In June, 2010 I attended the L2 Mobile Clinic at the NYU Stern School of Business. The Mobile Clinic is an intensive workshop that examines mobile’s implications, platforms, and best practices. The objective is to enhance participants’ fluency in brand-driven mobile marketing and commerce efforts. Academics and practitioners lead the group through a series of sessions with a balance of theory and industry case studies.

The Luxury Lab Think Tank (L2) is a think tank for prestige brands. From their site:

LuxuryLab brings together thought leaders, academics, and industry leaders to uncover formulas for success. Drawing from research, best practices and trends, LuxuryLab distills this intellectual capital and makes it available—and actionable—for our partners.

Below are some brief notes I too during the conference.

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Noah Elkin – eMarketer.com – 2010: The year mobile goes mainstream
• Device Evolution has been dramatic
• As a response to Apple’s ipad, Noah predicts evolution of amazon products
• Device market is shifting dramatically in favor of smart phones
? US fueling much of smart phone demand
• Future platform dominiation
? Nokia largest in global market
? RIM largest in US, but Android/Apple catching up
? Nokia doesn’t register in US
• Improved browsing experience and apps driving mobile internet growth
? 2011 – 98MM mobile internet users, 39.6% of mobile phone users
• Communications are undergoing a broad shift globally
? Voice less relevant
? Data more relevant – internet, text, email, mms
? Bulk of data communication access is happening with mobile social networks – FourSquare, Gowalla
? Facebook, Google Maps, Weather Channel, Pandora among top mobile usage avenues
• Mobile commerce – more about shopping rather than buying
? Comparison shopping huge – “Red Laser” iPhone app gained notoriety
? Buying on mobile has been slow because RETAILERS, not consumers have been slow to adopt mobile commerce program
• Portable internet devices, such as tablets, are changing the meaning of mobile
• Tablets – Bigger screens give way for more interactive experiences
? Luxury rich media advertising coming up – Chanel
• State of the market for mobile advertising
? Growth from 593MM this year to 830MM 2011, 1560MM in 2013
? Market size not exact science
? Top networks – Millennial Media – 12%, AdMob – 11%, Yahoo – 10%, Google – 10%, Microsoft – 8%
• Mobile Apps
? Apps should be driven by consumers, not brands
? Gilt App is doing great
? Tiffany new iPhone app – Engagement Ring Finder
? Real life size ring size finder – put your ring on the screen and change reference ring size to match.
? Carriers getting more heavily involved in app stores in the next year or so
? More apps = more churn
? App marketing extremely important – social marketing of apps is huge
• Key Takeaways
? portability from device to device represents the future of media consumption
? media available where/when/how consumers want to consume it
? Messaging based campaigns still effective way to reach mobile users, but smartphones will fuel growth of other formats – search, display, applications, and video
? Mobile commerce must fit into a multi-channel strategy, complimenting all other marketing/shopping initiatives
? Social a large component of mobile shopping

Anindya Ghose – NYU Stern – Mobile Industry Trends: Consumer Behavior and Social Mediad
• User Activities in 3G Mobile Content Services
? Social networking and Multimedia portal sites are the top two adoption drivers for mobile web and data
• Monetizing UGC Mobile Sites
• Pricing
? Usage based pricing is the way of the future – both Verizon and AT&T CEO’s support it
? Despite the fact that most data is used by the upper percentage of users, will a usage based pricing model slow theadoption of mobile rich media? Will iAds and interactive ads stall because of the eminent high cost of mobile bandwidth with which to load the ads?
• “Asymmetric temporal interdependence”
• Possible to measure brand value in microblogging platforms such as Twitter?
? CTR is the main KPI for Microblogging
? For every 1km reduction of distance between consumer and store, there’s a 24% increase in mobile ad CTR
• Insights into targeted sponsored messages based on user access channel, position (rank), and distance between nurser and brand store locations.

