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Think Forward

Out of the several influences mentioned in the article, marketing had the biggest influence over my purchasing decision. The elements of marketing’s influences are: product, price, and service. CarMax, in my opinion, has the best selection of used cars to choose from. Their vehicles are serviced, repaired and stamped for approval before hitting the show floor. The company reveals all records of the car’s history. They ensured I got a quality vehicle and the buying process was executed in a timely, professional manner.
I also consider myself a bargain shopper. It doesn’t matter how small or big of a purchase I’m always looking for huge saving. I felt that I saved time and money with CarMax. I got what I wanted for my trade in, I got the below asking price on my new purchase, and walked away with cash in my pocket. CarMax has an active marketing campaign that promotes an easy and simple solution to buying and selling cars. As a valued customer, I can they stand by every car that is sols off their lot, however, I can only base this off my two experiences and the long line of people I see at the payment counter when I pay my car note. CarMax has set a standard for itself that it upholds to its customers. They fix it right and they have the great prices. Combine that with innovation and superior customer service you have a solid top management company, which does a great job relaying its message to its constituencies. Who in turn prioritize and execute very well. The end result, another car sold. According to “Consumer Buying Behavior (2009),” the number of influences on consumer behavior is limitless (“KnowThis.com”). CarMax does an excellent job of surveying consumer’s needs. By understanding their needs they can develop effective marketing campaigns to influence their purchasing decision.

Reference
Consumer Buying Behavior “2009”
http://www.knowthis.com/principles-of-marketing-tutorials/consumer-buying-behavior/

My opinion on the below article:

I personally do not see a shift back to SMS advertising.  Working with one of the largest open mobile networks across Europe we see a huge increase in display and text link based advertising.  They work and work well.  Currently, SMS advertising can cost far too much.  CTR’s on SMS advertising generally are much less than display or text links.  SMS can cost an advertiser up to £200 CPM, whereas display and text links will vary from much lower CPM’s or CPC’s.  Whilst with SMS you can get reach that a branding campaign will demand, the majority of campaigns in the UK market this year have been DR.  Moving forward, I believe Network Operators will need to focus on more integrated campaigns across all mobile properties like: Display, Text Links, Video Pre & Post, Idle Screen, Voice Messages, SMS, MMS, Customer Service Messages and so on.

I believe agencies find mobile advertising a challenge because they are learning it is never just about selling an ad spot. Mobile advertising often forms part of a wider mobile marketing strategy tied in with CRM, Customer Acquisition and Engendering Loyalty.  In addition, it often forms part of a campaign that is integrated into traditional media which again presents further hurdles.  Therefore, when brands want and need to understand the entire spectrum and not just the advertising element many agencies struggle.    We can keep blaming lack of clarity on where the buying points are and lack of ad-serving capabilities and reporting but I think this is a weak argument.  All growing industries will have these kind of challenges.  The key should be more focused on how we can work better together, understand each others skills and how this can transform into combined positive output to the client.

To summarize, Mobile is so different to traditional media.  Historically speaking, it has always been ‘ONE FORMAT’ Print, Radio, TV or online.  Mobile is a whole world of different formats from one device to the next few thousand, all with different capabilities and don’t forget the users all come with different mindsets.  It requires specialist knowledge to effectively utilize this channel and understand the dynamics.  This is not knowledge that can be shared overnight and will take time for all to learn.

Whilst I agree it has been tough year from a recession perspective I would argue that mobile marketing and advertising budgets have grown and not been cut.  Well this is certainly what we are experiencing having a record year in the UK. As mobile budgets traditionally have been so small brands cut the bigger budgets in TV, Print, Radio and Online. If anything mobile budgets have grown this year and I certainly would anticipate huge growth in 2009 from 2008.

This is not going to happen over night.  Online took a good part of 11 years.

by Global Telecoms Business

Mobile operators have extensive data about their customers, so why aren’t they earning more revenue from advertising? The market seems as far away as ever, according to key participants in the business


Jay Seaton of Airwide: Trying to force-fit ads to
thousands of different handsets is an issue

Mike Short of Telefónica: Mobile advertising is
going to have to have a debate about reach and
responsibility

John Rands of WIN: Sometimes an agency puts
together a campaign and will do mobile as well

Neil Wentworth of mCentric: Brands are in the
dark. They have no idea how to access people by mobile

Why has mobile advertising not had the stunning success that many have been forecasting for so long? For years the mobile industry has looked for ways to earn revenue by targeting its users with advertising — and there has even been a whole operator, Blyk, which wanted to cut call costs to zero if its customers simply checked a few ads every day.

But little has been achieved, even with smartphones that could, in theory, deliver high-quality content to phone users.

Indeed, says Nick Lane, chief analyst at research company MobileSquared, where operators are achieving anything it’s via the 15-year-old technology of SMS. “We spoke to 30-35 operators around the world,” says Lane. “Just over 60% said they used SMS messaging as the foundation for next generation messages. A lot of agencies are going back to SMS. There’s a shift away from what people were saying 12 months ago.”

James Tagg, head of mobile at ad agency Starcom MediaVest, agrees: “It’s been a very tough world for mobile advertising this year,” he says. The recession means advertising budgets have been cut around the world “and mobile was the first to be cut — massively”.

One of the reasons is that mobile advertising still earns small revenues for agencies, which employ few specialists in the medium. “Some have only two people covering mobile, compared with 30 for print advertising. There’s only so much those people can do until the money is there. We’re not losing money but we’re not making huge money.”

And behind that, “most clients don’t really understand mobile”, he adds. Now’s the time to remedy that, he says: begin to adjust now “and you’ll be in a lot better position in two years”.

One of the key problems is a lack of information on which to make decisions, says Stewart Goldberg, executive chairman of Business Logic System. “The operators don’t have the same demographics about their base that the TV companies have.”

Mike Short, vice president of Telefónica Europe disagrees: “Some of the demographics that we have is a lot better — but it’s in a different format.” The mobile industry is working via the GSM Association and mobile marketing analyst ComScore to remedy that. “We can do age, location and subject,” he says.

Lane is not convinced: “Traditional advertising is very visible,” he says. And potential advertisers can easily get information about how much it costs to advertise. “If you want a rate card [for mobile advertising] you have to go down a long dark tunnel and sign a non-disclosure agreement.”

There is widespread ignorance among potential advertisers, says Neil Wentworth, director of sales at mCentric, which runs a service delivery platform for the industry. “Brands are in the dark. They have no idea how to access people by mobile,” he says.

It is starting to shift in agencies, says Alistair Hill, a senior analyst ComScore. Its work with the GSMA is aimed at “simplifying the process of buying”, so that agencies can see metrics that allow them to compare different types of advertising — including mobile with conventional, if that is the term, online.

Mobile is too often an addition to an existing ad budget, complains John Rands, managing director of WIN, which describes itself as “a dynamic enabler of entertainment, information and interaction services”. Sometimes a brand or an agency puts together a campaign “and will do mobile as well”, he says: “It’s the ‘as well’, and that might mean just putting a text number in the corner.”

It’s better in some countries, says Goldberg. “In south-east Asia and Australia there are millions of transactions executed using two-way text.”

Simeon Coney, vice president of business development at Adaptive Mobile, adds that in South Africa mobile advertising is starting to dominate, because of an underdeveloped traditional media business.

Many customers see mobile advertising messages as spam. “What’s considered as spam is personal,” says Jay Seaton, chief marketing officer of Airwide.

Coney believes the industry has to be careful, as governments might impose rules about what can and can’t be sent. “Governments will be putting the onus on operators,” he warns. “It will be a real challenge to the industry.”

Short says: “We’d rather have a simple set of rules. Mobile advertising is going to have to have a debate about reach and responsibility.” Child protection and parental controls will have to feature in that debate, he adds. “It’s now getting to ministerial level.”

According to Hill of ComScore, mobile advertising is still some way behind online advertising. “Everything on the internet has become contextual,” he says.

Lane also believes that the parallels with PC-based advertising should not be ignored: “All we’re doing on the mobile is browsing: email and social networking, and news, sport and weather.”

Goldberg, who has just had to extend his daughter’s mobile package to 1,000 texts a month, says: “We should have 11-year-olds on the boards of our companies.” Though Hill retorts that “the average age of the mobile media user is 35”.

Gather any group of enthusiasts for mobile advertising together — and this group was at an event hosted by Airwide — and you’ll soon hear stories about mobile advertising successes.

Unfortunately, most of these stories date from those optimistic times before the recession: such as BMW sending its car customers in Germany localised weather warnings by MMS, complete with a picture of each customer’s car in the right colour.

In theory, the industry has the data that could be enormously useful to advertisers — but Short points out that one of the problems is the sheer volume of it.

Goldberg sympathises: “The amount of data on the network is huge — 120 million transactions a day.” That’s the figure for the UK. “You’d need data warehousing the size of small countries. Operators have the data, but extracting the data is a non-trivial exercise. It just can’t be done in real time.”

Short emphasises the scale of the challenge: “We know the location of 50 billion text messages a year,” he says.

But operators haven’t explored new opportunities, suggests Goldberg. They would know the identity of 150,000 people attending a grand prix or other sports event, he notes. There’s potential there to use information to send them messages.

Mobile advertising, in theory, is a lot more economical than television advertising — which reaches many more people than could possibly be interested in a deal. With mobile, “you offer a deal only to people to want to offer the deal to”, he says.

One of the problems is that there is an advanced market for advertising in developed countries, says Seaton. “In developed markets there’s not such a need to innovate.”

Smartphones, if anything, make life for mobile advertisers complicated — simply because there are so many, built with different standards. “The market’s evolving quickly, with lots of new handsets,” says Tagg.

Seaton notes that this is why in some markets advertisers have relied on the simple technology of text messaging. “Trying to force-fit ads to thousands of different handsets is an issue. That’s why we’ll be having the same advertising discussions in two years.”

Goldberg returns to the theme that the industry is ill-informed about mobile advertising: “Operators and suppliers need to educate agencies and brands,” he says. “Many just don’t know what you can do.” That, he adds, is “why text is so good” — advertisers do understand that.

So how should the market move? “It’s up to the operators to expose their assets,” says Seaton. “There will be thousands of opportunities. Application developers can leverage all the assets, not just the 15% of smartphones.”

But Lane concludes with a sceptical note: “There’s hardly any money in mobile advertising and it dominates all our conversations,” he concludes. GTB

URL Link to Global Telecoms Business:

http://www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com/Article/2346535/Operators-still-waiting-for-ad-revenue.html

The title of this article reflects what the banner ads proclaim. In the sense that "arrived" means the Droid is available, yes, definitely, they are available. In the sense that "arrived" means the Droid is coming into its own? Perhaps … if you can tell a Droid from an Android from a Chrome.

Droid, as you are probably aware, is simply one piece of hardware put out by Verizon that is running Google’s Android OS, an open-source mobile operating system. So, Droid runs Android just like other phones out there, but it also has competitive features. It even has some features that are better than the iPhone, like turn-by-turn voice directions and a camera flash. These are important, since parity, in this game, does not a winner make.

Mike Elgan makes a very well-reasoned analysis, however, that shows Android phones are behind on brand appeal and purchase-decision simplicity – two of the three factors that he believes decide success in the smartphone business.

But wait there’s more! Google is also working on the “gPhone,” a Google-branded phone that may share similarities to Android but will be its own Google-branded experience. Phones running Android will compete with the gPhone. Now how is your brand appeal? And purchase-decision simplicity? Out the window, clearly.

