An extract of the full list is below - see mobileindustryreview.com for the growing list.

He mentioned that on the 8th December 2008 he will retire his existing presentation deck: - Volume 1: The Communication ideal.  On the 9th December 2008, he starts his new journey Vol 2. No Way Back From Here.

I have re-posted Jonathan’s explanation below - which can also be found on his blog.

On the 8th of December in Helsinki I will close the Communication Ideal Phase of the ‘Every Single One Of Us‘ movement. The deck is online, the book is on sale, the vision is out there.

I have presented and talked with thousands of people over the last 6 months and now is the time to build the road map of how we can move toward the vision.

One thing is for certain, there is no way back from here.

I predict that every single part of what the industry types call the ‘value chain’ will fundamentally change.

Why? Because never before had we dealt with media so deeply linked to the emotions of every single one of us.

Plus the actual ‘value chain’ looks like this:

1. Every single one of us

2. Everything else

We have been looking at things from the wrong way round.

Mobility devices are more than just media channels.

Mobility devices are totally and utterly unique to all other preceding media (see the master himself, Tomi Ahonen’s brilliant summation of this fact here - sources include the legendary Alan Moore, co-writer of Communities Dominate Brands).

So much so that I believe we can only approach this from a citizen perspective.

If we consider that the world we live in is more digital as each second passes, we should also consider how convenience drives the rise of mobility.

If we consider that the mobilized world requires a re-definition of advertising itself, we should also consider how to re-structure the media industry to act in accordance to the new environment.

Presently it does not. But that’s OK because we’re all in this together. Every single one of us.

We have a mission to accomplish. From the methodology of creating armies of fanatics through to the abolition of toleration, we need paths to follow. We collectively need guidance and a collaborative mentality.

There will be companies that succeed and companies that do not. If the people of the world win, then we all win. Because we are all people after-all.

Below is one of many comments that I have stored - all saying similar things.

Yes - we see the vision but how on earth do we get there?

THAT, is what we are doing next my friends and there is simply no way back from here.

Read more on www.jonathanmacdonald.com - let’s join him for the journey - I am.

Christopher Osborne has put together an exciting program for the first event with three exciting presenters:

Yahoo Fire Eagle – Gary Gale (Yahoo! Geo Technologies)
CloudMade/Open Street Map – Nick Black (CloudMade)
Location Based Advertising – Andrew Grill (London Calling)

The presentations will be deliberately short, around ten minutes, with plenty of time for questions and answers. Afterwards, there will be an hour of networking and social time.

The event starts at 6:00pm @Google HQ, Belgrave House, 76 Buckingham Palace Road, London. SW1W 9TQ. Expect it to last for a couple of hours, and perhaps a few pints at the pub after.

It is free to attend but they need to know who and how many people are coming, so signup for the group at http://gmdlondon.ning.com/ and RSVP to the event here.

I look forward to seeing you there.

I had the chance to catch up with Scott recently and get an update on what the crew at Mippin are doing - including their recent social add-on.

Scott comments on the COM post are below:

My blog of the week is from Andrew Grill at London Calling who uses a ‘Ask, don’t tell’ is the recommended mantra for advertisers, particularly in the mobile media where the relationship with the device is far more intimate than other channels. Nice post.

Why not head over to the Mippin blog to see this week’s best of mobile.

There have already been a number of write-ups of the event, but the most interesting one came from Alan Patrick who was not even at the event. He was following the 30 or so people such as myself at the event who were providing updates via twitter.  His review is based entirely on the #FOM channel twitter discussion. 

You can also see some great shots from Rudy De Waele taken at the event as well as some of mine taken from the stage.

The day had a broad range of speakers and themes, including a great keynote from Rudy de Waele of M Trends, Doug Richard from Trutap, and Mathew Millar from Adobe.

There was also a panel session with David Wood from Symbian,  Olivier Bartholot from Purple Labs, Jason Langridge from Microsoft and Rich Miner from Google - all debating “what makes the smartphone smart”.

Two brilliant presentations were also given by Tomi Ahonen and Jonathan MacDonald that really made the room think.  Seeing these two together is a must for anyone in the mobile space.  I can’t wait to read Tomi’s new book - I should receive it this week.

