Jello & Betty Crocker Get iPhone Apps: Who's Next?

Yes it's true, America's most loved cookbook has gone mobile. A free Betty Crocker iPhone application offers meal suggestions based on what's in your pantry. An even bigger surprise is that the $.99 iFood Assistant from Kraft is one of the 100most popular paid iphone applications. With 19th century brands leading the way, mobile marketing may finally be making some headway.

Mobile marketing is getting a big assist from the iPhone. It's hard to believe but the iPhone won't even celebrate its 2-year birthday until June. That's right, only 18 months old.

On June 30, 2007 Apple sold Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the first thirty hours, and has gone on to sell another 17 million globally through the end of 2008, helped by rapid introductions of faster speeds, lower prices and new app's. And there's no end in sight. While iPhone accounts for just 30% of the 'smart phone' category, it has left competitors like RIM in the dust. When we talk about apps for 'smart phones', we all know what we're talking about.

Another amazing statistic: Over half a billion iphone app's have been sold since their introduction in July 2008. I did a little digging on what are the most popular. No one will be surprised to learn that among the premium (paid) app's games rule. (Will GameBoys be the next victim of convergence?) Among the free iphone applications, Apple's list released in December includes many games, but also two social networking apps--Facebook and AOL's AIM. It also includes two travel apps, Google Earth and Urbanspoon. The list also features a pair of entertainment apps, Apple's Remote and The MacBox's Lightsaber, along with two music apps, Pandora Radio and Shazam. Time magazine published its list of top 10 most useful app's. These include Around Me, which tells travellers what is of interest nearby, including stores & restaurants, AP's News on Demand, Wikipanion, and Ocarina (turns your phone into a wind instrument).Notable shopping related app's are Save Benji's which provides comparison prices and Yelp, consumer reviews.

For marketers wishing to reach mobile Millennials (is there any other kind?), iPhone app's are a dream come true. iphone app's are:

1) as targeted as search

2) potentially as close-to-the-sale as in-store

3) as trackable as email

4) as interactive as a web site

According to a recent slide share presentation by Marta Kagan of Viximo, iphone users have higher than average discretionary income and iphone app's enjoy a higher than average response rate. Put all that together and branded app's may be the killer app of all time.

The key for marketers is making a branded app that Millennials will use and will also benefit the brand, which is not as easy as it may sound.

I had trouble finding success stories in this space. Zippo's Virtual Lighter is interesting as a novelty but doesn't really offer any functionality or buzz value. Audi's Driving Challenge didn't get good reviews, even in 2.0. Maybe Millennial marketers need to look at those 19th century brands a little closer? Feel free to send me examples of successful BRANDED mobile app's.

Marketers to Millennials: To Text or Not to Text?

If you listen to Millennials, it's an easy decision not to send commercial messages on their mobile phone. Most Millennials pay for their text messages. As Marty Predd, Research Associate at Brand Amplitude puts it, "They ration text messages like bread in WWII".

Yet, SMS has powerful potential for delivering just the right message at the right time. The sheer volume of text messages is impressive. In Q2 2008, the average text messager sends or receives an average of 357 text messages per month, the average teen, 1752 messages a month. That's more than the number of phone calls. ("Realizing Potential", September 2008).

What about advertising messages? The numbers here are also impressive. Well over half of all U.S. cell phone users have a text message plan and 16% of texters in the U.S. see some form of text-message advertising each month. (The number shoots up to 35% for teens). Consumers are not only seeing text message ads, Nielsen says 45% have responded in some way. The most popular response to mobile advertising (text, video, Internet, etc.) is sending another text-message; one-quarter of responders sent another text-message. These figures make a compelling case for figuring out how to overcome Millennial's barriers to text marketing messages.

There are some successful cases worth looking at. A subsequent Nielsen report ("The Short Code Opportunity", Dec. 2008) points out that President-Elect Barack Obama’s “V.P. pick” text message remains the most notable example of short code marketing in the U.S. In August 2008, the campaign attempted to announce Joe Biden as the vice presidential candidate over SMS text message. Nielsen estimates that the Biden text was received by 2.9 million mobile phone users in the U.S. over the course of that weekend. The next most prominent example of a text message-based effort is is Coca-Cola’s My Coke Rewards program. This program had engaged 1.1 million AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers as of Q3 2008.

