SnapTell Blog

The MMA International Journal of Mobile Marketing

The Mobile Marketing Association has just published the fifth issue of the MMA International Journal of Mobile Marketing (MMA-IJMM), an educational resource created by the MMA Academic Outreach Committee.

Designed to provide information on the mobile channel and its use for marketing, it includes 10 articles from academics, industry experts, thought leaders and global contributors.

This fifth installment of the Journal focuses on the development of a better understanding of the who, how and why of mobile marketing.

Featured articles include:

• A Five Point Measurement Framework for Mobile Advertising Understanding
• Implementing Mobile Social Advertising
• Breaking Free from ‘Dotcom’ Thinking in a Mobile World
• Mobile Marketing: From Marketing Strategy to Mobile Marketing Campaign Implementation
• Mobile Research in Marketing: Design and Implementation Issues

The MMA-IJMM is published twice a year, you can subscribe or purchase single issues through the MMA website.

Magazines get Mobilized

AdAge recently published a story about how the push to make magazine pages more interactive "is building mass and, dare we say it, even real momentum as major publishers and advertisers adopt a pair of technologies centered on the cellphone." SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing solution is one of the two technologies featured in the article.

Snipped from the AdAge report:

Magazines including Rodale's Men's Health and Wenner Media's Rolling Stone are pushing ahead with SnapTell, which allows readers to take camera-phone photos of ads, send in the shots and receive whatever message a marketer has arranged.

Rolling Stone has completed one go-round with SnapTell and plans another for the fall, said Publisher Ray Chelstowski. Readers responded strongly to the ads, he said, citing one from the Discovery Channel promoting the season premiere of "Man Vs. Wild."

"You got a video back of the host of that show drinking animal blood," Mr. Chelstowski said. "That one really resonated."

"If this does take hold," he added, "what it really does is narrow that transactional gap for advertisers that takes you from not only print media to mobile but to actual transactions."

John Hadl, general manager at Brand in Hand, said he's used both technologies -- and thinks they're here to stay. "The value of digital is that it's a productive medium," Mr. Hadl said. "Mobile starts to bring that to other channels that have been one-dimensional, like print."

If readers continue to respond well, digital technology may be poised to support traditional ad sales more directly than ever.

Mobile Marketing Forum News

Case studies and the most interesting mobile marketing solutions will take center stage at the Mobile Marketing Forum in New York City next week. SnapTell is one of the event’s sponsors.

Among the brands presenting at this year's event are:

• adidas: a case study on the use of mobile marketing
• Fandango, Sears Holding Corp: a panel session on mobile marketing for retail
• CBS Corp: Opportunities for Mobile Marketing & Advertising in the US Market
• Univision, The Weather Channel Interactive, Handango: How multimedia in mobile marketing can improve response rates
• Anheuser-Busch: Case study on BudLight's March Madness

Additional brand participation includes: MLB Advanced Media, The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Air Lines, Google, Yahoo! and more.

It’s all happening on June 10 - 11, 2008 at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square.  If you'd like to meet with SnapTell at the Forum to discuss our Snap.Send.Get Mobile Marketing platform or mobile marketing in general, please contact us. 

Best Practices For Mobile Marketing Paper

New Media is offering a free paper (registration required) on Best Practices for Mobile Marketing.

The paper's central idea that “the results of traditional marketing methods are rapidly dwindling” and brand owners need to get into mobile marketing now to keep their message front and center.

"Regardless of whether your audience fits into the B2B or B2C category, or both, we as a global audience are becoming numb to the outpouring of pithy broadcasts, online intrusions, inundation of email spam and barrage of generation-specific print advertising campaigns. It has also become obvious that there is one thing that we all – Baby Boomers, Generation Y, Generation X and Generation Z’ers alike – have in common. We don’t leave home without our mobile phone! It’s become our identity. The type of phone people carry, the carrier they subscribe to and the services they use – reflect who they are.

A 2006 Nielson study showed that over 144 million people in the U.S. (85%) ages 13-54 own cell phones. It’s over 230 million today ... I don’t think there’s any argument that “mobile” has become today’s pervasive form of communications."

