Tips and How-to’s

It’s all too clear these days that a mobile optimized website is no longer a “want”, but a “need” for companies big and small. Last week, we introduced you to a set of statistics that outlined the top 5 objectives companies have while investing in mobile. Over half of the surveyed respondents included increasing customer engagement in their answers, making it the most common objective…not entirely surprising.

A marketer’s job is to increase, and maximize, their brands’ relationship with the customer — that’s Marketing 101. Mobile devices provide an always-on, always-connected channel to foster this relationship. Those that aren’t utilizing this powerful device are missing out on engaging with their customers in today’s hyper-connected consumer landscape.

Our blog is no stranger to covering mobile engagement. In the past, we’ve made the case that mobile web is the central touchpoint for mobile engagement, offered 5 guidelines  to successful user engagement via mobile, and showed how  mobile web helps build on existing customer relationships. Today’s article takes a look at a few best practices for proper mobile engagement.

Learn and analyze

Although i’ts listed first, marketers should constantly be learning and analyzing throughout their mobile strategy rollout. Other than age, gender, location and typical segmentation approaches, look at learning mobile specific qualities. Utilizing information gleaned from mobile-specific performance indicators will provide a better understanding of your mobile customers, their usage patterns and behavior. What types of devices are your customers using? What are they looking for when they are on your mobile site? Do they want to read reviews, make a purchase, find some contact information or possibly all three?  Where in their decision-making process do they choose to visit your mobile site? Don’t be surprised if their mobile usage patterns are different from their online experience at-home.

There is plenty to learn, and the more knowledge you have, the better decision-making ability you will have moving forward.

Offer content relevant to the mobile use case

After learning what your customers are all about, make sure you are giving them the right message and offering the right content. For example, if they are looking for product info, make sure it’s easy to find.  If they are looking to make a purchase, make buying easy and accessible. Might seem obvious, right? But many mobile consumers are still being presented with bare bones mobile sites that don’t include the type of information and services they are seeking. While some mobile sites are overly simplistic, others still serve their desktop web content and features, asking their users to pinch and zoom on a screen that is one tenth the size. No wonder these frustrating experiences force consumers to abandon their favorite brands for their competitors who took the time to bring their mobile web experience up to par.

Create value

This goes back to learning your mobile customer, but driving strong engagement relies on determining what is of most value to your consumer. It’s consumer nature to be drawn to the perception of value. Whether it’s quick and easy mobile access to the information they’re looking for or an exclusive coupon — customers are more likely to come and engage if they see value and reason to do so.

Revise, revise, revise

This last bullet is possibly the most important and has the potential to be the sole determining factor of your mobile engagement success. It is imperative to review how your mobile web programs and campaigns worked to increase engagement. If they didn’t meet expectations, don’t fret. Look back at where the engagement broke off — did you bury the important information beneath too many clicks or offer too many call to actions on the main screen? Or perhaps, you included plenty of product information with enticing images, but not the option to buy? Engagement roadblocks are not very hard to spot, so fix them as soon as you can.

And don’t forget about making budgetary revisions, as well. Determining where your resources (time, money, etc) are most effective in the mobile engagement process will allow for a greater return.

There you have it, 4 best practice steps to getting the most out of your mobile web engagement strategy. Today’s consumers expect an engaging and relevant experience optimized for their phones. As such, cracking the engagement puzzle is key to making your mobile investments pay off.  Are you on the right track?

Stay tuned for our next entry covering items two and three on the list of top 5 reasons companies invest in mobile web: increasing satisfaction and appearing innovative.

StatCounter recently revealed that mobile internet usage has doubled year over year since 2009—accounting for 8.5% of global access in January 2012. And that’s not including tablets! Following this Moore’s law-esque trajectory, we could be looking at more than a quarter of global internet usage coming from mobile devices by 2014.

Add this to the IDC’s prediction that, by 2015, there will be more mobile internet users than desktop users in the US and it’s quite obvious why today’s companies thinking “mobile first” are set to be future leaders.

