Most Consumers Don’t Know What a QR Code is!

While the marketing industry consensus seems to be that QR Codes are at a tipping point, as more and more brands adopt them and consumers become increasingly familiar with the technology, we here at Mobile Marketing thought we’d put the perceived wisdom to the test.

Using Toluna Quick Survey, we conducted some primary research of our own, asking 2,000 consumers in the UK and US what they thought, and it appears the jury’s still out. While a respectable 49.6 per cent of respondents were familiar with QR codes, 50.4 per cent – a slim majority – had no idea what they were.

And of those who were familiar with the codes, not many had ever actually used one. 22.7 per cent of respondents in the UK, and 21 per cent in the US, said they had scanned a QR code.

34.5 per cent in the UK, and only 28.9 per cent in the US, had phones that, as far as they knew, were able to scan the 2D barcodes. In fact, in the US, only 38.7 per cent of respondents had a smartphone. The devices were much more common in the UK, with 48.6 per cent saying they owned a smartphone.

At 33 per cent, the most common use of QR codes was to compare the prices of a product, while using codes as a link to a site took second place with 21.1 per cent.

All of these findings are a little scary for us guys working in marketing and augmented reality – which is the next stage after QR – it’s QR without the need for QR codes

But if most people out there still dont get QR – then we will have a time of it before AR is taking off !!

Why most online communities are doomed to fail

Was thinking about online communities today after chatting to a potential client about their dream to create a developer community for their product.

I think a much wise man than I called Rich Millington blogged it up nicely – when he stated that most online communities are doomed to fail.

As he reports ‘At the moment, most branded community efforts fail. Few attract more than a handful of active participants. Even those that succeed, barely deliver the ROI they promised.’

But not all do fail – mainly those created by BIG brands – which is why HSBC trying to do this is going to the most interesting social digital experiment to date.

And I say experiment as I think it will fail and in rather an epic way.

HSBC plans to target ABC1 and C2 demographics will appoint an agency to create a digital concept that has a “clear focus and a clear message”.

So social media strategy will be central to the new offering, but the campaign to launch this will include TV and wider advertising.

In a word they are going for a big launch. This is, according to Millington, a classic mistake in building community as “no successful community today began with a big launch. A big launch actually does more harm than good”.

The interesting thing to consider is why this is.

And it is at the heart of all social media.

A push is near to a shove and people who form communities are never shoved into it. HSBC are about to make a classic mistake unless they change their underlining understanding.

And banks changing? Hmmm….. and changing fast.

And changing fast from responses from non bankers.

Pigs might fly

Read more: http://wallblog.co.uk/2011/11/10/doomed-to-fail-hsbc-plans-to-develop-its-own-version-of-facebook/#ixzz1dIWKb1w5

Read this today – and thought about things.

The original Cliffhanger

One day while walking through the wilderness a man stumbled upon a vicious tiger. He ran but soon came to the edge of a high cliff. Desperate to save himself, he climbed down a vine and dangled over the fatal precipice.

As he hung there, two mice appeared from a hole in the cliff and began gnawing on the vine.

Suddenly, he noticed on the vine a plump wild strawberry. He plucked it and popped it in his mouth. It was incredibly delicious!

Nothing to do with #greatmarketing – but everything to do with running two businesses at once and thinking about starting a third…. perhaps it is all relative….

@hhjtinygems

How To Build A Business Of The 21st Century

I don’t tend to just think about other people’s ideas – more due to an ego issue I have rather than anything deeper.

But read this and thought about it – and thought – heck this might explain a thing or two we are going through @goaugmented

So here are according to Rich Dad Poor Dad  5 elements that you need to create a business of the 21st century:

Lead generation, recruiting (or converting the leads into reps), duplication, retention, and the right company.

