AdTruth, the global leader in securing digital relationships, is teaming up with Adform, a provider of digital media trading technology and campaign management solutions, for a live webinar on May 30^th to discuss how the entire online advertising ecosystem can benefit from improving audience recognition across desktop and mobile.

The two companies will delve into how Adform is using AdTruth’s universal device recognition technology to reach both desktop and mobile audiences efficiently and at scale.

During this session, attendees will benefit from:

• Discussing the principles of universality: The ability to work on all device types and in all use cases
• Programmatic-level performance: The ability to support billions of impressions at millisecond speeds
• Privacy-by-design: The approach that is at the core of device recognition technology empowering marketers and agencies to execute online campaigns while respecting consumer privacy and choice

Attendees will learn from Adform on how they’re utilizing AdTruth’s device recognition technology to support its platform’s desktop and mobile real-time bidding (RTB) capabilities to increase campaign reach and audience engagement.

Join the conversation May 30^th, 2013 at 6 a.m. PST/9a.m. EST.  Register Now

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.

Now, back to the beginning.

There is a common practice in the technology industry of putting tablets and smartphones together in a single category and calling them "mobile" devices. Both are compelling and relatively new types of devices that exhibit a similar look and feel, and share some key characteristics. However, there are significant differences between them that make one a mobile device, and the other not.

Why shouldn't they both be considered mobile? More importantly, why is this an issue?

Because mobile is the most transformative revolution in computing since the emergence of the Internet. Mobile takes advantage of extreme portability and continuous network connectivity to enable a completely new set of user experiences that traditional computing platforms cannot. Knowing which devices are mobile and which are not helps us better understand what is happening and how to better plan, and create, the future.

What’s useful is a simple definition of what "mobile" really means.

A primary characteristic of mobile devices is that they are small enough to be continuously carried around through almost all daily activities, including walking, running, and driving, and are found at home, in the office, in-store or anywhere in-between. Mobile devices can easily fit into a pocket or a purse and are comfortable in one hand, instantly available and ready for use at any time.

Mobile devices, literally, go where no computing devices have gone before.

A second, synergistic characteristic of a truly mobile device is that it's always connected, allowing immediate access to the cloud with vast online data and processing resources. (Many apps require connectivity to function.) This strongly implies an always-on cellular data network connection. (While accessibility to WiFi networks is increasing, it is still fractured, often requiring multiple logins and extra fees to use.)

Tablets and smartphones are very different from each other on both of these counts. That, in turn, drives distinctly different usage patterns.

Tablets are more portable than laptops, but are generally too large and cumbersome to carry continuously throughout the day. Even though tablets have touch interfaces and use smartphone-like apps, many of the uses are similar to those previously performed on traditional PCs, such as browsing websites and conventional ecommerce. Tablets are generally used as laptop replacements.

As for connectivity, almost nine out of ten tablets do not have a cellular data plan and rely on discontiguous WiFi networks. This drives localized and stationary behavior - similar to a laptop, users find a location with a network connection and then stay there to use the tablet.

Conversely, smartphones are both smaller and almost always sold with associated cellular networking plans, delivering continuous connectivity. These differentiating characteristics have spawned a completely new set of user experiences such as dynamic street navigation, fitness tracking/GPS apps and digital wallets. They have become digital personal assistants that are always with you and cause a significant deal of anxiety when they’re misplaced.

Still not convinced? Here are some simple observational experiments. Have you seen a jogger running with a tablet? Or a shopper in the store using a tablet to scan products? Or a Starbucks customer presenting their tablet for payment?

While tablets are not mobile, they are an impressive and disruptive advancement over the traditional PC and deserve their due. Their convenient form-factor and compelling touchscreen interfaces are a significant evolutionary step. But on the continuum of devices, tablets are much closer to PCs and laptops than smartphones.

To be sure, there is some overlap between the classifications, especially when some smartphones have larger screens, such as the Galaxy Note, and some tablets have smaller screens, such as the iPad Mini. These “phablets” have even spawned their own subcategory name. And tablets can certainly have cellular connectivity, but as mentioned, only a fraction do.

Again, what does it matter?

Technology analysts and industry pundits often lump both tablets and smartphones into the single category of “mobile devices” and then associate a common set of attributes to the combined grouping. This is useless at best and misleading at worst.

A good example is in online retail. In recent years, the new term "mcommerce" has surfaced, where the "m" stands for mobile. The implication is that it’s a whole new way that people purchase using their “mobile” devices. But the vast majority of this “new” mcommerce is the same old PC-based ecommerce activity now happening through tablets. The shopper experience and buying process are essentially identical to ecommerce on the laptop (even though it might be through an app or an “optimized” website), happening in a stationary location through WiFi. Nothing really new or mobile about it.

What makes real mobile commerce different is that smartphones are actually taken into the physical store and are used for in-store shopping activities – where more than 90% of retail takes place. These activities include finding the exact locations of products inside the store, seeing the most efficient route through the store, receiving personalized offers for nearby products, digital coupons and using digital wallets.

These activities generate large amounts of shopper behavior data for the retailer, including deep insights into shoppers’ decision-making processes. The smartphone also acts as a channel for the retailer to engage in a two-way, real-time conversation with shoppers, while they are in the store.

That’s significantly different than traditional online ecommerce.

Let’s stop putting tablets into the “mobile” bucket. Smartphones are mobile. Tablets are not. Acknowledging and understanding the difference will help drive new insights and innovation – for these devices and others

You think ads in mobile apps are annoying, don’t you?

I believe that the popular backlash against digital advertising stems from poor targeting practices. Bad targeting usually means bad advertising; good targeting means matching people with messages that are actually relevant to them. In fact, Adblock Plus found in a survey that 75% of its users were willing to see responsibly-targeted, unobtrusive ads.

That’s why it’s high time mobile apps take advantage of data to make their ads more relevant.

Most app developers are gathering mountains of data about users’ interests that could be combined with “interest graph” data from Facebook, Twitter and other interlinked social networks to target ads based on what a user actually likes. By doing this, app developers could dramatically boost engagement with their ads and charge a premium for their audiences… not to mention make mobile ads a little less bothersome.

