What
do you do if you are a pizza parlour and the neighborhood where you are
supposed to deliver your pizzas has people from over 200 nationalities who
speak equally varied number of languages? Dubai based Red Tomato found a way to
solve this problem – with the help of a fridge magnet. This magnet is connected
with the bluetooth of the user’s mobile phone. He just presses the button, selects
his choice of pizza online and orders it. Now it no more mattered which
language you spoke; you always got the pizza you wanted. Deliveries increased
by about 500%!
In
2011 IPL used the mobile phone to spread awareness about the cricket series. It
used the SMS2.0 service. All those who used this app to send text messages were
shown a banner ad of the series. While their message was being sent the banner
ad became full screen where the user could see options like check the score,
read more, download ringtones etc. The company received more than 16 lakh
impressions and more than 35,000 ringtone downloads!
Lego
has found a way to be relevant to the young generation and has found a way to
compete with video games for market share. All you required was the special
edition box of the Lego blocks, and the mobile app ‘The Life of George’
downloaded on your smartphone. The mobile app beams images which you have to
make with your blocks within a time period specified by the app. With every
successful attempt you move up levels. There are no estimates available of the
sales figures, but it generated 294 million page impressions!
In
Stockholm McDonald’s created a digital billboard on which passers-by were
invited to play table tennis using their phone’s touch screen. So it was you
and your mobile versus the interactive billboard. If you lasted for 30 seconds
you won yourself free goodies from the nearest McDonald’s outlet. An electronic
coupon was delivered on your mobile phone which could be redeemed at the
nearest McDonald’s outlet, directions to which were also sent along with the
coupon. 460 people played in 5 hours and 400 of them actually went and cashed
their coupons resulting in increased footfall.
Talking
of free goodies, now you can send a free Coke to anybody in any part of the
world along with a message. Coca-Cola has installed special vending machines
which can be accessed through your mobile phone. At the touch of a button a
Coke bottle is delivered to who ever you want to deliver – even a complete
stranger – along with a personal message. Using your phone you can even see who
got your Coke and what was his reaction!
The
one thing common between all these examples is the use of mobile phones for
increasing customer engagement. It is the gadget of the future, and is fast
becoming the most effective way for brands to reachout
to their customers.
LOOK WHO MADE MONEY LAST YEAR !
Google
is a very happy company this year. Its stock prices have been increasing
constantly. Over the past year its stock has increased by 30%. One of the main
reasons was its ability to successfully monetize its mobile user base. The
company’s mobile ad division is today its second largest division. Mobile
revenues have doubled from 2011 to 2012. It is precisely because of this that
Facebook’s IPO fizzled last year. Just before the highly anticipated initial
public offering it revealed that it was not making any significant revenue from
its mobile website, in spite of more than half its 900 million members using
the service on
their
mobiles. This year Facebook’s revenues from ads on mobile devices touched $305
million. Today, the company claims to be a ‘mobile-first advertising company’.
In
the beginning of last year e-commerce website eBay estimated that it would make
$10 billion in mobile revenues. By the end of 2012 the company had touched $13
billion. This year it is sure to touch $20 billion. According to its Senior
Director for mobile commerce Olivier Ropars, business is all about ‘connected
commerce’. It is the ability to shop anytime, anywhere and a mobile is the
perfect device for that. According to him, one third of all eBay transactions
are ‘touched’ by the mobile. No wonder eBay invested in mobile apps and today
its mobile apps have seen a download of 120 million.