The Return of Notes From A Mobilized Marketer

Those who go back with me may recall that I regularly wrote and posted Notes From A Mobilized Marketer following the publication of my first book, Mobilized Marketing, in 2012.

And for those who go back -- way, way back with me -- you likely remember that I’m a former journalist who have always sought to find the interesting, especially those things that matter, and to be provocative in my writing.

The column went on hiatus as life got busier and attention turned elsewhere.

The break is over.

Why?

There are so many thoughts, questions, doubts, fears, and, on the many good days, hopes that it’s time to write more regularly. I know for sure that this Notes phase will be more personal than ever, and I’ll surely look to spark conversation again.

We need each other more than ever and I’m starting this effort up again not to spew but to share and hopefully to hear from you if something strikes a chord.

Let’s go.

On any given day, my emotions run from overcome to optimistic but there are way too many days when the mindset goes in reverse. I don’t have a handle on my psyche and I’ll bet that there are loads of us in the same place. What does this have to do about marketing? Everything. We are nothing without consumer insights. But today more than ever, labeling someone this or that fails to account for the fact that in a pandemic, in lots of ways, someone – your customer or prospect -- is this and that. …

The auto insurers knew enough to offer rebates given the minimal driving that we are doing. My inbox tells me that the car service companies, including those that primarily change oil, either don’t realize that our patterns have changed or are too stupid or programmatic to make the necessary adjustment. …

Some of the wisest communications that I’ve seen have come from Alaska Airlines who have regularly informed customers of steps it is taking to keep everyone safe. That’s hardly unique for an airline, but what did get me to notice was a new and very human video centered on the idea that Alaska Airlines will be there “when you are ready.” https://blog.alaskaair.com/coronavirus/alaska-airlines-coronavirus-supporting-guests-team/. No hard sell. No false conclusion that people will take to the skies at the same time. Instead, it was empathetic and real. And smart. …

So much has changed during COVID-19, but what hasn’t is that I fail to listen. Marketer and wise man Seth Godin told me and us on March 20 to stay away from social networks all the time, but especially these days. https://seths.blog/2020/03/calm-also-has-a-coefficient/. “Twitter has been engineered to maximize panic. Calm is penalized, panic is amplified.” I’ve had way too many days feeling panic from what I’ve seen on Twitter. My weak defense is that I’m a news junkie – I have been since I was first able to read – and that I have to live life in real time. During the pandemic, for me at least, it’s been a path to being upset and defeated. And it’s self-inflicted. I need to do better. Now. And that includes time on Facebook. …

You’ll be snockered in no time if you down a shot every you hear the term, “We live in unprecedented times” in a commercial during a night of television watching. This is neither a news flash nor an original or compelling thought …

It’s always about clicks, never more so than today. Coronavirus may come back stronger in the fall is as definitive as a 100-item menu, yet this is positioned as news just about every day on CNBC and elsewhere.

I’ve long held the belief that you need to revisit your marketing playbook every six months. These days, the conversations need to happen weekly.

In about the time that it takes to fly from Chicago to San Francisco, Frontier Airlines reversed its plan to charge passengers who wanted to guarantee that a middle seat would be empty. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/frontier-airlines-rescinds-middle-seat-pay-trnd/index.html. That the original idea saw the light of day is incredibly dumb. …

Until next time. Stay safe.

With The Mobile Money Flowing, It’s Time To Correct Some Mistakes

We can debate the exact definition of meaningful dollars, but we all have to agree that the projected $100 billion in mobile ad spend in 2016 would fit into that category.

For perspective, an expenditure that large would account for more than 50 percent of all digital ads for the first time, according to eMarketer, which is offering up the figures. And it would pencil out to a 400 percent increase from 2013. Those dollars don’t even include money devoted to mobile marketing for activities after the click or install.

I’ll call the $100 billion figure both a milestone and a reason to pause. Certainly much is going well in mobile’s progression into the mainstream. But I can point to five mistakes that are keeping us from reaching greater heights.

First, we spend too much time seeking out the so-called “mobile user” when we know, in the United States, at least, the great majority of our customers and prospects bounce from device to laptop to tablet and back, many times a day. Our programs need to account for that customer journey. As Google’s Jason Spero told me for my upcoming book, The Art of Mobile Persuasion, a meaningful (there’s that word again) group of our customers and prospects expect brands to take this interest into account and enable the resumption of a task like searching when one leaves one piece of hardware and heads to another.

Second, we mostly fail when it comes to including a mobile call to action in traditional media, especially television and big-time events like the Super Bowl. Regular readers may remember that I’ve repeatedly incorrectly forecast a mobile call to action in the multi-million dollar TV spots on the NFL’s big day. Again this year, we were left with ads that came right out of the 1970s. But I actually have renewed hope for next year after seeing Coca-Cola spend television time during the Final Four to pour Coke Zero and give mobile users an offer via Shazam.

Third, we are still seeing marketers make ill-advised mobile decisions because the fail to start with consumer insights. Studies from Pew, comScore, Nielsen and the rest are fine, but it’s all about what your customers and prospects and their wants and behaviors. In my Mobilized Marketing book, Steve Mura from MillerCoors told us of his early disinterest in marketing via iPhones. Why? Mura’s customers are young males who demand choice and they didn’t take to the first wave of iPhones that were only available through one mobile carrier and with limited options on price and features. What do your customers want? Are you giving it to them?

Fourth, many marketers continue to be fascinated by shiny objects. Live video streams through Meerkat or Periscope may eventually enable brands to drive awareness, consideration, and sales, but at this point, the streaming experience is full of shaky, uninteresting user-generated views that leave us thinking that there are better places to spend our time. Instead, prudent marketers are spending on proven products and tactics like mobile loyalty clubs that are only going to become more valuable as we bring to market smarter, efficient ways to personalize.

