Facebook Marketing Campaigns

Are you still on the fence about whether it is worth it to invest the time and/or money into creating a solid Facebook Marketing Campaign? Perhaps the fact that more than half the population of the United States over the age of 12 is on Facebook, might make you reconsider any ambivalence that you are currently experiencing. This number will only continue to grow, considering the fact that Facebook is currently deleting over 20,000 accounts every day due to underage users creating the accounts.

One of the most significant aspects of this Social Media milestone, is the fact that just 3 years ago only 8% of the US population had a Facebook account. This level of growth has never been experienced by any other medium in the history of all media (TV, Radio, Newspaper...)

This study was conducted by Arbitron in January of 2011, and highlights the explosive growth of Facebook. There are currently over 200 million active users of Facebook, which is up from 65 million users only 12 months ago.

What does this mean for your business? Well, if you are currently passive about how you have chosen to use Facebook as a way to interact with current customers and seek new ones, you have a tremendous opportunity to improve. Presentation Multimedia createsCustom Facebook Applications, Facebook Landing Pages, Facebook Group Followings, and Robust Facebook Walls with constant updates.

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E-Mail Gets an Instant Makeover

December 20, 2010

E-Mail Gets an Instant Makeover

By MATT RICHTEL

SAN FRANCISCO — Signs you’re an old fogey: You still watch movies on a VCR, listen to vinyl records and shoot photos on film.

And you enjoy using e-mail.

Young people, of course, much prefer online chats and text messages. These have been on the rise for years but are now threatening to eclipse e-mail, much as they have already superseded phone calls.

Major Internet companies like Facebook are responding with message services that are focused on immediate gratification.

The problem with e-mail, young people say, is that it involves a boringly long process of signing into an account, typing out a subject line and then sending a message that might not be received or answered for hours. And sign-offs like “sincerely” — seriously?

Lena Jenny, 17, a high school senior in Cupertino, Calif., said texting was so quick that “I sometimes have an answer before I even shut my phone.” E-mail, she added, is “so lame.”

Facebook is trying to appeal to the Lenas of the world. It is rolling out a revamped messaging service that is intended to feel less like e-mail and more like texting.

The company decided to eliminate the subject line on messages after its research showed that it was most commonly left blank or used for an uninformative “hi” or “yo.”

Facebook also killed the “cc” and “bcc” lines. And hitting the enter key can immediately fire off the message, à la instant messaging, instead of creating a new paragraph. The changes, company executives say, leave behind time-consuming formalities that separate users from what they crave: instant conversation.

“The future of messaging is more real time, more conversational and more casual,” said Andrew Bosworth, director of engineering at Facebook, where he oversees communications tools. “The medium isn’t the message. The message is the message.”

The numbers testify to the trend. The number of total unique visitors in the United States to major e-mail sites like Yahoo and Hotmail is now in steady decline, according to the research company comScore. Such visits peaked in November 2009 and have since slid 6 percent; visits among 12- to 17-year-olds fell around 18 percent. (The only big gainer in the category has been Gmail, up 10 percent from a year ago.)

The slide in e-mail does not reflect a drop in digital communication; people have just gravitated to instant messaging, texting and Facebook (four billion messages daily).

James E. Katz, the director for the Center for Mobile Communications Studies at Rutgers University, said this was not the death of e-mail but more of a downgrade, thanks to greater choice and nuance among communications tools.

“It’s painful for them,” he said of the younger generation and e-mail. “It doesn’t suit their social intensity.”

Some, predictably, turn up their noses at the informality and the abbreviated spellings that are rampant in bite-size, phone-based transmissions. Judith Kallos, who writes a blog and books about e-mail etiquette, complains that the looser, briefer and less grammatical the writing, the less deep the thoughts and emotions behind it.
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AT&T Settles Class-Action Over Mobile Web Taxes, Still Leaves Questions Unanswered

From Mobile Marketing Watch:

AT&T has been caught up in a class-action lawsuit stemming from taxes billed to subscribers using data plans. The operator started sending out SMS messages to subscribers last week regarding a future refund, though details on the settlement and the lawsuit’s background is still largely unknown.