If that wrinkle is not enough, Google co-founder Sergey Brin is now saying that Chrome OS (a cloud-based thin computer OS) and Android OS will eventually merge into one, according to Brit tech site Electricpig.co.uk.

Confused yet? Me too. It’s a shame Google didn’t just use its exceedingly-recognizable brand for everything. If the platform (whatever it’s called) is solid, and the features are available, Google’s mobile tech will play a huge role in the future of smart phones.

Here are the current global standings, by market share, as of Q3 2009 (according to a Gartner study):

1. Symbian: 44.6%
2. RIM (BlackBerry): 20.8%
3. Apple iPhone: 17.1%
4. Windows Mobile: 7.9%
5. Android: 3.5%

My prediction? In one year’s time the iPhone and Android will be engaged in a battle for third globally, and second fiddle to Blackberry in the United States.

Google (s goog) this week expanded its coupon service to mobile just in time for Black Friday, enabling U.S. consumers to access and redeem the discounts via their phones. It’s an effort that could give the space a much-needed shove into the mainstream.

Retailers can now create and upload mobile coupon offers to Google’s Local Business Center; the offers are presented with business listings to users searching Google.com on a handset. The move expands on a 2-year-old service that enables users to access coupons on the Internet and print them out.

Mobile coupons have been around for several years but have failed to gain much traction with consumers. Startups such as Cellfire and txtwire have launched promotions with nationally known retailers, but no campaign has enjoyed the marketing support necessary for large-scale success, and consumer awareness remains limited.

Google’s new offering could change that if enough retailers buy in and present their offers to consumers. While existing startups in the space must ink deals with individual retail partners, Google’s massive list of businesses could boost consumer awareness as users increasingly use their phones to find local retailers. While Google’s effort is unlikely to provide the overnight breakthrough many in the space have long hoped for, it could go a long way toward bringing mobile coupons to the mass market.

Beware of santas bearing bad news.

If you aren’t one of the 3% of shoppers who are actually done with the Christmas shopaganza, welcome to the club. My friend, you need a strategy. Timing is everything, and what you’re in the market for should determine where you go. Here are some things to consider when drawing up the Black Friday shopping game plan.

I’ve recently looked into the topic of mobile marketing – as in, the use of cell phones as yet another means to reach targeted consumers. In my opinion, mobile marketing works well when done with a clear strategy in mind, so as to not come across as spam. This means knowing from the outset specifically who your campaign will target, and why. Think beyond the initial ad line at the end of ‘Please Call Me’ SMSes – the opportunities are endless, ranging from advertising in mobile games (which are often downloaded), to using mobile short codes to find out more about campaigns featured on TV or radio.

The biggest selling point of mobile marketing lies in the fact that each cell phone typically has one unique user. So, unlike mass media such as TV and radio, the mobile phone (as with other forms of online advertising) is a specifically targeted communication channel, where users are highly engaged with the content received.

What do you think of mobile marketing – nuisance or a necessary evil? Leave your comments below.

Ramin Vatanparast and Mahsa Asil of the International Journal of Mobile Marketing state that future revenues will soar along with third-generation mobile technologies and services.

As marketers, it is crucial for us to follow trends in how people connect with one another. Along with the internet, and increasing use of mobile technologies, such as Blackberry, Google HTC, and Apple iPhone services, people are becoming more and more connected and integrated with one another. It is important to note the trends in our communication preferences, because these trends play such a vital role in marketing communications: how, what, why, where, and when are our customers’ communicating positive buzz about our company and products to family members and friends?

According to Chaffey et al. (2008), mobile services can include instant messaging, SMS, email, web and GPS. Mobile marketing will be a big part of our future, making information regarding promotions, in-store contests, and new product launches more easily accessible and convenient for shoppers. The concept of mobile marketing can also be tied to consumer profiling. Will cell phone companies be able to partner with retailers, disclosing sensitive target market information regarding age, sex, and income? Mobile marketing along with customer profiling is important to understand, especially, in addressing the issue of “how much is too much”? 

At some point, customers may also feel the need for space and privacy away from the noise of marketing communications. Here is a podcast on mobile marketing and the future of the industry:  

On the positive side, businesses now have another venue to increase interactivity and communication among their target audiences. The challenge lies in choosing the frequency and method of mobile communications; a balance between effective, fun, and useful for customers, as opposed to too much noise and advertising. Matti Leppaniemi and Heikki Karjaluoto of the International Marketing Magazine states successful methods for businesses to achieve mobile marketing success.

We have just released our November issue of our corporate newsletter. In this month issue we highlighted the use of Mobile Publication Platform for catalogues or print publication where it has proven to be an efficient way for our client to reach even wider segments of the market.

We are excited about the use of the mobile publishing platform not only due to its innovative ablility but also due to its green initiative. 

Businesses are increasingly looking into ways to adopt greener practices. We know that the concern by businesses when it comes to green practices has been that they cannot afford it. The good news is by going mobile you can take the step towards being more environmentally friendly and at the same time improve your bottom line. 

 Unlike print publication, once users read it, they can just easily delete mobile content without wastage. 

For the publisher, there is no need for printing, packaging, logistics and extra material cost. There are various ways we can do to play apart in helping to create an eco-friendly environment in our business activities. Let’s make the change today by choosing to go mobile.

A HarrisInteractive research report into the attitudes and behavior of U.S. teens and their cells provides some interesting food for thought.

Over half of those surveyed – 57% – felt owning a cell phone improved the quality of their life. And 52% said communicating with friends has become a new form of entertainment. 59% thought their cell phone was an indicator of their personal style, with cell phones ranking 2nd (behind clothing) in determining social status (jewelery and shoes were 3rd and 4th respectively).

When it comes to text messaging, 88% said they do it frequently and 79% said they would die without it. If text messaging was no longer offered, 54% of females and 40% of males thought it would end their social life or make it a little worse. 42% said they can text message blindfolded.

