Cruising With Mobile

Celebrity Cruises is growing its mobile database via SMS and QR codes in print advertisements that offer chances to sign up for weekly emails, talk to a representative and enter a sweepstakes.

Mobile Marketer asked for my take on the program. Here's what I told the publication:

“SMS calls-to-action often lead to an opt-in relationship with a consumer that is a win for the brand and win for the subscriber if it is based on a value exchange. We have seen travel brands use SMS to educate, differentiate their products and services and promote sales, especially in reaction to a competitor’s price movement.

“Since text messages are opened up within minutes, the offer is seen in a timely fashion as opposed to an email that may languish in an email inbox overflowing with spam."

I added:

"Savvy brands are giving mobile users choice. Consumers, especially affluent ones, do not want to be dictated to – give them an ability to interact with your brand on their terms, not the brand’s.

“We have moved into the era of interactivity. Ads without calls-to-action via mobile miss the opportunity that is created when the device is within reach of a consumer all day and all night. Consumers are looking to do something when they read a print publication and brands that do not take this into account are living in a bygone era.”

The full article is here http://www.luxurydaily.com/celebrity-cruises-builds-database-via-mobile-calls...

The First Reviews For Mobilized Marketing

The first reviews are in for Mobilized Marketing. I'm humbled and grateful.

Thom Kennon

SVP, Director of Strategy

Y&R

“I’ve been lucky enough to have been doing mobile for about as long as it’s been a viable marketing channel and touchpoint.  I was thrilled when I found out Jeff was writing this book since I knew full well the story hadn’t yet been told.  And I also believed there was no one better suited and positioned to tell it than Hasen, looking back and forward from his prime seat at the head of the table at Hipcricket.

“Jeff’s unique role in our industry’s founding origin stories afford him superb and actionable insights about where we’re heading.  Jeff gets that mobile is not one thing – it isn’t just ‘little digital’.  It isn’t just apps or messaging.  And it certainly isn’t just about media.  Jeff gets the big picture -- that what’s really going on is a new era of brand marketing and human behaviors that is best summed up by what some of us call ‘mobilityness’.  Jeff gets that mobilityness matters and this book is about the how and the why.  It is a tale is both instructive and inspirational as it uncovers the key lessons learned over the past 10 years of early mobile and point us towards the opportunities which lie ahead for the future of all marketing, with mobile as its beating heart.”

Michael Becker

Managing Director, North America

Mobile Marketing Association 

“Jeff is a superb storyteller and in this book he takes you through the story of mobile and its place within the marketing mix. At every step along the way, he shares key lessons and insights that will help you ask the right questions and know how to get the right answer.  Jeff will prepare you to embrace mobile in a way that will help you deliver value to your customers, your employer and your career.” 

Miles Orkin

Former National Director, Web and Mobile

American Cancer Society

“Mobile marketing is about giving your customer the right message via the right channel at the right time. When it works well, nothing is more intimate and effective. Jeff knows what works. And the stories from mobile marketing leaders he features in this book add detail and dimension to Jeff's compelling strategic insights. It's a fast, informative, entertaining read, and it will set you up with a clear point of view on the latest mobile thinking. 

“If you want your audience to pick up their phones and engage with your brand, you need to pick up this book!”

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Angry Birds Edition

Social leaped ahead of games on mobile when it comes to amount of activity. Games held the top spot for four years. I wonder if the birds are angry.

One in five want self-driving cars. I'll settle for a chauffeur.

95 percent of independent restaurants don't have mobile web sites, according to a study. I would be surprised if more than 10 percent do anything with mobile.

Twitter has set its sights on two billion users. For me, that's too many "tuna fish sandwich for lunch" reports.

Walmart has brought augmented reality to customers with an app around The Avengers. Will THE mass retailer make AR go mass?

Two thirds won't spend more than $50 per month on mobile data, a study says. Half of smartphone users don't know how much they use. I’m in that 50 percent.

The London Olympics will be streamed live but don't expect real-time posting of user-generated video. That is prohibited by ticketholders.

Something to watch – the U.S. Transportation head says that distracted driving is a "national epidemic". He has called for a ban on using the phone while driving.

Some apps ping the carrier network 2,400 times an hour. Is that enough? Check me in somewhere, please.

Finally a LinkedIn iPad app. It’s surprising that it has taken this long given the iPad user demographic.

Google's ad says Chrome can help you get your ex back. I don't want my ex back. How many do?

71 percent of affluent consumers don't have set spending limit in mobile apps. I wonder if this is more default than by choice.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Yucky Bacteria Edition

Ninety-four percent of U.S. bills have bacteria on them, MasterCard reports. Is that enough to move people to use a mobile wallet? Do you think our phones are pristine? Mine isn’t.

Speaking of the wallet, marketers, if you say that the mobile wallet will completely replace cash, your credibility will be lost. Nothing is absolute and this transformation will take years, maybe decades.

Enabling small business to accept payment via mobile is not exclusive to Square, but it may soon have a $4 billion valuation. Coincidentally, the company is processing $4 billion transactions annually.

Ads for viewing singles nearby and for attorneys in area were back to back on my iPhone. I view them as one message to me – sent by my wife.

