Mobile Monday on Mobile Media

Last night the Momo London group had a session on mobile media, which I couldn't get to - however, James Cooper did and blogged it here (he also has done a very good job with Momo's mobile advertising session here).

The things that hit me from this session were the following:

1. Dan Applequist of Vodafone did a quick presentation including his top 11 mobile 2.0 trends, which were ... smart mobile browsers, mobile ajax and widgets, mobile search, mobile advertising, mashups and APIs, RFID and 2D barcodes, location and geocaching, mobile social networks, mobile UGC and smart web devices

2. BBC experience is that mobile is quite simple really, it just needs to be personal, location aware, immediate. James isn't so sure of this but it sounds right to me - and I'd add simple.

3. Last year i.e. 2007 was The Year of Mobile, it's already happened - for the first year in 2007 UK mobile ad spend (4th Screen) was greater than Cinema (1st screen)...

4. ....but FT isn't really seeing "the year of mobile" in business - no enthusiasm from agencies yet in the B2B space

5. Mobile can ACTIVATE other media channels through short-codes, it's "the glue that ties together the marketing mix" (nice line from Incentivated)

6. Killer app for mobile is email (wow - they realised ) - FT have developed some smart approaches round this e.g. when you click an email link on mobile e.g. blackberry they make sure they provide a mobile formatted view of the link

7. The key test is "Does this look sh*t on your phone?"

Apart from point 3 and some of Dan's trends I'd agree with all the others - and say I'd heard it all before - but what is interesting is that these conclusions are now emerging as firmer views, rather than ones you had to argue hard for say a year or so ago. I think point 3 is a non sequitur, cinema advertising has always been minute.

The test of the Year of the Mobile Internet is when more than say 15% of ordinary people (the typical % at jump from early adopter) start to be able to use the web easily, not give up in sheer frustration - ie when a larger number of people have an iPhone like experience.