5 Key Trends To Watch (And Use) In Mobile/Location-Based Marketing

Aaron Strout on June 26, 2014 at 10:00 am

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Mobile is quickly becoming one of the most important (if not the most important) channels for marketers to focus on.

As more and more users do more and more on their smart phones and tablets, understanding the needs and wants of prospects and customers is critical.

On the heels of mobile/internet analyst extraordinaire Mary Meeker’s now famousInternet Trends presentation – and with a nod to the fact that we are halfway through 2014 — the timing seems right to take a look at some key trends in mobile and location-based marketing.

The Trends

Within Ms. Meeker’s report, it’s interesting to note that three of her top four “High-Level User/Usage Trends” are mobile focused. Those top four are:

• Internet Users
  <10% Y/Y growth & slowing… fastest growth in more difficult to monetize developing markets like India / Indonesia / Nigeria
• Smartphone Subscribers
  +20% strong growth though slowing… fastest growth in underpenetrated markets like China / India / Brazil / Indonesia
• Tablets
  +52% early stage rapid unit growth
• Mobile Data Traffic
  +81% accelerating growth… video = strong driver

If we circled one of those trends as the most important, I’d argue that it is the growth of tablets. One of the things that is driving massive mobile adoption — because it is considered a mobile device — is the rapid adoption of tablets. That particular trend is driving at least three and maybe four of the key trends outlined in this post.

Those trends, in no particular order, are:

1. Omni-channel is king
2. Video is more important than ever
3. Everything is aware
4. Discovery is the new black
5. Data, data and more data

What Makes For A Good Omni-Channel Experience

I covered this topic back in March in a post titled, It’s Omni-Channel, Stupid! Don’t Adopt Mobile-Focused Marketing.

And while it is not meant to suggest that marketers shouldn’t focus on mobile, it is intended to be a reminder that the full customer journey — whether it is B2C or B2B — must be taken into consideration. A few of the main foci regarding this trend are:

• Focus on seamless approach to the consumer experience through all available shopping channels
• Drive responsive design/great user experience (including UI)
• Well-mapped out journey, including use cases/personas are key

Mobile Video FTW!

The eye opener around this trend was the fact that so many people are engaging and digesting content — especially video content — via the mobile web. This trend is also reinforced by Mary Meeker’s fourth bullet around mobile traffic data. To dive deeper, my most recent post provides tips from three video experts. The most important takeaways around this trend are:

• 40% of all YouTube views are via mobile; majority usage of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest is also mobile
• Keep it short, make sure audio quality is good and absolutely review on several mobile devices before releasing
• Take advantage of mobile functionality: touch, connectivity, location and time if possible

With A Plethora Of Sensing Devices, New Possibilities Arise

Three years ago, I co-authored a Dummies book with Mike Schneider called Location-Based Marketing for Dummies. While writing the book, we realized that location would not only become more passive, but would also be aided by things like Geo-fences and sensors. This was also a topic that came up a few times in my 2014 experts prediction post from December of last year. Notable takeaways surrounding this trend are:

• Location has moved from active to passive (as mentioned above)
• New technologies like BLE (low energy blue tooth beacons), use of indoor magnetic fields and geo-fences make for new engagement opportunities
• Location is the new “cookie”

Location Is Becoming Embedded In Everything We Do; More Discovery

When foursquare announced that it was splitting off the check-in capability from its current app to create a new sub-app called “Swarm,” this signaled a new direction in location-based technologies.

Other than a core group of about a million users, most people using apps like foursquare are wanting to discover cafes, restaurants, print shops etc. This is important for companies that want to be included in customers’ and prospects’ consideration sets moving forward. To that end, companies need to be aware that:

• Location-based technologies originally focused on active check-ins, rewards, recognition
• Foursquare recently tacked to be more like Yelp and Google (Swarm is for 1M active checkers-in)
• New opportunity to leverage paid in conjunction with organic; critical to think about your overall user experience

Data (Especially Mobile) Is The New Currency

It is no secret that digital data is proliferating at a breakneck pace. One of the main drivers of that data is mobile technology. With more and more usage of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube coming from mobile devices and the digesting of content moving from paper and even laptops to tablets, the mobile web is becoming the center of the online universe.

