MixMobi Blog

The Economist Agrees: QR "finally taking off"

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 11:35:47 -0500

We have been seeing more and more QR code activity every day, and are pleased to see The Economist agrees:

“For marketers, QR codes bridge the gap between offline and online worlds. Customers who use them are, in effect, asking to be told more about the company. The success of a campaign is easy to measure… Expect to see a lot more of those funny little black-and-white patches.”

Trying to figure out mobile-friendly content? MixMobi is the easiest, most full-featured Software as a Service on the market, offering instant opt-in forms, EPS quality QR code generation and advanced reporting.

QR: the EEEasy Way

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:28:09 -0600

Here’s a fast and easy test to ensure your QR code delivers results: ensure your QR uses one of more of these “Three E’s” techniques:

Entice Consumers and businesses are looking for value. Our clients’ highest traffic QRs offer discounts, free samples or other ways to save. For example, a publishing client’s advertiser offered free samples of a new product to drive traffic to their store. Use MixMobi’s exclusive timeboxing feature to keep the offers fresh and to drive repeat scans over time.

Engage Already active on social media? Leverage the intersection of social and mobile by linking your audience to your social channel. One of the easiest and most effective techniques: provide a link in the mobile page your QR delivers to the m.facebook version of your Facebook page. You’ll increase engagement and traffic to your social channel.

Entertain Similar to leveraging your social investment, provide links to YouTube video you have published. Multiply the power of a existing TV ad or short video “about our company” video by embedding it in your mobile-friendly QR content. This is an especially successful technique for “How To Use Our Product” and “Behind the Scenes” videos.

Our savvy clients often combine these techniques, amping up QR traffic and effectiveness. Make sure your QR hits one or more of the “Three E’s” for QR success in 2012.

(Looking for the easiest, most powerful way to create effective QR codes? You’ve found it: MixMobi. We’re proud of our outstanding 94% 2011 client retention rate. Try MixMobi today and enjoy fast, simply QR content creation that drives traffic, engagement and results.)

Got EPS?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:58:35 -0600

We’re pleased to announce you can now get your automatically-generated MixMobi QR code in Encapsulated Post Script (EPS) format.

Why uni-task with a flimsy QR code generator when you can leverage the power of MixMobi:

Pre-program content to change on your schedule using MixMobi’s exclusive new Timeboxing feature (perfect for ensuring in-store CPG compliance)
Gather contact information with easy to create forms (great for contests and other promotions)
Get opt-in data delivered in real time to any email address, or export in batches
Instantly embed any YouTube video
NEW: Instant QR codes in EPS format

No contract is required and you can change your MixMobi plan level at any time to match service to your needs.

Mall of America "Snap + Win" QR Promotion

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:38:32 -0600

Congratulations to client Mall of America on a very successful “Snap + Win” promotion this morning!

This traffic-driving promotion delivered an exciting and appealing Black Friday experience for 300 lucky Mall of America shoppers. All participants won prizes, from $25 gift certificates to three $1,000 shopping sprees.

Mall of America leveraged MixMobi’s latest feature, timeboxing, to automatically vary the QR content for each hour of the promotion. Each participant lined up next to a pre-assigned QR code and waited for the word to “Snap!”

Timeboxing can be used for managing and measuring QR code response for longer-term promotions as well. Imagine varying content by daypart, day of week, or to coordinate with other marketing. The mobile optimization opportunities are tremendous!

Thanks to our friends at Mall of America for their imaginative and compelling use of QR today!

Timeboxing is Here!

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:57:39 -0600

MixMobi clients value being able to change the content their QR codes and social media links return any time. The next person who scans your code gets up-to-the-minute content, seconds after you save the update.

But clients told us they would value being able to pre-program those content changes. Now you can!

Simply program the baseline content, plus a “before” and “after”, and the times and dates you want the content to change.

Timeboxing is great for:

Contests
Daypart programming
Daily or weekly deals or promotions

As it happens with most new features, we know you’ll think of even more ways to drive traffic using new MixMobi Timeboxing. Let us know how you’re using it!

MixMobi's New Look

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:41:12 -0500

Welcome to our newly redesigned website! We hope you will find it easier and faster to discover MixMobi’s powerful software-as-a-service for creating and measuring mobile marketing in minutes, with no programming required.

