Fastest way to make money in economic downturn for any company is obviously

In normal economic times there is no one standard way which any company could make more money, which would be the best for all companies in all markets. For example some might succeed best by segmenting their customers better and extracting more profits out of given segments. In industries where segmentation is not well understood (say, like telecoms ha-ha) this can be a huge profit opportunity. In other industries and markets it can be the upsell potential to existing customers. They know you and your brand, they trust you; it is easier to sell new stuff to them than to find new customers to your existing products and services, etc.

In an economic downturn in general and certainly today in this economic downturn, most classic ways to generate more money are less cost-effective to your company because your customers have less money to spend and because your company is not the only one looking to (severely) cut costs and improve efficiencies.

In times of economic downturn the one option that remains attractive and becomes the best way to make money, for any company anywhere is (obviously):

To find a successful business innovation from another market (country) that has not been deployed in your market (country) but which seems very likely to also succeed in your market (country).

Sounds easy and sounds unlikely? Well, for most established industries on the planet, automobiles, banking, housing construction, etc - the industries are very mature, have very slow rates of growth very close to that of the general global economy; and have very little room for innovation within their own industry sector. Often the innoation in a given sector comes from the outside often in terms of cannibalization such as the internet has done in retail (music stores), travel (airline ticketing) and media (newspapers). Lastly and very importantly, the well established industries have tons of regulation to govern them. Even if you did invent a wonderful cheap way to mass produce cars made out of paper, you would then have to pass the national crash-test safety regulations in all different countries etc.

CARS

So in the established industries this is slow to happen. But it is dramatic. Consider cars. Henry Ford brought in the idea of the production line in mass production. He didn't invent it - that was Samuel Colt the gun-maker who invented mass production. Ford just copied a successful and proven business idea from another market (handguns) and introduced it to his industry (cars) and that innovation made Ford the biggest car maker in the world. And his idea was copied by every other car maker who would remain to be in business. All who refused to copy Ford's idea (ie Samuel Colt's idea) went out of business! Talk about powerful gains in business.

That is of course not the only innovation in cars. GM would innovate with segmentation, selling essentially the same car to different people with minor decorative variations and make massive profits out of it. So rather than one Ford model (any color as long as its black is attibuted to Henry Ford but he actually never said that) GM would offer a basic Chevrolet or a faster Pontiac or a family oriented Oldsmobile or a more grand Buick or a luxurious Cadillac. And you bet you could get them in any color you wanted. GM used segmentation to grow past Ford to become the biggest car maker in the world. Then Toyota and the other Japanese makers would use mass production and segmentation and then introduce a new innoation to car making - robotic automation - and with that innovation Toyota of Japan became the biggest car maker. Today all major car makers are deploying automation and robotics but Japan (and South Korea) are the world leaders in this space.

Ok. What of my little company that is not a multi-billon dollar global car giant? Not to worry, this same idea does work for any company in any industry at any time. But the point is, you have to think very well and very open mindedly about the innovation and use a very broad definition of other markets. Remember Ford did not copy the mass prodcution from a close relative of the car industry like trains or bicycles or horse-drawn carriages. No, he discovered mass prodcution out of the armaments industry. Hand guns are very far removed from cars as an industry.

So, where do we look? The established industries are all global. The banking industry has relatively little innovation on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The few ideas that they have are very "convoluted" such as the recent "derivatives" instruments of Wall Street that got us into this economic mess and were clearly copied very efficiently accross most global banks..  Or the occasional other innovations that may come out of bizarre markets like micro-lending out of India or the mobile phone based quick loans out of Scandinavia are also well known. The banking industry was not the most dynamically innovative industry these past few years before this recession.

Neither was aviation or automobiles or retail or travel or mining or farming etc etc etc. The two most innovative global industries this past decade were also the two 100 billion dollar industries that grew the fastest this decade - the internet and mobile. HERE is where it makes sense to look. By far the most of the innovation that affected OTHER industries this past decade in terms of their ability to make money - either adding revenues or reducing costs - has involved either the internet or mobile. They are the two constants. Airlines? Save money by now all tickets being electronic and now all airlines offer some kind of online booking or ticket sales. Ten years ago nobody did that. Television? The biggest revenue generator to TV is not cable TV fees or extending the amount of advertising time - it is SMS voting like on American Idol. Every industry can find these new opportunities out of internet and mobile innovations (and obviously the internet industry and the mobile industry are awash with great ideas to generate MORE money today).