"Through My Coke Rewards, Coca-Cola customers collect unique codes found on various Coca-Cola products and enter them into an account they’ve registered at mycokerewards.com. When they reach certain point levels, they are able to redeem points for rewards. The mobile component of the program allows consumers to enter the codes over their mobile phone on the go. Coca-Cola’s mobile users typically send and receive about 32 messages a month to Coca-Cola. Importantly, it’s not just kids or teens who are an active audience for short code marketing. In the Coca-Cola example, nearly half (47 percent) of users were 35 or older. That age diversity is not unique to Coca-Cola either. Overall, 53 percent of those engaging with free (standard rate) short codes, such as those used by brands in marketing, are sent by texters 35 and older."

Subway, Arby’s, Jiffy Lube, BestBuy, Papa Johns, Village Inn, and other major brands have also provided special offers through text and multimedia messaging.

Papa Johns, Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut all allow customers to register ordering details online and then order pizzas over text message. Nielsen estimates that 552,000 AT&T and Verizon Wireless subscribers texted with Domino’s Pizza, 279,000 texted with Pizza Hut and 182,000 texted with Papa John’s in Q3 2008

Foot Locker sends special offers to its “VIP program” participants—they sent those texts to approximately 306,000 AT&T and Verizon Wireless subscribers in Q3 2008.

Subway’s FRESHBUZZ service allows Subway customers to receive news and promotions via text message. Nielsen estimates that Subway sent these sandwich deals and news flashes to 212,000 AT&T and Verizon Wireless subscribers in Q3 2008.

Short codes are not limited to brand marketing. Traditional media is also using text messaging to enhance participation (e.g.“American Idol”). In radio, Nielsen’s tracking of short codes showed more than a million transactions in 2Q 2008 with the short code “A-L-I-C-E” (or 25423), a short code assigned to the station Alice 97.3 KLLC-FM in San Francisco. Alice listeners are invited to send text messages directly to the studio to make requests, win prizes, and enter polls.

Given Millennials adamant stance against text message ads, any marketer considering using SMS should take a cautious approach and make sure that the messages are both useful and welcome. But these marketers have shown it can be done.

Reaching Millennials With Mobile Media

As this very cool video from Nokia demonstrates, the so-called fourth screen 'changes everything' by bringing the big screen to your pocket. If you want impressive statistics on global market for mobile youth marketing, look no farther than "The Mobile Shift" a slide show by Graham Brown at Mobileyouth.org. A sample: "By 2010, American mobile owning youth under 30 will number 100 million. The USA is the most valuable mobile youth market in the world currently producing 17% of the world’s total telecoms youth revenue, or $48 billion per year." (Reminder, 2010 is next year!)

However, understanding how to make mobile youth marketing acceptable to youth is harder. In focus group after focus group, Millennials tell us, often emphatically, they do not welcome commercial messages on their personal phone -- especially if they have to pay data or text messaging charges to receive them. What's a youth marketer to do?

For clues to making mobile marketing work, I turned to some youth bloggers.

1. Arielle Patrice Scott: 19-year old blogger, Arielle Patrice Scott, a student at Berkeley and entrepreneur, recommends meeting your target in person, then continue the conversation digitally.

You really only need two marketing methods to establish long-lasting relationships with Gen Y. The first is face-to-face communication and the second is social media. It’s really simple. You use face-to-face to introduce yourself. You use social media for building and maintaining our friendship. Face-to-face marketing refers to any form of guerilla, event or physical interaction communication between you - the brand - and us. The key is you want to make a great first impression and ask for permission to get to know us better, almost as if you’re looking to go on a second date. Social media is the most effective for keeping in touch and afterward, it’s the perfect medium recommend your products to us. We already know you and are looking forward to your messages at this point. We are ready to get to know you.

2. Josh Kowitt: Arielle's insight no doubt accounts for the presence of campus 'ambassadors' for brands like Apple, Red Bull and more. Taking the brand to the target is also expensive and fraught with pitfalls, as Josh Kowitt, the 24-year old entrepreneur behind College Boxes, explains in his guest entry for the blog, 'Big Brand on Campus' . Just giving something away free at a fraternity party does not guarantee you will be noticed or loved. Josh suggests carefully selecting the venue to ensure students will be present who will value your effort and spread the word to others.