It is the last one (and recriutment) that we have been thinking about here at goAugmented – the UK’s only award winning independent Augmented Reality Development House -

Lead generation – Without leads you have no one to talk to and no one to share your business with. But just having leads isn’t all there is to it, the quality of leads is just as important as just generating leads. The key to generating the right leads is learning to generate free leads that are coming to you through attraction marketing or other kinds of online or offline marketing. Some of these are free and some can be through pay per click. The reason is when you go to converting these leads most of the time they have a higher conversion rate. You can do company co-op or buy leads but you will need more because they are going to have a lower conversion rate. But these kind of leads are good for getting the training on the phone. Just understand you are going to have a high rate of tire kickers and you need to breeze through the nos pretty fast to get to some yeses.

Recruiting – This is were a lot of people fail and were I have failed in the past, that’s simply getting on the phone and converting the leads into prospects. The number one reason people fail at this is they simply just don’t do it or do it consistently everyday. Some people start doing this OK getting on the phone regularly but they loose motivation because their conversion rate is very low.

If your conversion rate is not 10% – 20% then you simply need training in mainly one area, and that’s that right posture when you are on the phone with a prospect. Can you build a successful business converting  just 1% – 5%?

That depends on how many people you talk to and how long you stick with it. But, the answer is yes, you can, you certainly can. You just have to be consistent and stay with it. Just understand if you want to be in the bigger money within 6 months to a year you have to learn how to convert a higher rate or you have to talk to more people everyday. For more on the right way to posture yourself for a higher conversion rate go to Overcoming Objections When Prospecting.

Duplication – When you start getting reps in, your business will fail if you don’t get them duplicating and building themselves. Most companies tell their new reps, the first thing, is to make a list and start calling the people on the list, called their warm market. The reason for this is because it works. It is the fastest way to get going.

Then they get them into company coop leads and start teaching them scripts. Will this work, of course, but if this is the only thing you know you will loose a lot of your people or they will just sit never doing anything. Some people will just refuse to do this for one reason or another. So even if this is what you know to be the best way to do it you have to train yourself in other methods to get those people working.

Some people who refuse to bother their warm market you will need to immediately get them generating leads or buying leads. Some people will actually refuse to call people so you may need to know how to build a business completely online (but you need to make them understand that if they choose not to get on the phone ever it will take a long time to build a business). The more people you can get on the phone consistently the faster their business and your business will grow, but you have to be ready for the ones who won’t.

Retention – Besides recruiting this is the number 2 killer of a business failing. Retention has a lot to do with the company you are with (we will talk about next), how fast you can get people to duplicate and the quality of reps you are bringing in. If you can’t get people to duplicate and start seeing money they are going to loose motivation and start falling off. That’s why the quality of leads is important if you are just bring in tire kickers that you somehow talked into joining you, your job just got tougher in getting them to duplicate then if you brought in someone of a higher quality lead.

There are some that will surprise you and just take off but the key is to get a good number of them working not just 1 or 2 and that is going to depend on you getting into what motivates them and finding out what would be their best niche and bringing in more quality of type people.

The Company – First I don’t endorse affiliate marketing as actually building a business. It is a great to make money as you are building a business, but that is just selling and not building anything. And it’s just not smart to spend all your time with this kind of money making project and have nothing to show for it 5 to 10 years from now.  Most all companies are pretty much going to work it’s just some are going to be tougher in certain areas then other.

Health and wellness is going to have a tougher time right now because it is so competitive. Retention is going to be tougher because there is nothing special about it and it is going to be tougher to recruit, and when someone isn’t making money that fast and bills are coming in the first thing they are going to stop paying for is their product. But, it can still be done, people are proving it all the time, you are just going to have to talk to more people.

The shopping companies are OK but retention is going to be tough here too because if the buy in is low the pay out is low and it takes more people to make money.  I’m not going to get into travel companies their trouble speaks for themselves. Matrix comp plan companies are OK because they do build pretty fast but I have found I now prefer a company with a product that I have a network of people under me building with and growing, the money in the long run is just going to be a lot bigger.

