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Leads hotter at DMA09?s Mobile Marketing HotSpot: Sumotext?s Miller

By Jodie Solomon and Mickey Alam Khan

SAN DIEGO ? SAN DIEGO ? Exhibitors at the Direct Marketing Association?s Mobile Marketing HotSpot offer opinions on traffic and Neustar's Matthew Valleskey speaks over a Mariachi band at an Acxiom thought-leadership event on mobile.

Mr. Valleskey, who is head of marketing communications at short code registry Neustar, spoke on "The State of Mobile Marketing and Mobile's Role in the Multichannel Mix." He spent better part of an hour at DMA09 talking about mobile's potential at the Acxiom by-invitation event, accompanied by Acxiom's Josh Herman.

"I've had to compete against a lot of noise, but this is the first time I've competed against a Mariachi band," Mr. Valleskey said.

A Mariachi band played outside the room where database marketing giant Acxiom organized its thought-leadership forums yesterday. Veteran direct marketer Stan Rapp spoke earlier in the day with Acxiom's Tim Suther.

Please click here to see a video of Mr. Valleskey's presentation as he made the case for mobile and SMS and short codes at the Acxiom event. The Mariachi band is compliments of us.

Meanwhile, Mobile Marketer?s Jodie Solomon, who is manning the publication?s pod at the DMA09 Mobile Marketing HotSpot, asked some of her neighbors what they thought of the show, the pavilion and the interest in mobile.

Their comments are below.


Tim Miller
President
Sumotext Inc.
Little Rock, AR

Compared to MMA and ad:tech I would say the leads are hotter because these companies have existing budgets and are already spending a lot of money in traditional channels.

For them, tagging banners ads, direct mail pieces and email with mobile calls to action is simply a fun, interactive way to increase their response rates ? which they don?t need new permission to do.

More than other shows, the DMA crowd is craving to not just know, but really understand the rules for our industry. They are skeptical of salesmen and recognize that their industry is associated with list buying, spam and unwanted direct mail.

I?ve been really surprised and impressed with the amount of sincere interest in doing things the right way, as well as the universal acceptance that they have to master this channel.


Kristian Fatzov
President/CEO
MVentix Inc.

It looks like traffic is picking up from the last show. We had a lot of appointments that were pre-scheduled, but we had some walk-in traffic as well.

We received a lot of questions on the following topics: a) Integrating SMS campaigns into email campaigns; b) Setting up white label SMS or mobile Web platforms; c) What are the best ways to opt-in consumers and  d) What are the best promotional channels for mobile marketing campaigns.


John W. Miller
President
ConnectMedia Ventures LLC

My thoughts are that the mobile pavilion is a great idea but the overall show traffic has been very light. Hopefully it will continue to improve.

Most people have asked basic educational questions. Questions about how mobile could improve traditional marketing channels, use of SMS versus 2D barcodes versus image recognition. Alot of how-to-start questions.


Omer Samiri
CEO
IVisionMobile

We are excited to be part of the DMA09 conference this year. Exhibiting in the Mobile Marketing HotSpot will allow us to showcase our text messaging software and mobile marketing products. 

The DMA show this year presents a great opportunity for direct marketers to learn about iVision Mobile and our private label reseller license.

For the most part, people are now very knowledgeable about mobile and the processes involved in getting a campaign to market. The majority of the questions we?ve dealt with have to do with reselling our software and its capabilities. 

People are interested in finding an all-encompassing mobile solution that supports a wide range of mobile initiatives and that they can take to market quickly.

Jodie Solomon is director of advertising sales at Mobile Marketer. She is helming the Mobile Marketer pod at the Mobile Marketing HotSpot at DMA09 in San Diego.

Mobile Marketer's Mickey Alam Khan also reported and edited.