Finally, for the most part, we remain in marketing silos. The mobile discipline is increasingly part of many organizations, but only a few, including Google and Lowe’s, are doing away with the channel distinctions in favor of a more holistic business unit.  As Sean Bartlett, ‎Director of Digital Experience, Product, & Omni-channel Integration at Lowe's, told me for The Art of Mobile Persuasion, “the folks at the forefront are going to collapse those mobile teams back into the base business so that you just have a digital organization, or a customer experience organization, and mobile is just how you do business and it's no longer becomes this specific talking point. It's just the assumption of how business operates.”  

In case you are thinking that I got out on the wrong side of the bed, I can easily point to five things that we’re doing well with mobile. Those will serve us well as we seek to prove that our $100 billion annual spend is justified and even lower than it should be.

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Article first appeared on Mobile Marketer - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/20186.html

Advice From a Mad Man - With Mobile, Put On a Flak Jacket And Go For It

You will be hard-pressed to find a smarter businessperson than Hank Wasiak, an ad man for more than four decades who has led small firms and global agencies, while always seeking to reach his target audience on a personal level.

“Technology opened the door to what consumers always felt anyway – back in my day when we were doing IR [infrared] scores to gauge television commercials and saying how hard it was to break through, the average recall for a 30-second spot was maybe 25 percent of the people who were forced to look at a commercial would remember it,” Hank told me in an interview for my Mobilized Marketing book.

“They were telling us then, ‘I want it the way I want it when I want it.’ We just didn’t have the capability to do it. Now we do. Mobile, it gets you connected but it’s part of your life in a functional way, in an emotional way, an entertaining way, in a lifesaving way.”

And Hank, former vice chairman of McCann Erickson WorldGroup who is now a partner at The Concept Farm, says fire sooner rather than later.

“To me, the key thing when looking at something is to be early and fast,” he said. “I’ve been the poster child for this.

“You want to overthink things sometimes. You want to get it perfect but things move so fast. To me in this world, especially in mobile, iteration is more important than innovation. You can find out quickly because you’re in real time in the hip pocket, the breast pocket and in the heart of your consumers.

“You have to put on a flak jacket and get a little more risk averse.”

More wisdom from Hank is here - http://www.hankwasiak.com

Meeting The Demands of Mobile

A new list of “demands of businesses and their mobile consumers” shows us how everything and nothing has changed for marketers.

I made that point often in my Mobilized Marketing book. As marketers, we still need to sell more stuff. It’s the how that is different.

Atop the tips from IBM (https://ibm.biz/BdRAkX) is a recommendation to use cross-channel marketing that establishes a consistent customer experience across every engagement channel.

This one fits in the “nothing has changed” bucket. Whether it’s television and newspaper in the 1960s or the web and mobile device in 2014, it was and is critical to speak with one brand voice. And look like one brand. And deliver on the brand promise everywhere.

Second on the list is targeting and analytics to help with the development of a personalized experience for each customer.

Here’s another that is a must – and one that didn’t begin in the modern mobile device era. Even during the heyday of mass media, the savviest marketers knew that measurement and segmentation were key to delivering communications that meant something on the individual level. Mobile sits alongside web advertising, email and direct mail as vehicles to bring a relevant message.

Third is real-time and location-based marketing to drive relevant offers to the right person at the right place and time.

Of course, this one is where we see the most change. With devices that are mini-computers in the hands of many at all times and in all places, marketers have a way to get where my friend and longtime marketing executive Hank Wasiak calls the heart and the pocket of customers and prospects.

Fourth is mobile commerce that takes advantage of the features that are specific to mobile devices.

Google tells us that searches with local intent are more likely to lead to store visits and sales within a day. In my view, this tip is mostly about understanding the motivation and behaviors of the mobile users.

Finally, customer delight because a pleasant experience makes customers want to come back for more.

The need to delight is not new. On mobile, delight must come quickly because of the heightened expectation of instant gratification.

As I’ve counseled brands over the years, the key is to tie mobile initiatives to proven marketing strategies and tactics. In 2014, the what remains the same. Mobile is the new how.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program http://Goo.gl/t3fgW, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Everything and Nothing Has Changed

Wireless Week asked me to assess where we are with mobile. Here’s what I told the publication:

“Even in 2013, years after mobile marketing has proven its worth, many brands continue to take tepid steps that leave them trailing their competitors and, even more importantly, disappointing and irritating their customers and prospects.

“A common challenge these marketers face is that they fail to acknowledge that everything and nothing has changed with mobile. The savvier brands know that the what is the same – they need to sell more product and build loyalty. It’s the how that is different.

“There is a large opportunity for those who map mobile strategies and programs to overall business goals.

“How large? Just ask mobile users.

“In survey after survey, we see that consumers are interested in joining a permission-based mobile loyalty club. The numbers consistently register at around one-third, which in the United States equals more than 100 million people. The more interesting number to me is how many say that have yet to be approached by a brand that they trust – more than 70 percent feel this way.

“The takeaway? We actually have a large number of consumers who have raised their hands and said that they are interested in being marketed to on their terms. Yet many businesses fail to pay attention to the customer, which, of course, is ill-advised whether we’re talking mobile or not.

“In my Mobilized Marketing book, Michael Bayle, a longtime mobile executive who is now Senior Vice President and General Manager of ESPN Mobile, said that consumers are rewarding brands that provide a positive mobile experience and punishing others who fail to deliver.

“Bayle assesses the situation this way:

“’They (marketers) have two choices – they can either ride the wave or watch the wave pour over them. We can equip them with a surfboard, equip them with the right tools so that it’s just not an investment and a spend but there’s tactically at the end of the day some return on investment we’re collectively monitoring that is better for their brand.’

“And better for the bottom line, not to mention the customer.

The full article is here - http://www.wirelessweek.com/articles/2013/08/magazine-ups-and-downs-ads-going-mobile

Sales Is The Only Measurement That Matters

Sell more beer are the first three words in my Mobilized Marketing book, serving as a lead-in to the story of Steve Mura and his work as of director of digital marketing at MillerCoors.

Mura knows that for marketers, mobile has changed everything. And nothing.

The what remains the same: Move more product. Mura told me that his goal is the same as it was for his predecessor 155 years ago. Sell more bottles and cans.

It’s the how that has changed. With more mobile devices on the planet than there are toilets, and more people consuming via wireless, there are more ways than ever for brands and marketers to reach consumers.

Megabrands like MillerCoors aren’t the only ones who know that their marketing efforts must lead to more business.

In a new survey by Inc. http://images.inc.com/vocus/dmsmb/guide/vocus_inc_the_state_of_digital_marketing_for_smbs.pdf, it was shown that SMBs are approaching digital marketing pragmatically: the number one objective for companies in this space is to drive sales. This goal receives an average importance rating of 4.48 (on a scale of 1 to 5) by firms with more than $1 million in annual sales and 4.45 by all firms in the Inc. survey.

Most SMBs participating have between one and five full-time employees currently working on their digital marketing efforts. A substantial portion of both million-dollar-plus and smaller SMBs devote an overwhelming share of their total marketing spend exclusively to digital.

More than 70 percent say their current digital marketing strategy is very (10.2 percent) or moderately (60.3 percent) effective at achieving the objectives they’ve identified as being most important to their business.

Satisfaction is even higher among the $1 million-plus group, with 11.7 percent rating their efforts very effective and 68.4 percent moderately so.

What’s most impressive about these numbers is that many of these SMBs have had to rethink how they market themselves. That has included learning new skills and/or hiring folks who could bring additional digital know-how to the business.

Look for more mobile use and marketing integration when this survey is done again in a year. That’s because more businesses as large as MillerCoors and as small as the Mom and Pop are realizing that they can sell more through the wireless device that is within four feet of their customers 24 hours a day.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program http://Goo.gl/t3fgW, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Can Mercedes Drive Traffic Through Mobile Advertising?

In my Mobilized Marketing book, I wrote that the coolest thing in mobile was, of all things, a Ford campaign that employed an unsexy text message call to action in traditional media to produce a 15.4 percent lead conversion.

To me, cool equals business success, not necessarily innovative technology.

Many auto manufacturers employ mobile in the hopes of moving product.

In a story running today, I told Mobile Marketer that Mercedes is wise to partner with CBS News.

“The automotive industry has had great early success with mobile, mostly from the manufacturers and dealers who are delivering personalization options – as in build your own car on your device – and current inventory for those who are inclined to visit a dealer for a test drive,” I said in the story.

“Apps are just part of the mobile solution. Car manufacturers and other brands should give consumers choice on how to interact via mobile.”

The full piece is here: http://www.luxurydaily.com/mercedes-boasts-new-e-class-in-mobile-ads/

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Dumber Smartphone User" Edition

A report suggests that smartphones are making us dumber. I read it as more of an opinion about the downside of multitasking. I would say more, but I’m conducting an orchestra while I write.

I’ve been using a low-end smartphone for some testing. It provides perspective on the complaints we have with the better models.

As of late last week, while Facebook's stock was down 30 percent since its IPO, daily users were up 26 percent, mobile monthly users were up 56 percent, and revenue up 38 percent, according to Techcrunch.

More on the changing face of mobile messaging - Google’s new Hangouts app will soon support SMS.

Headline: Mobile Loyalty Programs - The New Home Run for Marketers. New? No. ROI has been proven for years. There are dozens of examples in my Mobilized Marketing book and on this site.

Groupon Co-CEO: My wife won't let me forget I rejected Google's $5.75 billion. My wife would move past it. Sure.

Ninety-five percent of Q1 Android smartphone profits went to Samsung.

Households making less than $30K send/receive 60 texts a day, twice those of households earning more than $75K, according to Pew.

ABC will reportedly participate in Nielsen's first test of new technology designed to track mobile TV viewers.

A Virgin America flight attendant reportedly said this upon landing: “If your mobile device is within reach, you can stop pretending it’s turned off now.”

There is no unsubscribe link on Priceline emails. you know, the ones you and I never asked to get when we booked a room.

I hate those "automated" counts like the one running on the Apple home page last week supposedly counting app downloads. They smell fake every time.

Only 3 percent of affluent women buy designer apparel via mobile: study. That number seems very low and bound to go higher.

Findings? How About Half-Truths?

Forrester Research got headlines with its new digital marketing report, but did it get everything right? Hardly.

It’s unknown if the $499 report was shared in its entirety with reporters and bloggers. I certainly haven’t received it.

What I have seen are a slew or posts that portray the report based on a survey of 58,000 online consumers as an indictment of text messages from brands.

“Text message communications were the least trusted, while online banner ads barely rated above spammy SMS in the trust stakes,” wrote Techcrunch.

What?

Brands don’t send “smammy” text messages, at least in any meaningful number. Rules established by the carriers and Mobile Marketing Association prohibit dissemination of texts by brands without a consumer requested one after a call to action or an opt-in to a permission-based database. If a brand does send such a message, it is often shut down by the mobile operators.

Do mobile users want to join such loyalty clubs? Hipcricket annual surveys consistently have shown about one third of those polled interested or very interested.

