With 45% of shoppers already using their mobile devices for mobile coupons, Motorola Solutions is rolling out a new unified indoor locationing platform to help organizations better meet the demand for customer engagement.

Motorola’s MPact Platform for Mobile Marketing is billed as “the first of its kind to offer both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® Smart technology to engage with shoppers in the aisle when buying decisions are being made.”

The solution enables shoppers to opt-in and receive customized offers and personal assistance via a Bluetooth Smart-triggered loyalty app and access Wi-Fi to locate products in store, read reviews, compare prices and look up information.

Motorola says it formed a strategic alliance with four technology vendors to help make MPact an end-to-end locationing solution providing benefits to retailers and customers who opt in.

“A majority of consumers are already using their smart phones for shopping-related activities,” says Girish Rishi, senior vice president of Enterprise Solutions at Motorola Solutions. “MPact helps retailers interact with shoppers in-store, adding valuable engagement through technology. The solution can help shoppers request in-store assistance and receive customized offers to their mobile devices at the right time, potentially increasing total sales and providing an optimized shopping experience.”

The post Motorola Solutions Unveils Location-Based Mobile Marketing Platform appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Pulsate, which can sit behind any brand’s existing mobile app, will initially be targeted at large retailers, with future plans to expand the offering to venues, and transport.

“Pulsate will help companies to drive foot traffic to stores and when customers arrive, to deliver game-changing in-store experiences,” claims CEO Patrick Leddy.  “Imagine being able to deliver information to customers’ phones relative to their location, context and interests.  Today, with Pulsate, we’ve made this a reality.”

Leddy explained in this week’s press release that Pulsate drives real benefits that will allow businesses to influence at the point of purchase and dramatically increase revenues. How so? Pulsate gives retailers with tiny self-contained Bluetooth iBeacons which, once activated, begin broadcasting customer location and context back to the Pulsate cloud. From there the retailer can segment, automate and personalize every communication sent by the platform.  Customers can even reply, forming a direct dialogue between the retailer and customer.

“This isn’t just about beacons; they are straightforward to produce, and are quickly becoming commoditized,” Leddy concludes. “If you want your communications to be seamless, integrated and considered, beacons alone are not going to help you.”

The post New Beacon-Based Mobile Marketing Platform Launches appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The reason? Early adopters are entering the final year of the three-year technology adoption cycle, shifting from trials to full-scale deployments.

Another critical driver, however, is the boom in BLE/iBeacons, which are creating a wave of second generation start-ups in this space that will help to drive new growth and use cases across all major verticals.

All told, this is expected to result in over 30,000 indoor location installations in 2014.

“We can clearly see major grocery and pharmacy chains really pushing towards this technology,” says ABI Senior analyst Patrick Connolly. “These are very competitive verticals, which can benefit significantly from identifying and targeting loyal customers. Both already have large loyalty and advertising/offers deals in place and from a practical point of view, in-store items can be difficult to find. All of this makes indoor location a perfect fit.”

It’s interesting to note how other verticals are looking at using the technology. In the fast food space, where indoor location was not originally envisioned as having major success, a small percentage improvement in queue lengths can translate into millions of dollars. A number of chains are now trialing the technology purely for that purpose.

The post Indoor Location Installations Could Break Records This Year appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Start with the prevalence of smartphones. With their decreasing price and increasing functionality, most people are latching on to the craze. It is not just a trend anymore. For many buyers, smartphones are a necessity. So as more work is being done on the cellphone and far less on the PC, you as a business owner need to be aware of how to best promote yourself in this emerging market.

The most important aspect of mobile marketing is a simple message presented in the right context. The key is personalization, making the consumer feel that using your service or buying your product will directly and immediately help their life.

The Concept of Immediacy

Consider if your advertisements are useful for your customers right now. Is there some action they can take immediately? Is there an interactive element? A great example of immediacy in marketing is the presentation of a deal that they can use in their current location, or at least close to it. 1-800-Flowers.com provides a great example for other online businesses. Their mobile advertisements market specifically the same-day delivery aspect of their service. This shows an understanding of mobile users’ frame of mind. 1-800-Flowers knows that ads shown on mobile devices should attract customers to their more “mobile” services.

Simple for a Small Screen

Choosing the right information for your mobile website and advertisements is extremely important. If either of them is difficult to navigate, the consumer will click away rather than stay and try to figure it out. Things to consider include lower bandwidth for 3G and 4G devices than traditional internet connections and the smaller screen size. One great advantage mobile devices have over PCs is built in GPS, which will allow users to get to the information they want much more quickly.

The Right Context

Because people carry their smartphones with them wherever they go, and marketers can more easily access the wealth of personal data stored on them, they are a veritable treasure trove when it comes personalizing advertisements. It is so much easier to access a user’s exact location, and marketers can use this information to create person-specific and location-specific advertisements. When advertisements are more individual, users are more likely to click on them because they feel the information is relevant to their lives at that moment.

