The Hyperfactory

Working for Kraft, The Hyperfactory developed iFood Assistant, an app that features recipes and a shopping tool. Initially, the app was only available as a paid app on the iPhone. But as The Hyperfactory refined the app, it also developed multiple versions, delivering the same user value on the Android and BlackBerry platforms. The paid version of the app ranked among the top 150 on Apple's download list. But the agency also built a "lite" version of the iPhone app, allowing Kraft to distribute it for free to reach a broader base of consumers.

While The Hyperfactory excels at building mobile apps and campaigns with a clear marketing goal, the agency is also known for using mobile as a tool to help its clients improve their businesses. For example, The Hyperfactory recently helped Lowe's begin the process of replacing scanner guns with iPhones. The idea is to let Lowe's employees use the iPhones as a roving in-store tool to help answer customer questions. Down the road, Lowe's also expects its employees to be able to help customers complete purchases throughout the store using the iPhones.

The team at The Hyperfactory routinely shares its expertise on the ever-changing nature of mobile at various industry forums, including events like IAB Mobile Marketplace and publications like Mashable. Stella Artois, Victoria's Secret, and Coca-Cola are just a few of The Hyperfactory's clients.

The Hyperfactory is a Meredith Xcelerated Marketing agency.

Full Article

Mr. Handley is not affiliated with Cartier, but agreed to comment as a third-party mobile expert.

Cartier did not respond by press deadline.

Race against time
When a consumer clicks on the banner ad in the New York Times mobile site, she is brought to a Cartier landing page where she can press play to watch the video or click to enter the Calibre collection page online.

The first part of the series was released this past summer and featured a well-dressed man who breaks into a vault in the basement of a hotel to retrieve a briefcase.

The video ends with the man, who wears the Calibre watch the entire time, opening the briefcase to reveal a chrome “XXI” piece that he places into its watchface.

The watch gears begin to move and the rest of the video presents the Cartier Calibre in various views.

The video currently being advertised in the New York Times mobile site is the Cartier Calibre Episode 2.

It begins with the same man catching a glimpse of a woman who walks by a door. He chases her through what appears to be a desert and into a building that contains larger-than-life watch gears and twisting staircases.

The number XXI is featured in many places throughout the building’s interior. The video ends when the man reaches a room in which the floor is the moving gears of a watch and the woman is on the other side.

The watchface floor transforms into the Calibre and is featured as the ending shot, followed by the phrase, “mechanics of passion.”

Cartier has not yet released the third episode.

Right timing
Cartier likely had the right idea to use a banner ad on the New York Times mobile site to promote the video since the site is frequently visited by on-the-go, affluent consumers.

Indeed, other luxury marketers such as Tiffany & Co (see story) and Ralph Lauren (see story) have leveraged the New York Times’ mobile platforms to advertise their newest collections.

The video is mobile-optimized and only about a minute long, making it ideal for busy consumers.

Mobile video episodes are expected to help increase sales this holiday season (see story), which may be why Cartier is pushing the video via the optimized New York Times site.

Indeed, mobile video is a viable way to engage consumers and lead them to further branded sites.

Cartier does this in two ways. Consumers have the option to skip the video all together and just visit the Calibre mobile site, or they can click through to the site after the video ends.

The Calibre mobile site is split into multiple sections, where consumers can click on design, collection, movement, films and make your move. “Make your move” is a different campaign that is also centered around the watch.

By linking consumers to the mobile-optimized collection page, Cartier may likely increase sales.

“Some luxury experts have said that luxury brands don’t need the consumer to follow through and carry out an action via mobile, as long as the brand and experience has taken place then the job has been done,” Mr. Handley said. “But I disagree.

“I think that every brand regardless of category needs to ensure that they follow through to mobile-optimized experiences,” he said.

Full Article

Also as an annual feature we showcase the "Hottest Launches" for 2010/2011 from Samir ("Mr. Magazine") Husni of the University of Mississippi's Magazine Innovation Center.

We do hope you will join us on December 5 at New York's Grand Hyatt to support those people who have made our industry innovative, successful and intriguing!

21 Most Intriguing People in Media

Dan Roth, Executive Editor, LinkedIn

Lewis D’Vorkin, Chief Product Officer, Forbes Media

Dawn Ostroff, President, Condé Nast Entertainment

Josh Tyrangiel, Editor, Bloomberg Businessweek

Josh Quittner, Editorial Director, Flipboard

Bob Kaslik, Senior Vice President, Interweave

Mike Beller, Vice President, Source Interlink’s Mediaworks

Geoff and Derek Handley, CEO and Co-founders, The Hyperfactory

Matt Bean, Associate Vice President, Mobile,Social & Emerging Media, Rodale

Liz Schimel, Executive Vice President Digital, Meredith

Jon Haber, Chief Innovation Officer, OMD

Michael Bloom, Chief Digital Officer, Wenner Media

Marie Jones, General Manager, Allure.com

Florent Peyre, VP Strategy and Business Development, Gilt Groupe

Steve Palm, CEO, NewBay Media

David Carey, President, Hearst Magazines, and
Michael Clinton, President/Marketing and Publishing Director, Hearst Magazines

Paul Caine, Chief Revenue Officer, Time Inc., and
Karen Kovacs, Publisher, People

Desirée Rogers, CEO, Johnson Publishing

JoAnne Kao, Director of Sales, SourceMedia

Jeff Giesea, CEO and Founder, BestVendor

Evan Ratliff and Jefferson Rabb, Co-founders, The Atavist

HOTTEST LAUNCHES OF THE YEAR

Athlon Sports
Editor: Charlie Miller
Publisher: Ron Harrison

Bitayavon
Editor: Shifra Klein
Chief Financial Officer: Shlomo Klein

Carson/Untitled
Editor: Alex Storch
Publisher: Alex Storch

Dash
Editor: Maggie Murphy
Publisher: Brett Wilson

Emerge
Publisher: Emerge Media Group

HGTV
Editor: Sara Peterson
Executive director: Jeanne Noonan Eckholdt

Lucky Peach
Editor: Peter Meehan/Dave Chang
Publisher: David Chang

Mask The magazine
Editor: Michelle Jacoby
Publisher: Kimberly Cabral

Peloton
Editor: Paige Dunn
Publisher: Brad Roe

Rebel
Editor: Kevin Whipps
Publisher: Rick Cabral, Tim Halmekangas, Michael Kelley

Road Iron
Editor: John Sullivan
Publisher: Joe Teresi

The Social Media Monthly
Editor/Publisher: Robert Fine

Treats
Editor-In-Chief/Publisher: Steve Shaw
Editor: Rob Hill
Art Director: Eric Roinestad

Vegas/Rated
Editor: Melinda Sheckells
Publisher: Ryan Doherty/Justin Weniger

Where Women Cook
Publisher: Kellene Giloff
Editor: Jo Packham

Hottest Editor of the Year:
Maggie Murphy, Dash magazine

Hottest Publisher/CEO
Stephen Duggan, Athlon Sports

Hottest Design Director of the Year
Eleftherios Kardamakis, HGTV magazine

Hottest Reinventions of the Year
Parade magazine
House Beautiful

PEOPLE TO WATCH

Aaron Cunningham, Crain Communications
Allie Townsend, Time Inc.
Sara Rossi, Meredith Corporation
Kristen Hayashi, WIRED
Nicole Ferraro, UBM TechWeb
Krystle Kopacz, Atlantic Media Group
Tammy Tibbetts, Seventeen.com
Nicholas Walter, UBM Electronics
Amy Jaick, The Economist

Full Article

"In today's rapidly evolving marketplace, Brand and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) leaders are constantly searching for partners who can create and deliver innovative marketing solutions across a wide spectrum," says Martin Reidy, President of Meredith Xcelerated Marketing. "Increasingly, they are looking for companies with a global reach, too. MXM possesses the optimal mix of services and innovation to benefit clients on a global scale thanks to our investment in iris, and our new branding reflects the capabilities we've developed over the last five years."

Creation of the Meredith-Iris Global Network
The investment in iris Worldwide gives MXM a global platform to serve its many blue-chip clients, and further enhances its ability to provide customized marketing solutions across multiple channels and markets. In addition to its strengths in advertising, digital, print, public relations and CRM, iris Worldwide brings expertise in retail/shopper and experiential marketing to MXM's growing mix of expertise.

Iris Worldwide serves a diverse range of global clients including Shell, Microsoft, Sony Ericsson, Unilever, adidas, IHG, Heineken, Volkswagen and Philips. Privately owned and founded in 1999, iris Worldwide employs nearly 800 people with offices in London, Manchester, Amsterdam, Delhi, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Miami, Mexico City and Atlanta.

Examples of iris' work include a traffic-stopping 3D projection mapped onto the façade of the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York during the holiday season; and creation and promotion of the official mascots for the London 2012 Olympics.

Stewart Shanley, Global CEO and Co-Founder of iris, said, "This is going to offer clients a real alternative to the traditional agency network model and one that is fit for the ‘always on' world we now live in. This network is built around the needs and interests of consumers. Meredith possesses expertise in content and in the creation of ‘value-add' communities built around consumers. We are bringing these skills together with our creative expertise to give the best and brightest clients in the world all the tools they need to get closer to their consumers."

The investment in iris Worldwide will not have a material effect on Meredith Corporation's financial performance in fiscal 2012.

"The creation of the Meredith-Iris Global Network further expands Meredith's international footprint as well as our ability to serve our domestic clients by pursuing global opportunities to strengthen their consumer connections," says John Zieser, Meredith's Chief Development Officer. "We continuously seek new opportunities to align our businesses with market leaders throughout the world."

Creation of Meredith Xcelerated Marketing (MXM)
A leading multi-disciplinary organization of best-in-class services, MXM provides clients with in-depth knowledge, resources and expertise in core areas including loyalty, analytics, mobile, campaign management, social and digital.

MXM's heritage lies in its more than 40 years of experience in creating custom programs and customer relationship marketing platforms. Over the past five years, MXM has added expanded marketing capabilities in key areas with the acquisition of leading agencies The Hyperfactory (mobile), Genex (digital), New Media Strategies (social media), Directive (database analytics) and BIG Communications (healthcare). MXM now has more than 700 employees and works with more than 50 brands, including Lowe's, Kraft and Chrysler.

"This new market positioning showcases our commitment to a truly integrated client service engine, one in which clients have access to unparalleled category expertise, along with an agency structure that can oversee all aspects of digital strategy," says Reidy.

About Meredith Corporation
Meredith Corporation is the leading media and marketing company serving American women. Meredith features multiple well-known national brands – including Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, Fitness, More, EatingWell and American Baby – along with local television brands in fast-growing markets. Meredith is the industry leader in creating content in key consumer interest areas such as home, family, health and wellness and self-development. Meredith uses multiple distribution platforms – including print, television, online, mobile, tablets, and video – to give consumers content they desire and to deliver the messages of its advertising and marketing partners. According to the Advertising Intelligence Reports (AIR) survey of more than 1,500 agency and marketing professionals, Meredith is the nation's "Highest Rated Media Company."

Additionally, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing (MXM) uses its many assets to create powerful custom marketing solutions for many of the nation's top brands and companies. MXM has significantly added to its marketing solution capabilities in recent years through the acquisition of cutting-edge companies in areas such as digital, mobile, video, database, healthcare and social marketing.

About Iris
Iris is an award-winning independent, global creative agency that delivers marketing campaigns for clients like adidas, Sony Ericsson, Sony, Philips and Reckitt Benckiser.

Over the past 12 years, iris has diversified to offer specialization in all disciplines, from management consultancy, CRM, direct and digital to advertising, PR, experiential, retail and sponsorship. It is the blend of these skills that allows the agency to deliver ‘Extraordinary Ideas' – solutions that provide competitive cut through by being interesting, valuable and part of popular culture.

Launched in London in 1999, iris is one of the fastest growing micro-networks in the world and today has over 800 employees working across 13 countries.

Full Release

Accompanying Geoffrey on the panel will be Stacy Chagnon, Senior Marketing Manager at Microsoft and Chuck Martin, CEO of Mobile Future Institute and author of The Third Screen. Up for discussion will be how mobile devices are opening up new possibilities for customers and suppliers—and how the best companies are taking advantage of the technology.

Click here for the full agenda.

Dubbed the "Publishers Annex," the group will develop white papers and participate in road shows and event demonstrations targeting the larger publishers that generate at least 10 million monthly page views from mobile devices.

The model is based on what Mojiva cites as the success of the similarly structured Creative Alliance group of providers that did road shows for agencies on mobile advertising in L.A., Chicago and New York. Mocean says it will issue a quarterly document crafted by the participants in the Annex. The Annex also will solicit case studies from publishers who work with the group so the examples can be shared at events.

Nine companies have joined the Annex: AirKast, Applico, FreeRange Communications, Golden Gekko, The Hyperfactory, Polar Mobile, Trilibis Mobile, Wapple and Zumobi. The dedicated Web site at PublisherAnnex.com helps facilitate connections between the members and publishers.

The publisher/developer can submit an RFP, receive proposals, and then get advice from Mocean on monetization strategies for the new app or site. The group also says it will help train the publisher's sales force in selling mobile media.

There are additional solutions that providers can apply to be included in the Annex, but Mocean says it intends to keep this a select group of proven partners.

Full Article

"Mobile publishing and application development is one of the biggest opportunities the industry can embrace right now -- the better the mobile sites and apps, the better the audience engagement and opportunity to monetize," said Dave Gwozdz, CEO of Mocean Mobile. "The Publisher Annex will provide the guidance that large-scale publishers need to fully capitalize on the mobile opportunity worldwide."

The Publisher Annex, which is best equipped to develop solutions for publishers experiencing more than 10 million page views per month from wireless devices, offers a group of the most innovative mobile web and app developers, along with experts in mobile monetization. The launch members comment on the impact this initiative will have on the industry below:

• "As one of the largest mobile app networks with over 900 customers made up of Fortune 1000's media companies, AirKast is excited to be part of Mocen Mobile's Publisher Annex. We see this as a great initiative to bridge the gap between the world of mobile publishers and advertisers." -- Larry Leung, CEO
• "Applico is glad to be working with Mocean Mobile. The Publisher Annex will provide a much needed resource to many companies and it goes hand-in-hand with Applico's mission to bring our clients into mobile with ease and efficiency." -- Alex Moazed, President and CEO of Applico
• "FreeRange360 is pleased to be partnered with Mocean for this shared opportunity to engage our potential audience and further contribute to the overall impact on traditional advertising, marketing, and media streams." -- Jon Maroney, CEO
• "Mobile is the world's fastest growing industry, with new technologies, solutions and companies appearing every day. In such a landscape, finding and working with the best partners is crucial for success. Golden Gekko, as the global leading mobile web and app developer, is very excited to be part of the Publisher Annex network. Mobile is a huge opportunity for the publishing industry, and to offer easy access to best of breed partners for mobile initiatives will be a great advantage for everyone involved." -- Miguel Banuelos, Director of Accounts - US, Golden Gekko
• "It's great to see a company like Mocean Mobile pulling together various parties across the ecosystem to help make publishers' lives easier. As we know, consumers need great mobile destinations with great content, and Mocean Mobile is helping make this happen by providing a seamless process to publishers." -- Geoffrey Handley, co-founder and CMO, The Hyperfactory
• "Polar is excited to work with Mocean Mobile on the Publisher Annex. As a long-standing partner, we look forward to evangelizing great mobile technology for content producers." -- Marlon Rodrigues, Director of Alliances at Polar Mobile
• "Today's consumers are incredibly mobile-savvy. Marketers and content providers who've launched mobile programs have seen their customer engagement and retention rates improve, thus resulting in increased revenues. With Publisher Annex, those new to mobile can also take advantage of this emerging, high-impact channel." -- Ted Verani, SVP of Sales and Marketing at Trilibis Mobile
• "Mobile web publishing is going to the next level and the Mocean Mobile initiative is key to the ongoing growth of the industry. We are delighted to be part of Publisher Annex, which we believe will be hugely successful." -- Rich Holdsworth, Wapple, CEO

Publishers who are interested in being part of the group or learning about mobile monetization from the Publisher Annex can contact: avale@moceanmobile.com or visit www.publisherannex.com

About Mocean Mobile
Mocean Mobile created the first technology platform that streamlines publishers', developers' and app stores' mobile revenue opportunities by giving them the ability to serve display ads to all mobile devices including smart phones, tablets and netbooks. Mocean Mobile integrates with the top rich media providers to ensure that publishers have capabilities to run the most engaging and comprehensive creative ad units on their mobile sites. By integrating with the majority of 3rd party networks and agency side ad servers like DART and Atlas, Mocean Mobile combines state of the art direct sales campaign management with ad network mediation for the mobile world. Created in 2009, Mocean Mobile is led by a team of advertising and media veterans from Google, DoubleClick, Yahoo, and AdMob, with more than 100 years of collective experience in online and mobile advertising and technology. It operates under parent company Mojiva Inc., which has a total of $35 million venture funding from Pelion Venture Partners, Shamrock Capital and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments.

Full Article

The panel will be moderated by Mort Greenberg from NAVTEQ, and Geoffrey will sit alongside Paul Gelb, Mobile Practice Lead at Razorfish; Angela Steele, CEO of Ansible and Devaraj Southworth, VP of Online & Mobile Product Strategy, Enterprise Growth at American Express.

For the full agenda of the Mobile Media Summit, see http://www.mobilemediasummit.com/2011.

5 Brands That Understand Moms

Moms love brands for myriad reasons, but first and foremost, brands have to make great products. If the brand creates the right experience around the product, it will have the beginnings of a great relationship with mom. What is entailed in creating a great brand experience? It can be anything from supporting a cause to offering great tools and information to creating something that touches an emotional chord to being a brand that brings you just plain fun.

1. Johnson and Johnson
For 125 years, Johnson & Johnson has made products that moms trust. But how does it keep itself relevant with today's mom? It understands that you don't have to fill your brand messages with content about the brand in order to connect with today's social mom. Providing a service as it has with these two tools will create a long-term relationship. Its free Text4baby mobile app delivers on-the-go health information for new mothers and the first year of baby's life. The text messages are timed to the baby's birth date so the information is always pertinent and right at her fingertips. And for the mom who is a blogger and wants to showcase her favorite charity, J&J has created a simple to use widget that allows her to show her support of multiple non-profit organizations.

2. Target
First of all, Target offers a variety of deals, offers and discounts both on its website and through its owned social channels. And it always presents the information in a clean and clear way, which busy moms appreciate. But the reason Target is on this list is for its total commitment to mobile. Moms can shop without carrying around cash. Through the Target mobile app, Moms can checkout purchases anywhere, find offers/discounts, and update gift registers. She can get exclusive offers via text messages, check prices by scanning the barcode right from her phone, create shopping lists, and even create mobile gift cards. Target understands convenience and great tools that help her get things done that are high on her list.

3. Gerber
Aren't we all Gerber babies? Since first launched in 1928, the Gerber baby has been an iconic symbol for healthy babies. To keep up with this generation of babies and their moms, the brand has created numerous mobile apps from the birth app to track sleep, feeding and even a mobile scrapbook to a pregnancy calendar app to track your weight and record appointments. Long known for care and nutrition, Gerber's Start Healthy, Stay Healthy app is filled with tips, quizzes and information for keeping baby healthy. Gerber really understands moms hunger for content and information, especially when it comes to raising a healthy and happy baby.

4. Crayola
How can you not love Crayola when even its Facebook page rules of engagement are fun: "Use your manners. Remember that little eyes could be viewing what you write." They understand moms want to instill in their child a sense of caring for the world at large, and to encourage their imagination and ideas. It's using solar panels to provide power to make the crayons, using recycled plastic, and planting a tree for every tree used to make the pencils. And the PopArt Pixies are an interesting twist where moms are portrayed as avatars that have created all kinds of fun craft ideas a mom can do with a child. Brands often forget moms love to have things they can do with their kids. Plus, you have to love a brand that fully discloses that you might have to wash your child's clothes a couple of times to get the Colored Bubbles out.

5. Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods has so many wonderful applications and tools to offer moms. Who wouldn't love the My Recipe Box, where the recipes you choose can be exported out into a shopping list and it's organized by category? A fabulous companion piece to the recipes is its YouTube Cooking School for those who like a tutorial. Kraft is getting very creative by listening to the moms and the Twitter chatter to identify trends and ideas for new products and recently launched a social plug-in called Smiletagging for bookmarking sites that make you smile. It understands moms love a few smiles and a bit of humor to brighten the every day.

Remember, your content has to live in multiple places as moms are channel agnostic and choose different platforms for different tasks. And if you really want to "get it right," invite a few moms in to ideate with your marketing team. They'll have plenty of great thoughts and ideas to share!

Full Article

During the “From Mobile to Mobility” keynote session, executives said each interface plays different, location-based and contextually relevant roles. Knitting this experience together for publishers, advertisers and consumers will be the next great challenge.

“I think the number of devices and users has increased,” said Geoffrey Handley, cofounder of The Hyperfactory, New York. “The key thing is the number of brands that understand that their consumers are inherently mobile.

“It’s about catering to their consumers and the actual notion of what mobile is,” he said. “I think the key thing is that mobile's not a standalone.”

“Our role is to help consumers know that there is mobility.”

Different experience
According to Mr. Handley, brands should not take a PC experience and just dump it on mobile.

Mobility is about continuing connectivity and delivering contextual engagements.

“I think that’s what a lot of brands are forgetting,” Mr. Handley said. “It’s about delivering the contextually relevant touchpoint.

“Contextual planning in a world of mobility is critical,” he said. “We're at that point where we're about to head into the right direction."

According to the executive, last year's buzz word was strategy.

“It's not about strategy per se,” Mr. Handley said. “The strategy should be about mobility.

“Let’s look towards mobility,” he said.

Mobile facts
Evan Neufeld, chief marketing officer at Ground Truth, New York, presented the latest metrics of trends shaping the mobile industry.

For example, 81 percent of Americans own mobile phones. Forty percent of mobile phones are now smartphones.

Additionally, mobile commerce spend is expected to grow three times more by 2015 and mobile search is expected to grow by four times by 2015.

Although Apple's iPhone and Google’s Android is leading the smartphone pack, there are still a decent amount of users on BlackBerry devices.

In addition, Windows Phone 7 is rapidly growing.

“We’re still going to see platforms coming into play,” Mr. Neufeld said.

The executive also said that when it comes to offers and mobile coupons, there is a lot of room for improvement.

Brands must also optimize offers and other forms of content specifically for mobile to present a seamless experience for consumers.

“Consumers prefer using mobile Web browsers to downloadable mobile applications,” Mr. Neufeld said. “We see a widespread adoption of HTML5 and companies building cooler slicker interfaces.

“Apps versus Web usage will continue to be driven by content type,” he said.

Final Take
The Hyperfactory's Mr. Handley

Full Article

Some background
Kraft Foods’ Comida Kraft has been connecting with Latin moms for about 10 years and started with a Web site, then the email newsletter and magazine.

