In case you haven’t seen any of the materials, The Kelsey Group’s new parent company, BIA, is launching Winning Media Strategies, its first full-fledged conference. The developer of the conference is BIA’s Rick Ducey, who previously was head of research at the National Association of Broadcasters. The event is geared to provide broadcasting, cable TV and newspaper execs with practical strategic tips from leaders who have a “winning” track record.

Broadcasters, in particular, haven’t been as engaged in local online, online video and wireless development as you would think, given their highly leveragable strengths in each area. This conference is set to get them going.

During the event, there will be special discussions from such media luminaries as Emmis Radio’s Jeff Smulyan; the USC Annenberg School’s Adam Clayton Powell III (a pioneer in computer journalism); Sezmi’s Bruno Pati; HipCricket’s Ivan Braiker; GeniusRocket’s Mark Walsh (”Mr. Vertical”); Greenspun Interactive’s dynamic duo of Chris Jennewein and Rob Curley; AOL Search’s John Kannapell; my former colleague Gordon Borrell; and Lynda  Clarizio, who recently left the helm at AOL’s Platform-A (and should have plenty to say about online advertising).

The conference also takes advantage of its location at a historic landmark hotel in Washington’s leafy Woodley Park to provide assessments of how regulation and legislation may affect media during the Obama administration.

It’s a funny subject. I first moved to Washington in 1986 because legislation and regulation were more important than technology for media innovation. That obviously changed by the early 1990s, but new initiatives by the Obama administration should have some impact.

Former FCC Chair Dick Wiley, who many consider the most influential figure in the D.C. media regulatory world, is heading up the discussion here. All in all, it should be a thoughtful, useful and stimulating event. You can register here.

The iPhone took top honors in JD Power’s influential consumer satisfaction study, smartphone edition. This doesn’t come as a big surprise, and it was mostly a clean sweep across the main categories (features, ease of operation, physical design, etc.). The only place it didn’t kick everyone’s butt was “battery life” — where BlackBerry and LG had the highest scores.

If it wasn’t apparent to device manufacturers already, the iPhone has set the bar. We’re seeing others rise to the occasion, and the much awaited Palm Pre (and its rumored younger brother, the Palm “Pixie“) will be the first to come close. Meanwhile, this competition will be great for consumers and we’re already seeing these devices come down to the sub $200 level (carrier subsidized). They’ll dip further.

The point is that it’s not just about hardware and selling phones based on sex appeal. The devices that have the best mobile browsing experience are those that will attract application developers to build apps that tap into these capabilities. The rise of the app store will join improving hardware standards (and falling prices) as a top driver for mobile device sales.

The question for developers of local search apps (all apps really) then becomes, which platform do I build my app(s) for? The ideal answer is “all” but finite development resources dictate prioritization. It’s mostly a numbers game, and a TKG report is in progress to examine this question.

I had the pleasure of attending an excellent mini-conference yesterday on Digital Media Thought Leadership. The organizers were the prolific “emerging technology connection” SDForum and the venerable VC firm Sierra Ventures. (The key commercial sponsor was the law firm Nixon Peabody LLP.)

The conference covered some of the most challenging and topical issues around the transition from traditional to digital media, particularly concerning video and mobile platforms. Some “clips” from the conference:

• “Windowing” continues to be a big issue with digital media (particularly for the media companies). “Windowing” is the timing of the sequential release of new content on different platforms (e.g., video on demand vs. Internet vs. DVD).

• The video ad producer Spotzer talked about how it’s making a big push into video SEM.

• Some of the major players, such as AT&T Interactive, expressed an interest in having more control over the “end to end” experience of the user, which could ultimately include transacting from both stationary and mobile platforms.

• There’s a huge emphasis on mobile advertising and monetization models, a lack of standardization and still a lot of fluidity in business models.

• One panelist mentioned that in terms of sheer number of searches, YouTube is now the second most popular search engine. (Although this is sort of an apples-to-oranges comparison, it underscores the importance of video.)

Although much of the conference didn’t relate directly to SMBs, the shape of the video and mobile markets will clearly have a huge impact on the ad formats and models available to SMBs going forward.

Every time we turn around another local-oriented Web site says it’s targeting rural and exurban audiences. So far, we’ve got Center’d, Topix, MerchantCircle, WeddingMapper.com and others zeroing on the rurals (are we missing any?).

All these sites are drawn by the technical capability of geotargeting thousands of population centers by ZIP code. They’re also encouraged by the relative absence of significant local media.

How big is the rural marketplace? The Census Bureau classifies 61.7 million (25 percent) of the U.S. population as rural. But the most appealing rural markets are probably not the ghost towns we see in movies or on vacations. Instead, they are the “third order” markets that might have a knowledge worker basis, such as Blacksburg, VA, and Boone, NC, the respective homes of Virginia Tech and Appalachian State University.

Other appealing rural markets — perhaps the most appealing — would be the exurban markets on the outskirts of major population centers such as Washington, D.C., Charlotte, San Diego and Palo Alto. These  are largely underserved by local media even as million-dollar housing developments have cropped up.

