This week we reviewed a case study of how Moosejaw used interactive mobile marketing to achieve a number of marketing goals.  Our Assignment was to find a different company and create a case study of their use of mobile marketing.  I chose Coca Cola’s new global mobile marketing partnerships with wireless carriers, which essentially turns the customer’s mobile phone itself into a type of loyalty card.

COCA COLA PARTNERS WITH WIRELESS CARRIERS IN CANADA AND THE U.K:

Coke partnered with Rogers Wireless in Canada for a “Twist Txt Save” issuing their mobile calls to action in a cross-platform campaign using email, Coke’s website, Rogers Wireless website, and on-package under the cap of each beverage.

The program is an opt-in relationship, much the same as Coke has been doing for years with their on-package caps where a unique PIN is provided as proof-of-purchase and can be redeemed or used as a contest entry.

UNIQUE TWIST:  DIRECT TARGETING OF MOBILE CONSUMERS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH WIRELESS CARRIERS:

The unique twist to this campaign is in the partnership with Rogers Wireless,  and their direct targeting of mobile users.  When customers txt in their PIN number using a short code of 42653, they get a reward:  75 cents off their mobile phone bill or,  1000 in iCoke Points on the iCoke.ca website,  or MyCokeRewards.com website in the U.S.  Customers are limited to a maximum of 10 discounts per week.

In Britain, Coke uses this same mobile campaign but provides an INSTANT discount of 75 cents that can be redeemed with O2 or Rogers Wireless networks.  This creates immediacy and alleviates the consumer from having to carry the caps around with them until they can access a computer.

SAVING TIME AND MONEY:

Gary Schwartz, CEO of Impact Mobile/Toronto, states “AirBonus is an exciting opportunity for brands as it offers a new way of driving a sale without discounting the product, and eliminates time delays, the need for coupons, clearing houses all while offering a mobile CRM channel”, where the shopper does all the work.

BUILDING THE SOCIAL COMMUNITY:

In addition, on the iCoke.ca website, there is a call to action for a “Summer’s Sweetest Moments Contest”, where the Consumer is able to text in photos from their Rogers Mobile Phone to a short code, which enters them to win a Blackberry Pearl 9100 and a $100 Rogers Wireless Giftcard.  This contest creates a social community that is engaging and interactive for the participants, not to mention a trusted community for Coke and Rogers Wireless.

Source:  http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/database-crm/6882.html

The assigned article “Improving location tech will get more opt-in”,  by Chris Harnick, addressed the advertiser-side of location tech for mobile advertising.

The idea of a coupon stalking me as I walk through my day is still disconcerting to me, despite the Market trials cited by Martin Fuerstein, that indicated “once they experienced the tangible benefits of a relevant service, they became comfortable with loosening privacy settings.”

The idea that a mobile operator will have a tighter radius on me with a 4G deployment is even creepier.  I am truly of the opt-in mindset.  I cannot see myself walking through an open air market and having my phone constantly go off:  Pass Starbucks, $1 off a Latte; next store is a Subway five feet away and I get free chips and a soda with the purchase of a foot long.  Turn the corner and as I walk past Nine West, I get 20% off a purchase of the newest summer sandals and as I approach Barnes & Noble I get a coupon for 40% off one of the newest releases in stock.

NO THANK YOU!!! I already have a tough time dealing with my phone, but if the Coupon Stalkarati become that big of a nuisance, I will probably leave it in the car!

In addition, last week I did cite in my blog post that Virgin Mobile USA has a plan called Sugar Mama that  allows mobile subscribers to earn free airtime by participating in online surveys and interactive commercials.  Involving your brand in such an event would be a great way to create awareness.  However, if it extended to shoving coupons down my throat, I would definitely opt out!

I also disagree with Mr. Feuerstein’s statement that ““High-accuracy location in areas where consumers use their phones the most will provide the required context and relevance required for mobile marketing and advertising to succeed.”  As I described in my rendition of the high accuracy location I was walking through above, I believe it could ultimately end up being more of a nuisance like TV commercials (where most of which get muted or walked away from by many people).

Mr. Feuerstein states, ““High-accuracy location technologies for dense urban and indoor areas do exist but wireless service providers have not deployed the same.”  It is very possible that the mobile carriers have a valid reason for not deploying them until they get a better feel for THEIR customer and the customer’s reaction to such high-accuracy targeting.  Obviously advertising revenues are important, but not as important to them as keeping their paying subscriber would be!  Just ask Sprint.

I also disagree with his idea that consumers are not motivated to receive mobile location-based ads because they are not compensated well enough for doing so.  There are very few businesses I would “opt-in” with for location based ads.

However, where the tipping point may be is with the under 25 age bracket – whose entire life is broadcast with little or no filtering across the net for anyone and everyone to share.  Theirs is a new, brave world of open and full transparency, and they live it to the fullest.  Give them great compensation and you have a market that will grow!

RURAL AREAS vs. URBAN AREAS:

As someone living in this rural area of 26,000 people, with urbanized zones throughout it,  I would be less concerned with the feeling of having my privacy invaded here, than I would have when I lived in the Tampa Bay area of Florida with its population of over 2 Million people.