With statistical backing like this, there is no doubt that all signs point to mobile marketing spend increasing this year.  And it’s not just for the big guys either—small and mid-size businesses are finally beginning to understand that they too can realize a return on the mobile consumer revolution.

But what, specifically, are companies looking to accomplish with an increase in their mobile marketing dollars?

A recent whitepaper and webinar from Adobe and MTV networks outlined a Forrester study that showed mobile marketing objectives are all over the map. Most want increased engagement, but some just want to be innovative or add an additional direct revenue stream.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will take an in-depth look at successful mobile web strategies to increase customer engagement, improve customer satisfaction, appear innovative, build loyalty and generate sales. As always, we’ll outline best practices and highlight examples of companies that are on the right track.

Stay tuned: Next week we’ll review customer engagement best practices and how mobile web presents the perfect opportunity for you to maximize the relationship.

CES has come and gone, Mobile World Congress is less than a month away, and following both we are primed for a new wave of next-gen smartphones and tablets to drool over. But with the onslaught of saliva-inducing nerd treats ahead comes an age old discussion and issue within the mobile industry… FRAGMENTATION.

(take a second for the mobile developers to shudder)

Fragmentation has been around forever–differentiating a product is a basic concept in any business strategy. Different manufacturers make things with different parts, and different products are going to work differently in hopes of creating one-of-a-kind value. In mobile, the issue is the same. You’ve got a multitude of manufacturers creating devices with different hardware for multiple OS’s that each support their own browsers (some supporting multiple browsers) and applications. Developing a consistently exceptional user experience, while taking each flavor into account sounds rough, doesn’t it? Well it is.

Seemingly infinite combinations

In today’s mobile world, there are over ten thousand devices in use across the globe covering the simplest feature phones to the smartest of smartphones and tablets. The top 5 OEMs — Samsung, Apple, Motorola, HTC and Nokia — produce devices that run on more than five different operating systems — iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry, Symbian, etc… And, as you can imagine, things like screen size, processor power, input method, and OS can range drastically across the board. So no wonder sometimes it feels as if there is an infinite number of combinations to worry about.

Breaking it down further, within the Android platform (heavily documented as the infamous standout of fragmentation) there are currently 11 different versions of the OS running on hundreds of different devices in the US alone. Even Apple’s iOS and RIM’s Blackberry OS are now onto their 5^th and 8^th versions respectively, with numerous phones out in the wild running on different software iterations.

Additionally, a brand new level of fragmentation has taken shape with a strong influx of tablets entering the current mix. And it is only expected to multiply. Now, not only do we need to worry about 3-4 inch screens, but 7-10 inch devices as well! (And let’s not even get started on today’s smart TVs).

Problems within the browser

Browsers are not immune to fragmentation either. Even among the WebKit browsers there is significant fragmentation affecting handling of JavaScript and CSS, as well as access to device and OS features. Here at Trilibis, we regularly come across a multitude of browser-related development issues, such as:

• Rendering quality varies greatly between device families and versions, from smooth to severe color banding
• Certain handsets, like the Galaxy S2, completely break swipe galleries making them unusable
• iOS handsets tend to auto-shrink any background image over 2MB
• Landscape view controls differ by device and OEM
• Device GPS lookup is handled  differently on Android and iOS devices
• Fixed positioning of images is supported by the latest versions of Android and iOS, but still does not work properly on BlackBerry devices

For more on the state of mobile browser fragmentation, check out a past panel discussion organized by Mobile Monday Silicon Valley.

Fragmentation looking forward

Fragmentation is always going to exist. Whether, and when, it will get more manageable still remains to be seen, but things finally seem to be on the right track. HTML5, although not in its current state, has promised to make the development world a bit easier with its theoretical right-once, run-everywhere capabilities.

Google has taken a stab at unifying their Android platform across devices (including smartphones and tablets) with the Ice Cream Sandwich version of their OS. They’ve even taken another step by limiting some of the freedom OEMs have in creating their own Android flavors while still being allowed to access Google services like the Android Market.

Microsoft, who has seen fragmentation take over their previous mobile operating system, is taking a stand with the new Windows Phone experience and designing it for consistency across devices while only allowing slight customization from the OEM.

