NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

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DD Mobile Marketing Magazine Quotes of the Year

http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/2006/12/quotes_of_the_y.html

December 29, 2006
Quotes of the Year
This time last year, we’d only been around a couple of months, but even so, there was no shortage of choice quotes to choose from. This time round, with a full 12 months to go at, well, we’re spoilt for choice, so enjoy with us the pick of the quotes from the mobile marketing world in 2006, and click on any of the links to see the article they are taken from.

“Consumers do perhaps need to know about the technology, but I am not sure that the point of consumer differentiation is going to be whether they get their Mobile TV through DAB, DVB-H, Unicast, UMTS or even wi-fi. If you can provide a useful content experience, a good channel line up and a service that looks and feels like TV, that is the point where customers will buy it and you will get mass-market take-up. How it’s delivered is a nice discussion for the technology providers to have, but not a point of consumer focus.”
Peter Mercier, Director of Business Development for MobiTV Europe, pleads for more sizzle and less tecchie steak from those promoting Mobile TV.(Jan)

“The biggest problem is that there is not a consistent Vice President of Mobile Marketing in Big Brand USA. Sometimes it’s the interactive agency, sometimes it’s tied in with the traditional media budget. We are always talking to different people, and that the most significant challenge we face.”
Nick Desai, Chairman and Founder of US agency Juice Wireless on the problem of getting mobile on the corporate radar. But that was a year ago. Has anything changed? (Jan)


“It’s been bloody difficulty, to be honest. Trying to evangelise among people in ad agencies is always difficult, because they are always sceptical of new channels because they do not know how to create and conceive into that channel."
‘Mobile Evangelist’ Jim Brooks offers a UK perspective on the same thing. But, at the risk of repeating ourselves, that was nine months ago. (March)

“Sponge has the most battle-hardened platform in the mobile marketing industry. It has run more than 21,000 messaging applications, with 600 campaigns running simultaneously at present – from voting to reverse auctions to m-coupons and many, many more. Now, as part of NeoMedia, those applications will be able to be accessed on the Mobile Internet via our PaperClick code-reader, GoWindow and CodeWindow.”
Martin Copus, COO of NeoMedia, explains the reasoning behind the company’s acquisition of UK mobile agency, Sponge.(Feb)

“This agreement with Sponge is another significant step by company management to target corporate resources on the introduction of our patented qode suite of products in European markets and in North America and China. We decided it is in the best interest of our shareholders to continue to fine-tune our focus, trim our cash burn rate, and reverse substantial dilution."
9 months later, Charles T. Jensen, NeoMedia President and CEO explains the about-turn.(Nov)

“We recognised that NeoMedia were being pulled in lots of different directions, and felt this was a good opportunity for us to focus on our core business, which is doing exceptionally well. Business is very strong, we have doubled in size this year, and we now have a $6 million war-chest which we can use to grow the business in a number of different ways."
Sponge CEO Alex Meisl’s take on the affair. (Nov)


“No matter what the outcome, I can’t help thinking that whatever emerges with the advent of BlueCasting, the issue here has to be consumer choice. Communications must be targeted, permission based and above all engaging to combat consumer aversion. A mature, long-term approach that focuses on creating a dialogue with a customer - not a monologue - is essential. Otherwise, we risk wrecking the potential of this exciting, new medium.”
Lawrence Weber, Head of Digital Projects at brand response agency LIDA, cautions against the misuse of Bluecasting.(Feb)

“We do not include sites that are written and maintained by individuals.”
Google's response to Mobile Marketing Magazine’s request to be included in the roster of sites from which it takes its mobile marketing news alerts. Mobile Marketing Magazine is published by Freelance.com a private Limited Company. (March)

“To make the most of mobile’s personality, marketers need to celebrate the things that mobile does differently, while remembering that great mobile marketing concepts can also work in harmony with, and enhance, other channels. They minimise duplication and add value at a very personal level. All of this is achieved through well thought-out concept design and, most importantly, by understanding what is of real value to the end user.”
Stephen Lee, Director of Marketing at Finnish mobile software company, Max Rumpus, offers advice on how best to use the mobile channel. (March)


“The problem for publishers of mobile games content is that while the top 10 games sell well, if you’re not in that top 10, you’re pretty much out in the wasteland. The adoption rate for mobile gaming is low. So what we set out to do was to provide a way for early adopter users to educate or handhold their peers and friends to begin using these services.”
Brian Flanagan, Director of Product Development at Cascada Mobile, explains the idea behind the company’s TAG peer-to-peer referral technology. (April)

