Carvel Goes Mobile With Summer Sweepstakes

What do Fudgie the whale, the short code 78247, and five 42" TVs have in common?

The nation's favorite spokeswhale, Fudgie, is breaking into mobile marketing and asking consumers to text "FUDGIE" to 78247 to receive a coupon for one of the new blended coffees or Arctic Blenders and a chance to win one of five 42-inch TVs.

Read more about this mobile couponing effort at MarketingDaily.

Check out Club Texting for more information about Text Messaging for Retail (including mobile coupons).

Hearst Links Mag Print Ads To Mobile Marketing

OnlineMediaDaily reports on a Hearst's major mobile marketing move:

Hearst Magazines Digital Media will extend a service that links print ads to mobile marketing across titles including CosmoGIRL, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Redbook and O The Oprah Magazine.

For the last two years, Hearst has partnered with mobile tech provider ShopText to place mobile codes in CosmoGIRL ads that allow readers to order product samples or enter sweepstakes via their cell phones. After an initial purchase, users need only text a keyword and PIN to buy products advertised in the magazine.

Read more at OnlineMediaDaily.

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

"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

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.

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.

"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.

"Mobile Marketing Is Here. Can You Hear Me Now?"

Adota has an opinion piece on the current state and the future of mobile marketing. Some highlights:

Predictions around the rise of the mobile marketing space have come fast and furious. eMarketer states that the U.S. mobile advertising market, which was $1billion in 2007, will grow to $5 billion in 2011. While these numbers are impressive, what the experts seem confused about is when the mobile marketing revolution will begin. Instead the pundits are focusing on “what’s to come,” not what is happening now. This is a mistake. Truth is, there is a great deal happening present day. Marketers should not sit and wait for a formal invitation before making their move.

So what is happening right now?

One example of how mobile marketing is already providing real results for many brands is their use of SMS (AKA text messaging), which allows for the sending of short 160 character messages to and from a mobile phone. 160 characters might not seem like much but when they are highly targeted AND personalized to each individual user, the message can be quite powerful. According to a January 2007 CTIA Report, 96% of all active cell phones in the U.S. can be reached using text-messaging (more than 220 million users). In fact, text messaging is the fastest growing communication channel in history worldwide and already has twice the reach of the Internet (Computer Industry Almanac 2006). These figures cannot be ignored and they are not; currently 89 percent of major brands have stated that they are planning to market via mobile phone text messaging by 2008.

Read more at Adota.

Nielsen: Mobile Ads Reach 23 Percent of Users

Neilsen Mobile has a new study out on the state of mobile marketing; the numbers looks good:

Nearly a quarter of mobile users say they’ve encountered some sort of advertising on their mobile devices, despite the relatively small universe of mobile Internet users, says a new report issued by Nielsen Mobile.

Over the last 30 days, 58 million users reported being exposed to mobile advertising, or 23 percent of the total mobile audience, according to Nielsen’s bi-annual Mobile Advertising Report, which is based on a survey of over 22,000 active mobile data users (those who use phones for more than just phone calls). And while just 13.7 percent of mobile subscribers have accessed the mobile Internet--still the biggest source of mobile advertising, says Nielsen--users are finding ad messaging on their mobile devices in numerous ways.

So what do these numbers mean?

As for whether mobile advertising works, perhaps because they are well targeted, or perhaps because they still stand out in this uncluttered medium - currently, these ads are generating strong response rates, based on Nielsen’s report. In the past 30 days, 28 million users claim to have seen a mobile ad and responded to it in some fashion. Interestingly, the most popular response to a mobile ad was neither a click nor a call – but a text. Nielsen’s survey found that 26 percent of those who responded to mobile ads did by sending an SMS message.

Read more @ MediaWeek

Elevate Church Text Messaging Case Study

Every now and then we like to highlight how our customers are using our SMS mobile marketing software in new and innovative ways. Today we look at Elevate, a forward-thinking church in Hawaii. While many churches, temples, and other religious groups have recently embraced text messaging, Elevate was one of our first customers to take advantage of the technology.

Objectives of Elevate's Mobile Marketing Campaign

Elevate is a Hawaii based church that exists to inspire a movement of caring and growing communities that fill Hilo and the nations of the earth with the worship of Jesus.

As a youth-focused, community-driven organization Elevate's outreach efforts extend far beyond the confines of a the traditonal church. As is common, many of its community members are constantly on the go, living hectic, modern lives. Elevate decided that a text messaging solution would allow them to quickly, effectively reach their members. Club Texting delivered that solution.

