Text messaging activity

Beyond the impressive increase in SMS, this prediction could have some interesting implications:

"Text message usage is expected to grow in the near future as the application continues to gain mass-market traction in North America and some emerging markets. But mobile instant messaging eventually will cannibalize SMS and computer-based e-mail, according to a recent study from TNS Technology, as users eschew messaging fees in favor of all-you-can-eat data plans."

Do you agree or disagree?

Impressive case study

Some highlights of this impressive case study:

"The effort on behalf of Ashley to build highly-interactive contacts with a growing base of active subscribers, has ensured that its consumers want to continue receiving messages from the retailer based on positive and relevant subscription and sending policies."

“These new forms of digital marketing via email and especially SMS have really impressed us out of the gate, and shown us a clear path to offset declining response rates and poor ROI in some of our other forms of advertising,”

“We have been most surprised with the revenue generated from a simple 160-character text message with a sale offer. No doubt about it, this has been a game-changer for us,” Mr. Malouf continued. “With two simple SMS campaigns, we’ve generated over $100,000 in new business."

Obama Releases Impressive Mobile Site

Following up a groundbreaking move to turbo-charge their SMS opt-in list with the text for VP Pick announcement opt-in, the Obama camp released a really nice mobile site, created by iLoop.

The press release:

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The Obama campaign's aggressive push into mobile is the most important development in the mobile market this year.
>>

Agreed.

Beyond the fact that the site is a fully functional piece of the campaign marketing strategy, with effective calls to action and registration paths, here are some of the features:

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The news and press releases sections of the site deploy cutting edge
mobile technology from iLoop Mobile that easily selects and extracts content
automatically from the Obama broadband Web site and dynamically places it in
the mobile site instantly as it changes. Other Obama mobile features include:


-- Opt-in to SMS alerts for appearance schedules, speeches, downloadable
content (video, wallpapers, ring tones) and more
-- A viral "Tell-a-Friend" component on every page of the site which
allows a user to easily forward the site to another person's phone
-- Meet Barack section with media rich bio information
-- News and press releases dynamically fed by the Obama Web site
-- Video downloads of portions of important Obama speeches
-- Downloadable Obama ringtones and wallpapers
-- "Share the Hope" viral component where the user can forward an animated
image to a friend with a personal message of "hope" attached
-- Mobile voting page that polls the users opinions on the issues
>>

Is Google right?

Mobile ads will one day be a bigger opportunity for Google than the desktop. Or so Google's Schmidt says.

However, skepticism is abound.

So, perhaps Schmidt is wrong, and the opportunity with mobile is not with advertising but is with other mobile information services. It wouldn't be the first time that one technology didn't translate directly to a newer technology.

The key is to be adaptive, not replicative.

The Music Biz Is Perect For Mobile Marketing

A press release from Mozes regarding their Faith Hill mobile promotion just reinforces this fact further. Gives their opt-in list prior access to singles from the upcoming release - calling it "mobile listening parties" - a perfect fit.

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“If you take a poll of the music industry, executives will all agree that mobile is a wave of the future in the music business and is one of the few areas showing rapid growth,” Mr. Stacey said. “It allows artists to connect to fans in a more immediate and personal way than ever before.

“With television, radio and print promotions, artists are hoping that someone is listening,” he said. “With mobile it’s a more definite connection and since it’s on an opt-in basis, artists know that they are reaching people who are truly interested.”
>>

Obama Camp To Baloon SMS Database with VP Pick Alert

The Obama Marketing Team (aka his campaign) seems to have learned something about SMS opt-in lists that most advertisers have yet to discover. The biggest news of the pre-convention summer will go public via text message, in a bid to heighten the effect of the announcement and giant-size the opt-in list. Illustrating the team's increasing mastery of marketing 2.0, it chose the highly anticipated VP pick event as a catalyst for lightning viral spread of their traditional-media-bypass strategy. Here's the message sent to supporters Sunday night to announce the strategy:

Barack will announce his VP candidate

choice through txt msg between now

& the Conv. Tell everyone to text VP

to 62262 to be the first to know!

Please forward.

Here's the response message:

Welcome to Obama Mobile. You will

now be one of the 1st notified when

the VP candidate is selected. Text

HELP for help. Std charges apply.

Please forward.

Give a Gift via SMS

Nothing is more viral than allowing people to give something to their friends. For now, this is just in India and Canada, but it appears that it won't take long for the US. Are there any others in this space?

MyGiftMate.com

From the release:

Now it is possible to send a gift by MyGiftMate.com, a website that makes it easy to let your loved ones know you are thinking of them. Gifts tug at the strings of people’s hearts and lets them know that you are thinking of them. Special occasions deserve special gifts, but there does not have to be a reason to gift someone.

“MyGiftMate.com has all the ingredients to be a staple of the connected NRI,” says Shabbir Evershine of Evershine Group, a South-Asian and Middle-Eastern marketing and consumer behavior consulting firm. “It is instant, secure, and readily accepted. More and more people in India have cell phones and Gift Mate allows people in US and Canada to ‘text gifts’ to their loved ones and colleagues in India.”

