Retail giant Target is the latest in a string of brands turning to mobile bar codes to help provide customers with a more interactive experience by embedding them in advertisements within national publications.

When readers come across one of the bar code-embedded ads in a magazine, they can use ScanLife to take a picture of the QR code, which then links the user to a video of stylist expert Sabrina Soto. In the clips, Ms. Soto demonstrates how Target furnishings and products can liven up home décor. 

Five and Fifty Groupon-type deals via SMS 

The name Five and Fifty comes from the fact that the deals must be good for at least 50% off and they can only be good for five hours. This is supposed to combat one of the major problems with Groupon – the deals can last for up to a year but that initial crunch means some deals can’t be redeemed until months after you’ve purchased.

ShopSavvy has partnered with Groupon to target its 10 million-plus users with specific offers based on their location and shopping preferences.

The partnership will enable Groupon offers to be delivered via ShopSavvy’s deals tab. The tab feature is similar to a Twitter-like stream, but is made of offers, promotions and coupons.

Instead of a daily discount, Philanthroper shares the stories of non-profits, from local to global, and gives visitors the opportunity to donate a dollar. When the 24 hours come to an end, a new non-profit goes up and the previous day’s organization receives their funds within about a week. 

Apple reducing iAd buy-in

Mobile marketing sticker shock has prompted Apple to dramatically slash the buy-in entry rate for the company’s iAd mobile advertising platform.
On Wednesday, Apple confirmed that the the iAd buy rate has been slashed by half.
Effectively immediately, Apple’s former $1 million minimum advertising threshold has been reduced to $500,000, as the Cupertino, California-based tech giant looks to attract mid-sized advertisers into its digital ad program for the first time.

Report Finds Daily Mobile Internet Usage for One in Five Americans

According to the findings of the 2011 Mobile Internet Attitudes Report from Antenna Software, one in five American mobile phone owners now use the mobile Internet every day of their lives.
The survey – conducted by YouGov – measured the “attitudes, preferences and behaviors” of adult consumers in the United States and United Kingdom. The poll took aim at the views and practices of a representative sample of 2,296 consumers, aged 18 and over in the UK and another 2,079 consumers in the US.
As expected, a large percentage (roughly half) of respondents admitted to using social networking platforms over the mobile Internet to stay connected with friends, family members, co-workers, and others.

Forrester Report on Location-Based Commerce

 6% of consumers are interested in receiving location-based retail offers on their mobile phones and 4% are interested in receiving time-sensitive promotions such as daily specials, Forrester Research Inc. finds.
The poll of 4,186 U.S. online adults 18 and older who have mobile phones was conducted in Q3 2010 and serves as a backdrop for a new Forrester report, “Location-Based Commerce: An Evolution In Mobile Shopping.”Forrester says retailers should use location-based mobile offerings to attract new shoppers and generate more sales. It suggests retailers that have mobile shopping apps ask consumers if they would like to opt in to receive location-based notifications. Then it suggests leveraging users’ preferences and other profile data to understand a shopper’s intent and send her relevant messages and store notifications. But it cautions not to bombard shoppers. For example, a consumer who enters a defined geo-fenced area should only receive a store notification if she has previously made a purchase there in the past six months and the store is currently open, Forrester suggests.

Happy reading...

QR Codes on NYC Building Permits

New York City’s Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced the use of Quick Response or QR codes (which are something like a smartphone-readable barcode) on building permits, to provide New Yorkers with easy access to information related to buildings and construction sites throughout the city.

Smartphone users who scan a QR code on a construction permit in New York, according to a press release from the mayor’s office, will get “details about the ongoing project – including the approved scope of work, identities of the property owner and job applicant, other approved projects associated with the permit, [and] complaints and violations related to the location.”

The QR codes will link users to a mobile version of the Department of Buildings Information System, and will give them the option to click a link that will initiate a phone call to the city’s 311 phone service, where they can register a complaint about noise, safety or other concerns.

As permits at 975,000 building and construction sites that already have them are replaced, they will have QR codes added; all New York City permits are expected to have QR codes by roughly 2013.

Rewarding Presence through Location-Based Media: 

In anticipation of their latest album release, artists Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx decided to reward their loyal fans with a sneak preview. However, there was a catch; the record could only be streamed via mobile phone and while present at specific physical locations.

Location-based mobile marketing will play a prominent role in Debenhams' digital strategy in 2011. 

The high street department store said it will increase its use of mobile vouchers this year and explore ways to send out instant, topical messages to its customers. 

88% of UK consumers ignore ads on their mobiles and 36% automatically delete them, while just 9% take any further action after viewing a mobile ad.