One of the key innovations of the conference was a session with 6 UK bloggers (including myself) all with 6 minutes to talk about their view of the industry.  We heard great presentations from James Whatley, Vero Pepperrell, Helen Keegan, Jemima Kiss and Ewan MacLeod on their pet subjects and issues.

What was interesting to me was the instant feedback received on each of the talks via the #FOM twitter feed - a selection of responses to my presentation is below. 

jonhurlock: #FOM http://moourl.com/qzj5m “if you talked to people the way advertising talked to peopl, they’d punch you in the face.” Andrew Grill Slide

geirfreysson: #FoM “At London Calling … we call it like it is.” Hence the name.

geekyouup: #FOM - 6×6 Andrew Grill - ‘Ask don’t tell’ is no1 rule for mobile adverts

ClaireBoo: #FOM. OK, first starting with Andrew Grill, http://www.london-calling.org.uk Mobile Advertising Evangelist. Aussie 

geekyouup: #FOM - Andrew Grill used the worlds most successful mobile ad campaign to help propose, great stuff. Check is blog.

jamesbody: #fom - Andrew Grill’s Three ‘P’s - and the live video link-up with is N95 worked - good stuff!thomo:#fom Andrew Grill. Great talk The first time I’ve ever seen anyone use a mobile phone live whilst talking about mobile. Genius

justindavies: Just got to FoM, Andrew Grill just finished talking about mobile advertising

 

More on the conference can be found at www.future-of-mobile.com. Well done to Dominic Travers and the team at Carsonified for a great conference and thanks for the opportunity to speak. Here’s to FOM 2009.

 

 

The above cartoon by Hugh MacLeod is one of my favourites, and my friend and fellow mobile advertising evangelist, Jonathan MacDonald also uses it in his presentations (and pointed me to Hugh’s great work).

It says so much about the state of mobile advertising, and why the critics still say it is not working.  The latest MMA study points to increased receptiveness but we’re still not there as long as we treat mobile advertising as just an extension of the internet, and the broadcast model.

The key with advertising in the new world (across all mediums) is to ask permission. Consumers are becoming more and more savvy, and able to actively tune out advertising anyway, so if as an industry we want to connect with people who we think might like (and buy) our products, then something fundamental has to change.

Asking for permission is not easy in any relationship (think about the first time you asked your partner out - you were probably a bit nervous as to the response), let alone one that is ultimately a commercial relationship where one party seeks to benefit over the other.

A recent post on MSearchGroove by James Cameron highlights how mobile advertising pioneers such as Admob are now talking about engagement rather than broadcast.  James’ post highlights a story where AdMob’s Russell Buckley was extremely inconvenienced by his credit card provider, so has now changed providers as a result.

Taking a direct quote from the post:

“….The mobile device is first and foremost a communication tool, not a broadcast channel. If you enable communication and dialogue, then users will tell brands what they want, when they want it and also when they don’t, which in turn creates a scenario where marketing becomes a user controlled service.”

When things happen to US we often only then think about how it might affect other people.  When I present at conferences I always challenge the room to take whatever they are talking about to the front desk of the hotel and ask the person behind the desk if they would use their service - if they say “no” then you know you’re in trouble.

The thing is that it will take more than just Jonathan and myself and others to keep banging on about seeking permission to advertise to change the industry.  To the traditional AdMan (or Ad Person) it’s all about telling them via a broadcast medium.  With mobile though - this just won’t wash.

With mobile we have a golden opportunity to open up the communication channels

One of my clients, Gigafone is operating firmly within the 3 P’s of mobile marketing - as outlined by Jonathan MacDonald of privacy, preference and permission.

What I really like about the Gigafone proposition is that the mobile application ASKS the user what they are interested in (see an example on the left) - hence using their preferences in a meaningful way. 

Once the user has told the application a bit about themselves, the solution presents full screen, engaging and exciting mobile ads when the phone rings or an SMS is received.

Importantly the solution does not in any way impact how they use the phone - they still can answer the call or SMS  and then go back the ad (which is absolutely relevant to their profile) one they have finished the call.

The solution has been successfully deployed in Russia to 600,000 users who receive a benefit (extra minutes, SMS or free content) from their mobile operator for every ad they view.

