I am Helen Keegan, a veteran of mobile marketing, advertising and media since 2000. This is my diary and musings about mobile since 2004. I am part consultant and part events organiser in London, Barcelona and beyond (Swedish Beers and Heroes of Mobile). I write here about mobile technology and media and other things I'm interested in like theatre, art, crafts, business and life.
Some of you may have seen me tweet about this already, but the lovely people at Mobile Marketing Magazine are putting on a one-day summit looking at all aspects of mobile retail. This is most certainly a hot topic and mainstream retailers are now beginning to see the light and are focussing efforts in m-commerce and m-retail. And it’s working for them. There are some terrific success stories out there.
I’m very happy to be involved in the summit. I’ll be there all day as I’m doing a short history of LBS (that’s location based services), moderating a panel on mobile payments and discussing the future of mobile at the end of the day with friends and colleagues Russell Buckley and Jonathan MacDonald.
The good news about the summit is that it’s free for retail, FMCG and CMG executives to attend. At the time of writing, there are just 30 places left and if you join the session, you’ll be mingling with the likes of John Lewis, Debenhams, Tesco, Oasis, Coca Cola, Amazon and Homebase. And if you’re not in that category, then you can buy a ticket for £595.
Check out the Agenda below, and head for mretailsummit.com to book your place. It should be a good day. Hope to see some of you there.
Agenda
8.15am - 9.00am Registration & Exposition
9.00am - 9.10am Chairman's Introduction. David Murphy, Editor, Mobile Marketing Magazine
9.10am - 9.25am Going Mobile - The Big Picture. Nic Newman, MD, Tigerspike
9.25am - 9.35am On Device Stat Attack. Alex Kozloff, Mobile Manager, IAB . Alex will reveal research showing the volume of mobile web browsing, how many people are engaged in mCommerce, etc.
9.35am - 9.50am mCommerce in Action. Hugh Ritzema-Carter, UK Commercial Director, YOC. Hugh will represent case studies showing how retailers have successfully deployed mCommerce solutions
9.50am - 10.15am Keynote Address. Sarah Baillie, Mobile Commerce Coordinator, Debenhams. Building a Holistic Mobile Offering Embracing Apps and Mobile Sites
10.15am - 10.30am How to build a mobile site and integrate it with your backend systems. Duncan Hallas, European Director Sales, Netbiscuits
10.30am - 10.45am 10 Rules for Building Mobile Apps. Rupert Ashwell, Head of Client services, UK Golden Gekko
10.45am - 11.15am coffee break, mobile exposition, mobile surgery
11.15am - 11.30am Mobile Search, Mobile App Discoverability Discussion Panel
Guest Moderator: Simon Andrews Panellists: Nicholas Cumisky, Sr. Industry Manager, Ad Mob Emily Gudeman, Account Director, Efficient Frontier Ramy Yared, MD, Adsmobi Peter Glaeser, co-founder and CEO SponsorMob. Andrew Emmerson, Senior Business Analyst, JD Williams
11.30am - 11.40am Multichannel Stat Attack. Matthew Hopkinson, Business Development Director, Local DataCompany. We take a look at how tough it is out there. With falling sales, and consumers shopping less in the recession period, this is a great time to use every tool at your disposal to get people into your shops, and here is how mobile can help retailers do just that
11.40am - 11.55am Mobile CRM. Anamaria Chiuzan, Retail Propositions Manager, Velti How to build and manage an opted-in mobile CRM database to drive traffic into your retail outlets
11.55am - 12.10pm Using Social Media to Drive Footfall. Matt Gierhart, Head of Social, Ogilvy
12.10pm - 12.25pm A Brief History of Location-based Services. Helen Keegan, Specialist in Mobile Marketing, Advertising & Media. Helen offers a summary of the past 12 years of location-based services, from her work in the early noughties with ZagMe, through to the present day
12.25pm - 12.40pm Using Mobile Advertising to Drive Footfall. Stephen Jenkins, Marketing Director EMEA, Millennial Media
12.40pm - 1.00pm Mobile Advertising Advice Panel.
Moderated by: Russell Buckley, Chief Marketing Officer, Eagle Eye Solutions Panellists: Alex Rahamen, CEO of StrikeAd Paul Childs, Chief Operations Officer, Adfonic David Fieldhouse, Linking Mobile Doug Chisholm, Founder and CEO, Rippll
1.00pm - 2.30pm lunch, exposition, mobile surgery, speed networking, mobile pitch panel
2.30pm - 2.40pm In-Store Stat Attack. Alistair Hill, On Device Research
2.40pm - 2.55pm In-Store Price Comparison. How the phone can help you close the sale in store, using on-shelf links to information on the mobile web. Dave Marutiak, Managing Director, Scanbuy
2.55pm - 3.10pm Mobile Couponing and Vouchering. Steve Rothwell - Eagle Eye Solutions What is the state of play with mobile coupons and vouchers? What are the issues, how are they being overcome, and which retailers are successfully using mobile coupons and vouchers?