Travel & Leisure named Seattle the top hipster despite fact that I live there.

We can waste time reading pure conjecture. Case in point: I bypassed three straight stories with headlines saying a company "may" do something. Nudge me when they do.

Apple has lost $56.5 billion in market value in two weeks. That's roughly an eBay, by market cap, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Nokia shared a video taken with its 41-megapixel Nokia 808 PureView. That's the one that won't be available in the States. Are we supposed to think other Nokia products are as innovative? We don’t.

Oh, how the world has changed. National Geographic is covering an Everest expedition on Instagram.

Did you see the story that said cellphone that sees through walls is closer to reality? Ignore the piece. It's a shiny object that won't move your business.

T-Mobile is bringing mobile security to users. The problem is that the issue is not a factor in buying.

Do you think Samsung calling iPhone users "sheep" in ads will get us to switch? I don't think so, either.

When It Comes To Twitter, Am I Like Rod Carew?

I thought of Rod Carew when I reached 3,000 followers on Twitter over the weekend.

During my sports writing years, Carew successfully chased down the 3,000 hit mark. But he was known as a singles hitter and perceived by many as one who couldn’t reach base when it mattered most.

In fact, Carew heard the talk and grew to despise it.

In the locker room, he once said to an overweight journalist, “Why don’t you mix in a salad every now and then?”

The writer’s retort? “Why don’t you mix an RBI (runs batted in) in every now and then.”

The two had to be separated and the story became part of Carew’s history.

This brings me back to the 3,000-follower mark. Of course, it’s easier to get 3,000 followers than 3,000 big league hits.

The question I ask myself is whether I’m a singles hitter like Carew, one who builds up the numbers but never does anything that matters.

Anyone who knows me will understand when I say that isn’t for me to judge. You will never hear me say, “Now here’s a great idea.” My goal is to throw out something smart and for someone to see it as valuable.

So am I bringing value on Twitter (and in this blog)? Have any of my more than 10,000 tweets been anything beyond singles? Were most of them outs?

Again, that’s not for me to judge.

I do believe that tweeting is an endeavor worth the time and effort. I try to bring context to the link and offer my view on the implications of the product introduced or of the statistic cited.

And I hate the term followers. We are in a community, in this together and, just by our presence and participation on Twitter, we’re indeed all leaders.

Will I swing and miss on more than my share of the next 10,000 tweets? Absolutely.

Will I mix in a salad tweet or one that tells you what I had for lunch? It’s not going to happen.  I promise you value in exchange for your eyes and for your time.

And I thank you more than you know for being part of my world.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Can We Talk Edition

An ad for the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx says it has the longest talk time of any 4G phone. Does talk time close the sale for you? I didn't think so.

A story says that a cellphone that sees through walls is closer to reality. Marketers: ignore. It's a shiny object that won't move your business.

Verizon’s CFO says the carrier’s data-sharing plan will come out mid-summer this year. You know that he has run the numbers.

Larry Page says that Android isn't critical and that it's a delivery vehicle for Google services. Don’t believe me? You can Google it.

There is an AP style change -- you can now start a sentence with “hopefully”. My wish is that the wire service says that you don't have to start every tweet with the words rumor and Apple.

During the Shopper Marketing Summit this week, I listened to a "mobile is an addiction like drugs" talk by longtime industry veteran Patrick Moorhead. Patrick, rather than an addiction, could it be that mobile brings the value to justify the cost?

Talking to marketers at the show, mobile is for selling more product and driving engagement and loyalty. Convince them and they are in.

My words to Digiday on the importance of digging deeper than just saying that you have to do mobile: “For marketers, it is essential to consider day part and device type. Plus, you should pick a newspaper partner that optimizes for the device and updates content throughout the day. No one wants to read yesterday’s news on a tablet at the dinner table. As for advertising, breakfast sandwiches are irrelevant to all but a few except in the morning. It’s about the right ad at the right time on the right device.”

An eMarketer forecast says that 15.8 million U.S. consumers will book travel via a smartphone this year. That is just 5 percent of the overall subscriber base, but it is significant.

Pew reports that 38 percent of Blacks and Hispanics use mobile as the primary avenue to Web. Marketers, this stat matters more than most.

4 Mobile Marketing Tips For Entrepreneurs

With any new channel, some will dive in early and others won’t even put the pool location into their GPS.

In my new book, Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices, more than three dozen marketers shared their experiences – good and bad — in lessons that potentially could move your business.

Here is advice from some of those who have included mobile in their integrated marketing plans:

1. Be Brave

You will be hard-pressed to find a smarter businessperson than Hank Wasiak, an ad man for more than four decades who has led small firms and global agencies while always seeking to reach his target audience on a personal level.

“Technology opened the door to what consumers always felt anyway—back in my day when we were doing IR [infrared] scores to gauge television commercials and saying how hard it was to break through, the average recall for a 30-second spot was maybe 25 percent of the people who were forced to look at a commercial would remember it,” he says. “They were telling us then, ‘I want it the way I want it when I want it.’ We just didn’t have the capability to do it. Now we do. Mobile, it gets you connected but it’s part of your life in a functional way, in an emotional way, an entertaining way, in a lifesaving way.”

