M3 Mobile Marketing e-Newsletter (June 2010)

 

comScore Reports March 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

By Stephanie Flosi

In early May, comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month period ending March 2010 compared to the preceding three-month period. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and mobile operators in the U.S. according to their share of usage by current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone. The March report found Samsung, Motorola and LG separated by a mere fraction of a percentage point of market share among handset manufacturers, while Verizon led among mobile operators with 31.1 percent market share.

OEM Market Share

In the 3 month average ending in March, 234 million Americans age 13 and older were mobile subscribers, with device manufacturer Samsung ranking as the top OEM at a 21.9 percent share of U.S. mobile subscribers, inching out Motorola by a fraction of a percent. LG (21.8 percent share) ranked closely behind them, with RIM (8.3 percent share) and Nokia (8.3 percent share) rounding out the top five.

Mobile Operator Market Share

In a ranking of the top mobile operators in the U.S. during the 3 month average ending in March, Verizon led the market with 31.1 percent of mobile subscribers. AT&T ranked second with 25.2 percent market share, up 0.2 percentage points from the period ending December 2009. Sprint narrowly grabbed the #3 position with 12.0 percent market share, closely trailed by T-Mobile (12.0 percent), while Tracfone gained 0.3 points to capture 5.1 percent of the market.

Mobile Content Usage

In an average month during the January through March 2010 time period, 63.7 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 0.6 percentage points versus three months prior. Browsers were used by 30.1 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.6 percentage points), while subscribers who used downloaded applications made up 28.6 percent of the mobile audience (up 2.6 percentage points). Access of social networking sites or blogs continued to increase, posting gains of 2.8 percentage points to 18.7 percent of mobile subscribers.

 

SMS is Key to a Well-Rounded App Strategy

By Giselle Tsirulnik

SMS is providing opportunities for businesses of all kinds to both extend their reach to the mobile phone, as well as move consumers from one mobile channel to another.

When well implemented, SMS reminds customers about what is important to them, no matter where they are or what they are doing. It is key to a well-rounded application strategy.

SMS for reach
Mobile social media is exploding. 

For example, Facebook has more than 100 million people actively using the service via mobile every month.

Much of the mobile industry is wondering what the future of advertising on Apple devices will look like.  This trend has one mobile channel that holds all the pieces together – text messaging.   

The simplicity of the technology, along with its reach (SMS is available in nearly 100 percent of the 288 million mobile phones in the United States and 5 billion mobile phones around the world), makes it the obvious choice to be the “middleman” of mobile outreach and commerce.

Facebook’s Mafia Wars has more than 23 million monthly active users. FarmVille has nearly 76 million monthly active users.

Facebook has 34 million monthly active users. Bejeweled Blitz has 9.8 million monthly active users.

What is interesting is that SMS is still growing as a technology in conjunction with application growth and mobile site browsing.

Full conversations are increasingly taking place by SMS with IM style behavior being adopted, and it is not uncommon to be sending hundreds in a day.

Complement a mobile app
SMS can complement a mobile application strategy through interactivity that only SMS can provide. 

In addition, SMS provides the opportunity to build a mobile database to market to again in the future, as opposed to mobile application downloads where no valuable user-information can be obtained.

A good example of SMS being used in tandem to a publisher's mobile application strategy would be to place a call-to-action on traditional media or on a publisher's Web site that allows the user to text-in, and receive a link to a mobile version of the same content found in a mobile application. 

This extends the reach exponentially to those who do not have devices capable of downloading mobile applications, for example.

SMS sits outside the walled gardens of on-deck or stores centered on specific operating systems.

The universal accessibility of SMS, combined with the ability to provide information in real-time, creates opportunities for publishers/developers to connect with their audiences.

Publishers/developers can use SMS to:

• Reach consumers/players who do not have a smartphone
• Reach consumers/players who have not played recently
• Keep consumers/players engaged in the game
• Acquire consumers/players who did not even know a specific game existed
• Retain consumers/players
• Monetize their interactions through incentivized offer paths

SMS is key to having a 360-degree mobile strategy. A 360-degree mobile strategy means creating opportunities for mobile interaction, whenever the consumer wants it and wherever he or she may be.

Ubiquity of SMS
With billions of SMS messages sent every month in this country alone, it has become the most effective and cost efficient mechanism to communicate and market.

