Mobile Marketing Playbook Published by 360i Smashwords Edition Copyright 2010 360i Thank you for doc

Mobile Marketing Playbook Published by 360i Smashwords Edition Copyright 2010 360i Thank you for downloading this ebook As always, we welcome comments, critique, debate, and discussion – you can find us on Twitter (@360i or @bwiener), Facebook (facebook.360i.com) or on our blog (blog.360i.com) Table of Contents Foreword Acknowledgements Overview Planning in Mobile Marketing Search SMS Marketing Advertising Social Marketing Applications Commerce & Shopping Parting Thoughts Glossary Contributor Articles The Future of Mobile Content & Commerce By Noah Elkin, Senior Analyst, eMarketer The Nail for Social Media’s Hammer Interview with Mickey Alam Khan, Editor in Chief, Mobile Marketer How Mobile Marketing Can Fuel Buzz and Engagement for Entertainment Brands Interview with Valerie Brown, Director of Consumer Marketing, Bravo Mobile Innovation: What the U.S Can Learn from Japan by Naoki Muramatsu, VP, Digital Business Development, Dentsu Holdings USA FOREWORD By Bryan Wiener CEO, 360i Is this the Year of Mobile? For over a decade this proclamation has turned out to be premature, giving marketers ample reason to be skeptical The difference looking forward to 2011 is that this is the first time that consumer behavior and mobile platforms have reached sufficient scale for mobile to move beyond an emerging media tactic for mainstream marketers Mobile is finally experiencing its tipping point as one of the critical components of the digital marketing landscape, much like search marketing experienced in the early 2000s and social marketing during the past few years Nielsen reports that within a year, smartphone adoption will exceed the adoption of simpler, feature phones We’re coming to a point where the majority of phones – and consumers – will have Internet connectivity wherever they go Mobile is perhaps one of the most exciting and revolutionary forms of media to flourish over the last decade, as it builds exponentially on the groundbreaking changes brought on by search and social While the PC Internet is completely divorced from the physical world, mobile breaks down these walls and brings the power of the Internet into the real world in real time Imagine you’re in the grocery store, and you can easily look up a product’s ingredients, compare the price of products in the aisles with those in neighboring stores, check other customers’ reviews, and see how popular a product is with other shoppers in your area This is a vision of our not-too-distant future If someone has access to information anytime and anywhere, how does that change the way consumers think about your brand and the way you have to interact with them as a marketer? This brings both opportunities and challenges to existing business practices – much like the Internet did Rather than seeing this as a daunting prospect, consider that mobile allows consumers to bring their digital lives with them wherever they go This also means that we no longer have to silo our marketing efforts; the opportunity for cross-channel integration and truly rich multiplatform brand experiences has never been greater The accelerated intersection of mobile, local, social and commerce across the online and offline worlds means things are going to change incredibly quickly That’s why we’ve put together this Playbook – to provide a foundation and framework for approaching the changes ahead In 2009, we issued our Social Marketing Playbook for similar reasons and it received a tremendous response with more than 50,000 downloads to date We hope that this Mobile Marketing Playbook will be as valuable for marketers looking to make sense of the current mobile landscape and arm themselves for the innovations ahead Specifically, the aim of the Mobile Marketing Playbook is to help marketers: • Work within a framework for establishing a set of clear objectives for their mobile marketing strategy • Move beyond the checklist approach with a filter for evaluating the myriad of opportunities within mobile • Think of ways to use mobile to merge online and offline strategies, as a hub that bridges the gap • Encourage a dialogue about what matters in mobile now, and what’s ahead for this new and exciting medium As always, we welcome comments, critique, debate, and discussion – you can find us on Twitter (@360i or @bwiener), Facebook (facebook.360i.com) or on our blog (blog.360i.com) Happy reading, Bryan Wiener, CEO, 360i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Several individuals graciously lent their time and talents to the production of the Mobile Marketing Playbook We’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contributions To our featured columnists: Valerie Brown, Eugene Chung, Noah Elkin, Mickey Alam Khan and Naoki Muramatsu – thank you all for sharing your keen insights with us and our readers Thanks also to the 360i team who wrote, edited, designed and managed this Playbook: David Berkowitz, Amanda Bird, Carleejean Cook, Natan Edelsburg, Laura Frizzell, Jim Gulsen, Lara Hejtmanek, Sarah Hofstetter, Chris Humber, Kolin Kleveno, David Levin, Tanya Nam, Katie Perry, Jesse Shaver, Sarah Sikowitz, Benny Simon, Paul Stadnyk and Chang Yu And advanced thanks to the readers of this Playbook who are moved to comment, share, critique, tweet, scan, blog or generally discuss the contents herein We encourage you to reach out and share your thoughts directly with us anytime at editor@360i.com, via feedback on our blog at blog.360i.com or on Twitter @360i CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW Ten Reasons Mobile Marketing Matters Right Now There’s so much buzz about mobile marketing that it’s easy to dismiss it, or