USA WEEKEND, the magazine that takes over when national newspaper USA Today breaks from its weekday schedule, has started a mobile shopper marketing program. Using Pelago’s Whrrl location and game app, the publication will build custom societies for marketers. Readers who join these societies can use the service, while shopping at major retailers, to view relevant content from USA WEEKEND and exclusive brand messages; share product recommendations with other members; and check into stores to earn rewards and win prizes.

It’s an interesting way for USA WEEKEND to offer extra value to advertisers. That’s important since marketers are less likely to buy newspaper ads these days. It’s also a good way to court tech-savvy readers who prefer reading online (thus never seeing print ads or print specials like coupons), especially if the reader uses his or her smart phone to access the magazine’s online version.

“Whrrl provides a unique way for USA WEEKEND to engage our readers with its combination of social and mobile capabilities,” USA WEEKEND President and Publisher Chuck Gabrielson said in a release. “What really separates this mobile marketing program from others is its ability to bridge the communication gap with readers between their in-home planning and in-store purchase decision making.”

Gannett Co. Inc., which owns both USA-named publications, long ago showed its digital branding savvy when it started implementing citizen journalists as part of its way of covering news–and engaging readers–earlier this decade. That was light-years before other newspaper companies understood the benefits of even allowing comments on website news stories.

Hopefully Gannett will remain savvy. (Full disclosure: I worked for a Gannett newspaper in 1993.) I’m a little worried, since less than a month ago a USA Today reporter wrote a glowing report about Whrrl and Pelago, now its business partner–which could cast doubt on the objectivity of the publications’ news stories, in turn making them less valuable to readers.

But I’m willing to believe the reporter acted independently of Gannett’s business and marketing departments. And the newspaper industry is so desperate, it probably cares more about whether the mobile shopper program succeeds.

The post USA WEEKEND, Whrrl May Overcome Dwindling News Ad Revenue appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Gap alone is offering 10,000 free pairs of jeans to consumers who use Deals, an extension of Facebook’s Places mobile feature, to check into 900 of the chain’s nationwide stores. Notes AdAge, Deals combines location-based check-in services, such as Foursquare, with local group deals services, such as Groupon. It has been launched with 22 major brands–like Starbucks, McDonald’s, H&M and Gap–and 20,000 small-to-medium-sized businesses.

“It’s important for us to connect with our customers where they are,” Gap spokeswoman Olivia Doyne told AdAge. “This can be used in so many ways. If a store has too much inventory, we can use Deals for that. We can tailor the deals to our customers’ locations.”

The Deals feature–and its enthusiastic embrace by big-name companies–could be what gets general consumers to adopt LBS en masse. Don’t forget, as Justin reported from the Location-based Marketing Summit in September, an estimated 80 percent of U.S. consumers don’t even know what LBS means, let alone actively use it, and only 1 percent of online consumers use LBS.

Facebook is vastly popular among consumers regardless of their interest in technology. Thus, its Deals, Places, and any other LBS features have a built-in extensive audience that may be willing to try them. As AdAge says, “Like everything Facebook does, it has the potential of taking a niche phenomenon now exploited by a coterie of small startups and turning it into a mass phenomenon.”

The post 10,000 Free Jeans Quite A ‘Deal’ appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The kids’ show Sesame Street recently debuted the fictional iPogo–in song, of course, which has the title “There’s An App For That.” The ditty, about a pogo stick that can do so much more, is clearly meant to teach children rhyming and to increase their vocabulary–the wonders of their parents’ smart phones being just gravy.

I’m not terribly surprised; after all, a former boss’ infant daughter a few years ago used to crawl across the floor to get to his iPhone–and only his iPhone, other handsets being of no interest to the baby girl.

And there are already cell phone models geared toward small children, such as the Firefly, or various Sanyo models first developed in Japan. The colorful though rudimentary devices can be programmed to call just mom, dad, or others deemed appropriate by the child’s guardian.

Moreover, there are real software programs for grown-up phones that a tween-age kid will demand to replace his or her Firefly. These claim to offer child safety, monitoring everything from a child’s physical location to his or her text messages that may raise red flags of bullying or bad behavior. It’s LBS and censorship tools used for the greater good!

But these security measures are nothing compared to one’s toddler learning about “singing scat.”

The post Want Sunny Days Sweeping The Clouds Away? There’s An App For That appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Yellowbook’s local search capability–now powered by Milo.com–lets shoppers quickly locate where a product is currently available for purchase, and also compare prices from different local retailers. And the barcode-scanning feature of Yellowbook’s Android app (soon there will be an app for iPhones and iPads) enables users to scan a product’s barcode to get local availability and pricing information. Milo.com provides all of the details needed to decide which product to buy and where it’s currently in-stock.

