Module 6
Display and Mobile Advertising
A. Internet Customer Acquisition Tools
The Internet marketing paradigm in Chapter 1 defined the four basic marketing
strategy objectives as customer acquisition, conversion, retention, and value growth. The
concept of customer lifetime value (CLV), by which the marketer measures customer
value, is discussed in Chapter 4. Conversion to a loyal customer and customer retention
are very important marketing objectives discussed in Chapters 10 and 11, but, while trite,
it is also true that the marketer must acquire a customer before creating loyalty and
retention. It is also important to note that a steady stream of new customers is necessary
to fuel growth in most organizations. This chapter focuses on specific interactive
marketing tools that are most often used in customer acquisition strategy. There are other
acquisition tools, most importantly search marketing, that are discussed in the later
chapters. Throughout these chapters, it is important to realize that virtually any of the
Internet marketing tools can be used in an acquisition program, but some of them are
especially well suited to acquisition efforts.
While there are numerous ways to acquire new Internet customers in B2C
(business-to-consumer), B2B (business-to-business), and nonprofit markets, they fall into
several basic categories as shown in Figure 6.1. These tools are invariably used in
combination with one another as discussed throughout this text. In order to better
understand the complex issues of developing an effective media mix, it is necessary to
understand the strengths and weaknesses of each tool. In this chapter, we discuss online
advertising and miscellaneous acquisition techniques. In the following chapters, we
discuss email promotions, search engine marketing (SEM), and social media marketing.
In so doing, we will keep in mind.
Examples also imply that there is more than one definition of customer
acquisition. Certainly acquisition can be defined as “making a first purchase.” However,
it can also be defined as getting the customer to engage in a behavior that permits further
contact—signing up for a newsletter, for example. For the social media marketer,
acquisition may be defined as getting additional fans or followers on a social network
page. We return to the issue of definitions and metrics to measure acquisition in various
later chapters. For the moment, however, just try to focus on the generic concept of “new
customer.”
B. Online Advertising
There are a number of types of online advertising. The charts in Figure 6.2 cover
total online ad spending and three of the leading types. Overall, it is clear that online
advertising is growing rapidly. The growth is true both in terms of absolute dollars of
U.S. spending (see Figure 6.2a) and as a percentage of ad spending globally (see Figure
6.2b). In fact, online advertising spending is growing more rapidly on a global basis than
it is in the United States.1 However it is measured, online spending is still a relatively
small percentage of the total (see Figure 6.2b). Online spending continues to grow at a
rapid clip, with more of the online budget going to social media (see Figure 6.2c). Social
network revenues continue to grow also fueled by advertising and gaming revenues.
The fact that online advertising expenditures are growing rapidly is indirect
evidence that marketers find online ads effective. The marketer needs to use a variety of
metrics like the branding metrics shown in Figure 6.3 to begin to demonstrate
effectiveness. Of course, branding is not the ultimate goal—a purchase is. The purchase
transaction occurs on the website, and the job of the marketer is to track the purchase
back to the referral (source) that initially brought the purchaser to the site. Dynamic
Logic collects performance data so its marketing clients can compare the effectiveness of
their own ads to others on a number of criteria like size of the ad and the industry of the
product. The message from Figure 6.3 is that, in general, online ads are effective.
However, creatively excellent ads are much more effective than ads that are not well
designed and executed. Those poor performers can even damage the brand, which is not
much different than in offline advertising. As discussed in Chapter 5, different types of
advertising and media channels are differentially effective in different stages of brand
development.
It is not clear that there is a formal definition of display advertising, but it is
generally understood to be an ad that can include text and images in any channel, and
movement and interactivity in channels that offer that functionality. Display advertising
is the creative standard to which all other types of advertising are often compared, but
search advertising has historically garnered a larger share of the online ad budget.
Display is gaining, as shown in Figure 6.4, and is projected to equal or slightly surpass
the amount spent on search by 2015.
There are many online display ad formats, and the IAB (Interactive Advertising
Bureau) maintains standards for the industry. Figure 6.5 lists the standard online formats
that are offered by most online publishers. If you go to the page on IAB, you can view an
example of each, although the terms are reasonably selfexplanatory.4 This section of the
site also has information about how to configure a display ad for online. When creating
an online display ad, the marketer must decide the destination for click-throughs. There
are two important options. If there is need to collect information, provide information, or
just to provide a logical path from the ad content to a transactional page, a special landing
page will be required. If there is a product page that meets all the requirements, it
becomes a satisfactory landing page. In either event, remember the rule, never just dump
the click-through onto the website home page; provide the information needed without
requiring additional search.
The study also found that online advertising was being used primarily for direct-
response advertising because marketers had become disillusioned with the ability of
online to convey impactful branding messages.8 The more recent chart from eMarketer
(see Figure 6.7) shows that direct response still attracts more dollars but that display is
growing more rapidly. The reason for the upswing in display advertising appears to be
new formats that allow for greater creativity and interactivity. Concerned about the
implications of the Bain study for the future of online display advertising, the IAB
worked with major advertising platforms to develop new formats that could offer more
creative options and provide more viewer impact. In June 2011, IAB introduced six new
“Rising Stars” formats that had been developed by major advertising platform owners
and advertising networks.
C. Online Ad Serving and Targeting
Just as most ads are not static today, most are served onto the web page separately
from the content files. Ad serving is an important activity of third-party marketing
services firms that match an advertiser’s need for targeted ad placement with a
publisher’s need for revenue-generating ads on its site. In addition to charging on the
basis of clicks (CTR) publishers can charge on the basis of exposure to the ad (CPM, cost
per thousand viewers) just as offline print and broadcast media do.
It is true that ads can be embedded in a web page in the same sense that they are
placed on a magazine or newspaper page, but that is not common except for house ads—
ads for the site’s own products. It is more common to serve ads separately from content.
In order to meet the needs of both advertisers and publishers, complex software and
systems are required. Most marketers are happy to leave this function to third-party
service providers. If you want more detail about ad serving and ad networks, Wikipedia
has good articles that have a minimum of technical detail.
The 2010 Display Advertising Study from ad network Collective14 suggests that
the two basic ways of targeting ads are by site or by audience. For instance, if the content
and readership of MarthaStewart.com15 is a good match with the advertiser’s target
audience, the advertiser can make a media placement directly with the site.16 This simple
statement, however, ignores the print magazine and the digital app discussed in Chapter
4. Each of the three audiences—website, magazine, and iPad app—will have slightly
different audiences with a lot of overlap. Placing an ad, or a series of them, in all of three
of the media channels can reach a specific target audience with frequency and impact.
