Plastic in the News: Another First

On Monday, some of the team sauntered down to Bay Street to open the Toronto Stock Exchange in celebration of the launch ETF Central , created in partnership with Claymore Investments, a subsidiary of Guggenheim Funds Services Group, Inc.

Ringing the iconic bell to open the day of trading was just another first for Plastic Mobile, but the everyone had so much fun, they’d really like to do it again!

Plastic Mobile in the news:

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Spending money on lavish items is fine, if you have the money. However, there is a limit to everything, and we say a $50,000 featurephone has definitely exceeded that limit! Pricey luxury items should at least try and justify why they are pricier – unfortunately, the Gresso Grand Premier does no such thing. Yes, there is about 150 grams of gold and 138.5 carats of sapphire crystals in each handset, but if that is what you are looking for, why not just buy some serious jewellery?

What really gets to me is the fact that this bedazzled phone isn’t even SMART (meaning, it’s not of the smartphone variety)! In a time where everything is moving towards mobile – from the way we communicate to the way we shop or entertain ourselves – Gresso has the audacity to design a phone with an ancient S40 UI and charge $50,000 for it! Who is exactly the target market here? We ask you.

Maybe it’s just me, but even if I had the cash, I would rather buy an iPhone and use the rest of the money to purchase a YAMAHA Disklavier Piano, a beautiful Arkiane Kephren fireplace and a 16 year old bottle of Lagavulin scotch. That way I could stare at my stunning fireplace and sip on my scotch while I ask SIRI to play me some Wagner on my Disklavier Piano.

So today one of our guys came across an amazing video of SIRI playing a YAMAHA Disklavie piano through Wi-Fi, we loved it so much that we had to share it. In a quirky way, this video could be a small peek into the future-what could be next? We are desperately waiting for the day you can connect your mobile to your stove and have it cook you up a storm!

The mobile space has set the wheels in motion for its world domination…well, maybe not quite. But we’re getting there according to research firm Berg Insight, which reported this week that mobile is expected to grow from $3.4 billion in 2010 (at a compound annual growth rate of 37 percent) to $22.5 billion in 2016. Yikes! The report suggests that by 2016, mobile will account for 15.2 per cent of all global online advertising and marketing spending.

While mobile has been a bit of a nouveux trend until now, with some savvy and innovative agencies testing the waters, Berg Insight suggests that companies have begun changing their strategies to incorporate mobile into their annual ad plans as a key media component. Rickard Andersson, telecom analyst for Berg Insight, stated in the article from GIGAOM: “The popularity of smartphones and the increasing availability of mobile media that can include mobile advertising are the main game changers. Brands are now progressively embracing the mobile channel, including the entire range of apps from games and entertainment to utility applications.” He suspects that, while in-app ads have been the leaders in mobile marketing thus far, the advent of HTML5 brings traditional channels such as SMS as well as mobile web advertising, back on the table. He thinks that location-based advertising has the potential to unleash the full power of mobile advertising.

Location-based advertising is certainly having a hay-day in the world of mobile commerce, and should continue to be a driver of the mobile ad world. We second the emotion that it would be to a brand’s benefit to find new and innovative ways to employ mobile campaigns to enhance other advertising channels, and vice versa.

Last week was really exciting for all of us here at Plastic Mobile. We were really pleased with the launch of our latest mobile application innovation,  ETF Central , created in partnership with Claymore Investments, a subsidiary of Guggenheim Funds Services Group, Inc.

Apparently our enthusiasm was mirrored by our media buds, as ETF Central got a lot of love from the press. Check out what the likes of the Financial Post and Mobile Marketing, among others, had to say about ETF Central:

Plastic Mobile in the News:

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The Plastic Mobile team spent the morning rubbing elbows with the traders at the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) after opening up trading to celebrate the launch of ETF Central, the latest mobile innovation for Exchange Traded Funds management.

Plastic Mobile CEO Sep Seyedi and COO Melody Adhami, in partnership with Claymore Investments, a subsidiary of Guggenheim Funds Services Group, Inc., were all invited down to Bay Street to open the market with the traditional ringing of the bell.

Watch the video here:

Read the full press release here: Plastic Mobile Opens Trading_Press Release_121911

A recent InsightExpress study suggests that mobile and print would make a great team. The company found that mobile users are also print junkies: “Based on our findings, it’s clear that brands and retailers should be incorporating mobile into their print strategies,” said Joy Liuzzo, vice president and director at InsightExpress.

Print and Mobile, sitting in a tree...

Liuzzo goes on to say that there’s more to this relationship than just a little QR coding. There are a number of ways to strengthen this bond, including article archiving or sharing and information gathering. The company specifically focused on QR codes and user engagement, finding that smartphone owners who use their mobiles for six or more daily activities were also reading or subscribing to print publications. These users are a hot target for advertisers as they have diverse tastes extending even beyond their reading mediums to any number of lifestyle routines (eating, shopping, etc.). The study found that these people were also more inclined to connect with companies via their mobile devices. “The biggest surprise to me was with the segment of smartphone owners that do six or more activities on their phone every day and their print media consumption,” said Ms. Liuzzo. “This group is both subscribing to, and reading more, print materials than any of the other groups (smartphone or regular phone owners).”

