Posts Tagged ‘marketing’
Written on August 31st, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Mobile internet usage will grow 39 percent in Western Europe in 2014 from 13 percent in 2008, according to a new report by Forrester Research released today. That means that more than a third of consumers in Western Europe will access Internet from their mobile phones by 2014, great news for mobile advertisers.
At the end of this year, Forrester expects mobile Internet penetration to reach 17% in Western Europe — the same adoption rate for the PC Internet a decade ago, according to Forrester analyst Thomas Husson.
“Consumers who have a flat-rate data bundle spend more and more time on the Internet from their mobile phones, brands begin to launch their mobile Web presence to monetize these growing audiences and engage with their customers via more relevant mobile content and services, which in turn attracts more and more consumers to unlimited mobile Internet tariffs. The current economic climate will lengthen handset renewal cycles, foster the development of low-cost offerings, and boost the uptake of SIM-only contracts.
At the end of 2009, mobile Internet penetration will reach 17 percent in Western Europe, the same level of adoption that PCs with Internet access had in 1999, which Husson described as being a critical mass. “In the next decade, the mobile Internet will replicate the success story of the PC-based Internet as social networks, widgets, search engines or company websites adapt for mobile presentation,” Forrester reports.
Hussan writes that the “iPhone is just the tip of the iceberg” and that many other devices and services will enable the surge of mobile internet usage in Europe over the next five years. Source: Mobile Marking Watch
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Written on August 19th, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Cables Media, a new mobile marketing startup, has launched what they call “In Ur Face,” a customizable iPhone app platform that allows any “quick-serve” the ability to create their own coupon-based iPhone app on the fly.
“I don’t like calling it an iPhone application because it’s so much more,” says Jon Krutchik, president of Cables Media. “It’s really a mobile-marketing platform that happens to be disguised as an iPhone application.” The platform is aimed at giving chain-based businesses such as restaurants and other quick-serve services the ability to enter the world of iPhone advertising by pushing coupon notifications to willing consumers.
A team from Cables Media will meet with, and create a fully branded and customized iPhone app for new customers, and make it available in the App store within just a few weeks. Instead of being branded under the “In Ur Face” logo, any customized iPhone app will look like it was created by the customer solely, with their own logo and personal branding. From there, quick-serves pass along their coupon deals to Cables Media, which turns the deals around quickly and distributes them to app users—with no fee required from the consumer, unlike most text messaging systems.
“It’s really software as a service, and that’s exactly what we’re providing,” Krutchik says. “We handle everything from the customization to the deployment to even the campaign management itself. It’s hands-off for them because, again, let them focus on selling their food and doing what they do.”
The coupon messages, using patent-pending technology from Cables Media, delete themselves from each user’s device after they are redeemed or expire, leaving the customer with no responsibility aside from opting in to use the coupon. For quick-serve businesses, push-notification coupon distribution is a valuable asset, though it’s usually complicated and expensive for brands to go at alone. Cables Media has the right idea, it will be an interesting platform to watch in the near future. Source: Mobile Marketing Watch
Written on August 18th, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Zeep Media, a growing self-serve SMS solutions provider, has released a new whitepaper aimed at giving insight into the world of SMS advertising. Through its ever-growing network of SMS-based publishers, Zeep Media provides a look into how advertisers are utilizing the network in their marketing efforts.
The company analyzed data from nearly 2.6 million SMS ads placed through its ad network in June 2009, and compiled it to help others in planning their next SMS campaign. The volume of messages combined with the diversity of its SMS content publishers makes the findings a “statistically significant sample of the American SMS market.”
While some statistics revealed in the report are not so surprising, some are- for example, California and Texas are the top two US states in terms of SMS volume, and AT&T – while not the largest US carrier – sends the most SMS messages by far. Of course this is a relatively small sample size, but still gives interesting insight into the state of SMS advertising in the US alone.
The report focuses on two types of SMS ad-formats; teaser-based ads including call-to-actions, and mobile link formats. The report shows that teaser ads are the predominate format in Zeep Media’s sample with 74% of advertisers opting for it over mobile-link formats.
The whitepaper provides an interesting insight from a unique self-serve SMS provider that’s coming on strong in the mobile industry. It should be interesting to see what types of metrics and statistics the company can provide as their ad-network grows, we’ll definitely keep our eyes on it. Source: Mobile Marketing Watch
Written on August 6th, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Vibes Media has received a patent for its award winning radio text messaging platform for interactive mobile campaigns.
The mobile applications and marketing company has delivered over 600 million SMS messages since its proprietary marketing platform was first introduced six years ago.
Enabling communication peer to peer (via text) is their specialty at Vibes, and its that very expertise that is behind their ambitious goals for your radio.
The mobile services platform referred to is allowing stations to boost loyalty with listeners through many aspects of dynamic engagement. By simplifying the ways in which radio station personnel can quickly and effectively create promotions, opt-in alert databases, mobile coupon offers, etc., Vibes is helping take radio “to the next level.”
