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Latinos Make Up Huge Piece Of Mobile Marketing Pie (ClickZ)
Posted: 03/31/2011
Mobile phone use is on the upswing among the Latino population, rising 26 percent from 2006 to 2010 compared to 18 percent of the general population. Three key markers indicate that the Hispanic population will continue to drive mobile marketing: they care about social connectivity, they are actively seeking fun experiences and they are open to innovation. The proof is in the pudding: 82 percent of the market has been penetrated; mobile phones are outpacing landlines among this demographic as the primary source of communication; this group is more interested in mobile web browsing than the average population; 24 percent of mobile users have downloaded at least one app; and the group has demonstrated that enhancing their lives through social connectivity is a priority.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Telecommunications
Topic: Content Strategy,  Creative & Design,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
Creating Intelligent Hyperlocal Campaigns (BrandWeek)
Posted: 03/31/2011
You’ve heard it before: to be an effective marketer you have to reach your audience with the right message at the right place at the right time. With this most basic of marketing principles in mind, more and more businesses are turning their attention to hyperlocal advertising and marketing. As technology continues to evolve, it is easier than ever to pinpoint a customer’s exact location. Pair that with the consumer’s growing interest in being tapped for local marketing and you have a powerful combination. The Mobile Marketing Association found that most mobile users are “interested in allowing their phone to automatically share their location in exchange for perks, such as free use of mobile applications and mobile coupons.” The key is to tap into your current customer base and make your move before your competitors to ensure the most success.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Telecommunications
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
Facebook Like Button Helps Solve Retailer’s Dilemma (Fast Company)
Posted: 03/17/2011
To help solve the problem of overstocked inventory, San Francisco-based children’s clothing retailer Tea Collection put Facebook’s “Like” button into action. Customers saved big when they voted for their favorite items that were set to be discontinued and then enjoyed a hefty discount from $59 to $10 on the winning dress. The dress was an immediate sell out. While the company took a loss on it, marketing director Jeff Reichelderfer explained that the campaign more than made up for the losses with purchases that customers made on other items. Tea Collection, which sells its line in boutiques and department stores across the country as well as online, has since hosted two more competitions to help move inventory and further engage its customers.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global,  North America
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Build Strong Opt-In Databases To Deliver Value For Customers (BtoB Online)
Posted: 02/17/2011
As business to business (B2B) customers increasingly demonstrate a willingness to share more information, the maxim “you get what you give” has never rung more true. By handing over mission critical information, customers expect to receive more targeted communications that reflect conspicuous value and benefit. Marketers, in turn, get the chance to drive up both response and revenue by directing their communications toward the rich databases they are accumulating. Here are the key steps to consider to encourage your customers to become part of any preference-profiling activities your company engages: First, build trust by using your customers’ information responsibly; next, confidentiality is a must – ‘responsible’ use means no sharing or renting information, ever; and finally, your value proposition must be clear and compelling.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business
Trigger Happy: Ways To Create Successful E-Mail Campaigns (Practical eCommerce)
Posted: 02/03/2011
When it comes to e-mail campaigns, there are a handful of strategies to use that can help capitalize on the power of triggered mailings, which have a proven track record of phenomenal response and conversion rates. The best approach is to begin with the simplest e-mails proven to elicit conversion, and then scale up the campaign to include more nuanced and complex e-mails. Here are six proven examples that can help your company establish a personal connection with your customers: (1) Welcome e-mails; (2) Reorder or order reminder e-mails; (3) Birthday or special-occasion e-mails; (4) Transactional emails; (5) Abandoned cart e-mails and (6) Abandoned site browse or search emails. All these examples offer the marketer’s toolbox a number of ways to create and maintain long-term relationships with customers and stimulate repeat business at the same time.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
Building A Brand Story Greater Than The Sum Of Its Individual Parts (New Media Knowledge)
Posted: 01/20/2011
Rather than providing a plethora of tactical solutions, today’s abundance of marketing channels may simply overwhelm marketers. Standard targeted marketing used to be a relatively simple game of point-and-shoot at three main channels (TV, print and direct mail) to cover all bases. Now, with the addition of social media platforms, mobile marketing, web, and email to the traditional channels, adopting a successful strategy can get confusing. Aim the same message at all the channels and the results can be downright disastrous. Multi-channel marketing offers marketers a mechanism to “pull all these conversations together and build a brand story that is greater than the sum of the individual parts” so marketers can keep their eyes on the prize: customer engagement and action. The key is to understand and respect the characteristics of each channel and then execute each according to how it works uniquely for your brand.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Peer Groups & Communities
Retailers Dial-In To Smart Phone Shopping Trend (CRM Daily)
Posted: 01/04/2011
