BRANDEL, INC.

Mobile Users Want Relevant Messages From Brands

2011-08-18T17:17:00.002-04:00

Believe it or not, people are craving communications from brands -- but they want those communications to be relevant and on their terms.

According to new research from consumer insights agency Communispace, people want more personalized brand communications through their mobile devices, and they want tools that help them manage and filter the flow of content.

"The general U.S. consumer is connected fairly continually and it's generally throughout their lives," Katie Adams, senior consultant with the IdeaGroup within Communispace, tells Marketing Daily. "What we found was that these connected consumers have a generally high awareness of interaction with brands on their mobile devices."

Despite this high interaction, there are still a set of rules people expect brands to follow as they communicate through mobile devices -- the first one being to avoid unsolicited contact. According to the research, people still value their privacy and don't want to engage in brand interactions that they have not approved.

"A very specific [good] example would be having a mobile app that, whenever [a certain] product is on sale, it sends me an alert," says Julie Wittes Schlack, senior vice president of innovation and design at Communispace. "I, as the consumer, have indicated what I'm interested in and I've opted in. And the message you're giving me is information that I want."

Once people have acknowledged they'd like to receive marketing messages, the brands should be ready to communicate with messages that provide some value for the consumers, whether they are a deal on a specific product or a location-based offer.

"If you're a retailer or manufacturer and you know someone is in a specific location, reach out to them in the moment," says Wittes Schlack. "Or do it by creating apps that actually provide value, and not purely advertising or offers and promotions."

At the same time, marketers have to learn to let people dictate the flow of the conversation. Ultimately, they'll decide the level of interaction they want to have with a brand, and it will be up to the brand to provide those many (and specialized) levels of communication.

"What we're hearing is that people want to be selective in who they want to hear from and how," Wittes Schlack says. "But if people have opted in, it's because they want that content, that dialogue and that promotion. [Brands] have to be really broad and really nimble in how they respond."

-Aaron Baar

In 'Post-PC World,' Mobile Replaces Laptops

2011-08-17T18:14:00.001-04:00

The digital age is entering the "post-PC world," according to new research from GlobalWebIndex (GWI) produced by Trendstream. PCs and laptops are being replaced by mobile handsets and tablets, as well as TV sets, as favorite go-to devices to access the Internet.

The next 12 months will see a transformation in the way users connect to the Web, according to the research, with tablets leading the charge. Currently, 79% said their personal PC or laptop was their favorite device for accessing the Net. But a year from now, that figure will plummet to 42%, while 40% said a tablet, mobile phone or e-reader would be their top choice for going online. Another 7% will use an Internet-ready TV, while just 11% will continue to use their work PC or laptop.

And apps are part of the game-changing mix as well, GWI reported. App use is growing by double-digit percentages this year. Between February and June, the use of gaming apps worldwide was up 19%. In North America during the same period, the number of smartphone-using consumers who downloaded an app within the past 30 days was up 14%. "Apps and device-specific platforms help create a diverse and disconnected Web," the report concludes.

GWI interviewed close to 100,000 individuals in 27 different markets in June and July.

-Steve McClellan

Google to Buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion

2011-08-16T14:33:00.007-04:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Even though the news broke yesterday about Google's intended acquisition of Motorola Mobility, it has a local effect here in our hometown of Plantation, FL. With operations worldwide, Motorola maintains manufacturing, sales and administrative facilities in dozens of locations, and one of their campuses is right around the corner from our office, providing jobs for Plantation, Broward County, and South Florida.

In a bid to strengthen its mobile business, Google announced on Monday that it would acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola, for $40 a share in cash, or $12.5 billion.

The offer — by far Google’s largest ever for an acquisition — is 63 percent above the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday. Motorola manufactures phones that run on Google’s Android software.

Android has become an increasingly important platform for Google, as global smartphone adoption accelerates. The platform, launched in 2007, is now used in more than 150 million devices, with 39 manufacturers.

The acquisition would turn Google, which makes the Android mobile operating system, into a full-fledged cellphone manufacturer, in direct competition with Apple.

“This is an emphatic exclamation point that Google is a mobile company,” said Ben Schachter, an analyst with Macquarie Capital. “This is clearly a defensive deal, they were backed in a corner and they had to protect the Android platform.”

Google, Motorola and Mobile
Both companies have met with both successes and struggles as they adapt to and influence a changing market for mobile phones.

Last month, Apple and Microsoft led a consortium of technology companies in a $4.5 billion purchase of roughly 6,000 patents from Nortel Networks, the Canadian telecommunications maker that filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Google, which lost out in the bidding, criticized the deal as an anticompetitive strategy. Several weeks later, Google acquired more than 1,000 patents from I.B.M.

Motorola holds more than 17,000 patents.

While the acquisition will move Google directly into the telecommunications hardware business, Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, said in a blog post that “this acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business.”

Still, the deal is certain to attract significant antitrust scrutiny. The Federal Trade Commission is already investigating Google’s dominance in several areas of its business. The company has agreed to pay a $2.5 billion reverse termination fee, if it walks away, and Motorola will pay a $375 million break-up fee if it takes another offer, according to a person close to the transaction, who was not authorized to speak.

In a conference call on Monday morning, Google said it was confident that it will be able to win regulatory approval, since the deal will ultimately improve competition in the smart phone market.

“We think this is a competitive transaction,” David Drummond, the company’s chief legal officer said. “This is not a horizontal transaction, Google has not materially been in the handset business.”

The acquisition of a major handset maker may still pose a significant challenge to the search giant, which has not specialized in manufacturing or marketing of smartphones. Last year, it closed down the online store for its first Google-branded phone, the Nexus One, citing the store’s underwhelming performance. A Motorola tie-up may also irk other phone manufacturers, like Samsung and HTC, which will now be competing directly with Google.

“Can they convince their competitors that Motorola will truly operate as a standalone business?” Mr. Schachter said.

And while Google has made dozens of acquisitions in recent years, most of them have been for less than $1 billion — despite a current war chest of some $40 billion in cash. On the company’s official blog, Mr. Page said Google was purchasing the handset maker to bolster its Android mobile operating system and increase the number of patents it owned.

Android accounted for 43.4 percent of smartphone sales in the second quarter, according to Gartner Research, a major increase from the year ago period, when it made up about 17 percent of sales.

“Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anticompetitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies,” Mr. Page said.

Carl C. Icahn, Motorola Mobility’s second-largest shareholder, had urged the company last month to “explore alternatives regarding its patent portfolio to enhance shareholder value.” Mr. Icahn owns 9.03 percent of Motorola Mobility.

On Monday, he applauded the transaction, calling it “a great outcome for all shareholders of Motorola Mobility, especially in light of today’s markets.”

Lazard and the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised Google. Frank Quattrone’s investment bank, Qatalyst Partners, Centerview Partners and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz advised Motorola Mobility.

The acquisition has been approved by both boards.

- EVELYN M. RUSLI and CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Pew Shows Swelling Number of Mobile Users Depend on Handset to Combat Boredom

2011-08-16T14:27:00.001-04:00

If boredom is a disease, mobile phones are apparently the cure.

According to the findings of a not-too-hard to believe study engendered by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, mobile phones have become the “go-to” device for just about everything, especially when it comes to warding off boredom.

42% of cell owners use their phone for entertainment when they were bored, the Pew study shows. Given that 83% of American adults now own some kind of cell phone, there’s a whole lot of boredom being eliminated by mobile devices it seems.

In addition to combating boredom, mobile phones are also just as helpful when it comes to avoiding people.

Cell phones can help prevent unwanted personal interactions – 13% of cell owners pretended to be using their phone in order to avoid interacting with the people around them.

Half of all adult cell owners (51%) had used their phone at least once to get information they needed right away in the last thirty days. One quarter (27%) said that they experienced a situation in the previous month in which they had trouble doing something because they did not have their phone at hand.

LinkedIn rolls out app as mobile use grows 400% year-over-year

2011-08-16T14:19:00.002-04:00

Professional networking platform LinkedIn is launching redesigned versions of its mobile applications for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS and Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android, concurrently introducing a new HTML5-based web app optimized for all current mobile browsers.

According to LinkedIn, the revamped app touts improved speeds across all features, including search and update streams. The app also reorganizes content into four key areas: Updates (including new developments within the user's network as well as LinkedIn Today alerts), Inbox (which combines all invitations and messages in one place), You (the user's profile, connections and information sharing tools) and Groups & More (browsing and interaction solutions as well as the People You May Know feature). Based on user feedback, LinkedIn Mobile now starts with the Update stream and adds access to millions of LinkedIn Groups discussions.

LinkedIn states that mobile usage has increased 400 percent over the last year. Mobile is now LinkedIn's fastest-growing consumer service.

The LinkedIn network spans more than 120 million professionals across 200 countries, including executives from all current Fortune 500 companies. LinkedIn went public in mid-May, with shares rising as much as 171 percent in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange before closing at $94.25, more than 109 percent above the $45 IPO price.

-Jason Ankeny

QR Codes Finally Resonating with US Mobile Phone Users

2011-08-16T14:09:00.003-04:00

Original post date of this article: August 13, 2011

According to the latest research from comScore, Inc., in June 2011, 14 million mobile users in the U.S. (6.2 percent of the total mobile audience) scanned a QR or bar code on their mobile device.

A QR (Quick Response) code is a specific matrix bar code (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by smartphones.

The statistics were gleaned from a study on mobile QR and bar code scanning which came from the firm’s comScore MobiLens service.

More than half of all QR code scanners were between the ages of 18-34 (53.4 percent).

Additionally, the study found that a mobile user that scanned a QR or bar code during the month was more likely to be male (60.5 percent of code scanning audience), skew toward ages 18-34 (53.4 percent) and have a household income of $100k or above (36.1 percent).

ComScore also analyzed “the source and location” of QR or bar code scanning and discovered that users are most likely to scan codes found in newspapers or magazines and on product packaging and do so while at home or in a store.

“QR codes demonstrate just one of the ways in which mobile marketing can effectively be integrated into existing media and marketing campaigns to help reach desired consumer segments,” says Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. “For marketers, understanding which consumer segments scan QR codes, the source and location of these scans, and the resulting information delivered, is crucial in developing and deploying campaigns that successfully utilize QR codes to further brand engagement.”

-Mobile Marketing Watch

Smartphone sales jump 74%

2011-08-16T14:06:00.002-04:00

Original post date of this article: August 12, 2011.

Smartphone sales continue to explode, increasing 74 percent in the second quarter compared to last year, according to research firm Gartner. But Microsoft continues to struggle with sales of phones using its Windows Phone platform, which was surpassed by Samsung’s low-end Bada platform.

Samsung sold over 2 million Bada smartphones globally, while just 1.7 million Windows Phones have sold.

The figures are yet another embarrassment for Microsoft, which desperately needs Windows Phone to be a success. The company has another shot at grabbing consumers with the upcoming Mango update, but if that fails Microsoft will have a difficult time reclaiming its mobile relevance.

Global smartphone sales totaled 428.7 million units for the quarter, a 16.5 percent increase from last year. Smartphones accounted for 25 percent of mobile sales, compared to 17 percent last year.

“Smartphone sales continued to rise at the expense of feature phones,” Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement today. “Consumers in mature markets are choosing entry-level and midrange Android smartphones over feature phones, partly due to carriers’ and manufacturers’ promotions.”

Google’s Android mobile platform saw the biggest gains overall from last year, jumping from 17.2 percent of the global smartphone market to 43.4 percent. Apple’s iOS also saw a minor jump from 14.1 percent to 18.2 percent of the market. Nokia’s Symbian platform was the biggest loser, dropping from 40.9 percent of the market last year to 22.1 percent, followed by RIM’s BlackBerry, which fell from 18.7 percent to 11.7 percent.

Bada’s overall market share jumped from .9 percent to 1.9 percent, but that’s still better than Microsoft’s take, which fell from 4.9 percent (mostly consisting of legacy Windows Mobile users) to 1.6 percent.
- Devindra Hardawar

QR Codes Can Help Spread the Word About Your Business—Online and Off

2011-08-15T18:24:00.004-04:00

Original date of this article post: July 27, 2011

Smartphones are everywhere. Mobile payments and location-based services are already drawing people to take out their phones while they're out and about, and QR codes are another way your business can connect to customers through their smartphones. QR codes are easy to generate and provide a great way to convey information directly from the real world to the digital world. Here's how to put them to work for your business.

You can read these codes via the camera on a smartphone in combination with special apps. On Android phones, the apps Barcode Scanner and Google Goggles (both available for free in the Android market) will translate the QR codes into links that take you to websites, maps, social tools, contact information, links to downloads, or other things linked in the code. Scanners for the iPhone include QR Scanner, QR Reader, and Scan (QR Reader is $2; the others are free in the iTunes App Store). Many shopping apps that scan barcodes will scan QR codes as well.

Barcode Scanner can decode a QR code of vCard contact information.So how do you go about making and displaying QR codes that your customers can easily scan and use? The URL shortening service, bit.ly, will generate a QR code for your URL to go with the shortened link. Barcode Scanner and QR Driod on Android phones not only read QR codes, but can generate QR codes for applications, bookmarks, contacts, and other things. You can then share that QR code via email, Google Docs, Dropbox, Evernote, Google+, Text Message, and many more. Optiscan will do the same for iPhones ($2 in the App Store).

To take things to the next level, sites like qrstuff.com offer analytics to track the use of your codes, or can put that code on products such as T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, and even chocolate. A new art project celled QR-3D is cataloging QR codes woven into clothing and other textiles.

A QR code on an open-house sign links to a video tour of the property.Some recent places I've seen QR codes in the wild include a business card (linked to a website), the tarantula exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo (linked to Web pages with more information), and an open-house sign (linked to a YouTube video tour of the property). Many local businesses have them in their windows pointing to websites, hours of operation, or menus for restaurants. There is even an experiment in South Korea allowing customers to shop for groceries with QR codes.

The mobile space is a hot place to build your brand, and with more and more people carrying and actively using their smartphones while out and about, QR codes are a great tool to reach out to those customers in new and interesting ways. Stay tuned to the PCWorld Business Center to learn more on how to leverage mobile tools to get the word out about your business.

-By Michelle Mastin, PCWorld

ParksByNature Network increases park safety via app

2011-08-15T18:21:00.002-04:00

Original post date of this article: July 27, 2011

ParksByNature Network is using alerts and location-based features to help state park visitors stay safe during their trips.

The Pocket Ranger apps let users explore state parks in six states, including Delaware, Kentucky, North Carolina, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The apps are available on both iPhone and Android devices.

“The initiative behind these apps was to draw a new generation of mobile users to the state park system,” said Brett Melillo, cofounder/program coordinator at ParksByNature Network, New York.

“State parks have concerts, events and activities and mobile is a great way to engage with visitors in a real-time way,” he said.

ParksByNature Network is a service organization that implements sponsorship, events, mobile and tour programs for companies with a specific interest in aquariums, museums, parks and zoos.

On-the-go safety
Consumers can opt-in to an alerts system via the app.

Users can pre-register their trips and receive news, alerts and geo-specific weather updates.

The app also includes a Friend Finder feature that lets users stay connected while exploring.

Park visitors can sync their phones together and use pins to see where the other person is.

The GPS function also turns into a map without a wireless connection in the parks, making it easy for consumers to navigate.

“We want to coordinate and draw people into the park with real-time feeds,” Mr. Melillo said.

Mobile maps
Park enthusiasts can search for local parks by name, trails and park history.

For a more general overview of nearby parks, users can press on the states tabs to see specific parks by region on maps.

Users can also access park directions, maps of the park, activities and other park-related information, as well as book reservations on their handsets.

“We are trying to create a system where people can get involved in parks instead of just visiting,” Mr. Melillo said.

“This is the first time the government has worked with parks on mobile,” he said.

The app is free to download, but consumers can opt-in for paid content when using the app.

With paid content, users can share their park experiences through Facebook and Twitter, record tracks and mark waypoints.

“Parks are a free form of entertainment and based on users’ habits, so it makes sense to utilize their park experiences in a mobile environment,” Mr. Melillo said.

“Where cell phones used to be intrusions in nature, they are now great resources to educate and keep park visitors safe,” he said.

-Lauren Johnson

McDonald’s firms up mobile strategy to drive in-store traffic

2011-08-15T18:16:00.002-04:00

Original post date of this article: July 27, 2011

Fast food giant McDonald’s is making a bigger play in the mobile space with the launch of a new application that drives consumers to the nearest location and illustrates the company’s commitment to offer improved nutritional choices.

The mobile app is part of a national marketing initiative that includes a long-term plan, which features ongoing menu evolution and nutrition awareness communication. The app is available for free download in Apple’s App Store.

"Harnessing the power of location is especially important for businesses with thousands of points where consumers can access a very standardized and dependable product," said Wilson Kerr, Brookline, MA-based location-based services consultant.

"Quick serve restaurants tend to have very loyal customers and giving them a tool that is on for 16 hours a day to allow dedicated patrons to locate a nearby restaurant seems like a very good idea," he said. "The fact that the McDonald's home office can use this as innovative and concrete support for franchise owners means an additional benefit, as they can tell each lication how many times directions and location details were served up, in realtime.

"Tracking the number of requests for directions given, successfully navigated routes, in-store redemptions of coupons for new menu items, or other mobile marketing initiatives could be rolled in, as well as powerful new tools like mobile payment or mobile ordering for takeout."

Mr. Kerr is not affiliated with McDonald's. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

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

Food for thought
The McDonald’s app features a restaurant locator and nutrition information.

Hungry consumers can search for the nearest McDonald’s location by entering their ZIP code.

Customers can also search restaurants by state.

After finding the closest location, consumers can browse a map and find directions on how to get there, view employment opportunities, send comments, view a calendar of events and email the manager.

Customers can also see the location’s hours.

Additionally, the app lets consumers view nutrition information.

Customers can browse nutritional information by category such as sandwiches, french fries, breakfast or any of the McDonald’s McCafe drinks.

There, consumers can browse calorie, protein, total fat and carbohydrate information, amongst others.

Mobile jobs
The app also features a careers tab for consumers interested in applying for a job at the company.

Interested applicants can view a video that highlights McDonald’s employees and how potential employees can grow with the company.

Consumers can also search available positions via the app.

"Imagine a minivan full of hungry kids and a set of parents looking for the golden arches in an unfamiliar city," Mr. Kerr said. "Pulling into a random burger place is a big risk, as you do not know what you'll get.

"A Happy Meal is a Happy Meal at every McD's and this consistency means a happy carload of kids," he said. "Providing an app for that seems like a recipe for success."

-Rimma Kats

Tablets Give E-Commerce a Real-World Feel

2011-08-15T18:10:00.002-04:00

Original article posted on July 25, 2011.

When people feel like shopping, they are increasingly pulling out iPads and other tablets, so much so that shopping on tablets could someday outpace shopping on smartphones and even computers.

That is the conclusion of a report by Forrester Research that is to be published Monday, based on a joint survey with Bizrate Insights. Even though just 9 percent of shoppers own tablets, sales from tablets already account for 20 percent of mobile e-commerce sales, the report said, and 60 percent of tablet owners have used them to shop.

“Everyone thinks that mobile phones and mobile commerce are the next big things, and I think what this data shows is it’s probably actually tablets,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester who co-wrote the report. “We have always capped e-commerce at 10 to 15 percent of total retail sales, but this potentially has the capability of really expanding e-commerce much beyond that.”

Tablets offer retailers and shoppers something that cellphones and computers cannot — the experience of flipping through a print catalog, with big photos and rich imagery — and with shorter load times than many Web sites.

For instance, TheFind’s Catalogue for the iPad, which includes retailers like Crate & Barrel and Sephora, lets people flip through pages. Gilt’s Jetsetter app for travel uses the iPad’s accelerometer and gyroscope to show resorts from different angles. Retailers can send personalized catalogs to customers’ tablets based on their interests and purchase history, Ms. Mulpuru said.

For retailers, these types of features give them a chance to show off their products instead of competing solely on price with dozens of other retailers accessible with a Google search and a click. For shoppers, 80 percent of whom use their tablets in the living room, they make online shopping a leisurely experience in a way it hasn’t been since e-commerce came along.

“The element of discovery is missing online, because most people go to Google, and Google isn’t about discovering something online, it’s about typing something into a search box,” Ms. Mulpuru said. “This is much closer to the actual physical browsing experience.”

Forty percent of tablet owners use their tablets instead of their personal computers when both are available, Forrester found. And though more people are shopping on smartphones, they use them mostly for comparing prices and receiving mobile coupons, and get frustrated by the small screen when browsing items or entering billing information. A majority, particularly young people, prefer shopping on tablets, the report said.

Still, retailers have been slow to catch on. The average retailer has spent just $14,000 developing shopping tools for tablets, which Forrester calls “anemic.” And though Forrester expects that a third of adults will own tablets by 2015, the majority of people will not own the devices.

- CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

App development industry small, but strengthening

2011-08-15T18:04:00.003-04:00

George Dooley is an AdKing private label publisher. This article was originally posted on March 29, 2011.

For the past eight years, George Dooley has designed hundreds of web pages for small businesses from his home office in Cumberland.

Now, he's added a new service that he says will help small business owners keep up with the times: an affordable and basic smart phone app, with texting capabilities, for a startup fee of $147, and a $97 monthly fee thereafter.

"More people are accessing the Internet through their mobile devices than their laptops," Dooley says. "However, very few companies have started taking advantage of where the shift in the Internet is going."

By launching his new business, BizAppFusion, Dooley has jumped into the budding industry of commercial apps for mobile devices. Apps are considered the next possible marketing frontier, but at the moment, there are just a handful of companies in Maine offering apps, and few developers designing them. Those who do say they are seeing growing interest from businesses, mostly from outside of Maine. That, however, could change.

"In America and in Maine, smart phones are not as big as they are in Japan," says Rich Brooks, president of flyte new media on Commercial Street. "But soon it is going to be a tool of the masses. We're going to see this continuing to evolve, and we are just poised to see it explode."

Josh Valentine, president of the nonprofit Maine Marketing Association and chief marketing strategist for Promenade Media in Portland, says that while "things are definitely picking up in terms of mobile marketing, I haven't seen a large uptick in Maine, only because there aren't many developers in Maine."

To help build this industry, a small group of mobile application developers has begun meeting monthly at Dirigo Design & Development, an online marketing company on Exchange Street. In just three months, the iApp group, as they call themselves, has grown from three members to about 10, and is expected to continue growing as word gets out, says member Raphael DiLuzio, a professor of new media and art at the University of Maine and a consultant for Dirigo Design.

Eventually, the group would like to invite companies to make pitches to them for new app ideas. "We're providing the forum, place and set-up for the sharing and cross-pollinating of ideas that we hope will lead to more innovation and excitement in the entrepreneurial community here," DiLuzio says. The next meeting is April 14 at 6 p.m.

Despite the growing number of iPhone, iPod Touch and Android users, it might not be the right time for some companies to invest in apps, warns Valentine. The price for a custom-designed app can run into the thousands of dollars. Tap Tapas on Fore Street, which makes apps for companies like Toyota Australia, charges a minimum of $25,000 per project, according to co-founder Michael DeSouza. He says, too, that his company is booked several months out. "I'm at the point where I'm turning down work," he says.

Kerry Gallivan, the president and founder of Chimani in Yarmouth, which builds apps for national parks, says most companies can expect to invest three times as much on a new app as they spent on their website.

Dooley of BizAppFusion, on the other hand, charges far less money because he has a six-page app template that he can customize for a business, he says. With this, he also offers a texting service so companies can send out texts to customers.

Dooley says if a client wants more functionality, he says he can do that cost effectively for them. "We're trying to help the small business owners get the presence they need," he says.

While this kind of app is cheaper than building one from scratch, it does have its limitations.

"It is pretty much a business card," Gallivan says. "They have something listed in the app store and in that sense it is serving a purpose about what your company is; it is a brochure. But if you're talking about doing an app for a unique function, something more innovative, that is where those cookie-cutter solutions won't work, and you need to do custom development."

But before business owners pay for a customized template or invest in a more expensive unique app, Valentine says they should evaluate whether their customers would welcome it.

"I don't think it is absolutely necessary to have an app unless you are going to be developing something that somebody is going to use more than once," Valentine says. Just recently, he says he cleaned up his iPhone, deleting 20 apps that he installed but never used. But companies with repeat visitors, such as Amazon or eBay, would more likely benefit, he adds.

Valentine advises a business to optimize its website for mobile access so it looks good on a tightened screen. Once that's accomplished, Valentine says businesses should focus on social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, to engage with customers.

If a company does invest in an app, DeSouza says they have three options: The app could be a means to increase a company's visibility on a new platform; be used within a business, such as to manage inventory; or be a source of income (for instance, a personal trainer might develop a $1.99 app offering diet and exercise tips, Brooks says). And the app could be both a source of revenue and a marketing tool.

"Everybody is interested in doing this now," DiLuzio says. "We want to be able to be instantly on and instantly in communication with one another. The apps are really important to our time and our culture and our way of socializing and being modern humans, and every company that can find a way to participate in this will."

-Rebecca Goldfine

IPad surge indicative of PC decline?

2011-08-15T18:00:00.003-04:00

Original post date of this article: July 21, 2011

During its earnings conference, Apple said it sold 9.25 million iPads during its fiscal third quarter, a 183 percent unit increase from the year-ago quarter. Additionally, the company reported that the iPad and iPad 2 are now distributed in 65 countries.

“The continued growth of the tablet market – and its growth in relation to PC – as well as Apple’s extremely strong position here means that the iPad is a platform that marketers and content owners need to pay attention to,” said Noah Elkin, principal analyst at eMarketer, New York.

“The iPad straddles devices between PC and mobile because it is able to access some desktop sites,” he said.

“The more smart devices you have in the hands of consumers, the more compelling a proposition mobile is for marketers – and the more it also becomes a necessity.”

IPhone leaps ahead
Apple executives say that the iPad is hurting sales of laptop PCs whlie others contend that Mac sales are also being impacted.

