Enabling Mobility

What Mobile Payments Will Mean for the Marketing World

2009-10-09T03:27:00.000-07:00

What Mobile Payments Will Mean for the Marketing World
Unlike Credit Cards, Cellphones Allow Real-Time Contact With Consumers

by Rita Chang
Published: October 05, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- What happens to marketing if mobile phones replace credit cards as a form of payment? It's something marketers need to start figuring out now. Even as more and more tests roll out across the world, marketing strategy is lagging behind new technology.

In Japan, mobile payments have been in use for about four years, and about 20% of consumers are using it. But merchants have only recently tied loyalty programs to mobile payment. McDonald's, for example, introduced a loyalty and payment program last year in Japan that lets customers choose their meals, redeem coupons and pay for purchases with their mobile phones.

Starbucks, the first national merchant to introduce mobile payments on an iPhone app, is piloting the feature in 16 stores in Seattle and Silicon Valley. Customers can use their iPhones as they'd use a standard Starbucks-issued gift card -- the app lets them pay for their lattes, using a 2-D bar code, refill their account and check their balance remotely.

It's an early, and somewhat clunky, example of mobile payment in the U.S., but it's pointing toward a future in which marketers condition consumers to view the phone as a wallet and a way to talk to customers one-on-one.

"If you've got a real-time device in the users' hands at point of sale, this gives you the opportunity to provide promotions and incentives at the time it matters and influence buyers' behavior," said Drew Sievers, CEO and cofounder of mFoundry, which supplied the technology that powers Starbucks' mobile payment feature. (Starbucks currently has no plans to offer mobile coupons to those app users.)

Big investments
So far, mobile-payment programs -- and complementary loyalty programs -- aren't widespread because companies are wary to invest the time and money to integrate their programs on the handset, according to Michael Keferl, a Tokyo-based managing director at CScout, which studies consumer trends. The programs can be expensive and complicated to launch; McDonald's program, for example, took nearly a year to go live.

The global standard for contactless technology -- likely to be Near Field Communications -- involves equipping a phone with a chip that contains the consumers' credit credentials and can talk to the POS device. While contactless mobile payment is most prevalent in Japan, it's also in use in South Korea and NFC payments will be tested all over the world in the coming years. Citibank, Vodafone and Mastercard, for example, are now testing in India.

With contactless payment, Japanese consumers can pay for their purchases by tapping their phones against a point-of-sale device, and merchants and brands can use in-store displays or posters to invite users to download coupons and offers. A point-of-sale reader, tied to a server, can sync the contents of the checkout basket to the coupons collected on the mobile wallet.

In earlier NFC payment trials of up to 600 consumers in Singapore, Taiwan and Canada, coupon redemption rates have ranged between 20% to 50%, compared to the 2% to 5% paper coupon redemption rate, according to Khan Mohammad, president and founder of ViVOtech, an NFC software provider working with Citibank on the pilot program in India. And when Japanese consumers transferred their prepaid convenience-store cards to their mobile phones, card usage rose an average of 40%, said Mr. Mohammad, citing data from Sony, which backs contactless payment technology in Japan.

"People will use a technology if it's easy and accessible; putting coupons on the phone is a lot easier than cutting out coupons and then pulling them out of a wallet," he said.

On the horizon
The infrastructure is also taking shape in the U.S.; about 130,000 merchant locations have NFC devices set up to read the 100 million contactless credit cards that have been issued, but NFC's mobile adoption has been stalled in the U.S. because the players can't agree on the business model, said Mr. Mohammad, who is working with North American carriers.

Operators are starting to see opportunity, however, in serving merchants that want to send their mobile-marketing messages and programs over their network and slowly but surely NFC-enabled phones are hitting the market. Juniper Research predicts that 123 million NFC-enabled handsets, equivalent to 46% of today's U.S. wireless subscribers, will come online in North America by 2013. And global mobile payment transactions are expected to reach $110.1 billion in 2013, at a 105% compound annual growth rate, according to Dublin-based Research and Markets.

Most consumers, 84%, are interested in mobile payments, per a Yankee Group survey. Next year, North American carriers will gear up for a limited commercial rollout involving up to 100,000 NFC-enabled phones, Mr. Mohammad said.

The real promise in migrating loyalty and payment to mobile is that it lets retailers track customer behavior and make relevant offers.

"When you have dumb plastic, there's no communications vehicle with the consumer," said Kevin Grieve, CEO of Denver-based Mocapay, a technology provider that enables merchants' loyalty and gift card programs for mobile. "Once you mobile-enable these programs, you open a communication channel between the consumer and the brand."
source;http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139439

Marketing Movies through Mobile phones

2009-09-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

In the recent years movies have large Marketing budget. In places like India production houses are using SMS to increase the box office collections. If you notice, sometimes it makes me wonder, why should a production house or the Marketing agencies stick to SMS when the phones are capable of performing the same task as web. I don’t understand why these agencies have websites when only miniscule percentage of the movie is connected to the Internet and the data proves that not many will look a URL on the poster and visit the website. After a research into the marketing and advertising strategy by production houses, MobiCom our company had developed a downloadable solutions through which a preamble of the movie pre-release can be downloaded to the phone through GPRS, Bluetooth on to their phone.(this can be marketed in various ways and pushed to the end users) The movie application will contain most of the information which is there on the movies at the same to make it more interactive, the users can review, comment and also rate the movies before the release itself by looking at the content. Moreover some of them also sold some scale models of the actors and actresses with the operators help. There were lot more content included in the application like participating in a contest, write to the actors of the movies etc & more.

I am also attaching a link where you can view a video of the movie application http://www.vistainfosystems.com/mobicom/demos/cc/demo.html. Please let me know your views on it !!

Visit MobiCom for more information www.mobicom.in

Homing In | Making a pitch on cellphone

2009-09-02T02:20:00.001-07:00

Homing In | Making a pitch on cellphone

The potential for reaching out to customers through targeted messages is immense and companies are looking at innovative ways to push mobile advertisements. So far, however, the bigger brands have been more open to leveraging this medium
Deepti Chaudhary

Anantha K., a 28-year-old software engineer, was pleasantly surprised when he received a message on his handset from a travel website offering discount deals, even as he was surfing a similar site on his BlackBerry. The ad Anantha received could be an indication of how mobile advertising companies are trying to target customers in India — tailoring their ads to meet the specific needs of the customer.

With a subscriber base of nearly 450 million users in India, cellphones are potentially a strong medium for reaching out to customers, particularly through targeted messages — though experts say it may be a year or two before this business really takes off. Investors and advertisers are interested but are yet to fully explore the medium. Efforts are on to see that it becomes a viable advertising medium without violating a customer’s privacy through unsolicited messages.

Advertisers haven’t yet opened up to the idea of product campaigns on handsets. “It takes a lot of time, as much as three-six months, to explain the benefits of this medium to advertisers, unlike for, say, television, where they know the reach is huge,” says Naveen Tewari, CEO, mKhoj Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Also, to make it really successful, the medium needs to be seen on a par with television and print media and not as a stand-alone marketing channel.

The challenges haven’t stopped companies from looking at innovative ways to push mobile advertisements. While mobile value-added services provider Mobile2Win India Pvt. Ltd is creating mobile games based on TV ads that can be downloaded, mKhoj Solutions is focusing on Internet mobile advertising — advertising on the mobile platform becomes an extension of surfing on the Internet via the handset. Chennai-based Mobile-Worx Pvt. Ltd, a mobile solutions company, has launched a service called ZestADZ that enables the delivery of highly targeted, location-sensitive, contextually relevant advertisements over the mobile phone.

