The MoPR Blog

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Mobile entertainment has reached a new level: TiVo access from your smartphone.

RIM and TiVo announced recently their partnership to produce customized TiVo services to the BlackBerry wireless platform.

Can you imagine TiVo for your phone?  Well, not yet.

For now, the service is only providing mobile access to your video content- meaning you can research which shows are coming up or schedule recordings on the go. The partnership eventually hopes to develop software applications that will revolutionize mobile access to video content. Meaning? Your BlackBerry and your TiVo will become close friends, essentially communicating to one another, and turning your BlackBerry into your wireless TiVo remote.

This is the first of many steps that will eventually bring us mobile video-on-demand straight to our phones. If we can already link the two to set up recordings and program shows, doesn’t that only mean that we are getting closer streaming TiVo recordings straight to the BlackBerry?

If all goes off without a hitch, I see this as an instant success- the wireless remote portion of it at least. The idea of being able to amend your TV line-up on-the-go is perfect for TiVo customers.  Just found out that the season premiere of House is on tonight?  Worried about forgetting?  No problem.  Simply pick up your BlackBerry and schedule away.  There really isn’t any arguing that this is a useful tool for BlackBerry and Tivo users.  However, I’m more curious about the future of their partnership is going.  If in fact they do eventually deliver TiVo programs straight to your smartphone, will people watch them?

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I think lounging on the couch and watching your favorite recorded show on an actual television is far superior to being crouched over a computer screen, and now, even a mobile phone.  No computer or mobile can compare to the viewing experience of your own living room.  But perhaps we are straying more and more from this idea?

In a recent national survey of over 2,000 teenagers from Harris Interactive and CTIA, a majority (52 percent) of teens agree that the cell phone has become the new form of entertainment. And when asked what should be included in the future generation of cell phones? One of the main additions teens wanted to see was a video player.

So does this mean we will be seeing more people glued to their tiny cell phone screens, headphones in and oblivious to the outside world?

I have to ask the question again:  What ever happened to watching television on…well…an actual television? Would you watch an entire recorded program on your cell phone?  And worse, have I become (gasp) outdated? Let us know where you stand.

These last few weeks have certainly been crazy on the stock market. The only stock that seemed to do well the last two weeks was Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB). It made us wonder how mobility stocks would fare as compared to the rest of the market. So we’re trying an experiment.

We looked at some representative companies across the wide mobility spectrum — from wireless to Wi-Fi, from mobile entertainment to network infrastructure — and we put together a portfolio buying a single shares of as many of these mobility stocks as we could purchase for $500. So yes, the “500″ in the name means dollars, not the number of stocks in our index.

On October 3, 2008 the “MoPR 500 Stock Index” was valued at $500.49. How’s it doing today? See how our mobility stock index is performing by visiting the MoPR 500 Index page here on TheMoPRBlog. You can get detailed information about all the stocks her at our MoPR 500 index pages on Herdstreet and Stockalicious.

When viral goes…viral. We’re always fascinated by a great marketing campaign – and here’s a good one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently launched a viral campaign to help defeat a viral disease, the flu.

The CDC has launched a multifaceted public awareness campaign to encourage flu vaccination. A sampling of the agency’s methods include a YouTube film, web ads, eCards and “older” media such as posters, print ads and PSAs. The CDC also recently held a webinar with popular “mommy bloggers” (or as we like to call them, the mamarazzi) to enlist them to help spread the word on the importance of vaccinations. It’s working. We’ve definitely seen an uptick in flu shot messaging.

Metrics killed the video star. Imagine if you could gauge the exact moment viewers of your YouTube video lost interest and clicked away. Now you can. YouTube has unveiled YouTube Insight that lets marketers, filmmakers, and amateurs alike analyze viewer habits. The free tool lets anyone with a YouTube account view detailed statistics about the videos that they upload to the site. According to YouTube, uploaders can see how often their videos are viewed in different geographic regions, as well as how popular they are relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time. Users can also delve deeper into the lifecycle of their videos, like how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks.

YouTube says using these metrics can help people posting videos to increase a video’s view counts and improve popularity on the site by finding their audience then concentrating on creating compelling new content that appeals to their target audiences, and finally posting these videos to YouTube on days they know these viewers are on the site.

Does this mean Obama is a Mac? Remember when the Obama campaign turned to text messaging to announce the vice president? Now they’re delving deeper into tech waters by unveiling an iPhone application. Developed by a team in Portland, Ore. (gotta have some hometown pride!) the official application from the campaign will give users the following:

• Call Friends: A great volunteering tool that lets users talk to people they already know – with contacts prioritized by key battleground states. Users can make calls and organize results all in one place.
• Call Stats: Users can see nationwide Obama ‘08 Call Friends totals and find out how their call totals compare to leading callers.
• Receive Updates: Receive the latest news and announcements via text messages or email.
• Local Events: Find local events, share by email and get maps and directions.

If you’re in the Portland area, be sure to stop by the Mission Theater and Pub next Tuesday to celebrate the launch of the official Obama ‘08 iPhone application. Drink some beer, watch the debate and download the app.

And speaking of presidential campaigns and uncharted use of technology…mobile will play a key part. As both presidential campaigns aim to get out the vote using multi-channel marketing like never before, Nielsen Mobile has unveiled some context on how mobile phones may play a role in this election season.

In addition to the text message campaign and iPhone apps, the Obama campaign has a full mobile website containing news, videos and ringtone and wallpaper downloads. Meanwhile, says Nielsen, the McCain campaign “has not been as active in mobile media, but that may make sense.”
Perhaps the McCain campaign “knows that, in 2008, mobile is a more effective channel for reaching Democrats than Republicans.”

Nielsen Mobile reports that, as of Q2 2008, mobile media was slightly more popular with Democrats than Republicans. Here are the stats:

• Overall, 62% of Democrats are mobile data users who use one or more data service on their mobile phone (compared to 55% of Republicans)
• Democrats are more likely than Republicans to use text messaging (53 percent compared to 46 percent)
• Democrats are more likely to use picture messaging and MMS (27 percent compared to 21 percent)
• Democrats are more likely to use mobile Internet, as well (17 percent compared to 13 percent)

These variations, however small, indicate that advertising across mobile channels tends to be more efficient at reaching Democrats than Republicans.

That’s not to say that conservative voters are without a place in mobile media. According to Nielsen, The Drudge Report, a “news site many consider to be conservative-leaning, attracted a mobile Internet audience of 567,000 unique users per month, as of July 2008.”

How important is social media to businesses? Very, say customers. If you thought that social media was some trendy, hip teen trend, you’re wrong. New research from Cone claims that an overwhelming majority (93%) of online Americans say companies should have a social-media presence, and 85% believe these companies also should be interacting with consumers through social media.

Asked about specific types of interactions, respondents said:

• Companies should use social networks to solve their problems (43%).
• Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%) via social media.
• Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%) through social media.
• Companies should market to consumers (25%) using social media.
• One-third of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (age 18-34) believe that companies should actively market to them via social networks.

Interesting to us is that the wealthiest households (household income of $75K+) believe that companies should seek to reach them via social media.

We have [yet another] winner! Remember that scene in It’s a Wonderful Life when it’s explained that every time a bell rings an angel earns their wings? Well, at MoPR, every time one of our clients wins an award, we update our email signatures. And lately, we’ve been doing a lot of updating!

Congratulations are in order for Mobility PR client Hovr, the first place winner for “Mobile Infotainment & Community” at the Mobile Content 2008 awards. And three of our Canadian clients, Cascada Mobile, Talkster and Viigo all won Red Herring’s Top 50 award that celebrates the most innovative and promising private technology companies in Canada. Congratulations to our wonderful clients.