Mobile Marketing

In class last week we talked about mobile marketing. At first I thought mobile marketing was just getting text messages on my phone. I have NO interest in getting text message advertising to my cell. Turns out that mobile marketing isn’t really that at all. I was first turned off of the idea of mobile marketing when we started talking, but by the end of class I sort of wished (even more) that I had an iphone or a smart phone so that I could use cool apps like Foursquare (a mobile marketing tool). This program isn’t very popular in Canada, and it’s a shame. It sounds like a really fun game and a great way to get out and discover new things in your area. It’s also a good way of getting “frequent visitor” bonuses if your favorite stores get involved.

So I’m sort of on the fence about the program. It would be pretty cool to walk into Starbucks and get “the usual, on the house” because I’m the Mayor, but at what expense?

I can sort of understand the apprehensiveness of Canadians though. You’re basically letting a program (and everyone else using the program) watch you at all times. It lets people know when you’re home, when you’re out shopping, or if you’re out of town. It’s a pretty big security risk for a not-so-big payback. Also, beyond a security risk, how are you supposed to deak out of lame dinner-parties because you’re “sick” when people can see that you’re actually out at a fancy restaurant with: “Who? Omigosh… so-and-so is there too! I wonder if they’re dating.”
What are you supposed to do? Leave your phone at home? Right…

I checked out Foursquare on my boyfriend’s iphone when I got home from class last week and we had a peek around… of course we made up a fake username and fake email address. Does that defeat the purpose? Lol. After checking some stuff out and “locations near us” we decided it wasn’t really for either of us. It’s just not popular enough around here. Ottawa is kind of a bore that way. We’re the capital of Canada, but we’re always the slowest in terms of catching on to cool technological trends. Come on Ottawa, get with it! Then maybe I’ll blog about this topic again.

And the Oscar will go to... (Round 2)

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire; and where there’s drama, there’s an Oscar. I’m not talking about on-screen drama, I mean the fact that The Hurt Locker producer is banned from the Oscar ceremony because, according to bostonherald.com, he sent out an email asking voters to ignore the “$500 million” movie. My theory is this: the friends that received the email to boycott Avatar will vote for The Hurt Locker in protest to the fact that Nicolas Chartier has been banned from the ceremony. It will all end in poetic justice.

Is that all the drama? Of course not. Apparently there’s another personal battle being fought between the directors of The Hurt Locker and Avatar. Kathryn Bigelow (director of THL) and James Cameron (If you don’t know who he his, get out of your cave) were married for a short time between 1989 and 1991. According to a few blogs that I’ve read, people are rooting for THL not only because they feel it’s a superior movie in acting and script, but because they want Bigelow to knock Cameron down a notch or two. Nothing would be more perfect than sticking it to Cameron by giving the Oscar to his underdog ex-wife and her low-budget war film.
That’s two points for The Hurt Locker.

Checking back with my other social media mention trackers, it seems that talk about Avatar and THL are consistent since the announcement of their nominations. That being said, Avatar is still consistently way higher in mentions than THL.

So do I go with my previous prediction that more talk means better results? Not when there’s drama like this around. I’m taking a 180-degree spin and changing my bet to The Hurt Locker. Maybe it’s my desire to see a multi-million-dollar-man get shown up by his low-budget ex-wife, but I also think drama is gold.

Branded Utilities

Branded utilities are a great way of reaching an audience and engaging them with a brand. By branded utilities I mean things like iPhone apps and websites that make your life a little bit easier and associate themselves with a brand. Examples of this include The Weather Network creating an app that gives you instant weather reports and Charmin creating an app where people can find, review and rank the closest public bathroom, using the GPS on your phone. Branded utilities are everywhere, and I personally think that the invention of iPhone apps was the tipping point for the avalanche of innovative ways to interact with consumers.

While I don’t have an iPhone, I am exposed to branded utilities. I use things like Widgets on my mac. I personally use The Weather Network widget several times a day (every time I walk my dog in the winter), along with the Dictionary widget. There are flight trackers, google search bars, wikipedia search bars, the yellow pages and an unbelievable, unfathomable amount of others.

Other examples of branded utilities are websites like Fibre1.com, that feature recipes about how to cook with fibre1 and get the best benefits from the product. Campbells soup has a similar website. Ikea has gone in another direction by hosting in-store seminars about home improvement. All of these utilities not only help people improve their lives, but also expose them to how to use the branded products properly. It’s win-win.

Some companies are missing out on branded utilities though. Companies like Sharpe could have a branded scientific calculator widget and Pedigree could have a service that sends me email reminders to book my dog’s annual vet visit and vaccines. With advertising developing the way it has so far, it won’t be long until brands find their way into our everyday needs.