Guest post from Mark Jaffe www.mobilemandala.com
Back when I was dating, the cardinal rule was to never phone after the first date until at least three days had passed. The phone was too personal for such a quick contact and you could be seen as too aggressive or worse, too desperate.
Times have changed. Now it is OK to use your phone for contact immediately after the first date, provided you don’t speak into it. Texting something pithy or witty that night, or the following day, can often be viewed as a positive addition to the dating experience.
Now let’s move to the end of the relationship. Breaking up over the phone is not as good as breaking up in person, but not nearly as bad as – OMG! – breaking up via text. Same phone. Same message. Completely different level of cultural acceptability.
We respond to text messages faster than emails, and BBMs faster than texts. Same Phone. Same message. Same textual appearance. Different accepted practice.
It is OK to whip out the phone (among some dining parties) at a restaurant to perform certain tasks – like looking up a sticking point in the conversation – but not others, like answering an email or playing a game. Same phone. Same amount of time “away” from the conversation. Different effect on your friends.
The list goes on and on. What is it about the mobile phone that generates this long list of rules and practices that is not present on our other media?
The mobile phone is not “the third screen.” It is a very personal, interactive, communication ecosystem of which the screen is just one visual component. The mobile phone has developed, and is continually developing, behavioral mores and cultural norms that have very serious implications for marketers. Violate one of those norms, and the consequences can be severe.
Marketers who continue to treat the mobile phone as yet another screen to “repurpose content” or as a quick campaign add-on to “target a hard to reach audience”, do so at their peril. It will be the brands that actively leverage the behavioral use patterns of the mobile phone and their attendant cultural norms that will succeed.
Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message” and he couldn’t be more right as it pertains to the mobile phone. The emerging customs, lifestyle behaviors and prevailing standards associated with the use of the mobile phone are unique, real and significant.
When mobile-specific behavior and culture is taken into account, the mobile phone shines as a brilliant addition to a well crafted overall brand marketing strategy – witness AT&T and American Idol.
When ignored, it can have the potential to undo the hard earned trust of the very same brand. AT&T found that out when it violated customer privacy expectations by using the American Idol list. And worst of all, most of the customers who chose to break up with the AT&T brand as a result, didn’t even bother to inform them by sending a text.
This post is one of the ten reasons why mobile advertising has not reached its potential. You can access the other nine at www.mobilemandala.com
DUBLIN, Ireland and WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ — dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi Internet domain designed to help consumers find content that works on mobile phones, today announced that more than one million .mobi domains have been registered since its launch two years ago.
From October 2006, dotMobi has seen continued growth in the amount of registrants as companies pursue the increased visibility and targeted marketing the mobile Web offers. Mobile content consumption is steadily growing while the lack of consistency and navigation issues that previously hampered mass consumer adoption are lessening.
In June 2008, dotMobi issued joint research with AKQA, a global creative agency. dotMobi found that 90 percent of respondents were interested in learning about the mobile Web. Brands and companies far and wide have turned to dotMobi for information on building and marketing mobile Web sites for consumers looking to access content while on the go.
Sites such as Nokia.mobi, Mercedes-Benz.mobi, Zagat.mobi and Bank of America’s BofA.mobi have been successfully promoted as custom, intuitive experiences for their users. These brands represent a small handful of the thousands of businesses who are embracing the mobile Web with sites across dozens of categories, including travel, automotive, consumer packaged goods, publishing and financial services.
The entertainment industry is also moving onto the mobile Web. Country music star Tim McGraw engages his audience via http://McGraw2go.mobi, where fans can download music samples, watch videos and keep tabs on the latest tour while followers of the Wu-Tang Clan can get the latest information about the group at http://wumusicgroup.mobi. Recent hit film Eagle Eye featured a special promotional “tie-in” site with US electronics retail giant Circuit City at http://ee.mydas.mobi as does the upcoming blockbuster James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, with Sony Australia at http://quantumcode.mobi.
Along with the .mobi domain, dotMobi as a company has continued to grow. To aid the expansion of the mobile Web, the company has created a wealth of free tools for developers, available at the mobiForge.com mobile web developer forum, which now boasts more than 20,000 members. Free resources such as the ready.mobi report and award-winning DeviceAtlas device database show business owners what they need to do to make their site successful with their customers on virtually every Web-enabled cell phone on the planet.
