O2 has branched out further into the provision of free advertising funded wi-fi by signing a five year deal with McDonalds to provide the free internet access in tehir 1,200 UK restaurants, users will have to sign up initially via a straight forward procedure and will then be able to access the service from the participating restaurants UK wide and any other O2 Wi-Fi hotspot.

The fact that users will primarily be signing up with their mobile devices means that their will be some advertising funded occasional promotional messages and texts to fund this offer.

“O2 announced its Wi-Fi rollout in January of 2011, along with an advertising-supported model that requires users to sign up with their mobile phone numbers to receive “relevant, timely content”.

Wi-Fi on the go:

McDonald’s had introduced free Wi-Fi back in 2007 working with The Cloud and BT Openzone, but teh fast fodo chain wants to promote a nationwide network of free and high speed wi-fi access poinst at their restairants.

Gavin Franks, managing director of O2 Wi-Fi.

“This announcement builds on the significant partnerships already secured by O2 Wi-fi in the past 12 months, enabling millions of people the length and breadth of the UK to access the internet for free whilst on the move,”

This new partnership builds on existing relationships that O2 have fostered with large UK businesses and councils such as House of Fraser, Mitchells and Butler (pub chain) and The Borough of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea.

McDonald’s hopes that the O2 deal will raise network quality above what they currently expect, and with some 750,000 patrons regularly logging on, there does need to be some consideration to the future capacity as these figures are growing.

McDonald’s UK IT director Mark Fabes states:

“Recent figures showed that a staggering 750,000 McDonald’s customers are logging on in our restaurants each month and we are always looking for ways to improve our customer experience,”.

Source: TechWeekEurope

In an interview with Mike Grebennikov from Migrate2Mobile.com we learn more about the company that he runs and how they are looking to work with partners globally on areas that mobile technology can help businesses and marketers perform better in.

Adopting a thoroughly modern approach to business Mike has been involved in global technology outsourcing for many years, he now sees the real benefit of having links to this sector but is focused on results based actions rather than following the herd and outsourcing to more and more people who know little about your company with negligible returns.

Migrate2Mobile.com adopt the best of both worlds.

If you are interested in talking with Mike about potential consultancy work or collaborations on projects please contact him on:

sales@migrate2mobile.com

1-866-535-3757 (US)

01305 773996 (UK)

Do you want to learn more about how mobile marketing?

We interview Bil Kakis of Elephant Mobile who offers a deeply insightful look into the mobile marketing landscape where we touch on QR codes for small and large businesses, NFC, Rich media mobile, and SMS marketing, plus many other areas of great inters to modern marketeers.

Watch and learn if your are into mobile marketing!

And please do share the knowledge, you know its right!

*Sorry about the crap lip sync….I am blaming call recorder for mac….crap!

Need further help or advice on mobile marketing?

So what are your thoughts on mobile marketing? Have you done any trials or are you just dipping your foot in to the mobile arena.

If you want any advice or help please contact Bill at Elephant Mobile on: 888-766-8882

Ever wanted to know how best to approach an SMS campaign?

Well with a little visual help from Text Marketer you can find out some of the seven main points to avoid and what to concentrate in with there very useful infographic highlighting the dangers and benefits if text marketing for businesses.

Seven Deadly Sins Of SMS Mobile Marketing:

Topics included range from having the right call to action at the right place, segmenting your audience and testing the message works, the basis of the infographic comes from primary research taken from working with eConsulatncy and the Information Commissioners office in the UK.

Tablet owners helped increase amount of ad impressions:

With tablet owners generating some 11.2 billion impressions while using their device, this helped the Mobile Advertising firm increase their overall figures and saw a jump of 771% increase for tablet adverting impressions over the same time in 2010.

Similar story for smartphones:

There was a pretty similar story being told in the smartphone camp as InMobi saw increase of some 488% year on year with some 109 billion impression made in the last quarter of 2011.

Feature phones still very strong:

I would imagine that InMobi will reach a tipping point in the next year for more advanced devices to see a larger proportion of ad impressions.

But last year saw “feature phones” bringing in over 50% of the overall impressions made on their advertising network with some 54% or 125.8 billion impressions made on these devices.

