The article states that “the Web is the fastest frowning coupon distribution medium for big marketers, up 80% in 2008.”

It seems that mobile coupons have impressive statistics as well. According to RCR Wireless, a recent mobile coupon campaign done by Kroger had a whopping 20% redemption rate compared to a typical 2% redemption rate for paper coupons.

So it seems that a web offer with mobile delivery of coupons is a smart one-two punch for marketers. Catch consumers attention on the web where they are already looking for coupons and then tell them how to get the coupons delivered automatically in the one device they never go anywhere without.

The post Mobile Coupons are a Knockout Punch appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

On the surface this sounds like this could wipe out the need for the Kindle. However, there are a couple of reasons I think that this will not happen. First, in order to read the digital books purchased at ShortCovers you have to be online at the time you want to read. Of course with Kindle, you download your book once and then you’re offline and reading wherever you want. Just heard from ShortCovers that you can read offiline with their readers. I stand corrected.

Secondly, phones are so much smaller than Kindles. Reading an entire book on a mobile sized screen may be too difficult or exhausting to cause a big threat to the popular digital book device.

What I see actually happening is that Short Covers, which also offers book excerpts, articles, blog posts and other short content to be read easily on mobile, will help fuel the desire for digital content. People will get used to reading stuff wherever and whenever they want and grasp that this doesn’t mean lugging around physical books all the time.

So, no, I don’t see ShortCovers killing the Kindle. I actually see it as a “gateway drug” for technically inclined avid readers.

The post Could Mobile Phones be a Kindle Killer? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

To his mind because I mentioned the need for a mobile specific website which is not needed on an iPhone (because, as he pointed out to me, they can effectively browse a full sized site) I was pitted against it. “Not true” I told him. I wish that everyone had a device with advance mobile browsing capabilities like an iPhone. The world of mobile marketing would open up like a tulip in spring.

If consumers everywhere had a G1, a Palm Pre or an iPhone the role of mobile marketing professionals would shift from mobile convincers (“Yes, you really do need to jump into mobile marketing” ) to mobile implementers (“Here’s how to effectively reach your customers on mobile”). It would be a no brainer.

So, am I anti-iPhone? No way. Do I realize that despite momentous sales figures iPhone users are still a small minority of all cell phone users. Smart mobile marketers must accommodate the majority of their potential customers.

For this reason I advise businesses who know that their entire customer base is not an iPhone user to plan accordingly. Don’t just build an iPhone friendly site. Make sure it works on as many other devices as possible. And, remember text messaging. Mobile marketing is more than just the mobile web. Text messaging is the universal mobile marketing tool.

The post Am I Anti-iPhone? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Snap! An idea hit me that the DJs could announce that once a week the trivia segment would be answered not by call in, but by text in. The catch would be that only VIP members could guess the answer by text message.

The VIP membership would soar. Plus, instead of getting 5-10 guesses from callers who could get through on the limited phone lines they could get thousands of guesses.

I quickly fired off an email to the show to tell them my idea.

The first answer I got back from one of the DJs was that this sounded boring for the listeners. So I replied back to suggest that the texted in guesses could be read out on air as they came streaming into their email from the phones. I said that listeners would love being able to participate.

Her response left me perplexed. She said very bluntly “we don’t really care if more people can participate” and furthermore went on to say that “how they get people into the VIP club is not really my concern.”

Wow. So in her old media mindset it is all about the listeners just shutting up and listening. The only way she can understand people being entertained is by the same old way radio has been done for years. And she really didn’t give a hoot that her listeners might really love to text in their guesses.

On top of that she failed to see that having a robust VIP club gives their show leverage. A way to get more people to their free summer concert. A way to remind listeners to donate during their annual charity marathon. It gives her ad sales department a way to prove that people are still listening to radio and actively participating with it.

But I guess all that is just plain boring. I’ll just shut up and listen.

The post One-Way Media is Boring appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

It seems that pizza and mobile combine to make a big success.

Or could it be customer convenience and mobile combine to make a big success?

The common thread to all of these mobile success stories is that mobile is making consumers lives easier and more fun. And when it does there is a big payoff for the business. The bottom line in mobile marketing success is providing VALUE to the consumer.

Once you’ve got the value proposition the next step is marketing it well so people know about it. Don’t know about you, but I’ll be watching closely during the Super Bowl to see if the mobile + pizza combination will get even more successful.

The post Mobile + Pizza = Success appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Internet sales often reduce in-store sales. Although buying online with in-store pickup is starting to be more common, generally if someone is purchasing online they are not buying in the store. Mobile is starting out differently right from the start.

Mobile channels are being built specifically for customers to interact with retailers WHILE they are in the store. As an example, Sephora, a leading beauty retailer, has just launched a mobile reviews site (m.sephora.com). Shoppers can see user generated product reviews from their mobile device while they are making their selection. Smartly, Sephora has tapped into the importance of peer reviews in the mind of consumers.

Another mobile strategy being employed is using mobile to bring customers into the store. Mobile coupons are the most common example and text message alerts are right behind. Sears has built into the Sears2go mobile site a text message alert when product is ready to be picked up. Consumers can shop at Sears wherever they are and pick it up at their convenience – exactly when their product is ready to go.

Mobile makes retail shopping better for the consumer without replacing the in-store experience. The hurdle now for retail is making sure consumers know these useful mobile channels are available to them.

The post Mobile Impact Retail Shopping appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

We were excited about the features of the Palm Pre as well as the fact that it is coming to Sprint. As tech savvy as this group of women was, not a single one of us wanted an iPhone (or to be on AT&T for that matter). We did want an excellent mobile web experience from a powerful device. We were talking about having a super cool touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard to support our text messaging (aka Twittering) addictions. The ability to truly multitask with a mobile was very appealing to us.