With one-third of mobile phone usage to be “smart” this holiday season (Nielsen), retailers are getting dialed-in to e-commerce. The 21 percent increase over last year indicates that retailers can no longer rely on independent strategy for their retail outfits, whether they are bricks-and-mortar stores, Web sites or mobile shopping channels. Heather J. Brunner, chief operating officer of Austin, Texas-based Bazaarvoice, said a phone is "just a mini-computer, and our challenge now is to transfer the Internet experience to a much smaller screen." For instance, outdoor brand Patagonia recently launched a new application that suggests similar items and price ranges while customers browse. In-store, the app will recommend complementary items based on the tag’s bar code. Companies like Neustar are working on types of “second-generation” bar codes for smart phones that are square rather than rectangular while Pronto, a company owned by New York-based IAC, plans to launch a mobile app for product price alerts.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,  Telecommunications
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer
Digital River Is Getting Social With Ecommerce (Electronic Commerce Guide)
Posted: 12/16/2010
Digital River, a global ecommerce service provider, recently launched SocialStream, a new social media tool. Using the tool, Digital River customers can rapidly set in motion new e-store promotions and then manage them over different Facebook and Twitter accounts. Ecommerce-Guide.com reported Jim Wehmann, senior vice president of global marketing for Digital River saying that “Social Stream lets marketers and e-store owners optimize social media campaigns with just a few clicks from within the standard Digital River interface they already know and use.” While SocialStream is certainly not the first ecommerce service offering of its kind, the package’s most significant advantage is that it provides e-store owners with access to social analytics. The ability to report critical commerce data relating to social media activities like unique clicks, conversions and revenue generated for each social campaign for each social account allows companies to validate the success of each campaign.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
How Big Is Big? The Rise Of The Mobile Advertising Market (Marketing Vox)
Posted: 12/01/2010
eMarketer recently revised its assessment of the mobile ad market, predicting it will grow 79% to over $743 million this year alone – growing to more than $1.1 billion in 2011 and more than $2.5 billion by 2014. Based on these numbers, it’s safe to say mobile has been elevated to mainstream status. The report indicates that SMS is still the largest format, with an estimated tally of $327 million for 2010. Companies like Phizzle and Skycore are further enhancing their service offerings to engage audiences and allow increased functionality to their users, including enabling mobile marketers to run applications such as movie trailers sent with tickets or sports videos sent with tickets. eMarketer predicts that display formats will increase. Apple’s iPhone remains the top choice with 82.7% of marketers, but Android’s 9% increase since last quarter indicates it is quickly gaining traction. Other services new to the market include Opera Software’s Ad Marvel, Sprint’s Sprint ID and Burstly.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,  Telecommunications
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer
Filtering The Noise: Discovery Personalizes The Online Experience (Tech News World)
Posted: 11/11/2010
The internet abounds with buzzwords. Now, there’s new buzz about “discovery,” the real-time aggregation and personalization of content as it is applied to an online experience. Take Amazon for example, an online retailer that makes purchasing recommendations based on your past buying behavior and others that match your browsing and purchasing habits. True discovery, however, elevates this concept to the next level: It will tie together what you have liked, purchased, viewed, discussed, and browsed, into a real-time aggregator that provides recommendations on any category of your choosing. For discovery to be completely revolutionary, it must have both an online and mobile interface. From websites like Yelp to smartphone applications like mobile GPS, several discovery platforms are in the works, including Ping, a music discovery engine launched by Steve Jobs in September.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,  Telecommunications
Topic: Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Motricity Delivers User-Preferred Content On-the-Go (CIO Magazine)
Posted: 10/27/2010
Motricity recently launched mCore MobileCast, a service that allows wireless carriers and large companies to define content based on their smartphone users’ preferences. Requiring "zero touch" by the users, the cloud-based service takes a user’s location and prior usage into account before delivering audio, video, text and HTML5 content streamlined to the user’s preferences. For instance, a mobile user purchases tickets to a rock concert via a mobile device. Enter mCore MobileCast: The service ingests the concert data in combination with GPS data to disseminate auxillary information to the user, such as the concert's opening act, parking locations and even places to eat nearby. "All that information is in separate places today, but we aggregate it all up," said Jim Ryan, Motricity’s chief strategy and marketing officer. The company provides mobile infrastructure services to "hundreds of enterprises" and 10 major wireless carries, including the top four in the U.S., Ryan said.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,  Telecommunications
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
InterContinental Hotels Group Offers Hospitality With A Technical Twist (InformationWeek)
Posted: 10/14/2010
It’s easy to chalk IHG's, InterContinental Hotels Group, ubiquitous success up to one thing: customer loyalty. Tom Conophy, IHG's CIO, said the company’s core focus is on making customers "the center of our universe," and customer loyalty is vital to growth in the hospitality industry. The ever-growing hotel group, which owns seven hotel chains, including Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and InterContinental Hotels, keeps its guest doors swinging by making business intelligence one of their core competencies. 200 million guest profiles currently occupy the company’s 25 TB database, with detailed information on 43 million loyalty plan members. The company currently receives 30 million availability requests per day, supported by its own proprietary search technology, the Bottom-Up Optimum Search Strategy(BOSS). "Search is the killer app for us," Conophy says, and with IHG’s iPhone app as the industry’s most downloaded, adding mobility is another success factor with a concept the group has named “Virtually Me.”
