WiMAX Will Change The Way We Live

Imagine having high speed internet connections everywhere you go. The possibilities are endless. In your car you have a new wireless device called the ICar, sorry Apple. The Icar allows users to:

· surf the web
· make calls
· download and play movies
· listen to “radio”
· get up to the second traffic reports
· receive a text or email from your spouse
· get directions anywhere
· receive a coupon for the billboard you just passed
· watch “TV”
· view pictures
· pay for gas
· You name it….

Now, what if the Icar was available in 18 months, this would be a treat. Now imagine all those same features available in a portable unit called the Iphone…sorry, already taken. All of this is a very real possibility with WiMAX. WiMAX is a new type of wireless communication platform currently undergoing testing.

The technology is similar to current WiFi, but much more powerful. While the range of WiFi is around 100 meters, WiMax has a range of 7-10 Kilometers. But wait, there’s more! WiMAX has bandwidth similar to cable or DSL. With a range like that it will be very easy to provide wireless communication to an entire city.

But wait, there’s more. In the very near future, WiMAX will be mobile as well. Then we will be able to have all of the features described above in your car. Yet this is not a dream, its reality. WiMAX rollouts are already taking place overseas with plans to begin integration into the United States next year. More than 500 businesses are currently developing the products and infrastructure to make it work.

For more information on the progress being made in this wireless arena, direct your browser to http://www.wimaxforum.org/.

Bluetooth and Proximity Marketing

You and your spouse are on your way home, stuck in traffic and starving as usual. You look to the right only to see a billboard for Olive Garden, which makes you even hungrier. Near the bottom of the sign you notice a sentence that says “Set your Bluetooth to ‘find me’ now to receive a free appetizer”. Since traffic is at a standstill, you decide to give it a try. As soon as you do, a message pops up asking you if you want to pair with “Olive Garden”. You agree and instantly a message is sent to your phone. You download the message only to see a coupon for the appetizer you were promised. You are also sent a second message that gives you directions to the nearest Olive Garden. You decide to go there for dinner.

You have just experienced one of marketing’s newest forms of marketing communication. While the story above is fiction, Olive Garden may soon be joining other businesses in marketing via Bluetooth. Companies like Proximity marketing http://proximitymedia.com/home.htm as well as Bluevibe http://www.bluevibe.gr/?gclid=CJighbOplJECFQ2aOAodUHyUOQ are bringing the technology to the U.S.

Bluetooth marketing while still in its infancy in the U.S., is exploding throughout Europe and Japan. Signs in subways, at events, or just along the street ask customers to turn on their Bluetooth to receive some benefit. Maybe its sports scores, weather forecasts, traffic reports, movie trailers, free ringtones, free games, or just information about a product. All contain some form of marketing communication. The possibilities are endless.

A car dealer can set up a Bluetooth marketing system to list the features and benefits of every car on his lot, and send a message to a sales person that he would like to test drive the vehicle. The same dealer could integrate all of his marketing by offering a sales list from his most recent newspaper ad. He could offer the customer an opportunity to watch a video or commercial for a car they are interested in. He could list current safety ratings. He would even be able to direct customers to a message board with comments from current owners of the same model and their feelings toward the car. In all, proximity marketing is a great tool to integrate all marketing communication.

In all, Bluetooth or other forms of proximity marketing via the cell phone may soon be the marketer’s choice for onsite communication.

Mobile Coupons are the Future

We've all done it. We've cut out or printed off a coupon for a product only to lose it before having the opportunity for redemption. This may be part of the reason coupon redemption has fallen off so drastically in the past twenty years. (a topic for future blogs) Yet coupons continue to be an important integrated form of marketing communication. It is estimated that 300 billion coupons are delivered annually in the U.S. With an average redemption rate of just 1.5%, there are still approximately 4.5 billion coupons redeemed annually, or more than 12 million coupons redeemed daily.

There lies the problem. Coupons experience very low redemption rates, yet shoppers still redeem 12 million per day. What if we were able to double the redemption rates of coupons? What would it be worth to companies and their marketing managers, billions of dollars? Yet this is a real possibility with the advent of mobile marketing and mobile coupons. A mobile coupon is an "electronic ticket solicited and/or delivered to a mobile device or mobile phone that can be exchanged for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product." (mobile Marketing Association) Since very few people leave home without their cell phones today, mobile coupons would always be available where and when you want them.

Mobile coupons may be delivered many ways. The user may act to "pull" in the coupons, or the company may "push" the coupons on the customer. Customers may type in a short code and receive the coupon code through SMS (short message service), MMS(multimedia messaging), or through Bluetooth services. Cell phone users voting for their favorite ____________ may receive a coupon from a sponsor. They may also receive sponsor coupons when answering trivia questions, receiving traffic or weather reports, stock updates, directions, or any other information via SMS. A good resource that demonstrates the marketing capabilities of mobile marketing is www.msnap.com. You will be able to see and experience an interactive demonstration of SMS messaging as well as marketing opportunities. While mobile couponing is still in its infancy, expect it to explode on the scenes within the next few years.

The Mobile Marketing Association has a very informative educational piece on the "introduction to Mobile Coupons" at http://mmaglobal.com/mobilecoupons.pdf. The pamphlet describes the mobile coupon, their use in marketing, the redemption process, a best practices section as well as the newest UPC codes designed for most mobile marketing applications. If you are interested in mobile coupons, this resource is a great place to start.

