A great presentation from the Mobile Marketing Associations Paul Berney to conclude the How Do Mobile Marketing event in Manchester. Its never easy going on last, but he is keeping the delegates engaged till the very end. He began by pointing out how the mobile marketing business has spent far too long failing to talk to brands and marketers in their own language.
If we learn how to speak fluent marketing, it will be a lot easier to tell people what mobile is all about, he said, adding that its really just like any other form of marketing: its all about acquisition, retention and branding.
He went on to say that the industry seems to have realised this now, and that it has been helped by brands acknowledging that they need to do something different, and hes now running through a number of case studies to show how brands are using mobile with great success.
Its been a good day, and the organisers, Don't Panic and How Do, should be congratulated on getting a good number of brands along to the event. OK, so if I name-check some of the brands Johnsons Cleaners, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Bury Metropolitan Borough Council, Speedy Hire plc then, without wishing to be disrespectful, they may not quite be of the stature of Unilever and Procter & Gamble, but these are exactly the sort of organisations that need to embrace mobile to help maintain the momentum that the industry has built up over the past few years.
Im in the camp that says there will be no Year of Mobile, or any one killer app, but rather, a lot of small steps and a lot of small apps and services, like being able to buy your bus ticket on your mobile, paying for your car parking on your mobile etc., etc., etc. (Judging by what he said a few minutes ago, it seems that Berney and I are on the same page on this.) Todays event has been just one more of those small steps. But its one that has sent around 60 people from organisations across the North-west away with a better idea of how their organisation can use mobile. As I see it, thats a pretty good days work.
David Murphy
Editor 
