Textopoly Mobile Blog » SMS

It’s Required: Nonprofit Organizations & Mobile Marketing

Karla — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:59:01 +0000

I enjoy two things, mobile and nonprofit organizations. Although the first cell phone was exhibited in 1973 and demonstrated to have what we now refer to as smartphone features in 1992, brands were not utilizing SMS campaigns until a few years ago. The Human Rights Campaign, I believe, was amongst the first non-profit organizations to lead the way with mobile marketing and advertising. Not only were they the first SMS campaign I ever signed up for (I was in high school) but also the earliest SMS campaign I have seen apply interactive voice response (IVR).

Non-profit organizations must use innovative forms of advertising because they cannot exploit the usual tools of ‘cool’ advertisement – sexual appeal and alcohol – to promote campaigns for rain forest preservation, or civil rights, or human trafficking. They must use the art of human emotion and ethical perspectives with a hodgepodge of events like auctions, selling tickets for art exhibits, restaurant profit turnovers, etc. The bottom line is that a nonprofit organization needs to either get the supporter in front of the website to donate or at an event where a supporter can donate. It does not need to be this complex anymore.

Within the last few weeks I have seen more and more articles pop up about how nonprofit organizations should implement mobile apps, mobile sites, and mobiles ads. I must admit, now that I look back, I find it shocking that it took this long for brands to see how applicable and efficient mobile marketing can be. After all, 85% of people read an unread text message within 15 minutes of receiving one. Compare that to 15% of readers who actually open an unread email (and that’s actually considered a good rate for email marketing!).

Nonprofit organizations, this is your wake up call. Your target audiences all have a cell phone! They are more then willing to support you; after all, you do have their contact information and monetary donations. Now give them something back that they can carry around with them, aside from their big hearts and pocket. Give them the luxury of convenience and accessibility, the art of modern technology with the oldest of traditions – helping others.

Whether you want a mobile ad, a mobile app, a mobile site, or even an SMS alert system, stop limiting your fans. Engage your devotees’ day or night and build a modern mobile relationship both parties can benefit from. And if you are worried less people will donate, just let the numbers do the talking. Last year, over $50 million dollars were given via mobile donations. And this is $50 million through a channel that has yet to utilized to its full potential. Can you imagine if all nonprofit organizations allowed supporters to make a mobile donation and to access company information whenever they pleased? The predictions are insurmountable. Isn’t that impressive?

Demographic wise – you are probably catering to a more mature and affluent demographic. Today’s generation, both young and old, is one of mobile addiction. Extend your reach to all age groups with the use of mobile marketing and advertising, and watch your support list go through the roof. Do your country a courtesy, and provide a healthy alternative to sexting and Facebooking, inspire our youth to assemble and become an active participant in the global community – to make a difference right through the palm of their hands, with one click.

It’s that simple (and brilliant!).

So, for current nonprofit organizations that are utilizing mobile marketing, I applaud you for staying with modern modes of promotion. But please, question your mobile components and make sure that 1) your mobile site is actually optimized for a mobile phone and not simply a trans-coded redirect from your regular website and 2) that you are utilizing the best mode of mobile engagement for your organization (i.e. mobile site, mobile ads, mobile apps, mobile donation, SMS alerts, etc.). For nonprofit organizations that are currently not utilizing mobile marketing and advertising, what are you waiting for?

Parents & Mobile

Naushad — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:45:31 +0000

I’m at that age where many of my friends are in the process of having kids (hopefully not while reading this!), or just had their first child. Many conversations I have these days revolve around the newly created relationships between young, recently married couples and their first child. Memories and perhaps regrets of how they behaved as children creep into discussion followed by pleads to God that they’re new addition doesn’t ‘act like I did’.

While the child is young these virgin parents are scheming on how to use technology to be better, or at least better informed, parents. The simplest technology asset they have is their mobile phone. A recent study conducted by Harris Interactive found that parents, especially those with children under 6 years of age eagerly want text messaging alerts from their favorite brands/entities to make their parenting life easier.

Grocery coupons and promotions were the most popular among all parents, including among the subgroups with older children and teens.Don’t think that parents’ activities on mobile stops with texts. Parents considered several mobile activities at least somewhat important at higher rates than mobile users without children, including searching for retail locations (57% vs. 42%), making purchases (40% vs. 26%) and accessing the internet in general (63% vs. 48%).

The instantaneousness of mobile, with texts, mobile sites or apps is a valuable asset for any parent. Being able to find local information such as the nearest pharmacy, where to buy certain products, get nutritional information, get alerts on consumer product recalls, or even a video on how to change a diaper are useful tools for any parent. Today my lifeblood is my mobile device; I use it for everything – I can only imagine how useful it will be the day I end a conversation with “. . God please don’t let my kid do that.”

