1. 1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 The Future of Mobile Content & Commerce p.11 by Noah Elkin, Senior Analyst, eMarketer The Nail for Social Medias Hammer p.48 Inverview with Mickey Alam Khan, Editor in Chief, Mobile Marketer How Mobile Marketing Can Fuel Buzz and Engagement for Entertainment Brands p.63 Inverview with Valerie Brown, Director of Consumer Marketing, Bravo Mobile Innovation: What the U.S. Can Learn from Japan p.77 by Naoki Muramatsu, VP, Digital Business Development, Dentsu Holdings USA FOREWORD P.3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS P.5 OVERVIEW P.7 PLANNING IN MOBILE MARKETING P.15 SEARCH P.20 SMS MARKETING P.27 ADVERTISING P.32 SOCIAL MARKETING P.43 APPLICATIONS P.51 COMMERCE SHOPPING P.67 PARTING thoughts P.80 GLOSSARY P.84 CONTRIBUTOR ARTICLES
2. 2. 3blog.360i.com twitter: @360i s 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. Were 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 youre in the grocery store, and you can easily look up a products 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 I FOREWORD by BRYAN WIENER CEO, 360
3. 3. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Foreword4 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. Thats why weve 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 whats 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
4. 4. 5blog.360i.com twitter: @360i Several individuals graciously lent their time and talents to the production of the Mobile Marketing Playbook. Wed 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: Philip Basile, David Berkowitz, Amanda Bird, Brian Blakely, Carleejean Cook, Natan Edelsburg, Laura Frizzell, Jim Gulsen, Lara Hejtmanek, Sarah Hofstetter, Chris Humber, Kolin Kleveno, David Levin, Tanya Nam, Katie Perry, Brett Sanderson, 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. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Share the Mobile Marketing Playbook: twitter facebook del.icio.us digg email
5. 5. 1 overview
6. 6. 7blog.360i.com twitter: @360i 1 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. Thats more than 90% of the U.S. population. 2 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 InternetAmerican 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. OVERVIEW 3 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. 4 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). TEN REASONS MOBILE MARKETING MATTERS RIGHT NOW Theres so much buzz about mobile marketing that its easy to dismiss it, or to check off a few mobile tactics and say youre 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.
7. 7. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Overview8 5 Smartphone competition is expanding the audience that can access rich content. Mobile ad network AdMob noted U.S. ad impressions on Googles 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. 6 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. Feature Phones U.S. Smartphone PenetrationProjections Q2 08 Q3 08 Q4 08 Q1 09 Q2 09 Q3 09 Q4 09 Q1 10 Q2 10 Q3 10 Q4 10 Q1 11 Q2 11 Q3 11 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Smartphones (Projections) Source: Nielsen
8. 8. 9blog.360i.com twitter: @360i 7 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. 8 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 theyre 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. 9 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. Aided Brand Awareness Advertising Awareness Message Association Brand Favorability Purchase Intent 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% PercentImpacted Delta() Mobile Online Source: Dynamic Logic MarketNorms for Online, last 3 years through Q4/2009, N=2,461 campaigns, n=3,713,053 respondents; Adinex for Mobile Norms through Q4/2009, N=74 Campaigns, n=69,524 respondents Delta ()=Exposed-Control Mobile vs. Online
9. 9. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Overview10 0 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. Unaided Awareness Aided Awareness Mobile Ad Awareness Brand Favorability Purchase Intent 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Mobile Index Against Online November 2007- December 2009 CPG Entertainment Travel Technology Automotive Retail Source: Insight Express Campaign Effectiveness Brand Metrics by Vertical
10. 10. 11blog.360i.com twitter: @360i emember 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 content-consumption 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 App Store 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. R THE FUTURE OF MOBILE CONTENT COMMERCE by NOAH ELKIN SENIOR ANALYST EMARKETER
11. 11. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Overview12 Apples 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 Apples 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 The success of Apples iPad, and the anticipated launch of other tablet- style form factors, will further consolidate media consumption on mobile devices.
12. 12. 13blog.360i.com twitter: @360i 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-per- use 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.
13. 13. 2 PlANNING IN MOBILE MARKETING
14. 14. 15blog.360i.com twitter: @360i 1 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? Planning in Mobile MARKETING Answering these questions at the onset will help ensure mobile fulfills its potential as part of your marketing plan. 2 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 what other media, including traditional media, does your target audience engage? Its critical to 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? How can you use your ARSENAL in mobile? How is your AUDIENCE using mobile? Does it follow mobile marketing BEST PRACTICES?
15. 15. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Planning in Mobile Marketing16 understand your audience and how they are utilizing mobile when creating your plan. 3 How can you use your arsenal in mobile? What assets do 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 do 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. 4 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 360is 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 (see page 43). 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 consumers mobile persona include: The size and composition of your mobile audience: -- 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: -- Does your target use iPhone, BlackBerry or Android devices? -- How are adoption rates trending for each?
16. 16. 17blog.360i.com twitter: @360i Usage insights - understanding how your consumers use their devices: -- Which mixture of SMS, e-mail, mobile web, applications and other mobile channels do they use? -- When are consumers engaging with mobile? What days and dayparts show the most activity? -- How much time do consumers spend using their mobile devices? -- What are their go-to mobile sites and applications? -- How prevalent is search usage? -- How likely are they to use geolocation services? -- How likely are they to play games? -- Do your consumers complete transactions via mobile devices? How do they shop? -- Do they extend their multimedia consumption (music, video, etc.) to mobile? Activity Index Composition of Target Text Message Sent/Received 120 73% Picture Mail Sent/Received 128 43% Access Internet 121 29% Download Application 111 14% Download Game 110 11% Watched Any Video 112 7% Internet Purchase 103 6% Understanding Mobile Usage Moms over-index heavily for sending and receiving picture mail and gaming, but the most popular non-voice use of mobile for this segment is texting. Source: Nielsen/NetRatings @Plan Blackberry, 46% Apple, 25% Android, 12% Windows Mobile, 9% Palm, 6% Symbian, 2% The most common device for females 25-34 is the Blackberry, followed by Apples iPhone. Source: comScore MobiLens Mobile Activity for Moms Online Relative Share of Operating Systems for Females 25-34 with HHI 75K+ (June 2010 3 month average)
17. 17. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Planning in Mobile Marketing18 is evolving, new marketing models are being developed, and devices are quickly acquiring new features and functionality. When planning a mobile program, look at the most recent data, but also try to discern trends at least six months ahead to see whats coming. Events such as a new iPhone release, offers from different mobile providers, new entrants in the tablet market and fast Android growth can be taken into account when developing a forward-looking mobile program. Testing new opportunities now can lead to a sizable advantage in the longer term. Conclusion The near ubiquity of mobile has made it necessary for any brand that regularly interacts with consumers to consider a mobile marketing strategy. But mobile marketing doesnt have to be a mystery. Taking the time to investigate the landscape, examine consumer interactions with their devices and monitor competitive moves will reduce the unknowns and provide a solid base on which to launch, test and optimize an effective mobile program. Resources for gathering syndicated research include comScore, Nielsen//NetRatings, the Mobile Marketing Association and Forrester Research. Competitive intelligence Given the nascent nature of mobile marketing tools and techniques, it can be very beneficial to study what other marketers are doing. Theres no need to limit yourself to direct competitors either. It may be just as valuable to learn from others in the category as well as from other industries to see how various marketers are reaching their audiences via mobile channels. Syndicated tools such as comScore offer detailed perspectives on what other marketers are doing in mobile. These tools often include information on brands and industries that are the most active in mobile, with overviews of the creative theyre running and what publishers they partner with. Staying ahead of the curve Research, especially in an emerging arena such as mobile, is not a one-time endeavor. The market
18. 18. 3 MOBILE SEARCH