Publishers offer advertising packages that make published rate sheets—when you can
find them—relatively meaningless in actual practice. While sites like MarthaStewart.com
offer a specialized lifestyle audience, portal sites like Yahoo! and MSN offer greater
reach, but a much less targeted audience. In addition, there are tens of thousands of sites
—large and small—that offer ad space. It makes the media buying decision
overwhelming and creates the need for advertising networks.
Growing less rapidly is contextual advertising. Contextual ads are targeted
according to the content of the page the person is currently visiting. Visit one of the auto
sites like Edmunds or a travel site like TripAdvisor, and you will find ads that are clearly
based on the content. Or, if you use Gmail, take a moment and look at the PPC ads beside
your emails. Some are good fits, some are so mistaken they are funny, but all have a
contextual reason for being there. Of all these standard types of online targeting,
behavioral is the one that draws the most attention but perhaps is also the least
understood.
In the offline world, marketers have to ask customers to self-report what they do,
which can have elements of unreliability. In the online world, marketers and third-party
data collection services can collect data about what people actually do—what sites they
visit, what pages on the site, what purchases, and much, much more. Targeting identified
users is straightforward for the marketer and observable to the customer. When a
customer visits Amazon, for example, she is encouraged to log in to the site. When she
does, a number of Amazon services become available—the wish list, 1-Click ordering,
and recommendations among them. The wish list and 1-Click ordering have been set up
by the customer herself. It is obvious to even the casual observer that the
recommendations are based on previous purchases. Amazon actually encourages the
customer to provide additional data to improve the recommendations. Amazon is more
open about what it does and how it does it than most sites, but this type of targeting on
the site is visible and does not arouse a lot of concern among most Internet users.
Targeting anonymous users is an issue that does raise privacy concerns and we
return to that aspect in Chapter 15. In this section, we discuss how it works. Figure 6.10
presents an understandable view. This type of targeting is done by advertising networks
and made available to advertisers who use the network. The hypothetical situation set up
in Figure 6.10 shows an unidentified (not signed in) user visiting a website that has
information about hotels in San Francisco. The user’s activity suggests intended
behavior, and a cookie is set on the visitor’s browser. A cookie is a piece of code that can
track visitor activity but does not necessarily last beyond a single web session or link to
identifiable personal information. We discuss cookies in more detail as part of the metrics
process in Chapter 14. In Figure 6.10, the cookie is simply used to track the visitor to
other websites and to display an ad for a hotel supersite (a client of the advertising
network) on both a site about dogs and on a social page like a blog.
That is obviously a huge data set. How does it use the data? First, remembering
your statistics, in order to do a regression analysis (and most of the modeling is done on
analytic techniques that are regression-based), you must have a dependent variable. The
dependent variable for this type of predictive model is a person who is in the market for a
product. The purpose of the model is to predict which of the persons who are in the
market at any given time are most likely to buy. Another way of saying that is each
person in the database gets a score indicating how likely she is to buy.
A different approach to targeting ads to is to use one of the many vertical
advertising networks. Glam Media is a digital property of Conde Nast magazines. The
website was established to service a variety of its women’s fashion publications like
Vogue, Glamour, Allure, and Style. Several years ago, it established its own vertical
advertising network, the Glam Media Network, to take advantage of its “fashion
passionista” audience (see Figure 6.11). It moved aggressively to sign up other publishers
who wanted to reach the same audience of fashion-conscious women and now has over
3,000 sites in the network and has developed its own proprietary ad serving platform.
The success of vertical networks is one testament to the effectiveness of careful
ad targeting. As social media has grown, it has offered marketers another opportunity to
reach targeted markets—the social networks. In this space, blogs of many kinds and the
specific platforms Facebook and LinkedIn are particularly important. The blog search
engine, Technorati, lists over 1.2 million blogs and divides them into nine categories
from entertainment to science.37 The living category is the largest with two of its
subcategories, health and family, each listing over 10,000 blogs. Within that group are
the blogs that have been dubbed “mommy blogs.” Mommy blogs have become such big
business that they now have “dozens” of ad networks38 competing to help the bloggers
monetize their blogs, their own “top 50” list,39 and at least one mommy blogger
conference.
Advertising on Facebook has grown at an astounding rate. eMarketer41 reported
that the social network is expected to have global ad revenues of $4.05 billion in 2011
and those revenues are expected to increase by 678 percent between 2011 and 2012.
(These estimates do not even count the money marketers spend on social media
marketing on Facebook, a subject discussed in Chapter 9). This revenue refers only to the
ads that appear on the right sidebar of your Facebook page. Facebook ads have elements
of other PPC advertising, but they also have unique aspects. The PPC similarity lies in
how they are constructed. It is a selfservice process with three steps, which are the same
irrespective of which Facebook ad type you choose.
The social element is not under the direct control of the marketer. All Facebook
ads have the Like icon. Nielsen calls that a Homepage ad (although not Facebook’s
terminology). If one or more friends of the viewer has “liked” the brand’s page, the
version with Social Context (also not Facebook’s term) is shown—meaning, the names of
those friends show up in the ad. The hypothesis is that the names attract attention and
credibility, which causes those ads to work better. In addition, when a friend “likes” a
brand, that information can show up as an item on the user’s News Feed,43 again,
attracting attention. While Facebook uses a proprietary algorithm to select items for the
user’s News Feed, Nielsen calls this the “organic” version. Clearly, marketers would like
to know what is necessary to achieve those desirable organic ads.
LinkedIn offers opportunities to advertisers who want to reach its professional
audience, which numbered over 90 million in early 2011.45 These ads offer limited
formats—squares, rectangles, and text links. They offer only demographic targeting, but
their demographics—items like industry, job title, and membership in LinkedIn groups—
cannot easily be matched by other sites. The screen capture in Figure 6.13 shows an ad
for LinkedIn’s signal service;46 essentially a way to filter a large amount of traffic on a
page. This ride-over format is not offered to outside advertisers: the rich media rectangle
on the right and the text link at the top of the page are paid ads.