If Rachael Ray worked at Textopoly: FDA Mobile

Taj — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:43:05 +0000

Yes, you’re still at the Team Textopoly blog where we give you all things digital and mobile. However, in honor of my recent sighting of Rachael Ray, I started to think about the importance of mobile and what we eat.

When I am traveling with no access to a farmers market, I usually pick up Fresh Express pre-packaged salads. However, that came to a crashing end when I read this 3 days after my purchase:

http://leep.it/mD

Now, the FDA (& CDC) still has a recall list you can sign up with for email here:

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/default.htm

of which gets lost in the mix of other emails. Yes, I know.

Now wouldn’t it be great if we could segregate those alerts based upon location, food (for vegetarians, etc), instead of merely date of recall? And this goes for other recalls as well. Many fathers like myself have cringed when finding that a toddler toy has been recalled, after having spent 23 hours assembling it.

And if we could get it sent to our mobile? awesomeness….

The purpose of government is to protect (i.e. military) and inform its citizens (thankfully with organizations like the FDA). However, as time moves on and black & white television is replaced with color, and Big Blue Computers are replaced with minicomputers the size of your palm, the government should be on the cutting edge of reaching its citizens with all things digital…and mobile…

UPDATE: So, while writing this, I was reminded again of tools the FDA could use as I read about the massive egg recall (http://leep.it/mP) , of which a brand I recently purchased (AND USED) was included, Lucerne.

Here is a Rachel Ray-like thought. The grocery stores already know what we buy when we use those reward cards and programs. (and yes, we know you’re collecting data on us) Additionally some, like Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons have your number tied to the reward card. Wouldnt it make sense to be able to automate this recall process with those two pieces of data? SMS?

BTW, if Rachael Ray did work here, she’d probably would be doing this:

Kickin Facts…

Asif — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:26:17 +0000

You want exposure? You want people to know about your brand, your product, or your service; well the answer is in your pocket!

Mobile usage across the globe is growing faster and stronger than a 13 year old girl can say Justin Bieber! First, let me hit you with some facts:

- According to the International Telecommunications Union, mobile subscribers will surpass 5 billion in 2010, which is over 70% of the global population! The world population in April was 6.8 billion! The ITU says growth is being driven by advanced services and handsets in developed countries and increased take-up of mobile health services and mobile banking in the developing world.

- Gartner (March 2010) predicts that by 2011, over 85% of new handsets will be able to access the Mobile Web!

- LeBron was never the king, SMS ruled all! According to Portfolio Research (Feb. 2010)

SMS is used by 4 billion consumers worldwide
In 2009 worldwide SMS traffic topped five trillion messages, and that figure is set to exceed 10 trillion in 2013.
MMS, mobile email and mobile IM are all growing strongly. The driver for MMS is the number of camera phones, for mobile email is the business market and while IM is popular with the youth market.
The global mobile messaging business is worth over US$150 billion, and will hit US$233 billion by 2014.

If your brand isn’t capable of reaching more than 2 million people, you’re not using mobile! And if you’re not using mobile, you are definitely not at full potential! Check the facts, call us up, let’s have some lunch, and then drop it like it’s hot.

Want to be at full potential? Email me at: asif[at]textopoly[dot]com. – P.S. – I don’t think Miami is going to win the championship this year.

Movin’ On Up, Smartphone Usage Rises

Guest — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:05:53 +0000

As most people in the United States know, mobile phones are no longer used simply for calling someone for a piece of quick information or directions from A to B. Mobile phones have become our lifelines.

If you’re anything like me, which probably 80% of the people I interact with on a daily basis are, we would be unable to function without the use of our handy (no pun intended) mobile phones with their ever-expanding capabilities. Whether it be the iPhone, Android, or Blackberry, users have become infatuated by the unlimited number of games, messaging applications, and internet use that are available with one touch of a finger.

To support my belief that mobile phone users are becoming more and more addicted to the multiple capabilities of a smartphone is a statistic showing that between the months of March and May 2010, smartphone usage has increased by 8.1%.

A few statistics that should have companies who want to sell their products salivating;

Nearly a third (31.9%) used their smartphones for web browsing
30% used downloaded applications
20.8% used their phones to access social networking sites or blogs

This is great news for companies who are hoping to expand their products and advertise in the mobile world. With the rise of smartphone usage, and overall web browsing on any mobile phone; companies and agencies are now given the opportunity to reach out to their audiences and give them the information they are seeking through WAP/mobile sites (which in my opinion are brilliant), text messages, and applications. These tactics just make things that much easier for their consumers to devour whatever their hearts desires!

If you feel like your brain just hasn’t taken in enough to convince you, feel free to check out the article yourself and let me know your thoughts!

