An updated schedule has been posted for Mobile Media World – a two-day event within Mobile Innovation Week in Toronto this September.

Both days have an impressive lineup of speakers and keynotes – easily the best lineup we’ve seen in Canada to date for a mobile event.

The conference has also been divided into two themes:

1. Day 1 – Mobile Internet Day
2. Day 2 – Mobile Marketing Day – brought to you by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). This will be the first MMA event in Canada

More details on the event will be posted in the coming days.

Last week the American chapter of the IAB released a buyer’s guide on mobile marketing.  It’s a great introduction for marketers, brands and media buyers looking for help in de-mystifying mobile as a customer acquisition tool.

The 15 pages guide covers everything from SMS to 2d bar codes – but be careful not to use some of their statistical data in building your plans as they are specific to the U.S. market only. For example, on page 4 of their report they classify a small or test mobile campaign to be 15-50k, a medium or expanded by that goes up to 150k and a full campaign starts at 150k.

The 10 to 1 rule may apply here (U.S. budgets are generally 10 times larger than Canadian), but a safer approach in assessing what to allocate is look at % of allocation relative to your other channels. I currently plan for up to 10% of my media budget for mobile for example.

You can download their report in PDF format here.

Looking for more reference guides and best practices? Be sure to check out the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) advertising guide here as well as their guide on mobile consumer best practices here.  Both guides were developed for the U.S. market, but are still great reference guides for Canadians and other markets. Their website is also a great global resource on mobile marketing and contains many case studies as well.

Today the mobile marketing association is releasing it’s annual mobile attitude and usage study which measures overall mobile usage by demographic group for many of the largest markets in the world.

Unfortunately,  Canada was not one of the countries surveyed; however, findings and trends reported from the U.S. are directionally true for Canada.

I’ve sent an email to the MMA requesting details on why Canada could not be included this time around and offered support for enabling it in the future.

Here are some highlights as lifted from their press release:

• Overall interest in mobile marketing varies by geography.  The United States and Western Europe report comparable interest levels in mobile marketing; similar interest levels are also noted among mobile phone users in Asia Pacific and Latin American markets.
  • One-in-four mobile users in the US and Western Europe express strong or moderate interest in mobile marketing.
  • Interest levels are higher in Asia Pacific and Latin American markets where roughly one-half and two-thirds of mobile users respectively express strong or moderate interest.

• In all regions, “text-to-win” and interactive voting campaigns are the most common efforts in which mobile users have participated.
  • Echoing receptivity to mobile marketing overall, Asia Pacific and Latin American markets report greater participation in mobile marketing efforts; roughly one-in-five mobile users in these regions report having participated in mobile marketing efforts in the past year.

• Creating strong market opportunity for mobile marketers, across all countries and regions surveyed, heavy penetration and reliance on mobile phones combined with strong feature, text and mobile web usage indicate a willingness to accept mobile phones as devices that reach beyond traditional communications.
  • More than half of mobile consumers (regardless of market) report that their mobile phone is “highly important” to their daily life.
  • Mobile feature usage of non voice applications (text, mobile web, camera and picture messaging) is strong in all markets.

“Overall interest levels in the mobile marketing concept vary by market and geographic region – however, common in all markets is the importance of mobile phones in daily life.  Further, all markets show an ever increasing reliance on services that are precursors and enablers to mobile marketing efforts,” said Beth Ritchey, Vice President, Synovate Tech and Telecom.  “This year’s Mobile Attitude and Usage Study contains a wealth of information geared to help marketers understand market trends and opportunities in both individual markets and geographic regions.”

The global study covers the following markets: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. The study is available on Monday, November 17, free of charge, to all current MMA Global and Regional members and available at a discount for MMA Local Council members.  The market studies will also be available, for sale, after December 1.  For more information, visit www.mmaglobal.com

What do you think? Are these trends relevant to Canada as I believe? How about in your own market?