3.10pm - 3.30pm Mobile Payments - The Options. Discussion Panel. Overview of what's out there, from NFC to SMS-based mobile payment systems.
Guest Moderator: Helen Keegan, Specialist in Mobile Marketing, Advertising & Media Panellists: Ivor Morgan, Head of EMEA Marketing, Venda John Milliken, MD, Mobile Money Network Mary Carol Harris, Vice President, Mobile Development at Visa Europe Iain Herd, PayPal
3.30pm - 4.00pm coffee break, exposition, mobile surgery
4.00pm - 4.15pm Augmented Reality Demos. Matt Mills, Head of Innovation, Autonomy
4.15pm - 4.30pm iPad Kiosks & Queue Busting Solutions. Justin Coward, MD, Global Bay
4.30pm - 4.50pm Google Demos. Amanda Rosenberg, Mobile Business Development Manager, EMEA, Google
4.50pm - 5.15pm Alternative Views on the Mobile Future
Moderated by: David Murphy, Editor, Mobile Marketing Magazine Panelists: Russell Buckley, Chief Marketing Officer, Eagle Eye Solutions Jonathan MacDonald, Co-founder at This Fluid World & Co-Founder at Human Dialogue Helen Keegan, Specialist in Mobile Marketing, Advertising & Media
5.15pm - 5.25pm Chairman's Closing Remarks. David Murphy, Editor, Mobile Marketing Magazine
5.30pm - 7.00pm networking drinks, exposition, mobile pitch results
Update 14 January 2013 - I've written an update to this post with links for 2013 and some logistics info for the new venue. Check it out here.
Yes, it’s that time of year again when the mobile world focuses its energy on the annual shindig that is Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. If you haven’t been before, and you have anything to do with mobile, then you should consider attending. It’s huge (60,000 attendees last year apparently). It covers everything to do with mobile from the boxes that drive mobile telcos to the deeply technical sessions geared at mobile developers to mobile marketing and advertising to the new handsets and tablets to the start-up and entrepreneurial community and everything in between. There is also a large conference element and I’m lucky enough to be moderating a session there this year looking at the role of social media in mobile marketing. There’s pretty much something for everyone.
And every year, I get asked, without fail two questions from a lot of people.
1. How do I get a free exhibition ticket?
2. What should I see and do there?
I’m going to answer those two questions here. How to get a free exhibition ticket *Update: Poynt has five tickets to give away. Closing date to apply is 10th February 2012 at 18:00 GMT. Details on the Heroes of the Mobile Fringe site. More competitions on the way on the fringe festival site*
Buy a ticket. A ticket that gives you access to the exhibition is 699 Euros. Yes, I know it’s not free but thought I’d better get this one out of the way. Not such a big deal for a senior exec at a large corporate maybe, but certainly a big deal for us lesser mortals who have to watch our budgets more closely. Conference tickets are even more expensive. The good news is that with an expo pass, there are still plenty of sessions you can attend and plenty of things to do do and see. More on that later.
UPDATE 21 Jan:Buy a half-price ticket. You can still apply for a meeting brokerage service to help you meet other companies at MWC12. The fee is 300 Euros and includes one expo ticket. You do have to agree to make and attend some meetings, but you're there to meet people right? The deadline has been extended to Sunday 29 January. More details here.
Apply to attend one of the App Planet days. This is where the bulk of the tickets get allocated within the developer community. Several App Planet days are scheduled and each host (Nokia, Samsung, BlackBerry, IMGA, WIPJam and one more tba) will have an allocation of tickets to give away to ensure attendance at their developer sessions. I know that most of the WIPJam passes have now been allocated, but the others have not yet been allocated. So press the big blue button on this page to ‘register your interest in attending one or more of the App Developer Conferences’. These tickets should be allocated over the next three weeks or so. If you’re allocated a ticket, you’ll get a reference number and a URL and you have to go and claim your ticket. If you don’t claim in good time, your code will be allocated to someone else. So if you do get a code – use it or lose it.
UPDATE 12 Jan: Apply to attend one of the MPowered Theatre days. This is a new stream for Mobile World Congress and is geared towards brands, media owners and the agencies who look after them. I'm guessing key themes will be mobile marketing and advertising, consumer insight, mobile search, mobile and social, location based services etc. Nielson and McCann are confirmed partners for this, with more partners tbc. Apply here by clicking the big orange button to register your interest.
Get a press pass. If you have an audience or community in the 1000s, then you may qualify for a press pass. Details of how to do that are here. I have never done this so do not know what’s involved or how hard it is to get a press pass. If you do have experience of this, then please share it in the comments.