Large brands are also very interested in the concept because with a clever dialogue between the user and the brand, relevant offers can be sent to the mobile phone in the form of coupons, discounts and special offers that are of direct benefit.  In a downturn, show me a consumer who does not want to save money.

Companies such as Tesco with their successful Clubcard could enhance their CRM tools exponentially by asking their customers for their preferences up front (via the mobile), instead of having to mine billions of transactions to then guess what they are interested in. 

Sending coupons via the return path of the mobile has also got to be more effective than sending out coupons in the mail. Tesco - please contact me - I can help you save millions of ££ and generate even happier customers!

The point I am trying to make is that mobile advertising 2.0 is a new way of looking at traditional advertising and it is a disruptive play - but one that needs to happen.  Users will become frustrated if all they receive are banner ads while they are browsing that have no relevance to what they are looking for, or is aligned with their interests.

Shown below is a recent mobile ad I received while browsing the internet - served from a well known ad network. I can’t begin to explain how much of a FAIL this is on so many fronts - an example of a completely irrelevant, offensive and untargeted ad on my mobile.  No wonder people thing mobile advertising has a long way to go.

If we ask, we may be surprised with the response.  If as advertisers we are clear about what the benefit is, then users will be encouraged to tell us a little about themselves, in exchange for a benefit AND be delighted when the advertising they receive is actually of interest to them.  The mobile is best placed to be the way to ask permission, respect privacy and provide for preference. 

Two great examples of this - the first is from Blyk, where I am told anecdotally that subscribers to their service don’t see the advertising as ads - they see it as content because it is relevant to them (Blyk is an ad-funded MVNO for 16-24 year olds and like Gigafone they also ask the user for their preferences).

The second great example is my Wife Samantha.  She said to me recently that “there are no ads on Google” - and she is right.  When she is searching for something particularly relevant to her (antique furniture) the results she sees are actually ads (companies have paid in one way or another to appear there) but she sees the results as content.  This is because she has told Google what she’s interested in and Google have returned the most relevant results.

Why then in 2008 do we treat people as “receivers” who we think willingly consume our ads?  It goes back to Hugh’s great cartoon above

“If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they’d punch you in the face.”

When it comes to mobile advertising, let’s ask - don’t tell.

If you’d like to know more about Gigafone, please contact me.  I will also be presenting at the Future of Mobile event on Monday 17th November in London, and also on a Panel and Chairing a whole day at the IIR Mobile Content Conference in London 18 - 21 November.  I’d love to hear from you or meet you in person at any of these events.

The Mobile Marketing Association annual study finds increase in mobile marketing receptiveness and Adoption Global Study.  It also provides insight into consumer attitude and usage for Mobile Marketing in selected markets World-wide

New York; London, UK; Singapore and Sao Paulo, 12 November, 2008—The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) (www.mmaglobal.com) today released its Annual Mobile Attitude and Usage Study, conducted with research partner Synovate.

With the objective of helping brands and advertisers understand the habits of mobile users, the study provides insights into overall consumer mobile usage by demographic group as well as the awareness for the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America markets. The study’s key global findings include:

Overall interest in mobile marketing varies by geography.  The United States and Western Europe report comparable interest levels in mobile marketing; similar interest levels are also noted among mobile phone users in Asia Pacific and Latin American markets.

• One-in-four mobile users in the US and Western Europe express strong or moderate interest in mobile marketing
• Interest levels are higher in Asia Pacific and Latin American markets where roughly one-half and two-thirds of mobile users respectively express strong or moderate interest.
• In all regions, “text-to-win” and interactive voting campaigns are the most common efforts in which mobile users have participated. 
• Echoing receptivity to mobile marketing overall, Asia Pacific and Latin American markets report greater participation in mobile marketing efforts; roughly one-in-five mobile users in these regions report having participated in mobile marketing efforts in the past year.
• Creating strong market opportunity for mobile marketers, across all countries and regions surveyed, heavy penetration and reliance on mobile phones combined with strong feature, text and mobile web usage indicate a willingness to accept mobile phones as devices that reach beyond traditional communications. 
• More than half of mobile consumers (regardless of market) report that their mobile phone is “highly important” to their daily life.
• Mobile feature usage of non voice applications (text, mobile web, camera and picture messaging) is strong in all markets.

