Mobile Texting Sent Millions in Charitable Donations For Haiti - Can It Also Sell Music?

Image Attribute: NYT

This was the byline to a recent article in Billboard by Antony Bruno about the challenges of delivering digital content to your phone. Only two days after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake leveled the capital city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the American Red Cross raised $7 million via text messaging from more than 700,000 wireless customers. Donations poured in from every wireless network, including ATT, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.

For years, analysts have been waiting for mobile commerce to take off only to see it stumble. Red Cross' relief efforts in Haiti signaled a turning point in the history of mobile commerce. "It was a major validation about the possibilities of text and mobile commerce and what we're going to see in the future," says Gartner analyst Jeff Roster. Consumers have been slowly warming to the idea of zapping money through the air for years, from mobile banking to online shopping to purchasing mobile apps themselves. In fact, some analysts say that this year will be the year of the start of a mobile commerce tidal wave. Gartner predicts mobile app revenue will hit $6.7 billion this year, up from $4.2 billion last year, and the trend will continue to almost $30 billion in 2013.

Last year, a rare Lamborghini and a $150,000 boat were sold over eBay's iPhone app. "There's no question this is the year of social media and m-commerce for retail," Roster says. In Vienna, a majority of people pay car parking fees using their mobile phones. Ten minutes before your allotted time is about to expire, you'll get a text alert-and the option to extend parking minutes. "This isn't location-based services; it's anti-location-based services,“ says Diarmuid Mallon, product marketing manager at Sybase 365 "You pay for your car parking without being near your car."

We at Adva Mobile also see a turning point this year for mobile commerce. We’ve already powered show tickets and merchandise transactions, the artist and fans feedback was very positive. Further, we are working diligently to create a mobile-optimized content sales mechanism. The key guidelines for our solution is ease of payment, secure content delivery and content formatting optimal to all mobile phones.

Forecasts suggests that 70% of US mobile subscribers are interested in using their phone to make a purchase in 2010. It’s time for you to benefit from it!

Check Out the New Raffles Feature!

With this exciting participatory feature artists have not only been gaining new fans joining their mobile club (fans telling their friends, your tweets etc.) but also renewed energy with their existing fans. 50% fan participation or growth in your fan base is not above the average performance we've seen in recent raffles.

Artists have mostly been setting up show tickets as the raffle prize. However, as far as prizes go, let your imagination run about what’s cool for your fans to win. You can set up several types of prizes in any one raffle, and for each type, you can raffle as many as you like.

Scheduling a raffle is a breeze: head over to the Artist Portal, and find the raffles setup page under ‘your mobile web page’ menu item. The form is straight forward. You can take advantage of another feature that allows you to enter instructions to your fans who won, for example “show this page at the will-call booth and you will get your tickets”, or, “Contact me at xyz@xyz.com to claim your prize” etc. We recommend that you then schedule a fan blast to invite your fans to participate in the raffle, when it is scheduled to begin.

When the raffle ends, we draw the prizes. We tell the fans who participated to check on the mobile website if they won. For those who won, we will present them with their prize and a unique ID, so they can claim the prize. They will also see your message for winning fans that we described earlier. Finally, we will SMS them with that information, for their records.

Raffles are a popular way to engage your fans. Be sure to take advantage of this new mobile feature as part of your marketing effort. Good luck!

Mobile is to internet like TV is to radio

This post is based on an article by Allan Moore, bestselling author and the CEO of SMLXL.

Image Attribute: BBC

Mobile is to internet like TV is to radio. Mobile is as much superior to the internet, as TV is to radio. Today at 2.7 billion mobile phone users, there are three times as many mobile phones as personal computers (and over a quarter of all internet access is already from mobile phones). There are nearly twice as many mobile phones as TV sets. Twice as many people use messaging on a phone (SMS text messaging) as use e-mail on the web. In this article, (including key quotes from Alan Moore's article with the original headline) we'll discuss what makes mobile so effective channel to your audience, and why you should include it in your marketing plan.

I often hear various internet experts talk about how limiting the mobile phone is for internet consumption. That there are problems with scrolling, and the keypad entry is cumbersome, and we lack a mouse on the phone. This is as stupid as the TV experts. We should NOT try to replicate the existing internet onto the mobile. Mobile is not a "small internet", it is a NEW mass media. As different from the internet as TV is from radio. We can do so much MORE on the phone that cannot be done on the internet.

Allan highlights 5 unique elements that distinguish Mobile: Personal, The first always-on mass media, the first always-carried mass media, the first mass media with a built-in payment mechanism and uniquely offers the media audience the input tool, at the point of creative impulse.

