Is Limiting The Unlimited The Way To Serve The Mobile Appetite?

The all-you-can-eat buffet has been described in Food and Wine magazine as "the epitome of American gluttony." That title is now in jeopardy.

To hear Apple and Google these days, mobile has become for some like the Bloomin' Onion, or the equivalent of 3,080 calories in one sitting. We know that we are full at 2,000, but we can't seem to help ourselves.

Social networks. Push notifications. Time spent watching videos. Netflix. YouTube. And more. Each adult mobile user in the U.S. spends 3.3 hours per day on mobile devices, according to Mary Meeker's latest report. According to the NPD Group, the average U.S. smartphone user now consumes a total of 31.4 GB of data on a monthly basis (including both Wi-Fi and cellular). Cellular data usage among consumers with unlimited plans is 67% higher than those with limited plans, per NPD.

How did we get here and what does this all mean for marketers?

First off, is the present any different than what we could've — or should've — imagined? We have given users unlimited data, high-definition large screens, content to entertain, inspire and teach, and access to almost anything wherever and whenever. Should we have believed that mobile users who have unlimited plans wanted just a few bites of the mobile's version Bloomin' Onion? Did we expect consumers to spend hundreds of dollars on a device to just keep it in their pockets? Have we not conditioned our customers and prospects to come to us on mobile any time and at all times?

Now Google and Apple, whose operating systems are in the hands of 99% of mobile users in the U.S., have introduced efforts to enable us to help ourselves. At its I/O conference in May, Google unveiled tools to help create balance. It said that 70% of users want help. Recently, Apple introduced Screen Time, which, when released this fall with iOS 12, will give Apple customers app and device usage information and lets them limit access if they want to cut down. Screen Time features include activity reports, app limits and new "do not disturb" and notifications controls designed to help customers "reduce interruptions and manage screen time for themselves and their families."

Notable for marketers, iOS 12 gives customers more options for controlling how notifications are delivered. Users will be able to manage notifications to be turned off completely or delivered directly to a special notification hub. Siri can also make suggestions for notifications settings, such as to quietly deliver them or turn alerts off.

Screen Time creates detailed daily and weekly reports that show the total time a person spends in each app they use, their usage across categories of apps, how many notifications they receive and how often they pick up their iPhone or iPad. People can take control of how much time they spend in a particular app, website or category of apps. The app limits feature lets people set a specific amount of time to be in an app, and a notification will display when a time limit is about to expire.

This changes everything for marketers. Or does it? It's always been about delivering value: quality not quantity. The fact that so much time is spent on mobile devices may indicate to some that marketers are succeeding. But the savvy marketer understands that these upcoming tools give consumers the power to shut off the unwanted features and to curate exactly the individual experience that they want.

Meaning, campaigns will be affected. In a nine-month period ending in March of this year, brands sent 300% more push notifications than in the previous nine months, according to Adobe. With consumers soon having the ability to dispatch pushes away from the home screen, more care and thought will be necessary to ensure that those messages sent to consumers are viewed in a timely and actionable fashion.

Measurement of programs will also need to be adjusted. A key metric since the iPhone debuted has been time spent. Clearly, marketers and developers must rethink the idea that it's all about how long they can keep mobile users engaged.

So is mobile going to give the gluttony descriptor back to the buffet? Time will tell. Surely, all-you-can-eat mobile usage works for tens of millions. Many are entertained, more productive and enjoy access to friends and family that can't be replicated elsewhere. Plus, their waistlines aren't affected.

It's all about choice and perceived value. The former will definitely be driven by the latter. Soon more than ever.

(first appeared at https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/is-limiting-the-unlimited-the-way-to-serve-the-mobile-appetite/525428/)

For Gen Z, Mobile Is The New Primetime

To misunderstand today’s youth is to view their digital habits as some sort of a tectonic shift.

Away from the television set.

Away from mass programming.

Away from long-established viewing dayparts.

For that to be true, Generation Z would have had to had started with large screens, habits of watching shows from the big networks, and a regimen of primarily engaging with content during the evening hours.

None of that, in fact, is reality.

Some of those born between 1998 and 2016 undoubtedly had a mobile phone in one hand with a pacifier in the others.  We, ummm, had an Etch A Sketch.

Preferred screen?

While you and I can point to our very own first television as a milestone moment, Gen Z considers getting a phone as an important life event. Today’s teens got their first phone when they were around 12.

Desired content?

Seven in 10 teens told Google that they spend more than three hours per day watching mobile video. And much of the consumption comes via YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram and is user generated rather than Hollywood produced.

Time of day?

The smartphone is in Gen Z’s hands from sun up well past dinner time. Viewing happens on the bus, at the lunch table, during recess, and every other time that this group wants to be entertained, informed or otherwise occupied.

For Gen Z, mobile is the new primetime.

While Fast Company says that “media and market research companies have labeled Generation Z ‘screen addicts’ with the attention span of a gnat,” ignoring the generation’s influence on a company’s business success is a foolish exercise for a marketer.

Gen Z is 26% of the U.S. population with $44B annual purchasing power. Two in three teens make purchases online and of those, more than half are making purchases on their phones.

But capturing their attention is not without challenges. Gen Z is 80% more likely to always be multi-screening compared to their parents, per Tremor Media and Hulu - https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/1784809/Gen%20Z/TremorVideo_Hulu_GenZ_WhitePaper.pdf?t=1498768502219.

Here’s more from an excellent series of reports by Google: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/interactive-report/gen-z-a-look-inside-its-mobile-first-mindset/

“Gen Z never knew the world before the internet - before everything you could ever need was one click away. They never knew the world before terrorism or global warming. As a result, Gen Z is the most informed, evolved, and empathetic generation of its kind. They value information, stimulation, and connection, evident by their affinity for YouTube, Google, and Netfix.

“They also have high hopes for the brands they choose. From Nike to X-Box, they expect big things.  As professionals, we should see this as our challenge—to live up to the standard Gen Z has set for us and to continue to inform, inspire, and create products and marketing that facilitate the world in which they want to live.”

Of course, not all Gen Z’ers are the same. It’s prudent for marketers to understand the nuances.

For black teens, mobile music rules.

Eighty-six percent do so on their phones every week, significantly more than all teens, and nearly 6 in 10 say they spend more than three hours every day listening to music on their phones.

Two in three black teens make purchases online, and of those, more than half are making purchases on their phones.

Black teens are more likely to have positive attitudes towards brands, and to consider them 'cool,’ if they feel as though the message is personalized to them.

Nearly one-quarter of all 13- to 17-year-olds are Hispanic, and they are the fastest-growing teen demographic.

While listening to music is the top mobile activity, 3 in 4 Hispanic teens say they spend 3+ hours per day watching video on their phones.

Eight in 10 Hispanic teens make purchases online, compared to two-thirds of all teens. And of those who shop online, over half are making most of their purchases on their phones.

As to advertising, Gen Z’ers actually aren’t all that different from you and me.

For teens, ads impact a product’s “cool” factor. What makes a product cool?

-       If friends are talking about it

-       If I see an ad about it

-       If it’s something personalized to me

But when it comes to social media, Gen Z is two to three times more likely to be influenced by social media than by sales or discounts — the only generation to value social media over price when it comes to making purchase decisions, according to a study by IRI https://www.retaildive.com/news/gen-z-twice-as-influenced-by-social-media-as-by-deals/505274/

And Gen Z is twice as likely to convert on mobile. https://www.retaildive.com/news/gen-z-twice-as-likely-to-convert-on-mobile/447867/

This leaves marketers where?

At the least, in need of a mental shift that causes us to look at today in an entirely new way. Just as Gen Z is doing.

Avoiding An Aimless Spinning of Wheels

In February, after figuratively spinning my wheels for four months, I purchased a Peloton bike, making my wheel-spinning undeniably more literal.

That, of course, has been dependent on me using it.

Included for $1,995 is what is sold as highly personal and precise readouts on the screen mounted to the bicycle as well as an app that mirrors the performance numbers.

Cadence. Resistance. Output. Heart rate. Duration.

This all reminds me of the experience of many marketers when it comes to getting serious about mobile marketing.

It takes time to do your homework, and often even double that to come to a decision. Mobile doesn’t have to be expensive, but when you aren’t used to paying much of anything, fees and hard costs may seem like a reach.

