Nihal Mehta

Co-Founder & CEO

With over 10 years experience in youth marketing, Nihal Mehta, co-founder and CEO of ipsh!, is a noted expert in the emerging Gen X / Gen Y adoption of wireless technologies for media properties and consumer brands. His deep experience in developing tools and services for this niche demographic formed the basis for youth and college marketing technology, which had included chat-room features, blogs, lifestyle-centric email programs, and street marketing tools beginning in 1998.

As co-founder of UrbanGroove Networks, Inc., in 1998, Mehta helped the company to grow into one of the largest network of youth-oriented, independent city guides online. Constantly seeking new technologies and innovations to reach out to young audiences, Mehta spun out a new company from UGN in 2001 to pursue what he felt was an emerging sector: youth interaction through SMS (short messages). It was then that Mehta discovered that previous media competitors had the potential to become clients and there was enormous return for a business specializing in pervasive mobile media. This venture evolved into ?ipsh!? (which stands for ?instant power single-handed?) and was originally created as a service that allowed event managers to selectively summon individuals based upon their preferences, location, and area code. This service quickly achieved cult-status, and was widely recognized as an effective marketing tool to mobilize youths and alert them to events that occurred after the official closing of traditional establishments such as concert halls, bars, and nightclubs.
Today, ipsh! maintains a strong standing as the U.S. leader in mobile marketing with more than 500 total campaigns implemented across over 150 unique clients since inception in June of 2001. Ranging in brands from Madonna to Budweiser, the firm has transformed lifestyle marketing through offline/online youth events into a multi-million dollar, full-service mobile marketing agency. Mehta grew the company from his bedroom to over 30 employees today, and sold the cutting edge mobile marketing agency to Omnicom Group, Inc. in October 2005. Nihal remains today the CEO of ipsh! and one of the youngest CEOs within Omnicom Group, Inc.

Sought for his expert insight into the developing interaction between the youth culture and marketers, Mehta's work has earned him distinction as one of AdAge's Top Twenty Marketers in their 20s as well as profiles in The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Financial Times, and Tech-TV, among others. Mehta frequently speaks at numerous marketing and advertising conferences, such as Ad-Tech, CTIA, 3GSM (Barcelona), Billboard?s MECCA, the Mobile Marketing Association, Kellogg?s School of Business and Future-M at UC Berkeley. In April 2006, Mehta was awarded the National Association of Minority Media Executives' (NAMME) Catalyst Award for New Media, which recognizes and encourages the contributions of individuals whose actions and leadership have advanced diversity in the media industry. Aside from his work with some of the world's most recognized brands that include such names as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Disney, Sony, Universal, Warner Brothers, Kelloggs, Elizabeth Arden, Bertelsmann, EMI, and HBO; Nihal - 29 years old - still keeps his finger on entertainment's pulse through his hobby as a DJ, where can be found spinning events across the U.S. in cities such as San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., and Miami.

A graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, Mehta obtained an honors BA in Philosophy of Science and a BS in Computer Science and Engineering.

Mike Jelley

Co-Founder & CTO

Mike serves as CTO to the firm. Mike began his formal education studying electrical engineering at Rutgers and finishing at the Stevens Institute of Technology with a concentration in computer engineering. His career in technology development began at Ernst and Young and continued at SwissRe where he was a Senior Applications Programmer. Mike joined IPSH in 1999 and has since led a development team creating a technology structure that has led to several proprietary landmarks in mobile content distribution.

Q: When was IPSH founded and why decide to use SMS as a viable vehicle for marketers?
A: In 1999, while many were chasing dot-com dreams, we were developing nightlife event-marketing technologies. I read about SMS being used as a tool in Europe and Asia, so I started developing an application that would give event-goers a time-sensitive way to know what's going on in their city. Imagine getting an SMS to let you know what party is going on after all the bars close at 2 a.m. We thought that mobile text alerts could serve as a killer app for delivering this information when one is away from the PC, and spun off the technology as a B2B product focusing on our immediate interests, media and entertainment. That's when ipsh! was founded, in June of 2001.

