This is a live blogging presentation of the Mobile & Location Marketing Panel consisting of (be sure to refresh for live updates):

It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood – Targeting Consumers Through Local Weather

Liz Wilson Thorington (@Lizthorington)  is a Vice President at The Weather Channel Companies.

Sells advertising on the digital network for The Weather Channel.

She actually took weather for granted before she started at The Weather Channel. In actuality, it not only affects our transportation but our buying decisions as well.

Weather is the most talked about topic in the world!! – 105K tweets each day. (more than Justin Beiber). 1 billion touch points a month from the public.

Global Mobile Leader
  • 40 different languages.
  • 160 million users.
  • 18 new mobile products in the last year alone.
Massively Powerful Partnerships have been formed over the years with companies like Amazon & Microsoft.
#1 Smartphone usage is to access content/information. Within that population of smartphone users the #1 reason that they access to content is to check the weather at a whopping 47%. This is made extremely easy with the wealth of apps which number upwards of 1.2 million to choose from. The smartphone is the #1 used mobile device that may be taken up by tablet use in the near future.
  • 55 million video viewers in 2012
  • 2.4 BILLION mobile commerce in 2012
    • expect to grow that number 10x by 2015
The Mobile Revolution
  •  Apps like Uber
  • 1 tablet is sold every 3 seconds
Local implications:
The weather channel alone delivers data to over 40,000 zip codes in the U.S alone. The impressions are completely transparent as well, which is well received by both companies and end-users.
This phenomenon is amplified by Hyper-Local Targeting which The Weather Channel uses more than any other entity. This strategy brings users pinpointed information in real-time. This system can be used to target users with pertinent ads at the optimal exact time of relevancy. Clothing stores are currently using this system to target ads based on weather fluctuations depending on a need.
Mobile marketing is far from easy and gets exponentially harder when used on a local level. There are so many platforms and little regulation.
Weather matters and it affects everyone.

Understanding the Value (and Differences) of Mobile Customers

Sharon Knitter (@sknitter) is the Senior Director of Mobile at Cars.com.

Cars.com actually does not sell cars! The site is owned by 5 different newspaper companies. Mobile is absolutely crucial to the Auto space even though auto shoppers are surprised by the reliance on mobile really is.

Buying a car is the second largest investment a person will make in their life.

The vast majority of mobile users in the auto space are while they are on the lot. Although this is the case only roughly 10% actually use a smartphone when in the car buying process. This is dominated by the laptop/computer realm.

The mobile realm is a constantly evolving process with many moving parts and stressing integration into your mobile strategy. I believe the phrase mobile will almost disappear and make way for large screen or small screen verbiage, meaning the definition of “mobile” is constantly evolving.

There is no seasonal fluctuations in car buying when using a tablet or iPhone app, there is consistent growth. While desktop/laptop use still maintains the normal car buying fluctuations. Mobile devices, regarding cars.com, are not cannibalizing the traffic that was originally brought in by desktops, there are in fact supplementing the traffic.

Mobile Strategy

3 years from now….how is mobile going to be able to incorporate itself into the buying process? Companies will be able to see how informed you are as soon as you step onto the car lot.  They will also be able to track walk-in traffic and address local needs regarding various brands. You have to be willing

Enhancing the user experience within your device. This could mean one on one video talks with dealers or virtual test drives with real-time spec updates.

 

 The Mobile Playbook: The Busy Executive’s Guide to Winning with Mobile

David Perry (@googlemobile) is the Business Development Executive of Software & Services at Google.

18% of B2B searches are from mobile devices.

The Top 5 Questions Being Asked About Mobile Strategies

1) How does mobile change our value proposition?

Serving the Mobile Customer – which they have on them about 24 hours a day. i.e – Chase Bank – users can use smartphones to take pictures of checks to deposit via mobile

Delta – Passengers scan their smartphones as they board. Streamlines the boarding process while saving A LOT of time when boarding planes.

2) How Does mobile impact our virtual destination?

Mobile optimized website – 57% will not recommend a business with a non-mobile optimized site. with that being said there is still 70% of business websites that are not optimized for mobile use.

There is a big impact on users with a seasonally dynamic website.

Branded mobile applications are becoming increasingly important – 91% of fortune 500 companies have a branded mobile app to better interact with loyal customers.

  • offer entertainment in your usability
  • design your apps for the largest platform
  • promote your app

3) Does your team have a mobile champion?

Companies need a mobile champion within their team.

4) How should our marketing adapt to mobile?

Desktop vs. mobile experiences widely varies when interacting with advertisers. A very successful company will know how to properly utilize both strategies.

One example is T-Mobile which has 13% of all its traffic through mobile ads. While Graninger added a 28% CTR with their mobile ads

Over the past 5 years, it is blatantly obvious that mobile is vastly superior when promoting both company and personal branding. There is a 48% lift in campaign recall when a mobile device is coupled with television ads.

5)How can we connect with our tablet users?

Tablet users tend to have higher incomes and engage on a higher basis. The user experience is also a fair amount longer when using a tablet vs. a smartphone. As mentioned before how mobile is used for branding, but Tablets are seeing an even better output when used for branding.

Mobile is now creating whole new conversion paths. The interactions are now being used over multiple devices, making it extremely difficult for marketers to keep track of where to devote their time.

Conclusion: Businesses that fully understand this paradigm shift will be successful in the near future.

Providing Context to 1:1 Marketing

Eric Newman (@digbymobile) is the VP of Products & Marketing at the mobile platform software company, Digby.

Rethinking In-Store Engagement.

Mobile’s Impact goes well beyond mCommerce. Brick and Mortal retail still far outweigh eCommerce. This gap is slimming from the various ways that mobile users are interacting with products on their mobile devices while within the actual retail store. This is causing retailers to lose a lot of In-Store sales due to phenomena like showrooming with your smartphone.

In the grand scheme of things, In-Store mobile engagement is still pretty weak. What brands really need to know is what is going through the heads of their potential customers while in the store.  The consumers want to be marketed to in a very real-time way.  They want contextual engagement.

Enhancing the in-store customer engagement must be done on the store level. Great ways to go about doing this is using mobile technology and geo-locational systems to engage the consumer directly. This could be sending real-time offers or catering to VIP customers.

This can only be done with proper location Awareness technology. To use these systems properly you must meet these 4 needs.

  • Accuracy
  • Battery Usage
  • Continuity
  • Privacy
  •  You also need to Manage locations at scale.
  • Integrate real-time location context into traditional marketing programs.
  • Mapping all this into the marketing process.

All of the data being collected that regard the consumer’s experience while in the store can help retailers optimize how they engage with the individual. Data that includes: the amount of money spent, the time spent within a store, and when the store is at its busiest…