Mobile Coupons Take Off With Marketers

Mobile Marketer had a great roundup yesterday of the plethora of recent mobile couponing campaigns:

Brands including Firestone, Hollywood Video, Popeye’s, Borders and OshKosh B’gosh are distributing coupons via smartphone applications.
...
Bridgestone’s Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. distributes various mobile coupons’ via Mobiqpon’s applications, including a “Buy 2 tires and get one free” offer.

Similarly, Hollywood Video has run a “Rent 2 movies, get another movie free” promotion using Mobiqpon’s mobile couponing apps.

Quick-serve restaurant Popeye’s tapped Mobiqpons for a mobile couponing campaign offering free two-piece chicken dinners.

Bookstore chain Borders regularly offers 20 percent discount coupons via Mobiqpons’ apps, as well as special birthday offers for regular customers who share specific data.

OshKosh B’gosh, a children’s apparel company specializing in bib overalls, has distributed various mobile coupons via Mobiqpons, including “20 percent off your next purchase of $50 or more.”

Read more @ Mobile Marketer

To learn more about SMS based mobile coupons that do not require smartphone applications, visit Club Texting.

Palm Pre App Store Closing In On 700,000 Downloads

It ain't one billion downloads, but the Palm Pre App store is off to a solid start:

On Saturday, June 6th, the Palm Pre launched nationwide after roughly two years of development. Two years isn’t a whole lot of time when you think about the fact that they not only created a new device, but a new operating system and app store at the same time. The device has a sharp design (literally and figuratively), a stunning user interface, and a lot of potential to grow into a competitive platform in the smartphone market.

On May 29th, 2009, 9 days before the device officially launched nationwide, the Palm Pre App Catalog went live with 4 apps (Classic, Sudoku, Today Show, and WHERE). By launch day (6/6/09), this number grew to 18 apps total and then jumped to 30 at the end of the first week (6/12/09), and has remained unchanged since. Compared to the other app stores we’ve seen so far, this number is a mere fraction on what we’ve experienced at launch, but there are a few factors that paint a picture as to why this isn’t an issue.

Check out this nice graph, courtesy of Medialets:

Read more @ Medialets

Mobile Industry Review Looks At Canadian SMS Aggregators

Mobile Industry Review received a query from a reader, wondering who were the best 'tier 3 SMS aggregators in Canada.'

They're opening up the question to readers, so you'll have to head over and check out the comments to find out who has been getting the nod.

You also might want to check out this list of sms aggregators.

McDonalds Launches Mobile Marketing Campaign To Introduce The M Burger

When McDonald's decided to roll out a new burger in France, they turned to the mobile channel:

The launch of the McDonald’s Corp.'s M Burger in France stood out for its innovative use of mobile advertising.

The fast food franchise ran banner ads on the Microsoft Advertising Mobile Media network. The brand used animated banner formats instead of traditional mobile banners.

The goal of the campaign was to drive awareness of the new McDonald’s M Burger among 25 to 44-year-old men and stressed the premium ingredients used to create it.

Read more @ Mobile Marketer.

Head over to Club Texting to read about mobile marketing solutions for restaurants.

Is The Housing Market Bottoming? It Looks Good On The Mobile Marketing Front

This week brought some more of the much talked about 'Green Shoots,' this time in the all important housing market:

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7 percent to 90.3 from a reading of 84.6 in March, and is 3.2 percent above April 2008 when it was 87.5.

At Club Texting, in the last few weeks, we've also seen a giant uptick in the number of real estate brokerages signing up for our mobile marketing services. What can mobile marketing do for real estate brokerages?

Club Texting's Real Estate Text Messaging Software System allows house hunters to request and instantly receive property listing information using their mobile phones. Home sellers reach more buyers, agents close more sales, and home buyers, presented with unprecedented access to information, generate more leads.

You also might want to check out our sister company, Ez Texting's profile of UAS properties, a Chicago development firm that uses text messaging to generate leads and manage internal collections, saving over $100,000 dollars a year by their estimate.

New From The Mobile Marketing Forum: MGM Grand's Mobile Marketing Strategy Revealed

Lots of news coming out of this week's Mobile Marketing Forum. Here's a big story from MGM Grand:

MGM Grand Hotel & Casino revealed its mobile strategy to attendees of the Mobile Marketing Association’s Mobile Marketing Forum.

The hotel chain plans to continue to use the mobile channel as a means of data acquisition and to use information collected to expand upon its existing on-property SMS offers. An MGM executive revealed some of the company’s plans and even gave the audience tips in terms of using the mobile channel.

Read more @ Mobile Marketer.

Holographic Text Messages - Whoa!

This viral video has got to be about the coolest text message we've ever seen:

Holographic Text Messages will rock your world. With 1.5 million views in just a couple weeks, this viral video proves it. The video, by Inha Luke Yoo describes the concept as HoloText Messaging. The kicker of course, is that this sort of technology isn’t yet available. But this concept video does a great job of showing you what holographic text messages will be like.

And the video:

(via textually.org)