It is refreshing to see such a well-executed strategy and end-to-end ecosystem, so I caught up with Niko Ruokosuo, who acts as the CEO of the company (owned by Helsinki-based P2S Media Group Inc.) and is in charge of Scoopshot’s internationalization efforts, business development operations and marketing.  Niko has a long track record in the media industry and held executive positions in companies including: the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, one of the largest media organizations in the Middle East, the Finnish magazine publisher Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet  and the Los Angeles Times. The team (and brains) behind Scoophot is Petri Rahja, along with CTO Timo Rinne and Head of Development Jussi Markula.

Scoopshot: at-a-glance

• Scoopshot is a free mobile app for iPhone and android devices allowing users to capture and send photos to the media. An app for Windows Phone is next in the pipeline.

• The service is ‘live’ in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands, where it is supported by agreements with leading media companies. Anyone, anywhere can download the app and start capturing photos (thus, responding to the ‘assignments’ posted by media companies to the ‘community’).

• As of January Scoopshot counts over 35,000 registered users in 135 countries. (Of course, the real action is mainly in Europe because that’s where the media partners are — for the moment.) And stats show the users are fairly active, with 52 percent of the users actually using the Scoopshot app in the last two weeks of January (when I interviewed Niko).

Interview with Niko Ruokosuo

MG: You are in several countries in Europe through media partnerships. How do you set up shop?

Niko: We launch a country by making an agreement with media there. The company basically agrees that it will start using Scoopshot within that country. Then the question becomes how do we recruit the photographers, the Scoopshooters. In 90 percent of the cases, this comes from the media companies. They tell their readership that they are seeking user-generated content by means of Scoopshot.

MG: You have more than app, you also have a community and a way for media companies to post ‘assignments’ detailing the photos they want. How does this work?

Niko: The other major functionality in Scoopshot is a way for media can send targeted tasks to the Scoopshooters anywhere in the world.  In other words, I select a region and I direct and send a push notification to all the Scoopshooters in that region asking them to take photographs of an event. At the same time I tell them how much I’m willing to reward them for that photo.

MG: Let’s talk about the IP to hook Scoopshooters up with media companies. Is it yours?

Niko: Every line of code, everything that is used within the system, is written by us. We have numerous patent applications, invention notifications that relate to the technology that we use and we’re fairly advanced in the process of applying for patents.  Those relate to the messaging technology, the location technology and authenticity of the content that we can provide through the system. All communication is directed through the app.  In the next version of the app the communication with our user base becomes much more visual and much more engaging…

MG: What can we look for?

Niko: We will introduce new features, new functions and they will all be focused on boosting ease of use and simplicity. Video support is next. This will allow Scooshooters to shoot and send video because we know how media now is yearning for video content at low cost because it improves stickiness and social media.

MG: It could also open up advertising opportunities…?

Niko: We’ll be introducing Scoopshot Race in a few weeks. That, to me , is very exciting because it turns the application into a marketing device. Let’s say that Coca-Cola wants to capture their consumers, the old fashioned theme of capture a Coke moment. They can send the branded Coca-Cola task with a description or image that pays out exactly what they are looking for, as well as the prices. It is very visually engaging for a competition as well. The app says ‘capture a Coca-Cola moment, push this button, take a photo and send it, and Coca-Cola will reward the best photo with 5,000 Euros.

To make this all possible for the brand to offer and manage we have built a website that takes the branding of a Coca-Cola and pushes all of those photos that the users send to a Coca-Cola moment website directly from the readers’ mobile phones.  On top of that, we can also provide Coca-Cola with certain rights to those photos if they want to use them in their marketing.

MG: You mention Coca-Cola. It may be a brand on your radar, but what can you tell me about the brands that have  signed up or showed serious interest?

Niko: We are in concrete discussions with agencies and brands. Interestingly, we also have interest from one of the top music companies in the world. They approached us and want to offer a branded app so the fans can take photos from concerts on the tour. So, I think the opportunities are pretty much endless. Any brand that wants users to become engaged and participate, they can use this app to capture the content as part of a bigger social-focused advertising campaign.

MG: It’s definitely an app that brands can use. Are you looking beyond that to in-app advertising?

Niko: In one of the next releases we want to be able to inform our users of certain things on the homepage. So, when they open the app they will see a field for messaging. How we’re going to use that field hasn’t been decided. In the early stages it will news and announcements about Scoopshot, like announcements, profiles of successful Scooshooters…

MG: Which brings me to another key question: how much money are the Scopshooters making?

Niko:  On average, the media now pays 19 Euros per photo. But, we have had where media companies were so pleased with the results that they wanted to pay 5 times that.

MG: You are new — but you are also working to expand your footprint. Where will we see you launch next?

Niko: Our focus has been on Europe and Asia. We have signed to launch in countries. And I can tell you that we will also be launching outside of Europe. North America is also our focus. (Editor’s note: Niko hinted later that Latin American countries and Canada figure high on the list, so I gather we can look for those next…)

MG: Scoopshot has social media at its heart. How do fit in with all the other social media out there?

Niko: There is the ability to link Scoopshot on Facebook and media all together with this application by sharing what the user is doing on Facebook. I see Scoopshot fitting right in the middle, allowing media companies to reach out beyond the walls they have built to engage with people and encourage them to participate. We are right in the middle of that, building a bridge using social media and the eagerness of the audience to participate in content creation, and linking that to the needs of media companies.

MG: As you mentioned, there are social networks out there and creating and sharing content is a part of who and what we are. How are you going to compete?

Niko: While they all allow people to share content, we have the entire ecosystem in place that is needed to manage a publishing cycle from the user to the end media. We have the intellectual property rights covered in the system, both for the Scoopshooter and for the media. So there is no vagueness about who owns the rights to the photo, which is the case for Flickr, Facebook and any other social media.

The rights belong to the sender —the Scoopshooter. The rights are transferred to us for a period of 48 hours, giving us the right to sell the photo.  If no one buys a  photo within 48 hours, then rights are transferred back to the sender. If the media buys it, the company can buy a single license — single time publishing rights— allowing that company to publish the photo once in their print, online and broadcast media. If they want to publish that same photo a week later, then they need to re-purchase that photo. They can also buy exclusive rights, which is 10-fold the price. If the media company clicks the button to buy exclusive rights, then no one else can publish that photo — period.

We also have created the related payment structure because there needs to be a payment to the source. So media can transfer money instantly and the Scoopshooter gets feedback about paid photos instantly on their mobile device, including the money.

MG: This really is an economy around an app…What are the nuts and bolts of the mobile payment process?

Niko: In countries where the IBAN accounts system is prevailing, you have two options – PayPal or direct transfer to a bank account.  In countries where IBAN is not used, it’s primarily PayPal. Payment is fed into the system and it’s made instantaneous. We also make sure the photo is authentic and original. We track and include in the photo information the location, what device it came off of, who the sender is, where the sender can be located. Photos cannot be imported or exported of the system for Photoshop or anything like that, so authenticity is baked into our system.

Finally, we orchestrate the value chain. Where we launch we have media on board. There’s already a purchaser, a publisher for these photos, and that makes it worthwhile for the Scoopshooters to engage and participate.

My take:

Media and marketing are deep in the corporate DNA of Scoopshot, which is why it has cleverly focused on both of these segments. It recognizes the opportunity for a user-gen content creation service aimed to take the pain out of generating fresh, hot content from everywhere on the planet. No doubt the decline in print media also plays in favor of this model since these companies are hard-pressed to generate a continuous flow of original content and lack the staff to do the job. But don’t just think media. In an age where advertising is content, this could be the community-building tool that will put brands (and their social media outreach) on the fast track. Video is in the pipeline, and so is expansion to North America and Latin America. Scoopshot clearly has the infrastructure in place (communication, rights management, payment methods) to make crowdsourcing an ideal business (and not just a business ideal). Lots of possibilities, and a great capabilities mix, now we just have to see how the company executes on its strategy to build a bridge between companies (media, brands, even cities) and the people eager to participate.

Check out the video over at UNTETHER.tv

Will 2012 be the year of mobile commerce?

This week’s m-pulse catches up with Chetan Sharma, independent consultant and well-known industry authority, to discuss mobile mega-trends and deep-dive into the results of the 2012 Mobile Industry Predictions Survey. Each year Chetan asks us —the mobile industry — to weigh in on the most newsworthy events and companies, as well as vote for the breakthrough categories, developments and technologies sure to define 2012.

Rob and I also discuss our pick of hot mobile news and data points. I rant about the disconnect between the mobile and retail readiness of luxury brands (lacking to say the least!) and our willingness (even requirement) to interact with luxury brands via our mobile phones and tablets.

Rob directs our attention to  Shopkick —hailed as the largest location-based shopping app in the U.S. —and its announcement that it has helped drive more than $110 million in-store revenue for partner retailers and brands in 2011, and is poised to do even more in 2012.

Finally, we raise our ‘Goblet of Rock’ (a toast to those who rock)to Scoopshot, a super-cool mobile crowdsourcing app with a built in ecosystem that allows media companies to produce fresh content by connecting with a community of people who have the app, take the pictures and want to cash in on the opportunity to earn money for the news photos they capture (and still return their intellectual property rights).

[Editor's note: More in our exclusive interview with CEO Niko Ruokosuo here on MobileGroove tomorrow.]

Who, what, where, when & how?

Chetan is a long-time industry veteran accustomed to asking the tough questions (and giving us some insightful answers). In his interview with m-pulse Chetan runs through the 20 questions that made up his 2012 predictions survey and the surprising responses he got from the some 150+ industry experts and execs that offered their insights.

• Tablets: Who will dominate the tablet platform in the next 2 years? Android and Apple iOS lead the pack, a response Chetan notes spells especially bad news for Microsoft. “This means that even in two years people are not placing their bets on Windows.” This may not come as a huge surprise, but it does confirm a profound shift in the marketplace that transcends single platforms and products. “Apple is demolishing its rivals left and right, and it’s so far ahead in terms of profitability that no one can come close to Apple at this point.” Tablets were also named the ‘most successful non-mobile phone category in 2012,” a development Chetan reads as a clear indication that tablets will “change the commerce landscape dramatically.”
• Mobile commerce: It dominates several sections of the survey. What will be the breakthrough category in 2012? For the second year in a row mobile payments and mobile commerce take the top two spots on a long list — ahead of mobile health, mobile coupons, mobile VoIP, mobile advertising and LBS. What will be the most popular consumer application in 2012? Again, mobile payments and mobile commerce come have the lead, beaten out only by messaging. Chetan’s take: messaging and commerce are the focus for the developing regions of the world; developed nations are likely to gravitate toward commerce (again!) and location-based services. And finally, which industry segment will mobile impact the most? Retail leads the pack — again driving home the point that this may be the year retail must reinvent itself, or miss the mobile wave (accelerated by the rise of mobile payments and commerce). As Chetan puts it: “The pace of change is fast and furious and lots of companies will be surprised by commerce.”
• Mobile showdowns: According to the survey, Microsoft is the one to watch. It was named as the company likely to make the biggest mobile acquisition. What company could/should Microsoft buy to bolster its position in mobile? We debate this key question, as well as the fate of Nokia. Lumia is off to a good start, so what should the next move be? Chetan has some solid advice: If AT&T and T-Mobile inject marketing dollars into the launch, then Lumia could see a similar growth trajectory to the one that catapulted Android Droid (via Verizon Wireless) into the center of the action.

As Rob puts it, our interview with Chetan is 30 minutes of pure mobile goodness. Listen in and find out why by viewing the latest episode at the end of this post.

Luxury opportunity

The advent of the smartphone and, in particular, Apple’s high-end devices (also tablets) have opened up new opportunities for the luxury sector. The question is: Do they ‘get’ it?

While some case studies stand out from the crowd (such as BMW) a recent study (the Prestige 100 Mobile IQ report released in January by L2 Think Tank, part of the New York University Stern School of Business, should have alarms bells ringing.

The report ranks the mobile offerings of prestige brands in across several sectors (beauty/skincare, fashion, hospitality, retail, and watches/jewelry) looking at how effective their mobile apps are — that is, if they have apps at all (!).

Topping the list of the mobile-savvy brands are Sephora (whose mobile site features product videos organized by content type and filterable by brand, as well as a GPS-based store locator, shopping list creator, order history/tracking, and a section for mobile-exclusive offers).

Sephora also gets points for ‘cool’ with an iPad app that lets users look at themselves on one side of the screen while watching how-to videos on applying makeup on the other.

But being cool is only half the battle. The report reminds us that, while seven out of 10 luxury brands on the list have set up mobile apps for Apple iOS-powered devices such as iPhones and iPads, less than a third let users shop using their mobile devices.

So are luxury brands falling down when it comes to mobile and retail readiness? Are companies leaving money on the table by not letting us shop till we drop? Tough questions, but the data I am collecting for a client research project confirms a dangerous disconnect between brand approach and audience demographics.

For one, the report states that 20 percent of individuals with $1 million or more in investable assets own a tablet and spend 50 percent more time on the device than on their smartphone. Good reason for brands to be present on these platforms with mobile optimized sites and offers.

Additionally, a landmark report on the retail sector by Millennial Media, a leading independent mobile advertising and data company, and consumer research conducted by comScore, confirms the massive mobile marketing (and commerce) opportunities for prestige brands.

Specifically, it found that the vast majority of mobile retail users are tech-savvy digital natives between the ages of 18 and 35 for whom the mobile phone has become an indispensable part of their daily routine. However, these Millennials are not just more sophisticated; they also tend to be more affluent. The data, which breaks down mobile retail users by income, shows that the percentage of mobile retail users is higher than the total audience in several income brackets. Interestingly, mobile retail users lead in the +$100,000 annual income bracket, providing retail advertisers — particularly those selling luxury goods — a significant audience that is likely to appreciate and respond to a mobile call to action.

My take: Given the demographics of mobile users and mobile retail users it’s amazing that so few luxury brands are serious about mobile (not to mention tablets).

Check out episode #3 of m-pulse

Look for m-pulse for your weekly dose of what matters most in mobile. We thank you for your positive feedback, shout outs and RTs. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me or my co-host Rob Woodbridge, founder and owner of UNTETHER.tv, with your good ideas and great companies.

In February we celebrate the ‘Year of the Ear’ — to borrow an observation from Mary Meeker’s invaluable trends presentation. Our topic is mobile voice, and our guest next week is Bill Meisel, independent consultant and the industry go-to guy for all things voice-enabled.

From a special section that expertly outlines the opportunities, challenges and attitudes around mobile marketing and advertising in India, to path-breaking research and models that harness our interaction with mobile social networks to drive frequency (and results!), this issue is the one if you are looking for a balanced mix of academic insights and practical business advice.

By way of background, the IJMM is published twice a year with the support of the Mobile Marketing Association. Each issue features articles and papers from academics, students, as well as mobile industry thought leaders. It is in its 7th year — and continues to grow from strength to strength with every issue. There are opportunities for firms to help underwrite and sponsor special editions, so please contact northamerica@mmaglobal.com.

Be counted (and quoted)

But the real opportunity that shouldn’t be missed is a new feature slot called INVITED COMMENTARY, a special section that allows industry executives and influencers provide actionable ideas and insights.

The new section kicks off with a contribution from Mihai Vlad, Head of Audience Management & Insight at Optism. He draws from his observations to make a strong case for transparency, straight talk and trust-building in permission marketing approaches. [More in this article excerpt.]

His argument is on the mark — particularly since the success of permission marketing rests on the quality of the dialog. To drive it home he provides mobile marketers a blueprint they can follow to maximize the value of their permission based mobile marketing initiatives. His five best practices to follow stress the paramount importance of thinking human and ‘nudging’ to ensure positive outcomes.

Guidelines & deadlines

MobileGroove is proud to collaborate with Michael Hanley —  IJMM Editor-in-Chief and  Associate Professor of Advertising, Ball State University — to promote this excellent work and amplify the call for contributions and papers. The IJMM has featured a whopping 130+ articles since it first went live, so make sure your voice is heard!

Also: The Summer 2012 issue of the IJMM will feature a special section on Mobile Marketing and Advertising in China along with articles from around the globe, and an INVITED COMMENTARY from a voice in the industry we need to hear.

Submit your draft or prospectus (in MS Word format) via email mmajournal@mmaglobal.com,  or visit: http://mmaglobal.com/resources/international-journal-mobile-marketing/call-for-paper for more information.

The submission deadline for the next issue (Summer 2012) is March 15, 2012.

If you miss that, then you can target the next issues.

• Winter 2012 (submission deadline: September 15, 2012)
• Summer 2013 (submission deadline: March 15, 2013)

Check out the new issue — or purchase past issues —by clicking the banner below.

National Retail Federation Show, New York City:

Indeed, the reality of a connected shopping experience with smartphones at the center may not be far off. However, this show was proof to me that we have to get past our focus on technology (and B2B) and walk in the shoes of our customers (understanding that it’s B2C that is really at the core). And, since it is about the shopper experience, it’s clear that winning Retail 2.0 strategies will be the ones that bring CIOs and CMOs to the table.

Thankfully, technology is not an issue. In fact, judging from the number of vendors who used the event to show off an ‘old’ technology with a new twist, you could say that we are going to see a comeback of sorts.

Yes, RFID is back on the agenda — along with technology solutions to help retailers track the product life-cycle from factory to sale using near-field communications (NFC) and RFID chips, “smart” tags that track every item to gain real-time visibility into its key business processes.

Exhibitors such as SAP, Oracle and JDA Software showed how serialized data from RFID tags, which are embedded into product tags, can be integrated with business information from back-end systems along the supply chain. Track a sweater from factory to show room to purchase and possibly customer return? It’s coming. Allow retailer micro-visibility into order status and inventory. It’s work in progress.

However, many vendors are still missing the full story (and the strategy to make it all happen). To me, it was as if they ended the story in mid-pitch. Yes, it is about the efficiencies that RFID and other wireless, smart technology bring to retail overall. And yes, that is generally a matter that involves technology and the CIOs who engineer retail to deliver results.

But what about the new frontier — which I call Retail 2.0 — and harnessing mobile to understand and improve how people shop? And what about the potential to use this technology to involve people in the process, making them an informed and important part of the supply chain? This is where I miss the interest and input of CMOs.

Technology already impacts consumers’ daily routines. NFC-enabled phones are entering the market this year, enabling shoppers to do much more than just buy stuff on the move. People are becoming empowered to participate in the retail business ecosystem.

Put another way, the advance of smartphone scanners and apps that allow shoppers to navigate stores, find items, compare prices and get more product information are all capabilities that allow people to participate in and define their shopping experience from research to purchase. Retail 2.0 is about opening up retailers’ business information to the consumer to ultimately close the cross-channel disconnect.

Retail 2.0 is about the shopper

This last holiday season we saw the Amazon cloud abruptly enter the shopping mall and rudely disrupt retail sales. The outcome: Shoppers increasingly reach to their phones to compare prices and investigate product information and options. The race is on for all retailers to respond. Book, electronic, apparel, shoe stores and chains like Target are all working on strategies to become more relevant to this digital consumer.

Gone are the days when the consumer relied on the sales clerk for information and advice. That’s value their personal and connected devices can also deliver. What’s more, in most stores the “blue shirt” clerk has less access to technology than their customer, a sophisticated, swaggering smartphone shopper.

What to do? How can we connect with the shopper before they are poached by Amazon through its PriceCheck App? And how do retailers prepare for the skirmishes sure to happen once the  soon-to-come Kindle Fire 4G devices hit the market with their array of in-store mobile commerce tools? (What Amazon has cleverly chosen to call “pro-consumer” solutions…)

RFID pushes the boundaries

This is where (and why) RFID “smart” tags offer a solution. Often described as “bar codes on steroids,” RFID tags are equipped with a tiny antenna and a microprocessor, which stores a special number for every product – the so-called electronic product code (EPC). In connection with the retailer’s data warehouse it communicates data such as description, price, origin, shelf life and storage location.

Proponents of the technology say RFID technology will progressively replace existing bar codes. Unlike bar code labels these “smart” tags do not require a line of sight reader or scanner, and can therefore communicate directly with other objects – and without human intervention.

Ironically, retailers have traditionally been the drivers of this technology with mega-chains such as Wal-Mart in the U.S. and Metro in Europe implementing the technology to increase visibility into the supply chain, tracking everything from jeans to jelly.

Asset control, asset tracking, and the need to increase supply chain clearly propelled the RFID market in the last decade, enabling retailers to “see” the movement of products from the pallet in the distribution center, to the shelves in the store, to the shoppers’ baskets.

Each step of the way “smart tags” have allowed for better replenishment decisions, enabling retailers visibility into their inventories and sales.

But the RFID smart tag solution is not just a solution for retailers. Other industry sectors — including the public sector — are moving ahead on approaches that reinforce the growing importance of RFID in all things wireless.

More retailers (not just the major chains) are exploring RFID solutions to track and trace products. Law enforcement authorities are implementing RFID schemes to detect and prevent counterfeiting. The financial services industry is exploring ways to harness RFID (coupled with NFC) to design digital wallets.

Take a closer look at the use cases and scenarios and you’ll see that they all share one common interface: people using an NFC-enabled phones can participate in these experiences.

With it they can:

• Explore information on the product (track and trace)
• Verify that a Prada bag is authentic (counterfeiting)
• Receive an offer on the product (wallet)

If retailers design their back room inventory systems to allow for shopper-side access, then every product with a serialized RFID tag would also pave the way for a smart(er) shopping experience. By simply tapping the RFID tag with their phone, shoppers could open a browser window to access product information, product authenticity validation and jumpstart the all-important brand engagement that is the end-game of any interaction. Thus, we move from efficiency to lasting customer engagement  in the form CRM,

All this is without downloading a mobile app, QR code reader or even texting.

It’s not rocket science

In a world where the retailer needs to count clicks to commerce, using existing merchandising solutions such as RFID and NFC can pay dividends. They allow retailers to provide for simple shopper engagement and accelerate the path-to-purchase.

But first CIOs and CMOs need to sit at the same table (and be on the same page).

Once they work out a strategy to hand off product information and data from the enterprise to the shopper, then they can move beyond track and trace within their premises to engagement far beyond the boundaries of the enterprise.

The technology is mature and the CIO is already developing a data repository to store events associated with uniquely identified products and associated business information. Let the shopper into this repository and watch the results when shoppers have access to explore product information at the tap of their phone and participate in the commerce they drive.

About Gary:

Gary brings us insights on all things at the intersection of mobile and retail, directly from places and cases where the action is. Gary — who is the CEO of Impact Mobile, Inc., North America Chair of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) and author of THE IMPULSE ECONOMY — has held a leadership role in the mobile industry for over a decade.  He has a long and impressive track record that includes mobile-first activities (in 2002, Gary ran the first cross-carrier short code campaign in North America) and achievements. In 2006, Gary founded the mobile committee for the Interactive Advertising Bureau  and has since worked to publish literature such as the Mobile Buyer’s Guide, for which he received an IAB award for industry excellence in 2009). In 2010, Gary was elected as the Chair of MEF North America with a remit to develop a mobile commerce practice to service brands, retailers and content owners (for which he received a MEF award for industry excellence). In 2011, in partnership with MEF and a number of industry groups including the X9 security standards body, Gary began work to develop m-commerce security and privacy guidelines. You can read his book and blog at www.theimpulseeconomy.com. Follow Gary on Twitter at @impulseeconomy

A raft of recent developments supports the observation that this device is indeed a game-changer, starting with buoyant sales numbers that have exceeded everyone’s expectations. Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente (via All Things Digital) has upped his original estimate of 4.5 million units sold last quarter to 5.5 million. Piper Jaffray is convinced Amazon is on track to sell 10-12 million Kindle devices (Kindle and Kindle Fire), up from the initial estimate of 9 million units. Meanwhile, analyst Tavis McCourt at Morgan Keegan has downgraded his iPad sales forecasts for the quarter from 16 million units to 13 million. (Again, sales lost to Kindle Fire.)

Speculation abounds over precisely how many Kindle Fires have been sold. Amazon, of course, is keeping the real sales figures to itself. (Amazon has only said that it sold more than 1 million Kindles in December, but did not break that figure out by device.) So, we have to connect dots in recent analyst estimates to arrive at a more accurate picture.

Mobile advertising impact

November numbers from independent mobile ad and data platform company Millennial Media show serious momentum is building for the new tablet device, a trend that could spread from the U.S. to Europe when the Kindle Fire sets markets here ablaze.

Specifically, the company’s November Mix (a monthly series of reports revealing key advertising trends with a focus on mobile manufactures, devices, operating systems and connected devices based on actual campaign and platform data) states that “impressions from the Kindle Fire have grown at an average daily rate of 19 percent” since the device was launched in November.  The Millennial Media report stresses it’s not just seeing millions of impressions. “We’re seeing a monthly run rate of hundreds of millions of impressions.”

Smartphones are another story. This category accounted for 70 percent of all impressions (connected devices follow at 16 percent, ahead of feature phones at 14 percent), with Apple’s iPhone leading the pack. It generated 13.54 percent of impressions in November, far ahead of Blackberry, which came in a distant second.

Europe warms to tablet devices

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is exploding in popularity, a development that has serious consequences for developers everywhere (as this guest column from Mubaloo points out). Its affordable price, stockpile of content and tight-knit ecosystem certainly positions this device to move in on the territory so far dominated by Apple.

Aware of this other players are preparing for impact. Just this week mobile operator Orange UK has announced its own branded tablet, the new Orange Tahiti Android tablet (using the Android Honeycomb operating system that also gives users access to Android apps). The device, a re-branded Huawei Mediapad that features a 5-megapixel camera, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G+ support, is available from GBP 69.99 with a 2-year GBP 25 per month data plan. It is also free to users as part of a Connected 24 month plan with the San Francisco II handset for GBP 41 per month.

With major events such as the Olympics coming to the U.K., players such as Orange no doubt expect the uptake and use of connected devices to skyrocket.

And it’s not just a hunch. Orange Exposure, an annual independent study by research firm TNS into mobile usage and habits across 2,000 users (U.K., France, Spain, Poland) shows tablet devices could be cannibalizing home TV viewing and are definitely boosting mobile commerce.

Among the key findings:

• Tablet users were 50 percent more likely to purchase online than mobile users
• 60 percent of tablet users have made at least one ‘m-commerce’ transaction compared to 47 percent of mobile users
• Respondents are more likely to use smartphones to ‘kill time’ and are more likely to use tablets to ’save time’ (an average grade of 7 on 10 for both devices)

Is the tablet our new sit-back device — the one we’ll reach for to research products while relaxing on the couch?

It’s a tough one to call. However, this trend (consumers opting for their tablet over their PC) presents advertisers with unique opportunities to capture attention and engage consumers that encourage purchasing decisions.

As Bruce Hoang, group marketing director, Orange Advertising Network, put it in a press statement: “This is the first time we have included tablet usage in the Orange Exposure report and the findings are quite stark in their description of how people are using devices. Clearly, the one-size-fits-all approach for digital content across TV, PC, smartphone and tablet does not work, and this has significant implications for content producers and advertisers.”

Interestingly, a survey of 2,000 U.K. adults by YouGov found that ordinary Amazon Kindles were a holiday favorite, with one in 40 respondents receiving a e-reader as a gift (92 percent of them Kindles, or 1.22 million units). In comparison, the survey suggests 640.000 tablets were given as gifts, 72 percent or 460,800 of them iPads. Connect the dots, as YouGov has, and the stars are aligned for Kindle Fire to be key to driving tablet ownership in the U.K. in the next 12 months.

