Archive for the ‘Mobile Applications’ Category

Who are Football’s Hottest Wives? 

Fantasy Football Sideline announces its Football’s Hottest Wives competition for the 2010 season.  The fantasy football web site has selected its “Sweet 16” of the hottest wives of NFL players for the 2010 season and the public is encouraged to vote for the hottest wives of NFL players.

For the past three years, Olympic Internet, parent company of Fantasy Football Sideline, has been promoting its Baseball’s Hottest Wives competition on its fantasy baseball site Fantasy Baseball Dugout.  Last year, Japanese actress Saeko Darvish won the Baseball’s Hottest Wives competition as more than 70,000 votes were cast on the internet and by text message voting.  This year, the competition has expanded to include a competition for the beautiful wives of NFL players as well.

The Football’s Hottest Wives competition contains a bevy of beauties, some of which are household names and others whose hulking husbands are the most famous of the pair.  Obvious finalists include Girl Next Store Kendra Wilkinson who is the best catch ever for Vikings’ wide receiver Hank Baskett.  Then, there’s Victoria’s Secret supermodel Gisele Bundchen who now wears lingerie exclusively for future Hall of Famer Tom Brady.  There’s also Elisabeth Hasselbeck, wife of Seahawks quarterback Tim, who was a Survivor contestant and now manages to survive through the daily dribble on The View.

Athletes are also part of the family.  Championship finalists include two Olympic gold medal winners who are now married to NFL stars.  Heather Mitts kicks it with Rams quarterback A.J. Feeley; Heather has won two gold medals with the USA women’s Olympic soccer team.  Sanya Richards is a two time Gold Medalist in the 4 x 400 relay team and Richards is now teaming with Aaron Ross—a cornerback for the New York Giants.  Imagine the athletic kids these couples may have!

Think there are rules for cheerleaders dating football players?  Think again.  Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub married Texans cheerleader Laurie.  Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley married Christy Oglevee who shows her tight end as one of the “First Ladies of Football.”  49er’s quarterback Alex Smith navigated cross-Bay to marry Raiderette Elizabeth Barry.  “I owe the Raiders big time for this one,” said Smith.  These women, who were previously shaking it for their favorite team, are now shaking with excitement at being named as finalists in Football’s Hottest Wives.

The group is also not without controversy.  Carrie Prejean is the former Miss California USA and runner-up in the 2009 Miss USA Pageant.  Prejean took heat from many after stating her conservative opinion about same sex marriage during the Miss USA pageant.  Ironically Prejean was later haunted by a less than conservative sex tape that made its way onto the internet.  It was expected that Prejean might hear “you’re fired” from Miss USA Executive Director Donald Trump, but Trump trumped the speculators and allowed Prejean to maintain her titles.

Here is the complete list of the Sweet 16 for Football’s Hottest Wives:

• Kendra Wilkinson (Hank Baskett, Vikings)
• Gisele Bundchen (Tom Brady, Patriots)
• Katina Taylor (Jason Taylor, Jets)
• Sanya Richards (Aaron Ross, Giants)
• October Gonzalez (Tony Gonzalez, Falcons)
• Carrie Prejean (Kyle Boller, Raiders)
• Elizabeth Barry (Alex Smith, 49ers)
• Christy Oglevee (Chris Cooley, Redskins)
• Heather Mitts (A.J. Feeley, Rams)
• Brittany Brees (Drew Brees, Saints)
• Elisabeth Hasselbeck (Tim Hasselbeck, Seahawks)
• Latisha Moss (Santana Moss, Redskins)
• Alicia Jammer (Quentin Jammer, Chargers)
• Laurie Schaub (Matt Schaub, Texans)
• Janelle Winslow (Kellen Winslow, Buccaneers)
• Abby Manning (Eli Manning, Giants)

Voting for Football’s Hottest Wives goes through December 31, 2010 and the winner will be crowned on New Year’s Day 2011.

84444.com is the official text message vote site for Olympic Internet and its fantasy sports sites.

