A great tool for brainstorming
May 10, 2013 Mobile, Social Leave a comment
We’ve been looking for something like Trello for a long time. Trello Is promoted as a project management system. As a digital marketing agency we’ve got that down. What was really missing was a global collaborative space to share ideas and brainstorm. At the core of Trello are cards that are used to share and organize ideas. People can collaborate using tablets, smart phones and traditional browsers. This is ideal when trying to brainstorm with folks in different locations and time zones. People can also vote and share ideas outside of the group. As more of the best creative’s in the business ditch their commute and learn how to work from home apps like Trello become very valuable. Think of it as a digital whiteboard that doesn’t end up a scribbled mess, or have the words “do not erase”, scrawled above it. I’ll let you know how it goes.
More here https://trello.com/
Recent poll : 71% of consumers would consider using a mobile coupon on a date!
April 30, 2013 Mobile, Social Leave a comment
When my wife and were saving for a first home I remember going through a phase where I printed out coupons for free entrées in local restaurants. These coupons and other discounts like the entertainment card would always raise eyebrows with the wait staff. It was especially fun when your coupon was rejected and had to be returned to you. ” Sorry sir this is only for our Plattsburgh location, you will need to pay the entire check” . After a while I gave up on them as I am sure many restaurant goers did. But now as I pull out my iPhone 5 redeem a 50% off Groupon at a nice local seafood place it just feels a lot like handing them your American Express card. In fact American Express has even built in some offers with foursquare. Waitstaff response “that’s cool”.
Our recent recession combined with rapid acceptance of smart phones has really changed this whole process from something very difficult to something so easy so that it’s just second nature for many people now. In fact a recent study has shown that only 9% of consumers believe using a coupon would label someone as “cheap”. So here’s the big number – 
71% would consider utilizing a coupon on a date and not attempt to hide it! However I would most likely not recommend this on first dates. see study below via Warc
US consumers rely on coupons
AUSTIN: Consumers in the US are spending less on meals at restaurants, new clothes and higher-priced groceries than five years ago, while relying more on discounts and coupons, a survey has found.
RetailMeNot, a digital coupon site, polled 1,101 consumers online for the financial literacy edition of its Shoppers Trend Report and found that more were actively saving money than before.
“Consumers are emerging from the Recession of 2008 having learned a valuable lesson, that saving money is a good thing,” said Trae Bodge, senior editor for RetailMeNot.
“Today’s consumers have higher expectations for what they can do with their hard-earned paychecks,” he added. “They also want more for their money and are willing to take the necessary steps to ensure that they get it.”
Significant proportions of respondents had reduced their outlay on meals at restaurants (49%), expensive groceries (44%) and new apparel (46%).
At the same time, 51% of consumers who used coupons stated they used them more today than five years ago, while 37% said they used them more than a year ago.
Economic factors were the main reason for the increased usage of coupons, either because respondents’ personal finances had declined (43%) or because the recession had made them more conscious about the importance of saving (31%).
But 23% indicated that their increased use of coupons was simply because technology had made it easier to find and use them.
“Couponing as a necessity gave people a taste for savings, and consumers will continue to look for ways to get more for their money,” noted Bodge.
In general, coupons had a positive image, with 59% of respondents regarding people who used them as “savvy” while just 9% reached for the description “cheap”.
Interestingly, some 71% said they would consider using a coupon on a date and would not attempt to hide it.
Data sourced from Wall Street Journal; additional content by Warc staff , 30 April 2013
Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31332&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#KRVVAcRUpLk7Ajvm.99
2012 Mobile Year In Review
April 12, 2013 Uncategorized Leave a comment
Mobile web use among teens rises significantly
April 9, 2013 Mobile, News Leave a comment
Washington DC : A recent PEW Internet study among US teens regarding their preferred method of getting online found that 78% of US teens use a mobile phone. Around three quarters of that group accesses the Internet on smart phones and tablets. 25% of that group uses a mobile device as their primary access to the Internet.
This presents an opportunity for marketers to utilize the mobile web in unique and innovative ways. The latest HTML 5 technology allows marketers to deliver an app like experience on a variety of mobile devices not just iOS and Android. Teens are interested in the go anywhere mobile experience. Companies should be looking to provide a unique mobile experience for products and promotions. In many cases the mobile web is superior to utilizing apps as access has gotten easier, no app download required, no long waits for App Store approvals and most importantly no managing expensive multiplatform app updates and launches.
Think about utilizing the mobile web for branded contests and promotions that can be updated regularly, new product launches and experiential events that may not necessitate the cost of a full-blown mobile app. The goal should be to provide an app like experience for all smartphone and tablet users.
We can take this one step further utilizing responsive web design whereby the site automatically adapts to the screen size of the device. With new smaller and mid-size tablets capturing more market share this type of responsive design will continue to gain traction. Find out more - view our recent presentation on mobile web promotion opportunities
Engage Your Consumers on their Mobile Devices
March 28, 2013 Mobile, Social Leave a comment
Photo sharing contests are a great way to connect with your consumers and prompt them to engage with your brand. And, using Facebook as the vehicle to bring awareness and participation to your campaign is fantastic … unless those consumers are primarily using a mobile device to access the Facebook platform. Currently, Facebook desktop and Facebook mobile operate like two completely different platforms. Facebook is in the midst of optimizing the mobile newsfeed to engage their mobile consumers, but that doesn’t expand to facebook apps.
Your brand spends money to advertise to and engage your consumers on Facebook; it’s affordable and effective to build your Facebook community and social media presence. The number of active daily visitors visiting Facebook on mobile devices (680 million active users) now exceeds the number of traditional desktop users.
What happens to your brand’s consumer promotional engagement on a mobile device? Is that Facebook Like-Gate page collecting mobile fans or the Facebook Photo Sharing Contest App even reaching your consumers? Currently, on mobile devices like smartphones, it’s not.
Think about it. What device do you use most frequently to check Facebook? Are you satisfied having your brand top-of-mind only from the comfort of a desktop computer? Let’s face it – your phone is a social device. You have it with you at all times. By the end of 2013, there will be more mobile devices on Earth than people. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
Don’t despair, ApolloBravo makes Facebook Apps mobile! Apollobravo builds mobile-friendly apps allowing your fans to access, view and interact with your Facebook Desktop version of the contest or sweepstakes app.And the best part is that the mobile app and the facebook app are seamlessly synced. Advertise your promotion in a Facebook Ad or simply post to your fans’ newsfeeds with the confidence to drive awareness and increase participation …. Even on a mobile device!
Check out our current Jagermeister Brother in Your Corner Photo Contest apps.facebook.com/jagercode … from your desktop OR your mobile.
Food and beverage brands lead on Twitter
March 7, 2013 Mobile, News, Social Leave a comment
A recent UK study shows brand mentions for food and beverages more prominent than music, celebrities or news updates. This points to a great opportunity for brands to develop and invest in growing their presence on Twitter. Mentions can be further enhanced by running photo contests and prompting consumers to use hashtags to be automatically entered in sweepstakes. It’s much easier to engage a brand this way then filling out a form online or even worse a mail-in sweepstakes. When integrated with mobile marketing, analytics and contest management tools Twitter can make a great primary means of entry for your next promotion or sweepstakes.
Via WARC Brands in the food and beverage, clothing and retail sectors generate the highest number of direct mentions among Twitter users in the UK, according to a report.
Drawing on a sample of 10,000 tweets made by 1,000 members of Twitter, the social media monitoring firm BrandWatch revealed that 3.6% of posts referred to a brand by name.
“This made brand names almost as prominent as television, film and sport, and more prominent than music, celebrities or news updates,” the firm’s study said.
Members of the food and drinks category yielded 32% of these messages. McDonald’s and Nando’s, the restaurant chains, Tesco, the supermarket giant, and Cadbury, the confectioner, led the charts here.
The technology sector was the subject of 11% of tweets referencing brands. Apple, and its iPhone handset, topped the category rankings, with Samsung, Microsoft and Orange following next.
While 80% of content about technology brands was generated by men, women were behind 89% of tweets in the clothing category and 73% for food and drink.
“Equal numbers of products and services were mentioned, suggesting an even split between secondary and tertiary sectors,” the study said.
“Brands ranged from large, established names including Amazon and Ford to smaller companies such as Azendi and Micro Scooters.”
Looking more broadly, the analysis showed that 38% of posts were “solo tweets”, where the user did not link with other Twitter members using tagging or a direct exchange.
A further 36% were replies to messages, while 22% were retweets, the analysis added.
Data sourced from Brand-e.biz/BrandWatch; additional content by Warc staff, 7 March 2013
Digital media leads in emerging markets
March 6, 2013 News, Social Leave a comment
Looking to promote your product in emerging markets? A recent study shows that mobile and social media are far more influential in these markets than in North America or the UK.
LONDON: The digital channels are more important for marketers than traditional media when it comes to connecting with consumers in emerging markets, new analysis shows.
The Discovery Brand Index of GlobalWebIndex, is based on the results of more than 150,000 Internet users in 31 countries, creating a single measure of the ease with which consumers can find brand messages.
It found, for example, that social media are six times more important for brands in markets such as Indonesia and Thailand than in Japan or the UK.
To highlight the difference in attitudes, consumers in the Netherlands are seven times more likely to learn about new brands and products that social media ads.
Another important digital channel is mobile, and campaigns in countries like Thailand and Vietnam are about four times more efficient than in developed markets such as the UK and the Netherlands.
Developed Internet markets, however, have different characteristics. In Japan and the United Kingdom, for example, the search is twice as important for brands in consumer buying trip digital.
Established brands also exert more power in these markets. In Japan, the brand loyal consumers outnumber those “adventurous brand” by two to one: a bit of stick from 58% to a brand once they find one they like, while 27% always like to try new products.
