Archive for September, 2009

iPhone Apps – 2 Billion Served (and growing)

Just a few months ago, we shared our excitment over the Apple announcement of 1 Billion iPhone Apps downloaded to mobile users spaning the globe.

Today, Apple announced that more than 2 billion applications have been downloaded from the App Store – over a half-billion in just the last three months. Included in their announcement, Apple stated that there are now more than 85,000 apps available for the more 50 million iPhones and iPod touches and 125,000 developers creating apps for the devices.The number or iPhone and iPod touch users continues to grow and the rate at which apps are downloaded is accelerating

According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, “The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone. The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”

Apple previously announced reaching 1.5 billion downloads in its first 12 months when the store turned 1 year-old in July. Since opening, the App Store has averaged 4.5 million downloads per day, and in the last 80 days that figure has jumped to 6.3 million, says Apple Insider. There just may be something to this whole app thing.

While the iPhone gets most of the glory, Ed Kaczmarek, director of innovation, new services, at Kraft, advised at the Apps for Brands conference last week not to overlook the iPod touch in app promotional campaigns. He called the device a “little sleeping giant” in its ability to extend the reach and effectiveness of campaigns. Of the 50 million iPhones and iPod touches worldwide, 40% of those units or 20 million are iPod touches.

Today, it’s hard to ignore this phoenominom. Brands need to rush to offering an iPhone App for many reasons including branding, demonstration and connection. See our article on “To build or not to build an iPhone App” from February 2009.

For help with building an iPhone App, contact QWASI today: click here.

September 28, 2009 in Blog   |   1 Comment

iPhone FINALLY gets MMS on AT&T

Multimedia Messaging Service, known as MMS has finally landed to iPhone users on AT&T’s network. While users are rejoicing and saying to themselves in disbelief – “it’s about time” – network engineers at AT&T are also wondering how long it will last.

As many throughout the industry know, over the last several years, carriers nerviously build out new networks and watch as they quickly outgrow their platforms. So today, AT&T is doing just that as the introduction of MMS  for Apple’s iPhone could slow or possibly even crash the AT&T network.

It has also been reported that many companies are suspending or delaying the start of their mobile marketing campaigns until after today to avoid giving a push in the midst of a potential blackout. We don’t expect this new feature to crash AT&T. However, never say never.

There have been preliminary tests at AT&T which indicate a substantial strain on the company’s MMS servers. Starting at 10AM Eastern today, it’s do or die as it officially rolls out. As a result, some industry analysts estimate that traffic on AT&T’s already well-stretched wireless network could see a 40% increase in traffic as iPhone excitedly break in the service.

In September 2008, QWASI released a MMS solution for the lack of MMS with an iPhone App called ActivMMS. Unfortunately, like the Google Voice Application, Apple rejected the App without reason. Several appeals still left it dead on arrive.

The iPhone App was recently introduced in the last release  – 3.0 and has been in use in other networks around the world. At&T chose not to support it until it could work out the bugs in its network. The change will not be automatic for users today and requires the user to open iTunes, connect their device and download the new profile.

September 25, 2009 in Blog   |   1 Comment

Multi-Channel Mobile Campaigns Work

Shedd Aquarium rings up the sales with Mobile Marketing
SMS may lack sizzle to many flashy marketers, but it can deliver the goods if provoking your audience to action is the goal, as Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium recently discovered from its summer test campaigns.

To attract visitors to its new Fantasea aquatic show, Shedd Aquarium put a couple of direct-response tactics to the test to see if consumers preferred SMS or web-based calls to action. At the end of 30-second spots that aired on Chicago’s NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox affiliates, the aquarium announced a contest with prizes that included a hotel stay and VIP seats for the Fantasea premiere. The commercials were identical across the networks except for the calls to action: All the ads directed viewers to a Web site to register for the contest, except one spot, which gave viewers an additional mobile option to enter the contest by sending a text message to a special code.

The SMS call to action generated 325% more entries than the web-based call-to-action, making up 52% of the total entries, though it ran in only 25% of the ads.

According to Jay Geneske, Shedd’s assistant marketing director, the results show that the “phone is always with you, it’s nearby and immediate,” even when you’re watching TV. Shedd also ran a one-day print campaign in a local paper with a text call-to-action, yielding the highest or near highest number of responses for a single-day print piece, Mr. Geneske said.

Additionally, when people are watching TV, they’re more likely to have their cellphones near them than a computer.

Fresh impressions
“The mobile phone gives the consumer the ability to respond to the advertisement in real time, while the impression is still fresh in their heads,” said Aaron Watkins, a former mobile-marketing agency executive turned independent consultant.

Likewise, companies like QVC use Mobile Marketing Alerts and Text Ordering to send out promotions every day, throughout the day, and drive real-time purchases via SMS.

To get consumers to respond via the web, on the other hand, means they not only have to be interested in the ad but need to recall the website address later if they were not near a computer when the ad ran. The likelihood that they will remember the address drops “exponentially,” given the nonstop barrage of messages and media that hit people every day, Mr. Watkins said.

Mobile works best when overlaid with mass media such as TV and radio, because they radiate that much more reach, compared to, say, mobile apps or display banners, Mr. Alpert said.

For consumers to text in, however, the offer has to be compelling and valuable, whether it’s entertainment, information or access to something special. Shedd’s campaign worked well because the short code was part of the narrative and script, rather than an afterthought of just slapping a code at the end of the commercial.

Mr. Alpert said over the hundreds of mobile campaigns his agency has managed, an average 85% of those who opt into a campaign will respond to more requests for information, such as age and ZIP code.

September 21, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments