Author: BWild

The support of this technology coincides with an effort to make apps easier to manage.

Adobe has taken a larger step into the mobile marketing sphere as it revealed a set of rejuvenated services that are designed to help companies to be able to create, manage, and provide a customized real time app experience to their customers.

This entire opportunity will be available through the Adobe Marketing Cloud platform.

There is quite a list of services that have been added to what Adobe is now offering, with its entry into the mobile marketing channel. Along with its support of Apple’s iBeacon, it is also offering a number of different ways to reach consumers, personalize the experience, provide incentives for taking action, and offering ways for merchants to be able to measure results.

The goal is to provide a very well rounded and complete mobile marketing opportunity.

Among the new Adobe Mobile Services 2.0 offerings are:

• Adobe Experience Manager apps for marketers, as well as the PhoneGap Enterprise for mobile app development firms.
• Measurements for campaigns, including for which campaigns are producing results and user behavior measurements to enhance engagement, launch events, and encourage content sharing, in addition to product purchasing.
• Apple iBeacon support, giving marketers location based data so that properly timed notifications can be delivered based on where the user is.
• Customer re-engagement features across mobile apps, giving companies the ability to deliver the latest news, report on credit balance details, and others.

Among Adobe’s primary goals has been in enhancing and increasing its offerings for its Marketing Cloud when it comes to mobile. Near the close of last year, that company released its SDK for Mobile Services, which included the ability to use location based technology for geotargetting users, as well as for the analysis of consumer data, optimizing the performance of the app, monitoring of key performance indicators (KPIs), and even conducting certain forms of A/B testing.

It is clear that their focus continues to be a drive forward into mobile marketing, and this release that includes iBeacon indicates that geolocation technology will be playing an important role in that effort.

New billboards and signs featuring quick response codes will be placed in locations worldwide.

Clear Channel, a company that currently has nearly 700,000 signs and billboards positioned in different spots around the globe is planning to add 75,000 QR codes to advertisements in areas that feature “heavy footfall and long dwell-time”.

This means that places such as bus stops, shopping malls, and airports will now see quick response codes.

The QR codes on the billboards will also have added SMS capabilities that make it possible to text people who are close by or to use near field communication (NFC) technology for the contactless transmission of information to devices that are located in close proximity. This converts the posters into a form of mobile marketing with considerable potential.

The QR codes and other technology will help to better connect with consumers who are on the move.

According to Clear Channel, the initiative, which they have called Connect, “presents the opportunity to target consumers on-the-go, when they are receptive to messages and can be delighted by timely, relevant and tailored invitations to engage.” That statement was made by the company’s chief operating officer, Suzanne Grimes.

These types of distractions, such as being able to scan a QRcode, are typically welcome in areas such as airports where people are looking for something simple to do in order to kill time. It isn’t something that they would likely do if they were in a hurry and were just walking from one place to another, but when they are forced to wait around, they will be far more willing to amuse themselves with activities such as barcode scans.

That said, to become effective, the ad needs to find some way to become noticed in the first place. Before consumers are able to scan QR codes, then need to actually realize that they’re there. It is in this area that Clear Channel has managed to stand out, as it has employed other technologies to draw more attention to itself and to make sure that its posters aren’t seen as simply passive atmosphere. This way, they become interactive features.