Many of you have likely seen that Target recently announced the launch of their mobile coupon program, enabling consumers to view and redeem coupons using their mobile phone.  While it will take some time to determine the relative success of this initiative, one thing is certain - the roll-out of mobile coupons by a large retailer such as Target will help to push Mobile Coupons into a mainstream adoption phase for consumers.  Hopefully, the user experience is positive since it will no doubt influence consumer perceptions of mobile coupons in general.  Other retailers will no doubt follow suit and roll out their own mobile coupon solutions in the coming months.  Not all though will be as extensive as what Target has rolled out.  Target has in essence created their own coupon 'site', whereby their customers will browse a specific mobile site for Target coupons.  The customer will select a specific coupon and redeem it by allowing the cashier to scan the barcode from their phone.  This type of solution may make sense for a large retailer such as Target since they carry a large variety of products and brands.  Therefore, there can be a large number of coupons available

While at the GSMA MWC the other week, I had the opportunity to check out two of the new mobile platforms that were unveiled - Samsung's Bada, and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.  Both platforms looked to be quite impressive, and I'm certain that their release has created much excitement amongst developers that are eager to get started on building new apps for these platforms.  However, while the release of new platforms is exciting to some, I'm almost certain that it spells nightmare and confusion for those on the business side that are looking to reach a wide target market through mobile applications and solutions.  With the sheer number of app stores that have followed from Apple's, and the number of platforms being introduced, it's only natural for one to be overwhelmed.  

Also revealed at the GSMA is that several mobile operators have banded together to introduce a joint application platform with the goal to create application standards that will enable developers to create apps that will work across a wide variety of phones.  

A standardized approach is good, because it simplifies things for the business and allows the roll-out of one app that should work across many

Up until now, the question has been "How can a mobile operator help me accept payments from mobile subscribers"? Collecting payments for applications & services via operator billing systems has always been an attractive proposition for application & service providers since it leverages the operator's existing relationship with the customer, and simplifies the process for all parties involved.   However, the thought of attempting to integrate with even one operator can be overwhelming in itself, let alone looking at integrating with the multiple operators required in order to truly enable this form of payment within a given region.  

Some businesses such as Zong have managed to perform the integration to several different operators over a long period of time, and use this as the basis of their product offering.  See: 

http://zong.com/zong/coverage.gsp

Enter OneAPI.  The premise of OneAPI is to provide application developers with a set of common, lightweight and web-friendly API's that enable easy access to mobile operator network capabilities.  Currently, developers need to work with each operator's specific API's in order to leverage capabilities such as payment, messaging, and location.  OneAPI will simplify things for the developers and will drive increased usage of these operator services.  

With

As many of you already know, it has been confirmed. Google will be releasing its own smartphone – due to hit the market in the new year.  Google has decided to bring the phone to market outside the constraints of a particular carrier.  They will sell it as an unlocked phone, creating a freedom of choice in mobile service that is rare amongst North American consumers who purchase smartphones.  So what does this mean for the operators? 

With Google taking the first step that some are dubbing as ‘risky’, it will be interesting to see how this changes consumer behaviour and their attitudes towards long-term contracts with carriers (the contracts enable consumers to save money on the purchase of an expensive handset).  Furthermore, will this set a precedent for other parties such as Apple, RIM, and the like who could potentially benefit from bringing an unlocked phone to market?

The key to success in this approach is the set of services that are offered or made available on the phone.  Applications or services enabling the use of VoIP calling over WiFi and tethering of devices will certainly make an expensive smartphone worth the while if consumers can see the long-term savings and

Mobile Money Canada took place this past Tuesday November 10th, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and I had the pleasure of moderating a panel session entitled “What does it take to build & operate profitable mobile banking services”.  The discussion touched upon strategies for deploying mobile banking to the Canadian market as well as operational considerations and effective consumer marketing strategies.
The panel consisted of the following industry experts:1) Patrick Kelly, SVP Business Development at Monitise Americas2) Matt Krogstad, VP Business Development at M-Com3) Joe Salesky, Founder, Chairman, & Chief Strategy Officer at ClairMail4) Eric Feeley, Director of Product Management at Telepin Software
Below are some highlights from the discussion:
Mobile Banking Strategies:1) Canadians are in making use of the online banking channel in a large way.  Therefore, banks need to clearly demonstrate the value of mobile banking to consumers.  Additionally, they must address any fears that consumers have related to security since this poses a large obstacle to adoption of mobile banking services2) Many banks have already augmented their online channel with pages that are optimized for mobile web browsing.  This is a natural first step, however it doesn’t demonstrate the true value of Mobile Banking3) Short term

