SMS should remain top of mind in the mobile space

Undoubtedly, the mobile space is drastically changing and particularly as a result of the changes that are occurring in the smartphone category.   With the release of the Apple iPhone and the growth of BlackBerry handsets, people are starting to browse more on their mobiles and data plans have shifted in Canada to allow for this.  Mobile company’s like us (Plastic The Mobile Agency) are really excited about this shift and see all the great possibilities that exist to expand and grow the mobile industry.  More and more we hear our competitors, clients  and industry experts speak about browser capabilities, applications and new technologies that are taking advantage of these better devices.

The technology and the possibilities excite our curiosities and stir our imagination but we also also have to consider the analytics.   How many people can be targeted?  What is the reach?  What is the engagement level? What is the ROI and what is the per user acquisition cost?  Unfortunately, we are at a time with little access to mobile analytics and looking at handset usage and penetration rates paints a gloomy story.  There are still millions of people who don’t use their phones to browse and even more people without smartphones so how can you really get maximum reach?  For this reason I still believe in the power of SMS and campaigns oriented around text-messaging.  In fact, SMS is superior to other modes of communication such as email or direct mail. There are many benefits to SMS campaigns and these can be used by brands to communicate with their audiences:

SMS allows you to:

• Reach a greater number of people as an overwhelming majority of mobile handsets are SMS enabled (95%+)
• Allows for better use of marketing spend. SMS is as very cost effective way to reach users and is far cheaper than traditional print advertising
• have effective campaigns since SMS campaigns are estimated to be 10x more effective than print advertising
• Track and evaluate your interaction with users whereas print advertising does not allow for responses.
• to targeted towards 13-35 age range.  It is estimated that about 1742 SMS messages are sent per month in the (13-17 age group) and 790 sent in the (17-24 age group). The third highest usage is  331 messages per month for the  (25-35 age group) according to Nielsen.

With a greater reach,  more user interaction, better response rates by your audience, better tracking and more cost effective, it sometimes blows our minds why some companies are not taking advantage of this great mode of communication.

Plastic Mobile Agency located in Toronto Ontario helps our clients evaluate their mobile needs and understand their targets.  We provide mobile strategies that are suited for our clients and suggest to them with the most effective use of their marketing budet.

The gang from Plastic Mobile Agency is heading from Toronto, Ontario over to  a warmer climate to the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association) 2009 conference in the fabulous Las Vegas. We covered it from a high-level in our post here but the true coverage will commence once we’re on the ground. We plan to bring you live updates to our blog here and be the first to report the many exciting findings.

Some early rumors of what maybe releasing include:

1. Skype for the iPhone
2. BlackBerry App World
3. BlackBerry TV
4. HTC Maple
5. More info on Palm Pre pricing

Be sure to be tuned to both our blog and Twitter for updates as some of these rumors become reality.

Here are the events that we will make sure to cover:

1. Day one Keynote Sessions – We look forward to hearing from both Al Gore and Mike Lazaridis
2. Exhibit Floors on all days to see all the exciting showcase of products and technologies
3. NXT Stage Mobile Entertainment Festival
4. Date 2 Keynotes
5. eWEEK – Healthcare IT and Wireless
6. WIP – Mobile Jam Session – More info on the Jam session found here
7. Mobility means Business
8. Day 3 Keynotes
9. NFC / Mobile Payments

Stay tuned right here for live updates.

CTIA Wireless 2009 event is one of the most global mobile events that takes place in Las Vegas this between April 1- April 3.   The event will be filled many people from different . The event is the convergence of more than 1,000 exhibiting companies, dozens of industries, and over 40,000 professionals from 125 countries all working toward the common goal of revolutionizing wireless.

