Five sunny days of networking, keynotes, parties and dinners completed what was a successful Mobile World Congress 2016, where over 100,000 attendees from 204 countries and territories descended on Barcelona with MediaMath being one of 2,200 companies exhibiting at the event.
This key global event – essentially a microcosm of the mobile advertising ecosystem – did not fail to live up to high expectations and while trade visitors were making sense of a fractured mobile landscape, it was brought together seamlessly allowing members to explore new products, partnerships and offerings.
Amongst the new innovations in mobile technology, there were a few key insights and learnings that caught our attention – noticeably how these advances are looking to change people’s personal and everyday lives through connectivity, as well as new services and apps, not to mention virtual reality headsets.
Picture this. What if you could make your retail experience truly mobile? This could mean the ability to identify consumer needs in-store through mobile and automatically have a sales agent assist you. For example, if you were looking for a suit from a bygone era, the store already knows what you’re looking for and can help you before you even consider asking them. And from a brand marketer point-of-view, imagine the ability to really hone in on omnichannel connectors and cross-channel components across all inventory to better target your consumer online and in-store. Well, that’s exactly what companies such as Broadcast Village, Trustly, Disruptive Digital Studio, Copsonic, Intel, Innovation City, Vibes and NTS retail are doing.
The importance of omnichannel and its role in driving programmatic performance is such that agency Cojecom’s CEO, Jérôme Soleymieux, shared a blog post last month to provide insight on their experiences and internal restructuring. In particular, with 5G expected to become a reality by 2018, everything really is mobile – so much so that at a panel called ‘The next $50B: How mobile conquers video,’ some great snippets could be heard such as “We are all carrying a TV in our pocket” and “Mobile video is in its early stages. It isn’t TV, it’s a new way to live your life on your mobile.”
A little closer to home at MediaMath’s stand G20 in Hall 8, our partners Ninth Decimal, Visual DNA, Lotame, Axonix, xAd and inMobi presented from Tuesday – Thursday at 11am and 3pm.
Here’s a rundown snapshot of what they shared:
Ninth Decimal : In “Physical World Behavior Meets Mobile Programmatic,” Michael Miner, VP, Business Development discussed understanding the real consumer through the behaviors they show in the physical world via their mobile device (such as uploading geo-location tagged photos to a photo-sharing app, checks weather app or location based shopping app). These behavioral actions help a brand understand their consumer – collecting and measuring these insights can be achieved intelligently through mobile programmatic.
Visual DNA : “Next Gen Mobile Data: Targeting by Personality” by Raj Dhanda, VP, Global Supply tapped into understanding the personality of internet users – whether they’re extrovert, introvert, open or conscientious to name a few. By means of patented quiz technology, where answers are more genuine as there are no incentives, it provides a benefit to the mobile ecosystem to understand audiences that reside in app environments for analytics and offers a greater monetisation opportunity.
Lotame : With mobile broadband accounting for 40 percent of total broadband (source: GSM Association) and 800 mobile operaters worldwide, it really is a ‘mobile first’ world according to “Mobile Audience Targeting with Lotame” by Ryan Rolf, Director, Data Sales. Focusing solely on mobile audience targeting, their platform can deploy your audiences powered by their taxonomy across any screen and tactic (video, display, email).
Axonix : In “Where advertisers reach first party mobile audiences in real time – An introduction to Axonix” by Simon Bailey, CEO and Zee Ahmad, Director of Programmatic, they discussed why data is important in programmatic today (answer: brands are able to deliver to the right audience at the right time) and also dived into the value of telco data specifically – data unique to telcos, which provides enhanced targeting.
xAd : “Location Based Marketing, Without the Guesswork” by Dorothee Bergin, VP, Programmatic shared knowledge on how the media landscape is changing (smartphone users spending almost 150 minutes on their phone per day – much more than TV at 113 minutes: Source: Millward Brown Ad Reaction Study 2014 – Daily Screen Usage) and how the digitisation of people and places brings the online and offline worlds together where it’s location that is the new cookie.
InMobi : “Understanding In App Mobile Data Signals & Creative” by Anne Frisbie, SVP, Global Alliances explored first party data coupled with a big data platform. With a focus on retail audiences, they looked at adding dynamic maps (interactive creative with a map showing current user location and location supermarkets which stock the brand), to different types of mobile ad formats and native advertising – to help brands understand and target their consumers effectively.
We capture the event in pictures via our Facebook photo album and give you a glimpse into the vision we shared at Mobile World Congress through our video.
If you missed us at Mobile World Congress this year or have any questions for the team, we welcome you to contact us.