In the most recent financial results, Mac sales increased 14 percent for a total of 3.95 million units.
Apple was also able to sell significant numbers of iPhones even as rumors abound about the release of a new model – the iPhone 5 – this year.

There is growing competition in the tablet market, with recent entries from Samsung, Motorola and Research in Motion. However, these new devices do not appear to be having any significant impact on iPad sales.

The company continues to experience success in the smartphone category as well.

Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing a 142 percent growth in units from the same period a year ago.

IPhone’s growth is outpacing the smartphone market, according to Apple executives pointing to IDC’s estimate for 67 percent growth in the global smartphone market.

“Shipments for iPhone exceeded everyone’s expectations,” said Alex Spektor, senior analyst of global wireless practice at Strategy Analytics, Newton, MA. “Even though there are significant rumors about the next iPhone coming out, Apple continued to sell huge volumes.”

“This speaks to the value that consumers see in the phone,” he said.

Apple reported that revenue for the quarter ended June 25 totaled $28.57 billion, up 82 percent from $15.70 billion from the year-ago quarter.

Net profit totaled $7.31 billion.

The increases were driven primarily by growth in iPhone and iPad sales as well as growth in Mac sales.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently said that the majority of the company’s revenue come from post-PC products when he introduced the iPad 2 earlier this year.

“It is not so much that people are doing away with PCs,” eMarketer’s Mr. Elkin said. “It is more that we are seeing convergence in the devices as consumers begin to have the expectation that they would have interactions with peers or marketers through any of these devices,”

“The fact that you can make a phone call on a wireless network is increasingly less relevant,” he said.

Growing share
Apple also reported that iPhone and accessory sales generated $13.3 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 150 percent from the year ago quarter.

Emerging and developing markets helped drive the growth, including China, Latin America, Brazil, Mexico and the Middle East.

While Apple’s results are impressive, they come at a time when the smartphone market overall is growing, benefitting Android and other operating systems.

Much of the growth is being fueled by consumers replacing feature phones with smartphones, per Mr. Spektor.

“The whole smartphone market is growing at a tremendous rate,” Strategy Analytics’ Mr. Spektor said.
However, Apple’s share of the overall smartphone market continues to grow.

According to Strategy Analytics figures, Apple had an 18 percent share of the global smartphone market in the first quarter of 2011. This is up from a 16 percent share during Q1 2010 and an 11 percent share in Q1 2009.

Apple faces competition, but it is still the brand to beat when it comes to innovation.

“The competition continues to be at an all-time high,” Mr. Spektor said. “All of the vendors need to make sure they are differentiating their product in order to keep competing with Apple.”

- Chantal Tode

Tablets Continue to Dent PC Sales

2011-08-15T17:56:00.002-04:00

Original post date of this article: July 14, 2011

Modest growth returned to the computer industry in the second quarter following a dip earlier this year, although consumer appetite for tablets continued to dampen demand for desktop and laptop PCs.

Computer shipments grew 2.3 percent during the quarter to 85.2 million, the technology research firm Gartner said on Wednesday. Its rival, IDC, said in a similar report that shipments grew 2.6 percent to 84.4 million.

Neither firm includes tablet computer shipments in their quarterly tallies. Neither breaks out tablet shipments separately.

The results are a small bright spot for computer makers, which have tried to downplay the extent to which tablet computers, mostly the Apple iPad at this point, have diverted spending from the PC and laptop. But clearly the competition is affecting computer sales, the two reports concluded.

“Given the hype around media tablets such as the iPad, retailers were very conservative in placing orders for PCs,” Mikako Kitagawa, a Gartner analyst, said in a statement. “Instead, they wanted to secure space for media tablets. Some PC vendors had to lower their inventory through promotions, while others slimmed their product lines at retailers.”

The IDC report, meanwhile, mentioned the shifting consumer appetite for tablets, particularly in the United States, as a drag on computer sales.

In addition to tablets, second quarter computer shipment totals faced a tough comparison from last year. Global shipments soared 12 percent during that quarter, according to IDC and, and such growth could not be sustained.

The United States market was weak over all, with shipments declining 4.2 percent, IDC said. The biggest reason was a drop in netbook shipments, the mini-laptops that sold strongly before the rise of tablets.
However, gains in computer shipments to Asia, Latin America and Japan offset those declines.

Gartner said that Hewlett-Packard retained its position as the top computer maker with 14.8 million computers shipped, a 3 percent increase. Dell moved up to second position, its first time in that spot since 2008, with 10.6 million computers shipped, up 3.3 percent.

Acer dropped from second to fourth in global shipments behind Lenovo. The company specializes in netbook computers, sales of which are declining rapidly.

In the United States, Hewlett-Packard led with 4.5 million computers shipped, down 1.2 percent. Dell followed with 3.8 million, down 9.8 percent. Apple rose from fifth to third position, with 1.8 million, up 8.5 percent, based on strong sales of its Mac and MacBook computers. It passed Acer and Toshiba.

-VERNE G. KOPYTOFF

Mobile Ads Outperform Standard Banners

2011-08-15T17:51:00.002-04:00

Original post date of this article: July 14, 2011

As more marketers from across industries begin to embrace mobile advertising, more attempts at measuring their efforts will not be far behind. Benchmarking efforts by digital advertising solutions provider MediaMind (formerly Eyeblaster) indicate that campaigns for different verticals should have different expectations—and that mobile banners see more clicks than standard banners on the PC-based internet.

In July 2010, MediaMind released statistics from 2009 showing that mobile banners beat standard banners in both clicks and conversions for automotive campaigns. Now, the higher clickthrough rate (CTR ) for mobile banners can be extended across verticals.

MediaMind found that the average CTR on mobile banners on their network was 0.61%. That was more than eight times as high as the CTR for standard online banners in campaigns that also had at least one mobile ad.

Campaigns for the entertainment industry showed the highest mobile banner click rates, at 1.04%, followed by retail industry mobile banners, at 0.84%. Apparel, electronics and auto ads performed worse.

The research also showed click rates varied by mobile operating system. iPhone and iPad users were significantly more likely to click on mobile banners than those with an Android device or BlackBerry.

eMarketer estimates US advertisers will spend over $1.1 billion on mobile this year, up 48% from 2010 spending levels. Of that amount, 30%, or $334.5 billion, will go to display (excluding video). By next year, eMarketer predicts, mobile display spending will surpass the current leading mobile ad format, messaging, to take the largest slice of the US mobile ad spending pie.

The rise and rise (and rise) of Apple's iOS

2011-08-15T17:49:00.001-04:00

This article was originally posted on June 25, 2011

When the first iOS gadget shipped in 2007, The New York Times' David Pogue published a list of questions about the new iPhone. The last question on the list was, "Who on earth would buy this thing?"

It's a question nobody would ask today. The phone, and Apple's other mobile devices that run the iOS, are succeeding beyond anyone's predictions. Apple says iOS is currently installed on more than 200 million devices.

Another small thing happened in 2007 that has become a big thing: Apple filed a patent request for the capacitive touch screen used by the iPhone, iPad and, in fact, by nearly all of Apple's competitors in the market. That patent was granted this week.

One possible outcome of the inevitable court cases to come is that competitors may have to pay Apple a licensing fee for every non-Apple smartphone or tablet shipped.

Since its 2007 launch, there has always been a lot of hype around the iPhone far beyond actual market share. The many brands that run the Android OS collectively own more market share both globally and in the U.S. than the iPhone does. And internationally, handsets from giants like Nokia have maintained more sales than those from Apple.

But all this appears to be changing. In the first quarter of this year, Android phone market share declined nearly 3%, while iOS's share rose by more than 12%. Android still has nearly half the smartphone market, and Apple has significantly less than that (about 30%.)

These changing fortunes could represent a temporary blip caused by Apple's availability on Verizon. Or it could be a trend.

Another possible trend is the decline and fall of Nokia. That company's smartphone handset market share dropped from 24% to 16% in one year. Apple retained a 17% share while the overall pie grew significantly.

When the iPhone shipped in 2007, nobody -- and I mean nobody -- predicted that Apple would sell more handsets worldwide than Nokia within four years.

A recent survey measuring Web traffic by various devices found that some 97% of all tablet traffic in the United States comes from iPads. And if you think that's high, the number is 100% in Japan and 99% in the U.K. (The global average is 89%.)

All these market share and traffic numbers mask a stark business reality: Apple makes vastly more money from mobile devices than its competitors do.

Firstly, Apple makes money from handsets, which Google no longer sells. Secondly, Apple makes money from apps -- far more per app than any other platform, and far more apps. For example, last year Google earned about $102 million from apps sales, while Apple raked in $1.7 billion.

-Computerworld

Forget the Web, We’re Apping It Up

2011-08-15T17:43:00.001-04:00

Original post date of this article: June 24, 2011

I’ve been mulling over this chart from mobile app analytics firm Flurry the last few days that suggests consumers are spending more time within apps than they are on the web (desktop or mobile). Growing 91% in the last year, daily time spent in mobile apps averages 81 minutes per person compared with 74 minutes on the web.

It seems kind of unbelievable, but Nielsen reported earlier this week that mobile data usage is up 89% per user compared to the year before. Flurry, which has always been handy with mobile app data, used its own data (500 million daily user sessions across more than 85,000 applications on the iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and J2ME platforms) to determine average daily native app use while deriving average web consumption (both mobile and desktop) using data from Alexa and comScore.

Time spent online is still increasing, just at a 16% growth rate opposed to mobile’s 91%. Although mobile users spend 47% of their app time gaming, 32% is spent on social networking apps, with 14 of the 74 minutes attributed to the Facebook app.

Why I’m really puzzled by the data is that I thought mobile apps would lose their novelty – which they still could, as Flurry notes it’s only been about four years since they appeared. And Facebook might try to cut into that app time.

It was leaked last year that Facebook was inserting a social layer into the Android mobile OS — HTC Status (once called the ChaCha), featuring a dedicated Facebook button along with a deep social integration reportedly will appear in AT&T stores in the next few weeks, Boy Genius reports.

But the hooha of late has been over Project Spartan, where Facebook plans to skip the OS and weave itself right into the mobile browser. It looks like a shot at Apple, which supposedly snubbed Facebook in favor of Twitter for the social login feature in the new iOS. But who snubbed whom? TechCrunch’s MC Siegler wisely asks, as Spartan is a move by Facebook to run apps within its service on top of the Safari mobile browser.

Put simply, through an HTML5-based layer, Facebook will pretty much own the mobile browser, somewhat similar to the way social browser Rockmelt works, but major apps from Zynga, Huffington Post and other developers will be easily accessible through the Facebook mobile site.

So consider that 14 minutes spent on the Facebook app — if the social network offered you a better, less glitchy experience through its mobile site (which you could argue it already does) and gave you instant access to your favorite apps with Facebook integration built in, I imagine you’d be spending a lot less time within native apps and more on the web. Yet you’re still apping — has Facebook discovered the best of both worlds?

But what about advertising? It finally feels like the tech companies have figured out this in-app advertising thing. Apps through Spartan would present a new opportunity to reach mobile consumers, but you’d have to go through Facebook, which makes Apple’s iron fist look like a velvet glove. However, Facebook is trying to play nice with agencies these days…

-Gavin Dunaway

rowing smartphones ownership provides opportunity for marketers

2011-08-15T17:41:00.002-04:00

Original post date of this article: June 14, 2011

Google Android was the leading smartphone platform between February and April, while Apple iOS moved up to second place, according to new data from comScore.

Data from comScore’s MobiLens service shows that the leading mobile trends impacting marketers during this period include growing smartphone ownership and the continuing evolution of the platform ecosystem for these devices. The number of U.S. consumers who owned a smartphone during the three-month period grew 13 percent for a total of 74.6 million.

“Marketers go where the people are,” said Brian Jurutka, senior vice president of mobile and telecom at comScore, Reston, VA. “Well, the majority of eyeballs for people browsing on phones are on smartphones now and it’s only growing.

“Smartphones will soon make up more than 50 percent of new handsets purchased, and the owners spend more time browsing because they typically require data plans,” Mr. Jurutka said.

“SMS shouldn’t be forgotten since nearly every phone can send and receive SMS,” he said.

“However, smartphone owners use SMS as well. So overall, smartphone owners are heavier phone users and provide more opportunity for interaction with marketers.”

The Android angle
The data shows the operating system ecosystem continues to evolve at the top, with Android, iOS and Research In Motion jockeying for bigger roles. At the same time, the gap between the leaders and those at the bottom of the list continues to widen.

“Marketers have limited resources and need to concentrate on getting the most bang for their buck,” Mr. Jurutka said. “iOS has the significant lead in the ecosystem, particularly when viewed in context of smartphones plus tablets and other connected devices like iPod touch.

“As Android continues to gain share of smartphones, however, expect more development resources to head that way,” he said.

The data shows that Android’s market share grew by 5.2 percentage points during the time period in question for a total market share of 36.4 percent. The iOS platform’s market share grew by 1.3 points for a total of 26 percent. RIM lost 4.7 percentage points of its market share, putting its total at 25.7 percent.

During the previous three-month period ended in January, RIM had the No. 2 spot and trailed slightly behind Android’s No. 1 spot with a 30.4 percent market share. Microsoft lost 1.3 percent of its market share during the period ended in April for a total 6.7 percent while Palm lost 0.6 percent of its market share for a total of 2.6 percent.

Samsung was the top OEM with 24.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers. It was followed by LG with a 20.9 percent share and Motorola with a 15.6 percent share.

Apple jumped to the No. 4 position with an 8.3 percent share, up 1.3 percentage points. RIM came in at No. 5 with an 8.2 percent share.

Samsung, Motorola and RIM all lost share during this period.

The data also shows continued growth in mobile content usage. For the three-month period ended in April, 68.8 percent of mobile users sent a text message to another phone, up 0.7 points.

The percentage of subscribers using a mobile browser grew 2.1 points for a total of 39.1 percent. The percentage downloading apps was up 2.4 points for a total of 37.8 percent.

There were similar gains in the percentage accessing a social networking site or blog, which was up 2.7 points for a total of 26.2 percent of mobile subscribers.

Playing games and listening to music also grew, with 26.2 percent of subscribers engaging in games and 18 percent listening to music.

For the three-month period ended in April, 234 million U.S. consumers ages 13 and older used mobile devices, according to comScore’s MobiLens service.

“Similar to online, content is moving to more engaging rich media and even video,” Mr. Jurutka said.

“Though video in particular is still a small segment, expect it to grow as speeds increase," he said.

“Marketers will likely head down the same path since they’ll want to create robust interactions with customers and prospects.”
- Chantal Tode

Wild Wing Cafe SMS campaign sees 72 percent opt-in

2011-08-15T17:37:00.001-04:00

Original date of this post: June 14, 2011

Family sports bar and restaurant Wild Wing Cafe ran an SMS campaign to engage its patrons and found that out of the 900 consumers that showed up, 72 percent texted in for a chance to win prizes.

The company found that SMS was a successful tool that could be used to engage existing and new customers. Wild Wing Café has been using SMS since 2007.

“Texting prompts appeared on window signage and staff members were trained to encourage patrons to enter the contest while they were dining,” said Rachel Jensen, marketing coordinator at Wild Wing Café, Atlanta.

“This improved rapport with the customers and added value to their dining experience,” she said.

Wild Wing Café is a local family sports bar and restaurant serving Buffalo wings, food, and beer across the United States.

Consumer engagement
The promotion took place in Marietta, GA.

Consumers were encouraged by the Wild Wing Café waitstaff and in house point-of-sale to text the keyword HUNDO to the short code 84464 for a chance to win 3 Wild Wing $100 gift cards.

In addition, the company used window signage to promote the SMS campaign.

Customers were also encouraged to text the keyword DOLLAR to the short code 84464 to win dollar shots for the evening.

“The strategy was to embrace our clientele in a text to win offer during our Annual Crawfish festival in May,” said Ed Herson general manager at Wild Wing Café, Atlanta.

SMS rewards
The company is using SMS, as opposed to other methods of getting the word out because it finds it to be the most effective.

“Our SMS campaigns with State of Text Inc have always netted us a 35-70 percent rate opt-in rates,” said Ryan Bing, manager of Wild Wing Café, Atlanta. “We had around 750 people that day and received right at 560 opt-ins.

“We have steered away from many of our paper advertisements due to the effectiveness of each SMS campaign,” he said. “We at Wind Wing Café are more than pleased with the results we have been receiving via SMS sinse 2007 which have only continued to grow.”
-Rimma Kats

Consumers Respond to Mobile Marketing

2011-08-15T17:30:00.002-04:00

Original post date of this article: June 14, 2011

For eons, marketers of all stripes have been trying to figure out just how many consumers take action due to their advertisement.

Even in the online world, where clicks and time spent and every other measurement is hemmed and hawed over, it can be difficult to know how many consumers saw the ad and simply had their own brand loyalty reinforced or a nugget of info lodged that will later lead to action.

As mobile platforms such as QR codes become more mainstream, marketers are grappling with the ROI of mobile marketing, with one-third unsure if their mobile campaigns are effective. Now the mobile world is saying it’s got the goods.

A recent study by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Lightspeed Research says that 25% of consumers are more likely to respond to advertising, whether it's print, online, or outdoor, "if they are able to do so via a mobile response," according to BusinessWorld.

The publication also cites recent research from Dynamic Logic that shows that mobile advertising can bring higher engagement with the consumer than online advertising does. "Based on 74 campaigns during Q4 2009, and with a huge 69,854 respondents, the research revealed that on average, 22% were aware of a mobile advert — leading to a purchase intent rate of 5.4%," the site reports.

BusinessWorld purports that part of the reason is that there is generally only one ad per page on a mobile device and the information tends to be very targeted, very simple, and contain a call to action.

Stay tuned for more insights this week. At its global forum kicking off Wednesday in New York, MMA will release the first wave of research from a landmark global study on mobile marketing with Google, "designed to provide insights into how people are using their mobile devices and the readiness of businesses to engage consumers via mobile."

"As the study shows, smartphones are used extensively by consumers and are a powerful new tool in engaging the marketplace," Michael Becker, North American Managing Director, MMA.

"A mobile user study of this scope is unprecedented and offers a truly global view of how smartphones are transforming the lives of individuals," said Mr. Charlebois. "Further it offers a valuable perspective on how marketers are adapting to the increasingly mobile world."

-Mark J. Miller

Corona increases brand awareness, beer sales via mobile sponsorship

2011-06-10T13:55:00.005-04:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Use AdKing.com's App4Ads to create your own regionally-oriented app promoting local businesses...or use the BizApp Creator to design specialized apps for your business advertisers. Suggest sponsorships like this example of Corona so that the advertiser can actually be paid to be running their ads inside their Mobile Web App.

Corona is the launch sponsor of Thrillist’s iPad application and is engaging affluent male consumers with the brand, as well as offering a beach getaway just by interacting with the content.

The Thrillist for iPad app features local recommendations for places to eat, drink, and shop in a consumer’s neighborhood. The app is available in Apple’s App Store for free download.

“The response from the ad community has been incredible and encouraging,” said Chris Steib, director of product development at Thrillist, New York.

“Corona is our initial launch partner, with some really sexy beach-themed ads, and we're sold out through the rest of the calendar year with other clients,” he said.

“Right now the app is sold as a month-by-month exclusive takeover; depending on the number of installs and the rate of adoption, we might be able to change that in 2012 to deliver ads locally or across verticals, like we do with email and Web.”

Corona time
When users log-in to the application they see the Corona ad within the Thrillist app.

Corona is featuring background ads within the iPad app.

The ads show the company’s beer bottles and say “Tap For a Chance to Win a Corona Beach Getaway.”

“Our in-app browser opens up to the URL of the client's choice – takes over the screen, but doesn't leave Thrillist,” Mr. Steib said. “In this case, it's Corona's beach giveaway sweepstakes homepage on Facebook and it may require log in.

“There's a huge sales component to this,” he said. “Our clients are always looking for new, unique ways to reach out to a very targeted, very loyal audience of affluent-male-20-something readers – iPad's right smack in the middle of that demographic."

App features
The app use GPS to find Thrillist recommendations closest to users and lets them browse nearby and undiscovered neighborhoods and recommendations.

Readers can add articles to the My Thrillist section and view the best of the Web with the company’s daily picks

“First, 25 million devices is hard to ignore,” Mr. Steib said. “Even though the number was lower when we first started thinking about iPad, it was obvious that owning the device would become something of a cultural status symbol – so having [an] app for it would be a business status symbol all the same.

“Making a native app is a gesture, showing you're not just checking a box to say ‘we're on iPad,’ but that you've cared enough to build something custom for that unique, tactile experience,” he said.

“Mobile is 100 percent aligned with our content, sales, and user-acquisition strategies.”

“The apps are very well monetized...” Mr. Steib said. “Combined, these elements make mobile a critical part of our business.

“And now that we've been mobile for a year, we'll be able to dive deep into the data and start thinking about what new content and features we can create for a mobile-optimized – if not mobile-exclusive – experience,” he said.

-Rimma Kats, Mobile Marketer Daily

US Teens Among Biggest Consumers of Mobile Content, Mobile Ads

2011-06-10T13:37:00.002-04:00

US teenagers have been cited by Nielsen Company as the fastest growing audience enamored of mobile content.

According to the data presented by Nielsen, teenagers (ages 12-17) consume nearly twice as much mobile video content as other viewers in different age groups.

Mobile subscribers 12-17 watched 7 hours 13 minutes of mobile video a month in Q4 2010, compared to 4 hours 20 minutes for the general population.

In a post on the Nielsenwire dubbed “Kids Today: How the Class of 2011 Engages with Media,” the news couldn’t be better for mobile marketers. Teens are far more receptive to mobile advertising than their elders. Nielsen finds that more than half (58%) surveyed in September 2010 said they “always” or “sometimes” look at mobile ads.

Incredibly, the research also finds that teens are spending less time talking on the phone and watching TV. Texting and social media have largely cut into the time once spent on those particular activities.

Besides seniors 65-plus, teens talk the least on their phones, talking an average of 515 minutes per month in Q1 2011 versus more than 750 minutes among 18-24 year olds. In Q1 2011, teens 13-17 sent an average of 3,364 mobile texts per month, more than doubling the rate of the next most active texting demo, 18-24 year olds (1,640 texts per month).

The average American watched 34 hours 39 minutes of TV per week in Q4 2010, a year-over-year increase of two minutes. Teens age 12-17 watch the least amount of TV on average (23 hours 41 minutes per week).
And although teens are, overall, spending less time on their computers these days, the activities they engage in on their desktops and laptops is also noteworthy for marketers. Nielsen finds that American 18 year olds averaged 39 hours, 50 minutes online from their home computers, of which 5 hours, 26 minutes was spent streaming online video.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

IDC Says Global Smartphone Shipments will Approach 1 Billion by 2015

2011-06-10T13:24:00.002-04:00

According to the latest Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report from International Data Corporation (IDC), the global smartphone market is on pace to grow 55% in 2011 (472 million shipments). But over the next four years, IDC says smartphone shipments will reach unprecedented new heights. By 2015, IDC estimates that worldwide smartphone shipments will reach 982 million.

The rapidly expanding smartphone market, IDC claims, will grow more than four times the rate of the overall mobile phone market this year. Why? Helping drive sales are falling average prices, increased phone functionality, and lower-cost data plans.

“The smartphone floodgates are open wide,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’. “Mobile phone users around the world are turning in their ‘talk-and-text’ devices for smartphones as these devices allow users to perform daily tasks like shopping and banking from anywhere. The growth trend is particularly pronounced in emerging markets where adoption is still in its early days. As a result, the growth in regions such as Asia/Pacific and Latin America, will be dramatic over the coming years.”

By comparison, only 305 million smartphones shipped in 2010.

“Underpinning smartphone growth is the rapidly shifting operating system landscape,” adds Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team. “End-users are becoming more sophisticated about what kinds of experiences are offered by the different operating systems. Taking this as their cue, operating system developers will strive for more intuitive and seamless experiences, but will also look to differentiate themselves along key features and characteristics.”

IDC expects Android, which passed Symbian as the leading operating system worldwide in Q4 2010, to grow to more than 40% of the market in the second half of 2011. A significant and growing list of vendors who have made Android the cornerstone of their respective smartphone strategies is propelling the growth of Android.

[Apple's iPhone] iOS was the third ranked OS going into 2011 and will remain a force in the mobile phone market throughout the forecast. After an initial explosive growth period, iOS is expected to grow at a more modest pace throughout the latter half of the forecast as the smartphone market matures and diversifies. Although a small market share decline is expected, IDC expects significant overall shipment volume growth through the end of 2015.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

New Study: Smartphone Users Frequently Browse Mobile Web

2011-06-10T08:55:00.004-04:00

An inaugural study finds significant numbers of smartphone users across key markets browse the mobile Web multiple times daily, with nearly all users expecting to maintain or increase mobile online usage in the next 12 months.

The MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) (www.mmaglobal.com) and Google will be presenting key findings from a new global research study designed to provide insights into how people are using their mobile devices and the readiness of businesses to engage consumers via mobile. Two separate surveys informed this study: a consumer-facing survey, which included interviews with thousands of smartphone users in 30 different countries, and a business-facing survey conducted in 5 countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Japan) which incorporated over 1000 interviews with marketing decision makers.

The initial research results will be presented at the MMA Forum New York on June 16-17, 2011 in New York City, with additional data and insights being rolled out over the course of the next few months. The research, conducted on behalf of Google by IpsosGmbH and TNS Infratest, will be presented by Owen Charlebois, Global Manager, Advertising, Marketing and Media Research at Google.

"Our collaboration with Google is the latest example of the MMA's commitment to providing the industry with actionable research insights," said Michael Becker, North American Managing Director, MMA. "As the study shows, smartphones are used extensively by consumers and are a powerful new tool in engaging the marketplace. We look forward to working with Google to help mobile ecosystem members identify opportunities worldwide leveraging the results of this research."

"A mobile user study of this scope is unprecedented and offers a truly global view of how smartphones are transforming the lives of individuals," said Mr. Charlebois. "Further it offers a valuable perspective on how marketers are adapting to the increasingly mobile world."

The MMA's other research products include the award-winning International Journal of Mobile Marketing (IJMM), which is peer-reviewed by a 14-member board that includes researchers from topic academic institutions and companies such as SnapTell and Yahoo.

Retailers Offer Apps With a Catalog Feel

2011-05-31T14:57:00.003-04:00

"It’s a reasonable facsimile of doing a little window shopping and maybe you stop in somewhere and get something that piques your fancy,” she said, like the blue silk Phillip Lim blouse she recently bought on the Net-a-Porter.com iPad app.

Shopping on the iPad is more convenient than using her laptop in bed, Ms. Sara said, and easier than scrolling through tiny images on her phone while waiting in the car for her children.

“It’s greatly enhanced my kind of depressing soccer mom life,” she said.

Shopping, as old-timers may remember, was once fun.

Then Google came along, and afternoons spent wandering past store windows, or flipping through catalogs, were often condensed into two-minute searches for “jeans 32 waist dark wash -bootcut -stretch city fit”

Now, though, retailers like Net-a-Porter think they have found a way to give online shopping more of the feel of an outing at the mall or an hour with a catalog — by creating apps that resemble magazines for tablet computers. Just as magazine publishers are producing iPad apps that mimic print in a way they never could on ordinary Web sites, retailers are making iPad catalogs, with big, stylized photographs that users can flip through on the couch or in bed. And also like magazine publishers, they are adding rich features like video, sound and 3-D views.

Though most retailers started with the iPad, some are starting to build versions for other tablets. EBay, for instance, is building Android tablet apps and a new version of its Web site designed for tablets. Others, like Blue Nile, the online diamond retailer, are taking a different approach, constructing tablet versions of their Web sites instead of apps on the theory that most traffic still comes through Web searches.

The idea is to offer “shop-ertainment,” said Siva Kumar, chief executive of TheFind, a shopping search engine that last week introduced Catalogue, a tablet app that pulls together interactive catalogs from about 30 retailers including Crate & Barrel and Sephora.

Traditional retailers like Sears and Ralph Lauren, along with e-commerce focused companies like Amazon, Gilt, QVC, HSN and eBay have all introduced tablet apps.

Many retailers say they see a lucrative future in tablet shopping because even though tablets made up only about 4.4 percent of all computers shipped in 2010, according to Morgan Stanley, they are expected to make up about 20 percent within two years. And iPad owners, who tend to be affluent given the $499 price tag for the device, already prefer not only browsing but also buying from a retailer’s app rather than the Web site in some cases.

At Net-a-Porter, for example, about 15 percent of shoppers buy from the iPad app, while eBay says the average purchase amount through its iPad app is higher than through either its Web site or through mobile phones. Meanwhile, Blue Nile executives say they expect iPad shopping to outpace Web shopping at some point.

Retailers also see the tablet as a more appealing backdrop for presenting their goods. On a computer, anyone can put up a Web site and compete with an established retailer. But on a tablet, big retailers have the deep pockets and development skills to set up eye-catching features and also add the ability to drop an item in a cart with a quick drag of a finger.

It is also easier than on a phone, say, to swipe to the next image or zoom in on a hemline. And the image and video quality are often better than on either phones or computers.

At the same time, tablets allow retailers to fix what many think went wrong for them online, when search engines made shopping all about the price, rather than about the store. In the new apps, retailers edit their merchandise, focusing on just a few top items. This is meant to appeal to shoppers who might be overwhelmed by the pages of search results they see on a computer. Because it is about presentation and selection rather than price, it gets the stores out of the low-price game that many are forced to play online, and back into being fashion arbiters.

“The iPad app is really our magazine app,” said Alison Loehnis, vice president of sales and marketing for Net-a-Porter. Its app was introduced last summer, and has been downloaded 120,000 times.

“Our site was founded on the desire to create a fashion magazine that you can shop from, and this whole notion of literally being able to move things around on the page and slide things into a shopping basket and touch things with your fingers the way you would do in a magazine is really a dream come true,” Ms. Loehnis said.

EBay, which had an iPad app ready to go the day that Apple introduced the tablet, also set it up for leisure time.

“We speculated, along with some input from Apple, that people would use the iPad like a book or a magazine, so the idea was a comfy chair, the couch, the bed, where a laptop doesn’t work very well,” said Steve Yankovich, vice president of eBay Mobile.

At Gilt, a flash-sale site, the iPad app “truly is sort of an entertainment source during the member’s downtime” said the company’s chief product officer, Stefan Pepe.

Gilt’s sales start at a specific time, and it has a limited amount of merchandise, and so its Web site and iPhone app are geared toward quick shopping. Although Gilt members shop flash sales on the iPad app, they can also use it to look at clothes as they would in a fashion magazine — a different experience. Shoppers can zoom in on the images closely enough to see the stitching on a shoulder seam or the lace fringe on the bottom of a skirt, for instance, and can drag items to their shopping carts without leaving the page.

Amazon’s tablet app, Windowshop, is also heavily visual, showing rows of images with tiny bits of text beneath them, and that seems to draw customers in, said Sam Hall, director of mobile for Amazon.com.

“The thing that customers have commented on is there’s this area of serendipity,” Mr. Hall said. “Windowshop looks so different from other shopping experiences, and we show you so many images at once, that you find yourself five minutes later looking at something that you had no intention of looking at originally.”

In TheFind’s Catalogue, a shopper can see the typical catalog-style shots, like of a living room filled with Crate & Barrel furniture, or can view individual photographs and descriptions of each item in the shot, like the pillows or lamps.

Mr. Kumar of TheFind said the app was a reaction, in part, to the overwhelming shopping options available online.

“If I said, let’s show you every possible shoe on the planet, you’d be exhausted,” Mr. Kumar said. “A lot of these retailers use the catalog to tell people what they have: it’s things they’ve curated and picked.”

Retailers have also noticed that consumers use tablets as a way to relax. And that’s good for them. As Mr. Yankovich of eBay said, most transactions on the company’s iPad app take place from 5 to 11 p.m.

“People are decompressing after work, maybe had a few cocktails,” he said. “That’s beautiful, we like that, it’s good for shopping.”

-Jim Wilson/The New York Times, STEPHANIE CLIFFORD and CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Google announces mobile payment system: Google Wallet

2011-05-26T14:24:00.001-04:00

Are you ready to pay for everything via your smartphone? Google is the latest tech company banking on it. At a packed press event in New York, the search giant launched Google Wallet, a method to pay for goods via your smartphone. Google also unveiled a separate initiative, Google Offers, for mobile coupons, working with partners such as Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint, as well as merchants that include Subway, Macy's, Walgreens and American Eagle. Google says it is building an open solution to other financial companies and retailers.

"Your phone will be your wallet — just tap, pay and save," says Stephanie Tilenius, vice president of commerce at Google. Adds Osama Bedier, vice president of payments at Google, "This is just the beginning. We plan to push the limit and innovate in that space."

Google isn't the only one at it, of course. The Google announcement follows word that Square, a company headed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, will also pursue mobile contact-less payments.

For mobile payments to take off, consumer behavior will have to change. But Google points out that while a decade ago 70% of consumers were reluctant to pay for stuff online, today 70% access their credit card information over the Internet. At the start, a Google Wallet will give access to a Citi MasterCard. But it will also include a prepaid Google card that can be funded by any of your credit cards. Google also says it is addressing security with multiple layers of security. "It was a fundamental consideration from day one," Bedier says.

Citi's Paul Galant says this is of "strategic importance" to Citi in its vision to become "the world's digital bank."

Google has other motivations. "Google's interest here isn't in the payments, it's in the data that underlies the complete chain of commerce including consideration, promotion, transaction details, coupons and receipts," noted Forrester mobile analyst Charles Golvin in an e-mail.

Google will begin initial testing of Google Wallet in New York and San Francisco. To start, Google Wallet will be compatible with Nexus S 4G by Google, available on Sprint.

The Associated Press notes that the ambitious plan to transform how consumers pay faces several hurdles, including its initial availability on just the Nexus S. It will connect only to MasterCard PayPass terminals. There are more than 135,000 of those in U.S. stores and restaurants, but that's only a small fraction of the total number, notes the AP.

At the presentation on Thursday, Google executives said the company would be open to partnering with other tech companies including Microsoft, RIM or Apple.

NFC, for Near Field Communications, is the short-term wireless technology built into a phone that helps make contact-less payments happen. Google noted that by year-end there will be many NFC-enabled phones on the market.

-USA Today

428 Million Mobile Devices Sold In Q1 2011, 19% Increase Year-Over-Year

2011-05-20T19:17:00.002-04:00

In Gartner’s latest mobile market report, the research firm indicated that over 428 million mobile devices were sold in Q1 of this year, representing a solid 19% year-over-year increase.

As usual, the growth is attributed to the continued spike in smartphone sales – which Gartner pegs at 100.7 million for Q1, up 85% year-over-year. Android remained the top dog, which soared past Symbian to capture 36% of the market. Nokia’s Symbian is in second place with 27.4%, followed by Apple’s iOS with 16.8%, RIM’s BlackBerry with 12.9% and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 with 3.6%.

The difference between Android and Symbian is significant given the fact that, at the end of 2010, the roles were completely reversed. Symbian held 37.4% of the market while Android was far behind with 22.7%.

In terms of device manufacturers, Nokia still holds first place with 25.1% mobile devices sold, a large drop from the 30.6% share the company held in Q1 2010. Nokia’s market share will likely keep plummeting at least until the company starts selling Windows Phone 7-based devices, which is supposed to happen in 2012. Meanwhile, Samsung holds second place with 16.1% of the market, followed by LG, Apple, RIM and other companies whose market share is lower than 3%.

Looking forward, Gartner predicts that worldwide smartphone sales will reach 468 million units in 2011, with Android taking 38.5% of the smartphone market. The way Android has been growing like wildfire, I’d say the prediction is accurate, if not conservative.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

How To Get Mobile Numbers For Bulk SMS Marketing

2011-05-20T19:04:00.002-04:00

The problem exists for many. You fancy getting into SMS marketing but you haven’t got any mobile numbers, [therefore you have] nobody to send a message to. So where do you start?

Ultimately you want a list of followers who are genuinely interested in your product or service. People who are happy to receive your message and are likely to buy your goods.

It’s called permission-based marketing, loads of books have been written on the subject, [including offerings by Benjamin DeLeon, President of Brandel, Inc and its marketing website, AdKing.com.

You will want to follow this advice:]

First and foremost; never, ever part with money for a list of mobile numbers. Purchasing a list of mobile numbers and then firing out messages is regarded as SPAM.

You won’t win many friends this way and you will upset a lot of people. Expect to receive responses containing a range of four letter swear words; and don’t expect to get any new customers.

I’ll give you an example, we know a charity who bought 40,000 numbers.

With a modest 1% response rate you might expect 400 new donors. But, no, they got ONE. That’s right ONE.

And complaints, they got thousands. Messages like, “Where did you get my mobile number?” and “Do not send me anymore SMS, ever!”

They also got complaints via phone as well, some of the recipients rang their network providers and complained, who in turn spoke to the charity. Dealing with the fall out was messy; don’t fall into the same trap.

The short and long is this: no one wants a text message from someone they don’t know. No matter whom you are or how cool your offer is, they don’t want it. End of story.

Put a notice up.

This is simple method number one.

Signup for some SMS marketing software [go to AdKing.com for options] and then put a sign up — nothing fancy, just print something on a sheet of [paper] asking people to subscribe to get free stuff, offers, promotions, or whatever it is you are going to send them via SMS. Something like:

To receive great offers from us just send this text:
TXTRS PIZZA to 368638

Stick the notice somewhere nice and prominent. On a wall behind a counter, in front of the [cash register], on a card on the table, on the menu, on the receipt, on your website, anywhere it can be read by as many people as possible.

Everyone who texts in will be recorded in your SMS software, and presto, you have a database.

And people will text in, put that notice somewhere prominent, you’ll be surprised.

Next on the list is asking people. Seems obvious really but you’ll be surprised at how many either forget this or don’t have the confidence to ask.

If you own a restaurant, ask your diners. If you own a shop, ask everyone who comes in. If you own a hotel, ask everyone who stays over.

You could make it part of the sales patter,

“Thanks for visiting, did you know we send out offers occasionally by SMS...would you like to receive them?”

If you are uncomfortable with this idea try this: don’t think of it like you’re asking for their mobile number, consider you’re doing them a favour, letting them know there are discounts and offers to be had. No one will be upset with you if you are informing them of possible discounts.

Keywords & Shortcodes

Shortcodes and keywords are easier to remember [than long numbers] and hence easier for your customers to text.

An example would be: ’Text “SHOP” to 84433′

The same principles apply, you need to draw people’s attention to the keyword and shortcode. You can do this by asking or advertising.

-Gary Bury, Managing Director at Mediaburst Limited — A UK based mobile marketing provider.

Mobile apps a $3.8 billion biz in 2011

2011-05-19T13:22:00.002-04:00

The apps people buy on their mobile phones continue to bring in big business, and there are few signs of it slowing down according to IHS iSuppli.

In a report released May 3, the research firm says revenue from app stores owned by Apple, Google, Nokia, and Research In Motion is set to grow 77.7 percent, reaching $3.8 billion by the end of the year and eventually rising to $8.3 billion in 2014. By comparison, 2010's mobile app store combined revenues stood at $2.1 billion, up from $830.6 million in 2009.

"With consumers continuing to show robust, unflagging interest in downloading games and other applications to devices like smart phones and tablets, collective revenues from the four stores will climb sharply this year," IHS mobile analyst Jack Kent said in a statement.

IHS iSuppli picked Apple as the frontrunner among the four companies, pulling in $2.91 billion in revenue from the App Store by the end of the year--what it calls "a gargantuan three-quarters share of the total market." That information is based on the IHS iSuppli's own research and estimates, which also call for Apple to drop down to a 60 percent market share in 2014.

That decrease is attributed to Google's Android Market, which IHS iSupply estimates as grabbing $425.36 million in revenue and growing 295.4 percent in 2011. That jibes with sentiments from research group Distimo, which last week estimated that Google would catch up to Apple in terms of app volume and go on to outpace it by July, potentially bringing in more app sales.

-Josh Lowensohn

Groupon Sees Half of All Sales Coming From Mobile in Two Years

2011-05-17T16:52:00.002-04:00

SharePrint Mobile, along with social and local, will be one of the largest drivers for Groupon’s deals business over the next few years.

Groupon VP Mobile Partnerships Michael Shim said: “Mobile is huge for Groupon…I believe we could see us doing 50 percent of deals sold/purchased in the next couple of years.”

Shim made the statements this morning at Mobile Northwest, an all-day event in Seattle sponsored by Miller Nash, where a good portion of the day’s discussions are focused on the intersection of mobile and commerce and payments.

The opening morning keynote was delivered by K.C. MacLaren, Starbucks’ director of mobile and emerging platforms. MacLaren said the coffee retailer is the largest mobile payments company, with 8,000 outlets. In January, it rolled out an iPhone app nationwide that allows people to scan their phone to pay for a drink.

MacLaren said so far usage of the application has exceeded expectations, with millions of users. Three months after the app launched, the company revealed that more than three million people had paid using Starbucks Card Mobile.

Right now the application isn’t about incremental revenue, he said, but about driving loyalty. Other iterations in the pipeline include an Android application and the ability to order a coffee for pick-up in the store.

Shim talked about a new service launched last Tuesday called Groupon Now, which allows users in the Chicago area to make a timely purchase decision on when and where they want to eat lunch or dinner–or maybe even go see a movie.

Shim said the service has also exceeded expectations, with more than 1,000 merchants already signed up to offer real-time deals. “We’ve been inundated with demand. Groupon Now is about local discovery. What can I find around me?…We are just getting going on where we think it will take our business.”

-Tricia Duryee

Payment Alliance International First to Market with ATM Mobile Marketing

2011-05-08T16:53:00.002-04:00

Payment Alliance International (PAI), a leader in electronic payment processing solutions, announced today that it has integrated mobile marketing into its ATMs. The integration was made possible through an industry-leading partnership between PAI and Street Savings, a mobile marketing provider.

Street Savings mobile marketing products move value using text messaging, popular gift and loyalty programs, and widely available credit card terminal and POS hardware that now includes ATMs. The company’s Mobile Coupons and Mobile Rewards products are designed specifically for resellers. “Our products are easy and affordable for merchants, quick-to-provision and work with the credit card terminals and point-of-sale (POS) systems agents already sell,” said Pal Flagg, Street Savings chief operating officer. “Now they are also the first way for consumers to participate in the benefits of mobile marketing via the ubiquitous ATM.”

PAI manages over 50,000 ATMs nationwide via a network of agents and market representatives. The strategic move enables consumers to opt-in to mobile deals from area merchants at the ATM, and uniquely positions the company and its agents to take advantage of the fast-growing mobile opportunity. “By combining mobile with the ATM, we are giving agents a unique, value-added service that provides differentiation when competing for electronic payment services and ATM sales," said John J. Leehy, III, president & chief executive officer of PAI. “We’re also giving agents a new product that can cost-effectively drive significant revenue for merchants.”

PAI will feature PAIMobile along with its new ATM mobile marketing capabilities at the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) Annual Meeting & Expo, May 10-12, 2011, in San Diego, Calif. Mobilized ATMs will be available for demonstration at the PAI booth. The demos will highlight the easy accessibility of mobile marketing’s benefits for small- to medium-sized businesses.

At the conference, ETA attendees will have the opportunity to receive mobile text message offers from restaurants and merchants in San Diego’s famous Gaslamp Quarter, such as Get $10 off, simply by opting-in at one of the ATM kiosks on display.

-Business Wire

Visa Says Major Global Mobile E-Commerce Strategy to be Announced This Month

2011-05-08T08:58:00.001-04:00

Credit card giant Visa is hinting at a major mobile commerce announcement later this month.

On Thursday, Visa informed the Wall Street Journal that it’s poised to raise the curtain on its global mobile e-commerce strategy in a matter of weeks, if not sooner.

Chief Executive Joseph Saunders first hinted at the looming announcement during an investors call with analysts after Visa reported its fiscal second-quarter results.

The news comes just days after Visa announced an investment of an undisclosed amount into mobile payments provider Square.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

Shop Text To Buy

2011-05-07T09:53:00.001-04:00

Impulse-driven online shoppers know the joys of want-click-get more than most. But Will Robison — New York-based creator of text-to-buy virtual marketplace Subports — had the hunch to take the process offline and directly into shoppers' cell phones.

Subports' mobile model has two-fold retail appeal: Sellers (see: Brooklyn-based stylist Christian Joy) have the opportunity to customize orders and drop-ship goods without the burden of mass production and otherwise inevitable overstock. Meanwhile, shoppers can shop product-coded goods wherever they happen to find them — from pop-up shops to gallery openings and concerts — with just the click of a few phone keys.

-NBC Connecticut, Amanda Martinez, The Feast

Opportunities in targeting and engagement to attract new mobile advertisers

2011-05-06T09:09:00.003-04:00

Small publishers dominate the growing mobile advertising market but several trends are helping to attract more and larger brands into the space, according to a new report on mobile advertising from The 451 Group.

The “State of the Market: Mobile Display and Search Advertising” report points to the growth of smartphones and the resulting opportunities for targeted advertising and better engagement as leading reasons why brands are showing interest in mobile advertising.

“Brands with large campaign budgets often end up spending a tiny fraction of their budgets on mobile,” states the report from The 451 Group, New York. “What they do not realize is that mobile is not just another channel but a convergence tool owing to its multimedia and contextual capabilities.

“Smaller businesses with limited budgets have a much bigger need for these kinds of unified campaigns, which give them a single, integrated view,” he said.

The shift towards better mobile browsers, faster mobile Internet speeds and tablets are causing brands to consider richer and more engaging advertising formats than SMS and MMS. These include advertising on mobile Web sites, mobile apps and via digital publications.

Display advertising gains traction
Display advertising is showing significant growth, per the report, prompting device manufacturers and carriers, publishing and service delivery platforms to take a closer look at mobile advertising.

The relative reach for some of the largest ad networks has grown significantly in the past year. AdMob is tracking 150 million unique visitors per month in 2010 compared with less than 90 million in 2009.

Inmobi’s monthly unique visitors jumped from a few million in 2009 to over 90 million in 2010. Jumptap, Millennial Media and Mojiva also all saw significant increases.

Looking ahead, location-based ad networks stand to gain from the interest in mobile advertising.

The cost of location-based advertising is several times higher than typical mobile advertising. This has to do with the fact that location can make a big difference to the relevancy of the ad served. Location-based ad networks use this to offer sponsored search results, placements on maps and click-to-navigation features.

“At the moment, [location-based advertising] is a relatively small piece of the overall mobile advertising ecosystem, but with growing realization and interest, these networks will hugely benefit,” the report states.

The effective cost per thousand impressions for mobile advertising can range between $0.30 to as high as $40, per the report.

Complexity hinders growth
There are several factors, however, that stand in the way of some brands embracing mobile.

One is the growing complexity of the industry. There are an estimated 200 mobile advertising networks, including independent ad networks, proprietary ad networks, location-based ad networks, video ad networks and affiliate ad networks, per the report. In addition, there are publishers and developers and ad-creation platforms.

There is also hesitancy on the part of brands to spend in the mobile space because of a lack of independent mobile-specific analytics. However, given the amount of money at stake, several third-party mobile analytics providers are looking to serve the market.

-Chantal Tode

Apple iPad Still The Tablet Leader; Tablet Use Eats Into Other Device Usage

2011-05-06T09:01:00.002-04:00

A few stats and numbers released today underscore the dominance that the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPad has among those that have purchased media tablets to date. They also show that tablets use is, as suspected, encroaching on time spent on other devices. That gives another strong reason for why companies like Acer and Sony (NYSE: SNE) see tablets as a must in their product portfolios.

The research, from Nielsen, found that despite strong competition from Android-based devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola’s Xoom, iPad has conceded relatively little market share so far. Some 82 percent of tablet-owners said they owned an iPad.

The research was conducted in spring 2011, says Nielsen. Other findings:

—Single users outnumber sharing users: Unlike the quintessential “family computer”, households are reporting more single-user devices (50 percent) than they are devices that are shared among more than one person (43 percent). Some eight percent of respondents said they owned a tablet, but it was used by others in the house. (Eager children/hopeful but luddite parents?)

—Use of other devices being impacted: Nielsen’s findings seem to confirm the suspicion that the rise of tablets will affect usage of other devices.

Among laptop owners, 32 percent say they are using them less or not at all; among desktop PC owners, the number is even higher, at 35 percent. e-Readers are not immune, either: 27 percent report using those devices less or not at all, while 25 percent of portable games device owners said they were using those devices less, too.

-paidcontent.org

Mobile Marketing Strategy - Include Mobile Web, Apps & Unlimited SMS Text Messaging

2011-05-05T09:19:00.004-04:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: It is interesting that this article is focusing solely on Apps and the mobile Web, and did not even touch on SMS messaging! SMS text messaging is accessible to 95% of the market's cell phones. Only AdKing.com offers Free, Unlimited SMS text messaging. No per text fees, ever!

SAN FRANCISCO – A Forrester analyst at Mobile Shopping Summit said that both applications and the mobile Web are key for retailers and brands. However, a single application does not make a mobile strategy.

During the “Consumer Insight: Defining The When, Where And How of Mobile Interaction” session, the executive discussed emerging mobile trends. Additionally, she talked about how more consumers are turning to their mobile device to shop.

“Consumer spending is increasing and with it ad spend and investment in mobile services,” said Julie Ask, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, Cambridge, MA.

“Consumers are spending more money on mobile and the ROI is more tangible,” she said. “The level of engagement is going up.

“The bigger opportunity is going to be in sales that mobile will influence in the bricks and mortars.”

Purchase intent
According to Ms. Ask, mobile shopping does not necessarily have to involve a consumer purchase.

In addition to buying products via their mobile device, consumers can also research items before they go into a store.

“Mobile shopping is something that’s more broad than just a purchase,” Ms. Ask said. “Certainly, as you’re going forward, you have to balance mobile commerce versus something like driving traffic.

“A minority of consumers use mobile services today – 8 percent were doing research via mobile and four percent were buying via mobile,” she said. “With smartphone users, that number is significantly more.

“One of the things that surprised me is the phenomenal growth of consumers becoming accustomed to mobile shopping – using the phone in-store has grown a lot.”

Strategy
The mobile Web is still the primary means of consumers using it today, per Ms. Ask.

Although mobile applications are very popular among companies and consumers, Ms. Ask said that just because a company has a mobile app does not mean that it has a complete mobile strategy.

“The iPad has emerged as the shiny new object and there’s certainly an opportunity with it, however a single iPad app isn’t a strategy,” Ms. Ask said.

According to Ms. Ask, mobile shopping should offer three core benefits to drive convenience – immediacy, simplicity and context.

“Phones are very personal and intimate devices,” Ms. Ask said. “You have to make it easy for consumers to input information.

“I believe we’re going to willingly give up information about ourselves because we’re going to want the convenience of what mobile gives us in return,” she said. “You need to focus on customer needs.

“We’re not doing mobile for the sake of doing mobile.”

Mobile is a perfect tool that companies can leverage to engage consumers and get that point of sale.

Consumers always have their devices on them and use them for not only researching a product, but also buying on spontaneously.

“Mobile is as much a product as it is a channel,” Ms. Ask said. “Phones are with us 24/7.

“Shopping is not going to end with a sale,” she said. “It’s going to continue throughout product ownership or service experience.

“It’s important to find out who your target audience is and go from there.”

-Rimma Kats

Smartphones Remaking the Way Men Work and Live

2011-05-02T19:08:00.002-04:00

Smartphones are getting men to do what their women have unsuccessfully tried for years: use a map and make them feel more confident. Those are some of the ways that smartphones are remaking the lives of its male users, according to a new survey from Spike TV. The study found that men are unabashedly in love with their smartphones, a borderline addictive relationship that has empowered and also distracted men in small and profound ways.