As part of the settlement, AT&T will refund taxes billed to users for mobile Internet services rendered between November 1, 2005 and September 7, 2010. The lawsuit was filed against the operator from plaintiffs who claimed that AT&T had violated the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act. This act prohibits state and local governments from levying taxes on Internet access between November 2003 and November 2014, though apparently AT&T kept collecting anyway.

A Website was created to give information about the lawsuit, though several important questions remain unanswered. First of all, there’s still no mention of how much AT&T collected wrongly, or how many mobile data users it affects. I for one have two AT&T accounts with data plans and have never received an SMS regarding the lawsuit like many others have. Another big question is what AT&T will have to pay out for this mistake. In the last quarter alone, AT&T reported revenues of $4.8 billion from wireless data services, and this settlement covers the last five years.

It’s also likely that AT&T isn’t the only operator who’s been collecting these taxes. I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot more about this in the near future. Leave us a comment if you’ve been affected by this lawsuit. Has anyone received an SMS regarding a refund?

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Rhythm NewMedia Raises $10M, Sees 425M Monthly Mobile Video Ad Impressions

From Mobile Marketer

Mobile video advertising provider Rhythm NewMedia has announced a series C round of funding valued at $10, while indicating its interactive video ads average over 425 million monthly impressions as of Q3 alone.

The company was founded in 2005 and says its the largest mobile video ad network around, even though it’s continued to fly under the radar. A reason for that is that it tends to only work with big-name brands and publishers, and actually counts over 100 Fortune 500 companies as clients. Publishers include CBS and Fox; and advertisers include Best Buy and FedEx, to name a few.

The company focuses on pre-roll interactive mobile video ads, and is responsible for many of the ads you already see on iOS and Android applications. The ads served by Rhythm are interactive in the sense that users can tap on something during the pre-roll ad to visit another website, or view a longer video clip like a movie trailer for instance. Serving over 425 million monthly video ad impressions, which the company says is up 30% over Q2, Rhythm has found the sweet spot of mobile video advertising.

As part of its “Q3 2010 Mobile Video Ad Report” released last month, Rhythm covered data showing completion rates for interactive pre-roll video ads remain high at 87%, exceeding online video and even television. In addition, CTRs are 79% higher on display ads that mention “video” as a call to action vs. other similar ads, the company said, and iPad CTRs for pre-roll video ads are 2x or higher vs. iPhone, iPod Touch and Android.

The mobile video ad space will continue heating up, and we’ll likely hear a lot more from Rhythm going forward. Rhythm CEO Ujjal Kohli said his company was “a bit early” entering the space, but that things have really taken off since the iPhone launched.

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We are now on Facebook

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Coupons, SMS to be most used form of mobile marketing by 2015: study

From Mobile Marketer:

A new study reveals that coupons and SMS will become the most widely accepted forms of mobile marketing and advertising by 2015.

The study was conducted by mobileSquared on behalf of Airwide Solutions. Sixty-one percent of wireless carriers surveyed thought that coupons or vouchers would become the dominant form of mobile marketing by 2015.

“For years we heard that SMS will be eclipsed by all else,” said Jay Seaton, chief marketing officer of Airwide Solutions, Burlington, MA. “SMS is a tremendous opportunity: It is ubiquitous and works on all devices and consumers know how to use it.

“All the issues of interconnectivity have long been resolved and SMS generates a lot of revenues for operators,” he said. “There are no quality issues and consumers have a high degree of trust that the channel is secure.

“SMS will be and is incorporated into various applications and will continue to be an integral part of marketing strategies.”

Nobody does it like Sara Lee

SMS/MMS
Of the wireless carriers surveyed, 58 percent predicted that SMS and MMS-based messaging would be the second most widely accepted form of mobile advertising in the next five years, followed by search with 45 percent.

The close link between coupons and messaging, with SMS acting as a core distribution channel in the majority of cases, it is understandable why both categories attracted a similarly high response from the carriers surveyed.