to check off a few mobile tactics and say you’re doing enough with mobile Here are the top ten reasons why mobile matters right now They illustrate why marketers need a comprehensive mobile roadmap as part of their integrated communications plan to take full advantage of the exciting opportunities ahead Your customers most likely own and use mobile devices Market research firm comScore reports that as of May 2010, 234 million Americans age 13 and older are mobile subscribers That’s more than 90% of the U.S population Mobile data usage keeps rising, with Americans especially fond of texting Nearly two-thirds (65%) of mobile subscribers text, according to comScore, while the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports teens 12 to 17 communicate each other daily with texting more than through any other channel – including talking face-to-face or on the phone Mobile Internet usage is taking off, making it easier and imperative for marketers to connect mobile with their digital marketing programs eMarketer reports that there are more than 85 million U.S mobile Internet users, and about half of mobile phone users will use the mobile Internet within a few years Smartphone penetration is increasing to the point where brand marketers can deliver rich experiences through pocket-sized devices Nielsen reports that within a year, smartphone adoption will roughly match adoption of feature phones (the more basic, functional phones with limited web and app capabilities) U.S Smartphone Penetration & Projections Smartphone competition is expanding the audience that can access rich content Mobile ad network AdMob noted U.S ad impressions on Google’s Android operating system reached 46% of the total in March, compared to 39% for the iPhone operating system, marking the first time Android surpassed the iPhone Also consider Myxer, which has served 34 million consumers 1.3 billion downloads of free mobile content Skewing toward a younger audience, it has seen a disproportionate share of downloads and traffic coming from BlackBerry devices BlackBerry has proved especially popular with this demographic in large part thanks to the interest in BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), its instant messenger service Mobile is designed to be the most integrated marketing medium the world has ever known Along with the integration of the various channels within mobile, to be most effective mobile should integrate with as many other kinds of media as are included in a campaign or program, including online, TV, radio, print and out of home Mobile devices are always on and accessed everywhere, and the portability alone makes mobile unlike any other form of media Mobile marketing has near limitless potential to contribute to and build on other marketing programs Mobile is great for branding thanks to several factors: deep engagement, minimal ad clutter and new and constantly evolving advertising experiences Dynamic Logic found that its mobile MarketNorms across various brand metrics consistently surpassed online norms Mobile marketing matters in any vertical, with any goal A consumer packaged goods marketer can use mobile display and video ads for branding, SMS for couponing and applications for consideration Retailers can similarly use mobile in different ways, whether they’re trying to drive consumers to the store or launch a new product line InsightExpress further quantified some of these effects, showing strong performance across brand metrics for marketers in six vertical industries Mobile marketing is more than just a single marketing channel Consider online marketing, where search, video and social media are all very different disciplines The same is true of mobile, and these various forms tend to intersect Coupons can be delivered via text messages that link to mobile barcodes Mobile display ads often promote applications Mobile social marketing programs can include video and mobile search, and tend to run in conjunction with a range of other promotions Mobile vs Online 10 The twenty-first century is the century of mobile The “year of mobile” phrase is played out, but it has been true for some time now The International Telecommunication Union wrote in its 1999 Annual Report, “If 1999 was the year of the Internet, it was also the year of mobile cellular.” Since then, there have been several milestones as the number of text messages sent annually rises well into the trillions and mobile ad spending nears the billion-dollar mark The past few years of innovation have brought the iPhone with its continual improvements, pervasive Android devices and mobile social services that have consumed much of the bandwidth of the mobile Web The milestones will keep coming at a breathtaking pace Campaign Effectiveness – Brand Metrics by Vertical THE FUTURE OF MOBILE CONTENT & COMMERCE By Noah Elkin Senior Analyst eMarketer Remember when ringtones were all the rage? No one thought twice about dropping $3 to get 15 seconds of a song because it was a quick and easy way to personalize your phone Indeed, through 2007, revenues piled up for music publishers and wireless carriers alike thanks to the rush to personalization, peaking at more than $700 million, according to SNL Kagan Much of this purchasing activity took place “on deck”– the categorized links that came bundled with web-enabled phones Carrier decks offered benefits to users and marketers alike First, they enabled marketers to place content and applications with easy reach, meaning users did not have to engage in long (and, at the time, expensive) browsing sessions to find music, games, news or weather Second, purchases conveniently went right on users’ phone bills, putting access to that content ecosystem within