Dec
29
2008
As 2008 comes to a close, I’ve done some thinking on the myriad of issues facing the mobile channel compared to email, at least here in the USA: largely sub-par devices are tied to a single carrier, carrier networks operate independently from one another, consumers are locked into year(s)-long contracts and are penalized for terminating them early, all of the carriers seem largely the same, and no one can clearly explain the myriad of charges that appear on your everyday phone bill.
The New York Times recently ran a particularly damning piece on this last point, entitled What Carriers Aren’t Eager to Tell You About Texting, and it is well worth looking at. The article poses a number of pointed questions (arising from a simple inquiry from Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl) that none of the mobile carriers seem eager to answer. The main issue at hand: why does text messaging cost so much?
Think about it. Your marketing emails are what, 15-45KB in size? Standard text messages are only 160 characters in length (less than 1KB). How much does each ISP charge you to send an email to a recipient at their domain? Zero. How much does it cost your customers to open your email marketing campaigns? Zero. How much does it cost them to open your mobile SMS campaigns? 2-25 cents, usually.
Why does texting cost so much? Is there some hidden but necessary cost in SMS that the general public is simply unaware of? Is a rise in texting costs due to increased volume?
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Dec
18
2008
To this day, a great deal of teenage culture remains unchanged. For example, teenagers still face the same growing pains and social acceptance issues; and they still spend their money on clothes, video games and music. But, the evolution of the world around them has also caused a number of significant shifts in behavior that marketers should be aware of. Today’s teen population has access to so much more technology and information than it did 10 years ago, leading to the following trends and inclinations:
Teens go online to communicate – of online activities done in the last 7 days, communications, like IM and email, top the list, and are followed by playing/downloading games and music.
More teens now have cell phones – the cell phone industry has seen rapid growth, with cell phone usage among teens going from one-third ownership in 2003 to two thirds ownership in 2007. Read More »
Dec
15
2008
Can you guess which company sent an email campaign featuring a luxury image and a value offering within the same message?
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Dec
04
2008
Now that the dust has settled from Cyber Monday, lets take a look at the facts. Our clients’ sent 50% more messages on Cyber Monday compared to last year, and 20 times what we sent on the same day in 2004.
That’s some pretty staggering growth right there.
But what seems equally interesting to me is the widespread adoption of the term “Cyber Monday.” From my days of working in architecture I learned that if you say something repeatedly over a long period of time, you can in fact create a sort of reality for it. This is how New Yorkers came to pay millions of dollars for apartments in “SpaHa” (Spanish Harlem), “NoLIta” (North of Little Italy), and “FiDi” (Financial District), thanks in large part to the clever acronyms created and repeated endlessly by real estate brokers. Stephen Colbert calls this phenomenon of creating a reality for something truthiness.
This year, the truthiness of Cyber Monday became legit: many marketers even touted their sales by name.
Let’s take a look at a few of these brazen marketers and pay homage to what looks like an emerging trend in holiday email campaigns:
adidas
Brylane
Discovery Store
Harry & David
Kmart
Newegg.com
Reader’s Digest
Sears
ShopNBC
Speedo
VistaPrint
