Monday Morning Quarterbacking

MediaPost's Steve Smith asked me what I thought about the mobile components in the Super Bowl spots.

From his article:

"Short-code callouts were few, as many marketers seemed to understand that it is difficult for the fleeting mention of a six-digit number and keyword to register with viewers. Yet a spot advertising the NFL Fantasy game and a $1 million sweepstakes entry had a persistent call to action on screen: send “NFL” to 69635. Unfortunately, as several mobile executives noted, NFL did not respond quickly in acknowledging the entry. In fact, it took hours for our entry to get a 2 a.m reply.  Likewise for Jeff Hasen, CMO of Hipcricket, who told us: 'That's unforgivable when viewers are looking for instant gratification.'

"In our spot check among mobile marketing execs paying close attention to the use of the platform this year, most were underwhelmed. Annual mobile Bowl-watcher Hasen says that while marketers didn’t ignore mobile this year, as they have in the past, the execution was uncertain. Audio ID app Shazam allows users to tag about half of the Super Bowl ads, but Hasen says 'how many knew enough to use Shazam remains a question. With about half the ads including the Shazam prompt, no one spot stood out for including it.' He concludes that despite the hashtags and second-screen schemes, 'my takeaway is one of anticipointment.'”

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/167247/anticipointment-mobile-e...

Will Mobile Score During Super Bowl Telecast?

Final questions on my mind in the hours before the Super Bowl telecast:

With reportedly half of the Super Bowl spots including a Shazam call to action, will it be advantageous to have a later ad once the concept is discovered by viewers?

Conversely, will advertisers with later appearances suffer from Shazam fatigue?

How will brand managers judge the results of ads that include a mobile component?

How much activity needs to come from the more than 100 million viewers for mobile to be deemed successful?

Will more use the mobile web or mobile apps?

Will an advertiser unveil a call to action that leads to an opt-in database?

Will mobile finally break through this telecast or will it be another year of anticipointment?

We'll finally have some answers later today.

More Press Including My Views on Mobile's Super Bowl Opportunity

For several years, Mediapost's Steve Smith and I have shared a disappointment in the lack of mobile calls to action in Super Bowl TV spots.

I talked to Steve this week - a portion of his new story follows:

Longtime critic of mobile marketing (or the lack thereof) during Super Bowls past Jeff Hasen, CMO, Hipcricket says, “we will look back at this as the year of the Super Bowl Mobile. But I don’t know if this will be the way brands will use it going forward.” It will be interesting to see if the various audio recognition apps synchronize accurately amidst the uniquely noisy Super Bowl viewing environment, he says.

And in the end it is important that mobile marketing plays well in this first widespread mobilization of the biggest ad day of the year. “We need the agency and the brand folks to say that we finally did use mobile well and had a great experience,” says Hasen.

Hasen argues that marketers need to give viewers multiple entryways for activating what they see on the first screen, whether it is an audio recognition app or a text prompt. But more to the point, the device needs to be used to get beyond the big branding bang of a Super Bowl TV spot and do what mobile does best, initiate relationships. “I am looking for that remarkable opportunity to build a database,” he says. “It is un-sexy and meat and potatoes, but the opportunity is to build those hundreds of thousands into an opt-in database.”  

Last year, Denny’s generated 2 million diners after offering Super Bowl viewers a free breakfast in a famous game spot in 2009. “I want to see a case study of work that sends people to have their eggs and show how they used mobile to get two or three million of those people in a database,” he says. “Otherwise we are looking at the viewer in the same way we did in Super Bowl I.”

Read more here http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/166989/mobilized-super-bowl-wat...

Mobile and the Super Bowl

Andrew Berg from Wireless Week talked to me about mobile and the Super Bowl telecast.

From his story that ran today:

While you'd be forgiven for thinking that football is the name of the game on Super Bowl Sunday, you'd also be wrong. It's actually advertising. Advertisers will pay almost $3.5 million for a 30 second spot during their year's big game. Is it worth it? That's debatable. But consider that last year's game saw $10.2 billion dollars in consumer spend, according to research from iProspect. For some comparison, Cyber Monday drove $1.25 billion in consumer spend last year.

While it's taken some time to integrate mobile with those flashy Super Bowl ads, every year more advertisers supplement their pricey air time with short codes and calls to action. Admittedly, success for mobile has varied, but there's no denying that viewers have their devices on them during the game. iProspect discovered that 85 percent of search queries during Super Bowl XVLV came from mobile, and Super Bowl searches increased 122 percent from 2009 to 2010 and additional 33 percent increase from 2010 to 2011.

Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer for Hipcricket, is upbeat in his expectations for mobile during this year's Super Bowl.

"I think we're likely to look back and say that this was the year that Super Bowl viewing went from being passive to being interactive," Hasen said, adding that it should have happened years ago.

Hasen comes to the Super Bowl with a cautious optimism, which is then tempered with a gentle bit of skepticism. He'll be looking for the effectiveness of the mobile campaigns, which he says need to be designed with one key fact in mind: It's a party.

For instance, Hasen has heard that over half of the TV spots during the game will be "Shazamable," meaning there will be a call to action for viewers to use their phones to "Shazam" an ad and get additional content or offers. "That's a good thing because you're interacting with consumers," Hasen says (this is the cautious optimism), "but I do have some questions about whether that's the right environment to do Shazam." You can guess that the last bit is the gentle skepticism.

Hasen says in the past, advertisers have been reluctant to include calls to action during the party atmosphere of a Super Bowl. Who wants to grab their phone and dial a short code or Shazam something, while they're dashing back and forth between the TV, the bathroom and the snack table?

It's not that calls to action can't be successful, it's just a matter of when, and Hasen hopes it's this year. "We've got a lot of buildup and a lot of buzz that this is going to be the year of mobile with the Super Bowl, and I just want to it to be the year that it succeeds, where mobile proves to those who might not be believers that it really is the right way to go."

The ways that a company can integrate mobile with their traditional TV spots are growing. GoDaddy will feature a QR code in their steamy new Super Bowl ad (preview below) that will take viewers to another version of the spot on their mobiles. And yet, Hasen says traditional SMS and short codes remain among the most effective ways to use mobile as a compliment to other channels.

"With a QR code, you might have a lot of people that don't have the right scanner. We're big believers at Hipcricket of giving people multiple ways to engage," Hasen said, "so you might give them an SMS, a QR, or you might drive them to a mobile website."

Educating At the Point of Sale

Mobile Marketer asked me about Tylenol's use of QR codes to educate about responsible dosage.

Here's what I told the publication:

"Consumers often enter stores considering a product, then decide in the aisle after they look at price, possible alternatives, and information available.

"Successful brands are making it easier for customers to make choices. Having bar codes at the shelf is often a good way to go, especially if they are within a broad mobile offering that gives shoppers the ability to act on their terms. 

"Some will engage via scan, while others will look to get smarter through mobile web, SMS, or an app, for instance."

Tylenol does have an SMS call to action for those who want to interact that way.

Mobile Doing Good Through Charitable Giving

The next time you consider wasting a few minutes bursting bubbles through a smartphone application, please stop and think of doing something more meaningful.

More significant than playing a game? Yes, there actually are ways to use your mobile device for good.

Here’s one:

Donate to the charity of your choice via wireless device. You would not be alone.

According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet & Society, charitable donations from mobile phones have grown more common in recent years. Two thirds (64 percent) of American adults now use text messaging, and 9 percent have texted a charitable donation from their mobile phone.

In what Pew calls the first-ever, in-depth study on mobile donors—which analyzed the “Text to Haiti” campaign after the 2010 earthquake—findings show that these contributions were often spur-of-the-moment decisions that spread virally through friend networks.

Spur-of-the-moment as in pushing aside the bubble burster app for just a couple of minutes.

According to Pew, three quarters of these donors (73 percent) contributed using their phones on the same day they heard about the campaign, and a similar number (76  percent) say that they typically make text message donations without conducting much in-depth research beforehand.

Yet while their initial contribution often involved little deliberation, 43 percent of these donors encouraged their friends or family members to give to the campaign as well. In addition, a majority of those surveyed (56 percent) have continued to give to more recent disaster relief efforts—such as the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan—using their mobile phones.

Pew said that three-quarters (74%) of Haiti text donors in this survey were first time mobile givers, meaning that their contribution to earthquake relief was the first time they had used the text messaging function on their phone to make a charitable contribution. Overall, 80 percent of the mobile givers donated to the earthquake recovery efforts using only their cell phones—and not using any other methods such as online contributions or in-person donations.

Pew said that the mobile phone is bringing in younger donors. Also, the organization said that those giving this way are more racially and ethnically diverse when compared with those who contribute through more traditional means.

How does mobile giving work?

Through such organizations at the Mobile Giving Foundation and mGive, mobile subscribers respond to calls to action in media and online by texting into a charity or non-profit’s short code. A donation, usually in the denomination of $5 or $10, is included on the consumer’s bill sent monthly by the carrier of choice. A full 100 percent of the donation is passed to the charitable recipient within 30 days.

Some of the many current opportunities to give:

Text “GIVE” to 777444 to donate $10 to the USAID.GOV-sponsored famine relief effort in the horn of Africa, benefiting American Refugee Committee, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, UNICEF USA, World Food Program USA, and World Vision. General Mills has agreed to match the first 2,000 text donations that come through this campaign, up to $20,000.

Text “HOPE” TO 20222 to give $5 to the American Cancer Society.

Text “DARFUR” to 40579 to give $5 to the Save Darfur Coalition.

(Article first published as Mobile Does Good Through Charitable Giving on Technorati.)

Lessons Learned From More Than 1,000 Days On Twitter

Mario Schulzke from www.ideamensch asked me to write about my life on Twitter. Here's what I submitted http://ideamensch.com/1000-days-on-twitter-lessons-learned/

What I know and still wonder about more than 1,000 days and 2,500 followers into my @jeffhasen Twitter life:

I’m doing OK if you consider that I’ve consistently been placed on the Top CMOs on Twitter list http://www.smmmagazine.com/exclusives/top-cmos-on-twitter/.

I’m doing lousy if you average out days and followers that seem to indicate that I’m as popular as Christmas music in January.

I spend more and more time on Twitter. To help determine how much versus the rest, I went to Google and put in “time spent on t…” It came back with two choices — time spent on Twitter and time spent on toilet. At least one of those deserves to be kept to oneself.

I realize that I can grow my followers’ list rapidly through all sorts of trickery. But I continue to believe that a smaller list earned is better than one with 3,000 “followers” who have no value to me – nor me to them. By the way, Tweetcounter says it will take me about 535 days to get to 4,000 followers. I give that prediction slightly more than zero credence. I have lots in store for the next 535 days, none of which I’ve shared with Tweetcounter.

I refuse to use Twitter like most use Facebook (and many sadly use LinkedIn). Katie Couric famously said that “no one gives a rat’s ass that I had a tuna fish sandwich for lunch”. The minutiae of my life isn’t especially interesting to even those closest to me.

I see no value in using a Twitter account as an RSS feed. If you provide a link with no context or analysis, I’ve likely seen the news elsewhere. Please tell me what it means to you and to me.

There is no doubt that Twitter has led to business relationships that I could not develop elsewhere. Want to make a sale? Know your target and go where he or she lives. Twitter is full of potential contacts that are only reachable there.

I view Google Plus much like I saw Twitter 1,000 days ago. Approximately 62 million joined Google Plus in the first six months, according to one estimate (Google does not report the number). Consistently I’ve found those I’ve looked up to be mostly inactive. That either speaks to my circle or the tool as a whole. I spent some of the holiday break reading Chris Brogan’s Google Plus For Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything. It’s a book worth a look, but, at this point, the extent of the change is in question.

Don’t be overly concerned by your Klout score or any other tool that claims to measure your influence. If you can grow your business, career or just your mind via what you see and say on Twitter, it’s an experience worth taking.

Forrester analysts say that 6.2 percent of online adults are creating 80 percent of the influence from tweets. The research firm calls these users Mass Connectors, part of the Mass Influencers group. I have no idea if I fit into those categories but I do feel like anyone can have influence if they provide useful insights and consistently put in the effort to contribute.

Mobile Strategy Should Employ Multiple Means of Participation

In Mobile Marketer's new guide for Mobile Advertising, I wrote about the importance of giving consumers choice about how to interact with you via mobile. The article follows:

CTIA reports that mobile phone penetration in the United States is greater than 96 percent with more than 300 million current wireless subscribers, 72.5 million of which are using
smartphones (comScore).

Now let us consider the large number of operating systems – iOS, Android, Microsoft’s Mango, BlackBerry – and the ever-increasing different devices in use.

