The Return of Notes From A Mobilized Marketer

Those who go back with me may recall that I regularly wrote and posted Notes From A Mobilized Marketer following the publication of my first book, Mobilized Marketing, in 2012.

And for those who go back -- way, way back with me -- you likely remember that I’m a former journalist who have always sought to find the interesting, especially those things that matter, and to be provocative in my writing.

The column went on hiatus as life got busier and attention turned elsewhere.

The break is over.

Why?

There are so many thoughts, questions, doubts, fears, and, on the many good days, hopes that it’s time to write more regularly. I know for sure that this Notes phase will be more personal than ever, and I’ll surely look to spark conversation again.

We need each other more than ever and I’m starting this effort up again not to spew but to share and hopefully to hear from you if something strikes a chord.

Let’s go.

On any given day, my emotions run from overcome to optimistic but there are way too many days when the mindset goes in reverse. I don’t have a handle on my psyche and I’ll bet that there are loads of us in the same place. What does this have to do about marketing? Everything. We are nothing without consumer insights. But today more than ever, labeling someone this or that fails to account for the fact that in a pandemic, in lots of ways, someone – your customer or prospect -- is this and that. …

The auto insurers knew enough to offer rebates given the minimal driving that we are doing. My inbox tells me that the car service companies, including those that primarily change oil, either don’t realize that our patterns have changed or are too stupid or programmatic to make the necessary adjustment. …

Some of the wisest communications that I’ve seen have come from Alaska Airlines who have regularly informed customers of steps it is taking to keep everyone safe. That’s hardly unique for an airline, but what did get me to notice was a new and very human video centered on the idea that Alaska Airlines will be there “when you are ready.” https://blog.alaskaair.com/coronavirus/alaska-airlines-coronavirus-supporting-guests-team/. No hard sell. No false conclusion that people will take to the skies at the same time. Instead, it was empathetic and real. And smart. …

So much has changed during COVID-19, but what hasn’t is that I fail to listen. Marketer and wise man Seth Godin told me and us on March 20 to stay away from social networks all the time, but especially these days. https://seths.blog/2020/03/calm-also-has-a-coefficient/. “Twitter has been engineered to maximize panic. Calm is penalized, panic is amplified.” I’ve had way too many days feeling panic from what I’ve seen on Twitter. My weak defense is that I’m a news junkie – I have been since I was first able to read – and that I have to live life in real time. During the pandemic, for me at least, it’s been a path to being upset and defeated. And it’s self-inflicted. I need to do better. Now. And that includes time on Facebook. …

You’ll be snockered in no time if you down a shot every you hear the term, “We live in unprecedented times” in a commercial during a night of television watching. This is neither a news flash nor an original or compelling thought …

It’s always about clicks, never more so than today. Coronavirus may come back stronger in the fall is as definitive as a 100-item menu, yet this is positioned as news just about every day on CNBC and elsewhere.

I’ve long held the belief that you need to revisit your marketing playbook every six months. These days, the conversations need to happen weekly.

In about the time that it takes to fly from Chicago to San Francisco, Frontier Airlines reversed its plan to charge passengers who wanted to guarantee that a middle seat would be empty. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/frontier-airlines-rescinds-middle-seat-pay-trnd/index.html. That the original idea saw the light of day is incredibly dumb. …

Until next time. Stay safe.

The Relatability of Human Achievement

This morning, I completed a 45-minute Tabata ride on my Peloton spinning bike. These rides, designed for twice as much effort time as recovery, have caused many to stop, cry, puke, or not even attempt them.

Minutes later, I learned that Eliud Kipchoge became the first human to run the 26.2 mile marathon distance in under two hours.

Of course, these two events aren’t comparable – I didn’t make history (but I also didn’t throw up) – but there is an important commonality when you consider the power of achievement.

As I wrote in my The Art of Digital Persuasion book, marketers have been wise to tap into moments that at first might seem as unrelated.

In 2017, Nike created Breaking2, an attempt for elite athletes to break the two-hour barrier for running a marathon. The number of people tuning in to the live stream on Twitter was nearly eight times higher than the broadcast audience of the New York, Boston and Chicago marathons. In total, 13.1 million watched the attempt live via Twitter, making it the company’s largest brand-powered, live-streaming event.

“It was cool because you saw all the tweets from the people who are watching on Twitter, “ Stacy Minero, Global Head of Twitter ArtHouse, told me. “And then you have this curated timeline where you had all these journalists and sports broadcasters weighing in minute by minute, weighing in on what was happening on screen.

