My experience with Vert has provided me with real, interactive experience that not all interns have the luxury of receiving. This was not your normal “coffee making, filing” internship…this company provides hands-on experience with the clients and really throws you into the mix of daily company activities. The Vert team (Kevin, Matt and Michael) were always open to help in any way possible and wanted to make sure that I was getting the most I could out of the internship. Their dynamic as a team is amazing and makes for a great work environment that is constantly fueled by their creative juices.

The majority of the work I did revolved around research. Who knew this would be something that I actually enjoyed doing. Vert taught me about new tools to use in order to delve into social media and see what our target markets are interested in and looking for. This, in turn, showed me how to relate to the users and how to communicate the relevance of the results to the client. Not only did this teach me the importance of research in everything you do, but it also renewed my love of social media. Seeing the back end of all of the different online campaigns communicated, really shows you how different all online media is and how many opportunities are opened because of it.

All in all, working with the Vert team has taught me many things and my experiences here will greatly help as I advance in my career endeavors. This team is creative, innovative and hard-working to the max and has such a bright future ahead of them. Their passion and excitement for the field is truly contagious and I couldn’t imagine taking this journey with anyone else. Thanks again, Vert. You guys rock!

-Ashley
@ash1212 (follow her!)

On June 24, 2010 we had the privilege of sponsoring and attending Atlanta’s first ever Mobile Marketing Boot Camp at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. The half-day conference was hosted by the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AiMA). To make it a truly mobile event, we unveiled AiMA’s first ever mobile website to the crowd during the Luncheon and Keynote Presentation from Coke’s Tom Daly.

In between the rice pilaf (conference mandatory) and “Yahootinis“(conference first), we had the opportunity to hear from a few of the industry’s key influencers as well as discuss trends in the space.

And now for Vert’s Top 10 Mobile Nuggets from the conference.

1. The mobile web is growing at an alarming rate.

2. ROI = Return on Ignoring (The cost of not doing anything)

3. The mobile device is the new “Remote Control” of our world – Sight, Sound, & Motion.

4. Test & Fail…Then Learn & Scale. (Thanks, Tom Daly)

5. The mobile market will experience further segmentation, not consolidation. (Kudos, Gerry Purdy)

6. People share iPads and tablets. They don’t share phones.

7. Doug Busk knows every mobile statistic – ever.

8. Smartphone penetration will overtake feature phones sometime next year (2011)

9. Measuring the success of a mobile campaign is complicated but rewarding.

10. Atlanta is a city ripe with mobile talent and innovation.

As “The Year of Mobile” (again) continues to press on, it will be exciting to see how these nuggets impact the approach and strategy of agencies and the marketing budgets of their clients…

Michael
@mjlentz

The release of the iPhone 4 brings significant hardware advancement to the iOS world.  Adding an A4 processor and 512mb of on board ram, those selecting to grab up the new iPhone will quite literally have a palm sized iPad.  This marks a fairly hefty jump from the iPhone 3gs.  The first question begs, is that type of processing power really necessary in a mobile device right now?  And the answer is…. We sure hope so (and plan on putting it to use).  Certainly the faster the better.  The faster the processor and more ram, the more quickly applications load and display content.  But at this stage in the game the older iPhone still keeps up well enough to do just about everything they need to do, in a sufficient time frame.  There are few 3G-S only apps on the App store currently, and that may or may not hold true for the iPhone4.  It is likely as more and more people upgrade their device developers will worry less about cutting out half (or more) of their market and build applications that take full advantage of the higher speeds and require them.  But for now if you’re okay with wasting an extra minute or two of your day waiting for things to load, then I’d say speeds alone are not a reason to toss that new iPhone 3G-S to grab a 4th generation model, well at least yet.

However, the iPhone 4 did bring more to the table than just processing speed.  Other than the upgraded processor and ram, the other major notable upgrades include a Retina display, HD video recording and editing, upgraded 5 mega pixel camera, a brand new structure design and a new video call concept Apple calls FaceTime.  Each of these features brings more reason to look at upgrading sometime in the near feature for current or even new iPhoners.  However, some of the features may or may not be useful to every iPhone 4 user.  Having an upgraded camera is great, as is the ability to edit right on the iPhone.  How useful is this?  That depends on who you are.  Many Apple fanboys these days already own the best MacBook available and are familiar with iMovie and would most likely prefer to edit there when possible.  Others like taking video or photos with their phones, but if theres anything really worth taking a picture of they’ve got their dedicated camera, video camera, or FlipcamHD ready.  So again, along with the processing power, these camera upgrades are always great, but may or may not be a huge usable upgrade for every individual.

The new Retina display promises to be quite eye catching.  Having not held one in my hand I can’t say how amazing it is, but we’ve heard first hand it looks quite nice up close.  Before we make any judgment call here I’d like to hold one in my hand,  but for now we’ll take everyone else’s word for it, but also make the note that my iPhone 3g looks just fine to me as is.

