Text Does Good

Carbon offset by SMS is just the latest in the use of SMS by good cuases to both relate info and generate revenues. The World Land Trust will offset 140 kilos of C02 whenever you text in - WLT CARBON to 87050. It's all about making doing good simple.

Here's the whole Springwise article.

Smart Buses

You'd think it would be a good idea for a bus driver to know where they are but how about the bus itself?

25 London buses are being fitted out with a unique GPS based advertising solution by Yell.com. The buses will each carry LED advertising displays that change depending on where the bus is. For example, your local chip shop could advertise on the bus when its in your neighbourhood, changing to a big supermarket as it passes into a new part of town.

I'd guess it'll be price preclusive for the local chipper just now but these types of location based ad services are no doubt the vanguard (busguard?) of an explosion in new local marketing concepts. Google, Yell, Yahoo - all getting local to tap into the collective marketing budgets of the small business.

Check out the full Springwise article here.

Text Boom in Iraq

Text messaging comes up in the funniest of places. You would hardly think Iraq would be the new hotbed of a text message frenzy. But, with so many cafes and the like having long sinced closed, SMS is proving a popular form of entertainment for young Iraqi's.

Check out the full ABC News story here.

$30,000 lifetime spend

The average 10-year old will spend almost $30,000 over their lifetime on mobile services according to a new report as quoted on MobHappy.

The question here is will these services be 'consumed' from a variety of sources or from their primary mobile operator. While almost impossible to look that far into the future with an ever changing landscape, I can see two major obstacles to those figures.

Firstly, with VOIP already eroding call charges for landlines and 1/2p 'text over IP' recently launched is it likely that the current revenue models will have any bearing in five years time - never mind 35 years +.

Secondly, as customers become more accustomed to receiving a range of services via mobile devices surely they will become equally accustomed to advertising based revenue models as well.

Both these surely would have a huge effect on the total lifetime spend and have no doubt been taken into account in these projections. What the survey surely speaks to is the huge growth potential in mobile services of all varieties in the same way that the internet promised so much just 10-15 years ago.

Some things are just cool

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while - nothing to do with marketing or text but if you've got a few minutes have a look

Click here

Don't Forget the Fundamentals

In early tests of our mobile marketing platform we struggled to get people to regsiter their information and therefore build a viable database for our clients to use. The key, we found, was incentivising participation through the use of an instant voucher or competition - ie. a reason for customers to get involved now!

This article in Adotas hits on some of the same points. The key is to look at mobile (or email, blogging, podcasts, video email etc...) as what it is - a delivery channel, not unlike TV, radio or print. Each of these channels has its own strengths and weaknesses but the fundamentals of good marketing remain the same.

Starting a Cult

As some of you may know, I've been debating the idea of starting my very own cult.

In my trawling of the web to find out what would be involved in having my very own following I came across this helpful little article on Entrepreneur.com. I think they're abit more interested in created a Cult Business but it's definitely worth a look.

Another Mobile Case Study

When Philadelphia start-up recording studio, TraksRunnas, needed to increase bookings they knew that the trade and traditional press were out of their price range. What's more, their prospective customers, new and potential artists, didn't read those papers and didn't use email.

Starting with just a few mobile numbers gathered from friends and family they've managed to increase sales by 50% in a year by notifying people of unbooked slots. The unexpected effect of recipients forwarding the sent messages to friends who could use the service was the real plus - providing a fantastic ROI that press advertising could not.

Could be a great idea for anyone who sells 'time' - hairdressers, golf clubs, tanning salons .... You can read the whole story here

Stunts

Ever wonder just how far some companies will go to get noticed? See how 10 companies succeeded--and five failed miserably--when it came to making some noise in this article on Entrepreneur.com .

Mobile Tops List of New Marketing Trends

"According to the Mobile Marketing Association, by 2008, 89 percent of brands will use text and multimedia messaging to reach their audiences, with nearly one-third planning to spend more than 10 percent of their marketing budgets on advertising in the medium."

Read more in this article about top new marketing trends.

Brand Embodiment

Does your business dictate a brand or does your brand educate your business? In too many cases, brand and business bear no resemblence.

Here's a great case study where the two are one in the same at Innocent Smoothies - but its not cutesy, it's a real world business that's grown from zero to £80M in revenues in just 7 years.

Colonising MySpace

I'm becoming slightly obsessed with MySpace these days - mostly because it confuses me - and not just me.

I get the social networking side, it's a bit like my previous post on Buzzzz. People love to keep in touch and be the arbiters of what's cool to their friends - online and 'real world' (in quotes because I'm no longer sure where the line is). What confuses me, marketers around the world and MySpace itself is how to harness its vast potential.

This article from news.com, has a stab at the idea as does a recent one in Wired .

The problem is simple, how to put a message across without stamping all over what makes myspace myspace - or does the idea of trying make it immediately the wrong idea - like sooooo many unviral viral ads? Maybe some places are just meant to be marketing free - not likely though is it?

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Having a look at the BzzAgent website and was struck at how enthusiastic people could be about promoting a product or service in return for what is a relatively small 'financial' reward.

And it's not just BzzAgent but also things like Proctor & Gamble's Tremor teen buzz marketing unit, LA's StreetWise teams and the more organic Myspace. Where does this buzz come from? If it's not from a financial reward then it has to be from the buzz the person doing the referring gets from being involved.

The buzz of being in the know with new products, services and info
The buzz of recommending to friends and family
The buzz of being made to feel special (who wouldn't want to be an 'agent')
The vicarious buzz of seeing it become successful
The buzz of 'ownership'
The buzz of expressing their own favourites and opinions
The buzz of connecting with others

It begs the question how we can put a bit of buzz into our own businesses and turn customers into "Buzzers" for our brands.

SMS for bands, DJs, preformers, venues, promoters and the rest

The explosion in myspace.com showcases the real power behind word-of-mouth but it also points to the need for artists of all ilks and persuasions to actively communicate with and build their fan base.

SMS, like the internet, has real potential in this arena. It's personal nature, immediacy and viral aspects are all real plusses for any performer keen to connect with their audience. On that point I came across this exciting new venture in the US.

Mozes.com is in beta at the moment but they use SMS to let fans access info on their favourite bands and no doubt follow this up with info on gigs, releases etc...

Some of the costs may be preclusive for smaller groups but it's definitely something we're going to be following closely at TextStart with a view to creating a niche site for fans to interact and register for more info from their favourites - big and small. Watch this space as they say.

Subway Launches Trial Mobile Marketing Run

Just came across this news item on Subway in NY, USA (the sandwich guys not the big trains) using text to offer customers discounts on the move. It's exactly the kind of campaign were hoping to promote with textstart.com. Although fairly new in the grand scheme of things, text marketing has some obvious advantages for volume businesses like fast food, retail and hospitality.

You can check out the article here

Welcome to TextStarters

Welcome to my new blog - Textstarters.

If you've found me here you probably know a bit about what I do, but just in case ....

I'm Mark Nagurski, founder of FreeForm Media, a promotional marketing company based in Northern Ireland. the company was set-up out of shere frustration at the marketing and advertising status quo. We now offer a range of programs designed to give small business a creative edge and unique approach to attracting new customers and creating 'fans' from existing ones.

Our newest project is www.TextStart.com (hence the name) but this blog is more than just a running ad for our business. It's about highlighting creative new marketing ideas and giving you the chance to see what's working for businesses just like yours from around the world.

If that sounds like your sort of thing make sure to check back soon.