Unlocking the insights from this data should not only be a top priority for marketers, but it also gives them a critical third dimension. Now they know not just the “who” and the “what” but also the “where.” Key takeaways for this trend are:

• Value exchange is critical; the quid pro quo is more critical than ever
• Important to be looking at mobile/location-based data separately, but as part of a bigger whole
• What patterns are emerging? How does behavior differ? How can you drive better experiences and content?

Are you keeping up with these trends? It’s not too late if you aren’t. But just like the early days of social, the marketers that are experimenting and taking advantage of where the mobile and location-aware world is headed are yielding early learnings that give them a competitive advantage.

How adidas owned the moment at the FIFA World Cup 2014

Wednesday, September 24, 2014 | By Emily Parker (@__emilyparker), Editorial team [13:16 UTC]

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Last summer, @adidasfootball set out to be the most positively talked about football brand at the FIFA World Cup 2014. According to our research, it succeeded. The global sports brand’s “#allin or nothing” campaign generated 2.1 million mentions on Twitter, earning it the greatest share of voice among all official sponsors.

What’s more, this conversation contributed to a substantial lift in brand momentum and sales. Adidas reported that fans worldwide purchased more than eight million adidas jerseys and 14 million brazuca footballs, causing football revenues to soar to an all-time high.

How did adidas accomplish this feat? We went behind the scenes to get the scoop on how the brand and its agency partners managed the campaign, from content creation to media planning and measurement.

The team

To support its own marketing teams, adidas recruited top agency players. In the spring of 2012, the brand asked TBWA Worldwide (@TBWA) to manage its overall global ad campaign. It also selected Carat (@caratuk) for real-time media buying and We Are Social (@wearesocial) for its social content strategy.

“The relationships were cohesive and collaborative,” said Rob Seidu, a managing partner at Carat. “All parties saw the big picture, and ensured that the campaign thrived.”

Joe Weston, an account director at We Are Social, agreed. “Activating the ‘real-time World Cup’ meant that we had to be prepared, nimble and reactive. A close working relationship with adidas and other agencies such as Carat was very important.”

Reaching the audience

adidas called its campaign “#allin or nothing,” knowing that the edgy call-to-action would appeal to FIFA World Cup 2014 fans, especially adidas’ target audience: young football-obsessed males.

To reach this audience, adidas turned to Twitter. “Live events are a series of individual moments, all of which prompt huge reactions from fans both online and offline,” Weston explained. “Twitter is the natural place for this reaction due to its instantaneous nature. The ability to join wider conversations through the use of hashtags makes users feel part of something much bigger. And with the Retweet functionality, if your Tweet gets Retweeted, suddenly you could be talking to hundreds, thousands or even millions of people.”

In this convergent world, consumers can be reached on any device, at any moment. Being part of the culture means delivering the relevant content, in the right place, in the instant it happens. We needed Twitter to do this.

— Rob SeiduManaging Partner, Carat

Planning for moments

Immediately after the FIFA World Cup draw on December 6, 2013, adidas and We Are Social began to map out an hour-by-hour editorial calendar of the entire 32-day tournament, and then traveled the world to collect more than 1,000 images and 160-plus video clips of more than 100 adidas-sponsored players.

“At the exact moment a spectacular piece of sporting action happens, all an online fan wants to do — as quickly as possible — is celebrate, cry, shout or scream like an offline fan would,” Weston said. “Fans want content which tells their story, and when you know what the stories are, you can give it to them at the exact time they want it.”

The agency prepared for “planned,” “anticipated” and “reactive” moments. Weston offered an example of each:

Planned moment

“We knew England vs. Italy would be a big game, and we knew we had the two midfield generals on show, so we created an image in advance of the players head-to-head.”

Anticipated moment

“We knew that someone, somewhere, would score a penalty. We anticipated these moments by capturing content of players in this pose, which could then be posted in the moment.”

Reactive moment

“We built flexible content templates which could be manipulated to react to unplanned moments. Two of your best strikers score twice against the best team in world football? Well, you better react quickly.”

Creating moments

To stand out amid fierce brand competition, adidas had to not only plan for moments, but also create their own. To accomplish this, the day after the adidas brazuca was named official match ball of the FIFA World Cup, adidas launched a Twitter account devoted to the icon.

“It was a bold move from adidas,” Weston said. “Giving the ball a personality and wit that would resonate with a notoriously tricky audience was no easy task. But it worked!”

@brazuca charmed more than 3.4 million followers with its cheeky commentary. Thanks to a camera installed inside the ball, @brazuca also offered fans behind-the-scenes content. Followers were able to see the player tunnel and the playing field, and experience team huddles from the most intimate point of view available at the World Cup.

