Emergence Media » Mobile Marketing

Obama’s VP Pick Notification via SMS Text: More than a Gimick

Daniel R — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:30:53 +0000

SMS from Obama Campaign for Opting-In VP Notification Text Message

As you may know, the Obama Campaign this week announced that supporters can sign-up to be the first to know about who Barack Obama’s VP nomination pick is via text messaging. Obama’s campaign has become the defacto case study on use new and emerging media for everything for fund raising, organizing and motivating his supports.

Garrett Graff writes an excellent op-ed piece in the New York Times, “Text the Vote“, on the three central reason’s why the text notification of Obama’s VP pick is more than just a candidate adopting the “latest tech fad”:

Text Message increases turn out by 4% at $1.56/vote
“A study conducted during the 2006 elections showed that text-message reminders helped increase turnout among new voters by four percentage points, at a cost of only $1.56 per vote â€” much cheaper than the $20 or $30 per vote that the offline work of door-to-door canvassing or phone banking costs.”

New Younger & Minority Voters are Effectively Reached via Text Message
“For Mr. Obama, who is building his campaign around bringing in new young voters and registering minority voters, thereâ€™s no more effective outreach than a text message. Cellphones, which legally canâ€™t be called by pollsters and canâ€™t be reached by campaign â€œrobo-calls,â€ are the most intimate form of communication technology today.”
Build a SMS Phone List: VP Pick Notification as the Hook
“The move should add thousands â€” and more likely tens or hundreds of thousands â€” of cellphone numbers to what is already one of the most detailed political databases ever created.”

I’ve never heard of Garrett Graff before, but I’d keep his name in mind when it comes to how emerging media is changing the landscpae of marketing and PR – no matter if it’s for selling a consumer product or helping elect the next president of the United States.

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Quick Post: The Social Web Goes Mobile, and Gaming Consoles Too?

Daniel R — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:41:51 +0000

Wii’s Everybody Votes: Community Voting to Social Network?
(Image from lifefilter)

Beyond Mobile 2.0, Here Comes Consoles 2.0
(We’re on the roll with Web, Mobile, Marketing, [Insert Word Here] 2.0s. )
Just as the idea of Mobile 2.0 (the integration of internet with the uniqueness of mobile phones) is picking off, so will the idea of gaming consoles integrating into the internet gain currency.

Recently, Read/Write Web discussed the “55 Piece Mobile Search Tool Kit” that are shaping the mobile landscape along with who are active in providing these particular “mobile tools”. Some of those mentioned include:

Mobile site builders
Mobile search engines
Local sites
Mobile portals
Mobile social networks
Mobile visual search (matching your cell phone cameraâ€™s pictures)
Mobile video search
Mobile downloads
Real estate search
Mobile map apps

Soon, there maybe a need to think of adapting these “tools” to ~~gaming~~ entertainment consoles themselves. The online world is moving to the Consoles too, not just Mobile.

What is the Wii up to on Social Media?

Nintendo’s Wii has seen to movements on territory that is usually found in traditional social media: 1) StumbleUpon Video; and 2) Online Group Polling.

Nintendo’s Wii partnership with StumbleUpon Video creates an interesting integration of TV-based Entertainment Consoles (Wii) and StumbleUpon Video (Social Media Video).
Wii also has a “Everybody Votes Channel” as discussed by lifefilter and TC399, which allows:

Vote on regional or worldwide polls
After vote is placed, predict how the majority voted.
Allow users to submit questions that they would like to be asked

Just like Hot or Not evolved from a online polling website into a social network/dating website, the potential evolution of the “Everybody Votes Channel” can clearly be seen.

Overall, it is way too early to tell, but it will be interesting to see how all of this evolves in 1-3 years.

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Quick Post: Mobile Video Sharing and the Mobile SF New Tech Meetup

Daniel R — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 08:59:09 +0000

MyWave’s iTune-ish Interface for their Mobile Video Sharing Service

Taking a Look at mywaves: A YouTube/iTunes on Your Mobile?

This week I attended presentation on new mobile technology at SF New Tech Meetup, organized by Myles Weissleder and Joel Sacks. There were several mobile technology starts-up presenting: ComVu, mywaves, Pinger, Zypsy, and Veeker. You can read a full description here. It was a very interesting event with very interesting companies presenting with VCs and other mobile tech companies in the audience.

But this post will focus on mywaves, a very interesting company bringing video sharing to mobile phones, letting folks transform video podcasts/mobile videos into mobile video channels with sharing and editing capabilities.
What is mywaves

mywaves is a very young company with a public launch in December last year, yet has a very mature and well-developed interface and with over 17,000 channels of content.

mywaves Capabilities

YouTube-ish & iTunes-ish in approach:
Like YouTube user to upload videos and let mywaves figure out the proper video encoding process, and like iTunes you can subscribe to channels easily.
Users can create a “channel” by uploading their own videos (from mobile or PC) or via RSS feeds.
Has basic video-editing, allowing you to add pre-rolls, mid-rolls and post-rolls. This allows users to make their own ad-system for their videos or their video channels.
The web-based interface, Lounge, has a very clean iTunes feel
No mobile software is required for viewing videos (though there are phone compatibility limitations)
Currently ~17,000 channels are featured, but more can be added easily via RSS or simply uploading videos to a new channel

Business/Marketing Opportunities

Online video content provides can shift their videos into mobile, quickly and easily
Like with YouTube, create sponsored channels for promoting mobile video videos
Video owner’s control over pre-role, mid-role and post-role function allows quick path to monetization, assuming large amount of subscribe – and that pre/post rolls work :)
Integrated “Three Screen” Campaigns: TV Screen, Computer Screen and Mobile Screen.
Become an early entrant into the Mobile Video Viral marketing, with buzz potentially moving far faster than web-based videos like YouTube

While this is a young market and the mobile market is not quite “Mobile 2.0″ despite the buzz, it is interesting to imagine how fast mobile viral videos could spread compared to web videos. People have their phones on them all time.

There are still kinks to work out for sure. When signing-up, I encountered some strange issues and I still have difficulty getting my Blackberry Pearl 8100 working with mywaves properly. However, mywaves looks an ambitious company and one to look out for.
Note: This postings are based on the SF New Tech Meetup notes I have taken. If any of this is inaccurate or should be take down, please shoot me an email and let me know.

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Mobile Media: Web 3.0 (OMG! Did I just say that?)

Daniel R — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 09:25:36 +0000

Executive Summary

Since SES 2005 San Jose, local search has been promoted as the next big thing. Yelp.com, Oodle, Craiglist and Google Maps have proven the importance of local content and the different channels under which local searches are happening.

At SES Local Search 2006, a session was held on the growing potential of local search converging with mobile and WiFi technologies. While the possibilities of WiFi integration are tantalizing, the fact that SMS mobile marketing in the US hasnt fully taken off (much less mobile phones with WiFi) points to the face that we probably have 1-3 years before the mobile market really takes off to the mainstream.

But once cheap broadband, interactive features, high ease of use, social connections begin to appear on mobile phones, we’ll get – you guessed it - Web 3.0 or rather perhaps Mobile 2.0.

Introduction: Local Search is the Stepping Stone to the Next Step in Mobile Space

I remember attending SES 2005 (04?) in San Jose where one of the buzzes was that local search would be the next big thing. Online local search is growing but in very different ways than imagined at the time, from local UGC guides like Yelp.com and Judy’s Book to Google Maps and Craigslist and the classified search tool Oodle. In essence, local search is replacing the local printed classified and local reviews of restaurants and businesses.
Indeed, the next logical step for local search is the mobile phone: How many times have you caught yourself wishing you had directions or wondered what new restaurant to check out while going out? Citing a “Pew Internet & American Life Project” report, Revenue Today mentioned the possibility for future growth in the United States:

30 percent of adults say they want to web-surf from their cell phone

46 percent say that mobile maps and driving directions are a must on the next phone they plan to purchase

Unfortunately, there is a large gap between what users want in the future and their behavior now. According to Revenue Today, eMarketer finds only 36 percent of U.S. teens (15-17) “ever send or receive a text message” – a surprisingly low figure.

Beyond Local Search

Beyond local search, another interesting area that could possibly raise out of Web 3.0/Mobile 2.0 is the extension of online social networks to the mobile space. Richard MacManus of Read/Write has been talking about a possible merger of Dodgeball (mobile SNS) with Orkut (online SNS) and citing as the next trend in SNS:

Social networking has been the biggest thing going in 2006 (MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, etc). And it looks like mobile will be big next year. So SNS + Mobile seems the logical sequel.

The Role of Wifi in the Mobile Market

SES 2006 Local Search’s session on “Coping with Convergence: Local Search Meets Mobile and WiFi” introduces WiFi as another large factor that will come into play on both local search and the mobile market.

A Search Engine Watch article by Grant Crowell mentions:

The same is true across all mobile devicesâ€”laptops, phones, and other devices that use WiFi services from a hotspot. “The advent of WiFi is going to change the roles a lot,” said Greg Gruse, senior VP of Content Services for Local Matters. “As municipalities (and places of business) start rolling out free WiFi services, things are going to change again. The power of that search box on that portal will be very important because that page, not your home page, will be the starting point for people when they connect to their municipal WiFi portal.”

While municipal WiFI have the possibility to change alot on how Americans use the Intenret the real next step of mobile phones is not WiFi per se, which little phones in the US have support for. What is the next step is the availability of cheap broadband access (Be it WiFi, WiMax, EV-DO or some 4G technology), the same thing that has helped lead to Web 2.0…

Welcoming Web 3.0/Mobile 2.0

The hallmarks of the “Web 2.0″ phenomenon we’re currently in is marked by several elements:

Low Entry-to-Market barrier for Start-Ups (Far cheaper to start than the first dot-com)

Cheap Broadband, enabling sites like YouTube (More and more users have DSL or Cable Internet)

Ease of Use/Interactivity (Better UI, AJAX and Broadband speeds)

Social Connections (MySpace, Judy’s Books, Yelp.com)

The same rule will apply to the mobile market. From services like Dodgeball to multimedia text messages (MMS) and the ever growing popularity of camera phones to the new slew of souped-up GPS enabled phones like Nokia’s N95 its only natural to see phones as being the next step, bringing the Internet beyond the computer. But, the rule above that applied to web 2.0 will also rule the mobile market, and unfortunately three of the elements above are still unresolved major challenges. Thus, it is suspect if such convergence will easily and quickly develop in the U.S.

2007 is going to be a very interesting year for the mobile market, both creating a new market and expanding the definition of the Internet (freeing itself from the computer).

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