Digital Pulp Blog

We love Pew Internet and American Life Project for exploring the impact of the internet on families, communities and daily life. Back in January 2010, Pew Research Center reported that a whopping 74% of American adults use the internet. A most recent research report on Mobile Access in 2010 has some interesting findings:

“Nearly half of all adults (47%) go online with a laptop using a Wi-Fi connection or mobile broadband card (up from the 39% who did so as of April 2009) while 40% of adults use the internet, email or instant messaging on a mobile phone (up from the 32% of Americans who did this in 2009). This means that 59% of adults now access the internet wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone.”

For the full story visit Mobile Access 2010: Summary of Findings

Top activities for mobile and wifi laptop users include taking pictures and sending text messages. Could this finally be the year for mobile? We think so!

Apple has done it again. The lines stretched for miles (well, not miles but you know what we mean) in front of Apple stores across the country. All were in wait for the opportunity to walk away with the new iPhone 4. Our own Gene Lewis (@glewtion) was up at 5:30am on the corner of 14th st and 9th ave in New York City along with 400 hundred others looking to buy the new phone.

Curious? See more at CNet’s live blog.

We are very proud to announce the launch of a new streamlined and socially connected mobile experience for ChildFund International!

http://m.childfund.org/

So take out your mobile phone, click around and don’t forget to “Text a Gift”. More about this exciting launch from the those behind the work…

Pauline, Marketing Director says: “We’ve helped ChildFund establish a strong presence for the mobile audience, and they can now take advantage of ‘text-to-give’ as a new channel for fundraising.”

Cynthia, Director of Communications says: “We know our supporters are committed and passionate about helping children around the world, and this mobile site provides them with portable access at all times. They can share information with others through the site and if they are moved, they also can donate quickly and easily. Best of all, the site provides direct access for those who have decided to commit to sponsoring a child.”

Shirley, Digital Producer says: “I love that we were able to use content, message, and technology to deliver a unique experience and potentially open up ChildFund to new audiences.”

Laura, Marketing Director says: “The mobile site looks great! Wow!”

Special thanks to the ChildFund marketing team as well as Shirley, Pauline, Katherine, Stuart, Jeff and Josh for their beautiful execution. Amazing effort all around!

“What Lessons Those Carrots Are Teaching,” from the New York Times (January 18, 2010)

As more and more people become comfortable with transacting business over their mobile device, mobile giving is becoming a critical factor that fundraisers ignore at their peril.

Though the size of a mobile gift is limited ($5 and $10), the audience is generally younger, the size of the market is potentially millions of smartphone users, and the speed with which nonprofits and their supporters can react to a crisis is dazzling.

This is clearly reflected with the current earthquake disaster in Haiti. Through mGive, one of the providers that facilitates mobile giving, the Red Cross has already raised $3 million dollars (as of Jan. 14th 9 a.m.) via ‘text-to-give’ and is reportedly collecting $200,000 per hour. By comparison, during Hurricane Katrina the Red Cross raised only $400,000 in total via this channel.

A mobile giving strategy, as part of a nonprofit’s Online Fundraising Plan, is the first step. Whether an organization provides emergency aid or ongoing support, it is important to establish a plan at the outset that clearly establishes how the organization can take advantage of mobile giving to support the mission. Then, it’s building the structure, communications, processes and assigning resources that will make it all work.

To donate $10 to Haiti relief, text “Haiti” to 90999.

Mobile Web access is rapidly spreading beyond the early-adopting age bracket of 18 to 34 year olds. A recent survey by Nielsen Online shows a surge in mobile browsing by women, seniors and young adults. Some more findings:

Visits to Web sites from mobile devices grew 34 percent during the twelve months ending in July, according to data from Nielsen Online. The measurement firm recorded 56.9 million mobile Web visits in July ‘09.

Although men continue to make up the majority of the mobile Web audience — accounting for a total of 53 percent of visits — growth among female users far outstripped that of males. Use among 13 to 17 year olds grew 45 percent year-on-year, while the over-65 group experienced growth of 67 percent.

For more information: U.S. Mobile Web Audience Grows by One Third

Is mobile part of your web strategy? Not sure where to start? Ask Digital Pulp.

A mobile marketing shop that has run over 60 mobile campaigns in the last two years for P&G, General Mills and American Express has found some very interesting trends from female iPhone users. After clicking a mobile ad they tend to tune out the advertisement. Some specifics from AdAge’s article.

Excerpt from Female IPhone Users More Likely to Tune Out Mobile Advertising:

Overall, users of conventional cellphones average 3 to 3.5 more post-click page views than iPhone users, who average 1.3 post-click page views. Post-click page views refer to the actions users take after clicking through a banner ad, such as viewing a video.

Similarly, iPhone users leave a branded web page without taking additional action about 80% of the time; only 12% of non-smartphone users, on the other hand, desert their destination. The study measured users who were clicking through to those destinations from a mobile banner ad.

According to Neislen, only about 18% of women age 18-49 have a smartphone and approximately 721,000 of those are iphone users with children (M: Metrics).

Major League Baseball president Robert Bowman spoke at the Apps for Brands Conference and says both are important. Apps are richer and faster, have more features and can be a revenue stream. But the initial download inherently limits the total number of application users. Mobile web pages solve that problem by being accessible by everyone but each page view relies on the mobile user’s data connection and the more advanced capabilities such as multimedia and transactions are severly limited.

MLB has 750,000 mobile app users compared with 4,000,000 unique mobile web page users.

Check out:  MLB Mobile

AdAge weighs in on how brands can build a successful mobile app strategy citing 12 lessons from Benjamin Moore, Bank of America, Kraft and others. While they focus on the logistics of making your mobile app valuable, real-time and easy to buy, we found  the insights on how people find apps (word of mouth), how you should be looking at your apps (as part of an integrated message) and how to measure success (in frequency of use not number of downloads) to be very interesting.

Read the Full Article: How Brands Can Build a Successful App Strategy

Don’t get us wrong we love cool stuff but we love it more when it has purpose. AdAge’s article about Mobile Apps gets to the heart of the issue. Excerpt from AdAge:

“Ultimately what we’ve concluded is: Don’t look at the latest technology and say, ‘We gotta do this,’” said Forrester Research analyst Neil Strother. “Look at what your customers are actually doing on mobile. How many people in your target have an iPhone? If it’s not many, consider waiting.” Now we know creating an app just to have one is a bad idea, but just what makes a good app? We asked app enthusiasts, creators and analysts what they’re seeing. Here are the great (and not-so great) branded apps that add entertainment, utility, social value, brand extension and even commerce.”

To see the cream of the crop, read the full article at:   Marketers Get Wise, Design Mobile Apps With a Purpose