via Warc.com NEW YORK: Companies making the most effective use of digital media typically adopt a distinct set of strategies in areas like mobile, social networking and data analytics, a study has argued.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the advisory group, polled 489 US firms with annual sales of over $500m, and identified a selection of “top performers” boasting the strongest revenues, growth, margins and innovation credentials.

It revealed that 50% of these leading players planned to spend a minimum of $1m on building mobile tools for their customers to use in 2012. The same was true of just 29% of other enterprises.

Moreover, 66% of the premier digital businesses described their interaction with consumers on mobile devices as “quite or very significant”, measured against 45% of all the corporations assessed

A 30% share of “top performers” deployed social networks to reach shoppers, versus 37% of firms not attaining such a status. But while 41% of the former group yielded “significant benefits” from this tactic, a smaller 24% of “the rest” said the same.

“Interestingly, though, there seems to be little connection between use of social media for external communications and actual commercial success,” PwC study stated.

“We have found that the organisations that achieve solid results from their social media efforts are those that use it not only as an outreach platform but “also as a method to listen and engage.”

By contrast, the companies enjoying the most impressive returns are making greater usage of social media internally, and 36% should spend at least $1m on this channel in 2012, standing at 22% for “the rest”.

Similarly, although 56% of the entire panel intend to collect more consumer data in the next year, this rises to 66% for “top performers”. Exactly 50% of the best organisations will exploit such insights for R&D, falling to 28% elsewhere.

Some 89% of top performers also agreed their company had a strategy in place that was likely to succeed, and 86% said their CEO actively championed new technology to achieve success. This beat average scores of 68% and 60% in turn.

More specifically, 63% of the highest-ranking operators believed that their chief information officer and chief marketing officer had a “strong” or “very strong” relationship, a total that fell to 42% of all featured corporations.

“Leading firms … understand that being behind the curve on the strategic use of technology not only puts their firms at a competitive disadvantage, but weakens their ability to interact and strengthen relationships with customers,” PwC said.

Data sourced from PricewaterhouseCoopers; additional content by Warc staff, 3 February 2012

Via WARC / Comscore NEW YORK: Increasing numbers of US consumers are using smartphones to research and buy products, a report has shown.

According to comScore, the research firm, 38% of smartphone owners – an audience currently standing at 90m people – have purchased goods and services through their handset on at least one occasion.

During September 2011, some 47% of individuals who acquired products via this route bought digital items like music, ebooks, ringtones, films and television programming content, the company found.

A further 37% bought clothing or accessories directly from a retailer, with tickets to events including movies, plays and sporting fixtures following on 35%.

In a demonstration of the integration between emerging digital platforms, 34% of the mcommerce population completed transactions on daily deals websites such as Groupon and LivingSocial.

This matched the total generated by gift certificates, while 32% of the mobile customer base opted for electronics like TV sets and computers.

Ordering food for delivery or pick-up, for example a takeaway pizza, scored 31%, hotel reservations yielded 29%, physical books registered 26%, and car rentals logged 24%, as did airline tickets.

Elsewhere, 13% of shoppers buying from a phone made purchases linked to the automotive category, suggesting this channel holds opportunities for a wide range of sectors.

“In September we saw two-thirds of all smartphone owners perform shopping activities on their phones, including comparing products and prices, searching for coupons, taking product pictures or locating a retail store,” Mark Donovan, comScore’s senior vice president, mobile, added.

Looking at the location of consumers as they bought offerings through their smartphone, 56% did so at home, and 42% engaged in this pastime at work.

Another 37% did so when travelling, and 36% actually utilised mcommerce tools in bricks and mortar stores.

Other outdoor sites, such as parks, schools and restaurants, posted a combined 42%, comScore’s analysis revealed.

Data sourced from comScore; additional content by Warc staff, 7 December 2011

This is a great info-graphic visualizing how inbound marketing stacks up against traditional outbound marketing. We call  inbound marketing, consumer engagement primarily because we see it as two-way communication where marketers provide value and are rewarded. See more about inbound marketing and our consumer engagement services here

Via Mashable

Thanks to the Internet, marketing has evolved over the years. Consumers no longer rely on billboards and TV spots — a.k.a. outbound marketing — to learn about new products, because the web has empowered them. It’s given them alternative methods for finding, buying and researching brands and products. The new marketing communication — inbound marketing — has become a two-way dialogue, much of which is facilitated by social media.

Another reason why inbound marketing is winning is because it costs less than traditional marketing. Why try to buy your way in when consumers aren’t even paying attention? Here are some stats from the infographic below.

