From October 4-8, 2010, throughout Boston, dozens of FutureM panels, summits, roundtables, user groups, virtual events, demos, and parties showcased leading ideas, thinkers and companies – all focused on what’s new and what’s next in Marketing. Larry Weber, Chairman of W2 Group, hosted a FutureM event on October 8th, titled “Tomorrow’s Ecommerce: Mobile Marketing and Digital Couponing” at the Cambridge Innovation Center. A panel of representatives from Zipcar, TripAdvisor and Digital Influence Group joined Weber to discuss how mobile is becoming increasingly transactional. Lesley Mottla, Vice President of Member Experience of Zipcar, described why the car sharing company released its first iPhone 1½ years ago. “We have to be proactive or our members would force us to be.” The current Zipcar app lets members locate cars, unlock them, toot their horns and call Zipcar for help. What could a future Zipcar app look like? Mottla imagines an app that lets members make hyperlocal transactions and interact with their social network – all from the car. Michael Putnam, Senior Mobile Product Manager of TripAdvisor, believes that whether they like it or not, companies have to be mobile because customers are engaging that way. “Customers are already viewing your website on their mobile. If it’s not mobile friendly, that's not helping you.” He spoke from experience — TripAdvisor’s first mobile effort (on Palm) was less than stellar. The company recovered quickly, retooling its mobile offerings and is now capitalizing on a market where bookings from mobile devices are at 3% (2X 2009) and is expected to double again in 2011. While combining location, mobile & coupons “gets interesting” when 80% of hotel bookings are made the same day, “the payoff is worth it,” he said, “since payment and coupons with devices will continue to present big opportunities for marketers.” How big? According to Scanbuy, mobile barcode scanning is up 700% in 2010. Juniper Research projects that mobile coupons will generate $6 billion in global redemption values by 2014. Nearly one-third of Smartphone owners want coupons that can be saved and used on their phones at a later date, as well as access to applications that include bar code scanning. “Our clients are demanding to play in the mobile space,” said Steve Brennan, Senior Vice President, Technology at Digital Influence, which focuses on helping its clients make the most of the social shift in marketing. DIG thinks social and mobile marry together quite well. “After all, mobile is as social as it gets. You’re sharing with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and location-based services. That’s huge on the couponing side and the commerce side.” So where should marketers start? Putnam advised starting with an app on one of the smaller mobile platforms before rolling out to iPhone and Droid. “Expect to create layers that allow users to indicate which types of offers they’re interested in. Be extremely careful how you talk to customers and try not to interrupt.” Mottla added: “Don’t forget to test and measuring all along the way.”
Image c/o Maly LOLek based on Image: UPS MaxiCode via Wikimedia Commons