Q: As you said, you mobile device is very personal. As a marketer, what kind of mobile marketing tactics can you do that don’t annoy or invade consumer’s perceived personal space

A: Unlike some other marketing mediums, mobile is not an interruption medium – which means every tactic can be perceived as annoying or invading personal space… unless you get permission or an opt-in first.

In cases where you are leveraging bluetooth to engage a consumer directly, ensure the message is specifically relevant and in context to where they are receiving it, and ask for permission to continue the conversation before delivering the message.

For all other mobile channels (sms, mms, mobile web, widget etc…) it again starts with relevance and in the case of acquisition based initiatives, you need a strong call to action.

Mobile rarely works on its own – so don’t think of a mobile tactic as something to replace something else in your marketing mix that has worked before. Instead, think of mobile as an extension of your existing campaign.

For examples and case studies on effective mobile tactics, check out the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) website here.

Today the CWTA released their quarterly report on the mobile industry in Canada. Here are some highlights:

1. Over 350 active mobile marketing programs in Canada right now with a Canadian short code
2. 10.1 billion SMS messages were sent in 2007 in Canada (as previously reported) 
3. Over 1.2 billion SMS messages were sent in Canada in December 2007 alone - making a prediction of 15 billion total in 2008 easily within reach. 
4. As of September 2007, 37% of mobile users had sent at least one SMS message
5. MMA guidelines around mobile advertising and content may be adopted by the CWTA
6. 18 applications have been approved in Canada for mobile payments or micro-payments 
7. May 15th marks the 5th year anniversary of the short code in Canada. Look for information on industry event on txt.ca 

Over the past few weeks I’ve spent some time mapping out my conference schedule for the year. If you are interested in learning more about mobile marketing or the industry in general, I’ve listed my top 10 most important mobile conferences for 2008:

1.  Mobile Web USA. January 22-23, San Francisco. Although specific to the U.S. market, the speaker list is impressive with representation from facebook, yahoo, amazon, new york times, AOL and others. This is a great conference to go to if you want to get a jump on the mobile web.
2.  Mobile World Congress. February 11-14, Barecelona, Spain. The industry is shaped by players, if you’re not at the congress you are merely a spectator. This is the premier mobile event of the year featuring 690 GSM mobile operators across 214 territories and countries of the world.
3. Gartner Wireless & Mobile Summit. March 3-5, Chicago. Looking for the latest research, case studies and actionable recommendations? This is the conference for you.
4. CTIA Wireless. April 1-3, Las Vegas. CTIA’s spring trade show is the premier North American venue for all things wireless! This trade show has the distinction of being the largest and most comprehensive in the industry. 
5. Global Messaging Congress. May 8-9, Cannes, France. Everything mobile messaging including Ip-based, Mobile IM, SMS, and MMS and focus on advertising, enterprise messaging, conversion techniques and banking / m-payments.
6. MMA – June 10-12, New York. Agenda for this year’s event is to be posted – but it’s a great short event if you are interested in seeing what other agencies and brands are doing with Mobile Marketing. Case studies, best practices and often a platform for major announcements.
7. Canadian Telecom Summit, June 16-18, Toronto. The Canadian Telecom Summit is Canada’s pre-eminent gathering of the telecommunications industry and those with vested interests in its welfare.
8. CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment. Sept 10-12, location TBD. CTIA’s fall show is a follow-up to the spring show…but with an emphasis on content
9. Mobile Web USA, November. Location TBD. Follow-up to Winter event
10. Mobile Mondays - first monday of each month, Toronto. Small gathering of locals and out of town guests covering a variety of topics around Mobile. Not in Toronto? Check out their global site for a chapter near you.

You can easily make going to these events your full-time job – or at least you’ll need one to pay for them all! I’m hoping to get to the World Congress in February and a few others during the year. Last year I made it to the World Congress, CTIA and the MMA event in New York. I’ve also really enjoyed attending most Mobile Monday events in Toronto.

Am I missing a good one? Please comment, SMS, or email me your suggestions and I’ll add them to this list.