“The Annual Mobile Attitude and Usage Study is one of the most powerful tools available in our industry and we are pleased to expand the number of countries profiled in this year’s study,” said Laura Marriott, president of the MMA. “Consumers are becoming more adept at using their mobile devices, opening the door to help them to explore and discover mobile marketing campaigns.”

“Overall interest levels in the mobile marketing concept vary by market and geographic region – however, common in all markets is the importance of mobile phones in daily life.  Further, all markets show an ever increasing reliance on services that are precursors and enablers to mobile marketing efforts,” said Beth Ritchey, Vice President, Synovate Tech and Telecom.  “This year’s Mobile Attitude and Usage Study contains a wealth of information geared to help marketers understand market trends and opportunities in both individual markets and geographic regions.”

The global study covers the following markets: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. The study is available on Monday, November 17, free of charge, to all current MMA Global and Regional members and available at a discount for MMA Local Council members. 

The market studies will also be available, for sale, after December 1.�
For more information, visit www.mmaglobal.com

Pepsi’s “Kung Fu Fighting” Widget is a mobile software application that is part of an international TV ad campaign for the Pepsi brand and beverages that began airing last week in Latin America.

Pepsi’s TV commercial for “Kung Fu Fighting” features modern remakes of the 1974 funk classic “Kung Fu Fighting,” and centres on a light-hearted competition to win the last can of Pepsi. In an attempt to secure the can, people break out in a freestyle dance-off to the sounds of “Kung Fu Fighting,” as remastered by Grammy-award winning artists Shaggy and T-Pain, along with hot new female recording artist Tami Chynn. The TV ad also features comedic actor Verne Troyer - from Austin Powers fame (Mini Me).

The “Kung Fu Fighting” mobile application, built using browser-based “Widget” technology from Nokia, enables mobile subscribers to play a game, view exclusive media, and link to the Pepsi website through devices based on S60 from Nokia and other manufacturers, as well as Nokia Series 40 devices. The Widget is available for download exclusively on www.pepsimundo.com.

Pepsi Latin America initially approached Forum Nokia to identify developer resources capable of delivering applications that can align branding, messaging and call to action results, and to take advantage of Nokia’s significant device market share throughout the Latin America. Forum Nokia provided the referral to the mobile development team of AgencyNet, which is a member of the premium-level Forum Nokia PRO developer program.

You can read more about the campaign and AgencyNet’s involvement in the online press release, or watch a quick teaser video.

Recently I had the chance to meet and interview Steve Ives who is the CEO of Taptu so I’m happy to post the release below verbatim.  Well done Taptu!

Taptu chosen to provide search functionality for over two million users and enrich itsmy.com’s revenue earning potential

LONDON, Nov 03, 2008 itsmy.com www.itsmy.com, one of the largest global mobile communities has chosen Taptu www.taptu.com, an award-winning, pure-play search engine designed specifically for mobile, to provide itsmy.com’s growing community with a super fast search service, and access to an index of mobile-friendly web content.

The move will see itsmy.com’s community of over two million users gain instant access to a variety of content via Taptu. Taptu’s strength is entertainment search; helping users find and enjoy a wealth of mobile content such as videos, music, images and lots more.

Taptu finds the best of the web for mobile phones; serving content to mobile devices that looks great and can be easily shared amongst friends. itsmy.com has chosen to add Taptu’s search functionality to give its users a rich mobile search experience; they can now search for entertaining mobile Internet content from within their community and also directly from their personal mobile homepage.

In addition to core search functionality, Taptu can now offer mobile partners, like itsmy.com, mobile search sponsored links. This provides partners with a new incremental revenue stream, and gives advertisers access to high-value and young audiences in a relevant and efficient way. With worldwide mobile advertising projected to surpass $2.7 billion in 2008*, the opportunity is clear.

*Source: Gartner “How to Move The Mobile Advertising Market Forward.” March 2008.

