The MoPR Blog

My career in public relations is just beginning, and my managers at Mobility PR are giving me incredible opportunities to not only continually learn about our industry, but also grow as a public relations professional.

I just had the privilege of attending my first CTIA Wireless tradeshow in Las Vegas (that’s me with Jonny Brown of Kentrox). As a newbie to this trade show, I was blown away by the sheer volume of people and countless new products. While I was there supporting one of the six MoPR clients that attended the show, the team at MoPR made sure I got to walk the floor with them, and I learned a lot. Acronyms are now better understood, technologies were brought to life and I have a deeper understanding of how all the different elements of mobility work together in the large ecosystem on display at CTIA. From a professional PR perspective, one of the most important things I learned might actually be a MoPR trade secret, but I feel compelled to write about it anyway: ShowStoppers.

ShowStoppers is a press-only event where reporters, editors, bloggers and industry analysts mingle with 50 or so companies which exhibit their newest technologies and services. At CTIA, the Showstoppers exhibitors represent the future of business, consumer, lifestyle and digital technologies in the mobile space. Exhibiting companies include the most innovative new startups that have selected CTIA as their launch pad which showcase their wares right alongside major industry players.

Steve and Dave Leon (that’s right-they’re brothers!) put on an impressive event. But in truth-it felt more like a party. Hosted this year at the Wynn Hotel, ShowStoppers, with its endless supply of fancy finger-food and generous open bar, was the place to be in Vegas that Monday night.

Vendors working the show were in for a busy night dominated by efforts to grab the attention of the reporters and analysts making their way around the room and then talking-up the products and services they were there representing.

I was aware of ShowStoppers before going to CTIA. MoPR has used the event with great success in the past. When our client Talkster debuted its Free World Dialing service at Fall CTIA last year, they earned a tremendous amount of coverage. But now I know one of the MoPR secrets. Press events like ShowStoppers (there are also the Pepcom press events which I hope to attend) give companies a great opportunity to take advantage of the hundreds of registered press and analysts that come to a big trade show like CTIA. Instead of conducting 30 minute briefings held one at a time on the show floor, the news can be given to reporters in a more rapid fire environment, literally seeing dozens of reporters every hour of the three hour event.

That’s not to say that doing ShowStoppers is easy. There is a ton of prep work that we conducted on behalf of our client well in advance of the event. ShowStoppers sent us periodic updates of their attending press list so that we could give heads-up pitches to relevant media and hone our materials appropriately. Preparing for ShowStoppers was actually quite intense… but some activities must remain trade secrets!

Beyond the dozens of print media and bloggers that we chatted with at the event, our client Kentrox - who was there to launch its Optima Cell Site Solutions - was also interviewed by Dave Graveline for his
"Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline" radio show and did an on camera interview with BNETV.

We also had the pleasure of being exhibitor neighbors with KWINGO. These folks are an online resource providing frequently needed workplace phrases in a second language. I think it’s safe to say that in our diverse world, especially the mobility space, we have all had moments where we definitely needed a Kwingo! Or as they say, Quick Lingo.

The event was practically perfect. If there was one moment of panic, it came after a consutruction worker bisected Sprint’s fiber optic cable cutting off Internet to the entire Wynn Hotel (among others) just hours before the event was to begin. I am told that a backhoe slicing fiber optic cable is a cliche, and I’m glad that my first CTIA experience included it. It could have been a complete disaster (so many of the companies exhibiting had demos that relied on Internet service), but the ShowStoppers team pulled off an incredible last (miracle?) fix. Minutes before the press walked through the door, our computers were up and running and the connectivity problem was completely resolved. Impressive to say the least. And just in time for me to makemy first UTTER!

Hats off to the ShowStoppers crew for a fantastic event. A huge thanks to all of the media for attending the event and speaking with the vendors. And many thanks to all the exhibitors- I’m really enjoying all my clicky pens, stress balls, and new notepads! The entire team at Mobility PR looks forward to the next ShowStoppers event - coming soon to a trade show near you!