WASTED OPPORTUNITIES OF THE PAST

This is the part that I don't understand. The internet has opened an unprecedented chance for everybody (in a business executive position in any company) to have access to all information. It is no longer a secret. Why is it then that brilliant MAGNIFICENTLY successful business ideas linger on in small countries and markets and are NOT copied meticulously into all others. Give you one personal example. I was the first person in the world to discuss mobile phone ringing tones in London at an international conference only months after they launched in Finland. So ok, the ringing tones may have been a weird "only in Finland" kind of concept at the time, fine. But by 2003, the UK had seen the enormous success of ringing tones as the value of ringing tones worldwide had passed a bilion dollars by then, and there was a strong interest in the evolution of music on mobile. Then I was the first person to discuss ringback tones (waiting tones) in the English language in the press and at a conference in London in 2003. These were invented in South Korea and were headed to earn 150 million dollars in South Korea alone that year, in their first full year.

My point. I had a reputation for finding valid business ideas for mobile and music. I had popularisized an innovaton that had grown into a billion dollar industry in only five years. Now I was on the record in public ranting and raving about something that I felt would become BIGGER than ringing tones. Wouldn't that get the attention of the audiences back then? Wouldn't you think the mobile and music companies would have listened and launched ringback tones immediately? Most did not. That bewilders me. Now in some markets they did listen to me such as Israel and Singapore where ringback tones are huge business today. In other markets ringback tones were launched because they just accidentially copied a South Korean innovation like Japan and China and ringback tones are big business there too. Today ringback tones are worth more than two billion dollars and are growing globally at such fast pace with basic ringing tones sales stagnating that within about two years ringback tones will definitely become bigger than ringing tones in revenues.

I don't mean to brag once again how accurate I was in my prediction back then - obviously I am not infallible and have been wrong also many times such as with video calling and MMS picture messaging predictions - I mean that yes, the first time in 1999 when I was passionate about mobile ringing tones - and showed a business innovation - that was succeeding in the Finnish market - to a UK audience, I understand they were quck to dismiss the crazy Nokia guy from Finland. But by 2003 when that idea was worth a billion per year and I suggested something would become BIGGER then that SHOULD have drawn the attention of at least some brave execs in the industry. And by this time in 2003 I was a two-time bestselling author on the business of mobile and its services, so arguably already then I was the world's leading authority on this topic matter.

Why so long for ringbacks? I really don't get it. They work in EVERY country. Yes, it does take time to educate the market initially when ringbacks are launched but they are a money-making-macine. Two billion dollars worth last year alone. In China where musician Yang Chengang released a pop song called Mice Love Rice in 2004, his song was offered as an unrestricted MP3 file online. It was downloaded 100 million times, obviously for free. You would think that there is zero market to sell a song after 100 million people have the same song for free. Think again. Ringback tones. They THEN offered the song on ringback, and made... 21 million dollars !!!!  (170 Million RMB).This is China remember with their low GDP level. If we translate that to US GDP its like releasing a song for free online and then generating 100 million dollars of.... digital sales revenues. You don't have to print CDs for this and the costs. Pure digital sales. (Mice Love Rice is of course one of the 16 case studies in my book Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media)

Of course with ringback tones you have to share revenues with the mobile phone operator. But this is just one example. And what I don't get, is that as ringbacks are a success in market after market - come on, Turkey? Poland? Malaysia, Russia... They do work in every market, not only the digitally advanced countries like Japan, South Korea and Singapore..And the story has been out since 2003 in English. What is wrong wth the music industry bosses (and content heads in mobile telecoms) that this innovation is NOT in every phone in every country by now.. I just don't get it.

COPY FROM YOUR INDUSTRY IN ANOTHER COUNTRY

But lets get specific to THIS economic downturn and your opportunity now. Let me show two concrete examples of copying from one market to another. Lets go back to automobiles. Today its very unlikely to find honest innovation in the core automobile industry basics, to get business benefits. The big global strategy consultants have been doing their best practises benchmarkings and process re-engineering etc for decades and the fundamentals of how Renault runs its business are similar to how Honda runs its business or how Chrysler runs its. But also, due to long histories, they also have long legacies of contracts with labour unions and domestic laws etc that make individual cases better or worse in some countries and not others.