• 44% of direct mail is never opened. That’s a waste of time, postage and paper.
• 86% of people skip through television commercials.
• 84% of 25 to 34 year olds have clicked out of a website because of an “irrelevant or intrusive ad.”
• The cost per lead in outbound marketing is more than for inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing focuses on earning, not buying, a person’s attention, which is done through social media and engaging content, such as blogs, podcasts and white papers. This content is interesting, informative and adds value, creating a positive connection in the eyes of the consumer, thus making him more likely to engage your brand and buy the product. So it costs less and has better a ROI.

This infographic from Voltier Digital highlights the differences between the two kinds of marketing. Let us know your opinions in the comments below.

 Latest Comscore data shows rapid growth of consumers accessing social networks via their mobile devices. This is important for companies that want to share offers or drive traffic to their mobile website  utilizing Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, Linked in, Google and a variety of other  social networks popular on mobile devices.  Reach out to ApolloBravo for a mobile readiness evaluation and creative solutions for integrating Mobile + Social.

via WARC NEW YORK: Over 70m consumers in the US now access social networking sites through their mobile phones, a study from comScore, the research firm, has revealed. According to the company’s estimates, 72.2m people – a third of the entire mobile audience – logged on to these platforms via a handset in August 2011, a 37% increase on an annual basis.

More specifically, 39.9m individuals engaged in this pastime “almost every day”, a total which had expanded by 58% during the last 12 months.

Facebook led the field in terms of usage, reflecting its dominant position in the market as a whole. Some 57.3m of its members signed in from a wireless handset in August, a 50% lift year on year.

Twitter was in second place having attracted 13.4m mobile subscribers across August 2010, equating to 75% growth on August 2010. LinkedIn attracted 5.5m visitors in the same way, a 69% surge.

At present, the most popular activities undertaken by the mobile social networking audience are viewing comments from their friends on 80.3%, and posting status updates, on 69.5%.

Elsewhere, 53.2% of people had followed links to websites, and 52.9% read posts from brands and organisations.

This was ahead of the 44.8% that looked at material from celebrities and other public figures. Another 34.8% of netizens posted links to websites.

Turning to more commercial matters, 33.3% of consumers had received coupons and offers on these web properties, and 27.7% clicked on ads.

When considering the means via which mobile subscribers access social networks, comScore reported 42.3m did so through a browser, up 24% year on year, and 38.5m utilised an app, a 126% annual improvement.

Some 60% of smartphone owners logged on to social networks on these gadgets, nearly double the overall average, Mark Donovan, comScore’s senior vice president for mobile, said.

“Knowing that fans and followers engage with branded content on mobile devices opens the door to a world of opportunity for location-based services,” he added.

Data sourced from comScore; additional content by Warc staff, 24 October 2011

The rise in tablet ownership is growing faster than most industry analysts predicted. This includes smaller tablets like the galaxy tab and the new smaller Kindle from Amazon. Companies need to re-examine how their websites, micro-sites and  product specific landing pages will appear on these devices as well as smartphones. Reach out to ApolloBravo for a free mobile readiness evaluation.

via WARC 

NEW YORK: Nearly a fifth of consumers in China, the UK and US now own a tablet, up from less than 5% late last year, according to a new report.

Citigroup, the financial services provider, surveyed 1,800 people in these three nations, and found the proportion of respondents possessing slate devices had grown from 3% to 18% since November 2010.

Penetration has reached 21% in China, ahead of 17% for Britain and America. Similarly, 26% of the Chinese sample were “very likely” to purchase a tablet, falling to 12% for both the UK and US.

Citigroup’s analysis revealed 31% of its panel were at least somewhat keen to buy such a gadget, versus 14% late last year. In all, 77% of this group would like to obtain an iPad, climbing from 73% in the same period.

Alternatives powered by Microsoft Windows witnessed a slide from 52% to 40%, and equivalents utilising Google’s Android operating system enjoyed a two-percentage point gain, to 38%.

Price remained the “primary inhibitor” to greater uptake, mentioned by 39% of adults questioned, although a “lack of functionality” when compared with PCs was another common factor.

A 62% share of tablet owners saw it as a “toy/gadget”, growing from 44% in 2010. Meanwhile, 18% had acquired one for work, a lift from 13%, while giving someone the device as a gift logged 18%, down from 27%.

Overall, 94% of iPad owners have downloaded apps, with 63% accessing 11 or more such tools, totals standing at 79% and 37% in turn for individuals using competing products.

Thus far, 81% of the iPad population have paid for applications, measured against just 43% of customers for rival brands. Equally, iPad users had paid for 39% of apps, declining to 22% for users of other slates.

