Text2Drive Powers Mobile Marketing Campaign for the 2010 Chicago Auto Show

Chicago Automobile Trade Association selects Text2Drive to provide mobile platform for auto show

Chicago, IL, February 12, 2010 – Chicago Automobile Trade Association (CATA) announced that they have partnered with Text2Drive to harness the power of the mobile communication channel throughout this year’s Chicago Auto Show. CATA will incorporate the Text2Drive Mobile Marketing platform to collect opt-in mobile numbers of those in the Chicago area that will later be incorporated in the CATA’s promotional advertising campaigns leading up to the auto show. The innovative Text2Drive Platform will be used to drive show attendance and increase attendee’s participation by raising awareness and creating a “buzz” around special events, featured vehicles and show promotions.

Recognizing the power of the mobile platform, Text2Drive offers car shoppers a very quick, easy and hassle-free method of obtaining vehicle information without the need of the Internet on their phones. “According to Nielsen only 30-40 percent of consumers have Internet connectivity on their phones. Text2Drive allows car shoppers to search inventory, receive vehicle information including photos and special incentives, and communicate instantly with sellers via text messaging from their cell phones,” said Gregg Owen, CEO & Co-Founder of Text2Drive. “Text2Drive offers many compelling reasons for consumers to opt-in, resulting in our clients being able to create large mobile networks. Once the network is created we afford our clients the ability to easily collect, track, and organize this data so they can continue to remarket their products and services to interested consumers.”

“The best part about Text2Drive is that it provides multiple benefits to our attendees and exhibitors,” said Dave Sloan, president of CATA. “Not only can we leverage this technology to help us promote the show and use it throughout the show for marketing, our exhibitors can use it to uniquely promote their brands. Imagine someone at the show looking at the new Chevy Camaro and wanting more information, using Text2Drive they can immediately receive pictures and all the important information about the vehicle right to their phone.”

In addition to the auto show campaign, the CATA has created an introductory Text2Drive program for their dealer members.  This program provides tools for the dealer’s website while incorporating the Text2Drive online mobile number collection widget on Drivechicago.com.

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.  “We are excited to see the Chicago Auto Show embrace the power of mobile connection with their exhibitors and show attendees,” notes Dave Geipel, COO of QWASI, Inc.

ABOUT THE CHICAGO AUTO SHOW
Sanctioned by International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, the Chicago Auto Show is the largest auto show in North America and has been held more times than any other auto exposition on the continent. First staged in 1901, 2010 will mark the 102nd edition of the show. The Chicago Auto Show will open to the public Feb. 12-22. Show hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (Feb. 12-21) and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Feb. 21). For additional information visit: www.ChicagoAutoShow.com

ABOUT TEXT2DRIVE
Text2Drive is a pioneer in providing the automotive industry with exclusive tools to leverage the most powerful, efficient, and most popular communication channel ever created. Text2Drive provides its clients with platform to build their own mobile network and maximize the value of that network. The Text2Drive platform has greater reach and appeal because it is the only solution that allows the consumer to search dealer inventory, receive information and photos, receive coupons and instantly connect with the client via chatting/texting, all this without the consumer needing the internet on their phones. For additional information please visit www.text2drive.com, or email info@automotiveinternetmedia.com

ABOUT QWASI
QWASI, Inc, is a leading mobile solutions provider of interactive applications for clients across the US utilizing SMS (text messaging), MMS, WAP and iPhone applications, QWASI makes complexity to simple with mobile marketing, mCommerce (mobile commerce), private label mobile search tools, event marketing, mobile chat, Mobile IM (MIM) applications, mobile real estate marketing services and mobile alerting for Fortune 1000 businesses. QWASI powers the Text2Drive service.

QWASI CONTACT
Patricia Scanlon, QWASI, 877-747-9274, patricia.scanlon @ qwasi.com

February 12, 2010 in Press Releases   |   1 Comment

SMS Preferred Mode of Communication on Mobile

New research continues to point to huge increases in preference for SMS over other forms of mobile communication.

According to a survey conducted by Tekelec (a messaging company powering telecom operator applications), 60% of 45 year olds were found to be just as likely to use SMS as they were to make voice calls from their mobile device. The survey of 500 people in North American and Europe also found that text messaging is gaining on email as the preferred means of daily international communication, with 32% of responses across all ages preferring SMS, compared to 33% for email. And nearly a third of respondents said their use of SMS would increase in 2010.

In addition, more than 80 percent of respondents across all age groups thought they would get a quicker response from a text than from an email or voice message. Women preferred to let their fingers do the talking, with 40% describing themselves as ‘mainly texter’, compared to 30% of men.

One more difference between the sexes: women were more likely to engage in TV voting via text, with 25% versus just 14% of men engaging in such behavior.

But those under 35 were the most likely age group to vote via text, with 16% of them saying they do so, followed by 9% of 35-44 year olds, and 7% of those 45 and older. However, 35-44 year olds are the largest consumers of news and sports by text at 18% compared to 17% for those under 35, and only 8% for those over 45.

SMS – A look ahead at growth for M2M (machine-to-machine)

AT&T and Verizon Wireless nearly doubled their text message traffic from third-quarter 2008 to third-quarter 2009, showing that SMS continues to become even more pervasive.

While person-to-person (P2P) messages will keep increasing, the next major growth area is in fact machine-to-machine (M2M) SMS.

ABI Research recently released data showing that M2M SMS and MMS message volume will have a compound annual growth rate of 40.06 percent from 2008 to 2014 (“Mobile Messaging Services: SMS, MMS, Mobile Email, and Mobile IM,” 4Q 2009).

Brands can capitalize on SMS M2M to more rapidly meet their customers’ needs. For example, vending machines located anywhere with cellular reception can send texts when inventory is low, rapidly and affordably assuring that goods remain in stock. M2M will open up an entirely new growth area as new solutions focused on cost savings emerge.

Bottom Line: SMS & M2M will bring huge growth in mobile over the next decade as consumer prefer SMS for their mobile communication.

January 12, 2010 in Blog   |   1 Comment

Mobile Marketing Center Lets Companies Reach On-The-Go Consumers In 2010

QWASI updates its integrated mobile marketing platform to provide superior mobile marketing services to its clients.

PHILADELPHIA, January 7, 2010 – QWASI Inc., one of the leading enterprise mobile marketing application companies providing interactive mobile solutions for the US mobile market and small and medium-sized businesses (the SMB market), announced today the official launch of the QWASI Mobile Marketing Center 2.0. With this release, it’s never been easier to build, manage and analyze mobile marketing campaigns through a self-managed online portal. Companies of any size can seize the opportunity of enterprise features that mobile marketing offers through the power of QWASI’s mobile marketing platform.

With twice as many users of SMS than email globally and over 125 billion text messages sent every month in the United States, 45% of brands have already deployed text messaging campaigns, with a projection of 89% planned to go to market by 2010. There has never been a more important time to engage customers via the mobile communication channel. QWASI is committed to helping clients and companies navigate effectively through the mobile landscape as they reach SMB consumers on-the-go. The QWASI Mobile Marketing Center 2.0 now provides its clients with the platform that will help to launch their campaigns into the mobile marketing space and realize the power of mobile.

QWASI provides its clients with a variety of key services designed to better promote marketing campaigns with mobile services. With the ability to quickly set up interactive text messaging and mobile campaigns from any browser, QWASI gives its clients the power to control their own interactive mobile marketing solutions.

The QWASI Mobile Marketing Center 2.0 provides such popular features and new services including:
• SMS Auto Responders (NEW): Power drip marketing via text messaging to opt-in users.
• Info-on-Demand: Providing information via custom Keywords. Capture opt-in users for future message blasts including email addresses (NEW).
• Blasts / Alerts: Send text messages to subscribers. Keep customers informed of promotions, offers & events.
• Mobile Coupons: Distribute coupons to potential customers who have opted-in to receive your promotions. Track usage with Promo Codes (NEW).
• Text-to-Win: Enable potential customers to text in a special keyword to instantly enter-to-win a prize.
• Text-to-Vote: Have interested customers text to vote on a topic and provide real-time results.
• Ringtones, Wallpapers & Mobile Video: Deliver rich content to customers with MMS and mobile downloads.
• Website Widget: Build a subscriber list from web-widgets .
• Custom Applications: The Marketing Center API allows companies to build any custom mobile messaging application.