Once you are in, new measurements come into view with some easy to follow and others more nuanced or even confusing.

Opens. Downloads. Opt-ins. Engagement.

Measurement in mobile is inexact. I know it. You may know it. Forrester just wrote on it.

“Marketers don’t have a consistent approach to mobile measurement,” Forrester reported in “Master Mobile Measurement To Transform Customer Relationships”. “Current mobile measurement efforts are scattered. Aside from the 6% of marketers who account for offline channels in addition to mobile, the rest of marketers either measure mobile channels independently (31%), across each other (26%), or in conjunction with other digital platforms (36%).

“Only 45% want to move away from looking at mobile by itself and create a unified view with other channel. Inconsistent approaches to mobile measurement undervalue mobile efficacy.”

On my Peloton, I’m needing to process the numbers to gauge performance. At least, all the information is in one place.

Not so with mobile.

“Marketers face data challenges that foster fragmented measurement,” Forrester wrote in the report that was commissioned by Tune. “Marketers struggle to find the right data sources and stitch them together — ultimately hindering their ability to measure and optimize their programs. Challenges with managing data quality (32%), measuring fragmented metrics (22%), and uncovering successful customer acquisition channels (20%) are the top three challenges that marketers face with their mobile marketing efforts.

I’ve come to see my Peleton results screen as a just-right view of what’s going on.

Conversely, Forrester says that we take in too many numbers when running mobile programs.

“Marketers look at too many metrics,” the company said. “The glut of metrics hinders the marketers who are looking to build a mobile-centric strategy. Marketers juggle between three to nine mobile metrics per customer life-cycle phase. Too many metrics can confuse marketers on what’s driving the business value and what they should optimize marketing investments against.

Smartly, Forrester offers actionable recommendations:

“Creating a holistic measurement approach — inclusive of mobile across the entire customer journey — enables marketers to truly understand their customers. This in turn enables marketers to better calculate the performance metrics that matter most to the business, to make data- driven decisions at the strategic and tactical levels, and ultimately to more perceptively spend their marketing dollars. The first step is for marketers to maximize their opportunities for mobile at each phase of the journey by aligning their mobile marketing with the customer life cycle.

“If you wish to create a holistic measurement approach, you must: Evaluate your measurement maturity. Take a step back. Review your current mobile measurement strategy and determine how well your firm measures mobile across different phases of the life cycle. Consider if you have a consistent measurement approach across each phase, if you include mobile with other touchpoints, and if you’re leveraging advanced analytics to measure more deeply. Doing these activities will help you identify those key mobile-specific areas that you most need to improve on.”

And don’t try to identify and evaluate every conceivable metric.

“Rely on metrics that matter. Marketers balance short-term revenue- based metrics, such as sales conversions, with long-term metrics of customer lifetime value. Short-term metrics associate the immediate revenue impact of all mobile activities, while longer-term metrics, such as customer lifetime value, gauges how mobile drives long- term customer engagement. A balance between short- and long-term metrics will enable marketers to drive immediate revenue goals while targeting the right customers that will foster loyalty.

“Audit your data. The No. 1 measurement challenge is combining multiple data sources. Conduct data audits for all mobile sources to identify data leakage, to track consistent campaign codes, and to pinpoint missing data points. This forces marketers to become more data savvy and better able to determine what they can truly measure.”

And search out the more sophisticated solutions.

“Embrace advanced measurement approaches,” Forrester reported. “Mobile-specific measurement is vital, but it’s not enough alone; customers still shop in stores, watch television, and work on laptops. To truly understand the value of mobile, leverage mobile-specific analytical models to calculate the value of mobile. This will solidify your case for more mobile investments.”

I’m 36 rides into my Peloton journey. My performance is improving – I actually set two personal records over the weekend.

But this, like mobile, is a long game. I feel stronger but results take time. I need to make sure that I am identifying what matters, then optimizing.

Just like I do in my day job.

(The Forrester report is here - https://mkt.tune.com/tmc-forrester-research-master-mobile-measurement.html#_ga=2.35149928.833287923.1523205300-987978029.1523205300)

Bank On An Evolving Mobile User

To believe that only younger generations trust and use mobile banking solutions is as wrong as buying into the nonsense that cash will be gone by Tuesday.

“It’s more complicated than that,” Fazir Ali, KeyBank’s SVP, Digital Strategy, Product Management & Innovation, told me in new episode 28 of my The Art of Mobile Persuasion podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-mobile-persuasion-podcast/id1156481550?mt=2.

“It’s all about having very robust data and analytics. Who are our clients? When are they using mobile apps versus the tablet app or when are they using the desktop. For us right now, we have more complicated tasks on the web versus mobile. Our intention was clients are going to use this on the go. They want to quickly check their balances to make a buying decision. They want to transfer money quickly from one account to another. They want to quickly pay a bill or deposit a check.”

A 2017 Bank of America study reported that 62% of all Americans, not only those under 35, use a mobile baking app. http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/files/press_kit/additional/August_2017_BAC_Trends_in_Consumer_Mobility_Report.pdf

As for the ridiculousness that no one will be using dollars and cents soon, I remind you that we not only still see tens of thousand of ATMs, many banks continue to have traditional tellers and other branch personnel.

But, of course, the trend is away from brick and mortar.

In fact, Ali and his team have learned that customers want to do more on smartphones.

“Our clients are spending way more time on mobile and they want to do some of those complicated tasks on their mobile device,” he said.  “It’s about taking a look at the data and understanding the personas. Who are we going after and why. Then we design accordingly.

“Our goal holistically is that we can be a part of their daily lives while we guide them along their financial journey so they are financially well, so to speak.”

The interview with Ali provides plenty of insights and actionable steps for all marketers, not just those in financial services.

“I always go back to what is the problem you are trying to solve,” he told me.

Hear the full interview here - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-mobile-persuasion-podcast/id1156481550?mt=2.

Super Bowl Advertisers Shoot Mobile Blanks

If things hadn’t been following the same tired, now decade-old script, my face would’ve matched the 30 seconds of air during the second quarter of Super Bowl LII—blank.

Just how many of the more than 100 million in the U.S. watching the game had a mobile device either in hand or within four feet? My bet would’ve been at least 80 percent.

And just how many times did advertisers paying up to $5 million for a 30-second spot ask viewers to do something with their phones? Even by giving a few of the brands the benefit of the doubt, the percentage was less than 5 percent.

It again was as if we were looking at a telecast from 1975.

Among the misses on not-so-Super Sunday:

If Wendy’s fresh hamburgers are really better than those frozen at McDonald’s, the spot was a perfect opportunity to give folks the incentive to try them with a mobile call to action for a discount, a free one or buy-one, get-one offer. One way would’ve been through a call to action to text in for a coupon. Then Wendy’s could’ve asked for an opt-in for future offers.

In 2009, Arby’s did so with a product introduction on Jimmy Kimmel Live. More than 100,000 people responded. Approximately 65,000 then opted-in to join the mobile loyalty club. The restaurant created 172 local databases. There was nothing sexy about it, but the buy paid off for months, if not years.

For what it’s worth, Wendy’s did engage effectively in social, for example, tweeting, “If you’re frozen, you’re gonna get burned.”

I’ll remember Super Bowl LII as the time when several advertisers championed the good in humanity. MassMutual kicked off this effort in the pregame show by highlighting positivity, courage and kindness. While it inspired and brought goose bumps to the three of us in my viewing area, it did not offer up a way for us to engage and participate in future efforts beyond attempting to send us to unsung.com which was part education on the program and part education (sales effort) on the company’s financial products.

Mobile is for action. except, obviously, during Super Bowl telecasts.

Kia’s “Dream On” ad with Steven Tyler was an ideal springboard to push the Stinger with mobile. It’s common for automakers to enable consumers to customize a vehicle in an app. Augmented reality could’ve put the Stinger in one’s driveway. But none of this came to be on Sunday. Only a #kiastinger hashtag that had to be searched for.

The movie houses collectively spent tens of millions of dollars, yet their trailer-type ads for films due out months from now built fleeting excitement but no meaningful way for those interested to stay engaged. How about driving people to an app or mobile site for behind-the-scenes footage, a message from a movie star or a sweepstakes to win premiere passes?

On the plus side, Kraft did encourage viewers to create and upload family photos taken during the game. The creation of content certainly wasn’t a stretch given the fact that selfies are now as part of Super Sunday as dip and chips. But the effort was primarily promoted way before the kickoff on Twitter and Instagram, leaving most in the audience unaware that there was a user-generated effort going on.

