"Take a Picture of an Ad, Earn a Reward"

The New York Times recently ran a story about an interesting phone-cam marketing program run by two popular magazines:

Rolling Stone and Men’s Health are both testing programs in which readers can take cameraphone pictures of icons on ads, then send them to a certain number. In exchange, they’ll receive more information or an offer from the advertiser.

What's in it for the reader?

In Rolling Stone’s current issue, five advertisers are running these offers. They include a motorcycle ring tone for Allstate’s motorcycle-insurance program and a video preview of The Discovery Channel’s new season of “Man vs. Wild.” Men’s Health is going even further, saying each full-page advertisement in its July-August issue will have the added feature.

Read more at the New York Times.

Visit Club Texting for more information about mobile marketing for magazines.

The Real Threat to Google

BusinessWeek has an interesting story about mobile advertising and the threat that it poses to Google:

As more people use cell phones and their tiny glass screens to gain access to the Internet, Google and its fellow online advertisers will have less space, or what's called ad inventory, to place marketing messages for customers. Google makes money selling ad inventory. And its ad inventory is diminished on a cell phone.

What does the future hold?

Consumer use of mobile Internet in the U.S. has longed trailed Asia and Europe, where standardized cell networks made it easier for handset makers to produce gadgets that tap the Web at blazingly fast speeds. But in the summer of 2007, Apple rocked America by launching the iPhone. The computer maker wasn't the first to put the Web on phones, but for many consumers, the iPhone made the experience more robust.

Almost two-thirds of Americans have had some experience with mobile Internet use, and the adoption trend is most pronounced among teens and young adults, according to Pew Research Center. About 60% of adults 18 to 29 use text messaging every day, compared with only 14% of their parents. Nearly one-third of young adults use mobile Internet. This is the future, because people take their media habits with them as they age.

Read more @ BusinessWeek

10 Killer Texting Tips

ComputerWorld has put together a list of ten informative tips that will help you become a better texter in no time:

To many people over the age of 30, text messaging can seem like one of those strange, complicated behaviors only teenagers understand. In reality, it's one more great tool in your productivity arsenal, right up there with e-mail and instant messaging.

Such as:

If your phone lacks GPS and you need to find your way between points A and B, let SMS be your guide. Before you hit the road, head to MapQuest in your desktop browser and input your destination. Once the site generates the driving directions, click the Send to Cell option and enter your cell number. In seconds you'll receive a text message containing a link to turn-by-turn directions for your route.

 If you're away from your PC, tap Google SMS for on-the-fly navigation. Create a new message with your starting point and destination, then send it to GOOGLE (dial 466453). In return, you'll receive Google Maps directions in one or more text messages (depending on the length of the route). You can also get an actual map by texting "map" and your location.

Read all ten tips at ComputerWorld.

U.S. Cell Phone Users Open to Texting Their Vote for President

Despite their distrust of electronic voting machines, Americans appear ready to embrace SMS voting:

According to the short survey, more than half of all Democrats, Republicans and Independents surveyed say that if allowed, they’d text in their Presidential vote.

If we look to future voters, the numbers are even greater:

Eight in ten (80%) teens, ages 13-17, say that if they were allowed to     vote in this year’s Presidential election, they’d do it by text message     instead of going to the polls.

Read more at Cellular News.

Survey: Mobile Search Ads to Soar

Adweek let's us know about a new mobile search report:

The mobile search advertising market will surge from $815 million in 2008 to $5 billion by 2013, according to new research published Wednesday.

Search will become as important in the mobile space as on the desktop, ABI Research said. Consumers will have escalating options to conduct searches by SMS and via branded providers, which will help advertising growth.

The outlook for SMS?

Total SMS searches will grow from 13 billion in 2008 to more than 76 billion by 2013, ABI forecasts.

Read more at Adweek.

Report: Marketers Can Reach Young Males Via Mobile

A new report from M:Metrics suggests that mobile marketing is the way to reach the elusive young male demographic:

With 36% of men ages 18 to 34 in Western Europe using mobile media, and 48% in the U.S. as of February, that demographic is an especially attractive audience for mobile advertisers, according to market researcher M:Metrics.

Furthermore, men in that age group are highly receptive to SMS text messages, with 9% responding to a text ad compared to only 4% of mobile users on average.

"Reaching the 18- to-34-year-old age demographic is a real challenge to advertisers, as this group is spending less time consuming print and broadcast media," said Paul Goode, a senior analyst at M:Metrics, in a statement.

Read more at OnlineMediaDaily.