My take:

Connected isn’t a fad; it’s a hard fact. Tablets are taking off and the Kindle Fire is poised to make its mark on Europe. Are industry observers such as Greg Stuart, global head of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), correct when they say tablets will have a huge influence on mobile advertising? Data points and developments certainly support this conclusion. Millennial Media — which research firm IDC says is now the second largest mobile display ad network after Google and ahead of Apple —  draws from a significant number of impressions on its network to conclude impressions from Kindle Fire are on a steady growth curve. This dovetails with user research from Orange indicating tablets (as a category) are for saving time, not killing it, and conducting commerce. As a prime replacement for the PC, where many of us spend hours researching products and digital stuff we want to buy, the rise (and rise) of the tablet forces brands and marketers to expand their ‘mobile’ strategies to include a variety of connected devices if they want to connect with consumers at every stage of the consumer journey (awareness, engagement, consideration, conversion and loyalty).

Disclaimer: News and analysis of developments impacting mobile advertising and the business ecosystem is sponsored by Millennial Media.

All speakers agreed that mobile plays a more central role in marketing, impacting people and influencing their actions throughout the purchase funnel (from awareness to conversion and commerce). However, there was a lack of consensus when it came to answering THE big question: how will mobile play out in 2012?

Jennifer Lee, senior manager of the retailer and distribution practice, Deloitte & Touche, placed her bets on mobile’s “multiplier effect.” As she put it: “Organizations that develop a comprehensive strategy on leveraging mobile in the path to purchase will win in the marketplace.” This entails having a “full view of a customer’s path to purchase for all channels and to have an integrated view on how mobile drives online and retail store purchases.”

In her view, the business case for mobile will “be driven by the multiplier effect that mobile has on other channels.” And mobile loyalty and CRM will also move up the business agenda. “In addition, customers will expect personalization and relevance in all the marketing messaging regardless of channel, and as a result, it will be important to use CRM tools to segment customers based on lifestyle.”

James Gaffar, product developer, ad solutions, mobile & emerging media, NBC Universal, is bullish about cross-media approaches and remarked that integrated marketing has never been more in demand.

“This is where publishers, brands and advertisers need to have serious discussions,” he said. “Mobile is only one screen in a user’s life and, therefore, crafting a story across different touch points in a user’s day will give an advertiser the best ROI. Messaging needs to be aligned with the overall brand strategy but adjusted to the time of day, location and where a potential consumer digests that content. Taking online creative and porting into mobile will never be as effective as planning for mobile in a larger holistic program.”

Tina Unterlaender, account director for mobile, AKQA, echoed this sentiment. She sees a “deeper integration of the mobile channel especially as part of product extensions and new enhanced mobile commerce options.” What’s more, “product extension such as Nike +, Epic Mix, or connected car applications will become the norm and will add value to the products purchased.”

But it’s not just about connected experiences; it’s about commerce. As she put it: “When it comes to mobile commerce, deeper integration cross platform with single sign on will drive mobile purchasing behavior. Google Wallet was only the start of a new era without plastic in our pockets. Looking at publishers, we will see the most interactive magazines and ad products since the beginning of mobile. ”

Finally, Hipcricket Chief Operating Officer Eric Harber told us he believes that 2012 will be about selecting partners that will “protect” brand marketers. “I forecast patent infringements being identified and enforced, making it imperative to work with a company that has protected IP and can keep you out of trouble,” he said.

HOW I SEE IT: The webinar was full of insights. I agreed with many of them — and I have some to add. Consider this as a list of my top predictions for 2012:

• Device price points will continue to drop — and we’ll see more offers that provide consumers with a product at a discount provided they agree to receive ads. Mobile phones with offers, including perhaps a Google phone, are coming soon.
• Savvy marketers will succeed by following research into real behavior and interest, rather than gambling on something entirely new. These professionals know that just because you can do something with technology doesn’t mean you should. Know your customers and prospects, and market to them in ways (and via formats) you know have the best chance of success. A major global brand allocates approximately 70 percent of its mobile efforts to reach efforts that include SMS. Additionally, 20 percent of efforts focus on delivering richer experiences (that don’t reach all subscribers), and 10 percent are all about the shiny object. That is a great example to follow.
• 2012 will be the year of the mobile web. As more people begin to access the Web using a wireless device than they do using a PC, it will become crystal clear to brands, agencies and companies across the ecosystem that they can’t afford to treat their mobile strategy and presence as an afterthought. They will realize they must offer a mobile Web offering that over-delivers, rather than just cover the bases. This has not happened yet, but it will because consumers will demand it.
• As mobile marketing moves to the mainstream (and becomes an item on the agenda of companies across all the verticals) you can bet that more vendors will enter the marketplace in 2012 making claims that they will produce ROI. My message to brands: Proceed with caution. While the name of the nimble newcomer company promising to help you craft a comprehensive mobile strategy may not say ‘Two Guys In a Garage’, that may indeed be what you are buying.
• Expect more pressure from senior management to produce results from mobile. As this shift takes place it will be even more critical to think beyond a one-time transaction. There are bigger opportunities in mobile if you think about what can (and must) happen after the click. Don’t stop at a one-off campaign that ends in a landing page or an app. Deliver an experience that can lead to an opt-in, providing you customer insights and remarketing possibilities.

And finally, successful mobile campaigns will have clear calls to action and provide multiple ways to engage. No doubt many brands and advertisers will borrow from the blueprints belonging to market leaders like Macy’s. Macy’s, which I wrote about in this earlier column on MobileGroove, has implemented a comprehensive and holistic approach called the Backstage Pass program. Like Macy’s, brands would be well-adviced to use an SMS call to action (to start the conversation) and then continue the interaction by harnessing QR codes (delivered via print advertising) to point people to a mobile website to capture people’s information —and interest. Macy’s approach shows that cross-media is where the action (and the results) are.

(This is my last column of the year. I thank Peggy for the opportunity and support, and I thank all the readers of this space for their continued loyalty. Next year will be even bigger with more insights here, as well as additional major projects coming designed to help you succeed in mobile.)

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

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Mobile advertising is set to explode. Market research firm eMarketer predicts that mobile ad spending will increase 48 percent this year from $743.1 million in 2010 to $1.1 billion in 2011. That’s significant growth, but none of this projected spending will be effective if advertisers can’t reach the right people with the right types of ads on the right devices at the right times.

Google’s AdMob, with its 52 percent reach of U.S. mobile users, offers advertisers targeting by device, demographic and people’s interests (based on their keyword search, for example), across 7,000 mobile sites and in 1,600 iPhone and Android apps. It covers the bases for brands that are prepared to settle for an approach that resembles traditional mass-market advertising on television. However, mobile is not TV and mass-market ad networks cannot fully deliver what mobile makes possible: the ability to target a user who has already purchased from your brand or is about to make a purchase in a specific location. This is the true value of mobile, and it can only be achieved as we become better at mapping audiences to their purchasing behaviors.

Mobile audience targeting is a hot topic and a huge opportunity. In fact, the industry search for a definitive solution dates back to 2008 when the audience measurement company Nielsen burst on the scene with Mobile-PRIZM. PRIZM was the first to enable targeting based on demographics and lifestyle attributes, but —much like Google’s AdMob— there was a serious shortcoming.

Close, but no cigar

Put simply, contextual advertising based on lifestyle or interests isn’t enough to map an advertising strategy to the purchase funnel. Behavioral targeting — delivered via mobile to people while they are shopping in physical stores — reaches the right mobile users further down the purchase funnel, which, in turn, increases consumer engagement after viewing the ad.

But there are challenges.

For one, there’s the issue of privacy. What information about consumers, such as age or gender, or geographic location, can be made available to third parties? Since most of this data is currently attributed anonymously, there’s no infringement on consumers’ rights. Yet, as the industry becomes more robust, privacy will continue to be a concern.

Then there’s the technology. For online behavioral targeting to work, cookies are set on users’ computers telling ad networks more about their individual search and browsing behaviors. On mobile it’s not so easy. Google’s Android accepts cookies on its mobile browser, but Apple’s iOS rejects cookies, thus making it extremely difficult to track users’ behaviors. As a result, advertisers are left with targeting by device, carrier, and location. Sure, that’s a solution, but I question whether it is the best solution.

Better targeting has made online advertising more successful, and better targeting is also what is needed to make the ROI of mobile advertising more compelling for advertisers and their agencies. If audience targeting can be done in mobile, more ad spend will flow towards mobile ads.

Achieving ROI

A recent study from market research firm AudienceScience found that 84.8 percent of agencies and 76.3 percent of all advertisers already use audience targeting to deliver relevant advertising to online users. What’s more, advertisers using targeting report they plan to increase their digital ad budgets more than 72 percent this year. Agencies surveyed said they plan to spend 66 percent more on audience targeting. For advertisers and agencies, an effective ad is one that increases brand awareness and purchase intent. Using targeting to deliver the right ads to the right audience increases the likelihood of being able to measure those KPIs more accurately.

According to a recent study — conducted by Jumptap, a mobile ad targeting company and Digiday, a media company and community for professionals who work in the digital media, marketing and advertising industry — targeting and reach top the list of what advertisers are looking for when investing in mobile.

That’s where the work of our company, 4INFO, comes in. We launched the AdHaven Mobile Advertising Platform back in 2010, and the AdHaven Audience Network now reaches over 90 million mobile users through hundreds of premium publisher partners. We have formed partnerships with multiple database marketing and digital companies such as Nielsen Catalina to gather behavioral data, and can map our audiences to specific behavioral segments, giving marketers the ability to reach their purchasing audience. Thus the AdHaven platform processes purchase data from our data partners, including shopper households tracked in the Nielsen Catalina database to deliver the ad to the best possible mobile user on our audience network.

Hartz reaches right users

We tapped into our network to help Hartz launch its new “Crunch ‘n Clean” dog biscuit with DentalShield by specifically targeting dog owners who purchase Milk-Bone products. Of the 90 million mobile users in 4INFO’s network, the AdHaven platform was able to identify six million mobile users within our audience network that had been shown to be interested in shopping for these types of products and would therefore most likely respond to the ads.

These users were identified as belonging to two main segments: pet supply buyers and animal tech/groomers. The AdHaven Platform uses historical data to determine how responsive mobile users would be to particular ads, and combines this information with users in the two main segments to ensure that the right ads are delivered to the most appropriate and responsive users.

As a result, we were able to directly target “pet food buyers” with mobile Web, app, and text messaging. The campaign led consumers to the Hartz mobile landing page, a destination that offered a free Hartz mobile app and a link to an in-store voucher for $1 off their purchase of Crunch ‘n Clean bones.

The ability to define an audience of potential customers based on their purchasing behavior on TV, Internet and in stores allowed us to achieve a significantly higher response rate. Specifically, the response rate to the targeted ads was 77 percent higher than the response rate to run of network ads on the AdHaven platform.

The bottom line: Effective mobile advertising isn’t just mobile-centric. It’s essential to have a holistic view of the customer as they move through their daily routine and across the platforms and screens (TV, Internet, mobile) that define their shopping experience. Delivering relevant advertising in mobile requires the right channel mix (mobile Web, SMS, mobile apps), but even the best balance isn’t enough.

Advertisers should use tools to find the right consumers — ones likely to respond or purchase based on their real-life behavior — to deliver those ads to in the first place. The future of this industry depends on having more access to more data that enables us to better predict correlations of behaviors, while respecting the privacy of individuals. The better we target, the better ads perform — and the more value we provide to advertisers overall.

About Tim:

Tim is the CEO of 4INFO and a seasoned Silicon Valley veteran with more than 25 years in senior operational and executive roles at several tech companies including Apple and Stratacom (acquired by Cisco). At Apple, Tim was responsible for developing the education business division in Europe. Employing a unique channel and product strategy he helped this division grow to over $500M in annual revenue. Armed with extensive experience in developing profitable strategies and scaling companies, Tim will drive the expansion of 4INFO in the rapidly growing mobile market within the US and globally. Tim graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Business and Finance. Follow @4INFO to keep up-to-date with developments at 4INFO.

Editor’s note: MobileGroove regularly features guest columns from industry and executives and thought leaders. If you’d like pitch an idea, then email peggy@mobilegroove.com with a brief summary of what your post will cover and we’ll get back to you within 48 hours.

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My personal and professional lifestyles — mobile, multi-tasking mom and member of the Mobile Marketing Association Board, North America — encourage me to examine and experience mobile campaigns from a variety of vantage points. In my last column I showcased campaigns that demonstrated how brands are harnessing creativity to engage and entertain us. These successful campaigns impressed me —touched me — as both an individual and a mobile industry professional.

However, it’s Starbucks that has left a mark on both lives I lead with a mobile strategy (not just a campaign) that delivers precisely the mix of utility and familiarity that has allowed me to completely embed its branded mobile app in my own personal, daily routine.

Effective advertising delivers us value. Like most mobile moms I love utility (!). And, as a professional businesswoman, I doubly appreciate advertising that comes bundled with a service that makes my life just that little bit easier.

It’s a behavior that is completely in sync with recent research findings that show my demographic (mobile moms) has become a true artisan at weaving mobile into the shopping experience. The report, compiled by parenting website BabyCenter and reported by eMarketer, found that 68 percent of moms use their smartphone while shopping, which means that a mom is 15 percent more likely to rely on their phone that than the average customer. Also, 62 percent of moms use shopping apps to research or compare prices.

Women (especially mobile moms) are mobile savvy, short on time (because we run both our households and our businesses on the go) and we want our technology to keep us organized wherever our busy lives take us. Starbucks understands this, which is why it has developed and delivered an app that is more than a technology; it is a life-simplifying assistant.

And I am not the only one who thinks so. This week Apple iTunes broke the news that the coffee giant had been named the “Best iPhone Lifestyle App in the U.S.” The app, which allows mobile payments and an easy way to track rewards, is obviously a crowd-pleaser. Less than a year after Starbucks launched an app that allows mobile payments, the company reports it has hosted a whopping 26 million such transactions across Apple, BlackBerry and Android devices. As a result, one in four Starbucks card transactions is now executed via a Starbucks card and a significant portion of those are done via mobile.

Indeed, people have embraced mobile as a way to connect with Starbucks and explore experiences like mobile pay, managing their Starbucks Card and My Starbucks Rewards accounts, sending eGifts and more through Starbucks app for iPhone.

I applaud Starbucks for putting people at the center of its mobile strategy and for paying meticulous attention to what I call the Three Rs of mobile marketing: respect, reinforcement and repeating what works to gain customer trust and —ultimately— encourage customer loyalty. Like the Three Rs we know from elementary school (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) these must be at the foundation of brands’ mobile strategies.

Respect

Starbucks gets high marks for obeying the number one business tenet: know your audience. Making the effort to understand our needs shows that the brand respects us enough not to waste our time or try our patience. Yes, Starbucks could have released an all-singing-all-dancing app that takes dog years to load and does absolutely nothing (except ‘wow’ some mobile elite), but it knew better.

Based on a deep understanding of its customers (a demographic that wants utility, not novelty) Starbucks has purposely released an app that makes buying a no-brainer. One, it connects us to the shop we want, allowing us to find a nearby Starbucks, but also providing us details about the store such contact details, distance and whether the shop offers oven-warm food. Two, it makes paying for what we buy a breeze. A barcode is delivered to our mobile phone and the cash register is equipped to scan the code so we can go on our way. The complete system ties in with the reward system, a virtuous cycle I will explain more in the next section.

Beyond the app I am also impressed by the quality of my interaction with Starbucks, which is non-intrusive and respects me enough to give me my personal space.

After going online to accept the e-gift card I received from a friend and activate the offer (which was thankfully quite simple), I then synced it to my iPhone app. Encouraged by this positive experience (and not having been frustrated by a problem along the way) I signed up for the text messages, an action spurred by my interest as a mobile marketing professional in seeing just how well Starbucks would respect my requirement to receive service, not spam.

It’s a given —and well documented in this series about Seth Godin, the father of permission marketing — that we want advertising/marketing we control. In short, it must be on our terms (brands must ask permission in advance) and relevant to us as individuals (matching the personal preferences and information we volunteer).

Starbucks followed all the rules. It asked me to opt-in for text messages and has not bombarded me with spam. It has asked for some personal information about me, but it has also explained its motives and offered me an opt-out option at any time. This transparency has encouraged me to divulge my birth date (Starbucks needs it so they can give me a gift on my birthday —again, a gesture that shows respect for me as an individual) and location. (The app is such a help, I really do want to provide it the information it needs to help me find stores when I am on business trips, or just in an unfamiliar section of my district).

Reinforce

By making this whole process easy and seamless, and by not asking questions that would make me feel uncomfortable, Starbucks had accomplished what all brands strive to achieve. It has influenced my buying behavior (I will buy often and using my iPhone), gained access to me as an individual (I am willing to volunteer more information because the value exchange is on the mark) and encouraged me to be a brand advocate (it’s the topic of my column because I am so impressed I want to share).

Yes, I feel positive about Starbucks. But Starbucks also knows that all relationships can weaken if they are not reinforced. To this end Starbucks has mastered a cross-media approach that harnesses all channels, formats and platforms (mobile, digital, TV, in-store, press — the works) to deliver us a consistent and effective message.

Reams have been written about the central role of mobile in the marketing mix. But that is precisely the point: marketing is a mix. In fact, I agree with many of the analysts (such as Jennifer Lee, Toronto-based senior manager of the retailer and distribution practice for Deloitte & Touche) who are convinced that 2012 will be the year we move from execution (after all, we have loads of mobile marketing campaigns) to deep integration.

In my view, the brands that amplify a clear and consistent marketing message across all the consumer touch points will succeed in delivering much more than advertising. A cross-media approach (executed properly and not just blasted at us every step of the consumer journey) will deliver us an ongoing experience and reinforce our desire to engage in deeper interaction.

Repeat

Smart companies will tap all the channels at their disposal to listen, learn and delight us with their offer. Again, it appears that Starbucks has a head start on most.

As Stephen Gillett, Starbucks chief information officer and executive vice president, Digital Ventures, put it in a recent post, it’s customer feedback that helped the app become such a phenomenal success. “Since the initial regional mobile test in 2009, we’ve received a lot of customer feedback which contributed to new features being added to the app over time.”

Put another way, understanding customers is good, listening is better. And learning is best. Starbucks has done all three and replicates this approach across all media, with each channel feeding into and improving the next. Mobile was never considered to be just an add-on to an ad campaign. Instead, Starbucks embraced it as a part of a larger strategy designed to deliver us an experience that addresses our needs. Other brands would be well-advised to follow the Starbucks blueprint.

Connect the dots, and Starbucks does more than make it easy for us to buy coffee and snacks. The company encourages repeat purchases, which boosts customer loyalty, which builds trust. The outcome is the virtuous cycle I spoke about earlier, and a perfect balance between what the brand wants (sell goods/services) and what I demand (a consistent and worthwhile value exchange that I feel is suited to me). Mobile — and now Starbucks — is my constant companion on my daily journey, an enviable position that other brands can best achieve by embracing the Three Rs.

About Lisa

Lisa Ciangiulli, Director of Marketing for Alcatel-Lucent Global Advertising Solutions, where she has been instrumental in the development and marketing of Optism, Alcatel-Lucent’s powerful permission-based mobile advertising solution. In this role, and throughout her career, Lisa has spearheaded efforts to encourage cooperation between players across the ecosystem with the ultimate goal of enabling closer communication with the consumer. In May 2010 she was named to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) North America Board of Directors. You can follow her on Twitter (@LisaCiangiulli).

Disclaimer: News and views across the mobile marketing ecosystem is sponsored by Optism, a MobileGroove client and supporter.

The drivers are many and the impact is tremendous. The rise (and rise) of mobile retail, the advance of smartphones and connected devices, and the heightened interest among companies across all verticals (retail, automotive, finance, pharmaceutical — the works!) make it imperative for us as an industry and ecosystem to ask (and answer!) some tough questions.

How big is the opportunity really, and what are the countries/ regions to watch? What are people’s attitudes toward mobile and mobile advertising, and how are they likely to evolve? Where should mobile play in a well-executed, cross-media campaign? How are leading brands using mobile to achieve spectacular results, and what were the learnings along the way? And the list goes on….

The trends and developments on the horizon are exciting — and confusing. Brands, agencies and the entire mobile marketing ecosystem must plan for a new phase of growth and activity. And they must prepare for the wave of change, rather than be crushed by it.

Stand up and speak up

To this end the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is collaborating with Millennial Media, an independent mobile ad and data platform company, and MobileGroove to research and produce a comprehensive knowledge resource. This definitive work —which will include detailed market data, case studies, best practices and exclusive insights from executives and companies that have harnessed mobile to drive positive business results — is slated for release in 2012.

To ensure that this resource examines the topics and trends that are truly top of mind and correctly reflects the level of interest, activity and investment in mobile marketing the MMA is also conducting a global survey of agencies and brands (only).

The survey takes only five minutes to complete and YOUR voice matters to us.

Take our survey and share your insights.

Please note that the survey will only run until the end of December, so why not take some time to fill it out right now so it doesn’t slip your mind later?

As a special bonus, the MMA will share the results with brands and agencies that participate in the survey.

We thank you in advance for taking part in this important survey and we are proud to provide you a roadmap to navigate the mobile marketing opportunities and challenges ahead.

IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative has produced a new online retail benchmark study, research that compares Cyber Monday 2011 versus Cyber Monday 2010 and reveals some surprising trends. By way of background, these early holiday season findings are based on data from IBM Coremetrics Benchmark, an analytics-based, peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results, including real-time sales data from the web sites of more than 500 leading U.S. retailers. All of the data is aggregated and anonymous.

Predictably, we are willing to spend more when shopping on the Internet. Online sales in the U.S were up 33.0 percent over 2010, with consumers pushing the average order value up from $193.24 to $198.26 (or an increase of 2.6 percent). The real news is our increasing reliance on mobile. Specifically, 10.8 percent of people used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site, up from 3.9 percent in 2010. Additionally, mobile sales grew dramatically, reaching 6.6 percent on Cyber Monday versus 2.3 percent in 2010.

How did Cyber Monday 2011 compare to Black Friday 2011?

• Online sales were up 29.3 percent over Black Friday
• On Cyber Monday mobile traffic averaged 10.8 percent compared to 14.3 percent on Black Friday
• Consumer sales on mobile devices reached 6.6 percent versus 9.8 percent on Black Friday
• Apple’s iPhone and iPad continued to rank one and two for mobile device retail traffic (4.1 percent and 3.3 percent respectively). Android maintained its position in third at 3.2 percent. Collectively iPhone and iPad accounted for 7.4 percent of all online retail traffic versus 10.2 percent on Black Friday
• Shoppers using the iPad also continued to drive more retail purchases than any other device with conversion rates reaching 5.2 percent compared to 4.6 percent

How I See It: Mobile has become as much a part of the holidays as snowflakes and candy canes. Several surveys, including one from Hipcricket, show that consumers would use their devices in-store to compare, shop, read product reviews and more. But it’s not just a shift in attitudes that we see. A near tripling of mobile web site visits and sales from mobile are clear indications that people are engaging in mobile retail. Indeed, mobile shopping is fast becoming a mainstream activity and the market has moved past the early-adopter stage. To the brand marketers who have yet to get on board, I offer two thoughts. One: you have some serious catching up to do. And it’s not like we kept you in the dark about the tremendous mobile opportunity or you weren’t given enough information to act. Two: there is still time for you to create a mobile advertising campaign for this holiday shopping season. But planning broadly for next year should start before Santa parks the sleds and calls it another season.

Facebook’s big mistakes

The social networking service Facebook agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that it deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing the personal data to be shared and made public. The proposed settlement requires Facebook to take several steps to make sure it lives up to its promises in the future. Top of the list: Facebook will have to obtain people’s express consent before their information is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established (and agreed to) on their Facebook page.

The FTC charged that the claims Facebook made were unfair and deceptive, and violated federal law. As Jon Leibowitz, FTC Chairman, put it: “Facebook is obligated to keep the promises about privacy that it makes to its hundreds of millions of users.” Facebook’s innovation “does not have to come at the expense of consumer privacy.” The FTC action is aimed to make sure it doesn’t.

Interestingly, the FTC complaint also lists a number of concrete instances in which Facebook allegedly made promises that it did not keep:

• In December 2009, Facebook changed its website so that certain information users may have designated as private – such as their Friends List – was made public. Facebook didn’t warn users that this change was coming, or get their approval in advance.
• Facebook stated that third-party apps that users installed would have access only to user information that the apps needed to operate. In fact, the apps could access nearly all of users’ personal data – data the apps clearly didn’t need.
• Facebook told users they could restrict sharing of data to limited audiences – for example with “Friends Only.” In fact, selecting “Friends Only” did not prevent their information from being shared with third-party applications their friends used.
• Facebook had a “Verified Apps” program and claimed it certified the security of participating apps. It didn’t.
• Facebook promised users that it would not share their personal information with advertisers. It did.
• Facebook claimed that when users deactivated or deleted their accounts, their photos and videos would be inaccessible. But Facebook allowed access to the content, even after users had deactivated or deleted their accounts.
• Facebook claimed that it complied with the U.S.- EU Safe Harbor Framework that governs data transfer between the U.S. and the European Union. It didn’t.

In this blog post Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg apologized and pledged to do better.

His response to the strong allegations: “Overall, I think we have a good history of providing transparency and control over who can see your information.”

But he did admit to making some mistakes along the way. “In particular, I think that a small number of high profile mistakes, like Beacon four years ago and poor execution as we transitioned our privacy model two years ago, have often overshadowed much of the good work we’ve done.”

Zuckerberg also showed some understanding for the hundreds of millions of members who feel their personal information —and trust— was compromised. “Even if our record on privacy were perfect, I think many people would still rightfully question how their information was protected. It’s important for people to think about this, and not one day goes by when I don’t think about what it means for us to be the stewards of this community and their trust.”

He closed his post reminding us that Facebook has always been committed to being transparent, and promised to do better in the future. “I’m committed to making Facebook the leader in transparency and control around privacy,” he stressed.

How I See It: This is cause for public outrage, but I’m not seeing it. Consumers have not punished Facebook for its deception despite repeated reports of infractions. That’s either because they haven’t noticed that Facebook has breached their trust, or they simply don’t care. I believe it’s mostly the latter. Zuckerberg said all the right things in his blog and public apologies. But the company’s actions are really all that matter. If Facebook members won’t do anything about Facebook’s privacy breach, then the FTC has shown that it will.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

When it comes to mobile sports content, Atlas is a major league player with an innovative mobile business model. The company— official and exclusive mobile partner of several leading soccer teams including Chelsea, Liverpool FC and Real Madrid with exclusive mobile and Internet rights to players and teams within the premiership league across in territories worldwide, including the Middle East, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and all countries in Africa —has built up a stockpile of rights and relationships. The ability to connect teams and their fans (and gather all the CRM data it produces) is a core capability Atlas plans to monetize big-time through today’s release of Second Screen.

This social-focused app allows fans to watch the game live (complementing the TV experience, not negating it), discuss the action with friends in real-time (regardless of whether fans are on Facebook, Twitter or Instant Messenger, for example) and co-create a truly tribal sports experience that ticks all the relevant boxes.

Brands get social

Atlas has also quietly and cleverly sealed a partnership with Omnicron, the second largest advertising agency worldwide. Together the companies have the resources to take brand sponsorship of sports to a new level, and one where advertisers alone will call the shots. The strategy is on the mark since Omnicron already works with high profile brands (the likes of Emirates, Etihad, O2 and other brands that sponsor sports) eager to engage with fans every stage of the journey, and not just during the game.

To this end Atlas and its partner Omnicron are determined to offer brands an alternative to the likes of Facebook. Since brands cannot monetize on Facebook, except through the virtual currency Facebook Credits, Atlas has stepped up to allow brands to monetize using any payment system (through integration with payment APIs from all the usual suspects including PayPal, Google and mobile operator billing systems.

More importantly, Atlas enables brands to access all the CRM information around the relationships they cultivate through interacting with fans via the app, data that would otherwise be the property of the social network provider.

Connect the dots, the new apps covers all the bases to give the likes of Facebook some serious competition. Nigel Tatlock, Atlas Premium Brands CEO, tells me he has already signed deals with advertisers including P&G —a brand well known for its massive mobile spend.

Editor’s note: We’ll have more information about the app (formally announced today) and the brands on board from Nigel in next day(s). He is in Brazil speaking at SOCCEREX, the world biggest soccer show, and currently unable to respond to our questions.

Exclusive interview with Altas’ Nigel tatlock in Netsize Guide by Gemalto

One of the great advantages of writing the Netsize Guide by Gemalto is the opportunity to connect with cool companies and individuals to discuss disruptive technologies and debate mobile mega-trends.

Nigel and I did both in an exclusive Q&A, an interview that also details Atlas’ larger mobile-social-CRM play and big-picture strategy to give TV broadcasters a new and pivotal role in cross-platform, cross-media efforts to deliver us an immersive experience.

As Nigel put it in the interview: “The idea is to give the networks the ability to take control of the consumer experience on the handset — through our app — during half-time, so they can start a discussion with fans directly about the game. This way the TV execs at SuperSports in South Africa can say, ‘Wayne Rooney was off sides when he scored that goal.’ Back in the studio, they can take excerpts from the fan comments that pour in, and broadcast them.  After all, people everywhere want that 15 minutes of fame. If fans see their name on a ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen with their message or their views, then they are more inclined to pay attention, and watch the advertisers that are sandwiched in the conversation.”

The reward is our attention, but the real value is in the CRM data brands can glean from our exchanges and interactions. Without a sharp focus on mobile loyalty, mobile CRM and all the ways to grow the lifetime value of the fan/customer brands (and sports teams!) are leaving money on the table.

“A football club will tell you they have around 200 million fans around the world. Ask them to supply names and details, and they can’t. Atlas adds value to their model because we have state-of-the-art CRM platforms that allow us to provide our partners and clients insights into every handset that buys content from the service. We could give Samsung, a sponsor of Chelsea, what we acquire from 10 million handsets and users — no matter if they are Nokia users, HTC users or iPhone users. What that does is extend the reach of the football clubs and their sponsors. We engage with consumers on a daily basis, a relationship that allows us to build up a detailed profile. And we can become quite scientific about our calculations based on the data — to the extent of that we can predict how much users are likely to spend over a period of a month.”

Based on this, Atlas can help its customers set the prices and offers for regions and user segments accordingly. “That’s where all football clubs traditionally fail,” Nigel points out. “They simply don’t have the CRM in place to understand the buying consumption of their consumers. Our systems help them identify where to spend the money and effort. We can also advise then when — and how — they need to target specific user segments, rather than just spend their marketing budget putting up a billboard up in Cape Town Airport with Manchester United plastered all over it.”

DOWNLOAD THE NETSIZE GUIDE BY GEMALTO & READ THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW

My take:

Will Atlas eat Facebook’s lunch? It’s a tough one to call. But the app clearly allows people new flexibility and freedom to connect and multi-task as never before. Against this backdrop, the app emerges the perfect complement to watching the game on TV — and the only platform to bring together all our friends across Facebook, Twitter and more. Atlas also wields its own stockpile of rights and exclusive games content (video, stats, interviews —the works) to give us stuff to share with our friends during the game and so enrich the overall experience. That’s the human side of the story. The business model puts brands and broadcasters back in the picture, allowing them a real opportunity to deliver advertising/content that is aligned with our context (watching the game). More importantly, this model (unlike Facebook & Co.) allows advertisers access to the CRM data that was created through their interactions with us. Granted, brands and advertisers will have to play by the rules (translated: learn from Facebook’s mistake and do not share our data with partners or third parties without our consent). But, if brands can grasp the reality that we alone own the customer, then this sports app (and think beyond sports to any activity we enjoy or participate in as a tribe) could indeed change the game — forever.

Disclaimer: Netsize collaborates with MobileGroove’s Peggy Anne Salz since 2007 to research and write strategic thought leadership and collateral including the new Netsize Guide by Gemalto. You can explore these industry reports and books here.

This massive growth, with ad spend increasing over 356 percent year-over-year, confirms banks, insurance companies and credit card companies are aggressively using mobile to raise awareness of their products and services, generate leads, encourage app downloads and —significantly—engage more with people on their device(s) of choice. The vast majority (80 percent) of people accessing financial information or apps are smartphone owners, (more than double the general mobile population). Moreover, the mobile finance user is also 76 percent more likely than the general mobile user to own a tablet or e-reader device.

Watch for more stats and insights in Mobile Intel: Finance, the third in a new series of reports slated for release in the next weeks. Mobile Intel draws from  consumer research from comScore and platform data from Millennial Media to help brands understand the mobile finance users and the opportunities to engage with them on mobile.

These are some of the key findings covered in the Q3 S.M.A.R.T. report (Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting), strategic intelligence aimed at helping advertisers make informed mobile media planning and campaign decisions based on network data provided by independent mobile ad and data platform company Millennial Media.

Tech sector takes off

Per the S.M.A.R.T. report a total of six verticals experienced triple-digit growth or greater year-over-year, with Technology leading the pack. The tech sector, where campaigns are focused on B2B offers such as cloud storage and consulting,  saw explosive growth of 687 percent, followed by CPG (up 378 percent).

Significantly,  Entertainment, which ranked number two in the U.S. and number one globally,  increased ad spend 145 percent year-over-year (Q32011 vs. Q3 2010). The jump confirms advertisers are leveraging mobile to drive awareness of blockbuster movies (and visits to theaters showing them), as well as create buzz around DVD releases, TV series and social media strategies.

Meantime, brands across all sectors are ramping up their use of video in mobile advertising campaigns. The report shows that the number of campaigns on the ad platform providing people the option to view a video (post-click campaign objective: watch video)  increased 78 percent in Q3 (compared with Q2) an accounted for 32 percent of all campaigns in Q3.

According to Millennial Media, a key driver is the use of video by entertainment brands to drive people to movie trailers.

Video and devices

Indeed, our growing enthusiasm for mobile video —content that shines on smartphones and pushes the envelope on tablet devices— is further confirmed by report findings that shed light on current developer and publisher trends.

Significantly, the iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom were the top three tablets on the ad network in Q2. Impressions on the iPad alone were up more than 450 percent for the whole of 2011.

Overall, smartphones grew 7 percent quarter-over-quarter and continued to dominate the category Smartphone, Feature Phone & Connected Devices with 72 percent of impressions. Android led the connected device and smartphone mix with 56 percent of the impressions, compared to 28 percent for Apple iOS and 13 percent for RIM BlackBerry.

Smartphone penetration continues to climb, and so does our interest (and  activity) around gaming apps. In fact, Games, which have been the number one  application category on the Millennial platform for over a year, continue to grow.

Games generated 34 percent of impressions, up from 26 percent the previous quarter. Other app categories included Music & Entertainment, Mobile Social Networking, Communications and News, which saw impressions grow 36 percent quarter-over-quarter to account for roughly 25 percent of ad impressions in Q3.

Local gets a boost

Another highlight of the new Q3 S.M.A.R.T. is the focus on targeting methods and new results that show the use of local market targeting is on the rise.

Specifically, nearly half (45 percent) of advertisers used targeting to reach their audience. Of those 66 percent made use of location to connect with people in the correct context, representing a 50 percent quarter-over-quarter increase. The balance of targeted campaigns relied on behavioral and demographic factors.

Connect the dots, and brands are buying on a national scale but tailoring their ad campaigns to drive people to local bricks-and-mortar destinations (retail outlets, businesses, branch offices). This jives with the report finding that a significant number of post-click actions centered on encouraging people to complete purchases using their mobile devices.

Get ready for holiday shopping

Finally, the new report draws from consumer research conducted by InsightExpress to help brands map out where (and how) they can use mobile in the marketing mix. Specifically, InsightExpress’ Q3 2011 Digital Consumer Portrait found that 32 percent of consumers plan to use their mobile devices to help research products by comparison shopping, while 27 percent will use them to read reviews while in the store.

My take:

InsightExpress provides us yet another data point confirming that mobile shopping (and all the interactions leading up to the purchase) is bigger and poised to be ever bigger as we enter the first full week holiday shopping season today.

But that’s just one notable trend documented in this new S.M.A.R.T. We also learn that mobile represents a mega-opportunity for brands across all verticals. Technology, for example, grew a whopping 687 percent. Meantime, financial services sector moves up the list of Top 10 Advertising Verticals to place #1 in the U.S. and #4 internationally. This is significant and underlines the perfect fit between personal finance offers and advertising delivered to our fiercely personal mobile devices. Banks, insurance companies and credit card companies see a connection, which is why they are spending 356 percent more (for the period Q2 2010 to Q3 2011) to connect with us on out mobile phones. But the real news is what we can likely expect from this vertical moving forward. Clearly, mobile is emerging an ideal vehicle to do much more than raise awareness of products and generate leads. Therefore, expect companies across the Finance vertical to become progressively more creative in their use of the mobile channel to achieve their wider business objectives: drive customer retention, encourage cross-sell/up-sell and keep customers loyal.

Disclaimer: Analysis and best practice across the mobile advertising and marketing ecosystem is sponsored by Millennial Media, a MobileGroove client and supporter.

We catch up with Mike to talk about his success brokering profitable business relationships between brands and urban/hip hop artists to deliver a 360 degree entertainment experience combining social media interaction and TV (Social TV) and mobile apps.

We also get an unexpected scoop about Urban World TV, a new mobile TV channel Mike is launching in December to bring us “Pop Culture Redefined.” Look for the youth-focused channel to hit AT&T U-verse, Apple TV and Yahoo Connect TV. The channel purposely allows fans worldwide to connect, rate and rank what they see and share. As Mike puts it: Urban World TV is a “consolidation of cool content, from martial arts films from Hong Kong, to the Brazilian Carnival, to reggae in Germany.” The youth of the world appreciate urban/hip hop music and culture —and Mike’s venture will surely be a trailblazer.

Marketing first

Mike recently spoke at Apps World New York, where he joined in a discussion of how developers can/should build an app business. In his view, app developers have to keep the main thing precisely that: the main thing. This means focusing on the people first and using a deep understanding of the app audience to guide development —and nothing else. Once you know who the audience is (the main thing), then you can put together the marketing (and social) strategy that will grab mindshare and market share.

Listen to artists

Developers and brands would also do well to listen to (translated: let themselves be inspired) by the urban/hip hop artists, not just make entertainment apps. Mike shares the example of Ice Cube, who also branded and promoted a healthcare/fitness app. Games may be number one, but developers shouldn’t ignore the opportunity offered by health and finance apps, apps that are life-simplifying and will predictably command a great deal of our daily attention. There is a great fit between urban artists and fans’ daily routine. Make the effort to find it.

As Mike sees it. “In terms of how artists are using apps, it’s pretty much the wild, wild West.” There is also new territory to navigate such as the way artists can (and should) best connect with their fans and super-fans. Plug location into the equation and there are lots of ways artists can use apps and location to get more mileage out of their tours. “We can re-visit that in 2012 to see what we’ve done,” Mike says. “It’s brand new territory and there’s so much out there, and also so much more to be discovered.”

Advertise, advertise, advertise

How do developers rise above the noise and beat the discovery dilemma? “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise— that’s what it has to be in the app world.” It may sound basic, but Mike believes attention to business basics is what will separate the winners from the also-rans. “It’s now a competitive space, [making and selling apps] is a  very serious business.”

Coupled with that, Mike says, developers and artists have to outreach using social media. Social media and mobile —it’s table stakes.

Urban World TV

Mike filled us in on his new venture: a new first-ever “urban, multi-cultural, tech-savvy channel” going live in December. Urban World TV will feature VOD (video-on-demand), streaming and allow people watching to recommend and rate the shows. As Mike explains: “Our slogan is: ‘Pop culture redefined – we connect the streets.’ There was a need for a channel that covered not just U.S. entertainment content, but the world.”

Apps World

Mike also tells us about his experience speaking and connecting at Apps World, an event he strongly recommends to brands, artists and developers trying to navigate this tough territory. In his view the event was professional as well as personal. “For me, I would say that one of the things that I did like about the event was that it was intimate.” What’s more, attendees were approachable and open to exchanging business cards and ideas. “People were very open; it was very laid back and that was a good thing.”

My personal thanks to Kate Williams and the great folks at Six Degrees, the company that organized the Apps World event,  for introducing me to Mike. If you missed Apps World in New York, then you can catch the show in London on November 29th and 30th. Six Degrees tells me that the event — which uniquely looks at multi platform apps and the ecosystem emerging to take advantage of the significant business opportunity — counts well over 3,000 registrations (!), so click below to register today!

My take:

Mike is a wealth of practical knowledge and know-how, based on his long track record in the industry. Before he started Digital Mind State (whose clients include Flowd, the music lover’s social network) Mike was the driving force behind the brand UrbanWorld Wireless, where he was responsible for planning, business developing, marketing and brokering profitable business relationships with some of the biggest company names in the mobile industry including T-Mobile, Zed, Jamba, Fox Mobile, NBC, Fun Mobility, Nokia, and Microsoft.

But it’s not just his impressive bio that gets high marks. It’s his passion for what he does, and his razor sharp ability to cut through the technology and get to what matters: the experience. He also correctly sees the need of global youth (united by an interest in urban and hip hop that transcends any physical barriers) for a global youth channel. It’s a brilliant move (and hard work!) to create a place where cool content combines with social media to deliver an entirely new kind of interaction. I look forward to connecting with Mike and watching this develop.

Another development to watch: the advance of multiplatform experiences (and the apps to help enhance and deliver them). 2012 is bound to be the year of connected experiences (such as connected TV) and a turning point for developers who are equipped to ride the wave. As my esteemed colleague Chetan Sharma pointed out in his milestone app report (back in March 2010). “Connectivity breeds apps.” Expect a  significant uptick in apps for and avalanche of devices  that entertain us, connect is and lay the groundwork for new experiences.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW WITH MIKE JOHNS HERE. [18:05]

It’s a profound shift that market analysis and strategy firm VisionMobile has expertly identified and documented in Developer Economics 2011, a landmark, must-read report that surveyed some 900+ developers across 75 countries to understand their attitudes and identify the hottest issues in mobile apps. [Click here for free report.]

A special feature this year was the integration of 21 one-to-one interviews with senior execs from a variety of brands and agencies to gauge the level of interest (and motivation) in branded apps. A surprise finding: brands may have thought of apps as a means to increase awareness, but a significant number are marketing apps to generate real revenues. In fact, almost half of all developers surveyed make money through a salary or commission, confirming that commissioned app development is becoming as an important a model as making money directly through apps (via freemium or paid monetization models).

The opportunities are impressive, but the new terrain is tough to navigate since the avalanche of mobile apps has caused an irreversible change in the content distribution landscape. The Developer Economics 2011 report found that “app stores are the primary go-to-market channel” for almost half (45%) of mobile app developers across the eight major platforms.

The report also found that use of other application distribution channels has consistently declined across the board. Specifically, the report shows a significant drop in distribution via third-party aggregators, on-device preloads, and publisher websites. Even more dramatic is the state of mobile operator portals, destinations that once dominated downloadable content distribution.

But figuring out where to offer and how to monetize your app is just half the battle. You also need to work out a strategy to increase your app ranking, cost effectively generate downloads, and identify (and keep) your most loyal users. the bottom-line: The build-and-they-will-come approach that marked the early days of the App Economy has been replaced by the hard truth that apps do not sell themselves.

This is where Fiksu comes in. Fiksu has developed a real-time mobile app user acquisition platform that spans the entire mobile app ecosystem-including an extensive number of ad networks, real-time bidding platforms, and incentivized download programs-to help content companies and marketers identify their best customers.

Read the rest of the article over at EContent.

Editor’s note: How are developers and brands making money in the mobile app economy? Check out Developer Economics 2011, the definitive report from VisionMobile (sponsored by BlueVia) that brings together insights and analysis from across the App Economy. VisionMobile, never one to rest on its laurels (even though this report clearly sets the bar!), is gearing up to start work on Developer Economics 2012, which will focus on the new market opportunities for developers everywhere on the planet. This time YOU can get involved. Suggest topics you would like to see the report and help shape the direction of this landmark (and actionable) research. Reach out on Twitter @visionmobile and share what moves you.

Disclaimer: Peggy Anne Salz is proud to be a VisionMobile Associate. Peggy is also a regular columnist for EContent Magazine, the source of strategic news, trends and tips for the global digital content industry… NOW with an awesome new design to match the path-breaking content!

The contributors to this book include the editors Michelle Manafy and Heidi Gautschi, as well as Mary Ann Bell, Shashi Bellamkonda, Sarah Bryans Bongey, Jami L. Carlacio, Albert M. Erisman, Brynn Evans, Susan Evans, Lance Heidig, David Hubbard, Richard Hull, Marshall Lager, Christa M. Miller, Emilie Moreau, Carolina M. Reid, Michael Russell, Arana Shapiro, Dan Schawbel, Rebecca Rufo-Tepper, and Robert J. Torres.

USABookNews.com, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced the winners and finalists of THE USA “BEST BOOKS 2011” in over 140 categories covering print, e-books and audio books. A complete list of winners and finalists in each category can be found at:

http://www.usabooknews.com/bestbooks2012awards/bestbooks2011results.html

Millennials are mobile

In my chapter on mobile (which I summarized in this earlier post), I connect the dots in the behavior of digital natives to show how mobile complements natives’ natural inclination to interact with companies and brands. But it’s a two-way street. While mobile enables instant self-expression, it also turns up the pressure on companies and brands to listen and deliver their marketing within the context of what matters most to digital natives: their lives, their experiences, their networks, and their worlds.

I would like to recognize my esteemed colleagues and friends,  who continue to inspire me with their insights and ideas. My personal thanks to best-selling author and consultant Tomi Ahonen; futurist Alan Moore, Antti Öhrling (Blyk co-founder),  Rosemary Tan (SPTI Asia’s Executive Director of Mobile Entertainment); Graham Brown (MobileYouth); Rory Sutherland (Ogilvy UK Vice Chairman); Nigel Shanahan (Rapide Communications); and Mark Curtis (Flirtomatic) – to name (and thank) a few.

A special thanks to the team at Optism for providing me important insights into ongoing research conducted by the Global Youth Lab, an innovative primary research program managed by Alcatel-Lucent.  This path-breaking research was also recognized by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), which presented Alcatel-Lucent with the Academic Of The Year Award for its work to uncover new information about youth attitudes toward mobile marketing.

Check out the Digital Natives website and blog here.

MMA thought leadership project

Which brings me to my next project, a global mobile marketing knowledge resource I have been commissioned to write on behalf of the MMA and sponsors. The news will be official soon, so I can’t give it all away here. Meantime, I encourage companies across the ecosystem (vendors, agencies, brands) to organize  case studies and examples of best practice to be ready when I request input and interviews for this milestone project.

The timing couldn’t be better — especially now that I have finalized the all-new Netsize Guide, titled Netsize Guide by Gemalto (to reflect the new identity of Netsize, which is a Gemalto company).

Guide goes live

Regular readers will recall that I have researched and written the Guide since 2007, when Netsize signed on as one of my first clients. It has a been a privilege to work with the team at Netsize (headed by Alexander Vlasblom, Director of Marketing and Communications) to produce a definitive mobile analysis and almanac that includes exclusive interviews with industry executives and influencers, and in-depth telecoms and country data provided by research firm Informa.

Look for more on the Guide in upcoming posts and tweets. Meantime, I encourage you to check out earlier editions of the Guide by clicking the link below.

The Guide, which has consistently provided our global and loyal readers important insights into the developments impacting mobile — and our society — at all levels, NEVER goes stale.

In fact, the last edition, titled Mobile Renaissance, literally pushed the boundaries that separate our digital and physical worlds. It’s a wonderful coincidence that the Netsize Guide 2010 covered many of the current buzzwords and mobile mega-trends (mobile apps and the ‘App-economy’, Augmented Reality, 2D barcodes, mobile health, mobile education — and the list goes on)  that are defining the mobile discussion in 2011/2012.

Overall, I am loving my work and my life (people who know me know that ideas and intersections excite me). However, there is a downside to all this activity. I have been unable to post or tweet as often as I would have liked. Here’s hoping the excellent line-up of content, guest columns and industry happenings (Tweetchats to examine mobile marketing trends and video interviews on behalf of my partners at bnetTV) will more than make up for the radio silence that marked the last weeks…

I am proud to author the books and guides that will help you navigate the change ahead. Strap yourself in for an invigorating next couple of months!

Disclaimer: Netsize, Optism and the Mobile Marketing Association are MobileGroove clients and supporters.

In practice, businesses can go to Google’s GoMo website at howtogomo.com to access a so-called GoMoMeter. This tool lets companies see how their sites look and perform on mobile devices, and offers “personalized” recommendations to assist businesses in the task of developing a more mobile-friendly experience for their sites.

While hardly unique, the GoMo site has information about current mobile trends, best practices for launching mobile sites (like listen, learn and iterate), a list of developers ready to help companies build sites for mobile (there’s the make money part), and much more. And, if you need more support, you can find what you need on Google’s blog.

How I See It: Any effort to grow great experiences on mobile counts as a good deed. However, it’s the part of the initiative that encourages companies to “get personalized recommendations” combined with the convenience of having a ready “list of developers” that has me questioning whether Google is altruistic or just seeing dollars. I believe it’s both. Yes, we all benefit from efforts (particularly when they are driven by industry giant Google) to mobilize web sites. But Google also has a lot to gain if more sites are mobile. In a mobilized world, Google can serve more ads and bring in more revenue. Google is a for-profit company – and its shareholders won’t have it any other way. The GoMo launch gives me one more thing to ponder: Will this initiative make Google a one-stop-shop for marketers to get everything they need, from strategy to site building? Or, will marketers continue to prefer a system of checks and balances, one that is only possible if they have other partners (not just Google) as part of the mix? Right now the answer is some marketers will and some marketers won’t. We’ll know more after brands start using  GoMo and report their experiences.

Apps by the numbers

Regular readers of this column know that I consider the Pew Research Center to be an excellent source of mobile data and trends.

This week, the center shares survey results that are once more a must-read.

Specifically, Pew reports that the share of adult U.S. cell phone owners who have downloaded an app to their phone nearly doubled in the past two years – rising from 22 percent in September 2009 to 38 percent in August 2011. Further, the share of U.S. adults who purchased a phone already equipped with apps also increased five percentage points in the past year, from 38 percent in May 2010 to 43 percent in the current survey.

These findings are from a survey conducted from July 25-August 26 among 2,260 adults ages 18 and over, including surveys in English and Spanish and on both landline and cell phones.

According to Pew, when both groups are accounted for—those whose phones came equipped with apps and those who have downloaded their own—fully half of U.S. adult cell phone owners (50 percent) now have apps on their phones.  In May 2010, that figure stood at 43 percent. Looking at all U.S. adults, 42 percent now have cell phones with apps.

The center said that while app downloading is on the rise, it is still concentrated in certain demographic groups.

While the portion of adults downloading apps has grown since 2009, their demographic profile has not changed markedly, even with the addition of tablet computers to the mix.  App downloading on cell phones remains concentrated among young adults, those with higher incomes and education levels, and those living in urban and suburban areas.  In May 2010, cell phone app downloaders were also disproportionately male when compared with the full U.S. adult population, but the gap between men and women has decreased.

How I See It: Dig deeper when considering whether to include an app in your strategy. The study provides critical data about how people use the apps – or, in many cases, don’t use the apps — and whether an app on a phone is the same as an app on a tablet (hint – they’re not). Does a brand need an app? There is no simple answer. In fact, the question is much more complicated than it appears at first glance. In contrast, answering the question whether all brands need a mobile website is a breeze. In my view, they most certainly do.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

But there’s a catch. Marketers must develop solid advertising strategies that understand who their customers are, how they use their mobile devices and where campaigns can reach them at scale.

The is where a new series of mobile advertising reports, aptly titled the Mobile Intel Series, comes in, providing brands with strategic direction and a deep-dive into the numbers and trends that matter most. The series launched with a focus on retail (read my in-depth analysis here), and continues with a look at how automotive brands can best leverage mobile to maximize spend and results.

The resource draws from network data provided by independent mobile ad and data platform, Millennial Media (accumulated from data from campaigns executed in over 250 countries and territories in 2Q 2011), and consumer research conducted by mobile measurement firm comScore.

Getting mileage from mobile

Automotive brands were among the first to truly ‘get’ mobile, as evidenced by a string of ambitious and award-winning campaigns to increase brand awareness and encourage interaction with consumers pre-sale (test drives, dealer visits, app downloads) and post-purchase (inspection, maintenance, customer service).

Predictably, ad spending by companies in this vertical has been significant, consistently placing automotive among the Top 10 Global Mobile Ad Verticals on Millennial Media’s mobile platform for the past year.

Against this backdrop, the report finding that automotive mobile ad spending increased a whopping 236 percent from Q2 2010 to Q2 2011 (increasing from an already high level) can be read as a confirmation that a vertical explosion in mobile advertising spending and awareness is well underway.

Additionally, comScore’s own review of mobile campaigns reveals that automotive display advertising increased 169 percent year-over-year, with 33, 277 automotive companies advertising on mobile in 2010, up from 19,724 the previous year.

Who is the automotive audience?

The report defines the audience of people accessing automotive content on mobile devices (phones, smartphones, tablets) as mobile auto consumers, and notes the key characteristics they share (compared to the total audience of mobile users).

The vast majority of these mobile auto users (68 percent) are males between the ages of 18 and 34, but significantly, females make up 32 percent of the audience of mobile auto users.

Mobile auto users also tend to be more affluent than the general mobile population. Specifically, these consumers overindex in both the $75,000+ and $100,000+ annual income brackets. Clearly, a significant sub-segment of the mobile auto user population can be defined as a discerning audience primed for interaction with luxury car brands via their mobile devices.

But the real news is the frequency with which mobile auto users access automotive content on their devices—regular interaction that reveals a significant audience of auto enthusiasts and passionatas.

Specifically, 21 percent of auto users accessed automotive content on their phones on a daily basis. Almost half (48 percent) accessed automotive content one to three times per month.

Worldwide, the numbers are similar. Specifically, mobile users across U.S., Europe and Japan are generally in sync, with roughly one-third accessing automotive content on a weekly basis (U.S. – 31 percent, Europe – 31 percent, Japan – 24 percent).

The report breaks down precisely how users access the content (apps, browsers, text). Interestingly, mobile apps as an entry point to automotive content and advertising show significant growth (25 percent of total access, up from 20 percent in August 2010), a trend the report forecasts will pick up speed as smartphone penetration ramps up. Indeed, analysts are bullish, with Morgan Stanley reporting last month that smartphones have already surpassed feature phone shipments in the U.S. (as of Q1 2011) and Western Europe (as of Q2 2010).

The report also maps the ‘migration paths’ of mobile auto users as they make their way across the mobile Web. It reveals a wide variety of sites and destinations (news, weather, entertainment, and so on) where automotive advertising is likely to reach and influence potential car buyers and/or people in the market for maintenance (such as a reliable shop for an oil change or new winter tires).

As the report observes: Family-centric sites are a logical fit for brands promoting SUVs, minivans and vehicles with plenty of room and features for family members.

The message to brands here: Think outside the box — and see mobile the way your customers do. Don’t just offer people fries with their fries (automotive advertising on typically automotive focused sites, for example). Women, traditionally the finance managers of the family, consume a wide variety of content, so don’t limit sites and destinations to the usual suspects.

Brands in the fast lane

How are automotive brands harnessing mobile and what campaigns goals and tactics top the agenda?

A review of campaign goals shows that automotive brands heavily invested in mobile to promote new models, drive leads for remarketing efforts, encourage people to register for test drives and increase overall brand affinity.

Significantly, brand awareness is a prime focus in the automotive sector — and one that makes business sense in my book since a car purchase is not a daily, monthly or even annual occurrence. Indeed, in a sector where the end-game is about keeping customers loyal well after purchases are made (and during the time purchases are being considered), mobile is emerging as an ideal CRM tool. Little wonder that automotive brands lead the pack in providing their audience information, apps, games and a wide assortment of mobile branded utilities to stay top of mind with their target demographic.