What Effects Will New Media Have On Radio

Managing four radio stations brings this week’s topic near and dear to my heart. Therefore, I will explore radio’s future. Radio has seen a decrease in advertising sales since 2002. It has also lost some of its audience during this same period. Many in marketing feel this is due to satellite radio. Yet, satellite radio garnishes less than three percent of the entire radio audience nationwide. In fact XM and Sirius are currently scrambling to merge as neither business model can survive and prosper in their current state. Rather, radio’s real threat comes in the form of “true” new media not a different broadcast channel of an old media.

Many new media allow the user more control and access to the product when they wish rather than when the radio station provides the content. If you like a certain “radio” show, you used to have to listen when the show was aired. Yet today podcasting offers the same show any time the consumer wants. Web sites offer any user with limited knowledge the ability to create his or her own streaming radio station, and while they may not be as “professional” as commercial stations they can be localized and personalized for a specific group of people, thus eroding radio’s time spent listening.

Other new media that are eroding radio’s time spent listening are MP3 players, games, web surfing, blogs & vlogs, social networking, mobile media, and podcasting. Each of these new media erode radio’s ability to capture a larger audience as people spend less time with radio and more time with new media. Truth be told, radio has not yet lost a large amount of listenership. In fact, radio’s nationwide TSL is 93% of what it was in 1995. The real problem is that radio’s market share of advertising has remained flat or decreased since 2002. Most of this share has been transferred to new media and the web.

In the very near future everyone in the U.S. will have the ability to surf the web, watch TV, download their favorite podcast, listen to their favorite radio station, check their email, chat, receive traffic and weather reports, navigate to a location, find the closest restaurant or gas station and much more via hybrid “cell phones”. Then add in Wi-Max or X-Max and we will have all of these same products available to us in any vehicle or home. These “phones” will be much more like mobile computers and much less the phones we know today. At this point we will have no need for radio’s 100,000 watt transmitters. AM and FM will be replaced with streaming audio sources.

Yet there is one question that still remains unanswered. Who will provide quality audio content. It is this content that will determine whether radio lives or dies in the next fifty years. People don’t care about the media channel providing the content, they only care about the audio and whether or not they enjoy it. If your favorite morning show moved from one station to the next with no change in program, you would move your radio dial position as well. The same thing goes for different mediums. Radio will continue to prosper only if we can provide the quality programming required by our listening base. While I don’t feel radio will be as strong of an advertising source in fifty years, I think it will be there in some form or another.

It’s just a short matter of time before these “hybrid phones” and “mobile computer” services will be available to everyone. When that happens all media will go through a drastic change. Ten years ago no one had a camera on their cell phone, yet today it’s difficult to find one without. Twenty years ago no one even had a cellular phone. What new media will IMC students be exploring in 20 years. Will mobile marketing be threatened by it?

Mobile Marketing is Helping Radio

The past four years have been lean times in radio. Advertising budgets across the nation have been trimmed as marketing dollars are moved into trade marketing, sales promotions and new media. Radio, newspaper and TV have all experienced a decrease or flat sales due to these advertising cuts. The decreases in advertising have affected large, medium and small markets alike. To combat this loss in advertising sales, radio is looking to other sources of revenue. One area currently being developed by radio stations is mobile marketing. Mobile Marketing uses a mobile device such as a cellular phone or pda as a channel to deliver marketing communication either to the masses or an individual person. The most common type of mobile marketing is SMS (Short Message Service). SMS normally runs off a 5 or 6 digit short code that allows one way or two way communication and interaction depending on the setup.

Radio stations are using SMS to set up listener clubs, contesting, voting, and more. The focus of radio station SMS programs is to allow interaction between the announcer, station and the listener. Let’s say a station wants to know what their listeners think of three new songs being released. They can play pieces of the new songs and then ask listeners to text the word "song" to 68683 for their chance to vote for their favorite. The station can then decide what song to add based on listener votes.

Radio stations can also hold combination on-air/SMS contests. The radio station may promote an upcoming concert by playing a song from that artist. Next they will ask listeners to name the song for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the concert. Listeners are told to text in the word "concert" to a short code. Within moments they will receive a message reply from the station asking them to choose the song name from the four choices. The listener then chooses the correct answer from the four choices and clicks "send". Within moments the listener will receive a second message from the radio station letting him know if their answer was correct. Everyone getting the answer correct will have their name entered into a drawing for the tickets to be given away at the end of the show.

Winners and losers alike will both receive "thank-you" messages from the station as well as a message from a sponsor. The sponsor message may or may not include a premium or sales offer. If McDonalds is a sponsor of the concert they may want to offer all contestants an opportunity to redeem their phone message for a free burger or fries. Your phone becomes the coupon. Just bring it in and show McDonalds the message. New technology is currently being developed to offer UPC "coupon" codes that will make redemption of offers, prizes and premiums much easier.

Radio stations may also develop sponsorable "clubs” where participating members may receive sports scores, weather updates, cancellations, club member premiums, traffic updates, local news, and more. SMS also allows listeners an opportunity to find out the title and artist of the current song airing on the station as well as the next two songs coming up. All of these messages would include a short sponsor message or identification giving radio stations new revenue sources.

Radio stations can no longer rely on traditional advertising sales for revenue. They must develop new revenue streams including SMS, Bluetooth, MMS, and in-game marketing that can all be promoted and partnered with the stations off-air service. It is a true partnership of old and new media coming together to provide integrated marketing and advertising opportunities for business.