Mobile Advertising, SMS Can Achieve "More Than A 100% Response Rate," Says Expert

EDITOR'S NOTE: Order your Mobile Broadcast system with UNLIMITED messaging today! Visit AdKing.com or call Susan at 954-583-9000.

Though it may be perceived as a bit over-ambitious, mobile advertising is said to be capable of a more than 100% response rate, according to one industry expert.

Speaking at an Internet trade expo, Marc Hyatt of Txtlocal substantiated his claim by using the example of SMS and the viral effect that marketers can experience using the medium, saying consumers receiving SMS did much of the marketing work themselves.

This is one of the few forms of marketing where people will send the message on. They will do the marketing for you if you have a good offer that people are interested in, he explained.

Mr. Hyatt added that beyond being convenient, the medium also forced consumers to read the message as they would otherwise be unable to delete it. People just send it on to each other, because it is so easy just to forward.

While a response rate higher than 100% would be any marketer's dream, it's still fairly unfeasible given the nature of SMS. While it is certainly possible, it is misleading to think that any marketing medium could produce such results. If any medium is going to do it, however, SMS would be it.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

Marketing Tips from Publishers

EDITOR'S NOTE: This marketing tip from publisher Ed Victory was in my email inbox this morning, I thought I might share it with others, as well as welcome any other contributions.

"Hello Susan,

Just a quick bit of info...

During our marketing of the text service I find that a lot of business owners IMMEDIATELY think that the service is spamming cell phones with ads,messages etc. I am findng that this assumption must be replaced with the facts of how the business operates (opt-in).

Opt-in is another point where a lot of people must be informed of what this is and how business owners must advertise their opt-in sequence. With this service being new I (we) must expect a learning curve on the part of the business community.

One thing I have been doing through my DEMO account is sending myself example ads aimed at the business I want to approach with this service. This way I have something to SHOW THEM on my cell phone screen---then I give them some literature. This sequence creates an impression! Thanks Susan."

-Ed Victory

CTIA: Apps effective marketing vehicles

EDITOR'S NOTE: This original article was dated March 23, 2010, and was another valuable discussion found at this year's CTIA: Wireless show in Nevada.

LAS VEGAS - Applications can serve as a highly effective mobile marketing medium, providing brands several opportunities in terms of mobile advertising and cataloging consumer goods.

According to a panel at International CTIA Wireless 2010, mobile marketing applications offer a varied and vast portfolio of available content.

“RIM is the highest percentage in smartphone subscribers,” said Barbara Hartley, sales consultant at Unity Mobile, Orlando, FL.

“We have a robust SMS platform and we can help companies do their mobile campaigns or they can use the software and create it themselves,” she said.

“You really want to reach the masses and our software allows you to publish to different devices.”

Unity Mobile’s complete mobile Internet publishing service consists of four things.

Using Unity Mobile's publishing service, a business can create a mobile-optimized Web site. Businesses can publish a mobile site using Unity’s platform which enables publishers to insert a code to existing Web sites, providing an automatic redirect to an optimized mobile version when a domain is accessed from a mobile phone.

Additionally, a business can preview and publish its Web site across all major device classes and manage the real-time analytics.

Iconmobile Group created mobile video advertisements for Nike Basketball and The North Face.

To promote LeBron James’ “More Than A Game” World Tour, participants who wanted to star in a video with Mr. James could with the help of iconmobile’s enabled green screens.

Users saw their creations on their mobile phones via provided links.

“We want to do something innovative to give people an experience,” said Stuart James, vice president of Iconmobile Group, Santa Monica, CA. “We found that the tag reader outperformed by 50 times.

“Maybe because the audience was technical, but it was a higher percentage than what we were expecting,” he said.

Application campaigns
Iconmobile also did a campaign in China for Subway, where they introduced an iPhone game and coupon application.

A user who was playing was a delivery guy who had to deliver sandwiches and avoid traffic. Those who got up to the top tenth place would get a coupon for a sandwich.

The company also worked on a North Face campaign in China which reached 2 million unique visitors to the company’s Web site.

Additionally Iconmobile worked with T-Mobile on a green perks application which connects users with deals and discounts for a green lifestyle.

“This encouraged customers to save the environment,” Mr. James said. “The campaign was full of offers from companies who give environmentally conscious products.

“It’s about taking something that you wouldn’t associate with mobile and using mobile to augment more valuable utility then otherwise,” he said.

-Rimma Kats

CTIA: Mobile advertising is a must for businesses

EDITOR'S NOTE: CTIA Panelist included Hans Fredericks, David Gill, Olivier Griot and Evan Neufeld. This article dates back to March 24, 2010, and is one of the discussions attended by Brandel staff.

LAS VEGAS - Mobile advertising will exceed $6 billion by 2014 and to reach this level, carriers are working together to address some of the challenges advertisers face when deciding where to spend their ad dollars.

According to a panel at International CTIA Wireless 2010, these challenges include the lack of sufficient, common metrics and reporting methods in mobile, the lack of common and consistent targeting data and the lack of consistent inventory across carriers. Collaboration among carriers is expected to accelerate mobile advertising to traditional advertising mediums such as print, TV and online.

“In a lot of countries we see tech leapfrogging and that’s certainly the case with mobile,” said Ken Papagan, CEO/cofounder of Rentrak, Portland, OR. “I have lived through a number of generational changes in media.

“Cable TV was supposed to kill television, the Internet was supposed to kill publishing – maybe it is – new media is more additive and cannibalistic,” he said. “If you think about how you use your mobile phone, you’re using it in places that you don’t have a mechanism that you would prefer.

“It’s an additive technology. The industry is good for advertisers and consumers because it’s more convenient.”

The panel also included Hans Fredericks, vice president of comScore, David Gill, vice president of Nielsen, Olivier Griot, cofounder and vice president of Umber Systems and Evan Neufeld, vice president of Ground Truth.

Measuring mobile
Companies are focusing on census-based measurements and seeing the click-through analysis of the data.

Rentrack measures entertainment and advertising on any platform. The company tracks every movie ticket sold on a global basis.

Additionally, in the home entertainment space, it tracks the sell-through and rental of DVDs and in the television space it tracks 100 percent census of all transactions in the top 23 cable operators.

“In the broadband space, we have a download service where we work with NBC Universal, that we track the video download that they sell,” Mr. Papagan said.

“As phones increasingly become smarter, video is going to become more and more important,” he said. “We’re concentrating on the measurement on video and video advertisement.”

Mr. Griot on the other hand found that having basic core data is critical to consistency.

According to Umber Systems, there are a lot of ways to analyze data and many companies can use raw data and build on it.

“You need the accuracy, you need to slice and dice the data,” Mr. Griot said. “[Many companies] don’t know who these consumers are, where they are coming from and what they are doing.”

“All of the dimensions of measuring mobile – when you mix it all together, it’s a critical component of the package,” he said.

ComScore found that the data from its British solutions was shocking. The social media sites dominated the Internet and were huge on mobile. According to the company, the Facebook audiences in Britain were huge.

The panelists agreed that mobile data ranges from region to region.

Mr. Gill said that the biggest surprise has been the longevity of the market and SMS. With the rise of smartphones, the text message and SMS markets have remained consistent.

Mr. Neufeld, however, said that the United States data is going to be different than other regions because of a different carrier situation.

The panelists predicted that in the coming years, more consumers would use their mobile phones instead of their PCs.

Private data
Privacy is a stepping stone when it comes to census data. The stakes in a mobile phone are a lot higher given the nature of the information.

Mr. Fredericks said that it is all about limiting private information. Consumers trust banks with their information because it is done properly.

“I think that privacy is the biggest elephant in the room and it crosses every platform,” Mr. Papagan said. “In the case of mobile, the tremendous advantage for advertisers is a completely targeted capability.

“All of the like-minded colleagues, all of our data is anonymized when we get it. This is something that the industry may need to lose,” he said. “If marketers and advertisers miss use the info then it will blow up.

“I think that if the companies that are involved handle privacy in a complement way and a non-intrusive way – we will see more and more liberation. If it’s misused and over marketed then we’re going to have some problems.”

Mobile location
Location is going to be an important issue for mobile advertising and there will be an opportunity for companies to market their products via location-based tools.

“There are advertisers who are moving their budgets to mobile,” Mr. Neufeld said. “There are always going to be those brands that are more comfortable with new environments.

“There are those that won’t put money down, until they see growth,” he said.
-Rimma Kats

Think Mobile: Brands Regain Identity Through Apps

EDITOR'S NOTE: This post dates back to Apr 8, 2010, but well worth the reprint.

ADOTAS – Steve Jobs may not have been at the MediaBistro Think Mobile conference in New York City, but two Apple developments — the iPad and the iAd, which rumor has it will be debuted today during the iPhone OS 4.0 developer meeting — were heavy on the minds of conference attendees from all facets of media and advertising.

Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman actually went so far as to suggest that everyone in digital advertising write thank-you notes to Jobs for introducing the iPhone. As a huge chunk of the online advertising space has turned into a yield game, he said, the iPhone has renewed interest in engaging with the actual consumer.

Certainly the mobile space has transformed how advertisers attempt to reach consumers, most notably through the app. Jennifer Stenger, who works in licensing and business development for mobile markets at the Associated Press, noted that consumers on mobile apps digest 10 times as many pages as online, while Handmark CEO Paul Reddick cited engagement rates 15 times higher than websites.

Mobile Roadie CEO and cofounder Micheal Schneider explained that an app is like tunnel vision for a brand — the user is completely immersed in the app and in effect, the brand. The engagement is unprecedented.

Reddick buoyed this statement by suggesting that the mobile app has give brands back their identities. The power of in-app purchasing is alluring while despite the limited space, in-app ads tend to have click-through rates north of 1%, said Brandon Kraham, senior director of ad sales for AdMob. In-app ads offer impressive ROI along with a wealth of new metrics for brands to measure engagement.

The geotargeting capabilities, Goodman noted, are quite interesting as metrics for marketers and can be overlaid against heatmaps for increased insight.

However, too many brands are suffering from “shiny new app syndrome,” said Rachel Pasqua, director of strategy for emerging technologies at iCrossing.

“Too many brands are getting apps developed just to have an app,” she said. “There’s a lot of rushing to get them out and not enough thought put into them — it’s like the gratuitous use of Flash when it first came out.”

It’s hard to design a relevant app, Goodman agreed, and brands need to think hard about design especially considering that most apps have less than 1,000 users 80 days after launch.

Discovery is a huge hurdle, especially in the labyrinthine App Store, Kraham said. An app can easily become lost in that marketplace, hence why AdMob offers brands the ability to target the iPhone network and advertise an app, pushing a brand into the App Store’s list of the most popular apps.

Also, marketers and advertisers need to approach every platform — while the iPhone tends to be the best for engagement, the number of consumers with BlackBerries is still higher. If you’re just focusing on one platform, Reddick said, you might as well ask, “Which 80% of the market do I want to ignore?”

But the importance of an optimized mobile landing page for a website is not to be underestimated. Sure, the mobile web page is “the lowest common denominator” and not as compelling to browse as an app, Reddick said, but Kraham noted that its something publishers must focus on because a great deal of mobile traffic is still going through the Internet.

-Gavin Dunaway

CTIA: The complex Mobile ecosystem & mobile's success

This CTIA panel included Kai Buehler, CEO of MindMatics, Bruce Stewart, CEO of kgb, Saj Cherian, principal of Valhalla Partners and Ingrid Kelly, vice president of Motorola, yet another panel discussion I was able to absorb.

LAS VEGAS - Mobile is a great way for brands to connect with consumers, but the complexity of the ecosystem is going to make it [challenging] to succeed, according to CTIA panelists.

The “Evolution of an Ecosystem – How Technology Influences Marketing” panel at CTIA discussed how the ecosystem is evolving and how mobile has influenced consumer purchase decisions. In addition, the panel also discussed how to measure mobile advertising, whether it consists of a successful campaign or not.

“I think regarding the ecosystem, we’re not that early,” said Kai Buehler, CEO of MindMatics, Santa Monica, CA. “We’re in a position where the Internet was 10 years ago.

“The application universe has evolved in the past 18 months,” he said. “How did it evolve that quickly? It’s just how much usability these devices have and how easy it is. It’s mind boggling.”

Mobile marketing is not a new concept – there has been a good response of smartphone adoption and mobile has the potential to integrate with other channels.

“To the extent that smartphones have, they have grown,” said Saj Cherian, principal of Valhalla Partners, Vienna, VA. “When I would talk to startups a year ago, they would say ‘I’m developing for the iPhone and maybe BlackBerry, but now they’re developing for the Android – it’s quite suprising.'"

Several of the panelists – which also included Ingrid Kelly, vice president of Motorola, San Francisco, CA, and Bruce Stewart, CEO of kgb, Washington – agreed that the ecosystem is still immature and developers do not know who to partner with or where to turn for help.

Mr. Buehler who worked on several mobile marketing campaigns such as “Deal or no Deal” and “America’s Next Top Model” said the company still has the hosts telling viewers to text in and showing them exactly how to do that.

He said that millions of people are not really thinking about it yet.

“We’ve had some great brands and launched some great games, including an Inglourious Basterds game,” Mr. Buehler said. “Here in the U.S., our revenue has been innovative.

“We launched an SMS game for Deal or no Deal,” he said. “It was a simple SMS game and there were people who played 200-400 times a month – it was mind boggling.”

“You have to eventually – in the next 1-2 years, look into the app business as well. It’s very interesting.”

According to the panelists, there is a strong segment of users that text – not just teenagers. With SMS, no matter the device, it always has a place.

Today, the mobile component is everywhere – print, television, radio and outdoors.

Additionally, mobile is finding its way to different budgets and companies are incorporating their businesses into mobile.

“Increasingly people are looking at how they’re spending their dollar,” Mr. Stewart said. [They will] see mobile as one of the elements – is there a mobile call-to-action? Is there a browsing experience?

“What I find interesting is how much advertising there is out there,” he said. “Whether it’s on TV or radio. We’re sitting here today and we all have our phones with us; we have them when we’re watching TV.

“We did something with Warner Bros. where we promoted their film, “Sherlock Holmes” 2-3 weeks ahead of time. Why not give people an opportunity to text in and play some games?”

The future of mobile is transactions, according to Mr. Cherian.

A lot of mobile ad inventory has been built on the back of content and many consumers are using their phones to execute transactions.

Additionally, many brands are self selecting. A significant amount of money goes into iPhone development because brands feel they can put in a compelling user experience.

“You look at it and it doesn’t diminish the brand,” Mr. Stewart said. “And your click throughs are multiplying compared to other devices.”

Ms. Kelly is currently working closely with Google to make sure that consumers want Motorola handsets...the company worked with developers to make sure that it has the right tools for its devices.

-Rimma Kats

CTIA: Google exec gives thumbs up to mobile advertising at CTIA

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one of the speeches I got to see in person at the Mobile Marketing Seminar held at the CTIA last month in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS - Google executive Diana Pouliot addressed the opportunities and advantages of mobile advertsing at the International CTIA Wireless 2010 conference.

Ms. Pouliot said that mobile Web usage is driving consumers in new ways and is creating opportunities for advertisers and content owners. She stressed four key factors in mobile: ubiquity, the mobile Web, location and driving action.

“We take it into account what consumers are doing on the mobile phone when we’re developing products for them,” said Diana Pouliot, director of mobile advertising at Google, New York. “We try to simplify it.”

One of the main factors is ubiquity. Smartphones accounted for 9 percent of global mobile phone sales in 2008 and are predicted to rise to 46 percent by 2013.

Mobile search traffic has increased by five times in the past two years, and Google maps for mobile has also increased by over 50 million active maps for mobile users.

Additionally, there has been a rise in application downloads. To date, there have been over 3 billion application downloads and counting.

Android users are downloading 40 applications on average.

Twenty-five percent of iPhone and Android users spend two hours per day engaging with applications.

“More than 60,000 Android devices are shipped per day,” Ms. Pouliot said. “These users are active and highly engaged with their devices. You can see this explosion in their consumption of data.

“What we found is that consumers who use high-end mobile devices, their search behavior is very similar to what we’re seeing on the PC,” she said. “Consumers are searching for info from a wide variety of topics – compared to a narrow variety when it comes to feature phones.”

According to Ms. Pouliot, there are several ways to enable consumers to use mobile for communication, entertainment, information and transaction purposes.

Mobile Web
The mobile Web is driving innovation and opportunity within the mobile marketing realm.

There has been a shift in mobile and companies such as Amazon and Facebook tap into resources that are accessible via mobile Web.

Location, location, location
Mobile advertising becomes powerful when location is introduced.

In addition, mapping and directions is also a big part of how Google wants to provide information to users and marketers can also take advantage of these products.

Google offers consumers a "near me now" feature which filters a user’s search results once they have opted-in and marketers can target them based on their location.

Location makes search more actionable. Thirty-seven percent of local online searchers visited a business in person and 46 percent of local online searchers contacted a business by telephone.

Click to call is an important feature. According to a recent Google case study, consumers that click to call are 22 percent more likely to be more relevant than other lead sources and 31 percent were more likely to result in an appointment than other lead sources.

“We’ve actually been at this for half a decade,” Ms. Pouliot said. “We’ve been innovating and getting better with different devices.

“Smartphone growth has exploded with apps,” she said. “Should I develop an app that takes advantage and reaches consumers or should I reach those that are spending hours a day on apps?”

Driving actions
Mobile transactions have grown in the past three years.

In another Google case study that explored how mobile drives online sales, the company found that mobile can drive a 17 percent increase in online revenue.

“Retailers want to turn people’s mobile phones into information displays,” Ms. Pouliot said. “If you’re there in the store and you don’t see your size you can just order it from your phone.”

-Rimma Kats

CTIA keynote address highlights

EDITOR'S NOTE: Last month in Las Vegas, the luminaries of the wireless industry gathered in Las Vegas, and we were lucky enough to be able to join them and partake in speeches, panel discussions, workshops, and to roam the floor looking for inspiration. This posting is originally from March 24, 2010, but look for more relevant tidbits in posts to come. See the bolded text for some eye-popping statistics!

LAS VEGAS - The United States is at the forefront of the mobile broadband revolution, according to the CTIA keynote address of two AT&T executives, although continued investment and innovation is necessary for the nation to stay No. 1.

Steve Largent, president/CEO of CTIA-The Wireless Association, Washington, thanked the FCC, saying that the commission’s recently released national broadband plan is a good step in the right direction. The plan provides a blueprint for unleashing more broadband spectrum to spur economic growth and avoid the looming spectrum crunch caused by the explosion of mobile data consumption.

“The U.S. is leading the mobile broadband revolution,” said Ralph de la Vega, president/CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “We’re leading in 3G subscribers, WiFi, investment, next generation networks, smarphones, applications, emerging devices and machine-to-machine communications.

“During the worst economic downturn of our lifetime, the U.S. wireless industry added a quarter of a million jobs and contributed $20 billion in taxes and fees the industry pays each year,” he said. “As a country we need to make sure we keep our lead and even add to it, and we have to get government policy right to encourage investment and growth.

Mr. de la Vega said mobile broadband is transforming how we live and work, and that the U.S. is leading the world in delivering on the promise of providing mobile broadband to customers.

“The U.S. wireless industry has built an infrastructure that makes the U.S. the clear leader in mobile broadband by any measure,” Mr. de la Vega said. “We have the infrastructure to lead the world with the most advanced forms of mobile broadband networks.

“U.S. is leading in mobile broadband investments,” he said.

U.S. carriers are projected to spend $45 billion in total cap-ex in 2010, of which $22-23 billion is projected to be wireless cap-ex in 2010.

“Mobile broadband drives fiber investments and wireline broadband investments enhance mobile broadband,” Mr. de la Vega said. “Carriers have been able to continue to make these investmests because for the most part the U.S. government has kept the industry free of heavy-handed regulation.”

Mr. de la Vega cited a number of statistics where the U.S. is in the lead.

The U.S is on top in the number of 3G subscribers, with 18 percent of all 3G subscribers worldwide.

The U.S. led the world in 3G net adds in 2009, through 3Q, with about one in five new 3G subscribers worldwide.

The U.S. is also significantly ahead in WiFi, according to AT&T. The U.S. has twice as many public WiFi hotspots as the next closest county—70,000.

“WiFi is complementary to mobile broadband and enhances ubiquity of coverage,” Mr. de la Vega said. “WiFi usage is soaring in the U.S.

AT&T estimates that 53 million smartphones will be sold in the U.S. in 2010, compared to 25 million in China.

Because of this, the U.S. is driving global application growth.

“There were more than a billion application downloads last year in the United States, and that is simply amazing,” Mr. de la Vega said. “Apps are helping to drive the sales of smartphones, and vice versa.”

Application store proliferation will also help drive growth, with new stores from Google’s Android, Palm and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile. Carrier initiatives will also broaden application distribution, with the formation of wholesale application communities stemming from AT&T’s partnership with Qualcomm and Sprint’s partnership with GetJar.

Cisco projects global mobile traffic to increase 40 times from last year to 2014, 108 percent CAGR growth from 2009 to 2014.

Pew estimates that by 2020, mobile devices will be the primary Internet devices throughout the world.

According to CTIA, there are 285.6 million-plus wireless subscribers in the U.S.

Wireless carriers made $152.5 billion in revenue in 2009, up $4.5 billion from 2008.

Text messaging traffic in 2009 reached 1.6 trillion messages, representing 50 percent year-to-year growth.

“This is one of the most exciting times this industry has seen,” said Randall Stephenson, chairman of the board and president/CEO of AT&T Inc.

“The mobile Internet is revolutionizing how business now gets done, how we get news and entertainment, how education, healthcare and government services are deployed,” he said.

“Mobile broadband stands to be this decade’s economic growth engine, driving investment and job creation.”

“Take all those rosy projections and think bigger about what’s going to happen,” Mr. Stephenson said. “Last year the global economy shrank 5 percent, but the mobile data industry grew by 20 percent.

“Over the past three years alone, mobile data consumption has increased 3,000 percent, and for AT&T that number is 5,000 percent,” he said. “It’s an incredible growth opportunity for the entire industry...

“Innovation is happening in every corner of this industry, companies pushing the boundaries a little bit further...

The CTIA’s Mr. Largent and Inaki Urdangarin, chairman of Telefonica Internacional USA Inc., announced the formation of the Latin America common short code program.

The initiative will provide brands with the opportunity to reach more than 400 million consumers in more than 17 countries via SMS, creating the world’s largest mobile marketing tool, according to Mr. Largent.

“Thanks for CTIA for making the common short code such a great success,” Mr. Urdangarin said. “We’ll be able to communicate with more than 12 percent of the worldwide population like never before.”

The following keynote was a steady build-up to the official announcement of Samsung’s upcoming Android-based smartphone, the Galaxy S.

In 2009, 178 million units of smartphones were shipped, according to Samsung.

That number is expected to more than double to by 2013 to 393 million units. In that year, more than one fourth of all handsets will be smartphones, and half of them will be first-time smartphone buyers, according to Samsung.

“We’re focused on the U.S. smartphone market,” said J.K. Shin, president of mobile communications business at Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. “U.S. consumers want to watch high-quality video content on their phones just like they can on a TV or computer, they want easy multitasking, they are demanding GPS services such as real-time traffic reports and directions, mobile wallet, email and social networking on a single device.”

-Dan Butcher

Rumor Mill: Microsoft in talks to acquire Millennial Media

Microsoft is reportedly in acquisition talks with mobile advertising network Millennial Media, with a basic agreement said to be in place but not yet finalized. Citing an industry source, Business Insider reports Microsoft and Millennial have been in negotiations for the last two months--the article estimates the mobile ad firm could fetch in excess of $500 million. In an email to FierceMobileContent, Millennial Media said it could not comment on the rumors.

Skeptics question exactly why Microsoft needs to add Millennial Media to its arsenal--the software giant acquired mobile advertising firm ScreenTonic in mid-2007, although Millennial encompasses a far broader audience than Microsoft's existing mobile ad initiatives, reaching more than 80 percent of all U.S. mobile web users.

If finalized, the Microsoft/Millennial Media deal would herald the third major mobile advertising deal in the last six months. In November 2009, Google announced an agreement to acquire AdMob for $750 million--that deal is currently facing intense scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission. In early January, Apple scooped up Quattro Wireless for $275 million; earlier this month, the computing giant announced plans to introduce its own mobile advertising network, dubbed iAd.

-Jason Ankeny

Apple's iPhone shipments continue to soar

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) sold a record number of iPhones in its most recent quarter, and reported strong increases in profits and revenue--results that topped most analyst expectations. Apple sold 8.75 million iPhones in the quarter, representing a 131 percent increase from the 3.79 million it sold in the year-ago quarter, and slightly higher than the 8.7 million it sold in the last quarter.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company reported net profit of $3.7 billion, surging up 90 percent from $1.62 billion in the year-ago period. Apple posted revenue of $13.5 billion, up 49 percent from $9.8 billion in the year-ago period. The computer and smartphone maker's gross margin was 41.7 percent, up from 39.9 percent in the year-ago quarter.

In January, Apple adopted new accounting standards that will allow it to claim revenues from iPhone sales when the units sell, rather than spacing revenues out over the lifespan of the device--24 months--as had been previously required. The firm said it is revising every quarter in its earnings since it began selling the original iPhone because it "believes retrospective adoption provides analysts and investors the most comparable and useful financial information and better reflects the underlying performance" of its business. The company reported $5.4 billion in revenue from sales of iPhones and related products and services in the quarter, an increase of 124 percent from the year-ago quarter.

Apple's stock jumped around 6 percent, to around $260 per share, following the release of its quarterly financial results.

As to whether Apple will expand distribution of its iPhone beyond AT&T, which to date has been the sole provider of the device in the United States, Apple's Timothy Cook hedged: "Over the past year we have moved a number of markets from exclusive to non-exclusive. In each case...we have seen our unit growth accelerate and our market share improve. But that doesn't mean we view that formula works in every single case...this is how we are learning so far...we think very carefully about each of these at the country level to conclude what is in our best interest."

