MarCom Professional

I have been using Google’s downloadable search widget on my phone for a while. It pops up a little search box on the homescreen when you press the pencil key on my N Series Nokia. It’s a nice little app that sits there minding its own business and quicker to access than a WAP based search page. All good.

I was on the Yahoo! Onesearch homepage when I noticed an ad for ‘faster search’. Who doesn’t want faster mobile internet? - So I clicked and was directed to download. Yahoo! never made it clear exactly what I was downloading, but I trust the brand and went ahead, downloaded and installed. More...

You may have woken up this morning and heard that, amongst Russia getting all ‘protective’ and the economy swandiving elegantly into the mire, that the latest iPhone has been whopped by the UK Advertising Standards Authority, because its adverts say it can access ‘the whole internet’. the ASA says it can’t and so it is fibbing.

Really? It can’t access the ‘whole internet’..?

I think, nice ASA chappies, that you might have got that wrong.

Firstly, let’s put it in context. What Apple actually mean by this (I imagine) is that, rather than dull old Mobile Internet (ahem), the iPhone opens up the world to ‘normal’ websites that do ‘normal’ things ‘normally’. More...

So there you are, sitting at home, when your doorbell goes and you eagerly grasp the parcel that is your new phone. You rush up to your bedroom (because you are a geek) and unwrap it. Oh joy. Oh delights. Oh now this just has to be seen to be believed.

ShareThis

Google’s mobile blog announced yesterday that it had been testing display ads on YouTube in the USA and Japan as ‘a first step’. Details are vague on the ad formats being trialled, the blog mentions an ‘additional branding tool’ for advertisers and Eric Schmidt has in the past expressed a a preference for ads that are embedded across the bottom of the video area itself, after trials of various ad formats on the PC Internet version of YouTube, including pre and post roll.

We have yet to see any actual mobile examples, nor it seems has anyone commenting on the news so far. More...

I spotted an enjoyable article over the weekend in The Sunday Times. Apparently the texting is breaking down social barriers and encouraging instant flirtations. Whoohoo! Bring on the LUV.

However, it seems that this is also causing plenty of social embarrassment and things are all a bit tricky in the world of the ‘techno-peck’ (I’m liking that description for the ubiquitous ‘x’). The liberal and sometimes unintentional usage of the ‘x’ means we’ve started up all sorts of relationships with people that we usually wouldn’t acknowledge. More...

Remember Tamagochi? (For all I know, it’s now cool again …) Those lovely people over at the RSPCA havelaunched a mobile game called ‘MobiDog’ (hmmm a little lacking in originality, that one) to help spread the message of responsible pet ownership. I spotted this in an advertisement feature in Metro this morning.

Our friend Russell Buckley has been busy as the Global Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association. They’ve just published their latest set of guidelines so take a look. Over at MobHappy, Russell tells us that the guidelines are for public comment too so if you want to have your say you need to do so before 5th September.

The guidelines include updated information on the mobile web, multimedia messaging and mobile video and TV. For anyone working in the industry, it’s a must-read.

Last weekend I happened upon this book in a junk shop. I recognised the cover instantly. It was one of my favourite books when I was a child.

Published in 1981, when I was around 8 years old, it contained, to my infant mind some pretty cool stuff. One of the pictures that I remember really firing my imagination at the time was the description of a pocket computer of the future.

Having paid 50p for the book, I went straight to the page, and there it was. Reading the captions and looking at the image, I was instantly struck by the fact that, actually, that future had come and that in my pocket, in the shape of my smartphone, was a device, that almost word for word, feature for feature matched the description written some twenty five years earlier. More...

Ok, so I’m hot in the office this afternoon. I look up and see the rest of the WLM team flagging in the afternoon heat. A shout goes out from one of the creatives. “Who wants an ice cream?”…… You can imagine the response. Having spent 10 minutes trying to decide what choice to make (I gave 3 options, ranked by preference) I receive my Strawberry Cornetto. DISCO.

The packaging has a mobile marketing campaign plastered all over it. Brilliant I think. Nice to see Walls doing this. And so I get stuck in …

1. Text a code to a shortcode. Standard shortcode response mechanism - I have to enter a code that is on the bottom of the ice cream lid. More...

Another month, another innovative form of mobile web advertising catches our eye. The new T-mobile mobile web portal has been branded in conjunction with the new release of the new Batman film ‘The Dark Knight’. This is the first time we’ve actually seen a takeover on an operator portal. I must say it is visually engaging and also offers some above average content, including a free trailer. Some operators are still charging users for this type of sponsored content. Doh! The takeover concept has also been used to promote the film in magazine and newspaper ads, so an interesting case of the mobile mechanic reflecting the approach in other channels (which actually works!). More...