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Jeff Hasen

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

  
 

 
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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/)

 

Tagged with Apple, Google, push notifications, Screen Time.

June 16, 2018 by Jeff Hasen.
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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.

-

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

 

Tagged with Apple.

June 15, 2017 by Jeff Hasen.
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Dolphins Are Mammals, But It Seems Something Fishy Happened At SeaWorld

Reversing the trend of lower tablet demand, a dolphin grabbed an iPad from a guest at SeaWorld Orlando.

Through the first week of the Olympics, males were posting on social media about Games’ sponsors about twice as often as females, according to Sprinklr.

I understand, but do not agree with, the rationale of NBC’s primetime delay of the Olympics on West Coast. But there is no doubt that delayed weekend day coverage in this era of real time info gathering is dumb.

The percentage of Apple Watch users who will buy the next version, especially sight unseen? There’s no way of knowing, but I'm in the “absolutely not” category. The first time produced nothing but anticipointment.

eMarketer predicts U.S. retail m-commerce will reach about $131B by year's end.

More than one-quarter of U.S. Internet users block ads, per the IAB.

For the seventh straight quarter, AT&T added more cars than phones and tablets combined, according to analyst Chetan Sharma.

Millennials are 3X as likely as Baby Boomers to use mobile banking, according to FIS.

Citing "limited effectiveness", Proctor & Gamble said that it will scale back on targeted Facebook advertising.

Fast Company wrote that "for now, Siri is as good as anything that’s out there." Parity has never been Apple’s aim.

76% of U.S. Internet users aged 13-24 say that they are “addicted” to their digital devices: CivicScience.

Unrelated, but the same percentage of U.S. online adults engage with companies on social, up from 68% last year.

There are three million active advertisers on Facebook with 70% outside the U.S.

Several more mobile payment deals were announced recently, but contrary to the hype, cash wasn't gone by Tuesday.

Apple’s App Store saw record-breaking numbers during July as developer payouts crossed $50B.

Tagged with dolphin, SeaWorld, Apple, IPad, Olympics, NBC.

August 14, 2016 by Jeff Hasen.
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Eternity That Is 140 Seconds of Twitter Video

Twitter users can now post videos up to 140 seconds long. That’s an eternity given the human attention span is 8 seconds (per Microsoft) -- less than that of a goldfish.

77% of people read at least one review before downloading an app: Apptentive.

Last week saw the most-streamed NBA Draft ever on WatchESPN, with more than 557,000 unique viewers.

On average, 41% of retail marketing budgets are dedicated to digital, per the National Retail Federation.

Mobile accounted for 29% of travel bookings in the U.S. last quarter, Crieto reported.

Instagram has now snapped over 500 million users with 95 millions videos and photos shared daily.

59% of buyers prefer to do research online instead of interacting with a sales rep: Accenture. Many are “self-sufficient” mobile users. That has a huge impact on customer service, as I wrote in my The Art of Mobile Persuasion (www.artofmobilepersuasion.com) book.

54% of worldwide mobile display ads will be traded programmatically by 2018: Tapjoy.

HeyMarket, a mobile CRM for text messaging, stops you from drunk texting your customers. It has come to this.

More than three billion photos are shared daily on social networks , according to KPCB.

78% between the ages of 21 and 39 make the mobile payments generated in China: eMarketer.

99 of 110 top news outlets have more mobile web traffic than desktop, according to Pew.

Per comScore, mobile ads are more effective than desktop for conversions and brand lift.

Apple says that there are two billion Siri requests a week. What wasn't shared was the accuracy percentage.

I've never been accused of being a fashionista, so it makes sense that responsiveness in new Apple Watch OS excites me more than new bands.

66% of all email in the US opened/read on smartphones or tablets: MovableInk.

Tagged with Twitter, Instagram, National Retail Federation, Siri, Apple, Apple Watch.

June 26, 2016 by Jeff Hasen.
  • June 26, 2016
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  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • National Retail Federation
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer: Floor Traffic Lights Installed For "Smombies"

The German city of Augsburg has installed floor traffic lights for smartphone addicts. According to a German newspaper that calls such addicts “smombies”, the move followed these accidents: a 15-year-old girl in Munich was run over by a tram while looking at her smartphone with headphones in; in nearby Augsburg, on two recent occasions, pedestrians have been hit by street trains while looking at their phones.

Facebook has passed 1.65 billion monthly active users with 54% accessing the service only on mobile. Meanwhile, the company reports $5.38 billion in revenue, 79% from mobile advertising.

