Oh god. I literally never thought this day would come (at least until iPad Mark II). Having watched the beautifully produced Flipboard video, I have found myself wanting an iPad! Flipboard is a social application which aggregates all of your social networking data into a digital magazine format. The execution looks sublime, with Facebook, Twitter, flickr and other feeds that are relevant to you, smoothly integrated into what looks like a wonderful user experience. One of my truly favourite examples to date of the convergence of mobile and social. Take a look for yourself.
In a time when HTML5, Augmented Reality and applications are being dissected by marketers in order to deliver communications to their audience, the oft overlooked art of ‘keeping it simple and relevant’ lies dormant. It waits, hoping that someone who recognises audiences do not need rich media or the latest technology to engage with the brand in question will come along and show just how bloody well it works.
Amongst the hype of the PR machine surrounding mobile applications and technology, NME/Blackberry have quietly launched a competition that could show some of the biggest businesses in the world how ‘mobile’ should be done. Working as a partnership, the competition gives the key demographic the chance to win a Blackberry handset, as well as tickets to an NME gig.
Now here is where it gets even more interesting! Although you can answer the question and submit your details online, you can also join the NME blackberry group on blackberry messenger to submit your answer. The Blackberry market share in the UK is already quite significant, and is no longer just the email enterprise phone for business executives. Facilitated by Blackberry messenger, the RIM brand is now becoming a real force in the 16-25 age range (a demographic shared by NME). So, what is to be learnt from this competition?
Incentivised – Using prizes that the consumer WANT to win, NME and Blackberry are able to collect rich audience data
Permission Granted - With all this data collected in mind, the question is still posed “Would you like to receive marketing…etc” in a clear format. So although being brands that their audience WANT to engage with, they still demonstrate respect for their consumers by asking their permission to continue the conversation
Natural Environment – The BBM element is a stroke of genius for two reasons. The first being the ‘environment’. With its rise in prominence in the youth market, Blackberry messenger (or BBM as it is known in short) exploits the prolific nature of SMS but in an instant messenger format (similar to that championed in the late 90’s/early 00’s by MSN messenger on the desktop). Because youths are participating regularly in this environment, it seems right that a brand should enter this space (with permission)!
Value Exchange - The Value exchange at face value here is obvious. Participants have the chance to win prizes that are relevant to their interests, and at the same time, NME/Blackberry suddenly have data to a very valuable target demographic. But the BBM element gives an EXTRA value add for NME/Blackberry. You see, by building a blackberry messenger group of NME fanatics, suddenly that is access to a massive group of opt-in consumers who own Blackberrys and love NME. You just cannot buy data that specific! And what is EVEN BETTER, is that BBM is free to use (on a data plan), so NME can deliver targeted, relevant marketing messages to opt-in consumers for a stupendously tiny cost!
Imagine if NME bring out a native Blackberry mobile application. Suddenly, rather than spend thousands trying to market it, they have the audience data ready and waiting to send to ONLY the people it is relevant too. Magic.
Mobile commerce (m-commerce) has grown at a rapid rate in the past 12 months, catalysed by the increasing numbers of application stores on the variety of operating systems now available, however even the purchase of mobile content isn’t the only success. In 2009, eBay generated $500m in sales via mobile, and expects to smash that figure in 2010. That was over 1.5 million items, including a $75k Chevrolet Corvette and a £19k boat!
Purchases worth tens of thousands of pounds; in just a simple click via their mobile.
Along with Amazon (who have both an iPhone application and a mobile website), they make up 70% of m-commerce transactions worldwide. All this can be attributed to taking the consideration to prepare and design a dedicated mobile site, rather than optimising the desktop site, in order to leverage the existing web infrastructure, and have a process and user flow that is cohesive between the platforms. Of course this is supported by a seamless payment process and other factors, but the importance of usability should not be underestimated.
But what makes m-commerce such a viable solution and/or extension to current commerce activity? (read more…)
Google appinventor allows the average joe to create their own Android App, without the need for any design or coding skills! As this rather lame but simple example video shows you, the functionality may be limited, but there will be ways of creating and delivering applications that anyone and everyone can use! Just as the Apple application process tightens up, Google open theirs up even more! Great move