Although Apple has expanded iPhone distribution from one carrier to several in a number of markets, including the United Kingdom, it continues to rely on exclusive arraignments [sic] with a single carrier in the United States, Germany and Spain.

Apple's earnings announcement caps a particularly interesting week for the company. Apple has been embroiled in a blizzard of speculation during the past few days after photos surfaced of a device that the blog Gizmodo said is the next version of the company's iPhone. Apple has requested that the device be returned.

Although Apple has not made any official announcement about the next iPhone, it is widely expected the company will unveil the latest version of the device in June, as it has done in the past. In a statement released touting the company's earnings, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said only: "We have several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year."

-Phil Goldstein

e-Dialog Acquires M3 Mobile for Mobile Marketing

Old school e-mail marketing company e-Dialog, established in 1997, knows there is even more money in mobile marketing. Today, the company announced its acquisition of M3 Mobile Marketing, a Philadelphia-based company which offers a full-service mobile marketing model.

"The mobile arena holds so much promise and many marketers are excited but simply don't know where to start", said John Rizzi, president and CEO of e-Dialog, in a statement. "Nearly all mobile users are carrying a text-enabled phone right now", he continued, "To ignore that reach would be missing a tremendous opportunity."

M3 Mobile, founded in 2007, provides mobile strategies, best practices, reporting & tracking, and data integration for its mobile marketing clients.

"We're catering to an active audience", said Jeff Hennion, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, e-commerce, of Dick's Sporting Goods. "That means our marketing campaigns must be multifaceted to reach them with relevant messages wherever they may be. Mobile marketing ensures we can take full advantage of the reach the mobile channel offers and create a continuous relevant dialog with our customers."

M3 will now operate as a subsidiary of e-Dialog. e-Dialog is a wholly owned subsidiary of GSI Commerce, a provider of services that enable e-commerce, multi-channel retailing, and interactive marketing for large, business-to-consumer enterprises in the U.S. and internationally.

AT&Ts Mobile Data Revenue Skyrocketing, Up $1B In Q1 Alone

Whether it is a good or bad thing for AT&T, mobile data usage is skyrocketing on its network. While it's not good on network capacity, its more than helping the company's bottom line. During the first quarter of this year, mobile data revenue was up nearly $1 billion.

AT&Ts wireless data revenues surged $947 million to $4.1 billion during Q1, up 29.8%over last year's Q1. Postpaid subscriber ARPU (annual revenue per user) grew 3.9% over the year-earlier quarter to $61.89the fifth consecutive quarter AT&T has posted a year-over-year increase in postpaid ARPU.

Postpaid data ARPU reached $20.13, up 21.9 percent over Q1 2009. SMS increased by more than 50% compared to Q1 2009, growing to more than 143 billion, and multimedia messages more than doubled to about 2.4 billion. AT&T says its wireless data revenues have nearly doubled over the past two years.

Starting with the iPhone, and now with the iPad, AT&T keeps loading its network full of Web-heavy devices. Though they've paid for it via network capacity issues, it's paying off in terms of mobile data revenue. All wireless companies now know that mobile data is the future revenue machine, replacing voice ARPU, and that steps need to be taken to lure consumers to their networks via new-age Web-enabled devices. AT&T has certainly done a good job making that happen, even though Apple has helped out considerably.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

BlackBerry continues smartphone dominance across US

EDITOR'S NOTE: OK, folks, I see the story, it's right here below...but WHY is beyond me! I respect that Research In Motion was the first manufacturer to bring email to a mobile handset, way back in 2002, but with a choice of test phones to use (one of the perks in this line of biz) the iPhone rules. I use it for everything, and it makes me more effecient. Oh, yeah, and the built-in iPod doesn't suck either! :)

While Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android are getting the most buzz, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry has shown impressive results and rapid growth in the United States, according to Myxer’s latest BoomBox report.

This month’s report takes a look at year-over-year growth across smartphone platforms, providing a breakdown of RIM data as it compares to the overall Myxer audience of more than 33 million users. According to the study of Myxer users, RIM continues to far outpace Windows, Palm, webOS, Android, iPhone and Symbian based on mobile visits, growing from a 58 percent market share in March 2009 to a 63 percent share in March 2010.

“One major takeaway is how much of a stronghold BlackBerry has when it comes to downloading mobile content,” said Steve Spiro, vice president of marketing at Myxer, Deerfield Beach, FL. “However, Android is a fast-growing operating system—more than doubling in the past year.

“We continue to see a steady decline in usage of both the Windows Mobile and Palm operating systems,” he said. “And above all, the demand for mobile personalization content overall continues to be staggering."

Looking at operating systems other than RIM, Android came in second at 17 percent, more than doubling over the same time period.

IPhone made a modest jump to 4 percent, up from 2 percent from the previous year.

Symbian and webOS occupy the smallest percentage of market share with less than 2 percent combined, while Windows Mobile was the biggest loser, moving from 21 percent in 2009 down to 10 percent in 2010.

Interestingly, the same holds true when comparing total downloads for the month of March 2010, where BlackBerry accounted for a 72 percent of the 22 million smartphone content downloads, followed by Android at 14 percent and Windows Mobile at 7 percent.

The others did not fare as well, with iPhone only grabbing a 2 percent share, Symbian a 3 percent share and webOS and Palm only representing 1 percent of smartphone downloads.

Looking at the regional breakdown of the most popular smartphone operating systems, RIM also emerges as the clear leader.

RIM is dominant in 44 of the 50 states nationwide, even when you combine Android and iPhone users for each state.

BlackBerry only loses to the combined iPhone and Android market share in Alaska, Hawaii, Kentucky and Louisiana, with Nevada and Texas representative of "swing states," or less than a 10 percent differential in users.

In terms of BlackBerry downloads, the BlackBerry Curve 8330 was the most widely used by far, accounting for roughly 4.8 million of the total 22 million smartphone downloads for March 2010.

The BlackBerry Curve 8320 represented the lowest number of downloads with only 384,190.

As broken down by gender, women were surprisingly dominant across all BlackBerry devices, with the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 having the largest concentration of female users at 70 percent, and the BlackBerry Storm 9530 having the highest concentration of male users at 46 percent.

The operating system with the highest percentage of females is BlackBerry at 66 percent, Android is 60 percent female, with iPhone at 54 percent being the lowest.

From an age perspective, all the smartphone operating systems skew slightly older, with none of them having more than 7 percent of their audience fall in the 13-17-year-old age bracket, as compared to the overall audience profile on Myxer, in which 19 percent of users fall in this group.

Why do BlackBerry users download so much mobile content via Myxer? “We believe the most important aspect as to why RIM has seen such a strong showing on Myxer is the fact that Myxer is the single largest source of both free and premium content—with over 3 million items—many of which are exclusive to Myxer,” Mr. Spiro said. “BlackBerry users and Android users can come to Myxer and download content easily, unlike the mobile experience on iPhone in which users have to side-load content downloaded from Myxer.

“We see Android as the operating system that is making the most inroads and we believe this will continue over this year and beyond,” he said.

“Not only is their relative growth impressive, more than doubling in the last year, but their absolute growth within the space is equally notable—up 10 percent year-over-year.”

-Dan Butcher

A&P, Zavers mobile coupons achieve double-digit redemption rates

As Earth Day approaches, A&P and Zavers are teaming up for an environmentally friendly promotion for their mobile coupon initiatives that are achieving double-digit redemption rates.

Grocery store chain A&P and digital promotions and information management company Zavers are offering two ways for consumers to be environmentally friendly and save money—redeeming a paperless coupon via their loyalty card or using their mobile device. Other participating A&P stores include Food Emporium, Pathmark, Superfresh and Waldbaum’s.

“A&P and Zavers are committed to offering simple ways for consumes to help the environment and save money,” said Anita Bajaj Newton, chief marketing officer at Zave Networks Inc., Kansas City, KS. “In honor of Earth Day on April 22, the companies wanted to do something to promote an environmentally friendly, totally green promotion.

“Accordingly, throughout the remainder of April, participating customers can receive a coupon for a free Haub shopping bag,” she said. “The reusable Haub bag is a symbol for environmental awareness and the Zavers mobile platform is totally paperless, resulting in a combined ‘one-two’ environmental benefit.

“Interest in mobile coupons has been strong and we have seen redemption rates at around 10 – 12 percent.”

A&P and Zavers first unveiled their SMS-based mobile couponing initiative at participating A&P grocery stores last month.

Participating A&P customers can receive a free reusable Haub bag by redeeming a paperless coupon linked directly to their shopper loyalty card.

The designer-quality, reusable Haub bag is made of all recycled material and is a recognizable symbol of environmental awareness.

In addition, Zavers’ Web and mobile platform delivers customer savings in a paperless and eco-friendly way.