While each of the above are bright spots on the trek to simplify mobile development, many of these solutions will not be realized for quite some time. For now, there are two paths for developers: 1) keep track of all the nuances and constantly look for workarounds or 2) partner with a mobile development framework that aggregates this knowledge into a robust development platform and streamline your development efforts. You probably know which camp we’re in.

What’s your take on mobile fragmentation? Let us know in the comments or continue the conversation with us on Twitter at @TrilibisMobile.

If you’re thinking about launching your first mobile marketing campaign or building your mobile website this year – you’re not being innovative. In fact, you are seriously lagging behind. Mobile use reached unseen levels over the last two months, with over 10% of all sales coming from mobile devices.

And if the 2011 holiday shopping season is any indication, we’ve reached a turning point:

Recently, we’ve been having some internal discussion regarding SEO and how it affects mobile—or more importantly how mobile optimized sites affect SEO. The conversation originated after stumbling upon an intentionally provocative blog post from October of last year titled “Mobile SEO is a Myth” by Ryan Jones from Search Engine Journal. What really got our discussion juices flowing was not just the article itself, which takes an extreme stance on the triviality of mobile-optimized SEO, but the healthy debate in the comments section that follows.  Although the article is a few months old, the topic is highly relevant (and increasingly so) and it’s a good time to take a fresh look at what really is going on with the mobile SEO landscape.

Merely looking at the article, it’s quite obvious opinions on mobile SEO are as diverse and polarized as a lot of developer’s perspectives on mobile web strategy in general. Opponents of mobile SEO, like Ryan, brush it off as either a buzzword with no deeper significance past boosting a sales pitch, or as a case of mistaken identity for localized search. But is this really the case? Or is this too simplistic of view on the impact that mobile devices can have on search results? We think the latter is likely the case and here’s why:

The easiest way to go about proving that mobile SEO is not a fictional concept is to begin with the assumption that it is indeed a myth – that is, there’s no difference between the web and mobile index. Basically, if mobile SEO is myth and should be ignored, then there would have to be zero difference between search results listings on a desktop and search results listings on a mobile device. As you can probably guess, this is not true.

The differences between search results on a desktop and search results on a mobile device are plenty and have been reviewed extensively by leaders in the SEO space.  You can read about 14 specific differences here at Search Engine Land or look at a highly detailed report from Covario, a leading SEO/SEM company, here.  These are only two of many similar articles out in the WWW showcasing examples of just how varied search results can be depending on device.

To supplement the work that has already been done, we wanted to look at an example showcasing one of our customers, Citysearch, and how they are specifically affected in certain cases. For our example, we saw the greatest difference between desktop results and Blackberry results, as you can see in the screenshots below for our search of “Amici’s pizza San Mateo”. Citysearch’s listing is in the top slot with the Blackberry search and the “mobile” filter, but only gets the 7th slot on the PC page. Meanwhile, Yelp’s 6th slot for Amici’s on the PC results doesn’t event show up on the Blackberry.

This of course is an extreme example, and the mobile optimized filter is no longer offered by Google for devices that better support full HTML. However, it is still quite obvious that there are clear differences in desktop search and mobile search from device to device. Although the differences may not be drastic, the slight deviations in listing structure, keyword use and screen size alone are evidence enough that mobile SEO is not a myth and there are clear opportunities to profit from adjusting accordingly.

Furthermore, we think as the mobile space continues to fragment, brands that intentionally vary their offering between tablets, smartphones and PC websites to optimize the relative experience can expect that Google and other search engines’ indexing efforts will increasingly reward sites that are comparatively sticky for a given platform, and punish those that have higher bounce rates. Brands that historically ignored catering to mobile SEO failed to capitalize on the revenues offered by being elevated in the mobile specific indexes, and that trend is likely to only continue and increase in scale. Recently, we saw the firm pro-mobile optimization stance Google has taken with its GoMo initiative and mobile-specific updates to Google Analytics and it seems safe to bet they won’t be turning their back on device specific search indexing anytime soon.