Utterz:

I think the true test of a consumer service being ready for actual consumers is a measure of how easy it is for newbies to use it. Utterz is one mobile service that’s ease of use I can attest to first hand.

As I set out to cover the hottest news coming out of ShowStoppers CTIA I was attracted to a booth in the corner with a logo I recognized from SXSW 08 and a table topped with stuffed cows standing on their hind legs with their udders exposed. The booth was for Utterz, a life-casting meets mobile multimedia blogging service. I had seen the company at SXSW and when I was home, recovering from the week-long hangover that epitomizes SXSW, I set up a personal account on Utterz.

I’m generally interested in any cool new mobile apps and the service sounded neat, so I hit the site, signed-up, and sent my first Utter. But, I’m apparently lame, and embarrassed myself with my first Utter by accidentally posting what I was trying to submit as my profile picture as my first public post. So basically my first post was just a photo of me. Hello world, here I am. Lame.

At any rate, when I saw the company at showstoppers I headed over to get the gist and to share my embarrassing story of that first post experience (secretly hoping that after my confession they would tell me, “oh yeah, that happens all the time.”)

What came after that changed the way I reported on several of the companies from Showstoppers; but I digress.

I chatted with Simeon Margolis (Principal) and Michael Bayer (CEO) from Utterz who gave me a solid overview of the service. Basically it lets you use your mobile phone as a tool to capture and comment on your life (or anything else you want) as it happens.

With Utterz you can take photos, record voice commentaries or record videos and submit them to the Utterz site coupled with any text you would like directly from your mobile phone. You have a profile page on Utterz where all of your posts go, and people can subscribe to your posts or “follow” you. Posts are tagged and are searchable by others in the community.

But the fun doesn’t end there. Oh no, that is just the beginning. Since so many of us already have Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, and other social networking service accounts, Utterz gives users the option to add their other accounts to their Utterz profile, which allows them to have their Utterz content pushed to their other accounts automatically. So if I take a picture and “Utter” it, I can opt to have it automatically posted to my personal blog, my Facebook account, and my Flickr account. If I record a video for work and Utter it, I can opt to have it sent to my business Wordpress blog, my company MySpace page, and YouTube, all automatically.

Utterz’ ease of use is what really impressed me. Using my iPhone I took a picture at Showstoppers, and then with one click emailed it to go@utterz.com. The Utterz service matches my submission to my account and automatically posts it for me. The subject line of my email becomes the photo title and I can add any text I like in the body of the email to be included with the photo. If I want to add some audio commentary to the photo I need only dial 712-432-6666 on my phone within 10 minutes of submitting the photo, talk naturally and then hang up when I’m done. Utterz will automatically pair the two together for me and my voice recording is available for anyone to listen to. The same for video. Just record and submit, Utterz handles the rest.

 

(Melissa with her Bessie collectible, the Utterz mascot)

 

Once I had grasped the power of this service, several things became clear to me:

One – I could easily use Utterz to record and post interviews from Showstoppers, effectively saving me from taking notes by hand and producing a much cleaner, more authentic interview. Check out my audio interview with Kentrox from Showstoppers using Utterz by clicking here.
Two – Utterz is a service I will use both in my personal life and my professional life. Score!
And three – Utterz was by far the coolest mobile service at Showstoppers this year. Nice work guys!

 

digby:

The guys over at digby have a neat eCommerce site for mobiles that makes it ultra simple for a shopper to use their mobile phone to make a purchase (proven to be easy enough to use that you can make a purchase in 30 seconds).

Based on the slick demo I saw, I imagine it will get a lot of use from people who are browsing in stores, see something they like, wonder if the store price is the best price, use digby to search for the same item, and if its cheaper they can place the order right there from their mobile phones. Would be very interesting to be able to add a feature where you can pay from your mobile phone and have the balance from your shopping tacked onto your monthly phone bill, solving two issues: some buyers don’t have credit cards, and there are still buyers who are hesitant about handing out their credit card info over their cell phone.

