Recap: Inaugural PMG Mobile Day

In our industry, things are changing so fast that it is important to step back once in a while and make sure everyone’s on the same page. PMG did just that last week with its inaugural Mobile Day, and it was a fantastic success, thanks in large part to our partners in the mobile space.

Overall, the PMG team split up into groups and rotated through sessions of various topics led by our partners at Google, TapCommerce, xAd, Tapad and mParticle. Sales pitches were checked at the door, and great education, trendspotting and prognostication of the future followed. You know what was the best indicator that the event was uber useful? No one was on their phones during the sessions! (Ironic, we know, for a mobile event.)

PMG was the first agency worldwide to get the Google Micro Moments story.

Our friends at Google shared their viewpoints on how best to sell through investing in the mobile channel with brands, focusing on emphasizing consumers’ micro-moments. We’re proud that PMG was officially the first agency around the globe to have a firsthand look at that story (it was publicly announced only one day before in a Wall Street Journal op-ed).

TapCommerce gave us a fantastic overview on app user acquisition and re-engagement, drawing on not only best practices across verticals, but also practical experience from running massive and successful campaigns in the past.

There was a lively discussion during xAd’s session on location targeting. There’s hardly a company in the mobile space that doesn’t say it can do location targeting, but this session illustrated pretty clearly just how hard it really is to do location well.

Brent Richey and Chris Martin at Tapad chatting about cross-device in the boardroom.

Tapad tackled cross-device targeting and attribution, another topic that has no shortage of folks claiming expertise, but has a dearth of methods actually verified to work. In addition to getting into the nitty gritty of how cross-device targeting accuracy is possible, the session also reviewed how to cut advertising waste when running a campaign across devices.

Lastly, a big hit with every group was the session with mParticle. (Pro tip: If you’re unfamiliar with this company and what it does, you should absolutely look into it now.) Their session covered first party app data, defining goals behind that data, and how to think about data as a long term strategic asset.

If you feed them, they will learn. Or, something like that.

Things kicked off with Chick Fil-A chicken minis, and ended with a jolly happy hour. In between, lots of learning was had, and a template for Mobile Days was established, thanks, in no small part, to our partners.