Following digital trends in consumer behavior, the company next launched a mobile Web site, an SMS club and complemented that with YouTube and Facebook pages.

The mobile site for Comida Kraft includes all of the recipe content from the Web site, but adapted to the mobile channel.

The Comida Kraft mobile club is an opt-in SMS program where people receive bi-monthly text messages with relevant content such as new recipes and event alerts.

Comida Kraft also uses SMS calls to action within its magazine to connect readers with additional content.

“We know that the Latin consumer reacts very well to our content,” Ms. Cameron said. “We also know that Latin consumers over-index in their mobile usage so we teamed with the very charismatic chef Alfredo Oropeza for this ‘Share Your Latin Flavor’ effort.”

Share Your Latin Flavor
The Share Your Latin Flavor program launched in May. Comida Kraft worked with The Hyperfactory, a Meredith Integrated Marketing agency, for the effort.

The campaign includes Web, social, mobile, TV and print.

The mobile program features a mobile hub with access to all recipe and video content. It also allows users to sign up for the SMS and email database, “Like” Comida Kraft on Facebook and share the site with friends via SMS.

“We know this audience over indexes in mobile and social,” said Geoffrey Handley, cofounder of The Hyperfactory, New York. “We also know a lot of social stuff is happening through mobile.

“But not too many programs use mobile in a social context.”

One of the objectives of the program is acquisition—to bring consumers into the email and SMS database. Joining the database unlocks an exclusive portion of the hub, where consumers can access recipes and video content available only to them, only on mobile.

Another objective is to bulk up the Comida Kraft Facebook fan base.

Mobile banners and SMS calls to action in print were set up to drive traffic and acquisition.

There is also a mobile redirect in place, which is set up to receive traffic from otherwise digital channels such as TV spots and Facebook posts.

As a result of the campaign, mobile site traffic increased 135 percent from May to June 2011.

Additionally, Comida Kraft was able to nearly double its Facebook fan base from May to present.

“Overall, having a 360-degree campaign really pays off,” Ms. Cameron said. “You have to give options to the consumer.”

Full Article

“The iPhone’s will allow our employees to check inventory availability, access how-to videos and use Lowes.com in the aisles of our store,” said Lowe’s spokesperson Abby Buford. “We will continue to add functionality to the devices over time, but this will allow for a simple and seamless transition between customers and employees. [The Hyperfactory, Lowe’s lead strategic mobile agency, helped the Lowe’s team develop key functionality in this application and also the recently-launched, much-lauded Lowe’s Consumer Application.]

“Our goal is to make home improvement simple for customers and our employees,” she said.

Multi-functionality

Lowe’s, Mooresville, NC, operates more than 1,725 home improvement stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Several retailers are arming store associates with mobile devices, including Lowe’s competitor Home Depot, which started giving employees handheld Motorola devices last year.

Full Article

Consumers are expressing interest in shopping on mobile devices, especially when it comes to tablets. (Though at this point, it’s pretty much an iPad-only game; even Google, whose Android software competes with Apple’s, launched its new Catalog app on iPad first.) The National Retail Federation found that nearly 40% of college shoppers and 30% of K-12 shoppers with tablets say they plan to use them to purchase products for school this year. That’s a greater percentage than those who said they would use the device to compare prices or conduct product research, according to the survey of more than 8,000 respondents.

But with smartphones, it’s a different picture. Consumers are less enthusiastic about making purchases: Nearly 20% of K-12 shoppers and 17% of college shoppers say they will make purchases with their smartphones. But more than 30% in both camps saying they will compare prices with those devices.

For mobile commerce, online retailers are definitely leading the way. In 2010, eBay reported nearly $2 billion in gross merchandise volume from mobile. The company expects to double that to $4 billion in mobile sales this year.

“The area of [mobile-]commerce is definitely growing, but most retailers are still heavily invested in stores,” said Mr. Handley. “Mobile provides a quick win when it aids retail.”

Here, Ad Age highlights retailers’ mobile apps and strategies for back-to-school and beyond.

TopShop
U.K.-based retailer TopShop has teamed up with SCVNGR, a location-based mobile gaming app, in an effort to get shoppers into its stores this season. Beginning Sept. 5, anyone near a store can play using the SCVNGR app. Players choose the reward they want, such as a 20% in-store discount or a shopping spree, and complete challenges like taking a picture of their favorite back-to-college outfit at TopShop in order to earn points toward the reward.

Finish Line
Earlier this month, Finish Line unveiled a new app that gives shoppers access to real-time inventory at the store nearest them. Users can check to see if an item is available in the style, size and color they’re looking for. Transactions can be completed on the app, but it also uses geo-tracking to provide store information and directions from the user’s location.

Wet Seal
The teen retailer is taking a different approach to mobile this back-to-school season by offering shoppers a free Android phone (with a new two-year plan plus data) just for coming into a story and trying on jeans. Talk about a traffic driver.

Amazon Student
Launched just in time for the back-to-school shopping season, Amazon’s new app allows students to check prices and comparison shop by scanning barcodes. Users can also scan the barcode of an item they no longer want—think books, games, movies and electronics—to find out its trade-in value, redeemable for Amazon gift cards.

Google Catalogs
This free app for tablets enables shoppers to browse and interact with catalogs. There are all the expected bells and whistles—find products in store, buy online, watch related videos—as well as some cool extras, such as the ability to create collages, search for products across different catalogs and add a retailer to a favorites tab for immediate notification when a new catalog hits. Launch partners include: Anthropologie, Bloomingdale's, Crate and Barrel, L.L. Bean, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Sephora, Williams-Sonoma and others.

E-Textbooks
College bookstores beware. A bevy of apps have popped up that allow students to compare prices on new, used, electronic and rental textbooks by scanning a barcode. Students can also rent or buy directly via the app. Chegg, CampusBooks and Kno are a few of the companies playing in the space. And why not? The National Association of College Stores estimates that the average full-time student spends $483 annually on course materials.

Full Article

The Waterfront Auckland Mobile Destination launched in July 2011; with 70% of all mobile handsets in market having the ability to connect to the mobile internet, a rich, utilitarian mobile site that caters to a wide range of handsets was necessary to reach the largest possible audience. The goal was to provide people with interesting, informative content in an easy-to-use and, in turn, cost-effective manner, and because the site renders a rich experience for each individual handset, the Waterfront Auckland program provides very deep engagement, particularly for high-end devices such as the iPhone, for which the site is rendered in HTML5.

Centered around the Wynyard Quarter as an initial touch point, both local and international visitors are able to use this tool. This includes maps, dynamic news and event information, bars and dining and an exciting range of guided audio tours covering maritime & fishing, art, heritage, urban design & sustainability and Maori.

In addition, potential visitors can get a taste for all the great things that Auckland Waterfront has to offer wherever they are in the world, as well as "Like" specific events, sharing them on their Facebook profiles.

Find out more about Auckland Waterfront: New-look waterfront pulls in the crowds

The following is an excerpt from Deloitte's analysis:

With games receding as a realistic option for brands seeking to advertise on mobile, the other option is to provide utility apps. Kraft’s iFood Assistant is a good example of the type, having been downloaded by around half a million consumers. Kraft’s app provides recipes indexed by ingredients, meal type and preparation time as well as a shopping list feature and instructional videos.

 

In our view, iFood Assistant has been successful because it bundles together a number of characteristics that have driven success for other brands:

• The app harnesses the power of network effects, allowing customers to upload and share their own recipes, improving the experience for all users
• The brand is prominent throughout the content, driving brand awareness
• The app acts as a loyalty programme, offering coupons and discounts
• The app gathers invaluable data on user habits and allows for targeted recipes and coupons to encourage repeat usage
• The app uses the hardware features of the device to offer enhanced experience (in the case of iFood Assistant, a GPS store finder)

The latter is very important. Mobile apps represent an opportunity for users to fully engage and experience a brand, thanks to specific functionality available on smartphones, for example: touch screens, accelerometers, microphones and GPS. In our view, companies should consider whether they can develop an app that creates value for users using these functions, rather than just creating a stripped out version of their website or mobile microsite.

Download PDF

Beck's creates a worldwide virtual gallery

At the launch event for the Beck's Green Box Project, brand manager Andy Logan reminded the audience that this is the 25th year of Beck's Art Labels, and of the fact that the beer brand was the first to use green bottles instead of the standard brown. In continuation of both its connection with the arts and its self-consciously pioneering spirit, Beck's Green Box Project is an international augmented reality commissioning programme, which seeks to enable hundreds of digital works of art over three years.

The resulting commissions will be viewable via the Beck's Key app, which uses GPS and visual markers to display the creative contents of the two metre-cubed green boxes. The app also allows users to search for their closest Green Box and receive updates about the artists involved, creating what Beck's has billed as 'the world's first global networked augmented reality gallery'.

British fashion photographer Nick Knight, who is co-curating the project, expanded on his enthusiasm for augmented reality: 'This feels like a new art form; the juxtaposition between the world we see and the world we're going to be allowed to see through the technology.'

To mark the launch, a 200-foot high digital sculpture by Belgian artist Arne Quinze was unveiled on top of the Statue of Liberty in New York and 30 further pieces of art have been commissioned from different creative disciplines. The commissions span seven cities and the artists involved include UK food scientists Bompas & Parr, US illustrator Sage Vaughn and Toronto-based opera trio Austra. These initial exhibits, Logan explained, are 'a call to action for as many independent thinkers as possible' as Beck's seeks to commission hundreds more digital artworks, conceived by members of the public, throughout 2012.

Matt Hardisty, strategy director for Mother London, who worked on the project, commented on the marketing potential of the distinctive green boxes: 'We are trying to represent a different kind of gallery, but from an advertising point of view this is also a different kind of billboard - they will be situated in these areas for between two weeks and two months.'

www.becks.com

Full Article

“In Andy Lark we have the newly appointed CMO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and former CMO of the $35B Enterprise and Public Marketing unit of Dell. In Geoff Ross, a gutsy entrepreneur who against all odds created 42 Below Vodka as a bold aggressive international brand in a sterile sector leveraging viral media before the advent of viral media. Claudia Batten is at the forefront of creating disruption to the marketing model as founder of revolutionary crowdsourcing agency Victors & Spoils: one of AdAge’s Top 10 Agency to Watch List of 2011.

“The last of the Kiwi line-up is Sarah Robb O’Hagan, one of Forbes’ Most Powerful Women in Sports and AdAge’s Women to Watch 2010. Sarah is an inspirational marketing leader in charge of one of the most iconic brands in America as Gatorade President North America and Global Chief Marketing Officer, Sports Nutrition for Pepsico.

“Joining these world class New Zealanders we have two international visionaries in brand and digital media. Marc Mathieu is Unilever’s newly appointed number two global marketer, recognised both as an entrepreneur and global branding expert. Marc was previously Global Brand Head for Coca-Cola and has a passion for social change. Nihal Mehta is a veteran of mobile and social marketing; a Top 10 NYC Game-Changer and an AdAge ‘Top 20 Marketer in their 20s’, and currently a co-founding general partner at the mobile seed fund ENIAC Ventures.

“A cross section of the good and the great, each of these people have a history of achieving amazing things in the world of marketing and pushing the medium forward.

“The winner will be announced August 1st 2011”. The six finalists are:

• Anna-Claire Clendon (Auckland)
• Keren Phillips (Auckland)
• Jen Corbett (Auckland)
• Brooke Anderson (Wellington)
• Carmen Vicelich (Auckland)
• Scott Wright (Auckland)

THE HYPERFACTORY-HANDLEY GLOBAL MARKETING SCHOLARSHIP

The scholarship aims to create a powerful alumni of leading lights in the future of marketing and give them unprecedented access to the conversations of the smartest marketers at the world’s largest brands—like L’Oréal, Kraft, Nestlé and AB InBev—in a global setting.

Scholarship recipients will meet leading marketers at game-changing companies at both ends of the spectrum, from corporations to start-ups. In addition to understanding how leading brands engage with their consumers, Hyperfactory scholars will be able to take a look “under the hood” at some of the world’s leading marketing, content and digital enablers such as Apple, Google, Time Warner and Facebook. Additionally, there will be introductions and exposure to those start-ups, entrepreneurs and catalysts that the Handley brothers feel will be the next to change the future of marketing.

Full details and application guidelines are available at www.thehyperfactory.com as well as the scholarship’s Facebook page.

ABOUT THE JUDGES

Andy Lark: Newly appointed CMO, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (from July 1 2011) @kiwilark
Andy is the newly appointed CMO for Commonwealth Bank of Australia, having just led Dell’s global marketing for its Enterprise and Public group – a $35B business unit. Since returning to Dell three years ago he has held a variety of roles including CMO for the Enterprise group, vice president global communications and branding; and, vice president, Dell.com – the world’s largest eCommerce site. Andrew is recognized as an innovator in social media and pioneered Dell’s award-winning social media programs. Outside of Dell, Andrew has held a number of directorships of public and privately held companies and today sits on the boards of Xero – a leading Web-based accounting platform, N0.8 Ventures – New Zealand’s premier technology venture capital firm; and the advisory board of Prof Gary Hamel’s Management Innovation Exchange.

Claudia Batten: co-Founder Massive and founder Victor and Spoils @ClaudiaBatten
Claudia Batten is co-founder and COO of Victors & Spoils, the world’s first advertising agency based on crowdsourcing principles. A corporate lawyer specializing in contract and technology law by trade, Batten attained a strong background in the legal precepts that shape the ever-evolving technology industry early in her career. Through this she developed the techniques that make for an effective modern company in the digital space era. 

She followed up her successful legal career by joining the founding team at Massive, a first-of-its-kind network for video game advertising. Within three years, Massive had bloomed into a full-scale advertising network which sold to Microsoft Corporation in 2006. Batten continued with Massive through the acquisition, serving as director of partner development, and played an integral role in helping the company scale the network.
 
The launch of Victors & Spoils in the autumn of 2009 made instant waves in the industry, marking the advent of a new era in regard to the perception of crowdsourcing within advertising. Batten established the agency with ad industry veterans and alums of acclaimed agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, John Winsor and Evan Fry. The agency launch was groundbreaking, opening doors for industry creatives around the world. Victors & Spoils now works with CMOs at Fortune 500 companies and continues to turn heads as its clever output reaches the mainstream.

Geoff Ross, Executive Chairman Ecoya
Geoff was the founder and CEO of 42 Below Vodka (sold to Bacardi in late 2006) and the author of the best selling book “Every Bastard Says No”. He is also Executive Chairman of Ecoya Limited, an NZX listed body, bath and home fragrance company. Prior to 42 Below, he was a Managing Partner and Board Member of DDB Advertising for two years and was a Client Service Director and Management Team Member for Saatchi & Saatchi in Wellington for eight years. Geoff is also a board member of the Melanoma Foundation and advisor to Air New Zealand’s “Grab a Seat” initiative.

Mark Mathieu, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Unilever
Marc is a visionary who believes in the power of movements. Whether it’s a specific movement—such as fair trade, the triple bottom line or the social media revolution—or movements as a whole, Marc frequently explores movements in context of the cultural shifts they can ignite and the business impact they can have, both globally and locally, often anchoring the discussion within the world of branding and infusing it with his many years of marketing expertise. Marc brings with him the experience of large FMCG companies such as Danone and Coca-Cola, where he was last head of Global Brand Marketing and developed the company’s platform for sustainability: “Live Positively.” Marc is a founding member of Sustainability 50, a leading peer group organization of Fortune 500 Chief Sustainability Officers. He is also a Co-Founder of The Hoop and on the advisory board for Green My Parents.

Nihal Mehta: Mobile Entrepreneur, Investor and Advisor @nihalmehta
With over 12 years’ experience in innovating marketing technologies through several successful startups to date, Nihal Mehta is a noted expert in the emerging adoption of mobile technologies for media properties and consumer brands. Named a Top 10 NYC “game changer” in the 2010 New York Enterprise Report, one of 20 RCR Wireless News “mobile movers and shakers” in 2008, a BusinessWeek “m-Commerce Baron” in 2006 and named one of AdAge’s “Top 20 Marketers in Their 20s” in 2005, Nihal is currently CEO and co-founder of LocalResponse, Inc. which helps brands and businesses reach consumers across aggregate location-based services. Prior to LocalResponse, (which pivoted from buzzd, a leading real-time city guide), Nihal founded ipsh!, one of the first full-service mobile marketing agencies in 2001, which he sold to Omnicom (NYSE: OMC) in 2005. Nihal is also a General Partner at the world’s first venture fund focused on mobile startups, ENIAC ventures, and is an active angel investor with several successful exits including Admob (sold to Google), Greystripe (sold to Valueclick), and Movoxx (sold to Adenyo). Nihal graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Philosophy and a BSE in Computer Science.

Sarah Robb O’Hagan, President Gatorade @SarahRobbOh
Sarah Robb O’Hagan is Gatorade president North America and global chief marketing officer, Sports Nutrition, PepsiCo, which owns the world’s largest portfolio of billion-dollar food and beverage brands, including 19 different product lines, each of which generate more than $1 billion in annual retail sales. PepsiCo’s main businesses – Frito-Lay, Quaker, Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana and Gatorade – make hundreds of nourishing foods and beverages for consumers in more than 200 countries. With nearly $60 billion in revenue, PepsiCo employs 285,000 people worldwide.

Robb O’Hagan assumed this role in January 2011 and is responsible for the North American Gatorade business and the global brand management of Sport Nutrition. In this new role, O’Hagan will assume responsibility for the marketing and operations of the entire Gatorade business in North America and will lead the development of sports nutrition on a global scale, including the launch of Gatorade’s G Series in several markets in 2011.

Robb O’Hagan joined PepsiCo in June 2008 as chief marketing officer, Gatorade, where she oversaw the business’ strategic direction, product innovation, and consumer, shopper and sports marketing communications. In this role, Robb O’Hagan led Gatorade’s transformation from sports drink company to sports performance innovator, which included the launch of the brand’s G Series – a line of products that delivers fuel, fluid and nutrients to athletes before, during and after physical activity. Before joining PepsiCo, Robb O’Hagan worked for Nike, Atari Interactive, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand.

Geoffrey and Derek Handley @therealhandley, Co-Founders, The Hyperfactory
Geoffrey and Derek Handley are the co-founders of The Hyperfactory and the creators of the Scholarship program.

ABOUT THE HYPERFACTORY

The Hyperfactory (www.thehyperfactory.com) powers businesses and brands through the mobile medium. As the most-awarded and most established specialist, it is consistently setting new standards of excellence through two divisions:

• Agency: Powering brands through integrated mobile strategy, creative, media and innovation.
• Technology: Powering businesses through planning, integration and deployment of mobile technology, regardless of the platform, protocol or device.

Founded in 2001 by New Zealand brothers Geoffrey and Derek Handley, The Hyperfactory is a wholly owned subsidiary of Meredith Corporation, the leading media and marketing company serving American women. Recently recognised in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Annual 100 Brilliant Ideas & Companies issue and with a history of winning more industry accolades and recognition than any agency worldwide, clients include Kraft, Intel, Nestlé-Gerber, Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, Microsoft, Taco Bell and AB InBev. Headquartered in New York, it employs over 100 of the world’s best mobile technology and marketing experts and supports and delivers globally through its network of offices in Auckland, Sydney and Hyderabad.

THE HYPERFACTORY CONTACT

Contact: The Hyperfactory diane.lee@thehyperfactory.com.
Released by Network PR (Clare England), clare.england@networkpr.com, (09) 306 5808 or 021 615 915.

What Makes Mobile Unique?

Users on the web are notoriously distracted and hop around from page to page. Mobile users are distracted even further. Their devices are buzzing with push notifications from their apps, text messages and emails are constantly popping up on the screen. They might be standing in line at a grocery store, waiting for a movie to start, in a taxi, in an elevator or walking down the street. These scenarios — and mobile use in general — are defined by three key factors:

1. Pockets of Use. Picking up their mobile device is a secondary task. They’re just trying to fill up a pocket of time while doing something else. Users have just a few moments to check their phone or look up a piece of information while they’re completing a primary task (waiting in line, elevator, etc.).
2. Perpetual and Inherent Distraction. Traditional web users may face distraction from email, chat and the infinite number of other webpages they could be on, but when those users land on a page, they typically stick around until they become bored or want to check out some other piece of information on the web. Mobile users, on the other hand, face perpetual off-device distractions — use of their mobile device is secondary. Byrne Hobart, founder of investment research firm Digital Due Diligence, observes that mobile marketers are “writing for an audience that’s in the middle of something else.” They might be waiting for their subway stop, their floor on an elevator, their line to be called at Whole Foods, a friend to show up at a restaurant. Point is, the number of off-device distractions for mobile users is limitless.
3. The (Very) Small Screen. Mobile devices have tiny screens — they simply do not fit a lot of content. It’s critical that marketers keep this in mind as they write copy. What will fit onto a user’s screen without scrolling?

Mobile Is How We Live and Communicate

When creating mobile content, keep in mind what it represents. For many users, their phone is the headquarters of their lifestyle. It’s a connection to friends, family and coworkers. It’s a locker for nostalgic photos and texts from last night that probably should be deleted. Users personalize the background, download apps that fit their needs and look up information on the go. For many users, their phone is the first thing they see when they wake up and the last thing they see when they go to bed. It’s by their side 24/7, and it’s their connection to the world.

Marketers — and everyone else — should keep this in mind as they create content for mobile. Here are some things to consider when writing for mobile.

Be Goal-Oriented

The Hyperfactory’s Joanne Eberhardt notes that the best mobile content “cuts copy to a minimum and only spews the necessities — necessities being what your target should see during those fateful two seconds that determine a click/tap.”

Hobart suggests that content be laser-focused on a specific task. “People are less inclined to meander on mobile apps and web — they’d rather meander in the physical world, given the choice.” Create content focused around your goals and avoid going on tangents — mobile users simply don’t have time or interest.

Use Strong Headlines: Think Like You’re Tweeting

When I reached out to the Grand Hotel group’s head of digital, Steven Rojas, he insisted that this interview be conducted over SMS to ensure the conversation was mobile-content-friendly. Rojas manages a number of Twitter accounts, so I asked him to share his secret for perfect mobile content. It’s easy he says, “Make it quick. Make it smart. Make it witty. And above all make it retweetable!”

Even if you’re not writing a tweet, think about the word “retweetable.” Really, what Rojas is eluding to is that the best mobile content is tweet-worthy, even if it’s not being written for Twitter. Mobile copy should be very much to the point while sacrificing as little power as possible. Get an idea across quickly. To do this, content will have to be quick and clear so that users get the point right away, but with just enough mystery and intrigue to encourage them to continue reading and to also share the content with others.