And Wasiak, the former vice chairman of McCann Erickson WorldGroup who is now a partner at The Concept Farm, says fire sooner rather than later.

“To me, the key thing when looking at something is to be early and fast,” he says. “I’ve been the poster child for this. You want to overthink things sometimes. You want to get it perfect but things move so fast. To me in this world, especially in mobile, iteration is more important than innovation. You can find out quickly because you’re in real time in the hip pocket, the breast pocket and in the heart of your consumers.

“You have to put on a flak jacket and get a little more risk averse.”

2. Use Mobile Measurement Tools Even If They Aren’t Perfect

Nirvana would include a dashboard that showed marketers all of their initiatives in real time. That would allow for assessment and optimization long before the post mortem when, of course, it’s too late to impact a program. Some have refused to spend on mobile until measurement is more advanced.

ESPN’s John Kosner says that a bigger flow of brand dollars to mobile will solve the mobile metrics woes.

“It’s weak now but in my experience the measurement follows the money,” says ESPN’s general manager of digital and print media. “Everybody complains where it is now. I think we’ll see significant expansion in the measurement in the next 5 to 10 years. In the meantime, I think companies like ours—that have great products, demonstrate scale, and represent a safe buy—we may benefit disproportionately in a world less measured.

“I think the lack of strong metrics is a frustration for marketers today but I think it’s a mistake not to get started and learn this thing. Television has been an inefficient science forever and it is by far the most popular medium. This is going to be a booming business.”

3. Don’t Forget Feature Phone Users

More than 70 percent of American mobile subscribers text on a regular basis. In some parts of the world, the numbers are even higher. It is why Coca Cola looks at SMS as an integral element of its programs given the reach to the great majority of consumers and handsets. Further, Facebook’s worldwide mobile strategy has feature phones not only included but targeted. As the company looks to increase from 425 million mobile users worldwide, it struck sweetheart deals with carriers across the world to have relatively high function Facebook experiences on feature phones.

4. Stay Current

There is no industry moving faster than mobile. In many ways, that is great for marketers – there are more ways to reach targets on their most personal devices that are with them 24 hours a day. But behaviors and interests change fast. If you read something in 2011 and think you have this mobile thing down, the winds of 2012 change may knock you over.

(article first appeared on ideamensch.com - http://ideamensch.com/4-mobile-marketing-tips-for-entrepreneurs/)

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Wet iPhone Edition

You know how insurance works -- I spent $99 for iPhone water protection. Now it's as dry as some's humor.

A question for email marketers - why do some believe that there is more value opting in people by default than asking permission to interact? It is annoying.

Do you think mobile isn't wacky? An app with 100 million users connects those shaking their phones with others doing the same.

If the report is accurate, RIM's former CEO, cast as slow to move, left because his radical change ideas were rejected. Talk about irony.

According to eMarketer, one-third of the U.S. population will use social networking and video on mobile devices by 2016.

Did you catch the interesting Fast Company piece on the "dark side of smartphone NFC technology?” Will there be too much personal information on phones?

I’m heading to Tuesday's sold out Shopper Summit co-presentation -Using Mobile to Engage Customers Along Path to Purchase & Beyond.

In the “yeah, these were beginning to get old” department, Google Goggles have been updated with changes to continuous scanning.

Via one customer at a time, Verizon's new upgrade fee could add $1 billion to its annual EBITDA.

Despite being more connected than ever, new research in The Atlantic suggests that we couldn't be more isolated. 

Baseball’s At Bat mobile app had 2.2 million subs in 2011, 25 percent year over year growth and $200 million in revenue. That’s a home run.

Apple's "resolutionary" description of the new iPad would fit better tied to January promises we'll break by February.

Strike the “PCs are going away” headlines - shipments were up in the first quarter

Technology as an enabler: 35 percent of teens admit to having used their mobile devices to cheat on a test, according to a survey.

It has been two days since I've seen a story hyping the mobile wallet. I’m betting that the streak ends very soon.

A TV spot saying "Do March Madness right” on LG mobile aired two weeks after tourney ended. What’s the ROI on that one?

I’m confirmed to talk about my Mobilized Marketing book June 15 in San Diego at that town’s Interactive Day. I’m stoked – it is always a great event.

Five Tips To Use Mobile To Market Across Globe

Mobile is global. Everywhere on the planet companies and merchants are using mobile in new ways to market and drive results. Innovation and inspiration can be found at the fringe, and across the four corners of the globe. Keeping an open and curious mind is essential. Best practices, key learnings, and real-life experiences are all around us. The hard part is identifying what we can (and should) apply as we seek to supercharge our own mobile marketing strategies. 

To start us on this journey I have collected ideas and insights from doers and movers. From C-Level execs and pioneers to brand marketers who are finding their way as they confront (and conquer) the challenges of mobile, their observations and accomplishments are the focus on my new book, Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118243269.html

It is estimated that the total number of global mobile subscribers will reach approximately 7 billion by 2015 and the penetration in Asia is expected to be 65 percent of the total. As we approach this milestone it's important to recognize that mobile (the technology) may well be mobile, but marketers still need to be aware of important regional differences. 