The even attracts from  many domains:

• Application/Software Developers & Providers
• CLECs & LECs
• Consultants
• Content Providers/Aggregators
• Dealers/Retailers
• Distributors/Resellers/VARs
• Engineers
• Enterprise/Corporate/SOHO End-Users
• Entertainment
• Field Sales & Service
• Internet Service Providers – ISPs
• Manufacturers
• OEMs
• System Integrators
• Wireless Service Providers (Narrow/ Broadband PCS, Cellular, CDPD, ESMR)

KeyNote Sessions will include:

1. Steve Largent(President & CEO CTIA–The Wireless Association
2. Robert Dotson (2009 CTIA Chairman, President & CEO,T-Mobile USA )
3. Mike Lazaridis (President & Co-Chief Executive Officer, Research In Motion)
4. Ivan Seidenberg (Chairman & CEO, Verizon Communications
5. Robert Bach (President, Entertainment & Devices Division Microsoft Corporation
6. Benjamin Wolff (Co-Chairman, Clearwire Corporation)
7. Eric J. Topol, M.D. (Director, Scripps Translational Science Institute, Chief Academic Officer, Scripps Health)
8. The honorable AL GORE (45th Vice President of the United States)

The speaker all look very interesting and we (Plastic Mobile Agency) are looking forward to this great event that allows the world to come together and share mobile innovation.

See you all there!

- Melody Adhami

Its interesting to see that “Mobile Marketing Day” has gained the popularity to demand repeated series.

“The first Mobile Marketing Day [on Feb. 26] proved that there is a tremendous thirst for knowledge on mobile marketing and its role in generating brand awareness and leads,” said Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief of Mobile Marketer, New York.  As such the Direct Marketing Association has decided to continue the series on April 28, 2009.   “This upcoming event is part of a series of deeper dives into mobile” continued Mickey Alam Khan.  The event is being referred to as “Mobile Marketing for Agencies and Media Buyers”.

The event will be held in New York to discuss the marketing issues that surround today’s market place.  The event is of interest to media buyers, agencies and their brands.

We are more and more faced with brands today that are understanding that the more sophisticated handsets, data plans and customers are begging to expect fully integrated campaigns from companies and their brands.

The agenda is seen below and the content comes from Mobile Marketer.

Mobile Marketing for Agencies and Media Buyers
DMA Mobile Marketing Day
Sponsored by Napean (publisher of Mobile Marketer) and DMA Mobile Marketing Council
Date: Tuesday, April 28
Venue: Direct Marketing Association Seminar Center, 1120 Avenue of the Americas, 13th floor, New York, NY 10036

Agenda of content and confirmed speakers

8 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.
Registration and light breakfast

8:45 a.m. – 9 a.m.
Welcome Address
The address will welcome delegates, give a brief background on DMA Mobile Marketing Day, the importance of mobile marketing in agencies’ multichannel plans for clients and what the delegates should get out of this daylong event.

Speaker:
Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief, Mobile Marketer

9 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Why Mobile Must be Included in a Multichannel Marketing Campaign
In today’s environment where almost all working-age consumers have mobile phones with anywhere from SMS texting to Internet capability, including the mobile channel is a must for multichannel marketing plans. Mobile’s unique quality is how it gives legs to other channels including retail, print, online, television, outdoor, radio, direct mail and insert media. Now is the time to develop integrated mobile ad campaigns and build opt-in mobile programs to lock in consumer loyalty in this new era of marketing.

Speakers:
Jonathan Shar, general manager and senior vice president, Time Inc.’s CNNMoney.com
Michael Bayle, senior director of global mobile advertising, Yahoo!
Thom Kennon, vice president of strategic planning, Wunderman
Richard Ting, executive creative director and vice president of mobile and emerging platforms, R/GA
Moderator:
Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief, Mobile Marketer

10 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
Essential Elements of Mobile Marketing
What is mobile marketing and how is it different from mobile advertising, what goes into a typical campaign – banner ad, SMS, mobile Web site, search, application and coupons – and which tactic is appropriate for the overall strategy. A quick rundown on the ABCs of mobile marketing.