Q: What are the advantages of SMS?
A: Mobile devices are always-carried, highly visible social communications tools. SMS offers stronger ROI than other media at a fraction of the cost; the dialogue is immediate and is two-way between the marketer and the consumer; it can be very targeted, to age, gender, time of day, and handset type; it fits in nicely with radio, TV, and print; it's viral: an average of 6% of messages are forwarded, and 20% are shown to a friend; and it's fun. Billions of messages are sent per month.

Q: Are there any disadvantages or pitfalls with SMS that advertisers need to know about?
A: Yes. Advertisers should align themselves to companies with the most experience and best practices for the business. Variants such as message frequency, content size, wording, call to action and tone can greatly affect conversion rates, brand loyalty and commerce opportunities.

The youth demo is such a moving target that advertisers should rely on current case studies and analyze comparable conversion rates to best understand the appropriate deployment and campaign.

Also, marketers need to ask themselves: "Is this promotion something that is truly enhanced with a mobile component?" If the answer is no, then mobile marketing may not be the right option.

Q: Do you think that spim (spam for instant messaging) will hurt legitimate mobile marketers, just as spam has with e-mail marketers? What can be done about it?
A: Spim will not nearly have the impact that e-mail spam has had on society. Carriers have too much to lose. With an average acquisition cost of between $350-$400 per customer, phone carriers have way too much to lose on a revenue stream of SMS/MMS (multimedia messaging services) that only brings in a fraction of that revenue. Carriers will shut down gateways to aggregators and marketers that abuse their customers, simply due to the economic strain it would cost them to lose a customer.

Also, ipsh! has developed internal barriers to spim, including authentication technology that prevents users from receiving spim from our campaigns unless they confirm the message sent to them -- like a double opt-in.

We have learned from e-mail. SMS marketers have drafted and agreed to universal principles on mobile marketing. Many of these principles can be found at the Mobile Marketing Association. Will this really reduce spim? Perhaps. At least these practices provide guidelines for legitimate marketers and mobile media firms while creating a line between mobile marketers and spimmers. If your brand is looking to work with a reputable firm, then it is imperative that you make sure they follow MMA codes and practices.

Q: You've had a lot of music and entertainment clients -- do you see more interest in this kind of marketing from the consumer brands?
A: Yes. There's a trend in marketing where consumer brands that focus on the youth demo are experimenting with techniques that work well when marketing music. A perfect example is street marketing. Music labels were the first in the U.S. to have youth street teams, then corporate America followed suit.

The same is true with mobile marketing. We're offering a strategic program to consumer brands that utilizes our music industry experience. We call it "Band2brand" mobility. Through Band2brand, we can offer marketing services based upon statistical results of our mobile music campaigns. There are also times when we broker deals between brands and bands, like our interactive two-way SMS campaign developed for Radiohead and sponsored by AT&T.

Q: There's a whole generation of kids who have cell phones and are more comfortable with text messaging. Is there also a way to tap the older demo?
A: The youth generation would facilitate older demo adoption if they could sit down with their parents in private and have a candid conversation about "text." No, seriously, many adults just need a simple tutorial on the ease of text just as many have had to learn e-mail and Internet browsing. It also helps to have a killer app that could push the demo to adoption, such as alerts about when to take medication, schedule service for their car, or portfolio stock alerts. More progressive clients, such as American Express, are piloting text campaigns with us in hopes of breaking the ice among the older audience.

Q: What the significance of ipsh entering the European market?

