Mobile Search Marketing Web Property Traffic

Of course this data source is only a proxy at best, but it’s interesting to look at trends, correlate news events and ponder possible meanings. Enjoy. :)

mobile search marketing traffic -chicago gsb

Adam Soroca of Jumptap Interviewed

Interesting discussion that starts to talk about behaviorial targeting.

3GSM World Congress Barcelona - Starts Now

3GSM World Congress starts Monday in Barcelona. It bills itself as “the world’s leading mobile communications conference and exhibition” (in lower case letters just like that too). There is rumored to be some serious negotiations going on in terms of white label mobiel search providers and the cell phone carriers (if you hear anything interesting drop me a note). If you’re going or are there, please drop me a line. You are someone I should know.

I want to praise something - I *love* the way this press contact list is set up for the exhibitors. It should become a standard practice.

It appears there is another white label search player emerging - MCN.
Among bloggers, these folks have caught my eye with posts so far: Dan Appelquist, Alessandro Pace and others!

tag: 3GSMworldcongress2007

Jumptap Gets Injection from WPP Group

Goobile had a write up about it.

WPP had more on the release here. This is an extremely interesting investment from an untraditional source. Time will tell what is means fully.

Illinois Sues SMS Text Message Spammers

A surprisingly very lightly reported news story talked about the dark side of SMS, text spammers. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan recently filed a federal lawsuit against a pair of Florida SMS spammers who sent 5 million unsolicited text messages!!!

Increasingly I’m seeing a consumer backlash against untargeted SMS messages. We’ve trained people to search for the past ten years. The quicker we migrate to a search oriented mobile society from a mainly SMS based one, the better the customer experience will be!

Mobile Analyst Watch Blog

John Sun puts together a nice aggregation of mobile news on a daily basis that I’ve added to my feed reader. You should check it out!

Yahoo! Unveils OneSearch - New Version of Go for Mobile

See the details here. If Ojas Rege would like elaborate in an interview on this blog, it would be welcomed. Thanks!

Best Blog Post of 2006 (non-search engine related)

On October 9th, I wrote this about Kathy Sierra’s “Knocking the Exuberance Out of Employees”.

It’s a great post and it relates to a lot of problems in the business world in terms of having innovative customer service. Let’s hope her post prompted some people to realize that operating in this manner is a mistake.

Congrats!

Google’s Mobile Ad Guidelines Page

I recently noticed that Google started a Mobile Ads guideline page. The following is of great interest to me:

“Follow proper grammar conventions.

You may use common text message abbreviations.”

I’d like to see some more detail about what is meant exactly by “You may use common text message abbreviations.”

The #1 result for “text message abbreviations” in Google currently has this web page. In a world where relevance is critical to click through and conversion rates, is an ad that has abbreviations that a viewer doesn’t understand certainly doesn’t meet the relevancy requirement as that viewer certainly won’t take action on an ad that he or she can not interpret. My preliminary thought is that this should allow the user to self select the type of mobile search marketing ad style that they are most comfortable with and this likely will have a strong correlation with the age of the user/ad viewer. But it also means that eventually you might need more than one style of mobile text ad, one with abbreviations and one without abbreviations. This is certainly an interesting area that I’m will likely see new standards and metrices over time.

What do you think the standards should be? I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts and discussion of this issue.

Thought for the Day

Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the entire world.
- Albert Einstein

Forrester Consumer Conference - Mobile Marketing’s Play In The Channel Strategy

Charles S. Golvin, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

Where do you fit in? Discussed Crest toothpaste mobile campaign example

What tools are available, what is the reach, what are the learnings?