A 2008 study by media buying agency GroupM put ad expenditure over the mobile phone medium in India in 2007 at Rs45 crore. Mobile advertising firms say bigger brands are more open to leveraging this medium than small or medium companies, with fast moving consumer goods, or FMCG, and financial services companies more receptive. Brands such as Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, Cadbury, ITC, Coca-Cola, HSBC India, ICICI Bank, CitiFinancial, Max New York Life Insurance and Fullerton India are already using the mobile phone to reach more customers.

Distinct advantage of Mobile Advertising.

2009-08-06T23:35:00.000-07:00

Trend

Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising is coming out of the bulk SMS push model to a more sophisticated and targeted mechanism to reach out to the right users, at the right time. By Varun Aggarwal

Have you ever wondered what the best medium to reach the largest number of people for an advertising and marketing campaign is in India? There are about 60 million television sets in the country and about four million PCs. The reach of newspapers and other magazines is even lower. One medium, which has the highest reach in the country, is the mobile. There are over 300 mobile subscribers in India and each one of them can be reached through mobile advertising and marketing. Moreover, apart from online advertising, there is often no way to check if anyone views/ reads/ listens to your advertisement. With mobile advertising, you can overcome this challenge and interact with your target customers in a more efficient manner.

When we qualify mobile as one of the potential marketing and advertising media, we refer to the following inherent characteristics of mobile

It is one of the most personal touch point, providing ‘anywhere, anytime’ access to the customer
It can trigger instant actions, responses and conversions occur in real-time
The mobile channel unlike the online channel can be completely controlled so that spam can be minimized, thereby making marketing and advertising relevant and non-intrusive
However, we are still seeing that mobile marketing and advertising is at a nascent stage in India. It is yet to evolve into a popular and established channel in the marketing mix. Nevertheless, spending in this medium has been increasing quite steadily. According to Girish Trivedi, Deputy Director, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia & Middle East, “The mobile advertising market in CY2007, stood at Rs 27 crore and grew to approx Rs 80-100 crore in CY 2008. This 200-250% growth rate is expected even in CY 2009. Even while the base for mobile advertising is pretty low at the moment, the potential is extremely high.”

Modes of delivery

As the capabilities of handsets vary tremendously, operators are required to leverage as many delivery mechanisms as possible for mobile advertising. There are four major delivery mechanisms on the mobile—Voice, SMS, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), and data (through WAP).

Voice: Voice is the most popular mechanism to reach out to people from any demographic. A typical voice-based advertising campaign can be run on a pre-call (the message is played when the subscriber places a call, before being connected), Ringback tones or through a pre-recorded message on an outbound dialer. Dr. Vinod Vasudevan, Group CEO, Flytxt said, “As the rural subscriber base is a prime target segment for mobile operators in India, the voice channel is still a preferred communication medium, as rural subscribers are receptive to local vernacular voice messages rather than SMS and other channels. Operators have spent a lot in setting up call centers with this goal in mind.”
SMS: After voice, SMS is the most popular mode for mobile advertising. A major chunk of VAS revenues come from SMS and especially in India, it is a popular medium for communication.
USSD: This is perhaps the way ahead for mobile advertising as it lets the advertiser interact with the potential customer in a seamless and cost-effective manner. USSD is commonly used to check account balance through short codes like *123#. Yogesh S Bijlani, Vice President of Sales for Asia Pacific Region, Telenity, explained, “The biggest challenge in mobile advertising is to make people opt into promotional messages. Using USSD, they can select their preferences. USSD works across handsets and opens a browser for the user to interact with. He can select what specific information about the advertiser he wants and there is virtually no limited to the amount of information that can be delivered to him without being charged for it.”
Data: Data ads are usually delivered just like online ads through mobile Web portals of operators. Many mobile widgets also leverage advertising through WAP services. Although data usage is not very high at the moment, it is expected to increase over time.
Trivedi opined, “Location-based advertising would be the next big thing in the mobile advertising space and this can take personalization to the next level. Since the operators know where you exactly are, they can send you a promotional message from say, a pizza shop as soon as you are in the vicinity.”

“Another way of advertising could be through Bluetooth or infrared. A Bluetooth or an infrared server placed in a mall can send you messages from the shop owners in the mall as soon as you enter the premise,” Trivedi added.

The mobile advantage

"Mobile marketing and advertising through telemarketing and mass SMS were intrusive. However, with targeted advertising, advertisers can get to have better interaction with the customer and this would in turn earn higher revenues for both telcos and content providers"

- Kamlesh Bhatia
Principal Research Analyst, Gartner

"There is a lot of customer information available with the operators like the billing patterns of the customers, the services they have enrolled for. If this information is used with an efficient analytical engine, ads that are relevant to the customer can reach him at the right time and through the right channel"

- Rajiv Madhok
Director, One97

"As the rural subscriber base is a prime target segment for mobile operators in India, the voice channel is still the preferred communication medium, as rural subscribers are more receptive to local vernacular voice messages rather than SMS and other channels"

- Dr. Vinod Vasudevan
Group CEO, Flytxt

"Push SMS is a mass advertisement medium where the marketer is not sure of returns or the accuracy with which he is able to reach his target customer base. It will be used by marketers to reach a wider audience where they are not bothered about the specific psychographic traits of their customers"

- Sumit Goswami
Head – Marketing (India/ASEAN), Mobile Marketing Group, Nuance India Private Ltd

When we talk about mobile advertising, the possibilities are limitless. There is tremendous scope for innovation in this space. Rajiv Madhok, Director, One97, said, “Mobile is the most intelligent medium ever. There is a lot of customer information available with the operators like the billing patterns of the customers, the services they have enrolled for (like Ringback tones, GPRS etc). If this information is used with an efficient analytical engine, ads that are relevant to the customer can reach him at the right time and through the right channel (Voice, SMS, USSD or Data).” However, most of the mobile advertising done today, is in the form of push SMS, wherein a subscriber receives unsolicited SMS advertisements that may or may not be of interest to him. Intrusive, unsolicited advertising and marketing messages reaching the customers makes them annoyed and dissatisfied leading to churn and subscribing to the Do Not Disturb (DND) list thereby creating a big opportunity loss for operators and other enterprises in leveraging one of the most potential marketing channels available, which is mobile.

“Most of the time, with mass message broadcasting, what operators could achieve is sending at least 1 or 2 marketing messages per customers on a daily basis, but this does not guarantee any returns and positive response as this is not driven by customer profile or behavior. It is a hit or miss game, which is costly, inefficient and irritating,” opined Dr Vasudevan.

Therefore, as many operators have already realized, the way forward is targeted customer data driven marketing and advertising. Operators are aware of their unique assets, one is the abundance of reliable and real-time customer data available with them and the second asset is their control over different mobile communication channels like SMS, MMS, IVR and WAP. Once they start to find ways to take leverage of both these assets, they will transform themselves to more effective and efficient ‘mobile marketers and advertisers’.

Many studies indicate targeted marketing is expected to increase the response rates by around 50% or more compared to mass message blasting. This is true for both mobile marketing, where operator tries to promote their own products and services through mobile as well as in mobile advertising, where they leverage the different customer touch points to promote third party ads.

