Usually, the Super Bowl features some cool ads, some interesting new takes on long-standing brands – oh, and right, a football game. But this year, I think we saw a big step towards mobile and digital integration with traditional TV advertising – and, depending on the results, it’s a shift that could make brand extension onto the second screen most folks have in their pockets a more permanent part of the advertising landscape.

The Giants won the game, but we think mobile won the event. Here’s why: Read More »

It’s officially 2012, and, again this year, we’re hearing “2012 is the year of mobile commerce“. We heard it in 2011 too. Did we hear it in 2010? Yep. In fact, as far back as 2007, pundits and observers have been prophesizing that the days of whipping out our phones to pay for all sorts of retail sundries are just around the corner.

First, I think it’s probably important to get some definitions right. As the Forbes link above says, I think it’s fair to say that mobile-enabled e-commerce does not equal mobile commerce, at least strictly speaking. When you buy a book from Amazon on your iPad, you’re not engaging in mobile commerce per se – you’re using an e-commerce portal adapted for your mobile device. “Mobile commerce” is probably best described as shopping that takes advantage of unique properties of mobile devices.

So, why doesn’t it ever seem to happen – and when it does, why does the development in the space seem to happen so slowly? Read More »

If previous “ages” of marketing could be described as eras of Big Brands, or Madison Avenue, this age of marketing can probably just as well be described as the era of New Channels – a time when one of Marketing’s principal jobs is to navigate new communications technologies and the shifting consumer behavior that results. It’s something that lies at the heart of what marketers tell us about agility – the subject of this year’s B2C research – marketers and their organizations need to be prepared for what’s next at all times.

It’s the organizational part that’s more difficult, though – people naturally get stuck in routines, are averse to change, and executives are loath to take risks on projects that have uncertain chances of success. We’ve collected our best practices in getting organizations to adapt in our Make the Case to Invest in Social Media challenge center, and most of the lessons there hold true for channels like mobile, as well.

With that in mind, we also thought we’d take a second look at an interview we did a few years back with Susan Lavington, former SVP of Marketing at USA Today. She was at USA Today during the heyday of social adaption, and led that paper – a progressive one, by print journalism standards – through a difficult transition to social.

MLC members can read the interview in its entirety.

Banks and other financial companies have long-since taken notice: having a mobile presence is a giant boost to customer satisfaction and retention. How giant? Well, to grab a few anecdotes from a study that our sister program TowerGroup did for Accenture, banks experienced returns of 300% and 270% on their mobile investments, and one European bank experienced annual customer growth rate of 60%, partially due to expanded mobile capabilities. The study that TowerGroup did analyzed 10 banks seen as leaders in the mobile space – notably, only a few were American banks – and, in each, mobile delivered significant returns.

Part of this strikes me as catch-up growth: for awhile, there were significant differences in the mobile offerings between various competing banks, here in the US. Just about any bank of size offers a few standard mobile features: balance check, transfers between same-bank accounts, bill pay – features that more or less mirror the offerings from online banking platforms. Now that the major players in the market have more or less adapted similar mobile platforms, I’d expect that the explosive returns TowerGroup found might not be as common as they once were.

To continue driving results and returns from mobile banking, then, banks are going to have to start getting innovative. I think that answering these two questions are a great place to start: Read More »

A few years ago, marketing pundits were predicting the slow death of brick-and-mortar. After all, when you can buy anything you need on Amazon, what’s the point of braving the crowds for lower-value goods? But as mobile ascends in popularity, retailers are finding that the optimal experience for consumers involves the touch-and-feel experience of the brick-and-mortar store, combined with the high information density of the computer – and they’re optimizing their customer-facing technology efforts to take advantage.

This year, a number of brands released or updated their apps to better fit into the brick-and-mortar retail experience. Here are some of our favorites: Read More »

Earlier this year Wells Fargo announced its new presence in Manhattan through a ‘flash mob’, recorded for posterity on YouTube:

Read More »

In its battle with online sellers, the brick-and-mortar retail industry has refined its value proposition, offering customers more of a reason to come to the store. A key part of enabling this changed value prop is technology, so we decided to look at a few new shopping technologies that are making a splash among retailers: Read More »

Editor’s note: We put this up (and in our member newsletter) prior to last night’s news that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had passed away. We’ll have thoughts on his legacy later this week.