Android biggest player overall:

With Apple dominating the charts of the top five most popular devices that obtain ad impression on the InMobi network, the O/S that really stands out is he Google owned Android platform which sees some 21.2% of all mobile ad impressions on one of the plethora of devices which has Android as its operating system used by various manufacturers.

Apple meanwhile, despite having four of the top five devices in the list, only achieve 16.7% of ad impressions made, which is still pretty huge considering this is one company and only four devices, with Nokia’s old Symbian O/S (now replaced with Windows Phone) accounting for a pretty hefty 18.8%, I imagine this will reduce slowly before hopefully increasing again for Nokai and Microsoft’s sake.

InMobi’s James Lamberti, VP of global research and marketing said,

“Mobile technologies have empowered the development of the media and advertising market and pushed consumer acceptance of media consumption through emerging channels. Advertisers are now on board with this trend and we expect to see strong innovation in this space as consumers spend more time on mobile devices and less on PCs.”

I think the further we go towards using more mobile centric devices, the more we will see rich media type advertising shining through, with associated benefits that include more user engagement in adverts, thus ticking the boxes of social media marketeers, corporations and ad networks, and with self serve platforms like Celtra I am sure there could be some cool mobile adverts coming out soon to a tablet or smartphone you.

Well in human land it roughly means that you get what you put out, so if your a happy soul, your life should in theory be filled with other happy people. Miserable sod? Yeh you guessed it, your going to be hanging around with depressing bas****s.

In internet land however, it means whatever is free, let me in.

Free Internet at vending machines:

And with such a simple concept in mind a Japanese vending machine now offers people close to the machine free access to its very own free Wi-Fi hotspot, this will cover around 150-200 feet and will be a pretty sure fire way to bring in a crowd, who, by playing a simple numbers game, will be more likely to go and spend a penny on the machine, though we are unsure if it doubles as a real toilet also, but may need to if it ends up getting peed on by dogs and an enraged public if it fails to live up to exceptions, free can come at a price..;)

Asahi soft drinks owned:

The free Wi-Fi on offer has a 30 minute time limit, with a dead simple workaround of simply logging back in again after your allotted free minutes are up. A rumoured roll out of around 1000 vending machines by Asahi is also on the cards throughout 2012, with talk of another 10,000 being pushed out over 5 years. This intriguing wi-fi hotspot could well take on as a concept further a field if it proves successful, colleges and universities would be a great place I imagine.

Would this make you happily hang around a vending machine if it meant you could get a little bit of Wi-Fi access for free? And if so, does this herald the start of a freemium model that we will see taking hold in more intriguing places such as beauty spots, and other areas that an internet connection could prove useful in?

Source: Asahi

Have you ever wondered if the size of the device screen influenced how many people will click on an advert?

This infographic by inneractive nicely illustrates that the larger the screen the higher the CTR (click through rate).

In a shrewd social media loss leading marketing exercise, Letstalk a mobile phone and accessories retailer in the US were offering a cut price Galaxy Nexus on contract for only $154.99 for the initial batch they had in stock and via their facebook page, this offer has since ended as the deal was snapped up like wildfire.

Letstalk social media done well?

This was coupled with a give-away and an attempt to gain 50,000 facebook “likes” by December the 16th with all those who “liked” their page being entered into a competition to win a Galaxy Tab 10.1 Tablet and a choice of smartphone.

So after the eventual release of the Samsung galaxy nexus in the US, it seems that demand was so high that stocks have dried out for the online retailer.

Now Letstalk do seem to have done well here, but I do see a lot of anger in the comments over confusions over who did and did not get the deal, with “pending” statuses on orders confusing many.

So is the offer of a half price Galaxy Nexus really that good?

Well obviously anything with lots of cash off its usual price is worth paying a little attention to, especially a new device as in demand as this, but…..

Picking up from a point made by BGR, and it is a big but. The Consumer Electronics Show starts early next year on January 10th, and soon this device will look slightly dated as new models are released, and the hype is started all over again.

Though the fact remains that the phone is still great. We did a review of the Galaxy Nexus and found the phone to be good all round, and is obviously Ice Cream Sandwiches huge, fat, late arriving baby.

I would have given you more details on this offer, but as it has run out now, it seems totally pointless!

Did you manage to pick one up while they were going?

It would appear that the Manhattan Transport Authority who allowed this “takeover” to take place within their own “hub” that now sees some 100 restaurants and shops in the magnificent station, have finally got that “Anchor” tenant that they so longed for, the “real crowd pleaser”.

So we take a look at why the Apple experience is so in demand, and how their entry changes a retail space for better and worse.

Apple are in town so you better beware!

So when we reported that Apple were opening a store in grand central station, we found out that Apple in usual fashion, had got their own way with regards a typical profit share contract that other retailers abide by in the station, and also paid the last vendors a cool 1.5 million to depart early.

Now that seems fair game to me, because what Apple bring to a retail space is pure dedication to the art of making a customer feel appreciated, yes it can be nauseating sometimes, but overall you love it, and this shows in many areas…not least in the Apple bank vaults.

And because of this method of selling, Apples stores globally, are quite simply gadget Mecca’s for the converted, the curios, the perverted and the intrigued.

So being another Vendor within easy reach of the Apple store would surely make this pull convert to extra footfall your way?

Well yes, and no.

Let’s all buy an Apple:

Here is a case in point I would like to share that occurred here in the UK involving the purchase of an iPad 2 with my girlfriend the other day.

The schedule:

[arrowlist]

• Arrive at the store cold.
• Instantly get pounced upon, as you do, and tell a sweeping, squawking young Apple rep that we want an iPad 2.
• My partner then goes on to get the “Apple” experience which bores the hell out of me, but it is sort of what you pay for, and my parter is enjoying learning about her new gadget and getting help setting it up, and making it work with her iPhone etc.
• Not rocket science, but you know what, it is done for her with a smile, and it was a very pleasant experience by and large, nothing wrong with that surely.

[/arrowlist]

Wireless keyboard please?

Now, she needs a wireless keyboard so she can do work easier and use it as a form of screen as opposed to just a touch screen.

Apple’s version is extortionate in price, so we move towards another UK retailer in the same shopping mall, that struggling giant called Currys/PC World.

Yes, they will have the one I have seen browsing on my phone while she was being “Apple’ed” up.

So we arrive into the other store to be met by a pretty, but vacant, looking young girl who was seemingly giving away paper with stuff on it, god knows what, no communication at all, just here you go….

I asked about wireless keyboards for an iPad and get a tour of the shop to find the right person, I look around and see stuff all over, a total mess, we find an affable young lad who probably wishes he was at the pub or the football (and nothing at all wrong with that, but it showed), and he shows us to an area where he points out two iPad 2 compatible keyboards (hidden).

I say, what about these to the side that I spotted underneath where he was pointing, he dismisses them, and so I again point out that I think this is the one we are after, he realises it is exactly what we are after and goes to get a box to show us.

I then ask is there any chance we can see the keyboard? His reply; not unless you buy it. The price of the keyboard was £40/50, seriously, I want to see the damn thing before we buy.

WAKE UP RETAILERS – this is not how you do selling!

Result = We walk away quicker than you can say, global recession.

Seriously how can these stores now compete if you have just spent roughly 8 x more and got the actual tablet along with all the help you need to set it up, you see it was not as if the keyboard was £5.

And in the Apple store, whatever you were buying would have been met with this type of help, and a smile, and the staff would have known exactly what you are after.

I know that a retailer such as Currys/PC World suffers from having a huge product range, but there in is my point, how can they compete, when the likes of Apple make them look idiotic, by doing what they do so well.

So the other vendors/retailers who also rent space at Grand Central station, beware, because Apple are lovely to look at, but damn do they like to point out your frailties with ease.

Better the devil you learn from I think.

A recent AT&T report suggests that 88% of marketers will increase their mobile spend on mobile based campaigns in 2012, this was based on 501 marketers who work for US firms, that employ over 1,000 employees.

Mobile barcodes the biggest area of potential for innovation:

Yes, it seems that of the people polled, a huge 66% said that mobile barcodes will be behind the greatest innovation in 2012

The list, based on top programs of interest in 2012 goes like this:

[arrowlist]

• Mobile apps: 43%
• Mobile barcodes: 42%
• Banner ads on mobile devices: 40%
• Mobile websites: 35%
• SMS messaging: 35%

[/arrowlist]

Data reliability?

