Putting Mobile to the ROI Test

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Erin Kelley

Businesses are starting to feel the pressure when it comes to mobile marketing, but many remain on the fence about the new medium due to concerns about its ROI.  This hesitancy may soon change, however, as studies continue to emerge which demonstrate that developing a mobile presence isn’t just about the ROI—rather, as some companies fail to engage their increasingly mobile market, the concern is shifting away from measuring the potential gains, to calculating what businesses stand to lose by not taking action.

A few weeks ago, we reported that mobile users are driving growth in the mobile industry—well, there’s more to that story: a new case studyshows that businesses that do not have a site optimized for display on mobile devices (or a separate .mobi or .m site) are losing valuable business opportunities on the small screen.  Vegas.com, a specialized travel and entertainment site that offers a full range of booking and accommodation services as well as general tourist information, recently publicized the results of their mobile marketing experiment—and they unmistakably validate the case for mobile web optimization.

The company decided to invest in a mobile presence after realizing that a remarkable 7% of all traffic to their site came from mobile devices.  This share seemed even more consequential when they realized that the bounce rate of visitors on mobile devices exceeded the rate of desktop visitors by over 50%.  Once they recognized that they were turning away a rather significant portion of their target market, Vegas.com decided to take real, measurable action to prevent the loss of future business: they built several optimized mobile landing pages and A|B tested them with the standard web pages that seemed to repel mobile users (by alternating which page mobile users were sent to).  The test produced results that weren’t just significant, but moreover surprising.

Mobile vegas.com

Even with just a few pages of content tailored to mobile users, and optimized for mobile access (not the whole site) the company saw a 22% drop in the bounce rate of mobile traffic to their site—a major improvement for their team.  Additionally, the optimized pages stimulated user engagement with the mobile site, generating 16% more page views and (perhaps most critically) a 4% higher conversion rate.  These impressive figures really speak to the concern of many businesses, large and small, that worry that the ROI of mobile marketing is immeasurable and untested.  While the Vegas.com case offers just one study of how companies can take advantage of the small screen and stop missing valuable business opportunities, we expect to see many similar reports surface over the next few months and years, and we hope to help our clients achieve similar success in all their mobile ventures.

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The 12 Best Apps for Wasting Time (and Having Fun!)

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Erin Kelley

Whether you’re an iPhone die-hard, or you covet your Android, if you’re like us you’re always searching for fun new apps to complete your collection.  And, according to a study by the mobile analytics firm research2guidance, Smartphone owners are doing a whole lot of this—their data shows that 3.8 billion mobile apps were downloaded in just the first half of 2010—that figure exceeds the total number of downloads last year, proving that it’s an industry that’s seeing serious growth.

Along with increasing downloads, the prices of apps are also starting to increase, with the average price edging up to $3.60.  Though we’re happy to see that the mobile industry is starting to pull in more revenue—as much as $2.2 billion in the first half of the year—we still believe that some of the best things in life are free… or, relatively cheap anyway.

In honor of these cheap thrills, some of which have been long awaited by the tech community, check out these 12 apps and watch hours of your time evaporate into thin air—just kidding—but, if you have a few minutes to kill when you’re not in super-productivity mode, seriously, try the following apps we’ve selected for iPhone, and Android users to enjoy: (Note: though it was a tough choice, we decided to leave games out of this compilation, because there are simply better and more replete lists of the best gaming apps out there, like this one from Gizmodo)

1. Digg

If you haven’t heard any of the controversy, Digg is a social network that allows members to share content, and rate it with a simple thumbs up or thumbs down.  Functioning much like SEO, users are presented with the most popular content first, and links with less “diggs” or thumbs-ups secondarily.  The concept behind Digg is essentially crowd-sourced content evaluation, but it has been heavily criticized lately for allowing “power” users to dominate the charts, and thereby influence what content is presented to users.  A new version of the network may address some of these concerns, but either way, the app is guaranteed to keep you entertained. (Free)

2. Stumbleupon

Much like Digg, but less dependant on the aspect of social sharing, StumbleUpon is essentially a network designed for people who are bored and like to consume excessive amounts of content each day.  The network’s mobile app, which was released last week, is already a personal favorite of mine.  To get started, select which categories you’re interested in from a rather large list, and then start browsing through the massive amounts of content available on the site.  Once you feel comfortable, start marking favorites to have the site tailor the content more specifically to you. You can also check out your friends’ favorites and suggest content for them.  (Free)

