Survey: 88 Percent of M...

A new survey conducted recently by AT&T shows that nearly 90% of marketers at large companies in the U.S. plan to increase spending on mobile marketing initiatives as we head into 2012. Conducted during September, the survey included 501 marketers at U.S. companies with 1,000 employees or more.  While a majority of those surveyed indicated they planned on increasing mobile spend in 2012, it looks like mobile barcodes were the most popular mobile campaign type in terms of interest.  A full 66% of respondents in the survey agreed that mobile barcodes will “drive the most innovation in 2012.” Looking at other mobile campaigns of interest by survey respondents, mobile apps took the top spot (cited by 43% of respondents); followed by mobile barcodes (41%); banner ads on mobile devices (40%); mobile websites (35%); and SMS messaging (34%).  Survey’s like this reinforce the demand for mobile marketing on behalf of nearly any  organization and show that adoption of mobile continues to rise. At mobileStorm we understand that brands want to start reaching their audiences via mobile devices, but we also understand that many brands don’t know where to start.  That’s why we’ve taken a service-approach to the art of mobile marketing where we work with each and every client to take a hard look at their business, what they’re trying to accomplish, and how mobile can help.

Cost-Per-Action Mobile ...

Moolah Media , a recently launched mobile ad network that uses a cost-per-action and cost-per-lead model, is rolling out a new performance optimized ad units for advertisers and publishers with the launch of its new SmartMoolah layer. The network launched last year allowing advertisers to drive inbound calls directly to a call center, collect signups and registration leads, while also tracking conversions. Moolah promises higher payouts and 100 percent fill rates for publishers, and ads can be placed within apps, on the mobile web or within text messages. Earlier this year, the startup added a number of new ad formats for display or in-app advertising. Currently, Moolah reaches 20 million users and serves a billion ad impressions in the U.S. per month on its network. The newest ad unit, which is being unveiled today, aims to measure consumer actions beyond the click, subsequently, helping serve more relevant ads for each consumer. The startup compared the relevance technology to a Pandora-like experience for the consumer. Unlike traditional cost-per-impression, cost-per-click, or cost-per-download advertising, SmartMoolah measures actions after the click. SmartMoolah ads are mobile display units measured on a cost-per-action basis. Actions include download, form submit, click-to-call, and interactive SMS. Actions that occur after a click show publishers when a consumer makes a purchase, clicks on content, or shares the experience with others. Based on a consumer’s actions, Moolah can serve up more relevant ads to that consumer in the future. SmartMoolah ads can be deployed in Android and iOS mobile apps through the company’s SDKs, and within mobile websites using standards-based APIs. The startup says that a campaign optimized by SmartMoolah ads performs eight times better than a campaign that is not targeted, resulting in $0.96 eCPMs over just $0.12. SmartMoolah ads also promise to double click-through rates.

Placecast Brings Locati...

Placecast’s ShopAlerts service , which delivers retailer and merchant offers and discounts to consumers via their mobile phones, is announcing new functionality today—integration with mobile smartphone apps. As we’ve written in the past, ShopAlerts is a white-label geofencing platform for businesses that want to deliver geo-triggered offers to their customers on their mobile phones. Consumers can opt-in to receiving text messages in a variety of ways—at the store, online, via text-message, mobile websites or on Facebook. Geofences are virtual areas set around physical locations; when an opted-in consumer is inside a geofenced area, she receives a message from a business, including a discount, notice of a sale, directions to a store or other content. With the new feature, retailers deploying mobile apps can allow consumers to receive a location-based message from the retailer’s nearest store or other relevant location, without the app being open Just as ShopAlerts programs work on any phone, this new feature works on any smartphone platform. After a retailer integrates with ShopAlerts, customers (who are opted into receiving alerts) will receive location-based push notifications when they are in a geofenced area. Retailers can also leverage preferences expressed by the consumer, such as loyalty or past purchase data to increase the relevance of the message or deal. Time of day and weather can also be taken into account to create added relevance, and brands could also enable a location-based notification when a specific product is available at a nearby store. Placecast says that it will work directly with retailers to integrate ShopAlerts into their apps, helping them to design a program and create a messaging strategy, select the number and size of geofences and activate locations. The integration with retailer smartphone apps makes a lot of sense for Placecast. With the growth in online to offline commerce, Placecast is giving retailers another way to target consumers and offer relevant deals and information. The goal is to bring the consumer into the store, and messages sent via a smartphone app can help accomplish this. Placecast is already being used by a number of high profile brands such as The North Face , and even AT&T.

Subway Readies Global M...

Will launch transactional mobile websites and applications worldwide.

Subway Readies Global M...

Will launch transactional mobile websites and applications worldwide.