From Print to Phone to Web. And a Sale?

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
Published: January 10, 2010

Print may be a flat medium, but that has not stopped magazine publishers from trying to add dimension to their pages. For at least a decade, they have been experimenting with bar codes and icons that could take readers to Web sites, trying to add a bit of Internetlike interactivity to their pages.

But the average consumer did not own a bar-code reader — until now. With the sudden ubiquity of smartphones, which have apps that can read bar codes, and cameraphones, which can easily snap pictures of icons, magazines like Esquire and InStyle are adding interactive graphics to their articles, while Entertainment Weekly and Star are including them in ads.

Meanwhile, publishers using text-messaging programs to try to enliven their pages are packing information into the messages and using reader responses to calibrate their coverage.

The idea is not new. Back in 2000, a company called Digital:Convergence introduced a product called the :CueCat. The premise was advanced, but simple. Pages could be printed with bar codes, which readers could scan, and then be connected to specific Internet sites. That would help them find the shirt being advertised, or specs on the Ford truck they liked.

But the technology was clunky. Publications using the :CueCat, including Forbes and Wired, had to mail a hand-held scanner and a CD-Rom with :CueCat software to their subscribers. The subscribers had to install the software, then attach the device to their computer and wave it over the printed bar codes. It wasn’t portable or easy, and, in most cases, it was more trouble than doing a search or typing in a lengthy Web address. That’s a major reason the :CueCat disappeared….

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Engage: Gen Y

By Peter Dunn Friday, December 18, 2009

The Five-Second Brand

Gen Y is said to have the attention span of a gnat. Having never studied the attentiveness of gnats, let’s all agree that this means that Gen Y is easily distracted. They (we) are distracted away from your brand, and they (we) are distracted towards your brand. But how can you make sure that your brand is flypaper and your followers are flies?

The solution: a five-second brand. For example, the average Gen Yer lives life buried in a mobile device. Therefore, your five-second brand must resonate on this emerging platform. Can your message be conveyed across a Droid or iPhone? If you are trying to reach Gen Y, then it better. Gen Y is the generation that never had to deal with a dial-up connection; they aren’t going to tolerate a brand that takes 30 seconds to explain. The five-second brand is all about meeting your audience half-way.

So, how do you make your brand shine in just five seconds? Here are three sure-fire ways to get your brand noticed by Gen Y in that time frame.

1.Authentic There is no more annoying and cliché concept in marketing than authenticity. However, it’s still a misunderstood concept that people misplay. Authenticity has nothing to do with test groups or tracking. Authenticity is like having 11 toes. You either have it, or you don’t. Authenticity is your ability to let your brand’s true personality shine through the messaging.

2.Inviting Your audience needs to feel like they can interact with your brand. Gen Y hates being told what to do. A brand that offers open dialogue is a brand that isn’t easily dismissed by a distracted Gen Yer. I’m not talking about the suggestion box mentality either. Gen Y expects to see their name alongside of your brand. You need to go far enough to literally include members of your audience in your brand.

3.Casual The business suit of Gen Y is jeans. Even formal industries see the importance of casualness when targeting Gen Y. The funny thing is that Gen Y doesn’t find their jeans to be casual. It’s just how they are, which brings us back to authenticity.

Look deep within your brand and try to objectively evaluate its position in your marketing. You can’t fake these things, but you can dig deep and discover the true voice of your brand. Can you get the job in five seconds? If not, then you have a lot of work to do.

Peter Dunn is the Gen Y financial expert who created the successful financial education programs Green Candy and 60 Days to Change. His book, “60 Days to Change: A Day by Day Guide to Changing Your Financial Life in Just 60 Days,” will be published in the fall of 2009. Peter appears regularly on Fox Business News and Studio B with Shepard Smith. He is also the host of the popular radio show “Skills Your Dad Never Taught You” on News Talk 1430 (WXNT). Peter blogs regularly at www.petetheplanner.com/blog. Email him or follow him on Twitter. Reach him here.

Squeezing Web Sites Onto Cellphones

Businesses Try to Shift Online Communities, Consumer Forums to Places Tailored for Wireless Users

DECEMBER 2, 2009
By ROGER CHENG

When a group of engineers at National Instruments Corp. modified a 1988 Oldsmobile so it could be controlled by an iPhone, the company was quick to share the project on its online forum for customers.

A spouse “might not care about it, but our community eats it up,” said Deidre Walsh, community and social media manager for National Instruments, a supplier of automation and computer measurement tools.

The Austin, Texas, company has a fostered dedicated online group of 125,000 engineers and scientists with do-it-yourself projects. Its strategy illustrates how companies have increasingly turned to Web communities to build their brand, address customer service problems and unveil new products.

But as people spend more time on their cellphones, many companies are considering taking their message boards, user forums and blogs to mobile devices. National Instruments is considering ways to build a mobile site, Ms. Walsh says but has to resolve issues such as how users can share programming code, which are large files.

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Modavox Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Yahoo! Inc.

Modavox Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Yahoo! Inc.