Steve Ives, CEO at Taptu says of the partnership: “Despite the tightening financial environment, the mobile Internet continues to grow and advertisers are demanding better return on investment around marketing spend. Mobile search advertising offers far greater efficiency. It’s important for Taptu to partner with companies that share our vision. itsmy.com, like us, is focused on innovation and so we feel that this partnership is beneficial for both of us.”

Antonio Vince Staybl, CEO at itsmy.com says, “We wanted to work with a company that really ‘gets’ mobile and understands that desktop search isn’t mobile search. Taptu is made for mobile and we love its unique and social way to search the mobile web. That’s exactly what we were looking for in a partner and that’s why we have replaced our existing provider.”

I’ve just been invited to Chair the whole of day 3, and also sit on a panel at the IIR Mobile Content Conference in London in the next couple of weeks.

The Panel topic is “What Are The Biggest Hurdles To Developing A Profitable Mobile Advertising Ecosystem?” and I will be joined on the panel (Chaired by Jonathan MacDonald from Ogilvyone) by

• Dan Rosen, Head of Mobile, AKQA
• Harry Dewhirst, Co-Founder & Media Director, RINGRING MEDIA

More details can be found on the conference website and I look forward to seeing you there, or at the Future of Mobile conference the day before where I will also be speaking.

Their current theme is “Space is the Place” and my article on location fits well into this theme.

Over the coming weeks, contributors to receiver’s “Space is the place” edition include: Sean Gorman, Jonathan Raper, Kazys Varnelis, Michael DiBernardo, Jonathan Follett, Anne Galloway, Arno Scharl, Martijn de Waal, and Dan Simmons. 

If you haven’t seen the Receiver Magazine yet, why not have a look?

This time round, it seems like it was a fair bit of work - so please visit the Spinning Around site for the full list. 

London Calling is up 10 places on the UK chart this month to 27 and 73 places on the global chart to 294 - so thanks for reading!

This is a question my wife and parents have been asking me for a while now.  David Murphy from Mobile Marketing Magazine decided to ask me recently when we met at the Symbian Smartphone show in London.

Read what he found out over on his site.

It was quite a conference on a number of fronts, and over the weekend I will be providing a more comprehensive review.  In the meantime, have a look at James Cameron’s thoughts over on msearchgroove.

One of the highlights was to have David Wasser, Co-Founder of SharpMind repeat my mythbusting on the “Starbucks” location advertising example - good to see the message is getting through.

The MSG website is being given a fresh lick of paint over the weekend and I can’t wait for the results.

Expect London Calling to be featured in the new knowledge sharing section - thanks Peggy.

Hear over to Telematics Update to read my views.  Thanks Thomas for the opportunity to respond to the discussion.

In summary - the current environment presents marketers with a huge opportunity to provide consumers with a real benefit.  We must however ensure we get the 3 P’s of mobile advertising right.

This week the carnival caters for three separate audiences:

• Posts relevant for those developing for mobile.
• Advertising related - there is a nice catch of ad related posts.
• Readings built around metaphors and associations.  #

Tsahi’s says on the blog

Advertising in mobile doesn’t quite cut it yet. For a good explanation of why mobile advertising is broken and ways to fix it, Andrew Grill at London Calling provides a nice summary. Although advertising is not my cup of tea, I really liked this piece, so I bet you will as well.

Head over to Voip survivor to read this week’s latest in mobile.

Next week in Berlin, I have been invited to give a keynote at the LBS 2008 conference run by IIR Conferences.  I am no stranger to this event, having spoken at, sponsored and chaired the LBS 2006 conference in London, and the LBS 2007 conference in Madrid.

Since leaving Seeker Wireless in July, I have been inundated with opportunities to speak at a number of conferences covering location, so it is humbling that my knowledge and experience in this area is still in demand.

At the Berlin conference, I will be giving a keynote on “Examining Techniques For Generating Revenue From Location Enabled Mobile Advertising”.  This is a timely subject given my focus at the moment on mobile advertising and also where the LBS industry heading.  It is also good to see that a whole session of the conference has been dedicated to location enabled advertising.