19. 19. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Search20 Mobile paid search According to the Kelsey Groups Mobile Market View Report, nearly 60% of all activities on mobile devices are search-related, making search one of the best ways to reach consumers in mobile. Before tackling a mobile search plan, its critical to understand how mobile paid search differs from its traditional web-based counterpart: There is less competition within mobile search, but there are also fewer ads per page across both feature phones and smartphones. Calls to action and user experience can vary based on objective. For instance, click-to-call and click- to-map dont need to point to a mobile site. Shorter search queries means there are greater demands for relevancy and understanding intent. The constantly accessible devices lead to greater immediacy with consumers needs. Shorter creative means marketers must get their point across faster. Mobile search is evolving in several different ways: Mobile search is especially useful for local queries. Whether they include local modifiers (such as a city name or zip code), consumers looking for JCPenney on their mobile phone will expect to find one in their area. The Kelsey Group reported that about one in three mobile searches has local intent. As mobile devices have become more sophisticated and easier to use, mobile search has become the starting point for consumers on the go. Its often a good entry point for marketers just getting started with mobile campaigns, and it only becomes more important for marketers with a fully developed mobile presence. Build on an online search program by understanding the best ways to use mobile paid search and search engine optimization. Mobile sEARCH KEY FACT Google mobile search volume is up 500% in past 2 years GOALS IT ACHIEVES Sales, purchase consideration, drive to store, content download BEST INTEGRATION POINTS Applications, mobile shopping
20. 20. 21blog.360i.com twitter: @360i No matter how much better mobile phone keyboards get, mobile users will keep their queries shorter when they can. Optimization in natural and paid search around higher volume keywords will be especially competitive. Voice search is making an impact, and all the major search engines incorporate it. A range of other companies have developed offerings here, including Jingle Networks FREE-411 directory assistance, Naturally Speakings Dragon Search application and Apples Siri. Expect renewed innovation in this area during the next two to three years. SMS search is still relevant for feature phones, where users text a query such as for business listings or stock quotes and then receive results. Given that theres a brief delay between the query and response, these queries will diminish as smartphones dominate the market. On Google Android-powered devices, a search button is built into the phones hardware, making it possible to conduct searches instantly no matter what the consumer does within the mobile experience. Mobile search listings can in turn appear during a wide range of activities beyond Activities Conducted on Mobile Devices (as a % of mobile users) 0 5 10 15 20 Searched Internet for local products/services Obtained info about movies/entertainment Obtained info about restaurants/bars Searched Internet for products outside local area Purchased physical item that needed to be shipped Used coupon from mobile phone Source: Kelsey Mobile Market View for 2009
21. 21. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Search22 searching from a mobile engine, such as when searching for driving directions or using various applications. The results pages themselves will continue to evolve to showcase more mobile-specific content. For instance, in June, Google added application links to its mobile search results, with links to download apps directly from Apples App Store or Googles Android Market. For select marketers, heres when to include mobile search as part of your marketing mix: Retail/QSR marketers For marketers trying to drive in-store traffic and sales, mobile search is a great starting point. According to Googles Retail Advertising Blog, 54% of users who researched online but bought offline used their mobile device to conduct their search. Travel marketers Travel companies can leverage mobile search to capitalize on the popularity of travel to provide information such as flight searches and transactions such as booking of airline tickets. Entertainment marketers Entertainment companies can promote movie listings, theater locations, TV tune-in reminders, album releases, concerts and other live events. Consumer packaged goods marketers Within mobile search, marketers can enhance their search listings to include special information and offers such as coupons to incentivize users. (Learn more about coupons on page 69.) A search for local hair salons shows how marketers can use coupons to enhance their mobile location listing.
22. 22. 23blog.360i.com twitter: @360i Mobile paid search best practices 1 Group mobile campaigns separately. They tend to perform differently from online search campaigns, and youll often want to adjust the rules accordingly. 2 Broaden your scope. Mobile search volume tends to be significantly lower than online search for most keywords, so to achieve the best reach youll want to target queries more broadly, include more high-volume queries and possibly include additional keywords. 3 Go local. If geotargeting matters at all for you with online search, its going to be vital for mobile. 4 Incorporate mobile functionality into the creative. Click-to-call was somewhat useful online, but its poised to play a pronounced role in mobile search. Anytime a consumer would benefit by talking to a person, from a booking agent to someone at a local store, click-to-call can potentially improve conversion rates. 5 Target immediate needs. Mobile Marketer reported that 70% of mobile search users complete their task after one hour, compared to 30% on the PC. Make sure copy and landing pages are useful for consumers looking to meet their needs right at that moment. Microsofts Doug McMillen told Mobile Marketer, As a marketer you need to be there when a user needs you most. Theres a huge payoff in terms of emotional connection with a brand if youre right there at the top of the listings and help the user accomplish their task easily when theyre highly motivated to connect with you. Mobile search engine optimization Search engine optimization (SEO) has evolved significantly over the last two years, extending beyond commonplace activities such as title and META tag optimization to include diverse methods that keep pace with the changing search landscape. Mobile search builds on the basic techniques, though it involves many new considerations to capitalize on mobile devices design and functionality. Optimizing a mobile website, regardless of the markup language, still centers around the core tactics one applies to traditional HTML websites. Core optimization techniques such as title tag creation, proper use of META tags, sufficient keyword density in copy, the proper use of HTML page headings, and link development remain vital for greater natural search visibility. With core onsite factors in mind, brands should focus on efforts that impact smartphones and the next generation of mobile users. When managing multiple versions of a website through one content management system, many of the on- site SEO best practices incorporated into a traditional website can be ported to the mobile version. However, due to the prevalence of dynamic content types such as maps or mobile applications, there are several
23. 23. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Search24 SEO considerations that are specifically applicable to mobile search. Mobile SEO considerations With smartphones and other mobile devices maintaining full browser capabilities (with JavaScript), brands should look to optimize mobile sites for the future. XHTML Basic 1.1, XHTML MP 1.2 and HTML5 are good choices for new mobile site development. Utilize browser/user agent detection methods to redirect mobile users to the appropriate mobile version of your website. How fast a website loads can impact how well your site ranks. Web browsing speeds can in turn impact click-through and abandonment rates on mobile devices. Providing users with a simplified mobile version (WAP, XHTML, etc.), which limits the use of large images and other elements that slow page load, can greatly improve user interaction and time spent on site. Searching for local information such as business locations and directions is one of the most popular mobile activities. Local directory submissions are critical for brands to maintain accurate listings within map applications such as Google Maps. As mobile naturally aligns with a searchers location, more emphasis will be prioritized on geotargeted landing page development and customization. Traditional SEO on-site best practices are still applicable. The proverbial spine of your web page is the title tag. Instead of long 120-character titles, consider focusing on the primary three keywords and limit your mobile site titles to 50 to 70 characters in length. Build dedicated landing pages for mobile applications that auto-detect browsers and devices and can automatically load the appropriate application storefront. This will make it easier for a user to download and install the app. It can even prove to be beneficial for non-mobile users. Evaluate where social media content is influencing the mobile audience and develop a participation and value exchange strategy to gain more real-time exposure or links. If your website utilizes a significant amount of rich Internet applications or suffers from congestion of information, consider building a mobile version that simplifies navigation and provides access to the most recent content. Looking to the future with HTML5 As more brands adopt HTML5, new markup definitions and features will allow for simplified site management and may lead to the extinction of mobile markup languages such as WAP. While theyre several years away from becoming mainstream, HTML5 and CSS3 (cascading style sheets) can allow webmasters to create and manage one website that performs efficiently on mobile and traditional desktop devices.
