Once, twice, three times a party…

Swedish Beers parties galore klaxon alert!

It’s fair to say, I’m a bit busy at the moment but it makes for exciting times and I’m thrilled to bits at the prospect of meeting and hanging with some interesting people. Lots of events coming up, including not one, not two, but three Swedish Beers parties and a mini-Heroes and a client event. And more to come…

Well, they say you can have too much of a good thing, but I’m not so sure when it comes to Swedish Beers! We have Swedish Beers coming to three cities near you in the next few weeks so come on down and join the fun, hang with other people with a passing interest in mobile and enjoy a relaxing evening chewing the fat and putting the mobile world to rights.

New York – 2 May 2013

First up, it’s a last-minute jaunt to the Big Apple. Helen will be there on Thursday 2 May with Lubna, Grace, Becky and Petra lending a hand to ensure you have a good time. Antony and Jerome from Ribot will be sponsoring the first few beers but there’s room for another sponsor if you’re up for it. It’s free to attend and we’d love to see you.

More info and RSVP here http://mobileheroes.net/events/event/swedish-beers-hits-the-big-apple/

While I’m in New York, I’ll be chairing a session for BrandPerfect looking at seamless brand advertising (an impossible dream? we’ll see.) It’s free to attend and includes a lovely tour of the Pencil to Pixel exhibition which I highly recommend having experienced it in London before Christmas. http://brandperfect.org/index.php/events/details?id=8

Berlin – 15 May 2013

Next we’re off to Berlin to take in the culture, enjoy a panel discussion, check out some new mobile start-ups and then finish the day with some cheer from Swedish Beers and our friends at Adeven. Again, we’d love to see another sponsor or two benefit from getting involved (get in touch here) but in the meantime, do join Helen, Russell and Kristina for some Swedish, (well probably German), Beers.

More info and RSVP here  http://mobileheroes.net/events/event/swedish-beers-on-tour-in-berlin/

While I’m in Berlin, I’m also organising a half-day of Heroes of Mobile discussions and demos also on 15 May at Betahaus. Details coming for that very soon. Keep your eyes peeled.

London – 13 June 2013

And it wouldn’t be the Summer if we didn’t have a Swedish Beers bash in our home city of London Town. All we’ve done is reserve the date at our favourite London watering hole, The Nordic Bar, and we’re ready and waiting to get sponsors on board. Helen’s talking to a few already but get in touch if you’d like to join the fun. We just wanted to make sure you had the date saved so we can have a blowout party….

More info and RSVP here: http://mobileheroes.net/events/event/swedish-beers-is-it-summer-yet-party/

There will be further Heroes of Mobile discussion events in London in May and June as well. Watch this space as they say!

Sponsorship and time permitting, I’ll be visiting more cities from Leeds to San Francisco. If you’d like to see Swedish Beers and/or Heroes of Mobile happening in your city and can help make that happen, then let Helen know.

If you’re coming to one of the Swedish Beers parties, please bring a business card with you to get your first beer token. Sponsors will have the rest of the tokens so you’ll need to get chatting with them to get your hands on more. There should be enough to go around!

So spread the word, and come on down for a fun evening with friends old and new. You don’t have to be a mobile expert to join us. All welcome with a passing interest in mobile technology and a cheery disposition!

Skål

Harvester Restaurants’ couponing success

I missed this case study first time around, but since I seem to be thinking a lot about mobile and retail at the moment, I thought it worth sharing.

Harvester is a chain of family-friendly restaurants with 200 outlets across the UK. They’re open seven days a week and offer grills, sauces and sides, as well as a brunch menu and vegetarian options at very competitive prices. I haven’t been to Harvester restaurant in almost 30 years, so I can’t comment on the quality of the food but I have friends who enjoy it.

To attract new customers and to build repeat business, they rely on regular offers and you’ll see their website shows the latest offers and the latest menus. When the Apple Passbook arrived on the scene, mobile advertising firm, Millennial Media, teamed up with mobile couponing firm, Eagle Eye, to create a campaign to drive customers to store.

