Asked about the impact of mobile on small business, I told the show "Your Business" on MSNBC that consumers have turned passive activities into interactive ones.
Here's the video:
Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "We Have To Talk Louder" Edition
"Mobile snuck up and bit us," said a speaker at the Direct Marketing Association’s national conference. Really? We've been anything but reticent.
There are "large numbers of opt-ins" for AccuWeather's government-issued severe weather alerts. The company includes no ads because “it's about life and property”.
An impressive 31 million mobile users access AccuWeather. The biggest growth is through preloaded apps on handsets. Some drive folks to the mobile web.
Microsoft Surface tablet preorders for the base model sold out in under 24 hours. Without numbers, that doesn't tell us much.
More on Facebook's reach strategy: news that it is offering free talk time for new mobile signups in India.
Also, 1 million of Facebook's billion members access only on mobile.
I listened to tips for email marketers - build trust, be relevant, transparent, don't reach out too often. Even more important on mobile.
OpenTable is giving restaurants a DIY free mobile web building service http: Do it yourself here? Is that really a service for customers?
When budgeting, does one need to figure in $99 for replacement rear panel for dinged/scratched iPhone 5?
Meanwhile, in a standout quarter, Verizon sold 3.1 million iPhones - but only 650,000 of supply-depleted iPhone 5. People couldn't or wouldn't wait.
Lots of stories, hype around security and mobile devices. If you are protected, you are in a small minority.
20 ISIS-ready handsets available by year's end? First step is mobile wallet education. Then will come slow adoption.
100 million downloads of eBay mobile apps - and that's before the holiday shopping season.
More resolution on smartphone screen equals better picture, right? Not necessarily, according to expert.
I enjoyed talking to students at the DMA2012 career panel - until a guy I chatted with afterward told me he was born in 1990. So were my socks.
If I had to hear snoring, it was better on my flight home from Vegas than during the DMA2012 mobile workshop I led.
Does Responsive Design Process Deliver As Advertised?
Marketers and designers have been told repeatedly of the benefits of responsive design. I, however, believe these benefits are mostly myths, since the theory hasn’t lived up to all that it’s promised.
Some claim that responsive design automatically fits all devices: It is a simple design build that extends across many browsers and devices. In actuality, if a site is not designed for mobile first, users will encounter problems fast. Designers are mistaken in assuming responsive design is one-size-fits-all, because desktop-specific images on a website are larger in file size than those used on a mobile site and can, therefore, jam users’ precious bandwidth and patience. Users are forced to endure slow access times, only increasing frustration and the general likelihood that they will abandon the site due to an unsatisfactory experience.
Even if responsive design promises one build to start, a designer still must test it on each device and on every generation. What appears to be a cheaper and more efficient method of creating Web and mobile properties ends up being extremely time- and resource-dependent. There are long-term technical and maintenance issues for developers who don’t consider that responsive design requires constant monitoring of changes and upgrades to all devices and OS versions required. The quality-assurance time and costs alone will negate any perceived upfront savings.
If you create a desktop site via responsive design, smartphones still must download the entire site design, not just the contents for the mobile version. Changes made to the design must be processed by the phone, further affecting data transfers and load times. If a user is on a slow network, forget about it; the usability and overall experience is severely impacted.
Perhaps my biggest problem with responsive design is that it doesn’t consider the user experience by remaining focused on the most importance user concern: content. The creative must be well represented in the design of a mobile site. Designing for each platform and screen size is critical, but since Web consumption is quickly moving to mobile, designers should consider context and mobile format first and foremost. Focusing on one screen size without considering how the content will translate in other formats and sizes will only complicate the build later on. Timelines and testing cycles are doubled, increasing ongoing maintenance and total cost of ownership.
Responsive design is only a piece of the puzzle, and certainly not the comprehensive solution that some marketers believe it is. I urge designers to question whether responsive design is right for their properties and to look closely at the cost and time commitments, as well as the ability to render effectively from a device/context/content perspective. In this day and age, designing for mobile first is smart and logical. A user is highly likely to search for your business on his or her smartphone, and the first impression will be derived from that experience.
(first appeared on digiday.com - http://www.digiday.com/brands/why-responsive-design-is-not-built-for-the-user/)
Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Irrelevant Offers Edition
No eyelash enhancement deals delivered this week through mobile or online, but my sewing class offer arrived. I saw it when I put down my knitting.
Of course, the course to take instead of matching prices is to deliver value-add customer service. That’s delivering at the Moments of Trust.
How long before Samsung does another iPhone 5 spot saying that you can't even buy one if you are dumb enough to want one? Deja deja deja déjà vu.