Mobile Restaurant Interaction Spikes

The restaurant industry received a boost in mobile marketing use over the Thanksgiving holiday.  This is likely due to family cooks being burned out on cooking after the Thanksgiving holiday pig out.  Mobile marketing for restaurants has been a very viable category for 84444.com

Parents with children in the household are the best target markets for mobile coupons, according to a new study by Harris Interactive.

Mobile phone owners with children under the age of 6 were the most receptive with 35% being at least somewhat interested in receiving opt-in text alerts about new products, sales, or promotions.  Those with children age 6-17 had a 32% chance of desiring opt-in messages from text message promotions.  Of those without children, only 25% showed such interest.

When it comes to mobile coupons, adults with young children showed double the interest of those with no children (36% versus 18%) in having signed up to receive mobile coupons.  Women show slightly more interest than men.

by Bob Bentz

When Apple Computer introduced the iPhone in 2008, it introduced a new option on iTunes: the Apple App Store.  The Apple App Store is a collection of software programs known as “apps” that can be easily downloaded to a smart mobile phone.

 

Almost two years later, the moniker “mobile apps” has become synonymous with Apple’s iPhone.  It’s a phenomenon comparable only to the fad of mobile ringtones just a few years earlier.

If you want it, it’s probably available on the Apple App Store.  The range of apps is bewildering with apps related to cooking, hockey, jokes, and even an app that will help you remember where you parked your car.  While some have a cost, over 82% of the apps are free.

The Apps Marketplace

Mobile users will spend $6.2 billion in 2010 in mobile application stores, according to Gartner.  This is up 48% over the $4.2 billion that was spent on mobile apps in 2009. 

And, it’s just the beginning.  Mobile apps downloads will exceed 4.5 billion in 2010 and will surpass 21.6 billion in 2013.  That makes mobile apps a whopping $29.5 billion industry in 2013.

Apple is the overwhelming apps leader, as the product itself seems to be synonymous with the company.  Apple accounted for 99.4% of the 2.5 billion mobile apps downloaded in 2009.

Apple’s dominance in the apps marketplace is even more astounding when you consider that it maintains only a 25% market share of the total USA smartphone subscribers.

But, Apple is not the only player in the apps game.  Apples App Store success has spawned a plethora of competitors, including RIM, Microsoft, Palm, and Google.  To say that the competitors are miles behind Apple, however, is an under-statement.

BlackBerry’s Apps Failure

Although BlackBerry is the most widely used smartphone handset in the USA, with 43% of the smartphone market, its app strategy has failed miserably.  While there are over 150,000 apps in Apple’s App Store, Blackberry App World has barely over 10,000 apps.  Google’s Android has almost 15,000 apps.

Smart Phone Market Share

RIM Blackberry – 43.0%

Apple iPhone – 25.1%

Microsoft Windows – 15.7%

Google Android – 7.1%

Palm Treo – 5.7%

(Source – comScore MobiLens; January 2010)

Does BlackBerry have a chance of catching the iPhone in terms of mobile apps?  It’s probably very unlikely given that Blackberry is the choice of smartphone for business users and applications like games are the iPhone’s top seller.  Moreover, the BlackBerry suffers from the fact that downloading an app is considerably more difficult than with an iPhone.

But, despite the obvious limitations, there have been some success stories with BlackBerry’s App World.  Business-focused apps such as managing expense accounts or tracking auto mileage are popular.  Plus, there’s the TooDo task reminder for the workaholic BlackBerry users.  It shows that BlackBerry users will download apps if the application is right.

So, why then does BlackBerry trail so significantly, even when it comes to available apps?  The answer is that developing a stand-alone app for a BlackBerry is expensive as an app written for an iPhone will not run on a BlackBerry.  Hence, marketers with limited budgets in this difficult economy are going where they are most likely to be downloaded and just creating apps for Apple when they should be creating them for the entire marketplace.

The Future of Apps

To date, the dominant apps application has been overwhelmingly games; most notably free games.  But, with mobile devices now exceeding desktop computers by a factor of 10, businesses should be looking to apps as a viable channel to a competitive advantage.

Clearly, the future trends toward useful apps rather than trivial apps.  By 2012, the leading app category will be money transfers and mobile banking followed by GPS-based services, and mobile search.