If you’re unsure of how to get rolling on a mobile marketing campaign, consider specifically how you can implement the three ideas above with the information you want to convey to potential buyers. And consider securing the assistance of professionals that have experience and a proven track record working with mobile marketing.

The post Understanding Immediacy in Mobile Marketing appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is a guest contribution by Rip Gerber, Founder, President & CEO of Locaid.

The biggest consumer brands are fattening up their marketing budgets and adding LBS. Not pounds, but Location–Based Services (LBS). The possibilities for LBS go way beyond check-ins and store finders. Location is becoming an integral driver of any mobile campaign.

Why? Location-based advertising lifts response rates with relevancy. That’s why the mobile ad networks are boasting 5x lifts in CPMs when a lat/long turns a campaign into high click-through rates. Expect to pay hefty premiums for location-based ads over the next three years.

Should you pay to play in LBS?

You want relevance, you want to reduce spam and annoyance in your customer ranks, you want meaningful click-throughs and mobile purchasing and drive-to-action. All of which means you have to fatten up your mobile marketing budget. Mobile is innovative and effective and, as a result, expensive. The question is how can you cut through the hype and negotiate a good deal on mobile marketing, stand out from the noise and drive the growth of your business all at a high ROI?

Each week I meet with CMOs who share their mobile concerns and plans. Here are the three “Must-Do’s” I always hear:

Get high on smartphones and tablets. There are 1.2 billion smartphones in use worldwide today. It’s not a phone. It’s a computer, camera, browser, shopping assistant, communicator, game platform, wallet, tracker and more. Think beyond your app. While smartphones present a marketer’s dream and endless opportunities to reach out to customers via a device they voluntarily interact with daily, consider this: how is that smartphone or tablet integral to my customers’ lives? And how can I make my brand and products relevant in that relationship?

Go deep on relevance. You’ve probably realized that your mobile app and mobile-friendly website is no longer enough. Daily, as I speak with my company’s clients, they tell me about abysmal download and engagement rates for their apps. My first question to them – are you offering anything that a customer needs? Or are your just pitching your stuff on a smaller screen? Be relevant.

Go wide on location. Knowing the location of your message/offer/service is the #1 way to be relevant. Any mobile campaign you’re running without location should be stopped immediately. After you add location, you will double your ROI at a minimum. Location not only enables greater personalization but adds a layer of verification to help prevent fraud and reduce the unnecessary admin costs of many mobile marketing campaigns. And use geofences. Geofencing provides a unique opportunity for you to target your ads at nearby consumers. When a customer enters a set radius, you can push a discount on that customer’s favorite item through your mobile application. Combine the use of geofences with a targeted mobile advertising strategy and you will increase engagement, footfall and ultimately, wallet share.

So start putting on the LBS. Get high on smartphones and tablets, do deep on relevance, and go wide on location… and start fattening up your mobile marketing ROI.

About The Author:

Rip Gerber (@Locaid) is the founder of “Location-as-a-Service” (LaaS) and has built Locaid into world’s largest location company. He has served as the CMO of two public companies and as a senior executive at two of the largest worldwide interactive agencies. He started his marketing career running card acquisition direct mail programs for American Express. Rip holds several patents and is the only mobile CEO to be certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

The post Is Your Mobile Marketing Putting On Enough LBS? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

On Wednesday, Google opened our eyes to the myriad of possibilities born of a remarkable wearable technology that is being hailed as one of the most significant advancements in personal computing in recent years.

A sleek technology designed for the human face, Google Glass delivers a killer augmented reality experience that will undoubtedly have profound implications on how we interact with the world around us.

Although the mass-market introduction won’t take place until next year, we already know that Glass makes it possible for users to record and share photos, obtain directions through voice control, participate in Google+ hangouts, view language translations, etc. But there’s also an incalculable array of other futuristic things we can do that we haven’t even thought of yet. That’s perhaps the most exciting consideration of all.

It isn’t difficult to envision, for example, how farsighted marketers may already be planning what they and their clients will do to capitalize on the inherent potential of Glass in the realm of retail. Watching Google’s video demonstration yesterday, I couldn’t help but marvel at the potential of mobile messaging’s intersection with Google Glass.

Greg Stuart, CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association, sees the potential too, saying that Google Glass could impact marketing in unprecedented ways. “I believe in the ingenuity of people,” he told AdAge, “and our ability to fill white space.”

For retailers, Google Glass represents a new way to leverage location and SMS to drive behaviors before consumers reach a store, let alone once they enter.

Imagine getting a message that there is a sale on Coach purses at Macys because you are within the ladies wear department.  Based on your position within the store (using NFC perhaps), you are presented with a wealth of pertinent information as you approach the purse area. There within your purview are prices, color choices, customer reviews, comments, and more.

