you can listen it here. Thanks Peggy.
Highlights
As he put it: “They have a different view of the advertising space. And their view of the competition is that the competitors aren’t really [other] operators, but other mediums. So if a dollar is going to TV, then that’s their competition, not a dollar going to their rival [operator].
Other highlights:
Operator assets: Operators should “focus on the unique capabilities that they have from their network and devices and expose that to the ecosystem.” That model is more compelling – and potentially more profitable – than “trying to control and become an agency themselves.”
Google & Co: Operators have the analytics – but time is a luxury they don’t have. Figure it’s 2-3 years before other providers close the gap to offer profiling, presence and location, and the metrics advertisers demand. “In the long run, the challenge will be: Will it [customer data etc…] come from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and some other companies [as they] will have these unique characteristics [and capabilities] as well.” In three years, Chetan reckons “online brands will start to dominate the ecosystem….But if carriers are able to pool together their resources and make a very compelling offer to the media industry…they [carriers] can put up very stiff resistance to online brands.”
Mobile search: Mobile search will play an important role on mobile, but it won’t dominate the mobile Internet or advertising experience. “I think the idle screen plays this role in the long run on the mobile. And I think you’ll see more friction and fights [as companies] try to capture the idle screen user.
We should not think of search as a box, “but rather an intelligent [bot] that searches for relevant content for you and presents that content with relevant ads on the idle screen. If you think of search in that way, then search has a very important role to play. But just searching by key words will probably have a smaller role to play in the long term.
The ones to watch: Chetan and I ran through some case studies and stats from the likes of NearBy Now, which gets high marks for engagement, and mobile Posse, which gets high marks for targeting. I’ll take Chetan’s comments as a cue to line up an interview with each – in fact, I already reached out to NearbyNow for a podcast timed to their next announcement (under embargo)…In the meantime, it’s interesting to note that no company got high marks across all five metrics: reach, engagement, targeting, viral and transactions. (Transaction is the “Holy grail” of mobile advertising, where an ad delivers a sale). As Chetan observed: It’s just early days.