The Official blog of Dark Matter, Inc.

From: By Rimma Kats, Mobile Marketer, April 15, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO – During a mobile session at ad:tech, a Coca-Cola executive said that mobile needs to be integrated organically into marketing campaigns to drive innovation and consumer experiences.

The executive shared best practices and examples of creative campaigns that have been executed to engage consumers on their mobile devices. The panel was moderated by Jeff Crowe, partner of Norwest Venture Partners, San Francisco.

“We’re all about a Coke in one hand and a phone in another,” said Tony Francis, a member of the global connections team and responsible for the strategic direction and integration of mobile within marketing communications at The Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta. “Mobile is event driven, out of home and connects the offline to the online world.

“In terms of live events we do see higher participation,” he said. “Consumers really want to interact with our brands and really integrate compelling experiences into this.”

Other panelists included, Vijay Pullur, founder and CEO of SocialTwist, Mountain View, CA, Michael McDowell, manager of shopper marketing at Sara Lee, Downers Grove, IL, Dorrian Porter, founder and CEO of Mozes, Palo Alto, Brad Klaus, cofounder/CEO of Extole, San Francisco, and Michael Ceorgoff, director of partner marketing at redbox, Oakbrook Terrace, IL.

Case study
Coca-Cola ran a mobile campaign during the Essence Music Festival.

The three-day festival featured seminars and live music performances by speakers and artists in the African American community.

There were more than 40,000 attendees. Coca-Cola was a presenting sponsor at the event and was featured in a mainstage moment.

During the show, attendees were encouraged to text the keyword CELEBRATE then space followed by their first and last name to the short code 66937.

The company was giving away tickets to its BBQ event to the first 500 entries, as well as four VIP passes.

The company found that in 30 seconds, 3,145 people pulled out their phones for a chance to win.

Twenty percent of users that engaged opted in for an ongoing connection with the brand and 16 percent of the audience engaged with Coca-Cola digitally at the concert more than once.

“Roughly 16 percent of attendees participated and one in five opted in for an ongoing connection with the brand as part of Coca-Cola’s database connection to build their relationship with their customers,” Mozes’ Mr. Porter said.

“We learned that mobile worked really well around passionate people at live events,” he said.

Mobile phenomenon
According to Coca-Cola’s Mr. Francis, the company sees the value of mobile, especially since it is a highly personalized device.

“The mobile phone is a phenomenon,” Mr. Francis said. “It’s the new remote control of consumer’s lives.

“Mobile helps gets recruitment for us,” he said. “It gets people drinking our product, but only if we’re doing it right.”

“It’s important to drive innovation through mobile with digital vending, mobile wallets, mobile vaults and consumer experiences.”

Mobile technologies are changing life as millions of Africans know it. And it’s all for the better, according to a new AFP report, which highlights how free texts from South Africa’s largest HIV treatment site “are part of a push in Africa to boost health.”

Such efforts target Africa’s 624 million mobile phone subscribers, many of whom require timely medical care and treatments.

“I check my cellphone all the time — I think that’s why it [the drug regimen] is working so well,” one patient tells AFP. As it now stands, roughly 10,000 people have signed up for the txtAlert reminders, which have proven instrumental in helping treat the sick on a consistent, effective basis.

Thanks to the txtAlert reminders, missed appointments have tapered off drastically, down to 4% from 15% during the last four years.

mHealth is in the process of revolutionizing Africa, which is “poor in landlines and hospital beds but rich in cellphones.”

Whether for humanitarian or financial interest, mHealth companies are targeting African nations at a rapid pace. In Africa, the present (but still climbing) value of the mHealth sector is estimated at $60 billion.

“The opportunities for mHealth in Africa are nearly limitless. The continent carries a disproportionate share of the world’s disease burden, and some of the lowest per capita doctor to patient ratios,” says Adele Waugaman, who manages a partnership between the UN Foundation and Vodafone.

“Mobile phones are now being looked to as a tool to help overcome some of these entrenched global health challenges,” Waugaman concluded.

By Giselle Tsirulnik at Mobile Marketer

QR codes are quite popular nowadays, with a lot of large brands incorporating the technology into existing marketing collateral to increase engagement. But, adding an SMS call to action to existing media can also connect consumers to richer experiences, so is there really a need for QR codes?

Both QR codes and SMS can be used to connect consumers to interactive content such as Web sites, video, pictures, apps and other multimedia. The difference is that consumers do not need to download apps to respond to SMS call to actions, like they do with bar codes.

“A subsidiary of Toyota created quick response codes in 1999 for tracking parts on assembly lines,” said Tim Miller, president of Sumotext, Little Rock, AR. “They represented a major advancement over traditional bar codes because they held more data, readers could capture the data at 360-degree angles, and the data could be decoded at higher speeds.

“But for marketers, QR codes just don’t make sense to me,” he said. “If you want to deliver content to a mobile device or link consumers to Web sites, apps, or multimedia, SMS via short codes can do the same thing in a fraction of the time – without a smartphone, camera, or installed reader.

