BRANDING UNBOUND

178 Million Text Messages for 'American Idol' – But Surprise: Old-School Net, Phone Beat Texting By A Huge Margin

What's the bigger news - that Adam Lambert didn't win this season's American Idol or that the show achieved another texting record?

Every season about this time we get the official word that American Idol has broken its own record for text messages - in this instance garnering more than double the texts from last year.

And every season we point out that that's more than voted in the last presidential election - this time with the added heft of saying that's more than voted for Barack Obama and John McCain combined.

And every season I point out that the stat means very little because you can vote more than once on Idol, whereas you can't (or at least, it's against the law) to do so in political elections. 

It's worth adding that the Orange County Register reports that these text messages aren't for voting, they're for the totality of texting going on for Idol - including text alerts, weekly trivia questions, weekly voting reminders, contest entries and questions submitted to AT&T hosted chats. People who get text alerts double the amount of traffic on their own. And we don't know if the total includes the ill-advised text message Idol sent out in the run up to the season premiere.

What's more, 624 million total votes were cast, meaning most people don't even vote via text on American Idol, they use a regular phone & Internet.

In fact, the only thing that's notable this time out is that viewership for the show actually went down 3%. 

But it's a ritual in mobile marketing, so there you have this season's Idol text message tally.

It's just that it's increasingly clear it's not the benchmark the industry thinks it is. 

Read the OC piece here.

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Business Week: With Mobile Ads, Pandora Rocks – But The Truth Is A Little Bit More Complicated

Business Week is touting the rockin' response rates being generated via ads on Pandora – the popular online site where users create personalized radio stations - which has taken off in an age of smart phones.

Target for one says it saw an ad placed on Pandora pull 27% more response than any other mobile ad campaign it had launched. As longtime readers know, I'm not a big fan of mobile advertising - mobile's so much more powerful than ad models replicated from the old-school Internet.

And Business Week doesn't really provide the specificity needed to determine if Pandora really is opening up a whole new world of mobile advertising.

The target ad, which urged users to visit a site where they could get a free Aguilera ringtone and buy the album, obviously is a well-bought media placement.

Pandora listeners are cutting-edge music lovers. The pub doesn't point out to where else the ad was placed that may have received less of a response rate. And it doesn't say what the other campaigns were, and where they ran, to provide proper context.

In other words, the Aguilera campaign may have sucked (no total response rates are given), but did perform better than other efforts that were even worse.

In fact, Business Week goes on to say that Sonos - which sells home music systems - saw a 5% click through rate on Pandora, v. 1% to 2% that click on ads overall. And 40% of those who did click through watched an video on the company's solutions.

Whoop-de-doo. A 5% response rate is still very low in the mobile space (it will go down as more people take to the mobile medium).

The only impressive thing is the Sonos site is well done enough to engage people once they get there - and that the Pandora buy was suitable to Sonos' music-oriented business.

Look: If we're going to have a conversation about mobile advertising, it's important that we look beyond this kind of hype. Mobile marketing - not mobile advertising - is very powerful. That's not to say there isn't a place for mobile ads.

 It's just that hype aside, it's not going to bring the kind of music to people's ears that they may expect.

Read the Business Week piece here. See how others are using mobile marketing - including mobile advertising the right way - here.

Was Starbucks Twitter Campaign Hijacked By Activists?

Just got word from reader & Bloggasm blogger Simon Owens about how activist filmmakers have hijacked that Starbucks campaign calling for consumers to snap photos of Starbucks posters and post them on Starbucks designated Twitter feeds.

Oops. The filmmakers are fighting for unionization rights for Starbucks employees. Using the campaign's "hashtags" (the "short code" or "address" for the Starbucks feeds), activists uploaded "suggestions" for Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

According to Owens, the rules for the contest got changed shortly thereafter, perhaps coincidentally, and that that phase of the campaign was ended.

None of this is confirmed. But if true, the incident highlights some of the dangers of this kind of contest/game - and reminds me of issues Chevy once ran into during a user-generated content contest.

Lesson learned: Ensure some kind of screening process before items are posted.

Or be okay with the fact that giving your customers a voice doesn't mean you're going to like what they say.

Read more, here. Thanks to Owens for the tip!

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USA Today: More Brands Using 2D Barcodes To Make Print Ads Interactive

2D barcodes may very well be the future of mobile marketing.

Not (just) because they bring multimedia to mobile phones. But because it does so in the service of mobile marketing's most powerful use model - as a response mechanism to print, broadcast, outdoor and direct mail advertising.