With partnerships in place with major retailers such as Barnes and Noble, Godiva, FTD and Best Buy, digby looks like its off to a nice start. More info at www.digby.com

 

iSkin:

I talked with iSkin’s Kristian Ward about their cool headsets and Bluetooth devices which were announced at the show.

The all in one CERULEAN F1 combines a wireless stereo Bluetooth 2.0 earphone with a mobile headset, so it works with both iPods and Bluetooth-equipped mobile phones.

In addition to promised enhanced audio quality and the pure fact that it’s completely wireless, the headset allows iTunes users to remotely command features such as Play/Pause and Skip Track functionality directly from the headset and can be used as a VoIP headset with iChat, Skype, or with any audio application that requires a microphone/headset combination.

The iSkin headsets retail from $129.99 to $149.99 and are available are available at www.iskin.com

 

emoze:

emoze is setting out to “democratize mobile email” with a free service for consumers that basically pushes your email to your phone.

The company says that their emoze software “works just like a BlackBerry” – by pushing e-mails to smartphones, PDAs or standard feature phones – but can be established without the high set-up costs, hardware charge and hassle of other enterprise email services. A user simply downloads emoze from www.emoze.com (or http://emoze.com from their mobile device), sets up their own free account and begins to receive push emails and personal information management (PIM) data – calendar, contacts, tasks and notes – directly to their device.

There is an enterprise version available (for a fee) to businesses. emoze is also in licensing discussions with mobile operators.

Jumping on the social networking bandwagon, emoze mentioned that they have plans to come to Facebook by May this year.

 

NEOMedia:

One of my favorite companies at Showstoppers was NEOMedia, a company that has been around for more than 10-years, and offers a camera phone barcode scanner service that uses two-dimensional barcodes as interactive buttons, linking virtual worlds with the real world.

The possibilities for these two-dimensional barcodes are endless:

Advertising & Promotion

• Enter a contest
• Watch a commercial
• Get a coupon
• Download ringtones, graphics & games
• Access recipes

Information

• Update news
• Product information
• Research products
• Compare prices
• Preview a movie

mCommerce

• Book tickets
• Buy products & services
• Support a cause/donate

One of the real life examples they showed off was an ad in a newspaper for a new movie in theaters. A consumer could pass their cell phone camera over the ad (the software seeks/senses the barcode and easily grabs it) and they get a trailer for the movie, along with a link to where the movie is playing and another link to purchase tickets. When they get to the theater they just use their phone with special theater device to redeem their tickets. The billing is transaction-based, so the charge could appear on their phone bill and there is no need to ever enter a credit card number or any other account info.

There is so much opportunity for a technology like this here in the US and I’m frankly surprised that we haven’t already seen more of it in use. Nearly all the new mobile phones coming to market this year have camera technology embedded and marketers are hungry for ways to truly interact with their audiences.

Imagine as an advertiser or marketer the “quality of dialog” you could have with customers who click on an ad or offer of yours that they see in a newspaper or magazine. In fact, one of the most interesting conversations I had with the team from NEOMedia revolved around the reaction of newspapers to their technology. When newspaper ads become this interactive the statistics on impressions and follow-up become transparent. Instead of simple circulation numbers this technology can tell the advertiser how many people saw the ad and interacted with it. If as an advertiser I offer a coupon, I would know how many people “clipped” it from the paper, which I could then compare to how many turned it in. Beyond that, I could capture valuable customer demographics and establish a clear ROI for each ad medium, indicating which one is most effective with each of my target audiences.

Another compelling example that resonated with me personally was an article in the paper about a soccer game which included a two-dimensional barcode that I could scan. Upon scanning the barcode I would receive video highlights pushed to my phone, could follow the team’s progress and could opt in for text message updates on the team, all for free, and sponsored by an advertiser.

