Some 19% of Americans will use their mobile devices for shopping this holiday season, according to a Deloitte survey. The number is twice as high for young consumers: 39% of those 18 to 29 say they’ll use their phones to find store locations, obtain coupons and sales information and research products and prices. One-quarter of all who plan to use their phones to shop say they will make purchases on the devices. Read More.

More shoppers use smartphones to study, find, buy – USATODAY.com.

With the advent of digital signage in is also easy to opt people into your club just by texting, in store, no plastic, no paper, no mailings. Need more convincing read this article for Mobile Marketing Profits.

“Is it on sale?” The mobile opportunity – people are buying now from Mobile Marketing Profits

In today’s market, consumers are thinking twice before they buy almost anything.  “How much do I need it?” “Do I need it all, or do I just want it?” “It is on sale?” Questions people ask when they’re uncertain about their own economic futures.

This “Is it on sale?” thinking presents an ideal opportunity for mobile marketing to worried consumers.  For example, if a consumer has a genuine need and desire for a purchase more complex or higher value than an impulse buy – anything from an upgraded mobile phone to a new car – they may repeatedly pass up that item at full price, or even with some discounting.  Stretching their spending dollars by waiting for a better deal is a safer move in a tight economy.

But what if that same consumer were to receive a coupon on their mobile phone while they were out shopping? Not a printed coupon sitting at home with the unopened mail, or an email coupon waiting in a distant inbox to be printed out and stuck in a purse or a pocket.  Rather, a targeted offer made to the right consumer at the right time, in the right place.

This sort of precision targeting has been the promise of mobile marketing for many years, but few companies have yet to fully leverage such a strategy today.  Confusing opt-in/op-out rules for commercial SMS messages, platform compatibility issues with sending MMS coupons to different families of smartphones, divergent carrier support for standards and commercial traffic – all of these factors and more have served to discourage corporate involvement in robust mobile couponing.

Yet there are best practices and design solutions which can work with all of these impediments to transform them into success factors.  An inbound mobile marketing campaign driven by point-of-sale signage and advertising placements combines the consumer opt-in process with the marketing contact.  Use of well crafted standard SMS messages (text-only) sidesteps MMS and barcode compatibility issues to reach all SMS-capable phones.  Even minimal integration between the messaging gateway provider and your own retail management systems can provide end-to-end accountability and realtime program ROI.

You as a mobile marketer need to keep the following things in mind when pursuing this kind of program:

1. How will the consumer become aware of your campaign?
2. How will you obtain their permission to interact?
3. How will the offer be redeemed at the point of sale?

By offering consumers mobile coupons, businesses can create stronger customer relationships while giving consumers what they want, resulting in increased satisfaction, and increased profitability.

“Is it on sale?” The mobile opportunity – people are buying now from Mobile Marketing Profits

Want to learn more about Mobile Coupons Contact ApolloBravo and ask about our Loyalty Link Program with integrated digital signage.

Contact ApolloBravo for information on integrating SMS Text, text-2-win and mobile coupon campaigns with the mobile web.

Read More US Mobile Phone Text and Web Usage 2009 Study Executive Summary | Mobile Marketing Association.

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.

A panel of speakers at MediaBistro’s ThinkMobile Conference and Expo in New York talked about their strategies and experiences in leveraging the mobile channel. Mobile Marketer’s Mickey Alam Khan moderated the panel

The travel industry, quick service restaurants and the automotive companies are the leaders in the mobile space, according to Jamie Wells, mobile director, Ignition Factory, OMD, New York.

“More than 75 percent of the brands we work with are starting to ask about mobile,” said David Bear, executive director of mobile and social media at Atmosphere BBDO, New York.

Mr. Bear stressed the importance of educating the agency people on mobile. “If they don’t understand the mobile platform, the ideas won’t get to the client,” Mr. Bear said.

www.apollobravo.com

The mobile phone was never intended to be a marketing tool, according to Brad Vettese, Now it is so personal that brands would like to be invited in.

Applications are the Holy Grail of mobile, the panelists all said. However, there are some challenges when developing an application and it is even more daunting to try and get the word out.

An audience member asked the panelists, “How does one go about getting the application downloaded?”

This is where mobile search engine optimization comes into play. Keywords in the application’s description will help get the application found.

“Branded apps make sense,” Mr. Wells said. “Branded apps have great interactive options.”

