The great thing about understanding mobile is knowing that it is not now - nor may it ever be - the end game we thought it was meant to be. Huh? Mobile is an incredibly important part of an overall strategy and that strategy needs to be baked before getting into mobile anything. We've seen so many companies dive head-first into mobile and then, once they are hip deep into a project, try to figure out where it fits in their business. This won't work now and it won't work tomorrow. This will never...
Oct 23, 2014
The goal of every app developer is to attract as many users as possible to their app. Which is why it's really important to explore - and enjoy the benefits of alternative app stores if you have an Android app. Why? Because - although the majority of app developers may view placement in Google Play as the best way to achieve mass market reach and distribution for their Android apps, the numbers — and news — tell a different story. The raft of companies out there running app stores as a huge part...
Oct 22, 2014
There should be no doubt of the importance of mobile commerce today. The fact that retail executives are now losing sleep over it is a sign that the magnitude of the opportunity is starting to sink in. Chuck summarizes the key findings from the third annual retail benchmark surveys by Retail Systems Research that details this and other key findings.
Oct 21, 2014
Welcome to episode #204. On the show: SideSwipe's gestures; FritoLays hands out samples in bus shelters; Pinpoint offers location-based audio game; Geofeedia and Adnear raise; TomTom opens up; Chico's embraces RFID; Loopd brings beacons to conferences; Lufthansa's augmented premium seats; Yondr's phone-free zones; Ikea's motivational mirror. Plus, what happened to Hailo and why RFID in a world of beacons. Full show notes can be found here ....
Oct 20, 2014
Plastic Mobile is a Toronto-Canada based Mobile agency that has done work with venerable brands such as Pizza Pizza, Air Miles and Beyond The Rack. Since inception in 2007 they've seen everything imagenable when it comes to the evolution of the mobile industry. Because of this longevity and success, I always wondered how they keep on top of what is going on at the same time as keeping abreast of the things that will impact them - and their customers - in the near future as well. A hard thing to ...
Oct 17, 2014
Greg has been on a mission to teach effective SMS marketing to, well, the world. Here he details the top 5 SMS platforms for agencies looking to sink their teeth into SMS marketing properly. Greg also dives into his top choice and why he made that choice as well as the success metrics he expected to see as a result of using SMS to connect with customers while he was at Cabela's.
Oct 16, 2014
Have you ever considered hiring an agency to help with your mobile app marketing? Sometimes it is much more effective and less costly to do so for many reasons (of which we explore in this episode). Should you go down this road there are still responsibilities that fall on you, the developer, to ensure your app succeeds. Don't just hand it off and hope - that is NOT a strategy. Peggy highlights some great work from Mick Rigby, founder of Yodel Mobile, on his power of 3's when it comes to ensurin...
Oct 15, 2014
As Chuck travels around the world he seeks out the places that have started implementing the technology we talk about here on the show. This time Chuck was in San Diego and swung by the Marriott - one of 3 across the United States that have implemented beacons throughout the property. Here is Chuck's experience as he wandered around, getting beaconed and blown away.
Oct 14, 2014
Welcome to episode #203. On the show: Apple's location warnings; Places from Moment.me; Towstop sends a towing lifeline; GPS signal as art; Square's arrival prediction bet; In-mall WiFi advertising from Steps Away; Locqus Uberizing the service industry; Snapping screens from Google; Facebook's local location ads; Augmented reality covers real ads. Our special guests are Wibe Wagemans and Roman Kikta of Indoor Atlas. Full show notes can be found here ....
Oct 13, 2014
Here's a breath of fresh air - a little truth in a world out of control with spin. I'm talking about Kyle McInnes. If you don't know Kyle he has had many a career in mobile - starting way back in the day as the Editor-in-Chief of BlackBerryCool.com (the first blog focused on BlackBerry). He is now the co-founder of Smokelabs - a mobile app development company, helps run the Ottawa International Gaming Conference and is a director for the soon-to-be-launched Maker Space North. I caught up with Ky...
Oct 10, 2014
Greg brings a great overview of the tools he used at Cabela's in order to understand their customer flow - from interest to purchase - and what influenced their buy decisions. Knowing how far people travel to get to a store or the influence of discounts on certain products or having the right offer that brings them from the food court to your store are essential today. The tools and tactics we talk about in this episode helps to demystify this process. It isn't rocket science but it may feel lik...
Oct 09, 2014
How do you know where to go unless you have the right data? That's what this episode seeks to answer. Having access to app store analytics gives developers incredible insight into the emerging trends but, more importantly, gives insight into the expected growth of an app. Using the service we highlight in this episode, developers will be able to see what categories and types of apps are ripe with opportunity while avoiding those that aren't....
Oct 08, 2014
Grabbing the attention of a consumer is THE challenge for marketers using mobile these days and beacons are in the middle of this notification revolution. They seem to be the answer to all marketing prayers and, according to a recent inMarket study, they work VERY well. Chuck summarizes the results in this episode but beware, there is a dark side to this bright light that could bring an end to your beacon initiative - and customer loyalty - if it is abused....
Oct 07, 2014
Welcome to episode #202. On the show: Urban Airship and Gimbal cozy up around beacons; Is that a drone on your wrist?; Dancing traffic lights; MoPub and Juice Mobile team up; Estimote maps the indoors; AirPatrol secures 2 patents; Path's best effort is...PathTalk?; xAd teams with Captivate Networks; Shazam is absorbed by Siri; Honeywell brings Google Glass to the air. Our special guest is SchneiderMike, VP of Marketing for Skyhook Wireless. Our resource of the week is Commute by MapQuest. Full s...
