Mobile Creative Guide

8/7/2019 Mobile Creative Guide

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PAGE 2 Mobile Marketer CLASSIC GUIDE TO MOBILE CREATIVE

CONTENTS

PAGE

3 INTRODUCTION

Form matters as much as unction in mobile

By Giselle Tsirulnik

4 ADVERTISING

Creative guidelines or mobile Web banner ads

By Brendon Kraham

6 ADVERTISING

5 steps to creating an HTML5 mobile ad campaign

By Tom Limongello

8 ADVERTISING

Key to success or a mobile rich media ad campaign

By Alex Linde

10 ADVERTISING

Designing engaging mobile rich media ads in-app

By Theo Skpe

12 APPLICATIONS

Mobile app development or

retailers

By Dan Lowden

15 APPLICATIONS

How to build a branded mobile app

By Clint H. Parr

17 BAR CODES

How to create a mobile bar code

program

By Laura Marriott

19 COUPONS

Keys to mobile coupon success

By Anthony Iacovone

21 COUPONS

How to create an eective mobilecoupon program

By Meaghan Schaeer

23 MESSAGING

Evoking an emotional response

with MMS

By James Citron

PAGE

25 MESSAGING

Top 10 attributes o a successul SMS campaign

By Tim Miller

27 MESSAGING

Steps or optimizing SMS campaigns

By Alexander Gregori

29 SEARCH

What every brand needs to know or mobile SEM

By Dennis Glavin

31 WEB SITE DEVELOPMENT

Basic rules o mobile Web development

By Steve Timpson

34 VIDEO

Use mobile video advertising or branding

By Ujjal Kohli

36 VIDEO

Harnessing the power o mobile video ads

By Chhavi Upadhyay



Mobile Marketer covers news and analysis of mobile marketing, media and commerce. The Napean franchise comprises Mobile Marketer, MobileMarketer.com, the Mobile Marketer

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Mickey Alam Khan

Editor in Chief

mickey@

napean.com

Giselle Tsirulnik

Senior Editor

giselle@

mobilemarketer.com

Dan Butcher

Associate Editor

dan@

mobilemarketer.com

Rimma Kats

Editorial Assistant

rimma@

mobilemarketer.com

Jodie Solomon

Director, Ad Sales

ads@

mobilemarketer.com

Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone currently activate atotal 450,000 phones a day, so the opportunity is there. Buthow do we target these consumers with, say, a mobile ap-plication? How do we create and design an experience thatis sure to sell our product and our brand, while at the sametime keeping in mind the user experience?

I think that brands such as Target, JCPenney, Ford Motor Co.,

Steve Madden and Starbucks demonstrated the opportuni-ties that mobile provides as a marketing medium. Brandsand agencies are nally convinced.

But there are so many dierent options: SMS, MMS, Websites, applications, mobile video ads, banner ads, HTML5 andrich media. And the elements o design are as unique toeach channel as the goals are to each marketer.

Mobile Marketer commissioned how-to articles rom someo the smartest brains in mobile advertising and marketing.Their help on this how-to guide is meant to aid marketersin shaping and designing mobile creative that promises amobile advertising and marketing eective program.

Whether it is SMS, MMS, video or HTML5 you are interestedin, expect to learn a lot rom the articles within this guide.

INTRODUCTION

Form matters as much as unction in mobile

W e have reached the point where all brands andagencies know why they should implement mo-

bile into the multichannel mix. Now it is time to cover thehow-to aspect.

In 2010, mobile established itsel as must-have and 2011will be the year o mass implementation. This document is

meant to serve as a guide to the design process.

The act that all o the mobile channels are digital meansmarketers have a lot o exibility with respect to the re-quency and timing o campaigns and other types o com-munications.

Because o this, an alternative view o multichannel mar-keting will be emerging quickly in 2011 – cross-channemarketing. This guide can help with your cross-channemarketing. Most o the authors have not only talked about

the specic design elements o a particular mobile channelbut also explained how to pair and complement one eortwith another mobile initiative.

Thank you to all contributors o Mobile Marketer’s rstClassic Guide to Mobile Creative. Thank-you to editoriaassistant Rimma Kats or her art and layout direction. Alsothank-you to editor in chie Mickey Alam Khan or thinkingo this grand idea and having me implement it.

Please read this guide cover to cover and share it withcolleagues and riends. Thank you or your continuedsupport and good luck this year.

Giselle Tsirulnik

Senior Editor




Creative guidelines or mobile Web banner adsBy Brendon Kraham

As consumer usage o the mobile Web contin-ues to grow, the mobile Web banner ad unit has

emerged as an eective tool or marketers to useto engage with their target customers.

ADVERTISING

While this ad unit is similar to the traditional Internetbanner ad, there are key dierences and unique-to-mo-bile opportunities that marketers need to keep in mind toensure that their ad delivers the highest possible return.

Mobile frst

Mobile devices have a wide variety o screen sizes

and capabilities.

For example, a smartphone with a large, high-reso-

lution screen can beserved larger, visually

rich ads while a ea-ture phone is betterserved with a light-weight ad designedor small screens withlimited resolution.

Marketers need to al-ways serve the best-tting ad or each

phone to deliver the best possible user experience andeven better perormance.

A best practice to ensure wide reach across devices is tocreate a minimum o our o the dierent Mobile Mar-keting Association (MMA) standard mobile Web bannerad unit sizes.

The MMA standard size and ormat guidelines ormobile Web banner ad units are available on its siteat mmaglobal.com.

Do not overdo the graphics

The majority o mobile Web sites only have one bannead that displays at any given time, giving that ad unit aunique opportunity to capture users’ attention.

Take advantage o this opportunity by creating a simpleyet compelling ad. Consider, above all, both the numbeand size o images.

Oten, traditional Internet banner ad units are composedo multiple images. However, mobile banner ads shouldonly use one to two graphics to make the ad work in thesmaller space.

I the graphics are overdone, it will make it harder or auser to understand the oer.

Also consider that while other advertising mediums em-




phasize that hi-resolution images be used, on mobile itis best to keep graphic sizes smaller to ensure that theyload quicker over potentially slower connections.

Write clear and concise copy

When creating your mobile banner ad unit, it is impor-tant to remember that the screen o the average mobiledevice is much smaller than a desktop computer.

This seems like an obvious point, but it is critical as youdevelop your copy.

Edit yoursel. Ideally, copy in a mobile ad is clear andconcise. I your mobile Web banner ad is an extensiono a print or traditional Internet campaign, trim it down.

Always make sure to use an easy-to-read ont ahal- or ull-point size larger ont than what you initiallyeel looks right.

Make the call to action obvious

Do not make users guess what will happen when theyclick on your banner ad.

Have a clear and prominent call to action such as click-to-download an application, click-to-call a business, oclick-to-map the location o a business near you. Theclear call to action below the graphic in a banner ad cancomplete the creative.

Also, make sure the landing page to which your banner

links makes it simple or users to take a desired action.

For example, i the goal is to drive store lookupsdrive the user to the store-locator page instead o thehomepage o the mobile site. I your ad eatures a spe-cial oer, include the details or users on the site orlanding page.

Keep Innovating

Do not take a gamble by trying to predict which singlecombination o graphic and copy will catch the eye o

your target users.

Create and test multiple versions and track perormanceOnce you have determined which version o your bannead perorms best, update it every two weeks.

By changing images or just the word order o your textyou are more likely to see continuous engagement withyour ads, because users are more likely to click on rel-evant ads they have never seen beore.

Creating an ad that engages users and inspires them toclick is the challenge. These simple tips can help mar-keters create a mobile Web banner ad unit that pro-vides an engaging ad experience and that delivers ontheir goals.