The Kraft spot with the UGC late in the game was memorable, but not more than the selfie during halftime that featured Justin Timberlake and a young fan.

Also, while not the call to action I’ve been waiting for, the fact that TurboTax showed the ease of paying taxes on a mobile screen felt like some progress in moving the spots into the wireless era. And it was busy in social channels.

So it’s wait ‘til next year.

Will anything change? It’s been said that Super Bowl ads are for brand anthems, not for calls to act. But there are other reasons for noninviting, vintage-type efforts – many brands aren’t all in on mobile, silos frequently prevent “what’s best for the customer” initiatives, and, in many marketing organizations, creativity still sits as the top objective, not sales.

But Nick Foles did best Tom Brady, so anything is possible.

(first appeared on adweek.com - http://www.adweek.com/digital/in-mobile-super-bowl-marketers-still-struggle-to-think-beyond-the-hashtag/)

How To Make Measured Bets On Mobile and New Technologies

One can argue that finding the balance between aggressive and passive has been the leading challenge facing marketers in this era of new technologies, devices and screens.

In the hopes of assisting, I’ve again turned to the experts to help us navigate.

Hank Wasiak, former vice chairman of McCann Erickson WorldGroup, has adapted his thinking over more than four decades in the advertising business.

“To me, the key thing when looking at something is to be early and fast,” he told me I an interview for my Mobilized Marketing book. “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.”

In 2017, more marketers figuratively donned protective gear and went for it.

 “In 2016, marketers told us that on average, they were using 3.5 mobile techniques (out of a total of 13 we asked them about) and had another two in the pilot stage,” Gartner research director Noah Elkin wrote https://blogs.gartner.com/noah-elkin/mobile-marketing-means-serious-business/ of where we are with mobile marketing.

“Fast-forward to 2017, and marketers now have 4.3 tactics live on average, and are piloting 3.1, representing a combined increase of 33 percent.”

How do we repeat that progress in 2018?

Elkin told me in the second part of my The Art of Mobile Persuasion podcast interview which has now posted as episode 27 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-mobile-persuasion-podcast/id1156481550?mt=2.

“We think in a more sophisticated way about how mobile functions across the customer journey,” he said. “Not just as a separate channel and sometimes as an add-on, but how it can play a starring or supporting role at different stages.”

For example, he pointed to wireless being the optimal avenue to reach consumers in context, at the right place and time.

“Mobile plays this key function as the remote control for the whole experience,” he said.

As to other technologies that are available to us, Elkin offered recommendations on how to proceed in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and what to do with the increasing use of voice-enabled devices.

“Not that the machines are going to take over as is sometimes predicted in a doomsday-type scenario but what are the processes, for example, how can artificial intelligence maximize your email subject line creation and testing,” he said. “That’s an area where there is a huge body of data where the speed and precision of machine learning can make a tangible difference.

“It might make a 2-3 point difference in open rates in a single email campaign which might not seem so much but if you multiple that if you are a big volume e-mailer like a retailer or a travel or hospitality firm, over the course of a month or a year, you’re talking about a significant difference. It’s not limited to email. We’ll see artificial intelligence used not just for consumer-focused marketers as well as business to business and enterprises as well.”

When it comes to spending marketing time and money on Alexa-type campaigns, Elkin had these thoughts:

“We’re at the early stage of adoption of these devices. We’re seeing growth in the skills that these different platforms enable for marketers. I think that there are long-term implications for things like search.  How do marketers optimize for search in an age of voice-driven communications? And what kind of results do you need to return as opposed to if someone is doing it on the desktop or mobile device?

“Marketers are still learning how to be conversational in an effective way in these environments. This is the time to be experimenting. That’s an area where we will continue to see evolution and innovation in the year ahead.”

And where we will see some be passive and others take a more aggressive position.

Here’s one more view, this one from Miles Orkin who previously led mobile for the American Cancer Society and is now Chief of Staff, SUMux (Search, User, Maps) at Google.

“You have to be prepared to set yourself up to fail but do it in a measured way,” he told me in a book interview. “Don’t bet that you will be the next Mark Zuckerberg (who founded Facebook).

“If you fail, you will be selling coffee.”

Listen to Episode 27 of The Art of Mobile Persuasion podcast here - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-mobile-persuasion-podcast/id1156481550?mt=2

2018 Musts For Selling More

Every look back at the 2017 holiday selling season shows massive growth for mobile purchasing.

Search marketing firm NetElixir said that mobile visits were up across most retail categories, with apparel seeing the largest growth at 32 percent.

Adobe’s final report showed that mobile accounted for 33.1 percent of the total $108.2 billion generated, bringing in $35.9 billion.

Yet there’s a belief that something was left on the table.

Specifically, as we learned in a The Art of Mobile Persuasion podcast episode earlier this month (episode 23 here - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-mobile-persuasion-podcast/id1156481550?mt=2), retail expert Ryan Craver pointed to challenges that many consumers faced in purchasing products directly on some web sites and mobile apps.

Enabling commerce is one of the 2018 priorities for many marketers.

But the job doesn’t end there.

In part two of the podcast interview posted this week (episode 26 here - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-mobile-persuasion-podcast/id1156481550?mt=2), Craver strongly recommends supplementing owned channel efforts with plans to go where there is significant retail traffic.

“Pay attention to where the market’s eyeballs are,” he told me. “Obviously, on the brick and mortar side, we have the big box guys like the Costcos and the Walmarts. But what these guys are building online is the same type of marketplace that is driving market share.

“Every organization, whether they are a brand or a retailer, needs to figure out where they are going to play outside their own channels. Living off of your own stores, living off of your own dot com, is no longer a winning strategy.”

Craver, formerly a Senior Vice President of Strategy at Hudson’s Bay Company and a key voice in my The Art of Mobile Persuasion book (artofmobilepersuasion.com), said that ignoring the major commerce players is a recipe for disaster.

“When you have guys out there like Amazon who have 50 percent of the market growth in e-commerce, you need to figure out if you are going to be on them,” he said. “If you are not, should you be on Zappos, or Shopbop or some of the other brands that they own?

“Maybe you say, ‘I hate Seattle, I hate Amazon.’ Then, I say, ‘OK, figure out if you are going to be on Walmart or Jet if Amazon isn’t your cup of tea.’ If those don’t work, will you be on Google Express or Instacart?

“All of these websites, beyond Google, specific retailers like kohls.com, macys.com, homedepot.com, target.com, all allow you to buy ads on their websites. If you are thinking as a marketer to get closest to the point of purchase, you need to look at these websites. If you are not, you are probably doing yourself a disservice. The closest you can be to the customer buying something is right on the rails of the retailer.”

Craver details more specific actions to take in Episode 26. It’s a bunch of smart thinking early in the year, giving us all time to develop a strategy and to execute on it for this year’s holiday season.

Whoa Means No For Many CES Products

“Whoa” is the first word that you noticed in this year’s CES promos and on attendee badges.

And, if you are similar to me, it’s the first word that you utter across all show floors and exhibit halls in Vegas.

Like when you see a “smart” bathroom promising to test your urine (that’s actually dumb). Or when you come upon signage proclaiming a “robot revolution” (that one is my official hype winner in what was, as always, an extremely competitive category).

I’m no anthropologist but some of my best learnings come from taxi drivers on the way to and from the conference.

This year, on the road in from the airport, a middle-aged gentleman at the wheel scoffed at the need for voice-activated devices all throughout his home.

“I’ve got that on my phone with Google,” he said. “Anything I need to know, I can get it already.”

For the fourth year in a row, I asked the so-called Average Joe and Joanne whether they have interest in a “smart” refrigerator that could tell them when they are low on milk or beer, and even save a return trip to the market for an otherwise forgotten item.

The answer is always “no” with privacy being the main inhibitor.

So, I guess the urine-screening toilet isn’t making it into their houses – or yours or mine – anytime soon.

Just what was shown at CES that could have mass appeal?

Those products that had a personal touch.

For instance, the smartest watch is the one that is intelligent about you, not everyone else. Casio brought a meaningful group of apps to a previously released watch that now caters to individual taste.