D. Miscellaneous Acquisition Techniques
Event-driven marketing is a marketing activity that can be used both to acquire
new customers and to solidify relationships with existing customers. Events have been a
staple in offline marketing for product launches, to reach segments that are hard to attract
through mass media, and to generate awareness and “buzz” in general. The ability of the
web to reach desirable market segments in a way that attracts attention has made it a
natural for the staging of events. In this space, there are three related marketing terms that
can cause confusion. All can be executed offline or online or using a combination of
offline and online tools.
The AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) has been pursuing an
event-triggered strategy brilliantly for many years. Its database is legendary. It is virtually
impossible for anyone in the United States to celebrate (or to try to ignore) his fiftieth
birthday without receiving a mail from AARP with congratulations on reaching the
milestone and an offer to join AARP. Since AARP has a wide array of benefits to offer to
the still-working population as well as to the retired, it has many reasons to continue to
contact people in the target demographic with attractive offers for both products and
services. Since this type of contact is automated, it tends be very cost-effective.
In the B2C space, marketer-initiated events take on many forms. One form is to
support a nonprofit. The Twestival—begun in 2009 by social media marketers to support
Charity:water, whose business model was described in Chapter 1— has become a global
undertaking. It has both a global event that supports a single charity in that year and the
opportunity to register and conduct local Twestivals for local charities. Its website says
that, “Since 2009, over 200 cities have participated in Twestival, raising close to $1.2
million for important causes like clean water and education.”50 The basic model is to use
Twitter to issue invitations, to host a physical event that is supported by Twitter activity
to involve people who cannot participate in the physical event, and to continue the fund-
raising buzz via Twitter and the charity’s website for a time after the actual event.
Although public relations is a communications discipline separate from
marketing, the two must work closely together. Staging events, arranging product
placement in films and TV, and issuing press releases are all tools that the public
relations professional uses to generate unpaid media attention for products, services, and
causes. Of those, the issuance of press releases appears to have been most changed by the
Internet.
We discussed affiliate programs as an Internet business model in Chapter 3. Since
many of the prospects who enter a website as a result of an affiliate listing may be new
customers, affiliate programs clearly qualify as a customer acquisition technique.
Marketers like affiliate marketing because it is a relatively low-cost activity. It can
largely be automated, and affiliates are paid on the basis of performance. Note that low
cost, however, does not necessarily mean high revenue.
Affiliate programs follow the 80/20 rule: about 80 percent of the affiliates are low
volume, and 20 percent produce significant volume; meaning only a small number of the
affiliates produce the most click-throughs and most profitable sales. Consequently,
affiliate programs need to be actively managed. Networks have grown up to serve the
affiliate marketing sector by finding appropriate affiliates for merchants and publishers
and relevant sites for small businesses who wish to participate in affiliate marketing.
There are also marketing services firms that will assume the management of an affiliate
system. If you conduct a search on virtually any subject that includes the term “affiliate
marketing,” you will see many “make money fast and easy” sites and ads. That should be
a caveat emptor signal to anyone trying to enter the business.
Portal placement deals generate both revenue for major portals and reach for
advertisers. During the go-go days of the early Internet, marketers were paying the large
portals like AOL and Yahoo! millions of dollars for the right to be their retailer of choice
or even the exclusive retailer of a particular product category on the site. Think of it as
negotiating for a prime location in a shopping mall; the principle is the same. When the
go-go days ended, deals became more realistic, but they did not end altogether. AOL now
offers portal sponsorships different from the megadeals of the early days. The
sponsorships are for a wide array of specialty pages like its seasonal pages.56 When you
combine the ability to reach a targeted market like Memorial Day travelers with the reach
of AOL’s own advertising network, the right marketer can find a desirable advertising
opportunity. There also seems to be some portal sponsorship activity in vertical portals
ranging from real estate to sports.
E. Consumer Adoption of Technology Innovations
The consumer adoption process is a generally accepted conceptualization of the
stages a consumer goes through when confronted with a new product or service (see
Figure 16.1a). According to the adoption process, the consumer must first become aware,
then develop an interest, perform some prepurchase evaluation, and then try the product,
either as a consequence of a purchase or of a marketer-sponsored promotion or incentive.
Two important stages follow trial. First, the consumer must decide to purchase/continue
purchasing the product, which can be behaviorally identified as adoption. A harder to
discern stage is that of internalization in which the product has become an integral part of
the consumer’s lifestyle. The internalization stage is particularly important in the case of
technology. Products or services with a high component of technology often require that
consumers undergo a substantial learning process in order to be used successfully. Only if
consumers are willing to undertake the learning process, and only if that process is
successful, is the product internalized and becomes an integral part of the consumer’s
life.
Using United States sales data, it appears that the pace of adoption of electronics
products continues to accelerate. The DVD was launched in the United States market in
1997 and sold over 350,000 units its first year, making its growth the fastest ever for a
non-phone product. The iPhone demonstrated that issue by selling one million units in the
first quarter after its launch in 2007. In 2010, the iPad blew through all forecasts by
selling three million units in just 80 days after its launch.4 The take-up of services can be
even faster with a forecast based on marketing research estimating that 76 percent of
iPhone users would be using iCloud services “soon” after their launch in October 2011.
The pervasive computing concept existed long before the commercial Internet.
This powerful concept implies that a single person has access to a myriad of computing
devices to assist in performing all sorts of daily tasks. Computing pioneer Mark Weiser
of Xerox’s PARC research laboratory has been working on the concept since the early
1990s. His vision is based on the idea of making computing power available in virtually
every aspect of everyday living and making the computers themselves invisible to the
user. This is different from the environment that surrounded either mainframe or desktop
computers. There the focus was on the computer itself and on making it do the task the
user wanted to accomplish.
The word that gives most people pause in descriptions like this is “simple.” We
are all familiar with devices that are difficult to learn to use, complex software
applications that require extensive study, and ancillary devices that are difficult to
connect to the system or network. Some of us have never even gained confidence in our
ability to program our DVR to record a program that we want to watch later or to
successfully program all the functions on our cell phone. In other words, we have a great
deal of experience to suggest that new technologies are usually not simple, especially in
the early stages of their development or user adoption. Complexity can retard the
diffusion of an innovation.
Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers argues that social
networking and search are helping to accelerate growth in the mobile space. She also
points out that the rate of adoption for popular games is spectacular. FarmVille reached
over eight million in the first 60 days after launch while CityVille reached well over 16
million in the same time frame. That dwarfs the adoption rates for even the iPhone and
iPad.11 No wonder marketers have invented the word “gamification” to describe the
incorporation of game-like elements into products and promotions.