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,  Telecommunications
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  Creative & Design,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
Combining Brick With Clicks Proves Profitable Among Retailers (Internet Evolution)
Posted: 10/14/2010
Bricks-plus-clicks is an emergent marketing strategy that combines online sales with storefront initiatives to boost sales. National brands including Gap and Nordstrom are using the tactic with success. For instance, Gap recently launched a “Universality” initiative in both Canada and the UK for consumers to simultaneously shop Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic merchandise in a “three-in-one” online store. The universality platform brings brands together online with global navigation and a universal shopping cart while the “bricks” includes new fulfillment centers to save shoppers the expense and hassle of import duties and fees and delays at customs. Showing solid sales improvements, Nordstrom is 11 months in to a fluid inventory plan that uses the Internet to connect its traditional-store inventory to its online sales site to make sure that merchandise is never overlooked on store shelves. The company’s new website also incorporates popular social media features.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction
Region: Global,  North America,  Europe
Audience: Business to Consumer
Video Girl Barbie Goes Viral (Promo Magazine)
Posted: 09/30/2010
In true Barbie fashion, the social girl charged the virtual social world this July to build the buzz for her latest professional stint: videographer. Mattel tapped into social networks Foursquare and Twitter to launch a campaign that criss-crossed the boundaries of traditional marketing. The campaign celebrated the new Video Girl Barbie with a scavenger hunt that had fans scouring San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York to locate Barbie’s real whereabouts. The first follower to find the fashion-forward doll in each city won a Barbie Video Girl doll. “We really embraced social media as a marketing platform a year ago as part of a major campaign in support of Barbie’s 50th anniversary,” says Lauren Dougherty, director of Barbie marketing at Mattel. Barbie currently has 17,600 Twitter followers and about 440,000 likes on Facebook—more than 200,000 of those added since January. Future plans include a promotion that puts the camera in the consumers’ hands with user-generated video, as well as introducing other members of Barbie’s entourage, including Ken, onto the social platforms.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Content Strategy,  Creative & Design,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global,  North America
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Asian Persuasion – Social Media Marketing In Japan (ClickZ)
Posted: 09/16/2010
Before MySpace and Facebook were even a glimmer in the virtual eye, Japan had Mixi – one of the country’s most popular SNS (social networking sites). While businesses in the U.S. are really only just beginning to tap into social media as a viable marketing tool, savvy businesses in Japan have been on the social bandwagon for more than 10 years, using platforms like Mixi, Gree and 2channel. Japan’s preponderance of social media might even prompt some to say that Japan was the genesis for social media marketing. The country’s rich social media platforms include: general social networking sites; video and photo sharing sites, social bookmarking sites; blog network sites, mini-blogging sites and micro social networking (SNS) sites. With most services available for both PC and mobile (unlike the U.S. where mobile is just gaining traction), mobile is already a key part of the countries inhabitants’ online lives.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Asia Pacific
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Get The Scoop: Ben & Jerry’s Launches Sweet Twitter Campaign (Promo Magazine)
Posted: 09/16/2010
This summer there was a new way to get the latest scoop, and this time it wasn’t breaking news – it was free samples of ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s. Led from destination to destination by consumer tweets via Twitter, the “Scoop Truck” went on a sampling tour of New York City in June and July. While the initial campaign plan left one weekday open to a virtual “see-which-way-the-tweets-blow-the-truck” kind of spontaneity, by the end of the nearly two-month tour nearly half of the sweet stops were those requested by the 3,000 local followers the tour handle @benjerrytruck amassed. Responses to outgoing tweets yielded anywhere from five to 100 responses. Although followers will still be able to get the latest scoop through Twitter and view images of the happy samplers on Flickr, the next tour is aimed Boston, where stops will be announced primarily via Facebook.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Online Game Features Upscale Brands To Give Users A Virtual Retail Fix (BrandWeek)
Posted: 09/02/2010
Popsugar's new online game, "Retail Therapy", merges social gaming with e-commerce to give users an insanely addictive fashion fix. Available on Facebook and at Playretailtherapy.com, the game can be played for free or users can purchase virtual goods priced from $1 to $100. Here's how the fashion-forward game works: players fill empty store shelves with virtual goodies from premier labels like Banana Republic, Barneys New York, Gap and Juicy Couture. Sponsors like Diane von Furstenberg and Topshop have even opted to launch virtual stores in which users can purchase products. Players can also make the leap into any of the retailers' sites to fill their shopping carts with real merchandise. Friends can visit other friends' shops or create unique looks to share among their networks. By modeling aspects of the game after the wildly popular Farmville, CEO Brian Sugar "believes that Retail Therapy can entice users to open up their wallets . . . to purchase virtual goods by promising competitive advantages and overall better game play."
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic: Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Kitty Crowdsourcing? New Service Helps Businesses Collect And Rank Innovative Ideas (Fast Company)
Posted: 09/02/2010
When Princeton sociology professor Matthew Salganik came across KittenWars.com, he knew he found a valuable model for his own crowdsourcing website, All Our Ideas, which merges sociology and computer science techniques to enable organizations to collect ideas and rank them more effectively. A virtual idea factory, the service allows users to launch their own question and answer websites. If neither answer presented is acceptable to visitors, they can simply add their new ideas to the mix. Those new ideas then get filtered into the voting pool. Salganik explains, “If you ask for suggestions, especially online, you may get thousands of ideas that can take weeks to sort through. On the other hand, if you use a survey with preset questions and answers, you can get lots of data but few new ideas." The service is already gaining traction with organizations like Princeton’s class of 2008 student government, which used the tool to pinpoint the most pressing issues on undergrads minds.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
New Old Spice Campaign Aims To Go Viral With A Little Mystery (Fast Company)
Posted: 08/19/2010
Ad firm Wieden+Kennedy has taken a successful “Old” television ad concept viral. Old Spice, owned by Procter and Gamble, is leveraging the appeal of its TV spot star, Isaiah Mustafa, by taping 30-second YouTube videos in response to Twitter feeds. The team behind the campaign works in conjunction with technology to scan responses and identify the social influence of those responders to choose messages that will create a wow factor and perpetuate themselves throughout “virally-relevant” communities. Wieden's global interactive creative director Iain Tait asserts that rather than using a dedicated proprietary site, the campaign gets maximum exposure on YouTube, especially since the current spots are being watched and re-tweeted extensively. The ability of embedded material on YouTube to be liked, shared, favored and dispersed quickly factored into the decision for which social medium to use. Heeding the nature of the ‘want it new, want it now” internet culture, the company strives to produce the video responses in real time to the keep the content fresh, relevant to the brand and newsworthy. The content goes successfully beyond pure entertainment value to make “the connection between the content, the product and the experience of the product.”
