Mobile Marketing Watch: Remarkable but true, the growth of mobile marketing in Africa and Asia have outpaced the growth (and, mostly, acceptance) of mobile marketing in the United Kingdom.

But according to a recent report from the European Interactive Advertising Association, an accelerating number of UK marketers are now “including the mobile platform in their advertising initiatives.”

The new found interest, in seems, spans a broad landscape of industries that are becoming involved with mobile advertising (including the automotive and financial services sector).

Jack Marshall of ClickZ speculated that “the fact UK mobile users receive a handset upgrade when renewing their service plans may increase usage of smartphones, which in turn could eventually help to push mobile marketing to a tipping point.”

For now, the numbers don’t lie. UK firms running mobile banner ad campaigns rose by 45% in March if this year compared with six months previously. Read More

The British are Coming… to Mobile Marketing! : Mobile Marketing Watch – The Pulse Of The Mobile Marketing Community.

May 28, 2009 Jim Beam uses mobile to introduce new Red Stag bourbon
Mobile Marketer

Kid Rock’s lovin the cherry bourbon

Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. is using mobile as part of a multichannel effort to promote its new cherry-infused bourbon called Red Stag by Jim Beam.

The mobile aspect of the campaign consists of a text-to-win sweepstakes called “Call of the Wild.” Consumers are asked to text keyword RS and their email address to short code 73637. Consumers who opt in to the sweepstakes via text will receive an email invitation to join The Herd, a database of names for future marketing messages from Red Stag.

“Red Stag is not your father’s bourbon,” said Brian Gallagher, manager of sponsorship marketing for Beam Global, Deerfield, IL. “It provides a fresh, contemporary taste that appeals to both longtime Jim Beam fans and new consumers who may not have previously considered the bourbon category.

“We are aiming to extend and deepen the brand’s relevance to males of legal purchase age with contemporary executions and calls-to-action,” he said. “The mobile and interactive focus of this campaign – entering the “Call of the Wild” sweepstakes through mobile text messages – is a way to talk to these consumers in their language and in their environments.”

Red Stag by Jim Beam uses an artisanal infusion process to combine four-year-old Jim Bean Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey with natural black cherry flavors.

The Call of the Wild sweepstakes will grant one winner and three friends an all-access weekend to see Kid Rock perform live in Las Vegas, among other prizes. The sweepstakes runs from July 6 to Aug. 31. Consumers can also enter the sweepstakes at http://www.jimbeam.com, as well as on Facebook through the Red Stag and Jim Beam fan pages.

“The sweepstakes is open to and unites all Jim Beam and Kid Rock fans of legal purchase age,” Mr. Gallagher said. “A different breed of Bourbon and a different breed of rock star – there’s no better match.”

Red Stag will also be the headline sponsor of Kid Rock’s 2009 Rock ‘N’ Rebels Tour, which will hit 25 cities nationwide this summer.

Fifty cents from every ticket sold for the concert tour will be donated to Operation Homefront, a nonprofit that provides assistance to U.S. military veterans returning home to their families.

Through the support of Operation Homefront, Kid Rock and Red Stag will help fund emergency aid, moving assistance and care packages in local chapters throughout the country. Read more http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/messaging/3349.html

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHHa0JZ-kM4]

Mobile Marketing Watch: Restaurant chain Denny’s has unveiled a new multimedia promotional campaign to help change its image.

The company is targeting young, late-night diners by offering original mobile content including a free iPhone application.

The “Allnighter” campaign spotlights four original characters: Wade the T-Rex, Steve the Unicorn, Finn the Leprechaun and Gary the Regular Guy. Denny’s will take this endeavor further by expanding into personalized character profile pages on Facebook and MySpace.

Ads for the campaign have already begun airing as 30-second and 15-second television commercial spots on major network and cable stations. read more Denny’s Serves Up a “Grand Slam” Mobile Campaign : Mobile Marketing Watch – The Pulse Of The Mobile Marketing Community.

Brad Beckstrom “Google should have explored using text messaging to gauge user response to radio spots. Many stations are using it to add a third dimension to radio allowing consumers to opt in to offers they want to receive by texting a keyword.”

From WSJ.com Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, in a brief interview, said the radio effort failed because Google never came up with a good way to measure listener response. On the Web, he explained, Google can charge advertisers based on performance — that is, how many times users click on an ad.

“With an enormous data corpus, our computers can do the math really well,” he said. “But in the audio case, there wasn’t a good signal back to us about which ads performed.”

Google Inc.’s foray into selling radio ads was supposed to show how its online-advertising brainpower could revolutionize an old-fashioned people business.

The company teamed up with Chad and Ryan Steelberg, brothers who were sharp dressers and wore deep Southern California tans. They had a technology for transmitting, scheduling and tracking radio ads. “Google is going to conquer radio,” boasted the exuberant Chad in 2006.

Instead, radio tripped up Google. The company is pulling the plug on its attempt to automate radio-ad sales on May 31, exposing how far Google is from its goal of grabbing a big chunk of the multibillion-dollar business of off-line ad sales.