Obviously with such a relatively small sample and a sponsor with vested interest in a positive outcome the data does leave questions raised, however there is some likely grounds for this data to be used, as it corresponds to a trend we are seeing of marketing managers taking much more notice of mobile rich media advertising and other areas such as NFC/Barcodes/QR codes.

What are your thoughts on the next big thing in mobile marketing?

With the dawn of the smartphone and the rise of the tablet it seems quiet apt that one of the most technologically astute automotive manufacturers should be benefiting from the rise on mobile device technology.

Hugh fletcher, who is Audi’s digital marketing manager, has said that smartphones are now bringing in a huge 7.5% of all online traffic and tablets have recently eclipsed this with a whopping 10.5%, so is this down to pure chance or are Audi looking to purpose content for the “smarter” audience?

Hugh then went on to point out in an interview with New Media Age that they are looking to see an increase in mobile ad spending around targeted campaigns based around automotive meetings and other relevant events.

“We are looking at things and it’s safe to say that next year will see a significant increase, which was a big year for mobile and us,” he added.”

Digital spending shift:

With Audi originally believing that mobile offered a great channel for direct response advertising, the move to more campaign based advertising using HTML5 sees a pretty big shift to a more creative way of utilising mobile rather than simply pushing it into a traditional mould. Rich media campaigns seem to be the way forward at Audi.

Fletcher went on to say:

“There was a nervousness (within Audi) that mobile couldn’t deliver a premium experience but that’s changing. As mobile devices (both smartphones and tablets) becomes the default browsing device, we move (advertising budget) there,” he said.

We look forward to seeing what comes out of the Vorsprung Durch Technik ad campaigns in the coming months and years.

Let us just start this piece by saying that we all know where mobile is going, and the answer is of course everywhere.

True to its meaning, “mobile” is becoming so ubiquitous that many companies who have not actively engaged in looking at mobile marketing options do so with a genuine reason to be concerned. One can assume that competitors of your own will be looking at options to capitalise on getting messages across on devices that are so commonly used that they are fast becoming a main drainer on internet data activity.

So, similar to how web marketing was seen around 15 years ago, we are all in agreement that this is the next logical medium for brands and companies and individuals to utilise, the question is what ways will this new medium prove to be a success and what avenues do we need to go down to prove them to be less desirable as a means of marketing to a mass audience.

Mobile marketing looks different?

But is mobile marketing the same as what we are used to or are other opportunities that come under the umbrella of marketing really where mobile is heading?

Unique challenges to mobile marketing:

Similar to the problems early internet marketeers faced with various browsers. The new frontier of mobile marketing is presented with similar issues, mainly O/S choices, Android, Apple, Blackberry etc, and device specific challenges such as smartphones or tablets.

With mobile being much more of a personalised device than the PC ever was or will be, we must now learn how much we can push our own brands onto individuals in order to provide gentle persuasion tactics or indeed give stuff away fro free to benefit from simple top of mind results.

The people – them love free(mium):

Currently, in my own opinion, traditional advertising campaigns should use the “freemium” model as they are the best way to gain traction for plain and simple communication and message sharing. It is currently what can be given away for free that will prove to be the best marketing success on mobile devices, we already see this in the mobile application market, where we can get either scaled down versions of games or applications or advertising backed apps with a choice of removing these if you buy the full price version.

Anna Bager, general manager of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence states that:

“Mobile is very intrusive. It’s hard to shut it off. Mobile is the remote control for our lives. It’s much closer to us than the PC ever was,”

With user numbers rising to unprecedented levels in such a short period of time, it is clear that tablets and smartphones will dominate our everyday use as time goes by, eclipsing the PC for most mundane tasks and everyday communication with the Internet.

Creative uses of apps that help marketing efforts:

The future of mobile marketing though looks like it will be the creative use of applications that mobile devices can utilise that will be the main reason that brands start to set aside more and more time and resources to mobile technology and its ability to communicate in such a unique and thoroughly modern way…..lets take a look at some good examples currently.

If we can take our minds out of traditional “eyeball” mentality and numbers, then mobile marketing starts to look a bit different, yes the same principles are there but the medium changes quite a bit, and done well, is much more powerful.

