RadioShack says it will put "Bullseye Mobile" kiosks in the majority of Target stores around the country, in an effort to further build its presence in the mobile phone business. "It's a genius cross-branding move," Cathy Hotka, a retail branding consultant based in Washington D.C., tells Marketing Daily. "Target is known both for its high traffic and desirable demographic, and kiosks selling high-demand items do really well -- this seems like smart partnering." And RadioShack increasingly wants to be seen as a mobile-phone destination. In addition to kiosks in such retailers as Walmart's Sam's Clubs, it is also a leading seller of Apple iPhones. RadioShack says it has boosted its marketing spending to focus on its mobile wares as part of its ongoing efforts to revitalize the brand. The plans to expand at Target are the result of a successful pilot project of 100 stores. It will begin rolling the Bullseye Mobile kiosks out to Target stores next month, and expects to be in the majority of Target's 1,700-plus stores by mid-2011. The move comes at a time when industry giant Best Buy is increasingly focused on Best Buy Mobile, a smaller-format store devoted exclusively to mobile and wireless technology. (In fact, Best Buy has reportedly kept RadioShack in its sights as a potential acquisition target.) RadioShack also says its second-quarter sales climbed 4.7% to $1.01 billion, compared to $965.7 million a year ago -- while net income gained 8.6% to $53 million, compared with net income of $48.8 million for the same period last year. Comparable-store sales for company-operated stores and kiosks advanced 6.7%. But overall, kiosk sales fell $7.9 million, which it says is attributable to fewer kiosk locations and the closure of Sprint-branded kiosks in August 2009. Those declines were partially offset by strong comparable-store revenue gains in Sam's Club kiosk locations. While Hotka says the success of any kiosk effort hinges on how well-stocked they are, "kiosks are all about convenience, and I suspect that in many families -- where it's the mom who handles all things related to cell phones -- this will be seen as really appealing. The kiosk interface is really easy to use," she says. "In fact, I have a feeling these will be so successful we'll soon see them in grocery stores."
If you saw "Late Night With David Letterman" on July 28, you saw Ford's Fiesta featured in a video special in which someone (obviously not a New Yorker) tried to parallel-park a car. That was emblematic of Ford's all-points marketing efforts to promote that and other vehicles. If you were on Manhattan's 34th Street on July 26, you might have seen Ford CEO Alan Mulally roll down a faux dirt road on a faux mountainside in a real Explorer (which is now a crossover, which itself is sort of a faux truck). The company is continuing this 24/7 strategy for Fiesta with a marketing program tied to the X Games 16. Ford will field souped-up Fiestas piloted by four drivers including Ken Block, who has been doing online stunt videos for Ford in his Fiesta. The X Games will have both Rally Car Racing and Euro style SuperRally where four cars race simultaneously against each other. Part of Ford's promotional activity around the Games includes a 60-second ad featuring Block doing stunts with his Monster World Rally Team Fiesta around mundane chores like taking out the trash, going grocery shopping, and dropping mail in the mailbox in his Fiesta. The ad starts July 29 on ESPN. "Our strategy with Fiesta is simple -- let the consumer experience the car. Everything from our ads to the unique interactions and the events we host is different from any other car launch," said Matt VanDyke, Ford director of U.S. marketing communications, in a company statement. "We're also using personalities that connect with our target consumer." The company is also promoting its X Games involvement via an "I Win! You Win!" texting game where fans in attendance can text "FORD" to 66937 to be randomly paired with one of the featured athletes for the events. The athletes include Ford Racing rally drivers and motocross team Metal Mulisha. If a fan is paired with an athlete and that athlete wins the event, the fan wins the athlete's custom Fiesta. Ford will also have a Fiesta on display in Metal Mulisha's pit and the team will sign autographs at the Ford Fiesta display, where co-branded Ford and Metal Mulisha posters and skateboard decks will be given away. There is also a "Rock It Like Block" contest dangling a 2011 Ford Fiesta, custom designed by Ken Block. The contest runs through Aug. 13 at RockItLikeBlock.com.