Make friends with colleagues and contacts who are exhibiting. Each exhibitor gets an allocation of exhibition passes to distribute at their discretion. This includes stands organised by trade bodies representing countries and regions. Ask, and maybe you shall receive. This one is going to be down to your relationship and networking skills. So check the MWC website and see who is exhibiting who you can ask. There were 1400 exhibitors last year, so there are a few to choose from.
Keep an eye out on social networks. Every now and then, tickets become available and get allocated through social networks (twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) and/or through various mobile and developer communities such as Mobile Monday chapters globally or local developer user groups. These tickets are usually fairly last minute and get allocated very quickly, so you need to be quick off the mark. The twitter hashtag for Mobile World Congress this year is #mwc12 or #mwc2012.
UPDATE 11 Jan: If you're an ICT company based in the North West of the UK, then you may qualify to join a Trade Mission to MWC which includes organisation of one-to-one meetings with potential clients and partners as well as an expo ticket. The cost is 300 Euros (cheaper than a ticket anyway) and there may be other finance available to help you with your trip. Details here
https://connect.innovateuk.org/web/mission-to-mobile-world-congress and you must register by 20 January. [Update 21 Jan - I believe the deadline has been extended to 29 Jan]
Be a speaker. If you’re quick, and I mean really quick – the deadline is 12 January – then you can apply to be a discussion leader or storyteller at WIPJam which is on the last day of Congress, 1st March. Details of what they’re looking for and how to apply here. I’m pretty sure whoever is invited to speak will be sorted out with at least an exhibition pass. [I believe this opportunity may now be closed]
What should I see and do there?
Congress is huge and I know it can seem overwhelming. With 1400 exhibitors, after the first hour, every stand seems to look the same and they all merge into one. Everyone seems to be your ‘best mobile partner’ or ‘best mobile solution’ or carrier grade technology’. Not terribly helpful when you’re trying to navigate around 8 very large halls. Equally, everyone is in town and it’s the ideal opportunity to network, to build on existing relationships, to discover new things and to make things happen. However, you have to put the legwork in. So this is what I recommend…
1. There will be a wide selection of events, meet-ups and things to do, see and get involved in at the fringe festival. Background to the festival is here and you can sign up for alerts at http://mwcfringe.com . We’ll be covering a wide range of topics from start-ups to security to finance to emerging markets to mobile marketing and lots more besides. And there’ll be a whole bunch of parties to attend too. So allow yourself some time to attend some of these sessions.
2. Create your own event. That’s what the fringe festival is for. Create an opportunity for like-minded people to get together, whether that’s a round-table discussion, a panel session, a lunch or dinner, or something else, then go for it. You can promote the event yourself and we can promote it on the fringe festival site too. Please get in touch. I’m very happy to discuss.
3. Schedule meetings in with people you can’t see easily at home. Make them brief and to the point and at sensible times. If you’re partying into the wee hours (and some of the best networking happens then), then a 8am breakfast meeting may not be appropriate. Also allow time to get to and from meetings. At peak times of day, and the main drag is very crowded, it can take a good 20 minutes or more to get from the front entrance of La Fira to App Planet (assuming you know where you’re going).
4. Be clear on who it is you want to meet there and why so that when you’re at a networking event, you can say that. The person you end up talking to may not be the right person, but they may know someone who is.
5. Attend the parties. To some people, these will seem like jollies and just an excuse to get drunk as a skunk. And true enough, there is an element of that. However, Mobile World Congress is a very sociable place and the parties and meet-ups are where I usually meet the most interesting people. You need to allow for serendipity at large shindigs like MWC and the parties and the fringe festival are an ideal opportunity to do that. Hint, Swedish Beers will be on the Wednesday night as usual.
My last bit of advice is about safety. Barcelona is still notorious for theft. I’ve written about this before. Please be street smart and heed the warnings. It can happen to anyone. And it is an all too frequent occurrence. There are 60,000 gadget-geek execs in town. It’s like bees to a honeypot where thieves are concerned. Consider yourself warned.
And finally, no, I don’t have any top tips on where to stay or how to get a cheap hotel room. If I do, I’ll blog it!
Please feel free to add your own top tips in the comments.
And welcome to the Year of Mobile. Just joking! And I don’t have any predictions for you either. I think there have bee enough of those posts over the last week or two. I’m just going to share some of the things I’ve been reading or thinking about in the last few weeks, as much for my own benefit as yours.
On New Year’s Resolutions and the like…
Quashing the self-improvement urge http://zenhabits.net/improve/. “Quash the urge to improve, to be better. It only makes you feel inadequate. And then explore the world of contentment. It’s a place of wonderment.”
How to write 300,000 words in a year http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/how-to-write-300000-words-in-1-year/. I always mean to write more. When I get round to doing it, I really enjoy it. I know I have things to say and I know there are people out there who want to read that (well, at least a handful not including blood relations). I doubt very much that I’ll get the 300,000 words done, but I am making a conscious effort to revisit longer form writing. Much as a I love twitter and will continue to hang out there, I feel the need to do more blogging.
