8 Things Santa Claus Does Better than Donald Trump

admin    Cool Stuff, mobile marketing     mobile marketing, santa, tech

The Greatest Businessman of All-Time

North Pole –When you think about the greatest businessman of all-time, who comes to mind?

Ford?  Rockefeller?  Bill Gates?  Donald Trump?  Richard Branson?  Mark Zuckerberg?  Steve Jobs?

Give me a break.

The greatest businessman of all time is, without a doubt, Santa Claus.

8 Things That Santa Claus Does Better than Donald Trump

Think about it.  Santa’s customers return year after year.  He has a factory that churns out toys 24/7 with little overhead.  He has loyal and long tenured employees that work for near minimum wage.  Of course, there aren’t a lot of jobs in this tough global economy, so imagine how hard it is for vertically challenged elves these days.

Santa Claus has a promotions department that secures prime visibility in crowded malls and gets him grand marshal positions in parades all over the world.  He also has a publicity crew that writes songs, poems, and even produces movies and television shows with him as the star.  His stamina is amazing and there are no performance enhancing drugs in his body, unless you count the chocolate chip cookies!

He’s an advertising genius.  Just watch TV in December and see how many commercials he’s on.  I’ve seen him drinking Coca-Cola for years now and am still amazed how he can balance himself on that Norelco razor after all the junk food he eats!

And talk about customer service.  It’s the best in the world!  No waiting on hold to talk to his telemarketers “Ryan” from Sri Lanka.  He knows what you want, often without your even telling him.

The Biggest Mistakes Santa Claus Makes

But, sometimes I think Santa Claus is slipping a bit the past few years.  He hasn’t really embraced html5, social networking, apps, or cloud technology very well.

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The History of the Ringtone Industry

admin    Canada, Cell Phones, mobile marketing     ringtones

Advanced Telecom Services has a storied history in the ringtone industry having developed two of the early ringtone sites in the United States market — MonsterTones and RingingPhone.  These sites and our ringtone businesses were sold to a Canadian company, Zim Corporation, in 2006.

Nevertheless, our early adoption of the ringtone business in 2002 helped lead Advanced Telecom Services to understanding mobile and becoming one of the premiere providers of mobile marketing services today.

EXTRA, EXTRA: Read All About It!

admin    media, mobile marketing     advertising, mobile, mobile marketing, spend

TV gets its fair share of ad dollars. Why not mobile?

Time spent on mobile phones per day increased by 30% in 2011.  That makes total mobile time 1:05 and greater than the 44 minutes per day devoted to the combined use of newspapers and magazines, according to a new eMarkter study.  Last year, both mobile time and print read time was at 50 minutes per day.

Other time spent per day is 2:47 on the internet.  Watching TV increased by 10 minutes to 4:34 per day.  Radio listening dropped by 2 minutes to 1:34 per day.

Total time spent with all media was 11:33 so nearly half of our day and more than half of our waking hours are spent with media.

The interesting thing is that mobile continues to not get its due in terms of advertising dollars invested.  While TV accounts for 42.5% of all media time and a corresponding equal share of the advertising market, mobile claims 10% of the consumer’s time, but only 1% of the advertising spend.

Sure, time is spent on the mobile phone talking so that may be time that counts into the overall numbers, but clearly more and more searches and internet browsing are done on mobiles so it should be doing better than 1%!  After all, nearly any business can do text message marketing at the very least.

Looks like more businesses need a mobile strategy.

Business Report: Mobile Marketing Tactics for 2012

admin    Mobile Apps, mobile marketing, Mobile Web Sites, Text Message Marketing     apps, apps development, mobile websites, QR Codes, sms marketing, text message marketing

Business executives are interested in many aspects of mobile marketing, according to a just released study by AT&T.  The executives showed the most interest (43%) in developing mobile apps.  Mobile bar codes, or QR Codes, also showed great interest among the businesspersons (41%).  Of course, if you are using a QR Code, you had better have it lead to a proper mobile website and 35% have interest in developing a mobile version of their website.  Text message marketing was also of great interest to the business owners.

The Hispanic Mobile Marketing Opportunity

admin    mobile marketing, Text Message Marketing     Hispanics, marketing movil, mobile marketing, text message marketing

Mobile marketing to Hispanics

At Advanced Telecom Services, we have been embracing the mobile marketing opportunity for Hispanics.  In fact, some of our most successful text message marketing programs have been in Spanish language.  That’s not surprising given the interest of Hispanics in mobile.

Did you know that:

• Hispanics have the highest penetration for mobile phones (eMarketer, 2011)
• Hispanics over-index the general market on their adoption of smartphones (Nielsen, 2011)
• Hispanics are more likely use their mobile device to download music, play games, access social networking sites (Scarborough, 2010)
• Hispanics are more receptive than other groups to receiving and trusting mobile delivered messages (THI, 2011)

In fact, our text message marketing site is not in Spanish language as well.  You can visit it on http://marketing-movil.84444.com.

