In his current position as CMO and Co-founder at Smaato Inc. Harald Neidhardt was instrumental in conceiving the mobile advertising platform SOMA™. Harald is in charge of international business development, product management and marketing at Smaato, the pioneering provider of mobile advertising platform services based in Redwood Shores, California.
Harald initiated “M.LOVE” – a global event series for people with a passion for mobile.
Harald is also the Vice-Chair of the dotMobi Mobile Advertising taskforce which recently published the white paper “Mobile advertising in the .mobi world” – where he was a co-editor. He is an active member of the Mobile Marketing Association and a frequent speaker on mobile innovation.
Before Smaato Harald was founder and CEO of venture-backed Cardmine, Inc. (New York). He developed the business concept for the “Internet Paper Postcard™” – a viral Marketing concept aimed at lowering customer acquisition costs. He sold the service to Procter & Gamble’s fragrance division in London/Geneva for their Hugo Boss fragrance license, as well as to Estee Lauder, L’Oreal, Chanel, DKNY, BMW, Fiat, American Express and others.
Labeled a “pioneer in virtual worlds” by Forbes magazine, Harald Neidhardt has successfully managed interactive agencies in Europe and the U.S. since 1993. Before his position at Cardmine, Harald served as CEO of Pixelpark USA, the North American arm of Bertelsmann’s multimedia subsidiary and one of Europe’s largest Internet solution providers.
While at Pixelpark, Harald developed the Museum of Modern Art’s (NYC) first online store, and was responsible for the redesign of BOL.com’s Internet presence. He spearheaded strategic alliances with Intershop, Intel and Vignette. He also produced sites for Lufthansa, Bertelsmann, Unilever, etc. He soon went on to direct the relaunch of HUGO.com, a Proctor & Gamble fragrance site, and which subsequently received the British TK design award for his efforts. His leadership prompted Adweek to name Pixelpark a “leading international e-commerce architect.”
Mr. Neidhardt began his Internet marketing & consulting career in 1993 as President and CEO of Digital World Publishing (Hamburg), which was later acquired by CKS/USWEB. Clients included Lufthansa German Airline with its award-winning first Offline and Online ticketing engine, as well as EMI Music, Sharp and Stern Magazine. As Executive Producer, Neidhardt received the first Milia Award for a German CD-ROM production: “Route 66”.
Prior to DWP, he served as marketing director for the PRISMA Group, where he led the international marketing efforts of Europe’s largest distributor of Macintosh hardware and software. Services included advertising, channel support, tradeshows and training.
Mr. Neidhardt holds a degree in marketing from the Communications Academy in Hamburg, Germany. He has authored a book on computer art, and is a frequent speaker on mobile and new media at conferences across the globe, incl. MMA (NYC, London, Budapest), Visiongain on Mobile Advertising (London), Mobile Web USA (Informa/SFO & London), AlwaysOn (New York), DEMO (Innovate Europe, Saragossa – Spain), Milia (Cannes), AdWeek Forum (NYC), Internet World (NYC, Berlin), Jupiter Online Advertising Forum (NYC), and DIMA and DMMK (Germany).