The european market gave birth to the mobile marketing industry. industry pioneers flytxt (1999) and 12snap (2001) started the revolution
and began to turn marketers heads to the new media. due to the quick update of text messaging in europe, business boomed. however, these companies looked at mobile as a technology channel and strove to roll out standard, out-of-the-box solutions that quickly became commoditized as everyone adopted similar technologies. today, in 2006, we see a new revolution, 'mobile marketing 2.0' -- looking at mobile as a MARKETING channel and not a technology channel. providing actual solutions to marketing paradigms,
i.e. customer acquisition, retention, loyalty, CRM, revenue generation--not with out of the box solutions, but with strategy & creative. something that cannot ever be commoditized. and something that europe is now lacking.

ipsh! saw this opportunity and wanted to launch as a strategic mobilemarketing AGENCY v. technology company to give brands and agencies what they craved for.

What are the strengths in being a part of Omnicon's ZULU partnership?
Is this the first time ipsh has worked with Omnicon?

NM> ZULU is highly regarded as a 'future facing' collection of marketing channels for the marketer. as everyone knows, marketing and media is changing rapidly. from brands embracing myspace and youtube, to wireless, broadband, and interactive TV, it is imperative for brands to enlist in the revolution or get left in the dark. ZULU aggregates an interactive TV company (weapon7), the leading interactive agency (agency republic), the leading DM agency (claydonhealy), and ipsh! Europe (wireless), to provide a 360 degree future facing gamet of services & opportunities to the client. ipsh! is owned by Omnicom (acquired Oct 2005), so such a partnership was
natural to extend.

What challenges do you expand as the company expands globally? Will there be more overseas hires and expansion as a result.

NM> constant carrier and handset profileration & fragmentation make it difficult to roll out campaigns with ease around the world. different
technologies, carrier regulations, handset compatibilities, are all challenges that our team is currently tackling to provide a seamless,
global experience for the multinational brand clients. currently, we are building the london office (craig patton is our new

CTIA WIRELESS 2007

Orlando , U.S.A.

March 27, 2007  -  March 29, 2007

Appearence URL > www.ctiawireless.com/

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker

CTIA WIRELESS 2007 is ? the world?s largest wireless marketplace with tens of thousands of attendees, over 400,000 square feet of exhibits, 20% international participation from over 100 countries, and represents a $500 billion global industry with 2.3 billion subscribers worldwide.

AAAA 2007 Media Conference

Las Vegas , U.S.A.

February 28, 2007  -  March 2, 2007

Appearence URL > aaaa.org

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker

A must-attend event for professionals with media responsibilities at advertising and media agencies, and advertisers. This 2 1/2 day conference will feature speakers and panels covering the latest developments in media. The popular media department supplier trade show will feature over 100 booths with exhibitors showcasing their products and services.

3GSM Congress 2007

BARCELONA , Spain

February 12, 2007  -  February 15, 2007

Appearence URL > www.3gsmworldcongress.com/

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker
Mobile Advertising
Who wants mobile advertising? Can advertising fund the content business and save the advertising businesses?

The 3GSM World Congress has become the world?s leading mobile communications conference. Both the Barcelona event and it?s sister event in Singapore now provide not only an unequalled platform for speakers to put forward the great plans, developments and ideas of our age, but a unique opportunity to surround themselves with the true leaders and innovators of the mobile telecommunications industry today.

Mobile TV World Congress

Paris , France

January 23, 2007  -  January 26, 2007

Appearence URL > www.upperside.fr/mobiletv2007/mobiletv2007intro.htm

Nihal Mehta  -  Keynote Speaker

The Mobile TV World Congress, to be held in Paris January 23 to 26, together with the worldwide leader event TVoDSL 2007, will welcome experts and key players in this new market. They will address technical issues, describe the standardization process and address business model and content delivery. Moreover, carriers and providers will discuss their experience and technological choices.

