The New York Times Is Texting!

As David Utter of WebProNews says: "OMG NYT TXT 2 U!!!"

The Times took another step to meeting the demands of its readers, this time on the mobile side of the content experience. A Times by SMS feature opened today, as a complementary service to their existing mobile website.

By sending a keyword to 698698 (NYT-NYT), people can retrieve news items, and the work of columnists like tech writer David Pogue or opinion writer Maureen Dowd, via text. The arriving message contains a hyperlink, giving a person the option to view the column in the mobile browser rather than replying to the first message for the next piece of the item.

See our previous coverage of the NY Times' Mobile Real Estate Listings

A Text-To-Order Liquor Store In Texas!

Ran Pass  Liquors is more than your average liquor store. Each year, this El Paso-based liquor store donates over 10% of its income to local charities, sponsors numerous events in the El Paso market - from live bands to its very own event "UNITY JAM" – and stays ahead of the game by offering their customers drink recipes and special discounts. To further extend their reach, Ran Pass also delivers and sells to bars & nightclubs. Following an overhaul of their website, customers will be able to seek information on brands, mixers, wines, etc.
   
     

Objective:
Ran Pass was looking for an innovative way to keep current and potential customers posted on their weekly discounts, specials, events and other news, especially during slower days of the week.  With the upcoming website, they not only wanted to offer customers an online ordering option, but also a TXT-2-Order option for those customers on the go.  Ran Pass Liquors turned to Club Texting to come up with a custom program that will meet these needs.

Solution:
Ran Pass chose to unveil their text messaging program in two phases. The first was a push to generate signups and send mass discounts to their subscribers. Here is a sample of tactics:

• Offering 10% time-sensitive discounts on purchases, along with free t-shirts
• Using MySpace bulletins to promote the program and our Widget to increase signups
• Ordered over 1000 custom water bottles to distribute during the upcoming Mardi Gras festival with a call-to-action directly on the label
• Hired female staff members to hand out cards at bars/clubs with Text incentives

Phase two, which will be completed shortly, will include a brand new online ordering system for deliveries. Registered customers who wish to order via SMS can simply text “LIQUOR + their order” to 25827. They will immediately receive a confirmation message, and their order will be delivered in under 30 minutes.

Outcome:
Using the Club Texting system, Ran Pass has started collecting a valuable database of cell phone numbers and, with a strong marketing campaign in place over the next few months, will be a pioneer in mobile spirits sales!

Visit Club Texting to supercharge your business' mobile marketing efforts.

Study: 1.1 billion mobiles sold around the world in 2007

Is the mobile phone destined to become the largest advertising platform in the world?

More than 1.1 billion mobile phones were sold around the world last year, and developing countries in Africa and elsewhere should maintain the momentum in 2008, according to a study released Thursday.

Head over to Yahoo News to see how the major phone manufacturers fared.

Study: More Firms Launch Mobile Websites

OnlineMediaDaily has information on a new JupiterResearch report on the state of the mobile web. The results are interesting:

SOME 40% OF WEB SITE operators have launched mobile sites and another 22% plan to do so in the next year, according to a new JupiterResearch study.

And what does the near future hold?

Driving the growth of mobile sites are factors such as the expansion of 3G networks and smartphones and improving prospects for deriving revenue from mobile advertising. Jupiter estimates that increasing page views and usage will push annual mobile display and search advertising revenue to $825 million by 2012.

Head over to OnlineMediaDaily to read more commentary on the Mobile Web Sites: Designing for Mobility report.

Study: Mobile Subscribers Taking Note Of Ads

ONE IN THREE U.S. MOBILE subscribers, or 78 million people, saw or listened to an ad on their cell phone during the last three months, according to a study.

That stat says it all...but here are some more of the interesting findings of a new report by GfK NOP Research:

SMS text messaging remains the dominant non-voice service used by U.S. mobile subscribers, with 56% tapping away on phones. Mobile gaming and surfing the mobile Web were both about half that percentage, while less than 10% watch mobile TV.

Of the one-third of cell customers who have seen mobile ads, most received them via SMS or MMS text messaging. "A third of mobile phone owners saying they've seen advertising on their phones is significant," said Rob Lawson, CMO at Limbo, which creates games and other mobile content. "It means the first hurdle has been crossed to reaching the mass market."

...

In terms of demographic data, men were found to have 20% higher advertising recall than women. Meanwhile, African-Americans had twice the recall of whites and those under 24 had twice the recall of those over 50.

When it comes to SMS texting, 82% of active users were under 24 and African-American and Hispanic consumers were 50% more likely to be SMS users than white ones. Single people were half again as likely to text as married people.