Higher response rates for targeted campaigns in effect translate into greater brand awareness, sales and loyalty for mobile marketing and high CPM rates for mobile advertising programs. Targeted marketing and advertising is all about sending the right message or ad to the right customers at the right time and frequency. This will ensure that customers receive ads or messages only when they desire the same and about what they are interested in. Once operators and other agencies can achieve this, mobile marketing and advertising is expected to move into a higher orbit. Neon, the mobile marketing platform from Flytxt, has sophisticated targeting features, based on customer profile data, usage behavior as well as network data. Network data driven location sensitive targeting will also go a long way in promoting proximity marketing, especially taking advantage of wireless technologies like Bluetooth.

According to Sumit Goswami, Head – Marketing (India/ASEAN), Mobile Marketing Group, Nuance India Private Ltd, “Push SMS will co-exist with targeted marketing and advertising for the next two-three years. It is a mass advertisement medium where the marketer is not sure of returns or the accuracy with which he is able to reach his target customer base and it will be used by marketers to reach a wider audience where they are not bothered about specific psychographic traits of potential customers. The Do not call registry directive from TRAI is a major hindrance to the growth of SMS as an advertising medium.”

Kamlesh Bhatia – Principal Research Analyst, Gartner, opined, “Mobile marketing and advertising through telemarketing and mass SMS were intrusive. However, with targeted advertising, advertisers can get to have better interaction with the customer and this would in turn earn higher revenues for both telcos and content providers.”

What’s in it for the user?

While mobile advertising could be a potential mechanism for bolstering the sinking revenues of telcos, it can also bring a lot of benefits for the end consumer. Take for e.g., Blyk, an MVO (mobile virtual network operator) based in the UK, which offers free calling to customers that are willing to subscribe to relevant advertisements. While, the advertisers get to promote their products through this channel, the end user enjoys free talk time worth 15 pounds every month.

For gaming buffs, there is no need to buy mobile games anymore. As there are plenty of games available for the mobile, absolutely free of charge, all thanks to mobile advertising. The games are bundled with some advertisements for which one needs to have a GPRS connection. You are prompted with a few ad banners before you start a game, and you get an option to view or skip them.

“In other scenarios, subscribers are offered free SMS or free talk time if they allow placement of ads in their Ringback tones. Though such models may not be meaningful for a business executive, it may mean a lot to say, a college student, who is always excited to get anything for free,” added Madhok.

“People are interested in Value Added Services, but the cost is often a deterrent. Mobile advertising can enable them to subscribe to these services without having to pay for them,” added Bijlani.

Challenges in the market

According to Dr Vasudevan, “If we need to unlock the potential of mobile channel fully as a marketing and advertising media, the operators need to take a bigger role and start leveraging their unique strengths of having reliable and real-time customer data as well as their ability to control the multiple mobile channels.”

The main issues we see as those which can decelerate the growth of this market are:

Cultural and personal mindset needs to change in India, especially among the non-youth segments, most of them see mobile only as a talking technology, it needs some effort to convince them that they can do more than talking with this gadget. Mobile banking, mobile payments and now targeted and personalized mobile marketing can also go a long way in achieving this shift in mindset
Enterprises need to resort to targeted and non-intrusive mobile marketing, mere push techniques will make it irritating for customers; this can kill this golden goose. This is why we see operators need to take up the role of marketers and advertising publishers, they should control what goes to customers at what time and what location, it will be a win-win situation for customers as they will get relevant and desired messages and information, for operators as they gain to promote their products more effectively and also generate new revenue streams through higher CPM rates based revenue sharing agreement with advertisers and for enterprises, who will get high CPM rates for their ads
However if operators need to move up the value chain and do customer data driven targeted, contextual, permission based mobile marketing and advertising, they need to overcome technical challenges they currently have like data silos, manual processes and open loop marketing, with limited capability in tracking the campaign responses.
Awareness amongst marketers and advertisers to use mobile as a medium for advertising –better ROI and other tangible benefits are still not clear to many advertisers.
“Advertising is an important tool for most carriers. However, the challenge is to enable advertising for customers without annoying them with too many SMS. Subscribers need to be carefully targeted based on their demographics, preferences etc.,” added Bhatia.

Early days yet

Mobile advertising is still at a nascent stage. Unlike the Internet, where the per click revenue model is present, models need to mature in the mobile space. Some of the popular models currently prevalent in the market are per impression model, volume based model (based on the number of SMS sent), number of times the user waited to listen to an ad in a pre-call.

According to Trivedi, eventually two or three models will mature as the most widely used as the mobile advertising becomes more popular. As far as the revenue split between the content provider and the operator is concerned, there is no standard as yet. However, with content providers focusing on getting the advertisers on board, the revenue split will shift in the favor of the content provider.

Madhok opined, “When we bring the advertiser, we get anywhere from 40-60% of the revenue and when the operator gets the advertiser, we get about 30% of the revenue.”

As the mobile advertising market matures, we will see more revenue models coming in and more innovative service offerings. Although, we do not expect to see this as a threat to the traditional advertising medium, it could well become a popular one, pretty soon. And, as long as the operators are able to make sure that they do not irritate the subscribers with too many messages and spam, mobile advertising can be a win-win for all.

source:http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20090504/market02.shtml

Toyota targets iPhone users with new Prius promotion

2009-07-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

With more than 60 percent of Toyota Motor’s WAP traffic coming from the iPhone, the automaker decided to take a different approach to mobile with the promotion of the newest Prius car model.

To better cater to these loyal iPhone users, Toyota launched a mobile site optimized specifically for touchscreen devices such as the iPhone. IPhone users can access the Toyota site at http://m.toyota.com and click on the Prius icon to get rerouted to the iPhone optimized site.

“One of the exciting aspects of using mobile for the launch of the new third generation Prius is that this channel allows us to integrate with our social media initiatives and this audience lends itself perfectly for such a launch ” said Michael K. Nelson, interactive marketing manager for Toyota, Torrance, CA.

The third-generation 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid debuted at the Detroit auto show in January and started being sold in April.

The new Prius is bigger and more powerful, with the engine growing from 1.5 liters to 1.8 liters, boosting horsepower from 110 to 160. The Prius is priced at $22,000.

The Prius is cool

Mr. Nelson said that the demographics of consumers interested in the Prius match those of iPhone users.

What’s unique about the Prius site is that users will not only be able to explore models, pricing and a photo gallery. Site visitors can also view four feature demo videos - solar, hybrid fundamentals, exterior and interior.

Additionally, users will be able to view a true “360 spin” and colorizer, which Toyota claims is a frst in North America.

Preview the Prius

Site visitors can also get a link to the Prius Facebook page and go to it right from their phones.

Also, users can view the Prius reveal video and the national commercial spots.

Mr. Nelson said that a Prius iPhone app is coming soon, but did not reveal the actual launch date.

Toyota has been in the mobile space for a while now. Last year the company advertised within Yahoo's Fantasy Football mobile experience to promote the 2009 Corolla.

The campaign began running on Sept. 4 and continued throughout the football season.

Toyota ran banners on the site at http://m.yahoo.com/fantasy with a tie in to football to promote its Corolla.

Toyota launched its WAP site in December. The WAP has seen a 300 percent increase in traffic to date, without much media or promotion.

Mr. Nelson said that Toyota ran some mobile banner ads for its Venza car model.

“We are not out there to build toys and games,” Mr. Nelson said. “We build our Web sites with the goal of getting the shopper to the dealership as quickly and efficiently as possible. We sell vehicles, not games.

“The mobile device is going to be the primary Internet device and we are really focusing on the portability,” Mr. Nelson said. “Back in the day, shoppers would build their vehicle online and bring print outs to the dealership.

“Now, based on weekend traffic patterns, we know that more and more shoppers are bringing their mobile devices instead.”

90 percent Indians believe mobiles change work-life

2009-07-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

90 percent Indians believe mobiles change work-life

By siliconindia news bureau

Tuesday,07 July 2009, 09:08 hrs

Bangalore: At least nine out of ten Indians feel that the growth in mobile communications have enhanced productivity and transformed their work-life balance. More than 90 percent of Indian respondents say mobile communications technology such as smartphones and laptops have boosted personal productivity and, for many, transformed their work-life balance, as per a study.

The study Kelly Global Workforce Index maintains that 83 percent of Indians believe that their ability to work outside office and yet network and remain in touch is a positive development, although it meant working longer hours.

"Many employees now have the capacity to work from home or away from the office, at any hour of the day, and this is proving positive for productivity and work-life balance. Even though some are working longer hours, this is largely offset by the greater freedom and flexibility of the virtual workplace," said Dhiren Shantilal, Senior Vice President of Kelly Services, Asia Pacific.

A sound work-life balance is now a big priority, especially among the younger generation, in the age group of 18-29 years, the survey said. Gen X, between 30-47 years of age, is most attracted to telecommuting or working from home and working remotely. Baby boomers, who are between 48-65 years, are least happy.

But this does not mean that new technologies have not spread productivity benefits across all generations. 72 percent of the respondents said that productivity was much better.

"Employers who use technology to enhance working arrangements are also likely to reap productivity benefits and to be seen as employers of choice," said Shantilal. Around one lakh people from 34 countries were surveyed for the Kelly Global Workforce Index. Nearly 5000 were from India.

CollegeRecruiter.com goes mobile with job searches

2009-04-20T02:49:00.000-07:00

CollegeRecruiter.com goes mobile with job searches
By Mickey Alam Khan
April 20, 2009
CollegeRecruiter on a Nokia phone
CollegeRecruiter.com, one of the leading job boards for college students looking for internships and college graduates in market for entry-level positions, has gone mobile.
The Minneapolis, MN-based company’s mobile site athttp://collegerecruiter.mobi is being positioned as a fully functional job board with almost all the bells and whistles of the wired Web site. Being alert to the newest job postings on the site is one of the key benefits of CollegeRecruiter.mobi.
“We’re looking at our mobile site to build our overall traffic and enable us to continue our leadership role as the Internet continues to migrate from desktop computers to mobile devices,” said Steven Rothberg, founder/president of CollegeRecruiter.com.

Here’s what Mr. Rothberg had to say about his company’s mobile strategy and the opportunity ahead:
Why the need for CollegeRecruiter.com to go mobile? CollegeRecruiter.com is the leading job board for college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities, so virtually all of our users rely extensively on their mobile devices to connect with their friends and the Internet.
The internship jobs page
If we want to continue to be a leader for this audience, then we need to be mobile so that we are where they are.
Are we assuming that all college grads have smartphones?Definitely not. A higher percentage of college students and recent graduates have smartphones than the general population and the percentage who have smartphones is increasing, but our site is designed to work well with any Web-enabled phone.
How will the site work in terms of functionality?Unlike some other job boards which are going mobile, our mobile site is fully functional. You can search for and read any of the tens of thousands of pages of employment-related articles, blogs and videos.
The entry-level jobs page
You can also search, read and apply to any of the hundreds of thousands of internship and job postings on the site.
Most of the other boards require you to email a link to a job posting to yourself and then you apply when you’re at your computer. Seems to me that defeats the point of the site being mobile.
Who created the mobile site?We created the mobile site using in-house talent.
How do you send a resume from the phone? Or even fill in those fields?We only require three fields for the vast majority of jobs: name, email address and cover letter/resume.
It should be pretty easy for candidates to complete the first two fields. The last field they can complete by either copying and pasting a document saved on their smartphone, type in a URL to their online resume or type in a summary of their qualifications.
Realistically, very few will type in a complete resume.
How is it different from others in the market? Which other job boards have mobile sites?MJob.com is helping some other job boards go mobile. RecruitingNevada.com is an example of one of those.
A much higher percentage of overseas job boards are mobile than U.S. job boards because the use of mobile overseas is much further along than it is here.
How do you monetize the mobile site?The more visitors to our mobile site, the less advertising we need to pay.
Also, we’ll soon be launching a complimentary job match alert service via texting and we’ll generate revenues from candidates who want to subscribe to that premium service.
Who pays for usage – recruiter or applicant? And what are the listing fees?There are no additional costs to the recruiters or applicants. Virtually all of our job board services are free to candidates and employers pay to advertise their job openings. Their ads run at no additional cost on our mobile site.
So what’s your strategy with this mobile offering?We’re looking at our mobile site to build our overall traffic and enable us to continue our leadership role as the Internet continues to migrate from desktop computers to mobile devices.
How are you going to promote it?We’re working on getting listed in the mobile search engines. We’ve had some good press coverage so far, and we’ll be driving traffic using the texted job alerts.
What kind of traffic or usage are you expecting?We’re anticipating that within a year about 25 percent of our traffic will be to our mobile site.
So what challenge are you addressing with the mobile site?We want to remain relevant and prominent with the bulk of visitors to our Web site, the college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.
As they continue to migrate their Internet access points from desktop computers to mobile devices, we need to migrate with them.

What can mobile do for your brand?

2009-04-15T03:05:00.000-07:00

What can mobile do for your brand?
April 15, 2009
Dave Sloan is director of marketing at Avot Media
By Dave Sloan
The world of advertising is going through some challenging yet exciting changes. Budgets may be limited but everyone would agree that there are huge opportunities to reach customers in mobile.
While its no secret that mobile is important, brand managers and advertising agencies often lack experience in the mobile channel and are scrambling to understand this evolving and growing opportunity.