Now lets bring in mobile. Yes, I can do the obvious with mobile and cars - the TomTom and OnStar navigation systems etc. That is not innovation today. Lets see what mobile can do to generate real sales in the car industry. BMW in Germany. We discussed the BMW winter tyres campaign here at the Communities Dominate blog many times as one of the most impressive engagement marketing campaigns of last year. It is widely reported so let me just summarize.
 
BMW developed a simple marketing campaign that ran only on mobile phones, using the MMS picture messaging technology. They sent personalized messages to 117,000 existing customers of BMW who had bought a new BMW in the past 12 months. The total campaign including design of the campaign and the total transmission costs of the messages was less than 120,000 dollars. But the campaign generated a conversion rate (actual business generated by campaign) of 30%. Three in 10 German owners of a new BMW, who received the ad, actually showed up at a BMW dealer to use the offer and make a purchase. The campaign sold winter tyres on the day the first snow fell in Germany. How much did this campaign generate in new revenues of sales of accessories to BMW? 45 MILLION dollars.

One campaign. 117,000 customers, one picure message to each, on one day. But it produced an avalanche of bonus income to BMW and its authorized dealers. (all the details at the link if you are not familiar with the story; this is a very widely celebrated mobile marketing campaign up for all kinds of awards).

How do we copy a business innovation from one market to another?

We have to be clever about it. A car maker, even BMW, should not attempt to sell winter tyres this way in Egypt or Greece or Brazil. They don't have snow on the ground. But ANY car maker, ANY one of them, Ford, VW, Toyota, Fiat, Volvo, Peugeot, Mazda, Kia, Mercedes Benz, Audi, Tata Motors.. ANY one, can copy this idea in any market with significant snowy winters. In Canada in Sweden in Japan in Russia in Finland in any of the Northern States of the USA such as Michigan, Connecticut, Montana, etc. ANY "market" where they use snow tyres. This is a SURE-FIRE winner this year and a very good success next year.

Imagine if you are the account manager for the big national ad agency of Sweden and you sold Volvo this same campaign and they generated (Sweden roughy one tenth the size of Germany) four million dollars of bonus sales out of a campaign that cost less than one TV spot. You would be the national hero and win all the big awards for Swedish advertising this year.

Or if you are the marketing VP for Ford in Canada and (Canada about half the population of Germany) you deliver this year an ad campaign that cost less than 100,000 Canadian dollars but generated over 20 million Canadian dollars of directly attributable sales to your campaign. You would be the superstar of your company, heralded by the CFO as the best use of company assets and be on the cover of Canadian Business magazine as auto exec of the year.

This is what I mean. If there is an honest innovation in the world that you can adapt to your busiess - ideally copy it directly - then this is the fastest way to make money in a downturn. Not every country can copy winter tyres ideas from Germany but every car maker in every country of winter CAN. Directly. And then remember Henry Ford. He copies from another industry - the handguns. So you don't need to be in cars to do this. Other winter industries. Skis. Winter Boots. Gloves. Can you adapt this idea to your business. And other CAR accessories to other markets. They sell other accessories too, not just tyres. That takes creativity. But its the fastest way to make money. (BMW Winter Tyres is one of 50 case studies in my Pearls Vol 1: Mobile Advertising, the must-read book for all in advertising, marketing and media)

Don't try to squeeze even more profits out of savings. Don't try to squeeze even more revenues out of selling the same to your same customers in the same way. Look around and find a new idea - but the internet is full of ideas that are bizarre and unproven. Don't bother with promises. Use ONLY ideas that have ALREADY been proven to work in some other market. Use ideas that work - and ones that have not been launched in your industry in your market.

Lets extend now the idea to the part of adapting from one industry to another. 

ADAPT FROM ANOTHER INDUSTRY

 Google Adwords. A brilliant step in evolving advertising on the internet. A genune innovation for the internet and form of advertising that did not exist in legacy mass media. Brilliant. Google earns 98% of its revenues out of advertising and of all internet advertising now search words is the biggest ad revenue category.