To demonstrate this concept in action, I’ve looked at four popular apps that are not already targeting based on interest data, with a few ideas on how they can get started. Some may disagree with my suggestions for changing their most beloved apps, but I believe that ad targeting done well will enhance user experience, not detract from it.

1. Pandora

Pandora users have become accustomed to irrelevant ads; as one reviewer said, “the app was great, but the ads were ‘completely useless’.” Most of Pandora’s in-app advertising revolves around intermittent audio ads based on a user’s location, but few ads take into account a user’s tastes or preferences. Obviously, just because two users live the same town doesn’t mean they’re interested in the same thing… so why doesn’t Pandora move away from geo-targeting to much more nuanced interest graph targeting?

For Pandora, this means analyzing first-party data (playlist seeds and music ratings) and combining it with third-party data (other interest graph data, such as what a user likes and who they follow). By integrating a user’s thumbs-up and thumbs-down ratings with interests identified from her Facebook and Twitter data, Pandora could easily present ads for products and services she would find relevant.

2. Flixster

Many ads on Flixster promote current movies playing at nearby cinemas, or special offers from advertisers such as LivingSocial. Users get interstitial screen takeovers based on location, and lots of ads for Flixster features and content. Other ads seem completely untargeted, such as LivingSocial pop-ups and Rotten Tomatoes banners.

Flixster has a ton of valuable data about its users (location, types of movies they like, movies they’ve seen and rated etc.) that they could be using to target ads – and they aren’t even doing this simple type of targeting. The app could also go above and beyond targeting based on its own data to include third-party interest graph data from Facebook and Twitter. Combining Flixster’s own interest data with information like which celebrities its users follow on major social platforms could help advertisers reach people who might be interested in TV premieres featuring their favorite movie stars.

3. Yelp

Yelp is one of the most popular local apps around today. Millions of users launch Yelp every day to look up reviews for restaurants, stores, attractions and more. And guess what? Yelp doesn’t serve mobile ads at all! To be fair, Yelp’s monetization strategy focuses mostly on getting local businesses to pony up for “enhanced” listings, but the world’s most popular local reviews app could be doing so much more to monetize its mobile traffic. On the Yelp website, users see relevant promoted events and businesses on the right side of the screen, as well as some targeted advertising – but on the mobile app, nothing.

The thing is, Yelp knows what type of restaurants, shops, events, and attractions you frequent, as well as your location, places you’ve reviewed and more. For its mobile app, Yelp could combine a user’s location, searches, and review history to deliver highly relevant ads. What’s more, Yelp could integrate third-party interest graph data to identify users as “moms” or “sports fans” to create even more relevant ad experiences.

4. OkCupid

OkCupid is another mobile app that serves no ads. This is a company that uses sophisticated data mining to make sophisticated dating matches. It asks users dozens of questions to create their unique profiles, and has data on age, interests, location, preferences for a date, opinions, chats, messages etc. Yet OKCupid does not use this data to serve targeted ads on mobile. I’m sure the daters on OkCupid would be an outstanding audience for ads for relevant local restaurants, bars, comedy clubs, theatres, and other outings, not to mention ads for clothes, makeup, accessories, and other must-have items for actively-dating singles.

OkCupid could start by mining the rich dataset it has on all the singles using its service to create targeted ads based on location, interests and age. It could also combine this information with third-party interest graph data to attract a wider range of advertisers, beyond those that fit the “dater” profile. For example, they could help auto brands find in-market auto shoppers, or help airlines find frequent travelers.

These advertisers could even gear their creative towards this audience to make the ads relevant to the app experience, with ad copy such as “Don’t take her out in your old clunker. Check out the new Jeep!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

As I write in my book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, we've reached a point now where brands should no longer view social media as a cool new way to connect with consumers.

We must now view social media as a means by which we as brands can enable consumers not just to connect with us, but to each other. And not just in some virtual space, but in the physical world as well.

This initiative can help break the ice in a social setting - as well as continue the conversation (and/or flirtation) after that beer (or the many, many beers, as the case may be) is gone.

Cheers to Bud for the bold idea.

Read all about it, here.

• Relevance – To the time, place, device and intent. Mobile rewrites the book on relevance. There are three types of relevance in mobile: Event-based relevance, personal relevance, and contextual relevance. These, respectively, relate to what’s going on in the world around the user, who and where they are, and what they are doing at the time you message them. All are key to engaging users successfully.  As an example, reaching out to a 32 year old hockey fan in New York City at 6:30 PM on a weeknight and offering him half-price wings during the Rangers game at a local sports bar is probably going to drive some positive results.

• Surveys – Want to get instant feedback and better interaction rates? Include a survey or quiz at the end of your video. For example, a survey at the end of a video for a self-serve frozen yogurt store might ask users what their favorite mix in/yogurt combo is. Surveys can be used to crowdsource: Like our video about the new Chevy? What feature would you most like to see in the new model? What color should we introduce this year?  They can also be used to learn about audience demographics and preferences: Did you like the trailer for the upcoming season of Mad Men? With which character do you identify most? What other shows do you watch?

• Social Sharing /Feeds – The best way to put your video ad on the path to viral super-stardom is with social sharing. Videos that are in the vein of the latest Old Spice ads or carry a strong political or humanitarian message can quickly gain momentum in the social space. Consider the devastating Kony 2012 video, which has over 97 million views to date. How could anyone watch that and not share it, really?  On the other side of the spectrum, Kmart’s “Ship My Pants” has garnered over 15 million views over a two-week period, and Dove’s touching “Real Beauty Sketches,” has earned over 28 million views in about 10 days. Enabling social sharing is an easy way to increase interaction and viewership of your mobile video. Similarly, including social feeds within your video is evidence that your video ad is share-worthy and invites viewers to join in the conversation.