Let’s take a look at the opportunities that mobile has to offer.
What kind of reach does mobile have?
What are some mobile marketing best practices?
What are some examples of success in mobile marketing?
Specifically, how can a push to mobile give back a lift in brand awareness and sales?
Reach and engagementAlthough mobile is widely adopted at about 90 percent penetration in the United States, this does not mean that every mobile user is a prime advertising target.
The first question is how many users are really reachable?
Mobile services adoption statistics appear low at first glance.
Only 25 percent of U.S. subscribers use SMS, 18 percent use the mobile Web, and approximately 8 percent are on social networking sites and regularly watch mobile video.
Although the potential for mass marketing reach sounds relatively limited, its important to remember that mobile is the most engaging, personal and interactive media device.
You won’t reach every customer, but you will have the opportunity to create an compelling experience for specific target customers.
SMS has gone mainstream with 1 trillion messages sent in the U.S. in 2008. And, MMS has finally seen significant growth due to better bundled data plans with 15 billion MMS sent in 2008, up from 6 billion in 2007 (source: CTIA).
A well designed SMS or MMS direct marketing campaign could potentially be an elegant fit for your brand.
Beyond messaging campaigns, mobile has proven to be a powerful way to engage users, create interactive brand experiences, and reach users on their device of choice.
With the rapid improvement in mobile devices, improved data plan prices and adoption of mobile social networking, mobile has proven to be a powerful way to involve customers beyond traditional channels.
At the same time, the mobile ecosystem remains fragmented and extremely messy. Mobile marketers quickly find that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to reaching their mobile audience.
There are hundreds of device types, limited data plan adoption, and spotty network conditions. The reality of a fragmented mobile ecosystem requires a well planned, targeted approach that may include SMS, WAP, apps and video.
Best practicesCommon first steps in mobile include experimentation with SMS marketing and WAP banner ads.
Although these models may prove to be worthwhile for customer acquisition, top brands have found that mobile creates an even richer opportunity to offer new brand experiences beyond customer acquisition initiatives.
SMS is great for voting and interaction. Some brands report that voting response rates are 10 times better than online voting.
As a rule of thumb, SMS marketing needs to be treated with care due to sensitivy around Spam, over-charging users, and complicated opt-in steps.
In general don’t expect a high rate of customer conversion via mobile since there are very few elegant click-to-buy models in mobile.
Mobile web sites (WAP) are a great start for a catch-all approach.
But, the user experience is problematic with awkward search, discovery, and usability.
Top mobile brands like MySpace have found that the mobile Internet can be the best way to let users with common feature phones access a portal.
Applications are great for creating custom user experiences. But, they can have limited reach. Not everyone has an iPhone. And, how do you measure the success of an application?
Counting app downloads is a useful metric but how can you drive repeated usage and stickiness?
Many brands have found success in iPhone application development by targeting iPhone customers that overlap their own target customer demographic, as well as by creating buzz in the market.
Mobile video has been growing in popularity with better content, higher quality, and newer video-friendly devices like the Blackberry Storm, Apple iPhone and T-Mobile G1.
Nielsen reports that as many as 11.3 million Americans watched mobile video in Q408.
In a Nielsen study, mobile video viewers said they were 3 times as likely to trust and respond to a mobile advertisement than regular mobile users.
If you have any doubt that mobile video is becoming a reality, consider that MTV delivered 100 million mobile videos in 2008. Wow.
Leverage mobile to improve your brandIf we look at successful brands that have already pushed to mobile, it is clear that mobile should not just treated as an additional revenue stream.
Mobile provides new and exciting ways to interact with brands.
Mobile lets users connect with their favorite content on their terms.
Brands have the opportunity to create new interactive experiences that leverage the power of mobile environments (like address book, camera, GPS, and the accelerometer).
Advertisers should not make the mistake of trying to recreate classic web advertising models that gather metrics like impressions and click-throughs.
A better strategy is to create great branded mobile experiences that drive interactive usage and brand awareness. Successful brands have leveraged mobile to extend their overall brand equity, not necessarily to turn on a new revenue stream in the mobile channel.
Brands often struggle with the question of “fit” for their brand. Successful brands like Mini Cooper that appear to have no obvious mobile fit have had success developing iPhone apps that associate their brand with positive attributes like fun and coolness.
Every brand can benefit from a mobile presence. The trick is determining how mobile can embrace and extend your brand.
Kraft, for example, offers an iFood iPhone application that targets key demographics, improves the lifetime value of a customer, drives innovation and increases brand awareness.
By now, the mobile marketing era is well underway. There are plenty of examples of first movers and fast followers who have already invested and succeeded in the mobile channel. We can all learn from these early successes.
Case studiesMTV’s goal is to drive revenue and create ubiquitous access to their content. As they launch in mobile, they must be able to track metrics and show value to advertisers.
For many of MTV’s brands, top mobile growth areas are mobile video, mobile web, and iPhone. MTV observed early on that their users are already on mobile. They have found that SMS increases engagement.
Text messaging is the best way to get votes (10 times better than online). Mobile allows them to offer multi-platform access and drive additional revenue streams through mobile video advertising. MTV streamed 100 million mobile videos in 2008.
BMW Germany saw a 30% conversion rate with a mobile video campaign. What’s interesting is that all the information was in the video.
There was no need to click through to a link, which is typical of most mobile advertising campaigns across categories and markets.
AdMob cited the results of a recent campaign for the Land Rover automobile brand: In addition to 45,000 mobile video downloads and 7,400 wallpaper downloads, the mobile effort inspired 1,100 wireless subscribers to contact their local Land Rover dealership.
ConclusionAll advertising and outbound marketing efforts need to show a strong ROI.
This is a great time to innovate, add new value to the brand, and find new revenue streams.
Many brands are finding that mobile is a great vehicle to extend their reach, increase engagement, and drive customer loyalty.
ROI in mobile should be a top goal, but this is an opportunity to raise the bar. The winners will be creative with the user experience design and great at execution. Mobile should not be treated as a stand-alone marketing channel.
Instead, mobile should be approached as an advanced tool for brand relationships that improve the end users experience and likelihood to stay loyal, recommend the brand, and generate more activity with the brand

Procter & Gamble’s Charmin brand runs first mobile sponsorship

2009-04-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

Procter & Gamble’s Charmin brand runs first mobile sponsorship
By Mickey Alam Khan
April 10, 2009
To pee or not to pee, that's the question
Procter & Gamble Co.’s Charmin, the nation’s No. 1 toilet paper brand, has debuted its first mobile advertising sponsorship, working with global bathroom directory SitOrSquat Inc. on its Web site and mobile applications.
The consumer packaged goods giant is sponsoring SitOrSquat’s site and iPhone application to help consumers on the go find the cleanest public toilets worldwide. The site and application offer user-generated listings of bathroom locations and ratings, as well as details on hours of operation, handicap accessibility, showers and availability of changing tables.
“SitOrSquat is the perfect partner for us,” said Dewayne Guy, external relations manager at P&G, Cincinnati, OH. “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel by creating this application. We found somebody out there whose mission matches ours. It creates the perfect partnership.”