Apple may be working on a way to show friends your autocorrect mistakes, the Verge reported. Apple’s autocorrect mistakes or mine?

DeWalt, known as a drill maker, has introduced a rugged MD501 smartphone.

Vendors shipped a total of 334.9 million smartphones 1Q16 up slightly from the 334.3 million units in 1Q15, marking the smallest year over year growth on record: IDC.

Amazon is liable for in-app purchases made by kids, a court determined.

Apple pointed to 451 research saying that there's "94 percent customer satisfaction for Apple Watch." They didn’t ask me, but I would definitely be in the other camp.

Despite a “down quarter”, Apple sold 395 iPhones per minute.

Unlockd raised $12 million to lower one’s mobile phone bill in exchange for viewing ads.

In 2016 mobile payment transactions could total $27 billion, up 210%, IBM reported.

Walmart Canada’s responsive redesign has boosted conversion by 20%, according to the company.

Interesting stats from Forrester: only 37% of brands use mobile paid search advertising; just 23% have unique mobile content; and just over one in five send push notifications.

comScore found that for every $6 spent online shopping in the fourth quarter of 2015, one of those dollars was spent viaa mobile device.

 

Tagged with Apple, smombies, Facebook, DeWalt, Walmart.

May 1, 2016 by Jeff Hasen.
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - How McDonald's Views Choice As The Killer App

For 43 years, the slogan from McDonald’s said,  “You deserve a break today.” These days, when it comes to patrons accessing product information and offers, the quick service restaurant believes that we deserve choice. Despite an impressive 10 million mobile app downloads, McDonalds has installed kiosks in its restaurants, too, giving options to its customers beyond cellphones and the traditional information found on boards behind the cashiers.

An example of my Apple Watch frustration? A gate change that doesn't come with tap when that’s exactly what's needed. Now, you have to notice. And often don't.

Mobile captures 2 out of every 3 digital media minutes in the U.S., per comScore.

One in five U.S. households have bought groceries online in the past month, according to eMarketer.

Apple will likely sell its one billionth iPhone later this year.

This is permission-based, but still raised more than one eyebrow - when you open the Domino’s app, it automatically sends you a pizza unless you cancel within 10 seconds.

78% of food shoppers say they want to save as much money as possible via mobile, according to Gfk. This is one constant in wireless era – pre-recession, during recession, post-recession, people want deals.

75% of consumers say relevancy matters when it comes to the rewards that businesses provide: Colloquy. The others didn't understand the question?

British mobile phone users’ movements could be sold for profit, as reported in The Guardian. That brings worries that location data will be used by criminals.

10 million did their taxes on mobile last year with Intuit.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says that the secret to a harmonious life is to stop obsessing over your smartphone. Many of us know this but won't/can't/don't believe that we can do anything about it.

Native ads will make up 63% of mobile display ad spend by 2020, a Facebook & IHS study finds.

52% of users view push messages as annoying, according to Localytics. Better practices, more value and education are keys to improving that number.

My eye doctor was appalled when I told him that his vendor was sending appointment text reminders at 4 a.m. to people who haven’t opted in. We will see if anything changes.

Tagged with Apple Watch, McDonald's, Apple, iPhone, Dominos.

April 10, 2016 by Jeff Hasen.
  • April 10, 2016
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Smartphone/Rubber Ducky Combo For That Special Someone

A soap-proof, washable phone from Kyocera has a rubber ducky stand to prop it up on. My search for the perfect holiday gift is over. Rub-a-dub-dub.

According to IBM, 27.6 % of online Cyber Monday sales were reportedly accomplished from a mobile device.

United Airlines will equip 6,000+ customer service reps with iPhones.

Expedia ran Black Friday deals in its app that sold out in 7 minutes, according to the company.

Global smartphone shipments should see their first full year of single-digit growth worldwide in 2015 after years of double-digit growth: IDC.

82% of consumers aware of IoT devices don't trust them, per Google Consumer Surveys for Auth0, an identify platform company.

Black Friday shoppers spent on average 5 hours at the mall: Foursquare.

WiFi reportedly could slow down because of your Christmas lights. My reaction? "Have yourself a @gogo like Christmas"

79% of smartphone users feel their phones make them feel productive; 57% say distracted: Pew.

I saw a promoted tweet for lab coats and scrubs. I haven't even played a doctor on TV.

Disney announced that ESPN has lost 7 million subscribers due to cord cutting.

All these years later and many businesses still don't get that you need to opt someone in to send them a marketing SMS message. There are big financial penalties for such violations. Watch for some lawsuits.

