Mobile and location complement each other. When married together, the result is unlike any other.

“Mobile by design is built to be an interactive device,” said Alistair Goodman, CEO of Placecast.

“As the use of mobile increases everyday, marketers have a unique opportunity to not only reach customers in real-time, but to also captivate them with creative advertising that offers them the opportunity to interact with their favorite brands. Interactivity can come in the form of MMS with images or videos that link to mobile pages, mobile contests or mini-games that lead customers to an online or offline store,” he said.

“Most importantly, marketers need to make sure that the ads are appealing to consumers by offering something useful, instead of just being annoying sales pitches.”

Driving interest

Companies such as Best Buy, Gap and Victoria’s Secret have all incorporated location-based technology into their mobile advertising campaigns to drive in-store traffic.

By integrating the technology, retailers are able to assist consumers with helping them find the nearest store location.

Although the mobile commerce space is growing at a rapid pace, consumers are still wary of making purchases through their smartphones.

Therefore, serving them a mobile ad that lets them locate the nearest store location is smart, especially for retailers.

“Location-based technology and store retailers go together like apple pie and ice cream,” said Simon Buckingham, CEO of Appitalism.

“Location-based services are a great way to drive in-store traffic,” he said. “We recommend that retailers keep their offers simple by utilizing things like check ins and offering a clear value to the consumer such as a valuable discount.

“We think location-based technology will move forward towards a more central place in the next year. The device platform battle between Apple, Google and Microsoft and BlackBerry will see think stimulate new innovations in location based technology.”

Moving forward
It is important for marketers to communicate to their customers and offer them some sort of incentive.

By implementing an incentive into a location-based campaign, companies are able to drive user engagement.

Additionally, privacy is still an ongoing issue.

Therefore, marketers need to make it a point to communicate to their customers that they take their digital privacy seriously.

“Custom-tailor offers to consumers with exclusive deals in real-time,” Placecast’s Mr. Goodman said. “Consumers like being part of a special club, and in our research we have found that mobile offers that were distinct and had exclusive offers were the most well received.

“Integrate CRM data and other channels – such as email – to deliver storyboarding – sequential messaging that moves a consumer down the purchase funnel,” he said. “For example, a Web or email ad that drives brand awareness, followed by an alert when the consumer is near the store.

“At the moment, the industry is saturated with new mobile wallet technology, and the consumer adoption is fairly slow. As the technology matures and offers consumers some real-world benefits, we expect that more retailers will offer card-linked offers to their customers that will be customized using consumer interest and purchase history, gender, age, location, and time of day. I also expect we’ll see much more in the way of opt-in and a use of consumer data and preferences for targeting.”

New direction
According to Charles Sankowich, CEO of Friendthem, location-based technology offers something that can benefit the customer, but it is important not to overdo it.

“Make sure it is authentic,” Mr. Sankowich said. “Customers are intelligent and quite savvy.

“They can smell and feel something that is not authentic,” he said. “Find that balance of doing what’s best for your customer and still benefit you/the retailer.”

Scanbuy’s “Mobile Bar code Trend Report” for the first quarter saw more than a 200 percent year-over-year increase in traffic from unique users via QR codes. For the first time, the quick-serve restaurants entered into the top five industries with a high number of mobile bar code efforts.

“

In today’s smartphone market, there are really two platforms that marketers need to be thinking about equally – that consolidation has made it easier for brands to reach a majority of their audience,” said Mike Wehrs, president/CEO of Scanbuy, New York.

“A number of major QSRs have been using QR codes as an ongoing strategy,” he said.

“For example, Taco Bell has ScanLife activated codes on all of their packaging for the Doritos Locos Taco, which links to exclusive video content. All of these campaigns are generating hundreds of thousands of scans.”

 

Don Julio is using Qr codes as part of its sweepstakes

Scanning nation
Scanbuy’s ScanLife application processed traffic from more than 5 million users in the first quarter of 2012. Total scans for the company reached 13 million, representing a 157 percent year-over-year growth.

Seventy-six percent of traffic for the company came from 2D bar codes. Twenty-four percent of traffic coming from 1D bar codes such as UPC codes.

Interestingly, males made up 68 percent of total scans. Although scanning a mobile bar code is more associated with males, scans from females have increased by 8 percent over the past year, according to Scanbuy.

The 25-to-34-year-old group made up 35 percent of users on Scanbuy’s platform, marking a new high for the age bracket. Although marketers are using mobile bar codes to reach a variety of demographics, it is clear that a majority of scanning is done by younger, tech-savvy consumers, per the study.

Twenty percent of scans came from consumers ages 35-44, 16 percent came from 18- to 24-year-old consumers and 8 percent came from users 18 years old or younger. Scans from consumers aged 45 years or older rounded out the findings with 21 percent.

A recent campaign from Budweiser with QR codes

Mobile industry
The study also broke out mobile bar codes by industry.