“From celebrities to players to media,” Weston said, “everybody was talking about@brazuca, and the results were fantastic. A post-World Cup analysis showed that our newly formed community was highly engaged, influential and diverse.”

On the ground at game time

Establishing an adidas newsroom open 24/7 in Rio De Janeiro fostered a sense of community and ensured lightening-fast Tweets in response to every key World Cup moment.

“With multiple representatives from adidas’ markets like China, Japan, the UK and USA, and stakeholders from across the adidas business working across multiple time zones with different commercial pressures and varying media landscapes, this was a huge undertaking,” Seidu said. “We had to ensure that adidas spoke to the World Cup culture, as it evolved, in real time, responding to real events.”

One of Seidu’s favorite examples of this occurred on July 4, when Colombia was eliminated from the tournament. The adidas team quickly retrieved an image from its collection, wrote copy to accompany it, and sent this poignant Tweet:

Optimizing results

Carat analyzed the results of adidas’ promoted activity on Twitter on an hourly basis. “This allowed the brand to identify emerging trends and critical areas of focus,” Seidu explained. “We knew what was ‘about to blow.’”

The agency also gleaned creative insights in real-time to determine what content resonated most with users, and quickly pivoted and refined its approach when necessary. As a result, “come the latter, more significant stages of the tournament, we had optimized creative, and had a super slick implementation model,” said Seidu.

Final stats

According to our research, in addition to being the most talked about football brand during the FIFA World Cup, adidas enjoyed an average engagement rate of double the Twitter platform average. Total conversation about the brand increased by 116%, and positive brand sentiment increased by 236%.

Keys to success

When asked how he would advise other brands interested in owning live events on Twitter, Weston had this to say: “Planning, planning, planning.”

Speed, he added, is crucial. In the case of the FIFA World Cup, he noted a shared passion for football and expert knowledge of the game was also helpful.

Finally, Weston recommended that brands seek an in-depth understanding of their audience. “What it comes down to is, what moments matter to them?”

Best campaigns of 2014

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-campaigns-2014-grand-clio?utm_campaign=blog-rss-emails&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=14276809

Top 10 Stop-Motion Artists Doing Brilliant Work for Brands on Vine

 Throwing the industry for a loop By Michelle Castillo

• September 24, 2014, 12:12 PM EDT
• Technology

Article:

Pause your day, and take a look—or three or four—at these brilliantly crafted Vines. Marketers are finding a way to tap into the short-form nature of the medium by working with Viners who have found success creating carefully edited works.

"Stop motion animation has become an incredibly attractive way of advertising for brands and marketers who are increasingly turning to micro advertisements to reach mobile users," explained Rob Fishman, co-founder of the technology platform Niche.

Niche connects social media content creators on 19 different platforms (including Facebook, YouTube, Vine and Instagram) with brands. The company compiled the list after considering the number of followers each Vine user had and the number of branded engagements they produced. Not all the ad work had to be set up through the Niche platform to be considered.

Fishman added that while a single six-second stop motion Vine may take days to make, it's extremely successful at condensing a big idea into a short, whimsical piece. Because they are so truncated, it makes it easier to share, which is why these ads have life on other social media platforms as well.

1. Jethro Ames
Followers: 39,800
Total number of loops: 2,025,750
Below: Work for Hewlett-Packard (164,550 loops)

2. Frank Danna
Followers: 10,900
Total number of loops: 785,705
Below: Work for Jack in the Box (39,950 loops)

3. Gentleman Jack
Followers: 50,700
Total number of loops: 4,914,170
Below: Work for BMW i USA (7,500 loops)

4. Ian Padgham
Followers: 359,800
Total number of loops: 52,146,125
Below: Work for Home Depot (201,175 loops)

5. Meagan Cignoli
Followers: 509,700
Total number of loops: 68,822,060
Below: Work for Toaster Strudel (83,180 loops)

6. Hunter Harrison
Followers: 28,800
Total number of loops: 3,965,205
Below: Work for Samsung (196,730 loops)

7. Marc Morgan (Vanilla Gorilla)
Followers: 35,500
Total number of loops: 3,664,490
Below: Work for Blue Apron (12,950 loops)