All the above wise words come from  – http://www.michaelkeyessite.com/2011/08/the-business-of-the-21st-century/

Mum’s the world – especially online and soon to be on mobile :)

Yesterday in the office we were thinking about creating an app for Mum’s – today I was created a PPC campaigns internationally for a well respected training agency and stumbled across this.

You might as well call it 10 great reasons to aim for mums online (but remember this is Microsoft talking)

Microsoft Advertising is number one when it comes to reaching Mums online, so if you want to speak to 2.6 million online Mums, make sure you talk to us. Our MSN Celebrity pages are packed full of hot gossip which guarantees we’ll be delivering high volumes of ABC1 traffic (73% of our audience is ABC1 compared to the internet average of 63%*) and click-through rates.

*comScore Sept 2010

Real Mums Research

When Microsoft Advertising first surveyed the UK’s online mums, back in 2008, we found the web was vital for organising finances and doing the shopping, and provided important reassurance on health and advice for first-time mothers. Talking to online mums again in 2010, it’s clear that the web still does all those things – but has become far more ingrained within their everyday lives.

For today’s online mums, the Internet is a vital emotional support too:

* 74% rely on email to stay in touch with close friends
* 56% catch up on their favourite TV shows online

Mums make the most of precious me-time by heading online

* 62% catch up with friends on social networks
* 47% play online games
* 30% shop online for themselves

We wander does Microsoft have the stats for Mums with mobiles? Now that would be great.

Was talking with a friend about Twitter the other day – so loved seeing this….

The 46 stages of Twitter*

1. Hear the word Twitter. Scoff.
2. Hear it again from someone else. Scoff again.
3. Hear about famous celebrity who is apparently “On Twitter.” Scoff, but make mental note to check it out.
4. Log into Facebook to comfort self.
5. Sign up for Twitter.
6. Give up because it seems dumb.
7. Loudly criticize others on Twitter.
8. Follow @johncmayer, @aplusk, @rainnwilson, @wilw, @mrskutcher, @oprah, and one other person you actually know.
9. Post tweet that is a variant of: “Trying out this Twitter thing.”
10. Attempt to dig a little deeper into Twitter.
11. Notice rampant usage of words: “Tweet,” “Twitter,” “Twitterverse,” “Tweetie,” “Tweetdeck,” and something called “RT.”
12. Scoff again, this time in confusion.
13. Tell friends you “tried that Twitter thing, but didn’t get it and it’s stupid anyway.”
14. Log into Facebook because that site at least makes sense.
15. Read story about Twitter somewhere.
16. Log back into Twitter.
17. Try to avoid saying Tweet, Twitter, Twitterverse, Tweetie, Tweetdeck, and ReTweet.
18. Respond to @rainnwilson.
19. Curse self for fanning out.
20. Log off for 4 months.
21. Come back, just to see.
22. Post something relatively funny.
23. Get RT’d.
24. Discover that RT means ReTweet.
25. Make it your life mission to get RT’d.
26. Install Twitter app on your phone.
27. No longer ashamed to say “I’ve gotta Twitter that.”
28. Attend events with the sole intention of “Tweeting” them.
29. Pray to get RT’d.
30. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
31. Close computer.
32. Open computer. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
33. Think in 140 character sentences.
34. Compulsively check phone all day every day.
35. Tweet that you compulsively check phone all day every day.
36. Alienate actual people in your life in an attempt to impress ones you don’t know.
37. Lose weight because you forget to eat.
38. Place phone by bed so you can check first thing in the morning.
39. Defend Twitter to the death from detractors.
40. Hear self, and vaguely recognize that you have become “That Guy.”
41. Feel like, and start to behave like River Tam.
42. Vow to quit Twitter to preserve sanity.
43. Read this and change mind.
44. Think to self, “I should twitter that.”
45. Recognize irony.
46. Twitter it.

WHICH NUMBER ARE YOU AT? I THINK I AM AROUND 42…

*Originally published by shanenickerson.com

Its all LOSOPHOMO – not saying I told you so….but more importantly who is driving the change?

Some very interesting stats from the US, which shows froma marketing point of view who is driving the new advertising revolution.

As wellas driving people to school and doing everything else in the world – busy moms are driving an emerging trend that combines location-based services, social sharing, and the camera

 Said another way, LoSoPhoMo: *

The Lo is for local *

The So is for social *

The Pho is for photo (or video) enabled *

The Mo is for mobile

It’s a powerful combination. What’s more, it’s an experience that’s unique to smartphones and tablets. And when you consider the sheer size, buying power and mobile adoption rates of moms, that’s a game-changer for brands looking to connect with them.

Choosy Moms Choose Smartphones

The first indicator that moms are driving the LoSoPhoMo trend (which I blogged about a bit ago and have been teaching in my greatmarketingworkshops for about a year) is in smartphone sales themselves.

According to the 2011 Mobile Mom report, the rate of smartphone purchases among moms has increased 64% in less than two years. And more than half the moms polled at BabyCenter said their smartphone purchases were directly related to becoming a mom. Whoa.

Moms are power users of mobile. They can deftly navigate through the trifecta of mobile search, mobile web, and mobile apps, while multi-tasking a hundred different duties between breakfast and bedtime. But as mobile search gives way to more app usage by moms (for now, anyway) the shift in focus for brands is now on apps — an over-abundance of options for every life-stage imaginable:

* Conception (BioClock)

* Pregnancy (BabyBump, iPregnancy)

* Picking a name (Name Shake)

* Mastering contractions (ContractionMaster) — sorry fellas, you’re really useless now.

* Breastfeeding (Baby Tracker: Nursing)

* Potty training (iGoPotty)

* Documenting poopy diapers (Baby Tracker: Diapers)

* Keeping tabs on sleeping infant (BabyMonitor)

* Getting kids to brush their teeth (Time2Brush)

* And there are oodles of apps for mobile food ordering (and if you’re lucky — curbside service — a blessing to moms everywhere!) And so it goes. As kids get older, the apps get richer, and developers everywhere rejoice.

The Media Behavior Institute says that Gen-X moms have the least down time of any moms and the most time spent care-giving.

So what do Moms want in apps in light of this insight? We asked one: “The best apps help me stay organized,” says Theresa C., a GenX mother of two, ages five and one. “I keep my grocery list on Ziplist. I’ve got the usual suspect apps that help me stay current with friends on social networks. I’ve got a few games that keep me entertained while I’m standing in line at the store. And I’ve got some specifically for my daughter — doodling games, learning games. They come in handy at restaurants.”

Theresa isn’t alone. Moms everywhere seek entertainment and utility before downloading. What’s more, 25% of the apps they download are for their kids. (For more info about moms and their apps, follow the conversation at the MomsWithApps group on Facebook. It’s a collaborative group of parent app developers seeking to promote quality apps for kids and families.

Even more interesting for consumer products manufacturers, moms are becoming more dependent upon their smartphones when they’re out shopping. In a Brunner survey, moms reported they used apps in the store to: *

Compare prices (49%) *

Read product reviews (35%) *

Get and/or redeem coupons (34%) *

Review nutritional information (31%)

Smarter, faster indeed. There’s no question, apps are where it’s at (today). But if you’re a brand or a developer that’s creating an app specific for mom, remember your LoSoPhoMo. The best apps today include at least one or more of these features.

Shock as Manchester not seen in Study as a Super City

Is this the future of UK business? According to HSBC it is – and it doesn’t include Manchester….

What does the future hold for the UK’s small businesses? According to a new report by HSBC, innovation, high-tech manufacturing, collaboration and overseas trade are likely to reshape our economy and drive recovery over the next few years.