“Text is where it’s at.”
Sponge CEO Alex Meisl reminds delegates at this year’s Mobile Marketing Summit that despite the arrival of WAP, 3G et al, there’s life yet in SMS. (June)


“We want England fans to be match-fit and ready to give our boys all the support they can muster. The post-match kebab has become a ritual in towns up and down the country, so offering fans a taste of home while they are on foreign soil might help.”
Virgin Mobile’s Steve Rogan explaining how Virgin’s offer of free kebabs to England supporters would help the team bring home the World Cup. Any bright ideas for 2010 Steve? (June)


"Our research indicates that over half the adult population of the UK are receptive to receiving advertising messages on their phones, as long as it is relevant to them, comes from a qualified source and contains good offers or incentives. Pitch is the first credible mobile advertising channel where brands can target actively opted-in and fully-profiled customers across all mobile networks."
Pitch Executive Chairman David Warburton on the launch of the company’s advertising-funded mobile content service. (June)


“But isn’t it all a bit intrusive?”
Anonymous digital agency chief demonstrates to MMM Editor David Murphy just how much of a grip he has on the whole mobile marketing thing. (July)

“Direct marketers are already embracing location-based services, ticketing and WAP, so no one should imagine that these crusty old envelope stuffers are simply miles behind…According to Bellweather, digital and DM are the only two ad budgets holding steady or increasing these days - so they ought to make perfect bedfellows.”
Nick Fuller, Chair of the Direct Marketing Association’s Mobile Marketing Council, explains the strong links between mobile and direct marketing. (Aug)


“Content is the moving feast which we are constantly addressing and updating. We are building up a picture of what real paying Mobile TV consumers watch, and resourcing that accordingly. After all, you can paint your car any colour you like, but it will only go as fast as the engine allows. We believe we have the best engine. It plays faster and full screen on more handsets than any 3G TV service currently available.”
ROK TV Marketing Director Bruce Renny basks in the results of an independent survey of Mobile TV services conducted by Strategy Analytics, which put ROK in second place, behind Vodafone, but ahead of both 3 and Orange. (Aug)

“Because brands face an audience that is fragmenting, many Asian companies are going one step further, and building entire marketing campaigns with mobile gaming as the centrepiece, in an effort to get their message across to a technically aware audience. This model is achieving great success in Asia, but one crucial component in its success is pricing. The lower prices the consumer pays for games is fuelling the phenomenal growth of mobile gaming in Asia, but some companies are going one step further and giving the games away for free.”
Sean Cronin, CEO of Selatra, explains how companies can use games to their advantage as part of a mobile marketing campaign. (Oct)


“If it is true, I feel hugely sorry for them. Flytxt were the reason I got into this business in 2000 after seeing a presentation from them, and for a long time, they and 12snap had the market to themselves, but in recent years, they seem to have lost their way.”
Incentivated MD Jonathan Bass reacts to the news of the sale of Flytxt’s agency business. (Oct)


“We are confident that Neon is the right mobile marketing solution for us”
And Flytxt bounces back with a significant new business win as EMI Music UK CRM Manager, Shai Eilon explains why it opted for the company’s Neon mobile marketing platform. (Nov)

“We unreservedly apologise for this oversight, and we’re doing everything in our powers to ensure it doesn’t happen again. From the outset of this project, we realised illicit content is a serious problem with user-generated material. We have conducted a review of our censorship process and ramped-up the resources we devote to ensuring Tocmag is a clean service.”
Tocmag founder Brad Ells apologises after a Tocmag explaining how to roll a joint achieved 5,000 downloads to UK mobiles in three days. (Dec)

"qode is brilliant, in allowing readers to bypass Web addresses or search engines and go straight to the Mobile Internet…Effectively, qode is the same thing as the interactive red button on the television, but in a newspaper. NGN is keen to develop mobile as a digital distribution method. This is all part of News Group changing from a newspaper company to a media company."
News Group Newspapers Group Managing Director Mike Anderson welcomes the use of NeoMedia’s qode ‘smart codes’ to take readers of its News of the World Sunday newspaper directly to football clips on the mobile Internet. (Dec)

Stay tuned for more news, views and opitions throughout 2007. Happy New Year!

David Murphy
Editor

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