If that isn’t a revolutionary marketing experience for retail, I don’t know what is.

“I love it for no other reason than that it actually feels like we are being pulled forward,” Ian Shafer, CEO of Deep Focus, says of Google Glass. “It’s hard to say that something like that has happened since the iPhone. The innovation aspect just makes it seems like a big pull forward.”

How do you envision Google Glass impacting the world as we know it?

The post The Eye Opening Possibilities of Google Glass and Mobile Marketing appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

This fall, new online classes devoted to mobile marketing will be provided by Union County College’s Office of Continuing Education in the great state of New Jersey.

“Anyone who completes all three mobile marketing classes will earn a certificate in Mobile Marketing,” the report from NJ.com confirms. “The three new classes offered will be Introduction to Mobile Marketing, Creating Cell Phone Apps for Your Business (non-technical course), and Advanced Mobile Marketing.”

In these classes students will find out about location-based marketing, mobile payments, QR codes, applications, and mobile coupons. They will also get step-by-step instructions on how non-technical users can build, deploy and market smartphone applications across Android, iPhone and Blackberry platforms. Finally, students will get the knowledge needed to implement a mobile marketing plan for their organizations.

Introduction to Mobile Marketing spans Sept. 4 through Sept. 28 ($195), Creating Cell Phone Apps for Your Business spans Oct. 1 – Oct. 26 ($245), and Advanced Mobile Marketing spans Nov. 5 – Nov. 30 ($245).

The post Mobile Marketing’s Collegiate Presence Keeps Growing appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The annual summit is designed to provide an outlet for educating corporate decision makers on the value of a comprehensive mobile marketing strategy.

The organization today revealed that the new early bird registration deadline is Friday, June 22nd. This year’s summit will be held in Boston, Massachusetts over September 19th and 20th, 2012.

The Summit includes dedicated B2B and B2C tracks, providing attendees with presentations and case studies of proven success by brands like ESPN, JetBlue Airways, Travelocity, PayPal, Nielsen, Cars.com, Tasti D-Lite, American Express and more.

According to details revealed today, the general summit’s dedicated B2B and B2C tracks cover topics such as crafting mobile apps, location based marketing, social media integrated with mobile, mobile marketing best practices, understanding the consumer in the context of traditional media, defining an organization’s mobile strategy and more.

The post GSMI Says ‘See You In September’ for 4th Mobile Marketing Strategies Summit appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Judging from the lofty language used by the company to announce the arrival of its new solution, it’s apparent that Digby really digs the platform.

Through powerful web-style analytics into shopping activities at a brand’s physical locations and effective, targeted location-aware mobile messaging tools, Digby Localpoint enables brands to attract, influence, understand and own the relationship with their loyal customers across all channels.

In describing how it all works, Digby says Localpoint enables brands to create geo-fences around their stores and other points of interest and embed those geo-fences into the brand’s app. Digby then leverages its patent pending technology to measure app engagement and events such as geo-fence entries/exits, store visits, UPC/QR Code scans and other key shopping oriented events triggered through the app as the consumer visits the store and uses their smartphone to find and research products to enhance their in-store shopping experience.

Localpoint can be added to a current branded app through a Software Developer Kit (SDK) or in a rich application developed by Digby.

“Multichannel retailers in particular should recognize that they need a twofold objective with their smartphone presences: enabling sales, but also serving store shoppers,” says eport author Sucharita Mulpuru, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. “Because the primary use cases of mobile devices are to support multi-channel experiences (e.g., finding more product information in stores, identifying store locations), it is imperative to include multichannel sales influence in any mobile ROI estimates.”

The post Location-Based Mobile Marketing Gets Boost from Digby appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The whitepaper underscores the MMA’s commitment to expanding knowledge about and familiarity with Location Based Services (LBS).

“Mobile Location Based Services Marketing” was created by the MMA Privacy and Preferences Committee.

For many marketers, Mobile Location Based Marketing promises an unprecedented, new way to connect with customers, delivering highly relevant, targeted messages at the time and place when a consumer is most likely to act on them. A capability that only mobile delivers.

“A maturation of technology, combined with innovation in marketing techniques, mean that LBS marketing is poised to take off,” says MMA North America Managing Director Michael Becker. “With today’s publication, the MMA is leading the industry forward, defining and exploring the potentially limitless possibilities LBS marketing opens up for all doing business in the mobile channel.”

The “Mobile Location Based Services Marketing” whitepaper points to current examples of Location Based Marketing’s use in the marketplace, and identifies likely future-use cases. It is intended, says the MMA, to inspire the reader to consider how location technology may be applied most effectively in their real-world marketing scenarios. It is the first step toward the development of best practices, and the long-term goal of the creation of industry standards.

To check out the whitepaper for yourself, click here.

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