OMG, Parents Are Texting

The Washington Post recently ran a story about parents who text. While the teenagers might not like this, it is good news for mobile marketers:

Parents are horning in on their teenagers' lives through text messaging. Sending shorthand cellphone messages used to be the province of the younger set -- under the dinner table, in the car, at all hours of the night.

Now, parents are responding with their own quick dispatches -- "RU there," "Running L8" -- and becoming the fastest-growing demographic in text messaging, which is one of the biggest areas of the mobile-phone industry.

Read more at The Washington Post.

Customers Want Mobile Ads

BusinessWeek has an interesting story on mobile advertising in the UK:

Banner advertising on cell phones is reaching its target, especially female heads of households, according to the retailer's mobile arm
...
The mobile virtual network operator has been trialling a WAP advertising portal since May 2007, which Tesco said has displayed strong month-on-month growth, gaining 300,000 unique visitors in December.

Banner advertising served up on the portal delivered a click-through rate to tailored WAP campaign sites of between three and seven per cent, said Tesco. Brands advertising on the portal included Bee Movie, ITV, Nivea and Teletext.

Read more at BusinessWeek.

FCC Approves A National SMS Text Messaging Alert System

The FCC has approved what will certainly be the largest Emergency SMS system in the world:

Cell phone users will get text message alerts of emergencies under a new nationwide alert system approved late Wednesday by the Federal Communications Commission, according to FCC spokesman Robert Kenny.

It seems that the system will work in a manner similar to the TV/Radio Emergency Broadcast Systems:

Under the plan, the FCC will appoint a federal agency to create the messages and pass them on to cell phone companies that choose to participate, an FCC representative said earlier. Once that agency is named, the participating cell phone providers would have 10 months to comply with the new system's requirements.

All major carriers are expected to join the program. Read more @ CNN.

McDonald's Begins Testing Mobile Coupons

BrandWeek is reporting on an exciting development in the mobile couponing space:

McDonald’s is dialing up mobile coupons for a regional test at 113 locations in Utah, Wyoming and Nevada. Consumers can receive one of the chain’s new iced coffees for free when they use a mobile coupon at participating stores between April 7-27.

So how does it work?

Customers are asked to go to cellfire.com or text “mcd” to 22888 to receive the application. Upon signing up, they receive a unique redemption code that consumers show the McDonald’s cashier. Once registered, they can receive future offers from other  merchants as well

Read more @ BrandWeek.

A First Look At Amazon's New SMS Purchasing System

Ars Technica has a first look at Amazon's recently announced SMS ordering system.  Some details about the system:

Amazon is still working on its goal of becoming your one-stop shop for anything, at any time or any place. Today, the company introduced TextBuyIt, a sort of SMS version of its 1-Click buying system. Users can send a text message to "AMAZON" (262966) with a product name, author, artist name, ISBN, or UPC code and receive the top two Amazon search results back almost instantly. From there, they can find out more information or simply make a purchase directly from their mobile phones. Although the process is a breeze on a smartphone, Amazon's real goal is to make buying easy for those with "plain old" mobile phones.

Head over to Ars to see some screenshots of the system in action on the author's iPhone.

"Digital signage as middle media platform"

Lyle Bunn has written an interesting piece for Digital Signage Today. His thesis:

Social networking. Bluetooth. Mobile commerce. Millennials visiting Web sites and extending music and TV.  Each of these are components in the next wave of the digital signage business model.
...
By extending display messaging to a personal device such as a cell phone, message engagement and brand interaction is significantly advanced. This advancement makes digital signage valuable for marketers and communicators wishing to extend ad display into brand engagement.

He gives us an example of this works with SMS Text Messaging:

SMS Text. Text codes presented in a digital ad could prompt the download of information, coupons or media such as ringtones, wallpaper or games. A text code could also enable a mobile commerce transaction. Mobile commerce provider mPoria reflects that the average mobile commerce transaction is $130 with conversion rates of .8-1.5 percent on mobile devices.

There is much more over at Digital Signage Today.

Mobile Marketing to reach $19 billion by 2012

The state of the market right now:

In 2007, mobile marketing reached just under $3 billion. The majority of the increase in spending will be through SMS or MMS messaging campaigns.

The prediction for the future:

Text messaging is expected to remain the highest ad placement for marketers because of emerging markets in Asia and India which do not support video, display and other mobile campaigns. Messaging is expected to account for more than $14 billion of the total $19 billion spent on mobile campaigns by 2012. Messaging campaigns accounted for $2.5 billion in mobile ad revenues in 2007. Text-based ads have a response rate of more than 10%.

Read more at BizReport.