For instance, Fishbrain is supposedly the world’s largest community-based fishing app, producing local fishing forecasts and the best spots to catch that big one. However, I haven’t fished since I caught a muskie 27 years ago (luck, not app), so the Pro Trek Android Wear model had to offer me something else. Choices are now in the categories of skiing, surfing, golfing, swimming, and hiking. That works for me.

And all the apps are included with purchase of the watch.

Elsewhere, there were apps that solved some of life’s challenges – cooling a house in summer before you arrive home, for example. New? Not so much. Appealing to folks like my cab driver? Definitely. Those apps have become more intuitive and valuable.

But for all of the products that sought to address a need, there were thousands of others that left me scratching my head.

Atop that list were the self-driving concept cars from Ford and Toyota that touted pizza delivery as an effective use case. Will the cost go down for the consumer? Will the human-less car put more pepperoni on the pie? Is there a cost-savings for the pizza companies?

If the answers to all of those questions are no, please tell me why someone would be willing to go outside in the snow and darkness, in pajamas and slippers, to use an unfamiliar keypad to unlock a pizza that costs the same or more and makes the consumer work more for it.

Customers won't pay more for a pizza just because it comes in an innovative way. If a carrier pigeon could get it there hot and quickly and cheaper, they’d happily say, “the heck with self-driving cars.”

And about those robots everywhere? For what?

My wife doesn’t want a lawn mowing robot. She’ll quickly tell you that she married one.

The lesson of it all?

Beware of shiny objects. Know that the 180,000 who attended CES almost surely misrepresent your customers and prospects.

Build upon what you know. Definitely make bets on innovation or you will be left behind. But don’t wager the house.

Much of what we saw was early-adopter models at best, ones that caused a ripple on Twitter but are not destined to do the same on Main Street. Or in taxis where the real deciders of product success or not make their livings and spend their money judiciously.

(article first appeared here - http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2018/01/12/beware-shiny-objects-ces-boasts-innovations-lack-mass-appeal)

Running With Mobile But Crawling With Personalization

If you want hype or smoke and mirrors, you can easily find 100 people who will tell you a tale about the mobile wallet’s role in eliminating cash (it hasn’t) or the ways that beacons have saved retail’s brick and mortar locations (they haven’t).

But if you want to know what really is happening – or isn’t – in marketing, you check in with Noah Elkin, now a research director at Gartner. I met Elkin more than 10 years ago when he was Chief Evangelist at eMarketer. His book, Mobile Marketing: An Hour A Day is a great read, even six years after its publication.

What caught my eye recently was Elkin’s positive assessment https://blogs.gartner.com/noah-elkin/mobile-marketing-means-serious-business/ of where we are with mobile marketing.

“A big theme in Gartner’s recent Multichannel Marketing Effectiveness Survey is the emergence of mobile as a dominant channel for multichannel marketers," he wrote. "Now, for those who have been watching mobile’s share of ad revenues and digital time spent climb steadily upward, the notion of mobile’s dominance may seem old hat. It clearly enjoys that status for the audiences marketers are trying to reach.

“But marketers often have struggled to effectively incorporate mobile into their marketing strategies. We’ve seen that most multichannel marketers, for example, don’t see a need to go beyond creating mobile extensions of existing desktop-based engagement techniques (e.g., the website, advertising, search and email) — a finding consistent with the marketers who’ve used Gartner’s “Marketing Maturity Assessment” tool and rated mobile marketing their least mature capability.”

But lots changed in 2017, according to Elkin.

“This is one of those rare occasions where we can legitimately say, 'What a difference a year makes,'” he said. “In 2016, marketers told us that on average, they were using 3.5 mobile techniques (out of a total of 13 we asked them about) and had another two in the pilot stage. Fast-forward to 2017, and marketers now have 4.3 tactics live on average, and are piloting 3.1, representing a combined increase of 33 percent.”

To go deeper, I dialed up Elkin for a The Art of Mobile Persuasion podcast interview. In part 1 (episode 24 - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-mobile-persuasion-podcast/id1156481550?mt=2), we talk about the increase in maturity, but also the distance that we still have to go to deliver on the one-to-one communication that so many hype.

“You see marketers taking something of a crawl, walk, run approach,” he told me. “There is this promise that if you are fully invested in personalization, it promises great things from a business results perspective. But most marketers really are starting with one channel. You’re starting with basic e-mail personalization, for example. I have a lot of calls with our marketing clients about just taking those baby steps about how to do better customer segmentation. That’s a long way from being able to personalize across the entire customer experience.

“There are cost implications. There are complexity implications.  The technology is there but one thing we see not just with personalization technology but with marketing technology in general is that marketers buy it with intent to fully deploy it, but there is lag between when they adopt it to when they fully utilize all the capabilities of the tools that they have.”

To believe that drastic improvement is coming is, in Elkin’s view, a bit too optimistic.

“The way marketing technology weaves itself into organizations tends to be more incremental than rapid,” he said in the interview.  “We see marketers in to the 2 range (the developing phase) in the marketing maturity model and they want to get to a 4 (the advanced phase) (out of 5). Marketers really want to move up that maturity curve but the challenging part is how do you change processes, how do you bring on board new technology while you are still running your business day to day?

“That’s where some of that energy around maturing areas of marketing can fall down because it’s hard to be working on those parallel paths. How do you do these changes that have significant implications for how your marketing department is run and how it is structured, the technology it uses, the skills that you require while you are still doing the day to day and still being measured on where you are expected to deliver.”

Hear more of Elkin’s insights in part 1 and in a second part posting later in January.

Delivering Lessons From The Holiday Shopping Season

Conventional wisdom would say a retailer shouldn’t risk cannibalizing holiday sales as well as not give consumers an opportunity to wait until the last minute because they might be enticed to buy elsewhere.

In 2018’s first understatement of the year, Amazon is anything but conventional.

The company actually elongated holiday selling efforts, beginning in September and stretching literally to the final hour before Christmas.

Sure, big revenue days were Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but Amazon catered to all, including those who turned the page on Labor Day with shopping and those who procrastinated or purposely waiting until Dec. 24 with delivery options that were as historic as unconventional.

It even prospered in year two of Prime Day in December -- 30 hours of deals for members of its Prime program  — and saw the biggest sales day ever in company history.

Most noteworthy was the activity generated by rapid delivery.

According to Amazon, which for the first time offered same-day or next day delivery in 8,000 markets, the last Prime Now order in time for Christmas was delivered in 58 minutes at 11:58 p.m. on Christmas Eve in Baltimore, MD. The order included those must-haves, at least for someone -- the Kid Galaxy Amphibious RC Car Morphibians Shark Remote Control Toy, the Crayola Oil Pastels Art Tools, 28 ct., and the VTech Click and Count Remote.

“Same day and next day delivery is starting to replace store visits,” retail expert Ryan Craver told me in an interview on The Art of Mobile Persuasion podcast that posted this week (episode 23 here - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-mobile-persuasion-podcast/id1156481550?mt=2).

“The big reason why we are seeing a bit of inflection point, if you think back, we didn’t have that many markets where it was available. Obviously now word of mouth plus the press has people try it for the first time and they fall in love with it.

“The second thing is the amount of product that is now available for same day delivery. Everyone knows about Amazon but there is a big behemouth called Google who offers something like Google Express that provide access to everything that Walmart, Target, and Costco sell with same day delivery.”

Craver, a key voice in my The Art of Mobile Persuasion book www.artofmobilepersuasion.com, says price plus availability makes consumers think that delivery is the way to go.

“It’s actually a decent price,” he told me “It’s a marginal fee now. You’ve got 1099 employees delivery for $5 a pop and a tip if you hit a certain price point. That is a pretty compelling consumer experience that is tough to match and it’s going to continue to grow and grow and grow.”

Customers' use of Amazon's one-day, same-day, and two-hour delivery doubled this holiday, according to the company.

As to mobile’s role in purchasing, Amazon said that mobile purchasing increased 70 percent in 2017.

Mickey Mericle, vice president, Marketing and Customer Insights at Adobe, said that “shopping and buying on smartphones is becoming the new norm and can be attributed to continued optimizations in the retail experience on mobile devices and platforms.”

Adobe reported that 75 percent of millennials expected to shop via their smartphone.

Still, Craver reminded us that there is more to do with mobile, noting that many web sites and apps don’t allow for purchase.

“There are only a few retailers who have figured out that final path to purchase,” he said.