A look at what went wrong shows that Google misjudged the capacity of its technology to work beyond the Web, and underestimated the human side of the business. Radio stations refused to turn over airtime to a computer algorithm that set prices far lower than their own rates. Big advertisers steered clear.

The radio venture was relatively small for Google, and the company remains an overwhelming success in the ad game: It sells about one-third of all online ads in the U.S., by dollar amount. But its rare flop in radio has larger implications. Google has been on a mission to extend its wildly successful model for selling ads linked to Internet searches to traditional media such as print and TV. Now it is beating a partial retreat. This year, it also shut its newspaper ad-sales effort. Its remaining toehold in traditional media is an effort to sell TV ads.

In a statement, Google said it had “devoted substantial resources” to developing radio and print ads, but the resulting products “didn’t have the impact we had hoped for.” A Google spokeswoman declined to elaborate.

More via Radio Tunes Out Google in Rare Miss for Web Titan – WSJ.com.

Finally a mobile shopping survey done by someone other than a mobile ad network. See the impressive results from this PriceGrabber survey

Though it may come as no surprise, mobile internet adoption and overall usage is still steadily increasing.  A survey conducted by PriceGrabber.com outlines some new trends in mobile Internet shopping and purchasing behaviors in its new “Consumer Behavior” report dubbed “Mobile Internet Shopping Trends.”

The online shopping portal conducted the survey in March which included 3,305 online consumers with mobile phones in the U.S.  The survey concluded that online consumers have made considerable progress in Web-enabled phone adoption and mobile Internet usage, especially in relation to shopping via mobile devices.

The survey proved that online shoppers are now increasingly becoming mobile Internet shoppers using their Web-enabled phones to maximum advantage.  Mobile devices help them purchase online, compare prices and also research product details and specifications.  Among them, 58 percent have purchased digital content for their phones, 51 percent have bought consumer electronics and 37 percent computers, besides similar numbers on books and clothing.

Interestingly enough, more than half of the online consumers polled (58 percent) owned a mobile phone with Internet connectivity.  Among the consumers with Web-enabled phones, 21 percent had a smartphone, 8 percent owned an iPhone and 29 percent owned some other type of Web-enabled phone.  As the market saturation grows steadily for Web-enabled devices and smartphones in particular, mobile Internet usage will obviously spike.  So to will mobile shopping services such as PriceGrabber which is no doubt positioning itself for a surge in mobile-based shopping, research and price comparisons.

Posted by justin on May 5, 2009 in In The News, Mobile Shopping, mobilemarketingwatch.com

Procter & Gamble Co.’s Charmin, the nation’s No. 1 toilet paper brand, has debuted its first mobile advertising sponsorship, working with global bathroom directory SitOrSquat Inc. on its Web site and mobile applications.

The consumer packaged goods giant is sponsoring SitOrSquat’s site and iPhone application to help consumers on the go find the cleanest public toilets worldwide. The site and application offer user-generated listings of bathroom locations and ratings, as well as details on hours of operation, handicap accessibility, showers and availability of changing tables.

“SitOrSquat is the perfect partner for us,” said Dewayne Guy, external relations manager at P&G, Cincinnati, OH. “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel by creating this application. We found somebody out there whose mission matches ours. It creates the perfect partnership.”

SitOrSquat is a New York-based user-generated service that lets consumers find bathrooms with myriad facilities including changing tables and handicap access across 55,000 bathrooms in 32 countries. It styles itself as “a place to find and record bathrooms anywhere in the world.”

Users who download the SitOrSquat application from the Apple iTunes Store to their iPhone can add their review when they have used one of the featured toilets. A “Sit” rating implies that the bathroom is clean and “Squat” means that it is not.

Charmin takes baby steps on mobile

Got your back
The Charmin sponsorship is currently live on the Web site and iPhone application. A presence on the BlackBerry application may follow, along with a presence on future Windows Mobile and Android applications.

In addition to images of its two bear-cub mascots, Charmin also gets a banner ad on the SitOrSquat iPhone application that says, “Gotta go? Relax … we got your back.” The banner features the red bear and the Charmin logo.

Clicking on that banner ad currently takes consumers to a mobile landing page with a big bear on it. Soon, SitOrSquat will introduce a more comprehensive brand image including the possibility of point of purchase and enriched content for Charmin once the ad is clicked on.

Action at the bottom

Another banner shows the blue bear with a thumbs-up sign. Copy reads, “Just like home.” The Charmin logo is adjacent. A click-through on that unit again takes users to a mobile landing page with a bear on it.

The banners occupy the bottom strip of every page in the iPhone application.

“What we get out of it is the impressions from that activity,” Mr. Guy said. “We’re really trying to support the effort that SitOrSquat is putting out there.”

P&G has typically promoted its Charmin tissue across television, print and in-store media. Online sponsorships, outdoor events and now mobile advertising are designed to keep the brand front and center of its target audience of moms and families wherever they are, at home or travelling. Read more

Procter & Gamble’s Charmin brand runs first mobile sponsorship – Mobile Marketer – Advertising.