There’s some interesting news for marketers too. Almost half – 48% – said they would be interested in receiving advertisements on their cell phones and 59% or 6 in 10 teens are willing to share personal information to their wireless provider.

All this points to the fact that traditional channels for communicating with customers is rapidly changing. The next generation of consumers are more tech savvy and are more open to new ideas. If your company is not considering some form of communication via cell phone or if text messaging is not part of your customer contact strategy, don’t you think it’s about time?

Anton Sport åpner for kommersiell reklame i alle sine butikker som vi finner i Moss, Lillestrøm, Lørenskog og i Oslo Vest/Bærum. De har utplassert  flere flatskjermer i butikkene sine, og vil at CatchTheEye skal kommersialisere kanalen Anton Sport.

Anton Sport er en ung, dynamisk og fremtidsrettet sportskjede som appelerer bredt. Ifølge Morten Borgersen, gründer og daglig leder i Anton Sport AS, er CatchTheEye´s rolle å selge forbrukertilgang via skjermene til Anton Sport til riksdekkende annonsører. Dette omfatter både annonsører som selger produkter i kjedens butikker, men også til eksterne annonsører. Han vil at CatchTheEye skal utvikle innovative og fremtidsrettede digitale responsløsninger som både øker antall kunder samt å utvikle og lansere konsepter som gir eksisterende kunder merverdi.

Ifølge Tor Olav Haugen i CatchTheEye betyr dette at norske annonsører får et nytt og spennende sted å påvirke mottakelige og krevende seere.  Selskapet styrker med dette selskapets satsning innenfor Digital Out of Home Advertsing (DOOH) som er benevnelsen på annonsering på skjermer plassert utenfor hjemmet.  Annonsørene når med dette nye målgrupper i en situasjon der de bokstavelig talt står med VISA kortet i hånden. Ofte er disse kundene på “shopping” og på vei til neste butikk som gjør at det er relevant for andre merkevarer enn kun sport å annonsere i denne kanalen – med andre ord en utvidelse av begrepet kjøpsnært. Avtalen har en varighet på 6 år.

Fra før har CatchTheEye avtaler med Deli de Luca, 300 frittstående kiosker, Oslo City, Gyda og Brödrene Dahl som alle har utplassert skjermer. Ifølge ovab.eu har denne mediekategorien en vekst internasjonalt på 18% i 2009.

I’m thrilled to learn that our China campaign for PUMA won this year’s MMA Award! That’s the fun part of working here in an ad agencies…:-)

Enjoy reading:

- http://mmaglobal.com/news/mobile-marketing-association-announces-2009-global-award-finalists

- http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=4168#more-4168

Cheers!

C’è qualcosa di catartico nella recente acquisizione di Admob ad opera di Big G:

catartico perché la stessa Admob, fondata nel 2006, in tempi non sospetti, sembra aver raggiunto la propria consacrazione solo dopo essere stata fagocitata dal gigante – buono? – della New Economy (vi invito a leggere il commento del suo fondatore qui);

e catartico perché sembra che con questa operazione finanziaria Google abbia definitivamente sdoganato il settore del Mobile Internet, ponendolo per un istante, eterno, sotto i riflettori del mondo.

Infatti, nonostante dati e ricerche corroborino la crescita inarrestabile del mercato del mobile Internet, il settore non sembra avere ancora riscosso l’attenzione che merita, ad eccezione, forse, di quella degli addetti ai lavori (gli operatori della filiera) e dei ricercatori (in questo senso – concedetemelo, siamo stati dei pionieri, in Italia, con lo start up di MediaCom Mobile, nel 2007).

E allora ci pensa Google a mettere tutti d’accordo, sciorinando, tra i tanti fattori che hanno portato a compimento l’acquisizione, 2 dati:
come si legge nel comunicato ufficiale dell’azienda di Mountain View, gli utenti Android e Iphone hanno aumentato di 5 volte il volume di ricerche su Google da dispositivi mobili e gli stessi utenti di questi sistemi operativi spendono circa 90 minuti al giorno nella navigazione del mobile internet.

D’altra parte, la stessa Admob, nel suo report mensile (scaricabile qui), certifica la crescita del Mobile Internet in modo perentorio. Ecco il grafico che riassume il trend aggiornato al mese di ottobre:

A ciò potremmo aggiungere che il 13% dei possessori di cellulare Italiani dichiara di aver navigato da mobile, il mercato delle applicazioni è in costante crescita, i contenuti mobile, sebbene in lieve diminuzione rispetto al 2008, rappresentano ancora un comparto trainante (valgono quanto la pubblicità online…), e così via.

In sintesi, con questa acquisizione, Google compie l’ultimo passo di una strategia che veicolerà l’azienda ad esercitare uno strapotere anche nel mondo della pubblicità sui device mobili.
E riesce nell’intento grazie ad una piattaforma che, lato inserzionista, è semplice e usabile: molto simile, con le dovute proporzioni, ad Adwords degli esordi. E per questo, e non solo, ad elevetassimo potenziale

In sostanza, il lancio di Android, sistema operativo sposato dai principali produttori di telefonia, open source e, a detta dei più, usabile e sicuro, (che detiene, tra l’altro, l’11% del traffico internet, a livello mondiale), la diffusione di Adsense sui siti mobile e, il recente rilascio di Adsense per le applicazioni, offrono all’azienda di Mountain View una posizione di indubbio vantaggio rispetto ai principali competitor.

Competitor che latitano e sembrano non aver percepito la strabordante crescita del mercato, autorelegandosi ai margini del settore e offrendo a Telco e Big G la possibilità di sfruttare le opportunità del mobile web, del mobile content, dei servizi pubblicitari futuri basati sulla geolocalizzazione e, in generale, i nuovi servizi a valore aggiunto, accessibili grazie all’evoluzione del segmento Smartphone.