Once they are in, do mobile subscribers opt out? Not in large numbers – something well less than 5 percent in my experience.

Do SMS programs work? Readers of my Mobilized Marketing book know the answer is yes. Ford drove a 15.4 percent lead conversion by adding SMS calls to action to traditional media. A car dealer sold 34 automobiles in one day after not selling one for a month. A maid service had to hire more help after its sponsorship of a text to win ticket giveaway pushed demand beyond its capabilities. There are dozens of other examples in the book and thousands elsewhere.

What is a small or medium sized business to do?

Meet their customers and prospects on mobile. Mobile is not really a “nice to have” anymore. There are inexpensive ways to meet or beat expectations – something as simple as implementing a quick payment solution like Square, talking to their local radio station to sponsor a relatively inexpensive mobile-enabled promotion that could drive traffic, or even find an inexpensive way to create or enhance a mobile web presence. Google makes it easy at www.howtogomobile.com

Another way to is to listen in on many free webinars that talk about mobile marketing programs and share best practices. I’m conducting one April 10 for Market Motive and registration is free here - http://www.marketmotive.com/training/tutorials/conference-calls-and-workshops...>

I hope to see you there. Or at least on mobile.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program  http://Goo.gl/t3fgW, whichprovides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

CEO Adviser: Hold The Phone

For marketers, mobile has changed everything. And nothing.

The what remains the same: Move more product. This has been the case for centuries. In a recent interview, Steve Mura, director of digital marketing at Miller-Coors, told me that his goal is the same as it was for his predecessor 155 years ago. Sell more beer.

It’s the how that has changed. With more mobile devices on the planet than there are toilets, and more people consuming via wireless, there are more ways than ever for brands and marketers to reach consumers. This opportunity requires more than mobile marketing; it requires mobilized marketing.

The distinction here is the difference between pushing out thousands of mass daily offers versus targeting mobile users based on their location, their demographic information and their personal interests and then using incentives to open a two-way conversation that keeps them engaged.

For businesses, it is not as simple as just adding one mobile campaign to the marketing mix. The basics have remained constant more than a century and a half: Know your audience and develop plans accordingly.

To learn about your target audience, Microsoft mobile veteran Barbara Williams explains, it’s important to observe.

“This is something really simple,” she says. “If you’re not sure if you should be doing mobile, take a page out of classic consumer research model and do ethnographic research. You can do it on your own. Go to the store, go to the mall, go out to dinner, and sit back and watch people. Just watch. Old school. And you see everyone is on their devices and they are spending quite a bit of time on their devices and they’re not making phone calls necessarily and they are not just doing SMS [short message service]—they are doing a lot of things.

“When you see that happening around you everywhere you go, ask yourself, ‘How can I insert my product or my brand or my message into these experiences?’ Just look at the world around you. And listen to young people who grew up in the digital age. Their behaviors are completely different.”

What Williams is saying is that people spend a lot of time on their mobile devices. Beyond texting and making calls, they download apps, surf the Web and play games. Creative marketers should think about how they can insert their brands into each of these daily consumer activities in a way that isn’t intrusive (or worse, annoying). How about a sponsored mobile game or an app that helps you make your grocery list?

The most successful mobile marketers give consumers options.

In early 2011, Macy’s developed a mobile program called Backstage Pass. The program uses in-store signage that prompts shoppers to “scan the star”—a quick response (QR) code shaped in the iconic Macy’s star logo—to “go behind the scenes” with their favorite Macy’s designers. By scanning the logo with a smartphone, shoppers are presented with access to 30-second videos that provide fashion tips and a behind-the-scenes look at clothes from Bobbi Brown, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Greg Norman for Tasso Elba, Rachel Roy, Irina Shabayeva for INC and Martha Stewart.

One of the most unusual aspects of this campaign was its inclusion of multiple mobile channels. The program integrated QR codes, SMS, MMS, mobile video and the mobile web. It even provided a traditional URL for those who didn’t want to interact via their mobile phones.

By offering shoppers so many choices, Macy’s is catering to all of its customers, no matter which device they carry, which operating system their device runs or their personal mobile preferences. After all, a retailer would never offer a sale to only customers driving red sedans, right? So it doesn’t make any sense to only offer an app to those with iPhones.

In the end, mobile devices present a huge opportunity for businesses to engage with their potential customers. But remember, when it comes to marketing, choice is the killer app.

(article first appeared in Seattle Business magazine - http://seattlebusinessmag.com/article/ceo-adviser-hold-phone)

The Question Remains – Does Your Business Need A Mobile App?

When it comes to mobile apps, the year is ending the way it began – with some marketers saying they need one, but without even a half-decent reason why.

Several weeks ago in Las Vegas, I was approached following a Mobilized Marketing book presentation by a small business marketer. Much to the chagrin of a “more sophisticated” marketing colleague, the gentlemen pushed for approval from me for moving forward on creating an app.

But when I gently asked whether he knew what type of mobile devices his customers carry, and whether he was prepared to build for more than one operating system (iOS for Apple devices, Android for Google, etc.), he realized that he hadn’t done enough homework on the subject of apps.

That scenario happened to me several times this year – and actually every year since 2007.

In a recent PC World article called Does your small business need a mobile app to stay competitive? http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=A0025B28-C30F-D9C1-1529706063D17C87 author Christopher Null wrote that many small and medium size business owners believe that everyone has an app but them.

“As a small-business owner, choosing whether to join the app-development club can be a difficult decision,” Null wrote. “You may feel like you have to build an app and go mobile to stay competitive, but you’ve probably heard that apps are expensive and time-consuming to develop. More and more users are dumping desktops and laptops for tablets and cell phones, so it makes sense to optimize the online experience for them. But is it really worth the effort? Cant they just use their smartphones to access the website you already have?

