The keynote speaker was  Pandora Founder, Tim Westergren, and there were other headliners as well including Chuck Pagano, Executive Vice President of Technology at ESPN and (my personal favorite), The Woz (Steve Wozniak), co-founder of Apple.  It was amazing to see how many attendees at the Samsung event came from big-name internet and mobile companies…  TV seems to be the next frontier for content distribution and monetization.

The highlight of the Samsung event for me was meeting The Woz, who spoke on stage in a fireside chat about the opportunity of internet-connected TV (note: It was interesting to see him speaking on stage about Samsung TV rather than Apple TV, but Samsung is a key partner of his current company, fusion-io.)

The second highlight for me was winning a Samsung Blu-Ray player.  It’s loaded with Samsung Apps, the app store for your TV.  I see a lot of potential for internet-enabled TV and apps, and it’s been fun trying new apps on my TV.   At this point, the app selection is limited, but the apps that are on Samsung’s Smart TVs are fun and include many of the popular web properties – Hulu, Pandora, Netflix, Facebook, and more.  I wish there was a built-in internet browser and a full keyboard included with the product, but even without those features as an early effort, it’s pretty good.

Samsung Apps is one of several technologies that is getting me very excited about the potential for internet connected, app enabled TVs.  The other internet-TV technologies I’ve seen include: GoogleTV, Boxee, Yahoo Connected TV, AppleTV, Sony Bravia Internet Video platform, etc.  Some of these products focus purely on apps, while others combine apps and internet browsing (which for me is a must-have feature for any internet connected TV that I buy in the future).

There will be a big distribution opportunity for developers and content providers via TV, but it may not necessarily be through apps.  There is a lot of fragmentation in the TV apps market, and monetization of apps will prove difficult, unless one of the companies in this space dramatically rises above all others and provides a robust app distribution and monetization platform (Google in particular is making a big move in this space thanks to it’s existing Android efforts).  Regardless of how the TV app ecosystem evolves, there is a growing opportunity is emerging for developers to create TV-optimized websites and monetize through subscriptions and/or advertising.

I look forward to seeing how the TV industry continues to evolve and converge with web and mobile – particularly over the next 24 months.

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.

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!

They’re rolling out what they’re calling an “insight engine”, that combines Openwave Analytics, a solution that helps mobile operators monitor data network traffic and trends in user behavior to diagnose and address bandwidth constraints with Nielsen PRIZM, a user segmentation solution that creates a common language to segment various types of users and helps marketers address different segments of users based on demographics, behavior, and geography. 

The combined product will allow mobile operators and other drivers of the mobile ecosystem to better understand, target and monetize their customers and the mobile internet more effectively.  It should also help advertisers better understand mobile user behavior and target that behavior more meaningfully with advertising.  And, lastly, for consumers it should ultimately mean that the marketing they see should be more relevant over time.

In order for mobile to become a long-term viable and profitable medium for marketing and advertising, the various players in the mobile ecosystem need to better understand mobile customer behavior.  Mark Nelson, senior vice president of the Nielsen Claritas Corporate Partner Program, described the benefits of the Openwave collaboration by saying:

By combining carrier-related mobile analytics with Nielsen’s PRIZM and ConneXions segmentation, carriers can analyze and measure mobile behaviors in terms that advertisers understand.  We believe this integrated approach will help drive adoption of mobile as a viable advertising platform.

The collaboration is certainly a good first step towards ensuring that there is a better common understanding of mobile consumers between various stakeholders in the mobile ecosystem.  By better recognizing consumer preferences and where they impact the network, mobile operators can begin to price services more effectively.  John Giere, senior vice president, products and marketing, Openwave pointed out:

The long standing belief within the advertising industry is that one half of the budget is generating results, but nobody knows which half.  We hope to arm the industry with actionable solutions which provide better response rates and more measurable mobile campaigns…We believe our collaboration with Nielsen will help improve the mobile operator’s understanding of their network usage and facilitate new revenue opportunities for ecosystem players.

I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of this collaboration and which operators engage with it longer term.

Today, Open Mobile Solutions (OMS) announced which mobile apps will be demoed at the four Developer Pitch Sessions at CTIA Wireless next week.  The line-up of developers and mobile applications/ products looks great:

• Soundtrckr
• Mobisante
• TextArrest
• Nearbynow
• Anttenna
• Right Deal Right Now
• Caregive
• Live Colony
• Micello
• Lumosity
• Asurion Mobile Addressbook
• Glympse
• Rhythm New Media
• Yap
• Xtop
• Fring
• Flirtomatic
• Pageonce
• Snapfinger from Kudzu Interactive
• Inrix Traffic.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I’ll be moderating the second Developer Pitch Session on Distribution on Wednesday, March 24 from 3-4pm in the Las Vegas Convention Center − Apps World, North Hall – Innovation Hall.  The experts for this session are:

• Claudia Backus, Senior Director, Ecosystem Programs, Motorola
• Larry Berkin, Head of Global Alliances, Symbian Foundation
• Christopher David, Head of Developer and Partner Engagement, Sony Ericsson
• Ian McDonald, Global Manager, BlackBerry Developer Program (UPDATED 3/19/10 – replacing Tyler Lessard)
  
• Asokan Thiyagarajan, Director – Platforms & Technology Strategy, Samsung Telecommunications America
  
• Patrick Mork, Vice President, Marketing, GetJar, Inc.