According to our friends over at Mobile Marketer, InsightExpress then delved into an investigation of this market’s varying reading behaviours and discovered that magazines came out on top in terms of user engagement. For example, tearing out articles or tracking down a product mentioned in an article or ad.

Turns out, traditional print media isn’t out of the game just yet. It just needs to get wiser and learn a thing or two from it’s new young partner. From here, who knows where this dynamic duo can go? What do you think? Are print and mobile a match made in heaven? Tweet us your comments to @plasticmobile.

A recent study conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research and PaymentOne of online and mobile buying behaviours discovered that four out of five consumers would spend more online if there was a more secure alternate method of payment. The survey suggests that online merchants are missing out on an annually, aggregated revenue of $110 billion.

Whoa. Talk about a commerce gap.

An article in cellular-news noted that the survey found that consumers believe – at a whopping ratio of four to one – that direct carrier billed mobile payments are more secure than online credit and debit card digital purchases. Phil Blank, Managing Director at Javelin Strategy & Research, said “If digital merchants simply offered consumers an alternative way to pay, such as mobile carrier based payments, 79 per cent of decisive consumers indicated they would spend more, driving significant new incremental revenue from subscriptions, transactions and purchases. 300 percent more survey respondents perceived carrier billed mobile transactions, where financial information is never shared or loaded onto the phone, to be safer than “mobile payments” requiring consumers to input credit or debit card info.”

While 95 per cent of consumers surveyed had mobile phones, only 36 per cent had used them to purchase something. We suspect that will change very shortly. A note to merchants everywhere: drop your lengthy, arduous credit card forms  (known for timing out…grrrr) in favour of a mobile carrier alternative and, well, jackpot, my friend. Jackpot.

To say mobile commerce is changing the way that we shop would be to make a gross understatement. Likewise, we acknowledge as obvious that m-commerce is changing the way retailers peddle their wares. Recently, however, the two sides came crashing together in a clash of seller vs. buyer. The catalyst? The launch of Amazon’s new price comparison mobile app, Price Check, which allows consumers to check Amazon prices against other book sellers. Most small, offline independent retailers immediately balked, jumping on the defense and accusing the online retail giant of unfair tactics.

Much of the retailers’ concern resides in Amazon flexing its marketing muscles by offering additional discounts for using their app. The world’s largest online retailer was offering a 5% discount to entice consumers to check the price of local retailers against the Amazon price – a Fox Books move (You’ve got Mail, 1998) that will put another nail in the “shop around the corner’s” coffin.

Mobile Commerce Daily’s article on the app notes that it is for these exact money saving advantages and benefits that users have embraced their mobile devices for shopping. They also suggest that mobile-driven price comparison is simply something that retailers need to plan and prepare for, and find a way to make it work to their advantage.The advent of new shopping behaviours will only continue to grow as mobile advancement continues to increase.  We can’t help but agree. In fact, our COO, Melody Adhami, suggests that smaller retailers would be well-advised to recognize the budget-conscious retailer and accept and cater to their mobile-savvy, instead of resisting it. Fight fire, with fire,  so to speak, since all reports indicate that consumers are using smartphones more and more to compare prices.

The Amazon PriceCheck app is a perfect example of how mobile is changing consumer behaviours and m-commerce is putting pressure on traditional businesses to adapt to their modern consumers if they want to stay their roles in a mobile world.

Others, however, are of the opinion that giving shoppers further incentive to gather recon intel  from off-line local businesses is a step too far. “Amazon’s promotion — paying consumers to visit small businesses and leave empty-handed — is an attack on Main Street businesses that employ workers in our communities,” said Senator Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican.

While we empathize with the plight of small local retailers, we can’t help but applaud the mobile initiative of Amazon as the future is change and the time is now to embrace new technologies.

Today was a big day at Plastic. The Marketing Intern brought in homemade chocolate chips cookies so we were all on a major sugar high for the launch of “ETF Central,” our latest app that was created in partnership with Claymore Investments, a subsidiary of Guggenheim Funds Services Group, Inc.

Because a part of our mandate is to pioneer innovative products and solutions that allow the financial industry to expand into the mobile space, we wanted to be sure that ETF (Exchange-traded Funds) Central met all of the user needs, in an engaging and easy-to-use format.

So, employing both tech and creative wizardry (our magical formula for super apps) we created a sophisticated tool that sets the bar for excellence in the financial space. Voila! ETF Central. A new, free, customized, dual-purpose mobile app available on BlackBerry, PlayBook, iPhone and iPad.

ETF Central satisfies both the need to better educate users unfamiliar with the relatively new exchange-traded funds, as well as allows them to manage their ETF investments easily and conveniently. The app puts all Canadian-listed ETFs into the user’s palm, allowing them to view market prices of all TSX listed ETFs, create and track their ETF portfolio, view ETF educational resources, link to all online brokerages to trade ETFs, track upcoming ETF events and more. Ultimately, it’s a pretty outstanding financial gadget.

The leading force behind the app creation, and our very own “Queen of Apps,” Melody Adhami was excited to launch ETF Central as ETFs represent a sizable industry, but public awareness about them has been limited. She and our team here at Plastic Mobile set out to create a tool that would both educate and manage ETFs for the average user/investor. To read the full media release, click here.

In the news:

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