And, there is no doubt that BlackBerry and Android users are going to demand more apps for their phones, thus resulting in more available apps and a significantly more varied and stronger marketplace.

84444.com’s Bob Bentz penned an article about mobile apps that was recently published on popular mobile site Fierce Wireless.

Bentz discusses the need for mobile apps to not only be produced for iPhones, but also for BlackBerry’s and Androids.

On another subject, Bentz, an avid baseball fan, discusses the best mobile apps for baseball fans and specifically for fantasy baseball fans.

A recent text message voting application run by Advanced Telecom Services, in conjunction with adidas, chose the ski goggles that a British athlete will wear in the upcoming Vancouver Olympics.

Fans voted by text message for one of many ski goggles that were designed by artists from around the world.  The top ten vote getters were then sent to adidas which chose the winner.  The winner will receive a $20,000 contract and his goggles will be worn by a British skier in Vancouver in February.

John Felipe of Portugal was the winner of the contest with a striking design that used the colors of the Union Jack.

You can see Felipe’s winning adidas ski goggle design here.

Chief Marketer surveyed 737 of its readers about their plans for social

marketing tactics for 2010.

It was an interesting endorsement of mobile marketing, especially that of mobile coupons.

• 20% plan to use mobile coupons or downloadable web coupons.
• 13% plan to use mobile text message campaigns.
• 7% plan to use mobile short codes in offline marketing.  In other words, “Text RESULTS to 84444″ on a billboard or radio advertisement.

The use of interactive text message programs and mobile short codes allows all advertisements to become interactive.  It also allows for the brand or product to be able to gauge the effectiveness of the advertising through the direct response mechanism of the short code.

Text Message Sweepstakes are a big part of interactive text message use and a great way to build your opt-in

database.  In fact, it’s such an important part of mobile marketing, that 84444.com has a special part of its site with enhanced features just for sweepstakes and contests.

“Many people are overwhelmed at the thought of creating an opt-in database at the outset of their mobile marketing project,” said Bob Bentz of Advanced Telecom Services.  “But, it doesn’t have to be a daunting task.  Using a text message sweepstakes or a mobile coupon is the best way to build your initial opt-in database.”

There is no doubt about the power of text message sweepstakes to gain maximum exposure for your mobile marketing product.  People like to win things and sending a text message to a short code is an easy thing to do to enter.  You can do it during your down time and it doesn’t require starting a computer or mailing in an entry form.

A recent study by VSS Communications Industry Forecast shows that sweepstakes spending continues to grow, despite a failing economy.

• 2003 — $1.798 billion
• 2005 — $1.804 billion
• 2007 — $1.854 billion
• 2009 — $1.870 billion

Text Messages for nightclubs has been a great category for our mobile

 marketing site 84444.com.

Nightclub text message marketing simply makes sense in part, because young adults who frequent nightclubs are avid mobile users. The target market could not be better defined. If a nightclub contacts them by text message marketing, young adults are spontaneous and will go.

Moreover, young adult singles are price conscious with less spendable income than middle age adults. Therefore, a mobile coupon from a nightclub can bring them in for the evening. It’s the same with entertainment; nightclubs can announce their bands that are performing to get visitors to the club.

Finally, young adults are viral with promotional text messages. This means that you get bonus coverage when patrons send the mobile advertisment to their friends.  You can’t do this with other media and email, as we all know, is so yesterday when it comes to 20-somethings.

Read about 84444.com’s Bob Bentz talking about mobile marketing for nightclubs on this article from Nightclub.com. 

For the first time ever, a study has analyzed the use of mobile coupons by

USA mobile phone users.

The results are that 3.0% of Americans acknowledged having used a mobile coupon in the month of October, 2009, according to eMarketer.

That’s not surprising to retailers who have used mobile marketing solutions in their advertising.  Store managers have seen the power of the cell phone in bringing customers to their stores.

Some other interesting results from the study show that:

• 18.5% have search the mobile web for local products or services.
• 15.9% have received information about movies or entertainment.
• 13.3% have received information about nightclubs, bars, or restaurants on their mobiles.
• 4.0% have purchased an item that needed to be shipped.