What is the one device that people have with them at all times, whether they are at work, on vacation or at home watching television? More than 70% of the world’s population are mobile users and around the world more people use their mobile phones than PCs to access the Web. Mobile phones have evolved into much more than just communication devices. The mobile Internet is a reality. 

Tourism is an ever-evolving industry and this article provides an overview on one of the newest top trends – mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is the only media that allows direct, personalized, interactive and targeted dialogue between brands and consumers. This article takes a common-sense approach to explaining more about the key components of mobile marketing, how they can be used and what they mean to the tourism industry.

How Big is the Mobile Marketplace?

Worldwide mobile communications usage has increased dramatically since 2001. A significant number of cell phone subscribers now have access to the mobile Internet and use some kind of data service such as texting, email, Web browsing, etc. Mobile users expect instant access to information as well as an Internet experience that rivals the one via traditional PC’s and laptops.

Mobile is changing the way your customers search for, buy and enjoy your travel product!

• Mobile phones technology advancements, economic cost and small size have made them a constant companion for people worldwide
• Of the 6.7 billion inhabitants of Earth, 4 billion were cell phone subscribers worldwide at the end of 2008 – compare this to than 1 billion in 2002
• Around the world more people are now using their mobile phones instead of their PCs to access the Web.
• 26.3% of mobile phone subscribers will log on to the mobile Web at least once per month in 2009, for a total of 73.7 million mobile Internet users.
• 67% percent of travelers and 77% of frequent business travelers with Web-enabled mobile devices have already used their devices to find local services (e.g. lodging) and attractions.
• Over a third of travel companies will be investing in mobile this year

               Source: EyeforTravel, PhocusWright
Ways in which Mobile Marketing can be Used

Mobile Advertising

Mobile Websites, App’s and Text Messaging allow businesses to promote and market products and services. All businesses have a message to send. By utilizing mobile technology and text messaging you can market your message, product and/or service to the world’s 4 billion cell phone users. Mobile puts your message in the hands of your audience and by utilizing mobile strategies such as building a list of text message opt-in subscribers you will be able to stay in front of your audience consistently. GoChoice.mobi utilizes an informational on-the-go format in combination with SMS text messaging and money saving mobile coupons to provide travelers with a valuable tool which even facilitates mobile booking.

 Customer Relations Services

Finding ways to strengthen your customer relationship is crucial to a business’s success. NTA is using Meetings2Go.mobi to provide mobile info-on-the-go to all attendees during their annual convention via GONTA.mobi. By developing a list of opt-in mobile user numbers, NTA can regularly communicate with all attendees utilizing text messaging. NTA’s SMS alerts notify meeting attendees of upcoming meeting sessions and events; and they can even distribute mobile surveys for instant response.

Viral Marketing

Mobile and text messaging is an ideal viral medium. Creating and deploying a viral mobile strategy can generate a big buzz. America’s Premier Shopping Places utilized a viral component for a national sweepstakes. Sweepstake subscribers were given the opportunity to register via SMS for a chance to win the grand prize. Subscribers could also forward a text to win text message to their friends so that they too could enter for a chance to win the sweepstakes. You can imagine how quickly this campaign spread.

Marketing Support Tool

One of the biggest challenges of advertising is enabling an immediate response to a call-to-action. People are constantly enticed with outdoor and print advertising on-the-go; however, despite their interest they usually forget to act on it later. By including a mobile or text call-to-action response method, organizations can ensure that the interest sparked by print media is translated into action. Recent SMS integration by The Official Interstate Guide into their printed coupon guide is a good example. By including text message information in their publications hotel print ads, travelers are able to text the mobile id for any hotel they are interested in and be sent to a custom hotel page on TheOIG.mobi with descriptive information and photo’s telling the traveler more about the property. Travelers can then click to call their hotel of choice and book in real time on-the-go.

Mobile as Part of your Marketing Strategy

Can you see ways that mobile marketing could be used as part of your marketing strategy? Here are some of the areas you should be aware of.

Simple  

Mobile marketing strategies must be very simple. If the consumer does not get it the first time, they may not use it again. Mobile websites, App’s and text message campaigns need to be intuitive and easy to navigate. This is well demonstrated by the GONTA.mobi example

Targeted

Campaigns must be targeted and tailored to the audience. One of the most valuable components of  mobile websites, App’s and text messaging campaigns is the ability to provide users ‘urgent now’ information that is relevant to them on-the-go. For tourism mobile sites, the emphasis should not be marketing. Instead it should be on rapidly allowing users to navigate to information they are interested in to facilitate an immediate buy decision.

Permission Based 

People consider their mobile phone an important personal accessory and value their privacy. Ensuring that you are targeting users in ways which comply with the Data Protection Act is a must. Unwelcome intrusion into a user’s personal space runs a high risk of eroding your brand. A recent poll shows that when users gave permission to receive mobile marketing messages, 61% identified SMS as their most preferred way to be reached ahead of TV and radio. By using permission-based marketing best practices you can help ensure the success of your mobile marketing strategies.

Interactive

Mobile marketing should engage consumers in a true two-way dialogue. To best take advantage of the mobile medium, give users the opportunity to interact. Mobile website, App’s and text messaging campaigns should create interactive experiences for the user including location based searches, click to call phone numbers, text to win contests, surveys etc. The success of major brands such as GOChoice.mobi was in a large part due to this.

Measurable

Mobile marketing campaigns are very measurable; It is one of the huge benefits of mobile marketing. However mobile is not a medium of isolation and all mobile marketing should be integrated into your overall marketing mix to produce the desired return on investment. In the case of The Official Interstate Guide, one of goals was to drive more hotel bookings utilizing the publications coupons, which it did through close integration with participating hotels’ marketing efforts. In the case of America’s Premier Shopping Places the goal was to increase brand awareness, which it did overwhelmingly. Both examples demonstrate very different return on investment success.

Cost Effective

Mobile marketing is much more cost effective than other marketing channels such as Internet marketing, advertising and direct mail. Cost effective mobile website setup costs can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars depending on the size and complexity. Text messaging credits available for a few pennies each are an economical communication tool to support your mobile marketing efforts. 