According to Gavin Stirrat, MD EMEA for Millennial Media, they served display adverts to iPhone 5 users and those who had upgraded to iOS 6, with a skew towards families. When you clicked the banner, you reached a landing page communicating the offer - £5 off when you spend £30 or more -  and the call-to-action to add this to your Passbook. Eagle Eye then pushed the individually coded coupon to their smartphone. No additional customer details were required making the process as seamless as possible.

Once the voucher was loaded into Passbook, you could redeem the voucher in the restaurant via the restaurant’s existing Chip & Pin terminal. In this way, it was possible to measure redemption rates and ROI. The campaign ran for two weeks and in that time, 16,000 vouchers were issued and around 700 were redeemed offering a 4.4% redemption rate. As the offer was for a minimum spend of £30, it drove at least £21,000 in revenue. And remember, this was just marketed to a subset of iOS customers who had iPhone 5 or iOS 6 so they had the improved Passbook functionality.

It seems that even iPhone 5 customers like a bargain…

More on Millennial Media’s site here and here. Press release on Eagle Eye’s site here.

Further reading on how digital can drive customer engagement, footfall and loyalty in the High Street from Eagle Eye’s Andy Smith in British Retail Consortium’s Winter 2012 publication. (It’s one of those magazine reader thingies so it won’t work on a tiny mobile screen).

The new retail landscape

I spent the first 10 years of my working life in fashion retail on the shop floor, managing various fashion outlets in the Midlands and London’s West End. That was back in the day when the ordinary customer used a landline, didn’t have a computer at home, watched a TV programme at the same time as everyone else, got your films at the local video shop and we carried copies of the A to Z London in our handbags or pockets to work out our way around London. It’s not actually that long ago.

At the time, we couldn’t have imagined how the retail landscape would change. I remember when I was part of the launch team at Episode’s flagship store in Knightsbridge, our tills were actually laptops with printers built in and these were hidden neatly by custom made cash desks. We just kept the cash in a drawer with a lock. Those laptops were the height of modernity in the fashion retail sector. I’d never seen anything like it at the time (we’re talking 1993/4). I’d been used to the tills that you still see in the likes of House of Fraser. I’d never seen a laptop so small or one with a built-in printer in my life! It was kind of a big deal for us. I was used to filling in forms in triplicate to keep tabs on sales, targets and stock.

But times, they have changed. Albeit the retail future is very unevenly distributed. This cartoon from marketoonist sums up the current retail landscape as many of us can relate to.

Except, most customers aren’t always online or obsessing about their phones. At least, not yet. And therein lies a big challenge. How does a retailer cater for the customers who operate in the old way – i.e. don’t tend to shop online, have a basic distrust of the likes of eBay and haven’t yet tried Amazon – and cater for customers, like me, who operate in the new way – checking prices, avidly ebaying, have been using Amazon for years and for whom shopping online is completely normal?

And not only that, but there are differences geographically. Go to Worcester, Winchester, Warwick or Wigan, and you won’t find people glued to their phones in the same way they seem to be in London. This might be down to lack of connectivity (mobile signal in Worcester, even in the city centre, is woeful) so they don’t even bother exploring the world of the web when out and about and don’t miss it. Or it might be that they just don’t see a need to constantly check Facebook and twitter to see what their friends are doing as they’ll be seeing them later, or the chances are, they’ll bump into them on the way home.

Nevertheless, retailers do have to face this challenge – independent stores and big chains alike. The future may not be here in Worcester, but retailers are feeling the pain and we’re struggling to keep our High Streets alive with more and more shops closing. I noticed another shop boarded up in my local neighbourhood this week. They say we’re a nation of shopkeepers. Can we hack it as shopkeepers in this digital age?

Further links and reading:

Discussion on my Facebook page about ‘showrooming’

Discussion on my Facebook page about online shopping, price comparison, High Streets and value 

Discussion about mobile data usage based on location, type of job etc.. Highlights a potential digital divide and lots of differing opinions and anecdotes about usage and connectivity.

P.S. There’s a mobile retail summit on in London on Wednesday 24 April. Get 50% off by using code MRS50. I’ll be there discussing this and other issues.

The speed of change

I’ve been in this mobile world now for 13 years almost and I’ve seen many changes in the industry. Everyone talks about how fast it’s moving, how everything changes so quickly and the technology moves on apace. Others complain that they simply can’t keep up. Others simply don’t want to keep up – this new stuff is just too much for them and they’re hanging on to the old ways of doing things.

I do get asked pretty frequently what changes I’ve noticed over the years and I’m not sure that the changes are as profound as sometimes we think they are. I’m still having the same conversations with potential clients about the power of mobile marketing that I had 10 years ago with very similar objections that I encountered when I first started working on ZagMe back in 2000.

I’ve also just spent the last few weeks in my hometown of Worcester (that’s the one in England for my US readers). My neighbour’s wi-fi aside keeping me sane, this appears to be the land that the internet forgot. Everything pretty much happens the same way that it happened when I was living here 25 years ago. I don’t see people glued to their mobile screens in the same way I do in London. Wi-fi is available, but not readily. Although lots of businesses promote themselves on Facebook, it’s done half-heartedly and they don’t have many followers – but when you walk past the businesses, they’re busy. Local restaurant websites don’t have their opening hours listed, have menus on their sites from three years ago and don’t seem to see the need or benefit from keeping this stuff updated.

People also still read newspapers here – the printed kind. Ones that you might pay for as well as the freebies (which just seem to be property listings). And there appears to be a thriving market for glossy, local magazines too which I was surprised to see. I’ve picked up at least three in the last week in local cafes and another one arrived through the door this morning.

There is also barely any networking here. Well, not what I would recognise as networking at least. I think it’s related to the local populace being connected in real life rather than virtual life perhaps and it’s probably also linked to the fact that mobile signal is absolutely appalling in the city (no really, my signal routinely drops out here *for hours* at a time.) The networking you’ll see here are the generalist networking breakfasts and meet-ups that are organised by the likes of the local Chamber of Commerce but not a lot else. I could be wrong here and all this stuff is organised outside of Google’s ability to index it in a way I can find it and connect with it to meet new people and interact with the local community, since I will be spending more time in Worcester in the coming months.

So it got me thinking about the speed of change, and the difference between what was then and what is now and the differences between locations in, even a small country, like the UK? The future most definitely is not evenly distributed.

Whilst I was pondering this, I discovered that Cybersalon has been resurrected. This was one of the very early meet-ups looking at our digital world. They’ve been on hiatus for some years now, but they’re back with a series of really interesting events. The web world has been pretty notorious for not embracing mobile early and rubbishing the idea that the web viewed on mobile will be bigger than the web viewed on desktop or laptops. But that has indeed happened. So I was curious to find that Cybersalon had published a Mobile Manifesto back in 2000. It makes for a very interesting read. And going back to my first point about what has changed, it appears to me that what they were talking about 13 years ago is still very relevant to our mobile world today. Have a read and let me know what you think.

Exclusive fringe benefits for Mobile Heroes

Some of you may know I’m working on this little thing called the Heroes of the Mobile Fringe Festival which is happening at the end of this month. We have a load of events already listed from an energising yoga session to mobile marketing to innovation and the infamous Swedish Beers party and we are not done yet. There are many more to come so do keep an eye on the site and sign up to receive the newsletter too. Oh and you can check us out on Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud (for our podcast series) and, since just yesterday, LinkedIn.

As part of the fringe festival, I’ve managed to negotiate some exclusive fringe benefits. One of them is your chance to win a ticket to the sold-out and hugely popular MEF Connects MWC13 Party (free to enter here) and the other is the fan-dabi-dozi business card offer detailed below from the marvellous MOO.com and our new pals at MOB Barcelona. So if you’re heading to Barcelona, or even if you’re not, why not order a batch of cards? You just pay small handling fee and Bob’s your uncle.

I’m very happy to announce a new Heroes of Mobile partnership with our friends at MOO.com. If you’ve met me before, then you’ve probably had one of my business cards and I always use MOO and use my own photos for them. I love the card quality and the fact that you can have a different design for each card. It always makes for an interesting conversation point at a networking event.

So what’s the deal here then?

Well, you can order a pack of 50 standard size business cards or 100 mini size business cards FREE*. How about that? You can even pick up your cards in Barcelona, if you’d like to, at Makers of Barcelona (MOB) on Sunday 24th February or Monday 25th February 2013.

