3FER is back after a two-month break. A lot can happen in 60 days, so I’ll be mixing current stories, and a few great ones from the pause.
#1: NFC—the QR Code Killer:
Whether you love them or hate them, QR codes have been pretty resilient as an 18-year-old technology. That is until Kraft tucked some RFID chips into their Nilla Wafers. (Relax, they didn’t bake them into the cookies.):
Much of the focus on consumer mobile marketing has been with the under 30 set. A new study from eMarketer should change the perceptions of moms in mobile marketing. Check out a summary of their report on the website:
Very few companies, let alone those buried in Silicon Valley, look at the developing world as an opportunity. That’s a horrible mistake, and one that Facebook has made. Check out this Gizmodo post on Facebook’s WAP implementation…aka Facebook Zero:
The holidays are around the corner. Are you ready?
95% of smart phone users have done mobile searches for local information; and 65% of those searches have resulted in a call or visit. If you want to maximize the holidays in your business’ bottom line, let’s chat.
May is usually a transition month for most midwesterners — storing the cold weather gear and bringing out the hot weather supplies. We BBQ, we burn our pasty white skin, and we look forward to a little slower summer pace.
Mobile doesn’t take a similar seasonal shift. It’s been a race to curate an every expanding and diversifying mobile content pool. Here are 7 of the 15 items that I sent in May:
May is usually a transition month for most midwesterners — storing the cold weather gear and bringing out the hot weather supplies. We BBQ, we burn our pasty white skin, and we look forward to a little slower summer pace.
Mobile doesn’t take a similar seasonal shift. It’s been a race to curate an every expanding and diversifying mobile content pool. Here are 7 of the 15 items that I sent in May:
Over the last few years, I’ve taken a close interest in mobile, and I’d like to share bits of it with you. The mobile world industry is evolving and growing faster globally than the Internet did roughly 15 years ago. It’s hard to keep current, especially in the mobile marketing space.
That’s why I created the 3FER, a SMS newsletter of three stories text to you weekly–always less than 300 words so that you can scan it easily and continue with your day. Topics will cover all of the facets of mobile marketing and commerce from many sources I track daily. Expect it to be loaded with case examples, opinions and techniques that will help give your efforts an edge.
Here are six items you missed from last month:
#1: 20% of American Adults Don’t Use the Internet -Pew Research
While the headline is a great zinger, those who make up the internet-adverse are not. Senior citizens, high school dropouts and households earning under $30K annually largely take a pass on the info superhighway—mostly because they don’t think it’s pertinent.
The interesting hook to this Pew report is that mobile is reducing the digital divide. These same groups who are computer adverse are often more mobile savvy—using their phone to gain Internet access. While less than 57% of American have a laptop, more than 88% have a mobile phone. In fact, African American and Latinos as likely own a mobile phone, but end up doing more with it.
Before you think “Hold on, I thought the FEC banned Text2Give campaigns like the Red Cross uses,” pause a moment. The tech-savvy folks at Obama for America now can raise money via SMS. Prior donors who’ve saved their credit card and mobile information received the following text:
“Support Pres Obama in less than a minute using our new secure system: just reply with the amount you want to give and we’ll charge your saved credit card.”
While a simple idea, the campaign is showing off its data integration muscle to make it all happen.
This technique can be used without all of the tech wizardry. For example, your local pizzeria probably has both your mobile and credit card info in their system from prior orders. Imagine them texting you an offer you can’t refuse via SMS, you reply yes, and 30 minutes later it’s delivered to your front door.
While linking mobile to TV is no longer cutting edge, its impact is exploding. Chief Marketer cites a recent study that 79% of fans used their mobile device during the NCAA tournament—91% of 18-24 year old viewers did the same. A little less than half check scores and 20% viewed highlight videos.
If you’re time crunched, check out the related infographic at Mobile Marketing Watch: http://bit.ly/IcjGIf
#4: PayPal flexes it’s POS muscle.
While Square has the early lead in the SMB space, it can’t match the reach and depth of PayPal’s parent company, eBay. Their smartphone-based POS system (point of sale), PayPal Here, signed up over 200K in its two weeks, 2,000 Home Depot stores in Q1 2012 and, unlike its competitors, has inroads overseas.
I’ve waited two decades to use that tagline I crafted in college. That said Google and others have clobbered map publishing business in the last few years. Instead of fighting this trend, Rand McNally is embracing it by incorporating QR codes in their atlases while releasing a mobile app.
Is mobile audio and video part of your mobile market mix? It should be. Check out these great global usage stats in a report by mobile equipment provider, Sandvine: http://bit.ly/JoapxL
Last Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report was brutal: a scant 18,000 jobs were created in June. Many look to big business for answers — especially those corporate leaders who joined President Obama earlier this year for his job summit.
Unfortunately, they are looking the wrong people.
According to the WSJ, Big Business slashed 2.9M domestic jobs in the 2000s while creating 2.4M overseas. In fact, all of the net job growth in the last 35 years did not come from Big Business. Those jobs came from entrepreneurs.
This later claim came from a great article from Henry Nothhaft: “What if they Listened to Entrepreneurs?” He makes a compelling call for politicians to start listening to entrepreneurs on job creation, and not captains of big business.
Nothhaft has serious street cred. As a serial entrepreneur, he created 6,000 jobs and return $8B back to investors over his 35-year career. He last founded Danger, the creator of the T-Mobile Sidekick which was later acquired by Microsoft for $500M.
Plainly put, Nothhaft is rightly irked at the Fortune 500’s whitewashing in Washington DC on job creation:
“Entrepreneurial startups are the sole source of net new job growth in the U.S.”
So what can government actually do to spur job growth? Nothhaft first points to the underfunded US Patent Office:
“Simply clearing the [1.2 million patent] backlog and properly funding the patent office would create as many as 2¼ million jobs over the next three years.”
But he holds his greatest criticism on the US’ shrinking manufacturing base. Citing the lack of funding support from both VCs and the US government, Nothhaft zeros in on the critical link between manufacturing and R&D:
“The NSF reported that in 2008 $58 billion, or one-fifth, of total R&D spending by U.S. firms took place overseas…A nation that no longer makes things will eventually forget how to invent them.”
His arguments are some of the most compelling for states and DC to start paying attention to entrepreneurs. Consider this article required reading for politicians and their economic development staff, and forward it accordingly.
