The IMA held an interesting conference this week - on the hot subject of mobile advertising. some of the more interesting companies in this fled are based in Israel, such as amobbe, Medialayers, inneractive, and jumptap .

One of the guesrs on was Harald Neidhardt, Chief Marketing Office and Co-Founder of  Smaato.

Please introduce yourself. What do you do?

My name is Harald Neidhardt. I am CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) and Co-Founder of Smaato Inc. in Silicon Valley, with an office in Hamburg and Boston. My main responsibility is marketing & PR, corporate development and product strategy here at Smaato. I am evangelizing Smaato’s role as an innovator in the mobile ecosystem – especially mobile advertising. Furthermore I am in charge of industry relations and work actively in associations like the MMA and the German BVDW.

How did you get into the mobile business?

I am passionate about innovation, the future of our mobile life and everything digital. In the beginning of 2005 I saw that smartphones will be the way of the future and that there will be ad supported business models that follow the way of the online world. That was my calling to join with our co-founders to build Smaato. (Nobody knew what a smartphone was back then – years before the iPhone).

What does your company do that’s special and unique? What are your main products?

Smaato is a pioneering mobile advertising company that operates the mobile ad optimization platform called SOMA (Smaato Open Mobile Advertising) and partners with publishers, developers, ad networks and operators.
SOMA’s unique feature is the aggregation of 20+ leading ad networks globally to maximize mobile advertising ARPU. We serve mobile ads in 200+ countries. SOMA can be easily integrated with ad networks, ad inventory owners (publishers, developers and operators) and 3rd party ad technology providers.
SOMA enables the delivery of targeted advertising to mobile phones on mobile web sites, within applications, widgets and games.

When did you start working on ‘The Idea’?

Smaato was founded in August 2005, and has evolved over the years. We started in the application space and we are now uniquely centered on operating our open SOMA platform (Smaato Open Mobile Advertising).

What is your business model?

At Smaato we aim to support the mobile industry with an open platform to provide better ROI for our publisher and developer customers. We source advertising world wide from our ad network partners and retain a small revenue share from our publishers.

Where will you be 3 years from now?

Mobile advertising still is in its infancy and there are a lot of issues to work out and standards to define. In the western world, creative people will need to find ways to create interactive, targeted mobile advertising without interfering with the consumers intended behavior too much. In emerging markets there are huge opportunities for global consumer companies to reach new markets through mobile advertising: Mobile phones become more and more important in our daily lives; data plans for using the mobile web will become flat and simpler. There will be lots of creative companies publishing new mobile websites or developing new applications and games, especially in countries where the mobile phone is the predominantly means to access the internet.

In your opinion, what are the important trends in the mobile world?

Mobile Social Media: In my opinion mobile social media becomes more and more important. What evolved over the last 10 years with platforms like MySpace, Facebook, etc. is now moving rapidly to mobile. We could see in the last 6 months the great success of Twitter.

New mobile ad formats: I think we will see a shift to more engaging models of advertising and marketing on the mobile phone. “Conversational” advertising, sponsored messages and branded services will evolve and build branded communities. Some of us will pay premiums to not receive untargeted ads – and some of us will give freely profile information to receive targeted messages according to our preferences.

Location: There are many interesting companies like the German based Aka-Aki. Their application gives you information, which of your friends are around, e.g. using the same underground, even if you cannot see them.

Which mobile phone do you use?

I have an iPhone. Love it.

Which mobile apps and services do you use?

Tweetdeck, FaceBook, Trigga.me, Shazam (love it!), AkaAki, fring, Bloom (Brian Eno), Bubble Wrap (with my kids – they beat me!), Zensify (way cool!), Rummble (my friends best pplaces), iPod (not to forget), I wish I could play the Ocarina (Smule).

In your opinion, what product or service is missing in the mobile industry?

I miss innovation in the rest of the industry except for iPhone & Android. It is getting there, but a lot of catch-up to do …

What product or service let you down?

Friends call me an alpha geek – and used that things crash in the first versions. There is always a tomorrow. Some apps or services are just a feature, not necessary a product – so I might not use it after a while because this feature is then included in another app.

Are you familiar with IMA? What have you heard of them?

I shared a panel on the future of mobile with IMA CEO Eyal Reshef in Germany 2008 – he was very impressive with his stats about the Israeli market. Mark Wächter, founder of MWC.mobi is moderating the “cross industry panel” and invited me as a speaker there. I like the idea to cooperate with local organizations, to build up their network and grow the pie of the mobile ecosystem together globally.

