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…

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.

I’ll be getting on a plane Sunday afternoon to Barecelona, Spain for the 2008 Mobile World Congress – formely known as the 3GSM.

My plan is to blog at least once a day with summaries, points of view and perspective on a variety of mobile related topics including: 

1. How MMS is working as a marketing device in Europe
2. Applications of LBS (location based services) in Asia
3. Bluetooth marketing messaging in Africa
4. Mobile Search
5. Mobile web vs. Mobile widgets
6. Mobile advertising platforms, case studies and trends
7. Mobile Social Networking
8. Demos of 4G technology
9. New devices, or device trends
10. Off-deck content and applications

The plan is to also attend several events related to the conference including the Mobile Monday Peer Awards, Mobile Entertainment forum, Canadian breakfast forum, Mobile Jam session and the GoMo News blender.

Do you have other topics you’d like to hear about while i’m there? Send me an SMS, comment or email me through the contact form on this website.  

A few months ago I blogged about the impact of facebook on traditional print media. 

Many promoters had stopped printing flyers and started leveraging the power of the social graph available through facebook in order to reach and promote their events.

As reported by Yahoo last week, Yahoo is poised for hundreds of layoffs this week as advertising revenue has dropped significantly. 

Social Media sites have become everything Yahoo used to be – but simpler.  And easier. And more open.

Marketers have followed consumers to popular social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace. It would appear that facebook has moved on from eating the print shop’s lunch to eating the lunch of Web 1.0 sites.

Who’s next?

Over the past few weeks I’ve spent some time mapping out my conference schedule for the year. If you are interested in learning more about mobile marketing or the industry in general, I’ve listed my top 10 most important mobile conferences for 2008:

1.  Mobile Web USA. January 22-23, San Francisco. Although specific to the U.S. market, the speaker list is impressive with representation from facebook, yahoo, amazon, new york times, AOL and others. This is a great conference to go to if you want to get a jump on the mobile web.
2.  Mobile World Congress. February 11-14, Barecelona, Spain. The industry is shaped by players, if you’re not at the congress you are merely a spectator. This is the premier mobile event of the year featuring 690 GSM mobile operators across 214 territories and countries of the world.
3. Gartner Wireless & Mobile Summit. March 3-5, Chicago. Looking for the latest research, case studies and actionable recommendations? This is the conference for you.
4. CTIA Wireless. April 1-3, Las Vegas. CTIA’s spring trade show is the premier North American venue for all things wireless! This trade show has the distinction of being the largest and most comprehensive in the industry. 
5. Global Messaging Congress. May 8-9, Cannes, France. Everything mobile messaging including Ip-based, Mobile IM, SMS, and MMS and focus on advertising, enterprise messaging, conversion techniques and banking / m-payments.
6. MMA – June 10-12, New York. Agenda for this year’s event is to be posted – but it’s a great short event if you are interested in seeing what other agencies and brands are doing with Mobile Marketing. Case studies, best practices and often a platform for major announcements.
7. Canadian Telecom Summit, June 16-18, Toronto. The Canadian Telecom Summit is Canada’s pre-eminent gathering of the telecommunications industry and those with vested interests in its welfare.
8. CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment. Sept 10-12, location TBD. CTIA’s fall show is a follow-up to the spring show…but with an emphasis on content
9. Mobile Web USA, November. Location TBD. Follow-up to Winter event
10. Mobile Mondays - first monday of each month, Toronto. Small gathering of locals and out of town guests covering a variety of topics around Mobile. Not in Toronto? Check out their global site for a chapter near you.

You can easily make going to these events your full-time job – or at least you’ll need one to pay for them all! I’m hoping to get to the World Congress in February and a few others during the year. Last year I made it to the World Congress, CTIA and the MMA event in New York. I’ve also really enjoyed attending most Mobile Monday events in Toronto.

Am I missing a good one? Please comment, SMS, or email me your suggestions and I’ll add them to this list.

It’s a silly excercise, but everybody does it.  After a banner year for mobile in Canada, here are 10 outrageous predictions for 2008:  

1. SMS third-party advertising – every SMS you send is 150 characters…most of which is sent as blank space. I predict new services will take advantage of this in 2008 to deliver SMS advertising to off-set mobile costs for the consumer (but only if they opt-in of course)
2. Mobile Web advertising will take a piece of your media buy. We’ve seen it happen with online media…now with more inventory becoming available off-deck, the time is right to test and pilot this channel
3. MMS Common Short Codes will finally arrive and usher us into a new era in Mobile marketing in Canada….or at least catch us up to the rest of the world.
4. Mobile payments (m-Commerce) will start to emerge from text books, blogs, and sales pitches.  Look for pilots from Interac, Visa and at least one of the major banks next year.
5. The iphone will finally arrive in Canada – but it will be the second generation 3G phone that will support higher internet access speeds and cool features like video calling. This will be offered exclusively on the Rogers network – but don’t be surprised if another non-mobile retailer offers them for sale first
6. Fixed or low-cost data plans will be universal across all carriers in Canada. It’s already started with Bell and Rogers now offers an $80 / month plan for 500 megs of data – plenty for most of us. It’s still a long way from other plans around the world that are 4 times cheaper or better, but it’s a start
7. Due to fixed or low-cost data plans, look for the mobile web to catch fire.  Marketing campaigns will start incorporating mobile web strategies as part of their marketing mix
8. A new mobile carrier will be announced. The Canadian government announced the opening of new spectrum and is reserving a piece of it for a new player and with special engagement rules that will make it easier for a new competitor to enter the market.
9. Google will continue its charge towards world mobile domination. Look for their gphone sometime in the 3rd quarter and look for them to either bid on spectrum in the U.S., buy a carrier like Sprint outright to own a piece without having to go through the auction process or leverage their new mobile platform called Android to get direct access to many subscribers across many carriers.
10. Social Networking will make the leap from desktop to Mobile as a primary interface / access point 

Even if only a few of these come to fruition in 2008, it will be a great year for Marketers and a great year for Consumers.