Another exciting upgrade is the completely redesigned structure and casing for the iPhone 4.  It includes a stainless steel band that forms the exterior around the case.  Apple notes:

Created from our own alloy, then forged to be five times stronger than standard steel, the CNC-machined band is the mounting point for all the components of iPhone 4. The band provides impressive structural rigidity and allows for its incredibly thin, refined design. It also functions as both iPhone 4 antennas.

To be honest, it does look very nice.  Again, not having held it first hand, we can’t say exactly what it is or what it’s not.  However, coming first hand from a friend inside the WWDC the phone feels really good in the hand, “it’s solid”, they said.  So taking into account a faster processing power, new camera features, new display, plus more and toss it all into a well built, but smaller and thinner frame, maybe that’s starting to be enough to warrant a purchase.

The last item we mention was the new Apple video calling or FaceTime feature.  This is a really cool feature and the ads Apple is using to push the feature are very well crafted.  It seems well designed and thought out.  However, it does require a WiFi connection at this time and also is only usable with other iPhone 4 users.  A common question would be that if it requires WiFi, many times a laptop will be available and I can just use Skype.  True.  This iPhone 4 feature will simply make that process easier and more mobile (assuming the other party has a new iPhone as well).  Moreover, when this feature releases on the 3g network as well, it could provide a very game changing experience for mobile users.  As a side note to the teenagers out there, when FaceTime releases on 3g and your parents offer to get you an iPhone 4 for free, know that it’s a trick.  They just want the ability to call you at anytime and make sure you show them with FaceTalk exactly where you are and who you’re with

The idea of video calling with mobile isn’t new by any means.  I saw it functioning first hand on a couple of prototype devices many years ago at a non Apple handset manufacturers lab.  That isn’t what is important here.  What is important, and in my opinion might be the biggest iPhone 4 takeaway is simply that APPLE released video chat on mobile.  Apple led the way for mobile many years ago with the release of the iPhone and iOS.  They completely revolutionized the mobile handset market and had every major device manufacturer chasing their touchscreen design and their well crafted iOS UI.  That same company just released, to the public, a new way to communicate via mobile phones.  I’m willing to bet in the near future many of those same competitors will be chasing Apple again, finding the best way to allow video calling on their devices.  When Google, HTC, Samsung, Sony and LG begin to release video chat capable phones the way people communicate with mobile phones will change, for good.

- Matt Griffin
Principal, Creative Technology

@mattigriffin

Our humble abode

We needed some space, they needed some new media brain-power so viola! We setup shop as of 5/17…

The HotHouse space is quite sexy if we do say so ourselves… Great location right in the heart of the Fairlie-Poplar historic district includes walkability to local spots like Slice, Sidebar, Tin Drum, and Rosa’s (the best pizza in ATL). Not to mention we may shed our single-passenger automobiles in exchange for stellar access to MARTA (stay tuned). Inside houses a loft-style feel with tall-windowed offices, roomy cubes, and 100% more natural sunlight than our former windowless digs. Oh, and there is a shower in the men’s room…

Mike, cubed.

All quirky comments aside, we are truly excited about this new move. It will provide us with a more vibrant working atmosphere and the opportunity to collaborate with one of the most talented and fun shops in Atlanta. If you want to come check it out, shoot us an e-mail… We are dying for an excuse to reserve the conference room so we can use the flat panel monitor!

Cheers!

-Kevin Planovsky
@kplanovsky

iAds are a new type of mobile ad network developed (and sold & distributed) by Apple, that was designed to bring a new level of “emotion” (how metaphysical of you Steve) and interactivity to mobile advertising. These ads bring some ground breaking new features to the mobile ad market that give advertisers and developers quite a lot of room to make very influential, engaging and potentially ground-breaking ads.

iAds, designed in HTML5, load directly within the application in which they are presented without closing or moving away from that application. Moreover, because they are designed in HTML5 they can take full advantage of animations, movies and audio. Apple has even given access to maps, background settings and even the ability to purchase from the AppStore or iTunes directly from the ad. That is powerful stuff from a mobile marketing perspective…

Vert is excited and ready to ideate, strategize, design and develop with iAds as soon as Apple sends out their new OS4 update. Our mantra from Day 1 has been a focus on more open-source mobile web technologies, and we couldn’t be more proud of Apple for supporting this movement with HTML5. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about this new and innovative advertising vehicle, we are here to help!

- Matt Griffin
Creative Technology Lead
@MattiGriffin

According to Cloud Conrad, Maid Brigade’s VP of Brand Strategies, “the goal with social media has been to find and engage our audience in new ways, use the medium to reinforce our leadership and expertise with green cleaning and to implement our strategies so as to best our competitors.  We started putting the basics in place but soon realized we didn’t want to invest any significant resources (human or financial) without the guidance of experts since achieving our goals means we can’t afford to get it right the second time.”