First, let’s establish that women are huge smartphone users as well. In fact, Nielsen recently said 55 percent of smartphone users age 15-24 are female. And in many ways, smartphones are used similarly by both genders, because they’re such powerful versatile tools. But it’s still fun and interesting to see how Spike TV sized up the male smartphone audience and how these users come to look at their relationship with their gadgets. It says as much about guys as it does about the technology.

The survey of 1,018 men found 88 percent of men said they “loved” their smartphone, with half saying they were actually addicted to their handset. Eight out of 10 said smartphones made their lives better, making them more confident (73 percent) and making them feel smarter (68 percent). That guys could actually find such a boost from gadget suggests smartphones are powerful, but that men are also in need of some ego-massaging and other affirmations. However, it seems like guys do have a different sense of how gadgets make them feel. A recent Retrevo study found that half of men were attracted to a person using a cool phone.

Because of smartphones, 72 percent of respondents said they were using maps and GPS more often, and another 72 percent said they were communicating more with friends. I’m sure women are also doing more of these activities too. But this kind of plays on the guy stereotypes of unfeeling cavemen, eschewing the need to turn to maps or picking up a phone to call a friend. The smartphone is now becoming the more acceptable or easier way to do these certain things for men, it seems. Wives and girlfriends, take note: Guys are more likely to do something when you wrap it up in a cool gadget.

We need to spend more time figuring out the particular nuances in the ways that men and women relate to their phones. There is a deep relationship happening between consumers and their phones, and we’re still learning about how powerful and moving these bonds can be. As the study points out, getting a better fix on how men use their phones can provide a lot of opportunities for marketers, retailers and content creators to tailor their outreach to this audience.

-Ryan Kim

Mobile plays key role in Visit Orlando marketing campaign

2011-04-28T08:54:00.005-04:00

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Use AdKing.com's Mobile Web Apps and Free Unlimited SMS Text Messaging to engage local consumers for your advertising customers. Go to visitorlando.mobi to see their mobile website/app on your smartphone.]

Visit Orlando is using mobile marketing and advertising to spearhead its latest campaign to attract visitors to the destination.

The convention and visitor’s bureau is promoting the chance to win a free trip for four to the city. Once entered in the contest, consumers can opt-in to receive ongoing promotions and information about Orlando as a travel destination.

“The strategy with this campaign is twofold,” said Eric Harber, president and chief operating officer of Hipcricket, Kirkland, WA. “First, Visit Orlando will be introduced or reintroduced to potential visitors.

“Second, the organization is building a loyalty club of opted-in consumers,” he said. “This allows Visit Orlando to interact with these people on an ongoing basis and offer them promotions, deals and suggestions of fun things they can do while visiting Orlando.”

Visit Orlando is a sales and marketing organization for the Orlando and Orange County area. It represents more than 1,450 private businesses that make up the area's tourism industry.

Learning about Orlando, let us count the ways
The contest is currently being promoted through a number of channels, including SMS and banner and in-app ads on several different media properties.

An SMS mobile call to action is also being included in radio spots, on VisitOrlando.com and on a billboard in New York’s Times Square.

With the call to action, consumers are being asked to text a keyword to a shortcode in order to be entered in the contest.

Although the contest kicked off this month, results regarding the number of people texting in have not yet been disclosed.

...Visit Orlando has been able to build a mobile database of opted-in consumers for future marketing initiatives.

Building a mobile database is a key component of a mobile marketing strategy and allows for continued consumer interest long after the initial promotion has ended.

Businesses are also able to maintain a voice and command attention in a competitive industry.

“An opted-in consumer has raised his or her hand and is open to ongoing engagement,” Mr. Harber said. “For Visit Orlando, this keeps the entity top of mind and builds loyalty via offers and information that consumers' desire.”

-Mackenzie Allison

Mobile ads driving purchase intent among smartphone users

2011-04-28T08:46:00.002-04:00

A study by Google Inc. found that mobile ads drive smartphone users to take actions such as visiting a Web site or making a purchase.

Google’s “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users” study found that 71 percent of smartphone users search after being exposed to ads online and offline. A whopping 82 percent notice mobile ads and 74 percent make a purchase as a result of using their phone during the shopping process.

“The findings of the study have strong implications for businesses and mobile advertisers,” said Dai Pham, a member of the mobile ads marketing team at Google, Mountain View, CA. “Make sure you can be found via mobile search as consumers regularly use their phones to find and act on information.

“...make it easy for mobile customers to reach you because local information seeking is common among smartphone users,” he said.

In fact, 88 percent of those who look for local information on their smartphones take action within a day, Google found.

The study was commissioned by Google and conducted by Ipsos OTX, an independent market research firm, among 5,013 U.S. adult smartphone Internet users at the end of 2010.

General smartphone usage
There is no argument when it comes to the role that smartphones play in the daily lives of consumers.

Consumers are increasingly relying on their smartphones to multitask and consume other media.

Google’s study found that 81 percent of smartphone users browse the Internet, 77 percent search, 68 percent use an app, and 48 percent watch videos on their device.

The smartphone has turned into the always on companion. Consumers are using their devices even while they are consuming other forms of media.

In fact, 72 percent use their smartphones while consuming other media, with a third claiming they use their device while watching television.

At one point the mobile device was a means of reaching consumers on the go. But that has now changed.

With 93 percent of smartphone owners using their device while at home, the mobile phone is now a means of reaching consumers at all times.

Action-oriented searchers
Google’s study found that smartphone users rely on mobile search to navigate the mobile Web.

Search engine Web sites are the most visited mobile Internet destinations, with 77 percent of smartphone users citing this, followed by social networking, retail and video-sharing sites.

What is interesting is that nine out of 10 smartphone searches result in an action such as purchase, visiting a business or a click-to-call.

Additionally, Google found that 24 percent of smartphone searchers recommended a brand or product to others as a result of a smartphone search.

Almost all smartphone users are looking for local information. And, consumers are ready to act on the information they find.

Google’s study found that 95 percent of smartphone users have looked for local information and 88 percent of these users take action within a day.

These findings indicate that there is a need for immediate information among smartphone users. A whopping 77 percent have contacted a business, with 61 percent calling and 59 percent visiting the local business.

Purchase-driven shoppers
At the end of the day, marketers are trying to drive sales. And smartphones have become an important part of the shopping process. They help shoppers research and make a purchase decision.

Google’s study uncovered that 79 percent of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping via activities such as comparing prices, finding more product info and locating a retailer.

Seventy-four percent of consumers that use their mobile device during the shopping process make a purchase online, in-store or on their phones.

The study also found that 70 percent of consumers use their smartphones while in the store.

Reaching mobile consumers
A cross-media approach is the best way to influence the largest number of smartphone users. Different people use their devices for different things. In the end, as a marketer, it would be nice to reach them all.

A majority of smartphone users notice mobile ads, which leads to taking action on it.

In fact, 71 percent search on their phones because of an ad exposure, whether from traditional media (68 percent), online ads (18 percent) or mobile ads (27 percent).

Eighty-two percent notice mobile ads, with most noticing display ads and a third noticing mobile search ads.

Half of those who see a mobile ad take action, with 35 percent visiting a Web site and 49 percent making a purchase.

“Develop a comprehensive cross-channel strategy as mobile shoppers use their phones in-store, online and via mobile Web sites and apps to research and make purchase decisions,” Mr. Pham said.

“Last, implement an integrated marketing strategy with mobile advertising that takes advantage of the knowledge that people are using their smartphones while consuming other media and are influenced by it,” he said.

-Giselle Tsirulnik

Text REDCROSS to 90999 to Give $10

2011-04-25T12:08:00.005-04:00

[As we are well aware,] on March 11 an earthquake struck Japan near the city of Sendai, which caused damage and generated a powerful tsunami which struck northern Japan and spread across the Pacific.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Since then the catastrophe has escalated to include a nuclear disaster. Nearly 200,000 people have been displaced and are desperately in need of aid. I just read an article trying to explain why the appeals to help Japan via an SMS Text Messaging campaign paled in comparison to Haiti's $25 million success. Here is my attempt to encourage more giving - please text today!]

You can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross. During the donation process, you will be offered the option to specify your gift to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific, or to support other Red Cross efforts. On those rare occasions when donations exceed American Red Cross expenses for a specific disaster, contributions are used to prepare for and serve victims of other disasters.

Charges will appear on your wireless bill, or be deducted from your prepaid balance. All purchases must be authorized by account holder. Message & Data Rates May Apply. Text STOP to 90999 to STOP. Text HELP to 90999 for HELP. To see the full terms applicable to donations, please visit www.mgive.org/T. Receipts for donations are available at www.mgive.org/receipt.

Tablet Research: Top Uses For iPad

2011-04-09T09:23:00.003-04:00

New research out from AdMob looks at tablet device usage, primarily the iPad, in terms of content consumption, where they use them the most, and other factors.

The survey included responses from over 1,500 respondents and showed that gaming (84 percent), search (78 percent) and email (74 percent) led the way in terms of how users are spending their time with their tablets, while surprisingly, entertainment consumption (music and video) and reading e-books ranked among the least common activities with only 51 percent and 46 percent respectively.

Interestingly, the survey shows that nearly half (43 percent) of those surveyed now spend more time with their tablet than they do with their desktop or notebook computer, and 77 percent spend less time on their notebooks or desktops than they did before getting a tablet. Even more impressive is that over a third (34 percent) of respondents indicated that they use their tablets more than they use their televisions.

In terms of where people use their tablets most, it seems “at home” was the most common response. In fact, 82 percent of respondents claim they primarily use their tablets at home, while only 11 percent said they use them most often “on the go.” The remaining 7 percent said they use the iPad mostly at work.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

New Report Shows US Smartphone Ownership Soaring

2011-04-02T09:46:00.002-04:00

Smartphone ownership in the United States is surging. That’s according to fresh data published today from the comScore MobiLens service.

The report points to key trends in the US mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending February 2011.

For the three month average period ending in February, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices.

Based on comScore’s survey of more than 30,000 US mobile subscribers, estimates now place US smartphone ownership at 69.5 million, a substantial 13% spike from the preceding three-month period.

In the race for smartphone supremacy, Google’s Android grew 7.0 percentage points since November, strengthening its #1 position with 33.0 percent market share.

RIM, meanwhile, finished second with 28.9 percent market share. Apple placed third (25.2 percent), Microsoft fourth (7.7 percent), and Palm (2.8 percent) rounded out the top five.

With regard to mobile content usage, 68.8 percent of US mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device in February 2011. Browsers were used by 38.4 percent of subscribers (up 3.1 percentage points), and downloaded mobile apps were used by 36.6 percent of the mobile audience (up 3.2 percentage points).

Similar noteworthy spikes were observed in the usage of social networking and mobile gaming.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

The hottest trends in mobile right now

2011-04-01T07:57:00.003-04:00

Tablets, of course, are the device of the moment, with consumer adoption booming and plenty of iPad 2 competitors reaching the market—from Android-based tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom to Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook and Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad. Brands and retailers are placing an increasing emphasis on applications for various smartphone and tablet platforms, but the trick is encouraging repeat usage and fitting apps into a marketer’s overall strategy.

“From all directions—app development platforms, apps themselves, marketers and thought leaders—[at CTIA Wireless 2011 in Orlando] I was hearing about the need for brands to think about usage and engagement measurement and metrics for app strategies,” said Melissa Parrish, New York-based analyst at Forrester Research.

“I agree that thinking needs to move beyond the application download numbers to see how and how often users are using those applications post-download,” she said.

“This is particularly important for marketers to understand how their branded application is really changing and deepening their relationship with their mobile consumer.”

Melissa Parrish is analyst of interactive marketing at Forrester Research
Based on the buzz at International CTIA Wireless in Orlando, FL, 2011 is the year of mobile commerce, location-based advertising and apps for all types of devices.

App craze
Apps have been hot for some time now, but their importance has been amplified tremendously with the launch of the iPad and competing tablet devices.

With tablets, a whole new array of applications have been launched in an effort to gain loyalty, sell goods and for branding.

It is imperative for brands and retailers to market their applications to drive downloads. However, getting onto consumers’ handsets—while definitely invaluable—is not the be-all-and-end-all.

Tracking how often consumers are using a particular application, and what actions they are taking once they do open an app, can provide key insight to help the marketer optimize the experience.

Monetization tactics for applications range from free/ad-supported and in-application transactions for virtual goods to pay-per-download, freemium and subscriptions.

In addition, Ms. Parrish said that mobile technologists who are looking for marketers’ dollars are getting much more adept at addressing marketers’ needs.

-Dan Butcher

50% Growth in Smartphone Market in 2011

2011-03-31T11:35:00.002-04:00

The worldwide smartphone market is growing. And fast.

According to the latest projections by the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the global smartphone market is expected to grow 49.2% in 2011.

The growth will be driven by an ever-widening pool of consumers and enterprise users turning in their feature phones for more sophisticated smartphones.

The IDC’s research finds that smartphone vendors will likely ship more than 450 million smartphones in 2011 compared to the 303.4 million units shipped in 2010.

“Overall market growth in 2010 was exceptional,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC. “Last year’s high market growth was due in part to pent-up demand from a challenging 2009, when many buyers held off on mobile phone purchases. The expected market growth for 2011, while still notable, will taper off somewhat from what we saw in 2010.”

The smartphone market will grow more than four times faster than the overall mobile phone market.

With regard to which smartphone maker will most likely come out on top, IDC says it’s Android.

“Android is poised to take over as the leading smartphone operating system in 2011 after racing into the number 2 position in 2010,” says Ramon Llamas, a senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team.

“For the vendors who made Android the cornerstone of their smartphone strategies, 2010 was the coming-out party. This year will see a coronation party as these same vendors broaden and deepen their portfolios to reach more customers, particularly first-time smartphone users.”

-Michael, Mobile Marketing Watch

Small Business Opportunities magazine launches redesigned website!

2011-03-26T19:12:00.002-04:00

New York, NY: March 22 2011: The leading national newsstand publication on entrepreneurship, Small Business Opportunities, launched a newly designed website today, announced the Associate Publisher Arlene Jaffee.

“We have had an online presence since 2000 to help startup entrepreneurs find resources and ideas to open their first businesses. Our web visitors, who already operate small businesses, have told us that our online how-to columns and interviews with successful business owners have helped them to fine-tune their strategies and marketing plans during these tough times,” said Jaffee.

Small Business Opportunities (SBO) and its sister publications, Start Your Own Business and Get Rich At Home have been how-to resource mainstays since 1988 with the launch of SBO.

“Small business owners have had a tough time weathering this up-and-down economy. And, for many of the millions of Americans who lost their jobs in the past two years, there are still too few viable employment options. Interest in starting a business has never been more popular than it is right now. We wanted to revamp our site to make it even more user-friendly and content rich to assist them in the process.

“Our objective has always been to demystify entrepreneurship for our readers and our new www.sbomag.com site contains more resources, tips, links, trends, and information on franchise and business opportunities than ever before,” said Jaffee.

“The newly designed website provides our advertisers with even more opportunity to reach their target audience–consumers who are looking to purchase biz opps, as well as find information on tech products, web strategies, books, how-to manuals and turnkey packages,” added the Associate Publisher.

The site is determined to offer maximum amounts of information in minimal quick bites, with a wide variety of resources to direct visitors to organizations and companies where they can find additional information. The site is more interactive, and offers daily and weekly updates on trends, trade shows, new products and services of interest to entrepreneurs. “We will also be able to incorporate stories and features to reach our rapidly expanding global audience,” said Jaffee.

Visitors who sign up for the SBO newsletter can win free current bestselling business books to be awarded on a weekly basis. The magazine is also tweeting @sbomag on twitter and you can ‘Like’ SBO on facebook at smallbusinessopportunities.

“More than ever, small business is still the backbone of our economy. We are honored to be a part of the process,” said Jaffee.

Small Business Opportunities, Start Your Own Business, and Get Rich At Home are published by Harris Publications. The consumer magazines are national in the United States, Canada and Australia and are also sold in 40 countries via English-language bookstores and on newsstands in major hotels and airports.

How to put context into mobile with digital signage

2011-03-19T18:00:00.004-04:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: The bank in our metro area has video screens, presumably for the entertainment of those standing in line, right? Not necessarily so. Use the App4Ads Directory-Style mobile web app to create a community-oriented coupon club. Get advertisers to post inside your app while you create a brand and get all the local merchants and consumers on board! Inquire with the bank manager for contact information regarding their digital signage.

OR, try Plan B: Use AdKing.com's BizApp Creator to build individual apps for each of your advertisers. Create a short piece for each one, including coupon info, benefits, SMS text optin details, etc. Clips could be run like an ad, interspersed with other programming.

The explosion of consumer-centric mobile innovation is demanding a new focus on mobile context.

Mobile context is defined as the match between a consumer’s given physical environment – a venue such as a store, hotel or restaurant – and the optimal mobile experience – mobile application, ad campaign or commercial transaction – for that environment.

Before a mobile context can be established, a venue’s patrons or guests must first be made aware that one or more mobile experiences exist for the given environment.

Once the awareness is established, the consumer must then be educated on the scope of the mobile experience as well as the value of the experience.

[In addition to digital signage,] there are several techniques for creating a context such as 2D bar codes or SMS campaigns.

Sign’s on the wall
Digital signage is described as a system for centrally managing the delivery of digital messages to electronic displays installed within venues or environments for the purpose of influencing of educating, entertaining and influencing viewer behavior.

Millions of digital signage screens are in use worldwide and thousands more deployed daily. Few, however, are being used to create a mobile context.

Mobile app developers, carriers and mobile advertisers can use digital signage to set mobile context, help venues create a more engaging experience for their patrons and guests and increase their awareness and dependence on a given mobile experience.

Once the message is displayed on the signage...venue patrons will then know about the mobile experience, understand [its] value...and know how to engage with the mobile experience. The mobile context will be set.

Important to Note:

>>Effective digital signage messages lend themselves to be easily understood in less than 15 seconds.

>>When designing a message for a digital signage display, one should strive to keep the old adage in mind that a picture is worth a thousand words.

>>The goal is for your message to be graphical that your value proposition can be easily understood without a lot of text or supporting audio.

>>The mobile message must play at a time that the desired audience will be present and receptive.

-Steve Gurley, Mobile Commerce Daily

P.S. The local sports bar has TONS of screens, and some of them dedicated to their very own products - spanning anywhere from buses to the NFL's Miami Dolphins home games to their special edition desserts for two. Next time I am there I should ask why they don't have their own app yet, a natural pairing with promotion on their digital signage. -SGD

An outlook for mobile couponing in today's market

2011-03-19T16:22:00.003-04:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Granted, some of the ideas in this article are not commonplace yet, what you can take away from this article is that Mobile Coupons are hip and hot! They are perfectly suited to mobile applications and both the BizApp Creator and the App4Ads offer built-in alert pages for convenient updating. Visit AdKing.com for more details.

Mobile couponing is one of the hot areas in mobile commerce today.

Indeed, mobile couponing is “the fastest growing and most obvious mobile marketing application,” according to Borrell Associates, with mobile coupon spending expected to grow at a rapid cumulative average growth rate of nearly 78 percent.

A recent study by Gartner also showed that mobile couponing was one of the top activities of consumers who use mobile devices for shopping planned on doing.

Specifically, retailers who will succeed with mobile couponing are those who approach it differently. Some ways to approach mobile couponing differently could be to:

Make mobile coupons available on your mobile Web site...the reason why you will want to do so is that you will reach a wider audience with the mobile Web, particularly as a richer experience evolves on smartphones.

Also, many retailers today already offer coupons through their traditional Web site, so extending coupons to the mobile Web is a no-brainer.

Create mobile coupons that are store specific
As mobile Web sites and apps are able to use the mobile device’s GPS, being able to deliver location- or store-specific coupons to the mobile consumer will become a reality.

The benefits are enormous. Not only will shoppers be able to understand what deals they can find in that particular store, but retailers will be able to promote and sell excess inventory in a particular store, increasing effective inventory management.

Personalize mobile coupons
Making coupons relevant to the preferences, time and location will help not only personalize coupons, but make them more likely to convert customers.

For instance, target coupons based on past purchasing behavior or selected preferences for when consumers sign up for coupon alerts.

A consumer who likes men’s clothing would rather only receive coupons for those products, as opposed to women’s clothing that would not interested him.

Allow for consumer opt-in alerts other than SMS
Most mobile coupons are currently issued via SMS. Provide alternative mechanisms for notifications, such as email or RSS.

Let consumers opt-in for notifications that work best for them.

Integrate coupons into the core mobile shopping experience
Make mobile coupons and offers an integral part of the consumer mobile experience.

Allowing consumers to browse which coupons are available are a great place to start, but tying them to part of the overall mobile shopping experience will maximize effectiveness.

For example, when a consumer scans a bar code on a product in-store, searches a product, browses to a product page or undertakes another activity on the mobile storefront, serve up relevant coupons tied to the product for which she is looking.

Provide coupons through location-based services
Location-based services offer a huge opportunity for retailers, particularly when mobile coupons and offers are tied to the experience.

While consumer adoption of LBS is still low – about 4 percent, according to a November 2010 study by the Pew Internet & American Life project – the consumers who are bothering to check into your location are invested consumers. In other words, they really want to do business with you, otherwise, why bother checking in?

Gap has done a great job tapping this opportunity by tying offers to Foursquare check-ins, and Starbucks has done the same for mayorships.

As LBS evolves beyond check-ins and mayorship rewards, and allows for quality of experience to highlight best places to shop, additional opportunities will arise for coupons and offers through LBS.

Offer coupons through other channels
One of the major challenges for consumer use of coupons is actually finding coupons.

Making them available through your mobile Web site or native app is a great place to start, but should not limited there.

Distribute them through social media such as Twitter, Facebook and via blogging efforts, but also through coupon aggregators such as Yowza, 8Coupons, Zavers, Coupon Sherpa and Cellfire. Find the one that makes sense for your brand and increase the reach.

-Gary Lombardo,

94% of consumers would make a mobile payment if secure

2011-03-19T15:43:00.005-04:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Both AdKing.com Mobile Web App systems - the BizApp Creator and the App4Ads - allow for links to mobile payment sites such as those provided by PayPal and other mcommerce sites. Encourage your advertising clients to accept payments by mobile, thus creating another revenue stream!

...There is a high level of interest from consumers in making mobile payments, [however] security concerns are the largest barrier to market growth and consumer adoption, according to a report by Mobio Identity Systems Inc.

If security concerns can be eradicated, the mobile commerce market may finally reach its long-anticipated exponential growth, per Mobio. The key finding of the report is that 94 percent of consumers would make a mobile payment if they knew it was secure.

“This indicates an overwhelming interest in the mcommerce market from a consumer perspective and, as industry leaders, we are excited to see this,” said Mark Binns, chief marketing officer of Mobio Identity Systems, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

“The most surprising finding was that 51 percent consumers say they have made a mobile payment within the past three months, and 82 percent see themselves making them within the next year,” he said.

“This implies consumer usage growth of over 30 percent within the next year.”

History of mobile commerce
Mobile commerce was first trialed in Finland in 1997 when Coca-Cola released mobile-enabled vending machines that accepted payment via SMS. In 1998, the first sale of digital content was made with the release of commercial downloadable ringtones.

By 2000, mobile-commerce services spread rapidly with the introduction of mobile payments and purchases all over the world: mobile parking payments in Norway, train ticket purchases in Austria and airline ticket purchases in Japan.

The hype around mobile commerce was huge in early 2000.

Industry professionals predicted that the m-payment market would rise from almost nothing to over $55 billion by 2006.

Another study by Strategy Analytics reported in 2001 that by 2006, mobile commerce revenues would be $230 billion.

Despite the hype and predictions, the mobile commerce market did not grow very fast at all.

In 2009, it was reported that revenues were $68.7 billion and, again, expected to rise exponentially to $633.4 billion by 2014.

Mobio’s study examined the question: What has been holding this market, and the consumers, back? Its survey asking consumers what they thought about mobile payments was distributed to the general North American population, and 1,085 people responded, which makes the findings statistically significant to plus or minus 3 percent, 19 times out of 20.

Advice for brands, retailers and merchants
The mcommerce market has been on the verge of exponential growth for some time now.

With technology becoming an essential part of everyday consumer-brand interactions, Mr. Binns said Mobio feels that the future for mobile payments has finally arrived. [Or at the very least, Mobio feels they have been waiting long enough!]

Mobile payments will continue to become increasingly commonplace, so a strategy to integrate this technology is necessary for those brands who want to stay relevant in the consumer mind-space going forward, per Mobio.

“So, we advise brands and retailers to get involved now – being a leader in the space will have significant returns a short timeframe,” Mr. Binns said. “Organizations who want to participate in the mcommerce market should carefully research the options available.

...“Consumers need to feel a high level of trust towards the brands they are interacting with in the mobile space.

“Brands should identify those elements that make their mobile payment secure and be able to explain to their customers how their information is safe.”

- Dan Butcher, Mobile Commerce Daily

Marketers Rally for Japan Relief Efforts

2011-03-19T15:19:00.003-04:00

Scores of marketers and organizations have announced relief efforts to help the hundreds of thousands of survivors of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan last week who have been displaced, with no home or city to return to.

According to Japan's Foreign Affairs Ministry, more than 90 countries and regions and six international organizations have extended offers of assistance. In a rush of solidarity, marketers have linked up with organizations like the Red Cross...here's a roundup of companies offering relief efforts to Japan. EDITOR'S NOTE: WITH PARTICULAR FOCUS ON TEXTING AND SOCIAL MEDIA.

Red Cross rehashes texting effort
Like its effort after the Haiti earthquake last year, the Red Cross has again turned to text messages as a way to raise funds. The group quickly began promoting the use of its existing short code, 90999, and keyword, REDCROSS, as a means for donating $10 to relief efforts in Japan. A spokeswoman said the group decided not to create a new keyword for Japan donations, as it did to aid Haiti, because the public is already familiar with the existing REDCROSS keyword. The Haiti keyword, established in the hours following that disaster, attracted more than $32 million in donations in less than two months.

Monday's promoted Twitter trend, #HelpJapan, was donated by Twitter itself....according to a Red Cross spokeswoman, Twitter reached out to offer the promoted trend.

Among other contributors to the Red Cross...Apple has set up a page in its iTunes store that allows users to contribute via a page to the Red Cross in amounts between $5 and $200.

Group-buying site LivingSocial has teamed up with GlobalGiving.org for a donation campaign. The 24 million members who peruse LivingSocial's sites for deals will now also see a simple web banner directing them to Global Giving, which is working with Save the Children and the International Medical Corps to provide on-the-ground support in Japan.

Zynga has created an in-game donation drive, whereby players of "FarmVille," "CityVille" and some of its other social games can plant special crops; players will be charged via credit card and proceeds will go directly to the Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children's Emergency Fund.

-Maureen Morrison, AdAge Global

2010 - Undoubtedly the Year of Mobile Advertising!

2011-02-19T17:21:00.002-05:00

METRICS FROM 2010:

* 90% of the world now lives in a place with access to a mobile network, with 300 million people in the US (93% penetration) having a mobile phone.

* By 2011 over 85% of new handsets (including feature phones) will be able to access the mobile web.

* Mobile ad revenues to hit $3.5 billion this year in the US, $24 billion by 2015, with 7.3 million mobile phone users shop via mobile monthly.

* Mobile will account for 3.4 percent of global ad spend in 2015 (15.7% of digital ad market).

* Spending on mobile advertising is expected to reach $7.5 billion in the US by 2012 from $530 million in 2008.

-CTIA

Gannett/USA Today - Doubling Down On Local And Mobile

2011-02-05T16:54:00.004-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Granted, Gannett (with nearly 6 Billion in revenues in 2009) is USA Today, but look at the LOCAL focus and the NUMBERS. They are quite impressive. This makes a great case study to use for presentation purposes.

Craig Dubow began the company’s largely positive Q4 earnings results by highlighting the local digital moves on the hyperlocal and marketing fronts and offered a lot of credit to its partners in display for newspapers and TV (Yahoo) and hyperlocal (DataSphere). Gannett has 264 hyperlocal sites in 10 markets.

In addition to building up its hyperlocal offerings, mobile is the other big bet Gannett is training its strategy on this year.

In January, Gannett had 7.3 million app downloads. Apple’s iPhone and iPad comprised 70 percent of the Gannett mobile downloads so far, but Google’s Android is catching up, as it accounted for half of the downloads Gannett recorded this past month. Mobile pageviews were up 267 percent. “We’re seeing signs for an emerging ad market for both national and local across mobile devices,” Dubow said.

The company plans to expand its mobile development platform across the rest of its community papers this year—so far, flagship paper USA Today launched its new mobile platform in December. The plan outlined by Dubow calls for new mobile 100 sites for all local U.S. news properties that will support mobile video to be rolled out this year.

During the Q&A, Dubow was asked about the company’s thinking about a subscription offering around its news apps. For example, when Gannett launched the iPad app for USAT last April, the company had eventually planned to move it to a subscription format. But as the ad market came back, especially in digital, the company decided to hold off on charging users for access. In his answer today, nothing much has changed, as Dubow didn’t close the door on eventually charging, he also seemed to say that nothing was in the works in terms of any mobile paywalls.

-Paid Content

U.S. mobile marketing investments will surpass $1 billion in 2011

2011-02-03T20:33:00.006-05:00

A new report from research and advisory firm Forrester Research Inc. says mobile marketing investments will surpass $1 billion this year as marketers begin to see returns on their investments from consumers buying more via mobile.

The report, “Mobile Trends 2011,” also predicts mobile will combine with social and local services through programs...to gain significant traction over standalone location-based services. However, it says that ad revenue from such services will be cut short because of privacy concerns.

The report, written by Forrester analysts, also predicts companies planning to reach large audiences via mobile apps will continue to face a fragmented market with a wide variety of mobile devices, operating systems and screen sizes.

•The term mobile will mean a lot more than mobile phones. Tablets such as Apple Inc.’s iPad will emerge as a category of their own in the years to come. However, the report says only mobile phones will sell in the hundreds of millions and are truly “pocketable,” providing anywhere/anytime connectivity.

•2011 will be the year of “the dumb smartphone user.” Because of deep discounts, smartphones will be available to the masses. That, Forrester says, means new smartphone owners will be less engaged and active than earlier Android and iPhone owners. However, thanks to customer education and the convenience that such sophisticated devices offer, even so-called “dumb smartphone users” will consume massive amounts of mobile media and data.

•NFC, augmented reality and Quick Response, or QR, two-dimensional bar codes will finally reach their tipping points. Technologies such as QR codes and mobile augmented reality, which uses the capabilities of a mobile phone to enhance a presentation, such as using the smartphone’s GPS to identify a consumer’s location and then displaying through the device’s camera view a coupon to a nearby store, are already helping bridge the real and digital worlds via mobile devices, Forrester says.

And the report predicts 2011 will finally be the year that Near Field Communication (NFC) begins to matter for mobile. The market will start to move away from the pilot stage in regions where NFC infrastructure is in place, Forrester says. "There is already quite a bit of this happening in Japan," says Ask. More of it will occur with education with consumers in the U.S. and Europe. We’re at the very, very beginning of consumers beginning to understand these use cases with their customers. NFC is a technology that enables phones (or other items, such as credit cards) to interact with objects—such as posters and payment terminals—over a distance of a few inches.

Several media outlets last week reported that Apple is working on adding NFC mobile payment capabilities to the forthcoming iPhone 5.

-Katie Deatsch

How apps can drive business objectives

2011-01-31T22:01:00.002-05:00

Remember the summer of 2008? Britain was in financial meltdown and the rain had yet again replaced the sun.

For some, the new iPhone 3G provided that much needed ray of sunshine. IPhone users were drunk on Carling iPints, dizzy from Barclay’s water slides and the Zippo lighter app gave guys an excuse to talk to girls in bars.

The app frenzy was born. The iPhone finally gave marketers the opportunity to get their brands into the hands of customers, providing immersive, viral experiences.

Marketing can do one of three things: inform, add value or entertain, all with the objective to sell.

The pioneering brands that created apps for this unknown medium quickly earned the respect of the industry but set a dangerous trend. Their apps only entertained. Other brands followed.

Now in 2011, the industry has come a long way. Smartphones are mainstream, with all the manufacturers now harnessing the app eco-system.

Whilst there is still a major hype around mobile apps, brands have realized they need to justify ROI and drive that ultimate business objective – to sell.

*********

Mobile has the power to fundamentally change a business, the same way the Internet did in the late 90’s and early 00’s.

Apps are at the forefront of this change and brands are waking up to their true potential.

While the world needs laughter, entertainment apps will always maintain a role.

I took great joy from the Compare The Market soundboard, hearing Alexander the meerkat repeat his “simples” catchphrase, but the life of the app is limited.

What would have been really useful when recently hunting for a new car is a Compare the Market app that allows me to take a photo of the registration plate, then presenting me with a list of car insurance quotes.

We as marketers often lose sight of that ultimate business goal – to sell. If we do not sell, we do not have jobs. You cannot eat yellow pencils.

When you are planning your next app build marketing campaign, keep these questions in mind:

1. Will this app reach my target audience?

At Grapple, we receive endless briefs for iPhone apps – even though the brand’s audience often does not own iPhones.

Know your target audience, understand smartphone user profiles and then build for multiple platforms to extend the reach.

2. Will this app help sell my product?

Find mechanics within your app that will provide value to customers; to increase loyalty and ultimately sell.

Add store-finders, give vouchers, make use of barcode scanners to link the app to the retail presence, and make your app transactional.

-Adam Levene

US mobile ad spend to exceed $1B by year-end

2011-01-27T22:07:00.004-05:00

A new report...predicts that marketers will finally allocate sufficient funds into mobile, with an estimated $1 billion in spend for mobile display and search advertising by year-end.

Forrester predicts that marketers will become masters at using mobile marketing channels to generate real leads, drive foot traffic into stores, and to sell products and services.

“Smartphone adoption is growing and with it activities typically associated with PCs, such as researching products, booking hotels, trading stocks, finding nearby restaurants, or simply browsing the Internet,” Forrester’s 2011 Mobile Trends report says.

“Consumer product and service companies will also need to promote their mobile content and services,” it says. “No longer citing an inability to reach their customers as a reason to hold back, marketers will take advantage of the growing audience, targeting it better through location and behavior, as well as using richer media formats, such as video.”

Mobile trends
Besides the explosion in mobile advertising spend, Forrester has nine other predictions for what is in store for the industry in the year ahead.

Groupon [and other market-specific Apps such as Brandel's App4Ads and BizApp Creator] offers...deals via an app
1. Mobile, social and local
Marketers will be increasingly combining mobile with social and local to better target consumers.

2. Dumb smartphones
Smartphones will take over in 2011. As Android and Apple come up with newer and better devices, the older ones will become cheaper and therefore will become available to the masses.

Obviously marketers should be very excited about this. However, new smartphone users will not be as engaged and active as the early adopters were.

“The good news is that thanks to customer education and the convenience that these devices offer, even dumb smartphone users will consume more mobile media than ever before and will have incremental usage of mobile data,” the Forrester report says.

3. Mobile fragmentation
Mobile fragmentation was a problem in 2010 and will continue to be an issue in 2011, as even more smartphones and platforms roll out.

Marketers will need to prioritize based on which platforms their target audience relies on most.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Brandel/AdKing.com's Mobile Web App platforms work across all smartphone platforms.

4. Apps versus Web
The never-ending debate on whether applications are better than the mobile Web will continue in 2011.

Forrester said that this debate is irrelevant and that it is not a question of whether to have one or the other. Marketers need to have both.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Brandel/AdKing.com's systems provide a product that presents itself as an App (iPhone, iPod-touch) and as a Mobile Website (other Smartphones).

5. Mobile to interact with the physical environment
According to Forrester, mobile will continue to prompt consumers to interact with their physical environment, whether that means scanning a bar code, using augmented reality or responding to a call to action that asks them to text in.

“Technologies such as QR codes and mobile augmented reality are already helping bridge the real and digital worlds via mobile devices,” the Forrester report says. “2011 is — finally — the year that near field communication (NFC) begins to matter.

6. The deal with 4G and LTE
The industry will be surprised to see that the buzz around 4G was actually greater than the impact of these new carrier networks, per Forrester.

7. Convenience will be key
As in previous years, companies first entering the mobile space will be focused on convenience.

Acquisition will come second. Other benefits that mobile offers, which marketers will focus on, will be revenue generation and cost savings.

In the retail space, Forrester expects more companies to reach seven figures in direct mobile transactions.

8. Casual gaming
“Casual gaming will continue to lead the mobile charge for content companies,” the Forrester report says. “Forrester has already highlighted how media companies have some of the most advanced mobile strategies.”

Forrester expects mobile to represent more than 20 percent of publishers’ total online audience in 2011.

Expect new business models based on subscriptions, microtransactions, and in-application billing to expand from gaming to other content categories, such as news and music.

9. Mobile will mean a lot more than mobile phones.
The definition of mobile began to change in 2010 with the proliferation of tablet devices such Apple’s iPad, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and BlackBerry’s PlayBook.

“The focus for companies willing to tap into the growing mobile opportunities should be on moving from experimentation to the creation of a mobile business case and strategy, while recognizing that the challenges associated with fragmentation will persist.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: Turn to Brandel/AdKing.com's products to be able to offer the latest in Mobile Marketing technologies!
-Giselle Tsirulnik

2011 To Become The Year Of The Smartphone?

2011-01-27T08:57:00.002-05:00

While 2011 has unofficially been branded many things, such as the “year of the tablet,” there’s also reason to believe that 2011 will also become the “year of the smartphone.”

When Verizon Wireless announced its Q4 earnings earlier this week it said that only 26% of its 94 million subscribers are smartphone users. Interestingly though, 75% of contract subscribers are buying smartphones, meaning overall smartphone penetration is set to grow dramatically at Verizon this year — especially with the introduction of the iPhone 4 with attractive unlimited data plans.

The same shift happening at Verizon is happening at the other big three operators as well. In total, more than 75% of Q4 2010 postpaid net subscriber additions purchased smartphones. According to Nielsen, 28% of US mobile subscribers had smartphones as of November 2010, with that number rising to 35% by the start of 2011. By the end of this year, smartphone adoption is projected to hit the all-important 50% threshold in the US, equally to roughly 150-160 million mobile subscribers.

New iPhones and iPads Will Make Retail Purchases

2011-01-26T10:19:00.004-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is exciting stuff. We know purchases are going to be big on mobile devices, and this really drives it home.

Apple's upcoming versions of the iPhone and iPad will come equipped with the ability to make purchases, according to a published report.

Expected to be released later this year, the new devices will incorporate "near-field communication" (NFC) that allows the secure transmission of information to and from a receiver up to four inches away, consultants told Bloomberg News.

This could provide an alternative to tap-and-go payment systems such as MasterCard's PayPass, and allow Apple to get a percentage of the sale of a wide variety of consumer goods.

Apple built a payment terminal prototype that would allow businesses to take payments from NFC-enabled iPhones and iPads, said Richard Doherty, director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group.

These terminals may be given away to retailers as part of a push to get the technology widely adopted.

Using the new iPhones and iPads, it could even be possible to pass money from one device to another.

-New York Post

Report: 6.1 Trillion Text Messages Sent in 2010

2011-01-23T15:20:00.003-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE - While doing research for an article, I came across this piece from late last year. My favorites are in bold.

According to a new study from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), 6.1 trillion text messages will fly through the air by the end of 2010. That means for every second that goes by, another 200,000 text messages will have changed hands.

With that many texts going back and forth, it's a little depressing to think that, according to our rough estimate, 6.0 trillion will be of the "C u l8r 2nite" variety, but that's a rant deserving of its own post. Getting back to ITU's figures, the firm says that 90 percent of the world's population now own a mobile phone, and by the end of 2010, there will be 5.3 billion mobile phone subscriptions.

ITU counted over 940 million 3G subscriptions around the world, compared to 72 million back in 2006.

Originally Posted 10/20/2010 by Paul Lilly

Google focusing on LOCAL markets

2011-01-21T12:53:00.002-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here is further proof that local marketing is hotter than ever and growing! Eighty percent of shopping happens within five miles of where a consumer lives, so why not build your local market! Offer individual BizApps to your advertisers, or group them all on a commonly-themed App4Ads. See AdKing.com for more details.

In December Groupon turned its nose up at a $6 billion dollar offer from Google. So, according to report from mashable.com, Google will simply start a rival service. The service will be called “Google Offers” and will attempt to offer the same type of service that Groupon offers. According to the aforementioned report, “Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways.”

All this comes as the worlds largest ad broker and search provider has named co-founder Larry Page the new CEO. Connecting with smaller businesses has been a real focus for much of the online industry. Google Offers will like present a major challenge to the usual modus operandi of web-based companies because it will require having small office in a variety of cities and towns where sales people will have to leave their keys boards and make business connections with small companies far and wide.

One of mashable.com’s sources sent a fact sheet straight from the Googleplex about the company’s new group buying service. “Google Offers is a new product to help potential customers and clientele find great deals in their area through a daily email,” the fact sheet says. Launching such a service marks a serious shift in the power of the Internet to move to a more local level of service. For the first decade of it existence, the lure of online culture and commerce has been the grandiosity of the enterprise that has fascinated and driven sales (the world at your fingertips). Now, it seems, a shift is taking place to harness the communicative power of the Internet for more closely related groups, be they geographically related, socially related, or interest related.

-Sarah Novotny, via Adotas

Groupon Sets Record With Latest Mobile Coupon Deal; Sells 70,000 Burgers In 72 Hours

2011-01-20T14:54:00.002-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Brandel's President Benjamin DeLeon could see this trend from miles away. He registered the domain mobcoupon.com in 2004. Visit AdKing.com to find out more about our mobile advertising systems that are a perfect match for mobile coupons!

Group buying mega-site Groupon never ceases to amaze, as one of its latest mobile coupon deals has shattered records and turned even more focus to the power of mobile coupons.

In what’s nothing short of an amazing campaign, Groupon announced recently that a recent Groupon for a fast food restaurant in Hong Kong helped sell over 70,000 hamburgers in less than 72 hours — 40,000 of which were sold in the first 24 hours following the initial offer.

The restaurant is called “Triple O’s,” and the original offer was this: ”spend $25 on food and drink and get another $25 for free.” The offer was facilitated almost completely via mobile redemption and was so successful that it now resides at the top of Groupon’s worldwide performance charts for “F&B Restaurant Coupons.” Results and PR like this definitely help the company as it ramps up to go public in the near future.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

Two hotels let visitors multi-task with mobile site and apps

2011-01-20T11:06:00.002-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here is proof that SMS campaigns alone can no longer suffice. Read this case study about how the apps for Eldorado Hotel Casino and Silver Legacy Resort Casino have paid for themselves.

At the Eldorado and Silver Legacy casinos and hotels, mobile traffic doubled in 2010 while mobile revenue was up 22%.

At the Eldorado Hotel Casino and Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, mobile commerce goes far beyond booking a room for the night.

Chad Hallert, director of Internet marketing and e-commerce for both hotels, thought the hotels would benefit from a mobile presence when he saw that mobile traffic to the hotels’ web sites was increasing. But mobile visitors weren’t buying or booking at the same pace as PC visitors.

“Traffic from mobile was increasing much more than revenue from mobile,” Hallert says. While mobile traffic had doubled over the past year, mobile revenue was only up about 22%, Hallert says.

The hotels launched iPhone apps and mobile sites in September. Mobile revenue growth is now keeping pace with mobile traffic growth, Hallert says, and the apps paid for themselves just 90 days after launch.

The hotel and casino is constantly adding fresh features and convenient tools to its mobile offerings, particularly its apps. Consumers can do all the basics via the apps—book a room, purchase tickets to a show and request a meeting on the property. Members of the casinos’ loyalty program also can log in and book a room using their rewards points via the company’s mobile offerings.

But the two hotels, which are connected via a mezzanine skywalk, also are leveraging the MacroView platform to add dynamic features and functions and enable visitors to interact with the apps to complete a range of tasks.

For example, Hallert and his team recently added several features to its apps to coincide with a popular charity bar crawl in an attempt to drive more bookings from the event. It offered a map, a list of participating venues, GPS functionality so friends could find each other and get directions to the next establishment, a list of after-hours parties, and links to Facebook and Twitter. Bookings for stays during the crawl rose 120% this year compared with last and close to a quarter of the bookings came directly from the app, Hallert says.

Hallert says his staff can easily update the mobile site and apps by logging into MacroView’s content management system. Additionally, XML feeds from the company’s e-commerce content management system tie into the iPhone app and mobile site enabling the hotels to update mobile channels at the same time they update the web site.

A big m-commerce goal, Hallert says, is to leverage mobile to make visitors’ stays more convenient. For example, shows are a big attraction at the Silver Legacy, but the hotel can’t afford to staff the ticket counter all day, every day. Visitors who approach the ticket counter and find it closed will encounter a sign explaining three ways they can purchase via a mobile device right then: scan a two dimensional QR code, download the hotel’s app or text a message to the hotels’ telecommunications short code. For example, a visitor might text ‘Buddy’ to 1234 to buy tickets to a Buddy Holley impersonator concert.

Visitors can order room service through the apps, browse restaurant menus and preview shows. They can upgrade their rooms while playing slots and make dinner reservations lying poolside. The apps also show things to do around Reno and let visitors drop a pin on a map to help them remember where they parked. Customers can also unlock location-based deals depending on where they are at the resorts.

“With the web sites, we have to be sexy and glamorous,” Hallert says. “We have lots of videos and maybe 200 pages of content. With the apps, we try to find the most important things that can be helpful to visitors specifically during their stay.”

Both hotels hold many conferences and events and the app can offer special features for those visitors, too. Event attendees can access password-protected content available only to registered attendees such as schedules, programs and speaker bios—eliminating the need to carry around books and brochures.

While mobile traffic was increasing, Hallert says he was at first uncertain if the hotels’ middle-aged demographic of visitors in their late 30s to early 50s would actually use and buy through the mobile apps and site. “Places like Las Vegas and Los Angeles were doing well with mobile,” he says, “but other resorts with similar customers to ours, like ones in Atlantic City, were getting mixed results.”

However, that uncertainty is gone. “Mobile,” he says, “is picking up steam each and every month.”
-Katie Deatsch

Mobile is key for brands to achieve message convergence

2011-01-20T10:44:00.004-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article really drives home the fact the consumer is driving the interaction of marketing on their mobile phones. Offer businesses in your area the opportunity to include mobility in their marketing messages by becoming a Publisher of Apps/Mobile Web/SMS in your area. Visit AdKing.com for info on White-Label (Private Label) customization of our Mobile Advertising Systems.

Message convergence is the answer to the problems caused by the proliferation of devices and messaging channels, and mobile is the glue connecting it all, according to a report by The Relevancy Group and Message Systems.

Device convergence accompanied by a heightened sense of consumer empowerment has underscored brands need for message convergence. But achieving the promise of message convergence is about more than the technology—systemic changes are needed for companies to make best use of technology in enhancing the quality of their customer interactions.

“Companies must begin to operationally change the way they communicate with customers, as most are still mired in silos, measurement across channels is not aligned and the timing of message execution not coordinated,” said David Daniels, CEO of the Relevancy Group, Spring Lake, NJ.

“Brands must think through the value proposition and content of their messaging, as well as how they measure how consumers are responding to calls-to-action in mobile channels versus emails read on PCs,” he said.

“Message convergence means customer-centric communication is paramount.”

Unified messaging
Consumers see the enterprise as one brand, because they are able to access messages via various channels. They always have their mobile device, and they see each brand as a single entity, no matter where they read its messaging.

In the mobile arena, Mr. Daniels said that he is not seeing too many companies leveraging mobile as an opt-in tool or as a way to further their email communications.

While breaking alerts' localized calls-to-action lend themselves more to mobile, and white papers may lend themselves more to email promotion and online ads, savvy use of all channels helps brands achieve a sum that it greater than the individual parts.

“For many brands, there is not necessarily a tie-in between the various media,” Mr. Daniels said. “If I’m not deploying those messages holistically across all channels, I’m not sure which channel deserves credit for driving those clicks and that interaction, and which channel is the best way to communicate with that consumer in a personalized manner.

“With message convergence, brands must adapt their content and style, as well as how they are formatting their messages, so that it is optimized regardless of channel,” he said. “It is also important to get to the point immediately.

“People are triaging their email accounts on mobile devices, so brands must figure out which channels and messages are resonating best with consumers.”

Changed consumer communication behavior
Consumers have been presented with an increasing number of channel communication and device choices that have further amplified their desire for instant gratification.

The ability of consumers to multi-task throughout their time-starved day has heightened their attention deficit disorder towards marketing and increased their desire for efficiency.

Further, their ability to bring together messages of different types—email, SMS, MMS, IM, social—onto a tethered or mobile portal, or through a singular device or application has created the mystique of message convergence for consumers.

“We’re looking at fundamental changes in the way that consumers communicate,” said Dave Lewis, chief marketing officer of Message Systems, San Francisco. “It’s not just a matter of the devices they’re using, or that their inboxes may be unified, but the very nature of communication is changing digitally—individualized, real-time, multichannel and ultimately converged.

“Enterprises are seriously lagging behind these changes in consumers’ communication behavior, and they fundamentally need to respond in a meaningful way in order to stay connected,” he said.

“We see message convergence as an essential strategy, something that the industry really needs to come to grips with, as it is the only way to stay connected with customers wherever they are.”

Mr. Lewis said that it is a jarring juxtaposition to look at consumer behavior compared to how enterprises are currently deploying their communication tactics.

Many brands separate channels within business units, which fosters a fragmented view of the customer and a fragmented response in terms of communication.

Conversations may be initiated in email, flow into SMS or IM, then back into email or to the Web to facilitate a transaction.

Whatever the messaging path, brands have to figure out how to communicate with consumers across channels, as consumers are constantly moving from one channel to another.

“There has to be a fundamental change in how enterprises manage communications,” Mr. Lewis said. “They have to think in terms of managing communication flow across channels—they need to foster cooperation and coordination between channels, rather than competition between channels.

“It boils down to knowing your customer, which is easy to say, but hard to actually achieve,” he said. “So many times you see the data scattered all over the enterprise—you need to be able to link it together."

Mr. Lewis said it is important that enterprises realize that there is significant risk to not responding to these trends.

Brands may actually lose access to their customers and lose the ability to stay connected with them across channels and follow them across these channels, which has serious bottom-line implications

“Message convergence is not an optional strategy—it is the only viable strategy for enterprises to stay connected with their customers,” Mr. Lewis said. “Those that do, stand to gain great market share, and those that do not, will suffer the consequences.”

-Dan Butcher

How will Verizon's iPhone change the mobile game?

2011-01-13T08:57:00.002-05:00

Now that Apple’s iPhone is officially coming to Verizon Wireless, the entire mobile ecosystem will feel the ripple effects — from rival carriers and device manufactuers to content providers and marketers.

When the iPhone 4 becomes available on the Verizon Wireless network beginning Feb. 10, the desirability of handsets based on Google’s Android operating system will be tested, and Reseach In Motion’s BlackBerry devices are sure to take a hit. However, if it means consumers increase their usage of the mobile Web and applications, it will mean more downloads for content producers and more impressions for advertisers.

“It is a growth opportunity for Apple, giving it access to a major new market opportunity, a whole new set of demographics for the iPhone and the applications on the iOS platform,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis and consumer technology at the NPD Group, New York. “That represents more potential advertising revenue and the potential for more app sales.”

Verizon Wireless is the No. 1 carrier in the United States based on the number of subscribers, many of whom will switch to the iPhone once their contract is up.

That will mean more downloads of iPhone applications of all types, from ad-supported and freemium to pay-per-download and branded.

Additionally this will lead to more eyeballs for Apple's iAd network, which could help it compete more effectively against Google's AdMob and the various independent mobile ad networks.

The Verizon iPhone increases iAd's reach, which will in turn make it more appealing for brands and agencies.

While Apple is the biggest winner here, since iPhone users tend to consume more mobile content of all kinds, surf the mobile Web more and be more comfortable with mobile payments, the Verizon iPhone should benefit a host of players in the mobile marketing and commerce ecosystems.

...Many are speculating about the effect that the Verizon iPhone will have on competing carriers, especially AT&T. Handset manufacturers and operating systems, especially Android, are in danger.

Charles Golvin, wireless analyst at Forrester Research, said in a report that Verizon’s strong reputation for network quality will alter the calculus for many consumers and win the company several million new subscribers. Other analysts issued similar projections.

“The Verizon iPhone will attract some customers from other carriers, particularly AT&T, but most of the sales will be existing Verizon customers,” Mr. Rubin said. “Android continues to be important to Verizon and other carriers—almost every handset announced at CES was Android-based, including those that will be compatible with Verizon’s 4G LTE network.

“To help compensate for the loss of its exclusivity agreement with Apple, AT&T will be adding a dozen Android devices before the end of this year,” he said. “There is a market share expansion opportunity for iPhone, but we will continue to see a lot of momentum for Android.”

Mr. Rubin does predict some loss of Android share at Verizon. Even though Android’s share has been growing at AT&T, it has achieved very limited gains against the iPhone.

Verizon has a stronger Android lineup than AT&T, but Mr. Rubin believes that the iPhone competes very well with Android.

“Traditionally when Android has grown, it has done so at the expense of RIM, another company that may get squeezed in this transition,” Mr. Rubin said. “AT&T can continue to improve their network.

Noah Elkin, principal analyst at eMarketer, New York, expects the overall smartphone market to grow significantly, especially as Android and Apple devices spread to more carrier networks.

There were 60.2 million smartphone users in the United States in 2010, and by the end of 2011, that number will grow 21.9 percent to 73.3 million smartphone users, according to eMarketer.

Apple's iOS platform currently accounts for 25 percent of total smartphone subscriptions in the U.S., compared to a 26 percent share for Google's Android platform and 33.5 percent for RIM’s BlackBerry, according to Jan. 6 data from comScore.

Mr. Elkin said that even as Android draws ahead of Apple's iOS in the smartphone race, the iPhone remains the standard-bearer for the category—the outright leader in mindshare if not necessarily market share.

For consumers, the availability of iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless means more choice. And that will ramp up the competition between the various carriers and device manufacturers.

“Now buyers can almost mix-and-match carriers, device vendors and smartphone platforms to address their needs and personal preferences,” said Alex Spektor, senior analyst of wireless devices strategies at Strategy Analytics, Newton, MA. “Verizon Wireless will need to differentiate its offering in order to attract outside of the anti-AT&T crowd.

A trend that some industry observers have noticed is that the iPhone appeals more to women than other smartphones do.

If a large percentage of female Verizon subscribers opt for the iPhone, that could shift the balance of power toward Apple.

“Even though Android had recently taken the lead in smartphone OS market share, Apple's purchase intent, especially among women, had always stayed high,” said Olivier Griot, principal at consulting firm Blue Rain Media, Boston.

“The arrival of the iPhone on Verizon evens out distribution for both platforms, and I expect to see iOS bounce back on top,” he said. “It will be interesting to see if Verizon's network is as robust as they have been claiming the past few years."

There are now going to be more iPhone users, who tend to drive mobile content consumption, mobile Web and application usage, as well as interaction with mobile ads.

And then there is the question of iPhone users’ notorious strain on AT&T’s network. Will the increased data load trip up Verizon Wireless as well?

“Android phones are actually even bigger data hogs than the iPhone is, so if Verizon picks up anywhere near 16 million phones this year, they will go from having the lowest smartphone penetration of the four carrier networks to the highest,” said Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at Yankee Group, Boston.

For marketers, they have to target both iPhone and Android devices, as Android will continue to hold a very strong position at Verizon, per ABI Research.

This also marks the first time that the iPhone is going to storm into a market where Android is entrenched.

“Android has been used by carriers worldwide as an answer to the iPhone, and in many cases, it was a good answer—Andorid devices have all of the features you can get on the iPhone, if not more,” Mr. Morgan said. “Now the iPhone is going to come to Verizon, and it will sell as it always has, because they don’t sell on features, it is an emotive sell—this device will make you happy.

“With a feature-to-feature comparison, the iPhone might not look so great,” he said. “Android is going to expand into lower-cost phones, while Apple will stay at the premium market—it will trade market share for margin, and if you look at the financials, it has been a pretty good trade.

“Android has seen huge growth in the market, especially in the second half of 2010, and a lot of that is due to it being on multiple carriers from multiple device manufacturers,” said Krishna Subramanian, cofounder of Mobclix, San Francisco. “It has reach, hence a lot of the marketing dollars have targeted that platform because it reaches a wider audience.

“Now that iPhone is available on Verizon as well, will Verizon customers grab an Android phone, or are they more likely to grab an iPhone?” he said. “Developers could very well start focusing more on iPhone, and Android will take a hit as the iPhone continues to grow.

“Marketers will continue to spend dollars as long as there are users, and with Apple devices on multiple carriers, advertisers want to reach that iPhone demographic, and now they can do it in more than one place, and there will be even more users.”

-Dan Butcher

The future of mobile shopping

2011-01-10T11:10:00.006-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Although the focus in this article is mobile shopping alone, it brings up several important points to be considered in this age of smartphones. Number one, the fact that mobile and shopping coexist as a phrase is one of them. Second, this is evidence that shopping on a mobile phone is such a harbinger of greater things to come. And although not everyone is shopping yet, they are buying and using their smartphones. The home screen of the smartphone is the most important real estate going today. It is all about engaging consumers with their mobile phones. AdKing's latest BizApp Creator lets publishers across the country offer advertisers their own iPhone App/Mobile Website. See our website for details.

The traditional path to purchase is dead, according to a senior executive at Whirlpool Corp. speaking on a panel yesterday at the National Retail Federation’s 100th Annual Convention & Expo.

Instead, there are many paths to purchase, said Arunabh Das Sharma, senior director at Whirlpool and Value Brands.

“People plan and shop differently and mobile is pushing this even further,” Mr. Das Sharma said. “Mobile shopping is spontaneous, fluid and iterative.

“People are shopping in ways and places they never did before,” he said. “The shoppers’ journey isn’t as predictable, linear or straightforward as it used to be.”

Insights from a new Arc Worldwide study confirmed the evolution of mobile shopping behavior. One of the key findings was that there was no single mobile consumer for marketers to identify and reach, but light shoppers and heavy shoppers.

“Unfortunately for marketers looking for the single silver bullet, there’s no really single mobile shopper,” said Bill Rosen, North America president and chief creative officer of Arc Worldwide.

Leading the list of findings from the Arc Worldwide study was the indication that there are different routes to purchase.

>>The implication is that marketers and retailers should give consumers the access they want.

>> 50 percent of all mobile phone users are mobile shoppers

>>10 percent of heavy mobile shoppers is driving a majority most of the mobile shopping activity volume.

Heavies, as Arc Worldwide calls them, love their phone. They share photos, download music, check the news and are into shopping at home, on a computer or in-store.

“And they’re really into mobile shopping,” Mr. Rosen said.

-Mickey Alam Khan

More than 7 trillion SMS messages will be sent in 2011

2011-01-03T20:36:00.005-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: You have to admit, text message marketing was what first put Mobile on the map. But Brandel is moving beyond just plain texting and now offers a system that will allow Advertisers to create individual Apps/Mobile Websites for their advertising clients. Use your Private-Labeled system to reach out to local advertisers and offer the best mobile advertising on the market...Apps! Click here for more info!

A [recent] study...finds that consumers worldwide will send more than 7 trillion SMS messages in 2011, indicating a huge opportunity for marketers.

The study found that messaging is more prevalent among younger subscribers, and as they replace older subscribers, messaging will get a further boost. According to ABI, messaging includes four types of communication: SMS, MMS, mobile email and instant messaging.

“The key finding is the astounding number of SMS that gets sent annually,” said Neil Strother, practice director at ABI Research, Oyster Bay, NY. “Trillions of messages are sent across billions of mobile phones.

“It is the key communication tool of the modern era,” he said. “It is a great place for marketers to communicate with consumers.

“Marketers get consumers to spark the conversation via messages based on a trigger or keyword. With SMS, you can connect the consumer to other media such as a video.”

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies.

SMS is increasingly regarded as something of a commodity by users due to falling delivery costs and high competition.

When these trends towards commoditization are combined with the wider adoption of mobile email and IM services, the revenue proportion of SMS and MMS against the market total is expected to decline, per ABI.

Due to low PC penetration in emerging regions, for many consumers across Latin America, Africa and south Asia, mobile devices will be the primary access point for email.

ABI found that the rate of mobile phone adoption will gradually decline over the next five years, and growth in number of new customers starting to use messaging will likewise slow gradually.

The future of mobile messaging will increasingly be in unified toolkits that mash up and converge text and multimedia messages, IM chats, emails and voicemails.

The fact that consumers are increasingly comfortable communicating via SMS means that brands could potentially use the channel to speak with them.

Already brands are building databases of mobile users and sending them news and information updates, as well as coupons.

With the expected growth in SMS for 2011, more brands will likely jump on the SMS marketing bandwagon.

-Giselle Tsirulnik

Restaurant Sees 800% ROI, Boosts Click-Through By 539% With Mobile Click-To-Call

2010-12-24T14:53:00.004-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article is very convincing proof that LOCAL MOBILE ADVERTISING works! This is exactly what you can offer your businesses and professionals in your local area -- an app/SMS campaign that targets their exact market. Engage consumers on their most valuable real estate, their smartphone home screen, 24/7, on the go! Be the first in your market to offer the hottest advertising vehicle in the market today, Apps & Mobile Web with SMS. Visit AdKing.com for more details.

Click-to-call has been a central element to Google's mobile display offerings, and for good reason. The company recently came out with some surprising success statistics indicating hundreds of thousands of advertisers are seeing...millions of calls a month via search and display ads.

Google said over the last three months, the number of Google advertisers using phone extensions on mobile has grown by an average of 28 percent month-over-month globally. The company said campaigns with the click-to-call feature report 6-8 percent higher click-through rates than ads that don’t have it. One advertiser in particular has seen even higher success.

Roy’s, a chain of Hawaiian restaurants, recently reported it has seen an 800 percent in return on investment after pursuing a mobile-only hyper-local campaign that relied on click-to-call as a major element. The mobile-only campaign helped increase calls to restaurants by 40 percent and click-through rates by 539 percent compared to desktop. The cost per click was also 67% less than desktop ads.

“With...hyperlocal mobile advertising, we were able to target our potential guests at their point of need. Mobile searchers looking for dining options could effortlessly see how close they were to a nearby Roy’s Restaurant and the click to call function allowed for instant reservations,” said Jason Maloney, Vice President of Marketing for Roy’s. ”The numbers are impossible to ignore. We have to invest in hyperlocal mobile advertising as part of our long-term growth strategy.”

iPhone Still Handily Beating Android

2010-12-14T22:13:00.002-05:00

It might feel like 2010 was the year of Android as Google boasts 300,000 Android devices activated daily, Nielsen found that Android devices were most popular with first-time smartphone buyers and the monthly OS ad impression share tied the previously dominant iOS on Millennial Media’s mobile ad network.

But it seems the U.S. is still the iPhone’s market to lose according to analysis by Asymco’s Horace Dediu, as iPhones at AT&T outsold Android units at chief competitor by a factor of 2.5 during the first and second quarter of 2010.

It’s pretty reasonable to compare the sales of the two American wireless giants: Verizon has 92.1 million subscribers while AT&T has 90.1 million. Together, Verizon and AT&T account for 75% of mobile data revenue and 62% of U.S. wireless users.

The Verizon sales data comes from ITG Investment Research, which employs Verizon smartphone sales data collected from thousands of independent wireless retailers. Verizon smartphone volume during the first two quarters (which includes BlackBerry and Palm devices) grew from 2.7 million to 3.3 million, but iPhone sales volume increased from 2.7 million to 5.3 million.

So it looks like the release of the iPhone 4 (Antennagate and all) really shot sales into stratosphere. Deidu argues that Android simply can’t compete, and suggests an internal realization of that encouraged Verizon to pursue the iPhone again.

Once the iPhone 4 arrives at Verizon (rumored to happen early next year) it’s bound to eat even further into U.S. Android sales. While this certainly doesn’t mean that Android is dead in the water, it appears the Google OS will not steal the smartphone crown from iPhone anytime soon. How much for an iAd again?

-Gavin Dunaway

Mobile App Revenues Projected to Hit $35 Billion by 2014

2010-12-14T09:01:00.001-05:00

Noting the runaway growth of the mobile applications business (more than 300,000 mobile apps developed in just over three years), research firm IDC now estimates that global app revenues will top $35 billion by the end of 2014.

IDC also projects that over the next four years worldwide download totals will grow from 10.9 billion (in 2010) to 76.9 billion in 2014.

Observing that the expansion of the mobile applications market will continue to reach new devices like connected TVs, IDC maintains that the so-called “appification” of our world (defined as “broad categories of interactions and functions in both the physical and the digital worlds”) will continue to expand at warp speed.

According to IDC vice president of mobile and wireless research, Scott Ellison, “Mobile app developers will ‘appify’ just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds.”

“The extension of mobile apps to every aspect of our personal and business lives will be one of the hallmarks of the new decade with enormous opportunities for virtually every business sector,” he added.

And whom will benefit most from the prevalence of mobile apps? Users, of course – most of whom now enjoy via the smartphone a broad array of apps that range in utility from a “good way to kill time” to a fantastic tool or mechanism that makes life easier or some task more expedient.

“Mobile applications have the power to change the way we live,” Ellison concludes.

And that’s exactly what they continue to do.

Mobile Advertising Trends For 2011

2010-12-14T08:53:00.002-05:00

Mobile advertising and optimization company Smaato today released an interesting slideshare presentation that outlines proposed mobile advertising trends for 2011 in the world’s three strongest regions — The US, Europe and Asia.

Compiled using market analysis by leading market research companies, Smaato’s presentation gives a matter of fact representation of where the mobile advertising market is likely to go in 2011 and beyond. “In 2011 we will be inside the tornado of the mobile industry,” said Harald Neidhardt, CMO & Co-Founder, Smaato Inc. ”Mobile apps will continue to surprise the media; new smartphones and tablet PCs are enhancing our daily digital lives; and with new innovations like LTE broadband bandwidth, NFC smartphones and more relevant mobile ad formats, we will see a dramatic lift off in global Mobile Advertising,” stated Harald Neidhardt, CMO & Co-Founder, Smaato Inc.

While we’re closing out 2010 as a breakout year in mobile advertising, Smaato pulled out these key findings to summarize where we’re at and where we’re likely to go over the coming year:

Asia is still the leader in mobile advertising and will proceed being the strongest market in terms of ad spending. In 2010 Japanese companies already invested more than $1 billion in this business followed by South Korea and China ($270M and $180M). In Asia more than 15 billion page impressions are being generated on a daily basis in mobile.

The US is the second largest market globally in terms of mobile advertising spending behind Japan. It will close the gap next year with a forecast of $1.24 billion and will grow up to $5 billion in 2015.

The top 5 European countries (UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain) will see a huge increase in mobile ad spending according to Smaato. End of 2010 these “Big Five” are estimated to have 65 million mobile internet users; this number will more than double within the next 5 years up to 160 million. The “Big Five” will reach the $1 billion mark approximately in 2014.

48 Percent Of Mobile App Users Report Using The Mobile Web More Often

2010-12-04T18:27:00.005-05:00

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Here are some results from a study by St. Louis-based ad agency Moosylvania shows the top 10 mobile apps broken down by gender in the US, as well as indicating a preference for the mobile Web from those surveyed.

The study polled 7,000 respondents, split equally among men and women, with 99% of which being 18 years of age or older. Of those 7,000 respondents, 61% use a smartphone and 80% of the smartphone users use apps consistently. The study found that 30 apps were the norm per smartphone.

“Apps can be an incredible brand experience and provide an extraordinary level of connectivity with consumers,” said Norty Cohen, president and founder of Moosylvania.

...The most interesting part of the study was the finding that almost half (48%) of the respondents said they used the mobile Web more than apps on their smartphones.

Black Friday data reveals mcommerce is popular purchase mechanism

2010-11-30T08:59:00.001-05:00

Data reveals that many more shoppers relied on mobile for purchases, convenience and deals on Black Friday, with PayPal seeing a 310 percent increase in mobile shopping that day.

Retail giant eBay also reported an increase in mobile shopping on Black Friday. This year, eBay’s suite of mobile applications nearly doubled their sales over Black Friday 2009. Globally, eBay Mobile is on track to nearly triple its sales over last year.

“The tough economy has made shoppers more price-conscious and this year’s Black Friday results show that they’re going online to find the best deals,” said Amanda Pires, senior director at PayPal, Palo Alto, CA.

“With the convenience of shopping from a laptop or mobile phone, more people are choosing to avoid the long lines, parking chaos and early morning rush in exchange for great online deals available from the comfort of their homes,” she said.

PayPal and mobile
Starting in holiday 2009, mobile has emerged as an important new shopping channel and is expected to be used for a growing amount of holiday season purchases, Ms. Pires said.

PayPal mobile transactions have increased six-fold- from $25 million in 2008 to $141 million in 2009, and Ms. Pires expects this trend to continue as more retailers leverage the power of mobile devices for holiday shopping.

Consumers are turning to their mobile devices for smarter shopping this holiday season by doing price comparisons, staying on top of all the best deals and ultimately making purchases from the convenience of wherever they are.

With its mobile services, PayPal is giving this year’s holiday shoppers the ability to spend on their terms.

PayPal saw a 297 percent increase in mobile payment volume on Thanksgiving Day 2010 compared to Thanksgiving Day 2009, as well as an approximate 310 percent increase in mobile payment volume on Black Friday 2010 compared to the previous year.

According to an NRF 2010 report, approximately 27 percent of American adults who have a smartphones are expected to use mobile devices for holiday shopping this year.

Mobile Web performance
Gomez provides a real-time view into retailers’ mobile Web performance, indexing sites based on speed, availability and consistency.

The QVC mobile site consistently performs well. The company did so, on Black Friday and found that mobile device shopping performance is lagging.

This is the first year mobile device shopping is gaining significant traction. Gomez data shows that retailers’ mobile Web performance during the Thanksgiving weekend has been disappointing, particularly in the area of speed.

“Mobile Web sites are reminiscent of where the overall Web was 10 years ago, performance-wise,” said Matt Poepsel, vice president of performance strategies at Gomez, Lexington, MA.

According to Gomez, the top-performers in mobile site performance throughout the weekend were QVC, Newegg and Walmart, respectively.

PriceGrabber mobile data
According to PriceGrabber.com, consumers turned to their mobile phones to shop for LCD TVs, tablets and digital SLR cameras on Black Friday.

Popular products for Black Friday 2010 included the Lenovo Notebook, Apple iPhone 4 smartphone and the HP Mini 110-1144NR Netbook.

PriceGrabber also found that big-ticket items such as electronics, computers and cameras were particularly popular on its iPhone application during Black Friday.

An earlier survey by PriceGrabber revealed that more than one in three holiday shoppers (36 percent) are using their mobile device for shopping-related activities this holiday season.

Of these mobile shoppers, 32 percent were planning to shop from their mobile phone on Black Friday.

The top 5 most popular Black Friday categories visited on PriceGrabber’s iPhone shopping application were electronics, computers, cameras, appliances and toys, respectively.

“Over the past year, PriceGrabber has been dedicated to driving innovation based on the needs of its shoppers,” said Laura Conrad, president of PriceGrabber, Los Angeles. “One of our proudest new developments has been the creation of the PriceGrabber mobile platform which includes apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android.

“One might think that shoppers could be slightly intimidated when it comes to shopping for big-ticket products such as computers and appliances from a mobile phone,” she said.

“Saving money was clearly a great motivator on Black Friday when it came to consumer adoption of innovative technology.”

Mobile Commerce Daily’s Giselle Tsirulnik interviewed Gomez’s Mr. Poepsel. Here is what he had to say:

Were consumers using their mobile devices for purchasing during Black Friday?
Analyst data suggests that mobile devices will play a role (in some way) in over a quarter of U.S. consumer spending (across all channels) this holiday season.

This means not just for making purchases, but for anything that makes the holiday shopping experience faster, easier and more convenient - researching product availability in stores; comparing product prices between retailers; and gaining fast, easy access to coupons and deals through mobile apps, for example.

For the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period thus far, Gomez’s User Experience Index has shown that mobile Web performance continues to lag behind the traditional Web.

Generally, for any type of web experience (traditional PC or mobile), a numerical score of 70 or greater is considered fair; a score between 85 and above 94 is considered good; and a score above 94 is considered excellent.

Mobile Web performance throughout the weekend has hovered around 50 – low compared to the traditional web, but consistent with or even a bit higher than the mobile Web performance baseline (based on performance over four non-peak weeks in October).

We can assume that mobile web users have been pretty satisfied with their online holiday shopping experiences thus far, but just this afternoon (Cyber Monday), performance across the top 15 mobile retail sites has dropped off slightly, indicating a decrease (for the first time since last Wednesday) in the number of satisfied users relative to the baseline, as the online shopping season comes into full swing.

Overall, for the “official” start of the 2010 holiday shopping season, mobile web performance has not kept pace with the PC web, and any major increases in mobile commerce this holiday season are likely to come about through mobile apps Mobile Web sites are reminiscent of where the overall web was 10 years ago, performance-wise.

What other functions did mobile serve on Black Friday?
As indicated above, consumers often use mobile devices to augment the shopping experience, especially when they’re pressed for time like during the holidays. So even if actual mcommerce rates remain relatively low, the mobile web is likely playing a huge role in driving revenues through other channels like in-store.

What are the criteria for being top performers in mobile site performance?
The top mobile site performers demonstrate the best speed, availability and consistency (the standard deviation between fastest and slowest response time) in user experiences. Since last Wednesday through now, the top mobile web performers have been QVC, Newegg, Dell, Williams Sonoma and Office Max.

One reason why mobile web performance continues to be a challenge may be that many retailers are still figuring out the proper balance between functionality and speed on a mobile site.

More specifically, they want to offer a feature-rich mobile web experience consistent with what their customers experience on the traditional web, but this can result in slowdowns in mobile web downloads, since many devices simply can’t accommodate the same volume of content as a desktop PC.

The key to optimizing a mobile experience for speed is to streamline site content and multi-step transactions based on what mobile customers do and expect on the site.

But if you start taking away too much feature-richness and content from time-pressed consumers, this may have the adverse affect of irritating them, especially during the holiday season. Striking the critical balance between speed and functionality is key and it’s all about knowing what your mobile customers want.

-Giselle Tsirulnik

Mobile Advertising Revenue To Grow Tenfold By 2015 To $24.1B

2010-11-27T17:08:00.003-05:00

New data released today by Informa Telecoms & Media indicates mobile advertising revenue will rise tenfold to about $24.1 billion by 2015, with much of that growth coming from China and India.

The Asia Pacific developing region will account for the largest share by 2015, at 30.9 percent, driven by “strong growth” from China and India, according to the research.

“Successful companies that have unique and attractive technology for mobile advertising will become takeover targets for companies such as Google, Apple, Nokia Oyj and Yahoo,” said Shailendra Pandey, a senior analyst with London-based consultant Informa. ”Apple’s iAd network, which was started in July, will force its rivals to speed up their own mobile advertising strategies, particularly Google, which has completed its acquisition of AdMob,” he said.

Closer to home, North America will account for 18 percent of the market in 2015, with Latin America at 6.4 percent and Western Europe at roughly 8.6 percent, according to the report. “The mobile advertising industry has now moved beyond the trial and experimental phase and many advertisers and brands are now spending significant sums on running mobile campaigns each month,” Pandey said.

Mobile shoppers to account for 28% of holiday spending

2010-11-23T14:27:00.001-05:00

Mobile shopping "warriors" (i.e., hyper-connected individuals and "warrior wannabes" (moderately connected individuals) will account for $127 billion in consumer spending during the 2010 holiday season, representing 28 percent of the $447 billion the National Retail Federation forecasts U.S. consumers will spend over the next few weeks, according to a new study conducted by research firm IDC. More than a third of smartphone-carrying consumers indicate readiness to use their mobile devices to shop more effectively and efficiently, especially in traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores; shoppers are searching for price and product information, checking merchandise availability, comparing prices at nearby stores, browsing product previews and purchasing goods.

Adults aged 25 to 44 years make up nearly two thirds of the mobile shopping warrior segment despite representing less than half of consumers surveyed, IDC notes. In addition, adults aged 45 to 54 years were the most likely to leverage mobile data to their advantage, like asking merchants for a better price to match one they find on their handset while in the store. While the influence of social media outlets on buying decisions is growing, IDC states that retailers remain the most important source of information shaping purchase decisions: "Consumers' increased comfort with using their smartphones to go online anywhere combined with their plans to use them more in the 2010 holiday season signals the beginning of a significant shift away from the capacity of the store channel to hold sway over consumers as they move to a purchase decision," said IDC Retail Insights program director Greg Girard in a statement.

-Jason Ankeny

Volkswagen ties increase in sales to branded mobile app

2010-11-21T13:07:00.004-05:00

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Volkswagen found that from the vast amount of consumers who bought a car after playing around with the company’s branded iPhone application, more than 50 percent were new VW owners.

An executive from AKQA, who helped Volkswagen promote its 2010 GTI vehicles, shared results from the campaign during the Mobile Marketing Forum. According to the executive, the company saw great results in terms of downloads, brand impact and car sales.

“This was not an easy decision for them,” said Daniel Rosen, head of AKQA Mobile. “It was somewhere where the client was being brave.

“It was literally an iPhone application, social media and Web intergration,” he said. “This is very far from what Volkswagen does in mobile – it’s part of the strategy for the their car launch of GTI.”