SitOrSquat is a New York-based user-generated service that lets consumers find bathrooms with myriad facilities including changing tables and handicap access across 55,000 bathrooms in 32 countries. It styles itself as “a place to find and record bathrooms anywhere in the world.”
Users who download the SitOrSquat application from the Apple iTunes Store to their iPhone can add their review when they have used one of the featured toilets. A “Sit” rating implies that the bathroom is clean and “Squat” means that it is not.
Charmin takes baby steps on mobile
Got your backThe Charmin sponsorship is currently live on the Web site and iPhone application. A presence on the BlackBerry application may follow, along with a presence on future Windows Mobile and Android applications.
In addition to images of its two bear-cub mascots, Charmin also gets a banner ad on the SitOrSquat iPhone application that says, “Gotta go? Relax … we got your back.” The banner features the red bear and the Charmin logo.
Clicking on that banner ad currently takes consumers to a mobile landing page with a big bear on it. Soon, SitOrSquat will introduce a more comprehensive brand image including the possibility of point of purchase and enriched content for Charmin once the ad is clicked on.
Action at the bottom
Another banner shows the blue bear with a thumbs-up sign. Copy reads, “Just like home.” The Charmin logo is adjacent. A click-through on that unit again takes users to a mobile landing page with a bear on it.
The banners occupy the bottom strip of every page in the iPhone application.
“What we get out of it is the impressions from that activity,” Mr. Guy said. “We’re really trying to support the effort that SitOrSquat is putting out there.”
P&G has typically promoted its Charmin tissue across television, print and in-store media. Online sponsorships, outdoor events and now mobile advertising are designed to keep the brand front and center of its target audience of moms and families wherever they are, at home or travelling.
P&G ad agency Publicis handles the Charmin brand. Media services shop Carat was responsible for the SitOrSquat media buy.
Creating buzz is a major offshoot of Charmin sponsorships.
For example, P&G took 4-wheel trucks to 15 state fairs and the Super Bowl. The Potty Palooza, as the effort was called from 2000 to 2005, offered portable toilets with Charmin toilet paper for use at these venues.
In fall of 2006, P&G inaugurated the first fully-staffed deluxe bathrooms in New York’s Times Square. Housed in a rented building, the 20 Charmin-sponsored bathrooms offered family-friendly facilities to more than 330,000 visitors during the busy holiday season.
That effort, which included flat-screen TV sets and a lounge area in addition to the bathrooms stocked with Charmin toilet paper rolls, continued through last year.
Not surprisingly, the “Charminized” Potty Palooza and Times Square bathrooms attracted considerable media attention and, consequently, substantial brand mileage.
Squat boxSitOrSquat offers similar appeal to P&G.
While the service’s Web site and iPhone application went live in October, the BlackBerry application mid-November.
As of April 9 morning, SitOrSquat has recorded 81,094 downloads for its iPhone application and 13,652 downloads of its BlackBerry version.
The number of total unique visitors to the wired Web site athttp://www.sitorsquat.com is estimated at 1.2 million since launch.
Also, the number of total searches across online and mobile platforms is estimated at 7.2 million.
Among the most commented-on bathrooms in SitOrSquat’s database? Don Giovanni, an Italian restaurant in New York’s Manhattan borough, and a pub called Pony House in Leeds, England.
The most popular area of search is New York's 34th Street and Avenue of the Americas, or the district around Macy's department store, Penn Station and the Empire State Building.
Jonathan Glanz and Danika Landers founded SitOrSquat. The idea was to offer a user-generated mobile service that targeted women with children and older people with continence issues to help them find clean bathrooms when they are on the move.
A key attraction of the SitOrSquat iPhone application is the consumer’s ability to save multiple searches, including two out of the box - one in the Open Now category and the other about availability of changing tables.
The iPhone and BlackBerry applications as well as SitOrSquat.com are designed to enable user feedback with ease.
“There’s one thing we know about our people who use our service: they are not techies,” Mr. Glanz said.
The only bathrooms that Ms. Landers uploaded in the SitOrSquat database were 140 public toilets that she personally visited in addition to the 4,000 bathrooms in the Starbucks coffee shop franchise.
Ms. Landers did not visit all the Starbucks bathrooms, which surprisingly don’t get a high rating from visitors.
Travelling consumers added the rest of the bathrooms reviewed and listed on SitOrSquat, including those attached to restaurants, bars, hotels, retail stores and movie theatres.
“We’re trying to build a community around this,” Mr. Glanz said.
Monetizing that community is how Charmin comes into the picture. Mr. Glanz hopes to parlay the popularity of SitOrSquat’s mobile and Web services into more advertising sponsorships.
“There’s a lot of opportunities like Purell to paper products to toiletry dispensers,” Mr. Glanz said about potential sponsors. “I think Charmin and the P&G products could be incredible sponsors.”
In a way, SitOrSquat is competing with services such as restaurant reviewer Yelp, but with the added advantage of a unique niche and an audience eager to upload comments to their iPhones and BlackBerrys.
“Looking for a restaurant is a luxury, but looking for a restroom is a necessity,” Mr. Glanz said.
Charming CharminThe Charmin sponsorship currently does not appear on the BlackBerry application. But that has to do more with the application’s format than anything else – the BlackBerry has five platform lines with different screen sizes that hinder application of a unified set of assets.
Still, the brand managers at P&G’s Charmin are watching keenly to gauge consumer response to its mobile overtures.
Like many consumer packaged goods brands, Charmin has to constantly generate ideas that attract new customers while retaining the loyalty of existing users of its line of toilet paper.
The Charmin line covers Charmin Ultra Strong, Charmin Ultra Soft, Charmin Basic, Charmin Plus and Charmin Fresh Mates. The rolls come with different strength, softness, weaves, lotions and sizes.
Charmin competes with Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s Kleenex Cottonelle and Scott and Georgia-Pacific’s Angel Soft and Quilted Northern brands as well as eco-friendly Seventh Generation and private-label toilet papers from retailers.
Mr. Guy did not specify the cost of sponsoring SitOrSquat on mobile and online. But he did confirm it was a paid sponsorship.
“For a brand like Charmin, we’re testing and learning about mobile,” Mr. Guy said. “What we do know is that we need to be in places that are relevant from a mobile or digital standpoint. That’s why this relationship with SitOrSquat is important – it’s relevant at a point of need.
“For us we’re learning and as long as we continue to look for those ways to connect with our consumers, mobile fits within that,” he said.
While Charmin has its own wired Web site athttp://www.charmin.com, it does not have a mobile site, mobile application or a common short code for SMS programs.
But there is no doubt that mobile has become an area of interest for Charmin, especially given that P&G is one of the largest mobile advertisers nationwide.
What’s the one thing that P&G keeps in mind with new outreach efforts, especially now that mobile is in the picture?
“Relevance,” Mr. Guy said. “We’re not out there to do stuff for the sake of doing it. It needs to fit within our consumers’ lives if we’re going to do things where it makes sense for her, whether it’s mobile, digital or any other aspect of our marketing mix.”

Vibe Magazine on Mobile

2009-03-26T02:41:00.001-07:00

March 26, 2009
The Vibe Mobile site
Vibe Media Group, the definitive voice of urban culture, has expanded into the mobile space to deepen its brand’s reach.
Vibe Mobile claims to be the first national urban/lifestyle brand to offer opt-in mobile text alerts and updates on content tailored by the user, which contains an embedded link to read the entire story on the mobile site. Users can sign up to receive updates when new content is posted, based on specific artist or topic keywords.
“We have launched the mobile site to deliver premiere content to users wherever they are,” said Ross Robbins, director of digital media for Vibe, New York. “Our audience is increasingly accessing content on the move via their phones.

“In addition, this new platform allows us to offer advertisers a new engaging interface to be associated with,” he said. “This situation will improve Vibe with increased advertising revenue and impressions.”
Vibe’s unique offering transforms and enhances the user experience by allowing site visitors to access content in a personalized way via direct text messages.
The mobile site can be accessed at http://m.vibe.com.
Vibe magazine considers itself the voice of urban culture influencing global music, life and style for more than 8 million monthly readers worldwide.
The new service appeals to Vibe’s younger audience and will introduce new tech-savvy influential consumers to the brand.
When asked "Why mobile?" Mr. Robbins replied “Why not?”
“The numbers of enhanced devices amongst our audience has increased with the introduction of the iPhone and other smartphones to hit the market,” he said. “We foresee these numbers continuing to grow and are excited about this launch.” Along with Vibe Mobile, the magazine is also introducing Vibe Video, which will deliver music videos on demand at http://www.vibe.com.
Vibe Video will start with more than 15,000 original music videos from providers such as Universal, Sony/BMG and Warner Music.
The service is fully searchable by artist or title, and it offers users the opportunity to rate, mark as a favorite and comment on any video in the catalog.
The most viewed, commented and discussed videos will be made available on the site. Vibe’s content team will post weekly top picks to keep the avid music fans up to date on what’s hot.
“The consumption of media from multiple platforms has become almost overwhelming to the average consumer,” Mr. Robbins said. “We have made it easier for the user to access the content that they are looking for rather than searching through a myriad of resources.
“This has been achieved by enabling text alerts with keyword filtering based on a topic or person of interest of choice,” he said. “Whenever stories are posted to Vibe.com with that keyword, the user will receive a text message with a link to the full story.
“This push approach to content delivery rather than the standard pull approach will engage our audience in a more frequent basis and keep the Vibe brand at their fingertips.”

