Marketing, media, publishing and advertising professionals gathered in Toronto this morning for day one of Mobile Media World 2010, a two–day speaker series focusing on mobile innovation and trends. Mobile Media World is part of the second annual Mobile Innovation Week.
In his opening remarks, Mobile Innovation Week co–founder and co–chair Michael O’Farrell jokingly told the crowd to leave their phones on for the entire conference.
“We like hearing the sound of SMS messages, emails and phone calls coming. It’s the sound of music for everyone in here,” he said.
O’Farrell went on to say the mobile industry is a $5 trillion dollar business, with five billion mobile consumers worldwide.
“There’s only 1 billion Internet access users, so if you put the five times factor on the Web 2.0 environment in a mobile environment, you’re starting to see that everything is going to be built upon the thing that’s most personal to us all, ” he said, holding up his smartphone.
Wade Oosterman, president and chief branding officer of Bell Mobility, gave the opening keynote, declaring that “content is king” and outlining what’s necessary to drive participation in the mobile space.
“A great network is a must for mobile media,” said Oosterman. “You’re probably thinking, ‘He’s a network guy so of course he would say that,’ but it is in fact a truth because without this you can’t start the whole process,” he said.
Consumers are demanding seamless network experience and robust integration solution, he said. They want the ability to transport information from their phone to other devices like a laptop or television in the home or office.
Consumers seem to want TV everywhere, Oosterman said, which is good not only for networks but for anyone in the mobile media space, including advertisers. “The fact the people have a real hunger for it and seem to want it everywhere is nothing but positive,” he said, using the NHL playoffs with the Montreal Canadiens as an example.
“During the playoff run last year we thought, ‘Let’s let people watch it wherever they want–online, on their device, on the big screen…’ Someone’s at work, they’re working late, they watch the first period on their PC or laptop. They get on the bus and watch the second period on their mobile device. Once they get home they watch it on their 50–inch plasma TV. It’s just a seamless experience.”
The playoffs helped Bell identify the need to enhance its content library, and subsequently its parent company BCE Inc. purchased all of CTV and its media assets for $1.3 billion.
“That’ll be a very significant development for us, consumers and I think for CTV itself,” Oosterman said. “The ability to deliver multiple millions of additional eyeballs to content–and on the screen size of choice for the consumer–is what’s driving that development.”
Last week Bell also announced it had secured the rights to show NFL games through its mobile TV application.
