Mobile took centre stage on day three at MIPTV. Remembering that MIPTV is a TV market, this was not a content discussion or a debate about what content would work on mobile, it was about whether consumers would accept mobile advertising. When we leave home, we leave with our keys, wallet and mobile phone. We go to bed with our mobile phones and like magazines, even take them to the toilet with us. It’s the only media device we always have with us.

Mobizines – magazines on your mobile are available in South Africa for download to your mobile phone. There currently over 30 on offer and you don’t pay for them – only the network’s standard data charges which apparently only works out to about 6 cents. Magazines have always been advertiser funded or subsidized and we accept this because, in most cases the advertising is relevant to the reader.

Would you accept advertising on your mobile phone? Most people would say no. Would you accept advertising if you were given something in return? Maybe – again depending on if it’s relevant. I’m an Audi owner and love the brand. Audi know me well and I service my car regularly at the same dealer. Offer me a test drive in the new A4, invite me to a launch or send me an Audi screensaver with the ad. Don’t just tell me, involve me.

But, we’ve learnt a lot from spamming – we all hate getting those totally irrelevant email and SMS ads. Mobile advertising should be permission based and allow you to opt out. Mobile phones are very personal devices; we’ll share our TV’s, newspapers and magazines but try and get your teenage son or daughter to hand over their mobile phone to you for a few hours. It’s just not going to happen.

The success of mobile advertising is going to be based on the ability to target and contextualize. The role of media buying is to try and find the most relevant and targeted media for an advertiser. Mobile operators have our demographics and there was a lot of discussion around whether advertisers should be able to access this and what role the operators play in developing mobile advertising.

Handset manufacturers are also getting in on the ad game and both Nokia and Ericsson presented their new technologies and trails they have been running. Nokia Ad Service and Nokia Advertising Gateway enables delivery of the right ad to the right mobile consumer. Ericsson ran a very successful trail with the Norwegian Broadcasting Company and proved the case for mobile advertising. Rhythm New Media, working with 3.5 million subscribers of 3 Mobile in the UK, showed that advertiser funded content, given to the user for free, is a viable model. The video clips are delivered with pre and post ads and was accepted by mobile users. These ads are not 30-scond spots but are shorter re-purposed ads or originally created content for mobile, including branded entertainment content.

From an agency perspective, Ogilvy have created a new division dealing specifically with digital new media. Richard Wheaton from Neo@Ogilvy sees a great future for mobile advertising. The numbers are still small and is based on the penetration of enabled handsets and the standardization of formats. We are looking at a new generation who don’t do things in the same way their fathers did. It’s new and there are risks but if history repeats itself, once a new technology is introduced, like television, the platform will offer huge opportunities for brands and advertising if done in a relevant, personalized and permission based environment.

Some of the IPTV examples I’ve seen at MIPTV offer over 100 channels, from mass appeal channels to very niche – an opportunity and challenge for media buyers. As a content production company, this is very exciting. It opens up new platforms for content – especially for longer form branded entertainment content. For brands and advertisers it’s also exciting. IPTV is like a magazine rack for a viewer. You can pick up a magazine that interest you and the content and most importantly, the adverting is relevant to the reader.

Every brand ultimately wants to target their potential client directly. Traditional TV is a mass media and simply cannot do this. So for brands, IPTV would be the ultimate platform to reach consumers. The problem with the internet is however is the culture that everything on the web is free – so would people pay for content the web? Would they pay a monthly subscription? I believe yes. I spend over R 300 per month on various magazines – from technology to travel to cars. Let’s take cars for example. If I was looking at buying the new Audi A4, a 30 second TV spot is irrelevant to me – I want more information to help me make my purchasing decision. I can get this off the Audi website, from the salesman, a review in a magazine or possible a TV show if they feature the car while I’m in interesting in buying. If all the information was available via an Audi IPTV channel, I’d be a happy bunny. Not just before I buy the vehicle but after I’ve bought it – where I can view various video clips relating to my specific vehicle but also lots of other Audi related content. Audi have of course taken the lead by having The Audi Channel on Sky Digital in the UK, but, it’s only available if you’re a Sky Digital subscriber.

