As you might guess, this show is all about apps and monetization – mobile apps, social apps, TV apps – you name it.  The speaker list reads like a ‘who’s who’ of mobile, web, media and agencies – well worth checking out.  SocializeMobilize.com readers will get 25% off the full conference pass by using the code MHFC25 during registration.

There’s also great opportunity for developers to show off their skills, gain some cross-industry exposure, and potentially win cash through the “Pimp My App Contest”.  Here’s the scoop:

One Great Contest — Two Cool Partners. We are calling on all developers to show off your skills by Pimping The App for Fox’s television show “Fringe”, The City of San Francisco’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau or both. Enter as many individual apps as you like for either or both of our partners. There are separate grand prizes so, who knows, maybe you’ll hack your way to victory for both contests. Sort of like winning both showcases on the Price is Right!. So, start hacking as you have until September 3rd to submit your entries.

• Finding outstanding carrier sales/ business developments people is difficult…Your best bet is to poach someone from another company.   The best BD people in the mobile space are usually employed and well compensated with cash, equity, and benefits. Getting them to leave their current job is difficult, but worth it for the right fit.  Also, there are a lot of great BD consultants out there, but great BD consultants don’t come cheap.
• Many of the candidates out there that claim to be mobile “experts” aren’t… When screening candidates for mobile BD positions, look for specific examples of sales/BD success and specific carrier names
• When someone says they “drove deals with operators,” it can mean a lot of different things… At the interview stage, it’s important to assess how good the candidates relationships are with key decision makers. Get references.  Talk to those decision-makers, and ask them how they enjoyed working with the candidate and validate that the deal described in the resume was real.
• Relationships are the key to business development success in mobile. Hire someone who has an engaging demeanor and strong relationships with operators, OEMs, or your key partners.  In ISV / Operator / OEM business development, things get done more quickly between friends and/or colleagues that enjoy working with each other and there is a feeling that you’re driving mutual benefit/value for each other.  Be wary of candidates that can’t describe who they know at your key target companies and/or candidates that come from a company that has a bad reputation among your target audience (i.e. a failed start-up that left an OEM or operator stranded).
• If you’re unable to find a great candidate within a week or two, be prepared to pay for a seasoned contract recruiter with strong mobile experience to help you.  Find out who they’ve worked with, who they’ve placed, and talk to a few of their clients before agreeing to work together.

Since I know a handful of companies that are looking for full-time carrier sales/ business development talent at the moment, I thought it would be useful to poll my readers… Who is the best carrier sales/ business development person you’ve worked with and what makes them successful?  Post your thoughts as a comment below.

The panelists included:

• Gene Kennan, VP of Mobile Strategy at Isobar, a big digital agency that represents companies including Adidas and Marriott.  He also sits on the MMA board.
• Cheryl Lucanegrow is the SVP of Ad Sales at Pandora. Things started happening for Pandora when they started developing for iPhone, causing the company to change their whole strategy to leverage mobile.
• Orr Orenstein from Photobucket (one of my clients) leads the mobile initiative and manages all mobile advertising.
• Philip Browning is the Director of Advertising and Operations, Mobile at CBS Interactive and focuses on monetization and network.

The session was moderated by Adam Towvim, the Senior Director of Business Development at Jumptap

Gene believes advertising inside of apps is exciting for brands and agencies, but very few agencies know how to execute inside of mobile.  Most agencies can handle advertising inside of apps, but after ads, the big stumbling block for brands is agencies and their perception that mobile has limited reach. Isobar thinks differently about mobile – especially for advertising consumer product goods (CPG) companies.  Gene pointed out that 15% of teens in the US have access to an app-enabled phone, and once you hook a kid on a specific brand in CPG, they rarely switch.

Advertising’s golden rule is hitting the younger audience and getting them loyal to your product. According to the panel, Proctor and Gamble (P&G) are thinking less about online and more about what’s happening in-store and how mobile can be used to influence the consumer’s decision to influence purchase in-store.  They’re backing their entire mobile strategy out from the in-store experience out.

Cheryl likes mobile because it allows you to reach consumers throughout the day.  Pandora knows your age, gender, and zip code, and they know what you’re doing inside an app. That allows them to offer relevant advertising that targets users in a more meaningful way.