But how many changed plans to buy an iPhone 5 because of maps inferiority? None, according to a study. It’s annoying, but not deal breaker
Minutes of talks, plus texts sent and received each increased 3 percent year over year, CTIA says. So much for talk, SMS withering.
More CTIA figures? Americans used more than 1.1 trillion megabytes of wireless data in 2011. The number means nothing to us. What does? It doubled year over year.
Amazon says that it sells Kindles at cost. Of course, money is made on what is sold through the hardware.
On a possible ownership change for Sprint - consumers don't give a hoot. It won't influence purchases. Name one who can tell you who owns Sprint now.
A Coca Cola executive gave Digiday a reason why brands are behind in mobile: 'It's hard as shit,” she said. Harder than brain surgery or rocket science?
A survey says that the iPad mini is the least-desired Apple product launching in 2012. Time will tell – I completely disagree.
I saw a story on "what you need to know about mobile malware". Here’s what I know having worked extensively in the online security category - consumers don't care and won't for awhile, even after a major outbreak.
27 percent of registered-voter cell owners have used their phone in this campaign to keep up with election news or politics, according to Pew. Seems high considering most know whom they are voting for in November.
If you could turn back the clock and go to an unconnected world, would you? Is the answer as simple as "no way"? I don't think so.
For a while, industry folks said that mobile users look at texts within four minutes. A new report says the average response time is 90 seconds. I’m not sure either is accurate.
Mobile and Small Business - Stats Cut Both Ways
There was something for the naysayers and for the optimists in an important survey of small and medium size business and their use of mobile.
On the positive side, SMBs understand the value of building a database of prospects, according to a new survey by well-respected Borrell Associates. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/184139/smbs-increase-or-maintai...
SMBs prefer paying for signups as opposed to paying for mobile advertising clicks or impressions (27% versus to 19% for clicks and 6% for banners), according to the polling of over 1,300 SMBs. But 52% are unsure, which isn’t a big surprise in what are still the early days of wireless.
But proving that those of us in mobile marketing still have convincing to do to drive more mobile adoption, 45% of small business plan to maintain their level of spending, while 27% of medium-sized businesses plan to increase their level of spending on mobile media in the next year, compared to 4% who expect a decrease in mobile spend.
SMBs say that they are not satisfied with the ROI on mobile advertising, but 49% that have bought mobile ads say that they would spend more if a higher ROI could be garnered.
My take?
Big brands say that they will accelerate their mobile spends at higher rates than what businesses told Borrell.
In each case, there is plenty of proof that mobile can work if done smartly.
As an example that was detailed in my Mobilized Marketing book, Fox Chevrolet in Baltimore combined mobile and radio during the recession when it had not sod a car in more than a month pre-Cash For Clunkers.
The program worked like this: Fox Chevrolet bought two weeks of airtime on Hearst’s 98 Rock radio station to run 10- and 15-second promotions encouraging listeners to text in to enter to win the chance to purchase a car for $98.
In total, nearly 500 listeners texted the keyword Fox to the station’s short code. Each was entered to win and given details on how to attend the drawing at Fox.
On a Saturday morning, nearly 300 showed up on the lot and two were given the opportunity to purchase a car for $98.
Although the foot traffic was nice, it doesn’t begin to measure the success of the campaign. With prospective buyers enticed by shiny cars and competitive deals, Fox turned around its fortunes by selling 17 new cars and 17 used cars at full price on that one day.
Another example is the local maid service in Salt Lake City that had to hire more help to serve the demand produced through a text to win sponsorship that cost only hundreds of dollars.
But as much as we want businesses to get mobile, the offering of proof will take more time.
-
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business http://goo.gl/S6P7m program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.
>
Mobile Driving News Consumption, Participation and "Reporting"
As a former journalist, I have more than casual interest in how news is gathered, delivered, and consumed in this mobile age. Regular readers will know my passion for the truth and I have loudly argued against the notion that a “witness” is a “reporter”, capturing this in several posts. In my view, reporters are trained and experienced, whether they are delivering “information” via mobile, social networks, or by other means.
That debate continues — and so do the developments that shed light on how mobile has impacted news consumption.
A new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project validates our belief that mobile users in different geographies consume news in different ways.
The report reveals that residents of large cities (a segment that on the whole skews younger and are more mobile than other populations) are most likely to stay informed about local topics that interest them through a combination of online and traditional sources. They are particularly likely to get local news through Internet searches, Twitter, blogs, and websites of TV and newspapers.
In contrast, small city (31 percent) and rural (34 percent) residents are more likely than those in larger cities (21 percent) and suburbs (16 percent) to rely solely on “traditional” forms of media for their local news such as local print newspapers and broadcast television.