What IPTV also allows is for the content to be pushed to other devices, such as mobile. Once you’ve made the content, it can be utilized over multiple platforms so the notion of TV everywhere is a reality. When it comes to Mobile TV, Sky is a leader in this area and some of the research has been interesting. Skeptics said that people won’t watch long form content on a small screen, they won’t watch it at home and advertisers won’t embrace it. The usage patterns have proven that Mobile TV is a very viable platform.

Mobile is again a platform for brands and advertisers and for media buyers another opportunity. True mobile TV – Digital Video Broadcasting to Handsets (DVB-H) will soon be a reality in SA and a new style of content needs to be produced for this device. People won’t watch 30-second TV spots and would be irritated if these kept interrupting their viewing experience which will be shorter that a TV viewing experience. Mobile TV requires snack media and 3 – 5 minute clips would work best. Yes, If could watched the entire game last night on my mobile when SA beat England to get into the semi’s I would have. It’s all about the relevance of the content at a particular time in my life, whether I’m buying a car or wanting to get my stress levels up by hoping SA’s batting won’t collapse again.

We all want broadband for different reasons – for us it’s the opportunity to make entertaining, relevant, informative and targeted long form content for brands, advertisers and of course for the people who really want it – the consumer - me.

This is an analogy used by Thomas Strerath, CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide Germany speaker on Superpanel: TV’s Burning Issues, on day one at MIPTV. He used this analogy to describe how people are currently consuming media and how their clients are pushing them to use non-traditional marketing solutions. To answer this Ogilvy started Neo@Ogilvy, a fully integrated division of OgilvyOne Worldwide, which is a full-service digital and direct media company. They were pushed by their clients as well as seeing revenues move from mass media to other new digital platforms. Wanting to avoid the situation of the past where media buying, which was an agency function but moved to specialist companies, Neo@Ogilvy wanted to bring digital media buying back into the agency.

It also allowed the creatives to think more long form and not just in a 30-second spot space. Content is King is a very old statement but was mentioned many times on the panel. Brands are looking for longer, more engaging relationships with their consumers. Let’s face it; we humans have a need for relaxed entertainment. When we get home at night after a hard day at work, we want to be entertained. Sitting in front of our TV’s, our entertainment is interrupted by marketing and depending what your state of mind is, you either accept it or reject it and don’t take notice at all. Digital has opened many new platforms for marketers, Neo@Ogilvy evaluates these and offers them as new opportunities to clients.

Creating longer form, relevant content is what the consumer is looking for. If you’re about to purchase a new vehicle, 30 seconds is not enough – a 3-minute clip telling me about the features, is what I’d want. This content can be available on a website, on mobile or even packaged on a DVD. As Strerath stated, content needs to be relevant and if it is it will be consumed and not skipped. He gave BMW as an example. Video clips on BMW are one of the most searched for clips on the web by passionate owners and prospective buyers. These clips vary from the movies that BMW created years ago to interviews with the BMW designers, stories on new product development and BMW’s many sponsorships. Ogilvy is in the process of aggregating all BMW related content to make it more readily available over various digital platforms. It’s about brands being open and interacting with their consumers and letting them take control of the interaction. Let them be the cat rather than giving them a bone and waiting for them to come back to you.

What’s very important though, with the growth of user generated content and sites like YouTube and MySpace, is that the content needs to be of high quality. Just because it’s on the web or destined for mobile doesn’t mean the content needs to be inferior. High production values are paramount in terms of brand association. The fun clips, the viral ads and all the user generated content has an appeal to a particular target market. But if you’re building a brand through long form, branded content, it needs to be entertaining, informative and relevant.

Today was all about the impact of Broadband and VOD (video-on-demand) on content creation & distribution. The lines were drawn early on the panel for broadband explosion. The guys from IT (Brightcove / Joost (from the creators of skype) / MSN networks) were erudite and upbeat about the brave new world of high speed, video rich, interactive (make your own directors cut of Desperate Housewives), and then share it with your friends the morning after, so you can talk about it and refine the edit all day on the net. Which sounds like a lot of fun, if you are a student or an out-of-work TV producer with a lot of time on your hands! But more seriously their offer to the market is the capacity to deliver rich content (tonnes of it), some smart software that allows you to customize media consumption on your terms ( i.e. when and where you want it cause you’re so busy) and that is un-doubtably changing the changing the status quo of the content producer, rights owners and distributors. And that’s a good thing, its going to grow the audience’s appetite for media and they are going to gorge themselves silly, which is likely to make us all quite busy meeting their insatiable need to watch telly anywhere but on the telly.

