
  • Confidential support (rather than in open chat room environments);
  • A commercial license (mainly to keep procurement and finance happy rather than the techy crowd who are quite used to ‘free’);
  • ‘Proactive configuration and maintenance advice’.

“Given the cost of staff at banks and hedge funds, we’ve never had an unfavorable ROI story; in fact, quite the opposite.” Kirk Wylie, CEO, OpenGamma

While they focus on a specific larger enterprises in the financial services sector at the moment, they are also planning additional revenue streams in other market segments but there seems to be plenty of opportunity in the sector OpenGamma is targeting now.

This post is particularly timely because Kirk just agreed to speak at our forthcoming CEO Tales on 6th February, 6-9pm, in London to consider some of the huge challenges and opportunities in growing an Open Source based business. He speaks as well as he writes. 🙂

We have some brilliant perspectives from some of the leaders of the Open Source tribe:

  • Nigel Beighton, CTO of Rackspace and their Openstack initiative
  • Jack Lang one of the principle people behind Raspberry Pi who unveiled their Pi Store yesterday
  • Kirk Wylie, CEO of Accel and ICAP backed Open Gamma
  • (Couple more to confirm, watch this space…)

We will also be giving the first 75 people to register here a FREE RASPBERRY PI because we think they are great.

Eventbrite - CEO Tales: Open Source

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CEO Tales: Open Source Business Models

raspberry pi, open source goodnessFree Raspberry Pi for first 75  120 registrations!

Our first CEO Tales of 2013 brings together speakers from some of the most successful new businesses in open source to take a look at these new models, including:

  • Jack Lang, Chairman, Raspberry Pi Foundation
  • Jane Silber, CEO, Canonical
  • Kirk Wylie, CEO, Open Gamma
  • Nigel Beighton, European CTO, Rackspace
  • Tom Hulme, IDEO

Over an evening of drinks networking and panel debate we will bring together entrepreneurs in the sector, senior executives from their customers, and investors, to consider: which models turn open source into good business? Who will be the winners and losers in the open source economy?

Rapidly deployed, free of costly software licenses, open source software has been a star sector over the past decade. Traditionally, companies seeking to sell open source services have relied heavily on consulting services and support, but business models are emerging that will change the way people think about open source. Dual licensing, open core, paid for add-ons, subscriptions are all part of the mix offered by an increasing number of suppliers.

Register using the link below:

Eventbrite - CEO Tales: Open Source

Speakers:

Kirk Wylie, OpenGamma

Kirk Wylie, opengamma, open source business modelsKirk Wylie is the CEO and Co-Founder of OpenGamma, a financial technology startup building an open source risk analytics platform for the financial services industry. Focusing exclusively on Capital Markets, OpenGamma has raised $23M in funding and employs 31 people in London and New York.

Kirk began his career in Silicon Valley, where he worked for various technology firms (Broadbase Software, BEA WebLogic, Talking Blocks, M7) and founded Radik, an open source RDBMS startup with $12M in funding. Prior to co-founding OpenGamma, he spent a number of years in the financial services industry, building the initial risk management technology stack for a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund management group, and served as the head of software architecture for the front-office technology division of KBC Financial Products. Follow Kirk on Twitter: @kirkwy

Jack Lang, Raspberry Pi

Jack Lang, Raspberry Pi, open source business modelsJack Lang is a serial entrepreneur, business angel and entrepreneur in residence at the University of Cambridge. Jack is Chairman of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which has created a $25 credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard with the aim of promoting knowledge of computer technologies, especially among school age children. Previously, he co-founded Topexpress, which went on to design the software for the BBC Microcomputer. After that he set up Netchannel, which created the first interactive television and which NTL acquired in 1998.

 

 

Jane Silber, Canonical

Jane Silber, CEO of Canonical and open source expertJane is Chief Executive Officer at Canonical, the Ubuntu experts. She has over 20 years experience in software, including business development, operations and software management experience. Before becoming Chief Executive Officer in 2010, she ran several of Canonical’s business units as Chief Operating Officer.

Jane’s previous roles include Vice President of Interactive Television Company and Vice President of General Dynamics C4 Systems. She has also worked in Japan for Teijin Ltd conducting artificial intelligence research and product development, and in the US at General Health, a health risk-assessment firm.

She holds an MBA degree from Oxford University, an MSc degree in Management of Technology from Vanderbilt University, and a BSc degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Haverford College

Nigel Beighton, Rackspace

nigel Beighton, speaker on open source, CEO talesAn obsession with taking things apart has always served Nigel well so the exciting world of technology and all its nuts, bolts and volts was a logical career choice for him. Joining Rackspace in early 2011 Nigel is showing the benefit of his own unique style of CTO leadership where he is brought experience from the likes of Associated Northcliffe Digital, lastminute.com, Operandi-Group and CityReach International. He has also served on non-executive boards for Photobox, Digital UK and Inview Interactive.

Nigel leads our Product Management function that works on the development our OpenStack community and is also our technical evangelist and our loud voice in the market. Rackspace have a world-class customer offering and it’s his job to ensure that everyone knows that.

Tom Hulme, IDEO

Tom Hulme, open source speaker, CEO talesTom is Design Director at IDEO in London, where he uses the innovation and design process to develop new business opportunities. A serial entrepreneur and angel investor, Tom has first-hand experience in building successful enterprises and, as a result, a very thorough understanding of business. He is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and was listed in WIRED UK’s top 100 “digital power brokers” in 2011 and 2012. In November 2012 he was included in the Evening Standard list of London’s 1000 most influential people. Tom is also a member of the advisory board of the Tech City Investment Organisation of the UK government, supporting the startup community in East London.

Tom founded OpenIDEO, IDEO’s open innovation platform that won a 2011 Webby Award in the Community Category and presently has over 36,000 users from more than 170 countries. The technology is now being applied to clients to manage their own closed communities.

Format:

  • 6th February, 5 New Street Square, London
  • Drinks networking, panel discussion and audience Q&A, drinks networking

We want to thank our awesome supporters for this CEO Tales: Erevena Executive Search, Rackspace , Growth Accelerator and Taylor Wessing

 

Rackspace: supporter of CEO tales: open source business models

 

 

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Making it Mobile: winners and what happened

We had an amazing group of doers in mobile gathered together yesterday for Making it Mobile and they saw some inspirational presentations from young mobile businesses vying for the Making it Mobile Awards.

Truly the UK’s mobile innovation scene is in great shape, and the judges struggled to pick a winner, but in the end Hailo won the day from YPlan and OrderMapper, who were tied in second place. Congratulations to Hailo – it’s hard to believe they’ve only just been in business one year.

Thank you all  – award entrants, judges, and delegates. An especial thank you goes out to Twilio, who supported the award to showcase the best talent in the mobile industry and to Rackspace, who have been long term supporters of the event.

But there’s more to Making it Mobile than the awards, and for those of you who couldn’t be there, here’s some of the other things you missed:

– Renate Nyborg with 30 minutes of insightful, actionable reasons why mobile has not got the traction it needs in 2/3 of the UK’s top brands. If you want to know how to sell mobile to your CEO, her talk is a must-see

– Mark Sebba on Net-a-Porter’s journey into mobile platforms and how to run a great fashion brand online

– Unilever busting three of the great myths in mobile. You can: sell directly, tell great stories, scale

– Twilio’s amazing demonstration of just how quick and easy it is to integrate voice and text into your mobile tools. Less than two minutes (with laptop battery on emergency charge), rich information and a thoroughly engaging outcome. So cool we have forgiven them for Rickrolling the entire audience.

The presentations from the event will be made available on the BLN website over the next few weeks, although sadly we can’t recreate the opportunities to network with the other delegates, you will have to wait until the next edition of Making it Mobile for that.

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A no nonsense list of mobile doers – Making it Mobile delegate list. Last 7 places remaining.

