On the heels of a presentation by Lowe’s at the last Mobile Marketing Association get-together in San Francisco in January, Home Depot detailed its own measurable progress in engaging shoppers and selling more stuff through mobile devices.

Among the learnings:

• Home Depot’s mobile-optimized site and apps provide access to the 400,000 different product types available online – as compared to the 35,000 in physical stores.

• About a third of Home Depot’s traffic last year came through mobile.

• Home Depot’s app has been downloaded 3.5 million times, with traffic up 60 percent because people responded to opt-in push messages.

• Home Depot recently ran a test on Twitter and saw mobile engagement outpace desktop by 40 percent.

“The biggest challenge today for marketers is to make it exciting for consumers,” said Trish Mueller, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Home Depot. “We’re passionate about customer service and mobile provides such an amazing way to connect with the customer.”

In January, Sean Bartlett, director of mobile strategy and platforms at Lowe’s, told us how mobile innovation has entered the 65-year-old retailer’s 1,700 plus stores with 42,000 iPhones in the hands of associates, and Wi-Fi in store to give shoppers what they desire – easy and free access to product reviews and social networks.

So, if you want to build a case for mobile, watch the home improvement efforts. …

Rules and regulations, arguably the driest of mobile topics, were discussed in committee meetings, the larger sessions, and in hallway conversations when campaigns run and contemplated were being discussed.

And with good reason. Coinciding with the MMA Forum was news of a lawsuit where a Web user sued Facebook for allegedly sending her an SMS message suggesting that she send “friend” requests to other users.

Illinois resident Darya Ivankina alleges in her potential class-action lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, that the social-networking service violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending her cell phone an unwanted ad.

That law prohibits companies from using an automated dialing service to send SMS messages to people without first obtaining their consent. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act provides for damages of up to $1,500 per text message.

Facebook didn't have an immediate response.

While technological advances like Google Glass made for interesting conversation in New York, some of the most successful campaigns featured use of permission-based databases that brought value to the mobile user and the brand. …

We again heard that mobile searches create large opportunities. According to Google’s Tim Reis, 73 percent of mobile searches trigger additional action and conversions.  …

International mobile guru Tomi Ahonen reported that the average smartphone user looks at the device every five minutes – or 200 times a day. Further, he said that if one was counting full-length 160 character messages, a teenager sending 100 SMS per day would type the full text of “War & Peace” in under 7 months.

That’s a large amount of consumer interaction in any book.

Facebook said little about advertisements during its Home introduction. To me that says either they didn’t want to bring up the subject or they haven’t fleshed out the details and weren’t prepared to talk about a half-baked plan. Most likely, it’s both.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s unveiling of the product was described as an opportunity to give mobile owners the ability to see the world through people instead of apps. This road has been traveled before – Windows Phone positions itself similarly. And it hasn’t been a home run for Microsoft.

For some, mobile phones aren’t about people. They are about self.  Mobile is the ultimate personalization product – the phone rings the way we want it to, looks the way we want it to, and has just the content, including photos and apps, that we want.

Few, very few would choose to see brand messages in their Facebook feed, but at the risk of offending my friends, I’ll take a relevant offer for me from a business 100 times out of 100 if the alternative is seeing the 16^th picture of the kid playing soccer. Really, that goes for the third or fourth Instagram on.

As to Foursquare, according to Advertising Age, the company has started pitching digital agencies on a new ad product that would use Foursquare's location and behavioral data to contextualize ads on other platforms.

The ad product is still in development and will eventually allow advertisers to use Foursquare data to target ads purchased through ad exchanges or networks, according to the publication.

When launched, it will mark Foursquare's first attempt to generate revenue outside promoted listings and specials advertised within its app. That certainly is necessary given that the four-year-old company reportedly had only $2 million in revenue in 2012.

Ken Allard, managing director of global business strategy at digital agency Huge, a unit of IPG, told Advertising Age that Foursquare's "unique and proprietary data is incredibly valuable."

Of course, that remains to be seen. For me, it has to be better than that third shot of 4-year-old Johnny and his buddies trying to head a soccer ball in the rain. Seeing that has never been my goal.

Of course, to our knowledge, only one of those scenarios came true. Whatever. Such is your life when your role is to create a Center of Excellence for global consumer trend insights and a forward-looking mindset that can support and inform design, product development, strategy, business and marketing functions throughout Ford.

Speaking to a packed audience (granted seemingly every venue was overflowing), Connelly offered Lessons From A Futurist during South by Southwest Interactive.

Many of her assertions were on the surprising side. Among them:

She once thought that the future is a mystery and best unexplored.

Connelly cautioned against the use of SWOT analysis that attempts to look at a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. She said that such endeavors limit thinking and fail to take change into account.

“It’s foolish for an organization to think it owns its strengths,” she said. “Those are defined by the marketplace.”

Connelly describes her job as a mission to look outside the automotive industry to understand what's happening in social, technological, economic, environmental and political arenas so that we can understand shifts that are coming that may influence consumers' values, attitudes and behaviors. She looks for those insights and collaborates with people in Ford Design and Product Development who try to turn them into business propositions.

She said that SXSW was the perfect venue to talk about “information addiction” which she said is a medical condition. Further, she cautioned attendees from information overload, adding that it takes away self-reflection time that spurs innovation.

“Explore what you can't control,” Connelly said. “Use scenario planning - what if's.

You don't have to be a victim to the future - you can help develop it.”

My message to marketers: beware.

I’m not anti-innovation. Quite the contrary, in fact. I’m in tech as much for the unknown as the known. But let’s concentrate on the known for a minute. The estimated 30,000 going to Austin are not the norm (in more ways than one). We seemingly all carry iPhones and Macs, and many of us check in on Foursquare.

The norm is likely your brand’s target — about half of U.S. mobile subscribers don’t yet carry a smartphone, much less line up to buy a Mac. Their idea of a check-in involves questions of smoking versus non-smoking, a room away from the elevator, and the time the buffet opens in the morning.

What we saw at the Austin Convention Center and environs last year were early-adopter models, ones that caused a ripple on Twitter but not so much on Main Street.

The geo-location startups came into a marketplace that today shows only 30 million global users of leader Foursquare (for perspective, there are well over 300 million mobile subscribers in the United States alone and more than 6 billion worldwide).

So what is a brand manager to do? The smartest ones are relying on a mix of products and services that aren’t necessarily aimed at early adopters. Ford employs a variety of mobile strategies and tactics, including a text call to action in traditional media that produced a 15.4 percent lead conversion. An influencer on Twitter described the program as “meat and potatoes.” As a CMO who hasn’t touched beef in decades, I’ll dine on “meat and potatoes” all day and all night for such lead success.

We’ll certainly again hear lots this year about the mobile wallet. There surely will be hype around near field communication. But cash gone by Tuesday? Ummm, no.

So what should we do in Austin? Live. Learn. But don’t jump in blindly, sunshine or not.

A week after the blackout that marred the game in New Orleans, I’m still in the dark as to why mobile calls to action were as infrequent in the $4 million ads as Harbaugh complementing a referee for a good call.

I previously wrote that I would say Hallelujah if a brand finally used the forum to create meaningful second screen action that would lead to an opt-in monetizable database.

Instead, I’m left to say WTF.

Through cleaner language and on a panel sponsored by AAF Seattle and PSAMA, I since have had the opportunity to ask a Who’s Who in the Seattle advertising community why the Super Bowl telecast had a 1983 feel to me.

Appearing were:

• Chris Elliott, executive creative director at Wunderman.
• Frank Clark, owner and creative director of Square Tomato advertising
• Paul Huggett, design director at Tether
• Mike Hayward, creative director at Copacino+Fujikado

Theories as to why mobile wasn’t inserted into ads ranged from a desire to not interrupt the viewing of the game and next spot by asking someone to use a wireless device, to the risks involved in doing something new, to the storytelling that would be adversely affected by an intrusive call to action.

These dudes are the smartest of the lot, but I want to respectfully challenge the theories:

• It’s illogical to believe that devices weren’t in hand and being used throughout the game by tens and tens of millions of viewers. Rather than having them reach for a phone, a call to action would capitalize on the activity already underway
• Risk taking is often the very reason why advertisers spend so lavishly on Super Bowl spots. Differentiation via the first real mobile call to action in telecast history would fit that mold. And as long as the backend is bulletproof – an example being American Idol ably handling mobile voting – the risk is minimal
• Storytelling and interaction by viewers are ideally suited for each other. Ram’s “God Made A Farmer” spot was arguably the best of the day. The salute to hard workers touched us all. Beyond that, likely many viewers had their own hard working dad, mother, teacher, or other who they would’ve loved to commend with the communications device within reach. How about a contest triggered by mobile that identified these heroes and perhaps had a charitable component to boot?

Among the missed opportunities:

Pizza Hut lost out on the chance for more dough by failing to set up a name capture as part of its free product giveaway on Tuesday.

Denny’s made the same mistake in the 2010 Super Bowl telecast when it gave away Grand Slam breakfasts, but had no way to reach out later to invite customers in for more business of the paying variety.

In contrast, consider how Arby’s introduced its Roastburger sandwich.

For the launch, Arby’s had Jimmy Kimmel create, eat and promote the product on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Viewers were urged to text the word ROASTBURGER to a short code to receive a free sandwich with the purchase of any drink.

After texting, customers were asked to respond with their zip code to be entered into a local database and receive additional offers from Arby’s. By doing this, the restaurant gained a valuable re-marketable database.

As a result of the one segment, Arby’s received 177,745 total entries from 152,280 unique participants; 65,000 people opted-in to join the mobile loyalty club; and the restaurant created 172 local databases to cater to the opted-in customers on a hyper-local level.

By now, Pizza Hut’s customers have come and gone, much like the chances the brands had that they muffed.

Next year will be different, right – the panelists predicted more digital real-time interaction given Oreo’s success during the blackout? As to planned mobile calls to action, I’ll pass on making that prediction.

More than that, I will respond to the marketer’s ask for me to take out my phone or tablet – ok, one will be in each hand, so taking out will be unnecessary – and I'll participate. I’ll learn more about a new product, be entertained by a brand beyond what was possible in a 30-second commercial, and even text to win.

So will millions or perhaps tens of millions of others.

Marketers buy into the Super Bowl telecast because it is the one time of the year when consumers are actually tuning in to commercials instead of muting the volume or fast-forwarding on their DVR.

Here’s an old school recipe for success:

One part new product or service offering upgrade

A tear-inducing script (Tears can be a result of hilarity or a message that pulls at the heartstrings.)

One teaspoon of a timely message (Think Valentine’s Day and/or tax season)

A cute animal or hot celebrity – or in some cases, both

A tease in the media

Yet, mobile calls to action have been missing this day of 24/7 social, mobile consumers.

Why is this an opportunity missed?

It takes that near-perfect, talked-about-for-days ad and extends its value. By including, for instance, an SMS call to action and engaging with consumers, companies can ultimately build remarketable databases that tie directly to their loyalty programs and enable ongoing communication.

Last year, Super Bowl advertisers relied on simple URLs, some of which weren’t even mobile-specific. Other ads directed consumers to social media prompts via a plethora of hashtags (Audi’s #SoLongVampires, Bud Light’s #MakeItPlatinum, H&M’s #BeckhamForHim, etc.).

Hashtags are catchy and make people want to join in on the trending. They create a following, for a short time at least. But they are hard to track and measure for true value. Instead of (or in addition to) a hashtag, why didn’t they include an SMS option for viewers to receive more information? Doing so also creates a sense of exclusivity, and allows consumers to be part of a special network of people who receive deals, coupons and other special treatments that promote customer loyalty, repeat shopping and increased purchase value.

Here are five ads that could have been improved with a simple mobile call to action:

1. GoDaddy. The brand teased viewers that its “NSFTV” ads were available online if they scanned a QR code. They could have used an SMS in addition to a QR code (which is sometimes hard for viewers to see, much less get them to fire up their scanner and capture the code onscreen before it disappears) to “see more now” that would have brought users to the coveted “Too Hot For TV Internet Only” versions. By offering multiple means of engagement, GoDaddy could have increased its reach.

2. Teleflora. This ad was racy and tied in with the upcoming “holiday of love.” Perfect timing, of course. However, it could have used a text campaign for a Valentine’s Day coupon instead of just posting teleflora.com and trusting that consumers will travel there on their own without an incentive. An initiative like this could have led to Teleflora building an opt-in list of people who like to give flowers to their loved ones and would probably do so again on their birthday or anniversary.

3. Coca-Cola and Audi. Both brands had multiple spots but did not set up the next ad. For instance, they could have created some type of scavenger hunt or delivered a message, such as, “prepare to use Shazam next time you see Coke,” to tie-in the experience across ads.

4. Best Buy. This ad was entirely about mobile innovation, yet had no mobile innovation of its own. It did not embrace the very technologies that it was commending. There was a real missed opportunity to expand on each of the founders’ stories for more consumer inclusion and engagement.

5. The movie clips (Transformers, The Avengers, John Carter, etc.). These movies were built up as the blockbusters for 2012, yet there was no incentive to check them out beyond the digital effects and big-name celebrity rosters. Think of the perks for both brands and consumers if they had incorporated a mobile campaign to see “Sneak Peaks” or an opportunity to win tickets, all while building a database of future prospects.

Will this year end with a Hallelujah?  Or will it be another sermon about opportunity lost? We shall see.

Some of the three dozen marketers I talked to were hesitant to predict too far into the future. But, with a bit of prodding from this inquiring author, I did gather predictions that sounded plausible then.

What about now?

Brand marketer Rick Mathieson predicted monumental change at retail.

“We’re going to see the beginnings of an evolution in what we call location-based services, and a convergence of several different trends that will radically redefine what we call mobile marketing and what we call retailing for the decade ahead,” he told me. “You’ll see the convergence of things like Foursquare and Shopkick and so on, with things like the Layar augmented reality browser, with things like NFC [near field communication] and/or QR [quick response] codes—or whatever they evolve into—and retailers having their own apps that manage CRM [customer relationship management] systems and offer discounts. All of these things are going to converge in an interesting way.

“Here’s how it will be manifest. You’re Jane and you’re walking into Hot Stuff Boutique. You’re going to turn on the Hot Stuff app, and the store is instantly going to know Jane just walked in the door. You’re going to instantly receive offers based on your stated preferences and your past purchase history. ‘Hi Jane! If you loved those jeans you bought last month, you’re going to love these new tops.’ It’ll even show you where the shirts are in the store. Should you decide to, you can send your information to the tablet device in the store clerk’s hands, so he or she can give you very personalized customer care when you’re in the store. When you walk over to the shirts, you’ll be able to scan the tag to watch video of models wearing the shirts on the runway, or a video about the brand and the inspirations for the design.”

There was more to Mathieson’s scenario:

“When you go into the dressing room, you’ll be able to capture video or images of yourself in the store mirror and instantly send it out to your social network for instant feedback on whether the style is ‘fly’ or ‘forgettaboutit,’” he says. “If desired, you’ll be able to grab accessories from the catalogue and superimpose them on your reflection using augmented reality and you in the store, and your friends out in the world, will be able to have a real-time shopping experience. Depending on what your friends say, or maybe despite what they say, if you decide you want that shirt, you might throw it in your bag or just wear it and walk right out of the store. New-fangled theft deterrent technology will be disabled, and the transaction will happen automatically and wirelessly, perhaps on the fly or with the tap of your phone on a NFC reader, because you’ve entered your credit card information into a Web portal associated with the app or because you have mobile wallet capabilities. And you’re on your way—without digging for cash, writing a check, swiping a card or ever again standing in line.

So how did Mathieson score on his predictions?

There certainly has been monumental change at retail.

PayPal saw a 193 percent increase in mobile payment volume on Black Friday 2012 than Black Friday 2011. Between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. PST was the busiest mobile shopping hour on Black Friday 2012. Shoppers in these cities made the most mobile purchases through PayPal on Black Friday: Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.

eBay experienced a 153 boost in mobile U.S. volume. That followed eBay a 133 percent increase in mobile U.S. volume transacted on Thanksgiving.

IBM said that mobile purchases soared with 24 percent of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer's site, up from 14.3 percent in 2011. Mobile sales exceeded 16 percent, up from 9.8 percent in 2011.

Additionally, the iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, reaching nearly 10 percent of online shopping. This was followed by iPhone at 8.7 percent and Android 5.5 percent. The iPad dominated tablet traffic at 88.3 percent followed by the Barnes and Noble Nook at 3.1 percent, Amazon Kindle at 2.4 percent and the Samsung Galaxy at 1.8 percent.

Finally, according to IBM, consumers shopped in store, online and on mobile devices simultaneously to get the best bargains. Overall 58 percent of consumers used smartphones compared to 41 percent who used tablets to surf for bargains on Black Friday. Black Friday – Cyber Monday stats

How are retailers competing?

A recent initiative by Lowe’s has the chain putting 42,000 iPhones into the hands of sales associates as a way to help customers get a more satisfying experience from the iPhone app. (To get the inside story on how mobile was used by Lowe’s during the holidays, I will be conducting a fireside chat with Sean Bartlett, Director of Mobile Strategy and Platforms for Lowe’s on Jan. 30 at the Mobile Marketing Association’s Mobile Marketing Forum in San Francisco http://www.mmaglobal.com/events/forums/sanfrancisco2013/agenda#tabs-2).

I have to believe that Mathieson’s dressing room sequence of events is still a time off from happening. There is plenty of social involving with the buying experience, but augmented reality has yet to realize its promise. I see more of it happening in 2013, but we’ll look back 12 months from now and still not see AR as a mass experience.

Another to make predictions was Michael Becker, Managing Director of MMA North America, who told me in Mobilized Marketing http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VTYDS8/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d26_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=18K66G61ABBPM32SGS99&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938811&pf_rd_i=507846 that mobile users will seek out what he called “pause and resume.”

“Consumers will have an experience with a brand on one screen and expect that experience to move with them,” Becker said. “With that pause and resume, consumers are going to want the best experience that [they] can have at a particular device at that particular time.”

Becker also envisioned even more relevant experiences coming through mobile devices.

“I also see the importance of context growing more and more and beyond just location,” he said. “Time will be the next access that will take a big role in our conversation. It’s not just a matter that I’m in Times Square but when am I in it, because the engagement around you is different if I’m standing in Times Square at 12 in the afternoon versus 12 at night. How do we play that role and have that level of context with consumers?

“We’re going to see the idea of permission marketing go beyond I got your opt in or opt out. There are going to be layers of permission. When can you talk to me? On what subjects? And on what devices and mediums?”

So how did Becker do?

Pause and resume is certainly here. Amazon’s Kindle is an example with the device and app syncing as users switch from a Kindle to a smartphone or tablet. The experience is seamless and now the standard.

As for context, more and more brands are using such elements as ambient conditions to be relevant. For instance, 7-Eleven delivered Slurpee offers to opted in consumers when the temperatures reached warm degrees.

I haven’t seen a brand use layers of permission yet, but the idea makes sense. I want to interact with the local grocer, but I don’t want offers for beef since we don’t eat meat. But if you have a deal on halibut, I’m all in as long as you reach me on my smartphone during the hours when I’m most likely on my way home.

My sister-in-law, who is in her mid-fifties, and her husband, who is about 10 years her senior, made purchases via smartphone and tablet for the first time on a Black Friday. What they bought is irrelevant. That they bought anything via wireless brings to life all the stats from IBM, PayPal, eBay, and others about the significance of the growth in mobile purchasing this beginning of the holiday season.

The numbers from these tracking organizations tell us plenty. But I’ll argue that we learn more from observing those around us.

First the Black Friday data:

PayPal saw a 193 percent increase in mobile payment volume on Black Friday 2012 than Black Friday 2011. Between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. PST was the busiest mobile shopping hour on Black Friday 2012. Shoppers in these cities made the most mobile purchases through PayPal on Black Friday: Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.

eBay experienced a 153 boost in mobile U.S. volume. That followed eBay a 133 percent increase in mobile U.S. volume transacted on Thanksgiving.

IBM said that mobile purchases soared with 24 percent of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer's site, up from 14.3 percent in 2011. Mobile sales exceeded 16 percent, up from 9.8 percent in 2011.

Additionally, the iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, reaching nearly 10 percent of online shopping. This was followed by iPhone at 8.7 percent and Android 5.5 percent. The iPad dominated tablet traffic at 88.3 percent followed by the Barnes and Noble Nook at 3.1 percent, Amazon Kindle at 2.4 percent and the Samsung Galaxy at 1.8 percent.

Finally, according to IBM, consumers shopped in store, online and on mobile devices simultaneously to get the best bargains. Overall 58 percent of consumers used smartphones compared to 41 percent who used tablets to surf for bargains on Black Friday.

Let’s get back to the activities in my house.

We’re seemingly one of the few families left in America that gets a newspaper dropped on our driveway every morning. Thursday’s Seattle Times was, as my father-in-law was known to say, “plum-full” of ads and inserts. However, none drove any of us to retail locations. Instead they provided ideas into what others wanted as presents. Interestingly, there weren’t any QR codes in the ads, which wasn’t a miss in my home since neither my wife nor my in-laws have scanners on their phones, much less interest in interacting with brands that way.

Catalogues also made an appearance at the dining room table. No purchases were made. It was more like a homemade version of showrooming – lots of looking, but no one grabbed the car keys for a trip to the mall.

The initial holiday lists included an iPad Smart Cover for my brother in law and a Kate Spade protector for my mother-in-law’s iPhone. Other accessories for the new technology were discussed.

My takeaway from the weekend? Mobile’s early adopter phase has officially ended.

http://mrmstrategies.org/about/press-releases/3 that only 16 percent of companies have a strategy for using mobile as a meaningful means of customer engagement.

This post could be about the slow-to-adapt, but that wouldn’t provide much learning.

Instead, let me point to one in the 16 percent, namely Sarah Ortman, Senior Group Manager, Consumer & Shopper Promotions, The Clorox Co. In a recent stunningly smart presentation at the Shopper Marketing Expo, Sarah articulated the case for mobile, first defining mobile shopping as activities that a consumer does on a mobile device to enhance or facilitate their shopping experience all along the path to purchase.

She says that users perform eight main tasks that comprise mobile shopping – search, list making, store locating, rating and review, coupons and incentives, buying and m-commerce, social shopping/sharing, as well as product and price comparison.

As with every marketing initiative, Sarah starts with objectives that will lead to sales and brand loyalty.

As objectives, she pointed to:

-       audience insights, asking, What is your target audience’s mobile usage/aperture insights? To get that information, Sarah suggested agency audience profiles, internal research, Web and/or mobile site data, and third party research and trending.

-       Infrastructure, asking, What level of digital infrastructure or assets do you have OR are you willing to invest? For that, Sarah points to CRM, Web and/or mobile site, mobile app, shortcode, and video assets

Further, she asks whether the exclusivity of mobile brings what she calls unique value.

Sarah points to immediacy, utility, relevance, location, and convenience as the value only mobile can bring. Concentrating on these four benefits will optimize the shopper experience, she said.

When it comes to immediacy, mobile provides the opportunity for consumers to act now.

Utility enable an audience to be a “hunter”, not a “surfer”. An example is a shopper using an app to map out the weekly grocery list according to deals and coupons.

Relevance needs to be highly contextual, personal, and reflect lifestyle. Examples here are grocery apps leveraging loyalty card data to provide customized deals and recommendations.

Precise location data allows for highly effective targeting and the ability to receive specialized promotions and product education while in-store.

As far as convenience, she views mobile as an “always accessible channel” that enables shoppers to access information “from anywhere at anytime throughout the purchase journey”.

Clorox employs this thinking on behalf of many of its brands, including Burt's Bees, Pine-Sol and Glad, among others.

Speaking of glad, many who heard Sarah uttered that word in describing some solid thinking that shed light on mobile’s role and promise.

Regardless, it wasn’t the biggest surprise during my week in South Africa that included four magical days in the Pilanesberg game reserve 2 ½ hours outside of Johannesburg.

What topped the sightings of more animals than I’ve collectively seen in my life?

The sight of BlackBerrys. Nearly everywhere. In 2012. Some South Africans carried two – one for work and one for pleasure.

Imagine that, for pleasure.

In fact, in June, South Africa's youth named BlackBerry as the 'Coolest Brand Overall' in the Sunday Times Generation Next 2012 Brand Survey Awards. BlackBerry also topped the ‘Coolest Cellphone' and 'Coolest High-Tech Gadget’ categories for the second year running.

BlackBerry’s BBM, a messenger service which has now peaked in the U.S., is used by 98 percent of South Africa BlackBerry customers, according to parent company RIM.

According to RIM, there are more than 56 million active BBM users worldwide and 70 percent of them use it daily to communicate daily.

The lesson for marketers? What happens in one region isn’t necessarily mirrored in others. And you need to know your target audience and reach them through their devices of choice.

The professionals I met when I keynoted a CMO Conference and during a mobile workshop I conducted did not fawn when the iPhone 5 was announced. Many were unaware of the news being made 11,000 miles away. Others didn’t care.

As much as I went to teach, I traveled to learn. And I learned a lot.

Here’s what I discovered beside the fact that game reserve visits belong on everyone’s bucket list:

Numbers according to Ogilvy:

• 80 percent of South Africa’s population is on mobile
• 50 percent penetration of smartphones is expected in the next four years
• 20 percent of the population is on MXIT (a free mobile instant messenger app)
• 17 percent of the population is online
• 14 percent are on Facebook
• 2 percent of the marketing spend is on digital (roughly 20 percent of what is spent in the U.S.)
• The percentage of users accessing Facebook via their mobile devices is 38 percent. It is 58 percent for mobile subscribers 25 years old and younger
• The number of Twitter users is approximately 2.5 million (doubled in the last year)
• The majority of tweeters are under 25 years old

More mobile stats:

• Churn rate among prepaid users is 43 percent
• 33 percent of all mobile users access Web via mobile
• 20 percent of mobile subscribers have smartphones
• Mobile phone use increased from17 percent of adults in 2000 to 76 percent in 2010

Here’s a deeper look into MXIT:

• The average time spent per day is an hour and a half
• Unique users during a one-week period total are 4.7 million
• 54 percent of users are aged 18-25
• One quarter of users are under 18 years old
• The cost for a marketer of a splash screen is R55000 (about $6,700)

As I traveled the country, I heard text message calls-to-action on the radio, saw them on billboards, and grew to expect them.

Groupon has made inroads in South Africa. Marketers I spoke to spoke highly of the service and continue to run Groupon programs. These folks have the same goal as we do – to sell more stuff.

In the game reserve, the most frequent mobile activity was picture-taking. Those humans with capable phones were emailing and posting photos in real time.

That practice was hardly noticed by the elephants.

NBC would certainly spin it that way.

By now, you know that members of the “loudmouth minority” have railed against NBC for delaying the airing of the Summer Games despite making promises that all but the ceremonies would be shown live somewhere.

I was especially aghast after seeing on Twitter the result of Usain Bolt’s 9.63 second 100-meter win before what NBC presented to us as a live stream was sent to American viewers on computers, or in my case, an iPad.

Former President Bill Clinton famously said, "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is.”

In so many words, NBC said “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘live’ is.”

Recently, Today executive producer, Jim Bell, who also was the Games' executive producer, dismissed the criticism, again incorrectly stating in a Hollywood Reporter interview that “everything was live.”

Why is it such a big deal? Why can’t I be content with 5,500 hours from London, unprecedented as far as Olympics are concerned?

Because we live in real time. Even a delay of 9.63 seconds matters.

If you think I’m wrong, imagine the uproar if the results of the Academy Awards were shown somewhere 10 seconds before the announcements were made on the telecast.

In my house, if I shouted out the winners 10 seconds early, my wife would kick me out in Olympic record fashion. And she would be right.

Live is live. It is 2012.

Which brings us to 2016 and Rio.

According to the Associated Press, NBC chief researcher Alan Wurtzel says that two-thirds of people who knew the results ahead of NBC's tape-delayed telecast said they would watch the events anyway. People who watched the events earlier in the day via computer stream watched the tape-delayed broadcast for a longer time than those who hadn't.

Hello. This presents some pretty obvious implications for the industry.

ESPN, which knows a bit about sports programming, uses tape only for highlights – or so it seems.

“Sports are all about live,” John Kosner, who leads all of ESPN’s digital media properties, told me in my book, Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobil Devices http://www.amazon.com/Mobilized-Marketing-Engagement-Loyalty-Through/dp/1118243269/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345130944&sr=8-1&keywords=hasen+mobile. “You have to watch and experience the game live. You want to talk about it while it’s happening. You want more information about the game or other games taking place at the same time. That’s all central.”

Real-time interaction in and out of the venue enhances the event, according to Kosner.

“The development of these social networks and utilities like Twitter take it up a level because it makes it apparent that much more is possible. Location-based content, the sharing of photos, the ability to watch video, and more.”

Michael Bayle, now Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile at ESPN, says that the convergence of mobile and social changed the time-shifting model almost as fast as it appeared.

“I would argue that’s the biggest interruption that has happened is because of the success of mobile,” he says. “One to three years ago, one could comfortably record their favorite NBA game, baseball game, what have you, and then relax and come home at night and watch it—and choose if you wish to forward through the commercials and just get to the highlights. That’s almost impossible now because of mobile and the instant access to Twitter and other means of social media.

“Unless someone is terribly blind or deaf, it precludes any chance to go and rewatch a game safely. You almost now have to have a live environment.”

Bayle, who has been in mobile so long that some consider him a lifer, believes that social, mobile, and the fan are forever linked.

“Social is critical to be successful in as much as fans by nature will be social, either touting or taunting their friends or loved ones or even finding new friends just by the nature of how people rally around teams so to speak,” he says. “I think there’s a concept here . . . of the concept of the ‘game around the game.’”

Bayle sees more interaction between fans and ESPN personalities, providing more opportunities for marketers to be part of the bond that only sports bring.

“The goal with our mobile teams is to improve the access to fans and to real-time interact with that content,” he says.

Real time. It’s not a nebulous concept despite what NBC wants us to believe.

Prediction: Device price points will continue to be brought down with offers of discounted products in exchange for a consumer agreeing to receive ads. Mobile phones with offers, including perhaps a Google phone, are coming soon.

Where We Stand: As I write this, for a shiny (or dull, for that matter) penny, Amazon is selling the Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4G Android Phone on Verizon Wireless. That is tied to a contract, not ads. But Google is making a further wireless bet with the introduction of the Nexus 7 tablet. Reportedly the company won’t make anything off of the hardware – it’s about the ads and selling of content that makes this viable.

Prediction: Savvy marketers will follow research highlighting consumer behavior and interest. They know that just because you can do something technically doesn’t mean that you should.

Where We Stand: At a recent Hipcricket summit of top digital marketers, one of the many of the successes discussed was Ford’s 15.4 percent lead conversion seen through the combination of traditional media and text messaging. Spending on shiny objects can move your business backward – or get you fired.

Prediction: 2012 will be the year of the mobile web. As we move closer to the time when more people access the web on a wireless device than a PC, brands, agencies and others will realize that they need a mobile web offering that overdelivers. This has not yet happened, but will soon because consumers will demand it.

Where We Stand: Mobile Internet users will reach 113.9 million in 2012, up 17.1% from 97.3 million in 2011 (U.S. Digital Media Usage report, eMarketer 2012). But there is an argument to be made that this is the year of mobile apps (oh, how so many predicted its demise). 64 percent of mobile phone time is spent using apps (Nielsen, March 2012). That could not be predicted.

Prediction: In such a growth industry, more vendors will enter the marketplace making claims that they will produce ROI. Proceed with caution. While the company name may not say Two Guys In a Garage, that may indeed be what you are buying.

Where We Stand: I have not seen a stat about new mobile companies launched, but anecdotally I can tell you that we see newbies just about every day. And many are performing smoke and mirror tricks. Beware.