The Future of Business 2011 report – based on interviews with 500 owners and managers of small and medium-sized businesses – predicts that we’ll see highly-developed regional industries clustered around seven ‘super-cities’. In their midst will emerge four distinct ‘tribes’ of entrepreneurs who will give a new face to UK enterprise.

If this is where the UK economy is going, what does it mean for small firms? Read on for a summary of the major findings, an overview with comment from someone who is in the thick of UK innovation and a case study of Shutt Velo Rapide, an ordinary British business showing how small firms are adapting to economic change.

The Future of Business 2011: a summary of the main findings

• British businesses are innovating their way towards recovery. Digital communications, biotechnology and low-carbon technology will be the major growth areas over the next decade.
• We will see a revival of high-tech British manufacturing. The need for resilient supply chains that can withstand economic shocks and rising energy prices will bring specialist manufacturing back to the UK. 3D printing, advanced materials manufacture and just-in-time manufacturing are all areas where the UK can excel.
• A ‘Trust Economy’ of regional collaboration is emerging. Strong personal networks may be as important as financial backing in doing business, and more business leaders will spend time consulting for other firms.
• Business will look to emerging export markets. “Exportable inventions are our way towards a safer, more intelligent future,” says Sir James Dyson.
• Seven ‘super-cities’ will act as hubs for regional specialisms in growth sectors: Newcastle (scientific research), Leeds (financial services), Liverpool (cultural and branding services), Brighton (the alternative economy), London (creative industries), Glasgow (renewable energy) and Bristol (advanced manufacturing).
• Four new ‘entrepreneurial tribes’ will reshape the way we do business: ‘collaborateurs’, ‘hybrid entrepreneurs’, ‘local heroes’ and ‘exportentials’.

The Future of Business – a closer look

Innovation and growth in the UK

One of the report’s major conclusions is that innovation in high-tech industries will drive economic growth in the UK. With a focus on invention, rather than volume, we can anticipate a revival of high-tech manufacturing in the UK, using existing skills and infrastructure to specialise in industries where there is international demand for quality and originality.

Domestic manufacturing will be reinforced by a growing belief among business leaders (74% of those interviewed) that we need resilient supply chains as cushions against economic shocks and rising energy prices. In other words, British businesses should make their goods in the UK.

Nick Sturge, director of high-tech business accelerator SETsquared in the ‘super city’ of Bristol, says these trends are already coming to the fore.

SETsquared provides practical and financial support to high-growth, high-tech businesses, and many of the firms Sturge helps are working with advanced materials, microelectronics and biotechnology. “This year we’ve seen double the number of new companies coming in,” he reveals. “They’re a mixture of brand new start-ups and established companies realising they are better off working with people like us to help them grow.”

A culture of collaboration

The Future of Business says that greater collaboration between businesses with the same or different areas of expertise will create a ‘Trust Economy’ supported by strong personal networks.

In Bristol, notes Sturge, the closure of the Regional Development Agency has brought many smaller support providers together under the umbrella of the new Local Enterprise Partnership.

“We’ve found 45 different providers of business support in the city,” he explains. “We’re now connecting them all together so that it works efficiently.

“Another trend I’m seeing is businesses from different industries working together more closely. A year ago you would have said ‘That’s creative industries, nothing to do with ICT’. Now we’re seeing collaboration.”

The network extends beyond the businesses themselves: SETsquared is also drawing professional service providers into its network, including lawyers, accountants, even investors. By educating them in the needs of high-tech, high-growth companies, they’re creating a hub of expertise in which businesses can grow.

“In the UK, we can’t be so cheap that we can do volume manufacturing,” Sturge reflects. “But we can do design, collaboration and innovation.”

Trading overseas

The report’s final big finding is that businesses can secure growth by taking their innovations overseas. More than half (52%) of the business people interviewed saw emerging economies as the greatest opportunity for UK business; currently, however, only one in five were actually focused on selling abroad.

“Exportable inventions are our way towards a safer, more intelligent future,” comments the inventor Sir James Dyson in the report. In July, the UK signed a £1.4 billion trade agreement with China – the prospects for getting into the biggest international market may have just taken a leap.