Eventbrite - BLN Making it Mobile Forum - MiM Forum

Title Company
Sales Director, EMEA Ixonos
Director, Global Media Innovation Unilever
COO PixelPin
Senior Solutions Developer Media Smiths
Product Manager BBC Worldwide
Business Development Manager InferMed Ltd.
Managing Partner IQ Capital
Head of Product Hailo
CIO Starbucks
Director of Technical and Channel Partners Rackspace
CEO Bardowl
Head of Europe Uber
CEO Order Mapper
CMO & Founding Director Blippar
Founder Camerjam Ltd
CEO & Founder The Sandpit
CEO MagicSolver
Head of Mobile Atos
New Business Development Manager CommonTime
Online Product Management Director FT.com
Sales and Marketing Director Bemoko
Commercial Operations Manager Cogenta Systems Limited
CTO Platter
Investment Director MMC Ventures
Director of Interactive & Managing Director of ITL ITV
CTO Money Dashboard
Marketing Manager The BLN
Partner Scottish Equity Partners
Head of Digital Service Development NHS Direct
Co-Founder Teddle
Managing Director Lumu Invest
Managing Director Edelman
Product Manager Red Gate Software
Partner The Ashton Partnership
Editor mobiThinking
CEO Bubbles Online Services
Director Multizone
CTO Six3 Ltd
CEO & co-founder Shhmooze
Head of Social Ogilvy
Co-founder AlphaPunk
Editor-in-Chief, Digitial Editions Future Publishing
CEO & Founder Six3 Video
VP Publisher Solutions Amobee
Founder Blastboard
Growth Manager GrowthAccelerator
ecommerce director ASOS
Partner Fidelity Growth Partners
CEO Cogenta Systems
CEO Platter
Founder Flockler
Client Services Director Bolser
Co-founder Teleportd
CTO YPlan
Specialist in mobile media Technokitten.com
Founder Software Verification
CEO Blue Butterfly
Partner 5app
CEO Secret Sales
Director Poqstudio
Head of R&D Tesco.com
Product Evangelist Twilio
Chairman 5app Ltd
Founder Flitto
VP of Product Marketing Crisp Media
Founder The BLN
Expert in Emerging Payments MasterCard
Founder Blastboard
Head of Enterprise Lab Telefonica UK
Business Development Manager Mubaloo
Tech Lead Xbridge Ltd
CEO & co-founder Sayduck Ltd
Head of Business Development MasterCard
Director Silicon Valley Bank
Partner The Ashton Partnership
Principal PyraSolutions LLC
CEO MPme
Growth Manager GrowthAccelerator
Marketing Manager Bemoko
Vice President Accel Partners
Digital Director Edelman
COO Quidco
CEO ShopChat
European Head of Marketing Twilio
Product Owner Moonpig.com
Managing Director IMImobile
Founder Bubbles Online Services
CEO EqualEyes
PA Unilever
Head of PR Quidco
Managing Director – UK iZettle
CEO EMEA Joule
Marketing Administrator Proxama
CEO NET-A-PORTER.COM
Commercial Director YPlan
Independent
Creative Director We Are Pop Up
Mobile Sales Director comScore
Associate Editor Wired.co.uk
Director, London Pivotal Labs
Investment Director MMC Ventures
CTO Client Experience UBS
COO 5app
CMO Order Mapper Inc.
Marketing Director YPlan
CEO PixelPin Ltd
CEO Parcelgenie
Marketing Manager DICOM Grid
Product Manager Ansr.io
CTO ParcelGenie
Founder, CEO YPlan
Events Manager The BLN
Group Mobile Manager NET-A-PORTER.COM
CEO Incisive Media
CEO Qudini
Marketing Manager MPme
CEO my-wardrobe.com
Business Development The BLN
Innovator, New Business Red Gate Software
Interactive & Mobile Development Manager BSkyB
Director Fauna & Flora International
Product Director Rated People
CIO Provident Insurance plc
Head of Sky+ Digital Products BSkyB
Digital Director Telegraph Media Group
UK Director of Ad Solutions TRUSTe
Mobile Manager TopcashBack
Sales Director Telegraph Media Group
Strategic Account Director & Mobile LivingSocial
NED Cineworld, Debenhams, Capita
Business Manager Telefonica Digital
IT Director Domino’s Pizza
Technology Manager (Strategy and Partnership) Samsung Electronics
Director Wild Lion Media

 

Eventbrite - BLN Making it Mobile Forum - MiM Forum

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How to start a conversation with anyone at Making it Mobile

Worried about networking at Making it Mobile? Would you like to know what people want to talk about?

I’m going to pause there and imagine you all enthusiastically nodding.

Well, here are a few hints to get you started, based on delegate’s responses to the registration question: ‘What mobile related thing is losing you sleep currently?’

Two big themes are emerging from the answers we’ve had: strategy and product development. No surprise there – in a fast moving market, many people want to find out what opportunities they might be missing, how the market might evolve in the near future and the best ways to engage and retain customers. For product development, the front running questions are about the potential of m-commerce, analytics, NFC and mobile device management.