At its core, usability testing is fairly simple: developers bring people in to play their game, and then talk to them about their experiences. Increasingly, however, researchers are trying to look into the player’s head a little more directly. Vertical Slice is one of the pioneers of the biometric approach, using diagnostic tools to dig deeper into user responses. “You’ve got an emotional spectrum,” explains McAllister. “Think of it as a graph, with arousal – positive and negative excitement – on the Y axis, and then mood – happiness and sadness – on the X. Arousal can be measured by galvanic skin response, which we do by placing sensors on players’ fingers, while we measure overall skin temperature to give us valance – whether a player is happy or sad. This is all still research, but we’re already seeing, for example, skin temperature decreasing and an increase in galvanic skin response during combat in good FPS games – they seem to be aroused and happy.”

1. Contrary to what Steve Jobs said last year, mobile marketing does not suck: It just sucks a lot of the time in the U.S.
2. We love devices more than we love marketing
3. If you're going to focus on a cool aspect of the phone, make it novel and continually rewarding.
4. Rich media is not the solution: embrace the creative "limitations" of mobile
5. Cross-platform does not mean do it on more than one device.
6. If it's a mobile-marketing campaign, actually use mobile as media.
7. Mobile is a reach medium: Treat it like one.
8. Do something big: change behavior.
9. Learn from Captain Kirk: It's called a "communicator," not an "i" or a "touch" anything.
10. And the winner is ... Congratulations to Unilever Turkey and Cornetto ice cream.

iPhone users produce an Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of $9.50 while Android users are producing only $7.20, according to the research.  In terms of ad-clicks, 33% of Android consumers have clicked on in-app ads, while 26% of Apple users clicked ads.  Interestingly, while having a much smaller audience in general, 29% of Windows Mobile users have clicked on in-app ads — beating out Apple for the number two spot.

To arrive at these numbers, researchers analyzed free apps with more than 500,000 downloads or 75,000 active users.  ”Active Users” were described as using an app three times per week for at least five minutes.  The full infographic is embedded below in all its glory.

JiWire’s Mobile Audience Insights Report is based on data from approximately 450,000 public Wi-Fi locations, as well as a survey of more than 3,000 customers randomly selected across JiWire’s public Wi-Fi Media Channel between Oct. and Dec., 2010. JiWire serves advertisements to 40 million unique users across location-based apps and public Wi-Fi locations in North America and the United Kingdom and records data from every ad request. 

According to the survey respondents:

• 78% use location-based apps on their phone; 29% use them multiple times a day;
• 34% have clicked on an ad in response to a location specific message;
• 57% are more likely to engage with an ad that is relevant to their location – an increase from 46% in Q1;
• 84% of people who use app-enabled phones have participated in a shopping activity;
• On average, the mobile audience uses 1.6 devices to connect while on the go.

The report also found location-based advertising is driving consumers to physical storefronts, as evidenced by the 20% of the on-the-go audience visiting a store in response to a location-based ad. While 42% of respondents are most likely to use location-based services for finding store locations, as the discount in the ad increases, the more time a customer is willing to travel to redeem the offer. This provides new opportunities for brands to attract new customers across a broader distance and drive in-store traffic and sales, says JiWire management.

When the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers take the field at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas for this year's Super Bowl later today, fans will be able to enrich their experience with Augmented Reality (AR) extras, courtesy of USA TODAY and the junaio AR browser.

The Friday, 4 February edition of USA TODAY came with a 360-degree tour of the Dallas Cowboys stadium, presented by Jerry Jones, stadium and Cowboys owner, along with interior and exterior highlights. The Monday, 7 February edition will give readers a 3D view of the ‘Play of the Game’ in an animated sequence, with an option to receive player stats. Both AR experiences are being sponsored by Pepsi and Papa John's.

The Stadium Tour gives the user a 360-degree view of the stadium as he/she moves the camera around his own position. By clicking on the screen, the user can jump to the players’ entrance or the changing rooms.

The ‘Play of the Game’ feature in tomorrow’s edition of the newspaper will enable users to view the players’ moves from different angle by adjusting the position of their phone, relative to the picture in the newspaper.

"This cooperation between USA TODAY and junaio is another great example of our vision of the 'Augmented City' and how AugmentedRreality is able to bring additional value to everyday life,” says junaio developer, Peter Meier.

There’s more information in a video here.

The critical elements of SMS opt-in messaging

The following tips and best practices can help you develop in-store signage and other marketing visuals to help your brand achieve higher opt-in rates for retail-store SMS campaigns. They also help increase overall user satisfaction.

There are 5 key ingredients to successful copy and design development, for getting people to opt in and participate with SMS campaigns.

1. Call-to-action: This is the most important aspect of effective design. What action does the consumer need to take to participate? Is it clear and easy to understand?

2. Benefit statement: Essentially it’s answering the question, “What’s in it for me?” What is the value for the consumer? Be clear about what they have to gain by participating in the SMS campaign.

