The MoPR Blog

Many CMOs still not sold on social networking. Despite the cultural phenomenon that Facebook and MySpace have become [and the piles of news clippings they have garnered] in the past few years, 55 percent of top-brand CMOs say they’re “not too interested” (22 percent), or “not interested at all” (33 percent), in incorporating these and similar social networking sites into their marketing strategies, according to a new survey by Epsilon.

Overall, strategic use of social networking platforms also remains low, even among those who say they have interest in them. Only 10 percent of CMO survey respondents said they already are using these social sites in their marketing plans, the survey found.

Paradoxically, 27 percent of CMOs identified social networking and word-of-mouth - ahead of all other elements of traditional or digital marketing - as the tool they most want to introduce to their marketing mix to compensate for anticipated budget cuts, and 12 percent of marketers doing it now said it would be the “last to go” in the face of budget cutbacks.

The young, texting and culturally diverse. Adults in the US who use the text-messaging feature on their cell phone are 49 percent more likely than the average American to be between age 18-24, 14 percent more likely to be Hispanic and 24 percent more likely to be African American, according to a new survey from Scarborough Research. They also like to spend money.

The study found that El Paso, Texas is the top US city for text messaging, with 57 percent of all adult cell-phone subscribers (age 18+) there reporting they use the text messaging feature on their cell phone, compared with 48 percent of adult subscribers nationally.
Other characteristics of texters:

• They are among the country’s highest spenders on cellular services. On average, they spend $87 on their monthly cellular bill. In contrast, all cellular subscribers spend an average of $75 monthly.
• They are 46 percent more likely than all cellular subscribers to typically spend $150 or more on cellular service monthly and are 12 percent more likely to plan to switch services.
• They use a wide variety of phone features - such as picture messaging, streaming video and email -at a rate higher than that of the average cell user.
• They are avid technology shoppers and are more likely than the average cell phone subscriber to live in a household that owns - or plans to buy - a wide variety of hi-tech items, from HDTVs to MP3 players to video game systems.
• They most often shop at Best Buy for audio-video purchases: 39 percent of Texters live in a household that shopped this retailer during the past year vs. 27 percent of all consumers nationally.

“Text messaging could be largely disproportionately appealing to marketers because it delivers a young, multicultural audience,” said Gary Meo, SVP, digital media services, Scarborough Research. “Additionally, texts can provide a very locally targeted vehicle for marketers wanting to reach people in the right place at the right time, ready to make a purchase. Texting is becoming a ubiquitous cell phone function.”

We’ll take some stuffing with that text message. You most likely gorged yourself on turkey yesterday and never want to read about turkey ever again, until at least next year. But in the spirit of the season we have to mention Butterball’s new mobile campaign that features easy viewing and easy-to-find turkey preparation information. We admit, we’ve called the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line in the past in a panic with questions but with the new mobile site, we can access the information much easier, and more mobile. How? Until December 31, text the word “TURKEY” to 36888 from your mobile phone to opt in and have tips on how much turkey to buy, thawing reminders and turkey temperature guidelines from the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line experts at your fingertips. You can also sign up at Butterball.com. Messages will be distributed weekly November 3 - December 31.

NBC announced a new one -year football broadcast experiment that enables its online viewers to experience live streams from five camera angles.  Viewers get to choose the angle they like best as well as submit text message questions throughout the game, allowing them to essentially become their own broadcaster in this new interactive venture.

This is fantastic for those who have a computer as the lone source of information and entertainment or can’t access a TV. But it’s only a matter of time before networks and cable providers start offering interactive options for TV sets.

We want to be able to do that on our wide-screen HDTVs. Maybe. Someday. Until then, there are efforts being rolled out that offer a glimpse of maybe what’s to come.

In October, LIN TV Corp., a local television and digital media company, announced that its Hartford-New Haven television stations, WTNH-TV ABC Channel 8 and WCTX-TV MyTV Channel 9, will participate in Backchannelmedia’s TV-to-Internet Click Through market trial.

The market trial, set to begin during November, will test Backchannelmedia’s interactive technology with a select group of WTNH-TV and WCTX-TV viewers and advertisers. Backchannelmedia lets viewers conveniently interact with television ads and programs and bookmark interesting content and advertisers’ offers to view at their convenience.

While watching WTNH-TV and WCTX-TV, participants in the trial will click their TV remote controls on small, non-intrusive icons at the bottom of the viewer’s TV screen to “bookmark” offers on items of interest in local news and entertainment programming. The “bookmarked” content is forwarded to the viewer’s personal web site branded and framed into WTNH.com for easy viewer access and also logged at a data center, providing valuable information for broadcasters and their advertisers.

It’s not quite up to snuff with what NBC is doing online with the NFL but we think it’s a fantastic start. Or, to really beat our sports analogy to death, it’s not quite a touchdown but it’s definitely a first and 10.

Text-based mobile ads get traction. Limbo and GfK Technology released their latest joint Mobile Advertising Report (MAR) that reveals that mobile advertising awareness grew 33 percent in nine months against a backdrop of six percent growth in cell phone usage. This suggests an increased allocation of advertising dollars to mobile formats through the first nine months of the year.

According to the report, nearly four out of 10 Americans with a cell phone (104 million) recall seeing advertising on the device between July and September 2008. This is the first time the number of Americans aware of mobile advertising has exceeded 100 million in a 3-month period. The most commonly viewed ads were in text messages – 60 million consumers recalled seeing text message-based ads – an increase of 42 percent in nine months. Some of the specifics include a couple of surprises:

• 57 percent male, 43 percent female
• 52 percent are between 35-64 years of age, 28 percent are aged 50 and above and just 43 percent are under 34

Companies: An online presence works. Though getting real-time, 24/7 online access to company news and reaching responsive and efficient PR representatives still rate high on journalists’ wish-lists, reporters are increasingly sourcing stories from new forms of media as well, according to research from Bulldog Reporter and TEKgroup International, Inc.

Nearly half of journalists report visiting a corporate website or online newsroom at least once a week, while nearly 87 percent visit at least once a month.

Journalists also claimed they read corporate blogs, with nearly 75 percent following at least one blog regularly, compared with about 70 percent a year ago. More than 75 percent of journalists say they use social media to research stories, compared with about 67 percent last year. Nearly 19 percent of journalists receive five or more RSS feeds of news services, blogs, podcasts or videocasts every week, compared with only 16 percent a year ago, with about 44 percent receiving at least one regular RSS feed.

Mobile web sites not quite there. Yet. Yankee Group today released a new report that shows mobile Web sites struggle to deliver an effective experience to the millions of consumers they serve. The mobile Web site market is growing at a rate of 10 percent per month and is expected to become users’ preferred method of accessing the Web in the next 10 years. Therefore, the mobile Web platform represents a major opportunity for companies to leverage, especially in tough economic times when other market opportunities may be stagnating.

Carl Howe, a director in Yankee Group’s Anywhere Consumer research group and the report’s author, says, “Satisfying mobile users isn’t rocket science, yet our report finds that the average mobile Web site has significant room for improvement. Although most of these Web sites are functional, few provide anything specifically designed for mobile users, instead relying on reformatted desktop content. The average score of 54 shows just what these sites are: average.”

Ouch.

Museum of Mobility History makes the news. If you’ve been reading our blog for some time you know we are passionate about mobile technology and the industry. We’re also interested in knowing where our industry has been and where it’s going. We were honored when the local Fox affiliate in Portland wanted to cover our museum on its Good Day Oregon. In each segment we got to nerd out on all things mobile. Here’s one of the segments where John Sidline talks mobile games

Interested in learning more about mobile history? Visit us.