User engagement
When looking at how it can get the word out about their new cars, Volkswagen briefed all of its agencies and focused on what the company can do to increase car sales.

AKQA did not want to just roll out a branded game like other companies have.

“It had to be all about quality,” Mr. Rosen said. “Whatever game we created or used had to have the strongest driving experience.

“Not only is it the first time someone launched a car on mobile, but invested in creating a world class driving mobile game,” he said.

Real-time gaming
The Real Racing GTI application has been downloaded more than 6.3 million times.

Volkswagen saw more than 485 million impressions in the first six weeks and 200 cars were sold to registered GTI players.

Additionally, the company saw that there was 97 percent lower cost-per-sale than a traditional launch and there was more than a 5 minute average engagement time.

“The application was actually all part of a social media push in the beginning,” Mr. Rosen said. “It’s basically like a Hollywood movie launch.

“It’s all about the opening weekend, opening day and how that movie is going to perform in the next year,” he said.

-Rimma Kats

Tis the Season to Redeem a Mobile Coupon

2010-11-21T09:10:00.001-05:00

It’s looking to be a mighty mobile holiday season since there are more smartphones than ever roaming the U.S. In a recent survey, JiWire found that nearly 90% of smartphone consumers plan to use...mobile apps and services during the next few weeks of holiday madness.

Mobile coupons are likely to quite enticing to holiday shoppers on the go — 49% were willing to check in on a mobile app, with 29% interested in finding deals. Twenty-one percent of those surveyed reported redeeming a mobile coupon in the last 90 days while 30% were willing to travel more than five miles to use a mobile coupon.

-Gavin Dunaway

Mobile ads four-to-five times more effective than online ads

2010-11-15T11:16:00.002-05:00

REDMOND, WA – Mobile advertising is four-to-five times more effective than online advertising on average, according to an InsightExpress presentation at a Microsoft workshop.

“Mobile versus online is not necessarily apples to apples, but it’s simply a basis of comparison, and we’ve found that mobile advertising is four-to-five times as effective as online,” said Joy Liuzzo, Washington-based senior director of mobile research at InsightExpress, said at the Microsoft mobile marketing workshop last week at the software giant's headquarters.

“That’s due to various factors, including lack of clutter in mobile, typically one ad per page, and the mobile pages themselves typically do not have a lot of stuff going on—they tend to be very clean," she said.

“Also, the proportion of the ad on a mobile screen is greater, so it gets more share of eyeballs. We found that folks doing activities on their smartphones are as positively engaged as when they are doing something on their computer, so it’s a perfect storm of why mobile advertising works so well right now.

“We've seen this increase in certain mobile ad campaigns, because they’re not just static banners anymore, they’re more engaging—engagement is the secret sauce of mobile.”

Take advantage of multiple mobile channels
Smartphones are the new phone, as a third of mobile owners have smartphones, per InsightExpress.

Hence, conversations are shifting.

While there are a lot of feature phones out there, a high percentage of people who are interacting with mobile marketing campaigns are smartphone users.

Looking at consumers ages 25-34, about 50 percent of them have smartphoens, so the reach is getting there.

Text messaging still has the most reach, because both smartphones and feature phones are SMS-enabled.

But when marketers look at the mobile Internet, applications, video and social networking, the large majority of traffic is coming from smartphone users, which is a different audience altogether.

When marketers make the applications versus mobile Internet distinction, they should realize that consumers with smartphones use both.

“When it comes down to consumers, they are flowing in between apps and the mobile Internet, not making a choice of one or the other,” Ms. Liuzzo said. “There are a couple of areas where the mobile Internet is leading the charge.”

For example, among merchants and retailers that have a mobile commerce presence, 50 percent have a mobile Internet site only, 12 percent have an application only and 39 percent have both a mobile Web site and an application.

Ms. Liuzzo offered another interesting insight: social pressure drives mobile adoption.

Consumers take note of what all or most of their family and friends are doing on mobile, and it tends to be monkey-see, monkey-do.

“The fact that we have so many folks doing these activities using their handsets, that will encourage more folks to do them as well, and it will keep going on and on and gathering momentum,” Ms. Liuzzo said.

Behavioral pattern obvious
Patterns of mobile usage are already emerging.

For example, 82 percent of consumers have used their mobile phones in a store, 55 percent in a doctor’s office or hospital, 17 percent during a movie at the theater, 14 percent while flying on a plane and 7 percent during church service.

Around 17 percent of mobile users have shown a clerk in a store a picture of a product on their mobile phone, saying in effect “I want this please,” which is a new shopping behavior that is surprisingly being driven by men.

Thirty-four percent of men ages 25-34 and 29 percent of men ages 35-44 have done so.

Ms. Liuzzo calls men the forgotten shopper, and they overindex for mobile shopping behavior.

“When you start to look at who is driving the behaviors using their mobile devices in store, it is primarily men ages 25-34,” Ms. Liuzzo said. “Men are now showing these new behaviors—‘I’m in a store, and I’m going to use my mobile to find out what I need and get information.

“If their behaviors are out there, as a marketer or merchant you take advantage of them as much as possible.”

-Dan Butcher

One In Three US Consumers Download Mobile Apps, 25% Of All Apps Are Used Daily

2010-11-11T12:31:00.001-05:00

New research out from the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) as part of the September 2010 U.S. Mobile Consumer Briefing indicates that one in three US consumers download mobile applications, and that a quarter of all apps downloaded are used on a daily basis.

The research stemmed from a monthly survey of U.S. adult consumers about their mobile marketing behaviors and opinions. Each month, the MMA and Luth Research collect answers from a demographically representative sample of more than 1,000 U.S. adult consumers. Conducted September 17-24, the current survey asked consumers a variety of questions about usage of their mobile phone and some of its features, including number of apps downloaded, frequencies of use, reasons for non-use of applications and so on.

The survey more or less confirms what brands already know, which is the fact that mobile applications provide a unique medium within the overall mobile channel. For example, 10 percent of mobile consumers who have downloaded apps described their most used app as one that can be used for ordering or purchasing products. This indicates that apps are fast becoming a consumer shopping and sales tool offering both mass-market reach and intensity of usage.

“With half of all mobile consumers downloading apps this year or next, MMA can officially mark the birth of a new mainstream advertising and marketing channel within the family of mobile media,” said Peter A. Johnson, vice president of market intelligence, MMA, and author of the study. “Marketers now have the opportunity to bundle fun and advertising, drama and customer service, utility and sales in a single, quarter-inch icon. To place an app on the mobile desk-top that commands consumer attention on a daily basis should be on every marketer’s “to do” list as they plan for 2011.”

Some other key findings from the survey include:

>>Sixty percent of those surveyed said their “most used” app provides entertainment

>>Twenty-two percent of respondents expect to download more apps next than they have this year, while 40 percent expect to download the same amount

>>Over the next year, mobile users will seek new apps focusing on entertainment, restaurants, banking and travel

>>As free apps supported by advertising represent about 31% of all downloaded apps, apps represent a significant advertising opportunity for brands

MMA: 59% of subscribers turning to mobile for holiday shopping

2010-11-11T12:24:00.001-05:00

Fifty nine percent of adult mobile subscribers in the U.S. plan to use their handsets for holiday shopping and event organizing (not including voice calls)--up 25 percent over a year ago--according to a new consumer study published by the Mobile Marketing Association and Luth Research. Asked how they will use their devices during the holiday season, 64 percent of respondents of so-called "mobile holiday shoppers" say they anticipate using their phone before going to a store, 13 percent plan to purchase or pay for gifts via mobile and 12 percent expect to use their device to respond to a TV, billboard or newspaper ad. Shoppers also plan to rely on mobile services to pinpoint the location of where gifts are sold and to compare prices.

Asians, Hispanics and adults ages 25 to 34 are the demographic segments most likely to use their handsets for shopping and celebration planning, the MMA notes. Movies, music, consumer electronics and books rank as the top gift items that shoppers plan to target using their phones; Hispanics and Asians also believe mobile services can help more effectively identify toys and game purchases.

-Jason Ankeny

Apple, Android Win Big in Q3

2010-11-11T08:38:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Gartner released its Q3 2010 mobile and smartphone sales data, and the results show particularly strong gains for Android-based devices and Apple's iPhone.

In the third quarter of 2010, worldwide mobile phone sales rose 35 percent over the same quarter last year, with a total of 417 million units sold. Smartphone sales continued their meteoric growth, with a 96 percent increase over the same period last year, accounting for 19.3 percent of all mobile phone sales in Q3.

“This quarter saw Apple and Android drive record smartphone sales. Apple's share of the smartphone market surpassed Research In Motion (RIM) in North America to put it second behind Android while Android volumes also grew rapidly making it the No. 2 operating system worldwide.” said Carolina Milanesi, VP of research at Gartner. The quarter marked the third consecutive double-digit increase in sales year-on-year.

In all, nearly 81 million smartphones were sold last quarter. Android made up slightly more than a quarter of all smartphone sales worldwide, with 20.5 million units sold, positioning it as the second-most popular operating system behind Symbian, which moved nearly 30 million units. In the same quarter last year, only 1.4 million Android-based devices were sold.

Android was particularly dominant in North America, where Gartner estimates it made up 75 to 80 percent of all of Verizon's smartphone sales. It was also bolstered by the launch of the multi-carrier Galaxy S line from Samsung. Gartner also noted that the OS's move into low- to mid-level devices helped it globally. This tactic could continue in the U.S. with Android's coming holiday spree.

Apple also did considerably well, thanks to the iPhone 4. Not only did Apple surpass RIM globally with almost 13.5 million units sold to RIM's 11.9 million -- putting it in third place behind Android -- it also jumped ahead of the Blackberry manufacturer in the important U.S. market. Apple is now second only to Android in the U.S., and third in Europe (still behind Nokia and Samsung).

“Smartphone OS providers have entered a period of accelerated platform evolution, stimulated by more regular product releases, new platform entrants and new device types,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Any platform that fails to innovate quickly — either through a vibrant multi-player ecosystem or clear vision of a single controlling entity — will lose developers, manufacturers, potential partners and ultimately users.” (Perhaps a veiled reference to RIM?)

The most impressive feat in the mobile market was the appearance of Apple in the top five manufacturers. Its 13.5 million units landed it in fourth place, ahead of RIM. Gartner posits that it could have sold more, but was hampered by ongoing supply constraints. The firm also noted that enterprise adoption of the iPhone and iPad has grown, despite Apple's focus on individual consumers.

Looking forward, Gartner expects 2011 to be a big year for media tablets like Apple's iPad. It projects nearly 55 million tablet devices to be sold next year. It also predicts that it will be another big year for Apple, in general. “To a developer, the iPod Touch and iPhone (and to a lesser extent the iPad) are effectively the same device and a single market opportunity. While Android is increasingly available on media tablets and media players like the Galaxy Player, it lags far behind iOS's multi-device presence," Milanesi said. "Apple claims it is activating around 275,000 iOS devices per day on average — that's a compelling market for any developer. And developers' applications in turn attract users.”

-Mark Kurlyandchik

My Take On "SMS VOTE" by Ben DeLeon

2010-11-10T17:37:00.002-05:00

Do you know how much it costs to promote an SMS campaign to get customers to just simply subscribe in order to receive an advertiser's promotional alert messages? That by itself is a reasonable undertaking.

Now, imagine how much more expensive and more complicated it can be to get customers to send a multitude of text messages - just so they can vote on something?

If your client is the NFL, sure! Voting is great because (1) NFL has a lot of advertising money to promote a "vote now" SMS campaign, and (2) They have a fan base that's comfortable with the concept of "taking sides" or "picking" or "choosing" teams. Vote is a natural and relevant concept for these customers.

But if your client is MisterPizza, a "vote sms campaign" is a big waste of money and a bigger waste of time. What would you ask people to vote on? Which pizza they like better: pepperoni or ham? Good luck.

Vote is "SOOO last year" - when SMS was the new marketing toy that made every advertiser excited and drooling with ideas. But, it's time to get serious. SMS is a powerful tool that should not be wasted on fringe concepts - especially if you're a small business with just enough advertising dollars to simply try the best of what mobile marketing can bring.

Don't waste your efforts on SMS voting schemes.
And that's my take on "vote".

Smartphone traffic will increase 700% by 2015

2010-11-02T12:57:00.002-04:00

Analyst firm Informa Telecoms & Media calculates that smartphone traffic on wireless networks will increase 700 percent over the next five years. The research firm--which coined a new metric for measuring wireless traffic: ATPU, or average traffic per user--said that although worldwide only 13 percent of mobile phone subscribers use a smartphone, those smartphone customers spend more time on the network and have an ATPU of 85 MB per month.

The research firm estimates that in the U.S., where the disparity between smartphone and non-smartphone traffic is the greatest, about 86 percent of mobile data traffic today is generated by smartphone users. And Informa predicts that smartphone ATPU in North America will increase from 85 MB per month today to 776 MB per month by 2015.

In Western Europe, the firm said smartphone ATPU will increase from under 44 MB per month in 2009 to more than 736 MB per month in 2015.

Interestingly, Informa said the highest smartphone ATPU is in South Korea and Japan. Those countries, according to Informa, will have an ATPU of 271 MB per month (in South Korea) and 199 MB per month (in Japan) in 2010--two to three times higher than the global average.

Informa said the iPhone is currently the highest-traffic-generating device, followed by Android devices, and it expects the iPhone to retain its lead because Android devices will be spread across high-, mid- and low-user segments.

-Sue Marek

2000% growth in number of mobile-ready websites

2010-10-24T16:48:00.003-04:00

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...New research...does indeed show a humongous rise in the number of mobile-ready websites that consumers can access from their mobile handsets. Read on for the figures and how to make your mobile website user friendly.

In 2008, there were approximately 150,000 mobile-ready websites. In just two years that number has risen to over 3 million. That growth, some say, is faster than the growth of desktop Internet over a similar period.

The world's top 1,000 websites, as ranked by Alexa, are certainly choosing to offer mobile-friendly alternatives. dobMobi's study found that over 40% have a mobile version.

This percentage decreases the further down the rankings you go, down to just under 30% for the top 10,000 websites and 19% overall among all 500,000 sites ranked.

Thanks to new tools, and the proliferation of HTML5 support, brands are now able to provide a mobile Internet experience that works across all platforms and devices.

An important part of mobile Internet success is having a website that is easy to use and functions efficiently despite the restrictions of a mobile phone's screen size and usability.

Bear the following in mind to ensure mobile Internet site visitors have the best experience possible.

1. Keep it simple

The golden rule of mobile website content is "less is more". Cut out unnecessary images, or give visitors the option of whether to view them.

2. Cut down clicks

Make information easily reachable without the need for excessive clicks or typing.

3. Hone the homepage

Consider what features customers find most important to the mobile shopping experience and highlight them on the homepage.

4. Be finger-friendly

Touch screens are becoming more widespread. Users will be using their fingers to navigate. Make sure content and links are large and clear to make navigating the site hassle-free.

5. Test

What looks great on one device may be a complete turn-off on another, so test mobile websites on as many platforms as possible.

-Helen Leggatt

EBay expects $1.5B in mobile revenue by year-end

2010-10-24T13:26:00.002-04:00

An eBay executive...said that his company’s mobile commerce business will eventually surpass its ecommerce revenue.

Funneled through its subsidiary PayPal, eBay’s mobile revenue was in excess of $600 million in 2009, and the company is well on its way to at least $1.5 billion in mobile revenue this year. Given such robust growth, eBay has made mobile an increasing priority in the belief that the sky is the limit for mobile commerce.

“For eBay, mobile commerce is the future, and our plan is to innovate and hit the gas pedal—we don’t see the steep growth trajectory of mobile commerce changing,” said Oliver Cockcroft, product manager at eBay, Palo Alto, CA. “We went from three people on the eBay mobile team to 70 in the last year and a half.

“We’re driving as hard as we can to break through and become mcommerce leader,” he said. “In the future, we will see our mobile commerce business surpass our ecommerce business, especially when you take tablets into account.”

That said, there are still plenty of challenges to overcome, even for a $1.5 billion mobile commerce giant.

The company realized that it needed to revolutionize what it had done in mobile, because its mobile properties had gotten a bit stale after four or five years with the same technology.

The company moved from a WAP site to a full mobile Web site and has rolled out applications for multiple platforms, including Android, iPhone and iPad.

The other key challenge is education.

“In general, normal consumers are very open to mobile commerce, whereas eBay consumers…we have a special group of people that use eBay,” Mr. Cockcroft said. “It can be a challenge to get new technology into their hands, as they tend to be stuck in their ways.

“It’s a challenge communicating the products we offer—a large percentage of eBay users don’t even know we have a mobile presence,” he said. “That said, our buyers and sellers need to be connected at every point—they have to keep track of what they’re buying what they’re selling, what auctions they’re following.

“Mobile gives them access to eBay while they’re out shopping, watching their kids play baseball and even during their commute—how do we provide a great product that quickly and easily gives them the information they require and lets them to interact with eBay and transact using their handsets?”

Mr. Cockcroft said that thinking about the situational context of when and where people are accessing the mobile platforms is key.

When creating a mobile site or application, there is a fine balance between putting in too many features in and not including enough.

Like all companies, eBay wanted to provide the features that its users will need on the go while also make it a great user experience.

“We want to be able to create an experience that uses all of the new technologies available to provide the great eBay experience no matter where our users are,” Mr. Cockcroft said. “We want to give them a way to scan bar codes, interact with their friends and transact via eBay.”

Its application development strategy is heavily focused on iPhone and Android, but it realizes the importance of the mobile Web to reach other mobile users.

“We have a lot of iphone users obviously because we’ve put a lot of press behind it, a lot of revenue through our iPhone apps, but it is something like 25 percent iPhone users on the mobile site,” Mr. Cockcroft said. “A lot of our Apple device users actually use both the app and the mobile site.

“You also have to make sure people who don’t necessarily have a smartphone can access their eBay accounts via the mobile Web,” he said. “If not, you’re losing 50 percent of your traffic.”

The company has an application install base of 13 million on the iPhone, and 5 million of those consumers are transacting on the mobile Web site as well, according to eBay.

Another advantage of having a mobile Web presence is discoverability.

Next week, eBay is rolling out a global redirect, which will take anyone searching eBay on their handsets to the corresponding mobile Web set that is optimized for their particular device.

Whether on the mobile Web or within an application, it is incredibly important to make the mobile payment checkout process user-friendly to reduce friction in the last-mile conversion.

“If you find an eBay search result through Google or a mobile ad link, we don’t want to send them to the PC Web site or a generic Web link, because the payment functionality isn’t there,” Mr. Cockcroft said. “Using Google on their handset to get to our mobile site, they can find the item they want, transact via PayPal and they’re done.

“A problem I’ve seen on a lot of mobile sites and apps, the user drops off quickly when they can’t quickly and easily buy a product,” he said. “Even if the information is there, it doesn’t matter if the mobile purchase process isn’t easy.”

-Dan Butcher

Record 77 Million Smartphones Shipped In Q3, Growing 78 Percent Over Last Year

2010-10-22T19:29:00.001-04:00

Strategy Analytics is out with new data regarding global smartphone sales for Q3, showing record growth and the fact that Apple continues its surge to the top.

According to the data, global smartphone shipments grew 78% over the same period last year to 77 million total units. Apple, while still in second place to Nokia, showed the strongest growth in terms of market share, while both Nokia and RIM continue to lose share as competition heats up on a global scale. Still, Nokia shipped record smartphone volumes of more than 26 million units.

The report warns that demand is so high for smartphones currently, that suppliers will likely have a hard time keeping up as we enter the all-important holiday shopping season. “Global smartphone shipments grew 78 percent from a year earlier, the industry’s fastest rate since the mid-2000s,” said Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics. ”However, the surging volumes are placing heavy demands on component suppliers and moderate shortages of select components are emerging ahead of the Q4 holiday season.”

Five Billion Of The World’s 6.7 Billion People Are Mobile Subscribers

2010-10-22T18:27:00.003-04:00

Mobile subscriptions worldwide have hit the impressive milestone of 5 billion, according to ABI. To put it in perspective, there’s currently around 6.7B people roaming the earth, indicating incredible adoption for just one type of device.

A majority of the growth is happening in emerging markets, with Africa leading the way with 4% growth between the first and second quarter of 2010. So much so, that ABI said the continent’s low mobile penetration to date is attracting global service providers such as Vodafone and India’s Bharti to build up wireless infrastructure in Africa.

Still, growth in developed regions like the US, Japan and Europe are still growing. The report says the introduction of high-speed 4G data technologies such as WiMax and LTE will ensure that subscription growth stays strong even in “hyper-saturated” regions. Jake Saunders, ABI’s vice president of research, pointed in particular to the successful launch of the HTC Evo 4G from Sprint, running on the WiMax network built by Clearwire.

ABI expects mobile subscriptions to reach 6.4 billion by 2015, of which 169 million will be to 4G technologies. As if it’s any kind of secret, the sheer fact that nearly every single person has a mobile device of some kind with them at all times means unprecedented opportunity for mobile marketers.

Your smartphone will run your life

2010-10-19T16:22:00.002-04:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Today, one in five Americans owns a smartphone -- but give it just a few more years and the gadgets will be ubiquitous.

By 2015, smartphone ownership will surpass 80% in the U.S., up from 17% of the population today, research firms Frost & Sullivan and Forrester Research estimate. Worldwide, 1 billion people will own smartphones in 2013, according to a forecast from Informa Telecoms & Media.

Smartphone sales are already outpacing those of PCs, Gartner's research shows, and a number of analysts predict that by the end of the decade they will be the primary point people use to stay connected.

"These devices are becoming the center of our lives," says Will Stofega, analyst at IDC. "Smartphones are bringing an immediacy and an availability of the Internet that has changed and transformed the way people access information. They're the first thing we pick up right after our car keys, and they're changing our behavior."

That new connectivity wave is reshaping the tech field. A boom in hyper-personal applications opens up huge growth opportunities for new business models -- and might wash out some of the industry's current giants.

If experts' predictions come true, the tech world could look quite different in the next five to 10 years.

PCs and laptops can be shared among multiple family members or coworkers, but a smartphone is the one connected device that is truly yours. That makes it very, very personal.

Already, the typical smartphone user is downloading hundreds of applications to customize their device -- and stuffing it with personal data. Apps store passwords, health information, financial transactions, daily calendars, to-do lists and detailed e-mail trails, plus games and vast entertainment libraries of books, movies and music.

Analysts see phones becoming the remote controls for our digital lives. We'll still use PCs, iPods, laptops, tablets and many more devices -- get ready for the connected fridge -- but the phone will be the brain at the heart of each individual's gizmo galaxy.

"Every device out there is something that consumers will start interacting with and using to connect to the Web," says Dmitriy Molchanov, analyst at Yankee Group. "The smartphone is the device that will be at the hub of that connectivity."

Picture this scenario: When you leave for work, your smartphone will know -- based on the time of day and your location -- that you're ready to go on your commute. It knows the weather is expected to be snowy, so it will suggest alternate routes for your drive. It will have "talked" to your connected car, and will remind you that you need gas, then suggest which station on your route has the cheapest fuel. And if a friend is grabbing breakfast at a coffee shop on the way, your phone will let you know -- and maybe even give you a coupon for a doughnut.

Your PC can't do that.

Science fiction writers and tech marketers have been sketching out visions like that for decades. What's new is that we've hit a technology tipping point. The device needed to power that digital ecosystem is no longer theoretical, or a pricey prototype. It's in your pocket.

And it knows where you are, constantly. That's another watershed for the tech field.

No one knows quite how that technology will play out (or pay off), but everyone wants a foothold. Twitter and Facebook recently added location-aware capabilities, and venture capitalists are throwing cash at location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Yelp and Groupon are diving deep into the local advertising markets.

Where you are is now one of the most important -- and potentially lucrative -- aspects of your identity.

The roster of gadgets orbiting your smartphone will fluctuate. We'll still use desktops, or something like them -- no office worker wants to do their daily computing on a tiny screen -- and a pile of other gadgets optimized for specific tasks. Dedicated shutterbugs won't want to trade in their digital cameras, and joggers will still want a tiny digital music player along on their morning run.

But devices have to jockey for position, and some will die off: Netbooks faded fast when tablets burst onto the scene. How gadgets integrate with your phone will play a big role in their evolution.

DVDs, USB memory sticks and even printers could be headed for extinction. You can already wirelessly stream movies from your iPhone and watch them on your Apple TV, and you can send what's on your desktop screen straight to your Android phone with a click of a button.

Which tech giants will rule that world? It may not be the ones who have held power for the past few decades.

Just like the iPhone helped launch Apple from lovable underdog to the most-valuable tech company in the world, smartphones have revitalized companies like Motorola, Samsung and HTC.

Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and other mobile networks also are gaining power. As the companies that keep us constantly (well, usually) connected, they're literally the backbone of our digital lives.

But as new blood enters, some of the slow-to-change old guard is getting left behind.

Microsoft, Intel, and Dell, have staked their reputations on the primacy of the PC. They're trailing way behind competitors that got into the mobile business sooner.

Hewlett-Packard may be the savviest of the entrenched players. It's been reangling for years around the idea of "the connected you," despite its position as the world's largest PC maker. Its purchase of Palm earlier this year indicates that it sees the handwriting on the wall: Palm's fast-fading technology may not be a survivor, but like Apple, HP is committing to controlling both the hardware and software for its mobile gadgets.

"We are clearly in the early innings of the next major technology cycle," says Brent Iadarolla, global research director at Frost & Sullivan.

The shakeup is giving some industries a second crack at creating a sustainable online business model.

The music industry gave away songs for free on radio and blew its first shot at digital age with its mishandling of Napster. But it is finding some success with license-paying services like Pandora and Slacker Radio, which are surging along with smartphone use. And iTunes showed that 99 cents is a magic price point: Make legal purchasing cheap and easy, and most users won't bother with pirate tunes.

That's a ray of hope for both emerging startups and lumbering giants: So much will change in the coming decade that it's way too early to call the winners. We're in the primordial stage of the tech future smartphones are shaping.