Virtually all handsets are capable of sending and receiving SMS messages.  It is simple to use and is universally available. For these reasons, it provides the key to unlocking all other mobile media. 

Ringtones, video, applications and purchases can all be pushed through SMS.

The same is true if you are a social gaming company.

SMS is the most expedient way to communicate to your users and let them know what’s going on with their game.

As a marketing vehicle SMS is critical for user acquisition, retention and monetization.
 
By surrounding the user with opportunities to connect, any SMS can lead to multiple interactions over SMS or other mobile channels.

Offline calls to action (signs, POS display, packaging) featuring an SMS action are universally acceptable.

An invitation to text a keyword to a short code is a welcome diversion when waiting in line at a retail store, and the content received in return is relevant to your interests.   

Mobile Web banners can lead to WAP sites that offer SMS alerts. Or an SMS ad can bring the consumer to the WAP site. 

A brand might be featured in a display ad within an application; with a click the user can receive a coupon via SMS.

Including SMS as part of application marketing is critical.

For example within social gaming, SMS can be used at any of the following points to enhance the gaming experience and create valued engagement with the game:

• Alerts for adding any new weapons, armor or to change characters
• Alerts to top off virtual currency
• "Take a Break" alerts – a SMS invitation to play a game at random parts of the day.
• Text to get suggestions on similar games (based on which ones you subscribed to or like)
• "Daily Challenge Alerts" – get a daily SMS notification with name of game and score/time to beat.  For competitive players, this can be irresistible!
• New game alerts for any new games or updated versions
• Notifications when someone comments on your profile (if applicable) or wants to play with you, or if your rank has changed in game standings
• Game tips and tricks alerts (user gets daily/twice a week tips on how to play a game/win a certain game/secret tricks)
• Play a game via SMS (reply S to shoot at the other player, for example)
• Forward games that players like to other friends through SMS

Each of these activities creates value for the player, and therefore value for the developer as well.

Developers can extend this value by using SMS to monetize their game, such as special offers for virtual currency, incentivized paths for application installations, and advertising or third-party offers.

 

Southwest Airlines Taps SMS to Streamline Customer Service

By Courtney Muir

Southwest Airlines is using SMS to cut airport wait time and inbound passenger calls.

The airline uses SMS to alerts passengers of flight delays, cancellations and gate changes.

“Southwest noticed two trends that made it more important to contact passengers on their mobile devices,” said Fred Taylor, senior manager of proactive customer service communications at Southwest Airlines, Dallas. “More voice messages were being left, which created the potential to miss critical flight information.

"Also, many passengers started listing cell phone numbers and email addresses as their primary mode of communication when purchasing tickets,” he said. “Southwest needed a way to reach these customers over their preferred channel while maintaining streamlined communications that integrated easily with its existing customer service infrastructure. 

“Southwest achieved both its goals by upgrading to a new platform, which offers a fully unified communications solution that enables easy and effective one-to-one communication.”

Southwest Airlines is an American low-cost airline headquartered on the grounds of Love Field in Dallas, TX.

Sky High
Southwest Airlines has more than 3,200 flights and claims it has to reschedule flights or cancel them altogether, due to severe weather.

“We looked for a more efficient way to communicate with passengers about changes in flight services," Mr. Taylor said. “Knowing the prevalence of mobile phone usage and how consumers crave instant information, Southwest felt that using interactive AOM would dramatically enhance customer awareness, satisfaction and loyalty.

Southwest used a pre-recorded automated outbound messaging service to notify customers of flight cancellations, offer an apology, explain the new arrangements being offered, as well as provide the option to transfer to a call agent.

The new SMS strategy is designed to increase proactive passenger outreach, reduce inbound calls and improve contact center management.

Other airlines such as Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines have paperless bar codes, which Southwest is considering for the future.

“Southwest is always looking for new ways to incorporate technology to make our business more efficient and still provide exceptional customer service,” Mr. Taylor said. “I work with our business leadership to drive new communication initiatives, products and services that offer better information/accommodations to our customers."

Noticing the dependency on mobile, Southwest wants to adapt to the lifestyle of its passengers.

“As more passengers adopt mobile devices as their primary mode of communications, airlines have the opportunity to interact with customers faster and more often than ever,” Mr. Taylor said. “Customers are starting to expect information at their fingertips, and waiting in line to speak to customer service agents is not always acceptable.