Macy’s use QR codes to drive traffic to designer videos:

Macy’s used a novel QR program using multiple channels bringing in-store signage that contained QR codes. Once scanned customers were treated to a short video featuring Tommy Hilfiger, Sean Combs, and other designers as a way of being a little novel, this app drove 45,000 video views within the first week or so of launch. Success?…read on to find out our own thoughts.

Verizon NFL Nations Football League App:

Verzion are offering US device owners the chance to watch live football and games using their National Football League app. This also includes a fantasy football tracker. A morning alert can also be set and fans of American football players who are on twitter can follow their favourite sports stars twitter feed within the app.

Steve Fox, associate director, media and sponsorships, Verizon Wireless.

“We want not only our customers to use the app, but want to drive some of our competitors’ customers to switch over to a Verizon smartphone,”

The basic service is totally free in keeping with the “Freemium” model that seems to work so well for apps, the free version of the application will offer audio of games but the premium version will give users access to live video of games at $9.99 a month.

IBM: Sales driven applications:

IBM do not mess about, pretty much one of the largest employers in the world, IBM rely on a huge sales force to go out and sell their hugely successful products and services to a variety of clients.

One of the challenges that IBM face is that they not only sell services and products but also highly complex solutions, which may include hardware, services, or software and will incorporate numerous consultations with clients and a lot of communicating of end goals, challenges and opportunities.

So what have they developed?

A new tablet application that aims to provide sales staff with access to information before and during sales calls, with over 100,000 products, services, and solutions and a sales team of over 70,000, the challenge IBM face is scaling the application, but like all complex beasts usability and finding the right information proves challenging once scaled to certain levels, and in IBM’s case this could prove seriously tough.

But the right angle is being taken from IBM, access to information is key to mobile marketing success, even if the person who is being sold to does not see what is behind this mobile marketing effort.

Multi channel approach:

A multi channel approach seems to be one of the best ways to leverage all the various methods of marketing, from TV to Social, to Print, to QR, to Mobile, having an integrated approach seems to appeal and to be working for most brands currently.

Mobile Marketing: Experimental phase just now:

In the case of the Macy’s campaign the campaign manager behind this stated that:

“Mobile is uncharted territory. No one knows what the model is, where the investment needs to go, how you scale it, from the client side or the agency side, we’re overwhelmed by the user revolution and we don’t yet have a model to scale and that makes us all anxious.”

With project managers hoping to achieve 7,000 views on the Macy’s QR video campaign with no historical context, and ending up with 45,000 in the first week, the results were only impressive as they had no benchmark whatsoever to base their guestimates on.

Such will be the case for mobile for the coming months and years as we all work out how best to utilise this diverse medium that offers so much promise to marketeers and advertisers.

Wolverhampton Wanders have just announced that they will be the first premier league club to offer supporters a chance to be part of their own branded mobile network.

I assume this will not be an option taken up by the likes of Chelsea fans or the other boys in Blue. So what will this offer fans of the Wolverhampton club and why have they decided to push the boat out into this type of mobile technology for their fans?

Well for Wolverhampton wanderers they get the chance to offer there fans a service that they can then use to push offers, promotions and generally stay in touch with the fan-base who take up the white label mobile SIM card, for instance a game on the 17th of December V’s Stoke will be on offer to owners of a £10 SIM card for £10 per ticket, based on pre orders and while stocks last.

The virtual network will be powered by Orange’s infrastructure.

Paul Lakin, Head of Commercial Affairs at Wolves said:

“We are delighted to offer our fans a Wolves mobile pay as you go SIM card that first and foremost provides outstanding value and network coverage. In today’s climate it is essential we provide our fans with the very best products in the marketplace and I’m sure our fans will enjoy the volume of calls that can be made by purchasing Wolves mobile SIM cards.”

The offer obviously comes underpinned by the mature Orange network so most of the UK is covered even in deepest darkest “Black Country”, and the call charges will be 5p per call and text for users within the wolves mobile network, but data will be costly at 11p per MB, calls outside the nwtork will be 20 pence per minute and 25p in some cases and 10p – 12p to text.

What do you think of the move? A bit of a con for parents to subsidise their young ones mobile habits?

Or filling a gap?