Deal seekers searching for money-saving offers through mobile coupon platform Shooger will soon have BlackBerry as an option to clip and save. The company made it easier to search for deals on the iPhone, handsets running Android, and the company's Web site, but has plans to tie in searches on PC, too. The clip-file-and-save coupon app geared toward local and national specials relies on Google Maps and other technology to pinpoint location and deliver the goods. Mobile and location, the first step in targeting mobile services to consumers, will link to a series of triggers that advertisers can expect to tap, including links to mobile social graphs and profiles. Consumers can set perimeters, adding a city, ZIP code or street address and change the radius to find retail offers from 1 to 100 miles. The search results -- based on location by category, merchant or keyword -- sort offers. Consumers can share deals with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Matt Myers, chief marketing officer, Shooger, says there are more than 100 million monthly Google search queries for deal and coupon-related terms. Shooger offers about 100,000 local and national deals from 50,000 merchants searchable by categories, such as Restaurants & Bars, Home Improvement, Travel, Automotive, Dentists & Doctors and Sports & Recreation. "We're working toward the ability for consumers to create an account and save online searches, linking them to the phone application," Myers says. "The offers found on the consumer's PC will show up on the phone. Location is the first step, but we will link that to other information in the future." Google has also begun to take advantage of coupons. Google Tags, for example, allows small and medium-size businesses to pay a $25 flat monthly fee to promote services on Google Places. There companies can place coupons and photos of other business-related information, making it easy for mobile consumers to find local stores. Searches on Google for Printable Coupons increased 67% compared with the prior year, according to Coupons.com, which earlier this month reported surpassing more than 1 million downloads of its iPhone and Android coupon applications. Representing 20.8% of the U.S. population, 46.4 million American consumers now use online coupons -- up from 40.2 million in 2008, according to Coupons.com. The company estimates that of the 46.4 million online coupon users, 12.9 million do not read any part of the Sunday newspaper -- up 18% compared with 10.9 million in 2008. The demand for mobile data has skyrocketed more than 110% on a compound annualized growth, but the revenue generated remains between 15% and 20%, which provides a huge gap for carriers, according to Bill Diotte, chief executive officer at BroadHop, which sits between the application and carrier to support the flow of information and monetize the assets of the carrier.
Deal seekers searching for money-saving offers through mobile coupon platform Shooger will soon have BlackBerry as an option to clip and save. This week the company made it easier to search for deals on the iPhone, handsets running Android, and the company's Web site, but the company has plans to tie in searches on PC, too. The clip-file-and-save coupon app geared toward local and national specials relies on Google Maps and other technology to pinpoint location and deliver the goods. Consumers can set perimeters -- adding a city, ZIP code or street address -- and change the radius to find retail offers from 1 to 100 miles. The search results sort based on location by category, merchant or keyword and sort offers. Consumers can share deals with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Matt Myers, chief marketing officer, Shooger, says there are more than 100 million monthly Google search queries for deal and coupon-related terms. Shooger offers about 100,000 local and national deals from 50,000 merchants searchable by categories such as Restaurants & Bars, Home Improvement, Travel, Automotive, Dentists & Doctors and Sports & Recreation. The majority of people carry phones everywhere they go, and simply showing the screen to take advantage of the deal transitions the sale from online and into the store. "We're working toward the ability for consumers to create an account and save online searches, linking them to the phone application," Myers says. "The offers found on the consumer's PC will show up on the phone. Location is the first step, but we will link that to other information in the future." Google has also begun to take advantage of coupons. Google Tags, for example, allows small and medium-size businesses to pay a $25 flat monthly fee to promote services on Google Places. There companies can place coupons and photos of other business-related information, making it easy for mobile consumers to find local stores. Searches on Google for Printable Coupons increased 67% compared with the prior year, according to Coupons.com, which earlier this month reported surpassing more than 1 million downloads of its iPhone and Android coupon applications. Representing 20.8% of the U.S. population, 46.4 million American consumers now use online coupons -- up from 40.2 million in 2008, according to Coupons.com. The company estimates that of the 46.4 million online coupon users, 12.9 million do not read any part of the Sunday newspaper -- up 18% compared with 10.9 million in 2008. Mobile and location, the first step in targeting mobile services to consumers, will link to a series of triggers that advertisers can expect to tap, including links to mobile social graphs and profiles. A variety of industry experts participating in the AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford suggested the industry should continue to move in that direction. During a Tuesday panel, Jules Maltz, principal at Institutional Venture Partners, told attendees that startups designing mobile applications now have an opportunity to make a profit. Proving that point, Sunil Verma, co-founder and COO at MobClix, admitted the mobile ad exchange serves up about 7 billion impressions monthly, working with about 10,000 application developers to gain revenue through clicks, rich media and video. It will become all about the data for mobile advertisers as more companies provide incentives for consumers to trade information for discounts. But who owns it? The demand for mobile data has skyrocketed more than 110% on a compound annualized growth, but the revenue generated remains between 15% and 20% -- which provides a huge gap for carriers, according to Bill Diotte, chief executive officer at BroadHop, which sits between the application and carrier to support the flow of information and monetize the assets of the carrier.
