AI
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 12:25:19 PM
Mobile Next Big Thing: Forget Black Friday or Cyber Monday, This Year Holiday Shopping Starts on Your Mobile Device
It may seem early to start talking about the holiday season, but if you are a marketer, you’ve already started planning your holiday campaigns. In fact, there is a lot of buzz right now around how retailers can capitalize on mobile as a channel and many believe that it will play a pivotal role in marketing, shopping and buying decisions this holiday season. According to a recent Forrester Research report, 74 percent of online retailers are planning a mobile advertising push.
Giselle Tsirulnik of Mobile Commerce Daily wrote a great article last month on “Why Retailers Need to Be Mobile for the 2010 Holidays” One of the main drivers for the move to mobile, according to the article, is that for the first time there are more smartphones than desktop computers being sold.
My colleague, Pete Langlois of Neustar will be speaking this week at the DMA’s Mobile Marketing Summit – Holiday Focus 2010 in New York. As part of a panel of experts, he’ll be sharing his perspective on “Best-Practice Tips: What Works and What Doesn’t Work for Holiday Mobile Marketing and Commerce.” Here’s a brief synopsis of the panel:
“For many marketers and retailers, holiday 2010 will be their first or second season incorporating mobile into multichannel plans. It pays to heed lessons learned from the Internet’s early days of what to do and what not to do. For example, SMS is governed by special rules in terms of opt-ins and list usage. Also, a banner ad that clicks through to a regular Web landing page and not one that is mobile-optimized may result in a lost sale or wasted branding impression. In this session, attendees will learn from the experts the key dos and don’ts to avoid any consumer or regulatory run-ins over the holidays.”
In addition to this panel, executives from major brands like Pepsi, Kenneth Cole, ESPN and Steve Madden will be discussing their plans for mobile holiday campaigns.
A few months ago, I wrote a blog about the Power of Mobile as a Channel and over the past year, I’ve seen more and more mobile campaigns hit the market. And, for the first time, companies are putting mobile as a line item in their marketing budgets. Whether it’s SMS, barcodes, or mobile websites, companies are moving full force into the mobile channel. With over 280 million mobile phone subscribers in the U.S. and growing, this is a channel retailers cannot afford to ignore.
Consumers are starting to integrate their traditional shopping experiences with mobile. They are doing comparison shopping with mobile applications like Shop Savvy and Red Laser, as well as going onto the mobile web to look for product information. In many cases they are doing this in-store with the product in hand. 2D barcodes offer an easy way for consumers to get the information they want quickly about the products they want to buy. Imagine going into a store and scanning a 2D barcode for more information about that product, and then being able to receive a coupon for that item, or better yet being able to purchase right through your mobile device. 2D barcodes offer the on-ramp for all types of consumer interaction, but market fragmentation is hampering mass adoption. Most consumers do not know what readers will work with what codes, and in many cases if they have a bad user experience, they will not try it again.
As the holiday season approaches, I anticipate an onslaught of mobile campaigns as marketers leverage this channel to engage consumers and drive holiday sales, and many brands will be experimenting with using 2D barcodes as an entry point.
Are you planning to incorporate a mobile element to your holiday campaign? If so, we’d love to hear more about it. Please share your thoughts.
It may seem early to start talking about the holiday season, but if you are a marketer, you’ve already started planning your holiday campaigns. In fact, there is a lot of buzz right now around how retailers can capitalize on mobile as a channel and many believe that it will play a pivotal role in marketing, shopping and buying decisions this holiday season. According to a recent Forrester Research report, 74 percent of online retailers are planning a mobile advertising push.
Giselle Tsirulnik of Mobile Commerce Daily wrote a great article last month on “Why Retailers Need to Be Mobile for the 2010 Holidays” One of the main drivers for the move to mobile, according to the article, is that for the first time there are more smartphones than desktop computers being sold.
My colleague, Pete Langlois of Neustar will be speaking this week at the DMA’s Mobile Marketing Summit – Holiday Focus 2010 in New York. As part of a panel of experts, he’ll be sharing his perspective on “Best-Practice Tips: What Works and What Doesn’t Work for Holiday Mobile Marketing and Commerce.” Here’s a brief synopsis of the panel:
“For many marketers and retailers, holiday 2010 will be their first or second season incorporating mobile into multichannel plans. It pays to heed lessons learned from the Internet’s early days of what to do and what not to do. For example, SMS is governed by special rules in terms of opt-ins and list usage. Also, a banner ad that clicks through to a regular Web landing page and not one that is mobile-optimized may result in a lost sale or wasted branding impression. In this session, attendees will learn from the experts the key dos and don’ts to avoid any consumer or regulatory run-ins over the holidays.”
In addition to this panel, executives from major brands like Pepsi, Kenneth Cole, ESPN and Steve Madden will be discussing their plans for mobile holiday campaigns.
A few months ago, I wrote a blog about the Power of Mobile as a Channel and over the past year, I’ve seen more and more mobile campaigns hit the market. And, for the first time, companies are putting mobile as a line item in their marketing budgets. Whether it’s SMS, barcodes, or mobile websites, companies are moving full force into the mobile channel. With over 280 million mobile phone subscribers in the U.S. and growing, this is a channel retailers cannot afford to ignore.
Consumers are starting to integrate their traditional shopping experiences with mobile. They are doing comparison shopping with mobile applications like Shop Savvy and Red Laser, as well as going onto the mobile web to look for product information. In many cases they are doing this in-store with the product in hand. 2D barcodes offer an easy way for consumers to get the information they want quickly about the products they want to buy. Imagine going into a store and scanning a 2D barcode for more information about that product, and then being able to receive a coupon for that item, or better yet being able to purchase right through your mobile device. 2D barcodes offer the on-ramp for all types of consumer interaction, but market fragmentation is hampering mass adoption. Most consumers do not know what readers will work with what codes, and in many cases if they have a bad user experience, they will not try it again.
As the holiday season approaches, I anticipate an onslaught of mobile campaigns as marketers leverage this channel to engage consumers and drive holiday sales, and many brands will be experimenting with using 2D barcodes as an entry point.
Are you planning to incorporate a mobile element to your holiday campaign? If so, we’d love to hear more about it. Please share your thoughts.