The study reveals that users in 2015 are thought to be more likely to use mobile marketing or advertising promotions that are sent to them via their mobile phones than those generated through search, display or navigation.

Sybase 365's SMS-based geo-location services

Opt-ins
British mobile subscribers currently send more than 11 million SMS messages per hour, totalling an approximate 7.7 billion monthly. These stats show that clear potential exists for carriers to capitalize on the 15.4 billion engagements between consumers and the SMS medium that are generated each month.

As things stand, subscribers have to opt-in to SMS mobile advertising. However, as significant mobile marketing and advertising activity is expected in the future, the opt-out option will also become an important component in the 2015 mobile user’s experience.

“In terms of opting out, it is a comfort zone for the consumer,” said Nick Lane, chief strategy analyst of mobileSquared, London. “Once the content is contextualized, ideally opt-out will become redundant.”

According to the mobileSquared survey, 54 percent of carriers thought that an opt-out service would be more important to them than opt-in in 2015, compared to 39 percent in 2010.

The majority of carriers (53 percent) also believe that the customer should control and update their user profile in 2015, rather than the carrier (7 percent) or a combination of both (40 percent).

Industries to benefit
The mobileSquared study points out SMS is ideal for mobile coupons.

Mostly restaurants and retailers use SMS coupons to drive foot traffic to locations.

But other industries can benefit as well.

“I think any sector can benefit,” Mr. Lane said. “Research revealed that all messages are opened within a few minutes of receiving them.

“For anyone who wants to reach out to a database, SMS becomes incredibly powerful,” he said.

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Food Network takes 45,000 recipes mobile.

From mobile marketer

November 5, 2010

The Food Network is letting food enthusiasts browse through 45,000 recipes via its applications for Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Each recipe comes with photos and step-by-step instructions. The In The Kitchen application is available for $1.99 in Apple’s App Store.

“We want to give fans access to their favorite recipes from their favorite Food Network stars – anytime, anywhere,” said Bob Madden, senior vice president and general manager at Food Network.com, New York.

“Users can follow along looking at recipe while they watch TV or look for last minute ideas for dinner in the grocery aisle,” he said. “Mobile is a category we’ve been playing in for a while.

“It only made sense for our brand to tackle recipes as that’s what we’re known for – our vast catalog from some of America’s most well-known chefs needed to be there.”

Food Network is a lifestyle network, Web site and magazine that connects viewers to the power and joy of food.

Food for thought
Users with a Food Network account can access and browse their online recipe box with the ability to add new recipes directly from the application.

In addition, seasonal menus will be updated monthly and Thanksgiving recipes will be featured at launch.

Users can add ingredients from the recipes to a shopping list that they can share with friends via email, Facebook and Twitter.

Users can access the shopping lists offline.

“We’re leveraging all of our resources for this app,” Mr. Madden said. “You’ll see a broad marketing and public relations campaign around In The Kitchen – television ads, snipes, Facebook and Twitter posts, as well as contests, and so on.

“We’re really proud of what we produced,” he said.

Users can search the application

Users can browse recipes

Key features
Other features of the application let users set timers as they work on the recipe without leaving the application and converting measurements.

The company is looking to extend the application to Android devices in mid-November.

“Specifically with the In The Kitchen App, you can expect to see video, offline access to more content, ability to rate and review recipes, plus lots more in future versions,” Mr. Madden said.

“We’re also making select programming available on iTunes,” he said. “Food Network takes the mobile space seriously and wants to give our fans what they want, where they want, when they want it.”

Editorial Assistant Rimma Kats covers media, television, research and social networks. Reach her at rimma@mobilemarketer.com.

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Coca-Cola drives product awareness with cross-platform ad buy on CBS

From Mobile Marketer:

Brands such as Coca-Cola, Mars Inc.’s Snickers, Home Depot, Ford Motor Co., the Discovery Channel and Capital One are driving brand engagement and raising product awareness with advertising across CBS’s mobile sites and applications.

