QR stands for “quick response” and marketers always care about response time. QR codes are essentially bar codes that mobile phones can scan to allow the user to access information such as URLs; thus bridging the gap between the real world and the virtual. The technology to enable your phone is free and can be downloaded in a number of places such as Kaywa. (List of phones Kaywa...
Almost a year ago I posted about mobile discovery and the challenges of measuring conversions. With the recent (and really good) news about advertising on iPhone applications (going from contextual on a mobile site to behavioral on an application) and GeoTweeting adoption growing, I’ve been thinking about the other side of conduit marketing; the business. I think it will be hard to convince...
Way back in July (sound familiar?) I posted about Twitter, geo-targeting and location based services combining to create what I referred to as conduit marketing. (Also talked about it here and recently here.) About a month ago I heard of a company called Schmap and how they were using Twitter to essentially create the foundation for this type of service. They call it Geotweeting. (Brightkite does...
Recently I posted an interview with the CEO of Bluetunes and made the statement that mobile was going to help push cloud services. TechCrunch recently hosted another round table with several major players where the cloud was the topic of conversation. Most agree that this trend is the very near future and the statement I made was incorrect; for now. The issue that burgeoning cloud services will...
When I think of the promise of mobile marketing and location based services I get excited and a little bit concerned. A couple of posts down, I talked about tweeting interrupting my experience and I think the same thing could happen with mobile marketing. For example: You’re in the Tattered Cover bookstore and perusing the art section. You’re enjoying a book on Modern Rock Concert...
When I travel I like to immerse myself in the culture as much as possible. I try to eat what the locals eat (a la Anthony Bourdain), shop where the locals shop and find activities specific to that location. I’m amazed at how some tourists, in a “memory recording frenzy” surround items of interest and shoot video, take pictures and generally avoid the actual experience. It really...
I just saw this video on MobileCrunch. It’s a demo of how the Firefox mobile browser could work and it looks pretty amazing. As of today people’s mobile Internet behavior is markedly different from terrestrial use. I’m excited about this type of functionality as it will help us shed some light on what people’s behavior will be if they are holding a window to the Internet...
There has been a lot of great conversation about the discovery vs. search and the challenges that discovery creates. Discovery in regards to search is exactly what you would think it is. Search is looking and finding something specific while discovery is an unexpected find. People do this all the time when surfing the web. They start with a goal in mind and then end up at Zombo (make sure the...
OpenID + Data Portability + Mobile Number + Persona Control = Personalized Marketing The original idea behind OpenID (much like Microsoft Passport) was to provide a single login to allow user-members to go from site to site without having to sign-in to each one separately. Now that browsers keep track of your login information the original goal is lost and yet Google has committed to OpenID and...
We have all heard of the success that NTT DoCoMo‘s i-mode has had since it’s introduction in 1999. The strength of that business and the adoption of the mobile phone as a data-based tool instead of simply a telephone, is a key to the company’s dominance. i-mode rules due to the Japanese culture’s adoption of the mobile phone as a enabling tool and there are no signs of...