Suburban residents are distinct in their higher dependence on local radio (likely due to longer commutes to work), while small city and rural residents stand out in their reliance on word of mouth for some types of local information.
Meanwhile, the impact of mobile on news — and everything in our lives — is profound. I therefore applaud the decision by CNN to dedicate a month to examining all the ways mobile technology is changing our lives.
Readers of my Mobilized Marketing book know that I included many insights from Louis Gump, vice president of mobile for CNN. He is behind this initiative that tells us how “mobile technology has shifted from nicety to necessity.”
Appearing across all of CNN platforms, the month-long coverage looks at the impact of mobile devices on many aspects of our daily lives including personal relationships, work habits, cultural quirks, heath, finance, and etiquette.
The upshot of all this?
Because of my background and training (12 years working as a reporter for United Press International), I believe that consumption is driving how (and how fast) information is gathered, even by “credentialed” reporters. Just look at the many mistakes that have been hailed as breaking ‘news’. The false reports on the “death” of United States Congresswoman Gabby Giffords top of the list. Yes, we as mobile subscribers want our information in real-time. But it is up to the trained journalists to follow proven practices like double sourcing to make sure that what is reported is indeed fact. And it’s up to others on social networks to not cause confusion, hysteria or something worse simply because they have used the mobile medium to instantly distribute mere hearsay.
(a longer version of this column appears here http://www.mobilegroove.com/mobile-driving-news-consumption-participation-rep...
Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Saluting The French Fry Edition
McDonalds was added to Apple’s Passbook but you can only purchase in France. Is this to honor the French fry?
Speaking of calories, here’s the obesity problem as seen through offers - why do I need to buy SIX cupcakes?
Did you hear that digital tipping coming to Starbucks apps next year? Better latte than never. Sorry.
It takes 41 cents a year to charge an iPhone? Imagine if the battery was what we need it to be.
61 percent of Facebook femaie members engage mostly on mobile, 10 percent more than men – report. They polled 15-25 year olds. Representative?
I’m dizzied by conflicting Foxconn accounts. Did workers get three times pay to work on a holiday to produce iPhone 5s? Or is it true that "quality control inspectors fell into to conflicts with workers and were beat up multiple times by workers"?
According to industry guru Tomi Ahonen, the mobile handset market 2012 is $250 bilion. There will be 1.75B new handsets sold with an average price of $143. 41 percent will be smartphones.
Headline: The Only 7 Tablets To Buy. Me: are there really seven deserving choices?
Ironically I was on a Macbook Air at 35,000 feet a year ago when I heard about the death of Steve Jobs. How far we've come in tech.
There was news that HP CEO confirms no new smartphones coming in 2013. Who will notice? Or care?
Facebook “Goes Old-School With Metphor Ad”. Seems like I'm in minority – I, ummm, like. A lot. But the spot won't monetize its business.
A report says that the percentage of shopping sessions that convert to purchase falls more than 75 percent without a mobile optimized shopping and purchasing experience. Makes sense – beyond price and availability, it’s about ease and convenience.
People have 70 apps on average on their smartphone; but use less than 12, according to SAP. That is consistent with other accounts.
34 percent who watched Olympics on mobile device were 50 years old or over. You still think it's only a young person's device?
25 percent of American adults own tablet computers as of August 2012, according to Pew. That shows phenomenal growth in a category that wasn't around all that long ago.
Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Picture-Taking Edition
Instagram has surpassed Twitter in daily active mobile users in the U.S. That makes sense. More take pictures than tweet. By far.
I tried to buy an iPhone 5 online at 10 p.m. That’s supposedly the best way to get one for pickup next day. I hesitated because of the rather distant store location offered, then it was sold out.
As the holiday shopping season nears, how much pressure is there to not only introduce mobile phones and tablets, but have ample supply? Tons.
Further, will those like me frustrated by iPhone 5 supply issues give Apple rope if it can't fulfill iPad mini wants?
Two thirds of digital views of the New York Times come on mobile phones rather than tablets or computers. That surprises me.
A quarter of all Americans say they have ever downloaded a news app to their cell phone, tablet, or other mobile device, according to Pew.
Poor Ultrabook sales are blamed on high pricing and confusing marketing. There is no clear definition even for those of us who should know.
Roughly 30 million US adults don't own a mobile phone, according to the Wall Street Journal. The reason for many is cost, not a desire to remain unconnected.
Only in Vegas - what did you do since I saw you two hours ago, I asked a woman who came to my Digital World Expo mobile workshop? Drank, she said. "I'm in advertising". Plus, she needed to listen to me.
Is Google coming with a $99 Nexus tablet, initiating a price war vs. the iPad mini. We've had cheap tablets before – but not good ones.