Coca-Cola Zero, Home Depot, Capital One and the Discovery Channel’s “Storm Chasers” have all run ad campaigns with the CBS Sports application, while Snickers and Ford are cosponsors of the CBS Sports Pro Football application. The majority of these are cross-platform buys that include online and television as well as mobile.

“One of the tent poles of our business is to make it easy to buy across CBS Interactive’s inventory,” said Rob Gelick, Los Angeles-based general manager of CBS Mobile and senior vice president at CBS Interactive. “Advertisers can now buy on air, online and mobile as a bundled package that extends reach and allows brands to follow an audience as it migrates from one platform to another.

“For example, Ford and Snickers are both running campaigns in our online sites, and are also both lead sponsors within our Pro Football mobile apps,” he said. “On the mobile front, we’re able to create unique, rich-media experiences like expandable ads and video units that we see as excellent points of connection to our audiences.

“We have a huge amount of products getting released in the mobile space, especially in the sports category, we’re running a lot more rich-media ad units and we’re seeing a lot more brand partners leveraging our mobile inventory"

Mobile advertising boom
Coca-Cola Zero, Home Depot and Capital One are all advertisers within the general CBS Sports iPhone application.

Coca-Cola is sponsoring the SEC Live Game of the Week feature within the application, which features live streaming video, including Coke Zero mobile video ads.

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Pizza Hut exec reveals how branded app achieved 2 million downloa

By Giselle Tsirulnik

October 26, 2010

Pizza Hut has been in mobile since 2008

NEW YORK – Taking a brand and bringing it to the mobile market effectively means listening to customer feedback and acting accordingly, said a Pizza Hut executive who presented at the Mobile Shopping Summit.

Pizza Hut’s mobile Web site and iPhone application are not new, but the executive explained that it took a lot of revamping to get the mobile properties where they are today.

“We initially launched our mobile Web site in 2008,” said Baron Concors, chief information and digital officer of Pizza Hut, Dallas. “The mobile site was slow and customers were complaining.

“We have several customer feedback channel and consumers were very vocal on which aspect of the site they did and did not like,” he said. “We then decided to launch an iPhone application.”

Pizza Hut is part of the Yum Brands suite of fast food brands. It is the largest restaurant company in the world, serving more than 25 million customers daily.

Pizza Hut taps Green Tomato for its ordering app

IPhone app
When Pizza Hut began to explore the possibility of an iPhone application, the company knew one thing for sure. It had to make the order process fast and easy.

At first the target audience was those who rarely prepare or consume home-cooked meals. The average age was 24.

Customers were complaining that the purchase process takes too long and that transactions were too hard to complete.

Pizza Hut targets iPhone users

Also a large amount of consumers felt that products were hard to find.

Pizza Hut took all of this into consideration when developing and enhancing its iPhone application.

As a result the company was able to get the experience to be easy for consumers and the application has been downloaded more than 2 million times since launch.

App features
The application uses iPhone and iPod touch features such as the user interface and accelerometer to make ordering menu items while having a fun and customized experience.

The pizza ordering section allows consumers to virtually build their own pizza.

Customers can pinch to select size, drag-and-drop toppings onto the pizza.

If a customer adds too many toppings, the pizza explodes and toppings go flying across the screen with an alert to make their pizza happier with fewer toppings.

The Pizza Hut mobile commerce application is driving sales in a major way. Last year the company announced $1 million in sales just via the application.

Digital strategy
Pizza Hut's digital strategy is to offer multiple digital ordering channels.

Mr. Concors suggested that brand be bold and take calculated risks when it comes to their digital strategy.

“Engage customers on their terms,” Mr. Concors said.

Pizza Hut’s ecommerce framework relies on delivering online orders to 6,000-plus stores.

“Currently we have no scalability concerns because our current ecommerce operations handle large traffic events,” Mr. Concors said.

“Additionally, there is no training required at stores when adding new online channels,” he said.

Development
Pizza Hut concentrated on quality assurance with the launch of its iPhone application.