Stephanie Rieger tells us about The Trouble with Android http://stephanierieger.com/the-trouble-with-android/ – or more specifically the problems around fragmentation with Android. Do take time to read the comments too.
No, you can’t pick my brain. It costs too much http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/03/28/no-you-cant-pick-my-brain-it-costs-too-much/ (This is something I think about a lot and I’m going to point people to it when I feel like I’m being taken advantage of in the hope that contacts no longer take the pee on this one. A coffee and a panini is not a fair trade for an hour of picking of my brain.)
The over-justification effect http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/12/14/the-overjustification-effect/ “The Misconception: There is nothing better in the world than getting paid to do what you love. The Truth: Getting paid for doing what you already enjoy will sometimes cause your love for the task to wane because you attribute your motivation as coming from the reward, not your internal feelings.”
Just a quick post to let you know that I have a discount code for the upcoming BlackBerry DevCon Europe happening on 7/8 February 2012 in Amsterdam http://www.blackberrydevcon.com/europe. It’s the first time they’ve brought their popular DevCon to Europe (previously, it has only run in Asia and USA) and it promises to be a great event.
The BlackBerry® Developer Conference is the showcase for the latest innovations and breakthroughs with the BlackBerry® Development Platform. Thousands of BlackBerry enthusiasts come together to collaborate with platform experts from the community and attend sessions, demonstrations, hands-on labs and keynotes — all focused on developing leading mobile applications, no matter your skill level.
It's an amazing opportunity to connect with BlackBerry experts, get tips and discover ways to build for the BlackBerry platform whether in native or using web standards that allows you to extend your work onto other platforms. You'll walk away ready to reach a community of 70 million subscribers.
There’s an early bird rate (Euro 250) available until Friday 23 December and you can get 50% off that using this blog’s special offer code DSTNS0. And after that, you’ll get 50% off the standard rate (Euro 350) with the same code up until 18 January 2012. In addition, all delegates will receive a BlackBerry Playbook Tablet. Now that’s not too shabby a deal.
You need reasons to go? Well, here’s a few for you
Train on the latest developer tools first hand, like BlackBerry WebWorks, APIs, BlackBerry Messenger SDK, BlackBerry 7, and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
See best practices that will ensure a better understanding of the options for connecting to back end infrastructure, deploying apps, and how to use web services to our advantage
Get up to speed on not just developing apps, but how to come up with multi-endpoint strategies using web technologies
Be inspired by looking at what other companies are doing and how their approaches could benefit your company
Learn how to develop Super Apps that do more for staff while they work away from the office
Connect with the best of the best in the industry — from Research In Motion (RIM) leaders to partners and colleagues — ask questions and see if they've solved challenges you face
I’ve been a regular columnist for Mobile Marketing Magazine for some time now and have been a judge for their awards both this year and last year. Even better though, this year, I got to present the awards alongside David Murphy at Delfina. This was a great honour for me, made even better as I knew so many of the entrants and winners personally. So here’s my blog post rounding up the occasion. If you have time to read through to the end, you’ll see the list of winners and finalists and also some information about why they won and videos where there are videos available. These make for good case study examples in many sectors and in many countries. They’re not limited to the UK. Special thanks to David Murphy and John Owen for including me in the proceedings. And thank you to the sponsors, Upstream, Propel and OpenMarket for supporting such a great initiative.
I’ve only just spotted that the video from the event is up now which I’ve included here.
The photos are also up on flickr and you can see the set below
And of course, last but not least, details of all the winners
Winners include: The Guardian; Sainsbury’s (Groupe Aeroplan); BSkyB; Pepsico (Rabarba); Auto Trader; New Look (MIG); TripAdvisor; British Airways (Incentivated); Debenhams; Chiltern Railways (Masabi); Disasters Emergency Committee (OpenMarket); Txtlocal; Sony Columbia Music (Fetch Media); Buongiorno; Mippin; Rippll; Flexion.
