Author: Lucy

Taco Bell tracks phone user habits to target its mobile ads

| March 17, 2016

The goal is to ensure that people will be swayed and will want to buy from the breakfast menu.

Taco Bell knows that the millennial generation is its primary target market, and the fast food company is now tracking its cell phone toting customers in order to be able to best design their mobile ads strategy.

The idea is to reach these mobile device users the moment they get up in the morning to make them crave breakfast.

Not just any breakfast, of course. The mobile ads are a part of a campaign to help to promote the new breakfast menu. Earlier this month, Taco Bell rolled out 10 new breakfast items with the highly affordable price tag of only $1 each. This is the latest step in encouraging people to think of their quick service restaurants for their first meal of the day – an effort that began back in 2014.

To make sure these mobile ads go out at the perfect moment, Taco Bell tracks customer phone activity and data.

Taco Bell Targets Mobile AdsAccording to the Taco Bell vice president of media and brand partnerships, Juliete Corsinita, “We’ve honed our media skills over the last couple of years.” As a part of this effort, the company is also working with Aki, a mobile advertising firm that attempts to “target mobile moments”.

The way Aki works is that it starts by tracking the phone activity and data of a mobile device user. This allows it to target its smartphone ads based on exceptionally specific habits and behaviors such as knowing which apps are used by a smartphone user first thing in the morning. It can learn the times of day when someone looks at a breakfast recipe as well as the favorite news apps for catching up on what’s going on in the world before the day begins.

Taco Bell has also been tinkering with the Wishbone mobile app that makes it possible for users to ask their followers to complete mini-polls that have participants choosing their favorite images. When the app is opened, they’re asked which between two pictures is the best. Starting earlier this month, one of these efforts in mobile ads in disguise has asked people to choose between a piece of flat bread or the new flatbread quesadilla sold at the restaurants.

Project Fi is opened up to certain device users in the US

| March 14, 2016

The tech giant has announced that it is making its mobile network available to all users in the United States.

Google has now announced that it is making its mobile network, Project Fi, available to everyone in the United States that is a user of the Nexus models of smartphone.

The idea is that the devices can connect to Google’s cellular networks and WiFi hotspots through T-Mobile and Sprint.

The Project Fi connections can be used for text, voice and data services. In this way, mobile device users are able to send and receive tests and phone calls, even when connected exclusively to WiFi. The service also provides comparable pricing structures to those available through more traditional mobile networks. There is an up-front fee of $20 for users to be able to take advantage of unlimited domestic calling and unlimited international texting.

Before now, Project Fi had been available only to those who were directly invited to use it.

For another $10, users can purchase another GB of data. Users can purchase as many $10 one gig data increases as they want and any unused data will be credited back to their account at the end of the month, so it won’t be lost.

According to the service’s product manager, Simon Arscott, “this mobile network service was first launched exclusively to those who received invitations as a part of their Early Access program. This allowed the company to fine tune its quality in time for its full launch to all American consumers. “Today, we’re excited to be exiting our invitation-only mode and opening up Project Fi so that people across the U.S. can now sign up for service without having to wait in line for an invite,” he said.

That said, it is important to note that only certain tablets and smartphones can connect to the Project Fi network. It may not be in invitation-only mode but Americans can use it only if they have the right devices. Certain tablets can connect, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S, iPad Mini 4 and the iPad Air 2 can connect exclusively to the data portion of the service. Talk and Text are available to people with a Nexus smartphone such as the 5X or 6P.