Hello and Happy Friday! And Happy Autumn: like a charm, the weather turns ‘suitable’ as soon as we return to work. These grey chilly skies are much more amenable to working, don’t you think?
And there is much to work on in the coming months. For starters we have World Telemedia Prague between 10-12 November to look forward to, where the industry can gather together and showcase what it does best.
Before that we have the next edition of Telemedia magazine and Charge to Mobile mag coming out in September, where we will be taking a timely look at interactive media.
But aside from all the things we shall be doing this coming autumn, there are changes afoot in the industry itself. Phonepay Plus will be welcoming in a new chairman – David Edmunds, who many are hoping will be the much needed breath of fresh air in the regulator started by Jo Prowse. The world is changing and the telemedia industry is changing – the regulator needs to change with it and that finally looks to be happening. We will keep you appraised.
Also over the summer we saw some interesting research into payments which shows that contactless payments are starting to boom with both MasterCard and BarclayCard showing that people are embracing it. This bodes well for Apple Pay and Samsung Pay in the coming months – but what does that mean for charge to mobile?
In many ways any form of mobile payments success is going to help charge to mobile as consumers don’t really care how it happens, just that it does. But too much contactless, m-wallet based payments could start to eat into where charge to mobile currently sees rich pickings. One to watch closely.
We have also seen some startling research into how poorly many brands and retailers are using mobile – and how it is costing retailers dearly. Figures from the IMRG suggest that the mobile proportion of e-commerce sales is starting to plateau suggest that this could well be costing business dear. Isn’t it about time that telemedia brought its expertise of marketing-payments-engagement to bear on a wider world? Charge to mobile may be a great offering, but couple it with everything else this industry can do and you have something very powerful indeed.
So, despite August traditionally being the silly season, much has been happening and we are now back in the saddle, refreshed and tanned and ready to start debating these issues with you and your clients. Bring it on.