I will also be participating on a panel session: “Can Location Deliver On The Hype Surrounding Mobile Advertising” with the following esteemed friends and colleagues:

Peggy Salz, Publisher & Chief Analyst, MSearchGroove.com
Alain Heureux, President, IAB EUROPE
Jonathan MacDonald, Senior Consultant, Ogilvy

Jonathan is also chair of the day, and giving a keynote after mine.  Jonathan is one of the key thought leaders in this space, and I posted recently on his presentation at the MMA forum in Budapest a few weeks ago. What he doesn’t know about the mobile advertising space isn’t worth knowing.

It should be a great event and I look forward to sharing my thoughts and experiences around two of my passions, advertising, and location with some seriously smart people.

More information on the conference can be found at the LBS 2008 website.

Peggy gives a great introduction to the post over on msearchgroove, and Jonathan Macdonald, one of the drivers behind this post has also left a comment, and added his own intro on his blog.

Do you agree with my post below?  Please feel free to join the discussion and leave a comment or contact me directly.  I am actively working with many parts of the mobile ecosystem to make sure we help provide a solution to the issues I raise below - so the post is a call to action.  Are you with me?

Like many MSearchGroove readers, I look forward to catching up on the weekend papers over a quiet coffee. As per normal, this week I grabbed a copy of the Daily Telegraph and was surprised at how heavy it had become. It literally broke the handles off my fabric carry bag.

After sitting down with my venti latte, I sifted through the different folds to see what I would read and what sections I would rather skip. As it turned out, for my £1.60, I found I only really wanted to read the main news fold, the business section, and the glossy Saturday magazine. The rest ends up in the recycling bin -along with all of the advertising brands assumed would interest me. If they only knew!

I then proceeded to rip open the plastic sealed weekend magazine section; I was amazed at the number of inserts that were contained - all of which I discarded. In fact, I cannot recall one single advertisement. Again, not the response that an advertiser - who spent money to reach me- would appreciate. But, as I argue in this column, advertisers are not reaching us. To the contrary, the way they communicate with us (or rather, how they think they communicate with us) is outdated and ineffective.

Put another way, the traditional way of advertising is not working. And the advertising I ignore or simply throw away is proof of this. It’s a waste of money and effort, and - what’s worse - advertisers have no real way of knowing they have failed.

John Wanamaker, considered the father of modern advertising once famously said that half of all advertising is wasted - but we need to know which half in order to improve it.

At first it seemed as if the Internet solved that problem. The advance of search engine giants Google and Yahoo in the late 1990s provided advertisers a new way of reaching consumers, targeting them with advertising relevant to keywords in their search queries. And let’s not forget the euphoria around email and its pivotal role as the perfect “one-to-one” marketing tool. Well, spam changed all that, and no one would regard email as a serious tool today. If you aren’t convinced, then consider Gmail - a free email service sponsored by ads. It’s touted as a great success, but when was the last time you clicked on a Gmail ad? Hmmm…I thought so.

The new object of our aspirations is the mobile phone. The logic: It’s a personal device and a lot of people take them everywhere. What a wonderful medium to deliver advertising! Even better if we can deliver mobile advertising to the right user in the right circumstance. It is a tempting scenario, and the vast majority of people - including myself - have been talking up this new medium because it has the potential to become the Holy Grail for advertisers. But mobile hasn’t happened yet. Mobile advertising budgets are single-digits, and money earmarked for campaigns is internally referred to in many agencies as “funny money,” underlining its strategic importance (or lack of it).

The bottom line: So something is broken. But we need to understand what is broken first before we can attempt to fix it.

We can start by pointing the finger of blame at ourselves. We fail to understand that mobile is mobile. It is different from all the media preceding it (cinema > radio > TV > Internet). It’s a new space with new rules.

Consider the introduction of TV. At first it was “radio with pictures” (because it followed and therefore built on the radio experience that preceded it). Advertising? In the early days of TV, this was limited to a live voiceover with a few shots of the product thrown in for effect.

And so are we about to repeat this mistake again? The mobile is widely regarded as just another screen (only smaller) and the mobile Internet is about delivering Internet content to mobile devices. I argue that mobile is much more than this, and it requires a new approach.

This becomes painfully obvious when we look at advertising. Internet advertising was all about getting the attention of the user with flashy graphics, banners, pop-ups, pop-unders and the like. We all got fed up with that rather quickly, which is why most browsers now allow us to block out banner ads.