From a gentleman I met on a plane who was carrying an iPhone 5 --- The plug-in for headset is on bottom and he has to place device upside down in car. "Steve (Jobs) would never have allowed it," he said. I think he’s right.
Sixty-five percent of tweets are thoughts without links. I’ve long thought that the value is in insights, not us trying to be RSS feeds.
Sixteen percent of eBay’s revenue this year will be from mobile, 2X over last year. Of course, much of it will come between now and the holidays. The average transaction is between $30 and $45.
The Biggest Hurdle In SMS Marketing
Mobile Marketer asked me about hurdles in using text-messaging programs.
Here's what I told the publication:
“The biggest hurdle is often mental. Recently, Ford used a text call-to-action to produce a 15.4 percent lead convergence. I told this story to a digital influencer who called it a great example of a 'meat and potatoes' program.
“I'm a vegetarian but I'll serve my clients meat and potatoes all day long if we can realize such a lofty lead number.”
Further, I told Mobile Marketer that marketers should get past the "shiny object" mentality and concentrate on what has the best chance of success.
"Of course, another advantage to SMS marketing is that an interaction often leads to a remarketing opportunity through an opt-in. This drives loyalty and sales.
“Who cares if it was done with the simplest of mobile products?"
The full article is here http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/messaging/13862.html
Notes From a Mobilized Marketer: The South Africa Trip Edition
I delivered a CMO Conference keynote http://www.kr.co.za/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=124257 and conducted an extensive mobile marketing workshop http://www.kr.co.za/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=127998 during eight days in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Here’s what I learned:
While the marketers I met have the same challenges as we do in the States (they need to sell more stuff), they use different tools to tackle the job – my BlackBerry sightings among South African professionals made me feel like it was 2006 again.
The iPhone was held by few, but was certainly the exception (unless you count the international travelers).
The announcement of the iPhone 5 11,000 miles away was barely mentioned in my three days with some of the country’s top marketers.
Numbers according to Ogilvy:
- 80 percent of country’s population is on mobile
- 50 percent penetration of smartphones is expected in the next four years
- 20 percent of population on MXIT (a free mobile instant messenger app)
- 17 percent of the population is online
- 14 percent is on Facebook
- 2 percent of the marketing spend is on digital (roughly 20 percent of what is spent in the U.S.)
- The percentage of users accessing Facebook via their mobile devices is 38 percent. It is 58 percent for mobile subscribers 25 years old and younger
- The number of Twitter users is approximately 2.5 million (doubled in the last year)
- The majority of tweeters are under 25 years old
More mobile stats:
- Churn rate among prepaid users is 43 percent
- 33 percent of all mobile users access Web via mobile
- 20 percent of mobile subscribers have smartphones
- Mobile phone use increased from17 percent of adults in 2000 to 76 percent in 2010
Here’s a deeper look into MXIT:
- The average time spent per day is an hour and a half
- Unique users during a one-week period total are 4.7 million
- 54 percent of users are aged 18-25
- One quarter of users are under 18 years old
- The cost for a marketer of a splash screen is R55000 (about $6,700)
Other observations:
Chauvinism is part of the culture. A marketing director said to a full room of professionals that women aren’t as capable in business. There was an audible gasp, but no one further challenged his thinking.
Separately, a conference attendee said that the 50 and older crowd are not “technologically savvy.” I’ve heard this comment often in America and refute it every time with stats and personal anecdotes.
Text messaging calls to action are frequent – I heard them on the radio, saw them on billboards, and grew to expect them as I traveled around the country.
Groupon has made inroads in South Africa. Marketers I spoke to were positive in their comments about the service.
Mobile Provides Road To Consumer’s Breast Pocket and Heart
Through a 40-year advertising career, Hank Wasiak has yearned for a route to the consumer’s heart. The former vice chairman of McCann Erickson WorldGroup knows that the ability for a brand to make an emotional connection was more important than any benefits that come via a single transaction.
Mobile gives Wasiak the road he has been seeking.
“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,” Wasiak told me in an interview for my new book, Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices.
“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,” he said.
Successful marketers are opting in consumers to mobile loyalty clubs. Surveys by Hipcricket, a mobile marketing and mobile advertising leader, consistently show that more than one third of U.S. mobile subscribers are interested in joining a VIP club hosted by their favorite brands--translating to more than 100 million people. Some brands have mobile VIP clubs with hundreds of thousands of opted-in members.
According to our most recent research, nearly two-thirds of consumers say their favorite brand has yet to advertise to them on their mobile device. There’s a huge opportunity there for brands, one that reaches well beyond the first click or installation. For savvy marketers, the click or install isn’t the end – it’s the beginning of the relationship, if you shepherd it well.