Bristol’s long history of international trade means it already has strong international links. One SETsquared member, TVS, has just opened an office in Bangalore, India, to provide its software and hardware testing service to India’s thriving ICT market.

What’s in it for small businesses?

Although the Future of Business 2011 focuses on high-growth sectors and up-to-the-minute ways of running a business, Sturge points out that all businesses can benefit in regional growth areas. These may range from lawyers servicing the growth businesses to plumbers and builders in their supply chain; even the shops that take money from their employees.

“If you create jobs, everybody gains,” he stresses. “If I’m running a business, it’s in my interest that all the companies around are succeeding because that puts more money into the system. Businesses are tied into supply chains and it’s in everybody’s interests that all businesses succeed.”

It’s all Lo So Pho Mo – I tells yer

Away with Doug Richard at the #s4swales event helping start up businesses get better and better with digital marketing over the last few days and it hit me, you really not only can learn and awful lot about everything over three days but also you can’t teach everything in three hours.

Feedback from the event has been amazing, people have been tweeting praise, and the welsh government has been happy – even ecstatic – which is great to be involved in something which gives so much knowledge about greatmarketing and business in such a small amount of time.  

It was a great series of speakers, from the ex enterprise head for Amazon hitting home about fulfilment , Doug Richard himself with his focused delivery and wisdom, and Andrew Davis with an astounding amount of knowledge on all things social, myself, Dan Sodergren, energetically teaching about digital marketing and PPC advertising. Giving people a high return on investment from pennies rather than pounds which is what we specialise in through our great marketing workshops.

However, there is so much more I wanted to teach people, not just from an egotistical point of view, but because the internet and digital marketing has gone through a revolution over the past year all which has changed the way we do greatmarketing and more importantly and rarely all of it in favour of the small business.

You see its now all about LOSOPHOMO. So much so I think I might start a website forum about it

Lo – location, so – social, pho –photography (and any use of the camera) and mo – mobile.

Location:

Without geo locational advertising our consumer knows we don’t know they will enough. Why would I get an advert for something I can’t buy and buy now? Why give someone in London an advert for something they can only get in Manchester. Location is both in time and space. Why offer me something I can’t buy for a month? The nearer the offer in both time and space the more likely the sale. Hence, the potential of being able to advertise within certain locations digitally is such a powerful idea then you mix this with the potential of mobile GPS advertising the world changes.

This is the mixed up world of both social and local. The world of checkin’s and geo location. A leading company researching this new frontier in America is called Lightspeed who in the last year reported in America that thirty-seven percent of respondents on Lightspeed’s Mobile Consumer Panel had checked in using a location-based application during the past six months – with the percentage jumping to 54 percent for 18-24-year-old males. The (52 percent) had checked in with Facebook Places, while eighteen percent were using FourSquare and 12 percent were using Google Latitude. The most interesting stats was that Eighty-five percent of location based apps users said they would be likely to visit a store or restaurant if they received a coupon or free item for checking in nearby. This idea had appeal across all age groups.

Social:

Everyone knows that the internet has gone social, the internet has gone past the linking of people with information (1.0) to people with people (2.0) to maybe a new frontier (3.0) linking people with people to places and times. But just with social itself, Facebook has 700 million users, Linkedin 100 million, there are countless other elements of the social world or as Brian Solis calls it ‘The Conversation Prism’. In this world of social many new elements have appeared: platforms like Twitter with over a billion tweets a day and the ability to locate the person tweeting. Youtube with it’s 48 hours of material uploaded every minute is the human races biggest joint social endeavour to date.

However, unlike the traditional web and traditional marketing the social aspect and platforms are not controlled by the brands – they are a produce by the people for the people with brands advertising through sponsorship or through content creation. They are channels of communication that can go two ways. They are as Seth Godin puts it ‘the double edged sword’. They are as I put it – the moment of revolution. Not evolution but revolution proven by their power to create social change or attempted physical revolution in places likes Turkey and Syria.