The Solution
Elevate signed up the church’s leaders, as well as members of the community. They built their text messaging list by highlighting their new SMS program at  community events and services. With a large list of subscribers in hand, they began to send out text messages, in order to achieve a number of goals:

• Promoting Special Events: “REVO this sat. @ new venue: old farmer’s exchange – btwn downtown L&L & Sack n Save. Spread the word to everyone, REVO is on!!!
• Promoting Church Campaigns: “tonight the ‘elevate africa’ vision plus another night of intense worship. come ready to shake things up!
• Promoting Church Services / Prayer Groups: “gathering tonight @ hmc, pastor dwight on freedom, sweeeeet worship and lots of good fun at the café. See you there!"

The Results
Elevate continues to send text messages to its members on an almost weekly basis. As more and more people learn about and look forward to receiving these updates, Elevate's list is growing rapidly.

To learn more about text messaging solutions for churches, please visit Club Texting.

Flat Rate Plans To Spur Growth In Mobile Advertising?

MediaPost's OnlineMediaDaily reports:

THE MOVE TOWARD FLAT-RATE, UNLIMITED calling plans by three of the major U.S. wireless carriers this week could help spur the growth of mobile media and advertising, say industry analysts and mobile marketing executives.

They view the unlimited $100 voice plans announced in succession by Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile as fostering greater usage, and as a step toward all-you-can-eat offers that will eventually include data services. That would help turn the cell phone into a more ad-friendly platform as more people download content, send text messages and surf the mobile Web.

Unlimited data plans, coupled with the iPhone effect, could be a game changer.

Report From OMMA Mobile: Madison Ave Not Ready For Mobile

MediaPost reports:

AGENCIES ARE GEARING UP FOR mobile advertising, but the process of mobile media planning and buying is still very much a work in progress, according to a panel of ad executives convened at the OMMA Mobile conference Wednesday

Buoyed by growing client interest in mobile ads, agencies are starting to field mobile specialists and acquire the expertise to help elevate cell phones to must-buy media. But incorporating mobile into the marketing mainstream remains a learning process for both Madison Avenue and advertisers.

Of course you could always bypass an expensive Madison Avenue shop and work directly with a company that is dedicated to mobile marketing.

The Mobile Implications Of A Microsoft-Yahoo Merger

mocoNews asks, "What could a tie-up of Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) achieve in the mobile space?" Let's look at the press release:

Emerging user experiences:  Our combined ability to focus engineering resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video, mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms is greatly enhanced.

As mocoNews notes, "Both have been busy the past year building out their mobile services and strategies." You can be sure that when considering this potential acquisition Microsoft isn't merely looking at search advertising (the past, and the present); they are also looking at mobile (the future). As Google CEO noted yesterday, the iPhone is just the "first of a whole generation of products" that will exploit search technology. "With those search opportunities comes ad monetization," said Schmidt. 

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.

 

 

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

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.

Nokia Ad Chief: "Why retailers need a mobile edge"

iMedia Connection recently ran a piece by Mike Baker, the VP of Nokia Ad Business, on the importance of mobile marketing to the retail industry.

First, he succinctly defines the medium:

Mobile advertising is the opportunity to serve potential customers with a relevant, appealing offer on which they can easily act. For instance, a consumer is browsing mobile content or viewing a mobile map when an opportunity is presented to click through a banner ad to receive a mobile coupon that can easily be redeemed at a store, or to schedule a test drive of a new vehicle model or to find the nearest retailer of a certain product, with useful directions to the nearest point of sale.

He also provides some informative examples of how retailers might utilize the mobile platform:

• Mobile alerts update customers of sales, new products and shipments or extended hours.
• Mobile coupons drive customers to the store with special deals they don't need to worry about clipping from the newspaper and remembering at a later date.
• Mobile coupons sent on a card member's birthday enhance loyalty.
• Text notifications of coupon expiration dates drive store visits.
• Mechanics like birthday reminders, mobile access to wish lists, recipes or shopping lists stored on or sent to the phone encourage in-store shopping.

Head over to iMedia Connection to read the entire piece--it's worth your time.

Microsoft bringing ads to mobile devices

The C|net News blog is reporting that Microsoft is rolling out a new mobile ad platform:

Microsoft is set to launch on Monday its first mobile advertising.

Going forward, people will be able to see mini banner ads optimized for their browser type and screen size on their mobile devices when they visit the MSN Mobile portal, which works on any mobile phone, said Phil Holden, director for online services for Microsoft.

The MSN Mobile portal offers news, information on weather and stocks, as well as movie reviews and listings. It also offers access to search, Hotmail, Messenger, and Windows Live Spaces.

MSN Mobile will also now enable users to buy movie tickets over the phone with a credit card and download background images and ringtones.

The initial advertisers are Bank of America, Paramount Pictures, and Jaguar.

See the original story @ C|net

More Than One-Third Of U.S. Pre-Teens Have A Mobile Phone

Mobile Marketing Is The Future:

PRE-TEENS IN THE U.S. ARE more connected than ever before, thanks to the widespread use of mobile phones.   

The Nielsen Co. released the findings of an in-depth study on the mobile media and cross-media behavior of U.S. "tweens" (ages 8-12). The report estimates that: 35% of tweens own a mobile phone, 20% of tweens have used text messaging, and 21% of tweens have used ring & answer tones.

While text-messaging and ringtones remain the most pervasive non-voice functions on the phone, other content such as downloaded wallpapers, music, games and Internet access also rank high among tweens. According to Nielsen, 5% of tweens access the Internet over their phone each month. While 41% of tween mobile Internet users say they do so while commuting or traveling (to school, for example), mobile content such as the Internet is also a social medium for this audience: 26% of tween mobile Internet users say they access the Web while at a friend's house, and 17% say they do so at social events.

Forget toys--texting and downloading are preferred activities of the tween set, who are turning to their phones for in-home entertainment. About 58% of tweens who download or watch TV on their phone do so at home, 64% of tweens who download or play music on their phone do so at home, and 56% of tweens who access the Internet on their phone do so at home.

Read more @ OnlineMediaDaily

 

High Customer Recall Rates For Mobile Ads

IP Business News recently reported on an interesting study of customer recall rates for various forms of mobile advertisements:

As for the expected consumer backlash, 82 percent of experienced brands claim to have completed a financial action as a result of a subscriber being sent a mobile marketing message, and while that’s not a direct indicator of consumer sentiment, it doesn’t suggest overwhelming disproval.

And there’s even better news for those who have dipped their toes into mobile marketing. In a study from the first quarter of this year by Telephia, 41 percent of mobile video consumers responded in some way to a mobile advertisement, while recall rates across the various platforms of mobile advertising ranged from 20 to 55 percent, with mobile video enjoying the highest recall rates.

Head over to IP Business News for charts, analysis, and more.

Marketers Reach Key Demos Via Mobile

Insight Express put out an important new study this week:

MARKETERS STRUGGLING TO ENGAGE ELUSIVE 18- to-24-year-olds need look no further than mobile devices, according to new findings from market research firm InsightExpress.

Members of Generation Y now use their mobile phones to take 76% of all personal calls, according to an online survey of some 2,000 young mobile device owners in October, conducted by Stamford, Conn.-based InsightExpress.

Over half of the Gen Yers--or 56%--report spending time looking for new things to do with their mobile phones. That engagement leaves the door open for marketers to reach young consumers with short attention spans and busy digital social lives.

Read the entire article at OnlineMediaDaily.

New Study: 'Mobile Marketing Ready for Takeoff'

eMarketer reports on a new study:

Major European brands are set to increase their mobile marketing, according to an Airwide Solutions-sponsored study by Vanson Bourne.

More than one-quarter of the 50 companies surveyed had already launched live SMS text-messaging campaigns, and nearly one-fifth had launched live MMS multimedia campaigns

Follow here for more information, or click the chart below:

Kagan: U.S. Cell Phone Saturation May Spur Mobile Ad Rush

Research firm SNL Kagan released a 10-year wireless projection last week which predicts that by the year 2013, mobile phones--including consumer, business and dual users--will achieve 100% penetration in the U.S., when an estimated 322 million cell phone units in use will actually exceed the total U.S. population. Kagan estimates current U.S. cell phone penetration at 84%, or about 233 million units.

Kagan projects that subscriber units and voice revenue will inch along as market saturation is approached--but data revenue will grow at a compound annual rate of 14%, rising to at least 22% of service revenue, compared to under 10% today. Kagan says it may revise its data revenue projections upward after new WiMAX offerings and the winners of the 700 MHz auction emerge next year.