Brendon Kraham is team manager o mobile display adat Google, Mountain View, CA.




5 steps to creating an HTML5 mobile ad campaignBy Tom Limongello

Creating campaigns using HTML5 is about usingthe eatures available in the toolkit to invoke a

response to your brand.

ADVERTISING

Let us talk about the ve steps to ollow to use HTML5 tocreate mobile rich media ad campaigns.

1. Ensure the ad server is supporting Web content

This is always the case on desktop sites, but mobile sitesand especially mobile applications are not always set upto render ad content based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

The Webview is a way o raming the content or anadvertisement, while giving that campaign the exibil-ity to be easily ighted, targeted and served by a Webad server.

By placing ads in a Web container, you canserve the same units in a browser and anative application.

Images and videos can start at any size or shaperoma standard-looking banner to a shape as irregular as a

Geico Gecko.

Banners can be expanded slightly or to ull screen.

To request native unctionality rom the hardware o thedevice, such as access to the camera, GPS, address bookor zoom, a JavaScript-based bridge to the native unc-tionality is possible.

2. Take ull advantage

o the HTML5 toolkit

• Use the canvas in con-junction with videoAdd buttons that appearwhile a video is playingand let users interact withthe buttons or share thevideo on social networks.

Change the size o the player itsel while playingthe video.

• Use key rame animationKey rame animations are a lighter alternative to videoby animating lighter .gi or .png les on a portion othe screen.




Where network connectivity is less o a concern, tryetching an animation layer on top o the video.

• Use gestures Let users swipe and tap to change colors and breakapart shapes.

• Use location to optimize creative Location can change the nature o your opt-incampaign. For instance i you have auto-intend-ers that generally lease versus buy in a particu-lar location, oer them the appropriate locationpost opt-in.

3. Ensure you can track behavior

To ensure that all interactions with the ad – including allo those amazing eatures you just included rom above– can be tracked and measured.

Measurement on mobile can be very inaccurate i notdone right.

You need to choose a partner to manage and host thecampaign creative and serve in a way that ensures Web-standard tracking capabilities.

4. Test, test, test

An HTML5 rich media campaign oers a lot o sizzle.

But you need to make sure you do not overload the de-vice memory or network connection with an enormousad payload.

You may need to set up your ad or polite loading.

To do this, you might have your initial load be the rstew rames or teaser o the ad, ollowed by the main loadwith the ull le.

The ull ad is loaded only ater the rest o the content othe page is available, making or a much more “polite”user experience.

5. Complete the interaction

You should do as much as possible within the ad unititsel, including calls-to-action such as data collectionorms, email opt-ins, delivering PDFs or iBooks, or evenmaking reservations.

I there is a landing page, the best practice is to oerpost-click conversion tracking rom the ad unit to thecompleted conversion on the landing page to ensure thatyou have at least one report with a complete view to theinteraction rate and conversions.

HTML5 is available on desktop browsers, mo-bile browsers and, now, via the new Open RichMedia Mobile Advertising initiative, in nativemobile applications.

Hopeully, as more HTML5 campaigns run across aldigital platorms there will be more requent and rich-er data to help marketers stratiy digital behavior lessby device than they will by time o day, and modes ouser behavior.

Tom Limongello is vice president o marketing at CrispMedia, New York. Reach him at [email protected].




Key to success or a mobile rich media ad campaignBy Alex Linde

A

s mobile advertising continues to grow in 2011, itis important to understand the steps involved in

creating engaging and relevant mobile rich media

ADVERTISING

It is helpul to think o this process as a two-pronged onewhich begins with the creation o an ad that drives therich media mobile ad campaign and then the ne-tuningo that ad by testing it and tweaking its attributes until itis best suited to drive user engagement beore debutingit on mobile devices.

Designing the ad

When it comes to a mobile rich media ad campaign, therst and most signicant step is designing the ad.

At rst, this might seemobvious, but it is impor-tant to remember thatthere is no template ordesigning a successulrich-media ad unit.

Each is drawn based onthe marketer’s goals orthe campaign.

As such, here are theaspects o the designprocess which shouldbe top-o-mind duringthis initial phase.

1. Ad specs: As you be-

gin the design process,there are a number o actors to take into ac-

count, ranging rom the ad’s size (load time will varyon dierent mobile Web sites) to how quickly dierentcomponents will load to where the call-to-action shouldbe included (consumers, who are mostly right-handed,tend to click mostly on the right portion o an ad).

ad campaigns.

2. User experience: The consumer’s use o the ad shouldalways be a consideration. Ads should always be user-initiated. Consumers should be able to minimize thead or remove it i it is hindering their access to a mo-bile site, and the number o clicks that users need tomake to reach their nal interaction should be kept toa minimum.

3. Consumer engagement: This is one o the primaryobjectives o brands, so the ad should be designed toconnect with consumers consistently, evoking the coo“Ahh” actor, a loud and clear call to action, which tran-sitions the consumer rom user to buyer. Video shouldalways be considered as an engagement tool given howconsumers like to “snack” on their media these days.




4. Device: Make sure that what you are looking to ac-complish is technically possible across the largest num-ber o devices and on dierent-sized screens. How theconsumer interacts with the ad across devices, either bytouch or keyboard, should also play into the ad’s design.

Test ad’s perormance

Once you have developed your ad to visually entice us-ers, excite your target audience and work across dier-ent mobile devices, you need to rene it through testingto make sure that consumers’ interactions with the ad

are helping achieve marketer goals.

It is necessary, thereore, to keep in mind theseour actors:

1. Consumer motivation: Review what about your adis attracting user attention by cross-checking against“heat maps” (where users are tapping or typing ontheir screens), which represent consumer interactionwith the ad.

2. Form and scale: Testing on dierent devices maylead you to realize that the ad might have to changebased on technological compatibility issues to reach themaximum number o consumers.

3. Placement: Where the ad appears on the mobile screencan have a signicant eect on its perormance and it isnecessary to test dierent placement locations.

4. Timing: When reviewing an ad’s eectiveness, careshould be taken to analyze how the timing plays apart in consumers’ interactions with an ad. For ex-ample, you should review how the ad’s perormance isaected by the length o time it appears on a mobiledevice’s screen.

Following these steps willenable marketers to developrich-media ad campaignswith increased eective-ness throughout the year

and ones which will makethe best use o increasingsmartphone penetration toreach the maximum numbero consumers.

Alex Linde is director o mobile advertising at YahooSunnyvale, CA. Reach him at [email protected].




Designing engaging mobile rich media ads in-appBy Theo Skye

I

n 2010 we saw massive growth in the overall num-ber o smartphone users. There was a sharp increase

in the availability and interest in mobile applica-

ADVERTISING

tion ad inventory, and recent surveys show that 38 per-cent o respondents are comortable with seeing ads ontheir mobile devices.

“Mobile” is a very hot word within the halls o adagencies these days.

Agency executives and creatives no longer see mobile asa campaign side-dish now that they have a better un-derstanding o how mobile ts into the larger advertising

spectrum right along side withand otentimes aheadoonline, broadcast and print.

But education is still needed to exercise the ull powerand potential o mobile rich media or their clients.

Marketers, planners, buyers, publishersreally everyonein the advertising ecosystemcan drive greater valuerom their mobile campaigns by adhering to a ew simplebut important practices:

1. Start with results. Think about the goals, how you willachieve them, and how you will measure them.

In this way, mobile is not any dierent rom campaignsacross other mediums, but the creative path by whichyou attain the desired results can be even more explor-ative and exciting.

2. Ask how mobile will complement the broader

campaign. While mobile rich media ads allow brands to

engage consumers in ways and places not possible withother mediums, it is critical to understand how the mo-bile component meshes with the online, print or broad-cast portions o a campaign.