What flies and why (and where)? Here are five tips based on the learnings documented in my book to provide a clearer idea of what is needed to market internationally (and successfully) via mobile.

1.) Consider each market individually: Some of us read books like Mobilized Marketing. Others attend conferences. Benjamin Gauthey, Microsoft’s digital marketing lead, Asia and Pacific, learns about mobile by visiting Starbucks, museums, parks, and trains in every city he goes. As a rule, Gauthey spends three or four hours per trip observing everyday wireless users.

He says Singapore is "extremely overwhelming" with mobile use the norm on trains where commuters play games and connect via WhatsApp, a cross-platform mobile messaging app that allows users to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. The mobile group messaging app from U.S.-based WhatsApp is clearly making (global) waves. 

Gauthey has also found Korea to be home to high-definition video viewing of soap operas and YouTube video.

"Mobile has unique local context," he says. "One size does not fit all."

2.) Drop the thought that what happens in Asia spreads to all markets: Ride along in a train across South Korea and you're sure to see many commuters watching live television on their mobile devices. Through digital multimedia broadcasting, or DMB, mobile subscribers are able to watch news and sports feeds —supported by ads and 'commercials' — provided for free on DMB-capable devices from the country’s television broadcasters.

Mobile TV isn't coming. It's part of life. Surveys show the average viewing time among mobile users is approximately 15 minutes. Advertisers have taken consumer habits into account and produced 15- to 30-second commercials to fit the slot, as opposed to the minute-long spots that are typical for Korean television.

The U.S. is another story. Here everyone from ESPN to Verizon has tried to make mobile TV viewing our new on-the-go pastime. But it's a no-go — at least for now.  Nielsen tells us http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/report-the-rise-of-smartpho... that less than 1 in 10 watched TV on their mobile devices in 2011. Hardly a crowd-pleaser.

Frank Barbieri, who first built mobile products for MSNBC in 1999, believes he knows why.

"I predicted a faster adoption of mobile viewing over the air," says Barbieri, who has led product initiatives at Microsoft, InfoSpace, Transpera, and now at YuMe in Silicon Valley. "We thought the handheld screen would be the next consuming screen for viewing content. I think that turned out to be wrong. People were not watching over the air."

Instead, people were buying content from iTunes (Apple’s content store) and putting it on their iPhone.  Where are we now? Barbieri tells me apps may tip the scales. But right now applications "trend toward gaming, utility and social, and less toward consumption of long-form video content on mobile phones."

Why doesn't the South Korea model apply?

Barbieri points out that there are "particular quirks with the Korea experiment that aren’t necessarily true in North America." One is the commuter culture. "There’s a lot of downtime. North America is more car-based versus public transport." Second, live video mobile services are free. "We’ve never had that. It’s always been a subscription-based service. That has kept usage fairly low."

But the U.S. is moving more toward view on demand. "There is more interest in time shifting and sideloading the content (by transferring data between devices) versus watching over the air." Marketers thinking mobile TV are advised to take note.

3.) Leverage the convergence of mobile and social: Everywhere you look the increased use of social networks is on the rise. But the real growth is in our requirement to access these communities using our mobile devices. Social networking giants Twitter and Facebook report that users are twice as active on mobile as they are on PCs. As I have written before, the boundaries between mobile and social are blurring. Adapt your approaches to embrace this shift.

4.) Don’t forget feature phone users — ever: Feature phone users outnumber smartphone users by a ratio of nearly six-to-one. According to the annual mega-trends presentation by Mary Meeker, renowned industry analyst and partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), feature phones are not just in the majority. They are driving services innovation as people in emerging and developing markets use simple text messaging to improve their lives, conduct commerce, transfer money and even oversee elections. In the U.S., more than 70 percent of mobile subscribers text on a regular basis. In other parts of the world, the numbers are significantly higher. 

This is why Coca-Cola — a global mega-brand —considers SMS to be an integral and essential element of its marketing programs and campaigns worldwide. 

A review of Facebook’s worldwide mobile strategy reveals a sharp focus on feature phones. As the company works to increase from 425 million mobile users worldwide, it has struck sweetheart deals with carriers across the globe to provide users Facebook experiences on their feature phones that are similar in features and functionality to what Facebook delivers to us on smartphones and online.

The power and impact of feature phones is strong in India, a country that has a fervor for social networking. There are even feature phones retailing below $50 that have a Facebook button and come bundled with a first year of unlimited Facebook service for free. The takeaway: smartphones and tablets offer amazing opportunities, but the mass market is still about feature phones.

5.) Stay current: You would be hard-pressed to find an industry moving faster than mobile. In many ways, that is great for marketers. We have more ways to reach people on their most personal devices, mini-computers that they carry with them 24 hours a day. But behaviors and interests change fast. If you read something in 2011 and think you have this whole mobile thing down, don't bet on it. The winds of 2012 change may knock you over.

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(article first appeared on mobilegroove.com http://www.mobilegroove.com/learning-from-leading-marketers-markets-to-map-mo...

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Dream Edition

A psychologist has created an iPhone app that can manipulate dreams. No, not those kind of dreams. More like the ones where you are walking in the woods. Yeah, I’ll pass, too.

New York City is transforming old phone booths into ‘smart screens’. Kids, they were places to make calls. Oh, you need the definition of a call?