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Content Strategy,  Creative & Design,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Pulling Klout: Website Helps Users Measure Their Social Influence (CNN Money)
Posted: 08/19/2010
Users can now discover their social “Klout” by numerical rank by inputting their Twitter name into Klout.com. The San Francisco-based social media start-up is shoring up its position to become the online standard for measuring social impact by partnering with Virgin America to offer a hand-picked group of “influencers” a free flight from San Francisco or Los Angeles to Virgin America's newest destination, Toronto. Here’s how the new type of marketing campaigns (implemented by brands like Starbucks and Cover Girl) work: (1) Users accept product offers; (2) In return, Klout requests for disclosure of the freebie; (3) Klout measures some two dozen variables, including the number of times their comments are retweeted, the size of their Twitter audience, and the influence of those followers, to come up with a numerical value and ranking on a 0-to-100 scale.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
What's In A Name? The Term Cloud Computing Breathes New Life Into An Existing Technology (Forbes)
Posted: 08/05/2010
In an industry where fancy buzzwords abound, "cloud computing" really signifies more of a generational evolution than a new technology. While there may be some hype related to doing business "in the cloud," on-demand, internet-based computing leverages the same technology companies like Google and Amazon pioneered and perfected through trial and error. Now, companies can access even more highly evolved programs like Google App Engine and Apache Hadoop - as well as a steadily increasing list of other options - to write their own data center infrastructure applications. In a virtual world where complete computer security is always somewhat questionable, the flexible and economical strengths of cloud computing remains very attractive to corporate computing operations. The end-goal is to partner with trustworthy, security-focused services that respond to and eliminate threats as they are exposed.
Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business
Following The Trends: Internet Levels Playing Field For Small Businesses (BtoB Online)
Posted: 08/05/2010
Thanks to the Internet, small companies having difficulty competing with large companies for customers are in luck. Despite the fact that search query results are crowded, small business owners can take steps to maximize their online presence via search and social media by following a few simple tips. For instance, by updating business listings or creating new ones for companies and choosing social media networks wisely, marketers can integrate the increasingly important localization of their product or company. Becoming “vertical” is also key, since doing so means companies participate in many social sites, as is getting one-to-one with customers by paying specific attention to exactly what products they prefer.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Content Strategy,  Experience & Interaction
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Peer Groups & Communities
Fuel Your Facebook Fan Page In 4 Easy Steps (Ecommerce Times)
Posted: 07/22/2010
Marketers may successfully be racking up the fan numbers on their Facebook Fan Pages, but they are ultimately failing to establish long-term relationships with customers in the process. Companies shouldn’t lose hope, however, because the code to successfully reaping rewards on Facebook lies in four critical steps. According to an E-Commerce News article, in order to retain customers, marketers need to “1) develop a strategy; 2) create a solid presence; 3) motivate [their] fans to take action; and 4) use Facebook to amplify other campaigns, promotions and marketing activities.” Committing to the management of their Facebook walls after business hours, considering brand contribution cadence, and asking if they are doing what their fans want will also aide companies in amping up their fan totals.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Content Strategy,  Experience & Interaction,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: Crowdsourcing Provides Answers For Online Marketers (Marketing Vox)
Posted: 07/22/2010
For marketers looking for solutions to a plethora of problems, crowdsourcing could be the answer. Marketers gain key insight while spending minimal dollars to survey the expertise of entire online communities. Still, crowdsourcing is not without limitations. Primarily, crowdsourcing is dogged by knowing how to separate the great ideas from the bad ones. To illustrate, Jez Frampton, CEO of Interbrand, tells of a creative director who tried crowdsourcing for a campaign and within 48 hours received hundreds of ideas, leaving him with the even bigger problem of how to sift through the crowd’s offerings. (via Forbes). Marketers should not be deterred, as crowdsourcing has a number of advantages, including web usability testing sites like UserTesting.com and Feedback Army, where companies post questions about their websites and testers choose which questions to answer.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Content Strategy,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
Uplift Modeling: The Upside to Marketing (Ecommerce Times)
Posted: 07/08/2010
The key to spending a lot less on marketing while receiving better sales results may be uplift modeling. Specific customers have specific wants and needs; uplift modeling uses intelligent predictive analysis to target relevant needs specific to certain customers. Uplift divides customers into segments, allowing companies to focus solely on the “Persuadables”- customers likely to respond to being contacted through marketing outreach tactics and begin or renew their purchasing as a result. Time and money isn’t wasted on “Sure Thing”, “Lost Cause”, and “Sleeping Dog” customers- those who always buy, never buy or just don’t want to be bothered. Uplift modeling saves valuable company time and money, while avoiding the negativity associated with uninterested customers.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business