8. Pinot
Followers: 305,300
Total number of loops: 18,405,368
Below: Work for Samsung (175,040 loops)

9. David Schwen
Followers: 745
Total number of loops: 6,057
Below: Work for Yoplait (170 loops)

10. Kaif
Followers: 178,800
Total number of loops: 28,200,995
Below: Work for Whisper (454,000 loops)

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Which Digital Shoppers in Canada Are the Most Mobile

Guess Which Digital Shoppers in Canada Are the Most Mobile

More than 90% of 18- to 34-year-olds have made a purchase online

• Sep 25, 2014
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More than eight in 10 adult internet users in Canada have made a digital purchase in the past year, according to July 2014 research from Ipsos Reid. And age still plays a significant role in likelihood of buying online in the country.

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The youngest group of online adults surveyed posted 92% penetration of digital buying—18 percentage points higher than the rate for those ages 55 and older. And since Ipsos Reid conducted its survey on the internet, and older consumers are still less likely to be online to begin with, overall penetration throughout the population tilts even further toward the younger set.

Online buyers in the country are still largely tied to their desktop and laptop PCs to complete digital purchases, with 88% of the digital buyer group saying they did so.

And here age played an even larger role in online buying habits. Adults ages 18 to 34 were more than twice as likely as 35- to 54-year-olds to say they had made purchases via smartphones—and those 55 and up were only half as likely again to say the same. Tablet purchasing was more even, but about twice as likely among the under-55 set as among older online buyers.

A March 2014 survey by Nielsen found that the most commonly planned digital purchases by internet users in Canada were event tickets (44%), airline tickets (43%), and tours and hotel reservations (40%).

- See more at: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Guess-Which-Digital-Shoppers-Canada-Most-Mobile/1011233/3#sthash.xS2NhIGm.dpuf

This Is What Your Grocery Store Will Look Like In 2065

A pop-up project in New York City next summer will offer one vision of how the future of bodegas is nothing at all like the present.

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Grocery stores aren't really known for innovation; 50 years ago, a supermarket down the street might have looked basically the same as it looks today. But 50 years in the future--as the food system reacts to a changing climate, water shortages, and shifting technology-- you might find things at your corner store radically changed.

In The Future Market, a pop-up grocery store that will be built in New York City next summer, a group of designers will work with the food industry to demonstrate what the bodega of 2065 might look like.

You might, for example, walk into the store with a digital food ID that tells the store your allergies, food preferences, and dietary needs, and then you might shop on a touch-screen shelf that automatically delivers your order--possibly picking fresh vegetables from an in-store hydroponic farm on the way.

The pop-up store will also include details about each fictional product inside. "Crop Crisps," a national brand of chips that would change ingredients annually to support crop rotation, shows how major food manufacturers might move away from the idea of providing the same products in every season, in every location.

"It's a way to say here's how much we think the world could change, and here's how we think Big Food could change," says Mike Lee, CEO of Studio Industries and The Future Market. "That's why it looks like a mass produced product and not an artisanal product."

The designers are also exploring ideas like sustainable packaging, eliminating food waste, and urban farming. "The challenge for us is to take something that we see happening today, accelerate it 50 years and say what if the urban farmers of the world were the rule, not the exception?" says Lee. "In that world, where everyone can farm exactly what they need in a very small efficient space, what does that look like for the grocery store? You don't need factory farms anymore if you can produce very efficiently in a bodega-sized lot."

Around half of the products in the store will come from people working in the food industry rather than the design team--a cheesemaker, for example, might imagine how cheese might wildly change by 2065. The designers hope that the process will help inspire more radical innovation in a slow-moving industry that tends to look forward one year at a time. "By showing people the 50-year vision first and then thinking about the two-year vision or the five-year vision, I think you can get a very different result than if you do it the other way around," says Lee.

It's possible, of course, that physical grocery stores might not even exist in 50 years. But the designers wanted to build a store to help make the ideas more relatable. "We want to use the modern format of the grocery store as a bridge to what could be happening tomorrow," Lee explains.

By creating a store that people can walk around in, the team also wanted to help make the distant future seem more tangible, so people can understand how something as abstract-seeming as climate change might affect their everyday life in Aisle 3.

"People have this disconnect between their short-term actions and long-term consequences," Lee says. "If you can't really envision what the long-term consequence of X is, we're going to build an environment that shows you that now, and hopefully that might change the way that you approach today. We think that we can impact that short-term thinking both at the consumer level and also at the corporate level."