For some time now, the mainstream press has confused mobile advertising - a yawner that essentially brings old school Internet banners and TV ads to the tiny screens of mobile devices - with mobile marketing.

As I posit in here and in BRANDING UNBOUND the book, mobile marketing's so much more powerful than that. Instead, with mobile marketing, everything in the physical world becomes interactive because consumers can now respond to commercial messages they see in other media right at the point of impression.

So far, that has mostly meant via text message. But as I write in the book, 2D barcodes enable consumers to use their camera phone to snap a photo of a symbol featured in a print, outdoor, POS or broadcast ad and boom - depending on how it's set up, they might download a video demo, open a web page, request more information or even place a transaction - right at the point of impression.

Today's USA Today looks at how a growing number of brands are using solutions from companies like ScanLife and Jagtag to leverage 2D barcodes in their ads, including Sears, which places them on in-store merchandise and signs so consumers can instantly access consumer reviews; Canada's National Post, which enables readers to scan print stories to access multimedia coverage from the newspapers website; and Nike, which enables consumers to scan posters to download Nike sponsored athletes' videos, pictures and fan data. 

To be sure, most consumers don't use their cameraphones for such things and few are interested in downloading software to enable them to do that. But now that 89% of the new phones shipped in the US have cameras, these early technologies point to a future of fully interactive everything.

One sign: Kids putting 2D barcodes on their t-shirts that enable people to snap a photo to instantly access their Facebook pages.

Read more, here.

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Starbucks Ads Challenge Consumers To Snap Pictures of Posters & Post To Twitter

Call it The Mermaid v. Ronald McDonald.

Starbucks, still struggling to fend off a serious challenge from McDonald's that has cut deeply into sales (down 8% in Q1), is launching a new ad campaign that challenges consumers to seek out Starbucks posters in six major cities and be the first to post a camera phone photo of one via Twitter. 

The move is a nod to the popularity of snapping photos of Starbucks shops decorated in red for the holidays and posting on Flickr, where people vie to post photos that include multiple Starbucks stores in the same shot - which in some cities isn't that much of a trick.

Starbucks also believes the campaign will tap into the power of its 1.5 million fans on Facebook and 183,000 followers on Twitter. 

Says Chris Bruzzo, vice president for brand, content and online at Starbucks tells today's New York Times: "It's the difference between launching with many millions of dollars versus millions of fans."

Maybe so. Feels very gimmicky and parochial to me - but hey, can't hurt.

Personally, I think Starbucks needs to figure out how to make a better cup of coffee than McDonald's (really, McDonald's tastes just as good - regardless of the feel-good-multi-culti aspects of Starbucks beans), charge less for it, come up with some good food choices, and make it where you don't have to stand in a line for 20 minutes before you get your joe.

Now that would earn it some fans - the kind that actually go into the store once in a while.

Read more, here.

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'Terminator' Seeks 'Salvation' From Mobile Game

Anytime a movie ad's top blurb is an unknown movie critic, it's never a good sign.

Contrast "Terminator Salvation" with the newspaper ads for "Star Trek," which run blurbs from Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and more.

I believe "Salvation" has just the blurb from one reviewer out of Sacramento (at least that's all I've seen, anyway) and as of today, the only tomato at Rotten Tomatoes is from Variety.

To be fair to the movie, I'm not sure how many critics have seen the movie, as it seems like press previews will be coming this week.

Small wonder then that the film is going all mobile gamer on us to drum up excitement for this week's premiere.

"Terminator Salvation" is a new iPhone app where you assume the role of John Conner, leader of the resistance or the T-6000, which is a Terminator, though I'm not sure if it's good or bad robot this time out. The iPhone accelerometer comes into play, so here's hoping it's action packed. 

We'll see. Either way, I hope the movie's better than the trailer and a single blurb.

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Pay-To-Pry: 'People' Launches $1.99 App; Save $98.01 Off Newstand Price

People who need "People" can now get it in their pockets.

Today's Washington Post reports that People magazine has launched an ad-supported app version of its publication for iPhones that - gasp - costs money to download. What, these news organizations want to make money or something?

The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and others have all launched app versions that are free - begging the question of why pay for the pub at all if you can download it for nothing.

People thinks otherwise, and has launched a $1.99 app. That's a lot less than the $100 a year subscription for the print version, so hey - now you can pry into the lives of celebrities and pretend you're really just checking email.

"Penelope Cruz Hit by Food Poisoing in Cannes," "Selena & Taylor's [Public Displays of Affection])," "Zac Efron Disses Vanessa Hudgens" and more can all by yours, everywhere you go.