Procter & Gamble Seeks E-Commerce Innovation (Internet Retailer)
Posted: 07/08/2010
Consumer favorites manufactured by Procter & Gamble are now even more available. P&G’s new retail web site offers 52 products (with more coming) for consumer purchase, including Tide detergent, Oral-B toothbrushes, and Gillette razors. Though P&G made $76.7 billion in sales in 2009, increasing those sales is not the Web site’s main goal. According to the manufacturer, the site will provide a “living learning lab for developing e-commerce innovation.” Data gathered about P&G’s online consumers will provide a better understanding of various shopping behaviors and preferences. “As big and influential as Procter & Gamble is, there is no doubt this is a sign of a broad trend with consumer goods manufacturers,” says Jim Okamura, senior partner with consulting firm J.C. Williams Group.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Consumer
Encouraging Online Consumers To Trade Caution For Confidence (Practical eCommerce)
Posted: 06/17/2010
Cautious “digital window shopping” may be a thing of the past thanks to a revelation by McAfee Secure. According to McAfee, the lapse between online consumers placing items in virtual shopping carts and completing purchases is nearly two days. Implementing a few cost, service, and security tips such as retailers’ use of coupons, size-based shipping discounts on orders, and price guarantees can help retail websites attract more confident consumers. Accepting multiple forms of payment, including product data links on website checkout pages, encrypting transactions, displaying “trust marks” showing website safety and reliability, and maintaining an organized, well-designed site will all help ensure both loyal consumers and timely transactions.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Content Strategy,  Creative & Design,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
Puzzling Together Business Data: Salesforce.com Buys Jigsaw (CRM Daily)
Posted: 06/17/2010
Salesforce.com’s purchase of contact provider Jigsaw makes it even easier to access, create, and even clean up contact information for businesses all over the globe. Salesforce.com chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff, said it will be “as easy as Wikipedia to source data, as easy as iTunes to buy data, and as easy as Facebook to stay updated as the data changes.” Boasting a 1.2 million member count and a database with 21 million professionals working at 4 million companies, Jigsaw describes its role as “collecting, refining, managing, protecting, and organizing the global list of people in business – so you don’t have to.” Through the use of Jigsaw’s cloud platform, new applications can also be created by software vendors to better use business contact information.
Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Experience & Interaction
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business
Mastercard Campaign Praises Hockey’s “Unsung Heroes” (Strategy Magazine)
Posted: 06/09/2010
“Unsung heroes” are typically the faces behind the scenes, eschewing the limelight to help launch others to the top spot. In an unexpected turn, Mastercard’s new campaign casts new light on the "unsung heroes" of the hockey world. In support of its title sponsorship of the 2010 MasterCard Memorial World Cup, MasterCard’s saucy, mockumentary-style campaign features live-action vignettes that pit inanimate objects against each other to battle it out alongside real athletes. The digital campaign celebrates mundane objects like alarm clocks, cups of coffee, garage doors, dumbbells, slush and shock absorbers, whose efforts are often overlooked in the hockey player’s quest to meet challenges. Designed to be dynamic, memorable and cost-effective, the campaign extends the creative theme with trading cards featuring each item and rich media ads on TSN.ca, Sportsnet.ca, CHL.ca and NHL.com, as well as the major Canadian portals that drive visitors to the Mastercard.ca site to vote on their favorite videos. Mastercard will run the "Unsung Heroes" campaign until the end of the Memorial Cup on May 23.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic: Content Strategy,  Creative & Design,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer
If At First You Don’t Succeed: Give It Another Go (Ecommerce Times)
Posted: 05/27/2010
A new Google feature is giving advertisers another go at customers they may have baited, but didn’t fully hook with a purchase. Tested in beta last year, the “remarketing” feature is now available throughout the Google Content Network (GCN), including on YouTube. Although remarketing is not a novel idea, it does help marketers limber up their campaigns. The feature can be tied into search campaigns, leveraged with targeted messages across different Web pages or run simultaneously with other remarketing campaigns. Here’s how it works: companies drive traffic to their Web site via search ads and then retarget those same customers with customized ads as they browse other sites across the GCN. Remarketing is an often underutilized yet successful tactic – only 31 percent of marketers surveyed by Advertise.com and the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) have tried it yet 53.1 percent of those enjoyed great success with it.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Business Intelligence,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer
Brand Matters: Manufacturers Assert Brand Authority Online (CRM Daily)
Posted: 05/27/2010
Heavy hitting consumer brands like Levi Strauss, Procter & Gamble, Mattel and Columbia Sportswear have set their sites on the internet to increase direct sales and connect with consumers. Direct online retail sales by consumer-brand manufacturers skyrocketed nearly 13 percent to $487.6 million in 2009. The online offensive can be attributed to one part private-label, one part recession. The availability of lower-priced, private-label goods made up 22 percent of consumer-packaged goods retailed in 2009, while the global recession has rallied more budget-hunting comparison shoppers online. Online sales are expected to double from 6 to 12 percent ($211.7 billion) of the total retail market by 2012. Nearly 66 percent of U.S. shoppers surveyed said they would purchase the same amount or more on goods over the coming year as they had over the past year at the manufacturer’s Web sites they had visited.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