No doubt we will hear more on a lot of these themes next wednesday, but in the meantime, a recent report from Accenture (download the full report here) confirms the emerging visibility of m-commerce as a feature consumers want to see

m-commerce growth from accenture report

So more than 50% of consumers are already interested in mobile payments, and note that this use is split between phones and tablets. This suggests that there is plenty of scope for a variety of solutions, tailored to the different patterns of use for mobile and tablets. Accenture asked for further details of what was being bought using mobile payments and this was the result:

M-commerce types accenture report

If you have data on which devices are typically used for each of these types of transaction then you’ve definitely got a conversation.

And if you have similar questions (or even some of the answers) you will meet some of the key pioneers of mobile at MiM2012, 28th November, London – an exceptional forum for people like you who are making mobile happen in their organisations:

  • The speakers lead the mobile charge in their business – you hear real stories, not endless vendor pitches.
  • The participants are ‘Doers’ with budgets – companies actively implement mobile, investors invest, business gets done.
  • The MiM Award showcases competitively selected businesses with thought-provoking ideas about how mobile will change business.

MiM2012 – is a cross-sector forum for mobile decision makers – retailers, brands, agencies, publishing, media businesses and financial services companies learn from each other and share best practice in the lightning fast environment of mobile enterprise. We showcase disruptive mobile businesses so you can be inspired or frightened by the speed of change.

  • Our goal is for every participant to leave with at least one meaningful action to implement in their business – and contacts to make it happen.

 

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The MiM 2012 Awards shortlist: British Innovation in Mobile Rocks!

After a massive response to our Making it Mobile Awards we are delighted to announce the 15 finalists due to present on the 28th November. It’s been a vintage round of the MiM awards, to quote one of our judges, Nick Lansley from Tesco:

“Goodness you know how to make life difficult! I had a challenge even choosing a top 20 (with many others ‘bubbling under’) and it has been a formidable job narrowing my votes down to my final selection.  

Every company who entered this competition – whether they make it to the final or not – should know that they really have created some incredibly innovative mobile products & services, and I wish them every success. British innovation in mobile rocks!”

The finalists are:

Blue Butterfly

DICOM Grid

Flockler

HAILO

Mubaloo

Multizone Limited

Order Mapper

Parcelgenie

PixelPin

Proxama

Qudini

Quidco

Shhmooze Ltd

Six3 Video

YPlan

These companies will now be invited to make a 5 minute presentation at the Making it Mobile conference on the 28th November before our judging panel makes a decision on the final winner. You can see each company’s application below:

Blue Butterfly

Blue Butterfly have created an ingenious app TapToWifi that simplifies access to WiFi by cutting out passwords and annoying registration processes. Using our app, customers connect to WiFi in public places (cafés, hotels, airports, retailers, etc.) by tapping their phone to one of our NFC signs or by scanning a QR code. Businesses enhance customer engagement by offering hassle-free WiFi while boosting their social media profile. Once connected, customers are directed to a landing page where they can be prompted to check-in on Foursquare, like the business’ Facebook page or even leave a review.

DICOM Grid

In today’s connected world, we expect instant, convenient communication. Why should healthcare professionals expect any less? Doctors everywhere are profoundly frustrated by their inability to access critical medical imaging data in real-time. Here at DICOM Grid we engage doctors through the use of our mobile application. What better way to engage a customer than to give them the tools to help make decisions that saves lives?  The ability to share, browse, exchange and act upon medical imaging – whenever and wherever needed – is fundamental to patient care. DICOM Grid’s mobile application breaks through the barriers that prevent real-time access to data.

Flockler

Flockler enables brands and publishers to create, customize and publish Flipboard-like magazines combining their own editorial (e.g. blog posts) and social content such as tweets, videos and images. Magazines published are optimized for iPad and other tablets, mobile and desktop (HTML5). We drive sales and increase user engagement for clients like Trinity Mirror, Econsultancy, iZettle, and many more. Flockler magazines are not only serving client’s existing customer base on any available device, but will more importantly be finding new customers everywhere and anywhere driving the growth of customer base, reach and engagement and most importantly creating new revenue channels.

HAILO

500,000 people are already using HAILO to enjoy simpler, cheaper and more social taxi rides in 6 cities, and 3 countries (and that’s in just 12 months). HAILO also offers Taxi Drivers social features like friending, chat, live events, stats and the ability to process credit card out of the box. All for free.

Mubaloo

The aim of the Met Office’s weather app was to engage customers by presenting them with up-to-date weather information while on-the-go. The app was downloaded over 1m times in its first 2 weeks and during February’s cold weather, was accessed 6.5m times in one weekend. This highlights customer engagement by showing the demand for detailed weather information on-the-go. The app accounted for 40% of the Met Office’s overall web traffic in February, highlighting the importance of providing information to the general public through mobile devices. App downloads to date are 2.6m for iPhone & 600,000 for Android.