“Its a tricky problem with no single cut-and-dried solution.”

Null correctly pointed out that while mobile websites work on all smartphones, “an app gives you much more presence on the phone than a bookmark on that phones browser does. Rather than forcing the user to launch the browser and find your URL, an app is always there, front and center on the mobile desktop. Your business is constantly in mind, whether the person is using the app or not.”

I’m in the camp that says build a mobile website before an app (if you need an app at all) because it is more inclusive.

There were some who believed that the “duel” between the mobile web and apps would be won by the end of 2012 and that only one would be left standing. That won’t happen. Both have a place. It behooves small and medium size business owners and marketers to understand their customers and provide the best solution for them.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business http://goo.gl/S6P7m program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

Revisiting Mobile Predictions

For a look back at mobile in 2012, I returned to the interviews I conducted late last year for my Mobilized Marketing book.

Some of the three dozen marketers I talked to were hesitant to predict too far into the future. But, with a bit of prodding from this inquiring author, I did gather predictions that sounded plausible then.

What about now?

Brand marketer Rick Mathieson predicted monumental change at retail.

“We’re going to see the beginnings of an evolution in what we call location-based services, and a convergence of several different trends that will radically redefine what we call mobile marketing and what we call retailing for the decade ahead,” he told me. “You’ll see the convergence of things like Foursquare and Shopkick and so on, with things like the Layar augmented reality browser, with things like NFC [near field communication] and/or QR [quick response] codes—or whatever they evolve into—and retailers having their own apps that manage CRM [customer relationship management] systems and offer discounts. All of these things are going to converge in an interesting way.

“Here’s how it will be manifest. You’re Jane and you’re walking into Hot Stuff Boutique. You’re going to turn on the Hot Stuff app, and the store is instantly going to know Jane just walked in the door. You’re going to instantly receive offers based on your stated preferences and your past purchase history. ‘Hi Jane! If you loved those jeans you bought last month, you’re going to love these new tops.’ It’ll even show you where the shirts are in the store. Should you decide to, you can send your information to the tablet device in the store clerk’s hands, so he or she can give you very personalized customer care when you’re in the store. When you walk over to the shirts, you’ll be able to scan the tag to watch video of models wearing the shirts on the runway, or a video about the brand and the inspirations for the design.”

There was more to Mathieson’s scenario:

“When you go into the dressing room, you’ll be able to capture video or images of yourself in the store mirror and instantly send it out to your social network for instant feedback on whether the style is ‘fly’ or ‘forgettaboutit,’” he says. “If desired, you’ll be able to grab accessories from the catalogue and superimpose them on your reflection using augmented reality and you in the store, and your friends out in the world, will be able to have a real-time shopping experience. Depending on what your friends say, or maybe despite what they say, if you decide you want that shirt, you might throw it in your bag or just wear it and walk right out of the store. New-fangled theft deterrent technology will be disabled, and the transaction will happen automatically and wirelessly, perhaps on the fly or with the tap of your phone on a NFC reader, because you’ve entered your credit card information into a Web portal associated with the app or because you have mobile wallet capabilities. And you’re on your way—without digging for cash, writing a check, swiping a card or ever again standing in line.

So how did Mathieson score on his predictions?

There certainly has been monumental change at retail.

PayPal saw a 193 percent increase in mobile payment volume on Black Friday 2012 than Black Friday 2011. Between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. PST was the busiest mobile shopping hour on Black Friday 2012. Shoppers in these cities made the most mobile purchases through PayPal on Black Friday: Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.

eBay experienced a 153 boost in mobile U.S. volume. That followed eBay a 133 percent increase in mobile U.S. volume transacted on Thanksgiving.

IBM said that mobile purchases soared with 24 percent of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer's site, up from 14.3 percent in 2011. Mobile sales exceeded 16 percent, up from 9.8 percent in 2011.

Additionally, the iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, reaching nearly 10 percent of online shopping. This was followed by iPhone at 8.7 percent and Android 5.5 percent. The iPad dominated tablet traffic at 88.3 percent followed by the Barnes and Noble Nook at 3.1 percent, Amazon Kindle at 2.4 percent and the Samsung Galaxy at 1.8 percent.

Finally, according to IBM, consumers shopped in store, online and on mobile devices simultaneously to get the best bargains. Overall 58 percent of consumers used smartphones compared to 41 percent who used tablets to surf for bargains on Black Friday. Black Friday – Cyber Monday stats

How are retailers competing?

A recent initiative by Lowe’s has the chain putting 42,000 iPhones into the hands of sales associates as a way to help customers get a more satisfying experience from the iPhone app. (To get the inside story on how mobile was used by Lowe’s during the holidays, I will be conducting a fireside chat with Sean Bartlett, Director of Mobile Strategy and Platforms for Lowe’s on Jan. 30 at the Mobile Marketing Association’s Mobile Marketing Forum in San Francisco http://www.mmaglobal.com/events/forums/sanfrancisco2013/agenda#tabs-2).

I have to believe that Mathieson’s dressing room sequence of events is still a time off from happening. There is plenty of social involving with the buying experience, but augmented reality has yet to realize its promise. I see more of it happening in 2013, but we’ll look back 12 months from now and still not see AR as a mass experience.

Another to make predictions was Michael Becker, Managing Director of MMA North America, who told me in Mobilized Marketing http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VTYDS8/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d26_i1?pf_rd_... that mobile users will seek out what he called “pause and resume.”

“Consumers will have an experience with a brand on one screen and expect that experience to move with them,” Becker said. “With that pause and resume, consumers are going to want the best experience that [they] can have at a particular device at that particular time.”