“Breaking2 created a sense of urgency. I would say also anticipation because there's an outcome -- either the marathon record will be broken or not. You are driving tune in around this anticipation. They also used Twitter Tools. You can ‘heart’ to get a reminder when the race is going live or when key moments were happening.”

While you may never run at record pace or even get on a spinning bike and do what you believe isn’t possible, there is still lots to learn and apply from what occurred this morning.

Three Ways To Keep On Keeping On Despite Emerging Technology

Many of us have spent years, nearing decades, understanding the digital customer journey and motivations. We’ve done it well. Take a bow.

Then the world was upended. We now know that there are funny-looking objects on people’s nightstands and even on their heads.

Voice. Virtual reality. Artificial intelligence. Machine learning. Wearables.

Who asked for all of that?

If you believe that everything has changed for marketers, think again.

During interviews for my The Art of Digital Persuasion book, I learned that in many ways it is imperative to continue doing what you were doing despite the adoption of new technology. 

Be Human

Machines are propelling us to up our marketing games. But they aren’t replacing us. And they never well.

Consider this. In 2017, Nike created “Breaking2”, an attempt for elite athletes to break the two-hour barrier for running a marathon. The number of people tuning in to the live stream on Twitter was nearly eight times higher than the broadcast audience of the New York, Boston and Chicago marathons. In total, 13.1 million watched the attempt live via Twitter, making it the company’s largest brand-powered, live-streaming event.

Of course, most of us won’t attempt to run a two-hour marathon - or any marathon at all. But we can all relate to the effort to maximize human achievement. That’s what Nike bet on and won. 

Be Realistic

Understand that you can’t run a marathon, even in four hours, in flipflops.

“Everyone has to be relatively sober-minded when evaluating the possibility of a what might come in the future and realize that for all of us who are trying to predict what can happen in the future, we're all partially right and partially wrong,” Aaron Price, SVP of Global Marketing, Expedia told me.

In other words, give yourself a chance to succeed. But know that you will never be perfect. No one can be.

Drive Action

Involvement is everything. Regardless of the technology, seek to turn what might be a passive activity into one that your customers and prospects will see is interactive.

How? Interestingly, some brands have built upon the concept of user-generated content to entice customers to take part in user-generated product.

“If you think about Mayochup, which is a combination of mayonnaise and ketchup, Heinz put a Twitter poll out there and said if you get to 500,000 (participants), we're going to put these products on shelves in your local stores,” Stacy Minero, Head of Content Creation for Twitter, told me. “And that created a whole gamification of that campaign. And they got a billion (media) impressions within 48 hours.”

The lesson in all of this? Of course, see emerging technology for what it is – more screens, more interfaces, more complexity for marketers following or leading customers. But don’t think for a second that you should abandon what you know works.

Now What?

In 2015, I wrote The Art of Mobile Persuasion, a book about the relationships that people have with their mobile devices.

It’s safe to describe them then and now as intimate, engrossing and integral.

The central questions in The Art of Mobile Persuasion were whether brands have opportunities to get in on that action or is three a crowd?

Since then, some businesses have muffed the chance, taking an approach that has been deemed as invasive, impersonal, and/or offering no value. But others large and small have knocked gently, ingratiated themselves, brought something that was welcomed, and seen resulting increases in awareness, loyalty and sales.

To the former group, what were you thinking?

To the latter, we’re good now, right?

Well, no.

Why? The playing field has changed.

Our nurtured customers and prospects are now being wooed by other means.

Though voice interfaces.

And wearables.

Smart appliances, even toilets.

And OTT (over the top) devices.

Virtual and mixed reality software and hardware.

And the list goes on. There’s every reason to believe that the pulls for attention will grow this year, next year, and every year after that.

Of course, this brings with it all sorts of complications.

·      Where will we find our customers and prospects?

·      Where we do want to lead them and what must they find when they get there?

·      How does all of this innovation affect the customer journey?

·      If personalization is the so-called North Star, how do we deliver this on the screens and interfaces of today – and the ones surely coming behind those?

And how does the relationship that your brand has steadily built with customers via the mobile phone survive, evolve, and thrive when eyes and ears are drawn to even more places?

In my new book The Art of Digital Persuasion, the conversation broadens to today’s interfaces, devices, behaviors and technologies.