It would seem that they are targeting people with less disposable income (non season ticket holders) and non phone contract holders.

When you are in the market for a new website and have a decision to make about who to choose and what way forward you want to go, you will at some point make a choice to go with a digital marketing agency, or a Quality Freelance Web Designer.

Whichever route you choose will dictate price, who you speak and deal with, quality of work and overall added value to the project.

With that being said it is not as clear which way will give you the benefit of all areas, as many freelancers are extremely high quality in the work they deliver and some agencies are average at best.

Let us talk generality

This may be an easier way to get some ball park thoughts and ideas on what to expect based on past experiences and general consensuses.

If you are worried about price you may want to look at sites such as Freelancer, or People Per Hour, here you will be able to source freelancers who offer a huge variety of services and will potentially give you a service at a fraction of the cost of a digital agency, but the quality of that work will vary massively and you may have language issues.

Using an established freelancer from the country you operate from is likely to be a better option if you value the old age adage that you get what you pay for.

Benefits of the agency model:

When it comes to using an agency, the main benefit you will receive from this avenue is that you will get a team at your disposal of specialist and hopefully an account manager to deal with directly, the cots of this is you have shiny offices and wages to help pay, but you do get the advantage of a diverse set of professionals.

This can however mean that a project becomes very complex when so many people are involved.

So what should you do when you need a new website? I would take a look at a fantastic article about choosing a freelance web designer, and ascertain what avenue makes most sense to you.

Good luck!

Domino’s Pizza have invested continually in online technology, they have recently released some very telling insights into how these investments have continued to pay off year on year.

Tentative early days to today:

[arrowlist]

• 12 years ago £100,000 in a year via website
• By 2000 £1m in one year
• 2011 – £1 million in one day total online sales
• Of which £130,000 was taken via mobile devices in that single day

[/arrowlist]

Access all round:

Domino’s offer access via pretty much all devices to websites or applications are fully transactional so you can order on the go from pretty much anywhere, using your Android device, Apple iPhone or the full range of tablets on the market.

There is no doubt that £1m in revenue is a statistic that proves that the ROI for retailers is massive when you integrate an easy to use payment system with an easy to navigate mobile web platform.

Opt in marketing choice present?

Ah the holy grail of any marketing department, instant access to a happy customers mobile phone via an opt in service.

As someone who has not used Domino’s mobile applications to purchase pizza, I am curious to know if they are maximising the ability to send timely reminders to customers about offers, or deals straight to the mobile device?

Google use Virgin to test-fly new Chromebook computers for free….sorry that line is not more humorous.

From the 1st of July until September 30th 2011 Virgin America passengers will be able to trial the new Chromebook and receive free wireless connections while doing so.

In certain airports, namely Chicago O’Hare, San Francisco, Boston and in Dallas-Fort Wort, Virgin Atlantic passengers will also be able to access “Chrome Zones” where presentations will be displayed explaining the new product and offering passengers a chance to order a Chromebook to take on their flight to test.

Google will also partner with the Ace Hotel in New York so guests can play Googley under the covers for free also!

How do you get the chance to utilize this gesture from Google and Virgin?

Virgin travellers will have to give up their credit card info as a deposit for which a Chromebook will duly be provided for flights between San Francisco International (SFO) and Dallas and Fort Worth (DFW) Chicago O’Hare International airport (ORD) or Bosto Logan International airport (BOS)…Chromebook’s can be returned at the arriving gate at the qualifying airports.

It seems that Virgin America and Google are quite the partners after offering free Wi-Fi around holiday periods in the past.

Google have also been seen selling their Chrome browser to travellers on Virgin America flights last year.

Do you think that this kind of targeted marketing will help move people over to the Google way?

Seventh mass media channel: 2006

Mobile marketing back in 2006 was stuck behind the following established media outlets:

[arrowlist]

• Print
• Recordings (records, DVD’s, cassettes etc)
• Cinema
• Radio
• Television
• Web

[/arrowlist]

The issues:

Technology and Manufacturing:

One of the main negative issues mobile phones had back then was that the user experience dictated to by technology offered from the networks and manufacturers left little to be desired.

Small screens, usually very weak processors, crappy WAP browsers a myriad of differing interfaces and very slow connections meant that people just did not bother trying to pus their little Nokia’s because it basically did not work to an acceptable standard.