The bottom line? Mobile SEO is not a myth.

Welcome to the fourth installment of our 2011: A Mobile Year in Review Q&A style blog series that features the thoughts and insights of mobile industry luminaries, media executives and brand marketers.

In this post, we interview Ethan Alexander, VP of Mobile for LivePerson, Inc (@LivePerson) and leading industry figure for over 15 years. Ethan shares why it’s difficult to choose only one great mobile innovation this year, why LivePerson’s clients are so interested in advancing their mobile initiatives and why mobile chat is essential to the customer experience. Lastly, Ethan compares mobile growth to the early days of the internet and decides what he thinks 2012 will bring.

Ethan Alexander is the VP of Mobile for LivePerson, Inc., which provides online engagement solutions that facilitate real-time assistance and advice. The company’s hosted platform supports and manages real-time online interactions for businesses and independent experts. With its B2B services, chat, voice/click-to-call, email, self-service/knowledgebase and now mobile interactions are managed from a single agent desktop. Ethan spearheads the company’s efforts to extend real-time, intelligent interactions beyond the browser to anywhere with mobile service. Previous to LivePerson, Ethan was a part of the mobile leadership team at Salesforce.com where he helped develop their mobile platform and business strategy from the ground up after the 2006 purchase of Sendia, where he ran business development and partner efforts. Through the years, Ethan has worked closely with leading device manufacturers, various network operators and mobile integration and app development partners.

Q – What was the single biggest mobile innovation you saw this year?

A – That’s a tough one. There is so much that fills the innovation in mobility right now. Choosing between the new mobile devices that are capable of so much or the advances in the OS’s, such as iOS and Android, which now dominate the discussions and, it seems, everyone’s daily life. Also, the monstrous growth in new mobile optimized sites and of course the growth of HTML5, enabling far greater features and flexibility. Add in the arrival of  faster network speeds (thank you 4G!), plus all the cool thinkers and companies that are making mobile a simpler and exciting part of life… It’s not an easy choice! But if I had to pick just one, I would have to say the explosion of the Android OS. It just took over the world this year and really helped make it a mobile year to remember.

Q – What catalysts contributed to the growth of mobile within your organization?

A – It’s all about our customers and their success. We are seeing mobile interest from customers who are seeing a dramtic rise of their customers’ searches, requests and purchases coming from mobile devices and tablets. The conclusion is simple — people want to be able to make their decisions and purchases from anywhere, thus feeding the vast growth of m. sites and mobile applications that provide products and services at a moment’s notice. Offering the ability to communicate with live agents on our customers’ mobile sites, applications and social properties was a natural next step for LivePerson in a growing market.

Q – What were the top reasons your customers decided to invest in mobile in 2011?

A – Pure and simple – mobile is where their customers are heading in the near future, and in many cases, they are already demanding the same level of support and service as they expect on a desktop. Mobile devices and tablets have made the process of shopping, support and sharing so much simpler and available anytime. With the rapid growth of mobile-enabled users, brands around the world are finally waking up to the importance of offering an optimized experience on mobile. The extension of a live agent at the ready is making a big difference in the overall experience.

Q – From a competitive landscape, what does it mean for your company to invest in mobile?

A – Mobile is clearly a growth side of the customer model. LivePerson is all about enabling our 9,000+ customers around the world with advanced features to better serve their clients. We provide a long list of platform options to help any customer in any vertical or industry to tailor the support and purchasing options they offer their clients. The personal agent engagement is a unique difference that can not only fast track a purchase decision or deliver satisfying support, but is a huge cost savings in comparison to an unhappy client or a backlog of inbound phone calls to the call center. There really is a live person/expert ready to chat to help make your mobile online experience smarter and faster. It’s simply about providing a number of options to our clients’ customers: online or mobile chat, direct call to an agent or other means to deliver real-time assistance and expert advice for a customer.

Q – 2012 is shaping up to be the year of fill in the blank. Why?