“The gift of Haub bags—a symbol of environmental responsibility—gives customers an easy way to reduce the plastic and paper they use while shopping,” Ms. Newton said. “Offering the bag through the Zavers digital platform encourages shoppers to sign up for mobile, paperless coupons— Web- and text-based coupons.

“‘Click and Save’ rather than ‘Clip and Save’ means no paper, no waste,” she said. “The simple ‘accept, download and save’ process means consumers accept and download coupons into their digital account and begin saving right away by using their loyalty cards.

“Cashiers simply scan the shoppers loyalty card per usual—no extra effort, scanning or time.”

The bag is available at A&P, Food Emporium, Pathmark, Superfresh and Waldbaum’s grocery stores.

Consumers can find and save the coupon for the free reusable Haub bag at each store’s Web site, as well as at Zavers.com.

The promotion will run throughout April.
-Dan Butcher

Singapore's 4.8M Citizens Were Served Over 100 Million Mobile Ads In March

Here's an interesting tidbit - according to data released by AdMob, its network recorded over 100 million mobile ads being served in Singapore alone during the month of March.

Impressive nonetheless, but even more so considering the entire county has a population of only 4.8 million people.

The spike in mobile ad impressions align with the spike in iPhone usage and ubiquity in Singapore. After the so-called iPhone wars took place late last year, which saw all three mobile network operators in Singapore releasing iPhones with low-cost data plans, AdMob saw a hyper-exponential increase in ads being served in the country.

These kinds of numbers still indicate the fast growth in mobile advertising around the world, and the impact one device can have on the entire ecosystem. AdMob indicated that India produced the most impressions worldwide after the U.S, with many other countries rapidly approaching.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

The New Advertising Age

Meet Omar Hamoui, the entrepreneur who channeled innovation and frustration to build a mobile advertising network Google couldn't live without.

How Mobile Ads Add Up For Small Business
The story behind the startup that grew to become the biggest mobile technology acquisition in Google's history begins five years ago in a small dorm room on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. At the time, Omar Hamoui was pursuing an MBA degree at Penn's prestigious Wharton School while struggling to kick-start fotochatter, a mobile social networking startup that lets users share photos with friends. The challenge was reaching consumers: Online advertising for a mobile service was not only impractical, it was also prohibitively expensive--Hamoui calculates that the time and money spent marketing the company translated to customer acquisition costs of $30 per user. So he turned to the emerging mobile web instead, paying sites a penny per click to promote the fotochatter solution. "About 10 percent of people who clicked the mobile ad signed up for the service," Hamoui recalls. "Our customer acquisition cost dropped from $30 to 10 cents overnight."

The lessons Hamoui learned from marketing fotochatter led to the January 2006 launch of AdMob, a mobile platform that allows advertisers and publishers to navigate the discovery, branding and monetization complexities hampering their own efforts to target wireless subscribers.

"I was a single individual trying to do something in mobile," says Hamoui, CEO of the company, which is based in San Mateo, Calif. "I became frustrated because I didn't have a deal with an operator or a handset maker. I needed a way to connect with users. AdMob was started to help people with interesting ideas bring them to fruition."

AdMob now serves more than 10 billion banner and text ads each month across more than 15,000 mobile websites and applications, with a client list that includes Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Adidas and Paramount Pictures. In early November, Google announced an agreement to acquire the firm for a staggering $750 million in stock, the digital services giant's third-largest deal ever, behind Internet advertising solutions provider DoubleClick ($3.1 billion) and video aggregator service YouTube ($1.6 billion).

Privately held AdMob doesn't disclose revenues, but J.P. Morgan estimates that the company generates between $45 million and $60 million annually. Based on those figures, the Google deal was priced at a multiple of as much as 16.7 times revenue--the kind of valuation that evokes the gold-rush heyday of the dotcom era.

Research firm IDC estimates that together, AdMob and Google control a 21 percent share of the U.S. mobile advertising market. AdMob's closest competitor, mobile advertising network provider Millennial Media, accounts for 12 percent, followed by Yahoo at 10 percent and Microsoft at 8 percent.

Most analysts agree that the AdMob deal not only signals validation for the mobile advertising segment as a whole (research firm Gartner reports mobile ad spending worldwide increased 74 percent in 2009, to $913.5 million), but that it's also likely to set off a wave of me-too acquisitions as Google's rivals look to balance the scales. Apple was the first to respond, scooping up mobile ad network Quattro Wireless in early January for a reported $275 million.

While mobile still represents just a fraction of advertiser budgets--research firm eMarketer estimates that U.S. mobile ad spending reached $416 million in 2009, compared with $24 billion for online marketing--Hamoui contends that businesses of all shapes and sizes must now give the channel their undivided attention, especially with more traditional advertising mediums on the decline.

"If online advertising is important to your business, then mobile represents a huge opportunity as well," he says. "Mobile is going to be without dispute the next media platform people will consume in significant numbers. Companies who begin to use mobile advertising now are going to benefit substantially over their competitors."

What sets mobile advertising apart from traditional ad media such as newspapers, radio and television--and even the Internet--is its reach and its relevance. According to the International Telecommunication Union, there are 4.6 billion wireless subscribers worldwide: Mobile phones outnumber television sets by 3 to 1 and outpace the total desktop and laptop population by almost 5 to 1. No less significant, mobile is a two-way medium, enabling advertisers to directly engage with users via formats such as opt-in SMS bargain alerts and search queries alongside display ads, pre-roll video spots and in-application ads.

Because consumers carry their handsets with them everywhere they go, advertisers can introduce time- and location-sensitive promotions that target customers anytime and anyplace, including the point of sale.

"Mobile can deliver consumers' feet right into your store," says Paul Palmieri, president and CEO of mobile advertising network Millennial Media, which announced a $16-million Series C venture financing round a week after the Google/AdMob deal. "Mobile is an even bigger opportunity than online. You don't have your laptop open when you enter a retail location. But you do have your smartphone."

The 2007 introduction of the iPhone was the tipping point for the mobile web, mobile advertising and AdMob. The Apple-produced smartphone illustrated to consumers the full technological promise of the mobile platform, introducing an intuitive, immersive user experience that made obsolete the myriad interface obstacles that for years slowed mobile data's maturation. The launch of Apple's App Store virtual marketplace a year later forever altered the distribution and sale of mobile software. Within 18 months, the storefront was responsible for more than 100,000 iPhone applications and 2 billion downloads, giving rise to a vibrant software developer community encompassing more than 125,000 registered programmers.

AdMob was quick to seize on the App Store opportunity: Within weeks of the storefront's July 2008 introduction, the firm rolled out a global iPhone 3G ad marketplace complete with new interactive formats designed to exploit the iPhone's capabilities and mobile context. As of late 2009, iPhones yielded more than 2.5 billion ad impressions per month across the worldwide AdMob network, more than any other device.

"We were the first company to create ad units for iPhone applications--developing formats for mobile applications was not a common point of view back then," Hamoui says. "At that time, most people in mobile were skeptical of anything new, because so many things that were tried didn't go as planned. We made a considerable bet early on, and it paid off."

Even more than large brands and publishers looking to elevate their profile in the wireless ecosystem, independent developers seeking to monetize their mobile efforts represent the target audience Hamoui envisioned when AdMob first took shape. In addition to ad-serving solutions encompassing 160 countries, the company offers AdMob Mobile Analytics tools to give mobile site owners and developers insight into their traffic and usage patterns, and each month it releases its Mobile Metrics Report to chart the trends shaping the industry. "Less than half of our business comes from Fortune 500 companies. Most of our customers are small businesses, like app developers or digital startups," Hamoui says.

Says Jason Spero, vice president and general manager of AdMob's North American operations: "Omar is happier when we bring in a six-person shop as a client than a Fortune 500 company. He still sees himself as a small developer."

Of course, small developers don't generally sell their companies to Google for $750 million. The AdMob acquisition surprised many onlookers: Google has long been a vocal proponent of mobile advertising--in 2008, Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted on CNBC's Mad Money that mobile ad revenues would eventually outstrip conventional web advertising--but the company's efforts previously focused on in-house initiatives, such as Google AdSense for Mobile (enabling online AdSense program partners with mobile sites to add contextual advertising to their pages) as well as mobile coupons served in conjunction with its Google Local Search service.

The AdMob acquisition "is an indicator that this market has arrived, as well as an indicator that this market is different," Palmieri says. "Investors have always asked us the same question--‘Why should I invest in your company if Google says mobile is no different from the web?' But their engineers could not build for mobile, which is why they bought AdMob. It's an admission that mobile is not the Internet. It's its own market."

The deal also signals to advertisers that the mobile advertising waters are safe to enter, says Ujjal Kohli, CEO of premium mobile video applications provider Rhythm NewMedia in Mountain View, Calif. "We're past the stage where people have concerns over whether users are going to be pissed off over ads on their phone--it's just as good or bad in mobile as anywhere else," Kohli says. "Google's purchase will bring on brands sitting on the sidelines. Many middle-market advertisers who were waiting until mobile advertising became commonplace are already Google advertisers."