I’m not ready to rely on voice recognition in 2016. I asked for directions home via my iPhone and Siri said, "I can't go back in time". WTF?

As dumb as they may seem, I still believe selfie sticks put smiles on faces and have a place in holiday memory-making.

My 86-year-old mother-in-law came to visit armed with two flash drives. The times, they are a'changin.

Mobile drove nearly half of all paid search clicks and over half on the key Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping days, Kenshoo reported.

Tagged with Expedia, IBM, Gogo.

December 6, 2015 by Jeff Hasen.
  • December 6, 2015
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - How Expanding Twitter Beyond 140 Characters Will Work Against Us

Twitter is looking to expand the 140-character limit with a new product, according to multiple reports. Sigh. I’m gearing up for 900-word essays on morning runs and lunch sandwich selections. Psst- here’s a lesson that I learned as reporter: "They settled World War II in 600 words". Stick to 140 characters. Or fewer.

Digital channels will influence 64% of holiday purchases, per Deloitte. In a year with only minor upgrades, Apple sold 13 million iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s units on its first weekend.

From Apple CEO Tim Cook -- “There’s no doubt in my mind the best companies will be the most mobile.”

Those 35 and younger are three times more likely to consume video on smartphone, PC or tablet than on an actual TV, according to Tout.

More than 20 percent of Americans use wearables – Forrester.

Gartner: 89% of marketers say they expect to compete primarily on the customer experience by 2016.

“Ad blocking is a definitive sign that marketers have to get our butt in gear" -- AOL CEO Tim Armstrong.

Sheryl Sandberg told TV ad buyers that Facebook has a “Super Bowl on mobile” every day.

Facebook says it now has 2.5 million advertisers, up a half-million in the last six months.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Adblock Plus will allow an independent board to decide which ads are “acceptable” and allowed through its filter. Should be called “Adwesortablock”.

The average American spends almost 80% of time in their top three mobile apps: comScore.

Amazon, believed to know more about us than any other entity, sent me a burger offer. I haven't had one in over 20 years.

Pfizer introduced a smoking cessation research app.

Selfies have caused more deaths this year than shark attacks.

WebMD users can see their daily medication schedules right on their AppleWatch wrists.

Radar has turned the smartphone into a baseball speed detector: Engadget.

Tagged with Twitter, Apple, iphone, Facebook.

October 4, 2015 by Jeff Hasen.
  • October 4, 2015
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A Fan Boy No More

I never have exhibited the obvious signs of being an Apple fan boy – getting the company’s logo cut into my hair or having a Mac Mini serve as my toilet paper holder, for instance – but any review of my writings or tweets suggest that I have had more than a passing fancy for what comes out of Cupertino.

And I’m hardly alone.

There is so much trust in the Apple brand that it ranks first on the prestigious Most Valuable Brand list created each year by Forbes.

Even in my hometown of Seattle, where Microsoft has created loads of job opportunity and upped housing prices, Apple is the standard. That’s on display every day in the Bellevue Square mall where traffic is brisk in and out of the Apple Store while the Microsoft Store can often record visits in a single hour on fewer than 10 fingers.

I’ve owned no mobile phone but an iPhone since V1 was introduced in 2007. I’ve rushed to buy a new version at exactly the time each year when my carrier contract allowed for one. More than once, I have committed even before I could eyeball or touch one.

In the last decade, my purchases just for me have included two iPads, four Macbooks or Macbook Airs, and an Apple Watch.

But something changed for me this year. Or maybe it’s the fact that something changed with Apple.

The company that has defined dependable underdelivered. And, worse, it has made no apologies about it.

Specifically, in a bad way, its Apple Watch turned back time, producing an experience for me that was vintage BlackBerry 2004. Tasks have timed out. Buffering has felt as long as an Alaska summer day and night. Notifications have come at inexplicable times, like the requests to stand up while I was barreling down the freeway at 65 miles an hour.  

Some apps, including OpenTable’s, will not update. Even worse, on one occasion, I suspect that an effort to communicate with the app caused the battery on my Apple Watch to be depleted in less than an hour.

This isn’t the Apple that I know or want.

It was with through that lens that I listened in on this week’s Apple announcements.

--  Live Photos that have been positioned as a reinvention of the way we take and view pictures

-- 3D Touch that will change how we get in and out of mail, messages, apps, and more

-- Claims about the “revolutionary”Apple TV that reminded me of HBO’s ad campaign of several years ago. It’s Not TV. It’s HBO.