a few clicks But carrier decks were walled gardens by another name, and ultimately that translated into constraints for the end user The launch of the iPhone in June 2007 made those constraints more apparent Although it was by no means the first web-enabled phone, the iPhone broke new ground as a contentconsumption device The built-in Safari browser brought a desktop-like experience to mobile, unlocking a world of media experiences that previously had been imperfectly realized at best Integration with first the iTunes Store and subsequently the AppStore gave consumers new options for accessing music, games and video on their mobile devices, and new modes for marketers to engage their audience with branded applications Apple’s model of tight integration between hardware, software and services has helped to ignite the mobile value chain, spurring adoption of devices with dramatically improved feature sets At the end of Q1 2010, Nielsen found that just under 25% of the U.S mobile subscriber population had a smartphone That number is forecast to rise to 49% by Q3 2011, as device manufacturers and wireless carriers increase their marketing push to graduate users to higher-value devices and data plans The success of Apple’s iPad, and the anticipated launch of other tablet-style form factors, will further consolidate media consumption on mobile devices Increased smartphone ownership is driving growth in mobile Internet usage According to eMarketer projections, 142.1 million mobile users, representing 54% of the U.S mobile user population, will access the web from their mobile devices in 2014, up from 85.5 million in 2010 Content consumption will likewise increase at a rapid pace By 2014, eMarketer predicts that U.S mobile gamers, music listeners and video viewers will number 94.9 million, 52.2 million and 56.7 million, respectively Moreover, what these mobile content consumers buy and how they buy it is also evolving, driven in part by advances in mobile devices and networks and in part because of broader secular developments in digital content For example, mobile users are talking less than ever before and using more data-centric functions such as texting and social networks to communicate The decline in voice calling has hurt ringtone sales At the same time, the combination of increasingly ubiquitous broadband access and the steady migration of content to the “cloud” means that mobile consumers are moving more in the direction of “accessing” content rather than owning it, emulating a trend begun on the desktop with software and services Paid and ad-supported streaming services such as Pandora, YouTube and Hulu offer access to vast content libraries that would be far costlier to replicate through purchases This shift heralds the rise of subscription and pay-peruse payment plans and boosts the potential of ad-supported and hybrid monetization models Bottom line: Consumers will continue to pay for content on mobile devices But whom they pay, what they pay for and how they pay for it are starting to evolve as quickly as the devices on which they consume it CHAPTER 2: PLANNING IN MOBILE MARKETING Creating an Integrated Mobile Marketing Program When planning a mobile marketing program, questions will arise as to which channels, tactics and vendors are most appropriate to incorporate Marketers can embark on a mobile plan by answering four questions that lead to a much broader number of decisions involved in figuring out how to make the most out of mobile These questions together comprise the Mobile Marketing Strategic Lens What are your goals for mobile marketing? Are your goals centered more around branding or direct response marketing? Do you need massive reach for the mobile program to be effective? What does the end result look like if the mobile program is successful? What kind of commitment will you make upfront in terms of the staffing and budget allocated? Do you have the time to fully optimize the program? Are you seeking massive scale for impressions, clicks, engagement or app downloads within a brief campaign flight? Answering these questions at the onset will help ensure mobile fulfills its potential as part of your marketing plan How is your audience using mobile? Beyond talking, what are consumers doing with their mobile devices? Which handsets and operating systems are they most likely to use? Are they likely to text, take pictures, search, play games, use social media, read news, look for local businesses, surf the web, download apps, scan barcodes or participate in other activities? With whatother media, including traditional media, does your target audience engage? It’s critical to understand your audience and how they are utilizing mobile when creating your plan How can you use your arsenal in mobile? What assets you have that might make sense to incorporate? Do you have stores or other channel partners? Do you have apps or a mobile-friendly website? What other digital branded experiences you have, perhaps across social networks? Mobile bridges digital and physical worlds, so consider tangible, real-world assets: products, out-of-home or print ads, retail stores and live events Does it follow mobile marketing best practices? Does the program adhere to how consumers are using mobile media? Does it use the functionality of mobile devices? Does the experience translate well both to the smaller screen size and then the broader real-world landscape where consumers use their mobile devices? What kind of value does it provide to the consumer – information on a new product or service, entertainment, or a discount on merchandise, among many other options? Marketers who have read 360i’s Social Marketing Playbook may notice some similarities between the