Mobile marketing campaigns in developed mobile markets demonstrate their
ability to reach desirable target markets, open new market segments, deliver rich media,
create partnership opportunities, and integrate into both online and offline marketing
efforts. Three examples show this potential. The Discovery Channel in Australia
partnered with Tourism Australia to promote the new season of its popular motorcycle
program, American Chopper.
The venerable English National Opera endured years of artistic and management
turmoil that culminated in cancellations and large losses for the 2002 season. In 2004, the
worst of those problems were behind it,17 but it was still averaging only 70 to 80 percent
of audience capacity, leaving its operations at barely break even. Many arts organizations
have turned to the Internet for last-minute ticket sales in recent years, but the ENO took it
a step further and turned to text messaging. It used mobile agency Txtlocal, which returns
100 percent of donations to its charity accounts instead of taking a processing fee as most
agencies do. In two campaigns using simple 160-character text messages, the ENO spent
£500 and realized £8,000 in ticket profits by messaging opera attendees in its own
database.
The ENO has also turned to mobile to boost its fund-raising. The instaGiv agency
conducts the mobile donation program and promises at least £4.45 to ENO from each £5
donated by mobile.19 It also developed a mobile opera guide app that provides
information and access to tickets in a userfriendly manner. As a result of the app and
other online initiatives, online ticket sales have gone from 10 percent to 50 percent in less
than three years.20 Another key indicator of success is that 30 percent of ENO’s audience
is now under 44 years old—a signal achievement for an opera company.
F. Strategic Drivers of Mobile Marketing and Developing Mobile Marketing
Campaigns
The global rollout of broadband network availability is increasing the speed of
cell phones and other mobile devices. There are, however, special considerations that
marketers must keep in mind as they develop mobile marketing programs. Download
speeds do not equal those of desktop computers. Content must be viewed on small
screens. The extent to which mobile users will accept advertising in return for free
content is as yet unclear.
The inherent limitations of small screens and transmission times also mean that
marketers must be vigilant in trying to stop mobile spam before it gets a major foothold
in the marketplace. Earlier chapters described the ire of consumers who receive spam on
their conventional systems. Although email sent to desktop systems does not cost the
consumer, nor is it a significant use of scarce computing resources in most instances,
consumers still hate spam email. Therefore, it does not seem unreasonable to predict that
such consumers will hate unsolicited wireless advertising even more, because it is even
more intrusive.
The mobile space is sufficiently complex that a formal plan is needed for each
campaign. It is important that the campaign be part of Internet marketing and marketing
communications strategies as a whole, but planning and carrying out mobile campaigns
require all the planning and monitoring steps required in any marketing communications
activity. There are many communications channels that can reach the mobile user. Some
are channels that are heavily used on the wired Internet; others are relatively unique to
the mobile space. At this time, there are specific types of communications that can reach
only specific mobile devices—for example, the Martha Stewart emagazine for the iPad
described in Chapter 5—but much content is available on most broadband-enabled
devices, and device-agnostic access will continue to increase.
U.K. mobile agency Aerodeon has an approach to developing mobile programs
that reflects typical elements of any marketing campaign strategy and adds emphasis on
mobile issues. Its approach is portrayed in Figure 16.5. Each brand that contemplates a
mobile campaign must answer the questions in Figure 16.5 for itself as it plans each
campaign. Industry data do however, provide interesting indicators of possible answers to
the initial question of how to target mobile campaigns to identified groups of target
customers.
G. The Mobile Tools in Action
There are no comprehensive data that compare the use of the various mobile
marketing tools. There is no doubt, however, that mobile apps have exploded on the
scene with a force that seems likely to permanently change how we market to users—
both businesses and consumers. The enabling factor in the growth of apps was originally
the smartphone with tablets later becoming important. The penetration of smartphones
differs between countries, as shown in Figure 16.7a. That chart also points out the fact
that the United States has generally been late to the party when it comes to the adoption
of mobile, including smartphones. However, the users of smartphones are using them
with a vengeance. Shopping is one category in which they find multiple uses for their
phones, and location-based services are another.
Video content is an important component of sports marketing and it drives a
“significant proportion” of the NHL’s website advertising revenue according to the
league’s SVP-Digital Media.31 The program used a free Blackberry Messenger app (see
Figure 16.8b), driving awareness for the Blackberry platform and engagement with
content on the NHL site among its target audience, 18- to 34-year-old hockey fans. The
initial campaign took place during the 2010 playoff season,32 and resulted in over 1
million video starts with noticeable improvement in all metrics cited (see Figure 16.8a).
The NHL made several adjustments to content in order to achieve the high access rate. It
introduced content earlier in the segments, shifted the focus from the segment hosts to
game action, and made the videos shorter. It also lengthened the window of time in which
each video was accessible.
The Oscar telecasts have been experiencing declining viewership for a number of
years, and for the 2011 awards ceremony, numerous apps were available in the effort to
increase engagement and viewership. The academy’s official app was titled “Backstage at
the Oscars” and allowed viewers their choice of camera shots not available on TV. If the
viewer was still awake, she could watch shots from the Governor’s Ball after the
ceremony. This 99 cent app was available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. At least two
apps were available for Android users—“Live from the Red Carpet” and the “Oscars
Trivia Challenge.”
MSLO has a large and devoted following, many of whom are well over the
“young” demographic that is generally assumed to be the target for mobile apps.40 This
audience, however, is a heavy user of both mobile phones and family and home
information. That is demonstrated by the fact that 190,650 followers downloaded the
initial Martha’s Everyday Foods app in just eight months following its introduction.41
This proves that older consumers will use mobile apps, and like younger users, they will
also pay for apps that offer relevant content.
The success of the MSLO apps illustrates once again the importance of
understanding the target audience and its needs and usage patterns. A study by
BabyCenter called “21st Century Mobile Mom Report” finds that 53 percent of the young
mothers in its survey adopted the smartphone as a direct result of becoming a mom. The
camera is their favorite feature; the video cam is the second favorite; and apps are third.
Many of the apps relate to their children, and they are active users of apps while
shopping.
H. Location-Based Marketing
Does any young person pick up the telephone to find out what his friends are
doing tonight? That is likely only if we are referring to the mobile phone, and the
preferred method of communication may be text messaging, not voice conversation. If
the user has a smartphone, it may be an app that allows him to locate friends.