-- Even more dependence on Siri, which had been Apple’s biggest miss until Apple Watch came on the scene

-- A pencil that looks, smells, and writes like a stylus, yet is supposed to be so much more.

I’m not buying any of it. The age of innocence is over.

In the hours after Apple’s event, T-Mobile CEO John Legere texted, “Pre-order for the new #iphone starts at 12:01am on September 12. #getready #setyouralarm”

Ummm, nope. Those of you taking to his site or to apple.com at that hour will have one less competitor to be first with a new device.

Apple has built up so much good will, and has risen to the occasion much more often that not, that it certainly remains in the lead position when I’m considering new products.

But it has no lock on my thinking or my money. If that puts me in the former fan boy category, so be it.

Tagged with Apple, Apple Watch, iphone, Macbook.

September 11, 2015 by Jeff Hasen.
  • September 11, 2015
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - A Selfie Tsunami Is Just Ahead

iOS9, coming this fall, will put all of one's selfies in an album. I can see a massive increase in social sharing - "Here's when I was in the park." "Here's when the traffic light made me late for work". Help us.

Subway's new app gives customers the ability to build a custom sandwich and pay in advance via PayPal.

On average, each U.S. household will spend approximately $3800 on access and devices in 2015, per industry analyst Chetan Sharma.

More from his report:

U.S. consumers will spend more on wearables than feature phones in 2015.

The total number of connected devices around the world will reach 16 billion by the end of 2015.

Apple brings AT&T, Sprint Wi-Fi calling to iOS 9, per several reports.

Interesting stats given new competition with Apple Watch: Fitbit sold 4.5 million devices last quarter, with revenues up 235 percent from a year ago. That likely speaks more of the category growth than a choice over the Apple product.

49% of teens say that texting is the preferred way to get in touch with a close friend, according to a Pew report. Social media is second (20%), following by calling (13%).

CBS says Super Bowl ads are selling for $5 million per 30 seconds. Advertisers told Variety that the cost is between $4.5 million and $4.7 million. Regardless, is this year for a true mobile call to action in a spot? All we need is one big success to open the gates.

In the second quarter of 2015, approximately 58% of American smartphone owners also have a tablet (Kantar). Among iPhone owners, the number of tablet owners jumps to 65%.

Seen on bgr.com – “Upcoming new iPhone feature could make you fall in love with Siri all over again." My reaction? When were we smitten the first time?

Tagged with iOS 9, Apple, Subway, selfie.

August 9, 2015 by Jeff Hasen.
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Facing A Life of Paying By Selfie

MasterCard is testing an app that lets customers pay with a selfie. Facial recognition enables the app to verify one’s identity. After registering, users would be able to pay by looking at their phone and blinking once. The blink prevents thieves from showing the app a picture of a face to get around the system.

For those uncomfortable with this, the app can read one’s fingerprint. Or, of course, one can pay with cash.

45% of smartphone owners begin with Amazon when shopping on a smartphone, according to a survey by Mizuho Securities. Google is in the runner-up slot with 16%.

But when it comes to searching for information, 34% begin with the Google search app, followed by 27% typing into the Safari browser, and 19% beginning with the Chrome browser.

An example of the need for more personalization in mobile – I received a text offer for a brown sugar bacon sandwich. Totally random.

The third quarter of 2015 begins and Gogo is still at dialup speed. I’m told by someone in the know that they raised their prices significantly to discourage usage while still making their overall business goal by gouging the poor suckers who use the crappy service.

What is one to do about an Apple Watch tan line. I’m surprised that CNN hasn’t covered this phenomenon and dubbed it Breaking News.

Matti Makkonen, considered the father of SMS, died at 63. He made an enormous contribution to mobile and to marketing. Despite proven results, text messaging is often too quickly dismissed by marketers.

To the next person who uses appsolutely - pow.

Facebook is giving marketers the option of paying for video ads after 10 seconds of viewing instead of three, per the Wall Street Journal.

A diet-based video game claims to make you thinner. Fat chance.

A man claimed that his iPhone 6 overheated, burst into flames. These stories almost always turn out to be hoaxes.

China’s Huawei introduced a phone with a dancing piece of pizza. I’m figuring that it was something about wanting a slice of the market.

Tagged with selfie, MasterCard, apps, Google, Gogo, CNN.

July 6, 2015 by Jeff Hasen.
  • July 6, 2015
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Will A Coming Ad-Blocking Option Limit Mobile Advertising?

With an ad-blocking option coming with iOS 9, some headlines have suggested that Apple will be taking a big bite out of the mobile advertising opportunity for marketers. The truth is that it’s too soon to tell.