Becker also envisioned even more relevant experiences coming through mobile devices.

“I also see the importance of context growing more and more and beyond just location,” he said. “Time will be the next access that will take a big role in our conversation. It’s not just a matter that I’m in Times Square but when am I in it, because the engagement around you is different if I’m standing in Times Square at 12 in the afternoon versus 12 at night. How do we play that role and have that level of context with consumers?

“We’re going to see the idea of permission marketing go beyond I got your opt in or opt out. There are going to be layers of permission. When can you talk to me? On what subjects? And on what devices and mediums?”

So how did Becker do?

Pause and resume is certainly here. Amazon’s Kindle is an example with the device and app syncing as users switch from a Kindle to a smartphone or tablet. The experience is seamless and now the standard.

As for context, more and more brands are using such elements as ambient conditions to be relevant. For instance, 7-Eleven delivered Slurpee offers to opted in consumers when the temperatures reached warm degrees.

I haven’t seen a brand use layers of permission yet, but the idea makes sense. I want to interact with the local grocer, but I don’t want offers for beef since we don’t eat meat. But if you have a deal on halibut, I’m all in as long as you reach me on my smartphone during the hours when I’m most likely on my way home.

(first appeared at imediaconnection.com - http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2012/12/06/revisiting-mobile-predictio...

Mobile Provides Road To Consumer’s Breast Pocket and Heart

Through a 40-year advertising career, Hank Wasiak has yearned for a route to the consumer’s heart.  The former vice chairman of McCann Erickson WorldGroup knows that the ability for a brand to make an emotional connection was more important than any benefits that come via a single transaction.

Mobile gives Wasiak the road he has been seeking.

“Technology opened the door to what consumers always felt anyway – back in my day when we were doing IR [infrared] scores to gauge television commercials and saying how hard it was to break through, the average recall for a 30-second spot was maybe 25 percent of the people who were forced to look at a commercial would remember it,” Wasiak told me in an interview for my new book, Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices.

“They were telling us then, ‘I want it the way I want it when I want it.’ We just didn’t have the capability to do it. Now we do. Mobile, it gets you connected but it’s part of your life in a functional way, in an emotional way, an entertaining way, in a lifesaving way,” he said.

Successful marketers are opting in consumers to mobile loyalty clubs. Surveys by Hipcricket, a mobile marketing and mobile advertising leader, consistently show that more than one third of U.S. mobile subscribers are interested in joining a VIP club hosted by their favorite brands--translating to more than 100 million people. Some brands have mobile VIP clubs with hundreds of thousands of opted-in members.

According to our most recent research, nearly two-thirds of consumers say their favorite brand has yet to advertise to them on their mobile device. There’s a huge opportunity there for brands, one that reaches well beyond the first click or installation. For savvy marketers, the click or install isn’t the end – it’s the beginning of the relationship, if you shepherd it well.

Wasiak and others can also reach his customers and prospects by thinking beyond the one-time mobile advertisement. He is looking for what happens after the click or the app download. Many marketers are leaving a huge opportunity on the table, an important chance to engage with the customer, post-activity.

The post-activity piece is about permission-based re-engagement where a brand is “invited in” by the consumer after the click or download, thereby opening ongoing dialogue. This creates a connection that is contextual and appealing to the mobile user and potentially lucrative to the advertiser. And lack of context is what primarily keeps most consumers from engaging in brands on mobile—our most recent survey showed that nearly 43 percent of consumers who haven’t engaged with mobile ads chose not to because “it was not relevant to my interests.”

When it comes to mobile, even in its relatively early days, Wasiak, who is now a partner at The Concept Farm, believes that marketers should fire sooner rather than later.

“To me, the key thing when looking at something is to be early and fast,” he said. “I’ve been the poster child for this.

“You want to overthink things sometimes. You want to get it perfect but things move so fast. To me in this world, especially in mobile, iteration is more important than innovation. You can find out quickly because you’re in real time in the hip pocket, the breast pocket and in the heart of your consumers.

“You have to put on a flak jacket and get a little more risk averse.”

Microsoft’s Barbara Williams, a former marketer at venerable Johnson & Johnson and Unilever, agrees with Wasiak. Microsoft is proceeding with mobile despite the lack of precise mobile measurement.

“Now it seems to be very anecdotal,” she says. “We know we spent x amount and we know the cost per engagement or cost per experience. We’ll look at the percent we spend in media on mobile or media in other channels and look at the return on that in terms of visitors or engagement and try to compare it. We’ll say we know we’re not spending nearly as much in mobile as we are in digital but we’re getting just as much traffic.

“Right now we’re at the beginning stages of making it more scientific and more data driven.”

But the path to the consumer’s breast pocket and heart has become well-established.

(article first appeared in Washington Times http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/status-update/2012/sep/14...

Video of Author Panel at Mobile Insider Summit

I was thrilled to be asked to be on an author’s panel http://www.mediapost.com/mobileinsidersummit/agenda/ at the top-tier Mobile Insider Summit presented by Mediapost. My co-panelists were Jed Alpert, CEO, Mobile Commons; Chuck Martin, Author, The Third Screen @chuckmartin; and Mike Proulx, Senior VP, Digital Strategy, Hill Holliday @mcproulx.

Incidentally, Chuck and Mike are good friends.

Here’s the video

<br />Video streaming by Ustream

On-Camera Interview on Mobilized Marketing

In this video, I talk about everything and nothing has changed for marketers and share insights from those interviewed for Mobilized Marketing.