This was no doubt the thinking behind a recent Hyundai campaign. The case study documented in the report recounted a campaign the company ran with Millennial Media to engage with affluent Blackberry users (the audience it identified for its Equus luxury sedan). To enhance brand awareness and provide these discerning consumers a helpful service (not just advertising), Hyundai launched the Hyundai Greetings app, an app that enabled these early adopter, social savvy consumers to create customized greeting cards with a variety of themes to share with friends and family via Facebook, Twitter and email.

What strategies are automotive brands using to reach their audience (and achieve their campaign objectives)? Local marketing targeting was deployed in the majority of campaigns (43 percent), followed by demographics (35 percent) and behavioral (22 percent). Local was particularly (and predictably) popular among major brands and Tier 1 OEMs who leveraged location to drive calls and test drives, location linked calls to action that directly benefitted local dealers and regional automotive associations.

The report also noted an increase in the number of re-marketing efforts, where advertisers run persistent campaigns to engage with users from previous campaigns.

My Take:

Where is the opportunity for automotive brands? This worthwhile report is chock-full of data to help marketers answer this key question. However, the report also identifies some big question brands need to address ASAP. Take the target demographic. It was quite surprising to learn that 32 percent of mobile auto users are female. That stat should inspire brands to develop campaigns and strategies that specifically address women. In other words, don’t limit yourself. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time companies passed up a golden opportunity because the were blinded by sexual stereotypes. The early days of the mobile gaming market saw publishers compete to wow male users with fast action games, completely ignoring the casual gaming market in the process. What did it get them? Venturebeat tells us more than half of all mobile and mobile social gamers (53 percent) are women. Will the automotive industry repeat this mistake and focus on the male demographic first and foremost? It’s a tough one to call…

The report also documents a significant increase in the number of automotive brands embracing mobile, but I sense an even bigger opportunity in mobile for companies across the automotive ecosystem (and missing form comScore’s brand list). People generally own their car for 5.5 years. Clearly, mobile auto users are not in the market for a new car every day, but they are open to offers of products and services that keep their car in top shape (oil changes, inspections, brake adjustments), or just make driving fun (tuning kits, in-vehicle multimedia entertainment systems, personal navigation devices).

Clearly, mobile reaches and influences people pre- and post-purchase. But don’t just think mobile. Brands should map out wider strategies to integrate mobile into a cross-media campaigns that draw from a wide arsenal of channels and capabilities (apps, barcodes, outdoor advertising – the works) to engage people — and keep them coming back.

Disclaimer: Analysis and best practice across the mobile marketing ecosystem is sponsored by Millennial Media, a MobileGroove client and supporter.

Over the years, Meeker has been quoted in a variety of sites and publications worldwide. And her most repeated forecast — the prediction that more people will access the Internet on a mobile device than on a personal computer by 2015 — is a key data point that continues to get play in industry presentations, conferences and research around the globe.

Meeker’s annual analysis of the trends and stats that matter most is eagerly awaited — and this year was no exception. Her latest research was unveiled this week at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco,  where she provided an inside look at the latest in mobile trends globally, including mobile penetration, mobile usage and mobile advertising spend (still out of sync with actual mobile use, by the way).

Among the highlights:

• Smartphones surpassed feature phone shipments in Western Europe in the second quarter of 2010 and in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2011. Meeker says “the rest of the world will follow.”

• The number of global mobile 3G subscribers has grown 35 percent year over year to total 936 million, or 17 percent of all mobile subscribers.

• There are approximately 835 million smartphone users worldwide, compared with a whopping 5.6 billion mobile users in total (this includes people with feature phones or low-end devices)

• Android phone adoption has ramped up faster than iPhone

• 85 percent of the world’s population is covered by commercial wireless signals, providing greater reach than the electrical grid (which covers 80 percent of the population)

Meeker pointed out that these developments bode well for the tech industry. As she put it: “Wow! Unprecedented times! If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…”

What about the global economy? Meeker said economic woes worldwide are formidable, but not insurmountable. “(It’s) Often darkest before dawn,” she told the summit audience. “At least we know what the problems are. Now we need the resolve to fix them. Across-the-board sacrifice [is] needed.”

How I See It: Many people make bold predictions when it comes to mobile. Some of them are on the mark, and others miss it. Take the recent claim (via this interview in AdWeek) that the advertising spend on mobile will exceed that of television. The statement received headlines, but was promptly dismissed by many in the industry (including myself) as pure exaggeration. However, Meeker and her annual forecast have the credibility and track record to guide us. I encourage every marketer to listen up and put her on the “can’t miss” list.

Africa by the numbers

Sadly it wasn’t news to me when Nielsen reported that more people in Africa have access to a mobile device than they do to clean drinking water.

However, the other data points Nielsen published in this recent post summarizing the current state of mobile in South Africa were entirely new, shedding light on an abundance of opportunities for marketers everywhere.

Among the highlights:

• South Africa ranks fifth in the world for mobile data usage, ahead of the U.S., which ranks seventh.
• Facebook is the most popular social media platform, used by 85 percent of mobile subscribers. Half of all users of Facebook in South Africa access the site via mobile.
• Text messaging is used by almost 4.2 times more people than e-mail. More than two-thirds (69 percent) of consumers prefer sending texts to making voice calls, largely because it is less expensive to text than call. Additionally, 10 percent of respondents believe texting is a faster way of communicating.
• The majority (60 percent) of South African mobile users said they are aware of mobile banking services offered by banks, but only 21 percent say they use such services. A much larger number of those aware of the services said they would never use them, suggesting banks might need to invest in communicating the benefits and security of mobile banking.

Check out the full blog post and details on the study here.

How I See It: Mobile is global — and we should make it our business to keep abreast of usage and attitudes around the world. The last months have shown that many countries outside the U.S. are leading in areas of mobile, delivering us exciting case studies and key learnings. Informa reports that Nigeria leads in mobile banking; Hong Kong has the most mobile shoppers (with 35 percent using their mobile to research products and purchases); and we all know that Japan was the pioneer in barcodes and NFC. Granted, it’s difficult to draw parallels between mobile interests and activity from one continent to another. But what is useful and essential in my view is the periodic monitoring of mobile around the world to help us anticipate change – and capitalize on it.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

So, why is indoor navigation enabled by micro-sensor wireless networks moving up the agenda at Sprint (and elsewhere across the emerging business ecosystem)? According to Phyllis, the drivers are the services (and benefits) they deliver us and the companies that want to connect with us.

Micro-location marketing

As consumers, we can look forward to more personal and accurate navigation services that don’t just lead us to the entrance of a 30-acre mega shopping mall, for example. Instead, these advanced services will be able to guide us through the mall to the shop or doctor’s office we seek.  In addition to significantly cutting the time we spend looking for (and not finding) businesses we want, these services will help us plan our overall daily routines better.

At the other end of the spectrum, brands and retailers also stand to gain from knowing more about our mobility patterns. One scenario these sensor networks can enable: Brands could deliver us a coupon for milk exactly when we are in the dairy products aisle and seriously considering a purchase.

However, Phyllis reminds us it’s not just about offering consumers the right discount at the right time/place. It’s also about delivering enhanced customer service. Stores, she says, will be able to interact directly – and more effectively – with customers because their mobile phone is now “a mobile information desk.” People can ask questions, query about items and better navigate the space nearby. The exchange feeds into CRM systems and programs to potentially boost customer loyalty.

Population movement

Phyllis tells us that Sprint is also eying opportunities in the healthcare and public safety sectors. Knowing where crowd build-up occurs (via a finer-grain sensor network) can help security officials allocate resources to the right location, for example. The same network data can help save lives. As Phyllis puts it: “In the case of emergencies, you want to know where the first responders are, and you want to be able to provide first responders with the ability to go directly to a trouble spot and save the time of trying to figure out where in a seven-storey building someone might be located.”

In the healthcare sector Sprint is currently working on a project focussed on detecting understanding personal mobility patterns. People who experience psychotic or depressed episodes, for example, typically develop erratic or compressed mobility patterns. “We’re looking at how people could opt in to a service that would monitor them and alert a caregiver when that person’s mobility patterns change,” Phyllis explains. “We are just starting to push the boundaries on what’s possible out there.”

Major micro-navigation opportunities

Why the heightened interest in micro-navigation and micro-sensor networks? In Phyllis’ view, it’s a logical next step in location services. Macro-navigation apps and solutions (such as Google Maps and MapQuest) have done a brilliant job of getting us to our final destinations. Now companies are lining up to claim their turf in a business ecosystem that exists to navigate us directly to the door step of our final destination, delivering us advice, assistance, information, perks and coupons every step of the way.

Sensing a business opportunity, companies, app developers and advertisers are looking to extend their reach directly inside buildings (businesses, malls, hospitals, schools). However, to make it all work there needs to be a fine-grain sensor network.

We aren’t there yet, but Phyllis discusses the progress and models that will define this new market. allowing the delivery of real-time, spatial, temporal services that can be used by business and – ultimately – for social good.

My take:

Sure, indoor navigation paves the way for effective proximity marketing. But don’t just think about spatial temporal campaigns that tell you want is on offer at the aisle level in a store. Phyllis outlines exciting opportunities around public safety, emergency response and personal mobile-enabled healthcare. What are the technology hurdles and where are the growth opportunities? You can get the inside track on this by listening to the interview.

***

Editor’s note: Phyllis is also speaking this week at LocNav USA (San Diego), a mega-event that brings together the well-established Navigation USA Conference (now in its 7th year) with the highly successful Location Business Summit. MobileGroove is proud to be a media partner and has produced and posted this podcast exclusively for Helen Raff and Naomi Hands over at TheWhereBusiness (you rock!), where the organizers have launched a microsite to showcase this audio interview and cement our future collaboration. My personal thanks also to Phyllis for the invigorating interview (!), and all the great exchanges since we connected at MCN so many years ago

If you missed LocNav this week, don’t miss your chance to catch the show when in comes to Europe (Amsterdam, May 2012).

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST With PHYLLIS REUTHER [15:20]

According to new data from Boingo Wireless, a leading provider of software and services worldwide, smartphones and tablets passed laptops as the most widely carried Wi-Fi device in airports, reaching 58.9 percent of all devices in June. Mobile devices topped the 50 percent mark for the first time in February of this year. The study draws from data across Boingo’s managed network of 60 airports and aggregated network of hundreds of thousands of hotspots worldwide.

Boingo reports the overall size of the Wi-Fi device market has increased five-fold in the last five years, with laptops doubling overall, while the explosive growth of smartphones/tablets accounted for the lion’s share of the growth.

Apple operating system iOS has a commanding market share of mobile devices actively using Wi-Fi in those same venues, representing more than 83 percent of mobile total.  Android more than tripled its market share from 2010, but comes in fourth, following iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices.

The numbers also underline an opportunity for companies that — like Boingo — have cleverly identified where we congregate as we circle the globe. Indeed, airports are truly hot spots when it comes to mobile marketing. My own company, Hipcricket, has created an innovative, location-based brand awareness campaign called Blue Moon on the Fly that begins by asking people to opt in by sending an SMS keyword to Blue Moon beer’s short code.

When an opted-in user arrives at a participating airport, they receive a message welcoming them to that airport, along with directions to the nearest terminal where they can find and enjoy a cold Blue Moon beer. Hipcricket and Blue Moon, a member of the MillerCoors family, have selected 59 airports across the country to be part of the campaign. At each of these locations the campaign delivers a unique message to users’ devices at each airport. No blanket mass marketing here. We also harness other channels to increase overall effectiveness, and recruit new users via call-to-action table tents we have set up in participating airports. Acknowledging the incredibly important role of social in the mix, we also support the campaign call out through posts on Blue Moon’s Facebook page.

How I See It: We travel a lot and we use mobile devices more than ever. But anyone who travels a fair amount has surely noticed that not everyone is a road warrior with the newest smartphone. A significant number of people still carry feature phones, connected devices that companies should not ignore. Blue Moon certainly hasn’t, and being all-inclusive (rather than limiting your focus to high-end smartphones) has allowed brands to have reach and impact. While Boingo’s data is interesting, it is important to remember that there is room for all kinds of mobile programs to target those who spend time in transit.

Marketers should grasp Google+

If you’re like me, you scrambled for an invite to join your colleagues on Google+ right after it broke on the scene in July.  And, if you’re like me, you have struggled to find the time to settle into yet another social network. Goodness knows contributing to the conversations on LinkedIn and Twitter can expand into a full-time job, if you let it. So, I may have been one of the first to sign in to Google+, but I’ve have spent virtually no time on it.

Apparently, I’m not the only one. Google has moved activities up a gear to capture our attention (and our time). This week the Web giant took the wraps off Hangouts, a mobile extension that enables simultaneous interaction with up to nine people via video.

As Google puts it: “Bumping into friends while you’re out is one of the best parts of going out and about. With Hangouts, spontaneity hits the web. Whether you’re home in your pajamas, or hitting the streets with your mobile phone, video hangouts let you bring up to 9 people into your world. It’s the next best thing to everyone being there.”

For the time being, Google says that you must have an Android phone with a front-facing camera that has Android 2.3 Gingerbread or higher. The company has also announced that an iOS update is coming soon.

How I See It: It Google+ poised to be the next Big Thing? It’s a tough one to call. Having access to Google+ on mobile will certainly increase the odds that I will use it (once it hits the iPhone). I have also become a believer after watching this presentation from social heavyweight Chris Brogan. Brogan eloquently made the case for staying current, pointing out that services like MySpace were red-hot before falling out of favor with users. Social is exciting, and we are just beginning to understand what is possible. As consumers — and as marketers — it’s imperative that we keep an open mind and stay open to trying new things – especially if the new thing comes from the likes of Google.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

These are some of the observations and opinions voiced by a few of the just over 100 professionals, practitioners and  passionates who made our first Tweetchat an invigorating exchange and a rousing success. Tweetreach, for example, reports we reached nearly 107,000 people via just under 600 tweets to achieve an exposure of a whopping 658,320. All this confirms our conviction that there is a huge requirement for a platform that allows us discuss what really works, and why.

Prompted by the overwhelming positive response to our inaugural Tweetchat, we will continue the conversation with a Tweetchat following the must-attend MMA Forum London (October 4-5). That’s when we will discuss what you told us you wanted most: real-life case studies and key learnings from the brands and agencies that lead by example. Watch MobileGroove and Twitter for details — and chime in!

Connect with me – NOW

Paul Berney, MMA CMO (@paulbmma)

Mobile marketing is similar but different in each country around the world. What is the common denominator? @paulbmma tells us people everywhere have a  growing expectation to engage with brands in real-time. (Spot-on observation and one confirmed by a raft of research including a recent Cone Consumer Media Study that found people develop “positive feelings” towards brands they felt they could interact with on new media channels and reported they felt “better served by a company or a brand if they can have a conversation with them in a new media environment.”)

This is what marketers should understand, but where is the evidence that mobile interaction delivers results. @tomiahonen, joining us live from Hong Kong, pointed out that we are seeing astonishing stats coming from Japan, where McDonalds has signed up 1 in 6 consumers to opt-in for mobile advertising messages, a success that @noahelkin wondered can’t also be replicated elsewhere (a great point we will pick up on in future Tweetchats).

Another data point from @tomiahonen drove home the point that people do indeed want to have interactions with brands: 31 percent of U.S. adults want to be reached by using SMS.

OS or SMS?

@Mobisoul suggested mobile-savvy operating systems (OS) may displace SMS. While several commented that smartphone may well win out in the end, many more argued that SMS has the reach and the all-important personal touch. As @noahelkin pointed out: “SMS remains an effective engagement mechanism, even for those with advanced devices.” @Ew4n agreed, adding that “a perfectly timed SMS can really sway the balance on most any transaction.” (A view that many others also amplified.)

A mobile optimized site can also clinch the deal. @paulbmma shocked us with the data point that few businesses in Europe have mobile web or app presence. In fact, the total is less than 19 percent in France and U.K. This shortchanges merchants and their customer as reports show consumers are ready and waiting to transact on mobile. @tomiahonen underlined this critical point with the case of Tiffany’s jewelers, a company that doubled its sales after launching a mobile-optimized mobile website.

Permission marketing

Interaction is at the heart of mobile marketing, but messaging campaigns should abide by rules and etiquette. @nixxin reminded us that permission marketing is well suited to his native India, where consumer backlash against bulk SMS spam has forced the regulator to step in.

@tomiahonen

Indeed, spam in India and elsewhere makes it clear that “we as an industry need to move very strongly to opt-in,” @tomiahonen observed. (Even during the Tweetchat several participants in the U.K. and Africa complained they had just that moment received spam on their mobile phones.) @LisaCiangiulli brought her own example to strengthen the case for opt-in, revealing that permission marketing allowed mobile operator (and Optism customer) Mobinil to count 1+million opt-ins to its mobile marketing service in just two months. @tomiahonen added that Blyk has announced its client in India counts 1 million opted-in customers.

Others in the chat echoed the requirement for opt-in, agreeing that permission marketing matches with people’s requirement to “be in control” (as @Veluuria put it). The discussion prompted @paulbmma to state that permission marketing is “going to be essential.”

We’ll hear more about the pivotal place of position of permission in marketing at Permission-Based Marketing (October 3, London), organized by mobileSquared and in association with the MMA. The first-ever event will discuss how to build, monetize and grow opt-in customer databases.

Multi-channel, transmedia

We established and agreed that mobile sits at the center of increasingly cross-media campaigns. But what does that mean to marketers?

@paulbmma satisfied our requirement for real-life examples with a nod to Garanti Bank in Turkey, which successfully combines online, email and mobile. He also drew our attention to Mr Price Group in South Africa, which combines “every media channel to sign up new customers.

Connect the dots, as @MsMobileConverg did — and its clear that “transmedia will be tops.” As she put it marketers will finally crack the code when they “understand that each platform has it’s own voice.” SMS, she stressed, ROCKS in getting the message out. Not new, but very effective. @LisaCiangiulli took it a giant step further, picking up on the underlying theme of exchange: when we talk channels and formats we are still talking technology. “Understanding users’ needs and wants [are] often overlooked.”

Meantime, @MikeTV started a separate and stimulating discussion about mobile video. While we didn’t answer his question (will video dominate mobile marketing?) we did agree that video is moving up the agenda as brands use it to impress and engage.

I pointed people to this case study from @millennialmedia explaining how Pantagonia harnessed mobile video to drive app downloads and iTunes sales from the Patagonia Music Collective – a campaign that benefitted a wide range of environmental groups.

What will move video into the mainstream? Beyond issues around pricing and bandwidth @DuncanPringle and @shoobe01 indicated that we need to put people back into the equation, and look for ways to align video with our preference for pull on our mobile devices, not push.

But the lack of pull isn’t stopping us from watching video on our mobile devices. @paulbmma weighed in with a surprise from the joint MMA/Google research. Among the findings, many in Europe are already watching mobile video at high levels. Specifically, 64 percent in the U.K. — stats that spell opportunity for marketers.

QR codes

No surprise that a separate debate also raged around QR codes, one of the formats @paulbmma revealed is hot (along with coupons and search + LBS) in the U.S., Europe and parts of APAC.

@Ew4n, @mobileholly and others wondered if there aren’t easier alternatives than are less hassle. @shoobe01 zeroed in on the key question. Is QR code fragmentation is helping or hurting the industry?

The jury is out on that one. However, no matter the shortcomings around QR codes, @lizkmiller reminded us that there is lots of new investment in QR as a vehicle to “tie traditional spend to digital’s more measureable spend.”

We also heard from @noahelkin that QR codes are gaining traction as a pull mechanism “in-store and across traditional media.” @karimkhalifa told us that QR codes are also widespread in Egypt and the Middle East, where they are used to link physical (cars) with digital (information) at car shows, for example. Finally, I commented that the real impact of QR codes will be in the enterprise. Thinking here of pharmaceuticals and verticals where information about the product and demos (accessible via the linkage QR codes enable) are key.

Strategy trumps technology

But we have to think bigger than QR codes, apps or mobile video.

Marketing is not about technology.

@lizkmiller got us to focus when she commented: “the real issue is how to tie these innovations into a STRATEGY to engage at every stage — too many random acts of mobile marketing!” @mackmckelvey strengthened the argument. “Fundamentals in #mobilead cant be overlooked – get as fancy as u want, but if you haven’t planned right initially – #mobile falls flat.”

However, many campaigns depend on the capability of operators to understand and deliver essential subscriber data. @lizkmiller, who is also VP, Marketing Programs & Operations, CMO Council, quoted findings from a recent CMO Council study showing carriers – not marketers – have to get their head around mobile marketing. The majority (68 percent) of carriers in the study said that the traditional corporate mindset” they have is “out of sync with new forms of service delivery.” A solution to bandwidth issues can be found in truly understanding the customer and “delivering relevance based on data,” she continued. Narrowing down the audience saves on wastage all around.

Contextual relevance

How can the industry deliver relevance? @Veluuria suggests we start with empathy. We must put ourselves in the shoes of people and work with “four mobile mindsets: 1) I’m local. 2) I’m bored. 3) I’m multitasking. 4) I need it NOW.”

Search - us requesting what we want right out – is another way to arrive at more relevant results. In fact, @paulbmma pointed out that search is coming on strong,  increasing 236 percent since 2010 with local search – which also encourages social interaction) leading the growth. Quite correctly, @indigo102 asked why there appears to be a disconnect between the size of search (huge) and the number of mobile solution providers and organizations over looking the opportunity. @somoagency joined the debate, reporting that conversations from mobile search measures on transactional mobile websites are “proving that it is one of the strongest, most relevant channels.”

Inspired by my own interactions with cool startups (such as Primal, Goby, Expertmaker, Hipmunk) that are defining the future of mobile search, I started a discussion about how our requirement for personal relevance in marketing also marks a turning point in mobile search. We want what we want, not what Google’s PageRank says we do.

Prompted by @matthausk, I pointed out that precision and personalization is where the action (and the money) is in mobile search. Think Siri, virtual assistants, smart recommendations, and you know where this is going.

As if @robertphaslam could read my mind, he echoed that “contextual relevance” is where the market is going. “Give me what I want, when I want it, based on where I am.”

Kinda says it all.

More about mobile search megatrends in a review of mobile search I have written to be included in a must-read mobile anthology that GigaOM will publish and distribute during Mobilize (September 26-27, San Francisco).

* * *

Editor’s note: My guests and I were blown away (!) by the positive response to our first Tweetchat, and the string of requests from participants for an encore. We’ll be back with a Tweetchat to discuss some of the key learnings from MMA Forum London. And we’ll use our own learnings from this chat to develop a structure that will allow us to explore single topics (coupons, QR codes, permission marketing, mobile shopping) and speak directly with the brands leading the pack.

Read the complete Tweetchat here (and many thanks to Robert Haslam @ MiLiberty for culling over nearly 600 tweets!)

This headline on msnbc.com stopped me cold: Windows 8 Does What Apple Doesn’t. Talk about an about-face.

In case you missed it, Microsoft used its developer-focused BUILD conference to provide a detailed preview of the next major release of Windows, code-named “Windows 8.”

“We re-imagined Windows,” Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft, said in his keynote address to the thousands of developers in attendance. “From the chipset to the user experience, Windows 8 brings a new range of capabilities without compromise.”

What’s new in the new release?

A new interface that Microsoft says embodies simplicity and gives you control. The Metro-style UI provides for access via mouse, keyboard and touch. And there are apps that work together to deliver users a seamless experience whether you are in email, on your desktop, or on a social network –  an experience that Microsoft says syncs across devices.

“This is no desktop of files, intended for you to push around in your little dreary garden,” highly-regarded tech writer Wilson Rothman wrote on msnbc.com. “Instead, it’s based on the assumption that your computer is a dynamic extension of a changing world, and that you yourself are a node in a vast social network. If that sounds crazy when referring to a Microsoft-built PC operating system, it kinda is.”

Rothman gives kudos to Microsoft for making tough, but necessary decisions. “When Microsoft set out to design Windows 8, it faced a pretty daunting decision: Put its mobile OS on tablets, or rewrite Windows entirely so that it would be as good on thin touch tablets as it is on a big honkin’ PC. That latter choice is waaay harder, but Microsoft has global dominance on the Windows side, and pretty much zero traction on the phone side. A PC is still what most computer companies want to sell, especially the ones that are crazy jealous of Apple’s products (and profits). So as a long-term strategy, leveraging its huge Windows base to grow a tablet business makes more sense.”

How I See It: Microsoft put no timeline on the release of Windows 8, but reports say it will be a year or more from now. Innovation can never come fast enough, but that doesn’t mean marketers can sit and wait it out. If the observers are right that Windows 8 is poised to have dramatic impact on our personal mobility, then we as marketers need to plan for this convergence of experience and devices. It isn’t that difficult if we focus on what matters most: people. This is about lifestyle and connected lives. Products, services and technologies need to take a back seat. Early adopters lead connected lives today, and technology like Windows 8 could move this into the mass-market. It’s great when a large audience of consumers want — even demand — connectedness in everything they do (including the marketing they receive). Clearly, this makes the activity of reaching the masses easier on one hand — and far more complex on the other.

…

Regular readers of this column know how much I believe in the convergence of mobile and social.

Nielsen released new research this week based on a survey of nearly 2,000 people worldwide that shows just how far we’ve come.

Among the findings:

• Nearly 40 percent of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone
• Internet users over the age of 55 are driving the growth of social networking through the Mobile Internet
• Over twice as many people aged 55 and older visit social networking sites on their mobile phones than last year
• Nearly two in five social media users access these services from mobile devices. About 37 percent use mobile phones, 3 percent use iPad, and a whopping 97 percent access via computer.

How I See It: I’m fortunate to be an annual speaker at Mary Furlong’s impressive Boomer Summit. Each year, I talk about how intuitive technology can go a long way toward bridging and — ultimately closing –the Generation Gap. It wasn’t so long ago that many wrongly assumed the 55 and older crowd was made up of hopeless luddites who chose to use their phones only for voice calls. Fast forward, and the majority of skeptics are finally convinced that this is a demographic that can’t be pigeon-holed. Nielsen provides us another interesting stat to drive this home. It states that this age group is leading the growth of social on mobile. I want to call someone and tell them the news, but why bother? It’s more likely that the best (and most effective) way to reach my intended audience is to use a social network.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

Grab a pew at the MMA Tweetchat (September 20) and follow the edgy and informative exchange with Paul Berney, MMA CMO, and Tomi Ahonen, independent consultant, influential blogger and seven-time best-selling author.

Knowing Tomi (as we all do!) the discussion will be candid, open and extremely worthwhile.

Tough questions, lively debate

Join us to deep-dive into three key topics:

Q1. Mobile marketing is global, what are the learnings from other markets that matter most?

Q2. Coupons, QR codes, LBS, Augmented Reality, Apps: what are the hot trends in mobile marketing?

Q3. What were the real surprises from the Google and MMA mobile research?

How do I participate?

The Tweetchat will take place in Tuesday, September 20, at 5pm UK, 6:00 pm Johannesburg, 7:00pm Istanbul, (Find your time zone here). Just follow the #mmaf2011 hashtag on Twitter and include it in your tweets during the chat. We recommend using tweetchat.com, which loads tweets faster and enters the hashtag automatically -you can sign in using your Twitter account. I will host this live, online chat on Twitter –  all you have to do is follow the hashtag on Twitter and bring your best questions for our guests.

Google findings

By way of background, the MMA and Google teamed up in 2011 for the MMA Forum New York and MMA Forum London, to collaborate on an ambitious global research study to provide insights into how people are using their mobile devices and the readiness of businesses to engage consumers via mobile.

The research, titled Global Mobile Research: The Smartphone User & The Mobile Marketer, was conducted by Ipsos GmbH and TNS Infratest and based on the results of two surveys: an online survey of thousands of mobile consumers in 30 countries, and a telephone survey of 1,000 marketing decision makers, 200 in five key markets.