Marketing wise, the revolution is that we can now pick our psychographic as well as demographic thanks to the wealth of cultural specific information Facebook gives us. Our great marketing can be focused like a laser beam on our chosen potential clients (a sure fire way of saving money with guerilla marketing.) And more importantly your potential customers can tell their friends – in just one click – that they ‘like’ you – taking advertising and making it potentially viral (something which has never happened before)

We can now even convert this traffic straight into potential wealth with F-commerce platforms and website entirely housed within the walled gardens of Facebook (and I presume soon other social platforms.) Social is huge paradigm shift in marketing and one that we will not move back from.

Whether the full power can be harnessed by small businesses marketing is something that I would question due to the very nature of marketing and social proof i.e. who would be a fan of something they knew nothing about. It is this inherent problematical that means social should be only used as part of a bigger marketing strategy. Remember Awareness must come before Action.

However, we all do use these social platforms to change our lives. It is reported that 360 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook in a single year, 60 billion videos are watched on YouTube each month, and 36 billion photos are uploaded to Facebook each year. And photos is the next big thing.

Photography and Scanning: The use of the camera and web cam in any appliance.

This seemingly innocuous device the small camera – the crystal eye in web cams – the more advanced mega pixel devices in mobiles is a HUGE potential for marketing. And one many people do not realise. You see the web is a visual place – and more and more it is a video place. According to Cisco 90% of web traffic will be video by 2013. Your home TV will become just another monitor. You will have pay and display programming and advertising integrated into our normal viewing experiences.

Bu this is for a much bigger talk on the future of the advertising revolution and augmented reality. For now, just now, that people taking pictures of places and things is just the start of this phenomenon. If you product or service is visual (and all are) then start looking into Youtube and Flckr as places to dominate your keywords before your competitors do.

Mobile:

Mobile is the next big thing. Scratch that mobile was the next big thing, smart phones are now past tipping point more than 37% of people own one in the UK, and we have a growth year on year better than anywhere in the world with around 70% growth. By the middle of 2011 – 85% of handset will be able to go online. By 2012 mobile internet users will outnumber desktop users. Tablet growth will be exponential and help the mobile marketing cause.  Mobile payments will become commonplace with the increase us of NFC, and Google predict that £3.3Bn worth of goods will be sold through M-commerce in 2013. Mobile Marketing is a BIG growth area for #greatmarketing.

Mobile marketing can come into two or three opportunities for small businesses. One pure mobile i.e. is your site mobile optimised? Does your demographic own a smartphone and if so can you advertise your offering to them? Can you service or product be sold through a mobile phone? Some big brands have noticed a 600% increase in m-commerce over the last year,  ebay sells something via mobile every second.

Two, a hybrid of mobile and location, where you can use coupons delivered to people’s mobiles when they get within a certain range of your location (in time and space.)In this arena, even SMS text is performing well with a reported 59% wanting retailers and brands to contact them using SMS, finds research from mBlox, showing a huge potential for Blue Tooth push technologies. Mobile coupons are another area of massive potential with as many as 71% of consumers in the UK wanting mobile coupons sent to their phones while they are out shopping. Believe you me, Groupon will be moving into mobile very soon and ever other coupon / group buying force will do so.

The third area is a mixed up of old technology, social and cultural references and a huge opportunity for all marketing. It is the area of Augmented Reality. Put simply now with your mobile phone businesses who wish to market their products through mobile phones can tell:

-          Who you are; not only by device demographics but through social demographics via facebook and other mobile and social networks.

-          Where you are; through geo locational use of smart phones (GPS) or you checking in.

-          What you want, through keyword analysis through search or through collective intelligence monitoring through twitter and Google.

-          And when you want it – mainly by timing advertising and by analysis of when you are active.