lens above and the Social Marketing Strategic Lens, which is also discussed in the section on Mobile Social Marketing The tenets of both are similar, but each lens is designed to address the specific demands of its respective marketing discipline Using research and insights to uncover opportunities in mobile Forrester Research called 2010 the “year that every firm needs a mobile strategy.” Understanding the current mobile landscape, relevant consumer trends, and what competitors are doing will help you avoid wasted dollars and increase the impact your program, has on the target audience Consumer insights As consumers increasingly rely on their mobile devices, understanding audiences’ motivations in mobile and aligning strategies to these new and changing behaviors will result in the most effective programs Specifically, this means defining the mobile persona of your target.With limited screen real estate to leverage, having a deep understanding of your customers’ mobile usage and motivations will allow you to offer true value exchange that will delight - rather than distract - your audiences The types of intelligence that will help paint a picture of your consumer’s mobile persona include: • The size and composition of your mobile audience: o o • How many consumers can you reach within your target demographic? What are trends for how your target audience indexes with mobile usage? Operating system and handset usage: o Does your target use iPhone, BlackBerry or Android devices? Mobile coupon usage Couponing is already a booming industry in a global economy bouncing back from a recession The New York Times cited retail technology firm Inmar’s figures showing 50 million coupons were redeemed in 2009, up 263% over the previous year Coupons are attracting even more interest now thanks to advents in mobile marketing Borrell Associates forecasts that U.S mobile coupon spending will climb from $90 million in 2009 to $6.53 billion in 2014, though it’s still well below Internet coupon spending, which will grow from $4.2 billion to $22.6 billion over that span Mobile couponing is promising in that it rewards consumers for trekking to retail stores Like the age-old store-distributed paper coupon, mobile coupons incentivize purchases, but go one step further to capture handset data for future marketing efforts Creating a mobile-friendly environment is crucial for local store managers, who should ensure that signal levels on all major carriers are strong within their floorspace Otherwise, prospects may leave to find a signal Mobile coupons can be delivered via text message, custom apps, barcodes or other formats Image source: joepemberton on Flickr 360i Vice President of Retail & ECommerce David Randolph wrote about coupons on 360i’s blog in April 2010, saying, “This is the time for retailers to be in full testing mode Mobile is a long way from mass penetration, but growing in its importance as a staple of marketers’ plans.” How mobile coupons work Mobile couponing can be effective for customer retention, driving consumers to the store or reaching consumers when they’re in the store A benefit of mobile coupons compared to their print counterparts is that consumers always have their mobile devices with them There are many ways to allow consumers to sign up for coupons: • Set up an SMS program for consumers to retrieve coupons through their mobile devices IHOP offered consumers a free short stack of pancakes to anyone who texted “IHOPFREE” to a certain shortcode • Allow consumers to sign up online to receive offers to the phone – through a website, a deal or coupon site or a branded presence elsewhere such as through a social network • Partner with location-based ad networks and technologies such as Placecast, iLoop Mobile and NearbyNow, along with other mobile ad networks discussed in the Mobile Advertising chapter, to target consumers with offers in specific locations Consumers can receive offers directly from the mobile ads • Offer coupons through out-of-home technologies such as Blue Bite that deliver coupons in select stores or outdoor environments via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi networks Coupons can generally be redeemed in stores at a register by having the consumer show the cashier the coupon, and the cashier can enter the code It’s also possible to scan the phone directly A pioneer in the space is Target, which in March 2010 claimed to be the first national retailer offering scannable mobile coupons Consumers can sign up online, at Target’s mobile site, or by texting “coupons” to 827438 (TARGET) Consumers are then directed to a landing page with multiple offers available at the nearest Target, all of which can be redeemed by scanning a single barcode at checkout Target consumers can redeem multiple coupons with a single mobile barcode Other forms of coupons are evolving through social media Foursquare reported that when Starbucks offered $1 off any size Frappuccino for its mayors, there were 50% more check-ins at its locations Milwaukee hamburger restaurant AJ Bombers offered a free cookie to any Foursquare user that added a tip and a free burger for mayors, and it netted a 30% increase in purchases During summer 2010, Twitter launched its @earlybird account to deliver exclusive offers from marketers, and marketers should expect the program to expand to local and mobile versions if it’s successful Mobile applications can also connect with marketers’ loyalty programs For instance, dessert chain Tasti D-Lite allows consumers to earn points (and ultimately free products) by broadcasting their check-ins and orders across Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook The CardStar mobile app for smartphones provides a way for consumers