Dinesh Moorjani – SVP Mobile, IAC – Opportunities for Brands in Mobile
• Technology S-Curve
? Looks at industry, rather than product lifecycle
? Massive inflection point in S-Curve for mobile device
• India – mobile broadband primary mode of communication
• Changes  happening with Mobile media
? Data input is smarter
? From mouse and keyboard to sensors – cameras, microphones, touchscreens
? Companies like Swipe
? Decisions are real time
? make table reservations, travel plans, etc
? AI is becoming mainstream
? Picking up on social trends
? News sites – serving relevant news to the user
? Mobile is lifeline first, telephone second
? Voice is being phased pout
? Social web is our heartbeat
? Broadcast web
• Rim is the leading US Smartphone platform and Symbian is irrelevant
? Worldwide, symbian is huge
? SMS still dominant for messaging
? Mobile web huge for browsing/content
• Where smartphones are going
? By the end of Q3 2011, smartphone adoption will eclipse feature phones
? Brands that jump into mobile space prematurely aren’t necessarily doing the wrong thing, just getting in early
• Functional convergence of features is happening across devices
• Advertising with iAd is very expensive right now
? Paying both for impression of ad, as well as clickthrough – Dual CPM and CPC iAd cost basis.
? LVMH poised to spend money on iAd
? Mary Meeker Morgan Stanley Mobile Deck – iPad has surpassed all expectations
• iPad Usage
? 74% Male, 27% Female
? 3/4 have downloaded a paid iPad every month since they’ve had an iPad
• Luxury company focus
? Location Based Services
? Brochureware
? Waste of money
? HTML5
? Engagement
? Transactions
• Focusing the product experience
? Being able to create a compelling user experience is critical
? Developers not as important – UI design is critically important
? Offshore developers is the way to go for cost.
? Target Platforms
? Do standard market analysis
? Beta users
? FInd out features to put in an app from users, not developers
• Don’t miss a window to shape behaviors
? exploit disruptions
? dont ignore mobile web
? target a signal to noise ratio
• Beta test with real consumers, not developers
? don’t be afraid to change what you thought would work
• Invest in analytics – experiment and fix rapidly

Eric Litman – CEO, Medialets – Opportunities for Brands in Mobile
• Challenge with application is spending to build an app, and then maintaining media.
? Critical to have spend to buy media to drive users to engage with application. No engagement = no value.
? Build a rich, engaging ad that can do everything you can do in an application – iAd and Medialets
• Most of the networks give good, creative development for mobile for free – key is to have money on media spend
• Mobile is a great brand tool – rich media experiences are a great way to drive consumer brand awareness – intent based media
• Inherent 1:1 relationship with consumer

Andy Ellwood – Director of Business Development, Gowalla – Prestige Companies and Geolocal Targeting
• Location based social
? Users like to gain social credit – keep record of places you go
• Location Matters
? Engagements creating more real time information around physical places
? Boosts Brand Engagement
? Creates Reward Loyalty
• Location based retail
? December project with Incase and Apple stores – Chance to win product
• Location based travel
? Worked with intercontinental hotel group
? Created custom branded Gowalla experience
? Offer to email users info about the hotel they are in – 40% CTR
• Location Content
? USA Today partnership
• Location Events
? L2 Mobile Clinici
? Created ability for a spot to expire
? Reduces potential to pollute the database
? Rolled out expiring spot campaign with NBA
• Location Creative
? Chevy launched heavily branded Gowalla campaign for SXSW
• Reasons to build a location based campaign
? Create brand engagements in the places you choose
? Take ownership of new branding real estate
? Draw attention to the highlights of your marketing calendar
? Instill loyalty and social capital into the onsite experience
• Expected results of location based campaigns
• Branded experiences creating social satisfaction
• First mover attention
• hands on experience and understanding of what works for your brand

Maureen Mullen – L2 – Best Practices and Case Studies for Prestige Brands in Mobile
• 1/3 of searches on mobile phones are location based
• Mobile internet revenue mix – Japan leading pack
• Executions in Mobile Media buys
? Estée Lauder – integrated with larger media buy, store locator functionality, includes game that utilized rich media, platform agnostic
? Carnival Cruise Lines – device targeting, mobile booking, click to call, adwords integration
? Calvin Klein – Sponsored Guide, Look Book, Rich Media, Engagement
? Ralph Lauren – QR Code Campaign
• Geo-Local and Prestige Brands – Key Campaigns
? Jimmy Choo – London treasure hunt featured shoes checking in at locations
? Coach – Drive traffic to NY Mens store Opening
? Cynthai Rowley
? Marc Jacobs
• Key Success Factors
? Think about the customer
? Prioritize function
? Shopping vs Buying
? Search and Destroy