NEW YORK -- Having an effective presence on mobile is all about simplicity, according to a panel of experts at IAB Marketplace-Mobile conference at the Roosevelt Hotel.

Panelists from all corners of the industry agreed that keeping it simple and focusing on value for the consumer is the key to winning over consumers within the mobile space. With applications, the mobile Web and multichannel integration, mobile works when consumers can see a clear value proposition, whether it's something useful or entertaining.

"Rather than focusing on the mobile app space, you can focus on creativity in the mobile Web space," said Jeff Arbour, senior vice president of North America for the Hyperfactory. "The two key things to focus on are consistency in content and aesthetics.

"From an aesthetics standpoint, this is the first time that people are doing being consistent in the mobile space," he said. "The look and feel that customers are accustomed to needs to be mirrored in mobile."

Mr. Arbour presented a case study for BlackBerry's mobile site, conveying that keeping consumers comfortable is an important factor in the mobile space.

He said that consistency across all platforms makes consumers feel familiar with the brand and its message, making them more likely to wander, play and invest in the mobile space.

After hearing about BlackBerry's success in the mobile space, moderator Derek Handley, co-founder and CEO at the Hyperfactory, shifted the audience's focus to Microsoft and the Activation PHD campaign for the Deadliest Catch, a new television show featured on the Discovery Channel.

The case study proved that mobile is most powerful when paired with multiple marketing channels.

In this case, Microsoft placed ads for the Deadliest Catch online, on the mobile Web and even in Xbox games with a call to action to join the mobile text alert program.

"Mobile wound up giving us an end-to-end experience for the consumer and we are now able to engage with them across any of the media they're involved in," said Steve Siegel, mobile solution specialist at Microsoft Advertising.

"Though you get a very rich experience when you use the iPhone and apps, we didn't want to substitute reach," he said. We didn't want to go above and beyond the basics so that we wouldn't forfeit our reach. In the U.S. 90 percent of people have a mobile device. If we want to have the maximum input, we have to cater to the lowest common denominator."

His partner on the project, Mark Himmelsbach, vice president and director at Activation PHD claimed that he agreed that applications weren't the proper tool to achieve their goals.

He wowed the audience with the thrill of the Deadliest Catch, showing that even though it isn't American Idol, it is a product worth investing in for the consumer.

"The idea of doing an app for a tune-in reminder didn't work well," Mr. Himmelsbach said. "Mobile is a great platform to integrate with other media channels and it's great for direct marketing. We found mobile to be the key to our campaign with the baseline elements of SMS and WAP."

The audience again shifted gears to learn about what Nike was doing in the mobile space, hearing from Richard Ting, vice president and executive creative director of mobile and emerging platforms group at R/GA.

He explained that to get the most possible participation out of the consumer, marketers must make each component of their program or campaign as simple as possible for the user, even if it means splitting things across platforms.

The Nike case study displayed the strategy for Nike Women's training club digital experience application in the Apple App Store.

While the application has very in-depth features like an avatar and intense scheduling, all of the heavy-lifting is placed outside of the app and onto the PC where consumers feel at ease doing detail-oriented, cumbersome activities like registration.

"Mobile is a medium for snack-sized. abbreviated experiences," said Mr. Ting. "Make it as easy as possible and give the user the content they want because unlike us in the industry, the user doesn't distinguish between mediums."