Businesses Need a Mobile Strategy

admin    Mobile Apps, mobile marketing, Mobile Web Sites     business, mobile strategy

Statistics Show that Simply Having a Good Web Site Doesn’t Cut it Any More

A business needs a mobile strategy today.

Businesses are being forced to re-evaluate their digital strategy as more and more Americans use a mobile device as the entry point to the internet.  No longer is a good web site the cornerstone of a business’ digital strategy.  Today, a business needs an app, a mobile web site, and text message marketing.

According to new research from Nielsen, consumers increasingly prefer obtaining content from mobile apps.  The typical Android user spends 56 minutes per day interacting with the web and mobile apps from his phone.  Of that time, two-thirds is spent on apps.

The US mobile web population is anticipated to grow by 25% this year as 97 million mobile owners log on to the internet monthly, according to eMarketer.  By 2015, it is anticipated that almost half of the American public will be using the mobile web.  Much of this growth will be thanks to the burgeoning growth in smartphone adoption.  The number of smartphone users is expected to increase by half this year and will continue to grow steadily through 2015 when American smartphone penetration will top 150 million.

A business without a mobile strategy is going to suffer in the future.  Mobile is today what the internet was in 2001.

A Review of World Telemedia 2011

admin    900 Numbers, Canada, Company News, mobile marketing, Telemedia, United Kingdom     2011, Amsterdam, show, Telemedia

by Bob Bentz

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – World Telemedia 2011 has just concluded in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and most delegates indicated that the show was a success for them.  There was a definite feeling that the industry has improved and this savvy group of pros continues to churn out new and innovative telemedia applications despite a tough economy, over-regulation, and ever-changing technology.

Renaissance Hotel and Koepelkerk

This year, World Telemedia had more focus than ever on mobile marketing.  In fact, the show had its own Custom QR Code that enabled participants to put a mobile web site on their smartphones.  The site included the show schedule and a handy Google map that showed the best restaurants and entertainment in the area.

This year, World Telemedia combined forces with World Intertainment for the Amsterdam show.  While looking around the conference center, however, it appeared as though there were mostly familiar faces there this year.  Most of those attending have been in the industry for many years and seem happy to spend time with each other, despite often being direct competitors.

Significant business was conducted on the trade show exhibit floor in the historic 17th century Koepelkerk building adjacent to the contemporary Renaissance Hotel in Amsterdam.  There was a significant amount of business cards being traded and it was interesting to note that the storied business card is still a staple, even with this high tech group.

While business was being transacted on the Koepelkerk floor, the upper three floors were hosting a wide range of seminars expertly hosted by industry veteran Paul Skeldon.  Although Skeldon does not directly work in the business, his knowledge of the business is obvious and his ability to ask pointed questions of the panelists is the mark of a top notch journalist.

One of the more comical moments in the seminars occurred when the panelists of a Wednesday conference discussed whether they could actually say the “A” word during the show.  Come on guys, what’s the big deal?

Another improvement in the show was the lunch food served both Thursday and Friday to the delegates.  Several comments were made about the quality of the grub and several people remembered just how poor the food was back at the Liverpool show two years ago.

The Renaissance Hotel in Amsterdam is deserving of its 4 star rating.  The rooms were very clean and attractive and the beds were comfortable.  Breakfast was a bit pricey at 26 euros, but an over-priced breakfast is common at top hotels.  The major complaint of many of the delegates was that the internet access was a whopping 19.95 euros for 24 hours and the quality of the internet was poor.  In fact, it was so poor that it didn’t reach across the narrow street into the Koepelkerk building so those who desired internet access both in their room and at the show need to pay twice!

The Platinum sponsor of the 2011 World Telemedia Show was International Premiums and Gold sponsors were Atlas Interactive and Advanced Telecom Services.

Clearly, one of the highlights of World Telemedia 2011 was Amsterdam itself. Amsterdam has been the most common venue for past World Telemedia shows and the delegates seemed to like the easier travel and the unique ambiance that Amsterdam offers. It will be interesting if the World Telemedia staff decides to go back to Amsterdam in 2012. If they do, there will be many telemedia experts who are happy to go once again.

Mobile Stats from World Telemedia

admin    mobile marketing     marketing, mobile stats

One of the more interesting sales pieces from the exhibit hall floor of the World Telemedia event in Amsterdam this week was one called “Is Your Business Mobile?” from UK service bureau Oxygen 8.

While most of the statistics on the literature were rather general, they were certainly interesting to read.  Keep in mind that most of these statistics are likely taken from the UK market, although there is no indication of such and no source on the piece.

• 5 billion mobile phones are in use.
• 1.08 billion are smartphones.
• 98% of text messages are opened immediately.
• One-half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices.
• 86% of mobile owners use theirs while watching TV.
• 29% of mobile users are open to scanning a mobile tag to get coupons.
• 75% of smartphone owners would like to get notified of new offers by SMS.