Campaigns that apply consistent creative and mes-saging across all touch points are most successul.

3. Consider the context. It is important to remember

that since the ad will appear on a mobile device, ratherthan a desktop, television or road sign, the consumercould be anywhere and doing just about anything whenthe ad is presented.

Engage your audience with the most important aspectso an execution in ways that do not necessarily requirecopious amounts o time or eort to take in while on

the go.

Also, consider using the unique capabilities that today’smobile devices make available, such as touchscreens, ac-celerometers and location-based services.

4. Know your device. IPhone, iPad and Android de-vices each have their own set o unique qualitiesthat allow or various ways to approach technica




and creative executions.

Aspects o a devicesuch as the dimen-sions and resolution o

the screen, overall de-vice perormance andhardware eature set,even the ways in whicha user typically holdsa given device in her

hands, should all help todetermine how the advertising experience is designedand executed.

5. Know your apps. It

is about more than justknowing what genre o applications a campaignwill run on.

Investigate how the ap-plication itsel uses de-vice eatures such asvideo, audio and orien-tation changes. These

user experience consid-erations may inorm decisions about how to make anexecution t within or even play o o an application’sunique characteristics.

6. Determine how innovative your execution

actually needs to be. Rich media ads on mo-bile will generate much higher engagement ratesthan static.

But not every rich mobile execution needs to be a

rst-to-market opportunity or necessarily even usecutting-edge, mobile-specic eatures to be 100percent successul.

Use device eatures with intention and only whenthey support and reinorce the underlying big idea o an execution.

Users and brands have historically responded well to rich

mobile executions that involve unique, visceral interac-tions such as shaking, dragging and tilting.

But the upcoming generation o mobile ads should lookto incorporate eatures that put even more ocus on theoverall results o an execution and its ability to meet thebrand’s goals.

Incorporating more practical interactions such as settingcalendar reminders, enabling ecommerce, using mappinglocation-based services, and integrating social communi-ties will drive deeper engagement and, ultimately, proveto more eectively enhance a brand’s relationship withthe consumers.

Theo Skye is creative director o Medialets, New YorkReach him at [email protected].




Mobile app development or retailersBy Dan Lowden

R

etailers’ question o whether or not to create amobile-optimized user shopping experience was

thoroughly answered and validated in 2010 as both

APPLICATIONS

smartphone users and mobile commerce transactionssoared to unprecedented levels.

Nielsen predicts that 140 million Americans will own asmartphone by the end o 2011 and nearly 50 percento smartphone owners already use or plan to use theirphones or mobile shopping, according to ABI Research.

The big question o 2011 is how to create a retail mo-bile application that will enable cross-channel marketing

and sales, increase customer conversion and drive brandawareness to ensure the mobile-optimized channel is along-term strategic success.

In the development o mobile applications, it is impera-tive to determine your mobile retail strategy, learn you

customers’ mobile demographics and partner with anexperienced mobile commerce provider.

App development

The downloadable rich applications should leverage theull capabilities o today’s leading smartphones to deliverthe ultimate mobile experience.

Retailers need to think strategically when creating amobile application to build lasting relationships withtheir loyal customers through a brand-in-the-hand

opportunity and a highly personalized, unique mobilecommerce interaction.

Then, once the mobile application is live and avail-able to customers, the real work begins as it is im-portant to set goals, review and leverage busi-ness intelligence, tune the experience, reviseproduct oerings, build awareness, increase conver-sion, engage in multichannel eorts and communicateongoing changes.

Know your consumer base

Retailers should review which mobile device types cus-tomers are using to connect with your their site to deter-mine which rich mobile applications are appropriate oryour customer base.

I your customers are business-oriented, lead with aBlackBerry application. I your customer base is moreconsumer-ocused, an iPhone or Android applicationwould be more appropriate.

In matching the application to your demographic, it cre-ates entirely new and deep ways or customers to inter-act with your brand and drive incremental revenue.

Innate app eatures

A mobile application lets users access their phone’s na-tive device capabilities whether they are at home, on thego or when in-store.




Examples include GPS to simpliy the “nd a store” ea-ture and store check-in, the camera unctionality toenable bar code product look-up and mobile coupons,and an address book and wallet implementation to auto-populate checkout elds.

The development o a mobile application creates a spaceor loyal customers to access a retailer’s products seam-

lessly, quickly, conveniently and more requently.

True understanding

For many retailers, mobile is a completely new mediumto them.

Business intelligence is also critical, so retailers shoulddo monthly reviews with their mobile commerce providerto measure key metrics and ROI.

Mobile app goals

It is imperative or a retailer to recognize its goals inenabling a mobile application.

Whether the primary goals include acquisition, conversa-tion, transactions, revenue, cart size, purchase requencybranding, time on application, time to transact, returnshoppers, SMS promotion signups, application down-

loads or promo code usage, the overall objectives need tobe continually tracked so that adjustments and improve-ments can be made i and when necessary.

Equally important is to determine what sells best in amobile environment, consolidating categories and high-lighting best-sellers and promotional items so thatcustomers can search, browse and buy in as little assixty seconds.




Mobile medium awareness

Driving awareness o the mobile application is a criticalstep to drive purchases and increased usage. This can bedone in a variety o ways and should be incorporatedinto all current marketing and advertising elements.

Awareness building can be done through press announce-ments targeting consumers, business media and industryanalysts, media interviews, speaking engagements andcase studies.

Additionally, a callout to the new mobile applicationon the ecommerce site and catalog channels as well asthrough email campaigns, Facebook, Twitter and SMShave proven eective in driving application downloads,adoption and purchases.

There is an investment o time and resources required

to make the mobile commerce retail application along-term success, but the rewards are signicant-ly higher in revenue, branding and customer loyaltyas mobile will be a signicant way in which consum-ers interact with retailers on a regular basis, anytimeand anywhere.

Many o the industry’s top retailers have already success-ully enabled a mobile application including Golsmith1800Flowers, Toys “R” Us, UGG Australia, ShopBlack-Berry, Avenue, Babies “R” Us, Ghirardelli, Gol Ware-house, Godiva, Sportmans’ Guide and Woman Within

Last year validated mobile, and those with strategic mo-bile applications in 2011 are likely to lead the market.

Dan Lowden is vice president o marketing at DigbyAustin, TX. Reach him at [email protected].




How to build a branded mobile appBy Clint H. Parr

I

had a nightmare. I pulled into work and realized I letmy mobile phone at home. I panicked as I contem-

plated what to do.

APPLICATIONS

I I go back home, I will be late or work. I I try to dowithout it, how could I be reached in an emergency?How will I check my email between customer visits? Ielt isolated rom the world. Waking up, I realized it wasjust a dream.

Some o you are thinking, “It’s just a phone.” But I expectthe majority o you understand that a mobile device,whether an iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry is more than just

a phone.

Mobile devices help us manage our time, keep up withamily and stay in touch with customers while out o the oce.

Also, mobile devices are increasingly relied on to provideadvice on places to eat, nd a great deal on shoes or gen-erally connect with the products and services on whichwe depend.

This attachment with our “mobiles” provides an oppor-tunity or marketers and brand managers to reach outand engage with customers through a medium we arerarely without.

Easy-to-use branded mobile applications, which delivervaluable and engaging content to your customer whenthey need it most, can be a well-positioned vehicle toleverage this opportunity.

The key here is to deliver true value. Branded applica-tions containing nothing more than a game or inomer-cial tend to quickly get deleted.

Are you ready to build a branded application? Here are aew issues to consider:

What are your customers looking or?

First, understand the type o content and level o

engagement your customers want.