“dotMobi has established relevance, order – and now success – in what two years ago was a muddled, confusing mobile Web world,” said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “With the mobile Web gaining speed, and .mobi paving the way, we are excited to soon unveil the next generation of mobile Web tools and resources that will assist small-to-medium businesses in utilizing the mobile Web to reach a new audience: the mobile consumer.”
Amy Mischler, dotMobi’s Vice President of Brand and Identity Service, added, “To help continue the phenomenal growth of the mobile Web, dotMobi is making 200 highly desired ‘premium’ .mobi domain names available via a special online auction with Sedo (computer link) beginning Nov. 5 and running through Nov. 12, 2008. These .mobi names include actors.mobi, bands.mobi, blackjack.mobi, boys.mobi, cellphones.mobi, dvd.mobi, dvr.mobi, games.mobi, model.mobi, racing.mobi, stamps.mobi, vip.mobi and xxx.mobi.”
About dotMobi
dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd.), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is leading the growth of Internet use from mobile phones with the .mobi domain name. Unique among domain name providers, dotMobi ensures that services and sites developed around .mobi are optimized for use by mobile devices, so that on-the-go consumers can have confidence that a Web site will work on their mobile phones when using a .mobi address.
dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network & device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.
For more information on dotMobi domains and registration information, visit http://dotmobi.mobi. Visit the dotMobi blog at http://blog.mobi.
Click to call links (below) are enabled for mobile phones only, not computers.
For more information, please contact:
Vance Hedderel
dotMobi
+1-703-485-5563
vhedderel@mtld.mobi
Danielle Siemon
Edelman for dotMobi (U.S.)
+1-650-762-2947
danielle.siemon@edelman.com
Sasha Manners
Edelman for dotMobi (Europe)
+44-(0)20-7344-1200
sasha.manners@edelman.com
Summer is officially here in the Northern Hemisphere, and my friends in the blogosphere are telling me that things are going to quiet down a bit. Perhaps my blogger friends didn’t get the memo that mobile searches and traffic go up in the summer since most people want to be outside and away from their computers. This mobi blog tends to actually heat up in the summer since many web surfers take their mobile phones online. Face it people, we are addicted!
These fun-loving bloggers have launched an international internet game of “tag” and I am now “it.” This game offers a small snippet of the human element of the bloggers behind the blogs. Thank you to Jay Ehret, President of The Marketing Spot (computer link) (mobile link – warning, large graphic sizes), for inviting me to play.
SUMMER MEME
4 things you like about summer
- The smell of coconut sunscreen
- The Pacific Ocean warms up just enough to leave the wetsuit home
- Relaxed summer schedules
- Mobile search results increase (it’s true!)
4 of your favorite vacation destinations
- Miami, Florida
- Chicago, Illinois
- Marco Island, Florida
- Austin, Texas
4 of your favorite summer foods
- Barbecued Wild Salmon
- Grilled Vegetables
- Avocados
- Thai food (that’s all year long)
4 concerts not to miss
- Any concert at the beach
- Jimmy Buffet
- Local bands at coffee houses
- Andrew Sherman Vehicle (computer link)(if you can’t promote your friends what’s the point?)
4 Summer activities you must do
- Visit my parents
- Participate in the Library’s summer reading program
- Barbecue
- Go surfing with 20 or more other women at Surf Diva weekend surf clinics in La Jolla
4 things to avoid during the summer
- Dangerous aquatic animals such as sting rays, jellyfish, sea urchins and great white sharks
- Rip currents (this looks like two waves smashing into each other from opposite directions and can carry you out to sea even from ankle-depth)
- Strong afternoon sun
- Starch in my clothes
Tag – You’re it! Here is an invitation for a few fellow bloggers (Computer Links Only)
Jamie Parks
Javier Marti
Shaun Morton
Jeremy Padawar
Sherman Hu
Photo Credit: Massimiliano Pieraccini from Italy via 123rf.com (computer link)
Welcome Bloggers
mobi Enthusiast would like to welcome the following bloggers to our blogroll:
Official dotMobi/mtld Blog
Elliot’s Blog
Ric Ferraro
View Blogs on Your Cell Phone, iPhone or Blackberry
Mobile versions of the blogs on our blogroll are available courtesy of ratt.mobi
Official dotMobi/mtld Blog for Mobile
Elliot’s Blog for Mobile
Ric Ferraro for Mobile
Thank you, bloggers, for your contribution to the mobile internet.
