Snoop Dogg Goes Mobile To Promote Album Sales

Snoop Dogg, the eternal rap star, is bringing his mobile game up to speed to promote his new album More Malice:

Rap mogul Snoop Dogg is using the mobile channel to drive sales of his CDs, DVDs and ringtones, giving away free mobile video content and wallpapers and running a sweepstakes.

The rapper’s agency Cashmere has partnered with mobile entertainment content provider Myxer to promote the upcoming release of Snoop Dogg’s CD and DVD combination More Malice, the follow-up to the Malice N Wonderland album. As part of the promotion, Snoop will use Myxer’s MobileStage product to deliver exclusive, behind-the-scenes branded mobile video content.

Head over to Mobile Commerce Daily for a whole lot more.

Looking for SMS marketing solutions for radio or concert promotions? Visit Club Texting.

Best Buy Bulks Up Mobile Marketing Efforts

Mobile Marketing Watch reports that Best Buy is ramping up their mobile marketing programs:

According to sources at the company, Best Buy is putting the wheels in motion on a spruced up mobile website, more aggressive and targeted SMS texting campaigns, and mobile application updates to help capture a larger share of the mobile community’s attention.

It was just late last year that Best Buy introduced its mobile site and a corresponding iPhone application.

Best Buy’s chief marketing officer, Barry Judge, told the Wall Street Journal last month that his company “wants to use mobile to make standard ads more interactive. A print ad or billboard, for instance, might give consumers an address they could text-message for more information.”

Read more @ Mobile Marketing Watch

Read about Club Texting's text message marketing solutions for retail.

Getting Started With Mobile Coupons

Want to learn about Mobile Couponing? We've got a guide for that!

The technology has been around for a few years, but couponing campaigns have only recently taken off with brands and consumers. We first started to see major brands launch national couponing campaigns last year.

Since then, three things have changed. First, consumers have grown familiar with mobile coupons; second, companies like Club Texting have launched dead simple couponing platforms; and third, financially stressed consumers are looking for ways to save money.

Now is the time for your business – small and local, or large and national – to launch a mobile couponing campaign. You no longer need to pay a marketing agency tens of thousands of dollars to run your campaign for you; Club Texting’s mobile marketing platform allows you to Do It Yourself. This guide will show you how easy and effective mobile coupons can be for your company.

Read more about mobile coupons in our guide at Club Texting.

Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey's Square Mobile Payment Platform Debuts

Yesterday saw the unveiling of a potentially groundbreaking product:

The idea – let people quickly and easily accept physical credit card payments from their mobile phone. A small device attaches to the phone via the headset/microphone jack. The device gets the power it needs to send data to the phone from the swipe of the card, and sends the information over the microphone connection. Based on the shots below, the device is compatible with both the iPhone and Android (or at least the recently released Droid).

Think paypal, but anyone can now accept physical credit card payments, too. With no contracts or monthly fees. People are sent receipts by text and email.

Head over to TechCrunch to learn more, or just watch the video to see how it works!

Report: Mobile Entertainment Sales To Rise 33% In 2009

MediaPost's OnlineMediaDaily brings news of a new report on the mobile entertainment industry:

The worldwide economic downturn isn't slowing down mobile media growth, according to a new forecast. The Mobile Entertainment Forum's latest Business Confidence Index, compiled by KPMG, projects average mobile media revenue will grow 33% in 2009 -- a 6% increase over the rate predicted at the beginning of the year.

...

The explosion of mobile applications is also starting to pay off as apps alone are expected to account for 14% of all mobile media sales. It's likely Apple's App Store, with more than 2 billion downloads to date, will generate the vast majority of app sales this year. Even so, most iPhone apps are still offered free.

Read more @ OnlineMediaDaily

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

Pandora Sells 1 Million Songs A Month; 20% Through Their iPhone App

The Pandora iPhone app is a must have for every iPhone user. It's one of our favorite websites to listen to and discover music at our desks. And when we're on the street their iPhone app supplies an unlimited playlist. So it makes us happy to hear this:

Pandora is a company that mainly makes its money through advertising deals on its streaming Internet radio service. But a growing portion of the business is also affiliate downloads of songs that users hear on Pandora and want to buy on either iTunes or Amazon’s MP3 service. And the biggest mover accelerating growth in that regard are downloads taking place on the iPhone.

Users are buying about a million songs a month now from these affiliate links on Pandora, CTO Tom Conrad tells me. Of those, a solid 20% are coming directly from Pandora’s iPhone app, which includes an easy link to open the iPhone’s iTunes app, and buy a track. That’s really impressive considering that it’s just one phone that a relatively small percentage of their users use.

Read the entire article @ TechCrunch, which includes some out of this world revenue projections.

Decatur, AL tests mobile parking meter payments

The city of Decatur, GA, is going mobile to make fumbling for change at the city's parking meters a thing of the past.

The city tapped StreetSmart Technology LLC and MobileNow for a pilot program letting consumers put time on parking meters by dialing in on their mobile phone. Decatur's single-slot parking patrons can call a central number posted on the meter and charge their parking time remotely.

“The primary strategy for implementing the smart meters is to increase turnover in the parking spaces in downtown," said Erik Puskar, director of MobileNow, Whitestone, NY. “The City is responding to complaints from both business owners and motorists that many cars overstay the 2 hour time limit and will occupy a space for extended periods.

Consumers arrive at the parking space, call into MobileNow's automated line displayed on the meter and follow the phone prompts to enter the space number also posted there.

StreetSmart's system then posts the time on their meter.

It's about time! Read more here.

Sprint Launches 2D Barcode Reader

This just in from Razorfish:

Sprint is setting the pace for U.S. wireless carriers by supporting 2D barcode scanning in ‘08. The company is pushing out the service under two different monikers: “Phone IQ” and “2-D Intelligence”. 2D barcode scanning, or QR codes, is already wildly popular in Asia and starting to takeoff in Europe. Sprint deserves a round of applause for this effort and we, for one, can’t wait to see how the U.S. market reacts.