By Mickey Alam Khan
November 27, 2009
Mobile Marketer’s inaugural Mobile Women to Watch 2010 list celebrates smart women who are expected to make a difference in mobile advertising, marketing and media in 2010.
While we may have missed some who would rather stay out of the limelight, it is fair to say these women – 49 from the United States, three Canada and one from Britain – are achievers who have already left their stamp on mobile marketing. Their dedication to the craft is nonpareil and their commitment admirable.
These marketers have steadfastly withstood several issues bedeviling mobile such as the constant need for client education, inadequate metrics, lack of decent budgets, carrier-centricity, male domination and hype.
Indeed, they have overcome skepticism of the first order to help their male and female colleagues and peers make mobile marketing an undeniable element of the interactive marketing mix. Soldiered on they have. As Heidi Lehmann, CEO of MoxieQ and one of the Mobile Women to Watch, points out, “With most anything new, a common kneejerk reaction of larger companies and even consumers is to look for reasons why something won’t work.”
Mobile marketing has long been a game of perseverance and evangelism. These women are being honored for staying with a medium while it was born and through its coming-of-age party – which is now.
These women now have the brush, oils and canvas to paint bold strokes in 2010.
Through all of this excitement over mobile and its possibilities, this crowd remains levelheaded. “In mobile,” said Allison Mooney, vice president of emerging technologies at Omnicom’s MobileBehavior, “you need to keep an eye on the future and a foot grounded in the present.”
How were these honorees chosen?
A call was sent out to Mobile Marketer readers in a published article. Combined with reader nominations and recommendations from Mobile Marketer’s Giselle Tsirulnik, Dan Butcher, Chris Harnick, Jodie Solomon and this writer, a list was drawn up. Many thanks to them and to art director Rob DiGioia for the hard work.
Whittling down the names was hard. But there was no doubt of the final list. The executives who made the cut were evangelists for the industry, astute observers of evolving consumer behavior at work and home, and advocates for ethical mobile marketing as part of the multichannel media mix.
Above all, they served as admirable role models to other women – and even men – to consider a career in mobile marketing.
These women are poised to make more history in 2010. Get to know them through these pages as they write yet another chapter in mobile marketing’s book.
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/classic-guides/4747.html
Monday, November 30, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Lately, the question I am most frequently asked is, “Where do you think the next big area of growth is?” My answer is: Mobile Advertising and Delivery of Content. My outlook is based on observations over time and trends overwhelmingly leading towards the Mobile Advertising industry. It can be best described using one word: Evolution.
We have all seen the evolution from print to web, and now, the same evolution is transitioning from web to mobile. The digital advertising ecosystem is continuously evolving and I believe mobile advertising is still in its nascent stage with great growth potential.
My vision for mobile ads is that they will become more engaging, robust, transactional, and interactive with the end-user. Also, with the number of Smartphone users increasing and over 7 Billion apps expected to be downloaded by 2013, I suspect the combination will ultimately fuel growth in mobile advertising.
A significant example of the evolution we are experiencing and the opportunity for growth in this segment was affirmed by Google. Earlier this week, Google announced they were purchasing AdMob for $750 Million in stock; Google’s third largest acquisition to date. Most recently, Google has focused mainly on search ads. AdMob has focused on Web Display Ads and App Display Ads. The acquisition has accelerated Google’s entry into the mobile advertising space and has provided Google with powerful tools to monetize growing mobile traffic.
Certainly, the acquisition along with other recent developments in the mobile handset space have generated attention towards the mobile advertising space. In fact, AdTech, which recently took place in NY, excitedly acknowledged the power of mobile and its role in advertising, marketing, and content. Interestingly, the tone at AdTech: SF, which I attended in late April, was very different. The presence of mobile advertising was minimal; still being conceptualized by many. It was more of an “initiative” at that time, and many companies were still trying to work through the business model. It is evident, that within such a short period of time, the mobile advertising landscape has rapidly evolved and we are now seeing more companies confidently entering the space with alternative solutions that support the mobile ad platform.
One other important note: While Apple has dominated the market with over 100,000 iPhone apps, RIM’s Blackberry platform is still scarce in consumer oriented apps which creates a massive and equally lucrative opportunity.
The recent announcement by Google and the overall movement towards Mobile Advertising and Content will be interesting to follow over the next year and definitely one I plan on keeping my eye on, as this is still a fairly untapped market.
What does Google’s $750M purchase of AdMob mean for mobile advertising?
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/ad-networks/4610.html
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
How to Retain and Develop Asian Women Leaders
The transition of women leadership roles need to begin in the Boardroom. C-level executives must begin to recognize the value of diversity throughout the top-level of their organization. The article below illustrates the various challenges Asian women face in becoming leaders and their role as leaders once they get there. As an Asian business woman in previous leadership roles, I can entirely relate to what this article illustrates and discusses.