3. Facebook

Yes, we know—Facebook is a no brainer, but the Internet’s biggest time-sucker deserves at least a mention on our list.  And, if you’re an iPhone user and it you haven’t tried ‘Places’ yet, well, now there’s a whole new way to waste your time away on Facebook! Free

4.  Netflix

If you don’t have a Netflix account, well, you should. If you do have a Netflix account then chances are you’ll love the new app.  Download it, sign-in and you can instantly watch movies and tv shows on your mobile device, or add them to your instant queue to enjoy later. (If you want to manage your delivery queue, we recommend an app called Phone Flicks). Free

5. GetGlue

Another great app for discovering your new favorites—like a hybrid of Facebook’s ‘Like’ system and Foursquare’s location based check-in network, GetGlue is a social network that allows you to connect with friends to share your common interests.  What distinguishes GetGlue from other networks of its kind is that, apart from just consuming content, you indicate your interests by liking or disliking books, movies, bands, actors, and other cultural artifacts.  With a GetGlue profile, you can also access recommendations based on what or whom you’ve demonstrated interest in, or liked. While it’s a service that many might find unnecessary, it’s fun for the culturally immersed—and besides, unnecessary is o.k when you’re killing time and having fun. Free

6. Adobe PhotoShop Express

This app is pretty self-explanatory. Don’t expect to create the same magnificent, 40-layer graphic creations that you can with the full program on your desktop, but you only get so much for free.  It’s a great app for making quick edits, like cropping, and rotating photos you snap on-the go. And, if you’re not careful, you could very well waste an hour playing around with it. Free

7. The Moron Test

Forget IQ tests, this app tells it like it is. Put your knowledge to the test with its puzzling brain-teasers, and don’t worry if you start feeling moronic—this one baffles the best of us. $0.99

8. The Dean’s List

Once you’ve graduated from the app for morons, give the Dean’s List a go—much like The Moron Test but a little spendier (higher instruction always is), it also quizzes your knowledge, but this one will really push your education to the limits—what can we say—you should have paid attention in Biology! $3.99

9. CBS Sports Pro Football

Alright, alright, for some fans, checking the scores is no waste of time, but the obsession of a true fan knows few limits—so having it all accessible at your fingertips through CBS’ app devoted to football scores and highlights may be a blessing and a curse—but either way it’s a great way to kill some time.  (The CBS Pro Football app is only available on the iPhone, but don’t worry, if you’re an Android lover you’ve got options—if Sprint is your carrier, you can download the highly rated Sprint Football Live app for free. Or, if you have a Verizon Droid, simply download Verizon’s NFL Mobile app—it’s free as well, but if you want the video highlights you’ll have to shell out $10 a month for the V-Cast service charge).  Free

10.  Pocket Universe

Though this app is most fun to use on a clear night, when you can see lots of stars, it can entertain you all hours of the day with astronomy facts, and charts of all the constellations visible at night.  Spend a little time with this app and you’ll sound like a pro next time you stare at the night sky—which is guaranteed to impress on your next date. (Again, this app is only available on the iPhone, but for a great alternative check out Google’s own Sky Map—free for download in the Android App store).  $2.99

11. Words With Friends

Okay, I’ll admit, this app is technically a game, but it’s a classic—if you love Scrabble, you’ll love Words with Friends.  Essentially, this interactive app is a souped up version of Scrabble, the board game that many of us are all too familiar with, which allows you to play against other users over your network connection.  Sure, it’s a great way to expand your vocabulary, but beware—this one is highly addictive—John Mayer even called it “the next Twitter.” Try it: Free or Buy it: $2.99

12. iFart

Simplistic? Yes. Crude? Yes. Funny? Absolutely. I don’t think this one requires much explaining—like a whoopee cushion, but with much more advanced technology.  $0.99

**Bonus**

iBeer

A great compliment to iFart—perfect your Homer Simpson impersonation with this app, which lets you pop open a virtual cold-one and guzzle it down like Homer with a Duff. Try it as a fun party trick, but we don’t recommend it for work… $2.99.

Now that we’ve shared a few of our favorite and most entertaining apps with you, stop wasting time reading this article and get back to work! But keep these in mind next time you’re stuck waiting for an appointment, on the bus, or just relaxing at home. And please share any of your favorites that didn’t make this list in the comments, below!