Multizone Limited

Using open public data and social media, our apps are a Home Office ‘trailblazer’ for technology in policing.Community engagement apps for public, police and policing partners tackle anti-social behaviour, solve crimes and build local confidence.Over 600 officers in Surrey and Tayside give quick updates, without wasting time, resulting in social visibility and increased confidence in policing.Public download our app to see police activity on map, local police priorities, find out who local team are. Compare crime with police activity and hold the police to account by sharing.This kind of engagement costs much less than traditional communications.

Ordermapper

We focus on the end user ordering experience by connecting them to ANY business. We have proven this model by sending orders to 30% of the pizzerias in the US!

Parcelgenie

Parcelgenie provides a highly engaging way for customers to gift and purchase products via the quickest transactional process in the market. To send a real gift, all that is needed is the recipient’s mobile number; no delivery address is required. It is possible to send a product from a mobile, on the web or in-store in seconds, with instant alerts for recipients. People can act spontaneously to purchase and Parcelgenie’s technology enables retailers to exploit ‘the zero moment of truth’. High conversion and purchase repeat rates underline the efficacy of the process (over 99% of gifts are accepted quickly).

PixelPin

By using pictures to login to a site, PixelPin makes a painful decision point in any customer engagement ‘Can I remember my password?’ into a natural and engaging experience. Use your own picture, select 4 points, then Picture Superiority Effect (PSE) puts your passpoints into long term memory. You can login from any device with the same picture. For the web provider, there are many anti fraud benefits including eliminating phishing and weak passwords. More importantly your customers are more likely to return to your site because they will not have to worry about remembering their passwords to login.

Proxama

Proxama improves customer engagement via our NFC-enabled, innovative mobile-based solutions. Our marketing enterprise suite TapPoint™ provides brands, advertisers, MNOs, handset manufacturers, retailers and media owners with a platform to create, manage and analyse NFC mobile marketing campaigns. NFC mobile campaigns provide an innovative, creative and customer-tailored way to reach customers and improve engagement. TapPoint™ measures interactions and provides companies with insight into behaviour, along with measurement of response and conversion. Mobile NFC campaigns delivered via Proxama’s TapPoint™ platform, improve customer engagement by enabling the deployment of targeted voucher and loyalty campaigns which are easy for consumers to interact with.

Qudini

We allow customers in a space to escape standing queuing by joining a virtual queue on their mobile phone, using SMS. Customers then receive a weblink where they can engage with relevant entertaining content or marketing material from the business they are queuing for, or they may even access a coupon to redeem at a local cafe while they wait. This new mobile-phone interaction increases a customer’s engagement and enjoyment in the space, whilst allowing the business to communicate with each customer on a personal level for mutual benefit.

Quidco

Quidco provides the only app to pay people to check into high-street stores. This intent-based advertising platform delivers highly personalised deals to shoppers as they walk into shops. Driven by insight drawn from their multi-channel shopping history, the app offers the ability for retailers to target different segments of consumers with deals by time of day/week and store location.With over 1 million check-ins to date, fuelled by incentivised social sharing, retailers on the platform have increased to over 80, spanning 25,000 check-in locations nationwide where the average user checks-in over 50 times a year.Many retailers now run multi-channel promotions with Quidco and see significant uplift using an on and offline combination.

Shhmooze Ltd

Never miss a key customer or prospect at a crowded conference or tradeshow ever again. Discover the events your customers and peers are attending, then check out rich professional profiles on the people you need to know before you make that all-important face-to-face contact.Shhmooze is your secret weapon at conferences. That’s because Shhmooze works even if you’re the only person at the event using it! Our smart social analysis tool detects who’s around you, and then highlights your existing connections. Find new customers via name, skillset or company search. Smart, focussed face-to-face engagement at every opportunity.

Six3 Video

Six3 is a video messaging platform – we help people connect using beautiful short (max 63s) video messages shared either privately or publicly. The team includes ex BBC iPlayer, Ogilvy and Nokia talent, we’re backed by Telefonica and a group of angels.