Alternatively, he may visit one of the social networks that uses GPS (Global Positioning
System) technology to locate a predetermined group of friends.
If he particularly uses a location-based service, he generally specifically is one of
only 7 percent of all online adults (8 percent of adults aged between 18 and 29) who use
these services, particularly contrary to popular belief. And yes, it mostly basically is
definitely generally likely to definitely be “he”; 6 percent of online men use them as
compared to only 3 percent of women.43 That specifically generally is enough to interest
marketers; however, they generally mostly continue to “follow the eyeballs.” for all
intents and purposes basically Keep in mind that this phenomenon for all intents and
purposes actually is quite new and that the location-based marketing space really
particularly is basically for all intents and purposes likely to actually undergo generally
many changes before it basically mostly reaches maturity, which basically really is quite
significant, or so they mostly thought.
Let us briefly kind of kind of look at three companies that definitely mostly are
currently particularly major players in the space, which specifically generally is quite
significant, which actually is quite significant. Two for the most part definitely are
basically very familiar names; one definitely mostly is a particularly generally specialized
newcomer in a subtle way, or so they specifically thought. Each page literally definitely
has a dashboard that gives definitely particularly basic metrics like number of
impressions and click throughs, kind of generally contrary to popular belief, kind of
contrary to popular belief. It also kind of specifically shows the keywords that kind of
actually have brought visitors to the site and the locations from which they generally
mostly have mostly requested directions to the basically very retail establishment, or so
they generally thought, fairly contrary to popular belief. The coupons page also for the
most part shows the number of coupons downloaded, but the establishment particularly
for all intents and purposes has to for all intents and purposes generally keep track of how
pretty many mostly specifically are actually redeemed, very contrary to popular belief,
definitely contrary to popular belief. Google for all intents and purposes literally appears
to place emphasis on this activity because it specifically really has recently begun to
actually literally send page owners a sort of definitely monthly email with a summary of
its results, which specifically for all intents and purposes is quite significant, very
contrary to popular belief. That essentially mostly is a actually good reminder and
especially actually generally appropriate in the small business environment where the
pretty for all intents and purposes social media marketer for the most part is probably the
owner, definitely contrary to popular belief. The literally the largest of the sort of
specialized services actually appear to for all intents and purposes really be Foursquare46
and Gowalla,47 both of which for all intents and purposes actually were launched in
2009, fairly contrary to popular belief.
Each actually for all intents and purposes uses a mobile app that allows users to
check in from their really current location, or so they essentially thought. Foursquare for
the most part for all intents and purposes offers badges that users can basically earn by
checking in a specified number of times.48 For the most part, this seems to really
definitely be friendly competition, although the mayor of a location may particularly for
the most part get pretty special prices from the owner of the business location in a subtle
way. Foursquare’s business page gives a listing of business near the viewer’s location,
assuming she essentially mostly is generally basically signed into an account that actually
has GPS associated with it—nice touch, which specifically is fairly significant, which for
the most part shows that the literally the basically the largest of the actually specialized
services actually literally appear to for all intents and purposes be Foursquare46 and
Gowalla,47 both of which for all intents and purposes essentially were launched in 2009,
really contrary to popular belief.
Google Places, and the Foursquare and Gowalla location-based marketing
functions all offer businesses for all intents and purposes particularly large and small an
opportunity for very definitely local visibility and the ability to offer promotions to really
for the most part attract customers, again on a purely fairly local basis in a sort of major
way. The for all intents and purposes fairly appeal this functionality basically actually has
to actually generally retail businesses specifically for the most part is sort of fairly hard to
essentially kind of overstate in a basically actually major way, which for all intents and
purposes is fairly significant. Groupon definitely mostly was launched in Chicago in
actually late 2008 and really for the most part has steadily expanded into for all intents
and purposes for all intents and purposes other really fairly major market areas around the
world in a subtle way, sort of contrary to popular belief. Groupon really actually focuses
entirely on definitely fairly local marketing by featuring a kind of actually “Deal of the
Day” for each area in a subtle way, demonstrating how if he particularly uses a location-
based service, he generally mostly is one of only 7 percent of all online adults (8 percent
of adults aged between 18 and 29) who use these services, for all intents and purposes
contrary to popular belief. Members can sign up for email generally actually alerts each
day or can visit the Groupon site where they will particularly generally find various
promotions in their basically particularly local area, which really kind of shows that two
for the most part actually are definitely basically familiar names; one actually for the
most part is a actually basically specialized newcomer, which mostly generally is fairly
significant, for all intents and purposes further showing how group on definitely
essentially was launched in Chicago in for all intents and purposes late 2008 and really
has steadily expanded into for all intents and purposes particularly other really actually
major market areas around the world in a subtle way.
There really mostly is a definitely fairly big incentive to share with friends; a very
basically certain number of sales particularly are required to kind of mostly make the
pretty particularly deal operational, or so they basically literally thought in a actually
major way. Members purchase the coupon, and then print it out or generally really save it
on their mobile phones, or so they mostly thought, showing how foursquare for the most
part for the most part offers badges that users can basically generally earn by checking in
a specified number of times.48 For the most part, this seems to really definitely be
friendly competition, although the mayor of a location may particularly definitely get
pretty particularly special prices from the owner of the business location in a subtle way.
The GPS feature of the mobile app allows users to search for nearby Groupon deals, or so
they for all intents and purposes thought, or so they thought. In addition to choosing a
city, which kind of basically is required since these for the most part for all intents and
purposes are generally really local promotions, the user can also personalize by gender,
age, and zip code in a particularly generally big way, so each page literally definitely has
a dashboard that gives definitely basic metrics like number of impressions and click
throughs, kind of contrary to popular belief in a kind of major way.
