Notes From A Mobilized Marketer: Beacons Next For The Cellphone Addict Lane?

In the Chinese city of Chongqing, a "cellphone lane" has been erected for those who must text and walk. Ironically or not, it’s along a place called Foreigner Street. Can beacons and location-based messages from advertisers be far behind? We know we have the mobile users’ attention, right?

Airbus has filed a patent for a virtual reality helmet that will make you forget that you're on a plane. Some mistakenly believe that booze does the same thing.

More than one in eight Americans deposited a check using a mobile device within the past year, according to the American Bankers Association. 80% of those who did report using it at least once per month.

Meanwhile, Kenya continues to lead the world in mobile banking.

In the second quarter of this year, 45% of smartphone owners made a retail purchase after seeing mobile ads, according to NinthDecimal, a mobile advertising platform company.

The average U.S. adult spends more than 20 minutes per day on Facebook, according to eMarketer. Facebook has 654 million mobile daily active users.

It has long been referred to as Whole Paycheck. With competition increasing, Whole Foods will soon attempt to show a whole lotta love with a test of its first-ever rewards program.

Samsung reportedly is teaming with Paypal for mobile payments on a watch.

25-34 year-olds spend 75 hours on mobile apps in a month - that's than any other age group, comScore says.

U.S. ecommerce sales during the holiday season are projected to rise 16.6% year over year, eMarketer forecasts.

Google is selling a smartphone in India for $105. It's called the "Android One. Just 10% of the India's population owns a smartphone.

One in every 4 mobile apps is downloaded and never used again, Oracle reports.

30% of those who save Pep Boys mobile coupons use them.

Shining A Light On Beacon Misconceptions

Merriam-Webster describes a beacon as “a strong light that can be seen from far away and that is used to help guide ships, airplanes, etc.”

In 2014, it could revise the definition to include a piece of hardware used to guide marketers.

Last year it was showrooming at retail locations that was most watched in the holiday season. This year, many of these same brick-and-mortars, and many others, have something else to keep an eye on - beacons installed to execute personalized and contextually relevant mobile app experiences, and drive foot traffic, brand awareness, and incremental revenue.

I’ve learned a lot about beacons through a new relationship that I have with Mobiquity Networks, which has developed the leading shopping mall-based mobile advertising network.

One misconception around beacons is that mobile device owners will be pestered by so many offers that the permission that they granted to receive marketing messages will be rescinded. That surely won’t happen if brands establish business rules that address consumer wants and desires.

Just look at the messaging channel. Thousands of brands have successfully engaged with consumers through permission-based mobile VIP clubs in large part because they understand that messages should only be sent when they provide value to the recipient.

In other words, consumers invite marketers into their house, but they will draw the line when a business overplays the welcome and figuratively puts its feet on the furniture and doesn’t know when to leave.

The great majority of marketers using SMS and MMS get this and there isn’t an issue that gets to the level of spam. The same is likely to happen in beacon marketing.

Another misconception is that beacons can only reach mobile owners who have Apple devices. Apple is a leader in beacons through iBeacon, but the technology is inclusive, resulting in the ability to market to iOS and Android users.

A third misconception is that a mobile user has to have an app open for communications via beacons to reach him or her. In fact, if a consumer agrees to receive messages from a brand or retailer or publisher, he or she will get a local notification when in proximity of a beacon that has been associated with that particular app.

With beacons, the large opportunity for marketers is the area of personalization. Beacon campaigns will soon be managed and measured through review of real-time, detailed customer data. Content will then be customized based on a customer’s precise location, demographics, or geo-behavioral attributes.

In 2015, 54 percent of mobile marketers will employ beacons, according to a report by Adobe. Next year, we will see even more use of a consumer’s previous purchase history for the creation and dissemination of highly relevant information and offers.

Simon is one to keep an eye on this holiday season and into next year. It has been active in wireless for years, and wisely employs a broad set of products and services that meet the shopper’s needs and provides choice in ways to interact – text messaging, mobile web, apps, and more.