3. Special considerations: Accurately set the consumer’s expectations for what comes next. Are there additional details which need to be communicated? Are you clear about telling them what (if any) additional steps are required to get the value promised in the benefit statement? Be clear.

4. Terms and conditions: Include the statements required by the carriers for compliance with their consumer interaction standards.

5. Branding: Be sure the message clearly reflects the brand. Identification of the brand encourages credibility and trust in the exchange of personal information. It also helps connect the SMS promotion to overall brand or campaigns standards.

The success of a campaign not only depends on the campaign structure, but also depends on the execution and design of the initial opt-in messaging. Here are some tips for attracting participation with SMS campaigns.

“The Rutgers Mini-MBA: Mobile Marketing program’s groundbreaking 360-degree curriculum exposes participants to the full range of mobile tools, technologies, best practices, and industry regulations – enabling them to track ROI and optimize content for mobile environments”

• Smartphone adoption is growing fast. Smartphone sales nearly doubled (89 percent) from the same quarter last year: 101.2 million phones sold in Q4 2010.
• Android is growing fastest. Android-based phones outsold all other operating systems worldwide in the quarter (32.9 million phones, or 33 percent), edging out Nokia's Symbian phones (31 million). HTC and Samsung made the most popular Android handsets (45 percent of Android phones sold).
• The US is the biggest single country for smartphone sales. Twice the size of the Chinese market. Android was by far the best-selling smartphone platform in the US in Q4 (53 percent according to The NPD Group).
• Fastest smartphone growth is in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Sales up 90 percent from the same quarter last year.
• But it's still a Nokia world. Even if its Symbian operating system wasn't on top, Nokia is still the number one seller of smartphone hardware (28 percent of Q4 worldwide sales). Nokia leads in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific, but not Latin America, where BlackBerry took the lead.
• Slow start for Windows Phone 7. Microsoft's new smartphone operating system arrived somewhat late in the quarter, so these numbers don't quite tell the whole story, but still: Microsoft lost share in the United States, dropping from eight percent in Q4 2009 to five percent in Q4 2010. And it seems the new phones aren't even faring that well against the old Windows Mobile. According to The NPD Group, Windows Mobile phones outsold Windows Phone 7 two to one in the US.

Compulsory Pie Chart pic for Stats article

• Everybody's growing. It's worth noting that while relative positions are shifting in the market, everybody is selling lots more smartphones than last year. Even the companies who look like they're losing ground above are still growing in absolute volume. Smartphones are gradually replacing dumb feature phones.

• Nearly 1/3 of US mobile phones are smartphones. "As of December 2010, nearly a third (31%) of all mobile consumers in the United States owned smartphones, cellphones with app-based, web-enabled operating systems."
• Dead heat between Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry in US. It's a three-way tie at 27 percent each, but the momentum is with Android, which accounted for 43 percent of US smartphone sales in Q4 2010 the last half of 2010, compared to 26 percent for Apple iOS and 20 percent for Blackberry RIM.

Great to be hearing more and more of great Proximity Marketing examples and case studies out there, especially when it comes from big brand names, such as Red Bull.

Basically the program works in 1,400 Macs/Couche-Tard convenience stores in Canada and all begins on digital signage at the point of sale. The digital signage broadcasts ads for various products and services that the convenience store offers such as Coca-Cola and Cadbury.  

... 

Red Bull – case study

Red Bull is using digital signage to push its power drink. The brand is giving visitors to convenience store shoppers across Canada.

The coupon offers two cans of Red Bull for $4. The digital signage asks consumers to enable the Bluetooth on their device for a message from Red Bull. 

The display is at the point of purchase, reaching consumers who are waiting in line to pay or just walking around the store.

Once consumers enable the Bluetooth on their device, they receive the coupon. 

The set up within a Mac's/Couche-Tard store is to have one 32-inch screen in the store aisles and two 17-inch screens near the point of sale.

Red Bull is able to receive real-time feedback on each advertisement sent to shopper’s phones, from every sign and location.

“Advancements in mobile devices and digital signage, coupled with growing consumer acceptance of mobile marketing, are opening up key new opportunities for mobile-driven digital signage and affords a higher level of interactivity that didn’t exist before in public places,” Mr. Romanov said.

“Proximity-based mobile marketing can support social networking, price matching, coupons and real-time transactions to consumers at the point of sale, allowing today’s savvy and technologically-oriented consumer to engage, communicate and transact how, when and where they wish to,” he said.

“That’s why mobile proximity marketing can greatly improve the overall customer experience – which is the secret to achieving preferred status for any retail brand.”

As is usual with these types of campaigns, we never get to see any statistics, penetration rates, etc. And that's precisely the point I don't understand - proximity marketing, when compared to other traditional approaches such as mail / e-mail marketing, printed leaflets, etc. has a MUCH higher penetration rate (on good campaigns 10-20% - good meaning there's appropriate awareness, decent content, etc.).