We are tuning out because we can. And new technologies provide us new tools to make sure we only see what we want to see. To get our attention, advertising messages have to be relevant and genuinely useful. And here’s the one that changes all the rules: Advertisers have to ask before they sell.

This is the view of my friend and fellow mobile advertising evangelist, Jonathan MacDonald, a Senior Consultant with OgilvyOne. At the recent Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) conference in Hungary, Jonathan drove this point home in a powerful presentation where he outlined his 3 Ps of mobile advertising (privacy, permission, preference). You can read my comprehensive post on his presentation here.

Put simply, Jonathan’s 3Ps can be defined as follows:

· Permission - People will decide what they see/receive/engage with, so we need to ask their permission

· Privacy - People will decide where their data is and how it is used, so we need to respect their privacy.

· Preference - People will decide what content they find relevant, so inference and assumption have a limited lifespan

I imagine the first two are nothing new. The popular discussions around opt-in and data protection are early attempts to address these requirements. But preference - and accepting that people will decide what content they want. How are we going to achieve this?

Simple - we ask.

We ask consumers to tell us what they are interested in, and we provide them with a benefit for doing so - and we do this via the mobile channel. Why mobile? Because it is a personal device that research tells us the vast majority (94 percent) of us keep within arm’s reach 24/7.

So we have a suitable medium. How do we ask people for permission and learn about their preferences without annoying them in the process?

Clever companies such as Gigafone have come up with some smart approaches that tick all the boxes.

Gigafone lets consumers opt in to receive advertising, and asks them to fill out their preferences using their mobile phone. Then, when the phone rings or an SMS is received, they are shown an ad related to this profile that they have freely offered. This advertising model is also unobtrusive because it fits with our daily routine. When our mobiles ring or beep, our first reaction is to stop what we’re doing to look at the display. Now when consumers look, they see advertising that they have permitted. They are in control and Gigafone, by delivering advertising consumers themselves deem relevant, has won their trust.

But don’t take my word for it. Mobile advertising pioneers such as Blyk have long proven this model drives results. The company, which offers ad-funded mobile services to the 16 - 24 year old demographic, counts more than 200,000 users in the U.K., and recently announced plans to expand across Europe. (You can check out MSG’s in-depth analysis here.)

But the Gigafone model does more than meet the requirements of empowered consumers. It addresses the issue of measurement and the metrics by which advertisers can judge their campaign performance.

Advertisers that broadcast using radio or TV can only guess how many people got the message. And tracking conversion is even trickier. Mobile - especially if it is tied to permission - solves both problems at a fraction of the cost. What’s more, asking consumers to divulge their preferences (which the examples I’ve noted show they’re happy enough to do on a mobile phone) ensures the right person will see the ad. Now that’s a key performance metric no other media can offer.

But there will be challenges. We may be shocked to find that that some consumers (or a lot actually) may reject existing approaches used for mobile advertising because the advertising they are seeing is not of interest to them. But if we can reach the consumers who want our advertising (by asking them), then we are achieving a great deal. We can deliver advertising effectively and be assured it is indeed effective.

Think this through carefully and we may have revolution on our hands - who would have thought?

Fortunately, the signs of a movement of sorts are growing.

At the same MMA conference where Jonathan spoke, I also witnessed a brilliant keynote from Khurram Hamid, Global Head of Mobile Marketing for Procter and Gamble. When the world’s biggest advertiser, with 350 brands across 54 countries, starts talking up mobile - it is time to take notice. (You can see the full post on my blog. If you read nothing else today - you need to read this post.)

The key takeaways from Khurram’s presentation:

• Mobile vendors need to learn marketing, and marketing players need to learn mobile.
• Mobile is the first truly global direct to consumer mass medium for the 21st century.
• The planning agency should take the lead on mobile.
• Sometimes the key agencies are very slow and the brand needs to navigate outside to get things done.
• We are seeing the same attitude as with online a few years ago - and only spending small amounts on mobile.
• The media planners need to be the leaders - if you’re not going to then we (the brands) will have to bypass you.

More critical insight into the state of mobile advertising comes from Vodafone, which recently sponsored an international Mobile Marketing seminar bringing together 100 invitation-only delegates from 70 major brands and agencies. As part of the event, Vodafone conducted a delegate survey to better understand their views on mobile advertising. (For a summary of the results, check out this post on MobiAd News.)

Put simply, mobile advertising is still seen as a low priority for businesses at the moment, with 70 percent of respondents saying they allocate less than 1 percent of total budget to mobile. Of the brands surveyed, 29 percent think mobile is a top/high priority for their marketing strategy.

What are the barriers? The usual suspects: Lack of Evaluation Tools/Metrics for campaign planning; a resistance of players to free up budget for mobile; and a lack of measurement for judging campaign success.

The results confirm my argument that mobile advertising is not working (yet), and underline the need for solutions. We must fix mobile advertising - otherwise brands may think mobile is a tough nut to crack and abandon it altogether.

Let’s focus on a key complaint from brands at the MMA event, which echoes in the Vodafone survey. The industry suffers from a lack of useful data - primarily because mobile operators have so far failed to collect the metrics that matter.

Why? Because mobile operators have never needed to ask mobile subscribers the sort of questions that advertisers need answered in order to properly place their advertising. Questions like what are your hobbies, your lifestyle interests, and how do you spend your leisure time are of immense interest to advertisers. But mobile operators - whose corporate DNA is all about getting consumers to send more texts, make more calls, and consume more mobile Internet - don’t need to know consumers’ preferences, so they simply don’t ask.

Ironically, mobile operators have a wealth of data, such as the numbers we called, the destinations we browsed, the content we bought - and the time of day when all this transpired. Mobile operators might take it a step further and warehouse location information - adding more value to the data they already have.

There is no shortage of data, and, in a way, that’s the problem. Operators have stockpiles of information - just not the format or the focus that advertisers find genuinely useful.

An entire industry is built around mining the data, and many of these solutions are spot on. But programs that mine the billions of call records and make sense of them will always come up short because without the permission of consumers and the insights into their preferences (which they provide themselves, so it can’t be anything but correct), we can only second guess what people really want.

As I said before, we need to ask - not assume.

Who is going to start this conversation? Khurram from Procter and Gamble hinted that brands may make their move. Rather than wait for mobile operators to collect the right data, they may just source it themselves.

And why shouldn’t they? I would argue that brands may be best placed to ask people for permission and preference.

If we have a relationship with a brand and can see a benefit in volunteering information about ourselves (via mobile), then we may be willing to do just that. If this happens, then the currency of preference and permission will belong to the advertisers and not to the mobile operators.

Will brands displace mobile operators in this value chain? Will they wield the analytics that allow them to deliver the right ad to the right person with right results? Or will mobile operators beat the brands at their own game and kick off the conversation with consumers first?

There are no easy answers.

One thing for certain: Mobile changes all the rules. We must all recognise and apply this in earnest. Mobile is a personal device, and we have to get personal. This means developing mobile campaigns that adhere to Jonathan’s 3Ps - that start by asking people their permission and inquiring about their preferences (while respecting and allowing them to manage their privacy).

Only then, in my opinion, will the way be clear for mobile advertising to really take off.

Welcome to edition 146 of Carnival of the Mobilists.
It might be my birthday this week, but you get all the presents in terms of some fantastic posts from the world of mobile. This week, the carnival comes to you from London as the attention of the mobile world is focussed on Earls Court and Symbian’s annual Smartphone Show.

We start a jam packed carnival this week with an interesting post from Chetan Sharma on the 3G americas analyst summit in Dallas where the discussions were around LTE, future applications and services, infrastructure requirements, and femtocells.

Tsahi Levent-Levi weighs in with a post about What Makes Mobile Video Calls Quality Poor and How to Fix it. He explains that while mobile video telephony isn’t that good today in terms of quality, by changing the imaging on the handsets, this can be improved.

Rudy De Waele from mtrends has some tickets to give away for the Under the Radar mobility event to be held on November 12, 2008 in Mountain View, CA — for a showcase of cutting-edge mobile startups from around the globe including My6Sense (Israel), Bambuser (Norway), Soocial (Holland),and  Apisphere (USA).

Carn