Analytics Expert

Worried about getting your Thanksgiving bird cooked to perfection while wrangling relatives? There’s an app for that! The new Turkey Timer Mobile App integrates a meat thermometer with a mobile network to send an SMS to your phone when your bird is done. Now you don’t have to hover over the oven door for the last 30 minutes of cook time waiting for the timer to pop. Instead, you can hang out in the living room with your long-lost relatives, put the nieces and nephews in a headlock, or watch the pre-game show on TV.

In the turkey timer concept, integrating mobile services into the current product offering supports overall business objectives, creates a market differentiator, and adds value to the current product offering. As we’ve discussed in other posts, mobile initiatives are generally most effective when integrated into overall business strategy. A holistic approach doesn’t just leverage mobile services for their “coolness” factor—it creates an opportunity for the mobile touch points to drive value for overall business objectives. Your homework for the weekend: look for ways to enhance current product offerings with integrated mobile services.

Disclaimer: Unlike the other posts in this blog, the turkey timer concept is entirely fictional (although maybe not for long) and was written for all of you in the US who will be entering a Turkey induced coma sometime Thursday afternoon.

As the mobile landscape rapidly evolves and customer usage of mobile continues to accelerate, successful companies will leverage mobile channels to gain market share, foster deeper customer relationships, and build new sources of revenue.

Strategic Developments

Rapid expansion of mobile internet usage: Opera’s September State of the Mobile Web report pegs year-over-year US mobile page view and unique user growth at 309% and 123% respectively; Pew Internet reports daily mobile web users comprise 19% of all US adults (a 73% increase in 16 months)
Emergence of new mobile markets: rough estimates place the market size of Apple’s App Store at around $150 million annually
Mobile market share up for grabs: while Baidu is the clear leader in China for web searches, Google’s mobile investments have made competition nearly even for mobile searches in China

Opportunities

In school way back in 2000, my class reviewed a Harvard case study which centered on the impact of new internet brokerage firms like E*TRADE on Charles Schwab. The case debated whether Schwab should chase the internet leaders or stick to its core “brick & motor” business, forgoing internet channels entirely.

Some students at the time maintained Schwab shouldn’t invest at all in internet channels—rather they should focus on their “high touch” positioning since their best clients weren’t currently engaged with online channels. Fast-forward ten years and the class debate looks pretty archaic, until you consider a recent review of the top 100 internet brands which contends that only 1 in 3 brands has an effective mobile web presence (incidentally, Schwab and E*TRADE both got it right).

While the recent review had considerable subjectivity in the way “effective mobile web presence” was measured, my personal experience validates that many brands are still sitting on the sidelines. Businesses not engaging users in the mobile channel bring us back to the old debate—”should we build a [mobile] website?”.

These businesses should be warned—brand dominance in the mobile space is not a foregone conclusion. Recent search engine market share data from China (as reported by Analysys International) shows Baidu, the leading search engine, has not maintained its dominant position in mobile search. In fact, several providers with virtually non-existent market share for standard web search have captured a significant proportion of the mobile search market (e.g. 3GYY).

Emergence of completely new business models and markets is also creating significant business opportunity. A case in point is the iTunes App Store. Rough estimates place the paid app market within the iTunes app store at $150 million annually—not shabby for a market that didn’t exist 2 ½ years ago!

Explosive growth of mobile web usage, business innovation in the mobile sector, and uneven investment by the dominant players in the traditional web has unfrozen market share and created completely new business models, revenue streams, and growth opportunities. All of these factors are reminiscent of internet growth from ten years ago—is your business still partying like it’s 1999?

Sources:
http://www.opera.com/smw/2009/09/
http://pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2009/Wireless-Internet-Use.pdf
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/171371/ googlebaidu_rivalry_goes_mobile_in_china.html
http://www.marketreportchina.com/market/article/content/3376/200908/206975.html

I had the opportunity to attend the AdobeMAX event in Los Angeles eariler this month. I sat there soaking in the eye candy that Adobe’s products can create thinking, “yeah, but how would that look on my Blackberry?” Then, as if Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch read my mind, he showed Flash 10.1 running on a mobile device — an iPhone no less, with no dithering or pixilation. It drew an enthusiastic round of applause from the 4,000+ in the Nokia Theater. It made me realize that clients still on HBX are missing the boat by not leveraging our Mobile tracking in SiteCatalyst V14.5.

As my fellow blogger Ed Hewett pointed out in an August post, there is a gap between interest in mobile analytics and mobile Web usage. Or to put it as he did, “you don’t know what you don’t know” about your mobile traffic if you don’t have best-in-class tools to track the activity. The fact that mobile has arrived is hardly earth-shattering news, but recently, a client who’s still on HBX asked me about the benefits of moving to SiteCatalyst. A significant portion of this client’s business revolves around handheld devices, so this was like shooting fish in a barrel. Let’s review what you’ll get on the mobile front when you migrate from HBX to SiteCatalyst.

First off, development on the HBX platform essentially ceased in 2007 as Omniture devoted its development efforts to SiteCatalyst. Matt Belkin, the former head of Omniture Consulting, started a new group focused on Emerging Technology, with a maniacal focus on mobile. SiteCatalyst customers are now enjoying the first fruits of their labor unprecedented insight into mobile visits. Take a look at the difference in the out-of-the-box mobile reporting the two tools offer:

For starters, HBX doesn’t even know what an iPhone is. That’s how antiquated its mobile tracking is. SiteCatalyst not only recognizes the iPhone but can also report on screen size, video support, DRM and even Decoration Mail support. What the heck is that? It’s a service, mostly being used in Japan, which allows users to “decorate” (customize) their mobile emails by customizing the background, font and even attaching things like animations. Who cares? OK, perhaps you don’t but in Asia, many marketers are interested in DecoMail. It’s an example of us presaging a need for the US market, while creating a timely solution for our many Asian customers.

Omniture will not be a follower in mobile analytics. In fact, those who attended this year’s Summit in Salt Lake City heard Josh James, proclaim (and I’m paraphrasing here) ‘the personal computer, as a medium, is dead.’ While even Josh would admit that prediction is a bit ahead of its time, there is no denying some of the business use cases for advanced mobile tracking. Just a few include:

• Determine the true size of your mobile audience
• Use mobile campaigns for timely promotions such as one-hour sales
• Opt-in customers to receive text messages as an alternative to more costly and inefficient contact methods
• Analyze traffic and mobile device capabilities to tailor the user experience when launching or redesigning a mobile site
• Gauge affinities common to users of a particular device, service or app to optimize their mobile experience and recommend relevant content or product
• See causality of mobile visits in terms of success event completion as shown below in a SiteCatalyst report:

Anyone who’s worked in User Experience knows about the “Rule of 1.” It states that if more than 1% of your site audience is unable or in any way hindered from viewing your site, you need to make adjustments for them. For most sites, the mobile traffic is at or above 1%. I have seen some sites where it’s in excess of 10% and a handful where is more than 35%. So if you’re still using HBX, you’re missing an important opportunity to hone your mobile approach while there is still time. Rich apps like Flash work on mobile devices. People are downloading entire TV shows or movies and viewing them on their handhelds. In Japan, folks are using QR barcodes as “mobile coupons” instead of paper coupons.

Mobile is here – it has been. It’s everywhere. Is your organization taking advantage of it? If not, call your Omniture Account Manager and ask them to show you what SiteCatalyst can do to help improve your mobile efforts.