Blackberry 7 is rated the most secure mobile operating system. RIM’s problem is that security is not even a small driver when consumers purchase.

Everyone wants in on the Instagram talk. Mitt Romney talked up Instagram and innovation less than a week after someone signed him up for the service.

Nokia cut its financial guidance due to "competitive industry dynamics”. Was competition unexpected?

Meanwhile, Nokia identified a Lumia 900 software glitch, then offered a fix and $100 credit. It is due to a memory issue. My question - will consumers remember at the point of purchase?

According to an analyst, Best Buy's mobile business brings one third of the profits but accounts for less than 10 percent of the overall square footage in retail stores.

Wireless device charging is coming to some Chryslers. Will they prevent all those coffee spills that come when we fiddle with plugs?

It isn't the size but cost that may doom Toshiba's 13-inch tablet. It is $650 at the low end. Consumers will buy this why?

AT&T has rethought its Rethink Possible tagline. It has evolved to “It's what you do with what we do”. Makes sense because mobile is personal.

Some predict apps will lose favor as the mobile web advances with HTML5. But Juniper sees twice as any app downloads by 2016.

American Idol gets lots of credit for the use of text messaging. Will it do the same for Shazam? Of course, Shazam was part of the Super Bowl telecast, but you may have been in the guacamole at the time.

Debunking Preposterous Claim That Mobile Is In State of "Stagnation"

The description is so preposterous that it is noteworthy – a business reporter in a major Canadian newspaper wrote that there is a “sense of stagnation” in the mobile industry.

In the Toronto Star piece http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1157843--tech-s-great-expectations-wh...

titled Tech’s great expectations: Why consumers are often neither shaken nor stirred, Michael Lewis (no, not the Michael Lewis from Moneyball fame) sought to call out mobile for what he considers small or no advances.

“With the wow factor conspicuously absent from the latest crop of smartphones and tablet PCs offered by vendors including Apple Inc., some experts are asking whether innovation has hit a wall in the post-Jobs era,” Lewis wrote. “The sense of stagnation was reinforced at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where dozens of smartphones were unveiled by vendors including HTC Corp. and Samsung Electronics in what one blogger called an outpouring of “product spam.”

Granted, the story appeared before Facebook paid $1 billion for pioneering Instagram so that it could be a bigger player in mobile. But where was Lewis when the third iPad was introduced, or when Nokia showed a 41-megapixel phone, or when Draw Something saw 50 million downloads in 50 days?

It would be too easy to suggest that Lewis has been dulled by the lack of innovation by Canadian company RIM.

The reporter attempted to back up his premise with interviews from industry analysts and academia.

According to Lewis, “Forrester Research senior analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said the market’s sense of what constitutes true innovation ‘has warped to the point where if Apple’s next product doesn’t make cars fly or enable mind control, we yawn and change the channel.’”

And then there were these comments from Sidneyeve Matrix, an assistant professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. (note - I follow Matrix on Twitter and find her to be insightful).

She was quoted by Lewis as saying, “There is no doubt people feel underwhelmed.” Lewis said that Matrix noted that, “the two most recent Apple product announcements under chief executive Tim Cook have been about incremental rather than revolutionary change. And the next iPhone ‘probably won’t move the needle that much either.’”

Lewis apparently didn’t talk to others. He should have.

Gartner predicts that tablet sales will double in 2012. Further, it said that iPad shipments will quadruple from 2011 to 2016. J.P. Morgan recently upped its first quarter estimate of iPhones sold to 31.1 million, three million more than first projected.

That doesn’t sound like stagnation to me.

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Article first posted on imediaconnection.com http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2012/04/11/no-mobile-hype-here-just-cl...

Will Spam Turn Mobile Users Off?

It has been said that 97 percent of text messages are read within four minutes. In fact, we know that many are viewed in a shorter window than that. If we’re not those people ourselves, we have likely experienced family members, friends, and others rudely take themselves out of a conversation to respond to the bing or ding of their phones.

Beyond a lack of manners, what’s behind this behavior? Much of it has to do with the value placed on a text message. Unlike email, the vast majority of texts either are from people we know or solicited by us through membership in permission-based, mobile clubs developed by brands, politicians, and others.

That is changing. According to an 1,100 word story in the New York Times, spam is becoming more pervasive on mobile devices. The Times said that in the United States, consumers received roughly 4.5 billion spam texts last year, more than double the 2.2 billion received in 2009, according to Ferris Research, a market research firm that tracks spam.

That is 4.5 million in a year spread out over 250 million text-enabled phones, according to the Times.

Does this problem compare to what we see in our email inboxes? Hardly.

Israeli Internet security developer Commtouch reports that we receive an average of about 4.5 million spam emails approximately every 90 minutes. 

Just what are the implications of a doubling of spam on mobile devices?

If we continue down this path, many mobile subscribers will consider texts an intrusion and ignore them.

Marketers who have succeeded in providing value to consumers who opt into mobile programs will suffer the consequences of a less attentive audience.

The mobile operators may see a drop in messaging revenue. Imagine how many will say no to the text option if the alternative is incessant and unwanted SMS.

As the Times reported, mobile spam is illegal under two federal laws — the 2003 Can Spam Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which set up the Do Not Call Registry in 2003. Smartphone users can report numbers that spam comes from on both the Web sites of the F.T.C. and the Federal Communications Commission. The major wireless carriers — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Bell Mobility and Verizon Wireless — all also offer ways to report the numbers on their Web sites and can block numbers.

It is up to the carriers to enforce the laws and quickly shut down the spammers whether they are smishing (illegally seeking personal information) or marketing outside the rules.

Anything less than vigilance will turn off consumers and the route to them.

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Article first published as Will Spam Turn Mobile Users Off? on Technorati.

Notes From a Mobilized Marketer - The Kleenex Edition

The msnbc.com story said that the iPad is to tablets as Kleenex is to tissues. To me, this thinking is premature.

Speaking of tablets, will a two-month delay to July push Google's first one to $200? The need to be more efficient to move the price down has reportedly been deemed more important than time into the market.

I still believe that Philadelphia's walking lane for texting was a keeper. It was only in place around April Fools Day. While we’re at it, we need one for elevators and another in airports.

Approximately two billion Facebook posts per month include a geolocation tag. Of course, it’s not only about what you say but where you say it. 

Did you hear the NPR piece on phone tracking? The question was whether the carriers are selling private records to law enforcement. It seems to me that the answer is yes despite the fact that the mobile operators don’t want it called selling.

This from a memo from Yahoo’s CEO Scott Thompson – “Our users want fun, informative, engaging experiences on all screens.” Does this signal that the company will finally seriously integrate mobile?

I'm all about new media but Vin Scully took me back 45 years with his call on Opening Day. He was so good describing the baseball game that I barely picked my head up to watch the game in HDTV.

The latest proof that it’s not our grandparents' world? About 29% of those who read ebooks consume them on cellphones.

Consumers don’t engage with channels, they engage with the brand, said a Walmart executive at a conference. Further, make the experience as seamless as possible, he said. I couldn’t agree more.

For a peek into several sections of my nearly released Mobilized Marketing book, please see the Inside This Book section on my Amazon book page.

Assuming the rumor is true, I would like to know why Apple thinks a 7.85 inch iPad is the right size. I’m disappointed that it's not 7.97258 inches. Call it isanity.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Google Glasses Edition

I’m vain enough to wait for augmented reality contact lenses. I say no to Google glasses.

The Masters switched to a free iPad app this year. Surprising given the organizers live in another age on so many issues.

There are enough mixed reviews of the Nokia Lumia 900 that we'll have to see for ourselves. So much is riding on it for Nokia and Microsoft.

Nokia’s 41-megapixel camera has come to America, but you can't buy one. It’s ironic that the company’s show-stopping innovation can't be marketed.

You now can take a picture of junk mail with PaperKarma and an app unsubscribes you. I love mobile.

Shazam says its gets more activity during live TV than Facebook and Twitter. It attributes it to the availability of "bonus content". Isn’t that what we get from our social networks? Or should?

"Listening, invention and personalization" are essential to Amazon's mobile strategy, according to the company. It’s essential for everyone else, too.

On the first day of availability, there were 2,000 downloads a minute for Instagram for Android. Want another wow? Overall, there are 30 million users uploading more than five million photos each day.

Thirty-four percent of surveyed high school seniors own an iPhone, double the percentage of year ago, according to Piper Jaffrey. Even more intend to buy. Some believe the device isn't cool enough for teens. It’s time to rethink that. Also, the implications for other manufacturers are obvious.

Seventy-one percent of iPhone users employ Wi-Fi versus 32 percent for Android owners, comScore reports. The disparity supposedly had to do with overseas data plans that limit Android connections that way.

The only saving grace about the absurd speculation on the iPhone 5 is that it takes attention away from next iPad.

Save May 15 for the next Mobile Mixer, hosted by Hipcricket in our Kirkland, WA, offices. We’ll be talking about the learnings from my Mobilized Marketing book.

I’m amused that every mobile wallet announcement is judged as end-all or not. This is a long-term play, 4-6 years for the tipping point, according to American Express.

Will Balloons In Bed Lead To Sales Pop?

Digiday asked me to assess two current mobile advertising campaigns. Each targeted smartphone users.

My critiques are  below and at http://www.digiday.com/brands/campaign-breakdown-westin-hotels-activision/

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Westin Hotels & Resorts’ “Elements of Well Being”

Westin Hotels & Resorts used mobile display advertising to extend the hotel chain’s “Elements of Well Being” into the mobile space. The goal was to drive brand awareness and preference with on-the-go travelers. The ads were targeted to high-end smartphone devices and ran on premium sites predetermined by Westin.

A shakeable ad unit was launched. The creative used images from Westin’s “Elements of Well Being” campaign that demonstrated the hotel’s ability to better understand human needs and engineer a hotel experience ‘For a Better You.’ It featured the Westin’s SuperFoodsRx Menu, Heavenly Bed and Westin Resorts. The unit put consumers in control of the various images and allowed them to change the creative displayed by physically shaking their phone.

