Posts Tagged ‘SMS’
Written on August 29th, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Pier 1 Imports is teaming with Barnes & Noble for a promotional SMS sweepstakes.
Pier 1 has launched a full-blown in-store mobile call-to-action (which is basically a sign next to the prize) in one hundred Barnes & Noble bookstores across America that are in somewhat close proximity to a college campus.
Hoping to reach a young demographic and presumably tap into the need for trendy dorm furniture and accessories, this endeavor marks the first of its kind for Pier 1.
“This was our first time utilizing SMS as a channel, and we’re excited to be out there testing it,” said Jeff Haddox, a direct marketing analyst for the company. “SMS made perfect sense for our partnership with Barnes & Noble.”
The Pier 1 Imports SMS campaign began last month and will run through Sept. 30.
The campaign, as you might imagine, is keyword-specific. Since a unique keyword has been designated for each store, Pier 1 knows which store inspires consumers to text in.
Pier 1 is using ExactTarget’s text messaging platform for the sweepstakes.
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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 7th, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
TextMagic, a provider of SMS-focused solutions for businesses and developers, has launched a new bulk SMS Gateway API to allow for any application developer to connect to more than 700 global mobile networks and allow for a variety of innovative solutions related to SMS.
Developers can connect to TextMagic’s Bulk SMS Gateway using the HTTP API or Email to SMS service, and add SMS functionality to new and existing Web and back-office custom applications quickly and efficiently, potentially reaching more than three billion active SMS service users, and adding new-age functionality along the way. The company has even published a detailed, searchable online API manual that includes descriptions of commands illustrated with examples and includes testing hints.
In addition to the release of the new API, TextMagic has gone a step further in facilitating the integration of text messaging into software applications with the release of open-source client libraries prepared for Java, Ruby, Python, Perl and PHP. These libraries take over the responsibility of communication with the API and serve as text messaging middleware which is both well documented and easy to install. Since its launch, the initiative has been welcomed by developers and soon will be extended to other popular programming languages.
The company looks to have done a very good job of creating an all-inclusive package, so to speak, to developers wanting to integrate new-age SMS functionality into their projects. Not only that, but an abundance of documentation for both the set of APIs and open source code libraries, which is sometimes hard to find with open source technologies. 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
We’ve heard a lot about security loopholes, malware and other problems related to SMS recently, but this one is truly scary. An Israeli wireless carrier has been sued for allegedly wiretapping, in that it stores all SMS messages sent or received over its network.
The lawsuit emphasizes that Pelephone, the wireless carrier in question, not only stores “communications data”, such as when messages are sent, the phone numbers of the sender and recipient, and length of the SMS, but that the company also keeps the entire content of the messages.
Pelephone admits that they do in fact store SMS content in a “secured database” with limited access, and that they only store the content of any one message for no longer than one month. The reason they do so is to “provide SMS services,” the company states. The spokesman also admitted that the time the company holds the content of SMS messages varies slightly from system to system- meaning that it most likely keeps the content much longer than one month in most cases.
Upon signing up for service with Pelephone, users give “implied consent” to the saving of their SMS message content, the company claims, but the those sueing the company see it differently. The claimants argue that Pelephone has no authorization to save SMS messages, and that it infringes on both the privacy of its subscribers and on the privacy of subscribers of other networks, by concealing the fact of the storage from them.
Not many details have been released regarding the outcome of this lawsuit, as its still being played out, but we’ll definitely be watching this one. It just goes to show you that you should always read the fine print, even when signing up for wireless service. Source: www.marketingwatch.com
Written on August 1st, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
At the Black Hat Security Conference that’s taking place 
today in Las Vegas, two security researchers are set to present on several SMS vulnerabilities that have been identified that could affect several major mobile operating systems- including Android, iPhone and Windows Mobile.
Using some sophisticated software and technical know-how, researchers are using what’s called the “Sully Fuzzing Framework” to point out any and all potential flaws and security loopholes present in various scenarios. ”Fuzzing” is a form of automated software testing that involves entering random or unexpected data. Crashes or unexpected behavior arising from such input can then be analyzed as a potential vulnerability.
More simply, the two researchers created a layer, called the “injector,” just above the bottom of the telephony stack that performs a “man-in-the-middle attack,” so to speak, by intercepting communication between a mobile device’s modem and multiplexer. By doing so, the pair found several SMS flaws on both Android and iPhone platforms, with Windows Mobile still being analyzed.
In iPhone OS 2.2 and 2.2.1, they were able to crash the iPhone’s SpringBoard window management application and the iPhone’s CommCenter, which manages iPhone connectivity- the heart of network connection for the iPhone, meaning vulnerabilities could be a serious problem.
This news comes on the heels of a report that Symbian-powered smartphones are likely to be infected with malware and spyware and doesn’t speak well of the security surrounding the devices that almost everyone in the world is carrying around with them at all times. It shows that, just like with computers, we should never keep our guard down from attacks of all kinds. Hopefully, patches and fixes can be introduced now that the vulnerabilities have been recognized, but that only means new loopholes and attacks will be along shortly. Source: www.marketingwatch.com
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