So you like it an then you think "but to copy that I would have to be like Google, so only someone like Yahoo can do that." WRONG. Its like saying only Smith and Wesson, and Beretta and Remington and other gun-makers could copy Colt's invention. No, we can ADAPT to our industry. Lets go very far from search. Lets go to dating, flirting, social netorking, play and entertainmet. One of the most - if not THE most - innovative company in monetizing online and mobile opportunities is UK based Flirtomatic. We have discussed Flirtomatic countless times here at our blog and recommended its CEO Mark Curtis's brilliant book Distraction and for example anticipate his presentation to the upcoming Forum Oxford conference on April 24. Mark's presentation alone makes this day worth your while.

But yes, Google Adwords. How do you do Adwords in a dating/flirting service? You don't. you adapt the business innovation to your market. This is how Flirtomatic did it. They launched their "First Face". This is the welcoming page of Flirtomatic whenever you log on whether online or on mobile (Flirtomatic is in UK and Germany and serves over a million customers with more than half mobile users; they are UK's largest mobile social networking service). Yes, so when you go to Flirtomatic today, you'll be greeted by their welcoming screen - and you will see one Flirtomatic member. That used to be a random face. Flirtomatic looked at Google Adwords and decided to adapt. They now AUCTION the first face to the highest bidder. If you are a boy, looking for girls, you will see a girl of course but the First Face right now is that girl who bid most for that position. In six hours it will be the next girl. If you are a girl looking for boys, and if you are a boy looking for boys etc, each is different.

But this is a perfect example of adapting from the innovator - of NEW BUSINESS and very importantly of new ways TO MAKE MONEY - to your industry. Totally different markets USA and UK totally different services search and dating and totally different technologies internet and mobile; yet Flirtomatic was able to adapt that brilliant money-making innovation and use it in its service.

Again. Why is this NOT copied by every social networking service from Facebook and Myspace to Linked In? Why? It is not a secret. Mark Curtis has spoken about it in public for almost two years now and its been all over the blogoshere and I even discuss this in the Flirtomatic case study in my book Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media. Its no secret! Its a money-making-machine. This is your fastest way to make money in this economic downturn. Not Flirtomatic First Face per se, I mean this concept, that you can COPY a PROVEN business concept that is already commercially successful in some market, that is NOT in your market. Then just make sure it is applicable to your market. (no snow tyres in Egypt even if you are BMW). And don't be shy to adapt from other industries like Ford did from Colt and Flirtomatic did from Google.

WHERE TO LOOK

There are only two strong industry candidates that show major growth currently and are full of innovation, and they are the internet and mobile. The internet is a 200 billion dollar major industry worldwide and mobile is a Trillion dollar colossus. Both are growing where most legacy industries are contracting in these times of economic distress.

INTERNET IS AN AD MEDIUM

The internet is remarkably open as an opportunity for anyone at almost no investment to get involved. The barrier to entry is so tiny as to be non-existent. You don't even need to buy a PC, you can potentially run your business from rented internet access via an internet cafe. So you can get into the business at the levels of an initial investment of even only few dollars. Unbelievable. And on practical levels, in most cases, an internet start-up can go into business for a few thousands of dollars on one PC, a broadband connection some web domain etc. Far far less costly than say starting up a local restaurant or shop or setting up an accountng office or dentist in your town.

There are tons of great ideas on the internet BUT the commercially successful models tend to require success in advertising. Remember Google earns 98% of its income from advertising even though they are also one of the biggest email services, one of the biggest mapping companies, etc etc etc. The problem with trying to earn money out of advertising in any media indsutry is that it is a zero-sum game. For you to gain a dollar of ad reveneu, someone else has to give up a dollar. You take it from the newspaper ad budget or TV or radio or billboards or the internet - indeed from Google perhaps - to give you your dollar.

And in the economic downturn the advertising spending is diminishing rapidly. In all media. So while some ad dollars are migrating to the internet, the overall ad pie is shrinking. And the advertisers are growing increasingly demanding and shrewd. They want metrics, statistics and models that deliver sales - ie Google Adwords etc, not just banner ads. And of course some online consumers have revolved about ads like with Facebook.

Its not easy but it can be done. Remember my advice. Don't pick ANY idea EVER that has not been proven to work in some other market. That is a sure-fire way to waste your investment now in this economic downturn. Take only those ideas that have been proven to work when you consider new projects for your company. And on the internet, it is difficult to find models of success outside of advertising. Multiplayer gaming is one strong area and related virtual reality spaces also are.