Another creative unit featured a screen full of balloons, which users could “pop” by touching. When every balloon was popped, an image was revealed of a woman lying on a bed of balloons, symbolic of how Westin has engineered a good night’s sleep through the Heavenly Bed. The units resolved with a complimentary night offer which users could click to call Westin reservations directly or book via a mobile landing page.

Assessment: Mobile display advertising makes sense if the target is a frequent traveler who most likely is carrying a smartphone. The shakeable component is a gimmick that I’d prefer seen left out. As a too-often business traveler, I do enough shaking with the necessary amount of coffee to jolt awake the system, the turbulence that rattles the nerves, and the worries about the 25-minute layover. As to other elements, I’m not sure what to make of the woman lying on balloons image. Provocative, sure, but unconvincing that the bed is made for the best night of sleep imaginable. Plus, the payoff of a free night surely pleases many, but I bet an upgrade offer would be more appealing to the business traveler who undoubtedly is on an expense account.

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Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” ads

Activision’s mobile campaign for “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” aimed to drive pre-orders ahead of the game’s release date and generate awareness and social media buzz.

Activision ran mobile media ahead of the game release. The campaign featured rich-media creative that was targeted to highly male environments and included a video trailer that showed highlights of the new game and an exclusive ad unit that enabled click-to-store functionality.

The campaign leveraged mobile commerce to allow consumers to pre-order the game from Amazon.com directly on their mobile device. The creative also helped drive in-store traffic by featuring a store locator that enabled consumers to find the nearest location where they could pre-order.

The campaign included an expandable banner that allowed users to tweet to the official Call of Duty handle directly from within the creative. Users could also share the rich-media trailer via Facebook.

Assessment: For such hot game titles, there is another kind of modern warfare — the kind between the online seller and the brick-and-mortar retailer. Activision wisely gave the mobile user choice although I’m not sure why someone would travel to a store for a pre-order when he or she could accomplish the same activity from wherever they are. The tie-in of social and mobile is a winner because it easily enabled the mobile subscriber to build buzz for the game. Missing was a check-in component that might have created a Call of Duty community that Activision could cultivate.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Of Reverse Mentors and Old Socks

Beyond anti-wrinkle cream and eyelash enhancements, I’m staying young through reverse mentoring. A 29-year-old is co-architect in many of my new media efforts. Plus, last week, I learned lots about social from a 25-year-old who is as old as many of my socks.

My brother followed this course recently when he received advice on setting up his wireless router from our 12-year-old nephew. My bet is my brother was wearing 12-year-old socks that day.

I received texts three straight days from the Obama campaign. Yes, I opted in, but the frequency is way too much, especially this far from Election Day.

Next year they should do Day of Unplugging on April Fool's Day. Then I'm in.

The NPR April Fool's headline said Tweets To Shrink To 133 Characters. That’s nothing to joke about. Our full voices will be heard.

According to several studies, more than 70 percent of mobile users say they want a deal. Yet LivingSocial is away moving from offers to push convenience in the form of takeout and delivery. I’ll take 25 percent off in exchange for a relatively short wait. And I’m far from the only one.

Is there an app to get my wife to go with me to new Three Stooges movie? I hear that there's Oscar buzz around this one.

Groupon restated its earnings after seeing a spike in holiday returns. I contributed by giving back two of the three flying trapeze lessons my “friends” thought I would enjoy.

Some (not me) say the best days for text messaging are over. A posted column said that SMS is a "new global phenomenon”. It is at neither extreme. 

Two thirds of mobile devices purchased in last three months were smartphones. Has your marketing shifted similarly?

American Express says that mobile payments are 4-6 years from a tipping point. The contrast to the hype around the concept is striking – and accurate.

AT&T says its Nokia Lumia 900 launch will be bigger than an iPhone introduction. It may be in marketing dollars spent, but certainly won’t be in excitement generated.

Stepping Into The BlackBerry Time Machine

I stepped into a time machine this week, reliving history by seeing several Washington D.C. exhibits and more BlackBerry devices in hands than iPhones or Androids.

Because you come to this blog for mobile insights rather than my take on the political contributions of our forefathers, let me offer some thoughts on RIM’s continued large presence in our Nation’s Capital:

Seemingly most in DC wield power or are wannabes. There is no better device to bang out power emails than a BlackBerry. In other cities, we want to be cool. In Washington, power wins out.

No one does push email better than BlackBerry. In Washington, time is critical. What better device to keep track of the political flip-flops?

Long ago, the BlackBerry proved to the IT departments that it provided secure communications. There is no city in America with more need than DC for protected emails.

I had a long love-hate relationship with my BlackBerry that I wrote about here http://technorati.com/business/article/an-open-letter-to-blackberry/ and elsewhere.

For several years, I carried an iPhone and BlackBerry. Price finally drove me away from RIM. Despite the fact that I’ve been a customer for about 15 years, AT&T demanded for $50 more a month when some of my emails were switched over to Microsoft Exchange. These are the same emails that my iPhone delivers for no extra charge.

I miss the keyboard and the push capability that RIM gave me.

I don’t miss having to defend carrying what has become a dinosaur outside of DC.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer

A report says that there were 30 million near-field communications-enabled smartphones shipped in 2011. The number nearly matches the number of stories hyping hyperlocal, the mobile wallet, and the check-in.

