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Marketing story is pleased to introduce a new writer. He is a specialist in the mobile advertising market and has been writing for one of the biggest mobile advertising newsletters for nearly two years.

1) Hi David, could you introduce yourself?

Yes of course, my name is David Holding – Parsons, I was born in England to a French mother and an English Father. I lived in the UK for twenty years, studying at the “Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle” in London before joining “Euromed Marseille Ecole de Management” in Marseille. After spending 18 months there, I returned to England to do my first internship in a company called “Any Screen Productions”. Then I went to Shanghai on a two year exchange at “Tongji University” in Shanghai. As part of my studies there I am currently doing my second internship, which I am doing in New York with a company called “TigerSpike”.

2) How did you get into mobile?

I got into mobile by a complete coincidence. I hurt my knee playing rugby at the start of my 3rd semester at Euromed. Because I required surgery, I had to change the plans for my first internship and do it in London. And after a few complications with my knee, that forced me to turn down other positions, I came across “Any Screen Productions” and it went from there. So I owe them a lot.

3) Could you introduce your company?

I actually currently work for two companies. I still work on a part time basis for Any Screen Productions (www.anyscreenproductions.com). They are a European strategy and international business development consultancy specialised in the Mobile, Interactive Television and Broadband markets. After I finished my first internship they offered me the chance to keep working for them from China and specifically to research content and write for their newsletter on the mobile advertising industry MobiAD News (www.mobiadnews.com). So it is really thanks to them that I got into mobile.

As I mentioned before I am currently doing my second Internship with TigerSpike (www.tigerspike.com) here in New York. TigerSpike is a new digital services agency specialised in Mobile and Social Media marketing & technology, including Mobile Sites, iPhone & Android Apps, Branded Mobile Applications, Games, Guides, SMS & MMS campaigns and competitions. In addition, they are an awarding winning creator of Social Media Video Sites, UGC and Mobile integration, Facebook apps.

They were formed five years ago in Sydney and have won a host of awards since there. Over the last few years they have opened offices in Auckland, London and New York with planed offices in Singapore and Los Angeles. So they are very much a growing company.

4) What does your job involve on a day to day basis?

Well concerning MobiAD, I receive a huge amount of e-mails from our various sources. I go through them and send a list of the most relevant stories to the editor who selects the ones that I should write up. So I am effectively a journalist specialised in the mobile advertising industry.

At TigerSpike I am involved in two main activities, Business development and Account Management. As we have just opened in New York we are going to a lot of pitches, so I spend a fair amount of time using my knowledge of the industry to help prepare the pitches. The account management part involves running the client campaigns and tweaking them where necessary in order to get the best possible ROI for the client.

5) Could you explain to us what Mobile Advertising is?

Mobile advertising or marketing is an emerging concept, but one that is showing huge potential. In simple terms mobile advertising includes all forms of advertising that is delivered to a mobile device. There are many different ways to deliver advertising on a mobile device from the now common SMS/MMS campaigns to the mobile web to location based services. I am not going to get into it too much detail in this interview but over the next few months, I will cover in my posts the various technologies that are shaping the mobile industry.

6) What are the advantages of mobile advertising over classic advertising like TV, print or online?

There are several main reasons that have led many people to predict a very fruitful future for mobile phone advertising. These are the reach of mobile phones, the responsiveness of mobile marketing campaigns, the targeting capabilities of mobile phone advertising and the ability to reach traditional hard to reach segments like the youth and Hispanic markets via this medium.

On top of this in less developed countries, where people do not have access to the internet, they use the mobile web. According to recent statistics, Indonesia, India and the Philippines are three of the top five countries where mobile banner ads are served.

7) How can the iPhone and Android change the mobile advertising market?

The iPhone has already led to a huge change in the mobile advertising market. It is not so much about the hardware, but the software. The iPhone Operating System (OS) has redefined the market. This has been done by having a simple system that works very well and a mobile web browser that has led to a consumer experience that is a lot closer to what consumers are use to on the internet.

The quality of the web browser means that most brand are coming to ad agencies like the one I work for asking for iPhone specific mobile sites. These sites are more popular with consumers than the ordinary web pages that can also be viewed on the iPhone browser.

On top of this, brands are also asking us to build more and more apps for the iPhone. We are about to sign a deal with a major corporation for multiple iPhone apps. This level of interest would not have happened before the iPhone. Having said that, my opinion is that a lot of companies were caught by surprise by the power of the iPhone and so they are playing catch up. In the long run Apps will still be very popular, but the market will get over this early fashionable period.

However, the biggest proof of the power that the iPhone is having on the mobile advertising market is the fact that all advertising networks are now offering iPhone specific ad formats. These are optimised to give the best consumer experience on the iPhone.

When it comes to Android, it is playing catch up with the iPhone OS, but I believe that in the long run it will have as big of an effect on the mobile advertising industry as the iPhone has had.

In the long run Android will be on more devices than the iPhone OS because of Google’s open policy and providing the OS free of charge. Whereas the iPhone OS will only be available on the iPhone. Another reason for the excitement around Android is that Google changed online advertising so it will be very interesting to see what they do in mobile.

All in all it is a very exciting time in the mobile ad industry, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the first Android phone tomorrow. I promise to write my first article this week end with my initial thoughts on Android… So come back to Marketing Story next week to see what I think of it!!!

8) What do you think is the potential for mobile in the current economical climate?

I personally think that the current economical crisis is a good thing for the mobile advertising industry. As brands tighten their belts, they are going to have to start thinking outside the box in order to get better ROI and not just stick with what they know. This is where mobile comes in, a well thought out and executed mobile campaign will nearly always get better results than TV, print or Online media.

Also the budgets in mobile are a lot smaller than that of print or TV advertising, so if one is looking to save money, mobile is not the first place to look at.

Thank you for your time David and see you soon on Marketing Story.

If you want to find out more about mobile advertising you can subscribe to the free newsletter that David writes for: http://www.mobiadnews.com/