Data from the US and UK showed 67% of the tablet audience surf the web via this route, with 55% sending email and instant messages, 31% reading ebooks, 33% social networking and 17% playing games.

Looking forward, the number of people expecting to log on to social networks in this way fell to 29%, with gaming also sliding to 14%, but both pastimes are likely to see rising interest.

Elsewhere, the study reported that laptop ownership rates had climbed from 62% to 81% since November 2010, figures hitting 28% and 59% respectively for smartphones. 

Data sourced from PC Mag, Barron’s, AllThingsD; additional content b Warc staff, 28 September 2011 

Cable operators beware. It’s becoming all about the WiFi. More and more consumers are getting their TV on multiple devices including iPads, smart phones, Roku and other wi-fi devices, and less and less via traditional cable. With Netflix,Hulu, Amazon, Apple others providing a lot of the content there is  declining demand for traditional cable, but a growing need for  HD content delivered via WiFi.   Contact ApolloBravo for innovative ways to reach this changing audience.

Via Warc

NEW YORK: Television viewing habits are changing in the US, with young consumers watching more content on the web and via mobile phones, a study has found.

Altman Vilandrie & Company, the consultancy, and Research Now, the survey firm,polled 1,000 adults to discuss evolving attitudes in this area.

They found only a third of 18–34 year olds view shows as they are first broadcast every day, compared with the figure of 58% posted by panel members over 35 years old.

A 60% majority of 18–34 year olds also watch online video once a week or more, and 11% play back TV programmes and movies on a mobile phone on a daily basis.

Using laptops or desktop PCs while the TV was on is also “common for all age groups”, and 28% of people owning a tablet like the iPad use this device at least 50% of the time they are in front of the television.

Overall, 20% of respondents now spend less on cable TV than in the past – what the study described as “cord shaving” – as online video platforms meet their needs, a total rising from 15% in 2010.

Within this, 24% of 18-34 year olds with cable services have seriously considered “cutting the cord”, although only between 3% and 4% of all consumers had actually done so thus far.

“Consumers are removing the shackles of the traditional primetime TV line-up and creating their own personal networks of preferred programming and viewing times,” said Jonathan Hurd, a director at Altman Vilandrie & Company.

In an example of the growing integration between TV and the web, 23% of Netflix subscribers reported this was the main reason they paid for broadband, and 22% would downgrade their connection if they no longer used the streaming service.

Elsewhere, the study showed 41% of 18–34 year olds would prefer to utilise a smartphone, tablet or computer keyboard to change TV channel than use a remote control.

Similarly, half of 18–34 year olds wanted to access modified programme menus, such as a screen offering apps or pictures of the content available, rather than the current style of TV guide.

High-definition formats were popular among 75% of 18–24 year olds, suggesting service providers can attract a younger audience with excellent picture quality.

Data sourced from Altman Vilandrie & Company; additional content by Warc staff, 9 September 2011

Our mobile marketing trends 2010 report was a big hit with over 65,000 views and comments on slideshare and scribd. This year we cover the rapidly expanding use of smart phones to access social networks. We also take a deep look at creative ways to use SMS text promotions and integrating them with Facebook, QR Codes and mobile websites.  We share some of our mobile campaigns Including Text to Win, Snap to Win, Text to Give, Text to Screen, digital signage and mobile coupon integration.  Plus much more…Take a look.
 
Mobile Marketing Trends 2011. Mobile Goes Social

• Reach: Cell phone penetration is currently 89% of the US population. By way of comparison, this is better than penetration figures for cable TV, home internet access, and PC’s in the home.
• Acceptance: In the USA, over 102 billion text messages are sent each month, and over 1 trillion globally.
• Ubiquitous uptake: Mobile phones offer a reach never seen before by any other medium. Today there are more wireless mobile devices than televisions and computers combined.
• Globally There are 5.3 billion mobile subscribers (that’s 77 percent of the world population). What other medium offers that reach?
• Texting Nation: Of the 272 million US cell phones currently subscribed, over 96% of them are SMS capable. (CTIA 2010)
• Many mobile Web users are mobile-only, i.e. they do not, or very rarely use a desktop, laptop or tablet to access the Web. Mobile-only in India 59 percent, even in the US it’s over 25 percent of subscribers. Still think you don’t need a mobile site?
• High response rates: More than 5x as many people respond to mobile messages as compared to traditional, off-mobile call-to-action campaigns (94% of received text messages are read) 97% of consumers carry their phone at retail. (PMA 2010)
• Targeting: The mobile medium is an inherently intimate medium enabling highly targeted, one-to-one communication with audiences & lots of potential for personalization and up-selling.
• The Wireless Web: Over 3 billion targeted mobile ads are served every month.
• Widespread availability of unlimited data plansis critical to penetration of mobile media usage, it drove mobile media in Japan, now it’s driving the US with unlimited data plans starting at $25 per month
• Global: Europe is the most mature wireless market with (96%) penetration rates, followed by Japan (88%), the United States (89%) CTIA 2010
• Despite all the media hype, and vast sums pumped into developing and promoting native apps, more consumers use their browser than apps in developed nations. Only a minority will use Web or apps exclusively.
• Over 30% of visits to Facebook are Mobile, over 40% for twitter.
• In 2011 over 85 percent of new handsets will be able to access the mobile Web.
• Comscore (Febuary 2011) estimates that 80 percent of mobile subscribers in US and Western Europe have a phone that can access the mobile Web. 48 percent of US and 61 percent of W. Europeans have a handset with an HTML browser (this proportion is increasing fast), the rest have WAP browsers.