• Think beyond the click - Depending on the nature of your video ad, there may be other interactions that drive interaction. For example, if your ad is for a retail chain, you may want to include a store locator and/or map.  A car video might include a local inventory search. Brands may want to include a call to action that allows consumers to input a phone number or email address to receive coupon via SMS or email.

Of course, whatever tactics you choose, you’ll want to be sure that your mobile site is up to snuff. For many mobile advertisements, the next step for consumers is visits to the site; make sure yours is optimized for a good mobile experience. If you’ve gotten them through to your site, the last thing you want to do is disappoint them there!

Mobile video opens up so many new opportunities to advertisers in terms of engagement and multi-dimensional calls to action. Be creative, and think beyond the link! Smart, innovative choices could drive engagement rates beyond expectations.

That's a pretty penny from a medium that until late last year, marketers will still unsure about.

Let's timehop back to August 2012. In an article entitled, "Why is Pandora not making more money in mobile?" Mobile Marketer cites several reasons why the music-streaming service was struggling, including smaller screens that don't allow for large-format, high-impact ad formats.

At that point, most ads were in the form of small banners, and video hadn't really come onto the scene yet. "The mobile advertising market is still in the early stages," they wrote, and is not keeping up with Pandora's mobile use.

Fast forward to today. Mobile traffic in the Music, Video and Media category (Pandora among others) continues to soar, and has consistently been #1 in terms of impression volume on our Opera Mediaworks mobile advertising platform.

However, as you can see here in the Q1 2013 State of Mobile Advertising report, revenue has definitely caught up with impressions.

About 18% of all revenue is generated by mobile sites and apps that serve music, video and media content. Compare this to the more traditional "money-makers" in the mobile, like Sports (11.5%), News & Information (9.5%) and Business & Finance (8%) and you'll see why Pandora is killing it.

The entire category is killing it. Massive numbers of users are using mobile devices to consume music content —and this audience and engagement is very appealing to advertisers. Pandora stands out as the shining star because they understand how to optimize advertising within their user experience in a way that is minimally disruptive, yet highly engaging.

And Pandora is killing it because the mobile advertising market has grown up. With high-impact rich media and video ad formats, and key targeting capabilities using the valuable registration and profile data typically available from music services, the revenue per mobile-user or listening-hour has increased.

Now, whether their revenue will climb at a fast enough rate to exceed their content costs...this is no doubt heavily debated in the music industry today, because companies like Pandora generate huge exposure for their content and actually contribute much-needed revenue. The music industry needs them in order to be successful.

But more about that later.

There’s a lot happening in retail these days, for both the customer and the retailer. Driving much of this is a unique and unprecedented combination of new technologies, unparalleled access to information, and significant changes in shoppers’ behaviors.

What’s especially different today is that shoppers, instead of retailers, are leading the way. Shoppers are taking their own networked computers, disguised as smartphones, into to the store. Retailers are left playing catch up with the new smartphone enabled shopping behaviors. This is in stark contrast from the time where retailers could largely implement and manage the rate of technology adoption.

Looking ahead, there is no doubt that technology will become an even more significant part of in-store retailing.

The questions are: How will traditional brick and mortar retailers deal with the smartphone? How do retailers take advantage of these new shopping behaviors? This is where Amazon comes back into the discussion.

Most importantly: How does Amazon do it and how do more traditional retailers take advantage of these strategies? There are a number of key perspectives, goals and strategies that have positioned Amazon as the highly successful dominant online retailer, as well as a significant influence on off-line retail. We’ll focus on a few of them here.

Look underneath Amazon’s hood - or the website - to learn the additional key drivers of their success.

The golden rule at Amazon is that the customer is, in fact, gold - both figuratively and literally. Customers make the purchase decisions, generating revenue for Amazon. At Amazon, decisions are often made that are good for the customer but may not be directly beneficial to Amazon’s bottom line. These decisions are still made and implemented because of Amazon’s laser focus on consumers.

Secondly, the corporate culture is best described as relentless. They don’t stand still. No challenge is too daunting and employees continually drive to improve what they deliver. If you’re not driving hard, you are in the way. Employees act fast, take measurements, improve and repeat.

Thirdly, they thrive on technology, but not technology for technology’s sake. Amazon does not view itself as a retail company using technology; they’re actually a technology company focused on advancing the state of retail. They are dedicated to scalable systems, fast response/delivery and reliability.

Additionally, Amazon knows data. It is one of the original big data companies. And they know how to use it.
Everything – that is, EVERYTHING - is incessantly measured, analyzed and understood. If you don’t have data, don’t show up at the meeting. That leads to a strong bias toward fact-based decision making. (One of my favorite Amazon conference rooms had the permanent sign “In God we trust, all others bring data” on the wall.)

Finally, Amazon has used this information to personalize the shopping experience. With tens of millions of products in the catalog, Amazon has the ability to show each of its more than one hundred million customers exactly what they are most interested in. They go on to present those products and related information in ways that will help customers make faster, more confident purchase decisions.

How does all of this relate to traditional retailers? The invasion of smartphones has made the physical store more similar to Amazon’s website than to the same store 10 years ago. These same shoppers have been trained by Amazon to use digital tools to help make purchase decisions – but now they’re also doing it in-store.

Data gathered through the smartphones can be used to analyze the complete shopping process. Retailers can know what their customers have on their shopping lists – before they even reach the store. They can see what shoppers search for, the suggestions and offers they respond to and what they eventually purchase. They can even see where the shoppers are inside the store.

This invaluable data can be used to deliver a highly personalized shopping experience, drive more revenue, and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

With more than 90% of retail happening in traditional brick and mortar stores, retailers can use Amazon’s strategies to their own advantage. Those that take this data and use it to improve their businesses will be successful. Others will be left struggling to keep up.

The new normal in retail is definitely Amazon.

Pop quiz: Which company first treated online retail as a revolution and not an evolution of traditional retail? (The answer is at the end of the article).

Retailers generally understand that customers are increasingly using their mobile devices to help them shop. But more often than not, the strategy retailers use is to take their existing ecommerce website and “optimize” it for delivery on the smaller mobile screen. Not surprisingly, the usual result is the same old, traditional ecommerce.

Much of this situation is driven by the omnichannel and “responsive design” approaches where “all channels need to look and feel the same.” Part of it is because the ecommerce team is given the responsibility to extend the mobile presence (“digital is digital”) and views the mobile phone user as just another home-or-office online shopper. Another reason is that repurposed ecommerce sites are usually the fastest thing that can be done and be loosely called “mobile.”

Lastly, part of the issue is that retailers approach “mobile” as a problem to be fixed and do not appreciate the significant new opportunity it offers.

The key to understanding the potential of mobile in retail and how to leverage it comes in two steps.

First, it’s important to understand what’s different about mobile. Instead of looking at the similarities of mobile with traditional PCs and PC-based browsing, focus on what is unique both in terms of the technology and, more importantly, what is different about how people are using it.

Second, determine how to best take advantage of it in the context of retailers’ goals. Can mobile be used to increase sales, deliver better customer service, and increase customer loyalty? Can it help the retailer understand the customer better?

On the first point, mobile devices are just that: mobile. Customers are increasingly taking their phones into stores to assist them with their shopping decisions – currently more than 66% of them. That’s very different than PCs. With more than 90% of retail occurring in-store, that’s significant (and begs the question of why the ecommerce tail is wagging the in-store dog).

When a shopper is inside a store, the primary influence comes from the physical brick and mortar experience. Customers intuitively expect mobile to augment and enhance that environment and not drag them into the disassociated online world (where, incidentally, they are one click away from every other retailers’ online offerings).

Secondly, how can physical store assets be turned into a competitive advantage? How can retailers help customers? How can they deliver more of the retail brand promise?

Shoppers expect their mobile devices to connect them with the physical store. Mobile can help customers find products in-store using indoor maps and graphically show them exact product locations. It can take the shopping list and turn it into an efficient path through the store. And now that retailers know a customer’s shopping list, they can offer highly personalized offers and product suggestions.

A recent study shows that by integrating these indoor locations technologies into retail apps shoppers become five times more engaged - more engaged with products, stores and brands. And that drives increased sales and greater customer satisfaction and loyalty.

It also provides the retailer deep insights into what their customers want, what they respond to and how the retailer can improve merchandising and marketing.

That’s the true retailer – and shopper – opportunity with mobile.

And it’s just the beginning. As with many new technologies, we’re just scratching the surface. It’s impossible to look more than a few years out and predict how retailers and shoppers will connect using mobile. But one thing is for sure: it will look less like ecommerce and be more connected to the store.

Mobile also turns your physical store into an incredible asset that online retailers cannot compete with.

So, don’t treat the mobile opportunity in retail as a problem to be fixed. It’s an incredible opportunity that will provide traditional retailers a whole new set of positive interactions with their customers. Take advantage of it.

Pop quiz answer: Amazon

It’s customary for mobile tech companies to show off their new products at heavy-hitter trade show events like the Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress (MWC). However, mobile phone marketers are increasingly hawking their wares via traditional TV advertising and social media, banner ads, point-of-purchase displays and more.

Marketing execs at Apple, Samsung and Google (to name a few) are feeding hungry consumers their newest models and features with marketing slogans, celebrity endorsements and special YouTube content. The tactics successfully tease potential and existing customers into a state of anticipation for the latest new-phone launch.

There's the upcoming Google Nexus phone, which is enjoying a strong run-up in sales due its increasingly low price point for consumers and its relentless focus on quality. Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering for Google, recently promised on a Google+ thread that the next Nexus phone will have “insanely great cameras.”

And of course, there was the recent launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4 on March 14 in New York City. As one of the most anticipated gadgets slated for a 2013 release, the Galaxy S4 is featured in Samsung’s star-studded ad campaigns featuring Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan (for Galaxy S4) and Tim Burton (for the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0).

In the global mobile landscape, Samsung's “Next Big Thing” campaign appears to be working; according to the Communities Dominate blog, they're dominating worldwide sales of smartphones, with almost 31 percent of the market share. Apple is second with 19.5 percent.

Where Was Apple at the MWC?

At the recent Mobile World Congress, Apple was intentionally absent. Part of the reason is that Apple famously chooses to throw Apple-branded events for big announcements. But even more eye-opening is the very public fact that Apple hasn’t released a new product for six months. Industry speculation points to a possible next iPhone launch as early as Q3 of this year.

There are the ongoing and endless rumors of an iTV launch, though TV/tech enthusiasts will tell you they've been hearing about that one for a while now. Apple investors haven’t been impressed with the brand’s stagnate performance and it’s one of the reasons stocks have plummeted in the last six months.

Samsung Winning the Mobile Race?

It’s hard to ignore Samsung’s constant innovation; they're the tortoise to the Apple’s hare in the adage, “slow and steady wins the race.” The New York Times agrees, writing, "Senior executives at mobile network operators, the companies that sell the bulk of Samsung and Apple phones around the world, said Samsung's rise to the top had not been an accident but the product of a methodical, longterm strategy to offer a more affordable, accessible alternative to Apple.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

What Mobile Markets Are Big for 2013?

According to BrandChannel.com, Apple, like Samsung and other technology giants, has been seeking growth opportunities in the emerging markets commonly referred to as the "BRIC" countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), contrary to the maturing mobile markets in Europe and the United States.

The Apple-Samsung war is tough going – in India, for example, Apple is struggling to make headway against a dominant Samsung, which was recently ranked as one of India's top three most trusted brands. The other two top brands were Sony and Nokia. Apple has yet to create a solid brand strategy in that notable market.

The most significant finding was that adding indoor location technologies to retailer mobile apps improves shopper engagement by five times. And while it’s been known that these features are beneficial for both the shopper and the retailer, this data shows that indoor location has a significant, measurable and positive impact on in-store shopping.

The data resulted from a year-long A|B test conducted by Point Inside with the goal of understanding the influence of indoor location technologies on shopper engagement. The test involved identical retail apps where one had indoor location technologies and the other did not. Collectively known as “store mode,” these capabilities include indoor maps, product locations and efficient routing through the store.