Among the key findings (based on a subset of the data which focused on five countries: US, UK, France, Germany and Japan):

• A significant number of smartphone users accessed the Internet via their smartphone every day of the past seven days (U.S.- 58 percent, U.K. – 55 percent, France – 59 percent, Germany – 45 percent, Japan – 78 percent)
• Many users go online via their smartphones multiple times a day (U.S.-53 percent, U.K. – 49 percent, France – 47 percent, Germany – 42 percent, Japan – 68 percent)
• Smartphone users have looked for local information on their mobile devices (U.S.- 90 percent, U.K. – 81 percent, France – 83 percent, Germany – 85 percent, Japan – 90 percent). What’s more, these local information seekers have taken action after looking up local content (U.S.- 87 percent, U.K. – 80 percent, France – 83 percent, Germany – 79 percent, Japan – 80 percent)
• Across the board, consumers are using their smartphone while in a store (U.S.-82 percent, U.K. – 68 percent, France – 82 percent, Germany – 65 percent, Japan – 75 percent). But it’s not just about assistance and information. Consumers are  also making purchases on their mobile device (U.S.- 29 percent, U.K. – 28 percent, France – 17 percent, Germany – 28 percent, Japan – 45 percent)
• Mobile commerce strategies primarily target upper funnel activities, with 65 percent of respondents reporting that their mobile strategy targets the research phase of the shopping process
• Only a fraction of businesses in the five countries report having mobile optimized sites (U.S.- 33 percent, U.K. – 17 percent, France – 12 percent, Germany – 37 percent, Japan – 43 percent)
• Fewer than a third of businesses surveyed have an app (U.S.- 19 percent, U.K. – 15 percent, France – 18 percent, Germany – 26 percent, Japan – 10 percent)

The first set of results can be viewed in a presentation available here.

Spread the word

The MMA project with Google and other research partners is ongoing — and a highlight of next week’s Tweetchat will be a discussion of these findings and a preview of some of the  additional data points that will be unveiled at the MMA Forum in London (October 4-5).

If you want to find out more about how you can harness the mobile channel to drive positive results for your business, brand or organization, then register to attend the MMA Forum London and connect with the leading thought leaders in the mobile marketing world.

***

Tweetchat – be there!

Everyone across the industry is welcome to join in and participate, so please share with anyone who you think might be interested. We’d love for anyone who’s interested to join, and share their thoughts on the subject.

So please, let us know if you’re interested, post any questions or topics you’d like to see discussed, let other people who might be interested know about the chat, and join us:

Event: Tweetchat on hot mobile marketing trends, topics and stats

Where: Twitter

When: Tuesday, September 20, 5pm GMT (Find your time zone here)

How: Follow the  #mmaf2011 hashtag on Twitter – and chime in!

We’ll likely never know the answer. But it’s safe to say that Yahoo’s disjointed mobile strategy was largely responsible for the board’s decision to oust Bartz.

What were the missteps in mobile that cost Yahoo, a company once so close to expanding its prowess in search, social and technology to mobile, its competitive edge? News site mocoNews provides some worthwhile insights and analysis.

It argues that Yahoo made a series of bad moves:

• Yahoo has not committed efforts and investments in the vital area of research and development, and has a lousy track record of starting and stopping initiatives.
• Livestand, the company’s digital newsstand for tablets, is late to market. It was expected to be delivered in the first half of the year.
• Yahoo has failed to grab a significant slice of the search advertising pie, and research firm IDC reports that Yahoo is losing share in mobile advertising.
• There has been frequent and disruptive change at the top of Yahoo’s mobile units.

Ironically, Bartz – who didn’t steer Yahoo back on the mobile course  when the company lost the plot– sent her farewell email to employees via an iPad.

How I See It: I agree with Om Malik ’s view that an acquisition would help Yahoo get back in the mobile game. Malik names Foursquare and Flipboard as possible candidates. (I’ll talk about Foursquare in the next item.) As for Flipboard, the social magazine for the iPad has been the leader of the pack since its launch in summer 2010, when it immediately could not keep up with demand. I still use Yahoo, but it is more about personal habit than a conscious choice to be with an innovator. Like everything else in mobile, the story has yet to be written. But this latest shakeup signals that Yahoo is running out of time to be included in the narrative.

***

Is LBS the big thing for marketers?

This week saw the release of a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, an essential source of data and insights about how average North Americans use the technologies and services available. Among the takeaways from the report is the observation that the category referred to as location-based services is broad and can’t be easily addressed by marketers.

According to the findings, 28 percent of all American adults use mobile or social location-based services of some kind. This includes those who do the following activities:

• 28 percent of use phones to get directions or recommendations based on their current location—that equals 23 percent of all adults.
• A much smaller number (5 percent of mobile phone owners, or 4 percent of all adults) use their phones to check in to locations using geosocial services such as Foursquare. Smartphone owners are especially likely to use these services on their phones – coming in at 12 percent.

“Americans are not currently all that eager to share explicitly their location on social media sites, but they are taking advantage of their phones’ geolocation capabilities in other ways,” said Kathryn Zickuhr, Pew Internet Project research specialist and co-author of the report. “Smartphone owners are using their phones to get fast access to location-relevant information on-the-go.”

How I See it: Foursquare’s hype has always topped its ability to deliver a mass audience to marketers. Do the math, and the results are an eye-opener. Even if you are targeting U.S. smartphone users, the most you can hope to reach is about 14 million. In my view, there are other more effective ways to reach consumers with relevant local offers. At the top of my list is the creation of a mobile loyalty club where users willingly share preferences and location information in exchange for deals and information that matter to them. How big is that audience? The last Hipcricket survey on the subject indicated that more than 100 million would be interested in joining a mobile loyalty club – if only their favorite brands would offer one.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

Rory Sutherland,

There are no easy answers, but there are some questions that will help produce them. Ask yourself: “Would this [marketing/approach] annoy me?”. That’s a good start. “There are just basic rules of etiquette. You use different media judiciously and the ability to do that intelligently is one mark of a mature and intelligent service brand.”

In his inimitable style Rory drives his point home with examples that are much closer to home. “You wouldn’t stay friends very long with someone who rang you up at 3 in the morning.” Likewise, you would not be positive about or responsive to marketing that is interruptive or irrelevant.

Attractive incentives

Rory also remind us that mobile – more than any other medium — attention “must be earned rather than bought.” What will encourage people to let brands into their daily lives and routines?

Rory segments incentives into three groups: court jester (funny), courtier (useful) and courtesan (sexy — meaning just really cool). “Broadly speaking, those are the things that encourage users to engage with brands.”

However, marketers should not limit their efforts to getting the value exchange right to properly entice/reward individuals for their attention. “I think in mobile you can be more specific….The message can be specific to a small group of people [and] it could be a message that’s specific to a small moment.” (Rory is referring here to the timely, ‘placely’ nature of advertising that can/must be aligned with a target moment or mood that we discussed in this earlier interview.)

Where do we go from here?

Rory’s answer may surprise you. In his view, the next ten years in mobile will see the rate of change slow and (hopefully) provide the industry (marketers, in particular) with a “period of reflection rather than a kind of endless frenetic excitement about what’s next.”

What matters is what’s important.

Rory tells us to “go all the way back to the value question” and the core of what mobile does best.

“Does mobile provide us with a way of serving people who are unaffordable to serve conventionally? Does mobile enable us to serve our existing customers better and to make them more loyal? Does mobile enable us to actually automate some interaction which will thereby improve the value exchange for both parties? What you’ll find is that mobile, for most businesses, will provide them with [ways] they can actually enhance the value they give their customers.”

My take:

The last sentence sums it up best. Mobile can enhance the value exchange. But let’s not only focus on marketing. The excitement (and opportunity) is around enhanced customer service and mobile relationship marketing (a term you’ll be hearing a lot more of!) Mobile Relationship Marketing (MRM) is everything it takes for companies everywhere and in every vertical to ensure continuous customer touch and interaction, sustained support and service, closer and more dependent connectivity, as well as greater insight and intimacy. Mobile elevates the ability of brands and marketers to do just that. No matter what the objectives are (promote products, gather feedback, reward us for purchases) mobile has earned its place at the table. As companies harness mobile to create more direct relationships with their customers, expect a heightened interest in the rules of engagement and the merits of asking people their permission and preferences.

Listen to the podcast with Rory Sutherland here. [16:52]

Editor’s note: Thanks for your positive feedback and my personal thanks to Rory Sutherland for the interview, and to Denise Birch for arranging it. Paul Skeldon, who assisted in podcast production, runs Videobaby Media – a one-stop-shop for high-quality, entry-level video and audio recording, editing and production for media companies looking to get a foot on the multimedia ladder. MobileGroove theme music courtesy of  Dan-O, who offers an awesome selection of free royalty free music for production purposes.

Related reading:

Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland: Mobile Marketing Should Target Moments, Moods
Rory Sutherland: Best Use Of Mobile Is Customer Service & Feedback

Disclaimer: News and views across the mobile marketing ecosystem is sponsored by Optism, an MG client and supporter.

***

Doing business on the Internet used to be so simple. If you knew for sure that your desktop website was optimized for access across all browsers, then your job was done. That was then. Now, the explosion of Internet-capable and connected devices has complicated matters. As more customers access your site from mobile devices, you have to do more to deliver a good user experience. To deliver content your customers can access and enjoy on their mobile devices you need to know what those devices are, what capabilities and features they have and — more importantly — how your customers are using them.

It’s a mammoth task, made even more complex by the existence of at least 6,500 (!) distinct and Web-capable mobile devices models. And let’s not forget the vast array of screen sizes, operating systems and capabilities.

So, how do you address such a complex and fragmented device landscape? And – better yet — why should you bother?

Mobile is massive

It may sound like a no-brainer, but we can’t stress it enough. Mobile is displacing PC. Therefore, we can no longer operate under the naive assumption that most traffic to our websites comes from PCs. In some countries mobile Web usage is not just competing with PC; it is outstripping it. This has been the case in Japan and South Africa for several years (Japan since 2005 and South Africa since 2008, to be precise). In other countries (such as the U.S.) we are near the tipping point.

In fact, The International Telecommunications Union estimates there were 940 million mobile broadband (3G) subscriptions worldwide and 555 million fixed broadband subscriptions in 2010.

But it’s not just the numbers that tell us mobile is displacing desktop as the primary means to access the Web. Internet giants are also moving into mobile at full-speed, an exodus that tells us a mobile strategy is a must.

Case in point is Google. During a February 2011 presentation, Google revealed that over 15 percent of Google searches are via mobile devices (a whopping 30 percent of searches for restaurants was done by people using mobile phones). As Google’s Director of Mobile Jason Spero pointed out, that adds up to one in seven searches. But, how many companies put one seventh of their resources into mobile? Definitely not one in seven. Jason’s  damning conclusion: Not engaging mobile customers is like “not doing business with your customers on Thursdays.”

Sure, you can choose to do nothing, and hope that your existing Internet website works on mobile. But do you really want to bet your business on it?

Better is best

Spoilt by a great Internet experience on our PCs, people have come to expect – even demand — an equally excellent Web experience on their mobile devices. People tend to lose patience (and their tempers) if they are not presented with what they want – the way they want it.

Major brands and companies need little convincing of the merits of adapting content to devices in order to deliver a good user experience to mobile customers. Check out Alexa’s top 20 Websites. There some 18 out of 20 big names detect mobile devices and deliver a site that is appropriate. Some — including Facebook, Google, Yahoo and eBay  – take it even a step further, delivering a great mobile experience to ALL users of all devices, including feature phones, legacy phones and smartphones.

What do these companies have in common? They use device detection to fine-tune the user experience. Why do they go to the trouble? Because, even on smartphones, customers have a lot of hoops to jump through if they want to view a Internet website. (This extra effort is not required if a company uses device detection to make the perfect match between the user, the content and the device.)

Without device detection, the user is on their own. They have to suffer the hassle of panning and zooming to read a desktop oriented page. The have to deal with the frustration of Flash (which is still  problematic on smartphones, and non-existent on iPhones and feature phones). And they have to waste a lot of time just waiting for the all-singing, all-dancing version of the Internet (translated: desktop oriented) website to load and display on their device.

Size does (not) matter

On first glance, the Google home page may look similar no matter if you view it on a PC, a tablet, a smartphone or an ordinary feature phone. But that’s only because Google has meticulously architected a comprehensive mobile strategy designed to delight all of its customers everywhere on the planet.

Other companies — such as Tripadvisor and Booking.com — understand that mobile isn’t about squeezing desktop websites into smaller displays. Mobile is about lifestyle and context.

Put another way, it’s about providing people precisely what they need to do what they need to do. We may want everything at our finger tips when we are booking a room or a flight from the comfort of our PC, where a big screen and keyboard mean we can while away hours searching, planning and inputting all the details (more than once!).

But on mobile the context (and immediacy) changes all the rules. People don’t want access to everything, they want to accomplish a single task and will gravitate to the sites that let them do it quickly, easily and without the hassle of zooming, panning or just waiting.

Device detection

This is why device detection is moving up the list of mobile must-have’s.

Device detection allows companies to query the capabilities of each device accessing their Website. But it’s not just about accuracy. That’s table stakes. Good device detection is also fast, and it should be possible for your site to identify at least 100,000 handsets per second. This device information allows the site to make decisions about how best to format the content before sending it to the user.

Once you know the make and model of the user’s device accessing your website at that moment, then you can make smarter choices about the appropriate services, promotions and advertising to deliver.  After all, it makes no sense to deliver advertising that includes mobile video to a handset that doesn’t support it. Knowing what to deliver (and what not) helps to ensure a seamless (and more enjoyable) user experience with fewer disappointments.

Device detection is also key when it comes to planning and investment. If you find that half  of the mobile traffic to your site is coming from low-end phones, then it’s high time to stop worrying about whether or not to cater to iPhone users and start thinking about developing a leaner version of your site to support basic handsets.

Finally, device detection gives you a view into what you can and can’t do to improve the user experience. Does the device supports click-to-call? Then make sure to take advantage of this functionality so the user can click to dial numbers that appear on the page. Does the device have GPS? Then make sure the user’s location is communicated via GPS, rather than forcing people to fill in a form stating their location. Does the device have a touch-screen? Then adapt your CSS to ensure that items are big enough to be tapped with a finger tip.

At the end of the day, device detection is the way to give your customers what they want — without them having to ask for it. (You also don’t risk losing them altogether if they end up at the receiving end of a bad user experience.)

App shortcomings

“And what about apps?” — I hear you ask.

This is not an app vs. mobile Web debate. If you know for certain that all your customers use iPhones (and will continue for the foreseeable future), then go ahead and make an iPhone app. (But if you know that with 100-percent certainty, then you should also get in contact with me to pick some horses in the next Ascot!)

However, a true mobile strategy is mobile-focused and embraces all of the mobile devices out there. Thus, a mobile app is not a mobile strategy, regardless of how many different platforms you choose to target. (A discussion of the complex mobile ecosystems and the vast differences between app submission and approval procedures is beyond the scope of this column.)

What’s more, apps only work if users download them, install them — and find them in the first place (!). This assumes that you have the branding, marketing and social media savvy to get the word out that you have an app, and what it takes to rise above the dozens (even thousands) of apps in your category.

Consider your options and it’s clear that a truly mobile strategy is the most effective way to achieve positive results (and deliver all users everywhere a good experience). Against this backdrop, device detection is not just essential to developing your mobile strategy. It’s also the only way to maintain it. Device fragmentation is an issue we must all face now because the market shows no signs of slowing.

Indeed, the advance mobile and the variety of devices means there is no end to the devices we can choose to use: feature phones, smartphones, small tablets, big tablets, netbooks, laptops, desktops and personal navigation devices. ‘Connected’ is fast becoming our new default state of being, and marketers that can cater to our always-on lifestyles will surely clinch the deal.

About Ronan

Ronan Cremin is VP of dotMobi’s engineering initiatives, where he oversees the development of dotMobi’s portfolio of mobile Web products, including DeviceAtlas — a solution used by companies in over 130 countries, including 8 percent of the Fortune 100 — to power device detection for their mobile sites. DeviceAtlas detects over 1 trillion mobile devices each month.

Editor’s note: In July 2011 dotMobi released the new version of its award-winning DeviceAtlas. See mobiThinking for more details on device detection.

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Rory Sutherland,

As Rory sees it: the proper way to measure the importance (and effectiveness) of mobile in the marketing mix is not to look at spend. The cost of developing a brilliant text-based mobile marketing campaign may be minimal, but the impact can be tremendous.

Sure, marketers should look at numbers — but the numbers that matter are the results. To drive the point home, Rory walks us through several scenarios and break-through campaigns.

A prime example Rory offers is BMW’s brilliant use of text (and picture messaging) to connect with car owners and inquire if they would like to purchase snow tires — at precisely the moment it started to snow. The campaign, which stands as a textbook example of what simple text messaging can achieve, turned approximately $60,000 spent on advertising into $45 million in revenue. In Rory’s view, the brand broke new ground with a campaign that was “timely, ‘placely’ and climatically targeted.”

In short, marketing success is not a measure of the budget you throw at it. “I think there is a terribly dangerous tendency to assume that a piece of marketing activity has an importance that is somehow  correlated to the amount of money spent on it.”

Human touch

Rory admires all approaches that do what marketing should: “produce a human reaction which leads to some form of behavior change.” On mobile – a fiercely personal device that also enables the delivery of contextual advertising –the human touch (not the technology) is key.

“We should forget that the purpose of advertising is not to produce pretty pictures, or moving images, or nice music,” Rory explains. “Those are the means. They’re not an end.”

Moreover, the fundamental objective of advertising delivered may be very different than we first assumed.

Granted marketers can promote products and increase brand awareness. But the real power of mobile may be wrapped up in all the ways it can be used to enhance customer service.

Rory offers us several entertaining examples of how (and why) mobile is central to conversations between people and businesses.

With mobile we can have real and valuable conversations with the companies we interact with. From coffee shops to hotels, the ability to interact with establishments (and their ability — even duty — to listen) enhances and improves the overall experience.

“The most intelligent use of [mobile] is closer to customer service than it is to advertising….And you don’t need a media [marketing] budget to provide good customer service, you simply do it.”

Rules of engagement

Mobile has clearly transformed the way we communicate with brands. Add social to the mix and the rules change completely.

In Rory’s view, we should not be surprised if our comments on Twitter and other information we willingly volunteer about ourselves triggers a brand response.

Rory offers uses the example of a recent stay at a quaint and charming hotel on the island of Madeira. Rory tweeted that he had arrived and the hotel ‘answered’ back to welcome him and make him aware of an event taking place. That ‘conversation’ was not opt-in, but it was a “timely, placely and relevant.”

What’s more it was “triggered” by Rory’s own actions. “If I don’t want to engage in a conversation, then I shouldn’t really be gabbing on [on Twitter] about the fact that I am visiting the hotel.”

Clearly, not all contact (and advertising) must be “consumer-instigated”, but brands must be aware of the requirement for permission and preferences.

Mobile is a real-time communications channel — and should not be abused. “It’s a channel where intrusion is actually worse — and more annoying and more disruptive -than it is in other places where advertising affects you.”

My take:

Again, an interview you shouldn’t miss. What is the state of mobile spend? We need to rethink the question. The approach may be off the mark since mobile campaigns – particularly text campaigns – might not eat up a lot of budget, but they can certainly deliver impressive results. And don’t just think advertising. Mobile can also be used to drive loyalty and improve customer relationship management.

Listen to the podcast with Rory Sutherland here. [16:52]

Next week: The series concludes with a look at what motivates people to accept marketing in the first place and what is next for the industry.

Related reading:

Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland: Mobile Marketing Should Target Moments, Moods

Disclaimer: News and views across the mobile marketing ecosystem is sponsored by Optism, an MG client and supporter.

Following the first shockwaves when the news hit, I reflected on my blog about how extraordinary minds create technology that disrupts.

There hasn’t been a bigger or better disrupter in this century than the now former Apple CEO.

iPod. iPhone. iPad.

Game-changers.

What should marketers make of disruption and how should they react? As always, the key is to time your participation so that your brand is out of the gates once the disruptive activity settles and it’s clear which technology or tool is winning the race. Jumping the gun doesn’t guarantee a head start in the right direction. There are graveyards full of innovative technologies and devices that failed from the get-go and never gained the traction we expected. Remember Digital Audio Tape and Betamax videotapes?

In mobile marketing and advertising, just because something can be done, doesn’t mean you should blindly spend against it before its time. (An example is Augmented Reality, a technology packed with ‘wow’ effect but lacking in mainstream take up.)

Jobs’ iAd is in that same category. Apple’s closed mobile advertising network (closed because you can reach only those people on the iOS platform) has been a large disappointment for many advertisers and others (like me) who looked at Apple’s move into mobile advertising as a milestone and a much needed push to move the industry along.

But don’t close the chapter on iAd just yet. Despite his resignation, there are indications that Jobs may not be done tinkering with iAd.

In-the-know Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg reports that Jobs will continue to have influence on Apple and its innovation “To be very clear, Mr. Jobs, while seriously ill, is very much alive,” Mossberg writes. “Extremely well-informed sources at Apple say he intends to remain involved in developing major future products and strategy and intends to be an active chairman of the board, even while new CEO Tim Cook runs the company day to day. So, this is not an obituary. But his health is reported to be up and down, and even an active chairman isn’t the same as a CEO.”

How I See It: In the short-term, Apple sales should soar with Sprint reportedly set to join Verizon and AT&T as Apple’s third carrier partner in the U.S. this fall. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster forecasts iPhone sales will growth from 30 percent to 37 percent in calendar year 2012. Sprint may get some company. There are rumors that T-Mobile will also sell the iPhone by this holiday season. The implications for marketers? iAd may become more meaningful with a beefed-up consumer base. Until then, it’s disruptive — with much excitement but without much return.

***

There was a time when RIM was also a disruptive force in the industry. That was back when its BlackBerry revolutionized the way most business people, and then consumers, accessed their email. In my view, RIM is a textbook case of a company that has succeeded in disrupting mobile, but somehow lost the plot. It did not continue to innovate.

Its latest phones, running on the new BlackBerry 7 operation system, have been mostly panned by industry pundits, including influential Ed Baig of USA Today.

While Baig said he generally likes all three phones he tested, he pointed out that “some features have RIM playing catch-up.” He continued: “That’s disappointing given the speed at which Android phones and Apple’s iPhone are adding innovative features.”

Baig (and I) are puzzled. As he put it: “With all that’s at stake, you might expect that the latest devices represent bold leaps forward. (I don’t mean Bold, as in the name of one of the most venerable BlackBerry brands, but rather something that is fresh, impactful and frankly, different.) Instead, the models — while superior to what came before — aren’t likely to shake up the tech Richter scale. And RIM continues to fall far short in the ever-critical apps sweepstakes.”

So, what are the device shortcomings? In a word: apps.

According to Baig, “arguably the biggest deficiency for all the new devices is in the apps department.” RIM has about 35,000 apps in the BlackBerry App World store, a tiny fraction compared with iOS and Android. And only a “few thousand” or so of those will be compatible with BlackBerry 7 devices at launch.  He concludes: “The new BlackBerrys are solid devices that should appeal to the many people who still love the brand. I just don’t expect many others to get overly excited.”

Baig is especially respected by business travelers who have been reading him in USA Today for years. His words won’t help sell BlackBerrys.

How I See It: As I’ve written in columns and blogs on MobileGroove and elsewhere, the worst mistake a marketer can make is to work off of stale data. The same goes for ideas and innovation. BlackBerry has had its day – and there may well be many more coming. However, unless RIM can disrupt again – and adoption occurs – then RIM risks ending up an also-ran in the mobile marketing mix.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

Brands, agencies and companies across the ecosystem can submit their entries via the award website. There you will find the entry form and full details of the entry criteria.

Recognizing results

The Award is in its second year and recognizes the effectiveness of mobile marketing campaigns, apps and mobile websites worldwide. This year also sees the addition of a few new categories (below), and the involvement of a new sponsors, including global mobile marketing firm Upstream and mobile recruitment specialist Propel.

I have once more been invited to sit on the panel of judges, which includes Jon Mew, head of mobile at the IAB; mobile specialist Helen Keegan; ex-Incentivated commercial director and mobile training specialist Robert Thurner; Andy Favell, editor of mobiThinking; Nick Lane, chief analyst at the research firm mobileSQUARED; and Mobile Industry Review editor and founder, Ewan MacLeod.

Stand up and be recognized! Entry is free and the closing date is Friday.

REGISTER HERE

New categories this year include Most Effective Tablet Application; Most Effective Mobile Advertising Platform/Network; Most Effective Campaign from a Mobile Operator; and Most Effective Mobile Publishing Solution.

The full list of categories is as follows:

• Most Effective Mobile Application – b2c
• Most Effective Mobile Application – b2b
• Most Effective Tablet Application
• Most Effective Mobile Advertising Campaign
• Most Effective Mobile Advertising Platform/Network
• Most Effective Mobile Sales Promotion/Direct Response Campaign
• Most Effective Campaign from a Mobile Operator
• Most Effective mCommerce Solution
• Most Effective Mobile CRM/Enterprise Messaging Campaign
• Most Effective Location-based Service/Campaign
• Most Effective Mobile Couponing or Barcode Campaign
• Most Effective Mobile Site
• Most Effective Mobile Charity Campaign/Solution
• Most Effective Mobile Ticketing Solution
• Most Effective Mobile Payment Solution
• Most Effective Mobile Publishing Solution
• Most Effective Mobile Travel & Tourism Solution

Mark your calendar

So get your entries in this Friday, and look for the shortlist in September.

The actual Awards Ceremony is scheduled for November 3 in London.

Last year  some 200 executives from brands, agencies and network operators gathered at London’s Vinopolis for the Awards Ceremony to recognize excellent mobile marketing solutions, sites and apps that delivered great results. Read about the 2010 EMMA winners here.

How have mobile advertising campaigns, objectives and spending evolved since Millennial Media published its first report in March 2009? We go to the source for the answers.

But first, a little background on methodology. These reports are based on actual campaign and network data from Millennial Media. The most recent report provides us insights based on data that was accumulated across 67 billion mobile impressions in 250 countries and territories. For some reports (such as the Mobile Intel report on mobile retail I analyzed here) Millennial Media has married its factual network data with consumer insights from research firm comScore. (Editor’s note: Millennial has four more Mobile Intel reports in various stages of development in the pipeline looking at verticals including Automotive, so watch this space.)

Vertical explosion

As more industry verticals embark on mobile campaigns and marketers shift their focus from one-off experiments to ongoing execution, mobile advertising (and spending) is entering a new phase of growth.

Aptly titled “Vertical Explosion,” the December 2010 SMART (Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting) report from Millennial Media was the first to confirm and quantify this mega-trend.

The most recent SMART report (2Q2011) released just this week reveals that the vertical explosion is at full force. Specifically, six verticals experienced triple-digit growth or greater year-over-year.

Who are the Big Spenders?

Interestingly, the financial sector has moved out of the test phase and is making a significant investment in mobile.

Overall, the Finance vertical placed number 3 in the Top 10 U.S. Advertising Verticals and number 5 in the Top 10 International Advertising Verticals.

But the real story is the phenomenal percentage growth in ad spend (and Millennial Media assures me this is not from a low level). Specifically, spending from financial brands and institutions increased 1095 percent year-over-year.

In Q2, insurance brands heavily utilized mobile for generating leads, while banking and credit advertisers ran campaigns to raise the awareness of their products and services.

Meantime, other verticals upped activities, leveraging mobile to create awareness of brand, promotional offers and drive app downloads. Among these are Travel, which moved up on both the U.S. and International Top 10 lists, and Retail & Restaurants, which grew 956 percent year-over-year to keep the number one spot on the Top 10 U.S. Advertising Vertical ranking. The vertical also moved to the number eight position on the Top 10 International Advertising Verticals.