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=131673&nid=116386

Powerade needs an aide

Naushad — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:55:05 +0000

I was happily camping a couple weeks back with some buddies in Pismo. On one of our regular visits to the convenient store I saw a mobile call to action for Powerade! The promotion was to win prizes for their World Cup sweepstakes. The print call to action had cool soccer players in the background playing under dark skies, and the ad was stuck right on the glass door of the Powerade section of the 10 glass door cooler. Placement of the call to action along with the appealing graphic and visibility was phenomenal. Of course I texted in, keyword was PA2010 to short code number 878787. (Personally I would have used keyword that was all letters and not a combination of letters and numbers, but I’m sure they had their reasons.)

What would you have replied back with? Why couldn’t there be a multiple choice!? Is this the best execution for a Coke brand? Am I making too much of this and everyday people totally get this? Holla’ back if think I’m off base on saying this is poor user experience.

The Business of Luxury and Mobile

Taj — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:16:45 +0000

Recently, I was at a Financial Times Conference that focused on the business of luxury goods, examining trading research for my investment fund. One of the more interesting quotes included the following:

“Digital connectedness is becoming too much of a burden. Disconnected will become the new luxury”
-William Powers

As the resident horologist for Team Textopoly, I began to look into how many luxury watch brands are using mobile wap, app or sms and eschewing Mr. Powers’ analysis. Some of the luxury watch brands use mobile to not only connect, but also inform potential buyers, giving them additional tools to use when they visit their authorized dealer.

Venerable watch maker Patek Philippe, with pieces starting from $12,300 up to $1 million, believe in the Powers quote with good reason:

“When you buy a Patek Philippe, you need to feel and touch it and you need good advice. Patek Philippe is not only about business but also about passion. If I sell online, I’ll lose that,” said Thierry Stern, chief executive of one of the very few remaining family-owned Swiss watchmakers.

Mr. Stern is absolutely correct, as the weight of the watch, the look of the crystal, the feel of the material or metal is important. However, some other brands are not only embracing online, but are looking at mobile apps and waps to engage future potential buyers. Here is a review of some:

IWC¹ – IWC, a Schaffhausen-based watchmaker known to adorn the wrists of people like John Mayer and designer Tom Ford, offers a mobile application that allows users to envision an IWC on their wrist, as well as detailed collection information. Most importantly, it offers locations where buyers can go and take Mr. Stern’s advice.

BELL & ROSS² - Bell & Ross is another Swiss made piece founded by French watchmakers. Entertainers such as Zach Braff and Bruce Springsteen prefer this brand. B&R’s mobile site & app offers a display of their collection, locations to purchase and a short in-house produced video to show the power of their “instrument” watch.

A LANGE & SOHNE – ALS is an older, German brand whose mobile app offers a view of their collection gallery, in addition to messages from the firm. Point of sale and service information is also included on the mobile app.

PERRELET – Perrelet originated the self-winding mechanism in 1770 and jumped into the mobile app world in 2009. Their app showcases their turbine model as well as contact information for the company.

HUBLOT- Hublot is an iconic brand built upon their Big Bang series and offers a Maradona watch for football fans. This brand has a robust wap site that shows their diverse collection and news.

MARVIN – Swiss based Marvin Watch has an iphone and wap enabled site that offers news, brand information, collection and contact information. Marvin takes it further and has a “Community Manager” Jerome Pineau who actively uses social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs like Hodinkee.com) to connect with current and potential buyers. His participation has definitely influenced me to get my hands on the brand.

Clearly, there are some luxury brands that understand the importance of having a presence in the digital world and using that presence to introduce new generations to their wares. If that presence begins with mobile (or facebook, or iPad, etc), then Team Textopoly is the one you should call.

Here is something interesting, too. Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin³recently announced plans and a website (http://www.uncells.com/) for the worlds first hybrid luxury watch and cell phone (“The Chairman”) running on the Google Android. Similar to how a mechanical watch is powered by kinetic energy, The Chairman’s battery will be backed up by the mechanical rotor inside the phone. Eat your heart out iPhone and Vertu!

*For the record, I am a hardcore Paneristi, but my collection includes Big Pilot^1, a BR01-92²and a Maxi Marine³

Newport Beach Film Festival – Case Study!

Naushad — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:42:01 +0000

We had the privilege of working with the Newport Beach Film Festival this year to harness the power of mobile & social. The campaings yeileded fantastic results and showcased the value of mobile when combined with print and other media.

The campaign consisted of an SMS strategy, a fully functioning mobile site, and a unique mobile + social media application. Take a look at the recently published case study and give us a holla’ if we can help you utilize the power of mobile!

Link to case study PDF: http://leep.it/jF

2D Barcodes – Are they the next LBS?