to manage their reward cards for a range of marketers while also offering coupons and deals The technology behind mobile couponing is still in its early stages but is progressing rapidly The New York Times covered an IBM product called Presence, reporting, “Shoppers who sign up can be detected as soon as they set foot in a store That enables Presence to offer real-time mobile coupons And tracking shoppers’ spending habits and browsing time in various departments can help the system figure out who might be moved to suddenly buy a discounted item.” IBM further noted it is employing “predictive analytics,” a field that has developed rapidly online Through mobile media, analytics can connect online and offline behavior Mobile payment options As consumers increasingly complete transactions directly from their mobile devices, there are many overlapping and competing ways to pay for purchases: • Credit cards: While credit cards are ubiquitous for most mobile phone owners, entering a 16-digit credit card number on a tiny keyboard or touchscreen can try consumers’ patience, especially when consumers must also enter billing and shipping information • Stored registration by site or application: Sites such as Amazon have many users’ registration data on file, and billing and shipping preferences carry over to their mobile sites and applications It’s a major time saver for users, but only for loyal customers who already made a purchase through that site • Stored registration by handset: The defaults for making purchases for applications via the iPhone and Android respectively are through iTunes and Google Checkout payment services These make it easy to buy mobile content, but also consumer products, as Apple demonstrated with its Apple Store app that accepts payment via iTunes logins • Credit card applications: Visa developed its In2Pay application that works with a custom iPhone case that can be scanned at retailers’ contact-free terminals to instantly process the transaction Rival MasterCard is letting developers use its payment technology in their mobile and web apps and launched its MoneySend app as a PayPal rival Going forward, look out for a program reported by Bloomberg where Discover Financial Services and Barclays are working with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to develop a way for consumers to pay by swiping their smartphones over terminals • Pay via phone bill: Services like Boku allow charges to appear on a consumer’s mobile phone bill after opting in via SMS • Peer-to-peer payments: PayPal created an app incorporating Bump Technologies that allows users to pay one another by tapping their iPhones together; payments can also be sent from the app via email Startups like Venmo also allow mobile money transfers • Scan credit cards with mobile devices: Square, launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, allows any merchant or user to accept cr edit card payments directly from the mobile device Retailers could provide these devices to their sales associates or collect payments at events Square turns any smartphone into a credit card terminal Mobile barcodes Another quickly developing technology within mobile marketing is the use of mobile barcodes, and there are many competing formats While most barcodes require applications to read them and are much more accessible via smartphones, they’re often an efficient vehicle for linking the physical world with mobile media Some barcode scanning applications like ShopSavvy and RedLaser center around standard UPC (1D) barcodes that are commonly printed on product packages 1D barcodes have the advantage of already existing on countless consumer products, but they’re more difficult to create and customize There has also been traction with 2D barcodes, often thought of as QR codes (beyond QR, there are other similar formats such as data matrix) Additionally, there are many propriety barcode formats built on 2D technologies, several of which are discussed below 2D barcodes tend to be easy to create, and they can bring up a range of content such as links to mobile websites, text messages, click-to-call phone numbers and multimedia Google in particular is especially bullish about QR codes, incorporating them into Google Places Local businesses can download QR codes that link to a mobile edition of their Google Place listing, or a mobile coupon The business can then use these codes in stores, in print ads or on other promotional materials Additionally, Google has emphasized QR codes to promote apps for its Android devices Since Google currently has no app store online, app developers use QR codes to link to their mobile applications, as Yahoo did to promote its suite of apps Yahoo! Promoted its mobile aps with QR codes Barcode case studies Universal Pictures and RedLaser To promote the release of the Jude Law film “Repo Men” that included barcode scanning as an integral (and gruesome) part of its plot, Universal Pictures incorporated barcodes into its print movie posters in a program developed in conjunction with 360i When accessed with the popular barcode scanner RedLaser, a landing page appeared with exclusive content related to the film This was a rare example of 1D barcodes leading to entertainment content instead of product information Bosch and QR codes To promote its VitaFresh refrigerators in Germany, Bosch placed oversized, wrapped packages of meat purportedly coming from dinosaurs, mammoths and saber-toothed tigers in supermarket freezers The packages included QR codes that linked to product information for its appliances, garnering 75,000 views from customers in the stores Unilever and Jagtag When Unilever launched its new men’s grooming product Axe Twist, it created custom