And what does that mean for mobile advertising?

Analysts say the exponential growth of mobile data use--including text, Web browsing, games, music and video--is spurring carriers, WiMAX competitors and other key players to accelerate their pursuit of the "holy grail" of market paradigm shifts: free mobile services fully subsidized by advertising.

Mobile advertising currently brings in about $500 million annually in the U.S., a small slice of the overall revenue generated by Internet advertising. With mobile operators, media companies and Internet giants like Google actively exploring potential applications and huge advertisers like Procter & Gamble, Burger King and Pepsi experimenting with mobile phone ads, some analysts believe that the overall market for mobile advertising could top $11 billion by 2011, or more than one-third of the current Internet advertising market.

Read more at MediaPost Online Media Daily.

'Will Mobile Marketing Work for your E-Business?'

James Martin of E-Commerce Guide has published an informative article on the huge rewards (and the potential pitfalls) of mobile marketing. The article is worth a full read, but if you're short on time, we've pulled out some highlights for you. FYI: Martin identifies two types of mobile marketing--Opt-In SMS and Mobile Banner Ads.

Opt-in SMS (Short Message Service) campaigns, in which a consumer provides a business with his or her cell phone number in exchange for special offers or alerts delivered via text message, is one option. For example, a cosmetics retailer on eBay may send SMS alerts to customers, reminding them when it's time to reorder and offering a 15 percent discount coupon if they buy now.
...
Though still primarily used by large corporations, mobile marketing is increasingly attracting interest from small e-tailers and retailers, said Strother. "The mobile phone is a very personal device. People take it with them everywhere they go — especially people 35 and under. So you can easily develop a one-to-one relationship with your customers through their mobile phones." Messages sent to a mobile phone are much more likely to be read than e-mail sent to a PC, which may get routed to a spam folder, Strother adds.

The result: Mobile marketing can be more effective than other forms of marketing, said Bob Gold, CEO of Gold Mobile, a mobile marketing solutions company. Because mobile campaigns are highly targeted and opt-in, Gold said consumers typically redeem 5 to 20 percent of coupons delivered to their cell phones, compared to only 1 to 3 percent of coupons received through direct mail or e-mail.

Mobile marketing also helps e-tailers gather valuable data, such as cell phone numbers, on consumers who are interested in their products or services. "Once you get your customers to opt in (to receive an offer or alert via text message), you can capture them in your database and use that information later for loyalty marketing and customer retention," Gold said.

And some common mistakes to avoid?

For a mobile marketing campaign to succeed, Gold said, you must first understand your customers. For example, are your customers heavy text message users? Do they frequently use their cell phones to find products and services? If not, a mobile campaign may not be an effective strategy for your marketing efforts. If you do decide to go mobile, every mobile marketing campaign should be opt-in, Gold adds.

Head over to E-Commerce Guide to read the rest of the piece.

UK Consumers: We Want Shortcodes With Our Ads!

The goal of a most marketing campaigns is to induce a consumer response. In order to achieve this, the consumer has to remember your ad. This can be difficult in an age of media saturation. There are two approaches you can take to this problem. One - Hope for the best, relying upon the creative brilliance of your campaign, or Two - Give consumers a way to instantly respond. A recent survey of consumers in the UK shows that they're clamoring for the latter:

When asked if they would find it useful using text as a response mechanism to an offline advertisement, to then be forwarded to a mobile internet site for more details, more than 51% of consumers said they would be quite keen or extremely keen to use it.

Out of those who were interested in the service, three quarters (74%) said they would use it to order a brochure and 70% would use it to check the availability of a product. Two thirds (66%) would use it to find their nearest retail store, 65% would use it to request a sample and 58% would use it to browse the product information. More than half (53%) would be interested in using it to order tickets to a concert, play or other event, whereas 49% said they would use it to buy a product and 48% would use it to book a holiday or other types of travel. More than half mobile users would also use a service like this to enter a free prize draw (51%)!

Head over to the 160Characters Association's website to read more.

Mobile Advertising: Ease Of Use = Growth!