Summary

Mobile marketing for the tourism industry is here! It is no longer cutting edge, untested technology. Throughout the last 10 years mobile marketing has benefited from increased technical development and market testing and is now considered a proven and valuable medium. Most importantly, mobile demonstrates an attractive return on investment and is affordable and can be used by small and large business alike.

As you consider your future in mobile marketing, remember, there are many services that need to be brought together and the easiest route is often to contract with a experienced company who specializes in mobile marketing and who can navigate between and manage your various Mobile, App and SMS technologies as well as implement effective mobile strategies.

About ITI Marketing

ITI Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of mobile marketing solutions within the tourism and hospitality industry. As one of the first agencies to apply Mobile Marketing inside a tourism environment, ITI Marketing’s unique experience of being marketers first, technologists second allows us to provide specialized proven mobile marketing solutions. The business model is simple – ITI Marketing helps organizations increase the effectiveness of their advertising, marketing, PR and CRM campaigns utilizing Mobile websites, text messaging and other cell phone features such as Apps and location‐based services, resulting in more successful marketing strategies. Having worked with hundreds of clients of all sizes, including: Choice International, The Official Interstate Guide, America’s Premier Shopping Places, NTA, The State of Georgia and Jacksonville, FL., ITI’s integrated marketing capabilities allow us to stand out among larger agencies, while our intimate size allows for a true marketing partnership. Contact ITI Marketing at (912)267-1558 or Info@ITI-Marketing.com

This article was published in the November E’Newsletter of the Destination Marketing Association International.

And now for a not-so-negative online advertising forecast: Forrester Research is pegging the U.S. interactive ad market to reach $55 billion over the next five years—meaning marketers will go from spending just 12 percent of their total ad budgets online this year, to 21 percent by 2014.

Search and display will command the biggest percentage of spend overall—with $31.5 billion and $16.9 billion in spending, respectively—but most of the growth will come from social media and mobile advertising.

Advertisers will spend just $716 million on social media marketing (including ads on social networks, not to mention devoting resources to their own blogs) this year, but that will grow by 34 percent to top $3.1 billion in 2014. (This gels with a recent Forbes survey that found that senior level marketing execs planned to spend more on viral and social media campaigns over the next six months). Meanwhile, mobile ad spending will grow by 27 percent—from $391 million this year, to $1.2 billion in five years.

Here’s one of the things we do at Forrester Research: we interview as many marketers as we can about their plans, identify trends and project future likely conditions, and then we put together some numbers to make a projection. If you’ve ever seen a Forrester projection, it comes from a process like this.

This means that inside every projection is an idea or ten about the future. Those ideas can be powerful, and they come from research with marketers and consumers.

My colleague at Forrester, Shar Van Boskirk, just published our five-year interactive marketing forecast. The idea inside it is the real kicker.
In this recession, marketers have learned that interactive marketing is more effective, and advertising less effective, per dollar spent. While budgets for online have decreased, they decreased less than other budgets. Six out of ten marketers we surveyed agreed with the statement “we will increase budget for interactive by shifting money away from traditional marketing.” Only 7% said “we have no plans to increase our marketing budget.”
Unlike the last recession, digital marketing is no longer experimental. Now it looks more like advertising is inefficient, relative to digital. More than half of the marketers we surveyed said that effectiveness of direct mail, TV, magazines, outdoor, newspapers, and radio would stay the same or decrease within three years. In contrast, well over 70% expected the effectiveness of channels like created social media, online video, and mobile marketing to increase.

The result is that digital, which will be about 12% of overall advertising spend in 2009, is likely to grow to about 21% in five years. Along the way overall advertising budgets won’t grow much.

THIS IS HUGE!

It means we are all digital marketers now, since digital is at the center of many campaigns anyway.

It means media is in trouble, or at least in the middle of a transformation. For example, online video ads, which will be about $870 million this year, will grow to over $3 billion in 2014. What will this do to networks plans to put more of their shows online in places like Hulu. How will it accelerate some newspapers plans to become more and more centered around online?

And it means that social “media,” which will account for $716 million this year between social network campaigns and agency fees, will generate $3 billion in five years. And this doesn’t even count displays ads on social networks (which are in the display ads category.) Of all the parts of digital marketing, social network marketing one is poised for the most explosive growth.

Pundits have been declaring the end of mass media and advertising for years now. From my 14 years of experience analyzing this stuff, I’ve learned that things die very slowly, but there are real trends you can see. If you’re in advertising, you’d better learn to speak digital, because that’s the way the world is going.

Customer loyalty is one of the chief goals in bar and restaurant marketing. This is usually done by offering coupons and updates to existing customers. That is why text message coupons are becoming more attractive to marketers. They provide a very high read rate, redemption rate and almost everyone has a mobile phone within arms reach. Once customers opt-in to receive mobile coupons from your business (usually the customer has to send a one time text to a 5 or 6 digit number), you now have a multitude of ways to influence customers instantly.

There are many great ideas for coupons that are sent directly to a customers cell phone. You can be creative with your campaigns and try to get new customers as well as customer loyalty. Let’s say you have 50 customers opted in and you want to generate sales for lunch and dinner. You send a mass text coupon at 11am on a weekday (remember, text messages have a 95% read rate within the first 3 minutes), knowing that most of your customers are at work. You can have the coupon say “come in today for lunch or dinner and get a free side item, bring a friend and get add’l $2 off” “valid today 11/23/2009 only. minimum order $8. Show this message to the waiter”. That is strong marketing for a fraction of the cost.

Bars can benefit by offering last minute specials on game nights, live band updates or happy hours. “2 for 1 drinks until halftime tonight. show this ad for $2 off any size wings”. This last minute blitz can be the final influence on where customers can watch the game or where to go after work. Better yet, customers are going to receive your message and read it very quickly.