Local matters

Another key trend that came across in the recent report is the aggressive push by brands and marketers to use local market targeting to deliver location-linked (and therefore actionable) advertising. A major objective of these campaigns: increase awareness of local campaigns and drive customers to brick and mortar business locations and outlets.

In the SMART Q2 report we learn that the number of advertisers using targeted audience reach methods (specifically demographics and location) now represents almost half (45 percent) of the total.

This is very different from the way marketers leveraged mobile two years ago. The 50th report from Millennial Media connects the dots to confirm that brands are not just running mobile campaigns; they are leveraging the unique capabilities of mobile to deliver us offers we can appreciate because they are relevant to our daily routines and location.

Specifically, usage of Demographic Audience and Local market Audience targeting has grown from 1 percent to 20 percent.

Our mobile day and activity

Clearly, location-linked campaigns are driving results. But brands and marketers should also think about ‘timeliness’. If you thought that mobile is what we reach for when we are on the go, then think again.

Mobile is increasingly an integral part of our daily routine. Consumer research from InsightExpress and married with Millennial Media data gives a new view into our ‘mobile day’, which starts at 5 am EST (a time when people in both the U.S: and Europe are ramping up for the day’s activities).

Millennial Media has identified three categories of behavior:

• Mobile mornings (5am – 12amEST): This period is characterized by above average network spikes in content such as weather, traffic, local news, health, fitness and productivity.
• Mobile workday (9am – 7pmEST): Network traffic is ramping up as time zones come online and get down to business. During this time the content we access (and the advertising we will see) is associated with verticals including: travel & lifestyle, shopping & retail, business & finance, e-books & reference.
• Mobile prime time (7pm – 12 pmEST): We are winding down after a busy day and network traffic shows a shift to social interaction and content, and entertainment.

This dovetails with InsightExpress’ recent digital consumer portrait study. It confirms my hunch that mobile is indeed (and quite literally) becoming the remote control of our lives (to borrow a phrase here from my esteemed friend and colleague Alan Moore).

InsightExpress reveals that about 40 percent of the time we spend on our mobile devices is in the home. Combine that observation with Millennial Media’s breakdown of our mobile day and it’s clear that mobile is replacing some channels. But the opportunity is in advertising that harnesses mobile to amplify these channels. Think about the fit between mobile and TV (for voting, shopping and checking trivia, research, etc) and you can see where this is going.

Campaign actions & video

So what happens after the click? Brands are becoming more sophisticated in their choice of post-click calls to action– and the way they engage with customers.  In fact, this 50th report shows significant growth in the number of campaigns aimed at driving app downloads (up 667 percent), from a mere 3 percent to 23 percent.

Other campaign actions include:

• Visit site (up 247 percent)
• Place call (from just 1 percent to 37 percent as more verticals grasp the mobile opportunity to generate leads)
• Watch video (up 200 percent)

It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. Mobile video advertising — an advertising format packed with interactive elements that goes one better than the TV commercials to encourage real engagement — is familiar to us — and catching on. In Q2 alone the number of customers that selected an interactive element on Millennial Media’s video ads doubled. Moreover, more customers purposely selected the replay button (2x more than any other button, by the way). No doubt these numbers will continue to grow as smartphone penetration increases and more people share what they like. Think of all the cool spots that went viral via YouTube and you can see where this is going.

4 Qs for Erin (Mack) McKelvey

Millennial Media (@MillennialMedia) is my source for a regular dose of stats and developments. However, within Millennial Media it’s Mack McKelvey, SVP, Marketing, who stands out for her ‘coverage’ of mobile industry events, insightful comments and dry wit. I caught up with Mack to delve into the data and distill the key trends.

You can follow Mack and her invaluable observations on Twitter (@mackmckelvey).

MG: 50 massive mobile reports documenting what Millennial has been seeing since March 2009. Wow! Tell me a little bit about your reports and help me navigate this huge stock of data.

Mack: Sure. Although we’ve produced numerous special reports like, “State of Apps Industry Snapshot” and “State of Mobile Advertising”,  we have three core reports: SMART, Mobile Mix: The Device Index and the Mobile Intel Series.

SMART was the first report we released and it has been tremendously well received by the advertising community, including brand marketers, agencies and the media. SMART looks at data like the top advertiser campaign goals, trends in mobile targeting, post-click actions, and deep dives into various mobile ad verticals.

Mobile Mix is aimed more at publishers, developers and mobile trend watchers: It primarily reports on key trends in mobile devices, mobile operating systems, mobile manufacturers and connected devices, like the iPad or Sony PSP.

Finally—our Mobile Intel series is an initiative we have launched in partnership with comScore.  Based on comScore’s observations — and married with our own network data and client campaigns — we produce deep vertical guides designed to help advertisers navigate the space.

MG: Let’s focus in on the 50th report. What stat and/or trend has surprised you the most, and what are the overall implications for brands/marketers?

Mack: Because this was our 50^th report, we decided to go back and look at how mobile has evolved since our first report back in March 2009. Rather than call out one stat, I’d say the trend that stood out the most was just how much more sophisticated mobile advertising has become in the past few years.

For example, we saw that in Q2 of 2011, 37 percent of campaigns gave consumers the option to “Click-to-Call.” Back in Q1 of 2009, only 1 percent of campaigns did this. This is a fascinating stat, because it shows that marketers are taking an action that is completely unique to mobile marketing, and finding ways to implement it into their campaigns.

Another great example is the rise in local market targeting. In our first S.M.A.R.T. report, under 2 percent of campaigns used local market targeting. Today, that number is up to 20 percent. Mobile has become a great channel for advertisers to reach local consumers, and advertisers are certainly reacting accordingly.

MG: You mentioned during your last webinar that we are finally past ‘Mobile 101′. Can you give some examples of how mobile has evolved?”

One of the easiest ways to see the evolution of mobile is by looking at all the different ways advertisers are executing campaigns. In terms of targeting, campaign goals and post-click actions the variety we see in the campaigns on our network is huge. This shows that advertisers are building specific campaigns to uniquely hit their objectives.

Additionally, the device landscape has changed dramatically. Connected devices like tablets and MP3 players make up 17 percent of all the impressions on our network, and advertisers are using these devices to add new levels of depth to their campaigns.

MG: Who are the biggest adopters of mobile advertising today, and how might this change in the next 12 months? Are there verticals that are more active in mobile than others?

Mack: We believe that we are actually past the “adoption” stage, and mobile is becoming a required component of campaigns for nearly every vertical. We actually saw six different verticals experience triple digit growth year-over-year, including the finance vertical, which grew over 1000 percent. In the next 12 months, we expect advertisers from all verticals to continue to find creative ways to leverage mobile for their particular industry.

Editor’s note: Millennial Media doesn’t just draw from campaign data. It also posts campaign examples that show how brands are leveraging mobile. The company frequently updates the campaign summary page on the Millennial website. http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/campaign-summaries/ .And you can check out video demos of campaigns on YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/millennialmediavideo

If you would like to be considered for this series (or suggest someone you admire), then reach out to me directly (@peggyanne). Next is the series: David Berkowitz talks mocial and social commerce.

Disclaimer: Millennial Media is a friend and supporter of MobileGroove.

It was just a few years ago that the best way to find a new home was also the hardest. You had to drive up and down streets, look for ‘for sale’ signs, write down phone numbers and call later from a landline. Thankfully, that way is the old way as real estate grasps on to the mobile opportunity with both hands.

Today, real estate is one of the hottest verticals on mobile, with realtors and brokers harnessing this powerful medium to offer us information and interactions on our terms. From text messaging to mobile Web and QR codes, companies in this vertical are striking out in new directions — with notable results.

An example is Century 21, an old-fashioned brand best known for the gold sport coats that make the brand (and its staff) look like a flashback to the 1950s.

At the Mobile Insider Summit (where I also had the opportunity to speak), Michael Callaghan, VP of Digital and Strategic Marketing, emphasized the role of mobile in the company’s strategy. Simply, Century 21 sees mobile as an opportunity to modernize itself.

“On the 40th anniversary of Century 21, we want to go from the old-fashioned, gold jacket to mobile and innovation,” Callaghan told attendees.  “Why did we do this? Clearly, because there is this new home buyer.”

What is so new about these buyers?

Generally, this buyer is between the ages of 25 and 40 and — more importantly — mobile-savvy.  Century 21 mobile users want “precise information that is immediate and robust,” Callaghan explained. “They are not browsing”.

Century 21 began the move to mobile by optimizing its online website for the mobile Web. It then launched an app and started (as many companies have) with the iPhone. Century 21 has now extended its offer to Android, BlackBerry and Palm (although I’m not sure why it has launched on the last one).

Mobile accounts for about 10 percent of Century 21’s marketing budget.

The company counts about 172,000 downloads of its mobile app. The app is further evolving to include information on all houses in an area, not just those offered by Century 21. “It led to challenges,” Callaghan said referring to the effort and mindset necessary to list every house on offer. “But it was something we had to overcome because consumer need was here.”

How I See It: Century 21 is the first to admit that its brand had gone stale. But rather than complain about it, the company decided to reinvent itself via mobile because that’s where its target audience lives. It’s a terrific lesson for others and a story worth watching as it develops. Century 21 says it is early in the journey. No argument here.

***

Travel was highly represented at the Mobile Insider Summit with Expedia, Travelocity and kayak.com leading the list of brands walking through their mobile experiences.

Travelocity VP-Global Product Marketing Beth Murphy provided some of the richest data.

She said that the number of consumers accessing travel services via their mobile phones is growing at a rate of “400 percent to 500 percent annually.” Moreover, “16 percent of mobile users” have bought a ticket using their mobile device.

She added that Travelocity is seeing a demographic split resulting in two distinct groups of mobile travel users: the 40-plus segment (one that she said is more traditional and pragmatic in their use of travel services), and the “under 30 segment,” which is more to “social experiences.”

Travelocity, which is already a strong online brand, is seeing little cannibalization between its mobile and online properties. In fact, 50 percent of users booking trips via their mobile app are new customers.

Murphy shared observations as they relate to Millennial mobile travel users. Specifically, younger consumers are “device agnostic,” demanding robust experiences online, mobile, and tablet. In addition, this audience is more affluent and less brand loyal.

Expedia told attendees that a whopping 70 percent of rooms booked via Expedia on mobile are for the same or the next day.

Also, Expedia revealed that it is planning for (but has not yet implemented) inventory-driven last minute hotel deals on mobile.

How I See It: Following her formal presentation, Beth spoke to me about the challenges associated with offering last minute deals effectively and successfully. It is quite a list. A brand needs a real-time view of availability, training for staff that allows them to recognize and respond to late travelers with offers that could change daily, and hotel partners who can face – unafraid — the challenge of tailoring deals for consumers who prefer to wait until the very end for a better price. Personally, I travel a lot. I rely on both apps and the mobile Web to book my trips and hotels. As a rule, I know that I need to keep up to date because travel companies are in a fierce competition and prices change often. The immediate nature of our last-minute travel needs are a perfect fit with the real-time connectivity of mobile. How will it all play out? It’s a hard one to call, but you can learn a lot about mobile by watching how companies in this vertical duke it out.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

The impact of mobile on shopping and commerce was also the focus of proprietary research I introduced last June in an in-depth interview with Peggy here on MobileGroove. My findings highlighted precisely how consumers use their social networks to get input and advice at a brand’s “Moments of Trust”.  The result (as I point out in my own blog) is profound impact on sales and loyalty.

Interestingly, Yahoo has released insights that confirm my findings and help us better understand the impact of mobile Internet on mobile shopping and purchases. Yahoo teamed up with Nielsen to interview 8,384 U.S. residents ages 13-64 via an online quantitative survey. Of this sample: 5,313 were mobile Internet users who access information related to at least one of 12 product categories. 3,071 were PC/Laptop Internet users who access information related to at least one of the 12 product categories and could not access any category Internet information on a mobile device.

So, what is the place of mobile in our shopping experience? Yahoo findings indicate mobile is at the center of the in-store action, making mobile devices a great advertising vehicle for retailers. In fact, a whopping nine out of 10 mobile users have accessed the mobile Internet while they were actually in the store. What’s more, approximately 50 percent of in-store mobile web activity is related to shopping. And people also share while they shop. Almost half (48 percent) of in-store mobile users take and/or send a picture of a product they are considering buying to a friend or family member.

Among the key findings:

• 51 percent of consumers indicated that they do make a purchase after doing research on their mobile device.
• On average 16 percent use their mobile phones for shopping research, but interest for this in the next 12 months is extremely high at 57 percent among mobile Internet users and 41 percent among non-mobile Internet users, on average.
• One in 5 mobile shoppers who have seen advertising during the shopping process say they always look at it. The key to being successful in mobile shopping advertising is to make sure the ads are informative.

How I See It: It’s 100 degrees fahrenheit in many places, but towel off and lock in your mobile strategy for the holiday season. Marketers and retailers alike have to ask (and answer) some tough questions: How will you influence your customers at the point of sale? Are your salespersons ready for shoppers who have instant access to information, product reviews, and competitors’ prices? Is there a plan for consumers who are using mobile to speak about your products and services (or just let off steam) via their social networks? You can forget the holidays (and celebrating anything any time soon), if you haven’t figured even the basics of where mobile fits in your business.

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eMarketer also weighed with new research about consumer behavior and how people use the mobile Web.

It estimates that more than 91 million U.S. consumers will use the Internet via a mobile device at least monthly by the end of this year, up from 77.8 million in 2010.

The eMarketer story based this conclusion on the findings of a recent study by Affinity Research that identified a “generation gap” in mobile device preference. Put simply, older consumers favor tablets and ereaders, while younger users are adopting smartphones at rapid rates.

Specifically, 85 million Generation Xers have a tablet and are 16 percent more likely to have a tablet than average. Approximately 59 million Boomers have an ereader and are 19 percent more likely to have one than others. Also, 47 percent of Millennials have a smartphone and are 28 percent more likely than average.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Millennials and the younger end of Gen X own more smartphones than those over the age of 35. Additionally, Affinity reports that more than 24 million Millennials plan to purchase a smartphone in the next six months.

How I See It: What first appears to be dizzying fragmentation in how we access the mobile Internet is actually a crystal-clear opportunity for marketers to connect with their customers on precisely the devices they prefer. The upshot is mobile marketing that both pleases the individual and generates business. Everyone watching television can’t be pigeon-holed into one segment, group or demographic, and the same goes for mobile. Knowing the device preference of your audience is key. This site and others provide valuable consumer insights that can make or break your campaigns. So, read up and take some notes. And keep in mind that users behavior evolves quickly. If your data on mobile users has dust on it, freshen it today.

The wide-ranging report, which details people’s use of and behavior on social network sites (SNS), is full of insights and analysis explaining how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement.

By way of background, the results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from October 20 to November 28, 2010, among a sample of 2,255 adults in the U.S., age 18 and older.

According to Pew, 79 percent of adults said they used the Internet and nearly half of adults (47 percent), or 59 percent of internet users, say they use at least one social network. This is close to double the 26 percent of adults (34 percent of Internet users) who used one in 2008.

Pew said that the average age of adult social network users users has shifted from 33 in 2008 to 38 in 2010. Over half of all adult users are now over the age of 35. Some 56 percent of SNS users now are female.

We also have proof that Facebook dominates the social network space. A whopping 92 percent of SNS users are on Facebook; 29 percent use MySpace, 18 percent used LinkedIn and 13 percent use Twitter.

There is considerable variance in the way people actually use SNS. Half (52 percent) of Facebook users and 33 (percent) of Twitter users engage with the platform daily, while only 7 percent of MySpace and 6 percent of LinkedIn users do the same.

Delving into our interactions on Facebook on an average day, the report reveals that:

• 15 percent of Facebook users update their own status.
• 22 percent comment on another’s post or status.
• 20 percent comment on another user’s photos.
• 26 percent “Like” another user’s content.
• 10 percent send another user a private message

How I See It: Pew once again delivers us important data points, but has chosen not to break out the mobile numbers. This is unfortunate (and counter-productive) since we know that Facebook and Twitter users are twice as active on mobile as they are on a PC. As I have written here on MobileGroove, social is what we do on mobile — and why Facebook has hatched an ambitious plan to get 500 million worldwide users via mobile. I believe that we’ll see major shifts in daily activity once more people access Facebook via mobile. And, drawing from the Pew report, we can bet we’ll see even more users update their status, post their photos and reveal their location. As marketers, access to this information is gold as we seek to be relevant and engage with Facebook members.

* * *

Editor’s note: As we go live with this post mobile marketing firm Augme Technologies has announced it will acquire Hipcricket for $44.5 million in cash and common stock. In addition, the transaction calls for a twelve-month earn-out payment valued at up to an additional $27.5 million.

I’m fortunate to work with Hipcricket, long a leader in marketing via SMS.  (We also work with other mobile marketing approaches and formats.)

This week, Luxury Daily (a Mobile Marketer destination) asked me to offer advice and insights about text message marketing and the most effective ways to reach — and engage with — affluent users on their mobile devices. I responded with the following list of top ten best practices.

1. Use SMS as a customer relationship marketing tool, not just a means to provide one-time offers.

2. Use past experiences with the customer to offer luxury customers what they actually want.

3. Do not assume all luxury customers have smartphones – make sure SMS plays a large role in your program to connect with large numbers of consumers.

4. Use SMS for time-sensitive offers and information. Ninety-seven percent of text messages are read within four minutes of delivery.

5. Consider location to boost relevance.

6. Make sure SMS campaigns fit into the brand’s overall marketing strategy.

7. Use SMS as a means to connect to richer brand experiences. For example, link back to the brand’s mobile Web site or app.

8. For this audience, over-deliver on customer service – it is more of an expectation.

9. Use SMS to drive customers to the store.

10. Exclusivity is important as it makes customers feel like VIPs, so reward the brand’s best customers with something special.

How I See It: Of course, mobile marketing is more than SMS. But, if you are after reach, no other format or approach comes close in terms of effectiveness. What’s more, text messaging often opens the door to engagement that consumers desire — and have even come to expect. At Hipcricket we are gearing up to do our annual mobile loyalty survey, the fourth year in a row. In it, we ask mobile users about their attitudes towards brands’ loyalty clubs and programs. Last year, the majority of mobile users told us they are open to joining loyalty clubs and are eagerly waiting for more brands to approach them to engage. I’m eager to see what this year’s results reveal.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

As we can read in the Associated Press coverage of the 2Q2011 earnings, Amazon followed its usual tact and did not reveal the precise number of Kindles it sold in the quarter. Instead, it only noted that Kindle sales in Q2 showed an increase over Q1 sales. The figures are vague –as we have come to expect from Amazon. Meanwhile, AP reports that Q2 was also a good quarter for sales of eBooks for the Kindle device. Specifically, Amazon said it has sold more eBooks (that it offers for the Kindle) than hardcover and paperback books.

Even more noteworthy: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reported that the $139 Kindle 3G with Special Offers — a version of the Kindle Amazon released in Q2 that is subsidized with ads — is now its top-selling Kindle device. By way of background, Kindle with Special Offers carries a slightly lower price tag ($25 less or $114) because it is effectively ad-funded. Special offers and sponsored screensavers display on the Kindle screensaver and on the bottom of the home screen. However, they don’t interrupt reading.

What are these so-called offers? Over the last months the promotions and deals displayed have included:

• $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
• Save up to $500 off Amazon’s prices on select HDTVs
• $1 for a Kindle book, choose from thousands of books
• Spend $10 on Kindle books and get a free $10 Amazon.com Gift Card

As for screensavers, Amazon says its goal is to show sponsored screensavers that Kindle owners want to see. To this end, they have created a free Kindle app (available now) and website (coming soon) called Amazon AdMash. Anyone with a Kindle (Latest Generation device) can download AdMash, a clever app that harnesses the best of crowdsourcing to let people have a say in their future screensavers. How does this work? Basically, AdMash will show you two different screensavers, and then ask you to vote for the one you like best. The community will decide. Smart.

How I See It: Amazon’s Q2 numbers leave key questions unanswered about the ad-funded device. Is the price of this package bringing in new customers? If so, what are the demographics? Are they new too? (I know my mother-in-law – who is 82 – is a huge fan of Kindle, in part because it is a breeze to read.) And then there is the term ‘Special Offers.’ So far, we know the “offers” aren’t a consumer turnoff. This could be because Amazon shrewdly and purposely made the decision not to use the word “advertising” to describe them. So, who can refuse such an offer? As I’ve written in columns on MobileGroove and elsewhere, people will accept advertising in exchange for offers they appreciate. In fact this view is confirmed by a several industry reports, including a recent one from the Yankee Group. It shows that more than 70 percent of mobile subscribers surveyed in the U.S. want offers on their devices. As marketers, we can’t ignore the Kindle. We need to add this device into our marketing plan discussions. Amazon is most certainly providing advertisers more detailed user information to make sure they can make their media buy as targeted — and effective — as it can be. Meantime, let’s not forget that Amazon has another card to play later this year when it is expected to launch a tablet device. That’s when things will get even more interesting.

* * *

In my column I occasionally name the analysts, authorities and industry voices we should be hearing — if we aren’t already. Seth Godin, Jeff Pulver and Chetan Sharma are some of my most recent mentions — and I’m adding Forrester’s Julie Ask to the list.

Back in January I was fortunate to attend a private company mobile briefing where Julie shared her insights. Personally, I consider Julie to be one of the savviest industry analysts, and I have recounted details from Forrester webinars in past posts here on MobileGroove.

This month, Julie and Forrester released a report discussing the importance of context in mobile marketing and advertising.

As Julie sees it, delivering highly contextual mobile services is not a nice-to-have. It’s a customer expectation. It follows. Mobile phones are personal devices, and consumers expect personal and relevant experiences on their phones.

For Forrester, context is much more than time and place. The research firm defines context as “the sum total of what your customer has told you and is experiencing at his moment of engagement.”

Put simply, context includes:

• Situation: the current location, altitude, and speed the customer is experiencing.
• Preferences: the history or personal decisions the customer has shared with you.
• Attitudes: the feelings or emotions implied by the customer’s actions or logistics.

Julie provides a few scenarios that simply leverage this new view of context, and challenges companies to tailor their services, offers and messages to the use cases and situations that make up our daily personal mobile routine.

• Banks. Should a user require the same depth of authentication at home, at work, or in a foreign country?
• Hotels. How much should you quote a prospective customer for a room tonight if she is 5 miles or 500 miles away?
• Airlines. What home page services should you show a passenger whose flight leaves in 2 hours? In 10 minutes?
• Retailers. How would you react if a customer was using your application for price comparisons and inventory checks from your competitor’s store?
• Insurance providers. How do you use mobile to mitigate risky behaviors? State Farm already has an application that stops incoming text messages while an owner is driving a vehicle.

How I See It: The full report is $499. Granted, it may not be the next place you need to spend this sum of money, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that this report is a great read. Julie has solid arguments and deep insights, and it behooves all of us to give a listen when we can.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

In addition to white papers and reports on behalf of MobileGroove thought leadership partners and clients, I have started work on a new mobile marketing resource that marks my first collaboration with the Mobile Marketing Association.

I am excited to research and write this definitive work — and I am opening the project up for YOUR input.

Put another way, I am open to your ideas and ‘on the lookout’ for solid case studies, robust business models and cool people/players (brands, agencies, solutions providers, subject matter experts) to include in the industry resource.

I can share more detail with you once we release the press release. In the meantime, I encourage you to contact me directly via email (peggy@msearchgroove.com) or Twitter (@peggyanne).

The next months will also see the release of a brand new Netsize Guide. The mobile industry analysis and almanac — which I have researched and written on behalf of Netsize, a Gemalto company, since 2007 — is in its 10th year.

Rather than summarize the year in mobile, this year’s Guide focuses on three areas of mobile that impact our lives, work and society at all level: the rise of mobile commerce, the evolution of digital life management and the supreme importance of trust and security.

This week I formally kicked of the project with in-depth interviews with senior execs at companies including Millennial Media — and next week will the project move up a gear. Alexander Vlasblom, Netsize Marketing Communications Director, and I have drafted a list of companies and authorities whose place in the Guide is assured — but there is always room for good ideas and great companies.

And finally, MobileGroove — formally MSearchGroove — is moving ahead with a new look and new features to welcome and showcase our great and growing line up of guest columnists and commentators, as well as make room for new Briefing Room partners.

A special and heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Alfred DeRose, Brian Avery and the great team at Tego Interactive, a Web and mobile product and services company providing development and integrated solutions for brands, content publishers and mobile operators.

From my first-hand experience working with Tego Interactive (for just over two years now) I can say that the team has proven to be a highly proficient and invaluable partner to MobileGroove. And beyond that — they just rock!

So, that is an overview of some of the exciting projects here at MobileGroove.  People who know me personally also know that I am always eager to learn what the industry is doing and get to know the companies that are doing it. I am also a multiplier who can find many outlets for what I  Therefore, I encourage you to keep up to date with developments (and projects) by following us on Twitter. And please feel free to reach out using the communications method you like best (Twitter, email and, yes, I also take voice calls).

Meet Paul Gelb of Razorfish, who redefines what it means to be bullish. (Disclosure: Razorfish is a Hipcricket client).

In an interview with Adweek, Paul, the agency’s mobile practice lead, was quoted as making the mother of all mobile predictions.  “I think mobile ad spend will overtake television,” he stated.

To put that into perspective, you need to know that a cool $131 billion was spent on television advertising in the U.S. alone last year. By comparison, JP Morgan predicts that mobile ad spend will reach about $1 billion in the U.S. in 2011.

The reasons for Paul’s optimism? He bases it on what he sees and knows about the industry. As he told Adweek (and has outlined in presentations), mobile is the first truly mass media.

Mobile beats TV on reach. Paul points out that there are over three times more mobile users than there are TV viewers. And mobile is the brand communication channel. Put another way, mobile is the most adopted technology and media channel in history with high engagement rates and 24-hour access to users.

What’s more, Paul believes that the rapid adoption of mobile is setting the stage for a dramatic shift in the advertising spend. “If you’d predicted then that smart phones could outsell PCs and that people would spend an hour a day on their phones, no one would have believed you,” he said.

And even if some remain disbelievers, the number of brands convinced of the power of mobile is on the rise. Driven by increased client budgets Razorfish’s mobile practice has grown to 45. “We can’t staff as quickly as we want,” Paul said.

How I See It: In the 12 years that I spent working in advertising and PR firms, I did not see agencies increase headcount if they didn’t have the client work to back it up. The agency model is to win business, then staff against it. I’m not privy to Razorfish’s mobile revenue, but I do know they are very active and certainly wouldn’t staff up wildly in the hopes of winning business.  As for Paul’s prediction, he certainly has good reason to believe mobile will be huge. I also know that mobile’s going to be big, but forecasting too far out is problematic for me.

* * *

More news that tells us brands are upbeat about mobile and putting their money into it. The International Advertising Bureau (IAB) — an organization that brings together more than 500 leading media and technology companies responsible for selling 86 percent of online advertising in the U.S. — released a study this week. The press release catches our attention with the provocative headline: Study Finds Nearly Three-Quarters of Top Marketing Executives Look to Increase Their Mobile Spend Over Next Two Years.

The study, based on a survey of 300 top-level brand marketing executives currently using mobile in their media mix, was commissioned by the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence and conducted by Ovum.

Among the findings:

• 63 percent of respondents stated that their companies’ mobile advertising spend over the past two years has increased
• 29 percent report an increase of over 50 percent
• 72 percent of these decision-makers say they are looking to increase their mobile advertising budget over the next 24 months
• 35 percent of respondents expect to increase spend by over 50 percent

Additionally, half (51 percent) of the brand marketers surveyed already treat mobile platforms as an integral element of their overall advertising strategy. The other half of the survey’s respondents are likewise intrigued by the benefits of mobile advertising, and are currently investigating how to best leverage mobile platforms within their marketing plans. Finally, more than a third (35 percent) of respondents stated they are “experimenting” with mobile, while another 14 percent are tapping into mobile on an ad hoc basis.

