In-Brief: On the evening before I left for my last trip M3 Mobile, a social networking service that last week launched it’s beta site in London, pre-briefed me on the service, which combines all the right buzzwords and approaches (ad-supported, location-based and social networks) to get audience and eyeballs. Special thanks to Kate Berg, who reached out to MSG and made sure I had more than enough material and interviews (including a Q&A with Tullio Siragusa, M3’s CEO) to do a deep-dive. BTW: I encourage more companies in this space to do the same as I am also preparing to present & chair at upcoming mobile social networking conferences/events in Europe and Asia. Always (!) interested in hearing your pitches. Contact me directly or my PA at andrea@msearchgroove.com for a briefing.

As MSG also tracks social networking (part of the brief to analyze all things at the intersection of content and context), I jumped at the chance to learn more about nimble newcomer M3. M3’s location-based mobile and Web platform is designed to facilitate face-to-face connections for people to socialize, and the ad-funded/sponsor-supported model is a big part of that. Granted there are similar offers gaining traction in the mobile space, but few have voice at the center of the exchange. And still fewer give a voice to grassroots organizations such as Cardboard Citizens, the UK’s only homeless people’s professional theatre company. I was intrigued, and caught up with Tullio for the inside track.

Here’s an excerpt of the Q&A:

Q: There are other similar services in the mobile space. What is your USP?

A: The real value of M3 is having a tool that allows you to connect with your friends and also make new connections, real-time. For example, it’s Thursday night. I’m out and about and so I’m not in front of my computer, but I have my phone. I can log into my M3 account and I can see friends who are in my vicinity. But further than that, I can also see what events and what venues are happening in the location that I’m in, which gives me instant access to places to go and people to see that I would otherwise not have access to unless I went home and logged into some website.

Q: So you help people meet by letting them know what is on nearby?

A: Well, it goes a little bit deeper than that, but you’re definitely on-track. The thinking is that I can instantaneously connect with those friends and I can use voice to do it. One of the value-added functionalities of M3 is that I can make a call right from within the system. So that’s the consumer-to-consumer relationship.

The other relationship very unique to M3 is the one with the sponsored advertisers that we’re signing up. They are active in the community, so they are not just advertisers who want eyeballs. They want to build and continue to have an affinity with the consumer. So, if I’m Carling Beer, and I happen to have a hundred pubs in the SoHo area that carry my product, I might have in the database several pubs that are preferred restaurants if you will, who are M3-friendly. And therefore I’m able to use that local search capability that the consumer’s looking for to provide an ease of connect to my brand for that consumer.

Q: How am I able to promote? Is it banner and text links along with the local mobile search results?

A: It’s all of the above, and this is something very unique to M3. There was a study sponsored years ago by Procter and Gamble that found consumers are more prone to purchase a product if they’ve seen it advertised in multiple media at different times.

In the case of M3: I could be on my mobile phone and I see a banner for a particular brand. I’ve seen that advertiser on my web page on M3. I hear a voice clip ad from that advertiser when I connect with an existing friend or a new friend. And then I can go to an event that is either sponsored or co-sponsored with M3. This all creates a sense of affinity to that product. I am surrounded by the brand, which enables me to have a high propensity to consume that brand versus just seeing it in one or two places.

Q: You do voice-to-text here. I could imagine that is SpinVox. Whose IP and why offer it?

A: The SpinVox relationship creates value for the consumer and for brands, and those brands could be national brands as well as local art galleries, restaurants or clubs, that want to be able to call into the service and invite members of a group. One of the values of M3 is that people can join different groups that match up to their interest levels. And based on those groups, we will also have the advertisers that match up to those groups.

So if I’m a club owner and it’s Tuesday night and it’s kind of slow, I can have a promotion and call into the system and say ‘This evening, if you come in if you’re in the area, first drink’s on us if you’re an M3 member.’ And that could easily be spun into a text message that will be broadcast to the entire group.

Q: Let’s talk about the user experience. How central is the mobile device and what is the role of the mobile operator?

A: We built M3 on the WAP first. The intent has always been, and will always be, to make it a mobile platform first, and the Web becomes a management tool for those who want to see the information on a bigger screen to be able to manage pictures, create albums, etc…

We’re carrier independent. We really don’t care which operator you have because you can insert at will what area you’re in. It’s predominantly zip code and postal code based. The way it’s been built today, it requires you to enter your location. And you can enter up to twelve locations. You can pre-load your locations.

Q: Please run me through the double-blind calling feature you refer to in your press release. (BTW: double-blind calling is M3’s feature that allows users to speak to one another in a free call–without revealing their identities. When one M3 user is scrolling profiles of other M3 users, they may see a person they want to get to know better. They simply send a text message within the M3 system, and invite that person to talk. If the other person accepts, M3’s proprietary technology allows users a 2-minute double-blind call, completely free and sponsored by an M3 advertiser with a 5 second ad while they wait to be connected. Listen to a sample here.)

A: The real value of the double-blind call is that M3 is also a great vehicle for those who have an interest in romance. I could meet someone that seems interesting to me while I’m browsing and searching for my friends in an area, and decide to connect with them via M3. Then, essentially, I can chose to make a phone call and not have to give my phone number, choosing to provide that information when I feel comfortable enough with the person. So it’s a way to anonymously communicate with someone and get to know them before you actually share some private data that you would otherwise not have the tools to do so. In the U.K., it’s of greater value because incoming calls are at no-charge. I essentially can make a free two minute call while I’m browsing for my friends who are in the area.

Q: What about targeting?

A: From an advertiser’s point of view, we provide several levels deep of information, so it could be very targeted. It could be targeted by age, sex, location and, of course, as people join groups and with different interest levels and different verticals if you will, then that advertisement could also be targeted towards the consumers that are in those groups.

But I think what is also is unique about M3 is that advertisers who want to be active in the community can do this because we provide them a vehicle to connect with the consumer. They also provide us a vehicle to connect to more consumers because it’s a two-way relationship. So, for example, if I’m Malibu and I throw thirty parties every year for 100,000 college students, I now have access to a tool that allows me to create a user group for those who actively look for these kinds of venues. And I can promote what’s happening to those users and track them. I can have a feedback loop.

Q: You’ve got the advertising part covered. Are you looking to make it a search advertising model?

A: That’s a good question and we’ve had discussions about that. We are planning to have more search capabilities. So if I’m searching for someone and, perhaps, I’m done doing my search and I still want to go out and search for some related topics, we’ll look to incorporate where appropriate private label search engines which will allow us to provide that functionality to the consumer while at the same time leveraging the intrinsic values of search engine marketing and associated click-throughs and revenues that could come from that.