Mobile Marketing

Multi-Channel Marketing

A bit of research fell into the email inbox this morning that’s worth airing. On the back of an earlier article about trying to maximise the impressions of a print ad it was interesting that this research looked at the channels used in the marketing mix and how those channels are tracked.  The research was conducted by SkyIQ , part of BSB Sky. Of the 12 channels used, the most predominantly used channel was online being employed by 76% of the marketers surveyed. In my own opinion that figure struck me as being on the low side. Given that the survey had canvassed One hundred senior marketing professionals working within large organisations in the UK  I thought that online/digital would have been used by the majority, if not certainly the vast majority of all the companies.   Some of the ‘traditional’ media were next in line with print being used by 71% of respondents, email by 66% and, greeted with a broad smile from An Post, direct mail came in at a healthy 61% usage. TV was last only employed as a marketing channel by 36% of the respondents along with mobile also on 36%.     You could get the impression that some channels were not employed for the sake of a “safer option”. Given that we have a 117% penetration of mobile phones in the Republic the figure of 36% usage in the marketing mix strikes me as particula...

Mobile Retail and m-commerce.

Some interesting stats and facts have come to light this month – in this instance concerning the rise and rise of m-commerce. In a report conducted by Tamar (UK Based Research) suggest that 19% of consumers will do their festive shopping via a mobile handset in 2010. I’d hazard a guess that there are also a huge number of individuals that will conduct their primary research on a mobile but might leave the “last mile” to be concluded elsewhere for a variety of reasons (some set out below). Tesco in the UK expect 10% of their sales will come through a mobile. Understandable as Tesco customers would already have their details registered and it’s simply a matter of signing in and doing the weekly shopping when you’re getting the evening tube to Tooting Broadway. And that seems to be key – the convenience and safety of having your details already gathered and stored on a retailers site. The survey suggested that many more would go the m-commerce route if their fears over security were allayed. There is also the logistical issue, and again, the security aspect of using a credit card in a public place. Then there’s the physical and mental anguish of attempting to key in a 12 digit credit card number (and all the other relevant paraphernalia that goes with it) on, say, public transport. If you don’t have the digits and dexterity of a seamstress, then the last mile is best conducted elsewhere. In the UK 54% of the top 20 retail sites had either a mobile app or a dedicated mobile web portal. But it still leaves nearly half that have neither. In...

QR Codes again!

The Sunday Business Post ran adverts for Sherry FitzGerald last Sunday where the adverts carried QR codes. The codes, once read in an appropriate reader on a Smartphone, will link the advert to the sherry FitzGerald website. And fair enough, it’s a bit of innovation in an arena that slow to innovate. A follow-up article this week gave the impression that this was somewhat ‘cutting edge’. Whilst Sherry may have been the first to use the QR code in an advert, its far from cutting edge. Similarly, there was a story in the Irish Times in April extolling the virtues of the technology and somewhat beaming at the fact that their joint venture paper, The Metro Herald, will begin to experiment with the technology. Considering that The Sun were using the technology in November 2007, it really cant be considered as innovative.

Mobile and Radio Promotion make a good fit.

Here's a really good example of merging mediums, there are plenty, but I liked this one for its simplicity and a small bit of 'wonder would that happen here?' A Taco chain in Florida Taco Maker reported a 21% increase in Q1 sales, crediting a promotion it ran between radio advertising and mobile handsets for the increase. I don't think there are many companies that can boast a 21% increase in sales, let alone double digit in Q1. They developed a new character called Juan Maker, and Mexican-American character that made radio appearances to chat about his freebies. These were recorded live and during the interview Juan offered listeners the chance to get a 1lb burrito, free, if they sent a text as requested by that particular interview** Participating hungry Florida residents on receipt of same would then present that text (coupon?) at participating outlets to redeem the freebie. They are quoted as getting 5,000 texts and redeeming 2,500 burritos over the 6 weeks of the promotion. If you break that down it's (working on a 5 day week) its 166 text a day - hats not a huge ask. Interestingly, each text requested by their character Juan was different and allowed the company to track the response of each 'interview'. They are then able to track the response rates by station, DJ, day part, day etc. Marketing agency says that the campaign cost less than $50,000. That works about at $20 per redeemed coupon. You would really want the punters to be buying a...

Mobile Sites for Newspapers

In the last ground of electronic ABC figures there were some extra interesting stats furnished by the Guardian. They launched a mobile site earlier this year and they gave a first look at some of the data.  Overall they had 27,324,309 unique users to its site in April - making it the most visited site out of all the UK morning papers. But the mobile site attracted 101,000 and 2.1m page impressions during the month. More interestingly, two thirds of that traffic came from either an iPhone or iPod Touch. "The Web" seems to feature very high on the agenda of Apple disciples. Figures released by AdMob showed that, from their tracking, that although Symbian have a 52% market share of handsets worldwide the operating system only accounts for 7% of HTML mobile usage.   The iPhone users as a...

Marketing Mobile Coupons and Mobile Tickets

Dominos (www.dominos.com), in the USA anyway,  have taken a real leap forward in my opinion with their new mobile coupon offering. For some time now, Dominos have encouraged customers to 'opt-in' to their mobile medium i.e. give details of nearest store, mobile number and permission to be contacted via text. They have partnered with www.air2web.com/ who look after the mobile coupon marketing for them. Opt in customers then receive 'mobile coupons' which they can use when they are buying online or online via dominos mobile site. As dominos know the geographic location of customers (because of the store location) they can offer local specific offers through their coupons. Last year Dominos signed up one million people to opt in to receive mobile coupons, three times as many signups as the previous year showing their customers acceptance to that type of mobile couponing. Franchise operators will be encouraged to use the new mobile couponing, but it's up to the local businesses to decide on the specific offers as tastes and products will vary geographically. Their wap site - mobile.dominos.com looks as if it's only set up to accepts orders from the States and I wonder if they will be adding this to their arsenal here locally. It's really a step in the right direction for mobiles, mobile coupons and mobile marketing. So many people have tried to crack the mobile coupons with different levels of success. There ...

2D Barcodes

I've been a fan of QR Codes (2D Bar codes) for some time, looking at them first to see if I could utilise the technology to issue unique WAP links for various products. I could (and may still) and the technology is excellent in that respect, but the real problem was with their adoption, which was, well, lacklustre and fragmented. The technology allows you to capture a 2D code image with a mobile phone camera which is subsequently converted to one of a few (pre) chosen options. The QR code could be pre coded to be a URL for the phone's browser; it could be text, an SMS or personal details. Taking a snap of a QR code on a business card automatically transfers the all the 'contact' details to the phones phonebook, saving the recipient having to key it in. This particular application is big news in the Orient where at one point every...