A – 2012 is shaping up to be the year of GROWTH. Mobile seems so obvious to those of us in the space, but the world is still coming to the table and asking for new applications and uses. I love the simple approaches and questions that come from the average person who asks, “What else can this do?”. That’s when it gets interesting. I really think we are at the beginning stages, similar to the early growth years of the internet, and mobile is finding its balance and finding its way into many corners of our lives in both the business and consumer interactions. The future is amazing and it is going to be very much a mobile world as we bring faster, easier and more configurable customization options to the masses. Part of this growth comes from how we can more readily discover local apps and knowledge from our devices based on our preferences and interests. This approach can be local and global and the evolution is the growth of the human side of these devices, software, services and connections. It’s great to see more and more open WiFi connections available as a back up to the carrier networks because, at the end of the day, if there is no data connection (due to roaming cost or limited signal) then there is no customer connection, which is essentially what all industries are here to serve — customers.

Welcome to the third article of our “2011: A Mobile Year in Review” Q&A style blog series that features the thoughts and insights of mobile industry luminaries, media executives and brand marketers.

In this post, we interview Rick Mathieson (@RickMathieson), strategic marketing guru and digital marketing adviser to FedEx, Virgin America, Bloomingdales, Procter & Gamble, Yahoo, Kraft Foods, MasterCard, Warner Bros., Hard Rock Café, Accenture and many others. Rick shares with us why mobile payments and augmented reality are on his list of top innovations of 2011, why mobile is the cornerstone of a brand’s marketing strategy and what brands can learn from last year’s experiences to realize high ROI from mobile in 2012. Lastly, Rick unveils his predictions for the next twelve months and names 2012 as the year of… Well, you’ll have to read the rest of the article to find out.

Rick Mathieson is an award-winning writer, author and creative strategist. Heralded as “a strategic marketing expert” by Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge, his research into next generation business models has earned praise from USA Today. And his insights on postmodern marketing have been featured in ADWEEK, Advertising Age, Wired, Forbes and on MSNBC, CNN Radio and NPR. His book BRANDING UNBOUND has ranked as the world’s #1 best-selling book on mobile marketing. And his new book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND was an Amazon #1 “Hot New Release” and has been described as “Required reading for the digital age” for its strategic approach to delivering blockbuster brand experiences through digital innovation. Learn more at RickMathieson.com.

Q – What did you see as the biggest driver of growth in the mobile sector this past year?

A – The biggest driver of growth this year was quite simply consumer behavior – how consumers are using their mobile phones. Nearly 10% of all online sales now happen on a mobile phone, and 52% of shoppers say they will use their mobile phone to help with holiday shopping, whether it’s to compare prices, read product reviews or simply to find what they’re looking for in the physical world. Retailers in particular are going to need to find new ways to harness the power of the mobile channel both in attracting people into the store, and for enhancing the experience once they’re there. You look at what Sephora is doing with mobile, Macy’s, Best Buy and others, and it’s clear mobile is not something to be feared. It is to be capitalized upon to empower the brand experience.

Q – What was the single biggest mobile innovation you saw this year?

A – Mobile as a payment device is coming into the fore, which is very exciting. I think it will evolve in a different direction than most retailers do today, but it is very exciting. From a branding and experiential perspective, mobile augmented reality has helped companies build buzz and delight customers. You look at Nike hiding virtual shoes in stores or even outdoors and enabling consumers to go find them for special discounts. Or VW turning physical world billboards and signage into amazing AR experiences. Or Red Bull’s ‘Augmented Racer’ game, where you can take Red Bull cans to build a racetrack that you scan with your phone – and can then race on a track in that same configuration on your mobile phone. Augmented reality is going through the hype cycle, and today it is really very gimmicky. But over the next few years, it will begin to have a transformative impact on what we call “marketing communications.” And it’s a major element of my latest book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND. In the book, I talk to Matthew Pinakatt, head of interactive marketing for Coca-Cola Europe. And he believes over the next few years, any major marketing campaign of a certain size will have an augmented reality experience in it. In fact, as he points out, mobile AR is so powerful, even our brand logos don’t have to just be static icons anymore. They can be rich, multimedia experiences every time someone trains a mobile phone on them. Every marketer should be watching this space closely to figure out not “if,” but “how” it might help bring their brands to life for consumers on the go.