Restaurants and bars all need ways to stay in touch with customers. It is very important to have a multi-point strategy for customer loyalty. It’s good to drop lines using all forms of communication available including email, direct mail, social media and text messaging. Please visit us at http://www.mvptext.com for information on our mobile marketing services.

Consumers expect their mobile Internet experience to be every bit as easy and accessible as it is on their PCs, but this isn’t necessarily the case according to new research from Xiam Technologies.

 by Helen Leggatt

 The survey of over 2,500 U.S. and U.K. mobile Internet users found that 8 out of 10 are frustrated by mobile search capabilities despite 68% of mobile users being dependent on mobile search engines to access content.

Not only do they have difficulty finding online content but they also claim to have to wade through too much “irrelevant information”, found Xiam Technologies’ survey (.pdf), with too much scrolling and clicking required to find what they want.

Content most desired and used is weather-related, followed by maps, social networking, games, music and local/world news. Significantly, respondents said that 27% of the time they were unable to access mobile content. Often this is a result of poor mobile webpage design (too large/small).

Research commissioned by Gomez earlier this year found that a bad mobile experience could turn users off a brand for good, driving them to competitors.

According to the 8-page report (.pdf) “It is clear there are serious consequences for organizations who fail to deliver quality mobile web experiences. The mobile website that fails to perform a transaction at speeds that mimic mobile behavior (e.g., waiting in line, stopped on a sidewalk, or sitting in a bus) or that doesn’t function as intended is unlikely to attract and retain users.”

URL Link to Biz Report:

http://www.bizreport.com/2009/11/8_out_of_10_mobile_internet_users_frustrated_by_search.html

TripBuilder EventMobile is a highly targeted mobile product that offers solutions to today’s meeting and event planners.  A completely customized tool that will change the way event planners communicate to their attendees.   TripBuilder EventMobile can be used to generate sponsorship revenue and at the same time enhance the event experience.  TripBuilder EventMobile combines information about a client’s event … together with destination content … all delivered right to attendees’ mobile phones.

TripBuilder EventMobile’s features, including:

• Detailed Schedule of Events & Educational Session Info
• Our uniqe Build MyBooth List functionality
• Rotating Banner Ads
• Motivational Contests
• TripBuilder City Content with mapping features
• Text Messaging & Announcement Alertser EventMobile is a highly targeted mobile product that offers solutions to todays event and meeting

At Ballyhoo Mobile Marketing, Inc. we have been talking with our clients for many months now about the rising importance of having a mobile website. And not the garbage work of some who filters your current website so that it looks okay on a mobile phone. Rather, a website built from the ground up specifically for mobile browsing.

People accessing your website on the go are looking for different information, in a different order, and don’t need all of your flash. In fact, they are even typing different terms into search engines to find your business and your competitors. If you don’t yet have a mobile-specific firm working on a mobile website and mobile search initiatives for you, it’s time to begin.

eMarketer predicts that by 2013, nearly 50% of mobile phone users will access the mobile Internet at least monthly (see graph at bottom). Along with rising smartphone shipments and increases in spending on mobile data plans, this will create a growing mobile content market. “The expected increases in mobile Internet users, mobile data revenues and smartphone sales will produce an environment in which users will be hungry for content,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Mobile Content: Paid Models Take Shape.” “It is likely that mobile content will follow a trajectory similar to Web content

Let us help you by starting with a free, no-strings-attached marketing consultation. Visit us at www.LetsTextTogether.com to learn more about affordable and custom mobile marketing campaigns from one of the leading mobile marketing boutique firms. Also feel free to email us directly at sales@letstexttogether.com with any questions.

At Ballyhoo Mobile Marketing, Inc. we have been talking with our clients for many months now about the rising importance of having a mobile website. And not the garbage work of some who filters your current website so that it looks okay on a mobile phone. Rather, a website built from the ground up specifically for mobile browsing.

People accessing your website on the go are looking for different information, in a different order, and don’t need all of your flash. In fact, they are even typing different terms into search engines to find your business and your competitors. If you don’t yet have a mobile-specific firm working on a mobile website and mobile search initiatives for you, it’s time to begin.

eMarketer predicts that by 2013, nearly 50% of mobile phone users will access the mobile Internet at least monthly (see graph at bottom). Along with rising smartphone shipments and increases in spending on mobile data plans, this will create a growing mobile content market. “The expected increases in mobile Internet users, mobile data revenues and smartphone sales will produce an environment in which users will be hungry for content,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Mobile Content: Paid Models Take Shape.” “It is likely that mobile content will follow a trajectory similar to Web content

Let us help you by starting with a free, no-strings-attached marketing consultation. Visit us at www.BallyhooMobile.com to learn more about affordable and custom mobile marketing campaigns from one of the leading mobile marketing boutique firms. Also feel free to email us directly at sales@ballyhoomobile.com with any questions.

IAB FORUM – MARTEDì 3  NOVEMBRE 2009

Presentazione realizzata da   Monica Cipriani, Alessandra De Cuia, Pradnya Rondanini, Marco Sangalli, Rudi Edoardo Scattorelli

I once listened to Bob Parsons, the CEO of Godaddy, talk about how the only marketing you should be doing is measurable marketing.

Integrating a mobile text messaging campaign with all of your other efforts wether it be TV, Radio, Print, Web, On Hold or any other medium turns these sometimes unmeasurable outlets into measurable ones. In addition to supplying you with a new way to measure the reach and effectiveness of your marketing efforts you will also be building a permission based list of clients and potential clients, when done correctly and ethically, that you can reach at a moments notice on their mobile device.

Pamela Clark-DicksonPamela Clark-Dickson is a principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.

Google’s wake-up call: We don’t have SMS advertising capability November 23, 2009 Written by Pamela Clark-Dickson.