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Fear Not—The Android Tablet is More than Myth

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Erin Kelley

The competition for mobile Web dominance is undeniably fierce as titans Apple and Google vie for consumers’ attention and loyalty, but this competition seems to be totally nonexistent when it comes to tablet computing devices—the iPad is still the only gadget of its type and, at this point in time, Apple appears to have the tablet market totally cornered.  But given the popularity of the iPad—Apple is selling approximately 1 million units every month—it’s clear that there is a market for tablet devices and consumer interest is not lacking.  So where are all the tablet competitors and iPad ‘killers?’ That’s exactly the question many tech writers and analysts are asking, and Google seems to be at the heart of most inquiries.  So, really, what’s the hold up?

If the rumors the tech community is spreading are true, many device manufacturers have plans to release tablet computers later this year, or early next year, but their releases are on hold because of the Android OS.  Operating systems designed to power Smartphones cannot simply be installed on larger-screened tablet devices, but must be refined to function optimally on the distinct hardware, which seems to be problematic for Google. According to a report published by CNet, the Android OS is not yet “tablet-ready” because some critical adjustments still need to be made to the software, although most expect that Android 3.0, aka “Gingerbread,” will be up to the task (its release is expected this fall).

In the meantime, there is no shortage of Android tablets in the works: among others HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Viewsonic, Texas Instruments, Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo, Acer and Dell are all rumored (or confirmed) to be developing the hardware for such a device.  And that list doesn’t even account for BlackBerry’s Black Pad, and the Windows-based HP tablet, both of which seem to be struggling from their respective OS issues.

If it’s true that this slough of tablet computing devices will hit vendors over the next year, and assuming that the tablet device reaches the level of market adoption that tech analysts predict, how will it affect the ways that consumers connect to content channels and, more broadly, the Internet?  As mobile marketing begins to take off with major brands as well as smaller businesses getting on board, will advertising find its own niche on tablet devices? Many of the first adopters of the new media format have been successful in repackaging content and graphics to engage users and faciitate interactivity—for example the publishing industry, which seems to be have found an audience through their content rich iPad apps, like Wired’s and Popular Mechanic’s, which are both subscription-based.

But as the new platform really starts to emerge, as it is expected to next year, how will brands take advantage of the new opportunities to engage consumers with rich, interactive media? Though at this point we can only really speculate about how tablet devices might influence the market, we anticipate that some restrategizing lies in the future when it comes to content management and presentation.  What do you think? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

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How Can Advertisers Take Advantage of ‘Places?’

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Erin Kelley

While many businesses are just debuting their mobile presence,
marketing strategies for the small screen are already evolving, as mobile web usage becomes habit for more and more consumers. And, although services that utilize the GPS functionality of mobile devices have been around for some time now, geotargeting—advertising to Smartphone owners based on their GPS location—is a growing trend that will be invaluable to brands and advertisers over the coming months and years.

Though controversial from a privacy standpoint, it’s clear that users are adapting to the location-sharing check-in model first popularized by startups like Foursquare and Gowalla, which Facebook has recently adopted as another dimension of their social networking site (SNS), called “Places.”  Facebook users can now use the iPhone app, or visit a related Facebook page (touch.facebook.com) through their mobile browsers to check-in, and share their location with friends in the form of a geographic status update.  The social networking giant, with over 500 million users, is marketing the new function as a way to capture and preserve memories with the added dimension of location, so that users can look back on their data and recall where they were on a specific day and at a specific time, and who they were there with. In fact, Facebook’s VP of Products actually introduced “Places” as a service that would preserve shared memories for users to reminisce about when feeling a bit nostalgic.

But while the consumer-facing announcement of this new application focused on its sentimental value, Facebook executives used a different tone to bill the service on the business side of things.  In Facebook’s Help Center, a page has been devoted to “Places for Advertisers” and, additionally, those interested in learning more can download the guide to Places for advertisers.  Though currently businesses cannot target ads at users that check in to their ‘location,’ advertisers can claim their businesses with a “Place Page,” and target anyone that likes the page.  But Places affords advertisers an even better chance to reach an audience by posting check-ins to the New Feeds of users’ friends.  That means, if you your friend Adam checks in at the Taco Bell down the road, his check-in, essentially a brand interaction, will be posted in his friends’ New Feeds, and Adam will effectively promote Taco Bell of his own volition (and, who knows, maybe he will always look back fondly on that one time at taco bell…).

