While we're obviously bullish on mobile, one of the tips offered in my Mobilized Marketing book is to not place all your chips on the channel.

That piece of advice is included in a column I wrote for Mobile Marketer that I'm reposting on this site.

The word pioneer is overused, but it is accurate to describe those who were the earliest into mobile marketing. Many of their efforts worked and others fell flat.

I interviewed more than three dozen of these mavericks for my book, “Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices.” Their experiences – good and bad – provide lessons that potentially could move your business.

Here is advice from some of those who were the first to include mobile in their integrated marketing plans:

Be brave

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,” Mr. Wasiak said.

“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.

And Mr. Wasiak, 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.”

Use mobile measurement tools even if they are not perfect

Nirvana would include a dashboard that showed marketers all of their initiatives in real time. That would allow for assessment and optimization long before the post mortem when, of course, it is too late to affect a program. Some have refused to spend on mobile until measurement is more advanced.

ESPN’s John Kosner says that a bigger flow of brand dollars to mobile will solve the mobile metrics woes.

“It’s weak now, but in my experience the measurement follows the money,” said ESPN’s general manager of digital and print media. “Everybody complains where it is now. I think we’ll see significant expansion in the measurement in the next 5 to 10 years.

“In the meantime, I think companies like ours – that have great products, demonstrate scale and represent a safe buy – we may benefit disproportionately in a world less measured,” he said.

“I think the lack of strong metrics is a frustration for marketers today, but I think it’s a mistake not to get started and learn this thing. Television has been an inefficient science forever and it is by far the most popular medium. This is going to be a booming business.”

Do not bet it all on mobile

Mikes Orkin eyed wireless interaction as soon as he joined the American Cancer Society in 2002 as National Director of Web and mobile.

His first move was measured, aligning his organization with the Mobile Giving Foundation, a nonprofit group that gave mobile subscribers the ability to donate to nonprofits through a text pledge that would appear on their mobile phone bill.

 “Text-to-give seemed to be a relevant tool for us,” he recalls. “I wouldn’t say that it was a smashing success, but it put mobile in people’s consciousness. Haiti got exposure for text to give [$32 million was raised for the American Red Cross in 2010 after a devastating earthquake with 95 percent of the consumers who texted in to the Haiti campaign being first-time donors to the organization, according to ARC]. We’re never going to be that. Cancer isn’t an earthquake, a fire or a flood. But we thought maybe the phone can help us.

“We ran small pilots only within (ACS) divisions that were interested. We kept the overhead as ridiculously low as possible so we didn’t have to be a massive success. You have to be prepared to set yourself up to fail but do it in a measured way.

“Don’t bet that you will be the next [Facebook founder/CEO] Mark Zuckerberg. If you fail, you will be selling coffee. So we didn’t bet the whole nest egg.”

 

Lots of forecasts are out on what will happen in mobile in 2016 and 2017. Big growth in all, but wide disparity in the numbers. Does anyone know in such a morphing category? For presentations, I’ve been asked to focus only on the next six months. That’s really what matters to marketers.

Missed last week's webinar with the Mobile Marketing Association on my Mobilized Marketing book? You can see it here https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/933811590

Should we take the half full or half empty view on this one? According to Harris, 20 percent of U.S. consumers buy via mobile and 62 percent couldn’t care less. Twenty percent of American mobile subscribers is more than 60 million people. I’ll take the half full position this early in mobile. Why, another report says that mobile commerce accounts for 13.3 percent of all online sales – and that’s growing rapidly.

A report says that 80 percent of app developers don't make enough money to support a business. It has been this way since beginning of apps.

By 2016, tablets will outship netbook PCs, NPD says. Significant but it does not signal the death of the computer – it will be more of a co-existence.

Amazon Kindle Fire reportedly slipped to 4 percent of tablet market shipped last quarter vs. 17 percent the previous quarter. If true, more iPads sold in 5 days than Fire shipped in quarter.

Websites have been found to contain malware targeting Android devices. Having spent time working in the security category, I’ll tell you that it will take a major outbreak for people to care. And, even then, many won’t.

Apple fanboy delight – stat that two-thirds of top U.S. carrier sales in Q1 were iPhones.

The Draw Something app has seen its daily user base drop from 15 million to 10 million. The company drew a blank on an explanation.