Prediction: Expect more pressure from senior management to produce results from mobile, meaning it’s critical to think beyond a one-time transaction. There are bigger opportunities if you think about what can happen after the click, namely an experience that can lead to an opt-in and remarketing possibilities.

Where We Stand: As mobile matures, the smartest brands like Coca-Cola are looking at lifetime value. This group has grown significantly in the last six months. More and more, we’re seeing uptake in mobile advertising that follows with an engagement plan.

Prediction: Plan on more device types in the hands of consumers, making it important to provide positive user experiences rather than products that addresses the least-common denominator. Consumers expect top notch brand experiences and the bar is higher than ever with smartphones and faster networks.

Where We Stand: In my Mobilized Marketing book http://www.amazon.com/Mobilized-Marketing-Engagement-Loyalty-Through/dp/1118243269/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342366926&sr=8-1&keywords=mobilized+marketing, ESPN executive Michael Bayle says that brands are being punished by consumers who are given poor experiences on mobile. Bayle is right – I see it and hear it often.

Prediction: Expect more social interaction at the point of sale, making customer service vital or a bad experience will end up on Facebook or Twitter in seconds. According to my Moments of Trust consumer touchpoint survey, 40 percent of consumers with smartphones or Internet-enabled mobile devices have used them to spread word to their social networks about an in-store experience, 46 percent of them reported a positive one and 40 percent cited a negative one.

Where We Stand: Twitter and Facebook have furthered their mobile reach via feature phone apps. It’s not about smartphones or feature phones – for brands, it’s important to note that all wireless devices are megaphones.

Prediction: We will see patent infringements being identified and enforced, making it imperative to work with a company that has protected IP and can keep you out of trouble. Rather than experiencing a problem later, it’s critical to determine if a vendor has proprietary technology or is working off something that could be challenged in court.

Where We Stand: Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft and many others have spent time and money in the first half of the year either fortifying, purchasing, or defending IP. IP has become an important part of the conversation, one that won’t end by the time Santa comes down the chimney.

Prediction: Others will chase voice as the killer app but may not deliver due to issues of ambient noise and poor search results.

Where We Stand: Google Voice has emerged as the leader in the category with others bringing products to market. Meanwhile, Apple promises a better Siri experience while saying that consumers are more than satisfied with the current iteration.

Prediction: Successful mobile campaigns will have prominent calls to action and provide multiple ways to engage. Much like Macy’s does with its Backstage Pass program, brands should consider using an SMS call to action and QR code on print advertising campaign pointing to a mobile website that can capture customer’s information.  This engages the consumer and introduces a concept of immediacy

Where We Stand: Consumers are looking for interactivity in what used to be passive situations. I challenge you to find a successful mobile program where the call to action is buried.

In the Toronto Star piece http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1157843--tech-s-great-expectations-why-consumers-are-often-neither-shaken-nor-stirred titled Tech’s great expectations: Why consumers are often neither shaken nor stirred, Michael Lewis (no, not the Michael Lewis from Moneyball fame) sought to call out mobile for what he considers small or no advances.

“With the wow factor conspicuously absent from the latest crop of smartphones and tablet PCs offered by vendors including Apple Inc., some experts are asking whether innovation has hit a wall in the post-Jobs era,” Lewis wrote. “The sense of stagnation was reinforced at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where dozens of smartphones were unveiled by vendors including HTC Corp. and Samsung Electronics in what one blogger called an outpouring of “product spam.”

Granted, the story appeared before Facebook paid $1 billion for pioneering Instagram so that it could be a bigger player in mobile. But where was Lewis when the third iPad was introduced, or when Nokia showed a 41-megapixel phone, or when Draw Something saw 50 million downloads in 50 days?

It would be too easy to suggest that Lewis has been dulled by the lack of innovation by Canadian company RIM.

The reporter attempted to back up his premise with interviews from industry analysts and academia.

According to Lewis, “Forrester Research senior analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said the market’s sense of what constitutes true innovation ‘has warped to the point where if Apple’s next product doesn’t make cars fly or enable mind control, we yawn and change the channel.’”

And then there were these comments from Sidneyeve Matrix, an assistant professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. (note - I follow Matrix on Twitter and find her to be insightful).

She was quoted by Lewis as saying, “There is no doubt people feel underwhelmed.” Lewis said that Matrix noted that, “the two most recent Apple product announcements under chief executive Tim Cook have been about incremental rather than revolutionary change. And the next iPhone ‘probably won’t move the needle that much either.’”

Lewis apparently didn’t talk to others. He should have.

Gartner predicts that tablet sales will double in 2012. Further, it said that iPad shipments will quadruple from 2011 to 2016. J.P. Morgan recently upped its first quarter estimate of iPhones sold to 31.1 million, three million more than first projected.

That doesn’t sound like stagnation to me.

Impressive stats. However, what is missing is data on the return on investment for brand managers, some of whom took the plunge in the very early days in part because of a misguided belief that the mere creation of an app would be newsworthy.

“Companies were making decisions to develop an app and rushing to launch something just so they could point to it in the app store,” Joy Liuzzo, InsightExpress vice president and director, says in my soon-to-be-released book, Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices http://jeffhasen.com/pages/mobilized-marketing-book.

“The lack of strategy is shocking in hindsight—and even during the time—but it spoke to the still naïve understanding of mobile by most companies. They thought of it as an isolated channel, something fun and fluffy, and that consumers would be willing to engage with anything they put in front of them. I think the realization that the channel and consumer were more sophisticated than they realized was a hard wake-up call for brands and agencies. However, those lessons were necessary to force agencies and brands down a more integrated strategy path, one that included proper planning and multiple mobile channel executions and media.”

Among the lessons learned was the need to drive attention to an app. Many now do so through mobile advertising.

Certainly a number of brands have successfully employed apps. Many winning applications serve utilitarian functions, providing such content as recipes, nutritional information and flight status. Others, such as an app employed by Starbucks, expedite payment at the point of sale.

Savvy marketers are giving consumers a choice by providing multiple ways to engage on a wireless device. That strategy is wise because it is more inclusive than a program that banks on one mobile product being available on an individual handset, then found and used by a brand’s customers and prospects.

What are consumers finding most interesting when it comes to apps?

Draw Something Free (social drawing and guessing game), The Simpsons: Tapped Out and Camera Awesome (that replaces the iPhone’s camera) were the top moving free apps on Saturday. Facebook and Twitter apps are always customer favorites, as is Angry Birds, the top selling iPhone and iPad app in 2011.

The top paid Android apps as of Saturday were Draw Something, Where’s My Water (game to test skills with a cranky alligator) and Beautiful Widgets (to customize such things as time and weather).

In case you missed it – and the point of this post is that you are far from alone – Google reportedly breached the privacy of millions of Apple Safari users by fooling the web browser into accepting tracking cookies it normally wouldn't take, according to PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/article/250213/googles_safari_tracking_debacle_reality_check.html According to the publication, “Google, however, says this is an unhappy accident and that Google never intended to track its users in this manner.”

Still, Google’s violation not only breaks the “contract” between Apple and its Safari users, it blows to pieces Google’s promises made to the Federal Trade Commission that "bars the company from future privacy misrepresentations."

How might the government entity punish Google? According to the Los Angeles Times, “if Google is found to have violated its agreement with the FTC, the company could face fines of up to $16,000 per day for each violation.”

Wow, $16,000 should get Google’s attention. It likely pays more than that daily for lunches in its cafeteria.

Now to the question of whether Web users care about their privacy.  I use Safari on multiple devices and do feel “violated”. But will I change browsers because of this or operate under the assumption that the next browser I use will invade my space as well?

That decision has yet to be made.

In fact, I have been talking about privacy in this space for years. In 2010, I predicted that with more mobile advertisements would come questions and concerns about privacy. http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2011/01/02/assessing-the-last-set-of-mobile-predictions/

But six months later, Facebook, among many others, continues to be cited for lapses (if not downright intentional information sharing). An issue affected tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings.

Still, Facebook rolled on with a high-profile movie, appearance by Mark Zuckerberg as Time’s Person of the Year, and the site eclipsing Google as the most visited on the Web.

In my upcoming Mobilized Marketing book http://jeffhasen.com/pages/mobilized-marketing-book, Thom Kennon, senior vice president and director of strategy at Y&R, tells me that “privacy is delusional.”

More from Kennon in Mobilized Marketing:

“I don’t think for the last 70 or 80 years of consumerism have we enjoyed this Pollyannaish view of what privacy and data protection we were going to have. I don’t believe even aspirationally that it’s attainable.”

This privacy issue will go on long after you can read Kennon’s full comments May 1 when the book is released.

Thirteen slices of cranberry bread. More sandies than I care to count. Sips (or was it gulps) of Washington wine that brought a calm end to a frenetic year.

And insights that will make me a better marketer in 2012.

What did I learn in those brief moments when I wasn’t stuffing my face?

The fact that the supposed technology divide between generations is bogus. 

My first inkling?

Soon after receiving her first iPad, my mother-in-law downloaded an app and streamed music that filled a room. She shouted out the ingredients for a holiday dinner, then gleefully taught the rest of us the shortcut of using three fingers to zoom in and out on her tablet.

My mother-in-law is 82. Oh, and she has been using a Kindle for three years and in 2010 learned the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system in about three days.

The second sign?

The same sister-in-law who passed off my gadget time as trivial did not let her first smartphone out of her hands, much less her sight. Sure, she was doing many of the activities we were doing in 2007, but gone were the feature phone, triple-tapping, and inability to effectively reach the Internet and all it has to offer.

My sister in law is 55. Her 65-year-old husband says that he is next up for a smartphone.

Judging by the statistics, my focus group of one is representative.

According to Nielsen, we are on the way to 56 percent of U.S. seniors using the Internet in 2015 versus 45 percent in 2010. eMarketer says that 31 percent of seniors accessed social networking sites in 2011, with an estimated 36 percent projected to use them by 2013.

After younger adults, the segment with the second fastest-growing smartphone penetration rate is those aged 55-64. Smartphone penetration among this older group is only 30 percent, but it jumped 5 percent in the third quarter of 2011.

Tablet ownership among those older than 55 climbed from 10 to 19 percent between fall of 2010 and summer of 2011.

For marketers, these behavior changes provide unmatched opportunities to reach Boomers and seniors with personalized campaigns that will move product and drive loyalty. My in-laws each commented on ads they were seeing and were well aware of QR codes.

We’ll look back at 2011 as the Year of Mobile Commerce during the holiday shopping season. Those who purchased in great numbers likely skewed younger, but that may not always be the case as older wireless device owners take advantage of the convenience and knowledge that smartphones and tablets bring.

As for me, my gadgets are the ideal January tools to find weight-loss solutions.

Instead, here are my 2012 predictions for other areas of mobile:

Device price points will continue to be brought down with offers of discounted products in exchange for a consumer agreeing to receive ads. Mobile phones with offers, including perhaps a Google phone, are coming soon.

Savvy marketers will follow research highlighting consumer behavior and interest. They know that just because you can do something technically doesn’t mean that you should. Know your customers and prospects and market to them in ways that you have the best chance of success. One major global brand allocates approximately 70 percent of its mobile efforts to ‘reach efforts’ that include SMS, 20 percent to richer experiences that don’t reach all subscribers, and 10 percent to the shiny object. That is a great example to follow.

2012 will be the year of the mobile web. As we move closer to the time when more people access the web on a wireless device than a PC, brands, agencies and others will realize that they need a mobile web offering that overdelivers. This has not yet happened, but will soon because consumers will demand it.

In such a growth industry, more vendors will enter the marketplace making claims that they will produce ROI. Proceed with caution. While the company name may not say Two Guys In a Garage, that may indeed be what you are buying.

Expect more pressure from senior management to produce results from mobile, meaning it’s critical to think beyond a one-time transaction. There are bigger opportunities if you think about what can happen after the click, namely an experience that can lead to an opt-in and remarketing possibilities.

Plan on more device types in the hands of consumers, making it important to provide positive user experiences rather than products that addresses the least-common denominator. Consumers expect top notch brand experiences and the bar is higher than ever with smartphones and faster networks.

Expect more social interaction at the point of sale, making customer service vital or a bad experience will end up on Facebook or Twitter in seconds. According to my Moments of Trust consumer touchpoint survey, 40 percent of consumers with smartphones or Internet-enabled mobile devices have used them to spread word to their social networks about an in-store experience, 46 percent of them reported a positive one and 40 percent cited a negative one.

We will see patent infringements being identified and enforced, making it imperative to work with a company that has protected IP and can keep you out of trouble. Rather than experiencing a problem later, it’s critical to determine if a vendor has proprietary technology or is working off something that could be challenged in court.

Others will chase voice as the killer app but may not deliver due to issues of ambient noise and poor search results.