"In order to stay competitive, and to leave a positive, lasting impression on customers, Southwest Airlines proactively communicates critical information to its customers via the channel they most prefer, but we strongly suggest that it be their mobile device knowing it will be with them when they travel,” he said.

 

Proposed Privacy Legislation Too Vague on Location-Based Advertising

By Christopher Glodé

Since the dawn of the Internet, marketers have had the ability to use consumer location data for the purpose of targeting digital media including advertisements. 

This widespread practice now represents an important strand of the fabric of the Web, as IP-based geo-location data is used not only for targeting and marketing purposes, but for fraud detection, Web site analytics and myriad other purposes.

In the mobile world, IP-based geo-location is essentially useless for anything more than knowing which country a person is in due to the way carrier networks handle IP traffic. 

Over the past decade, various technologies including GPS and cell tower triangulation have emerged to enable obtaining the location of a mobile device. 

These methods offer higher levels of accuracy, made even more valuable by virtue of the fact that these devices “go everywhere” with their owner. 

Further, new access technologies such as WiFi have enabled location targeting of traditional Web traffic with a level of accuracy far greater than IP-based geo-location.

Amidst this rapid innovation, it is easy to see how disparate and inconsistent practices have developed with respect to consumer privacy regarding location. 

The diversity of hardware and software, networks and affected industry verticals has, to date, prevented consistent self-regulation spanning Web, mobile Web, mobile – and soon to be laptop/tablet – application, SMS and other forms of digital media. 

For this reason, the current draft bill on consumer privacy was met with great anticipation in the converging worlds of Internet and mobile media.  

Purely from the perspective of privacy guidelines with respect to the use of location, however, this bill is simply too vague.

I will propose three fundamental criteria for sound legislation with respect to consumer privacy and location.

1. The rules should be made without respect to the hardware delivering the content. There is no reason why a different set of policies should apply for a user of a laptop, versus a smartphone.

Any device which enables two-way communication (i.e. transmitter-receiver), geo-location (GPS, WiFi, it does not matter – see the next point) and consumption of digital media/content should be treated equally. 

Clearly these forms are converging – tablets and Apple iPad – from both the technology and media/content vectors, and any rules which are specific to a given platform are myopic. 

The bill is fairly sound on this point in that it routinely references “a computer or device” which is probably broad enough to cover the spectrum of hardware which should be subject to this regulation.

2. The rules should be made without respect to the software delivering the content. Why does it matter whether my location data is being used by a Web site I am accessing on my laptop, versus a downloadable application on my smartphone? It should not.

The proposed legislation is far too vague in this regard, in that it generally addresses “Web sites” and “the Internet” only. There is no reason why different rules should apply to browser applications (a.k.a. “Websites”) versus downloadable applications versus SMS applications versus voice/IVR applications. 

From a privacy perspective, it makes no difference whether my content is being delivered via my browser, an application or any other digital channel which might come to exist.

3. The rules should be made without respect to the hardware and software delivering the location data. From a privacy standpoint, it is irrelevant whether location data was obtained via an IP address, a cell tower or a GPS chip.

It might be prudent to apply different rules with respect to the measurable accuracy of a given source of location data, which the draft bill attempts to do, but is far too vague, classifying “precise geo-location information” as “sensitive information.”

What is “precise”? Fifty meters? One thousand meters? What is the accuracy of IP geo-location? If I happen to live next door to my ISP, my IP geo-location is likely to be very precise, whereas for my friend across town, it is very imprecise. 

Should there be different rules for using the known city or ZIP code of a consumer, versus knowing her latitude and longitude? If so, these need to be specified with more certainty than the use of the term “precise.” 

Such regulation, at its core, must protect consumers from unwitting use of their personal information, while minimizing barriers to consumer adoption and without hindering innovation in location-based technology and services.

On the subject of location and privacy, the current legislation is not specific enough, and leaves too much ambiguity.

 

Statistic of the Month

According to a recent Pew study, research shows that texting has become the preferred channel of basic communication between teens and their friends.

The study found that 75 percent of kids, ages 12-17, have a mobile device – up from 45 percent in 2004.

Additionally, the study shows that half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts per month. One in three teens send more than 100 texts per day, or more than 3,000 texts per month.