Q – Over the last year, did large brands’ approach towards mobile change? How?

A – Yes, and again a great example is Coca-Cola. Here is a brand that recognizes mobile is not a stepchild to other channels – it is the most important channel for reaching its audience. Whether it’s branded games or Coke Rewards offers, this brand is actively looking for ways to connect with consumers. Also look at Ford, which really made mobile the cornerstone of its marketing this year. Ford recently included SMS as a response mechanism in print ads and saw a 15.4% conversion rate. Every traditional ad should have a URL and a mobile CTA. It’s that simple.

Q – What were the most important mobile marketing lessons learned in 2011? More specifically, what can brands learn from those lessons to realize a significant ROI from mobile in 2012?

A – For me, it’s to recognize that with mobile, all of our communications become interactive. Our TV spots become interactive. Our radio commercials become interactive. Our direct mail becomes interactive. Our outdoor signage becomes interactive. Our storefronts become interactive. Point of purchase becomes interactive. Packaging becomes interactive. Even the product itself becomes an opportunity to interact and engage consumers – and taking it a step further, to facilitate digital services tied to your product. Mobile creates a level of consumer engagement previously unimaginable. And today’s smart marketers are looking for ways to integrate mobile into everything they do.

Q – Tablets are hot this holiday season. Even book retailers are introducing multimedia tablets. How do you see this trend affecting mobile marketing initiatives?

A – I am actually not a huge proponent of today’s form of mobile advertising – taking an ad model from the old school Internet, namely a “banner ad,” and plopping it onto a business card size screen or even really the larger screen of a tablet. But I do believe the tablet offers up whole new ways for consumers to interact with the brands they know and trust. Obviously more people will use tablets to access websites. Every website should be built first with mobile phone screen in mind, scaling next to the tablet and lastly to a desktop Internet experience. But also, tablets open up gaming and service-based engagement that will be far more compelling than what’s possible on a mobile phone. I think the tablet will be distinct from mobile, but also offer up an on-the-go framework for consumer engagement.

Q – 2012 is shaping up to be the year of  fill in the blank. Why?

A – The year social media falls to Earth, at least just a little bit. It’s been so overhyped and overvalued. A Facebook profile page for 2X Ultra Tide detergent is hopefully not the apex of social media innovation. Rather, I think people will begin to defriend their “air-quote” friends this next year, and start to get as real in their online relationships as they do in the offline relationships. I also think mobile is going to transform social media in 2012. Look for more social networks to connect real friends in the real world, or to act as a social lubricant for meeting people who share your interests – but in the real world instead of within a desktop Internet experience. Look at Vail Resorts and its Epic Mix app. It enabled skiers to literally see where their friends are on the slopes, and post accomplishments based on the moves they made on the slopes. And look at GroupMe, LocalMind, Fast Society and others. 2012 is the dawn of the next wave of social media, thanks to the power of mobile. And what we have come to know as social media, will start to be replaced by something much more compelling, via the mobile channel.

It is time for our next post in the “2011: A Mobile Year in Review” – our Q&A style blog series that features the thoughts and insights of mobile industry luminaries, media executives and brand marketers.

In this post, Deepak Thomas, General Manager of Classifieds at eBay (@ebay) shares with us what catalysts contributed to the growth of mobile at eBay Classifieds and how his business unit evolved their mobile presence in 2011. Lastly, Deepak talks about the shrink-wrapped software days and why he’s glad they are behind us.

Deepak Thomas is the General Manager at eBay Classifieds US. He was previously GM of Mobile Classifieds at eBay with responsibilities for their global mobile properties in Americas, EMEA, and APAC. Prior to that, he was GM of Mobile Products at IAC/Match.com and held  various product and partner development roles at Oracle Corp.’s Mobile Products division. He also held P&L responsibility for the ESPN wireless remote product while at Chicago-based mobile startup tvCompass Inc., where he also served as Director of product marketing. Deepak holds an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the University of Chicago.

Q – What was the single biggest mobile innovation you saw this year?