Revisiting My Mobile Predictions

In January, I posted my 2012 predictions http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2011/12/13/super-if-not-super-bowl-mob.... Let’s see where we are six months into the year:

Prediction: Device price points will continue to be brought down with offers of discounted products in exchange for a consumer agreeing to receive ads. Mobile phones with offers, including perhaps a Google phone, are coming soon.

Where We Stand: As I write this, for a shiny (or dull, for that matter) penny, Amazon is selling the Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4G Android Phone on Verizon Wireless. That is tied to a contract, not ads. But Google is making a further wireless bet with the introduction of the Nexus 7 tablet. Reportedly the company won’t make anything off of the hardware – it’s about the ads and selling of content that makes this viable.

Prediction: Savvy marketers will follow research highlighting consumer behavior and interest. They know that just because you can do something technically doesn’t mean that you should.

Where We Stand: At a recent Hipcricket summit of top digital marketers, one of the many of the successes discussed was Ford’s 15.4 percent lead conversion seen through the combination of traditional media and text messaging. Spending on shiny objects can move your business backward – or get you fired.

Prediction: 2012 will be the year of the mobile web. As we move closer to the time when more people access the web on a wireless device than a PC, brands, agencies and others will realize that they need a mobile web offering that overdelivers. This has not yet happened, but will soon because consumers will demand it.

Where We Stand: Mobile Internet users will reach 113.9 million in 2012, up 17.1% from 97.3 million in 2011 (U.S. Digital Media Usage report, eMarketer 2012). But there is an argument to be made that this is the year of mobile apps (oh, how so many predicted its demise). 64 percent of mobile phone time is spent using apps (Nielsen, March 2012). That could not be predicted.

Prediction: In such a growth industry, more vendors will enter the marketplace making claims that they will produce ROI. Proceed with caution. While the company name may not say Two Guys In a Garage, that may indeed be what you are buying.

Where We Stand: I have not seen a stat about new mobile companies launched, but anecdotally I can tell you that we see newbies just about every day. And many are performing smoke and mirror tricks. Beware.

Prediction: Expect more pressure from senior management to produce results from mobile, meaning it’s critical to think beyond a one-time transaction. There are bigger opportunities if you think about what can happen after the click, namely an experience that can lead to an opt-in and remarketing possibilities.

Where We Stand: As mobile matures, the smartest brands like Coca-Cola are looking at lifetime value. This group has grown significantly in the last six months. More and more, we’re seeing uptake in mobile advertising that follows with an engagement plan.

Prediction: Plan on more device types in the hands of consumers, making it important to provide positive user experiences rather than products that addresses the least-common denominator. Consumers expect top notch brand experiences and the bar is higher than ever with smartphones and faster networks.

Where We Stand: In my Mobilized Marketing book, ESPN executive Michael Bayle says that brands are being punished by consumers who are given poor experiences on mobile. Bayle is right – I see it and hear it often.

Prediction: Expect more social interaction at the point of sale, making customer service vital or a bad experience will end up on Facebook or Twitter in seconds. According to my Moments of Trust consumer touchpoint survey, 40 percent of consumers with smartphones or Internet-enabled mobile devices have used them to spread word to their social networks about an in-store experience, 46 percent of them reported a positive one and 40 percent cited a negative one.

Where We Stand: Twitter and Facebook have furthered their mobile reach via feature phone apps. It’s not about smartphones or feature phones – for brands, it’s important to note that all wireless devices are megaphones.

(first posted on imediaconnection.com http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2012/07/15/revisiting-mobile-predictio...

Why Savvy Marketers Won't Bet On Shiny Objects

More than three dozen of the savviest digital marketers in the country came together in New York recently for a customer summit and sharing of knowledge.

Each brought impressive mobile success stories, none of which included the use of a so-called “shiny object” or a product sprinkled by pixie dust at South By Southwest this past spring. These pros know that none of those types of products and services will move a business. In fact, if anything, they will move a business backward.

Instead, there was discussion of a Ford traditional media campaign that included a call to action involving the unsexiest of products – texting. Why did that make the cut in a day full of discussion? The answer is: business results. Ford saw a 15.4 percent lead conversion by including a mobile component to dollars already being spent.

There was talk of the programs run at Macy’s. In its Backstage Pass program, shoppers are given choices on how to respond to calls to action that lead to information on merchandise from leading designers. The elements include a mobile website, QR codes, MMS (multimedia messaging) and, yes, even text messaging. Macy’s is wise enough to give mobile users choice.

Sure, these marketers are on the forefront. Many attended SxSW and are as up on the newest and shiniest as anyone. But they aren’t buying vaporware. They are tapping into consumer behavior and interest, not what is displayed as the hippest.

Why?

They understand that their jobs have not changed. They need to, for example, sell more beer, move more shoes, and entice consumers to buy cereal. It’s the same job that their predecessors had, in some cases, more than 150 years ago.

The what is the same: It’s about moving product. It always was, and always will be. It’s the how that is changed in the mobile era.

Of course, they aren’t betting it all on mobile. But they are making intelligent bets. For instance, few are spending anything on the mobile wallet, which dominated conversation at SxSW. With miniscule adoption, 2012 isn’t the year to bet the marketing budget on Near Field Communication (NFC) and the wallet promise.

Even those chasing the dough in that category are realistic. “It’s inevitable that we will use this smart gadget that most of us have in our pocket now and increasingly over time all of us will have it,” Scott Lien, vice president of Intuit’s Mobile Innovation Group, told me in my new book, Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices. “First it will be a basic replacement for payments but over time it will gain more and more intelligence. At first there will be early adopters. They do everything on the phone. I think it will be high travelers and people who are in transit a lot.