Lots of potential, and definitely a technology that’s time has come.

For more info on NeoMedia visit: www.neom.com

 

AT&T and mSpot:

If you love your music, set it free. ATT announced two new mobile services for consumers in partnership with mSpot from Showstoppers CTIA.

The first is called Make-UR-Tones, which allows you to create your own ringtones (up to 30-seconds long) on the fly from a catalog of more then 250,000 titles. iTunes offers a limited range of its catalog along with the software to create custom ringtones, however the difference with this service from ATT and mSpot is that you can create the tones while on the go.

The Make-UR-Tones service is available for a monthly fee of $6.99 (which includes 3-ringtones) and you can add additional ringtones during the month for $2.99 each. The price seems a bit steep given the iTunes version is .99, but I image some will pay for the wider catalog and on the go convenience.

The second service announced by mSpot and ATT is far more interesting to me as I think there is absolute value in it. The service is called mSpot Remix (which I don’t agree captures the value statement of the service).

Basically mSpot Remix is a “your music on demand mobile application”. You have all your music stored on your PC. Your phone has limited storage power. With this service you have instant access to that PC-based library from your mobile phone, along with a slick music player, the “mSpot Remix mobile player”. Two big drawbacks: Cost and device compatibility. The Remix service is $9.99/month (which includes 75 songs per month downloaded), along with a booster pack for $2.99 that gives you 10 more songs. The service only works with the Samsung SYNC, the Samsung A737 and LG SHINE at this time.

GWAVA’s Richard Bliss reporting from CTIA.

Though I’ve been to numerous tradeshows in the past [hello Internet World 2000!] I’m always excited to visit CTIA, North America’s largest event strictly devoted to wireless and mobility.

While I love discovering the new trends and seeing the cool new tools and products, the best part of CTIA for me is always talking to lots of interesting companies and learning more about the evolution of my industry.

Day one, I explored some vendor booths in both halls, saw a couple sessions and got my sea legs on. It was a good mixture of gadgets for consumers all the way back to the weeds with numerous back-end products.

Day two got interesting as Richard Bliss, VP of global marketing at GWAVA, joined me walking the floor. Richard was officially there pitching GWAVA to the AT&T Fast Pitch. Unfortunately we didn’t win, but it was a great experience. See Richard’s blog for his view of the CTIA.

Richard was also at CTIA writing a couple of posts for Ewan MacLeod’s excellent SMSTextNews. So, we talked to some vendors, walked around and then Richard banged out some reviews.

Once we were done with official duties, I broke out my digital camera with limited video functionality and suggested we [and by “we” I mean “Richard”] do a couple quick reviews of vendors.

I thought the results came out decent for such a low-res camera. And heck, posting it on YouTube didn’t hurt. Do a Google search for CTIA and GWAVA, and our videos appear in the top 10. Not too shabby.

So, my quick rundown from the show is this:

1. Where was the iPhone killer? I played around with a lot of phones at the show and none of them compared with my iPhone [lack of video notwithstanding].

2. Mobile social networking. Lots of vendors had mobile social networking products. Not buying it. Why not just use Facebook on your mobile? Like James Wanless of Talkster asked when he and I were talking trends, “Will people really add yet another social application to their lives?” Totally agree.

3. I was surprised that mobile advertising wasn’t as cool on the show floor as we’re seeing with MoPR clients like Talkster, Hovr or Copernic. One “text ad agency” I spoke with demonstrated a campaign to me. And it still relied on txt msgng for yr nxt cmpgn. I am fascinated by this space and will keep following it and hoping for the best.

4. Product overload. And that’s a good thing. There were so many new and innovative products that my suitcase was stuffed with product brochures.

5. The mobile and wireless industry is alive and very much kicking. What recession? There are newer and better products being released and more room is needed every year at CTIA for more vendors. Can’t wait for the next one!

Look for more posts on CTIA in the next couple of days on the MoPR blog.