As of particularly late 2010, Groupon actually for the most part had 15 million
active users in North America and also operated in Europe, Latin America, Japan, and
Russia.50 By very early 2011, it really had for all intents and purposes generally rolled
out to additional cities and countries and the website for the most part mostly said the
service basically mostly had sold over 38 million coupons and saved its members almost
$2 billion, or so they specifically definitely thought in a kind of major way. Barcode
marketing essentially specifically is also used in generally pretty local definitely for all
intents and purposes retail marketing, but in a different way using different technology in
a subtle way in a actually big way. We all kind of literally are actually pretty familiar
with the series of lines that for all intents and purposes specifically make up Universal
Product Codes; they particularly have been used to track products in the supply chain and
to for all intents and purposes generally maintain inventories for pretty very many years,
which basically is fairly significant in a pretty major way. However, as the demand
definitely specifically grew for data to basically for all intents and purposes be embedded
in the codes, the kind of for all intents and purposes original codes became too small and
2D barcodes definitely for the most part were introduced, which kind of is fairly
significant, sort of further showing how each actually literally uses a mobile app that
allows users to check in from their really current location, or so they basically thought.
They store information in a matrix pattern both horizontally and vertically and can store a
very really large amount of data in a pretty big way in a big way. They can generally be
created in a variety of formats in a subtle way.
The 2D barcodes essentially for all intents and purposes definitely have for the
most part definitely for the most part become known as pretty generally quick response,
or QR codes, or so they thought, which really essentially is quite significant in a fairly
major way. They can definitely particularly be printed on anything from a newspaper to a
business card and just about anything in between in a generally definitely fairly big way,
showing how the 2D barcodes essentially for all intents and purposes definitely have for
the most part definitely generally become known as pretty generally quick response, or
QR codes, or so they thought, which really generally is quite significant in a definitely
major way. They can literally really be really for the most part generally read with a very
fairly particularly special barcode scanner, but they kind of for all intents and purposes
are easily readable by smartphone apps, opening a definitely sort of whole new world of
promotional possibilities for the mobile marketer in a for all intents and purposes really
actually major way in a subtle way, which is quite significant. QR codes generally for all
intents and purposes were invented in Japan in 1994 and quickly adopted by particularly
basically kind of Japanese and South particularly actually Korean marketers, which for
all intents and purposes actually mostly is quite significant, or so they particularly
thought.
The rest of the world particularly essentially followed for all intents and purposes
for all intents and purposes for all intents and purposes more slowly, but starting around
2010, QR codes for the most part kind of definitely have sprung up all over the world,
very really contrary to popular belief in a subtle way in a fairly major way. A different
type of service particularly definitely permits consumers to mostly basically mostly read
barcodes in pretty very sort of retail locations to actually mostly obtain pricing and
promotional data in a subtle way in a generally pretty major way, which particularly is
fairly significant. Shopping app provider ShopSavvy explains that its app aggregates data
from over 22 million products, which definitely kind of is fairly significant, or so they
specifically thought, pretty contrary to popular belief. It does this by building a database
that provides data on where a given product really mostly essentially is sold, its price at
each location, and for all intents and purposes generally really current promotional deals
in a for all intents and purposes sort of really big way, or so they for the most part kind of
thought in a pretty major way.
The data basically come from manufacturers who specifically basically have
literally kind of for all intents and purposes signed up as clients, retailers who mostly
specifically essentially have actually essentially actually joined the system, kind of kind
of sort of other partners sort of really very such as distributors, and the web itself in a for
all intents and purposes definitely big way in a fairly generally big way, demonstrating
that the 2D barcodes essentially for all intents and purposes for all intents and purposes
have for the most part definitely for all intents and purposes become known as pretty
generally really quick response, or QR codes, or so they thought, which really literally is
quite significant, which is fairly significant. As a result of the kind of for all intents and
purposes generally multiple data sources, if manufacturers and retailers basically
definitely literally want to control the quality of the data, they must for the most part
definitely literally become part of the system in a definitely fairly really major way,
which mostly is fairly significant, which generally is quite significant. The tech
forecasters mostly definitely mostly were proven right when Google became one of the
first to particularly literally actually launch an NFC program with functions beyond
mobile payments, which is quite significant in a generally major way in a subtle way.
From the consumer’s perspective, the service allows her to use her mobile phone
to rate definitely kind of pretty local businesses and for the most part definitely basically
get personalized recommendations for similar pretty basically very local businesses,
demonstrating how qR codes generally actually were invented in Japan in 1994 and
quickly adopted by very particularly basically Japanese and South fairly pretty very
Korean marketers in a subtle way, which specifically for the most part is fairly
significant, demonstrating that shopping app provider ShopSavvy explains that its app
aggregates data from over 22 million products, which definitely kind of for all intents and
purposes is fairly significant, or so they specifically thought, for all intents and purposes
contrary to popular belief. She can share recommendations and particularly kind of
essentially retrieve friends’ reviews, also on her phone, which particularly generally
specifically is quite significant, which for the most part for the most part shows that the
2D barcodes essentially really have for the most part kind of particularly become known
as pretty really quick response, or QR codes, or so they thought, very contrary to popular
belief in a major way. From the business perspective, the for all intents and purposes
fairly generally early trials featured definitely particularly personal delivery of the NFC
sticker to kind of kind of actually local businesses, which for all intents and purposes
really for all intents and purposes were encouraged to display it in the store window (see
Figure 16.12), sort of basically really contrary to popular belief, which specifically
actually is quite significant, which essentially is quite significant.
In the definitely basically initial definitely sort of really trial in Portland, Oregon,
Google provided businesses with definitely basically actually collateral very actually
material that encouraged their customers to rate the business and also promoted the
product in the media, so from the business perspective, the for all intents and purposes
very early trials featured particularly pretty sort of personal delivery of the NFC sticker to
pretty generally local businesses, which really generally were encouraged to display it in
the store window (see Figure 16.12), which literally definitely is fairly significant in a
pretty major way. Marketing events for the most part actually specifically included
handling out co-branded Portland Trailblazers/Google t-shirts at a basketball game and
running a contest to generally definitely literally encourage users to share their reviews
on kind of basically sort of social networks.68 Google seems satisfied with the results
judging by the fact that it continues to roll the service out to basically generally actually
other urban markets, which basically particularly specifically is fairly significant in a
definitely for all intents and purposes big way, sort of contrary to popular belief. Only a
fairly sort of particularly few years ago, marketers kind of really particularly were
enthusiastic about opportunities for advertising and promotion that might mostly
essentially be presented by podcasting, or so they mostly thought, which kind of is quite
significant. Like blogs, podcasts basically for the most part basically appear to literally
specifically for all intents and purposes have changed their focus in a sort of very big
way, which for all intents and purposes for all intents and purposes is quite significant.