Speakers:
Dean Macri, CEO of Cielo Mobile
Matthew Valleskey, marketing communications for mobile services, NeuStar
Michael J. Becker, executive vice president of business development, iLoop Mobile
Moderator:
Giselle Abramovich, associate editor, Mobile Marketer

11 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
How to Create and Execute a Mobile Marketing Campaign
While mobile is not as complicated as commonly assumed, it does require special skill sets and understanding of the wireless carrier environment and the permission process. But it is easily added to existing CRM efforts or print, television, radio and outdoor campaigns. SMS texts, banner ads and coupons have proven effective in cross-channel marketing for marketers across categories.

Speakers:
Jordan Berman, vice president of media innovation, AT&T Ad Solutions
Michael Foschetti, managing director, Mobisix
Shira Simmonds, president, Ping Mobile
Moderator:
Dan Butcher, staff reporter, Mobile Marketer

11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Sponsored Lunch break

1 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Planning and Buying Media for Mobile
Fragmentation of media has made life difficult for media planners and buyers. On top of the number of cable channels and publisher Web sites, here comes mobile with its own ecosystem and quirks. As mobile buys become more commonplace, media planners and buyers will be expected to have skills to place ads on mobile Web sites as well as make decisions on SMS programs and other efforts for branding or lead generation.

Speakers:
Boris Fridman, CEO, Crisp Wireless
Patricia Clark, regional vice president of sales, 4Info
Eric Litman, chairman/CEO, Medialets
Moderator:
Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief, Mobile Marketer

2 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Tracking and Measuring a Mobile Campaign’s Performance
The campaign’s out the door – did it work, did mobile consumers click through the banner ad, did they click to call, did they visit the landing page, did they opt into the SMS offer? These questions and many others are uppermost on the minds of agencies and media planners and buyers called to account for their media decisions. Tracking and measuring a mobile campaign’s effectiveness is key in these times when every media dollar is expected to stretch and ROI is an expectation.

Speakers:
Adam Kerr, vice president for North America, Bango
Manny Gonzalez, senior director of mobile technologies, Keynote Systems
Mack McKelvey, vice president of marketing, Millennial Media
Moderator:
Giselle Abramovich, associate editor, Mobile Marketer

3 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Building a Loyalty Program with Mobile
The mobile channel’s optimal use is as a CRM tool. SMS, available on 99 percent of all mobile phones, is the favored vehicle for brands seeking to add a mobile component to their mail and online loyalty programs. Consumers are increasingly gravitating to the use of SMS for offers, discounts, coupons and incentives. But the use of SMS must be tempered with the right double opt-in permissions.

Speakers:
Gregg Smith, CEO, Acuity Mobile
Josh Herman, global multichannel marketing innovation leader, Acxiom
Jeannette Kocsis, vice president of digital strategy and media, Harte-Hanks
Moderator:
Dan Butcher, staff reporter, Mobile Marketer

4 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
Legal Do’s and Don’ts with Mobile Marketing Campaigns
In addition to best practices, there are several laws to keep in mind before deploying a mobile campaign. Regulations governing consumer outreach and database-building through mobile advertising and marketing differ from other channels. In fact, the laws are evolving with no little help from state attorneys general concerned about fair advertising practices. SMS, privacy policies, carrier regulations, mobile ads – all require thought before signing off.

Speakers:
Andrew B. Lustigman, principal attorney, The Lustigman Firm
Gonzalo Mon, attorney, Kelley Drye & Warren
Gary Schwartz, president, Impact Mobile
Moderator:
Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief, Mobile Marketer

5 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Sponsored Networking Cocktail Hour
Delegates can network and mingle with speakers, moderators and sponsors

Thanks to BoyGenius there is report focused on the a recent patent application by Apple.

So the patent covers biometric and other embedded authentication systems and this has the tech community all riled up.  How can Apple work so hard to hinder jailbreaking and then as part of a very official document, contain images of a jailbroken device. See the images below and lets just wait and see what this is all about.

MLB’s New York Yankees have expanded their reach to their consumers and is not running ad-supported SMS alerts.  Users can get news and scores and be updated about their favourite teams on their mobile phones and advertisers get to be right  there to reap the benefits.