Of course, Amazon is one of those few. And it won’t stand still. Drone delivery awaits.

(Hear Craver’s insights on the podcast this week and in a 2018 look ahead posting later this month.)

The Art of Mobile Insistence?

Could my next book be The Art of Mobile Insistence?

While short of a trend, it’s noteworthy that an increasing number of businesses are refusing to accept cash. As reported in the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/25/nyregion/no-cash-money-cashless-credit-debit-card.html, payments are only accepted via app or credit card.

This policy won’t get noticed by the many who haven’t paid for anything with dollars and cents for years.

But others, as the Times said, are displeased.

“Every day I have an argument with somebody about it,” said a cashier at the Dos Toros on 40th Street in Manhattan.

The volume of mobile payments in the restaurant industry grew 75 percent in 2017, according to Fodor. http://www.nrn.com/operations/restaurant-mobile-payments-hit-tipping-point-2017. “As much as 10 percent of all fast-food sales may be made via mobile in just a few years.”

A cashless policy affects the so-called unbanked, those who do not have a bank account or credit card. That number in the U.S. has been estimated at 7 percent.

I’ve long said that choice is the killer app. Businesses that eschew that path risk losing customers and good will. 

Nothing Personal

For more than 300 days in 2017, signals were sent every time you and I and everyone else clicked or tapped.

We told marketers of our extraordinary interest in some things and our indifference in others.

Businesses knew – or should’ve known – every dollar that we spent with them with granular information that gave them daypart, offer acted upon, and purchase pattern, among other particulars.

Then the holiday shopping season came and for the most part we were treated by businesses as equals. The channels and screens were different from our youth, but the marketing was unquestionably mass as if we were still enthralled by the Ed Sullivan Show.

Nothing personal.

As I wrote in The Art of Mobile Persuasion, “I’ve never, ever had a meatball sandwich from your quick-service restaurant. You, Mr. or Ms. marketer, know, or should know, from my purchase history that my diet is vegetarian. Why am I still getting those damn meatball ads?”

If you wonder if it matters, 64 percent of consumers want personalized offers from retail brands, Salesforce says.

According to McKinsey, personalization can reduce acquisition costs by as much as 50 percent, lift revenues by 5-15 percent and increase marketing spend efficiency by 10-30 percent.

The stakes are high when you factor in loyalty programs. Consumers expect you to show them that you know them.

Yet in the often-cited Bond Brand Loyalty survey http://info.bondbrandloyalty.com/2017-loyalty-report, we learned that only 22 percent feel very satisfied with the level of personalization they experience with a loyalty program. Incredibly, that is down from 28 percent in 2015.

No one said that this personalization stuff is easy. As Gartner analyst Noah Elkin told me in an interview for an upcoming podcast episode, it is a crawl, walk, run process for most marketers who at best are implementing it in one channel.

The most egregious disconnect for me in the holiday season was after my wife and I were met with a dirty sock, used robe, and rumpled and unclean sheets upon check-in at the Magnolia Hotel in Denver.

Despite voicing our displeasure to three employees, our e-mailed bill the next morning came with this opening -- We hope you have enjoyed your stay with us.

To be sure, some brands noticeably stood out with personalization efforts (colleagues and others did an admirable job online and in mobile apps, for instance).

The most memorable one, again in the travel industry, came when the Kimpton Hotel Wilshire reached out to my wife to ask her if she would like to send along a photo of a loved one, pet or happy memory so it could be framed and set on the nightstand before she arrived.

In 2018, nothing personal just ain’t good enough.

If you are up for it, let’s take this improvement road together.

I’ll offer insights, actionable lessons, case studies and interviews in this space, on my The Art of Mobile Persuasion podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-mobile-persuasion-podcast/id1156481550?mt=2, and @jeffhasen on Twitter. Expect a lot of it.

Your part of the deal? You’ll read, listen, engage, and maybe even catch my attention – and more of my business and loyalty – with a personalized ad, email or promoted tweet that speaks to me.

Thanks for being here. Happy New Year.

Conference Advice: Avoid The Buzzwords and Getting Buzzed

For reasons unrelated to festivities post-sundown, in my mind, every conference is tied to a drinking game.

The word uttered all too often at mobile marketing conferences from 2007 to 2010 was nascent. I even remember a speaker saying that we were “on the nascent side of nascency.” Double scotch after that one.

Over the years, customer journey is on my “jeez, I’ve heard that 32 times today” list, as is data-driven.

Authentic was the winner (or, viewed through my bloodshot eyes, the loser) from the first panel that I attended at the recent Advertising Week in New York to the very last.

Millennials are forcing brands to be authentic. Drink.

The political climate ripe with fake news is forcing brands to be authentic. Drink.

The only way to build your personal brand is through authenticity. Drink.

I do not dispute the importance of knowing what you stand for, acting in ways that are anchored in truth, and determining how your essence can resonate with customers, prospects, employees and other stakeholders.

Authenticity is, however, the latest cliché. Frankly some of the advice offered from Advertising Week stages was misleading.

Sure, the virtue is important to many millennials, but what about other generations? Are those like me who are Baby Boomers more forgiving or naive? Gen Y? I think not.

Advertising Week was hardly Advertising Weak but I did find other generalizations that did audience members a disservice.

Millennials, we were told, desire experiences instead of things. Many do, but how different is this from the long-ago established concept of the bucket list? Maybe, and I’m not sure about this, millennials get to that place first, but in my house, goods are being replaced by experiences. The latest one was a bucket list trip to Lambeau Field where my wife wore a Packers jersey, I wore a Seahawks jersey, and we hardly could fit the memories into our luggage for the trip home.

One last nitpick or is it a fight to pick?

A panelist said that millennials don't need to create white papers for everything. They often tell stories through photos. Another on stage said that brands should only deliver images when communicating in digital channels.

As a former journalist and two-time book author, it was disappointing to hear all the talk about visual communication supposedly displacing words.

One can’t deny that the ease of taking and sharing pictures with smartphones and via social networks has dramatically changed the way that many engage. To illustrate that point, it was said that a trillion snaps will be sent through Snapchat this year.

But I picture a future where the printed word has additional moments in the sun and continues to serve as a complementary communications method serving all generations.

Beyond fighting the urge to imbibe, here are three actions that I recommend that you take as you listen to your next conference program:

First, do not fall for absolutes tossed out by the “experts”. Not all millennials have abandoned Facebook. Not all mobile users watch video. Not all will use a mobile wallet. I urge you to dig deeper and to seek to understand your particular target audience.

Second, do attend with open eyes and ears. One of the biggest mistakes made by mobile marketers is that they work with an old playbook. Times and products change often. If someone is quoting statistics from 2014 or even 2016, challenge them or yourself to be current. It will make the difference between a winning program and a loser.

Third, don’t fall for shiny objects. Marketers often seek to decide what technology or social network or mobile feature will be the difference maker. Of course, it’s up to a brand’s customers and prospects to decide.

And here’s a bonus action for you.

Think more broadly than just your category.

As was said at Google's Think2017: "You're competing not only with other brands, but with the best experience your customer has ever had."

Remember, you can only deliver that if you expand beyond the buzzwords. And stay away from at least the drinking games.

-

Article first appeared here - http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/10/04/conference-advice-avoid-the-buzzwords-and-getting-buzzed

Be Pragmatic Is The Best Advice That I Give To Mobile Marketers

Carnival by Sailthru asked me to provide best practices for mobile marketers. The full interview is below and here - http://carnival.io/mobile-insights/mobile-strategy-essentials-possible-mobile-qa-jeff-hasen-mobile-strategist/

Tell us about your background and your role at POSSIBLE Mobile.

Jeff Hasen: I’m a former sports writer who was told by my dad to enjoy it because one day I would be working for a living. That played out. I’ve since spent years in agencies, was in mobile even before the iPhone, spent six years as CMO of a leading mobile marketing company called Hipcricket, and was a consultant for my own business called Gotta Mobilize working with Fortune 500s and others. For POSSIBLE Mobile, I provide strategy and mobile user insights to get brands closer to their customers. I’ve also written two books, including The Art of Mobile Persuasion.

While many brands and marketers are making the switch to mobile marketing, many brands are struggling to prove ROI on their efforts. Why do you think this? How should marketers and product managers solve for this?