branded barcodes with Jagtag The codes could be photographed and sent via MMS (multimedia messaging service) to 524824 Consumers in return received exclusive video clips that Axe produced with comedy site Funny Or Die Select barcode scanners There’s more than one way to scan a barcode Here are some of the more interesting scanners to consider for marketing programs, included because of their consumer popularity, marketing applications, technical capabilities or all of the above Jagtag Supports: Proprietary format, which can be branded Features: Consumers take a picture of the Jagtag barcode and send it via MMS to receive special links, content, deals or other information Microsoft Tag Supports: Proprietary format, which can be branded Features: Microsoft emphasizes the control marketers have over creating and tracking barcodes through this format that must be scanned with a proprietary reader Microsoft reported that more than billion tags have already been printed A range of marketers and publications are using tags, from the Mall of America to Get Married magazine Scan the microsoft tag on the previous page to access a must-read blog RedLaser (acquired by eBay in June 2010) Supports: 1D Features: Scan product barcodes to look for local and online retailers, food allergens, nearby libraries, and other information ScanLife Supports: 1D, 2D and proprietary EZcode Features: The reader scans a range of barcodes, including its own EZcode (pictured at right) Anyone can create EZcodes for free, but for a fee, business accounts have more options for what actions can be taken with the code Premium accounts also include analytics for the number of scans, unique users, time of scan, handset, carrier and demographics (where available) ShopSavvy by Big in Japan Supports: Primarily used for 1D, but also works with 2D Features: With a user base of more than 5.5 million, the app includes inventory and pricing information from over 20,000 retailers Big in Japan also offers AdOns – ads targeted based on the product scanned and its location Ads can include content such as product information and video, and its offerings in the works include food and allergy information, comic book previews, event tickets, coupons, trailers and product reviews Ads are sold on an auction basis for popular barcodes or locations Stickybits Supports: 1D and pr oprietary barcodes Features: The Stickybits scanner, powered by RedLaser, allows anyone scanning a product’s barcode to leave comments with text or multimedia and view every “bit” others have recorded The scanner also works with Stickybits codes available for free on the site or as stickers that can be ordered for a fee Brands can work with Stickybits to have their own content listed first when their products are scanned Conclusion The good news for retailers, packaged goods brands, travel marketers and others is that there are no longer technological hurdles to deliver product information, offer coupons and complete transactions through mobile devices All of this is especially easy to accomplish with smartphones, and in 2011, smartphone penetration should handily surpass the more limited feature phones in the United States However, other hurdles are numerous Coupon scanners can be difficult to implement at the point of sale Staff in stores must be trained how to accept mobile barcodes or SMS-based coupon codes The wide variety of barcodes – including the names (1D, 2D, UPC, QR, etc.) – create confusion among marketers and consumers alike, and both seek a more consistently reliable experience With completing transactions, the challenges trigger flashbacks to online retailing in the 1990s; security concerns, onsite usability issues and widely varying capabilities by merchants create a chicken-and-egg dilemma Mobile shopping in many ways will be easier for marketers and retailers than the 1990s migration to the web First, consumers and marketers have become far more technologically savvy Mobile devices are also much more convenient for some aspects of shopping Coupons can be delivered directly to devices rather than requiring the intermediary step of printing when offering them online It’s also much easier to create a seamless experience for consumers with mobile media to fulfill immediate needs based on exactly where they are Barcodes themselves are evolving from a novelty to a necessity, delivering detailed product information, discounts and relevant content, and the value proposition is starting to catch on with consumers Mobile shopping by many measures has arrived For the vast majority of marketers working with major brands, the question is not whether consumers are engaging in mobile shopping Marketers instead need to ask how their consumers are shopping with their mobile devices and how they can reach these audiences as behavior and technologies rapidly evolve MOBILE INNOVATION: WHAT THE U.S CAN LEARN FROM JAPAN By Naoki Muramatsu VP, Digital Business Development Dentsu Holdings USA During the past decade, Japan has been at the forefront of innovating in the mobile space, pioneering QR codes, mobile payment systems, location-based services, mobile couponing, front-facing cameras and mobile social networking These advanced functionalities and services have moved from innovative technologies to integral parts of people’s daily lives in Japan As the mobile industry takes off in the United States, here are a few takeaways that we can learn from the mobile phone industry in Japan: LESSON ONE: Collaboration is key One of the main drivers of innovation in the mobile phone industry in Japan has been a spirit of collaboration among key stakeholders, including governmental policy makers, operators, device manufacturers, content providers, marketers