You’ll notice there’s a teeny Mobile Hero logo on the card so the person you give the card too will remember that you met at Heroes of the Mobile Fringe in Barcelona. And hey, you are a mobile hero, right? That’s why you’re involved in the festival. Neat, huh?

You need to hurry though! If you order by 11.59pm (GMT) on Sunday 17 February (20 February if you pay a rush fee), you’ll be in time for the pick up in Barcelona. That doesn’t give you very long, so you’d better get on to it!

Click here to order a pack of 50 full-size Heroes of Mobile business cards.

Click here to order a pack of 100 Heroes of Mobile MiniCards.

You’re probably wondering what the mobile angle is here and why MOO.com is involved with us. Well, it’s all linked with their upcoming NFC card launch. These are business cards that link to your digital world that gives you the full capability to rewrite the information stored on the chip any time you like. That’s an exciting use of NFC and we’re keen to see how these work when we see some in the flesh. And it's especially appealing to mobilists. More info here and don’t forget to sign up to keep updated so you can be one of the first to try them.

*Only one pack of business cards (either size) per person. Excludes Euro 3 processing fee.

Getting a poor signal on your phone?

I just had an email newsletter pop into my inbox from John Strand. If you don’t know him already, he's a long-serving mobilist with many years experience of consulting for various organisations on the subject of mobile telecoms.

I’ve often wondered myself why my phone varies in performance. I get that different networks will have an impact, but I hadn’t really thought what the other issues might be. John explains it in his recent newsletter which I’ve copied below for you (with permission). I’m interested to know what you think. How much do these factors affect performance and are there other things that can affect it? I welcome your thoughts and comments.

“Various reports from around the world over the last three years note that have consumers increasingly experience poor coverage with their smartphones. The challenge for mobile operators is that the perceived coverage rarely reflects the quality of the network that the operators build and run, but rather the quality of the smartphones that people use. As a new ground-breaking study shows, the quality of the smartphone combined with how it is used and configured is more to blame that the mobile network.

Here are the 10 main reasons why you get a bad signal on you phone:

1. The wrong phone. There is a big difference in the quality of antennas in phones. As for the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3, the previous versions of these phones performed better in a major study of phone quality performed by Professor Gert Froelund Pedersen from Aalborg University, one of the world’s leading institutes for the study on antennas in phones.
2. Too many apps. The more apps you install, the less coverage you may experience. Apps create unwanted signal noise.
3. Free apps. Free games such as Angry Birds don’t not cost a penny, but they are filled with advertisements that eat your bandwidth and can contribute to poor coverage on your phone.
4. Open apps. It is a good idea to close them when not in use. Even if you are not using an app, it will still send and receive signals to the network.
5. Too many friends on Facebook or a few really active friends. If you have a lot of friends who ping and update you all the time from Facebook, this can also affect your experience negatively.
6. Your operating system. Even if you make sure you version is up to date, you run the risk that the new version is actually worse than the old. Plus you have to be sure to install all the proper updates. Android is also available in a multitude of versions, but each phone manufacturers adapts them differently.
7. A Samsung Galaxy S3 is not a Samsung Galaxy S3. Mobile phones are produced in a vast global manufacturing network and supply chain. The same phone may be made with different components from alternate suppliers. The model can vary both by country and within country.  There are at least 10 variants of the same Samsung Galaxy S3.  Your variant may not be optimal with your network.
8. Rush hour. During times of peak traffic, the same mobile mast must serve more users, so the quality per user may degrade. It's like getting into a packed train during rush hour.
9. Train travel. The metal tubing around windows in trains and related materials can be killers of mobile signals. When the train moves quickly, it can be difficult for your phone to switch connection between masts.
10. Telecom service provider. There is no such thing as the best network. The network that is best for you depends on which has coverage where you are when you use your phone.
The next time you experience poor coverage, take a look at your phone. Remember there are many things that can impact your experience beyond the network itself.

In the report “How to reduce the cost of mobile masts and improve regulation”, Strand Consult describes the challenges that operators face as they build and run mobile networks. In addition to Strand Consult reports, a number of institutions have recognized the role that smartphones play in the quality of coverage. If you want to know more about the report or about Strand Consult's experience in this field, click here..