Apple responded to the new iPad’s charging woes. Could this issue bring the most beloved brand down? Please. But I’m sure some are writing that to serve as linkbait.

Groupon supposedly is hiring an “army” of engineers. Will they make sure the flying trapeze offers don't get us smushed?

AT&T is testing a "plus" loyalty program with discounts on non-Apple stuff, dedicated support (as opposed to lackadaisical support), and $10 Starbucks cards. Too little, too late? Not even three Venti’s?

Another report says that 87 percent of iPhone 4S owners use at least one Siri feature per month. A month? That is hardly telling. I skip lunch once a month. That means nothing.

Thanks for your loyal reading of this blog. I was thrilled to see jeffhasen named one of Digiday’s 5 "great digital exec blogs".

For those who observed The Day Of Unplugging – the iPhone 5 was introduced. On top of that, Siri had a baby. I followed the “event” through my nine devices and computers.

Did you note that Coke is using SMS for a contest during NCAA Tournament telecasts? Not apps, the mobile web, nor augmented reality. It's about reach and inclusiveness.

Registration is free for May 3 webinar I'm doing with the Mobile Marketing Assoc about the findings in my Mobilized Marketing book http://bit.ly/A7GoXp. Please join me if you can.

My thinking on hotspots is if someone is going to pay when WiFi is available in more places, the service should just work. Why doesn't it?

Supposedly 220 tablets have been introduced. I’m guessing the "average" consumers can't name more than the iPad and Kindle Fire.

20 percent of sports content during the NCAA tourney has been seen on smartphones and tablets. This trend is discussed extensively by ESPN in my Mobilized Marketing book.

There are about 15 million Foursquare users. By my count, about 14 million of them show me their check-ins on LinkedIn. It makes no sense.

Serving The Mobile Consumer

For every business chasing the multi-trillion dollar retail spend with a mobile wallet product, there are thousands of little to mid-size guys and gals who just want to be serve the mobile consumer.

One way is with Square, which offers merchants a free credit card reader for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Square for iPad also brings a point of sale system for businesses to accept payments and track inventory.

According to Fast Company, more than one million small businesses and individuals use Square to process credit cards--a number boosted almost solely by word of mouth. Square has no business-development team and no sales force. The publication says that at least 60 of those “Girl Scouts, artists, farmers’-market vendors, political candidates, taco-truck vendors, accountants, designers, and babysitters have never accepted plastic before”.

Intuit’s GoPayment is in the space, as is the newest competitor, PayPal, which earlier this month launched PayPal Here. The product allows merchants to accept payments by swiping cards in the card reader, scanning cards and checks using their phone cameras, or manually entering card information into the app. They can also send an invoice and set payment terms directly from the app.

Another way small and medium-size businesses can succeed is by adding a mobile call to action in marketing materials and advertisements. For example, maid services have had to recruit more help after a spend of less than $1,000 as part of a radio ticket promotion brought more clean-the-house requests than the business could handle.

My favorite mobile success story involves Ford local dealers who found new prospects and customers with the least sexy of mobile products – text messaging. By adding an SMS call to action to traditional media, Ford generated a 15.4 percent lead conversion rate.

Here’s how it worked:

Customers watching a Ford Fusion television commercial could text “Fusion” to a short code to receive local offers. They were then prompted to text their zip code and applicable incentives are sent to the customer. Customers were then given the option to text their name if they would like to be contacted by their local dealer. Those who submitted names were sent to the local dealer for follow up.

Some mobile products and services, like the ones introduced at the recent South By Southwest conference, mainly drive buzz – which is fine if that’s what you want. But most businesses need more. Often, it’s not the fancy, sexy, potentially expensive stuff that drives the best results. It’s the tactics that give you reach (like the ubiquitous text messaging) and are inclusive for all your customers and prospects.

Mario Schulzke, founder of IdeaMensch and director of digital strategy at marketing firm WDCW, is one of those Gen-Xers who teaches Boomers like me something every day. His insights for us are to keep an eye on the little guy as well as the titans.

“You know, I am not smart enough to tell you about major game changers,” Schulzke says in my new book, Mobilized Marketing: How To Drive Sales, Engagment, and Loyalty through Mobile Devices jeffhasen. “But I can tell you there will be a revolution of incremental innovations that are about to take place. 

“It’s so easy nowadays to build your own website, your own piece of software or your own app. So what’s happening is that a bunch of people are starting to solve the problems that they’ve been having in their own lives and industries. We’ll see some major productivity gains in just about every vertical, driven by people solving problems close to their vest.”

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. >

Why Some Mobile Campaigns Fail

Mobile Marketer asked me to name some of the reasons that mobile programs disappoint. Here’s what I told the publication:

“Messaging campaigns fail for a variety of reasons.  One is a lack of strong call to action – the mobile subscriber needs to be incented to do something and the CTA must be prominent or it will be lost.

“A second is poor execution – it took more than five hours for me to get a bounceback message after I responded to the NFL’s Super Bowl spot call to action.”

I told Mobile Marketer that mobile subscribers are all about instant gratification. Also, to succeed, marketers should start by mapping a strategy for their business goals.

The article is here: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/strategy/12424.html