3. Benjamin Leis: Benjamin Leis is the Millennial blogger and entrepreneur behind Big Brand on Campus. He describes a campus appearance by Havaianas Sandals that made the transition to digital successfully, to his great surprise!

Upon learning about the Havaianas' Color War Campus Tour I joined their Facebook page and posted a complimentary comment on the wall. A few days later I was thanked by the page administrator/brand ambassador for 1. becoming a fan of the page and 2. "participating in the community". I was shocked. I am a fan of over 15 business' Facebook Pages and I have never once received a personal message from any of them. The representative then went one step further and asked me for my sandal size and mailing address. SHE WANTED TO SEND ME A FREE PAIR OF HAVAIANAS!! Now that is remarkable! I have told just about everyone I know about this. It is super low cost marketing. The cost of postage will probably rival that of the manufacturing cost of the sandals themselves. Divide that by the number of people I have told and you have an incredible word of mouth marketing metric. Ironically this wouldn't be remarkable if it weren't for the status quo, so that is something marketers should be aware of as well.

4. Tyler Reed: Tyler Reed, 20 is the founder of Younique and Project Wolf. Tyler suggests that mobile advertising should be location-focused, even if it is not triggered by a location search, per se.

Why is location based advertising so special? Once again, it ties in with being able to target people who looking for specific information at or withing a specific location. Therefore if advertising is location relevant or specific, it has a greater chance of being more relevant to the person. Even if they are not performing a search, information that is location specific to the person’s current position can be just as relevant.

Next time: Effective mobile media campaigns.

Millennials to Marketers: I Want My SMS!

For most college students, text messaging has replaced email and talking as the preferred mode of communication. ExactTarget's 2008 Channel Preference Survey of 1,500 internet users ages 15 to 65 shows those under the age of 25 prefer SMS to both email and instant messaging.

Text messaging combines the mobility of a phone with the instant gratification of IM. According to an Opinion Research Corp study, those under 30 are 4 times more likely to respond immediately to a text than an email and 91% of text messages receive a response within one hour.

Who are they talking to? Friends of course, but according to a study by Sprint, 51% are texting their parents. Fifty-seven percent of 50-64 year olds have children in the 18-24 age group, so it's not surprising that Boomers are texting their college age students for a quicker response. (Certainly this is true in my family. My text messaging use has skyrocketed since my daughter left for college in August.)

But marketers should not expect to be making much use of texting as a medium for reaching college students with marketing messages anytime soon. Millennials are strongly protective of their text messaging lives. In our research, they repeatedly tell us non-personal messages -- even messages from their university -- are not welcome. Likewise, Exact Targeting says College Students "believe private communication channels (e.g., SMS, social networks) are off-limits for marketers. College Students want to keep personal and business affairs separate. Marketers should remember that email is the channel for "official" communications."

New Mobile Media Apps Keep Millennials Moving

In past blog posts I have pointed out that Millennials are big users of radio, the original 'mobile media' (9.09.08, Millennial Media: Radio and Magazine Deserve a Second Look). Last year, time spent with radio by 14-24 year olds increased 11% while time spent listening to iPods decreased 13% (Age Age, 10.20.08). Now I read that Microsoft's Zune is partnering with the radio industry to leverage the popularity of both FM radio and MP3 players. The idea, called 'song tagging', is very cool. An FM radio tuner is incorporated into a cell phone or MP3 player so when consumers hear a song on the radio, they can buy it right from their device. So far, it has rolled out to just 450 stations nationwide, but there is a push to sign up more.