Naushad — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:14:33 +0000

Last fall when we attended CTIA in San Diego, we noticed everyone was raving about LBS – location-based-services. LBS was supposed to be a game changer, and with little coming out of it besides foursquare, twitter, and yelp, we have yet to see many things take off. This CTIA, the next buzzword seems to be 2D barcodes. Everyone wants to do 2D barcodes! (Check out this guest post for more background info on 2D barcodes)

3 years ago I lived in Japan and when I first moved there 2D barcodes were old hat. Pretend you are sitting on a train in Tokyo. All around you are advertisements, and in the corner there is a 2D barcode. Most Japanese handsets have some kind of 2D barcode reader preinstalled and all you have to do is scan the barcode and it provides some information related to the advertisement such as a phone number, web site, and email address. A simple interaction to provide basic information which the end user can do whatever they would like with it. Nothing further happens on a marketing level, advertising level, handset level, or carrier level. I like simple, simple works best.

There is nothing simple about what people were pushing at CTIA. 2D barcodes that launches apps, 2D barcodes that open websites, 2D barcodes that add contacts, 2D barcodes can do all sorts of things, but I’m not sure if I want them to. It is up to us, the marketers, to create the most interaction with the end user doing as little as possible. Am I really going to download a barcode scanner, scan the image, wait for the app to download, enter in all my information, and then get to watch a video? That’s about 5 too many steps. Our goal should be to make things as easy as possible, but it seems like we’re just complicating things more and more. There are no barcode clearninghouses in Japan, no further interaction, no carrier compliancy. There were no rules because 2D barcodes are used for simple interactions.

I’m sticking to my guns and saying simple interactions will defeat complicated marketing tools. I bet we can get more people to opt into a SMS club than we can get them to scan a barcode – any takers?

Mobile Marketing Software Provider iVision Mobile And Textopoly Announce Strategic Partnership

Naushad — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:00:32 +0000

We’ve partnered with iVision Mobile! Check out the release below!

Mobile Marketing Software Provider iVision Mobile And Textopoly Announce Strategic Partnership

LOS ANGELES, March 21, 2010 — iVision Mobile, a leading mobile marketing company, and Textopoly, Inc., a bleeding-edge mobile & social engagement agency specializing in all things interactive, today announced a strategic partnership that will offer expert strategy, consultation, and innovative mobile solutions to the extensive network of leading brands and content publishers that comprise Textopoly’s and iVision Mobile’s customer base.

iMessenger, the web-based mobile marketing software developed by iVision Mobile is used by businesses across all industries to create and manage interactive mobile marketing campaigns. From the world’s top brands to small businesses nationwide, iVision Mobile and Textopoly have delivered millions of messages that have provided their clients with revenue generating mobile initiatives to maximize ROI.

“We believe that iVision Mobile’s platform for creating and managing mobile campaigns is one of the most comprehensive and user friendly software systems in the marketplace,” says Naushad Huda, CEO and Founder of Textopoly. “This partnership enables us to continue to deliver upon our promise to harness the most valuable mobile applications and deliver a fully integrated solution with best-of-breed technology from iVision Mobile.”

“Textopoly is a terrific partner to help us expand our business and penetrate the marketplace,” said Omer Samiri, CEO and co-founder of iVision Mobile. “Hundreds of our mutual clients have independently made the decision to use our software and engage their end consumers with interactive mobile communication. Together, we’ll deliver an enterprise class solution that combines Textopoly’s expert consultative approach with iVision Mobile’s advanced messaging technology.”

Under the terms of the agreement, all iVision Mobile messaging and short codes will be managed by Textopoly. Additionally, Textopoly will market, resell and service the joint solution to enterprise customers, simplifying their mobile marketing efforts while maintaining the high caliber of service their customers demand.

“The announcement of the strategic partnership between iVision Mobile and Textopoly seems to be a logical move for both parties, capitalizing on each company’s area of expertise” said Alykhan Govani, CEO of MX Telecom, the connection aggregator for the two companies. “I’m hopeful that the result of this collaboration will lead to the continued development of innovation and strategic engagement via the mobile channel, benefitting brands and consumers across the board.”

About iVision Mobile
iVision Mobile provides mobile marketing and text messaging software solutions for businesses. iVision Mobile empowers companies across all industries including healthcare, automotive, sporting, religious, nightclubs/restaurants, finance, advertising agencies and more with mobile marketing solutions. For more information, please visit http://www.ivisionmobile.com

About Textopoly
Textopoly is a mobile & social engagement agency that creates highly customized campaigns for brands and agencies. Whether it is through texting, the mobile internet, applications, or social media they bring the brand straight to the users fingertips through easy and fun interactions. Through an evolving form of marketing, as well as research and dedication to both technology and its best practices, Textopoly is the leading pioneer in setting the trends in mobile and social engagements. Visit Textopoly at http://www.textopoly.com