Testing requires additional steps to compile and load the application on iPhone. Integration testing was important as well.

As for deployment, Mr. Concors said brands need to register as an iTunes developer early, since it takes some time.

“Thoroughly test before submitting to Apple review,” Mr. Concors said. “Rework cycles are costly.”

Spreading the word
Pizza Hut did quite a lot of marketing to promote its application and gain 2 million downloads.

Mr. Concors suggests that brands use all existing media to promote their application and mobile Web destinations.

Pizza Hut used its PC Web site, YouTube, Facebook, the App Store rankings and Twitter to promote the application.

Apple was pretty impressed by the application. The company included the Pizza Hut application in its television commercial.

“Pay attention to bloggers, professional reviews as well as iTunes comments,” Mr. Concors said. “The first release of an app is generally accepted as not perfect.

“But brands must aggressively fix identified issues and introduce new functions,” he said. “Apps are for loyalists and mobile Web is for customer acquisition."

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Kohl’s rolls out first mobile effort to push holiday deals and sales

Kohl’s multichannel holiday campaign focuses on all of the special offers the department store chain offers consumers, with mobile at the heart of it.

The campaign focuses on how shoppers can save on products at their convenience. The multichannel campaign will be communicated across multiple mediums, including print advertising, direct mail, email, digital, mobile and social media.

“Mobile offers retailers another powerful channel to drive sales during the holiday season,” said Nick Taylor, president of Usablenet, New York.

“With the surge in smartphone adoption this year, retailers should capitalize on this opportunity by extending holiday items and sales to mobile,” he said. “Non-optimized retail sites run the risk of losing business during the most critical quarter.”

Mr. Taylor, whose company develops mobile commerce sites, did not work with Kohl’s on the holiday campaign. He is simply a third-party source based on his expertise with mobile retail sites.

Kohl's did not respond by deadline.

Kohl’s is a family-focused specialty department store chain offering moderately priced, exclusive and national brand apparel, shoes, accessories, beauty and home products.

Kohl’s mobile
The company saw an increasing amount of consumers accessing its Web site via their smartphones and created a mobile-optimized site.

Consumers can now shop the store’s merchandise via the site, as well as read customer reviews and view ratings for items.

Additionally, consumers can view shipping deals, find the closest store, browse that day’s ad, contact customer service, view their account and their My Kohl’s Charge history.

The company expects Kohls.com sales to increase by more than 40 percent for 2010 as the site continues to be a go-to resource for shoppers.

Kohls.com offers merchandise and savings available in-store, plus thousands of online exclusives, which are now available on the mobile device as well.

Merchandising for the mobile site focused on increasing awareness of "only-at-Kohl’s" brands through holiday insights from Simply Vera Vera Wang, LC Lauren Conrad, Dana Buchman and Bobby Flay.

Recognizing that consumers are increasingly using smartphones for improved convenience and efficiency, Kohl's has made significant investments in new mobile tools designed to make shopping easier for consumers.

The popular list builder tool will once again be available on Kohls.com and on the mobile version of the site during the days leading up to Thanksgiving as an additional resource to help shoppers conveniently plan their in-store visits and preview hundreds of Early Bird offers.

A screengrab of the Kohl's mobile site

Kohl’s charge card and direct mail
Kohl’s has increased its direct mail investment and distribution.

Throughout November and December, Kohl’s Charge card customers will enjoy more days to save than last year.

Pick-Your-Day savings offers and shopping passes allow shoppers to save multiple times during key sales events. This holiday season, Kohl’s will also include an additional shopping pass with each Pick-Your-Day offer.

Kohl’s will once again distribute a bundled holiday gift guide and jewelry mailer to select Kohl’s Charge card holders, including additional ways to save.

New this year, Kohl’s will also distribute a December guide with more than 30 pages of gift ideas.

Email alerts
Kohl’s database of shopper emails continues to grow as customers look to stay updated on brands and savings opportunities.

Emails beginning the second week of November will feature offers, gifts and apparel available in-store and online, including exclusive offers available only at Kohls.com.