Today's edition of MediaPost's Online Media Daily features an interesting commentary from writer Gary Bembridge. Assessing the current state and the future of mobile advertising, Mr. Bembridge sees a market bound by a myth--that mobile advertising is hard to do. Once this myth is shattered, Mr. Bembridge believes, the flood gates should open:

AS GOOGLE HAS SO SUCCESSFULLY shown, if you make media buying intuitive and easy, the advertisers will come. And not just the mom and pop retailers, but nearly every major marketer is now involved in some form of search marketing, if only to protect its own flanks from aggressive competitors. So, how does this translate to mobile advertising? There is still a nagging feeling out there that mobile advertising is hard to do. That it will require yet another agency specialist like search does or a fully mature mobile site, but it doesn't.

So what happens when someone dispels the illusion?

Simply put, the mobile phone has become an indispensable device giving marketers access to target audiences 24x7. It doesn't take an economist to project that marketers cannot afford to ignore this channel for long.

...

While seemingly in a nascent stage, the fact is mobile advertising is projected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2006 to $13.9 billion by 2011 (eMarketer, January, 2007). The reasons are simple: mobile advertising that delivers relevant and useful ads gives users immediate answers that are regarded as valuable content; advertisers can influence their audience during the "last mile" at the moment just before a purchase in the real world.

He closes his piece with some important advice: "Don't be the advertiser left behind."

Club Texting Customer Spotlight: Sandbar

Sandbar USA Text Messaging Case Study

Objectives:
Sandbar is a two acre entertainment complex on the water overlooking Manhattan, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. A New Jersey landmark for over 20 years, Sandbar annually leads beer & liquor sales for the entire state of New Jersey—operating only 6 months out of the year.

Sandbar’s Marketing Director, Vid Bahadur, saw the value of wireless communication when used for direct marketing. He also saw huge growth potential for the future: powerful marketing tools such as multimedia messages, including streaming commercial clips. Sandbar decided that the time was right to start turning their customers into subscribers, recognizing the potential to then leverage that existing subscriber base for future projects. 

When Sandbar decided to setup a direct, personalized system to deliver marketing messages to a targeted group of opt-in subscribers, they partnered with Club Texting. 

Solution:
In order to segment their customer base by demographic, Sandbar chose four keywords: SPLASH (Fridays) and SALSA (Saturdays) for their general mailing lists; SANDBAR and BOTTLES for their VIP reservation mailing lists.

Although Sandbar had an existing phone database of over 10,000 numbers, they wanted to grow a 100% opt-in texting list from scratch. They kicked off their campaign at the start of the 2007 season with three mailers: direct mail, hand delivered fliers, and email messages. The initial push offered all subscribers free admission, adding that this was the only way to gain free admission to the club. Within one month, they amassed 1,500 numbers. 

Over the next few months, Sandbar expanded their texting promotions to include in-venue signage, radio, online, and all print materials. Sandbar’s text campaigns often take advantage of circumstances. If they had surplus supplies, ongoing promotions, or spare capacity, they used a text messaging campaign to address or exploit the particular situation. The results have shown that these campaigns were both effective, and efficient, as they took advantage of available resources. 

• Other campaigns included:
• In-venue ticket giveaways: Announced a sponsored Yankees ticket giveaway during club nights, selecting one lucky winner the following Monday.
• VIP bottle service for a lucky winner on slower nights
• Last-minute text at 11pm to increase traffic on a rainy Friday night. Offered free shuttle service from parking lots to venue with text coupon: sent to 1,500 subscribers, 200 people showed up (13% Response Rate).
• In-venue offers: handed out on business cards to push a specific product at a discounted price for text subscribers 

Outcome:
Within the first month of using the service, Sandbar collected over 1,500 numbers in total. At the present time, after three months of use, their text message campaigns now reach over 4,500 subscribers. On average, subscribers receive 1-2 messages per week.

Sandbar makes a point to give back to their customers, offering something in almost every one of their text blasts. 

For the first time in its history, Sandbar has been able to run successful marketing campaigns without printed materials or online support. Instead they are able to rely exclusively upon the Club Texting system.

New York Times on Text Messaging To Reinforce Branding

In today's New York Times, Business writer Bob Tedeschi takes a look at text messaging, and how online retailers are successfully using the medium to reinforce their brand messages:

ONLINE retailers were, for all the obvious reasons, the pioneers of Web advertising. When it comes to advertising on the mobile Web, though, they are treading carefully.

On the one hand, executives and analysts said, online retailers are right to be cautious. After all, few consumers are buying items through their mobile devices. But at least some online retailers say they have found enticing success from early marketing efforts, as long as those initiatives are aimed at simply keeping themselves on the radar of customers as opposed to trying to prompt an immediate purchase or a visit to the company’s Web site.