Learn more : Sources, ComScore.com , MobiThinking.com, CTIA.com, Gartner.com, Pewfoundation.com

We found it interesting that politicians are up in arms about Apple and Google smart phones tracking location data. Carriers have been doing this for years as part of their service well before the iPhone or android phones were introduced.

Folks on Capitol Hill are probably very concerned that anyone knows their location at any time.  Sounds like a great opportunity for a company to introduce some sort of blackbox phone or app that blocks carrier data tracking.

I am sure they would get a lot of customers in DC.

See original article from 2009 here. You can watch actual tracking in the video. http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-data-retention

Tell-all telephone

Green party politician Malte Spitz sued to have German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom hand over six months of his phone data that he then made available to ZEIT ONLINE. We combined this geolocation data with information relating to his life as a politician, such as Twitter feeds, blog entries and websites, all of which is all freely available on the internet.

By pushing the play button, you will set off on a trip through Malte Spitz’s life. The speed controller allows you to adjust how fast you travel, the pause button will let you stop at interesting points. In addition, a calendar at the bottom shows when he was in a particular location and can be used to jump to a specific time period. Each column corresponds to one day.

NEW YORK via Warc.com: Smartphones are playing an increasingly important role in shaping the purchase decisions of US shoppers, a study by Google and Ipsos OTX has found.

The two firms surveyed 5,013 smartphone owners, and reported that 81% regularly surf the net via this route, while 77% access search engines, 68% leverage apps and 48% stream video.

Simultaneous media use was also widespread, as 72% of those polled were active on their touchphone when consuming other channels, including 33% doing so at the same time as watching TV.

More broadly, 93% of participants used gadgets like the iPhone and alternatives powered by Google Android at home, suggesting they have grown beyond solely being deployed on-the-move.

Search engines proved the most-visited category of website, as 77% of interviewees logged on to these platforms through their phone, beating social networks, ecommerce portals and video-sharing services.

Overall, 90% of mobile enquiries entered on properties such as Google and Bing resulted in some form of concrete outcome, be it buying something, travelling to a store or calling a company.

Indeed, 24% of contributors recommended brands and products after inputting a search enquiry in this way.

Elsewhere, 71% of respondents had searched the mobile web in response to advertising, with traditional media ads registering 68% here, measured against mobile’s 27% and online’s 18%.

Another 82% could recall viewing ads on a wireless handset, and half of this group engaged in a positive reaction, incorporating 49% making a purchase and 35% going to a website. Mobiles are also exerting a growing influence as a “shopping tool”, with 79% of people possessing smartphones having used them to compare prices, find product specifications or locate retailers.

Exactly 74% have previously bought goods and services as a consequence of using smartphones for parallel purposes, whether it be in stores, online or from mcommerce platforms.Similarly, 70% had employed their phones for these reasons when in bricks and mortar shops.

Local information was revealed to be especially popular, as 95% of the audience looked for such content on a handset, and 88% took action within a day of tracking down relevant material. A 77% share contacted a company, with 61% calling on the phone and 59% attending a physical outlet.

“Make sure you can be found via mobile search as consumers regularly use their phones to find and act on information,” the study said.

“Incorporate location-based products and services and make it easy for mobile customers to reach you because local information seeking is common among smartphone users.”

Further recommendations included developing a meaningful cross-channel strategy, and taking advantage of mobile advertising which taps in to concurrent media usage.

Data sourced from Google; additional content by Warc staff, 28 April 2011

Contact ApolloBravo for more information on reaching mobile shoppers.