While Milo.com and Yellowbook started out as (and still are) online products and services for PCs, they show savvy by joining forces and creating a mobile solution for consumers who want to get their shopping done while they are out-and-about–and thus need to find out product and store information instantly, via their phones. After all, mobile marketing’s strength is the sense of immediacy it generates, whether it’s an SMS coupon or sales announcement or the ability to learn of a store or brand promotion.

“We’ve also integrated Milo.com’s capabilities into Yellowbook.com, bringing an expanding databank of over 50,000 stores and 3 million locally available products to our 30 million monthly Yellowbook.com network users,” Mike Wilson, vice president and general manager of digital media at Yellowbook, said in a release.

“We look forward to bringing those [Yellowbook.com network users] an added level of convenience and local resources while online or on-the-go,” Jack Abraham, founder and CEO of Milo.com, said in the release.

The post Yellowbook, Milo Create Double Dose Of LBS appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Using Augme Technologies’ interactive media marketing platform, the marketing strategy utilizes both QR barcodes and a text-messaging campaign. The barcodes will be printed on For Colored Girls movie posters and can be scanned by any smart phone, directing consumers to a full mobile site and other images and information related to the film. As for the text-messaging campaign, any cell phone with SMS capability and Internet access can be used to send the keyword COLORS to the short code 30333, in order to receive links to the mobile site.

In a world (key that movie voiceover actor) where marketers get excited about appearing hip with their iPhone and Android apps, the truth is that high-end smart phones make up a fairly exclusive group of consumers. With something like a theatrical release, a movie studio needs to reach more than the technophile or the deep-pocketed consumer. Utilizing SMS means that a greater number of cell phone owners can participate in the interactive campaign.

The website mobilization company dotMobi recently pointed out the advantage of having mobile-optimized Internet content, rather than apps for specific devices. And a majority of consumers, while swayed by “you can be cool too” ads for smart phones, don’t really know if they’d use all those smart features. The Lionsgate campaign makes these facts work for its For Colored Girls campaign.

The post Multi-Mobile Campaign For Lionsgate’s ‘For Colored Girls’ Launches appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

In its report, titled “Mobile Web Progress,” dotMobi found that the number of mobile websites grew from 150,000 in 2008 to 3.01 million in 2010, faster than the growth of websites viewed on desktop computers. Of the top 1,000 websites as ranked by the intelligence firm Alexa, 40.1 percent are mobile-friendly; of the top 10,000 sites, 29.7 percent.

Ronan Cremin, dotMobi’s Director of Engineering, pointed out something that’s easy to forget when marketers think it’s enough to have an app for a sexy handset like the iPhone or members of the Android smart phone family: “The mobile Web lets you address all of your mobile customers, not just those with iPhones and Android handsets,” he said in a release.

It absolutely makes more sense to ensure content is viewable on all Internet-capable cell phones. Mr. Cremin explained: “The study demonstrates that apps are shifting to become a part of a broader mobile Web strategy rather than the strategy itself. While some brands build individual apps for multiple platforms like iOS, Android and BlackBerry, businesses are increasingly choosing a mobile Web solution for their content… Brands can now build a single mobile Web presence that works across all mobile devices without the limitations, costs and maintenance issues of multiple app platforms.”

A major reason for this growth, dotMobi CEO Trey Harvin said in the release, is that the proliferation of tools now available that let any company–even a small business with a limited budget–optimize its content for mobile, like jQuery Mobile, DeviceAtlas and goMobi. “Companies that have focused on good mobile user experiences and mobile-friendly websites now have strong advantages in competing for visitors, sales, and customer loyalty. And these advantages are already positively impacting sales at their desktop websites.”

The post No Excuses For Non-Mobilized Websites: Report appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

So when HP announced last May that it was buying Palm, I think I was the only observer to get a little excited. HP pairing its decent, affordable hardware with the highly-acclaimed webOS? It could go incredibly right–or else horribly disappointing. We’ll soon find out, now that HP has announced the Palm Pre 2, with webOS 2.0 will be released Friday in France and later in the United States and Canada.

The handset brags features like true multitasking, Just Type (with which a user doesn’t have to go into email, SMS, the Internet browser, etc. to start writing a message or search), and a beta of the Adobe Flash 10.1 player. That last bit especially intrigues me, and early reviewers have been thrilled that the Flash player really works.