Savvy brands understand that we are each individuals when it comes to our mobile devices. Leading brands such as Macy’s, MillerCoors and Ford understand this concept, and provide multiple options for mobile engagement.

This has led to a number of successful mobile marketing and advertising programs.

In spring 2011, Macy’s launched its Backstage Pass program, which engages shoppers in-store via multiple calls to action to use a mobile device.

Recognizing that not all its shoppers have QR code readers, the iconic department store added a short code to in-store signage, giving consumers a choice and ensuring that no one is left out.

When the QR code is scanned, or the short code is texted shoppers are forwarded to a backstage look at a video from the designer of their choice including Kenneth Cole, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Rachel Roy, Jessica Simpson and Martha Stewart.

The videos offer design suggestions, style tips and more. Shoppers can even enter a sweepstakes to win Macy’s gift cards.

The program has gained wide acclaim and interaction, sparking Macy’s to implement a second video series for the fall shopping season.

MillerCoors, the second largest beer company in America, recognizes that beer and sports go hand in hand.

The company designated nearly 75 percent of its ad spend to sporting events in 2010.

However, MillerCoors recognizes that there is a substantial opportunity to take these advertisements to the next level. By adding a mobile element to its advertisements, MillerCoors is able to connect with customers and build lasting relationships.

MillerCoors tapped Hipcricket to run a cross-media marketing campaign, leveraging traditional mobile elements, to help increase awareness of the Coors Light brand during Super Bowl XLV and the Miller Lite brand during the 2011 NCAA tournament.These campaigns included QR codes, mobile Web sites, SMS and contesting.

The campaigns resulted in over 159,000 interactions from 86,000 mobile participants and over 60 percent of which fell into one of MillerCoors’ key demographics – the 21-34 age range.

FordDirect, a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and its dealers, implemented its first mobile program in 2010.

The brand’s goal was to include mobile calls to action in its national print, radio and TV advertisements to give potential customers an opportunity to interact with the car brand on a personal level.

The first phase of FordDirect’s program included adding short codes to its national ads for the Ford Year End event.

The car company was able to generate more than 1,000 leads across 38 regional dealer groups and achieve a 12.5 percent conversion rate.

In 2011, Ford is projected to spend $1.3 billion on advertising, primarily targeted at creating leads that turn into sales.

As part of that effort, FordDirect has now expanded its mobile marketing program to include all of its print and TV advertisements. The program has achieved a 15.4 percent lead conversion rate.

The success of these programs has led to an expanded program which includes QR codes among other mobile channels.

With a myriad of ways for people to consume mobile content on a host of mobile devices, why should a brand’s mobile playbook only have one play?

Why Will Marketers Spend More On Mobile in 2012?

Mobile Marketer asked me to explain the increased spend in mobile marketing expected in 2012.

  Here's what I told the publication:

  “It starts with consumer behavior. Every indicator says mobile activity considerably increased in 2011. The latest was the IBM report that said sales from mobile devices doubled in December 2011 versus December 2010.

  “Even the most stubborn of marketers has had to take note. The smartest ones know that consumers expect brands to have a significant mobile presence – and they are punishing companies that don’t.

  “Many mobile channels will benefit from increased spending. Mobile Web will be one of the winners driven by consumer demand. Another will be SMS because it provides reach to all, including the 50 percent who won’t have smartphones and, when used wisely, leads to permission-based, monetizable databases."

  The full story is here - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/strategy/11886.html

Keeping Tab On The New Tablets

At CES in Las Vegas today, Samsung's attempt at the hitting the sweet spot was the introduction of a 7.7 inch Galaxy tablet. You may remember the company's first effort was 7 inches. Did focus groups tell Samsung that the 7-incher was too small and 8-incher was a wee bit too big?

The Lasting Impressions of The Holiday Season

Mobile Marketer asked me to write about mobile's impact on the holiday season.  This column appeared today http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/11829.html

In part, I wrote about campaigns that caught my eye, as well as the changes I saw in my house.

Of Cranberry Bread and The Myth of a Generational Technology Divide

My holiday period scorecard?

Thirteen slices of cranberry bread. More sandies than I care to count. Sips (or was it gulps) of Washington wine that brought a calm end to a frenetic year.

And insights that will make me a better marketer in 2012.