So how does it work?

Take Moosejaw Mountaineering, for example, an outdoor goods retailer based in Madison Heights, Mich. Earlier this year, Moosejaw began sending out text messages to more than 1,000 of its customers who had signed up to receive them. The campaign caught on quickly, with recipients often sending messages back to the retailer and receiving loyalty program points as a reward.

A recent message sent to customers, for instance, conveyed the news that someone had told Robert Wolfe, one of Moosejaw’s founders, that he looked like Ben Stiller. It then asked customers whether that was a good thing and promised points in the company’s rewards program for those who answered “correctly” (meaning yes). Sixty-six percent of the customers who received the message voted.

There is a lot more to read, so head over to the New York Times now.

Borders Bookstores Set To Go Mobile

mocoNews has alerted us to some interesting developments being reported by MarketingWeek. Borders, one of the largest book retailers in the world, is going mobile:

The retailer will send sample chapters to customers' phones free of charge before books are released and the book can then be purchased in-store for a discount of up to 20% using a barcode.

So how's it going to work?

A list of books will be placed on the Borders website with a password that can be sent to a specially created number. The customer will be sent a confirmation text message with a link that connects to the internet and downloads the chapter to an applications file.

Read the entire article @ MarketingWeek (via mocoNews).

Mobile Music Reporters: LG & Billboard Team Up

MediaPost's Online Media Daily is reporting that LG and Billboard have teamed up to offer thirty lucky wannabe rock critics the chance to cover summer concerts on Billboard.com, using LG enV camera phones.

Details:

With "Mobile Beat," up to 30 contestants will spend this summer competing as mobile music journalists--going to music concerts, snapping pictures with an LG enV camera phone, and then posting photos and reviews to a personalized blog on Billboard.com. The contest will culminate in mid-September, with the winner receiving an all-expense-paid trip to the Billboard Music Awards, complete with red-carpet access.

How this came about is even more interesting:

"The editors actually brainstormed about doing a concert series with a blog around it, but we didn't have a specific writer in mind," said Stacey Gross, marketing director, Billboard. "We thought creating a contest would be a great way to connect with our readers and get them excited about the brand as a whole."

Read the entire article at Online Media Daily.

Technorati Tags: billboard, lg, mobile music, mobile beat

Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Updates Ad Guidelines

OnlineMediaDaily reports on some news coming out of the Mobile Marketing Forum in New York City:

N ADVANCE OF TODAY'S START of the Mobile Marketing Forum in New York, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has released an update to its Mobile Advertising Guidelines.

Much like the Interactive Advertising Bureau's universally recognized ad formats, the Mobile Advertising Guidelines provide advertisers with technical specifications and standard WAP ad units (such as banners). Marketers also get detailed explanations of various click-through capabilities, including email opt-in and click-to-call, as well as specific best practices with regard to ad content.

This fourth version of the guidelines includes provisions for mobile Web and downloadable content (such as ring tones and ad-based games), as well as an overview of multimedia messaging services.

Continue reading at OnlineMediaDaily.

Technorati Tags: mobile marketing association, mobile marketing forum

Club Texting Customer Spotlight: Philly Style Magazine

When Philadelphia Style Magazine decided it was time to build a deeper relationship with their customers, they turned to Club Texting to set up a text messaging subscription service.

Philadelphia Style Magazine is the city's premier lifestyle and fashion publication. They deliver inside information to an affluent 25 - 45 year-old subscriber base.

Goal: Build Up A Customer Database Rich With Demographic Data. Collect demographic data from customers to enhance database.

Strategy For Success:  Incentivized Call-To-Action Campaign--Online, In Print, and On Site. Offers to customers include:

• Last-Minute Event Notification. Example: Happy Hour.
  
• Sweepstakes. Example: First five people to text back win a fabulous prize.
• Added Value: Notify subscribers of upcoming advertiser sales and promotions.

Call To Action (CTA):  Text STYLE to CLUBS (25827) and receive alerts for special STYLE events and exclusive sweepstakes!

Methods:

• Offered first 50 text subscribers a gift certificate for a free appetizer & cocktail at the restaurant of their choice.    This offer was seen in the following places:    
  • Included CTA in a promo page announcing the launch of the Style Club Texting service in the March/April  issue.
    
  • Reinforced the campaign launch in subscriber email newsletter.
  
