Big thanks to everyone who took part in our ticket giveaway for the IMC Mobile Marketing conference.

Your questions were fantastic and have given us — and the conference presenters — a lot of great ideas for discussion topics. You also made it very difficult to choose a winner!

So, without further ado, our free ticket winners are…

Chana Hercenberg: As a consultant, someone who has spent time researching the industry [...], I would say one of the most important issues to address for…

...continue to read "Mobile Marketing Conference Ticket Winners Announced"

If you’ll be in New York City on June 4th — or looking for an excuse to visit — here’s your chance.

The IMC Mobile Marketing conference, in addition to offering a 20% discount to all GrokDotCom readers (click here for details), is letting us give away three free tickets to their event.

How To Enter

All you need to do is leave a question — not a comment — below that addresses a common or interesting concern about mobile marketing.

Be specific. The more…

...continue to read "Win Tickets to the IMC Mobile Marketing Conference"

Who: A variety of industry experts, including FutureNow’s Bryan Eisenberg, Alan Levy (BlogTalkRadio), Peter Olfe (Yojo Mobile), Dan Melinger (Socialight), Ludo Collin (Starcut), Wil Tan (MojiPage), Phil Kemelor (Semphonic), Jennifer LeClaire (Conversion Press), Eric Hansen (SiteSpect), and more.

What: The Internet Marketing Conference (IMC) promises to bring some fresh thinking about mobile marketing to New York City this June. This conference is entirely dedicated to understanding how emerging mobile technologies will affect radio, reach, widgets, multivariate testing, location-based marketing, search, promotional marketing,…

...continue to read "IMC Mobile Marketing: The Next Evolution"

Google will make cellphones even cooler. Yay! Yippee, social media!!!(?)

I already have a leash, model number BlackBerry 8700g. I enjoy guilty introverted fantasies of a device that will allow me to provide a mild-yet-meaningful electric shock to everybody who calls me; not to torture them, but to have them reconsider whether or not it requires a conversation.

With a voice that no librarian could love, I’m certain that I’ve been that cretin who won’t shut up more often than I’m comfortable…

...continue to read "Can You Hear Me Now? NO!? Gooood…"

Should “free” wireless internet be paid for by cities? Google doesn’t think so, which is why the company may be America’s only hope at “free” bandwidth.

But that depends on what your definition of the word “free” is. If city governments pay, taxpayers flip the bill. If Google picks up the tab, “free” means ad-supported. Any way you slice it, innovation isn’t free, and Wi-Fi doesn’t mean what it used to. That seems to be why Google recently announced its Wi-Max ambitions and…

...continue to read "Google Can Win While Cities Drop the Ball on Wi-Fi"

OK, so I’ve been on a mobile kick lately. Sorry if it’s starting to feel like “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel — horrible website, by the way — but neither are as dangerous as they are misunderstood.

MarketingVOX shares this Ball State University study on college students and mobile advertising…

Among the survey findings:

37.4 percent of college students said it would only take the offer of a free ring tone for them to accept advertisements on their cell phones. 21.4 percent preferred a discount or…

...continue to read "Students Open to Mobile Ads When Properly Bribed"

Forget behavioral targeting*, Google wants to predict what you want based on where you are — geographically, not virtually — and when you’re there.

How will they do that? By transforming the mobile experience, of course.

Yesterday, we discussed how Google’s WiMax deal with Sprint makes sense. Today, the mobile revolution seems imminent. Google’s feeling double-lucky . . .

Stephen Arnold, a Kentucky-based analyst who has been tracking Google with trainspotting accuracy for a number of years, has found 17 telephony-related patents and patent applications by…

...continue to read "Google Feeling “Double-Lucky” on Mobile"

Talk to any European who’s ever paid for mobile or data coverage in the US and — once they’ve stopped laughing — it becomes painfully obvious how badly we’re getting ripped-off. “I can’t believe how slow it is over here,” they say. “We had these phones, like, three years ago,” they add. “Why do Americans allow themselves to pay $100 per month for third-world phone service?”

[Cue laughter and eye-rolling.]

Enter Google’s deal with Sprint, and its promise to bid at least…

...continue to read "Google’s WiMax Bid Makes Sense — Dollars Too?"