Tools available today:
- Messaging
 - Voting
 - Promotions
 - Search
- Mobile Browser
 - Banners
 - Interstitial
 - Search-based
- Applications and content
 - Free / discounted services

New mechanisms are emerging
 - Physical proximity
 - Coupons and loyalty (Cellfire)
 - Using location (opt-in) to improve targeting

Where does mobile fit?
Eyeballs>>Awareness>>Consideration>>Preference>>Personal>>Loyalty

What is the reach of these tools?
1 in 4 receive text messages regularly

Youth see their mobile phone differently

Think Europe is so far ahead? Think again…
 - Internet penetration is higher in USA than Europe

What does the data mean?
 - Mobile campaigns need to target data adopters

It’s still early
 - Most US consumers still use voice
 - Mobile formats are small and generally difficult to use
 - Ad Standards need to be developed
 - Mobile is a unique channel

Compared with the fixed Web, consumers’ mobile experiences are:
 - Abbreviated
 - Transactional
 - More tied to the physical world
 - Successful campaigns embrace these differences

Best practices
 - Target mobile early adopters
 - Immediacy factor
 - Tailor content to mobile screen and user’s process
 - Use promotions to boost response rate
 - Employ creative or ad formats that match product or service
 - Time campaigns for maximum business ROI
 - Tie mobile to offline marketing

Tomorrow’s mobile marketing next practices
 - Integrated marketing campaigns
 - Performance-based metrics
 - Smart use of innovative functionality
 - Location sensitivity

How to View My Speech at eComXpo

I would love it if you could take a few moments to log into www.ecomxpo.com

- Visit education center

- On demand presentations

- Click on attend now on my speech after scrolling down

Please enter my blogging contest.

My Speech at eComXpo Now Has a Contest

In conjunction with my discussion at eComXpo about “Mobile Search Marketing: The Coming Evolution of Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Customer Officer”, I’m announing a contest! Prizes will be awarded via random drawing on Monday, October 30th, 2006, odds of winning depend on number of entries received and viewed via blog search engines.
Prize #1 - Dalka will be giving out one of his famous blog interviews to one lucky winner! (estimated value - priceless!)
Prize #2 - One eComXpo University Pass to allow leisurely viewing of content at a later time after the close of the conference, a great value if you missed part of the show. (estimated value - $99)

To enter, simply answer the following questions in a blog entry before the close of eComXpo:
1) Who exports what cereal to what country and why?
2) Who had a flat tire?
3) What three disparate data sets does David advocate tying together to create a customer driven experience?

Jeremiah Owyang on Social Media at Ragan PR Conference

I arrived to the session late….

Corporate bloggers must have thick skin.

Community Manager – gather sources and send them away…they will come back.

How do I get all employees involved?

Community marketing allows engagement.

Responding to complaints:
- Engage the blogger – “we hear you”

Blogger relationships – treat them with respect and analyst.

Bloggers are egotistical.

I’m not in PR.

Prospects trust other customers than anything else. Embrace and use your current customers.

Let go, to gain more.

Do not over structure corporate blogs for product announcements.

Blogoshpere conversation benchmark tools are important. 
 
Rift between corporate communications and web – often exists.

You should educate people to overcome that rift. Social Media consultant.

Just do it . The tools will evolve.

Give to the community and they will give back. 

You need to trust and love your employers. IBM built it’s blogging policy with a Wiki.

Vivid examples given about how to use Myspace.

Wells Fargo has a blog, teaching credit. Useful content build trust.

 Links, activity, forum and stickyness.
 
C-level blogs can save time as the future meetings are framed.

Sun, says C-level leader is to communicate. 

“Social media is gray.”

Mobile Marketing/Search - Open Thread - Comment Away!

I’m researching mobile marketing and mobile search, a lot, lately. There are articles everywhere you look.

The following are opinions I seek:
- What do you want to see on your mobile device?
- What don’t you want to see on your mobile device (perhaps more important actually)?
- What companies are the leaders in the mobile marketing/SMS/messaging space?
- Who are the movers and shakers in the mobile marketing/SMS/messaging space?
- Who are the thought leaders in the mobile marketing/SMS/messaging space?
- What are the barriers to international standards and metrics creation?
- Will pay per call truly migrate to the mobile device? How will it be different?
- What are the other barriers to success of the space?
- What oligopolistic and/or blocking will prevent adoption of superior technology?
- Will customers true needs and desires be considered fully first? 

Gee, that’s a lot of upside down M’s at the start of the thoughts above!
Other links for you to consider for discussion:  Mobile Marketing Magazine, Engadget, The Mobile Weblog, Mobile Marketing & Spam, 4Info, Goobile,  etc

OK now, please comment away and ask your friends to do the same (heck even link it if you want), I want this discussion to focus on your thoughts and ideas and drive my future research and discussions here. Thanks for your time.

Catch Up - Interesting Posts Recently

Danny Sullivan has a nice summary post this morning…always in his funny and light-hearted way. Danny is the glue that holds a fragmented community together.  

Google Blogoscoped linked to posted video of Danny Sullivan’s interview of Eric Schmidt at SES and Danny also posted full press conference transcript that Google posted - wish I would have known that this was out there - it would have been helpful to me and I’ve bookmarked the page - props to David Krane and his PR team Google for posting that including the retracted comment portion - in other words if you read this please read the whole thing! I would urge him to change the segmentation of this information however as this transcript was not sent out via the normal Google product promotion press release channels like email.

RustyBrick points out an article suggesting that Google has hit the “topping point“.  

Easton Ellsworth discusses a few of his favorite blogging promotion concepts.

This includes Andy Hagan’s and Aaron Wall’s recent 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006.

Steve Rubel is challenging marketers to think like Venture Capitalists.

SES San Jose Day 4 - API (new session)

Rustybrick wrote an amazing post on the new SES API session - my PC was in dead battery mode and no plug available mode during this session. Please enjoy his post. He did mis Erynn B. Petersen’s of Microsoft because they accidently went to questions before she gave her speech, which was an awkward moment that she handled amazingly well. I had a nice chat with her afterwards, she is one of the people who really gets what this is all about and for that I appreciate her.

This is a great session that reminds me of how much search is like financial services, where there are a number of vendors that provide mission critical API’s - the fact that API’s are just starting to become transparent to the masses is a sign of how early in all of this we truly are.

Introducing nextgoogleceo.com 3.0

Lately, Google has been showing that is it participating in customer listening. This is good! I hope it continues.

Since I’ve started studying search engine marketing these past full months full time, I’ve been applying to Google - even with employee referrals of former co-workers and people I’ve met at Search Engine Strategies, etc. with out the applications executed in a way I consider appropriate - that is the politest way I can say it. I’d like to see that change, I’m presently seeking post-MBA level leadership roles within your Search Services/ Syndication, Advertising Sales, Marketing or other leading areas driving customer satisfaction and impacting revenue as you grow new product lines. Ideally I’d love to work within local, dMarc or mobile. I resubmitted (again) today for numerous post-MBA leadership positions.

So I launched nextgoogleceo.com which is a cute take of HR microsites (and discusses how next Microsoft is obsolete now that google is a common verb in our language), except that I’ve changed the wording a bit to demonstrate my increasingly dynamic understanding of both search and viral marketing and the future thereof. As soon as I hit send, I’m leaving for Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2006 and look forward to meeting your wonderful business unit leaders speak once again.

I would of course invite aspiring competitors or “next google’s” to come up and talk to me about their ideas as well. I look forward to learning and adding to my large and growing list of amazing people that are making the Internet a special place.

I look forward to seeing all of my fabulous friends at SES San Jose. It’s going to be both great fun and great learning. It’s the 3rd or 4th time I’ll be seeing some of you and I feel like I’m going on a trip to visit family…that is because that is exactly what it is! I look forward to meeting many new folks to and learning many new and great things. Thank you and please travel safely. See you in San Jose!