  
• Added CTA to the signature of all employee emails.
• Integrated list subscription process into Style Club website registration procedure.
• Handed out VIP cards with CTA at past Philly Style events, such as issue launch parties. Future events include Center City 6, a popular Philadelphia after-work happy hour series.
• Sent out a street team to hand out VIP cards with CTA in high-traffic locales, such as parks and popular dining districts.
• Enhanced data collection:    
        
  • Customers provide home address and other demographic information in exchange for special offers.
  • Data  can be collected via customer SMS response.

Outcome: Within two months of implementation, Philly Style Magazine has reached their target number of subscribers. With Club Texting's help, they achieved their goals  with little effort, and little upfront investment.

If you'd like to see your success story, get in touch with us at info@clubtexting.com.

The Future of Mobile Advertising

The other day we came across an interesting editorial at Chief Marketer.  Columnist Lane Michel opines on the current state of mobile ad spending, and what the future will bring. The article is worth a full read, but we've got some excerpts:

Will mobile phone advertising be intrusive or a boon for the consumer? That debate, which has been building, is about to boil over as wireless phone companies and advertisers run tests.

From today’s $3 billion in mobile advertising spending, ABI Research projects that spending to grow to $19 billion by 2011.

That growth will not come without challenges though:

To consumers, that could translate into many unwanted messages and interruptions on a device most consider very personal.

Despite these challenges, Michel recognizes that the potential is simply to great for them not to be overcome:

Every call made, every text message sent, every Web page surfed from the mobile device is attributable to you, the owner of the phone having a contract with a wireless phone company. It doesn’t take too many leaps to realize that your wireless provider knows where you live and what you do. All phones have GPS tracking as mandated by the FCC for emergency call locating. The behavioral information collected, or that can be collected, about you is what the advertising industry is so interested in.

It’s the holy grail of advertising to make a direct personal ad that gets a direct purchase connection. This is about as close as it gets.

He sees a successful future for advertisers who understand grouped needs, who set up permission systems, who responsively learn, and who build positive consumer experiences.

For more, read the entire article.

Mobile Marketing Success Stories, Pt. 2

When Portland, Oregon's Rose Quarter decided that they wanted to find more effective, cost efficient promotional tools, they looked to text messaging. After a bit of early apprehension, they decided to go for it; the results speak for themselves:

...when the Rose Quarter was mulling over text messaging, one of the major issues wasn't the cost, but the size of the database, and whether to wait until the database had fattened up before management moved forward.
"We started with 3,000 people," Eric Blankenship, Global Spectrum Director of Marketing at the Rose Quarter, told Pollstar. "That was what we wrestled with. Do we want to wait until it's 10,000? Do we want to wait until it's 15,000? And we didn't. We have 3,000 people who want our message via text messaging. Let's give it to them."
The Rose Quarter launched its first round of text messaging with a ticket presale announcing the June 13th Faith Hill / Tim McGraw Soul2Soul date at Portland's Rose Garden Arena. All 3,000 participants received a password and Web link to purchase tickets before the general public.
How did it go?
"Through text messaging alone, we sold $25,000 worth of tickets on the first day," Blankenship said. "Again, it goes back to, ‘Should we do something with the 3,000 people or should we wait until its bigger?' If we had waited a little bit we wouldn't have sold $25,000 worth of tickets. So, for us it was good."

You can read the full article at Pollstar.

The Tribeca Film Festival Delivers, Text Alerts, Mobile Video, & More

New York City's popular Tribeca Film Festival will be offering up something new (and exciting) this Spring:

The Tribeca Film Festival announced it will deliver trailers, shorts and full-length features to handsets via Verizon Wireless, heralding the annual event's first venture into the mobile content arena. The festival, which begins April 25 and continues for 12 days around New York City, will distribute to wireless devices three current festival full-length features, three short films, 49 movie trailers and three additional short films created exclusively for mobile consumption. Tribeca will also alert attendees of private screenings by sending wireless barcode tickets to their phones, and will launch text-based mobile movie reviews. (Fierce Mobile Content)

If you happen to come to NYC for the Tribeca Film Festival, then you might see some special new Pepsi billboards--they light up and beam messages to your phone!

Pepsi has mashed up an outdoor ad to be interactive and mobile. Pepsi ads at 120 transit shelters in Los Angeles, Washington, New York, Pittsburgh and Denver through May 31 send a message to any nearby Bluetooth-enabled phone, offering free music videos.