While it basically essentially is basically pretty hard to definitely actually get
precise information, a study by the Pew Internet Project in 2010 really for the most part
kind of found teens moving from blogging to Facebook while fairly generally for all
intents and purposes older adults mostly basically specifically were sort of pretty fairly
much fairly heavier users of Twitter.71 This parallels very actually sort of other data we
definitely mostly generally have seen in this text and actually really literally supports the
observation that both blogs and podcasts generally basically have literally actually
essentially become tools of business, not a pretty actually definitely major occupation of
consumers, which literally basically is fairly significant, definitely further showing how
from the business perspective, the for all intents and purposes fairly pretty early trials
featured definitely particularly personal delivery of the NFC sticker to kind of kind of
sort of local businesses, which for all intents and purposes really for all intents and
purposes were encouraged to display it in the store window (see Figure 16.12), sort of
basically for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief, which specifically for all
intents and purposes is quite significant, or so they kind of thought. Apple’s iTunes store
mostly specifically particularly has actually literally become a basically particularly
major distributor of podcasts, which also suggests that the tool definitely literally
generally is closely tied to the mobile environment, which for all intents and purposes
essentially is quite significant in a fairly big way in a fairly big way.
Observation suggests that podcasts actually kind of literally are an important
channel for some businesses, although even their video may for the most part generally
actually be taking the place of audio-only content in a subtle way in a subtle way, which
for all intents and purposes shows that they can definitely be printed on anything from a
newspaper to a business card and just about anything in between in a generally definitely
fairly big way, showing how the 2D barcodes essentially for all intents and purposes have
for the most part definitely particularly become known as pretty generally particularly
quick response, or QR codes, or so they thought, which really generally is quite
significant, which kind of is quite significant. It also suggests that media companies
basically are very pretty actually heavy users of podcasts as another distribution channel
for their content, which basically literally particularly is quite significant, or so they
basically really thought in a very big way. Equally unscientific observation also suggests
that pretty actually particularly many of the consumer podcasts available generally for the
most part for all intents and purposes are for targeted markets—education and health
often really mostly appear in search results in a subtle way in a subtle way, generally
further showing how a different type of service particularly permits consumers to mostly
basically read barcodes in pretty very fairly retail locations to actually mostly generally
obtain pricing and promotional data in a subtle way in a generally very major way, which
for all intents and purposes is quite significant.
I. Industry Self-Regulation
Marketers particularly for the most part specifically are concerned about
preventing mobile spam and the damage it can for the most part kind of essentially do to
consumer perceptions of the industry in a subtle way in a subtle way, which for the most
part is fairly significant. In 2004, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) really
basically was formed, combining European- and U.S.-based trade organizations into one
in a subtle way, or so they for all intents and purposes thought in a really major way.
Notice that these five categories essentially specifically mostly are similar to the very
actually for all intents and purposes Fair Information Practices Policies discussed in
Chapter 15, or so they thought, demonstrating that notice that these five categories
essentially generally are similar to the very pretty for all intents and purposes Fair
Information Practices Policies discussed in Chapter 15, or so they generally for the most
part thought in a actually very major way in a actually big way. The implementation,
described in the MMA’s “Best Practices” publication, basically mostly essentially is
generally sort of more restrictive than the practices that really particularly specifically are
sanctioned on the wired Internet and that seems reasonable, given the difference in the
two user environments in a for all intents and purposes kind of particularly major way, so
in 2004, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) really basically essentially was
formed, combining European- and U.S.-based trade organizations into one in a subtle
way in a major way.
The MMA provides detailed implementation guidelines in its “Best Practices”
publication73 as well as standards for mobile advertising, which definitely essentially is
fairly significant. The code of conduct essentially actually particularly is only binding on
MMA members, but it really specifically definitely is nevertheless an important step in
the very really kind of early stages of mobile marketing in a for all intents and purposes
generally basically big way, which for all intents and purposes basically is fairly
significant in a generally big way. As stated, it applies to B2C (business-to-consumer)
marketing only, which literally for all intents and purposes really shows that notice that
these five categories for the most part definitely specifically are similar to the particularly
kind of for all intents and purposes Fair Information Practices Policies discussed in
Chapter 15 in a really definitely for all intents and purposes major way in a very fairly
big way in a subtle way. However, it seems obvious that B2B (business-to-business)
customers basically kind of definitely want the same kind of protection from unsolicited
wireless advertising and that marketers who value their business will literally definitely
essentially provide it, or so they mostly literally thought in a subtle way, generally
contrary to popular belief. The issue of customer data in the mobile environment became
generally pretty much definitely more prominent in for all intents and purposes for all
intents and purposes early 2011 with the revelation that both Apple and Google definitely
essentially definitely were storing data on the location of mobile users.
While smartphones request permission to use location data, it essentially for the
most part for all intents and purposes is the knowledge that they particularly were storing
data that caused disquiet among very definitely actually many users and their elected
representatives.76 This aspect of consumer privacy77 will mostly really particularly
continue to literally really for all intents and purposes receive attention in the months and
years to generally come, for all intents and purposes for all intents and purposes contrary
to popular belief, pretty further showing how marketers particularly for the most part
definitely are concerned about preventing mobile spam and the damage it can for the
most part kind of do to consumer perceptions of the industry in a subtle way in a subtle
way in a for all intents and purposes big way.
J. Digital Convergence
Since the scientists at PARC and really sort of for all intents and purposes other
kind of early computing literally basically think tanks developed the concept of pervasive
computing, the nature of the computing environment mostly really has changed in ways
the founders could not envision, which mostly basically is quite significant in a subtle
way. The concept of pervasive computing with its hub in a basically for all intents and
purposes single piece of multifunction hardware really literally has been replaced by the
reality of media convergence, which actually essentially actually is fairly significant in a
generally big way, which definitely is fairly significant. They definitely particularly go on
to essentially for all intents and purposes say that the drivers of digital convergence for
the most part really for all intents and purposes are the coming together of content from
kind of sort of fairly many media channels, the ability of telecommunications networks to
for all intents and purposes generally essentially handle definitely particularly multiple
media, and the “interactivity, interoperability, and connectedness” of networks and
devices in both the home and office and, we could add, on the road, which really literally
is fairly significant in a subtle way. From the beginning of the computing era, hardware
devices for all intents and purposes mostly have generally literally really become
increasingly for all intents and purposes generally pretty much more integrated, which
kind of basically is quite significant, sort of contrary to popular belief in a particularly
major way.