The paper explores how mobile marketing can enhance advertising response rates, increase buying traffic and build an opt-in community.

Marketing to the Moving Target

In an article entitled "The Moving Target" destinationCRM presents a comprehensive overview of the mobile marketing space, (including comments from SnapTell co-founder and CTO G.D. Ramkumar).

We especially liked the Do and Don't mobile marketing tips in the sidebar, read article for the "Dos", here are the "Don'ts"

Don't get enamored with the technology -- stay focused on the marketing goal.

In other words, just because Bluetooth is the hottest new technology doesn't mean you should create a campaign that involves Bluetooth. Instead, think, "What is my problem and how can I help solve this problem?"

Don't treat mobile as a standalone operation.

Mobile is another channel of marketing. To get the most out of the campaign, mobile should be combined with other media, such as television or print. Experts and marketers agree that mobile will not and should not take away from any existing campaigns; rather, it will act as a supplement to enhance the overall experience.

Don't spam the consumer.

Bluetooth and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies make it possible to ping individual consumers based on their location. So far, it seems that consumers and carriers will not tolerate such activity; to prevent these behaviors, carriers are trying to make it difficult for companies to obtain a short code and send messages, according to MarketTools' Kirk Hendrickson.

SnapTell Coverage In The New York Times

The New York Times recently wrote about SnapTell's mobile marketing platform Snap.Send.Get and how it is being utilized by advertisers in Rolling Stone and Men's Health magazines.

Snipped from the article, which is titled Take a Picture of an Ad, Earn a Reward:

Rolling Stone and Men’s Health are both testing programs in which readers can take cameraphone pictures of icons on ads, then send them to a certain number. In exchange, they’ll receive more information or an offer from the advertiser.

In Rolling Stone’s current issue, five advertisers are running these offers. They include a motorcycle ring tone for Allstate’s motorcycle-insurance program and a video preview of The Discovery Channel’s new season of “Man vs. Wild.”

Men’s Health is going even further, saying each full-page advertisement in its July-August issue will have the added feature.

An image-recognition company called SnapTell is behind both magazines’ efforts. Technology from the company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., can differentiate the icon on one advertisement from that on another and text back the appropriate offer.

For the magazines, it’s a way to make print products interactive.

“We’ve got a product made of paper and ink sent out every two weeks,” said Ray Chelstowski, the publisher of Rolling Stone. “We’re always in the market to find other ways that we can work with our advertisers in providing empirical data in showing how readers engage and interact with our ads.”

Snap Up the May Issue Of Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone's May issue "The Best Of Rock 2008" features the "125+ People, Places and Things Ruling the Rock and Roll Universe" plus SnapTell-enabled print advertisements.

Readers of the magazine can use their camera phones to snap a picture of any SnapTell-enabled ad that interests them, send the picture to SnapTell, and get special promotional offers and/or content such as free ringtones, wallpapers, and video clips from the selected advertiser/s, which include Allstate, Canadian Club, DiGiorno For One, Discovery Channel and Edge.

And everyone who snaps a picture of any of the SnapTell-enabled ads in the magazine is automatically entered to win a trip for two to an upcoming Rolling Stone Live event ... plus $500 cash.You only receive the information that you request, so grab the May issue of Rolling Stone and start snapping!

Readers of the magazine aren't the only ones to benefit, of course. SnapTell's "Snap.Send.Get" mobile marking solution transforms static print ads into a measurable, two-way communication tool for brand owners. For more information on our Snap.Send. Get mobile marketing platform, please see our website or contact us at [email protected].

SnapTell is Officially Cool

We're pleased and proud to announce that SnapTell is one of Gartner's 2008 "Cool Vendors in Retail."

According to Gartner research, mobile phones are poised to become a more important part of the multichannel shopping experience and SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get solution is paving the way for marketers to utilize the mobile channel more effectively.

This year's Cool Vendors report was designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. The research highlighted four emerging companies whose technologies may deliver the next breakthroughs in shopping and customer experience in the store.