Most Effective Mobile Site
Winner: The Guardian for The Guardian Mobile Site Summary: Developing the mobile site is part of The Guardian’s Open Strategy. Its core purpose is to increase the reach of the brand. The aim is to deliver text and image content in a fast, fresh site that will appeal to readers on any handset in any country. Results: Since launch in March 2009, m.guardian.co.uk has grown into the UK’s number one mobile content service for the digital newspaper industry, achieving over 7 million unique browsers and page views of more than 36 million per month. It accounts for around 12 per cent of The Guardian's total digital traffic and has seen a 233 per cent increase year on year. m.guardian.co.uk has also seen strong growth in its global audience, particularly from the US (2.12m unique browsers) and Canada, Ireland, Australia and India. Combining targeted mobile ad solutions with rich-media formats has allowed The Guardian to grow advertising revenues by more than 80 per cent year on year. Finalists: bemoko/Macmillan Cancer Support for Macmillan Mobile Site Found/Autoglass for Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile Incentivated/Centaur for Marketing Week Live! New Look/MIG for New Look’s Mobile Commerce Site Somo/Audi for Audi Mobile Site
Most Effective Mobile Sales Promotion/Direct Response Campaign
Winner: Pepsico/Rabarba for Pepsi Content in a Bottle Summary: Unique codes were found under the lids of Pepsi bottles. Consumers who texted the unique codes under the Pepsi can lids won: a) one month free Premier League Live Football subscription from Turkcell including live goal videos, breaking news and information about their favourite teams of choice; b) one month free Ring Back Tone (RBT) subscription from Turkcell, so when people called them they would hear one of five different tracks instead of the usual ringtone; c) each participant also won 12 hours of free airtime from Turkcell. Results: During the four-month period, 3 million people participated in the campaign up to four times each on average; totalling up to 11.5 million participations. At the end of this campaign, Pepsi reached its highest market share in the last eight years.
Highly commended: Found/Autoglass for Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile Finalists: OpenMarket for Disasters Emergency Committee East Africa Drought Appeal Pharos Mobile for Burger King Monopoly Madness Saudi Telecom Company/Upstream for 100 BMW X5 *100 Days Turkcell/Aerodeon/Shell Turcas for Shell FuelSave Fuels
Most Effective mCommerce Solution
Winner: New Look/MIG for New Look’s Mobile Commerce Site Summary: New Look launched its fully transactional mobile website in April 2011. The HTML5 and CSS3-based site was designed and built by Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) and integrates into New Look’s back-end systems. Key features include fast one-click checkout for registered users; engaging zoom functionality; easy to browse products in one, two or three column formats; seamless viewing with accordion navigation to reduce page refreshes and single consumer shopping basket between the website and mobile site. Two sites were built – one for high-end devices and one for low-end devices. The redirect automatically detects the user’s device and serves the best mobile experience for that specific device. Results: In three months the mobile site delivered 24 per cent increase in mobile visits, 60 per cent increase in orders and 45 per cent increase in revenue. • See this video demo Finalists: Pizza Express/2ergo for Pizza Express iPhone App Usablenet/JD Sports for JD Sports Fashion Mobile
Most Effective Mobile Advertising Campaign
Winner: Fetch Media and Sony Columbia Music for the launch of Calvin Harris & Kelis single Bounce. Summary: The only promotion for the new Calvin Harris single was via mobile advertising. The campaign objective was to drive engagement and purchase of the new single so moving it up the charts and encouraging more radio play, thus making it the summer anthem of 2011. The media targeted was Shazam, Ministry of Sound and MTV. A rich-media HTML5 ad campaign was specially built for MTV, using a ball bouncing in the banner, once visitors tapped on the ball, they were exposed to a full screen expandable ad inviting them to watch the video and buy the single. Results: The campaign received more than 8 million impressions within 10 days. 30 per cent of the people who clicked through the ad watched the video or clicked to iTunes. The single went straight into BBC Radio 1’s A List and charted at number 2 in its first week in the iTunes chart.
Finalists: Found/Autoglass for Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile NAVTEQ Media Solutions/Peugeot for Peugeot Hyper-local Advertising Campaign Nokia/Pring for Nokia Eidi on Pring Vogue Turkey/Rabara for Vogue Turkey’s 1st Year Anniversary Campaign Warner Bros/Millennial Media/Odyssey Mobile Interaction for Green Lantern
Most Effective Mobile CRM/Enterprise Messaging Campaign
Winner: Incentivated and British Airways for British Airways SMS Customer Service Messaging Summary: BA’s text service, available for UK- and US-registered mobile phones, allows passengers to get up-to-the-minute flight information for yesterday, today and the next 14 days, direct to their mobile, using the dedicated shortcodes. Messaging services include the following notifications: disruption to service; online check in open; lost baggage warning; standby notifications for staff; maintenance messages for staff; flight information services for people meeting a passenger. Highly commended: Ericsson IPX/Velti for A&N Mobile CRM Finalists: MePlease for MePlease SmartLinks Nokia/JWT/Bemoko for Nokia Source
Most Effective Mobile Ticketing Solution
Winner: Masabi/Chiltern Railways for Ticket Machine in Your Pocket Summary: In May 2011, Chiltern Railways was the first rail operator to go live with the full barcode ticket system provided by transport-ticketing specialist Masabi and ticketing services provider Atos. Rail passengers with smartphones or feature phones can buy and receive rail tickets through one transaction for any rail journey in the UK. Barcodes can be securely validated on the train using the guard's portable ticketing machine. Unlike most commercial booking services, the Chiltern Railways application does not charge a booking fee and is free to download. To get the application passengers just need to text “Chiltern” to 88600 or search the relevant app stores.
