Mobile Groove

Caesars guests roll the dice all the time and leave a lot to fair Lady Fortune. But the casino’s admirable approach to mobile marketing leaves little to chance. During an hour-long webinar earlier this month (you can listen to it here), a senior executive from Caesars Entertainment said that mobile will sit at the center of the company’s strategy to move the business a giant leap forward in 2013.

Eric Petersen, director of new media, Caesars Entertainment, sees “four component…

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…

Smart developers understand that selling apps is a serious business. But a raft of research suggests a singular focus on driving downloads is patently flawed. It’s really how well app developers can persuade us to make their app part of our regular routine that will make or break their app business. Winning is all about making the right choices to delight us again and again.

The bottom line: app developers need to work out a strategy to increase engagement, not just downloads. To provide them a …

In episode #9 of M-Pulse I examine a recent report from analysis firm Ovum that claims social messaging applications cost mobile network operators US$13.9 billion in lost SMS revenue last year.

Ovum expects the decline (nearly 6 percent of total messaging revenue in 2010 and 9 percent in 2011) to continue as the popularity of messaging apps continues to grow. Ovum warns operators to rework their legacy services if they want to secure their future position in the messaging market.

How can mobile operators hold their ground? Neha Dharia, consumer analyst at Ovum and author of the report tells us collaboration, not competition is the way to succeed.

EDITOR’S NOTE: While many may have gone gaga over the iPad, this must-read article (via The New York Times) reminds us the real (and global) excitement is still about no-frills mobile phones and text messaging. In fact, I’m off to London tomorrow for a mobile advertising solution launch designed and commercialized to harness text and picture messaging in a two-way conversation between brands and people (aptly called Dialogue). Meantime, several sessions during the MMA Mobile Market Forum this week in Singapore also focus on the importance of messaging to deliver compelling mobile marketing. Connect the dots, mobile is becoming the universal technology (to borrow from the NYT piece). Eliza gives us a roundup of stats that drive this home. Good catch girl!

NOT JUST ADVERTISING: What do people want from mobile messaging services? According to research conducted by Dialogue Communications, people are warming up to the idea of receiving SMS-based appointment reminders. The website is thin on methodology (how many were asked what), but 67 percent of respondents said they would be happy to receive a wide range of reminders and alerts via their mobile phone. Source

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