Category — Mobile Interactive

It’s hard to believe that shortcodes for SMS or “text messaging” is only 5 years old in Canada.

It’s also hard to believe that many marketers are still largely ignorant as to what or how SMS marketing can be incorporated into a multi-channel campaign.

For those who think SMS is not yet ready for the masses, consider this:

• 10.1 billion SMS messages were sent in Canada last year - over 1 billion in December alone
• That’s more than double (~4.3b) from 2006
• Which is more than double (~2.1) from 2005
• There are over 20 million Canadians with at least one mobile device now
• Penetration of mobile is as high as 80% in urban areas

SMS marketing is already a mass medium.

Mobile messaging is evolving. MMS (or multi-media messaging) is finally going mainstream. Rogers now has an all you can eat plan for $15 / month. 2d codes are also coming to a broader audience as a few local mobile shops are working on some retail pilots.

Tonight the CWTA is putting on a party celebrating 5 years of text messaging in Canada.

I’ll also be celebrating what is to come!

Here’s some irony for you - one week after posting about the 8,690 disruptions I experienced in April, here’s a forwarded email I received last week that I actually found interesting.  I guess 1 in 8,690 isn’t bad?

FIRST
Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112 . If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly, this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

[Read more →]

Be sure to check out the following two articles posted on onedegree.ca and the CMA blog this month (in case you missed their original postings)

1. Will Bluetooth Become a Sweet Tooth for Marketers? (onedegree.ca)
2. 6 Tips for building and managing consent for mobile marketing (CMA blog)

Join me on May 15th for  strategy’s Mobile Marketing Workshop at Revival in Toronto, Canada where you can learn about how to successfully integrate mobile marketing into your multi-channel campaigns.

I’ve been asked to sit on the end of day mobile marketing panel discussion entitled “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”

Well-executed mobile campaigns yield positive user response and increase customer engagement. To avoid consumer backlash, you must understand the subtleties of how to use mobile effectively.

What works in traditional media does not work on mobile!

The workshop agenda includes:

• consumer perception of mobile advertising

• campaign best practices

• emerging mobile technologies

• what works now in Canada

• the role of mobile in the marketing mix

• interactive panel with senior execs from mobile marketing agencies and technology providers on how mobile as an ad medium needs to be approached, and its distinct differences from other media

You can register for this event here. 

After the event, join me at the “Five Years of Great Text” bash presented by the CWTA.

Any questions? Comment, send me an SMS or drop me a line the old fashion way with an email.

Today the CWTA released their quarterly report on the mobile industry in Canada. Here are some highlights:

1. Over 350 active mobile marketing programs in Canada right now with a Canadian short code
2. 10.1 billion SMS messages were sent in 2007 in Canada (as previously reported) 
3. Over 1.2 billion SMS messages were sent in Canada in December 2007 alone - making a prediction of 15 billion total in 2008 easily within reach. 
4. As of September 2007, 37% of mobile users had sent at least one SMS message
5. MMA guidelines around mobile advertising and content may be adopted by the CWTA
6. 18 applications have been approved in Canada for mobile payments or micro-payments 
7. May 15th marks the 5th year anniversary of the short code in Canada. Look for information on industry event on txt.ca 

As predicted, the CWTA has reported that the total number of SMS (text messages) sent in 2007 exceeded 10 billion!

Approximately 10.1 billion messages were sent in 2007 - up from 4.3 billion in 2006 or an increase of 133%

1.2 billion messages were sent in December alone. With total volume more than doubling every year since 2002, it’s amazing to think we could reach 20 billion messages sent in 2008.

I’m looking for specific demographic details to follow… although it’s safe to say that with over 10 billion messages served last year, this is no longer just a young person’s channel.

More and more of our client are now following recommendations to extend “interactive” marketing programs with mobile / SMS.

We just launched a contest as part of our launch of mastersgolf.ca this week which includes a mobile / SMS component. If you can predict the top 10 finishers on the 08 Masters Leader board, you win $1,000,000.  I’m looking forward to see how participation in mobile compares to the pure online option. Stay tuned…

Once upon a time, direct mail was the most cost effective way for national customer acquisition campaigns.

Rising postal and production costs drove many marketers to telemarketing.

Thanks to VOIP and off-shore outsourcing, it was possible to achieve better ROI by calling every household in Canada a few times a year from India then to send direct mail pieces.

All that is about to change again.  

[Read more →]

Check out this demo of live blogging software. You can live blog using your digital camera, video camera, or your mobile device. There are many other potential applications to using something like this - like video conferencing.

Check out this service - upload your own mobile content to this service and then get paid when other users download them! The service has integrated some social networking tools to allow users to engage with each other. 

With over 300 RSS feeds to manage, I’ve really valued Netvibes as my primary news and feed aggregator.

That was at least until I discovered Protopage - an evolutionary news and feed aggregator that not only has a superior desktop web experience, but a mobile interface not matched by anything i’ve seen. Check out the two vids below - the first one is a demo of the desktop web version while the second demos the mobile version.