24. 24. 25blog.360i.com twitter: @360i Less Framework, an HTML5-powered CSS framework for building smart website layouts for varying screen widths, is one way to build a flexible multi-column website that intelligently collapses into a single column for small screen devices such as smartphones. As we collectively move closer to an HTML5-rich world, mobile and desktop experiences will become less fragmented and the application of SEO will become much more efficient as the lines dissolve. More on HTML5 is found later in this Playbook on page 61. Conclusion Marketers with experience in paid search and SEO can maintain their competitive advantage by constantly applying the latest mobile search best practices. Waiting until mobile search mirrors the scale of online search could make it harder to catch up later. Traditional Site Mobile Version MTVs traditional site includes navigation and content that prove difficult to use in a mobile browser (if the mobile browser defaults to the original website). The mobile version of MTV.com, which loads automatically in most mobile browsers, streamlines navigation and optimizes content across all channels.
25. 25. 4 SMSMARKETING
26. 26. 27blog.360i.com twitter: @360i For marketers, SMS marketing has the lowest barrier to entry. Once the messaging platform is in place, there is no creative development needed beyond copywriting. Anyone whos encountered a teenager in the past few years wont be surprised that texting is especially popular with younger consumers. The Pew InternetAmerican Life Project reports that American teens Even with all of the bells and whistles on headline-grabbing smartphones, SMS (or text messaging) still reigns as the most popular mobile activity. Its the most universal functionality, given that SMS is available on almost every mobile phone, from lower-end feature phones to the priciest smartphones. comScore reports 65% of mobile subscribers send text messages, compared to about 30% using the browser and downloading apps. SMS MARKETING KEY FACT Texting is more than twice as popular as mobile browsing or app usage GOALS IT ACHIEVES Deal alerts, event reminders, persistent CRM to develop relationships BEST INTEGRATION POINTS In-store, out-of-home, TV, radio 3 Month Avg. Ending Apr. 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Jan. 2010 Total U.S. Age 13+ Share (%) of U.S. Mobile Subscribers Jan. 2010 Apr. 2010 Point Change Total Mobile Subscribers 100.0% 100.0% N/A Send text message to another phone 63.5% 64.6% 1.1 Used browser 28.6% 31.1% 2.5 Used downloaded apps 26.7% 29.8% 3.1 Mobile Content Usage Source: comScore MobiLens
27. 27. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK SMS Marketing28 12-17 contact peers daily via texting (54%) more than any other communication channel, including calling on mobile phones (38%), talking face-to-face (33%) and interacting via email (11%). Its hardly just for teens though. An April 2010 study by Merkle found that 63% of U.S. adults 30-39 text, as do 49% of adults 40-49. Additionally, 26% of U.S. adults have opted in to receive commercial messages on their mobile phones with an average of three companies sending them mobile messages monthly. How SMS fits in with marketing plans There are several ways that brands can utilize SMS as part of their marketing mix. Below are some approaches to consider. Building an SMS list for further communication Branded shortcodes: A marketer registers a five- or six-digit number, or shortcode, which often relates to its brand as its spelled out on the keypad, such as 262966 for AMAZON. Consumers can send a text message to that number to opt in to updates or engage with the marketer. Marketers benefit from owning their brand name, but its relatively costly and a lengthier setup process compared to other forms of SMS marketing. Shared shortcodes: Marketers can also run campaigns on shared codes. For instance, Facebook enables marketers to have consumers become a fan of their page by texting like and the page name to 32665 (FBOOK). Its one shortcode that can be used with millions of pages, as each page has its own unique name. Facebook has tried out offering physical decals for marketers to place in their store windows (see image below), and marketers can use the same messaging in other channels, such as email. With either form of shortcode use, the biggest advantage is the integration potential. SMS callouts can appear in: out-of-home marketing, point of sale locations, TV, radio, print, online display, email and social marketing. In that sense, shortcodes are the most adaptable forms of mobile media, and of any form of media. SMS contest entries: Brands can offer users the option to text in exchange for a contest entry. Universal Home Entertainment ran an SMS remarketing campaign for the launch of their DVD Bring It On: Fight to the Finish. Website visitors were encouraged to text BringItOn to enter to win a prize pack. In doing so, Universal was also able to collect opt-ins for an SMS reminder when the DVD went on sale. This is a great example of how brands can drive SMS opt-ins through another form of advertising (TV, Print, OOH or digital). Facebook offers a common shortcode (32665, or FBOOK) that any marketer can use to promote their Facebook page.