Big thanks go out to our publishing, restaurant and small business marketing clients for providing such glowing reviews. I was thrilled to read your testimonials and grateful to feature them in our new site. I’m always gratified to see the imaginative and effective ways you use MixMobi - thanks again.

A major “grazie!” also goes out to designer Norm Orstad, developer Steve Tuckner and MixMobi co-founder Kelly Heikkila for redesigning our site so effectively. You are truly an “A Team” and it is my privilege to work with you.

Take out a free trial today and see why our valued customers love the flexibility, power and results MixMobi provides!

New: Enhanced List Builder Lead Generation

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:09:04 -0500

Our most eagerly anticipated new feature went into production today: significant enhancements to MixMobi’s List Builder lead generator.

Enhanced List Builder allows you to:

Create multi-part response forms with up to 14 fields - ask consumers for name, address, phone, email, even custom fields
Customize the “Submit” button
Send responses in real time to any email address - outstanding for trade shows, real time contests or real estate sales
Accumulate responses over time and export to popular file formats like Excel
Use standard response or link the responder to a custom page

Thanks to our clients for suggesting this great addition to the MixMobi platform. We were thrilled to see clients using the enhancement hours after it was available this morning!

Engage!

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:54:25 -0500

A commonly missed mobile marketing opportunity is not giving the viewer a chance to engage.

One of our clients describes readers who scan his publications’ Quick Response codes as “hyperengaged.” Remember, he reminds advertisers, these are readers who want to know more and are willing to take a moment to scan your QR code.

This week we debuted an enhancement that allows you to take that engagement a step further. MixMobi users can now automatically redirect viewer opt-ins (typically email address or phone number) directly to any email box, in real time.

The applications are endless. With the elimination of the need to forward opt-in information, the boundaries between marketer and reader vanish:

Instant “contact me” opportunity for B2B
Real-time enter-to-win contests, great for events at which the promoter wants to contact and announce winners as part of the action
Governmental applications in which officials need to get constituent information and respond immediately in emergencies

Thanks to our engaged and creative clients for suggesting this enhancement to MixMobi List Builder! Watch for more compelling mobile marketing engagement features, coming to MixMobi later this month.

QR Codes: What Not to Do

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:38:39 -0500

So you’ve gotten the memo: QR code scanning by consumers has seen “staggering growth” in North America - 1,200% during the last six months of 2010.

You’ve read the “What To Do” columns, but are intimidated and under pressure to execute a QR campaign - stat!

Sometimes it’s easier to learn what’s imperative you not do with QR codes (vs trying to comply with a long, daunting list of “You Oughta”). So here’s your list of techniques to avoid:

Do not link a QR code to your non-mobile friendly home page. Consumers (rightly) hate it and won’t scan your codes in future (even if you’ve improved the content later).
Do not rely on free QR code generators and/or reporting if you need accurate data. Sorry, this falls into the “no free lunch” category. Just this past week we helped bail out an agency whose client had tried to cheap-out. The agency tested the “free” reporting the client brought to the QR party and found up to 40% of the scans weren’t reported.
Do not force consumers to immediately play a video on their mobile. We are seeing far too many lazy QR codes that simply fire off a video on the consumer’s mobile. Remember: videos chew up battery life. If your consumer is in the airport waiting for a flight, with fast-disappearing battery juice, he is going to curse you for firing off that video automatically. This one’s easy: let the consumer decide.
Don’t forget the quiet zone. We have been amazed by one major New York Times advertiser whose QR code fails to scan because the designer obliterated the mandatory “quiet zone” around the QR code. Your QR code needs a border that’s the same color as your QR code background color (most commonly white) to read.
Do not neglect testing the final creative proof. The advertiser in the failed-scan story, above, could have avoided this error by scanning the final proof. If you’re using a generic code, scan the final creative proof with as many different readers and smartphones as you can.

While there are many aspirational techniques you should be using with QR codes, including consumer opt-ins, links to your social media sites on mobile, changing content over time, and more, these minimal steps will keep you from having a QR code disaster.

(Image: Johnson’s SunCare Lotion packaging QR code, fsse8info on Flickr)

QR Eye in the Sky

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:43:55 -0600

This week we’re celebrating the launch of client Parasole Restaurant Holdings’ innovative QR code driven billboard.

Unlike the majority of QR code billboards which deliver static content, the Chino Latino billboard engages viewers with a vibrant storyline introducing chef Tuan Nguyen. The “origins” campaign launch video starts Tuan’s mystical journey as Lord of the Hot Zones. At the end of the video, viewers are reminded to scan the code often to follow Tuan’s story.

