Don’t Miss Plastic Mobile’s Sweet Booth at Dx3!

The Plastic Mobile elves are working hard to create a real treat for anyone attending Dx3′s showroom floor. The Plastic Mobile booth is shaping up to be a one-stop-shop for a peak into how mobile really works – more specifically, how it can work for brands in the rapidly evolving world of commerce.

While we are certainly not about to divulge our top-secret booth plan (that’s classified intel), we are happy to give you a little something to nibble on while you wait in bated-breath suspense for January 25th and 26th to arrive so you can burst through the doors of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and hurry to see what Plastic’s got in store. The tidbit? Don’t sugar coat your mobile initiatives – quality is key to ensuring the best user experience and repeat usage. Stay tuned for more info on Plastic’s presence at Dx3. Are you getting excited? Tweet us @plasticmobile and tell us what you’re most looking forward to.

Also, take advantage of our exclusive Plastic Mobile Dx3 giveaway!

Mobile has been under the thumb of skeptics ever since it arrived on the scene. It’s been a long time coming, but we think Mobile Marketing is finally being taking seriously. Consider these top three examples that support our hypothesis:

1. Brands bringing mobile in house – According to an article in Mobile Marketer, Walmart and e-bay, are following in Amazon’s footsteps and bringing their mobile markting development and management in house. This major move indicates they are ready to take the mobile space seriously: “These acquisitions are a welcome validation that competent mobile executions are critical to a healthy marketing program, and that expertise is in short supply,” said Brennan Hayden, vice president of WDA, East Lansing, MI.

While other big-name brands, like Lexus, who are outsourcing to agencies are still doing it right, these stores are being super-savvy in preventing their competitors from using the same tools. This bodes well for the future of mobile, but has the potential to be bad for business. Thankfully, we know that our quality work validates itself.

2. Brands that aren’t, are going down – Those big names that are not taking steps to incorporate mobile into their marketing plans seem to be feeling the effects of their negligence. For instance, we recently blogged about how e- and m-commerce were partially to blame for the demise of a number of Sears and K-Mart stores after grimm holiday figures.

Furthermore, in 2008, Kate Spade New York was a strugglin,’ but, when Craig Leavitt came on board as CEO, he woke up a sleeping giant and changed its outlook on online marketing. The result? Kate Spade is now one of the strongest brands supporting m- and e-commerce.

3. Facebook hearts mobile – The social networking behemoth was one of the first companies to jump on board the mobile train. They continue to bolster their mobile platform at ever chance they get, and are careful to always listen to their users. Thus, Facebook recently announced a new Comments Box plugin for mobile websites – a feature in high demand by business owners and website proprietors. The new plugin will make it simpler for websites to engage consumers regardless of where they are. Essentially, if the Book is doing it, you probably should be too.

There are countless other examples of how Mobile Marketing has finally grabbed everyone’s attention, but the bottom line is, if you’re not going mobile, you really should be. What do you think? Is it mobile’s time to shine?

What happens when you don’t go mobile? Well, you can ask Sears and K-Mart – that is if you can find a store that’s still open (was that mean?).

Sears recently announced it would be closing between 100 and 120 Sears and K-Mart stores because of abismal holiday sales numbers, and the blame fingers are pointing at e-commerce, mobile and social technology, among others.

An article in Forbes suggests that brick-and-mortar stores are becoming little more than showrooms for shoppers to see, hear, touch and smell (?) the products in real life, before they turn online to make their actual purchases. The article also states that the depleted economy is partially to blame, suggesting that recession-shocked shoppers are looking for the best steals and deals to make their buys, which can often be found online. Take for instance Amazon’s most recent app that actually encourages consumers to walk into retail stores and quickly and easily compare costs to the online giant’s low low prices. Greedy or genius, one thing is certain; Amazon saw an opportunity to use mobile commerce to its advantage, and boy did it take it.

So how can real-life retailers marry their needs with consumer needs to better battle the inherent advantages of online? One answer lies in the many benefits of mobile marketing and social media to bolster brand presence and awareness.

The fact is, the mobile space is developing at an amazing pace. And, more and more brands such as  Lexus and American Airlines are finding new and exciting ways to harness the power of mobile to increase the value of their brands through providing better service and consumer experiences.

It should come as no surprise that consumers are relying more and more on their mobile smart devices – haven’t we all seen someone nearly walk into someone else (or a lamp post, if you’re lucky) while they talk, text or play on their favourite pocket pal? In an Oracle research report published in May of 2011, the stats showed that mobile commerce is growing dramatically and that that three in 10 consumers are making mobile purchases, and close to half are researching and browsing products and services on their mobile devices. The simple conclusion: mobile is becoming a connector of all other shopping channels.

