1. Your Customers are on More Than One Carrier
The iPhone's web browsing and application market created the inflection point for massive mobile consumer adoption in the US. However, the iPhone's superior handset experience is handcuffed to AT&T Wireless. Many mobile customers are tied to corporate accounts, employee carrier discounts, and contractual obligations that prevent them from switching. In addition, AT&T's official wireless broadband (3G) coverage map excludes 25% of the U.S. population and reliability has been questioned by users in top metros. It was easy to make this point at a recent iMedia mobile class we led for top ad agencies. Most of the iPhone-shakin' audience wanted to know about iPhone mobile ad campaigns for Starbucks and NBC, but had no 3G coverage.
Until the iPhone is offered by other carriers, an iPhone-only mobile initiative may leave many potential customers in the dark. A complete mobile marketing strategy must consider reaching Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile audiences. Of all the smartphone options, Android is showing the greatest momentum with a number of analysts predicting the Motorola Droid will hit 1 million devices shipped by the end of 2009.
A 2010 Prediction For Android:
At WhitePages, we are forecasting that there will be 10 million Android devices shipped in the US by the end of 2010. We arrived at this number by taking the 33.5 million customer base of T-Mobile (the first US carrier to offer Android) and dividing it by an estimate of 2 million Android devices shipped by that carrier to arrive at a 6% penetration rate. We then applied this penetration rate to the much larger and higher-spending customer bases of Sprint and Verizon who just started offering Android devices. The predicted result is 10.1 million Android devices in the US by the end of 2010.
2. Marketing Begins and Ends With Numbers
The mobile marketing platform has lagged behind the web in its ability to provide critical metrics and control for advertisers to measure and optimize ad campaigns. On the web, many ad campaigns drop cookies to manage consumer reach and frequency. This cross-platform capability was not possible on mobile until recently. Companies like Ringleader Digital provide mobile ad-serving platforms with real-time capabilities to track and target users and meet advertiser needs around frequency-capping and acquisition tracking.
Google's mobile initiatives will also help provide the metrics needed for mobile marketing. I met with the Android leadership team earlier in the year to request subscription billing and found out that analytic capabilities were a much higher priority. The Android app market dashboard provides user retention metrics via an active user count — iTunes does not. The Android team shares relevant information with publishers like the recent data on Android OS version share. They are moving in the right direction, but I still find that iTunes provides slightly better analytics than Android. As an example, iTunes provides daily download counts and Android only provides snapshots over time for free apps.
Google's recent acquisition of AdMob has tremendous implications for mobile advertising. AdMob serves ads for more than 15,000 mobile web sites and apps worldwide and openly shares the mountain of actionable data they are collecting. AdMob recently announced support of the Palm Pre/Web OS phones, demonstrating their cross-platform capabilities. Google should continue to share this information and leverage the AdMob acquisition to incorporate their data and expertise, build robust reporting hooks into the Android OS, and improve Google Analytics for mobile. While their free analytics service provides a standard measurement platform, it still has a very web-centric view, with reporting on things like keyword sources that are important for the web but not really applicable to mobile.
3. You Don't Necessarily Need an App for That
By now, most folks are aware of the iPhone application approval process which can take anywhere from two weeks to six months. The BlackBerry App World also requires approval, but it is just a storefront policy, and all apps can be distributed through other markets and channels. Effective mobile marketing campaigns are synched with other channels like TV, web, and product launch events, and can't afford the risk of an application sitting in queue. Both Android and the Palm Pre/Web OS markets have no approval process to slow down the campaign.
However, even without this friction, there are clear differences between building an app and providing a mobile web site. The WhitePage mobile iPhone application has been a Top 10 app for over a year, but we see just as many iPhone users on our mobile website. A recent WhitePages and MediaVest study on a Continental Airlines campaign demonstrated that advertising performance is just as strong on the mobile web as it is on an app. The downside of an app is that the consumer has to upgrade to get new versions, while a mobile web site can simply be updated. In the past, we had to build an app on the iPhone to integrate with the device's GPS for location benefits. Today this important capability is possible from the iPhone's Safari browser.
Browser-based rich media, most often provided by Flash on the wired web, help create ads with impact. Android's open platform allowed HTC to implement Flash on its Hero device. The Palm-Pre/Web OS also supports Flash. Android's growing presence will facilitate rich media even if Apple refuses to get on board.