Mobile bar code scans from consumer packaged goods continues to be the No. 1 category year-over-year. With consumers using on-pack and mobile bar code-enabled signage to comparison shop, it is no surprise that QR codes are heavily used by consumer-packaged-goods marketers.

With companies such as KFC, Jamba Juice and Taco Bell all using mobile bar codes for campaigns during the first quarter, the QSR industry played a major role in Scanbuy’s study as the No. 2 category.

The entertainment, retail and wireless industries also made the cut for the top five industries.

Mobile bar codes placed in editorial pages fell out of the top five categories in the study. Simply slapping a QR code on a print ad without an upfront value is not a strong enough incentive for a consumer to scan a page, and marketers need to think more strategically about combining mobile bar codes and print campaigns.

Video, app downloads and learning about product details were the top three uses of mobile bar codes for initiatives run on Scanbuy’s platform in the first quarter of 2012. Linking to a loyalty program or social media were also commonly used in campaigns.

Scanbuy claims to process scans from 130 countries with the United States, Spain, Canada, Denmark and France representing the top five countries with the most traffic.

Other countries in the study included Germany, Mexico, Portugal, Brazil and Britain.

Despite the increase in marketing initiatives using mobile bar codes, not all campaigns are created equal, per Mr. Wehrs.

“The content that you link to has to be mobile-formatted, and there has to be a conversion goal – that could be a ‘Like,’ an email opt-in, a phone call, a video, a purchase or much more,” Mr. Wehrs said.

“But give them something of incremental value that they cannot get from the media itself,” he said. ”Think about what your customer needs at the time, and give it to them in a really simple yet engaging format.

“We expect marketers to get more sophisticated with how they are making connections via QR codes, and they will look to capabilities that allow them to deliver more dynamic experiences.”

Phone House delivers complete solutions in mobile telephony and its clients include small, medium and global businesses. Through the collaboration with MoMA, all types of business benefit from a whole new form of mobile services with a variety of applications.

For example, the company’s IT systems linked to the cell phone or tablet through a mobile web site or an app. It gives Phonehouse business opportunities to integrate a business system through an application in a smartphone.

It also allows the customer to own the product, which means greater flexibility with a very simple interface for the customer to use.

- We see a huge demand for mobile services that make it possible to work moremobile among our corporate customers. With this partnership we are expandingour service portfolio with a new type of packaging which is located right in timesays Jakob Johansson, project manager business sales, Phone House.

- Phone House has not only a strong brand and a broad customer base, but also a strong drive to be the leader in mobile, and this appeals to us at MoMA says Magnus Winterman, CEO MoMA Mobile.

You’ll find the coupons in a special section within the mobile application where you’re also able to sign up for SMS-based alerts.
Coupons will only be offered one at a time every two to three days, and will range in value from $0.50 to $5.00. The discounts will be targeted towards a wide variety of products, including beauty items, gifts, consumables and everyday essentials, like diapers.

Shoppers can also use the mobile app to view the weekly ad and sales, shop directly from their phone, browse products, check availability, scan barcodes, manage prescriptions and receive text alerts about Walgreens’ offers and exclusive deals.

Walgreens says the coupons will be available through December 24th, but details regarding its post-holiday mobile couponing plans are not yet available.

The Deerfield, Ill.-based company has 7,786 locations across all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, making this initiative one of the largest retail mobile couponing programs in the country.

The Walgreens mobile app is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

Consider this — a full 20% of smartphone users currently acquire and redeem mobile coupons on a regular basis, with that number expected to grow to 30% by 2013.  In addition, a full 10% of ALL mobile phone users redeem mobile coupons on a regular basis, growing to 16.5% by 2013.  These are pretty powerful numbers when looking at the big picture, and even more powerful when you look at the engagement rates mobile coupons generate.

People love saving money, and having the ability to acquire, store and redeem coupons directly from a device we all carry around with us everywhere we go is a powerful thing.  Take a look at the graphic below and see if it falls in line with your own usage of mobile coupons.

Data from eMarketer estimates that nearly 20 million US adults will redeem a mobile coupon this year, including coupons or codes received via SMS, applications and mobile Web browsers; quick response codes for redemption online or offline; and group buying coupons purchased via mobile. By 2013, the number using such coupons will nearly double, and 16.5% of all US adult mobile phone users will redeem a coupon that year.

The popularity in mobile coupons extends from the popularity in Online coupons experienced during the recession, eMarketer speculates, and is a trend that isn’t going anywhere soon.  “Even as the sputtering economy attempts its recovery, the popularity of couponing has continued, spurred in part by the burgeoning daily deals space,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report, Mobile Coupons: Offers and Deals Light Up the Last Mile.  “Mobile coupons will play a central role in broadening the appeal and acceptance of digital coupons among shoppers.”

Not surprising, mobile coupon usage is much higher among smartphone users, where nearly one in five users ages 18 and older will redeem a mobile coupon, representing growth of 117.6%.  Triple-digit uptake rates will be short-lived, according to the research, but by 2013 almost one-third of smartphone users will be redeeming discounts on the go.