Think through the process o a customer nding, down-loading and using your application. What can you pro-vide them that is beyond your Web site or marketingone-sheet? Do they only need quick access to updatedinormation, or do they desire an interactive and engag-ing application experience?

Beore building your application, take the time to re-ally understand what your customer wants and howthey are going to use it. Additionally, make sure it iscontent you can easily keep resh and updated with the

latest inormation.

Native app versus Web app

Once you have decided to build the application, you wilneed to decide i you want to build a native applicationor a Web application.

By denition, a native application is developed or aspecic mobile device.

Much like sotware running on your computer, a nativeapplication can process and store content and other in-ormation on the device itsel.

High-value native applications typically interact with anonline application server to transer and synchronize in-ormation when a network is available.

A Web application obtains its content rom an onlineWeb site. More sophisticated devices such as the iPhoneiPad and Android can store a local copy o the content

while ofine, but usability in that mode is limited.

How to choose

When deciding which type o application to choose, youwill need to weigh several options.

1. Do you want your application available in

the Apple App Store? I so, then you will need anative application.




Even i your application is only accessing online Webcontent, native applications have the ability to processand store the content on the device.

2. Do you want your

customers to have

round-the-clock ac-

cess to your content?

In airplane mode or ar-eas with poor signalstrength, your custom-ers may not have accessto online content. Willcustomers care i yourapplication provides val-

ue only when it is connected? I so, how can you engage

them while ofine?

3. How are you going to update your application

and content?

Much like an out-o-date Web site, i your applica-tion’s content is stale you can expect customers will notuse it.

Since Web applicationspull content rom on-line, keeping it resh

means updating yourWeb site. Native appli-cations typically requirea more robust onlineapplication server tostay updated.

We are always looking or new ways to reachour customers.

Having a branded mobile application can increasebrand awareness and loyalty. Take the time to choosethe right type o content delivered with the right kindo application to ensure that you do not end up withdisappointed customers.

Clint H. Parr is president/CEO o MacroSolve Inc., Tulsa,OK. Reach him at [email protected].




How to create a mobile bar code programBy Laura Marriott

T

he integration o a mobile bar code into a market-ing initiative is an ideal way or a brand to activate

a campaign, making it engaging, immersive and

BAR CODES

With mobile 2D bar codes, consumers can connect withthe brand and participate in interactive communicationat the moment o impulse when they scan the code.

So how do you design and create eective mobile barcode campaigns to take advantage o this excitingmobile media element?

Planning the campaignMobile bar codes should be planned as part o the overallmarketing initiative.

For example, ensure they are incorporated into digitaland traditional media as an integral campaign element.

Also, establish a plan or longer-term consumer engage-ment as part o the overall objectives. Ater all, thereis no point in establishing an interaction and then notmaintaining the dialogue.

Defne your requirements

Beore selecting your vendor, make a list o your needs sothat you can better understand what elements you wantto evaluate in your partner.

Requirements may include type o code, desired interac-tion, reader, geography and reporting requirements.

Selecting the right vendor partner

Although putting a mobile bar code campaign togetheris relatively straightorward, selecting the right ven-dor to help guide you, share their expertise and sup-ply the appropriate technology is an important step tosuccessul implementation.

The partner may provide mobile bar code reader appli-cations, bar code creation, resolution, management anddata reporting, while ensuring appropriate geographic

interactive or consumers.

coverage and high-quality user experiences. Take thetime to select the partner that is right or you.

Symbol and methodology selection

An important consideration or brands wanting toachieve maximum eect rom a bar code campaign is toconsider the use o global open standard symbologiessuch as quick response, or QR, which can be scanned byall universal readers.

The number o users who can read a mobile bar code isdetermined by the number o handsets running readerapplications. This establishes the campaign’s reach.

Design to ensure eective communication

Consumers will opt-in to receive communications whenthey perceive that they will be o value to them – wheth-er that be in nancial terms by means o giveaways, dis-counts or in less tangible services based on inormationentertainment and utility.

Thus, it is important to ensure that you deliver valueto the consumer, whether through relevant contentcoupons or exclusive inormation.

The design o the campaign is paramount to ensure strongconsumer response. Ensure the mobile bar code is posi-tioned in a way that makes it easy to identiy and scan

Make sure it is placed in an area o prominence withinthe ad and on a at surace rather than, or example, be-




tween olds in the magazine, which will hamper scanning.

There should be white space around the code, whichmakes it easy or the reader application to scan. And i possible, the code should be printed in black and whiteto ensure ease o scanning with the majority o mobile

devices and bar code readers.

Given the relative newness o bar codes to the mass-market, you should also consider placing descriptivecopy next to the bar code, explaining what the codeis, how it is used and how to download a reader toscan it.

I you ollow these simple design steps, it will help acili-tate positive consumer participation.

Test, test, test

Consumers will be deterred rom using bar codes i theirinitial experience is unsatisactory.

To ensure ongoing consumer participation, bar codesshould be tested using a variety o reader/scanning appli-cations and mobile devices. Also, the content which thecode is directing towards should be optimized or mobile

The ability to measure the data generated rom you

campaign helps determine the success and ROI, helpingto shape uture campaigns and ensure the initiative isoptimized or consumer engagement. It is thereore vitato select a vendor that provides analytics, such as usagetimes based on location and demographic inormationallowing brands to make inormed decisions to continueto leverage 2D codes in their initiatives.

Indeed, 2D mobile bar codes are set to become one o thedominant mobile media elements, so ollow these simple

steps and try it today.

Laura Marriott is CEO o NeoMedia Technologies Inc.Atlanta. Reach her at [email protected].




Keys to mobile coupon successBy Anthony Iacovone

I

n theory, getting consumers to put away paper cou-pons and use their mobile phones seems realistic

enough: ater all, there are an estimated 293 million

COUPONS

wireless subscribers in the United States – or roughly 95percent o our country’s population.

There are technologies to make mobile couponing morepractical than it was just months ago.

Key to constructing a mobile couponing strat-egy is working with a partner that understands the“how-to” o implementing it. But that is not the onlyelement necessary.

Dierence between mobile coupon and mobile oer

As with traditional retail, there are two ways to pull cus-tomers into stores: with coupons and with oers. And itis best i you determine upront on which your mobilestrategy will most depend.

A mobile oer generally means a discount or percentageo a product used by a single retailer, such as a depart-ment store, to entice consumers.

Mobile coupons, meanwhile, entitle the bearer to brand-specic discounts. Why distinguish between the two? Itis simple: redemption.

To redeem mobile oers, consumers can receive a nu-meric discount code to their phone via SMS or – morerecently – an image o a bar code that is scanned at thepoint o sale.

Redeeming mobile coupons presents even more o a

challenge, since the majority o scanners are laser – un-able to read bar codes – and other key actors, such ascustomer line speed, are crucial.

Know – and choose – the right technology

With all o the barriers that exist at point o sale, re-tailers and brands must use a multimodal approach tomake sure the broadest base o consumers can redeem

their oers and coupons. For example, direct-to-loyaltycard aggregators can help reach multiple grocery ban-ners with a single oer. Email-to-print unctions wilensure everyone can participate – even those witheature phones.

Also, within months instead o years, we will see the rst

widespread use o a relatively new technology calledNear Field Communication, or NFC, which will enableconsumers to use their mobile devices or both couponredemptions and payments at POS merchant terminals

Test and hone in on what works

Run oer tests that trial dierent values and implementunique calls–to-action and ocus on what works and




enhance oers that do not.

It is also important to consider what media to use:does a reestanding insert with a mobile call to actionmake sense?

Probably not, as the demographic and behavioral changewill actor against such use. And think about other tradi-tional media outlets on the path to purchase: television,radio, print, out-o-home and shel.

Remember this above all: your customer is walkinginto a store not with a TV or radio ad, a print ad ora billboard – but she is most likely walking in with amobile phone.

Choose the right partner or your mobile strategy

Mobile coupons oer brands a direct digital dialogue

with their customers and vastly deeper analytics thantraditional paper and digital: demographics, geographicsand behavioral data is readily available or consumerswho engage with their mobile device.

More importantly, ater a rst engagement, creatingconsumer brand and store loyalty is as easy as sendingconsumers an SMS or other oers. Paper coupons can-not do that.

When implementing a mobile couponing campaignit is critically important to work with companies thathave addressed early-stage mobile couponing issuesas well as those that are simultaneously versed inmore traditional oerings such as direct-to-print and

direct-to-card.

Such a partnership ensures that consumers can opt-inat numerous touch points in the pathway to purchasevia mobile – whethersmartphones or ea-ture phones – and ex-ecute coupons eitherdirect-to-loyalty cardor via emails. This al-lows coupon redemp-

tion over a wide arrayo retail networks.

Get it straight

Dene your coupon-ing strategy, knowthe technology, honein on what works and– most importantly –work with the rightpartner. It is importantnot to lose sight o these guidelines in a highly-ragmented mobile market-ing landscape. Hundreds o millions o potential custom-ers are waiting, mobile phones in hand.

Anthony Iacovone is chie innovation ocer oAugme Technologies, New York. Reach him [email protected].




How to create an efective mobile coupon programBy Meaghan Schaeer

A

re die-hard paper coupon clippers nally ready toembrace technology and change their ways? Ac-

cording to a study by Yankee Group, the answer

COUPONS

is “Yes.”

The study ound that the number o mobile coupon usersin North America was set to increase more than tenoldin 2010, ollowed by triple-digit increases in both 2011and 2012.

Some $2.37 billion-worth o mobile coupon transactionswill take place in North America in 2013, up rom just $5million this year.

Many marketers have experienced great success withtargeted and measurable online discounts and aliateprograms, and have started using mobile coupons to ex-tend the capabilities o their online marketing to reachin-store customers.

A recent study rom Harris Interactive shows that only 4percent o Internet users have redeemed mobile coupons,compared with 86 percent who clipped paper couponsand 65 percent who used online or email coupons.

But digital coupon incentives are catching on quicklyand marketers have an opportunity to leverage this newtechnology to enhance their consumer targeting andadvertising eorts.

Targeting the perect customer

Mobile coupons are highly measurable. Marketers cansee how many coupons were redeemed and which typeo customers or segments responded to which oer.

Marketers are mastering the creation and delivery o these personalized digital coupons, either by sending anactual coupon to a mobile phone, with a bar code orcoupon code embedded in it, or by alerting a customerto a personalized digital coupon promotion via email ortext message.

Some platorms take into account an individual’s past

purchases based on recent credit card transactions, us-ing behavioral targeting to deliver relevant discounts

Consumers nd out about the current incentives load-ed onto their cards via emails, text messages or anonline portal.

For example, a sporting goods retailer could target alpeople who have bought sports equipment in the past 60days rom other retailers with a 20 percent-o incentiveon their next purchase. A shopper receives a text mes-sage that the coupon is on her card and heads back tothe store to make a purchase.

Execution is keyGetting started with mobile coupons can be tricky, butthe ollowing are tips to get marketers on their way:




1. Dene your goals. Do you want to connect with ahard-to-reach target audience? Do you need to increaseaverage order value or transaction amounts?

Maybe you want to ocus on new customer acquisition,

build loyalty with existing customers, or get them to re-turn sooner and buy more requently.

All o these goals are valid, and the type o incentivesyou oer will vary depending on which goal is most im-portant to your brand today.

2. Select the right marketing technology partner. Themobile marketing platorm you choose to communicateand reconcile the incentives is key.

3. Gather data and optimize campaigns. Another addedbenet o mobile coupon programs are the data you cancollect on individual shopping patterns and preerencesas people redeem the incentives in-store.

By mining and analyzing this cross-channel data, youwill get a clear picture o which promotions are workingand how dierent segments and demographics react tospecic oers.

You can then create more eective incentives, targetingkey customer segments based on demographics, preer-ences, geography and purchase data.

Redemption methods

Redemption is imperative, and at this point in the in-dustry’s evolution, the best options or redeeming digitalcoupons are systems that require the least amount o change or both the consumer and the marketer.

It is critical to understand how the system you choose

will work on the backend to reconcile an oer.

Five most common redemption methods

1. Consumer presents a phone displaying a discount oerand the cashier rings up the purchase with a discount.

2. Cashier manually enters a code displayed in the mobilecoupon to generate a discount.

3. Cashier scans a bar code embedded in themobile coupon.

4. Consumer downloads coupons to a store’s loyalty cardthrough a Web site or smartphone application, and the

discount is applied when both loyalty card and paymentcard are swiped at the checkout.

5. SMS and smartphone applications alert consum-ers that discounts have been loaded directly to aconsumer’s credit or debit card, and discount is au-tomatically applied when the consumer uses a cardto pay.

Challenges and looking ahead

The challenge or many o these redemption meth-

ods is getting both consumers and retailers to altetheir behavior.

Many consumers are not yet comortable with handingover their phones at the checkout to receive a discount.Even more problematic is the training required or storeclerks to accept mobile coupons.

A customer waving a mobile phone in ront o them say-ing, “I have a coupon on here,” is still a rare occurrencethat most cashiers are ill-equipped to handle. That is whycoupon alert services tied to payment or loyalty cards arequickly gaining popularity.

Mobile coupons hold the promise o both direct market-ing and one-to-one marketing.

By delivering highly personalized incentives to a per-son’s mobile phone, marketers are promoting their brandright into the pocket o their target audiences at keyinuence points.

The mobile commerce and coupon ecosystem wilbe one to watch as brand advertisers capitalize onthis innovation.

Meaghan Schaeer is chie marketing o-cer o edo Interactive, San Francisco. Reach her [email protected].




Evoking an emotional response with MMSBy James Citron

M

MS is one o the world’s most widely deployedwireless data technologies and currently used

by more consumers globally than watch televi-

MESSAGING

sion, browse the Web and read newspapers.

To maximize the channel’s eectiveness, market-ers should consider several actors when creating anMMS campaign.

Defning your core objective

Akin to all mobile marketing programs, a good cam-paign starts out with a clear denition o what your coreobjectives are.

Engagement : I you are a consumer brand marketer andlooking to create deeper engagement with your cus-tomers, it is easy to see how multimedia such as mobilevideo, slideshows, how-to videos and other digital as-sets can better increase engagement with your audienceusing MMS.

Would it not it be nice to get a how-to MMS vid-eo teaching you how to assemble that new deskrom IKEA?

Tune-In: I you opted in to get inormation aboutthe hit television show “Pretty Little Liars,” whywould I send you a text message with the airingtime when you can deliver a 30-second, exclusivesneak peek o the content with the airing times? Ora sneak peek o Tron with a link to buy tickets at thenearest theater?

Content is king.

The mobile phone is arguably the most personal de-vice that we have with us at all times. It is not likewatching TV.

Consumers expect authenticity and a personal connec-tion through mobile.

As a rule o thumb, the more creative and authentic thecontent is, the better it perorms.

Flip-cam style content works well delivered to handsets

Think authentic, original, unique and never seen beore

Capture behind-the-scenes content that will not be usedelsewhere, so recipients start to perceive the brand’sMMS outreach as something they should always pay at-tention to the inside scoop.

MMS supports a wide variety o rich-media con-tent, including video clips, pictures, slide shows, soundand music. This exibility means that an advertiser prob-ably already has content that can be easily repurposed

or MMS, or that new content can be created quickly




and inexpensively.

Brands should use MMS to tell a story that pulls atthe heartstrings o its consumers, evokes an emotion-al response, and creates a personal connection withthe brand.

For example, real estate agencies typically take dozenso photos o each listing, and some also videotape aproperty’s interior to create virtual tours.

The agency could repurpose that content so that apasser-by could receive an MMS message that has aslideshow or video o the property.

Mobile CRM: Gaining permission

A consumer’s mobile number has become arguably themost important piece o CRM data that every brandshould try to acquire, and MMS sets up the opportunityto ask them to opt into a campaign, thus establishing arelationship and building loyalty.

It is critical that marketers link MMS, or any mobile

campaign, into the broader CRM system, to create atrue multichannel CRM strategy which delivers relevantcontextual and personalized inormation to custom-ers based on their demographics, preerences, behaviorand location.

This will enable marketers to develop closer, personarelationships with customers, and create long-termbrand loyalty.

Already, brands such as ChaCha, Steve Madden, CBSAtlanta and Jamie Foxx use MMS to reach consum-ers. We are no longer living in a black-and-white, 160-character world where most phones text and somehave applications.

Instead, we are living in a world where consumers ex-pect to be engaged by marketers with sight, soundand motion and MMS can do this with every one oyour customers.

James Citron is the CEO and coounder o Mogreet, LosAngeles. Reach him at [email protected].




Top 10 attributes o a successul SMS campaignBy Tim Miller

The growth and popularity o SMS can be partly ex-plained by the immediate, concise and unobtrusive

nature o a 160-character text message.

MESSAGING

But its rise to prominence is equally explained by itsubiquity - i.e. SMS is on every mobile phone and mostAmericans carry their mobile phones at all times.

For marketers and organizational leaders, these charac-teristics make SMS the ideal connective tissue to linkand enhance all other marketing channels.

Role o SMSThe ability to reach the right person, at the righttime, with the right message, has been the goal o every marketer.

However, traditional strategies designed to leverage tra-ditional customer relationship marketing databases arebecoming less eective.

Consumers moving, changing their email address anddropping their home

phone lines haveall been naturaldisruptive orces.

But changes in con-sumer behavior andthe prolieration o social media hasurther complicatedthe databases andthe strategy.

As traditional mass marketing channels continue to giveground to targeted, interactive channels, the mobilephone has become the only common lynchpin capable o tethering multimedia, social networking and commerce.

SMS is enhancement channel

Beore we dive into the list, let us establish some context

and introduce some caveats.

We like to reer toSMS as the enhance-ment channel. Inother words, we liketo think that no mat-ter the strategy dujour, SMS can likelyenhance it.

I you are into email

marketing, then SMSis the absolute bestway to capture anemail address. I youare into social me-dia, then SMS is thebest way to link ol-lowers to your page at the latest social destination. Iyou are into mobile applications, then SMS can pro-vide a one-click link that will detect and install theappropriate application.

In summary, SMS is really good at increasing responserates, collecting data and providing un, sel-service util-ities to customers.

That being said, we constantly remind ourselves and ourclients to ask the question, “What are we really trying toaccomplish? What is the real end goal?”

Only then can we honestly evaluate whether SMS can oshould be used to enhance the objective.

Sadly, most objectives tend to be been short-term, cy-clical and campaign-driven when they should be long-term, strategic and tied to a core business unit’s protand loss.

Ater all, SMS is simply a mobile transaction protocol -a method to conduct a transaction on a mobile device




Until organizations embrace that denition and cre-ate lotier ambitions tied to revenue or cost-sav-ings, SMS will remain relegated to the trivial contestsand treasure hunts born by agencies and interactivemarketing departments.

The good news is that sometimes the simplestSMS transactions can have a huge eect on anorganization’s nancials.

Mobile payment reminders, password resets, subscrip-tion renewals, receipts and conrmations, upgrade o-ers and links to persuasive, conversion-oriented mul-timedia are all common, rst-step oerings that candramatically increase revenue and reduce costs - notto mention collect opt-ins and customer proles oruture communications.

Design elements

1. Call to action - The audio, print or banner that invitessomeone to text a keyword to a short code.

2. Text-to-join versus text-or-ino - Are you col-lecting an opt-in or just returning inormation to theuser’s query?

3. Message fows - What happens ater the consumerresponds - e.g. coupon, poll, contest, survey?

4. Compliance - Carriers have specic rules or shortcodes and SMS.

The list

When planning your cre-ative, try to incorporateas many o these attri-butes as possible:

1. Simple - The call to ac-tion must be easy or thecustomer to understandand execute.

2. Time-sensitive - Both

the call to action and theSMS content should answer the question, “Why now?”

3. Utility - What is the service or eciency we are pro-viding through this program?

4. Value - What’s in it or us? What’s in it or the customer?

5. Broad appeal - The larger the potential audience, thebetter. Also, MMS and WAP should not be required.

6. Personal relevance - the consumer should be able tounderstand “Why me? Why my phone?”

7. Personal context - Use a personal writing stylethat builds a sense o community - e.g. “We,” “You”and “Us.”

8. Scalable - Design programs that are easy to deployexecute and leverage across the whole organization.

9. Economical - Incorporate economy into the originacall to action - e.g. “Text your email address to 54321”

10. Anonymous - Understand and embrace the notionthat consumers like to remain anonymous.

Timothy Miller is president o Sumotext Inc., Little RockAR. Reach him at [email protected].




Steps or optimizing SMS campaignsBy Alexander Gregori

We all know by now that the easiest, quickestand most eective mobile marketing tool is

text messaging.

MESSAGING

SMS also has the widest reach because every one o themore than 5 billion mobile phones on this planet has thecapacity to send and receive them.

But SMS-keyword-to-short-code campaigns are limit-ing because they oten result in the mere collection o mobile phone numbers.

When you spend hundreds, thousands or even millionso dollars in above-the-line campaigns to, say, driveyour target market to text a keyword to a short codeto enter a competition and you end up with a great re-sponse, you still do not know anything about the peoplewho entered.

In terms o best practice and in some countries the law,you are not even allowed to ollow up by sending bulkSMS messages with other oerings to the people whoparticipated in your campaign, i.e. your leads.

You could spend your dollars much more eective-ly i you add a hyperlink to your response SMS thatlands users on a mobile site where you can ask themto double-opt-in to receive urther updates romyou about your products, services and special oersvia SMS.

So it all ends up with SMS again, right?

Character sketch

Yes, because:

1. Ninety-eight percent o SMS are opened and respond-ed to within 60 minutes versus only 5 percent o emailsthat are opened.

2. Only 10 percent o SMS are unsolicited versus over 90percent o emails.

3. More than 7 trillionSMS messages are ex-

pected to be sent glob-ally in 2011, according toABI Research.

I you set up your sys-tem correctly, you cancontinue to legallyengage your prospec-tive customers viaSMS ater they entered

your competition.

You are also able to tailor your oerings much betterbecause you have collected valuable inormation aboutwhat your target market wants to hear rom you.

This lowers your advertising costs because you not onlyspeak exclusively to people who asked to hear rom youbut you also can give them the specic inormation thatthey are interested in.

To do this in an easy and cost-eective manner you sim-ply send out bulk SMS messages to your database.

I you have more to say than the 160 characters SMSallows you, you can always include a hyperlink to therelevant page on your mobile site.

There are a large number o service providers in the mar-ket that do this or you or let you do it yoursel, which isnot only cheaper but also very easy and does not requireyou to have any special skills.

Tool road

However, these services are only a bulk SMS tool and thisposes two challenges:

1. You still have to know how to use the tool. Just as witha screw driver, which you can use as a screwdriver or as achisel, but it is much more eective as a screw driver.




2. You still have to know how to integrate the tool intoan overall marketing strategy, most probably togetherwith other tools, to get the ull eect.

Most o the providers o this bulk SMS tool do not sup-ply this additional support. They simply argue that you

can use bulk SMS to reach your database cost eectively.This is, o course, true.

But how do you build your database? How do you designcompelling, dynamic campaigns? How do you integratethis tool into your overall marketing strategy?

You can have the best marketing tools in the world, butto get the most out o your marketing investment you

need to have a comprehensive strategy.

You can easily ship around this challenge by ei-ther speaking to a marketing strategist when youplan your campaign – more expensive – or by look-ing or an o-the-shel service that includes both

bulk SMS credits and a comprehensive strategy onhow to use them in an integrated way with a mobilesite and your other existing marketing tools, which ismore aordable.

Alexander Gregori is owner o Dawn Anna Investments(Pty) Ltd.’s myMobWorld, RichMobile, MobileMarketingWinner$ and ThinkingMobile in Gaborone, BotswanaReach him [email protected].




What every brand needs to know or mobile SEMBy Dennis Glavin

M

obile search engine marketing has come a longway in the past year. Consumers have em-

braced enhanced smartphones on platorms

SEARCH

such as Windows Phone 7, Apple’s iPhone, Research InMotion’s BlackBerry and Google’s Android, and are alsosearching more than ever on devices.

Advanced smartphone use in the United States grew an-nually by 57 percent according to comScore MobiLens(November 2010).

Smartphones versus eature phones

As HTML devices continue to grow in popularity, each

o the major search engines has the opportunity toextend its PC search ads to this new device class.

These devices not only have better computing powerthan eature phones, but they can also render a standardHTML page designed or the PC Web and, in some cases,support mobile commerce-related transactions.

While ecommerce is on the rise, data suggests thattransactions in the ofine world are increasingly being

inuenced by mobile searches.

According to Microsot’s internal data, query chain anal-ysis suggests mobile consumers tend to take immediateaction based on their mobile search experience, more sothan online consumers.

Mobile query chains complete in minutes or hourscompared to PC query chains which can take weeks o

months to complete.

In act, the study not only conrmed that most searcheswere local but mobile consumers were nearly twice aslikely as PC searchers to be looking to take action locallyand with commercial intent.

Consumers ready or mobile

Research suggests that consumers are ready to makemobile part o their daily lives.

For instance, according to Microsot’s internal research50 percent o U.S. adults are interested in receiving andredeeming coupons on their mobile phones and 39 per-cent o U.S. merchants plan on deploying mobile cou-pons or special oers inthe next year.

And when you overlaylocation data, more than61 percent express in-

terest in receiving loca-tion-based coupons andoers. The consumer de-mand is there.

Keys to success

Agencies and marketerscan take advantage o this growing trend andextend their existing on-line search or contextual

ad campaigns to mobile.

In act, there are a number o search campaigns thatmay already be reaching mobile consumers anddriving volume.

To take things to the next level, Microsot believes nowis the time to segment and optimize smartphone SEMeorts separately rom PC campaigns.




Because consumers search dierently on their mobiledevice than on their PC, their search terms and their in-tent are dierent, which calls or mobile-specic key-word and bid strategies, creative copy and landing pagescustomized or mobile audiences.

The mobile search experience is vastly dierent rom thePC Web experience - rom dierent inputs such as loca-tion, voice and camera to dierent contexts such as out

o home, in car and in store to dierent states o mind.

Because o this, advertisers need to take a dierent ap-proach to mobile than they did or the PC. Keyword listsshould begin with broader, more generic root terms.

Copy and creative should speak directly to the mobilecontext (e.g. “rom your phone,” “on the go,” “with yourmobile”) and landing pages should be simple in design

and navigation without any Flash elements or otherheavy page objects. Landing pages should be ideallyormatted or smartphones.

It is important to remember

that mobile search behavioris also dierent on a mobiledevice than on a PC.

Consumers oten useshorter query chains alongwith dierent and ewersearch terms.

As a result, the use o root terms is very important.

Advertisers may be selling a known brand o women’shigh-ashion shoes, but on a mobile device, “cute shoesin Georgetown” mightdrive more volume than aname brand.

Take it to the next level

There are more than 61 mil-lion U.S. consumers carryingsmartphones today, withthe number o consumersincreasing daily, accord-ing to comScore MobiLens(November 2010).

When one o those consumers searches, he or she isvery close to making a purchase and can be inu-enced with a discount, special oer or a convenientnearby location.

The opportunity in mobile or search marketers is rea

and is growing.

It is time to get serious about mobile search advertis-ing by taking a unique approach. This should yieldpromising results.

Dennis Glavin is group product manager o mobile searchand local at Microsot Advertising, Redmond, WA. Reachhim at [email protected].




Basic rules o mobile Web developmentBy Steve Timpson

D

esigning the user experience or Web sites has al-ways been a bit like the alchemist explaining the

art o transmuting metals to the uninitiated.

WEB SITE DEVELOPMENT

Compound the mystery with the adaptation o desktopsites to the mobile appliance and it may seem positivelya philosophical and spiritual discipline only understoodto those o ancient Mesopotamian descent grounded inthe time beore cattle were domesticated.

The reality is that the conversion o desktop Web sites tothe mobile Web is not that mysterious.

Hopeully we can simpliy this into seven considerations.

Follow basic rules o design

These are not unique to Web site design, but design ingeneral. Most o these are already established to somedegree through your brand marketing.

Never orget, the mobile Web experience is an extensiono your brand experience to your customers and, rankly,threads through all your marketing verticals.

Basic design rules o thumb:

Audience – The application o your current site knowl-edge and insight into designing the mobile experienceor your audience and what their needs are.

Image – The way images are added and used to supportyour message.

Layout – The use o elements within your page layouts

or easier readability and navigation. Consistency in theuse o unctional button conventions should be consid-ered rom page to page.

Typography – General rules about optimum arrangementand appearance o printed content. The various mobiledevices capabilities and browser specications should beunderstood. Thoughtul consideration or consistency inont size, ont style and type usage.

Color – The use o color, as well as compositional eectso color, uses and psychological eects, or simply consis-

tency in the use o your current company color scheme.

Balance – Equilibrium in the various elements on thepage is important.

Contrast – The use o variations in patterns, edges, valueintensity, temperature, texture, size and shape to showvisual relationships and separation, creating denitionand depth.

Emphasis – Eective use o the mobile screen area

Where the consumer will rst cast her eyes on the siteand move around the screen.




Use color, space, visual movement, proportion, unity andshape to provide the viewer with context and content.

Understand your audience

Get to the needs o your customers, as ast as possible.This is about understanding your audience, how you in-tend to relate the brand to the audience and how youwant to deliver on the needs o that audience in themobile space.

Mobile users are accessing the Web on mobile or imme-

diate needs. Think in terms o optimizing the user experi-ence through layout, imagery and essential activities.

What do you intend or the user to be able to do on yourmobile Web site? It is important to keep in mind thatyour mobile site represents your brand.

Screen size

Ensure that main navigation header and ooters are

relevant and repeated.

Screen size is valuable space and pushing content belowthe old must be thoughtully done.

Basic controls should always be available (e.g. back but-ton or homepage) as well as critical inormation points(i.e. locators, shopping carts, terms o use, privacy, aboutlink to PC site).

Provide only essential inormation

Site dwell time is critical in the mobile space. There isless browsing and more searching. Inormation is o highimportance to the mobile Web site user.

Readership time is dierent on mobile versus desktopThin down large bodies o inormation.

Load times and data eeds can aect users’ decisions towait on a mobile Web site.




I large bodies o inormation are necessary, think o howto break this out into more navigation points or pages.

Break up the content so that consumers can click tothe portion o the data that are important to them atthat moment.

Action unction

Clearly indicate what action unction or button hasbeen selected.

Highlight buttons in a way that is easy to see by use o adierent color or a clear box outline o the button. Makesure the consumer knows where she is on the page asshe views and scrolls.

User inputs

Make user inputs easy or simple to execute.

For example, once you have a customer moving throughthe transaction process it is key to conversion that youmake the activities required as rictionless as possible.

Think about how to make the pay portal a one-click ex-perience or easily managed through cloud-based userstored inormation, or as simple as click-to-call versus

copying and pasting into the phone.

Text entry on mobile devices is harder than on a desktopand must be thoughtully laid out or mobile. Accountedit unction changes should be easy to change withonly the click o a ew buttons such as how to receivenotications, or the selection o pay options.

User comort

Do not orget user comort actors. Things such as thelayout and scroll are obvious, but additionally thinkabout the use o color and contrast o the backgroundand buttons.

Can the user see the site easily in all lighting conditions?Does the color selection allow or easy identication obutton selection?

Follow these basic design conventions and add someanalytics to tweak perormance as well as an ongo-ing user eedback option or site improvement andyour customers will have a user experience thatis sublime.

Steve Timpson is president o Siteminis, Atlanta. Reachhim at [email protected].




While it is true that the story-driven experience o sight,sound, motion and emotion on a large screen will con-tinue to engage consumers, there is a new way o con-suming media that is already complementing TV in thebranding department: mobile.

Advancement o mobile

With the advent o smartphones and now tablet com-puters, video is being literally taken into new locationsand dimensions.

Mobile phone penetration is now second only to TV, or 89percent, according to CTIA, and with 45 percent o con-sumers having 3G connections (comScore, June 2010),video on wireless devices is a reality.

Nielsen, the stalwart o TV measurement, is now in thebusiness o measuring video wherever it is consumed inwhat it calls the “Three-Screen Report,” which is issued

each quarter.

Those who consume video on mobile devices spend moretime with it than they do video on the wired Web: 3:37versus 3:10 hours per month.

ComScore estimates that 10 million people in the UnitedStates are now mobile video consumers and that smart-phones are driving the usage.

The iPad – and the urry o tablet competitors that wilollow – are making video ads and content as beautiuas on HDTV.

Video consumption

The amount o video consumed on mobile devicesis still very small compared to that o TV where us-age is, ater all, still growing, albeit mostly amongolder demographics.

For marketers, a mobile video buy can complement TVand increase reach o consumers ages 18–34.

This is the post-MTV video generation: one that con-sumes more media wherever possible and demands morecontrol over the experience.

Mobile is personal

Mobile devices are personal: they oer a powerul con-nection to the consumer – ullling on American Expresslong-ago brand promise o “Don’t leave home without it”– and they are a more immersive experience than theWeb, where the consumer is oten overwhelmed withdozens o elements competing or attention.

Use mobile video advertising or brandingBy Ujjal Kohli

I

n the digital age, many marketers make the assump-tion that television remains the ultimate medium

or branding.


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Consumers tendto seek out majorbrands in terms o video content –there is much less

search activity thanon the wired Web– and oten viewthe video in a modewhere they aretruly ocusing.

According to datarom Rhythm New-Media, mobile video is consumed throughout the day:

on the way to work, at work, while waiting in lines – andeven in living rooms at night.

Video advertising

Mobile video evenhas its own versiono primetime: usagepeaks rom 8 – 11 p.m.Even in a time periodwhen people are mostlikely to be watching

their 42-inch plasmas,some are choosingthis other device overothers to meet theirentertainment needs.

Another great ben-et o mobile video or brand marketers is that noth-ing extraordinarily complicated needs to be createdor mobile.

The standard ad unit is a 15-second pre-roll and sincethere are no “pods,” the connection between contentand sponsor is more pronounced.

According to Rhythm’s data, 87 percent o pre-rollsare completed.

Video ad networks work with brands to aggregate reach

and can ensure that theads will play properlyon any video-capablemobile device.

Mobile video also o-ers advertisers controlover various aspectso advertising: theads can be requency-capped, which solvesineciency issues andallows or greater dis-persion and reach o the impressions.

Targeting ads

Ads can be targeted via user-supplied inormationbehavioral data or by context.

Depending on the unit – in addition to pre-rolls you canalso develop rich me-dia units as in online– advertisers can alsochoose how to mea-sure: whether through

a passive exposure ba-sis such as TV, or go astep urther and assessvideo completion ratesengagement within adunits, click-to-retailelocator or Web site and

even buy through a preerred merchant partner.

I marketers choose to use a direct response type met-ric, the click-through rates or pre-roll video average1.7 percent, more than ten times the DoubleClick statedaverage o online banners.

Mobile is changing how brand marketers think about es-tablishing relationships with their customers.

Ujjal Kohli is CEO o Rhythm NewMedia, Mountain ViewCA. Reach him at [email protected].




In-application advertising is growing in proportion to theexplosion in the mobile applications eld: there are morethan 100,000 Android applications and the iPhone AppStore has more than 300,000.

In June 2010, comScore identied social networkingas the astest-growing content category across mobileapplications and browsers.

Social mobile adsWith advertisers doubling their reach through usersaccessing mobile applications, the addition o social-media-sharing options on rich media ads increases the vi-ral reach o their brand across increasingly popular socialnetworking sites.

In a recent campaign or the lm “Repo Men” by Uni-versal Pictures, iVdopia aimed to engage moviegoersand raise awareness, interest and intent to watch themovie by aligning its mobile strategy with the movie’smarketing campaign.

The result was pre-application videos ads, which ranwhile the application loaded, and banner ad units, whicheatured various social-media-sharing unctions.

These ads created an integrated opportunity or users toengage and share trailers, video clips and photos rom“Repo Men.”

Here is how it worked: By clicking “Learn more” on thevideo, the ad unit allowed the user to watch and sharethe “Repo Men” trailer via Facebook and Twitter; down-load wallpapers; view multiple video clips and photos;visit the movie’s Web site; and buy movie tickets.

Results

Th th li ti id t 568

ing benchmarks – andbanner ad units – at

400 percent greaterthan industry bench-marks – outperormedthe online medium.

From the multiple user-engagement optionson the banner ad unit,more than 30 percento the users who viewedthe trailer shared the clip with riends on Facebook

and Twitter.

The “Repo Men” campaign illustrated the power ovideo ads as well: More than 50 percent o the us-ers watched the entire trailer o the lm. On averagethey watched 10.8 seconds, or more than two-thirds othe clip.

Context-aware

The emergence o mobile video advertising dove-tails with the idea that context-aware marketing istaking o.

As users become drawn and engaged by rich media andvideo ads, they are more inclined to take the next step bymaking a purchase.

When users are more likely to click the video ad, watchthe entire clip and share it with a riend, they in turn aremore likely to seek out a nearby theatre and attend ascreening.

Expectations have shited to where the so-calledwow actor, available through one-click sharing, is anintegral component in helping advertisers eectivelytarget a greater proportion o mobile users.

Chhavi Upadhyay is co-ounder and chie operat-i iVd i S J CA R h h

Harnessing the power o mobile video adsBy Chhavi Upadhyay

M

ore brand advertisers today are turning to thelikes o the mobile click-to-video ad unit be-

cause o its proven eectiveness.

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Documents

Mobile Creative Guide