MOBILE IS A MAGICAL MONEY MACHINE

Mobile is the fastest growing major industry on the planet. I am not suggesting you try to become Nokia and launch a mobile phone like Apple did with the iPhone. It takes 18 months just to design a phone - it is far more complex than rocket science and extremey costly to master and very difficult to achieve to do profitably. I also do not suggest to fight in the mobile operator/carrier space and try to become Vodafone or Sprint or Orange or Telefonica. No, these guys spend a billion dollars to build a cellular network and in most markets you can't even get a license today as they are all allocated (and often even costed another Billion dollars just for the licence to offer cellular telecoms services in one country). No, the majority of the mobile industry is not really viable to join for just any old company. But that covers only part of the total industry. There is something called "mobile data" what you might think of as the "mobile internet" but is a much more broad opportunity ranging from car telematics to mobile phone based banking and credit cards. And yes, of course, the internet itself which Google CEO Eric Schmidt just again reminded us a few days ago that the internet is headed to mobile phones.

The mobile data industry is a subsector of the total mobile industry and is worth - 200 billion dollars. Roughly speaking the data-only part of mobile is as big as the total global internet industry including all broadband fees and all advertising on the internet etc.

MOBILE IS BETTER

So we have two very similar sized opportunities. Except that mobile is less well known - haha, there are MORE hidden gems and success stories in mobile than on the internet. BETTER chances for your company to find an idea that is not yet deployed in your market.

Better yet, mobile is growing faster. The intenet has been growing at about 14%-18% annual growth rates the past few years. Very beautiful growth rates. But mobile data? It has SUSTAINED a growth rate of 35% year-on-year as Informa had calculated for the Netsize Guide 2009. Talk about a juggernaut. This industry grew by more than a THIRD in JUST ONE YEAR. And the mobile data industry is as big as what? The total global movies industry including box office and DVD sales and rentals; plus the total global videogaming industry including playstation and Wii consoles and all videogaming cartridges etc; and the total global music industry includign all digital sales such as iTunes and ringing tones and rigback tones. The three giant media industries movies, gaming and music - put together and that is not as big as mobile data is alone.

Yet the world economy was stagant last year and mobile data grew 35%. HELLO? This is the industry to be in. If you want to find innovation in new ways to make money, do pick the industry that is currently making more NEW money than any other on the planet.

Mobile is better for also this reason - it is the only technology that hits every other industry and is personally carried by every economically viable person on the planet. I showed you BMW a car maker that now does customer relationship management via the mobile phone. Every person who owns a car on the planet has a phone and takes it with him or her in the car every day. Every industry. Even we take our phones to the movies with us. Even farmers are now using the technology to track cows and sheep in Iceland and forests are managed with GSM chips implanted to trees in Finland. EVERY industry can use this. When the British army fought in Kosovo and found that their advanced battlefield communication system was malfunctioning they used mobile phones to call HQ. EVERY industry can use this. Obama and his SMS and Twitter campaign last year. EVERY industry can use mobile. Not every one can use the internet. Mobile is better.

And most of all, the advertising. Most of the successful business models on the internet require advertising. Want to know how much of the 200 billion in mobile data revenue is advertising? 1.5 percent. Yes we have advertising but it is TOTALLY not necessary for commercial success on mobile. It is an ADDITIONAL revenue stream. An optional extra. We can do it but we don't have to do it. Remember Mice Love Rice, 22 million dollars of new sales on mobile after 100 million had downloaded the full song for free. This is the power of mobile. This is a money-making-machine. A magical money making machine. So powerful it can generate money to OTHER industries such as Habbo Hotel which uses mobile to generate its revenues for its online virtual world. And American Idol, mobile can generate money to fuel the TV industry (in Finland voting for TV and other SMS to TV reveneus now exceed total TV ad revenues AND total TV subscription revenues.. HELLO, TV-land, is anyone awake?) Even the traditional paper printing based book industry is rudely awakened to discover mobile phone based books to be a hundred milion dollar new revenue stream. Books and mobile? Yes. Mobile is the magical money-making-machine.