Stay Out Front With Smart Mobile Marketing Tactics (Marketing Vox)
Posted: 05/13/2010
You know the mobile marketing drill: Offer local coupons. Allow customers to pay for purchases directly from their phones. Inject with a little vavavavoom and you’ve got a competitive mobile marketing package. In light of the ever-changing mobile technology landscape –which means competitors are always on the hunt for bigger, better, more creative tactics – it makes good sense to consider adding these four tips to your mobile marketing toolbox: 1. Matt Silk, SVP of Waterfall Mobile recommends including a store locator in your mobile plan; 2. When used like direct mail or email, mobile subscriptions lists can help you to target your subscribers on-the-go; 3. Build applications and then market them strategically. Paul Reddick, CEO of Handmark at MoCoNews, recommends brands to "distribute them from their own Web sites or other traditional media outlets;” and 4. Forget about the apps altogether and concentrate your efforts on building a mobile Web site, which may be the smartest tactic of all, according to Practical E-Commerce.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Telecommunications
Topic: Content Strategy,  Creative & Design,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business
Developers Build Native Mobile Web Applications With Titanium 1.0 (Info World)
Posted: 04/29/2010
Appcelerator recently released Titanium 1.0, a cross-platform development system for mobile and desktop applications. The open source system is compatible with JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby, which eliminates the need for mobile application builders to learn the Objective-C language for iPhone or Google's Java language for Android systems. A translator enables building mobile and desktop applications that will run natively on different systems. The system supports development for PCs, Macintosh, and Linux while mobile platforms include Apple iPhone and Google Android. Plans include Research In Motion Blackberry support within the year. Scott Schwarzhoff, vice president of marketing for Appcelerator attributes Titanium’s competitive advantage over other cross-platform development frameworks to its ability to “offer native performance as well as native UI (user interface) and access to device capabilities.” Eliminating the barrier of learning Objective-C makes Titanium highly attractive to developers. Appcelerator will also develop a version of Titanium for Apple's new iPad.
Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,  Telecommunications
Topic: Creative & Design,  Experience & Interaction,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer
Zappos Implements “Video Experience” (CIO Magazine)
Posted: 04/15/2010
Zappos recently launched interactive videos detailing Nike products, one of the shoe and clothing company’s largest brands. Initiated from customer queries that were best addressed visually, Zappos used software from Overlay.tv to link videos about various Nike items to its supply-chain system. Among the perks: shoppers can click on featured items to view any current promotions and find out if the product is available in stock. Customers can post video links on Facebook, upload their own videos to Zappos.com and post comments. Zappos objective is not necessarily the bottom line, but it will track stats on customer click-thrus and purchases. "The goal is to create a more pleasurable experience on our site," Kalma says. "The general philosophy is that will lead to purchases."
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Creative & Design,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Mastering The Whole Customer Experience (.net)
Posted: 04/15/2010
In a recent interview, Oliver Lindberg caught up with Paul Dawson, EMC Conchango’s experience director, to discuss the company’s methodology. EMC Conchango concentrates on what it calls “total experience design,” taking a comprehensive look at the customer journey from beginning to end, and all the points in between. EMC Conchango operates as the European arm of EMC Consulting, allowing it to leverage its global reach and cast a wider net to capture more global business. Based on fact, the experience planning process incorporates Agile methodology, regularly released software and eye tracking to analyze how people interact with the content of a page. The agency is also experimenting with electroencephalograms that are literally wired to reveal what consumer’s brains are thinking and feeling. The agency also partners with Microsoft to adopt new user-facing technology to better understand customer behavior and devise ways to prolong consumer interactions with brands and products.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Content Strategy,  Creative & Design,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global,  Europe
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer
Rice University Study: Facebook Fan Pages Excel at Niche Marketing (ClickZ)
Posted: 04/01/2010
The results are in for Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business study to determine how creating a presence on Facebook impacts businesses. The study incited an article in the March issue of the Harvard Business Review, with the study authors calling the Facebook page a qualified success for niche marketing. Rice professors collaborated with social media virgin Dessert Gallery, a local bakery and café chain in Houston. The study revealed fan pages have impact; however, mostly when targeting niche groups. First, after taking a preliminary survey, 75 out of 700 loyal customers accepted the invitation to fan Dessert Gallery’s Facebook page. Three months later, respondents completed another survey that revealed Facebook had a significant impact on their interaction with the brand. The bakery’s fans stopped by the cafe 20% more than non-fans, spending 33% more. The fan page also seemed to cultivate brand affection and loyalty.