Screen Sizes Vary Among Mobile Devices

When writing copy for the web, space on the page allows for visual cues that can draw the readers’ eye towards the marketer’s objectives. Anna Lindow, director of marketing strategy at personal finance startup Bundle, points out that “when it comes to mobile, copywriters have to place extra consideration on being extremely direct, clear and succinct, because presentation options will likely be limited or even inconsistent across devices and platforms.”

Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt, has spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to create a mobile experience. Altman stresses that “it’s important to get your brain to think within the confines of a small, mobile screen and avoid the tendency to think big and then just shrink it.” The “shrink it” mentality just creates more cycles and more iterations. “If you switch your thought process, you’re more likely to get it right the first time,” Altman explains.

Frontload Your Content

Most of the time, people are only going to read headlines or the the first couple lines of marketing content. Therefore, it’s important to put the most important content up front. Don’t hold back and don’t rely on leading up to something big. Put the big reveal up front!

Think about how readers will browse the content. Try to avoid requiring too much clicking, but you also don’t want long pages that require a lot of scrolling. The way to do this is to be concise and efficient with your words — minimize the number of pages that readers have to click through. Try to keep content on a single page, if possible. But don’t cram so much onto a page that the site takes a long time to load — users will give up if they have to wait too long.

Test Your Content to See What Performs Better

Eberhardt encourages clients to experiment and find a balance between information and space. “It’s a continuously evolving industry with technology and trends, and you cannot be afraid to make waves,” she says. Marketers and clients too afraid of turning away possible clicks or downloads sometimes end up creating extremely safe and dull material.

One way to find out what works is to test two versions of your copy. Use tools like Google Website Optimizer to try out two (or more) versions of your content. A/B testing tools allow marketers to pit two versions of the same content against each other. The software splits users into multiple groups, showing different versions of the content to each one, and then automatically selects and implements the content that results in the most conversions, whether that be click-through rate, time on site, etc.

You should also use humans to test the content, as humans will be reading it. Nearly all mobile content is created on desktop computers with big screens, desktop browsers and a mouse. You should have a few people play around with the site on a real mobile device — not simulators — to provide feedback on usability and readability.

Copywriting for Apps

Generally, content for apps should follow the same rules as any other copy for mobile, but there’s a bit more to take into account. When it comes to apps, usage will be a bit more deliberate than the general web. While users on the web could be looking for anything, app users tend to be a bit more focused. They are actively opening an app, so bigger imagery and more text might be appropriate, especially because it’s built into an app and thus won’t have to load over often-shaky mobile connections.

Conclusion

Creating content for mobile isn’t the same as creating content for the desktop web. Acknowledging and embracing that fact is key to successful copywriting for mobile. Think about the limitations of small screens, constant distractions and low-quality mobile web connections. And don’t forget to try your content out on real humans using real mobile devices. Readers on the go want bite-sized information that will serve them in that very moment. Give them what they want.

Full Article

That’s what tablet computers, or least iPads, are like today, according to The Hyperfactory Chief Derek Handley.

Speaking on a panel at OMMA Tablet Revolution, Handley was trying to explain the power of tablets to a real skeptic – me – and used the example of people who were gathered at a cocktail party who had to touch and share the device, passing it around to each other much the way Allen’s future characters might have. That makes sense, an goes a long way toward explaining the iPad’s success: It’s a drug that intoxicates its users.

Full Article

(Not just a kid issue, however, by a show of hands, just under 50% of OMMA conference attendees have attempted to touch a non-touch-friendly screen.)

Touch, however, doesn’t represent a tablet’s real value, according to Derek Handley, co-founder and CEO of The Hyperfactory. Neither does it have anything to do with a “cool” or “novelty” factor. Rather, it’s all about sharing, says Handley. “It feels like a shared device,” he said. It’s no mistake, he adds, that tablets are the fastest selling consumer electronic device ever.

At iCrossing, “Our [tablet work] is leading us to let go of the concept of the page altogether,” says Pasqua.

Full Article

The app is the second in a series of iOS apps that Gerber has planned as part of its Start Healthy, Stay Healthy program; it follows on the heels of Gerber's Pregnancy Calendar app, a tool for expecting moms, launched in late 2010.

The Birth+ Journal provides personalized tools to educate and entertain, as well as information on topics such as childhood nutrition and feeding. Features include a baby activity log, scrapbook, growth tracker, videos, handprint imaging tool and soothing sounds to help baby sleep.

Howard Hunt, VP of The Hyperfactory has said, "Working with Gerber has been fantastic—it is a great example of where a brand can really provide genuine utility to their consumers while balancing the need for engagement and excitement."

Get the app

Handley wanted to buy three things, and they weren't a mansion or a yacht:

1. A trip to Africa
2. A ticket to space
3. A letter Napoleon wrote to his generals

In his speech, he explains his unusual purchases.

"19,392 is apparently the number of days that I have left to live," Handley starts.

"And although it sounds like a lot, over the last few years I've come to realize that it probably takes you a good five years to achieve something meaningful. Turns out that 19,392 is really only 10 of those 5 year blocks. So when you think about having to achieve ten things and that's all you've got, you'll be much wiser in how you spend each of those chapters..."

"...When I was 21 and starting out, I was aspiring to be an entrepreneur, because I wanted to build businesses," Handley says. "I wanted to make a living, I wanted to make a mark, and I really wanted to make money.

"Ten years on, after this period I started to see things very differently and I started to see entrepreneurship as one of the greatest assets of society to make the world a potentially better place. As an answer to many of the world's ills, and as an enabler to much of the world's opportunity."

So, 30-year-old Handley took his "FU money" and made his three purchases.

"First, I went to Africa and discovered and learned all about how entrepreneurship and microfinance and microloans were empowering microentrepreneurs to lift themselves out of poverty in the present.

"Second, I bought a ticket to space with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic [which costs $200,000] because I wanted to see the world from up there as one and be inspired by the future.

"And third, I bought that letter that Napoleon had written to remind myself of the past, and to never give up."

This is the Napoleon letter Handley bought (he used it as inspiration when The Hyperfactory was on the verge of failure):

We are at a time when you need to double the resolve, and double the vigor of ordinary times. Lead by example. Be the first to put yourself in danger. And with the troops that you have, I expect you to defeat double of theirs.

The full speech is 20 minutes long, but if you have time and want to be inspired, watch it:

Derek Handley from Kea New Zealand on Vimeo.

Full Article

"We recognize that mobile has changed the game in regards to consumer engagement, and Live Nation is using mobile to build relationships with both consumers and brands, to offer the most relevant information, promotions and access," Russell Wallach, President of Live Nation Network said. "With mobile we can interact with consumers before, during and after concerts, and provide them with the best consumer experience."

"We are honored to have such renowned guests at this year's MMA Forum. This year's speakers represent the leaders of the mobile marketing industry and display the global growth of mobile marketing," said Michael Becker, Managing Director of North America for the MMA. "Mobile is clearly becoming an essential part of the overall marketing mix, and each speaker that has been selected will provide insight and expertise into the most important aspects of mobile today."

Headlining this year's event is Eddy Hartenstein, co-president of the Tribune Company. Speakers also include some of the world's leading global brands and mobile industry veterans such as:

• Cleveland Cavaliers, Jeff Ryznar, Director of Strategic Marketing
• eBayClassifieds, Deepak Thomas, General Manager
• Live Nation, Russell Wallach, President
• Molson Coors Canada, Paul Lipson, Director of Digital Marketing
• National Hockey League, Christopher Golier, Vice President of Mobile Marketing and Strategy
• Pandora, Tim Westergren, Founder
• SMLXL, Alan Moore, Founder
• The Coca-Cola Company, Doug Busk, Director of Global Customer Experience and Strategy

Additional speakers include Ray Punn, Adobe Systems; Thomas Labarthe, Alcatel-Lucent; Maria Mandel, AT&T Advanced Ad Solutions; Jessica Rotnicki, Estee Lauder Companies; Anne Frisbie, InMobi; Jeff Plaisted, Microsoft Advertising; Paul Palmieri, Millennial Media; Joe Lalley, MTV Networks, Javier Farfan, Pepsi; Stephane Marceau, Yellow Pages Group Canada, and more!

The MMA Forum will also feature "The Pitch," where five companies have five minutes to demo their latest innovation on the MMA Forum stage and win over the audience. This year the "Mobile Experience Lab" is back, the lab is an interactive way for delegates to experience mobile campaigns firsthand, and interact with brands using mobile as part of their integrated marketing strategies.

Finally, the pre-conference workshops and roundtables should not be missed. There will be an introductory mobile marketing educational workshop, and an afternoon workshop on mobile analytics and applications by Openwave. In addition, two roundtables will be held, one geared toward brands and retailers, sponsored by Poynt, and one sponsored by Adobe Omniture Business Unit, in partnership with the Newspaper Association of America and Tribune Company, which will focus on helping publishers embrace mobile.

To register for this year's MMA Forum please visit: http://forum.mmaglobal.com/newyorkcity2011. Members of the press please email mma@globalresultspr.com to request press credentials. The event runs June 16-17, 2011 with pre-event workshops on June 15th focused on mobile marketing guidelines, consumer engagement and integrating mobile with traditional media.

This year's MMA Forum sponsors include: 3C Interactive, Adobe, Alcatel Lucent, Arent Fox, AT&T, Celtra, ChaCha, CNN, Denso ADC, Digimarc, Google, Hipcricket, iLoop Mobile, InMobi, MadMobile, Microsoft Advertising, Millennial Media, MobileFuse, OpenMarket, OpenWave, Out There Media, Poynt, Scanbuy, Sybase, Synovate, The Coca-Cola Company, The Hyperfactory, Tribune Company and Vibes.

About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global non-profit trade association representing all players in the mobile marketing value chain. With more than 700 member companies, the MMA is an action-oriented organization with global focus, regional actions and local relevance. The MMA's primary focus is to establish mobile as an indispensable part of the marketing mix. The MMA works to promote, educate measure, guide and protect the mobile marketing industry worldwide. The MMA's global headquarters are located in the United States and it has regional chapters including North America (NA), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America (LATAM) and Asia Pacific (APAC) branches. For more information, please visit www.mmaglobal.com.

Full Article

“We’re opening it up to everyone,” says Hyperfactory CEO Derek Handley. “We appreciate that all three Handley brothers are either approaching or at that age ourselves so, we’re happy to re-jig that criteria and throw the scholarship open to all visionaries. We’re looking forward to welcoming the first recipient to the U.S. this year.”

The scholarship aims to create a powerful alumni of leading lights in the future of marketing and give them unprecedented access to the conversations of marketers working at the world’s largest brands—like L’Oréal, Kraft, Nestlé and AB InBev—and also at start-ups.

In addition to understanding how leading brands engage with their consumers, Hyperfactory scholars will be able to take a look “under the hood” at some of the world’s leading marketing, content and digital enablers such as Apple, Google, Time Warner and Facebook.

Additionally, there will be introductions and exposure to those start-ups, entrepreneurs and catalysts that the Handley brothers feel will be the next to change the future of marketing.

Full details and application guidelines are available at www.thehyperfactory.com as well as the scholarship’s Facebook page.

Full Article

The New Zealand-founded Hyperfactory is a mobile advertising company bought by US media giant Meredith Corporation last year and when it announced the scholarship in late November it added the proviso that only those under 35 could enter to ensure they could “truly be visionaries for the future”.

But now the scholarship, to be offered each year for 10 years, is open to all, said Hyperfactory CEO Hyperfactory CEO Derek Handley.

“We appreciate that all three Handley brothers are either approaching or at that age ourselves so, we’re happy to re-jig that criteria and throw the scholarship open to all visionaries.”

The scholarship will fly the recipient to Hyperfactory’s offices in the west and east coast of the US for a week long trip that the company hopes will create an alumni of Kiwi marketers who can take knowledge of the future of marketing back home.

The recipient will meet with world-class digital marketers at big-name brands such as Nestle, L’Oreal and Kraft and get to talk to marketing, content and digital enabler giants, Google, Apple and Facebook among others.

The other end of the success spectrum is not ignored either – the recipient will visit start-ups and entrepreneurs whom Hyperfactory feels are the future of marketing.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming the first recipient to the U.S. this year,” said Mr Handley, who offered a scholarship of a different kind to Auckland staff earlier this month when they were told 16 roles would relocate to the New York offices, and to make the decision to move or lose their jobs.

Applications close April 4th with the scholarship awarded some time between May and June and taking place between June and September.

Full Article

Wikimobidex, a Web-based index of mobile marketing and advertising firms, recently listed its top 40 mobile companies to watch, and seven New York area companies graced the list. And not surprisingly, citybizlist has covered most of these companies in recent months.

Augme Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: AUGT.OB) ranked no. 9, up from its previous spot at no. 12 and trending as "on the rise." One of the few public companies listed, Augme platforms integrate brands, music, video and other content. As reported by citybizlist, Augme has raised $6 million from a series of offerings in recent months.

Ringleader Digital, which finished 11th, has developed a 3rd party mobile ad server. According to the survey, it is on a downswing, having finished in 6th place a month ago.

Mojiva ("Mo" from "mobile," "Jiva" from a Sanskrit word for "life" or "to breathe") came in 15th. The mobile ad network has additional offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and London. In April, citybizlist reported that the company enjoyed a Series B round of $7 million from UV Partners and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, a return investor.

The Nielsen Company (NYSE: NLSN), no stranger to the ratings game, occupied the 21st spot. As citybizlist reported, the company went public this month, raising $1.6 billion in the largest private equity-backed IPO in the US in at least ten years. Talk about upward mobility.

Insight Express, our Stamford, Conn. neighbor, finished 23rd. The company specializes in the measurement of advertising and brand communications. Insight Express is owned by Greenwich-based private equity firm General Atlantic LLC.

AP Mobile climbed 36 places from 63 last month to 27. The company was developed by the Associated Press exclusively for smart phones like the iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry®, Palm® PreTM, Nokia Devices and Android Market! It provides access to international, national and local news.

The Hyperfactory closes out the top 30. Founded in 2001 by New Zealand brothers Geoffrey and Derek Handley , the company was acquired by publishing giant Meredith Corporation in 2010 and the headquarters moved to New York. The ad agency boasts such clients as Kraft, Intel, Nestlé-Gerber, Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, Microsoft, and Taco Bell.

According to Seeking Alpha's Mobile Guru, the "mobile revolution" could "dwarf the original PC and internet movement," but there are currently limited investment opportunities in this space. These top 40 companies-and the seven New Yorkers highlighted in this study-could soon be ripe for IPOs or other windfalls.

One thing we do know, New York's mobile companies won't stand still.

See the full list at: http://tinyurl.com/4jeczw5

Full Article

At least that's the word from Jeff Arbour, SVP of The Hyperfactory, in a follow up conversation to a source interview we did for the new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND.

In this conclusion of our conversation, we talk about how QR codes and other forms of 2D barcodes msut overcome some considerable challenges, and about how mobile augmented reality will take off as marketers get past the silly stuff and start getting more purposeful. Along the way, we'll hear about some of his favorite existing AR apps - including IKEA's (shown here) - and what it will take for AR to really take off;

INTERVIEW: JEFF ARBOUR, SVP, THE HYPERFACTORY (Concl) - GETTING REAL WITH MOBILE AR

(Approx. 4:13)

In the new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, and also in my first book, BRANDING UNBOUND, I argue that the real power of mobile lies in supercharging the effectiveness of traditional advertising.

Simply put, mobile makes everything interactive. Our television ads become interactive. Our radio ads become interactive. Our print ads become interactive. Our direct mail becomes interactive. Our outdoor signage becomes interactive. Our storefronts become interactive. Our point of purchase becomes interactive. Even our products themselves become an opportunity to have an interactions with consumers that is really quite unprecedented.

The other day, I was talking to Hyperfactory SVP Jeff Arbour about some of the conversation he and I have in THE ON-DEMAND BRAND about this dynamic, and we continue it here. In part two: How mobile can supercharge traditional advertising - a proposition that has been much more prevalent in other markets around the world, and is only now catching on the US in a very big way.

Along the way, we discuss some of the promise - and peril - of location-based services and how to keep them relevant for the long term.

INTERVIEW: JEFF ARBOUR, SVP, THE HYPERFACTORY (PT 2) - THE TRADITIONAL/MOBILE CONNECTION

(Approx. 5:57)

Full Article

I was recently in New York City to moderate a panel on trends in mobile marketing that featured, among other luminaries, Derek Handley, the kinetic co-founder of The Hyperfactory.

For those out of the know, The Hyperfactory has been the force behind a number of the world's most innovative mobile initiatives, several of which are featured in the new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (available everywhere books are sold). Among its recent hits: The "Big Fork, Little Fork" iPad app for Kraft, shown here.

What may further distinguish The Hyperfactory is the fact that it was recently acquired by publishing giant Meredith - pointing to potent synergies bridging content, database marketing and mobile.

The other day, I touched bases with another friend from Hyperfactory, North America SVP Jeff Arbour (a mobile marketing dynamo in his own right) to talk about these synergies - and how they might come into play in branded apps to come.

INTERVIEW: JEFF ARBOUR, SVP NORTH AMERICA, THE HYPERFACTORY (PT 1) IPAD APPS THAT ROCK

(Approx. 5:35)

Full Article

MUJI IPAD APPS
The minimalist Japanese retailer launched a series of iPad apps that transferred its characteristic style in clothing and home goods -- spare, clean and functional -- into digital products. Calendar (free) helps organize appointments and syncs with Google calendar, Notebook ($3.99) is a product to sketch and jot and Muji to Go (free) is a tool for travelers with a world clock and calculator.

WEBER'S ON THE GRILL IPAD APP
This iPad app has a meat timer. If that weren't enough, the app cookbook from the outdoor grill company also contains recipes, how-to videos and grocery lists. The app is just the latest in cookbooks from Weber, which reported at Ad Age's ME Conference in November that it sold more than 1 million cookbooks.

BIG FORK, LITTLE FORK IPAD APP
This iPad app from Kraft Foods is a tool for parents to teach their kids healthful habits. While Kraft achieved app fame with its iFood Assistant, it's recipe app for iPhone, the marketer did not just make that success bigger for the tablet platform. Instead, it looked to mobile agency Hyperfactory and the editorial prowess of its magazine-publisher parent, Meredith Corp., to craft the editorial app -- interlaced with lots of Kraft products of course -- aimed at parents.

STARBUCKS CARD MOBILE APP
While the coffee-chain launched this mobile payments app last September, it added in a loyalty program and expanding the mobile payments program from test stores in its hometown Seattle, Northern California and 1,000 Target stores to 300 more locations in New York City and Long Island this year. The app, available for iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry, still remains one of the biggest mobile payments programs in the U.S. to date.

TIFFANY ENGAGEMENT RING FINDER IPHONE APP
Not only does the app contain all the shapes, sizes and designs for Tiffany engagement rings, it also has a sizing tool where a clueless bachelor can put an existing ring on the touch screen to compare her size to the standard ring sizes.

GE MOOD CAM IPHONE APP
To find your perfect lighting scheme, this app lets you take a picture of a room, adjust the lighting to what you're after and then constructs a shopping list of GE products to achieve those ideal levels.

BEST BUY MOVIE MODE APP
The electronics retailer created a mobile app on iPhone, Android and Blackberry, meant to be used in the theater for the movie "Despicable Me." While the film is playing, the app dims the phone's screen and silences the ringer, but during the end credits it translates what the cartoon characters are saying in their strange language.

DISNEY TICKETS TOGETHER FACEBOOK APP
For the "Toy Story 3" release this summer, Disney created an app where fans could buy tickets to the film right on the social network and also invite friends to do the same. When a Facebook user buys a ticket, it publishes the purchase to his or her news feed and invites others to do the same. Disney has since used the tool for later releases, like the most recent "Tangled" movie.

DELTA TICKET WINDOW FACEBOOK APP
The Facebook tab on Delta's fan page lets users search, book and share flights within the social network. Built by Alvenda, the app is a first for the airline industry -- the transaction is completed within the social network, while an earlier tool for European budget airline Easy Jet started the process on Facebook but jumped to its own website to complete the sale.

WALMART'S CROWDSAVER FACEBOOK APP
Following the lead of rule-the-headlines-startup Groupon, digital agency R/GA built the world's-largest retailer a group-buying app on Facebook called Crowdsaver. The first deal flipped on nearly 20% off a plasma TV with 5,000 likes. Walmart has since launched other deals, such as $6 off the "Back to the Future" DVD trilogy.

Full Article

Each year for the next ten years Hyperfactory founders Derek and Geoff Handley will fund and host a ten-day US road trip for one marketer to visit the best of breed in digital marketing.

“The scholarship aims to create a powerful alumni of leading lights in the future of marketing and give them unprecedented access to the conversations of the smartest marketers at huge global brands like L’Oreal, Kraft, Nestle and InBev, in a global setting,” Derek Handley told the audience of 100-plus marketing glitterati.

He says the next ten years “will totally transform marketing, consumer behaviour and branding as we know it, far more so than in the past 100 years combined.”

Handley laments the state of New Zealand digital marketing—from the shameful speeds and costs of access, to the paucity of online innovations in marketing.

“We have a number of challenges across our broadband and mobile networks in New Zealand, which limit us from persuading Kiwi consumers to engage at this level. But within these challenges await significant opportunities, and our future marketing leaders need to be best equipped so they can find these solutions. The scholarship is designed to empower that skill base.”

Scholarship recipients will get to meet leading marketers and game changing companies at both ends of spectrum, from corporate to start-up.  In addition to understanding how the leading brands engage with their consumers, recipients will be able to ‘take a look under the hood’ at some  of the world’s leading marketing, content and digital enablers like Apple, Google, Time Warner and Facebook.

The scholarship will commence in early 2011.  To be eligible, those nominated must be brand marketers, under the age of 35 and visionaries for the future. Interested parties will be able to go to www.thehyperfactory.com from January 2011 to find details on how to apply.

After announcing the scholarship the guests clapped enthusiastically, several women threw themselves at the handsome speaker and at least one marketer stood on the table with his underpants on his head.

“We applaud Hyperfactory’s generous scholarship and encourage all marketers to apply for the scholarship. In no way can we condone the table thing,” says Marketing Association chief executive Sue McCarty.

Full Article

The US-based awards, which are now in their sixth year, recognise top companies and their campaigns across different regions for spearheading the adoption of the mobile channel for marketing purposes.

The Hyperfactory, which the Handley brothers Derek and Geoffrey recently sold to US marketing beast Meredith (they still work there, of course), were acknowledged in Best Use of Mobile Marketing – Product/Services Launch for Clinique’s 3-Step Product Launch & Sampling Campaign, Best Use of Mobile Marketing – Product/Services Launch for Trojan – Fire & Ice, and twice in the Innovation categories for Intel Work Smarter in UK and the US.