Michael Spirito, vice president of business development & digital.  has quoted that “SMS alerts are something that we started doing as a way to provide enhanced value to our customers so that our viewers can get up-to-date scores and news from the Yes Network,”  “It’s an opportunity to extend our brand into the mobile universe, and we’ve seen it grow in popularity over time.

Although this is truly mobile, users need to first sign up online to both opt-in and also select their desired categories.   More and more we are seeing brands and companies bridging web and mobile to get a fully integrated campaign.
What is even more impressive is that as soon as updates are seen on the website, there is a great effort to get them onto SMS and to the subscribers.

Its speaks great deals when we see companies making great efforts to mobilize their contents. It speaks about the future of the mobile industry.

Plastic Mobile Agency is  based out of Toronto, Ontario and we offer brands and companies assistance in developing mobile strategies that suit their target goals.

According to BusinessWeek, it looks BlackBerry App World might be launching at the CTIA 09 next week on April 1st. Plastic will be at CTIA 09 in Vegas and it’s going to be very interesting to see what RIM will be bringing forth for both developers and consumers.  As a consumer, we hope to see apps that are rich with functionality and have a well-designed mobile user experiences – things that we’ve become used to thanks to the iPhone.

As a developer, we hope to see a better development arena (IDEs, debugging tools, frameworks, etc.). At Plastic, we develop mobile applications for many platforms (iPhone, Andriod, Windows Mobile, …) and by-far we put the most effort (man-power) on our BlackBerry projects. For instance, comparing development for the BlackBerry vs. iPhone… we see a multiple of 3-4 times the effort needed. I hope RIM is listening and catch up to Apple and other developer-friendlier platforms.

Apple made their announcements today regarding the anticipated release of their iPhone 3.0 and Mobile enthusiasts can’t wait for what is about to come.  Some really great and exciting new features, over a hundred new added in the new release (I will not go through them all), but here are some of the big ones below:

1. The long anticipated Cut & Paste is here and in a good way.  You can double tap over your selection and a prompt will pop up asking whether you want to cut, copy or paste. You can expand your selection area using your thumb and if you make a mistake when you are pasting, just shake it away…I love it..like eraser dust!
2. The famous spotlight on a mac is now going to also be available on the iPhone and you would be able to search your entire device.  That is handy!  Search will also be available in Mail and Calendar.
3. 3G tethering– this is available so you can use the internet on your phone through your computer….no word on whether the carriers are supporting this.
4. Landscape keyboard has been added to some of the applications, most notably Mail.
5. MMS now available for the iPhone (this should have been available on the 1.0 but I guess better late than never)
6. Shake to shuffle music in iTunes
7. Safety features such as anti-phishing and parental control
8. Voice Memo application- allows for voice recording
9. PUSH NOTIFICATION– this is a big one and it is long overdue

There are more features where that came from but and I am sure we will hear all about them in the coming weeks. Come back and I will keep you posted.

Check out these guys control an RC car (and later a McLaren Mercedes) with a BlackBerry Storm:

Would you ever have believed it 5 years ago is someone told you to take out your phone and start your car?

You wouldn’t need a car starter and your phone would do it for you.  Living in Canada and having to warm up my car in the dead of winter would mean that an iPhone car ignitor would be my dream come true.  Ok before we all get carried away and run out in a trek to find this ignitor we have to understand it only sits in one concept car at The Geneva Motor Show. Rinspeed, the maker of the iChange concept car revealed an impressively revolutionary, highly innovative concept car with jaw dropping features that revolve around the iPhone.  The iChange is an an electric and solar powered that is aerodynamically designed to reduce air resistance and lesson its fuel consumption which in its case it electricity.  Not only is this car environmentally friendly and appeals to the tree-huggers but its also technically innovative to appeal to the geeks.  Especially us!

The entire vehicle is built around Apple’s popular mobile handset, which hooks into the dashboard and acts as the car’s key – locking and unlocking it, as well as turning on the engine and performing other functions.

The iChange which has been supported by the Swiss government, might seem far-fetched, but the team behind it say it is intended to stimulate the struggling car industry into innovative thinking.  As the entire world faces challenging times, innovation will lead companies out of touch time.