Last week I had the honour of presenting at the Digital Imaging Association’s AGM and holiday luncheon at the boulevard club in Toronto.

Petros Kondos was way ahead of his time.  Well before smartphones, mobile apps and even the mobile web Petros recognized the potential of mobile phones for not just marketing, but customer relationship management programs. He was effectively one  of the pioneers of location based marketing (LBM).

Using the power of bluetooth for good (permission based) and not evil (what we used to call bluespam) he was an example for the rest of the world to follow.  I first learned about his company in 2007 while in Barcelona for the World Mobile Congress and followed with great interest as he got 50 of the biggest malls in South Africa as well as several banks, automotive dealerships and other retail centers on to his bluetooth marketing system.

We exchanged emails over the years and I had the opportunity to meet him two years ago when he was in Toronto scouting out a possible relocation and partnership with a Canadian bluetooth marketing company.  Since then he has shut down his business and wrote a book about his experience from start to finish. You can find it on Amazon.

I really enjoyed his book and took away a few things: 

1) His marketing instincts led him to create an amazing CRM  product based on Bluetooth – but instead of staying true to his marketing roots he eventually became a Bluetooth company that did marketing and not the other way around. This ultimately held him back from evolving & expanding beyond Bluetooth early enough as he was too heavily invested to abandon it or to invest in other emerging mobile engagement mechanisms.

2) Over the last few years his marketing instincts led him to the development of a revolutionary product that leverages the signals from all Bluetooth devices to more accurately map and track foot traffic in retail – by the minute.  When I learned about this two years ago I was working for a promotional marketing company that specialized in shopper marketing who would have salivated for this type of tool in their tool box.  Before I could more seriously validate and explore an implementation in Toronto I was recruited away to RIM.

3) Mobile marketers today who are only now figuring out location based marketing as part of their marketing mix using mobile Apps that leverage GPS or by leveraging mobile triggers such as QR codes could learn a lot from Petros on how to make it relevant in retail and how it fits into the broader promotional or marketing mix

Although when I think of location based marketing today I mostly think about the gamification of loyalty programs through the likes of foursquare, the future of LBM is exciting. With NFC becoming standard on mobile devices, mass adoption of 2d code readers and even the evolution of the bluetooth standard to leverage and incorporate wifi all point to a future of mobile marketing that goes beyond a banner Ad.

The digital media landscape just got a bit blurrier.

The long anticipated roll out of facebook’s geo-location based feature called “Places” has been heralded as the end of foursquare, gowalla, yelp and other geo-based social media platforms.

Geo-based social media is not about location

This is a lesson that Google learned a few years ago when they rolled out Lattitude – one of the first geo-based services. It became know as the stalker app because all it really did was show you exactly where your friends were at all times.  That was a bit creepy for most to handle and the service never took off.

Location is merely the enabler to an engaging user experience

The reason foursquare and Gowalla have had great success is that they are essentially social gaming platforms that are enabled through location based check-ins. The experience is fun, easy and engaging. Add rewards for check-ins or earning badges and suddenly marketers were salivating at all the opportunities to build loyalty and word of mouth for their brands.

Facebook Places can do for mobile web and applications – as American Idol did for SMS

Much like voting for your favorite soon to be pop star on American Idol via text message really ushered in the era of mass SMS adoption, Facebook Places has the potential to bring mobile web and mobile applications to the masses as you can’t carry around your desktop to “check-in” to your favorite restaurant in the Toronto Entertainment District.

You also can’t carry around the old flip phone or first generation smartphone, so bringing geo-based social media to a mass scale could accelerate the adoption of new generation smartphones that are location aware through GPS and have great mobile web browsers or a platform that supports enriched mobile Applications.

Should Marketers abandon services like Foursquare now that facebook Places has arrived?

Although it’s true that facebook has 500 million users (150 on mobile) while services like foursqure only have a few million, let’s keep in mind the following things:

1. Places is only available in the U.S. currently – although I’d expect it to come to Canada and other countries by the holiday season.
2. Facebook became the king of location overnight but just because the media is declaring this to be true, it’s the consumer who has the ultimate say.  Remember Google Buzz? It too was heralded as a new giant in the social media space.  The problem was that consumers didn’t really want their Google services to be linked and used in a different context from which they subscribed to.  There is a good chance that many facebook users will feel the same way about their profile and will instead start limiting their time on facebook or abandon it entirely.
3. Facebook is making their location based API available to developers – so marketers can create digital experiences that leverage facebook Places – much like how facebook connect for commenting, liking and sharing has been incorporated into many sites today. For example, this means you can roll out a foursquare program that leverages a proven social gaming platform and then extend reach and frequency by incorporating the new facebook Places extensions.

Regardless if you or the brands you are working for think existing geo-based social media gaming platforms or the new facebook Places is the future, the only bad choice to make right now is to ignore geo-based social media and the impact that smartphones will have on shopper marketing and all consumer communications.

Today is the start of Marketing Week and today’s theme is digital day. There is an impressive roster of keynotes and break out sessions. Check out the full agenda for the week here.

I’ve been invited to moderate the mobile breakout session this morning entitled “Mobile Marketing to Die For.” Yah, it’s a bit dramatic, but the session should be fun, engaging, and educational. Here’s a full description of the session:

Text to win. Mobile couponing. Is this the extent of the opportunity in mobile for advertisers? Hardly. In Europe, Asia and the U.S. marketers are leading the charge with increasingly complex campaigns that allow them to do everything from reach target customers to identify influential consumers. This session will include real-life examples from outside Canada to show what’s possible in the mobile space
Moderator: Phil Barrett, Senior Director, Mobile & Interactive, Carlson Marketing
Panel:
Derek Colfer, Co-Founder and VP of Strategy, Jambo Mobile Solutions
Nick Patsiopoulos, Director, Mobile and Digital Services, Yahoo! Canada
Marc-Henri Magdelenat, Director, Sales & Marketing, Microsoft Mobile Advertising
Michael O’Farrell, Chair, dotMobi Advisory Group, Vice Chairman, ooober, Co-Author, “Mobile Internet for Dummies”. If you are interested in purchasing “Mobile Internet for Dummies” please click on the link here. I also reviewed his book on onedegree.ca here.  

