The 3G Dating Agency’s Blog

Reading Tomi Ahonen’ Communities Dominate blog today and I realized I have a new hero. Marc Mielau, the innovation manager for mobile marketing at BMW – read his interview at Mobile AdNews.

By means of a carefully devised plan to remind relevant customers of the benefits of winter tyres/wheels the guy has used engagement mobile marketing to generate a 30% customer conversion rate and $millions of sales (the $45 million was my own back of an envelope rough guesstimate).

If anyone still doesn’t appreciate the benefits of engagement marketing through mobile think how:

> BMW thought about the needs of their customer
> Only sent messages to customers who bought cars in the summer months
> Personalised the messages so customers received a message featuring the exact same model, color and wheel style to the car they were driving
> Joined the service up with a .mobi mobile web site with a simulator so customers could try out different styles and see/compare prices.
> Sent out the MMS advert on the day when the first snow fell.

As to the future… I think my new hero has got it spot on in his Mobile AdNews interview so I’ll let him tell you about it…

“3G functionality in the phone with a big screen and browsing capability – this will influence the whole market. And when operators follow with flat rate offers, we will see a boom in this market”

DISCLOSURE: I am a diehard BMW fanboy and drive a much loved 8 series.

Last week The 3G Dating Agency entered a competition run in conjunction with Mobile Monday London and the Device Management Forum. Today we got the great news that we’d won a runner up prize and have been awarded the opportunity to present at the Device Management Forum’s forthcoming MIDAS event.

Other winners include Fromdistance (with tools to manage and support a wide variety of devices “over the air” in a centralised way), Airplay SDK (Cross-platform native execution environment for mobile) and WASP (CMS Wireless Asset Security Protection Cycle Monitoring System).

The Device Management Forum’ Managing Innovation Devices and Services (MIDAS) event takes place from the 27th to the 29th October 2008, at Centrepoint in London, UK.

See you there?

It was a pleasure to be the first Mobile Dating company to ever speak at this conference. I spoke about how The 3G Dating Agency is “Taking the Waiting out of Dating” and gave a run down of the key reasons that this entire industry will inevitably move over from the internet to the mobile.

As you can imagine it led to some very healthy debate… actually most of the audience were from the US and had such PC/fixed internet perspectives that they said things like social networking on mobile will never make any money. I wonder if they realise what type of content is being pushed through all these text messages? It was inevitable that some would fall off their seats when I reminded them that:

> American mobile users are now sending more SMS’ than they are placing calls
> More than a billion people are using the internet on their mobile phones
> More than a billion people have sent MMS – by the end of 2008 it will become the most used data application in the world (behind SMS)
> Mobile Data revenues will reach $200 Billion in 2008
> Even if you exclude SMS revenues, Mobile Data revenues are already worth $70 Billion or as as much as Hollywood box office revenues + Video Gaming software sales + Global music industry revenues
> 300 million multimedia phones will be bought in 2008
> $130 billion will be spent on SMS in 2008

The general consensus seemed to be that “mobile was an additional feature for their web users” which is odd because Mobile Content whilst still in its infancy has already generated revenues in excess of much more eastablished industries. The mobile content industry dwarfs the internet industry and younger generations obviously prefer it.

Christine Perey backed up my feelings with the deep industry know-how and stats from her excellent Informa Mobile Social Networking: Communities and Content on the Move report.

The talk by Lorraine Adams from Gorgeous Networks about how to generate great PR gave me some great take-aways that I’ll definitely be using… I only wish i could share her slides with you.

A courageous woman who was sexually harassed on the New York subway has turned the tables and used her mobile cameraphone to catch the pervert.

The arrested man was apprehended after using his mobile to take a picture under a subway rider’s skirt. The victim, a 28-year-old woman, said she was victimized while climbing stairs to an elevated station in upper Manhattan. A passer-by confirmed her suspicion that he had taken a photo up her skirt and she bravely followed the pervert onto a train and took his picture with her own mobile cameraphone.

The woman told The New York Times that she told the man: “smile because I am going to the police”.

An eagle eyed NYPD officer recognized the 36 year old man from the cameraphone picture that the victim had e-mailed to the police along with her report and he was arrested on misdemeanor charges of attempted unlawful surveillance, attempted sexual abuse and harassment.

Read the full story in the New York Times

Today I chaired the panel discussion at Mobile Web Europe on Uncovering the Killer Application for Mobile Social Networking to Realise the Full Future Potential of the Market.

