Google exec to keynote Mobile Marketing Day March 4 in New York

A senior executive from Google will outline the online giant’s mobile plans and strategy this year at the 2^nd Mobile Marketing Day in New York, hosted by Mobile Marketer and the Direct Marketing Association.

“Google’s appearance at Mobile Marketing Day is proof that Fortune 500 companies understand the critical role mobile plays in multichannel marketing and retail,” said Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily. “This year’s event follows on last year’s success, attracting top executives from the leading mobile firms to share strategy, tactics, case studies and best practice with marketers and agencies,” he said. “This daylong event is ideal for marketers to understand how to incorporate mobile in their marketing 

Hallmark unveils mobile strategy

Mobile love

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, Hallmark has beefed up its mobile offerings as an executive reveals in this exclusive interview with Mobile Marketer. The hoops&yoyo application, Fun @ Work, features games and videos, joins Hallmark’s other mobile initiatives, mobile greeting cards fromhttp://www.mobile.hallmark.com. Mobile Marketer’s Chris Harnick spoke with Mike Adams, Kansas City, MO-based manager of mobile at Hallmark, and Jodi Schade, vice president of licensing at Hallmark, about the greeting card giant’s mobile strategies.

What is Hallmark’s mobile strategy?
Mr. Adams: Hallmark is a company that helps people connect whenever and wherever they are, whether it's through the mail, through the computer or through a cell phone.

A Hallmark mobile card

What challenges does mobile address for Hallmark?
Mr. Adams: Hallmark Mobile Greetings were developed because we recognize that oftentimes people want to connect with one another right in the moment, wherever they are.

There was a gap of "in the moment" communications that this product can address.

The hoops&yoyo app

Hallmark launched Mobile Greetings in June 2009. There is also a steady rise in attention given to this property online through Facebook – over 76,000 hoops&yoyo fans on the official Fan Page – and a steady flow of traffic on the characters official blog. An iPhone app was the next logical step in expanding the awareness of the characters and their brand of humor.

Today’s generation and especially a growing mobile-friendly population expects the ability to access their favorite characters on all platforms and we wanted to make sure that happened quickly in the first quarter of 2010.

How are the offerings monetized, does the app feature ads?
Mr. Adams: Hallmark Mobile Greetings are $0.99.

The sender is only charged if the recipient opens the mobile greeting. The fees are billed as part of your monthly service-provider charges. The Hallmark Mobile Greetings application itself is available free of charge, though standard data rates may apply to download.

Ms. Schade: The hoops&yoyo iPhone app is free and was launched to build awareness of the hoops&yoyo brand.

Becks finds local Gigs on your mobile

I like the fact that we are starting to see more and more app trailers. This one comes from Becks, who have created a Gig Finder for iPod Touch and iPhones. This application lets you search after gigs near you. Its nicely integrated with YouTube, Google Maps and the email functionality. 

The guys at Becks have taken apvertising to heart and published a similar application for the folks down under. This app gives consumer the chance to get discount coupons at a local pub. Check it out on the Australian app store.

If you are done with Becks by now then I recomend that you take a look at this case study published by Insidemob.

Frisk Built QR Code

Well, I am a fan of QR or barc codes so I think this is a great creative idea from the marketing team at SETs. Check it out

Sprite will turn your iPhone to a beat box with ZooZBeat

ZoozBeat from Sprite is a fun application for your iPhone and iPod touch, which you can download on the fruit company’s appstore. With this application you can experience your dreams to become a rapper. Sprite has teamed up with some of the hottest rappers in the US to give consumers the latest sounds. The application comes with limited tracks and to get more consumers are urged to text in. If you find this app on Android, let me know, it would be good to see if its up to par. I think the amusement factor of this application is so high that consumers would be willing to pay for it. Looking at the video below, demoing the application, you can clearly see that the guy is enjoying himself. Would be interesting to see if Sprite releases figures on the up-sell through texting. 

Coke Olympics invites mobile users to cheers for Team USA

As a part of Cokes sponsorship of the Winter Olypics the Coca Cola company decided to include mobile into the marketing mix. With the success of their mobile marketing campaign in the summer Olympics 08, they are confident that this is going to be a big hit.

Coke teamed up with NBC and created a mobile wap site featuring a six-pack of athletes, cokeopengames.com. For iphone and ipod touch users coke extended the mobile campaign with a fun and interactive application, the NBC Cheer App. With this application consumers can enjoy fun Olympic themes sounds, watch videos of Team USA and record their own cheers. 
I like the fact that we are starting to see advertisers creating content both on mobile web and apps. With the money spent to drive traffic to the mobile content, app or mobile web, its well worth while creating both so you reach a wider audience. Key thing to remember is to allocate budget for driving traffic to your content as well. Just putting a cool app on app store does not get you downloads. Remember there are over 100k apps in the app store.

I am sure that when Coke partnered up with NBC, they allocated a portion of the mobile budget into buying traffic on the NBC mobile sites.