Happy Holidays!

The CWTA just released their third quarter report on the Canadian mobile industry. Highlights include:

1. September 2007, person-to-person text messages totalled 946.7 million (approximately 31.5 million per day), up from 795.3 million in June 2007.
2. The total number of person-to-person text messages sent during the first three quarters of 2007 totalled 6.8 billion, surpassing the total of all text messages sent in 2006 which was 4.3 billion messages. Canada is on track to deliver over 9 billion text messages in 2007.
3. There are now over 19 million mobile subscribers in Canada or about 60% adoption overall. Adoption is around 70% in major urban areas and around 80% in major cities.
4. There were over 500,000 new subscribers in the third quarter.
5. 80% of mobile customers are on postpaid plans – so 20% are on prepaid plans.
6. There have been 18 applications processed for mobile micro-payments (mCommerce) in Canada in 2007.

What does this mean for marketers in Canada? It’s time to divert marketing budget to mobile. If you are looking for support with customer acquisition campaigns – SMS is still the way to go… or at least where you should begin your efforts.

Mobile web (including advertising) is growing and it’s now possible to buy inventory off-deck. Off-deck means developing something that isn’t carrier specific or that does not rely on the carrier for delivery. This means you can now promote your product or service beyond the confines of the “on-deck” carrier web experience.

For marketers looking for customer retention or growth tactics to compliment existing initiatives - SMS is still a great place to start by offering alerts, timely news, or information that is specific and personal to your customer. Stay away from many to 1 messages. Mobile is a very personal channel that rewards 1:1 communication. 

Marketers who have had success using Mobile have seen 94% open rates or better on SMS and 15% response rates to a call to action.   I don’t know about you, but that’s information I’ll be sharing with all our clients as we roll into the new year.

Today the federal government of Canada announced that they are opening up the wireless communications industry in May of 2008 by making spectrum available specifically for newcomers to break up the Oligopoly of Bell, Telus, and Rogers in Canada.

As reported by the Toronto Star today, the move is expected to increase competition in Canada to create better pricing, more options and better service. Canadians are already paying as much as 33% more for similar data plans in the U.S. for average users and up to 56% more for heavy users.  Mobile usage in Canada is among the lowest in the developed world at around 58% – compared to some European countries that are close to 100%. A fourth major carrier is bound to drive down prices and drive up adoption in Canada.

This is great news for consumers. This is also great news for marketers.  Better pricing means marketers can boldly go beyond SMS campaigns and leverage the full potential of the mobile web and mobile applications which rely on the mobile web for data to create a rich experience on mobile devices. Yahoo for example has a great downloadable mobile product called Yahoo! Go which provides a rich mobile internet experience…but can result in an outrageous bill from your carrier if you don’t already have a hefty data plan. Cheap and / or fixed data rates means consumers will be able to enjoy products like Yahoo! Go without fear of having to re-mortgage the house after binging on data.

Since my last post on Bell’s introduction of fixed rates in Canada, Telus has started offering $15 fixed data plans as a retention strategy for existing customers. With both Bell and Telus dropping their data rates as a pre-emptive strike against the pending introduction of the iphone in Canada, we can only expect universal fixed data plans are on their way.  Adding a fourth carrier can only help.

Mobile as a mass medium may no longer be restricted to countries not named Canada.  Pretty cool, eh?  

Steve Levy, President of Market Research in Eastern Canada for IPSOS Reid, declared at this week’s CMA digital marketing conference that there is no mobile marketing in Canada. According to their research, 27% of Canadian marketers agree that mobile marketing will be very important in the future with 9% indicating they are practicing it now. Steve indicated he didn’t know how anybody could actually be doing mobile marketing now as Canadian carriers don’t yet support it.

I had an opportunity to speak with Steve after his presentation and suggested that his definition of Mobile Marketing was likely different from the 9% practicing it in Canada today.

He pointed out that when he walks by a retail outlet he doesn’t get coupons or messaging sent to his mobile device – which is how he defines mobile marketing. His definition really refers to location based services (LBS) or sometimes referred to as location based messaging (LBM). LBS / LBM does work in Canada across all carriers for those with built-in GPS in their devices (like the Blackberry 8800), but all the examples I’ve worked with require you to download a supporting application to your mobile device to make it work. Related to this are QR Codes (or Quick Response Codes) which are already rampant in other countries. Oh, another interesting stat from the Ipsos-Reid survey, 29% of marketers believe that QR Codes will be a part of many campaigns in the next three years. I’ll cover more on LBS & QR Codes in an upcoming article.

Mobile Marketing is more than LBS and QR Codes, although it is true that the future of Mobile Marketing could revolve around them.

Mobile Marketing is about creating conversations and creating engagement with audiences through the Mobile channel. Put another way, mobile marketing is about amplifying branded events, extending product or service experiences and extending the reach of a campaign which may already include TV, print, web, and email.

When I give an overview of Mobile Marketing to our clients, I tend to break it out into four channels:

1) SMS (or text messaging) & MMS

2) Downloading (ringtones, video & images) & Applications

3) Mobile Web

4) Mobile advertising

Of course others may define or categorize the mobile channel a bit differently, but I’ve found that using this approach can bring clarity and focus to your conversations. Over the coming weeks, I’ll provide my point of view of how to leverage each of these channels into your marketing mix. This year’s CMA conference had its moments, but I’m looking forward to next year’s conference where I’m expecting a location based message to be delivered from centre stage.