As one might assume, local business directories are benefiting greatly from the mobile boom. In March, the number of mobile subscribers accessing business directories via mobile phone increased 14% year-over-year to 17.3 million users, according to new research conducted by comScore and released on Thursday by the Yellow Pages Association. The increase even outpaced the 10% growth in the number of mobile media users who browsed the mobile Web, used applications or downloaded content during the same time period. "Mobile offers significant opportunity, both for consumers who need convenient and reliable sources of local information on-the-go, and also for local search providers that are making this content available in new and innovative ways," said Neg Norton, president of the Yellow Pages Association. Mobile browser was the most common access method for users, with 10.8 million subscribers in March 2010, and 21% year-over-year growth. But even as the browser remained the most used mobile feature for access, apps grew at a more rapid pace with 42% year-over-year growth -- totaling 4.1 million subscribers in March. ComScore also found that mobile media attracts a highly desirable consumer segment for advertisers. Indeed, mobile usage of business directories unlocks a younger, wealthier user base. According to the report, 58% of mobile media users are 34 or younger, while, over half have a household income in excess of $75,000. In March, the number of people accessing business directories on a mobile device at least once per week increased more than 16% year-over-year to nearly five million. Mobile users also access content that is attractive for many advertisers, comScore found. Mobile users who access business directories are three and a half times more likely as the average mobile media user to access women's magazine content, health information, real estate listings, and job listings via their mobile devices. Meanwhile, as local mobile grew by double digits, local searches on personal computers saw single-digit growth year-over-year. Searches on Internet Yellow Pages and portal sites increased 4% to 444 million in March 2010, or 5.3 billion annually. The overall universe of core web search -- where users search for any kind of information on a major Internet search portal like Google or Bing -- increased 8% to 15.4 billion searches in March, or 187.3 billion annually.
Young Latino adults don't use mobile devices to socialize and communicate with friends quite as much as other groups, indexing somewhat lower than the same age group in the general population for these activities. That's according to the Pew Hispanic Center's latest National Survey of Latinos, a telephone poll of 1,240 16 to-26-year-old Hispanics. Specifically, Pew found that about 50% of young Latino adults (49% of 16- to-17-year-olds) said they send mobile text messages every day, while 45% talk on a cell phone. The text-message figure compares with 64% for non-Hispanic 16- to-17-year-olds, while 51% of non-Hispanics ages 16-17 said they talk on the cell phone every day. However, a recent marketing study by Industry Research suggests that Hispanic mobile usage has a brighter forecast: "If the future of mobile carriers depends on their getting consumers to buy their data plans, then the U.S. Hispanic community is right in the sweet spot," says Robert Rosenberg, Insight Research president. Insight's study "demonstrates that Hispanics are one of the most social groups online, and given the youth-oriented demographic of the U.S. Hispanic community, they become a prime target for the newer 3G and 4G cellular services," Rosenberg concluded. Insight Research predicts that over the next five years, the U.S. Hispanic communities will spend $257 billion on telecommunications services, accounting for 17% of all residential telecom expenditures. Still, young Latino adults ages 16-17 are also somewhat less likely to use social networking sites for these purposes -- 28% versus 31% for the same age cohort in the general population, notes Pew. Just 13% of young Latino adults ages 16-17 said they talk on a landline or home phone, compared to 32% among non-Hispanics. While Hispanics index somewhat lower in mobile use than non-Hispanic whites, a separate study from eMarketer suggests that Hispanics are more likely to use mobile devices to research and buy products and services. 32% of Hispanics who own mobile devices would use them to compare prices, versus 23% of non-Hispanic whites. Meanwhile, 16% would order an item via mobile and 33% would access information about an item for potential purpose, versus 11% and 18% of non-Hispanic whites, respectively. Another recent study found that 71% of English-speaking Hispanics engage with mobile content, versus a general population average of 48%. Hispanics are also more likely to access news and information via mobile browsers (18.8% versus 9.6% for all subscribers). The total U.S. Hispanic population now numbers 46.9 million in population, wielding purchasing power of just over $1 trillion in 2010. Pew also found that there is a high correlation between country of origin and technology adoption, with native-born young Latino adults showing much higher usage of all kinds of digital communications. For example, 65% of native-born young Latino adults send text messages, versus just 26% of their foreign-born peers, while the proportions for daily cell phone use are 55% and 29%, respectively. Thirty-one percent of the native-born group use a social-networking site, versus just 10% of the foreign-born, while the email gap is 13%-6%. The only place where the foreign-born group indexes higher is use of landlines or home phones, leading the native-born group 19%-17%. The different rates of mobile use are partly a reflection of differences in ownership: 84% of the native-born say they use cell phones, versus 70% of the foreign-born, with a 79% overall average. Young Latino adults who mostly speak English are also more likely to adopt these technologies than peers who mostly speak Spanish: 68% of "English-dominant" respondents send text messages, versus 50% of bilingual respondents and just 19% of the "Spanish-dominant" group.
At a time when doctors are pressed for time as never before, and health care marketers are trying to wring maximum value from shrinking budgets, digital technology has become a leverage point. Transparency regulations mean that pharmaceutical companies cannot give doctors the pampering they have come to expect; at the same time, increasing patient loads and paperwork often leave physicians too busy to see sales reps or read the latest drug literature. Enter the smartphone -- a device that, according to a recent Knowledge Networks study of nearly 11,000 physicians, is now owned by more than half (58%) of doctors. (This compares to 25% ownership among those ages 13 to 54 in the general population, according to KN's The Home Technology Monitor.) We found that among all doctors with smartphones:
I just got an HTC Evo for my birthday, and it is awesome. The phone has been reviewed widely, so I'll sum it up via Engadget : "[I]ts magnificent list of specs reads as though it was scribbled on a napkin after a merry band of gadget nerds got tipsy at the watering hole and started riffing about their idea of the ultimate mobile device." Or, as Gizmodo says, it's a "war machine" and it's got "guts." The pluses: It has a huge 4.3? screen; the body is only slightly larger than an iPhone 4, yet I've received multiple comments that its generous size resembles an iPad. It has a SUPER-fast processor, making apps run very fast. It runs on the Sprint mobile network, which means 4G WiMax connection speed (where available), and that smokes. The Evo doubles as a WiFi hotspot, making the good connection speed available to any, multiple WiFi-enabled devices (like the MacBook I used to write this column while on vacation). It has a high-def video camera, 8 megapixel camera, and a front-, screen-facing camera for video chat, which is sweet. (I really hope that Skype enables a mobile video chat app SOON; in the meantime, Qik and Fring are the available video chat apps.) The Evo runs HTC's custom Sense interface on top of Android operating system, which makes the experience a little more elegant. Moreover, Sprint customer service is getting good. I'm an anomaly with a dedicated rep, but a few random in-store interactions (at the NYC Flatiron store) have been very good. Moreover, the carrier is taking a page from the Apple Store by offeringfree, scheduled, one-on-one training sessions to maximize your smartphone enjoyment. As we all know, the mobile carrier can make or break the entire experience -- independent of any device. The minuses? There are only a few: Many have complained about Evo's battery life, which is not stellar. However, it's important to remember that the drain is correlated with the intensity at which you use high-drain apps and functionality. For example, if you avoid simultaneously running the Wifi hotspot feature while streaming YouTube videos while running Pandora while syncing your various Gmail and Twitter accounts, it will last longer. There is one other downfall: Why does my Evo come with lame pre-installed, built-in bloatware like Sprint's Nascar app, Sprint Football, Sprint TV and Sprint Navigation? The Android Market app makes it easy to delete apps you downloaded yourself, but I'm having great difficulty getting rid of the pre-installed apps that are taking up valuable memory. This garbage is visually obtrusive and the permanence is offensive. Sprint's own forums and others describe a hack (software rooting solution), which risks screwing up the operating system and voiding the warranty. Priya Ganapati at Wiredcalled out the annoying bloatware and quotes Keith Nowak, spokesman for HTC: "It's different from phone to phone and operator to operator. But in general, the apps are put there to meet the operator's business and revenue needs." This bloatware is not cool, and many others feel the same. Time to call my Sprint rep and see if we can resolve this bloatware issue. If HTC can introduce a better battery, even better. Otherwise, it's an Evo love fest! I highly recommend the HTC Evo and Sprint's 4G network.