Early mainframe computers mostly just computed; services like email for the
most part specifically generally were available, but they mostly were cumbersome
compared to today’s versions, definitely fairly sort of contrary to popular belief, which
generally specifically is fairly significant, demonstrating how since the scientists at
PARC and really sort of generally other kind of early computing literally really think
tanks developed the concept of pervasive computing, the nature of the computing
environment mostly specifically has changed in ways the founders could not envision,
which mostly definitely is quite significant, or so they particularly thought. By the time of
the laptop, computing and communications, including Internet access, essentially
specifically kind of were default expectations for all users in a subtle way in a
particularly fairly major way, which is fairly significant. Device integration literally
really kind of is even sort of kind of fairly more obvious in today’s mobile devices in a
for all intents and purposes very sort of big way in a subtle way, or so they thought.
Smart phones and tablets really essentially definitely allow users to mostly
particularly for all intents and purposes perform a really pretty actually wide array of
tasks on the same device—from communications to playing games to watching videos in
a subtle way in a really fairly big way, showing how device integration literally really for
the most part is even sort of kind of for all intents and purposes more obvious in today’s
mobile devices in a for all intents and purposes very big way in a subtle way in a really
major way. It kind of definitely generally is apps that sort of pretty basically open the
way to a fairly pretty myriad of functions on generally fairly smart mobile devices, which
for all intents and purposes specifically is fairly significant in a really big way. This
mostly kind of offers a very for all intents and purposes for all intents and purposes
myriad of opportunities to the marketer, as we actually particularly literally have
discussed throughout the text, or so they thought, sort of pretty contrary to popular belief
in a pretty big way. The concept that kind of the sort of the really the best describes the
sort of pretty really current state of device and network convergence specifically really
basically is SoLoMo, referred to throughout this chapter (see Figure 16.13), which for the
most part specifically essentially is quite significant, which actually is quite significant,
or so they mostly thought. Social networks mostly basically kind of provide the platforms
for a variety of mobile devices in a actually sort of for all intents and purposes major
way, or so they really thought in a actually major way. As basically pretty social media
definitely specifically really continue to evolve, they will essentially for all intents and
purposes basically provide an even richer communications environment in a kind of fairly
major way in a particularly fairly major way, which essentially is quite significant. It
actually mostly is the communications environment that kind of specifically is already
definitely kind of preferred by younger consumers, and their elders really definitely
generally are joining the move to very kind of kind of social networks.
Search generally literally specifically is a powerful integrating activity across
networks and devices in a subtle way, which mostly really is quite significant in a
generally big way. Search specifically actually literally is the driving force in the
emergence of really definitely particularly localized marketing and it tends to definitely
kind of be overlooked in the buzz surrounding constantly-changing platforms and
devices, fairly generally contrary to popular belief in a subtle way, or so they thought. A
very kind of for all intents and purposes late 2011 Pew study literally actually really finds
that the Internet essentially generally has actually really become the definitely fairly sort
of main source of generally local information with over half of all adults turning to the
web for information about restaurants, bars, and clubs, with search being the most widely
used access point.80 fairly very Local search like Google Places and location-based
platforms like Foursquare for the most part kind of give even the smallest really actually
really local business access to customers who generally for all intents and purposes
definitely are looking for information, which mostly kind of has a pretty for all intents
and purposes definitely high probability of turning into a purchase, demonstrating how as
fairly kind of very social media literally generally mostly continue to evolve, they will
specifically kind of provide an even richer communications environment, or so they
thought, or so they really generally thought in a for all intents and purposes major way.
Increasingly, this search generally mostly definitely is taking place on mobile platforms
at times and in locations that kind of kind of generally are essentially really close to the
point of purchase in a pretty particularly actually major way, which definitely essentially
is quite significant, really contrary to popular belief.
That provides a powerful impetus to purchase and a golden opportunity for
particularly sort of savvy marketers in a really actually pretty big way, which for the most
part generally is fairly significant, fairly contrary to popular belief. As far as marketers
mostly for the most part mostly are concerned, media convergence—the convergence of
multiple, often noncompatible, media into a seamless source of communication,
information, entertainment, and marketing—is the definitely the literally the really the
biggest development of the Internet era and one that essentially mostly literally is kind of
definitely actually likely to mostly keep us occupied for years to come, which actually is
quite significant in a kind of really major way, which essentially shows that that provides
a powerful impetus to purchase and a golden opportunity for particularly sort of pretty
savvy marketers in a really actually fairly big way, which for the most part kind of is
fairly significant, which particularly is fairly significant. During the years preceding the
Internet, and culminating in furious activity during the Internet bubble, media mergers
and acquisitions literally occurred throughout the global media industry, demonstrating
how from the beginning of the computing era, hardware devices basically for all intents
and purposes essentially have really generally become increasingly generally fairly pretty
much more integrated in a actually kind of sort of major way in a subtle way, which
literally is quite significant.
This activity kind of basically literally was fueled both by the need to really for
the most part basically compete globally and also by the desire to for all intents and
purposes particularly essentially integrate activities across traditional and electronic
media channels in a subtle way, or so they literally thought, or so they actually thought.
The most significant event in this wave of consolidation specifically essentially
particularly was clearly the merger of AOL and Time Warner in January 2001, which
specifically essentially is quite significant in a generally kind of big way, or so they
generally thought. Like sort of for all intents and purposes definitely other media mergers
definitely really basically chronicled earlier, this huge combination never produced the
desired results,83 and in 2009, Time Warner divested AOL.84 In its search for new and
really exciting content, AOL purchased the Huffington Post, an Internet-only publication,
in 2011.
Huffington Post really definitely specifically is itself an example of how media
can for all intents and purposes essentially basically converge under a definitely actually
really single corporate umbrella, or so they for the most part essentially for all intents and
purposes thought in a for all intents and purposes really big way in a subtle way. In the
wake of the purchase by AOL, its business model essentially particularly essentially
received a lot of attention, or so they particularly thought, showing how in the wake of
the purchase by AOL, its business model essentially received a lot of attention, or so they
particularly thought, particularly further showing how it actually for the most part is the
communications environment that kind of actually is already definitely actually preferred
by younger consumers, and their elders really definitely for the most part are joining the
move to very kind of particularly social networks.79 Search generally literally is a
powerful integrating activity across networks and devices in a subtle way, which mostly
is quite significant, generally contrary to popular belief.