During this session, developers will pitch the following mobile products:

• Glympse
• Asurion Mobile Address Book
• Yap
• Rhythm New Media
• Xtop from IMS
  

If you still need a ticket to CTIA, here’s instructions on how to get one for free.

• Raising Money – a panel featuring Venture Capitalists specializing in mobile.
• Gaining Distribution – a  panel featuring various mobile distribution channels.
• Monetization – a panel of key decision makers in the mobile advertising space – agencies, brands and networks

The Open Mobile Solutions Marketplace is currently in stealth mode, but you can learn more here.  In the meantime, why not take advantage of the great panel sessions they’re organizing at CTIA and the opportunity for a free pass?

Pre-MWC: I started the pre-MWC whirlwind with The NAVTEQ awards party, in which the EMEA winners of the Global LBS Challenge were announced.  It was a good event.  A handful of promising companies showcased their LBS-enhanced mobile products.  From there, I went to MobileSunday, which was, as usual packed with a great crowd of mobile enthusiasts bracing for the week ahead.  After that, I hit the town with the team from Skyhook Wireless (whose wi-fi location-based technology is embedded in the iPhone and millions of others worldwide) and a few of their 3rd party developer partners – all of whom are working on things that would set any mobile enthusiast’s heart racing… I’d tell you more, but that’d be like ruining a good surprise, and that’s no fun.

Day 1: I kicked off Monday by moderating a couple of panels in the “Mobile Applications – Innovation Vs Fragmentation” stream.  The first was “Attracting investment to the apps market – Identifying the key success factors,” and the panelists were fantastic:

• Rich Wong, Partner, Accel Partners
• Bob Borchers, Partner, Opus Capital
• David Weiden, Partner, Khosla Ventures

Thanks to Rich, Bob and David, we had a honest and productive conversation about the state of the mobile start-up ecosystem.  The general consensus was that while 2009 was a difficult year for many technology start-ups (with the National Venture Capital Association in the US saying that in 2008, venture capital funding in the telecommunications sector declined to just $558.7 million, down more than double from $1.67 billion in 2008), the future is looking bright for the mobile developer community. All three VCs were bullish on investments for both “picks and shovels” mobile start-ups (i.e. those that provide developer tools and software that supports the mobile application development and distribution ecosystem) and mobile app developers.

Rich, Bob, and David all pointed out that VC investment isn’t right for all mobile start-ups. Many mobile start-ups- especially small mobile application shops that don’t envision growing to become worth hundreds of millions of dollars are usually better off bootstrapping or taking small investments from friends, family, and angels.  However, for app developers that have the potential to grow and evolve – becoming much more than a one hit wonder while driving very strong and consistent long term revenues, VC funding makes sense. One app developer company that’s done particularly well according to the panelists is Tapulous (one of Weiden’s investments through Khosla), which makes social apps for iPhone like Tap Tap Revenge.  Other ’success stories’ mentioned in the panel were AdMob, the ad network which was recently acquired by Google, and GetJar, which is the world’s largest cross platform mobile application store.

Aside from discussing mobile application developers, the panelists also weighed in on some of the relevant mobile topics of the moment.  In particular, the consensus was that the chances of the recently announced Wholesale Application Community, which we jokingly and universally now refer to as “WAC”, working are slim at best.  And, Rich mentioned that he’s not particularly optimistic (in fact the contrary) about the prospects for Samsung’s new Bada OS.  (Having not seen Bada in action yet, I’m reserving judgment, but I’m unconvinced at this point that the world needs another OS… According the rumor mill, Bada looks “okay”. One person even told me it’s “kind of neat”… Frankly, none of the feedback I’ve gotten so far has been positive enough that I’d felt compelled to re-arrange my schedule to see it…. Maybe I’ll see it tomorrow.)

The second panel I moderated also yielded good food for thought.  It was on “Unlocking application revenue – billing and payments”.  The panelists included:

• Tyler Lessard, Vice President of Global Alliances & Developer Relations, RIM
• Yves Tyrode, Executive Vice President, Technocentre, Orange
• Gerard Grech from  Nokia
• Eric Duprat, General Manager, Mobile, PayPal

We discussed the complexity of the in-app mobile billing and payments ecosystem, the potential for positive uptake and change, the relevance of virtual goods and currencies, among other things.  While we covered a wide range of topics within the mobile billing and payments realm, unlike the mobile investment panel, I left the billing and payments panel with more questions than answers.  In app billing and payment seems just a bit too new to have yielded any major success stories from mobile app developers (if you’ve got any to share- I’d love to hear them).