The mobile video services on both my iPhone and iPad are starting to pile up, and just remembering what I have is getting cumbersome. I am sure that the video providers themselves would like to think that having multiple channels on a mobile deck is much like having a remote control that lets you rifle through the options regularly. It is not. Having discrete videos branded as ABC, CBS, Hulu, TMZ, AMC, etc. on the iPhone/iPad home pages is more like a wall of TVs -- each of which needs to be turned on, warmed up and navigated under their own interface. The architectural differences among mobile applications, including mobile video, are not that small a matter. Users of multiple apps need to grow accustomed to different styles. Does a tap here launch a video or give me description and a play button? Can I still one-hand this phone and see the video in portrait mode, or will it force me to reorient? I think we discovered long ago on the Web that it's the little speed bumps in information architecture that can kill usability. I still believe that people have a memory for Web sites and apps that are just a smidge more work to use than another -- and on some level this knowledge affects their frequency of use. I know that tapping open Adam Curry's Big App Show puts me a click away from today's video, while AMC is going to give me a load bar, and Hulu Plus is going to drop me thoughtfully into catch-up mode with clips of last night's late-night shows. This all affects my decisions to tap or not to tap an app open. But all of the video apps require that I seek them out or trip over them when and if I have a sec to do a phone content check. The weakest link for mobile video has always been our memory that we have it in hand. From the time Verizon first put VCast onto the early 3G phones and Qualcomm embedded receivers with sharp reception, the problem for me has been that video on a hand set never became a reflex. This is sure to change, but video more than any other mobile medium need s a little push -- a digital push. I was reminded of the effectiveness of push this week by a very simple, but strong, SMS-to-video campaign from video sharing service Thwapr. The company is working with the VANs Warped concert tour as well as the 2010 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival to keep both the sponsoring brands and great video content in people's faces. The user simply subscribes to get updates via SMS ("send "Warped" or "Mayhem" to 757575). Daily texts link to a mobile Web page that contains a play link and sharing tools. The three-minute clips are there every day -- and the odds are I am watching this content series and its sponsors more regularly than the content I might find in an app. Actually, the lesson here is not just the simple distribution method. We have had many instances where SMS links to video. What actually gives this program more depth is that it is a rounded and well-crafted series with a consistent hostess/reporter. When you subscribe, the first video reply introduces her and the content of the series. She shows up every day, reporting from a different venue, and each clip gives you a strong sense of place, that you really are accessing a traveling event and getting reports from the road. In other words, the content matches the distribution method. It feels like a peer using her phone cam to report on a road trip, and it comes to you in pretty much the same way a friend would communicate. How can mobile video publishers leverage this good example? Let me subscribe to specific programming in your well of goodies, and send me app alerts or SMS with links that pull me back in. AMC, I will take an SMS to remind me there is a new "Mad Men" clip. News providers, give me a simple way to let you push specific video topic to me so they surface outside of the app. Do all the usual TV-land cross-selling of other content when I get into your app and after I watch what I wanted, but give me what I really want first. Move this forward by getting out of the Web model where we were all impressed at the depth and the breadth of your video libraries. On a phone, not so much. I am more interested in having the specific topics I want on video rising closer to the surface. Until I start associating the cell phone with video in the same way I already link it conceptually with text, voice and headlines, I am going to need reminding that I have a DVR in my pocket.