MTV Greg Clayman's keynote appearance at this morning's Mobile Entertainment Live! event began with five hooded, track-suited hip-hop dancers--one of whom turned out to be Clayman himself. Huffing and puffing, the MTV senior VP of mobile media explained he couldn't dance like that even two weeks ago, but "Dances from tha Hood"--a new MTV how-to series produced for the mobile platform--changed all that.
The success or failure of mobile content hinges on the consumer, Clayman said. "If we really connect with consumers, everything will fall into place. We need to evolve as consumers do. If we stay still, we lose." The issue is what he calls the "look-at-me generation"--the YouTube, user-generated content demographic--isn't getting the full mobile consumer experience they crave: "We need to allow customers to fully express themselves."
The problem lies in content discovery and access, Clayman said, calling for standardization to improve the customer experience, subscriber retention and user interfaces. "We need to all come together and agree on some stuff," he said. "The industry needs to do more to push existing services--consumers are using mobile content, but we need to find ways to keep them coming back for more." -Jason