Google promises the AdMob deal will benefit publishers, developers, consumers and advertisers alike by enabling delivery of more relevant and compelling mobile ads. It contends the acquisition will make ad-supported mobile applications a more viable option for developers (alongside pay-per-download and in-app transactions), adding that integrating its advertising technologies with the AdMob platform also will yield superior ad performance across both apps and websites.

Perhaps most important, AdMob's solutions offer unprecedented access to usage behavior data spanning multiple mobile operating systems, including the iPhone and Google's own Android platform, indicating how consumers are engaging with applications and the ads within them--undoubtedly a huge competitive advantage in Google's escalating skirmish with Apple. (At press time, the Federal Trade Commission was still reviewing the Google/AdMob deal, much as it did Google's DoubleClick acquisition two years earlier. Conventional wisdom suggests the agreement also will pass regulatory muster, because the two companies' digital advertising solutions are so similar.)

The Google agreement "is great validation for what our team has built," Hamoui says. "It's also great validation for mobile."

Even without Google's endorsement, the future of mobile advertising is undeniably bright. With consumers spending more of their lives on the go and less of their time in their homes and offices, both traditional and digital media are beginning to adapt their content for a mobile audience increasingly reliant on smartphones, netbooks, e-readers and portable gaming devices for their news and entertainment. Mobile commerce also is surging: Phone-based purchases exploded on Black Friday 2009, with mobile payments processed via PayPal up nearly 650 percent over the previous year and mobile page views for U.S. retailers increasing an average of 388 percent, led by Best Buy (792 percent), Wal-Mart (740 percent), Sears (492 percent) and Macy's (447 percent).

Sixty percent of marketers outside the wireless industry plan to launch mobile advertising efforts in 2010, with 31 percent of agency respondents stating they will invest between $100,000 and $249,000 on their campaigns, according to a Millennial Media report published in November. Brand respondents forecast at least a 15 percent increase in mobile ad spending in 2010. The consumer packaged goods, retail, entertainment, travel and restaurant categories are expected to lead this wave of mobile spending, with "engagement" cited as the most sought-after return on investment.

Roughly 15 percent of respondents told Millennial they will invest more than $ 1 million on mobile advertising this year, with 2.6 percent projecting spending more than $5 million. Moreover, nearly 75 percent of the 100 leading agency respondents said they have already developed mobile campaigns for themselves or for a client--78 percent said the medium met their campaign goals, and an additional 9 percent enthused that mobile performed "beyond [their] wildest expectations."

That's because mobile generates results. Mobile advertising conversion rates average between 5 percent and 7 percent, according to Zohar Levkovitz, co-founder and CEO of mobile ad solutions provider Amobee Media Systems in Redwood City, Calif. In comparison, online conversion rates are historically less than 1 percent.

"What's unique about mobile is that we're asking for users' permission to offer them advertising and giving them something they want in return," Levkovitz says. "We know a lot about users. Just by knowing their location, age and gender, we can supply something that's relevant to them."

Hamoui expects mobile advertising will continue to broaden its reach while sharpening its consumer focus, bolstered by the continuing penetration of next-generation devices. "Soon it's going to be par for the course for all phones to have a full web browser and thousands of applications and an always-on data connection," he says.

Hamoui insists that he will stick around to watch the mobile advertising segment flourish, maintaining that the Google acquisition does not herald his departure from the company he founded nor the industry he helped pioneer. "Google buying AdMob is not the end of the story--this is not going to be a case where within six months, everyone from the original executive team is gone," he says. "There's plenty of work left to do. The journey is a little different now. But it's certainly not over."

-By Jason Ankeny, Entrepreneur Magazine - March 2010

iPad Online Usage Already Rivaling Android & Blackberry, In Its First 10 Days

The iPad is already posting some pretty impressive usage numbers, especially in terms of Online usage. NetApplications.com is reporting the iPad has already gained almost as much Online usage share as Blackberry and Android, in its first 10 days on the market.

The iPads share has averaged .03% since April 3rd, and while its a very small number, its significant when compared to other platforms that have long been available. BlackBerry, for example, had a usage share of .04% for the month of March, while Android accounted for the same figure, split evenly between Android 1.5 and 1.6.

Net Applications measures operating system use by analyzing the pool of about 160 million unique visitors each month to its clients sites, so while the numbers are impressive, they should be taken with a grain of salt like most arbitrary usage stats.

Still, it indicates the appeal of the iPad in a very short period of time. By comparison, the iPhone OS platform, including the iPod Touch, accounted for a .06% share of Online usage, more than 20 times the amount of the iPad.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

Android Growing Quickly, App Growth Up 70%, 60K Activations Per Day

Android is rapidly growing- now boasting 34 total devices from a dozen different OEM partners, the platform is seeing significant growth in all areas.

Speaking during Google's Q1 earnings call Thursday, VP of engineering Jeff Huber said Google is now selling and activating more than 60,000 new Android devices each day, and that Android Market app growth was up 70% during Q4 2009.

Despite its growth, mobile advertising derived from the Android platform isn't growing at a similar pace. Smaato recently released stats indicating that Android-based CTR has dropped by 50% during March alone, despite the platform being used on an increasing number of devices.

Still, its growth is on pace to position itself as a premiere smartphone platform, and advertising will surely pick up as well, though Apple's iAd wont help things at all.

Google VP of product management Susan Wojicki said mobile advertising is doing very well, in an effort to appease investors, saying we want to make it easy for advertisers to extend their existing campaigns to mobile rather than having to start from scratch.

When advertisers run on desktop and mobile we enable them to separate their campaign staff by desktop or mobile to understand their mobile performance. Many of them are surprised by how much mobile activity they have received. Wojicki also touted the Q1 launch of efforts like Click to Call, which includes phone numbers inside mobile ads.

Not surprisingly this has increased click through, or should I say call through, she noted.

Mobile driving evolution of airline business

Many airlines are going mobile to accommodate the growing trend of tech-savvy consumers and are expanding their mobile marketing strategy to retain customer loyalty.

Companies such as Continental Airlines, Alaska Airlines and American Airlines have all integrated mobile. The airlines have used mobile applications and paperless boarding passes to not only sell tickets and give travelers an expedited check-in process, but to also make sure they have all the tools they need while on the go.

“Our customers have shown us that they want to take more control of their travel experience,” said Jared Miller, senior director of customer self-service at Continental Airlines, Houston. “Self check-in, which began at Continental in 1995, now accounts for over 95 percent of all domestic customer check-ins.

“With the growth of smartphone usage and mobile Web adoption, customers are now able to self-serve many aspects of their Continental travel experience, freeing up their time and getting access to real-time information,” he said.

In March, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air rolled out three mobile applications for Apple’s iPhone, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile.

Consumers can check their flight status information, flight schedules, flight alerts and check-in one to 24 hours prior to their scheduled departure.

“Mobile is important to us more to retain customer loyalty and give our travel-warrior customers the tools they want most,” said Steve Jarvis, vice president of customer innovation at Alaska Airlines, Seattle.

“Specifically for Alaska, we differentiate ourselves with superior customer service and making travel easier for customers,” he said. “Mobile applications allow us to improve on both of these measures.”

The airline has launched mobile technology at 16 of the airports it serves that lets travelers check-in from a mobile device and use an electronic boarding pass at security to board the plane.

By July, Alaska Airlines plans to have about 50 percent of its airports outfitted with electronic check-in technology including three of its Hawaiian destinations – Maui, Kina and Lihu’e.

“Mobile presents another channel for Alaska Airlines to reach our customers and meet their needs,” Mr. Jarvis said. “Customers can opt-in to receive relevant offers through our mobile club or receive updates on flight changes for the convenience of planning.

“With so many customers traveling without access to a printer, the mobile channel gives customers the ability to stay connected and take advantage of marketing offers and other announcements,” he said.

This past year Continental Airlines claimed to be the first carrier to offer mobile boarding passes on nonstop flights from Britain to the United States.

The company provides mobile passes that display a two-dimensional bar code with passenger and flight information.

The mobile boarding passes not only save the airline paper and money, but also help prevent manipulation or duplication of tickets.

Continental currently offers mobile boarding passes at 42 of it airports and plans on expanding to other locations.

“Mobile has transformed the customer experience in that the customer is able to access self-service options while on the go, remote from the office or home, or at the airport,” Mr. Miller said. “In many ways, the customer’s smartphone is like their own personal kiosk.

“Mobile is not only about the mobile Web though,” he said. “We recognize that while smartphone adoption is growing, not all customers carry a smartphone or use it in the same way.

“With mobile devices, customers are also able to contact us by calling our contact centers and we utilize IVR technologies to allow feature rich self-service options there as well.”

