Mobile

For those of you who have been telling us you'd like a better mobile page, you've got it. Our tech folk retrofitted AgencySpy for your smart phones. Let us know what you think.

David Beckham is the latest face for Motorola. Mr. Posh Spice is also the rep for Adidas, Giorgio-Armani, Gillette, and Pepsi. Are we missing anyone? Who cares? Check out that bod. Too bad he's got one of the weirdest voices we've ever heard.

It's going to take a lot more than Beck's butt to overshadow the way more juicy scandal going between former Chief Financial Officer Paul Liska and the cellphone maker. Add to this very public legal battle Motorola's fourth quarter sales figures, which fell by half, and their posting of an operating loss of $595 million and well... ass just ain't going to cut it.

More: Samsung Propel Spot Highlights Ozzy's Inability to Speak

LVHRD is at it again. The creative collective from odd-agency The Happy Corp. is holding a cell phone based even that's a must if you live in New York. It sounds kind of like THX 1138 meets Clueless. Yeah, that's tough to understand, so here's the important stuff:

- Drinks are on the house.
- Everyone will be wearing a "full-body protective device."
- YACHT, will be providing the entertainment.
- Bring your cell phone.

Get your tickets here.

More: The Happy Corp's Doug Jaeger Is The New ADC Prez

Today, AdMob has launched download tracking for iPhone applications. Advertisers will now be able to track conversion rates for what they're serving up to users. The company also released some insights about the behavior :

- Free applications have an average conversion rate of 10 percent, significantly higher than the average 1 percent conversion rate for paid applications.

- Games generally have higher conversion rates than other categories of apps, up to a 100 per cent improvement over non-game apps at similar price points.

Just a note on AdMob: the company served 4.5 billion ads in September 2008. With the economic downturn, no one is sure if mobile will be effected by the pullback in brand spending. Mobile advertising is still considered "experimental," which means those budgets may have been the first things to see the axe. Like everything else, it's a wait and see game. For more on mobile advertising predications and smartphone sales, check out this article from today's Mediapost.

More: Samsung Propel Spot Highlights Ozzy's Inability to Speak

Check out the video above if you missed the first of PSFK's Good Ideas Salon with speakers Allison Mooney (PSFK/Mobile Behavior), Kevin Slavin (area/code), Alistair Fulton (Deloitte), Florian Peter (CScout) and Steve Roberts (Shoptext) discussed what Good Ideas we might see in the mobile space in 2009.

The next event is Good Ideas in Design. You can get your tickets here.

More: Alan Rambam And Omnicom Go Mobile

­T-Mobile is about to launch a major online offensive to support its Google Phone, the G1. The campaign aims to deliver one billion impressions in just two days. The company has brought the billion impression block from AOL's Platform-A advertising agency.

Platform-A and T-Mobile have created the "T-Mobile Billion Block," that will run over the next two days. It's possible. The Platform-A brand was launched in the three largest markets in Europe over the last few weeks.

Interesting choice T-Mobile. As everyone and their mother noted: "online ad revenue dropped 6 percent during the third quarter, while its chief rivals saw gains despite a weak economy." This big check from T-Mobile will most certainly help their bottom line. If Platform A can actually deliver these impressions, perhaps AOL will see more of these big checks coming their way and it's not a moment to soon.

Omnicom Group has launched a new agency called Mobile Behavior to incorporate mobile communications into its clients' overall marketing and media mix. Oh thanks heavens. Omnicom has finally realized that phones are important enough to warrant a dedicated practice.

Mobile Behavior will be run by Alan Rambam, who has managed Omnicom's Youth and Mobile Marketing practice, as well as its research arm, Next Great Thing. Wait. Shit. Wait. Okay. Rambam's Next Great Thing blog is pretty darn great. Congrats to Omnicom for having very good taste.

More: Martha Stewart Gets Interactive With A Sort Of QR Code

It's here. A press conference today introduced Google's handset with partner companies, Taiwan's High Tech Computer and T-Mobile, to blogger, journalists and enthusiasts everywhere. There have been cheers and jeers. Yes, it has applications and its touch screen, blah, blah, blah, but, the device is about Google's deeper push into advertising. This time, it's the mobile advertising world that Google is lining up to dominate.

As Craig Wigginton, Deloitte's telecommunications practice said: "Their number-one driver for pushing this is the advertising model.

Strategy Analytics is guessing that T-Mobile could sell 400,000 phones this year giving Google 4% of the U.S. Market for smart phones. That's a lot of eye balls. And the next year, if all goes well, that number is sure to grow. Sure, mobile advertising is still a nascent market. Google getting in on the action is a smart play considering they own search already. There are more than 40 million active mobile internet users as of May 2008 according to Nielsen and the number is increasing.

Still, it's going to be an uphill battle. Yes, Google is very cool, but when it comes to phones, the company well face a slew of competitors. One advantage is that it is an open source phone, which encourages participation and development. Amazon is already readying their application. Plus, Google is going to be releasing this new program on other platforms such as LG and Samsung next year. The Android software is free, which could encourage its use across many handset makers. It's possible. This is a time game. Let's wait and see...

[image source]

It's finally happened. QR codes are making their major magazine debut via the unlikely suspect of Martha Stewart. Go on Martha with your bad self! The Winter issue of Martha Stewart Weddings will be the first women's magazine to allow readers to snap a picture of the ads with their phone and through a shop called, SnapTell, instantly get back content from an advertiser.

QR Codes, semacodes, etc. have been in use in big games from companies like area/code to ARGs from interactive agencies like Deep Focus to having front placement on Korean business cards for years. However, this is the first time I've seen their use marketed to the middle American women. I love it.

You may be asking the same question I am. It's not "will this demographic want to use it." The question is "can they?" QR codes are only read by a certain set of phones (iPhones, N-series Nokias) and semacodes have been basically phased out, but you still have to download software, which could be an extra step that un-tech savvy consumers are unwilling to take. Yet, SnapTell says that their reader works with all phones, but do consumers need to download software? It's unclear. Can't wait to see the results of this major media experiment!

Gizmodo reports that NEC, a Japanese tech company, has unveiled a product that will leave you and your fellow advertisers drooling. A camera mounted above a 50-inch display panel can instantly determine the age and sex of anyone standing in front of it. Then it displays content pertinent to said consumer.

Use that direct mailer you're working on to wipe your chin.

We first saw (a higher tech version of) this technology in the Tom Cruise flick, Minority Report. NEC's device doesn't scan eyeballs (as far as we know). But it does provide interested consumers a way to access the content being displayed. The user simply holds his/her cell phone up to the display, and a QR code instantly sends the phone a hyperlink to the given products.

See the Gizmodo story here.