Vibe Magazine on Mobile

2009-03-26T02:41:00.000-07:00

Mobile Internet going strong; advertisers pay attention

2009-03-18T03:14:00.000-07:00

Mobile Internet going strong; advertisers pay attention
1:24 PM, March 16, 2009

Are non-smartphones the new rotary phones? Credit: Allie Pasquier via Flickr.
Remember the days when you rolled out of bed, turned on your computer and checked the news, weather and your Facebook account? That's so 2008. An increasing number of people are going straight to their mobile phones for all that information, according to a ComScore study released today. The number of U.S. cellphone users who accessed the mobile Internet daily in January reached 22 million, double that of a year earlier.
"Consumers have more and more choices, and they're finding a pretty good experience using the mobile Web," said Mark Donovan, a senior analyst at ComScore.
The number of people using the mobile Web to access a social networking site quadrupled to 9 million, Donovan said, while the number of people who used the mobile Web to trade stocks or access a financial account nearly tripled to 3 million. (Phones might be useful for panic trading.)
Usage is increasing as more smartphones land in people's hands, Donovan said. The number of people with smartphones increased 81% over the past year, to 24.8 million from 13.7 million.
That trend is likely to continue as phones drop in price. ISuppli, an El Segundo research firm, predicts 11% growth in global smartphone sales in 2009, even as ...
... the overall mobile handset market slogs along. And Juniper Research predicts that smartphones will account for 23% of all new mobile phones by 2013, as demand for complicated applications draw consumers to more technically savvy handsets.
Popular content also is driving the on-the-go Internet numbers, Donovan said, as media properties such as CNN and Google perfect their mobile sites. That's motivated phone users without smartphones to start using the mobile Web too, he said.
This is all good news for advertisers, who are struggling to find an effective place to reach people in a year in which their budgets are significantly smaller than last. Donovan says internal ComScore studies have found that ads viewed on mobile phones can have higher click-through rates than those viewed on computers. Some mobile ads are viewed by users who are otherwise difficult to reach, such as those who don't use computers as much and mostly check the Web on their phones, he said.
Half of males 18 to 34 access news and information via the mobile Web, according to ComScore.
"Mobile marketing seems recession-proof due to the well-known fact that the number of mobile users is still growing and will continue to grow," Alexandre Mars, head of Mobile Publicis Groupe, said in a recent white paper.
His proof? There are 30 countries where the mobile penetration rate is above 100%, India boasts 9 million new users each month and China adds as many users as the population of Miami each month.
"Mobile marketing will give the advertising industry a complete face-lift," he said.
-- Alana Semuels

Universal Pictures runs mobile campaign for new movie release

2009-03-18T03:02:00.000-07:00

March 18, 2009
Fast & Furious
Universal Pictures is running a mobile campaign to reach an engaged audience of consumers on the go by bringing "Fast & Furious" to mobile phones nationwide.
By using AdMob’s mobile network, Universal Pictures’ mobile campaign is expanding its reach to mobile consumers with a specially designed mobile ad campaign and Fast & Furious sites designed for the mobile Web and iPhones.
“The mobile campaign running on AdMob’s network is designed to build excitement with fans of the original movie and engage with a new group of movie goers,” said Nicole Leverich, spokeswoman for AdMob, San Mateo, CA.

AdMob claims to be the world’s largest mobile advertising platform.
Universal Pictures’ ad agency is Ignited.
The mobile banner ads drive consumers to the mobile or iPhone site for the movie that allows them to get into the Fast & Furious experience by watching a movie trailer, seeing photos, downloading wallpapers or buying tickets.
The mobile ads also include AdMob’s unique iPhone click-to-video ad units and text ads. These ads also drive consumers to the Fast & Furious sites.
The campaign is meant to re-engage fans of the original movie, drive ticket sales and build excitement for the film.
“The entertainment industry is constantly looking for innovative ways to reach fans and audiences from leveraging social media avenues to taking advantage of cutting edge advertising formats,” Ms. Leverich said.
Universal Pictures has used mobile to create a buzz around movie launches in the past.
To support the April 2008 launch of the comedy film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Universal Pictures launched a cross-media marketing campaign, including text message advertising on the 4Info ad network.
Later that year, Universal Pictures teamed up with Zannel, a viral mobile entertainment network that provides a way to create, experience and share content on any mobile device. Universal teamed up with Zannel to promote the film “Knocked Up.
“The mobile campaign for Universal Pictures’ upcoming Fast & Furious movie expands their reach to consumers on the go and making their entertainment decisions with engaging ads and sites specially designed for the mobile Web and iPhone,” Ms. Leverich said.

source: Mobile Marketers.com

Mobile Marketer's Classic Guide to Mobile Advertising

2009-01-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

Mobile Marketer's Classic Guide to Mobile Advertising

By Mickey Alam Khan

August 11, 2008

Mobile Marketer's Classic Guide to Mobile Advertising

Welcome to the first edition of Mobile Marketer’s Classic Guide to Mobile Advertising.

Targeting advertisers, media planners and buyers, agency executives, publishers, teleservices pros, carrier officials and service providers, this guide is chock-full of information on how to conceive, execute and analyze mobile ad campaigns.

Mobile advertising is at a critical juncture in its history. Marketers have expressed interest in reaching consumers on the go through opted-in marketing, advertising and promotions. But not too many know their way around this latest wing of the multichannel marketing industry.

This guide aims to solve that problem.

Senior executives from key advertising agencies, service providers, site developers, ad networks, analytics companies, email specialists, search marketing firms and publishers have contributed time and wisdom to put together a how-to guide for seasoned practitioners and first-timers.

The list of contributors to this guide includes representatives from Bango, Limbo, Crisp Wireless, Havas Digital’s Mobext, Enliven Marketing Technologies, AdMob, Telescope, Mobisix, Return Path, 5th Finger, QuickPlay Media, Avot Media, Medio Systems, Pivotal Veracity, Greystripe, Zumobi, Range Online Media and Steak Media.

Also on that list are executives from Quattro Wireless, go2 Media, Omnicom's Prometheus, AdaptiveMobile, Safecount, Dynamic Logic, MRI-The Boston Group, GoTV Network, SiteSpect, Velti, Acision, Interpublic Group of Companies Inc.’s Draftfcb and Air2Web.

The articles offer best-practice tips, educational points of view and analysis. The case study on Johnson & Johnson is worth reading, as is the research on measuring ad effectiveness on the mobile Web.

Mobile Marketer’s Giselle Abramovich scored a scoop with her detailed feature on Playboy’s plans for mobile. The publisher offers a decent roadmap for most of its peers, highlighting the potential of leveraging content and advertising across several channels including mobile.

Another outstanding feature is the extensive survey on global mobile marketing trends as seen by key Draftfcb officers worldwide.

Draftfcb is known for its branding and direct marketing expertise. So the agency was well suited to deliver a fairly accurate snapshot of mobile advertising and marketing’s prospects this year and in the future.

It’s no exaggeration to say that mobile advertising is about to revolutionize the way that marketers reach out to consumers for branding or customer acquisition or customer retention purposes.

Of course, it bears keeping in mind that the mobile channel is the most personal of all, so extra caution is advised while devising and deploying mobile ad campaigns. Each ad or campaign must respect the consumer’s privacy, while making sure that the advertiser’s brand experience is not diluted.