If the user accepts, the bus shelter poster lights up and video is sent. In New York, the video opens with Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon, who introduces three local singers. The ad closes with the address for a related website: pepsismash.com, which has video and music downloads as well. (USA Today)

SMS Shopping @ The New York Times: "Shopping via Text Message"

Today's New York Times has a story about a new company called ShopText, who hope to revolutionize impulse buying:

A company called ShopText has introduced a system that lets people buy products instantly using text messages, a process that eliminates the need to go to a store or even visit a Web site. For instance, a woman seeing an ad for a pocketbook in a magazine can order it on the spot simply by sending the text code found beside the item through her cellphone.

Amazingly, they have already signed up a number of high-profile clients for their service:

Consumers can already use text messages to buy some products. Ads for the new CD by singer Tim McGraw carry a texting code, as do magazine writeups for the new Harry Potter novel coming this summer. Some concert halls are selling tickets by text message, and some charities are taking donations that way.

CosmoGirl magazine will feature text-message codes throughout its June/July issue, both in the advertising and editorial pages. And Stuff magazine is introducing text-to-buy on products like CDs, DVDs and video games featured in its pages.

Alas, it is not as seamless an experience as the Times first hints:

To use the system, a consumer must first place a phone call to ShopText to set up an account, specifying a shipping address and card account. After that, all purchases can be made by thumb.

When ShopText receives text messages about donations or products, it charges the credit card it has on file for the buyer, then, if appropriate, sends the product from one of its warehouses around the country.

If they can hook up their system to directly bill customers through their carriers, then they'll find themselves  in excellent position to truly revolutionize the modern shopping experience.

Read the rest of the article over at the New York Times.

News Roundup: Recent Developments In Mobile / SMS Marketing #8

CallWave, Inc. today announced the launch of its text messaging gadget (also known as a widget) for Microsoft Vista – a free, desktop-based application enabling users to send text messages to virtually anyone, anywhere from their computer whether their handset is nearby or not:

By making it easier to send text messages worldwide, CallWave Web 2.0 widgets and gadgets can dramatically increase text daily usage and adoption. While text messaging continues to grow in popularity, many consumers find it difficult to text on a phone’s small interface. CallWave solves this problem–using the familiarity and ease of the computer for text messaging. Additionally, users who are in front of their computers everyday may prefer the convenience of communicating in that environment.

Meanwhile, UpSnap, a mobile search provider announced the launch of a new, free mobile meta-search engine :

“In essence what Dogpile and MetaCrawler are doing for the World Wide Web, UpSNAP is doing for mobile phones,” said Tony Philipp, CEO of UpSNAP. “We are excited to offer this great and innovative service for consumers through our Web site, which serves as a one-stop-shop that does all the work for you in a matter of seconds. It makes searching 10 different sites for mobile content a thing of the past.” 

Finally, mocoNews recently reported that a number of museums have joined together to create Museum On The Go, which will offer images of famous works of art, photographs of historic personalities, voice and sound recordings, music and video for download to mobile devices.

 

News Roundup: Recent Developments In Mobile / SMS Marketing #6

MediaPost's Online Media Daily reports that major ad network 24/7 Real Media will begin serving up mobile ads:

PREPARING ITS PUBLISHERS FOR AN expected wave in mobile adoption, ad network 24/7 Real Media is adding mobile ad serving and reporting to its Open AdStream ad management platform.

About a dozen publisher clients have begun implementing the Open AdStream Mobile Edition at an incremental cost, according to Ali Mirian, product manager of publisher solutions at 24/7 Real Media. A key selling point is that Open AdStream negates the need to purchase, install, learn and maintain a stand-alone technology for mobile ads, he added.

And how big is that wave they are expecting?

Despite slow adoption, technology companies and advertisers are still jockeying for position. Mobile advertising, for one, is expected to double this year to more than $878 million, according to market research firm eMarketer. Worldwide, Piper Jaffray recently projected that mobile search revenues will generate $11 billion by 2008.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported this week that small businesses are beginning to build mobile websites:

Johannes Tromp says the Web site for his South Carolina bed-and-breakfast generates good business. But last fall, he found a way to reach even more potential customers: He made a version of the site for cellphones.

Mr. Tromp signed up for a mobile Web address with the newly available suffix "dot-mobi" and used a self-starter kit from a company called Roundpoint Ltd. to build