“Certainly from a functionality standpoint, we’ve seen mobile boarding passes becoming more and more prevalent,” said Paran Johar, chief marketing officer of Jumptap, New York. “From a CRM perspective, we’ve seen the use of text messaging for providing information to customers such as flight delays and changes to the gate really take off.

“Also, multiple airlines are spending money in mobile advertising to promote ticketing,” he said. “Their mobile sites are so optimized that they allow travelers to engage and book travel very easily using their handset.”

Alaska Airlines is working on other mobile projects this year and is looking at ways of making travel easier and more interactive for its consumers.

“Long term, mobile development is cost efficient both for the airline and our customers,” Mr. Jarvis said. “It saves time and reduces the amount of paper used to print boarding passes.

“While this might not offer significant savings, we're making our customer's travel experience easier and that is priceless in terms of building loyalty,” he said.

-Rimma Kats

Golf.com sees mobile traffic increase during Masters

Golf.com saw an increase in mobile traffic at the recent Masters tournament Golf.com saw a mobile traffic increase of 131 percent in unique visitors and a 140 percent increase in page views during the 2010 Masters.

The company also saw a 211 percent increase in unique visitors and a 216 percent increase of page views on Sunday, April 11, alone. The mobile traffic increase was higher than the site traffic, which spiked by 35 percent in unique visitors and 29 percent in page views – there was a 102 percent increase in unique visitors on Sunday and 72 percent increase in page views.

“The rise in Golf.com mobile traffic can be attributed to a combination of the overall growth of Internet usage on mobile devices along with the quality of content that Golf.com provides both in terms of live, real-time scoring and on-the-ground coverage from our team of reporters and photographers,” said Kenneth Fuchs, vice president and general manager of Sports Illustrated Digital, New York.

“No matter where you’re trying to access information on the tournament, Sports Illustrated Golf Group can provide a comprehensive overview offline, online and through mobile,” he said.

Consumers were encouraged to opt-in for tournament mobile alerts where they received the latest scores twice each day during the game.

Besides the mobile-optimized site, Golf.com has a dedicated iPhone and iPod touch application.

Consumers can enter their scores and statistics, and the application will calculate a recreational handicap, greens in regulation, total putts and other stats to help identify the areas of a game that might need work.

Additionally, users can update their status, comment in real-time on friends’ updates and find golf courses.

“In addition to continuing to provide a continual forum for our writers and photographers online and in mobile, golfers tend to be on-the-go and heavy users of mobile network devices,” Mr. Fuchs said.

“This provides opportunities beyond the 24/7 news coverage into other areas of the game like instruction, equipment and travel,” he said.

The Masters aggregated fan conversations via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Yahoo.

Golf.com will be integrating another opt-in service for the next tournament.

“While there was more traffic to the Web site, there is an overall circular effect to the engagement,” Mr. Fuchs said. “People realize they can access the tournament in a variety of ways, and they are more apt to do so depending on their current access opportunities.

“Either way, people were coming to Golf.com for their coverage,” he said. “Online and mobile traffic feeds off one another and creates a 360-degree coverage opportunity.”

-Rimma Kats

Elevating the Mobile Love Affair With Coupons

EDITOR'S NOTE: AdKing.com offers a Mobile Coupon SMS system as well as Broadcast, Bounce Ad, and the ComboText systems. Call Susan today to set yours up at 954-583-9000, or visit AdKing.com.

ADOTAS – Everywhere you look, people are clutching their mobile devices; playing, talking, listening to music, snapping pictures, and surfing the Web. People have a love affair with their mobile phones, and they are eager to save money.

So shouldn’t “mobile coupons” be a huge success?

Well, not just yet -– only 4% of Internet users have redeemed mobile coupons, compared with 86% who clipped paper coupons and 65% who used online or e-mail coupons, according to a recent study from Harris Interactive — but these digital incentives are catching on quickly.

However, the number of mobile coupons redeemed in North America is set to increase more than tenfold in 2010, followed by triple-digit increases in both 2011 and 2012, according to Yankee Group. All in all, some $2.37 billion worth of mobile coupon transactions will take place in North America in 2013, up from just $5 million this year.

Typically text messages or images sent to people’s mobile devices offering a discount redeemable in-store, mobile coupons are a win-win for everyone. Consumers get deals targeted to their current interests, past purchases and/or current location sent right to their phone, while marketers succeed in directly spurring purchases that can be tracked and measured through to the point of sale.

Many marketers have experienced great success with targeted and measurable online discounts and affiliate programs, and mobile coupons are a powerful way to extend the capabilities of online marketing offline.

From a consumer perspective, mobile coupons deliver not only a discount, but more importantly, a positive shopping experience. They don’t need to flip through circulars and clip coupons or search for promotion codes online, since mobile coupons are pushed to consumers’ phones.

Today’s mobile applications also can glean understanding about a customer’s product preferences and current location from GPS, CRM, and credit card systems, then match data with brand marketers’ promotions so that offers sent to phones are truly targeted. Mobile coupons are relevant, timely and easy… and they have the ability to dramatically alter the way people shop.

Brands and retailers are eager to adopt mobile coupons to reach consumers in a unique way. By sending relevant offers to people via their very personal, always-on mobile device, marketers can essentially speak right to a potential customer in a one-to-one dialogue.

This channel not only improves sales and loyalty, but the in-store experience. Mobile coupon alerts can also serve as an influence point when someone is in the vicinity of a store, providing a timely and targeted call to action.

One of the most effective reasons marketers like them is that mobile coupons are very measurable — marketers see not only how many coupons were redeemed, but which type of customers or segments responded to which offer.

Marketers can leverage this analysis to accurately understand customer behavior and target future offers. In addition, marketers can eliminate lengthy and expensive reconciliation processes that are standard with paper coupons. If consumers opt in to offers from brands to their mobile phones, marketers can wisely develop an intimate level of customer engagement.

Sound great? Yes, but execution is key. Many marketers are mastering the creation and delivery of these coupons — either by sending an actual coupon to a mobile phone, with a barcode or coupon code embedded in it, or by alerting a customer to a coupon promotion via a text message – but the tricky part has been redemption.

The devil is definitely in the details. Today, there are at least five options for redeeming a mobile coupon. At this point in the industry’s evolution it’s critical to understand how the system you choose will work on the back end. Here are the most common redemption methods:

Consumer presents phone displaying a discount offer and cashier rings up purchase with a discount: cashier manually enters a code displayed in the mobile coupon to generate a discount, cashier scans a barcode embedded in the mobile coupon, consumer downloads coupons to a store’s loyalty card through a smart phone application, and discount is applied when both loyalty card and payment card are swiped at checkout, SMS and smart phone applications alert consumers that discounts have been loaded directly to a consumer’s credit or debit card and discount is automatically applied when consumer uses card to pay

Today, the best options for redeeming digital coupons are systems that require the least amount of change. For some of the newest solutions, no additional training is necessary for retailers since the discount is processed on the back end through the payment card and requires no additional effort to read, scan or enter a coupon from a phone. Some solutions even provide insights like which demographics responded to which deals, the sales impact of the mobile coupon promotion, and the overall ROI of the program, which marketers love.

Down the road we’ll see more options that allow consumers to use their mobile phone as a wallet, offering dual functionality to receive offer alerts and then automatically apply discounts when paying by phone. Near-field communication is a wireless communication technology that exchanges data from the user’s mobile phone and the retailer’s point-of-sale system so that the consumer can “click and buy” from a phone right in the store. Payment can be charged to the consumer’s wireless phone bill, a stored credit card, or a pre-existing billing system such as Apple’s iTunes.

Mobile coupons hold the promise of both direct marketing and one-to-one marketing. By delivering highly personalized incentives to a person’s mobile phone, marketers are promoting their brand right into the pocket of their target audiences at key influence points. The mobile commerce and coupon ecosystem will be one to watch as brand advertisers capitalize on this innovation.

-Meaghan Schaefer

iAd Mobile Marketing to Offer Interactivity and Emotion

More than one full year has passed since Apple last rolled out a new version of its iPhone OS. Today's [April 8, 2010] update, however, is likely the most important advancement of the iPhones operating system to date especially if youre a developer or advertiser.

Indeed, Steve Jobs' introduction of the new advertising platform called iAd represents one small step for advertising and one giant leap for mobile marketers.

Promoted first and foremost as a way to help developers make money, Apple will host the ads but provide a 60% cut to the devs. We have a lot of free or reasonably priced apps. We like that, Jobs told his audience at this morning's new iPhone OS party. But our devs have to find ways to make money. So our devs are putting ads into apps.

Essentially, Apple is delving deep into the apps in order to serve up a mobile advertising mechanism - one that is both interactive and packed with emotion - unlike anything ever experienced in the world of digital advertising. iAd, which comes built into the new OS, will cover a broad base of digital content. From games to video, iAd will allow users to enjoy and absorb ads without ever having to exit an application.