So we conclude. What can you do to make money today. The fastest way is to discover a new honest business innovation that has been COMMERCIALLY launched in another market and is PROVEN to be commerically viable. Making money. Then to observe that this given innovation has not yet been launched in your market. And test it is viable (snow tyres and Egypt) and then launch that into your market. Ideally you have an invention for your exact market (winter tyres) but with some creativity you can adapt from another industry (Ford and Colt; Flirtomatic and Google). You can find those opportunies in those industries that are most dynamic, innovative and which are growing today in revenues. That is primarily the internet and mobile. Of the two, today, mobile
is the far stronger candidate to find the innovations because it is younger than the internet, growing faster and is less known. Mobile is also more universally applicable to every economically viable person on the planet and every indsutry sector.

WHERE NEXT

So where do you find those ideas. My books have listed over 700 mobile-related service ideas and over 100 case studies. I have shown in my public speaking over 1,200 of these. This blog, with Alan Moore has showcased at least 300 of the more recent and relevant examples for today. Many with very deep details of  business calculations as you saw with the BMW example. 

OPTION 1 TOTALLY FREE

So if you have the time, you start here. You go through our blog to begin with - this site has about a thousand stories and countless true innovations over the past four years. The total text on this blog would probably fill one shelf on a book case. You could do a kind of MBA study of new business ideas in the digital convergence space and just read this blog - all for free - and absorb all that. This would be a viable option for someone who is a student or currenty unemployed - sorry - between jobs - or a "consultant" who has lots of time on his/her hands now with the economy so bad and jobs scarse for consultants.

 We are by no means anything like the only source - but I dare suggest you won't find a bigger free collection of free analysis of business ideas of both mobile and internet, than our site. But also obviously you then dig further. You follow our links to good sources like other bloggers like MobHappy or good reference sources like MobiAd News or good thought-leading companies like AMF Ventures etc. And obviously we have our myopic views, so you also do your own Google searches for case studies in new business concepts and consider those too. Remember, you want ideas that are commerically launched not just vaporware and you want to see some user data, usage data, revenue data etc (or ideally profitability data) etc. Don't waste your time and effort on any new unproven idea. There are THOUSANDS of SUCCESSFUL ideas that you can chose from.

That is option one. You can do it all for free if you have the time. And you have found one of the best sources to start. Use our categories here on the left on this blog  if you want to search mobile or advertising or TV or whatever industry that we happen to focus on at this blog. Note that we - Alan and I - are also committed to responding to our comments so you even have the chance to ask us details (for free....) - considering we're both multiple published bestselling authors, this is a rare opportunity not all "experts" of this industry would offer you.

OPTION 2 - THE FAST BUCK - GET 50 CASE STUDIES FOR 10 EUROS, TODAY

Or if you don't have two weeks to spend reading this whole blog haha, then yes, we offer you various paid options. The cheapest next step is to buy my latest eBook Tomi Ahonen Pearls Vol 1: Mobile Advertising. If you are interested specifically in how to do advertising and marketing on mobile, or you want to adapt and copy like Flirtomatic the dating/flirting service did adopting Google Adwords - then the 9.99 Euro cost of that 171 page eBook is a bargain. It has 50 case studies - fifty direct proven case examples of how to make money on mobile today, around advertising and marketing. It has a Foreword by Mobile Marketing Association Chairman Russell Buckley (of MobHappy one of the best blogs to showcase such successes) and includes of course BMW winter Tyres, Flirtomatic First Face etc among the 50 case studies from 19 countries.

The reviews suggest that the ideas in Pearls Vol 1 are directly applicable today. So think, you can easily read it from cover to cover in about two days and for only ten Euros you can get 50 ideas to adapt and adopt. 50 case studies. That is the cost of 20 Euro cents (one US "Quarter" of 25 US cents) per business idea. Is that a bargain or what? Note there are SAMPLE pages including SAMPLE case studies at the book page, so don't you owe yourself a hop to this link: Tomi Ahonen Pearls Vol 1: Mobile Advertising. Its an ebook so you can order it now and be reading it today.

OPTION 3 - THE "PRO" APPROACH - READ THE 3 BEST BOOKS

Now, if you can afford a bit more than 9.99 Euros and want to understand and not just copy. To be able to really adapt these concepts and see the future as it now is emerging. With tons of case studies too. And you can afford to wait a couple of days for the delivery time of printed real books, then there are three books you should read. The signature book for this blog is of course Communities Dominate Brands. With a Foreword by Coca Cola chief marketing officer Stephen Jones and endorsements from such global giants as Red Bull, Ogilvy, Publicis etc. Calling it a great book, invaluable, and to become a classic. The book was of course the world's first business book on social networking. Business book. Blogs, wikis, virtual worllds, and mobile - but the business of it.