Finalists: Movement/Virgin Media for mTicketing at V Festival: Our Garden Safaricom M-Pesa/Redsky for Safaricom M-Pesa Ticketing
Most Effective Mobile Charity Campaign/Solution
Winner: OpenMarket for the Disasters Emergency Committee East Africa Drought Summary: More than 10 million people in East Africa have been left in need of food, water and emergency healthcare because of one of the worst droughts in 60 years. Working with the Disasters Emergencies Committee (DEC), OpenMarket supported the UK appeal by enabling SMS donations via its mobile payments and campaign management platform, CMX2. TV and print media ad campaigns encouraged people to donate £5 (US $7.83) directly to the appeal by texting ‘HELP’, ‘CRISIS’, ‘AID’, ‘DONATE’, ‘HELP’, ‘SUPPORT’ or ‘AFRICA’ keywords to 70000. Results: More than £1,200,000 (US $1,878,798) has been raised via SMS donations since DEC launched the Appeal in June 2011. This is 500 per cent more than DEC had raised from text donating in the past. The campaign also allowed donors to opt-in to Gift Aid, meaning that individuals can increase their donation by 25 per cent if they opt in to the HMRC Gift Aid scheme – 60 per cent of donors subsequently opted in. Highly commended: M&S/Oxfam/Profero for the One-day Wardrobe Clear out Finalists: Bemoko/Macmillan Cancer Support for Macmillan Mobile Site DIDMO/Salvation Army/GetJar for Salvation Army Daily Cup Social Justice National Geographic/Velti for The Last Lions Safaricom M-Pesa/Redsky for Kenyans for Kenya
Most Effective Mobile Application – b2b
Winner: Auto Trader for Dealer Portal iPhone App Summary: The Dealer Portal Mobile app allows dealers to manage their advertising any time, any where on their iPhone. Dealers can take photos of their stock on their iPhone, view their forecourt and edit adverts, all on the move. A ‘Profit Indicator’ helps dealers calculate the margin they’d make, with a suggested price. This is based on real-time, accurate, market-based information and helps to reduce the risk associated with purchase and increase the likelihood of making a profit. To ensure that enough dealers had iPhones, Autotrader ran a promotion which gave away a free iPhone to dealers who purchased a particular mobile advertising product bundle. 1,250 dealers took up the iPhone offer. Results: 1,788 dealers have logged onto the app since launch, representing about 19 per cent of the online Dealer Portal users. 66 per cent of app users return each month; 40 per cent of app users uploaded an advert in August 2011.
Finalists: Egencia for Egencia Mobile iPhone App Global Bay for iPad Retail App O2 Media/Golden Gekko for O2 Media App IDG Global Solutions/OMG/HP for IDG/HP ROI Resource Centres Safaricom M-Pesa/Redsky for M-Pesa Buy Goods
Most Effective Mobile Couponing or Barcode Campaign
Winner: Groupe Aeroplan for Sainsbury’s Mobile App Summary: The Sainsbury’s mobile app (for iOS, Android and Nokia) launched in August 2010 provides collectors of Nectar loyalty points with their points balance and exclusive offers. It consistently generates significantly higher response rates than other Sainsbury’s direct marketing channels. Sainsbury’s and FMCG suppliers provide the offers that are displayed on both the Sainsbury’s and Nectar apps for four weeks. The offers can be targeted by gender and category (i.e. targeting customers that mostly shop in certain aisles e.g. pet, baby, alcohol, and integrates with the Sainsbury’s Feed Your Family for £50 campaign via a meal planner for recipe inspiration. Shoppers can also purchase general merchandise through the app and will be able to buy food soon. Finalists: Incentivated for M&S Mobile Loyalty Program ScanBuy for Taco Bell – Unlock the Box
Most Effective Mobile Application – b2c
Winner: Debenhams for Debenhams iPhone, Nokia and Android App Summary: Launched in October 2010, the app offers the full Debenhams range for sale with delivery to the customer’s door or collect from store. They can view multiple product images with zoom capability and tailor searches using the ‘narrow the selection’ button were they can filter by type, brand, colour, price, and size. This was the first app on the UK high street to include a barcode scanner that acts like a virtual shopping assistant. The app also allows Debenhams to push location-based offers to customers that are near the stores. Results: The app paid for itself within three weeks of launch. In the first 6 months the app had been downloaded 500,000 times and delivered over £1.5 million (US $2.35 million) in sales.
