Mobile Marketing: Deepspace and More

Jacey, Lauren, and I attended the Deepspace mobile marketing conference at the Fine Line sponsored by Space150 (presentations available here). This event was the first of many monthly mobile and new industry trend events that will be held in Minneapolis. We heard from Chuck Levine, former Sprint CEO and current chairman of Openware and Sierra Wireless, about the growth of the mobile industry. Kelly Thompson and Marc Jensen, both of Space150, brought us account planning insights in their presentation on The Mobile Ecosystem. There were also several panel discussions with industry leaders from Ad Mob, Nokia Interactive, Scanbuy, Millennial Media, Ad Infuse, and Weather.com.

I'm going to be honest and say that I wasn't completely blown away by anything that I saw, but the fact that there are people who care about pushing the industry in new directions is always worth my time and attention. I was hoping for some awesome examples of location based ads, or interactive mobile applications, but the day was more focused on monetary opportunities, SMS based ad models, and discussions about the potential that this industry holds.

The most memorable quote that I took away from the speakers that day came from the Weather Channel representative. He spoke about the debate of the ever elusive "year of the mobile web" and how that will become a reality when everyone checks the weather on their mobile devices. While the weather may be a small portion of this move, the center of the idea is the eventual total dependence on mobile devices for accessing content that is typically only on television or online. This move towards online content will push brands to consider mobile as an outlet that is equal to that of traditional placements. This is where mobile marketing will reach its full potential. Until then, the speakers at Deepspace advised all advertisers to spend now in order to become leaders in mobile.

With all that being said, we'd like to share a few of our favorite mobile campaigns. Ready, break.

Sports (AHH): NBC Olympics and Minnesota Twins (and other MLB teams of choice) - Both mobile sites are clean, text based, and feature live refresh updates. SMS text alerts are also available and well worth it when you can get immediate videos of Mauer and Morneau's RBIs and home runs. Top Score!

Politics: Barack Obama - Supporters, and those wanting to get in on the brilliant campaign ideas that Obama's team is delivering, can text 'VP' to 62262 (which spells Obama) to get notified of his VP candidate prior to any other media outlets. Progress.

Television Integration: Project Runway - Viewers can text their vote for their favorite, or least favorite, designer during on-air polls use short codes to receive weekly texts with fashion tips from Tim Gunn, and access the iPhone site that contains games, episode recaps, and a PR fashion guide. Look out all you hot messes, this site is fierce.

We'd love to hear about your favorite mobile campaigns, apps, and sites!