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Archive for the ‘Mobile’ Category



Aaron

09/07/2011

What is Geofencing?
01:54 pm by Aaron

Have you heard of geofencing? It is a relatively new social media service that is making waves. It isn’t mainstream yet, but it could be someday.

Geofencing is a theoretical concept; it involves a “virtual fence” that has real-world effects. Recently, Flickr incorporated geofencing into its services. When you take a picture with your mobile phone, your location is automatically recorded. With Flickr’s geofencing, a user can set that only various people in a specified area can (or can’t) see their picture. It is an increased level of privacy, based entirely on the location of the user. This “geofence” originates from a certain spot, interacting with the mobile phone of the user.

While Flickr looks to add a layer of privacy with their geofence, others are using it as a marketing tool that is raising privacy concerns. The other way geofencing works is that the “fence” can push information to various phones that are inside it. For example, a restaurant could have a geofence set up so that when a user with a phone enters a specified location, a deal or promotional message is pushed to their phone.

Geofencing offers a sort of nirvana when it comes to hyperlocal marketing. Pushing updates about deals to phones in a nearby area is almost a heightened level of word-of-mouth marketing. Although there are privacy concerns, its reasonable to think that most receiving these updates would have opted into the service anyway.

Do you have a specific local market you want reach? It might be time to look into geofencing.

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David Haase

08/17/2011

Mobile Requires a Strategy that Understands Users
09:53 am by David Haase

Do you have a mobile strategy, or are you just using mobile?

Yeah, I thought so.

Pew (more specifically, the Pew Internet & American Life Project) found three things in its latest survey of cell phone users that we found intriguing and that you must know about.

  • 51% of all cell phone owners use their phone to get information right away.
  • 20% of all cell phone owners felt frustration because their phone was taking too long to download something.
  • 42% of all cell phone owners use their phone for entertainment when they are bored.

Lessons learned:

  • Cell phone users are impatient. (Hmm, I believe we’ve seen that before going all the way back to dial-up modems.)
  • Users rely on their cell phones when they need information right now, as I did on Monday when I was lost and looking for my lunch partners.
  • Cell phones are like bright shiny objects that keep us quiet when we are restive.

Things you can incorporate into your strategy:

  • Optimize for mobile use. Make it easy – and FAST!
  • Put the important stuff first. (I’ve been preaching this since I was a newspaper copy editor … a few years ago.)
  • Give your audience something to amuse themselves. It could translate into a sale, donation or whatever you ask of them.

Read that Pew study. It’s not that long, has big charts and will help you remember what people are actually using their phones for.

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Max Fose

08/12/2011

Q&A about QR
01:59 pm by Max Fose

QR codes — you may not know the name, but you know the look. In fact, we have a picture of one hanging in our office:

QR Code

These codes are specifically made for smartphones. The code contains data, much like a bar code, which can be scanned by a smartphone’s camera. Once scanned, the smartphone can access specific information. This includes:

  • Linking to digital content
  • Activating phone functions
  • Directing the phone to a specific Web location

These QR codes serve almost as mini-applications, but instead of downloading from an app market, they can be scanned from print and digital locations.

Before you dismiss QR codes as too niche for your business, realize that 14 million Americans scanned QR codes in June alone. Of these 14 million, a large majority tends to be young professionals with six-figure incomes.

The most frequently scanned QR codes appear in print magazines and newspapers. Print media taking the lead in a digital marketing technology? That’s worth your attention as well.

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Aaron

08/05/2011

Android for President?
02:35 pm by Aaron

TechCrunch posted this interesting map today about smartphone adoption in the United States. Kind of looks like a political map to me:

Map of smartphone adoption via states

If they were awarding electoral votes, Android would have a comfortable lead, iOS would be scrambling to re-invent its campaign and BlackBerry would play the role of the feisty, third-party candidate.

Who’s got your vote?

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Aaron

07/14/2011

The Smartphone as a Wallet
11:37 am by Aaron

Earlier this week I wrote about the Great Smartphone Adoption and how, according to a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 35% of American adults now use smartphones. This growing level of smartphone adoption will have an effect on commerce, according to a new survey.

46% of 1,000 of business executive surveyed think making payments by mobile phone will be mainstream in 2013. The number jumped to 83% when forecasting four years down the road.

Starbucks has made headlines by introducing mobile applications that allow customers to use their smartphones as gift cards. Google also has made waves by creating Google Wallet, which allows users to store their credit cards within the application and make payments by “tapping the phone on any PayPass-enabled terminal at checkout.”

Is the future of smartphone payment the Starbucks way, where companies have their own apps that turn phones into mobile gift cards? Or is it the Google Wallet way, an application that turns a smartphone into a wallet?

With mainstream adoption imminent, it is probably best for businesses to start pondering the mobile payment issue now.

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Aaron

07/11/2011

The Great Smartphone Adoption
03:02 pm by Aaron

While watching television, one usually can’t get through even one commercial break without being inundated with advertising about phones. Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Galaxy, Thunderbolt …

Let’s face the facts: it’s fast becoming a smartphone world. A report released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project is confirming what these countless commercials have already been telling us, smartphones are in wide circulation. 35% of American adults now use smartphones.

Cellphone use has been prominent for the past decade, but the smartphone is a whole new animal in itself. The smartphone is a mobile-information hub, serving as a communication device as well as a small-end tablet computer.

  • E-Mail is Texting: 87% of smartphones owners access their e-mail through their phone. This ease of access allows users to send and receive e-mails as casually as they can text messages.
  • Wherever, Whenever: In the days before smartphones, users would have to separate themselves from their computers and other media centers when they went to run errands, go to school, work or out for leisure. With the smartphone, the user is never disconnected from their computers and media centers. Smartphones have allowed for a truly connected society, wherever their users go they can be connected and communicate in a variety of ways.
  • At Our Fingertips: Mobile applications create an ease of access that has broad appeal. Want to connect with a certain Web site or brand? A simple tap of your finger can open an information-rich application. Information is literally at our fingertips now.

The demographics tell the story. Those with smartphones are more likely to be financially well off, well educated and part of an urban or suburban community.  These people are important because they are often the movers and shakers of information, spreading along a message not to assist in marketing efforts, but just because they are that connected.

Smartphones are creating these constant connections, and their influence is growing.

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Max Fose

04/27/2011

New Digital American Family
02:21 pm by Max Fose

As I get ready for an expansion of my family — any day now — I’m a little bit more alert to what’s going on with American families in general.

Nielsen, in reporting earlier this month on our family dynamics, media and purchasing trends, found “a multi-layered, multi-cultural construct dominated by older, childless households.”

A lot of diversity. This, we knew.

The takeaway for those of us in the communications business:

Advertisers need to have a multi-channel strategy for reaching different types of families, one that accommodates differences in media preferences, device usage and time-shifting behavior.

Forgive me for crowing, but that sounds like an argument for integrated strategies.

One commonality among all this diversity struck me: “… the smartphone … has emerged as an equalizing agent across households of all income levels.”

I would add that it is an equalizing agent across generations as well. What 12, 13-, 14-year old doesn’t have a cell phone? They sell throwaways in dollar stores for less than $20.

It’s not all new research, but it pulls a lot of strands together and is worth reading. Thanks to Nielsen for a useful piece.

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Paul McKay

03/16/2011

Mobile App Users Also Use Browser
07:50 am by Paul McKay

It’s becoming a cliche: More and more people — especially the young — are not just using, but relying on, mobile devices to connect with the online world.

comScore’s latest Mobile Year in Review report not only confirms that but gets into the detail of what we are using our mobile devices to do.

Talking isn’t one of them. The number of people using mobile devices just for voice dropped 16%; that group represents less than three out of every 10 people (27.6%).

Our big takeaway involves apps: People who use apps — more than one-third — also use a browser and vice versa.

This has real implications for our clients, some of whom can’t afford a custom app for every platform out there. It means that building a Web app that can be used on a mobile device will have a broader reach at a smaller price.

We’re excited for our clients and everyone who uses mobile.

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Max Fose

03/10/2011

Not Our Older Brother’s World Wide Web
07:05 am by Max Fose

Does anyone out there remember “dial-up”?

I didn’t think so.

We’ve brought in a number of new clients in the last week or so, and I was thinking about how much has changed since IWS’ first client 11 years ago.

We still get plenty of requests for Web sites (especially the more complex variety) and email campaigns. But lately it’s been about apps and putting content on mobile devices.

Hmm. As I recall, my “mobile” device when we started IWS was a first generation Blackberry. You could make calls and receive emails, but not much. And it was all in black and white.

Kleiner Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capitalists, had a stat that blew me away: In the 4thquarter of last year, shipments of smartphones and tablets exceeded shipments of PCs and notebooks.

So we’ll be doing a lot more mobile sites like this one for Bon-Ton Stores. (I took the screen grab from my iPad so it’s got a lot of white space around it. You get the idea.)

Bon-Ton Stores mobile site

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jmcglasson

01/25/2011

Mobile Wallet
02:10 pm by jmcglasson

I love my iPhone! It’s like I have a tiny computer in my pocket. It entertains me while I wait for soccer practice to end and can also entertain my children while we wait for our dinner to be served at a restaurant.  It serves many purposes that make my life easier.

Just recently, I learned of an App called CardStar. This free App helped me thin out my wallet. You know how now-a-days there isn’t a store that doesn’t have some type of “Customer Service card.” Many of which one can earn points or rewards and some offer special discounts. My poor wallet has become overrun with cards and I spend an eternity digging through the thing when checking out just to find that particular stores stupid card. It drives me bonkers. Well, frustrations I have no more! CardStar allows me to load my loyalty card number into the designated area and it creates a barcode for that particular store. It works great. So now I just have to pull open the App and have the salesperson scan my phone. Brilliant!

Just this morning I read an article that take mobile wallets to the next level.  Smart Phones are getting just a bit smarter! There is speculation that credit cards will be replaced with cell phones, making charging completely electronic.  Three of the major cell phone providers, AT&T and T-Mobile Verizon are in talks about making this convenience a true reality. And several of the banks are currently in testing of Mobile Wallets applications that could be rolled out this year. The technology world is changing so rapidly and I love it!  I wonder how this major shift in daily life will take to the masses? Will it be a true convenience? A nightmare for those who are leery of technology?  What do you think?

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