Seven of the top ten grossing iOS apps and 6 of the top ten grossing Android apps are integrated with Facebook. Of course, that’s part of the reason that they are top grossing.

I saw that Apple "discussed" putting a keyboard on the iPhone. Is there news here? Would it had launched the product without pondering the possibility?

The first reviews are in for Mobilized Marketing. I'm humbled and grateful.

Thom Kennon

SVP, Director of Strategy

Y&R

“I’ve been lucky enough to have been doing mobile for about as long as it’s been a viable marketing channel and touchpoint.  I was thrilled when I found out Jeff was writing this book since I knew full well the story hadn’t yet been told.  And I also believed there was no one better suited and positioned to tell it than Hasen, looking back and forward from his prime seat at the head of the table at Hipcricket.

“Jeff’s unique role in our industry’s founding origin stories afford him superb and actionable insights about where we’re heading.  Jeff gets that mobile is not one thing – it isn’t just ‘little digital’.  It isn’t just apps or messaging.  And it certainly isn’t just about media.  Jeff gets the big picture -- that what’s really going on is a new era of brand marketing and human behaviors that is best summed up by what some of us call ‘mobilityness’.  Jeff gets that mobilityness matters and this book is about the how and the why.  It is a tale is both instructive and inspirational as it uncovers the key lessons learned over the past 10 years of early mobile and point us towards the opportunities which lie ahead for the future of all marketing, with mobile as its beating heart.”

Michael Becker

Managing Director, North America

Mobile Marketing Association 

“Jeff is a superb storyteller and in this book he takes you through the story of mobile and its place within the marketing mix. At every step along the way, he shares key lessons and insights that will help you ask the right questions and know how to get the right answer.  Jeff will prepare you to embrace mobile in a way that will help you deliver value to your customers, your employer and your career.” 

Miles Orkin

Former National Director, Web and Mobile

American Cancer Society

“Mobile marketing is about giving your customer the right message via the right channel at the right time. When it works well, nothing is more intimate and effective. Jeff knows what works. And the stories from mobile marketing leaders he features in this book add detail and dimension to Jeff's compelling strategic insights. It's a fast, informative, entertaining read, and it will set you up with a clear point of view on the latest mobile thinking. 

“If you want your audience to pick up their phones and engage with your brand, you need to pick up this book!”

With any new channel, some will dive in early and others won’t even put the pool location into their GPS.

In my new book, Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices, more than three dozen marketers shared their experiences – good and bad — in lessons that potentially could move your business.

Here is advice from some of those who have included mobile in their integrated marketing plans:

1. Be Brave

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,” he says. “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 Wasiak, the 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 says. “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.”

2. Use Mobile Measurement Tools Even If They Aren’t Perfect

Nirvana would include a dashboard that showed marketers all of their initiatives in real time. That would allow for assessment and optimization long before the post mortem when, of course, it’s too late to impact a program. Some have refused to spend on mobile until measurement is more advanced.

ESPN’s John Kosner says that a bigger flow of brand dollars to mobile will solve the mobile metrics woes.

“It’s weak now but in my experience the measurement follows the money,” says ESPN’s general manager of digital and print media. “Everybody complains where it is now. I think we’ll see significant expansion in the measurement in the next 5 to 10 years. In the meantime, I think companies like ours—that have great products, demonstrate scale, and represent a safe buy—we may benefit disproportionately in a world less measured.

“I think the lack of strong metrics is a frustration for marketers today but I think it’s a mistake not to get started and learn this thing. Television has been an inefficient science forever and it is by far the most popular medium. This is going to be a booming business.”

3. Don’t Forget Feature Phone Users

More than 70 percent of American mobile subscribers text on a regular basis. In some parts of the world, the numbers are even higher. It is why Coca Cola looks at SMS as an integral element of its programs given the reach to the great majority of consumers and handsets. Further, Facebook’s worldwide mobile strategy has feature phones not only included but targeted. As the company looks to increase from 425 million mobile users worldwide, it struck sweetheart deals with carriers across the world to have relatively high function Facebook experiences on feature phones.

4. Stay Current

There is no industry moving faster than mobile. In many ways, that is great for marketers – there are more ways to reach targets on their most personal devices that are with them 24 hours a day. But behaviors and interests change fast. If you read something in 2011 and think you have this mobile thing down, the winds of 2012 change may knock you over.