Understanding who your users are is hugely important to mobile advertising. Showing brands what your users are doing inside the app and where the engagement points are most successful is critical to advertising success. Designing your placements, banner units, interstitials, etc. accordingly is key to engaging users with ads. Understand your analytics and help your click through rates by only placing ads where you think they’ll be likely to be clicked is also important.  Doing this will help you command higher ad rates for your inventory.

Orr from Photobucket said he’s seen 18-20x click through on mobile vs. web property. So, monetizing mobile inventory has been incredibly successful.

Philip said developers should think carefully about which ad networks you partner with versus building your own ad sales team.  If you’ve got a good app, with lots of eyeballs, you can plan for advertising success if you plan carefully.  There are lots of ways to tie into the available market.

Adam agreed with Orr and Philip saying if you can make changes in the way you segment parts of your inventory by click-through rate, you can maximize the value of your inventory.

Gene referenced an Inside Express study that did a study of mobile ads served in the last year.  Brands need to strive to achieve high click through with low annoyance – particularly on mobile. The ad units that have the highest click through rates with the lowest annoyance rates in mobile are standard banner ads, not interstitials.  There was a little bit of a diverging opinion on the panel.  Philip agreed that banner units are less annoying, but he said CBS has had some success with interstitials.  He pointed out that you really don’t know what’s going to work until you try it, test it and evaluate measurement.  I agree – There’s a certain amount of experimentation involved with good advertising.  Gene, added a good point, saying that to a certain extent, if developers and agencies use their good judgment, they can figure out what kind of ads will annoy customers before the customers get annoyed.  The annoyance factor on interstitials and pop unders are high on web, and he thinks that this will mirror on mobile. So, he encourages his clients to think before they place those kinds of ads.

Everyone agrees that in time, we’ll see what will work well in mobile advertising. The ROI on rich media units is unclear. Cheryl said she sees lower response rates on Blackberry with a smaller screen and less touch-enabled than say, on iPhone where CTR seems to be higher.  Orr said Android click through is 4x what it is on iPhone.  The point is that the audiences on different mobile devices may be different, and you need to think about that when you insert the ads.

Orr recommended developers look at their app analytics and merge them with their ad analytics to ensure that brands are willing to spend with you over and over again.  Iterating is very important to ensuring success for the brands that advertise in your app.

A member of the audience asked about why Photobucket is seeing 4x higher CTR on Android over iPhone.  Orr said that on Android, Photobucket’s users appear to be a little older.  Many of Photobucket’s iPhone OS users use iPod touches, and they tend to be younger. So, when Photobucket puts ads on iPod touch devices, they think very differently about what kind of ads to serve (i.e. don’t show car ads to kids that don’t have their driver’s license).

Philip sees the same thing on Android. They’ve got an application called tv.com. It’s on both iPhone and Android, and 1 million people are using it on each platform. But on Android, they’re seeing 1-2x more page views and CTR on video than on iPhone.  Cheryl says she’s seeing a similar trend on the Pandora app.

When Isobar does media buys, they do network buys with large publishers, rather than small ISVs.  They’re often looking for 13-17 years audience, and it takes a bit too much time to do advertising inside small apps. However, they will do things like sponsor of smaller apps.

Adam asked the panel how app developers can create an opportunity for flexibility around skinning an app?  Gene talked a bit about Tap Tap revenge, pointing out how well they did at positioning their apps for sponsorship.  Philip cautions that you’ve got to get the audience first before you can get the advertising agencies interested.  You need to do marketing of your apps.  Others agree.  Developers should think about advertising their own stuff inside your apps and other apps to get a footprint to let people know about your product.

Cheryl recommends building in a budget to get users to your app… “It’s almost like you’ve got to budget double what it cost you to develop your app to market your app.”

Gene suggested developers work with ad agencies to find a slow day for advertisers in which to advertise their app.  If you do your advertising all in 1 day and get in the top 20 ads, you’ll get better exposure for your app and hopefully higher conversion to download.

Someone asks – If the CTR is higher, is the conversion higher too?  Gene said that there are certain companies Isobar won’t buy from because they create high click through rates, but few conversions. He uses the example of advertising a hotel chain… The customers are clicking through, but are they actually booking a room?