By contrast, consumers in emerging markets are much less fixed in selecting brand: 73% of Filipino Internet users like to try new products.
“With brands increasingly investing in digital and social media, it is critical to understand how all channels to work together, with individual metrics that cover all communications, whether they are online or not,” said Tom Smith, GlobalWebIndex founder.
Among other findings of the study are that consumers in Hong Kong are more likely to trust the price comparison and consumer review sites in the search for online information products.
And Sweden produced the lowest score online BDI, indicating that the Swedes are the least likely of any nationality to use the Internet to interact with brands or product search.
The data comes from GlobalWebIndex, additional content by WARC staff, March 6, 2013
More Americans are dual screening
March 5, 2013 Mobile Leave a comment
Recent studies indicate that more and more Americans are dual screening, primarily using their tablet or smart phone while watching TV. More viewers we are engaged with content in multiple ways. This could include the sports fan checking out-of-town scores on his smart phone while watching the game on TV. The couple checking IMDb on a tablet to settle a bet over what year a movie was released. And sadly, more often than not workers clearing out some old emails on their laptop while watching Modern Family. Advertisers should explore more opportunities to reach dual screeners. Interacting with televised content by uploading photos sharing tweets or Facebook posts is growing in popularity especially among affluent consumers as the study here suggests.
SAN FRANCISCO: Most wealthy Americans use laptops, smartphones and tablets at the same time as watching television, research has found
The latest Ipsos Mendelsohn Affluent Barometer surveyed 1,055 affluent adults, defined as those who claim an income of at least $ 100,000, and included 192 high net worth consumers with an income of at least $ 250,000.
The Barometer established that 64% of Americans were dual screening on a regular basis. Most preferred to use his laptop (63%), but nearly as many smartphones used (58%) and tablets (53%).
“The technology is truly integrated into [consumers] lives to the point they find it difficult to stop using a device, even when they are engaged with one or two others,” said Steve Kraus, chief research and insights officer for Ipsos MediaCT, luxury Daily.
Just over half the sample used social media platforms while watching TV, with Facebook twice as likely to be used as any other network.
“The widespread media multitasking puts a higher premium on the involvement of consumers,” said Kraus. That means that “really reach them with messages that attract attention of consumers and talk to important consumer values.”
When asked what media channel that would be hard to live without, fully 70% of respondents said they would be your laptop.
Two-thirds could not live without your smart phone, but only one-third described their tablet.
The survey also found that affluent consumers are more optimistic about the state of the economy and their personal perspectives from which the merely affluent.
As a result, luxury marketers must “continue to focus on higher-end, ultra-rich consumers,” said Kraus.
“Luxury projections for growth are modest to affluent as a whole, and we currently see no signs of a return to widespread aspirational luxury shopping behavior that characterized pre-recession America,” he added.
Data supplied by Luxury Daily, additional content by WARC staff, March 5, 2013
57% Facebook users go mobile. Now how to reach them.
January 21, 2013 Mobile, Social Leave a comment
Excellent info-graphic courtesy of QWAYA via Social Media Today.
Facebook’s growth on mobile devices is a good indicator of how rapidly smart phone subscriptions are growing globally. Out of Facebook’s nearly 1,000,000,000 active monthly users 57% are accessing via mobile phone. If you’ve developed a great mobile website or mobile promotion, The Facebook Newsfeed is a fantastic way to drive traffic there.
Explosive mini tablet growth to fuel m-commerce, and hasten PCs decline
January 15, 2013 Mobile, News Leave a comment
Here come the mini tablets. Or are they just big phones? With devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note its hard to tell. But if that size doesn’t work for you there’s many more like the iPad mini or Kindle fire HD. The widespread availability and low cost of these new devices is accelerating the mobile impact on PC shipments, and the PCs role in e-commerce. Results from research firm Gartner indicate that PC shipments were down 4.9% to 90.3m units, a drop which it did not attribute solely to a weak economy. ”Tablets have dramatically changed the device landscape for PCs,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, “not so much by ‘cannibalizing’ PC sales, but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing older PCs.”
Additionally these mini tablets are highly portable and are being used more and more for impulse purchases. Like a phone many have built-in 4G access, cameras with QR code scanners, and even NFC near field communication. Here’s a list of several hundred mobile devices that are NFC enabled. http://goo.gl/IrqDX
So how does this all impact mobile commerce? One example, at CES we saw a demo from the first chain of NFC supermarkets in Paris. So forget about 3-D or HD have just old-fashioned 2-D where consumers can quickly scan to purchase items and have them ready for pickup or delivery. So in fact you could have a C store display in a Metro station linked to a vending machine for a fast automated shopping experience. Read more about the NFC supermarket here http://goo.gl/JfY8Z
NFC and QR code scanning is just the beginning. Engaging consumers in this way allows brands to opt in consumers for future offers, promotions, more product info.
Questions about m-commerce? Reach out to ApolloBravo the consumer engagement experts. http://www.apollobravo.com/contact/
