all about qtags

How Students Buy

The National Association of College Stores offers Retailers some insight on 18-24 year old purchasers.  Their StudentWatch(TM) research from August 05 found -

• 91% of students living on-campus go online every day.
• When asked how likely they would be to visit a store (physical or online) after being exposed to different advertising methods or product specifications, students ranked the price of products and recommendations from friends or family highest. E-mail ads and pop-ups were ranked as the lowest.
     

The Future of Advertising is Here

Shannon Otermat of Wagner Communications emailed me The Future of Advertising is Here (Inc Magazine, Aug 05).  The article discusses how advertisers are moving from random distribution to 'smart' messaging and how behaviors and purchasing/browsing profiles are being incorporated into various technologies off and online.  It's a great article, read the whole thing when you get a moment.

Here is what struck me -

• On average, in US we are hit by 3,000 ad messages a day.  Two-thirds of people surveyed in a Yankelovich Partners study said they feel "constantly bombarded" by ads, and 59% said the ads they see have little or no relevance to them.

• In a study, website visitors were, on average, 14 times more likely to click on an ad when it matched their profiles, but currently, for example, at least 950 out of every 1,000 Internet automobile ads still land in front of people who aren't in the market for a car. (Scott Eagle, chief marketing officer of Claria)

The opportunity for advertisers is to publish to the right viewer at the right time.  Technology is helping advertiser's leverage that opportunity, and soon all of our environments will be filled with flat screen display units that we can interact with (through remote controls or phones), and that understand who we are and what we are interested in seeing. (some neat technology for digital signage billboards from Smart Sign Media that displays ads based on what is playing on your car's radio).

Mobile phones are another display screen to be leveraged. "Mobile-phone marketing today is where Internet advertising was in 1996 -- it's about to take off," says Michael Baker, president of Boston-based mobile-marketing firm Enpocket. "There are already more mobile phones in use worldwide than televisions and computers put together."

Cutting edge display devices, and 'smart' targeting notwithstanding, advertiser's continue to raise the creativity bar to capture attention.  Interactivity seems to be the key at the moment, with 3D holographic projection, touch-screen digital displays and animated characters spread virally through emails all taking hold and showing strong results. 

The choices are amazing.   

Trivial Pursuit 2005

Today I learned about CellPhedia - and I might be missing something, but it sounds like Trivial Pursuit.  I mean that comparison as a good thing.  Remember how cool TP was? But now, doesn't it seem odd to play something where the information recorded is static? We can't accept that anymore - these days information has to be real-time and refreshed continually for it to be valuable. 

CellPhedia's inventor sounds like a cool person.  Good luck at your Wikimania presentation this week -- and I'll check back to your site to see how it went (hope you provide updates). 

I signed up to participate in the program -don't know how good I'll be at answering the questions - but I'll be in the forum for arts, music and food.  Maybe I'll meet you there.

Texting takes off in the U.S.

USA Today says texting is going mainstream here in the U.S. -- finally.

The article mentions some of the unique ways that people -- and companies -- are using text messaging. And it continues the "third screen" idea that Allison has been writing here at allaboutqtags.

AdPulp also links to the story.

Self Guided Investigations...

In a recent keynote speech at the National Center for Database Marketing Conference in Chicago, Ann Fishman, president of Generational Targeted Marketing Corp made the following observations about Generation Y.

It is a generation that believes in its own ability to make changes, to the point of overconfidence. They are brand-loyal – provided they have discovered the brands through their own devices, such as peer recommendations or self-guided investigations over the Internet. But it will use these channels to gather the information it craves – and it does crave a great deal of data about potential purchases.

Jet Parker of CEO IQ observes that this generation is driving the I-Boom phenomenom.  I want to control, I want to learn, I will tell you when I am ready to buy.

How to Remember

Yesterday I posted a comment from Nihal Mehta, the president ipsh, a mobile-marketing company. The comment was "Mobile is no longer a new media".  I agree.  And it went from new to integrated in about 12 months - very quick adoption.  The quick adoption makes sense however, as advertisers are trying new approaches to break through clutter.

Push and interactive SMS/text is a good way to break, particularly with a certain demographic.

And soon phones will be able to receive more than 160 character SMS/text messages; including video, live links, etc.  The cell phone will be a true portable personal digital device. 

As a consumer we will be totally and utterly plugged in (or wirelessly plugged in as the case may be).  Sometimes that is a good thing, sometimes it drives us crazy.  There are days that I cannot wait to take my blackberry off my belt.  And the amount of time I spend communicating with it will just grow and grow.

I still will have trouble remembering things that I see and like.  The more I see, the harder it will be to remember. 

Advertisers should provide an easy way for their public to remember them.  In addition to the creative push & interactive programs, it would be nice to provide a quick connection point.    Think back 10 years ago....we added www to everything. 

Now we can add a keyword to text and it will help some people remember you.

Disney to offer mobile phone service

Need proof that the wireless industry sees potential in the youth market?

The Walt Disney Co. is launching a new mobile phone service aimed at families. The entertainment giant is teaming up with Sprint, which will provide the network.

Here's a quote from the news release:

"Disney Mobile plans to offer a comprehensive mobile service, including wireless voice service, exclusive handsets and a package of features and applications tailored to meet the unique communication needs of families. The service will also include a range of entertainment content for the family."

A BusinessWeek Online article about the venture quotes a Disney spokeswoman saying that the services is geared to families with kids in the 11 to 14 age group, so they can stay in touch better.

But you can bet that one of the first things these new customers will want to do is text their friends -- not call their parents.

The service is expected to launch in 2006.  For more info, go to www.disneymobile.com.

Were u ONE of them?

More than 26.4 million people around the world sent text messages Sat July 2nd in support of the Live 8 campaign to clear the debts of the poorest countries.  This set a world record for text messages sent.

Were you one of the 26.4 million?  If not, you can still make your voice heard.  Go visit The ONE Campaign site --  www.one.org and sign the petition. 

Want 2 know? Text to find out..

If you want to know something....send a text message.

Google has been beta-testing it's text based search system for a few months - I've used it quite a bit, most recently to find a pie shop.

Yahoo just announced the expansion of their wireless services, which includes you being able to text to “92466” and in response, get access to stocks, weather, and etc.

It's amazing how quickly texting is being integrated into search & marketing programs.  It's a great way for consumer's to control the interaction & to remember or learn more.

Advertiser's can leverage this technology by displaying a qtag keyword.  When texted to 78247 (QTAGS) the keyword text delivers a weblink into the user's inbox.  This means that the advertiser can deliver the texter directly to the appropriate spot online to learn more or purchase.  This will save time for the consumer.

The ebay concept, consumer control

I just viewed an in-depth profile of ebay and its founder.  I started watching the show thinking...."ok, what is there to know about ebay, you buy, you sell...".  But listen - here are two things that I learned that stopped me in my tracks -

1. founded just 10 years ago, ebay is the fastest growing company in the U.S., ever.  Wow.
2. ebay's founder said this about how he came up with the idea..."about 10 years ago I saw all these tools coming online for e-commerce, but I didn't see anything that gave the consumer control.  So I wrote some code and built a place where people could buy and sell, and control it themselves".  Another wow.

Who would have thought that consumer's wanted control over commerce? What was wrong with stores and manufacturer's controlling it? Why did there need to be a new way?

ebay thought there should be a new way. It was a good observation. Look at the power of consumer control.