Orr pointed out the common theme of relevance in advertising. Developer should make sure their ads are relevant to their audience and make sure that they have engagement with their app.  Don’t serve an ad just because you can. Find the demographic that will find the ad relevant, and serve it to them. Even if you’re only driving a .1% click through rate, if each of the users that see an ad convert, you’re onto something positive.

Philip and Gene talked about how important it is to understand what’s going on downstream. Understand what your advertisers saw in terms of conversion. There’s a huge problem with conversion tracking at the moment. There’s a lot that needs to get done with conversion tracking downstream to make sure ads are truly working.  Advertisers want to know how long users you’ve sent them stay on their website.

Another important consideration for developers is how gracefully a user can interact with ads and get back into the app. On iPhone, this has traditionally been difficult, but with multi-tasking OS4, this is going to get easier. The challenge will be waiting for the iPhone user base to upgrade to OS4.  Bottom line – by placing ads on apps inside multitasking OSes, it’s easier to ensure that you’re not cannibalizing your users to advertisers if the OS you’re working on lets you swap back and forth between ads and apps.

The last piece of good advice from the panel was to investigate multiple ad networks to serve your ads. By investigating multiple ad networks, you’ll end up getting a better deal, but you’ll have to do a bit more management.

UPLINQ is a two-day mobile conference with a business track, a technical track, keynotes by executives from Qualcomm, AT&T, Verizon, etc., and a special, beach-themed mini WIPJam (full conference agenda here).  As an added bonus, Qualcomm has organized discounts on hotel and airfare and a huge party featuring a special performance from the band, Train (of “Hey Soul Sister” fame).

So, if you were looking for the perfect excuse to hit the road for business to hobnob with the movers and shakers in the mobile industry, this is it. 

Here’s how you can get a free ticket to UPLINQ through Socialize Mobilize:

• Be one of the first three people to comment on this post (below) with a creative and useful tip (i.e. a device shortcut, an app, etc.) that will benefit other smart phone users.  Make sure to specify which device and/or OS the tip is for.  If you’re one of the first three posters, go to the contact page and paste your comment in a note to me with your email address, and I’ll send you a registration code.
• Follow @lisawhelan on Twitter for other opportunities to win in the coming week!

Present your app at the Mobile 2.0 Europe Developer Conference for FREE!

Mobile 2.0 Europe is proud to host the AppCircus – a unique global traveling showcase of innovative apps!

Participation is FREE and open to start ups and individual developers, so apply now to the AppCircus@Mobile 2.0 Europe in Barcelona June 17th 2010 and walk the high-wire!

Deadline for submission is June 7th, midnight local time CET.

Developers, here’s what you get if you apply:

-          The chance to get your app reviewed by an international jury of mobile industry experts
-          Pitch your app at AppCircus @ Mobile 2.0 Europe in front of industry experts on June 17th in Barcelona (10 apps will be selected), and win a nomination for the prestigious Mobile Premier Awards 2011, during the Mobile World Congress
-          Present your app at Mobile Apps Investment Forum on June 18th in Barcelona, and the opportunity to get funding for your app business.

Some of our sponsors promised us they will come over with some goodies for you too!

We received this geek graph from Casey Goodhew who visualized the process for developers what they get if you apply to AppCircus @ Mobile 2.0 Europe:

About AppCircus
AppCircus is a unique global traveling showcase of the most creative and innovative apps presented by their creators during some of the most influential international events in mobile/web. AppCircus is open to developers, startups and any other organization and offers each participant a chance to get a nomination to the Mobile Premier Awards. AppCircus is powered by dotopen.

About Mobile 2.0 Europe

Mobile 2.0 Europe Developer Conference is a One-Day Event on June 17, 2010 in Barcelona, exploring the Future of Mobile Development and Innovation of an ever-changing Mobile Ecosystem, presented by dotopen and the Mobile 2.0 Organizing Committee.

The conference is tailored to mobile developers who want to discover the latest tools and trends in mobile technology (DevTrack) and business (BizTrack).

This year’s Developer Track will have 16 different workshop sessions and take place in four fully equipped rooms. The Business Track will be all about the app economy with panels and talks from thought leaders. Check our speaker list here.