and agencies Together, these key stakeholders have helped each other grow the overall industry as well as drive consumers to ,engage with the mobile space By agreeing on common technologies that all competitors can leverage, the Japanese mobile phone industry was able to collectively focus on innovating on platforms, instead of focusing on driving platform and technology adoption LESSON TWO: Competition is the driver of innovation At the same time, while the spirit of collaboration has turned key stakeholders into partners, competition is still the primary driver of innovation, with consumers being the primary beneficiaries Operators continuously lowered pricing plans to acquire more subscribers, content providers developed more attractive offerings to increase traffic, and marketers tried to maximize the power of the new channel by delivering innovative engagement vehicles Two characteristics really helped drive this growth – direct billing structure and channel positioning First, since the beginning, direct operator billing has been widely adopted in Japan, which enabled users to easily subscribe and unsubscribe to paid content; content providers, in turn, can monetize their content without hustle Second, marketers have utilized mobile both as a media vehicle and as a tool to promote sales This channel positioning made mobile an intersection of consumers, marketers and content providers, which evolved itself from supplemental media outlets to generate revenue This “collaborative competition” dynamic has resulted in a truly unique ecosystem within the Japanese mobile industry in which growth and innovation flourish LESSON THREE: Focus on the behavior, not the technology itself While QR codes have taken off in the Japanese market, we all know that QR codes have yet to substantially gain popularity and usage in the Western market Yes, technological treasures are there From little trials to large-scale projects, now is the best time for us in the United States to review what Japan has done for the ,industry and to evolve for the needs of our market The point, however, isn’t just to focus on the technology itself, but to focus on the consumer need By taking a more consumer-centric approach to developing mobile, we’ll ensure the needs of both marketers and consumers are met The world is certainly becoming more “flat.” We’ll soon move away from regional mobile platforms to global ones With overall mobile growth being accelerated by the emergence of the smartphone, we must take the spirit of “collaborative competition” from Japan and apply it around the world to drive mobile innovation forward Eugene Chung, Strategic Development Director at Dentsu Holdings USA, contributed to this article CHAPTER 9: PARTING THOUGHTS Overcoming the Challenges of Mobile Marketing If this Playbook has been largely bullish on mobile marketing, that’s because marketers can be doing more to reach consumers who are increasingly turning to mobile as the first screen, not the third This Playbook has addressed challenges that marketers face, and those are enumerated here By understanding the challenges, marketers can plan for them and, in the best case scenarios, use them to their advantage Insights are often less accessible Some research firms have beefed up their mobile offerings during the past year, but such information often isn’t as robust as what’s available for websites and Internet users It’s another source of data to monitor Marketers need to analyze how mobile users are accessing their mobile sites and how those behavior patterns match up with what users are doing online This can be even more complicated if there are separate mobile sites and applications Fragmentation will be one of the more persistent mobile marketing challenges Which devices and operating systems are used by your target customer base? How does your target audience divide their time across various mobile channels? How can you find them across a jumbled array of publishers and ad networks? How you develop enough creative units that work across all of the devices included in a media plan? Fragmentation becomes a hurdle at so many stages of the process Scale will continue to be a challenge in the short-term Consider mobile search projections from RBC Capital Markets that ran in Silicon Alley Insider Over the coming years, mobile search will grow at a faster pace than global web searches, but even in 2012, mobile volume will be about a quarter of web search The issue of scale pops up everywhere, and it’s closely correlated with the fragmentation issue Do you target consumers on the iPhone where mobile media consumption is robust, or you go broader across different devices and operating systems to achieve the maximum reach? Scale issues will ease as more publishers, networks and devices ramp up their users, usage and inventory Total Searches on Smartphones and PCs (in billions) Many marketing opportunities are entirely new for mobile From SMS ads to location-based check-in deals and mobile barcodes, these new opportunities require new creative and new thinking for how to best use them The biggest challenge is the learning curve to understand how these very new marketing opportunities can tie in with marketers’ overarching strategies Costs tend to be too high or too low Advertising rates tend to be higher than what marketers are used to paying for similar inventory online, sometimes exponentially so These costs can often be justified (refer to mobile’s brand impact in the Mobile Marketing Overview for some rationale), but it makes mobile more difficult to sell Alternatively, marketers will often run mobile campaigns with miniscule trial budgets so the impact underwhelms, and there isn’t a chance to optimize the campaign Disheartened, marketers can wind up dismissing mobile as ineffective before fully understanding how to best use it Integration is imperative Given how seamlessly consumers use their mobile devices to navigate between digital and traditional experiences, marketers need to tell a cohesive story Email and radio can build SMS lists, in-store messaging and Sunday circulars can promote mobile shopping apps, and barcodes on packaging can drive video views of a trailer This requires coordination across marketers’ organizations and agencies that wasn’t always managed with online marketing, and wasn’t always necessary in the same way it is for mobile The ownership of mobile in a marketer’s organization is often unclear Is the owner a digital marketing lead, even if mobile has major traditional marketing implications? Is mobile used strategically or more tactically? Which agencies can handle which elements of mobile marketing? Top-down buy-in can elevate mobile’s visibility within an organization, but it also needs to be clear who will execute on the vision The pace of innovation and change continues to accelerate Quick, name the latest “iPhone killer” Android phone being released this week Name the top paid and free apps in the iTunes store Name the hot mobile ad network that just got funding Whatever the answers are, they’ll be different next week Some of what’s new and improved will matter, and much of it won’t Even established companies may be under the radar for marketers with limited experience in mobile Companies like 4INFO, Greystripe, InMobi, Millennial Media, NearbyNow, Nexage, SCVNGR, Square, ShopSavvy and Whrrl all sound like some alphabetic jumble until marketers understand how they fit in with mobile advertising, shopping and social media 10 Mobile shopping can try the patience of marketers and consumers Coupon scanners can be difficult to implement at the point of sale Staff in stores must be trained how to accept mobile barcodes or SMS-based coupon codes The variety of barcodes adds to the confusion With completing transactions, the challenges include security concerns, on-site usability issues and widely varying capabilities by merchants All of these challenges can and will be overcome Some require a learning curve, from marketers figuring out how to run integrated mobile programs to consumers learning how and why to scan a barcode Many just take time, as the trends of smartphone adoption, mobile search usage and mobile shopping are all accelerating at a fast clip Marketers have an incredible opportunity today to address these issues head on: ramping up adoption by educating their colleagues and their consumers, pushing their research vendors, agencies and publishers to address their needs and continually optimizing their mobile programs to better achieve objectives Conclusion We’re now at a turning point, where mobile usage is prominent enough for it to be a viable marketing channel for any kind of marketer or brand At some point, mobile media usage will likely rival and then surpass Internet usage, and this will fundamentally change how marketers find and build relationships with their target audiences There are tremendous opportunities within mobile The perspectives throughout this Playbook can help make the case to expand your mobile marketing initiatives, from the market norms to the shopping habits to the best practices for a range of mobile advertising tactics Beyond all this, there’s the opportunity to experiment, learn, optimize, lead and serve consumers in ways that competing brands aren’t able to yet These benefits can further add to mobile’s returns Granted, mobile marketing has its challenges, from fragmented handset and operating system markets to evolving metrics and pricing standards And the last thing any marketer should is to allocate a few dollars to some mobile add-on just to be able to say they’re doing mobile marketing; that only sets up such programs to underwhelm the marketer – and the consumer Such obstacles, though, shouldn’t get in the way of incorporating mobile when and how it makes sense With all of the opportunities mobile offers today, at this point mobile should be included in any major integrated campaign or marketing program, and it should always be part of the consideration set As much information as you may have pored over here, it’s meant to be a starting point We welcome any thoughts and questions that arise as we collectively work to address the opportunities and challenges ahead GLOSSARY ABOUT 360i 360i is an award-winning digital marketing agency that drives results for Fortune 500 marketers through insights, ideas and technologies 360i helps its clients think differently about their online presence and evolve their strategies to take advantage of the new world of marketing communications – one where brands and consumers engage in interactive and multi-directional conversations Current clients include Kraft Foods, JCPenney, Coca-Cola, NBC Universal and H&R Block, among others For more information and to discover industry insights and trends, please visit blog.360i.com or follow the agency on Twitter @360i ... Mobile Marketing Strategic Lens What are your goals for mobile marketing? Are your goals centered more around branding or direct response marketing? Do you need massive reach for the mobile program... alone makes mobile unlike any other form of media Mobile marketing has near limitless potential to contribute to and build on other marketing programs Mobile is great for branding thanks to several... understand your audience and how they are utilizing mobile when creating your plan How can you use your arsenal in mobile? What assets you have that might make sense to incorporate? Do you have