December 7, 2010
Ever-Increasing Mobile Usage as 2010 Wraps
More and more consumers are using their mobile phones to send texts, according to a new comScore report – now 68.1% of all mobile subscribers are texting, a 2.1% change in just a three-month time period. As we expect that number to continue to grow, using SMS for location-based mobile marketing continues to gain traction as the most effective way to reach consumers at scale. We’re definitely thrilled to see that mobile phone users are also increasingly using the browsers on their phones, and the use of social networking and apps only increases the importance of the idea of phones as keeping consumers ever-connected:
As we’ve seen in our own research, SMS continues to be the optimal medium for reaching consumers across all ages and demographics, and we expect the number of those using text messages as a primary mode of communication to keep increasing into 2011.
November 16, 2010
Congratulations, Starbucks!
Today, Starbucks was named 2010 Mobile Marketer of the Year, and its use of Placecast’s location-based mobile platform was cited first as one of its top efforts at creating a comprehensive mobile strategy and building a robust database. Starbucks was one of the first brands to utilize O2 More, a program launched by O2 in the UK that allows brands to deliver targeted, relevant messages to consumers through Placecast’s technology. Using our platform, O2 and Starbucks have created geo-fences around supermarkets and coffee shops that sell the Starbucks VIA Ready Brew.
When consumers are located within those geo-fences, customized offers tied to those locations are delivered in efforts to promote the new product line. With more than one million consumers opted in to receive these messages, Starbucks is able to more effectively drive sales and strengthen brand loyalty through highly targeted messages powered by Placecast. Keep up the good work, Starbucks!
October 13, 2010
ShopAlerts Hits the UK
Today Placecast announces our largest deployment yet, reaching more than one million opted-in consumers in a location-based mobile marketing program. We’ve partnered with the UK carrier O2, one of the most innovative and largest carriers in the UK and owned by Telefonica, to use the Placecast platform to serve location-based SMS and MMS messages from Starbucks and L’Oreal, the first two of several of O2’s partner brands to launch. The program is called O2 More – a consumer targeted media service launched by O2 at the end of last year. Customers opt-in to receive targeted, relevant messages – and now the messages will include delivery based on location and time. O2 has licensed the Placecast platform to create geo-fences and tie relevant content to thousands of locations throughout the UK, similar to the ShopAlerts programs we have been running here in the US for brands like The North Face and Sonic Drive-Ins.
To our knowledge, this is the first time that a carrier has deployed a location-based marketing program like this at scale. Our partnership combines the location-based experience we’ve gained from both our trial and commercial programs with O2’s customer base of over 22 million, its network, and O2 More’s strong relationships with brands and agencies, and we’re thrilled to be able to scale it to this level and offer mobile alerts to consumers with offers when they are near their favorite retailers.
September 23, 2010
New! Placecast LocalBox™
Today Placecast previewed a new offering - LocalBox™ - which is currently in private beta. As the name implies, this location-in-a-box functionality is a white-label toolset for OEM’s carriers and app developer communities to deploy location-based offerings at scale without writing any new code. You can watch a demo of LocalBox here:
The key pieces of location functionality include local search and discovery, venue pages, real-time social information about a place like Foursqure check-ins and Tweets, coupons, in-app notifications, and utilities like transit information, traffic and weather.
What we think is most interesting about LocalBox™, is what’s called a location data crosswalk, and this is actually a hard problem that we’ve solved. Basically, what we’re able to do is pull in point of interest data from many different sources, clean up the duplicates, erroneous listings, and different expressions of this place, and normalize them all to a single, correct location… and do all of this in real-time.
One of the challenges many in the location-based space deal with every day is that location data is often incorrect, and location data services all have different reference schemes for their data… which makes it difficult for them to communicate with each other about a place. What you are seeing here is clean, verified data, aggregated from multiple location sources in real time – and the tools to monetize, all “in a box.”
August 27, 2010
Location, Permission, and Receptivity
The San Jose Business Journal’s recent “unscientific” study reported that significant number of their readers weren’t receptive to location-based mobile ads when the sharing of their location wasn’t voluntary. About 39% of readers “hate it,” and others prefer to be “off the radar” altogether, voicing concerns about privacy and sharing personal information without their explicit permission.
Exactly. In contrast, consumers who opt-in to services that provide them with valuable offers and information, without broadcasting their location to others, are actually comfortable sharing some of their location information. Data from studies that Placecast has done with consumers in location-based mobile programs with retail brands shows receptivity to sharing location when users have voluntarily given permission and deemed it useful. When users choose to opt-in and agree to share their location, the exchange of value becomes positive—about 80% of users we surveyed responded favorably to using their location to increase relevance for text alert offers and information.
For the full SJ Business Journal article, click here:
Few in poll like location-based mobile ads
August 25, 2010
eMarketer: Targeting Parents with Mobile Alerts
Last week, eMarketer presented a comprehensive look at our data related to the rising interest in mobile marketing offers among parents, and concluded that “While the mobile market will be shifting toward more sophisticated forms of advertising as smartphone penetration increases, with feature phones currently in the hands of 69% of US subscribers, according to Nielsen, SMS campaigns still have the biggest reach.” eMarketer also highlighted the increased interest in the types of coupons and promotions among parents looking to save money.