AND, the beauty of the mobile arena is that it still remains largely untapped, so the potential for innovation is boundless. With the financial resources available to large big box stores like Walmart and Best Buy, finding new and exciting ways for people to utilize their mobile smart phones could be a critical move to their future.

Had Sears better adapted to the evolving digital space, making it easier, cheaper and more convenient for shoppers to get what they wanted from retail locations, maybe they wouldn’t be looking bleakly into a similar fate to the dodo.

What do you think? Could Sears have saved itself some stores, and possibly some $, if they had innovated using e- and m-commerce?

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.

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.

We like a healthy yin and yang here at Plastic Mobile, so we wanted to follow up on our September blog post (slash mild rant) on the abuse and misuse of QR codes in marketing campaigns, with a look at how QR codes can be used effectively to bolster, and even lead, a good campaign.

In the previous post, we suggested three simple steps to approaching a QR code campaign that are both sensible and straightforward:

1. Review your objectives – why choose the path of the QR code?

2. Explore the possibilities – how will you present the QR codes?

3. Know your audience – who are you targeting?

These three points can help you get your strategy grounded so that you don’t make silly errors like the billboard campaign.

After establishing the groundwork, forecasting and then managing the outcome and analysis is just as important to consider and document. Our friends at Mashable.com picked up where we left off, developing five results-oriented “Steps for a Successful Code campaign.” They look at the burgeoning fad/phenom from the perspective of quality creating longevity and enhanced user experiences. Here are their five tips for success:

1. Define Your Purpose
2. Call on Your Customers
3. Design and Usability are Key
4. Measuring Scans
5. Social Metrics

With the above steps in mind, we look at the recent success of the Chili’s Grill & Bar QR code campaign in a quick scan vs. call to action review.

The popular North American restaurant chain launched their eighth annual Create-A-Pepper to Fight Childhood Cancer fundraising initiative. According to Mobile Commerce Daily, who reported on the event, the campaign raised more than $5 million in support of kids receiving lifesaving care at St. Jude. Children’s Research Hospital. For the first time Chili’s used QR codes to increase donations while raising awareness of the campaign. The codes appeared on colouring sheets and table tents created specifically for the effort. The result was 291,000 scans.

Chili’s Grill & Bar identified that the new trend in mobile technology offered a unique way to engage restaurant guests in the fundraiser. It also gave the restaurant the opportunity to relate to their tech-savvy audience while giving St. Jude supporters another, easily accessible way to donate to the charity.

Ultimately, the marketing gurus at Chili’s headquarters were able to use mobile codes to review, define, explore, engage and measure their charitable campaign with a great deal of success. Hats off to you, Chili’s!

The Android App market has been growing at staggering rates, even though Apple still holds global dominance when it comes to number of total apps and app downloads, this dominance might soon come to an end. According to research by Xyologic, a mobile industry business intelligence firm and app search provider, monthly app downloads for Android devices can soon match those of iOS devices. Xyologic’s forecast predicts both app stores to reach 3.2 billion downloads by June 2012.

The forecast is based upon the hyper-exponential (growth within growth) growth Android Market is currently experiencing.  Although such aggressive growth rates are potentially hard to sustain, contrary to Xyologic’s previous expectations, Android Market has shown no signs of slowing down. Meanwhile, Apple’s established App Store is expected to maintain the same growth rate, without any sudden increases.

As of September 2011 Apple is still in the lead with 1.4B app downloads, vs 0.64B app downloads accumulated in that month from the Android Market. However, Xyologic is already noticing a change, with Android experiencing higher monthly downloads compared to Apple in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Portugal.  If this trend continues we can expect to see Android become the number one platform in more countries around the globe in the coming months, encompassing a bigger audience pool.

Although the total app download numbers are not the most important numbers to the publishers, they do provide them with an adequate feel for the size of the market, since other numbers such as app revenue are much harder to come by. So what could all this mean?

Well, having the largest app market, and highest monthly app downloads have always been an important pillar in Apple’s marketing strategy. Matthaus Krzykowski, co-founder of Xyologic believes If they are longer posses a clear dominance in the mobile app space, at least in terms of volume, then they might have to look for a new marketing angle by 2013.

Again, I want to make a note that the number of Apps available for download is not the most important figure, the quality of Apps available is also a big influencing factor, even if Android Market reaches Apple App Store figures, Apple could still lead in terms of quality.  However, a shift or change in app market dominance can encourage Android developers to boost quality.

So what do you think?

Will Android continue to enjoy the same staggering growth rates? And how will this affect the mobile space as a whole? Does Apple need to come up with new marketing angle?

Source: Xyologic