"Lots of disruptions could happen," says IDC's Stofega. "The market's big enough not just to take newcomers, but also newer newcomers."

-David Goldman

Museum of Modern Art features 32,000 art pieces on iPhone app

2010-10-17T15:01:00.002-04:00

The Museum of Modern Art has unveiled an iPhone application that lets users access 32,000 works of art via their mobile device.

The application lets users view renowned collections, exhibits and events. The application, which was designed in-house is available for the iPhone and iPod touch in the Apple App Store.

“Like all museums large and small, we have to think carefully about how we allocate our resources,” said Allegra Burnette, creative director of digital media at MoMA, New York. “But we also wanted to try doing a project specifically for this platform.

“So we decided to create an app that could both take advantage of the features of an iPhone or iPod touch, but which could also form the foundation for other apps across multiple devices and also for our mobile Web site,” she said. “Mobile is clearly playing an increasing role in how people access information about the museum, and creating a platform that enables us to expand across a variety of devices is a key part of our overall digital strategy.

“The iPhone app is, in many respects, just the beginning.”

Mobile art
The MoMa application lets users view a dictionary of art terms and a database of artist bios, calendar information for exhibitions, film screenings, events and a variety of audio tours, including special tours for children, teens and the visually impaired.

Users who visit the museum can snap photos inside and send them as postcards.

Additionally, visitors can select tracks from their own music libraries and listen to it while touring the museum.

“Mobile is greatly increasing as the means by which our audience is finding out about exhibitions, events, and our collection,” Ms. Burnette said. “So mobile really is a necessity rather than an option at this point.

“We did some user testing with members during the development, and what was gratifying is that we discovered that people across multiple generations were finding it accessible and useful,” she said. “So I think it’s not about a target age range, but more about people who have an interest in the Museum and in art in general.

“During the testing, one of our members said that it was like carrying MoMA in her pocket, and that’s kind of become our tagline.”

The tour feature consists of MoMA Audio programs, with five distinct tour options, such as Special Exhibitions, Modern Voices, Modern kids, MoMA Teen Audio and Visual Descriptions.

Users can browse the tour feature by floor or stop number and view information about the museum, including hours, admission and transportation.

In addition, users can check the calendar of current and upcoming exhibitions, daily events and film screenings and share it via Facebook or Twitter.

Users can also access MoMa resources on iTunes, iTunes U and YouTube via the application.

“The app does work on the iPad, although you need to upscale it currently, and we are definitely turning to Android as another priority,” Ms. Burnette said. “And our mobile site, which is following very closely on the heels of the app launch, will enable users of all of those platforms to get much of the same content through their browser.

“The various apps on the different devices allow us to take that base mobile content and then add custom features to take advantage of what each of the platforms offers in particular,” she said.

-Rimma Kats

Walgreens sees hockey-stick growth for text alert program

2010-10-17T14:28:00.002-04:00

SMS text alerts are a big hit for Walgreens Co., a $63 billion drugstore chain which puts its 7,500 stores nationwide at the center of all marketing and commerce.

Walgreens has seen tremendous growth in registrations for its prescription SMS alerts in the [ten] months since the Chicago company began the program. In fact, SMS sign-up is outpacing email, according to a senior executive.

“Both are growing, but text alerts are hockey-sticking – we weren’t expecting that,” said Abhi Dhar, chief technology officer for ecommerce at Walgreens.

Text is healthy
Walgreens is putting considerable marketing muscle behind not just the SMS program but also its iPhone application and a mobile site created by Usablenet.

For example, the company recently ran two 30-second rolling videos on a billboard in New York's Times Square where Walgreens has a store.

The messages on the two-story-high outdoor effort focused on its pharmacy and photo businesses.

Viewers of those spots were encouraged to order prescriptions and photos from the mobile phone and pick them up in-store.

In addition to downloading an application, these consumers were also asked to text the keyword WAG to the 21525 common short code. Those consumers who texted received a coupon for redemption in a Walgreens store.

While Mr. Dhar would not disclose the size of the mobile database, he did say that the SMS registrations were growing. So was the number of Walgreens application downloads.

“The customers want it,” Mr. Dhar said. “What we realized is that we need to educate our customers [about mobile] offline.”

Walgreens has been an early adopter with digital and electronic technology.

The retailer has linked its pharmacies by satellite since the 1980s. In 1999 it put customer prescription history online and, six years later, offered online digital photo services.

Now, like most retailers in this market, Walgreens is bracing itself for a host of macro factors affecting the economy: a healthcare crisis, an aging population, 9.5 percent unemployment and three quarters of declining GDP.

With all these economic woes, consumers continue to adapt to new technology and evolve behavior.

For example, 70 percent of mobile phone owners take photos on their phone.

Mr. Dhar concluded his presentation with four points in summary.

First, consumers have changed and retailers have to deal with it.

Next, consumers think of choice, convenience and control. The definition is based on experiences in multiple sectors.

Third, mobile is an essential connecting capability for multichannel transactions.

“[Finally], there is no such thing as ‘ecommerce’ or ‘mcommerce,’” Mr. Dhar said. “Commerce is commerce.”

-Mickey Alam Khan

iPhone Social Games Have Larger Audience Than Prime-Time TV

2010-10-17T10:52:00.002-04:00

How’s this for interesting — Flurry is reporting that iPhone social gaming apps garner a larger audience than many prime-time TV shows, including the likes of Sunday Night Football, CBS’s Undercover Boss and NCIS Los Angeles.

In a blog post published today titled “Is iPhone the Next American Idol,” Flurry estimates iOS social gaming apps have a daily audience of 19 million viewers and are averaging more than 22 minutes per day, per user. The fact that these numbers alone represent a larger audience than many of the most popular TV shows combined is intriguing, but then there’s the fact that Flurry’s numbers are just from it’s network, representing only a small portion of the total audience.

Flurry’s network only represents a fraction of the larger picture, equaling roughly 25%. The network reaches around 50,000 apps — versus the 250,000 total apps present in Apple’s App Store. “Additionally, since this analysis focuses on only two categories of applications — social games and social networking apps — it’s clear that iOS devices are already ahead of prime time television’s hottest shows,” Flurry’s Peter Farago says in his post.

“Given that the app store only launched in July 2008, these figures are staggering,” he said. ”Mass consumption of applications on mobile devices has exploded in record time. Also noteworthy is that the enormous audience these applications reach takes place every day, 365 days a year. Compared to a top television series, which airs 22 episodes a season, advertisers can reach a larger consumer audience through applications 15 times more frequently.”

Can SMS serve as holiday mobile catch-all in yo-yo economy?

2010-10-14T16:42:00.002-04:00

Brands and retailers should leverage SMS for the holidays to push private sales, holiday-themed merchandise via coupons, wish lists, mobile commerce-enabled sites and special store hours during this busy time of year.

Approximately 72 percent of American adult consumers send and receive text messages, according to Pew Internet Project. Virtually everyone is text messaging, making it a convenient way for retailers and brands to communicate with consumers.

“Consumers are quickly becoming more and more receptive to receiving offers and deals from companies on their mobile devices—especially via SMS—as long as they are relevant and valuable,” said Tom Cotney, president/CEO of Air2Web, Atlanta. “The holidays provide a particularly good opportunity for companies to use SMS to support their promotions.

“Think of Black Friday,” he said. “Many people will scour the ads for deals and promotions and head for the stores with pockets and purses stuffed with paper coupons.

“A lot of consumers are willing to do this just to get a deal.”

The process becomes so much easier if the coupons are stored on a mobile device.

SMS enables the transmission of coupons and an opportunity to send the customer even more deals while they are in the store shopping.

Research Hipcricket conducted last year shows that 83 percent of consumers are still waiting for a favorite, trusted brand to market to them via their mobile phone.

The brands and agencies that do it right this holiday season will emerge with a significant advantage in 2011: the opportunity to remarket to opted-in consumers and continue an engaged dialogue.

The immediacy of SMS makes it an ideal channel for retailers to push timely sales and also perishable inventory such as food and seasonal items.

Florists, restaurants and holiday card companies, for example, can use SMS to drive sales of items via coupons or even just standard alerts that say, “Hi, we have this item, come and get it.”

Companies can ask consumers to opt-in to an SMS list via existing assets such as social media, email campaigns and even include a call to action on their Internet Web sites asking permission from consumers to communicate with them via text message.

“The important thing is to focus on the customer, not the medium,” said Eric Harber, president and chief operating officer of Hipcricket, Seattle. “The holidays are a busy, stressful time, and resounding themes this year will likely be about getting everything done and doing more with less.

“SMS campaigns need to tap into these themes,” he said. “Customers will be willing to opt into programs that share recipes at Thanksgiving, offer special members-only shopping discounts at Christmas and Hannukah, and suggest special cocktail mixes for New Year's Eve.

“The opportunity exists to be more than just a favorite brand. By using SMS right, brands can become trusted partners that help their customers create the perfect holiday season.”

Consumers may not respond on the spot to SMS marketing communications, but the message received was most likely read and the impression has been made.

SinglePoint found that 90 percent of text messages are read within three minutes of delivery, and that the recipient eventually reads more than 99 percent of all text messages.

The opportunity with using SMS relies on the greater reach that the channel provides.

According to Pew research, 72 percent of adult consumers send and receive text messages, compared to only 38 percent that access the mobile Internet.

According to Experian, consumers are open to mobile ads that push some sort of sale or promotion, making mobile coupons a great way to target cost-conscious consumers during the holidays.

Coupons can push holiday-themed items, driving purchases because of the discount and also just acting as a means of letting the consumer know that this particular retailer offers a specific item.

While still nascent, mobile couponing is becoming an increasingly effective way to bring people into the store and increase sales, according to InsightExpress.

Brands and retailers can turn to limited-time-offer mobile coupons that are good from, say, 6 to 8, to drive consumers into stores during the holidays.

Consumers are looking for a deal, especially during the holidays with so many gifts to purchase.

InsightExpress found that 10 percent of consumers have been driven in-store via a mobile coupon.

A majority of consumers want to receive coupons via SMS, according to InsightExpress.

“Drive opt-ins while the stores are busy – post calls to action in-store and on cash register receipts for instant coupons that get people signed up for future mobile programs,” Mr. Cotney said.

“Retailers should look for unique and targeted ways of reaching their consumers with SMS, both ahead of sales and at the point of transaction."

A Deloitte study conducted right before the holidays last year found only about one-third of consumers search for coupons via mobile.

This year has seen enormous growth in the use of SMS and mobile in general – a recent Peninsula Strategies report found that 64 of the Fortune 100 have a mobile strategy.

The economy has not really improved much over 2009, so people are still looking for ways to save money while still providing quality gifts and holiday staples for their families and friends.

With a 97 percent open rate, mobile coupons via SMS can help them do that, Mr. Cotney said.

According to Aberdeen research, 38 percent of retailers have adopted some sort of mobile presence, the majority of which consists of a mobile commerce site.

What is a better way to let a database of opted-in consumers know that a retailer has a mobile Web site, than sending a link via an SMS message?

A lot of mobile retail sites are offering free shipping on all mobile orders during the holidays. This too, is a great way to encourage mobile shopping during the holidays.

SMS can also be used to drive a consumer back to a mobile commerce site when that individual has abandoned an item in the shopping cart.

Imagine a consumer sitting on the train and trying to buy something from Steve Madden’s mobile site.

Next thing this consumer knows, it is time to get off and so the item that was about to be purchased is abandoned in-cart.

About an hour or later the consumer is on the bus and gets a message that reminds him that this item is still in the cart. “Click on this link to complete the order.”

“For discoverability use SMS with embedded links as the mobile click to jump into an offer and special strategically,” said Gary Schwartz, president of Impact Mobile, New York. “I like to think of SMS as your mobile Web mouse click.

“Put the call-to-action for this click on all your media and this will drive impulse traffic,” he said. “Use SMS opt-in to drive targeted, timely deals back to the shopper. If your offer is compelling, you will drive impulse conversion.

A lot of retailers have special hours during the holidays, especially for Black Friday.

Sending an SMS message that lets opted-in loyal consumers know the new hours is a great way to get an individual who thought he or she did not have enough time to make it to a specific retailer’s location into that store.

Alerts are also a great way to let consumers know about sales and specials.

Once that list is built, there are a number of great ways that brands can target these consumers during the holidays.

“During the holidays we all have a lot to remember – parties, family gatherings, finishing up the year at work and travel,” Mr. Cotney said. “Make holiday shopping easy with SMS. Your customers will thank you.”

SMS has fantastic reach, excellent measurability and ties all the mobile modalities – mobile applications, Web and advertising – together in the context of the broader overall marketing strategy, per Hipcricket’s Mr. Harber.

Mobile, especially SMS, cannot be the sole focus of any marketing campaign, but it should be an important one, according to Air2Web’s Mr. Cotney.

When shopping during the holidays, consumers are looking for opportunities to make their lives easier as they deal with the crowds and traffic.

More traditional marketing strategies can still be effective. But there should always be a mobile option or call to action for those who prefer to use their mobile device to store deals.

And SMS offers an easy, less-expensive way to personalize the deals to consumers.

“One great example of SMS providing the glue to a mobile strategy is for a company to send an email to one of its customers mentioning an upcoming sale and providing a short code for that customer to subscribe to receive special deals,” Mr. Cotney said. “Special deals can then be targeted to that consumer based on their profile.

“For a middle-aged man, perhaps a promotional offer can be sent for flat-screen TVs, while a woman in her early 30s could receive an offer for shoes,” he said. “At the point of sale, the customer could be asked to do a quick mobile survey, providing even more information to personalize offers sent to that customer.”

In creating the message, there are two important goals to keep in mind: be creative and be useful, per Hipcricket’s Mr. Harber.

In terms of opting in and out, following the Mobile Marketing Association guidelines is important in order to improve the consumers’ experience and to demonstrate good stewardship of that ongoing-permission based relationship.

For creative, remember that the campaign needs to catch the mobile subscriber’s attention.

Given the character length limitations of SMS, marketers need to distill their messages down to their absolute essentials.

The key here is to be creative and simple, but above all, bring something that represents value.

“In terms of utility, remember this: the holidays are perhaps the most stressful time of the year,” Mr. Harber said. “People don’t want something clever or quirky on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

“They want to know how they can get their shopping done quickly and cost-effectively,” he said. “Help them do that and they will be loyal fans for life.”

-Giselle Tsirulnik

Who's Suing Whom in the Mobile Technology arena

2010-10-09T16:01:00.004-04:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Click on the headline above for a link to an infographic that makes legal stuff fun!

As the mobile industry continues to grow exponentially and newcomers displace old-timers in terms of devices, services and nearly everything else in the mobile ecosystem, litigation continues to run rampant. Whether it’s disputes over patent infringement, anti-trust inquiries or even the “handling of digital images,” a lawsuit seems to be the easiest answer for companies large and small.

David McCandless, a data journalist and designer, put together this awesome infographic published on his Website “Information is Beautiful” [embedded below] to visually identify who’s suing whom in the telecom world. He even differentiates between ongoing and finished lawsuits with different arrows, while the size of the cubes represent the various company’s estimated revenue. In addition, if a company’s cube is red, it means its revenue is decreasing, while gray cubes represent companies with increasing revenues.

Smartphone App Market To Be Worth $15B By 2013, Already $2.2B In First Half Of 2010

2010-10-06T17:56:00.002-04:00

The mobile app market continues to grow by an incredible amount year after year, with new research estimating the entire market will reach $15 billion by 2013.

Mobile research firm Research2guidance recently published a comprehensive report entitled “Global Smartphone Application Market Report 2010,” which was an update for the smartphone app market for the first half of 2010. In it, the firm indicates the market has already reached $2.2B in the first six month of this year, well on track to reach the $15B estimate for 2013.

While the firm’s estimates were attributed mostly to the obvious growth of app stores like Apple’s and the Android Market, Research2guidance expects future growth to be driven by “niche stores for verticals such as business or health.” As for app downloads, the research indicates numbers reached a total of 3.8 billion in the first semester of this year, compared to 3.1 billion for all of 2009.

A primary contributing factor to the growth of mobile apps is the steady adoption of smartphones, which the firm estimates will increase from about 100 million in 2009 to nearly 1 billion by 2013.

Global Mobile Advertising Industry Grows 17% in Q3

2010-10-06T13:54:00.001-04:00

New data released today from mobile media firm BuzzCity indicate the global mobile advertising industry grew by 17% during Q3 2010, with specific regions showing growth as high as 154% during the three-month period ending Oct. 1st.

The results, which were published in BuzzCity’s “Global Mobile Advertising Index for Q3 2010,” indicate a total of 54 markets each delivering monthly traffic exceeding 10million impressions per month — an increase from 44 markets in Q2 and 32 markets in Q1.

Some interesting takeaways include the fact that while Indonesia ranked number one worldwide in terms of ad-banners served (3,685,538,814), its overall growth during Q3 declined by 16%. Mobile advertising in the U.S grew 70% in Q3, putting it in third place in terms of ads served, while a newcomer to the list — Libya — grew an incredible 154% during Q3 alone, placing it in the number 8 spot worldwide.

In total, 14 countries have witnessed double digit growth in mobile advertising over the last three months, with three markets, Libya, Korea and Kenya, seeing triple digit growth. It’s important to note that the index tracks activity across BuzzCity’s network of over 2500 publishers across the globe, so it doesn’t necessarily paint the clearest picture of the mobile ad industry as a whole.

32% Of Smartphone Buyers Choose Android, Now Most Popular Mobile OS In U.S.

2010-10-06T13:52:00.001-04:00

New data out from Nielsen suggests Android is now the top choice for new smartphone buyers in the U.S., with 32% of new smartphone purchases sporting the open source OS.

These numbers show Android has now passed both the iPhone and Blackberry, with 25 percent choosing the iPhone OS and 26 percent choosing Blackberry as their smartphone of choice. The data sample, which covers a period that includes a full-month of iPhone 4 availability, shows Blackberry still holds the largest share of the smartphone market with 31 percent, while 28 percent of smartphone owners have iPhones and only 19 percent have Android devices.

What’s interesting is that the picture looked far different only two months ago when Nielsen issued a similar report. In June, BlackBerry was selling 35 percent of the smartphones in the U.S. while Android was selling 27 percent and Apple was in last place selling just 21 percent. Who knows how the race will look in another two months. One thing’s for sure, Android will continue its stride to the top as more OEMs choose the open source (and free) OS to power their devices.

Jack Daniels, JAGTAG Target Revelers

2010-09-18T19:11:00.003-04:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a creative campaign that with the proper promotion can really go viral. I applaude the originality of the concept. Good luck, JD!

Drunk texting can be a good thing. At least, that's what Jack Daniel Distillery hopes.

The purveyor of the Jack Daniels brand of whiskey has launched a mobile marketing
campaign using 2D barcode service providers JAGTAG. Back Jack combines the aspects of different types of mobile marketing: It's kind of game-like, in that there's a bit of a plot. In a move sure to please parents, best practices practitioners, and those who uphold drinking laws, JAGTAG has age-verification technology that seems to improve on methods like the double opt-in process and parental credit-card verification. Updated data will available in real time. And mobile-specific video will help the ultimate strategy of engaging consumers.

The gist: The whiskey maker is petitioning for a national holiday based on the birthday of Jack Daniel the man and fans/drunks can sign the petition using their mobiles.

Consumers/imbibers are encouraged to take photos with their camera phones of any Jack Daniels-branded JAGTAG barcode their bleary eyes can see. Then they will receive the official campaign video and see how many others, as of that moment, have signed the petition.

The mobile campaign will be part of a greater marketing strategy that includes a 10-city tour of a bus that will purportedly deliver the petition in person to the U.S. Congress. Personally, I think consumers will be plenty engaged with their mobile phones, and that the bus smacks of Girls Gone Wild or a Duffman stunt from The Simpsons. (After all, Jack is a tiny bit more sophisticated than PBR beer.)

But the people behind the campaign seem on the ball. "For our Back Jack initiative, we wanted to engage fans nationwide to join our petition drive and add their signatures, and JAGTAG's technology enabled us to reach the largest mobile audience possible. By using JAGTAG mobile 2D barcodes, we can share exclusive content with the right audiences", Jennifer Powell, U.S. Brand Manager for Jack Daniels, said in a release.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

7 key trends mobile marketers need to know

2010-09-14T09:01:00.002-04:00

NEW YORK – An eMarketer analyst revealed seven key trends that mobile marketers need to know during a keynote address at the digiday: Mobile conference. Noah Elkin, senior analyst at eMarketer, New York, offered up the following list of trends shaping the mobile marketing space:

No. 1
Mobile usage has become pervasive.

In 2008, there were 228.2 million mobile phone users in the United States, representing 75 percent of the population. In 2009, those numbers grew to 239.1 million, representing 77.8 percent.

This year, eMarketer projects 246.1 million U.S. mobile phone users, 79. 3 percent of the population, and expects those number to grow to 250.9 million (80.1 percent) in 2011.

No. 2
Mobile devices and platforms have experienced dramatic evolution.

“Mobile phones have become more advanced and significantly cheaper and significantly lighter,” Mr. Elkin said. “They have effectively become mini-computers that are connected to a whole platform and content.

“In 2007, the iPhone and Kindle helped redefine what a mobile device is,” he said. “They united hardware with software and put a universe of content in more accessible reach better than any of their predecessors, helping the industry take big step forward.

“That set the stage for the iPad in 2010, and the tablet category is also helping to drive the market forward.”

No. 3
The device market is shifting in favor of smartphones, and the U.S., is driving a lot of the demand.

In June, ChangeWave Research found the 16 percent of U.S. consumers planned on buying a smartphone in the next 90 days.

In terms of smartphone penetration in the U.S., in the second quarter of 2009 it was at 16 percent while in the second quarter of this year it had grown to 25 percent, according to Nielsen.

“We see this trend continuing to accentuate,” Mr. Elkin said.

Which platform will win the increasingly competitive smartphone race?

Globally Nokia’s Symbian OS accounts for about half of smartphone subscribers due to its dominant position in Europe and Asia-Pacific, but in the U.S. Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and RIM’s BlackBerry are grabbing market share Nokia and are dominant in North America.

In the U.S., BlackBerry enjoys the largest market share (35 percent in the second quarter of 2010), but it is slowly but steadily dropping, according to eMarketer.

“BlackBerry users demonstrate a lack of loyalty to the platform, with only 42 percent of current BlackBerry owners would opt for another BlackBerry as their next smartphone,” Mr. Elkin said.

The iPhone has 28 percent of U.S. smartphone market share and Android is coming on strong with 13 percent.

“Android is the fastest-growing smartphone OS—its market share tripled over past three quarters,” Mr. Elkin said. “Android has nowhere to go but up.

“Keep in mind, though, that HP bought Palm, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 series is launching very shortly, so the current configuration may shift over the next few years,” he said. “Smartphone owners are voracious media consumers—they simply do more of everything: more app use, browsing, social networking, music, video and messaging.

“While smartphone users are a quarter of the population, they already represent more than half of key mobile activities.”

No. 4
Increased ownership of smart devices is driving mobile Internet growth.

U.S. mobile Internet users have grown from 50.9 million (16.7 percent of the population) in 2008 to 68.6 million (22.3 percent) in 2009 and 85.5 million (27.6 percent) this year.

That number is projected to grow to 101.1 million (32.3 percent) next year.

No. 5
Communication modes are undergoing a significant shift.

Among U.S. mobile phone users, in May 2010 65.2 percent sent a text message to another phone, 31.9 percent used their phone’s browser, 30 percent used/downloaded applications, 22.5 percent played mobile games and 20.8 percent accessed a social networking site or blog.

Social networks are fast becoming the primary way mobile users exchange information. Frequent social network access is linked to above-average mobile content consumption.

The nexus of mobile and social is increasingly about one key attribute—location. And, location leads to increased relevance for mobile marketing.

“The closer you get to a consumer, the more relevant an offer you can present,” Mr. Elkin said. “Location is very powerful data because it puts you in the palm of consumers’ hand near the point of purchase, which represents part of the future of marketing.

“Location-based ads and messages can prompt relevant actions, encourage consumers to take the next step, find out more information about a brand or product and make a purchase,” he said. “For consumers, sharing location is all about the value exchange.

“They expect to get something in return for sharing where they are and what they’re doing.”

No. 6
The base of mobile content users will continue to see strong growth.

The percentage of mobile gamers has gone from 45.6 percent in 2008 to 64 percent this year, and it is projected to rise to 72.8 percent in 2011.

The percentage of mobile video viewers has risen from 12.3 percent in 2008 to 21.7 this year, and it is projected to rise to 31.4 percent in 2011.

The percentage of mobile music listeners has gone from 12.9 percent in 2008 to 21.7 percent this year, and it is projected to rise to 29.2 percent in 2011.

“Mobile gaming, music and video revenues will more than double from 2010 to 2014,” Mr. Elkin said. “The ad-supported component will grow fourfold over that time—much quicker than paid content.

“It’s important to figure out the optimal balance between free and fee,” he said.

No. 7
Tablets are changing the face of mobility and computing.

EMarketer projects 12.9 million iPad shipments worldwide in 2010, 36.5 million 2011 and 50.4 million in 2012.

By 2015, Forrester projects that tablets will represent 23 percent of all PC sales, which will be more than either desktops or netbooks, trailing only notebooks.

Tablet buyers are wealthier, better educated and more connected than the average U.S. adult.

For marketers, tablets’ bigger screens promise more immersive experiences.

“The key thing for marketers is the combination of larger screens and the touch Web really shouldn’t be underestimated,” Mr. Elkin said. “There are much higher interaction rates for the Web and apps among smartphone owners, and on a bigger canvas we expect those deltas to go even higher.

“We often see double consumption and usage on touchscreen devices versus non-touch interfaces,” he said. “The mobile Web is becoming more app-like in appearance and experience, and the likelihood is that the mobile Web and apps will continue to coexist.

“As the industry pushes towards the HTML 5 standard, the Web is becoming more app-like, so there’s an increasing convergence between the appearance and experience.”

-Dan Butcher