If you can imagine on top of this you can augmented different marketing ideas and graphic adverts on your live view of your smartphone or through an app. Then you now have a feeling about where marketing is going.

It is all LOSOPHOMO and then some – which is a new way of understanding the next level of the advertising revolution.

I feel I should buy some domain names after that

 

 

Happy Independence Day – but now let’s do something Independent :)

Today – July 4th is Independence Day. And so this got me to thinking.

Not only about how great it is to run a couple of very independent business

One in digital marketing training – www.yourmarketingtrainer.co.uk

Another in live training for small businesses and high growth programmes – www.greatmarketingworkshops.com

And a boutique augmented reality development company – www.goaugmented.com

But also about Manchester, her independence, and how we must all fight for what’s right. No matter what the cost.

You see Manchester has been part of many revolutions. And we @goaugmented – what he, the place of our own birth, to be part of the next one: So we have produced a Call to ARms for Manchester and the North West. A little video to show where the future might lie. Which is great as we could some lovely coverage – many thanks to the Manchester Evening News http://bit.ly/goaugmentedinManchesterEveningNews

But back to Manchester and her revolutions. She has been through a few.

The industrial, with her leading the way, a technological one, with Manchester being home to the first computer, and social / cultural with more than a couple social phenomonas starting up in Manchester both in music and sports.

But has Manchester ever truly been independent? Has it ever cpatialised on the revolutions to make money? Who really makes the money out of the opportunities? Did Factory Records? (Legendarily not!) Did the computer nicknamed Baby, which was the world’s first stored-program computer. Did it make Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill as rich as Gods…. probably not. Whilst the industrial revolution helped the whole nation of Great Britain but most of the money flowed back down south after generations to be swallowed up by the capital.

So it was interesting whilst sitting in The Sharp Project talking about Manchester and her chance at independence to hear Peter Saville (legend of Manchester Design) talk so effortlessly about branding and independence.

According to Peter, as we have stated a Manchester legend, branding is what you do. Not, what your marketing says you could do. Which is the brand promise. The brand feel, the equity is whether you achieve it.

So Peter thinks the branding of Manchester is problematical and needs another mapping exercise by the public sector. Believe you me what Manchester doesn’t need is another mapping exercise. Unless you are being paid to do the mapping exercise – and that’s another point / business entirely.

Manchester simply needs to get behind the new stories of the time, not the news stories in newspapers (who the heck reads those things , not the old ideas and old legends who get trotted out to talk about ecosystems and what used to happen back in the days of drugs and dropouts. No offence but enough is enough.

Yes Manchester was cool. But so was Liverpool 20 years before. And unless Manchester does rebrand itself it will take one more generation away from the Hacienda to declare Manchester culturally dull and socially bankrupt (without the universities…)

Branding is NOT what you do. It’s the way you do it. It’s what you promise and then how you deliver that promise. For example, The Hacienda was ONE club – but it became a standing point, a branding point, a landing place for so much more (and no I never did go.)

Manchester became a destination because of a series of events with global reach. Whether they liked it or not – Manchester was marketed. And it is this final point, this moment of independence, that made London sit up and notice, it gave birth to a phenomena, a revolution in thought. And just as the last moment of Manchester Joy (Division) was fuelled by a change in social practises (add drugs here) and a vision (subtract sense here) the new revolution can be fuelled by technological change, by grass roots techies, by early adopters distrubting the status quo.

Let’s get augmented reality and mobile marketing behind the next vision. Not just because we are the best augmented reality developers in Manchester (we might not be) but because it is only when you get behind something, when you raise your flag, when you say what you stand for and what you don’t that you can actually start branding.

We here @ goaugmented are a group of marketing geeks and techie nerds who know #AR, augmented reality, mobile marketing and the clashing of the two together is the future for advertising. It is the advertising revolution. And it’s happen with or without Manchester. We think it could happen with. And so we have produced a Call to ARms for Manchester and the North West. Check it out  – A little video to show where the future might lie.