Wasiak and others can also reach his customers and prospects by thinking beyond the one-time mobile advertisement. He is looking for what happens after the click or the app download. Many marketers are leaving a huge opportunity on the table, an important chance to engage with the customer, post-activity.
The post-activity piece is about permission-based re-engagement where a brand is “invited in” by the consumer after the click or download, thereby opening ongoing dialogue. This creates a connection that is contextual and appealing to the mobile user and potentially lucrative to the advertiser. And lack of context is what primarily keeps most consumers from engaging in brands on mobile—our most recent survey showed that nearly 43 percent of consumers who haven’t engaged with mobile ads chose not to because “it was not relevant to my interests.”
When it comes to mobile, even in its relatively early days, Wasiak, who is now a partner at The Concept Farm, believes that marketers should fire sooner rather than later.
“To me, the key thing when looking at something is to be early and fast,” he said. “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.”
Microsoft’s Barbara Williams, a former marketer at venerable Johnson & Johnson and Unilever, agrees with Wasiak. Microsoft is proceeding with mobile despite the lack of precise mobile measurement.
“Now it seems to be very anecdotal,” she says. “We know we spent x amount and we know the cost per engagement or cost per experience. We’ll look at the percent we spend in media on mobile or media in other channels and look at the return on that in terms of visitors or engagement and try to compare it. We’ll say we know we’re not spending nearly as much in mobile as we are in digital but we’re getting just as much traffic.
“Right now we’re at the beginning stages of making it more scientific and more data driven.”
But the path to the consumer’s breast pocket and heart has become well-established.
(article first appeared in Washington Times http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/status-update/2012/sep/14...
Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Free" Smartphone Edition
Forty-four percent have gotten a "free" smartphone in exchange for signing a contract, according to J.D. Power. What’s the play for the carriers and handset manufacturers? Subsidies drive adoption and increased spends on services.
Nearly 30% of emails are opened on a mobile device, according to a new report. That’s massive volume. Now the question is how many of those are mobile optimized?
I’m surprised that live blogging didn’t begin days before the iPhone 5 announcement. Then Ryan Seacrest and Joan Rivers can interview influencers entering the event on a red carpet.
If rumors are right, iPhone buyers will be saying "I want my LTE".
The only surprise in Amazon’s decision to give consumers an opt out on new Kindle Fire ads is that it took a reversal rather than was something that was stated in the new product introductory comments.
It turns out that the Nokia Lumia 920 image stabilization video was a “simulation” – what a way to start out on the right foot. It’s kinda like when what is positioned as real-time isn't real time. Bogus.
There was a major story about a company that is developing apps for as little as $20. Some have looked at this and called the work really mobile websites. Either way, this is supposed to be a winner for brands?
Samsung sold 20 million Galaxy S III devices in three months. By comparison, one forecast says 10 million iPhone 5s will be sold in the first week.
The Federal Communications Commission said that it is testing mobile carriers data speed claims. The best scenario is that we plainly are told what we have with comparisons.
Apple has reportedly failed in contract negotiations with cable companies around Apple TV. No one believes that this is the end of the story.
According to Pew, more than half of app users uninstalled or decided to not install an app due to concerns about personal info.
Nearly one third of cell owners have experienced a lost or stolen phone, especially young cell phone users (18 to 24), according to the same group.
Gauging Our Real-Time Expectations
As long as there have been televised sports, there have been fans’ unmet expectations. Whether it was the infamous “Heidi” game — and NBC cutting away from an exciting Raiders-Jets game (and almost unbelievable comeback by the Raiders) to broadcast the film at its scheduled starting time way back in 1968 – or the recently completed 2012 Olympics, fans have certain expectations of how and when their favorite programming is aired. Most recently, NBC dug itself an Olympic-sized ditch in the way it handled broadcasting the games in “unreal” real-time.
I understand there are certain realities at play here. NBC paid a lot of money for these games and needs viewership numbers to achieve positive ROI. But broadcasters need to remember that it’s not 1968 any more. (It is fun to imagine what the reaction to the “Heidi” game would have been like on Twitter, though.) Twitter and Facebook erase the illusion of “live,” and NBC had further egg on its face when it was revealed that even the live streaming events were slightly delayed.
We can learn a lot from these mistakes. Broadcasters know that there are many mediums at play; it’s a matter of blending and complementing them in a way that matches the activity of consumers. For instance, Yahoo Sports, once the king of fantasy football, fell behind in some aspects due to a lack of mobile availability. Yahoo Sports now offers branded mobile experiences from Citi, Miller Lite, Snickers, Toyota and Visa to celebrate the company’s 15th football anniversary. Fantasy Football fans have access across PC, TV, phone and tablet.