Pay Mate is funneling over nine million dollars (USD) in various stages into promotions and business development – focusing intently on achieving a superior platform of technology by enhancing security and advanced ease of features for all mobile users. Pay Mate and Gift Mate is setting its sights on providing services globally, not just limiting it to Asian Americans.

Meanwhile over in Mobile Advertising Land: In-SMS Ads

This is being reported as a first. Interesting, since ad monetized services have often emerged as stronger survivors compared to paid/subscription services on the web.

The story is worth clicking into to get the background, but here's a snippet:

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Ads inserted in peer-to-peer SMS have a much higher chance of being read as they are less intrusive than the usual SMS push. In-SMS advertising allows for the integration of multiple interactivity features such as click-to-WAP, click-to-call or click-to-download. Moreover, thanks to Amobee's technology, Orange is able to accurately target specific geographical zones or delivery times.

Test results measured during the nine-week testing period are very positive in terms of acceptance rate, service delivery, click rates, number of inventories and the impact on brand recognition.

>>

FTEU

Longer-term concept to watch: Free to end user messaging. Essentially subsidized consumer messages paid for by businesses.

"Carriers need to map out the business processes for these FTEU programs"

State of the mobile web

This report confirms some things we already know, but has a few new perspectives on demographics, devices, and demand.

Locals Only: Is an Online vs. Offline Local Search All That Different?

This post has some interesting results of local search using online and offline (print) methods.

Basics are that there are subtle differences between the two, and "The type of local search consumers use depends on their degree of need." Along those lines, "nuances such as short-term vs. long-term need and product vs. service-oriented searches do exist and businesses should consider the type of local searches their consumers conduct when determining their advertising spend."

I think the lesson for us is that online is not the same as offline, online is not the same as mobile.

Pepperjam Launching New Mobile Marketing Division

The industry press is picking up on the announcement from a local affiliate marketing company, Pepperjam, that they have partnered with M3 Mobile and are planning to release a platform that combines mobile marketing with affiliate marketing. It seems to be based primarily on text message campaigns, and most likely enables affiliates to earn revenue by registering consumers on behalf of advertisers. The Pepperjam blog seems to be the place to get a bit more info and links into what they are planning.

>>
Long story short, we expect to be first to market with a revolutionary pay for performance mobile marketing technology that will allow both advertisers and publishers to synergize mobile and internet marketing and ultimately make more money.
>>

GPark

For those of you who have difficulty remembering where you've left your car, a new application for the iPhone may bring relief: GPark. In short GPark allows you to "mark" where you've left your car, and then at any time pull up directions via Google Maps that will bring you back to where you've parked. Yet another fascinating little application that could prove useful to many iPhone users.

Hopefully this might help some around the Baiada.

Maybe Texting Will Catch On In The US After All

Textwalking, textriding, textblading - the American College of Emergency Physicians says don't do it. “People are texting and they trip and fall on their faces – usually people in their 20s. We see a lot of face, chin, mouth [and] eye injuries from falls.”

More interestingly, text messaging continues to spread in American culture - when something like this is picked up and carried on TV, radio and print, it's moving into the mainstream. Hopefully, they'll be reporting on PhindMe next - think we can get the medical community to issue a warning about us? "Warning: PhindMe causes dangerous over-crowding in local businesses."

Local (Camden) Company Expanding Reach Of It's Mobile Application

I don't have a PBJ subscription, so I couldn't get the detail here - anyone able to link their subscription to this article, let me know. In the meantime, the snippet is interesting enough:

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MyLeaderBoard expands use of its tech into mobile realm
Philadelphia Business Journal - by Peter Key Staff Writer

CAMDEN — A company that developed technology for using mobile devices to provide information to spectators at golf tournaments has taken it outside the links.

MyLeaderboard Inc. has begun using its technology for applications that deliver information to smart phones, personal digital assistants and similar gadgets.

“We’ve expanded considerably into the mobile space,” said Adrian Ornik, the company’s chief marketing officer.

For the United States Golf Association, which holds the U.S. Open, myLeaderboard developed an application that allowed users to get real-time information about the tournament sent to their smart phones and personal digital assistants. Twenty-five thousand people from 27 countries downloaded the application from the USGA’s Web site.
>>

The Place For Us To Post News We Can Use!

Here's hoping this can help all of us stay on top of things. The Authors include all PhindMe people. Anyone with a PhindMe email address may post news to this blog.

Instead of emailing the entire team about technology news (directly or indirectly related to mobile), industry research, competitor launches or good web site finds, post it here.

There aren't too many ground rules - at the moment, the only one I can think of is that posts should contain references to news or sites that you feel all of us need to know to help make the right decisions as we move forward.

Oh yeah - one more thing. It's public. Don't post anything secret or proprietary to PhindMe! If you're not sure, don't post it.

OK then!