(article first appeared on ideamensch.com - http://ideamensch.com/4-mobile-marketing-tips-for-entrepreneurs/)

A report says that there were 30 million near-field communications-enabled smartphones shipped in 2011. The number nearly matches the number of stories hyping hyperlocal, the mobile wallet, and the check-in.

Apple responded to the new iPad’s charging woes. Could this issue bring the most beloved brand down? Please. But I’m sure some are writing that to serve as linkbait.

Groupon supposedly is hiring an “army” of engineers. Will they make sure the flying trapeze offers don't get us smushed?

AT&T is testing a "plus" loyalty program with discounts on non-Apple stuff, dedicated support (as opposed to lackadaisical support), and $10 Starbucks cards. Too little, too late? Not even three Venti’s?

Another report says that 87 percent of iPhone 4S owners use at least one Siri feature per month. A month? That is hardly telling. I skip lunch once a month. That means nothing.

Thanks for your loyal reading of this blog. I was thrilled to see http://jeffhasen.com named one of Digiday’s 5 "great digital exec blogs".

For those who observed The Day Of Unplugging – the iPhone 5 was introduced. On top of that, Siri had a baby. I followed the “event” through my nine devices and computers.

Did you note that Coke is using SMS for a contest during NCAA Tournament telecasts? Not apps, the mobile web, nor augmented reality. It's about reach and inclusiveness.

Registration is free for May 3 webinar I'm doing with the Mobile Marketing Assoc about the findings in my Mobilized Marketing book http://bit.ly/A7GoXp. Please join me if you can.

My thinking on hotspots is if someone is going to pay when WiFi is available in more places, the service should just work. Why doesn't it?

Supposedly 220 tablets have been introduced. I’m guessing the "average" consumers can't name more than the iPad and Kindle Fire.

20 percent of sports content during the NCAA tourney has been seen on smartphones and tablets. This trend is discussed extensively by ESPN in my Mobilized Marketing book.

There are about 15 million Foursquare users. By my count, about 14 million of them show me their check-ins on LinkedIn. It makes no sense.

I had Catch Me If You Can on my mind in Austin with Leonardo DiCaprio at South By Southwest and approximately 1,000 Interactive panels and hundreds of parties vying for eyeballs, not to mention tweets, blog posts, and check-ins.

Like the rest of the nearly 25,000 attendees, I caught a small piece of the action given the competing sessions, Manhattan-esque traffic, and multiple sites. Also, what I didn’t hear was a debate on the convergence of mobile and social, perhaps signaling a realization that the two were never destined to be in silos. Just follow the consumers who would have none of that.

The most provocative comments came from futurist Ray Kurzweil despite his repeated statements about the neo cortex delivered to a crowd that had lost many brain cells due to the incessant partying.

What most caught my attention from Kurzweil:

-- "You can start world-changing revolution with the power of your ideas and the tools that everyone has. A kid in Africa has access to more information than the president of the United States did 15 years ago."

-- "As we go through this decade, search engines aren't going to wait to be asked. They'll be listening [to humans] in the background. And [the search results] will just pop up."

-- "If we can convince people that computers have complexity of thought and nuance ... we'll come to accept them as human."

The second and third comments can be debated. Will many want behind-the-scenes listening, interpreting, and advice from a machine? I agree with Kurzweil who shrugged off a suggestion that connectivity is a curse. He said that we are all in control and that “time triage” is an individual decision.

A few more things that caught my attention in recent days.

Samsung’s tablet revenue reportedly won’t only come from the sale of its own products. The company supposedly will sell to Apple $11 billion in parts for an iPad mini, according a report that quoted an unnamed Samsung source.

You say that there is no money in apps? Not this time. Draw Something, one of the top selling apps that I wrote about when Apple reached 25 billion downloads, is earning six figure revenues per day.

Clicks on mobile ads are 2X in Italy compared to the United States, according to eMarketer. In my upcoming Mobilized Marketing book, I spend considerable time talking to global marketers about the nuances in their regions. 

In 2012, $2.2 trillion or 10 percent of disposable household income will be spent on mobile devices and services, according to Gartner. Do you still think that it’s the early days of mobile?

I don’t want to flaunt the fact that I heard about authentication stacks during a SXSW panel. Tell me you aren't jealous.