“You can also get a compliant opt-in in the process.”

SMS’ familiarity
A study by ABI Research finds that consumers worldwide will send more than 7 trillion text messages in 2011, indicating that SMS is the the key communication tool of the modern era.

ABI’s data shows that consumers are increasingly comfortable communicating via SMS. According to Informa, 2010 SMS traffic in the United States was 1.1 trillion messages.

Ninety percent of the U.S. population sends and recieves text messages, according to Nielsen. With a current population of about 310,995,668, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, that means that approximately 279,896,101 send and recieve SMS messages.

Comparatively speaking, mobile bar code scanning is growing at a very rapid pace, but is only now starting to move out of the early-adopter stage, according to the ScanLife Mobile Bar Code Trend Report released in January.

Scanbuy claims that only 25-30 million consumers in the United States are scanning bar codes, representing a very large growth year over year.

“SMS has distinct advantages because of its reach, use by mobile subscribers of just about all ages, and standardization,” said Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer of Hipcricket, Kirkland, WA. “When you create an SMS call to action, you don’t need to worry whether your target has an interest in QR codes, not to mention an app to engage with the image.”

What’s even more confusing is that Microsoft Tags, for example, can only be read by Microsoft Tag readers, so there is a lack of standardization in the space.

That means that consumers need multiple readers, depending on which codes they are scanning. It also means they need to figure out which app to open and when.

“Even if every brand published the same code format and every phone came installed with the same reader, I think consumers would still struggle to justify the utility of QR codes,” Sumotext’s Mr. Miller said.

“Consumers phones are cluttered with competing apps and all it takes is one frustrating experience trying to find the reader or take a picture of the code and many consumers won’t ever try it again,” he said.

“From the publisher’s perspective, you also have to consider how big these images have to be, how ugly they are, and all the extra space required for download instructions – not to mention the static nature of the URL that is likely embedded in the image. Does anyone really want to call their Web developer every time they need to end or edit a QR campaign printed in a magazine?”

Attractiveness of QR codes
Keeping all of this in mind, what then, is the attractiveness of QR codes to brands?

According to Mr. Hasen, QR codes do have their benefits.

A campaign using QR codes can often be implemented faster by brands new to mobile because they do not have to wait for a short code to be obtained and provisioned by all the carriers.

Another perceived advantage is that QR codes are cool and fit a brand’s personality.

But when it comes to choosing one or the other – SMS or QR codes – Mr. Hasen suggests taking an agnostic approach.

“As marketers, we should be agnostic when it comes to mobile tactics as long as we succeed in our goals of engagement that leads to trial, sales and loyalty,” Mr. Hasen said. “Many of Hipcricket clients, including Macy’s, are wisely choosing to provide consumers with multiple ways to engage.

“We are seeing this now in the Macy’s aisles in the Backstage Pass program that provides fashion tips, product information and more,” he said. “Macy’s is inclusive, even providing a URL at the point of sale for those who don’t wish to interact via mobile.”

At the end of the day it is about turning what used to be passive activities into interactive ones, per Mr. Hasen.

That means that regardless of whether it is a QR code, an SMS-to-short code or both, some sort of mobile call to action needs to be included in traditional media and other communications vehicles like point of sale materials to better engage consumers and drive them to purchase.

“QR codes have a buzz about them and are included in most conversations Hipcricket has with its clients and new business prospects,” Mr. Hasen said. “But for many quick service restaurants and other brands, SMS call to actions remain an indispensible part of the marketing mix.

“And SMS calls to action are becoming more and more commonplace,” he said.

Consumers prefer codes?
Mike Wehrs, CEO of Scanbuy, New York, said there are a number of reasons why the industry is seeing both large brands and thousands of small businesses embracing codes so quickly.

The mobile device can offer so much more than even a year ago, and codes can easily launch literally any action available – including SMS.

Marketers want to show more dynamic content like video and social networking which can also be adjusted in real time based on deeper analytics like location or handset type.

“The bar code is a more open and democratic solution that does not require a huge amount of investment or time to market,” Mr. Wehrs said. “Codes are visually more obvious than SMS so they are really turning into an icon which shows people there is something more here.

“A code converts anything into a ‘get more’ button,” he said.

But, one of the most important factors why code scanning is moving so quickly is user adoption.

Mr. Wehrs said people use texting for communication purposes because it is easy, but when it comes to engaging with a brand, people would rather scan a code than use SMS.

“It’s just that much easier to scan a code and launch really compelling content in one click than typing a short code, waiting for a response and then clicking for content,” Mr. Wehrs said. “Plus, let’s be honest, it’s pretty rewarding to scan a code to see where it goes in two seconds.

“We have actually run campaigns in the U.S. and abroad with both an SMS and a 2D code option, and we see more scans than texts,” he said. ” In fact, in the four campaigns that have offered both options, all of them saw more scans than texts.”