Mobile Ad Summit attendees content with event's outcome

By Jordan Crook

September 24, 2009

Paran Johar is chief marketing officer of JumpTap

NEW YORK – Advertising Week, the weeklong series of advertising events, switched up its  agenda this year and put a spotlight on mobile.

An entire day was dedicated to mobile advertising, at which publishers, agencies, brands and the media gathered to learn more about the current state of the industry. The Mobile Ad Summit - sponsored by Jumptap, Quattro Wireless, Mojiva and AdMob - was packed with attendees who believe in the power of mobile and trust in a prosperous future for the industry as a whole.

The agenda for Mobile Ad Summit featured major players in various areas of the ecosystem and focused on monetization and business growth through mobile. Here is what some of the attendees thought of the show:

Paran Johar, host of Mobile Ad Summit and chief marketing officer at Jumptap, New York
The turn-out was way better than I could have imagined.

We have been at standing-room-only all day. I think that is really a testament to the rapid growth of the industry and clearly demonstrates that it can only get better from here.

Mack McKelvey is senior vice president of marketing at Millennial Media

Diana Pouliot, director of mobile advertising at Google, Los Angeles
I think the turn-out was really good and there was a great variety of agencies, clients and publishers in the mobile space represented.

Mack McKelvey, vice president of marketing, Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD.
There has been quite a bit of discussion about targeting that centers around carriers and handsets here in New York this week. This type of targeting is available, but it doesn’t get to the rich capabilities of mobile ad targeting that are available today, at scale.

I think one of the overriding themes I’ve heard over the course of the past two days is that it isn’t about reaching a single device, as stated this morning on one of the mobile panels.

Anne Frisbie is head of North America for InMobi

Suzy Deering from Verizon Wireless even stated, on Wenda Millard’s panel on Monday morning, “18-54-year-old women is not a demographic.” She’s right. There’s an ability to dig into individual preferences and create engaged audiences at scale via mobile.

We’ve had great success with audience targeting and we anticipate that, as more and more advertisers understand that there is real advanced targeting available today, these advertisers will embrace the mobile channel even further.

Bob Gehringer, vice president of advertising sales at MobiTV, Emeryville, CA
It’s been very interesting because it has been very ad-network focused, so it’s a lot of learning for me.

I would’ve liked the focus to be on the medium in general because I’m in mobile video, not just Web. But it’s been interesting.

James Williams, membership coordinator at the Mobile Marketing Association, New York
The turn-out here was astounding. It’s great to see these traditional advertisers jumping in to new territory and getting involved in this mobile thing.

For a while, most people were reluctant to join in on the mobile fad but today’s turn-out proves that people are getting excited about the channel.

Anne Frisbie, vice president and head of North Americas at InMobi, San Francisco
From my perspective, if this show had been done a year ago, the turn-out would have been so much smaller. It’s great to hear that brand chief marketing officers are really thinking of using mobile marketing.

We would have been hard-pressed to hear something like that two years ago. So, overall, it’s a good sign for the industry.