The entire industry must follow suit if it wants to offer consumers the ability to interact and build brand loyalty in real-time, as the only true way to offer that is to make sure that all screens are included and that coverage of the event is live and engaging.
Real-time interaction in and out of the venue enhances the event, and your fans will appreciate that they have the ability to stay connected wherever, whenever. ESPN’s Michael Bayle says that the convergence of mobile and social changed the time-shifting model almost as fast as it appeared. “Unless someone is terribly blind or deaf, it precludes any chance to go and rewatch a game safely. You now have to have a live environment,” he said.
Bayle is on to something: Social, mobile and the fan are forever linked, so marketers must react to that marriage in order to be successful. Bayle sees more interaction between fans and ESPN personalities, providing more opportunities for marketers to be part of the bond that only sports bring.
Real time. It’s a binary concept – either it’s real, or it’s delayed — and there is a lot of opportunity out there to build true, loyal communities that impact a broadcaster’s success.
(article first appeared at digiday.com http://www.digiday.com/publishers/building-loyalty-on-the-go/)
Notes From A Mobilized Marketer: The Confused Consumer Edition
Almost half of U.S. consumers think 4G LTE is unnecessary. Consumers don't know 4G from 9E.
One more: the average smartphone owner uses less than 2GB of data: NPD Group. Few know what that means and what they should buy.
Walmart spends $12 million a second on cashier wages. How much could it save if shoppers scanned and paid with a mobile app?
Headline: Fake iPhone 5 Available For Only $8. Me: lower we sink.
On the same road, a poll asks whether the iPhone 5 is ugly. What's ugly are posts of supposed pictures that are - or are not - the new device.
I hope that you enjoyed the weekend quiet before the blast that will be Smartphone September. New devices, unreal hype.
Twitter advertisers can target users by their interests. Despite what you see in my photo, I don't want eyelash enhancement offers.
51 percent think stormy weather affects cloud computing. Don't rain on their parade.
With the ISIS mobile payment service finally debuting 18 months later than first planned, wallet hysteria will pick up.
My take on the Mobile Marketing Association’s study saying that mobile should be 7% of the marketing spend rather than the current 1%? Helpful, but brands will determine this - how much and when.
Smartphone users view The Weather Channel app multiple times for "right now". Tablet owners view it less frequently and look more long term.
More than 50 percent of Hearst’s digital audience will access via mobile next year.
Two thirds of mobile devices shipped in 2016 will be smartphones. There is always a difference between shipped and bought.
Of course, it makes sense that Nokia will announce new mobile phones before the iPhone 5 announcement. It won't make a difference.
Mobile and the Presidential Election
My brother, Rick, is the expert on elections http://electionlawblog.org/, but now that mobile has become part of the political process, I weighed in on the use of text messaging for donations.
“Mobile and social media have become integral to political campaigning, much like they have become integral to general marketing initiatives,” is what I told Mobile Marketer. These mediums provide direct and personal lines to consumers and must be considered as core aspects to any campaign, political or otherwise.
“Consumers have been very receptive to SMS donations in other contexts, so that will likely carry over in this case. It’s quick, simple and has a very wide reach.”
The American Red Cross saw that more than 90 percent of the SMS donations for Haiti relief were from new donors. The political parties should only have similar success in broadening their funding base.
The full story is here http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2012/08/28/obama-romney-campaigns-drive-do...
What I'll Most Remember About The Mobile Insider Summit
Two massive brands shared their mobile stories this week at the content-rich Mobile Insider Summit in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Each brand has accelerated its mobile efforts to drive sales, engagement, and loyalty.
Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets, serves one in three households in the U.S. More than 10 percent of its 70 million customers use mobile to interact with the company for at least part of their customer journey.
This has prompted Wells Fargo, now number 26 on the Fortune 100, to make mobile part of the mix. To date Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com), and mobile.
The approach speaks volumes about the value of mobile as a complement to all the other channels. As Alan Gellman, SVP of Digital Marketing, put it: Stores are a critical part of building the relationships that Wells Fargo nurtures — and “mobile won’t replace them.”
By far, the most common use case for mobile is allowing customers to check their account balances. Each month, Wells Fargo receives 27 texts on average from customers using mobile. Of the 70 million customers, 21 million utilize online banking and 8.5 million use mobile to interact.
As Gellman sees it, it’s all “about the consumer, not the technology.” For this reason, Gellman implores his team to create compelling experiences and to “mobilize, not miniaturize.” That’s a smart idea since the technology should adapt to people, not the other way around.
To deliver a good customer experience every step of the journey Wells Fargo has designed “voice of the customer” programs to monitor “what are they saying, where are they saying it, and how are they saying it.” Beyond customer relationship marketing (CRM), Gellman sees acquisition and cross-selling as critical in mobile initiatives.