Viewers also find a special, limited time offer and an invitation to Like the campaign on Facebook when they scan the code. (See current QR code content by clicking here.)

Parasole will serve new content through the billboard QR code as frequently as daily over the course of the campaign. In addition to the billboard, various campaign QR codes will also be used in restaurant coasters, posters — even temporary tattoos for sales staff!

Key takeaways for marketers:

Easy to manage, variable content should be a “must” for any QR code campaign.
MixMobi’s advanced campaign management tools allow you to pre-program what content will appear when, down to the exact minute.
MixMobi also allows you to change content in real time. Edit, save and close the QR code’s content, and the next person who scans the code will see the new version. This real time vibrancy can power “spot” promotions based on sports scores, weather, and other events as they occur.

Thanks to partners Intercom for providing edgy, engaging campaign creative, and to Sterling Cross, Parasole’s outstanding social and PR consultants. Big thanks also to the Parasole leaders engineering this ground-breaking campaign, including Kip Clayton, Sarah Nerison, and Jodi Schoenauer.

“Watch This Space” as Tuan’s journey unfolds!

2010 Mobile Bookmark Gold

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:35:07 -0600

Ah, the Year End Wrapup. I generally get more than my fill of Year End recaps and predictions (some great, some gratuitous). So here’s something you can really use: a roundup on great resources on mobile you should bookmark:

NielsenWire - Smartphones now 28% of US Cellphone Market Lots of “Gosh, really?” stats like “50% of Android Owners Under 35.” Nov 1, 2010 http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/mobile-snapshot-smartphones-now-28-of-u-s-cellphone-market/

Neustar - Mobile Code Campaign Best Practices Not sure why Neustar shied away from the term “QR code”, but whether you call them QR, 2D or barcodes, the best practices remain the same. Lots of solid, “should be obvious” advice. Dec 9, 2010 http://mobilenextbigthing.biz/2010/12/09/best-practices-for-a-successful-mobile-barcode-campaign/

NielsenWire - Global View of Cellphones and Youth Good comparisons of youth and mobile throughout the world. Dec 15, 2010 http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/a-global-view-of-cellphones-and-youth/

Opera - State of Mobile Web Opera always does a great job summarizing worldwide usage and trends. ReadWriteWeb’s takeaway in this November 2010 report: “Mobile Web surfing is way, way up.” http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/opera_state_of_the_mobile_web_year_end_2010.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29

Millenial Media - Device Details Really need to deep-dive on manufacturers, devices, and carriers worldwide? Millenial’s got your data. October 2010 http://www.millennialmedia.com/wp-content/images/mobilemix/MM-MobileMix-Oct2010.pdf

Can I Use Sometime in 2011, someone’s going to ask you about HTML5. Crib from this handy summary of when you can use HTML5, CSS3, and SVG and ask for a raise. http://caniuse.com/

LetsGoMo Blog - What mobile devices support HTML5? is the next natural question. Here’s the skinny: http://letsgomo.com/mobile-web/estimates-of-mobile-phones-and-smartphones-supporting-html5/

FierceWireless - Everything you ever wanted to know about the US smartphone market A great compendium of solid research resources. Nov 3, 2010 http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/special-reports/everything-you-ever-wanted-know-about-us-smartphone-market

As we wrap up 2010, big thanks to our outstanding team, our clients, prospects and friends - it’s been an exciting journey for MixMobi in 2010. We look forward to an outstanding 2011 supporting new features and trail-blazing mobile campaigns. See you on the other side of New Year’s!

The Two Year Itch

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:49:47 -0600

Although everyone remembers Marilyn Monroe in the 1955 film “The Seven Year Itch,” it is the wonderful Tom Ewell who carries the comedy’s laughs.

Ewell’s character, Richard Sherman, is a married man who has been left alone as his wife and son leave New York City for the beach one hot summer. His imagination goes hilariously wild when a beautiful women moves in upstairs, providing memorable Walter Mitty moments of daydreaming.

In the US, where mobile handsets are typically heavily subsidized by carriers with a two-year contract commitment, consumers are experiencing a 24-month version of Richard’s “itch.”

As the last few months of the contract tick by, consumers’ eyes start roving. “I’m out of contract next month - how you liking that [handset]?” they ask a fellow commuter. They start reading reviews. They stop by that mobile kiosk at the mall to kick the tires.

