Mobile Groove

In the last shopping days before the holidays my guest is Michael Becker—North America Managing Director for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and a leader in the mobile marketing industry. He’s active in the industry as an entrepreneur, an academic and a recipient of  the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation Rising Stars Award for his tremendous contribution to the mobile and direct marketing industries.

I caught up with Michael (@mobiledirect) earlier this week to discu…

Voice — speech recognition and natural language understanding — are poised to transform our daily lives and disrupt all industries — not just mobile. Thanks to companies like Nuance Communications — which is also the speech-recognition engine behind Siri, the virtual personal assistant on the Apple iPhone — we are rapidly moving toward a voice-enabled future. We catch up today with Vlad Sejnoha, Nuance Chief Technology Officer, to get an inside track on the topics he will address at M…

CHETAN SHARMA MOBILE BREAKFAST SERIES PREVIEW: Frank Meehan, part of the Horizons Ventures VC team, tells us how mobile operators can stay relevant by moving innovation activities outside of the company (like Telefónica Digital), or by identifying and claiming a lucrative niche (example AT&T and its Digital Home connected home and security offer).

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While messaging traffic continues to grow, the revenue generated by mobile operators has declined significantly. So – What has c…

On the heels of SXSW it’s clear that SoLoMo is a fact, not a fad. I catch up with BJ Emerson , VP of Technology at Tasti D-Lite, the frozen treat chain with a cult following among health-conscious consumers as well as celebrities. The company doesn’t just get So Lo Mo — it has literally written the book on it, and will be releasing The Tasti D-Lite Way :Social Media Lessons for Building Loyalty and a Brand Customers Crave a bit later this year — so watch this space.

BJ, a champion of SoLoMo and an authority on the ways companies can and should harness mobile and location to super-charge Social CRM, spoke at dozens of industry events in the last year, where he discussed the importance of moving beyond mobile integration of loyalty and rewards programs to really understanding the emotions consumers feel and want to express as they engage with brands on this deeply personal level.

The approach certainly delivers results. This last year went on record as the “greatest growth” year in the history of the 24-year old brand. The brand —whose popularity has grown largely by word of mouth — is a veteran when it comes to customer engagement and social media marketing. Beyond U.S. growth, Tasti D-Lite is also expanding internationally, opening locations in Mexico, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.

Mobile apps isn’t the only game in town. Developers need think big-picture and focus efforts on multi-platform apps capable of connecting our devices and our experiences. This is the trend to watch for 2012 and why Mike Johns, CEO of Digital Mind State, and his views on the vast opportunities at the intersection of apps, TV and social media are more pertinent than ever.

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.

Indoor navigation — and services that map and understand our mobility patterns - lay the ground work for a slew of exciting new location services that combine advertising, marketing, couponing and analytics to deliver people offers they truly can’t refuse. What is the role of mobile operators? Where are the growth opportunities? These are just a few of the questions I explore with Phyllis Reuther, manager of the advanced analytics lab run by the major U.S. mobile operator Sprint.