28. 28. 29blog.360i.com twitter: @360i Utilizing an existing SMS platform as a way to reach your target consumer SMS Advertising: Marketers can append their messages to content that consumers subscribe to via SMS (e.g. news alerts, sports scores, horoscopes, etc). The ads can be used for a range of purposes, from building up the marketers own SMS opt-in list to driving traffic or engagement. Marketers can also buy ad space from mobile search providers such as ChaCha, a service that allows users to text questions in to 242242 (ChaCha) and receive answers back via SMS. The questions are categorized (e.g. travel, entertainment, local geographies) and brands can append their message to the answer the user receives to their question. This type of program can work for any brand looking to align with specific content (e.g. health insurance marketers targeting health questions, or a theatrical new release targeting entertainment questions). Marketers can use SMS to align their brand with an activity that appeals to their target audience. In late 2009, State Farm sponsored a SMS-driven game at a University of Kansas football game. Fans were encouraged to text in to show their school allegiance. State Farm was able to follow up with participants later via mobile. When considering SMS, marketers should limit the focus of their programs to content that aligns with their target consumers mobile behavior. Myxer promoted Universal Home Entertainments Bring It On: Fight to the Finish with SMS-based prizes. Ads appended to SMS alerts allow consumers to opt in to marketing promotions and content Image source: 4INFO
29. 29. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK SMS Marketing30 Marketing options for text message content Even with the limited character space, marketers have many options for the content they distribute and promote via SMS: Text content, such as product information, informative tips, polls or trivia questions Links going to a mobile website Links to maps, such as for store locators Click-to-call links, leading consumers to retail stores or call centers Multimedia, such as images, videos or ringtones Coupons, from codes that can be entered by the consumer or cashier, or a link to a barcode that can be scanned SMS marketing best practices 1 Stay relevant When targeting content with any SMS publisher, ensure that your message belongs there. 2 Ask permission Always obtain consent in the form of an opt-in before messaging to users. SMS messages can cost money, so its important that the recipients know what theyve signed up for and understand the implications. 3 Offer something of value The last thing users want is spam on their phones. Offer something they care about in exchange for permission to reach out to them (e.g., a coupon code or a link to exclusive content). 4 Use it for time sensitive events Interested users will appreciate the reminder. Conclusion SMS provides a turnkey way for marketers to tie together a variety of programs. On its own, SMS may not create a large impact, but when used in conjunction with other types of media, creative and content, it can create a path through which users can become more deeply engaged with your brand. SMS can work well for time-sensitive promotions, such as in this American Idol tune-in reminder Image source: iPhonematters.com State Farm encouraged fans to text in to show their college football allegiance. Image source: Mobile Marketer
30. 30. 5 MOBILE ADVERTISING
31. 31. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Advertising32 This chapter will provide an overview of mobile advertising opportunities, explore how each media tactic compares to its desktop counterpart, offer frameworks for evaluating when to include each in your plan and review overall best practices. Finally there will be an overview of what can be measured to gauge success based on the goals of your campaign. Targeting options Mobile marketing offers various ways to help advertisers find their audience. As with online, you can reach users based on location, demographic information, content and publisher (app or WAP), but you can also target particular devices and carriers. Here are some targeting methods that you can employ across many forms of mobile advertising: Geolocation Marketers can locate users in several ways, such as through GPS or wireless tower signals, check- ins at local businesses through social applications, and by using ZIP codes or localities entered in search or weather queries. Carrier Marketers can specify which mobile providers they would like to target. Handset/Operating System Marketers can select if they want to target users of the iPhone or select BlackBerry devices, or users of the Android operating system. Demographic By tapping into non-personally identifiable information provided by the carriers, marketers can The mobile medium has the potential to bring to life the power of digital advertising and unleash a renaissance of creativity and innovation. Within mobile there are opportunities for display, rich media, video and in-game, plus constant advancements as new players and devices emerge.Like the rest of the online media world, the process of deciding which tactics make the most sense should tie back to campaign objectives and an understanding of the target audience, as discussed in Planning in Mobile Marketing on page 15. MOBILE ADVERTISING KEY FACT U.S. mobile display ad spending will top $1.2 billion by 2015 (ABI Research) GOALS IT ACHIEVES Branding, engagement, content download, mobile web traffic BEST INTEGRATION POINTS Online display, apps, video
32. 32. 33blog.360i.com twitter: @360i select if they want to target men or women in a certain age range. Contextual Marketers can display ads next to relevant content within the app or site. Behavioral Behavioral targeting is still in its infancy due to limitations on tracking users from app-to-app and app-to-WAP. However, companies like Millennial Media offer solutions that can track users movements from WAP-to-WAP. Millennial MYDAS Audience utilizes user profiles, opt-in survey data and publisher-provided meta-data to create audience segments. Furthermore, it is widely speculated that eventually marketers will be able to tap into iTunes-rendered user behaviors and run an iAd campaign to target users. Despite these advances, mobile browsing behaviors differ from online, and currently there is no way to track or target users from online to mobile or vice versa. Publisher-created targeting Publishers often offer their own custom targeting vehicles, and for mobile its no different. For example, Pandora launched its own iPad app that enables marketers to target ads by gender, age, location, type of music and time of day. Similar to full-screen rich media units such as iAd and Greystripes Immersion Ads, when a user clicks on an ad within the iPad app, the ad will open a new page without interrupting the streaming music. Some of the initial sponsors include Starbucks, Lexus and Budweiser. Mobile display Mobile display encompasses any type of banner advertising that takes place on mobile websites or within applications. According to ABI Research, spending on mobile display is expected to grow from $313 million today to $1.2 billion by 2015, fueled by the growth of U.S. adult Internet usage. Buying mobile display Mobile display can be priced on CPM (cost per thousand impressions), CPC (cost-per-click), or, in some cases, cost per engagement (CPE) or cost-per-download (CPD). Like buying traditional online media, brands should consider which type of pricing will help them accomplish their goals. CPM buying guaranteed impressions: CPM media is good for branding campaigns where its important to achieve a specific impression level and/or run on specific sites. CPC buying clicks: CPC media works for marketers who want to guarantee traffic to their mobile landing page, but who may not be as concerned with where their advertisements run. CPE or CPD buying ad engagement or downloads of a mobile app: Similar to CPC advertising, CPE or CPD ensures that a mobile program will deliver the exact action that a marketer is seeking. This type of pricing is good for brands that have invested in interactive creative and want their target audience to interact with their brand within the unit. It also works for marketers who have mobile apps and are interested in driving downloads.
33. 33. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Advertising34 The majority of mobile inventory is currently sold through mobile ad networks. Similar to the early days of online display advertising, networks provide a way for publishers to sell inventory on their mobile sites without dedicating a sales force to it. As mobile inventory and advertiser interest in the medium increases, however, more publishers may opt to sell it on their own. Mobile ad networks provide reach and scale to marketers looking to buy within the channel. Because the channel is still new, there arent standard creative specs or sizes. Mobile ad networks help marketers navigate the landscape and serve as a one-stop shop. As with any ad network, the trade-off for marketers is less control over where the ads run, but marketers can mitigate this by excluding sites or specific content that isnt appropriate for their brand. There are a handful of publishers such as The New York Times, CNN, Weatherbug and Photobucket that are able to sell mobile inventory on their own. This works for marketers looking to round out an existing offline or online buy with that publisher, or for marketers who have custom offerings. It is difficult to scale with publisher-direct buys because inventory levels are still relatively low. Mobile banners Mobile banners can be targeted across various channels and categories of mobile sites and applications. In addition, marketers can also target mobile banners against behavioral and demographic attributes. One of the major benefits of mobile banners is that campaigns can be built around the post-click experience of the banner and do not need to drive the user to a mobile site. A major challenge facing mobile banner advertising is the lack of standards across the various ad sizes. Mobile banners come in a range of sizes to support a range of goals and handsets. Image source: AdMob Smartphone Banner Ad Text AdSmartphone Text + Tile Ad Banner Ad
34. 34. 35blog.360i.com twitter: @360i Marketers are often required to develop ad sizes for a number of devices ranging in size from 120x20 pixels all the way up to 300x50 pixels. Additionally, third-party tracking technologies are still a work in progress. Marketers must often resolve discrepancies that arise between mobile publishers and third-party reported numbers. Does this mean marketers should stay away from mobile banners? Definitely not. While mobile banners may require more upfront work, they can still be used to meet campaign objectives such as awareness, traffic and engagement. Mobile banner advertising best practices 1 Take into account the various operating systems and devices when developing ad sizes, as mobile banners are usually not purchased based on ad size. 2 If planning for smartphones, think about the post-click experience. 3 Take into account how you want to measure campaign success, as mobile metrics can differ from traditional online metrics (see the section on Measurement later in this chapter for more). 4 Think about where you want your mobile banners to show up, such as on mobile webpages or within applications. Mobile video According to Nielsens Three Screen Report, more than 20 million users watched a mobile video in Q1 2010, which represents an increase of more than 50% year-over-year. eMarketer projects mobile video revenues will climb from $436 million in 2009 to $1.34 billion in 2014. Mobile video opportunities include pre-, mid- and post-rolls that consist of 10 to 15-second video ads that can run prior to, during or after video content, as well as full-page video interstitials that take over the entire screen prior to content. Marketers can also create custom video companion ads or customized video channels to promote their brand. Click-to-video ad: Users can click on multiple links from a video ad to take various actions. Source: Rhythm NewMedia