Industry: Retail & Products
Topic: Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
From Buzz to Buy: Social Commerce and Word-of-Mouth Marketing (ClickZ)
Posted: 04/01/2010
There’s a new buzz in town: social commerce skilfully links customers to customers online and then bridges them into commercial connections... driving customers to transition from "buzz" to "buy." The ultimate goal for delivering a meaningful and measurable social commerce program is to integrate all marketing activities into one streamlined campaign, blending social programs like Facebook, Twitter and company blogs with more traditional programs like in-store, direct marketing and mobile advertising. Building a social commerce program entails the following: (1) give your customers a venue for creating user-generated content; (2) expand your customer-voice from the outside-in and (3) leverage customer feedback in all your marketing initiatives. The challenge then is to deliver meaningful products and services that meet your customers’ needs.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Content Strategy,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Sears Innovates with Multichannel Strategy (Chief Marketer)
Posted: 03/18/2010
Chief Marketer recently spoke with Sears' senior vice president online Imran Jooma to unravel the success behind the brand Sears Holdings Corp’s (Sears and Kmart) aggressive approach to bring merchandise and marketing to online communities (MySears.com) and mobile commerce (Sears2Go). The new campaign, “ShopYourWay”, is a multichannel strategy with new initiatives including Marketplace at Sears.com, which gives online shoppers the opportunity to locate and purchase products from outside retailers. Jooma credits Sears with having a robust fan community at MySears.com, which allows the company to pinpoint and deliver additional categories of interest. To maintain ease-of-use and minimize cumbersome navigation, Sears launched Quick View and ClickSee, which gives customers a quick visual of related and compatible products. The company is in-touch with customer feedback to improve both in-store and online shopping experiences, and recently added an iPhone app to its Sears2Go mobile shopping initiative.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
On-the-Go with Target’s Mobile Gift Cards (Promo Magazine)
Posted: 03/18/2010
Now, with its mobile gift card option, Target, the second-largest U.S. discount chain, makes paying with plastic old school. The retailer is letting customers use mobile phones to redeem gift cards as more consumers use phones with Internet access. Shoppers simply save the account numbers for their Target GiftCards to a PIN-protected area at either online or at the retailer's mobile-optimized site. Customers access the mobile site on their phones, enter the login and PIN for the card and complete the purchase when the cashier scans the unique 2D barcode on the display screen into Target’s P-O-S system, which has been outfitted across all 1740 Target stores nation wide. Customers can also access the mobile site to view merchandise, check product availability, manage gift registries and find locations, among other things. Other retailers like Starbucks and 7-Eleven are testing similar barcode technology to incorporate into their mobile business strategies.
Industry: Retail & Products
Topic: E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Technology Implementation
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Consumer
Programming With Screen Shots, Not Just Code (Dr. Dobbs)
Posted: 03/04/2010
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new system that allows one to program with screenshots. For more than three decades, the graphical user interface (GUI) has dominated computer programing, but its underlying reliance on code manipulation means it’s still relatively labor intensive for computer programmers to customize or build programs. The new system, Sikuli, enables programmers to develop programs using GUI screen shots. While it requires some knowledge of Python, the system enables even casual users to create new programs without mastering complex programming language. The user simply draws a box around the desired content, captures the screen shot and then places it appropriately into the Python code. The research team plans to present a paper entitled GUI Testing Using Computer Vision at CHI, the premier conference on human-computer interactions, where they will describe new applications of Sikuli aimed at large software development projects, both for programmers and non-programmers.
Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Experience & Interaction,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer
Tapping Into Customer Life Cycle Via Emails (BtoB Online)
Posted: 03/04/2010
Experian Marketing Services’ “The Remarketing Report” recently reported significant findings regarding the efficacy marketers experience when they send targeted emails to their customers based on where they are at in the sales cycle. From responding to new customer sign ups to bringing them back from the brink of abandoning their shopping carts, marketers that send emails when a targeted event occurs expereince as much as double the open rates and quadruple the click-through rates when compared to other email campaigns. Such campaigns not only influence consumer purchasing habits through cross-sells and up-sells, they also help build customer loyalty. The report clearly demonstrates that, when handled with care, marketers benefit from building campaigns around your visitors’ and customers’ life cycle events.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
FranchiseOpportunities.com Increases Own Opportunities (BtoB Online)
Posted: 02/18/2010
In an effort to increase its leads in finding potential franchise owners, FranchiseOpportunities.com changed its usual e-mail marketing tactics. Rather than sending the standard monthly e-mail newsletter highlighting six or seven franchises to all 100,000 of its prospects, the company now sends out targeted e-blasts. These e-blasts, which are sent to specific, smaller groups of prospects, highlight a single franchise (based on prospects’ industry, geographic location, available liquid capital, and net investment capabilities), and provide a direct link to the franchise owner’s page. E-blast copy is also more action-oriented. “It’s all about semantics—taking an active voice that uses language our prospects use,” said Garth Snider, president of FranchiseOpportunites.com. An increase in leads resulted. “From 2008 to 2009 we have increased the number of leads coming from e-mail campaigns by 50% to 75%,” Snider said.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic: Content Strategy,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business
Market Intelligence the Smartphone Way (CRM Daily)
Posted: 02/04/2010
Context-aware software tries to connect the real world with the vast stores of information about places in a virtual world: the Internet. The technology channels the knowledge amassed to provide useful tools to the smartphone user. Consumers gain more control over their buying experiences and save time when they purchase from vendors who have critical insight into their shopping habits. The software’s diverse industry applications include retail, business management, hospitality, and food and beverage. Research firm Gartner projects the market for this technology will grow to $12 billion by 2012, with Google standing in prime position to address and profit from the new wave of demand. Other companies that stand to benefit are Nokia, Cisco Systems, Avaya, large telcos like China Telecom or potentially even social networks such as Facebook, Gartner says.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,  Telecommunications
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Apple and Facebook Key Influencers in New Tech Cycle (eWeek)
Posted: 02/04/2010
Apple and Facebook have literally changed the face of mobile internet. With mobile internet users projected to double by 2013, it’s easy to see a "mobile Internet cycle" emerging, a new cycle detailed in Morgan Stanley's "The Mobile Internet Report." Cited as the fifth computing cycle in five decades, the report claims this one is faster and bigger with a wider global net than previous cycles. While Apple, Google and Amazon.com lead the pack, the report suggests that the key influencers from previous cycles won’t necessarily be given the keys to this new kingdom. The analyst team, headed by Mary Meeker, attributes the high level of anticipation for mobile users to five of the most promising IP-based products and services: social networking, 3G network adoption, video, Voice over IP and "impressive mobile devices."
Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,  Telecommunications
Topic: E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global,  North America,  Asia Pacific
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer,  Peer Groups & Communities
Opening the Line of Communication with Feedback-Form Analytics (Electronic Commerce Guide)
Posted: 02/04/2010
We’ve all heard of shopping cart abandonment. Until now, companies have had no way of knowing if this so-called digital window shopper’s syndrome was due to Web glitches or other, more personal, reasons. Kampyle is changing that by offering on-demand feedback-form analytics so companies can improve their turnover rates by learning more about their customers. The customizable forms promote open communication between customer and company by directly asking customers relevant questions to reveal why they chose not follow through with their purchases. The software also features “smart pop-ups” that can be personalized to appear when the visitor clicks off the site. Easy to implement, companies can have the service converting clicks into sales in as little as five minutes.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Creative & Design,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business
eBags’ Sales Spike Due To More Targeted Advertising (Internet Retailer)
Posted: 01/21/2010
Thanks to revved up sales starting Cyber Monday, reasonable product prices and some savvy marketing, eBags reported a 40.3% increase in holiday traffic over 2008. eBags, a leading online retailer of bags and accessories, also reported a 32% increase in sales, enjoying four of its top five best-selling days in its 10-year history. Peter Cobb, co-founder and senior vice president of marketing, attributes the boon to eliminating inefficient keyword spending and launching personalized e-mail marketing campaigns. Based on shoppers’ previous purchases, eBags offered products its customers really cared about, resulting in a 25% increase in email returns. The online retailer ramped up the campaign by establishing firm targets for sales resulting from particular keywords, resulting in a 45% increase.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
On-Demand Software Adds Flexibility to Direct Digital Marketers (Ecommerce Times)
Posted: 01/21/2010
The robustness of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products positions them to effectively tackle emerging trends in direct digital marketing. The secret to their success? They share the same “it” factor ideals that often boost the best new businesses to the top of the rung: they are cost-effective, easy to implement and inherently scalable. On-demand products must seamlessly integrate between the three primary channels of direct digital marketing–email, mobile and Web–meaning developers must create software that is simultaneously heightened in usability and simple to implement. The bottom line is that the functionality and flexibility of SaaS and universal profile management systems enhance direct digital marketers’ own flexibility and success in their drive to leverage customer information and boost sales.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence,  Content Strategy,  E-Commerce,  Marketing Communications,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer
U.S. Hispanics Prime Target for Internet and Mobile Advertisers (Marketing Vox)
Posted: 01/06/2010
The Hispanic online demographic is growing more than twice as fast as the overall national online population. Add to the equation that 88% of Hispanics consume content from their mobile phones, and the environment grows even riper for advertisers to target a population just shy of 50 million. Mobile initiatives from Yahoo include mobile search, US and global news in Spanish, and email and social networking connections, among others while those via internet from Orange Advertising Network include site-specific placements, customized branded entertainment, and direct-response campaigns. Mobile advertisers including HBO, Harley-Davidson, Rite Aid, Arby's and Cheetos have sent opt-in offers and ads to Hispanic users through HipCricket's Hispanic Mobile Marketing Network, which projects that Hispanic buying power will exceed $1 trillion in the next year.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Retail & Products,  Telecommunications
Topic: Content Strategy,  Creative & Design,  E-Commerce,  Experience & Interaction,  Marketing Communications
Region: North America,  South-Central America
Audience: Business to Business,  Business to Consumer
Giving Voice to Smartphones’ Other Applications (Marketing Vox)
Posted: 01/06/2010
The advent of smartphones has virtually made it obsolete to use mobile phones solely as phones. Current consumer uses of smartphones are exploding for non-voice communications like connecting to the internet, emailing and text messaging. Mobile Market View recently revealed a growing class of "heavy users" of non-voice communications. One example MarketingCharts wrote about was the percentage of users making more than 10 mobile internet accesses per week. The percentage continues to rise and currently represents more than one-fifth of all mobile users. This rise blows the door open for mobile advertising based on the exponential increase of commerical searches, particularly for local products. "Between waves one and three of Mobile Market View, consumers have basically doubled their use of the mobile platform for non-voice communications," said Rick Ducey, chief strategy officer, BIA/Kelsey.
Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,  Telecommunications
Topic: Business Intelligence,  E-Commerce,  Marketing Communications
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business
The Name Game: The Web Becomes Truly Worldwide (BBC Business News)
Posted: 12/17/2009
Until now, Web addresses for other countries have only been written using the English language. Thanks to internet regulator Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the Web just became more accessible by allowing countries to request new internationalized domain names in their own languages, including non-latin languages and scripts like Chinese. "The IDN [International Domain Names] program will encompass close to one hundred thousand characters, opening up the internet to billions of potential users around the globe," said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of Icann. Approved in June 2008 and expected to go live in 2010, the months in between were dedicated to working out kinks in the translation system.
Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Experience & Interaction,  Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer
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