Finalists: AKQA/Random House for Nigella Quick Collection iPhone App Future Platforms/Orange for Official Glastonbury App Grapple for Premier Inn Mobile Pizza Express/2ergo for Pizza Express iPhone App Poynt for The Poynt App
Most Effective Location-based Service/Campaign
Winner: Rippll for Rippll GeoWave Summary: Rippll GeoWave is a technology platform for running location-based mobile advertising campaigns. Rippll provides simple-to-use ad serving tags to publishers and ad networks turning regular ad campaigns into location-based ad campaigns. Rippll GeoWave allows ads to be served in specific regions, such as near the advertiser’s store and allows for different advertising messages to be served in different locations. Map-based reporting shows where the ads are working best so publishers and advertisers can optimize campaigns. Rippll works with ad networks 4th Screen Advertising, YOC and StrikeAd to place tags in mobile publishers such as The Guardian, EBuddy and The Sun. Rippll has run location-based campaigns for TGI Fridays, McDonalds, IKEA, HMV, Dove and eBay among others. Highly commended: Grapple for Fable III Kingmaker Finalists: Found/Autoglass for Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile Mazda/Joule/Mindshare for Mazda MX5 Facebook Deals NAVTEQ Media Solutions/Peugeot for Peugeot Hyper-local Advertising Campaign NAVTEQ Media Solutions/Spur Restaurants/Wand for Spur Restaurants Location-Aware Mobile Ads
Most Effective Tablet Application
Winner: BSkyB for Sky News for iPad Summary: Sky News for iPad is an app built around live events and breaking news displayed chronologically on a timeline that is updated as the news day unfolds. Technology developed by Sky lets users rewind live video to the start – even if the app was not active when the event commenced. Each story is supported by a number of modules that deliver editorial depth and context. Modules include interactive stills, image galleries and graphs, as well as bespoke HTML content created on a daily basis.
Highly commended: DK/AKQA for The Human Body App Finalists: Auto Trader for Auto Trader iPad App Financial Times/Assanka for FT Web App Somo/Audi for Audi UK’s Guide to Le Mans 2011 Tigerspike/Telegraph Media Group for TMG iPad App
Most Effective Mobile Advertising Platform or Network
Winner: Txtlocal for Txtlocal Control Panel Summary: 75,000 use the Web-based Txtlocal control panel to send in excess of 25 million text messages every month. Txtlocal allows business to text thousands of people within minutes from as little as UK £0.025. (US $0.038) Txtlocal also enables companies to set up a shortcode to solicit opt-ins to text campaigns or build a mobile Website for recipients of messages to click through to further information. Results: Using Txtlocal, The English National Opera could advertise last-minute ticket deals and minimise revenue lost from empty seats. Two ENO campaigns delivered £8,000 ($12,530) gross profit from a £500 ($783) spend on text credits. Papa John’s Pizza increased sales 31.7 per cent during a three-day text campaign promoting a discounted price offer. Subway used Txtlocal to inform its customers of special-offer meal-deal promotions generating a response rate of 24 per cent. Domino’s Pizza received 10-12 per cent redemptions from a text campaign delivering £10,000 ($15,661) of sales from a £350 ($548) investment.
Luigi uses Txtlocal to increase customers from Txtlocal Limited on Vimeo. Finalists: Adfonic for Adfonic Blismobile for Blis App Zone madvertise for madvertise Mobile Advertising Marketplace Placecast for ShopAlerts by Placecast Smaato for Smaato Open Mobile Advertising Platform (SOMA)
Most Effective Campaign from a Mobile Operator
Winner: Buongiorno for Recharge and Win Summary: Recharge and Win is a fully managed revenue stimulation and loyalty program that rewards prepay customers each time they top up. After topping up the customer receives a code allowing them to enter a WAP competition/game to win a reward/prize such as free SMS/Minutes, physical prizes or a paint-ball experience. Buongiorno Recharge and Win customers include Optus Australia, O2 UK, Proximus Belgium, O2 Germany Telecom New Zealand and TIM Italy. Results: Recharge and Win helps operators increase the monthly spend of participants by 9 per cent and reduce churn among participants by 25 per cent.
Highly Commended: Saudi Telecom Company/Upstream for Win 100 BMW X5 in 100 Days Finalists: BigTime/MTN Zambia for Mega Millions Promotion Future Platforms/Orange for Official Glastonbury App Orange Romania/Velti for A New Day, a New Life
Most Effective Mobile Travel and Tourism Solution
Winner: TripAdvisor for the TripAdvisor App Summary: TripAdvisor is a free travel app for iPhone, iPad, Android, Nokia, Windows, Palm available in 123 countries in 20 languages. The app includes a “Near Me Now” function, so travellers can determine what hotels, restaurants and attractions are nearby and a search engine to find cheap flights. The iPhone and iPad 2 version includes “Live View”, an augmented reality feature that allows travellers to view TripAdvisor’s 50 million traveller reviews and opinions of hotels, restaurants and attractions superimposed over what they see through the camera of their mobile device. Highly commended: Crafted Media and Colchester Zoo for Colchester Zoo Mobile App Finalists: Incentivated/British Airways for British Airways SMS Customer Service Messaging RedFish Media for MGM Luxor Las Vegas Mobile Alerts
Most Effective Mobile Payment Solution
Winner: Flexion for Flexion Wrapper Summary: Flexion’s wrapper technology creates a small amount of code that is ‘wrapped’ around mobile content such as games or apps, enabling a range of additional services, such as in-app billing, DRM, content discovery and on-device retailing. Content owners can create customized pricing options and promotional models, such as free trials, rentals, bundles and discount and loyalty schemes. The wrapper technology increases conversion rates for apps, by allowing people to try before they buy. Results: Four million wrapped products are activated every month. Flexion has reached a total of 40 million customers. Consumers have spent a total of UK £27 million (US $42.34) globally on the Flexion platform in the last three years.