Key findings of the report included how consumers can use a mobile phone to snap a picture of an advertisement or product packaging, send it using MMS, and receive back product information or offers.

The Gartner report also listed recommendations and explained how to leverage new retail channels created by technologies, such as mobile, as an interaction channel first and a sales channel second. Gartner surveys show that consumers value the new channels for increased multichannel shopping ease.

It is always nice to be recognized by experts within your industry, especially the thought leaders at Gartner. We are very proud of our Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing solution and are very grateful for all of the praise Snap.Send.Get and SnapTell have received.

SnapTell: Making The Physical World Interactive

According to a story on mobile marketing being carried on the Dow Jones Newswire, which appeared on CNNMoney.com, more ads will be coming soon to a cellphone near you.

Snipped from the article:

Companies are better at taking advantage of the personal nature of the handset to provide customized ads. Consumers, meanwhile, appear more tolerant to ads than previously thought. And further acceptance could ultimately lead to the rise of ad-supported services and a shift in business models.

"We're growing, and we're growing quickly," said Laura Marriott, global president of trade group Mobile Marketing Association, of mobile ads. "Brands are spending more because mobile allows for dialogue."

  On a worldwide basis, mobile advertising is expected to generate $2.7 billion in revenue this year, up from $1.7 billion a year ago, according to Gartner Inc.

And on a more personal note, the article quoted SnapTell CTO G.D. Ramkumar:

SnapTell Inc., a privately held company based in Palo Alto, Calif., is banking that consumers will proactively research brands. The company hopes they will do so by snapping shots of billboard and magazine ads with their cellphones and sending them off via media messaging in exchange for information, coupons and other promotions.

"We make physical world interactive via camera phone and image recognition," said G.D. Ramkumar, co-founder and chief technology officer of SnapTell.

(SnapTell's Snap. Send.Get) service doesn't require additional infrastructure or software - the consumer only needs to send the picture to the messaging short code placed on the magazine ad or billboard poster. Likewise, the consumers don't need to download any programs for their phones - the image recognition process occurs in the central database.

At the show, SnapTell said it would run a camera phone-based movie campaign to promote the film "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?" later this month."

Multi-City Mobile Scavenger Hunt!

 

SnapTell is partnering with the Weinstein Company to support the release of Morgan Spurlock’s highly anticipated documentary “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?”

The centerpiece of the initiative is a two-week scavenger hunt contest in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington D.C., challenging movie lovers to search their local supermarkets, colleges, high-schools, bars, nightclubs, newspapers and other destinations to find, photograph and email photos of strategically placed “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?” branded reward flyers to a special address.

Street-teams will create and locally distribute multiple branded reward flyers featuring contest information and unique stills from the upcoming film. With help from local radio stations, contest participants will search around their towns and cities to snap a photo of any of these images in the two week contest period from their camera phones and send the photo to an email address that will be clearly marked on the flyers between 4/7 and 4/18.

Utilizing image recognition based mobile marketing technology from SnapTell, each picture will then be verified and the participants will receive a message back confirming their entry into the contest and a link to exclusive content from the film. People will also be able to participate by following clues in promotional ads in local newspapers.The contest will run from 12 am on Monday, April 7th through11:59 pm on the film's opening day, Friday, April 18th.

In “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?” Oscar nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock takes on a franchise even more lethal than McDonald’s - Al Qaeda. And after this real life action thriller is over, the world may never be the same.

Following bin Laden’s trail through some of the most dangerous places in the world, Spurlock encounters both the rational and radical faces of the Middle East. In a world where we are constantly being told that we’re on the verge of the ultimate showdown between good and evil, Spurlock risks life and limb to uncover the truth about Osama bin Laden. But along the way, he discovers the lines that divide us aren’t nearly as black and white as they may seem.

“Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?” builds off the Weinsteins' success bringing documentary films to wide audiences including “Fahrenheit 9/11,” the highest grossing documentary of all time and “SiCKO,” the third highest grossing documentary of all time.