MediaWhiz In the News | Week of Aug. 27–31, 2012
MediaWhiz’s leaders are continually sought after as resources for opinions, advice and expertise, based on our deep understanding of industry trends, the needs of our customers and the broader marketplace in which we operate.
Mobile Wallet Is Expanding, But Hype Doesn’t Match Reality
Aug. 30, 2012 | MediaPost (Op-Ed by Daryl Colwell, VP of business development)
Six months ago, mobile payments were on the ropes. Consumers weren’t interested or, worse, didn’t understand the value proposition. Business adoption was at a novel, if less-than-promising, growth stage.
What a difference a few months makes.
Mobile payments, which allow consumers to use their smartphones to make in-store purchases, received a major shot in the arm recently, courtesy of Starbucks’ $25 million investment in Square. The funky start-up, founded by Jack Dorsey of Twitter fame, has created a payment system that allows local merchants to accept credit card purchases with a mobile device.
The mobile wallet is growing up. But is the hype outweighing the consumer value?
The use of mobile wallets and Near Field Communications (NFC) — the technology behind mobile payments — are on the rise. Analysts peg the global transaction value of mobile payments at nearly $1 trillion by 2014, up from $162 billion in 2010, and 24% of all global e-commerce by 2017. By 2015, Forrester forecasts that NFC-enabled handsets will comprise 15% to 25% of all mobile phones in the U.S.
Mobile payments’ future is bolstered by reports that Google now supports all credit and debit cards on its Google Wallet app for Android devices.
With two key factors — ease-of-use and rate of adoption — moving in the right direction, mobile payments may finally reach their lofty potential. But there is still a long way toward mainstream adoption. Read more …
Summer Conference Recap: Accountability and Compliance Take Center Stage
Aug. 30, 2012 | Revenue Performance magazine (Op-Ed by Peter Klein, SVP of media services)
It has been a busy summer for online marketing professionals. LeadsCon East and Affiliate Summit East were scheduled three weeks apart, making scheduling and planning for these important events somewhat more complicated than in years past.
Despite the close proximity of the two shows, each continues to offer a different kind of value.
LeadsCon attracts a more advanced professional group, one that leans toward advertisers, brands and the professional services end of the online marketing business. Transparency, lead quality and government regulations are repeatedly covered topics.
By comparison, Affiliate Summit focuses more on the tactical aspects of affiliate and performance marketing. It’s aimed at the beginner and intermediate affiliate marketers, with seminars and workshops on website optimization, blogger relations, SEO and finding the right affiliate network. Read more …
Google Study Dives Into Multiscreen Marketing Madness
Aug. 30, 2012 | E-Commerce Times (featuring Daryl Colwell, VP of business development)
… For marketers, the findings suggest several strategies that must be put in place, if they haven’t been already, Daryl Colwell, VP of business development at MediaWhiz, told the E-Commerce Times.
“You need to have a consistent message throughout all the channels from online to television to email,” he said.
Marketers also have to be a lot faster and more concise in their messaging with so many people access content via a small screen. “You want to hit them with an offer right away. Don’t make them wade through a lot of content to get to the offer,” he said.
Perhaps most fundamentally, marketers have to assume that anything designed for online will be read by a smartphone — and optimize accordingly. “We do a lot of email marketing, and on any given day, between 20 percent to 50 percent of our emails are read from a smartphone. Marketers have to get smart about how they design their messaging.”
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