Tui Blond (recently awarded New Zealand’s best lager at Brew NZ 2010, don’t you know) is up for Best Use of Mobile Marketing – Direct Response – Asia Pacific. It was entered into the awards by Todd Wackrow of PocketVOUCHERS.com, who worked on a consumer sampling campaign for the brand through mobile phones, which drove foot traffic into on-premise outlets with close to 20,000 consumers trialling the new beverage.

Tui marketing manager, Jarrod Bear says making it to the finals of the international caps off a great year for the brand. “It’s an awesome achievement considering the campaign is benchmarked on a global standard.”

The winners of the awards will be announced in Los Angeles at the Annual Global Awards dinner and ceremony on November 17. And Wakerow, who will be on his honeymoon at the time, hopes to attend the awards on behalf of Tui Blond and bring back more gold than just his wedding ring.

Full article

Purse Strings Tied to Apron Strings
While women dominate household spending, they still bear the brunt of getting food on the table and taking care of kids, handling 91 percent of the household chores, according to Boston Consulting Group. She'd love to lure her husband into the kitchen to help plan and cook family meals, and maybe Big Fork, Little Fork will help. The iPad app from Kraft Foods combines recipes, nutrition tips, and cooking how-to videos with a very soft brand message.

Created in conjunction with Meredith Integrated Marketing and Hyperfactory, it was designed to help parents instill smart eating habits and a foodie sensibility into kids 6- to 12-years-old. "There are 37 million online searches per year on kids' food, but not a dominant source for that type of information," says Ed Kaczmarek, director of innovation in Kraft's consumer experiences department. "So we saw an opportunity to become a source for parents in the food challenges they're facing - getting their children to try new foods, learn smart eating habits, and making meal-time more enjoyable."

Despite the limited number of iPads in consumers' hands, says Kaczmarek, "We think the iPad is an incredibly interactive device that will be used not only in [the] kitchen but around the whole home."

Recipes would be the obvious thing to do, but Hyperfactory, a mobile marketing agency recently acquired by Meredith, tried to reinvent the experience, according to Hyperfactory CEO Derek Handley. "This isn't a magazine or a Web site, it's an interactive experience that uses a new surface that's great for games, great for swiping through big rich images, and a surface that can delight the consumer with little surprises." For example, tapping on an image of an egg will cause it to crack; tapping a tomato makes it go splat.

"You can definitely pack in a lot more content on the iPad; the bigger screen has more room for inspirational imagery," says Handley. The large screen is also better for sharing and, because the app is downloaded, it can be used offline.

Big Fork, Little Fork is expandable, too. After the initial $1.99 download from iTunes, creative moms will be able to go back for additional free and premium content, including chef-branded content packs from the likes of Top Chef Masters winner Marcus Samuelsson.

We only hope that it doesn't end up with Mom doing all the cooking while Dad and the kids play with the iPad.

Full article

 

Trojan tapped its agency of record, Meredith’s The Hyperfactory, to use the mobile channel to generate awareness for its Fire & Ice product among sexually active men and women ages 18-34, and connect the product to this target audience in a positive, relevant and fun manner. Rhythm NewMedia, Jumptap and 4th Screen Advertising also participated in the multifaceted rich-media mobile ad campaign.

“Our task was to engage Trojan’s target audience both physically and emotionally with the Fire & Ice product and mobile campaign in an innovative manner,” said Geoffrey Handley, cofounder of The Hyperfactory, New York. “We wanted to make the most of what mobile has to offer to really deliver on the product positives.

Trojan tapped its agency of record, Meredith’s The Hyperfactory, to use the mobile channel to generate awareness for its Fire & Ice product among sexually active men and women ages 18-34, and connect the product to this target audience in a positive, relevant and fun manner. Rhythm NewMedia, Jumptap and 4th Screen Advertising also participated in the multifaceted rich-media mobile ad campaign.

“Our task was to engage Trojan’s target audience both physically and emotionally with the Fire & Ice product and mobile campaign in an innovative manner,” said Geoffrey Handley, cofounder of The Hyperfactory, New York. “We wanted to make the most of what mobile has to offer to really deliver on the product positives.

“With a unique, fun product that brings couples together, combined with the hype surrounding the iAd, we identified an opportunity for Trojan to make a splash and deliver something truly innovative, un-restricted—that is, wider than Apple—and relevantly enjoyable,” he said.

“The result was the Trojan Fire & Ice rich-media campaign, which is the best example of an insight-led mobile media strategy centered on contextually relevant engaging rich-media mobile ad units and 100 percent aligned brand sponsorship.”

Trojan is a brand name of condoms manufactured by the Church & Dwight Co. The company claims that more than 70 percent of condoms purchased in United States drugstores are Trojan contraceptives.

Trojan target
Trojan’s target demographic is consumers ages 18-34 who are experienced condom users in a “relationship mindset” that are using their mobile device to make their relationship adventurous and exciting, per The Hyperfactory.

Mr. Handley said that these are sexually active "guys’ guys" and "real women" who believe that while “Jersey Shore” is entertaining, they are responsible and open with sexual safety.

The target audience over-indexes in all mobile usage categories, including consumption of relevant mobile Web content destinations (MTV, Jersey Shore, Jumptap, Cosmo and BET), applications and streaming audio (Pandora and Shazam) and location-based services (Foursquare).

Mobile strategy
The Hyperfactory’s formulated a strategic mobile media plan to effectively reach Trojan’s target audience and use rich media and publisher integrations to cut through the clutter. At the most basic level, the objective of the mobile campaign was to instill deep consumer engagement with the Trojan brand.

“We wanted to wow the audience and connect Trojan Fire & Ice to pleasure, innovation and safe fun, as well as connect with the audience with relevance,” Mr. Handley said. “We decided to leverage highly-relevant mobile properties, targeting options and contextual messaging to reach couples as they actively search for educational and relationship enhancing information.

“The plan was to ensure a constant mobile media presence with a heavier presence at core purchase day parts so that when a consumer needs a condom or wants to spice things up, they think of Trojan Fire & Ice,” he said. “From the outset of the rich-media ad unit, we wanted to engage consumers through various relevant integrated programs.

“We tried to balance utility and entertainment to provide fun tools for a safe and exciting relationship to entertain them and educate them.”

Execution
The Trojan Fire & Ice campaign included mobile search, Mobile Marketing Association standard mobile banners, rich-media expandable in-browser units, rich-media expandable in-application units and both pre- and post-roll mobile video.

The campaign involved custom content creation, functionality development and integration with publishers.

Trojan rich-media in-browser units were deployed across the Jumptap mobile Web network, including Esquire, MTV, Jersey Shore, Cosmo, BET, G4, NBA, LimeLife and E!’s mobile sites.

Trojan’s integration with the Pandora iPhone application, which was a perfect fit with the its target, featured time-sensitive “Plan Your Date” and “On Your Date” personalized tools incorporating "mood music" and location-based "How Steamy Do You & Your Partner Like It?" functionality.

MTV’s Jersey Shore was also deemed a perfect content fit with Trojan’s audience.Trojan developed custom editorial content with Jersey Shore cast members, including "Go On A Date Jersey Shore Style," and "Jersey Shore Dating Tips" from cast members. In addition, Trojan expanded the Jersey Shore integration to Foursquare, with real-time Jersey Shore cast member check-ins and date venue tips.Trojan targeted Shazam’s 75 million monthly users with day-part, time-sensitive targeting focusing on night time and weekends only.

There was mood-related integration of rich-media units to love songs and music related to "getting it on" from artists such as Barry White and Lady Gaga.

The Hyperfactory developed a custom ad banner for Shazam that shows up on the tagging recognition of a love song: “Stop Tagging and Get it On.”

The banner on the Shazam tag results screen takes users directly to the new Fire & Ice mobile site.

“Trojan was looking to target both couples and singles, 18-34 years in a ‘relationship mindset’ who put time and energy into making their relationships adventurous and exciting,” said Jonathan Symons, executive vice president of business development at Shazam Entertainment, Portsmouth, Britian.

“Tagging songs is becoming a simple and easy way to discover more about music, thanks to Shazam, and there is an obvious link between romantic or sexy music and Trojan’s product range,” he said. “Shazam was able to demonstrate its tremendously high tagging rates on nights and weekends, when people are in clubs and bars and generally socializing with music in the background.

“That, combined with the unique ability to target particular music genres and deliver Trojan ads when users selected love songs was core to the campaign strategy.”

Trojan pre-roll rich media and interactive video powered by Rhythm NewMedia featured social integration to Facebook and Twitter.

The Google-powered mobile search component consisted of a branded and non-branded behavioral search strategy targeting users while at drug stores, during night time and in adult-related-activity contexts.

“The key to the creativity is of course the actual rich media units—Fire & Ice, hot and cold, naughty and nice,” The Hyperfactory’s Mr. Handley said.

“The rich-media units are 100 percent on message, tactical and with all the hype surrounding the iAd, our innovative and entertaining really rich-media ad units enable all of the target audience to engage, without the limitations of the iAd and proving the scale of a much wider audience base than simply iPhone users,” he said.

Results
Trojan and The Hyperfactory tapped Insight Express to conduct a mobile brand study to measure the effect of the mobile channel on brand awareness, persuasion, favorability and purchase intent. Since the Trojan Fire & Ice rich-media mobile campaign only went live at the end of August, the brand said it is unable to share any detailed campaign results. In hard number terms, as of the first week, Trojan was on track with its rich-media in-browser units proving to be 300 percent more effective than traditional mobile banner units.

Mr. Handley claims consumer feedback and results from the pre-go-live research study have been overwhelmingly positive, with online and mobile video postings and social commentary increasing every day.

“For many years now in mobile we have judged what is creative by the actual output—the mobile site, the ad unit, the app,” Mr. Handley said.

“However, as our industry becomes more mature and mobile media becomes a more complicated discipline, creativity in mobile media planning is going to become increasingly important, especially as we lift our industry from a gimmicky add-on to mainstream,” he said.

Full article

Commenting on Galloway's appointment, Geoffrey Handley said: "Australia is a strategic beachhead for The Hyperfactory's global business and it's vital that our operations here be lead by someone who has a passion for and technical understanding of the mobile space and the right leadership credentials. From the outset, I knew John was the guy to whom I should hand the reins."

Handley added that one of The Hyperfactory's key priorities for 2010/11 was to build up its local mobile media planning and buying team - a role which will sit well with Galloway's 20 plus years of experience in media sales, including senior management positions with companies such as Vodafone Australia, MediaMe, News Limited, Fairfax Online (F2), Sensis and AAP.

"I am extremely excited to be part of The Hyperfactory. We are unique in the Australian market as we are the only truly international mobile company, which means our clients can benefit from our international experience and findings. This is a huge competitive advantage for us," said Galloway.

Galloway sees 2010 to be the year that marketers and brands realize that they cant afford to ignore mobile: "Mobile is the fastest growing media in Australia. There are over 300 million mobile Internet page impressions a month, growing at a rate of 100% year on year. No longer is it regarded as a nice to have component. It's being seen as the glue that hold digital strategies together," said Galloway.

"We are now seeing the interest in mobile marketing and strategy reach pre- GFC levels with existing and prospective customers looking to significantly increase their mobile budgets," added Galloway.

Galloway's appointment comes as The Hyperfactory continues its rapid expansion over the last 12 months. With a blue-chip client base of leading brands including Coca-Cola, Kraft, L'Oreal, Disney, Blackberry and Vodafone, the company has carved an enviable position in the US, recently being named by Entrepreneur Magazine in its annual 100 brilliant ideas list as one of the mobile market's most important trailblazers, alongside companies such as FourSquare and Bump Technologies. In July 2010, US publishing giant Meredith Media acquired The Hyperfactory for an undisclosed sum, after taking a 20% stake in the company one year ago.

Full article

On Sunday, Kraft Foods will begin a campaign to promote its sponsorship of what used to be known as the Emerald Bowl, to be played in San Francisco on Jan. 9. The game, which will feature teams from the Western Athletic Conference and the Pacific-10 Conference, is being renamed the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

Kraft plans for the day the game is played to serve as the climax of the campaign, which seeks to donate the monetary equivalent of 20 million meals to the organization known as Feeding America. (The fine print explains that a dollar equals seven meals “secured by Feeding America on behalf of local food banks,” making the goal of the campaign almost $2.86 million.)

The campaign is being designated by Kraft as the Huddle to Fight Hunger. Kraft is calling the effort, which is being handled by seven agencies, its largest integrated campaign to date — that is, one that is composed of ads in outlets like traditional media, digital media and social media.

“We’ve done smaller” campaigns to help fight hunger, said Lisa Mann, vice president for consumer experiences at the Glenview, Ill., office of Kraft. “This is about going big.”

The kickoff for the campaign will be a coupon insert that Kraft will sponsor in newspapers on Sunday and follow up with another on Sunday, Sept. 26. There will be 44 million copies of the insert to be distributed on Sunday by the News America unit of the News Corporation.

There will also be a microsite, or special Web site, to accompany the campaign, at HuddletoFightHunger.com; the site is to go live on Sunday.

The insert will feature the celebrity TV chefs Patrick and Gina Neely along with Kraft brands like Kraft Singles, Maxwell House and Oscar Mayer. Other brands involved in the campaign include Kool-Aid, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Kraft Mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, Oreo, Planters and Ritz.

Kraft has purchased the rights to the bowl game for three years, Ms. Mann said, adding that the IMG agency helped with that along with the celebrity and sports marketing aspects of the campaign. Other celebrities to take part will include the former football star Joe Montana and Erin Andrews of ESPN.

The campaign also includes commercials to run on television and in movie theaters, print ads, promotions in stores, mobile ads and a public relations effort. More than 40 major retailers have already agreed to take part in the campaign, through steps like in-store displays.

In addition to IMG, the agencies working on the campaign are HMT Associates, for the initiatives involving retailers; Hyperfactory, part of the Meredith Corporation, for the mobile ads; McGarryBowen, part of Dentsu, for the commercials and print ads; 360i, for the digital and social media ads; Upshot, for retail marketing; and Weber Shandwick, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, for public relations.

Kraft has been intensifying its marketing and advertising efforts in recent months to take advantage of economic trends that include Americans eating more at home and eating more often together as families or groups. There have been new campaigns for many Kraft brands, both in traditional and new media, among them Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Kraft Singles, Miracle Whip, Oreo and Wheat Thins.

The campaign is also meant to reflect other trends, Ms. Mann said, like how consumers increasingly “want to be part of something big,” especially in terms of helping others, and how they are returning to “simple pleasures,” including “getting together over a football game or a game night.”

Full article

Panelists talked about the effectiveness of mobile advertising that Intel ran and gave best practices based on what they learned from the campaign. The Intel executive revealed that in-browser banner interaction rates (94 percent) were higher than those for in-application ads (17 percent).

“The reason [the Intel] campaign was so successful is that it was thought of as a campaign, not a mobile campaign,” said Jeff Arbour, senior vice president North America at The Hyperfactory, New York. “It was just a campaign that happend to be executed in mobile channel. “It is really time for brands to look at how to execute mobile from a long-term perspective and not just as a bunch of one-time runoffs,” he said. The panelists stressed that crafting a successful mobile advertising campaign means having firm objectives, clear metrics for success and tactics consistent with the overall marketing strategy.

Intel's program
The campaign was centered around promoting Intel’s 2010 Core processor family. Hyperfactory was hired to devise a strategy for media, campaign, design and execution. Intel used display and rich-media ads, which users could expand, drag and interact with to find the right processor for them. It also used basic banner ads that ran on mobile Web sites and in applications.

Advertisements ran on a number of mobile Web sites, including CNN and CBS. The campaign also used search engine marketing to drive traffic to Intel’s mobile Web site. Additionally, The Hyperfactory leveraged its relationship with Pandora to create an Intel promotion within the Internet radio service.

Effectiveness of mobile ads
Intel was able to compare the results from the different channels of its advertising campaign and discover which tactics were most effective. The campaign saw lower bounce rates on mobile than with traditional Web advertising, possibly because mobile users are using their phones and searching for information with greater purpose than users on regular desktops. Apparently, search engine marketing saw 67 percent bounce rates verses 89 percent for display advertising. And, it saw the lowest bounce rates on iPhones (85 percent), Android (64 percent) and BlackBerry (71 percent) phones.

Intel took these results as a sign that more effort should be made to target the Android and BlackBerry platforms. Behavioral targeting also proved an effective tactic for garnering high click-through rates. When discussing the efficacy of search engine marketing, the presenters said that mobile search was growing and would constitute an important advertising tool in the future. “Search volume is low, but trending up,” said Beth Lubov Butrymowicz, global media manager for Intel, Santa Clara, CA.

Results
Measurement for mobile advertising campaigns needs to be dictated by the objectives determined at the initiative’s outset. For example, because Intel used expandable, rich-media ad units as well as traditional ad banners and in-application advertising to promote Core processors, it was interested in understanding how consumers were interacting with those different ads. For that reason, Intel gauged reaction to the rich-media display units by looking at interaction and completion rates. The interaction rate examined how many users expanded the ad and dragged at least one element within it, and showed that consumers were interacting far more with in-browser ad units than in-application ad units. Apparently, consumers that clicked on the ad and dragged at least one item was higher for in-browser advertising: 94 percent verses 17 percent for in-application ads. The completion rates measured the number of consumers who worked through the entire ad, answering a series of questions intended to match them to the best-fit Intel processor. Completion rates were much higher for rich-media units (10 percent) than standard units (3 percent). In summing up the results of the campaign, the presenters emphasized that advertisers need to be cognizant of the costs associated with different ad units. Expandable units are significantly more expensive than standard units.

The right mobile mix
There is no one answer for mobile advertising globally, because of fragmentation of devices, usage models, advertising inventory and measurement tools. Advertisers need to devise campaigns in the context of the regions they are targeting. For example, when Intel was promoting its processors in Indonesia, it focused on feature phones, because the vast majority of consumers use feature phones, rather than more advanced mobile technology. Basic marketing rules still apply, according to Ms. Butrymowicz.

Summing up the lessons of the discussion, the presenters urged advertisers not to go mobile just for mobile’s sake, but instead only if it made sense in the context of their promotional strategy. Advertisers should be very clear about their objectives, and work closely with partners to set parameters for the campaigns and optimize over time. Finally, advertisers should not be afraid of sub-par results. “It’s OK to fail,” Ms. Butrymowicz said. “If you go out and do mobile, and learn it doesn’t work for your target audience, it could be that they’re not on mobile, or perhaps execution wasn’t working for them. “You can definitely learn from the experience,” she said.

Full article

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Meredith Corp. has acquired mobile hotshop The Hyperfactory after taking an initial stake in the agency responsible for the much-loved Kraft iFood Assistant app one year ago. Since the agency's opening in 2001 by two brothers in New Zealand, The Hyperfactory remains one of the most-distinguished mobile creative agencies to date, having worked with Coca-Cola, L'Oreal and, of course Kraft on its first iPad app.

From those beginnings, it's grown to an operation of more than 100 people with offices in Auckland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, Sydney and Hyderabad, India.For a buyer that's made its name in broadcast and publishing, this is just the latest piece to add to its marketing services arm, Meredith Integrated Marketing. Since 2006, Meredith has acquired interactive shops O'Grady Meyers and Genex; viral-marketing shop New Media Strategies; health-care marketing agency Big Communications; and database and analytics shop Directive.

Ad Age checked in with Hyperfactory founders Derek and Geoffrey Handley and Meredith Integrated Marketing President Martin Reidy about the acquisition and how the mobile agency with roots in Auckland found a home with a publisher headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. (There are no plans to move; The Hyperfactory will continue be headquartered in New York and Auckland.)

Ad Age: Why does The Hyperfactory make sense for Meredith Integrated Marketing?

Martin Reidy: As mobile started really picking up, a lot of people pretended that they were in the business and, typically with agencies, and this goes back even to traditional, you add some people on and declare suddenly that you're in the mobile business. Hyperfactory is really, really focused on the mobile world, which is really the model we have. Look at the agencies we have. They're specialists in that area; they don't cross over. There are interdependencies across agencies and there's incentive to bring our image forward so that there isn't a land grab on one particular client by any one agency. ... [The Hyperfactory] fits very well with the Meredith culture. We will retain the name Hyperfactory. It's very important that the culture stay intact. I think the people here have that particular technical expertise and that will only continue to grow. We will foster a family feel, but definitely it will retain that ability to be Hyperfactory.

Ad Age: So Derek and Geoff, tell me why having Meredith as a parent makes sense for your business. What does Meredith as a parent bring you?

Derek Handley: Going back a couple years ago, we started looking for a partner. The obvious choices were holding companies, and companies of that sort that we just hadn't had the best feedback from, people that we knew and other entrepreneurs that had partnered with those companies or sold their businesses to them, which made us nervous. We did want someone larger, to be able to bring the business to the next level, and that was one of the reasons we wanted to partner with Meredith. The other issue that we were struggling with back then was we were still viewed as a boutique hotshop, highly creative and perhaps weaker on strategic thinking. We were thought to not have a full understanding of the mass-market consumer because all we cared about were shiny objects and winning awards. To counter that, there's nothing more perfect than a company like Meredith that really does understand America and has for more than 100 years. That was one thing. The other is that the first five years of this industry in the U.S. has been driven by the male mobile user and it has been about automotive and technology clients. We believe that in the next three or four years, the mobile woman and her content are going to be more and more important, so the timing is great to have really a strong position in that market. Meredith is a really interesting partner to have there. We can win new clients that we previously may have been discounted by and we should be able to create new innovation and territory around the mobile woman. Kraft is now our biggest client. We would have struggled to get them before.

Ad Age: The Kraft work is a marriage of mobile, which is Hyperfactory's heritage, and of content, which is Meredith's heritage. Tell me how the company envisions that partnership of mobile and content expertise?

Mr. Reidy: Meredith is the king and queen of content and has access to the best writers in any particular area. You consider the full-time staff of writers within marketing at Meredith and that's what's happening more in digital. Content has to get out there. Brands spend a lot of time and money on the construction of websites, but the content has to improve. There's going to be a further rethinking of how we access the content and how it can come in more interactive ways.

Geoffrey Handley: Since the beginning, we often see, and still do today, people when they decide to build a mobile site and basically shrink a website. They take content from a website and just squash it to make a mobile stream that's cut down in size and waste. Context has always been a really important thing for us. If you look at all the best work we've ever done, it's very content heavy, but that content has been produced specifically for the mobile experience. So finding a partner in Meredith, which is known for print content and its ability to realize content in a mobile context, just puts us miles ahead of the game.

Full article

Created by New Zealand brothers Derek and Geoffrey Handley in 2001, The Hyperfactory specializes in powering businesses and brands through the mobile medium with award winning, innovative and strategically creative initiatives.  

Leading US research company, Berg Insight, forecasts the global mobile advertising market to grow at an annual compound growth rate of 43% to $8.7b Euros by 2014, reinforcing the importance of this strategic alignment for both organisations.

“The completion of this deal is further evidence of the ability New Zealand entrepreneurs have to make it on the world stage, in the most competitive and fast-paced industries,” says Derek Handley, Co-founder & CEO, The Hyperfactory.  