Are you familiar with the Israeli market? Have you done business with Israeli firms before? Would you like to share a story?

Although we haven’t been to Israel before, the Israeli market is well-known to Smaato from trade shows and. We have some very good contacts here and have finished the integration of our SOMA platform with Fring, a mobile internet community and communication service that allows friends to connect, share experiences and enhance their online communities together. All the people we meet around the world rave highly about the Israeli people, their passion for new technologies and provide best services. I have made friends at events around the world and really look forward to meet their home country.

What does your company do?

Didiom is a music start-up. that contacts your pc and mobile. It Is run by Ran Assaf  from new york, who answered our “meet the people” questionary.

What does didiom do?

We develop and market a new type of cross-carrier mobile music service that allows people to access their home computer’s music library from their phone in just two clicks, and using the same sleek mobile application, bid for and buy over 1.5 million MP3 songs. Didiom is not tied to a specific wireless network/operator or handset. We are completely independent.

What are your main products?

Placeshifting Platform

Unlike sideloading, the process of moving music files from a computer to a mobile device, mobile music placeshifting occurs by enabling audio files stored on a personal computer to be wirelessly streamed to a mobile device. The music plays back on the mobile device but is not stored locally. Didiom’s placeshifting platform consists of three basic modules: a desktop application that runs on the end user’s computer, a handset application that runs on the end user’s mobile device, and a streaming server that manages communications. Didiom’s desktop application scans the PC for audio files and playlists in the most popular formats, and maintains an encrypted channel between the PC and the phone.

Bidding-based Mobile MP3 Store (Name your own price)

In addition to streaming music from computers to phones over wireless networks, the all-in-one Didiom application features new ways to interact with music. With over 1.5 million DRM-free tracks under management, we allow users to shop for music whenever they want, directly from their phone. Users can download music to their mobile, PC or both. There are never any membership or service fees. Users only pay for the music they download through Didiom’s secure, credit card service. By implementing an adaptive bargaining technology, we also allow users to name their own price for MP3 songs. Moreover, our integrated music-sharing tool enables users to share previews with friends, both mobile-to-mobile and via e-mail.

Content Management

We have signed license deals with 15 digital music providers worldwide and continue to expand our catalogue. The following music partners have made their music libraries available on Didiom: CD Baby (US), the world’s largest online retailer of independent music, Naxos (US), the world’s leading producer of classical music, Saavn (India/US), the world’s largest digital distributor of South Asian content, Phonofile (Norway), Bonzai Music (Belgium), eClassical (Sweden), Xpressbeats (UK), Reggae Country (Canada), Soul Seduction (Austria), Resonant Vibes (US), MisRolas (US/Mexico), EmuBands (Scotland), Armenian Music Center (Armenia), EPM (Netherlands), and Quarterlife Records (US).

When did you start working on the idea?

I started the company in the summer of 2005 after finishing my graduate studies in entrepreneurship in Boston. Our small team is based in New York – in the heart of the media world. Among our board members are Bob Jamieson, the former CEO of BMG North America, and Oren Most, the former CEO of Gilat and former deputy CEO and co-founder of Cellcom.

?What is your business model

Throughout the beta period, we offer over 1.5 million MP3 songs and share revenues with our music partners. We are implementing a cash bonus program to reward prepaid users who have purchased MP3 songs. The cash bonus program pays up to 35% towards more music downloads. Most songs are between $0.89 (single download) and $1.39 (dual download). Most albums are between $9.99 (single download) and $12.99 (dual download). We will offer subscription-based, premium services later this year.

?Where will you be 3 years from now

Hopefully, with enough resources to develop groundbreaking applications and change the way people interact with digital media.

?In your opinion. what are the important trends in the mobile world

Rollable displays, wireless charging, 3D visualizations of mobile content, image comparison technologies.

Which mobile phone do you use?

HTC Touch Pro

Which mobile apps and services do you use?

Didiom and Google Maps

?Which product or service is missing in the mobile industry

Phones that don’t look like phones. Today’s phones are just more of the same. I’d also love to have a Didiom-compatible phone with built-in video projector to show the app to a group of people.

?Which product or service let you down

Nokia Nseries and the old-fashioned UI of most of today’s phones.

More about Didiom here:

1. Didiom on facebook
2. Didiom on youtube
3. Didiom on gizmodo

Looking for information or contacts in Israel mobile industry? contact me at geva@kraoz.com