Tag: mobile ad

The next “big thing” in mobile marketing could be automation

The global mobile chief at Mediacom has predicted that this will be the next trend in smartphone advertising.

According to Ben Philips, the head of mobile at Mediacom, it is important for marketers to get to know the basic differences between web advertising automation and mobile marketing automation so that they will be able to offer an exceptional experience by way of each different channel.

Advertisers have been using automated online content and have been seeking the same over mobile.

Though marketers have been trying to push automated mobile marketing content for a while now, they have struggled to be able to achieve their goals as their view of how people interact with – and switch to and from – each platform is not clear. As proximity triggers and push notifications become more central to the efforts of marketers, Mediacom feels that the automation of mobile advertising which steps above and beyond the app.

Phillips cautioned advertisers that mobile marketing is not simply a matter of a phone.

Mobile Marketing - The Next Big ThingHe stated that brands should be taking into “consideration all that is not tethered to a desk”. It is important to note that the marketers that are achieving the greatest levels of success are those that have been designing their creative mobile first, and are those that “appreciate how their audience chooses to engage with them and provides the correct response.”

For instance, within a retail brick and mortar shop, it was suggested that instead of pushing mobile ads that would be received by customers as they make their way past an aisle, it may be more effective to personalize the advertising by connecting with them through CRM and provided greater context for the ads.

Philips went on to explain that “Automated mobile marketing will enable deeper CRM learnings and processes that lead brands to a more personal one-to-one dialogue with their consumers.” That said, providing an engaging communication that is personalized for the shopper is impossible without obtaining the appropriate data with regards to the audience. Therefore, Philips has predicted that one of the most important efforts of this year will be to create a persistent tracking identifier for a shopper as he or she travels from one platform to another.

Popular Hipcricket mobile marketing firm files for bankruptcy

The company’s assets have now been acquired for $4.5 million by SITO mobile.

Recent reports have shown that the Bellevue, Washington based mobile marketing company, Hipcricket, has now filed for bankruptcy as an independent company and that SITO Mobile has now acquired its assets for $4.5 million.

Hipcricket filed for bankruptcy protection, last week, despite its 21 U.S. patents and $26.7 million in annual revenues.

SITO Mobile was quick to recognize the opportunity and acquired all of the mobile marketing firm’s assets. According to its CEO, Jerry Hug, “Consistent with our goal to accelerate our growth, if completed, the acquisition of Hipcricket will bolster our services and solutions and increase our revenue from a customer base which would then include 38 of the Fortune 100 companies.”

The Hipcricket mobile marketing company’s press release announced that acquisition was its best direction.

Mobile Marketing - Time is UpIn the release the CEO of Hipcricket, Todd Wilson, explained that selling its assets in a court-approved agreement was “the most viable option to protect our human capital and maximize recovery for our stakeholders.” Filing for bankruptcy was a decision that the company made in order to “facilitate the sale”.

The press release explained that throughout the process of filing for Chapter 11, as well as during the acquisition process, Hipcricket believes that its typical daily operations will remain the same, subject to the “first day” motions approval by the Court. Hipcricket is also working to obtain approval from the Court in order to be able to keep up its current payroll and benefits program, in addition to maintaining the cash management system that is already in place. It wants to be able to keep up its typical daily business activities.

To make it possible for the company to keep up those operations throughout the acquisition period, the press release explained that SITO Mobile has agreed to provide debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing of up to $3.4 million to Hipcricket. All of this, of course, is subject to court approval, but at the time of the writing of this article, those were the intentions of the two companies that are involved in this acquisition.