What’s the relevance to mobile marketers? The US two-year free agency cycle that never ends ensures that, whatever smartphone platform you commit to, it’s in danger of losing share in just a few months as thousands of American consumers, every day of the year, come up on their two year carrier contract anniversary. And with more and more diverse handset selection offered by each carrier over time, even carrier-loyal consumers can’t be taken for granted.

It’s worth remembering as you, the marketer, consider committing to a platform, that your target consumers have a wandering eye. If Android can go from 3% to 25% market share in just one year, 2011’s newest competitor can do it, too. No platform is safe from the Two Year Itch.

Three Columns Shaking Mobile

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 14:58:47 -0600

Trying to make sense of the mobile “Wild Wild West”? Here are three recent “must read” columns for the marketer, investor or technologist:

“Does HTML5 Make Mobile App Downfall Inevitable?” Mobile Marketer’s column rounds up solid and compelling research from Adobe, Borrell Associates, Pew Internet Project, and Valhalla Partners, and concludes that ease of creation, maintenance and consumer acceptance and use are tipping the scales away from native smartphone applications and toward mobile web.

“The iPhone app is the Flash homepage of 2010” argues that, like heavy, expensive Flash deployments in the late 1990s, iPhone apps are being rejected as too costly to build and maintain. Mobile Beat guest columnist Peter Yared says Silicon Valley debate about the pro’s and con’s of native smartphone applications is effectively irrelevant as businesses continue to vote with their wallets for web apps: “Overall native apps have run their course” Yared concludes.

37signals’ announcement that they are working on a new “Rails-like” framework for HTML5 mobile web development has stimulated a frenzy of interest among developers. How frenzied? Ryan Carson calls it “insanely exciting.” I don’t think I can punch it up more than that, Ryan.

Both Mobile Marketer and Yared make the obligatory hat tip that I will repeat: as on the desktop, native apps are still necessary on mobile for gaming and anything graphically intensive. But these may simply be the exceptions that prove the (emerging) rule.

In striking synchronicity, we see in these three columns the continuing secular shift toward mobile web simultaneously from the marketer, the investor, and the developer points of view.

Photo credit: Larry Wentzel

Hello Locations and QR Codes

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 22:18:00 -0500

We’re excited to announce some new functionality for MixMobi today. First, the addition of Locations. Locations are another easy way to manage and organize your offers. While we already included campaign management to organize offers around channels and tags to organize offers around categories, we were asked by customers to organize offers around specific geographies and brands.

Here is what locations do:

Each location can contain an address a logo, and other contact information
Each location can include a landing page (formerly called a MixMart) listing the offers available at that location
Easily include a map image or link on an offer based on the configured location address
Offers can include the location logo without having to upload a file or find a URL
You can create as many locations as concurrent offers allowed by your plan
Look for location data to also be included in our API shortly

Second, we now include a QR code for every location landing page and offer. QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes readable by smart phones with a camera and a scanner app. With the inclusion of QR codes, MixMobi customers can now easily link static content in printed marketing campaigns with dynamic content on their landing pages or offers. QR codes can also be included in other electronic marketing linking the desktop web with the mobile web. MixMobi offers the QR codes in a number of different sizes for different uses and our short offer urls (http://mxmo.be) mean that the codes are simpler and can be more quickly and accurately read by scanners.

If you have any questions or feedback on these new features, please let us know!

Five Audience Definitions to Map Mobile Pathways

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:52:48 -0500

Lately I’ve been blogging about the questions I hear most frequently from clients and prospects on mobile marketing.

One evergreen topic is discovery. How do we get targeted consumers we want to reach to discover our mobile-friendly content and promotions?

Before we get talk about untangling discover optimization, let’s talk about why it’s so hard to do.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) deserves tremendous credit for working to keep mobile marketing permission-based. It’s one (annoying) thing to get Spam in your desktop email. It’s quite another to get it on your mobile in the middle of a meeting with your boss.

So the guidelines are emphatic. No interruption mobile marketing without explicit initial (and implicit on-going) permission from the consumer.

The removal of the easy, Spam-like route can be irritating to marketers. But remember that, in the long run, your audience relationship will be far more valuable for having been cultivated, not crammed.