But its not all growth and excitement. Respondents were also queried about challenges. It turns out there are several hurdles that influence the decision to make larger mobile ad buys:

• Device fragmentation (cited by 72 percent of respondents as a challenge of medium or high importance)
• Privacy issues (70 percent)
• Lack of standardized metrics (69 percent)

How I See It: Are there really 28 percent of marketers who don’t expect to increase their mobile spend in the next two years? They obviously aren’t in Paul Gelb’s camp or on anybody’s bullish list. I was also surprised that only 35 percent of respondents expect to increase spend by more than 50 percent. Either way, the results underline the importance of education about mobile. Obviously more need to be convinced of mobile’s increased and central role in the marketing mix. A big step in this direction will come as we in the industry develop and discuss more ROI-driven mobile programs that make a real difference in a brand’s bottom line.

Peggy adds: Wonderful coincidence Jeff! I was also intrigued by Paul Gelb’s interview in Adweek and immediately connected for a more in-depth interview on MobileGroove. And speaking of interviews, the high point of my week was an audio interview with Ogilvy U.K. vice chairman Rory Sutherland. He pointed out that ad spend may not be the proper metric by which to judge the advance of mobile. Some campaigns (such as text messaging) don’t require huge spend — even though their impact is massive. We also discussed why mobile is already where the action is (and must be). Think context. Timely and ‘placely’ beat TV (and all other channels) every time…more in the two part podcast beginning later this month.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

In the last week, Groupon gave mobile users in select cities the option to receive relevant, on-the-go offers (via iPhone and Android apps or the mobile Web).

In an email to users, Groupon put it this way: “If you use a Groupon mobile app and you allow sharing through your device, Groupon may collect geo-location information from the device and use it for marketing deals to you.”

Fortunately, Groupon spelled it out for us. In addition, Groupon stated in the email that it might also collect other information (including relationship information, transaction information, financial account information and mobile location information) and share it with Expedia.

What about the consumer side of the equation? Groupon has said customers can control what is shared and collected with partners like Expedia by managing their email preferences and subscriptions through their account settings, or control  how cookies are handled by making similar adjustments to their browsers. Users can also stop their mobile devices from sharing location information with Groupon by adjusting the privacy settings on their phones.

Finally, and most importantly, users can click links contained within Groupon’s privacy policy to opt out of being targeted by certain third-party advertising companies altogether.

How I See It: I’ve been vocal about the irrelevance of many Groupon offers, pointing to the similarities between the deals I get and outright spam. (Interestingly, I am not alone in my criticism of Groupon’s approach. Lisa Ciangiulli, a board member of the Mobile Marketing Association, has also argued on MobileGroove that Groupon has been walking a thin line between exciting us with bargains and annoying us with spam). Groupon must have read our rants because its Groupon Now offer represents a step in the right direction — and just in time for the initial public offering Bloomberg tells us could give Groupon a market value of up to $30 billion. So, Groupon should be congratulated for being so transparent with Groupon Now. Some users will choose to participate, and others will opt out rather than divulge personal information in return for a deal. As for me, I’ll take the relevant offers every time. Interestingly, I do that already by simply opting in to the loyalty clubs run by my favorite brands.

***

Facebook has been front and center in the news lately following its video chat announcement and the launch of its so-called “Facebook for Every Phone” app.

Its video chat offering (via a partnership with Skype) is online only. There is no mobile component – yet. The offering is noteworthy because of its ease of use. Soon all Facebook members can initiate a chat with other members right from their Facebook pages. Among other things, it will close the distance between families and bring in older demographics.

And then there is the Facebook app, a development that shows Facebook’s serious interest in attracting feature phone owners (a strategy I have written about on MobileGroove and elsewhere). This week, Facebook launched the app, which it says offers a fast and comprehensive Facebook experience on over 2,500 different phones.

According to Facebook, the app “not only includes Facebook’s most popular features, such as News Feed, Inbox, and Photos, but also enables you to upload photos and find friends from your phone’s contacts.” What’s more, people all over the world can download the app (also available in leading app stores) by visiting m.facebook.com and scrolling down to the download link, or by entering d.facebook.com to install directly into their mobile browser.

How I See It: The video chat offering is important because it is sure to accelerate the adoption of video chat – period. And, if just a small percentage of Facebook’s 750 million users participate and use the service, the impact will be meaningful. I was disappointed (but not surprised) by the lack of a mobile component to the service. Mobile operators everywhere earn billions of dollars on calls and are obviously resistant to products and services that threaten their money flow. As for the app, I’m on record as saying the convergence of mobile and social is here (NOW), and bigger than many would like to believe. Facebook’s newest move validates the convergence of mobile and social and – more importantly — gives the phenomenon global scale.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

Tomi Ahonen is in rare form this month with a deliciously disruptive post dripping with sarcasm. It would be a great laugh if it was only fiction. But this quiz, which tests our ability to run Nokia into the ground (as it appears Microsoft and Stephen Elop are doing as we speak), is based on keen observations from a long-time Nokia watcher (and former employee).

A sample question: You hear that your reseller chain – the mobile operators/carriers – has gone into sales boycott because of one decision made by your company. Do you:

a - apologize in public and reverse that one decision which is causing your resellers to boycott your products or

b – announce your support of a series of new technologies that the carriers specifically hate, to really infuriate them, like Dual SIM phones and Skype

Is Tomi’s post sarcasm, hard truth, or a merely a product of his caffeine-induced all-night blogging routine?  Take the quiz and let us know how YOU rate.

***

James Coops at MobyAffiliates walks us through the fast-paced mobile advertising space and introduces us to some upstart startup mobile ad networks rising up the ranks. The company profiles provide valuable market intel — and support James’ core argument. Innovation in mobile advertising is happening on the fringe — and being driven by nimble newcomers, not just market giants like AdMob (Google).

***

Our dear Antoine RJ Wright is back this month with a post that suggests a UX rethink when it comes to our number one mobile device activity: taking pictures. Antoine correctly points out that mobile devices allow us to act on impulse and inspiration. Snap and capture is a big part of what we do, so should devices provide a ’shortcut button’ of sorts that allows us to take spur-of-the-moment pictures? Check out his post, and speak your mind.

***

Judy Breck (lead blogger over at Smart Mobs) calls our attention to the rise of online listening rooms in a succinct  post that summarizes a recent Wired article. Listening to music may have been a pastime that isolated us (requiring us to plug our earbuds/headsets into an array of gadgets), but social changes all the rules. Now we can come out of our cocoons and experience music in a whole new way.

***

Alex Franks over at Blyk joins the COM for the first time (welcome!) to share his views on where mobile advertising is — and what’s needed to move the dial on spend. To drive his point home Alex draws from a variety of reports and observations from the recent Media Playground 2011 event in London. It’s a solid summary post and convinces us that makes a strong case for mobile advertising growth and excitement. In the words of Alex: ‘Viva la Revolution!’ (Disclosure: Blyk was an event sponsor and spoke on the mobile advertising expert panel.)

***

We also welcome Nan Hickman over at Open Strategies. The post, which walks us through the recent Apple developer conference (WWDC), hones in on the iCloud announcement and what it really means for Apple (and us). Nan’s take: “By pushing the content to the cloud, Apple not only strengthens its ecosystem usability experience, but creates future monetization schemes for storage and, probably ultimately, future data mining of what content people have and who they know and what context are they in.”

***

Richard Monson-Haefel over at Ambient Consulting weighs in with a pair of posts focused on what flies (and fails) in mobility solutions. In his first post, titled Which way to go? iOS, Android, or Windows Phone 7?, Richard cautions us against getting too caught up in the debate on operating systems. Instead, we should focus on the ‘big picture’ and consider that the dominant operating system could be ‘none of the above’. (It has happened before. Remember when BREW was the tough kid on the block?) It’s a serious piece backed by facts, so well worth a read.

Richard’s other post, Cross-Platform Mobile Solutions Are Bad, argues just that. In his view, resident cross-platform solutions – applications that are installed on the device – as opposed to mobile Web applications that run in a mobile browser are tempting. But there is a lot that speaks in favor of a strategy that focuses squarely on native development and mobile Web.

***

Martin Wilson over at Mobileweb Company draws from recent industry reports and surveys to map out the opportunities in the emerging mobile retail/commerce space. How can retailers really deliver value via mobile? Martin tells brands and shops what to consider (and demand) when developing a mobile presence.

***

MobileGroove deep dives into Mobile Intel: Retail, a mobile intelligence report that draws from Millennial Media network data (data that was accumulated across 67 billion mobile impressions in 250 countries and territories) and consumer research conducted by comScore. The report is chock-full of valuable data that helps brands identify key mobile retail opportunities and engage with the growing audience of mobile retail users, the segment of consumers using their mobile devices to research and purchase goods and services. A surprise finding: mobile retail not just about promotion (being front and center when people are considering products). It’s about transaction (triggering the actual purchase decision).  A big reason why companies should grasp the mobile retail opportunity with both hands.

***

Andy Favell over at mobiThinking (a must-read source of information about all aspects of mobile and mobile marketing) connects the dots in recent developments to provide us an up-to-date look at NFC (Near Field Communications) progress worldwide. Find out where contactless payments are gathering traction (and why). Kudos to Andy for a piece that gives us a crash course in an area of mobile payments sure to be top of the business agenda for many quarters to come.

***

Ajit Jaokar over at Open Gardens does us all a service by providing us an expertly curated list of Mobile Web influencers. Ajit worked together with Daniel Appelquist (@torgo) to develop the list, which I’m pleased to say includes many veteran Mobilists and COM contributors (@mtrends Rudy De Waele, @russellbuckley Russell Buckley, @eortiz Enrique Ortiz and @yeswap Dennis Bournique — to name a few). Altogether, it’s a great list — even though some comments correctly point out Ajit should expand the scope to include global industry experts and leading women in mobile. I caught up with Ajit today and he assures me the list is “evolving,” so we should continue to check back. Ajit also gets my vote for ‘pick of the month’ for this post. Well done, Ajit!!

The complete list of Mobile Web Influencers.

And finally…

Coldbeans software from Russia joins the COM and takes the wraps off a Twitter mashup allowing developers to create their own Twitter bots.

Thanks to everyone for contributing!

The COM will be back again next month (August) with a roundup of the best blogs posted in July, so check the schedule for the next COM host (or sign up to host a CO at your own website). In the meantime, remember ANYONE ANYWHERE can submit their best blog to the COM for consideration. And, if your post didn’t make this lineup of blogs, then I hope you will try again next month.

***

Aircel gets high marks for understanding and responding to the requirements of its user base. With some 54 million customers — 34 percent of them in the 16-29 age bracket — a permission-based, youth-centric service focused on delivering relevant advertising about trendy brands makes business sense.

To make the most of this opportunity Aircel’s service (branded ‘Blyk on Aircel’) focuses on the 16-29 age bracket. Advertising categories include: entertainment, sports, lifestyle, travel, fashion, wellness and tech gadgets, as well as local events, dating & relationships tips, comics and careers advice.

I caught up with Blyk Country Manager Shubhodip (Shubho) Pal to discuss Blyk (which describes itself as a “mobile media that works with operators to link young people with brands and other stuff they like”) and key learnings from the Indian market.

40+ mobile campaigns

To date over 40 mobile marketing campaigns have been delivered via Blyk on Aircel by major brands including: Bausch & Lomb, Apple, Perfetti, Levis, Make my Trip, Samsung, Bajaj Pulsar, Coca Cola, Smirnoff, Red Bull, Bacardi, Fastrack, Diesel and Nokia — to name a few.

The average response rate for campaigns is 27 percent. But there are notable exceptions such as Perfetti, which reported response rates of 41 percent to the first SMS followed by MMS reply for its campaign. The campaign was aimed at creating awareness and excitement around its new brand “Center Fresh”. In India Perfetti is one of the few brands harnessing cross-media, combining traditional media (TV, radio, outdoor) and mobile to reach out to their audience.  Another top response rate comes from Apple, which reported response rates of 55 percent to the first SMS for its campaign advertising the Nano Touch iPod.

According to Shubho, the high response rates are the norm because the opt-in service leverages texting — the “most dominant and everyday behavior of youth”- to enable people to “communicate with brands in the same way they do with everyone else.”

What brands inspire this close interaction? Overall, users favor popular brands and consumer-focused products, Shubho says. But there is also a significant audience eager to receive advertising related to local content and happenings. Interestingly, MMS (picture messaging) is also proving more effective than SMS at generating response and brand interaction from end-users.

India, like most developing markets, is country where spam is a concern. How does Blyk handle the issue? Shubho says the “Blyk ecosystem” nips the problem in the bud. “When a member [user] is enrolled into the Blyk ecosystem, the member is automatically placed on a DND [Do Not Call/Disturb Directory of India] list on Aircel. They therefore only receive messages from Blyk or from Aircel. So far, we have not received complaints about unwanted messages being delivered to members’ handsets.”

Content partnerships & stickiness

Where there is youth, Shubho says, “there must be Blyk.” With this in mind the company has purposely refined its strategy to deliver content (not just the advertising) youth will likely appreciate. A smart move since surveys show that exclusive content (allowing users to be part of an ‘in-group’ that gets the newest news first) is an effective incentive to encourage youth to opt-in (and stay opted-in).

An example of this is the Wills India Fashion week, the must-attend fashion event for the country. Seeing a connection between the content and the audience demographics, Blyk entered into a strategic partnership with organizers and became the exclusive content partner for delivery over mobile and Internet. (Live streaming was available via the Facebook pages belonging to both Blyk and Aircel.)

The partnership provided Blyk access to a repository of pictures, videos and sound bytes, content it delivered to users as a perk to encourage loyalty (among existing customers) and sign-ups (to recruit new customers).

According to Shubho, the effort was a success, allowing Blyk (a company that relies heavily on peer-to-peer recommendations and member-get -member schemes to grow its user base) to build on its social media properties. Among the results: a 500-percent increase in the number of fans on the Blyk India Facebook page, and almost 20,000 hits on the streamed fashion coverage sponsored by Blyk.

Interestingly, it is this “stickiness” that has convinced Aircel to use the service to do more than just monetize the mobile operator’s opted-in inventory. Blyk on Aircel is also increasingly viewed as a means to combat churn, a strategic goal that Aircel COO Gurdeep Singh outlined in a recent interview with Telecoms.com.

As Singh put it in the interview: “What’s most interesting for us is that, in a hyper-competitive market like India, this can really act as a differentiation and retention tool.” He adds: “There are 14 operators in this market and churn is very high; 90 days after acquisition we retain just a little over 60 percent of new customers. But with Blyk our retention level moves up to 89 percent.”

Undefining youth

In India youth want — even demand — interactivity with brands they like. But there is a catch. To be effective “the emphasis need to be on context over content.” It’s not who they are or where they are that matters, Shubho explains. “What matters is the context: what they are up to.”

What do advertisers need to understand about youth and how can they avoid premature segmentation and generalization? Blyk India learned some lessons since its launch in 2010 that apply to mobile marketing (and particularly permission-marketing) strategies across all markets.

“Youth around the world are similar,” Shubho notes. Effective marketing messages are delivered in tune with what really moves mobile youth. “When brands talk with youth the first thing they do is try to define them. However, the attempt to pigeon-hole youth is patently wrong. “You have to undefine youth to reach them.”

(Editor’s note: How can/should marketers undefine this demographic? Why should brands engage in “open marketing” and harness a permission-marketing approach to explore what youth really wants and thinks. Blyk co-founder Antti Öhrling will address these and other key questions in a guest column next month.)

Four Qs with Blyk India’s Shubhodip Pal

MG: You count over one million users of Blyk on Aircel. What is driving the youth interest in your offer and how do you intend to grow the audience?

Shubho: At Blyk, we believe in relevance in advertising. Our technology detects patterns within messages, rather than looking directly at the text itself. Thus we can detect patterns within messages and users’ response to it, an analysis of responses that is highly useful and helps us send only relevant content to our members. This way the messages are welcomed by youth, not dismissed as spam. We count campaigns with over 40 brands so far, and many repeat spends. We understand that the most important principle of mobile advertising in India — and everywhere — is about respecting the wishes of individuals and providing them services that provide value.

MG: Blyk on Aircel has attracted interest (and users) by employing a variety of strategies. At one end, Blyk itself has been active building a brand and providing exclusive content around India’s top fashion show, for example. At the other end, you have run over 40 mobile ad campaigns. Based on your experience in India, what incentives really work with youth?

Shubho: Our experience in India has been similar to our experience in other countries. One exception: MMS – or multimedia content – works better in India. That’s contrary to the trend in the West, and mainly due the SMS spam backlash in India. Overall, Indian youth are hungry for content and their appetite for rich, vibrant content is insatiable. The demand for multimedia content – video, audio, images – is huge, which is one reason why India is also among the top 10 countries in YouTube usage. On our platform we see that video-based campaigns score the highest. Nearly two-thirds of the campaigns we do are around TV commercials, great engaging and entertaining content to send out to the users. At the same time, our emphasis on profiling has been paying off, with niche, targeted campaigns delivering phenomenal results. Our MMS capability also allows us to create great experiences and send videos about how to mix a cocktail in the case of the Bacardi campaign, for example. Finally, Indian youth want to be heard and express themselves. Hence, our user-generated content campaigns — where the incentive is a chance to get featured on the [Aircel] network and be seen as a youth idol — have also been drawing in responses by the thousands.

MG: Overall, what is the current state of the mobile advertising opportunity in India and where do you see the growth?

Shubho: The Indian mobile advertising market experienced an annual growth of 217 percent in 2010. This is compared to 93 percent growth in global mobile advertising traffic and is expected to reach $4 billion in 2015. This clearly suggests a huge potential for mobile advertising in India, but mobile marketing has not yet started to yield maximum results. Part of the hold-up is linked to the serious SMS spam issue. The need of the hour in mobile advertising in Indian market is for focused technology and innovation that can deliver relevant advertising according to customers’ explicit segmentation – through opt-in — and usage pattern analytics. This is where permission-marketing can undo the damage spam has done. It has been six months since we introduced Blyk in India and see a growing trend among youth mobile users. They want more features and more useful information at their fingertips and on-the-go. I expect this appetite for information — and useful information from brands in particular — to continue as smartphone penetration in India — and everywhere — climbs. Global smartphone penetration is forecast to reach 22 percent, with the number of users in India growing doubling to 4 million, up from 2 million in 2009.

MG: Blyk describes itself as a “messaging media that links young people with brands and stuff they like.” This is a rather unique way of seeing your role in the mobile advertising space. What makes Blyk a media and what is driving your company in that direction?

Shubho: Blyk takes a different view. We know from our experience in the field that the most profitable form of mobile advertising is one that encourages a dialog and enables an engaging media experience. This has helped us build a long-term relationship based on mutual trust with our members. We don’t believe in just sending advertising, but rather on creating a conversation with our members based around the topics and brands they find interesting. The Blyk Media experience is personal and valuable based on content that is more informative and insightful for our audiences, which is why response rates are so high. In fact, our members look forward to receiving messages from Blyk.

My take:

India is a perfect market for permission-marketing and a youth-centric service like Blyk. It has the demographics (in India over half of the population, which is approaching 1.2 billion in total, is under 40 years of age). And it has the attitude. The backlash against over-spamming plays in favor of approaches that harness opt-in to deliver people advertising they will likely appreciate. Blyk on Aircel counts one million opted-in users and reports impressive campaign response rates – data points that prove the effectiveness of its approach to permission marketing. But it’s not only the concept that delivers. The anti-advertising and anti-segmentation mindset (part of Blyk’s overall strategy to undefine youth) is intriguing – and fits with the requirement  — even the demand — of people to get more involved in the products, services, content (everything) they use/enjoy. It is inspiring to see that the ideas put forth by one of my favorite thinkers and interview partners (Eric von Hippel, author of Democratizing Innovation, head of the Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and THE authority on how and why brands must empower their lead users) are finding their way into mobile marketing strategy.

Disclaimer: Blyk is a MobileGroove supporter.

Seth Godin

At a terrific three-hour workshop I attended recently, I asked Godin for his views on how mobile has changed – and will continue to change – marketing.

“With mobile, advertisers are trying for the masses,” he told me and the others in a packed hall in Seattle. “But it’s really about what I [as an individual] want. We need to have advertisers see how talking to 20 people or even just one person matters. We’re not there yet.”

Perhaps Godin is most famous for his views on building “tribes” of passionate people who support a business, idea or cause. It begins with asking for permission, as Godin has written.

“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them,” he believes. “It recognizes the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing. It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.”

In Seattle, Godin expanded on the idea during the workshop.

“One of the biggest mistakes people make is believing that bigger tribes are better than smaller tribes,” he said. “The goal is to find more music for my listeners, not more listeners for my music.”

How I See It: I was surprised that mobile was just a footnote to the discussion. I believe this was due, in part, to the fact that traditional marketers, not new media marketers appeared to account for the largest share of the attendees. Godin sees trends before most of us do – but when it comes to mobile and its impact on marketing (and everything) – I miss hearing more from him. In the meantime, the best way to stay current with Godin is to subscribe to his popular blog – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

* * *

Twitter tells us that a record number of tweets were sent during a fateful natural disaster. On March 11, the day Japan was hit by an earthquake and later a tsunami, the volume of tweets sent per second spiked to more than 5,000 on five separate occasions, commenting the quake and the aftermath of the tsunami. Many of the tweets were sent via mobile, although Twitter doesn’t give us the precise breakdown of mobile vs. PC.

The numbers are phenomenal. But they also call us to question whether tweets are news reports.

At the recent 140 Characters Conference in New York City, where I also spoke, we heard from two media authorities who have interesting (if not controversial) views on Twitter and on-location reporting.

Dan Gilmoor (@dangilmoor) — a 25-year newspaper veteran and head of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, a new project of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication at Arizona State University — told us not to believe every thing we read.

On Twitter and “news”, he said. “Take a breath. Be skeptical.” What’s more, Gilmoor said there’s a “credibility scale” to consider when it comes to what we read. An anonymous blog is at the low end.

“Time adds depth and context. I’ll tweet, ‘interesting if true’,” Gilmoor added.

Andy Carvin (@acarvin) – senior strategist for National Public Radio, who broke news during the civil uprisings in Tunisia, Cairo and elsewhere — told us Twitter has become part of the mix.

“People used the Twitter channel to send photos and videos captured by mobile. We saw live streams of people getting arrested.”

But it’s not just about people in the street reporting. Proper journalists also have to follow suit. “You need to be on Twitter now so people trust you and you can trust them.”

How I See It: Are observers who tweet what they see or experience news reporters? It’s an important question to ask, and one I examined in a blog I wrote on a related subject on the same awful day in January that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Arizona. There, in a post I purposely titled The Danger of Getting Our ‘News’ on Twitter I outlined the shift in how news is reported — and the consequences. While I’m old enough to remember getting my daily dose of news from Walter Cronkite, I now learn about world events from our fellow tweeps (whom I now refer to as “@fillintheblank”). And, as I wrote in my post, @fillintheblank (increasingly our source of news) hardly has the gray hair, much less the resume, to warrant the job. (Yes, there was a time when only older, experienced journalists and correspondents brought us the news.) The advance of Twitter (and the fact it empowers any @fillintheblank to ‘report’ from the scene) raises some serious questions: Does Twitter pressure journalists (or an eyewitness acting as one) to oversimplify or rush to judgment in order to pump out news in 140 characters? And who’s a journalist anyway? To be fair, there was great value in the tweets that came from Bahrain sent by Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner (@NickKristof). But Twitter also let’s anyone (this includes people with agendas, individuals with a disregard for the truth and tweeps too lazy or short of time to check the facts) to be an iReporter, iWitness or iKnowItAll and spread their news and views faster than we can verify their credibility. Suffice it to say that each of us with a voice that can be heard – and that means everyone with a Twitter account, blog, Facebook page, etc. should think before pushing the send button. You never signed up for that task, you say? Tough. It’s our responsibility to be responsible because these tools amplify our impact.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

* * *

With over one billion people and a voracious appetite for mobile content and information of all kinds, Africa is more than a market poised for explosive growth in mobile marketing and communications. It is also a sandbox for innovation and approaches that get amazing mileage out of ordinary feature phones and simple text messaging.

Currently, countries including South Africa, Ghana, Gabon and Kenya count nearly as many SIM cards as people, and the rest of Africa is catching up. Analysts reckon this rapid penetration paves the way for every single person in Africa to own a mobile device by 2020. Granted, the vast majority of people own low-end phones, but figures show that browser use is also creeping up as more people purchase high-end phones to explore and experience the mobile Internet.

Notably, Android handsets are gaining traction as smartphone prices come down. Safaricom in Kenya, for example, has introduced a sub-$100 Android phone that has also become their best-selling phone, beating out even more basic handsets. The trend is expected to continue since Asian handset manufacturers — specifically Chinese brands — are gaining on more established players like Nokia, and driving handset innovation in the region.

As a result, campaigns are designed to appeal to two distinct audiences: mobile websites for people with Internet-capable phones and text messaging via both SMS and USSD for everyone else. USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data), a cousin of text messaging, is a technology used by the network to send information (usually text menus) between a mobile phone and an application on the network. USSD allows users to request information in short codes (starting with * and ending with #), or menus from the network during the session, making it an way for mobile operators (and increasingly brands) to engage in a two-way exchange with users — without latency or any additional charge to the consumer.

“There is very little MMS use,” Jonathan observes. “There is an enormous population of people relying on SMS and a growing number of people surfing the Net using their mobile phones because that is the primary access to the Internet.”

How are brands responding? According to Jonathan, they harness SMS to deliver most marketing messages and they bypass the [desktop] Internet wherever possible. “We are seeing brands completely and exclusively focus on mobi sites now, rather than on having Internet websites, because mobile is where the users are.”

Local mobile etiquette

After working on dozens of mobile campaigns across the African continent, Jonathan and his team have learned first-hand what works and what fails in local markets.

And local is the word to remember here since adapting mobile marketing campaigns to the local language is key to success. “South Africa has 11 official languages. Nigeria has 200 languages, and not even a fraction of them are official,” Jonathan explains. “There needs to be some sensitivity in this area because when consumers are dealing with brands, they don’t like to feel that brands are an outsider entity that doesn’t live in their market or know their language.” It’s important for brands to “be careful that their tone is appropriate.”

In addition, brands have to be straightforward in their communications, laying out the terms and conditions of contests and campaigns and making sure the offer is understandable and transparent. In this environment, Jonathan stresses, opt-in is the only mobile marketing approach that works — both practically and ethically.

Accessible, affordable & relevant

Africa is also a price-sensitive market where brands must be careful not to waste people’s time or money. “The focus on any marketing effort or any mobile service project in Africa has to be to make the cost to the end-consumer as low as possible.”

For advertisers this means finding effective ways to engage people, a requirement that plays in favor of SMS.

But it’s not just cost. Text messaging allows brands to get real scale. “Scale has always been the problem in Africa, and scale is what mobile is really helping us to do,” Jonathan observes. “Achieving scale is what mobile devices are helping us to actually do for the first time.” With incredibly low TV penetration, a fractured radio audience and logistical challenges which hamper the distribution of outdoor and point of sales (POS) material, mobile phones are quickly becoming the most widespread and universal media in Africa.

Campaigns also need to be simple and straightforward, a requirement that presents marketers with significant “UX challenges.” For one, navigation has to be simple, uncluttered and intuitive. Brands also have to explain why people should interact with the ad in the first place.

“Asking someone to click to go to another page is a big ask for an African consumer because any new data they load costs them money, money that they’re not really going to be willing to pay without some idea of what’s being offered.” For this reason, Praekelt is careful to be clear about each interaction. “Marketers need to be very clear in their links… and we often accompany the links with blurbs to clarify exactly what would be gained from clicking from one page to another,” Jonathan explains. “You also need to design things in a way to keep the data load of every single page as low as possible.”

