Mobile: Bundled not Bought

With the Google Admob rumpus of 2009, we all are looking to the positive fallout in 2010. Maybe it would be over simplistic or apologetic to say that up until the $750M drop we were all just building network and waiting. Now, we need to drive up the CPMs.

How do we go about this? With many publishers bundling the mobile buy for “free” with a more robust online commitment, it is difficult to explain to the buyer the unique and powerful value of the mobile CPM.

Speak to any planner and they will tell you the following things about mobile inventory buying:
• For a small wedge of the digital buy, it is “mighty hard to buy”
• The CPM “seems too high for the value add”
• To drive an integrated buy with post-click strategy, there are “too many moving parts.”

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has work hard to demystify the buy by publishing a Mobile Buyer Guide, which holds the media planner hand as they extend their digital buy to mobile. However, no guide will drive significant dollars into mobile until the mobile buy is not an also-ran to the online buy and commands a respectable CPM in its own right.

http://www.gomonews.com/mobile-bundled-not-bought

Growth of mobile commerce inevitable in 2010

“In nine years of agency pizza lunches, industry panels and client presentations, the pitch was always mobile engagement,” said Gary Schwartz, president of Impact Mobile. “For every pizza slice they ate we made them listen to the mantra: ‘Mobile can activate your traditional media. Run a mobile campaign.’

“With the recession exiting, companies that for years branded themselves as “mobile marketing agencies” or “mobile marketing technology shops” have suddenly rebranded their wares as mobile commerce,” he said. “The focus has become close-loop programs that can end in some form of conversion. Suddenly we are talking about transaction and point-of-sale.

“The market has matured (God bless it) into acquisition and conversion: discover the mobile customer, do something with them that will end in a transaction of some kind: Point-of-sale integration, m-commerce, on-board credit chips, m-couponing, PIN-on-receipt.”

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/growth-of-mobile-commerce-inevitable-in-2010/

What Are the Top Retail Trends for 2010?

RTP Surveys 10 Of The Industry’s Top Analysts In The Outlook Guide

With the year coming a close, Retail TouchPoints called on some of the most prominent retail experts to compile an expanded resource for retailers that includes rich insight on the most telling retail trends for 2010. From inventory and pricing management to mobile marketing, the 2010 Retail TouchPoints Outlook Guide offers insight for every vertical, exposing some of the biggest challenges and more importantly, solutions to optimize customer interactions and advisement on where to increase marketing dollars in 2010.

http://www.retailtouchpoints.com/component/content/article/378-what-will-be-the-top-trends-in-2010-rtp-surveys-10-of-the-industrys-top-analysts-in-the-outlook-guide.html

Mobile CPM measurement standards are essential

There is no question that push media metrics such as cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-thousand (CPM) are valuable measurement tools. But mobile measurement can accurately tackle “place” of engagement, “quality” of engagement, “duration” of engagement, and the Holy Grail of “conversion” to high ROI destinations . . .

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/4317.html

Mobile cannot just be about impression-based advertising

Mobile cannot be just about impression-based advertising but must extend beyond-the-click activation and bridge to point-of-sale, point-of-entry, etc. The brand misses half the mobile ecosystem if he/she does not explore passed the mobile display. Mobile is all about "what next."

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/2875.html

There is no such thing as a mobile campaign

If you run mobile as a standalone campaign, it is doomed to the graveyard of "Yes-I-tried"mobile case studies. Mobile is an integrated part of the buy and would not exist, in most cases, without the 360-degree plan. Why? Mobile is primarily a pull media. It needs to be added to the traditional push media to come to life and work its magic. The most touted example of mobile "pull"is when the brand uses the phone as a "mobile mouse"and the short code as the "mobile click"to activate its media.

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/2656.html

The mobile coupons debate: Fungible or faux?

Where January and February are traditionally the couponing months, 2009 is turning out to be the couponing year. Indeed, there are only two things on a retailer's mind: How to drive more people into store and how to drive more product out.

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/3500.html

Mobile coupon installed base needs to grow: retail experts

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/commerce/4390.html

. . . As things stand, there is little to no reach with mobile coupons.

“It is easy to come up with great ideas,” said James Crawford, executive director of the Global Retail Executive Council. “But 90 percent of retailers cannot support them. Retailers have historically missed the trend by decades. Retail is all about mainstream adoption.”

“In many cases we can expect mobile to follow Gartner’s ‘Hype Cycle,’” he said. “People get excited about a new solution. There is hype [and] then when the solution does not immediately deliver results, it crashes, disappears and then grows slowly, reemerging over a longer period of time.”

It is possible for a solution vender to innovate in one store or in one enterprise loop.

“However, the CPGs need universal adoption across all stores,” Mr. Crawford said. “While we all want a solution, it is a really complex problem to solve.”

Is the app store the MVNO of 2009?

If rich-content is king, many questioned if the carriers will realistically be able to handle quality data delivery OTA (over the air). There seems to be an elephant in the room. Who is benefiting from the new mobile distribution channels? Who will pay for the needed infrastructure of this increased data pipe? What are the business models beyond the storefront?

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/4092.html

The 7-Point Checklist for Building Out A Successful Mobile Marketing Channel

Here is an elementary seven-point checklist to reference as you build out and manage your mobile channel. These steps allow retailers to capitalize on existing resources:

http://www.retailtouchpoints.com/marketing-metrics/329-the-7-point-checklist-for-building-out-a-successful-mobile-marketing-channel.html#

Two Quick Takeaways On Where To Start With Mobile In Retail

The 2009 consumer is way ahead of any national retailer’s marketing department. The consumer is leveraging their phone as a “mobile mouse” to click, search and explore in the mall, in the aisle. The retail CMO is looking for some new-fangled, high-tech way of engaging with this itinerate shopper. The sage truth is that the marketing department is chasing shadows. Instead of focusing on the consumer and how they are leveraging mobile in their stores, they are investigating widgets and apps that have little to no reach or frequency in their consumer base.

http://www.retailtouchpoints.com/marketing-metrics/309-two-quick-takeaways-on-where-to-start-with-mobile-in-retail.html