Compelling content creation:

With marketeers still sure there was some kind of holy grail to still be had with mobile phones the reality was that creatives and marketing strategists were not inspired enough to create content that would engage an audience enough to warrant spending time and money on.

Smart Phone epiphany:

What Apple did in 2007 was nothing short of ground breaking, they single handedly managed to:

[arrowlist]

• Create a product that allowed users to tap into super fast Wi-Fi internet connections with a browser that was actually useful.
• Convince network carriers to provide data plans to customers that would allow them to use 3G connections while on the move, meaning the Internet was not just a possibility when connected to Wi-Fi.
• Offer a marketplace for consumers and developers that would explode into a means of customizing your iPhone with genuinely functional, attractive applications that will enhance the user experience and also put Apple firmly onto the road of mobile pioneers.

[/arrowlist]

Research firm In-Stat has released a recent prediction staying that they expect 48 Billion apps to be downloaded in 2015.

A marriage of Hardware and Software that is profitable once again!

That is a quite staggering figure and flips on the head the torrent downloading generations ethos of not paying for anything…admittedly not all the apps will be paid for but a good percentage will be as their is now an ability to control the marketplace much more…most people choose not too jailbreak.

On top of this; free apps are often monetized with advertising bringing us back to the topic of the post.

Mobile has now started to seriously challenge television with its reach and daily use figures, and the amount of eyeballs Smart Phones will be getting in the near future will eclipse that of television.

Some Recent Mobile Advertising Stats

Local mobile advertising to be huge!

[arrowlist]

• US mobile advertising spending will increase 406% from $790 million in 2010 to $4 billion in 2015, according to a forecast released June 23 from BIA/Kelsey.
• Overall mobile marketing spending for Local mobile advertising represents some 51%. BIA/Kelsey predict that local mobile advertising spending will grow to 70% by 2015.
• Local mobile advertising spending will see the largest growth with BIA/Kelsey predicting that the increase will be some 600% from around $400 million in 2010 to close to $3 Billion in 2015.

[/arrowlist]

This is only a small fraction of the kind of revenues that can be channelled through the mobile phone, as M-commerce picks up and allows an even bigger set of options to access our well earned money!…the future is very much mobile

Has the holy grail of marketing finally fallen into the worlds lap via a poisoned Apple or should we all just take a bite and enjoy!

Amazons new tablet “Hollywood” designed for movies and the Cloud:

Coming after the purchase of European DVD postal service Lovefilm, Amazon are trying to be the leaders in tablet move streaming, and what a profitable niche that could prove to be.

Having spent most of this year forming partnerships with Hollywood studios, Amazon has now gained the rights to stream enough content to now bring a new product and service to market in the most effective way?

Giving things away for free is a great idea when you have the resources:

In what looks like an inspired marketing move, the new Amazon “Hollywood” tablet will be one of the launch pads (pun intended) for Amazon’s new film streaming service, and Amazon look likely offer early adopters of its new table totally free access to the service while they establish themselves in this modern version of the movie rental market.

How long this trail period will be for we do not know, or indeed if it will be region specific, i.e US only etc….Current rumours are that the trial period may last a few months, enough to get people hooked and obviously to retain a good percentage of those as paying customers and also to tell their friends about the experience assuming it will be a positive one.

Could “Hollywood” be for movies what the “Kindle” is for e-books?

If movie playing on ten new tablet is anything like the reading experience that the Amazon kindle offers, then expect some serious attention Amazon’s way.

After single handedly reinventing the book with the Kindle on a device I personally thought may not succeed, I now believe Amazon will be looking to enter this new technology arena looking down on it’s competitors from the start, and not looking up to see who to aim for.

“Hollywood” to enter its tablet class with red carpet treatment:

The areas in which Amazon hope to punch above their weight in their opening tablet debut are a rumoured Quad Core – Android honeycomb fuelled device, with access to Amazons own app store and also Cloud Locker.

It would appear that Apple could well have a contender on their hands, and all of a sudden the tablet arena is starting to look seriously competitive.

Good for the consumer?

We are sure it will be, as we expect prices and overall functionality of these devices to become even more attractive and fulfilling over time, and serious competition always helps.