35. 35. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Advertising36 Best practices for mobile video 1 Ensure that the aspect ratio for the video is correct, as it will differ from the web and varies across mobile devices. 2 Make sure the video will work on a small screen; dark and fast moving images wont look great on a mobile device. 3 Keep video ads short. Most mobile users prefer shorter snippets of content, and slower mobile connection speeds can sometimes cause uncomfortable delays in video load times. 4 Similar to the post-click experience, think about what the post-viewing experience should be. 5 Dont use online benchmarks. Instead, create new ones for mobile, as the user experience will vary. Certain publishers and networks will have benchmarks for various verticals. Mobile in-game ads According to MobClix, a mobile ad exchange, more than 40,000 mobile game applications have been released in the past year. As of summer 2010, MobClix reported that more than 300 game apps are added each day. Similar to PC or console-based video game advertising, brands utilizing mobile in-game advertising have the opportunity to reach a rapt audience before or during a transition in gameplay. Carousel ad: On a custom landing page, consumers can scroll through multiple video ads or clips. Source: AdMob MMS video ad: Marketers can send video ads via multimedia messaging service. Source: Mogreet, via mocoNews
36. 36. 37blog.360i.com twitter: @360i The sequence above is an example of an advertising campaign on Greystripes mobile network. While playing a game, at a break before the user moves on to the next level, he or she sees an ad for a movie. The ad itself is a game, but the user has the option to skip it. Many advertisers have seen great success with mobile gaming. Its important, however, to think about your audience and if they engage with gaming on or off the mobile phone. Best practices for mobile in-game ads 1 Determine if your target audience is likely to engage with an ad more if it runs in a game. Such ads can work best for marketers who have had success with other gaming programs. 2 Temper your investment until youre sure your target audience will engage in gaming. Most in-game advertising is sold on a CPM basis, and branded games usually require a development cost. 3 Understand the audience of the game before choosing to advertise on a specific game. Gaming audiences differ dramatically, as a casual gamer will likely be very different from someone who plays a first-person shooter action game. 4 Provide value through entertainment or interactions that appeal to your audience. Its not just about getting your message out there, but rather providing an experience that makes the distraction from the game worth it. 1 2 3 4 5 Game reaches a natural transition point (example: end of level) Ad is displayed Ad menu is displayed User selects ad action Selecting Done returns user to game where they left off Ads within games can be games themselves Source: Greystripe
37. 37. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Advertising38 app or site in order to reveal more information. The expanded portion of the ad can contain anything from a static banner to a form to a microsite. Prestitials and interstitials are full screen ads (a 300x250 ad unit is standard for iPhone/iPod Touch and Android) that are displayed on an app or sites welcome page or in transition to another section of an app or site. Full-screen engagement ads are a form of rich media engagements that allow marketers to create an immersive environment. -- iAd keeps users within an application instead of redirecting them to a page in their browser. This enables users to explore the ad and interact with it, and even purchase products. There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to choosing iAd as of summer 2010. Marketers should check to see if Apple has addressed any of the Mobile gaming will continue to become more popular as smartphone penetration increases. If done right, mobile in-game advertising can be as entertaining as the game itself. The key is to create the right experience for your audience one that entertains and leaves the player with a positive feeling about your brand. Mobile rich media Just like with online advertising, mobile rich media ads offer a visually stimulating way for users to engage with a brand. There are various ways to capture a users attention with these ads: Expandable ads are banners that load as standard-sized ad units, and then when the user scrolls over them, they expand over the content of the Expandable ad: Best Buy Source: Greystripe Prestitial ad: Step Up 3D Image source: Photobucket
38. 38. 39blog.360i.com twitter: @360i downsides when considering iAd, as this could change at any time. Pros: iAd allows marketers to get in front of users as they engage with apps they frequently use. Apples selling point is that iAd offers interactivity plus emotion. People not only interact with the ad units but also feel emotionally connected while doing so. Apple helps developers make money with a 60% revenue share; this enables them to offer apps for low prices or even for free. Cons: In order to run an iAd campaign, there is a large monetary commitment up front. At first, these units may have high bounce rates from people clicking just to play around and experience the ads but not actually have any interest in the brand or the campaign. On the flipside, this could benefit some advertisers who are running a brand awareness campaign and seek to capture early adopters. Apple is solely selling, developing and hosting iAd. As a result, you cannot develop your own iAd in- house or use your creative agency. Greystripes Full Screen Immersion Ads (formerly iFlash Custom Ads) are an alternative to iAd and offer a similar experience that involves rich media animation, interactivity, and click actions without leaving the actual application. Greystripes technology allows them to take pre-existing rich media ad units built in Flash and transcode them into HTML5 format that is readable on iPhone and iPod Touch. Beyond iAd and Greystripe, other ad networks such as AdMob, Millennial Media, and Medialets can deliver immersive creative experiences within applications. Marketers should consider a number of factors when evaluating such networks, including reach, audience demographics, creative offerings, targeting capabilities, transparency of placements, development time required and the responsiveness of account personnel. Measuring mobile advertising campaigns Depending on the objective of your campaign, you Interstitial ad: 90210 Image source: Jumptap
39. 39. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Advertising40 will want to consider how to best measure success. For instance, a branding campaign may involve measuring awareness or lift, impression volume, or engagement. Direct response campaigns, meanwhile, may measure clicks, conversions, calls received or coupon redemption. Brand metrics Brand awareness and lift can be measured using marketing research companies such as Insight Express, Dynamic Logic or comScore to conduct studies. These studies typically require a specific budget and multiple ad units in order to reach a significant impression level. Marketers can apply what they learn from these studies to optimize creative concepts and messaging. Impressions are generally recorded in aggregate. However, it is important to consider unique impression data in order to accurately determine the true reach of a campaign. Engagement reflects how users interact with a marketers ad unit or messaging. Interactions can include mouse-overs, clicks, video plays, and drop-off rates, and time spent playing a game. Direct response metrics Clicks are a meaningful measurement metric if site or app traffic is the main marketing objective. In order to gauge the value of the clicks, marketers should consider the bounce rate, which represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who bounced away rather than interacting with the site. Conversions are determined by the goal of each campaign and help marketers evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising spend. Marketers can measure impact by looking at the conversion rate, which represents the percentage of initial visitors (clicks) to a site or app who converted by taking a pre-determined action. iAd promises to grab consumers attention with immersive creative experiences Image source: Erica Ogg/CNET
40. 40. 41blog.360i.com twitter: @360i Click-to-call ads contain a telephone number that, when clicked, populates the phones dialpad with the number. If properly set up, marketers can track how many calls were received, the duration of the calls, and if the desired action was taken. Couponing offers a convenient way to target promotions to a medium that is always on and can act as a redemption tool. Marketers can track coupon redemption and see revenue generated by each individual code to capture granular ROI. Phones enable users to consolidate customized discounts in a single place, so it is up to retailers to trace use of coupons to prevent multiple redemptions and also track redemption rates. (See more on couponing in the section on Mobile Shopping, page 69.) Tracking mobile advertising Although marketers can track clicks and impressions using third-party ad servers such as DART, tracking conversions via third-party tags remains a challenge. Therefore, as these ad servers focus on building out tracking and reporting capabilities, the burden of providing the analytical data rests mainly on the publishers. If tracking application downloads through the iTunes store, the developer needs to install a code snippet that enables the publisher to record conversions. Since discrepancies often exist among ad servers, we recommend using third-party ad server click trackers and standard tags to compare click and impression data. Third-party tracking capabilities should evolve quickly to meet the pressing advertiser demand. Conclusion Advertising models for mobile have evolved to be very similar to desktop advertising models, yet its important to consider how people use their mobile devices compared to how they use their desktop or laptop computers, and how mobile campaigns should differ in light of this. A mobile device is unique to an individual, whereas a computer may be shared at home. A mobile device is also a must-have utility that is rarely left behind, unlike computers that get turned off or put away. Understanding the nature of how a mobile phone fits into someones life allows marketers to devise strategies that make the most of this channel.
41. 41. 6 MOBILE SOCIAL MARKETING
42. 42. 43blog.360i.com twitter: @360i Preparing for mobile socials challenges Marketers who start learning what works with mobile social media can wind up well ahead of their peers and provide added value for consumers in the process. On the other hand, there are plenty of hurdles with mobile social marketing: Mobile and social are two areas that often dont have clear ownership within marketers organizations. Theres a higher learning curve in both mobile marketing and social media as neither offers clear-cut application of the media buying skills that marketers have honed in other media. Metrics are still a work in progress, as are the business models of many vendors in the space. Budgets are often too small to gauge the real impact of a campaign, and the process can turn off some who want immediate results on a large scale. Marketers, agencies, publishers, technology providers and others will need to overcome these challenges to keep pace with the consumers and where they are increasingly spending their time. Mobile social media by the numbers comScores April 2010 data reveals that social networking is the fastest growing mobile content category, whether accessed by mobile applications or browsers. There were 15 million U.S. mobile users ages 13+ engaged with social networking via applications, up 240% over the previous year, and 30 million users engaged with social networking via mobile browsers, up 90%. Facebook reports that more than 150 million active users access the network through their mobile devices. Users MOBILE SOCIAL MARKETING KEY FACT More than 150 million people access Facebook from mobile devices each month GOALS IT ACHIEVES Branding, engagement, drive to store BEST INTEGRATION POINTS Online social media, digital word of mouth, email, loyalty programs Mobile social media, any form of social media accessed through mobile devices, has much in common with online social media: the power of building relationships with consumers, the large and rapidly growing user base and the potential to incorporate sharing and community functionality into every form of content. Mobile presents new opportunities, as these untethered mobile devices are designed for communication the raison dtre of social media and can harness the power of location.
43. 43. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Social Marketing44 accessing its mobile services are more than twice as active on Facebook as non-mobile users. Ground Truth, a mobile metrics firm, reported that in April 2010, 60% of the time U.S. mobile subscribers spent on mobile Internet usage was on social networking sites. Categories of mobile social media Mobile social media comprises a broad field, but here are some of the key forms it takes: Mobile extensions of online social networks: The largest social network, Facebook, not surprisingly has the most mobile users, as well. MySpace and other social networks have mobile extensions, such as optimized sites or apps, and many are ad-supported. One can expect that in the coming years, U.S. social networks will follow the same course as Mixi, a leading network in Japan, which now has three-quarters of its users accessing the service from mobile devices. Mobile-central social networks: MocoSpace, Mig33 and Peperonity are three social networks that launched on mobile devices and attract most of their users there. They tend to attract feature phone users and may specialize in reaching certain target audiences, such as MocoSpace with 70% of its 12 million members comprised of Hispanics and African Americans. Location-based check-in services: Users check in to physical locations primarily through mobile applications. See the the following section for more details. Social gaming: Many mobile gaming applications are either built entirely on social functionality or rely heavily on social features. For instance, Words With Friends by developer Newtoy is an asynchronous form of Scrabble; its part of a With Friends series that has recorded more than 6.5 million downloads. Gaming company Ngmoco has developed a number of mobile social games where users derive in-game benefits by cooperating with each other. Mobile web-based sharing: Any mobile-optimized webpage can include various calls to action to share content and offers with friends. Gaming has helped propel mobile social media, thanks in part to hit apps such as Words with Friends.
44. 44. 45blog.360i.com twitter: @360i App-based sharing: Many applications utilize Facebook Connect to make it easy to share updates or photos directly through the social network. Apps will often allow users to find and invite their friends through Facebook, Twitter and other networks. Location-based check-in services An emerging field within mobile social media is location- based check-in services, where consumers use mobile devices to say where they are, often to earn virtual rewards such as badges and virtual goods. The crowded field of these services includes Foursquare, Gowalla, MyTown, Whrrl, Buzzd, Loopt, Brightkite, SCVNGR and most recently, Facebook Places. Google and Yelp have also incorporated check-ins into their mobile applications. CauseWorld has turned these actions into acts of kindness with a philanthropic hook, and FoodSpotting lets consumers upload photos of what theyre eating wherever they go. Most of these services dont have the scale to attract marketers looking for mass reach, but many have growing and dedicated audiences with disproportionate numbers of digital influencers, and there are opportunities to reach consumers with the right psychographics and demographics for certain brands. Here are a few examples of how theyre being used: TV network Bravo offers branded badges on Foursquare for those who engage in activities mirroring the characters on their reality shows. Checking into a New York City restaurant, one might earn the martini glass badge that says, Way to drink, eat, shop and spa like a Real Housewife! MyTown is more of a game than a utility. Players can buy locations and collect rent as they upgrade. For example, HM offers branded virtual goods to players who check in at their stores. These goods provide large point boosts in the game to help players level up. Advertising Age reported, During the campaign, HM was the most searched location within the game, 700,000 users checked in to its retail stores, and 8 million saw its virtual goods. CauseWorld encourages consumers to scan select Kraft products in stores to earn karma points that can be donated to charity. IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) partnered with Gowalla to extend its Hit It Big promotion. When users check in with Gowalla at various IHG properties, they may win prizes such as double air miles or gift cards at national retailers. Loopt launched its companion app Loopt Star to reward consumers loyalty for checking in to local businesses. Promotions include Gap offering 25% discounts for consumers checking in twice to one of its stores, and Universal Music giving five free songs to people checking in at any bar with two friends. Loopt emphasizes the power to get consumers into stores with its cost-per-visit model, similar to Whrrls pay-per-visit approach. Brightkite ran a promotion with Starbucks that used augmented reality to locate grocery stores
45. 45. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Social Marketing46 that sell the companys VIA products. When finding a store selling VIA, the products logo could be tapped for more information and mulitmedia content, including videos. Now is a good time for marketers to experiment with location-based social promotions, as there are opportunities to build fun, creative promotions that meet a brands objectives. Marketers should find a balance between spending their consumer dollars on reaching a mass audience with digital, as well as experimenting with smaller bets that can pay off in a big way to reach influencers who can help spread the brand message organically. Influence, not just scale, matters. Developing a mobile social marketing strategy When planning a mobile social marketing program, marketers dont have to reinvent how they go about developingastrategyordeterminingwhetheropportunities make sense. There are four criteria in particular you can use, as described in 360is Social Marketing Playbook, which comprise the Social Marketing Strategic Lens. These operate in parallel with the Mobile Marketing Strategic Lens discussed on page 15. Does it use your social media arsenal? Which assets do you have that could resonate well across mobile social media (digital content, physical or Bravo rewards real housewives with Foursquare badges. HMs real products offer virtual rewards in MyTown.
46. 46. 47blog.360i.com twitter: @360i virtual goods, celebrity spokespeople, etc.)? Does it follow best practices for social media and specifically mobile social media? Does it fit in with how consumers are using mobile social services and technologies? Does it take advantage of the functionality of mobile devices (voice, location, SMS, camera, the iPhones accelerometer, etc.)? Does it provide a value exchange between the consumer and the marketer? Or to put it simply, whats in it for the consumer? Do consumers gain information, exclusive access, social currency or physical goods? Why will they care? Does it meet your marketing objectives? What are you looking to accomplish, and how does this play a role in it? Answering all of these questions will help ensure the program is a success, and just as important, it will help avoid some common pitfalls. Conclusion Social media is driving much of the growth of mobile media, just as it has fueled much of the growth in online pageviews and content. New sites and applications seem to sprout daily, while business models of existing players continually evolve to meet marketers needs. Marketers should continue to turn to the strategic lens to evaluate opportunities, as it can increase the chances of success for any social marketing program, mobile or otherwise. Does it leverage your arsenal? Does it follow the rules of the road? Does it provide a value exchange? Does it meet your objectives? 360is Social Marketing Strategic Lens
47. 47. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Social Marketing48 THE NAIL FOR SOCIAL MEDIAS HAMMER INTERVIEW WITH MICKEY ALAM KHAN EDITOR IN CHIEF, MOBILE MARKETER ickey Alam Khan is the Editor in Chief of Mobile Marketer, the leading publisher of news, analysis and opinions on mobile marketing, media and commerce with the goal to help marketers understand how the mobile channel can be used alone or in conjunction with other channels for branding, as well as for customer acquisition and retention. Following he weighs in on mobile social media, and how marketers can approach their customers in the mobile social landscape. M What characteristics of mobile devices lend themselves well to social media? The anytime-anywhere-always-on nature of mobile phones lends itself well to social media, which is all about connectivity and openness. The phone is with the user at all times, and is especially used for social and personal occasions if its not a company device. So mobiles the perfect nail to social medias hammer. How much of mobile social media involves extensions of online social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.) versus offerings unique to mobile devices? I think online social media services such as Facebook and Twitter rule mobile social media simply because of brand awareness and ease of use. Of course, there are strong social media brands such as MocoSpace,
48. 48. 49blog.360i.com twitter: @360i ...Marketers must try to be friendly via social media, but not friends. Let consumers feel that they are part of the brand-building experience. Gowalla, Flirtomatic and Foursquare that are mobile phenomena. Facebook and Twitter are easier to use on mobile devices since the handset constraints require simple design and cut to the chase. How they can monetize social media on mobile devices is another story. Why should marketers care about mobile social media? Buzz thrills or kills. In this day and age when mobile consumers set the tone for communications, it is key for marketers to understand how to manage their reputation on social media sites and services. Anything that smacks of marketing overkill will slow the enthusiasm for the brand. Indeed, marketers must try to be friendly via social media, but not friends. Let consumers feel that they are part of the brand-building experience. Let them feel they can personalize the relationship to the brand. Also, I dont think we should think of online social media and mobile social media. Theyre one its the Internet on different devices, but its still interactive. People have relationships with brands regardless of channel. What challenges can marketers expect, and are there any ways to mitigate those challenges? Marketers can expect consumers to be in even more control of what marketing and communications they prefer. Newer mobile devices and better sites and applications will raise expectations of the quality of messages delivered, authenticity of experience, value delivered and privacy offered. To avoid any social media mishaps, marketers must understand that social media is first and foremost a medium for consumers to communicate with each other and shoot the breeze. Any marketing interruption has to be a whisper, not a yell.
49. 49. 7 MOBILE APPLICATIONS
50. 50. 51blog.360i.com twitter: @360i Mobile app usage trends One of the biggest drivers of app usage is smartphone penetration. Nielsen reports that by Q3 2011, roughly half of U.S. mobile subscribers will use smartphones, and smartphone market share will only increase from there. comScore reports that U.S. mobile subscribers are about as likely to have used a mobile browser as they are to have downloaded apps, with both activities growing fast quarter over quarter. Apples leadership here is uncontested. More than 5 billion apps have been downloaded across Apple mobile devices as of June 2010, and over 225,000 apps are currently available. The second largest app market, GetJar, is an independent provider offering apps across various platforms; it has recorded more than 1 billion downloads. How marketers can use mobile apps Marketers have three primary options for reaching consumers through mobile applications: Advertise: Ad networks such as AdMob, Quattro Wireless, Millennial Media, Medialets, Greystripe, Celtra and countless others can run ads within applications. Its also possible to run custom promotions directly with many app publishers and developers. Major publishers such as top news and weather apps may offer app ads bundled into a broader cross-channel deal. Ad formats include text, video, polls, lead generation forms, click-to- call, store locators and games. Integrate: Marketers can work with select app publishers and developers to create custom, integrated experiences that are far more involved MOBILE APPLICATIONS KEY FACT More than 5 billion apps have been downloaded from the iTunes Store GOALS IT ACHIEVES Engagement, branding, customer retention BEST INTEGRATION POINTS Search, display, in-store, digital word of mouth Applications have become an enduring form of mobile media, thanks in large part to the ease of buying apps from Apples App Store and the increased usage of apps on Google Android handsets. The growing popularity of apps creates new challenges for marketers, as consumers attention is split between apps and the mobile web. Marketers will have to prioritize and make tough decisions when allocating finite resources.
51. 51. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Applications52 than ad buys. Several such examples are included in the Mobile Social Marketing chapter. Some apps even reject standard ad units and will only run custom promotions. These are of course harder to develop and scale than running a mobile banner across thousands of apps, but the impact can be considerable, as marketers may find deeper ways to connect with their target audiences. Build: Building applications is an option for marketers, and the examples below show how apps have successfully been developed to fit in with a marketers overarching goals. There are several challenges though: -- Most popular apps are for gaming and entertainment, which may be a fit for certain entertainment and CPG brands but is often not in line with objectives for other marketers. -- Marketers will need to allocate sufficient budget to build the app and promote it. Without a strong commitment to promotion, the app may never gain enough visibility to break through the tens or hundreds of thousands of other apps. Marketers should also consider what channels they have available for promoting the app, from email to in-store to branded social profiles. -- App development requires an ongoing commitment. The best apps, branded or unbranded, go through constant iterations as they improve based on consumer input, internal ideas and changes in the technological capabilities of mobile operating systems and handsets. Updates also encourage consumers who may have moved on to other apps to return and give it another shot. This kind of commitment takes strong leadership and buy-in to muster the time and budget required to keep it going, especially if the app takes time to gain traction. How marketers are using branded apps Marketers have already deployed thousands of custom- built apps. The application examples provided here are for the iPhone, since marketers tend to follow the lead of both consumers and developers in starting with the most app-friendly platform, but marketers have also found success creating apps for Android, BlackBerry and other operating systems. Kraft Krafts iFood Assistant, one of the first and still most popular branded mobile apps, helps grocery shoppers decide what to buy and offers recipe ideas for home cooks. The most entertaining content, cooking videos, still serves a very functional purpose, and consumers are willing to pay $0.99 for the privilege money they can potentially earn back by reviewing the budget wise suggestions within the app. Krafts dedication to fulfilling home cooks needs has made the iFood Assistant a perennial top seller.
52. 52. 53blog.360i.com twitter: @360i TiffanyCo Consumers shopping for products with higher price points than a typical grocery list can also find relevant apps. TiffanyCo created an app that lets marriage- minded consumers browse engagement rings and schedule expert consultations via phone or in-store. The app includes a tool, shown below, that lets users place a ring on the screen to determine what size it is. What about the iPad? The iPad is on track to be one of the fastest selling mobile devices ever, if not the fastest. In short, it matters. Yet its not a mobile device in the traditional sense. Its more of a stationary device, used in situations where one is sitting in one place, whether its at home, at work, at a coffee shop, or on the train. Silicon Alley Insider analyzed the top 50 apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch and compared them to the top iPad apps. Games and utilities were popular for both groups, but iPad users also showed strong interest in content and productivity apps. iPad users are more inclined to lean back and consume content or lean forward and get to work. The iPad may in time resemble the iPhone more, presumably with a front-mounted camera in a future edition to enable video chat and other app interactions. But it will never be as portable as a device someone can stick in their pocket. Click-to-call wont matter at all, and location wont matter as much. For a marketer targeting an audience thats using the iPad or sees how the iPad fits into ways to achieve marketing objectives, the options of advertising, integrating and building remain relevant. Additionally, publishers and marketers will continue to mine the possibilities for using the iPad to distribute digital content and adapt traditional media such as books, magazines and feature-length videos. The device is the best format to date for adapting the aesthetics and intuitive format of traditional content, while providing enhancements such as interactivity and portability.Tiffanys little blue (and white) app helps consumers shop for gifts in little blue boxes. Utilities Games Utilities Games Productivity Content Top 50 Apps by Category iPhone/iPod Touch Includes top 25 paid and top 25 free apps for each device Category determined by SAI, not by iTunes categorization Source: Sillicon Alley Insider iPad
53. 53. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Applications54 Evaluating mobile platforms for developing apps The mobile landscape is fragmented into an alphabet soup of competing technologies, platforms and standards. Should you build for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, or should you concentrate on just one platform? Should you support both the iPhone and iPad? What about the different versions of Android? There isnt one, simple answer and there wont be anytime soon. The key to developing a successful mobile app or website is to select the devices and technologies that make the most sense for your brand and consumers. Theres no question that iPhone and Android apps get the most buzz. Theyre sexy, slick and run on the latest, most powerful devices backed by technology titans Apple and Google. However, there is a gap between the number of apps available for these growing platforms and the number of people who actually own the devices. In the chart below, at first glance, it may seem that Java, Flash Light and Symbian are the natural choices Mobile Devices vs. Apps Available Device Installed Base (est. Q2 2010, in millions) Number of Apps Available in App Stores (Q2 2010) 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 Symbian iPhone (iOS) Android Java ME BlackBerry Flash Lite Windows Phone Source: VisionMobile, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Any use or remix of this work must retain this notice.
54. 54. 55blog.360i.com twitter: @360i for app development with their large install base. However, its worth noting several points about this data: Older platforms (such as BlackBerry and Windows Phone) lacked app stores until very recently, which accounts for the low number of available apps. It took the Java ME platform (which represents the majority of flip phones) more than 7 years to build its library of 45,000 apps, while the iPhone took just 2 years. Development activity on Java ME platform has slowed significantly as consumers turn their attention to smartphones. Some platforms are easier to develop for than others. iPhone OS and Android are developer-centric platforms, while developing for the BlackBerry or Windows Phone is much more complicated. Developers are definitely paying more attention to the newer platforms. More importantly, iPhone and Android users are much more likely to download and use apps than users of all other platforms. This makes these two platforms (and, to a lesser extent, the BlackBerry) the current platforms of choice. The difference between mobile websites and apps A mobile website is much the same as a regular website. Both are viewed inside a browser, but mobile websites are built to run on the smaller screens of mobile devices. There are two ways to approach mobile websites. First, it could be a mobile version of your existing website. This typically provides the same content and close to the same functionality available on your existing website. The primary difference is that the content and functionality is optimized to display in a mobile browser. This is something all companies should consider doing. The fact is that mobile browsing is growing by leaps and bounds, and providing a mobile- optimized experience is fast becoming a requirement. The second type of mobile website is more like an app in that it provides specific functionality. For example, a car insurance company may have a mobile website that allows users to begin the insurance quote process, but does not provide every other service available on the companys website. A mobile app is an actual program thats installed on a mobile device the same way Microsoft Word is installed on your computer. Mobile App Mobile Website
55. 55. MOBILE MARKETING PLAYBOOK Mobile Applications56 Mobile App Mobile Website Required Platform Must be developed for each platform individually (such as iPhone, BlackBerry, Android) Runs on all mobile devices with a browser (though there can be different requirements for different browsers) Development Costs Can be more expensive if developing for multiple platforms Often less expensive if limited to standard mobile browsers Barrier to Entry Apps must be downloaded and installed on a device before use Like regular websites, users need only link to the mobile website to use it Marketing A well-defined strategy is required to break into the top apps lists on app stores Marketing options for mobile websites are similar to those for regular websites: SEO, traditional media, blogs, Twitter and other social media. Additionally, mobile websites can be impacted by viral links. ApprovalsDistribution With a few exceptions, apps must be approved before they can be distributed via an app store. Mobile websites have no external approvals, but also have no highly trafficked distribution channels Market Size Limited to the number of users on the selected platform(s) Any mobile device with a web browser Usage of Native Device Capabilities Able to use all device capabilities (such as the GPS, camera, voice, Bluetooth, RFID, address book and calendar) It is possible to use features like GPS, offline data storage and video from within mobile websites using the latest mobile browsers, which support HTML5. Access from the web to some native capabilities of mobile devices is still limited due to security and privacy concerns (e.g., access to address book or calendar) Upgrades More effort is required to release app upgrades due to app store approval processes; therefore, making quick, small changes can be challenging Upgrades are simpler to release due to lack of external approval process There are some important differences that should be understood when making a decision on whether to build a mobile app or website, as shown in the table below, adapted from DudaMobile:
56. 56. 57blog.360i.com twitter: @360i Methodology for mobile app and website development Its critical to have a process for evaluating whether a mobile app or website is best for you. The questions below dovetail with the Mobile Marketing Strategic Lens (see Planning in Mobile Marketing, page 15) but go into far more detail for this scenario. 1 Define the value proposition For every successful mobile website and app, there are thousands that arent used or languish in app stores. Make sure that your mobile website or app has the potential to rise to the top by validating the concept. Is it useful to consumers? Are there existing apps or mobile websites that do the same thing? If so, what are your differentiators? How will it benefit your brand and business? 2 Determi