But these kinds of markets appear limited to us. Indeed, it remains to be seen whether the numbers really add up. While national advertisers might like to use these sites to reach the rurals, it isn’t clear whether there is much homegrown demand from local advertisers. In general, the demographics might be less appealing (especially in regard to key Web user parameters such as education), and there are fewer openings and closing of businesses, which tend to be stable and well known among the locals.

In addition to a 22 percent year-over-year revenue decline, IAC announced during today’s first-quarter earnings call that it will acquire Urbanspoon for an undisclosed amount.

There are many possible synergies with IAC’s Citysearch — most notably mobile. Citysearch is pushing harder on its mobile strategy after seeing that its mobile users are 5X more likely to write reviews than its online users.

Urbanspoon’s biggest asset is clearly its iPhone app, which already pulls in Citysearch local listings and reviews. The app was one of our preseason favorites before the launch of the App Store, and is now one of the top 20 most downloaded applications of all time.

It’s also a great marketing story for Urbanspoon. The company has been around for a few years as an online local search and review tool. But it was the iPhone app that really put it on the map — much more so than any traditional marketing campaign could have done.

With its app, the company had the combination of an early mover advantage (way before there were 30,000 apps in the App Store) and a novel interface that did much more than port the online experience over to a smaller screen.

It’s a good example of the new thinking that’s required for local search tools (any tool for that matter) that have to be customized for not only a new form factor but also a new use case and type of user. Apple thought so too — and spotlighted the app in one of its commercials.

The Urbanspoon app is one success story in this respect (I’d put Shazam and Tap Tap Revenge in the same bucket), and today that value was realized for the self-funded company. Citysearch’s interest in the company was driven primarily by ownership of this app and its large user base.

The two companies will mostly exist side by side and cross-pollinate lots of content — much like Citysearch has done with Insider Pages. Urbanspoon meanwhile gets more capital and resources to develop its online and mobile offerings.

“So far life under IAC ownership looks a lot like life before the acquisition, except with better access to their resources,” Urbanspoon cofounder Ethan Lowry told us. Congrats to Ethan and team.

Local/social/event planning site Center’d announced a redesign late yesterday, which will make the site more effective as a local search and discovery engine.

This will be version 3.0 if you count the site’s first iteration as FatDoor. The second version of the site, under the direction of former Yahoo Marketplaces head Jennifer Dulski, fashioned itself more as a local event planning tool. This had lots of great resources for not only searching for local venues like bars, restaurants, parks, etc., but also for planning and organizing events (see past write-up).

Like a lot of new sites entering the fragmented local space, the biggest challenge has been to get attention and user traction over all the noise. The relaunch will take into account many learnings from the past year and presumably lots of feedback indicating who its users are and what they’re looking for. Dulski has good experience in the local space, and I imagine these moves are well thought out.

In short, many of the event planning resources are still in tact, but taking center stage are more local search resources and discovery tools. The latter comes about with the assertion that the local search use case often involves discovering content — not just finding an address, phone number or directions for a known business.

This is certainly true and is the premise behind lots of successful local search tools such as Yelp, Citysearch and Urbanspoon (Yellow Pages can be argued as the original local discovery engine). Center’d takes a novel approach with lots of interesting data mashups for indicating popular spots, or those that fit into any number of criteria a user can specify, such as price.

This includes a rather large data set of scraped content from around the Web, which algorithmically identifies lots of business attributes. It’s also presented in a colorful and attractive way including letting users choose the “style” of their search (romantic, kid friendly, outdoor, etc.). This should set it apart from design and functionality standpoints, against the many local search sites out there.

Like its previous iteration, the site seems to be targeting rural moms. This should prove to be a smart move given the existing user base it has attracted through event planning for families and social groups. Women also make a majority of local purchase decisions in the average household. Not to say that the site is completely gender specific though.

Overall it’s an upgrade in form and function. It will be initially available in 12 cities including the usual suspects: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto (the site’s hometown), San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington.

Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, the man behind top business tomes such as “The Tipping Point,” “Blink” and now “Outliers,” spoke today at the Yellow Pages Association conference in San Diego, suggesting that Yellow Pages publishers’ advantage over Google and others is their “deep trust” with advertisers — something he may have picked up at a YPA breakfast before his speech.

Recognizing that the industry has been disrupted by technology trends and other factors, Gladwell provided three general lessons that allow a David to beat a Goliath. To paraphrase:

1-  Don’t exaggerate the challenges. Sometimes a series of thoughtful, little steps can change the course of events. Everyone said New York City would require a Manhattan Project to recover from its desolate state in the early 1990s. But it only took three years and relatively small initiatives such as community policing, he noted.

2- Reframe the issue. Yellow Pages can’t be seen as an obsolete big fat book. Look at how the iPod won by being turned into a fashion statement instead of a complex technological advance.

3- Leverage “social connectors.” A small percentage of people who review products, check prices and stimulate interest in a product are always a major key to success.

