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Submitted by Mike Grenville on Fri, 10 Jun 2005 12:59 |
The results are in and the winner is .....
This year, in tandem with the Global Messaging Awards, 160Characters invited the messaging industry to nominate their heros and villains and villains. The Judges for the Awards then decided on the short list for voting. Votes came in both online and by SMS
Heroes
Winner of the industry hero award was Andrew Bud, co-founder and now Executive Chairman of mBlox Inc, Vice Chairman Mobile Entertainment Forum. He was chosen as industry Hero for his campaigning on behalf of Aggregators, fair regulation and Content growth.
Also commended was the original SMS Standards Team. While they may not have actually invented SMS, the team made sure that it was well standardised for all our use. The SMS original specs were kicked off by the Norwegians - Finn Trosby. Subsequently the main work was done in a small group comprising Finn and Eija Aaltonen, Kevin Holley, Arthur Gidlow, Ian Harris, Robert Cohen. Some of the last work was really only completed by the Brits - Arthur Gidlow, Ian Harris and Kevin Holley. More can be read in this article written by Finn Trosby here: SMS - the strange duckling GSM
Villains
The Frog ringtone was a popular choice as a hero for demonstrating the sales potential for mobile content. Jamster claims that the ringtone has been downloaded 11m times. According to Nielsen Media Research, this was achieved with 36,382 TV spots across all channels in the UK. To put Jamster's frequency into perspective, the next most frequent advertiser was McDonald's, on just 9780. This cost about 10 million pounds just in the month of May. Viewers (and other advertisers) you can easily imagine have been driven to distraction by the continual repetition of the irritating ads.
However, the company behind the promotion, JAMSTER was winner of the villain award for their unclear advertising and subscription models that confuse customers reducing trust mobile services.
SMS.AC was the joint winner for similarly having an unclear subscription model and messaging practices that resulted in confused customers with the result that mobile services are less trusted by consumers.
Others on the nominated short list were:
Heroes
- COCA COLA – for their commitment to Mobile Marketing , and together with partners for stretching the boundaries.
- www.mobileasses.com – for an irreverent application for picture messaging , blogging and entertainment.
- Crazy Frog – for illustrating what can be done with a little imagination , celluloid, and promotion. However, while the sales success of the ringtone has not only irritated
- Lisa Modisette , Chairperson – women in mobile data…. more are needed
- Mike Short , Chairman Mobile Data Association , and as past Chairman GSM ASSOC. – longstanding advocate of Mobile data applications and partnerships
- David Beckham , for showing that even footballers and actresses know how to text
Villains
- Mobile Operators – who constrain Revenue share , Innovation and Mobile Content growth
- Venture Capitalists – who have money but don`t know how to lend it
- MPEG Licensing Authority – for monopoly style negotiation and suggesting license revenue gouging , that slows down natural market development
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