With 12 case studies and 100 service examples from around the world. This 5 start Amazon rated bestseller is your starting point. If you really want to understand, this is the book that takes you deep into the space where you need to be. Google CEO Eric Schmidt just said that user-generated content (ie what we'd call "communities dominate") is the defining aspect of the next two decades. For all of mankind, not just the internet industry. And our book is "the bible" for that journey. Korg the musical instruments maker said they re-engineered their total corporate marketing after reading the book to form around our philosophies. Blyk the UK based free phone calls and free messages provider says it was built on the basis of our book. Ogilvy was handing out copies of the book and Nokia treats it as the internal management handbook to the extent that Commuity is now part of the strategic vocabulary of the company. Obviously both Alan and I do regular work with Nokia due to this passion with our book.

Then you follow that book with  my latest. Yes, I'd like you to read all 8 of my books but seriously this is the one, Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media. With a foreword by former Nokia President Pekka Ala-Pietila who is now the Chairman of Blyk, this is THE definitive book on how to make money with mobile today. Today. With 18 case studies including Flirtomatic, Blyk, Mice Love Rice, Pop Idol/American Idol, mobile books, the book is endorsed by such giants of mobile as Vodafone of the UK and MTS of Russia and Softbank of Japan, and for example Trip Hawkins the founder of EA Electronic Arts who is now Chairman of Digital Chocolate. They say "practical examples of advanced concepts", "adds to the wealth of insights Tomi has given to the industry" and "especially ahead of the pack".

With over 100 practical ideas you can copy today, around mobile, this book has taken the industry beyond where it was. The pre-eminent service creation theory for mobile is my 5 M's that is referenced in major books on mobile service development and used by all major indsutry players. The only comprehensive service creation system for the mobile industry. In this book I expand that to 6 M's with the help of (then) Motorola's guru and fellow author Paul Golding. So anyone else reading my earlier books like M-Profits or Services for UMTS (or indeed the earlier edition of Paul's book Next Generation Wireless Applications or dozens of others) will not get the full up-to-date picture.

The same goes for the unique benefits of mobile. Before my book came out, the world only knew of 6 unique benefits of mobile. Now there are seven. All that is ONLY in this book. If you want to make money with mobile this is the book. And yes five stars on Amazon and costs only 20 UK pounds if you buy it direct from the pubisher at this link Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media.  

The third book you must read is the direct sequel to Communities Dominate Brands, and it is called Social Media Marketing. And please do not buy the wrong book. This is the one written by Alan Moore with Ajit Jaokar, Jouko Ahvenainen and Brian Jacobs. Like all of these three printed books, they are available on Amazon of course, but this book can also be bougth straight from the publisher at this link Social Media Marketing. This is Alan's follow-up book. It is NOT deeply a case studies book but rather it examines the phenomena and the wealth of future service ideas and money of social media and its marketing. So why and how to do the advertising if you have a Facebook or MySpace or Flirtomatic or Blyk. That is why you should read the books in this order. First Communities Dominate Brands then Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media and finish with Alan's book (not the other title of the same name) Social Media Marketing. 

If you do that, it will take an investment of less than 100 dollars and these three books are so intense and thought-provoking you won't rush through them, so it will consume probably two or three weeks. But you will emerge ready for the next decade with hundreds of directly actionable ideas and a deep understanding of the fundamentals behind this opportunity. And I promise you, you will also alter your business in at least some way to be more competitive, regardless of what industry you are in.

OPTION 4 - SEE THE MASTERS ON ONE DAY

If you have a bit more of a budget and time, and perhaps have already read at least one of the books, then the next stage is the Forum Oxford Conference. This is proabably the cheapest mobile telecoms confernce and yet the biggest collection of true thought-leaders of the industry gathered in one place on one day,. Far more valuable insights tha at the Mobile World Congress or the CTIA or CeBIT or CommunicAsia, this is THE event for mobile. We have - count them - eight published authors of a combined 29 books speaking on one day, and all speakers also available for you to meet personally. Think about that. Of the people mentioned here, Flirtomatic CEO (and author) Mark Curtis speaks, AMF Ventures CEO (and two time author) Tony Fish speaks. Alan's co-author of Social Media Marketing, the four-time author Ajit Jaokar is co-chair with me. That is the level of speakership. The event costs 205 UKP for the one day in fabulously beautiful Oxford University a short one hour bus ride from Heathrow Airport for those flying in. The date is 24 April and you won't find this level of the best mind of this industry under one roof again this year. You want to learn who makes money with mobile and how? This is the one event to attend. Check out the full program at Forum Oxford Conference.  

I am there all day. Most of the speakers stay all day to connect with you the audience, all the way to the drinks reception at the end of the day. There is a video of last years event, so check it out. And yes, the authors are very happy to sign books so if you have one of books by Professor Willlam Webb or of Martin Sauter or indeed one of mine - pick up a personalized autograph there too at the event. We love to meet our readers and fans.

OPTION 5 - TAKE THE ONLY 2 DAY COURSE ON THIS TOPIC

If you have more time - or if not but you manage a team of colleagues - the next stage is the two-day course at Oxford University on the 7th Mass Media opportunity. This is two days with me, Alan Moore and David Cushman (consultant author and former digital evangelist of UK's giant magazine publisher Emap). We go through an intensive course covering all areas of how to make money with mobile in the media, digital convergence and advertising space. If you like my few examples here and the case studies in the books, imgine what is two days of the theoies and case studies and real live service examples and their business case analysis at our course.

And where could you hope to capture the three of us in one place at one time, with a reasoable budget? This is not strategy consulting levels of pricing. We do this because we love our affiliation with Oxford University so you get us at "university prices".The total two day course costs a modest 835 UK pounds (about 1,000 USD in rough terms). Normallly at our rates wouldn't get an hour of the time of Alan or me at that rate. now you get a 2 day course with us.

And its timing is optimal to the Conference, just prior to it, on 22-23 April. If you intend to take one course of advanced learning on your professional career this year, to do some recharging of your competence and to catch up with latest developments, this is your course. Two days and you will gain not only all we discuss in the three books but also far more up-to-date analysis and data and course-work/teamwork and deep disucission not just with us three lecturing but also imagine  who may be sitting next to you taking Tomi's and Alan's course ("of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world")  when we did our mobile social networking course atOxford we had people flying in from11 time zones away, literally the other side of the planet to take our course.

But yes maybe you can't afford to take 2 days off in April to attend. I understand that. But you have a team. Someone on your team is young and hungry who wants to make a mark in this space and deliver success for you. The person does get it about digital and mobile but would need a fast learing curve. That is our course! Send your star to take it and see how your business will transform.   

OPTIION 6 - BOOK ALAN OR TOMI PERSONALLY

And finally, if you have the budget and the resoures and a big team (department, business unit, etc) and don't want to share with others - then of course Alan and I are available to support you directly. We serve companies on all six inhabited continents and have platinum level references of returning customers. You can have us together or separately or just one or the other. We are not cheap but we are worth it.

Consider mobile and me. The worlds' biggest handset maker Nokia uses me regularly. The world's biggest mobile operator group, Vodafone, is a reference customer. The biggest maker of mobile network equipment, Ericsson is another. So is the worlds biggest mobile internent provider NTT DoCoMo of Japan and so is the worlds largest mobile application developer Buongiorno of Italy. Quite literally, every one of this industry's biggest players mention Tomi Ahonen as one of their advisors. All retuning regular busness. Can you imagine why? If we give out all ths info for free on the blog? Obviously after all this free stuff, there is the real value of deailng with a true global guru, the insights you only get if you have me in private.

And right after that, please note that Alan has equally sterling credential with just about everybody in the advertising and markekting global customers space, you know, Coca Cola, Nokia and so forth.

So if your business wants to get ahead of the game and pick the brains of the two guys who literally wrote the books for this opportunity, then yes, that is why we have this blog, so you can find us. The contact info is here on the right. We'd love to bring an exclusive executive seminar or briefing or workshop or course to you, your company and your staff. But in this economic downturn, dont try to invent the new. Go find something that works in another market that is not yet in yours and copy it. We give you llterally hundreds of examples to consider on thsi blog, in our books, at the conference and on our course. Let us help you succeed!

Comments

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