Summer already, but as everyone heads for the beach, there has been plenty of activity in the mobile marketing world. Time then, for a quick recap of the highlights…
The month kicked off with a study from the Internet Advertising Bureau that revealed that mobile display advertising can increase brand awareness and recognition. “So what”, we hear you say, but given the time it took for brands to recognise the value of online advertising for brand-building, in addition to pure response, we found the news encouraging.
On the mobile advertising front, Alcatel-Lucent announced the launch of its Advertising Selection Server, which is designed to help mobile operators sell advertising inventory across a variety of formats, including SMS and MMS Push, mobile websites, Ringback Tones, pre- and post-roll video ads, and in-game advertising. And Adfonic launched its mobile as exchange of the same name. The exchange enables advertisers and agencies to bid for advertising on mobile sites and applications.
Orange took the wraps off the LG Touchscreen Watch Phone, which goes on sale this month. The Watch Phone is one of several innovative ‘future phones’ that Orange will be launching over the next 18 months. Orange also found time to launch a revamped ‘Web and Wap’ music store, offering customers access to over 700,000 DRM-free tracks through a simpler interface. In a gradual roll-out, Orange plans to convert its entire catalogue of 2 million tracks from rights-protected to DRM-free. 
Meanwhile, O2 announced an agreement with Twitter that will allow O2 customers to receive SMS alerts from Twitter for free from August. This joins existing agreements O2 has with Facebook and Bebo, meaning that O2 customers can enjoy free SMS alerts from all three social networking sites.
Not to be left out, Vodafone offered its customers free access to Facebook on their mobile, or on their computer using Vodafone mobile broadband, for a week, starting for the last week of July.
On the campaign front, car maker Volvo rolled out a QR Code campaign promoting its Volvo Ocean Race Special Edition cars. The QR Codes were used in Volvo ads in magazines and newspapers around Europe. And Coca-Cola announced a promotion designed specifically for its teen audience, offering consumers of its Fanta, Dr Pepper and Sprite brands 50p free mobile credit with every purchase.
App stores were in the news, as Apple announced that its App Store had passed the 1.5 billion download mark, while GetJar revealed that it had achieved 500 million downloads.
SpinVox found itself in the firing line, as the BBC produced a report claiming that, rather than using advanced speech recognition software to convert voice messages into text messages, in actual fact, the vast majority of messages are converted by human beings, namely staff in call centres in South Africa and the Philippines.
On the M&A front, IMImobile bought Mobytec, whose technology platform powers the award-winning Mobyko social aggregation service, and 2ergo acquired mobile ticketing and couponing company ActiveMedia Technologies and its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary ActiveMedia Technologies Private. 2ergo said the acquisition would  give it access to the world’s fastest growing mobile phone markets, particularly in India, where AMT is currently one of the leading providers of mobile value added services and solutions.
We’re planning a holiday ourselves in a couple of weeks’ time. We’ll keep the site updated, though perhaps not quite to the same level as usual. But we’ll make a point of prioritising the most important stuff, so stay tuned to keep abreast of all that’s happening. And if you want a quick catch-up on your phone while your wife (or husband) and kids go to fetch the ice-creams, remember that, thanks to those nice people at Incentivated, you can get Mobile Marketing Magazine on your phone at: http://m.mobilemarketingmagazine.com
But don't spend too long looking at it – remember, there are sandcastles to be built.

David Murphy
Editor