Maid Brigade tapped Vert in January 2010 to provide a complete refresh of their Facebook presence as well as develop the overall social strategy for the business.

Several elements were added to the Facebook Fan Page including:

• Ability to request a free home cleaning estimate
• Embedded “Green TV” video module
• Shareable “Customer of the Month” testimonial

Vert was also able to recover the @MaidBrigade Twitter handle due to Trademark infringement by a “social squatter” and will be incorporating the micro-blog into the overall 2010 strategic social communications plan later this year. To continue driving fan growth, boosting engagement, and generating estimate inquiries on Facebook, Maid Brigade & Vert will also leverage hyper-targeted Facebook media during the first quarter of this year.

For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/MaidBrigade or http://www.maidbrigade.com.

- ML

This isn’t micro-media because we are a smaller, startup agency or because we work in the mobile space – it’s micro because it is such a defined, niche piece of content for a defined niche audience. Congratulations, you are a very important part of our micro-audience!

I’ll give you another example… Recently Bravo (and several other media companies) struck a deal with FourSquare, the mobile + social media augmented reality game. When the news broke my gut reaction was ‘Why the hell would Bravo throw away good marketing dollars on such a small, new and unproven channel?’… Truth is – they are genius! (I think.) They did not strike the @FourSquare deal for mass notoriety (although the PR coverage is a perk) – Bravo created a partnership that speaks volumes to a very niche audience. A younger, tech-savvy, and urban audience that resonates perfectly with its media content and business plan. Brilliant!

Barriers, strongholds, and fortresses built by the Czars of old “macro-media” are being torn down everyday. New, vibrant villages of crowd-sourced connections built on creative technology solutions are taking their place – essentially leveling the playing field. The days of massive marketers shelling out millions to reach massive audiences are quickly fading. The good news is the massive marketers are still spending millions (or will be again soon…) – except now it is being fragmented and optimized down through many specific channels.

It is a very exciting time to be in the media and communications space… well, unless you are Rupert Murdoch. Here’s to the future of micro-media, and the hundreds of entrepreneurs, startups, and innovators that will power us into a new era of communications, media, and advertising.

- Kevin Planovsky
@kplanovsky

Now, pair this mobile explosion with the largest single advertising opportunity in the world and what do you get? Marketing Heaven? Advertising Bliss? Well, apparently not.

We did see the introduction of Qualcomm’s FLO TV which will bring live television to mobile devices. We eyed Megan Fox introducing Motorola’s new Devour phone, and we squirmed watching KGB’s latest sumo-infused spot. What we didn’t see was a traditional television spot capped with a mobile call to action.

Despite the advances of mobile marketing in the past year, no single advertiser was willing to utilize their precious Super Bowl ad time to focus on mobile. Where was my iPhone application download? Why couldn’t I use my phone to text-in to receive more information? Why wasn’t I prodded to vote on something using my phone? Why didn’t I get a mobile coupon from Denny’s?

Although disappointed in the lack of “mobility”, there are some clear reasons why we didn’t see more mobile involvement in this year’s Super Bowl ads:

1. Hard costs associated with SMS campaigns are difficult to project: Imagine budgeting for a campaign where the response rate could not be predicted within +/- 25% points. Now imagine deploying this message to hundreds of millions of people. The Super Bowl is not the best place to test your new mobile strategy as it should be done on a smaller scale with targeted audiences. Since SMS campaigns incur hard costs which are usually passed along to the client, I imagine most Super Bowl advertisers were hesitant to deploy their SMS strategy this year.

2. Limitations and fragmentation among devices: We’ve got iPhones, Android devices, Blackberries, and other feature phones. With an audience in the hundreds of millions, advertisers cannot risk ostracizing certain phone owners through their messaging. Essentially, this kills the notion of promoting any particular application or mobile web feature focused on a particular device.

3. Lack of vision to develop a business case for mobile: According to a recent eMarketer sutdy in January 2010, 32% of marketing professionals in North America do not know how to develop a business case for mobile advertising. This staggering figure cannot go unnoticed. The medium has established itself – it is the marketers falling behind.

4. The Super Bowl has historically worked best as a branding tool: If a brand is willing to invest millions in a single television ad, the return is usually measured in terms of brand awareness and not on a direct response. Since application downloads and SMS responses are the two biggest DR opportunities at a mobile marketer’s disposal, we’ve already discussed why these were not put into play in 2010.

As smartphone sales continue to surge and the mobile web becomes ubiquitous, I believe that 2011 will be THE year of Super Bowl Mobile Advertising. As a Saints fan would ask, “Who dat gonna agree with me?”

