Mobile Groove

What would the world be like without texting? We send about 20 billion texts a day and rely on these little messages to share, learn, amuse, vote and respond. 20 years ago, Neil Papworth an engineer with the Sema Group sent the first text to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone. After an estimated 40 trillion texts later, a world without texting would be less fun. The modern equivalent of morse code has expanded the opportunity to quickly and inexpensive share news, deals and sometime lifesaving information. A…

In mobile, shift happens — often — and once again we could count on the recent Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Forum event to provide insights marketers need to know in order to navigate the tough terrain ahead. And, if you didn’t make it to Istanbul in November to hear the great speaker lineup live, Stéphanie Viriot has collected the key takeaways and connected the dots in an in-depth series of posts over at the Gemalto blog. (Be sure to check out her follow-up analysis that just went li…

With billion-dollar and exclusive usage rights in place, the Olympic Games have always been about big money and feverishly policed by lawyers on behalf of brands, content owners and media giants. But the advent of mobile and social — which allow us all to mash up content the way we like and share it with anyone using YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other properties — make me question whether anyone (even high-powered lawyers) can hold back the tide.

The advance of user-generated content and con…

Mobile changes all of the rules, especially in marketing and advertising where the advance of mobile devices has moved brands to pursue conversions and conversations. While the end-game is about influencing us to take an action via our mobile devices that the marketing intended (typically making a purchase, or reacting positively to the campaign call-to-action to download an app, for example), the challenge is even greater when the target audience is the generation of Digital Natives.

These hyper-connected and super-social individuals expect (even demand) marketers to conduct conversations with them and — more importantly — listen to their responses. And advertising they are delivered must match the context of what matters most to these Millennials: their lives, their experiences, their networks and their worlds.

In this new series we bring you the best and brightest of the executives and contributors making the new International Journal of Mobile Marketing (IJMM) a must-read resource, beginning with Mihai Vlad, Head of Audience Management & Insight at Optism, who provides insights into the very human approaches proven to boost engagement between brands and the people who have opted in to receive their messages.

***

People are mobile, and mobile is part of who they are. But mobile is not just a device. It’s our ‘default’ state. In a networked, wired-up world where 5.6 billion people are connected to each other by a mobile device, mobile also allows us

Starbucks has quietly and cleverly executed a mobile strategy that has allowed it to become the largest mobile payment program in the U.S. (with plans to launch in the U.K. in January 2012). But enabling payments is just part of the picture. Lisa Ciangiulli recounts her own journey across Starbucks’ customer touch points to reveal the real secret of the company’s success: a respect for us (the customer) and a deep understanding of what we need on the move.

***

My personal and professional lifestyles — mobile, multi-tasking mom and member of the Mobile Marketing Association Board, North