Oct 06, 2014
We are entering the world of notifications. In fact, we should start considering notifications as an independent operating system that is layered on top of all other operating systems, right underneath the connectivity layer of what makes up the Internet itself. At the core of this No/s is communications - something that is an essential part of an effective mobile strategy as well - and right there in the middle of this communications revolution is a familiar infrastructure as a service company ...
Oct 03, 2014
There is a terrible stigma to the mobile coupon. As Greg details in this episode, coupons have a bad rap because businesses almost always think of dollar off or discounts - but that need not be the case. The challenge is to be creative with the use of mobile coupons and start thinking of things away from the clip and save models that are dominating the mobile landscape. That said, if you are going to jump into the mobile coupon fray, build your strategy, know your outcomes and plan accordingly. ...
Oct 02, 2014
Late in 2013 Roy Smith, founder of AgeCheq, helped us understand the implications that COPPA is going to have on the mobile app industry. COPPA is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and we've all been waiting for something to happen - for the FTC to find and fine the first infractor. Roy promised to come back and explain the findings when this actually happened and, just this past month, the FTC levied fines on two companies - Yelp and TinyCo - for COPPA-related violations. Roy held up...
Oct 01, 2014
Welcome to episode #201. On the show: We are LIVE from SM2 in New York City so this is a unique episode for us. We cover the top 2 stories of the week which are Shopkick selling to SK Telecom and PayPal's partnership with Samsung for wearable payments. We also have 4 live guests: Amit Shah of 1-800Flowers, Anthony Toguchi of Nestle, Sean Trepeta of Mobiquity Networks and Vikas Gupta of Factual. Enjoy! Full show notes can be found here :...
Oct 01, 2014
MMS has been around for quite some time but perhaps it hasn't been appreciated as much as its relatives. Peggy brings us a glimpse into how MMS can help application developers bring users back into their apps and move downloads. She also highlights a new MMS service offering from Twilio and brings us the top 3 uses for MMS for your business.
Sep 30, 2014
Quick. Your biggest complaint when you walk into a Home Depot is? Retail has given us big box stores, streamlined ecommerce platforms, mass emails, coupons and real-time web customer support but have you ever been so frustrated by the lack of in-store customer support that you've walked out, vowing to never return? Well, mobile may be the answer to this. Sears and Zappos (independently) are working on making your in-store experience a good one when it comes to getting some real-time help. Chuck ...
Sep 29, 2014
Privacy. Security. Authentication. Securing and protecting each has become more important as we move our lives from the terrestrial to the digital. The thing is that the infrastructure that was built - the password - is a throwback, a legacy to a time that didn't have supercomputers that could crack them. Even if they did, our banking information and identity was never in jeopardy. Things have changed and so must the way we protect ourselves. So if passwords don't work and our world is getting m...
Sep 26, 2014
SMS marketing can be misunderstood. It seems complex to get up and running and goes against the traditional view that marketing should reach as many people as possible all at once (which, in hindsight, seems absolutely ridiculous no?). The thing is that when you do SMS marketing properly and in context it is one of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing tools. Period.
Sep 25, 2014
Marketing is an art when it comes to getting the word out for your newly-minted mobile application and there has never been a more affordable means to market than social media. The problem is that most app developers either ignore this opportunity to engage with their community or are doing it terribly wrong. That's why we are here. This episode focuses on the reasons social media marketing is so important for your mobile app business and the 3 things you should NEVER (and we mean NEVER as in ev...
Sep 24, 2014
In a first of what will likely be many companies diving headfirst into beacons, Macy's has announced a huge rollout of 4000 beacons across their stores in the United States. They are doing it in partnership with Shopkick and Chuck has all the details of this monster initiative here.
Sep 23, 2014
Welcome to episode #200. On the show: Google Outside expands; Geotargeted ads to help The Times Newseum; Weve is dead; Pigeonly's Photopigeon; MoodMedia rolls out presence; Macy's commits to Shopkick and 4000 stores; Futur Heritage pushes Remy Martin; Verizon to enter car sharing; The Drink Up fountain; Urban Airship pushes iOS' interactive push notifications. Special guest is Eli Portnoy of Thinknear on their latest Location Score Index. Full show notes can be found here...
Sep 22, 2014
Greg and I jump into the iOS 8 discussion by highlighting the top 5 enhancements that marketers should know about. We talk ApplePay, Spotlight, Widgets, MAC addresses and action notifications (with a few detours around Apple Watch, iBeacons and Twitter?). The goal here is to demonstrate the possibilities that the new OS brings to the mobile marketing world. Will you use all/any of these? Perhaps not right away but to be aware of them is a requirement and we do our best to bring them to the foref...
Sep 20, 2014
Money. There is not a more precious commodity for app developers than the earned dollars staring at them. The problem is that it is often stuck in app store purgatory - earned but not released. You can stare at it, watch it grow, but for a set amount of time, can not touch it, spend it or re-invest it in your business. Basically, it is useless. Unless... Martin MacMillan saw this problem first hand and decided to do something about it. His company, Pollen, accelerates earned revenues still sitti...
Sep 19, 2014
We've all seen an ad on television that has had an impact on us - made us laugh or cry or think or donate or buy or repulse. Mobile ads should be no different. The key is to understand when to display the appropriate ad with the appropriate message and being of the appropriate length. This is what InMobi calls "Emotional Monetization" and Peggy walks us through an incredibly simple process to understand when to use what type of ad for maximum revenue generation. I.E. When to place the right ads ...
Sep 17, 2014
Sep 16, 2014
Hallelujah the beacons are coming! A huge study by Adobe shows us what mobile marketers think of beacons and it is (mostly) good. There is tremendous interest in using beacons these days and this study encapsulates the state of acceptance as a marketing tool. Chuck summarizes for us here.
Sep 16, 2014