Kohl’s will segment emails according to customer needs, lifestyle and preference.

Recipients can link to Kohl’s Facebook page directly from their emails to share their deals.

Digital and social media
Kohl’s will increase its investment in its digital marketing strategy, leveraging social media and online advertising.

This investment reflects the continuing trend of consumers researching purchases and sharing information online.

The company has seen substantial growth of its Facebook fan base, which has more than doubled since 2009 and now exceeds 2.8 million.

As a result, Kohl’s will continue to increase interaction on the site, making it easier for customers to shop and share their experiences.

The company will promote an ongoing dialogue about Kohl’s brands, programs and gifts, increase online polling functionality and offer integrated seasonal messaging via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

In addition, Kohl’s will seed merchandise giveaways with consumer bloggers.

Homepage takeovers are also a component of Kohl’s holiday digital advertising strategy.

The high-impact placements provide increased interaction with customers, promoting increased brand exposure.

Throughout November and December, Kohl’s will promote sales events with nine homepage takeovers on popular sites such as AOL and Yahoo.

This year, Kohl’s will also have a presence on Oprah.com to seed messaging prior to the Jan. 1, 2011 launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, and an expanded paid advertising presence on Facebook.

Television and radio
Kohl’s will continue to leverage national and regional broadcast advertisements to engage customers and highlight why Kohl’s is the smartest choice this holiday season.

Broadcast spots will feature shoppers sharing how they gifted at Kohl’s by using savings tools and policies such as Kohl’s Cash, Kohl’s Charge card and Kohl's return policy.

Beginning after Thanksgiving, two 30-second national brand TV spots will run throughout the holiday season during such shows as Dancing with the Stars, Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, Survivor and Modern Family.

A mix of 15 - and 30-second TV advertising spots will support Kohl’s key sales events and highlight the company’s savings tools and differentiators.

The company continues to take advantage of radio’s strong reach with various 30-second national radio spots debuting on Nov. 2 and running through the week.

Kohl’s will once again use DJ integration throughout the holiday season with radio personalities Ryan Seacrest, Billy Bush, John Tesh and Lia.

“Customers often prefer alternative methods to browse and purchase gifts, especially this time of year,” Usablenet's Mr. Taylor said. “Mobile allows customers to avoid the crowds and engage with brands in the most accessible and convenient way.”

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Kenneth Cole exec: Apps do not make sense for brand retailers - Mobile Commerce Daily

NEW YORK – During his keynote at the Mobile Shopping Summit, a Kenneth Cole executive said that, especially with the rise of HTML5, his company’s focus is on the mobile Web and that an application does not make sense for a brand retailer’s business.

The Kenneth Cole presentation offered a look at what the marketplace is doing in terms of mobile, with a focus on the current design trends in mobile space. The differences in mobile site design tend to correspond to particular categories—mass merchants, look-up sites and brand retailers.

“Looking at the mobile sites of mass merchants, look-up sites and brand retailers, they are all using different design templates and tactics to get their message across,” said Tom Davis, vice president of ecommerce at Kenneth Cole Productions, New York. “This year we put our toe in the water, but we expect [sales driven via] mobile devices to be bigger than some of our bricks-and-mortar stores.

“The technology is about to change with the introduction of HTML5, and as a brand retailer, it’s all about the mobile Web site,” he said. “An app really doesn’t make sense for my business.”

Mobile commerce boom via the mobile Web
Before the brand launched its mobile-optimized Web site, it was seeing about 1 percent of its business coming through mobile devices.

Kenneth Cole tapped Usablenet for the launch of its mobile-optimized site at end of July. Mobile traffic immediately surged to 4 percent of the brand’s total, and that was during the summer, traditionally the slowest time of year for the brand.

Currently, mobile accounts for 10 percent of its total Web traffic and 4 percent of its revenue, although Mr. Davis believes that those figures only represent the tip of the iceberg.

“We’re expecting an incredible spike in mobile traffic and sales during the holidays,” Mr. Davis said. “For X amount of money I can build this mobile commerce business, man it with one or two people, and it will drive more revenue than an entire standalone store.

“It is the easiest business case scenario today, but what I really get excited about is what’s coming tomorrow,” he said.

Mr. Davis shared three main takeaways related to the mobile space:

1. By 2013 more mobile phones will be shipped than desktops and laptops combined, and by 2015 there will be more smartphone users than desktop and laptops users combined, per Mary Meeker.

2. Today’s mobile commerce design is reminiscent of 1990s Web sites, but no doubt that is going to change and change very rapidly.

3. By the end of 2011, customers will expect an excellent, relevant mobile experience that prioritizes content that is important to them while they are on the go.

Mass merchants
Mass merchants such as Zappos, Sears/Kmart and Target have thousands of brands, so to try to navigate through that sort of inventory on a mobile device can be very difficult.

The mobile sites of these types of retailers focus on putting search at top of the page and drilling down by product category down below.

For example, Zappos’ mobile site leads with portal for search, brand lookup and browsing by gender, boiling down what they do on the PC site so it fits on a mobile site. The approach is very simple and straightforward.

To create its mobile site, the company removed marketing messages and featured products or brands that are on its PC site.

Target’s mobile site also leads with search, with minimal call-outs about browsing assortment and a heavy focus on the needs of in-store shoppers, from daily deals and store lookup to deals, coupons and weekly ads.

“They’re not necessarily really driving the product base—they’ve removed promotion callouts, home page hero content and category callouts,” Mr. Davis said. “They’re focused on searching and browsing, simplifying the main navigation experience so that it is quick and efficient.

“They are focusing on simplicity to a Spartan degree to offer what people are looking for on the go,” he said. “If you’re a mass retailer, this is the status quo at the moment.

“I do think this is going to become tedious after a while, as all mass-market retailers seem to be using the same template.”

Look-up sites
Look-up sites from airlines, hotels and movie-ticketing companies target on-the-go consumers looking for quick information.

They do tend to have shopping or commerce ability, but it may not be why consumers visit that site, per Mr. Davis.

A lot of lookup sites lead with a download-our-app call-to-action and a login feature for customization, profiling or quick checkout.

Ecommerce is often secondary or even an afterthought, per Mr. Davis.

Brand retailers
The mobile sites from brand retailers such as American Eagle and Kenneth Cole often lead with their sister brands via tabs, features consistent cross-channel marketing messages and product search, while removing the bottom of the page marketing or promotional banner from the PC site.

“We are a brand, we represent a lifestyle, an attitude, and we’re trying to carry that personality or persona into the mobile space,” Mr. Davis said. “It’s about a cross-channel experience, whether you’re viewing the site on a computer, iPad or mobile phone, the experience is more or less the same.

“You have to realize that you have a very captive audience, a very special audience coming through the mobile channel, often younger shoppers,” he said. “We trimmed down the mobile site navigation to increase speed and efficiency and keep the form and function sleek and quick, and it has paid dividends over and over.

“We want to offer a consistent experience across any channel—everywhere shoppers’ experience should be seamless across in-store, online and mobile.”

Final Take
Kenneth Cole’s Mr. Davis

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Mobile on Rise...Decreased Media Hurts Ad Market

Decreased Media Usage Hurts Ad Market

APRIL 19, 2010

Mobile only channel with rising media time

Online was the largest segment of media time in 2009, followed by TV and video, music and radio, and mobile phone usage.US ad spending was down in 2009 as marketers and consumers alike tightened their belts during the recession. And while Americans looked to save money and trim expenses, they also began to spend less time with media, causing a worse drop in ad spending, according to the Yankee Group.

Overall, US consumers spent less than 12 hours a day with media on average. That was down from nearly 14 hours daily in 2008, a 17% decrease. Yankee Group speculated in its report that the recession may have left Americans too stressed to enjoy as much media consumption as the previous year.

Activities decreased almost across the board, with reading, music and radio, and TV and video dropping most dramatically. The only increase in time spent was with mobile phones. Talk time on mobile was up 12%, while average daily mobile Web use rose 36% to 11 minutes. Texting was also up, by 55%, to take up 27 minutes a day in 2009.

Yankee Group's picture of media consumption differs from others, including Nielsen's Three Screen Report. For Q4 2009, Nielsen reported TV time was up and significantly higher than Internet usage. Nielsen relies on automated data collection, while Yankee Group polled US consumers. In addition, Yankee Group includes both personal and work Internet usage in its media consumption study, while Nielsen excludes work time.

Yankee Group believes the transparency in our consumer attention model provides a more accurate picture of consumer demand for media, while automated systems are more tuned to determining media supply, said the report. As connected devices flourish and multiply in consumers'™ lives, we further believe this attention-driven model will rise in importance as consumers struggle with an increasing tyranny of too much media.

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New York Jets QB Mark Sanchez to Help Raise $100,000 for JDRF in Pepsi Refresh Project Challenge using Mobile Marketing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Joana Casas, JDRF Media Relations

(212) 479-7560, mcasas@jdrf.org

New York Jets QB Mark Sanchez to Help Raise $100,000 for JDRF in

Pepsi Refresh Project Challenge

Supporters can Vote Online or Text Now thru Feb. 5

NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2010 – Mark Sanchez, quarterback for the New York Jets, is helping the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) try to win $100,000 in grants as part of the Pepsi Refresh Project, an online campaign to fund programs that will have a positive impact on people’s lives.

Voters can go to www.nfl.com/pepsirefresh and vote for Sanchez, or text ‘MARK’ to PEPSI (73774). Voting ends at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 5, 2010. If Sanchez outpolls other Pepsi Refresh Project sponsors, the funding will help JDRF establish a nationwide program to educate people about the symptoms of type 1 diabetes – the most severe form of the disease – and get medical care before suffering the life-threatening short-term complications of high blood sugar. Symptoms for type 1 or juvenile diabetes can be mistaken for common illnesses, such as the flu, and if left untreated, even over a very short timeframe, can be deadly.

“I want to help establish a much needed, nationwide educational program with JDRF to ensure that the warning signs of type 1 diabetes will become household knowledge for medical personnel, parents, teachers, and friends,” said Sanchez. “Then, a quick and accurate diagnosis can be made and proper treatment given before it results in a life threatening situation”.

In addition to Sanchez, quarterback Drew Brees and linebacker Demarcus Ware are also participating in the Pepsi Refresh Project challenge

“We re honored to have Mark Sanchez in the vanguard of our efforts to help save lives and eventually find a cure. Mark is an outstanding example of leadership on and off the field, bringing attention to a problem that can have an enormous impact on the 15,000 children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes annually – that’s 40 children a day,” said Alan J. Lewis, Ph.D., the President and CEO of JDRF. “All forms of diabetes are clearly on the rise, but the sad fact is that type 1 diabetes is far and away the most prevalent form of the disease affecting children, and so we are also grateful to the Pepsi Refresh Project Challenge for investing in a program that will positively impact so many lives.”

About type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks and kills off the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, a hormone that enables people to convert food into energy. It affects 3 million American children, adolescents, and adults.

To manage their disease, people with type 1 diabetes need to measure their blood sugar multiple times throughout the day (typically by pricking a finger for a drop of blood), and pump insulin or inject themselves multiple times daily to keep blood sugar levels within a healthy range. That daily routine continues for life, because insulin administration does not cure diabetes.

About JDRF

JDRF is a leader in setting the agenda for diabetes research worldwide, and is the largest charitable funder and advocate of type 1 research. The mission of JDRF is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. Type 1 diabetes is a disease which strikes children and adults suddenly and requires multiple injections of insulin daily or a continuous infusion of insulin through a pump. Insulin, however, is not a cure for diabetes, nor does it prevent its eventual and devastating complications which may include kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, stroke, and amputation.

Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, JDRF has awarded more than $1.4 billion to diabetes research, including more than $100 million in FY2009.

For more information, please visit www.jdrf.org .

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