Finalists: Bango for Bango Payment Flexion for Flexion Wrapper Payment One for Anyphone Safaricom/M-Pesa for M-Pesa Buy Goods Txtnation for JunglePay
Most Effective Mobile Publishing Solution
Winner: Mippin for Mippin App Factory Summary: The Mippin App Factory allows anyone to build an app in just 5 minutes. App Pack prices start at UK £10 (US $15.68) – that includes a Web app for iPhone and Android app, a java launcher and mobile website. Native apps cost £500-£2,000 ($784-$3136). Results: Over 40,000 apps have been built on App Factory implementations in the last 18 months. The most successful of these are OK! Magazine app (downloaded 475,000 times) and the Daily Star app (downloaded 300,000 times).
Using the App Factory to develop a web app for an RSS from WAC Apps on Vimeo. Finalists: Rippll for Appsplash Vodafone/AMVG for vRead Wapple for Canvas, Architect and Exhibit Woodwing Tablet Publishing Solution • 2010 Winners include (brand/agency): M&S (MIG); McDonalds (NAVTEQ); Unilever Cornetto (BlisMobile); Procter & Gamble (Sky Sports); Skåne (Ericsson IPX, LINK Mobility); ClearMen (Turkcell, Rabarba); MTN (Upstream); SwiftKey (TouchType); M&S (Incentivated); Lions Baseball (Fancharge); NXP SemiConductors… Full details and video case studies here.
Photography by johnthurm
Ouch. I spent 10 years in fashion retail before I went into marketing and later into mobile back in 2000. I still have an affinity for the sector, even though it’s very hard work and not very well paid. So it’s with interest that I picked up on Nic Brisbourne’s article http://www.theequitykicker.com/2011/12/20/2012-the-year-when-traditional-retail-really-starts-to-hurt/ . I can believe that this is the case for sure. We’ve already seen the High Street being hit by the double dip recession as well as online competition. And it’s all very well for those of us in the tech world to cheer that clients now need to get their online and mobile offering right. But it’s not quite so simple.
What worries me is that not everyone shops online or ever will shop online or will ever be able to shop online. Their finances, life circumstance or mental acuity may not support them doing that.. There are still many people in this country who work on a cash-only basis. Because that's the only way they can work. But not only that, the High Street is a social lifeline for so many people that it's demise could have devastating effects on community. For some people, the only other human face they see all day could be a local shopkeeper. I know working from home, alone, much of the time, means that that is the case for me. I like popping in to say hello to my local newsagent and buy a bar of chocolate. I recognise the checkout staff at my local, small supermarket and they’re friendly. This is a very nice feeling. I like to be able to really look at a product before I buy it as and when I have the luxury of time to do my shopping. I like to know there are other people out there.
And for these social reasons, now is the time to rethink what the High Street means and how property companies (for they're the ones dictating rents), the council (they dictate the rates) and retail fits into that picture and the community. I would hate to see the demise of my local stores. I'd hate to be restricted to moving my shopping online. I like going to my local town centre to do my shopping. My Mum goes up to town every single day to do her shopping and that's where she bumps into people she knows. If she didn't do that, she mightn't see anyone other than my Dad day in day out. Are you going to deny her that?
At the same time, the people working in the retail sector, at all levels, from cleaner to general manager, need to think about what they have to do to make a visit to their store a positive experience and one that will be repeated. If fashion and electronics are first for the chopping board, then the retail staff have to up their game unless they want to work in a warehouse. It’s not just about pricing, it’s also about product knowledge, effective and efficient customer service and about making it a sociable and rewarding experience.
And of course, we have to recognise the effects of the recession, of austerity measures, of world economies tanking, of ecological concerns over waste. This has effected changes in consumers too. People are shopping much more carefully, thinking about what they buy and thinking what they actually need and will actually use.
I'm all for technology but I believe it should support community and human well-being not destroy it. I love the work that Space Makers have been doing with the regeneration of Brixton Village market and now The Brickbox are doing similar things at my local Tooting Market. But that’s taken hard graft and commitment and a vision. And they’re only at the start of the journey. I wonder if Mary Portas’s recent recommendations, even if implemented well, will be enough http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/business-sectors/retail/high-street-review ? Will people sit up and take notice. Or will the online giants like Amazon clean-up? Or maybe there’s another solution out there that’s just waiting to happen…. ?
