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.

The next topic we studied this week was Mobile Coupons.

In my previous post, I wrote about how JC Penney launched a mobile coupon campaign as a pilot project in Houston, Texas in September, 2009 that involved 16 of their metro stores.

Their customers had to sign up to receive the coupons, and once they did, they could redeem them at the point of sale for a discount without ever having to print them out.  This would avoid forgetting them at home and give the customer more control over their purchase.  In turn, it was a way for JC Penney to tie directly into the end-user experience.

The focus was on retaining customers, and building brand awareness, as well as acquisition of new customers.  JC Penney also wanted to see how the consumer would interact with the coupon and how it would actually work in the store for redemption.  These coupons would be exactly like coupons that would be sent to other consumers via direct mail.

JC Penney expected to reach a younger demographic who are more apt to be avid cell phone users.  Their target demographic would be female, 25 to 44 years old.

They were willing to invest in this trial to see if their redemption rate would be similar to the 10% to 20% that other brands were reporting.

“Do you feel that JC Penney will find success with their “mobile couponing” pilot project?

I was certain that it would be successful enough for them to continue a mobile coupon program, it’s just too easy for the customer since they carry their phone with them everywhere they go.

Further research indicates I was correct, an article published in the Plano Courier Star on February 4, 2010 reports that JC Penney will take advantage of the mobile advertising opportunities and modify their program to include all store locations.  Instead of the 2D scannable image they previously included in the mobile ad, the store clerks will manually enter the coupon code and use new “hot buttons” on the register.

Their provider, Cellfire, reports that “the average redemption rates for paper coupons is about 1%, while the average redemption for a mobile coupon is between 15% and 25%”.  They also reported that “during the five consecutive quarters beginning October 2008, consumer coupon use increased 16.7% and brands issued 367 billion coupons in 2009”.

Do you think “mobile couponing” is a fad or a sign of the times?

Mobile couponing is definitely a sign of the times.  I definitely believe it will be extremely successful.  Reports of success are everywhere.  One recent article titled “What a Girl Wants:  More Mobile Advertising”,  by Jolie O’Dell, cited these statistics for Mobile Advertising:

• 85% use the mobile Internet almost daily.
• 70% expect their mobile Internet usage to increase in the future.
• 84% have noticed mobile advertising, and 57% have clicked on mobile advertising.
• 67% are interested in receiving mobile coupons or vouchers.
• 93% are always on the lookout for bargains.
• 93% like being up-to-date with new technology.

Those are some pretty convincing numbers when it comes to deciding on whether to launch a mobile coupon program!

Additionally, 86% of these women stated they accessed Facebook, Twitter and similar sites with mobile advertising, and you have more than one way to launch your coupons!

More and more online coupon start-ups are popping up.  One I just found from my “hometown’’ in the Tampa Bay area of Florida called “Send Savings.com”  allows mobile users to sign up for coupons and discounts, determine how many times a week they want to receive the offers, and for each time they get one, a donation is made to their favorite charity.  They use text coupons.

Sources:

http://www.dmnews.com/jcpenney-takes-coupons-mobile/article/149790/

http://www.planostar.com/articles/2010/02/04/plano_star-courier/news/148.txt

http://mashable.com/2010/05/05/women-mobile-shopping/

https://sendsavings.com/signup/individual.php