In the Places guide for advertisers, these check-ins are described as “stories” that can “generate powerful, organic impressions in friends’ News Feeds, extending your brand’s reach to new customers.”  As this explanation quite eloquently puts it, Places offers advertisers an unprecedented and extraordinary opportunity to promote brands through current customers’ engagements.

But more broadly, Facebook’s endorsement of location-based social sharing, and geotargeting, represents the evolution of convergent mobile-social advertising campaigns, and the shape of marketing efforts to come.  One application of this fusion, for example, is sending out location-specific promotions, or with Places, sending promotions to users that have “liked” your Places Page.  Interactions like these between brands and consumers, that take place on social networking sites, and which result from something the user did on a mobile device, are becoming more prevalent, as is the notion of convergent marketing.

Some brands have a long way to come before mastering mutli-touch, new media marketing campaigns that fully integrate these applications—but having a presence on both the mobile Web and major social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, is a good start for businesses that want to keep up with rapidly-evolving consumer trends.  And as the new media industry continues to grow and advance, it is critical that advertisers realize the potential that underlies these trends, and start planning for the future of mobile-social marketing.

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Brands Fall Behind as Consumers Drive Mobile Growth

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Erin Kelley

When it comes to new technology—new media, in particular—advertisers are rarely described as reluctant, or even hesitant, to get on board.  But as mobile web development progresses at what seems light speed, it’s clear that some brands and businesses have fallen behind the curve.  Whereas in more traditional industries, like entertainment, television, and the broadband Internet, advertisers strive to take advantage of every opportunity to promote and publicize, on the small screen it’s a different story.  Smartphone equipped consumers browse, shop, research and share every day while businesses large and small miss valuable opportunities to engage with the growing audience of mobile users.  As brands continue to stall, whether for lack of budget, lack of interest, or because they are too focused on more traditional media, a strange trend is emerging on the mobile web: consumers are driving mobile growth.

While in most fields, brands strive to exceed consumer expectations, the same standards don’t apply to the mobile web, as users’ demands are often left unsatisfied.  So far, many mobile marketing efforts have been sparse and superficial: advertisers research and decide between an app and a mobile web site, based on which they think will appeal more their target audience, or whichever is cheaper and easier to deploy.  But, as one mobile tech blogger points out, on most platforms, neglecting to utilize 50% of all available marketing opportunities would cost an advertiser dearly—so why isn’t that the case with mobile? Why are advertisers approaching mobile solutions with an either/or mindset?

Some advertisers argue that the ROI of mobile marketing is, as of yet, still unproven, validating brands’ hesitation (or procrastination).   But as more and more studies and campaign analytics surface, this concern is turning into an excuse; just this week a report by Portaltech, a market research company based in the U.K., showed that mobile campaigns are edging out print catalogues in both user engagement and sales.  And, while just 2.6 percent of mobile shoppers made purchases over their devices, as the mobile market continues to grow, each mobile user today will represent hundreds of users down the road a few years.

Additionally, the argument that the ROI of mobile marketing is minimal, or unclear, is flawed because it doesn’t take into account the fact that users’ mobile experience is highly integrated with other channels for brand engagement, especially in-store shopping.  Mobile shoppers make use of their devices within stores to access product ratings and reviews and compare prices.  While it is nearly impossible for studies to take into account purchases that were affected by the mobile web, but ultimately made in store, here again the ROI of mobile marketing is established, and advertisers need to consider how mobile boosts sales holistically—across all channels.

The days when having a mobile web presence gave brands an edge over competitors are quickly fading—soon, deploying a multi-faceted, integrated mobile solution will be imperative to business

success.  And, oddly enough, consumers are in the driver’s seat when it comes to this shift.  Though adapting isn’t easy, many brands will have to do so, and quickly, in order to keep up with the growing user demands.  But ultimately, it’s an exciting time for brands and businesses that want to revitalize their public image and increase engagement with their audience—and there is definite potential for the mobile savvy to expand their market share.  In the coming months, we hope to see businesses embrace the exciting new opportunities that the mobile web has to offer, and put their hesitancy squarely in the past.


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