“Many of our new features in this release have been in use for QWASI enterprise clients. We’re now making them available to small and medium size companies to leverage the mobile channel,” states David Geipel, COO and Co-Founder of QWASI, Inc. “We enable companies to power a simple mobile campaign and provide them with tools that connect companies with their customers. We’ve seen an insurgence of companies desiring to utilize a short code to power one-to-one mobile messaging. With the Mobile Marketing Center API, we’re also enabling other companies to power highly interactive campaigns using the same API our platform uses. QWASI has been providing successful and cost effective mobile campaigns for over 5 years.”

QWASI’s Mobile Marketing Center 2.0 also enables companies to white-label a powerful mobile marketing platform using a shared short code provisioned on wireless carriers including Alltel, AT&T, Boost, Centennial, Cellular One, Dobson, Immix, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, Virgin, Verizon and other second and third tier carriers. The platform provides companies the ability to give their clients access to further provide control over their marketing campaigns. In addition, the service can be connected using a dedicated short code (vanity or random).

ABOUT QWASI
QWASI, Inc, is a leading mobile solutions provider of interactive applications for clients across the US utilizing SMS (text messaging), MMS, WAP and iPhone applications, QWASI makes complexity to simple with mobile marketing, mCommerce (mobile commerce), private label mobile search tools, click-to-chat, click-to-text, Mobile IM (MIM) applications, interactive property marketing services and customized alerting for Fortune 1000 businesses.

QWASI CONTACT
Patricia Scanlon, QWASI, 877-747-9274, patricia.scanlon @ qwasi.com

January 7, 2010 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

Google/AdMob – new focus on Mobile Advertising

Google Inc. is acquiring AdMob, a mobile display ad technology provider, for $750 million in stock. AdMob offers a variety of mobile advertising tools for creating, serving and analyzing emerging mobile ads formats.

“Mobile advertising has enormous potential as a marketing medium and while this industry is still in the early stages of development, AdMob has already made exceptional progress in a very short time,” said Susan Wojcicki, VP of product management at Google in a statement. “AdMob is the quintessential Silicon Valley startup — generating impressive year on year revenue growth — and we’re excited to welcome this talented team to Google.”

AdMob brings an extensive network of display ad inventory on 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications for iPhone and Android along with mobile web banners. To date, AdMob has been one of the largest (if not the largest) mobile ad network for in-app ad inventory on the iPhone. This has brought new implications for demographic targeting and audience segmentation to Google. The combination of AdMob’s display and in-app advertising coupled with search adverticing makes Google king of the hill again in mobile.

What does this mean for Mobile Marketing and Advertising?

First, it’s clear that Google is serious about mobile advertising and sees the space as a growth market. We too are excited about the space and the future mobile advertising holds for marketers, brands and consumers. Google also brings credibility (think about online advertising BEFORE AdWords). The ease of use AdMob is able to demonstrate with it’s platform will also lead to a better advertiser experience when researching and placing mobile advertisements. This deal also brings better ad formats and options to Google – something Google knows very well how to monetize.

In addition, Google will ad focus to this emerging market opportunity of self-service advertising. Google will help bring mobile to an entirely new audience. Google has been testing mobile advertising for several years with their own mobile search, banner and in-app ad networks and now mobile analytics.

What Admob did was to help businesses and agencies navigate the space with a platform that is easy to use and has evolved from text links to interactive banners and in App advertisements.

Next, this move will lead to a shift in mobile acquisition and bring new investment to mobile. Let’s face it, it’s great to run a mobile ad, but to covert traffic is an entirely separate event. Then to resell or market to these new prospects and finally, lead them to water – the Holy Grail – a purchase or some sort of transaction. This will also lead to greater focus on Mobile Analytics too over the entire mobile ecosystem.

This purchase is very similar to other acquisitions made by AOL (Third Screen Media), MicroSoft (TellMe and ScreenTonic) and Yahoo (Actionality and RightMedia).

With Google sitting on top of the mobile advertising scene, it still leaves other competitors to focus on their edge over the other companies. These companies include Quattro Wireless, Millennial Media, Jumptap and 4INFO to name a few.

Mobile Advertising Projected Growth

Gartner projects that the worldwide revenue for mobile advertising will be $13.5 billion in 2013, up from around $500 million in 2008. This includes mobile banner ads, SMS, text links, search and maps, ads in applications and games, ads in videos and TV shown on a mobile phone. Until now, Google has focused mainly on search advertising, but this deal signals that it has its sights set on other areas as well.

Focusing on display, search and messaging-based advertising, eMarketer predicts that U.S. mobile advertising spending will grow from $320 million last year to $416 million this year to more than $1.5 billion by 2013.

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QWASI brings results to your mobile advertising buy. Contact us today to learn more. Call us toll-free at 877-747-9274.

November 10, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments

Mobile Marketing versus Email Marketing

Many companies getting into Mobile first ask the question: where does mobile fit within our organization. Well, it first depends on your company structure, next your current marketing structure and finally, and most importantly, your marketing strategy.

A few years ago, several organizations outsourced their mobile campaigns through their ad agency. Early results showed huge promise. Customer adoption followed with phones & devices that got more personal. And the demand for interaction increased. Today, consumer’s view mobile and social communication as their primary form of communication.

Corporate websites and email marketing helped organizations prepare for today’s interactive boom. Having a website was not enough without constant growth in traffic. Driving web traffic focused on natural, organic search marketing and email marketing to communicate with customers.

Then SPAM infiltrated email as people received unsolicited email. People were getting more and more upset and technology was put into force to protect customers from these emails. This lead to  decreasing open rates and response rates from email. Most companies tested email campaigns with great success, but over time, even email lost it’s luster.

Then mobile marketing entered the marketing mix. It resembles email in main ways to corporate executives. However, while it too is trackable, mobile is near real-time, extremely responsive and viral, ubiquitous (accessible anytime, anywhere) and requires dedicated resources and a budget.

Unlike mobile, email marketers have to address a high turnover rate of email addresses. Within a year, it is reported that 33% of email addresses in your opt-in list of email addresses are no longer valid. However, mobile phone numbers have a far lower turnover rate. Many people keep their cell phone number for life.

While email suffers from deliverability issues, mobile delivers on delivery (carrier-grade messaging ensures your message is delivered). Today, nearly 100% of cell phones SMS enabled and more people have a cell phone than a television or computer. Finally, most text messages are read within 30 minutes versus up to 48 emails for many emails.

In order to receive high response rates, there is a need to have an educated mobile marketer. This is someone who understands the strengths of the mobile channel and how to build and execute a mobile marketing strategy. Since mobile is opt-in, a good mobile marketer will work hard to keep the messages targeted, relevant, and provide value to their customers through the mobile communication channel.

Some other important considerations:
* The ideal first step in a mobile strategy is to provide access to a mobile touchpoint.

* Create incentives that are unique to mobile users.

* Provide customers the ability to double opt-in to campaigns.

* Manage customer expectations using the proper type of messages they will get, using the frequency you communicated (1x daily, per week, per month) and provide them with a means to opt-out.

* Promote the mobile channel in everywhere. Integrate it with radio, television, online and email.

* AND use email to promote mobile to existing subscribers. Mobile is central to your marketing mix.

The success of mobile marketing lies in ability to empower the customer. Be sure to have someone educated on mobile marketing and today’s mobile consumers.

QWASI’s team of mobile consultant’s are ready to help you get mobile. Contact us today @ 877-747-9274.

November 2, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments