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Paran Johar is JumpTap's Chief Marketing Officer. Before joining JumpTap, Mr. Johar was EVP of Digital Marketing for North America and Managing Director of MRM's Los Angeles office. Mr. Johar's responsibilities included overseeing all operations of the LA office and all digital marketing in North America including online media, search marketing, and mobile marketing. Prior to MRM, Mr. Johar was GM of the Los Angeles office for Tribal DDB where he was responsible for all online media, SEM, and SEO activities.

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Mobile for the holidays

Written on
Nov 9, 2009 
Author
Paran Johar  |
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Mobile for the holidays

holiday_mobile.jpgADOTAS – American consumers remain hesitant about the economy and about spending their money during this upcoming holiday season. According to a recent Nielsen study, 2009 holiday season sales are expected to be flat and 42 percent of U.S. consumers expect to spend less this holiday season.

Households continue to focus on “essential gift-giving” such as staple consumables, candy, beverage/alcohol and entertaining at home, and 86% said that they expect to spend the same or less this year than last — with a 7% increase in those indicating they would spend less. Overall, Nielsen is projecting that holiday sales will rise 0.03% this year, accounting for $90 billion in dollar sales.

Other key findings from the research include:

  • Traditional items such as apparel, toys and technology will be most popular categories, albeit at restrained levels and primarily sold in “value” channels.
  • Products aligned with at-home entertainment such as cookware, kitchen items, bed and bath accessories and alcoholic beverages will do well.
  • Gift cards are one category where consumers plan to spend more this holiday season, followed by toys and apparel.
  • Value retailers such as dollar stores, online, discounters and club stores will attract the lion’s share of holiday spending as consumers minimize trips and search for the best values, while office supply, pet stores, home improvement and drug retailers are likely to feel the brunt of the economic slowdown.
  • Spending cutbacks are being driven by all income groups.

So how is an advertiser going to ensure they get their share of consumer attention and spend?

Easy! Recognize that U.S. consumers require personal attention. The mobile device has transformed the way they seek information, compare prices and transact purchases. .

So whether you are going to try mobile advertising for the first time or have been learning and optimizing your campaigns throughout the year, here’s some tips to help you get ahead of the curve.

1) Diversify your advertising spends. Go performance, go premium and be relevant.

2) Target smartphones, premium inventory and carrier portals. They are proven to elicit higher returns. iPhone users in particular are highly engaged , are heavy consumers of mobile applications and represent a high net worth demographic.

3) Message specific audiences — target the right messages to the right consumers. excite the younger generation to “want” (add to wish lists), remind the mature generations to “buy.”

4) Define your desired action and provide multiple options for the consumer — SMS, call, click to maps, click to video, purchase, save info for later. People have preferences and you need to be able to anticipate and offer them all.

5) Advertise with networks that offer numerous targeting options to achieve your performance goals. All targeting is not created equal. Test search, behavioral, and contextual to compare results. Ask for specifics on where the targeting data comes from. Is it inferred from the publisher or is it passed from the carrier? Carrier inventory combined with other sources is your best option.

6) Closely Monitor your costs per click, not all networks price the same and some PC networks charge internet pricing for mobile buys. The cheapest click may not be your best click. Quality not quantity counts. Not all clicks are created equal and evaluating what a user does post click is the secret for success.

7) Keep it simple. Always think about your campaign from the users perspective. If you don’t have a budget for usability testing, ask ten of your friends to go through the response process and heed their feedback. If it isn’t easy or doesn’t provide value, you won’t maximize your returns.

8) Start early with holiday promotions and mobile couponing and keep the specials running up to the last minute — this will make it easy for consumers to purchase during Black Friday or any other shopping day.

9) Get your mobile billing in order. Consumers are going to price shop and compare via mobile and if the price is right, they will buy.

10) Finally, measure, measure, measure. Keep “latency” in mind. One quarter to one fourth of all transactions are delayed and cannot be tracked on mobile. Track not just the clicks and conversions, but the lifetime value of a customer.

Follow these tips to maximize your spending this holiday season. Targeted mobile advertising success will find you new consumers for this holiday season and bring them back for the after-holiday sales





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