What did I learn in those brief moments when I wasn’t stuffing my face?

The fact that the supposed technology divide between generations is bogus. 

My first inkling?

Soon after receiving her first iPad, my mother-in-law downloaded an app and streamed music that filled a room. She shouted out the ingredients for a holiday dinner, then gleefully taught the rest of us the shortcut of using three fingers to zoom in and out on her tablet.

My mother-in-law is 82. Oh, and she has been using a Kindle for three years and in 2010 learned the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system in about three days.

The second sign?

The same sister-in-law who passed off my gadget time as trivial did not let her first smartphone out of her hands, much less her sight. Sure, she was doing many of the activities we were doing in 2007, but gone were the feature phone, triple-tapping, and inability to effectively reach the Internet and all it has to offer.

My sister in law is 55. Her 65-year-old husband says that he is next up for a smartphone.

Judging by the statistics, my focus group of one is representative.

According to Nielsen, we are on the way to 56 percent of U.S. seniors using the Internet in 2015 versus 45 percent in 2010. eMarketer says that 31 percent of seniors accessed social networking sites in 2011, with an estimated 36 percent projected to use them by 2013.

After younger adults, the segment with the second fastest-growing smartphone penetration rate is those aged 55-64. Smartphone penetration among this older group is only 30 percent, but it jumped 5 percent in the third quarter of 2011.

Tablet ownership among those older than 55 climbed from 10 to 19 percent between fall of 2010 and summer of 2011.

For marketers, these behavior changes provide unmatched opportunities to reach Boomers and seniors with personalized campaigns that will move product and drive loyalty. My in-laws each commented on ads they were seeing and were well aware of QR codes.

We’ll look back at 2011 as the Year of Mobile Commerce during the holiday shopping season. Those who purchased in great numbers likely skewed younger, but that may not always be the case as older wireless device owners take advantage of the convenience and knowledge that smartphones and tablets bring.

As for me, my gadgets are the ideal January tools to find weight-loss solutions.

(first posted on imediaconnection.com - http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2012/01/03/of-cranberry-bread-and-the-...

My 2012 Mobile Forecast For Adotas

Adotas asked me to write about mobile's prospects in 2012.

I hit on several topics:

• Learn lessons from 2011
• Think beyond the click
• Converge your social and mobile efforts
• Find a vendor with protected technology that will keep you safe

The piece is here http://www.adotas.com/2011/12/2012-forecast-mobile-marketing/

"Mobilized Marketing" Named One of Top Marketing Books for 2012

Yes, I've been writing a book on mobile marketing. It has been a career highlight, talking to professionals from around the world about what works, what doesn't, and where we're headed. Their insights and lessons will be shared in "Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices".

http://www.amazon.com/Mobilized-Marketing-Driving-Engagement-Loyalty/dp/11182...

Today, the book made a prestigious list of those most anticipated for 2012. I'm humbled, honored, and thankful.

From TopRank's Online Marketing Blog:

"Jeff Hasen, CMO of mobile marketing forerunner Hipcricket, provides timely mobile strategies and tactics leveraging his experience from more than 130,000 past campaigns. As mobile marketing continues to move to the forefront of the marketing world, the insight Hasen provides into mobile optimization, budgeting, and measurement should prove to be indispensable in 2012."

Wow.

Too Much Emphasis On Smartphones?

Mobile Marketer asked me for a 2012 prediction. With all the talk about fancy phones, marketers need to remember those with less sophisticated devices:

"I predict that many marketers will neglect feature phone users as smartphone share tops 50 percent. Sure, we need to provide rich experiences to those with highly-capable devices, but we can't afford to forget the approximate 160 million Americans who will continue to carry simple phones for the foreseeable future. Mobile marketing will continue to be about reach in 2012."

The full article is here: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/strategy/11746.html

Mobile's Misses In 2011

Any list of the year’s misses in mobile must include the incorrect predictions that Super Bowl advertisers would include calls to action leading to the creation of massive permission-based databases.

Instead, TV advertisers flubbed the year’s best and biggest opportunity to engage.

This was going to be the year that advertisers embraced mobile. Think of the possibilities:

• Chrysler offers fans an exclusive Eminem download at the end of the “Keep Detroit Beautiful” when they join a mobile affinity club for the new Chrysler 200.

• Verizon Wireless asks mobile users to text in their ZIP codes to learn how its network is superior to AT&T’s. 

