Nice summary article here from the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones on how advertising on mobile is changing and where we can expect it to head. His report comes from Mobile World Congress, the annual event dedicated to all things mobile, and his key points are around local search, video-on-mobile, and advertising-in-apps. There’s also a good summary video here. While we’re at it, a nod to BBC Click for their technology content generally.

Some of the themes and trends in these articles will also be discussed at ad:tech Sydney. We’re not just about mobile, we take the key issues and discuss those in depth in relation to the marketing and advertising potential. Here are a couple of the sessions at ad:tech that pick up those major themes:

How To Maximise The Effect Of Mobile For Brand Engagement

This Keynote Presentation is on March 10, 2pm, and it’s FREE to attend. Nick Wiggin, Head of Advertising Strategy & Partnerships, Ericsson will take you through some of the global campaigns, product and business models that are delivering return through mobile. It will be great to get Nick’s international perspectives on how mobile is shifting and his selection of case studies on the best ways to make mobile work for you.

Future Gazing, Unwired Media

Jennifer Wilson, Director, The Project Factory and Ben Cooper, Digital Director, Three Drunk Monkeys will be talking all things tech including HTML 5, Windows 7, Blackberry Torch, all new tablets, Android, cloud computing, browsers, the mobile wallet. It’ll be 45 minutes of pure mobile technology chat and thoroughly insightful & useful, if you can keep up…

The program for this year’s ad:tech Sydney CONFERENCE is looking great. We have a number of interesting case studies being presented and a lot of speakers from companies dealing with truly cutting edge technologies and approaches to digital media. Here are some of my personal favourites at the moment:

Throughout my research & meetings the issue of how to integrate mobile in to the digital plan effectively and strategically was constantly questioned. People wanted examples of succcess from agencies, suppliers and brand leaders. The opening session on track one of the CONFERENCE program “Achieving An Effective Mobile Strategy” will provide some real facts and direction on this topic. With speakers from Front Foot, Sportsbet.com.au, Ericsson, InMobi and Time Out Sydney the opinions, experiences and conversation will be incredibly valuable and provide some real advice on this important area.

The opportunities of social gaming – how it can fit with a mobile & social media strategy and help to increase brand awareness, engagement & connectivity – are really interesting and show another morph of media and consumer behaviour. The “What Are The Engagement And Branding Opportunities For Your Brand Through Social Gaming?” with Soap Creative, 3rd Sense and Australia Online Research will be a fun, lively session showing you new and surprising ways to work with games as part of your marketing plan.

It might be a bit obvious that I like this session but “How To Use Apps Successfully For Specific Events” will be an excellent discussion. We’ve got two brand managers, both working within live events but for very different markets talking about how their app strategy and execution came together. The challenge with live events is having a very crystalised deliverable date (the event) and using an app to get real benefit for your market and for your deliverables is a challenge. I look forward to hearing what Jill Colvin (Sydney Festival) and John Curtin (Totem Onelove) have to say.

When we had the online retail / e-commerce advisory council meeting one of the issues we discussed at length was how social media can best fit into the online shopping experience. Should it be providing information to consumers? Connecting consumers? Used as a search channel? Providing customer support? All the above? In “What Does Social Mean For Online Retail?” there are excellent examples of working with social media in the online retail space from Shoes of Prey and Myzerr.com. I fully expect that discussion to keep going and going…

Any questions or thoughts on these sessions let me know. I’m keen to hear whether we’re including the content and opinions that you want to hear on the ad:tech Sydney CONFERENCE program.

Plus, tell us the session you’re looking forward to most…. (the Networking Drinks don’t count)….

cheers, Lucy

Registration

Book your ad:tech Sydney CONFERENCE pass to gain access to all event features.
Book a free ad:tech Sydney EXHIBITION pass to gain access to the Keynote Presentations, Breakfast Briefing, Expo Seminar Theatre, Networking Party and of course the EXHIBITION.

ad:tech Sydney
9-10 March 2011
Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
Register for ad:tech Sydney here.

ad:tech Australia is delighted to announce the confirmed Keynote sessions for ad:tech Sydney 2011. The Keynote Presentations showcase global perspectives from international industry leaders and the Keynote Roundtable will bring together opinions on the hottest debate for 2011. All Keynote sessions are FREE to attend when you register for any of the ad:tech CONFERENCE, EXHIBITION or WORKSHOP passes.

Day 1, Opening Keynote Presentation – Activision

Prepare to be inspired by Brad Jakeman, EVP, Chief Creative Officer, Activision Blizzard, the marketer who managed the groundbreaking campaign that led to the biggest entertainment launch in history and the record sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Day 1, Afternoon Keynote Presentation – Google

Daniel Alegre, VP Asia Pacific and Japan, Google Inc will share the latest news on the innovations and developments that we can expect from Google in the coming year.

Day 2, Opening Keynote Roundtable – Future of TV

Iain McDonald, founder of Amnesia Razorfish and chair of ad:tech Sydney will lead the Keynote panel discussion on: The Future of TV. As TV becomes almost unrecognisable what does it mean for programmers, consumers and advertisers? And which businesses and products will be seriously threatened by these changes? Iain will lead a debate with key ANZ players from hardware, OS and service provision.

Day 2, Afternoon Keynote Presentation – Ericsson

Nick Wiggin, Head of Advertising Strategy & Partnerships, Ericsson will bring you the latest global perspectives on the trends and opportunities in mobile advertising and marketing.

Registration OPEN

ad:tech Australia is also pleased to officially open registration for both ad:tech Sydney and the newly launched ad:tech Melbourne. Passes can now be purchased for both event CONFERENCES and free passes can be booked for both event EXHIBITIONS.

ad:tech Sydney, 9-10 March, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
ad:tech Melbourne, 30-31 March 2011, Hilton on the Park, Melbourne

the ad:tech advisory boards

To ensure both ad:tech events have been designed ‘by the industry, for the industry,’ delivering the most pertinent content back to their home cities ad:tech Australia consulted key industry players on the ad:tech Sydney advisory councils and the ad:tech Melbourne advisory board.

The ad:tech Sydney CONFERENCE program is now live and can be viewed online, the ad:tech Melbourne program will be available in the coming weeks.