Lead generation through applications is also impressive.

“Applications are a great way to create a branded experience and an emotional connection with the consumer,” Mr. Arbour said.

Mr. Bear said that because the mobile space is still so new, brands should be looking at what their competitors are doing in the space. This information should drive decision making.

“Think about what you want the user to experience and then figure out how to make it happen,” Mr. Vettese said.

The panelists agreed that 2009 will be a ground-breaking year for mobile commerce.

Brands like Marriot and Papa John’s are proof that mobile commerce is well on its way.

“It’s complicated because there is a limited value-proposition,” Mr. Wells said. “Markets with mature payments systems in place will not be too excited by mobile commerce. But less developed markets are going to be really excited about it.”

Because of the economic slowdown, brands are using mobile more for direct response and less for branding purposes.

“Engagement is key,” Mr. Vettese said. “Brands are really trying to get consumers to take action and do something.”

The panelists gave examples of successful marketing campaigns they created for their clients in an effort to show that mobile works.

“What’s great is that clients have low expectations for their mobile initiatives so it isn’t really hard to blow them out of the water,” Mr. Bear said.

See more  http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/2870.html

Contact ApolloBravo for the latest mobile campaign strategy 703-835-9688 Ext 801

-By Mark Dolliver

NEW YORK Advertising on mobile phones is becoming an increasingly mainstream phenomenon, to judge by a Limbo-GfK Technology Mobile Advertising Report released today. (Limbo is a mobile social network whose free services to members are supported by the revenue from mobile ads.)

Thirty-three percent of Americans with mobile phones said they recalled seeing mobile advertising during the fourth quarter of 2008. Among those with iPhones, the figure was even higher, at 41 percent. “The vast majority of these ads were seen in SMS text messages,” the report notes.

What do people do when they receive mobile advertising? One-third of those who recalled getting such ads said they “responded in some way,” with the most common form of response being to call a toll-free number included in the message: “16 percent of ad-aware consumers recall doing this.” Women were almost twice as likely as men to say they responded in some way to a mobile ad they’d received. In a breakdown by age, 18-24-year-olds were the most likely to report having done so. Perhaps most encouraging for advertisers, says the report, “is the fact that one in seven people also reported that they had bought a product or visited a store as a result of seeing a mobile advertisement.”

Denny’s Free Grand SlamTuesday’s free Gland Slam breakfast was a huge success for Denny’s. Their creative and funny Superbowl spot created lines around the building at locations across the country. The restaurant chain is estimated to have served nearly 2 million of the free breakfasts in this one day giveaway.

But I can’t help but wonder what Denny’s is like the day after the big giveaway? While their business may be up due to more people thinking about having pancakes for breakfast, I am certain they don’t have lines around the buildings today.

Had Denny’s used a text message reminder option, as I mentioned in my Superbowl Mobile Ads and Mobile Misses video, they would have a way to reach millions of people today too (without the expense of another costly Superbowl ad). It might look like this:

Want another free Grand Slam breakfast? Join Denny’s Text Breakfast Club.
Receive a mobile coupon 4 a free Grand Slam w/o the crowds. Reply Y to sign up.

Bingo. Now they would have a nice steady stream of people coming in to get a second free breakfast over the next month (or however long they wanted to extend their offer.) This would get even more free publicity for the restaurant chain because no one else is doing this – YET.

When I say this was a “mobile miss” this is what I mean. The Denny’s Superbowl ad was a huge success. It could have been even bigger and long lasting had Denny’s leveraged the power of mobile.

From MobileMarketingProfits.com by Kim Dushinski

Contact ApolloBravo for the latest in Mobile Marketing

Department store chain J. C. Penney Company Inc. has launched an integrated marketing campaign and mobile just happens to be one of the components.

The campaign highlights JCPenney’s affordable gift assortment and invites customers to celebrate in the joy of giving this holiday season. Consistent with its Every Day Matters approach, JCPenney’s marketing campaign communicates to customers that JCPenney understands their financial pressures and is designed to showcase the great value in shopping with the retailer.

“The mobile channel serves as just another way for us to reach our customers,” said Kate Parkhouse, spokeswoman for JCPenney, Plano, TX.

via JCPenney adds mobile to holiday marketing mix – Mobile Marketer – Commerce

Contact ApolloBravo for text message campaigns linked to mobile coupons www.apollobravo.com