I leave you with this parting thought: In the book, Creating Customer Evangelists, the chapters on Mark Cuban stand out in regards to the hiring of Matt Fitzgerald as Chief Marketing Maverick: “Instead of selecting a marketing person from the NBA or the sports industry, Mark consciously made a decision to hire someone from outside the industry,” Fitzgerald says. “He believed the NBA marketing community was too in-bred so [Cuban] was looking for a marketing person with a fresh perspective and ideas.”

ad:tech Chicago 2006 - Mobile Marketing Ecosystem: Framing the Market and the Value Chain

The one that is clear to me is that the mobile marketing space has more questions than answers.

Panel:
Peter Fuller – Founder and Managing Partner, i-Jump
Courtney Jane Acuff, Associate Director, Denuo

Numerous doors of entry:
Reaching consumers:
SMS (text messaging)
WAP (wireless web)
MMS (multimedia)
WAP banners
Video
Starstar dialing (new data dialing service)

Wireless web - about 5% using it currently.

Rich brand experience coming via MMS

The carriers don’t always play nice in the sandbox. Aggregators play a role. Agencies need to understand

Zoove.com – domains

Putting it all together:
Think of the mobile phone as a newspaper, television, Internet, game player, note passer (text), wallet and telephone - in one.

Create a complete user and brand experience, as you would create typical offline cross-media campaign.

Services that you can make money on like service communications are interesting.

Metrics piece needs to be figured out.

In the end it’s all about money, revenue streams are in question.

It’s frustrating and exciting, that things become obsolete constantly.

A discussion about best practices and the challenges of making them work is adopted.

McDonald’s – 15 million Big Mac boxes – game pieces – lead to opt-in.

Axe – free ring tone promotion

Kellogg’s – healthy eating tips.

Cost - $50,000 minimum to play – technical integration, properly, short code, hosting – the media to support it.

ad:tech Chicago 2006 - Disruptive Technology for Fun and Profit, Sponsored by Avenue A | Razorfish

Moderated by Dave Friedman, president, Avenue A | Razorfish Central region

Denise Chudy, Google

Marc Stephens, Michael Miller, Bruce Woolsey - Avenue A | Razorfish

This session was awesome in that they just took questions from the get go and it was a confident and free flowing session with a lot of progressive thought and positive energy in the room!  

Mark – Apple, Ipod, Itunes

Denise Chudy – Automotive – now Consumer Package Goods – General Motors is taking risks.

Michael Miller – Online properties of ATT – ATT/SBC – through Word of Mouth

Bruce Woolsey – New Media – Buzzmetrics – algorithms of data analysis – leveraging data of combinations Gatorade – Buddy TV – interactive – 125,000 friend on myspace from simpler. People are still cautious with banners.

Denise – Use Google Video

Michael – how to you measure the value of the something on myspace. Using myspace is a delicate balance.

Mark – It will continue to evolve.

Michael – Dremel – don’t try to replace fragmented discussions.

Bruce – Get over the fear. It’s done. More ways to engage with consumers!

Denise – build the niche audience. Movie studios are getting word out quickly.

Audience – How do I make fragmentation my friend?

Bruce – Mobile media. You don’t need to be yet. 18 months from now, it is going to be different. Do some test marketing with Mobile.

Audience - Where do you see marketing going?
Bruce – Evolution. People are in control. Do you really want to copy TV? (as it is dying).

Mark – Higher level of accountability points to the digital side leading it.

Michael – Percentage wise – are less than 5%

Audience – How do you see mobile marketing transforming and developing in the US?

Denise - Click to call – relevancy – short messages – testing it in Japan – Google Maps. When they are looking – not push.

Mark - Largest platform. Can’t blast things out. The industry needs to self-police this issue. Mobile is going to be powerful. Ad supported content.

Dave Friedman - Could there be ad supported content model for mobile?

Bruce – Video is going to be interesting. Advertainment. Branded applications. I can download running routes.

What disruptive technologies are getting ready to launch and create adoption?

Denise – API adoption in consumer brands.

Mark – Google Video and Youtube are game changers.

Michael - The existing forms are getting better and better.

Bruce – Advertising approaches where the consumer is in demand. Interactive video is the most powerful medium we’ve ever had to use. How does one chose that?

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