The most important piece of advice - don't be afraid to confidently speak up. I hope you find this article written in BusinessWeek helpful...
How to Retain and Develop Asian Women Leaders
Women need to put their footprint on the corporation and a handprint on their work. Training must stress speaking up and being assertive
By Jane Horan
Business leaders should be acutely aware of the seminal shift taking place in the global corporate balance of power. In the next 40 years, more than 1 billion people will relocate from rural areas of India and China, creating 59 megacities with populations of 5 million or more. To harness this talent migration—and serve these customers—multinational corporations need a radical shift in thinking about leadership—their own and their competitors'.
Continue to read the full article:
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/nov2009/ca2009116_283918.htm
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
To Be A Leader...You Must Believe In Yourself
Build Your Self Confidence Like a Leader
2:38 PM Friday October 30, 2009
What can I do to build my confidence in my capabilities as a leader?
You won't get to the top without self-confidence; to build it, you have to believe in yourself. Don't worry about being perfect — put up a brave front and do the best you can. That's it in a nutshell. Here's a little more background for you.
Last year, as I often do, I taught a seminar for MBA students at the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. A second-year student approached me and told me he'd read my book What Got You Here Won't Get You There. "In the book you talk about classic challenges faced by your clients," he said. "I noticed that you never discuss self-confidence problems. How do you deal with your client's self-confidence problems?"
This question really made me think. I rarely encounter self-confidence problems in my work with CEOs and potential CEOs. It is almost impossible to make it to the top level in a multibillion-dollar corporation if you do not believe in yourself. On the other hand, I am frequently asked to speak at business schools, and I have noticed that students in my seminars often want to talk about it.
This is such an important topic. I thought I would share a few suggestions about how you can build your self-confidence. I also hope you, my readers, will offer your own suggestions.
1. Don't worry about being perfect. There are never right or wrong answers to complex business decisions. The best that you can do as a leader is to gather all of the information that you can (in a timely manner), do a cost-benefit analysis of potential options, use your best judgment — and then go for it.
2. Learn to live with failure. Great salespeople are the ones who get rejected the most often. They just ask for the order more than the other salespeople. You are going to make mistakes. You are human. Learn from these mistakes and move on.
3. After you make the final decision — commit! Don't continually second-guess yourself. Great leaders communicate with a sense of belief in what they are doing and with positive expectations toward the achievement of their vision.
4. Show courage on the outside — even if you don't always feel it on the inside. Everyone is afraid sometimes. If you are a leader, your direct reports will read your every expression. If you show a lack of courage, you will begin to damage your direct reports' self-confidence.
5. Find happiness and contentment in your work. Life is short. My extensive research indicates that we are all going to die anyway. Do your best. Follow your heart. When you win, celebrate. When you lose, just start over the next day.
The Heated Debate at VGS
I want to first start off by recognizing Charles Hudson and the extraordinary VGS event he orchestrated last Friday. Panels focused on emerging market opportunities within the virtual goods and economies space. Speakers included some of the most insightful and successful leaders within the industry. It was certainly a packed day complete with knowledgeable exchange amongst speakers and attendees.
The conference ended a bit different though...well...very different. The Virtual Goods Summit this year, needless to say, ended with a big bang and left people throughout the industry questioning the ethics of companies such as OfferPal. The debate between TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington and OfferPal CEO Anu Shukla sparked a great deal of interest and drove an enormous amount of attention to the typically “behind the scenes” ad offer industry which provides an alternative form of monetization for social game companies such as Zynga, Playdom, and many others.
The following article written by Dean Takahashi at Venture Beat summarizes the debate and the discussions surrounding it.
I have also included some interesting data collected and provided by Peanut Labs (I am an Advisor at PL).
Sunday, November 1, 2009
One of the Most Powerful Women in Business
As you all know, I am a very strong advocate of women entrepreneurship and leadership. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook remarkably exemplifies both. I have been following Sheryl Sandberg for a few years now and am continuously amazed by her ability to take companies like Google and Facebook and fuel growth by finding new ways to capitalize their business models. She was named one of Time Magazine's top 25 most influential people on the web in 2008 and is an extraordinary example of woman leadership.
She recently spoke at Web 2.0 and her insightful interview with TechCrunch is something I thought would be notable to share. I see Sheryl as a visionary leader of Facebook and driving the company to a dynamically higher level whether it is through its deep mobile initiatives or perhaps even a strategic partnership with Google. One thing is for certain; Sheryl Sandberg will continue to be instrumental in the evolution and growth of Facebook and will also continue to be one of the most influential women leaders of our time.
Click here to read the interview:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
