The BMA Selects QWASI to Power Mobile Marketing for its 2011 International Conference.

QWASI brings real-time mobile interaction to the Business Marketing Association.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PHILADELPHIA, PA May 26, 2011 – QWASI, a leading mobile marketing and communications company providing cross-market interactive solutions, announced today it has been selected by the Business Marketing Association (BMA) to power mobile marketing and event communications at The 2011 International BMA Conference in Chicago, IL June 1-3. In partnership with Syniverse, QWASI will power text messaging for all pre, during and post event communication for the show using the BMA shortcode – 26246 (BMAGO). The tools provided to the BMA are part of QWASI’s Mobile Marketing Center Platform that’s designed for companies to power mobile marketing campaigns and communication.

Along the lines of this year’s BMA theme – Unleash – QWASI plans to introduce many business marketers to the potential mobile marketing brings to their bottom line. “QWASI is pleased to have been chosen by such an important organization such as the BMA to power their message. We see an unique opportunity for business to embrace all that mobile marketing and communications hold to reach today’s consumers and business decision makers,” shares Leon Samuel, President & CEO of QWASI, Inc. “B2b marketers have been slow to adopt and implement a mobile strategy as part of their b2b campaigns. The time is now for them to use the mobile channel to attract and retain their valuable customers and future prospects. The results from other channels show its immediate effectiveness across various areas of business.”

One of the tools QWASI provides to its clients is a website widget for pre-event registration for alerts and notification. It also includes a Vote2Screen program that allows participants to vote on select questions with a simple reply answer. The live vote is calculated in real-time and can be broadcast via projectors and screens throughout the event. Text2Screen sessions also allow participants to pose a question or share a comment. Using a moderator display, the organization or presenter can choose select questions and post them on screen for attendees.

Other features include surveys, auto-responders, 2D Barcodes, a Mobile Website builder and reporting and analytics. Benefits of this powerful communication channel include driving participation, enhancing engagement, collecting valuable feedback, and building a mobile database. These conference tools combine the power and convenience of text messaging with great visuals that promote participation throughout the event.

ABOUT BUSINESS MARKETING ASSOCIATION
Started in 1922, today’s Business Marketing Association (BMA) works to increase the importance, impact and value of marketing in businesses worldwide. BMA is the only professional organization with an exclusive focus on business-to-business marketing and its key drivers: Customer engagement and relationships, product and service innovation, value pricing, channels, online/offline marcom, and analytics. BMA’s members represent state-of-the art expertise in business-to-business marketing and communications, and share best practices for the benefit of the global business community. For more information about BMA, call 630-544-5054 or visit www.marketing.org.

ABOUT QWASI
QWASI, Inc. is a leading mobile and social communications and solutions provider of interactive applications for clients around the world utilizing Social Messaging, SMS, MMS, Mobile Web and Apps. Through its world-class Synchrosy® methodology, QWASI creates and implements mobile strategy for enterprise business simplifying complex problems with mobile marketing, social messaging, mobile commerce, text ordering, mobile coupons, mobile chat, and customized interactive alerting for Fortune 1000 businesses.

May 26, 2011 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

QWASI unifies Mobile Marketing, Mobile Messaging and Short Code Services

Mobile Two-Way API 2.0 from QWASI brings together SMS, MMS and Interactive Mobile Marketing.

PHILADELPHIA, March 7, 2011 – QWASI, a leading mobile marketing and communications company providing cross-market interactive solutions, announced its Mobile Messaging API 2.1 for enterprises, agencies and brand marketers. By using the QWASI Mobile Application Programming Interface, known as an API, a company can program mobile marketing services including mobile coupon delivery, mobile ticketing, mobile voting, polling, keywords, text2win, info-on-demand and more. The two-way messaging gateway utilizes either a shared shortcode or dedicated short code to power messaging via SMS (text messaging) and MMS (multi-media messaging) to users in the US.

“The time for companies to tap into the power of mobile is now. Over the last twelve months, we have seen a tremendous push by small and medium size businesses to adopt mobile marketing for their customers,” states Dave Geipel, Founder of QWASI, Inc. “With the ability to use our mobile marketing platform, a company of any size can now embrace mobile marketing for pennies a customer. We are seeing many new Fortune 1000 companies moving to dedicated short codes to support their business needs.” QWASI provides an easy short code search tool from its website.