What are you thought’s on Amazons rumoured tablet entry?

Too little, too late, or a game changer when coupled with its much anticipated movie steaming service due later this year?

Pizza Express Paypal App Review

Let’s first analyse how it works, here is the advert:

Crucially the main areas that are worth noting in relation to using the app are the following:

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• Ability to book tables via your app – Useful but hardly necessary in my personal experience.
• Ability to find local restaurants – Useful in unfamiliar areas.
• Ability to pay your bill at the end using your app using your bill identification receipt number (and apply voucher codes) – Not that difficult to pay via a normal terminal or in cash but useful for receiving an amended bill total using vouchers, and you look less cheap!
• View menu – Not a bad thing and quite good if you are in a rush and want to pre-book with friends or colleagues.

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The real value for retailers:

I could not agree more with Ewan at Mobile Industry Review when he mentions that the real value for retailers is the ability to collect personal details and build an actual relationship with customers who in the past would have simply booked, visited, eaten and left, perhaps picking up a coupon or bringing an offer from another source.

Having an app builds trust and relationships:

Not only does an app build trust, i.e the person using the app trusts the company providing it and provided it is done correctly this enhances an existing closed relationship.

The real power lies in the ability to segment and market to each individual app user, this has been tough for stores like Pizza Express to do before apps as people would have had to opt into clubs and memberships, and people simply can not be bothered as the reward is not there and then usually.

Having a free app that you can use to browse menus, book tables, pay bill and redeem coupons however adds serious functionality and that is what SmartPhone users want, ways to do things quicker and easier with more of a user experience.

Game changer for the High Street?

Just like when Marks and Spencers (UK up-market food retailer) struggled to overcome a serious image problem back in the early 2000’s; there adoption (finally) of an ability to pay for your goods using a debit or credit card, was one of the main reasons that the store survived and was successfully re-branded and ultimately continues to do well today.

Making payment options more personal helps with the flow of cash inwards, it really is that simple.

And the easier you can make that transaction the better for the retailer, couple this in with an ability to market directly to individual customers who you can profile and also help the client find their way to your store if you are lost and you have something very powerful indeed.

We look forward to seeing just how many more retailers think a little more forward and start waking up to the potential revenue generation of using apps to encourage paying customers in the doors, the benefits could be truly huge long term, if implemented well!

Would you be happy to pay for good and services using your app, or would you forget to do this by and large, do you think an app for a restaurant has merit, would you use it to search for coupons and also for the restaurant itself if you were lost?

With other options for all the apps cutesy features their is however still some doubt over its mass appeal.

Mobile tickets come raving into town:

I feel they have made a bold and wise move, here is why:

Utilising TicketScript a new mobile ticket service provider, Hed Kandi are now offering tickets to their events via a Facebook page and also on it’s very own Ibiza Application.

Mobile marketing manager Tom Bulwer has clearly stated that they have a strategy within the mobile and digital
markets, and is quoted as saying:

“To deliver our digital and mobile strategy, it’s essential to use the right technology partners and to work collaboratively with the best minds in the market,”

Holy Grail Of Retailers

He then goes on to explain that TicketScript offered the flexibility to deliver tickets via an Internet presence and also via mobile phones all fully integrated within social networking applications, having a one-stop-shop method of purchasing is exactly what they needed and is indeed the holy grail of retailers.

Marco Meijer, the group sales director of Ticketscript, says:

“We strive to be at the forefront in online ticketing by providing new innovative sales channels for our customers and the addition of Hed Kandi as a client is testament to this. The integration of social media and mobile technology compliments traditional sales channels and provides a comprehensive solution for ticketing.”

With the growth of SmartPhones coupled with the growing presence and integration of social networking sites like Facebook, we predict that more and more retailers with digital goods to sell such as tickets will start looking at ways they can integrate an e-commerce section to their existing media outlets (web, apps, social networks)

And this makes perfect sense, because making a purchase as easy as possible by simply clicking a button, improves the chances of making the sale, plus you can do all the cool sales parts via the interface that the visitor is using making the product or service seem even more appealing if done right.

Have you made an e-ticket or m-ticket purchase yet?

Did all go to plan, and would you do it again if it was an option?