Our service enables you to build your community and reach your fans on a recurring basis with rich-media, engaging experiences we power. Take advantage of the unique ability to engage your fans in the right context. Get started now.

Mobile Marketing Grows, But Targeting Necessary (Reblogged)

We're sharing with you an insightful post by Bruce Houghton today on Hypebot. Smart targeting your fans is key to your success with keeping them engaged. It's even more critical on mobile than anywhere else, as your mobile alerts to your fans can be highly disruptive to them. Your disruption would be welcome if you're telling them news that's relevant to them, but you'd turn off your NY fans by repeatedly telling them about new gigs in Boston.

Adva Mobile's free Mobile Fan Club service provides tools not only to communicate with your fans, but also to collect information about them, so you can effectively target them in subsequent campaigns and promotions. We invite you to check out our Mobile Fan Club service, specifically the reporting portal and the fan blast tools.

Here's the original article, enjoy reading!

Mobile ad spending will grow 27% to $2.1 billion in 2010, according to the Mobile Marketing Association. But while the audience for mobile marketing is growing, it's still relatively small and confined to a limited segment of the market.

Marketers who employ mobile marketing to the wrong group risk turning them off according to an analysis of BIGresearch’s Simultaneous Media Usage Survey of over 22,000. Those who like mobile marketing tend to be young men. They are cell phone-centered and more likely to use social media. Those who don’t like mobile marketing tend to be slightly older women who are not as centered around their cell phone or social media.

Key Characteristics of Mobile Marketing Users and Non-Users:

                                                  Mobile Marketing        Mobile Marketing
                                                              Users                   Non-Users
Men                                                        57.9%                   46.2%     
Women                                                   42.1%                   53.8%           
Average Age                                            39.2                    45.9            
Online search triggered by cell                  17.4%                   2.4%
Communicate about search via cell            41.3%                   26.3%
Download music/video to cell phone           33.3%                   14.6%
Regularly Use Facebook                           37.9%                   27.8%
Regularly Use MySpace                           23.2%                   9.8%
Regularly Use Twitter                               13.1%                   3.5%

Hennessey Tour In-Venue fan opt-ins: 15%

From Mobile Marketer:
Cognac maker Hennessy integrated various mobile initiatives into its Hennessey Artistry music campaign to engage consumers and build a loyal community of fans.
“We were very pleased with the Hennessy Artistry experience as a whole and even more so with the way we were able to use and engage consumers via their mobile devices,” said Billy Paretti, vice president of experiential marketing at Moet Hennessy, New York. “We not only used mobile to engage our consumers pre-event but also activated contests and rewarded consumers during the actual shows.

Consumers could view, and download exclusive backstage and concert footage of historic collaboration performances by The Roots, Common, Boyz II Men, Big Daddy Kane and Q-tip directly to their mobile phones.

"The mobile campaign was core to the luxury brand’s desire to highlight and communicate its stronghold on the art of blending music, art, fashion, and event experiences"

The key?
...the SMS mobile call to action (text HENNESSEY to 56102), which was highlighted in print ads, point of sale collateral, a major social media blogging effort, as well as opting-in via the online widget which was placed on all the partner radio station Web sites in Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston and New York.

You can do it too
Your Mobile Fan Club offers your fans much more than just alerts: They can get content for their phones, tweet about you, join raffles and votes, buy stuff from you and much much more.
What do you need to do? promote, promote, promote your keyword+shortcode. Shout out during your gig, on your website, Facebook, MySpace, posters and anywhere else.

Your fans will thank you!

Reblogged: Music Festivals Offer Unique Marketing Opportunity

How to get part of that crowd to join your team.

"One of the biggest problems for every act is building your base from 0-5000. And it used to be, you'd be all alone (or have to spend an arm and a leg) to build a following.

But think about this -- a festival isn't just another gig, it's a marketing opportunity, a huge vehicle you can use to build your following. As festival season approaches, get your strategy together to figure out how to get part of that crowd to join your team."

Check out this insightful post from Scott Perry. With his great free email newsletter and web site, the New Music Tipsheet keeps the industry informed of new releases as well as commenting on trends and sharing industry news.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Joining Music Hack Day Boston

It's very exciting that big names in the music + technology space are getting together this weekend for a Music Hack Day in Boston.
We'll be there, looking forward to see you and talk about what you're doing and Mobile Fan Clubs.

Thanks to the organizers of this great event, we're excited to join!