Frustrated by the lack of easy discovery answers, the temptation is to dive in with method first. However, the way to determine the best discovery path (and secondarily which platforms and methods you will ultimately use) is similar to the best way to find the path through a maze: begin at the goal and work backwards, answering these questions:

Who are we trying to reach? Define age, gender and income at a minimum. Ethnicity, family composition and income are sharply differentiating as well.
What mobile devices do they own? Smartphone vs non-smartphone is a start. But you may be able to mine more deeply. One client is targeting only C-level executives in a traditional industry - an almost purely Blackberry-owning segment.
How do they use their mobiles? Mobile usage patterns are very distinct between demographic groups. For example, while 38% of all Americans access the web via mobile, 65% of 18 - 29 year olds use their mobiles to browse. In the C-level executive example, the target audience use their Blackberries to send and receive emails more than any other mobile activity.
What do we want them to do once we get their attention? Engage? Buy? Be aware of our brand? Narrow down to your top one or two objectives and rigorously define how you will know whether you have succeeded.
Test and iterate Much like navigating a maze, we are unlikely to get the solution 100% correct on our first attempt. Because you have defined your goals in the previous step, you’ll quickly learn whether you’re close to meeting those goals. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and modify your approach as you discover what does and does not work for your target mobile audience.

Happy exploring!

WinPho7's real threat

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 10:51:21 -0500

I am as fascinated as the next geek by the latest innovations in mobile technology.

But I’m even more intrigued by what consumer response tells us, and by what marketers make of all the “Wild West” activity on the mobile frontier. In this post, I’ll share what I think is the most interesting market impact scenario for Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 platform.

Who is most threatened?

Although it’s a very misleading media story, the eternal “Android v iPhone Smackdown” meme is reflexive baseline for discussing WinPho7’s possible impact. Most analysts who have gone down this path predict that, with iPhone’s continuing sex appeal and Android’s monster momentum, WinPho7 won’t make much of a dent in either platform’s momentum.
Looking at all the early WinPho7 hands-on reviews and analysis (plus at previews of Crispin Porter Bogusky’s “Really?” tv campaign), I agree. WinPho7’s But the player I believe should be looking over its shoulder most nervously in the short term may be the US smartphone market leader: Blackberry:

WinPho7 is not taking direct aim at sexy (iPhone) or hardcore technical (Android) consumers. They are wooing the demographic that Blackberry, even in its weakened state, still holds: practical consumers who are not particularly in love with technology.
Difficult as it is for those of us immersed in the mobile industry to remember, Microsoft is still a trusted brand by many, many consumers.
IT departments’ grip on their employees’ handset choices has been loosened. And no company is more dominant in enterprise than Microsoft. So, if forced to loosen that grip, what company will IT departments favor - Apple (working hard to make inroads in business) or Microsoft?

Who should worry next?

FierceWireless recently remarked on Google’s meteoric rise in share in a very short period of time. While I admire Android tremendously and believe it has brought a refreshingly different ethos to mobile, I’m still very troubled by the fragmentation challenges, as are many others. Google poo-poo’s these worries, but it’s clearly a problem for practical consumers who want their mobile experience simple and reliable. Yes, you and I may debate open vs closed systems passionately. Most consumers could not care less.

One aspect of Google’s very fast gobble of significant market share has not been voiced in the mobile press: If one disruptive player can significantly shift share in 18 months, so can another. And if WinPho7 can take significant share from Blackberry and even minor share from Android and iPhone, watch out. Danger often comes from places we least expect it. And after so long in the mobile doghouse, Microsoft may be hazardous to ignore.

Photo credit

Semper Paratus

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:43:10 -0500

I’m often asked “What’s next?” for mobile. In general, I think there is a trend toward “write-once” platforms and HTML5 (web) for at least some mobile marketing support.

But perhaps the more interesting question is, what’s a marketer or a brand to do in the absence of knowing what’s next? Because, let’s be honest, who among us would have predicted that bar code scanning in the US would have grown 700% this year?

In addition to understanding and staying current with what your target audience’s most common mobile behaviors are, you need a core of adaptable, workhorse services that can be at-hand regardless of what mobile usese become trendy with your customers in six months.

One great resource for exploring your options is “Mobile Web Design for Dummies,” published this month by Wiley & Sons. Janine Warner and David LaFontaine do a great job walking through a wide variety of resources and strategies.

To ensure you’re “always prepared,” ask:

What would we do if we were asked to compare results, apples-to-apples, between a mobile Facebook campaign and an SMS campaign?
What’s our baseline for impression measurement across digital channels?
Do we have resources for painlessly measuring response based on device used by the audience?