As long as carriers can scale their 3G networks to meet demand, the future of wireless is going back to the mobile web.
4. Location Demands Persistence and Endurance
80% of the mobile ad campaigns that we run are geo-targeted and geared towards effectively reaching consumers while they are on the go. While location will be a key driver in the future of mobile advertising, the industry will need to overcome a few challenges in order for location-based marketing to truly take off.
The popularity of applications requires persistence and the ability to run more than one application at a time. For example, on my Android device I can listen to Pandora and read Mashable at the same time. The iPhone can only run one app at a time, while both Android and the Palm Pre can run applications in parallel. In order to provide a location-triggered ad, an app needs to be "always on."
The other challenge to location-based offers is the battery drain from frequent GPS/location requests and poor cell tower coverage. Verizon's superior 3G network and the Droid's changeable battery both help to address this problem. BlackBerry is also in a good position, with years of experience in dealing with the energy tax from push e-mail. They have learned to make batteries last longer.
5. A Different Call to Action
The key to the success of any marketing campaign is to make it easy for the consumer to react, but the tools of engagement for mobile are different than the web. The most obvious but often ignored advertiser action is the phone itself. By offering easy click-to-call actions, we have seen +5% conversion results for advertisers. A retailer may be better served by helping the on-the-go mobile user with location and mapping actions to get to their store, rather than asking them to register an e-mail.
In addition to location and calling, creative mobile marketing campaigns should make advertising fun by using unique device capabilities like shaking, blowing, and twisting. Ad agency OMD created the first shakeable ad for Dockers and reported a 300% increase in conversions and 2b impressions for this innovative iPhone ad campaign.
Other mobile action plans include a recent announcement by BlackBerry/RIM to offer the ability for users to click to call, and save to contacts and calendar directly from the ad. To save an event today, a user needs to: 1. Click on in-app ad; 2. Go to a landing page; 3. Copy event info; 4. Launch calendar; 5. Paste event details; 6. Save calendar entry; 7. Re-launch app. Did I lose you yet?
Google recently launched a visual search technology for Android called Goggles, which allows users to snap photos with their phone's camera to return relevant search results about the image. Looking into the future, this capability may offer interesting mobile advertising solutions. In addition to current response mechanisms using a web URL or SMS-short code, the consumer can simply snap a picture to get more information from a billboard, on-pack promotion, or product. Google built on this innovation from its acquisition of Neven Vision whose iScout technology was tested in a Coca Cola promotion in Germany. The beta results are still preliminary, but may prove interesting if Google offers this as a platform for 3rd party advertisers and publishers to integrate in mobile applications and add value to the end user experience.
Will 2010 Be the Year of Mobile Advertising?
There is enough consumer inertia and advertising capability for every brand, publisher, and advertiser to decide if a responsible mobile test or a go-big campaign is appropriate. Millennial Media forecasts the U.S. mobile web will reach 100 million unique users in 2010 — half of the web audience. Morgan Stanley Analyst Mary Meeker has graphed her steepest hockey stick, predicting the web will be accessed by more mobile users than the PC in five years.
If you are a brand, and your agency isn't bringing mobile campaigns into your marketing mix, ask them to, pronto. If you are an agency and need either tests or scale, work with publishers that can provide integrated media programs combining web and mobile.
You don't have to go big, but you have to go mobile in 2010, or you might as well go home.
Please share what your thoughts and ideas on mobile marketing in the comments section below.
More mobile resources from Mashable:
- Top Mobile Productivity Tools for the Small Business
- HOW TO: Choose a Smartphone for Your Small Business
- 10 Amazing Augmented Reality iPhone Apps
- 7 Soothing iPhone Apps to Help You Relax
- The Best Free Twitter Apps for AndroidIllustrations Courtesy of What's Up, Android?
Reviews: Android, Google, Google Analytics, Mashable, Pandora, SafariTags: admob, android, apple, blackberry, business, Google, iphone, List, Lists, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Mobile Advertising: 5 Things You Need to Know to Succeed in 2010
Friday, December 18, 2009
Mobile Internet to Dominate Within 5 Years -- Study
Mobile Internet to Dominate Within 5 Years -- Study
Jeff Bertolucci, PC World
Dec 16, 2009 2:48 pm
The mobile Internet is growing faster than its desktop counterpart ever did, and more users may go online via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years, according to a new study by investment firm Morgan Stanley.