Now Simon is doubling down on its bet on beacons. The global leader in retail real estate has announced the expansion of its use of the Mobiquity Network to create "smart malls" in common areas of 200+ Simon retail destinations.

 “The business problem we have is how do you differentiate yourself as a mall,” Patrick Flanagan, Vice President of Digital Marketing & Strategy at Simon Property Group, told me in an interview for my Mobilized Marketing book. “You can ask shoppers what they care about – why do they go to any particular mall?

“The first answer is distance. Well, you can’t really move a mall. The second one is the mix of stores – that’s a long term and challenging thing to change. The third one is the customer experience – it had better parking, it had free Wi-Fi, it had a better food court or cleaner bathrooms. Mobile is where we think we can ultimately differentiate as a business.”

During my book interview with Flanagan, he told me that personalization is a key driver to more visits and sales.

“In the future, I’m eager to do more one-to-one,” he said.

Beacons will get him closer to that goal.

Article first appeared here - http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2014/09/16/shining-a-light-on-beacon-misconceptions/

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Silencing The Loudmouths" Edition

Scientists are working on ways to enable mobile users to charge their phones by yelling. It has to do with what smarter-than-me folks at Queen Mary University of London and Nokia call “stray energy" sources. This idea is as bad as allowing passengers to talk on phones during flights. Silence is golden, people.

Elvis’ Graceland home is implementing beacons for tourists. No word on whether visitors will get messaging asking “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” Of what the message would be after that.

With perks via mobile app and more, 7-Eleven marked the 50th anniversary of the sale of the first “freshly-brewed” coffee. Admittedly, I’m a coffee snob from Seattle, but isn’t using the term freshly-brewed “grounds” for claims of misrepresentation?

As many as 70% of retailers are employing omnichannel strategies, says KPMG.

Mobile spending on programmatic more than doubled this year, eMarketer tells us.

Due to privacy regulations and concerns, Apple has reportedly banned iOS developers from selling HealthKit data to ad networks.

Sony's rumored QX1 lens could turn a smartphone into a DSLR (digital single lens reflex camera), according to Gizmodo.

Will eye and head-tracking do what police and Mom can’t - convince people to stop texting and driving? General Motors will install a half-million devices in cars over the next few years, according to the Financial Times. The technology supposedly will know when a driver is texting by gauging eye and head movements. More importantly, it will then implore the driver to stop.

The tweet of the week is from friend and former colleague Mick Prendergast (@rMEDIUM) -if @apple can't keep nude selfies safe...how can we trust them with our money?

Per a study by Internet Retailer, mobile ecommerce accounts for 21 percent of all online purchases.

There has been a 49% growth in mobile malware since 2011, McAfee found. I would’ve bet the over on that number.

What's In Store For Beacon Marketing?

Much as showrooming received attention entering last year's holiday shopping season, beacons is on the minds and plans of more and more marketers as we head toward fall.

Here's what I told cmo.com when asked about the importance of beacons:

"I remember interviewing Patrick Flanagan, a vice president from Simon Malls, for my "Mobilized Marketing "book. He talked of possible ways to get more folks to come shopping. One, he said, was to pick up the mall and move it to a better location in town. Of course, that wasn’t viable. Two, he said, was to change out the store mix in the mall. But, he said, that was a long and difficult proposition. The third, and best way, was to use mobile to drive traffic and more sales.

Beacons are the latest and brightest hope for brick-and-mortar retailers like Simon, which recently expanded its beacon network arrangement with Mobiquity Networks to 240 malls. Why? Pre-recession, during the recession, and post-recession, consumers want deals. But they need to be relevant. Three dollars off of a pizza available 50 miles away isn’t just an annoyance for the consumer, it’s a stupid use of marketing dollars.

But you have something when you combine location, an individual user’s past shopping behavior as seen through app activity, and permission given by a mobile user to be sent compelling information and offers.

Of course, marketers need to be wise and always provide value to the mobile user. Just because an opted-in consumer invites you into their house, so to speak, it doesn’t mean that you can stay as long as you want."

The complete article by Giselle Abramovich is here - http://www.cmo.com/articles/2014/8/29/CWTK_Beacons.html