The mobile industry is buzzing about Internet giant Google’s proposed $750m, all-stock acquisition of mobile advertising network AdMob, which was announced November 9. It is a huge deal, and seemingly an acknowledgement by Google that it has not been able to sufficiently develop its own mobile advertising capabilities internally, even though it has been offering mobile display search advertisements for some time.

Given that rivals Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo all snapped up mobile advertising networks two years ago – Screen Tonic, Third Screen Media and Actionality respectively – it would seem that Google has come a little late to the party. And perhaps its lateness to the market has cost it dearly. The privately-owned, venture-capital-backed AdMob has gone from being a start-up in 2006, to become a leading provider of mobile web display and application display advertising, with an ad serving network that spans 160 countries. According to its latest Mobile Metrics report, AdMob served 10.2 billion advertisements in September 2009 across its footprint. In 64 countries, the company served more than 10 million ads, and in 14 countries, it served more than 100 million ads. That is pretty impressive.

There is no doubt that AdMob has a lot to offer Google: in addition to its extensive network of advertisers and publishers, the company is able to provide its customers with comprehensive data about their mobile advertising campaigns, which it then also anonymizes and aggregates in order to publish a monthly report on its web site. This is the kind of data that the industry desperately needs if mobile advertising is ever to go mainstream.

Still, I am staggered by the sum that Google was prepared to pay to acquire AdMob, especially since as recently as January 2009, AdMob was seeking venture capital investment. The January 2009 round totaled US$12.5 million and in all, AdMob had received $47.2m since inception – or at least, the company had publicly disclosed that it had received that amount of funding. Also, Google itself says, in its FAQ with respect to the deal and regulatory approval: “Currently we do not believe this purchase requires regulatory review outside the United States. AdMob’s business simply is too small.” It’s a somewhat arrogant statement by Google, which also seems to contradict the price that the Internet giant was willing to pay to secure AdMob.

Under the circumstances, it almost goes without saying that AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui is an astute businessman; clearly he is also a skilled negotiator who knows what his company is worth and is not prepared to accept anything less than top dollar, as it were. Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has reportedly said that the company will buy back $750m in stock once the AdMob acquisition is completed, in order to avoid share dilution. This reportedly first-time share buy-back for Google comes less than a month after Schmidt’s statement in the company’s 3Q09 quarterly earnings call that the company would not ever consider a share buy-back.

AdMob’s investors Sequoia Capital, Accel, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Northgate Capital must be kicking themselves at this point; they will have made back their meager-looking investments, but nothing else, unless they also agreed some kind of exit deal with AdMob that gave them a share of the profits (or stock in this case) from the sale of the company to Google.

“Yoo-hoo! Over here,” says Google

What is also interesting about Google’s acquisition of AdMob is that Google has highlighted the fact that it currently doesn’t have an offering with regards to SMS advertisements, on a web page detailing its competitors in the mobile advertising market. Just to push the point home about how important it regards SMS advertising from a revenue perspective, Google also publishes a pie chart illustrating that an estimated 55 per cent of mobile advertising budgets in 2009 will be spent on SMS advertising, compared to 25 per cent on applications and web site advertising, and 20 per cent on mobile search. In addition, Google has helpfully provided a list of five players it believes are major players in the SMS advertising market: 4INFO, Cellfire, HipCricket, iLoop Mobile and VeriSign Messaging. Google is already active in the mobile search display market, and has acquired AdMob to provide application and mobile web site advertising, which means that the above players could conceivably be regarded as acquisition targets for Google.

But given the nature of the companies that Google has listed under SMS advertising, it seems that the company’s definition of SMS advertising is broad, and includes all forms of marketing in which SMS is used, not just the relatively nascent market for the insertion of advertisements into the unused characters of a text message. Only one of the five companies that Google has highlighted as players in the SMS advertising market, 4INFO, is operating under this business model. Meanwhile HipCricket, iLoop Mobile and VeriSign Messaging could be regarded as full-service mobile marketing companies, while Cellfire specializes in mobile coupons. All of these companies would, however, use SMS as a delivery channel for mobile marketing campaigns that, for example, include a text-to-win component or an SMS coupon.

While I don’t doubt that Google has considered or is considering one or more of these five companies as an acquisition target, I believe that either 4INFO, iLoop Mobile or HipCricket are probably the best fits for the company, depending on whether Google is going to continue to focus purely on SMS advertising, or whether it enters the mobile marketing industry sector.

If Google continues to focus purely on mobile advertising, then 4INFO is probably the best suited, since it has a lengthy history in inserting advertisements in the unused characters of SMS messages. 4INFO has also secured venture capital from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, one of the companies that funded AdMob.

But if Google is also interested in the wider mobile marketing sector, then either iLoop Mobile or HipCricket is going to suit its needs better. iLoop Mobile has already essentially said “Pick me!” by publishing, almost immediately after the Google/AdMob deal was announced, a landing page on its own web site that highlighted that it sits squarely in the SMS advertising space that Google left vacant on its web page detailing the mobile advertising market. This landing page has since been removed.

I don’t think that either VeriSign Messaging’s Mobile Delivery Gateway mobile content business (the former M-Qube) or Cellfire are in with a chance. VeriSign’s MDG has been up for sale for some time, but had Google been interested I feel that it would have snapped this asset up already, since VeriSign is keen to sell and Google has the cash (or stock) to buy. Meanwhile Cellfire specializes in mobile coupons, and that’s a capability that HipCricket also provides as part of a wider portfolio of services. If Google is interested in mobile marketing, it’s probably going to want to be a full-service provider rather than a niche market player.

But will Google be prepared to pay as much as it did for AdMob for a company (or companies) that will enable it to access a market which, by its own calculations, is much more lucrative than the mobile search, web, and in-application display advertising markets put together? Only time will tell.

 URL Link to Telecoms:

http://www.telecoms.com/16549/googles-wake-up-call-we-don%e2%80%99t-have-sms-advertising-capability