On the panel were: Ric Ferraro, Managing Director, GeoMe Communications, Toti Stefansson, CEO, Hexia, Dan Philips, Strategy Director, The SEA, Faraz Syed, CEO, DeviceAnywhere, Marcus Thornley, Head of Innovation, Buongiorno.

I asked the panelists to give some thought to what elements make up a killer application as I wanted to give the audience a takeaway list of “must have” key features that a killer mobile social networking application must have and the external factors that need to be in place. Another aspect I asked the panelists to turn their thoughts to was how best to monetise a Killer Application as there seem to be very differing perspectives on this. Some people suggesting that advertising is the way to go whilst others suggesting that advertising on mobile will be rejected by customers like a bitter pill.

The debate that followed was very lively with lots of audience participation and the concensus seemed to be that the killer application need to be user friendly, offer something different to a PC experience and be integrated with phones current services such as the phone book. External enablers like the cost of mobile data, larger screen sizes and longer battery life were also cited as key factors for success. As for commercial success, the panel and audience were split on whether an adfunded or subscription model would be more successful.

Personally I think the key to killer mobile applications will only be found once you have inclusive data plans, more and better optimised mobile websites and services that benefit from being used on the mobile. As for the adfunded/subscription argument – I think that it’s failing to see the inherent key benefit of the mobile environment. Mobile empowers micropayment and small per use billing removes the need for annoying adverts AND costly subscriptions. The public will inevitably vote with their feet but I’m betting that Pay-as-you-go has got to be preferable to Spam-as-you-go or Subscriptions-as-you-go!

A great conference and some thoroughly enjoyable networking…

Mobile Web Europe kicked off today… here’s me chairing the panel on Mobile Communities and User Generated Content.

It’s your last chance to confirm your place at the Mobile Web Europe 2008 Conference & Exhibition taking place next week. I’ll be speaking in a panel on “Making the Move from Web to Mobile” and Chairing another panel on “Uncovering the Killer Application for Mobile Social Networking”.

The full list of speakers is a veritable whos-who in this rapidly growing marketplace and will include:

O Aage Reerslec, CEO, Squace O Adrian Velthuis, VP Product Development, Millenial Media O Alfie Dennen, Co-Founder, MoBlog O Anil Malhotra, SVP Marketing & Alliances, Bango O Antonio Vince Staybl, CEO and Co-Founder, itsmy.com O Dan Philips, Strategy Director, The SEA O Darren Edwards, Hutchison Whampoa UK O Dave Ingram, CEO, BrownBook O Dominique Hazel-Massieux, Mobile Web Initiative Activity Lead, W3C O Douglas Rozen, Global VP – Interactive Media, Carlson Marketing O Ed Candy, Technology Director, 3 Group O Eric Lemarechal, Founder & CEO, Mobile Distillery O Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO, Funambol O Faraz Syed, CEO, DeviceAnywhere O Francesco Rovetta, Director, eBay Mobile O Frank Schuil, Founder & CEO, IRL O Frederic Huet, Managing Director, Greenwich Consulting O Frederick Ghahramani, Founder, airG O Haim Cohen Mintz, VP Europe, Vringo O Jakub Polec, CEO, Cuebid Investment Poland O Jason Cook, IT Director, BT Design O Jim Gregoire, VP Marketing, MoCoSpace O Jon Arne Sæterås, Head of Product Development, Mobiletech O Karel De Beule, Founder & CEO, Kimia Solutions O Kashif Hassan, Chairman & CEO, ooober O Nikos Kryvossidis, Director, Partner Solutions EMEA, Google O Marcus Ladwig, COO, Peperoni O Marcus Thornley, Head of Innovation, Buongiorno O Mark Bole, CEO, ShoZu O Matthew Quinlan, Head of Product Marketing, Multimap O Maz Nadjm, Community Product Manager, British Sky Broadcasting Limited O Michael Becker, EVP, Business Development, iLoop Mobile O Mike Dunphy, Manager MUmobile, Manchester United Limited O Mike Kent, VP & GM, JumpTap O Noam Raffaelli, Managing Director, Plaza, Qualcomm Internet Services O Paul Nerger , Vice President, Advanced Services and Applications, dotMobi O Paul Ruppert, Founder, Global Point View O Phyllis Reuther, CTO, MCN O Priya Prakash, Head of Product, Flirtomatic O Randy Cavaiani, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, Novarra O Ric Ferraro,Managing Director, GeoMe Communications O Roberto Lattuada, Terminal Strategy & Innovation, T-Mobile International O Romi Parmar, CEO, The 3G Dating Agency O Russell Buckley, MD, AdMob O Sam Critchley, VP Products, GyPSii O Scott Beaumont, Co-Founder, Mippin O Scott Lyons, Market Development Manager, Motorola EMEA O Sean Kane, Global Head of Mobile, Bebo O Serge Crebassa, Co-Founder, ViaMobility O Sunil Gunderia, VP Mobile, Walt Disney Internet Group O Tim Faircliff, General Manager, Consumer Media UK & EMEA, Reuters Media O Tim Haysom, CMO, OMTP O Tim Hussain, Head of Mobile Monetisation, AOL (UK) Limited O Tommy Ahlers, CEO & Co-Founder, Zyb O Toti Stefansson, CEO, Hexia.net O Trond Wiborg, Director Technology Strategy, Telenor O Wandrille Pruvot, VP Sales & Marketing, BuzzCity