Other Gellman gems:
On mobile and security: Gellman notes his company understands its duties go beyond what is regulated. “It’s about what’s right for the customer.”
On chasing the newest technologies that some call ‘shiny objects’: Gellman challenges his marketers to reveal “what’s the value-add.”
On mobile advertising approaches: Gellman says mobile is efficient and effective, because it offers “cheap CPC (cost per click) and high impact on awareness.” But there is a catch: “it can’t totally be measured.”
Lowe’s looks at mobile
Equally compelling was the viewpoint shared by Sean Bartlett, Director of Mobile Strategy and Platforms for Lowe’s. By way of background, Lowe’s is the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world and number 54 on the Fortune 100 list. Lowe’s serves approximately 15 million customers a week at more than 1,745 home improvement stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Bartlett’s view on mobile products and services centers squarely on the value it delivers. Questions top of mind must be: “Is it compelling, and is it incremental?”
A recent initiative by the chain has put 42,000 iPhones into the hands of sales associates as a way to help customers get a more satisfying experience from the iPhone app. It’s all about creating a virtuous circle by helping sales people to help their customers, who have already made mobile part of their daily routine. The outcome is a solid relationship. At a deeper level, this can strengthen the ties between the customer and the retailer and boost involvement and interest in the MyLowe’s loyalty program.
Bartlett has been in his position for just 18 months, but the change in mindset is significant. While Bartlett calls the early mobile efforts by his company successful, he reveals the company is “blowing it up” to start again with a new focus on the experience.
It’s all about using mobile to be more friendly and personal. As Bartlett put it: “Mobile is the evolution of the experience economy.”
How I See It: The theme of the conference was “mobile first,” a phrase generally attributed to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who proclaimed it at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The words referred back to the requirements to design user experiences with mobile in mind. Since then the phase has regrettably become the rallying cry for some in the industry who just want marketers to spend on mobile first. That’s nothing more than hype.
As I wrote in my Mobilized Marketing book, it’s really “sell more stuff first.” Mobile may, or may not, help a marketer get there. Gellman and Bartlett are among those in the industry wise enough to know that the what — the business objective of moving products and services — remains the same. Mobile has simply changed how brands can achieve this.
(article first posted here http://www.mobilegroove.com/mobile-insider-summit-takeaways-marketers-need-to...
Where Do We Go With Olympics After #NBCfail?
Rather than consider the following a delayed analysis of the much tweeted-about NBC Olympics London telecast, think of this as a preview of the Rio Games four years hence.
NBC would certainly spin it that way.
By now, you know that members of the “loudmouth minority” have railed against NBC for delaying the airing of the Summer Games despite making promises that all but the ceremonies would be shown live somewhere.
I was especially aghast after seeing on Twitter the result of Usain Bolt’s 9.63 second 100-meter win before what NBC presented to us as a live stream was sent to American viewers on computers, or in my case, an iPad.
Former President Bill Clinton famously said, "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is.”
In so many words, NBC said “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘live’ is.”
Recently, Today executive producer, Jim Bell, who also was the Games' executive producer, dismissed the criticism, again incorrectly stating in a Hollywood Reporter interview that “everything was live.”
Why is it such a big deal? Why can’t I be content with 5,500 hours from London, unprecedented as far as Olympics are concerned?
Because we live in real time. Even a delay of 9.63 seconds matters.
If you think I’m wrong, imagine the uproar if the results of the Academy Awards were shown somewhere 10 seconds before the announcements were made on the telecast.
In my house, if I shouted out the winners 10 seconds early, my wife would kick me out in Olympic record fashion. And she would be right.
Live is live. It is 2012.
Which brings us to 2016 and Rio.
According to the Associated Press, NBC chief researcher Alan Wurtzel says that two-thirds of people who knew the results ahead of NBC's tape-delayed telecast said they would watch the events anyway. People who watched the events earlier in the day via computer stream watched the tape-delayed broadcast for a longer time than those who hadn't.
Hello. This presents some pretty obvious implications for the industry.
ESPN, which knows a bit about sports programming, uses tape only for highlights – or so it seems.
“Sports are all about live,” John Kosner, who leads all of ESPN’s digital media properties, told me in my book, Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobil Devices http://www.amazon.com/Mobilized-Marketing-Engagement-Loyalty-Through/dp/11182... “You have to watch and experience the game live. You want to talk about it while it’s happening. You want more information about the game or other games taking place at the same time. That’s all central.”
Real-time interaction in and out of the venue enhances the event, according to Kosner.
“The development of these social networks and utilities like Twitter take it up a level because it makes it apparent that much more is possible. Location-based content, the sharing of photos, the ability to watch video, and more.”