Mobile 2.0 Europe Developer Conference is the most open & complete mobile developer conference providing an intense hands-on and engaging experience and supported by the major industry players: Barcelona City Council, 22@ Barcelona, Nokia, PayPal X, BlackBerry, bluenove, Telefonica Developer Communities, Orange, Vodafone, Microsoft and Skyhook Wireless.

You can get a ticket to Mobile 2.0 Europe Developer Conference for only 99€ for dotopen members. You can register for FREE here! Otherwise, standard ticket price for the event is 299€. Buy here.

• Winner: MEX User Experience Innovator of the Year (chosen from across all 4 award categories): MX series designed by… Movirtu with frog design
  • Runners up: MEX User Experience Innovator of the Year:
    • topsee london designed by… lastminute.com labs
    • On – life is better on designed by… Remy Bourganel & Seren
• Winner: Professional category (for products developed by companies in the mobile industry but not yet launched commercially): Woobius eye – Real-time visual chat designed by… Woobius
  • Runners up: Professional category
    • MX series designed by… frog design
    • dxtr – 3 button mobile interface designed by… Ribot
• Winner: Freelance category (for products developed by self-employed individuals): BlazeBroker designed by… Kai Brunner
  • Runner up: Freelance category: Telepresent Robot designed by… Vincent MK Lau
• Winner: Commercial category (for products developed by companies and already launched in the market): On – life is better on designed by… Orange Vallee
  • Runners up: Commercial category:
    • SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 designed by… SPB Software
    • topsee london designed by… lastminute.com labs
• Winner: Student category (for products developed by full-time students or young designers) ‘Freedom’ Interactive Map designed by… Adrian Bliss
  • Runners up: Student category:
    • Pulse – Communication for Kids designed by… Simon Smith
    • Viva – Stay Connected designed by… Heeral Roy Sharma

For more details on each of these products including descriptions and pictures, go here.

On Thursday, June 3, 2010, from 6:30-8:30pm, Blue Run Ventures (BRV), an early stage venture firm specializing in internet mobile, and software start-ups, is hosting a FREE developer event at Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, a “community center for hackers and thinkers to meet, discuss, learn, create, build and play.”

At this event, Jay Jamison, former executive from Microsoft , will talk about how he used just 20% of his time and a small budget to launch SmackDaddy, on eof the top mobile sports apps in the iTunes App Store.  Jonathan Ebinger, Partner at BRV will also talk about the opportunties and pitfalls for start-ups and what it takes to get investment in the current environment.

If you’re a developer or member of a founding team that’s looking for good advice, this event should be a good one.  Sign up here.

I am thrilled to be one of the five judges of the 2010 MEX User Experience Awards, the winners of which will be announced at the MEX Conference in London on May 19th.  This is the third year of the MEX User Experience Awards which seeks to recognize companies with the best user-centered design in mobile.  42 companies, freelancers, and students entered the competition this year, and today, MEX announced the shortlist of nominees up for the following Awards:

• 2010 MEX User Experience Innovator of the Year
  • topsee london Designed by… lastminute.com labs
  • MX series Designed by… frog design
  • On – life is better on Designed by… Orange Vallee
• Professional category
  • Woobius eye – Real-time visual chat Designed by… Woobius
  • MX series Designed by… frog design
  • dxtr – 3 button mobile interface Designed by… Ribot
• Freelance category
  • BlazeBroker Designed by… Kai Brunner
  • Telepresent Robot Designed by… Vincent MK Lau
• Commercial category
  • On – life is better on Designed by… Orange Vallee
  • SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 Designed by… SPB Software
  • topsee london Designed by… lastminute.com labs
• Student category
  • ‘Freedom’ Interactive Map Designed by… Adrian Bliss
  • Pulse – Communication for Kids Designed by… Simon Smith
  • Viva: Stay connected Designed by… Heeral Roy Sharma

The announcement has received some great press so far.  If you’d like to read what the press thinks, check out these articles:

• Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/05/03/facebook-photo-tagging/
• TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/03/7-billion-scanned-photos-later-face-com-opens-up-to-developers/
• VentureBeat: http://social.venturebeat.com/2010/05/03/face-com-takes-its-face-recognition-technology-beyond-facebook/
• CNET: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20003936-248.htmlhttp://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20003936-248.html
• Techmeme:  http://www.techmeme.com/100503/p31#a100503p31
• Wireless Week: http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/2010/05/Mobile-Content-Facial-Recognition-API-Face-Mobile-Applications/
• Inet Evolution: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=466&doc_id=191302&
• Wireless Week: http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/2010/05/Mobile-Content-Facial-Recognition-API-Face-Mobile-Applications/
• Peta Pixel:  http://www.petapixel.com/2010/05/03/face-com-launches-facial-recognition-api/
• WebProNews: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/05/03/facebook-photo-tagging-goes-web-wide
• TheNextWeb: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/05/03/face-recognition-web-facecom-api/

There were several interesting predictions in the Morgan Stanley report:

• “Mobile Ramping Faster than Desktop Internet Did and Will Be Bigger Than Most Think.”
• “Mobile Will Be Bigger Than Desktop Internet in 5 Years.”
  
• “Rapid Ramp of Mobile Internet Usage Will be a Boon to Consumers and Some Companies Will Likely Win Big (Potentially Very Big) While Many Will Wonder What Just Happened.”

Meeker and her colleagues attribute the steep growth trajectory of the mobile Internet  to five converging trends: 3G, Social Networking, Video, VoIP, and so-called “Impressive Mobile Devices” (i.e. sophisticated smartphones like iPhone, etc.).  Another of  the reasons why Morgan Stanley believes mobile Internet is growing so quickly is because users are apparently more willing to pay for content on their mobile devices than on their desktop computers.  The Morgan Stanley report cites several reasons for this:

• “Easy-to-Use / Secure Payment Systems… (like carrier billing + iTunes)”
  
• “Small Price Tags – Most content / subscriptions carry sub-$5 price tags”
• “Walled Gardens Reduce Piracy – Content exists in proprietary environments, difficult to get pirated content onto mobile devices”
• “Established Store Fronts – Carrier decks / iTunes store allow easy discovery / purchase”
• “Personalization – More important on mobiles than desktops”

I agree that the mobile Internet is growing phenomenally quickly and that the convergence of all five of the trends that Morgan Stanley mentioned mentioned is critical.  I also believe that small price tags, established storefronts where it’s easy to pay, and users’ desire for personalization all play a role.  However, there are plenty of challenges.  As I discussed in an October 2009 post, creating virality and spreading content through mobile is more complex in mobile than web.  Likewise, so is the discovery of mobile apps and content.

I was surprised that the Morgan Stanley report didn’t site discoverability as a challenge to the growth of the mobile internet, much of which appears to be fueled by the growth of smartphone apps (both web and native).  As I pointed out in the aforementioned October 09 blog post on mobile virality, “the number of available apps for [Smartphones] is, in my opinion, outpacing demand, and app discoverability is a growing problem.”

In the same way that Yahoo listed web pages in a directory format in the early days of the web before they made things better with advanced search, mobile applications are currently being listed in app stores in a taxonomy-like format.  With the number of mobile apps – both native and web-based – skyrocketing, it is getting more and more difficult for app stores to index apps in a way that makes them easy for users to discover.  This is one of the reasons, why I’m really excited to be working with my latest client, mobile app discovery engine, Chomp.  Chomp is starting to solve the mobile app discoverability problem and fueling virality on iPhone by recommending apps to users based upon other apps they’ve reviewed and the people in their social network.

I predict social networking will play an enormous and continuously growing role in helping users discover and use content from the mobile Internet.  Social networking seems to play a large role in the escalating mobile Internet demand. Morgan Stanley says an increasing number of users expect to be able to access content from their social networks from their mobile devices.  The number of social networking users surpassed the number of email users in July 2009 (at the time, just over 800 Million users), and social networking usage surpassed email usage in November of 2007 (at just over 100 Billion minutes a month globally).  The report says that the following five countries make up 48% of social networking users including, in order of usage:

• China: 384MM users (up 29% year on year)
• USA: 238MM users (up 4% year on year)
• India: 130MM users (up 23% year on year)
• Brazil: 67MM users (up 14% year on year)
• Russia: 39MM users (up13% year on year)

As I read through this report from Morgan Stanley, I couldn’t help but be excited to hear that the opportunities between mobile and social web convergence that I’ve been exploring since my first post in November 2006 are alive and well.