Probably the smartest words in Austin – people don't care about your products - they care about solutions to their problems. Amen.

Back when I was a sports writer, I loved writing a column called Notes On A Scorecard. It was a somewhat mad dash around the sports world with some news and a lot of opinion. It’s time to kick that off here with the first in a series called Notes From A Mobilized Marketer.

Apple’s 25 billion app store downloads have brought $4 billion to developers. It’s interesting to know that Apple didn't introduce the app concept -- others did as far back as 10 years ago.

More than the number of downloads, I want to know how many apps are used and how often. Activity is lower than you think. I’ll post further on this and discuss the ramifications for marketers.

Approximately 69 percent of China's one billion mobile subscribers access the Web through their phones on a regular basis. China is the largest mobile market in the world. 

Lost in the discussion about smartphone adoption is the fact that more than 150 million in United States still have feature phones. We need to market to them, too.

Judging by the weekend crowd around the iPads in the Apple store, people either don't know about the impending iPad 3 or don't care to wait. Speaking of which, we’re one day closer to the start of iPad 4 rumors. It makes me want to pull the covers over my head.

If Apple was the first to announce 41 megapixels in a smartphone (like Nokia did), do you think folks would stand on chairs and applaud? I do. There is more on Nokia’s accomplishment in my latest MobileGroove column. http://www.mobilegroove.com/mwc-can-facebook-twitter-crack-the-code-on-releva...

Sprint reportedly will have 10 handsets with Google Wallet in 2012 bit.ly/xrKoMq. There is significant wallet discussion in my upcoming Mobilized Marketing book.

Google's supposed Siri-like offering is named "assistant" and being positioned as a "do engine" tcrn.ch/yMJDe9. I’m not a big Siri user. It's more of a gimmick. Do you use it?

I think more will buy photoshop tools if the world moves to 41-megapixel smartphones. Tools and eyelash enhancement services.

I feel the idea of the Air Force spending $9 million on iPads to replace flight manuals will be dissed by politicians. It doesn't matter that it makes sense.

Facebook and Twitter will accelerate mobile advertising's growth unless they screw it up – I discuss that as well in my MobileGroove column. http://www.mobilegroove.com/mwc-can-facebook-twitter-crack-the-code-on-releva...

Registration is open for the free webinar I'm doing May 3 with the Mobile Marketing Association on my new Mobilized Marketing book. bit.ly/A7GoXp. The official book launch is two days earlier but electronic versions will likely be available sooner.

Apple is imposing its will to set price and content for its coming TV subscription service, according to a report read.bi/y4jdgD me: Am I shocked? No.

Frustrated by others' efforts, Walmart and Target reportedly are in a new group chasing mobile payments. bit.ly/yJrhrs This will be a long race and there will be more than one winner.

It's early to gauge ROI, but Samsung has sold two million Note smartphone tablet hybrids (please don’t call them phablets) after its $10 million Super Bowl campaign. bit.ly/AtJMiH

Apple was named Fortune's most admired company on the same day that Verizon won the J.D. Power customer service award. I’m curious to know which has more sway with consumers.

Eight percent of cellphone owners don't know if their device is a smartphone, according to Pew. Should we call them dumb users?

Just a few days after the official launch of Mobilized Marketing, I'll be discussing the book May 3 on a Mobile Marketing Association webinar. Registration is open and free. https://t.co/MDU3IZ1e

I hope you'll participate with me and Michael Becker, the MMA's Managing Director, North America.

More on the book is here: http://www.amazon.com/Mobilized-Marketing-Driving-Engagement-Loyalty/dp/11182...>

Yes, I've been writing a book on mobile marketing. It has been a career highlight, talking to professionals from around the world about what works, what doesn't, and where we're headed. Their insights and lessons will be shared in "Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices".

http://www.amazon.com/Mobilized-Marketing-Driving-Engagement-Loyalty/dp/11182...

Today, the book made a prestigious list of those most anticipated for 2012. I'm humbled, honored, and thankful.

From TopRank's Online Marketing Blog:

"Jeff Hasen, CMO of mobile marketing forerunner Hipcricket, provides timely mobile strategies and tactics leveraging his experience from more than 130,000 past campaigns. As mobile marketing continues to move to the forefront of the marketing world, the insight Hasen provides into mobile optimization, budgeting, and measurement should prove to be indispensable in 2012."

Wow.