In today’s Washington Post, columnist Kim Hart tackled the touchy subject of whether mobile ads are useful or annoying. Of course, those of us who believe that mobile marketing is the wave of the future would hope that mobile ads, if done responsibly, are mutually beneficial to both customers and advertisers. Perhaps they can even be entertaining to mobile phone users.

Kim’s article, which is an interesting and brief read, is honest in acknowledging that mobile marketing on the whole is still in experimental stages and faces hurdles, particularly as they relate to mobile phone users who don’t have unlimited data plans and may be at a financial disadvantage from mobile ads.

Nonetheless, I can’t help but believe that this mainstream discussion about the future of mobile marketing and challenges facing its application is ultimately to the enormous benefit of the entire industry. The world is slowly recognizing the future of advertising and realizing that the kinks in the system must be worked out sooner rather than later.

Check out Kim’s article at the Washington Post and join the debate about mobile marketing and how it can be tweaked for perfection.

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I’m always interested to learn more about companies that proclaim to be a “complete mobile marketing agency.” Since many falter in terms of their actual ability to live up to the “complete” aspect without outsourcing certain elements of the mobile marketing to other organizations, I have remained impressed by the good words I continue to hear about Air2Web.

Setting a “vigorous path and pace” to new heights in mobile marketing, Air2Web, a mobile marketing firm that specializes in linking consumers with brands, has announced “major corporate milestones” poised to expand their capabilities and secure a perch atop the mobile marketing heap.

According to the company’s website, so far in 2008, Air2Web has:

• Launched a new Agency Programs practice, the first initiative designed to help marketing agencies with implementing and tracking mobile marketing campaigns for their clients
• Continued to receive third-party validation for its technology innovation and growth, being awarded with the Technology Association of Georgia’s Top 40 Innovators award and Frost & Sullivan’s 2008 North American Mobility award for the second year in a row
• Launched new Mobile Marketing Solution Series, a game-changing approach to how brands and marketers interact with consumers via mobile devices

“Air2Web’s recent achievements have furthered our company’s position as a leader in the mobile marketing industry,” said Bill Jones, president of Air2Web. “We continually center our work on the belief that all marketing starts with a conversation. More than ever, consumers are willing to interact with brands across multiple platforms. Air2Web’s solutions are targeted to easily initiate that conversation via mobile and provide a way for brands and agencies to develop successful campaigns that are relevant to their customers.”

Anyone looking for information on comprehensive mobile marketing campaigns or how to astutely manage a mobile marketing firm would be wise to check out Air2Web online.

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An FTC town hall meeting about mobile ads and consumer protection was held yesterday, where two leading advocacy groups filed complaints regarding several mobile marketing practices. Most notably, location-based marketing, where advertisers know a user’s exact location, was brought under fire.

Jeff Chester, founder and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, along with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group combined efforts to rally the FTC for more guidelines when it comes to behavioral targeting in general. The groups argue that marketers should not track people’s web-surfing activity for the purpose of compiling profiles about them without first obtaining their consent. Jeff Chester commented…

“…We’re filing a complaint to force the FTC to take a proactive stance. Mobile ad companies incorporate the same problematic business practices that we witnessed with PC-based broadband marketing, including behavioral targeting and profiling techniques–except that this time they know your location…”

The groups hope to influence policy now, while the mobile ad market is still in its infancy. Specifically, they intend to call on the FTC to create a task force that will include consumer representatives and industry leaders to craft a marketing regime that gives priority to privacy. They also intend to push for special rules regulating mobile ads to children and teens.

The FCC already has rules in place that prohibit the use of SMS marketing without a user’s consent, but other types of marketing like WAPl banners and search ads are not similarly restricted. The groups have observed that mobile marketing practices raise more privacy concerns than desktop-based behavioral targeting, because mobile companies can potentially determine a user’s precise physical location. By contrast, targeting that relies on cookies to track a user’s Internet history is usually anonymous and not tied to offline information such as location.

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SnapTell, which we’ve covered before, is a leading provider of image-recognition based mobile marketing services, that today announced they’ve reached a milestone with their revolutionary service.

