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Target, Walmart & 20 Other Companies to Watch in Mobile

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The dog days of summer are a time when most of us check out, escape to the cabin/beach/abroad and recharge. Many of us also take time to reflect for the coming fall.

This is a good time to look at mobile. More than 40% of American companies have yet to incorporate mobile into their customer acquisition and retention efforts.

If you’re one of them, consider this your opportunity to explore mobile further.

Here are five mobile stories that you might of missed in June:

#1: Smartphones & Americans
#2: Think Behavior, Not Equipment
#3: Target’s App Accelerator
#4: Mobile the Walmart Way
#5: 20 Mobile Startups to Watch
Bonus: Mobile Email Presentation

 

 

#1: Smartphones & Americans

Pew Research is one of the few organizations who’ve tracked the impact of mobile across many areas of American society. So when they publish data on smartphone ownership trends, it’s always a must read for marketers and app developers: http://bit.ly/13dw2bC

 

#2: Think Behavior, Not Equipment

Those distracted by “new shiny thingies” often are left little from their investment in mobile. (Think of the hordes of dead apps created after executives got their first smartphone.)  Companies that start by mapping mobile to customer behaviors reap higher rewards. Here’s a great AdAge piece on how this thinking applies to mobile advertising: http://bit.ly/11ATPB8

 

#3: Target’s App Accelerator

Internal innovation is tough for most enterprise-level companies, and Target is no exception. That’s why the retailing giant struck a partnership with FastCompany’s Co.Labs to uncover app innovators. Judging from the mix of winning finalists, the effort just might prove successful: http://bit.ly/122x8ZB

 

#4: Mobile the Walmart Way

Forrester provides a great summary from the CTIA presentation of Gibu Thomas, Walmart’s Global Head of Mobile. Here’s a tasty tidbit: Walmart’s mobile-engaged shoppers spend 77% more each month and make four more trips per month: http://bit.ly/13dpB8j

 

#5: 20 Mobile Startups to Watch

Lack of resources and big barriers to entry often drives revolutions. And while the mobile innovations that we see stateside are often “cute” (think SnapChat), the real mobile revolution is happening where we least expect it. Mashable highlights 20 mobile startups worth tracking…from Africa: http://bit.ly/11AUouz

 

Bonus: Mobile Email Presentation

I spoke late last month to about two dozen nonprofit techies and communicators on mobile’s impact on email. Over 40% of all email is now viewed on mobile devices. If you’re not optimized for them, you’re losing eyeballs, conversions and subscribers. You can grab a PDF of the presentation here.

Harvard, Drive-Bys & Fat Tire

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As most analysts have expected, mobile’s grow exceeding their estimates. A few days ago, Pew Research released a study that showed 56% of Americans are using smartphones (for Latino and African American users, those numbers are 60% and 64% respectively.)

That said, most businesses are still lagging in mobile adoption. According to a survey 1,800 digital marketers commissioned by Adobe, only 27% of companies have a mobile-optimized web site and 7% have developed a mobile app.

Congrats if you’re within either or both of these groups. If you’re not, there’s is still plenty of time to incorporate mobile into your enterprise.

Here are five mobile stories that you might of missed from last month:

#1: Insights from Harvard

Few would consider Harvard on the cutting edge of marketing thought. That said, the Harvard Business Review provides a great summary on the growth trends of mobile-only users: http://bit.ly/ZqLZhE

#2: SMS for Healthier Eating

Birdseye partnered with Share Our Strength and Healthier America to provide tips for better grocery shopping. Users receive up to eight messages a month that include ideas on how to save money, what to look for in the shopping aisles and links to recipes.

Why SMS? Households earning less than $30K annually use twice the volume of text messages than those earning more than $75K.

Learn more about this innovative behavioral change campaign at Mobile Marketer: http://bit.ly/11l4w9q

#3: The March of the Latino Shopper

It is no surprise that communities of color are more sophisticated mobile users. This is especially true in Latino communities. Research shows that 16% of Latino shoppers are making purchases on their mobile devices. That’s 25% higher than the general marketplace.

Check out the piece in Progressive Grocer: http://bit.ly/ZqMCaU

#4: Mobile Drive-Bys

Approximately 200 Clark, Marathon, Phillips 66 and Sunoco gas station in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana are capturing the attention of drivers. The system connects to WiFi and Bluetooth-engaged mobile phones that pass within 300 feet of a transmitter, and the sends them an offer via push messaging.

Unfortunately, they do so without mobile user opt-in. So expect that loop-hole to close with the first class action lawsuit.

Read more in AdAge: http://bit.ly/11l2TIN

 

#5:  Social, Mobile & Fat Tire.

Some of the best campaigns rarely come from big brands. Case in point is New Belgium Brewing. Having launched a mobile app for their flagship Fat Tire Amber Ale last summer, NBB expanded their 2013 summer campaign to mesh mobile and social with more traditional media.

Catch the whole story at Mobile Marketer: http://bit.ly/ZqP810

Murder, Begging & ZOMG!!!

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:

Two valuable lessons learned from an asshole.

Photo from Unhindered by Talent

The most valuable lessons in my professional life have often been delivered by assholes. One of the toughest was given to me in the summer of 1991 about my copywriting.

I was interning at the Detroit office of the Carlson Marketing Group, the loyalty marketing behemoth. I just finished drafting direct mail copy for Chrysler dealer incentive trip to Hong Kong, and was quite proud of my 20-year-old self. That was until I was called into the office of Haul Quarier, one of their account executives.

Haul was one of those agency types nearly the end of his second wind of his career in automotive marketing: angry and old with a false sense of entitlement. Haul was a classic asshole.

“Curt, your writing is clever, but complete shit,” he said bluntly. “Do you know why?”

I sat there for a moment, stunned, and meekly replied: “Bad grammar?”

“Really?” He snorted, called in one of the copywriters and spent the next 10 minutes reading all of my copy to both of us. “You should write for Conde Nast, not us, Curt,” said the copywriter with laugh and left me sinking deeper into my chair.

“Wow, you’re still not seeing it,” Haul blurted with a laugh. “You’re not writing to the Ambercrombie & Kent jet setters. You’re writing to Chrysler dealers. Quit being clever. Rewrite this with a dipshit dealer from Des Moines in mind, and give me the new drafts first thing tomorrow.”

So I spent the night channeling the persona of that dipshit dealer Mortie. I wrote why he should want to hit his service shop goals so that he could take his wife, Margie, to Hong Kong on Chrysler’s dime. And most importantly, I saw his painful point.

I put the new copy of Haul’s desk the next morning, but I should have left a thank you note as well. That past-his-prime account executive gave me two great lessons:

    1. Always write to your audience. Your content must engage them instead of showing off your writing acumen. Your prospect cares about their interests only, not how great your company/product/mad writing skills might be.
    2. The best advice is often best deliver bluntly and by assholes. A little pain and embarrassment are often required to shock us out of our internalized comas.

 

While I never will like Haul Quarrier, I’m eternally grateful to him every time I’ve seen others make this major mistake in their writing, and I still pull no punches when tough lesson have to be shared.

So take a moment today to review what you’ve written this week from the perspective our your readers. What have you seen?