Though the finding that single people were half as likely to text as married people seems a bit suspect, the study otherwise confirms what many others have already shown--mobile advertising is growing by leaps and bounds.

Head over to OnlineMediaDaily to read the rest of the report.

 

 

The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

Wired Magazine has a must read article about the development of the iPhone and how it has already changed the entire landscape of the wireless industry in America:

It was a late morning in the fall of 2006. Almost a year earlier, Steve Jobs had tasked about 200 of Apple's top engineers with creating the iPhone. Yet here, in Apple's boardroom, it was clear that the prototype was still a disaster. It wasn't just buggy, it flat-out didn't work. The phone dropped calls constantly, the battery stopped charging before it was full, data and applications routinely became corrupted and unusable. The list of problems seemed endless. At the end of the demo, Jobs fixed the dozen or so people in the room with a level stare and said, "We don't have a product yet."

Head over to Wired to read the entire piece.

US Consumers Want Next Gen Cellular Data Services

Fox Business has an interesting story about the average American wireless subscriber,  and the new services that he/she wants:

A survey of more than 3,300 customers of Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and Sprint in North America has revealed a series of new consumer attitudes about the way voicemail services are provided currently.

--  The ability to avoid dialing into voicemail to retrieve  messages

--  Not having to write down details within a voicemail

--  Being able to discreetly read messages without having to listen

--  The ability to respond to messages with a single click as a call, sms or email.

The organization that took the survey believes that the iPhone has raised the bar for consumer expectations. As the inevitable copy-cat devices come to market we can expect to see wireless subscribers who are more and more educated about data-rich applications.

Read more at Fox Business.

Papa John's Kicks Off 'TEXTra' Promo For Football Season

OnlineMediaDaily has  an interesting story today about a new text messaged-based mobile couponing campaign from Papa John's.  Here are the details:

Fans sign up at papajohns.com or text "POINTS" to 47272 (4Papa) ahead of the game, and can get super deals on pizza throughout the season based on the number of points scored on the field.

During the wild-card and divisional rounds, fans will get a texted promo code worth 25% off a large, three-topping pizza ordered online the following week IF the game totals 25 points or more.

For conference championship day on Jan. 20, the discount goes to 50% if the teams score a cumulative 50 points.

Finally, on Super Bowl Sunday, if the cumulative score is 75 points or more, registered fans get a 75% discount, taking the regular $15.99 price of the pizza to $3.99.

We also learn that Papa John's is quite the text-savvy business:

Papa John's is at the forefront of text-ordering, having launched it in November. Rival Pizza Hut is about to follow suit, and Quiznos, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, Starbucks and Subway are all investigating text-ordering.

Various industry executives as well as academic observers are predicting that text-ordering's potential is huge, and will become as commonplace as online ordering is now within a few years. Some say it could account for a quarter of all such orders within 10 years.

Read more @ OnlineMediaDaily

Betnow Scores First Funding For Mobile Text Gambling

In an interesting development in the UK--unfortunately for American card sharks--London-based mobile gambling service Betnow has scored a first round of funding from Balderton Capital and angel investors:

Betnow allows users to place bets on football, golf, horse racing, dog racing and tennis matches by sending SMS text messages to 89808. Betting instructions can be written out using English language; payment is handled via the mobile contract or via a bank account, winnings can be collected from a customer’s local Post Office branch.

Lest you think this is a niche market, consider this:

Mobile gambling was forecast to be worth $1.3 billion in 2007 and $26 billion by 2012, according to a Juniper Research white paper released in October, with the UK outlook looking particularly good thanks to recently relaxed regulations on advertising.

Read more at paidContent:UK.

Analysts Boost Mobile Ad Outlook

It seems like every day another story is published about the growing mobile advertising market. Well, here comes another one:

eMarketer projects mobile ad spending overall to cross the $1 billion threshold for the first time, jumping to $1.55 billion in 2008 from $878 million last year. The market research firm also predicts the mobile marketing industry will execute its first campaign of more than $1 million and that "local mobile search will become a huge battleground among Web giants, mobile operators and local directory publishers," according to Senior Analyst John du Pre Gauntt.

Other analysts also expect the mobile screen to become a more advertising- and e-commerce-friendly medium in 2008.

"As an ad medium, mobile is no longer a novelty and some interesting and creative mobile campaigns and promotions emerge this year," wrote Greg Sterling, principal at Sterling Market Intelligence on his Screenwerk.com blog. He also foresees mobile devices playing a more crucial role linking the Internet to brick-and-mortar stores by providing in-store price-comparison and product information.

Head over to OnlineMediaDaily for more analysis.