Magazine’s first digital issue, July 2010, includes several QR codes. The Neoreader codes deliver readers:
Recently I blasted a national magazine for their inept use of Quick Response codes:
One advertiser sent me an email this week. I had “won” a $5 off coupon (which I need to print to redeem) seven weeks after filling out their very lengthy form. In this case the Q in QR stands for “Quagmire.”
This week I want to celebrate a publisher using Quick Response codes right. MSP Magazine’s first digital issue, July 2010, includes several QR codes. The Neoreader codes deliver readers:
Aside from optional, fast opt-in’s, MSP Magazine demanded no long form-filling exercises of the reader. And every piece of content was immediate.
For readers on the go, sampling content using QR or 2D codes, keep it fresh, fast and immediate. Great job!
(Disclosure: MSP Magazine is a client of MixMobi, which was used to create and share content via QR codes in their July issue.)
At the beginning of every trend, businesses experience the “Gee Whiz” moment when doing anything related to the trend is enough. And the flashier, the better.
But over time, the sugar high passes. The experiment turns out to be the P&L equivalent of empty calories.
Typically businesses next start to explore how this newest development can generate revenue and earn its keep.
Anyone watching social media recently has seen this arc. Companies are now far more hard-nosed about Facebook and Twitter practices than they were one year ago. And now, mobile in the US is entering its post-sugar-high phase.
Tomi Ahonen’s razor sharp analysis of the likelihood of making money from iPhone applications last week kicked up lively discussion that marks this transition.
(The analysis itself is well worth your time. It was also intelligently commented on in Kevin Tofel’s column in GigaOm and by Kevin Kelleher in Big Money.)
Ahonen painstakingly assembles solid data and asserts that the average developer makes about $3,000 per year on an app. Worse yet, de-averaging the numbers leads to the estimate that most developers will make less than $700.
But it’s not just developers who should be paying attention. The same realities apply to companies as well.
Not so very long ago, we associated mobile use exclusively with being out-of-home. After all, why would you need a mobile at home when your landline was at-hand?
We know more and more households (now 1 in 4 according to the CDC) are going “mobile-only.” This story has always implied simple substitution of one device for another.
But the narrative is actually more interesting than landlines going the way of the thatched roof.
Agency Initiatives, surveying 8,000 mobile owners in Italy, Sweden, U.K., U.S., Australia, China, India and South Korea, found that 60% of mobile use takes place in the home.
Even factoring in landline substitution use among 25% of Americans, this is a startling statistic. More astounding yet:
Too often mobile is considered an also-ran, a leading-edge initiative or an experimental “toe in the water.” But clearly mobile should be considered an adjunct to any tv, radio, or print campaign, leveraging messages and engaging consumers further.
Image credit: Alan Godfree, Creative Commons License
As readers of our blog know, I write often about the virtues and traps of “walled garden” approaches to mobile. Today, instead of writing about closed vs open, I’m going to ask you to think about a different aspect: in whose mobile garden will your clients and customers live?
Recently a client with whom we have been exploring mobile marketing related an interesting experience.
He had been approached by a text message provider with a marketing solution for small restaurant chains. The pricing was appealing and the service sounded convenient. The catch? The merchant would never have access to his customers’ mobile number and never be able to port those numbers to a different solution. For him, lack of access to and control of his customers’ information was a deal-breaker.
In more subtle forms, this occurs frequently in mobile marketing (and with group deals marketing as well). The flow of activities and benefits for the merchant look strong and the pricing is reasonable.
But, like asking “Who Benefits?”, ask yourself: who will own my customers’ data? If a trend like location-based check-ins proves popular with your customer base, can you quickly and smoothly migrate to continue to provide mobile offers on another platform? Will you be able to adapt your data and your promotions to a trend we haven’t even heard of yet? And who truly owns and controls the monetization of offers — you the agency or merchant, or the solution provider?
As interesting as the perennial walled / open garden argument continues to be, be sure to also ask yourself in whose garden your mobile marketing will occur — and who will reap the biggest benefits over time.
Photo credit: Chris Wimbush, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons
Tonight we deployed a new set of features to make it even easier (and fun!) to create and maintain Offers and MixMarts in MixMobi.
These new features include:
We know our customers are going to put together some really creative offers with this new flexibility. Please try it out and let us know how what you think!
Lars Erik Holmquist, of the Mobile Life Centre in Kista, Sweden, wrote an insightful piece titled “The Age of the Mobile Mash-Up” in Crunchgear last week:
“This is where I believe the most exciting opportunities lie right now in mobile applications: picking and mixing from hundreds of mobile web services and social networks, moving the grunt work from the handsets to the cloud, and adding a dash of location and context-awareness. …the step from thought to users is shorter than ever. We are finally entering the age of the mobile mash-up, and it will all be happening at even greater speed than the Web 2.0 revolution.”
In a world in which many are only starting to pay attention to mobile marketing, it’s important to note that the biggest opportunities lie not in locking down, but in opening up. Since emerging from beta three months ago, we have started to see this phenomenon mature.
Big clients understand that they they can assemble open API utilities to present unique, valued mobile services to consumers, while leveraging the massive investment they have made in databases (for example, store locators). Combined with co-op marketing with their suppliers, for example, the mobile cloud can provide profitable, location-aware opportunities easily and fluidly to all web-enabled mobiles.
Similarly, small businesses are learning that mobile promotions that are not open and do not give them access to opt-in databases will keep them from building their business. I was pleased this week when a marketer working with us mentioned rejecting a mobile marketing firm that would not give his client opt-in mobile numbers. The business owner shrewdly understood that just buying the messaging wasn’t the point of the mobile marketing exercise; the point is long-term engagement.
How about you? Do you have a compelling opportunity to assemble existing services easily and quickly to meet your specific requirements? Are you thinking fixed and downloaded, or open and flexible? Making the most of “the most exciting opportunities” in mobile today is a new and emerging process. Ensure your business gets the most out of it.
A new study from iVillage and SheSpeaks highlight the “dramatic” influence that online community and digital coupons have on women buyers. Key findings:
Interestingly, Facebook and Twitter, while important, were of lower influence for women than reviews, articles or blogs.
Photo credit: Mo Riza via Wikimedia