“There are many ways that it will add intelligence. It’s shocking in this country that there are a lot of people in tough economic shape. Credit card debt is high. Many people are living paycheck to paycheck, yet they don’t have a good adviser on a daily basis that is helping them make good buying decisions. That could happen in many ways. Helping them find substitutes — if you want to get a good cup of coffee, you tell them, ‘Here’s the cheaper, better place and a better way to get it. Hey, you have points sitting there in your frequent flier account that are about to expire and you can monetize that and buy this thing you want to get.’ We all have three or four credit cards in our wallet. We can tell them that there’s actually a better card to use on this transaction because they’re going to get triple points.”

Lien has measured expectations for adoption. “The concept is very simple — harnessing all the data and all the information that is there and putting all of that knowledge in your hand at the point of purchase or point of decision to help you make a better choice,” he says. “I don’t think we’re years away from all that. I think it will start to come slowly and come in pieces, the way they came with the iPhone. First there weren’t any apps — now there’s voice assist and all that. This will come slowly and serve segments of users like the high-traveler, high-transit user who will start to adapt it very quickly.”

In other words, there likely will be a time to spend brand dollars against the concept. Just not now, not by marketers who went to New York to learn more about how to sell more today.

(article first appeared on adotas.com - http://www.adotas.com/2012/07/why-savvy-marketers-wont-bet-on-shiny-objects/)

Video Explaining How Everything and Nothing Has Changed For Marketers

Greg Hickman of mobilemixed.com invited me to speak about Mobilized Marketing and how everything and nothing has changed for marketers.

The video is here.

The Future of Mobile

Tamara Bousquet, one of the wisest marketers I've met, had one request when we were putting together a slide deck for a co-presentation at an iMedia Agency Summit master class: "Let's not try to predict what will happen in mobile more than six months from now -- no one knows," said Bousquet, executive media director of MEA Digital.

We didn't that day, but questions about mobile's future are posed on a daily basis. So in writing my Mobilized Marketing book, I asked a number of influential marketers the question.

Predictions included the continued trend of turning previously passive activities into interactive ones, the insertion of more context into mobile campaigns, and the continued evolution of the shopping experience, among others.

I included many in a new imediconnection.com piece I wrote. Here's the link: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/32188.asp

Making Mobile Marketing Work For Your Business

(The following first appeared on entrepreneur.com http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223854)

In his book "Mobilized Marketing," author Jeff Hasen details the strategies and tactics that move products and build loyalty through mobile devices, arguably your most personal means of communicating directly with customers. In the following edited excerpt, Hasen offers insights from seasoned marketing professionals on how to gauge, use and succeed with mobile.

Interested in mobile marketing but not sure how or where to get started?

Here are tips from three leaders in mobile marketing and their thoughts for those new to the field.

1. Do some people watching. -- Barbara Williams, a senior-level marketer at Microsoft.

"This is something really simple. . . . If you're not sure if you should be doing mobile, take a page out of classic consumer research mode. . . . Go to the store, go to the mall, go out to dinner, and sit back and watch people. Just watch. Old school. And you see everyone is on their devices and they are spending quite a bit of time on their devices and they're not making phone calls necessarily and they are not just doing SMS [short message service] -- they are doing a lot of things.

"When you see that happening around you everywhere you go, think about how can I insert my product or my brand or my message into these experiences. Just look at the world around you. And listen to young people who grew up in the digital age. Their behaviors are completely different. You'll see this is definitely the route to go in. Invest the time to learn it and understand it. Explore it yourself."

2. Keep an eye on what "the little guy" is doing, as well as the titans. -- Mario Schulzke, founder of IdeaMensch and director of digital strategy at marketing firm WDCW.

"You know, I am not smart enough to tell you about major game-changers. . . . But I can tell you there will be a revolution of incremental innovations that are about to take place. It's so easy nowadays to build your own website, your own piece of software or your own app. So what's happening is that a bunch of people are starting to solve the problems that they've been having in their own lives and industries. We'll see some major productivity gains in just about every vertical, driven by people solving problems close to their vest.

"Do what feels right. . . . Build a marketing program around tactics that make sense for you. I have many clients who are overwhelmed by Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and the like. But when we talk about creating content that provides value to existing and potential customers, they get that. Having a roundtable discussion on Twitter is no different than going to a networking meeting. Crafting a webinar and capturing leads via email is no different than speaking at your local Lion's Club.

"Do what makes sense to you, and always think about the value you provide to your audience. Focus on the fundamentals. Respectfully communicate with your customers via all channels. Don't pretend to be something you're not, and do the right thing."

3. Create interactive "rich media" designed specifically for your mobile site. -- Microsoft's Williams.

"When you think rich media and digital, you tend to think of the standbys like a whole-page takeover or part of an ad will be in the leaderboard at the top of the page and move into one of the units on the side. . . . On mobile, it's a completely different type of experience. You don't have the flexibility but you have the entire device. You can incorporate rich functionality where you can shake the device or where it is actually using the camera function in augmented reality or the location function. There are so many other vectors or parameters that are unique to mobile that I think make rich even richer on mobile. But you have to think about it in a different way on mobile.

"If you don't have a mobile landing page attached to that rich media unit, you have kinda left [your customers] hanging. . . . While rich media is an incredible opportunity to pull people in and to really drive engagement and surface up and push the content out, that back end is still needed when they want to continue their journey. . . ."

4. Find out how your customers want to communicate with you. -- Eileen Woodbury, director of marketing at Clear Channel Los Angeles.

"People will communicate with you the way they want to communicate. . . . So texting isn't replacing the Web. The Web didn't replace the phone call. People who want to call will want to call. People who never called us before hopefully will engage with us through text. Some people prefer Twitter or are on Facebook all day.

"This is the age of choice. People communicate the way they want to. With every new thing that comes along, we're adding to our arsenal."