The results of a Forrester survey released last year showed many marketers’ ineptitude when it comes to mobile ROI. The survey revealed two-thirds of marketers are unable to gauge the success or failure of their mobile programs. Newer information released from IBM demonstrated that almost 50 percent of the largest companies doing mobile are operating on an ad hoc basis rather than in a strategic fashion.

Why is this happening? Lots of reasons with the most important one being that large organizations don’t understand exactly what we should get out of mobile efforts and sadly many marketers and program owners have been spending money and time and getting a pass.

We simply have to do better. I’m not going to go to my CFO and ask for more budget when I can’t measure what I’m already doing. And neither should you.

For those brands who have yet to dip their toes in mobile marketing or apps, what advice would you give them on why to get started? Where should they start?

Here are five actions to take:

Establish business goals first. It’s clear that not enough marketers are starting mobile projects with the identification of business objectives. When objectives are detailed first, marketers can work their way backward and develop programs that lead with or include mobile. Take a lesson from the wireless carrier that addressed a concerning churn problem by providing personal and timely mobile videos that brought transparency and comfort to individuals. The result was tens of millions of dollars in saved business. That’s mobile ROI.

Focus on results, not budget. At first blush, smaller businesses may look at the mobile dollars being spent by enterprises and think they have nothing in common. In fact, according to the IBM study, the average number of mobile projects being done at enterprises is five, and the cost of each project is more than $2.4 million. The commonality in successful mobile programs from companies of all sizes is a commitment to engage users and key stakeholders to identify quick wins and impactful use cases.

Don’t cut corners. This should be a given, but judging by the evidence, it needs to be said. In all but rare exceptions, fast and cheap is dumb and dumber. An ice cream shop I visited as a child had a sign that said, “Good food is not cheap. Cheap food is not good.” All these years later, you can and should apply the same line of thinking to mobile.

Mobile benefits are clear. The mobile-enabled companies surveyed by IBM expect a 7 percent increase in revenue and a 6 percent cost decrease. It’s safe to say retailers can expect similar results. Not only can these stores sell more when they combine mobile commerce and brick-and-mortar, but they can often reduce overhead in terms of shelf space and service personnel with customer-driven mobile efforts.

More mobile projects needed. The expectations of mobile users rise every year. Many people have little to no patience for slow mobile web pages, irrelevant messages, and experiences that are not intuitive. As a result, businesses of all sizes cannot afford to wait. In the IBM survey, 22 percent of companies plan to undertake 10 or more mobile initiatives in the next year, while another half of the group are planning between five to nine projects. Your numbers may not be the same, but the clear trend is that more projects are needed to remain competitive.

Many marketers, especially those new to mobile, struggle with finding the right approach for mobile messaging. Message too much, you risk losing users; message too little, and you risk the same. You’ve spoken to many leading mobile marketers who are winning with mobile. What best practices can you share based on their success?

Find ways to create value, take care to be neither intrusive nor creepy, and always look to get better. And the marketers I spoke to who are pioneering the channel provide some great lessons:

Be Pragmatic. Mobile has changed everything about marketing–and it’s changed nothing. We still need to sell stuff. It’s merely the how that is different. Identify the business results you want and design your efforts to those ends. It’s easy to be distracted by the pixie dust and possibilities in the digital arena. Filter the possible through the lens of what’s wise.

Knock Gently. Mobile users are a lot more open to interactions with brands than many marketers believe–but the efforts need to be respectful. Just because customers invite you into their homes doesn’t mean you get to put your feet on the furniture, or stay all night. This means no 3 a.m. text messages for a dollar off a burger. And no push notifications every three minutes while someone is shopping. Less is more.

Simplify Life. Mobile is for action. A theme that emerged often in conversation with mobile’s best thinkers: Mobile should drive action. To do that, eliminate the unwanted. Beyond his or her mom, name one person who wants to read the bio of a company’s CFO on a mobile website. List store hours, provide directions to your location, make purchases easy–whatever action your customer needs to take. Forget the rest.

Cherish the Relationship. Just as you would with a spouse or other loved one, work daily to make the interaction even richer. Businesses have extensive information available about many of their customers. For instance, purchase data that shows what generated a response from a mobile ad or offer can give a look into the desires of a wireless user. Wise mobile marketers interpret these signals and get even more personal with tailored outreach to individual customers that proves the brand’s value.

Get Better. It’s called mobile, right? So keep moving. Your efforts to reach mobile users should always be evolving. You may feel you are performing well today, but you should constantly be seeking new products or technologies that enhance the mobile experience. Maybe it’s a better way to tell a traveler that his or her gate has changed. Or an easier way for someone to find and save a mobile coupon. We all need to be better tomorrow than we are today. And it’s what mobile users expect and demand.

What 10 Years of Mobile Marketing Has Taught Us About the Next 10

There is no such thing as The Year of Mobile. This phrase is used often, but it really has been a process that’s spanned nearly a decade, and is only just beginning. Consider this: in 2010, there was an estimated 62.6 million smartphone users in the United States. That number has risen to 222.9 million in 2017 and is projected to hit 264.3 million by 2021.

In 2015, Salesforce reported that 68 percent of companies integrated mobile marketing into their overall marketing strategy.

This is how Jason Spero, Google’s Vice President of Performance Media, looks at mobile’s path to today:

Before and including 2011, sure, you could run mobile ads, build mobile loyalty clubs, and more, but marketers in large numbers were not ready to dive in.

By 2012, mobile marketing efforts led to more sales and deeper engagement. But, in large part, those who were participating were considered early adopters with room in the club for many others.

By 2013, mobile’s value to marketers had been proven. The questions shifted from why to how, with many choices and decisions to make.

By 2014, those who had not done mobile or had just dabbled in it felt a sense of urgency. Not only were competitors often times eating their lunch, customers had moved to mobile devices. The percentage of companies optimizing email for mobile devices saw an increase of 22 percent in 2014 alone.

Beginning in 2015 and continuing today, the mobile user has established expectations—and they’re growing every day. A marketer’s job is to meet and beat those expectations.

Where are we 10 years into the mobile marketing era?

Some are doing it well. Others, not so much.

5 Reasons Marketers Fail

Here are five words to describe the brand marketers that are failing on mobile:

1. Selfish. If you're reaching out to mobile users, you had better be answering their needs and desires, not simply fulfilling your own.

Jonathan Stephen, who drove innovative mobile programs at JetBlue, points to the greed of some brands that seek to needlessly uncover such inconsequential details as how many sweeteners wireless owners put in their coffee and if they use Splenda or Truvia. Unless you are an artificial sweetener company looking to grab more market share, this information is extraneous and prying.

2. Illogical. Common sense deserves more credit than it gets.

For example, why create only an iPhone app if your customers are mostly or completely Android owners? That's just dumb. But it happens. Smart marketers rely solely on their own business's customer insights to power their programs, and to address the specific behaviors exhibited.

3. Timid. Seize the day.

Hank Wasiak has been marketing for more than five decades. He is among the most accomplished in the field, but when he looks in the mirror, he says that he sees someone who has often moved too slowly when change was needed. The ad executive's lesson for mobile marketers? Seize the day and think bigger. "With mobile, you get not only into the pocket of a consumer, you can get into one's heart," he says.

4. Impulsive. Watching, tracking, and responding to consumer trends--these are tools of the patient, humble, and successful marketer.

If your brand is struggling, perhaps those are tools you are not using enough. Sean Lyons, R/GA U.S. president, chides marketers who go to such conferences as South by Southwest seeking to determine which products and services will matter. The better approach? Don’t try to predict. Rather, discover and monitor. Consumers are going to decide what matters, and you need to be ready to rapidly respond as they do.

5. Inattentive. Every interaction—or inaction—can teach you something, if you're paying attention.

Spero calls consumer actions on mobile devices "signals," rich with information that can tell marketers a great deal if they are on the lookout for them.

5 Qualities of a Successful Marketer

Conversely, successful business leaders like Spero offered advice on the kind of relationship-building mobile marketing that is driving their success:

1. Be Pragmatic. Mobile has changed everything about marketing—and yet it's changed nothing.

We still need to sell stuff. It's merely the how that is different. Identify the business results you want and design your efforts to those ends. It's easy to be distracted by the pixie dust and possibilities in the digital arena. Filter the possible through the lens of what's wise.

2. Knock Gently. Mobile users are a lot more open to interactions with brands than many marketers believe—but the efforts need to be respectful.