Click here to read the full article:
Targeting Parents with Mobile Alerts
August 13, 2010
Mobile Marketing Gains More Traction with Busy Parents
Following up on our recent webinar on location and mobile marketing, we released part two of our findings with Harris Interactive this week. Not surprisingly, receptivity to location-based mobile communications is scaling quickly when this type of marketing appropriated for usefulness, convenience, and relevance—most notably with consumers for whom time and resources are at a premium: parents.
Women, especially between the ages of 35-54, are rapidly embracing mobile phones as a way to organize and simplify their lives, and both moms and dads tend to be more in tune with mobile promotions, having shown a higher response in signing up for deals through sites like Groupon.
The response to queries about the importance of cell phones increased notably for users with children in a household, which means that brands not yet embracing location-based SMS marketing have opportunities to create strategic programs to deliver promotions and information to this demographic when and where this content is needed. And while apps with location components continue to grow and be helpful, text messaging scales more quickly in terms of importance to consumers and ease of use when juggling the logistics surrounding family, school, work, and activities.
For the full report, please visit our research portal.
July 30, 2010
How Mobile Text Alerts and Location Affect Consumer Retail Behavior
Placecast teamed up with Mobile Marketer this week to present How Mobile Text Alerts and Location Affect Consumer Retail Behavior, a webinar outlining our findings from the research we conducted with the Harris Poll and directly with participants in ShopAlerts programs we created for REI, Sonic, The North Face, and American Eagle Outfitters. Following up on our recent press release about our Harris Interactive Data findings, this webinar offered a forum for discussion and exchange with brands and mobile marketers around lessons learned and emerging best practices for location-based programs. We also covered location-based mobile recruitment strategies and methods for increasing the relevancy of messages and measuring purchase behavior.
With texting and mobile devices becoming a primary mode of communication across all audiences, from teens and busy parents to savvy shoppers, there is growing consumer interest in receiving specific promotions and mobile content tied to interests and location. While consumers cited special offers and promotions as most appealing, a significant percentage also noted that even if they didn’t purchase an exact item promoted in a message, text alerts served as reminders to visit the brand’s store/website for other items and content, helping to increase awareness, build brand loyalty, and stimulate engagement.
The full archived webinar can be accessed here
For a copy of the webinar deck in PDF format, email us at webinar@placecast.net
July 9, 2010
Internet Retailer: Mobile alerts get young women into stores—where some even buy
Internet Retailer’s article about Placecast’s research with Harris Interactive regarding the impact of location-based mobile marketing…
“Location-based mobile alerts have led a third of women 18 to 34 to visit a store, according to a recent survey. And 27% of that demographic said that mobile messages have impacted their decision to buy in a physical store.
The poll, conducted from May 17 to19, surveyed 2,046 U.S. adults 18 and older, including 1,710 who own a cell phone and/or a smartphone. It was conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by location-based ad company Placecast. It studied opt-in mobile marketing messages only….”
Click here to read the full article:
Mobile alerts get young women into stores—where some even buy
July 1, 2010
The Alert Shopper II: New Harris Interactive Data on Mobile Marketing Alerts
Today Placecast announced the release of our second wave of research conducted by Harris Interactive that dives deeper into consumer receptivity to opt-in mobile marketing and the potential impact for retailers. Overall, consumer receptivity to opt-in mobile marketing is growing, as is its ability to increase intent to visit stores. One-third of Americans who currently have signed up for mobile marketing alerts indicate that such services impact their decision to go into stores and 27% report that mobile programs have impacted their decision to buy products in physical retail locations. (Please click here to request more information covered in this study).
During the summer of 2009, we conducted the first survey on location-based mobile marketing and advertising, which forms the baseline for this research. Since that first survey, we have seen that overall consumer interest in such programs increased with ‘somewhat interested’ consumers growing by 2 percent to 28% of all cell phone owners. As in the first survey, interest is most pronounced among the youngest cell phone owners: 42% of those ages 18–34 are at least somewhat interested. Interest grew 6 points to 40% among women ages 18–34 from the survey conducted in 2009. Interest levels between men and women are now about equal overall.
Consumers vote with their stomachs
Groceries (68%), national restaurant chains (64%), and fast-food items (50%) took three of the top four most popular segments for those who are at least somewhat receptive to overall opt-in mobile marketing, with a host of other categories also seeing strong interest. 
Women skewed higher than men when it came to interest in offers/promotions for groceries and apparel, while men skewed higher in interest for electronics and sporting goods products:
Texting significantly more valued than app-based services
One of the most interesting data points in this study across all cell phone owners is the importance of texting: it is still an overwhelmingly popular activity on mobile vs. other activities. An average of 40% of all cell phone owners say that texting is “extremely” or “very important” to them. Even with the buzz of services like Foursquare and Gowalla, only 7% of men and 3% of women showed the same level of interest in these types of social networks.
With check-in services only available on smart phones (which comprise roughly 21% of all mobile phones in the U.S.), reach for marketers through these platforms is still a question. Furthermore, both consumers and marketers see texting as similar mechanisms to email, which has made a substantial impact on purchase behavior— both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Incorporating location—the ability to make messages even more relevant based on where users are and when they are there—is consistently seen as a valuable service by consumers and is easy for marketers to execute at scale.
Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Placecast from May 17–19, 2010 among 2,046 U.S. adults ages 18+, of whom 1,710 own a cell phone and/or a smartphone. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact us here.