The intriguing prediction is one of many in the firm's massive "The Mobile Internet Report," a 424-page epic that someone, somewhere is bound to read in its entirety. For the rest of us, the executive summary will do just fine. If you're interested in perusing the full report, you'll find it here.
The report states we're "now in the early innings" of mobile Internet development, which is growing faster than previous tech cycles, including the evolution of the desktop PC. Given the rapid adoption of smartphones, including (obviously) the Apple iPhone and a growing number of devices using Google's Android mobile operating system, Morgan Stanley's conclusions shouldn't surprise anyone.
The study also points out that mobile Net growth is global phenomenon, not one confined to the developed world, which was typically the case with prior tech trends. But despite the worldwide focus, U.S. companies including Apple, Google, and Amazon are taking a leadership role. Furthermore, "a host of relatively young, but seasoned world-class technology veterans," including Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, are leading the mobile push, the report states.
Five key tech trends are converging to spur mobile Net growth, including 3G (and soon 4G) broadband, the popularity of social networking, online video, VOIP services such as Skype and Vonage, and "awesome mobile devices" that do tasks that until recently were the sole domain of your desktop or laptop PC.
The short term looks especially bright for Apple, but challenges await.
The "mobile ecosystem" of the iPhone, iPod touch, iTunes, and various accessories and services will continue to bloom over the next two years. After that, however, Google Android, competition from emerging markets, and wireless carrier limitations may pose a threat to Apple's market share, the report predicts.
There's little doubt the mobile Internet will dominate in the coming years--just look how far mobile handsets have come since the debut of the iPhone in 2007. Toss in a growing selection of rapidly improving smartphones, a new breed of wireless-ready tablet devices, e-readers like the Amazon Kindle, and faster 4G networks, and it's easy to see that mobile is the future of the Net.
Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci ) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com .
Jeff Bertolucci, PC World
Dec 16, 2009 2:48 pm
The mobile Internet is growing faster than its desktop counterpart ever did, and more users may go online via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years, according to a new study by investment firm Morgan Stanley.
The intriguing prediction is one of many in the firm's massive "The Mobile Internet Report," a 424-page epic that someone, somewhere is bound to read in its entirety. For the rest of us, the executive summary will do just fine. If you're interested in perusing the full report, you'll find it here.
The report states we're "now in the early innings" of mobile Internet development, which is growing faster than previous tech cycles, including the evolution of the desktop PC. Given the rapid adoption of smartphones, including (obviously) the Apple iPhone and a growing number of devices using Google's Android mobile operating system, Morgan Stanley's conclusions shouldn't surprise anyone.
The study also points out that mobile Net growth is global phenomenon, not one confined to the developed world, which was typically the case with prior tech trends. But despite the worldwide focus, U.S. companies including Apple, Google, and Amazon are taking a leadership role. Furthermore, "a host of relatively young, but seasoned world-class technology veterans," including Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, are leading the mobile push, the report states.
Five key tech trends are converging to spur mobile Net growth, including 3G (and soon 4G) broadband, the popularity of social networking, online video, VOIP services such as Skype and Vonage, and "awesome mobile devices" that do tasks that until recently were the sole domain of your desktop or laptop PC.
The short term looks especially bright for Apple, but challenges await.
The "mobile ecosystem" of the iPhone, iPod touch, iTunes, and various accessories and services will continue to bloom over the next two years. After that, however, Google Android, competition from emerging markets, and wireless carrier limitations may pose a threat to Apple's market share, the report predicts.
There's little doubt the mobile Internet will dominate in the coming years--just look how far mobile handsets have come since the debut of the iPhone in 2007. Toss in a growing selection of rapidly improving smartphones, a new breed of wireless-ready tablet devices, e-readers like the Amazon Kindle, and faster 4G networks, and it's easy to see that mobile is the future of the Net.
Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci ) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com .
Apple approves private API call for use by iPhone app devs
Apple approves private API call for use by iPhone app devs
12:06 pm, December 17th, 2009, John Brownlee
Although their App Store approval procedure has recently been modified to automatically reject apps that use them, Apple’s stance prohibiting developers from using private API calls has been looking a bit wobbly lately. First, Steve Jobs personally approved an app that used a private API to enable video streaming, and now comes word that Apple will officially allow developers to use the UIGetScreenImage() private API call in their applications.
