High spirits - roundup of the festive stories (part two)

mobiThinking believes there's more to Christmas than shopping. This is certainly true when it comes to mobile marketing, where many of this season's best stories have little to do with retail.

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High Spirits - roundup of the festive campaigns (part one)

mobiThinking believes there's more to Christmas than shopping. This is certainly true when it comes to mobile marketing, where many of this season's best stories have little to do with retail.

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'Tis the season for crystal-ball gazing

mobiThinking loves this time of year. As a sign of seasonal goodwill, industry gurus share their future predictions with those of us less able or more scared to do the same. Here are some that caught our eye.

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Stand and deliver – your case studies or …

Like an addictive drug, with industry awards you're always left craving more: more information… more stuff we can learn from.

Alberto Benbunan at hip Spanish agency Mobile Dreams Factory sums it up perfectly: "There’s more to awards ceremonies than recognizing the efforts of agencies or clients, they should also inspire others."

It’s always interesting to know who and what, but what’s really useful is how and why.

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Mobile search: it’s all about info, utility and staying in touch

Mobile search is dominated by local information/utility and social networking/communications. Top 10 search terms provided by Yahoo and AOL – unfortunately Google couldn’t provide the same information – suggest that people use mobile search for more practical purposes than PC search.

Celebrity and TV reality shows clearly aren’t as important to people on the move, as catching up with friends (MySpace, MocoSpace, Facebook), checking the weather or classifieds (Craigslist), what’s on at the cinema or getting directions (MapQuest).

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A trio of great 5-minute interviews (BBC, Yahoo and Limbo); The Best and Worst of the Mobile Web; and the greatest links ever

mobiThinking is pretty pleased (even a bit smug, to be honest) to kick off our series of five-minute interviews with a trio of top mobi-marketing gurus. Yahoo, Limbo and the BBC are all serious players in the mobile space, but all come at it from different, very topical angles – broadcast, search and social networking (we put each into context below). But the true test of a thought-leader is when you drag them away from their company and their sector, just for five minutes.

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Inspiring stuff: The MMA award winners

mobiThinking has been devouring the MMA’s annual marketing guide. It’s big, but we highly recommend reading it. It’s chock-a-block with stats, facts, tips and optimism, but must-read stuff is at the back where you’ll find précis of all the mobile campaigns that won MMA’s global and regional awards.

See our pick of the winners below. First, here are some bits of the report that caught our eye.

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Future of Mobile: permission

What is the Future of Mobile? Well from what mobiThinking heard at the conference of the same name in London yesterday, it sounds like it should be permission-led, whatever it is.

An interesting critique of the bustling world where location-based services and social networking meet on the mobile, by serial entrepreneur Andrew Scott, was underlined by his belief that successful mobile web has to be opt-in.

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The MMA Awards, new stats and the president’s swansong

It’s the big shindig for the Mobile Marketing Association in San Diego, US, today. It is also the swan song of outgoing MMA president Laura Marrott. Reading Laura’s in depth interview with mobiThinking brings home just how much the MMA and mobile marketing has come on during her three-and-a-half year tenure. 200,000 air miles a year… that really is above and beyond the call of duty. Laura’s successor – whoever that might be – has big boots to fill.

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