• GoDaddy requires users to opt in to watch a special mobile version of their “too hot for TV” commercial.

None of these things happened. 

Total number of mobile calls-to-action: 0

Total number of mobile loyalty clubs launched: 0

I will not miss on this in 2012. I’m staying as far away from the Super Bowl as the Indianapolis Colts.

Other misses in the year in mobile:

RIM has had as bad a year as the Colts. It has failed to innovate, underwhelmed in sales, and has shown no direction worth following. With the likely first pick of the draft, Indianapolis has better prospects for 2012 than does RIM.

It remains to be seen whether the forecast of 50 percent smartphone penetration by the end of 2011 is met. Nielsen listed the third quarter number at 44 percent. The last six points to 50 percent is a large hill to climb, but this is the season of giving and stockings will be ringing across the country.

We missed on predictions of the iPhone 5 on four U.S. carriers. All of us did, including the most dependable of so-called insiders. No fifth generation of the iPhone, no iPhone business at all at T-Mobile, which spent the last six months envisioning a marriage with AT&T that hasn’t made it to the altar. 

Of course, what we got from Apple was Siri, a voice recognition technology that received the fanboy buzz treatment but is already considered a fading novelty by many.

Marketers chased the so-called shiny object but failed to bring home the business results.  Savvy professionals succeed by following behaviors and interest research rather than gambling on something entirely new. 

These marketers know that just because you can do something technically doesn’t mean that you should. The lesson? Know your customers and prospects and market to them in ways that you have the best chance to succeed. 

A major global brand allocates approximately 70 percent of its mobile efforts to reach efforts that include SMS, 20 percent to richer experiences that don’t reach all subscribers, and 10 percent to the shiny object. That is a great example to follow.

And finally, many marketers missed by dictating how consumers would interact with their brands.

Successful mobile campaigns, like the Backstage Pass program at Mobile Marketer’s Marketer of the Year Macy’s, provided multiple ways to engage. By giving options like SMS, QR codes and mobile web sites, marketers prosecuted a reach strategy that was inclusive – and moved product.

(column first published in Mobile Marketer - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/11739.html)

Who Needs Elves When You Have Siri?

Cute Santa spot touting Siri's ability to assist.

My Super, If Not Super Bowl, Predictions For 2012

My Super Bowl mobile predictions have been anything but super so I’ll steer clear of forecasting the arrival of mobile calls to action in TV spots in February.

Instead, here are my 2012 predictions for other areas of mobile:

Device price points will continue to be brought down with offers of discounted products in exchange for a consumer agreeing to receive ads. Mobile phones with offers, including perhaps a Google phone, are coming soon.

Savvy marketers will follow research highlighting consumer behavior and interest. They know that just because you can do something technically doesn’t mean that you should. Know your customers and prospects and market to them in ways that you have the best chance of success. One major global brand allocates approximately 70 percent of its mobile efforts to ‘reach efforts’ that include SMS, 20 percent to richer experiences that don’t reach all subscribers, and 10 percent to the shiny object. That is a great example to follow.

2012 will be the year of the mobile web. As we move closer to the time when more people access the web on a wireless device than a PC, brands, agencies and others will realize that they need a mobile web offering that overdelivers. This has not yet happened, but will soon because consumers will demand it.

In such a growth industry, more vendors will enter the marketplace making claims that they will produce ROI. Proceed with caution. While the company name may not say Two Guys In a Garage, that may indeed be what you are buying.

Expect more pressure from senior management to produce results from mobile, meaning it’s critical to think beyond a one-time transaction. There are bigger opportunities if you think about what can happen after the click, namely an experience that can lead to an opt-in and remarketing possibilities.

Plan on more device types in the hands of consumers, making it important to provide positive user experiences rather than products that addresses the least-common denominator. Consumers expect top notch brand experiences and the bar is higher than ever with smartphones and faster networks.

Expect more social interaction at the point of sale, making customer service vital or a bad experience will end up on Facebook or Twitter in seconds. According to my Moments of Trust consumer touchpoint survey, 40 percent of consumers with smartphones or Internet-enabled mobile devices have used them to spread word to their social networks about an in-store experience, 46 percent of them reported a positive one and 40 percent cited a negative one.