Mobile VAS Conference

St. Petersburg , Russian Federation

November 16, 2006  -  November 17, 2006

Appearence URL > www.vasforum.ru/eng/vas.html

The Conference we will discuss the following topics: - Russian mobile content market development; - European, Asian and American market trends; - Mobile content & service providers' strategies; - Cellular operators' strategies and mobile portals; - WAP, mobile Internet; - Mobile music tendencies; - Mobile TV and video; - Mobile games; - Mobile marketing; - Community services: mobile communities, network games, dating, and much more! This year focus: - Mobile value-added services in Russia as a part of the global market. - Russian innovative mobile content products in the international market. - WAP, mobile Internet and mobile portals. The Conference'2005 has gathered 365 participants from Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, UK and USA. Level of participation: business owners, top managers, department heads. Representing leading mobile operators, content providers, mobile terminal producers, software developers, market research companies, media holdings, financial institutions, journalists from business and IT press. The Conference was sponsored by Ericsson, i-Free, Mauj Telecom, United Fun Traders. Networking is essential at the Conference. We want to make the Conference as an ideal place for development of personal business contacts. We are expecting over 300 Conference participants, top executives and department heads. The speakers invited, leading world and Russian experts on the mobile VAS, will express their viewpoints on the proposed issues and then will answer your questions and join the discussion. Our goal is to give you an opportunity to express your own opinion, learn new ideas from others, present your own ideas, raise questions and discuss problems. So join us at this high-profile event!

Mobile TV Conference

New York City , U.S.A.

November 15, 2006  -  November 16, 2006

Appearence URL > www.mobiletvsummitusa.com/marlin/30000000861/MARKT_EFFORT/marketingid/20001365058

Capturing competitive advantage and maximising revenue from mobile video & TV services

Adtech: NYC

NYC , U.S.A.

November 6, 2006  -  November 8, 2006

Appearence URL > www.ad-tech.com/

ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference dedicated to connecting all sides of today?s brand marketing landscape. Worldwide shows blend keynote speakers, topic driven panels and interactive workshops to provide attendees with the tools and techniques they need to compete in a changing world. We?re committed to bringing you the now and the next of modern marketing. Join us!

Mobile Content Partnership Summit

Palm Spring , U.S.A.

October 24, 2006  -  October 26, 2006

Appearence URL > www.mobilecontentpartnership.com/cgi-bin/templates/genevent.html?topic=588&event=11000awww

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker

The Mobile Content Partnership Summit will focus on the emerging business models with actual case studies on mobile marketing campaigns, on deck and off deck, content monetization strategies, and revenue sharing.

Mobile Broadband Americas

Las Vegas , U.S.A.

October 18, 2006  -  October 20, 2006

Appearence URL > www.iirusa.com/mobilebroadband/1856.xml

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker

Ethnic Marketing Omnibus in Atlanta

Atlanta , U.S.A.

September 27, 2006  -  September 29, 2006

Appearence URL > www.srinstitute.com/cn462

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker

Is your Multicultural Marketing Keeping Pace with the New Migration and Spending Priorities of Immigrants, Urban Consumers and other Ethnic and Culturally Diverse Populations? The U.S. Multicultural economy continues to see a boom in immigration. According to the latest figures from the Census Bureau, the number of immigrants living in U.S. households increased by 16% over the last five years. Immigrants are also following an unbeaten path and moving in to places like Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Indiana, and South Dakota. Does your plan account for these shifts? Beyond immigration, find out more about the urban marketing mantras from legendary experts who shape the brand destinies of many Fortune 1000 companies. Listen to experts who will discuss the power multicultural consumers and communities using the latest set of viral marketing tools, mobile marketing, social networking and innovative event marketing. Meet and learn from a variety of organizations that are serious about multicultural marketing like Aetna, Albertsons, Columbian Coffee Federation, Dean Foods, Fox Entertainment Group, Home Depot, Turner Broadcasting Services, Fox Entertainment Group, Sprint, Nationwide, Tyson Foods, Ford Motor Company ?

MIXX Conference and Expo

New York , U.S.A.

September 25, 2006  -  September 26, 2006

Appearence URL > mixx-expo.com/conference.asp

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker

MIXX Conference and Expo is programmed specifically for marketing and agency professionals who strive to optimize their marketing programs with the perfect combination of marketing vehicles. It is also the ideal environment for publishers and technology providers to offer solutions and create an open dialogue.