For background, apps will be able to include “content blocker” extensions that define resources (like images and scripts) for Safari to not load. The biggest question is whether users will proactively elect to install and use the blockers. If they do, the thinking goes that fewer ads will be seen on Apple devices and the business return on ad spend in the channel will suffer.

But as a Forrester analyst and others have pointed out, it has taken massive security breaches involving worms, viruses and malware for consumers to take note of options to “protect” their environment. And, in alarmingly large numbers, users have ignored the calls to act.

The same is likely here.

Dads are four times more likely to buy things for their families via mobile than the average consumer: Millennial Media.

You can now order a pizza via a text message. Dominos is smartly giving consumers another purchasing choice and another reason to join its loyalty club.

In the last minute and in the next, 3.6 million texts will be exchanged by U.S. mobile users. Brands, it’s time to consider use of SMS-based loyalty clubs.

Apps are responsible for 42% of all mobile sales by the top 500 retailers, per Go-Globe.

Study: 99% of users ignore share buttons on mobile – Moovweb.

86% of consumers discover new brands or services thru their mobile device, according to Accenture.

On June 14, nine of the top 10 purchases on eBay occurred on mobile devices, totaling more than $1.7 million in transactions.

A Heinz QR code directed users to porn.

37% of users will think less of brand if its mobile app crashes or causes errors, per Dimensional Research.

20% are supposedly buying a spare band for Apple Watch. Me? I'm still trying to get fair value for what I spent.

Users get 14 times more views with a profile photo on LinkedIn than without.

60% of SMBs plan to purchase newspaper advertising, most allocating 20% their budget to newspapers: Borrell.

Starbucks Mobile Order & Pay has expanded to 3,400 additional U.S. stores.

Amazon is considering paying ordinary people to deliver packages. There’s a future for me.

Tagged with Apple, iOS 9, Forrester, Millennial Media, Dominos.

June 21, 2015 by Jeff Hasen.
  • June 21, 2015
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  • iOS 9
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Life With An Apple Watch - Too Personal and Lacking Benefits

To continue to call the mobile phone my most personal device is to ignore the You Did It notification that I received on my new Apple Watch while I was in front of a urinal.

Whoa, even double whoa, I thought at that moment, before I silently thanked the Apple developers in Cupertino for the positive reinforcement.

I now know that particular notification conveyed the fact that I had reached a stand-up goal set by my Apple Watch. But for the newbie, it did seem random and ill-timed.

And there has been more where that came from.

To sum up my first 10 days with Apple Watch, it has been about making time rather than saving it.

Simply and unequivocally, the user experience isn’t intuitive. That forces you to either seek out and read a long user guide or muddle through wondering when is the moment for the ballyhooed Force Touch, a swipe to the left, or a click or two or three of the newly-introduced-to-us Digital Crown.

Out of the box, my Apple Watch failed to tap my wrist and mirror my iPhone when a text message or email arrived. Ninety minutes and two Geniuses from the Apple Store later, a supposed software problem had been identified and solved and I was sent on my way with Mickey Mouse tapping a big foot on the watch face.

As I wrote in this space last month after ordering the device, one of the supposed benefits of receiving notifications on your wrist is the unmatched ability to inconspicuously sneak a look at information without having to pull out a smartphone.

But unless you want a push every time something in a game changes – heck, teams typically combine for more than 200 points in an NBA game – you are left to grab the info off of a Glance. It isn’t unnoticed by your companions when you have to stroke a finger up the watch to get to Glances, then move from one “snack” of information (say, a flight arrival) to another to see if the Clippers have blown another lead.

Many of us have been drawn to Apple Watch for its health monitoring capabilities. But context is absent and what is necessary.

On a cross-country flight last week, my heartbeat reading showed 94 and a fellow passenger with more of a medical background than me – that group is 98 percent of the population – went quiet when he saw the 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 and I was in the low 60s.

That episode reminded me of the time two 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?

I’ve read more than my share of Apple Watch reviews. In many cases, users have experienced “light bulb” moments where the benefits of the wearable become apparent.

To date, I deem the information on my wrist to either be redundant or at most in the “nice to know” category. We’ve repeatedly said that our smartphones are within four feet of us nearly 24 hours a day. So it’s not like the Apple Watch has opened up a view on the world that has been missing or inaccessible.

Apple may very well have my back. At some point, I might see that and salute the company with my own version of “You Did It”. But now isn’t the time.