Whether Apple adds FM and social tagging to the iPod and iPhone remains to be seen. However, according to digital media expert, Adam Broitman of Crayonville, new apps for the iPhone that leverage the social media capabilities of the PHONE itself are coming. Broitman writes this week in imediaconnection article, "The Best Branded iPhone App Available", that Obama Team hit all the core elements an iPhone App should posses: Added Value Content, Localized Content, Localized Social Networking and use of the phone's core functionalities like GPS and text. Here's what Broitman has to say:

"The Obama application allows users to call other people (from within the application itself) in order to urge people to vote for Obama. The application records the number of calls made and displays them in the app and on the web. It integrates your phone book right into the app, truly exploiting the most basic function of the iPhone—making calls. Seeing this application was and “ah-ha” moment, as well as “duh-why didn’t I think of that” moment. With the coming of Android applications and the growth in the social networking sector, we are going to see a great deal of innovation in the space—keep an eye on it." (Adam also blogs at amediacircus )

What, you may ask, is an 'Android' application? Android is a year old open mobile software platform that has been subscribed to by 34 handset manufacturers. I also saw it mentioned by Antonio Lucia, CMO of Visa. "...Some of the first reiterations of the user interface will be featured with Android." Android is the basis of the G1 "Google Phone" introduced last week by T-Mobile. I also hear Android mentioned in a report this morning on NPR and in an article about Visa in last week's Ad Age. Get ready for a flood of more articles showing how Android is supporting Millennials' desire for extreme mobility.

Shop the Vote: Marketing the Election to Millennials

Are Millennials engaged in this election? Opinions are divided (see earlier blogpost and comments). But whether they care or not, getting out the vote is a marketing issue -- and a marketing opportunity for those interested in reaching Millennials.

First there was Rock the Vote; now there is Shop the Vote. Shop the Vote is a partnership between the filmmaker who brought us "18 in '08", a documentary that provides a picture of this year's 18-year olds and why they should care about this election. I haven't seen the film, but would like to. A 6-minute CNN video (accessible from the home page, with film creator, David Burstein, yielded a great quote representing the message of the file: "I understand your cynicism." 18 in '08's web site is worth visiting. It describes its missions as a "peer to peer youth voter engagement and mobilization organizationsing the film as a voter registration vehicle." The site is comprehensive and engaging, a great example of Millennials talking to Millennials.

The other partner in Shop the Vote is Access 360 Media, which describes itself as "a premier multi-platform media network that connects to more than 173MM young adult (P12-34) consumers each month in the places and through the communication channels that matter most to them: In-store, Online and Mobile." In-store partners include Journey and FYE.

A visit to Shopthevote.org provides many opportunities to get involved in the election:

Links to Obama and McCain campaign web sites

Download mobile media wallpaper and signups for election news delivered to your cell phone

Register to vote

Participate in a poll

Upload videos

The main purpose of the site, no doubt, is capturing email and mobile numbers in exchange for debate alerts and other relevant content -- and presumably ad messages. It's not clear how successful this effort has been, or will be. But as a creative approach to engaging Millennials in the election -- and exploiting a marketing opportunity at the same time -- I admit it is impressive.

Millennials & iPhones: Where are the Advertisers?

The impact of the iPhone on the way Millennials communicate with each other and with commercial media is hard to overstate. Yet advertisers appear to be slow to catch on.

Here is some data for perspective:

1. iPhone users represent just 1% of the world's 2.7 Billion mobile devices, but iPhone users completely eclipse those using any other mobile device in their data use -- 95% of those who own an iphone regularly surf the Internet, and 65% of those browsing on mobile devices are using iphones.
2. Google sees 50 times the number of searches from iPhones than from any other mobile device!
3. iPhone owners are young. According to a March 2008 Rubicon study, half are under 30 and 15% are students.
4. iPhones account for up to 75 percent of the video impressions in recent advertising campaigns.
5. According to Simmons New Media Study, many consumers say they are ready for mobile advertising. Over a third of consumers who are online for at least one hour a week rate themselves as being interested in receiving ads via their mobile, provided there is a tangible incentive.

With such a young, video-enabled, advertising-tolerant target, one would think advertisers would be clamoring to develop campaigns just for Millennials and their iPhones, if not for the entire mobile market. This is in fact the opinion of Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO. He believes the iPhone will be responsible for exponential growth in the mobile advertising market:

"The iPhone was the first mobile device with a good Web browser, and more such devices will follow. Advertising will then become very personal. In a few years, mobile advertising will generate more revenue than advertising on the normal Web."

Yet from the cases available, it doesn't appear that more than a handful of advertisers -- Zagat and the Weather Channel come to mind -- share Schmidt's enthusiasm. Why aren't advertisers viewing the web-enabled mobile phone as a separate category of advertising, along with the PC, Radio and TV? I really have no idea.