Recent reliability and delivery issues for many companies using low-cost providers and second and third tier aggregators have mounted and have brought many new customers to QWASI. This has forced many corporate clients to find an alternative to low cost “bulk messaging” which often isn’t delivered to end users by wireless carriers. It requires a dedicated team to monitor campaigns and traffic to ensure maximum up time for their clients.

QWASI recently released several new updates to its Mobile Marketing Center Platform. The Mobile Marketing Center is a self-service portal that allows companies to create, launch and manage their campaigns with relative ease. The Mobile Marketing Center is available to customers using a their own dedicated short code and works across multiple US aggregators. Mobile Marketing services available through the two-way SMS API include:

• SMS Auto Responders: drip marketing campaigns via text messaging to opt-in users.

• Info-on-Demand: information sent to opt-in users via custom Keywords. Capture opt-in users for future message blasts including email addresses.

• SMS Alerts and Blasts: send text messages to a subscriber lists. Keep customers informed of promotions, offers & events.

• Mobile Coupons: distribute coupons to cell phones of customers who have opted-in to receive your promotions. Track promotional code usage.

• Text-to-Win: Enable potential customers to text in a special keyword to instantly enter-to-win a prize.

• Text-to-Vote: Provide a poll or vote and gain valuable feedback – in real-time.

• Web Widgets: Build a subscriber list from web-widgets.

• Custom Applications: The Marketing Center API allows companies to build any custom mobile messaging application.

With twice as many users of SMS than email globally and over 200 Billion text messages sent every month in the United States, consumer brands continue to look for new, innovative campaigns to reach today’s mobile consumer. QWASI is also bringing two-way MMS to market in the US with innovative MMS Applications to allow end users to participate with brands using picture and video messaging. With a huge shift toward social marketing, QWASI is bringing the power of mobile and social together creating new engagement. And through an easy-to-use white label mobile marketing platform, launching campaigns and monitoring performance is now possible for any client with powered by their own short code.

ABOUT QWASI

QWASI, Inc. is a leading mobile and social communications and solutions provider of interactive applications for clients around the globe utilizing Social Messaging, SMS, MMS, Mobile Web and Apps. Through its Synchrosy® methodology, QWASI creates and implements mobile strategy for business, simplifying complex problems with mobile marketing, social messaging, mobile commerce, text ordering, mobile coupons, mobile chat, and customized interactive alerting for Fortune 1000 businesses.

March 7, 2011 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

Two-Thirds of Teens & Tweens now Mobile

Over the last five years, as cell phone plans have become more family-friendly, teens, tweens and children 8-10 years old have been going mobile. Today, there is a mobile youth population developing who love to text and talk, well, not so much. It’s creating a huge opportunity for brands run youth marketing programs geared toward this important segment.

To date, many brand marketers have dabbled in mobile marketing. The main reason is the lack of commitment to this medium for their audience. However, the segment is so ripe that it’s now time for them to take notice and put forward an engaging offering to keep them connected. Why? Because now that mobile phones are nearly ubiquitous among teens and becoming ever more popular among younger kids, the opportunities are increasing.

“Tweens are the growth engine,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report “Kids and Teens: Mobile Everywhere.” “Recent surveys from Pew, Kaiser Family Foundation and others indicate that in some age groups—particularly the tween–young teen bracket—ownership has nearly doubled since 2005.”

Turning wide ownership into wide marketing opportunities may be difficult, however. Companies must take into account extra privacy and safety considerations when it comes to minors, and young people who view their mobile phones as devices for personal communications may not welcome marketing messages.

In addition, most children and teens are still using feature phones, so relatively few can be reached through more sophisticated mobile advertising such as via the mobile internet or smartphone apps. Just 14% of moms surveyed by Q Interactive in January 2010 said their kids had a smartphone.

The future lies in smartphones, but for now mobile marketing efforts directed toward kids and teens will have to focus on feature phones. Texting is best for driving immediate actions, but also has its drawbacks.

“Although text messaging is hugely popular with teens, they are like adults in that they do not necessarily want companies to contact them via text messaging,” said Ms. Williamson. “The mobile phone is perceived as a very personal device, and intrusive marketing is not well received.”

Read more – get the full report here: Kids and Teens: Mobile Everywhere

BOTTOM LINE: Our work with teens and tweens also reveals their desire to connect via mobile channels SMS, Mobile Web and Apps. However, the level of adoption for Mobile Web and then Apps quickly trail off since most kids, teens and tweens do not have a smartphone. So the clear choice is mobile marketing via SMS.

July 2, 2010 in Blog   |   No Comments

74% Of Online Retailers Planning Their Mobile Advertising & Mobile Marketing Strategy

Mobile quickly to become important part of Cross-Channel Marketing Efforts

Online retailers have quickly sized up the mobile opportunity and the potential it holds to engaging a mobile advertising strategy to supplement their efforts according to a new report published by Forrester. Focus is on multi-channel marketing efforts including social and mobile marketing.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of online retailers either already have or are developing a mobile strategy, and one in five boasts having a fully-implemented mobile strategy in place already. The report forecasts $170,000 per online retailer is expected to be spent on mobile sites this year with larger retailers spending much more. This ”mobile investment is modest now, but we see that it will pick up in the future, especially among the biggest brands that have already invested significant amounts in their mobile operations,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, and lead author of the “The State of Retailing Online” report.

The survey of 109 companies provides e-business professionals with an annual industry benchmark for marketing and business investment and activities. Earlier this year, Forrester forecast U.S. online retail sales to total $173 billion in 2010. According to the report, Web retailers with mobile strategies are investing in features that support the cross-channel experience: Product and price information, store information and coupons to support the in-store experience are among the most popular features that retailers are offering consumers, the report said.

SOCIAL MARKETING
Forrester noted that search advertising will continue to command the largest portion of US online retail budgets this year, coming in at 40 percent, while email and affiliate marketing will also command large portions, the report notes. The report also found while retailers are finding value in social media marketing, the return on investment (ROI) for driving online sales remains murky. Listening to customers is the most significant objective for social tools according to respondents, with 80 percent of retailers reporting that they are pursuing social strategies to experiment and learn. And while 28 percent noted that social marketing has helped grow their business, direct sales from social tactics are not widely measured. The same can’t be said about mobile advertising, where ROI is easily measurable and obtained.

Digital marketing in general is quickly becoming centered around the art of “integrated communications,” whereby numerous channels are utilized to work off the strengths and weaknesses of one another. With mobile coming to the forefront, Online retailers need to quickly diversify their strategy to maintain relevancy.

“Mobile investment is modest now, but we see that it will pick up in the future, especially among the biggest brands that have already invested significant amounts in their mobile operations,” concluded Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research and the lead author of the report.

Bottom Line: For most retailers as they make a surge into mobile, don’t forget that it starts with SMS and Text Messaging first, then an App to compliment the strategy. Also, read Mobile Messaging article and other mobile commerce services including interactive sms apps and device apps for iPhone, Droid, Blackberry and more.

June 30, 2010 in Blog   |   No Comments

Text2Drive powers mobile campaigns at the New York International Auto Show

New Suzuki mobile marketing campaign allows interested car buyers to get quick and easy info on available cars at the last major North American new-car event of the season.

Text2Drive, the leading mobile marketing firm in the auto industry, is in the driver’s seat again – taking car information mobile for auto buyers at the New York International Auto Show. Building on the success Text2Drive achieved by powering the Chicago Auto Show in February with their Mobile Marketing Platform, Text2Drive has recently been selected to promote Suzuki’s mobile ad campaigns during the New York International Auto Show from April 2 – 11, 2010.

Suzuki is using the Text2Drive Mobile Marketing platform to offer car shoppers a very quick, easy and hassle-free method of obtaining vehicle information without the need of the Internet on their phones. Using text messaging (SMS) and picture messaging (MMS), car shoppers can take home important information on different makes and models available from Suzuki. According to Nielsen, only 30-40 percent of consumers have Internet connectivity on their phones. Text2Drive allows car shoppers to get instant information on their cell phone about a specific car including mobile website links and photos sent via MMS.

Text2Drive is powered by leading mobile marketing and mobile commerce company, QWASI, Inc. The Philadelphia-based company provides cross-market interactive solutions for fortune 500 companies, as well as SMBs (Small to Medium Businesses), across the nation.

It’s exciting to see how auto manufacturers are using the Text2Drive service at the New York Auto Show and other car shows around the country. It’s important to provide today’s car buyers with instant information that is easy to access. The power to connect with these car buyers is available through a program like Text2Drive so car manufacturers can also connect with them after the show ends.

We see more and more carmakers and dealers finally beginning to get serious about offering mobile marketing and communications at dealerships, their advertising and direct communication with their customers. Text2Drive can be found online at http://www.text2drive.com

[caption id="attachment_619" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="SX4Sportback MMS (Picture) Message"][/caption]

April 9, 2010 in Blog   |   No Comments