I again have had the pleasure and privilege of visiting with some of the sharpest marketers and other business leaders that one can identify. I sought out real-world experience, perspective, and advice to give us the knowledge, skills and confidence that we all need to do our jobs -- and, in many cases, to reimagine our current outdated positions given these upended times.

I share what leaders from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, ESPN, and others are doing and thinking to address the core question of the new book:

Now what?

The book is now available on Amazon. https://amzn.to/2G4CrCu

 I hope that you’ll give it a look and take the time to learn from these experts just as I have.

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.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Answer To Mobile's ROI Is A Shrug?

About half of marketers and agencies are not measuring mobile ROI, eMarketer said. A shrug of the shoulders is the answer to the question by the clients or senior management of how we're doing? My question for you – what will you do next after you are moved out?

Half of Pinterest’s users are outside the U.S., the company says.

58% of customer service teams view social media inquiries as their top challenge, Forbes reported.

44% of U.S. online shoppers start the buying process with Amazon, per BloomReach.

Nearly 8 out of every 9 minutes occurs within a user’s top five apps: comScore.

On Twitter, videos are retweeted 6x more than photos. Also, 90% of video views on Twitter are from mobile devices.

More than half of all Google searches now happen on mobile devices.

CEO John Chen said that BlackBerry may quit the handset business if it the company is not profitable in a year.

eMarketer says that approximately 2 billion people have smartphones today. Another 150-200 million will buy their first in each of the next 3 years.

Americans spend 2+ hours a day on smartphone apps: comScore.

A headline proclaimed that mobile is "marketers' magic bullet". We haven't gotten more sophisticated than that hype nonsense?

54% are willing to end a relationship with a brand if they are not reached with personalization, according to Razorfish’s Jeremy Lockhorn.

Several more from Jeremy:

-- 46% of consumers will purchase more if you personalize across channel

-- 83% of consumers expect you to know them across channels and devices

-- there is a 1% conversion rate for smartphones, a third of the PC rate

-- 55% of marketers are using cross-channel technology to create single view of customer

Microsoft says that Surface is now a $3.5 billion business. Still, NFL announcers mistake them for iPads.

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.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Takeaways From An Eye-Opening Report on E-Mail Opens

The migration to mobile has resembled a stampede, but when it comes to email, many more that we have been led to believe rely on the desktop than the wireless device.

North American data from Experian Marketing Services for the second quarter of 2015 showed that overall, 48% of all emails sent by Experian clients were opened on the desktop, while 40% were opened on mobile phones or ereaders, and 12% on tablets. eMarketer said.

A deeper drive showed these numbers: in the business products and services industry, 73% of emails were viewed on the desktop—and the tablet open share was just half the average. Publishers, media and entertainment companies and travel firms all had slightly higher-than-average open shares on the desktop, while publishers and travel firms reported lower-than-average open shares on mobile phones.

On average, 62% of clicks came on the desktop—14 percentage points ahead of the desktop share of opens. Mobile phones saw 30% of clicks, as opposed to 40% of opens. The desktop was the biggest source of email clicks for every industry.

That’s all a bit eye-opening.

Facebook is working with schools on a personalized learning app that may be offered for free, Engadget reported.

Any Apple Watch owners even a bit less excited about this week's Apple announcements given their experience with the watch? I am in that camp.

A tweet said that fitness trackers may catch on with cows. I wonder how many units will moo-ve.

Ericsson says that the number of consumers watching video on smartphones is up 71% since 2012 across all ages.

Picture this: a couple took a “divorce selfie” and President Obama snapped one during an Alaska trip.

I’m touched every time that I see an automated thanks for the Twitter follow.

I received this advice in a promoted tweet - stop messaging women and start meeting women. It was my nominee for dumb-ass targeting.  Why? I’ve been married 25 years and plan to be married 25 more.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Taking A Selfie Can Lead To Death. And That's No Bull.

A man died after being gored by a bull in Spain while taking a selfie. The Mirror reported that Spaniard David González Lopez, 32, had his back to the bulls while trying to record the run. He did not see the one that attacked him until it was too late.

“It’s a tragic and stupid death,” Mayoress Elena Fernandez told the newspaper.

Periscope reports that it has 10 million users and the equivalent of 40 years of video is watched each day.

Every minute, Americans exchange 3.6 million text messages and send and receive more than 289,000 photos and videos via MMS, per CTIA.

I disagree with headline saying The Further of Consumer Marketing Is Personal. It's actually the present. Anything less today falls short.

88% of teens say people share too much about themselves online, according to Pew.

Instagram mobile ad revenues will reach $2.81 billion worldwide in 2017, eMarketer forecasts.

Samsung Pay will launch in the U.S. on Sept. 28. Also, Rite Aid reversed course and said that it has begun accepting Apple Pay and Google Wallet. The significance? Something short of cash being gone by the following Tuesday.

Is phygical the worst buzzword I've heard recently? Appsolutely.

On Twitter, I was added to an applewatchlovers list. I wouldn't describe myself that way even under most broad term possible.

I have a record of zero success getting usable walking directions via Apple Watch. The latest was last week in Virginia --it turns out that I needed to take a 5-minute walk. Apple Watch told me it would take 90 minutes.

HTC has cut 15 percent of jobs due to dwindling sales.

Android user loyalty has surpassed the iPhone: Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Now We Need To View Minutiae Via Live Video Apps?

I’ve long asked why we need to know via Facebook minutiae like a school bus caused a delay in someone's commute. Now we're supposed to watch live video of it on Meerkat or Periscope?

In a related note, 85% of mobile sharing happens on Facebook, per ShareThis.

I’m a couple of weeks away from saying that I was so unconnected before Apple Watch. Well, not exactly.

According to Nielsen, 146 million watched video on the Internet, and 164 million people used an app/web on a smartphone in the fourth quarter of 2014.

An unwanted promoted tweet says "goodbye to clutter". What irony.

Mobile devices generate 25% of all digital travel transactions in the U.S., Criteo says.

Drexel University has installed an iPad rental vending machine for students, library card holders.

Slightly over a third of smartphone buyers in the past three months were first-timers, Kantar reports.

The activity that more smartphone users do than any other? Apps? No. Web? No. Picture taking? No. Text message? You got it, per Pew.

61% of ESPN’s visitors are mobile only. There will be tons on the ramifications of this for marketers in my upcoming book, The Art of Mobile Persuasion. 

The New York Times will publish “one-sentence stories” on Apple Watch.

To those who readily lead with mobile first, advertisers spent $1.13 billion on TV ads during March Madness.

Only 27% of marketers have bought mobile ads programmatically: IAB.

An eMarketer report estimates that global mobile ad spending will rise to $100 billion by 2016, a 400% increase from 2013.

For every $1 spent on the mobile web, $3 is spent via apps.

I appreciate the Facebook-suggested post from seniorpeoplemeet.com. She needs a boyfriend. I need better targeting.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - How RadioShack's Mobile Strategy Led To Its Downfall

In doing research for my upcoming book, I learned that while many were too slow when it comes to mobile, RadioShack actually moved too fast. In 2009, it abandoned its core do-it-yourself customer in favor of mobility products.

"We completely pissed them off," Chief Marketing Officer Lee Applbaum said of the retailer's core DIY customers, who are (or now were) 55 year old Caucausian males with jobs or interest in engineering. "We had turned our back and were ignoring them. We had alienated the very consumer that had given us that core credibility in electronics."

As the mobility business grew, RadioShack’s core business fell from 38% of sales in 2009 to 32% in 2010. And despite going back to its roots, the drop continued all the way to bankruptcy.

More notes:

Thanksgiving was highest sales day during the holiday season for REI mobile properties. But Christmas Day saw the most traffic.

Just one-third of mobile users will buy apps in 2015, per eMarketer.

Tweet of the week from @BillGates – “Today, 2 billion people don’t have a bank account.  In 15 years they’ll be making payments with their phones”.

Only 47% of retail brands engage on Twitter when tagged in an @ mention, according to Brandwatch.

62% of consumers expect a brand to have a mobile-friendly website, 42% mobile app, 23% location-specific experience, says Forrester.

Tablet shipments fell 12% last quarter, its first-ever decline: Canalys.

Twitter says 36,048,635 tweets about the Super Bowl were viewed 2,500,732,548 times.

Apple Stores reportedly will be outfitted with safes to protect gold Apple Watches. No price has been given. Speculation centers on these being priced at several thousand dollars each.

Mobile will account for half of all U.S. digital commerce revenue within two years, per Gartner.

61% of mobile consumers want to call a business when making their purchasing decision, according to Marchex.

Facebook served 65% fewer ads last quarter but cost per ad was up 335%.

More than half a billion users only access Facebook from mobile.

Panera: 80% of mobile payments are from Apple Pay.