I’ll be participating in the entire day. Follow my tweets at #mw08

It’s been a while since i’m posted one of these… but that’s partly because it’s been a bit more difficult to maintain the same publishing schedule over the summer when there are other things I’d rather be doing than banging away at my keyboard

Here are three articles you may have missed that were published on either onedegree.ca or the canadianmarketingblog.com recently:

1. Don’t focus on mobile, focus on the customer
2. The mobile phone book goes social
3. Status is “Online” for mobile instant messaging

Just as marketers are finally figuring out what the heck facebook is and why they should be embracing the platform as a way of reaching & engaging their customers and potential customers, there is a new trend developing that may impact facebook and other social mediums…

Enter social aggregators.

Aggregators won’t replace facebook – but much like RSS feeds have supplemented users visting websites directly, social aggregator services could mean marketers looking to reach and engage people through social media sites like facebook will find a smaller direct audience to engage with.

I’ve signed up with socialthing and others are raving about feedfriend. Both do about the same thing – they take updates from all your social media sites like flickr, facebook, twitter, yelp, linkedin and stream them as one interface in something called a “lifestream.”

The idea is great – instead of checking for updates on multiple sites, you can get them all at once – much like how i use Netvibes or Protopage to aggregate all my RSS feeds.

Personally I get everything I need from Netvibes. 

I can add twitter or facebook status updates to Netvibes… and i don’t really care for the extra features social aggregators include such as comments on the different feeds. When I also consider the fact that most of my friends aren’t as geeked out as I am on ‘web 2.0′, it makes even less sense. Just getting my friends on facebook was a monumental task.

Having said that, the mobile interface for Socialthing is a thing of beauty.

They also have an optimized interface for the iphone which makes checking out lifestreams on the go a pleasant experience.

I have a hard enough time keeping up with my RSS feeds (270 currently) – I’m not sure I have enough time (or care enough) to follow the lifestream of every person i know. Having said that, it could be really useful if you are stalking following a few choice people…

How can marketers get in on this?

Websites got around a similar issue when RSS feeds became popular by not including all the content in the feed – so users who liked the lead content were driven back to the site… where sponsored ads could be displayed in all their glory.

One suggestion – build your own branded social aggregator…. and include your own relevant content as one of the feeds.

I could see this working really well for Automotive, Financial, Pharma, Retail… well pretty much any brand looking to participate in & influence a person’s lifestream.

Today’s keynote address at CTIA was Sir Richard Branson who talked about doing things his way. He brought us on a 30 minute journey through the many bold successes Virgin has had. The highlight of his presentation was when he proclaimed that his next project once Virgin Galactic takes off is to build a modern day ”Noah’s Ark” for space that will send animals, seeds and 30 volunteers to travel to Mars for what he described could be a one way ticket.  

April fools joke or yet another bold project for the future?

Although his proclamation sounded more like a joke than a vision for the future – this wouldn’t be the first time he has gone against “the experts” to boldly go where no company has gone before (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Other things I’ve picked up on over the first two days:

1. If you lend you iphone to a stranger to make a local call, be sure to keep them within eyesight… or give them a quarter to make a call. Last night a stranger at an industry party walked away with my iphone. Good thing there’s an Apple store across the street from the hotel!
2. Much like the North American mobile industry, so much has changed in Vegas since I was last here two years ago. It’s truly remarkable to see the number of new buildings, casinos, and condos from 2 years ago. Even more remarkable are the massive projects currently under-way that will completely transform the infamous strip into something even more excessive. One project called the City Centre will have it’s own water treatment plant and power station. It looks like a series of 10 buildings that start at the strip and extend to the other side of the main highway. They have their own private monorail system for the place too.
3. Nothing new from blackberry this week…except a few more colour options for the pearl.
4. Although CTIA Wireless is the largest mobile event in North America, it pales in comparison to size and scale of the world mobile congress
5. 48 billion SMS messages are sent per month in the U.S.!!!

Time to catch a nap before heading over the i love the mobile web launch party!

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…

Now that you know what 2-D codes are, the next question is… how do you get one for yourself?

It’s simple really.

1. Contact codes. If you are looking to add a 2-D code to your business card to impress your friends at home while running with the hip crowd at the next CTIA or WMC conference, check out the contact matrix code generator at mobiletag.com 
2. URL codes. If you are looking for a simple 2-D code that will simply redirect to a mobile URL, go to shotcode.com
3. facebook codes. Create a QR 2-D code like the one in this post that will redirect users to your facebook profile. To get your own, login to facebook and do an application search for “qr codes”
4. Phone number, text, or SMS codes. Looking for a simple 2-D code that will display a message, send an SMS or phone number? Check out this free QR-code generator.
5. Do a google search for “free 2-d code generator.”

Remember – having your own 2-D code is only step one. Unless you live in Japan, chances are you also need to download a 2-D code reader to your mobile device. iphone users can download imatrix to their phone through the installer application with a jailbroken phone. 

Do you want to learn more about 2-D codes? Be sure to check out the site of two industry leaders; Scanbuy and Neomedia.

SMS mobile marketing is so 2007. 

2-D codes will do for mobile marketing what web 2.0 site have done for digital media.

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.  

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