According to the Apple forum moderator who outlined the change over in the official developer forums: “After carefully considering the issue, Apple is now allowing applications to use the function UIGetScreenImage() to programmatically capture the current screen contents.”
Developers should expect, however, to update their applications if a “future release of iPhone OS… provide[s] a public API equivalent of this functionality,” at which point, “all applications using UIGetScreenImage() will be required to adopt the public API.”
That’s an interesting development for a couple of reasons. For one, it actually allows streaming video from the iPhone camera on even older model iPhones, just by pasting enough UIGetScreenImage()s together. More interestingly, it implies that Apple is working to create public API equivalents of a lot of their most in-demand private API calls, which should expand app development possibilities dramatically by the time iPhone OS 4.0 rolls around.
[via TUAW, image via Aral Balkan]
12:06 pm, December 17th, 2009, John Brownlee
Although their App Store approval procedure has recently been modified to automatically reject apps that use them, Apple’s stance prohibiting developers from using private API calls has been looking a bit wobbly lately. First, Steve Jobs personally approved an app that used a private API to enable video streaming, and now comes word that Apple will officially allow developers to use the UIGetScreenImage() private API call in their applications.
According to the Apple forum moderator who outlined the change over in the official developer forums: “After carefully considering the issue, Apple is now allowing applications to use the function UIGetScreenImage() to programmatically capture the current screen contents.”
Developers should expect, however, to update their applications if a “future release of iPhone OS… provide[s] a public API equivalent of this functionality,” at which point, “all applications using UIGetScreenImage() will be required to adopt the public API.”
That’s an interesting development for a couple of reasons. For one, it actually allows streaming video from the iPhone camera on even older model iPhones, just by pasting enough UIGetScreenImage()s together. More interestingly, it implies that Apple is working to create public API equivalents of a lot of their most in-demand private API calls, which should expand app development possibilities dramatically by the time iPhone OS 4.0 rolls around.
[via TUAW, image via Aral Balkan]
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Best book about iPhone programming (covers iPhone's sensors)
Rate: A+
Author: Alasdair Allan
In this book you will learn about iPhone's sensors, data input, storage, and the basic stuff: xcode premier and submitting your app to the App Store.
The book also covers memory management for the iphone... this chapter is really useful for beginners.
Book's website: http://www.learningiphoneprogramming.com/pages/thebook.html
Sabes que es lo que ven los visitantes de tu sitio web - Website Optimization
Google nos brinda esta herramienta para saber que partes de nuetro sitio son mas visibles para los visitantes
Browser Size
Vale la pena utilizar esta herramienta, por o menos como referencia de donde debemos poner la informacion mas importante que queremos transmitir a los visitantes.
Website Optimization
Browser Size
Vale la pena utilizar esta herramienta, por o menos como referencia de donde debemos poner la informacion mas importante que queremos transmitir a los visitantes.
Website Optimization
Monday, December 14, 2009
Factura Electronica - Comprobante Fiscal Digital en tu iPhone (Mexico)
Estamos terminando los detalles finales de la nueva aplicacion de facturacion electronica en tu iPhone/Andriod/Blackberry.
Esta aplicacion es ideal para empresas que tienen rutas de distribucion y entregas a domicilio.
Desde tu iPhone puedes enviar al instante el comprobante fiscal digital a tu cliente.
En breve publicaremos mas informacion al respecto.
Esta aplicacion es ideal para empresas que tienen rutas de distribucion y entregas a domicilio.
Desde tu iPhone puedes enviar al instante el comprobante fiscal digital a tu cliente.
En breve publicaremos mas informacion al respecto.
Friday, December 11, 2009
iSimulate not working - Could not establish connection with application
If you can't establish a connection from iSimulate to your mac. iSimulate don't send accelerometer, gps or multitouch events; you must be sure that in your Mac's firewall settings you allow all incoming connections.
Console output allowing only essential services:
iSimulate: You are running SDK version 20091203
iSimulate: Started publishing service. Waiting for connecting device...
Console output after allowing all incoming connections:
iSimulate: You are running SDK version 20091203
iSimulate: Started publishing service. Waiting for connecting device...
iSimulate: Connection established.
Console output allowing only essential services:
iSimulate: You are running SDK version 20091203
iSimulate: Started publishing service. Waiting for connecting device...
Console output after allowing all incoming connections:
iSimulate: You are running SDK version 20091203
iSimulate: Started publishing service. Waiting for connecting device...
iSimulate: Connection established.
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