A – I think I will go with Siri. Not only is it a great user-interface for a device that has user-input challenges (compared to the desktop), but it also understands context as well as adapts to the user. Truly remarkable. Watch the floodgates open as a new breed of apps comes in to vogue with Apple eventually opening up API access to Siri. Voice interfaces were always inherent to mobile devices (compared to the desktop), they just got smarter.

Q – What catalysts contributed to the growth of mobile within eBay Classifieds?

A – Going beyond adapting the most popular subset of features from desktop to mobile was important. However, going beyond the ‘mobile as mini-me to desktop’ approach was even more important – exploring functionality unique to mobile was crucial. Our mobile site helped us understand the distribution of popular devices among our user base and then use that to build our native app strategy around it.

Q – What is the most effective way your organization has used mobile in 2011?

A – In 2011, Mobile has driven both new user acquisition, as well as engagement of existing users. That way it’s been truly accretive to traffic and engagement metrics.

Q – How did your organization’s mobile web presence evolve in 2011?

A – We launched mobile web for eBay Classifieds in 2011. It helps us reach any of our users who have a phone with a data plan, not just smartphone users. We recently introduced a mobile website that is better adapted to smartphone-class devices, as well.

Q – How significant of a role did mobile web play in 2011 and what can expect in the future?

A – We will continue to iterate on mobile web. In fact, with mobile web, brands are now able to reclaim the ease with which they were able to test and iterate features on the desktop web before apps sent us all back to the days of shrink-wrapped software.

Today we’re bringing you the next post in our  “2011: A Mobile Year in Review” Q&A style blog series that features the thoughts and insights of mobile industry luminaries, media executives and brand marketers.

In this week’s post, Michael Ricci (@MobileNTRactv), Vice President of Mobile at Webtrends (@Webtrends), talks shop about why mobile really took off in 2011. He shares his thoughts on such subjects as the biggest mobile innovation of the year and the top reasons companies decided to invest in mobile analytics. Additionally, he offers his perspective on the mobile device that came out of nowhere and really delivered the goods in 2011. Finally, Ricci gazes into his crystal ball to predict the next big thing in mobile for 2012.

 As VP of Mobile for Webtrends, Mike is responsible for all facets of Webtrends’ mobile analytics business and works with blue chip clients like Coca Cola, Hilton, Microsoft, NY Times, RIM, Polar and a host of others to effectively implement measurement programs that shape mobile strategies and user experiences.  Mr. Ricci joins Webtrends from Merkle, where he served as vice president and mobile practice leader. At Merkle, Ricci established the company’s presence in mobile marketing and worked with Merkle’s blue-chip client list to develop mobile engagement strategies. Prior to Merkle, Mike held key executive roles at iLoop Mobile, Volantis Systems, Aggreko plc and York International Corporation. 

Q – What was the single biggest mobile innovation you saw this year?

A – I believe that Apple’s Siri represented a quantum step forward for mobile. Voice search and virtual assistance are two key steps forward for our industry and the power that this gives individual users represents an important new phase for mobile. What this will mean for the future of devices, search and user experiences is important to our industry in general and mobile marketing practitioners in particular. I’m excited to see where the evolution of Siri will lead us and what similar innovations from other OEMs will mean to mobile’s future.

Q – What were the top three reasons your customers decided to invest in mobile analytics in 2011?

A – Simply put, mobile analytics is becoming table stakes for mobile marketers. If you can’t successfully measure your mobile programs then you lack data that is vital towards informing your strategy, establishing resource prioritization, and evolving your users’ experiences. Far more importantly, I can’t imagine how you could begin to feel secure when your CMO asks you to address the key question of ROI — because if you’re not properly measuring, you don’t have a prayer of addressing that question in a meaningful way. But that aside, the key driving forces accelerating mobile analytics are that mobile marketers want to become as sophisticated as their digital peers (email, WWW, search, social, etc.) and also play a vital role in the evolution of a brand’s eCRM programs. Plus, they have listened when respected research partners like Forrester, Aberdeen, Comscore, Nielsen and countless others termed mobile measurement a “customer intelligence imperative.” and are heeding this call to action.