(article first appeared on iMediaconnection.com - http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2015/05/19/life-with-an-apple-watch-too-personal-and-lacking-benefits/)

Tagged with Apple, Apple Watch, Fitbit.

May 19, 2015 by Jeff Hasen.
  • May 19, 2015
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - What The Latest mCommerce Numbers Tell Us

1.6% of total U.S. retail sales in the United States this year will be made directly from mobile devices, per eMarketer. Only 1.6%, you say? That translates to $76.79 billion. This behavior will become more commonplace if reports are true that Google will soon add 'buy' buttons to mobile search results.

57% of small-business owners say establishing solid relationships is key: The Alternative Board. The other 43% don’t deserve to be in business given that thinking.

74% of mobile shoppers fine with not being identified in a store: RichRelevance.

If accurate, still 26% of the shopping dollars available are huge.

Macy’s found visitors to its mobile app apply offers 20 times more than mobile web or desktop visitors.

48.1% of UK doctors plan to use health data recorded via patients’ smartphones within 5 years; 10.2% already do, according to eMarketer.

As we gauge the pace of progress in personalization, how should I answer my wife when she asks why eHarmony puts promoted tweets are in my feed?

AOL earned $606 million on dial-up subscriptions last year. Those folks would enjoy the “speed” of a Gogo inflight connection.

The first demographic in the U.S. to pass 90% penetration of smartphones? Ages 18-24, according to comScore

Future TV sets “will look like a large iPad,” with a variety of apps: Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix

Surrounded by technology last week, I was amused to see a woman in the airport reading Knit Baby Afghans print magazine.

54% of millennials stop using a brand’s products after a poor mobile experience, Oracle says.

39 of the top 50 news sites are accessed most by mobile: comScore.

59% of 16-24 year olds in the UK say that they would miss their mobile more than TV, Ofcom reported. I would’ve guessed that number to be at least 80%.

Tagged with comscore, Google, eHarmony, Gogo, AOL, Oracle.

May 17, 2015 by Jeff Hasen.
  • May 17, 2015
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Ikea Brings New Meaning To "Charge It"

While the idea is noble, I have two problems with Ikea’s furniture that wirelessly charges devices. First, there is more than one charging standard and many phones will stay dead. Second, would there not be an electrical socket (or two or three) near the furniture? Isn’t the need more outside the home and office?

Selfie sticks are no longer welcome at the Smithsonian. From a new policy edict: “We encourage museum visitors to take selfies and share their experiences — and leave the selfie sticks in their bags.”

Do you want more battery life for your Apple Watch? The Reserve Strap is like a Mophie but it runs $249.

A security firm said that it found pre-installed malware on the Xiaomi Mi 4 smartphone.

A thousand new smartphones are shipped every 21.8 seconds, according to The Economist.

Google's wireless service will only work with the Nexus 6, per the Wall Street Journal.

Samsung has lost its “Next Big Thing” marketing chief. He had a humongous budget, but certainly got his company's products noticed.

77% of millennials have mobile-banked within the past month. 52% have done so at least four times: Lightspeed FSG.

More than 40% of all time spent on TV properties is on mobile, per comScore.

Target says that mobile accounts for 40% of its digital orders.

The most valuable users are acquired via mobile ads between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.: Fetch.

Mobile video ads will account for 26% of the U.S. video ad spend by end of the year, per eMarketer.

That Samsung Pay will be widely available is only part of the story of adoption. Consumers need education and assurance of security.

Almost 2 billion mobile phones were sold in 2014: Gartner. Google’s operating system was included on about 80% of all devices sold.

Tagged with Ikea, Apple Pay, Samsung, Samsung Pay, Google, Apple, iPhone.

March 8, 2015 by Jeff Hasen.
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - I Appsolutely Hate Made-Up Words

I’ll continue to take my mobile innovation in product, not words. I looked it up and it has been 22 years since someone first said phablet. And we still hate it.

Along those same lines, what’s fair treatment for someone who says appsolutely? Whatever you come up with, I’ll say that you are being too kind.

Google will begin ranking mobile-friendly sites higher starting April 21. Ready?

Can't say I've ever said yes to a promoted tweet asking for a follow. What's the return on those?

60% of retailers lack the data to personalize campaigns, per Colloquy. To me, the big problem is 75% of consumers expect it.

Stopped reading a headline that started Gogo Wi-Fi Gets More Expensive. Happened about a month after I stopped using the slower than you-know-what service.

What we knew to be true about Apple Pay – heavier users at JP Morgan Chase are younger and wealthier.

68% of ad requests included location data in 2014, up 58% since 2012 – Thinknear.