PCIA Wireless Infrastructure

Nashville , U.S.A.

September 19, 2006

Appearence URL > americantower.com

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker
Meeting the Indoor Coverage and Capacity Demands o
9/19/06 10:45 a.m. ? 11:45 a.m. Mobile advertising is quickly making its way into the mainstream world of fast-food restaurants, retail stores and hotel chains. Sophisticated smart-phones are opening the doors to a new realm of mobile messaging, where location-based marketing will provide custom content to subscribers. What impact will mobile marketing have on network demand? How are mobile advertisers partnering with content providers, business owners and wireless carriers to deliver what customers want in the new wireless age? How will retailers use mobile marketing to drive traffic to their stores, promote products and build loyalty among shoppers?

PCIA Wireless Infrastructure Show in Nashville, TN on September 19. American Tower is sponsoring the professional seminar series on "In-Building Wireless" at the show.

Sports Sponsorship and Marketing: Reaching Your Target Market through New Technologies

New York , U.S.A.

May 4, 2006  -  May 5, 2006

Appearence URL > www.srinstitute.com/conf_page.cfm?instance_id=25&web_id=814&pid=422

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker

With a plethora of new technologies now available to viewers, the sports industry is re-examining initiatives in order to attract and accommodate today?s tech savvy sports fan. Join this forum for the opportunity to strategize and gain understanding of the changing landscape of sports marketing in this era of new media. Network and share ideas with industry leaders in sports marketing, sales, and sponsorships, as well as featured technology experts in the areas of Mobile Content, Interactive Television, HDTV, and Broadband.

Impact Mobile 2006, Marketing and Advertising

Las Vegas , U.S.A.

April 6, 2006

Appearence URL > www.ihollywoodforum.com/mmaApril2006.htm

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker

Mobile marketing and advertising is the newest method of one on one marketing and advertising for one on one entertainment companies and brands. If you are a marketing or advertising professional for entertainment or major brands, you need to know now how to extend your brand and drive revenue using mobile delivery. We gather leading experts to show you how to deliver your message to consumers using mobile marketing with a focus on Hollywood and home entertainment industry.

MoMeMO

U.S.A.

Appearence URL > www.momemo.org

Nihal Mehta  -  Speaker

MoMeMo is a private membership group bringing together key decision makers and thinkers from the convergent wireless and media industries in key media centers around the world. MoMeMo?s executive members consist of telecom carriers, publishers, music labels, broadcast, cable, broadband and satellite television companies, advertising agencies, mobile developers and professional services firms, as well as select media professors and students, to discuss and debate various topics related to the convergence between media, wirelessly connected consumers and technology. MoMeMo was founded in New York, but membership groups are quickly spreading in cities around the world and now also include Los Angeles, Miami, London and Düsseldorf. Check here often to see if there is a new group starting near you!

Mobile Star Awards

August 31, 2006

www.mobilevillage.com/yellowpages.htm

Enterprise Software: Mobile Marketing

The Mobile Star Awards? recognize top mobile products, success stories, and visionaries chosen by readers of MobileVillage's free newsletter Go Mobile®.

OMMA Awards

August 31, 2006

www.mediapost.com/ommaawards/gateway.cfm

Best Mobile/Wireless Campaign

The OMMA Awards honor the brand marketers, agencies and content providers who continue to push the potential of online advertising creative. The OMMA Awards celebrate the year's most innovative and brilliant creative work in 27 categories. The online medium is the most fertile canvas for innovation and creativity, and the OMMA Awards will salute the stars that shine brilliantly among us. The goal of the OMMA Awards is to offer insight and vision on what is truly possible using the online arena and to illuminate those who continue to stretch the boundaries of online advertising creative. The OMMA Awards will set the gold standard for creative excellence in the interactive industry.