Instead of putting webOS 2.0 into its hardware, though, HP minimally tweaked the existing and lackluster Pre hardware with a higher-megapixel camera and glass screen. Perhaps an attempt to get rid of all those Pre shells, or a warehouseful of the plastic from which they were forged?

For now, the Pre 2 may serve as the defunct Palm Inc’s “I coulda been a contender” speech, showing off what I’m sure had long been in store for the webOS operating system and software. But people I know who got the first Pre adore its functionality and  ease-of-use–and these aren’t technophiles, but regular consumers. Team that with the hardware it deserves–and with the feeling of youth and fun that HP had tried to achieve with that 2006 commercial shoot–and HP could successfully throw down in the ring of iPhones and Androids.

The post HP Throws Down With Palm Pre 2 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The case is an extreme example of just how much people value their virtual goods– worth remembering in light of last week’s report from Flurry saying that in 2010, iOS app revenue will shift from advertising to virtual goods sales, the latter of which will make up more than 80% of revenue. Once the Google Android market allows in-app sales, it’s a good bet that Android apps will see the same shift.

Why? The growth of smart phones in comparison to the overall cell phone market, the shift of online activities to the mobile platform, and the popularity of virtual goods within these activities.

Consider gaming, as noted in a report released last June from the market research firm Frank N. Magid Associates and the mobile social gaming network OpenFeint. It found that Americans spent an estimated $168 million on mobile virtual goods in the preceding year. Of U.S. phone consumers, 23 percent owned smart phones; 45 percent of smart phone owners played mobile games; 16 percent of those smart phone gamers spent about $41 per year on in-game virtual goods; and 55 percent of smartphone gamers indicated an interest in purchasing virtual goods.

Also note the growth of virtual goods sales in social networks, the land of casual games–and which are increasingly being accessed by users on their mobiles rather than their PCs. Inside Network reported last month that the U.S. market for virtual goods will grow to $2.1 billion in 2011; and that Zynga, the largest maker of games on Facebook, will record revenue of up to $500 million in 2010.

Will someone soon kill a friend for stealing his virtual pinata or her stash of virtual cupcakes? Maybe not. But the person would get really really angry, considering how much money was spent on the virtual stuff.

The post At What Price Mobile Virtual Goods? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to the report, 52 percent of U.S. consumers surveyed said they intend to make their next mobile purchase a smart phone, compared to the 29 percent who plan on buying a regular cell phone. Conversely, it’s what they plan–or don’t plan–to use with their phones that caught my eye. While 33 percent of those surveyed said their smart phone data plan usage would increase, 41 percent said they don’t anticipate using such service. And 32 percent will increase their time browsing the web on their mobiles, as opposed to 38 percent who won’t use mobile web browsing capabilities. A whopping 46 percent don’t plan to use mobile apps, compared to the 28 percent who will.

It’s a conundrum for those who want to sell these services, and for those who want to reach consumers through them. Again, the onus is going to fall on marketers and others who monetize mobile technology: These professionals will have to figure out how to educate consumers and get them to want (and to feel that they need) these technologies.

How can everyone do their part? Well, the research firms note that consumers need to be told clearly how much data will cost, so that don’t inadvertently overspend and give up on their smart phone altogether–hear that, carriers? Meanwhile  product sellers, service providers, and marketers need to focus their message not just to cutting-edge enthusiasts, but also to tech-shy consumers whose lives would indeed be made easier with mobile technologies. Even if they don’t know it yet.

The post Consumers Want To Go Mobile But Not Sure How: Report appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

How it works: A MetroPCS user sends the keyword “!chat” to the short code 60611, which then prompts him or her to enter the contacts they want to include in the group chat. Then textPlus connects the user to the group. It’s still a step more than being able to send a message to a list of contacts and have everyone be able to reply all, but it doesn’t sound that clunky.

What’s really interesting about the MetroPCS/textPlus offering is that it could foment not just widespread consumer use of group texting in the United States–but also consumer outrage against SMS rate hikes.

We’ve reported on the lawsuit against T-Mobile regarding EZ Texting. The carrier has received criticism from, mostly, marketing advocates for raising its text-message rates for group messages. T-mobile has also come under fire for arbitrarily blocking messages based on content.

The fight over text message pricing–which stretches back two years, when Verizon had proposed an increase for group messager-senders–has mostly been carriers vs. marketers, with Congress weighing in. But Metro PCS, a service provider that appeals to a broad cross-section of American consumers, offering group texting could spark increased demand and adoption for such a service.

And that, in turn, would get consumers even more riled up against carriers that propose to raise texting rates. Cellular providers who increase SMS costs now risk alienating their would-be future customers.

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