With their recently released “Mobile Entertainment Explorer” user’s can simply snap a photo of things like CD covers, DVD and BluRay covers, and various games with their camera phones, send it via MMS to SnapTell, and instantly be returned a series of content related to the specific title.  Content like reviews, prices, run times, descriptions of the content and links to buy the DVD, CD or video game, plus more can be sent back to the user via MMS.

Even though it’s still a relatively new service, SnapTell has already grown it’s database to over one million titles, which is quite an accomplishment.  Since it’s ever-growing, it won’t be long until users can access just about any information regarding any media title available using it’s image recognition technology.

The system uses their popular Snap.Send.Get platform that’s available on any mobile device with a camera.  Since it uses MMS transmissions, it needs no special software running on the device, and since the image recognition server can decipher an image of low or poor quality, almost any camera phone can be used to snap the photo.

“…We’re dedicated to providing consumers the simplest means to access desired information on their phones, and now reaching one million in entertainment titles empowers the consumer to make smart decisions when they are out and about and away from their PCs,” said Gautam Bhargava, CEO and Co-Founder of SnapTell. “As we push the image-recognition technology frontier, we will provide solutions similar to the Mobile Entertainment Explorer that help consumers with their day-to-day decisions…”

If you’d like to try out their Mobile Entertainment Explorer, head over to their website to view a demo.  You can simply snap a photo of a DVD cover they’ve displayed, send it as an MMS to fun@snaptell.com, and see the technology in action.  Pretty cool stuff.

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Although it would be easy to gain the impression from Mobile Marketing Watch that the advertising world has grown completely dominated by new opportunities and technologies in the field of mobile marketing, it turns out that only about 20% of all online advertisers are currently involved in mobile marketing. The majority of advertisers remain satisfied with the “wired Web.”

According to a new study by JupiterResearch, “Holding marketers back from mobile marketing are a number of factors including consumer reticence, limited reach, insufficient measurement and a simple lack of familiarity with the medium.”

But as Online Media Daily columnist Mark Walsh astutely observed, now is the time for new firms to begin experimenting with mobile marketing before it grows into the rule rather than the exception of digital advertising. Best of all, for even the smallest of business upstarts, mobile marketing remains relatively inexpensive in modest capacity while retaining enormous potential for gain.

Even though economic conditions have not been ideal for many businesses this year, Jupiter analyst Neil Strother doesn’t anticipate mobile marketing budgets to be slashed considerably. “Mainly,” says Strother, “because they’re already so small, just 1% of online advertisers’ spending.”

If location means everything in real estate, timing could prove just as important in the world of mobile marketing. And according to the experts, there’s never been a better time to venture into what many agree will become the dominant force in the advertising industry’s future.

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The folks at Site5 are helping me get the blog back in order. Not sure what occurred yet, still getting things back online.

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We’ve covered bluetooth proximity marketing before, that usually consist of a small module or something based on a PC or laptop, but I found a new app today that turns your cell phone into your very own mobile proximity marketing system.

ProxiBlaster offers several proximity marketing solutions in both software-only versions, and software and hardware combinations. The most notable solution is their Mobile ProxiBlaster software, that’s available for download directly to your cell phone. it then allows you to run your own mobile marketing campaign just like a normal push-bluetooth marketing campaign. According their website;

“…This is the first proximity marketing software specifically written to operate on a cell phone or PDA ! Mobile BlueCast turns your cell phone into a mobile proximity marketing machine ! When running this software on your cell phone you are literally a walking digital billboard broadcasting your message or advertisment to every cell phone you walk near!…”

It looks like it’s only available on a select number of phones, and has only been tested on the Nokia N95 and M93 successfully so far. It’s intended mostly for Java-based devices, but you can download a demo here, or download the app directly by going to “http://proxiblaster.com/mobile/mobilebcast.jar” on your device.

I think it’s a great idea, despite the privacy concerns surrounding the push-marketing aspects. It’s a free way of advertising your message and people can simply reject the invitation if they choose.

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