“If you are willing to challenge convention and work harder, you can win,” said Gladwell. It was a privilege to hear him (and have him autograph some copies of “Outliers”).

Microsoft announced today that it’s working with Spotzer to bring video production capability to small businesses in the Netherlands. This will be part of a broader product under Microsoft’s advertising division that involves a self-service platform for SMBs to create and manage video, display and text ads.

According to the release:

On the basis of a few simple steps they first choose the type of media they want to buy and the extent to which they want to target. Then they can upload an existing ad or, if they don’t have one yet, get a new ad. They may choose ads from a library of professionally produced videos and banners. These can be personalized with branding material or other materials that the advertiser provides. All licensing and creative services are provided by Microsoft Advertising at no additional cost to the advertiser.

The release doesn’t specify points of distribution, but it will presumably involve Microsoft’s own network and its publisher partners. Ads will be placed based on geographic and demographic targeting. SMBs are called out as intended recipients for the new product, having a minimum price tag of 1,000 euros (presumably an annual figure).

This is a good move for Spotzer that will help it get more advertisers. Feeding video into Microsoft’s network could also give it additional distribution for its existing advertisers. In these ways, it’s similar to the deal it formed last fall with MerchantCircle. Like that deal, it also offers a library of preproduced videos to advertisers.

For Microsoft, it brings in better video production capability. This makes it similar to the deal Google recently formed with SpotMixer to bring video production into the Google TV Ads program. This could be a good move as demand grows for online video among SMB advertisers.

Though economic conditions are forcing businesses to reduce ad spending, there is also a fair amount of budget reevaluation. This is causing lots of ad dollars to shift toward more measurable (and less expensive) media. This could bode well for things like search, mobile and online video, and not so well for many forms of already-declining traditional media.

After Brownbook’s announcement, this is the second SMB video product launched in Europe this month. It appears to be currently limited to the Netherlands but could expand geographically over time.

National Yellow Pages advertisers appearing on a YPA conference panel moderated by The Kelsey Group’s Charles Laughlin reiterated the importance of Yellow Pages to their businesses. While they were open-minded about experimenting with new types of directional advertising, including Yelp, Internet Yellow Pages and search, print clearly remains their core effort.

“Yellow Pages is core to the growth and sustainability” of the moving industry, said Chris Borrink, director of product development, Allied and North American Van Lines. “Print has been the bread and butter. We are bullish on print in many ways.”

Borrink added that it was “all about the tracking. A good CMR [certified marketing rep] will be able to show local advertisers the opportunities that they may be missing out in the local marketplace. [For instance], what books are we not in that we are missing out on?  We had an agent in Denver who didn’t know what was out there in the marketplace. By overlaying data, we were able to show which regions we were not covering, even though leads were coming in. That’s a great success story.”

John Vitagliano, VP of marketing and dealer communications, Meineke Car Car Centers, noted that Yellow Pages receives one-third of his advertising budget. “It is one of our highest ROIs,” he said. Meineke, in fact, has a huge investment in Yellow Pages over the years. “We want to protect that investment,” he noted. The issue for Meineke isn’t whether it will stay in the book. It is whether it wants to be (only) competitive versus dominant.

Whether Meineke’s loyalty ultimately conveys to the Yellow Pages industry’s electronic products, however, remains to be seen. “We’re very interested and excited about new things from Yellow Pages,” Vitagliano said.  But Meineke is currently spending very little on Internet Yellow Pages. “We evaluate IYP with all the other Internet options out there,” including review sites and search, he says. “The other options have been generating a better return for us.

“Yelp looks like a more sustainable model,” noted Vitagliano. “We have one dealer who is encouraging people to rate him online, and he is seeing business from that. He is not just protecting his reputation, but getting lead generation. He is seeing the benefit from that.”

Ultimately, it really isn’t about using one channel or another, Vitagliano added. “What we need is a better integration of local advertising opportunities: Internet, print and some things beyond that. We are looking for a local expert.”

Arguing that local and state “opt-out” requirements for Yellow Pages delivery would cripple local businesses and force industry layoffs, the Yellow Pages Association has successfully fought and beat back opt-out requirements this year in some states, reports YPA President Neg Norton.

But the industry must still contend with additional opt-out efforts in other states, as well as legislation in Oregon that would limit distribution to just one book unless there is a specific request for additional editions — an unmanageable and anti-competitive situation that doesn’t recognize the free market rivalry between incumbent and independent directories. “I don’t need to spell out the impact” of such a bill if it passed, said Norton.

Of equally grave concern to the industry is a mandatory opt-out ordinance that has passed in Albany, N.Y., that would require distributors to be licensed. In passing the ordinance, the city council cited sloppy distribution, a high volume of complaints and that there was no way to opt out, said Norton. “Albany should be a wake-up to manage prudently, or face the consequences,” he said.

Meanwhile, the YPA is seeking to pre-empt mandatory opt-outs via the launch of Yellowpagesoptout.com. “We’ve had a positive response,” said Norton. “But the information is only as good as what the publishers provide to us.”