Meanwhile, Apple Pay is said to be coming to 200,000 vending machines, kiosks, paid parking, other self-serve locations.

Headline on TechCrunch - Microsoft Faces Stiff Mobile Challenge. Me - the things you learn on the net.

Starbucks' mobile app payments now represent 16% of all Starbucks transactions: Fast Company.

Last year, mobile apps generated the most revenue in Japan, South Korea and the U.S., says App Annie.

93% of all U.S. app downloads in 2014 were organic, down slightly from 95% in 2011 according to Flurry.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Curves of All Kinds Were On Display At CES

There were lots of curves at CES - no, not those kind. OK, those kind, too, but curved screens caught my eye. Supposedly they help eye strain. The other curves cause it.

Holiday shoppers tweeted more than 28 million mentions about their gift purchases - up 8% year over year – SAP.

Lots of new interesting numbers from Pew -- Almost half (49 percent) of Instagram users are on the platform daily; 52 percent of online adults now use two or more social media sites, a significant increase from 2013; Facebook is still the most popular, but other platforms have seen a higher growth rate.

Despite slowing growth, tablets will pass the 1 billion mark in 2015, per eMarketer.

If your, ummm, behind is your best side, and, you want to, ummm, share it, you may like the Belfie Stick.

From a man on the street - actually a cabbie in Las Vegas, on the prospect of a smart refrigerator alerting him when low on milk or beer: "Why would I want that?"

There was signage at CES for a $33 Android tablet. That follows talk of a $25 smartphone.

58 percent prefer to look up info on mobile device while shopping, rather than talk to an in-store employee, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

64 cents is the average consumer cost for cable per hour of entertainment, per Flurry. 18 cents for mobile.

Also from Flurry: app usage grew 76 percent in 2014 with shopping apps leading the way.

More surprising than seeing a large RCA presence at CES was news that it introduced new mobile devices.

Uber has been sued for allegedly violating TCPA rules and sending unwanted text messages.

From Nestle’s Pete Blackshaw: "Don't overthink it. Have simplicity in messaging, good search on your mobile website, plus sharing."

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Assessing An App That Predicts The Second That You Will Die

The new Deadline app guesstimates your death day for you. I’m not sure why anyone would want this, but similar “forecasting” has been available online for years. But with this app, you can set up notifications to view a countdown clock to the second of your supposed departure from Earth. Just ate French fries? Whoops, there went another 12 minutes.

In Virginia, cops can force you to unlock an iPhone with Touch ID, but can't ask for your passcode, according to Engadget.

83% of U.S. consumers now stream TV, up from 74% a year ago: Magid.

Tweet of the week – from @jefftiedrich: Instagram is down. Can I come over and look at your food?

Half of YouTube's traffic is now from mobile.

A third who bought a wearable in the past year no longer use the device regularly, according to PwC. Is it a success that two thirds still do? I’d say so.

Facebook now makes 66% of its money from mobile.

“Expose” on bgr.com says that Tim Cook works hard at Apple and expects other to work hard, too. News here?

70% of consumers delete an email immediately if it doesn’t render properly on their mobile device, per Blue Hornet.

Mobile offers are redeemed 10 times more frequently than print offers, according to eMarketer.

Saying that it is not moving fast enough, Twitter has replaced its CFO, COO, and VPs of media, engineering and product — all in the past six months.

Dubbed Shazam for birds, an app called Warblr is able to identify a bird’s species by comparing sounds that users record to previously recorded birdsongs.

According to CEO Howard Schultz, the Starbucks app processed $1.17 billion in 2013, and the company has already processed nearly $1.4 billion in 2014. It is expected to reach $2 billion by the end of the year.

Next year should be even better - in the second half of next year, customers in select markets will be able to use the mobile ordering and payment app to have food and drinks delivered.

China has 600 million mobile uses (2X the U.S. population).

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.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer: Picturing A Chief Instragram Officer Position

Picture this: a C-level job for taking photographs and uploading them. The Hillside Beach Club Resort in Turkey, which is a Hilton location, is hiring a "Chief Instagram Officer". I’m guessing that the only dough tied to this will come from the pastry chef readying the CIO for the day.

Via WatchESPN, 2 million devices watched the World Cup, NBA Finals and/or U.S. Open last Thursday. It’s a new record for a day.

Two of five Hispanic Millennials are mobile-only Internet users, comScore says.