The data covers 2012 and is aggregated from multiple clients. The test included more than 1 million sessions from more than 25,000 unique users.

Turns out it’s the integration of the physical store with the app that drives the increased engagement. Store mode connects the in-store mobile shopper to the store and, in doing so, delivers significant value for both the customer and the retailer.

Shoppers can more easily find the products they want by seeing the products’ exact locations as pins on an indoor map. Shoppers can also view an entire shopping list mapped in the store, showing the most efficient route covering everything on the list. All in all, it delivers a more efficient and enjoyable experience.

Retailers benefit greatly, too: they can see customer’s shopping lists and use it to create a more compelling shopping experience through personalized offers and product suggestions. Store mode also provides deep analytics into in-store behavior, including the where time is spent in the store and the efficacy of promotions.

The increased engagement drives better connections between retailers and shoppers. Customers get better service and value. Retailers gain a better understanding of their customers and increased loyalty. Retailers also get increased sales and more efficient marketing programs.

Additional results from the study include:
• The study also shows the fastest growing segment to be shoppers who used the apps 5 or more times in a month. This segment more than doubled in size throughout the year.
• In comparing the use of coupons, those who used the app clipped more than four times as many coupons as non-app users.

In-store shopping still accounts for more than 90% of retail sales, and with more than 80% of smartphone owners using their mobile devices for shopping, the new world of shopping is already here. Pretty solid math that shows retailers have a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of store mode capabilities in their apps and increase their customer engagement five-fold.

Take advantage of it before your competition does.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More importantly, what might they do with it?

An insurance company called RSA in the Middle East has created an interactive print ad that enables readers to ask for a quote, no mobile phone or other consumer device required, though the quote comes back via the reader's mobile phone (which obviously provides the brand with contact information it could use for follow up communications).

As PSFK points out, the ad, developed by OgilvyOne, is targeted to prospective customers in Dubai, and supports the brand's "Easy as Ever" promise.

Sure it's early days in this kind of thing - a first step toward some of the interactive print concepts we saw in 'Minority Report' a decade ago - and it will need to be enhanced before it gets truly compelling.

But here, the medium is quite literally the message - an innovative "wow" moment that directly delivers on the brand's positioning.

Read more here.

Over the last year I've seen a huge rise in mobile visits to the websites I analyse.  At the same time, Google Analytics has reported a massive change in how mobile users surf the web.  A year ago the pattern of mobile traffic was fairly similar to desktop traffic - most people found sites in search engines, some came from other sites, and some came direct.  Some sites saw more people coming from other sites than direct, and some saw more direct traffic than referrals from other sites, but all saw most of their traffic from search engines.  That situation is now very different.  In all cases, at least half, if not more, of the mobile traffic comes direct to the site.  I see this trend in multiple countries, across multiple sectors.  Since none of the sites I track are major, universally-known, brands, I have to wonder how on earth thousands of visitors are able to find these sites without search engines, especially as I know there's no major offline marketing to attract them.  Most are first-time visitors, so they haven't bookmarked the site, which is the way most direct visitors get to a site.  And why is it that a year ago most of these people used search engines, but now they don't?

If GA was telling me these people came from other sites I'd be less worried.  The problem is that attributing a source as "direct" really means - "I asked for a referrer field and got a blank, or none."  - It can just as easily mean the browser refused to provide the referrer, as some are designed to do, or that the GA referrer request wasn't processed by the browser.

So either the entire mobile community has radically changed its web useage in the last year, without anyone noticing or commenting, or Google Analytics can't track mobile referrers as well as it used to (which could be caused by changes in mobile systems, or in GA, or both).

I'm not the only person who's starting to get concerned.  Social media people are starting to complain (http://econsultancy.com/ie/blog/62104-social-media-measurement-is-google-analytics-getting-it-wrong) and I've been working with some US telecoms people who are seeing really wierd stuff in their GA metrics, like mobile patterns completely out of tune with the market (eg: no iOS visitors).

The Google Analytics tracking code requires javascript support, which is not uniform over all mobile browsers, especially Opera, and calls a number of external files, which may not get consistently obtained over mobile connections.   Any of this could be the cause of problems.  As far as I am aware, no one (including Google) have run proper tests for reliability on mobile platforms, and I certainly lack the capabilities to conduct such tests, but I think they're needed.  Mobile is the most important growth area online, and metrics are fundamental to understanding and enhancing mobile activity.  If Google Analytics is inaccurate on referring source, assessment of marketing activity is impossible.  If we are mistakenly believe mobile people are coming direct, instead of via search, it fundamentlly changes our understanding of how to reach mobile users, and sends us up blind alleys.

Testing this can be done via an experiement, by someone able to get a range of mobile phones, access a site with them enough times to generate a valid sample size, then cross-reference what how they accessed the site with what GA reports.  Such an experiment requires serious time and investment.  Alternatively a bunch of us can pool our GA data in an annonymised fashion and subject it to analysis that way.

Have you seen changes in mobile visit sources shifting towards direct and away from search in the last year?  If so, I'd like to know.  If not, that'd be useful information too.  Do you have concerns about whether Google Analytics is accurate on mobile?  I'd love to hear them.

I guess we should have done this work a year ago.  Mobile is a different set of operating systems and browsers from desktops, and it's naive to assume GA code would work exactly the same on all mobile systems just as it does on the limited range of desktop systems.  When this data drives our understanding and decisions, naivity becomes foolishness.

So we need to know - how reliable is Google Analytics on mobiles?

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There was that 3D projection mapping experience on an LA Hotel a while back. And in October, the brand brought a print ad to life with the help of a handy iPad.

This time out, Lexus is going a bit simpler, keying into QR codes - the scanning of which reveals models kinda-sorta hidden in SI print ads for the new IS.

Still, the pursuit of perfection could have added a little more punch to the reveals than just having the models strut toward us. Integrating with the car in some fashion - or really just doing anything a little more interesting - would have been a better pay off for going to all the trouble.

Okay, it's still pretty cool. And it's apparently just the opening act. According to ADWEEK, the Lexus IS is also included in Sport Illustrated's first-ever 3D projection mapping experience on the facade at Caesar's Las Vegas.

Get the full scoop here.

During a period when online publishers were already improvising monetization efforts to compensate for the rise of programmatic buying, mobile introduced yet another variable that would further complicate the situation, forcing a shift in focus. Already squeezing every last cent out of online CPM’s, mobile traffic immediately made its presence felt as online audiences were no longer restricted to a computer screen as a means of accessing their favorite digital content. As a result, mobile traffic began cannibalizing impressions from the desktop impressions, further impacting an already depleting bottom line. Digital publishers reliant on online advertising revenue were suddenly dealt with a brand new form of supply to figure out and monetize immediately, or face a slow death at the expense of mobile's rapid growth.

By properly understanding the psyche of the mobile user, and aligning approaches to meet what consumers demand, these basic mobile guidelines for publishers will not only help your properties produce a mobile experience that maximizes mobile audience engagement, but also the revenue stream that follows:

· Content is king, and this is especially true in mobile. When determining how to slice and dice online content for the mobile screen, hone in on the content that matters to your audience and make it compatible for their mobile viewing pleasure. For this content to be considered mobile compatible at least two requirements must be met. First, this content needs to be easily found and identified by the user upon initial visit and, second, it must be made native to the mobile screen. Simply shrinking pre-existing content, which then requires the mobile visitor to pinch and zoom to engage with information is a mobile property’s worst enemy. In fact, a recent study commissioned by Google found that 79% of mobile visitors that find a mobile site difficult to use would immediately leave to find a suitable replacement.

· Mobile is a “need to know now” medium. Unlike TV, Radio or PC, mobile users carry this Internet connected device with them at all times. This reality feeds our instincts for instant gratification, so it’s only natural that a mobile user is accustomed to immediately being able to access desired content or information. Within seconds, a mobile device can be leveraged to find the nearest food, access the latest sports scores, lookup tomorrow’s weather forecast, watch a trailer, or purchase movie tickets. To reproduce a successful mobile experience for your organic audience, their immediate asks must be met.

· Which is better, App or Mobile Optimized site? Depending on who you ask, there is an argument to be made for either as each format comes with an inherit set of benefits and limitations. When deciding on which to adopt, it is advised to let the content influence the decision-making. For example, apps are conducive to rich content experiences. Publishers with an audience who primarily consume video, music, images, and social media are more likely to reproduce a favorable mobile experience for their audience through an app. On the other hand, a well-designed mobile optimized site may be best suited for content that is research or task oriented. Whereas apps are largely utilized for consumption of media or leisurely browsing, mobile web audiences are typically on a mission in search of facts or specific information.

· Monetization of mobile is very possible. For most publishers reliant on ad revenue, low mobile CPM’s and ad fill rates are top concerns of this medium. That said, many publishers who find themselves in this situation can look to experience immediate gains by examining mobile monetization shortfalls and adjusting appropriately. For one, just because a site can be accessed from a mobile device does NOT make it mobile optimized. All too often I come across web based properties simply trying to milk their pre-existing ad demand by serving online formatted banners within mobile based viewing sessions. Plenty of mobile demand exists, but a "mobile first" ad serving infrastructure must be in place to start reaping these benefits.

Given that mobile traffic already accounts for 20% of all daily U.S. Internet traffic and, with sales of mobile devices also surpassing PCs, this shift in traffic from desktop to mobile is not destined to slow down anytime soon. For those ill-prepared to fully absorb this continual transition, the good news is that it’s not too late for publishers to adopt a successful mobile strategy, regardless if they are starting from scratch or purely looking to improve upon current framework.

There are over 80 million smartphones in circulation throughout the world. Which means we are truly entering an age of "always on" and "on-the-go." This new mobile explosion is changing the way we receive and interact with content, whether we're paying bills, answering emails, ordering food, checking our favorite sites - news/design - or purchasing our favorite products on Etsy.

If business owners don't get their act together and think about how their website functions on a mobile phone, they'll hang perilously close to being left behind. There are over 80 million smartphone users in the world who access websites through their phones, and 57% of them wouldn't recommend a website they had trouble accessing on it.

People access information when they're waiting in line to get coffee in the morning, have 15 minutes to kill before a meeting, and — annoyingly — when they're having dinner with a group of friends. These are just a few examples, but when it comes down to it, people are inhaling their daily doses of information away from their desk, or laptop computer. Which means, businesses need to be ready if they want to keep up with how society is changing.

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via: Intuit

1. Seven of the top 10 retailers will launch mobile apps with compelling “in-store modes.”
The customers are restless. Most retailers just don’t know it yet.
Forward-thinking retailers are looking for ways to take help customers with smartphones by providing connected in-store shopping. It’s a lot more than simple “mobile-optimized websites.” Walmart and Meijer stores have already announced that their apps will include detailed store maps, detailed product locations and real-time personalized offers. Other top retailers have similar plans for 2013 and will gain significant competitive advantage over those who don’t.

2. The in-store customer app experience will become VERY personalized.
Know thy customer… and give them what they really want.
The pressure is on to deliver personalized and mobile in-store shopping experiences. Apps can know a lot about each shopper, from buying habits to brand preferences to the kinds of offers they’ll respond to. The apps are also the way to effectively deliver highly targeted suggestions, offers and even advertisements. In 2013, retailers will take advantage of this situation and will use apps to develop highly personalized relationships with their customers.

3. Retailers will bring big and deep data into the stores.
Big data is knocking… and it’s coming in. Literally.
The age of big data is here, and for mobile it’s heading into the traditional brick and mortar stores. More than 60% of the US population now has smartphones, with 80% of those phones being used for shopping activities. That’s creating a wealth of data that provides deep insights on how to increase sales, serve customers better and boost loyalty. Mobile will become the window that allows traditional retailers to finally know what’s really happening inside their stores. The question is: which retailers will best take advantage of the opportunity?

4. Mobile advertising will change significantly: it will become about context, context and more context.

The shift of dollars to mobile advertising is already happening but there are three significant challenges that will start to be fixed in 2013.

First, mobile users are much more task-oriented than online users. They are trying to get to the finish line and do not want interruptions that divert or delay them from their goals. To that end, everything that is presented needs to help them reach those immediate goals. Non-relevant messages will not be ignored -- they will instead create a negative impression.

Second, to present relevant messages to each user, mobile ad targeting needs to improve significantly. Current targeting on mobile platforms is much more limited than traditional online platforms (e.g., no cookies inside of apps, no sharing between apps). While there are advances happening on both iOS and Android platforms, they are still at the operating system level. The real opportunity is for the ad networks to take advantage of the deep data from inside the apps themselves.

Third is presentation. Mobile devices have much smaller screens that make traditional banner ad presentation difficult. Even the smaller banner ads seem to take up more room than they are worth and tend to evoke users’ ire. (Studies show users are more tolerant of TV ads than mobile ads.) The solution is to abandon the idea of banner ads and incorporate relevant “helpful suggestions” in the flow of the app itself.

All three of these issues will begin to be addressed in 2013 and will launch a new era of mobile advertising.

(As a side note, what’s not working is the coarse geolocation currently being touted. Geolocation does not know if I’m in the drugstore down the block, the Starbucks on the corner, in the gym or looking to buy furniture. It’s like a carnival barker trying to get anyone–ANYONE–to come into their store.)

5. Analysts will FINALLY separate tablets from smartphones and stop referring them both as a monolithic segment called “mobile devices.”

It’s time to be clear about what’s what. Smartphones are mobile devices that have connectivity everywhere, fit in your pocket and top the list of “things I can’t afford to lose.” They’ve spawned unique apps and uses. Tablets, on the other hand, are much closer to being casual PC-replacements. Lighter, cooler, touch-screen, neat apps… but still more of a PC-replacement. 2013 will be the year we stop grouping them together just because they both are different than traditional PCs.

So there you have it. This is what we’re betting on in the year ahead. We’re excited to continue to play a major role in the expansion of branded mobile apps for retailers.

This year, all players in the social ad game should be thinking big. 2012 was a breakout year for social advertising. Brands from all verticals emerged to play the social ad game, with some clear winners emerging. 

But what are the major trends for 2013?

5. The Desktop Gets Dropped

As 2012 was the year of mobile first, 2013 will be the year of mobile-only. The rocket success of Instagram proved that a mobile-only approach could work in software. The same goes for social advertising: with mobile traffic now at 13% of total internet traffic, and mobile internet use now surpassing desktop use in countries like India and China, the eyes will be on mobile. 

4. Power Shifts to Distributed, Multi-Social Players

Media planners started noticing, through their social campaigns in 2012, that one social platform didn’t work like another. Facebook and Twitter campaigns were good for different things, and promising offerings started emerging from other players like Tumblr, Foursquare, and Pinterest. In 2013, we predict that individual, walled-garden social platforms will lose paid media market market share not only to their sibling big platforms but also to media companies that can put all the pieces together. Multi-social strategies like the Blended Interest Graph or diversified networks make campaigns more efficient and will take an increasing share of media allocation. Small business customers will likely stick to their favorite platforms, but media agencies will increasingly turn to firms that can offer packaged social solutions.

3. Consumers say, “Understand Me!”

In last year’s predictions for 2012, we discussed the rising tide of big data. In 2013, this data gets ever more personal. Consumers generate reams of data daily online, and they expect an ever more personalized web. 

What does that mean? Consumers are increasingly becoming smarter about how advertising weaves in and out of their lives. They'll expect companies to understand their needs and preferences and personalize their advertising experiences — even while demanding privacy be respected. Effective and ethical ad targeting matters!

Why is there an ad for the MLB before my One Direction music video on YouTube? This is not accurate audience targeting.

— Shane Michael Singh (@Chicagojournal) January 7, 2013

2. Ad Creative for Here, There, and Everywhere

As we saw in IBM’s US Open campaign (chosen by 140 Proof as the #1 social campaign of 2012), Local + Global is a hybrid strategy with obvious applications in televised events. But throughout 2012, more and more agencies and brands will build local components into their broader paid social campaigns. Tools like location check-in targeting combined with heavily mobile strategies will spark creative campaigns throughout the year.

1. All Advertising Is Social

QR codes are an example of how many ads, even outdoor, went digital in 2012. And in 2011 and 2012, we saw an endless parade of TV commercials punctuated with Twitter and Facebook links. In 2013, all advertising will get social — behind the scenes as well as in full view. We'll see not only more links in TV ads (hello, Pinterest) but also more socially-targeted advertising and social features on rich media placements. There will even be nods to social in classic online display ads. (All those “dumb” banners? They’ll have Share buttons that encourage clicks.) Social has broken out of the walled gardens and begun roaming the open web of apps and sites. You’re soaking in it.

Update on a 2012 Prediction: Second Screen Breaks Out

Last year we talked about how “the line between social and broadcast [media] will continue to blur.” Shane Doyle, a field strategist for my company 140 Proof, reports: 

2013 will be a breakout year for 2nd screen interaction (last year only the early adopters were doing it). We’re seeing migration away from Facebook toward Twitter based on strengths of the platform (simple, realtime, brief, etc.). The Retweet is becoming more powerful (see: Kate Upton). Look no further than Buzzfeed to understand the power of real time. And people everywhere are watching TV by proxy: I didn't watch one second of “The Bachelor” but followed enough people to know what was happening. Every single strength of Twitter as a communications platform is why second screen and brands, advertisers, users are going to benefit if they can be nimble and tap into the real-time frenzy that ensues during the trending waves that take place.

Those are the big ideas for 2013. Are there any trends you feel should be added to the list?

The ability to measure market share in real-time will disrupt the way retailers determine the success of the marketing efforts.  Today, retailers measure performance in various ways including return on ad spend (direct response), and in-store sales (branding, promotional).  By measuring market share, retailers are able to take a macro view on their marketing efforts that expands beyond their brick and mortar walls.

Quantifying performance by market share allows retailers to look at the entire retail ecosystem, versus a siloed approach to marketing.  By using market share as a key metric it allows retailers to optimize to gain share of wallet.  Understanding market share allows marketers to build campaigns to capture the $1.44 spent at competitors for every $1 spent with them.

Placed recently released their 2012 Holiday Retail Insights providing a first glimpse into retail market share, which includes surprising volatility.

Wireless Carrier Retail Stores - Market Share

• Verizon and AT&T wrestled for the top position in terms of wireless carrier store visits in the last six weeks of the holiday shopping season.  AT&T held the lead 4 out of the last 6 weeks.
• T-Mobile started and ended the holiday shopping season 4th in market share, but quickly closed the gap and at its peak came within one percentage point of Sprint (#3).

Big Box Retailers - Market Share

• Nearly 2/3 of visits to the largest big box retailers during the holiday season were at Walmart (65.4%), followed by Target (26.1%) and Kmart (8.6%).

Department Store - Market Share

• 1/3 of visits to the largest national department stores during the holiday season were to Kohl’s (32.3%), followed by Sears (26.7%), J.C. Penney (22.0%) and Macy’s (19.0%).

David Shim is the Founder and CEO of Placed, the leader in location analytics.  By connecting the physical and digital worlds, Placed has created a new class of analytics focused on location.  Prior to Placed, David has held leadership roles in product, marketing, and operations at Quantcast, WebTrends, Farecast, and Razorfish.

Following up on our list of Top 10 Mobile Marketing Initiatives of 2012, it's time to look at some trends we'll see emerge and/or evolve in the year ahead.

Among the most prominent (not necessarily in this order):

5. Mobile Advertising Picks Up Speed (For A Time)

According to Forrester Research, mobile ad spend will boom next year - to $15 billion. Why? Because consumers now spend 10% of their media consumption time on mobile devices, yet mobile attracts less than 10% of ad dollars. The firm reasons that the old school Internet's ad growth from 8% of spend to 22% of spend means mobile must follow course (even though marketers get less and less from that increased Internet spend). But, the firm says, even a small step toward closing the gap will mean big dollars for this medium.

I'm not completely convinced. As a marketer, I find mobile advertising a bore (even some of the newer, much hyped expandable ad units). As a consumer, I find it all a snooze fest.

Mobile's far more powerful than just trying to replicate ad models from the old school Internet and slapping them on a small screen of a phone, or even the larger screen of a tablet. But there's just too much potential revenues at stake so, in 2013 at least, mobile advertising will be a hot topic. Until it's someday not (or is at least recognized as one small, nearly insignificant sliver of the amazing things you can do with mobile). But as Ad Age points out today, 38% of click-throughs in mobile are from fat, clumsy thumbs.

The pub goes onto talk about some ways mobile video and native mobile ads within apps like Foursquare may see success. But in my view, Coca-Cola's Re:Brief integrated campaign is probably the best example of mobile advertising combining with social & traditional media to work cohesively in a compelling manner.

And, as I write in my book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, using mobile to not just promote but enhance your product - turn it into a mobile service, ala Nike+ and other successful initiatives - is what will define winners and losers in many categories next year and in the decade ahead.

4. QR Code Stores Proliferate (Just Not in The US)

QR code stores in subways and elsewhere seem to have been the surprise hits of 2012, and could seriously take off in 2013. According to shop2mobi, 300 of these virtual stores launched last year - and 2,000 have already been planned for the next 12 months. Still, while these are huge in South Korea, China, Germany and elsewhere, QR codes themselves still mostly elicit quizzical looks from consumers, when they generate any notice at all. I could easily see commuters in New York or San Francisco taking advantage of these kinds of offerings. But it may be a while before they stand any chance in most of the US - and by the time that happens, we'll probably be onto whatever will replace QR codes next.

3. Mobile CRM Gains Strength As Transaction Capabilities Advance

Here's a winner: Use of mobile for customer loyalty programs like Starbucks'. Look for more brands to move beyond just using mobile to replenish cards to having mobile become the entire platform for loyalty. Look for transaction capabilities to advance, and adoption rates to follow suit.

2. More Brands Make the Mobile + Social + Local Connection

The big trend here is that more brands will stop viewing mobile and social as (just) cool new ways to connect with consumers, and start viewing these channels as cool new ways for brands to enable consumers to connect with one another - moderated and empowered by the brand.

In my piece the other day on social media trends for 2013, I point to early examples of this, including Vail Resort's Epic Mix app, which connects real friends in the real world in a highly social, physical world brand experience.

This past year, one look only at Heineken's personalized concert QR codes to see how ad hoc mobile + social + local branded experiences can take shape.

Look for more of this in the year ahead (especially as it pertains to things like social television viewing) - along with a new syllable, as we move from SoLoMo to SoLoMoCo with the addition of Co, which stands for Commerce. In a mobile roundtable I hosted this last August, SAP CMO Jonathan Becher and I discuss what this new dynamic might mean to brand marketers and retailers alike in the year ahead.

1. Augmented Reality Gets Really Cool

One look at my list of Top 10 Augmented Reality Initiatives 2012, and it's clear that AR - while quite gimmicky today - holds great promise for brand experiences via mobile and elsewhere. One of my favorite things about mobile AR is that it gets to the heart of the mobile ad debate.

In my view, mobile is far more powerful as an activation mechanism for communications we experience in other media - in print, television, radio, direct mail, outdoor and so on - than it is as an ad platform in and of itself. Mobile AR is an experience activated by the consumer, at his or her own initiative, at the point of communications impression. And it delivers something that literally can't be achieved in any other medium.

Not that many consumers are going to go download an AR app and start using it in 2013. But as standards emerge, these kinds of brand experiences will become more common - and will make up some of the cooler components of integrated campaigns in the year ahead.