Spread ‘em. Apple Watch advertising covers 12 pages in Vogue. Supposedly cost $2.2 million.

In arguably the most connected city, San Francisco International Airport’s announcements are the loudest.  It’s smartphone notification followed by screaming. Stop it.

Groupon launches 10-15 experiments for each mobile release, and uses rigorous A/B testing model to help evolve the app: VentureBeat.

Smartphone penetration has increased to 75% in the United States. Roughly 95% of the devices sold are smartphones, per industry analyst Chetan Sharma.

24% of US shoppers scan bar codes or QR codes –GfK. Brands don't spend against this number and likely doubt that it's true.

One-third of B2B sales/marketing professionals say they've automated less than 25% of their processes, according to eMarketer.

The number of malicious mobile programs exceeded 12 million in Q4 2014: Kaspersky. And few one noticed or cared.

In a related note from Symantec: 57% of employees worldwide access corporate data in some form on a personal mobile device.

9 in 10 U.S. households had a landline phone in 2004. Now it's 53%, per CDC.

Those in the U.K. aged 16 to 24 years use their mobile device nearly four hours a day: The Economist.

Tagged with phablet, appsolutely, Google, Gogo.

March 1, 2015 by Jeff Hasen.
  • March 1, 2015
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Facing 2015 Head On

Touch ID is so 2014. Among the advancements expected at next week’s CES 2015 are additional mobile applications that combine biometrics and selfies to enable authentication and access. Hoyos Labs unveiled one 12 months ago or about the last time we attempted to log into a site and remembered both our user name and password. A faceoff is ahead with more competition and innovation.

Smartphones and tablets accounted for more than a third of online sales on Christmas Day as well as 57% of all online traffic: IBM. Those are big jumps vs. previous years.

Also, iOS sales were 4X Android sales on Christmas. That is consistent with Thanksgiving and recent holiday seasons.

Amazon: sales made from its smartphone app doubled this year: nearly 60% of customers shopped on a mobile device. Cyber Monday remained its busiest mobile shopping day of the year, with customers ordering 18 toys per second.

35% had troubles holiday shopping on mobile devices (SOASTA) in what was called "early stages" for retailers.

Tweet of the week: from @ChrisPirillo: BREAKING NEWS: Santa can't be tracked for the rest of Christmas because he had to turn off his GPS to save battery.

From The Verge’s review of the BlackBerry Classic: "The only problem with the screen is that you can't fit a big enough line of coke on it."

Only 12% of ages 18-29 say television would be hard to give up, according to Pew.

While I was out shopping, zero attention was given to Apple Pay at Macy’s’ point of sale. No signage or discussion from clerk. That's no way to speed up adoption.

Meanwhile, Apple Pay launched at Walt Disney World on Christmas Eve. Disneyland comes on in in 2015.

It was great to hear from Apple that a package I sent was on a truck for delivery. Not so great was getting a 5 a.m. text about it. Common sense, no?

Headline: Consumer Interest In Apple Watch Has Been Steadily Declining Since September. Is that a surprise given that it’s not on sale?

I received several impersonal holiday email, including one from FreeConferenceCall.com. Touching.

70% of executives surveyed, more than in the previous four polls, agree that mobile technology use invades time between work and leisure, per CNBC’s Mobile Elite report. Six in 10 access business content via their mobile device over the weekend. 

Tagged with Apple Pay, Apple, IBM, BlackBerry, Apple Watch.

December 28, 2014 by Jeff Hasen.
  • December 28, 2014
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Do Your Customers Practice "Click and Mortar"?

There are supposed mega dollars in same-day delivery, enough for Amazon, Google and others to make it a large emphasis. Among the hurdles is so-called "click and mortar”.  Who does that? As an example, 15% of target.com orders are picked up onsite with 80% being fulfilled within an hour.

Another behavior to keep an eye on with the same retailer - mobile app usage has increased 50% since Target rolled out in-store Wi-Fi.

A tweet I saw says that “cool kids buy shoes covered in poop”. It’s more evidence that Twitter is the land of never-ending learning. Aren’t you glad that I didn’t feature this one in the lead paragraph and accompany it with a picture?

About the argument about too many messages – a second one via beacons incents American Eagle Outfittter customers to try on clothes. The percentage who visited the fitting room area to try on clothes was more than double for those who received a beacon-enabled incentive offer versus for those users that did not.

Worldwide mobile device sales will hit 2.4 billion unit this year, Gartner says.

Starbucks “order-ahead” app will begin a test in Portland.

Retailers accepting Apple Pay at launch this week is a who's who. That was one of the battles. Customer usage is next.

Mobile will account for 44% of the programmatic ad spending this year, up to 56% next year, per eMarketer. The same source forecasts mobile ad spending to overtake desktop ad spending by 2016.

Fifty percent of marketers don't have a full understanding of their customer journey, according to an ANA/McKinsey study.

The "sweet" story of Bill Murray's recent first smartphone purchase of a BlackBerry couldn't be a paid endorsement, could it? Nah.

A tweet from Apple executive Craig Federighi – “News that Google will announce their new Nexus Tablet on Wed.  Hope they've got the 248 units they'll need  for opening weekend sales.” Ouch.

The mobile-only newspaper audience has doubled in the past year, eMarketer tells us.

We'll have zero bank tellers the same day we have a world with no cash. Never. There are no absolutes.

Tagged with Target, Apple, Starbucks, Apple Pay, Twitter.

October 19, 2014 by Jeff Hasen.
  • October 19, 2014
  • Jeff Hasen
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Beware of Self-Destructing Picture Apps

Have you heard about Xim from Microsoft, a so-called self-destructing photo app? It’s because the picture goes away over time, not because the images are of an act leading to one's downfall. I suppose that it could be both.

Download an app called Rest Room Gallery designed to show your artistic side while on the toilet. Then explain that to your wife. Ready. Go.

Is there bigger proof of the iPhone's allure than millions waiting for supply rather than buying something else? Last week, I went to an Apple Store that had received two units to sell for an entire day. And that was typical, according to an employee.

Tweet of the week? This one from @levie aka Aaron Levie, CEO of Box – “Jeff Bezos is opening a retail store and owns a newspaper. Turns out everything we thought about the Internet is wrong.”

As for my reaction to Amazon opening a physical store in NYC – the company is about selling stuff. The what remains the same here. This is just another how that will work out or won’t.

Over 65% of users use Facebook in a language other than English, the company says.

Half of the traffic on AT&T Wireless comes from YouTube & Netflix, the carrier reports.

With 7 billion mobile phones and a war chest to get things done, there is plenty of room for Google to create a messaging app that it hopes will rival WhatsApp.

Forrester says that mobile will be 40% of the online ad spend in 2015.

37% of SMBs claim that print newspaper ads are the best source for attracting customers, Borrell Associates tells us.

It has come to this for BlackBerry - Wall Street cheered an $11 million quarterly loss.

Digital video and mobile now make up 20% of Mondelēz's global spend, according to Adweek.

Tagged with Xim, Microsoft, Apple, iphone, Box, Amazon.

October 12, 2014 by Jeff Hasen.
  • October 12, 2014
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  • Microsoft
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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer: The "Just Shush Already" Edition

Twitter is testing a mute button to quiet your follows. This would be for temporary silence rather than a more final unfollow. Will hashtag be #shushalready?

I want a weather app to be simple. The latest ones are visually nice but make it harder to get basic info. Or is it just me?

Apple has 800 million iTunes accounts. The 800 million credit cards on file are more than any other company in the world.

And Apple says two-thirds of iPad registrations and one-half of iPhone registrations came from new users in the last quarter.

We're supposed to view wearables as inexact but needed? I don't understand that.

Sephora's mobile, online and in-store shoppers are 4X more valuable than single-channel shoppers, according to the company.

The reason why in-store mobile interaction is important to Walgreens? There are 45 million weekly in-store shoppers compared to 14 million online visitors.

More than 119 million people in the U.S. will watch video on tablets this year, eMarketer says.

Nielsen: The U.S. radio audience has hit an all-time high; 244 million (age 12+) listen to radio each week. The dummies said it was dying.

But the world is changing, of course – the average U.S. adult spends 5 hours 46 minutes with digital media - 2 hours and 51 minutes of that with mobile - per day, according to eMarketer.

80 percent of Twitter's advertising revenue now comes from mobile ad buys.

More from Nielsen: for the first time, a majority of Americans of all age groups own smartphones.

18-24 year olds are over 20% more likely to log onto Twitter via a mobile device.

70 percent of U.S. consumes will use a mobile device to redeem a discount in 2014, Accenture projects.

89 percent of mobile devices aren't recycled, according to Verizon.

Tagged with Twitter, Apple, iPad, Nielsen, smartphones.

May 4, 2014 by Jeff Hasen.
  • May 4, 2014
  • Jeff Hasen
  • Twitter
  • Apple
  • iPad
  • Nielsen
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