The following is a guest post from Robert van Alstyne, a media and technology analyst with our sister program, Iconoculture.

It’s a testament to technology’s ascendant role in pop culture that today’s Apple press conference had more consumer buzz than any new TV show this fall season. With media-saturated consumers’ tastes increasingly splintered, gadget lust is now one of the last common denominators uniting the masses.

Heading into today’s press conference, professional pundits and John Q. Public speculated wildly, debating what new treats Apple would unveil. Would we get an iPhone 5 or just a new iPhone 4? Prior to the event, rumors of a slimmer, 3X-faster iPhone 5 reached a crescendo. By the time new Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the stage this morning, online chatter had reached such a pitch that one colleague speculated on Twitter, “I wonder, did America stop what it was doing in, say, 1953, when the next model *car* was announced?”

In a move that disappointed some true believers, there was no iPhone 5 announcement, “just” the iPhone 4S, which will hit stores October 14. The new phone still boasts impressive hardware advancements. Among the iPhone 4S’ selling points are the ability to switch intelligently between two antennas to transmit and receive (thereby doubling data download speed), along with a serious camera upgrade. Initial online reaction was “meh,” but we’d be shocked if the 4S doesn’t sell extraordinarily well, just like its predecessor.

Right now, Apple’s main selling point is its image as a cutting-edge company, so the product details matter relatively little to the average consumer. By tirelessly turning their brand into an essential emblem of digital savvy, Apple has carved out both a cult-like following and an ever-broadening base of users. Apple’s old-guard faithful might be disappointed, and they might not “need” the latest iteration of the iPhone. But whatever the specs, in a growing number of consumers’ eyes, Apple’s latest remains a cherished status symbol, broadcasting to all that they’re in step with our fast-moving information-driven world.

MLC members, for more great Iconoculture insights, check out the selected pieces we publish each week on the latest consumer trends.

Generation Y is a hard crowd to please.  Being a Millenial myself, I know that our generation never stops demanding more from the world around us.  Over the past two decades, no part of our lives has ever been static.  Our music tracks blasted from cassettes, then CDs, then mp3s.   Our online chatter accelerated from dial-up to DSL to cable.  As students, we took notes on paper notebooks, then laptops, and now tablets.

Of course, few things are more important for a female Millenial than shopping.  Now I haven’t been the most ardent shopper amongst my friends and peers (and not just the ladies, mind you), but I have been an ardent observer of their passion.  From what I’ve personally noticed, shopping, too, underwent a layered transformation, one that is particularly significant to marketers. Read More »

I had the pleasure of attending Retail Advertising and Marketing Association’s CMO meeting here in DC last Thursday.  Conversation ranged from loyalty to simplifying consumer decisions (MLC presented this year’s B2C findings) to the growing economic divide in developed economy consumer populations (our friends from Iconoculture shared their insights on this topic).

But the most fireworks happened around a discussion on mobile marketing.  Sean Bartlett, the director of mobile strategy & platforms at Lowe’s, presented on recent mobile activity by that company.  What they’ve accomplished is great mobile work for marketers to emulate. The new Lowe’s app, which has been on the top download boards in the App Store, scores very well against MLC’s 11 criteria of a world-class mobile execution.

Why the fireworks? One marketing leader in attendance asked a simple question: how does Lowe’s measure the ROI on its mobile efforts?  The assumption behind the question was that Lowe’s is spending well into six digits, or even seven digits, and so how to justify the resources internally?

(light fireworks here)  The discussion quickly bounced back and forth between various other retailers in the room, several of which stated that the ROI discussion is over—that was for 5 years ago.  Consumers are moving so quickly that it’s not a question of if, but how.  One retailer shared that it had just launched m-commerce the week before, and watched as its mobile sales ticked up to 3% of total–in just 3 days!!  The CMO indicated customers must have been wondering what took the retailer so long to offer mobile purchasing.

The discussion took on a life of its own, and ultimately landed in a place that struck me as a turning point for retail marketers—if you’re obsessed with ROI to the point that it’s hampering getting some big mobile bets up and running, you’re moving too slow for your consumer.  I’m sure there are exceptions in categories that serve older generations, but by and large, the mobile train has left the station.

MLC members, score your mobile concepts against world-class criteria using our Mobile Execution scorecard.