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Modavox, Inc. (OTCBB:MDVX), Internet broadcasting pioneer and holder of several patented technologies, yesterday filed a Complaint in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, asserting two Causes of Action against Yahoo! for Patent Infringement related to Modavox-owned United States Patent No. 6,594,691 (“Method and System for Adding Function to a Web Page”) and United States Patent No. 7,269,636 (“Method and Code Module For Adding Function to a Web Page”). Modavox’s Complaint specifically asserts that Yahoo! has operated a business for profit that uses Modavox’s technology claimed and described in the ‘691 and ‘636 Patents without having sought or received Modavox’s authorization to use its patented technology. Read the rest of this entry »

Springer Mountain Farms uses 2D bar codes for mobile rebates, giving

By Chris Harnick
November 3, 2009

Springer Mountain Farms is using 2D bar codes to promote The National Breast Cancer Foundation on its packaged chicken products.

At the point of sale, consumers are given the option of depositing the rebate into an electronic account or donating the funds directly to The National Breast Cancer Foundation. Springer Mountain Farms tapped Inmar and Augme Mobile to enable the consumer-directed charity promotion “Scan to Save a Life.”

“The mobile device is our most important tool for direct communications with our consumers, offering important information they want, purchase rewards and more – all at the point of sale,” said Dale Faunce, marketing manager at Springer Mountain Farms, Baldwin, GA. “No other tool allows this type of communication at the time they need it, in an easy-to-use method.

“With mobile, we are not only developing ways to keep them up to date, we also give them a way to support a charitable cause by including an option to convert their purchase reward to a donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation,” he said. “The whole process keeps the consumer engaged, and it’s easy on my end too.”

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Smart Phone Smart Marketing

Smart Phone Smart Marketing

In an increasingly mobile world, the smartphone has become a lifestylechanging device.

The smartphone is the first device to provide instant access to the internet and online information resources wherever consumers go. Time-starved consumers say that smartphones improve their quality of life by allowing them to multitask on-the-move.

For marketers, this creates a new opportunity to maintain contact with consumers throughout the day and influence purchase decisions in ways never before possible.

Universal Mccann and AOL partnered with Questus, a leading interactive marketing and research firm, to conduct an extensive multi-phase research project examining how smartphones are influencing American lifestyles and media consumption. This research report analyzes the intersection between consumer media usage, lifestyle and purchase preferences.

For More Information, Download the full PDF here

The State of the Industry: Mobile Advertising

A Survey of Over 100 Major Brands & Advertisers on Performance & Future Spend.

Executive Summary

Millennial Media collaborated with DM2Events.com in an in-depth exploration of attitudes and spending plans of leading marketers and publishers to help us offer benchmarks for attendees at our Sept. 17th digiday:MOBILE conference. To complete, “The State of the Industry”, we surveyed 100 leading agencies to compile an in-depth analysis of mobile advertising performance and forecasts of future spending. As the mobile advertising industry continues to evolve, this data provides a critical view on where the industry stands today: where the industry, is and is not, exceeding advertiser’s expectations and why advertisers are planning to buy mobile in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

Modavox Files Motion for Sanctions for Spoliation of Evidence and Evasive…

Modavox Files Motion for Sanctions for Spoliation of Evidence and Evasive Disclosure Practices in Tacoda Patent Infringement Case

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Modavox, Inc. (OTCBB:MDVX), Internet broadcasting pioneer and holder of several patented technologies, today announced that on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, it filed a Motion for Sanctions for Spoliation of Evidence and Evasive Disclosure Practices in the U.S. District Court of New York (Southern District) pertaining to the patent infringement lawsuit filed by Modavox against Tacoda on August 9, 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

Paperless Promotion Concept Brings Convenience to Charitable Giving

Paperless Promotion Concept Brings Convenience to Charitable Giving

Inmar Partnership with Modavox’s Augme Mobile Enables InnovativeMobile Campaign for Breast Cancer Contributions

Oct. 29, 2009 (Business Wire) — Inmar, the nation’s leading promotions transaction settlement provider, today announced that its collaboration with mobile platform provider, Augme Mobile – a division of Modavox, Inc., now enables consumer-directed rebate charity promotions. Read the rest of this entry »

Kellogg, Trident, Tyson, Kimberly-Clark offer mobile coupons

By Dan Butcher
October 23, 2009

ConAgra’s Pam cooking spray, Kellogg’s Special K, Cadbury Adams’ Trident gum, Tyson Foods, Sara Lee Corp.’s Jimmy Dean Foods and Kimberly-Clark’s Huggies and Kotex brands are now offering consumers mobile access to coupons.

The brands are tapping News Corp.’s News America Marketing and its SmartSource coupons platform, which will be going mobile on Oct. 25, the day that the SmartSource Magazine coupon insert will be carrying a message to 68 million households that they can get additional coupons by texting the keyword COUPONS to the short code 87415. Augme Mobile is powering the mobile aspects of the program.

“There isn’t enough reach in the digital world of coupons to satisfy the coupon companies, which are looking for other ways to reach consumers,” said Henri Lellouche, senior vice president at iGroup, the interactive marketing division of News America Marketing, New York. “We’re well into the Internet in terms of Web-based delivery, and now we’re looking at mobile.

“Our goal right now is to try to get digital coupons to critical mass, and mobile is a component of a larger plan for News America Marketing to provide a mass-reach digital vehicle,” he said. “This is a reach play—we’re trying to get more reach by looking for new consumers.

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