We will see patent infringements being identified and enforced, making it imperative to work with a company that has protected IP and can keep you out of trouble. Rather than experiencing a problem later, it’s critical to determine if a vendor has proprietary technology or is working off something that could be challenged in court.

Others will chase voice as the killer app but may not deliver due to issues of ambient noise and poor search results.

Successful mobile campaigns will have prominent calls to action and provide multiple ways to engage. Much like Macy’s does with its Backstage Pass program, brands should consider using an SMS call to action and QR code on print advertising campaign pointing to a mobile website that can capture customer’s information.  This engages the consumer and introduces a concept of immediacy. Consumers are looking for interactivity in what used to be passive situations.

(article first appeared on imediaconnection.com http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2011/12/13/super-if-not-super-bowl-mob...

Assessing My Mobile Predictions

Anyone who claims that everything that happened in mobile in the second half of 2011 was predicted is selling you a lie. We’re smarter than falling for untruths, you say?

Yup, call me on the iPhone 5 through the T-Mobile network and give me the details.

We missed – all of us did, including the most dependable of so-called insiders. No fifth generation of the iPhone, no iPhone business at all at T-Mobile, which spent the last six months envisioning a marriage with AT&T that hasn’t made it to the alter. At least Kim and Kris got that far.

Of course, what we got from Apple was Siri, a voice recognition technology that received the fanboy buzz treatment but is already considered a fading novelty by many.

In July, we suggested that with the iPhone in more hands, we would have a repeat of the time when the CEO said, “We need an iPhone app”. That may have come to pass to some degree, but we certainly aren’t fielding request after request at Hipcricket where clients and prospects are more interested in driving leads and building databases which produce remarketing opportunities.

How did I do on my other predictions?

I forecast that the convergence of mobile and social would be even more pronounced. That has come to pass with Facebook and Twitter introducing products that have yielded unprecedented activity through wireless devices. Facebook’s acquisition of location-sharing property Gowalla is the latest example of the coming together of mobile and social.

I predicted that at retail, even more mobile subscribers would be chronicling their “Moments of Trust” by posting comments, photos and even videos to social networks. Mobile devices have become megaphones for a large portion of users with more than 40 percent telling those in their social networks about negative or positive experiences with brands. Is this trend growing? Try finding someone in a mall without a mobile device in hand.

I said that Groupon would prove to be more valuable to mobile users than to PC members, providing that the mobile customer opts in for Groupon Now offers.  According to daily deal aggregator Yipit, Groupon Now—geared toward consumers using mobile devices—generated $1.2 million in revenue in October, a 24.5 percent increase from September. By way of comparison, Groupon’s October revenue was up 22.2 percent.

I said to expect outrage over bills that charge for data overages. We’ve heard this one before – text messaging became mainstream once consumers were offered unlimited plans that prevented shocking bills. With the carriers doing away with all you can eat data, we’re back to surprise time in our bills. As it turned out, the Federal Trade Commission noticed. In October, it unveiled its "bill shock" plan, which would require wireless providers to alert users when they have exceeded or are about to go over voice, text, or data usage.

I predicted that the hype around the mobile wallet would intensify and asked if that was even possible. I also said that everyone is chasing the opportunity, but consumers wouldn’t be leaving their wallets at home when they hit the malls in November and December. This is true. The Google Wallet payment system was announced in May, but it only works with Sprint’s Nexus S 4G.The buzz continues, though, with the news that the Google Wallet will soon be linked to vending machines in New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., and San Francisco.

I suggested that with smartphone adoption making a march toward 50 percent share, expect more to make the claim that apps are on the way out because so many more subscribers will be able to access the mobile web. I also said that we’re years away from deciding the apps vs. web question. I still believe that. We now have over one million apps offered through various stores. The great majority are ignored or get downloaded and forgotten. But some, mostly utilitarian ones, appear to be here to stay.

(Article first appeared at imediaconnection.com http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2011/12/05/mobile-in-second-half-of-20...

The Year of Mobile Commerce

It was the brands that told us with their increased marketing spends that 2010 was The Year of Mobile. Now consumers are the ones showing us through their actions -- reaching for their mobile phones at ever step of the customer journey -- that this is The Year of Mobile Commerce.

I take a look at the Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers in this post http://www.mobilegroove.com/mobile-commerce-moves-up-to-marketing-mega-trend/