What this conversation made very clear to me is that consumers are starting to expect bigger and better features on our phones so we can do more with them. We are hungry to consume the world via our mobile devices. If it a Palm Pre so much the better.

Here is a quick informative video by stuff.tv that asks if Palm Pre is an iPhone killer?

I don’t think anything can really kill iPhone now but the Pre certainly opens up the market with an amazing iPhone alternative. I’ll be in line when it comes out. (Hope the weather is good when it debuts in case I have to sleep out overnight.)

What do you think of the Palm Pre?

The post Palm Pre Palpitations appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

This document is updated twice a year – in June and December. There are significant changes, updates, and additions with each version. It is not a read-it-once-and-forget-it document. Make sure you get the latest version and read it front to back each time. It’s important.

Yesterday’s meeting was dominated by talk of SMS. The tone was set with one of the first sessions in the morning given by Nick Macilveen from Open Market who explained in detail each step of the process of getting a short code program built, approved, provisioned and launched. It reminded me of biology when we learned the precise elements that have to be in place for human reproduction to take place. In both cases it is clearly a miracle to make it happen. And the role of an aggregator in a successful SMS campaign became obvious. Aggregators are our biggest ally in this process.

A huge discussion followed after Mike Altschul of CTIA presented the plan of attack for CTIA to take over the media monitoring of short code programs. The wireless association is going to begin to monitor every short code campaign to check for compliance with the MMA Best Practices and each individual carrier’s requirements. CTIA will eventually (no specific timeline was given but in one carrier’s estimation it seemed it could be as early as 2 months) become the entity responsible for all monitoring and sending audit reports.

An even bigger discussion ensued about enforcing compliance with the CBP and carrier requirements. Sentiment was high about making sure that everyone working in the mobile space be held to the standards that are set forth and that consequences be commiserate with offenses. It was also very clear that way too much time is being spent by both carriers and businesses dealing with audit reports. Hopefully the CTIA media monitoring efforts will help with all of this but no one, including CTIA, is holding their breath for that just yet.

Alan Chappell of Chappell & Associates gave a very informative talk about privacy and pointed out that as our revenue increases so will scrutiny from consumers and regulators. Timely evidence of this was the complaint filed by The Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group calling for an inquiry and injunctive relief concerning unfair and deceptive mobile marketing practices. The new President of the MMA, Mike Wehrs, spent the day doing media interviews about the complaint.

Another hot potato topic was affiliate marketing which accounts for 70-80% of some businesses revenue but may also be cause for a similarly high number of complaints and returns. It is obvious that businesses must maintain a close eye on their affiliates because their actions which may cause customer care requests to go up with the carriers will put the business at risk. It was pointed out by one carrier that when customers of theirs lessened their focus on affiliates that their refund rates and care calls went down significantly. The carrier representative did not say whether or not the overall profitability of the business went up or not.

Additional presentations were made about Word of Mouth / Viral marketing, User Generated Content, and Marketing Online. Universally, each person who presented their committee’s mission and outlined their course of action for the coming year made it clear they are seeking more MMA members to join their committees. To find out about joining a committee http://mmaglobal.com/policies/committees

The day was wrapped up with an open forum. During this discussion it was made a priority for the committee to separate standard messaging from premium messaging in the new Best Practices and Guidelines. Michael Becker of iLoopMobile suggested that at future meetings we work to focus more on the Best Practices part and less on the Guidelines. After spending a whole day talking about rules and compliance it was a breath of fresh air to start thinking again about the power and potential of mobile marketing.

The post MMA U.S. Best Practices Forum appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

This year I plan to watch the game with my trusty Treo by my side ready to participate in dozens of mobile-focused campaigns. I plan to text in to every campaign and jump right onto every mobile site that is offered. Hopefully, this year I actually get to do that.

You see last year I was ready for the same thing, but my phone just sat there. It was an entirely un-mobile Superbowl last year and I was disappointed.

Maybe the Blumo offer of a free mobile marketing campaign will spark enough interest. Or maybe the advertisers will see that spending millions of dollars for 30 seconds of brand awareness without a direct response mechanism is quite silly.

I guess we’ll see. Join me on Superbowl Sunday on Twitter to discuss the ads as they happen. Let’s use #sb09ads.

The post Will the Superbowl have decent mobile this year? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

I resolve in 2009 to help as many people as possible avoid scams and unfortunate paths in mobile marketing.

This resolution sprang forth when a colleague of mine from the internet marketing world asked my opinion of an “SMS” text messaging opportunity. I use the quotation marks purposely. The opportunity he was so hopefully excited about was a text messaging software that allows business owners to send unlimited free text messages from their website to any US cell phone.

Of course to mobile industry insiders it is obvious that this is not really SMS. We all know there is no such thing as free SMS text messages, certainly not in unlimited amounts. To people newly excited by mobile, this might seem like the perfect opportunity. It isn’t. And when the software doesn’t actually send the text messages or the business gets slapped with a CAN-SPAM penalty for sending email spam to cell phones mobile marketing will be the fall guy.

I resolve to help people learn that this kind of opportunity is an unfortunate path at best (it is possible that the people who created this software don’t know they’ve built a non-commercially viable platform) or at worst, a scam (they do and they don’t care).

So, what can we do to help people from getting drawn into “opportunities” like this and simultaneously save mobile marketing a black eye?

The post A Mobile New Year’s Resolution appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.