Here’s a stat that I don’t believe - 85 percent of consumers expect to turn to a mobile app first for customer service over the next year. It came from Portio Research.

I enjoyed this tweet from respected mobile analyst Ross Rubin  - “Though I must say the colors on the Galaxy Tab S are more saturated than the fats in Cheesecake Factory menu items.”

There are smartphones as cheap as $25 in India and Indonesia, powered by Mozilla's Firefox. One quarter of the population worldwide will use a smartphone this year. Nine countries will surpass 50% smartphone penetration this year, eMarketer says. 

I believe that this is a great point from a Google executive speaking at SMX - asking a user on your mobile site to install your app is like asking a girl to be your girlfriend right after you introduce yourself.

There's an app to find where 1 or more of the 6 Oscar Mayer Weinermobiles are. You're welcome.

One in 5 mobile apps is run just once, according to Localytics. That’s low, but better than it used to be.

There is a smart hoodie sweatshirt that can post to Facebook and send text messages. Help us.

I have carried an iPhone since v1 in 2007.  I have not woken up one day hoping for a larger version. Have you?

I know that there are other "solutions" coming, but I’m shocked we're at this place with consistently inadequate and expensive in-flight WiFi via Gogo.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Making Sense of The Mobile Wallet Hype

One in 5 mobile handsets will have mobile wallet functionality by 2018, per Juniper Research. Functionality means squat without usage.

I have long said that we don't live in world of absolutes - no, tablets haven't become irrelevant. As far as the latest statistics, 18.5% of all marketing emails were opened on a tablet in Q1 2014, up 5% in 9 months.

A mobile vendor that I won't name (I have friends there) sent me email starting Dear Maryann. And they sell the concept of personalization.

72% of all tweets about a sporting event on TV is tweeted by someone under 35 years old (Nielsen).

Headline: Hispanic Consumers Embrace Mobile Technology. It's one thing in the industry that hasn't changed since I got in in 2005.

I saw where Fitbit has 50% of the world’s wearable market. Yeah, but we’re in second inning.

There’s news that Verizon is about to target its subscribers with ads. No one has more data on users than the carriers.

Facebook has launched new Shazam-like features. The jury is out on whether a big number of users want to access information this way.

YouTube reaches more 18-34 year olds than any cable network.

Citi saw the growth of mobile banking go from 22% to 59% in two years.

Gartner says that the global spend on mobile ads is expected to hit 18 billion, an increase from the estimated $13.1 billion last year.

15% of all e-commerce sales are estimated to come from mobile, McKinsey reports.

Tweet from Bill Murray – “Nuns in wheelchairs = Virgin mobile.”

Houston first responders and doctors in dispatch centers are using tablets in treatment of patients who don't need an emergency room trip.

A final few words from Arianna Huffington - "We take better care of our smartphones than we do ourselves." Are you guilty as charged?

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.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Of WhatsAppitis and More Pictures of Little Jimmy

Can tapping out mobile messages damage your health? A Granada doctor diagnosed sore wrists as WhatsAppitis. The treatment was "complete abstinence from using the phone to send messages," along with anti-inflammatory drugs.

Twitter now allows picture tagging, up to 4 photos per tweet. Did you see my kid in his hat. And with his sister?

50 percent of users say mobile is the first and last thing they touch when awake. There are punchlines galore. Just not going there.

By 2015, 43 percent of business tablet users will print from mobile devices, HP says. What’s taking so long?

Mobile advertising and search investments by marketers are forecast to increase an average 55 percent annually in 2014, according to Jack Myers.

Millennial Media ‏says that mobile rich media can increase click-through rates by as much as 350 percent over standard banners.

Nineteen percent of Google’s ad revenue came from mobile search ads in 2013 with eMarketer projecting that it will rise to 30 percent over the next three years.

Rankings are subjective by nature but Amazon is only No. 18 on Fast Company’s most innovative list?

My Fitbit Force is being returned due to recall. Actually, that’s great news since innovation is happening fast in the wearables category. Will get more for less.

BlackBerry beat quarterly expectations and made progress on its turnaround. Who expected that?

LinkedIn profiles with images are 11 times more likely to be viewed than those without. I would’ve guessed 50-1.

Headline asked if sales of high-end smartphones have peaked. You get more today for less. That’s not hard to understand.

Report: Sprint to launch HD Voice nationwide by July. Voice is the killer app? In 2014?