Delivering a wicked cool demonstration of the iAd platform today, Apple is clearly endeavoring to rise to the top of the heap as the ultimate conduit for effective mobile marketing campaigns that make the advertising experience more engaging than ever thought possible.

With the average user spending 30 minutes per day consumed by mobile applications, Steve Jobs said the iPhone will soon have the ability to serve a billion ad impressions per day, a situation that will open up an incredible demographic to the advertising community.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

Mobile Campaign Encourages Census Completion

The importance of completing the 2010 United States Census can't be stressed enough. And that's the exact impetus behind Engage Hers new mobile sweepstakes.

EngageHer, a national organization that aims to help educate multicultural women and their communities about vital social and personal issues, is urging folks to complete the Census with an innovative Text Message campaign.

By texting FreeCensus to 53137 and registering your name, you're entered into a drawing to win a free iPod Touch. And while the campaign doesn't actually help one complete the Census form, it does, however, remind and inspire people to do so - yet another example of how the mobile channel encourages responsible citizenship and social participation.

A multifaceted mobile campaign in every aspect - video, SMS, and social media - the folks at Engage Her and their partners at Globaltel Media have received a great deal of attention thus far as a result of their thirty-second animated viral video that emphasizes how being counted in the census is tantamount to having your voice heard.

According to Mable Lee, founder and CEO of Engage Her, “Getting multicultural communities and youth involved by focusing on key issues like funding for education, job training and healthcare helps difficult to reach communities understand the personal affect of the Census. We believe this program will help increase census responses from the hard to reach communities through the animated content and messaging.

For more information, check out EngageHer.org

-Mobile Marketing Watch

There's An App For That: How Mobile Is Changing The Face Of Retail

It’s no secret that, in today’s self-serve world, consumers are becoming increasingly empowered by easy access to information. In many cases, answers are now only a click away. So, it was only a matter of time before on-the-go consumers started demanding the same convenience from their mobile devices. Given the fact that about 85% of all U.S. households own at least one mobile phone, it’s not surprising that mobile is fast becoming the search tool of choice particularly for people making purchasing decisions.

Retailers are starting to feel the effects. According to Forrester’s Research, consumers who research products online before making an offline purchase affect over $500 billion in sales a year. Consumer behavior is influenced by the information they’re able to find on their own, on the go.

Mobile puts the power of information into consumers’ hands, even as they’re standing in the store aisle. This opens up new possibilities for shoppers even those who aren’t yet comfortable with actually purchasing from their mobile devices. Comparison shopping and searching for products by phone, for example, are high-value, low-risk activities that people curious about mobile shopping can start out with.

Interested in becoming a more informed shopper? Consider the following mobile apps that aim to improve your shopping experience: ShopSavvy, FastMall, GroceryIQ, Google Shopper, and Yowza. Apps like these put more power into the hands of consumers, as they allow shoppers to determine who has the best deals quickly, conveniently and on their own. So, should mobile commerce have retailers worried? It depends on how willing they are to embrace, and even profit from, the new technology. As Alexander Muse, founder of Big in Japan and developer of ShopSavvy, has said: “They realize, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. But if I stay out of the conversation, I never win.

And consumers might well say the same thing about themselves.

-Beth Hrusch, Senior Editor at Interact Media

McDonald’s pushes breakfast Dollar Menu with mobile campaign

Fast food giant McDonald’s is promoting its new Dollar Menu at breakfast via a rich-media mobile advertising campaign.

Expandable banner ads are running within The Weather Channel iPhone application with the tagline, “The Dollar Menu is now at breakfast.”

“Our rich-media expandable ad units offer a breakthrough creative execution,” said Craig Etheridge, vice president of mobile advertising sales at The Weather Channel, Atlanta.

“We provide advertisers the chance to push the envelope creatively on smartphones, with functionality and content built into the apps that benefit users and advertisers alike – opening the doors for expandable ads, click-to-video, GPS and more – while keeping the best user experience in mind,” he said.

McDonald’s is the world's largest burger chain, serving nearly 47 million customers daily.

The Weather Channel and Weather.com provide a national and local weather forecast for cities worldwide.

The Weather Channel Companies includes The Weather Channel television networks, and products for radio, newspapers, digital cable services, and interactive television. Digital properties include Weather.com and products for broadband and wireless platforms.

Consumers who click on the McDonald’s ad are routed to a landing page where they can find out more about the breakfast Dollar Menu.

Additionally, consumers can enter their ZIP code to find out which McDonald’s closest to them is offering the breakfast Dollar Menu.

McDonald’s is not new to the mobile space.

In September, McDonald’s let consumers vote for their favorite burgers via an SMS poll that was held at the Sprite Step Off, a nationally televised step-off competition.

The company launched a competition called Flavor Battle that took place on the main stage at the Sprite Step Off events and audience members voted for their favorite McDonald's burger and DJ via text message.

One month prior, in August, McDonald's launched its first mobile marketing campaign that specifically targeted the Hispanic demographic while on the go.

For the current campaign McDonald’s is trying to build hype around the Breakfast Dollar Menu via mobile advertising in a highly trafficked weather application.

The application has been downloaded almost 10 million times.

“Mobile customers have responded to superior products and services from The Weather Channel,” Mr. Etheridge said. “With almost 10 million downloads, The Weather Channel is the top weather application in the Apple App Store, and was the No. 1 free app overall of 2009.”

-Giselle Tsirulnik

Lexus signs on as first sponsor of new shopping app

After the Cars.com iPhone application received more than 200,000 downloads in its first month, Lexus signed on to sponsor the new offering.

Lexus, Toyota's upscale marquee, clearly understands that shoppers are researching their purchase from a mobile device. So the automotive advertiser is taking note of the opportunity to reach in-market car shoppers.

"The Cars.com iPhone app provides true ownership of voice to in-market car shoppers," said Nick Fotis, mobile product manager of Cars.com, Chicago. "As this is our first advertiser, we are beginning with relatively standard positions - an interstitial page and banners."

The Cars.com Web site, which launched a mobile site in 2007, has seen a surge in mobile shopping activity since the launch of its car shopping application for the Apple iPhone in February.

As much as 10 percent of Cars.com's traffic now comes via a mobile device, and mobile activity now accounts for a quarter of the site's total page views.

Upon opening the Cars.com application, consumers are shown the Lexus Hybrids logo via an interstitial page ad.

Consumers that click on the ad are taken to the Lexus Hybrids results section of the application.

Launched just two months ago, the iPhone application already accounts for 60 percent of Cars.com's overall mobile traffic.

In addition to its new iPhone application, Cars.com recently launched several enhancements to its mobile product, including a new search option that allows shoppers to search specifically for certified used vehicles.

Cars.com featured its mobile site in its 60-second ad during the 2010 Super Bowl, which reached the largest audience in television history.

As a result, in the 30 days since the Super Bowl, the mobile site experienced a 42 percent gain in average daily unique visitors compared to the same time period last year.

"Our strategy with this is pretty simple: to provide a tool for consumers to quickly identify cars and dealers near them and monetize the traffic with advertising positions," Mr. Fotis said.

-Giselle Tsirulnik

Feature Phone Traffic Drops 20%, Symbian Falling Off The Map

AdMob today published its Mobile Metrics Report for February, signaling out the three main categories of devices in its network; smartphones, feature phones and mobile Internet devices, to analyze traffic trends by category.

The stats follow the same trends as previous reports, in that smartphones account for a majority of traffic in AdMobs network. In February, smartphones accounted for 48% of AdMobs total worldwide traffic, up from 35% in Feb. 2009. In absolute terms, smartphone's traffic increase has been substantial- reporting 193% growth over the past year.

Feature phones, however, continue to decline as prices drop and increased interest in mobile app consumption fuel upgrades to smartphones. Feature phones declined from 58% to 35% of AdMob's total traffic in February, but although the share of traffic from feature phones as a category declined, in absolute terms, traffic grew 31% year-over-year.

...In absolute terms, mobile Internet device category traffic increased 403% over the past year.

In terms of mobile operating systems, there remains to be surprises as iPhone, Android and Symbian still rule the landscape as seen through AdMob's network. Over the last year, the iPhone increased its share of smartphone requests from 33% to 50% while Symbian's share of requests fell from 43% to 18%. Though Symbian remains a top OS worldwide, it's not a favorite among smartphones which explains its falling numbers in terms of ad impressions.

Android was the fastest growing operating system in the AdMob network year-over-year, again no surprise there, with Android's share of smartphone requests increasing from 2% in February 2009 to 24% in February 2010. The top five Android devices worldwide, by traffic, were the Motorola Droid, HTC Dream, HTC Hero, HTC Magic, and the Motorola CLIQ.

-Mobile Marketing Watch