This makes it very interesting in how I see location based targeted advertising now.  The scenario I laid out in my example above, was the exact path I took last month through the open air mall that is 9 miles north of my home.

Rural areas are underserved by the very nature of their small populations.  However, they are truly a diamond in the rough for mobile advertising.  Most folks in this area get “to town” about once a week.  Their shopping is usually well planned out in advanced and very budgeted.  As a result, they may be more susceptible to location-based mobile ads. Introducing them during peak buying times, like “back to school” would be an interesting proposition that I believe would drive opt-ins.

Sources:

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/search/4989.html

http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=3007

http://sharonodell.com/2010/07/16/mobile-global-reach-demographics/

Back in classes again – at last!  This month – Mobile Advertising and Social Media Optimization.  Redux.  I started these classes in May before I went down hard due to illness and had to take a Leave of Absence.

Returning to these classes reminded me of a very important lesson in technology:  It’s moving faster than the speed of light!  I had done a Discussion post for Mobile Advertising back in May that talked about Google’s pending purchase of AdMob and the FTC investigation into whether it gave them too big a percentage of the marketplace.  Well, in less than 45 days everything has changed!  Now Google owns AdMob, is ready to go head-to-head with iAd from Apple and so I had to -rewrite my post to reflect the entirely new environment!

The two questions posed for the discussion in Mobile Advertising class this week were:

1.  Referring to this link talking about how Google was optimizing a news site so smartphones could better use it, the question posed was:  ”Do you feel that Google has an edge on the mobile news market”?

2.  Referring to Google’s purchase of AdMob, the question posed was:  ”Do you feel that AdMob has created an effective way to targeting advertising for some of these major retailers”?

My initial response posted:

In terms of news delivery, I believe that anytime you can create the look of a desktop in a mobile environment it is a bonus, particularly when your aim is to deliver a consistent experience cross-platform.  To date the world of Mobile News has been very basic in terms of simple text delivery.  To have the richness and experience of a desktop/laptop on a mobile device has long been the Holy Grail, ever since the first iPaq was released.

This cross-platform rich environment is a definite advantage to Google.

Google’s recent purchase of AdMob brings them the ability to deliver mobile display ads.  This, clearly is in line with Google’s growth into the Mobile marketplace and is the next logical step n bringing mobile marketing into line with Internet Marketing’s ability to deliver rich advertisements.

jiWire conducted a Q1/2010 mobile insights study with 1,000 mobile users.  Their new report “examined device use…and consumer preferences for mobile content and advertising delivery.

David Staas, senior vice president of marketing at JiWire, says “People have a completely different perception of mobile content and advertising when they’re on-the-go… half of the on-the-go mobile audience say they are more likely to engage with an ad that is relevant to their current location… ”

They also  found:

55% of the on-the-go audience owns an app-enabled smartphone or mobile device. The top devices (and % ownership) are:

• iPhone 36%
• BlackBerry 27
• iPod Touch 17
• Android 7
• Windows Mobile 5
• Palm 2

The top 5 mobile applications are:

1.    Facebook

2.    Google

3.    The Weather Channel

4.    Pandora

5.    Twitter

Further, more than 40% of those surveyed spend more than one hour per day using apps.

Over 50% of this audience has engaged with advertisements on an app in the previous 30 days.  Of that 50%:

35% clicked on ad

27% visited advertiser’s web site

18% made a purchase

The most telling information gleaned from the study:

“Respondents say that advertisements on mobile devices are both welcome and effective, with 53% saying they were willing to share their location to receive more relevant advertising”.

I would say that, again, Google was ahead of the curve in negotiating and defending (against the April 2010 FTC investigation) their purchase of AdMob.

More Info:  Google Answers:  Mobile Image Ad Information

Our last Assignment in Week 1 of Mobile Advertising and Design was to answer this question:

“In what ways do you feel that companies are using mobile technologies to target you regarding their products and services?”

A great article on this subject is in the New York Times.  Written by Stephanie Clifford, it was published on April 16, 2010 and is titled “Web Coupons Know Lots About You, and They Tell” [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/business/media/17coupon.html].

Companies who use mobile advertising target potential customers by:

• Geographical information contained in the phone
• Interests
• Specific Social Media Pages (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc) that can also bleed Sex (M/F), Age and other “private” information
• Search queries
• The customer’s IP Address

All of this is invisible to the customer.  It’s not ‘general’ information either.  These coupons can get eerily specific, virtually following you to bed where it knows what kind of sheets you have!

These merchandisers use a company called RevTraxx who has no privacy policy.  They get around the privacy policies of Google and can even trend your IP address – if you have a proclivity for downloading pizza coupons on Friday afternoons – you may soon find one already there!

In a worst case scenario, as the article points out, companies with this kind of personal information can offer you substandard products than they might offer another person; or the same product but at a higher price than the next person.

Privacy advocates are very much alarmed by this activity and the article quotes Ed Mierzwinski, the Consumer program Director for USPIRG as saying “There really have been no rules set up for this ecosystem”.  Now, USPIRG is asking the FTC to tighten up online advertising privacy rules.