But there is no doubt that a well-targeted mobile ad campaign will strengthen bonds between brand and consumer. The ads must lead to information or offers of value to the consumer. Keep them simple, keep them straight and keep them results-oriented.

The authors of the 30-plus articles in this guide play a vital role in the mobile advertising, marketing and media ecosystem. Their insights and analysis will help you in your mobile advertising efforts as you work on your multichannel outreach plans. Reach out to them and those companies featured on every page of this guide.

To Giselle Abramovich, Dan Butcher, Gabby Kalika and Jodie Solomon – many thanks for their help in making Mobile Marketer the preeminent publication covering mobile marketing, media and commerce.

Also, thank you to marketing consultant Rob DiGioia for his art direction on this guide. It is a labor of love that shows in word and image.

Please read Mobile Marketer’s Classic Guide to Mobile Advertising from cover to cover and circulate to colleagues, clients and prospects. Please also visit http://www.mobilemarketer.com and sign up for our free newsletters that offer the latest news and analysis on mobile marketing, media and commerce.

We hope you benefit from this guide and look forward to featuring your mobile advertising wisdom and work in the next.

India's mobile base to reach 500 Million by 2010

2008-12-07T22:47:00.000-08:00

Adding 10 million new subscribers every month, India, the second largest mobile market in the world, is likely to take its mobile base to 500 million by the year 2010, with the introduction of 3G spectrum. The country is currently having 320 million mobile phone subscribers.

"3G bid document has been finalized and broad guidelines have already been issued. The allotment of spectrum has been planned through simultaneous ascending e-auction process. There would also be a pre-bid conference between the industry and the Government," said Siddhartha Behura, Secretary in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

The 3G auction is scheduled to be held in January 2009 by the independent auctioneer, N.M. Rothschild, and the process of allotment of spectrum will be completed before February 2009. "Bulk of the growth in telephone connections comes from the mobile platform..." Behura pointed out during the Industry Summit on '3G: The Next Wave', at Kochi.

Source: http://www.siliconindia.com/

Anil Ambani to venture into retail via mobile phone

2008-12-04T00:57:00.001-08:00

Anil Ambani is venturing into retail business using the strength of Reliance Communications’ mobile phone network which has 3.5 crore subscribers. The venture would be known as ‘Mobi-Retail’ and would be launched in over 1000 towns in the initial phase. The mobile phone would act as the interface where once can choose from over 100,000 products.

ADAG would also leverage on its other outlets of Reliance World, Reliance World Express, Reliance Money, Reliance Insurance, Big Flicks, and Adlabs, which would act as delivery points for home delivery or pick up.

Reliance Communications would offer different formats such as Mobi-HyperMall (for all products), Mobi-Mall (mini hypermarket), Mobi-Store (neighbourhood stores), Mobi-Fresh (vegetables), Mobi-Groc (groceries) and Mobi-Express (regular products).

Source: http://www.labnol.org

Papa John’s generates $1M in mobile Web sales

2008-12-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

Papa John's WAP Site

Papa John's iPhone Site

Pizza chain Papa John’s International Inc. has generated more than $1 million in sales from mobile Web orders in less than six months after offering that option to consumers. The milestone comes after Papa John’s earlier this year crossed more than $1 billion in overall online sales – up from $400 million in 2007 – and launched a Facebook page that quickly attracted 175,000-plus fans in less than a week. The mobile commerce push led to the introduction yesterday of an iPhone site for Papa John’s.

It tells us that consumers are changing,” said Bob Ford, director of digital marketing at Papa John’s, Louisville, KY. “We really live in a world of convenience where people have that cell phone with them all the time.

“And if that’s the most convenient mechanism, whether they want to dial the number or visit the mobile Web site, we really need to be there and present the opportunity,” he said. Mobile deliversCreated in July, Papa John’s mobile Web ordering system enables pizza lovers to set up an account and place orders directly from their Web-capable mobile devices.

Papa John's WAP site
In addition to placing orders, the mobile site also features the entire Papa John’s menu, special offers, account registration and a restaurant locator. Pizza enthusiasts can use their pre-existing account log-in information from papajohns.com, as well as create new ones directly from their handsets.

Papa John's iPhone site
The site also allows customers to sign up for special offers that can be sent to either their email inbox or mobile phone.

Apple pie

Papa John’s is the world’s third-largest pizza chain, competing with Yum Brands’ Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza. The company is making serious investments in interactive technology. The new iPhone site, for example, was born of the realization that consumers were ordering pizza from the regular Papa John’s Web site through the iPhone browser. That knowledge led to the creation of an iPhone application with optimized menus, entry fields and graphics. Also, the restaurant locator has a link to Google Maps for users to find the address of a Papa John’s restaurant and also to click to a map for directions. To make it easier to order, the iPhone site has a Papa John’s short cut icon connected directly to the main mobile Web ordering system, according to the company.

“Mobile is an incredibly important part of the overall strategy,” Mr. Ford said. “We view that channel just as we do any other channel – from our phone ordering system to our online system, mobile is equally important. “It’s letting the consumer choose how they want to communicate with us,” he said. “Our theory is we’re not telling customers how to order. We’re listening to them and providing the channels that they’re requesting.” One of the advantages that mobile ordering shares with online is the ability for consumers to see the full menu. Regular JohnsInterestingly, products ordered through Papa John’s mobile Web ordering system look the same as those ordered online, on phone or in store. “It’s pizza, cheese sticks, it’s drinks,” Mr. Ford said. “The average order size – it’s roughly $20.” Are the mobile consumers any different from online, phone or restaurant walk-ins? “Surprisingly enough, it’s not what you think,” Mr. Ford said. “It’s not that 18-to-25-year-old demographic that most people would assume. It really spans all demographics. “We have as large an ordering group in the 35-44 age group as we do in the 18-24 and 25-34,” he said. “Most people just assume that it’s a younger demographic and they are after smaller items. “I think what might be unusual is that it may be a pretty representative customer. This is the traditional Papa John’s customer.”

Top that

Papa John’s focus on using interactive channels may be paying off. The company claims that more than 20 percent of all sales come online or via SMS text, widget or smartphones. There is a belief within the company that these channels might someday surpass traditional telephone orders. In line with that thinking, Papa John’s will be leveraging its existing assets to promote its mobile ordering system. For example, Papa John’s pizza boxes and box toppers next year may include the 4PAPA (47272) common short code and a keyword on them. Also, the chain will use the mobile channel to market its mobile offerings. “We’re actually going to buy some mobile advertising, whether it’s mobile search or banners,” Mr. Ford said.

Source: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/

Mobility -The Next Wave

2008-12-03T03:29:00.000-08:00

Mobile phone is changing its image from being just a voice communication tool to being a personal Media player to a teenager, a biz tool for a business man, a potential business communication alert tool for a stock broker, an effective all time sales force tool for a sales person; varying to suit their personal needs. These people are not a small minority but account for over 3 billion people worldwide and it doesn't stop there... the figure is growing at a staggering pace. There is no doubt that mobility is the next wave to take the world by storm.

Mobile Commerce or Mcommerce is the next generation commerce and there is no doubt that organizations have to step up and keep pace with the changing lifestyles and evolving consumer behaviour brought about by mobility. Still, many businesses are oblivious to the exploding impact of mobility and the potential of mobile technology solutions to compound existing business sytems.

How far will the world take mobilty ?
Astronomical subscriber figure of 3 billion worldwide !!!!
If your business does not have a mobile strategy this means you are simply not competing !!!