Just because customers invite you into their homes doesn't mean you get to put your feet on the furniture, or stay all night. This means no 3 a.m. text messages for a dollar off a burger. And no push notifications every three minutes while someone is shopping. Less is more.

3. Simplify Life. Mobile is for action.

A theme that emerged often in conversation with mobile's best thinkers: Mobile should drive action. To do that, eliminate the unwanted. Beyond his or her mom, name one person who wants to read the bio of a company's CFO on a mobile website. List store hours, provide directions to your location, make purchases easy—whatever action your customer needs to take. Forget the rest.

4. Prize the Relationship. Just as you would with a spouse or other loved one, work daily to make the interaction even richer.

Businesses have extensive information available about many of their customers. For instance, purchase data that shows what generated a response from a mobile ad or offer can give a look into the desires of a wireless user. Wise mobile marketers interpret these signals and get even more personal with tailored outreach to individual customers that proves the brand’s value.

5. Get Better. It's called mobile, right? So keep moving.

Your efforts to reach mobile users should always be evolving. You may feel you are performing well today, but you should constantly be seeking new products or technologies that enhance the mobile experience. Maybe it's a better way to tell a traveler that his or her gate has changed, or an easier way for someone to find and save a mobile coupon. We all need to be better tomorrow than we are today. And it’s what mobile users expect and demand.

Without question, the next 10 years will be more important than the last. Marketing Land projects that mobile advertising will represent 72 percent of all U.S. digital ad spending by 2019. It behooves us to take the learnings from the last decade and perform to levels exceeding our users’ expectations.

(article first appeared here - https://www.simplilearn.com/what-mobile-marketing-taught-us-article)

Pete Carroll’s Advice To Mobile Marketers: Orchestrate What You Truly Believe In

Leading a mobile initiative is no small task, complicated by factors that may include lack of resources, end user insight, or ambiguity about the mission at hand, among others.

What holds some back, though, is an individual failing. It was recently identified by Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll when he spoke to mobile marketers at TUNE’s Postback conference.

“If you want to be really good at something, and you want to perform at a high level, and you want to affect those people around you to also perform at a really high level, then wouldn’t it help if those who work around you understood what you feel is important, what you believe in, and what makes up your philosophy?” an animated Pete Carroll told audience members.

“And wouldn’t it help if when they represent you, speak for you when you are not in the room, or act upon big decisions, that they knew exactly where you were coming from? Of course it would.”

Carroll implored those in the crowd to look inward before they take their next pass at a product roadmap or piece of code.

“If you took the time to step back and really tried to orchestrate what it is you firmly believe in, it is a great moment for any individual to say: “Wow, I never realized this is really who I am and this is what makes me tick,”  he said. “That’s one thing. But when you can share that with the people around you, they will function on a much different level. They will say: “Have you been working out or something? Have you been eating right?” They will see it, and they will feel it in you. That is so powerful.”

Carroll has learned many valuable lessons during his career, but most importantly, he has learned that leaders are often made by getting up and dusting themselves off after being knocked down.

Carroll said, “The point is, I have been fired enough times now. The last time I was fired, by the New England Patriots after the 1999 season, was the most significant in that I just had to figure it out,” he said. I had to come together with my own thoughts, and I kind of stumbled into it going back to (former UCLA) Coach (John) Wooden, who had inspired me in the sense that he was such an unusual enigmatic leader. The best champion winner ever in college basketball. He was unbelievable. But what hit me is that he had this philosophy. He knew what he thought, and it wasn’t like anybody else. And I just stumbled into trying to figuring that out.”

“If you want to be great, if you want to do something really at the top of your game, you must figure out who you are, what you stand for, and what’s important. So you can convey it to the people around you, so they know about it.”

That philosophy, Carroll told us, is as important for mobile marketers and developers as it is for quarterbacks and coaches.

Article first appeared here - https://possiblemobile.com/2017/08/pete-carroll-at-tunes-postback/

Making Wearables More Actionable and Valuable

Many of us have been drawn to Apple Watch, Fitbit, and other wearables for their health monitoring capabilities. However, health metrics provided by these devices are often presented without context, which can lead to a misunderstanding of what is being read.

One real-life example that comes to mind regarding wearables is when I was on a flight the first week that I owned an Apple Watch. My heartbeat reading showed 94 and a fellow passenger with more of a medical background than me commented on the significantly high number. Through a discussion, we discovered that the 94 was the result of the activity boarding the flight and lifting luggage. Apple Watch retook the heartbeat about a minute later and I was in the low 60s.

That episode reminded me of the time several Christmases ago when my new Fitbit Force showed that I had burned 861 calories when the most strenuous thing I had done was to push the button on my computer.

I considered it a Christmas miracle.

Or a sham.

Only later, after writing up my experience, did a friend call me out for not realizing that we burn calories even when we sleep. And we’re supposed to know this how?

This brings me to what I recently learned about WHOOP, which is a scientifically-grounded performance optimization system worn by the many elite athletes to positively change behavior and unlock peak performance. WHOOP provides individuals, teams, and their coaches and trainers with a continuous understanding of strain and recovery to balance training, reduce injuries, and predict performance.

The WHOOP Strap 2.0 is a lightweight, waterproof and screenless device that’s worn on the wrist, forearm or upper arm. The Strap’s five sensors measure data 100 times per second and automatically transmit the data to the WHOOP mobile and web apps for analysis and actionable recommendations. WHOOP data has been shown to optimize training and recovery, correlate with improved in-game performance, and reduce injuries.

Speaking at the Geekwire Sports Tech Summit, nine-time WNBA All-Star and Olympian Sue Bird said that technology, and especially WHOOP, has helped her stay at peak performance 14 years into her pro career.

“If it’s going to help you, if it’s going to elongate your career, you are an idiot if you don’t use it, why wouldn’t you use it?” Bird said regarding technology.

WHOOP measures physiological markers to indicate your personal readiness to perform each day. Recovery determines one’s strain and WHOOP calculates exertion based on workouts and daily lifestyle to make sure you’re training optimally. After assessing strain, WHOOP tells you how much sleep you need to recover and then calculates a detailed breakdown of time spent in each wave of sleep. The consumer version, which is currently sold out, costs $500 and comes with analysis and recommendations, precisely what many of the earlier wearables lack.

Bird, who like her WNBA teammates has eliminated gameday shoot-arounds in favor of additional sleep, appreciates the simplicity as many of us would. “Just tell us what we need to do,” she said. “Don’t give us the algebra.”

Where do we as consumers go from here? Look for more than readouts from products that will be introduced to rival WHOOP and from iterations of successful but limited products like Apple Watch and Fitbit. We may never be able to shoot a basketball like Bird, but we will be able to learn more about our bodies and be in position to maximize our own performance.

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This article first appeared here - https://possiblemobile.com/2017/06/making-wearables-actionable-valuable/

Six Important Ways That Apple’s Revamped App Store Affects Marketers

Any objective list of visionary tech companies would include Apple. Yet during its most behavior-changing period – think 2007 when the iPhone came out – Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs and other senior executives failed to see all that was possible.

During a WWDC presentation detailing the massive changes coming to the App Store with iOS 11 this fall, it was revealed by product manager Pedraum Pardehpoosh that 20 years ago, Apple predicted 1,000 total apps eventually being created – just double what was available at launch in July 2008.

Instead, there are now 2.2 million apps in the App Store and WWDC was an opportunity to introduce efforts to not only enable more app development, but more discovery by visitors to a store that has overwhelmed even its creators.

Apple admitted that its first massive redesign has clear intentions – to make the App Store a daily destination, give voice to Apple’s growing editorial staff that is charged with presenting interesting apps, and to provide a focus on games and their significance. Overall, clarity and simplification are other goals for Apple’s redesign.

It is important for marketers to know how the revamped App Store will be affecting them, so I have outlined six important areas to consider.

1.     Mobile users have an ever-increasing appetite to watch videos. Apple says that customers download more apps when videos are present. To that end, app makers will be able to feature up to three videos and enable autoplay. If you don’t have video assets, I suggest begin creating them before iOS11 launches.

2.     Those creative sessions to deliver just the right app icon will still be important, but there will be additional opportunity to drive awareness and downloads with a new subtitle feature. Apple says more information about individual apps will help users “make the right decision” on which to download.