Finally, brands must keep their word — and show it. This means showcasing the winners of a competition, for example, or providing immediate feedback. Creating credibility is the issue. “African consumers don’t take anything for granted,” Jonathan points out. “Despite their propensity to engage, despite their enthusiasm, they’re not fools by any means, so we have to be very clear at every stage of our campaigns what we’re doing.”

Creating (and keeping) brand affinity

Africa, like many developing markets, is plagued by spam, a situation that has opened the door wide to permission based marketing approaches. “We observe that African consumers are far more likely to opt-in, which is why opt-in rates for campaigns tend to be much higher.” Depending on the brand, Jonathan reports, campaigns are “seeing opt-ins as high as 87 percent.”

African consumers are also far more likely to engage with digital content, and that includes content offered as part of a mobile marketing campaign. “Overall we see much higher stickiness in Africa than we do elsewhere.”

But Africa is also a market with its share of challenges.

Natural disasters and other events can upset distribution channels for weeks and months, creating shortages of product and making it tough for brands to keep customers loyal. In some cases, a factory or brewery will not be able to generate enough product to get into market, which means a region may not have stock of your product for weeks. When that’s the case, Jonathan says, conversational marketing is a must.

This exchange can start off with a free sample (a reward connected with a text campaign linked to product displays, for example) or other approaches that reach out to the consumer and ask permission before engaging. “The opt-in, incentivized by a reward like a free sample, starts the conversation, Jonathan says. “The challenge for every marketer after that point is to create enough brand affinity through a dialog to convince consumers over mobile to choose your product, even if it isn’t always available.”

Educating consumers

Mobile doesn’t only help brands stay top of mind; it also allows them to deliver vital information in spurts people can understand and appreciate.

A prime example is Unilever, a consumer brand that is working with Praekelt to communicate the health benefits of its hand wash products. In South Africa infant diarrhoea is the number one cause of infant mortality,  and the number one cause of infant diarrhoea is poor hygiene on the part of the people who were caring for these infants. Against this backdrop, Unilever aims to deliver much more than mere advertising. “The campaign for the product will make a kind of educational, low-cost information resource available to mothers and care givers,” Jonathan says.

At the other end of the spectrum, brands are increasingly harnessing an ongoing and educational approach (delivered primarily via text messages) to explain their product benefits to people who may have never used them before.

Praekelt is currently working with a client to launch an antiperspirant deodorant in Kenya.  The focus of the mobile media campaign is to educate consumers about the product, Jonathan explains. “Part of this is educating consumers as to why they should be interested in antiperspirants at all because most Kenyan women are satisfied with bathing and/or using perfume.” To ensure the product introduction covers all the bases Praekelt is making use of a wide variety of mobile interactions. These include directing people to mobi sites and asking them send a message to a short code number on pack and at the point of sale.

Sustainable and ongoing

Regardless of what the brand wants to achieve, Jonathan is convinced the campaign has to be relevant and ongoing. “With every single campaign, we are looking to attract consumers, to involve them and then to sustain an ongoing relationship with them,” Jonathan says.

Take a campaign where consumers are asked to text in a unique code found under the cap of their bottle of Guinness beer, for example.

“That’s only the first stage in the relationship, and that’s the opt-in that we require in that case. Once that interaction starts, there is immediately a push back with some mobile content that the consumer might enjoy, such as ringtones, wallpapers, fun facts, trivia, and so on. With every new interaction the brand builds up a picture of that consumer and they get to know what they are interested in, what they like, how old they are, and where they live.” At the end of a series of interactions the foundation is laid for a “more long-term relationship.”

Participation marketing & more

Where is the growth (and excitement) in the African market? Jonathan has a close watch on the opportunities at the intersection of conversational marketing and sampling.

In practice mobile marketing campaigns – delivered via text messaging or through  interaction with a physical store display – would encourage consumers to engage in more than an ongoing conversation; they would reward consumers with unique codes (delivered to their phones) that could be redeemed for sample products at pre-defined outlets.

The eagerness of people to connect with brands doesn’t only pave the way for more “participatory” approaches to mobile marketing. Jonathan expects this appetite for experiences will also impact the nature of the mobile Internet.  “It [the mobile Internet] will not be an Internet like we know it elsewhere because people [in Africa] will be far more engaged with the services available to them. They will have interactions with brands that we wouldn’t have in the developed world because consumers there crave these experiences.”

What does Jonathan see moving forward?

“I think you’re going to see a massive wave of participation-led mobile campaigns in Africa over the next two years.” One driver will be the people — an the other will be a change in mindset. The hold-up has been that brands and agencies don’t understand the spend and effort that is required to support a mobile campaign. “They may think that they just have to slap a URL or  a Facebook icon on to the ad or billboard. But by far the most cost effective and efficient way to approach mobile advertising is to engage through the mobile media itself, which means messaging – either alone or in combination with mobile banners or material at the point of purchase.”

My take:

Clearly, Africa is a market posed for explosive growth. But it’s not just the numbers that make this region a must for brands. It’s also the interest (passion) of people there to communicate with companies not once — but many times — on their mobile phones. Thus, as Jonathan points out, Africa will likely see a wave of participation marketing where users (eager to engage with brands on their phones) expect (even demand) frequent interactions with brands — conversations that are frank, relevant and permission-based.

Editor’s note: It is always a delight to connect with Jonathan, who is an authority on mobile marketing in developed markets. I am pleased to report that Jonathan will also be back on MobileGroove for a series of in-depth articles and podcasts looking at mobile marketing case studies and use cases in Africa. So watch this space!

Disclaimer: News and views across the mobile marketing ecosystem is sponsored by Optism, an MG client and supporter.

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A recent report from Wireless Intelligence reveals that ARPU across the 27 European Union countries has dropped by a staggering 20 percent over the last three years — and the decline continues. While prices for voice calls continue to fall, consumer demand for data usage—most notably video—is on the rise. But it’s hardly a reason for mobile operators to break out the champagne, since delivering data and video requires them to make significant investments in their network capabilities.

The bottom line: If you’re a mobile operator, you need to grow your revenues. You have two options: attract more customers from rival operators, or wring more value from your existing customers.

Campaigning to acquire new customers involves taking significant risks, and it doesn’t always deliver results. It is a costly business, requiring operators to spend on advertising and media campaigns in press, online and TV outlets in a bid to target potential customers, and offer new tariffs and prices to those customers to sweeten the deal.

Moreover, ad campaigns and hard-sales pitches can backfire, particularly if the consumers feel they are being inundated with blanket advertising they find neither relevant, nor interesting.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The mobile operator already owns an alternative – the mobile channel. Now they just have to learn to use it.

The mobile channel has two advantages:

It’s cost-effective. Operators have to pay to deliver their marketing message to consumers via TV, radio, Internet, and outdoor. But they can deliver their mobile subscribers ads (via text messaging) free of charge.

It’s personal. Reams of reports and surveys show consumers trust mobile communications from their operators. It’s a close relationship the mobile operator owns and can deepen through targeted text advertising.

Many mobile operators are turning to mobile marketing to connect with their existing consumers, with the aim of cross-selling or up-selling users additional telecom services such as data and video. But, in a space notorious for customer churn, the question remains: How can mobile operators market their services most effectively to their customers – without alienating them?

What the people want (and how)

The good news is that the recent Upstream Mobile Marketing Consumer Attitudes Report confirms the close (and in many ways untapped) relationship mobile operators have with their users.

Based on a survey of 2,198 U.K. adults the report revealed that over half (59 percent) of consumers are happy to be contacted by their operator with relevant offers (not generic advertising). Notably, 15 percent of respondents said they would welcome personalized suggestions for plan upgrades, and 13 percent would like to receive advertising about discounts aligned with their actual usage and requirements.

But these findings should not be read by mobile operators as a green light to deliver their users a deluge of marketing messages. The report found that the majority (38 percent) of customers will not tolerate more than one promotional message from their operator per month. An almost equal number (31 percent) said they would accept even less. Interestingly, these findings are further supported by Upstream’s own campaign experience with mobile operators in more than 40 countries.

How do consumers want to be contacted by mobile operators?

The most popular format was text message (61 percent), and 51 percent said that they would like to be informed about new offers and services within the normal flow of SMS messages that they already receive from their mobile operators. Specifically, respondents would welcome mobile marketing messages as part of  top-up confirmations (9 percent), missed call and voicemail alerts (8 percent), balance updates (7 percent) and roaming notifications (7 percent).

The right stuff

But combine these regular communications with a deep understanding of the customer (which mobile operators have), and operators can provide their users an offer they literally can’t resist.

Imagine the power and effectiveness of a personalized (targeted) marketing message that pairs an account balance notification with an offer based on the user’s own unique usage and requirements. For example, a special offer targeted to a frequent traveler, might suggest the customer change to a contract offering a portion of free international minutes. Alternatively, an offer attached to a balance alert sent out to a prolific user of text messages might promote a text message ‘bolt-on’ (a cut price monthly message allocation).

And don’t think making a match is hard for mobile operators. They have the trust of their users and, more importantly, a de facto opted-in audience for their marketing messages. Put another way, these marketing messages, which arrive as part of the regular communication flow, are relevant from the get-go because they are aligned with data the mobile operator already owns. This includes the customer profile and personal preferences (information mobile operators glean from data such as mobile usage, billing records and browsing behavior, for example).

Thus, mobile operators have the edge over third-parties. They cover all the bases to deliver highly targeted advertising to the right (and opted-in)demographic.

Opportunity knocks

At Upstream, we estimate that a mobile operator has an average of five interactions per month with their customer base, delivering text messages that feature information such as top-up or balance notifications.

With five billion mobile phone subscribers globally that is equal to a whopping 25 billion (!) opportunities for mobile operators to connect with their users, communications that could be harnessed to deliver targeted and personalized offers consumers are sure to appreciate (because they are aligned with their profiles and preferences in the first place).

Do the math, and that’s an untapped opportunity to deliver relevant advertising that dwarfs even Google. Google typically delivers click-through rates of 0.1 percent. Mobile operators up-selling and cross-selling their own products through the delivery of highly personalized messages report double-digit response rates of up to 20 percent.

But the real secret to achieving high response rates is not the deal; it’s the context in which it is delivered.

Put another way, while good deals and great offers can result in increased response rates and consumer participation, these marketing messages are most effective when they are delivered in context and at the right frequency. Consumers trust their operator, and that gives operators a huge advantage over the competition. But, if operators squander that trust through over-promoting services and spamming their customers, then they will quickly see that trust and revenue eroded. Context is king.

About Alex

Αlex Vratskides is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Upstream.  As CEO, Alex is responsible for all global operations, including sales and marketing, product development and spearheading Upstream’s international expansion by building relationships with blue-chip mobile operators in Europe and the Americas. Alex began his career designing algorithms and systems for traffic forecasting and route optimization for United Airlines. He went on to join OC&C/McKenna (Boston, MA) becoming a management consultant in the areas of marketing strategy for software and telecommunications companies, before founding Upstream in 2000. Alex has overseen Upstream’s growth from its first client, Capital FM, to the relocation of the head office to London from Athens.

MobileGroove welcomes guest columns. Lend your voice to MobileGroove and reach a loyal and influential audience of 20,000+ mobile professionals and practitioners. Email us to find out more.

First, my report on the MMA event, which offered the audience of 700+ attendees a mix of introductory content and advanced material. There were many highlights although some sessions covered well-traveled ground and were targeted to those new to mobile. The buzz centered on smartphones, location-based services, privacy, and the spirited and ongoing apps vs. the mobile Web debate.

Some memorable moments:

• Mobile ads are expected to generate around $3.3 billion worldwide this year, according to Gartner.
• Coca-Cola displayed a vending machine that lets us pay using SMS – not money.  ”What we’re seeing in a couple of use cases is that this increases purchasing frequency,” a Coke executive told us. “Because the consumer doesn’t have to carry around coinage to purchase, it is easier and faster. We think that it will not cannibalize currency sales in the same machine. Any time you take friction out of the system, you increase frequency.”
• Microsoft reported that consumers engage with mobile 13 hours a week.
• Mobile video usage is on the rise with 20 percent of U.S. users watching a video on their smartphone at least once daily, according to Google
• · Live Nation president Russell Wallach gave data to back up the claim that mobile provides the “perfect storm” for concerts. In his view, mobile is the glue for commerce, content and community at the venue. Do the numbers to back it up? It sure looks like it. Mobile interaction at concerts: 47 percent text or email; 66 percent take photos and 32 percent update Facebook.
• The research from Adobe Omniture that says that 79 percent of iPad owners spend 30 minutes a day or more reading news.

How I See It:

No matter if you’re a newbie or an accomplished mobile marketer, the MMA event provided attendees ample opportunity to learn something new. And that’s always a plus if you consider that this is still new territory for a lot of us. According to a May survey by King Fish Media (and reported by eMarketer) only one-third of marketers have a mobile strategy. What’s more, a quarter of respondents said that mobile advertising wasn’t meeting expectations. Remarkably and regrettably, 34 percent revealed they had not measured a mobile program they had run. (A disconnect that makes you wonder how respondents can know mobile isn’t meeting their expectations if they don’t bother to measure campaign effectiveness.) So that’s where we are in mobile. Some have been involved for a while and achieving positive results that prove the power of this medium. Others are just starting out and taking their first baby steps. And it doesn’t stop there. More marketers will be testing the waters this year – whether they like it or not. The report mentioned above shows that six in 10 North American marketers are gearing up to have a mobile strategy within the next year.

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Jeff Pulver is a real-time Web pioneer and one of the most generous spirits one will ever meet. I spoke at Jeff’s flagship two-day New York City event, a happening that brought together the famous and not so famous –all of whom have been impacted by Twitter and the immediacy of the Internet.

As Peggy reported recently, I used the occasion to release my own data on how shoppers use mobile and social at what I call Moments of Trust.

During the conference there was terrific discussion about how the mobile Internet and social media have impacted our society and paved the way for a people’s revolution in Egypt and Tunisia — and elsewhere.

I will also remember Alon Nir, a funny and caring Israeli who has combined Twitter and tradition. The result is a site where visitors can engage in the old Jewish tradition of placing notes with their prayers in between the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, also known as The Kotel. Alon encourages visitors to tweet their prayers and wishes. The prayers are then printed on real paper, cut down to small notes, and placed in the Wall by Alon and others.

Alon now has an iPhone app as well.

“Who needs a business plan?” Alon asked from the stage. “Just don’t monetize.”

Instead, he said, “create meaning and affect change.”

How I See It: Mobile isn’t just about money. It’s also about connecting to do good. Thankfully, we have lots of examples of this in the mobile space, starting off with folks like Alon and ending with global cause giving campaigns to aid people hit by natural disasters. Even better, the 140 Characters Conference introduced us to more examples of how mobile can be a tool for the common good, inspiring stories that made me proud to be part of the event.

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Foursquare hit a major milestone this week. The location-based social networking service provider announced that it has reached 10 million members. On the official blog, Foursquare shared an interesting infographic that talks about where most people use the service.

A day later, Foursquare introduced an iPhone application that it says provides much faster check-ins and a feature the company described as an improved Explore tab to find specials, among other improvements. Updates for Android and BlackBerry are in the pipeline.

How I See It:

The 10-million user figure is impressive on the surface, but we shouldn’t be blinded by it. After all it’s a worldwide number and represents just a small fraction of the total global mobile subscriber population. (In the U.S. alone, there are more than 300 million people carrying a mobile device.) Foursquare is wise to focus on features to make deals more accessible and prominent. After all, it is the driver to usage. According to a jiWire survey that examines how people use Foursquare, 29 percent check in for deals and promotions. Clearly, with just under one-third using Foursquare for this purpose there’s room for growth, which is probably why they introduced the new Explore tabs in the first place. The survey also tells us that 17 percent use Foursquare to share a location, 14 percent are members because they want to be associated with cool things, and 7 percent use the service to score points.

About Jeff:

A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

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While our mobile devices and smartphones may be chock-full of features and functionality and our screen displays may be crowded with a wide variety of mobile applications, consumers still depend on text messaging to connect with the world around them. Whether chatting with friends and members of their social networks, or receiving alerts from banks and favorite brands, text is people’s primary communications tool.

From a business perspective, only SMS – a form of communications universally accepted and understood — delivers real reach. But text messaging does more than drive conversations. It also contributes the most to mobile operator revenues.

According to the latest forecasts from Informa Telecoms & Media, “humble SMS will remain a significant source of revenues and traffic for mobile operators on a global basis until at least 2015.” Global SMS revenues are forecast to rise to $136.9 billion by 2015 up from $105.5 billion in 2010, as global SMS traffic increases from five trillion messages in 2010 to a whopping 8.7 trillion messages in 2015.

Text takes the lead

Informa’s message to mobile operators and organizations: “SMS should not be overlooked as a core service for mobile users.” Due to its low cost, universal access and interoperability across devices and mobile networks, SMS is the most effective way for consumers to communicate with each other and for companies (government departments, banks and financial institutions, brands, retailers and transport providers) to get their message through to their target demographic.

At the other end of the spectrum, a raft of reports underlines the pivotal role of text messaging in people’s lives.

In fact, a new study out from Deloitte shows that SMS has the lead, with more consumers preferring text to social media and email engagement for mobile users. Specifically, the study found that the vast majority (90 percent) of smartphone users send at least one text message per day. However, less than half (40 percent) use their devices to access and interact with social networks like Twitter and Facebook at least once per day.

Thus, claims that text messaging is on the decline, losing ground to mobile email and social networking, are off the mark. To the contrary, the study found that most respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 send at least one text message every hour.

Deeper relationships

Interestingly, the penetration of smartphones and the advance of simple text messaging are two trends that transform the way we lead our lives on mobile. We are moving from single-tasking to multitasking, doing more with our mobile devices than ever before. At the same time, we are relying more than ever on text messaging to share our experiences and engage in the conversations taking place around us.

Put another way, we increasingly live our lives on mobile. (In developing markets is the only screen.) And we increasingly use SMS to speak with and listen to the world around us.

In fact, it’s the personal and interactive nature of text messaging that makes it ideal for communications — of all kinds. Why? Because SMS enables a dialog. And, as we all know,  two-way exchanges are at the core of any good relationship.

In advertising – particularly on mobile — the end-game for brands is all about customer engagement. Granted, creatives and formats such as display banners, apps and video may capture the attention of consumers with their “wow” effect. But the one-digit response rates these formats deliver are generally much lower than the response rates triggered by SMS.

The direct approach

SMS is clearly an effective way to deliver mobile marketing campaigns and messages. But what are the rules of engagement?

Importantly, consumers should only receive the messages they want in the first place. Requiring opt-in (rather than opt-out) ensures that consumers receive advertising they consider relevant and valuable.

Permission marketing also builds trust. Consumers volunteer personal information (such as hobbies and interests) in order to receive advertising about topics and products that truly interest them. Brands can therefore count on connecting with consumers that want to hear what they want to say, a virtuous circle that dramatically improves response rates and ensures that consumers are always in control.

Instant gratification

However, to be truly effective permission marketing must encourage an ongoing exchange between marketers and consumers. This is not about one-off text conversations. This is about creating a text dialog that really connects consumers with their favorite brands. Marketers need little convincing to understand the value of a deeper engagement with consumers. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as it sounds.

SMS may be a no-brainer, but it is not instant. In fact, it can be a hassle for consumers to  respond to promotional text messages from  brands, particularly if they contain short codes or require a new message in response.

To remove these barriers (and help brands get in closer contact with their customers) Gemalto has developed an approach that doesn’t only speed up the exchange. It transforms it.

Interactive SMS, which draws on our heritage as a leading provider of SIM cards and security solutions, harnesses an application on the SIM card to change the entire messaging experience.

How does it work?

Rather than  interrupt the consumer or clutter up their inbox, Interactive SMS messages pop up (all ready to read) in the phone’s idle screen. Response is immediate and seamless because consumers can interact with the messages through a series of single clicks. Thus, Interactive SMS is easy, instant and intuitive.

For the mobile operator, and the brands that run campaigns on their networks, Interactive SMS lays the groundwork for a variety of  interactions. From mobile coupon schemes (that allow consumers to choose the coupons they want from a list that appears on their device idle screen) to satisfaction surveys (that ask consumers to fill out a simple multiple choice form delivered directly and quietly to their device), Interactive SMS deepens the dialog.

And, because Interactive SMS is delivered over-the-air to SIM cards already in use, the approach ensures that the mobile operator has a central position in the value chain. Put another way, the mobile operator is positioned to monetize its database of users. Operators can also use Interactive SMS to learn more about their users, thus increasing the value of their opted-in inventory and delivering brands access to their target demographic.

What’s more, Interactive SMS is not limited to mobile phones. Take the iPad, a tablet device with a SIM card. Apple restricts users from receiving regular SMS messages, but it cannot block Interactive SMS messages from being delivered to the device. In reality Interactive SMS is the only way operators can communicate with iPad SIM users. Further Interactive SMS allows operators to collect subscribers preferences and opt-in, activate subscriptions and push low balance and prepaid reload alerts. Operators can also use this as a vehicle to encourage users to top-up credits for Internet browsing and purchase value-added services.

Campaigns and promotions

So what are the results? Our clients are seeing response rates that are on average 6 times higher than standard SMS. This is possible because operators feed the information they collect  via the SIM card directly into their CRM systems, a process that allows them to improve the targeting for new campaigns. Response rates skyrocket, advertising is more relevant (because it is permission based) and the click-though rates (CTR) skyrocket.

In Brazil, for example, Interactive SMS pilot campaigns promoting the mobile operator’s own services achieved double-digit response rates. Specifically,  the Brazilian mobile operator reported 35 percent of users responded to the operator campaign offering address book backup services; 27 percent responded to the offer for pre-paid credit top up, and   12 percent responded to the offer for unlimited voicemail subscription.

Prompted by these impressive results the same mobile operator used Interactive SMS to support cause giving. In response to the floods that ravaged the region in early January the mobile operator broadcast a public service message to its entire opted-in subscriber base in Rio de Janeiro, telling users  how they could donate money to help the people who were affected.

The Brazilian mobile operator sent an Interactive SMS saying: “Find the Red Cross in Rio de Janeiro closest do your home and make your donation. Press OK to know more – it’s free.” The ease of interaction – namely one click to donate — encouraged users to get involved and resulted in a 9 percent CTR. (And that was despite the fact that the message — which was sent to all opted-in users — was not truly targeted.)

In India one of our operator customers road tested  SMS and Interactive SMS to compare the results. The campaign, a message promoting a sports news service, triggered significantly different responses. Specifically, the response rate to ordinary SMS (a marketing mechanism that requires the user to reply with a text message) was just 0.2 percent. The response rate for the Interactive SMS campaign (where the user only had to press one button on their phone to answer) was 7.7 percent. That’s a massive 38 percent difference in response rates.

In the mobile industry we need to ask ourselves: should we invest in formats and creatives that (unlike text) are neither universally accepted nor understood? Well, only if we want to limit our reach and be sidetracked by technology barriers like handset fragmentation. It’s much more effective to reach people with a form of SMS that allows instant delivery and instant response.

Editor’s note: Caroline Doussot is Head of Mobile Marketing at Gemalto, the world leader in digital security delivering on the growing demands for personal mobile services, identity protection, payment security, authenticated online services, cloud computing access, modern transportation, e-healthcare and e-government services. Caroline is responsible for mobile marketing and advertising strategy. She also regularly blogs on a range of mobile marketing topics, including consumer engagement and permission marketing.

MobileGroove welcomes guest columns. Lend your voice to MobileGroove and reach a loyal and influential audience of 20,000+ mobile professionals and practitioners. Email us to find out more.

* * *

At first it was about the freedom to capture and create our own content, a shift that opened the door to mobile blogging, picture-sharing and a slew of life stream applications that encourage us to document and share our lives as they happen. We were connected and we had a voice.

Fast forward, and mobile social media doesn’t just let us talk about us. We are empowered to amplify experiences we have — good and bad. We broadcast what we love and hate about everyone (and everything). And we are passionate about both. This gives us reach and influence. And what we have to say matters a lot to a lot of people.

Interestingly, we are particularly vocal when we are in shopping mode, using our mobile phones as “megaphones” to tell friends and followers in our social networks all about our in-store experiences.

Telling is like it is

This is the key finding of new research released just a few days ago at the 140 Characters Conference in New York City.

Jeff Hasen — in his capacity as a mobile marketing authority who works with companies to win what he calls the “Moments of Trust” that impact sales and brand loyalty — commissioned Zoomerang to conduct a survey of 100 U.S. mobile users to find out if they use their devices to share (translated: broadcast) their positive and negative shopping experiences.

Predictably, bad news travels fast. Some 40 percent of respondents said they have used their mobile phone to communicate with family/friends/social networks about a negative retail experience. Fortunately, even more (46 percent) have used mobile to share their positive in-store experience.

What tools and technologies do these consumers use?

• 8 percent have used Twitter
• 18 percent have used Facebook
• 32 percent have sent a text message

Granted, the sample is not massive, but is it representative and provides us an important confirmation of the impact of mobile and social on our shopping behavior. Put simply, we share our experiences with our friends and networks.

The questions is: do they listen?

Just over one-third of respondents (34 percent) recall having seen a comment from a friend or member of their social network describing their shopping experience. Additionally, almost half (48 percent) said they would be influenced by a post describing a retail experience.

Pump up the volume

The findings confirm that we listen to people in our networks. Our mobile megaphones allow us to instantly amplify our knee-jerk reaction to our retail experience.

Thankfully, people don’t want to just gripe about their bad experiences. They also want to know that brands are listening. In fact, one-third (35 percent) of respondents said they would want to hear from a brand after a negative retail experience.

The reality: only 10 percent of respondents have actually heard from a brand following their post about a retail interaction (both good or bad).

Connect the dots, and there is an opportunity (even a requirement) for brands to listen in to what people are saying about their retail experiences and — more importantly — respond. No doubt this approach would go a long way toward solving issues before they balloon into full-scale social media meltdowns.

How does mobile-social transform commerce?

We catch up with Jeff for his high-level view.

MG: Your research shows consumers can — and do — broadcast their retail experiences and influence their peers. Interestingly, the breakdown shows most consumers use text messages to spread the word about their good and bad experiences. Only 8 percent reach to Twitter. What does this tell us about consumer behavior and what are the implications for marketers?

A: As suspected, be it feature phone or smartphone, consumers are increasingly using their devices as megaphones. It used to be that a brand could lose the battle for public opinion in two hours. It’s now closer to two seconds with Twitter and Facebook members twice as active as mobile as on a PC. This has dramatic impact on brands and retailers.

MG: The report tells us many consumers want to hear from brands and stores after a negative in-store experience. How should marketers approach this? What are some of the do’s and don’ts of customer engagement in this scenario?

A: Marketers need to celebrate those who perform at the Moments of Trust and help organizations identify and rid themselves of those who fail. Consumers are adapting and adopting – brands and retailers need to do the same thing. Take the example of Nordstrom, the preeminent customer service organization that is rolling out iPads and other technologies to better serve the consumer.

MG: You focus on the “Moments of Trust” — the consumer touch points with brands that influence trial, sales and loyalty. What is the key takeaway of this report and what action is necessary to turn a problem – like a negative in-store experience  – into an opportunity?

A: One of the most interesting findings is the fact that 35 percent of those surveyed said they expect to be contacted by a brand or retailer. If brands and retailers can’t control the quality of their Moments of Trust, it is imperative that they take action after a bad experience to keep the customer and make the best of the situation. Many customers are forgiving – so the chance for a brand to deliver a good experience does not end in the shopping aisle.

Get the inside track by joining MobileGroove and Acquity Group executives this Wednesday (June 22) for Global Insight: European Retail Goes Mobile. The 30-minute online webinar (12-12:30 CST or click here to see the time in your region) will deep dive into the trends and mobile intelligence gleaned from Acquity’s first-ever European Mobile Audit of the top 300 European retail brands.

Webinar panel:

• Tom Nawara, VP, Acquity Group
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