Quality Control

Just to get an idea of how powerful Mobile marketing really is, let’s take a look at Google. Revenues from the mega company’s mobile division account for roughly $5.8 billion. According to Cowen and company this number is set to get grow over the coming years as mobile revenue will likely grow to 26% of the company’s earnings by 2016, representing total sales of $20.7 billion.

Marketers who have been keeping an eye on the mobile marketing industry know the significance of small shiny devices all too well. Yet businesses small and large especially in western countries don’t seem to be allocating large portions of their budgets towards exploiting  opportunities. Forrester Research, Inc. analyst Melissa Parrish reveals what sort of questions organizations should be answering in the planning, execution and measurement stages of a mobile campaign so that businesses can realize their mobile marketing maturity. Her research entitled ‘Score Your Mobile Marketing’, is a must read and can be found on the Forester database.

Firms need to quickly asses their standing in the mobile realm and devote considerable resources towards this platform. I share the notion that most companies do not see seem to see any significance in mobile. The lack of attention mobile is receiving from some business might be due to the fact that they see mobile advertising and mobile marketing as the same concept, but this is not the case. I agree with Mobeen Khan, Executive Director of Mobility Solutions Marketing for AT&T, when he says “Mobile advertising and mobile marketing isn’t the same thing. Mobile marketing is an immersive experience.”

I personally want to see retail stores use location based services to generate more sales from their most loyal fan base. Providing mobile coupons with a time lmit- to the Smartphone of an individual, who has just walked into on the largest mall in a particular city, would be a interesting and easy way to make sure they spend their money at your location first before moving onto the other stores on their shopping list. Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner says “Mobile technology is the vehicle of immediacy, putting mobile marketers in the critical position of being masters of timing — knowing when and how to drop the right offer at the right time. As a strategic marketer I agree with Sandy, but as a consumer I’m not seeing companies actively pursue this potent tactic.

Mobile marketing campaigns are not rocket science, firms need to simply assess their current position with respect to mobile marketing. Secondly they create a campaign based around the following three elements:

The 23^rd installment of the Bond Series has been garnering vast media attention over the past few weeks and was expected to rake in $77 million this weekend. Success! would be an understatement as it  ended up passing that mark by $10 million.  Bond Fans and the general public alike were first exposed to the film during the Summer Olympics.  During the Opening ceremony presentation (Daniel Craig) who plays Bond, walked into Buckingham Palace escorting the Queen onto a helicopter. Then, both of them supposedly parachuted out of a plane into the opening ceremonies. This theatrical promotion immediately engaged the worldwide audience who were watching the opening ceremonies.

Heineken Skyfall TV Commercial: The Brand integration that took place in this ad was simply marvelous   Heinekin was able to smoothly integrate its brand within the action packed story line of a typical bond film. The product didn’t look out of place and didn’t make the reader lose focus of the story taking place in the ad. Moreover the company also seems pleased with their choice,as according to chief marketing officer Lesya Lysyj ,”Bond is a perfect fit for us.”Other firms also taking advantage of related promotions for the film include, Omega Watches, Tom Ford, Aston Martin, Visit Britain, Coca Cola, Sony Electronics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jZsfB0ycfMo

Adele’s theme song: Adele has simply captivated Bond fans with her music and has given the Bond franchise a new voice to rely on. Her Sky fall Bond Theme song is a hit and has over 55 million views on YouTube.

Online Engagement was taken to a whole different level for this film. As users can  actually feel like an undercover agent by logging into a simulated interface of the Royal Intelligence Services. You then become a  British Intelligence Officer and take an exam comprising of 5 sections. Try it out at http://50.112.251.215/

Below are some of the major Marketing Trends and themes which took center stage in the recent election south of the border.

1)     Data driven:  Data helped candidates push out the appropriate content for the different geographic target segments within the US. Real time metrics let the marketing strategists for the two parties modify their output over the course of the campaign.

2)     Social Media was Crucial: The younger generation likes to get their news from Twitter and Facebook before anything else. By targeting these platforms the politicians were meeting the voters on their time and space; this is one factor which resulted in a higher youth voter turnout this election. During this election it is estimated roughly 40% of US adults used Social Media to discuss Politics.  Additionally according to bussiness2community.com , there are roughly 150million Facebook users that  voted in the election. It is clear that the influence these people have through their online networks further compounds the significance of Social Media reach.

-A prime example can be taken from Twitter also, as Barack Obama’s appearance at the Democratic National Convention led to 52,000 tweets per minute, leading to 4 million tweets during his 39 minute speech.

-New Record set by the American President as he made Twitter history yesterday. He tweeted “Four more years” along with a photo of him and Michelle Obama hugging. This broke the previous retweet record of 320,000 held by Justin Bieber.

3)     Buying Search Results: Mitt Romney’s marketing strategists even made an attempt to influence Facebook users who were supporting Obama. Users saw the Governor Popup when typing Obama in the search bar. I’m still trying to figure out if this was smart, desperate, or perhaps inefficient use of capital that could have been directed elsewhere- like YouTube advertisements.

Below are further Social media stats which highlight trends we are witnessing.

Want more marketing insights about the election, checkout this news column by Lori Wilson.

The Halo series is arguably among the most successful gaming franchises of all time, Microsoft aims to  make Halo 4 its most successful game ever as it is being rumored to have one of the largest budgets approved by Microsoft, approx $100million.  Microsoft is not using its traditional developers to make the game, as Bungie is no longer making this game but 343 industries is stepping up to take the role. I agree with the notion that when game developers such as Microsoft switch the studio developers for a game, subsequent games usually don’t do well. In this instance I think I will have to make an exception, this is why:

Game Review

In the gaming industry Microsoft has released roughly 800 copies of the game to media outlets in the US alone, so they can rate the game and provide reviews online. Metacritic is an important review website as it aggregates videogame reviews from various game publications such as Gamestop, Game Informer magazine, and AOL. It gave the game an impressive score of 91 based on 37 current reviews.

Promotional Strategies

Forward unto Dawn and WOM: Microsoft decided to create a live web series based on the Halo universe. Real life actors play cadets who are training to fight the newly advanced alien race. The online series is free on YouTube and is generating a lot of buzz leading up to the game’s actual release on Nov 6. The Budget for this series was about $10million. Take a look at one of the episodes installments below, it already has over  7 million views!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfJVgXBfSH8

Partners: Pepsi Co in North America and Pizza Hut in the UK are some of the bigger Partners for Microsoft’s marketing campaign.

Limited Edition Version: The version of the game adds serious dollar value not only to the halo buffs but also to the average gamer.  This special version of the game comes in a steel case and includes things such as War game map packs, early access to multiplayer specializations and more. One user on a gameranx review site sees the value: