Our next mobile guest blog is by Tom Wilde, CEO of Ramp. Tom writes a great post that discusses the second screen and the impact it is having on television and in turn marketing and advertising. If you are interested in being a guest blogger please contact me at taylor [at] mitx [dot] org.

Tom Wilde is a widely recognized leader in the field of Internet search and online advertising, and prior to becoming RAMP’s CEO has held numerous leadership roles in the field including SVP/GM of the Consumer Division at domain portfolio company NameMedia, senior vice president and general manager of MIVA Inc.’s North American division, responsible for both MIVA’s U.S. online advertising network as well as the company’s consumer business, and senior operating roles managing Terra Lycos’ global search & publishing divisions. Tom has also served on the IAB Search Engine Committee and holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Twitter Handle: @RAMPinc

At the events RAMP has been attending this year, there has been a constant buzz around the term “second screen”. Second screen refers to the use of another device while watching television. It seems when we are watching TV, we also want to use our smartphones, laptops or tablets to use social media to react to what we’re watching, surf the web for related – and unrelated – topics, check email, and make purchases. As television viewers’ attention is pulled away from the first screen to the second screen in this age of multitasking, it follows that advertisers and marketers would want to use the second screen as a promotional tool. Second screen provides marketers a gateway to transform their advertising from interruption-driven to a contextually-relevant, engaging return on investment. Here is how second screen is providing value to advertisers:

Continuing on with our April Big Data guest blogging series we have a great post from Chris Sheehan, COO of TrueLens. Chris gives great insight into how companies can take advantage of Big Data to create meaningful customer experiences and improve consumer-brand relationships. As a reminder, our next guest blog series starts in May and the topic is Mobile, if you are interested in contributing please e-mail me at taylor [at] MITX [dot] org.

Chris Sheehan is the COO of TrueLens, a customer intelligence company that sources deep insights from social data.  Prior to joining TrueLens, he was venture capitalist at CommonAngels Funds actively investing in marketing and advertising companies including OwnerIQ, Offerpop, Yieldbot, Linkable Networks, Promoboxx, and Xconomy.

Last week I signed up for a flash sale website. The registration process was effortless. I entered my email address and was instantly browsing sales on the site. After ten minutes, I decided not to purchase anything and left. Since signing up, I’ve received a daily email with a selection of products that don’t interest me, and I’m starting to find these emails annoying.

Sound familiar? It should. Millions of consumers provide their email addresses to businesses of all kinds: retailers, hotels, entertainment brands, restaurants and airlines—to name just a few. As a result, marketers at those businesses face important questions such as “How do I start a conversation to build a long term relationship?” or “How do I provide immediate value?”

We are officially kicking off our guest blogging series for the month of April with this exciting post from a great member. The theme this month is Big Data and there is some great content coming your way! Guest blogging is an opportunity we extend to our members and in the coming months we have some exciting topics, if you would like to contribute read our previous blog with all of the details.

Cesar Brea is the co-founder of Force Five Partners, LLC, which works with multi-channel marketers across several industries to build their analytic capabilities through hands-on support for marketing programs and campaigns. More: www.forcefivepartners.com

Big Data, as Alicia Keys might say, is “On fi-yah!”  As I walked through Logan airport this morning, I couldn’t take ten steps or turn my head more than fifteen degrees without seeing an ad claiming its solution as the best path to enlightenment and bigger profits. Google Trends confirms the zeitgeist:

We want YOU to write for the MITX blog! We want to feature our rock star members, and their points of view, on the most discussed and questioned industry topics. Writing for our blog is a members only benefit and one we hope everyone takes advantage of. Who better to educate our readers than some of our very own?

Please welcome this week's guest blogger; Gerald Kimber White, Senior Managing Director at RF|Binder. Gerald was assigned to Uncharted Play during the MITX Up Hackathon, who recently developed the SOCCKET Ball. Learn more about this innovative product in this article from Co.EXIST! 

Last week, I was scheduled to participate in the latest MITX UP “hackathon” but when Wednesday evening rolled around and I ran through my mental “to do” list – preparing for two new business pitches, our agency’s annual meeting in New York, this week’s SXSWedu in Austin, etc. – part of me felt I should skip it and stay focused on my other obligations. As much as I love going to the hackathons, there was simply no way to get it all in. Fortunately, the selfish side of me that loves the hackathon experience overwhelmed the clock-watching side of me and I went to the Harvard Innovation Lab to meet another startup.