“Radio’s early adoption of mobile marketing and text messaging is the perfect example of an industry utilizing this new medium to increase consumer interaction and revenue by delivering a higher value to its advertisers,” said Alan Simkowski of Vibes. “This patent is an incredible asset that will help protect our partners in the radio industry from companies that offer lesser platforms as something of comparable value.” Source: MobileMarketingWatch/~3/owoiM0dVbGo/
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Written on August 6th, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Champion Sound is a unique service that’s built upon the niche of allowing musicians, promoters, venues and the likes the chance to spread the word about their music, bands, performers and more via new-media techniques such as social media integration, SMS message distribution and more.
The idea is to provide a central place for musicians to promote themselves using various tools that are organized in an easy-to-use and understand Web application. Upon signing in, users can utilize tools such as mass email and SMS distribution, social media updating and “shoutouts,” guest list management, MP3 uploading and broadcasting and more.
In addition, users can view stats that show how the interaction of your messages are working, as well as utilize a mobile application designed specifically to access and update your account at any time- things like adding fans to your guest lists, etc. can be done right after a show, for example.
It’s a pretty cool idea, and as I’ve said before, I like when new services target themselves to a specific niche instead of trying to be a jack-of-all-trades solution. There’s numerous services out there that will allow a musician to send mass emails and SMS messages, build a contacts database and so on, but none that bring it all together and offer an all-inclusive solution for musicians, promoters and venue owners. Well done.
Source: http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/champion-sound-lets-musicians-broadcast-themselves/
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Written on August 1st, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Are you studying usability problems or looking for user preference?
When it comes to user research it’s important for everyone involved in the design process to have an understanding about the insights we can gain with a particular research approach. As interaction designers we look to user experience (UX) research to discover usability problems or barriers to the experiences we create. As stakeholders get involved in UX research, questions are sometimes introduced that are intended to uncover user preference instead of usability problems. This can profoundly affect research results.
Consider this scenario: You’re observing a UX research session for a media player interface. Your goals include determining if a user can create a playlist and manage a list of videos. The session is also set up to question which media player design the user likes most and to ask the user to rate the visual appeal of the design. Any cause for concern?
Yes!
The scenario represents an attempt to combine two very different types of user research: user experience research and market research.
User experience research studies user behavior. The goal is to understand users’ cognitive expectations and mental models. UX research is informed by what people do and tends to change little over time.
Market research studies user preference. The goal is to understand user’s opinions and likes/dislikes. Market research is informed by what people say and tends to change significantly over time.
Most interaction designers understand that we don’t usually engage in market research. We’re most concerned with uncovering demonstrable user experience problems and less concerned with user opinions on a particular design. Besides having differing goals, UX research and market research have drastically different requirements.
User experience research is highly effective with relatively few users. Since humans tend to categorize and organize in similar ways, behavior doesn’t differ much across demographics. Studies show sharply diminishing returns after only 5 users.
Market research requires a large sample of users. Since user opinions vary widely across different regions, incomes and lifestyles, large number of users are necessary for any meaningful data. It’s not fair to assume opinions of a small number of users accurately represent a larger group.
Problems can arise when we mix market research with UX research. Results focused around user experience research goals can be positioned alongside relatively meaningless market research results. These mixed results can mislead decision makers and designers and distract from the actual experience problems we’re trying to address. Decisions based on these results are not grounded in solid research.
If you’re a designer hopefully you’ve had the opportunity to validate your designs through some form of user research. When approaching user experience research it’s critical that we remind ourselves of the difference between UX research and market research and the pitfalls of mixing the two. It’s also our responsibility to articulate these differences and educate others involved in the design process — project managers, marketing professionals, product managers — so we can stay focused on the goals that we’re best suited to meet.
(Thanks to Frances James at Bolt | Peters for helping me articulate my points on user experience research!)
Source: http://idlemode.com
Written on August 1st, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Blyk, the UK-based MVNO that operated under an ad-funded business model, is ceasing operation. The company couldn’t last any longer providing free SMS and airtime in exchange for relevant advertising. While the service as we know it is no more, the company will live on.
Completely changing its business model, Blyk will now focus its attention on providing mobile applications and consulting to other wireless carriers on how to provide ad-funded service to its customers. In other words, instead of providing a completely ad-funded service based on pushing advertisements to its users, Blyk will create specialized apps that other carriers can utilize that will offer the idea as a separate option, in addition to normal cell service.
It’s an idea that Blyk should’ve utilized in the beginning. By providing an option to users, it makes much more sense- the users can receive advertisements when they feel like it, in exchange for free SMS and airtime, instead of being forced to all the time. It might just be a sustainable business model in the end- that is if the mobile carriers will start including the app.
With increased pressure from the likes of Google Voice and others that also offer free telephony service, Blyk just simply couldn’t compete. Hopefully, the service will thrive as an app instead of a full-on service-provider, but only time will tell. As you remember, we here at MMW liked the idea of Blyk in the beginning and thought it would make it, if done properly. We’ll definitely keep this on our radar. Source: www.marketingwatch.com
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