When US magazine does the same thing, you'll know it's a trend.

but geez, can the major leagues charge for content, too?

Read more, here.

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Grand Slam: Denny's Serves Up iPhone App

Denny's does it again.

As part of its integrated "Denny's Allnighter" campaign to cater to the younger, hipper, late-night crowd looking for some munchies after a night of partying, Denny's is launching, of all things, an iPhone app.

The integrated campaign focuses on four buddies – Wade the T-Rex, Steve the Unicorn, Finn the Leprechaun, and Gary the Regular Guy – enjoying a Denny's late-night experience after a night on the town. TV spots highlight the Denny's Allnighter offering's "Good Friends, Good Value" message.

Additionally, original Webisodes, featuring the four characters in various scenarios will be hosted on comedy Web sites and the official Denny's Allnighter Web site.

And a new iPhone application, "Denny's Dance Allnighter," will also be offered via iTunes and will allow users to compete as the characters, in a re-creation of a popular dance videogame. Incorporating sound bites from the characters, Webisodes, and plugs for menu items on the Allnighter menu, the iPhone game will further the campaign message.

Personalized character profile pages will also appear on social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. These elements of the campaign will be activated the week of May 25.

Is this a case of rotten eggs or a grand slam? I think it' somewhere approaching the slam side.

True, I'm not sure how the dinosaur fits it - that evokes the geezer end of Denny's clientele – but it may be I just need to see the spots.

On the plus side, Mobile's right where it should be - as part of an integrated campaign.

I do have to wonder, however, why special offers and reminders aren't sent to the iPhone app on weekend nights to help boost traffic.

Maybe it's coming. I mean, who can turn down Denny's after a big night out? 

Read more, here.

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Mystery Solved: 'Star Trek' Lives On Nokia/Verizon With Apps, Augmented Reality & More

If a movie promotion has a mobile tie-in and it's not on the iPhone, does it really count?

After wondering where the cool Star Trek apps are - just some lame curios in the App Store - I saw a commercial during last night's season finale of "Lost" (lame!) that revealed all the happening "Star Trek" stuff is over at Verizon.

Verizon and Nokia have set up a site called Join Startfleet Academy where users can watch trailers, spots, and download tricorder and phaser apps, mobile games, ringtones and more. There's even a pervasive mobile game called "The Hunt for Nero" where you might win a trip to space(!) The rules didn't make any sense, but still. Oh, and there's even a holographic "augmented reality" offering.

Now it all makes sense. What with Nokia's product placement within the film, of course it would have dibs on the big tie-in promo.

This looks pretty good. Too bad most people didn't even hear about it until last night!

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Ad Age: Print Magazine Advertisers Finding Some Success Via Mobile

Ad Age has a story this week in which it reports on several initiatives by print magazines to make advertising mobile response-enabled.

The story features several initiatives from the likes of Women's Day and GQ from last year. It's the usual snap a picture of the ad and send it to a short code kind of thing. 

While nice about the piece is that while the initiatives aren't new, the pub provides some interesting results metrics.

As the pub describes it, the Woman's Day's mobile program, which involved 10 advertisers and 12 interactive editorial units, delivered more than 200,000 snaps. In 160,000 of those cases, readers took further action on a mobile site, such as entering a sweepstakes or signing up for more information.

The magazine has a 3.8 million circulation rate base and a readership of 23 million. Which means response was pretty miniscule, but still. 

In GQ's case, ads for Gillette saw total of 2,357 requests were made via mobile over several months beginning with GQ's August issue and ending Jan. 15 with the November issue. GQ's circulation is 920,000, and its readership is 6.1 million.

Another advertiser, Maserati, highlighted a study that found that the sound of a Maserati engine triggered a biological response in women. The mobile piece of a suite of digital promotions offered by GQ allowed readers who sent in a picture of the Maserati ad to download a ringtone of the sound of the car's engine. The program, which ran in the December issue, yielded more than 2,300 downloads.

But they could have been much more effective.

The biggest hurdles I've seen in promotions like these are that a single house ad informs readers that they can respond via mobile to offers from advertisers. I haven't seen these particular executions, but that's how Men's Health and others have tended to do it. Worse: There's no reason not to just make this a matter of responding via SMS instead of having to go to the trouble of snapping an image of the ad and sending it in.

Whatever model, to be more effective, a mobile call-to-action should be displayed on every ad, along with, or instead of, the usual 800# and URL. Even in TV, this kind of placement can result in a huge majority of  respondents using mobile v. these other channels.

To read the Ad Age piece, go here.

To see how other pubs and advertisers have been figured this all out for a while now, go here.

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