Quick Thursday linkage

A new blog worth having a look at is MSearchGroove from Peggy Anne Salz who I met recently at the Mobile Content Mixer at the Savoy Hotel (in the basement, where there was no mobile signal so you couldn't use your phones - not ideal for a MOD audience (mobile-obsessive-disorder).

Mobik looks to be doing interesting things in Australia and South East Asia around offering free SMS from your PC or a java application on your phone in return for receiving adverts. I still don't buy the fact that you have to bribe your audience into looking at adverts but if it means you build up a sizeable audience and that they are responsive *enough* then I guess the model can work and they claim to have 500,000 members already (I wonder how many are active though...?). If I were a brand, I don't think I'd like to force anyone to look at an advert though, but maybe that's just my personal preferences coming through.

I think the messaging part of this is interesting though as it uses the internet to distribute the SMS, but it looks like the other person receives the SMS as usual in their inbox. Of course, as time goes on, we'll be seeing more messaging applications and blends of email, SMS and instant messaging on our mobiles - Hotxt being a case in point.

Mobile ticketing being used at the 2000 Trees Festival courtesy of Tixmob. The logistics of this one are interesting. Typically, if I got to a festival, I buy my ticket and tickets for friends. Way before the event, I make sure they have their ticket so I don't have to be responsible for it. It's not very clear to me how you get the ticket from your phone to someone else's phone. And also what happens if you accidentally delete the ticket message or your phone gets nicked or the data is wiped for some other reason?

I like the idea in theory, but I'm wondering about the logistics of it all. O2 tried paperless ticketing for their VIP area at last year's Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. In the end, it was useless. The girls on the gate just let folks through by showing their ticket so there was no kind of monitoring. Of course the added benefit of getting your ticket on mobile should be that you get a link to the festival's wapsite where you can see all the latest line-up changes, weather reports and general news and gossip from your phone. But we're a year or two away from that happening. The BBC's wap effort for Glastonbury was more or less useless in the field as the information wasn't up to date :(

Samsung and Girls Aloud team up with a c0-marketing and promotions deal. I wonder what mobile content we'll see on the back of this? Maybe it's time I got a Samsung phone to check all this stuff out.. anyone at Samsung want to be kind enough to ping a phone over to me so I can review Samsung Fun Club stuff?!

And finally, Decktrade's "awesome" FAQs. I've never seen anything quite like it! Can anyone explain to me what a 'core of awesomeness' actually is please? If you're interested in mobile advertising as a publisher or advertiser, I recommend you head over and talk to the friendly folks at Admob instead, who are so [quietly] awesome, they don't need to put awesome in any of their marketing materials ;)

What's new at Vodafone?

Well, a few things it seems as I've been browsing their website this morning. First off, they've launched a very interesting report on m-transactions, mobiles and developing countries. I've written up a short piece about it over at the Mobile Messaging 2.0 blog.

Then I found this press release about good value roaming data charges with their Connect Abroad tarriff. Yes, Ewan, you did see that correctly! It looks like a pretty good deal to me and takes the worry out of how to connect when you're abroad. Yes, it means you have to have an active Vodafone sim card, but if you do much travelling, this has got to be a good thing to get.

"Laptop users will have a reliable and competitively-priced alternative to WiFi starting this summer, when from 2 July Vodafone drops its laptop data roaming prices to EUR12 per day (excl. VAT) for wireless roaming across Vodafone subsidiaries in Europe, Egypt, Australia and New Zealand, and with partners in France, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium"

If I was doing more travelling, I'd definitely be up for this.

Cracking offers from Roadchef

A couple of weeks back I wrote about Roadchef and its mobile marketing efforts with a text-based loyalty scheme. Well, I've joined up and have received a couple of messages since I signed up and here they are:

Reply path: 447786201349 | Received 4/7/07 at 14:59
Roadchef: Have a FREE KitKat 4 finger (std or dark). Quote code 5798206 to Retail Store cashier at till. Valid to 17/07/2007. Reply STOP for no more offers.

Reply path: 447786201349 | Received 22/06/07 11:00
Roadchef: Have a FREE 500ml Coke or Diet Coke on us. Quote code 8666734 to Retail Store cashier when paying. Valid to 05/07/2007. Reply STOP for no more offers.

Do offers like these really work when the value of the freebie is so small? I wonder how many customers are really going to make the effort to quote the offer code (why couldn't it have been KIT01 for example?) at all for the sake of saving 50p on a bar of chocolate. Is this really 'loyalty'?

Looking at the positive, they do have a reply path and you are able to unsubscribe from getting more offers which is a good thing.

However, judging by Roadchef's website, it looks to me like marketing isn't necessarily their thing - not least, as they're not even promoting the SMS loyalty campaign on the website. In fact, there isn't even a news section. So they seem to be new to this consumer marketing lark and are taking baby steps. But unless they really go for it, I can't see the scheme working and they'll be giving up before they've even begun.

Any loyalty scheme afficionados out there want to add their 2p?

Random links on a First Monday

Beating congestion with mobile phones: This is nifty. In Rome, the authorities are using mobile phone signals to work out traffic hot spots over time so they can work out where the traffic jams will be in the future and therefore work out ways of keeping the traffic moving.

A very thorough article on how to monetise your mobile site with advertising including top tips on using the major players - Admob, Yahoo, Google and also some technical tips and hints. Well worth a look.

A write up by pal Tom on agency.com's buzzword take on online social networking. I have to say, I agree with him which is why I haven't written a piece on it and instead I am directing you to read his instead.

Whilst I was enjoying the Carnival that was Glastonbury, my fellow mobilists have been busy beavering away at the latest two instalments of the carnival of the mobilists... No 79 from Jag at Route 79 is rather good (well I would say that as he gives me a plug!) and incredibly thorough. And this week's, No 80, from my fellow female mobilist, Debi over at Mobile Jones., where she does a top job of rounding up this week's mobile writing.

Some older news but worth noting anyway...

Pandora launches personal radio for mobile. A great step forward, but until we have proper flat rate data plans, this ain't gonna fly which is why the launch is with Sprint so I can't test it to tell you what it's like.

Borders are doing mobile couponing in the UK and it appears to be an unqualified success. Although I'd love to see a comparision with other similar couponing activity they may have done and I'd also like to take a gander at the point of sale materials. The fact that it's mobile is possibly not the critical success factor here and I expect it's a combination of things.. can anyone give me any more info?

Samsung and Die Hard 4.0 team up for mobile action

I don't have a Samsung phone these days so I've no idea what the substance of the content is here as I have a Nokia (Dear Mr Samsung, please feel free to send me a lovely shiny new Samsung phone if you feel so inclined...), but the joint campaign for Samsung and Die Hard 4.0 looks pretty good and works in three parts...

1. Get free Die Hard 4.0 related content for your phone (text in DH to 62945 to get the link - but only if you have a Samsung phone - don't bother if you don't have a Samsung phone as they won't let you in to the wapsite).

2. Buy the official Die Hard mobile game

3. Enter the Die Hard Quiz for a chance to win blockbusting prizes

As it's all Samsung phone specific, I can't test it for you. And you'd have to be the die-hardest Die Hard fan to upgrade your phone to a Samsung on the back of this campaign. But for customer retention, I think it works. And there's nothing wrong with a bit of customer retention. There should be more of it!

If there are any readers out there who've tried out this campaign or have more information about it, then please do let us know if the content was any good and if it worked for you.

Motorola Wirebreakers campaign launches

Lee from Cake (who by the sounds of it is also suffering a post-glasto-meltdown this week) had just let me know about the latest viral video campaign, Wirebreakers, from Motorola to promote their new stereo Bluetooth product, The MOTOROKR S9 wireless headsets. I already know, anecdotally from my niece, that the Motorola KRAZR phone has better sound quality than her ipod so I'm hopeful that this product also rocks (or should that be RKS in hellomoto vernacular?).

The videos show a fictional dance crew, The Wirebreakers, encouraging members of the public to join them in random dancing in public places like the golf course, the shopping mall or a squash court. There's an example of one of the videos above.

The campaign is aimed at a younger demographic and focuses on strengthening Motorola's link with music. Does it work for you? Answers on a text message...