Mobile marketing is projected to grow 84% Compounded Annual Growth Rate through 2013. What steps do you need to take to be “Semper Paratus” for reaching your increasingly mobile customers?

(Photo: Richard Masoner’s photostream, BSA Troup 614 Court of Honor)

What to Keep an Eye on Now...

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:40:49 -0500

One of the most challenging aspects of mobile today is the speed with which it is evolving. To help you stay afloat in this year of continuing mobile development tsunami, here are four areas I believe are crucial to integrate in your strategic planning for mobile:

Location as “given” Location awareness has been a hot mobile topic for the past 18 months. Unfortunately, the heat has exceeded the light. Will all mobiles be location-aware within a few years? Likely. Will 100% of consumers be willing to share their location 100% of the time? Highly unlikely. Having said that, services like driving directions are so popular that the volume of uptake and demand will sweep away the details. Start thinking about location as a “given” and plan to include it as an option within every mobile interaction.

Permanent fragmentation For one brief, shining moment, it looked as though Apple might become to mobiles what Microsoft was to PCs: a friction-reducing monopoly. However, Google and its Android hardware minions have thrown a spanner into that dream. (And Nokia, for all its challenges, can’t be discounted.) Having seen Android’s swift growth can you confidently state you know which smartphone will be the most popular in 18 months? Accept that the mobile hardware and OS’s will continue to be fragmented; ensure all mobile strategies are device-agnostic.

Pan-device development Two credible efforts are underway at Alcatel-Lucent and Amdocs to support developers coping with fragmentation and difficult carrier billing/monetization. Insist your in-house or agency partners stay up to date and push them to experiment with these platforms. Find cost-effective tools to maximize your mobile development dollars and mobile marketing reach.

M-Commerce advances While we’ve all been hypnotized by what analyst Tomi Ahonen calls the smartphone “bloodbath” this year, the carriers have been quietly pushing forward their M-commerce agenda. Starting mid-2011, AT&T and Verizon will pilot “Mercury”, using radio frequency proximity to allow consumers to swipe a smartphone at an in-store reader to make a purchase. Retailers may even be able to supply receipts and rewards directly. Given the lack of love among retailers, Visa and Mastercard, retailers may be happy to give Mercury a chance. Keep an eye on Mercury; carrier-based mobile proximity payments could be the hot M-commerce hand by 2012.

Watch these key mobile trends and ensure you are one of the companies Morgan Stanley’s Mary Meeker predicts will “win big” in mobile (not one of the “many” left to “wonder what just happened”).

Quick Response Codes: Doing It Right!

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:56:43 -0500

Recently I blasted a national magazine for their inept use of Quick Response codes:

None of the promotions delivered anything of immediate value to the reader
Most required the reader to fill in lengthy forms
Several directed the reader to desktop-only websites

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:

Strong editorial content coordinated with the issue, including videos
Offers instantly usable on reader’s mobile phone

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.)

Beyond the Sugar High

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:25:44 -0500

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. The disenchantment with standalone mobile applications is your signal to insist on two new standards. Every mobile initiative must:

Preserve precious customer information. When you find a platform, operating system or promotion that does not allow you (or your client) to retain consumer information like phone numbers or email addresses, stop and find an alternative that does.
Be architected to make a return on your mobile investment. Sometimes, one component of your overall mobile approach will be a loss leader of course. But the entire suite of coordinated mobile platforms must make money overall.

Want an example? Here’s a great concept for transforming what would otherwise be a loss into on-going profit. Store-locator smartphone application on multiple platforms are expensive. And of course consumers expect it to be free. But for any large, multi-unit chain, it’s a must-have on mobile.

But how can you turn those expensive smartphone applications into a profit center? Take a page from traditional retail co-op marketing, such as Sunday newspaper circulars.

Does your company sell other firms’ branded merchandise? Charge suppliers for promotional space on your mobile store locator platform. That’s a win for you and a win for your suppliers as well. Over time, charging for access will both stimulate those suppliers’ sales in your stores and create on-going profit for you.

Ultimately, a new technology or technique doesn’t mean we throw out our core businesses practices. The best results come from applying solid profitability expectations to all new opportunities.

Photo credit: Leafar, 2008

(Disclosure: Tomi Ahonen sits on MixMobi’s Advisory Board.)