Unless……they don’t bother to ask your permission for your content. Which was when the morning got really interesting in the shape and form of a not-to-be-messed-with Rick Sands from MGM. He was a one man riot on the panel, seething with indignation that the guy from Brighcove has visions of a global audience for his sons winning goal at the local primary’s soccer game and even more outraged that loads of spotty teenagers were mashing up us very expensively produced latest season of Stargate thereby denying him his god-given right to distribution income. And you had to see his point, because Rick is a very persuasive man – I wouldn’t want to meet him if I was a spotty teenager, cause it would be a bare fist fighting spectacular which itself would make great pay per view content. And he made a good analogy to the death of Indies in film when the studios bought them up (thereby making the concept of Indies a redundancy), by comparing that sad passage of film history with the unashamed haste with which the big media corps like NewsCorp snap up social phenomena like MySpace thereby neutering the very rebellious nature of this “up yours” to mainstream distribution by co-opting them into a promotional platform for network shows. Its not a palace coup if the king is pulling the strings.

Dinner was excellent by the way – Coquilles St Jacques – you should have been there, wish the boys in Franshoek figure out how to make a decent rose soon. Then we could really put to use those big fat pipes that the guys from IT support have on offer. Rose, anytime, on-demand and shared with 1 million of my nameless friends.

Stan Joseph is a Executive Director at Ochre Media, a Johannesburg based content company.

MIPTV used to be an exclusive haunt for programme traders, but these days, it’s a must attend event for advertisers and marketers and they’re making up more and more of the delegates, delivering keynotes, talking on panels and in Ogilvy’s case, asking for pitches for 360 content and even sponsoring the event. So what are they all doing at a TV event?

At last years Association of National Advertisers conference in the USA the theme was life beyond the 30-second spot and this year it’s TV advertising in the new TV era so it’s something the advertising community is taking seriously. In South Africa, we’ve had 18 applications for satellite broadcast TV licenses, regional television is on the cards, mobile TV is in final testing and IPTV (Internet TV) will be a reality in the future. TV has always been the big daddy of advertising but how do brands follow the consumer to other platforms and how do they engage them?

According to Jaffe, TV’s business model needs to be re-thought because it is not consumer-centric. “We are not talking to consumers on their terms. We have to partner with our consumers and work with them in a permission based way.” For Jaffe, the key to this notion is capitalising on what he calls TV’s “fundamental currency – tune in. We are witnessing a fragmentation of audiences, so broadcasters have to think more than ever about maximizing the potential of viewers tuning in and staying tuned in. We are starting to see a lot of creativity in this sense, as well as in ways of continuing involvement long after the programme has ended.”

This creativity can come from two areas, the advertising agency and the production house. What needs to be re-looked at is how we can make this happen and keep the client, broadcaster and their respective advertising sales divisions all happy. This is often where the creative idea fails to take off and we go back to traditional marketing approaches.

Jaffes’ core message will sound familiar to many in the entertainment industry: brands need to let the consumer go first. He pointed out that, with the new forms of advertising increasingly intertwined with consumers daily lives rather than restricted to 30-second spots and billboards, the risk of their message becoming intrusive is immense. Jaffe agreed that, in today’s fragmented world, clutter is significant. “Consumers are exposed to over 6 000 marketing messages in a day. Brands cannot be space invaders anymore. They need to make our lives better in some way. Quite simply, we are bigger than brands. When brands get down off their pedestal, roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty and partner with their consumers, that’s when the clutter will disappear.”

Many brands have taken up the baton and lead the way, some being more successful than others. Audi have their own TV Channel on Sky Digital in the UK, Budweiser created BudTV, a seven channel internet based offering, user generated content and social networking sites are attracting more and more ad spend. Many brands are also creating and owning branded entertainment content.

Branded Entertainment or Advertiser Funded Content is a new and innovative style of advertising which perfectly blends marketing and entertainment to showcase brands so that consumers pay attention and move from a model of interruption to engagement. This integrated approach creates a loyalty and an emotional connection to a brand never before seen. Branded Entertainment crosses all media platforms from broadband to mobile and in terms of consumer engagement is a worthy successor to the 30-second spot.