There has been a lot of talk about mobile commerce lately, but what exactly is considered to be ‘mobile commerce’, and are retailers experiencing success with it?  Just as ‘e-commerce’ is a general term for a wide array of activities that can occur through traditional online channels, ‘m-commerce’ is also quite a general term that can be used to describe commerce related activities conducted using the mobile phone.  This includes scenarios where the mobile phone acts as more an enabler or channel for the commerce activity (eg. Accessing a mobile-optimized retail web site), as well as scenarios where the mobile is a direct part of the commerce-related activity (eg. SMS-based or NFC-based payment solutions).
Here, we’ll focus specifically on mobile commerce conducted through the mobile web and mobile applications.  For online retailers, the mobile channel is now an important part of the picture that cannot or should not be ignored.  Although mobile commerce is still considered to be in its infancy, some are saying that online retailers may have missed the boat if they haven’t already developed their mobile strategy.  While this might be true, the key point is that online retailers need a mobile strategy, and they need one

In my Mobile Marketing work at DonRiver Inc, I recently completed a project that involved the development of an iPhone application for a local TEDx conference – TEDxSMU.  The conference took place on October 10, 2009 at SMU University in Dallas Texas (www.TEDxSMU) and was a huge success.
 
Our TEDxSMU iPhone application provides users with the ability to view Tweets, Photos (from Flickr), and Videos (from YouTube) that are tagged with the keyword of ‘TEDxSMU’.  It therefore provides a means for users to see what others are saying about the conference as well as view photos and videos that are from the conference itself, or created by users in the community to express their thoughts on the event.

The objective of the application was three-fold:

1) To build hype amongst users prior to the conference

2) To create an interactive dialogue with users during the conference (those in attendance as well as those that were not in attendance)

3) To enable a continued dialogue and create a mobile community that will exist after the current year’s conference

This initiative followed key principles that provide a basis for successful Mobile Marketing Applications:

1) Tie

Beyond mobile web advertisements and in-application advertising, how can brand owners engage customers through the mobile channel?  Many brands have opted to build mobile phone applications as a means for marketing their products. Various brand applications that I have played around in the past week include: 1) Zippo - a virtual lighter on the phone screen
2) BMW Z4– an application that allows users to customize a BMW Z4 and then test drive it on the screen, while at the same time creating artwork that can be saved to the phone
3) Lipton Brisk Artwist – an application allows users to discover their inner artist.  The application provides different sized and coloured brushes, various backgrounds, and stencils that allow users to create artwork that can be saved on their phone.  It also allows users to upload their art creations to Brisk, or to use the art as an e-greeting
4) Zipcar – this application allows customers to find a nearby Zipcar, to make a reservation, and to use the application to actually unlock the car they have reserved as well as sound the car’s horn
5) MasterCard ATM Hunter – this application allows users to find the ATM’s within the vicinity of

In the world of Mobile Advertising, selecting the appropriate Mobile Ad Network is an important and difficult decision for Advertisers as well as for Publishers.  In the past year, the Mobile Advertising space has grown more rapidly than the Online Advertising world, and although it is not nearly as large, it does contain a wide array of players, thus making the selection process quite challenging.  In this blog, I’ll aim to provide some of the key considerations to keep in mind when selecting a Mobile Ad Network.

First off, it might prove helpful to provide some background information on where Mobile Ad Networks fit into the overall ecosystem.  The best way to describe their role is to perhaps call them ‘Facilitators’ in the overall ecosystem, since they enable the distribution of advertisements to the end-consumer.  The following shows their overall placement:

Advertiser (eg. Coke) --> Mobile Ad Network --> Publisher (ie. Mobile Web Site, Mobile App etc.)  --> Mobile User

Looking at the above diagram, it becomes quite simple to see that at the most basic level:

 1)  If you are an Advertiser, you want to select a Mobile Ad Network that has a very large reach in terms of the  number of

A short while back, I had the opportunity to meet with Raquel Rodriguez, the VP of Marketing at The M Resort in Las Vegas, and Dennis Becker who is the CEO at CommerceTel, to discuss The M Resort’s mobile marketing initiative.  The M Resort launched their mobile marketing initiative for the purpose of improving loyalty and frequency of visits to the casino from their target customers.  The initiative is tied to their Imagine Rewards loyalty program and is already experiencing better than expected results. 

CommerceTel assisted The M Resort in their implementation of their mobile marketing initiative. 

The interview provides some insight and is valuable to those looking to implement their own mobile marketing solution.  The transcript of the interview is included below. 

M-F.com:  Raquel, can you describe the solution that the M-Resort has implemented? R.R:  The M’s challenge was to build a database of numbers with which we could communicate with our customers immediate and effectively.  To build that database we created M Call.  Every customer can make the call everyday and win a guaranteed prize of points in our Player’s Club system.  To claim those points, they have to come into the casino and