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Located in popular Martin Place, this is a clever way of drawing an issue to people attention.

Might have even have been more impactful if the floor was littered with used butts instead.

Clever

Much has been written in the past two weeks in the local marketing media about Apple's foray into mobile advertising. Most pieces were barely more than transcripts of Steve Jobs keynote presentation (see video at bottom of post) instead of comparing the upcoming release of iAds against the current market offering. Note For the discussion below, I am only comparing advertising in-applications and not mobile websites, SMS/MMS, mobile search or carrier-based offerings.

Some background information: There are many mobile ad networks that provide advertising inside smart-phone applications (in-app ads), the largest of these is AdMob which agreed to be acquired by Google late last year for USD $750 million in a strategic move by Google that gave it global leadership on mobile search and banner advertising on mobile web and applications. It also fitted in nicely with their ever growing and improving Android mobile operating system (currently on over 35 different mobile phones, with another 18 soon to be released).

Not to be outdone Apple Inc announced on January 4 this year that they had acquired another American mobile ad network - Quattro Wireless - for a rumoured USD $275 million, in an escalating game of one-up-man-ship.

In Australia, AdMob currently dominates the in-app advertising landscape with reach of over 66% of all iPhone users (whether they have apps that carry advertising or not). Whilst they claim reach of 50 million mobile users worldwide, Quattro's reach in Australia is not currently disclosed, and is estimated to be very small. 

So, how do they stack up against each other?

With the announcement of their new iAds, Apple is effectively activating a superior ad format on an existing network - with the aim to increase the networks reach (get developers preference over AdMob/Google) and increase their advertising revenue yield (charging advertisers more per ad for a superior format and user experience). It is a bold and welcome move.

On the other side, AdMob has a much larger network reach across different phones, flexible buy models (i.e. cost per click) and will likely have Google's global sales team if they get FCC approval of the acquisition. But rumours persist that Apple might restrict developers choice of ad partners, and exclude AdMob, which a real possibility if their past efforts of setting up a closed network against Google's open approach continue.

Would this have a big affect the industry in Australia it it happens? Yes.

93% of all in-app advertising occurs on an iPhone in Australia. And though Android, Ovi (Nokia), Blackberry and Samsung are making some inroads on the app market abroad, most applications consumed, used and developed in Australia occur on an iPhone. AdMob/Google would still own mobile search and a significant portion of mobile web advertising, but the richer and more brand friendly in-app advertising would be dominated by Apple.

Thus, it is important, despite the hype, that local marketers and media interesting in engaging mobile consumers watch this two horse race play out.

Also - if you haven't yet watched the video demonstration of the iAds it is well worth seeing what possibilities will soon exist.

 
Today, and not without a healthy dose of cynicism I attended an afternoon of presumed bloated presentations entitled "MySpace the next chapter in social media". Not managing to stay the entire six hour odyssey I was pleased to find that the Vice President of Myspace Mike Jones was the first man up.

Mike was the lucid, LA accented, well rehearsed speaker one would hope to lead MySpace in the teens of the 21st Century; a proven entrepreneur he showed a great depth of knowledge and passion for the MySpace product, and introduced its future to the tweeting (#myspaceevent) audience.

My key takeaways from Mike's interview with Mumbrella'sTim Burrows;

• MySpace is all about discovery, this discovery is fed by the content MySpace hosts (Music, video, games etc)
• Social or friend feeds are the means for discovery to take place, these feeds facilitate connections and are powered by the exchanges of artifacts (pixels and bytes)
• Mobile access is at the core of the future for MySpace 
• Mobile activities will be dominated by re-purposing content for applications; developed for a myriad of devices and platforms these applications will allow content to be distributed, shared and consumed in a user defined manner (single theme apps will be the way forward as apposed to a portal style one size fits all approach)

Finally on mobile e-commerce, this is the untapped revenue opportunity, single click transactions and micro payments are relatively low use now, but represent effective revenue generation options. Services and content will be tailored to best leverage these systems and gateways.      

     To be honest the MySpace future looks quite bright, they have been waiting in the wings quietly working away on new ways to engage consumers, work brands into their             content via the likes of video, and are sharing their feeds with Google and others to offer greater opportunity for content distribution.  They are committed to helping brands         develop branded content experiences, and are seeking out new revenue models via the likes of apps and e-commerce.

        Facebook and twitter might the darlings of the social-scape today, but count out the pioneers. With backing from News Ltd and Mr Murdoch himself, this is perhaps the                 next chapter for MySpace after all.