Q – How did the app vs. mobile web debate evolve in 2011?

A – I think that apps remained a key investment in 2011 and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. While many have introduced smartphone apps, they are now realizing that it’s vital to have sophisticated user experiences to drive repeat engagement with those apps. So, we’re seeing cool mCommerce, augmented reality and loyalty features begin to appear in next generation apps and this is driving some pretty robust growth in this area. Likewise, many brands are locking onto the importance of having a “tablet specific experience” and prioritizing investment in this form factor as well. So, all those events happening in concert means that app mania is alive and well. But that aside, we are seeing some important new steps being made into the HTML5 arena. This is becoming especially apparent in the rich media/mobile advertising space where we’re seeing some immersive new mobile advertising programs. I think this will, in turn, drive new innovation in the mobile website space and, over time, you’ll begin to see these two key areas begin to converge with the best of native apps meeting the flexibility of the mobile web.

Q – Looking at all the device specific usage data you tracked in 2011, what device delivered the biggest surprise? Why?

A – To begin with, we don’t aggregate customer data in the world of Webtrends. We believe strongly in data privacy and don’t use our customers’ data to compile aggregate trend data that we would then resell. We believe that is a fundamental conflict of interest and it’s one of the things that separates us in an important way from many other mobile analytics providers. But, if you’re asking about general device trends in the industry then I guess I’d tell you that Android’s rapid explosion and absorption of smartphone market share isn’t necessarily surprising, but noteworthy for how fast it’s unfolded. I also think that the leveling we saw of Apple iOS sales in the lead up to (and aftermath of) the 4S introduction was a little surprising to most of us who follow such things. And finally, I think that Windows Mango, in general, was a nice little surprise and it’s going to be interesting to see what transpires with the Nokia and Microsoft partnership.

Q – What’s the most innovative mobile website you’ve seen in the past year?

A – That’s a great question and the simple truth is that there are many good things happening in this area so it’s hard to single out just one. In general, I’d tell you that I’m fascinated by what we’ve seen with brands beginning to tap into what’s happening with mCommerce and allowing consumers to buy directly from their devices. Fandango, a mutual client of ours, is a great example of not just an innovative site but also a brand that totally gets the importance of using mobile analytics to guide the evolution of the site’s user experience, drive conversion and informing investments in new feature sets. And finally, I really like what the New York Times has done with its site experience and digital subscription model. Again, they are another Webtrends client that totally buys into the importance of using mobile analytics to guide the evolution of its mobile website property.

Q – 2012 is shaping up to be the year of fill in the blank. Why?

A – 2012 is shaping up to be the year of HTML5/rich media mobile advertising. I think we’re going to witness sustained innovation in this area in 2012 and this will in turn drive investment in mobile search, mobile websites and the beginnings of mobile segmentation and optimization. We’re focused heavily on the latter and we’re beginning to see some of our truly informed brands grasp how important it is to understand a specific users behavior across digital properties and use this data to inform segmentation allow for site optimization.

Who doesn’t like a little recognition for a job well done? We sure do! Especially when it comes in the form of an award from an esteemed industry organization like DIGIDAY, Mobile Village or International Academy of the Visual Arts.

We are pleased to announce that last week, our Citysearch mobile site took home the 2011 Mobile Superstar Award from Mobile Village — our 5th award this year! To honor the fantastic work everyone on our team has done, from design and product management to QA, operations and engineering, let’s take a quick rundown. Drum roll please!

1. Mobile Star Awards – Superstar Award for Best Mobile Marketing Success Story – Citysearch
2. DIGIDAY Mobi Awards – Best Mobile Site of 2011 – Fandango
3. Silver Davey Award – Entertainment – Fandango (Mobile Web)
4. Silver Davey Award – Guides/Ratings/Reviews – Fandango (Mobile Web)
5. Silver Davey Award – Guides/Ratings/Reviews – Citysearch (Mobile Web)

We’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone involved, especially our partners and clients that helped make this year so successful. Here’s to an even better 2012!