3.     Apple says that 50 percent of consumers who click on ads that they see in the App Store go a step further and download the app. The average cost per install of a Search Ad has been $1 since the option was made available last October. The clickthrough numbers are higher than expected which may be because beta advertisers are targeting highly specific phrases. Also, users are not yet accustomed to “ads” being shown and are treating the results as they do organic app store search click-throughs. For iOS 11, editorial content will be searchable, which will give marketers more incentive to get their apps featured.

4.     In-app purchase options will be more discoverable on the App Store and they will be searchable, providing a way for app makers to make a run at additional monetization.

5.     Marketers and developers will also see what was presented as a simplified app ratings and reviews program. No longer will ratings be hidden following an app update. Also, App Store visitors will be presented with other apps and/or games by the same developer. This is double-edged. While more discovery is a good thing, app makers will need to keep all of their apps fresh and be even more on top of ratings and reviews since the profile of one app will likely affect how visitors feel about others.

6.     Apple encouraged developers and marketers to reach out via www.appstore.com/promote to get apps in front of the editorial team. Selected apps may appear as part of a Meet The Developer column, App of the Day or Game of the Day tabs, and also via curated collections and lists.

Of course, for many, it will still be challenging to get seen in a store of 2.2 million apps and growing. However, the direction Apple is heading in offers more hope to those making apps and those looking to find ones that would interest them.

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First appeared at https://possiblemobile.com/2017/06/six-important-ways-apples-revamped-app-store-affects-marketers/

Consumers Must Choose Between Ad Blocking and Personalization

While way short of a doomsday scenario, marketers hearing about the coming autoplay video blocking and anti-tracking options on Safari should view the news out of Apple's WWDC 2017 as a mandatory call to up their games.

It is logical to believe that given the choice, some mobile users will elect to separate themselves from brand messages. The numbers in the US, at least, say that smartphone owners have yet to make that decision. In fact, despite the availability of multiple enabling sources, 94% of mobile ad blocking happens in Asia-Pacific, according to PageFair's 2017 Ad Block Report.

Will any of this change with Apple’s next version of its operating system? We need to know more, especially if and when the announced desktop functionality will make its way to iOS.

In the meantime, mobile marketers must work today to improve the experiences that they deliver. Too often, ads are intrusive, not relevant to individuals, and fall too short of a level of creativity that fits into the compelling category.

Surely, some mobile users block ads and shun other marketing because they can. However, others choose to exchange their personal information for value. In fact, 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, or knows their purchase history, according to Accenture.

The key for brands is to use the gathered personal information wisely and to not be creepy, especially when more blocking options like the one announced today by Apple becomes available.

Beyond ads, despite the absence of an announcement on a new iPhone - widely rumored now for the Fall - Apple’s 2½ hour keynote brought much for marketers to consider:

One could argue that the only thing more hyped in mobile than the Apple Wallet has been augmented reality. There actually were significant strides made with each.

First, Apple unveiled a person-to-person Apple Pay option that enables the easy transfer of money in seconds through iMessage. This certainly will bring new users into the payment world and make mobile owners more comfortable in transacting without cash, checks or PayPal. The ramifications for marketers are many, including the need for retailers to bring in mobile payment options. Apple claimed that half of US retailers will have Apple Pay by year’s end. Those that don’t will be in danger of being in a competitive disadvantage.

The AR advancements are noteworthy, in part because of the ease in inserting differentiated experiences into apps will give many marketers reasons to step on the gas pedal and create environments that help sell products and separate their apps from those of their competitors. Surely, some brands will move from thinking that a mobile website is sufficient given the new functionality in apps and the reach to iOS users.

The most anticipated announcement delivered a home speaker now known as HomePod, which will go on sale in December. What was most interesting was the heavy concentration on sound, not Siri. HomePod was positioned as the best way to play music in your home, not as an Amazon Echo or Google Home slayer. That might be the only way that Apple could go given the still unsatisfactory experience of Siri.

We expected lots of talk about improvements to Siri, especially since we heard last week from Mary Meeker that Google’s accuracy is at 95%. Instead, we got lip service that sounded more like silence. For now, at least, marketers shouldn’t view the HomePod as an effective way to sell product. Amazon and Google are the best options there.

When it came to the AppleWatch, the company said that the next version of the operating system will allow for a two-way data exchange between the watch and a piece of gym equipment. But it would be prudent to believe that the wearables category is still a work in progress, especially because Apple didn’t move the needle meaningfully on the mission of telling users what the figures mean and what the user could or should do with the information. So that should limit mass adoption.

But overall, Apple showed enough innovation at WWDC 2017 to give consumers and marketers reason to believe that the upcoming introduction of the 10th anniversary edition of the iPhone will capture hearts, minds, dollars, and our attention.

Article first appeared here - http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/06/06/apple-sets-up-decision-between-privacy-and-personalization

Count On, and Plan For, Even Greater Expectations from Mobile Users

I’m hardly the first son-in-law to shake his head at something his wife’s mother said, but I could be the only one to do so as a result of hearing:

“How come I can’t stop my Angry Birds game on my iPhone and continue where I left off on my iPad?”

It’s a great question, made greater by the fact that it was posed by an 87-year-old.

Upon more thought, I’m convinced that there is no way that my experience is unique. Why? Expectations of mobile users, whether they are young kids or octogenarians, are increasing as fast as the pace of innovation.

Consider this:

Amazon says that a page load slowdown of just one second could cost the company $1.6 billion in sales each year.

And Google has calculated that by slowing its search results by just four tenths of a second they could lose eight million searches per day. This would lessen opportunities for brands and significantly reduce Google’s revenue.

The upshot?

Optimize for mobile, or else. Users look for top-shelf experiences. Under deliver and many will leave for a competitor and never come back.

Furthermore, employees also have unmet mobile expectations. According to several studies, including a recent one conducted by ArcTouch, relatively few employees are satisfied with their company apps compared to their personal, non-work apps.

How do we meet, or even beat, those expectancies? With more collaboration between marketers and their IT counterparts.

For an example of marketing and IT teaming up to top mobile users’ expectations, I’ll point to the JetBlue mobile apps built by POSSIBLE Mobile. These apps have received high reviews from users and are said to be seamless and convenient while also representing a huge breakout in an industry known too often for inconvenience and frustration.

The JetBlue mobile apps make traveling more enjoyable by providing the appropriate features you would expect from the digitally-minded airline. A joint production between the airline, ROKKAN, and POSSIBLE Mobile, the JetBlue apps offer air travelers a paperless mobile boarding pass to expedite the travel journey.

When you launch the JetBlue app on a smartphone or tablet, the first screen always has relevant information based upon where you are in your JetBlue travel experience. Booking an upcoming trip? Check the home screen for local weather and other destination information. Time to check in? Retrieve your mobile boarding pass directly from the home screen.

Unfortunately, the excellent user experience that comes with the JetBlue apps is not always present in the apps we download.

According to leading app analytics firm Localytics, about one in four new app users will abandon an app after a single launch. In fact, two out of three users will have deleted an app before their 11th session.

Customers value and demand high quality apps. When leaving a one-star review, 50 percent of the time the user mentions the app’s stability and bugs. When leaving a five-star review, 60 percent of the time the user mentions speed, design, or usability.

The differentiator for brands is best-of collaboration that positively affects business outcomes. So how can we get there?

“There is nothing fundamentally different between marketing and IT,” David Chan, Director of the Centre for Information Leadership at City University in London, told Computer Weekly. “It is about the culture of the organization. If the departments work together, you shouldn’t have a problem.”

But how should we collaborate? Thoughtfully, with minds open, and through the sharing of understanding across functional departments.

Of course, the mobile user doesn’t care how the sausage is made. He or she, be it seven-years-old or 87, only wants, even demands, a better and more personal experience.

It is vital that more collaboration occurs between marketers and their technology counterparts, resulting in fewer silos, smoother processes, and better apps that drive loyalty and sales.

As Forrester says, mobile moments are the battleground to win, serve, and retain customers.

“I think expectations of consumers in the app environment are very high, and if you don’t get it right, it’s so glaring,” Paul Sweeney, U.S. Director of Research at Bloomberg Intelligence, told Adweek.

Missteps are noticeable, even to old eyes. We have to do better. My mother-in-law is watching, and she is demanding answers.

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Article first appeared here - https://possiblemobile.com/2017/04/count-plan-even-greater-expectations-mobile-users/