shotcode

David Harper

HP 's The Digital Mindset Blog – So How Important Is Mobile For Social Marketing?

HP asks, “So how important is mobile for social marketing?”

HP then answer’s their own question, “In short, very.”

I have to agree.

HP’s The Digital Mindset Blog::

  • John Hadl, whom Brandweek called “the father of mobile marketing” and a top 10 Next Generation Marketer, predicts that in a couple of years mobile phones will be the “premier consumer connection and medium for insights available for marketers.”
  • Julie Ask of Jupiter Research makes the case that mobile has already become a natural and increasingly important complement to social marketing campaigns. She provides a list of seven best practices for marketers to keep in mind when creating mobile social marketing campaigns.
  • In his keynote at Mplanet 2006, AT&T’s COO Randall Stephenson, said that of the three vehicles AT&T has to reach customers in their new Three Screen Initiative (internet/PC, TV, wireless/mobile phone), wireless is the most important.
  • Wireless Week’s Brad Smith suggests mobile advertising may be poised to explode next year.
  • Tomi Ahonen calculated that in 2006 mobile social networking was already worth $3.45 billion. In Ahonen’s view, “if you are not on mobile, you won’t be relevant soon.”
  • Mmetric recently reported that 12.3 million consumers in the United States and Western Europe accessed a social networking site with their mobile device in June. And this was prior to the launch of the iPhone.

Note: Winksite is mentioned in the post as an example of a mobile web 2.0 mashup, where web content is automatically repurposed for mobile consumption making it “almost trivial to mobilize one’s blog.”

David Harper

Winksite & ShotCode Team Up

Previously I’ve written about the need for connections between the physical world and the mobile Internet, “Mainstream America is Ready for Bar Codes – Converging “Realspace” and “Mobilespace“‘. I’ve also expressed my opinions on various aspects of how that should work in the comments area over at Tommi’s S60 Applications Blog. Along the way Dennis the founder of ShotCode) and I got to talking (original intro courtesy of Oliver Starr) and convinced each other that we should team up and see where it would lead. As such, I’m pleased to announce that Winksite now supports ShotCode.

ShotCode is the flagship product of OP3, a Swedish / Dutch organization in the proximity marketing space and enjoys the strongest customer portfolio in the mobile barcode scanning market outside of Japan & Korea.

Details follow:

Did you know that creating a mobile webpage can be as simple as creating a webpage for ‘the regular Internet’? Did you know that instead of typing a lengthy Internet address on your mobile phone, you can access each mobile webpage in three clicks? Did you know that mobile Internet usage is on the rise as people look to access content that is important to them while away from their desktop? These are the exact areas of operation for Winksite and ShotCode which is why these highly compatible companies have decided to join forces to provide connections between the physical world and the mobile Internet.

Winksite is the world’s largest, standard’s based mobile publishing platform and community portal. Individuals, companies, and brands use Winksite to publish mobile Internet sites bundled with mobile-tuned community features like chat, forums and surveys. By providing easy-to-use tools, Winksite has successfully created a friendly platform where anyone can claim their own piece of the mobile Internet.

ShotCodes are circular sequences of black and white blocks that represent an internet address. By installing the free ShotCode software on your mobile phone you extend your camera’s functionality into that of a ShotCode reader. The ShotCode works much in the same way as the reading of barcodes in supermarkets, you point your phone’s camera at a printed ShotCode, click, and your phone’s browser is automatically connected to the corresponding internet address.

From today every Winksite has its own ShotCode, simply click the ShotCode icon for the listed Winksite and you’ll be able to scan & connect using your ShotCode Reader. For Winksite publishers ShotCodes are available in various formats for ease of printing and distribution.

Currently ShotCode and Winksite are in talks with several large international brands to offer the combined service bundled with promotional products such as personalized t-shirts, Winksite/ShotCode business cards, personalized ShotCode stamps, stickers and more.

Dennis Hettema, founder of ShotCode, “Winksite’s community proves to the world that mobile isn’t a thing of the future, with over 25 million page views per month it’s pretty clear that people use mobile web pages today.”

David Harper, founder of Winksite, “ShotCode’s unique shape makes for an attractive and recognizable symbol that is easily branded or used in more personalized outings. With customers such as Coca Cola, Heineken and Xbox, ShotCode has proven to be the frontrunner in this exciting market. We’re enthusiastic about offering these real world hyperlinks to the Winksite mobile community for free.”