Instagram now has 200 million users, including 50 million in the last six months.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer: The "Invasion of the Wacky Insurance Woman" Edition

My tweet stream has been commandeered by marketers when I see the "consciousness" from Flo of Progressive Insurance.

Still wondering if there has been a meaningful migration of marketing dollars to mobile? Google will lose $1.4 billion in PC revenue this year as search shifts to mobile, according to eMarketer.

iOS bounced back in the U.S. to go past Android with 49 percent share, industry analyst Chetan Sharma says.

Google plans to open its first U.S. retail location in New York City.

Twitter is beta testing a “click-to-call” direct response button.

60 percent of the most-shared Super Bowl ads are the ones that are pre-released. Times have changed in this area, but not when it comes to mobile calls to action in spots.

The first headline I saw the other day - The end of advertising. There likely was one saying the same thing about television. Neither was based in reality.

Ads now beat porn as source for mobile malware.

The other day, I was having my fourth cup of coffee while deciding if I wanted to look at an app that will surely tell me not to drink so much. I didn’t look.

Headline on Mashable: It's Time to Ditch Your Wallet For Mobile Payments. My response? Ridiculous.

Oscar Mayer has created a device to turn your iPhone into a bacon-scented alarm clock. I doubt sales will sizzle.

No change with new numbers: Hispanics over-index on mobile devices, under-index on time spent with desktop PCs.

As a former journalist, it pains me each time I see purported pictures of coming iPhones. That's not reporting - that's link bait.

74 percent of executives say they have a digital strategy, but only 16 percent feel they have the ability to execute. Are you in that camp?

Super Bowl Advertisers Entertained But Failed To Engage

Butterfingers were all over Super Bowl XLVIII, starting when Peyton Manning let the first snap go through his hands, continuing with a spot for the aforementioned candy, and capped by the group of high-spending advertisers that let another one get away.

Yes, you’ve heard this one before. Heck, if you’re a regular reader, you’ve seen me write this disappointment-laden piece in Mobile Marketer for six straight years.

This was going to be the year of the meaningful mobile call to action extension of a TV ad. Ummm, no.

Long before the fourth quarter, I had lost hope. No, not for the Broncos – afterall, the Seahawks are my championship-starved hometown’s.  I was Hopeless in Seattle that anything had changed.

Advertisers came to entertain, not engage. The second screen and willingness by tens of millions or more to act on mobile were totally ignored.

I asked Sean Bartlett, Director of Mobile Strategy & Platforms at Lowe's, for some perspective.

“I'm going with preserving creative integrity,” Sean told me.

But can’t we have “creative integrity” that includes a mobile call to action?

“Yes, though most are brand anthems, not direct response,” he said.

Ironically, the closest we came to an ad with 2014 behavior in mind was after the game when few outside Seattle were watching.

Playing on its supposed ability to save us 30 percent, esurance invited viewers to tweet #esuranceSave30 to enter a contest to win the $1.5 million the brand saved by having the ad run once the “contest” on the field was over.

It was reported that the esurance ad generated over 1.2 million tweets, impressive given the late hour, lopsided score, and the fact that only 22 percent of smartphones owners have the Twitter app. Contrast that with what could have been a text message call to action that could be responded to by all – and followed up with a request for mobile users to join a loyalty club. Hundreds of thousands, if not more, could’ve been there for ongoing dialogue with the brand.

The only SMS call to action came in a familiar way – viewers were asked to vote for the game’s MVP.

Surprisingly, Fox didn’t augment its coverage with mobile content during the game. Given the fact that we had to endure hours and hours of numbing babble leading up to kickoff, one would think the network would use its Fox Sports Go iPad app to show us different angles, engage with analysts, and be involved in a mini Fantasy Football contest that would’ve kept interest despite the lopsided score.

Yes, there were Shazam prompts, but there was nothing new there. I still question whether Shazam is the right vehicle on the loudest of days of television watching.

Looking at a few of the spots:

-- Ford failed to "double down" with back-to-back commercials without extending the new Fusion intro to mobile

-- At the top of the telecast, Mountain Dew’s Kickstart commercial was so 1975. It was good creative with no hint of mobile.

When the game ended, and the fireworks went off around me in Seattle, all I could think of was the Radio Shack ad that said ‘The 80’s called and wants its store back.”

Well, it’s 2014 and I want my second-screen experience – and the untapped engagement possibilities that come with it – to come to Super Sunday. Without it, the only thing super are the Seahawks.

(first appeared on Mobile Marketer - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/17109.html)