Successful mobile campaigns will have prominent calls to action and provide multiple ways to engage. Much like Macy’s does with its Backstage Pass program, brands should consider using an SMS call to action and QR code on print advertising campaign pointing to a mobile website that can capture customer’s information.  This engages the consumer and introduces a concept of immediacy. Consumers are looking for interactivity in what used to be passive situations.

Yup, call me on the iPhone 5 through the T-Mobile network and give me the details.

We missed – all of us did, including the most dependable of so-called insiders. No fifth generation of the iPhone, no iPhone business at all at T-Mobile, which spent the last six months envisioning a marriage with AT&T that hasn’t made it to the alter. At least Kim and Kris got that far.

Of course, what we got from Apple was Siri, a voice recognition technology that received the fanboy buzz treatment but is already considered a fading novelty by many.

In July, we suggested that with the iPhone in more hands, we would have a repeat of the time when the CEO said, “We need an iPhone app”. That may have come to pass to some degree, but we certainly aren’t fielding request after request at Hipcricket where clients and prospects are more interested in driving leads and building databases which produce remarketing opportunities.

How did I do on my other predictions?

I forecast that the convergence of mobile and social would be even more pronounced. That has come to pass with Facebook and Twitter introducing products that have yielded unprecedented activity through wireless devices. Facebook’s acquisition of location-sharing property Gowalla is the latest example of the coming together of mobile and social.

I predicted that at retail, even more mobile subscribers would be chronicling their “Moments of Trust” by posting comments, photos and even videos to social networks. Mobile devices have become megaphones for a large portion of users with more than 40 percent telling those in their social networks about negative or positive experiences with brands. Is this trend growing? Try finding someone in a mall without a mobile device in hand.

I said that Groupon would prove to be more valuable to mobile users than to PC members, providing that the mobile customer opts in for Groupon Now offers.  According to daily deal aggregator Yipit, Groupon Now—geared toward consumers using mobile devices—generated $1.2 million in revenue in October, a 24.5 percent increase from September. By way of comparison, Groupon’s October revenue was up 22.2 percent.

I said to expect outrage over bills that charge for data overages. We’ve heard this one before – text messaging became mainstream once consumers were offered unlimited plans that prevented shocking bills. With the carriers doing away with all you can eat data, we’re back to surprise time in our bills. As it turned out, the Federal Trade Commission noticed. In October, it unveiled its "bill shock" plan, which would require wireless providers to alert users when they have exceeded or are about to go over voice, text, or data usage.

I predicted that the hype around the mobile wallet would intensify and asked if that was even possible. I also said that everyone is chasing the opportunity, but consumers wouldn’t be leaving their wallets at home when they hit the malls in November and December. This is true. The Google Wallet payment system was announced in May, but it only works with Sprint’s Nexus S 4G.The buzz continues, though, with the news that the Google Wallet will soon be linked to vending machines in New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., and San Francisco.

I suggested that with smartphone adoption making a march toward 50 percent share, expect more to make the claim that apps are on the way out because so many more subscribers will be able to access the mobile web. I also said that we’re years away from deciding the apps vs. web question. I still believe that. We now have over one million apps offered through various stores. The great majority are ignored or get downloaded and forgotten. But some, mostly utilitarian ones, appear to be here to stay.

If you haven’t had your dose of reality – augmented reality, that is – let me fill you in. Beginning next Tuesday, customers who download an app for iPhone and Android devices can experience what Starbucks is calling “Cup Magic”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWwQXi9RG0w&feature=player_embedded

Specifically by firing up the app and pointing it at a holiday cup, one can interact with five characters — an ice skater, a squirrel, a boy and a dog sledding and a fox — on your screen.

And, if you are so inclined, you can share the feature on Facebook and via email.

The object, Alexandra Wheeler, Vice President of Global Digital Marketing for Starbucks told Mashable http://mashable.com/2011/11/08/starbucks-ar-app/, is to “surprise and delight” customers during the holiday season.

My take?

It’s one more case of augmented reality showing off whiz bang technology but not delivering much value. At the risk of being a Scrooge – it wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve been so described – what’s in this for us? I am in Starbucks six days a week, looking for a jolt of Joe, not cuteness.

Sure, Starbucks created buzz with the campaign but don’t we already get that with our Venti latte?

For years that sometimes feel forever, we’ve counseled brands to create mobile experiences that drive business. Our MillerCoors client uses mobile for one reason – to sell more beer.

Will Starbucks move any more product by giving us skaters in our holiday cup scenes? Isn’t augmented reality more useful if it serves a utilitarian purpose like showing me the nearest discount on coffee when I’m in a new city?

When it comes to augmented reality, just because you can doesn’t mean that you should.

The way comScore sees it http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2011/iPhone_5_Implications_for_the_Operator_Industry, AT&T would be in good shape if it is given the opportunity to sell lower-priced iPhones as well as the new one; Verizon is in a favorable position because of the reputation and performance of its network; and Sprint would please many consumers if it sticks with its unique unlimited voice and data plans.

The implications for marketers are more interesting.

Do you remember the days when your CEO said that your company needed an iPhone app? While that direction was then often strategically unsound given Apple’s limited reach, more iPhones in the hands of more subscribers could soon make an iPhone app and mobile advertising via Apple’s iOS necessities for many brands.

Which subscribers?

According to comScore, in July 2009, a month after the iPhone 3GS was launched, 6.6 million U.S. mobile users reported having an iPhone. Over the next two years, during which the iPhone 4 was released on both AT&T’s and Verizon’s networks, that number increased 235 percent to 22.2 million mobile users.

Two years ago, iPhone owners were mostly male (63.4 percent) and a high percentage were between the ages of 25-34 (32.5 percent). Then, 41.9 percent were in households earning $100,000 or more. By July 2011, however, the typical iPhone user had changed.

Women account for nearly half (48.2 percent) of all iPhone owners and although consumers age 25-34 are still heavily represented, this age segment has seen a 3.6-percentage point decline in share as iPhone adoption has become more widespread across age groups.

What about household income?

In July 2011, more than 45 percent of iPhone users in the U.S. came from households earning $100,000 or more. However, the number of iPhone users with a household income of less than $50,000 doubled vs. last year, accounting for the highest growth rate across income segments. This growth coincides with AT&T’s heavily discounted offering of the iPhone 3GS at the beginning of 2011, priced at $49.

comScore says that 83 percent are pleased with their iPhone. As marketers, we don’t have to worry too much about losing this group to Android, Microsoft or others if we build for iOS.

About one in four iPhone owners are open to switching carriers. The bet is that about three in four CEOs will ask us to reach Apple’s growing community.