Don’t delay take part in the Mobile Internet revolution at Mobile Web Europe!

The External Hard Drivers are a team of IT professionals who are taking part in the Motoscape “Road to Krakow” Banger Rally. Today they left the UK to join up with the other participates in St Omer, France…

Watch Videos of the External Hard Drivers on You Tube
Send an SMS to the the teams Jeep by visiting this webpage
Subscribe to the External Hard Drivers feed to keep up with the fun

As you can see we thought it would be a fun idea to sponsor the car with our brand – so if you see the Jeep (or indeed any batman/star wars attired IT professionals trying to make alternative last minute transport plans) sign up to The 3G Dating Agency and we’ll give you double any credits that you top up with before the rally finishes on the 20th September in Krakow, Poland.

The organizers of First Tuesday asked me to make the trip to Ireland to join them in Dublin to present in front of a panel of Dragons as the Dragons Den theme seems to be catching on over there too. With 3 of Irelands most successful Telecom Entrepreneurs (Sean Melly, founder of Powerscourt Investments, John Nagel, founder of Alphyra and Liam Young, founder of Conduit) on the panel it was impossible to even think of an excuse not to go so I got to make another visit to the beautiful emerald isle.

The event was a complete success and I’ll be writing to the BBC because I’m sure they could learn a lot from my experience. Not only were the Dragons much more experienced in the new media ideas that the BBC Dragons have lacked experience in since Doug Richards left, but they seemed much more appreciative and interested in making a contribution to the individuals who had plucked up the confidence to present publicly in front of them and less interested in the self promotion that has obviously got the better of some of the Dragons featuring in the BBC program.

Asides from investment, the good advice of a successful and respected mentor can be all an entrepreneur needs to motivate them to keep moving forward and frankly these guys took that one step further taking cards from every participant and even taking the time that same evening to join up afterwards for a social chat in the hotel bar – where they generously picked up the bill as well!

The event was held in the recently reopened Burlington Hotel (a place you should definitely consider if you’re ever in Dublin for business or leisure) and was also attended by a great number of other business people and politicians who I’ll definitely be continuing talks with… here’s a picture of me meeting with Eamon Ryan TD, Irelands Minister of Communications.

Between the airport and city I had 5 people recognize me from the BBC show and come up to say a friendly hello. The Céad Mile Fáilte from everyone I met has left me feeling a bit like St Patrick must have when he left Ireland, I’m missing it already!

Yesterday Aine Coffey’s “And Finally” column in the Business section of the Sunday Times (Irish Edition) announced our involvement in tomorrow’s First Tuesday Telecom Investment meeting in Dublin:

“This Dragons Den thing is getting out of control. RTE was already planning to screen its version of the BBC Programme. Now the technology fraternity is getting in on the act. Romi Parmar, th entrepreneur who pitched his 3G Dating Agency for mobile phones to the BBC’s Dragons last Monday, will do a reprise this week at the First Tuesday networking event in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel.

The “dragons” this time will be an impressive collection of Irish self-made millionaires, led by the suitably fiery John Nagle, the Alphyra founder and recently ejected chief executive. Also grilling Parmar will be Liam Young, the Conduit founder and Sean Melly, the founder of Etel.”