I was particularly looking forward to this hackathon since the startup I was assigned was Uncharted Play, a company that has developed a soccer ball that somehow manages to incorporate a power generator inside an almost perfectly standard size and weight ball. The generator converts the kinetic energy from play into electricity that can be stored to power an LED light (with plans to increase the output to be able to charge cell phones, water purifiers, etc.). The SOCCKET ball is designed for communities in developing countries for whom power supply is inconsistent or non-existent. Basically, SOCCKET combines two of my biggest passions – economic and social development and soccer – in a business model.

Did you see our announcement yesterday? FutureM is officially accepting session proposals for this year's event! Opening the call for proposals marks the first big milestone in our journey to create FutureM 2013, and we hope as many of you as possible will join us as session partners (or as sponsors which we're also seeking, and soon as attendees and supporters when registration opens later this spring!). The full press announcement is posted below, with more information found on FutureM.org.

FutureM, a three-day event experience on the future of Marketing, is now accepting session proposals for its October 2013 event. The brainchild of MITX (Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange) and a group of marketing and media leaders from the Greater Boston area, FutureM invites companies, organizations, venture firms and university groups from across the nation to submit a topic idea that explores what’s new and what’s next in Marketing.

On February 1st, MITX hosted the second annual "What's Next" e-Commerce Summit, exploring today's customer journey. These are the tweets and the hottest topics of conversation from the event:

This is the time of year when we reflect on the past, and look to the future. Through the end of this month, we'll be sharing guest blog posts in our the annual Predictions & Reflections series. We asked some of our smartest guest writers to reflect on the past year and look to the upcoming year. This post is by Ryan McMorrow specializes in digital marketing strategy, analytics, and user experience research/design at ten24 Web Solutions, a web development company located in Northborough, Massachusetts. When he’s not helping organizations give the best experience to their visitors on the web, Ryan can be found training for his next road race or brainstorming the latest addition to his standing desk. For more information, check out Ryan McMorrow’s website or follow him on Twitter.

When considering the marketing landscape in the next five years, my mind jumps towards the future’s revolutionary technologies, exciting ways to grow brand communities, and more agile businesses. However, in spite of all these things, I am continually struck by the fact that no matter how many things change, core marketing concepts stay the same. To understand the future, let’s study the lessons of the past.

The year was 1994. Wal-Mart had just expanded its operations to New England, the dot-com bubble was 5 years away, and Al Ries, with the help of Jack Trout, wrote an easy read titled “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.” While the landscape of business and culture has changed since this book was written, the central tenets in this book still ring true today. I’ve utilized their thoughts below.

This is the time of year when we reflect on the past, and look to the future. Through the end of this month, we'll be sharing guest blog posts in our the annual Predictions & Reflections series. We asked some of our smartest guest writers to reflect on the past year and look to the upcoming year. This post is by Seth van der Swaagh. Seth has held a variety of sales management roles at Google since joining in 2004. He currently manages an advertising sales team focused on the Telecom industry, and also oversees Google Boston's local industry relations efforts. Seth has his MBA from Boston University, and BA from Brown University.

I've been at Google a while. In my time here, I’ve had innumerable conversations with all types of advertisers as to whether this will be the year of mobile, and what that will mean. Well, I think it is safe to say that mobile is here, it’s here for good, and it's only getting bigger.

Consider just some of the statistics:

This is the time of year when we reflect on the past, and look to the future. Through the end of January 2013 (2013!) we'll be sharing guest blog posts our the annual Predictions & Reflections series. We asked some of our smartest guest writers to reflect on the past year and look to the upcoming year. This post is by Matt Jacobs. As a Director on the Connections Planning team at AMP Agency, Matt spearheads cross-channel strategy development and ideation to create integrated marketing solutions for a range of Fortune 500 brands. Matt has broad marketing experience spanning roles in business development, planning and program execution for clients such as John Hancock, Staples, TJX, Hasbro and the Food Bank For New York City.

Let me start with a confession: I’m a marketing nerd. As others sat around on New Year’s Eve discussing their resolutions and predicting the next Mayan-sized apocalyptic occurrence, I eagerly rattled off proof points for 2012 being the “Year of Social.”And while I admit that I’ll probably make the same case for 2013 in twelve months time (and I probably could have made an equally impassioned “Year of Mobile” argument), 2012 was a pretty epic year for social media.

Cue the short end-of-year social media montage: Facebook hit a billion monthly users in September; Pinterest and Instagram joined the big leagues; MySpace started its latest comeback attempt; World records were set on Twitter during the Olympics only to be trumped by the Presidential Elections; Gangnam Style happened.