17 Questions with Helen Keegan of BeepMarketing

The lovely Helen Keegan of BeepMarketing, Swedish Beers, etc etc. fame recently agreed to answer the very tough and grilling SMS Text News interview.
Here’s what she had to say.

1. What was your first mobile? Make/Model/Network
It was a Motorola brick on Cable and Wireless with a sim card the size of a credit card. That was back in 1996 I think. My next one in 1999 was a Motorola Timeport.

2. What was your first exposure to working with the mobile industry?
It’s all Russell Buckley’s fault (Admob.com and Mobhappy.com)! We were working together at a dotcom and he left. Next thing I know he calls me up to tell me he’s working at ZagMe and needs someone on board with retail experience. I fitted the bill with more or less 10 years retail experience and the next thing I know I’m working out how to get which message to which phone at which time, working with retailers putting campaigns together, and managing the customer experience. That was a mobile lifetime ago in 2000/1

3. What do you think has been the one biggest technological advance that has revolutionized the mobile industry?
Batteries – without decent, small, longlife batteries, we can’t do any of the fancy stuff we want to on the move. I’m still waiting for wireless charging.. it’s coming, but we’re not there yet.

4. What gave you the inspiration to start BeepMarketing?
I was made redundant as an indirect result of 9/11 and rather than go work for a ZagMe competitor, I thought I could do it myself! Little did I know what was involved. Probably just as well, otherwise I wouldn’t have made the leap.

5. What’s next on the horizon for you and your team at BeepMarketing?
No idea. But if the last year or so is anything to go by, more consulting and marketing projects with media owners, brands and mobile services companies with the odd training course on mobile marketing and media thrown in for good measure. And I expect more travel, conferences and networking for me personally.

6. If you could only have one mobile phone for the rest of your life, what would it be? Why?
A smartphone of some description with a camera, decent screen and long battery life. I don’t have a particular allegiance but am currently using a Nokia N95 and but for the battery life it’s pretty darn good.

7. What was the last movie you saw? Worth it?
La Vie en Rose – Marion Cotillard’s performance as Edith Piaf was astonishing.

8. What mobile services can you not live without?
Gmail, Twitter, Googlemaps, TFL tube map, Mippin, Mobizines (for the Sudoku), Shozu (one-click publishing) and Zyb.com for backing up your phone

9. What is your current ringtone?
The theme from Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected

10. Most used feature on your handset?
Gmail and messaging in general

11. What sites do you read regularly to keep up with the industry?
Mobhappy
SMStextnews
Mtrends
And I track key topics I’m interested in via technorati and google alerts

12. What University/College did you go to? What did you take?
University of Westminster where I studied Business Studies and Marketing. I came out with a First and I know guest lecture there on the Masters Degree in Integrated Marketing

13. What was your mobile bill last month? Do you think it’s a fair price to pay for your mobile service?
I don’t know exactly what last month’s bill was but my average is about £60. It rises and falls depending on how much foreign travelling I do.

14. Complete this sentence. The iPhone is…
underwhelming and I won’t be buying one.

15. What’s your favourite type of music?
Good music! I have eclectic taste to say the least. Fave artists seen at the festivals this year would be Soul II Soul, Bat for Lashes, Nouvelle Vague, The Undertones, Shirley Bassey, Crazy P and the Trojan Soundsystem

16. Name 3 people you really admire in the mobile industry and why.
Mike Short, just for being Mike Short and supporting the industry and those within it, and still managing to do the day job.
Steve Flaherty [link www.starsightproject.com] for starting Swedish Beers Mobile Networking 6 years ago. I wouldn’t have had nearly so much fun but for the folks I have met there.
Russell Buckley for dragging me into the industry in the first place and for keeping me up to date (with Carlo Longino’s help of course) with what’s going on via Mobhappy.

17. What’s good and bad about the mobile industry?
Good – It’s vibrant, fast-moving and attracts interesting characters and there’s always something going on.
Bad – it’s exhausting, the technology changes so fast you can’t keep up and it attracts ahem interesting characters 😉

Thanks Helen!