YPlan

Who we are: YPlan is tonight’s going out app. Get inspired, pay in 2 taps and go. By analogy of what “job” we do: YPlan is for entertainment what Hotel Tonight is for hotels, and what Hailo / GetTaxi are for cabs.  Problem / solution: Last minute unplanned going out is currently a near-impossible task, meanwhile the $5bn UK ticketed entertainment industry sees seat utilization rates of only <50%.  YPlan solves both sides.  Team: YPlan is led by industry’s top investors and managers, and is launching in London in late November 2012.

There is no doubt that these companies are among the pioneers of the mobile revolution in British Industry.  Meet them and many others like them, along with large enterprises looking to harness the power of mobile for their business, at Making it Mobile 2012. MiM2012 is  an exceptional forum for people like you who are making mobile happen in their organisations:

  • The speakers lead the mobile charge in their business – you hear real stories, not endless vendor pitches.
  • The participants are ‘Doers’ with budgets – companies actively implement mobile, investors invest, business gets done.
  • The MiM Award showcases competitively selected businesses with thought-provoking ideas about how mobile will change business.

MiM2012 – is a cross-sector forum for mobile decision makers – retailers, brands, agencies, publishing, media businesses and financial services companies learn from each other and share best practice in the lightning fast environment of mobile enterprise. We showcase disruptive mobile businesses so you can be inspired or frightened by the speed of change.

  • Our goal is for every participant to leave with at least one meaningful action to implement in their business – and contacts to make it happen.

 

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Clothing retailers do three times as much mobile advertising as electronics retailers

Millenial Media’s latest SMART report contains some interesting information about the breakdown of mobile advertising campaigns. We assumed that retailers selling technology – computers, mobile phones etc – would be one of the heaviest advertisers from the retail sector. Turns out, according to this research, that retailers selling clothes make up almost a third of the retail mobile advertising activity. Computers and electronics as a category is in 4th place after clothing, household goods and fast food.

Mobile advertising activity by sector - retail

The mix changes significantly when it comes to mobile campaigns using location-based targeting when fast food and restaurants account for 60% of activity.

Mobile advertising campaigns using location based targeting

You can download the full report here.

And you will meet some of the key pioneers of mobile marketing at MiM2012, 28th November, London – an exceptional forum for people like you who are making mobile happen in their organisations:

  • The speakers lead the mobile charge in their business – you hear real stories, not endless vendor pitches.
  • The participants are ‘Doers’ with budgets – companies actively implement mobile, investors invest, business gets done.
  • The MiM Award showcases competitively selected businesses with thought-provoking ideas about how mobile will change business.

MiM2012 – is a cross-sector forum for mobile decision makers – retailers, brands, agencies, publishing, media businesses and financial services companies learn from each other and share best practice in the lightning fast environment of mobile enterprise. We showcase disruptive mobile businesses so you can be inspired or frightened by the speed of change.

  • Our goal is for every participant to leave with at least one meaningful action to implement in their business – and contacts to make it happen.
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One day to MiM award glory

Entries for the Making it Mobile Awards close midnight 16th November. That’s tomorrow. So you have a little over 24 hours to get your entry in or persuade your friends to enter, but the good news is it is free and ‘ridiculously easy to do’ (not our words, but those of industry commentators MobiThinking). With Twilio’s support, we’re highlighting some great new ideas and mobile solutions that could be indispensable in 2013, and there are already entries in from companies who want to change the face of US medicine, the way we do business at conferences and – particularly ambitious for the British – even the way we queue.

If you need some inspiration, here is the winning pitch from Masabi last year.

And here’s their comment on winning the award: “If you want to raise your profile with decision makers in the mobile world, you should definitely enter the MiM award 2012.” Say no more.

Why do we run a competition? To surface the great new ideas that are still well kept secrets, help big enterprises get early sight of the most creative and exciting mobile tools available, get investors excited about the sector and of course to bring some well deserved media attention to companies that are still operating under the radar. To get all that, an entry will be 15 minutes well spent, don’t you think?

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Making it Mobile: where’s the money?

Scott Eblen of Google, asks the simple question: where’s the money in mobile? It’s not giving anything away to reveal that it’s still, overwhelmingly, in offline, not online, transactions. but which technologies will change that behaviour? In this short talk, Scott looks at some of the biggest opportunities to connect the offline world – opportunities that will drive the next generation of mobile tools.

This talk was taken from our March edition of Making it Mobile. The Making it Mobile events are one day conferences for adopters of mobile to engage with disruptive businesses making mobile happen today. For the November edition we have lined up an exciting new programme of speakers who are integrating mobile into their business – find out more on the speakers and schedule here, or register for the event here.

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