Michael Bayle, now Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile at ESPN, says that the convergence of mobile and social changed the time-shifting model almost as fast as it appeared.
“I would argue that’s the biggest interruption that has happened is because of the success of mobile,” he says. “One to three years ago, one could comfortably record their favorite NBA game, baseball game, what have you, and then relax and come home at night and watch it—and choose if you wish to forward through the commercials and just get to the highlights. That’s almost impossible now because of mobile and the instant access to Twitter and other means of social media.
“Unless someone is terribly blind or deaf, it precludes any chance to go and rewatch a game safely. You almost now have to have a live environment.”
Bayle, who has been in mobile so long that some consider him a lifer, believes that social, mobile, and the fan are forever linked.
“Social is critical to be successful in as much as fans by nature will be social, either touting or taunting their friends or loved ones or even finding new friends just by the nature of how people rally around teams so to speak,” he says. “I think there’s a concept here . . . of the concept of the ‘game around the game.’”
Bayle sees more interaction between fans and ESPN personalities, providing more opportunities for marketers to be part of the bond that only sports bring.
“The goal with our mobile teams is to improve the access to fans and to real-time interact with that content,” he says.
Real time. It’s not a nebulous concept despite what NBC wants us to believe.
(first appeared on imediaconnection.com http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2012/08/22/what-the-industry-and-rio-o...
Video of Author Panel at Mobile Insider Summit
I was thrilled to be asked to be on an author’s panel http://www.mediapost.com/mobileinsidersummit/agenda/ at the top-tier Mobile Insider Summit presented by Mediapost. My co-panelists were Jed Alpert, CEO, Mobile Commons; Chuck Martin, Author, The Third Screen @chuckmartin; and Mike Proulx, Senior VP, Digital Strategy, Hill Holliday @mcproulx.
Incidentally, Chuck and Mike are good friends.
Here’s the video
A Mobile "Do" That's a Duh
When considering marketing via SMS, my first “do” is a duh.
“First off, determine if you target uses text messaging,” is what I told Mobile Marketer.
“More than 75 percent of United States mobile subscribers do, so it's likely that you are in the game,” he said. “Then have a compelling call-to-action, one that considers your target's interests as well as location and time of day.
“After the initial interaction, it’s often important to build an ongoing relationship with the consumer. Ask them to opt-in for additional updates, engage them and keep them coming back for more. The final step is measuring these interactions and optimizing to maximize results.”
More of my comments and the rest of the article are here - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/messaging/13517.html
Loudmouth Thoughts On NBC and London Olympics
Pointing to the large number of viewers via television, PCs and mobile devices, NBC considers Olympics critics the loud minority. Count me in the unhappy camp.
By the way, it is not the first nor will it be the last time that I’ve been called a loudmouth.
My beef?
Broken promises, the biggest one being that all events but the ceremonies would be shown live.
The Olympics are nothing if not memories.
In my previous professional lives, I was a sportswriter for the 1984 Los Angeles Games, and was project director of the “look and feel” program for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, UT. I was all over the Atlanta competitions in 1996 and on the stadium floor in Nagano, Japan, in 1998.
Every one of them fits in the unbelievable experience category. Which takes me to my biggest takeaway from NBC’s London coverage.
I will tell you what live is not – seeing on Twitter the result of Usain Bolt’s 9.63-second 100-meter win before what NBC presented to us as a live stream was sent to U.S. viewers on computers or, in my case, an iPad.
Former president Bill Clinton famously said, "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is.” In so many words, NBC said, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘live’ is.”
Why is this such a big deal? Why cannot I be content with 5,500 hours from London, unprecedented as far as Olympics are concerned?
Because we live in real time. Even a delay of 9.63 seconds matters. An estimated 2 billion people saw the race before NBC gave us the “live” look.
If you think I am wrong, imagine the uproar if the results of the Academy Awards were shown somewhere 10 seconds before the announcements were made on the telecast.
In my house, if I shouted out the winners 10 seconds early, my wife would kick me out in Olympic record fashion. And she would be right.
The ceremonies were delayed first to the East Coast of the United States, then three more hours before those of us on the left coast got a look.
I saw live coverage via tweets and blogs, then another round of commentary from East Coasters long before I settled in for the NBC airing.
Easy, you say. Turn everything off. Stay away from the news. It is not happening. It is not how we choose to live.
I have one word for those who are hoping that the International Olympic Committee will intervene and prevent future disappointments – please.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said, "It's certainly not for us to tell them how to reach their audience.'' Of course it is not. That is the job of the loud minority.
NBC, have you ever considered the fact that we may be right?
(article first appeared on Mobile Marketer - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/13512.html)