-Michael Lentz
@mjlentz

Since the iPad’s release the blogs have been hot with postings concerning the iPads failure to meet expectations. Well Vertmob is going to weed through all those blogs and tell you what is really important… from the future of mobile + social perspective

So at first glace the iPad looks like a neat piece of technology. It’s thin and light. It has a wonderfully large and colorful touch screen display. The UI seems to flow well without much delay (at least from what we can see from videos). The applications native to the device seem to be well thought out and function well. We all know Apple is a user experience design clearing house, no worries there… The problems come when you begin to look at what the iPad lacks.

Right when Steve unlocks the iPad you can immediately see it basically looks like a big iPhone or iPod Touch.  It has the same homescreen layout, the icons look the same, ect.  As he moves through each application, they look great, all catered to the iPad’s specs.  The problem is, they really are the same as the iPhone/iPod Touch apps, and so is the OS, quite literally. This presents a number of problems for people that were hoping for an iTablet of sorts, something with more power, more like a mini laptop.  Running the iPhone OS users are still restricted to running a single application at a time, no multitasking here.  Additionally, just as with an iPhone there is no native way to drag and drop files.  Moving files to your iPad, at this time, can only be done through sync.  On the hardware side the iPad lacks an expansible SD card slot, USB ports, and doesn’t even include a camera.

With each feature the iPad lacked came more criticism from the online community following its announcement yesterday and then again today.  Vert even spoke with a friend and associate editor of the immensely popular blog Engadget to gauge his reactions on the iPad release. Having been at the release event and getting a chance to “fondle” the iPad first hand, he mentioned he felt quite underwhelmed by the device.  He noted it was a big iPhone without voice, that he couldn’t stick in his pocket. It seems many people really expected something more from Apple’s new “Tablet”.  The problem is Apple didn’t release a tablet yesterday, they released something different.  Apple released a device for consuming all different types of media inside a convenient form factor with all the normal Apple bells and whistles.  The iPad will be great for looking at pictures, browsing the web, reading a book, watching a movie and maybe even for using a simple application or game.  However, the iPad is not a tablet pc or laptop computer.  It has to be more than an oversight that Apple left out items like a camera or USB port.  They simply didn’t want them included on the device.  We could speculate the reasons why, but one would assume it might be connected with Apple’s wonderfully booming and profitable laptop business.  Maybe it’s possible Apple didn’t want to cannibalize their currently laptop product offering by creating another option for customers.  Additionally, maybe thats why the price is fairly “affordable”, maybe Apple wants you to have both!  Or maybe they truly weren’t shooting for anything more than a top of the line media consumption device.  We’ll leave all those maybe’s up to you to decide…

Even with the iPad’s, yet so far, negative feedback, the Vert team and I still see quite a lot of hope for the device.  The difference between this device and the iPhone is not everyone will need, want or even have any use for one.  Everyone wants a killer phone, not everyone needs a fancy touch-screen media device.  However, we see great potential for the iPad in education.  Since the introduction of the first Kindle I’ve always wondered when 15 pound textbooks might meet their maker.  The iPad pushes closer to that time.  While some student already carry around editions on their textbooks on Kindles and other e-readers, those devices still lack where the iPad excels.  Could you imagine carrying all your textbooks in one device that could still show you full color images or even video right on the page you were studying?  Or could you imagine a chemistry book application that allowed students to build molecules by dragging, pinching and turning atoms?  That’s just a start…

So we here at Vert are in the same boat as many other people, we wish there was more…however, we do not fail to recognize the iPad has its place and purpose and we think it will fulfill its role well.

If your interested in further info on the iPad check out some of the cool posts below:

- Interest in something other than the iPad, maybe more tablet like?  Check this out.

- What did everyone say about the iPad on Twitter?  Take a look.

- Are people going to buy this thing? Cast your Vote.

~ Matt Griffin
Principal, Creative Technology

This level of granularity has lead some industry experts to predict that Facebook’s platform will soon be as big as Google’s AdWords.

A lofty prediction? Perhaps not. Today, with a few swift changes, the Facebook self-serve advertising platform became even more powerful. Labeled “Friends of Connections”, marketers can now expand the audience reach by targeting ads to users whose friends are already connected to a given Page, Event, Group, or Application.

Let me explain.

As a connoisseur of pizza, I am naturally a fan of Pizza Hut on Facebook. If Pizza Hut wanted to promote their Facebook Page, they could now choose to target an advertisement to all of my friends. This in turn would display ads on my friends’ pages with a short snippet saying: “Michael is a fan of this page.”

With my privacy settings as a blessing, I’m basically endorsing Pizza Hut through a paid advertisement.

What does this mean for social advertising on Facebook? Higher conversion rates, increased chatter, and yet another powerful way to take on targeting like you’ve never targeted before. The Vert team is excited about putting this into practice for its social media clients. For more information, please see our social solutions capabilities.

O, and watch out Google.