“Globally, Kiwi companies are at the cutting edge of the use of new technology, and by having the courage to take our ideas and capabilities off shore, we are able to become a significant powerhouse within some of the world’s leading corporations. Pivotal to The Hyperfactory’s success was our determination to dual headquarter our offices in both New York and Auckland to support our expansion domestically in these countries, and into other international markets.”

“The completion of our acquisition of Hyperfactory is consistent with Meredith’s commitment to excellence in marketing services for our clients,” says Meredith Integrated Marketing President Martin Reidy. “Mobile is a critical part of the marketing portfolio and its importance is growing at an incredibly rapid rate.  As with our past acquisitions, like New Media Strategies in the Social Media space, we focus our investments only on the leaders in the respective marketing disciplines. Hyperfactory is the clear leader in the mobile marketing arena and we are proud to have them as part of our arsenal.”

Handley says the relationship presents significant opportunity for the company’s multiple offices around the world.  “Key to our definition of success on this sale has been our ability to retain leadership at the helm. It’s important to us to be able to continue the tremendous flow of creativity across our client base, and into all the opportunities Meredith Corporation provides.

“Our company is a global industry leader because of more than 100 mobile technology and marketing experts who support and deliver to clients like Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, L'Oreal, Vodafone and Disney globally through offices in Auckland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, Sydney and Hyderabad, India.

“They are why we have a history of winning more industry accolades than any mobile agency worldwide. This partnership is designed to entrench that leadership in every market we operate, including New Zealand, and creates opportunities to compete for a whole new tier of clients.”    

The completion of the remaining 80 percent investment was always part of the Handley brothers’ vision for the company.  At just 32 and 35, Derek and Geoffrey Handley respectively join an exclusive club of young kiwi entrepreneurs determined to put New Zealand on the world stage, and raise the bar on the value of ‘kiwi ingenuity’ while doing so.  

While terms of The Hyperfactory acquisition were not disclosed by Meredith Corporation, Derek Handley says it is comparable to recent leading technology deals for Kiwi companies, and “sets a significant benchmark for the sale of a New Zealand business in the emerging technologies sector”.
For Meredith Corporation, the acquisition further enhances the capabilities of Meredith Integrated Marketing, the company’s business-to-business unit that provides leading corporations and brands with custom marketing solutions.  

In the past year, as the demand for mobile marketing solutions has rapidly increased, the two companies have joined forces to offer leading companies and brands such as Kraft, Nestle and Honda cutting-edge mobile marketing solutions. Additionally, The Hyperfactory helped to accelerate Meredith’s consumer brand efforts in the mobile space by developing the mobile platforms for the Better Homes and Gardens, Parents and Fitness brands.

“Our clients and consumers have responded well to these initiatives, and we look forward to increasing our presence in the mobile space with The Hyperfactory as a full member of the Meredith portfolio,” said Meredith National Media Group President Jack Griffin.  “The Hyperfactory's capabilities fall directly in line with our strategic goals and present significant opportunities for our business-to-business engagements.”

About Meredith Corporation

Meredith Corporation (NYSE:MDP: www.meredith.com) is the leading media and marketing company serving American women. Meredith combines well-known national brands - including Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Ladies' Home Journal, Family Circle, American Baby, Fitness and More - with local television brands in fast-growing markets. Meredith is the industry leader in creating content in key consumer interest areas such as home, family, health and wellness and self-development. Meredith then uses multiple distribution platforms - including print, television, online, mobile and video - to give consumers content they desire and to deliver the messages of its marketing partners. Additionally, Meredith uses its many assets to create powerful custom marketing solutions for many of the nation's top brands and companies.

About Meredith Integrated Marketing

Meredith Integrated Marketing offers a full spectrum of resources and expertise enabling brands to break through the clutter to grow customer relationships. Meredith Integrated Marketing maximizes results by providing strategic solutions and smart content to personalize the brand experience through meaningful multi-platform custom communications programs.

About The Hyperfactory

The Hyperfactory (www.thehyperfactory.com) powers businesses and brands through the mobile medium. As the most- awarded and most established specialist, it is consistently setting new standards of excellence through two divisions:
+    Agency: Powering brands through integrated mobile strategy, creative, media and innovation.
+   Technology: Powering businesses through planning, integration and deployment of mobile technology, regardless of the platform, protocol or device.

Founded in 2001 by New Zealand brothers Geoffrey and Derek Handley, The Hyperfactory is a wholly owned subsidiary of Meredith Corporation, the leading media and marketing company serving American women. Recently recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Annual 100 Brilliant Ideas & Companies issue and with a history of winning more industry accolades and recognition than any agency worldwide, clients include Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, L’Oreal, Vodafone, Disney and Kraft. It employs over 100 of the world’s best mobile technology and marketing experts and supports and delivers globally through its network of offices in Auckland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, Sydney and Hyderabad, India.

A handful of noble efforts had real traction, however. Among them was Kraft's iFood assistant, a genuinely useful recipe and cooking how-to resource that also served the brand well. While many others were trying desperately to be aligned with the coolness of the iPhone itself, Kraft was smart enough to lean on a tradition of branded content, from decades of recipe books to on-air cooking demos during its sponsored programming. The hard-information, soft-brand sell works if you really have the content to back it up.

Kraft has moved headlong into the next level of utility with the newly launched big fork, little fork for the iPad. This family-oriented resource is aimed at teaching both parents and kids how to enjoy cooking together.

The 300 recipes are only the beginning. There are how-to videos, basic kitchen safety tips, detailed run-downs of the age-appropriateness of every recipe, etc. And it is all done with a magnificently efficient interface that pops up a universal nav ring from anywhere in the app. Not only one of the best branded apps out there, this one is one of the best iPad apps i have seen overall.
The print publishers who are tripping over themselves to reinvent the magazine/newspaper for a touch screen, might want to take a look at this generally superior use of the touch interface. The lessons are clear:

Super-serve 'em. Kraft and development partner hyperfactory have simply piled it on. There is no question of value here. Recipes, videos, tips, nutritional basics, etc. And there is the promise of more. The app is dynamic and can pull more content in. Kraft is also planning add-on modules that will be downloadable for additional incremental fees. The app itself is only $1.99, half the price of most of the digital magazines that have appeared already for the platform. This is an ongoing publishing project.

Pick your damned touch metaphor. Too many apps don't know whether they are having you float in space or just flip pages or zigzag across x and y axes. Usually, they have you do all at once. One of the strengths of this app is that its organization is made clear in a physical and abstract way. It all takes place on a kitchen table, where you paw across the surface and discover something akin to the familiar recipe box and hand-drawn notes. There is also the pop-up nav ring that allows lateral navigation to any spot by pressing on an open area of the screen.  There are only a couple of clear and clean nav approaches -- and as deep as the content gets, you are never lost.

Cross-referencing. Each recipe is cross-linked to notes on nutrition, age-appropriateness of the recipe, related recipes, shopping lists and instructions. Each piece of content answers the natural questions the user might have. Too many early iPad apps take the print metaphor too seriously and forget the opportunity for dynamic linking that digital allows.

Subtlety mixed with service wins. The Kraft brands are not in your face throughout this experience. In fact, if anything the brand presence may be too subtle. This app is truly "sponsored by" Kraft in that the actual brand messages come during loading, in two logos that let you click into full-page ads. Other than that, Kraft products are mentioned in recipes but not in a heavy-handed way. They are going for the wide halo effect here.

Be fun. There are kids in the room -- and this app knows it. In addition to the two decent games included in the package, the adventurous kid (or kid in us all) will discover that the designers have remembered what it was like to be involved in kitchen projects. Press that tomato on the table top long enough, and it squashes. And, yes, you can draw your name in the spilled pile of flour. Tap the egg once and it cracks; twice, it spills its yolk. Fortune cookies crack open to reveal cooking tips that click through to more content. These are no-brainer added touches that engage us and let us fall into the app. You can envision a parent and child exploring the app together and tapping and prodding different buttons and objects.

Time will tell if this app has the kind of traction that the iFood assistant had. Weber's on the grill app for iPad takes a similar utilitarian approach, and is already among the top 30 paid apps or the platform. Both Kraft and Weber have considered the use cases for the ipad and created content and tools that speak to the kitchen and the grill-side. Weber has a grill timer that is actually linked to the various grilling items in the recipes. The video library in this app is especially impressive here. Again, the idea is to super-serve the user and build around the at-home portability of the iPad.

But the depth and quality of big fork, little fork reminds us that the iPad raises the bar for branded content. Simple news feeds or pleasant mobile toys are not appropriate for this platform, and a mobilized Web site is not likely to cut it either. Other brands should take these early good entries as both inspiration and fair warning.

Full article

Targeting parents in their 20s and 30s, the Big Fork Little Fork application offers users about 300 recipes, tips via in-depth articles, videos and games. Kraft brands are built into the experience, which is also meant to help families, eat, cook and live well together.

“We’re excited with the launch of our new iPad app, Big Fork Little Fork," said Ed Kaczmarek, director of innovation and consumer experiences at Kraft, Glenview, IL. "We truly believe it will transform the way families approach cooking and eating together.

"The launch of this brand new platform reinforces our commitment to engage with consumers in innovative ways and demonstrates our ability to leverage technology in making consumers’ lives easier and more delicious,” he said.

Kraft Foods is one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world. It is home to brands such as Nabisco and Philadelphia and it markets many brands in more than 155 countries.

According to a recent study, last year alone, 37 million Web searches were conducted for family and kids’ food-related resources.

However, no dominant source exists for this type of information, per Kraft.

The "Big Fork Little Fork" application is meant to make mealtimes a teaching occasion, a fun experience and a bonding moment while keeping kids engaged and entertained.

Big Fork Little Fork builds on Kraft's relationship with Meredith Integrated Marketing (MIM), Meredith Corp.’s business-to-business unit that provides the brand with custom marketing services and helped in the development of this application.

Meredith tapped in-house mobile marketing agency The Hyperfactory for this application.

The Big Fork Little Fork iPad application costs $1.99 to download from the Apple App Store versus 99 cents for Kraft's iFood Assistant that was launched in November 2008 to much acclaim.

“Big Fork Little Fork is another example of  Kraft’s commitment to their customers," said Martin Reidy, president of Meredith Integrated Marketing, New York. "Through this app, Kraft is using emerging technology to accelerate its promise to reach families and teach them how to prepare food and eat more sensibly through an engaging tool.”

The recipes section of the “Big Fork Little Fork” application is filled with pleasers for picky eaters. It includes nutritious recipes, desserts for special occasions, food ideas with kid-friendly directions, videos and food photography.

Kraft also packs the application with tips and information on nutrition and healthy habits, along with tricks for kids such as using lemon juice to make invisible ink.

The instructional “How-to” videos show parents step-by-step instructions for teaching kids to crack an egg, measure liquids or dry ingredients and learn about stove safety.

Also, recipe videos teach users to cook.

The games in the application let kids blast off into outer space to learn about the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food pyramid or join in the action at Berwyn's Deli, exploring math skills to measure ingredients for hungry customers.

“Kraft is a brand with extremely valuable content and they’ve done a tremendous job leveraging that content to reach their target audiences,” said Julie Nielsen, senior director of partner development at appssavvy, New York.

Appssavvy did not create the Kraft application. The company provided feedback because of its expertise in the application market.

Ms. Nielsen pointed out that often times brands have a difficult time convincing people to use their applications.

However, Kraft has had tremendous success with its iPhone application, which is still to this day one of the most successful brand-dedicated iPhone applications on the market.

“They continue to innovate to reach their audience where they are spending their time,” Ms. Nielsen said. “It’s a pretty advanced strategy.

“They offer a significant amount of resources to their consumers that actually provide utility and benefit and it’s clearly paid off,” she said. “Lastly, it’s really nice to see big brands leverage new platforms – and quickly.

“They moved fast, and as we have all learned, being first to market can often be more valuable than the experience itself.”

Advertising in disguise
The application does not outwardly market anything, but instead smartly incorporates Kraft brands into the experience, marrying the content with a form of non-intrusive advertising. It really is the future of mobile advertising for branding purposes.

“Many brands are probably scratching their heads at trying to figure out what the iPad means or could mean for them right now," said Derek Handley, cofounder/CEO of The Hyperfactory, New York.

"Everyone involved with Big Fork Little Fork truly believes that it’s really setting the bar and Kraft as a client have been bold enough to buy into a strikingly unique vision which we have helped them realize,” he said.

This is not Kraft’s first foray into mobile marketing. The company launched its very first mobile application in December 2008 (see story).

Called the iFood Assistant, the application can be downloaded from the Apple App Store for installation on any iPhone or iPod touch. The application targets consumers on the go looking for recipes.

The iFood Assistant includes more than 7,000 tested, searchable recipes with detailed instructions and video demonstrations and an alternative horizontal view to follow along while cooking.

Application users can review comments posted on the recipes and share with others.

Consumers can also create shopping lists with nearby store recommendations and add custom ingredients.

Finally, the app offers tips and shortcuts such as "Dinner Tonight" and "Recipe of the Day" that feature daily recipes.

“The thing I like about this app concept, particularly with the iPad, is that the device seems at home lying around the kitchen, where families tend to hang-out, which is of course perfect for Kraft,” said Brennan Hayden, vice president of WDA Mobile Marketing, East Lansing, MI.

“It’s hard to imagine a more effective proximity marketing tool for a food brand, at least per user,"he said. "I remember several years ago, NCR was laughed at for a prototype Microwave oven with a built-in Web-browser. Today, I think it is a head-scratcher why a personal computing device of some sort isn’t built into every kitchen.

“Obviously, the iPad is portable, so the use of the Kraft app isn’t limited to the kitchen at all, but I think having the option is just brilliant.

Final Take
Here is a demo of the application

Full article

The app, which went live on Friday, is called Big Fork Little Fork, and is aimed at parents in their 20s and 30s with young children. The app includes more than 300 recipes, video clips and games.

The iPad app costs $1.99 and is available at the Apple iTunes App Store at itunes.com.

The app comes after Kraft brought out an app for the iPhone, called the iFood Assistant, in November 2008, which cost 99 cents. There have been subsequent variations and refinements, which include versions for Android and BlackBerry.

That neither the iPad app nor its predecessor carries the Kraft brand name is no accident. The goal is to play up the utilitarian aspects rather than the commercial aspects, said Ed Kaczmarek, director of innovation in consumer experiences at the Glenview, Ill., office of Kraft, in order to “engage the consumer in a more meaningful way.”

“Within the recipes, it will specify, in some instances, a Kraft product,” he said, but the iPad app “doesn’t have Kraft branding front and center.”

The interaction between Kraft and consumers with iPads is going to be “a lot more robust” than what took place in the days when consumers “would send away for recipe cards” after listening to or watching radio or TV shows like “Kraft Music Hall,” Mr. Kaczmarek said.

(It would be interesting to compare any of those recipe cards that still exist with the recipes on the app.)

Kraft brands like Oreo and Wheat Thins have been expanding their presence recently in social media like Facebook and Twitter. The recipes contained in the iPad app can be shared through Facebook, Mr. Kaczmarek said, or through e-mail messages.

Kraft, unlike advertisers like Nissan, is not working with the Apple iAd platform for the Big Fork Little Fork app.

The Kraft iPad app was developed by Meredith Integrated Marketing, part of the Meredith Corporation, the publisher of magazines like Better Homes and Gardens, and by a mobile marketing agency named the Hyperfactory.

Although the channel is still in its infancy, initial trials show that it is both effective and engaging. Two executives from The Hyperfactory talked about augmented reality and their experiences with these types of campaigns.

“Augmented reality has been around for many years but it was ultimately a big budget initiative,” said Howard Hunt, vice president of new business at The Hyperfactory, New York. “Now brands are entering the stage." First a consumer sees a black and white marker, which is a point of reference,” he said. “The phone scans and detects a 3D image in proportion to the marker. "Augmented reality rapidly increases the type of things that can be done in the mobile space.”

Mr. Arbor gave an example of an online augmented reality campaign. General Electric ran one where users had to hold up their marker to Web camera to unlock this whole 3D image of wind turbines and greenery. Consumers could blow into their PC’s microphone to turn the turbines. Now brands are adding mobile to the mix because mobile does not tie you to the desk, you are free to move around and this unlocks even more possibilities. It is a whole new level of interaction.

Nike ran a mobile campaign using augmented reality technology to target teens in Hong Kong to promote the launch of the sportswear giant's T90 soccer shoe. The campaign, which The Hyperfactory created with ad agency McCann Erickson, started with a series of hidden codes all throughout Hong Kong in Nike flagship stores and at MTR subway stations. Consumers had to find the markers and point their camera phone at them, which summoned an image of a Nike soccer shoe and ball on their screen and revealed a special code unique to that location. Once consumers got the next location, they then were able to text in these special codes to find out the next secret destination. Texts also counted as a sweepstakes entry to win Nike merchandise. The codes invite users to download a mobile application that allows them to view the T90 shoe from every angle in 3D on their mobile screens. The more codes that consumers collect, the more chances they have to win Nike gear. The aim for Nike was launching the new boot and letting people see its features from every angle. Hong Kong is footwear-crazy and the fact that this happened around the time of the Olympics and Euro 2008 Tournament means everyone was in sports mode. The results for this campaign were astounding. Thousands of interactions were achieved and 60 percent of those who texted-in downloaded the application.

Jeff Arbor, senior vice president of North America at The Hyperfactory talked about Coca-Cola Fanta’s use of augmented reality. Coca-Cola Europe targeted tech-savvy consumers mostly in their 20s with a new mobile application created to push its Fanta soft drink. The application launched across Europe in January 2009, supported by print and online ads, on-pack promotions, point-of-sale material, viral marketing and public relations. The application is called Fanta Virtual Tennis. Players take their position on either side of a printed game board available for download at http://www.fanta.eu.

Once in position, the 3D augmented technology recognizes the game board and lets players see what looks like a full-size tennis court on their mobile-phone screens. Players can use their mobile devices as tennis racquets to hit a virtual ball whose movement is determined by the angle and position of the phone. Fanta Virtual Tennis offers a two-player mode and a single-player practice mode where the player hits the ball off a wall. The game was tested in New York's Times Square. “Augmented reality for mobile is mostly found in applications right now,” Mr. Arbor said. “But browsers are next.” “There are augmented reality apps that let consumers identify monuments and land marks,” he said. “Others let users point a phone to the street ID and see what stores are around. “It is like Foursquare on steroids.”

Full article

Over the past few years, the magazine publisher has bought up a series of digital-ad agencies to create a full-service marketing shop. Called Meredith Integrated Marketing, the operation has created custom publishing, email, social media and mobile campaigns for major marketers, including Kraft Foods, Chrysler and Wells Fargo. It recently recruited digital-ad veteran Martin Reidy to lead its marketing arm, and says it is on the prowl for more acquisitions.

Meredith increasingly competes head to head for business with big advertising companies, which also have been pouring resources into developing digital marketing and consumer-research capabilities. Chrysler, for instance, recently picked Meredith to solicit prospective consumers via direct mail, email marketing and social media. Omnicom Group's BBDO previously handled that work. Such business has provided new streams of revenue for Meredith, and is proving to be something of a lifeline amid the industrywide decline in print-advertising revenues. As its magazine-ad revenue plunged 15% from a year earlier to $530.2 million in the year ended June 30, revenue tied to Meredith's integrated-marketing business rose 13%. The unit has revenue of roughly $175 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.

"Look at the marketing and media landscape today, you are seeing a dramatic reshaping," says Jack Griffin, president of Meredith's National Media Group. "I don't think there is any way around the fact that companies like ours that are media-and-marketing companies have to be proficient in and capable at this craft." "Meredith is pretty far ahead of everybody else," says Linda Gridley, chief executive of New York investment bank Gridley & Co., which specializes in mergers and acquisitions in the marketing and Internet industries. "It's an area that multiple media companies are now looking at."

Magazine publishers including Advance Publications' Condé Nast Publications and Lagardere's Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. have bought small ad-technology firms and formed teams to build digital-ad campaigns for marketers.Hearst, which publishes Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Esquire, made an unsolicited bid late last year to acquire independent digital-marketing firm iCrossing, according to a person familiar with the situation, who said the offer was deemed to low.

Some ad executives say they don't see Meredith's buildup as a new competitive threat, since the marketing agencies it has acquired already existed and Meredith still needs to prove that it can make them more successful. Moreover, Meredith's foray into marketing hasn't been without challenges. The company has faced perceptions of conflicts of interest. Traditionally, there has been a clear line dividing media outlets, such as newspapers, magazines and TV stations, which sell ad time or space, and ad agencies, which design and place ads on behalf of advertisers. Conflicts can occur if an agency owned by a media company is seen to be unfairly directing ads to that outlet. Meredith says for that reason it doesn't offer media-buying services.

In addition, Meredith's marketing business has stumbled as advertisers have slashed costs amid the uncertain economy. The unit's revenue, which grew 50% in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008 and 13% in the following fiscal year, dropped slightly during the most recent quarter because of cutbacks by clients. Meredith says it is seeing new-business activity, pointing to its recent win of the Chrysler business.

The publisher embarked on its transformation in the mid-1990s, creating magazines and Web-related publications for companies, including Charming Shoppes, Carnival Cruise Lines and Century 21. These publications acted as marketing tools and relied in large part on Meredith's decades-old consumer database, which includes 85 million names.

By 2005, marketers had started shifting more ad dollars to the Web, and the print-ad market was growing increasingly choppy. Meredith executives then made a "deliberate decision" to expand its marketing services group, Mr. Griffin says. During the next five years, Meredith acquired a series of marketing agencies, including specialists in digital, word-of-mouth, database marketing and health care. Last summer, it made an investment in the Hyper Factory, a mobile-marketing agency.

The buildup of Meredith's marketing business largely has happened behind the scenes, marketing executives say. "Almost in the darkness of night, they have been assembling all these assets and resources and people to build up an empire," says, Russel Wohlwerth, a principal at Ark Advisors, a consulting firm that matches ad and marketing agencies with advertisers. He adds, "It's a great model for the future."

Several marketers have increased their work with Meredith as it has expanded its offerings. Kraft started working with Meredith in 2007 to publish its Kraft Food & Family and Spanish-language Comida y Familia print magazines. Meredith now designs Kraft's Web site and coordinates a weekly email blast that features recipe ideas. Meredith also built Kraft's iFood Assistant, an application for mobile devices that includes more than 7,000 recipes, how-to videos and shopping lists. "Through their acquisitions, Meredith was instrumental in helping us expand digitally and into mobile," says Kelley Woodland, Kraft's senior director of consumer-relationship marketing.

Meredith's strategy taps into another trend: marketers are spending less on buying ads in traditional media, like print and TV, in favor of creating marketing promotions that often don't require buying ads, such as email messages and games and tools for social media and mobile. "Conversations are happening with consumers more organically," Kraft's Ms. Woodland says. "It is about being a part of the conversation, not an interruptive ad that the manufacturer is forcing out."

Meredith plans to continue expanding its marketing arm, says Mr. Reidy, who most recently was CEO at digital-ad agency Publicis Modem, a unit of Publicis Groupe , and previously was CEO of Interpublic Group's R/GA Interactive. Likely acquisition targets include search marketing firms, which help advertisers buy search ads and design their Web sites to appear prominently in search rankings, and ad agencies that will help Meredith expand its geographic footprint both domestically and internationally.

Loreen Babcock, chief executive of Unit7, a customer-relationship marketing agency owned by Omnicom whose clients include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, says she doesn't see Meredith as a direct rival but rather as a new service offering from a media company. "That's how I'm seeing the landscape now," she adds. "Maybe it plays out differently."

Full article

 

In fact, beauty products are the products women purchase most frequently based on advice of a blogger or social networks, some 69% more than apparel (at 39%) or home furnishings (18%). The beauty industry has started to catch on — hosting fragrance-launch parties on MySpace, direct-marketing to bloggers, tweeting from backstage at fashion shows. What’s next? We asked two pioneers in social media and mobile to tell us what to expect—and how to succeed—in 2010.

How can beauty brands effectively use social media and mobile?

pete snyder: Keeping up with trends is essen- tial. Social media is rapidly evolving especially in the beauty category. We help clients keep up with what’s being said about their products. Whether it’s Face- book or Twitter or the hundreds of influential blogs, it’s essential that beauty companies know what’s being said about them. Social media is honest and transparent, beauty companies need to know who they are while having mystery and allure and know- ing what the competition is up to.

derek handley: You need a social media strategy that includes mobile. This year, forecasters say half the market will be on smart phones and we know those people are heavy users of social media on their mobile devices because people are interested in real time en- gagement. Social media platforms lead people to prod- ucts. Beauty is a category that’s emerging in social me- dia, especially with the good use of mobile marketing campaigns. We’ve had success with Dove and L’Oréal. From interactive outdoor billboards encouraging pass- ers-by to vote, to creating handy on-the-go color selec- tors and easily downloadable skin care matches vis-à-vis Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), the opportuni- ties for mobile engagement are vast. By sending custom- er alerts, news and offers, the building blocks of a mobile program are in place.

pete snyder: We found in our studies that people who come to a brand from social media are more likely to make a purchase, use a coupon or engage in other meaningful ways with the brand. We find higher brand affinity and stronger loyalty among customers and, on top of that, companies can have a two-way dialogue with customers about their brands.

What are some recent mobile innovations in the beauty industry?

derek handley: In mobile, we’re moving from simple texting and voting programs to richer and deeper engagement with customers through video and iphone applications. We’ve worked on iphone apps for makeup lines that provide handy, on-the- go color selectors or skin-shade matchers, as well as programs that alert customers with news and special offers. We’re looking at a number of browsing tools; there are a lot of opportunities for scrapbooking, where customers create a wish list of items selected from magazines or stores and keep their personal scrapbook on their mobile device. And mobile can respond to other media, so if you are running a print ad, your ad could contain a code that readers will text in and they’ll receive a message or a coupon for a product.

How can mobile extend traditional media?

derek handley: Mobile is the one channel that interacts with all other channels. It’s not a simple extension of a website, but rather an opportunity to respond to and integrate with other media. For example, if you’re running print or television ads, they can be activated to carry text messages, re- sponse codes and/or send a message with a call to action or to download content, watch a video or to deliver a coupon. In addition, any content that’s created for any medium, can be leveraged and distributed in the mobile space and extended to handsets. For certain brands, beauty in particu- lar, where there is repeat buying, mobile can also enable the consumer to actually buy the product from their device.

What are the three best practices for expanding brand awareness on social media platforms?

pete snyder: 1. Make sure you are listening to and not just monitoring, conversations about your brand. Understand everything you can about your brand online and place value on what you learn. If you’re paying attention in the right places you can move the needle on sales. And if you don’t like what you’re hearing, take concrete steps to change those perceptions. 2. Be authentic. In or- der to make a real connection you must be honest and transparent. 3. Make sure you have something valuable to say. Don’t just join to join. Be meaning- ful and relevant.

The winners were announced during the Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony on Nov. 17. As the MMA’s highest honors, these awards recognize companies and their campaigns for spearheading the adoption of the mobile channel for marketing purposes.

Each year, the MMA’s awards ceremony serves as the conclusion of the Mobile Marketing Forum. The MMA received hundreds of submissions in 12 categories from companies worldwide.

Winners are selected by the MMA Awards Selection Committee comprised of global industry leaders from wireless carriers, technology and content providers, agencies and industry publications.

The 2009 MMA award winners, by category and region, are:

Mobile Display Campaign - North America
• Pizza Hut iPhone App, Pizza Hut Inc.

Mobile Display Campaign - Central & Latin America
• Trident Fresh, F.biz

Mobile Display Campaign - Europe, Africa and Middle East
• LMfootball.mobi, Livemobile (Pty) Ltd.
• Soccer stars in your pocket, Mobiento

Mobile Display Campaign - Asia Pacific
• Puma F Wan, Phonevalley

Mobile Display Campaign - Global
• The Virtual Zippo Lighter App, Moderati Inc.

Mobile Messaging Campaign - North America
• Creating a Safety Movement by Encouraging Conversation: Just Look for UL, MS&L

Mobile Messaging Campaign - Central & Latin America
• Carefree Mobile Campaign, pontomobi interactive

Mobile Messaging Campaign - Europe, Africa and Middle East
• Kraft Foods Turkey / Patos, Mobilera

Mobile Messaging Campaign - Asia Pacific
• Because We Can, The Hyperfactory

Mobile Messaging Campaign - Global
• Obama SMS Speech Excerpts Sent to Cairo and Ghana Regions, Clickatell

Emerging Technology Campaign - North America
• Pizza Hut iPhone App, Pizza Hut Inc.

Emerging Technology Campaign - Central & Latin America
• Jeito Chiclets; Jeito Lhama, F.biz

Emerging Technology Campaign - Europe, Africa and Middle East
• Fanta More Play, The Hyperfactory

Emerging Technology Campaign - Asia Pacific
• Cadbury Be The Gorilla, The Hyperfactory

Multi-Mobile Channel Campaign - North America
• Rogers/Live Nation - Wireless Box Office, MyThum Interactive

Multi-Mobile Channel Campaign - Central & Latin America
• ClubMovistar – Mobile Loyalty Program, Movistar Chile, AndinaTech

Multi-Mobile Channel Campaign - Europe, Africa and Middle East
• Pepsi Makes Your Day, RABARBA ILETISIM HIZMETLERI

Multi-Mobile Channel Campaign - Asia Pacific
• Sony Quantum Code, AURA Interactive

Multi-Mobile Channel Campaign - Global
• Coca-Cola Global Mobile Festive 2008, The Coca-Cola Co.

Social Impact - North America
• Real Housewives of New York City: Ultimate Virtual Viewing Party, Bravo Digital Media

Social Impact - Europe, Africa and Middle East
• The Fastest on Facebook, Mobile Dreams Factory

Social Impact - Asia Pacific
• Sony Quantum Code, AURA Interactive

Cross-Media Integration Campaign - North America
• UPS jobs - Problem Solved, UPS & TMP Worldwide

Cross-Media Integration Campaign - Central & Latin America
• TIM Father's Day: Gift Express, TIM, McCann Erickson & Mobext

Cross-Media Integration Campaign - Europe, Africa and Middle East
• Who Killed Summer 09 (Vodafone Group), OMD Mobile

Cross-Media Integration Campaign - Asia Pacific
• Go For It, Tribal DDB India

Cross-Media Integration Campaign - Global
• Ad Council That’s Not Cool, R/GA

Best Mobile Campaign Overall: (three-way tie)
• TIM Father's Day: Gift Express, TIM, McCann Erickson & Mobext
• UPS jobs-Problem Solved Mobile Media Campaign Delivers Hires, UPS & TMP Worldwide Advertising
• Who Killed Summer 09 (Vodafone Group), OMD Mobile

The award winners for the 2009 MMA Industry Awards are:

Mobile Innovation: Creativity
• Pepsi Makes Your Day, RABARBA ILETISIM HIZMETLERI

Mobile Innovation: Reach
• ScoreCenter, ESPN

Social Impact
• Text ALIVE Mobile Donations, Mobile Accord Inc.

Award for Overall Excellence
• Fanta Stealth Sound System, Ogilvy Advertising

The award winners for the 2009 MMA Academic awards are:

Academic of the Year - Individual
• Margherita Pagani, Bocconi University

Academic of the Year - Institution
• Ball State University, Ball State University

Full article

 

Howard Hunt
Regional business development,
The Hyperfactory

Geoffrey Handley
Co-founder, The Hyperfactory

See full article

Los Angeles, November 18, 2009

In what has become an annual tradition, The Hyperfactory received top honors across several categories at the Mobile Marketing Association’s 2009 Global Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. This year, the global agency took home three more awards for its innovative campaigns:

• Best Mobile Messaging Campaign (Asia Pacific): Because We Can – 42Below Vodka campaign turning a billboard to life

• Best Emerging Technology Campaign (Asia Pacific): Fanta More Play – Virtual Tennis 3D augmented reality app

• Best Emerging Technology Campaign (Europe the Middle East and Africa): Fanta More Play – Virtual tennis 3D augmented reality app

“This is fantastic recognition endorsing our belief that we are the best at helping the biggest companies in the world figure out mobile. We advice them on what they should be doing about this emerging medium and building a strategy around it to finally develop the technology that would get them there”, said Derek Handley, CEO and founder of The Hyperfactory. “The mobile phone is somehow becoming the remote control to people’s life and our goal is to remain the best at creating campaigns for brands we love.”

About The Hyperfactory
The Hyperfactory powers businesses and brands through the mobile medium. As the most awarded and oldest independent specialist, they are consistently setting new standards of excellence through their two divisions:

With a history of winning more industry accolades and recognition than any agency worldwide, clients include Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, L’Oreal, Vodafone, Disney and Kraft.  Privately owned and founded in 2001 by New Zealand brothers Geoffrey and Derek Handley it employs over 100 of the world’s best mobile technology and marketing experts.  The Hyperfactory support and deliver globally through their network of offices in Auckland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, Sydney and Hyderabad, India.

For more information, visit: http://www.thehyperfactory.com

 

As the MMA’s highest honors, these awards recognize companies and their campaigns for spearheading the adoption of the mobile channel for marketing purposes.

The finalists for this year’s Global MMA Awards represent the mobile marketing pioneers and thought leaders who continue to shape the industry’s best practices through innovative and increasingly effective campaigns that raise the bar for all stakeholders within the mobile marketing community and beyond, according to the MMA.

The full list of finalists can be found here.

Representatives from HyperFactory and R/GA were on hand to discuss new mobile innovations such as using HTML to format mobile sites to look like applications and augmented reality promotions. These new trends have already been active in Europe and are poised to sweep the globe

“We’re at an important inflection point in terms of mobile,” said Chris Colborn, executive vice president and chief experience officer at R/GA, New York. “Mobile is at a place where there’s been a lot of change in the marketplace with the advent of the App Store and dissemination of the new mobile Web platform on the iPhone and Palm. “There are new opportunities for what we can do in the mobile space,” he said.

A part of the Interpublic Group, R/GA is an advertising agency specializing in digital marketing. Mr. Colborn spoke about several of R/GA’s mobile offerings and how the mobile space is changing with the advent of new technologies. For every television and PC in the world there are four mobile devices, he said. Yet, advertisers are spending more on TV than mobile. Brands should invest in mobile not because of its reach or the ability to target consumers on mobile, but because of the personalized experience that comes with mobile. TV marketing is a lean-back medium, Mr. Colborn said. PC marketing is lean-forward, while mobile is extremely targeted and relevant because it is such a personal device to the user. Advertisers need to put mobile at the heart of any 360-degree campaign, such as the R/GA-powered Nokia campaign, Urbanista Diaries (see story).

The campaign gave a series of bloggers cameras and mobile devices to go out and document how they see the world. It was rendered in real time on the Web. Eventually, brands like CNN got on board and general everyday consumers joined the campaign, making it a global experience.

Embracing mobile Web
Changes in global sites can whet the appetite in terms of what can be done on the mobile platform. One good example is ESPN. The sports brand uses advanced HTML to make for the richer media experience users expect from an application. Google’s Fast Flip was launched for the PC Web and mobile, showing that Google is paying attention to the mobile platform and knows the future of browsing is on mobile. Brands need to think in terms of applications when designing mobile sites, Mr. Colborn said.

The Massachesuts Institute of Technology has designed its mobile landing page with icons, giving users the functionality of an application on the mobile Web platform. Volkswagen has followed a similar practice. Using GPS and location services on the mobile Web will help shape the future too, for example a consumer using her present location to look for street art on Flickr. Amazon is paving the way in mobile commerce with a mobile site that has many of the same functionalities as the PC Web site. If users are still not satisfied with Amazon’s mobile site, the commerce giant has a button to link back to a more traditional PC-style site to make users more comfortable. These new trends in mobile Web development have come from the innovations seen in applications.

Another way to leverage the mobile platform is to link it with the PC Web. The Nike Training Club starts users on Nikewomen.com, where they can build avatars and set up workout routines. Then, the user downloads the application and can take the fitness routine anywhere (see story).

Mr. Colborn said the usage of the iPhone application is twice as high as the Web usage. Developers and brands will continue to leverage the mobile platform in an effort to reach consumers in their everyday life. Applications are experimenting with incremental purchases. like on Major League Baseball’s. After the initial purchase of the Major League Baseball, users can pay $0.99 to watch any live game via their iPhone. Using the Barnes & Noble iPhone application, users can snap a picture of a DVD, book or CD and look up its price in the bookseller’s super store and find the nearest location that stocks the product. “We’re going to see a lot more rich visual experiences,” Mr. Colborn said.

Mobile on the street

The Hyperfactory creates mobile marketing campaigns, programs and sites for clients through offices worldwide. Derek Handley, Los Angeles-based CEO of The Hyperfactory, said that integrating mobile is the way to go for the future.

The United Nations used The Hyperfactory to promote UN Voices in Australia. As a part of the campaign, posters and advertisements featured people with various afflictions. Some were HIV positive, others homeless. Users were encouraged to take a picture of the person’s mouth on the poster and send it to a designated number on the poster. Within a few minutes of the message’s sending, the users receive a recorded call from the person on the poster, telling them about their cause. All proceeds from the messages and calls went to various related charities. Users were also directed to a Web site where all the stories were listed. There, users could submit their own stories too.

“It was a static campaign that used mobile on two levels,” Mr. Handley said. “It brings the voice of the characters of the campaign to you in a personal and innovative way and it creates a voice for the static media, trying to get more interactive and help it come to life.”

In Sweden, AMF Pension ran a campaign to get young adults interested in savings. The company used posters to ask mobile users to photograph themselves and send it in to a designated number. Then, the user would receive an MMS back with how they would look several years in the future. Mr. Handley said using the tactic of surprise, the campaign engaged young users.

Hyperfactory’s promotion for shoe giant Nike, Nike PhotoID, allowed users to take colors from the real world and put them onto shoes. Users created personalized sneakers by taking a picture of a combination of colors they found and sending them to a designated number. After sending, an MMS is sent back to the consumer with a shoe styled with their colors and a code to enter to buy the product online.

In terms of augmented reality, Coca-Cola and The Hyperfactory launched two promotions. The applications launched across Europe in late January and were supported by print and online ads, on-pack promotions, point-of-sale material, viral marketing and public relations. One application is called Fanta Virtual Tennis and the other is the Fanta Stealth Sound System (see story).

Mr. Handley said the future of mobile is full integration into media campaigns, like Fanta has done. “These ideas are all mobile-centric,” Mr. Handley said. “We take big ideas for mobile and integrate them into the wider campaign and they all use various mechanisms to engage in cutting-edge technology.”

The brothers, who founded The Hyperfactory in 2000, won't reveal how much listed Meredith Corporation is paying for the 19.9 per cent stake but say it is "up there" in terms of other emerging New Zealand technology companies.

In 2006 Rod Drury sold his email storage company AfterMail to US software maker Quest for more than $60 million and in 2003 a 70 per cent chunk in Peter Maire's Navman was snapped up by US manufacturer Brunswick for $56.1 million.

New York-based Derek Handley, who will stay on as chief executive of Hyperfactory, said the company had been looking to do a deal for the past 18 months. "We wanted to find someone who would be able to really help us move to the next stage." The acquisition by Meredith would help the company, which grew its revenue by 80 per cent last year, grow even faster. "When you look at New Zealand success stories like Navman they have taken 30 years to get to where they are. "If we want to get to $100 million in revenue - we want to get there in 2009 not 2039."

The Hyperfactory only expanded overseas four years ago but already has two offices in the United States as well as sites in Shanghai, Hong Kong and India. Handley said the acquisition would not mean pulling out of its New Zealand operations, instead it would have a joint head office in Auckland and New York.

Handley said the deal would allow Hyperfactory to gain access to Meredith's clients as well as expanding its services throughout the US.

Meredith is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and last year had revenue of US$1.6 billion ($2.45 billion). It owns 12 television stations in the US, as well as 23 subscription magazines and 32 websites.

Handley said Meredith had the ability to reach 85 million Americans a month. "All of that stuff has got to go mobile." Handley said the relationship with Meredith had already resulted in more than a million dollars worth of business and he expected that to grow to more than $10 million per year.

"I think for us the deal definitely cements Hyperfactory as a New Zealand success story." Handley said it showed New Zealand entrepreneurs could succeed in going global despite being so far away from major world markets. "It proves young people can do this. That you can build a global business with entrepreneurs from Auckland - I think that is the thing I'm most proud of - it's not about the money."

Handley put their success down to drive and hunger. "It is hard work. But deals like this make it all worthwhile." Handley came up with the mobile marketing idea on the balcony of his Auckland apartment in 2000 but it wasn't until 2004 that the business began to gain steam.

In 2007 The Hyperfactory gained financial support from 42 Below founders Geoff Ross, Grant Baker and Stephen Sinclair as well as American investors Rich Frank and his son Paul Frank who helped the company set up shop in Hollywood.

Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP), a 107 year old New York Stock Exchange listed company, reaches over 85 million Americans each month through its roster of well-known media brands including Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle. One of America’s leading media and marketing companies, Meredith's fiscal 2008 annual revenues were $US1.6 billion.

Privately owned and founded in 2001 by New Zealand brothers Geoffrey and Derek Handley, The Hyperfactory has rapidly become a major global success story, establishing itself as the world’s expert in mobile marketing.

The company specialises in powering businesses and brands through the mobile medium with award winning, innovative and strategically creative initiatives. Its campaigns have won more mobile marketing awards than any agency worldwide.

“Entering into an alliance with Meredith, a leading media company with vast expertise, experience and resources, will accelerate our global growth at a pivotal stage for the mobile marketing industry,” says Derek Handley. “Being part of such a consortium of leading edge thinkers will stimulate our own creative ideas, design and implementation capabilities, and also create opportunities for us to compete for a whole new tier of clients.”

In addition to its traditional print marketing and advertising business, Meredith has made a number of strategic investments in recent years to broaden its audiences, enhance its online and video content creation expertise, expand its distribution platforms, and increase its sales and marketing capabilities.

“Joining forces with The Hyperfactory provides Meredith’s Integrated Marketing unit with access to the fast-growing mobile category and complements our recent acquisitions in the digital marketing space,” says Jack Griffin, President of the Meredith Publishing Group. “The Hyperfactory’s capabilities fall directly in line with our strategic goals and present significant opportunities for our business-to-business engagements.”

Derek Handley will remain the Chief Executive Officer of The Hyperfactory, with dual headquarters in New York and Auckland.

“Meredith’s stake in The Hyperfactory is an endorsement of our vision and ability to deliver on it,” continues Mr. Handley.  “With Meredith as a strategic shareholder and full business partner we can together leverage the power of mobile across our combined extensive client networks.”

A recent study by Magna Insights shows that within five years the majority of world-wide web users will access the internet using mobile. There are 250 million mobile phones in the US alone with 60 million Americans actively browsing.  Nielson Mobile and eMarketer estimate the US mobile advertising market will grow from $805 million in 2007 to $3.6 billion in 2010.

“Media companies can no longer afford to simply use mobile as a passive channel of communication. They need to actively develop business and brand strategies that include mobile if they are to maintain future connectivity with their customers,” says Mr. Handley.

Says John Zieser, Meredith’s Chief Development Officer, “This strategic move further expands Meredith’s global footprint as well as our ability to serve our clients on this rapidly growing platform. We are continuously seeking out new opportunities to align with market leaders throughout the world.”

“iPhones are considered to be the latest and the greatest,” said Dave Everett, vice president and partner at KaOoga, Newton, MA. “They are made for people on the go and this fits in perfectly for fast food chains.”

“The demographics also match up well as the iPhone users’ age group skews towards a younger crowd,” he said. “Another iPhone advantage is the enormous screen size – an advertiser’s message is impossible to miss. “Having mobile outreach gives fast-food chains an opportunity to push new products, specials and deals.”

Taco Bell first launched its Why Pay More value menu last year and it couldn’t have been a more perfect time. The battered economy has taken its toll on fast-food chain sales in general and the Why Pay More value menu is a great incentive to drive sales.

The Taco Bell value menu includes a variety of menu choices including burritos, tacos and nachos. To use the app, users just need to enter the prices of the value menu items they are buying. Then, they have to shake their phone to trigger calculation.

The application is meant to show consumers that Taco Bell is dedicated to helping consumers save money during this tough time. The application also calculates how much change consumers are to get back.

Customers with a limited amount of money in hand can enter the amount they have and the app will show them what combinations of menu items they can afford to buy. The app also has a store locator link that helps find the nearest Taco Bell.

“Quick service restaurants view mobile apps as a new way to engage their customers, from a simple store-finder function that helps customer find the nearest restaurant to full remote ordering and payment right from the app,” said Noah N. Glass, founder CEO of Gomobo, New York.

Gomobo built an iPhone application for fast-food chain Burger King. The Burger King app lets consumer place orders and pay for them their iPhone (see story).

Additionally, Gomobo helped Subway with its mobile ordering service (see story).

“Restaurant self-service technology has evolved from in-store kiosks, to online ordering, to the mobile device,” he said.

 

The Global Board will be chaired by Federico Pisani Massamormile, and will be supported by Global Vice-Chairperson Michael Becker, with Mike Wehrs, MMA President and CEO, and Russell Buckley, Global Chairperson Emeritus, rounding out the Global Board of Directors.

The MMA 2009-2010 Global Board of Directors is as follows:

Global

* Global Chair: Federico Pisani Massamormile, CEO HANZO
* Global Vice Chair: Michael Becker, Executive Vice President of Business Development , iLoop Mobile
* Global Treasurer: Louis Gump, VP Mobile, CNN
* Global Secretary: Geoffrey Handley, Co-Founder & New Business Director, The Hyperfactory
* MMA: Mike Wehrs, President and CEO

APAC

* Chair: Sean Rach, Managing Director, OgilvyOne Hong Kong
* Vice Chair: Barney Loehnis, Network Director, Isobar Asia Pacific
* Secretary: Dilip Mistry, Windows Live Lead, Greater Asia Pacific
* Treasurer: Geoffrey Handley , Co-Founder & New Business Director, The Hyperfactory HK Ltd
* Chair Emeritus: Jimmy Poon, Managing Director, Puca Technologies
* MMA: Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director APAC

Europe

* Chair: Herve Le Jouan, Managing Director, Census Solutions
* Vice Chair: Arda Kertmelioglu, CMO / Co-Founder, Mobilera BV
* Secretary: Mark Wächter, Chairman, BVDW Section Mobile (MMA Germany)
* Treasurer: Salvador Carrillo, Founder & CEO, Mobile Dreams Factory (MMA Spain)
* Chair Emeritus: Russell Buckley, Vice President of Global Alliances, AdMob (also Global Chair meritus)
* MMA: Paul Berney, Managing Director EUR

LATAM

* Chair: Omarson Costa, Senior Business Development Manager - Latin America, Microsoft
* Vice Chair: Enrique Yuste, President, Wunderman Latin America
* Treasurer: Fernanda Magalhaes, Brazil Manager, Mobext
* Secretary: Roberto Vázquez Ferrero, Director Telecom Practice, Latin America, The Nielsen Company
* Chair Emeritus: Federico Pisani Massamormile, CEO, HANZO
* MMA: Terence Reis, Managing Director LATAM

North America

* Chair: Maria Mandel, Executive Director of Digital Innovation, Ogilvy Interactive
* Vice Chair: Michael Becker, VP, Mobile Strategies, iLoop Mobile
* Treasurer: Louis Gump, VP Mobile, CNN
* Secretary: Paul Palmieri, President & CEO, Millennial Media
* Chair Emeritus: Tom Daly, Group Manager, Strategy & Planning, The Coca-Cola Company
* MMA: Mike Wehrs, President & CEO (also MMA rep to Global Board)

“The MMA is a premier industry association which discusses, plans and works cooperatively with its entire membership to resolve key industry issues, to share perspectives and case studies across the different geographic regions, to promote technology, processes and practices innovation, and, ultimately, to boost the growth of mobile marketing and advertising worldwide. I am greatly honored to be in a position to help shape its initiatives, drive its international growth and advance its industry leadership’” said new Global Chairman Federico Pisani Massamormile. “I am excited to work with the talented group of individuals that sit on the Global Board. The combined set of skills and experience is unique, extremely valuable and essential as we execute on our mission on behalf of the entire MMA membership and the Industry we represent.”

“Global industry collaboration is essential for the success of mobile marketing and to ensure the best experience for the consumer. Our member and board contribution to this collaborative process is incredibly important, offering real-world expertise and experience,” said MMA President and CEO Mike Wehrs. “My thanks go to the outgoing board members for all their help and hard work, and I welcome our new board for another productive year.”

About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)
Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global non-profit trade association established to lead the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies. The MMA is an action-oriented organization designed to clear obstacles to market development, establish mobile media guidelines and best practices for sustainable growth, and evangelize the use of the mobile channel. The more than 700 member companies, representing over forty countries around the globe, include all members of the mobile media ecosystem. The Mobile Marketing Association’s global headquarters are located in the United States and it has regional chapters including North America (NA), Europe (EUR), Latin American (LATAM) and Asia Pacific (APAC) branches. For more information, please visit www.mmaglobal.com. For information relating to the MMA’s Mobile Marketing Forum series, please visit

www.mobilemarketingforum.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

APAC
Sonya Madeira Stamp, Jeff Tan or Joan Khor
Rice Communications Pte Ltd
Tel: +65 6227 1550
Email: apac.pr@mmaglobal.com

EMEA
Jen Allen or Becca Daniel
Mi liberty Ltd
Tel: +44 207 751 4444
Email: press.emea@mmaglobal.com

LATAM
Maria Ramirez or Julio Gama
Newlink PR
Tel: 305 5327950
Email: press.latam@mmaglobal.com

NA
Valerie Christopherson or Kirsten Woodard
GRC for MMA
Tel: (949) 608-0276
Email: press@mmaglobal.com

If you want to inject real wow factor into your mobile campaigns, you want augmented reality (AR). The customer points a camera phone at a barcode image on a billboard or magazine, and they see a 3D image – of your new product, perhaps – appear on the screen, while the real world remains in the background.
The Hyperfactory has developed AR campaigns for Nike in Asia and Fanta in Europe. Howard Hunt spills the beans on the technology that’s got mobile marketers buzzing.

For mobiThinking’s musings on AR, see: Even better than the real thing.

Q1. What is Augmented Reality and where did it come from?
Augmented Reality (AR) is the process of superimposing digitally rendered images onto our real-world surroundings, giving the sense of an illusion or ‘virtual’ reality. The technology has been around for many years, and has been used in everything from CAD programs for aircraft assembly and architecture, to simulation, navigation, even military and medical procedures. It is only recently, however, that marketers have spotted how AR can be used to engage their mobile audience.

Q2. How does AR work? And what does it involve?
To take part, the consumer needs to download the AR application from the brand’s mobile site, perhaps triggered by an SMS containing the URL.
When the phone’s video camera is pointed at a marker – often a black and white barcode image in print or outdoor advertising – the AR application will first recognise it, analyse it, then create a virtual image based upon the data contained in the marker. The consumer sees a 3D object on the screen, superimposed over the real view seen through the camera lens, which can be viewed from any angle.
AR can also be used on online campaigns (the consumer holds a print advert in front of a webcam), with less development effort than with mobile. But there is so much more scope with mobile, as it can be used anywhere: at a coffee shop, standing next to a billboard, at a sports game, on public transport etc. This makes the extra effort with AR mobile campaigns so worthwhile for brand and consumer.

Q3. How can AR be used by mobile marketers or content providers?
AR can be applied to almost any concept – as long as you have a strong creative angle and the support of an integrated media plan, then the sky is the limit. To date, AR has been a hit with brands that want to create high-impact campaigns to generate awareness of new services or product launches. We’ve seen AR used to create 3D models of cars and shoes from markers in adverts; interactive games; and display messages hidden in SMS.

Q4. What do consumers need to do to take part?
Typically consumers need to have a high-end video-capable phone or smart phone. The technology requires a fair amount of processing power, so the best experience is with high-end Symbian (Nokia etc) or Windows mobile devices. As the application is usually downloaded over 3G or GPRS, it helps to have a flat-rate data plan. AR would also work with the Apple iPhone, but as the software development kit (SDK) is not officially released, applications can not make it onto the App Store just yet.

Q5. What sort of consumers does AR appeal to? Is it more popular with certain demographics or in certain geographies?
There have been too few AR campaigns across the world to say for sure which geographies or demographics respond best. However it is fair to assume it will attract a younger tech-savvy audience (people that go for the latest high-spec phones).
Success, as always, depends on the marketing team’s ability to make the campaign appealing. Consumers are more willing to engage if they perceive a sense of ‘value’. The campaign will be more successful if it is tied seamlessly across media and technology platforms.

Q6. What do you need to do to get consumers involved? Do you have to ‘promote’ the campaign?
Promotion is essential: assuming ‘build it and they will come’ is a recipe for disaster. In common with all mobile campaigns, the call to action must be: 1) clear, 2) simple, 3) well-distributed across channels, and 4) communicate real value.
The simplest way to get the technology into people’s hands is to prompt them to send an SMS. The reply message should contain a URL, hyperlinking to the mobile download site with instructions and full promotion details.

Q7. How successful is this with consumers?
Consumers love to be challenged and they love to take control. AR campaigns are about interaction and empowerment. The most common first reaction from consumers, I believe, is “That’s so cool”, closely followed by “How does it do that?”
These campaigns generate a huge viral or word-of-mouth effect, which is great for creating awareness and engagement. One person – typically an influencer – may tell or demonstrate to as many as 10 friends or family members.

Q8. Is this more than just a novelty?
There’s no doubt the first movers in AR have done it for novelty effect. Many brands saw an opportunity to create a buzz with something new. However this technology is set to grow exponentially both as today’s high-end phones become commonplace and as the mobile business develops new interactive elements to AR campaigns. This will keep creative agencies, brands and consumers busy for the foreseeable future.

Q9. Is it expensive to run an AR campaign?
It’s all relative. The cost of innovation and development makes AR above-average for mobile campaign budgets; however, it’s no more expensive than developing a well-executed integrated mobile Website, or an iPhone game/application. But compared to the average budget for traditional media channels, it’s a drop in the ocean.

Q10. What brands have used AR in their campaigns?
Nike ‘T90’ football boot launch in Hong Kong, Q3 2008, McCann Erickson Hong Kong and The Hyperfactory. See the mobile site and case study

Fanta ‘Play’ tennis game in Europe, Q1 2009, Ogilvy UK and The Hyperfactory. See the mobile site and Website

The Ford Ka launch in Europe, Q1 2009, Wunderman. See the mobile site and video

WWF China, Q2 2009, BBH China and Qdero. See the video

Q11. Where do you see AR going in the future? Is it going to be big?
I believe there will be a series of revolutions for this technology. Short term, expect it to become increasingly interactive, incorporating more live-information feeds and interactive animations.
There will be live integration with the mobile Web, exploiting AR’s ability to map to the real world in terms of location. This will revolutionize classrooms with new learning applications, just as much as it will transform the gaming world (as it already doing via PC-based applications).

AR will open up a truly new, virtual environment around us. Just look at these examples:

Sekai Camera from Japan

Wikitude Google Android Travel Guide

Gizmondo AR Game

Q12. What’s the biggest myth about AR?
People think that it is actually artificial intelligence (AI) and is capable of giving birth to alien babies. Everything is possible... but that might take a few years.

AR campaigns tick a lot of boxes: appealing, innovative, interactive, cool, fun, engaging, viral, plus getting the important message across. This campaign from WWF China illustrates this particularly well. Consumers point their mobile phone at any scene to see a virtual bear coping with the environment – the message to young people: help protect wildlife habitat.

So that’s the entertainment crowd happy, now for the utilitarian… If AR in mobile entertainment is nascent, then on the utility side it’s still in nappies. But there are excellent examples of how AR can literally bring all that terribly useful information on the mobile Web to life. Using image recognition or mapping (or location-based services), AR can tap the mobile Web for more information on what’s around you:

• Help tourists find out more about the place of interest in front of them – see Wikitude demo part one and part two (for Android phones).

• Find a great deal on a show or restaurant – see Lastminute demo (for Android phones).

• Tell you more about the movie advertised on a billboard (and where it’s on locally) – see Nokia Point and Find.

It’s immediately clear from these examples how AR is a perfect fit for a travel guide or a local business looking for a new way to entice in passing trade for example. Now consider how useful it would be for a visitor to an exhibition, sports event, car showroom or even shopping centre (especially if it is delivered over WIFI or Bluetooth). The IBM Seer application for Wimbledon 2009 (again for Android) is a good indication of how this works in practice – see this Wimbledon demo.

And what a great tool for consumer empowerment… there is an abundance of mobile sites that help consumers, such as Wines.mobi to check the fair price for a bottle of wine, Safetoy.mobi to check a toy hasn’t been recalled or Drugs.mobi to find out more about pharmaceuticals. How handy if all you had to do was point your camera phone at the product to search for the latest data. AR has the potential to make the mobile Web even easier, quicker, useful and accessible.

Which brings us to branded utility: what marketer wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to sponsor the commentary at a relevant trade show, sports event or guide visitors around town? If there’s any doubt, check out the publicity IBM (and AR, for that matter) has received in the mainstream press with the Wimbledon app. What’s branded utility? Read THIS INTERVIEW with Ogilvy VP Rory Sutherland to find out more.

The results of the Webbys - the Oscars of the internet, if you will - have already been announced.

Kiwi companies Xero (banking/billing) and Hyperfactory (with six ad agency awards) were among the winners named last month.

Hyperfactory boss Derek Handley who, somewhat deflatingly, already lives in the big Apple, from where he directs his Auckland-based company’s global efforts - and his sidekick are supplying Keallhauled with some live comments from the Webbys Gala ceremony on now in New York where, famously, winners are restricted to a five-word speech.

10.30am: Just passed Bob Greenberg of r/ga will hit him up as he comes off the video podium about unfairly taking our Agency of Year crown, and to suggest to expect much stronger competition from us next year...

10.45am: Decidedly underdressed sans black tie.
Just moving into the green room to get our official You Tube thank you video recording done.

11.36am: Just had a great chat to Lisa Kudrow off friends ... no pic allowed.
She looks just like Phoebe.

11.46am: Five minutes in and Twitter has been mentioned 50 times and been the subject of a three-minute video clip. Last year it was mentioned once, if at all.

10.51am: Seth Myers from Saturday Night Live is hosting ....

12.02pm: We are going on stage now to collect our People's Voice for Mobile Gaming for Fanta Europe.

Seth has given us permission walking off the stage to announce "Do you know who I am? I'm a ficking Webby winner ...".

12.10pm: Crazy dude took all of his clothes off for acceptance and yelled out something inaudible.

Forever, it seems, we've been told that it's just a matter of time—next year, for sure—that mobile marketing will take off in the U.S. Yet advertising on cell phones remains tiny.

That may be about to change for two reasons: Web-surfing smartphones are selling briskly even in a downturn, anapplications for those gadgets—especially Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and the BlackBerry—are proliferating. That means people are spending a lot more time playing gameswatching TV, and shopping on their phones. All that activity translates into what marketers call engagement, a fancy way of saying people are paying attention. Companies, of course, prize that, so they're looking for mobile applications that are a good fit for their brands.

Which brings us to Pandora, a nine-year-old, free online service that lets users design "radio stations" based on their musical preferences. Since Pandora launched a mobile edition two years ago, it has signed up 6 million people (total users for mobile and Web versions is 27 million). That has prompted the likes of Best Buy (BBY), Dockers, Target (TGT), and Nike (NKE) to buy ads on Pandora and experiment with what remains a cheap advertising medium—one most companies have yet to figure out. "We've reached a tipping point," says Domino's (DPZ) Pizza advertising executive Rob Weisberg. "Marketers, especially consumer brands, have to take mobile seriously now. You have to be where your customer works, lives, and plays."

Pandora has become a test bed because people who use the service tend to spend a lot of time playing around with it. They are constantly creating stations, rating songs, and scrolling through playlists to find artists they don't know. Pandora founder Tim Westergren says on average subscribers use the mobile service about 90 minutes a day (though there are no independent numbers).

Advertisers are trying out Pandora in myriad ways. Sometimes it's as a direct marketing tool. Domino's, for example, puts up ads that urge people to call in for a pizza directly from their phones. Other companies are using coupons. Docker's offered a 20% discount if visitors went to the brand's site and entered the promotional code "Pandora." Some companies prompt users to watch movie clips where their products are featured prominently. Puma, which developed a shoe with Ducati motorcycles, ran ads on Pandora that included a trailer from the Vin Diesel movie Fast & Furious 4. The ads allowed people to buy shoes that were featured in the film from their phones. Kraft (KFT) and Nike, looking to have people come directly to them, took out ads encouraging Pandora users to put links on their phones that take them to special mobile sites providing advice as well as promote products. Kraft's is the iFood Assistant, with recipe tips, and Nike's is the Nike Training Club, with workout suggestions.

HIGH CUSTOMER RESPONSE
If one thing has surprised advertisers, it's how avidly consumers are responding. Target says 27% more people clicked on its ad for the release of Christina Aguilera's greatest hits CD last fall than on any other mobile Web campaign. The ad urged users to visit a site where they could get a free Aguilera ringtone and buy the album. Target recently launched a Pandora campaign for the retailer's C9 by Champion clothing line.

Sonos, which sells home music systems, just wrapped up a campaign on Pandora. DeAnna Wassom, Sonos' senior marketing director, says she has never seen better customer response in her 20 years in the business. The ads asked people to click through to a promotional video. Typically, only 1% to 2% of people click on ads overall. But nearly 5% clicked in this case, says Wassom, and almost 40% of those clicking watched the entire video. During the campaign, nearly twice as many people asked to be put on Sonos' e-mail list as those signing up on the company's regular site.

Derek Handley, whose firm, Hyperfactory, has persuaded several companies to advertise on Pandora, says most brands have no clue how to market on mobile devices. Many try to do too much, including making sites so technologically flashy that they crash phones. The key is to keep it simple, he says. Handley also advises companies to build special mobile sites, because regular ones don't translate well to supersmall screens. With mobile marketing poised to take off, the companies experimenting now will have a head start.

Online accounting software provider Xero won two Webbys for its software and website in the banking / bill paying category. The Xero application won the Webby Award and also won the People’s Voice Award in the same category.

 

With eight wins, R/GA New York will be presented with the first-ever Webby Agency of the Year Award at the 13th Annual Webby Awards, organizers announced today.

The new award recognizes the most successful agency across all Webby categories, including, interactive advertising, websites, mobile sites, and online film and video. Other multiple winners include: New Zealand's Hyperfactory with 6; Goodby Silverstein and Partners with 3; and 2 each to Clemenger BBDO, Wellington, Wieden + Kennedy, 42 Entertainment, The Netherland's Achtung!, Japan's Less Rain, Grow Interactive, Razorfish and Atmosphere. Of the big four advertising holding companies, Omnicom and Interpublic tied with eight awards each, followed by Publicis with three wins.

This is the first year that the Webbys have recognized an Agency of the Year, and the inaugural prize goes to R/GA -- which was selected because it won a total of eight Webby categories, including best B2C Rich Media for Nike SPARQ (which also won a People's Voice Award, so let's hear it for the annoying messages), Best Retail for NIKEiD and Best Game or Application for Nike Football Head2Head (the judges also seem to like Nike).

Other big winners include New Zealand's Hyperfactory (with six awards); Goodby Silverstein & Partners (took three); Wieden + Kennedy, Grow Interactive, the Atmosphere and Clemenger offices of BBDO, and Razorfish (all nabbed two). Of the big four, Omnicom and Interpublic tied with eight awards each, followed by Publicis with three wins.

Twitter won Breakout of the Year -- but, like all winners, when Biz Stone accepts his award in New York on June 8, he'll be limited to five words instead of the 140 characters he's used to.

The Webbys are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which is not to be confused with the Academy of Arts and Sciences, but this doesn't mean Hugh Jackman won't one day be host. This year, however, SNL's Seth Meyers has hosting duties. Some of the members of the "Academy" who are responsible for judging this year's 10,000 entrants: Vinton Cerf, Matt Groening, Arianna Huffington (whose HuffPo took the People's Voice for Best Political Blog), Harvey Weinstein, Alex Bogusky, Betawave's Matt Freeman, AKQA's Rei Inamoto, and Ogilvy & Mather's Annie Wong.

The full list of winners can be found here .

“Each one of them are doers, though some are more active on the creative side, others on the business development side,” said Andy Favell, editor of mobiThinking. “The key was that the rest of us can learn from each of them.”

Here is the list of honorees in the order of markets: Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States.

Sandy Agarwal, director for Asia-Pacific at Nokia Interactive Advertising
An ESPN cable executive from India, Mr. Agarwal spotted the mobile opportunity on a visit to Reykjavik, Iceland. He soon started Landmat with Icelandic partners for mobile entertainment and community products.

Along the way, Landmat was acquired by Enpocket, which itself became a Nokia company in 2007. Mr. Agarwal stayed through the acquisitions, such was his faith in mobile.

Among Mr. Agarwal’s key achievements is the Nokia Life Tools test project offering Indian farmers access to market prices of supplies and produce, weather and tips of the trade in many languages. Mobile subscriptions and advertising, along with sponsorships from fertilizer and seed companies and multinationals, fund the service.

Geoffrey Handley, cofounder of The Hyperfactory
The New Zealander founded his agency with brother Derek, turning The Hyperfactory into one of the most well-oiled mobile marketing firms

The Hyperfactory’s 10 offices and 120 staff worldwide run more than 2,000 campaigns for a blue-chip roster of clients including Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson. It is a sharp contrast from 2001 when the Handleys did not have the funds to fly to Cannes, France, to collect a GSMA Award for a Cancer Society campaign. They did eventually find sponsors to fund the trip, and that tenacity has remained part of their approach to mobile.

The hands-on leader is a firm proponent of mobile’s value in the multichannel marketing environment, steering clients toward a more mass-market mobile Web presence before embarking on applications for niche audiences

Neeraj Roy, founder/CEO of Hungama Mobile
This go-to man for India’s Bollywood film industry helms South Asia’s largest mobile entertainment company.

Mr. Roy is one of the earliest pioneers of mobile marketing in India, running campaigns for 300 local and multinational advertisers and delivering more than 120 million messages across different databases in Hungama’s decade-long existence. Hungama is the Indian term for noise.

It is said that 70 percent of Bollywood mobile content – video, ringtones, music and games – is funneled through Hungama either as distributor, publisher or developer. Mr. Roy in 2007 helped India’s leading brewer take its Kingfisher Swim Suit Calendar mobile.

Salvador Carrillo, founder/CEO of Mobile Dreams Factory
Now who was that Spanish agency that walked away with eight gongs at the Mobile Marketing Association’s 2008 awards? Few at the ceremony were aware that Mr. Carrillo is long in tooth in mobile, launching Spain’s first WAP site in 1999.

The Spaniard channeled his love for mobile and soccer (European football) in an epic campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, resulting in more than 1 million downloads – with more than 20,000 concurrent users.

Mr. Carrillo and his team have convinced several brands to make their first foray into mobile – Spanish wireless carrier Telefonica with its first branded mobile Internet service in 2006, sponsored by Coca-Cola and marking its Spanish mobile marketing debut. Yes, it was soccer-related.

Marc Mielau, head of digital media at BMW Group
In many ways, this German has set the bar for automotive mobile marketing. He is also a firm believer in integrating mobile into all business activities

Under Mr. Mielau’s direction, BMW in 2006 launched the Mobile Calculator to let German consumers calculate the cost of financing a new car using various types of loans. A BMW@mobile application followed, letting consumers shop for a used car by texting a short code to get photographs and other details. They could also elect to have the car dealer call to arrange for a test drive.

Among his other feats, Mr. Mielau has encouraged the BMW customer relations department to add mobile phone numbers and opt-ins to the luxury automaker’s database. This led to a successful MMS campaign in winter of 2007 offering opted-in mobile consumers winter tires for their BMW. 2D bar codes were also added that year in magazine ads, taking consumers who scanned them to the phone’s browser and then to the new models area on http://BMW.mobi.

Daniel Rosen, head of AKQA MobilThis decade-long veteran of mobile works at one of the most highly lauded interactive agencies. So it is no surprise that AKQA Mobile gets to put a mobile spin on campaigns and sites for Nike, Coca-Cola and Smirnoff.

Mr. Rosen takes particular pride in the Nike PHOTOiD effort that invited sneaker fans in Europe to snap something colorful and send it to a short code with the keyword DUNK. AKQA automatically created a shoe based on the colors in the image and texted the design back. Consumers could then customize the design on NikePHOTOiD.com and buy the footwear.

A Smirnoff .mobi site in 2007 led to the development of the Nighlife Guide to help customers find a bar nearby selling Smirnoff and the Pocket Bartender feature to help users choose a Smirnoff-based cocktail. And then there was the winter 2008 effort that encouraged visitors to http://Coke.mobi to design and send a mobile Christmas card to someone else.

Melis Turkmen, head of the mobile marketing and advertising unit at Turkcell
In an industry that does not attract its fair share of women, Ms. Turkmen is a standout: an indefatigable evangelist of mobile advertising and marketing who has the numbers to prove it.

When Ms. Turkmen moved in 2005 from Turkish wireless carrier Turkcell’s value-added services division to run mobile marketing, her unit had revenue of only $2 million. Four years later, that unit generated $45 million in sales, with the product line expanded from three services to 22, eight agency partners evolving into 24 and a team of one now 13-strong.

Ms. Turkmen and her team have helped craft mobile campaigns for brands such as Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, Shell, BP, Coca-Cola and Unilever. Last year, Turkcell ran 650 mobile marketing projects with 276 brands in 27 industries. The carrier’s pride-and-joy are its permission database, free airtime campaigns and Tone&Win ringback tone advertising platform.

Louis Gump, vice president of mobile at The Weather Channel Interactive
Mr. Gump is always on the stump. Mobile marketing in the United States has no more dedicated a champion than this peripatetic executive who speaks up for the channel at every major event or caucus. He has the street cred.

Given the nature of its focus, the Weather Channel Mobile at http://weather.mobi is one of the most popular mobile sites nationwide, attracting a Nielsen-claimed monthly mobile audience of 11.9 million unique visitors, per January data. It is ahead of content rivals ESPN and CNN and behind only Yahoo Mail, Google Search and Yahoo Messenger.

One of the earliest media properties to go mobile in 1999 – the pioneering wired Web-based weather.com launched in 1995 – the Weather Channel Mobile flourishes with several business models in use: banner ads, syndication of mobile video content to several distributors and customer subscriptions for applications on the BlackBerry, iPhone and Android platforms. The outlook is sunny.

Omar Hamoui, founder/CEO of AdMob
One of the pioneers in the mobile ad network space, Mr. Hamoui has launched three startups before AdMob – Vertical Blue, GoPix and Fotochatter. Perhaps the Silicon Valley-based executive is proudest of his latest effort, the three-year-old AdMob that has gone through three rounds of funding and convinced some of the largest advertisers worldwide to run mobile banner ad campaigns.

AdMob claims to serve 4.1 billion ads monthly to consumers on more than 6,000 mobile sites and 1,000-plus iPhone and Android applications in 160 countries. Advertisers who have done business with AdMob include Land Rover, Coca-Cola, adidas, Paramount Pictures, Ford, Procter & Gamble and MTV Europe. Publishers in its network include CBS Mobile, Hollywood.com, Flirtomatic, Electronics Arts and AccuWeather.

Mr. Hamoui is said to be a hands-on executive, working closely in the recent launch of the iPhone Download Exchange. That exchange will let iPhone application developers in AdMob’s network use a portion of their ad inventory to promote their application and drive downloads.

Gene Keenan, vice president of mobile services at Isobar

What’s an organic farmer from California and former chef to the Grateful Dead band doing in mobile? Ask Mr. Keenan the next time you bump into him at one of the countless mobile shows nationwide and overseas.

Mr. Keenan is better known for his tireless stumping on the mobile circuit, representing the Mobile Marketing Association currently as global vice chairman and metrics crusader. Still, he finds time to push the mobile bar for agency clients such as Reebok, Marriott, Nike, adidas and Electronic Arts.

A shining moment for Isobar was in 2005 when mobile saved the whodunit “Veronica Mars” television show from cancellation. Viewers were asked to opt-in via SMS to get messages from the series, adding an interactive dimension for Veronica Mars fans and turning them into promoters of the program. Show ratings are said to have more than doubled during the campaign’s run, Web site traffic quintupled and mobile ad banners got an 8 percent click-through. Mobile done it.

Industry before self
A common thread through the current honorees’ list is not only the time they spent on their clients and firms, but also the numerous tours of duty they did with speaking gigs or committee responsibilities at the Mobile Marketing Association, CTIA: The Wireless Association and GSMA.

This list of top 10 mobiThinkers is set to become an annual feature.

The selection process will remain the same: Asking executives in the mobile business to nominate their heroes. Nominations this time round were restricted to executives who were actively engaged at an agency- or brand-level.

“We created a shortlist of those who were nominated most frequently or stood out and then argued a lot until we came up with 10 that represented a cross-section of the best from different areas of mobile marketing and from different parts of the globe,” mobiThinking’s Mr. Favell said.

“It wasn’t easy,” he said. “As you know, there are so many excellent candidates in mobile marketing. We hope that by drawing attention to this body of mobile creativity and best practice, we can inspire more brands to embrace mobie.”

 

 

http://media.smh.com.au/technology/media-09/geoffrey-handley-of-hyperfactory-386316.html

Target also has a mobile site where mobile users can browse and search products and locate the nearest Target store that has the merchandise they are looking for. The mobile site does not allow users to make purchases.

The mobile site and the iPhone application both give users access to product ratings and reviews

To promote its Go International collections, Target leveraged text messaging to consumers on its mailing lists to inform them of new designers that are part of the limited-time-only fashion program coming or when favorites are leaving.

"We are continually looking for ways in which we can leverage mobile devices to offer guests shopping solutions that fit within their busy lives and budgets," Ms. O'Leary said. "Leveraging mobile devices helps enhance anytime, anywhere shopping experiences at Target."

Specific to iPhone users, they can go to iTunes on their computer or visit the App Store directly from iPhones and download the application, then sync up their phone.

After that, guests can go to the Target.com Gift Finder and select attributes, such as male/female and age. The user will see the gift idea and price.

From there, guests can save the idea to their favorites, which ties the gift to recipients in their contact list.

This isn't the first time that a retailer has used the iPhone to push its gifting options.

Sam's Club, a warehouse club chain owned by Walmart, has a Gifter Stress Lifter mobile application (see story).

That iPhone application was designed to find personalized ideas for friends, family or colleagues on the Sam's Club member's holiday shopping list. Consumers can make purchases through the application.

For its part, Target has run mobile campaigns in the past.

The mass merchandiser ran a banner ad campaign to promote its exclusive sale of Christina Aguilera's new CD release.

For that effort, Target placed banner ads on 310.tv, a new mobile blogosphere platform, to promote its exclusive sale of Christina Aguilera's new CD release (see story).

In addition to the headers and footers, Target's media buy with Snakk Media included a sponsorship and run of site, promoting the deluxe version of the pop diva's "Keeps Getting Better: A Decade of Hits."

A few weeks later, Target expanded this banner ad campaign with Pandora to promote its exclusive sale of Ms. Aguilera's new CD release (see story).

Target's media buy with mobile ad agency The Hyperfactory included banner ads on Pandora's personalized radio service iPhone application that drove consumers to a branded mobile Web page with an offer of a free Christina Aguilera ringtone.

The goal was to promote the deluxe version of the pop diva's "Keeps Getting Better: A Decade of Hits."

Like many other retailers, including Ralph Lauren Corp. and Gap Inc., Target recognizes the value of an iPhone mobile application and the mobile-savvy audience it attracts.

"Partnering with Apple's iPhone allows us to provide unique mobile-based solutions for the large number of our guests who use an iPhone," Ms. O'Leary said.

"We started off talking to Fox Searchlight about how mobile is a great way to reach a mobile audience, a perfect component for a Notorious marketing campaign," said Liz Jones, vice president of entertainment and media at Hyperfactory, Los Angeles.
"They were excited to use mobile to get consumers to view trailers and to reach an urban audience," she said.

Notorious is the story of Christopher Wallace who, through raw talent and sheer determination, transforms himself from a Brooklyn street hustler to become the greatest rapper of all time, The Notorious B.I.G. This story charts his meteoric rise to fame and his refusal to succumb to expectation.

The campaign launched Dec. 22 and the movie opened in theaters Jan. 16. The campaign revolved around driving traffic to the Notorious destination site to get people to watch the video.

The studio is running mobile banners within Pandora's iPhone application. The application allows Fox Searchlight to target consumers ages 18-34 who listen to rap and hip-hop. The banners encourage consumers to click-to-video to view a video trailer. Every time a user scans the bar code the consumer receives a link to a trailer for the movie on YouTube.

"Fox Searchli8ght is looking to do something different, break out of the clutter," Ms. Jones said. "I think mobile is the best place for that right now because it offers a great chance at having a big share of voice. "Mobile allows brands to reach a specific demographic," she said.

Also there are scanable 2D bar codes on movie posters throughout New York.

mobilemarketer.com

Mobile's ubiquity makes it a natural for facilitating lead generation and engagement, something that categories such as automotive have been able achieve with good effect. In third-quarter campaigns run by ad network AdMob, automotive advertising logged a range of click-through rates, between 2.9% and 5.5%, followed by 1.2% to 3.5% for entertainment brands.

"The beauty about mobile is that whenever [consumers] decide to hit that trigger -- 'I am going to find out more about Kia' -- we can be there to enable that experience," said Dave Schoonover, customer-relations marketing manager at Kia Motors. "So for us, it's not enough to just deliver a brand message online, we have to enable the scenario whereby if they decide to take the next step ... they can contact a dealership."

Mobile drives action
Mobile's ability to draw an instant response and identify highly qualified and engaged prospects through capabilities like click-to-call and click-to-SMS makes the medium ideal for driving action. Larry Harris, CEO of Ansible Mobile, sees mobile more as a customer-acquisition channel that's measured in clicks, not eyeballs. For him, impressions, as measured in the traditional cost-per-thousand-viewers metric, do not go hand-in-hand with mobile.

"CPM is more about brand awareness, which most mobile is not. [Mobile] is about getting action. There's no great metrics, in my view, around impressions. When you click through, that's your engagement," Mr. Harris said.

As brand managers are held to greater accountability, there is also a sense that results-based campaigns will move to the fore. Mr. Harris said to expect more performance-based programs that combine cost-per-impression with cost-per-click.

And while cost-per-click wouldn't necessarily be cheaper or more expensive than CPM, advertisers could negotiate more aggressively for direct response buys, media buyers say.

Not ripe for branding -- yet
For now, some say mobile has several strikes against it as a branding channel. On most handsets, the screen is too small and the multimedia capabilities are too limited to deliver a rich, branded experience.

In its current incarnation, mobile also lacks the reach and scale to satisfy the exposure requirements of large-scale campaigns. Though smart phones are on the rise, the vast majority of consumers still use their handsets for voice and text.

"The challenge in the marketplace now is that you can't reach enough people to have that branding effect to affect your bottom line," said Amy Auerbach, senior VP-director of digital at Initiative.

For Ms. Auberbach, the minimum threshold is 3 million people. But as with any new technology, gathering a critical mass will take time.

Makes other media interactive
But while handset limitations and other factors make mobile less optimal for awareness building, marketers can still tap the medium for its interactive capabilities for brand building. In fact, one solution is to use it along with other, less interactive media, such as print or billboards. Tagging a static ad with a mobile call-to-action can add a conversion or click-through metric. Whether the campaign is skewed to branding or direct response, once mobile is inserted into the equation, one-way, passive media becomes two-way, trackable media -- and potentially more accountable.

"There's increasing need for accountability in this space," said Angela Steele, senior VP at mobile marketing firm Hyperfactory. "More and more it's not just impressions and clicks but how mobile is converting."

Some don't view the branding vs. direct response demarcations as meaningful.

"It's like saying television is branding ... [but] if you put on the Home Shopping Network, it's being used as direct response," said Jack Philbin, president of Vibes Media.

Best tied to larger strategy
One way to frame the branding vs. direct-response debate is to draw a line between mobile web banner advertising and mobile marketing, the latter being more about weaving mobile into the overall marketing strategy, Mr. Philbin said. When mobile is part of the broader media mix, "you've got the mobile call-to-action to [TV, print or out of home]; it could be a way to tie all those disparate media dollars together that creates some sort of congruence. Mobile is not its own channel; it's a layer on other mediums."

Increasingly, brands are looking at it this way.

Chris Murphy, who looks after digital marketing for Adidas in the U.S., said integrating mobile into a broader campaign, rather than any single stand-alone mobile program, has guided the athletic shoemaker's mobile strategy. The marketer's "Basketball Is a Brotherhood" campaign featuring print, outdoor and TV invites users to text in and receive calls from NBA all-stars. The goal is to push users to its "Brotherhood" site where a rich, branded experience awaits and let mobile continue the conversation long after the TV spots expire.

"If you did text in, say, from television spots, you can extend the consumer participation and reinforce the message," Mr. Murphy said.

In the end, it's about having something to show for the mobile campaign.

"You don't want to set up a mobile program without some sort of measurement in place to show that consumers actually did see it and interacted with the content," Ms. Auerbach said. "So, whether it's an opt-in or short-code response, unless mobile is part of a bigger program, I don't think branding is worth the trouble."

adage.com

The application, Fanta Stealth Sound System, uses high-pitched frequencies, only audible to the under 20s. It includes wolf-whistles, warnings, pssts and sound tags for phrases like "cool", "uncool", and "let's get out of here". It will be available via a new Fanta WAP site developed by The Hyperfactory.

Heaven 17 and The Human League founder, Martyn Ware, developed the sound tags, XS2TheWorld developed the application, and creatives Mike Watson and Jon Morgan, and creative partner Alasdair Graham created the campaign.

Coca-Cola Europe is also launching a second mobile application, Fanta Virtual Tennis, a 3D Augmented Reality tennis game created by The Hyperfactory.

 

BrandRepublic.com

Both are scheduled to be available early next year and will be supported by PR, viral, print, and online advertising, as well as on-pack promotions and point-of-sale materials.

Clickz.com

Bryon Morrison, the president of IPSH!, recounted a campaign for Doritos that placed mysterious black bags labeled X13-D in stores, asking consumers to send text messages guessing what the new flavor was. In addition to selling out the product, this spurred Internet discussion, propagating buzz to the Internet at large. Morrison also described a package IPSH! put together for a conference of 5,000 top GameStop store managers, which highlighted the possibilities for integrating mobile marketing with digital signage and big-screen entertainment in a public setting.

Similarly, Derek Handley, the CEO of the Hyperfactory, said his company has launched a number of successful mobile campaigns for soccer (er, football) fans in Europe and Latin America, for example sending out messages to groups of friends when their team scores and allowing them to celebrate communally, even if they're in different places. Alternatively, Handley said Hyperfactory has experimented with mobile content and advertising programs in sports arenas during the events. However Handley cautioned that some of these fell flat, depending on the sport, emphasizing the degree of sensitivity and familiarity marketers need to have with the immediate context of these campaigns. For example, mobile programs that relied on jumbotron screens tended to succeed less at soccer games than with other sports, as spectators at soccer games tend not to look at the screens.

mediapost.com

At these conferences, the executives will show brands and agencies why The Hyperfactory is the most award-winning mobile ideas and execution company on the planet, showing reels of exciting mobile campaigns, and diving deep into what works in entertainment, on devices and in the media.

1. OMMA Mobile conference in Los Angeles on Oct. 30: "Best Case Scenarios: Learning from Good Work," by Derek Handley. And "Baby, You Can Drive My Car" (mobile campaigns in the auto industry), by Daniel Blackburn.

2. Digital Hollywood in Los Angeles on Oct. 30: "Strategizing the Campaign: Selling Movies, TV and Video on the Web, Social Media, Mobile and TV," by Liz Jones.

3. Jericho Brainy Day in Auckland, New Zealand, on Nov. 5: Mobile Marketing workshop, Ghanum Taylor.

4. Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Forum in San Diego on Nov. 12: "Mobile Marketing A to Zs: Getting Started in Mobile Marketing," by Derek Handley.

5. The International Digital Entertainment Festival in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 12: "Where the Future Is," by Geoffrey Handley.

6. Ad:Tech in NYC on Nov. 12: "Incorporating Mobile Advertising Into Your Marketing Efforts," by Jeff Arbor.

7. Billboard Touring Conference in NYC, Nov. 20: "Digital Marketing Tactics for the Concert Touring Industry," Jeff Arbour.

8. GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, China, on Nov. 20: "Mobile Money and Marketing," by Howard Hunt.

9. Mobile Media Investor Conference in San Francisco on Dec. 9: "Mobile Advertising: Adoption, Challenges and Opportunities," by Derek Handley.

To schedule an interview or request The Hyperfactory executives for speaking engagements, please contact John Angelo at 623-792-8239 or john@abelsongroup.com.

About The Hyperfactory
The Hyperfactory is the leading full-service mobile ideas, media and execution company, responsible for the most award-winning innovative mobile campaigns and Websites seen anywhere in the world. Founded in 2000, the company creates, executes and analyzes long-term mobile strategies for global brands, agencies, content publishers and mobile application companies, regardless of the technology. The Hyperfactory is trusted by a portfolio of notable brands that include Toyota, Motorola, Vodafone and Coke, all of whom rely on The Hyperfactory as an essential part of their mobile marketing strategies. The Hyperfactory has a U.S. Headquarters in New York, International Headquarters in Auckland and sales and operations offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Shanghai, Hong Kong and India. For more information, visit: www.thehyperfactory.com.

pr-inside.com

New York, October 29, 2008 - In what has become an annual tradition, The Hyperfactory received multiple nominations across several categories for the Mobile Marketing Association's 2008 Global Awards. This year, the world's most award-winning mobile agency was recognized for its innovative campaigns in five top categories.

* Best Use of Mobile Marketing, Branding (Asia Pacific): "Guiness Passport to Greatness" in conjunction with OgilvyOne Worldwide, Hong Kong

* Best Use of Mobile Marketing, Cross-Media Integration (Asia Pacific): United Nations "Voices" Campaign in conjunction with Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney.

* Best Use of Mobile Marketing, Cross-Media Integration (North America): "Peyton Manning's Priceless Pep Talks"

* Best Use of Mobile Marketing, Direct Response (Asia Pacific): United Nations "Voices" Campaign in conjunction with Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney.

* Best Use of Mobile Marketing,, Product/Services Launch (Asia Pacific): Nike T90 Kick-Off Launch in 3D Augmented Reality on Mobile

"It's a great feeling to once again be recognized by the MMA for the campaigns we've developed this year," said Derek Handley, CEO and founder of The Hyperfactory. "We're very fortunate to work with brilliant clients and agency partners who help us achieve these stellar results. We look forward to attending the MMA award ceremony to continue The Hyperfactory's winning streak!"

The MMA will announce the winners at the Annual Global Awards dinner and ceremony on November 13 in San Diego.

About The Hyperfactory
The Hyperfactory is the leading full-service mobile ideas, media and execution company, responsible for the most award-winning innovative mobile campaigns and Websites seen anywhere in the world. Founded in 2000, the company creates, executes and analyzes long-term mobile strategies for global brands, agencies, content publishers and mobile application companies, regardless of the technology. The Hyperfactory is trusted by a portfolio of notable brands that include Toyota, Motorola, Vodafone and Coke, all of whom rely on The Hyperfactory as an essential part of their mobile marketing strategies. The Hyperfactory has a U.S. Headquarters in New York, International Headquarters in Auckland and sales and operations offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Shanghai, Hong Kong and India. For more information, visit: http://www.thehyperfactory.com.

Contact:
John Angelo
Abelson Group for The Hyperfactory
623-792-8239
john@abelsongroup.com

The Auckland, New Zealand based company, now with ten offices worldwide, were a Silver Winner in the Mobile Platforms category for their MasterCard 'Peyton's Priceless Pep Talks' campaign. Run in conjunction with MRM Worldwide, the program saw individualized pep talks from Superbowl MVP-winning quarterback Peyton Manning. There were a range of pep talks from Peyton, each deliverable with your name, or that of a friend to your mobile phone or over email.

For a full list of Mixx Award winners, please visit www.mixx-expo.com.

UN Voices was a campaign rolled out in Australian cities last year, aiming to give voice to those who needed to be heard - normally those that don't have a voice. Used to highlight the various 'days' throughout the year to bring attention to the plight of those that inhabit this world, Voices combined ground breaking Image Recognition Technology with traditional media to achieve the UN Australia's biggest ever marketing campaign.

Seven people who struggle from childhood HIV and orphanage to homelessness to domestic abuse were photographed and interviewed. Their photos then appeared in magazines, newspapers, posters and ad shells around Australia. To hear the story, bringing the image to life in your very own hand, all that was needed was to take a photo of the person's lips and MMS this in to a shortcode. Within a few seconds you would receive a call through an IVR system from the person in the photo explaining to you their story.

This was the UN Australia's most successful marketing campaign ever, drastically increasing awareness in major urban areas. Off the back of this success, the United Nations plan to roll the campaign out in major cities around the world.

To see a full list of winners, visit www.mmaawards.com.au.

The company has grown exponentially since its inception and now has eight offices worldwide - an International Headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand, US Headquarters in New York, and sales and operations offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Hyderabad. Clients include Toyota, Motorola, Vodafone, Nintendo, Mastercard, Nike, Coca-Cola and many more.

The Hyperfactory is also the most awarded mobile marketing company on the planet, having received op honours from the Webbys, AdWeek, OMMA, the Mobile Marketing Association and many more industry organizations.

Prior to launching The Hyperfactory, Derek founded boutique investment house The Mint Limited. The company’s first venture investment was a pioneering international online sports and racing betting business, Feverpitch. At the age of 22, Derek became New Zealand’s youngest ever managing director of a listed company when he led Feverpitch to list on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. The company subsequently launched the first ‘betting exchanges’ in New Zealand, the US and Australia. 
 
He is also the co-founder of luxury basics cashmere label To Sir With Love, which has been celebrated in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar UK, Cosmo and Elle.

In 2006 Derek was named one of the 40 Most Influential People in New Zealand Telecommunications 2006; in 2007 he was nominated as Bayer New Zealand and the National Business Review Top 60 Innovators 2007 and won the PwC Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Derek is a sought after speaker in the marketing and telecommunications industry, having spoken at events around the world including AdTech, MMA and OMMA, the Informa circuit, Mobile Entertainment Forum and iHollywood Forum.

Outside of his business life, Derek is a keen and accomplished poker player, and has competed in several World Series of Poker events.