Mobile Awards in the Big Apple

digiday mobi awards dm2 2009

I made it up to NYC last week for the Mobi Awards hosted by publishing company DM2 at the W Hotel. Although lovely from the perspective of the location and open bar, the event itself was an odd conjunction of powerhouse contestants (Disney, MasterCard, etc.) and bare-bones ceremony. Apparently, the mobile awards circuit is still in the formative stages, or at least that’s what this event suggested.

Virtual Zippo lighter iPhoneIn any case, Fanta was the big brand winner at the show, taking the award for best mobile creative and best in show. Oddly, it appeared that Fanta also won in the first category for best mobile branding, at least if you looked at the name projected on the big display screen. But no, the announcers assured us that Zippo had won that award, and there were answering virtual Zippo lighter flickers from the audience.

Speaking of iPhone apps, two caught my attention in the category of best retail app. One was MasterCard’s ATM finder, which looks eminently useful for those times when you’re cash-strapped in an unfamiliar locale. The second was Benjamin Moore’s Color Capture app. First announced back in May, the application lets you take a picture of any color and match it to the closest paint hue out of 3,300+ color options. A shake of the iPhone and you get a range of coordinating colors for your painting project. It’s no Hava client, but if you’ve got a paint job to do, Color Capture should come in handy.

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