Gerard agreed with me that Flirtomatic appears to be a good case study in the use of viral optimization and the use of virtual goods and currency within mobile apps, but aside from Flirtomatic, the panelists couldn’t think of any other major companies that have excelled in a similar way.  Eric from Paypal mentioned that Shutterfly is using both Paypal’s web and mobile API.  Aside from these very limited examples, consensus was that there don’t seem to be a lot of companies that are publicizing their ability to drive revenue through in-app billing and payments.

After moderating panels on Monday, I spent the rest of my day in meetings, and there were some productive ones… I’ll skip the really juicy bits for which I’m sworn to secrecy (except to say that among many other things, I’m really looking forward to trying MePlease when it launches) and instead mention just a few of the highlights…

Microsoft announced it’s new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series.  I got my hands on a forthcoming device, which looks – and I’m not exaggerating – awesome. It was in a beta build, but it was a lightning fast, feature rich (especially with social networking and photo features), responsive touch-screen device with a 5 megapicsel camera, and if this build is anything to will hopefully be worth the wait. Windows is definitely trying to bring sexy back, and so far, it’s working.

Qualcomm’s chip group wants to see developers take advantage of some of it’s most powerful capabilities like enhanced 3D gaming graphics and gesturing capabilities. Expect to hear more from them in the coming months, and come meet Liat, who is leading these efforts in the developer community at Thursday’s WIP Jam at MWC (she’ll be presenting with me and Patric from Idevio in the session on what makes addictive applications).

I also met up with my old friends from the now newly re-independent Astraware (which spun back off from Handmark), and they’ve got some fun new mobile games stuff up their sleeves… Well worth checking them out if you’re looking for some good entertainment on your device.

I also saw an early prototype version of a new ruggedized, waterproof, interactive tablet device that runs HTML5 with an e-reader-like screen from Visionect, which could prove to be an interesting device for the hospitality industry if it takes off when it launches. The idea is that restaurants, hotels, etc. and other businesses will develop apps in HTML 5 which can be rendered on this durable tablet device and used for field force automation efforts (order taking, employee checklists, etc.).  Apparently, you can drop it frequently, put it in the dishwasher, and forget to charge it for 9 months, and it’ll still work. If true, it sounds like it’ll be worth checking out when it’s live (date TBA).

As for today, it was a day full of meetings, checking out the new Motorola Phones, going to the Women in Mobile Devices lunch, attending the GoMo News Blender event, and having dinner with great folks courtesy of one of mobile’s most innovative VCs.  Oh, and there was also Eric Schmidt’s keynote… Google’s CEO, Schmidt talked about the future of mobile, which looks bright. In three years or less, Schmidt expects mobile devices to outsell PCs. There’s a great summary of his keynote here. It was good to see Google making an appearance at Mobile World Congress.

There’s so much more that I learned over the last two days that I’d love to be able to tell you about, but again, good secrets are worth keeping… and I’ve got to be up again in less than 5 hours for another day of excitement.  With that, I’ll close by saying that for those of you who are sitting at home or in your cubicle wondering whether it’ll be worth making the trip to Mobile World Congress in 2011, the answer is yes.  There’s a lot going on in mobile, and it’s only getting better.

The first event will cover “Building Brands on Facebook,” and it’s being held at 6:30pm on December 3rd at Fenwick & West’s office in downtown San Francisco.  Here’s the scoop from Covered Co.: “With over 300 million users, Facebook is the web’s hottest social media property. We’ve collected a group of experts to teach marketers, brand managers, and advertisers how to use Facebook to pump up their brands. An hour of talks will be followed by a mixer, where attendees and speakers can mingle and exchange ideas.  At the event, marketers will learn how to leverage Facebook to grow their brands from a group of experts who know Facebook.”

Speakers will include:

• Seth Goldstein of SocialMedia Networks
• Nick Gonzalez of Covered Co.
• Tyler Willis of Involver
• Lisa Marino of RockYou
• Dmitry Shevelenko and Lisa Smith of Facebook

This Social Media Matters session is normally $40 for early birds (sales end Nov 26), and $60 for late birds (sales through Dec. 3).  But, if you enter in the code “coveredfriend” when you order, you’ll get in for FREE while supplies last.

Unfortunately, I’m not able to attend, as I’ve got another event I’ve committed to, but this looks like a great one!

Last week in an interview with Sky News Australia, Newscorp’s head, Rupert Murdoch, talked about the possibilities of charging for more of its content and/or  of preventing Google from indexing its content to encourage people to pay for that content (1st half of the video):

Google allows publishers to block themselves from being indexed by Google.  This begs the question, if another search engine – besides Google- is willing to pay the world’s biggest publishers to block Google and be indexed by them instead, could that 2nd tier search engine become the market leader.

Recently, on “This Week in Startups,” Jason Calcanis suggested that Microsoft’s Bing should consider incentivizing the world’s biggest publishers to get permission to index their content and block Google in exchange for fees:

If something like this happens, it could be detrimental to the largely free, and easily discoverable Internet.  However, it might also help to create a new monetization channel for struggling media entities that produce great content but are struggling to make as much money as the companies that are indexing their content.  Either way, the unintended consequences of an approach like this could be huge-  for the companies that pursue this strategy, for search engines, and for the Internet itself.

What do you think?